The Watchtower — April 15, 1958

A New Song for All Men of Good Will

1. What song is appropriate today in spite of Proverbs 25:20, and what results to those singing it?

A PROVERB now about three thousand years old says: “He that is removing a garment on a cold day is as vinegar upon alkali and as a singer with songs upon a gloomy heart.” (Prov. 25:20) The whole world today is of a gloomy heart, faced as it is with a disturbing present and a frightening future. Concerned people may not be in the mood for a song. But there is a song that can really cheer all people up, regardless of to what nation they belong. It is a new song that previous generations were not privileged to sing. If men are of good will toward the unusual creator of this song they will enjoy it, be warmed and refreshed by it and be lifted out of their gloom and sour attitude. When they get familiar with this song creation, they too will want to burst out in singing it. This will mean health, yes, salvation to them.

2, 3. (a) Why may the name of the song writer be new to many? (b) Why could he give us a really new song, and what does he tell us to do with it?

² Not only has the song proved to be new to those who have begun singing it, but its Author will doubtless be new to many who hear his production sung. The Author and Composer is one whose name many leading men around the world have tried to hide and keep the people from knowing. Yet the name was known to the first man that ever lived, about six thousand years ago. It is Jehovah, the Creator not merely of the new song but also of the heavens and the earth. Any song by our Creator ought to be important, and it should mean an endless, happy life to us. Through one of His writers whom he inspired he says: “I am Jehovah, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise unto graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” That is how he could give us a really new song that no other song writer could furnish us, and that is why he goes on to say to men of good will:

³ “Sing unto Jehovah a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth; ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice.”—Isa. 42:8-11, AS.

4, 5. In view of Ecclesiastes 1:9, 10 why may we ask how this song could be new, and yet where are new things not limited?

⁴ But how can this song be new? We may ask this question when we remember that a wise ruler of thousands of years ago said: “That which has come to be, that is what will come to be; and that which has been done, that is what will be done; and so there is nothing new under the sun. Does anything exist of which one may say: ‘See this; it is new’? It has already had existence for time indefinite; what has come into existence is from time prior to us.” (Eccl. 1:9, 10) Even the terrible hydrogen bomb, first exploded in 1954, is nothing new. During billions of years before mankind the great Creator, Jehovah, was exploding hydrogen within the sun, and it is these explosions of hydrogen atoms that give us light on this earth. Yet, while there may be “nothing new under the sun,” this does not mean that there could be nothing new above the sun, nothing new beyond this natural realm or in the spiritual realm. When saying there is nothing new under the sun wise King Solomon was speaking about the things of this natural world and about the ordinary affairs of mankind upon whom the sun shines. Just before this he said:

⁵ “A generation is going and a generation is coming, but the earth is standing even to time indefinite. And the sun also has flashed forth and the sun has set, and it is coming panting to its place where it is going to flash forth. . . . All the winter torrents are going forth to the sea, yet the sea itself is not full. To the place where the winter torrents are going forth, there they are returning so as to go forth. All things are wearisome; no one is able to speak of it. The eye is not satisfied at seeing, neither is the ear filled from hearing.”—Eccl. 1:4-8.

6. Why is Jehovah in position to give us a new song, and so what has he done?

⁶ There is no need for anything new in a natural way under the sun. But Jehovah is above the sun, for he is the Most High God. He can create new things above the sun or in the invisible spirit realm and also in the spiritual affairs that have to do with mankind on the earth. In this way he can give us the facts for the theme of an entirely new song that will make us tingle with irrepressible emotions of joy and ecstasy at the glorious meaning of it all. Being almighty and never getting exhausted in his supply of wonderfully new things for us, he has given us such a song.

7. When did the very universe need a promise of good hope, and why? And of what woman did Jehovah then make mention?

⁷ Near the start of man’s existence Jehovah God gave us the basic theme of today’s new song. It was at a time when the very universe needed a promise of good hope. Our first human father had just sinned, although he was in the garden of Eden, the paradise of delight, with everything that he needed for him to continue to live forever in human perfection and in freedom as a son of God. By means of a serpent his wife had been induced to eat of the one forbidden fruit. Then she induced her husband to join her in eating and breaking their heavenly Father’s command. Before pronouncing the sentence of everlasting death upon them for this willful disobedience, Jehovah God spoke to the first cause of it all, the great tempter, Satan the Devil. God spoke to him as if he were the serpent, saying: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Gen. 3:15) The “woman” of whom God here spoke was not the sinner woman Eve on earth, Adam’s wife, but was the holy woman in heaven, God’s universal organization of holy angels, God’s organizational wife, who could bring forth something holy for God’s purpose.

8. Why was God’s statement to the serpent something new, and what did the loyal members of God’s woman set themselves to watch?

⁸ In itself God’s statement to the serpent was something new for this earth. It was God’s first prophecy spoken in the hearing of mankind. It foretold that according to God’s will there would be war between Satan the Devil and God’s heavenly organization woman, between the seed of offspring of Satan the Devil and the seed of God’s faithful woman or wife. Which one would win the war? Would the bruising in the heel or the bruising in the head be the victory stroke? The bruising in head would bring about the victory. Consequently, the seed of God’s wifelike universal organization, although first bruised in the heel, would come off the winner in vindication of God’s first prophecy to mankind. This certainly must have been a great comfort to the angelic members of God’s symbolic woman, his faithful angelic organization that is married to him and subject to him. Who the woman’s seed would be, what would be the way in which this promised seed would be produced, and how he would be bruised in the heel and yet bruise his devilish bruiser in the head were questions that excited the interest of all the loyal members of God’s heavenly woman. At once they set themselves to watch the working out of this Edenic prophecy, the foundation of all further prophecy toward humankind.

9. What could no creatures do then as to that prophecy, but how did interest in it spread among men?

⁹ Since it is a divine rule that “no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private release,” Adam and Eve could not understand and interpret Jehovah’s prophecy. Neither could Satan the Devil do so, even though he is a mighty spirit creature higher than man in existence, power and intelligence. (2 Pet. 1:20, 21) After Adam and Eve were punished by being driven out of the paradise of Eden to die, they began to produce children. Out of selfish interest in God’s promise concerning the seed of some woman, Adam and Eve told it to their children. So interest in the prophecy spread among men.

10. How may that prophecy have affected Cain’s killing Abel?

¹⁰ Self-seeking men put themselves forward as the promised seed, in the hope of gaining power and position over others by claiming to be the genuine seed. Cain was the first-born of mankind. When Adam and Eve’s second son, Abel, won God’s approval for offering to God a sacrifice from his flock of sheep and not a lifeless offering of garden products, Cain killed Abel to keep his brother from likely supplanting him as the possible seed. “By faith Abel offered God a sacrifice of greater worth than Cain, through which faith he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness respecting his gifts, and through it he, although he died, yet speaks.” Thus Abel yet speaks to us as the first faithful human witness of Jehovah, for so God’s own written Word calls Abel.—Heb. 11:4 and Heb 12:1.

11, 12. (a) What connection did Enoch have with the promised Seed? (b) Why did not Enoch go to heaven when God transferred him?

¹¹ God’s first prophecy through a man came through Enoch, the seventh man in line from Adam. Enoch was a man of faith in Jehovah God and so became Jehovah’s witness. Enoch also became an ancestor of the promised Seed, in whom he was interested. Before his death Enoch was inspired by Jehovah to bear witness about His purpose to inflict punishment or execute judgment upon all ungodly persons, the seed of the great Serpent, Satan the Devil, at the time that the Serpent is to be bruised in the head. (Jude 14, 15) Enoch’s enemies were not permitted to inflict death upon him as Cain did upon Abel, because God himself took Enoch off the earthly scene so that “he was nowhere to be found.” Why? Because “before his transference he had the witness that he had pleased God well.” (Heb. 11:5) God did not take him to heaven, because the way for men born in sin from Adam to go to heaven had not yet been opened up.

¹² The “new and living way” to enter into the most holy heavens was not opened up until 3,072 years after Enoch. So until then it was true: “No man has ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man.” (John 3:13; Heb. 9:6-8; 10:19-22) The mystery or sacred secret of how this takes place opened up to human understanding as the outworking of God’s purpose moved grandly onward after the disappearance of Jehovah’s prophet Enoch.

LINE OF DESCENT OF THE PROMISED SEED

13. What relationship did Noah have with the promised Seed, and what came instead of the Seed in Noah’s day?

¹³ The tenth man in line from Adam and in the ancestry of the promised Seed was Noah, the grandson of Methuselah who lived longest of any men on earth, 969 years, in spite of being born in sin and under the condemnation of death. (Gen. 5:25-32) In faith Noah looked for the coming of the promised Seed of God’s woman. The seed did not come in Noah’s day, but a great execution of God’s judgment came upon the seed of the enemy of God’s woman, upon the seed of the great Serpent, Satan the Devil. The act of execution was the world-wide flood, which resulted from the bursting of the waters that were then swirling around high above the earth like a canopy. They kept falling continuously for forty days and nights. The old preflood world was destroyed then, but Noah and his righteous, God-fearing family lived through the end of that wicked world.

14. Why should we today show faith in the escape of Noah and his family from destruction during that flood?

¹⁴ Almighty God preserved them together with specimens of many family kinds of animals and birds in an ark or great chestlike float that Noah built in faith and in obedience to Jehovah’s command. This ark is said to rest still upon Mount Ararat in Turkey, where it landed when the floodwaters sank down. (Gen. 6:1 to 8:4; Heb. 11:7; 1 Pet. 3:20) Let us today show faith in the fact of this flood just as Noah did, for his escape with his family from destruction during the end of that ungodly world is set down as a picture of how men of good will living today will be preserved alive by God’s protective power through the end soon of this wicked old world and on into God’s righteous new world.—Matt. 24:36-42.

15. Which of Noah’s sons was chosen as ancestor of the Seed, and what special descendant of his did Shem live to see?

¹⁵ Which one of Noah’s three sons that survived the world’s end with him did Jehovah God choose to provide the ancestry of the promised seed of His heavenly woman? It was Shem; and in proof of this he earned God’s special blessing through his father Noah: “Blessed be Jehovah, Shem’s God, and let Canaan [son of Ham] become a slave to him.” (Gen. 9:18-26) Shem lived hundreds of years after the Flood, to see the special one of his descendants through whom the promised Seed would appear among men and through whom a blessing would come to men of good will out of all the families and nations of the earth. Shem may even have pronounced God’s blessing upon this man of faith named Abraham.

16. To what promise from Jehovah did Abraham become heir, and what should make us want to follow the history of his descendants?

¹⁶ God chose this Shemite Abraham because of his faith in the one living and true God. He tested Abraham’s faith and told him to leave his homeland for a country to the southwest to which God would lead him. When Abraham did so under God’s leading and entered ancient Palestine, he became the worthy heir to Jehovah’s promise: “I shall make a great nation out of you and I shall bless you and I will make your name great; and prove yourself a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and him that calls down evil upon you I shall curse, and all the families of the ground will certainly bless themselves by means of you.” (Gen. 12:1-3) Our desire for an everlasting share in this blessing should make us want to follow the course in history of Abraham’s descendants, regardless of the fact that Abraham was a Shemite and a Hebrew. What counts is that Abraham proved faithful to God the Father of the promised Seed and so the earthly life of the promised Seed was to be provided through a distant great-granddaughter of Abraham.

17. How was it foreshadowed in Abraham’s day that the promised Seed would die, and so what can we do by means of Abraham’s seed?

¹⁷ Out of all Abraham’s sons, his only son by his true wife Sarah was God’s choice for the line of descent. To foreshadow that the seed of God’s woman would be bruised in the heel by the great Serpent and his seed, Jehovah commanded Abraham to sacrifice this miraculously given son named Isaac. Before Abraham could carry through with this sacrifice, Jehovah stopped Abraham’s sacrificial knife and said: “By myself I do swear, is the utterance of Jehovah, that by reason of the fact that you have done this thing and you have not withheld your son, your only one, I shall surely bless you and I shall surely multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand that are on the seashore, and your seed will take possession of the gate of his enemies. And by means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves.” (Gen. 22:15-18) Do we want to bless ourselves forever in Jehovah’s promised Seed? Then, when the mystery or sacred secret is solved for us as to who the Seed is, we must gladly and thankfully accept him, even though he did have a necessary descent through Abraham the Hebrew of the line of Shem.

18. On which of Isaac’s sons did Jehovah bestow the blessing, and how was a Kingdom blessing bestowed upon a certain grandson?

¹⁸ Of Isaac’s twin sons, Jacob showed the true, burning faith in Jehovah God and his precious promise. Jehovah therefore appeared in visions to Jacob and promised that the blessing of all the nations would come through his line of descent. Jehovah was not puzzled by the fact that Jacob had twelve sons, but through them He produced the twelve tribes of Israel, Israel being Jacob’s new God-given name. But through which of the twelve tribes would the Seed come? Jehovah had Jacob, when on his deathbed, pronounce this blessing on his fourth son, Judah: “A lion cub Judah is. . . . The scepter will not turn aside from Judah, neither the commander’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him the obedience of the people will belong.” (Gen. 49:9, 10) This was a blessing concerning a kingdom. It made sure that the tribe of Judah was to provide the royal ruler who would wield the scepter and hold the staff of commander, and he would be the Lion of the tribe of Judah. (Rev. 5:5) To him would belong the right to have all the families and nations of the earth obey him. So this one ought to be the Seed.

19. How did David come to be the king through whom the promised Seed would come?

¹⁹ It was 239 years after the dying Jacob, or Israel, pronounced this blessing upon Judah that Jehovah God brought the twelve tribes of Israel into the land that he had promised to their grand-forefather Abraham. Hundreds of years later, at the request of the Israelites, God established over them a kingdom. The first king was of the tribe of Benjamin. After that king’s death God fulfilled the blessing and put a member of the tribe of Judah upon the throne of the kingdom of Israel, the anointed one named David. Although David as an anointed king was a messiah or a Christ, he was not the Seed promised to Abraham, or the seed of God’s woman. David had not come forth from God’s heavenly wife, his spiritual universal organization. But because David was a zealous promoter of pure worship and was therefore a faithful witness of Jehovah, God swore to David that the long-awaited Seed would come through his royal line, in these words: “I shall certainly raise up your seed after you, which will come out of your inward parts, and I shall indeed firmly establish his kingdom. He is the one that will build a house for my name, and I shall certainly establish the throne of his kingdom firmly forever. . . . And your house and your kingdom will certainly be steadfast forever before you; your very throne will become one firmly established forever.”—2 Sam. 7:12-16.

20. When Jerusalem fell in 607 B.C.E., what began to become evident concerning the kingdom of the promised Seed, to the Jews’ surprise?

²⁰ Strangely, in 607 before the Christian era the kingdom of the tribe of Judah and of the family of David was overthrown and the royal city of Jerusalem fell. Down to our very day no kingdom with a man of the family of David in the throne has been set up again at Jerusalem. Has God’s sworn covenant with King David for an everlasting kingdom failed? No; but Almighty God was preparing something astoundingly new, absolutely different from what men were expecting. Because of this the way was paved for all men of good will living today to sing the new song of unspeakable joy. From the way that God was directing matters it became evident in due time that the everlasting kingdom of the promised seed of his woman would be heavenly, far higher than the kingdom of David at earthly Jerusalem. However, for six hundred years after the earthly kingdom of David’s family was destroyed the faithful Israelites looked for the Davidic kingdom to be re-established at Jerusalem. So something surprisingly new was in store for them.

MIRACULOUS NEW THINGS

21. Through what earthly lineage did the promised Seed have to come, and yet why did he have to be really a son of God?

²¹ For the promised royal Seed to be born in the family of Abraham and in the line of King David he had to be born as a Hebrew and out of a woman of the royal line of David. At the same time, for him to be the Seed of God’s woman, he had to come forth from the heavenly membership of God’s universal spiritual organization. This meant something new in universal history. It meant that the Seed had to come down from heaven, out from the invisible realm of spirit persons. In a very real sense, yes, in a direct way, he had to be a son of God, because no man on earth could marry God’s heavenly woman, or wife, and become the father of the promised Seed. God alone could father the Seed.

22. Why would the materializing of a son of God from heaven not solve the problem of having him of the line of Abraham and David?

²² How, then, did the Seed get down from heaven to earth to become a man? Did he do so by one of the spirit sons of God materializing or becoming incarnated as a man? No; that would be nothing new, nothing different, nothing that met the needs of the case. From the time that Adam and Eve were driven out of the paradise of Eden to die for their sin, heavenly sons of God had materialized at times. The cherubs whom God posted at the east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life inside materialized by incarnation. That is, they miraculously clothed their invisible selves with visible, tangible flesh. But because those cherubs thus took on human flesh according to the purpose of God the Judge, that did not make them sons of Adam and Eve. Those materialized cherubs did not get their flesh and blood from Adam and Eve. In the progress of time angels also materialized and appeared to Abraham and to King David, but they did not get their fleshly bodies from Abraham or David so as to become the fleshly seed of Abraham and of David. No, a materialization or incarnation of a son of God from heaven would not solve the problem. What, then?

23. How did Gabriel carry the message of her coming motherhood to Mary?

²³ Toward the close of the year 3 before the Christian era God’s angel Gabriel materialized or became incarnated. In this way he appeared to an unmarried Jewish girl named Mary of David’s royal line. To Mary he explained a new thing that was to occur without her human marriage, saying: “Look! you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you are to call his name Jesus. This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will be king over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom.” “How is this to be, since I am having no relations with a man?” asked Mary. Gabriel explained: “Holy spirit will come upon you, and power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason also what is born will be called holy, God’s Son.” Mary agreed to God’s use of her in this miraculous way, saying: “Look! Jehovah’s slave girl! May it take place with me according to your declaration.” (Luke 1:26-38) But how?

24. What new thing occurred in heaven that Mary might conceive the Son of God in her virgin womb?

²⁴ Something strangely new then took place in the invisible heavens, far above the sun, high above our material realm. Jehovah’s first-born or only-begotten Son became missing among the ranks of God’s heavenly sons. What had happened? God had this chief Son leave the bosom of His woman, or heavenly universal organization, and God sent him down from heaven to be born as a human baby from Mary the virgin. (John 3:16, 17) God’s beloved Son emptied himself of all his heavenly glory and power, even yielding up his glorious heavenly body, his Godlike form. (Phil. 2:5-8) God then transferred his Son’s life force down from heaven to the virgin womb of Mary. Thus Mary conceived in her womb under the operation of God’s holy spirit, or active force, and not by sex connection with any man.

25. As what was God’s Son born from Mary’s womb?

²⁵ It was some time after Mary’s pregnancy began to appear that Joseph, a carpenter, but of the royal line of David, obeyed God’s command and took Mary as his wife for her protection. So, at the fullness of God’s time for it, a holy child, “God’s Son,” who was from his heavenly woman, or wife, was born. He was born as a real human creature from Mary and in David’s royal line, as David’s heir. Because he had been Almighty God’s spokesman or Word up in heaven, what took place miraculously is described in this way: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”—John 1:14, AV.

26. Why, then, was God’s Son on earth not an incarnation?

²⁶ This description does not say that God’s Son still had his heavenly body and was merely materialized or incarnated or clothed upon with flesh, does it? No; it says that God’s heavenly Son “was made flesh.” He became just a man, but a holy man with a sinless heavenly Father, thus remaining God’s sinless Son. So we read: “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” (Gal. 4:4, AV) “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness.”—Rom. 1:3, 4, AV.

27. (a) How did God raise up witnesses to his Son’s birth? (b) How was it shown to be good news also to heaven, and for realizing what did it lay the foundation?

²⁷ This was something gloriously new, also a matchless expression of God’s love for men of good will. Not to let this important, miraculous new thing—the birth of a perfect, sinless baby boy from a virgin—pass without notice, and in order to have witnesses to this event of good news, God sent his angel to shepherds near Bethlehem, right where David himself used to be a shepherd, to tell them: “I am declaring to you good news of a great joy that all the people will have, because there was born to you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in David’s city.” It was good news to heaven also, and so a multitude of the heavenly host appeared to the shepherds and praised God, saying: “Glory in the heights above to God, and upon earth peace among men of good-will [or, among men whom he approves].” (Luke 2:10-14, margin) This event will never be repeated among men. The rightful heir to David’s kingship and throne had been born in a sinless way, and this laid the foundation for the realization of other glorious new things.

The Time to Sing the New Song

1, 2. (a) With what as his goal was Jesus started off at thirty years of age? (b) How did Jesus then become more than a human creature?

IN HIS godly perfection Jesus reached thirty years of age as a man. Then a great change took place in his life. He left carpentering at Nazareth and got baptized by John in the Jordan River. His conception in Mary’s womb had been a miracle of a new kind, but now a greater new thing took place to start him off in a spiritual life with heaven, his original home, as his goal.

² When Jesus stepped out of the baptismal waters, “look! the heavens were opened up, and he saw descending like a dove God’s spirit coming upon him. Look! also, there was a voice from the heavens that said: ‘This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.’” (Matt. 3:13-17) Within the hearing of both Jesus and John, God spoke from heaven to say that the baptized Jesus was his Son. This showed that God had now begotten Jesus by his active force, or spirit, to become a spiritual Son of God again, thus more than a mere human son such as Adam had been in the paradise of Eden. God then anointed Jesus with his spirit as the rightful heir of King David, but to a throne higher and grander than David’s, namely, to the seat at God’s right hand on his heavenly throne. (Ps. 110:1, 2; Matt. 22:41-45; Heb. 10:12, 13) Jesus, although continuing in the flesh for three and a half years longer on earth, was now a “new creature,” an anointed spiritual Son of God.—2 Cor. 5:17, margin.

3. How was it that Jesus preached a new message, and to what painful fulfillment of prophecy did it lead?

³ Following that, Jesus went preaching a new message to the people of his human mother, the Jews or Israelites. It was the message of a new government over mankind: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” John the Baptizer had preached a message like that for six months before Jesus, but Jesus could preach it with a meaning that John could not then give it. Jesus preached that the kingdom of the heavens was near because he himself was present as the One whom Jehovah God had anointed to the heavenly throne. Jesus also sent many of his disciples out to preach this same message to the Jews. (Matt. 3:1, 2; 4:17; 10:1-7; Luke 10:1-9) Preaching the royal message led to Jesus’ being bruised in the heel by the Serpent Satan the Devil and his seed.

4. Why were the disciples confused at Jesus’ death, but what mighty new thing did God then perform?

⁴ Believing that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and the “King of Israel,” the disciples were greatly confused when Jesus was put to death on a torture stake by his enemies A.D. 33, instead of being crowned as king, seated on the throne in Jerusalem. (Matt. 16:16; John 1:49) They did not then understand the prophecies of God concerning the seed of God’s woman, how the Seed must first be bruised in the heel before he would rule as king and bruise the Serpent in the head. On the third day after Jesus’ death his heavenly Father performed a new thing, which staggers our imagination because of the “mightiness of his strength, with which he has operated in the case of the Christ when he raised him up from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above every government and authority and power and lordship and every name named, not only in this system of things, but also in that to come.” (Eph. 1:19-21) True, there had been resurrections of the dead performed by Jehovah’s prophets and even by Jesus himself, but never had there been one like the resurrection performed on the dead Jesus. (Heb. 11:35; John 11:1-44) Why not?

5. Why had there never been a resurrection like that of Jesus?

⁵ Those previous resurrections had brought back to human life persons who later died again because of imperfection and the condemnation of death. Almighty God raised his faithful Son instantaneously to perfection of heavenly life. God resurrected Jesus, not human, but spirit, Jesus “being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” (1 Pet. 3:18, RS) God raised him immortal, no more subject to death but clothed upon with immortality. (Rom. 6:9, 10; 1 Cor. 15:42-54) The resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of the “first resurrection.” (Rev. 20:6) It was indeed new!

6. Why, then, did a new immortal one appear in heaven, and by means of what he presented there what benefit comes to believers?

⁶ By this magnificent demonstration of God’s almightiness, a new immortal one appeared in heaven. Jehovah God is immortal, he being ‘God from time indefinite to time indefinite.’ (Ps. 90:2) Now he had bestowed the incomparable reward of immortality and incorruption upon his ever-faithful only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. For forty days after his resurrection from the dead Jesus would materialize and appear to his disciples. Then he ascended heavenward and appeared in the presence of his heavenly Father and presented to him the value of his human sacrifice. By means of its merit all who put faith in Jehovah’s provision of his Son can receive the forgiveness of their sins, as it were, a washing of them away with the blood of the sinless Lamb of God.

7. For what was a foundation here laid, and why was it the time to bring it forth?

⁷ Here the foundation was laid for a new nation. Except for a remnant of believing Jews, the nation of natural Israel rejected the sacrifice and Messiahship of the Seed of God’s woman. Therefore Israel showed itself worthy of being cast away from God. Just before dying as a witness of Jehovah God, Jesus declared Israel’s house, its temple at Jerusalem, to be abandoned of God, its animal sacrifices being no longer of value before God. The time had come for God to bring forth his new nation, a spiritual Israel made up of those who were Jews on the inside and circumcised at heart by God’s spirit, regardless of what they were on the outside by natural birth.

8. How was the new nation brought forth, into what royal covenant was it brought, and why must it be faithful till death?

⁸ The day came for this new nation to be brought forth. On the day of Pentecost God did to its first members what he did to Jesus after his baptism in the Jordan. Through Jesus at his right hand in heaven Jehovah now poured down his spirit upon the faithful 120 disciples waiting in an upper room in Jerusalem. That was how he begot them to become his spiritual sons, a holy nation of ‘new creatures’ under Jesus Christ their Head. With this spirit he also anointed them to preach God’s kingdom and to be joint heirs with Jesus of that heavenly kingdom. They were thus brought into the ‘covenant for the kingdom.’ (Luke 22:29) To prove worthy of a crown and a throne in that heavenly government they must walk faithfully in Christ’s footsteps until their death in the flesh, that they may, in God’s time, share in the “first resurrection” to life immortal with their Head, Jesus Christ.—Rom. 8:16, 17; Rev. 2:10.

9. Through Christ as Mediator what did God make with them and with what grand benefit, and for what must they sacrifice human life?

⁹ Since the old nation of natural Israel was cast away because it did not accept the Seed of God’s woman, the covenant or national agreement that Jehovah God had entered into with them through the prophet Moses as mediator passed away. The human sacrifice of God’s Son furnished the blood required for validating or putting into force a new covenant based upon new and better promises from God and providing real forgiveness of sins repented of. (Heb. 8:7-13; 10:9-18) So now with the new nation of spiritual Israel that He had begotten by his spirit Jehovah God made a new covenant through the sacrificed Christ as the Mediator. God also brought the new nation into his covenant for the everlasting kingdom, for which they must sacrifice their human lives forever.—Luke 12:32; 2 Tim. 2:11, 12.

10. How did Peter point to their royalty, and how did they therefore bring forth the proper fruitage?

¹⁰ To this new nation of spiritual Israel God said through the apostle Peter: “You are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession, that you should declare abroad the excellencies’ of the one that called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Pet. 2:9) It became the duty of this holy nation to bring forth the fruitage of the promised kingdom. To do this all who were anointed as members of the nation went out preaching the Kingdom. They did this in a seemingly new way, by preaching from house to house and not just publicly.

WHY TIME FOR THE NEW SONG

11. What remains on earth of God’s holy nation, and why has there been no attempt to get into the United Nations of today?

¹¹ Are there any of that holy new nation on earth today in the twentieth century of the Christian era? There are. There are just a remnant or a number still remaining on earth of spirit-anointed ones who have the assurance from God that a place has been reserved for them in the heavenly kingdom. But though they are the remnant of a nation, the new nation of spiritual Israel, we do not find them joining the United Nations organization as one of its members, the way the recently formed nation of modern Israel has joined the United Nations. The eighty-two members of the United Nations show they do not want the holy new nation in, but the remnant of Jehovah’s nation under Christ have never applied to get in. The United Nations belongs to this old world, which is facing a disastrous end very soon. The remnant of spiritual Israel belongs to the new world founded upon the heavenly King Jesus Christ. The old is bound to pass away in our day. The new is bound to stay forever.

12. Why is this not the time for mourning with this stricken old world?

¹² Already the year 1914 is forty-four years in the past. Since that time the sorrows and troubles of this old world have multiplied. In the face of all this, is it the time for mourning with this old world? No, but for something just the opposite. What? A new song! Looking forward to this terrifying day for mankind, the divine Creator of music called out as to a great, globe-encircling chorus: “Sing to Jehovah a new song. Sing to Jehovah, all [you people of] the earth. Sing to Jehovah, bless his name. From day to day tell the good news of salvation by him.”—Ps. 96:1, 2.

13. Why do we ask a question about a new song-theme, and with what lack of knowledge was the preaching done for centuries?

¹³ How, though, can a new song to Jehovah be sung by the men of good will about whom the heavenly host chanted nineteen hundred years ago at Jesus’ birth? What is new? Where is the new theme? In the days of Jesus Christ on earth, nineteen hundred years ago, the startling message, “The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near,” was proclaimed up and down the land of the Israelites. When the Seed of God’s woman, anointed to be the King of kings, was resurrected in the spirit and re-entered the heavens, his anointed followers on earth obeyed his command and preached about God’s kingdom far and wide, trying to reach all nations. (Matt. 28:19, 20; Acts 20:25) When this kingdom would be brought to birth in the heavens and take over the government of the whole earth and all its peoples, the Kingdom proclaimers did not then know.—Rev. 12:1-10.

14, 15. (a) Why does there not exist that lack of knowledge today? (b) When did the predicted evidences begin to put in their appearance, and how was the date calculated years ahead?

¹⁴ But now we know! Yes, we do know! Not by human knowledge or by twentieth-century science, which takes no account of the promised kingdom of God. But Jehovah God has shown us the proofs. How else could we know of the heavenly birth of a divine government? Less than two months before Jesus Christ ascended to heaven and the angel told the watching disciples that he would come again, he himself gave a prophecy about the end of this old world. In it he told his followers the evidences due to appear in our day by which men of good will would know that he had come into his heavenly kingdom and had begun ruling in the midst of his enemies. By seeing these evidences appear both in the Bible revelations and in the events of this old world they would know that the kingdom had been born in the heavens and that he had been enthroned, crowned!

¹⁵ Any doubter has merely to read Matthew, chapters 24 and 25, Mark, chapter 13, Luke, chapter 21, and Revelation, chapter 6, to inform himself that those evidences put in their appearance in the year 1914, to start this old world on its way to cataclysmic destruction at the foretold ‘battle of Armageddon.’ (Rev. 16:14, 16) Going by the timetable given in the Holy Bible and by the absolute dates of worldly history, time calculations were made as far back as 1877 and published by the Bible student who became the first editor of the Watch Tower magazine. The momentous year reached by these prayerful calculations was the year of World War I, yes, 1914. The announced date is in print, beyond dispute!

16. How did a change in the message become necessary in 1914, and so what was provided for singing?

¹⁶ Prior to that unforgettable year the anointed Christians proclaimed the good news of God’s kingdom that was coming. Since that year God has supplied the theme of a new song. For in 1914 the heavenly Father and Source of theocratic government brought that glorious kingdom to birth by enthroning and crowning the Seed of his woman, the Heir of the covenant that was made with David for the everlasting kingdom. That was something new indeed. The birth of that Messianic government brought into operation a new ruling organization for all the universe, for angels and for men. It brought into existence the capital part of Jehovah’s universal organization, and all holy angels and all men of good will must bow to it according to God’s command. There had never been anything like it before in the universe. For the whole universe this was good news. So in 1914 the good message about God’s kingdom to come had grown old, out of date. The message for Christians anointed with God’s spirit to preach must henceforth be of God’s kingdom come. It must be of God’s kingdom born, set up in the heavens and in operation amidst all its enemies in heaven and on earth. Here was the entrancing theme of a new song to Jehovah, for Jehovah had both foretold and worked out all the delightful things to sing of.

17, 18. How did Jesus foretell that his anointed followers would sing this new song, and by whom must many millions admit it is being sung?

¹⁷ In his own prophecy Jesus foretold that his anointed followers must and would sing this new song. After mentioning the first world war along with famines, pestilence, earthquakes and religious persecution as marking the beginning of the end of this old system of things, Jesus said: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) Now that we are in the time of the end since 1914, is the good news of the newborn kingdom being preached in all the inhabited earth, even to Communist Russia and its satellites?

¹⁸ The hundreds of millions of people all around the earth who are being reached by the Kingdom news, both publicly and by house-to-house preaching, are all obliged to answer Yes! By whom, then, no matter whom the facts show them to be? By Jehovah’s witnesses of today. Among them are found a remnant of anointed, fully dedicated Christians, heirs of the heavenly kingdom, but along with them there are now hundreds of thousands of persons of good will.

19. Who were prophesied to be the first to sing the song, but who are joining in great numbers in the singing?

¹⁹ All of them are obeying the divine command: “Sing to Jehovah a new song.” As foretold in Revelation 14:1-5, this remnant of the 144,000 heirs of the heavenly kingdom was to be first in learning and singing forth the “new song.” But already the tradition-breaking “new song” has become popular with hundreds of thousands of delighted hearers, and these people of good will are joining in the singing in all nations: “Jehovah himself has become king.” (Ps. 96:10) Since 1914 Jehovah rules even toward our earth, doing so by means of his enthroned and empowered King, Jesus Christ.

20. After the Kingdom’s birth what other new thing stirred heaven, and so what also does the new song tell about?

²⁰ The time rapidly approaches, therefore, for the reigning Seed of God’s woman to bruise the great Serpent Satan the Devil at the head, and all his devilish seed in heaven and in earth with him. Before this grand climax in the crushing of wickedness out of heaven and earth, but immediately after the birth of the Kingdom in the heavens while World War I was raging on earth, a new thing stirred the peacefulness of heaven. The prophetic picture of this unusual event tells us: “War broke out in heaven.” It was between the newly inducted King backed by his holy angels and the great Dragon, the original Serpent, Satan the Devil, backed by his unholy angels, his demonic seed. Finally the victorious angels under the King of kings sang out: “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 . . . On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (Rev. 12:7-12) The great Serpent and his demonic seed are furiously angry because they know that the time is now very short before the victorious Seed of God’s woman must bruise the Serpent in the head in the universal war of Armageddon. The new song tells of this ‘war in heaven’ and its victory for Christ.

21. To what are all the singers looking forward, which also forms part of the theme of the new song?

²¹ The old heavens of Satan and his demon spirits are on their way out. Soon mankind will feel their oppressive, demoralizing power no more. The new heavens of Jesus Christ, together with those of his faithful followers who have now joined him in the “first resurrection,” are ruling, holding off from destroying his enemies until all the men of good will have been gathered into the grand chorus of the new song, beside the anointed remnant of singers. All of these are looking ahead eagerly to the near future for the full establishment of a new world upon the ruins of this old world. They have in mind the apostle Peter’s words: “Awaiting and keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah, through which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved and the elements being intensely hot will melt! But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.” (2 Pet. 3:12, 13) The coming world of the righteous new heavens and new earth also forms part of the theme of the “new song” to Jehovah.

22. In the new song, what passage not possible to be sung for over four thousand years has been sung since early in 1918?

²² But listen! Did your ears hear that remarkable passage in this distinctly different song? What? Why, something that could not be sung in previous generations of mankind for at least four thousand two hundred years. It is something that first began to be preached and heard since the Kingdom’s birth in 1914. It is something that Jehovah’s anointed remnant have been singing to men of good will since early in 1918. It has made countless millions laugh in unbelief, but it has cheered up heartsick men of good will and given them a thrilling expectation that they will enjoy realizing. It is this revealed Scriptural fact, namely, that a great crowd, without known number, of people of good will now living will never die. It may be that this unnumbered great crowd will yet grow to include millions of people now living. When those finally lined up on the side of God’s kingdom at the battlefield of Armageddon make themselves fully manifest, we shall know more definitely.

23, 24. In view of what words of Jesus is it important for people of this generation to remember Noah’s survival of the flood?

²³ But why does the new song arouse in the hearts of men of good will the hope of continuing to live on this earth without dying off? Well, do we remember the historic fact of how Noah and his family in the ark lived through the end of the former ungodly world and gave the human family its new start in this present world? It is important for people of this generation living since 1914 to call this ancient miracle of God to mind. Just why? Because, in Matthew 24:33-42, Jesus included the following words in his prophecy on the end of this world and his own coming into the Kingdom:

²⁴ “When you see all these things, know that he is near at the doors. Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as people were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be. . . . Keep on the watch, therefore, because you do not know on what day your Master is coming.”

25. Why is ours the generation of whom members will survive the old world’s end, and what is the hope of the anointed remnant?

²⁵ During our watch we have seen all the evidences that Jesus foretold to mark the time of the end of this world since 1914. We know that ours is the generation that began to see many of these predicted things come to pass. Ours is therefore the generation that must see all of them take place in fulfillment of Jesus’ word. Hence it is the generation that will see the end of this old world, just as it was the case in the days of Noah. As Noah and his arkload of family members and animals survived the end of that preflood world, so in fulfillment of that prophetic drama some witnesses of Jehovah like Noah and his family must survive the destruction of the old world of today. Such survivors of this generation will enter God’s world of new heavens and a new earth. The anointed remnant hope to become part of the new heavens, by dying faithful and sharing in the “first resurrection,” as the others of the 144,000 Kingdom heirs did.

26. How will it be possible for the other survivors to live without ever dying?

²⁶ The other survivors of good will hope to form the earthly society of the New World. By ever afterward rendering worship to Jehovah God and obedience to his kingdom of the Christ they will prove worthy of God’s gift of everlasting life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Consequently such faithful earthly survivors of the universal war of Armageddon will never die off the earth, but will forever inhabit the new paradise on earth under God’s kingdom. What joy will be theirs to welcome back people resurrected from the memorial tombs as the reigning King calls them out!—John 5:28, 29.

27. Why do we have every inducement to exercise faith in the new song, and how will we please Jehovah most in regard to the song?

²⁷ Have we reason to be unbelieving toward all the grand things contained in this new song to Jehovah? No, but on the foundation of his Word and the fulfillment of its prophecies we have every inducement to exercise faith in the new song. Concerning Jehovah God we are told: “The one seated on the throne said: ‘Look! I am making all things new.’ Also he says: ‘Write, because these words are trustworthy and true.’” (Rev. 21:5) It will please him and he will approve of us if we believe the new song that he has composed. It will please him still more if we prove our faith or belief by learning all the grand things of the new song and then singing it ourselves for all to hear, yes, for Him, too, to hear.

28. What will our obedience to the divine command to sing result in?

²⁸ “Sing to Jehovah a new song” is the divine command to us today. Happy are we if we obey and sing it out lovingly and fearlessly. It will mean our own salvation and the salvation of men of good will who hear us and join us in singing to the honor of Jehovah God and of his promised Seed, the King of the new world.

What Is the Christian’s Obligation?

Is it the duty of a Christian to try to reform the world and make it better? Many professed Christians answer that question in the affirmative. But does the Bible?

MANY persons have been taught to believe that many of the nations of earth constitute Christendom. Yet they admit much sin is in Christendom. Accordingly, they believe it to be their duty to help clean it up and also to reform heathendom. They hope that by their efforts in this direction this world will eventually become wholly Christian and a better place in which to live.

To accomplish their purpose they give their support to the United Nations organization and international peace pacts and participate in the politics of this world. They join welfare societies and brotherhood movements. With adult and juvenile delinquency continually on the increase, they probe the causes and make plans to try to grapple with the situation. ‘Back to the church’ movements and religious revivals are staged from time to time. And yet, in spite of the best endeavors of many well-meaning persons, newspapers throughout the earth daily proclaim the sad fact that this old world, instead of being reformed, is going steadily from bad to worse. Crime in all its forms is on the increase. Prisons, reformatories, Borstal institutions, asylums and similar institutions are full to overflowing. Has the Christian been commissioned to fight a losing battle? or is this idea of making this old world a better place a mistaken one?

Those who believe the Bible and who are familiar with its contents know that Jehovah’s power is without limitation and that he would never instruct his servants to attempt the impossible, nor would he commission them to support a lost cause. Where, then, did this idea originate? The facts show that both the statesmen and the religious leaders have made the claim that they can make the earth a fit place for man and make it safe for him. And since the clergy have openly allied themselves with the political rulers and advocated support for the schemes of men, millions of honest-hearted people have been deceived concerning God’s purpose. They have considered it to be in harmony with God’s will that the Christian should devote his time and energy to try to make the world a better place.

In support of their view religious leaders claim that Christ took an active part in the political life of his day and shared in social reforms. But did he? There is certainly nothing in the Scriptural record to support that allegation. On the contrary, when before Pilate, Christ stated: “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36, AV) There is not one scripture that shows that Jesus had anything whatsoever to do with the politics of his day. Nor did he spend his time trying to improve the living conditions of the people or in reform movements. From the time he began his ministry, at thirty years of age, he proclaimed the truth. Said he: “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” (John 18:37, AV) The truth he preached was concerning God’s kingdom.

In giving instruction to his disciples about God’s kingdom and teaching them to pray for it Jesus did not have in mind the conversion of the old world. What did he mean, then, when he said: “The kingdom of God is within you”? (Luke 17:21, AV) Did this not mean that the Kingdom was in the hearts of men and that the obligation of his followers was therefore to convert as many as possible? No! Such could not be the correct understanding. Note that Jesus was not speaking to those who had accepted him or who had faith in his kingdom, but to the Pharisees, who were bitter opponents of the truth he proclaimed. Surely no one would claim that the kingdom was within their hearts! The better, modern New World Translation makes the matter clear. What Jesus said to these unbelieving Pharisees was “the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Luke 17:21) In other words, he had been anointed to be King in the kingdom of God’s righteous new world and, although not accepted by the Pharisees, he was there in their midst proclaiming that kingdom.

Jehovah promised to establish a righteous government under the rulership of his beloved Son, Christ Jesus. (Isa. 9:6, 7, AV) Such government was to be a real government and not merely a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of men. It was to be a government without end and one which would bring lasting peace, a government under which obedient men would enjoy life eternal on a paradise earth.

The purpose of this government is, not to clean up the old world, but to destroy it. Says Jehovah through the prophet Daniel: “The God of heaven [shall] set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” (Dan. 2:44, AV) This was the kingdom about which Jesus spoke 1900 years ago and for which he taught his followers to pray. Before this kingdom was to be set up there was first to be a worldwide testimony given concerning the same.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PREACHING

To this end Christ Jesus trained his disciples to preach and made it clear that this was to be the most important thing in their lives. That such was to be their main obligation and responsibility was appreciated by some, for we are told that when invited to be “fishers of men” they immediately “abandoned their nets” to follow him. These early disciples followed Jesus on his travels. They listened to him address the multitudes. They accompanied him to the homes of the people. When Christ Jesus was cross-questioned about the things he said, they would listen with joy to the refutations he made as he quoted his Father’s Word as authority. On other occasions he would call them aside and give them private instruction. Then when they were trained he sent them forth to preach. What was the message? To clean up the old world? To try to convert all mankind? No. “He sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God.”—Luke 9:2.

There were those back there who thought other things were of greater importance than preaching. For example, one said: “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.” But he was told: “Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:59, 60, AV) This did not mean the father was dead already, otherwise the son would not have been there listening to Jesus. No, the young man was playing for time. Instead of being ready to follow Christ immediately he wanted first to go home. He knew his father would die sooner or later, so he thought he would go back home and wait for that occasion before becoming a full-time preacher. The young man’s relatives were not following Jesus on the way to life and hence were spiritually dead. And so Jesus told him that they could do the needful, but that his obligation, if he wished to be His follower, was to preach the gospel.

How much more important it is to preach the good news of salvation by him today. We are now living in the days of the second presence of the Son of man. The long-promised Kingdom of God has been established in the heavens. (Rev. 12:5, 10) Christ Jesus now rules in the midst of his enemies. (Ps. 110:1, 2) The present system of things has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Soon it will be completely destroyed at Armageddon. (Rev. 16:12-16) How can a true Christian use time and energy to try to bolster up or clean up that which Jehovah has condemned to destruction? Said Paul, writing to the Corinthians: “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” (2 Cor. 6:14-17, AV) The definite command is here given to all true Christians to have no part in the schemes of men. They must be separate and distinct therefrom.

The disciple James confirms the fact that the Christian should keep himself unspotted from the world and its schemes. In fact, he goes farther and states that those who profess to be Christ’s followers and who have illicit relationship with the present system of things constitute themselves enemies of God. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”—Jas. 1:27; 4:4, AV.

EDUCATIONAL WORK

It should be apparent, therefore, that the Christian has no obligation to support the schemes of worldly-wise men for the betterment of this old world. His obligation is outlined in his commission, as set forth at Isaiah 61:1-3 (AV). We are now living in “the day of vengeance of our God.” Within the lifetime of the present generation Jehovah will execute his vengeance against all unrighteousness, including the present wicked system of things. But first he has a warning sounded to give to all who ‘sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in Christendom’ an opportunity for preservation. (Ezek. 9:4, AV) Such ones are to have a mark upon their foreheads, not a literal mark, but an intellectual understanding of Jehovah’s purposes.

This educational work is now in progress. It is a world-wide work and is carried forward in 164 different countries. All who appreciate its urgency have certainly no time to dabble in the hundred and one schemes of men for the betterment of the old world. Those who can arrange their affairs will follow the example set 1900 years ago and ‘abandon their nets.’ They will have a burning desire to spend all their time in preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. To them nothing could be of greater importance than their work of preaching. Accordingly, their slogan is similar to Paul’s, namely, “This one thing I do.” Others, who may have Scriptural obligations to provide for wife and small children, may not be able to devote their entire time and energy to their preaching activity. But they too, as dedicated servants of the Most High, know that their chief purpose in life is to preach the good news of salvation by him.

What does it matter if the worldly-wise say that they are not practical and that their preaching activity is a waste of time. Their commission is from Jehovah. Hence they will continue to sound the warning of this world’s impending destruction and share in the fulfillment of Jesus’ words: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) Thereafter God’s new world of righteousness will be established under the beneficent reign of Christ Jesus. All the evils to which men have been subject in the past, and which they have been unable to rectify by their own efforts, will be gone. Satan himself will be abyssed and obedient men will be able to enjoy endless life on the paradise earth. Jehovah’s way and purpose in saving many by the ‘foolishness of preaching’ will be completely vindicated.

The Great 1958 Assembly

LET us picture summer as already here, and ourselves in New York city’s noted baseball stadiums. Instead of the crack of bats and the discordant shouts of baseball fans, a different sound comes from Yankee Stadium. It is the sound of voices raised in song, tens of thousands of them. For blocks around people stop to listen. It is not a common thing to hear songs of praise to the Most High God coming from New York’s biggest sports stadium. What is even more surprising is that similar singing is drifting over from another big baseball stadium, the Polo Grounds, just across the Harlem River.

Who are these singers? Why are they gathered in these two immense baseball stadiums? They are Jehovah’s witnesses, and they are gathered here for an international assembly. They have come from all over the earth for an eight-day gathering. So many delegates have arrived that the nearby Polo Grounds must also be used. Thus from two great stadiums come heartfelt songs of praise to man’s Creator.

These people have good reason to praise him, for he has “begun ruling as king” toward the earth. (Rev. 11:17) This means we are in the last days of this present wicked system of things. It is the time for him to remove from the earth those who are ruining it and who are disregarding his laws and his sovereignty. We are on the very threshold of his righteous new world when “the meek ones themselves will possess the earth and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.”—Ps. 37:11.

The thousands gathered in these stadiums have that prospect before them. They confidently look forward to it. Is that not good reason for them to raise their voices in joyful songs of praise to the Creator of that new world? Not only do they sing about this good news, but they declare it to the people of the world by preaching it from house to house. “Sing to Jehovah, bless his name. From day to day tell the good news of salvation by him. Declare among the nations his glory, among all the peoples his wonderful works.”—Ps. 96:2, 3.

They have pinned their hopes upon this new world and the righteous heavenly kingdom God has established for bringing it about. They are trusting in his arrangement for world peace and security. Because they are, political differences do not divide them. They are able to assemble together peaceably and in harmony, even though coming from many countries under different forms of rule. Neither do differences of nationality and race split them into antagonistic groups.

ASSEMBLY YET TO COME

The sight of New York’s two largest stadiums filled with singing witnesses of Jehovah is still in the future, but it will become a reality during the eight days from July 27 to August 3. Then the neighborhood around the stadiums will hear these righteous-loving, peaceful people singing the praises of the great God of the universe.

In the meantime preparations for the gathering are under way. The chartering of planes, boats, trains and buses has been arranged. All is in readiness for a mass movement of delegates across oceans and continents toward one place—New York city. Soon a house-to-house search throughout New York will get under way to find places for the delegates to stay during the assembly. These accommodations in private homes will be in addition to what has been arranged for in the city’s many hotels.

Plans are being made for two cafeterias at the stadiums for feeding the crowds of conventioners. These will be operated entirely by delegates who volunteer their services. It is estimated that for all the duties involved in operating the cafeterias, as well as the many other assembly departments, at least twenty-five to thirty thousand volunteers will be needed. Since the delegates are all members of the New World society they will not hold back from volunteering their services but will offer themselves willingly, just as they have offered themselves willingly for the service of preaching and teaching. It is written: “Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day of your military force.” (Ps. 110:3) This is his day of military force in heaven. It is the day when his dedicated servants on earth gladly offer themselves for his service. The duties connected with assemblies of his people are forms of such service. They are rendered in the interest of the New World society. The delegates will therefore want to show the same willingness to serve the interests of the New World society today as they expect to show after the coming battle of Armageddon, when God’s people will be the only human inhabitants on earth.

The conventioners will find that the two stadiums are within easy walking distance of each other. Little more than a bridge separates them. Both can be conveniently reached by subway from almost any part of New York. The IND line passes by both stadiums, stopping first at the Polo Grounds and then at Yankee Stadium. The IRT line passes next to Yankee Stadium and then has a short branch that runs over to the Polo Grounds.

WHY THEY COME

There are good reasons why Jehovah’s witnesses want to come to this great international assembly. The principal reason is that assemblies such as this are spiritual feasts. It was promised by the prophet Isaiah that Jehovah’s servants “shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water will he guide them.” (Isa. 49:10, AS) Jehovah’s people do not hunger spiritually or thirst for truth. Neither does the scorching heat of God’s fiery judgments fall upon them, because they obey him.

Since they are spiritually well fed they do not suffer from the spiritual famine that plagues the majority of mankind. The prophet Amos spoke of it as “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah.” (Amos 8:11, AS) The members of the New World society hear those words and have an accurate understanding of them. Contrasting these faithful servants with the spiritually hungry world, Jehovah foretold through Isaiah: “My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be put to shame; behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for vexation of spirit.”—Isa. 65:13, 14, AS.

Having been fed with spiritual food and waters of truth, Jehovah’s witnesses know how good these spiritual provisions taste and how nourishing they are. That is why they rejoice at the opportunity to assemble together this summer for a great spiritual banquet. They will have good reason literally to sing for joy during that assembly. So from the most distant parts of the earth they will converge upon New York.

For eight glorious days they will feast sumptuously upon spiritual food, sing songs of praise and declare the good news of God’s kingdom to the people of New York. They will enjoy the fellowship of being with thousands upon thousands of members of the New World society. They will look about at the great sea of faces in the stadiums and thrill at the thought that this great multitude are all dedicated servants of Jehovah God. They all believe the same things, preach the same things and hope in the same things. Here is a united people that see in harmony.

To be with their fellow servants of God in such a great assembly is the keen desire of Jehovah’s witnesses the world over. No distance is too great for them to travel to realize this desire. This big assembly will be a foretaste of the wholesome companionship and peaceful relations they will enjoy indefinitely after the battle of Armageddon. Being among crowds of people who love Jehovah God, who obey his laws and who trust in his promises will be a pleasant relief from having to live in a wicked world that is alienated from God and that has no love for him.

Besides these impelling reasons to assemble together, there is the desire to renew old acquaintances, exchange experiences and get the uplift that such assemblies give.

These reasons draw Jehovah’s witnesses from near and far to this great assembly. But what can now only be pictured will be a reality in about three months when their voices, joined in songs of praise to Jehovah God and in gratitude for his righteous new world so near at hand, will resound out of New York’s two biggest stadiums. This mighty assembly will be an event of lasting remembrance.

[Picture on page 245]

POLO GROUNDS

YANKEE STADIUM

[Map on page 246]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

POLO GROUNDS

YANKEE STADIUM

IND Subway Lines

STOPS: 1 W 155 St LOCAL STOP

2 E 161 St LOCAL STOP

IRT Subway Lines

STOPS: 3 E 161 St EXPRESS STOP

4 Anderson-Jerome LOCAL STOP

5 Sedgwick LOCAL STOP

6 W 155 St EXPRESS STOP

Scale: 1 inch = 1500 feet

Sheep Recognize the Shepherd’s Voice

An Adventist lady in Oriente, Cuba, told one of the witnesses that she belonged to the Adventists because their books so enlightened her. To prove her point she produced the book “The Truth Shall Make You Free”! Needless to say, it was a real joy for the witness to assure her that this book was a witness publication. A home Bible study was then started with her and several other Adventists, with the result that six are now actively witnessing for Jehovah, including a former Adventist missionary.—1958 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Pursuing My Purpose in Life

As told by William Carnie

LOOKING back, I can see what an eventful day it was when my father took me to hear Judge Rutherford speak in the Synod Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland. That was in the early years of World War I, and I was just about ten years old at the time. An earlier visit by Pastor Russell had apparently stirred up interest, although we were a Methodist family, my father being a very active elder. That meeting in Edinburgh began a very joyful association with the Bible Students, in which all our family joined. The truth became the vital thing in our lives.

Soon came repercussions. Patriotic fervor was hot at school. My father came under the draft, or conscription, as we called it. Although there were eight dependent on him, we were prepared to resist all compromise and stand neutral to the warring nations. We lived for the truth. We lived in an atmosphere that tingled with the imminence of Armageddon. We saw the old system rapidly passing away and our personal construction was that it would not survive World War I.

I was nonplussed when the war ended and a period of so-called peace opened up. Never had I conditioned my mind to pursue some vocation in life. My future had always been linked up with the millennium. To my mind, however, there existed a great gap between what I could do and the requirements of the Society’s colporteur service, which seemed to be a field for elders only. But I distinctly remember the idea of taking up full-time service as a pursuit and kind of hoped someone would invite me to do so, but no one did.

The turmoil that ensued in the United States upon the manifestation of Christ Jesus at the spiritual temple did not seem to send its shock waves to Scotland until a year or two later. There was a disagreement and a breakaway. Because I had never really studied for myself but consistently depended upon my father, I found myself with him on the offshoot group. As I remember, we hankered for the old days and old ways centering on the glory of Pastor Russell.

By 1922 the affairs of everyday life seemed to take on greater importance. Big things were expected by 1925. When it came to my vocation in life, one of the trusted brothers of our new group advised that I should get a position where daily food was assured.

For more than a year I was on the catering staff of a large hotel. This was no place for me. I decided to take up a new life in the cleaner environs of some rural country and arrived in Australia in December, 1923, eager to plunge into the outback country.

I had never been a reader of the Watch Tower publications, but I knew the truth was in these pages. So I took a volume or two of Studies in the Scriptures, in the fond hope of making its message my own. The fond hope never materialized. I never seemed able to strike any heat from cold print.

From the years 1923 to 1929 I yearned to have my parents and brothers and sisters united in a kind of patriarchal circle away from the old world. But alas! When we all managed to come together there was little mention of the warm faith that had formerly stirred us to rejoicing. To make a living seemed the object in life.

Years were passing. Something was missing in my life. The year 1925 passed without anything happening as I had expected. The truth in our family had gone dead. Reluctantly I got right round to considering: I must reorient my sense of values, gain some wealth and make a name for myself.

Having joined a cultural society and taken up life in a big city I formerly despised, I attended a social function where a so-called “Reverend” told a joke based on the trinity doctrine. I joined in the laughter, but when walking home I was appalled to call to mind how at one time I had this subject at my fingertips, but here I was groping in my mind as to what was the truth on the matter. I knew I had drifted into darkness, but did not know where to turn for help.

CONTACT WITH JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

The year 1937. War drums were sounding. My brother and I were engaged in defense work. One day while walking with the hotelkeeper we saw on a nearby lot behind a garage a van with the painted sign “Jehovah’s witnesses.” We were promptly informed that here were some “Come to Jesus” cranks. It was said that the garage proprietor, instead of raking in the wealth that had come as a result of the big building scheme, was wasting his time running around the country preaching.

Our interest was aroused. We determined to see what these people had more than we did. For an answer we were invited to join the weekly study of the book Riches. This proved to be the most interesting study in our lives. We argued and argued. Sessions lasted late into the night. Point by point we had to concede. One night after a long discussion we returned to our hotel room and, as I sat on the bed, I said, “This looks like the truth.” When my brother replied, “Just what I’m thinking,” my joy knew no bounds. In a flush of gratitude I thanked Jehovah for the undeserved kindness of shepherding us back.

Now we made up for our former failing—lack of personal study. We got Bibles and books. Like Paul we even retired to the quiet of the hills and the woods and went over the matter in our minds and confirmed the truths. It was like living in a new world. Our friends wondered what had come over us.

When we heard that Judge Rutherford was to visit Sydney, N.S.W., in the spring of 1938, we resolved to return to the east to attend the big assembly and see our family about the truth. At home there was no responding joy. We began to see that to go on, it would be by ourselves. Family ties were very close, but ties to Jehovah’s organization were now closer.

Preconvention work opened up a new and happy experience. Here was the atmosphere I had always wanted to work in. It must be full-time service for me, though I confess I felt that I could never be a preacher. If I could do the incidental or background work I would be happy. My role seemed that of an assistant. I did not at all feel qualified to be out in front taking the lead as a full-time pioneer worker. That was for the anointed.

However, by now I had firmly resolved that my vocation in life was to serve the Theocracy full time; but instead of taking the plunge there and then, I felt obligated to complete some secular jobs first. How easy and foolish to be tied down! How I was to regret it in just a week or two. Racing on a motorcycle between two jobs I crashed into a fast-moving car and was tossed to the road for dead. While I was lying there conscious with eight bones broken, my immediate thought was, “Why am I not dead?” “What service could I have rendered if I had been killed?” “How important is secular work in puny comparison with service to the living God?”

At that moment I was absolutely convinced that Jehovah had spared my life. The importance of everything except Kingdom service faded away. With this driving incentive my recovery proved remarkably fast. The crash occurred in August, 1938, and by the middle of November I started full-time Bethel service. With such a belated start, but by Jehovah’s undeserved kindness, I have rejoiced in pursuing my vocation as a full-time servant of Jehovah ever since.

After less than a year of full-time work I received an appointment to take care of a large metropolitan congregation. When I thought of the responsibility entrusted to me I grew pale and learned to lean heavily on Jehovah.

Around 1940 in Australia as elsewhere opposition to the truth was intense. Soon we became hardened campaigners. Sound-car work and information marches caused great excitement. Three times I found myself on the dark side of the lockup, but three times walked out free, better appreciating how the apostles felt, as recorded in Acts, chapter five.

As a zone servant, I had many pleasant experiences and now enjoy many wonderful memories of service. When the ban came in Australia there was no dull moment. Yes, I had my turn on Kingdom farms and other enterprises. At the beginning of 1943 I was called to work in the Bethel office on the congregation desk. There was the training and sending out of the servants to the brethren to be accomplished under ban conditions. After about two years in the office I was out again in the work I loved very much, that of circuit servant. This work took me to New Zealand for another two years.

GILEAD AND THEN HONG KONG

To me it was a totally unexpected move when the Society opened the Bible School of Gilead. Then it seemed remote from us because of war and distance. I never contemplated being called to school. Our joy knew no bounds when we learned that we were called to the eleventh class.

Every minute of Gilead I enjoyed. That six months was a landmark in my life. It has supplied a fund of memories that has been a source of joy for the nine years since we graduated.

After serving a circuit in Wisconsin, where I made friends that have kept in touch with me ever since, there came a letter from the Society in November, 1948, inviting me to take up the missionary work in Hong Kong. The East had never appealed to me, but I had offered to go wherever sent, so Hong Kong it would be for me.

Out across the Pacific we went. At that time the Communist armies were sweeping down from the north and it was thought that Shanghai would fall any time, so that our ship might have to put in to some little-known port. However, we arrived in Shanghai in time to experience the uncanny sensation that accompanies the fade-out of one power to give way to the next. We spent some time with the brothers who have valiantly kept the service going during the trying times up to now. We were relieved when we set sail for the final stage to Hong Kong, as we had visions of being stuck in Shanghai away from our assignment.

How eagerly we gazed upon the beautiful and bustling island of Hong Kong as we sailed into the sheltered harbor. What would it yield in Kingdom fruits? How would our training stand up? Everything was so strange and new that we wondered where to start. We were fortunate in that two publishers had come down from Shanghai ahead of us and they met us and helped us to get on our feet. Hong Kong was overcrowded. It was almost impossible to get quarters to live in. Prices for accommodations were sky-high. The British navy club took us in for a few weeks, until we were fortunate enough to find a room. Meanwhile we were established in the work. Many people we witnessed to could speak English and where we had to cope with Chinese we memorized a little testimony and presented a card and found it worked very well. Placements and studies came freely.

We had arrived in the middle of January, 1949, and by May of that year we had a little congregation organized; just three publishers with the two missionaries. These three are still going strong and are joined with others to reach a peak of one hundred and forty-eight.

I did not know how much I loved my assignment until I visited the United States for the New World Society Assembly in 1953. I found myself longing to return. Hong Kong had become my home.

Sometimes I look back at the idle years I spent pursuing the husks of the old system of things and it makes me think of the long-suffering of God. I experience a great flood of gratitude that Jehovah has found a place for me in his house and work in his harvest field. I pray that he will sustain me in pursuing my purpose in life as a full-time minister, to his praise and vindication.

Witnessing to Buddhist Priests in Thailand

“ABOUT a week after arriving in Lampang, Thailand, I started a study with a Buddhist priest. This priest speaks English and had been a former believer in Christianity, but had seen so many things wrong in it that he had become a Buddhist. After a few weeks of study in Basis for Belief in a New World he suggested that I meet with a group of Buddhist priests and study the same booklet with them.

“This was arranged and a study was started with about fifty Buddhist priests. Since all could not speak English I had one of the sisters go with me and translate each paragraph into Thai. During the course of the study the priest of the original study made it clear that there is a distinct difference between the teachings of Jehovah’s witnesses and those of Protestants and Catholics.

“The special representative of the Society, the circuit servant, made a brief stop at our home this week and I went by and arranged for him to talk to these priests. One hundred and ten priests listened for one hour on the talk ‘Who Is Your God?’ Many questions were asked afterward and in particular I noticed that two other priests, in addition to the one I was studying with, manifested genuine interest. As it was raining I offered to take these to their temples and on the way one of them said: ‘I hope the time will come when everyone will worship Jehovah the Creator.’ I am starting two studies with these priests and will tell you more about them in future letters.”

(Three months later.) “Remember the study with the yellow-robed Buddhist priests? Well, after some weeks of study it was manifest that only two or three were really interested in the message about Jehovah’s kingdom and the rest were only interested in learning English. Two of those that showed the most interest have quit their priestly profession. They come to our missionary home every Monday night to continue their studies. They both speak some English, the one who speaks it especially well translates for the other and they are making good progress. We look forward to their taking their stand fully with the New World society.”

Morals of Church Members and Nonmembers

WHEN Nazi bombs and rockets began falling on England during World War II, the people of Great Britain could rightly question the morals of the German church members who were dropping those bombs and firing those rockets. The same could be said about residents in German towns. They could question the morals of Allied church members who demolished their towns, killing men, women and children.

It seems that many people consider church members, as a class, to be the personification of civilization and high morals. Nonchurch members are looked upon as being unmoral and uncivilized. This was what Dr. George W. Crane implied when he said: “We have the paradox of 100,000,000 moral moderns living in the same towns with 70,000,000 Stone Agers. We can trust 60 percent of our fellow men even in the dark. But we dare not trust the other 40 percent even in daylight.” That 40 percent of the American population are the nonchurchgoers.

Dr. Crane went on to argue that if everyone belonged to either a Jewish, Catholic or Protestant sect of religion there would be no crime. But how can this be said in view of what church members did during World War II and what so many of them are doing today? Why, one of the biggest embezzlers of modern times, Minnie Mangum, was a very devout and respected church member. Her dishonesty was a lack of good morals. She did something many nonchurch members would never think of doing.

The mass murders of Jews and dissenters during the Middle Ages give no recommendation to the morals of church members. Surely these and the other crimes committed during the Inquisition by church members at the instigation of church leaders cannot be classed as moral. Neither can the fighting between Protestant and Catholic church members during the Reformation, which fighting tore Europe to bloody shreds, be classed as moral. Let those who think church membership prevents crime consider these facts of history.

Let them also ponder the reason why prisons are filled with religious criminals. United States prison officials announce that while 60 percent of the people in the United States claim some religious faith, 85 percent of convicted criminals profess some religion.

In its issue of September 4, 1957, The Christian Century reported what was found in just one institute of detention. It said: “After making a statistical survey of inmates, Arthur Tenario, staff psychologist at the New Mexico Boys School, reports that 85 percent of the boys committed to that institution are of Spanish American background and 71 percent are Roman Catholics.”

In George Washington’s day 5 percent of the people claimed some church affiliation. Today some 60 percent claim it. Surely no one would contend that Americans today are twelve times more moral and more civilized than the people of Washington’s time. If anything, the reverse is closer to the truth. Morals have deteriorated greatly since the days of the first United States president.

Modern church leaders frequently lament over the fact that crime increases accompany church increases. Every time religious memberships climb one percent the national crime rate climbs 8 percent. Could this be due to church failure to instill Christian principles in its members?

In view of an unenviable record of unmoral actions by church members, it is wrong to contend that there would be no crime if everyone belonged to a church. It is also wrong to claim that church members can be trusted, whereas nonchurch members cannot. Membership in a church does not necessarily mean a person lives by good morals. It is easier to put on an appearance of respecting good morals than it is actually to live by them.

In many respects the church members of Christendom are similar to the religious people of Jesus’ day. Those people were zealous for their religious traditions and put on an outward appearance of being righteous; but when it came to practicing the high moral principles of the Scriptures, that was quite another matter. Jesus appropriately quoted what God had said through the prophet Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, yet their hearts are far removed from me. It is in vain that they keep paying respect to me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.”—Matt. 15:8, 9.

Those people had an outward appearance of devotion to God, but their actions of persecuting and finally killing Christ showed that their devotion did not come from the heart. What was true of these Jewish church members is also true of many of Christendom’s churchgoers. Their devotion does not come from the heart. If it did, they would respect God’s righteous laws and principles. They would not hate persons of a different race or nationality; they would not lie, cheat and steal, and they would not shoot or bomb one another.

What the apostle Paul said to the Jews of his day can be addressed to Christendom’s church members: “For the hearers of law are not the ones righteous before God, but the doers of law will be declared righteous. Do you, however, the one teaching someone else, not teach yourself? You, the one preaching ‘Do not steal’, do you steal? You, the one saying ‘Do not commit adultery’, do you commit adultery? You, the one expressing abhorrence of the idols, do you rob temples? You, who take pride in law, do you by your transgressing of the Law dishonor God? For ‘the name of God is being blasphemed on account of you people among the nations’.”—Rom. 2:13, 21-24.

Because some church members take a “holier than thou” attitude toward nonchurchgoers, that does not mean they are morally superior and more civilized. They are really more reprehensible in the eyes of God because, like the Pharisees, they are not what they pretend to be. It is not membership in a church that makes a civilized person with good morals but rather the application of the principles of God’s Word.

Not everyone saying to me, ‘Master, Master,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will.—Matt. 7:21.

Questions From Readers

● If Jehovah is supreme, why has he permitted wickedness to continue through the centuries?

It is this issue of sovereignty that is really at the basis of the matter. Wickedness began when a spirit son of God rebelled against God’s sovereignty. Of this spirit rebel the Bible says: “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee.” (Ezek. 28:15, AS) By revolting against God’s universal sovereignty, this spirit creature made himself a devil, and he came to be called Satan the Devil and “the original serpent.”—Rev. 12:9.

Satan induced Adam and Eve to revolt against God’s universal sovereignty. Satan’s boast was that he could corrupt any man and turn him against God’s universal sovereignty, just as he did with Adam and Eve. In the book of Job, chapters one and two, we read of Satan’s boast to God. Satan challenged God, in effect, that he could not put a man on earth that would keep integrity to God under temptation. Jehovah let the Devil put Job to the test, and Job’s integrity-keeping exposed the Devil’s falsity. So it has been through the centuries: God has permitted wickedness so that the all-important issue of universal sovereignty could be put to the test; and tied in with that paramount issue is that of man’s integrity.

But could not God have executed the rebel Satan and his earthly subjects, Adam and Eve at once, thereby wiping out all wickedness? Yes, but if God had done so we would not be alive today; and, above all, the issue would not have been settled to the full satisfaction of all living creation. It would have been debatable throughout eternity—involving such questions as, If God had allowed the Devil a wide range of action, would this wicked one have proved his point? And had God created man in such a way that it was inevitable that he would revolt against God if tempted? Such questions had to be answered decisively.

This has required time, time to give Satan a wide range of action to let him try to back up his claim, and time “that people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth.” For the sake of the issue God has permitted wickedness, but only until the issue is settled and God’s universal sovereignty is vindicated. The reason for God’s temporary permission of wickedness is well expressed in his words to wicked Pharaoh: “For this cause I have kept you in existence, for the sake of showing you my power and in order to have my name declared in all the earth.”—Ps. 83:18; Ex. 9:16.

● Why is there such an increase of wickedness today?

It is no chance happening that wickedness has vastly increased. Increased woes for the earth started with World War I. The year 1914, in fact, marked the beginning of the “last days.” The last days of what? Of Satan’s wicked rule over the earth and mankind. “The whole world,” says 1 John 5:19, “is lying in the power of the wicked one.” But why should the “last days” of Satan’s wicked rule bring such an increase in wickedness on the earth? The Bible answers.

“War broke out in heaven,” God’s Word tells us. This, of course, was warfare invisible to human eyes. In this heavenly conflict Christ Jesus as Jehovah’s enthroned King led heaven’s armies against Satan and his demons. The Devil met humiliating defeat in this conflict, as the Bible discloses: “So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.”—Rev. 12:7-9.

Satan’s debasement and confinement to the vicinity of the earth was certain to affect earth’s inhabitants, as the prophetic Word states: “Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.”—Rev. 12:12.

It is the wrathful Devil, then, that is the cause behind the increased wickedness on the earth. Actually this dramatic increase of wickedness is most meaningful: Christ foretold it as part of the great sign of the “last days.” Besides his prophecy of world wars for the “last days,” Jesus foretold “the increasing of lawlessness.” (Matt. 24:7, 12) And Christ’s apostle foretold a moral breakdown in public and private life, which would include juvenile delinquency: “Know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, without gratitude, with no loving-kindness, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness.”—2 Tim. 3:1-3.

So the sharp increase of wickedness today is because this world has entered the “last days”; and because Satan, restrained to the neighborhood of the earth and “knowing he has a short period of time,” has prodded peoples and nations to do increased wickedness in defiance of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty. Little wonder that human law enforcement agencies, unable to reach Satan, have been helpless to check the foretold “increasing of lawlessness”!

● With increasingly destructive weapons of war and decreasing morality and love of principles, what hope is there for man and the earth? Will wickedness ever be brought to an end?

Despite a race to make the deadliest weapons in human history, there is hope for men who love righteousness, hope to live forever upon this earth under peaceful conditions. Man’s weapons and wickedness do not make such a new world impossible. It is, of course, as Jesus stated: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” And God has promised it: “There are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.”—Matt. 19:26; 2 Pet. 3:13.

A righteous new world means peace for the earth, and a peaceful New World society is already formed. And already they live in harmony with the Bible prophecy: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares.”—Isa. 2:4, AS.

The New World society has no fear of the earth’s being destroyed by man’s folly. We have God’s assurance: “He has founded the earth upon its established places; it will not be made to totter to time indefinite, nor forever.” Nor will nuclear weapons make the earth uninhabitable; for God “formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited.”—Ps. 104:5; Isa. 45:18, AV.

God’s Word recognizes, however, that man is in the process of ruining the earth. So the Most High God has promised to take action “to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” He will do this soon at the universal war of Armageddon, called “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” This righteous war will settle the great issue, that of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty. Satan, who knows his remaining time is short, will not escape. He, together with his demons, will be isolated bound in a prison abyss. Thus Armageddon will accomplish what no human war has ever done—get to the root cause of wickedness. Executed also will be all human doers of wickedness, since Jehovah’s forces at Armageddon come “to execute judgment against all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly deeds.”—Rev. 11:18; 16:14; 20:1-3; Jude 15.

Before Armageddon makes the way for God’s new world, a warning must be delivered. The peaceful New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses are sounding that warning, that all lovers of morality may flee from Satan’s doomed world and find protection by trusting in Jehovah: “Hope in Jehovah and keep his way, and he will exalt you to take possession of the earth. When the wicked ones are cut off you will see [it]. But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.”—Ps. 37:34, 11.

African Chief Shows Wisdom

Two full-time ministers of Jehovah were sent to a certain village in Nyasaland to preach. This caused the representative of the Universal Missions to Central Africa to petition the chief to expel the witnesses on the premise that both organizations could not operate in the same village. After consulting with his superiors the chief ruled: “If the U.M.C.A. does not want to stay together with Jehovah’s witnesses, then they may leave. I am very pleased to have the name of Jehovah preached in my area and I agree that they stay and continue with their good work.” So now still only one religious group is active in the village, but it is Jehovah’s witnesses!—1958 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Announcements

GETTING FILLED WITH GOD’S SPIRIT

“Keep getting filled with spirit” is the Bible’s counsel at Ephesians 5:18. By what means do we keep filled with holy spirit? By continually going to the source, Jehovah God, in prayer and in study of the Word of God, the Bible. Association with others who also seek the filling of the spirit is coessential, for Ephesians 5:19, 20 says: “Speaking to yourselves with psalms and praises to God and spiritual songs, singing and accompanying yourselves with music in your hearts to Jehovah, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks always for all things to our God and Father.” Being continually replenished with the spirit by these means, we are able to go to others with the truths of God’s Word and bring them the spiritual help that is so much needed in these times of world crisis. During May this will be done by Jehovah’s witnesses in offering people two bound books containing Bible-study assistance of great importance, together with two booklets, on a contribution of $1.

YOU CAN SHARE IN THE NEW SONG

Do you feel cheered as you face the future? Do you feel like singing as you consider the nations’ prospects? There is a song that will warm and refresh the hearts of all men of good will, regardless of nationality. It means health and salvation to sing that song. Although previous generations could not sing it, it has already caused thousands today to raise their voices in praise of its Author and Composer. That is because Jehovah God, who is Creator also of new heavens and a new earth, has written the “words and music” of this thrilling song and is now causing it to be sung earthwide for the upbuilding of even further thousands. Now you can share in the singing of the “good news.” It is the song of God’s kingdom come, set up in the heavens in the midst of its enemies in heaven and on earth. If you have not yet read in this issue of The Watchtower the article entitled “A New Song for All Men of Good Will,” do so at once. It will acquaint you with that song and how to sing it. Then, obtain extra copies of this issue and help your friends to rejoice in the hope ahead. Send only $1 for 30 copies.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

May 25: A New Song for All Men of Good Will. Page 227.

June 1: The Time to Sing the New Song. Page 234.

Check Your Memory

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

✔ Who has composed a new song that genuinely cheers mankind? P. 227, ¶2.

✔ Who God’s first prophet was? P. 230, ¶11.

✔ How a virgin girl gave birth to a son of God? P. 233, ¶24.

✔ Why the disciples were confused by Jesus’ violent death? P. 235, ¶4.

✔ How a new ruling organization for the universe was brought forth in 1914? P. 238, ¶16.

✔ How the dead can bury the dead? P. 243, ¶4.

✔ What surprising change will come over two of New York’s baseball stadiums this summer? P. 245, ¶1.

✔ What reasons draw Jehovah’s witnesses to the New York assembly? P. 246, ¶4.

✔ Where some Buddhist priests are manifesting interest in Scriptural truth? P. 251, ¶4.

✔ Why the people of Great Britain and Germany could question the morals of one another’s church members? P. 252, ¶1.

✔ Why it is wrong to contend that there would be no crime if everyone belonged to a church? P. 253, ¶3.

✔ Why God has permitted wickedness to continue for such a long time? P. 254, ¶2.

✔ Why the earth will not be destroyed by man’s folly? P. 255, ¶5.