The Watchtower — November 1, 1958

Why Be Impatient?

WE LIVE in a world where many people get nervous or fidgety when they have to wait. Perhaps you find yourself pacing back and forth, becoming more and more irritated, when you have to wait a few extra minutes for a train or bus. It may be that you expected your husband home for supper a little earlier, or you may be kept waiting by your wife. When that happens, do you greet the other person with sincere pleasure when he arrives? Or are you upset, and is your greeting sharp?

The Bible gives good counsel for our guidance when it says: “Better is one who is patient than one who is haughty in spirit. Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended, for the taking of offense is what rests in the bosom of the stupid ones.”—Eccl. 7:8, 9.

In the midst of the fast pace of a production-minded world patience is at a premium and tempers are short. It is also a world where there is much unhappiness. The old world is moved by selfishness, by the spirit of the “god of this system of things.” As men pursue “the desire of the flesh” they manifest the “works of the flesh,” including “fits of anger.” (1 John 2:16; Gal. 5:19, 20) Those who are thus easily offended by the tardiness of others upset both themselves and those around them. Why punish yourself and others for the shortcomings of someone else?

In conversation it readily becomes apparent who has patience. One who does will patiently wait his turn to speak. The one who lacks it is forever trying to interrupt.

The apostle Peter tells us to “consider the patience of our Lord as salvation.” (2 Pet. 3:15) There is no question about it: the patience of God has afforded us the opportunity to gain salvation. By our patience with others we make it easier for them to take hold of that provision. That patience should be shown toward those whom we teach God’s Word; it should certainly be shown toward those in our own family. It is important in the big things of life, and it should not be overlooked in little things.

Instead of showing irritation and impatience, remember the advice found in Proverbs 16:21: “The one that is wise in heart will be called understanding, and he that is sweet in his lips adds persuasiveness.”

Why the Divine Will International Assembly Resolved

“So they swore to Jehovah with a loud voice.”—2 Chron. 15:14.

1. Why is it a good thing for a nation to enter as a whole upon a faithful resolve, in the fear of God?

IT IS a good thing for a nation to enter as a whole upon a faithful resolve, in the fear of God. Nothing serves better than this for uniting the people of the nation in a righteous endeavor, to the lasting benefit of all the nation and to the honor and exaltation of God. He, the Creator of man and of man’s earthly home, is not unmindful of such national action. He is certain to show his approval by blessing and protecting the nation and giving them the needed divine assistance toward keeping their godly resolve.

2. When did such a national action take place long ago, and after what miraculous victory?

² Such a national action took place long ago as a wholesome example for us today. It took place in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa the king of Jerusalem, in the tenth century before the Christian era. Zerah the Ethiopian, with a million warriors, marched up through Egypt and threatened to destroy the kingdom of Judah. At the critical moment King Asa called out to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Asa was heard, and those enemies of the kingdom of Jehovah at Jerusalem were themselves wiped out.

3. On his return from victory what assurance was given to King Asa, and afterward what did the nation resolve upon at Jehovah’s temple?

³ On King Asa’s return from this miraculous victory, the prophet Azariah met him and said reassuringly: “Jehovah is with you as long as you prove to be with him, and if you search for him he will let himself be found by you, but if you leave him he will leave you. . . . And you, be courageous and do not let your hands drop down, because there exists a reward for your activity.” Under this mighty stimulation King Asa gathered to Jehovah’s temple at Jerusalem all those Israelites who loyally served Asa as Jehovah’s anointed king. In addition to sacrificing to Him as their God, the assembled nation united in a resolve. Concerning this we read: “Furthermore, they entered into a covenant to search for Jehovah the God of their forefathers with all their heart and with all their soul, that anyone that would not search for Jehovah the God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. So they swore to Jehovah with a loud voice and with joyful shouting and with the trumpets and with cornets. And all Judah gave way to rejoicing over the thing sworn, for it was with all their heart that they had sworn and with full pleasure on their part that they had looked for him, so that he let himself be found by them, and Jehovah continued to give them rest all around.”—2 Chron. 15:2-15.

4. What kind of sacrifices are Jehovah’s witnesses of today offering, and what outstanding feature was presented on the sixth day of their international assembly in New York city in 1958?

⁴ Those natural Israelites joining in this sworn resolve must have numbered hundreds of thousands, for in one day they sacrificed seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep. Today a remnant of the new nation of spiritual Israelites are offering the sacrifices of praise and of Christian works to the same God. In their worship of him this spiritual remnant have been joined by hundreds of thousands of sheeplike persons of good will in all quarters of the earth. Just this past July 27 to August 3, delegates or representatives of these witnesses of Jehovah assembled in and around Yankee Stadium and the nearby Polo Grounds, New York city. The program for the sixth day, Friday, August 1, announced among the afternoon features the address on “Why This Convention Should Resolve,” by the vice-president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, followed at once by the presentation “This Convention Resolves,” by the president of the same Society. This outstanding feature of the day was presented at 1:30 p.m. directly to the audience in and around the Polo Grounds, and then at 3:30 p.m. to the still larger audience in and around Yankee Stadium. The vice-president spoke by way of introduction, to the following effect:

Why This Assembly Should Resolve

5. What could be said regarding the number of Christian witnesses gathered at that assembly?

NEVER before have so many Christian witnesses of Jehovah been assembled together at one time as at this Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, here in the Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds in New York city.

6. Why was that not merely an international assembly, and upon what solid basis did their assembling together in oneness rest?

⁶ This is not merely an international assembly. It is also an interracial assembly, for we have come here not only from many nations, as represented in the 123 lands and islands where we live, but also from the three great branches of the human family that stem from our common forefather, Noah the son of Lamech the son of Methuselah the son of Enoch. (1 Chron. 1:3, 4) In reality, this is a Christian human family assembly. Despite the way that we look on the surface or despite the difference in languages that we speak, we are all one flesh, created by one God and redeemed by one ransom sacrifice, his Son Jesus Christ. Furthermore, our basis for thus assembling together rests not just on our natural oneness of flesh; it rests more solidly upon our oneness of Christian personality, “where,” as the apostle Paul reminds us, “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, foreigner, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all things and in all.” (Col. 3:10, 11) Our assembly is thus merely one mammoth manifestation of the fulfillment of Jehovah’s prophecy by Isaiah:

7. Of the fulfillment of what prophecy was that assembly a mammoth manifestation?

⁷ “It must occur in the final part of the days that the mountain of the house of Jehovah will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will certainly be lifted up above the hills, and to it all the nations must stream. And many peoples will certainly go and say: ‘Come, you people, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will instruct us about his ways and we will walk in his paths.’ . . . And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.”—Isa. 2:2-4.

8. Why did those conventioners have no reason for boasting in themselves for coming together in such numbers from so many places?

⁸ In view of world conditions in this midsummer of 1958, our getting here to this Divine Will assembly from the four quarters of the globe, by the many means of travel and at much expense, stands for no small achievement. It is nothing over which to boast on our own part. Almighty God is the One who has brought it about. He has spread for us the most appetizing spiritual feast that we are enjoying here; and he issued to us the loving invitation through his visible organization on earth. He has provided for all of us the means to get here. He has protected and preserved us on the way here, and his protection has been over us in this assembly till now. He has brought us to this occasion that has no equal. To Him we tender our heartfelt thanks for this. To him all the credit! “‘Not by arms, nor by force, but by my spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.” (Zech. 4:6, AT) And to this we heartily agree!

9. What did their being together in such numbers from everywhere afford them an opportunity to do?

⁹ Our being together according to the divine will and by the divine providence affords us a tremendous opportunity. We being together in such huge numbers, from so many locations around the globe, it becomes most appropriate for us as one company to join in making some expression to give force to the fact that we have the one spirit of God, that we have been “taught by Jehovah” to a oneness of knowledge and understanding, and that we have been made strong and fortified in our decision to do the one divine will as a united theocratic organization, called by God’s holy name Jehovah.

10. With what courage and eagerness did they come together, and what did they find it a most suitable occasion for doing that day?

¹⁰ We, who have been baptized in obedience to God and in imitation of Jesus Christ, are all of us dedicated to God for the doing of his will. We have come here unafraid of facing the divine will and not afraid to face any further revelation of the divine will, for that is the theme of this assembly. We are eager to learn more of God’s will. Here we seek to be renewed in our decision to do his will, that we may do it faithfully in fulfillment of our vow in order to make His heart rejoice. We see that there is much confusion in all this world, even in Christendom, as regards what the divine will is. We know, also, that there are many sheeplike persons in all parts of the earth who want to learn what God’s will is that they may fulfill the purpose of their lives in doing it. Consequently, we find this a most suitable occasion for making some statement of what the divine will is and for voicing our determination to keep on doing it ourselves and to help other men of good will to do it.

11. Why was it not necessary to describe conditions that exist in the earth, and how did Paul describe them to Timothy long in advance?

¹¹ The world’s newspapers, magazines and radio communications describe the events taking place and the deplorable conditions that exist both in Christendom and in the rest of the earth. We do not need to go into any detailed description of what is already so well known to men. Nineteen centuries ago our Christian brother, the apostle Paul, wrote an advance description of what we, assembled here from all parts of the earth, have observed to be the condition: “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, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with self-esteem, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power; . . . In fact, all those desiring to live with godly devotion in association with Christ Jesus will also be persecuted. On the other hand, wicked men and impostors will advance from bad to worse, misleading and being misled.”—2 Tim. 3:1-5, 12, 13.

12. What was declared to be the root cause for the state of the world’s affairs, and why were a particular class pointed out to be the most reprehensible for world conditions?

¹² There is a root cause for this state of affairs. Without any double talk or hesitation we declare this root cause of all the crime, delinquency, hatred, strife, prejudice, communism and mad confusion to be wrong religion, false religion; behind which is man’s unseen enemy, Satan the Devil. The men most responsible for the world condition are the religious instructors and leaders; and the most reprehensible of these are the religious clergy of Christendom. These have the complete Bible, the Holy Scriptures inspired by God’s spirit. The members of their religious systems pay them hard-earned money and trust them to study the Bible and preach God’s will and purpose as set forth in it. Christendom’s clergy have the awe-filled respect of their congregations, who rely upon their clergy to teach the Bible truth and to live up to its teachings in imitation of Jesus Christ. Said the apostle Paul as a pattern for the clergy to follow: “Become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1) Had the hundreds of thousands of clergymen in Christendom done as Paul instructed, what a power they would have wielded to prevent Christendom, which dominates the rest of the world, from getting into its serious condition of today! How effective they could have been in preventing two world wars and the great stress and pressure that forced the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs!

13. Why were they not unjustified in making such a criticism of Christendom’s clergy, and why were they really under obligation to speak concerning Christendom’s leaders?

¹³ Are we unjustified in making such a criticism? Is it wrong for us to feel just as Jehovah’s prophet Jeremiah felt about a similar situation in his own day, and then to express ourselves in harmony with our feelings? We believe not. Not many years before Jerusalem and its temple or house of God were destroyed, Jeremiah said: “Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of Jehovah, and because of his holy words. For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right.” Then to Jeremiah’s heartbroken words, God adds this comment: “For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith Jehovah.” (Jer. 23:9-11, AS) After all these years since World War I, Christendom stands in a relationship toward God like that of Israel in Jeremiah’s day. Yes, Christendom faces a destruction more frightful and devastating than that which Jeremiah saw happen to Jerusalem and its temple. Since we Christians are called by God’s name, as Jeremiah said he himself was (Jer. 15:16, AS), and since we are Jehovah’s witnesses as Jeremiah himself was, we are under obligation to speak concerning Christendom’s leaders, foreshadowed by Israel’s prophets and priests.

14, 15. With what words did Jeremiah point out the ones who were responsible for the fallen state of the nation?

¹⁴ Under inspiration by God, Jeremiah pointed out the religious leaders as the ones responsible for the state of the nation, riddled as it was with corruption and faced with violent destruction:

¹⁵ “Therefore this is what Jehovah of armies has said against the prophets: ‘Here I am making them eat wormwood, and I will give them poisoned water to drink. For from the prophets of Jerusalem apostasy has gone forth to all the land. I did not send the prophets, yet they themselves ran. I did not speak to them, yet they themselves prophesied. But if they had stood in my intimate group, then they would have made my people hear my own words, and they would have caused them to turn back from their bad way and from the badness of their dealings.’”—Jer. 23:15, 21, 22.

16, 17. Why, similarly, are Christendom’s clergy responsible for the people’s badness today?

¹⁶ Christendom’s clergy, Catholic and Protestant, have the Bible and have the time to study it and the pulpits for preaching it. If, as Jehovah said to Jeremiah, these modern-day religious prophets had stood in His intimate group, in close relationship with Him as his faithful and discreet servants, then they would have made Christendom’s peoples hear God’s own words. They would thus have caused the people to turn back from their bad way that has led to this disastrous situation today.

¹⁷ Instead, Christendom’s clergy have rejected God’s Word and have led the people in rejecting his Word and turning to worldly philosophies and unproved scientific theories. As a result, the people go on and grow worse in the badness of their dealings.

18, 19. How did a clergyman recently describe in The Lutheran the people’s attitude toward the Bible and toward the church, and what “tremendous possibilities” do the clergy not take hold of?

¹⁸ Recently, in the religious publication The Lutheran, a clergyman said concerning the increase in church attendance in America: “The incoming tide of faith” has not “embraced the gospel,” neither has it “rejected the church.” In other words, these church attenders have not embraced the Holy Bible, but they do not reject Christendom’s religious systems that have rejected the Bible. This, the same clergyman remarked, is a “time of tremendous possibilities.”—New York World-Telegram and Sun, June 14, 1958.

¹⁹ Yet the clergy will not take hold of these possibilities by making the people hear God’s Word, to turn them from their apostasy and to prepare them for everlasting life in God’s new world.

20. Why are world leaders perplexed, and amid this perplexity what should there be to guide human society?

²⁰ If ever there was such a day, this is the day of perplexity that Jesus Christ foretold. Faced with mounting problems, with the stubborn unwillingness of the powerful ones of the nations to co-operate, and with the dangers of nuclear, missile, bacteriological warfare, from which all mankind would suffer for generations to come, the world leaders are perplexed. They know no way out of the international quagmire. (Luke 21:25) Amid this worldwide perplexity there should be a message of solid truth to guide human society.

21. Who, of all persons today, should have that enlightening message, and why so?

²¹ Of all persons on the face of the earth, professed Christians should have the message that can enlighten all peoples in the gross darkness that enshrouds all nations, not excepting Christendom. “I am the light of the world. He that follows me will by no means walk in darkness, but will possess the light of life,” said Jesus. And to Christians who faithfully follow him he said: “You are the light of the world. . . . let your light shine before mankind.” (John 8:12; Matt. 5:14, 16) He definitely said that his true followers would have the one and only enlightening, saving message for this day of perplexity. Long ago Jehovah God promised to provide his worshipers with the all-important message.

22. How do the clergy act with regard to leadership, and how does the instance of the vice chancellor of New York’s archdiocese display that fact?

²² Still the clergy of Christendom have no message of the day for mankind. They look to the perplexed, dazed, staggering politicians to take the lead that they may follow the politicians and give these moral and religious support in their churches. Let the politicians suggest a League of Nations, and the clergy are for it. Let the politicians propose a United Nations organization, and the clergy support it as the one hope that all mankind must support or else all is lost. Here in New York city, on the occasion marking the tenth anniversary of the United Nations, prayers were offered in St. Patrick’s Cathedral “for divine guidance on all deliberations” of the United Nations. Monsignor Thomas A. Donnellan, who preached, said (to quote the report in the New York Times as of October 31, 1955) that “despite ‘imperfections, vetoes and obstructionist tactics’ the United Nations was, ‘humanly speaking, the last, best hope for international peace.’ Monsignor Donnellan is vice chancellor of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.”

23. How did a New York Presbyterian minister illustrate the same fact in 1952?

²³ In the same strain, and in this same city on an earlier occasion, Presbyterian minister Dr. J. S. Bonnell took his text from Jesus’ sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” and said to the many U.N. delegates in his audience: “Blessed are you men of the United Nations, who devote your life to the understanding of the problems of other people.” The New York Times report as of April 21, 1952, closed with this paragraph: “Holding that the peoples of the world must realize that the United Nations is the supreme hope for world peace, the minister asserted that the organization could not exist if it were repeatedly sidestepped by the larger nations of the world.”

24. Ten years ago, how did Pope Pius XII set the example for Christendom’s attitude toward the U.N.?

²⁴ Setting an example ten years ago for Christendom’s attitude toward the U.N. Pope Pius XII appealed to its member nations to “devote their sternest efforts to solving the problems of permanent peace and security at the next General Assembly” and said: “If ever an assembly of men, gathered at a critical crossroad in history, needed the help of prayer, it is this Assembly of the United Nations.”—New York Times, as of September 2, 1948.

25. In the light of the clergy attitude, what statement by Sir Alexander Cadogan presents a challenge, and to whom?

²⁵ That this attitude of the clergy presents a challenge to true Bible Christians is shown in the statement of Sir Alexander Cadogan: “Until someone has produced a better plan, the United Nations is the only way of salvation.” Down to this late date the clergy of Christendom have brought forward no better plan.

26, 27. Does the clergy’s failure to have a “better plan” mean that God has nothing better, and with what words does Jeremiah lay bare the reason why the clergy have no guiding message for men?

²⁶ To the people of the world the clergy stand for the God of Christianity. Does the clergy’s failure to have a clear-cut message, a “better plan,” mean that God has nothing better than the United Nations? It would be an insult to Jehovah God to think so. Why, then, do these paid clergymen who parade in special religious garb to show themselves off as devoted to God and as representing him have no message to guide men to unity, peace and life? The prophet Jeremiah lays bare the reason. He said:

²⁷ “This is what Jehovah of armies has said: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you people. They are making you become vain. The vision of their own heart is what they speak—not from the mouth of Jehovah. They are saying again and again to those who are disrespectful of me, “Jehovah has spoken: ‘Peace is what you people will come to have.’” . . . They are thinking of making my people forget my name by means of their dreams that they keep relating each one to the other, just as their fathers forgot my name by means of Baal. The prophet with whom there is a dream, let him relate the dream; but the one with whom my own word is, let him speak forth my word truthfully.’” “‘Therefore here I am against the prophets,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘the ones who are stealing away my words, each one from his companion.’” “‘Here I am against the prophets of false dreams,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘who relate them and cause my people to wander about because of their falsehoods and because of their boasting.’” “But I myself did not send them or command them. So they will by no means benefit this people.”—Jer. 23:16, 17, 27, 28, 30, 32.

28, 29. (a) Had God sent those clergymen, what would they have and what would they be doing? (b) How do they violate the opening part of the Lord’s Prayer, and so what is Jehovah’s position toward them?

²⁸ Had Jehovah God by Christ sent those clergymen, then they would have his message and would be preaching it in obedience to his command. They would not be preaching the dreams of their own heart in harmony with the schemes of this world’s politicians. They would not be stealing away Jehovah’s words from one another or from their parishioners. Rather, they would prove that they had His word by speaking it forth truthfully and educating the people in what the Bible has to say regarding our day.

²⁹ They would not be making God’s professed people forget his holy name by means of their dreams that they keep relating to one another. They refuse to be called by God’s holy name Jehovah. They do not profess to be witnesses of Jehovah. To lend no support to the fact that Jehovah would have witnesses on earth at this most critical time the same as he has had since the days of Abel the first martyr, they willfully arrange to keep God’s own name Jehovah out of their modern Bible translations. By their own example and course of action they deny that a true Christian must be, as Jesus Christ himself also was, a witness of Jehovah God. They pray the Lord’s Prayer, and yet they work against the very opening part of that Prayer, which says: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” (Matt. 6:9, AV) For these vital reasons the God whose name is slighted and misrepresented says that he is against these prophet-preachers. That is why he tells the people not to listen to them, for they will by no means benefit mankind, not even Christendom.

THE WORK OF WITNESSING AND GATHERING

30. What commission did Jesus give to his disciples when parting from them, and to fulfill this commission how many professed Christians do the clergy have to back them?

³⁰ In his parting words to his disciples Jesus said: “You will receive power when the holy spirit arrives upon you, and you will be witnesses of me . . . to the most distant part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) “On the basis of [Jesus’] name repentance for forgiveness of sins would be preached in all the nations—starting out from Jerusalem, you are to be witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:47, 48) According to the latest census or estimate of the religious population of the world, Christendom’s clergy today stand backed by 820 million professing Christians. Hence, witnessing to all on earth today would mean, according to the latest figure, witnessing to 2,700,000,000 persons. A monstrous task! does anyone exclaim? No, numerically a small task; for we have 820 million professed Christians with which to do it. Jesus said that Christians should all be witnesses to earth’s most distant parts.

31. For Christendom’s numbers to give a world witness, what would it have required of each one, and so what questions do we ask as to what possibilities the clergy have had?

³¹ Subtract 820 millions from 2.7 billions. It leaves 1,880,000,000. Now divide 820 million obligated Christian witnesses into 1,880,000,000 non-Christians. It gives us a quotient of about 2.3. With all the witnesses available in Christendom, it would require each one to witness to 2.3 non-Christians, to give a world witness. In other words, Christendom’s one third of the world population would simply have to witness to the other two thirds of the world’s population, non-Christian. Have the clergy of Christendom had wonderful possibilities? What if the clergy, like the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ, had taken the lead and conducted a world-wide witnessing campaign with their 820 million sheep of their religious flocks? What would the results have been today?

32. (a) How should the clergy have gone about in leading off in this world witness? (b) How long have they had years of possibilities but with what to show for their style of preaching and ministering?

³² How should the clergy have gone about leading off in this world witness? It is not for us to tell them how. They claim to be Jesus’ followers or imitators. His own example tells the clergy how. He preached publicly and in the homes of the people. He did not go to them invisibly by radio and by mailed printed literature. He had no church building where he preached to people who paid him. The apostle Paul said: “Become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1) Paul tells Christendom’s clergy how he imitated Jesus and carried on the witness work. Paul says: “I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house.” (Acts 20:20, AV) Have the clergy imitated Jesus Christ and his imitator Paul? Publicly, somewhat, in their own church buildings to a paying congregation. But what about from house to house? Have they, like shepherds, gone out to hunt the lost, straying sheep as Jesus did? The record that the clergy have made answers for them. The results of their style of ministering and witnessing answers for them in just Christendom itself, this one third of the world’s population. There yet remains the non-Christian population, two thirds of mankind, to whom the clergy of Christendom owe an obligation in the form of a witness. Since at least Emperor Constantine’s day in the fourth century, Christendom’s clergy have had, till now, 1,600 years of possibilities, opportunities!

33. (a) As regards responsibility, why should Jehovah’s witnesses also look at themselves? (b) Why, despite his witnesses, did Jehovah’s wrath destroy Jerusalem, and before a similar destruction what must Jehovah’s witnesses today do?

³³ Certainly someone has failed of responsibility. We witnesses should look at ourselves to see whether we have shared in the failure. In Jeremiah’s days Jehovah saw the failure of the priests and the prophet dreamers. He did not, because of them, leave the endangered people without witness. He raised up his true prophets and put his word in their mouths, particularly of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jerusalem’s destruction came anyhow, because of Jehovah’s anger with the majority of the people. “The windstorm of Jehovah, rage itself, will certainly go forth, even a whirling tempest. Upon the head of the wicked ones it will whirl itself. The anger of Jehovah will not turn back until he will have carried out and until he will have made the ideas of his heart come true. In the final part of the days you people will give your consideration to it with understanding.” (Jer. 23:19, 20) Likewise today, Jehovah will not turn back from his destroying of Christendom in Armageddon. His witnesses, however, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel and other true worshipers of Jehovah, expect to survive Armageddon. First, though, we must finish our commission as witnesses of Jehovah, without fail.

34. What did Jehovah say by Jeremiah must be done before Christendom is destroyed?

³⁴ A great gathering work needs to be done now before Christendom is destroyed along with the rest of Satan’s world. With regard to this, Jehovah prophesied by Jeremiah: “‘I myself shall collect together the remnant of my sheep out of all the lands to which I had dispersed them, and I will bring them back to their pasture ground, and they will certainly be fruitful and become many. And I will raise up over them shepherds who will actually shepherd them; and they will be afraid no more, neither will they be struck with any terror nor will they be missing,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘Look! There are days coming,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘and I will raise up to David a righteous sprout. And a king will certainly reign and act with discretion and execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel itself will reside in security. And this is his name with which he will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.’”—Jer. 23:3-6.

35. Whom has Jehovah raised up as a “righteous sprout” to David, and how has this one fulfilled his honorable name Jehovah is Our Righteousness?

³⁵ Jehovah is the Great Shepherd. (Ps. 23:1) He cares for his sheep here on earth. He raised up Shepherd-King David and also raised up to him a “righteous sprout.” That “righteous sprout” is Jesus Christ. In 1914 God put him in power as king of the new world. Evidences to prove that fact continue to increase for us. The King Jesus Christ reigns and has acted with discretion and executed justice and righteousness in our land, in our spiritually restored condition here on earth. He has saved spiritual Judah by delivering us from modern-day Babylon. He makes spiritual Israel to dwell securely although we are in the midst of this world, which hates us. He is fulfilling the name of honor by which he is now called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness, or, Jehovah Is Our Vindicator. (AT) To us he has brought the righteousness of God. He is the King that has liberated us from Babylon. He has shown to the world, especially to Christendom, that Jehovah God is with us and for us, and that we have a righteous standing with God, not his condemnation. Because of our exclusive devotion to Jehovah and our uncompromising separateness from this world, we stand vindicated, for we have brought ourselves more and more into conformance with God’s Word and have refused to conform to this world. It is our highest desire to have a part with our King in vindicating Jehovah’s universal sovereignty.

36. Why are the rulers and clergy of Christendom not the ones whom Jehovah has raised up to shepherd the sheep whom he is gathering?

³⁶ However, whom has Jehovah raised up as shepherds over all the sheep whom he is gathering on the earth? Not the political rulers or the religious clergy who hobnob with Christendom’s politicians. These have caused the people to wander about in confusion, not knowing where they are going. They have not directed and helped the sheeplike people to Jehovah’s King, the “righteous sprout” of David. Their handling of earth’s affairs has left the people in a state of fear, and the nations are in anguish.

37. Whom, then, has Jehovah raised up as shepherds over all the sheep whom he is gathering, and how have they been exercising leadership?

³⁷ When we look at the organization that has God’s holy name called upon it and that works hard to make the people remember His name, we can discern that Jehovah has raised up the promised spiritual shepherds. He has raised up faithful, conscientious overseers along with their ministerial assistants. By these he has fed his sheep with spiritual nourishment and led their steps into the paths of the right Christian activity and the right worship of the true God. These have led the members of the congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses out into the field to find and gather together all the sheep whom Christendom’s clergy have left to wander and to stray. Thus they have led all the flock of Jehovah’s witnesses into all the inhabited earth to bear witness to the grandest event of all time, the setting up of God’s kingdom as the capital organization of the universe, for God’s vindication and for mankind’s blessing.

38. Why, like Jeremiah, do we have a fearful responsibility resting upon us?

³⁸ We have a fearful responsibility resting on us. We have accepted God’s name upon us and he has favored us with what he had kept back from Christendom’s clergy, the lifesaving message for all people, no matter of what race, present religion, nationality, color, language or social rank. Like Jeremiah we can say: “Take note of my bearing reproach on account of your own self. Your words were found, and I proceeded to eat them; and your word becomes to me the exultation and the rejoicing of my heart, for your name has been called upon me, O Jehovah God of armies.”—Jer. 15:15, 16.

39. Particularly since 1919, what have we striven to do, and, in view of last year’s accomplishment, how soon could earth’s 2.7 billions be given the witness?

³⁹ Since 1919 in particular we have striven to reach all the inhabited earth with the good news of God’s established kingdom, not only the non-Christian two thirds of the world’s population but also the 820 millions of Christendom’s members whom their clergy have left ignorant of the Kingdom, directing them to the United Nations of this world. During just the past field-activity year of 1957 we spent 100,135,016 hours in actually preaching from house to house and publicly, in 164 lands and islands where Jehovah’s witnesses are located. Of those hours over 20 million were spent in making return visits on interested persons. So for the total of more than 100 million hours, more than one person was given a witness each hour. This means that hundreds of millions of persons received the Kingdom witness in more than 120 languages last year alone. This was in the face of tough opposition and, in places, violent persecution. Were we given a free field, if all nations flung wide open the doors, with Jehovah’s spirit helping, how soon could his witnesses reach earth’s 2.7 billion inhabitants with the good news of the established Kingdom! As matters stand, however, we are striving to push out into new fields for witnessing.

40. Why must we keep striving to push into new fields for witnessing, and so for us now what can there not be as regards the work?

⁴⁰ We must do this. The handwriting has appeared on the walls of this Babylonish old world, announcing the doom of Satan’s entire world organization. Christendom, who has cast in her lot and destiny with this world, stands doomed with it, to suffer a destruction in comparison with which the horrors of Jerusalem’s destruction in Jeremiah’s day will seem pale. The lives of countless sheeplike persons in all quarters of the earth are imperiled as the great day of destruction draws nearer. Our work is not done. Our obligation is to drive ahead with this witness work till the destruction overtakes a heedless, goatish world. We are dedicated to do the divine will. So this is our work according to God’s will for now. This is the work for which we have been brought to this hour. For us there can be no turning aside, no deviating, no slowing down, no uncertainty, no inside interference with the work.

41, 42. What was the international assembly a supreme occasion for doing, and what, therefore, did the Society’s president proceed to do?

⁴¹ Today, by Jehovah’s loving-kindness, we have been brought to this one harmonious assembly. For us witnesses from the four corners of the earth, of so many nationalities and languages, it is a supreme occasion to make a united statement of how we stand toward the world situation, what our enlightened understanding of God’s will is and what our united purpose is for the future in discharging our God-given commission. This is “why this assembly should resolve” to make an expression before we have to part, for it to be published to all the world. I therefore yield the platform to the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania to present any expression in which we can all unitedly and heartily join.

⁴² Amid the great applause the Society’s president stepped to the fore and presented the following

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N. H. Knorr

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F. W. Franz

Resolution

1. What was that sixth day of the international assembly (August 1, 1958) the time and occasion for, and of what world event was it the anniversary?

THERE are momentous times and occasions that call men together for united action and expression. This time and occasion in the summer of the year 1958 is one of them. On August 1, 1914, or forty-four years ago to the day, Imperial Germany declared war on Russia, thus backing up Austria, which had declared war on Serbia just four days previous. That was the beginning of World War I, which sucked in more than a score of nations around the globe.

2. In what did World War I result, and was the world made safe for peace?

² Allied victory crowned the war. Empires and kingships vanished. New republics appeared; but the world was not made safe for democracy. The League of Nations was established to foster amity among the nations and to prevent recourse to war for settling disputes; but the world was not made safe for peace.

3. What events led up to World War II, and what era was born toward the close of that war?

³ Dictators seized control of nations in Christendom and entered into concordats or compacts with religious authorities. World domination again became a burning issue. Aggressions took place, as new and grander empires were coveted and aimed at. The League of Nations proved powerless, and within twenty-one years of the close of World War I a second world struggle cut a swath of death and havoc around the earth, to surpass the destruction by any former war. The fiendish bombs made by atomic scientists climaxed and speeded up the complete end of the worst war in history. Thus less than two months after delegates of fifty nations had finished their conference in San Francisco, California, and had signed the Charter of the United Nations, the era of the nuclear bombs and of the United Nations was born.

4. In the thirteen years since then, how has the world situation shaped up, and how have the religious leaders failed the people?

⁴ In the thirteen years since then, great blocs of nations have been formed and have disunited the world. Wars cold and hot have raged. Nationalism has run riot. The hydrogen bomb has been added to the arsenal of war. Efforts at international disarmament fail repeatedly, and the world is suddenly launched into the missile space age. The contest for world domination has been renewed. By all manner of means the Communist bloc seeks to wrest it from the democratic powers, and the general situation has become one of suspicion, tension, rivalry and fear. The future becomes more and more ominous-looking. The people turn to their religious leaders for light, for direction and for a trustworthy message of hope, but the religious leaders have nothing other than what the politicians offer the world. They have not directed the people to the only means of salvation. They have ignored the Word of the great “King of the nations.”—Jer. 10:7.

5. What pressing facts made the international assembly the most suitable time for the Scriptural message to be declared to all?

⁵ The nearness of the greatest change in human history, the danger in which the perplexed people stand and the urgent need for the lifesaving truth to be proclaimed make this the most suitable time for the message from the holy Scriptures of God’s Word to be declared to all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT

6. Jehovah’s witnesses in international assembly united in declaring devotion to what?

WE, Jehovah’s witnesses, assembled here in Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds, New York city, in the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses this first day of August, 1958, do unite in declaring that we are exclusively devoted to the divine Sovereign of the universe and to the interests of his promised new world now at hand;

7. What do the witnesses deplore, and what do they take the greatest pleasure in doing?

⁷ THAT we deplore the fact that the inspired written Word of the Universal Sovereign is ignored due to the delinquency of the religious leaders of Christendom, who have made the people forget the holy name of the sovereign God by various religious means, whereas we, His witnesses, take the greatest pleasure in honoring and vindicating that holy name and in confessing before all men that the name by which He alone is distinguished is Jehovah (Ps. 83:18, AV);

8. To whom do all nations today owe their life, and why?

⁸ THAT all nations today owe their life to Jehovah God as the great Creator and Fountain of life, inasmuch as all the nations have a common descent from the main survivor of the global flood, the patriarch Noah, who walked with Jehovah God to the preserving alive of our human race;

9. Because of our common descent, what should we all recognize as to ourselves?

⁹ THAT because of our common descent from Noah, who was the tenth in line of descent from the first man Adam, all the many nations, tribes and peoples of this modern day should recognize that we are one human family, one human race, for whom Jehovah God has made one common provision through his Son Jesus Christ for our everlasting life and happiness in His approaching new world;

10. Since the great Flood, what things have brought mankind to the dangerous situation today?

¹⁰ THAT, since the founding of the city of Babylon shortly after the great flood, a wicked world has been built up, of which the Holy Bible declares Satan the Devil to be the invisible god and ruler; and that under him and his demons the nations and languages of the earth have broken up the unity of the human race and have brought mankind to the dangerous situation today in which there is no peace and in which there is no loving family harmony;

11. What has Jehovah God willed for his human creation, and so in point of time where does this old world now find itself?

¹¹ THAT, in love for his human creation, Jehovah God has willed that a righteous new world be introduced for all men of good will in his appointed time, for which reason he has numbered the days of this internationally split old world, and this old world is now far along in its “appointed time of the end”;

12. Governmentally, what did Jehovah do in the autumn of 1914, and so what then began for the nations of the old world?

¹² THAT the Most High God of heaven has his own chosen government for all the earth, and that in the autumn of the year 1914 he installed his loyal Son, the glorified Jesus Christ, to be king in the heavens and to destroy all the enemies of God and of man and to reign over men of good will in the blessed new world, for which reason, at Jesus’ installment in 1914, the “appointed time of the end” for all the nations of the old world began and is now nearing its climactic conclusion;

13. What is the only stable government in the universe, and why does no government in Christendom have God’s backing?

¹³ THAT the only stable government in the universe is the established kingdom of God in the hands of his anointed Son, Jesus Christ; and that not a single government in Christendom has God’s backing, inasmuch as He is backing his own government, the Messianic kingdom, and Christendom’s governments are doomed to destruction by him at the universal war of Armageddon, in which his reigning King will fight them and all the rest of the Devil’s organization, human and demonic;

14. What do the evidences multiplying since 1914 prove, and why can the people now hear and say: “It is the truth”?

¹⁴ THAT, since A.D. 1914, the evidences have continued to multiply in proof that God’s kingdom now reigns from the heavens; and not only do we have the prophecy of his Son Jesus Christ regarding these visible evidences on hand in the Holy Bible for consultation, but God has raised up his speaking witnesses to preach the good news of the reigning kingdom and to serve warning notice of the war of Armageddon by word of mouth, letting the people hear, that they may say: “It is the truth”;

15. In spite of fulfilled prophecies and the increasing testimony, what have Christendom’s clergy refused to do and, as a result, what have they done?

¹⁵ THAT in spite of the fulfilled prophecies of God’s Word, with which the religious clergy should be acquainted, and in spite of the increasing testimony of His living, speaking witnesses, the religious leaders of all denominations of Christendom have refused to join in the Kingdom witness, in fulfillment of Matthew 24:14, and have opposed, even persecuted, Jehovah’s witnesses and have rejected God’s kingdom and have turned the peoples to man-made political remedies for human ills;

16. In fear of communism and of more world war, what course have the clergy taken, and against whom have they encouraged the nations to fight?

¹⁶ THAT, in their fear of ungodly communism and of more world war, the clergy have turned their backs on Jesus Christ the King and have endorsed the political organizations for perpetuating this old world, which is God’s enemy, namely, the League of Nations and its successor, the United Nations; and they have led and encouraged the people in the idolizing of these human makeshifts for God’s kingdom; and in their worldly-wise schemes to safeguard the people from further devastating world war by means of these incapable organizations, the clergy have failed to help the people to find refuge and security against the far more destructive universal war, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty” (Rev. 16:14, 16); so that, in times of international peace, the clergy hypocritically encourage the nations not to fight one another, not to fight against men, but, by backing up the political schemes of men, they encourage the nations to fight against God, both now and in the coming war of Armageddon;

17. Why will Christendom’s clergy come in for first attention at Armageddon, and what will happen to their followers?

¹⁷ THAT the nations are now on judgment before Jehovah God the Supreme Judge, and the clergy of Christendom stand as the most reprehensible and delinquent class on earth before Him, and at Armageddon he will give his judicial attention first to them, and all the blind peoples who follow these blind religious guides will suffer execution with them at God’s hands;

18. So, amid this situation, for what are Jehovah’s people most grateful, and what responsibility do they appreciate?

¹⁸ THAT, amid this most serious situation of the old world, and in view of the failure of Christendom’s clergy, we are most grateful to Jehovah for the privilege of being His witnesses to all the nations in this time of the end; and we deeply appreciate the heavy responsibility resting on us to uphold the honor of his name and to carry out the commission laid upon us;

19. What did all those witnesses and people of good will come together in international assembly for?

¹⁹ THAT we, 194,418 witnesses of Jehovah God and people of good will, have come together here in international assembly to learn further concerning his holy will and how to carry it out;

20. What, in fulfillment of Isaiah 2:2-5, have the witnesses done and determined to do?

²⁰ THAT, figuratively speaking, we have beaten our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning shears and, although of so many nationalities, we will not lift up sword against one another because we are Christian brothers and members of the one family of God, neither will we learn to war against one another any more, but we will walk in God’s paths in peace, unity and brotherly love;

21. What has made the witnesses one Christian people, and what do they sincerely pray?

²¹ THAT what has made us one Christian people despite the fact that we come from so many diversified peoples is that we have separated ourselves from this world and its hateful conflicts and have dedicated ourselves through Jesus Christ to our one God and heavenly Father, and we sincerely pray to Him in unity: “Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth”; not the will of the worldly nations under the “ruler of this world,” Satan the Devil;

22. Why is their organization theocratic as regards headship, leadership, motivating force and book of law?

²² THAT our earthly organization is theocratic because it is ruled by God the Most High as Head over all, and our Leader under Him is no political dictator but is Jesus Christ our Right Shepherd, and God’s holy spirit is the active force that moves us and accomplishes God’s will through us, and the inspired Holy Scriptures are our book of law and instruction and highest education;

23. What did the witnesses resolve concerning unity of organization and also concerning preaching, and in likeness to what faithful brothers?

²³ THAT, in spite of our having to part in a matter of days, we will continue to preserve the unity of the organization, which unity we have experienced here on such a tremendous scale; and whereas we shall return to live under differing forms of human government and different political rulers, we will not permit men who fight against God to break up our unity or to separate us from the theocratic organization; we will persist in praying for one another and will carry out the Scriptural instructions; and even when persecution may get more intense and we may be scattered physically or be driven underground or deprived of our Bible-study literature, we will keep on obeying God rather than men and will preach the good news of the Kingdom, the only God-given hope of mankind, by the use of our Bibles alone, if necessary, or by just that divine Word stored up in our hearts; we will, in all these respects, strive to be like our faithful brothers who today find themselves behind the Communist Iron Curtain or under totalitarian government and dictatorship and for whom we have not ceased to pray;

24. What special features of God’s will do they want fulfilled in them, and with what objective in view?

²⁴ THAT down to the end, as far as within us lies, God’s will shall be fulfilled in us as regards the preaching of his established kingdom and the gathering of all other sheep into the fold of his Right Shepherd, Jesus Christ, to enjoy salvation with us, so that we may be accounted worthy of being ushered into God’s everlasting new world after Armageddon, there to worship him unitedly as one family of his creatures without racial distinctions and national boundaries and divisions, under one government, His kingdom by Christ, and to do his will forever and ever.

25. Finally, what did the assembled witnesses call upon all lovers of life in happiness under righteous government to do, and why?

²⁵ Accordingly, on this inspiring occasion, we call upon all lovers of life in happiness under righteous government, to whose attention this Resolution may come, to take to heart its import and to honor the name of the Creator of heaven and earth and to turn to His kingdom by Christ as the rightful government of the new world and to bring themselves into harmony with his perfect will, because “he that does the will of God remains forever.”—1 John 2:17.

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES IN THE DIVINE WILL INTERNATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN NEW YORK CITY THIS FIRST DAY OF AUGUST OF 1958.

Moved by N. H. Knorr, President Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

Seconded by F. W. Franz, Vice-President

Attested to by M. G. Henschel, Chairman

ADOPTION

26. What action was taken regarding this proffered Resolution?

²⁶ Having finished reading the repeatedly applauded Resolution, the Society’s president moved for its adoption. During the din of further heavy applause the vice-president seconded the motion. The president then called for all in favor of adopting the Resolution to say Aye! As one man the audience of 194,418 cried out Aye! and burst into applause again with great joy and enthusiasm. This set the pattern for similar action at the subsidiary large-scale assemblies that were to be held in Great Britain, Germany, and other lands around the earth in the course of the succeeding months.

27. What are those who adopted the Resolution now doing about it, and what is the carrying out of its terms resulting in?

²⁷ The proceedings at Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds with regard to this Resolution excited great public comment, printed and spoken. Whatever action others may henceforth take toward Jehovah’s witnesses on account of the Resolution, those Christians who adopted it have taken most seriously to heart what they have thus resolved. They offer prayer and put forth efforts to keep what they have earnestly resolved in solemn assembly. They are now being put to the proof as to their sincerity in adopting the Resolution. However, they have the Scriptural assurance that Almighty God Jehovah will help them to prove true and faithful to the Resolution, that they may experience his salvation and that he may be magnified. Their unitedly carrying out the terms of the Resolution is greatly expanding the global witness that they are giving, and it will also result in the eternal salvation of countless other sheeplike persons of good will, that these too may do the divine will in God’s righteous new world.

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Yankee Stadium packed out when 194,418 endorsed Resolution. See overflow crowds at the Polo Grounds on next page.

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Polo Grounds seated part of overflow crowd of 194,418 that endorsed Resolution at Divine Will assembly

Part 1—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

On Saturday afternoon, August 2, 1958, following his address on the subject “Let Your Will Come to Pass,” to an audience of 174,983 gathered together in the Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds of New York city on the occasion of the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania released the new 384-page book entitled “Your Will Be Done on Earth”. This new publication was hailed with great joy by that vast throng, and 228,000 copies were eagerly taken up during the last two days of the international assembly.

Because of the instant importance of the contents of this absorbing book, it begins to be published in serial form with this issue of “The Watchtower,” that the millions of readers of this magazine in more than fifty languages may be enabled to read the message of the book with the least delay as well as to study it together with other students of Bible prophecy. By saving each serial part, “Watchtower” readers will finally have the entire book, each reader in his own language.

CHAPTER I

WHOSE WILL?

1. Why is humankind rapidly moving toward a new world?

HUMANKIND is swiftly moving toward a new world. Soon the great troubles that have disturbed this world since the year 1914 will reach their Armageddona climax. This old world will not be able to endure that overwhelming trouble, the like of which man has never before gone through since the beginning of human existence. The worst ever, yet it will be me last world trouble, and the thankful survivors of it will enter into a new world that gives promise of wonderful things.

2. Why must a new world come, and what questions arise about it?

² For important reasons there has to come a new world. Things cannot go on as they are and on the same foundations. There has to be an all-embracing change. This change has to come by powers other than those who are responsible for mankind’s woes for these thousands of years. That change will make all things new. The world, the whole system of things, will be healthily new. As we think about this desirable new world, some vital questions arise. Will that new world be fashioned and built by human scientists of today or of the future? During that world, which will always stay new, whose will is it that must be done and will be done on earth? Is it to be the will of some imperfect, selfish, dying human creature? Or is it to be the will of someone unselfish, perfect, undying, someone higher and more powerful than the most outstanding human creature? Is it to be the will of someone on earth or of someone in outer space or of someone beyond outer space?

3. Since 1957, why have informed persons interested themselves in outer space?

³ Particularly since October of 1957 all informed men and women have interested themselves in outer space. They have been expressing themselves from a new viewpoint, that of cosmic space. They say we have entered into the nuclear space age. They say we must conquer outer space with the use of nuclear energy, the mighty energy bound up in the nucleus of the atoms of which all matter is made up, the terrific energy that has been made known to us by the explosion of fiendish bombs of scientific invention. But why conquer outer space? That the conquerors may gain control of man’s everlasting home, this planet earth. They say that the point of control is somewhere out there in outer space. For them, the so-called ultimate weapon is not enough; the “ultimate position” is supremely necessary. To the shock of many, one noted lawmaker said:

4. What did one noted lawmaker say regarding outer space?

⁴ “There is something more important than any ultimate weapon. That is the ultimate position—the position of total control over earth lies somewhere out in space. This is the future, the distant future, though not so distant as we may have thought. Whoever gains that ultimate position gains control, total control, over the earth, for purposes of tyranny or for the service of freedom.”b

5. What fear did that statement express, and hence what answer is given to the question as to who should control outer space?

⁵ That ringing statement, spoken to wake up the threatened people to the “peril of the hour,” expressed the fear of a one-sided “spatial imperialism” by some political, military world power. The will of the world power that gained the “ultimate position” along with the “ultimate weapon” would then be the controlling will of the earth. So comes the question, Who should control outer space? Believing that now the “sky is the limit” for men, worldly-wise men suggested that the members of that international organization, the United Nations, should all rule out an “ultimate position” for any nation and that all member nations should unite in a drive to conquer space for the purposes of world peace. Said one editorial writer: “Control of outer space may well be the key to the future; and for the sake of world peace, even human survival, this must be a matter not of national prestige but of collective security.”c International control was seen as the only practical answer to all the questions that man’s invasion of outer space with rockets and man-made moons had raised. International law, a “law of the world,” was seen to be needed for keeping man’s conquest of space from being misused by any nation or group of nations.

6. (a) What did one religious newspaper say on the conquering and exploring of outer space? (b) But whom has such exploration put foremost?

⁶ Religion has stepped into the discussion of the opportunities and dangers of man’s space age. One week after the Soviet Union launched its first satellite, Sputnik No. 1, to orbit around our globe, the Vatican newspaper “The Roman Observer”d encouraged exploration into outer space. Under date of October 11, 1957, it said: “God has no intention of setting a limit to the efforts of man to conquer space.” It said that the Roman Catholic Church’s viewpoint on outer space had not changed since its Pope Pius XII addressed an astronautical congress in Rome, Italy, in 1956. “On that occasion,” said the Vatican newspaper, “Pope Pius XII told 400 delegates from twenty-two nations that ‘the more we explore into outer space, the nearer we become to the great idea of one family under the Mother-Father God.’”e Yet facts to date reveal that the exploration of outer space in man’s way brings the physical scientists foremost to view. A paid newspaper article entitled “Will We Do the Job in Science?” paid a compliment to the Russian scientists and then spoke of our being on “the threshold of a space age in which the side that is strongest in science will inherit the earth—or what’s left of it.”f

7. On what beatitude did those words cast a doubt, and upon what does fulfillment of that beatitude depend?

⁷ Those words cast a doubt on the third beatitude of Jesus Christ’s famous Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”g Yet, can it possibly be that some day soon the meek or mild-tempered ones will actually inherit this earth under oppression of no kind? For an answer that question, like other vital ones, depends upon whose will is to be done on earth in the oncoming new world.

8. As regards the “ultimate position,” what are the nations forgetting?

⁸ Amid their fears, anxieties and ambitions the nations of this world are forgetting something. What? There is a power that already has the “ultimate position,” not the ultimate position toward merely this tiny earth but that toward all the planets, moons and suns of the immeasurable universe that telescopes can bring to our view. It is the intelligent, divine Power that created the earth and man and beast and bird upon it, yes, that created all the stars, the sun and the moon that shine down upon us here at the earth. Self-centered, self-reliant man does not want to think of this intelligent, divine Power or of any responsibility that man owes to this almighty Power as his Creator. Man tries to laugh off the existence of such an intelligent creative power, because man’s tiny, short-lived satellites or sputniks have not run into him while orbiting about us in outer space. How foolish! For His ultimate position is not somewhere out in distant space as far as human scientists could shoot their farthest satellite or sputnik.

9. Where does the Creator hold the ultimate position, and why does he hold the spatial imperialism everywhere?

⁹ Let unreasoning man know that the all-scientific, almighty Creator’s ultimate position is in the invisible realm, into which man with all his science cannot rocket himself. Necessarily the Creator holds the “ultimate position” because he is the Most High, the Supreme One over all the universe. He is the living, creative Center around which all creation revolves. He rightfully holds the spatial imperialism everywhere, for he is Sovereign over all heaven and earth and over all the space between them. With no nation or group of nations will he divide and share his spatial imperialism. Against him no disdainful earthly nations can win. He is God!

A SYMBOLIC VISION OF HIM

10. Why may we not dare to ignore God, and why can we not see him?

¹⁰ Although we cannot see him, yet we dare not ignore the Most High, the almighty Sovereign God. We cannot escape his laws in any part of the boundless universe, including the law that no man of dust can see him and keep on living. God could not break this law even to favor his prophet Moses, through whom he gave the matchless Ten Commandments. When Moses asked God to cause him, a mere man, to see the divine glory, God told Moses: “You are not able to see my face, because no man may see me and yet live.”h That rule has held true regardless of how scientists have tried to discover the secret of life. God is not created matter, as man is. He is spirit, impossible for earthly eyes to see, even aided by the most farseeing telescope or the most powerful, electronic microscope.

11. How must we and can we worship him?

¹¹ Centuries ago Jesus Christ explained it to a Samaritan woman, saying: “God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.”i Despite his invisibility in the spirit realm, human creatures can intelligently worship him with truth and get the unspeakable blessing out of it. One man who worshiped this great unseen One as divine Ruler immortal, exclaimed: “Now to the King of eternity, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.”j Taking this prayerful exclamation seriously, how can we dare to leave him out of mind!

12. Since we have no description of God, how does he help us to understand and appreciate things about himself?

¹² “No man has seen God at any time,” wrote a follower of Jesus Christ nineteen centuries ago.k He was a personal friend of Jesus and leaned on his bosom; yet he had not seen God. Since no man, not even John the son of Zebedee who thus wrote, has seen God, we have no description of what he is like. We cannot imagine what he is like. For us to paint a picture or to sculpture an image to stand for him would mean to fool ourselves and to belittle him and to insult him. It would pull him down in our esteem rather than lift us up in a pretense at worshiping him. It would not be worshiping him with spirit, which is not materialistic like an image; nor worshiping him with truth, which is not imaginary. But this all-glorious, unseeable God helps us to understand and appreciate things about himself by likening them to things that we see and know well. He even speaks about himself as if he had a nose, eyes, a mouth, ears, hands and feet, and a pulsating heart. Thus he may give a vision of himself by the use of symbols. He gave John the son of Zebedee an awe-inspiring vision of himself, that John might describe the vision to us and let us, as it were, into the very presence of God in his “ultimate position” in heaven.

13. How did John see and learn more than all modern-day scientists?

¹³ John saw more and learned more than all the modern-day scientists have learned or could learn by all the satellites or sputniks that they rocket up into outer space, equipped with scientific measuring instruments, radiocasting apparatus and televising sets. John saw farther than into outer space with its visible suns and planets, galaxies and meteors and comets, and its cosmic rays. John was then the last living of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. What he saw was a revelation, made possible not by modern-day scientific instruments but only by the operation of God’s invisible active force or spirit. The book in which John describes this miraculous vision is called The Revelation to John. It is put last in the books of the Holy Scriptures, The Holy Bible. John was then suffering for being a Christian, “for speaking about God and bearing witness to Jesus,” John says. He was being kept as a prisoner on the penal island of Patmos, not far from the coast of Asia Minor, now Asiatic Turkey. (Rev. 1:9) What did John see that is of value and importance to us in this nuclear space age?

(To be continued)

[Footnotes]

Part 2—Relatives of Jesus

CONTINUING the study as to the zealous relatives of Jesus that appeared in the September 15 Watchtower, the chart printed with this article will be of considerable assistance. The chart involves the two theocratically important tribes of Israel, Levi and Judah. To the left of the chart are the genealogies involving the tribe of Levi in relationship to Jesus, and to the right the tribe of Judah. The leading paternal house or most important subdivision of the tribe of Levi was the house of Aaron, from which came all the high and ministering priests of Israel. From the other houses of the Levites came lesser ministers or helpers in the temple organization. Likewise for the tribe of Judah, the most important paternal house was that of the royal house of David, through which the line or dynasty of kings ran.

The chart’s lowest level of names contains the generation contemporary with Jesus. The next level of names above it involves the generation of Jesus’ mother Mary and Joseph, whereas the middle level of names contains the generation of Jesus’ grandfather Heli. The left part of the chart illustrates the relationship of Jesus to John the Baptist, as mentioned in the previous article. Note that Jesus’ mother Mary was of the kingly house of David through her father Heli, who was married to Anna (according to tradition, this being said to be the name of Mary’s mother) a Levitess. Anna’s sister, in turn, married Elizabeth’s father of the house of Aaron. Elizabeth their child was thus born a true daughter of the house of Aaron and when she married Zechariah, also of the house of Aaron, their son John the Baptist was of the priestly house of Aaron both through his father and through his mother. From the chart one will clearly observe that Elizabeth was a first cousin of Mary in their generation. Further, that John the Baptist was a second cousin of Jesus in their succeeding generation.

Following Jesus’ genealogy, the chart indicates Mary was his natural mother, although Jehovah himself continued to be his Father by having arranged the human conception in such a way through the miraculous intervention of the holy spirit as to effect His Son’s transfer from a prehuman heavenly existence to that of becoming born a natural man. This enabled Jesus to be called both the “Son of God” and the “Son of man.” Mary’s father being Heli of the house of David through David’s son Nathan, Jesus received a natural right to the throne of David through Mary. However, as shown in the previous article, since Joseph legally adopted Jesus as his firstborn son, Jesus thereby acquired additionally legal right to the throne, because Joseph’s father Jacob was a direct regal descendant of King David through Solomon and all the reigning kings of Judah.

SALOME, JAMES AND JOHN

This now brings us to another very interesting family that was closely related to Jesus and associated with him in the early spread of Christianity. It is the family of the master fisherman Zebedee of Galilee to which we refer. Zebedee married Salome of the house of David, the natural sister of Mary the mother of Jesus.a They had two sons, James, who generally is mentioned first because he possibly was the older, and John. These two brothers were thus of Davidic descent like Jesus. This relationship made Zebedee and Salome Jesus’ uncle and aunt respectively and their sons James and John the first cousins of Jesus.

Some time following meeting John and Andrew at the Jordan River Jesus called at his uncle Zebedee’s place of fishing business. There in the hearing of their father Jesus gave an official call to both James and John to become full-time “fishers of men” and to abandon their fishing job. Apparently a man of faith, Zebedee raised no objection. (Matt. 4:21, 22) Even Zebedee’s wife, Jesus’ aunt Salome, was permitted to leave his household for long periods of time to be a zealous follower of Jesus in his preaching work, along with the many other women disciples. This relationship helps to explain why on one occasion Salome took courage to ask her nephew Jesus a special favor. Jesus appointed both of his cousins, James and John, as apostles, numbering them among the twelve.—Matt. 10:2; 20:20-23.

This study of Jesus’ relatives aids in understanding another very touching scene that again evidences the depth of Jesus’ love and care. It seems that by the end of Jesus’ public ministry his foster father Joseph had died. This meant that Jesus as the oldest son should make provision for the care of his mother Mary, and that he did. This was the last act he performed while still hanging on the impalement stake before he expired in death. Nearby stood his mother Mary and his aunt Salome, together with other devoted women. Incidentally, John, who records this event, does not mention his mother by name, as in his modesty he gives no prominence to his immediate family. Not even once in his entire gospel account does he mention either his brother James or himself by name. But Mark, who names the women present at the staking, gives John’s mother by name as Salome.—Mark 15:40; 16:1.

Jesus looking down from the stake on his mother, who was pierced through with deep sorrow, and noticing also John the disciple whom he loved, smitten with heavy grief, standing nearby, Jesus said in their hearing: “Woman, see! your son!” Then to John he said: “See! your mother!” What volumes these few words speak as to the three involved at this tragic climax! The Bible says that from that very hour John lovingly took his aunt Mary, Jesus’ mother, into his own home in Jerusalem. This incident indicates a loving tribute paid by Jesus to the woman who unselfishly gave herself to become Jehovah’s “slave girl” from the birth to the death of earth’s greatest man, whom she was privileged to bear. It likewise characterizes Jesus’ minute thoughtfulness. Who better could comfort Mary in her despair than her own fleshly sister Salome, who was in the truth as a zealous follower of Jesus and who undoubtedly resided with her devoted, understanding son, John?—John 19:25-27.

THE ‘OTHER MARY’S’ FAMILY

By tradition, another zealous theocratic family is said to have been near relatives of Jesus, although there is no direct scripture to support this. It is the family of the ‘other Mary,’ a Jehovah-fearing woman who was a close companion of Jesus’ mother Mary and who followed Jesus during most of his earthly ministry. She was present at the impalement of Jesus in company with Mary and Salome. It was she and Mary Magdalene who went to anoint Jesus’ body on Nisan 16, but instead the two were privileged to be the first ones to talk with the glorious resurrected Jesus. (Matt. 27:56, 61; 28:1-10) This eager follower of Jesus, Mary, was the wife of one whose name in Aramaic was Clopas but whose name in Greek was, supposedly, Alphaeus.b—John 19:25; Mark 16:1; Luke 6:15.

The ‘other Mary’ had two sons, James and Joses. (Mark 15:40) If tradition is right in claiming that Clopas was the brother of Joseph the foster father of Jesus, then these two brothers were Jesus’ half cousins. Mary’s son James, also known as “James the Less” to distinguish him from the apostle James, the son of Zebedee, was a very active disciple of Jesus. He had the high privilege of being appointed by Jesus as one of his twelve apostles. (Matt. 10:3) Not only that, but James had a very devoted grown-up son by the name of Judas who likewise was designated as one of the “twelve apostles of the Lamb.” This Judas, his son, was further known as Thaddaeus, or merely as the “son of James” to differentiate him from Judas Iscariot. These possible kinsmen of Jesus were constantly in his company and proved loyal and faithful throughout.—Matt. 10:3; Luke 6:16; John 14:22.

JESUS’ BROTHERS AND SISTERS

That Jesus had half brothers and sisters the Bible clearly states. The fact that Jesus was mentioned as Mary’s firstborn implies that Mary must have had other children. (Luke 2:7) Furthermore, these other children must have been by means of her husband Joseph, because it is recorded that Joseph had relations with her after Jesus was born. (Matt. 1:25) The two scriptures that mention that Jesus had sisters, though they are not individually mentioned by name, indicate that in their home town of Nazareth the whole family of boys and girls were well known. (Matt. 13:56; Mark 6:3) The Bible gives the names of Jesus’ brothers as James, Joseph, Simon and Judas.—Matt. 13:55.

During Jesus’ ministry Mary took her children along with her on several occasions. This enabled her sons to follow the public career of their older brother. (Matt. 12:46; John 2:12) But for some time there was a lack of faith on the part of his half brothers, and this helps to explain why Jesus had appointed none of his immediate family to become any of the twelve apostles, as he had done with his faith-entrenched cousins. However, there is evidence that by the end of Jesus’ ministry his brothers became spiritually awakened. After Jesus’ resurrection and among his ten manifestations thereafter in the flesh, one was specially made to one James, but whether this was to his half brother is not provable.—1 Cor. 15:7.

The facts appear to be clear that on Pentecost day A.D. 33 Jesus’ fleshly brothers as well as his mother were among the 120 who became spirit-begotten, receiving the gift of the holy spirit. (Acts 1:14, 15; 2:1-4) This gave his brothers hope of living and ruling with Christ Jesus in heaven as part of the 144,000 kingdom joint heirs. There is no record that any of them became unfaithful. Of the four remaining brothers, two became prominent in the early congregation. James became the congregation servant of the large Jerusalem congregation. He also served as an outstanding member of the governing body with headquarters in Jerusalem. (Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18) James was also inspired to write the book of the Bible that bears his name. The other prominent brother was Jude, who also was an inspired Bible writer. The book Jude is named after his writership. Neither man ever laid claim to special privileges by reason of having been Jesus’ brothers. Rather, they humbly refer to themselves as ‘slaves of Jesus Christ.’—Jas. 1:1; Jude 1:1.

Truly the first century of the Christian era saw some of the great giants of true faith in action. In Jehovah’s well-developed program he saw fit for his beloved Son to be surrounded by the right kind of zealous associates and shielded with a rich family circle of men and women who were, above all, servants of the Most High God Jehovah.

[Footnotes]

[Chart on page 667]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

RELATIVES OF JESUS

TRIBE OF LEVI SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES

House of Aaron (Priests)

Elizabeth’s Father Luke 1:5

Zechariah Luke 1:5, 8

Elizabeth Luke 1:5, 57

John the Baptist Luke 1:13, 60

Other Houses of Levites Luke 1:36

Elizabeth’s Mother

Anna? (Mary’s Mother)

TRIBE OF JUDAH

House of David (Kings)

Nathan Luke 3:31

Heli Luke 3:23

Solomon Matt. 1:7

Jacob Matt. 1:16

Joseph (Joses) Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3

Simon Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3

Sisters Matt. 13:56; Mark 6:3

Mother of Joseph

?

wife

Other Houses of Judah

[Pictures on page 665]

Zebedee

Salome

James

John

Knowing Job’s Happiness for Endurance

AMONG the faithful men of old who set a good example for Christians today is Job. As James, disciple and half brother of Jesus, observed: “Look! we pronounce happy those who have endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome Jehovah gave, that Jehovah is very tender in affection and compassionate.”—Jas. 5:11.a

Job endured much, as we all well know. And for his endurance he was rewarded. His health and his wife were restored to him. He had other ten children, seven sons and three beautiful daughters, and twice as much materially as before. Truly Jehovah did show himself tender in affection and compassionate toward Job!

All this prophetically foretold, among other things, that the spiritual remnant of Christ’s body would be called upon to suffer much; would be restored to spiritual health, happiness and prosperity, and would be given “children,” the great crowd of “other sheep” now flowing to Jehovah’s holy mountain, there to worship the one true God Jehovah together with the Joblike remnant.—Isa. 2:2-4; John 10:16.

Both the Joblike remnant and other sheep “children” can now know the happiness of Job by manifesting endurance. Whether belonging to the one group or the other, by reason of our dedication to do Jehovah’s will our endurance is under test. This is particularly true as regards our Christian ministry. When brought face to face with severe persecution or with bleak discouragement, because of meager results in our ministry, let us think hard before letting those circumstances influence us to conclude that God is unjust or unloving. Rather, at such times let us contemplate the marvelous creative works of Jehovah, as he invited Job to do, and reassure ourselves that He indeed loves us and knows what is best for us. Nor may we let ourselves be influenced by those close to us but who are not spiritually-minded. Such misguided acquaintances with misdirected persuasiveness can at times prove to be a searching test of our integrity, even as Job’s wife and his three supposed comforters tested his integrity.

By faithfully enduring we will come to know the happiness of Job. We will find Jehovah God very tender in affection and compassionate toward us now, even as he showed himself to be to the Joblike remnant in their testing during World War I. And he will show himself to be the same toward us in the future, preserving us through Armageddon and on into his new world of righteousness.

Jehovah God is wise, just and loving; what he permits is for our best. So let us pursue the integrity-keeping course of endurance like Job and thereby know his happiness for enduring.

[Footnotes]

Divine Will Assembly Attracts World Attention

“BIGGEST Religious Gathering in History Jams Yankee Stadium,” declared the Times in Los Angeles, California, in a report on the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses. But it was no emotional revival, no scene of religious debate, no occasion for the taking up of collections. Rather, as Newsweek magazine correctly observed: “Education in the Bible, the single source of all Witness doctrine, is the principal function of the convention.”

At the assembly, arrangements were made to put at the disposal of newsmen such information as they might need, and it was quickly picked up and used by practically every news outlet in the area, in many languages. When more than 180,000 from 123 lands filled both Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds on the opening day of the assembly, news services flashed the report round the world.

AMAZING ORGANIZATION AND CO-OPERATION

Co-operation and whole-hearted service, which are so rare in the world in general, were evident in refreshing abundance at the Divine Will assembly. Said Life magazine: “Everything ran so smoothly that even blasé New Yorkers were impressed. Two ball parks, Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds, were jammed every day in impressive demonstrations of devotion.”

It is true that New York has seen many religious assemblies, but New York did not feel it had ever seen one like this. The August 11 issue of Time observed: “Even Billy Graham’s Yankee Stadium throng last year—100,000, and 10,000 turned away—was small by comparison. . . . If New Yorkers expected religious hysteria, they had to wait for baseball to come back. Without a hitch, in orderly procession, the Witnesses arrived aboard two chartered ships and 65 chartered planes, scores of special trains and buses, more than 20,000 cars.”

On Wednesday, July 30, 7,136 were immersed to symbolize their dedication to Jehovah God. The obvious sincerity and seriousness of the candidates, as well as the efficient handling of the program, amazed onlookers. The next morning the New York Times remarked: “With a precision that would do justice to the military, 7,136 Jehovah’s Witnesses were baptized by total immersion yesterday in a two-and-a-half-hour ceremony. . . . There were no emotional outbursts, no horseplay in the water. Each Witness gave the impression of a person bent on a serious mission.” And indeed they are, for each one of them has determined to make the worship of Jehovah God the dominant factor in his life.

“OUT OF ALL NATIONS”

In a prophetic foreview of the forward surge of true worship in our day, Revelation 7:9, 15 says: “I saw, and, look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne [of God] and before the Lamb, . . . and they are rendering him sacred service day and night in his temple.” At the Divine Will assembly the world could see gathered many of those of the remnant of Christ’s body members along with a good-sized representation of that diversified “great crowd.” In commenting on the type of people that have become Jehovah’s witnesses, the New York Times Magazine said: “It was the largest gathering of any kind ever held in the city, and it drew attention as never before to this group, which in recent years has been growing more rapidly than any other religious organization. The Witnesses impressed New Yorkers not only with their numbers, but with their diversity (they include people from all walks of life), their racial unself-consciousness (many Witnesses are Negroes) and their quiet, orderly behavior.”

Although many nations of the world are torn with constant outbursts of racial strife, it does not mar the association of true Christians. The Binghamton, New York, Sun told its readers about it: “Orderliness of the vast throng and the fact that it was made up of people of practically every nationality, with Negroes and Asians mingling with whites on equal terms and apparent enjoyment, was another unusual and truly remarkable feature.”

Skin color, language differences and the attitude of the political governments of the world toward one another do not divide Jehovah’s people or color their attitude toward their brothers in other lands. They are neutral as to the political affairs of the old world but are united world-wide in true worship. The New York Amsterdam News wrote about it, saying: “Never before have New Yorkers been host to people more wholly devoted to their faith than Jehovah’s Witnesses. . . . The worshiping Witnesses from 120 lands have lived and worshiped together peacefully showing Americans how easily it can be done. . . . The Assembly is a shining example of how people can work and live together.”

Such a significant demonstration of international unity attracted the attention of this strife-weary world, and it was picked up by the newspapers, radio, television and newsreels and transmitted around the world, to Europe and Asia, Africa, Latin America and the islands of the sea.

And now the Divine Will assembly is taking on further international force as the main portions of the program are being presented in conventions in many other lands. Already in the latter part of August and early September such assemblies have been held at Okinawa, with 112 in attendance; in Japan, with 881; in Fiji, with 253 present; in Frankfurt, Germany, 23,473; at Hamburg, 30,061; at Belize, British Honduras, there were 420; Denmark, 13,299; Switzerland, 5,330; Netherlands, 15,785; Finland, 698; and in the British Isles at Manchester, England, there were 9,287; 4,374 at Falkirk, Scotland, and more assemblies are to come. Another 3,253 were immersed at these assemblies, and all the assembled crowds wholeheartedly endorsed the Resolution in support of Jehovah God and his kingdom as the only hope for mankind and decrying the failure of the religious clergy to direct the attention of the people to this God-given hope. That Resolution is contained in full in the forepart of this issue of The Watchtower.

COMMENTS OF THE CLERGY

Following the adoption of the Resolution at the international assembly in New York city, newspaper headlines proclaimed: “Witnesses Find Clergy Guilty,” and “Christian Leaders Termed Delinquent.” Within the next few days, however, the headlines might well have read: ‘Clergy Find Themselves Guilty.’ In a letter to the editor of the Rochester, New York, Democrat Chronicle, a Methodist minister commented: “It points out once again that we, of the so-called ‘sophisticated, refined, theologically correct churches,’ could do well to simply assimilate some of the simple, sincere approaches that are these groups. . . . While ‘we’ busy ourselves with church bazaars, barbecues . . . [they] are busy carrying discipleship and personal witness into the homes and the hearts of any who would listen . . . they have launched out on a bold world-wide campaign that would remind one of the early first century disciples.”

And an editorial in The Catholic Light said: “I would venture to guess that ten years from now, the meeting of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York City will prove to have had more permanent significance than the UN meeting. . . . I say they present a challenge to us Catholics. Why? Because they are taking certain features of true religion and practicing them to the hilt while we Catholics are neglecting these features of our religion. Take for instance their missionary zeal.” True religion, practiced in the way that Christ Jesus did, stands out in contrast to the easy-going way of worldly religion, and such true religion attracts honest persons.

“CITY’S BEST GUESTS”

Application of the principles of the Bible to one’s life makes a big difference; the world saw that difference in the deportment of assembly delegates. On August 1 the New York Times wrote: “Witnesses Styled City’s Best Guests. 180,000 at World Assembly win praise for courtesy, quietude and neatness. . . . Royal Ryan, executive vice president of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau, called the Witnesses ‘an asset to the community.’ He described their behavior as ‘out of this world.’”

Many of the public shared those sentiments. One of them wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Herald Tribune to this effect: “Seeing the Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of their families taking in the sights of the city gives one a good feeling. They are clean looking, have good manners and show respect for people of all ages. They are sociable in such a nice way that it makes you feel ashamed of the ill-mannered natives of this dirty and cold city of ours.” And not only did New Yorkers enjoy having Jehovah’s witnesses, but Jehovah’s witnesses deeply appreciated the hospitality showed by New Yorkers.

When the assembly closed on August 3 the thousands of delegates began their journey home to the 123 lands from which they had come, now better equipped for their Christian ministry. Many were sorry to see them go. The New York Daily News said: “Jehovah’s Witnesses—day before yesterday wound up the biggest convention ever yet held in New York City; and we’d like to congratulate them on the orderly way in which they handled the whole affair. . . . we hope the Witnesses will convene here again, soon.”

In Allentown, Pennsylvania, the Morning Call warmly commented: “They may not have made many conversions but they made a lot of friends and even more admirers and their organization must have received strengthening in all its members. For all there can be the satisfaction that their hosts will welcome their return at any time and in even larger numbers than those which swarmed upon New York, left their blessings and departed with the certain knowledge that many of the millions of the city’s population had been benefited spiritually by their stay.”

Jehovah’s witnesses appreciate the generally friendly and fair comments of the press on their assembly. They do not seek to attract attention to themselves, but they are eager to fulfill their God-given commission to preach the good news of the established Kingdom “in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness.” (Matt. 24:14) They know that many of those who hear of the Divine Will assembly will want to learn more about it, and may start on the way to life in God’s new world.

Questions From Readers

● By what means were the waters of the Red Sea held back when the Israelites marched through? Does Exodus 15:8, which says “the surging waters were congealed in the heart of the sea,” indicate that they were frozen?—J.H., U.S.A.

We do not know just how Jehovah kept the waters of the Red Sea standing like walls to the right and the left of the Israelites as they marched through. It was a miracle performed by God.

The verse in question, at Exodus 15:8, reads: “And by a breath from your nostrils waters were heaped up; they stood still like a dam of floods; the surging waters were congealed in the heart of the sea.” The same expression, “congealed,” is used in the American Standard Version, the Authorized Version, and translations by J. N. Darby, I. Leeser, R. Knox, and J. Rotherham.

The word “congeal,” as defined in Webster’s New International Dictionary, means “to change from a fluid to a solid by cold; to freeze”; “to make viscid or like jelly; to curdle; coagulate.” The Hebrew word here translated “congeal” means to shrink or thicken as with curdled milk or frozen water, or to congeal. At Job 10:10 the expression is used in regard to curdling cheese. Therefore, it does not of necessity mean that the walls of water were frozen solid, although Jehovah could do such a thing. The consistency of the congealed substance could be like jello or curds. Nothing visible was holding back the waters of the Red Sea on each side of the Israelites, so they had the appearance of being congealed, stiffened, curdled or thickened so as to remain standing like walls on each side and not collapsing in an inundation upon the Israelites to their destruction.

Had the wind been a blast cold enough to freeze the waters, the account no doubt would have made reference to the extreme cold. And such cold might well have resulted in a frozen sea bottom that would be precarious for travel. But Exodus 14:21 says that “Jehovah began making the sea go back by a strong east wind all night long and converting the sea basin into dry ground.” And Isaiah 51:10 similarly states: “Are you not the one that dried up the sea, the waters of the vast deep?”

Moses described the appearance of things to him. He was aware of the strong east wind and he could see the walls of apparently congealed water. The event, however, was a miracle from God, and Moses did not attempt to explain the mechanics by which the water was held up, nor will we.

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

Throughout November Jehovah’s witnesses will offer in their ministry a most helpful Bible-study book on a contribution of 50 cents. Return calls will be made on all interested persons and home Bible studies started wherever possible. For additional information as to how you can share in the ministry go to the nearby Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s witnesses or write this office.

FROM PARADISE LOST TO PARADISE REGAINED

New in every respect, From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained is a book for young and old. It is not just a story of the Bible, yet it will acquaint you with the people of the Bible and explain in simple language what the Bible tells us about God and his blessing for those who please him. Beautifully illustrated; hard bound, gold-embossed coral cover; size: 9 1/4” x 7” x 5/8”; 256 pages; complete scripture index. Postpaid, 75c.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

November 30: Why the Divine Will International Assembly Resolved, ¶1-4, and Why This Assembly Should Resolve, ¶5-21. Page 644.

December 7: Why This Assembly Should Resolve, ¶22-42. Page 649.

December 14: Resolution, ¶1-27. Page 654.