The Watchtower — November 15, 1958

“Give Us More Faith”

FAITH is an essential ingredient in human living. It is necessary in almost everything a person does. You would not ride in a car, a train, a ship or a plane if you did not have faith in these vehicles. You trust them. You have confidence that they will take you safely to where you want to go. The same trust or faith is shown when you walk into a building. You have faith in the strength of the structure, trusting that it will not collapse upon you. Living would become a nightmare of fear if a person did not have such faith. It is nonsense, therefore, when anyone claims that he is without faith. He cannot live without it.

It is just as essential for a man to have faith in his Creator. Unless he can have faith in the Supreme Being his life is empty and without purpose. He needs to trust in a Power that is superior to him. His eternal welfare hinges upon this trust. It is written that “without faith it is impossible to win his good pleasure, for he that approaches God must believe that he is and that he becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.” (Heb. 11:6) Jehovah’s good pleasure is worth seeking because it means security, peace, contentment and eternal life.

It is difficult to have faith in God or even in other people while living in a world that is corrupt, a world in which deceit and dishonesty predominate, a world that is without faith in the Creator. Its bad influence can ruin a person’s faith.

Having faith in God means to trust him. But this is not possible unless a person learns about him and about his dealings with mankind in times past. He must also learn about Jehovah God’s just laws, right principles and wonderful purposes. He must learn that God has never failed to fulfill a promise, that he has never lied and that he has never acted unjustly. With such knowledge a person will not find it difficult to exercise faith in that supreme One even though he lives in a faith-destroying world.

There is ample evidence testifying to God’s existence, just as his own Word states: “For his invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are understood by the things made.” (Rom. 1:20) This evidence can help build your faith if you are willing to recognize it.

The apostles of Christ saw the need for a strong faith in God and in his promises, so much so that they said to Christ: “Give us more faith.” (Luke 17:5) They knew that Christ could give them the knowledge that would build up and strengthen their faith.

Christians today live in the same hostile world as did the apostles, and they have the same need for more faith. It is a world that has no interest in obedience to the laws of God. It is unsympathetic toward those who want to obey and serve him. It is indifferent to his kingdom and to his purposes for having the earth ruled in justice and righteousness. It abounds with people who do not make even a pretense of having faith in him. Such surroundings can shatter a weak faith or make it extremely difficult to build up an initial faith in God. That is why Christians today must ask for more faith, just as the apostles did.

It is by means of God’s written Word that a person can gain the knowledge needed for building a strong faith. But if no effort is made to take in that knowledge, how can a person expect his prayer for more faith to be answered?

The gift of life is not given to anyone who tires out and who ceases to trust God and to have confidence in his promises. It is given only to those who endure the test of their faith. Regarding this the apostle Peter said: “In this fact you are greatly rejoicing, though for a little while at present, if it must be, you have been grieved by various trials, in order that the tested quality of your faith, of much greater value than gold that perishes despite its being proved by fire, may be found a cause for praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”—1 Pet. 1:6, 7.

Faith can be likened to the shield of a warrior of ancient times that protected him from enemy darts, arrows and sword thrusts. Like that shield, faith protects the Christian from the continual shower of lies with which Satan bombards him. It protects him from the folly of human philosophies and theories, as well as the corrupting influence of false religion. It is described as a protective shield at Ephesians 6:10, 16: “Finally, go on acquiring power in the Lord and in the mightiness of his strength. Above all things, take up the large shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the wicked one’s burning missiles.”

We can believe what God tells us in the Bible about the things we cannot see because all that he has said about the things we can see have proved true. Here, then, is a test of our faith. Are we willing to trust him in all that he says even though it contradicts the philosophies and theories of this world? This absolute trust in God’s written Word and in his integrity is what a person must seek to build up and to strengthen constantly. It is a protective shield that will preserve his life.

Regarding those people of ancient times who endured many hardships and frightful experiences because they trusted God while living in a world that did not, the Bible says: “They had witness borne to them through their faith.” (Heb. 11:39) Their faith brought God’s approval and that will mean for them a resurrection to eternal life.

Of all the things in which general faith plays a part in human living faith in God is, without doubt, the most important. We must trust him implicitly. Our happiness, security and life itself depend upon it. It is, therefore, with good reason that we today should repeat the request made by the apostles: “Give us more faith.”

Your Prayers Tell on You

What do your prayers reveal about yourself? Why is listening an important part of prayer? And how should one pray to be heard?

WHEN you pray to God in his appointed way, he listens. But after praying, day after day, week after week, what sort of person do your prayers reveal you to be?

In your prayers do you show yourself a grateful, considerate, conscientious Christian? Does God see in your prayers a lover of righteousness, one anxious for the vindication of his name and purpose? What sort of impression do you leave by what you say in your prayers?

Do your prayers show you to be a happy servant, thankful for life, appreciative of his Word, one desirous of seeing the organization of Jehovah grow to where it will fill the whole earth with justice and righteousness? Just what kind of person do you show yourself to be in your prayers to God? Your prayers do mirror what you really are. They tell on you.

By listening to your prayers God knows exactly what you are thinking about, what concerns you most, where your interests lie, and what your desires and regrets are. He becomes acquainted with the real you. He knows how you feel about your brothers in the ministry and about people in general. He knows whether you are compassionate toward those suffering for righteousness’ sake. He is aware of your thoughts toward the least and the greatest, toward the rich and the poor. He knows how you feel about those persons of good will who are reaching out for truth and life. He can see by what you say whether you are conscious of your spiritual needs.

By your prayers and the very manner in which you pray Jehovah knows whether you keenly desire the things you ask for, or if what you say is a mere recital of words.

Your prayers reveal how much you rely upon God, because daily the servant of Jehovah is confronted with difficult tasks. Many spiritual walls need to be reinforced, others need to be rebuilt completely—walls of faith, hope and courage that have crumbled down or that have been made weak. Prayer to Jehovah will help you to rebuild these walls in yourself and in others. Your prayer to Jehovah shows that you recognize him as a strong tower, a tower of strength in the time of need. Prayer is a demonstration of your faith. It says you believe.—Ps. 61:3; Prov. 18:10.

LISTENING IS A PART OF PRAYER

Prayer is not all talking. Listening, too, is a part of prayer. If you were to appear before an earthly king, would you do nothing but talk? Would you not listen to what he had to say? Certainly you would. Then when you kneel before Jehovah, the King of Eternity, listen. And when you speak make sure your words show proper respect, that they are gracious and kind. Your words then will speak well of you.—Jer. 10:10, AV, margin.

Your decorum in prayer will also tell on you. If you yawn in prayer or rush through a few repetitive words, will this speak well of you? Would you behave that way when standing before an earthly king? Then do not conduct yourself that way before Jehovah the Sovereign of the universe. Your conduct shows whether you respect the dignity and honor of his high office and whether you understand and appreciate your privilege to address him in prayer. Observing your conduct in prayer will make you more aware of the blessing bestowed upon you through this privilege of prayer. Then not only your prayers but your conduct will speak well of you.

Listening to God is also an essential part of prayer. How does one do this? One listens to God by letting the words of the Bible pass through his mind and heart. The Bible is the inspired Word of God put into the language of men. So by listening to the Holy Scriptures the words of the prophets, the thoughts of the apostles and the wisdom of Jesus Christ all flow through the mind, refreshing it and building it up. In this way one can spend all night in prayer with God and hardly say a word. When you listen you learn. When we listen to the words of the Scriptures we show ourselves learners of God.—2 Tim. 3:16, 17.

If in our private prayers we rush or we just offer up short prayers time after time, does not this tell on us? We do not rush away from those we love, do we? As for our short prayers, do they not show the extent of our concern for the household of God, what we think of our ministry and the work entrusted to us? Those who keenly sense their privileges and responsibilities know the need of spending much time with Jehovah in prayer. They realize prayer makes better men, that it improves the heart attitude and mental appreciation for life. Prayer matures one to salvation.

When praying there must be calmness, there must be time and deliberation. Do not rush your prayers, or memorize them, because by so doing you degrade the privilege of prayer into a worthless thing. If more time were spent in prayer by individuals and families, it would work wonders to invigorate their spirituality. Individuals would find themselves happier. Families would experience group prayer a unifying force. Prayer aids to overcome differences. It promotes friendship and peace. It seems to cause people to forget their jealousies and envies. When members of a family pray earnestly together, seldom do you find them fighting each other. James admonishes us to “pray for one another,” and Paul tells Christians to “persevere in prayer.”—Jas. 5:16; Rom. 12:12.

PRAYER FOR OTHERS

When we pray to God we do a good thing, but when we pray to God in behalf of our brothers we do something far better. We show ourselves loving, concerned and mature. When we pray for others we give proof to God of our interest in the lives of men, we show an active concern about them. Our prayers for God’s household show that we are interested in the congregation, its activity and welfare.

Since prayer is an energizing force, it will transform our disposition toward those for whom we pray. It is quite impossible to petition God to show love toward someone we do not particularly like and still continue bitter toward this one. If we keep on praying, all animosity will pass away and we will find ourselves liking this person instead of disliking him. Being loving toward your brothers speaks well of you.—1 John 4:20, 21.

Too often we do not pray fervently enough for our brothers. It may be because we do not know them personally or that we are too preoccupied with our own pursuits and pleasures. Perhaps it is that we are lacking in affection, in our love for them. If we love enough we will remember them in our prayers. Praying for others should be as natural as praying for ourselves.

When we pray for others we become more charitable and patient toward them. We find ourselves becoming friendlier and happier because of it. When we know others are praying for us, it gives us courage and power. The apostles encouraged the brothers to pray for them. “Carry on prayer for us,” said Paul. “And Jehovah himself turned back the captive condition of Job when he prayed in behalf of his companions.” Jesus instructed his followers even “to pray for those persecuting you; that you may prove yourselves sons of your Father who is in the heavens.” Praying for others is Christlike; it is a loving practice.—2 Thess. 3:1; Job 42:7-10; Matt. 5:44, 45.

Our praying for others is not done in self-righteousness. Our prayers for them are prompted by God’s mercy and kindness toward us. We show by our petitions that we want all men to come to an accurate knowledge of the truth and be saved. We, like God, want none to die. Prayer for others uproots bitterness and malicious thinking from our own minds, making room for upbuilding thoughts to flourish. Praying for others inspires harmony, creates unity and co-operation.—2 Cor. 9:14.

If we pray for all the brothers, that means we will come to love brothers we find difficult to like right now. Our loving them does not mean just putting up with them, or being kind and polite to them. It means loving them the way Christ loved us. Jesus’ love knew no bounds, nor must ours. His love saw the need of giving his all; so must ours. Jesus said: “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have [this] love among yourselves.” Your prayers reveal whether you love this way or not.—John 13:34, 35.

PRAY THAT YOU BE HONEST

When you pray to God that he make grow in you the love of righteousness, goodness, kindness, honesty and the other fruits of the spirit, do you really mean it? Most of us are aware that there is a certain amount of deceit in our nature. How often do we say and do things we do not mean? We often compliment when inwardly we condemn. So are we honest when we say we want to be honest, which means being honest in everything and to everybody? Honesty in business may cost us sales. Honest expression may mean loss of favor, promotion, or even a job. Do you still want to be honest? If you want to be honest regardless of the cost, then pray for it. Work for it. Do not pray for things that you do not honestly want. Be sincere in your prayers. Be honest and your prayers will speak well of you.

Honesty cleanses the inner man. It builds integrity and uprightness. It braces up the mind for Christian activity. Honesty inspires trust and harmony. Christian love and faith are enhanced. Where there is an exchange of honest opinions there will be freedom of thought and expression. Everyone is benefited in the atmosphere of honesty. Jehovah says: “The prayer of the upright ones is a pleasure to him.”—Prov. 15:8.

Many prayers go unanswered because they are asked amiss. Some are said in doubt and without conviction. They are not really honest prayers. James says: “Let not that man [a doubter] suppose that he will receive anything from Jehovah; he is an indecisive man, unsteady in all his ways.” We must believe that Jehovah provides. He gives us what we need, not necessarily what we want. David prayed for a pure heart and a new and steadfast spirit. And his prayer was answered. We may pray for the same thing, but that may not be what we need or want. Some pray, “God make me pure—but not yet.” Others say, “God make me rich and kind and good,” but all week long their actions show their prayer to be a mere recital of words.—Jas. 1:7, 8.

Since Christianity is not the way to worldly fame and fortune, true prayer does not include such things. Instead, a Christian prays that he will not fall victim to materialism. His desire is not to pamper the flesh or please the eye, but to give of himself and what he has. Doubtless more prayers would be answered if people, besides asking all the time, would also sacrifice. Your willing sacrifices speak well of you.

PRAYER NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EFFORT

Prayer is not the only thing there is to the worship of God. People spend countless hours praying for God to give them things and to take them to heaven, but they may never put their lives in order. These people must learn that how we live is as important as the repeating of daily prayers. One decent act of justice toward one’s brother is worth more than a thousand prayers hailing God as the Source of justice. If we would pray right we must also live right.

We must educate ourselves to the fact that true prayer is not a substitute for intelligent effort. Some people resort to prayer principally as a means of getting things from God when other means have failed. Others pray only when there is a crisis. Such prayers are very selfish and they are something detestable to Jehovah, who answers proper prayer. Do we expect God to perform a miracle for our benefit every time we pray? Unfortunately some people do. Jehovah’s guidance is a supplement to, not a substitute for, our own thinking and working. As an earthly father expects his son to display a little initiative, using his mind to search out and to make wise decisions for himself and come to him with only the most difficult problems for guidance, so, too, our heavenly Father desires the same of us. Jehovah has given us his Word, the Bible. He expects us to use it wisely to his praise and to come to him for guidance in understanding and using it or wishing to express thanks to him. If we do so, our prayers will be a pleasure to him.

If we are sincere in our prayers, we will endure much to see that they are fulfilled. First, we will pray, then we will work hard toward the accomplishment of our prayer in faith. When Jehovah sees that we are not to be turned aside by hard work, sweat, blood and tears, our prayer will be answered if it is in accord with his will.

Now, then, when you pray be aware that you are painting a vivid picture of yourself before God. Show respect in your conduct, pray with sincerity and conviction. Be honest. Be assured that true prayer never goes unanswered. Above all, be humble and appreciative of the privilege of prayer. Your prayers will not lie. They will tell the truth about you.

Part 2—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

We continue, serially, in the book “Your Will Be Done on Earth” and Chapter 1 entitled “Whose Will?” Here we begin with paragraph 14 under the subheading “A Symbolic Vision of Him.” The vision is of God, who gave John the son of Zebedee the series of visions known as The Revelation or The Apocalypse, which is the last book of The Holy Bible. The Revelation was transmitted to John by the Lord Jesus Christ, who sent an angel to show by means of signs things to come.

14. Into what was John invited, and by following him where do we get and what may we see?

¹⁴ From the glorified Jesus Christ in heaven John had just received seven messages for seven Christian congregations in Asia Minor. “After these things I saw, and, look! an opened door in heaven, and the first voice that I heard was as of a trumpet, speaking with me, saying: ‘Come on up here, and I shall show you the things which must take place.’” (Rev. 4:1) By following John through this opened door that led beyond outer space where man-made moons orbit around the earth, we enter as if into the presence of the supreme, almighty Sovereign God. Knowing that no man can see God’s face and keep living, we do not expect to see his shape or any of his features. We could not endure the actual sight of him any more than we could endure a hydrogen bomb explosion close up. What we do see through John’s vision is glorious, brilliant, dazzling. We are also shown things that must take place in universal history.

15. Under what force did John come, and whose throne did he see?

¹⁵ As soon as John answered the invitation to come up through the opened door in heaven he came under the operation of God’s active force or spirit, to see what we humans cannot normally see. “And, look! a throne was in its position in heaven, and there is one seated upon the throne.” (Re 4:1) The position of this throne is the ultimate for superiority. It is the throne of the Most High, who dominates all creation seen and unseen, upon whom all creation depends for existence and for universal orderliness. It is the throne of the King of eternity, a perpetual King higher than all emperors, kings, dictators and rulers of the earth, who perish.

16. What was the enthroned One like in appearance, and what do these things call to our attention?

¹⁶ What is he like? Like a man in figure, in shape? No! “And the one seated is, in appearance, like a jasper stone and a precious red-colored stone, and round about the throne there is a rainbow like an emerald in appearance.” (Re 4:3) He is like highly polished gems, precious, glowing, beautiful, that attract the eye and win delighted admiration. There is nothing horrifying about him, nothing fiendish that would even suggest that he would torture his earthly creatures, human souls, forever and ever in conscious torment in a fiery hell. He is lovely in appearance and pleasant to look at, causing one to lose oneself in wonderment. About his throne there is further glory, the appearance of calmness, serenity. The appearance of a perfect rainbow of emerald indicates that, reminding one of the enjoyable, quieting calm that follows a storm. It reminds one of the first rainbow that God put into the sky after the global flood to serve as a heavenly sign to Noah and to all of us his descendants, to signify that never again would there be a global deluge. That was when God said: “No more will the waters become a deluge to bring all flesh to ruin. And the rainbow must occur in the cloud and I shall certainly see it to remember the covenant of eternity between God and every living soul among all flesh that is upon the earth.” (Gen. 9:12-16) Human scientists who want to control the weather on earth from an “ultimate position” in outer space will never be able to destroy God’s covenant symbolized by the rainbow.

17. With whom was God seen to surround himself, and why did these not picture the “apostles of the Lamb”?

¹⁷ Before God began creating he was all alone in space, from time without beginning. But whom of his creatures did God choose to call into his presence? With whom does he surround himself? In the close-up vision John tells us: “And round about the throne were four and twenty thrones: and upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, arrayed in white garments; and on their heads crowns of gold.” (Rev. 4:4, AS) Who are these “elders,” these twenty-four persons of advanced age, enthroned around God’s own throne? John knew of “elders” in the Jewish community, in the congregation of ancient Israel. Fifteen centuries before John, when the prophet Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, Moses had associated with him seventy of the older men or “elders” of the nation of Israel. (Ex. 24:1, 9, AS) John, however, was an “elder” or older man of the Christian congregation. He was a special “elder,” because he was one of the “twelve apostles of the Lamb [Jesus Christ],” who served as twelve foundations for the Christian congregation, like twelve foundation stones of the walls of the new Holy City. (Rev. 21:14) But those crowned and enthroned “elders” whom John saw sitting around God’s throne could not picture the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, for they were twenty-four in number, or twice the number of the twelve apostles.

18. Whom do the twenty-four “elders” represent?

¹⁸ In the congregation of ancient Israel “elders” were representatives of the entire congregation of Israelites. Likewise since John’s day the Christian “elders” have stood for the entire congregation of Christians or spiritual Israelites. According to this rule, the twenty-four “elders” seated on thrones about God picture the entire congregation of Christians who prove faithful till death and who are rewarded with a resurrection out of death to life in heaven and to a throne in the heavenly kingdom of God.a

19. How great in number does this congregation finally become, and what promises has Jesus Christ given them?

¹⁹ This congregation of faithful Christians who win the heavenly reward finally becomes 144,000 in number, or six thousand times twenty-four. John himself is used to give us this final number of them, in Revelation 7:1-8; 14:1-5. John was used to pass on to them these messages from the glorified Jesus Christ in heaven: “Prove yourself faithful even with the danger of death [or, faithful till death], and I will give you the crown of life.” “He that conquers will thus be arrayed in white outer garments, and I will by no means blot out his name from the book of life, but I will make acknowledgment of his name before my Father and before his angels.” “To the one that conquers I will grant to sit down with me in my throne, even as I conquered and sat down with my Father in his throne.” (Rev. 2:10; 3:5, 21) What these twenty-four “elders” say and do in this vision to John further proves that they symbolize the 144,000 who make up the final congregation.

20. Are they “elders” in years toward all creation, and what has paved the way to their being enthroned as persons of advanced age?

²⁰ It was only nineteen hundred years ago that the Christian congregation was begun, on earth. As regards the presence of any members of it in heaven, their presence in heaven could date only from after the setting up of God’s kingdom, for which faithful Christians have prayed during all these centuries. Despite these facts, God views the members of the congregation as “elders” or persons of advanced age in comparison with all others of his intelligent creation in heaven and on earth. It is clear, therefore, that it is not the years of actual life of the members of the congregation but their advancement in knowledge, in official training and in loyal godly devotion that has paved the way to their being clothed in white, crowned and enthroned as “elders” around God’s throne.

21. How have they been chosen to be “elders” in God’s presence?

²¹ How have they been chosen to be “elders” in God’s own presence? Certainly this has been by no democratic election carried on by any nation or people on earth, in the east or in the west. It has been by God himself, for God does not see the way any man or nation sees, but by his own standards God chooses who is to be given a seat within his immediate circle. So these symbolic “elders” are chosen theocratically, from the supreme place of authority above, and not from the people below on earth.

22. Does God therefore have a Senate, and as what do the twenty-four “elders” have the honor of serving?

²² Since God surrounds himself with a circle of twenty-four symbolic elders, does this mean he has what might be called a Senate, an intimate Council of heavenly officers with whom he goes into consultation and takes counsel, asking their advice and acting according to the majority opinion or vote? No; for he is all-wise. He needs no counsel from any of his creatures. The prophet Isaiah rightly asked concerning this great Creator: “Who has taken the proportions of the spirit of Jehovah, and who as his man of counsel can make him know anything? With whom did he consult together that one might make him understand, or who teaches him in the path of justice, or teaches him knowledge, or makes him know the very way of real understanding? Look! The nations are as a drop from a bucket, and as the film of dust on the scales they have been accounted.” (Isa. 40:13-15) The Christian congregation represented by the twenty-four “elders” have therefore only the honor of serving as foremost heavenly officials of the Ancient of Days, the Creator.

23. According to the things before God and the “elders,” what kind of interior was suggested to John?

²³ In the vision to John, God and his twenty-four “elders” sat enthroned in a setting like the interior of the temple of worship in the ancient city of Jerusalem. From the description that is written down in the Bible, John knew that there were ten golden lampstands in the holy chamber of the temple that King Solomon had built a thousand years before. Five lampstands were to the right and five to the left before the innermost room or Most Holy. In the courtyard of the temple there was also a great copper basin of water, so large that it was called a sea. (1 Ki. 7:23-26, 44, 49) With water from it the priests washed their hands or the sacrifices.

24. How did God’s sitting enthroned here differ from what was true of King Solomon’s temple of long ago?

²⁴ Relative to God’s throne John says: “And out of the throne there are lightnings and voices and thunders proceeding; and there are seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, and these mean the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there is, as it were, a glassy sea like crystal.” (Re 4:5, 6) In King Solomon’s temple of long ago God did not sit enthroned in its Most Holy, but there was a miraculous light that hovered above the sacred golden chest or ark that contained the two stone tablets upon which the finger of God had written the Ten Commandments. However, in the vision to John, God is seen as if seated enthroned in his heavenly temple.

25. As pictured by what John saw and heard, what things go forth from God’s throne?

²⁵ The flashes of lightning from his throne aptly reminded John that “God is light.” At earth’s creation He was the One that said: “Let light come to be.” (1 John 1:5; Gen. 1:3) From his power go forth not only the actual lightnings but also all the flashes of enlightenment, of knowledge, of understanding and of wisdom to his creatures in heaven and on earth. From the One sitting upon the divine throne the power of voice comes, also the sound waves produced by the organs of speech, and especially divine messages that are carried by the voice. Sometimes the divine messages thunder in their impressiveness and in pronouncing judgment upon his enemies. “The glorious God himself has thundered.” (Ps. 29:3) His prophecies of things to come have foretold of his coming to his great spiritual temple for the purpose of judging men.—Mal. 3:1.

26. What is meant by the “seven lamps of fire,” and why should lighted lamps be before him?

²⁶ God’s spirit or active force is invisible to human eyes, but it can cause creations to move and to work. It can produce results that our feeble eyes can see and that our other senses can perceive. By his spirit or active force God can cause enlightenment, revealing things that no ordinary human mind could think up or understand, through light shed on long-hidden sacred secrets. His spirit is like “seven lamps of fire” burning before God in his heavenly temple, not to give him light but to make things light for those who come into his presence. Those seven lamps of fire, John says, “mean the seven spirits of God.” Not that seven spirit persons are meant by these seven spirits, but that the spirit or active force of God is to be looked upon in a sevenfold way. Seven being the Bible number that stands for spiritual completeness or perfection, the seven spirits denote the complete fullness of God’s spirit. The fully needed amount of his spirit or active force he uses for enlightening those who serve him in his spiritual temple. In their turn, these enlightened ones reflect the spiritual light to other creatures to bring them a knowledge of God’s truth.

27. Upon what did those seven lamps shine, and what did this fact picture?

²⁷ Those seven symbolic lamps of fire must have shed their light upon the “glassy sea like crystal,” at which priests could wash. So, too, the sevenfold spirit of God works only through an organization or group of creatures that is clean in his eyes. His spirit operates through a cleansed organization and helps the members to keep the organization and its offerings to God clean. Remember that the great “sea” of King Solomon’s temple could hold about 19,600 gallons of water and was “for the priests to wash in it.” (2 Chron. 4:2-6) Like clean water, God’s truth is cleansing and purifying in its power. Those who are admitted into God’s presence, like the twenty-four elders, need such water of truth, in order to carry out their priestly duties acceptably to God and for the good of all men of good will. True to this picture, the congregation of 144,000 faithful followers of Jesus Christ are spoken of as receiving from him a cleansing “with the bath of water by means of the word, that he might present the congregation to himself in its splendor, not having a spot or a wrinkle or any of such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:25-27) God believes in religious cleanness. He has near him what is clean.

(To be continued)

[Footnotes]

Signs and Wonders in the Time of the End

This is the keynote speech of the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, as delivered by the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania to an audience of 151,003 that packed out Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds of New York city that summer afternoon of Monday, July 28, 1958.

“Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are as signs and as wonders in Israel from Jehovah of armies, who is residing in Mount Zion.”—Isa. 8:18.

1, 2. (a) Why was the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1958 a sign and a wonder? (b) Of what was the international conference in San Francisco in 1945 a sign, but why did the 1958 gathering in New York city convene?

WHAT does it mean when more than 145,000 persons from all quarters of the globe daily come together for eight days and overflow two giant stadiums of New York city, not far from the capital of the United Nations, culminating in a public audience of 253,922 on the final day? Of what is this a sign in this day of world tension? That it is a wonder is certain, for here, in the midst of a world strained with international difficulties, representatives from 123 nations, territories and islands come together with a peaceful aim and mingle as members of one human family despite differences of race, color, language, national citizenship and native culture.

² Thirteen years ago, on the opposite side of the continent, in San Francisco, California, there were met together in discussion and activity 10,000 men and women representing fifty political states, of which thirteen were European, fifteen were Asiatic, Pacific and African and twenty-two were American. That San Francisco conference was a sign of international planning and was a wonder portending the establishment of the organization known as the United Nations; for the conference finished its work on June 26, 1945, with the signing of the United Nations Charter by representatives of fifty nations. But in July and August of 1958 this far grander gathering of representatives from many more nations serves as a sign and a wonder of higher importance to all mankind. This gathering convenes to consider and serve, not the will of humankind, but the will of the Supreme One of the universe. The gathering is called the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

3. Seriously, whose eyes were upon that assembly, and why?

³ Because of the publicity attached to it, the eyes of all the earth are on this assembly, for people from all parts of the earth are here. Still to be viewed far more seriously is the fact that the eyes of the Most High God of the heavens are upon this international assembly. This assembly meets when this Bible scripture is true: “The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, keeping watch upon the bad ones and the good ones.” “Jehovah is in his holy temple. Jehovah—in the heavens is his throne. His own eyes behold, his own beaming eyes examine the sons of men. Jehovah himself examines the righteous one as well as the wicked one.” (Prov. 15:3; Ps. 11:4, 5) To him the nations, including the United Nations, are as a “drop from a bucket.”—Isa. 40:15.

4. Why was what any reporters, critics or historians had to say about that assembly not anything to fear, and why could no nation or people do well to ignore that assembly?

⁴ What the political analysts or newspaper reporters and editors or religious critics of Christendom or secular historians may yet say of this Divine Will International Assembly does not concern us as being something to fear. It is not before mankind in general nor before the many nations here represented nor before the United Nations, whose capital is nearby, but before Jehovah God the Supreme Judge that this gathering must stand condemned or approved. Why? Because it is with the divine will as our theme that we 151,003 have assembled. If we concentrate on furthering the divine will throughout God’s green earth, this assembly will serve as a sign and a wonder from him, something that no nation or people on earth does well to ignore.

5. Why is this the most remarkable day of signs and wonders in all man’s history?

⁵ This is the most remarkable day of signs and wonders in all the history of mankind. We mean visible signs and wonders from the invisible God of the heavens, for all men to observe. His signs and wonders, understood, portend that we are standing at the threshold of a peaceable, happy and life-giving new world. This is the grandest of news, although it means that we are living at the end of this worry-filled, problem-racked, insane, loveless old world. We want the new. We are eager to leave the old.

6. How are men of today not different from what men of the Middle East were during Jesus’ presence on earth nineteen centuries ago?

⁶ Men of Christendom and Jewry have ideas of their own as regards the signs and wonders that God ought to provide if they are going to believe. Today such men are not different from what men of the Middle East were nineteen centuries ago. A man who gave evidence of being God’s only-begotten Son was there. His name was Jesus Christ, of the family line of King David of Jerusalem. The two Jewish religious sects, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, were doubters of who he actually was. They wanted supernatural proof different from the marvelous miracles that he was performing. Once he fed four thousand men, besides women and young children, from just seven loaves and a few little fish. Then, the eyewitness report tells us, “the Pharisees and Sadducees approached him and, to tempt him, they asked him to display to them a sign from heaven.” He told them the one sign that would be given them. On another occasion he said to crowds of people: “This generation is a wicked generation; it looks for a sign. But no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, in the same way will the Son of man be also to this generation. . . . The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; because they repented at what Jonah preached; but, look! something more than Jonah is here.” That “something more than Jonah” was Jesus Christ himself.—Matt. 16:1; Luke 11:29-32.

7. How was Jesus a sign greater than Jonah was, and how was Jesus a fulfillment of another sign in the days of King Ahaz?

⁷ By reason of his experiences and his preaching Jonah became a “sign” to the capital of the Assyrian Empire. To the Jews of his generation Jesus Christ was a still greater “sign.” Not only was he a fulfillment of Jonah when Jesus was in the belly of the earth, dead for parts of three days, and then resurrected, but he was also a fulfillment of another sign man of ancient times, the prophet Isaiah, who lived some years later than Jonah. It was during the reign of King Ahaz of Jerusalem that Isaiah called attention to himself as a sign from Jehovah God. At that time the very existence of the kingdom of Judah over which Ahaz reigned was in danger. In the crisis Isaiah announced that he was a “sign” of tremendous meaning. Isaiah’s name means “Salvation of Jehovah.” He said: “Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are as signs and as wonders in Israel from Jehovah of armies, who is residing in Mount Zion.”—Isa. 8:18.

8. How did Jehovah use Isaiah as a sign and a wonder for three years against Egypt, and against what were the Israelites thus forewarned?

⁸ In Isaiah’s time Egypt and the Middle East were in the news, just as they are today. Jehovah wanted Isaiah to be a sign against Egypt, to whom the Israelites were then inclined to flee for military help. From up north the Assyrian king, Sargon, sent the commander Tartan against the Philistines, and Tartan captured their city, Ashdod. “At that time Jehovah spoke by the hand of Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying: ‘Go, and you must loosen the sackcloth from off your hips, and your sandals you should draw from off your feet.’ And he proceeded to do so, walking about naked and barefoot.” For three years Isaiah did that. Then Jehovah God explained this unusual conduct on Isaiah’s part. He said that Isaiah was a sign and a wonder to the Israelites, in these words: “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked about naked and barefoot three years as a sign and a token against Egypt and against Ethiopia, so the king of Assyria will lead the body of captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, boys and old men, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks stripped, the nakedness of Egypt. And [the Israelites] will certainly be terrified and be ashamed of Ethiopia their looked-for hope and of Egypt their beauty. And the inhabitant of this coastland will be certain to say in that day: ‘There is how our looked-for hope is, to which we fled for help, in order to be delivered because of the king of Assyria! And how shall we ourselves escape?’” (Isa. 20:1-6) Those of God’s professed people who took heed to the sign and wonder that Jehovah gave in Isaiah to forewarn them of the defeat of Egypt and Ethiopia changed their mind about running down to Egypt instead of to Jehovah for help and salvation.

ISAIAH AND HIS SONS

9. Of what were Isaiah and his children signs to ancient Israel, and of what was his first son’s name a portent to Israel?

⁹ Isaiah’s children, as well as he himself, were signs and wonders in ancient Israel. Who were these children of Isaiah? Of two we can be certain. The first one was named Shear-jashub. That name was in itself prophetic. It meant “A mere remnant will return.” This son was a sign and his name was a wonder or token or portent; just as certain as that son was born to Isaiah and was called Shear-jashub, just that certain was the event that his name foretold to happen.

10. With what words did Isaiah call attention to this event prophetically?

¹⁰ Isaiah called attention to this event prophetically. He said: “It will certainly occur in that day that those remaining over of Israel and those who have escaped of the house of Jacob will never again support themselves upon the one [the Assyrian king] striking them, and they will certainly support themselves upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in trueness. A mere remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God. For although your people, O Israel, would prove to be like the grains of sand of the sea, a mere remnant among them will return. An extermination decided upon will be flooding through in righteousness, because an exterminating and a strict decision the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, will be executing in the midst of the whole land.”—Isa. 10:20-23.

11. What did Shear-jashub’s name therefore mean, and so what experience befell the Israelites of the kingdom of Judah?

¹¹ The name of Shear-jashub meant, therefore, that the kingdom of Judah would be overthrown; its capital city Jerusalem and its temple would be destroyed; the surviving Jews would be taken to Babylon as captives, and after a long period of time a mere remnant would return to their homeland and rebuild their capital city and its temple to Jehovah. So serious was the situation to become about the survival of the nation of Israel that Isaiah prophesied: “Unless Jehovah of armies himself had left remaining to us just a few survivors, we should have become just like Sodom, we should have resembled Gomorrah itself.” (Isa. 1:9) Sodom and Gomorrah had been burned down by a rain of sulphur and fire from the skies. In becoming filthy like ancient Sodom and Gomorrah the kingdom of Judah would likewise suffer a destruction, almost complete if it were not that Jehovah God spared a remnant of faithful Jews and, in due time, let them return to their homeland to rebuild Jerusalem and Jehovah’s temple. This experience actually did come upon the Israelites of the kingdom of Judah just as truly as the fact that Isaiah’s oldest son was born and was named Shear-jashub.

12. Who was Isaiah’s son that was named before his conception, and how was the meaning of his name fulfilled, to prove him a sign and a wonder?

¹² Another son of Isaiah was named even before his conception, and the name was attested to by reliable witnesses. Isaiah tells us: “Jehovah proceeded to say to me: ‘Take for yourself a large tablet and write upon it with the stylus of mortal man: “Maʹher-shalʹal-hash-baz.” And let me have attestation for myself by faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.’ Then I went near to the prophetess, and she came to be pregnant and in time gave birth to a son. Jehovah now said to me: ‘Call his name Maʹher-shalʹal-hash-baz, for before the boy will know how to call out, “My father!” and “My mother!” one will carry away the resources of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria before the king of Assyria.’” (Isa. 8:1-4) History records that Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, was made spoil of and destroyed by King Shalmaneser in 740 B.C., and the surviving Israelites were taken into exile in the land of Assyria and in cities of the Medes. (2 Ki. 17:1-6) The meaning of Isaiah’s son Maʹher-shalʹal-hash-baz was literally fulfilled. This boy had thus served as a truthful sign and wonder.

13, 14. (a) What other son did Isaiah possibly have, and under what circumstances was his name foretold? (b) Of what flooding of his land was this foretold one warned?

¹³ There was possibly another son of Isaiah, and this one was to be called Immanuel. At that time the king of northern Israel and the king of Syria had joined in conspiracy against the kingdom of Judah, to dethrone King Ahaz the descendant of King David and to put on the “throne of Jehovah” a certain son Tabeel, possibly a Syrian. This political conspiracy frightened King Ahaz. Wicked though King Ahaz was, Jehovah God was not going to let the conspiracy succeed. To assure King Ahaz of this, he said to Isaiah: “Go out, please, to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, . . . ‘This is what the Lord Jehovah has said: “It will not stand, neither will it take place. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is [King] Rezin; and within just sixty-five years Ephraim [the leading member of the kingdom of Israel] will be shattered to pieces so as not to be a people. . . . Unless you people have faith, you will in that case not be of long duration.”’”

¹⁴ Then Jehovah said to King Ahaz of Judah: “Ask for yourself a sign from Jehovah your God, making it as deep as Sheol or making it high as the upper regions.” Faithless Ahaz refused to “put Jehovah to the test.” Then Isaiah said: “Therefore Jehovah himself will give you men a sign: Look! The maiden herself will actually become pregnant, and she is giving birth to a son and she will certainly call his name Immanuel.” (Isa. 7:1-14) Later, when telling how the Assyrian armies would overrun Syria and Israel and even flood over into the land of Judah and threaten Jerusalem, Jehovah said to Isaiah: “Look! Jehovah is bringing up against them the mighty and the many waters of the River, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And he will certainly come up over all his stream beds and go over all his banks and move on through Judah. He will actually flood and pass over. Up to the neck he will reach. And the outspreading of his [military] wings must occur to fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel!” (Isa. 8:5-8) How was the name Immanuel fulfilled?

IMMANUEL

15, 16. (a) When and how was the name Immanuel fulfilled? (b) How did this one prove to us the meaning of his foretold name?

¹⁵ For a historical answer we must move forward more than seven hundred years to the birth of the one of whom Isaiah was a prophetic type. Joseph the carpenter of the Galilean city of Nazareth was hesitating about taking his fiancée Mary as a wife, for in some unexplained way she had become pregnant. In a dream Jehovah’s angel appeared to perplexed Joseph and said: “‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife home, for that which has been begotten in her is by holy spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you must call his name “Jesus”, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this actually came about for that to be fulfilled which was spoken by Jehovah through his prophet, saying, ‘Look! the virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name “Immanuel”,’ which means, when translated, ‘With us is God.’” On waking up, Joseph proceeded to do as told.

¹⁶ In due time Mary bore a son and his name was called Jesus. At the age of thirty years Jesus began to preach the kingdom of God. For his loyalty to God’s kingdom he was put to death. On the third day Almighty God raised him from the dead. Forty days later the Son of God ascended to heaven and sat down at God’s right hand. From there, by the use of his human sacrifice and by the use of his great power in heaven and in earth, he went ahead saving his people, his followers on earth, from their sins, that they might gain everlasting life in God’s new world. Thus he has proved, even till now, that “with us is God,” and thus the name Immanuel properly belongs to him.—Matt. 1:18-25.

17. Whom does Jehovah give to Immanuel, and in what close relationship?

¹⁷ For faith in this Immanuel, even to the point of dedicating themselves to Jehovah God and following in the footsteps of his faithful Son, Immanuel, Jehovah has begotten 144,000 of such faithful followers and made them sons of God, His children. He makes these spirit-begotten sons the joint heirs of Immanuel, Jesus Christ, in the promised kingdom of the heavens. In this way they become the spiritual brothers of Immanuel, God’s royal Son. Because Jesus became the means of their everlasting salvation, Jehovah God gives these children of His to Jesus as a bride class and as a “little flock” of sheep, to whom their heavenly Father has approved of giving the heavenly kingdom. (Luke 12:32; Rom. 8:14-17) Today, after these nineteen centuries, merely a remnant of them remains on earth.

18, 19. How do the names Isaiah and Jesus compare, and how do Jesus’ followers serve a certain function with Jesus, as proved by Hebrews 2:10-13?

¹⁸ Here let us remember that Jesus was a sign, just as Isaiah was a sign. (Luke 11:30) The names Jesus and Isaiah mean the same, except that in Jesus’ name God’s name Jehovah is put at the beginning and in Isaiah’s name it is put at the end, Jesus meaning “Jehovah is salvation” and Isaiah meaning “Saved has Jehovah.” Like their Savior and Leader, Jesus’ 144,000 followers are signs. The remnant of them are signs to the generation in this the “time of the end” of this distressed world. On what basis may we say this? On the basis of the prophet’s words in Isaiah 8:18. Under inspiration the Christian writer of the letter to the Hebrews quoted those words and applied them to Jesus and his 144,000 disciples, saying:

¹⁹ “It was fitting for the one [God] for whose sake all things are and through whom all things are, in bringing many sons to [heavenly] glory, to make the Chief Agent of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both [Jesus] who is sanctifying and those who are being sanctified all stem from one [Father], and for this cause he is not ashamed to call them ‘brothers’, as he says: ‘I will declare your name to my brothers . . . ’ And again: ‘Look! I and the young children whom Jehovah gave me.’”—Heb. 2:10-13.

20. Although termed “young children,” what are these given ones really to Jesus, and in what work are they associated with him?

²⁰ These “young children” are not the great crowd of “other sheep” to whom Jesus Christ the King will become the “Father forever” in the “inhabited earth to come.” (Isa. 9:6; Heb. 2:5) The “young children” of God are those begotten of his spirit to become his spiritual children. These Jehovah has given to Jesus. In prayer to Jehovah God Jesus said: “I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have observed your word. I make request concerning them; I make request, not concerning the world, but concerning those you have given me, because they are yours, and all my things are yours and yours are mine, and I have been glorified among them.” (John 17:6, 9, 10) The heavenly Father gives Jesus 144,000 of these “young children” of God to be his brothers in the spiritual family of God and to be his associates in God’s work. What work? That of being signs and wonders on earth. Jesus said that he was a sign. He also says that his spirit-begotten, spirit-anointed brothers must be signs and wonders also. To this very day they have been.

21, 22. (a) How did conditions develop for his remaining spiritual brothers to become a modern Shear-jashub? (b) How did the Greater Isaiah get his modern Shear-jashub class?

²¹ Hence they must be like Shear-jashub and like Ma’her-shal’al-hash-baz. Jesus Christ himself is the great Immanuel. His remaining spiritual brothers on earth today are a modern Shear-jashub. The meaning of that Hebrew name applies to them. During World War I they came into a captive state, under bondage to the warring nations of Christendom, in spiritual and physical ways. Even the president and the secretary-treasurer of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society were arrested and imprisoned as a result of the passions of that global conflict. These children of God were expecting that World War I would worsen into world revolution and world revolution would turn into world anarchy that would spell Armageddon for all the nations of this world. But had that proved true, and had God Almighty unleashed the foretold battle of Armageddon at that time, these spiritual brothers of the Greater Isaiah under their spiritual bondage to the worldly nations might have been destroyed with the nations. They might have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. But God long ago gave Isaiah a son named Shear-jashub, which name means “A mere remnant will return.” To fulfill that name, Jehovah had to give Jesus Christ the Greater Isaiah a remnant of “young children,” his brothers, who had returned to Jehovah’s organization.

²² Jehovah God did so. In 1918 he stopped the great tribulation that had begun upon the enemy organization of Satan the Devil. Along with it World War I ended on November 11 of that year. His time for Armageddon, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” was still future. In this way he cut short the days of that tribulation upon Satan’s organization invisible and visible. Then in the spring of 1919 he brought to his “young children,” to the remnant of those whom Jesus Christ confesses as his brothers, release from their captivity to modern Babylon. By means of their oldest brother, Jesus Christ, God caused them to return to his theocratic organization and its work. Thus a mere remnant of truly dedicated, anointed “young children” of God did return, and God gave them to the Greater Isaiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus foretold that this would occur in the “time of the end” of this world. (Matt. 24:21, 22, 30, 31) It did, and the Greater Isaiah got his Shear-jashub class. For some years during the postwar period the returned remnant increased; but recently their numbers have been getting less as many of them finish their earthly walk in Jesus’ footsteps.

23. How many does this spiritual remnant number now, and yet why are they not to be despised or considered insignificant?

²³ Today the remnant numbers less than sixteen thousand, according to the records of the year 1958. However, let no nations of the world despise them and consider them as of no significance. Let not the sheeplike people look upon them as of no special meaning within the purpose of Jehovah God. This spiritual remnant stands forth as a sign to all the world. Like Isaiah’s son Shear-jashub of old, this spiritual minority is a visible proof from the Most High God that the remnant has returned. They are physical, tangible evidence that Jehovah God is faithful to his word and has fulfilled the prophecy long ago pronounced in his holy name. All men should watch this spiritual remnant as a sign from the Most High God.

24. Why must they serve as a certain evidence, and so on what mission has he sent this remnant, and to where?

²⁴ Since they were liberated as a sign, they must serve as evidence, as indicators of something to all the nations in this time of the world’s end. They must stand forth as living proof that Jehovah is able by his holy arm of strength to deliver and save his people from the power of the enemy. It is true today: “Jehovah has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth must see the salvation of our God.” (Isa. 52:10) To this end he had to send the remnant, to make them known to the ends of the earth. This he declared he would do, in order that he might carry out a great global gathering of sheeplike people from the four quarters of the earth. He said: “‘I am coming in order to collect all the nations and tongues together, and they will have to come and see my glory. And I will set among them a sign, and I will send some of those who are escaped to the nations, . . . the faraway islands, who have not heard a report about me or seen my glory, and they will for certain tell about my glory among the nations. And they will actually bring all your brothers out of all the nations as a gift to Jehovah, . . . up to my holy mountain, Jerusalem,’ Jehovah has said, . . . ‘For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making are standing before me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘so the offspring of you people and the name of you people will keep standing.’”—Isa. 66:22.

25-27. (a) Whom has Jehovah thus gathered to the Greater Isaiah? (b) What has Jehovah commanded them to do, and so who have associated themselves with Jehovah’s signs and wonders today?

²⁵ By thus setting his liberated remnant among the nations as a sign, Jehovah has now gathered to Jesus Christ the Greater Isaiah the remainder of his remnant class to fill up the foreordained number of 144,000 joint heirs of his Son. In harmony with their function as signs and wonders, Jehovah has commanded his remnant through his Greater Isaiah: “Pass out, pass out through the gates, you men. Clear the way of the people. Bank up, bank up the highway. Rid it of stones. Raise up a signal for the peoples.” (Isa. 62:10) The signal that they raise up is the message of God’s kingdom. Already among 170 nations this Kingdom signal has been raised. Hundreds of thousands of sheeplike persons, “other sheep” of Jehovah’s Right Shepherd Jesus Christ, have beheld this upraised “signal.” With joy they have hailed it They have assembled under it, giving their undivided support to God’s kingdom by Christ and placing themselves under its protection and under its commands. They have taken up the only religion or only worship that this heavenly kingdom authorizes and permits, the lofty worship of Jehovah God at his spiritual temple. Their gathering is a world-wide sign of the “last days” of this world, for in its “time of the end” is when Isaiah foretold that this would occur, saying:

²⁶ “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.’ For out of Zion law will go forth, and the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem. And he will certainly render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. 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. O men of the house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Jehovah.”—Isa. 2:2-5.

²⁷ So they associate themselves with Jehovah’s signs and wonders.

Reading the Meaning of the Signs and Wonders

1. For one to be what kind of sign is it a privilege, and how did Isaiah describe such a sign?

IT IS a joyful privilege for anyone to be a sign of something that is lastingly good. To people who have a right set of values, a person who serves as such a sign is someone handsome, someone welcome and worthy of a hearty reception. So, then, a messenger who brings good news about the true worship of Jehovah God and about the re-establishment of his theocratic organization in the earth would be a handsome sign. Through his prophet Isaiah Jehovah God described such a messenger as due to appear shortly after World War I ended, while his witnesses were yet lying in captivity to the war-mad nations of this world. He said: “‘For that reason my people will know my name, even for that reason in that day, because I am the One that is speaking. Look! It is I.’ How handsome upon the mountains are the feet of the one bringing good news, the one making peace to be heard, the one bringing good news of something better, the one making salvation to be heard, the one saying to Zion: ‘Your God has become king!’ Listen! your own watchmen have raised their voice. In unison they keep crying out joyfully, for it will be face to face that they will see when Jehovah comes back to Zion. Become cheerful, cry out joyfully in unison, you devastated places of Jerusalem, for Jehovah has comforted his people; he has repurchased Jerusalem.”—Isa. 52:6-9.

2. Who saw this messenger upon the heights, and how was it that they saw Jehovah as it were “face to face”?

² Those who were on the watch for the interests of God’s organization Zion saw the messenger as he came up upon the heights. They rejoiced to hear him call out to God’s organization, Zion: “Your God has become king!” His kingdom is established in the heavens in the hands of Immanuel, Jesus Christ. That is the reason why he has now brought deliverance to us. That is the reason why he has returned to us with favor. At the abundant evidence of Jehovah’s returning favor it is as if the watchmen saw him face to face in his coming back to Zion, to his organization upon which he has placed his holy name. They have reason to cry out for all men to hear.

3, 4. (a) With what was that messenger equipped, and who was it that sent him? (b) With what argument did the apostle Paul identify this messenger at Romans 10:12-15?

³ Now, somebody equipped that messenger with the good news that made him appear so handsome. Somebody sent that messenger to make peace to be heard and to bring good news of something better and to make salvation to be heard by men who love God and who want him to be king. The Sender is Jehovah himself, who bares his holy arm before all the nations and who wants all the ends of the earth to see the salvation that he performs. The messenger that he sends is a company of people who are willing to go on foot to bring the good news. By inspiration the apostle Paul declared that they are the saintly dedicated Christians. To them he quoted the foregoing words of Isaiah 52:7 as he climaxed his argument with the following words:

⁴ “There is the same Lord over all, who is rich to all those calling upon him. For ‘anyone that calls upon the name of Jehovaha will be saved’. However, how will they call upon him in whom they have not put faith? How, in turn, will they put faith in him of whom they have not heard? How, in turn, will they hear without someone to preach? How, in turn, will they preach unless they have been sent forth? Just as it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who declare good news of good things!’”—Rom. 10:12-15.

5. How did Isaiah in his vision at the temple exemplify the fact that it is Jehovah who does the sending?

⁵ The great Source of the “good news of good things,” Jehovah God, is the One that sends his messengers on foot to declare his message. The prophet Isaiah himself exemplified that fact. This was at the time that he had a miraculous vision of Jehovah of armies enthroned in his temple. When Isaiah heard the seraphs declaring the holiness of Jehovah he felt so unholy and unclean that he feared for his life. At his outcry one of the seraphs cleansed him, saying: “Look! This has touched your lips, and your error has departed and your sin itself is atoned for.” After Isaiah was in this cleansed condition he heard a voice asking for someone to be sent and to go on a mission. Whose voice was it? Jehovah’s; and it was saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah looked upon it as a high honor to be sent by Jehovah God and to go for him on a mission. The offer was open to a clean person that would willingly offer himself. Isaiah leaped at the rare privilege. “Here I am! Send me,” he cried out. His offer of himself was accepted, and he was told: “Go, and you must say to this people: ‘Hear again and again, O men.’” (Isa. 6:1-9) Isaiah’s being sent forth equipped with a special message meant that he was ordained, appointed by God. By Isaiah people could now hear of God’s name. They could put faith in God’s name and call upon it, in order to be saved.

6. True to Isaiah’s example, what did Jesus do, and what evidence did Jesus receive that he was accepted for service?

⁶ True to the example of Isaiah, who was a sign for ancient Israel, Jesus dedicated himself to the service of God’s kingdom that he too might be sent. He left his carpenter shop at Nazareth and went to see his forerunner John the Baptist. He got baptized, not to symbolize any repentance over sins, for he had none, but in order to be sent out in the service of God’s kingdom that John was preaching. His coming to be baptized fulfilled the words of Psalm 40:6-8, for the apostle applied those prophetic words to Jesus, saying: “When he comes into the world he says: ‘“You did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. You did not approve of whole burnt-offerings and sin offering.” Then I [Jesus] said, “Look! I am come (in the roll of the book it is written about me) to do your will, O God.”’” (Heb. 10:5-7) After his baptism by John in the Jordan River Jesus received the evidence from heaven that he was accepted. The Bible record states: “As he was praying, the heaven was opened up and the holy spirit in bodily shape like a dove came down upon him, and a voice came out of heaven: ‘You are my Son, the beloved; I have approved you.’ Furthermore, Jesus himself, when he commenced his work, was about thirty years old.”—Luke 3:21-23; Matt. 3:16, 17.

7. How did Jesus’ words show that he was not self-appointed, and when could Jesus make an application of Isaiah 8:18?

⁷ Ah yes, then, after offering himself and being baptized and receiving heavenly approval, Jesus commenced his work, not carpenter work, but Kingdom work. That he did not go of his own self-appointment, but that he was sent, he repeatedly stated in words like these: “God loved the world so much . . . God sent forth his Son into the world . . . for the world to be saved through him.” “I have come down from heaven to do, not my will, but the will of him that sent me.” “The living Father sent me forth and I live because of the Father.” (John 3:16, 17; 6:38, 57) Like Isaiah, Jesus the anointed One did go, and he honestly applied to himself the very same service commission that Isaiah received at his temple vision. (Matt. 13:13-15; John 12:36-41) After Jesus began gathering his disciples whom Jehovah of armies gave him, Jesus could call these children of God his brothers. Then, too, he could apply to himself and to them the words of Isaiah 8:18:“Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are as signs and as wonders in Israel from Jehovah of armies, who is residing in Mount Zion.” Happy were the sheeplike people in Israel who correctly read the meaning of those signs and wonders, not despising those human signs and wonders because they were few in number, a little flock. Such happy readers became followers of Jesus, the true Immanuel, the Greater Isaiah.

8. By whom were Jesus and his disciples not sent forth, and so, in imitation, by whom do we want to be sent, and why?

⁸ One fact we should not overlook here. Jesus and his twelve apostles and his other disciples were not sent by John the Baptist, nor by the apostle Peter, nor by the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Church of England, the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Lutheran Church, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Church or any of the other more than a thousand religious sects of Christendom. Jesus and his disciples were, one and all, sent by Jehovah of armies. They were signs and wonders from Him! That is the One by whom all who come to do God’s will today want to be sent. Of what power and authority is it for us to be sent by any one of those religious sects or even by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America or even by the World Council of Churches, if we are not sent by Jehovah of armies as Isaiah and Jesus and his twelve apostles were? It is to Jehovah of armies through his Sign, Immanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we have come, to do Jehovah’s will, just as Immanuel himself came to do it when he was baptized. Come we must, and offer ourselves we must, willing to be sent and to go anywhere we are sent, if we want to be accepted and be sent by Jehovah of armies. In this course we want to imitate Isaiah and Jesus Christ. Otherwise we should be doing the will of religious organizations of Christendom. In this time of the end we want to do the divine will, the will of Jehovah of armies.

9. How in the synagogue did Jesus show from the Scriptures that he was sent by Jehovah, and of what things did he become a sign and portent or wonder?

⁹ To prove by the Bible that he was sent by Jehovah of armies and therefore was ordained or appointed by him, Jesus on a Saturday went into the synagogue of the city of Nazareth, where his fellow citizens had known him only as a carpenter, the son of a carpenter. Mounting the speaker’s stand he called for the book scroll of Isaiah to be given him. Unrolling it, he found the words of Isaiah 61:1, 2. According to the account of Luke 4:16-21, this is what Jesus read: “Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor, he sent me forth to preach a release to the captives and a recovery of sight to the blind, to send the crushed ones away with a release, to preach Jehovah’sb acceptable year.” When Jesus had rolled up the scroll and sat down to preach, he said: “Today this scripture that you just heard is fulfilled.” In this way he became a living, speaking sign to them that the Messiah, the Christ, Jehovah’s Sent and Anointed One, was present. He became a wonder or portent indicating that deliverance was at hand, for Jehovah’s acceptable year was now come. He became a wonderful portent indicating that, in him the King, God’s kingdom was in the midst of the Jews.—Luke 17:21.

10. When did the “kingdom of God” leave the midst of the Jews, and what happened to their nation not long afterward?

¹⁰ That kingdom of God left the midst of the Jews after their religious leaders had had Jesus killed on a torture stake and God raised him from the dead and he ascended back to his Father in heaven. In the year 70 (A.D.) the Jewish nation was destroyed, their holy city and temple were burned and razed to the ground. What unhappy survivors there were, were carried away captive into all nations, having no government of their own and with no king of David’s royal family line.

11. Who today on earth are the signs and wonders?

¹¹ However, today, what do the signs and wonders that Jehovah of armies has provided in this time of the end mean and indicate? How should men read them in the light of God’s Word? Today’s signs and wonders are the remnant of the anointed spiritual brothers of Jesus.

12. Because of what facts about them were they foreshadowed by Shear-jashub? Also, by what other remnant were they foreshadowed?

¹² This remnant was foreshadowed by Isaiah’s son Shear-jashub, whose name means “A mere remnant will return.” This mention of a remnant points up the fact that Christendom, with its more than 820 million professed Christians, has not returned to Jehovah God since 1918. That year was when Jehovah came to his spiritual temple to judge all those who claimed to be the spiritual “house of God.” To the remnant of Jehovah’s anointed witnesses who did return to Jehovah he revealed his presence at the temple, just as he did to Isaiah. When the remnant volunteered themselves at his asking whom to send, Jehovah sent them as his witnesses with his message. Then with this modern Shear-jashub on hand Immanuel, Jesus Christ, the Greater Isaiah, could furnish the sign that the remnant had returned to Jehovah’s theocratic organization. As the apostle Paul could say in his day, it can now be said: “At the present season also a remnant has turned up according to a choosing due to [God’s] undeserved kindness.” This remnant was like the remnant that Jehovah God found in the northern kingdom of Israel, the capital of which was Samaria, in the days of Elijah the prophet.—Rom. 11:2-5.

13. Of what was Isaiah’s other son a wonder or portent, and how was the meaning of his name fulfilled upon those involved?

¹³ Isaiah had not only a son named Shear-jashub but also a son named Maʹher-shalʹal-hash-baz. This name means “Hasten, O spoil! He has come quickly to the plunder.” Being so named, this son was a wonder or portent to indicate that disaster was speedily coming by means of the armies of the Assyrian world power. Upon whom? Not only upon the kingdom of Syria, but also upon the kingdom of Israel and its capital city Samaria. In the days of the then king of Samaria, Pekah the son of Remaliah, the Assyrian king did invade the kingdom of Israel. He took many cities, plundered the land and took many inhabitants away captive. Later Pekah himself was murdered. Then the king of Assyria captured Damascus, the capital of Syria, took its people into exile and put King Rezin to death. Thus both kings who had conspired to overthrow the “throne of Jehovah” in the kingdom of Judah were executed. This was a prelude to the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel in 740 B.C. and the removal of the apostate Israelites from Samaria and from the rest of Israel’s domain.—Isa. 7:16; 2 Ki. 15:29, 30; 18:9; Amos 1:3-5; 2:6-16.

14. Of what were Israel and its capital Samaria a type, and when and how will judgment sentence be speedily executed upon this antitype?

¹⁴ By falling away from Jehovah God, by conspiring with non-Jewish Syria against Jehovah’s typical kingdom in the land of Judah, Israel and its capital Samaria were a prophetic type of Christendom today in its conspiratorial union with worldly nations against Jehovah’s enthroned King, Jesus Christ, Immanuel. Upon these nations, and especially upon Christendom, which pretends to be the religious “house of God,” divine judgment is now being pronounced by Jehovah of armies at his spiritual temple. The judgment sentence will speedily be executed upon them in the approaching day of God’s vengeance at Armageddon by means of someone mightier than the ancient king of Assyria, namely, by means of Jehovah’s executional officer, Jesus Christ. Then Christendom and all political nations conspiring with it against Immanuel’s kingdom will be deprived of their religious and political rulers. They will be spoiled and plundered of all the things on which they set their proud hearts.

15. What does Christendom fail to see in God’s Word and so what visible sign is there to do the indicating to her?

¹⁵ Christendom has its hundreds of millions of copies of the Holy Bible in many languages. Yet since it reads the Bible from the standpoint of its creeds, it fails to see the judgment of God written down long in advance against it and against its friend, this world. What visible sign is there, then, to portend or indicate what Christendom fails to see, namely, that divine judgment will speedily be executed on it and its friendly world? There is the remnant, Immanuel’s spiritual brothers, the anointed “young children” whom Jehovah has given to Jesus Christ. Like him, their head brother, they have been anointed with Jehovah’s spirit to preach. By Jehovah they have been sent, according to the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1, 2. They have been anointed, not only to “call out the year of good will on the part of Jehovah,” which symbolic year has now almost ended, but also to call out the “day of vengeance on the part of our God,” which day is getting ever closer. This vengeance will be poured out when Jesus executes the judgment of our God upon both Christendom and heathendom, both anti-Kingdom.

16. The sign features of whom have the remnant class thus taken on, and how is an increased spread being given of the message?

¹⁶ In proclaiming the speedy coming of this day of God’s vengeance with its spoiling and plundering of the whole world by his King Jesus Christ, the anointed spiritual remnant have taken on the sign features of Isaiah’s son Maʹher-shalʹal-hash-baz. They are proclaiming, “Hasten, O spoil! He has come quickly to the plunder.” Multitudes of sheeplike meek people have seen and heard this sign and wonder, this Maʹher-shalʹal-hash-baz class, and have read the meaning of it correctly. In the fullness of their belief and conviction, they have taken their stand alongside this remnant of Jehovah’s modern-day “signs” and “wonders.” More than that, they have taken up the message of God’s vengeance and have given it an increased spread to all the nations of the earth.

OUT IN FRONT! TO THE VIEW!

17. To be of value and guidance, where do signs and wonders have to be, and so who now must be in such a position?

¹⁷ To be of any value and guidance, signs and wonders have to be seen, that they may be studied, that their meaning may be read and understood with God’s key of understanding. “As signs and as wonders,” the anointed remnant of Christ’s spiritual brothers must be out in front to the view of the people. Then the Greater Isaiah, Jesus Christ, can say: “Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are as signs and as wonders in [Christendom] from Jehovah of armies, who is residing in Mount Zion.” (Isa. 8:18) In order to back up those signs and wonders the great crowd of the remnant’s dedicated companions of good will must be out front with them. To the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites Isaiah 43:10 says: “‘You are my witnesses,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘even my servant whom I have chosen.’” This servant class has to be seen; it has to let itself be heard in order to be witnesses of Jehovah. And in order to join with the anointed servant class in the world-wide witness work, the great flock of dedicated sheeplike persons has to be seen in union with them and let themselves be heard in unison with them. We must all be out in the open, conspicuous, to be seen, observed, heard. This is no time to hole up because of the anguish, distress, fears and threats of the nations of this world.

18, 19. In harmony with Isaiah 40:9, how did Jesus put himself in the proper position for a sign from God, and in copying him what big sign do we provide to excite the world’s attention?

¹⁸ Said the great Sign, Immanuel, to his followers: “You are the light of the world. A city cannot be hid when situated upon a mountain.” (Matt. 5:14) Said Isaiah of old: “Make your way up even onto a high mountain, you woman bringing good news for Zion. Raise your voice even with power, you woman bringing good news for Jerusalem. Raise it. Do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah: ‘Here is your God.’” (Isa. 40:9) As a minister Jesus was not out of sight and inconspicuous as when he was a carpenter in Nazareth. As the great Sign from Jehovah he was seen in all parts of his territory by preaching, going from city to city and from village to village, preaching publicly in synagogues and in the open and also in the homes of the people. Copying him, we also can be prominent, not to show off, but to call attention to Jehovah’s signs and wonders in this time of the end. Most effectively can we do this by preaching not only publicly but mainly from house to house. In this way Jesus’ prophetic words must be fulfilled: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) This preaching of the good news everywhere publicly and from house to house by the remnant and their sheeplike associates is in itself a most eloquent sign, a wonder that excites the attention of all the world.

¹⁹ It is indubitable evidence that God’s kingdom in the hands of his heavenly Immanuel has been set up as the capital of the universe. It is a sign that portends that the nations of this world now face their end and will meet it just as soon as our preaching is finished according to the divine will. Let them read the sign!

20. To what may our giving warning expose us, but because of what backing do we not need to fear men or devils?

²⁰ The people and the nations must know that we have been among them to give solemn warning of their end. This may expose us to their abuse and persecution. Yet, like the apostles of Immanuel, we must “become a theatrical spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.” (1 Cor. 4:9) Concerning Immanuel, even when a forty-day-old baby, Simeon prophesied: “This one is laid for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel and for a sign to be talked against.” (Luke 2:34) What, then, if we are talked against and opposed as a sign or are challenged because of our preaching the straight truths of the Bible? We know whom we have backing us up. It is “Jehovah of armies, who is residing in Mount Zion.” It is from him that we have the remnant of signs and wonders today, and there are thousands of them here at this international assembly. Hence he will see to it that what these signs and wonders mean and indicate is truly fulfilled. Jehovah of armies is the One who has sent us and who has equipped us with the good news of his inaugurated kingdom. His angelic armies, which exceed the combined armies of the Communist Eastern bloc and the democratic Western bloc, surround us. They are fully organized and armed and lined up at the field of Armageddon for the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” (Rev. 16:14) Let us not, then, fear men or devils.

21. How is the name of our reigning King, Immanuel, fulfilled toward us, and so what are we certain to finish successfully?

²¹ God, whose fear-inspiring name is Jehovah of armies, is with us. The very name of his reigning King, Immanuel, means “With us is God.” Since Immanuel is with us because we are following and obeying him in preaching the good news of the Kingdom for a final witness to all the nations, we know that God is also with us. That means that God is for us. With such divine help and according to the divine will, we are certain to finish successfully the wonderful and significant work that Jehovah of armies has sent us to do.

Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And, look! I am with you.—Matt. 28:19, 20.

[Footnotes]

Pursuing My Purpose in Life

As told by Leslie R. Franks

NEW ZEALAND was the scene of my early home life. There I first had knowledge of the truth. In 1926, at sixteen, my work caused me to leave home. Interest in the truth lapsed. Fourteen years later (1940) I again began reading the Society’s literature that my parents had sent me. Now, too, my workmate turned out to be one of Jehovah’s witnesses. One day in conversation he mentioned that he knew my parents also were Jehovah’s witnesses, and would I be interested in attending a Watchtower study? That I readily did the next weekend. Then at a service meeting during the visit of the zone servant the study of the Informant brought out the need for pioneers, especially from among such as had no encumbrances. When I realized that this invitation was meant for me, in face of many problems that arose before me, I decided to go ahead to pursue my purpose in life. To my employer I tendered my resignation.

So in September, 1940, I was free to take up full-time Kingdom work. Immediately I was sent by the Society as company servant to a congregation in the South Island. I had little knowledge and experience, and I personally felt quite incapable of carrying out this assignment. However, prayer to Jehovah and leaning on him for guidance helped me in those months to fulfill my obligations. A month later the zone servant wrote asking for help from the congregation to advertise and put on the transcription lecture “Government and Peace” in a town about a hundred miles to the north. There much opposition arose. During the lecture mob action occurred. My companion, a fellow usher, fell back with a bullet wound in the thigh. Later his leg had to be amputated.

By the end of that month false religionists used this incident for forcing a ban on the Society’s work in New Zealand. The second day of the ban I was privileged to take two good-will persons out in the service for the first time, but the following day I was arrested, along with another brother, for having possession of the Society’s literature. In December we were sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. Soon immediate release was offered if we would renounce Jehovah by refusing to carry on our dedicated work. Now there were six of us, and we all refused to compromise. After serving the jail term we all keenly realized we had a work to do, that the main thing was not to look behind but to continue to stretch out for things ahead.

In December, 1941, I was detained as a conscientious objector, for the duration of the war. Early in 1946 I was offered release if I would accept secular work. Having entered as a full-time minister, I believed I should return to the same occupation on release, and informed the authorities accordingly. Then I was told that I would “rot in prison till your Armageddon.” However, in April of the same year the authorities forced me to leave and report for secular work. Two tribunals refused to grant me exemption but, regardless, I returned to the full-time ministry and informed the minister of justice accordingly. The blessing of Jehovah was seen on my course of action when a reply was received from the minister of justice granting me the right “to return to your previous occupation as a minister of religion,” the occupation they had refused to acknowledge four and a half years previously.

During those years of detention I heard of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead having been opened. I often expressed the hope that someday I might have opportunity to attend and enjoy the privilege of going to other countries to preach the Word. But at that time the realization of such hope seemed a long way off, if not impossible. After twelve months of happy service, how gratified I was to learn (during the visit of Brother Knorr in March, 1947) that because of continuing in full-time ministerial work after release from prison my pioneer time was counted as unbroken! Although it was now seven years since my dedication, I had spent over four and a half years of that time in prison because of my beliefs; yet I had the two years of full-time ministry needed to qualify for Gilead training, so could immediately fill out my application. Later in the same year I was sent to New Plymouth as a special pioneer and it was there, during the visit of the circuit servant, that we both rejoiced to receive notification to proceed to New York in time to be enrolled for Gilead’s eleventh class of February, 1948.

Before my leaving for the United States the opportunity was granted me to visit my parents and some of my family who, ten years previously, had left New Zealand and entered the full-time service in the Australian branch Bethel home. Here I was surprised to find that my two sisters also had been invited to attend the same Gilead class. December, 1947, we embarked on the Marine Phoenix at Sydney for San Francisco, along with sixteen other brothers from Australia and New Zealand. The three-week voyage across the Pacific gave me a glimpse of what my future assignment could be like as we called at ports in Fiji and Samoa. At San Francisco a few days’ rest allowed us to find our land legs and then we were off on the last stage of our journey to New York. There we arrived, right from the tropics, in the coldest spell experienced for many years.

Many already have written about the beautiful surroundings and joys of Gilead, and of knowledge received there to deepen and strengthen faith for future years of service. Gilead training was to be a source, as I have proved, to draw upon in years ahead for overcoming in hardships and trials. Time spent at that wonderful school was all too short. Soon my sisters and I, along with three others, received our assignments for Singapore. Until passages could be arranged I was assigned to do preconvention work for a Chicago district assembly. My previous biggest assembly had been one of six hundred in New Zealand. So I remember the great thrill it gave me to be one of sixteen thousand brothers present at Chicago. After that I went on to Oregon as circuit servant.

By January I was reunited with my companions at Galveston, Texas, to embark for Singapore. This two-month journey took us to places that to us previously had been only names on maps: Japan, Philippines, Macassar and Indonesia. Only in the Philippines had Gilead graduates then begun to work. We found conditions very primitive, battle-scarred from war years; but it gave us opportunity to get the feel of the Orient. Strange to say, we were to view our assignment a week before actually landing, for our ship steamed by Singapore, a few hundred yards from the shore, proceeding first to another port five hundred miles to the north before finally docking at Singapore in March, 1949.

Singapore, I found, was in comparison one of the most modern cities in the East but experienced an almost continuous and unvaried heat with high humidity, which affects one considerably over the years. How bizarre were those scenes we witnessed in those days, on religious feast occasions of Malay, Chinese and Indian peoples! What a kaleidoscope of races, color and religion! I had to change many of my ideas about the people. Previously I believed that the Chinese were an unsmiling and stolid race, but I found them ready to laugh at the slightest thing—sometimes at a most inappropriate moment, as when a person had been killed in a car accident: They would cry “Sudah mati” (“He is dead”), and lapse into roars of laughter.

My early wrestlings with the Malay language must have brought others much amusement too, as I often used kelapa (coconut) instead of kepala (head) and rumput (grass) instead of rambut (hair)! Now our living conditions compare equally with anything we had in our home country.

Two Gilead graduates had preceded us to Singapore and a small congregation had been formed; so we were able to start right in on organized work. I found witnessing quite pleasant, as in most places we would be invited inside the house and could sit down to give our testimony. The people, for the most part, are pleasant and courteous; but for the first few years the difficulty of many languages was a very wearying experience, together with the people’s illiteracy coupled with extreme superstition. The language one had learned was still not enough to serve for teaching all the people of different dialects and languages. However, willingness of those genuinely interested in the truth to learn the English language generally settled the problem, and I have happy memories of those who progressed to maturity in this way.

Over the years I have held as many as twenty-two home Bible studies a month, but for a great number of reasons most students did not mature. Along with other missionaries I often thought of what could be done to stimulate these and wondered why they would not progress. But as we continued to sow and water and await Jehovah’s giving the increase we did see the eventual increase in the congregation. What a comfort to look back over the years and realize that here in Singapore we have a healthy congregation of many nationalities, faithfully doing their share of the preaching work!

My work has carried me farther afield than Singapore, which is the branch headquarters for Borneo as well as Malaya—a region extending five hundred miles to the north and six hundred miles to the east. At the end of 1953 I became part-time circuit servant for the three congregations and isolated publishers scattered over this vast area. Some of these had had no visible contact with others of the New World society. While sitting in some Chinese hotel at night I have often thought on the faithful work these isolated brothers are doing and what a privilege it has been to be able to give fellowship and spiritual comfort to them as we keep on doing this missionary work.

Six short years having passed, when I returned to my assignment spiritually uplifted and refreshed by the joys of the 1955 London, Paris and Nuremberg assemblies, I prayed to be further enriched by right works, pursuing my purpose in life to stay and complete the preaching of the Kingdom good news at this end of the earth while Armageddon draws on apace.

A few months ago I was given a new assignment as missionary in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya. There is much work to be done in this field and it is a real joy to be able to help those of good will to grow in Christian understanding and maturity. I also have the pleasure of visiting the other congregations and isolated publishers from time to time as circuit servant. This is a field where the need is great, and it is grand to be sharing in the spread of the truth. As I write this I too am looking forward to being at the international convention in New York this summer of 1958, and then to return to my assignment here in Malaya.

Questions From Readers

● In Matthew 1:1 we read: “The book of the history of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.” In Romans 3:24 we read: “It is as a free gift that they [the believing sinners] are being declared righteous by his undeserved kindness through the release by the ransom paid by Christ Jesus.” What is the difference between Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus?

The Christian Greek Scriptures open up with the expression Jesus Christ in Matthew 1:1 and Mark 1:1. They close with the same expression in Revelation 22:21. The apostle Paul was the one that introduced the expression Christ Jesus, in Romans 3:24, and he is the only Bible writer who uses this expression, except for just two uses of it by the apostle Peter in his first epistle in the King James Version. (1 Pet. 5:10, 14) In the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible the expression Christ Jesus occurs only fifty-four times, whereas the expression Jesus Christ occurs about 184 times, or more than three times as often as Christ Jesus.

The word “Jesus” is a name, meaning “Jehovah is salvation.” The angel told his prospective foster father Joseph: “You must call his name ‘Jesus’, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21) On the other hand, the word “Christ” is a title, meaning “anointed one.” It means the same as Messiah, a word of Hebrew origin. This title Christ or Messiah was used in the prophetic Scriptures before the first year of the Christian Era to foretell the coming of this one whom God would anoint with his spirit to be King of the new world of righteousness, but without directly foretelling his earthly name. (Dan. 9:25, 26; Ps. 2:2) Likewise at his human birth the angel announcer said to the shepherds out in the fields near Bethlehem: “There was born to you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in David’s city.” (Luke 2:11) Note the word order, not ‘the Lord Christ,’ but, “Christ the Lord.”

The title Christ could be added to the personal name Jesus after his water baptism and his being anointed with Jehovah’s spirit, at which time he became Christ or the Christ. After Simon Peter made his confession that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus “sternly charged the disciples not to say to anybody that he was the Christ.” (Matt. 16:13-20) When Jesus cast out demons from obsessed Jews and these demons shouted out: “You are the Son of God,” Jesus rebuked them and “he would not permit them to speak, because they knew him to be the Christ.” (Luke 4:41) So, when Jesus was on earth, no one ever called him Jesus Christ. He himself was the only one that referred to his own self as Jesus Christ, and this was only once, privately, when in prayer with his disciples shortly before he was killed. He prayed: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”—John 17:3.

It is quite evident, therefore, that the expression Jesus Christ, which his apostles took up after this, means Jesus who afterward became the Anointed One of Jehovah; Jesus who was consecrated by Jehovah’s anointing. So, on Pentecost of 33 (A.D.), Peter said: “Let all the house of Israel know for a certainty that God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you impaled.” Hence, for the first time, Peter used the expression to the conscience-stricken Jews: “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the free gift of the holy spirit.”—Acts 2:36-38.

In the other expression, Christ Jesus, the apostle Paul puts the title Christ before the personal name Jesus. This corresponds with putting the official title before any other officeholder’s name, as, for example, King David, King Solomon, Governor Zerubbabel. Accordingly, the expression Christ Jesus calls attention first to the office occupied or held, and then identifies the officeholder. “Christ Jesus,” therefore, means Jehovah’s Anointed One who bears the earthly name Jesus. It literally means “Anointed Jesus,” and at once it reminds us that Jesus is Jehovah’s official Servant and is to be honored as such Servant, he being the only one occupying that office in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Although Peter and the others of the twelve apostles were anointed with holy spirit, we do not speak of them as Christ Peter, Christ John, Christ Paul, and so on. Only Jesus do the Scriptures entitle Christ Jesus.

In the expression Christ Jesus, the personal name Jesus is preceded by his exclusive official title. Hence it is to be noted that not once do the Scriptures put another title ahead of Jesus’ name, such as Lord or King, to form combinations like the Lord Christ Jesus or the King Christ Jesus. The expression “our Savior, Christ Jesus,” in the Greek text has the pronoun “our” between Savior and Christ, and hence merely identifies who our Savior is. (2 Tim. 1:10) This is in keeping with the expression “Christ Jesus our Savior.” (Titus 1:4) Now we do read, in 1 Timothy 2:5: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man Christ Jesus.” However, the expression “a man” is not a title, but calls attention to the fact that Christ Jesus was once a man on earth, the same Jesus. Consequently it is only after the already betitled expression Christ Jesus that we find titles added, but not further titles inserted ahead of this expression. So we read twice the expression “Christ Jesus the Lord” and three times the expression “Christ Jesus our Lord.” However, before the expression Jesus Christ we do find a title inserted sometimes. Repeatedly we read the expression “the Lord Jesus Christ.” All this proves that titles were not multiplied before our Savior’s personal name Jesus; but if one title preceded already, then any other titles were added only after the personal name.

From this it is seen that the Scriptures treat the expression Jesus Christ on a different basis from the expression Christ Jesus.

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

A Bible-study book, on the contribution of 50 cents, will be offered to persons contacted by Jehovah’s witnesses in their ministry during December. Thereafter, to aid interested ones to gain further knowledge of Jehovah God’s purposes, return calls will be made and home Bible studies started. For information on how you can share in this joyful work go to the local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s witnesses or write this office.

1959 YEARBOOK AND CALENDAR READY

Interest in Jehovah’s witnesses and their world-wide preaching work has been stimulated tremendously, due to the Divine Will International Assembly this summer. Therefore the 1959 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses takes on a new significance as it brings you an informative and heart-warming report of this modern-day example of preaching as Jesus did it. Get your copy for only 50c. A beautifully illustrated calendar for 1959 will also bring you pleasure in considering ways of doing the divine will. Add 25c to your order for each calendar.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

December 21: Signs and Wonders in the Time of the End. Page 685.

December 28: Reading the Meaning of the Signs and Wonders. Page 693.