The Watchtower — February 15, 1959

What Basis for Hope?

DESPERATELY the people hope for things in the world to get better, but they wonder if it will ever happen. In this unstable world, almost every person hopes for a more stable, happier life.

Fluctuations in money’s value have often destroyed in days the wealth men spent their lives accumulating. Money did not prove a firm hope in Germany in 1923, where, if you had saved even a trillion marks (1,000,000,000,000), you would have seen that tremendous sum dwindle to the value of just one mark! And even in the United States money today does not have the value it had a few years ago. The cash that once could buy an automobile now pays for little more than the down payment. Money that a few years ago bought a suit of clothes today hardly pays for the pants. Inflation and deflation make money a very poor basis for hope.

Even further, money can be lost through war, theft, poor management, or in any of numerous other ways. Thus, while money is a defense, it is not a basis for real hope.

Other persons hope for a disarmament program to usher in a brighter future and happier life for the human family. But what basis have they for such a hope? None whatsoever. Because the very nations that are presently engaged in disarmament discussions are the ones geared for war. Their economy is a war economy. And the best of their resources is being used for arms, not to disarm. Certainly this is not an encouraging and hopeful outlook for those who look for a brighter future to come through the programs of men.

Others hope for a long life. They base their hope on the discoveries of scientists who make great promises regarding longevity. But these very men die.

Christians also hope for peace and everlasting life. What basis have they for their hope? They rest their hope in Jehovah, the immortal Life-giver. It is he who guarantees life to them through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul declared: “The gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.” This promise is sure of fulfillment, because Jehovah is the Almighty God whose word does not return to him void. His promises are guaranteed of sure success. Jesus based his hope in Jehovah and gained everlasting life. Base your hope in the “God who gives hope” and you too will never be disappointed.—Rom. 6:23; 15:13; Isa. 55:11.

“Let Your Will Come to Pass”

“Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.”—Matt. 6:10.

1. How has it been shown in the case of mighty world powers that nothing can prevent the fulfillment of the prayer, “Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth”?

“LET your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” Nothing that men or devils may do will keep that prayer, which Jesus Christ taught nineteen centuries ago, from being fulfilled. (Matt. 6:10) The mightiest governmental rulers in human history have all had to bow to the heavenly Father’s will. Mighty world powers, holding empire over large areas of the earth, have one after another bowed to the will of earth’s Creator in a forced confession that he is the strongest power in the universe. He still is, and what he wills is supreme and must come to pass.

2. How had Nebuchadnezzar seemingly showed himself superior to Jehovah, and yet how did Jehovah abase that worshiper of false gods to the ground?

² More than 2,500 years ago Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonian empire, had to bow before the Creator of heaven and earth and had to admit that the false gods of Babylon were powerless before our Creator. History records that Nebuchadnezzar was the first one permitted to do what no previous pagan ruler had done; he destroyed the holy city of the Jews, Jerusalem, and also their temple, which King Solomon had built to the name of the Most High God, whose name is Jehovah. Yet this God, over whom Nebuchadnezzar had seemingly showed himself superior, abased that proud worldly ruler to the ground and forced him to bow like a brute beast before Jehovah. For seven periods of time, or for seven years, Nebuchadnezzar imagined himself to be a wild beast. He left his throne of world domination to go out into the field, get down on all fours and chew on grass like a mere bull. This crazed condition came upon him, not accidentally, but in fulfillment of a dream from Jehovah twelve months previously, a dream that none of Babylon’s wise men could interpret, but only Jehovah’s prophet Daniel.

3. What statement by the watcher from heaven concerning the Most High required the dream to come true, and what did Nebuchadnezzar’s boasting about Babylon show that he had not heeded?

³ In this troublesome dream Nebuchadnezzar saw that a “watcher who was also a holy one came down from heaven” and gave instructions and then said: “The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will, and sets over it the lowliest of men.” (Dan. 4:10, Le; Da 4:17, RS) The dream, therefore, had to come true. The history written down and preserved proves that it did. Mighty as Nebuchadnezzar was permitted to become, yet he could not hold up the carrying out of the divine will. When feeling his greatest, he began to brag about his imperial city and say: “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” This boasting betrayed that he had not showed sense enough to heed the warning of the dream and follow Daniel’s advice: “Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you; break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your tranquillity.”—Dan. 4:27, RS.

4. As a warning to all political rulers, what followed immediately upon Nebuchadnezzar’s boasting?

⁴ Let the political rulers of Great Britain and America and Communist Russia and other powerful nations take note of what befell Nebuchadnezzar, who had destroyed the typical kingdom of Jehovah God over the Jews. Yes, let all of us read the account: “While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field; and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox; and seven times shall pass over you, until you have learned that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.’ Immediately the word was fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men, and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.”—Dan. 4:28-33, RS.

5. How were Nebuchadnezzar’s first imperial rulership and his return to rulership entirely dependent upon Jehovah God?

⁵ None of the mental health doctors could cure the king of Babylon of this insane lycanthropy. It had to run its course till the time that the Most High God, Jehovah, had set for it, that is, “seven times,” or seven years. Jehovah God had put down this then highest of earth’s rulers, and only Jehovah the Most High could put him back on the throne of Babylon. It was sheer mercy on Jehovah’s part that this position of rulership was preserved for him, just as Daniel had assured him, saying: “Your kingdom shall be sure for you from the time that you know that Heaven rules.” The mightiest and highest king of that ancient day could do nothing except it served within the purpose of the God of heaven, and thus God permitted it. The empire builder who had conquered so many nations and even the kingdom of Judah could not have the throne of the Babylonian world power unless God gave it to him by permitting him to come to the rulership and by giving him back enough soundness of mind to take up his imperial rulership again.

6. To show that he had learned his lesson, what acknowledgment concerning Jehovah’s will and his works and ways did Nebuchadnezzar make?

⁶ Did Nebuchadnezzar learn the lesson that Jehovah had purposed for him to learn and for all of us to observe today? The king of Babylon himself has written his record and it has been preserved for us. It reads: “At the end of the days [the seven ‘times’ or years] I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives for ever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing; and he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What doest thou?’ At the same time my reason returned to me; and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to abase.”—Dan. 4:34-37, RS.

7. What was the only proper way for Nebuchadnezzar to comment on his experience, and what was the only proper mental attitude to take?

⁷ In the light of his dream from Jehovah God and in view of Daniel’s interpretation, the accuracy of which was proved by the later events, there was only this one God-honoring way for Nebuchadnezzar to comment upon his experience. There was only this one proper attitude of mind to take, giving the credit to whom it was due, Jehovah the Most High God, even if that was Daniel’s God.

8. How did Nebuchadnezzar’s experience back there have to do with marking the beginning of the critical period in which the worldly nations now find themselves?

⁸ The big question of importance before us now is, What is the attitude of the rulers today in the Eastern and Western blocs of nations and in the neutral nations? Since the year 1914 and the end of World War I the nations have been living in a critical period. The reason for it has considerable to do with Nebuchadnezzar. How so? Back there, Nebuchadnezzar personally passed through “seven times,” or seven literal years, of insane beastliness. But with him also there began “seven times” of greater magnitude upon the nations of the world from his day until now. Those times were what Jesus Christ called “the appointed times of the nations.” He spoke of those “appointed times” in connection with the destruction of the Jewish capital, Jerusalem. Jesus prophesied: “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24) Those “seven times” of the nations are many times longer than the “seven times” of the one man, Nebuchadnezzar. According to Jehovah’s timetable, they were 360 times as long as the seven years of Nebuchadnezzar, that is, 2,520 years long. They began in 607 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar trampled down Jerusalem and Jehovah’s temple, and the land of Judah was desolated. Those “seven times” ended in the early fall of the year 1914 (A.D.), shortly after World War I had begun.

9. What world powers dominated the earth both before and during the “appointed times of the nations”?

⁹ Previous to Nebuchadnezzar two political world powers had had much to do with Jehovah’s people, namely, Egypt the first world power of Bible history and Assyria the second world power. Babylon thus became the third world power. Others have followed. During the “appointed times of the nations” from 607 B.C. until A.D. 1914 the blood-splashed pages of history show that five world powers successively dominated our earth, namely, Babylon, Medo-Persia the fourth world power, Greece the fifth world power, Rome the sixth world power, and the British Empire together with the United States of America the seventh world power.

10, 11. (a) Since the end of the symbolic seven times in 1914, what comparisons is it now the right time for us to look for? (b) On what must all examiners of history agree in a comparison of Nebuchadnezzar and all the worldly nations?

¹⁰ Since seven symbolic times had passed over the nations and world powers by 1914, it became the right time for us to look for comparisons, if any exist. We have heard the expression of Nebuchadnezzar at the end of his “seven times” because of his mental comeback and his return to Babylon’s throne. Well, is there anything like this since 1914? Do the expressions of the rulers of worldly nations, particularly those of Christendom, compare with the expression made by the restored Nebuchadnezzar?

¹¹ On one thing all honest examiners of world history must agree: that during the 2,520 years from Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem till A.D. 1914 all nations, including Christendom, acted like Nebuchadnezzar did during his “seven times” of insanity, that is, just like brute beasts, without recognizing Jehovah God or considering his will as this is set down in the Holy Scriptures of the Bible. Well, then, had they by the end of their “seven times” of 2,520 years learned something?

12. What shows whether, by the end of the “seven times” in 1914, the nations had, like Nebuchadnezzar, come to sanity toward God?

¹² Did the nations, like Nebuchadnezzar, come to sanity and then acknowledge the truth of Psalm 83:18: “That you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth”? The events of 1914 answer the question for us. At the end of the “seven times” about October 1, 1914, the nations of Christendom were engaged in the madness and beastliness of World War I.

13. (a) By that time what should the professedly Christian nations have done? (b) What shows whether they should have known by then that God would bring his kingdom to birth in 1914?

¹³ By that time the nations that professed to be Christian should have lived up to their claim. They should have shown themselves better than heathen Nebuchadnezzar and should have made an acknowledgment of Jehovah God as the Sovereign of the universe and the only rightful Ruler of the earth. Ah, but could it be that they did not know that in the fall of 1914 the Gentile times, or the “appointed times of the nations,” had run out? No! Rather, they should have known that at the expiring of those “times” about October 1, 1914, Jehovah would bring to birth his promised kingdom in the heavens by seating his anointed Son, Jesus Christ, on the throne of the Kingdom to rule in the midst of his enemies. They should have known this, not just because the Bible was on hand in millions of copies in many languages and because there were hundreds of thousands of clergymen paid to explain the Bible; but because, since 1877, the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses were proclaiming the coming of those things in 1914.

14. In view of the October 15, 1913, issue of The Watch Tower and the free exhibition of the Photo-Drama of Creation, why should Christendom have known the vital facts?

¹⁴ In its issue of October 15, 1913, The Watch Tower published the leading article entitled “Résumé of the Ending of the Times of the Gentiles.” In paragraph 2 of this it said: “Without dogmatizing, we are looking for certain events: (1) The termination of the Gentile Times—Gentile supremacy in the world—and (2) For the inauguration of Messiah’s Kingdom in the world. The kingdoms of the earth will come to an end, and ‘the God of Heaven will set up a Kingdom.’ (Daniel 2:44) The Scriptures do not say that the trouble will come in an hour, or in one day, or in one year. The intimation is that the catastrophe coming upon our civilization will be a very sudden one.” This was published in English, French, German, Swedish and Danish. Furthermore, the famous eight-hour-long Photo-Drama of Creation, which, by pictures and by sound reproduction, told of the same things, began to be exhibited in Christendom in January of 1914; and by October of 1914 it was being shown free to the public in North America, in Great Britain, in Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, and in Australia and New Zealand. Surely, Christendom should have known!

15. To this very day, forty-four years since 1914, how do the nations show whether they have sanely learned what Nebuchadnezzar learned?

¹⁵ To this very day, forty-four years since the ending of the times of the Gentiles in 1914, the nations and their rulers have not come to Christian sanity to learn what Nebuchadnezzar learned, that “the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will, and sets over it the lowliest of men.” In cruel contrast, they are preparing for an international slaughter with weapons the power of which for killing masses of human creatures at one explosion is ghastly, besides poisoning air, land and water.

16. Why are the worldly rulers without excuse, and why do the nations today have no peace?

¹⁶ By the political rulers and modern scientists human society as a whole, with a civilization developed over many centuries, is put in the greatest peril of all time. The worldly rulers, particularly those of Christendom, are without excuse. They had opportunity to learn from God’s widely published Word, the Bible, and by means of his witnesses on earth what King Nebuchadnezzar decreed “to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth,” at the end of his “seven times.” He decreed: “Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has wrought toward me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.” (Dan. 4:1-3, RS) Ignoring that truth, the nations today have no peace!

17. Upon what recognition does the everlasting survival of this human race depend, and, to show our sanity, what must we find out about kingdom rulership over mankind?

¹⁷ Let the nations go on in their madness. Men who have come to sanity like Nebuchadnezzar’s now have sense enough to see this vital truth: That the everlasting survival of this human race depends, not upon military defense strong enough to check the enemy and to repay him with a retaliation of an equal or a greater amount of destruction. It depends upon our recognizing the everlasting kingdom of the Most High God and the continuance of his dominion from generation to generation. His kingdom and dominion do not confine themselves to just the invisible heavens. They take in also this visible earth with all the outer space around it. All people who want to remain among the living must recognize that the Most High rules also the kingdom of men and that he is higher than the kingdom of men and that he gives this kingdom over mankind to whom he wills as the Most High. To show our sanity, we must also find out precisely to whom the Most High God has willed to give the kingdom over mankind, because it is to be given to the “lowliest of men.” Then whatever the enemy world does or gets ready to do will not amount to anything, for no one on earth can stay the hand of Jehovah God or say to him, in challenge: “What doest thou?”

18. What does a look at history from the Bible standpoint show regarding the giving of the kingship over mankind, and how did Nebuchadnezzar’s own case illustrate that fact?

¹⁸ A look at world history from the Bible standpoint reveals the truthfulness of what was said by the “watcher,” the “holy one,” who came down from heaven, that the Most High God Jehovah gives the kingdom to whom he wills and not to whom the people will or a dictator wills. In the case of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, God used him as His executioner to bring due punishment upon the disloyal nation of ancient Israel. So God rewarded Nebuchadnezzar by letting him become the world ruler to start off the “appointed times of the nations.” The prophet Daniel informed Nebuchadnezzar so when he interpreted the meaning of the golden-headed image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream but forgot on waking up. Daniel said: “You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the sons of men, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold.”—Dan. 2:36-38, RS.

19. In harmony with that saying, what did Jehovah say by Ezekiel to Zedekiah the king to show that the Most High does the giving of the kingdom over mankind?

¹⁹ In harmony with that saying, Jehovah gave his own typical kingdom in Judah to an overthrow by Nebuchadnezzar. Hence to King Zedekiah, who sat on the typical “throne of Jehovah” in Jerusalem, Jehovah said: “Remove the mitre, and take off the crown: this shall not be always so; exalt him [the non-Jew] that is low, and make him [the Jew] low that is high. Overthrown, overthrown, overthrown will I render it; also this shall not belong to any one, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him.” (Ezek. 21:31, 32, Le; Eze 21:26, 27, AV) Jehovah God does the giving according to his own will.

CHANGING TIMES AND SEASONS

20. How did Jehovah, just as Daniel said in comment on Nebuchadnezzar’s forgotten dream, change the times and seasons in 607 B.C.?

²⁰ Changes took place exactly as Daniel said after Jehovah God had revealed to him Nebuchadnezzar’s forgotten dream and its meaning. “Daniel said: ‘Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and mysterious things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.’” (Dan. 2:20-22, RS) In 607 B.C. he changed the times and seasons. He changed the times from those of the typical kingdom of God on earth to the times of the supremacy of the non-Jewish world powers, “the appointed times of the nations.” He changed the “seasons” or the specified times. In the fall of 607 B.C. he began this change. During the 2,520 years that followed there was no interference with the Gentile world powers by a typical kingdom of David at Jerusalem. There was no successor to King David sitting on the “throne of Jehovah” at Jerusalem to do so.

21. How did Jehovah show ability to make changes in Nebuchadnezzar’s own case and that of his dynasty and in the case of Babylonian world domination?

²¹ As another example of Jehovah’s ability to make changes, he removed Nebuchadnezzar from the throne of Babylon for “seven times,” or seven literal years. Later, at his specified time, he removed from the throne of Babylon the dynasty of Chaldean rulers in the line of Nebuchadnezzar. At that time, in the year 539 B.C., he let the Babylonian Empire be overthrown by the very man whom he had foretold by name more than 185 years beforehand, the Persian King Cyrus the Great. Through the prophet Isaiah he said: “This is what Jehovah has said to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue before him nations . . . : ‘For the sake of my servant Jacob and of Israel my chosen one, I even proceeded to call you by your name; I proceeded to give you a name of honor, although you did not know me.’” (Isa. 45:1, 4) Thus the times of Babylonian domination changed to those of Persian domination.

22. How did Jehovah make changes right on time concerning the Jewish exiles and Judah’s desolation, and how did Cyrus’ decree show Jehovah’s responsibility in the matter?

²² In order that Cyrus the Great might serve the interests of Daniel’s people and might execute divine vengeance upon Babylon, Jehovah maneuvered him into the position of ruler of the Persian Empire. Exactly in the seventieth year from the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple Jehovah moved Cyrus to issue the decree for the captive Jews to go free from Babylon and return to their homeland and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. The times of Jerusalem’s desolation and of Israel’s captivity to Babylon were thus changed, according to the divine will and at his season or specified time. (Isa. 44:28; 45:13; Jer. 25:12-14; 2 Chron. 36:22, 23) The temple decree revealed Jehovah’s responsibility for this, in that it said: “This is what Cyrus the king of Persia has said, ‘All the kingdoms of the earth Jehovah the God of the heavens has given me and he himself has commissioned me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God prove to be with him. So let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of Jehovah the God of Israel—he is The true God.’” (Ezra 1:1-3) Thus Cyrus was rewarded for his service rendered to Jehovah God.

23. The further changes of times and seasons that were due to come were to come according to what, and why so?

²³ However, there were still further changes of times and seasons due, together with removals of kings and settings up of kings. These were due, not according to man’s will, but according to God’s will, for he permitted these changes in human affairs. In fact, he foretold them. Hence his divine foresight had to be proved right.

24. How in Daniel alone did Jehovah foretell the changes of world dominion to the sixth world power, and what notable birth during the sixth world power indicates the change was at Jehovah’s marked time?

²⁴ In at least four prophecies in the book of Daniel alone, Jehovah foretold that the dynasty of the Persian Empire, the fourth world power, would come to an end and that the Macedonian or Grecian Empire would come to power as the fifth world power of history. This was to be in the days of a conspicuous Greek-speaking king, Alexander the Great, who would campaign with speed through the entire domains of the Persian Empire and annex it all. The divided empire that was to follow the death of this Macedonian world ruler was to be swallowed up in the course of time by the Roman Empire, the sixth world power. This too was to be at Jehovah’s marked time for changes, a change of conditions for his own people and a change for world rulers. Thus at the season that the Roman world power would issue a decree that would oblige the mother of Jesus to go to Bethlehem, the birthplace of David, the prophecy concerning the human birth of the Son of God was there to be fulfilled. (Mic. 5:2, AS; Matt. 2:1-6; Luke 2:1-20) All this is marvelous in magnifying the unerring forevision and the unfailing will of Jehovah God.

25. What further mighty change of world domination did Jehovah’s angel foretell to Daniel, and hence what most important decision would the world power have to make?

²⁵ Yet, in a descriptive manner, Jehovah’s angel foretold to Daniel a further mighty change, that from the Roman Empire to the greatest earthly empire of them all, the British Empire together with its close associate the United States of America, these two political powers together forming the seventh world power. This world power, a so-called Christian world power, was to be the one that would be dominating the world in the year 1914. Hence it would have to make a most important decision concerning the kingdom of God that was established in the heavens in that eventful year.

26. What did Jehovah’s forevision foresee for the “time of the end” as to its world developments?

²⁶ God’s forevision peered still farther, right into the “time of the end,” and foresaw the formation of the international peace organization, the League of Nations, its death, yes, also its rebirth in the United Nations. Jehovah’s angel foretold to Daniel even the growth of world communism to such a degree of strength that it would challenge both the mighty seventh world power and the eighth world power, the United Nations of the present time.

27. No matter how great and extensive the changes on the world stage, these all occurred according to what, as Daniel’s comment on Nebuchadnezzar’s dream shows?

²⁷ In truth, all these shiftings of the world scenery through the centuries to its present setting on the world stage of action called for great, extensive changes. But all these were according to the foreknowledge of the Most High God, at his own times and seasons, inasmuch as he foresaw them all. He let nothing occur to block his purpose. Thousands of years ago these things were all dark to the human mind. Even concerning the prophecies that were given to him, with a partial explanation, Daniel said: “I heard, but I did not understand.” (Dan. 12:8, RS) Yet from what Jehovah God revealed to Daniel by the dramatic explanation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the golden-headed image, Daniel got some penetration into the depth of God’s forevision. So Daniel said: “He knows what is in the darkness, and the light [concerning these things] dwells with him”; “he reveals deep and mysterious things” to his people.

28. In support of Jehovah’s rulership and ability to give rulership, what did Daniel say to foretell the greatest and grandest change on earth?

²⁸ The most tremendous change of all lifts to a grand climax the truth that “the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will.” Daniel was inspired to foretell Jehovah’s making of the greatest and grandest change on earth in God’s time and at his season by saying: “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever.”—Dan. 2:44, RS.

29-31. Why could not the “lowliest of men” that is set up over the kingdom of men mean either the Anglo-American world power or world communism?

²⁹ Over 2,500 years ago Daniel foretold this marvelous change. Today we are living in the very midst of it. In our day Jehovah sets up over the kingdom of men one who is called the “lowliest of men.” Who is this “lowliest of men”?

³⁰ In our day democracy and communism are hotly contending with each other. Democracy is of the lowly common people. Yet this “lowliest of men” could never be the mighty champion of democracy, the Anglo-American world power. This seventh world power of history is stricken out as the “lowliest of men” by Jehovah’s prophecy, which said: “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law . . . [This world power] magnified itself, even up to the Prince of the host [of heaven]; and the continual burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown.”—Dan. 7:25; 8:11, RS.

³¹ On the other hand, Russian communism is claimed to be the rule of the proletariat, the unpropertied class. Yet the “lowliest of men” could never be the system of ungodly world communism. Striking out that political movement which persistently aims at world domination, Jehovah God’s angel said: “He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods. . . . he shall magnify himself above all. He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these; a god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. He shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god; those who acknowledge him he shall magnify with honor.” (Dan. 11:36-39, RS) Those prophetic descriptions foretold no lowliness of spirit in either the Anglo-American world power or in its modern-day challenger, communism.

32, 33. Who truly is this “lowliest of men,” and how was this fact proved?

³² The one who is truly the “lowliest of men” is without compare. He is no degraded man, although he is so lowly. No other creature in heaven or on earth could lower himself so deeply for the glory of God and for the everlasting good of man as this lowly one did. Why not? Because, before he showed how lowly in spirit he is, he was existing in God’s form as a spirit creature in heaven. He was God’s first-born and only-begotten Son, by means of whom all other creatures in heaven and earth were made.

³³ In spite of his being first among all creatures of Jehovah God, he did not meditate on usurping God’s position and pretending to be equal with God. He did not try to magnify himself to the “Prince of the host” of heaven, nor did he “speak astonishing things against the God of gods,” Jehovah. To the contrary, says the sacred Record, “he emptied himself and took a slave’s form and came to be in the likeness of men. More than that, when he found himself in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, yes, death on a torture stake.” (Phil. 2:5-8) He spoke honestly about himself when he invited the toiling, loaded-down ones to come to him for relief. Far from being overbearing and oppressive, he said: “I am mild-tempered and lowly in heart.” (Matt. 11:28, 29) In lowly submission to the will of his God and heavenly Father he taught his disciples to pray: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.”—Matt. 6:9, 10.

The Divine Will Done in Heaven and Earth

1. What was it that got Jesus out of his carpenter shop and led him to John the Baptist?

UP TO thirty years of age Jesus was a carpenter in the obscure town of Nazareth in the despised province of Galilee. Rome was then dominating the earth as the sixth world power. What was it that got Jesus out of his carpenter shop and out of his obscurity? It was the announcement by John the Baptist, “The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” Jesus later taught his disciples to seek first God’s kingdom. So how could he hold himself down to carpentering when the interests of the kingdom of the heavens, that is, the kingdom of God, were to be served? Jewish people were repenting of their sins and being baptized by John in preparation for that kingdom, to be in subjection to it rather than to the pagan Roman Empire. How, then, could Jesus himself hold back from going to John the Baptist and declaring his stand for the kingdom of the heavens, the kingdom of God? It was no repentance over sins that drove the sinless Son of God to John to be baptized. His solemn determination to do the will of his heavenly Father in behalf of the greatest kingdom in the universe was what led Jesus to John.

2. What did Jesus’ water baptism declare concerning him, and what did Isaiah 53:7-12 show to be Jehovah’s will concerning him?

² Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan by John did not declare Jesus’ need to come into harmony with God’s Ten Commandments and other laws through Moses. It declared Jesus’ entrance into the Kingdom service. He made that the thing for which he lived henceforth. He died to everything behind on earth. His coming fulfilled Psalm 40:7, 8, which prophesied: “Here I have come, in the roll of the book it being written about me. To do your will, O my God, I have delighted.” God’s will for him was expressed in part in Isaiah 53:7-12: “He was being brought just like a sheep to the slaughtering . . . Because of the transgression of my people he had the [death] stroke. And he will make his burial place even with the wicked ones, and with the rich class in his death, despite the fact that he had done no violence and there was no deception in his mouth. But Jehovah himself took delight in crushing him; he made him sick. . . . and he himself carried the very sin of many people, and for the transgressors he proceeded to interpose.”

3. How did Jehovah’s rule of action cause Jesus to prove that he was the “lowliest of men”?

³ Jehovah’s rule of action toward Jesus was, “Before glory there is humility.” (Prov. 18:12) Jesus’ humility was to be proved by perfect obedience to God’s will. So, “although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.” It was God’s will, “in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Chief Agent of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” (Heb. 5:8; 2:10) Thus Jesus showed he was the “lowliest of men” in that he “humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, yes, death on a torture stake.”

4. What exaltation followed Jesus’ showing himself the most subservient to the will of the heavenly Father?

⁴ Was there anyone in the whole universe more subservient to the will of the heavenly Father? Was there anyone more deserving to whom God could will to give the Kingdom? “For this very reason also God exalted him to a superior position and kindly gave him the name that is above every other name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the ground, and every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”—Phil. 2:8-11.

5. Why should political rulers, especially “Christian” ones, have no reasons for objecting to Jesus’ becoming king, and yet what shows they pray his prayer hypocritically?

⁵ No human creature, therefore, not even the highest, mightiest potentate, has true ground for objecting to having the one who was the “lowliest of men” in such an incomparable way set up over the kingdom of men. No rulers, especially those who claim to be Christian, have any moral or religious reason for fighting against such a King when taking the rulership over all the earth and its peoples. Yet by their insane, beastlike course of action since 1914 they keep on saying concerning the “lowliest of men,” or God’s own choice: “We do not want this man to become king over us.” (Luke 19:14) They act hypocritically when they go to their church buildings and join in repeating the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come! Your will be done on earth as well as in heaven!”—Matt. 6:9, 10, AT.

6. How does Nebuchadnezzar’s statement after passing through “seven times” of insanity show it does such rulers no good to object?

⁶ Little good it does them to object and to fight against the “lowliest of men” now in Kingdom power. Remember what Nebuchadnezzar said after passing through his “seven times” of insanity. He blessed the Most High God and said: “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing; and he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What doest thou?’” Indeed, what do all the kings and rulers now gathered with their armies to Armageddon amount to? Nothing, in comparison! Even among the “host of heaven” the Most High God, Jehovah, does according to his supreme will.

7. How has Jehovah handled powerful spirit princes, and how was the newborn kingdom enabled to carry out God’s will?

⁷ God’s angel who was sent to Daniel revealed that all seven world powers of human history have each had a spirit demon “prince” in unseen control. Over all seven princes is the “ruler of the demons,” Satan the Devil, “the ruler of this world.” (Matt. 12:24; John 12:31; 14:30) These seven demon “princes” and their satanic ruler are far more powerful than earth’s rulers. Yet God has handled all eight of those spirits in having his will come to pass in heaven. During the career of all seven world powers beginning with ancient Egypt till now, Jehovah has let none of the spirit princes successfully interfere when he changed the times and seasons. In 1914, when the “seven times” appointed for the nations of Satan’s world ran out and it became the divine will for the kingdom of the “lowliest of men” to be set up, Jehovah did according to his will in the host of heaven. The great fiery-colored dragon, Satan the Devil, coiled himself up to spring and swallow up the Kingdom as soon as it should be born. However, he did not get to bury his fangs into the Kingdom. God’s will came to pass, and the Kingdom was put out of reach of the dragon’s jaws and it began carrying out God’s will.

8. After the birth of the kingdom, how did the heavenly Father’s will come to pass among the “host of heaven”?

⁸ God’s will was for war at once in heaven against the dragon and his demon host. These fought against the execution of the divine will. They merely battered themselves against the irresistible. In a prophetic preview of that heavenly war that began in 1914, the apostle John says: “Neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ.’” (Rev. 12:3-10) Thus the heavenly Father’s will came to pass among the host of heaven.

9, 10. (a) In view of the lack of success of the spirit princes up in heaven, what questions do we ask concerning earthly world powers? (b) How far has Satan finally got with all his opposition to God, and why will God keep on doing his will among men more drastically since 1914?

⁹ Satan the Devil and his world-power princes and his other demon angels could not succeed up in heaven. How, then, can the mighty seventh world power and the terrifying Communist power and all other political powers of men, all of them being lower than the angels, succeed on earth? How can they win out against the divine will that Jehovah’s kingdom by Christ should take over exclusive control and possession of the earth? The Most High God was able to control and regulate superhuman, angelic creatures. He has held onto his position of Most High and Almighty even among legions of enemy angels, the demons. He tolerated Satan the Devil up in heaven for about 5,938 years. With all his diabolical opposition during all that time, where and how high has the Devil got by this year 1959? As high as God’s footstool, the earth, down to which the Devil was violently ousted from heaven since 1914.

¹⁰ Down here, in rage at his humiliation, he eggs on men to a race into outer space to see how high they can get, for selfish advantages, without regard for God’s will. The Devil and his demons are acting behind a screen more impenetrable than the Iron Curtain. They are madly driving all the political rulers and their armies into a state of opposition to Jehovah God for an Armageddon fight, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” (Rev. 16:14, 16) But God has long held mighty angels and devils in subjection and in check. Much more easily can he check all human inhabitants on this his footstool. He will keep on doing according to his will among men, more drastically now since His “appointed times of the nations” have expired and since there is no more any divine restraint upon the kingdom of his Christ as regards interfering with the Gentile world powers.

THE LAMB BECOMES A LION

11. (a) What plain Bible truth should the nations of the Eastern, Western and neutral blocs now know? (b) By objecting to the fulfillment of Psalm 2:7-9, what will the nations cause the “lowliest of men” to do?

¹¹ Whether they are of the Eastern bloc or of the Western bloc or of the neutral bloc, let all nations know this plain Bible truth: The Creator and Owner of this earth has not given the earth to communism—and it is useless for the Communist bloc to continue scheming and working for earthwide domination. Nor has the Most High God given this earth to democracy, a government of and by the earth’s inhabitants who are accounted as nothing to Him. Since 1914 he has given this earth to theocracy, to the rule of God by Jesus Christ, not by the priests and clergy of Christendom. In Psalm 2:7-9 God long ago invited his heavenly Son to ask for the entire earth at the end of the “seven times” of world domination by Satan through mighty empires and nations on earth. Let the seventh world power, that is, the Anglo-American combination, let the eighth world power, that is, the United Nations with its eighty-one members Communist, democratic and neutral, let all the nations inside or outside the U.N., object, if they will, to God’s invitation to Christ. Let them fight against Christ’s acceptance of God’s invitation and taking over the earth. If the worldly nations under the demon princes and the chief demon Satan are sparring for a fight in this nuclear, missile, space age, then this time the “lowliest of men,” Jesus Christ, will take on the fight.

12. In contrast with his role on earth nineteen hundred years ago, what fight did Jesus Christ have on his hands in 1914, and how did it turn out?

¹² On earth nineteen centuries ago he was the Lamb of God, harmless and seemingly defenseless and nonbelligerent. No one on earth saw Jesus Christ in a violent fight. During World Wars I and II he was not fighting against men, on either side, regardless of what the religious clergy may have told their respective sides—with no Bible support. In 1914 Jesus Christ had on his hands a bigger fight than one with Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany or with Czar Nicholas II of Russia. In the war that broke out in heaven in 1914 he had on his hands a fight against a monster, the symbolic dragon Satan the Devil, and his demon angels, but he hurled them down to the earth.

13. (a) How about men seeing the “lowliest of men” fight in battle action? (b) How will he prove himself King of kings?

¹³ None of us then living on earth saw that invisible fight. With our eyes we could see only World War I raging on earth. Ah, but at the coming battle of Armageddon all humankind will really see Jesus Christ, the “lowliest of men,” fight, in battle action for Jehovah God. Then the great world powers, the other nations and all the people will know how Jesus Christ can really fight, yes, fight to victory against everything that is out of accord with the divine will. Then he will show himself, not as the slain Lamb, but as the kingly “Lion that is of the tribe of Judah,” the Lion of Jehovah’s praisers. To all mankind he will prove himself King of kings by gaining the victory, and Satan’s entire world will bite the dust at his footstool.—John 1:29, 36; Rev. 5:5, 12; 17:14; 19:11-21.

THE PEOPLE FOR THE DIVINE WILL

14. Why is this a period of greater change than in Noah’s day, and who are the firmly resolved, settled people that Jehovah foresaw for this time?

¹⁴ The occasion is here for the God of heaven to ‘change times and seasons, to remove kings and set up kings.’ (Dan. 2:19-21, RS) It is the time for removing the old world and setting up the new world under the “lowliest of men,” the King of kings. Even in the days of Noah distinguished by the global flood, men did not pass through a period of greater change than that through which this generation is passing. (Matt. 24:37-39) In the midst of all this change and unsettlement the God of heaven foresaw a stable, firmly resolved people who know what they want. That people is all you who have dedicated yourselves to the God of heaven and who want nothing else but that the heavenly Father’s will should come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth. It is you, who sincerely pray for his kingdom to come in complete fulfillment of his covenant for the Kingdom that he made with Jesus Christ. It is you, who uphold that Kingdom covenant without any compromise with worldly rulers, even the totalitarian, dictatorial, Communist rulers of this world.

15. Pointing to such uncompromising people, what did Jehovah’s angel say to Daniel?

¹⁵ Pointing to you uncompromising people, Jehovah’s angel said to Daniel: “They [the politicians] shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. He [the dictatorial ruling power] shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant; but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And those among the people who are wise shall make many understand, though they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder, for some days. When they fall, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery; and some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine and to cleanse them and to make them white, until the time of the end, for it is yet for the time appointed.”—Dan. 11:31b-35, RS.

16. How do you uncompromising people intelligently refuse to violate God’s covenant for the kingdom, and how have you settled the issue, The wild peace-beast or the Prince of Peace?

¹⁶ You who know your God refuse to violate his covenant for the Kingdom. You know that the God of heaven has given this kingdom to the “lowliest of men,” Jesus Christ. You are in favor of no one else to be set up over the kingdom of men. You know that God forewarned how men in this period of change would reject God’s kingdom and would decide on something man-made instead of the theocratic kingdom. They would set up the “abomination that makes desolate,” a substitute for the kingdom of God’s will. Today this abominable political idol, which has been set up with the full approval of the religious clergy, is the United Nations; and men idolize it by assigning to it more and more powers as the world’s last hope. They turn their eyes away from God’s kingdom, which is being proclaimed world-wide, and they bow in worship before this political-religious abomination, which God’s Word likens to a scarlet-colored wild beast, an international peace-beast. But as for you, you refuse to join in this international worship and to look to the U.N. for bringing in world peace, as this worship violates God’s covenant with the Prince of Peace for the kingdom. You know that the issue is, The wild peace-beast or the Prince of Peace! You have chosen the Prince of Peace, God’s anointed Son and reigning King.

17. How have you uncompromising people shown that you know your God, and how have you been tested by persecution?

¹⁷ You have taken this uncompromising stand for the Kingdom because you know your God. You know he is not some bodiless cosmic intelligence vaguely called God, without a purpose, without a history and without a name. Your God is a personal God, whose name you know to be Jehovah. You know you are commissioned by him to be his witnesses and to make known his holy name. You are spiritually intelligent and you discern what God’s main work for you is during this short period before the complete end comes upon this world. In agreement with your solemn decision to do God’s will you engage in a Bible educational work to “make many understand” the divine will, that these may do it and be saved into God’s new world of righteousness. For this unwavering course of action you have undergone much persecution. You have been forced to stumble and stagger along because of sword and flame, captivity and plunder, for many days till now, by dictatorial powers. Some of our number have been made to stumble even to a fall into death. This has served as a test of our faith in God and a test of our integrity toward him and of our loyalty to his kingdom, which we are commissioned to preach to all the nations for a final witness before their end comes.

18. In what refinement and cleansing has this persecution resulted?

¹⁸ Because of this persecution that has dealt so cruelly with many of us even to the death of martyrs of faith, we have had our numbers refined. We have been cleansed of all partnership with this world and have been made white in our righteous appearance before God’s eyes. We are determined, however, to endure this persecution and oppression because of our exclusive devotion to Jehovah God until his time comes for the enemy persecutor’s end at Armageddon.

19. In fulfillment of the angel’s prophecy, with what have many persons joined themselves to us, and how does this include spies?

¹⁹ In our Bible-educational work in 175 lands, islands and territories we have reached many millions of people of many kinds. Hundreds of thousands have gained understanding in God’s Word and have responded to the announcement of God’s kingdom and, like Jesus, have dedicated themselves to God for the doing of his will. But it has also been true that “many shall join themselves to them with flattery.” These many have become personally acquainted with the people that know their God. They have a closeup view of the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. They have only good words for the cleanness of the organization and for the love its members show for God and his Christ and for one another. They express admiration at our courageous stand for the principles of God’s Word. They associate themselves with us in a study of God’s Word, even in their own homes and in our Kingdom Halls. But how much of all this is little more than flattery? It is sheer flattery if any enemy agents come into our midst to spy upon us and to try to undermine the organization spiritually and to betray us to dictatorial or totalitarian rulers, after their flattery has thrown some of us off guard.

20. It is largely flattery if outspoken admirers do not advance to what point, and so to mere chatterers what do we say?

²⁰ It is largely flattery if the outspoken admirers go no farther than mere words and do not copy God’s dedicated people and do not likewise dedicate themselves and join with us in witnessing to God’s kingdom, although this makes the world their enemy and brings suffering and persecution upon them. In our Bible-education work and witnessing to God’s provision for salvation we are not seeking merely to hear words of flattery. We are seeking the lost sheep of the Great Shepherd Jehovah, in order to bring them to the fold under his Right Shepherd Jesus Christ. Not the winning of words of praise from flatterers, but the gathering of sheeplike people to God’s refuge of salvation is what means that our work has been a success. The joining of sheeplike lovers of God with us in worshiping and serving him while at the same time suffering with us—this is what gives us real help, though this be little in comparison with what God and Christ and the holy angels give us. To mere flatterers we say, Do not flatter creatures, but give true praise to the Creator. Become his dedicated witnesses. This is what saves!

21, 22. (a) What is it that so wonderfully unites us? (b) In harmony with his expressed will, what is our united prayer?

²¹ Amidst the anarchistic conflict of human wills today, we are exclusively for God’s expressed will. This divine will is what unites us so wonderfully in heart, in mind, in words and in action. Our united prayer to God is, Let his kingdom come in its victorious assault upon the Devil’s entire organization at Armageddon. Yes, let his perfect, righteous and holy will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon this earth, his footstool. Let the wicked opposers of his will be swept out of existence. Let the faithful, loving, obedient doers of his will behold his vindicative victory over all his enemies at Armageddon and let them enter into the new world of righteousness, peace, truth and holiness. Let the entire earth be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea basins.

²² Let his kingdom bless this earth, that paradise may be restored and beautify his earthly footstool and provide an everlasting happy home for perfect human creatures in his image and likeness. Let his anointed King call out and all those in the memorial tombs hear and come forth in resurrection to the opportunities to be won and enjoyed forever in Paradise by all those who obey his kingdom. Let all the wicked everywhere be annihilated, but let all those loving Jehovah be guarded for life eternal. Let all his works, in all places of his domination, bless Jehovah. Let every breathing thing praise Jehovah, because his will has come to pass.

Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses

GOD’S kingdom rules—throughout the universe! As never before in history it made its presence felt in the earth in the summer of the year 1958, not with any violence, but with a remarkable peaceful demonstration. Never before did it have so many of its ambassadors and envoys assembled together for training and consultation and for a united public testimony and proclamation as then. The world-known Yankee Stadium and the neighboring Polo Grounds, the largest baseball parks in metropolitan New York city, literally overflowed with myriads, yet without disorder of any kind, just as befitted representatives of the great Government of universal order. Daily for eight days in succession more than 145,000 of them came together and deliberated concerning the interests of God’s kingdom; and peace, orderliness and brotherhood reigned among them. The tension, the fierce charges and countercharges, the rivalry and the clash that marked the official gatherings at the United Nations capital a few miles to the south did not disturb or mar a single session of the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses from Sunday, July 27, to Sunday, August 3. Coming from at least 123 countries and island groups, yet they met together in loyal unity around the now-ruling kingdom of God.

The hostility of the nations of the East and of the West because of endangerment to their divided selfish interests had brought all mankind near to the brink of war—of World War III. The Middle East, a zone of continual ferment and recurring trouble in Bible history, was like a powder keg that a wild spark could blow up. Violent rebellion had overthrown the royal government in the ancient Bible land of Mesopotamia, and Russia and the United Arab Republic of Egypt and Syria had promptly recognized the rebel regime. At the request of the then constitutional president of Lebanon, the United States of America had landed thousands of troops in that coastal land of famous cedar trees; and at the request of the king of Jordan Great Britain had landed troops at its capital Amman. Selfishly concerned nations called these moves “acts of aggression.” The United Nations and its border observation force proved to be unequal to the emergency. The earthly situation was shaping up dangerously. For an international nonpolitical assembly of any size to be held the time seemed to be most inopportune. Especially so when delegates would come from the four quarters of the earth, even areas in the trouble zone, and would be dependent upon the world transportation system.

However, the long-announced international assembly had not been misnamed. It was the “Divine Will” for it to be held, and world conditions had to yield to it. The Most High God of heaven, who rules by means of his enthroned Son Jesus Christ, displayed his power to rule in the midst of his demonic and human enemies. He restrained the forces behind the Eastern and Western blocs of nations in order that the ambassadors and envoys of his heavenly kingdom might assemble in peace according to divine will.

It takes time and organization to gather together any great number of ambassadors, diplomats and official representatives from worldly nations. Expect, then, the coming together at New York city of more than 150,000 ambassadors and envoys of God’s kingdom from more than sixscore lands, and one can at least faintly imagine the amount of time and organization it had to take to arrange to bring together all the dedicated Christian witnesses of Jehovah to the Divine Will International Assembly for eight days.

All those attending had been given nineteen months of advance notice by the announcement that appeared in the issue of December 15, 1956, of the official Kingdom magazine, The Watchtower, Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom, page 763. By that time the contract had been secured for the use of the Yankee Stadium during the announced eight days. However, in view of the growth of the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses since the 1953 international assembly in Yankee Stadium, supplemented by a Trailer City many miles away in the neighboring state of New Jersey, it was evident from the start of the negotiations that more than the one stadium was needed for the vastly greater number of assembly delegates expected. So with intense interest the spiritual governing body of Jehovah’s witnesses watched the developments with regard to the baseball park of the New York Giants, the Polo Grounds, just northwest across the Harlem River from Yankee Stadium. A shift of the National League baseball team, the New York Giants, from New York city to San Francisco, California, was under consideration; and providentially this transfer was approved on August 19, 1957, by the Board of Directors of the corporation operating the team. This shift left the Polo Grounds without regular occupancy and hence available for assembly use. Without delay the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society closed a contract with the owners to use the Polo Grounds simultaneously with Yankee Stadium.

Efforts, begun long in advance, to procure an ample and convenient site for erecting a Trailer City to accommodate tens of thousands of theocratic assemblers failed repeatedly. Finally, near the time for the opening of the international assembly, the monthly service folder, Kingdom Ministry, as of July, 1958, advised definitely that there would be “no trailer city.” It was plainly the divine will that all the theocratic assemblers meet together at one site, in direct contact with one another and in full view of one another, under one administration, for one combined demonstration of Christian love, fellowship and solidarity. Whatever tents were to be pitched were to be those right alongside the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium for cafeteria and for great overflow crowds to sit under cover and listen to the Assembly program by sound equipment.

Moreover, there were other vital meetings to be held with key members of Jehovah’s visible organization that could not conveniently be held inside the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium. For such special meetings, as well as for additional overflow accommodations, the New Rockland Palace was rented, just one city block south of the Polo Grounds. Thus the all-provident King of eternity, Jehovah God, not only called his royal ambassadors and envoys to the great Kingdom assembly but also saw to it that they had ample accommodations for meetings and for transacting their affairs.

LODGINGS AND DEPARTMENTAL SERVICES

Although situated in a so-called Christian land, New York city is in fact a great pagan city, a large percentage of it not professing Christianity or even Judaism and those who do merely “having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.” (2 Tim. 3:5) This great metropolis and its environs, with over eight millions of inhabitants, have many hotels, tourist camps and motels, but not enough rooms were available at convenient rates for the critical time, the international assembly dates. Since all the assembly delegates from all quarters of the earth were to flock together to New York city and needed to be roomed there and roundabout, with no trailer city available, this posed a big problem, not for the great God of heaven, but for his witnesses in and about New York city who were to play hosts to the overwhelming number of guests from outside this metropolitan area. But the hand of Almighty God, the divine Host, worked in their behalf, however, not without strenuous effort and extreme hospitality on the part of the members of the seventy-three congregations inside New York city and many other congregations roundabout.

Generously the Yankee Stadium management provided the use of its facilities for the two-hour “kickoff” meeting on Saturday afternoon April 26, 1958, for starting off the campaign to get rooming accommodations in the private homes of people in this great pagan or semireligious area, where neighborliness is not much practiced with one’s heart in it. Fully 9,000 attended this kickoff meeting in Yankee Stadium to receive encouragement and instructions on how to proceed with this mammoth rooming-accommodations task and succeed in it. At the very start they were told that they would have to accommodate more than 150,000 guests, who would come by various means of transport from more than a hundred lands and largely with limited means for lodging and other assembly expenses.

The very next morning that largest number ever to launch a rooming-accommodations campaign was out in the field, going to the private homes in the metropolitan area seeking and completing arrangements for lodgings for the coming theocratic assemblers. Exemplarily the homes of members of the metropolitan congregations threw open their own doors first in an expression of hospitality to Christian ministers, to Kingdom ambassadors and envoys, before asking the homes of Catholics, Protestants, Jews and outright pagans to do so. The Brooklyn Bethel home, where the central headquarters personnel of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania have their home, arranged to take in more than three hundred assembly delegates from more than eighty lands, one or two or more extra cots being installed in each dwelling room. Happy were the hospitable, for they were shown hospitality when sorely needed.

Following due announcement, the requests for rooms in hotels and private homes poured in by the thousands each week at the rooming-accommodations department on the eleventh floor of the Watchtower Building, 77 Sands Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. For many weeks the number of requests received exceeded the number of rooming accommodations definitely engaged, and the margin between the requests and the rooms secured widened. The first weekend of the Assembly month saw more than 30,000 requests still not accommodated, and more requests were sure to come in by mail, not counting in the many requests that would be made directly at the Rooming Departments when set up at Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds. With just three more weeks to go till Assembly, faith and perseverance needed to be exercised to the limit in the hunt for rooms. What a joy and relief it was, when, at the dinner table just a few days before the Assembly start, the president of the Watch Tower Society read off a triumphant rooming-accommodations report to the Brooklyn Bethel family, revealing that several hundred rooming accommodations had at last been secured in excess of all the requests received to that date! The great King and heavenly Supervisor of the approaching international assembly had rewarded the hospitality, the strenuous labors and the faith of the congregations of his dedicated witnesses in and around the Assembly city. Still the engaging of further rooms continued, in order to provide for any emergencies as to lodgings.

By television, radio, printed matter and direct, personal visitation at homes and hotels the colossal need for rooms was advertised to the millions of inhabitants of New York city. Many were the cases of exceptional generosity that turned up in exhibition of good will and confidence toward Jehovah’s witnesses, thousands of absolutely free accommodations being tendered. Thus the entire metropolitan district was keenly alive to the fact that New York city was to play host to the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses. From the beginning of July onward, advertising cards in New York city subway trains, billboards, magazines, handbills, newspaper announcements, radio and television, besides bumper signs on thousands of private autos from all parts of America and Canada, were overwhelming the people with notice of the Assembly and especially of its public meeting on August 3.

Long before the first official announcement of the Assembly was made in the Kingdom magazine, The Watchtower, behind-the-scenes preparations were already under way for it. Jehovah God the King of eternity has gifted his earthly organization with the needed farsightedness like that of the high-perched eagle. This 1958 Assembly was included within the purpose of the Most High God, and nothing could be left to take care of itself without preparation. The Assembly was to be a world-impressive demonstration of the power, organizability, theocraticalness and presence of God’s kingdom. Hence the Assembly needed the utmost of preparation, with due attention to the thousands of details. There is nothing slipshod about God’s kingdom. For an assembly of the size estimated, an organized personnel of ten thousand voluntary workers had to be assembled and assigned to departments and duties, from workers serving on the platform program down through the twenty-two listed departments, yes, down to the vital cleaning and sanitation department. Everything deserved to be done for the comfort, convenience and help of the Assembly delegates that they might better enjoy the program of platform events and of united field activities in advertising God’s kingdom for eight days straight. One can well imagine the extensive and intensive planning, arranging and organization work that had to go forward. Not only was there an organizational structure to be worked out, but many physical structures had to be prefabricated for the platforms and their decorations, for the booths, for the sound-equipment facilities, and for many other things. A tremendous amount of printing in many languages needed to be done on short order. This kept the Society’s factories in Brooklyn working night and day, for weeks.

THE KINGDOM A DOMINANT FEATURE

The divine Creator of heaven and earth does everything with a purpose in expression of his will. (Rev. 4:11) The Divine Will International Assembly of his witnesses had to serve his purpose, because it was held in his name. His purpose was that this Assembly should serve the interests of his established kingdom now ruling. In any international gathering of ambassadors, foreign ministers or heads of governments it is very necessary for first an agenda to be worked out, a program of events, a listing of subjects that it is agreed upon to discuss freely, in the hope of coming to some agreement and understanding and thus making progress and getting something done. Since the Divine Will International Assembly concerned itself with the greatest and only enduring government in the wide universe, it was highly proper that a far-reaching, many-featured, progressive and purposeful program be scheduled. The program had to be in full harmony with the divine will as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, in the light of fulfilled Bible prophecy. It had to serve the interests of God’s kingdom as such interests were dictated by the needs of God’s ambassadors and envoys in doing the work that they are ordained to do in all the earth, in the midst of enemies.

The thirty-two-page printed program, in an attractive cover, was distributed at the two Assembly stadiums on the day before the Assembly opened. It amazed the theocratic assemblers with the great variety of its features and the richness and interestingness of the matters that were to be handled from the platform. In fact, since two Assembly stadiums were to be served, it really required the putting on of a double program, each feature of which, with a few exceptions, was presented first at one stadium and then shortly afterward at the other stadium by the same speaker or symposium of speakers or group of demonstrators. The nearness of the two stadiums to each other, requiring just a few minutes’ ride on the subway train under the Harlem River from the one stadium station to the very next stadium station made this conveniently possible. So each audience in each stadium got things directly, first hand, from its own platform. Each stadium had its own assistant chairman and assistant convention servant and orchestra.

The printed program gave the menu of the spiritual feast that the divine King of the universe was to spread for his assembled ambassadors and envoys. (2 Cor. 5:20) Here, in an exceptional and large-scale way, through the publications of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, Jehovah God the King was calling out in the words of Isaiah 55:1-3: “Hey there, all you thirsty ones! Come to the water. And the ones that have no money! Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk even without money and without price. Why do you people keep paying out money for what is not bread and why is your toil for what results in no satisfaction? Listen intently to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul find its exquisite delight in fatness itself. Incline your ear and come to me. Listen, and your soul will keep alive.”

Ah yes, all those dedicated witnesses of Jehovah God who came to the Assembly had turned away from toiling and paying out money for materialism at a high price in dissatisfaction. They had hungered and thirsted for a divine government to rule all the parts of the earth where they lived. So in dedication to Jehovah God through Jesus Christ they turned to God’s kingdom as the only means for the everlasting blessing of all the families and nations of the earth. Without paying financially for ministerial training in any of Christendom’s theological seminaries they had begun to eat freely of the milk of the fatness of God’s service, being enriched with pure Bible knowledge and enjoying many privileges in the ministry of Kingdom truth for which this precious knowledge equipped them. They drank deeply of the wine of Kingdom joys that their ministry as ambassadors and envoys of God’s kingdom brought to them. Now, by attending this international assembly, they wanted to learn and to be trained how to partake more fully of the wine and milk of ministerial joys and privileges, which a minister enjoys by proclaiming God’s kingdom and by gathering all the other hungry, thirsty sheeplike people into God’s fold under Christ. At this 1958 international assembly the teeming multitudes of delegates enjoyed the richest, most wholesome spiritual feast yet.

The rule of God’s kingdom is global, despite the enemies in the midst of which it must rule. In support of this fact is the observable presence of Jehovah’s witnesses in more than 170 countries and islands around the globe. In all those territories Matthew 24:14 is being proved to be a true prophecy by the preaching of the good news of God’s established kingdom to the many nations by his witnesses. All these witnesses are under the supervision of the now eighty-five Branch offices of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania, including the American Branch in Brooklyn, N.Y., each Branch having its own assigned territory to supervise and to report on directly to the President of the Society at Brooklyn, N.Y. Taking advantage of the Assembly, the Society’s president called in each supervisory Branch servant to report in person directly to him at Brooklyn and to the international assembly.

Despite the troubled world conditions, only two of the Branch servants were prevented by men in worldly authority from answering the call to the visible headquarters of Jehovah’s witnesses in Brooklyn. The Society’s president who has visited almost all of these Branch offices and factories around the globe, appreciated the need for all the Branches to carry on the functions of their various departments uniformly, according to proved efficient methods. So, after he himself had made a personal inspection of the Society’s biggest and most complicated Branch in Brooklyn over several weeks, he composed an all-embracing book of guidance and instruction for all Branch organizations and had it specially printed. This large-size 158-page loose-leaf book is entitled “Branch Office Procedure of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania”; and its instructions were to be put into effect from September 1, 1958, forward. This new book required study and discussion. On July 16, or about two weeks before the Assembly began, the Society’s president called together all the more than eighty Branch servants present, together with their respective assistants, totaling all together 160 overseers, to the Kingdom Hall located in the Brooklyn Bethel building, at 136 Columbia Heights. There, day after day, he went over this Branch Office Procedure book with them discussing it, enlarging on it, answering their questions upon it, until two days before the Assembly opened. The gift of a copy of this special book to each one of the Branch servants was, in effect, the first release of the international assembly, or at least a preliminary release.

Inasmuch as each Branch is equipped with this instruction book and must follow it, Jehovah’s witnesses in any territory around the globe may have the fullest confidence in the particular Branch that supervises their witness activities and congregational affairs. They know that such Branch, no matter how distant from headquarters and no matter how small or recently established, is operating according to the most advanced, up-to-date procedure, in full harmony with all other Branches, even the oldest and largest. Thus no one should despise or ignore any one Branch, but every active witness of Jehovah should appreciate that the entire organization of many parts is working in complete unity. Each witness should therefore cooperate and be submissive.

DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE

According to the skillfully planned program, each of the Assembly days was given a name that emphasized some theocratic principle or activity. Beginning with Sunday, July 27, the days were named in the following order: Faithfulness Day, Exclusive Devotion Day, Expanding Our Ministry Day, Tasting Divine Goodness Day, Fullness of Service Day, Fearless Ministry Day, “Your Will Come to Pass” Day and God’s Kingdom Day. Thus on the eighth and last day the names culminated in a theme that called attention to the outstanding teaching of the Holy Bible, God’s kingdom. This harmonized perfectly with the subject of the public lecture that climaxed the closing day, “God’s Kingdom Rules—Is the World’s End Near?” This theocratic kingdom is inseparable from the divine will, for it is by God’s kingdom that the model prayer to the heavenly Father is carried out, “Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:9, 10) All the discussions and talks of the preceding seven days led the assemblers into a grander, soul-filling appreciation of God’s glorious kingdom that has been ruling in the heavens since 1914 by his enthroned Son, Jesus Christ.

The Divine Will International Assembly was no assembly for true, dedicated Christians just to have a relaxing good time together, listening to some entertainment program or to eulogistic speeches in praise of themselves and enjoying pleasant sociabilities together. The Assembly was arranged to be and it proved to be a most instructive training school, with the latest, most advanced Scriptural and organizational information to be given out. To this end, not only were the Society’s Branch servants called in, but all the district and circuit servants and as many foreign congregation servants understanding English as possible were brought to the Assembly. These were key men in the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses around the globe. They especially needed and deserved the counsel, the training and the mighty tonic spiritual effect that were to be imparted at the Assembly. Besides these, practically all the graduates of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, who were still active in full service as missionaries and special pioneers, were brought in. Congregations all around the globe had made voluntary contributions to the Watch Tower Society toward meeting the travel expenses of all such worthy ones; and this aided greatly in bringing them to the Assembly from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and the Americas and the many islands of the seas.

The Society’s president made provision for meeting in special morning sessions with these outstanding representatives and appointed servants of the Society. It was particularly for such special sessions that the New Rockland Palace was engaged. On Tuesday morning, July 29, 1,211 missionaries who make use of fifty-eight languages in their territories met with the Society’s president and the teaching faculty of the School of Gilead to hear encouraging talks and to enjoy a special tray-dinner together. All thirty-one graduated classes of Gilead were represented, thirty-one missionaries being from the first class of 1943. Wednesday morning marked a meeting with another group of full-time workers whom the Society sustains, namely, the special pioneers, who are doing vitally needed witness work in many lands in specially assigned locations.

Many circuit and district servants had had schooling in Gilead, but at 9:30 a.m., both Thursday and Friday, at the Palace, the Society’s president met with all the circuit and district servants from all lands and nationalities. This was with a view to improving their ministry as special overseers of the many congregations in their circuits and districts. These two mornings of discussion and of taking counsel together at the Palace were supplemented by the talks “Keeping Strict Watch on How We Walk” and “Shepherding the Sheep with Skillfulness” by the Society’s vice-president and president respectively on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, these talks being particularly directed to district, circuit and congregational servants, all of whom sat together in a reserved section of the stadium to hear these special talks.

A further talk Saturday morning by one of the Society’s directors from the headquarters’ Service Department, on the subject, “Overseers, Keep Your Congregation Alive,” emphasized the importance and responsibleness of spiritual overseers, on whatever level of service privileges they find themselves. Overseers with a still larger supervision received due attention during the Assembly itself when the Society’s president met again with the Branch servants together with their assistants, at the Palace on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Branch servants as well as district and circuit servants also attended when the president addressed himself to all brothers who held the appointment as public relations servants, at the Palace on Monday, July 28, at 9:30 a.m. What those public relations servants there absorbed they were soon able to apply when they returned home and publicized in their local areas the grand features and the exploits of the Assembly which they had personally observed. Public relations servants hold a responsible relationship to the public continually in being obligated to advertise God’s kingdom and his New World society impressively and favorably by means of newspapers, magazines, radio, television and other valid means.

All the foregoing special meetings added greatly to the onerous duties of the Society’s president as a principal overseer of God’s flock on earth; but those meetings had a spurring and educational effect on all those privileged to take part in the meetings.

REALIZATION SURPASSES ANTICIPATION

The Assembly’s very opening day, Faithfulness Day, held forth the promise of surpassingly grand things to be realized here at this international assembly down to its thrilling climax. From the start the Assembly was marked by internationality. Each day the temporary chairman in each stadium was of a different nationality, as follows: American, Japanese, Brazilian, Filipino, Mexican, Northern Rhodesian, Ghanan, Egyptian, Moroccan, Argentinian, Austrian, British, Ceylonese, Grecian and French. Moreover, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday morning, two-hour sessions were held in various sections of the two stadiums in twenty foreign languages to give Assembly résumés to those not well acquainted with English.

The first Sunday morning, July 27, in a feature entitled “We Are Glad It Is the Divine Will that We Are Here,” Branch servants from fifteen foreign lands, including Alaska, Australia Korea and South Africa, occupied the platform for forty-five minutes. The servant of the American Branch, in his capacity as Assembly Chairman, delivered a cordial Address of Welcome to an audience of 122,061 from 123 or more lands. The entire globe has been divided into large zones, each one taking in a number of the Society’s eighty-five Branches, each zone under a traveling zone servant. Seven such servants, who themselves hailed from Denmark, Japan, the Philippines, Ceylon, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Northern Rhodesia, spoke for a period of fifteen minutes on the platform as “Zone Servants Representing the Nations.” That same Sunday afternoon the internationalism of the Assembly, as forecast in the famous, oft-quoted prophecy of Isaiah 2:2-4, was shoved into bold relief in the graduation exercises of the thirty-first class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead.

On that occasion, in the running track around Yankee Stadium, in their respective class groups, sat the still-active missionaries and full-time workers of the preceding thirty graduated classes of Gilead, many in national dress. At the home plate of the Yankee team’s baseball diamond sat the 103 students of class No. 31, whose graduating exercises were now to proceed. Called to Gilead from sixty-four lands, only four being Americans, they formed a colorful group as they sat clad in native costume. Rainfall, which began at 3:35 p.m., halfway through the School president’s hour-long talk on “Stay by These Things,” did not budge them from their seats. It was still raining when the time came for them to file to the platform for the Society’s president to present to them their diplomas so well merited. After this presentation of diplomas a student read a Resolution as the united expression of the multination thirty-first class of Gilead. Then, after failing to halt the graduation exercises, the rainfall itself halted, and the astoundingly great audience of 180,291 witnesses in and around both stadiums rejoiced greatly that 103 more specially trained Kingdom educators were now ready to be sent forth on their mission to fifty-two lands of the inhabited earth. That night under the light of a shining moon, 111,795 conventioners hugely enjoyed the two-and-half-hour-long feature, “The Students of the 31st Class of Gilead from 64 Lands Express Themselves,” in native costume, at both stadiums. The students expressed themselves in seventeen highly varied, tuneful, colorful, stirring solo and group presentations that held the attention of the vast audience from start to finish.

Continuing to keep the international make-up and activity of the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses to the fore, the Branch servants or representatives from the remainder of the Watch Tower Society’s Branches continued to present territorial reports to the Assembly from day to day. Each servant played up some different feature that marked the increase of the territorial organization. All these servants swept their great audiences along with them through the lengths and the breadths of the earth, into 164 lands where Jehovah’s witnesses are courageously preaching the good news of His kingdom in more than 120 languages, underground as well as above ground.

To supply a report on eight countries under Communist rule, where Jehovah’s witnesses are banned and must operate underground, a Swiss delegate occupied forty-five minutes in presenting the feature “Behind the Iron Curtain.” It was quite sensational to learn that there were 80,000 witnesses whose service reports proved that they refused to obey the Communist ban and quit preaching Jehovah’s kingdom; and that 90,000 persons had secretly attended the annual celebration of the Lord’s Evening Meal last April 3, 1958. Of that large number, however, merely 126 partook of the bread and wine in symbol of their being of the spirit-begotten remnant of Christ’s joint heirs for the heavenly kingdom. To add some heart-stirring realism to this report from behind the penetrable Iron Curtain, the Swiss delegate played a tape recording that had been smuggled across a number of frontiers. By means of this the audience of 127,802 on Saturday morning actually heard a group of underground witnesses sing in four-part harmony two sacred songs from our 1928 Songbook and heard a message of greeting and prayerful good wishes from an underground overseer. What loyalty God’s kingdom calls forth!

Branch servants and circuit and district servants fulfilled other parts on the greatly diversified educational program. Representative brothers from the Society’s central establishment in Brooklyn also served on the platform in certain vital features. The counsel and instruction given from the Scriptures not only had in mind the representative responsible servants of the earthwide organization but also dealt with the Christian obligations of parents and children, husbands and wives, and the hundreds of thousands of congregation members who take part in Kingdom preaching. In fact, all features of Christian living were touched upon in the platform talks, and much practical advice from God’s Word was given.

A number of true-life accounts were given by still-active, long-time faithful missionaries under the title “We Pursued Our Purpose in Life.” Various ways and means of penetrating into many untouched lands and islands where the witness work is barred to missionaries and there organizing congregations were described under the theme “Serving Where the Need Is Great Overseas.” The opportunities in one’s own home country were forcibly brought to mind in the companion talk “Filling the Need in Our Own Country.” Those talks showed the way out to the many witnesses who may feel cramped in their preaching opportunities in congregation territories that are so congested with local Kingdom publishers that the territories get worked very frequently because of the continual activities. But the talk “Staying Where the Need Is Great” reminded Kingdom publishers to endure and persevere and be stable in their assigned territories and not yield to wanderlust, disgust or despair.

The thirty-minute discussion of “Theocratic School for Fearless Ministers” stirred up a sustained applause when the speaker, the Society’s president, sprang a surprise on his combined audience of 173,079 Friday night. What was it? That, from the beginning of 1959, sisters in the congregations were to be privileged to enroll in the weekly Theocratic Ministry School. They would then take part in the platform presentations to the extent of demonstrating how to give six-minute sermons to people at their homes, these sermons being based on an assigned number of pages in the new publication entitled “From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained.” This was for the sisters a really serious assignment in the Theocratic Ministry School, for they were to be counseled afterward by the school servant on their presentation. This talk on how the program of the school will thus be expanded was followed by an hour-long platform demonstration of a School session that combined the new feature. There were the usual instruction talk and two student talks first by three brothers, but then at the close there came two six-minute sermons, each given by a sister from the Brooklyn Bethel headquarters family to another sister playing a counterpart. Each of the two sisters giving the sermons was then counseled by the school servant, the same as the two brothers giving student talks had been counseled.

Wednesday morning, or Tasting Divine Goodness Day, afforded a sight that had no equal since the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem A.D. 33, or nineteen centuries ago. The preceding night (Tuesday) the Branch servant from Korea had given the half-hour talk on “What Prevents Me from Getting Baptized?” Now this morning that question was to be answered. How many there in attendance at the Assembly had tasted of the divine goodness and had responsively dedicated themselves to the divine Good One? How many were now asking themselves the Ethiopian’s question, “What prevents me from getting baptized?” (Acts 8:36) All such dedicated ones sat in a specially reserved section down front in the grandstand of Yankee Stadium. Tens of thousands of waiting, watching observers surrounded them. The Swedish Branch servant addressed them in accord with the subject “Baptism According to the Divine Will.” He had two basic, searching questions to ask them in order to learn whether anything prevented them from getting baptized. At his request the baptismal applicants rose to answer audibly in unison these two determining questions. At that moment the great crowd of observers sent wave upon wave of heavy applause surging through the vast stadium. Why? Because so many stood to show that nothing prevented them from symbolizing their dedication to God through Christ by water baptism.

At the Orchard Beach swimming area miles away, where they were transported by seventy-five-passenger buses, they trooped into the sea in thirty lines to be baptized. At the end of two and a half hours the count of those actually baptized ran up to 2,937 men and 4,199 women, to total 7,136. This was 4,136 more than were baptized that day of Pentecost long ago, and they represented far more than the sixteen nations that were represented on that Pentecost. The Pentecostal baptism of 3,000 in water was in response to the revealed fact that Jesus was seated as Lord and Christ at the right hand of his Father in heaven. The baptism of 7,136 at the 1958 Divine Will International Assembly was a record-breaking response to the fact that God’s kingdom rules since the world-disturbing year of 1914.

For a couple of days prior to Friday an urgent appeal was made for all delegates to be present Friday afternoon when the issue was to be submitted to the Assembly, “Why This Convention Should Resolve.” To the boundless joy of the whole Assembly, the amazing number of 194,418 responded to the invitation. For three quarters of an hour the Society’s vice-president laid before this applause-happy multitude Scriptural reasons why the Assembly should seize this unequaled occasion to unite in an unequivocal resolve, thus going on record before God, angels and men. Eagerly, for the next fifteen minutes, they listened to the Society’s president as he read declaration after declaration of the proposed Resolution. This outrightly exposed Christendom’s clergy as the most reprehensible class on earth today. It reaffirmed the witnesses’ own theocratic principles. It unashamedly proclaimed God’s kingdom by Christ to be the sole means of salvation for all men who long for peace and security. It strongly asserted their determination to serve and preach God’s kingdom in love peace and unity and without letup, like our faithful brothers behind the Iron Curtain, until Jehovah himself brings the witness work to a world smashing finale by his own act of testimony at Armageddon. Applause greeted the president’s motion that the Resolution as read be adopted. His motion being seconded, he put the question, and 194,418 voices roared out a unanimous Aye! The consequences of this forthright Resolution all those who heartily adopted it stand ready to meet with Almighty God’s help.

PRINTED GIFTS

Unknown to the tens of thousands attending the Assembly the New World Bible Translation Committee had finished its work on Volume IV of the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures on April 13, 1958. So it released it for the Watchtower Society’s factory to print. Volume IV contains the translation of the prophetic books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Lamentations. Jehovah having provided his witnesses with this latest translation of these three Bible books, it was apparent that his special messages for the Divine Will International Assembly should be drawn from those prophecies. They were. The reprehensibility of Christendom’s clergy as set forth in the Resolution that the Assembly adopted was foreshadowed by Jehovah’s denunciation of Judah’s religious leaders, in Jeremiah, chapter 23. Other principal speeches were likewise based upon the prophecies contained in this latest volume of the New World Translation. The president’s keynote speech on Monday afternoon, “Signs and Wonders in the Time of the End,” rested chiefly upon Isaiah’s prophecy; similarly the vice-president’s speech on Tuesday afternoon “Divine Loving-Kindness and the Kingdom,” and his speech on Saturday night, “When Jehovah Rises Up to His Unusual Work.” The president’s speech of Wednesday afternoon, “Down with the Old—Up with the New!” was a present-day application of dynamic prophecies of Jeremiah, who, together with men of good will, survived the shocking destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 607 B.C. At the dramatic close of this Jeremian speech the Society’s president evoked great applause from his audience of 150,282 by releasing Volume IV of the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Tens on tens of thousands of copies of it were eagerly taken by the vast throng at the close of the session.

Thursday afternoon, July 31, was paradisaic in both its assembly and in what it produced. The surroundings of the speakers’ platforms of both stadiums were paradisaic in their physical beauty. The audience of 145,488 all roundabout were enjoying a feast of Christian association and Kingdom truths in a spiritual paradise. Their appreciation of this fact was sharpened by the speech of the Society’s president entitled “Maintaining Our Spiritual Paradise.” He crowned the occasion by his entirely unexpected display and release of the glowingly beautiful, handsomely illustrated book of 256 pages, bearing the title “From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained.” This book wastes no time and space discussing false doctrines of worldly religions, but simply explains the God-honoring truths of the sacred Bible as these came to the surface in the outworking of God’s purpose to restore obedient humankind to an everlasting earthly paradise. But this restoration has to be preceded by the establishing of God’s heavenly kingdom and his restoring first a spiritual paradise for his faithful Christian witnesses. It was this spiritual paradise that had to be maintained now with faithfulness and fruitfulness by its blest, happy inhabitants.

The book on Paradise had been published, not with children in mind, but for the purpose of satisfying the need and craving of adult persons in many lands who needed a primary or elementary manner of approach to the pure truths of God’s Word. After the session there was many an assembler that took copies of the book in large quantity. Delight went permeating the mighty hosts assembled.

Why the international assembly was embellished with the title Divine Will dawned on the delegates especially Saturday afternoon. The day’s name itself was drawn from the words of our Lord’s Prayer. This was true also of the president’s speech, “Let Your Will Come to Pass.” For twenty-three times his audience of 175,441 applauded his descriptions of how divine Jehovah had carried out his will in heaven and earth. This has been despite the opposition by Satan’s hosts of angels in heaven and by the mighty world powers on earth, from the days of the world power Babylon, Jerusalem’s destroyer, down to the atomically armed seventh world power, Britain-America, of today, together with the eighth world power, the United Nations. By his heavenly kingdom, which Jehovah God gave to the once “lowliest of men,” Jesus Christ, in 1914, the God of heaven will have his will come to pass in the coming battle of Armageddon and also afterward in the endless new world. With a deepened appreciation of how God accomplishes his will the Assembly applauded the president’s announcement of the title of the beautiful new 384-page book, “Your Will Be Done on Earth.” The distribution of 228,000 copies into their hands by the next few days bespoke the yearning they felt for the unfolding of the prophecies of Daniel and of other holy inspired men that this book offered them.

GOD’S KINGDOM DAY

For both heaven and earth the final Sunday afternoon was a happy time. Certainly the great King of heaven, Jehovah God, and his reigning Son, Jesus Christ, rejoiced together with the holy angels to have God’s kingdom preached by one mouthpiece to the largest visible audience on one occasion. From heaven they looked down on an audience of more than a quarter of a million persons, 253,922 by count, occupying all seats in the two Assembly stadiums, thousands standing in close formation out on the baseball outfield behind the speakers’ platform in Yankee Stadium, all seats in the overflow tents being occupied, and thousands standing listening on the walks outside the stadiums and tents. The challenging subject of the public address, so widely advertised over the weeks, was “God’s Kingdom Rules—Is the World’s End Near?” Showing a fine grasp of his subject, the speaking witness of Jehovah, the Society’s president, proved by Scripture and by prophecy fulfilled since 1914 that God’s kingdom by Christ has ruled in the heavens since that date. This unavoidably denotes that the end of this political, commercial, religious world is near. No vacuum will follow its complete end at Armageddon, for God’s everlasting new world of righteousness will glorify heaven and earth after Armageddon, and forever His will shall be done on earth in a paradise state as it is done in the holy heavens above.

This was indeed something for this overwhelmingly great audience to hail, and hail it they did, with a finale of applause that was really a tribute to the Kingdom message. During the intermission that followed they gladly accepted the proffered two free copies apiece of the booklet containing the full text of the speech, half a million copies of which had been printed and brought to the stadiums for this exalted occasion. Judging from the big audience of the preceding Friday afternoon, we believe that about 60,000 of the invited public had turned out and joined the Assembly in listening to this glad message of God’s now ruling kingdom.

Many of those 60,000 must have remained in response to the invitation to hear shortly the closing remarks of the president, the public speaker, for the final attendance was 210,778, the second-largest attendance of the entire Assembly. What they heard proved to be amply rewarding. It vividly revealed that over all the earth God’s kingdom was on the march toward victory and that his visible organization was planning, preparing and arranging for greater expansion by the enlarging of the physical facilities of the New World society and by the use of these facilities in a widening program for training the servants of the organization.

At the start of these closing remarks came the final release of the assembly, the ninety-first. Yes, there had already been ninety releases of books and booklets in various languages, post cards and sixteen-page convention reports. But this final one, a post card giving the architect’s conception of the new twelve-story building to be erected in 1959 on Columbia Heights opposite the present Brooklyn Bethel home, conveyed a thrill of its own. A copy was handed free to each adult before the Society’s president commented on its significance. He branched out from this onto many other provisions that were to be made for feeding Jehovah’s sheep under Jesus Christ with the latest spiritual food and for producing better organizational servants and for making better ministers out of all of Jehovah’s dedicated witnesses. More than fifty applauses punctuated these fascinating closing remarks.

After such a review of all the grand things of the Assembly and after the setting forth in grand array of all our theocratic purposes for the future, the immense congregation could join in singing heartfelt the song, the first line of which reads, “Great God, we thank you for the part we have in making glad your heart.” With reverent and grateful hearts they could bow their heads as the Society’s president offered the closing prayer. With hearts filled with the joy of having something noble to live for in the service of God’s kingdom, in obedience to the divine will, they gradually disbanded, the spirit of Jehovah God accompanying them. A great ineffaceable sign and wonder to Jehovah’s lasting glory had been wrought by this Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

DIVINE WILL ASSEMBLIES IN OTHER LANDS

Now, in harmony with the divine will, this great sign and wonder was due to be viewed by people in all parts of the earth. The delegates returned to the 123 lands from which they had come as living witnesses of the Assembly, and within a few weeks Divine Will assemblies were held throughout Central and South America, Europe, Africa, the Orient and the islands of the sea, providing small-scale copies of the mammoth gathering in New York. To the delight of the audience, on October 4 and 5 Brother Knorr was present at Leicester, England, and on Sunday he delivered the public lecture to 9,872 gathered at this final assembly in the series of four in the British Isles. From there he went on to Stuttgart, Germany, where he spoke to an enthusiastic audience of 16,563. This trip also afforded him opportunity to inspect the construction of the Society’s new Branch offices in England and France and Germany.

When news reached the Eastern Zone of Germany that an assembly had been planned for Berlin, the Communist police began to visit the homes of the brothers to warn them not to try to attend, taking away their personal identification cards to prevent them from traveling. When the brothers went to the railroad station to purchase their tickets, they found that their names were on special lists of persons who were to be refused. In spite of these obstacles 15,418 were present in the Deutschlandhalle in West Berlin to adopt the Resolution, and for them its words carried special meaning: “. . . and even when persecution may get more intense and we may be scattered physically or be driven underground or deprived of our Bible-study literature, we will keep on obeying God rather than men and will preach the good news of the Kingdom . . . by use of our Bibles alone, if necessary, or by just that divine Word stored up in our hearts.”

By early December, ninety-one Divine Will assemblies had been held. The attendance had now swollen from 253,922 present to hear the public talk at the Assembly in New York to a total of 562,955. This was backed up with the delivery of that same talk, “God’s Kingdom Rules—Is the World’s End Near?” at all the congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses worldwide on October 5, followed by the distribution of millions of copies of it in The Watchtower. The 7,136 who symbolized their dedication by water baptism in New York have since been joined by 10,638 more at these further assemblies, bringing the total to 17,774.

One of the outstanding features of all these ninety-one assemblies was the wholehearted endorsement of the Resolution exposing the delinquency of the clergy of Christendom, spotlighting the kingdom of God as the only real hope for mankind, and declaring the determination of the witnesses faithfully to continue to serve Jehovah God. At the final count to date this Resolution has been publicly endorsed by 405,720 gathered in assemblies. And hundreds of thousands more have demonstrated that they too are in heartfelt accord with it by participating in the distribution of the Resolution contained in The Watchtower as of November 1, 1958, to millions of persons, including the rulers of the lands, the clergy and other prominent individuals. And on December 1 the world-wide distribution of 70,000,000 copies of this plain-spoken Resolution in fifty languages in tract form began, in what may well prove to be the greatest publicity campaign to date, making clear to the people of all nations the divine will as expressed in God’s own Word, the Holy Bible.

These assemblies and the Kingdom publicity now going on have attracted the attention of men of all national, racial and religious groups, and those who are of good will toward Jehovah God are gathering with his people to give him exclusive devotion.

Part 8—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

In order that his will might be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Jehovah God started off the human family in a sanctuary. This holy place was the garden of Eden or Paradise of Pleasure in which Adam and Eve had fellowship with their God and heavenly Father. It was at this Paradise sanctuary that a heavenly spirit son of God rebelled and transformed himself into Satan the Devil. Using the serpent he tempted the woman Eve into sin by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. She in turn induced her husband Adam to eat and willfully break God’s law. Their presence in the Edenic Paradise sanctuary now became defiling. God came upon the guilty trio and pronounced the sentence of destruction upon the great Serpent, Satan the Devil, by means of the seed of His woman. He also pronounced the death sentence upon Adam and Eve and cleansed the Paradise sanctuary by driving the sinful couple out and barring their return in any attempt to eat of the tree of life in order to live on earth forever.

23, 24. What fact showed sin had passed on to Adam’s children born outside Eden, and in what two respects was Cain a murderer?

²³ Sin, together with its condemnation to death, passed on to Adam’s children born outside the sanctuary of Paradise. This fact is plain from what happened to his very first son, Cain. This son became a cultivator of the cursed ground outside the Edenic sanctuary. His younger brother Abel became a shepherd. Cain and Abel brought offerings to God. Close to the sanctuary of Eden, to the east entrance by which the posted cherubs kept guard, was reasonably the proper place to bring the offerings. Each one brought some of the products of his own type of work. Cain offered field products. Abel sacrificed the lives of some of his sheep, firstlings, and poured their blood upon the ground and presented fatty pieces of them to God.

²⁴ Then God indicated that there must be a sacrifice of life and that this life must be presented to him in order for sinful humankind to get back into his favor and be forgiven and redeemed from sin and the penalty of death. God looked with favor upon Abel’s animal victims; he rejected Cain’s bloodless offering. In jealousy Cain now shed blood, but it was the blood of his righteous brother Abel, who had pleased God by his sacrifice offered in faith in God. By such bloodshed Cain defiled the ground. Though not put to death at once as a murderer, Cain came under God’s special curse. (Gen. 4:1-23; Heb. 11:4) He was a murderer in two respects, by his hatred of his innocent brother and by his act of actually putting him to death. He showed that he originated with the Devil and was a child of the Devil. (1 John 3:8-12) In due time Cain died under God’s curse. All his offspring were also wiped out by the global flood of Noah’s day.—Gen. 4:16-24; 6:5-13.

25. How is it that death carried on through Noah and his family down through the flood to today, and what pattern was set by God’s acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice?

²⁵ Down to the Noachian flood not one of Adam’s descendants proved able to invade the Edenic sanctuary and get to that tree of life there. That was not now God’s way for human creatures to gain eternal life in a Paradise on earth. In God’s due time the Flood swept away every trace of that Paradise sanctuary of Eden somewhere near the Middle East. Thus it was that death carried on in the human race even through Noah and his family, who survived the flood, all the way down to this day. All mystery about death and its cause is brushed aside in this brief statement: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12) Wise King Solomon said: “There is no man that does not sin.” (1 Ki. 8:46) That is why all men receive the wages that sin pays, which is death. (Rom. 6:23) God’s acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice of sheep with the shedding of blood sets a pattern. It shows the way in which humankind are to be freed from the condemnation of death and delivered from death. It must be by the sacrifice of an acceptable life here on earth. Abel was not authorized to eat any of the sacrificed firstlings of his flock in communion with God, much less to drink their blood. Why, then, did Abel’s sacrifice please God?

26. With what divine law did Abel’s sacrifice line up, and how was a sacrifice better than that of Abel’s provided for mankind?

²⁶ He had not learned it from Adam, but he learned it by faith in God. It therefore lined up with God’s laws stated long afterward: “Only flesh with its soul—its blood—you must not eat.” (Gen. 9:4) “For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for you to make atonement for your souls, because it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul in it.” (Lev. 17:11) “Yes, nearly all things are cleansed with blood according to the Law, and unless blood is poured out no forgiveness takes place.” (Heb. 9:22) Jehovah, who saw that justice toward dying, sinful mankind could be turned in favor of mankind only by a sacrifice of sufficient value and power, was also loving enough to provide the needed sacrifice. He did this in his heavenly Son, his first and chief creation, whom he sent from heaven to earth to become the perfect man Jesus Christ. Jesus’ sacrifice can do what the first sacrifice by man, Abel’s sacrifice, could not do. It can give us deliverance from inherited sin and condemnation and from the resulting death and the grave. For this reason the Holy Bible points us to “Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling which speaks in a better way than Abel’s blood.” (Heb. 12:24) Abel’s blood cried out to God from the ground for vengeance against the murderous brother-hater, Cain. Jesus’ blood cries out from God’s altar for divine mercy upon men and women of faith and obedience.—Gen. 4:10; Heb. 13:10-12.

A TEMPORARY MATERIAL SANCTUARY

27. Why did men of faith, from Noah to Job, offer sacrifices, and what did Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac foreshadow?

²⁷ From Abel onward men of faith who won God’s good pleasure offered sacrifices. This meant the shedding of blood and hence the pouring out of the life of a victim. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Job did not think Jehovah a bloodthirsty God, but displayed their clear discernment of the need of a sacrifice. So they regularly drew near to God with a sacrifice. These men of faith were the priests of God for their families and households. Abraham was even willing to offer up the human sacrifice of his son Isaac on an altar on Mount Moriah, where today the Mohammedan mosque, the Dome of the Rock, stands, in Jerusalem. This he was willing to do with faith in God and with belief in the resurrection out of death for his sacrificed son. So he acted out a prophetic drama of how the heavenly Father would sacrifice his own Son Jesus Christ in order that the believers out of all the families and nations of the earth might bless themselves in the heavenly Father and in his sacrificed Son, the promised Seed.—Gen. 12:1-3; 22:1-18.

28. From what man did Abraham receive a blessing, and did he or the other men of faith have temple sanctuaries?

²⁸ Abraham received a blessing from a man who was both a king and a priest, named Melchizedek. “And Melchizedek king of Salem [ancient Jerusalem] brought out bread and wine, and he was priest of the Most High God. Then he blessed him and said: ‘Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, Producer of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, who has delivered your oppressors into your hand!’” (Gen. 14:18-20) However, there is no Bible record that the king-priest Melchizedek had a temple building as a sanctuary at which he offered sacrifices to the Most High God. Consequently none of those ancient men of faith had temple sanctuaries.

29. Under what circumstances was it that Jehovah gave instructions for building him a sanctuary, and why was that original one not to be sneered at?

²⁹ When Moses the descendant of Abraham was born in Egypt, it was a land full of temples to many gods. Still up to that time Jehovah’s own people had no temple sanctuary to him. Egypt was not the place for any temple to Jehovah. The land to which God led Abraham out of Mesopotamia and which God promised to give to his descendants was the place for such a sanctuary. When Moses and his people had left slavery in Egypt far behind and were on their way to the Promised Land, Jehovah God led them to the foot of Mount Sinai for a halt of almost a year. There he instructed Moses to have the people build him a sanctuary. As they were on the move to the Promised Land, it was to be a portable sanctuary, a tent of two compartments with a courtyard surrounding it. Said Jehovah to Moses after having given him the Ten Commandments: “And they must make a sanctuary for me, as I must tent in the midst of them. According to all that I am showing you as the pattern of the tabernacle and pattern of all its furnishings, that is the way you are to make it.” (Ex. 25:8, 9) Let no one sneer at that small tent or sanctuary in the wilderness, for it was a picture of heavenly things of tremendous value and importance to us today. So says the inspired writer, when he quotes those very instructions of Jehovah to Moses and makes remarks upon them.—Heb. 8:1-6.

30. How long did that sanctuary tent serve its purpose and how was the godly thought of building a stationary sanctuary conceived?

³⁰ Erected in the spring of 1512 before the Christian era, that sanctuary tent continued to be Jehovah’s place of meeting with the nation of ancient Israel for centuries after he had settled them in the Promised Land, in the vital Middle East. In that bridgeland between Europe, Asia and Africa the nation of Israel became a kingdom. Their second king was faithful David. In 1069 B.C. David captured Mount Zion, the citadel of Jerusalem, and made it his capital. There near his palace he had the sacred ark of the covenant containing the tablets of the Ten Commandments lodged under a tent in charge of faithful Levites, who were assistants to the priests. It was now that King David conceived the godly thought of building to Jehovah a stationary temple of wood and stone and precious metals. He submitted the matter to God.

31. Why was David not honored with building the sanctuary proposed?

³¹ King David was a warrior king, whom Jehovah God had used as his executioner in shedding the blood of his enemies. So God did not favor David with the privilege of building the temple at Jerusalem. Yet God honored David with something far grander than building a sanctuary of perishable materials to his holy name.

32, 33. What covenant did Jehovah now make with David in appreciation?

³² David had been lovingly concerned with building a worldly material house to honor God; so Jehovah covenanted with David to build him a house. No, not a palace, but a royal house or line of kings, all successors of him, all descendants of him, until the everlasting King of the house of David should come. God said:

³³ “Jehovah has told you that a house is what Jehovah will make for you. When your days come to the full and you must lie down with your forefathers, then I shall certainly raise up your seed after you, which will come out of your inward parts, and I shall indeed firmly establish his kingdom. He is the one that will build a house for my name, and I shall certainly establish the throne of his kingdom firmly forever. . . . And your house and your kingdom will certainly be steadfast forever before you; your very throne will become one firmly established forever.”—2 Sam. 7:1-16.

34. Why cannot this Davidic covenant pass away unfulfilled?

³⁴ That was the covenant with David for the kingdom. Jehovah swore to that covenant. Can the sun and the moon pass away, ceasing to give light to men on this earth? No more can this Davidic covenant for the kingdom pass away. God cannot break his holy oath. He will never profane his covenant with David. To his vindication it is mightily being fulfilled in our own day.—Ps. 89:26-37.

35. To what work, therefore, did David encourage his subjects, and how did God show his acceptance of the new temple for his worship?

³⁵ Encouraging his subjects to back up his successor Solomon in building a magnificent temple to Jehovah on Mount Moriah, David said: “Now set your heart and your soul to inquire after Jehovah your God, and rise and build the sanctuary of Jehovah The true God, to bring the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and the holy utensils of The true God to the house built to the name of Jehovah.” (1 Chron. 22:19) The materials being all prepared, King Solomon began building in the fourth year of his reign. In the eleventh year of his peaceful reign he completed this awe-inspiring temple, which, at present money values, would cost into the billions of American dollars. After the sacred ark of his covenant had been brought into the Most Holy of this temple, Jehovah manifested that he accepted this sanctuary for his worship. He filled the temple sanctuary with a miraculous cloud of glory. Then he sent down a miraculous fire from heaven to light the temple altar in the courtyard and to consume the first animal sacrifices upon it. The onlooking worshipers, awe-struck, bowed down to the temple pavement and “prostrated themselves and thanked Jehovah, ‘for he is good, for his loving-kindness is forever.’”—2 Chron. 5:4-14; 7:1-3.

36, 37. (a) What decree and what permission of pagan conduct shows whether this temple was Jehovah’s real sanctuary? (b) How did Jeremiah lament over the holy city at its desolation?

³⁶ In prayer at this temple dedication King Solomon reminded everyone within hearing that this spacious temple so glorious was not the real sanctuary of the God of heaven: “But will God truly dwell with mankind upon the earth? Look! heaven, yes, the heaven of the heavens themselves, cannot contain you; how much less, then, this house that I have built?” (2 Chron. 6:18) Had that been his true sanctuary, why would Jehovah later have decreed for it to be destroyed because the unfaithful, renegade Israelites profaned it, filling it with their abominable, loathsome, disgusting things? Why would he, with a seeming loss of his own prestige among the nations of the world, permit the pagan worshipers of the false gods of Babylon to storm into the land like roaring lions, to show no respect for those who worshiped formally at the temple, to kill the priests, to strip the temple of everything of value, and to burn it to the ground? In 607 B.C. the armies of Babylon, under King Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed the famed holy city of Jerusalem and destroyed the temple that Jehovah had once sanctified. They carried off its treasures and sacred vessels, except the sacred ark of the covenant that had disappeared and eluded greedy pagan hands. (2 Ki. 25:8-21; 2 Chron. 36:17-21) Jeremiah, whom Jehovah had used to prophesy of all this, sat mournfully and lamented to God over the holy city, the daughter of Jerusalem (Zion):

³⁷ “The adversary has spread out his own hand against all her desirable things. For she has seen nations that have come into her sanctuary, whom you commanded that they should not come into the congregation belonging to you. Jehovah has rejected his altar. He has spurned his sanctuary. Into the hand of the enemy he has surrendered the walls of her dwelling towers. In the house of Jehovah they have let out their own voice, as in the day of a festival. Jehovah has thought of bringing the wall of the daughter of Zion to ruin. . . . See, O Jehovah, and do look to the one to whom you have dealt severely in this manner. Should the women keep eating their own fruitage, the children born fully formed, or in the sanctuary of Jehovah should priest and prophet be killed? O how the gold that shines becomes dim, the good gold! O how the holy stones [stones of the sanctuary] are poured out at the head of all the streets!”—Lam. 1:10; 2:7, 8, 20; 4:1, margin.

(To be continued)

Questions From Readers

● How many overseers are there in a congregation of God’s people on earth?—G. G., United States.

In each congregation the congregation servant is the overseer, and other appointed servants, including the other members of the congregation’s service committee, are ministerial servants. Expressing this view of matters, the book Qualified to Be Ministers says, on page 231: “The overseer, the congregation servant, is held responsible for the affairs of the congregation and is the one with whom the Society communicates on congregation matters.” And on page 234, referring to the “ministerial servants” spoken of in 1 Timothy 3:8-13, it says: “In this case the Scriptures refer to those who are appointed as servants in the congregation, and particularly to those who are the assistants to the overseer of the congregation, known as the congregation servant.”

The Greek word that is translated “overseer” is epískopos and it refers to “one who visits and inspects.” With this in mind, we can appreciate that, while there is today one resident overseer in a congregation, there are other overseers in the organization. For example, the circuit servant visits and inspects with a view to strengthening spiritually the congregations of which he has oversight. And district servants fit in this classification, because they visit and inspect both circuits and congregations as they are scheduled to do so by the Society. Then, too, in cities where the congregation, which usually bears the name of the city, becomes quite large, it is subdivided into units, each of which has an overseer. In this case a city’s congregation has more than one overseer, one to care for each of its units. Thus it is seen that it is proper to speak of the “overseers” of a congregation.

In the light of these facts we can appreciate how there was more than one overseer connected with the congregations in Ephesus and in Philippi, as indicated at Acts 20:28 and Philippians 1:1.

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

During February Jehovah’s witnesses will call on persons in all parts of the world, many of whom want to know the divine will concerning world happenings. To aid these persons of good will, they will offer them The Watchtower on a subscription basis, together with three Bible booklets, for $1. If you are not now associated with a congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses but would like to have a share in this activity, write to this office for further information.

WILL GOD’S WILL BE DONE?

Doubt and fear rule the world around us. Only true faith, based on God’s Word, can shield us from their penetrating influence and build up our hopes for the future. Such conviction is rewarding but it must have that sure foundation. Are you convinced when you pray that ‘God’s will be done on earth’? You can be. Obtain and read the handsome and inspiring bound book “Your Will Be Done on Earth.” Send only 50c.

1959 MEMORIAL

The date for observing the Lord’s evening meal this year is Monday, March 23, after 6 p.m., Standard Time. After the meeting has been opened with song and prayer, the discourse will be given by a qualified speaker, one of the remnant if available and capable. Then the emblems will be served separately after thanks have been offered to Jehovah for first the bread and then the red wine. All present will afterward be invited to share in special arrangements for field ministry, and then the meeting will close with song and prayer. Each congregation should start making arrangements for the Memorial.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

March 22: “Let Your Will Come to Pass,” ¶1-28. Page 100.

March 29: “Let Your Will Come to Pass,” ¶29-33, and The Divine Will Done in Heaven and Earth. Page 107.