The Watchtower — March 15, 1959

Can You Resist Temptation?

“DON’T even try!” says an advertisement. But we must try and keep on trying, because happiness and life depend very much on our ability to resist temptations.

Some petty temptations, if we were to succumb to them, would not appreciably affect our lives. But there are temptations that we must resist at all costs. Temptations to commit crimes and injury, temptations that lead to immorality and sins against God must all be thwarted, because they have far-reaching, disastrous results. To yield to them is to plunge oneself into despair, sorrow and even death. Penal institutions and the streets of the world are filled with miserable men and women who have succumbed to such temptations.

A Christian must also guard against the temptation of materialism, the love of pleasure, money and independence. These, too, lead to ruin.

Some persons say, “Not me. I will never yield to temptation.” The apostle’s counsel to such is: “Let him that thinks he has a firm position beware that he does not fall.” Eve was a perfect woman, still she succumbed to temptation. She allowed a false desire to tempt her. It was a small thing, but her disobedience brought disaster. Temptations usually have little beginnings but catastrophic endings. King David let the beauty of another man’s wife bring him to misery. Judas Iscariot loved money. Thirty pieces of silver tempted him to betray the Christ. Serious temptations all of these, but were they too great to bear? Paul answers: “No temptation has taken you except what is common to men. But God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but along with the temptation he will also make the way out in order for you to be able to endure it.” Every one of our temptations can be endured, if we would but resist them.—1 Cor. 10:12, 13; Gen. 3:1-6; Jas. 1:13-15; 1 Tim. 6:9-12.

How can we resist temptations? Jesus Christ showed us how. When tempted by the Devil, Jesus always relied on God’s Word, the Bible, and appealed to God in prayer. Thus he was able to thwart all temptations brought against him. At the close of his earthly ministry Jesus said to his followers: “Keep on the watch and praying, that you may not enter into temptation.” So gain an accurate knowledge of God’s Word and rely on it as Jesus did, watch as Jesus did, pray as he did and you too will resist temptation and win the prize of life.—Matt. 26:41.

805,401 Share in Proclaiming God’s Kingdom!

All Looking Forward to 1959 Assemblies

WHAT a thrilling report! 805,401 persons in all parts of the world unitedly shared during this past December in publicly announcing that God’s kingdom rules and that it is the only hope for mankind. That means that 88,313 more shared in the ministry during that one month than the average number reporting during the 1958 service year, yes, even more than any peak number ever before reported! Reports from 110 lands show that they reached at least a 10-percent increase in the number of those sharing in the ministry, and the combined report for the world shows over a 12-percent increase! What joy this report brings to everyone interested in the advance of pure worship!

December was the month when world-wide distribution of the Resolution adopted at the Divine Will International Assembly began. There were 70,000,000 copies to be put into the hands of the people, pointing out the reason for the present appalling world conditions and drawing the attention of all men to the Kingdom of God. What a demonstration of the unity and zeal of the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses that December report reflects!

It is also a pleasure to note that throughout the world during the same month Jehovah’s witnesses conducted 576,012 home Bible studies each week with individuals and families, lovingly assisting them to come to an accurate knowledge of the truths in the Bible. This represents a tremendous increase over the report for last year. In fact, from the beginning of September to the end of December 554 new home Bible studies were established each day, on an average. These were cared for in addition to the thousands already in operation.

It is clearly evident to persons of good will that Jehovah’s witnesses are the ones who follow in the footsteps of Christ Jesus by preaching publicly and in the homes of the people, directing their attention to God’s kingdom. And as they realize it, they say, as long ago foretold: “We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”—Zech. 8:23, AS.

1959 ASSEMBLIES

For the blessing of all these active ministers and the thousands with whom they are studying the Bible and all other persons who are of good will toward Jehovah God and his new world of righteousness, the Society has arranged for a series of district assemblies worldwide during the summer of 1959. The Awake Ministers District Assemblies of Jehovah’s Witnesses will provide a four-day program, beginning Thursday, with a talk at about two o’clock, and continuing in its various features until 5:45 p.m. Sunday. The first three mornings will be devoted to the field ministry; afternoons and evenings and Sunday morning and afternoon will be devoted to assembly sessions. In most cases the baptism will be Saturday morning.

For your convenience in making necessary vacation plans the dates and locations of the assemblies are given below. The same program will be presented at each assembly. Select the one you plan to attend, and make your vacation arrangements now. Do not miss even one day of this Awake Ministers District Assembly. Additionally, be of assistance where you can to see that everyone associated with your congregation and all persons of good will with whom you study have a way to get to the assembly. Now is the time when it is urgent for each one to stay awake, benefiting from every provision made to stay spiritually strong and active as faithful servants of Jehovah God.

Assembly Dates and Locations

JUNE 4-7: San Diego, Calif., Del Mar Fairground Grandstand.

JUNE 18-21. Tampa, Fla., Plant Field, Fairground.

JUNE 25-28: Des Moines, Iowa, Fairground Grandstand; Stockton, Calif., Fairground Grandstand; Philadelphia, Pa., Convention Hall.

JULY 9-12: Eugene, Oreg., Fairground Grandstand: Evansville, Ind., Roberts Municipal Stadium; Flint, Mich., I.M.A. Auditorium, Fresno, Calif., Fairground Grandstand; Jackson, Miss., Fairground New Exhibit Buildings.

JULY 16-19: Albuquerque N. Mex., Albuquerque Civic Auditorium; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Gardens; Rapid City, S. Dak., Fairground Grandstand.

JULY 23-26: Boise, Idaho, Borah High School; Chattanooga, Tenn., Engel Stadium; Rochester, N. Y., War Memorial Auditorium.

AUG. 6-9: San Jose, Calif., Fairground Grandstand; Wichita, Kans., Municipal Forum Building.

AUG. 13-16. Charlotte, N. Car., Charlotte Coliseum; Providence, R. I., Rhode Island Auditorium; Tacoma, Wash., College of Puget Sound Memorial Field House.

AUG. 20-23: Corpus Christi, Tex., Memorial Coliseum.

Canada

JULY 9-12: Winnipeg, Man., The Arena.

JULY 23-26. Ottawa, Ont., Lansdowne Park.

AUG. 13-16: Halifax, N. S., The Forum.

AUG. 20-23. Saskatoon, Sask., The Arena Rink.

AUG. 27-30: Calgary, Alta., Exhibition Grounds.

SEPT. 3-6 New Westminster, B. C., Queens Park.

Great Britain

Assemblies will be held at Belfast, Dundee, Middlesbrough and three other cities to be announced later.

(Rooming information will be announced later; please do not write to the assembly auditorium.)

Keeping Strict Watch on How We Walk

“Keep strict watch that how you walk is not as unwise but as wise persons, buying out the opportune time for yourselves, because the days are wicked.”—Eph. 5:15, 16.

1. What is in our best interest today to do, and why should the fact of God’s kingdom dominate us while doing so?

WHEREVER we live on earth, it is in our best interest today to watch ourselves strictly on how we walk, that is, on how we conduct ourselves. One highly important fact ought to dominate us while we are ‘keeping strict watch on how we walk.’ This fact is that God’s kingdom rules, that it has been ruling during these past forty-five years since 1914. Why is that fact so important? It is because the main purpose of that heavenly kingdom is to see to it that God’s will comes to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth. (Matt. 6:9, 10) The wicked old world of today is fast approaching its end in the greatest tribulation of all history, because this world has never been in harmony with God’s will but is the biggest opposer of it. God’s kingdom is the enforcer of his will. His kingdom will introduce a new order made up of “new heavens and a new earth,” where God’s expressed will is certain to be the law. (2 Pet. 3:13) Nowhere can any of us escape this marvelous change. So wisdom dictates for us to give our wholehearted allegiance to God’s kingdom, that we may not be brought to an end when this old world ends. Allegiance to God’s kingdom means now bringing ourselves into full harmony with his will. His righteous will for us in this time of world perplexity is set forth in his written Word, the sacred Bible.

2. What can we describe these days as being, and what advice of Paul is therefore suitable for us today?

² Looking around at the world’s religious and moral conditions and at the relationships between nations and between individuals, we are forced to say that these are wicked days. Hence the advice that the apostle Paul gave to Christians of his time is also most suitable for our time: “Keep strict watch that how you walk is not as unwise but as wise persons, buying out the opportune time for yourselves, because the days are wicked. On this account cease becoming unreasonable, but go on perceiving what the will of Jehovah is. Also do not be getting drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery [and for which a Christian can be disfellowshiped from God’s congregation], but keep getting filled with spirit.”—Eph. 5:15-18; 2 Cor. 5:9-13.

3. (a) Before any of us dedicated ourselves to God, how did we walk? (b) Since our dedication, how should we be walking, and what personal question should we ask on this?

³ Throughout the earth today over a half million persons have made a full self-surrender or dedication of themselves to Jehovah God through Jesus Christ, and they have publicly symbolized that dedication by being immersed in water, just as Jesus Christ himself was baptized. (Matt. 3:13-17; 28:18-20) In times past, before any of us made a dedication to God, we all walked a certain way. We “walked according to the system of things of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit [Satan the Devil] that now operates in the sons of disobedience.” We went on “walking just as the nations also walk in the unprofitableness of their minds, while they are in darkness mentally, and alienated from the life that belongs to God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the insensibility of their hearts. Having come to be past all moral sense, they gave themselves over to loose conduct to work uncleanness of every kind with greediness.” (Eph. 2:2; 4:17-19) Now we dedicated ones should have ceased to walk that way. By our dedication to God we have willed to walk according to God’s will, that thereby we may ‘walk with God.’ (Gen. 5:22-24; 6:9) Because of the wickedness of the times it is most wise and urgent for us to keep strict watch on how we walk. It is high time for us to ask ourselves: Have we gone back to walk with this world, or are we walking more closely with God? To answer this question, we have to perceive what God’s will is. This calls for our study of God’s written Word.

4. What does 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, 7 say is God’s will, and hence how does Jehovah differ from Priapus and Baal of Peor?

⁴ In his Word this brief statement of his will is found: “This is what God wills, the sanctifying of you, that you abstain from fornication; that each one of you should know how to get possession of his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in covetous sexual appetite such as also those nations have which do not know God; . . . God called us, not with allowance for uncleanness, but in connection with sanctification.” (1 Thess. 4:3-5, 7) One’s “own vessel” is one’s own body; and when we make a dedication of ourselves to Jehovah God, we thereby dedicate our vessels, our own bodies, to God through the righteousness of his Son, Jesus Christ. Jehovah is no sex-god, like Priapus, a false god of Grecian and Roman mythology, nor is he worshiped with any kind of sex orgies, as the false god Baal of Peor was.—Num. 25:1-13.

5. What will of God for his organization puts a difficult task on its members, but how are they helped?

⁵ We dedicated ones have been brought together and formed into a theocratic organization. God’s will is that He should have a clean organization, one that is sanctified for his use in an honorable way. To keep the theocratic organization clean in the midst of this immoral, sex-minded world and during these wicked times is quite a difficult task for us earthly members of it. But God’s spirit is with us, to help us, to sanctify us for God’s purposes.

6. In that respect, upon whom does a special responsibility weigh down, and by such ones what restoration promise has God fulfilled?

⁶ Of course, there is a personal responsibility resting on each dedicated one to join in keeping the organization clean and sanctified for Jehovah’s use. However, a special responsibility weighs down on those who have been made overseers within the organization. Particularly since the spring of the year 1919 we have been living in the “times of restoration of all things of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets of old time.” (Acts 3:21) Nineteen centuries ago in the first days of the Christian congregation, during the life of the twelve apostles of the Lamb Jesus Christ, Jehovah raised up faithful overseers to declare his judgments and to give forth His counsel. Those faithful overseers passed away, after which a great “falling away” from the apostolic faith occurred. So concerning the “times of restoration” now, Jehovah made this promise: “I will bring back again judges for you as at the first, and counselors for you as at the start. After this you will be called City of Righteousness, Faithful Town.” (Isa. 1:26) By means of the conscientious overseers whom Jehovah has installed today under his appointed Judge and Wonderful Counselor Jesus Christ, he has fulfilled his promised restoration and he keeps his organization clean, righteous and faithful.—Acts 17:31; Isa. 9:6.

7. Because of having to render an account for what charge do the overseers need to keep strict watch on their own walking?

⁷ Today the overseers of the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses bear considerable responsibility. They are set forth as “examples to the flock.” Besides their influence as right examples, they also wield considerable authority in the local congregational organization or in the circuit, district or Branch territory or in the zone in which they serve. As overseers, they have to deal with lives, “souls” dedicated to Jehovah God, so that “they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will render an account.” (1 Pet. 5:3; Heb. 13:17) What kind of account they will render over these dedicated souls is going to determine what God’s judgment will be of the overseers. If anybody needs to, the overseers need to keep strict watch on how they walk in their responsible office.

EXAMPLES OF HOW TO WALK

8, 9. (a) How was the power of good overseers for a righteous organization illustrated in Joshua and his associates? (b) How is that fact clear from what happened to Israel after those overseers died?

⁸ The great power that overseers who are strong morally and spiritually wield for a faithful, righteous organization is illustrated in Moses’ successor, Joshua, and in the older men of Israel that were associated with Joshua. Regarding the good influence that these had we read: “When Joshua sent the people away, then the sons of Israel went their way, each to his inheritance, to take possession of the land. And the people continued to serve Jehovah all the days of Joshua and all the days of the older men who extended their days after Joshua and who had seen all of Jehovah’s great work that he did for Israel.”

⁹ The observant, informed, faithful older men of Israel acted as a theocratic bulwark against the invasion of heathenism into Jehovah’s national congregation. This fact is clear from what happened to the congregation of Israel after those theocratic overseers died. Then the new generation that did not know Jehovah or the work that he had done for Israel arose and did not have the helpful example and the counsel and watchcare of those overseers. The Bible record tells us: “The sons of Israel fell to doing what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah and serving the Baals. Thus they abandoned Jehovah the God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt and went following other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them and they began bowing down to them, so that they offended Jehovah.” After Jehovah had raised up godly judges by whom he rescued them from heathen oppressors, they quickly forgot what the judges had done for them as Jehovah’s servants: “Even to their judges they did not listen, but they had unfaithful intercourse with other gods and went bowing down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way in which their forefathers had walked by obeying the commandments of Jehovah. They did not do like that.”—Judg. 2:6-8, 10-12, 17.

10. Like those overseers, against what did Christ’s apostles act as a bulwark in their day?

¹⁰ Like the faithful judges and associated overseers of ancient Israel, the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ acted as a bulwark. As long as the apostles lived, they acted as a restraining power against the “falling away” of the congregation and against the revealing of the “man of lawlessness,” “the son of destruction,” as in control of the congregation.—2 Thess. 2:2-12.

11, 12. (a) What developed religiously after the apostles’ death, and what facts show whether we have been recovered from this? (b) Nevertheless, why does each one need to keep strict watch in walking?

¹¹ After the twelve apostles and their faithful fellow overseers died, the “falling away” from pure Christian faith and practice moved quite rapidly and the “man of lawlessness” class came into control of the religious organization. We today have been recovered from this religious “falling away” and from domination by the “man of lawlessness” class in Christendom. We have been theocratically organized into the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. With us invisibly is the Greater Joshua, Jesus Christ, to lead us into the coming new order of “new heavens and a new earth.” With us is also the “faithful and discreet slave” class, whom the Greater Joshua appointed in charge of all his earthly belongings in the year 1919.

¹² The Greater Joshua and his anointed slave class act as an impassable bar to any intrusion by the spirit of apostasy and by the “man of lawlessness” into the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. (2 Pet. 3:13; Isa. 65:17; Matt. 24:45-47) Nonetheless, each dedicated Christian needs to heed the apostle Paul’s solemn advice to keep strict watch on how we walk. Whereas this world and its god and ruler Satan the Devil can no more take the entire congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses captive, yet the world and its god Satan keep trying to contaminate the organization and to enslave as many individual members of it as possible. The ancient Israelites, even with the prophet Moses among them, furnished us a warning example that individuals in the organization can be overreached to their destruction now during the invisible presence of Christ. How?

13. What warning example do we have from the Israelites while Moses was up in the mountain?

¹³ It was shortly after Jehovah God had miraculously declared the Ten Commandments from the top of Mount Sinai on the Arabian Peninsula. When Moses was still in the neighborhood, but on top of Mount Sinai for forty days out of their sight, the Israelites had the golden calf made and proceeded to worship it along with noisy loose conduct. Now the first and second and seventh of the Ten Commandments that the Israelites had agreed to keep declared: “I am Jehovah your God, who have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves. You must never have any other gods against my face. You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them, because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion. . . . You must not commit adultery.” (Ex. 20:2-5, 14) But when many Israelites saw that the eyes of their national overseer Moses were not fixed on them, they threw off restraint. Yes, within but forty days after Moses’ ascent, many Israelites were ready to forget the Ten Commandments and enjoy a wild time with idolatry and sex orgies.—Ex. 32:1-35.

14. What other warning example do we have from the Israelites when encamped on the plains of Moab?

¹⁴ Forty years later they were just across the Jordan River from Canaan, on the plains of Moab, and were just about to realize the miraculous fulfillment of Jehovah’s promise to lead them into the Promised Land. Yet thousands of the new generation of Israelites turned their eyes the other way to look at the heathenish daughters of Moab. In their lust for immoral relations with them, those selfish-hearted Israelites were agreeable to joining those decoy women, servants of the Devil, in worshiping the false god, Baal of Peor. Israelite chieftain Zimri was even so brazen as to bring the Midianite woman Cozbi into the holy camp of Israel and into his own tent. Only zealous action by Phinehas the priest against Zimri and Cozbi to execute them caused the plague to halt that had laid low twenty-four thousand defiled Israelites. (Num. 25:1-9) Moses was still alive and in the camp at the time, and yet the passion-controlled Israelites did not care. They forgot the holiness to which they were called. They forgot Jehovah’s righteous commands and gave themselves over to unbridled passion in immoral relations with pagan women, even though that meant worshiping a false god, Baal of Peor, and exciting the true God, Jehovah, to jealousy.

15. How does an apostle refer to those cases as warning examples for us, and what fact does the warning example from the Israelites make certain?

¹⁵ The Christian apostle Paul referred to those historic cases of falling away from holiness as warning examples for us, saying: “Now these things became our examples, for us not to be persons desiring injurious things, even as they desired them. Neither become idolaters, as some of them did; just as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to revel boisterously.’ Neither let us practice fornication, as some of them committed fornication, only to fall, twenty-three thousand of them in one day.” (1 Cor. 10:6-8) If anyone who is dedicated to Jehovah, as all the nation of Israel was, lets his heart go bad, then he will seek to satisfy his heart’s desire under any and all circumstances, as soon as a convenient opportunity offers itself. The warning example of those destroyed Israelites makes this fact certain.

16. So near to realizing our hopes, yet what do some dedicated ones do, and what do they fail to remember while doing so?

¹⁶ So today, it matters not how near we are to realizing our Kingdom hopes, some dedicated ones relax their watch on how they should walk according to the Holy Scriptures. For the satisfying of their fleshly passions, they are willing and risky enough to take a fling at the uncleanness of this world. They do not check themselves with the reminder that this may mean not only their own destruction but also the bringing of reproach on Jehovah and contempt on his visible organization. Because they are not at the time under the direct watch and visual observation of the overseer of the congregation, they do not keep strict watch on how they walk or conduct themselves. They fail to remember that Jehovah God and his holy angels are watching, and that they cannot escape having their sin find them out or catch up with them.—Num. 32:23.

17. As in whose presence should we always walk, and to that end what constructive, determined course should we take?

¹⁷ We should always walk not just as in the presence of men, our earthly overseers. We must walk always as in the presence of God, for his eyes are in every place, keeping watch upon the bad ones and the good ones. (Prov. 15:3) “For the true God himself will bring every sort of work into the judgment in relation to every hidden thing, as to whether it is good or bad.” (Eccl. 12:14) We need to take a constructive course, a determined course, like that of the psalmist, when he said: “I have placed Jehovah in front of me constantly. Because he is at my right hand I shall not be made to totter.” (Ps. 16:8) Being positive in this sense, we shall always strive to please and honor Jehovah God in what we say or do, regardless of whether we are directly watched by our spiritual elders or our congregation servant or overseer.

18. Why should we never be overconfident about our firm position, and against what calamity should we be on watch?

¹⁸ We are never too near the new order of “new heavens and a new earth” after Armageddon, nor have any of us been long enough in the Bible truth or been through a sufficient number of temptations, so that we can relax our watchfulness without danger of falling. Referring to those Israelites who were saved out of Egypt but who perished in the wilderness, some of them even in the fortieth and last year, Paul commented: “Now these things went on befalling them as examples and they were written for a warning to us upon whom the accomplished ends of the systems of things have arrived. Consequently, let him that thinks he has a firm position beware that he does not fall. No temptation has taken you except what is common to men” and under which men have fallen. (1 Cor. 10:11-13) From the youngest to the oldest of us in the truth, from the average congregation member to the congregation servant or overseer, we all should never trust ourselves but should maintain a strict watch always on how we walk, that we may not fall calamitously. What a calamity it would be to be disfellowshiped from Jehovah’s congregation and suffer eternal destruction!—1 Cor 5:9-13.

UNDOING OF MINISTERS BY BAD MORALS

19. The need of vigilance is emphasized by what increase in the percentage of delinquents in North American congregations?

¹⁹ The need of constant, prayerful vigilance is emphasized by information from the Service Department at the Brooklyn headquarters of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. This has to do with those dedicated baptized members belonging to the thousands of congregations in the United States of North America. For each of the five years from March, 1952, to April, 1957, there was an average of 500 members that were disfellowshiped for flagrant misdeeds that cannot be tolerated inside of Jehovah’s congregation. However, during the year from April, 1957, to April, 1958, the number rose sharply above that yearly average of 500, to 1,334 delinquent members, or more than two and a half times as many. We dare not dull the shock of this startling information by arguing that this may, in part, be due to the American congregations’ having at least 18,537 new persons associating themselves with the witnessing activities during those twelve months. That number of new ones is less than one twelfth of the 226,797 that proclaimed the Kingdom good news in America during April of 1958, about 65 percent of which proclaimers are dedicated and baptized. So what are 1,334 delinquents compared with more than 147,000 dedicated, baptized members? Less than 1 percent.

20. Though it be a matter of less than 1 percent, yet what fear-inspiring warning is thereby sounded to all of us?

²⁰ Though 1,334 may be less than 1 percent, this sudden jump to that number definitely discloses that more than twice as many as in previous years have failed to watch themselves and act wisely during the wicked days of 1957-1958. With 3,718 or more congregations functioning in the United States of North America, about one out of every three congregations could be affected by 1,334 disfellowshipings. Hence the fact that so many congregations have been affected and the number of disfellowshipings has more than doubled during 1957-1958 sounds a fear-inspiring warning to all of us to beware that hereafter we be not the ones to fall.

21. How may one misapply James 4:4 to practicing the clean, undefiled form of worship and thus sin?

²¹ The New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses must keep practicing the clean, undefiled form of worship. The Christian disciple James plainly describes this for us: “The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world. Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” (Jas. 1:27; 4:4) It is a perverted idea for anyone to think that he can keep himself without spot from this world by not engaging in its politics and by maintaining his neutrality toward its conflicts and in this way not be a friend of the world and not be a spiritual adulterer and yet at the same time can commit literal physical adultery or fornication, thus sinning against his own body.

22. How may one take part in fulfilling Matthew 24:14 and yet pervertedly fall into a sin like that of Balaam’s?

²² It is likewise a perverted idea that just as long as one fulfills the prophetic command of Matthew 24:14 and reports much time at witnessing out in the field of service, one can indulge in bodily immorality with those of the opposite sex. Remember that the prophet Balaam was used by Jehovah as a mouthpiece to utter prophecy in a blessing upon the nation of Israel, but that later Balaam was killed for trying to promote sex worship and immorality in Israel at the close of forty years in the wilderness.—Num. 23:4 to 24:25; 25:1-3; 31:1-8, 15, 16; Rev. 2:14.

23. How did Paul show that Christian morality is a joint requirement with preaching?

²³ Personal witnessing to God’s kingdom is indeed a requirement for eternal life, but Christian morality is also a joint requirement. Paul cried out: “Really, woe is me if I did not declare the good news!” but just some sentences later he added: “I browbeat my body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow. . . . Neither let us practice fornication, as some of them [the Israelites] committed fornication, only to fall, twenty-three thousand of them in one day.”—1 Cor. 9:16, 27; 10:8.

24. By committing physical immorality, whose friend does one make himself, and hence what other kind of immorality is it also?

²⁴ Let no one deceive himself: Committing adultery or fornication is a making of oneself a friend of the world. It is therefore a committing of spiritual adultery or fornication also. It certainly is not a making of oneself a friend of God or of his congregation. It is an imitating of this world, using the world as a model. It is a display of the spirit of the world. It is a proof of love of this wicked world, “because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father [Jehovah God], but originates with the world.” (1 John 2:16) Therefore, immorality demonstrates that the fornicator belongs to the world and is a misplaced person inside the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses.

25. By what two drastic acts did Jehovah illustrate what must be done with such immoral members of the congregation?

²⁵ Jehovah cut off 23,000 fornicators from his congregation, not in a year, but in one day. Fornicators have to be disfellowshiped from his congregation. He even cut off, during the battle near Shiloh, the two priests, Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of High Priest Eli, because they would wickedly commit adultery with the women that were serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting, with reproach to Jehovah God.—1 Sam. 2:12, 22-25; 3:13, 14; 4:4-11, 17.

26. (a) What does Paul say to show whether there are other sins for which disfellowshiping is needed? (b) What should be the heart condition and the procedure of one who wakes up to his wrongdoing?

²⁶ There are other sins besides fornication for which disfellowshiping is the need. Paul wrote the congregation: “I am writing you to quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man. . . . Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” (1 Cor. 5:11, 13) If anyone commits sin deserving of disfellowshiping but wakes up to the baseness of his wrongdoing and how far he has displeased God, what should be his heart condition? A grieved one; he should be painfully grieved and should repent. He should confess his sin not only to God, who already knows of it from observation, but also to God’s visible organization through its local theocratically appointed servants. It is a critical time to seek reconciliation with God and his people through Christ, appealing for mercy. In harmony with this, the Scriptural advice is: “Is there anyone [spiritually] sick among you? Let him call the older men of the congregation to him, and let them pray over him, rubbing him with oil in the name of Jehovah. And the prayer of faith will make the indisposed one well, and Jehovah will raise him up. Also if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him. Therefore openly confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may get healed.” (Jas. 5:14-16) This course of self-humiliation and confession of spiritual need assists the sinner to reconciliation with God. It helps him to keep strict watch thereafter on how he walks before God.

Helpers Toward Walking Wisely

1. How must overseers carry out the command of Isaiah 58:1, and how does Matthew 18:15 set a course for them?

SPIRITUAL overseers must watch strictly how the congregations under their charge walk or conduct themselves. It is not enough to carry out the command of Isaiah 58:1 with reference only to Christendom: “Call out full-throated; do not hold back. Raise your voice just like a trumpet, and tell my people their transgression. and the house of Jacob [Israel] their sins.’ The theocratic overseers should not merely call attention to sinfulness in the enemy organization of Christendom. They must be impartial, balanced and just in applying a principle. Hence they must call attention to any transgressions and sins even in the congregations over which they have the oversight. If the overseer observes some offense or receives the report of some offense committed by any member against the congregation, then the overseer has something against the offender; for what affects the congregation affects him. He must investigate the matter and take steps concerning it in the spirit of Matthew 18:15: “Moreover, if your brother commits a sin, go lay bare his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”

2. In that case, what does the congregation servant have the right and obligation to do, and what is the primary purpose of such action?

² Accordingly the congregation servant, together with the other members of the congregation service committee, has the right and is under obligation to summon the offender, or apparent offender, in order to come to a factual understanding of what has gone on. He must establish directly the guilt or guiltlessness of the apparent offender and discover any grounds for disfellowshiping, if any truly exist. The primary purpose of this is to keep God’s visible organization of his sheep clean and safe from a spread of sinfulness. The recovery of the offender is secondary.—Deut. 13:12-18.

3. When summoned, what should any accused brother do because of the criticalness of the time?

³ On the other hand, some member of the congregation may be accused of conduct deserving of his being disfellowshiped. When he is summoned for a fair, honest hearing before the accusing witnesses, it is not the time for him to justify himself and for him to refuse to present himself. It is an urgent time for the accused one to seek reconciliation with his disturbed brothers. It is a time, not for self-vindication in one’s own opinion, but for seeking unity with the organization by a clearing up of all misunderstandings or a correcting of matters. The accused one should not be stubborn in his own self-righteousness, like a strongly fortified town. “A brother transgressed against is more than a strong town, and there are contentions that are like the bar of a dwelling tower.” (Prov. 18:19) If anyone merely becomes aware that the brothers have something against him, it should cause him to make speed to straighten out the matter, especially if he really proves to be the sinner in the case.

4, 5. (a) Pertinent to that, what did Jesus say in his sermon on the mountain? (b) What did that saying of Jesus mean, and what does anyone do by ignoring it?

⁴ In his sermon on the mountain Jesus said: “If, then, you are bringing your gift to the altar and you there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, and go away; first make your peace with your brother, and then, when you have come back, offer up your gift. Be about settling matters quickly with the one complaining against you at law, while you are with him on the way there.”—Matt. 5:23-25.

⁵ First after one has done everything possible to satisfy justice and to right the wrong here on earth with his fellow men, first then is he in a right condition to offer sacrifice to God and to find acceptance with him. In accord with this it is written: “The sacrifice of the wicked ones is something detestable to Jehovah, but the prayer of the upright ones is a pleasure to him.” (Prov. 15:8; 21:27) Let no one deceive himself by ignoring this fact.

6. What should a peace-seeking brother be willing to do under accusation, and why should he not be self-justifying and resisting?

⁶ In eagerness to keep or to restore right relations with his brothers and his God, a dedicated Christian should desire and be willing to hear the complaint that is made against him, in order to find out whether he himself is really at fault. The very fact that he has caused his brothers to take some offense should fill him with concern. It should make him want to correct misunderstandings or correct matters. He should not bristle up indignantly and retort: “If they do not like what I do, why should I worry? I know I am innocent and am doing no wrong. If they want to make evil out of it, that shows their wrong condition of heart. I do not give a snap of my fingers for what they think.” Such a resistant, unyielding, self-justifying attitude does not make for peace and harmony in the congregation. It is a foolish attempt to answer a matter before personally hearing it, to know the other’s viewpoint. Proverbs 18:13 cautions us, saying: “When anyone is replying to a matter before he hears it, that is foolishness on his part and a humiliation.”

SELF-JUSTIFICATION NOT GOOD

7. Why is his own presentation of the matter first in the case not enough, and what should he do to others who are disturbed about him?

⁷ A person may feel that he is guiltless. From his own presentation of his side of the matter his case may be strongly in support of him, to justify him. But his own presentation is only one side of the matter. After those who complain against him come up for testimony and present their side of the matter, he may find that he is not so innocent or faultless as he thought. Proverbs 18:17 says: “The one first in his legal case is righteous [innocent, according to his own testimony]; his fellow comes in and certainly searches him through.” His fellow who comes in and testifies against him certainly gives him reason to do a lot of self-examination and renders him uneasy and not so sure of his position. At least he is helped to see why he does not appear so innocent and clean to others. He should find out where the fault lies, whether it lies in himself. He should at least strive hard to clear up the misunderstanding in others, if they have misinterpreted matters. He should respect the attitudes of other honest brothers and should apologize where offense has been caused, if such offense be only because he was tactless or indiscreet rather than was actually sinning.

8. Who of all persons can find something wrong with him, and so what should be his prayer toward keeping in right relations?

⁸ Certainly if no one on earth can do so, Jehovah God in heaven can find plenty wrong with him. Proverbs 20:9 states: “Who can say: ‘I have cleansed my heart; I have become pure from my sin’?” Knowing his sinfulness by birth and his proneness to commit sin, the Christian should be humble and be willing to be corrected, praying with the psalmist: “Mistakes—who can discern? From concealed sins pronounce me innocent. Also from presumptuous acts hold your servant back; do not let them dominate me. In that case I shall be complete, and I shall have remained innocent from much transgression. Let the sayings of my mouth and the meditation of my heart become pleasurable before you, O Jehovah my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Ps. 19:12-14) This helps to keep oneself right with God.

9. Why did Elihu feel a blaze of anger against Job, and so what should an accused one not do to turn attention away from himself?

⁹ Remember that the young man Elihu felt a blaze of anger against patient Job “over his justifying his own soul more than God.” (Job 32:2) Job was innocent, and yet it was wrong on his part to think and speak as if Jehovah God were directly responsible for the sufferings that had come upon Job, as if He were bringing calamity upon the righteous as well as the unrighteous ones. (Job 9:22, 30-35; 27:1-6; 30:19-23; 19:6-22; 6:4; 7:19-21) When anyone is faced with a possible disfellowshiping, it is not the occasion to accuse back or make recriminations or to accuse others, as the ungodly Communists do, in order to turn attention away from himself to the deflections and misdeeds of others and thus to show that others are as bad as he is and are deserving of judgment also.

10. In a full sense, before whom are we brought when taken under examination, and to answer the main question involved what should we do?

¹⁰ It is not simply before a congregational service committee that we are brought when under examination for something wrong. Our secret faults are well known to God, if not to a congregation service committee. God can accurately judge our secret faults, and he will bring them to judgment in his own time. (Eccl. 12:14; 1 Cor. 4:4, 5) So the main question that we must answer is, Can I vindicate myself before God? To make sure whether we can do so, it is necessary for us to make a self-examination with the searchlight of God’s Word, for his Word “is sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces even to the dividing of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and their marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is not a creation that is not manifest to his sight, but all things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with whom we have an accounting.”—Heb. 4:12, 13.

11. With whom else is that true besides with individuals, and how was this illustrated in the case of Achan the son of Zerah?

¹¹ Since this is true with individuals, it also is true with a group of individuals, with a congregation or an organization. Call to mind the Israelite Achan the son of Zerah, who joined in the assault on the city of Jericho after Jehovah God had miraculously caused the city walls to fall down. Everything of value to be found inside the city was to be devoted to Jehovah God, for to him Jericho was the first fruits of the land of Canaan. But Achan robbed God by appropriating to himself part of the spoil of the city, namely, a good-looking garment from the land of Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver and a gold bar fifty shekels heavy. These stolen things Achan hid in the ground beneath his tent, thinking that no one outside his family was wise to the matter, and that he had got off scot-free. But God had seen in secret how Achan had sinned and had thus become unclean. As long as he and his unclean family were left unpunished in the midst of Israel, the nation of Israel could not prosper in its conquest of the Promised Land of Canaan. Therefore God caused Achan to be brought to the light and to be put away by stoning to death. After that, the congregation of Israel made due progress according to God’s will.—Josh. 7:1 to 8:2.

12. So, today whom can God ferret out from our midst, and why therefore should we use our spiritual breastplate and shield of faith?

¹² Likewise, today God by his holy angels can ferret out the secretly sinning Achans in our midst. Oh, may none of us be one of such Achans! Hence we need to watch our heart and our kidneys. “Jehovah of armies is judging with righteousness; he is examining the kidneys [or, deepest emotions] and the heart.” (Jer. 11:20, margin) We need to have on the breastplate of righteousness and to be skillful in maneuvering the shield of faith in order to preserve our hearts and our deepest emotions pure, clean and right.—Eph. 6:14, 16.

13. What courage like Nathan’s must overseers show, but of what must they be certain first?

¹³ Overseers have to be courageous like Nathan, not weak in reproof as was High Priest Eli. Like the prophet Nathan they must apply God’s Word to the congregation member who is at fault and they must fearlessly say to him: “You yourself are the man!” (2 Sam. 12:7) But they must be certain that they have the full facts to guide them to a right judgment and that they are backed up by God’s Word, and not acting from any selfish personal motives.

14. How should committees use the fearful power of disfellowshiping, and what warning of Jesus should they remember in this regard?

¹⁴ Congregation service committees have a fearful power in their possessing the commission to disfellowship the unruly and disorderly from the congregation. They need to use this power with caution, not only to avoid getting into legal difficulties with the law courts of the land, but also to avoid sinning with this disfellowshiping power through a misuse or an abuse of it. Never should it be used to vent a spite on a congregation member or to get rid of someone who is not liked personally by one or all of the service committee or who is a cause of irritation or of envy and so thought best to have out of the way. To guard against wrong motives, it is well for a Christian to remember Jesus’ warning: “Stop judging, that you may not be judged; for with what judgment you are judging, you will be judged, and with the measure that you are measuring out they will measure out to you.”—Matt. 7:1, 2.

HANDLING OF GOSSIPS AND SLANDERERS

15. How, without wrong motives, may a committee bring itself under judgment in a case of disfellowshiping?

¹⁵ Even barring any wrong motives on its part, a congregation service committee may act in all sincerity and yet bring itself under judgment for not making a proper application of Bible principles to a case where the committee decides to disfellowship. This may be in a case that involves something other than adultery or fornication. Take, for example, the matter of gossiping. A committee might fail to make a distinction between gossip and slander.

16. What is the difference between gossip, scandal and slander?

¹⁶ Slander may be gossip; but not all gossip is slander. Gossip is defined as idle personal talk; that is, idle talk, especially about the affairs of others. It is light chat or talk; newsmongering. It may become scandal when it turns into groundless rumor or general talk that is damaging to the reputation of another. Scandal is usually more or less malicious, it being said out of ill will with a desire to hurt the one spoken about or against. Gossip may be simply light, familiar talk or writing, and may not be slanderous at all. It becomes slander when it becomes a defaming of another, when it becomes a malicious, false and defamatory statement or report or suggestion about another, designed to injure his reputation. In the law of judicial courts slander is defamation by oral utterance rather than by writing and other means.

17. What did Paul say to Timothy regarding gossipers?

¹⁷ The apostle Paul referred to the handling of gossipers. He wrote to Timothy as an overseer and gave the following instructions concerning younger widows who were still marriageable and who were not to be put on the list for receiving material help from the congregation: “On the other hand, turn down younger widows, for when their sexual impulses have come between them and the Christ, they want to marry, having a judgment because they have disregarded their first expression of faith. At the same time they also learn to be unoccupied, gadding about to the houses, yes, not only unoccupied, but also gossipers [phlýaroi]a and meddlers in other people’s affairs, talking of things they ought not. Therefore I desire the younger widows to marry, to bear children, to manage a household, to give no inducement to the opposer to revile. Already, in fact, some have been turned aside to follow Satan. If any believing woman has widows, let her relieve them, and let the congregation not be under the burden. Then it can relieve those who are actually widows.”—1 Tim. 5:11-16.

18. Why was it right for Paul to discuss widows, and how did younger ones make their lack of occupation spiritually harmful?

¹⁸ Discussing the case of widows was religiously right for the apostle Paul, for his fellow disciple James wrote: “The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.” (Jas. 1:27) However, the apostle Paul had made observations concerning the younger widows, that their lack of occupation was spiritually harmful to them. Being unoccupied with household obligations or with Jehovah’s service in the field, they were inclined to go to the houses, not to preach or bear witness from door to door, but to talk idly, to gossip, even to the point of meddling in other people’s affairs, “talking of things that they ought not.”

19. What did Paul instruct Timothy respecting the younger widows, and what was his purpose in laying a special responsibility upon the older women?

¹⁹ What did the apostle Paul advise overseer Timothy respecting them? Did he instruct Timothy to have them disfellowshiped? No! He recommended that they be given serious responsibility in order to keep them profitably occupied, even suggesting their getting married and rearing children of their own, so as to win commendation for the congregation rather than to give opposers of Christianity an inducement to revile Jehovah’s organization under Christ. The older women also were to set the younger widows and other women a good example: “Likewise let the aged women be reverent in behavior, not slanderous [diáboloi], neither enslaved to a lot of wine, teachers of what is good, that they may recall the younger women to their senses to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sound in mind, chaste, workers at home, good, subjecting themselves to their own husbands, so that the word of God may not be spoken of abusively.” (Titus 2:3-5) Such corrective measures that the apostle advised kept the younger women within the congregation, commendably occupied in good works and serving as an asset to the congregation and keeping high its spiritual quality in peace and unity.

20. What did the apostle John write to the disciple Gaius about Di·otʹre·phes?

²⁰ The apostle John had to deal with a case of an abuse of the tongue, not in mere gossip but in slander. This was in the case of Di·otʹre·phes, who belonged to the same Christian congregation as did Gaius, a beloved disciple, whom John truly loved. In this case he said: “I wrote something to the congregation, but Di·otʹre·phes, who likes to have the first place among them, does not receive anything from us with respect. That is why, if I come, I will call to remembrance his works which he goes on doing, chattering [phlyareîn]b about us with wicked words. Also, not being content with these things, neither does he himself receive the brothers with respect, and those who are wanting to receive them he tries to hinder and to throw out of the congregation.”—3 John 9, 10.

21. Why was Di·otʹre·phes’ chatter a case of slander and why did he himself deserve to be thrown out?

²¹ Di·otʹre·phes was chattering or gossiping about the apostle John behind his back, but he was doing so “with wicked words.” He was thus slandering John. For this reason he deserved apostolic taking in hand. Hence John said that, should he himself come to that congregation, he would call to remembrance the works that Di·otʹre·phes was doing, which would be accompanied by appropriate action against Di·otʹre·phes. This wicked chatterer had no right or authority to do some excommunicating on his own account, throwing hospitable brothers out of the congregation. In speaking about the apostle John slanderously, Di·otʹre·phes was “disregarding lordship and speaking abusively of glorious ones.” (Jude 8) Di·otʹre·phes himself deserved to be thrown out.

22. Was it mere gossip of which Satan the Devil was guilty in Eden, and why was he called Devil?

²² Remember, it was not mere gossip of which Satan the Devil was guilty in the garden of Eden. He asked Eve a leading question for information, and then made this comment upon her answer: “You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” (Gen. 3:4, 5) That devilish statement was not gossip. It was what Jesus pronounced it to be—slander, a lie, maliciously designed to hurt the reputation or name of Jehovah God and induce rebellion against Him and cause distrust and disunity within His organization. Said Jesus to those who copied Satan the Devil: “You are from your father the Devil and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie.” (John 8:44) Let us make no mistake about it: it was slander, not gossip, for which that unfaithful one was called Devil (Diábolos), meaning “Slanderer.” It was a malicious lie against Jehovah God that killed God’s reputation with Eve and that betrayed the fact that this spirit son had rebelled against the Sovereign of the universe and should be disfellowshiped from Jehovah’s holy universal organization, thus being disowned as a son of God.

23. With regard to talk, what should a committee first determine, and why should they bring in two or more witnesses?

²³ For this reason let the service committee of any congregation of Jehovah’s dedicated people be careful about taking drastic action against gossip. Let them first determine the nature or quality of the gossip. If it is light, inconsequential newsmongering, with personalities involved, there is no ground Scripturally for disfellowshiping and thereby showing oppressiveness. But if it amounts to slander with the malicious design to injure the reputation and standing of another, then it is time to take the matter under advisement and determine whether disfellowshiping the apparent slanderer is right and Scriptural and is for the protection of the congregation. Two or more witnesses will be needed to establish the fact of slander and to protect the service committee.

24. In being careful as to the matter of disfellowshiping, how should the committee be like Jeremiah?

²⁴ A service committee should not use its power of disfellowshiping dangerously. It should veer away from bringing itself under condemnation in this matter. Said King David prophetically: “Anyone slandering his companion in secrecy, him I silence. . . . Every morning I shall silence all the wicked ones of the earth, to cut off from the city of Jehovah all the practicers of what is hurtful.” (Ps. 101:5, 8) For our guidance with respect to slanderers it is written: “He that is going about as a slanderer is uncovering confidential talk; and with one that is enticed [or, possibly, that is wide open] with his lips you must have no fellowship.” (Prov. 20:19; 11:13) A service committee has to draw a sharp distinction between mere gossip and slander. In this regard they should be like a metal tester, as Jeremiah the prophet was: “You will take note and you must examine their way. All of them are the most stubborn men, walking about as slanderers—copper and iron. They are all of them ruinous. . . . Rejected silver is what people will certainly call them, for Jehovah has rejected them.”—Jer. 6:27-30; 9:4-8.

25. Why does a committee do well to investigate slander, but for what is it not Scripturally authorized to disfellowship?

²⁵ Slanderers can cause a death, either physical or spiritual; for which reason the warning is given: “You must not go around among your people for the sake of slandering. You must not stand up against your fellow’s blood. I am Jehovah.” (Lev. 19:16) For this reason a service committee does well to investigate slander. But it is not Scripturally authorized to disfellowship for mere gossip that is light, trivial, superficial, motivated by human interest, but not malicious, not bringing false accusation.

26. To what action is disfellowshiping subject by the disfellowshiped, and what does the reversal of some judgments prove?

²⁶ Disfellowshipings are subject to appeal by the ones disfellowshiped who persist in believing that the committee exceeded itself. Appeals have been made to the Society at Brooklyn and some disfellowshipings have been reversed. This fact proves that some committees have been too eager to excommunicate. Either they have not had the needed witnesses with substantial testimony or have magnified the wrongdoing out of all proportions and have disfellowshiped oppressively and on unscriptural grounds. Disfellowshiping is primarily to prevent the mass of the congregation from becoming leavened with sin by a little lump. (1 Cor. 5:6-8, 13) But remember, it has to do with the eternal life of the disfellowshiped person.

27. Since souls are being dealt with, how should a committee show balance in the matter of disfellowshiping?

²⁷ Yes, souls, precious lives, are being dealt with. This makes the matter something very solemn and serious. Do not stumble an innocent brother with an undeserved disfellowshiping. Examine your hearts and your motives, plus God’s Word. Do not be disfellowshiping-happy, exercising a dreadful power just to show you can use it and trying to intimidate by threatening to use it unless—! Slave masters were instructed to be ‘letting up on threatening’ their Christian slaves. Love is described as a quality that “does not keep account of the injury.” (Eph. 6:9; 1 Cor. 13:4, 5) So we must keep “putting up with one another in love, earnestly endeavoring to observe the oneness of the spirit in the uniting bond of peace.” (Eph. 4:2, 3) So let committees walk with balance in this matter.

28. (a) In what way of walking do our wisdom and salvation lie? (b) How may we buy out the opportune time, and in harmony with what dominant fact today will this be?

²⁸ Our wisdom and our salvation lie in that we all “keep strict watch” on how we walk, not to avoid disfellowshipment, but to please and glorify God and vindicate his universal kingship. The overshadowing fact of today, that God’s kingdom rules and therefore the old world’s end is near, this fact should dominate our lives. These days, though wicked, furnish us an opportunity, that of “buying out the opportune time” for ourselves. How? By no longer wasting time in walking unprofitably and unreasonably as the doomed worldlings do, but by walking wisely according to what we perceive to be Jehovah’s will. In that case we shall find ourselves in harmony with God’s kingdom by Christ, and we shall gain life in happiness in his righteous order of new heavens and a new earth.

[Footnotes]

Part 10—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

The glorious temples to Jehovah God on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem were associated with His kingdom over ancient Israel. Chapter 4 of the book “Your Will Be Done on Earth” discusses the ancient “Foregleams of God’s Kingdom.” In the garden sanctuary of Eden God sentenced the disobedient Adam and Eve to death, but also promised the birth of a Seed from his symbolic woman, his heavenly organization, which Seed was to bruise the head of the symbolic Serpent, Satan the Devil, who induced Eve and Adam into sin against Jehovah God. The flood of Noah’s day wiped out all humankind except Noah and his immediate family. Waiting for God’s promised Seed, Noah did not set himself up as a king over his descendants, all mankind. However, his great-grandson Nimrod became rebellious against Jehovah God and his rainbow covenant concerning the sacredness of animal blood and set himself up as king at Babylon.

6. Thus whose forerunner did Nimrod become, and how did God break up the original Babylonian scheme?

⁶ Thus by more than sixteen hundred years Nimrod was the original forerunner of the great King Nebuchadnezzar, the emperor of the Babylonian Empire. In Noah’s day, when the rebels against Jehovah planned to make Babel (or Babylon) the world capital and to erect a heaven-high sanctuary to false religion, Jehovah broke up their ungodly scheme. How? By confusing the language of the builders and so forcing them to scatter, each language group to its own self.

7. What movement did Nimrod’s death not frighten away, and what fact shows this?

⁷ By this miracle Jehovah God showed that he rules supreme and that his will cannot be blocked on earth. Non-Jewish religions report that Nimrod died a violent death. Despite all his hunting and building and conquering he did not prove to be the promised Seed of God’s woman. But his violent death, which is understood to have come as a judgment against Nimrod, did not frighten away the king movement. In the days of Abraham, who was born two years after the death of Noah, there were a number of kings in the Middle East, yes, in the very regions where Nimrod had ruled as first human king. Abraham had now moved from Ur of the Chaldeans. Under God’s guidance he had come into the promised land to the west.

8. Whom did God then have on earth as king to represent him, and what did Abraham give to him?

⁸ Amid all those kings of this world, did not God have a king to represent him on earth? He did; and Abraham had the privilege of meeting him in the Promised Land. This was Melchizedek “king of Salem” and “priest of the Most High God.” Melchizedek as God’s king and priest was superior to Abraham and blessed him; and Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the spoils that he had brought back from his God-given victory over four invading kings from the north.

9. With what words did Melchizedek bless Abraham, and why was it first hundreds of years after Melchizedek before a typical kingdom of God was again on earth?

⁹ Significant were Melchizedek’s words of blessing: “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. 14:1-20) The city of Melchizedek’s kingdom was Salem, this being the original part of the later city of Jerusalem. Here, then, was a typical kingdom of God on earth, and Melchizedek ruled as a righteous king in the name and by the appointment of the Most High God, “the King of eternity.” He sat on Jehovah’s throne in a typical way. He had the authority not only to reign but also to offer sacrifice to God and to bless those whom God approved, such as Abraham. What became of his theocratic government the Bible does not say. But Melchizedek had no successor in that kingdom of God at Salem. That was why hundreds of years had to pass before a typical kingdom of God was again on our earth. For this reason Melchizedek was not the promised Seed who must bruise the old Serpent, Satan the Devil, in the head and deliver the dying, oppressed human race. However, Melchizedek was used as a type of the royal Seed of God’s woman, who would be higher than any human king, higher even than King David and King Solomon.

10. Who was to be a king-priest like Melchizedek, and by what oath?

¹⁰ God himself swore with an oath that this promised Seed of his woman would be a king-priest like Melchizedek and would sit on God’s throne, not a material throne on earth like Melchizedek’s and David’s and Solomon’s but God’s own heavenly throne. More than a thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ, Jehovah God inspired King David to sing this melody: “The utterance of Jehovah to my Lord is: ‘Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet.’ Jehovah has sworn (and he will not feel sorry): ‘You are a priest to time indefinite according to the manner of Melchizedek!’ Jehovah himself at your right hand will certainly break kings to pieces on the day of his anger.”—Ps. 110:1, 4, 5.

11. In being without successor, how did Melchizedek well picture Jesus Christ, and with what sanctuary does the latter serve?

¹¹ In being without a successor in office, Melchizedek was a prophetic prefigurement of Jesus Christ, who will be Jehovah’s priest-king perpetually. “For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him and to whom Abraham apportioned a tenth from all things, is first of all, by translation, ‘King of righteousness,’ and is then also king of Salem, that is, ‘King of peace.’ In being fatherless, motherless, without genealogy, having neither a beginning of days nor an end of life, but having been made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.” (Heb. 7:1-3) Jesus Christ the Son of God is the one to serve in connection with Jehovah’s true sanctuary. Being King-Priest for all time by reason of his immortality since his resurrection from the dead, he needs no successor in office. Priesthood and kingship toward the Most High God end up in him. How different King Melchizedek of Salem was from King Nimrod of Babylon!

12. (a) By whom must the true Seed of God’s woman be sworn into office? (b) How did Abraham set the proper pattern for his great-grandchildren, the Israelites and when and how did Moses sing forth the relationship of God to his people?

¹² The fact stands out unmistakably: The one who is the true Seed of God’s woman must be sworn into his kingship and priesthood by the Most High God, Jehovah. In view of the presence of King Melchizedek in the Promised Land, Abraham had no reason for wanting to make himself king over his household or over the land. Abraham set the proper pattern for his great-grandchildren, the sons of Jacob or Israel, the Israelites. Jehovah delivered his people of ancient Israel from slave-driving Egypt. He brought them miraculously through the Red Sea to safety and destroyed the pursuing Egyptians behind them, burying them beneath the collapsing walls of water. Then Moses jubilantly sang out the true relationship of Jehovah toward his people, saying: “Jehovah will rule as king forever and ever.” (Ex. 15:18) He was Israel’s heavenly King!

13, 14. (a) How, then, did Israel come to have a human king, and how did the first one end up? (b) Whom did Jehovah find to be a man agreeable to his heart for king, and to whom did Jehovah liken him?

¹³ On being brought into the Promised Land of Canaan the Israelites were ruled over by judges, without family successors. Judge Gideon, although Israel’s visible deliverer, refused to set up a ruling dynasty or line of kings in his family. He said: “I myself shall not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. Jehovah is the one who will rule over you.” (Judg. 8:23) Only at the faithless people’s demand did Jehovah God proceed to give the twelve tribes of Israel a visible human king. When aged Judge Samuel prayed to God in grief, Jehovah comforted Samuel, saying: “It is not you whom they have rejected but it is I whom they have rejected from being king over them.” (1 Sam. 8:7) The first king given to them, Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, ended up disastrously under God’s disapproval. Concerning Saul, Jehovah said to Israel: “I have given thee a king in mine anger, and have taken him away in my wrath.” (Hos. 13:11, AS) During King Saul’s reign Jehovah found in the tribe of Judah a man who was agreeable to His heart. He had the prophet Samuel anoint this shepherd lad, David of Bethlehem, to become king after Saul. In this way David was the anointed one of Jehovah, or the christ of Jehovah. (1 Sam. 13:13, 14; 16:3-13) However, David was not Jesus Christ, or Jesus the Anointed One. He was, like Melchizedek, only a prophetic prefiguration of Jesus Christ the Son of God. In prophecy Jesus Christ was even spoken of as David, which means “Beloved,” in words like the following:

¹⁴ “I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I, Jehovah, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them; I, Jehovah, have spoken it.”—Ezek. 34:23, 24, AS.

15. Whom did Israel then anoint to be king, and what was to happen to the kingdom after this one died?

¹⁵ King Saul died in battle. The Israelites came to appreciate that Jehovah had anointed David to be Saul’s successor, and they anointed him as Jehovah’s anointed. Firmly established in his kingdom at Jerusalem, David desired to build a sanctuary to Jehovah to take the place of the tent or tabernacle that Moses had built in the wilderness. Jehovah denied the warrior David this privilege. But in appreciation of David’s godly desire Jehovah of his own accord made a covenant with David for a kingdom that was never to be removed from David’s family. At David’s death, then, what was to happen? Jehovah’s kingdom covenant with David said: “I shall certainly raise up your seed after you that will come to be one of your sons and I shall indeed firmly establish his kingship. He is the one that will build me a house and I shall certainly establish his throne firmly forever. I myself shall become his father and he himself will become my son, and my loving-kindness I shall not remove from him the way I removed it from the one [Saul] that happened to be prior to you. And I will cause him to stand in my house and in my kingship to everlastingness and his throne will itself become one lasting forever.”—1 Chron. 17:11-14.

16. Why nave no kings of Christendom come under that Kingdom covenant?

¹⁶ No king, from King Constantine of Rome down to any kings or political rulers in Christendom today, has come under this Kingdom covenant of Jehovah with David. Hundreds of years before Christendom came into existence and had kings, that Kingdom covenant began applying and operating toward Jesus Christ the Son of God.

17. On whose throne did King David sit, and whom did he acknowledge as Israel’s real king?

¹⁷ In his position as Jehovah’s anointed, King David sat on Jehovah’s throne. He did not sit on Jehovah’s throne in the way that David’s Lord, Jesus Christ, now sits at God’s right hand. David sat merely as Jehovah’s representative on a visible throne on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. He acknowledged Jehovah as Israel’s real King. In Psalm 59:13 he wrote under inspiration: “God is ruling in Jacob [Israel] to the ends of the earth.” Near the end of his life, when David was rejoicing over the generous contributions that the leading men of Israel had made toward the building of Jehovah’s sanctuary by his son Solomon, David blessed God and said: “Yours, O Jehovah, are the greatness and the mightiness and the beauty and the eminence and the dignity, for everything in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Jehovah, even the One lifting yourself up as head over all.” (1 Chron. 29:10, 11) But David also said: “Jehovah . . . went on to choose Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingship of Jehovah over Israel.”—1 Chron. 28:5; 2 Chron. 9:8.

18. On whose throne did David’s successors sit, and so what did Israel’s kingdom typify?

¹⁸ So David’s successor was said to represent Jehovah on the throne of Israel: “Solomon began to sit upon Jehovah’s throne as king in place of David his father and to make a success of it.” (1 Chron. 29:23) Likewise all the other descendants of David who succeeded him according to Jehovah’s kingdom covenant sat on the “throne of Jehovah.” The kingdom was His. It was a typical kingdom of God on earth. The house of David provided the visible kings.

19, 20. (a) What happened, then, to the kingdom covenant after King Zedekiah was dethroned and his sons were slaughtered? (b) What did Ezekiel tell King Zedekiah concerning the kingdom?

¹⁹ What, then, happened to that everlasting covenant of the kingdom when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon destroyed the capital city of Jerusalem and its sanctuary and overthrew the throne of King Zedekiah and carried him into exile in Babylon, to die there? Did the kingdom covenant then cease to exist? No; that kingdom covenant was to continue until the Seed of God’s woman would come, concerning whom Jehovah said: “I will cause him to stand in my house and in my kingship to everlastingness and his throne will itself become one lasting forever.” It was just that the typical kingdom of God on earth was reduced to a ruin and ceased to exist. Zedekiah’s royal sons were slaughtered by the king of Babylon; but there were other descendants of King David through whom the legal and the natural heir to David’s throne might come. Jehovah made sure of this when he condemned King Zedekiah and said:

²⁰ “And you, O unhallowed wicked one, prince of Israel, whose day has come, the time of your final punishment, thus says the Lord GOD: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; things shall not remain as they are; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high. A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it; there shall not be even a trace of it until he comes whose right it is; and to him I will give it.”—Ezek. 21:25-27, RS.

21. After 607 B.C. what could those in David’s line of descent do concerning the kingdom covenant?

²¹ Those in David’s line of descent did not sit on an earthly throne at Jerusalem after its first destruction in 607 B.C. However, they could pass along the claim according to the kingdom covenant until the final one came who had the right to the throne and crown. Then God would enthrone and crown that rightful heir. Then that one, as the foretold Seed of God’s woman, would be authorized to bruise the “original serpent,” Satan the Devil, in the head.

22. On the return of the remnant from Babylon to Jerusalem, why was God’s typical kingdom not reestablished, and why was the kingdom established by the Maccabean Judas Hyrcanus Aristobulus not the kingdom?

²² How long, then, would it be until the ruined kingdom would be restored and God’s kingdom would be given to the Seed of God’s woman, who has the right to it? When the remnant of repentant Jews were restored to their homeland after it had lain desolate of man and domestic beast for seventy years, the typical kingdom of God in the line of David was not reestablished. They were subject to a non-Jewish ruler, King Cyrus of Persia. They merely had a local governor who was from the royal house of David to direct their affairs. In 167 B.C. the Maccabean revolt against the Syrian king, Antíochus IV Ephíanes, took place and the Maccabees established their own government. In 104 B.C. Judas Hyrcanus Aristobulus took the title “King of the Jews.” But that was a kingdom of a Levite priest. It was not a restoration of God’s kingdom in the line of King David of the royal tribe of Judah.—Gen. 49:8-10.

23. Was the kingdom of God established after Jesus rode triumphally into Jerusalem, or after his being resurrected, or on the day of Pentecost?

²³ In the spring of 33 (A.D.), when Jesus rode triumphally on an ass into Jerusalem, as Solomon had done to his coronation many centuries before, the kingdom of God by the rightful heir of King David failed to be established anew. After Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and just before he ascended to heaven to sit down at his Father’s right hand, Jesus’ disciples plainly asked him: “Master, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?” Jesus, in effect, answered them No! He said: “It does not belong to you to get knowledge of the times or seasons which the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction; but you will receive power when the holy spirit arrives upon you, and you will be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the most distant part of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8) Ten days afterward, on the festival day of Pentecost, the holy spirit of God was poured out upon them and they did receive power. But the kingdom of Israel was not set up again there at Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.

(To be continued)

Why Celebrate the Lord’s Supper?

Jehovah God, through his Son, commanded Christians to celebrate the lord’s supper. When understood, the reasons why will appear to be at once simple, powerful and convincing.

IT WAS Thursday evening, April 3, 1958. At 136 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, New York, exactly five hundred persons packed out the Kingdom Hall, occupying not only every seat but also all the available standing room. The audience consisted of dedicated Christians and their friends who listened with keen interest to a Scriptural discourse. What was the attraction—the speaker? No, even though it did happen to be the president of the Watch Tower Society. Rather, it was the occasion, the celebration of the Lord’s supper. What is the Lord’s supper and why should it be celebrated?

The Lord’s supper is the term used to describe an arrangement that Jesus instituted on the night of his betrayal. In brief, it consists of a Scriptural discussion, the giving of thanks and the partaking of bread and wine. Some refer to it as the Eucharist, because of Jesus’ “giving thanks” on that occasion. It is also referred to as the Communion and the Mass. Doubtless, the most fitting of all names for it is “the Lord’s evening meal.”—1 Cor. 11:20.

Some professed Christians, such as the Quakers, object to this celebration, terming it a stress on “useless external things.” In support of their position they quote: “The kingdom of God does not mean eating and drinking,” and, “Let no man judge you in eating and drinking.” However, an examination of the contexts of these scriptures shows that what the apostle Paul, their writer, was discussing was not at all the Lord’s evening meal but rather the restrictions of the Mosaic law. We cannot take those texts out of their setting and use them to contradict the plain words of Jesus: “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”—Rom. 14:17; Col. 2:16; Luke 22:19.

Then again there are certain liberals who claim that Jesus did not intend to institute any observance. They point to the fact that the command to observe the Lord’s evening meal is found only in the writings of Luke and Paul and carp at the slight variations in the various accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and Paul. However, if we believe, as all Christians should, that the Christian Greek Scriptures are indeed the Word of God, then the account of just one writer is sufficient for our faith and we will readily understand how one account could be more complete than another. Then also we will not cavil at minor variations which but give proof that the several writers wrote independently; Matthew, incidentally, being the only eyewitness among the four.

NOT A SACRIFICE, NOT A SACRAMENT

From the foregoing it is clear that the reason for celebrating the Lord’s supper or evening meal is because Christ commanded it. But why did he? Is it because at that time the bread and wine literally become his flesh and blood, a change termed “transubstantiation”? And is Jesus therefore actually sacrificed for our sins each time the Lord’s supper is celebrated? That is the claim of some who hold that this change was the greatest of all miracles that Jesus performed. But how could that be when Jesus still had his own flesh and blood at the time he said: “Take this; this is my body. . . . This is my blood”? And if this is the greatest of all of Jesus’ miracles, is it not passing strange that no Bible writer calls attention to this stupendous miracle, if miracle it is?—Mark 14:22, 23, Knox.

In fact, Roman Catholic translator Knox, while using “is” in connection with the Lord’s evening meal, having Jesus say, ‘This is my body. This is my blood,’ uses the words “stands for” in a similar case in the illustration of the sower: “The grain that fell in good soil stands for those who hear the word,” etc. If Jesus used “is” in the sense of “stands for” in the parable of the sower, is it not more reasonable to conclude that he meant the same regarding the bread and wine than to insist that he performed his most notable miracle at that time? Surely! And that is why such translations as those of Moffatt, Williams and the New World Translation read, “this means” or “this represents my body.”—Luke 8:15.

As for the Lord’s supper being a bloodless repetition of Christ’s sacrifice, first of all let it be noted that such a sacrifice could not take away sins, for we read that “unless blood is poured out no forgiveness takes place.” That is why God forbade the Israelites to eat blood: “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.” It is because of this that “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sins.” And further, particularly at Hebrews chapter 9, Paul repeatedly stresses that Christ died only once and would not die again. So, clearly, no bloodless repetitive arrangement could be a sin-removing sacrifice.—Heb. 9:22; Lev. 17:11; 1 John 1:7.

Many Protestant organizations, while opposed to the teachings of transubstantiation and that the Lord’s supper is a sacrifice, nevertheless teach that it is a sacrament. What is a sacrament? A sacrament is a religious action that is said to impart merit to those doing it. Is the Lord’s evening meal such a sacrament and is its remission of sins “its most necessary part,” as Luther claimed?

First of all, let it be noted that nowhere in the Scriptures is any sacrament mentioned. Pertinent is the testimony of McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia, whose editors, while holding that the Lord’s supper is a sacrament, nevertheless state: “A negative lesson of no little significance is taught in the fact that the term sacrament is not found in the N.T.; neither is the Greek word mysterion in any instance applied to either baptism or the Lord’s supper, or any outward observance.” No, the idea that an outward observance imparts merit is contrary to God’s principles and his understanding of mankind; such things are all too easily performed without sincerity. For Christians both baptism and the Lord’s evening meal are only symbols that mean nothing unless the reality is being performed or has taken place.

That outward observances cannot procure forgiveness of sins is the lesson that God drove home with the nation of Israel. That is why he told them, through the prophet Isaiah, that he had enough of their sacrifices and took “no delight” in them, and why Paul wrote that “it is not possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take sins away.” And that is why we look in vain for any statement that we should observe the Lord’s evening meal to have our sins forgiven, as if, as Luther says, that were its most necessary part.—Isa. 1:11; Heb. 10:1-4.

On the contrary, we are told: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous so as to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “The prayer of faith will make the indisposed one well, and . . . if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may get healed,” spiritually. Yes, “if anyone does commit a sin, we have”—the Lord’s evening meal? no, but—“a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one. And he is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins.”—1 John 1:9; Jas. 5:15, 16; 1 John 2:1, 2.

A MEMORIAL OF CHRIST’S DEATH

If celebrating the Lord’s supper is not a sacrifice, is not a sacrament, does not cleanse from sins, then why did Jesus command: “Keep doing this in remembrance of me”? For that very reason, as a memorial. It was to commemorate what took place on the Passover day of Nisan 14, A.D. 33, according to the Hebrews’ lunar calendar, even as the Passover itself commemorated what had taken place 1,545 years previous, on Nisan 14, 1513 B.C. And what took place away back there? Jehovah God made a great name for himself by defeating the gods of Egypt, by destroying Egypt’s firstborn and by delivering the oppressed Israelites from their yoke of bondage.—Ex. 9:16; 1 Sam. 6:2-6; 2 Sam. 7:23.

If that event back there was deserving of being commemorated, and it certainly was, how much more deserving of commemoration is what took place A.D. 33! There Jehovah God gained an even greater victory over Satan and his demons in that they were unable to swerve Jesus, God’s Son, from his course of faithfulness until death; thereby God through Jesus proved that the Devil was a liar when he boasted that God could not put a man on earth that would prove faithful to Him. And by that sacrificial death Jesus provided, not merely a temporary, religious, political and economic freedom and that of but one small nation, but he thereby opened the way for all mankind to be set free in God’s due time from every kind of bondage.

Thus we see why Christ commanded his followers to commemorate his death by eating unleavened bread and red wine, symbols of his body and his blood. It was so that we should forcefully remind ourselves of the marvelous demonstration of the supremacy of Jehovah that took place at that time, as well as the wonderful expression of his justice and love; he having such respect for his righteous principles and such love for mankind as to be willing to offer up his only-begotten Son. Also it was that we should ever have a keen appreciation of what Christ Jesus did for us, the suffering and death that he was willing to experience so that we can become reconciled to God and gain everlasting life. And the Lord’s evening meal should both make us want and help us to follow the example set by Jesus in keeping integrity against great odds.

More than that, the Lord’s evening meal should be an occasion for self-examination as to whether or not the Christian partaking of the emblems does so in a manner worthy of the meal, even as Paul shows at 1 Corinthians 11:27-32. And, finally, it serves to impress all those who are of the spiritual body of Christ with their oneness: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing in the cup of the Christ? The loaf which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of the Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, although many, are one body, for we are all partaking of that one loaf.”—1 Cor. 10:16, 17.

WHO AND WHEN?

Who may partake of the Lord’s evening meal? All sincere Christians? No. Why not? Because the context of the record of Jesus’ institution of the Memorial as well as the testimony of other scriptures show that it is limited to those who have the hope of sharing heavenly glory with Jesus Christ, which number the Scriptures show to be limited to 144,000. The facts show that today only a small remnant of that number, who began to be selected at Pentecost, A.D. 33, remains. All men of good will, however, are welcome and should come and observe the celebration, as for them also it calls to mind what Jehovah God and Jesus Christ did, and how they can show appreciation therefor.

How often and when should the Lord’s evening meal be celebrated? Regardless of how often others may profess to do so, there is no Scriptural warrant for doing so more than once a year, even as the Passover, commemorating the deliverance from Egypt, was observed once a year, and that on the night of their deliverance, Nisan 14. Since Jesus instituted his evening meal on the night of Nisan 14, it is but fitting that we continue to celebrate it on the same date. Nisan is the first month of the Jewish lunar year and begins with the visible new moon nearest the spring equinox. This year Nisan 14 falls on March 23. Jehovah’s witnesses throughout the world will heed Jesus’ command to “do this in remembrance of me” by coming together after 6 p.m. at their Kingdom Halls to celebrate the Lord’s supper. Associate with them and receive the blessings that such an attendance brings with it!

Mary’s Assumption—Fact or Fiction?

AT A Eucharistic Congress held in Lima, Peru, the question was asked, “How can it be . . . that the Virgin Mary, within the plan of God, stays exempt from original sin that reaches to all? If she is free from sin, she does not need a Redeemer. The Mother of the Redeemer would remain outside the sphere of the Redemption. Would that be an honor for the Universal Redeemer?” The official answer given assures us that “the Virgin Mary is not outside the sphere of the Redemption, she was redeemed, but she was not soiled, because before being conceived, before existing, she was redeemed with the blood of her own Son, before it was poured out, since this is what the sovereign and omnipotent will of God wished.” (El Comercio) It is said that on this view, held by millions of sincere persons, is based the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary.

However, this has not always been the view of the Catholic church. In the book In Praise of Our Blessed Mother, printed in 1952 under the Imprimatur of Patrick A. O’Boyle, it says: “In the first three centuries of Christianity nothing approaching an explicit mention to Mary’s immunity from original sin can be found in ecclesiastical writings.” “It is therefore in divine tradition, the unwritten word of God, that we must seek the basic and unquestionable source of the dogma that the Mother of God was preserved from original sin in the first moment of her existence.”

Tradition, however, does not show unanimity of thought on the matter. St. Augustine, for example, insisted on the Bible’s teaching of the universality of original sin. St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Franciscan writers Alexander of Hales and St. Bonaventure were all opponents of the doctrine of Mary’s sinless conception.

But the fifteenth century showed a change of viewpoint when Pope Sixtus IV in at least two papal pronouncements gave approval to the belief of Mary’s immaculate conception; this position was confirmed by the Council of Trent and by other popes in the years that followed. “And so,” we are told, “the ground was well prepared for the culminating act, the solemn definition of the dogma proclaimed by Pope Pius IX” in 1854.

It is in this papal dogma, that “the Blessed Virgin Mary was at the very moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, through the merits of Jesus Christ Saviour of mankind, preserved free from all stain of original sin,” said John Wright, bishop of Worcester, that we find “the root reasons for the incorruptibility of Mary’s body and her eventual Assumption, body and soul, into the glory of heaven.”

MARY NO EXCEPTION

What is the position of God’s Word the Bible in the matter? It is clearly stated in the Catholic Douay version of the Bible at Romans 3:9, 10:”We have charged both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. As it is written: There is not any man just.” And again, “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.” (Rom. 5:12, Dy) But could there not be an exception? Yes, and such exception is identified for us at Hebrews 7:26 as Jesus Christ.

That Mary is not an additional exception to the rulership of sin is shown by the account of her purification. The law in Leviticus 12:1-4, 8, on the matter is this: “When a woman has conceived and gives birth to a boy, she shall be unclean for seven days, with the same uncleanness as at her menstrual period. On the eighth day, the flesh of the boy’s foreskin shall be circumcised, and then she shall spend thirty-three days more in becoming purified of her blood; she shall not touch anything sacred nor enter the sanctuary till the days of her purification are fulfilled. . . . she may take two turtledoves or two pigeons, the one for a holocaust and the other for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for her, and thus she will again be clean.”—Catholic Confraternity.

Could such expressions indicating need of purification and a sin offering as “she shall be unclean” and “the same uncleanness as at her menstrual period” properly be applied to Mary? The same Catholic Bible translation of Luke 2:21-24 shows that God’s Word answers Yes, because this very law of purification, which required a sacrifice to atone for her sins, was complied with by Mary. “And when eight days were fulfilled for his circumcision, his name was called Jesus . . . And when the days of her purification were fulfilled according to the Law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord—as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’—and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.’” Truly Mary was just like other women, imperfect. We agree with the inspired apostle who said “God is true,” even if men are wrong.—Rom. 3:4, Dy.

But is it not true that Mary is the ever-virgin “Mother of God”? Instead of basing our answer on emotion-charged sentiment or tradition, let us turn to the Word of God and see what it says. Turn in your own Bible to Luke 1:35 and you will find the statement that “what shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”—not God himself.—Dy.

Nonetheless, this was a truly miraculous birth, God’s Son becoming a human, and it was accomplished in an extraordinary way, a virgin being used as his earthly mother. “Now all this came to pass that there might be fulfilled what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son; and they shall call his name Emmanuel.’”—Matt. 1:22, 23, Cath. Confrat.

MARY’S OTHER CHILDREN

Did Mary, who was now the legal wife of Joseph, bear any other children? Turn, please, to Matthew 13:55, 56, and read: “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Jude? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence therefore hath he all these things?” (Dy) Luke 2:7 agrees with this when it calls Jesus Mary’s “firstborn” son, not an only son. And when Matthew 1:25, Dy, says, “[Joseph] knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn son,” it goes without saying that he did “know” her after that; yes, and she brought forth other children.

The apostle John throws further light on the matter by showing that these references to Jesus’ brothers do not refer to his followers, for he said: “And his brethren said to him: Pass from hence and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see thy works which thou dost. For neither did his brethren believe in him.”—John 7:3, 5, Dy.

Nor can it be argued that these brothers were merely cousins, for we read: “While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brethren were standing outside, seeking to speak to him. And someone said to him, ‘Behold, thy mother and thy brethren are standing outside, seeking thee.’ But he answered and said to him who told him, ‘Who is my mother and who are my brethren? . . . For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.’”—Matt. 12:46-50, Cath. Confrat.

This contrast given by Jesus, showing that the spiritual relationship is stronger and more important than the natural relationship, also shows that these brothers were not cousins. If they had been, then Jesus’ statement to his disciples must also mean, “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my cousin.” Yet it is well known that Jesus taught that he and his disciples were spiritual brothers, not cousins.

These statements in God’s Word certainly cast no reproach on faithful Mary; rather, hers was a great privilege as a servant of the Lord, to be the virgin who gave birth to the promised Son of God and Savior of believing mankind. (Isa. 7:14) All Christians gladly accept the inspired record that shows such to be her happy lot, so let us also accept this further statement given under the same guiding spirit of God regarding other events in her life.

FOUNDED IN FICTION

Of particular interest are these statements in the book In Praise of Our Blessed Mother as they deal with the Assumption dogma. Quoting from Alfred C. Rush, C.SS.R.: “It is known that there is no explicit reference in Scripture to Mary’s Assumption. There is nothing in Scripture regarding Mary that corresponds to the explicit statements regarding Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension. Furthermore, in the patristic tradition of the first six centuries we find a void regarding this problem. . . . All these things add up to the fact that we do not have a genuine historical tradition on the Assumption. . . . Mary’s Assumption is not a fact of history in the sense that it can be proven historically. . . . [Speaking of the Transitus Mariae literature on the subject] As historical accounts of the Assumption they are worthless. True, they try to pass as elucubrations of the Apostles or of people closely associated with the Apostles; they try to pass as historical accounts of the events. In this they are not to be taken seriously. . . . In this regard they are pure legends; they cannot be regarded as having a foundation in genuine historical tradition. From a doctrinal point, however, they are of great value. [Why so, if they are not Scriptural or historical, but are pure legends and written by men who dishonestly represented their works?] . . . In Syriac there is a work called The Obsequies of the Holy Virgin . . . This work does not enter into reasons for the glorification of Mary, but states it as a fact, as something taken for granted. . . .”

Finally, on November 1, 1950, in what is apparently the first formal papal declaration of dogma since the pope was declared infallible when making such pronouncements, Pius XII declared “that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

What, then, is the basis for the dogma? The church itself states that it is not based on the Bible, but rather, we might add, it is contradicted by the inspired statements at 1 Corinthians 15:44, 50: “It is sown a natural body: it shall rise a spiritual body. . . . Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God: neither shall corruption possess incorruption.”—Dy.

Furthermore, we have seen that it is not found in tradition of the early centuries of the Christian era, that it was opposed by later leaders of the church, that it is not a fact of history, but the same source shows that it is based on the highly imaginative legendary accounts of men “with a hunger for the miraculous.” Surely this teaching of tradition that contradicts God’s Word is what Paul the apostle was speaking of when he said: “Beware lest any man cheat you by philosophy and vain deceit; according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world and not according to Christ.”—Col. 2:8, Dy.

What motivated the declaration of the dogma? On May 1, 1946, in the letter Deiparae Virginis Mariae, Pope Pius XII asked the bishops throughout the world this question: “Do you, Venerable Brethren, in your outstanding wisdom and prudence, judge that the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of faith? Do you, with your clergy and people, desire that it should be?”

Whose wisdom was being relied on? “The wisdom that is from above”? (Jas. 3:17, Dy) or the outstanding wisdom and prudence of men? Isaiah 29:14 says that such wisdom of men will perish. Whose pleasure was sought? That of God? or that of the clergy and people? Galatians 1:10 makes very plain the position of those following the latter course: “Do I seek to please men? If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”—Dy.

Questions From Readers

● What does the scripture at James 3:1 mean when it says: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment”?—M. W., United States.

The word “teacher” is used in various senses. Jehovah is the Great Teacher of his people, and at Isaiah 54:13 it is stated: “All your sons will be persons taught by Jehovah, and the peace of your sons will be abundant.” His position is exclusive; he is the Source of all truth. He has associated his Son Christ Jesus with himself as an instructor, and Jesus said to his disciples: “You address me, ‘Teacher,’ and, ‘Master,’ and you speak rightly, for I am such.” (John 13:13) But no one else is authorized to occupy that role as teacher, claiming to be his successor, for he said: “But you, do not you be called ‘Rabbi’, for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers.”—Matt. 23:8.

However, there are those in the visible organization who are teachers in official capacities. The Master has designated the “faithful and discreet slave” to see that spiritual “food at the proper time” is provided for his servants. (Matt. 24:45-47) Those associated with that slave class in such a role bear a heavy load of responsibility before Jehovah God. They must exercise prayerful vigilance to adhere closely to the inspired Word of God and not to “teach commands of men as doctrines.” (Matt. 15:9) They must be on guard that they never abuse their office by “teaching things they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain.” (Titus 1:11) And they must take heed to the responsibility that is theirs of living in harmony with the righteous requirements of God’s Word that they teach, as is emphasized in Romans 2:21-23.

It is because of this heavy responsibility that rests upon such teachers that James counsels: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.” (Jas. 3:1) Not that anyone who receives such a theocratic assignment would refuse it. He should properly show appreciation for the theocratic arrangement outlined in Ephesians 4:11, which says: “He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as missionaries, some as shepherds and teachers, with a view to the training of the holy ones for ministerial work, for the building up of the body of the Christ.” So he will humbly carry out his assignment, looking to Jehovah for his direction. But, in harmony with the counsel of the Scriptures on the point, no one should be overly eager or try to work himself into such a position of responsibility.

While no Christian would want to try to take God’s role as instructor or that of Christ Jesus or to usurp the responsibility of the “faithful and discreet slave, yet we can take the things we learn through the theocratic organization and relay them to others, helping them to understand and appreciate them, and in that sense we are teachers. It is with such teaching in mind that Jesus addressed the command to his disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, . . . teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19, 20) And to those who were slow about taking hold of their privileges of service in this regard, Paul said: “Although you ought to be teachers in view of the time, you again need someone to teach you from the beginning the first principles of the sacred pronouncements of God, and you have become such as need milk, not solid food.” (Heb. 5:12) All of Jehovah’s people should apply themselves so as to qualify as teachers, doing so in their proper place in the theocratic arrangement of things.

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

March is the third month of the Watchtower campaign. Jehovah’s witnesses everywhere will continue to offer this vital magazine to persons of good will at $1 for a year’s subscription, giving three free Bible booklets to each new subscriber. Encourage your friends and neighbors to subscribe for The Watchtower; it will help them to learn how to gain life in God’s new world. For further instructions on how you may share, go to the nearest Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s witnesses.

OBSERVE THE LORD’S EVENING MEAL

“This do in remembrance of me,” said Jesus as he instituted the celebration commemorating his death. This year the date to observe the Lord’s evening meal, or the Memorial of his death, is March 23, after 6 p.m. All persons of good will are invited to be present with Jehovah’s witnesses when they assemble at their local meeting places in obedience to the command of the Lord Jesus to observe this most important occasion. Following a discourse on the Lord’s evening meal, the bread and the wine will be passed separately, after Jehovah’s blessing has been asked upon each emblem. In conclusion all will be invited to share in special weekend field service to spread the Kingdom message. Congregations should make a diligent effort to help all good-will persons to be present at the Lord’s evening meal. If any of our readers do not know where the meetings in their vicinity are held, write to this office for information.

ISAIAH, JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS

The newest addition to the popular New World Translation is Volume IV of the Hebrew Scriptures containing the inspired message of Isaiah and Jeremiah as well as the book of Lamentations. Never before have the thrilling prophecies of these outstanding Bible books been read with such keen enjoyment by English-speaking people. Because of their deep significance to us in their application to our day, you will thoroughly appreciate this volume as an important part of your regular reading program. Send $1 today for your copy.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

April 26: Keeping Strict Watch on How We Walk. Page 165.

May 3: Helpers Toward Walking Wisely. Page 172.