The Watchtower — November 1, 1959

The Bible Still Without Peer

TO BE without peer means to be without an equal, to have no rival. When it comes to books, there is one volume that is truly without peer, that has neither equal nor rival. That book is the Word of God, the Bible. Not without good reason has it been termed the Divine Library, for it is not just one book but rather a collection of sixty-six writings, books and booklets, ranging in size from one page to some two hundred pages.

In ever so many ways this Book of books continues to show itself to be without peer: by the fulfillment of its many prophecies, in particular those relating to the first and second presence of Jesus Christ; by the power it exercises upon men’s lives, such as causing juju-worshiping, warlike and polygamous natives to change into God-fearing, peaceful and monogamous Christians; by its objective and accurate recording of ancient history, as verified by archaeological discoveries such as those made today in the land of Palestine; by the harmony of its messages—though penned by some thirty-five men and over a period of some 1,600 years, they all give first place to God’s name and kingdom—and by the frankness, the candor, of its writers.

In view of the many attacks made upon the Bible, greater than those made upon any other book, its very survival proves that its vitality is unequaled. It has been and is bitterly opposed by totalitarian regimes, both political and religious. These have not only propagandized against the Bible but have made it difficult to obtain. Two striking examples that might be mentioned are Franco’s Spain and Khrushchev’s U.S.S.R.

Vitriolic attacks upon the Bible continue to be made by atheists, agnostics, humanists and Unitarians. Scientific theories are expounded as scientific fact even though those theories keep changing and contradict each other. During 1959 the centenary celebration of Darwin’s Origin of the Species serves as an occasion to heap scorn, contempt and ridicule upon “the creation myth of the Bible.” Yet all such have failed to diminish the distribution of the Bible.

The Bible has continued without peer in spite of the harm done to it by its supposed friends. Many have turned from it because of the hundreds of conflicting creeds, all claimed to be based on the Bible. On the one hand fundamentalists do incalculable harm by their unreasoning literal interpretations of the Bible, and on the other hand the modernists raise a hue and cry because Christians accept the Bible as God’s Word. Giving vent to their feelings, they exclaim: “What a travesty of the Christian faith this idolatry of a book called the Bible has been! . . . How can one understand what the Bible says without knowledge of what the Bible is?” Unfortunately, for ever so many clergymen today the Bible is not what Jesus said it is: the Word of his Father, Jehovah God.—John 17:17.

Its supposed friends harm the Bible not only by their contradictory and unscriptural teachings but also by their unscriptural practices. Wars, political corruption, materialism and crime mark the nations of Christendom that give lip service to the Bible. No wonder the peoples of the Orient view the Bible with skepticism.

Truly the Bible’s survival in spite of all this opposition and misrepresentation gives further proof of its being without peer and of its claim to be of divine origin. It underscores the soundness of its own testimony concerning itself: “The vegetation becomes withered, and the flower falls off, but the word spoken by Jehovah endures forever.”—1 Pet. 1:24, 25.

Current evidence of the Bible’s vitality recently appeared in the press. A report showed that the Bible has been translated, wholly or in part, in 1,136 different languages. Of these, 215 are of the entire Bible and 273 of the complete Christian Scriptures, which of themselves are larger than the average modern novel. In 1958 one American Bible society alone distributed more than 16.6 million copies of the Bible and added three new languages to the number of tongues in which it now appears, bringing the total to 1,136.—Time, May 25, 1959.

In passing it might be observed that the very willingness of the friends of the Bible to devote their time, means and even their lives to the translation, publishing and world-wide distribution of it is yet another evidence of the Bible’s being without peer. Where is there another book from which its readers reap so much benefit as to impel them to make such sacrifices? In comparison, where are the Koran or Veda publishing societies and missionaries? At present the publication and distribution of the Bible is in its third billion.

In view of all the foregoing it seemed rather strange that an April, 1959, newscast in the United States reported that, as to the number of languages in which the Bible had been translated, it had been eclipsed by a number of other books. This report placed the books of Lenin first. Next came Jules Verne, best known for his Eighty Days Around the World, followed by the plays of Shakespeare. Away down the line came the Bible. What the announcer failed to state, however, was that this listing applied only to the year 1957, and had no bearing whatever on the total number of translations in which the various books appeared. The UNESCO report also showed that a total of 27,978 different books, in sixty-five countries and in more than two hundred languages, had been published that year, more than half of which were novels. How long the many books on scientific subjects will remain authoritative is anybody’s guess.

All of this calls to mind the words written by a wise king some three thousand years ago: “To the making of many books there is no end, and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh. The conclusion of the matter, everything having been heard, is: Fear The true God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole obligation of man.” To that end one needs, not the writings of Lenin, Jules Verne and Shakespeare, but the one Book that still is the most widely translated and distributed, the Book still without peer, the Word of God, the Bible.—Eccl. 12:12, 13.

Innocence by Respect for Sacredness of Blood

“I am clean from the blood of all men.”—Acts 20:26.

1. How precious is our blood to us, and how does the attitude of Christ as King differ from that of exploders of atomic bombs?

HOW precious the blood in our bodies is! Our lives are dependent upon blood, and it makes up one tenth to one twelfth of our bodies. Naturally, we shudder at the threat of any increase in that uniformly fatal disease of the blood known as leukemia, as a result of the radioactive fallout from the exploding of atomic bombs above ground. In one month of intensive atomic testing during the autumn of 1958 the Soviet Union virtually doubled the amount of radioactive debris in our earth’s atmosphere. So said Dr. W. E. Libby, the scientist member of the American Atomic Energy Commission. This increases the world-wide threat to blood. How so? In the hazards to man from fallouts, the radioactive product of most importance from atomic bomb explosions above ground is the chemical known as strontium 90, a long-lived radioactive material that can cause bone cancer and leukemia. In the marrow of our bones our blood is manufactured. (New York Times, March 14, 1959) Surely the attitude of men who explode such threats to mankind’s blood is far different from the attitude of Christ, whom our Creator has appointed King of a new world. Of this King the sacred prophecy says: “The souls of the poor ones he will save. From oppression and from violence he will redeem their soul, and their blood will be precious in his eyes.”—Ps. 72:13, 14.

2. What do men in general today little appreciate about God’s laws concerning blood, and why should we inform ourselves on this?

² The value of blood and the close connection between blood and life no one knows this better than the Creator of this living, moving tissue in animal bodies. As our Creator and Giver of life he long ago gave laws concerning blood. These laws showed that he attached a sacredness, a sanctity, to blood. Little do men in general appreciate today that they are under the Creator’s law concerning blood and that they will be punished for violating its sacredness. It is no light punishment, but it will call for their very life. Over 4,327 years have passed since the flood of Noah’s day, but the law that God then proclaimed regarding blood still applies. What is more, it applies to all mankind; for all of us, whether Jews or non-Jews, descended from non-Jews to whom this holy law was proclaimed, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth. Our life hinges on our informing ourselves on this law and on keeping it. We shall be benefited and enlightened if we note the language of this law for all mankind alive today.

3, 4. (a) What may be said as to whether Noah’s sacrifice after the flood violated the sacredness of blood? (b) In his law to Noah concerning blood what did Jehovah say?

³ When Noah and his fellow passengers came out of the ark in which they and the animals and birds had passed alive through the biggest flood in human experience, Noah led his family in offering sacrifice to God. Noah killed some of all the clean beasts and birds there at Mount Ararat. This proved to be no violation of the sacredness of blood. More than fifteen centuries before the Flood faithful Abel, the second son of Adam, had offered up a sacrifice, which meant the killing of some firstlings of his flock of sheep. But God accepted this sacrifice and bore witness to Abel that he was righteous, innocent. (Gen. 4:1-4; Heb. 11:4) Likewise God approved of Noah’s sacrifice of the clean animals and birds, and Noah “became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” (Gen. 8:18-22; Heb. 11:7) It was when expressing his approval toward Noah and his sons that God, the Savior of the human race, stated his law concerning blood, to govern us. We read:

⁴ “God went on to bless Noah and his sons and to say to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth. And a fear of you and a dread of you will continue upon every living creature of the earth and upon every flying creature of the heavens, upon everything that goes creeping on the ground, and upon all the fishes of the sea. Into your hand they are now given. Every creeping animal that is alive may serve as food for you. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to you. Only flesh with its soul—its blood—you must not eat. And, besides that, your blood of your souls shall I ask back. From the hand of every living creature shall I ask it back; and from the hand of man, from the hand of one who is his brother, shall I ask back the soul of man. Anyone shedding man’s blood, by man will his own blood be shed, for in God’s image he made man.”—Gen. 9:1-6, NW; Elberfelder; Segond; Lienart; DeVaux.

5. Why had God-fearing men not eaten flesh before the Flood, and in what way did God authorize men to eat flesh after the Flood?

⁵ Abel never ate flesh with its blood, which is its soul or life. Abel was a God-fearing man, and the divine permission for mankind to eat the flesh of the lower animals and birds and fish had not yet been given. Likewise, Noah and his fellow flood survivors had not eaten flesh before the deluge, for the same reason. With full respect for the precious value and meaning of blood, God now permitted mankind to eat the flesh of animals and birds, but not along with the blood of the creature eaten.

6. Who was the first to mention blood, and under what circumstances?

⁶ Even before the Flood God had permitted and approved that blood be shed from sacrificial victims at his holy altar, but neither blood nor the flesh that contained it was to be taken into the human body as food. In the Bible the first one to mention blood was God himself. When Cain refused to confess that he had murdered his brother Abel, God said to Cain: “Listen! Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground. And now you are cursed in banishment from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood at your hand.”—Gen. 4:10, 11.

7. What fact did Jehovah set forth fifty-five centuries before medical scientists proved it, and what does medical science ignore today?

⁷ By mentioning Abel’s blood rather than his body of flesh, God pointed up the fact that the life is in the blood. Fifty-five centuries before it was proved by medical scientists God set forth the fact that the life-principle is in the blood. In his law given to Noah right after the flood God plainly said that the life, the very soul, was in the blood. But modern medical science refuses to recognize God’s own law that commands respect for the sanctity of blood. Modern medical science ignores that all mankind today are bound by that blood decree and are subject to punishment at God’s hand for breaking that sacred law concerning blood.

8, 9. (a) In Nimrod’s day what did mankind get away from, and why? (b) How did Reuben’s language respecting Joseph emphasize that life is represented by the blood?

⁸ Noah had a great-grandson named Nimrod, who became king of Babylon. Under his influence the greater part of the world of mankind began to get away from keeping God’s own law concerning the sacredness of blood. That was to be expected, since King Nimrod became outstanding as a “mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.” (Gen. 10:8-10) Abraham, the man of faith in Jehovah God, came from the neighborhood of Nimrod’s former kingdom. Through Isaac and Jacob, Abraham had twelve great-grandsons, who became heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jealousy arose and the life of one of these tribal heads, Joseph, was threatened at the hands of his brothers. In an effort to save him, his oldest brother Reuben said: “Do not spill blood.” Finally his brothers saw no selfish profit in killing Joseph and trying to “cover over his blood” and they sold him into slavery. Years later Jehovah God raised Joseph up out of slavery and imprisonment in Egypt to the position of prime minister of Pharaoh, Egypt’s king.

⁹ To offset a famine in Palestine, the ten formerly jealous brothers of Joseph were sent down to Egypt to buy needed food supplies. They were brought before Joseph but did not recognize him as Egypt’s prime minister. To put them to a test of their heart condition, Joseph through an interpreter accused them of being spies and held over them the threat of the death penalty. Threatened with the loss of their own lives, the ten brothers recalled their guilt and began to talk in Hebrew about how they had sold Joseph possibly to his death. Then Reuben spoke out: “Did not I say to you, ‘Do not sin against the child,’ but you did not listen? And now his blood, here it is certainly asked back.” (Gen. 37:21-28; 42:21, 22) Thus the Israelite Reuben used the very expression that Jehovah God had used when he imposed the law concerning the sanctity of blood upon all mankind. By his language Reuben emphasized that human life is represented by the all-necessary blood.

10. In making his covenant with Israel, how did Jehovah insist on Israel’s keeping his law to Noah?

¹⁰ Centuries afterward Jehovah delivered the twelve tribes of Israel from slavery in Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai in Arabia. There through the prophet Moses as mediator he set up a covenant, a contractual relationship, between himself and the twelve tribes of Israel, for him to be their God and for them to be his chosen people. Besides the Ten Commandments, he gave them hundreds of other laws. That they might be to him a holy people, different from the non-Israelite peoples of the world, Jehovah God insisted that they keep the law that he had given to their forefather Noah concerning the sanctity of blood. Hence he forbade them to take blood from man or animal into their bodies as food or drink.

11. By Jehovah’s law what was prohibited to alien residents as well as to Israelites, and why?

¹¹ One of his laws to them said: “You must not eat any blood in any places where you dwell, whether that of fowl or that of beast. Any soul who eats any blood, that soul must be cut off from his people.” Not even alien residents among their nation were to be allowed to take blood for food. Jehovah’s law said: “As for any man of the house of Israel or some temporary resident who is residing for a while in your midst who eats any sort of blood, I shall certainly set my face against the soul that is eating the blood and I shall indeed cut him off from among his people. For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for you to make atonement for your souls, because it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul in it. That is why I have said to the sons of Israel, ‘No soul of you should eat blood and no temporary resident who is residing for a while in your midst should eat blood.’”—Lev. 7:26, 27; 17:10-12.

12. What does McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia say regarding the prohibition of blood as food and the transgressing of this prohibition?

¹² McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume I, page 834, says on prohibiting blood as food: “In cases where the prohibition is introduced in connection with the lawful and unlawful articles of diet, the reason which is generally assigned in the text is that ‘the blood is the soul,’ and it is ordered that it be poured on the ground like water. But where it is introduced in reference to the portions of the victims which were to be offered to the Lord, then the text, in addition to the former reason, insists that ‘the blood expiates by the soul.’ (Lev. xvii, 11, 12). This strict injunction not only applied to the Israelites, but even to the strangers residing among them. The penalty assigned to its transgression was the being ‘cut off from the people,’ by which the punishment of death appears to be intended (compare Hebrews x, 28), although it is difficult to ascertain whether it was inflicted by the sword or by stoning.”

13. What vital facts did God’s laws to Israelite hunters emphasize?

¹³ Hence God told each Israelite hunter not to be like the mighty Babylonian hunter Nimrod but to respect the blood of the prey: “He must in that case pour its blood out and cover it with dust. For the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood by the soul in it. Consequently I said to the sons of Israel, ‘You must not eat the blood of any sort of flesh, because the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood. Anyone eating it will be cut off.’” (Lev. 17:13, 14) The blood was as the soul. So Jehovah God further said to each hunter in the covenant with him: “Simply be firmly resolved not to eat the blood, because the blood is the soul and you must not eat the soul [nephʹesh, Hebrew] with the flesh. You must not eat it. You should pour it out upon the ground as water.” (Deut. 12:23, 24) Eating the soul means eating a God-given life, and this makes the eater responsible as taking a life away from God.

CHRISTIANS NOT EXEMPT FROM BLOOD LAW

14, 15. (a) What did the early Jewish Christians recognize concerning the Law covenant and God’s own law unto Noah? (b) Hence what instructions did the governing body send to non-Jewish Christians?

¹⁴ What, now, about Christians, those truly following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ the Son of God? Jesus established the Christian congregation on earth. For three and a half years after his death and resurrection the congregation was made up exclusively of circumcised Jews or Israelites and proselytes. These Jewish Christians recognized that the Law covenant, which Jehovah God made with the nation of Israel through Moses, had been canceled, nailed, as it were, to the torture stake on which Jesus Christ was impaled as a perfect human sacrifice. The Christian apostle Paul, who was formerly a Jewish Pharisee, affirmed this fact. (Eph. 2:13-16; Col. 2:13-17) The Christian congregation was in a new covenant with Jehovah God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, they recognized that they were still under Jehovah’s own law unto Noah concerning the sacredness of blood, which holy law had never been canceled or recalled. Hence the twelve apostles and other mature Christians of the congregation at Jerusalem, as a governing body, sent out these instructions even to the baptized Christians who formerly had not been circumcised Jews:

¹⁵ “The holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you, except these necessary things, to keep yourselves free from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things killed without draining their blood and from fornication. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!”—Acts 15:28, 29; 21:24, 25.

16. Despite the revoking of the Law covenant and the bringing in of the new covenant, what may the Christians not do, and why?

¹⁶ No, despite the revoking of the Law covenant and despite his bringing in of the new covenant validated by the sacrificed blood of Jesus Christ, Jehovah God had not changed his law concerning idolatry and blood and sexual immorality. Thus the Christians could not worship God through the use of images or symbols; they could not commit adultery or fornication; they could not shed blood in murder or feed their bodies with blood from bird, beast or man.

17. Why is drinking of the common cup at the Lord’s evening meal no violation of the covenant concerning blood?

¹⁷ True, those first-century Christians did celebrate the Lord’s evening meal or supper each year, in which celebration each congregation partook of a common cup of wine. But by drinking from this common cup they were not drinking the literal blood of the sacrificial Lamb, Jesus Christ. Hours before ever the Roman soldier jabbed the left side of the impaled Jesus so that blood and water came out, the Lord Jesus had passed the emblematic cup to his eleven faithful apostles in the upper room in Jerusalem and said to them: “Drink out of it, all of you; for this means my ‘blood of the covenant’ which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins. But I tell you, I will by no means drink henceforth any of this product of the vine [that is to say, wine] until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father.” (John 19:33-37; Matt. 26:26-29) The red wine in that cup was only symbolic. It was a symbol of Jesus’ lifeblood that was to be poured out in sacrifice to God to cleanse away our sins.

18. In what way do celebrators of the Lord’s evening meal share in the blood of the Christ?

¹⁸ Years later the apostle Paul wrote to celebrators of the Lord’s evening meal: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of the Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16) Their drinking of this memorial cup of wine was pictorial of how they partake of the benefit of Jesus’ sacrificed human life, represented by his blood. They do so by means of their faith in him as the One who died in order to purchase them back from sin and death.

19. How did God authorize blood to be used toward the gaining of life, and so how do true Christians regard Christ’s blood?

¹⁹ God had authorized the blood of a sacrificial victim to be poured out upon his holy altar as an offering of a life to him. Accordingly the Christians recognized Jesus’ perfect human blood as poured out upon God’s true altar of sacrifice in order to provide everlasting life for all those accepting his sacrifice. So it was precious blood and had purchase power with God. The apostle Peter wrote to his fellow Christians: “You know that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, as a ransom that you were released from your fruitless form of conduct received by tradition from your forefathers. But it was with precious blood, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, even Christ’s.”—1 Pet. 1:18, 19.

20. Why did the pouring out of Christ’s blood affect differently the Jews who insisted that Pilate have Jesus executed?

²⁰ Thus the pouring of his blood out upon God’s altar did not affect those believing Christians in the same way that it affected the Jews who insisted that the Roman governor put Jesus to death on a torture stake. Governor Pilate washed his hands in water before the crowd, saying: “I am innocent of the blood of this man. You must see to it.” They agreed to see to it, saying: “His blood come upon us and upon our children.” (Matt. 27:24, 25) Willingly they agreed to take upon themselves the responsibility for shedding Jesus’ blood and to pass this responsibility on to their sons.

21. Because of drinking from the cup at the Lord’s evening meal, of what were the early Christians accused, and what does their defense show regarding the law stated to Noah?

²¹ Each year the early Christians celebrated the Lord’s evening meal, at which they drank from the common cup of wine symbolic of Jesus’ blood. Doubtless, or partly, because of this the pagan unbelievers accused these faithful Christians of drinking human blood. This was one of the false charges against which spokesmen for the Christian congregation had to defend themselves. They stopped the mouths of these foes of Christianity by explaining that human blood was far superior and more valuable than animal blood; and the Christians were so far from drinking human blood that it was contrary to the law of their God to drink the blood of even the lower animals, dumb, unreasoning creatures. Numerous is the testimony to the effect that those faithful Christians did not take human blood into their systems for any purpose.—See Origines Ecclesiasticae, or, Antiquities of the Christian Church, by Joseph Bingham [1668-1723], Book 17, chapter 5, paragraph 20.a

22. When did pretending Christians begin to argue against the law of God given to Noah? And how?

²² It was only after the time of the Roman Catholic theologian Augustine (354-430), bishop in North Africa, that persons claiming to be Christians began to argue that the divine rule prohibiting Christ’s followers from partaking of blood as food was merely a temporary prohibition and that it did not apply now. This argument, however, was part of the falling away of Christian pretenders from the true faith that the apostle Paul foretold.—2 Thess. 2:1-3.

23. Since Jehovah does not change, in what way do Christians follow Jude’s exhortation and keep themselves innocent?

²³ After God foretold the coming of his Son Jesus Christ to the temple for judgment work, God said: “I, Jehovah, change not.” (Mal. 3:1-6, AS) True, faithful Christians of today follow the exhortation of the disciple Jude, “to put up a hard fight for the faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones.” (Jude 3) According to this faith they keep innocent regarding blood. They avoid the penalty of violating God’s unchanged holy law of sanctity of blood. The life or soul of no man is demanded by God at their hand.

[Footnotes]

Keeping “Clean from the Blood of All Men”

1. By what saying did Paul indicate there was another way in which Christians must keep clean respecting blood?

ASIDE from literal blood of man, beast and bird, those who do not desire to displease God and deserve punishment from him have to be alert to another way in which they must keep clean from blood. The apostle Paul indicated this way when he said to the Christian overseers from the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor: “And now, look! I know that all of you among whom I went preaching the kingdom [of God, AV; Vg; Lamsa] will see my face no more. Hence I call you to witness this very day that I am clean from the blood of all men.” (Acts 20:25, 26) Of all persons, how could Paul say that? And how are his words and example a warning to us today?

2. How did the one known as Paul start a career of persecution?

² Paul was once known as Saul of the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor. He bore a heavy bloodguilt for a while. At the time that the Jewish Supreme Court of Jerusalem had the faithful Christian witness Stephen stoned to death, this Saul of Tarsus watched and stood guard over the outer garments of the stoners who carried out the execution. In this way Saul openly showed he approved of this murderous deed. His own head bore some responsibility for Stephen’s blood. (Acts 7:58; 8:1; 22:19, 20) Thus he started a career of persecution. “Saul, though, began to deal outrageously with the congregation. Invading one house after another and dragging out both men and women, he would turn them over to prison.” Except the apostles, the Christians were scattered from Jerusalem.—Acts 8:3.

3. What confession of persecution did Paul make before Festus and Agrippa?

³ “Saul, still breathing threat and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus [Syria], in order that he might bring bound to Jerusalem all those he found who belonged to the Way, both men and women.” (Acts 9:1, 2) When testifying before Governor Festus and King Herod Agrippa II, he said: “I, for one, really thought within myself I ought to commit many acts of opposition against the name of Jesus the Nazarene; which, in fact, I did in Jerusalem, and many of the holy ones I shut up in prisons, as I had received authority from the chief priests; and when they were to be executed, I cast my vote against them. And by punishing them many times in all the synagogues I tried to force them to make a recantation; and since I was extremely mad against them, I went so far as to persecuting them even in outside cities.”—Acts 26:9-11.

4. Under what did Saul thus come, and why did it become important for him to change his occupation?

⁴ By this mad course Saul came under a heavy bloodguilt, a guilt for innocent blood. How did he get free from it? By accepting divine mercy. On the road to Damascus to extend his persecutions there, Saul was halted by the very one whom he was really persecuting. The resurrected, glorified Jesus appeared to Saul miraculously and rebuked him, saying: “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” Then the Lord Jesus set before Saul a change of occupation, that of “an attendant and a witness both of things you have seen and things I shall make you see respecting me; while I deliver you from this people and from the nations, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, in order for them to receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by their faith in me.” (Acts 26:12-18; 9:3-6) Now the question was, Would Saul change his occupation from persecutor to attendant and witness of Jesus Christ? His present life depended upon it, for his then heavy bloodguilt deserved death. Also his eternal life depended upon it.

5. What course of action did Saul then undertake, and what public evidence did he give of this immediately?

⁵ Saul now saw that he deserved to die, but, according to God’s mercy through Christ, he did not need to die for his extreme bloodguilt. During the three days of his miraculous blindness in Damascus, he confessed his terrible sin and repented and appealed for mercy through the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He converted or turned around, away from his murderous course of persecutor as a Jewish Pharisee, and he dedicated himself to Jehovah God as a follower of His Son Jesus Christ. Thus deciding to do God’s will for him, he accepted the assignment of work that Jesus set before him. As soon as his sight was miraculously restored on the third day, Saul got baptized in water to give public evidence of his dedication to God as a follower of Jesus; and he received the washing away of his sins through the precious blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. (Acts 9:17-19; 22:12-16) Immediately after that he began to act as a witness like Jesus Christ.—Acts 9:19-26.

6, 7. (a) By God’s exercising of what was Saul relieved of bloodguilt? (b) What does he say for persons feeling likewise burdened today?

⁶ Saul tells us that he was relieved of his heavy bloodguilt by God’s loving-kindness through Jesus Christ, who appeared to him even after his ascension to heaven: “Last of all he appeared also to me as if to one born prematurely. For I am the least of the apostles, and I am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the congregation of God. But by God’s undeserved kindness I am what I am. And his undeserved kindness which was toward me did not prove to be in vain, but I labored in excess of them all, yet not I but the undeserved kindness of God which is with me.” (1 Cor. 15:8-11) In his ignorance Saul fanatically piled up bloodguilt upon his head. For persons today who likewise might feel the unbearable weight of the same kind of bloodguilt Paul says:

⁷ “He considered me trustworthy by assigning me to a ministry, although formerly I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man. Nevertheless, I was shown mercy, because I was ignorant and acted with a lack of faith. But the undeserved kindness of our Lord abounded exceedingly along with faith and love that is in connection with Christ Jesus. Trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance is the saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am foremost. Nevertheless, the reason why I was shown mercy was that by means of me as the foremost case Christ Jesus might demonstrate all his long-suffering for a sample of those who are going to rest their faith on him for everlasting life.”—1 Tim. 1:12-16.

8. So, like Saul, what steps may we take to be cleansed from terrible bloodguiltiness and be assigned to Christian service?

⁸ By confessing his grievous sins, by repenting of them, by converting or turning away from this confessed course of sin, by humbly and gratefully accepting God’s undeserved kindness through his Son Jesus Christ, by dedicating himself to God to carry out God’s will as revealed, and by symbolizing this dedication in a water baptism, Saul of Tarsus undertook his assigned service as a Christian clean from the blood of the Christians whose execution he had brought about. Today we too may in this same way be cleansed from terrible bloodguiltiness. Then we may keep God’s law concerning the sacredness of blood by keeping ourselves free from blood and from things killed without draining their blood.

9. As indicated by Paul, how does a person dedicating come under a new liability respecting the blood of other persons?

⁹ However, what is this keeping “clean from the blood of all men” that Paul later speaks about? In becoming a Christian does the person who dedicates himself come under a new liability toward the blood of other men? Yes; because other men stand in danger of death at God’s hands as we ourselves once did, and we now know how they may escape such a death. So we become responsible to use our knowledge in their behalf. We are not the only sinners whom Christ came to save by shedding his blood. He was proclaimed to be the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”—John 1:29.

10. For others to profit by the means of salvation what obligation rests upon those already shown mercy as indicated by Proverbs 24:11, 12?

¹⁰ How, though, could others of the world be saved by his sacrifice for sins if they did not hear about it and have the opportunity to accept it and profit by it? Salvation is thus possible to countless more persons than us present saved ones. Those already shown mercy are made responsible to show mercy and acquaint others with the means of salvation. If we fail to do so, should not the failure of others to attain salvation be charged to a greater or less extent to us who have neglected or failed to give out the needed information? This is particularly true in a time of divine judgment, when an execution of judgment is scheduled and due to take place. Showing our responsibility in this matter, Proverbs 24:11, 12 says: “Deliver those who are being taken away to death and those staggering to the slaughter, if you would be spared. In case you should say: ‘Look! we did not know this one,’ will not he himself that is estimating hearts discern it and he himself that is observing your soul know and certainly pay back to earthling man according to his activity?” That is how Paul viewed the situation. He had been shown boundless mercy; hence he had to show mercy to others, seeing that he himself lived by mercy from God through Christ.

SHOWING THE WAY OF ESCAPE

11. In Paul’s day what question was timely regarding Jerusalem, and so Paul felt under pressure to do what in order to keep clear?

¹¹ The apostle Paul is an example for us today. He desired to keep clear of responsibility for the execution of others by the great Judge Jehovah, as that execution would mean a destruction of body and soul in Gehenna. (Matt. 10:28) In Paul’s day the Jews were living in a period of divine judgment. The Lord Jesus had said that Jerusalem was facing a horrible destruction, because she had not discerned the time of her being inspected by God’s own Son. (Luke 19:41-44) The question was, Who will perish with Jerusalem? Who will stay under the bloodguilt that those who demanded Jesus’ death asked to rest on them and on their children? Paul therefore felt under pressure to sound the warning and to show the way of escape and of salvation to everlasting life. Accordingly, he preached, giving attention first to the endangered Jews. This conscientious desire to keep clear of responsibility for the destruction of others showed itself in what Paul said in Corinth.

12. Because of his preaching activity in Corinth, what crisis developed, and what did Paul say and do in meeting it?

¹² In this Grecian city Paul worked as a tentmaker with a Jewish believer, Aquila, the husband of Priscilla. Every Jewish sabbath day, however, he gave a talk in the local synagogue and succeeded in winning over to Christianity a number of Jews and Greeks. When Paul’s traveling companions finally joined him here, he “began to be intensely occupied with the word, witnessing to the Jews to prove that Jesus is the Christ.” Then a crisis developed. It called forth from Paul an expression that showed why he was taking the matter so seriously. We read: “After [the Jews] kept on opposing and speaking abusively, he shook out his garments and said to them: ‘Let your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From now on I will go to people of the nations.’ Accordingly he transferred from there and went into the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was adjoining the synagogue. But Crispus the presiding officer of the synagogue became a believer in the Lord, and so did all his household. And many of the Corinthians that heard began to believe and be baptized.”—Acts 18:1-8; 1 Cor. 1:14-16.

13. How may unbelieving Jews in Corinth have shared in the judgment executed on Jerusalem, and why could Paul not be held responsible?

¹³ Paul knew that the Jewish nation was in a time of judgment and that the destruction was due to befall Jerusalem inside the then living generation. Jews from all parts of the earth, “from every nation of those under heaven,” went up to Jerusalem for the annual celebrations or festivals of the Jews. Doubtless some of the Jewish synagogue at Corinth, who opposed Paul there about A.D. 50/51, went up twenty years later to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover in 70 (A.D.). There they were trapped when Roman General Titus led his legions against the city and bottled up all the celebrants of the Passover. Death by siege, famine, pestilence and internal civil strife befell the majority of them. Only the small number who survived were led away captive into all parts of the Roman Empire. Had those Jews turned Christian and been baptized by Paul as Crispus and his household had, they would have stayed far away from Jerusalem and Judea, especially after Roman Cestius Gallus had surrounded the doomed city with his armies for a short siege, in 66 (A.D.). They would thus have heeded Jesus’ words in Luke 21:20-22, and would not have perished with the eleven hundred thousand Jews as stubborn, willful opposers of Christ and refusers of salvation through him. Yet, whether they perished at Jerusalem or not, those Jews died as obstinate enemies of the Savior of mankind. However, Paul could not be held responsible for their dying outside of God’s provision for salvation through Jesus Christ.

14. Why on turning away from the Jews in Corinth could Paul disclaim any bloodguiltiness toward them, and to whom then did he turn?

¹⁴ Paul could conscientiously shake out his garments and disclaim any bloodguiltiness toward those Corinthian Jews. He was clean, innocent, in the matter. He had even preached in their synagogue on their rest day. When his companions Silas and Timothy joined him, he occupied himself more intensely with the word, that is, the spoken word, by preaching and teaching. This no doubt obliged him to devote less time to tentmaking. But he felt obliged to do this because of the responsibility he bore toward the Jews who were directly on judgment before their God Jehovah, hence in danger of everlasting destruction. After they kept opposing the message of salvation and speaking abusively about Jesus Christ, it was a waste of time and a misdirection of effort to talk to them further as a community. He could now in all good conscience leave them to the consequences of their willful, antichristian course, without carrying away even a tiny stain of bloodguilt. So now he turned to his other responsibility, that of serving as an “apostle to the [non-Jewish] nations.” (Rom. 11:13) They also were within the range or possibility of being saved, provided they heard the message. Hence Paul notified the abandoned Jews of Corinth: “From now on I will go to people of the nations.”

15. What proved that Paul’s course in this matter was right and that he was clean from the blood of Jewish opposers?

¹⁵ Was this the right course, and was Paul really clean and the Jews’ blood upon their own heads? The Lord showed yes. How so? Well, after Paul turned exclusively to the pagans there in Corinth he got a message from heaven. We read: “Moreover, by night the Lord said to Paul through a vision: ‘Have no fear, but keep on speaking and do not quiet down, because I am with you and no man will assault you so as to do you injury, because I have many people in this city.’ So he stayed set there a year and six months, teaching among them the word of God.” (Acts 18:9-11) The “many people in this city” that the Lord had must have been non-Jews, who became Christians. The opposing Jews then attempted to make Paul’s preaching a legal-court case before proconsul Gallio as judge. This failed. The case was thrown out of court. After he stayed quite some days longer teaching the non-Jews in God’s Word, Paul left Corinth peaceably and paid a visit to Jerusalem.—Acts 18:12-22.

HOW KEPT CLEAN?

16. According to travel accounts, to whom was Paul a witness, and what challenging statement did he make undisputed to the Ephesian overseers?

¹⁶ No less than Jehovah’s witnesses today, Paul was a witness to much of the inhabited earth, as much as he could reach, for the purpose of giving witness: to Syrians, Jews, Arabians, Cilicians, Cypriotes, Pamphylians, Galatians, Lycians, Asians, Macedonians, Grecians, Maltese and Italians, as far as we definitely know from Paul’s travels. Everywhere that this apostle went and had the opportunity to bear witness, he showed us of today how to keep “clean from the blood of all men.” How did he do so? The farewell address that he gave to the overseers of the congregation of Ephesus, the chief city of the Roman province of Asia, explains in particular how he did so. When Paul stopped at nearby Miletus on his final trip to Jerusalem he sent and called to him these older men of the congregation of Ephesus. To them he made the challenging statement: “Hence I call you to witness this very day that I am clean from the blood of all men.” (Acts 20:16, 17, 26) Could and did those overseers of Ephesus dispute this? No! Why not? Because Paul had thoroughly presented to them the message of salvation.

17. What did those Ephesians well know from the first day Paul stepped in among them, and what were the “profitable things” that he mentioned?

¹⁷ Let us check Paul’s words on this score. To those representatives of the Christian congregation at Ephesus he said: “You well know how from the first day that I stepped into the district of Asia I was with you the whole time, acting as a slave of the Lord with the greatest lowliness of mind and tears and trials that befell me by the plots of the Jews; while I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.” (Acts 20:18-20) Let it be here remarked that the “things that were profitable” were the things that came from God’s Word and that had to do with their getting saved and staying in the saved condition. But how did Paul preach and teach publicly and from house to house in Ephesus? The record shows.

18. What work did Paul do “publicly” in Ephesus as regards the Jews?

¹⁸ After he left Corinth and while traveling to Jerusalem Paul stopped at Ephesus. What work did he do “publicly”? “He himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. Although they kept requesting him to remain for a longer time, he would not consent but said good-bye and told them: ‘I will direct my course back to you again, if Jehovah is willing.’” (Acts 18:19-21) After fulfilling his vow at Jerusalem Paul did come back to Ephesus. He again made a public appearance. “Entering into the synagogue, he spoke with boldness for three months, giving talks and using persuasion concerning the kingdom of God.” When the Jews began to object loudly, did Paul quit his public work? No, says the account. “But when some went on hardening themselves and not believing, speaking injuriously about the Way before the multitude, he withdrew from them and separated the disciples from them, daily giving talks in the school auditorium of Tyrannus. This took place for two years, so that all those inhabiting the district of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”—Acts 19:1, 8-10.

19. So what did Paul do for continued public speaking, and what effect did this have over the course of two years?

¹⁹ Thus Paul merely changed locations for public speaking, from the Jewish synagogue to the school auditorium. Here he gave Bible talks daily. He did do some secular work to provide for his own needs and even those of others; but he arranged his schedule to get in some Bible talking daily. Over the course of two years this had such a public effect that all inhabitants of the Roman district of Asia heard the Lord’s message, both Jews and non-Jews.

20. What happenings regarding demonism showed up what a public witness Paul had given, and how did this affect the word of Jehovah?

²⁰ Some traveling Jews tried to imitate some of the miracles that Paul performed. They said to demons that were obsessing certain victims: “I solemnly charge you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Not only those Jews knew what Paul publicly preached, but the demons did also. In one case a demon answered them back: “I know Jesus and I am acquainted with Paul; but who are you?” What then took place became known throughout Ephesus. We read: “Fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus went on being magnified. And many of those who had become believers would come and confess and report their practices openly. Indeed, quite a number of those who practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them up before everybody. And they calculated together the prices of them and found them worth fifty thousand pieces of silver. Thus in a mighty way the word of Jehovah kept growing and prevailing.” (Acts 19:11-20) This latter course is the right one for those today to take who have practiced spiritism, which is demonism. Let them openly confess their past practices and ask God’s forgiveness and then destroy their demonistic books or reference works, no matter what the cost of them in worldly values. However, the main thing to note here is that, because of Paul’s teaching publicly, the talking about God’s Word kept growing and prevailing over pagan teachings and Jewish traditions in a mighty way.

21. Due to Paul’s public work outside the synagogue, among whom was opposition stirred up, and how did Demetrius the silversmith stir up a riot?

²¹ Because of Paul’s preaching in synagogues powerful opposition had been stirred up among the Jews. Now his public work apart from the Jewish synagogue succeeded to such an extent among the non-Jews that it roused up opposition among the pagans. Grudgingly confessing to the success of Paul’s public work, Demetrius the silversmith said to his fellow silversmiths who made silver shrines of Artemis, or Diana, whose magnificent temple was there at Ephesus: “Men, you well know that from this business we have our prosperity. Also you behold and hear how not only in Ephesus but in nearly all the province of Asia this Paul has won over a considerable crowd and turned them to another opinion, saying that the ones which are made by hands are not gods. Moreover, the danger exists not only that this occupation of ours will come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be esteemed as nothing and even her magnificence which the whole province of Asia and the inhabited earth worships is about to be demolished.” At this they stirred up a riot in Ephesus.

22. What evidence of the publicity that Paul had gained was shown in the case of public officials at the time of the riot?

²² As an evidence of the publicity that Paul had gained as a Christian minister, public officials tried to safeguard him from harm. The disciples would not let Paul go into the city theater to address the confused, shouting mob. We read: “Even some of the commissioners of festivals and games, who were friendly to him, sent to him and began pleading for him not to risk himself in the theater.” Finally the city recorder called the mob to their senses and dismissed the uproarious assembly.—Acts 19:23-41.

23. What indications are there of Paul’s teaching from house to house, and, significantly, who failed to deny such work by Paul?

²³ How, though, had Paul taught “from house to house” in Ephesus? We have no striking record of this. However, when Paul first made this return visit to Ephesus he found some professed disciples, about twelve men. The record does not say he met these men in the Jewish synagogue. Reasonably, then, he found them in doing the house-to-house work, of which he later testified to the Ephesian overseers. As it does not say that Paul talked to these twelve professed disciples in the synagogue, he must have explained matters to them in a private house. They knew nothing about the holy spirit, which accounts for their not having it operative in them. They had been baptized in water; yet it was not in Christian baptism. It was “in John’s baptism.” But even John the Baptist told his disciples that they would have to “believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” So the twelve men got rebaptized, this time “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” and at Paul’s hands they received the holy spirit and its gifts of miraculously speaking with other languages and prophesying. After that Paul went to a public place, the synagogue. Furthermore, persons needing miraculous help sent to Paul from their homes. (Acts 19:1-7, 11) Also, the Ephesian overseers did not deny Paul’s statement that he had worked as a Christian teacher from house to house.—Acts 20:20.

“THE THINGS THAT WERE PROFITABLE”

24, 25. (a) What things did Paul teach publicly and from house to house? (b) How does information on this come to light?

²⁴ The Ephesian overseers could not charge that the apostle Paul had held back anything that they needed for escaping destruction and gaining eternal salvation. What, then, had Paul taught publicly and from house to house? The truth about the real God, repentance of sinners toward God, faith in the Lord Jesus, the undeserved kindness of God through Jesus, the kingdom of God, the Word of God, the inheritance of God’s sanctified ones, and the imitating of Jesus in giving rather than receiving. This information comes to light as Paul continues to speak to the Ephesian overseers:

²⁵ “I did not hold back from telling . . . But I thoroughly bore witness both to Jews and to Greeks [hence to all men] about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. And now, look! bound in the spirit, I am traveling to Jerusalem, although not knowing the things that will happen to me in it, except that from city to city the holy spirit repeatedly bears witness to me as it says that bonds and tribulations are waiting for me. Nevertheless, I do not make my soul of any account as dear to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry which I received of the Lord Jesus, to bear thorough witness to the good news of the undeserved kindness of God. And now, look! I know that all of you among whom I went preaching the kingdom will see my face no more.”—Acts 20:20-25.

26. Besides what Jesus mentioned in Luke 24:46-48, what did Paul preach publicly and from house to house?

²⁶ Paul was carrying out Jesus’ instructions given to his disciples when he said: “In this way it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from among the dead on the third day, and on the basis of his name repentance for forgiveness of sins would be preached in all the nations—starting out from Jerusalem, you are to be witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:46-48) Paul taught more than the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ, on the basis of which we may receive God’s forgiveness of our sins through our repentance toward him. He also preached God’s kingdom, in which Jesus Christ will be God’s anointed King and for which Jesus taught his disciples to pray to God: “Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:10) In this heavenly kingdom, too, Jesus’ faithful disciples, “the sanctified ones,” are to have an inheritance. Over several years Paul thoroughly bore witness to all kinds of men, Jews and Greeks, concerning these profitable things, teaching them publicly and from house to house.

27. What did Paul say to the Ephesian overseers was his dominant purpose, and how did he pursue that purpose?

²⁷ Paul’s dominant purpose was to finish his course in the way that a Christian should, yes, and to finish the witness work, the ministry that he had received of the Lord Jesus who met him in the way. Paul did this not only by public preaching but also by the more intimate, private, direct-contact house-to-house preaching.

THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CLEANNESS

28. How did this tally up on Paul’s account before all concerned, and why could Paul feel the way he did about this serious matter?

²⁸ Now how did this tally up on Paul’s account before God and before the people of Ephesus, and particularly before the Christian congregation there? It left Paul debt-free, owing nothing to the Ephesians. It left him with a consciousness of cleanness, “a perfectly clear conscience.” (Acts 23:1) So, after setting forth his well-known record before the Ephesian overseers, he went on to say: “Hence I call you to witness this very day that I am clean from the blood of all men.” He felt no bloodguilt toward the Jews or non-Jews in and about Ephesus. He stated the reason why, saying: “For I have not held back from telling you [as representatives of ‘all men’ in Ephesus] all the counsel of God.”—Acts 20:26, 27.

29. Besides instruction by word of mouth, what other attention did Paul give the Ephesians, and what idea does this give us about what he preached to them by word of mouth?

²⁹ Besides the instruction that Paul gave the Ephesians by word of mouth concerning the full counsel of God, he gave them attention by letter writing. Years later, about A.D. 60, he sent them his so-called Letter to the Ephesians, from Rome, where he had time to write in prison. From this letter we can get some idea of what he had preached to the Ephesians, for his letter still talked about “release by ransom through the blood of that one, yes, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his undeserved kindness” and about our drawing near to God “by the blood of the Christ” and about how “through him we, both peoples, have the approach to the Father [God] by one spirit.”—Eph. 1:7; 2:13, 18.

30. (a) Despite referring to blood, what indicates Paul was not referring to the military question? (b) So what responsibility because of judgment was Paul thinking about when talking of blood?

³⁰ When Paul talked to the Ephesian overseers he was around forty years of age. So when he spoke of keeping clean from the blood of all men he was not discussing the military question. Of course, he knew about Numbers 31:19. This verse said that even Jews who were made executioners of God’s enemies had to undergo a purification for seven days for having killed someone or for having touched the body of someone slain, in order to get free from bloodstain or contamination by blood. But Paul was talking about the responsibility that a dedicated Christian comes under for the blood of men aside from any responsibility for shedding a man’s blood in murder or by aiding someone else in killing or shedding blood in a loose, careless, indifferent, wanton manner. Paul was thinking about the coming judgment of God toward “all men.” He was thinking, too, about the execution of God’s judgment, which would mean death and destruction to human creatures who could have been benefited by the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ and by God’s kingdom. Such creatures can be saved from such death and destruction only by the message of salvation, the entire counsel of God. With this counsel the dedicated Christian is entrusted as a witness and minister.

31. Why is the bloodguilt that Christendom’s clergy bear a double one?

³¹ From this standpoint we can see that Christendom’s clergy bear a double bloodguilt, not only that for blood shed in international wars, but also for telling the people religious lies and not “all the counsel of God” as contained in his Word.—Jer. 2:34; Ezek. 35:6.

PUT ON THEIR OWN RESPONSIBILITY

32, 33. (a) Besides warning the overseers of present dangers, what else did Paul do? (b) Why did he tell them to pay attention to themselves and God’s flock?

³² During the time that Paul lived and while he was present with the spiritual “sheep,” he had to watch like a shepherd over the “flock of God” to protect them from death by spiritual hunger or by wolfish enemies. He also had to think about after he left them or after he died and could not give them his direct, living oversight. For this reason he warned the sheep not only of the present dangers but also of the danger to confront them after he left.

³³ As a member of the Christian governing body, Paul trained and appointed overseers for the “flock of God” under the guidance of God’s spirit. He also warned them of future problems and future dangers that had to do with their own safety and that of all of God’s flock. With his prophetic foresight and with the help of the written prophecies Paul was under obligation to give such warnings. He had to serve as a watchman and look ahead. Hence he told those Ephesian overseers: “Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed you overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son. I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness, and from among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore keep awake, and bear in mind that for three years, night and day, I did not quit admonishing each one with tears.”—Acts 20:28-31.

34. What did Paul’s putting those overseers on their own responsibility mean, and why were they to be held more responsible?

³⁴ Having cleared himself of responsibility for their blood, Paul had to put the spiritual shepherds on their own responsibility. If, now, any of those forewarned, fully instructed overseers got executed by the judgment of God and lost eternal life, it would not be Paul’s fault. He would not be accountable for their losing eternal life. The guilt for their blood if shed or life if poured out would be their own, not Paul’s. As trained, instructed overseers, they had got more teaching and attention and directing than the Jewish and Gentile public had got or even the general members of the congregation had got. Consequently they were more responsible, for they knew more and had had more advantages.

35. What did Paul finally say to them before praying with them?

³⁵ Having conducted himself so faithfully as a Christian minister and overseer in Ephesus for the three years of his presence and activity there and having now given them this final warning, Paul was in proper position to say to the Ephesian overseers: “And now I commit you to God and to the word of his undeserved kindness, which word can build you up and give you the inheritance among all the sanctified ones. I have coveted no man’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands have attended to the needs of me and of those with me. I have exhibited to you in all things that by thus laboring you must assist those who are weak and must bear in mind the words of the Lord Jesus, when he himself said, ‘There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.’” Then Paul prayed with them.—Acts 20:32-36.

36. How could Paul indeed commit those Ephesian Christians to God?

³⁶ Paul could indeed commit the Ephesian overseers and congregation to God. He had taught them about Jehovah God as the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and had brought them into relationship with God. For at least three years by day and by night, he had not held back from telling them all the counsel of God. Doubtless, through Paul as an apostle the most of the congregation, if not all of them, had received the holy spirit and its miraculous gifts. (Acts 19:1-7) So, now having to leave them with no hope of seeing him again, Paul had to commit them to their ever-present, ever-living Caretaker, Jehovah God, to whom Paul had led them so that they became His “sanctified ones,” his flock of sheep.

37. How could Paul indeed commit them to the “word of God’s undeserved kindness”?

³⁷ Paul could at the same time commit those Ephesian overseers to the “word of [God’s] undeserved kindness,” for he had taught God’s Word to them. He explained to them the Hebrew Scriptures from Genesis to Malachi. He also brought to them the words and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ and also the revelations that he himself had miraculously received through Christ. He also wrote the Letter to the Ephesians, which has become part of the written Word of God. By efficient teaching methods Paul drilled God’s Word into their minds so that it would remain with them even though he left them for good. So he could safely entrust them to that Word and to its enlightening, preserving, protective, sanctifying power. It was sound, healthful, Scriptural doctrine, and he knew that it could build them up spiritually and help them to receive at last the heavenly kingdom, the promised “inheritance among all the sanctified.” Paul thus left God’s sheep in safe keeping.

NOT SILENCED BY BLOOD MONEY

38. As against what discharge of duty did Paul not hold his life dear to him?

³⁸ The apostle Paul did not hold his physical life dear to him if only he could faithfully discharge his ministry and help others to escape everlasting destruction and gain eternal life. So his aim was not to make money by the good news of God. His aim was that he might keep clean from responsibility for other men’s blood that was threatened with being shed by the execution of God’s judgment.

39. With what motivations was Paul rendering his life-giving ministry?

³⁹ Paul therefore rendered his life-giving ministry cost-free, without charge to those seeking salvation. He was not using God’s Word as a means of income, thus commercializing it. At such times as he had to, he worked at secular occupation as a tentmaker, so that his service as watchman would not be a materially paid service as that of a hireling. No; but he watched as a Christlike undershepherd who loved both the Chief Shepherd and the Chief Shepherd’s sheep. Paul was one really desiring to see others live and enjoy God’s undeserved kindness along with himself. He really loved his neighbor and hence did not neglect his neighbor’s interests so as to become accountable for the blood of his neighbor if shed in God’s execution. He was a real lifesaver for the joy, privilege and good results of it. He appreciated the danger of his imperiled neighbor and felt obligated to do something about it with the means with which God had entrusted him. So he wanted to rescue his neighbor from perishing, if his neighbor would accept Paul’s help.

40. How did Paul set the pattern for us for gaining the happiness that Jesus enjoyed?

⁴⁰ This sets the pattern for us today. If we proceed in this unselfish, self-denying way, at our own cost, in order that we may help others to gain eternal life, we learn to know how true Jesus’ words are that Paul quoted: “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” To help the weak, there is refreshing happiness in giving of oneself, giving one’s own strength with which one has been made strong by God. There is no happiness in receiving what would amount to blood money, money that would silence our mouths from giving warning and from giving “all the counsel of God.” There is no happiness in bearing bloodguilt toward anyone, only a self-condemning conscience. Paul wanted happiness. We do, too.

OUR DUTY AND COURSE TODAY

41. Why are we anxious to help others get saved from death and destruction?

⁴¹ We lovers of salvation are eager to share salvation with others. Escaping from death and destruction at God’s hands, we are anxious to have others saved from such a calamity. Like Jehovah God, we as his ministers and watchmen say: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? . . . and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?” (Ezek. 18:23, AS) So, like God, we desire to help the wicked to return from his way and live. We do not enjoy the prospect of being stained with the blood of the perishing, for we know we should be called to account for this as lazy watchmen. We work for Christlike happiness, for this happiness means everlasting life.

42. Why do we live in a day in which we are liable for blood, and what, therefore, dare we not do?

⁴² As in Paul’s day, which was shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem and Judea and the dispersal of the Jewish nation, we today live at a time when the blood of our fellow nationals and our fellow creatures is involved. The “war of the great day of God the Almighty” impends, and at the battlefield of Armageddon the judgment of God against all who refuse and oppose the message of God’s kingdom will be executed. As a world community they will settle their blood account with God by their own blood, as Jerusalem did and as Babylon did. (Matt. 23:33-38; Jer. 51:3, 4, 48, 49) If we care to survive the judgment war and live into God’s new world we must keep “clean from the blood of all men.” It is not God’s will that this doomed world be left in ignorance, for which lack of knowledge they will perish. With our Bible knowledge, we dare not leave the people in ignorance, unless they choose to remain in it. We must warn them of Armageddon and of Gog of Magog who leads mankind to fight there against God and Christ. We dare not leave the people able to plead ignorance before God because of our having failed to exert ourselves to give them the message of salvation.

43. How earnest ought we to be about this, and how must we declare, without holding back, “all the counsel of God”?

⁴³ Like Paul, we must be as earnest in warning and enlightening the people as if this were our last advice to the endangered ones. It is coming to that! Like Paul, we are charged by God through Christ to preach the good news of God’s kingdom, but now of God’s kingdom set up in power. (Matt. 24:14) We must do this for a witness and a warning, before the old world’s end comes. We must not hold back from telling “all the counsel of God.” Like Paul, who says to us: “Become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ,” we must do this by preaching publicly and teaching from house to house.—1 Cor. 11:1.

44. If we do this, what shall we be able to say at the time of rendering account, and with what consequences to ourselves?

⁴⁴ If we do so, then what? We shall, at the brink of Armageddon, be able to take up Paul’s words and to say unashamed to all the world: “I call you to witness this very day that I am clean from the blood of all men, for I have not held back from telling you all the counsel of God.” Thus we shall not die with any bloodguilt. With clean hands and heads and records we shall be ushered into God’s innocent new world of life and happiness for evermore.

Seeking to Do the Divine Will on Earth

JEHOVAH God is perfect in wisdom and justice, almighty in power and wholly unselfish. Since that is so, it is sheer folly to presume to oppose his divine will. All wise persons therefore will be in the frame of mind of the apostle Paul when he wrote: “Now may the God of peace . . . equip you with every good thing to do his will, performing in us through Jesus Christ that which is well-pleasing in his sight.”—Heb. 13:20, 21.a

That the divine will cannot be successfully opposed can be clearly seen from the pages of history as recorded in God’s Word, the Bible. Repeatedly it tells of mighty rulers being made to know that Jehovah God is supreme. In particular does it tell of God manifesting his supremacy in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Jehovah did this, first of all, by causing Nebuchadnezzar to dream about a great image, to forget the dream and then to have Daniel tell Nebuchadnezzar both the dream and its interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar was also made to bow to the divine will at the time he had the three Hebrew youths cast into a crucible. And in a most decisive manner did Jehovah make Nebuchadnezzar bow to the divine will by causing that proud pagan monarch to become insane, to eat grass like an ox, for “seven times,” after which Nebuchadnezzar regained his reason and acknowledged the supremacy of the divine will in human affairs.

Concerning those who appreciate these truths Daniel wrote: “He [the dictatorial ruling power] shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant; but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And those among the people who are wise shall make many understand, though they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder, for some days. When they fall, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery; and some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine and to cleanse them and to make them white, until the time of the end.”—Dan. 11:32-35, RS.

As Christian witnesses of Jehovah we do indeed know our God. He is the Most High, the Creator of all things seen and unseen, whose name alone is Jehovah. The more we study his Word privately and with others in the Christian congregation, the more we engage in the ministry of making known his name and kingdom, and the more we commune with him in prayer, the better we shall get to know him and the more fully we shall be able to do the divine will on earth. Then we shall be able to stand so firm that the agents of Satan will not succeed in seducing us with flattery. Then also, we shall be taking faithful action and not be like those that violate the covenant by compromising.

Who are those that “join themselves to them with flattery”? Those who associate with the New World society, enjoying the truths it publishes and the clean Christian fellowship, but who, while saying nice things, refuse to dedicate themselves to do God’s will and then be baptized in symbol thereof.

Far from being like such, let us rather take the step of dedication and prove ourselves to be among the ‘wise that cause many to understand’ by teaching others. Should persecution cause us to stumble, still thereby we shall become refined and made white, all to Jehovah’s glory and our eternal welfare. So let us continually seek to do the divine will on earth now, regardless of opposition.

[Footnotes]

Part 25—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

In the third year of Cyrus king of the vast Persian Empire of the sixth, fifth and fourth centuries before Christ, Jehovah’s prophet Daniel received his final vision through an angel, which Daniel describes for us in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of his prophetic book. First, the prophetic vision foretells the passing away of the Persian Empire, the fourth world power of Bible history. It would fail to overpower Greece. In fact, it would at last fall before Greece, because, said the angel, “a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.” (Dan. 11:3, JP) That Grecian king proved to be the famous Alexander the Great. By him the Grecian Empire was established, as the fifth world power of Bible history.

12. How long did Alexander enjoy world rulership, and when was his kingdom broken?

¹² Alexander’s enjoyment of world rulership was short-lived. Jehovah’s angel foretold this: “And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion wherewith he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside these.” (Dan. 11:4, JP) At the height of his career, when but in his thirty-third year, the carousing Alexander was struck down by malarial fever at Babylon in 323 B.C., and his plans to make this Scripturally doomed city his world capital collapsed. His vast empire in Europe, Asia Minor, Asia, the Middle East and Egypt broke up to the four winds of the heavens. His body was transported into Egypt and buried in Alexandria by his General Ptolemy, the satrap of Egypt.

13. How did the prophecy prove true that the kingdom should not be divided to Alexander’s posterity?

¹³ The empire did not pass to Alexander’s posterity. He had left behind in Macedonia an incapable brother, Philip Aridaeus. He reigned for less than seven years, and then was murdered by his own mother in 317 B.C. Alexander’s legitimate son by Roxana, Alexander Allou, followed and ruled but about six years. In 311 B.C. he too met violent death at the hand of one of his father’s generals, Cassander, who now usurped the throne of Macedonia and Greece. Alexander’s illegitimate son, Heracles, undertook to rule in his father’s name, but was murdered in 309 B.C. With him the line of Alexander the great bloodspiller died out, in blood. The dominion had departed from his house. The angelic prophecy proved true.

14. How was Alexander’s kingdom divided for a time “toward the four winds of heaven,” and how was this reduced later on to three?

¹⁴ The Alexandrian Empire was plucked up for men other than Alexander’s posterity to rule. His generals quarreled among themselves and grabbed for territory; and the broken kingdom was for a time divided four ways, “toward the four winds of heaven.” One-eyed General Antigonus tried to set himself up as lord of all Asia and finally took the title of king, claiming to be the heir of Alexander the Great. He had to meet the confederacy of the three other generals against him, Cassander, Seleucus and Lysimachus. He fell in battle against them at Ipsus in Phrygia, Asia Minor, in 301 B.C. The four Hellenic empires that resulted were (1) that of General Cassander in Macedonia and Greece; (2) that of General Lysimachus in Asia Minor and European Thrace, including Byzantium; (3) that of General Seleucus Nicator (the Conqueror), who secured Babylon, Media, Syria, Persia and the provinces eastward to the Indus River, and (4) that of General Ptolemy Lagus, who secured Egypt, Libya, Arabia and Palestine and Coele-Syria. In a few years the male line of General Cassander died out, and in 285 B.C. General Lysimachus took possession of the European part of the Macedonian Empire. However, in 277 B.C. Antigonus Gonatas, the grandson of one-eyed General Antigonus, gained possession of the throne of Macedonia. This reduced the Hellenistic empires to three, till Macedonia became dependent upon Rome in 168 B.C. and ended up as a Roman province in 146 B.C.

15. How did General Seleucus the Conqueror become master of the Asian territories, and what cities of apostolic interest did he establish?

¹⁵ In 281 B.C. General Lysimachus fell in battle before General Seleucus Nicator and thus left Seleucus practically the master of the Asian territories. Seleucus became the founder of the Seleucidae or house of Seleucid kings in Syria. Shortly after the decisive battle of Ipsus he founded the city of Antioch in Syria, naming it after his father Antíochus. As a seaport for it he founded a coastal city, which he named after himself, Seleucia. Centuries later the Christian apostle Paul used the seaport of Seleucia and taught Christian truth in Antioch of Syria, where the followers of Jesus first came to be called Christians.—Acts 11:25-27; 13:1-4.

16. To where did Seleucus transfer his capital, and with him what long warfare began, as described in this final vision?

¹⁶ Seleucus transferred his seat of government from Babylon to his new Syrian capital, Antioch. He was assassinated in 280 B.C. The Seleucid dynasty of kings that he left to succeed him continued in power until 64 B.C., when the Roman General Pompey made Syria a Roman province. Long before he died Seleucus gave to his son Antíochus I the sovereignty over all the lands beyond the Euphrates River as well as the title of king. With King Seleucus Nicator the long warfare between the Biblical “king of the north” and the “king of the south” began. Foresightedly Jehovah’s angel left the names of the “king of the north” and the “king of the south” unmentioned, because the nationality and the political identity of these “two kings” change with the course of centuries and even become matters of vital concern to us in this twentieth century A.D.

RIVALRY OF THE TWO KINGSa

17. With respect to whom were the two kings to the north and to the south?

¹⁷ Jehovah’s angel now begins narrating many details of the long-drawn-out warfare: “And the king of the south will become strong, yea, he who is one of his princes; but another will become strong against him, and will rule; a great dominion will his dominion be.” (Dan. 11:5, Le) This “king of the south” is south of what, and the “king of the north” is north of what? They are north and south of Daniel’s people, who, by the time of this vision to Daniel, had been freed from Babylon and restored to the land of Judah.

18. Who personally was this “king of the south” in Daniel 11:5, and what line of rulers did he establish?

¹⁸ Who personally is this “king of the south” of Daniel 11:5? He is one of the “princes” or military chiefs of Alexander the Great, namely, Ptolemy I, the son of Lagus. He was, in fact, one of Alexander’s eight bodyguards. He was made the satrap of Egypt but assumed the title of king in 306 B.C., in imitation of one-eyed General Antigonus. He was the first of thirteen or fourteen Macedonian kings or Pharaohs of Egypt. According to his name, he established the Ptolemaic line of rulers over Egypt. About 312 B.C. he captured Jerusalem on a sabbath day. He persuaded Jews to come south to Egypt as colonists, and a colony of them was established in Alexandria. With his son and successor he shared in founding the famous library and museum in Alexandria. The Jewish province of Judea stayed under control of Ptolemaic Egypt or the “king of the south” till 198 B.C., when the “king of the north” took over. Ptolemy I invaded the Syrian territory of King Seleucus a number of times.

19. Who personally was the prince that became “strong against him,” and what role did he and his successors play?

¹⁹ Who, now, is the other prince or military chief of Alexander who the angel said would “become strong against him” and whose dominion would be a “great dominion”? This is General Seleucus Nicator, who now assumes the role of “the king of the north.” At his death he was succeeded by his son Antíochus I (Soter or Savior). This king is not taken note of in the angel’s prophecy, as he died fighting, not the “king of the south,” but the Galatians in Asia Minor. He was succeeded by his son Antíochus II, who came to be called The·osʹ or “God.” He married a woman named Laodice, and his oldest son by her he named after his grandfather Seleucus.

20. Who was the daughter of this “king of the south,” and what translation did her father cause to be begun?

²⁰ But what of this? The angel tells: “And at the end of years they shall join themselves together; and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement; but she shall not retain the strength of her arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm; but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begot her, and he that obtained her in those times.” (Dan. 11:6, JP) Who is this “daughter of the king of the south”? It is Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy II (Philadelphus) of Egypt. According to tradition, this Egyptian king showed kindness to his Jewish subjects and arranged for beginning the translation of the inspired Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. This resulted at length in the famous Greek Septuagint Version, which the Greek-speaking Christians used in the first century A.D.

21. According to the agreement, what was done with this daughter of the king of the south, and what resulted from this?

²¹ King Ptolemy II waged two wars with the Syrian “king of the north,” Antíochus II (Theos). In the year 250 B.C. the two kings entered into a peace arrangement. As the price of this alliance or “agreement” the Syrian king of the north, Antíochus II, must marry Berenice the daughter of King Ptolemy II. But Antíochus II was already married to Laodice. So this obliged him to divorce her in order to marry the Egyptian Berenice. By Berenice, Antíochus II of Syria had a son, who became heir to the throne of the “king of the north,” to the exclusion of the sons of his first wife Laodice.

22. How did Berenice’s “arm” not stand, and how were she and those who brought her and he who got her “given up”?

²² The “arm” or supporting power of Berenice was her father, King Ptolemy II. Hence when he died in 246-7 B.C., Berenice did not “retain the strength of her arm” with her husband, King Antíochus II of Syria. He rejected her, and took back his first wife, Laodice, and named her oldest son, Seleucus Callinicus, to be his successor to the Syrian throne. Calamity befell all connections of Berenice, as prophecy had foretold. Not only did her father, “her arm,” not endure, but also “his offspring,” her own self. She was given up with her infant son to be murdered, Laodice planning it. Those who brought her, evidently her attendants who brought her from Egypt to Syria, also suffered. This did not pacify Laodice. Doubtless by her, as the saying went, Antíochus II (Theos), who had taken her back, was poisoned to death. What an end for a “god”! This was evidently to prevent her from being divorced a second time. So Berenice’s father that had begotten her and her Syrian husband that had obtained her for a while both died. This left Laodice’s oldest son, Seleucus II, as rightful successor to his father on the Syrian throne. Certainly the cause of peace was not strengthened by this.

23. Who were the “roots” of Berenice?

²³ To this there would be a reaction, the angel foretold, saying: “But one of the shoots of her roots shall stand up in his place, and shall come unto the army, and shall enter into the stronghold of the king of the north, and shall deal with them, and shall prevail.” (Dan. 11:7, JP) The “roots” of Berenice were, of course, her parents, Ptolemy II (Philadelphus) and his sister-wife Arsinoë.

24. How did “one of the shoots of her roots” stand up, enter the stronghold of the king of the north and prevail in dealing with those up there?

²⁴ The particular ‘shoot of her roots’ that stood up in place of her father was her brother, who now became “king of the south” as Ptolemy III, surnamed Evergetes (“Benefactor”). He began to “stand up” at his father’s death by assuming authority as king. At once he set out to avenge the murder of his sister Berenice at the Syrian capital of Antioch. With an army he marched against Syria’s king, Seleucus II Callinicus, whom Laodice his mother had used in murdering Berenice and her infant son. Ptolemy III came into the stronghold of the king of the north and dealt out death to the queen mother Laodice. Moreover, he overran Syria, captured the fortified part of the capital city Antioch and also its seaport, Seleucia. Then he moved eastward through the “great dominion” of the king of the north and plundered Babylonia and Susa and continued his march as far east as the shores of India. In this manner the murderous Seleucus II was forced from his Syrian throne.

25. How did he wipe out a religious indignity, and for this what name did he win for himself?

²⁵ That the king of the south would wipe out a religious indignity also, Jehovah’s angel foretold: “And also their gods, with their molten images, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold, shall he bring into captivity into Egypt; and he shall desist some years from the king of the north.” (Dan. 11:8, JP) More than two hundred years previously, during the days of Pharaoh Psammetichus III, the Persian King Cambyses of the fourth world power had conquered Egypt and had carried home in triumph the conquered Egyptian gods, “their molten images.” Now, when plundering Susa, the former royal capital of Persia, and Babylonia, the victorious king of the south, Ptolemy III, recovered the deported gods of ancient Egypt and took these captive from the temple robbers. He brought them back to their homeland. By this he won for himself the name Evergetes or Benefactor from the grateful Egyptians.

26. Why did he “desist some years from the king of the north,” and what did he bring home with him?

²⁶ It was internal troubles down south in Egypt that called the conquering Ptolemy III back to the land of the Nile. Being obliged to quell revolt at home, he was prevented from taking advantage of his successes over the king of the north. So he desisted from inflicting further injuries upon the northern king. Besides the gods stolen from Egypt, Ptolemy III brought back as spoils of war no fewer than 2,500 “precious vessels of silver and of gold.” How he died in 221 B.C., whether naturally or by being murdered, is not known. History is divided on that question. But he outlived the Syrian King Seleucus II upon whom he had taken vengeance.

27. Why did the king of the north return after coming into the kingdom of the southern king?

²⁷ Taking advantage of the situation, what did the king of the north do? The angel foretold this: “And he shall come into the kingdom of the king of the south, but he shall return into his own land.” (Dan. 11:9, JP) The humiliated Seleucus II struck back in revenge. He came south into the realm of the king of the south but met defeat. In disgraceful flight, with but a small remnant of his army, he retreated to his Syrian capital, Antioch, in 242 B.C. His surname Callinicus, “the Gloriously Triumphant,” proved to be a misnomer. He died before his humiliator, Ptolemy III of Egypt, did and was succeeded by his son Seleucus III, surnamed Ceraunus (“Thunderbolt”). Assassination put a sudden end to this son’s reign of less than three years. His brother succeeded him in the Syrian throne as Antíochus III and became called “the Great.”

28, 29. (a) What happened to the older son of that king of the north? (b) How did the younger son come on, overflow, return and stir himself up?

²⁸ Concerning these two sons of the Syrian King Seleucus II Callinicus, the angel prophesied: “And his sons shall stir themselves up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces, and he shall come on, and overflow, as he passeth through; and he shall return and stir himself up, even to his stronghold.”—Dan. 11:10, JP.

²⁹ The one son, Seleucus III (Ceraunus), died under an assassin’s weapon while on a campaign toward the west in Asia Minor. His brother, the other son, Antíochus III the Great, assembled great forces for an assault on the kingdom of the king of the south, who was now Ptolemy IV, surnamed Philopator. The new king of the north, Antíochus III, finally came into conflict with the rising power of Rome. But first he led his military forces to wipe out Egyptian gains and he won back the seaport of Seleucia, also the province of Coele-Syria (Hollow Syria), and the seacoast cities of Tyre and Ptolemais and nearby towns. The first Egyptian army that Ptolemy IV sent against him he routed. He also took many cities of the province of Judea in Palestine. During the winter victorious Antíochus III went into winter quarters with his 60,000 warriors at Ptolemais, about twenty-five miles south of Tyre. The following spring (217 B.C.) he did “return and stir himself up, even to his stronghold.”

(To be continued)

[Footnotes]

[Map on page 664]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

HELLENIC EMPIRES of the North and the South (312-30 B.C.)

Boundaries ---

Cities and Towns °

SCALE OF MILES

0

100

300

500

(MEDITERRANEAN SEA)

MACEDONIAN EMPIRE

Pella

Thermopylae

GREECE

Acarnania

Chalcis

Athens

Boeotia

Sparta

CRETE

CYPRUS

THRACE

Byzantium

Lysimachia

(Black Sea)

SELEUCID EMPIRE

BITHYNIA

Ilium

Pergamum

Sardis

Ephesus

Magnesia

CILICIA

TAURUS MTS

Tarsus

Seleucia

Antioch

Tadmor (Palmyra)

Damascus

Byblus

Sidon

Tyre

Ptolemais

Jerusalem

Gaza

PTOLEMAIC EMPIRE

EGYPT

River Nile

Alexandria

Memphis

LIBYA

Red Sea

ARABIA

Elath

ARMENIA

PONTUS

River Tigris

MESOPOTAMIA

River Euphrates

Babylon

BABYLONIA

(Persian Gulf)

PERSIS

Susa

ELAM

Persepolis

CARMANIA

GEDROSIA

MEDIA EMPIRE

Gaugamela

Ecbatana

PARTHIA

HYRCANIA

Hecatompylus

ARIA

SOGDIANA

BACTRIA

DRANGIANA

ARACHOSIA

(Indus River)

(Jhelum R.)

(Chenab R.)

(Ravi R.)

(Sutlej R.)

ASIA

(CASPIAN SEA)

Pursuing My Purpose in Life

As told by G. B. Garrard

LIFE has been so crammed with experiences that only a few can be mentioned in a story like this one, a story showing the pursuit of a precious purpose in life. But I would like to share with you at least part of the past thirty-five years of my life and the joys and blessings I have experienced in Jehovah’s service.

First of all, let me ask a question. Have you lived in a city long enough to feel that you are a part of it? Perhaps you have watched as buildings that have lost their value were replaced by new ones, or have seen the work done to widen narrow roads. You have seen the city develop and progress, you have had a share in it and have felt that you were part of it.

Well, that is how I have felt. Instead of being part of a city, though, I have been part of a citylike organization. Instead of the organization’s being located in just one site in a given country, it has now extended its activity into 175 lands and islands of the sea and is devoted to the worship of Jehovah God. While sharing the happiness of such an organization, my purpose has been to work for and serve the great Architect and Builder of that citylike organization and to aid in its expansion.

Years ago, when I was a youth, I often yearned fervently to know who the Creator is, to know him more intimately, if possible. At the age of twenty-one I received enlightenment by an insight into the Bible through a friend. (This friend died two years afterward, faithful in service to Jehovah God.) In London, England, in the late fall of 1924 I contacted the organization of Jehovah’s witnesses, the organization through which this information had been provided. I knew at once that they were God’s people, and decided instantly that ‘their God would be my God’ and I would go all the way with them. (Ruth 1:16, 17) From that first meeting I committed myself to baptism and to doing the work, sensing that the time was urgent and delay would be dangerous. I wanted to get into the full-time pioneer work right away, but five years of waiting passed before that intense desire could be fulfilled.

Although young, I was enmeshed in a big business and a member of one of the world’s leading shipping exchanges. My employer, an old man, wanted to have me take over the business. It was a case of letting the business crowd out my religion or setting aside the business. I preferred to forfeit the business. After that things got really hard. I wanted a clerical job, to allow ordinary hours for study and service, but I could not get such a job, because I had been too far up for clerical work. Constantly I saw the Branch servant in England for his counsel, since I looked upon the organization as my “spiritual mother.” Eventually, at the end of 1929, he said he thought the “door was open” and it would be right for me to take up the pioneer work. What a wonderful joy! It brought a whirl of delight, though I was sobered by the thought of how little I deserved it. I was preceded into the pioneer ministry by a sister in the truth who later in life was to become my wife. The question was, “Would I stick to it?” I knew that with Jehovah’s spirit and undeserved kindness I could.

With £1.10.0 ($4.20) to go on, I started preaching in the business houses in Manchester. My partners were John Laird and Bob Hadlington. I went to the Paris assembly in 1931 and was introduced to F. E. Skinner, Branch servant for India, who was looking around for workers to take back with him. Brother Rutherford approved having three of us go, and in September, 1931, at the age of 29, I left for India with Clarence Taylor and Randall Hopley. Strangely, I who could not stand extreme heat was going to India, whereas in Britain I had taken vacation in Scotland because the south of England was too hot for me. Nevertheless, if the Society needed me, they had my carte blanche. “Where you go, I shall go.” So we landed in India.

Those years of service in India were a wonderful privilege. Nine from England landed there between 1925 and 1931, and we were the last of the group. Three died while I was there. There were no missionary homes. In those days we just worked from town to town, from colony to colony on the railroads, placing Bible literature. It was tough going, covering hundreds and hundreds of miles, often traveling by night. Sometimes we had a partner and sometimes for months on end we did not. Most of the time we lived on the difference allowed on our literature placements. This meant irregular meals and, despite the cheapness of food, the “meanest” of fare. Traveling was generally a dusty experience. We carried a tin box of clothes, cartons of books and our bedding, and we slept where we could, generally in waiting rooms. Bed bugs, mosquitoes and intense heat, noises of people and animals and sweat-soaked clothes all joined to spoil a decent night’s sleep. So great was our appreciation of one another, that if one of our brothers was traveling through, we would make sure to see him, even if only for a few minutes. Sometimes this meant driving twenty or more miles in the early hours of the morning and shouting out his name as the train pulled into the station.

Each day we thanked Jehovah for his marvelous blessings. There are plenty throughout the world who would like to get in a position to enhance their own dignity, to shine before their fellows. All we longed for was the smile of our heavenly Father’s approval, and we prayed that Jehovah would help us to maintain our integrity under test. We grew hardened in adversity, and in our weaknesses Jehovah gave us strength. How good he has been! How intensely glorious it is for anyone to go into the pioneer work, attend Gilead and then serve in such an assignment! What a privilege! And the way is open for thousands in these days.

One experience compensated for all the inconveniences. While working alone in Calcutta, I did the business houses. It took nine months. There I contacted a man, the son of one of Jehovah’s witnesses I knew in England. He became interested again and eventually became congregation servant for Calcutta—a sterling example. He is now a congregation servant in England, and his son Tom, now married, is in South Africa.

Sickness was common. Some got typhoid fever, smallpox, dysentery, malaria, and so on. My troubles were due to the heat, and I suffered heat stroke. Away back in 1936 I had been advised by Brother Rutherford to go where I could serve the Lord the best. Of course, I stayed—in India. How could I leave then when I knew that the folding up of one pioneer in those days might have a dampening and demoralizing effect on those who were left? We had difficulties to contend with, but the spirit of Jehovah seemed to urge us ahead to maintain our integrity at all costs and under all circumstances. We experienced much real happiness.

In passing, let me mention my partner Van. He had been a captain at sea. His was a loving example. He died of enteric, or typhoid fever, pneumonia and a “wall” around his heart all at one go. He died on a Sunday night; I buried him on Monday morning, and then kept the Memorial celebration on Monday evening. Very poignant!

I must enlarge on my comments about the work. Up to the war we distributed literature without doing much building-up work. As one woman said to me: “Mr. Garrard, Mr. Francis and you come here; my husband and I get interested in what you preach; then after a few days you leave. We are left alone.” Building-up work was missing. During the wartime a new work began—building up the citylike organization. We were too few to be scattered, so we stayed put and built up the interest.

During the anti-white riots, our being caught in mobs was not pleasant. However, our thoughts always went to Jehovah. I recall the first time a mob of about fifty pounced on me—they wanted to kill me but did not know how to start! They let me go because I was a preacher. Then three of us got caught, with mobs on both sides. Before the trouble starts you get “butterflies” in your stomach, but once it begins you feel as calm as you could wish to be. Jehovah’s spirit seems to neutralize your own fear. You just trust him—there is nothing else to do—and in amazement you see how well everything turns out.

December, 1946, brought our first contact with Gilead graduates and the pleasure of meeting Brother Knorr for the first time. We learned that now we had to readjust ourselves to new ways of building up. We did just that, and those trained at Gilead were there to help. It seemed like a breath of fresh air to us. Then Brother Skinner went to Gilead.

December, 1947, the greatest privilege I had experienced to that time came my way. Clarence Taylor and I left for Gilead. What a wonderful joy! Although I did not know it at the time, I was leaving India for good, after sixteen years of service there. Today there are over 1,400 publishers in India—a marvelous increase!

Gilead was a remarkable and outstanding experience in my life. Nowhere in the world is there another school like it. So much has been said about it that I am not going to go into detail, but I could not leave it out. It was a milestone in pursuing my purpose in life.

After school I had the unforgettable experience of circuit work in Pittsburgh, the cradle where the modern growth of Jehovah’s witnesses had begun. I felt incompetent in myself, but Jehovah’s spirit and the willing efficiency of the brothers provided all that was necessary for our circuit assembly. At my previous circuit assembly in India there had been twenty-one. Here in Pittsburgh there were more than 1,500—huge numbers for me.

In an interview with Brother Knorr at Gilead I had told him that I would not last long if sent back to India. I did not mind that so much, but I wanted to continue in the work as long as possible. He was, as usual, very kind and understanding. Later on he told me I was being sent to South Africa.

South Africa, February, 1949. To me it seemed like paradise before its time. Conditions for Europeans have been above average. Many people are kind, gentle and very hospitable. The work in this country is easy, especially with Bible sermons, because the people have respect for the Bible. Among the Afrikaans-speaking people especially is this evident. However, respect for the Bible is not the same as understanding it, and the younger generation does not even read it so much. Nevertheless, we find many hearing ears. The field for workers is vast.

The Branch here has much work, printing in various languages, and the modern Bethel home and printing facilities are a big help. We in the field can always be assured of help and understanding from the brothers in Bethel, who are always anxious to forward the work. Nothing is too much trouble for them. We appreciate it!

There has been growth in Jehovah’s citylike organization here in Africa too. The number of publishers has increased from an average of 5,506 in 1949 to 15,853 in December of 1958, and it is grand to know that one has had some small share in that increase. Other African lands formerly under the supervision of the South African office now have their own Branches.

Having started service in South Africa as a pioneer, I have had my turn on the district and circuit work, and at the time of writing this I am still enjoying the privilege of circuit work. About three years ago I married a sister in the truth whom I had known since 1925. She started pioneering in England, went to France for seven years, and served in London Bethel and in Dublin before coming to South Africa. She has proved to be a great aid to me in the work.

While in pioneer service I have not missed the assemblies of Jehovah’s people. Due to great kindness shown by a Witness and my uncle in Canada, I had the joy of attending the 1953 international assembly in New York. However, all my previous experiences were eclipsed by the blessing of being present at the Divine Will International Assembly last year, and for that unexpected provision I am very grateful. The good things enjoyed there were crowned for us when my wife went to Gilead as a member of the thirty-second class. This is something we both deeply appreciate.

Since the Assembly we have seen an even greater influx into the organization. The distribution of the Resolution tract has had a part in it, and the great expansion in the Society’s own building program indicates that provision is being made for many more who will yet respond to the good news.

Just what can I say to Jehovah for all his benefits to me? My heart is full. By the end of 1959, if Jehovah wills, I shall have been in the pioneer service for thirty years. Looking back, I recall my service in Britain, India, Burma, Ceylon, Aden, America, Canada, South Africa and Mauritius. There have been regular and special pioneering, circuit and district work, some work in the Branch in India, and then Gilead! I have been able to touch on only a few of the experiences I have enjoyed. But I can sum it all up by saying that Jehovah has been good! His organization is a glorious habitation! If you are contemplating pioneer service, do not hesitate. Be strong and courageous. Trust in Jehovah and prove that he is good.

When the Nile Failed to Rise

In his book Modern Discovery and the Bible, A. Rendle Short reports: “Famines in Egypt rarely last long. As everybody knows, agriculture in that country entirely depends on the Nile inundation. A very interesting discovery has been made, on the island of Elephantine, of a tablet to commemorate the fact that for seven successive years the Nile failed to rise. The exact date of this tablet cannot be ascertained, but an inscription has been discovered and published by Brugsch, as far as we can tell coinciding with the time of Joseph.”

Questions From Readers

● Is it true that the teachings of Jehovah’s witnesses are based on the New World Translation of the Bible?

The fact that the New World Translation bears out teachings of Jehovah’s witnesses does not prove that the teachings of Jehovah’s witnesses are founded upon this Bible translation. Since 1879 The Watchtower has been published, setting forth the things that Jehovah’s witnesses believe and teach. The New World Translation, which the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has accepted as a gift from the New World Bible Translation Committee, first began to be published in part in 1950, and volumes of it have been coming out from time to time since then. Consequently, the formulation of the Bible doctrine of Jehovah’s witnesses did not wait upon the New World Translation, beginning in 1950.

Up until 1950 the teachings of Jehovah’s witnesses were based mainly upon the King James Version of the Bible, but in the course of years the publications of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in English alone have quoted from more than seventy different Bible translations produced in Christendom. This does not take into account the fact that our literature is published in more than 125 languages and that these foreign languages do not have the English New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. In all parts of the world Jehovah’s witnesses are proving their Bible-based beliefs to the people by the copy of the Bible that the householder may have or that he may recognize as authoritative. So the New World Translation comes along merely as a confirmation of the correctness of the teachings of Jehovah’s witnesses and does not constitute the foundation of their teachings.

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

Paradise—a garden of delight. What an absorbing theme! This theme the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained follows from cover to cover. The book “Your Will Be Done on Earth” shows Scripturally what God’s will is and how those who love God can share in doing it on earth forever. Both books will be offered to the public during November on a contribution of $1.25, along with two informative Bible booklets.

PEACE IN OUR DAY?

The most hotly debated question of modern world diplomats, “Will peace come in our day?” was answered in the most reassuring terms this past summer at all Awake Ministers District Assemblies of Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the world. That answer and the hope it brings can be yours. Send at once for the booklet When God Speaks Peace to All Nations. It contains the most reliable of all evidences, proof from God’s own promises in his Word. Send today, 5c for one booklet or 10c for three, and be certain why and how peace will come in our day.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

December 6: Innocence by Respect for Sacredness of Blood. Page 645.

December 13: Keeping “Clean from the Blood of All Men,” ¶1-20. Page 650.

December 20: Keeping “Clean from the Blood of All Men,” ¶21-44. Page 656.