The Watchtower — April 15, 1960

Praying to Be Heard

DO YOU pray to be heard by men or to be heard by God? If you pray to impress men, you are like the ones Jesus condemned when he said: “You must not be as the hypocrites; because they like to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the broad ways to be visible to men. Truly I say to you, They are having their reward in full.” (Matt. 6:5) Their reward was the admiration of men, not the hearing ear of God. It may be you are not one that prays for the sake of appearance, but rather with the sincere desire to be heard. If you are, be certain that you are praying in the right manner by following the instructions of the Bible.

Your sincerity in prayer can be shown by the effort you make to learn what God has to say in his written Word. If you expect him to listen to you, you must be willing to listen to him. Your pursuit for material things and pleasures is not more important than the instruction he has for you in his Word. If you think you are too busy to consider what he has to say, how can you expect your prayers to be heard? Respect his Word and seek the wisdom in it by doing as he says: “Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding. Do not forget and do not turn aside from the sayings of my mouth.” (Prov. 4:5) By studying the sayings of his mouth you will learn how he wants to be approached in prayer.

Since the Almighty God is not hard of hearing or inattentive, it is not necessary to repeat the same prayer over and over again. That is senseless repetition and is contrary to Scriptural instructions. “When praying, do not say the same things over and over again, just as the people of the nations do, for they imagine they will get a hearing for their use of many words.” (Matt. 6:7) He is easily reached when approached in the way that the Scriptures show to be acceptable to him. “Jehovah is near to all those calling upon him, to all those who call upon him in trueness.”—Ps. 145:18.

Unless you call upon him in faith you cannot expect him to hear you, “for he that approaches God must believe that he is and that he becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.” (Heb. 11:6) If you earnestly seek him, you will study his written Word diligently, with an aim to gain the knowledge that is a necessary foundation for faith. You will learn by your study that prayers must not be said for selfish purposes. They must put God’s will foremost. So, cherish God’s Word. Follow its instructions. “For Jehovah’s eyes are upon the righteous and his ears are toward their supplication.”—1 Pet. 3:12.

Does the Bible Teach What You Believe?

False beliefs, by the clergy’s own admission, abound in Christendom. What popular beliefs crumble under the test for truthfulness?

“PEOPLE will go to any church,” admits a Honolulu clergyman, “without suspicion as to false doctrine.” Thus in this age of deception and falsehood millions of persons are uncritical even when it comes to the vital sphere of religious beliefs; they accept what they hear without investigation, even though doctrines of the various churches conflict with one another. Yes, and even though the Bible foretold an abundance of false religious beliefs for this time: “There will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories.”—2 Tim. 4:3, 4.

Does the Bible teach what you believe? Many people do not know whether the Bible teaches what they believe, because they are not taught or encouraged to follow the Scriptural rule: “Make sure of all things.” (1 Thess. 5:21) An educator recently pointed out why people are not taught to test their beliefs and why people often accept even implausible doctrines. Professor Walter Kaufmann of Princeton University, in an address at Colby College, Waterville, Maine, spoke on the moral and intellectual failure of organized religion. Reporting on the educator’s address, the Portland (Maine) Press Herald of February 24, 1959, said:

“Asserting that critical thought is still discouraged, he pointed out that even in the United States today one rarely hears anything of that nature on radio, TV, or mass circulation magazines. Prof. Kaufmann suggested that the desire for social approval prompts the verbal acceptance of religious beliefs in many instances. . . . Affirming that many religious leaders privately concede the implausibility of their doctrines, Prof. Kaufmann denounced hypocrisy which prevents them from stating as much in public. ‘If these leaders said what they really believed,’ he commented, ‘organized religion would crumble, and we would wind up with individual religions.’”

Should the crumbling of what is false be feared? Of course not, for Jesus Christ said: “The truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) Falsehood cannot make one free. But because of the desire for social approval, the desire to please the crowd, people accept many doctrines without testing them for truthfulness. Because it is easier to go along with the crowd than to explain to the crowd why one cannot go along with it, many persons will believe whatever the crowd believes; but popularity has never proved a reliable means for judging the quality of a belief. As one writer has put it: “The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”

Jesus never accepted a doctrine or belief because the crowd did; Jesus did not found a please-the-crowd religion. The Christian should please God.

FALSE BELIEFS “QUITE BEYOND NUMBERING”

The very fact that clergymen admit privately and sometimes even publicly that many doctrines are implausible and false should make one want to check his beliefs with the Bible. Some years ago Dr. W. L. Pettingill of the First Baptist Church in New York city said: “Religious teaching that is dished out now is a curse and not a blessing. . . . Most of it is false religion which ignores the teachings of Christ. . . . Ninety-nine per cent of religion in this city should be scrapped because one cannot believe man and God at the same time.”—New York Times, October 10, 1949.

Another clergyman, Dr. Daniel A. Poling, answered a question in the March, 1957, issue of the Christian Herald in the column “Doctor Poling Answers Your Questions.” To a questioner who had heard that there were at least eighty false doctrines in popular religion this clergyman writes: “As to false doctrines there may be 80 or there may be a thousand. I am sure they are quite beyond numbering, but since you know the Lord and have been within His grace all these years, surely you have the witness in your heart day by day. You have everything that is required for your peace of mind now and for your eternal salvation.”

But does Jehovah God talk this way? Does his holy Word, the Bible, whitewash false doctrines, dismiss them as something trivial, as if the Christian is under no responsibility to know whether or not he is believing truth or error? What are we to think of a Christianity with false beliefs “quite beyond numbering”? Said Jesus Christ: “There is not a fine tree producing rotten fruit.” False beliefs are rotten fruit that identify religious organizations according to the rule stated by Jesus: “Each tree is known by its own fruit.”—Luke 6:43, 44

Instead of saying that beliefs do not matter, God’s Word declares: “Keep testing whether you are in the faith, keep proving what you yourselves are.” (2 Cor. 13:5) There is nothing to fear by making this test, by proving our beliefs by the only standard for judging religious teachings—the Holy Bible. Indeed, we should fear not to make this test. Christians must not be man-pleasers but God-pleasers.

Using the Scriptures to test doctrines is the course commended in the Bible. When Paul and Silas went to Beroea, they preached to the Jews. How did these Jews respond to this Christian preaching? They “were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with the greatest readiness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11) The Beroeans were not being fanatical or unreasonable. They did not rely on the word of man alone. The Beroeans made sure of all things. How? By “carefully examining the Scriptures.” This is the way Christians should test religious beliefs. Let us, then, carefully examine the Scriptures to test some common beliefs.

Take the belief called universal salvation. Does the Bible teach that all persons will be saved despite their course of action? Let Jesus Christ answer: “He that exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life; he that disobeys the Son will not see life.” There is a penalty for willfully ignoring and disobeying the revealed will of God. That is why the Lord Jesus, at God’s war of Armageddon, “brings due punishment upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will pay the penalty of everlasting destruction.” No, the Bible does not teach universal salvation but, rather, that those who gain everlasting life must not only exercise faith in the Lord Jesus but also be his obedient followers.—John 3:36; 2 Thess. 1:8, 9.

Tithing is a widely accepted belief in Christendom, churches tithing parishioners ten percent of their income. Does the Bible teach this as a Christian doctrine? Tithing was part of the Law of Moses. But Christians are not under that Law, as Christ’s apostle writes: “You are not under law but under undeserved kindness.” When sending his disciples out to preach, Jesus did not instruct them to tithe people. He said: “You received free, give free.” The Christian way to raise funds for God’s work is by voluntary contributions. A need is made known and then Christians voluntarily give. There must be no compulsion, no pressure, as Paul says: “Let each one do just as he has resolved in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”—Rom. 6:14; Matt. 10:8; 2 Cor. 9:7.

Does the Bible teach the widespread belief that the planet earth will someday be destroyed? When the Bible speaks of the end of the world, it is not referring to the end of the planet earth, but rather to the end of this system of things. A world once came to an end in Noah’s day. The earth that was destroyed then was not this planet but the wicked human society of that time. Wrote the apostle Peter: “There were heavens in ancient times and an earth standing compactly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God, and by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water. But by the same word the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.” To destroy the society of ungodly men, God does not need to destroy this planet, as he proved in Noah’s day. Of the planet earth the inspired psalmist wrote: “He has founded the earth upon its established places; it will not be made to totter to time indefinite, nor forever.” True Bible belief is that “the meek ones themselves will possess the earth” and that the earth will become a global paradise.—2 Pet. 3:5-7; Ps. 104:5; 37:11; Luke 23:43.

IMAGES AND IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

What of the belief that images are aids to Christian worship? A careful study of the Bible and history shows that the early Christians carefully avoided the use of images. Says the Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. XII, page 750 (1907 edition): “It was a common accusation brought against Christians by their enemies that they had ‘no altars, no temples, no known images’; and that ‘they set up no image or form of any god’, and this charge was never denied.” To justify the use of images by saying that the honor given them is only relative is not supported by the Bible. God told the Israelites not to bow down to any image. (Lev. 26:1) When the Israelites worshiped the golden calf at Sinai, they intended to make an improvement in their religion. They said: “There is a festival to Jehovah tomorrow.” God did not approve the use of an image in proper worship. Had it not been for Moses’ entreaty Jehovah would have destroyed the entire nation of Israel. Bible principles rule out the belief that images are a Christian aid to worship. Said Jesus: “God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.”—Ex. 32:5; John 4:24.

What of the belief so widespread in Christendom—the immortality of the soul? It is popularly accepted, but does the Bible teach this belief? Commenting on the fact that the Hebrew Scriptures do not teach this doctrine, historian John Lord writes in Beacon Lights of History: “This fact is so remarkable, that some trace to the sages of Greece and Egypt the doctrine itself, as ordinarily understood; that is, a necessary existence of the soul after death. And they fortify themselves with those declarations of the apostles which represent a happy immortality as the special gift of God,—not a necessary existence. . . . If immortality be not a gift, but a necessary existence, as Socrates supposed, it seems strange that heathen philosophers should have speculated more profoundly than the patriarchs of the East on this mysterious subject. We cannot suppose that Plato was more profoundly instructed on such a subject than Abraham and Moses.”

The truth is that the immortality of the soul is a pagan doctrine. “It crept into the Church,” once said British prime minister William Gladstone, “by a back door—the back door of Greek philosophy.” True Bible belief is that man is a soul; he does not have a soul. Describing man, the human soul, Genesis 2:7 says: “Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.” This human soul is not immortal but dies. Examine the Scripture at Ezekiel 18:4. It says: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

ETERNAL TORMENT AND TRINITY

Eternal torment in a hot hell is a belief that crumbles when it is realized that its foundation is the false immortality of the soul doctrine. True Bible belief is that hell is the common grave of mankind. It is not eternal. Jesus Christ went to the Bible hell, and he was raised out of it. (Acts 2:31) Hell (or Hades) is even to be destroyed by its being emptied of its dead occupants through the resurrection of the dead: “Death and Hades gave up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds. And death and Hades were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:13, 14) Instead of hell being a fiery place, it is destroyed by being hurled into the symbolic lake of fire, that is, a state of everlasting destruction. That hell is a place of torment is a false belief: “As for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.”—Eccl. 9:5.

And what of Christendom’s popular doctrine—the trinity? It should not surprise one by now that this is of pagan origin. The doctrine, besides being implausible and unreasonable, is unscriptural. No scripture teaches a trinity.a According to the trinity, the Father and Son are coeternal; but of Jesus Christ the Bible says that he is “the firstborn of all creation” and “the beginning of the creation by God.” Neither are the Father and Son coequal, for Jesus declared: “The Father is greater than I am.” As for the holy spirit, it is not a person but the invisible active force of God.—Col. 1:15; Rev. 3:14; John 14:28.

So the trinity is another of the false beliefs in Christendom that are “quite beyond numbering.” Why take a chance with false beliefs? Prove what is false and reject it. Prove what is true and hold to it. Only the truth can set one free and enable one to bring forth the fine fruit of right religion that is acceptable to God.

[Footnotes]

Universal Disarmament by the Kingdom of Heaven

“Neither shall they learn war any more.”—Isa. 2:4, AV, AS.

1. Why is universal disarmament now on the way, and who will enjoy it?

DISARMAMENT universally is on the way. Long before this twentieth century a vision of it was given. More than twenty-five centuries ago it was foretold in words that have been written down and preserved till now. We today are the favored generation of mankind that will live to see the reality. We, the ones now burdened with the greatest and costliest load of armaments in the history of nations, are the ones to enjoy also the greatest relief. We, the ones now tortured with fear at the most terrifying means of wholesale destruction, are the ones to be quieted also with the bringing in of an unbreakable peace. We, the ones now faced with the greatest loss of human life and the vastest desolation of our earthly home, are the ones to enter also into a time when dying will give way to living in perfect health and beauty on a blossoming earth as fair as man’s first paradise. In a remarkable way universal disarmament will be brought about in our day. The irresistible powers for disarming all nations are at hand, and in our time they will establish a real lasting disarmament.

2. To whom do men assign the honor of making it come true, and what promise lies in the prophetic words that they have inscribed?

² Who will have the honor of making universal disarmament come true? Men of this world look to men and would assign this honor to men or to a human agency. For instance, they have had cut in a stone wall flanking the Plaza of the United Nations, in the heart of New York city, the prophetic words: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”a In these words lies the promise of international disarmament, to be followed by an era of peace and human brotherhood, with a fruitful cultivation of the earth.

3. To make the United Nations the honored agency, what Commission was set up, and with what results?

³ Whoever or whatever agency would bring to fulfillment those soul-stirring words would enjoy an honor indeed and would rightly deserve the thanks of all lovers of life in international peace and brotherhood. Determined to make the United Nations organization that honored agency, and in harmony with the terms of its Charter, the United Nations set up a Disarmament Commission. Twelve years it worked, only to produce nothing. Finally by pressure from a mighty member of its Security Council, the real disarmament talks were removed from the United Nations Disarmament Commission to a ten-nation commission outside the international organization.

4. When did an unusual day come at the U.N. and by then what were the latest achievements attained by men?

⁴ Then came an unusual day, on Friday, September 18, 1959, at the United Nations. By that time intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying as their warhead atomic or hydrogen bombs across an ocean to an enemy country were a stern reality. Not only was nuclear warfare talked about and being prepared for, but chemical and biological warfare was also being provided for. Man-made moons high up in outer space were circling around the earth, put in orbit by rockets with a terrific thrust. Man-made planets were even orbiting around the sun; and just the Sunday previous an 860-pound sphere, rocketed from Communist Soviet territory, had crashed into the moon in the vicinity of the Seas of Serenity and of Tranquillity.

5. What happened at the U.N. that Friday afternoon, and what were to be the results of the plan then proposed?

⁵ So it was an electric Friday afternoon when, for the first time in history, the head of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics mounted the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly building to address the representatives of that organization of eighty-two nations. His speech touched upon many things of world importance before he disclosed his new plan on the burning question of our day. His proposal, a new one for him, was for “general and complete disarmament” for all nations of this world. Within four years all the nations should do away with weapons and armed forces and turn to a friendly competition in the arts of peace. There was danger in the mere possession of modern arms. A “single spark” would, therefore, be all that was needed to start a nuclear war. However, with the “general and complete disarmament” that he now proposed “there would remain no material possibilities for the pursuit by states of any other than a peaceful policy.” Thus only the forces needed to guard internal security should be retained.

6. Why did this latest Russian proposal not leave the Assembly thunderstruck, and what did the Soviet Union afterward ask the Assembly to do?

⁶ This latest Russian proposal delivered by the Soviet premier himself did not leave the U.N. General Assembly thunderstruck. Just the preceding day some of the thunder had been taken out of the premier’s scheduled speech when the American secretary of state and the British minister of foreign affairs submitted to the General Assembly the Western plan. This provided for a balanced disarmament to take place in three stages leading to the total disarmament later proposed by the Soviet premier. Moreover, each step toward that end was to be subject to effective control. Facing the thorny problem of inspection and control, the Soviet premier also proposed that to make sure “that no one would violate their obligations we propose the setting up of an international control body comprising all states.” This sweeping proposal for such “general and complete disarmament” was received with a lot of doubt on the part of some. Yet there were those who recommended that the Russian proposal be taken seriously and be given thorough study for what it was worth, to see how practical it was and how it could be worked out. Shortly afterward the Soviet Union asked the U.N. General Assembly to take up its premier’s proposal for “general and complete disarmament” as an “important and urgent matter.”

7, 8. (a) In view of the twelve-year deadlock, what questions do we now ask ourselves? (b) What previous rejections of such a plan make its fulfillment unlikely now also?

⁷ For twelve years till then the disarmament issue had been deadlocked and the Disarmament Commission of the U.N. had got nowhere. Are we to expect that now, under the spur of the Russian premier’s proposal, the eighty-two members of the U.N. will wholeheartedly get down to the gist of the matter? Will they now consider the interests of all mankind and finally settle the issue before somehow that dreaded “single spark” is struck to start off a world nuclear war? Even in the face of the premier’s proposals, even with the realization of the pressing need, do the nations themselves now sincerely believe in general and complete disarmament?

⁸ The United Nations is the successor and heir of the League of Nations that was set up after World War I. In 1927 before the League’s Disarmament Conference the representative of Communist Russia proposed a total disarming of the nations. At that time the Soviet Union was a young revolutionary government struggling to maintain itself and recover from the effects of World War I. Critics believed that the Communist representative had made the total disarmament proposal in order to weaken the stronger nations, because the Communist Soviet government itself was weak. About five years passed, and on February 2, 1932, the Disarmament Conference under the auspices of the League of Nations met at Geneva, Switzerland, with delegates attending from sixty-four nations. Again Maxim Litvinov of Soviet Russia submitted a proposal for universal disarmament. It was rejected by the leagued nations, and the Conference closed with no real accomplishment for our relief.

9. (a) Why cannot the same criticism be made now of the purpose of the plan as was made in 1927? (b) What proclamation in 1928 puts all nations under suspicion now regarding disarming?

⁹ In his 1959 speech to the U.N. General Assembly the Soviet premier reminded his visible and invisible audience of this. But in view of the present strength of Communist Russia in the arts of warfare it would be “preposterous” for critics to charge his proposal for “general and complete disarmament” to the military, political and economic weakness of his country. Nevertheless, persons who doubted the honest motives behind the premier’s proposal remembered that the real purpose of the Litvinov disarmament proposal in 1927 was revealed the next year by the Congress of the Communist International. There it was proclaimed that the Litvinov disarmament proposals were advanced not because the Soviets believed in them but merely to force the so-called capitalists into the open, for they were bound to reject such proposals. This puts all nations, capitalist and Communist, under suspicion now in this missile, space age: Do they really believe in total disarming?

INSURMOUNTABLE OBSTACLES

10, 11. (a) Regardless of what the nations believe in, what obstacle to disarmament remains? (b) Why is it to our advantage not to dismiss this fact as sheer imagination?

¹⁰ In ignorance of certain determining facts, do we want to look to a false hope and suffer disappointment and its consequences? No! Then let us boldly face the facts and decide what is best to do. Whether the nations under the present tremendous stress believe in total disarmament or not, there are certain superhuman obstacles to such disarmament. One such obstacle, which is beyond the control of all the worldly nations, is the invisible power behind all nations, dominating all nations. What is that? The invisible rulership of mankind’s chief enemy, the murderer of all mankind, Satan the Devil.

¹¹ Let us not be like ungodly nations and dismiss this fact as sheer imagination, as too childish a suggestion for this modern, scientific age. The universal God of heaven does not dismiss it as a traditional imagination. His Son from heaven, Jesus Christ, did not pooh-pooh it as religious imagination nineteen centuries ago. Both the Almighty God of heaven and his Son Jesus Christ face it as a fact. So they warn all mankind about it in that book from which the quotation was taken to be engraved on the wall of the United Nations Plaza, namely, the Holy Bible of sacred scripture.b Whether we are Christian or Jew or not, to be forewarned by Almighty God and his heavenly Son means to be forearmed.

12. What would mankind’s unseen enemy not hesitate to do now, and what reason have we for believing so?

¹² The invisible enemy who became the murderer of all mankind was the one who also caused the murder of the Savior of all mankind, Jesus Christ, nineteen centuries ago. Hence he would not hesitate to bring about the literal destruction of all mankind in the universal war that is to mark our own day. He does not want anybody on earth saved for that grand epoch when dying will give way to eternal life on a paradise earth.

13. How did Jesus warn that this one was world ruler, and how did he brand that one as a lying manslayer?

¹³ Our Savior warned that Satan the Devil was the wicked invisible ruler of this world. On the night before he was murdered outside the city of Jerusalem, Jesus Christ said to eleven of his faithful followers: “I shall not speak much with you any more, for the ruler of the world is coming. And yet he has no hold on me.” “The ruler of this world has been judged.” (John 14:30; 16:11) On a previous occasion Jesus said to those who threatened his life at Jerusalem: “If you are Abraham’s children, do the works of Abraham. But now you are seeking to kill me, a man that has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the works of your father. . . . You are from your father the Devil and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie.” (John 8:39-44) In these words Jesus brands Satan the Devil as the manslayer or murderer whose lying brought on the dying condition of all mankind.

14, 15. (a) What else did Satan induce, and what initial step did he take in that direction? (b) Then how did that one actually become the murderer of all mankind?

¹⁴ Satan also induced the first violent murder on earth. How was this? About six thousand years ago man started his existence on earth. He needed no armament, not even against the animals of all kinds that surrounded him in his beautiful open-air home, the garden of Eden. God the Creator told this first man, Adam, that he could avoid death forever by obeying perfectly the commandment of his heavenly Father, God. All the lower animals were reproducing their family kind. So in order that the first man, Adam, might fill the earth with humankind in God’s image and likeness, God created woman and gave her to Adam as a wife. They pursued a peaceful life together, cultivating their paradise home and taking care of it. Then an opposer and slanderer of their divine heavenly Father came on the scene, invisibly, to start a war against God the Creator and subjugate mankind to himself. To take mankind captive to himself, he called God a liar and induced Adam’s wife Eve to believe it and to break God’s law respecting the garden of Eden.

¹⁵ Through Eve Satan then put pressure upon Adam to turn rebel against God and disobey him. At once Adam and Eve got a bad conscience and began to fear. They lost their peace with God, and the invisible Satan the Devil was the inducing cause. God now placed Adam and Eve on judgment, along with Satan the Devil. God sentenced that newly appearing opposer and slanderer to destruction, this not to take place until a much later time. God also condemned the first parents of mankind to death. Because Satan the Devil had brought on this condemnation upon mankind, he became the first manslayer, the murderer of all mankind.—Gen. 2:7–3:24.

16. What did God also foretell at that same time regarding Satan?

¹⁶ At the same time the Lord God foretold war with Satan the Devil and pointed out who would be the one that would relieve the race of mankind of Satan’s invisible rule. As though Satan were a mere serpent on the ground God said to him: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Gen. 3:15) According to this the seed of God’s “woman” would suffer what was like a heel wound but he would recover and destroy Satan the Devil like a serpent crushed in the head.

17. How does one Bible writer say that the one to crush the Serpent would be Jesus Christ?

¹⁷ That the one to do this would be Jesus Christ, God’s Son who became a man on earth for thirty-three and a half years, the Bible writer says in these words: “We behold Jesus, who has been made a little lower than angels, crowned with glory and honor for having suffered death, that he by God’s undeserved kindness might taste death for every man. Therefore, since the ‘young children’ are sharers of blood and flesh, he also similarly partook of the same things, that through his death he might destroy the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil, and might emancipate all those who for fear of death were subject to slavery all through their lives.” (Heb. 2:9, 14, 15) Thus Satan the Devil, who today has the means to cause death to mankind by nuclear and poison chemical and biological warfare, will be destroyed by someone greater than the United Nations, by the woman’s Seed, Jesus Christ.

18, 19. (a) Who became the first violent manslayer on earth, and why? (b) Whose son did he thus show himself to be, as explained by John?

¹⁸ For breaking God’s law and putting themselves on the side of Satan the Devil, our first parents Adam and Eve were driven out of their paradise home into the uncultivated earth, to die there as condemned sinners. The first son born to them under the condemnation of death was named Cain. The next son born was named Abel. Cain grew up, evidently thinking that he as first-born was the woman’s seed for bruising the great Serpent’s head. He tried to show himself the promised son of God by going through a form of worship toward God. But God favored the form of worship used by the younger Abel. God told Cain that he ought to turn to doing good; he ought to get the mastery over sin. But Cain did not obey God’s instruction. In jealous hatred Cain treated Abel as if Abel were the seed of the Serpent. Cain struck Abel dead, thus becoming the first violent manslayer on earth. (Gen. 4:1-12) In doing this Cain proved he was no son of God but was a son of the Devil, for the Devil was behind him. Regarding this fact John, a disciple of Jesus Christ, writes:

¹⁹ “The children of God and the children of the Devil are evident by this fact . . . For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should have love for one another; not like Cain, who originated with the wicked one and slaughtered his brother. And for the sake of what did he slaughter him? Because his own works were wicked, but those of his brother were righteous.”—1 John 3:10-12.

20. Whose violent spirit did Lamech express, and whose spirit Noah, and with what consequences for each one?

²⁰ Lamech, the fifth descendant in the line from killer Cain, expressed the violent spirit of his great-grandfather, saying these words to his two wives: “A man will I strike dead for wounding me, yes, a young man for giving me a blow. If seven times Cain is to be avenged, then Lamech seventy times and seven.” (Gen. 4:17-24) No wonder that in time “the earth became filled with violence.” For this reason God saw good to bring down a global flood upon that violent, faithless generation. Noah and his family, who were not descendants of Cain, took no part in that violence and ruining of the earth. The Bible record says: “Noah walked with the God.” This peaceful course was rewarded. Noah and his family were forewarned of the disastrous flood and were told how to survive through it. All the offspring of murderous Cain were wiped out. (Gen. 6:9 to 9:2) However, men having Cain’s spirit are alive in great numbers today. This is why the earth is now filled with violence.

NIMROD THE MIGHTY HUNTER

21. Not long after the Flood who was raised up as a “son of the Devil,” and why did Assyria come to be known as his land?

²¹ After the great flood Satan the Devil was not long in raising up another “son of the Devil,” in the person of Nimrod, the king of Babel or Babylon. Nimrod resorted to arms, not just against animals of the wild, but also against fellow men. Not without reason hunters of today are called Nimrods. The first Nimrod was a great-grandson of Noah. Concerning this ambitious, aggressive Nimrod the Bible record says: “He made the start in becoming a mighty one in the earth. He displayed himself a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah [God]. That is why there is a saying, ‘Just like Nimrod a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.’ And the beginning of his kingdom came to be Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land he went forth into Assyria and set himself to building Nineveh.” (Gen. 10:8-11) The land of Assyria came to be known as “the land of Nimrod.” It was a very warlike nation and became the second world power in Bible history, ousting Egypt from the place of dominance. (Mic. 5:5, 6, AS) Assyria even threatened the holy city of Jerusalem in the days of faithful King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah. For this reason the Assyrian world power met with a miraculous military disaster at the hands of Jehovah, the God of Hezekiah and Isaiah.—Isa. 36:1 to 37:38.

22. Whom have the worldly nations till now copied, and by whom does their course prove they have been dominated?

²² Down to this year the nations, and particularly the world powers that have followed in succession from Assyria, have copied the example of Nimrod. They have resorted to military might; they have built up armaments. This proves they have been influenced and dominated by the invisible one whom Jesus Christ called “the ruler of the world.” When Jesus the Son of God was here on earth nineteen hundred years ago he was offered the opportunity of taking over the sixth world power of Bible history, the militaristic Roman Empire, and all the other nations and kingdoms of this world.

23. How was Jesus offered the opportunity of taking over world domination, but what choice did he make?

²³ By whom was Jesus offered this opportunity for world domination? By the invisible “ruler of the world,” Satan the Devil, during Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness before he began his work of preaching and healing. After Satan showed him “all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time,” he said to Jesus: “I will give you all this authority and the glory of them, because it has been delivered to me and to whomever I wish I give it. You, therefore, if you do an act of worship before me, it will all be yours.” Jesus did not deny that Satan could give such worldly authority and glory, but he ordered Satan away because he chose to continue worshiping and serving Jehovah God. (Luke 4:5-8) Jesus refused to be connected with any of Satan’s world powers.

24, 25. (a) How was it definitely stated till the close of the first century that Satan still dominated the nations? (b) In proof of this what statement is made in the description of the war in heaven and its outcome?

²⁴ From Jesus’ earthly days down till now Satan the Devil has not ceased to be the invisible power behind the worldly nations and blinding them. Over twenty years after Jesus’ temptation the Christian apostle Paul wrote: “If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.” (2 Cor. 4:3, 4) Much later, or near the close of the first century, about A.D. 96, John said Satan the Devil still dominated the nations: “One born from God watches him, and the wicked one does not fasten his hold on him. We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:18, 19) About the same time John also had a prophetic vision of our own twentieth century, when a battle in heaven would be fought between the “god of this system of things” and the promised Seed of God’s woman. Describing this invisible battle in the twentieth century and its outcome, John writes:

²⁵ “So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, . . . Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.”—Rev. 12:7-12.

26. What stands, therefore, as a superhuman obstacle to complete disarming of the nations?

²⁶ Have we had woe on the earth and sea, even since World War I ended in the year 1918? We have Bible information to know who is responsible for it. Since the angered ruler of the world knows he has but a short period before his Conqueror bruises him in the head, do we now have reason to believe that he will permit a universal disarmament to come for the salvation, peace and prosperity of men? No; not even if the nations try to heed the call of an American statesman for an “unfailing pursuit of the goal of universal disarmament.” (New York Times, September 23, 1959) No United Nations Disarmament Commission will be able to remove this superhuman obstacle to general and complete controlled disarming of the nations, namely, Satan the Devil.

RIGHT MOTIVE LACKING

27. What other obstacle is there, and how did the American Secretary of State voice fears of the lack of the needed thing?

²⁷ Another obstacle against success of international efforts for total disarmament is the wrong motive that urges nations on. Their motive is selfish fear, not a love of righteousness. They do not have the right moral appreciation. Fear that the right moral guidance was lacking was voiced by the American Secretary of State in a luncheon talk four days after the Soviet premier’s speech on disarmament to the U.N. General Assembly. He said: “That matter of controls is going to require a very careful study. The second matter that is going to require very careful study, one which wasn’t mentioned in his speech at all, is this: assuming one can reach the state in all of the nations of the world that he had pointed out, namely, that of having only such levels of forces and such armament as is required for internal security. Then what, if any, force will there be, other than moral force, with which to maintain the peace as between nations insisting on going to war with each other, even with knives?”—New York Times, September 23, 1959.

28. What moral appreciation does even Christendom show she does not have, and what process has she resorted to to induce breaking the sixth commandment?

²⁸ There has to be a “moral force” that is backed by an appreciation of the wrongness and sinfulness to kill and murder fellow men. Only such a moral force would be strong enough to maintain peace even among nations that had given up nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and other customary weapons except knives. No nations, not even those of Christendom, have this moral appreciation in harmony with the law of God the Creator. Even the nations of Christendom do not live up to the sixth of the God-given Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not kill”; or, “You must not murder.” (Ex. 20:13, AV; NW) Even Christendom has used the process described in the September 21, 1959, issue of the Washington (D.C.) paper, I. F. Stone’s Weekly: “Man, for all his love of war, is reluctant to kill his brother. Before every war, it is necessary to picture the enemy as unhuman. The enemy must be pictured both as sub-human, so that it is no sin to kill him, and superhuman, so that to kill him is sheer self-preservation.”—Page 4, ¶2.

29. In Romans chapter thirteen what does Paul show that this denotes?

²⁹ What does this denote? The Christian apostle Paul says it denotes a lack of love for one’s neighbor as well as for the Giver of the Ten Commandments. Here are Paul’s words: “He that loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. For the law code, ‘You must not commit adultery, You must not murder, You must not steal, You must not covet,’ and whatever other commandment there is, is summed up in this word, namely, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does not work evil to one’s neighbor; therefore love is the law’s fulfillment.”—Rom. 13:8-10.

30. Why is the motive of the nations for holding back from a third world war wrong?

³⁰ Today the nations are held back from a third world war, not by love of God and neighbor, nor by a fear of the Giver of the Ten Commandments, but by dread of the fiendishly destructive armaments of one another. They fear the frightful consequences of a nuclear world war. The present world peace, such as it is, is a peace of fear, not a peace of moral appreciation of the rightness of God’s law concerning the taking of human life. Thus the motive that proposes general and complete disarmament of nations is wrong. The motive is not the love of God by either the religious nations of Christendom or the atheistic nations of communism. The motive is not a heartfelt desire to keep the commandments of the great Giver of life, but is a tormenting fear of the catastrophic possibilities of space-age warfare. This fear was pointed up also in the speech of the atheistic Soviet premier when making his proposal for general and complete disarmament.

31. What disbelief on their part is also quite likely today, and thus what looms up as a block to real disarmament?

³¹ Moreover, it is quite likely that, as the Congress of the Communist International admitted in 1928, none of the nations today, capitalistic or communistic, really believe in universal disarmament. They do not think it feasible, possible, practical. They do not trust one another on such a comprehensive thing as this. So they suspiciously argue for a system of control and inspection. They still allow for small wars in limited areas of the earth. Consequently the lack of the essential right motive looms up as a block to real disarmament.

32. (a) Should the nations disarm to where they could cry, “Peace and safety!” what would they still face? (b) What do the nations need to do, but what prayer will have to be fulfilled on them?

³² Suppose, however, that because of the urgency of the times the nations did reduce their armaments to just the home police force necessary for internal security or that they adopted an international police force, so that the nations could cry out, “Peace and safety!” what, then? This would not save them from the most terrible disaster in all human history. Why not? Because the nations would not have disarmed in the most vital respect! For that reason they will continue to face the worst disaster of all—not nuclear world war, but universal war with the Almighty God of heaven. What the nations need to study seriously and to undertake is total disarmament toward the God whom they have ignored and whose revealed, declared purposes they have treated with contempt under the blinding influence of the unseen ruler of the world, Satan the Devil. On this account the prophetic prayer of the inspired psalmist will certainly be answered: “Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD. Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: that men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.”—Ps. 83:16-18, King James Version.

33. What should the nations quit doing, and this in accord with Gamaliel’s legal advice?

³³ More than quit fighting among themselves, the nations should all quit fighting against Jehovah God and his heavenly kingdom, which is being preached in all the inhabited earth by his modern-day witnesses. This preaching is in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy concerning the “time of the end” of this old world: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” (Matt. 24:14, King James Version) Hence the nations need to follow the legal advice of a supreme court judge, the Jewish Pharisee named Gamaliel, when he said to the Jews who were opposing and persecuting the apostles of Jesus Christ: “Now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.”—Acts 5:38, 39, AV.

34. What will Satan not let his nations do, and hence what must befall them?

³⁴ However, the Bible prophecies warn us that the wicked god of this world, Satan the Devil, will never let his nations on earth adopt disarmament and peaceful relations toward Jehovah God. Hence, calamity must befall this violent world as in Noah’s day.

THE TRUE AGENCY FOR REAL DISARMAMENT

35. Why are human efforts doomed to failure, but what cheering information dispels hopelessness?

³⁵ The most serious obstacles to total disarmament are humanly irremovable. All international efforts, with or without the United Nations, are therefore doomed to failure. Happily, however, God’s Word, the Holy Bible, does not leave us hopeless. It enlightens, cheers and guides us with this reliable information: Universal disarmament, followed by a warless new world of righteousness, will come by the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the God of heaven.

36. To whom did Jesus say the kingdom of heaven belonged, and how did he and his disciples exhibit its work?

³⁶ Nineteen centuries ago his Son Jesus Christ said in his Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:3, 9, 10, AV) After Jesus had turned down Satan’s offer of the kingdoms of the world and their glory, then, to quote the Bible, “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” He also sent out his twelve apostles to preach, telling them: “As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” (Matt. 4:23; 10:7, 8, AV) Jesus and his disciples exhibited the work of the kingdom of heaven.

37. Why was ancient Israel an armed nation, but why does Christendom not have help such as ancient Israel once had?

³⁷ True, Jesus and his apostles did belong to the Jewish nation, which had used military arms in ancient days. But then Jehovah God had used his chosen nation of Israel as his executional forces for destroying his earthly enemies. For that reason the Bible record says: “Jehovah, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.” (Josh. 10:14, 42; 23:3; 2 Chron. 20:29, AS) But since Jesus’ days on earth, Jehovah God has never fought for earthly Israel. Neither has Jehovah God ever fought for Christendom, and he is not fighting for Christendom today against ungodly communism. Why not? Because Christendom is not the visible organization of Jehovah God, even though she does take the name of his Son Jesus Christ and claims to be in the new covenant with Jehovah God. The facts show that she is in the covenant of the United Nations, which still has to debate the burning question of general and complete disarmament. Although Christendom helped to establish the Republic of Israel, she herself does not belong to the spiritual “Israel of God.”—Gal. 6:16.

38. Of what nation did Jesus Christ become Head, and how did he practice what he taught in the Sermon on the Mount?

³⁸ At his death and burial Jesus Christ ceased to be a Jew or Israelite according to the flesh. On the third day of his death Jehovah God raised him to immortal life in the heavens. Then Jesus Christ became the Head and Leader of spiritual Israel. Christendom has never practiced disarmament, but Jesus Christ disarmed spiritual Israel composed of only his true followers. At the time that he was being betrayed to his enemies, his apostle Peter drew a sword and slashed off the ear of a Jew; but Jesus made Peter put the sword back and healed the man’s ear. (Matt. 26:51-56; John 18:10, 11) Jesus practiced the principles that he had taught his apostles in his Sermon on the Mount.—Matt. 5:9, 21-48; Luke 6:27-36.

39. What written advice on the subject did Peter give afterward?

³⁹ After that, Peter never took up a sword again. Instead, Peter wrote, saying that Jesus suffered unjustly, leaving an example for his followers to copy when suffering unjustly. Hence Peter added: “Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a busybody in other people’s matters. But if he suffers as a Christian, let him not feel shame, but let him keep on glorifying God in this name.”—1 Pet. 2:21-25; 4:15, 16.

40. (a) What did Paul say about the warfare waged by him and Timothy? (b) How did he describe the warfare to Ephesian Christians, and the armor needed for it?

⁴⁰ The Jewish Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, once took part in killing Christians. But after he was corrected and became the apostle Paul he quit killing. He said to the young man Timothy: “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2 Tim. 2:3, AV) As good soldiers of Jesus Christ, Paul and Timothy said to the saintly Christians in Corinth: “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Cor. 1:1; 10:3-5, AV) To the Christians in Ephesus Paul described the kind of war that they were to fight and the weapons of such warfare, saying: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God.” What pieces of armor? The girdle of truth, the “breastplate of righteousness,” the shoes of the “preparation of the gospel of peace,” “the shield of faith,” “the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always.” (Eph. 6:11-18, AV) With such spiritual weapons they could fight against the false god of this world and his superhuman demons.

41. In what ecclesiastical functions of today did Peter and Paul not serve, and what weapon did they use?

⁴¹ In harmony with this the apostles Peter and Paul never served as chaplains in the armed forces of this world. They never blessed or sprinkled “holy water” on the arms or armed forces of this world. Peter and Paul used the written Word of God, which is “sharper than any two-edged sword.” (Heb. 4:12) They are our true examples.

GOG OF MAGOG AGAINST DISARMAMENT

42. Whom do true Christians today imitate, and how, then, will universal disarmament come?

⁴² True, obedient Christians today carry out Jesus’ command in Matthew 24:14 and preach the good news of God’s kingdom for a witness to all nations. They imitate Peter and Paul and fight only with spiritual weapons. How, then, will universal disarmament come by the kingdom of heaven, which is the kingdom of God? It will come, not by converting national governments to imitate Peter and Paul, but when that kingdom fights the universal war, the war against Gog of Magog, foretold in the prophecy of Jehovah’s prophet Ezekiel, chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine. According to this prophecy Gog of Magog is against disarmament of worldly nations and will lead them in their final fight against Jehovah God and his established kingdom. The Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, of 1910-1911, Volume 12, page 190) says of Gog: “A Hebrew name found in Ezekiel 38-39, and in Revelation 20, and denoting an antitheocratic power that is to manifest itself in the world immediately before the final dispensation. . . . Magog is perhaps a contracted form of Mat-gog, mat being the common Assyrian word for ‘land.’”

43. Whom does recent investigation prove Gog of Magog to be, and how does he bring a final woe upon earth and sea?

⁴³ However, recent Bible investigation has proved that Gog of Magog is a prophetic symbol of the false god of this world, Satan the Devil, when making his final attack upon the Christian witnesses of God’s kingdom of heaven. This symbolic Gog of Magog has now been cast out of heaven since the birth of God’s kingdom up there,c and is now bringing woes upon earth and sea. The final woe he brings upon the nations by leading them into a total attack against the kingdom of heaven, God’s kingdom by Christ, which the nations have continually rejected since A.D. 1914. They have done so with the wrath and anger of two world wars and the persecution of those Christians who have obeyed Jesus’ command to preach the good news of the kingdom for a witness to all nations, Communist and noncommunist alike. (Rev. 11:15-18) These Kingdom witnesses are logically the ones upon whom the attack is made by the worshipers of carnal arms or militarism. Daniel’s prophecy concerning the same time shows that the symbolic king of the north and king of the south will be prominent in that attack.—Dan. 11:36 to 12:1.

44. Who have stepped into the roles of the king of the north and the king of the south?

⁴⁴ Recent Bible research in the light of twentieth-century history has shown that the Anglo-American dual world power has stepped into the shoes of the symbolic “king of the south,” whereas, since the overthrow of the Nazi Leader Adolf Hitler and his Axis Powers in 1945, the Russian Communist political power has stepped into the shoes of the “king of the north.” The two political, economic and military rivals, the king of the north and the king of the south, may carry on a cold war against each other during peaceful coexistence, but they are united under Gog of Magog against the reigning kingdom of heaven, God’s kingdom.

45. In view of Daniel 11:37-39, why could the disarmament proposal by the king of the north not mean total disarmament?

⁴⁵ Concerning the militarism and armament program of the symbolic “king of the north,” Daniel 11:37-39 (AS) says prophetically: “He shall magnify himself above all. But in his place shall he honor the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things. And he shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god.” In view of this description of the modern-day “king of the north,” his proposal for general and complete disarmament of all nations could never mean total disarmament against Jehovah God and Jesus Christ and spiritual Israel. So he joins the attack under Gog.

46. Against what people and land does Ezekiel say Gog’s attack will be directed?

⁴⁶ Ezekiel’s prophecy discloses that this attack under Gog of Magog will be a united international attack upon the restored people of Jehovah God. Hence by his prophet Ezekiel Jehovah says to Gog of Magog: “In the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, upon the mountains of Israel, . . . thou shalt come up against my people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land: it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring thee against my land, that the nations may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. And it shall come to pass in that day, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah, that my wrath shall come up into my nostrils.” (Ezek. 38:8, 16, 18; 39:1, 2, AS) Does this, then, refer to Jews or Israelites that have gone back to Palestine and set up the democratic Republic of Israel? Not at all! Why not?

47, 48. Why does Ezekiel not refer to the Jews or Israelites that have established the Republic of Israel over themselves?

⁴⁷ Because the people of the Republic of Israel are not spiritual Israel, of which the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the Leader and King. The Republic of Israel is a member of the United Nations that does not recognize the kingdom of heaven. Furthermore, Jehovah God’s description by Ezekiel of his people “in the latter days” does not fit the Republic of Israel. God’s description says: “It is brought forth out of the peoples, and they shall dwell securely, all of them.” This fact leads Gog to say: “I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.” (Ezek. 38:8, 11, AS) Such a description of peaceful, unarmed, Jehovah-trusting people does not match the militaristic Republic of Israel, from 1948 down to this day. All historians know that the Republic of Israel fought with modern military arms to establish and maintain itself; that its soldiers overran the Sinai Peninsula during the Suez Canal crisis of 1956, and that to this day it has maintained a heavily armed vigilance against its neighboring enemies and has even entered into a contract with West Germany to sell munitions of war made in Israel.

⁴⁸ Like Christendom, the Republic of Israel is also not in the new covenant promised by Jehovah God and validated by the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ. Israel is in the covenant of the United Nations that resorts to a military police force.—Jer. 31:31-34; Matt. 26:26-29; Luke 22:14-20; Heb. 8:6-13; 13:20.

DELIVERANCE OF UNARMED SPIRITUAL ISRAEL

49. To whom, then, does the prophecy of Gog’s attack apply, and, correspondingly, what is the attacked “land of Israel”?

⁴⁹ Examination of the religious organizations of all the earth reveals that the ones to whom the prophecy of Gog’s attack applies are those fully dedicated, baptized Christians who are spiritual Israelites bearing God’s holy name as witnesses of Jehovah. Just as Jesus Christ foretold respecting the “time of the end” of this old world, these witnesses of Jehovah are hated in all nations and undergo persecution there, even among the religious nations of Christendom. Correspondingly, what Jehovah’s prophecy calls the “mountains of Israel,” “the land of Israel,” is not the small part of the Middle East occupied by the Republic of Israel. It is the present theocratic position occupied by Jehovah’s witnesses on earth. Into this position they have been gathered out of all nations, languages, colors and cultures. There they worship Jehovah according to his new covenant and they serve as subjects and witnesses of the kingdom of heaven, God’s kingdom by his Christ.

50. In whom does this people trust for protection, and how have they become a practical example of total disarmament now?

⁵⁰ Despite living hated in a hostile world, these witnesses of Jehovah have literally disarmed themselves and they trust for protection in their God Jehovah. They have not waited for the international organization, the United Nations, to fulfill the words inscribed upon the wall of its Plaza in New York city, quoted from Jehovah’s prophet Isaiah, chapter two, verse four: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Ever since World War I Jehovah’s witnesses have practiced among themselves those words of Jehovah’s prophet. They have seen that the fulfillment of those inspired words applies to them, not after the international attack upon them under Gog of Magog, but applies now since the setting up of the kingdom of heaven in 1914, yes, now in this “time of the end” of this world when its nations are armed in most modern fashion. So in 1958, in international assembly in New York city and in general assemblies in ninety other cities outside the United States, hundreds of thousands of Jehovah’s witnesses publicly adopted a Resolution, pledging themselves before God and man to abide by Isaiah’s above prophecy. Besides that, they distributed more than seventy-two million printed copies of this Resolution in fifty-three languages worldwide. They are a practical example of total disarmament now!

51. Under this attack whom do they expect to fight for spiritual Israel, and how will the kingdom of heaven then accomplish universal disarmament?

⁵¹ Jehovah’s witnesses are now alerted and are awaiting the attack of Gog of Magog with his demonic and human forces. They expect Jehovah God and Jesus Christ to fight for spiritual Israel. “And I will call for a sword against [Gog] unto all my mountains, saith the Lord Jehovah: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And with pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain upon him, and upon his hordes, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. And I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.” “I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. . . . I will give unto Gog a place for burial in Israel.” (Ezek. 38:21-23; 39:3, 11, AS) Thus the kingdom of heaven will accomplish universal disarmament to Jehovah’s glory.

52. What words of Jesus to Peter will then be true, and hence who will survive?

⁵² In that universal war the words of Jesus to his apostle Peter will be true: “All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” (Matt. 26:52, AV) But those abiding by the words of Isaiah 2:4, who come under attack by Gog of Magog, will survive the universal war, just as Noah and his family survived the global flood.

53. What will the survivors do with the relics of military armaments, and what does the length of time thus occupied indicate?

⁵³ All relics of present-day military armaments will be destroyed by these spiritual Israelites whom Jehovah God preserves through the universal war. Says he concerning postwar activities on earth: “They that dwell in the cities of Israel [spiritual Israel, which survives] shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years; so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall make fires of the weapons; and they shall plunder those that plundered them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ezek. 39:3, 9, 10, AS) According to the time needed to burn up all the weapons, the amount of military armaments of the nations led by Gog of Magog should be terrific. But their armaments will be of no avail against Almighty God, Jehovah of hosts, and his Christ.

54. Why will earth no more rumble under international warfare, and why will even fear of wild beasts pass away?

⁵⁴ What rejoicing there will then be at the victory of Jehovah of hosts over the armed might of this old world! Never again will this fair earth of God’s creation rumble under the international warfare of those who break His Ten Commandments. Jehovah’s new world will begin with only those inhabitants of earth who have already undertaken total disarmament in the fear of Jehovah and in imitation of Jesus Christ. The need to fear beastly nations will be a thing of the past. Even fear of being harmed by the literal wild beasts will be banished, for, concerning the earthly realm of the kingdom of heaven, Jehovah God says by his prophet Isaiah: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:6-11, AS) There will be no more Nimrods on earth.

55. What influence toward armaments will lose the position of god, and what will be the motive inducing mankind to perpetual disarmament?

⁵⁵ No more will Satan the Devil, that symbolic Serpent and Dragon, be the false god dominating this earth, unseen, promoting armaments. Obedient mankind will walk in the fear of the one living and true God, Jehovah. His Son Jesus Christ will be their heavenly King, the Seed of God’s woman who crushes the Serpent’s head. Love of God and love of neighbor will be the heart motive that will induce all those who gain eternal life on earth under the kingdom of heaven to stick to universal disarmament, living peaceably together in an everlasting earthly paradise.

[Footnotes]

God’s Undeserved Kindness Sufficient

THE apostle Paul once repeatedly prayed to God to be relieved of a certain affliction. But, instead of granting his request, God said to Paul: “My undeserved kindness is sufficient for you; for my power is being made perfect in weakness.” That Paul fully learned this lesson is apparent from what he wrote the Christian Philippians some years later: “I have learned, in whatever circumstances I am, to be self-sufficient. For all things I have the strength by virtue of him who imparts power to me.”—2 Cor. 12:9; Phil. 4:11, 13.

That Jehovah God’s undeserved kindness is sufficient for Christians today, as it was for Paul nineteen centuries ago, can be seen from the following experience:

About two years ago a witness of Jehovah called at a door where the nurse invited him in. She led him to the bedside of the lady of the house, a mother who was apparently still in her twenties and who was confined to an artificial lung because of having been stricken by polio. This disease had dealt so cruelly with her that she was paralyzed from her neck down. All she could move was her head, and that she could only turn from one side to the other. Upon hearing what the Witness had to say, she indicated her wish to receive the Watchtower and Awake! magazines that were offered and said she would be glad to read them.

The Witness, together with a companion, made an early return visit upon this invalid. She rejoiced to see them, had Bible questions to ask and was glad to have them call again. So regular calls were made, which, however, lasted only from fifteen to twenty minutes, as she tired easily. “I’ve never heard anything like this before,” is the way she once put it. She told that during her seven years of confinement many religious representatives had called, most of whom were faith healers. “But,” she said, “no matter how hard I tried, it never worked.” These healers ended by telling her that either she lacked faith or else God was punishing her for her past sins. For this reason she became discouraged with religion of all kinds and at first had put the Witnesses in the same class as all the rest.

Quickly, however, she noticed that Jehovah’s witnesses were different but could not tell just what it was. She soon saw the hope of Jehovah’s new world; and that it was Satan who was responsible for man’s woes made sense to her. She was also greatly impressed by the fact that Jehovah’s witnesses would open the Bible and let her read from it the answers to her many questions. This had not been done by any of the religious representatives that had called before.

Now she has the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained and reads it to her two children as they turn the pages. She has a large board fixed on her bed with clips that hold the books. Here she lies and reads and rejoices in the truth. She has also learned that one must make confession with one’s mouth for salvation. So she has a special telephone by means of which she can call up her friends and tell them of the good things she has learned about Jehovah and his new world. Her children supply her with telephone numbers of strangers whom she likewise calls up and who thus are given the witness.

She asked if she could be counted as one of Jehovah’s people and report her activities to the congregation. How happy she was when told that she too could be one of Christ’s “other sheep”! She is always smiling and beams with her hope and new-found faith in Jehovah. Everyone that previously had known her can see the change that has come over her because of this new religion of hers. It is also a joy to see how anxious she is to have a regular share in preaching the good news of God’s kingdom.

She says that in times past she wrongly blamed God for many things. Now she wants to do all she can to vindicate God before the eyes of men. She is fully alert and intelligent in every way. She regularly witnesses to others and conducts a home Bible study—yet all she can move is her head, from one side to the other. She is eagerly looking forward to being immersed, in spite of her condition, because, as she said: “Now at last I have found the truth!”

What eloquent proof this invalided young mother presents that God’s undeserved kindness is sufficient for his servants!

Part 36—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

The long conflict, of thousands of years’ duration, between the king of the north and the king of the south, as foretold in Daniel’s prophecy, chapter eleven, was to be brought to an end after Michael, the heavenly Prince who stood for Daniel’s people, stood up in Kingdom power. Prince Michael being the same as the now glorified Lord Jesus Christ, Michael’s standing up in his heavenly Kingdom took place at the close of the “appointed times of the nations” A.D. 1914. After the close of the first world war on earth, which marked the beginning of his heavenly reign, he aroused the remnant of his faithful followers from their deathlike sleep of inactivity and set them to enlightening the peoples of all nations by preaching the good news of the established Kingdom. Under the enlightening influence of God’s holy spirit, these awakened Christians ran to and fro through the pages of God’s Word and he blessed them with an ever-expanding increase of spiritual knowledge. At his command through Michael, they arose and began shedding the light of God’s revealed truth, shining thus like the sun with glorious brightness, to turn a great crowd of “other sheep” to righteousness.

PROPHETIC “TIMES” AND “DAYS”

9. Where was Daniel when he had this vision, and what question did he hear asked?

⁹ When Daniel received the final vision in the third year of Cyrus the king of Persia he was alongside the Mesopotamian river Tigris, anciently called Hiddekel. (Dan. 10:4) After the vision he received time measurements that are of high interest to us who are seeking happiness during this world’s “time of the end.” Says he: “Then I Daniel looked, and behold, there were two others standing, the one on this side of the bank of the stream, and the other on that side of the bank of the stream. And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?” (Dan. 12:5, 6, Le) The angel that appeared like a man clothed in linen and was miraculously above the waters of the Tigris River was Michael’s associate, the angel that had brought the vision to Daniel in answer to his prayer. Two other angels appeared, one on the same bank of the river where Daniel was. For Daniel’s benefit, but particularly for ours today, one of these asked the angel that had brought the vision to Daniel just how long it would be to the “end of these wonders,” that is, how long till the wonderful details of the vision should be accomplished in completeness. Here we listen in with Daniel:

10. What answer did Daniel hear to the question, and how was the answer made more certain as to its fulfillment?

¹⁰ “Then heard I the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; and he lifted up his right hand and his left hand unto the heavens, and swore by the Everliving One that after a time, times, and a half, and when there shall be an end to the crushing of the power of the holy people, all these things shall be ended.” (Dan. 12:7, Le) This prediction of time is sworn to in the name of the Immortal God, the King of eternity, Jehovah. Its being sworn to with both hands lifted heavenward would seem to make the sworn oath doubly strong. However, this raising of both hands in oath enabled one on either side of the Tigris River to see an upraised hand. Being thus sworn to, the coming true of this time prophecy is just as certain as that Jehovah lives immortal.

11. What count of time must here be considered, and is it literal or symbolic, and before when could it not start?

¹¹ The count of a “time, times, and a half” must be taken into consideration here. The Hebrew word translated “time” here is translated “appointed time” earlier, in Daniel 8:19, and means a space of time. How long a space? An American Translation renders the entire Hebrew expression “a year, years, and half a year”; James Moffatt’s translation, “three years and half a year.” This entire time period falling inside the “appointed time of the end” that began in 1914 (A.D.), the period must be a literal three years and a half. It could begin counting no earlier than the start of the “appointed time of the end” in the fall of that year 1914.

12. With what time period in Daniel 7:25 does the time period here correspond, and how at the culmination of it was the organizational work crippled in a way not duplicated?

¹² When these three years and a half end, there should be an end to the crushing of the power of the holy people of Jehovah God, his saints, his sanctuary class.a This time period doubtless corresponds with the time period of equal length given in Daniel 7:25 (JP) concerning the symbolic horn, the Anglo-American dual world power, and its abuse of the sanctuary class: “He . . . shall wear out the saints of the Most High; . . . and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.” These three years and six months were found to begin in the first half of November, 1914, and to end on May 7, 1918.b On this latter date the king of the south, comprising Britain and America as war allies, went to the limit in dealing Jehovah’s sanctuary class a shattering blow by striking at the very summit of Jehovah’s consecrated visible organization, the central headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, and laying hold of the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society together with its secretary-treasurer, and breaking up the relations of the Society’s Brooklyn headquarters with its branch offices and agencies in foreign countries. On June 20, 1918, the said officers, together with six others prominent in the Bible publication work, were sentenced to eighty years’ imprisonment. All their brothers in the sanctuary class around the earth were shocked, grieved and benumbed. This crippled the organizational work of Jehovah’s sanctuary in a way that has never been duplicated since then, not even during World War II.

13. Who was behind this shattering work, and what now indicates that his power to shatter has come to an end?

¹³ The main one behind this shattering of Jehovah’s holy ones was Satan the Devil, who claims possession of all the kingdoms of this world and their glory. (Matt. 4:8, 9; Luke 4:5, 6) In 1914, when Michael stood up, the war in heaven was begun to oust the Devil and his demons. He was defeated by Michael, and there is Scriptural reason to believe that by the time of the annual celebration of the Lord’s evening meal on March 26, 1918, Satan the Devil was hurled down to the earth. For the reason that he now knows that he has yet a “short period of time” before he is bruised in the head in the battle of Armageddon, he has great anger, especially against the remnant of the sanctuary class. On these he has waged war by all means at his disposal. (Rev. 12:7-17) But to this date he has failed to show the power to shatter that he was permitted to show in 1918. Neither will he shatter Jehovah’s sanctuary in their “beauteous land” when he plays the part of Gog of Magog and comes down from the north with all his visible and invisible hosts to destroy the holy remnant and the “other sheep.” He himself will be bruised. His power to shatter has come to an end.—Ezek. 38:1 to 39:16.

14. The three times and half a time having ended, what other things must be ended in due time, and why has Daniel not received an understanding of the things heard, even till now?

¹⁴ The period of three times and half a time having ended in 1918, the other important things of the vision must “be ended” or be brought to accomplishment at their appointed time. The prophet Daniel away back there could not decipher the meaning of the things seen in vision. He confesses: “And I heard, but I understood not; then said I: ‘O my lord, what shall be the latter end of these things?’ And he said: ‘Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but they that are wise [the intelligent, Le] shall understand.’” (Dan. 12:8-10, JP) Daniel did go his way into death sometime after the writing down of the vision about 537 B.C., shutting up the words and sealing the book.

15. Who has been used to unstop the words and unseal the book for us, and what must we do in order to be among the intelligent who will understand?

¹⁵ Great understanding of the book of Daniel was displayed by Jesus Christ on earth. In this “time of the end” since 1914 he is the one whom God uses to open or unstop the words like a well of knowledge and information and to unseal the book in all its meaning. (Rev. 5:1-5) Do we want to understand the book with its marvelous references to our day? Then with Jehovah’s help through Christ we must purify ourselves from this world, we must make ourselves white with righteousness through the Lamb’s blood, and we must be refined in our sincere devotion to Jehovah God and his kingdom. Only the Scripturally intelligent ones will be allowed to understand the book of Daniel and all the rest of the Bible. However, none of the wicked can and will understand it and gain salvation. In these critical times hard to deal with they will go on in their wickedness, especially against Jehovah’s witnesses, until they are destroyed as unhappy fighters against God.—2 Tim. 3:1-5.

1,290 DAYS

16, 17. (a) For whom is this the “time of the end”? (b) From when is it the time to begin counting the 1,290 days?

¹⁶ The shattering or crushing of the power of Jehovah’s holy people in 1918 did not make an end of them. This is the “time of the end,” not of the holy sanctuary class, but of the king of the north and of the king of the south and of all the neutral nations. It is a time of deliverance for the sanctuary class and for the “other sheep” who worship with them. After saying that these spiritually intelligent ones would understand, Jehovah’s angel added: “And from the time that the continual sacrifice will be removed, even to set up the desolating abomination, there will be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.”—Dan. 12:11, Le.

¹⁷ This taking away of the continual sacrifice of praise to God was already foretold in Daniel 8:11. It took place in 1918, when the time, times and half a time were fulfilled.c The taken-away condition of the daily or continual sacrifice lasted into the following year, until March 26, 1919, on which date the release occurred for the Watch Tower Society’s president, secretary-treasurer and six fellow prisoners, under bail. The setting up of the “desolating abomination” occurred when the worship of the “image of the wild beast,” that abominable makeshift for God’s kingdom, the League of Nations, was set up by the religious organizations of Christendom. By action of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America this was dated from the close of January, 1919.d By the time of this latter date both of these two mentioned things had taken place. Consequently this is the point of time from which to count.

18. With relation to the 1,290 days, when did Michael deliver his people, and how long a period in solar time do those 1,290 days equal?

¹⁸ After the 1,290 days had begun to count, Michael their great Prince delivered his people, in March of 1919. On April 13, 1919, there were more than 17,961 that celebrated the Lord’s evening meal earthwide.e During the rest of the 1,290 days the work of God’s holy organization was reorganized, improved and strengthened for the global witness that had to be given before the complete end should come upon this old system of things. In due time, what happened that outstandingly marked the end of those divinely numbered days? The 1,290 days must be treated from the standpoint of the lunar calendar. Hence divine prophecy treats a month as being thirty days long, on the average. The 1,290 days are just thirty days or one lunar month longer than 1,260 days in prophecy. Revelation 11:2, 3 definitely shows that 1,260 days equal forty-two months. Forty-two months amount to three years and six months. In prophecy these three years and six months are not affected by any leap year or by any Jewish Veadar year in which a thirteenth lunar month is added to the Jewish calendar to bring the series of lunar years up to the length of the series of solar years. Since 1,260 days in prophecy equal three years and six months, then 1,290 days equal three years and seven months. Counted from the close of January, 1919, where do those three years and seven months end?

19. Toward the end of those 1,290 days, what electrifying message was delivered, and what judgment work was called to our attention?

¹⁹ They bring us to the end of August and the beginning of September of 1922. It was in the first half of September, 1922, that the electrifying words rang out: “Be faithful and true witnesses for the Lord. Go forward in the fight until every vestige of Babylon lies desolate. Herald the message far and wide. The world must know that Jehovah is God and that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the day of all days. Behold, the King reigns! You are his publicity agents. Therefore advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom.” This came on The Day (September 8) of the nine-day international convention of Jehovah’s witnesses at Cedar Point, Ohio, at the conclusion of the address of the president of the Watch Tower Society on the subject “The Kingdom.” In this address J. F. Rutherford proved from Scripture and fact that Jehovah’s “messenger of the covenant” had come to the temple, the spiritual sanctuary, in the spring of 1918 for judgment work. The judgment that was to “start with the house of God” was now in progress! (1 Pet. 4:17; Mal. 3:1-5, AS) In expression of this judgment upon Christians a resolution was adopted.

20. What expression of judgment upon professed Christians was then sent forth, and thus the series of what things began?

²⁰ Sunday afternoon, September 10, President Rutherford delivered his public address on the challenging subject “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.” At its conclusion he introduced a resolution entitled “A Challenge to World Rulers,” which was adopted with acclaim by the 18,000 to 20,000 present. This notified the nations that the “appointed times of the nations” had run out in 1914; that God’s kingdom by Christ had then been set up in heaven; that the League of Nations was a fraud and “must fail, because God has decreed it thus”; that the kingdom of Jehovah’s Messiah was the complete cure-all for the ills of humankind; and that by obeying the laws of that righteous kingdom men will continue to live and never die off the earth.f This bold resolution was the first in a series of seven resolutions adopted at annual general assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses from 1922 to 1928. Like plagues, these resolutions were poured out upon apostate Christendom. Of the initial resolution, “The Challenge,” there were eventually 45,000,000 copies distributed worldwide in many languages.

(To be continued)

[Footnotes]

An Invitation to Praise Jehovah

WHAT could be a greater privilege than to serve Jehovah God, the Supreme Sovereign of the universe? There is nothing that could compare with it. To all who love him the invitation is extended: “Sing to Jehovah, all you of the earth! Announce from day to day the salvation he gives! Relate among the nations his glory, among all the peoples his wonderful acts.” Have you responded to that invitation to praise Jehovah?—1 Chron. 16:23, 24.

Jehovah is the Author of the provision for the salvation of humankind from sin and death. He “loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.” He is also the One who safeguards his servants, holding back the enemy from overwhelming them. So to him his servant David cried out in appreciation: “You have proved to be a refuge for me, a strong tower because of the enemy.” He will continue to be such a refuge and strong tower to his people during the destruction at the battle of Armageddon, now near at hand. To all who would avail themselves of his provisions the command given: “Announce from day to day the salvation he gives!”—John 3:16; Ps. 61:3.

We are living at the time when God is taking action to bring the unrighteous world to an end, to vindicate his own misrepresented name and to shower endless blessings upon those who worship him. These things he will accomplish by his kingdom, which is now in full operation in the heavens under the Kingship of his anointed Son Jesus Christ. In response to the momentous announcement of the Kingdom’s establishment faithful ones in the heavenly courts worshiped God, saying: “We thank you, Jehovah God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun ruling as king.” Having heard the good news that God’s kingdom rules, do we on earth likewise worship God, join in thanking him, and take up the joyous proclamation that “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will rule as king for ever and ever”? We are invited to do so, and what a privilege it is to respond to that invitation now!—Rev. 11:15-17.

REASON FOR BIBLE STUDY

When you study the Bible, either alone or with one of Jehovah’s witnesses, keep in mind the reason for such study. It is so that “you may be filled with the accurate knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual discernment, in order to walk worthily of Jehovah to the end of fully pleasing him as you go on bearing fruit in every good work.” When we know his will, we should conform to it. It should affect our lives and cause us to make the changes that are needed in order to “walk worthily of Jehovah.” “Hence put away all filthiness and that superfluous thing, moral badness, and accept with mildness the implanting of the word which is able to save your souls.” If we have thus responded to the word of God, putting away moral badness, and if we have accepted the implanting of the word and really do have faith in God and his promises, then it is our privilege and responsibility to respond to the divine invitation to be witnesses for Jehovah and his kingdom. So doing, we please God, because we offer to him an acceptable “sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips which make public declaration to his name.”—Col. 1:9, 10; Jas. 1:21; Heb. 13:15.

Never should we dismiss from our minds the seriousness of the matter. Our life and the lives of those to whom we are sent depend on our response. (Ezek. 3:17-21) Not just once in a profession of faith, but daily, in proof of our faith, we must advocate God’s way. “For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.” (Rom. 10:10) Just as important as our faith in God, his Son, and the new world of righteousness is our faith in the importance of measuring up to the divine requirements to gain God’s favor, salvation from sin and death, and life in the new world. By applying yourself regularly to doing the divine will by making public declaration of the things that you have learned from the Bible, “you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.” (1 Tim. 4:16) Only if men learn God’s righteous requirements and conform to them will they be spared when this old world goes down in destruction at Armageddon.

HOW TO SERVE

The Lord Jesus set the pattern for us in serving God. At the beginning of his earthly ministry he quoted his commission, as recorded in the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. It says, in part: “Jehovah’s spirit is upon me, because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor, . . . to preach Jehovah’s acceptable year.” (Luke 4:18, 19) He studied God’s Word as recorded in the Scriptures, prayed to his Father for his spirit, and followed His direction. While he did not withhold the good news from those who had much of this world’s goods, but preached to men such as rich Zacchaeus and the ruler Nicodemus, yet he was not like the “Pharisees, who were money-lovers” and who treated the rest of mankind as if they were nothing. He had consideration for the lowly and poor. He came “to seek and to save what was lost”—the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He “felt tender affection for them, because they were skinned and knocked about like sheep without a shepherd.” He went to the homes of the people to teach them. Patiently he explained to them the promises in God’s Word. He recognized the urgency of the situation, for that was a time of judgment. It was an acceptable time to respond to Jehovah’s provision for deliverance by recognizing and following his Messiah. Multitudes did follow him for the bread he gave them, for the healing he performed, even to listen to the things he taught, but only a few responded to his invitation: “Be my follower.” But those who did manifest a desire to serve God and share the good news with others he took with him as he preached, so they could acquire experience in the ministry. In all this he set the pattern for us to follow.—Luke 19:10; Matt. 10:6; 9:36; John 1:43.

Jesus instructed his disciples that they were to be his witnesses to the most distant part of the earth, and he gave assurance that he would be with them. In response to his command, there are men, women and children today in 175 lands who have studied God’s Word as Jesus did, who pray to the Father for his spirit as he did, and who walk in his footsteps by serving God as witnesses in the way he did. They are Jehovah’s witnesses. True to his promise, Jesus has been with them. They have his words recorded in the Bible and they pay attention to what he said. They regularly assemble at their Kingdom Halls to study the Bible and to equip themselves as preachers and teachers of the Kingdom message; and, as Jesus promised, where two or three are met together in his name, he is present by means of holy spirit. (Acts 1:8; Matt. 28:20; 18:20) Thus equipped, they are workmen with nothing to be ashamed of, able to handle the word of truth aright. When persons of good will express their desire to have a share in teaching God’s Word to others, they are welcome to avail themselves of the same free training and to receive personal instruction from a qualified minister in the actual field service. That is the pattern set by Jesus, and it is the one Jehovah’s witnesses follow today. Every day last year 236 more persons, on an average, in all parts of the world expressed the desire to serve Jehovah and availed themselves of this training to become qualified ministers. Some of them have been able to devote much time to the service, while the circumstances of others make it possible for them to spend only a few hours a month actually visiting others with the Kingdom good news, but the important thing is that they are proving their love for God by responding to his invitation to be his witnesses.

Yet not all who hear the message respond to the divine invitation to service. Why not? The prophet Ezekiel describes them in this way: “They sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but do them not; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their gain. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not.” (Ezek. 33:31, 32, AS) They are like those who listened to Jesus but failed to respond to his invitation, “Be my follower.” What a mistake they are making! How foolish to hear the words spoken at God’s command and fail to act on them! Jehovah requires love, not merely expressed in words, but demonstrated by obedience to his commandments.

Now is the time when, in harmony with Jesus’ prophecy on the time of the end, “this good news of the kingdom” is being preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all nations before the end comes. Take hold of the grand opportunities that this opens up to you. Now, before the accomplished end comes, announce the salvation that God gives, so that you may be one who will receive its benefits. Have a part in proclaiming the establishment of God’s kingdom, so that you may be one of its subjects and receive of its benefits forever.—Matt. 24:14.

Questions From Readers

● Has anyone on earth ever heard Jehovah’s voice?—N. P., U.S.A.

The inspired apostle John says, at John 1:1-3, that Jesus Christ in his prehuman existence was known as the Logos or Word, the official spokesman of Jehovah God. It is understood, then, that in the great majority of cases throughout the Bible where Jehovah is mentioned as speaking to his people, he did so representatively and not directly. God spoke primarily through his chief spokesman, the Word.

Thus when Jehovah appeared to Moses in the burning bush and spoke to him, he did so by means of an angelic messenger, as pointed out in Exodus 3:2 and confirmed in Acts 7:30, 35. Moses also reminded the Israelites of their experience at Mount Sinai: “Jehovah began to speak to you out of the middle of the fire. The sound of words was what you were hearing, but no form were you seeing—nothing but a voice. And he proceeded to state to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform—the Ten Words, after which he wrote them upon two tablets of stone.” (Deut. 4:12, 13) Both Stephen and Paul made it clear that this was done representatively, saying that the Law was “transmitted by angels.” At Hebrews 2:2 the point is specifically made that it was “spoken through angels.”—Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19.

However, there are three occasions mentioned in God’s Word when Jehovah’s only-begotten Son or chief spokesman was down here on earth and when Jehovah God spoke to him. In these three places both the context and the circumstances indicate that the voice heard was that of Jehovah God himself. For example, at the time of Jesus’ baptism the account tells us: “Look! also, there was a voice from the heavens that said: ‘This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.’” (Matt. 3:17) When Peter, James and John accompanied Jesus Christ into the mountain and witnessed the transfiguration scene, the voice of Jehovah was heard, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, whom I have approved; listen to him.” (Matt. 17:5) On another occasion Jesus petitioned: “Father, glorify your name.” The account then tells us: “Therefore a voice came out of heaven: ‘I both glorified it and will glorify it again.’”—John 12:28.

To those who did not love Jehovah and would not acknowledge Jesus’ messiahship, Christ said on one occasion: “Also the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his figure, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because the very one whom he dispatched you do not believe.” (John 5:37, 38) Jehovah God is a spirit and thus invisible to human eyes. Consequently, no human of flesh and blood has ever been able to see Jehovah’s speech organs in operation, but some humans have heard his voice. Those unbelievers, however, the ones to whom Jesus was speaking, had themselves never heard the voice of Jehovah.—Ex. 33:20.

● At Daniel 11:37 (AS) we read concerning the “king of the north”: “Neither shall he regard . . . the desire of women.” Who are the “women” referred to here?—J. H., U.S.A.

Repeatedly in the Scriptures, from Genesis through Revelation, a woman is used to represent a city or an organization. (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 62:2; Gal. 4:26; Rev. 12:1) Even as God gave Adam a woman, Eve, as “a helper for him,” so organizations have served as helpers or handmaids to those who formed them or who came to control them. This has not only been true of Jehovah God, as noted in the foregoing references, but also of Satan the Devil, for he also has his woman: “And the woman that you saw means the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.”—Rev. 17:18.

The term “women” at Daniel 11:37 must apply in a symbolic sense, since the “king of the north” is not a single man but refers to the ruling factors of a modern totalitarian world power. The “women” therefore would refer to all those groups or organizations that serve as weaker vessels or handmaids to the king of the north within his domains. These are the cultural, scientific, religious and like bodies or organizations that have certain desires, forms of worship or “gods” of their own but that are ignored by the king of the north in his worship of the “god of fortresses.” Also included among these “women” are the satellite countries, particularly their heads, that have certain ambitions or desires of their own regarding their own lands but which are ignored by the king of the north if they do not coincide with his ambitions, as was particularly the case in Hungary and as has been noted to some extent in the press recently regarding Poland. It might be said that Marshal Tito drew his Yugoslavia out from under Communist Russia because of not wanting to subordinate his desires; he did not want to play the role of a woman or handmaid to Communist Russia. All of those that do submit are like “women” to the domineering king of the north.

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

Since The Watchtower takes the lead in ‘guarding freedom for doing God’s complete will,’ it should be in the homes of all lovers of true freedom. During April Jehovah’s witnesses will make it possible for all to have this magazine coming regularly to their homes, by offering a year’s subscription for The Watchtower and three Bible booklets, for $1.

PEACE-PURSUING DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES

Arrangements for the 1960 district assemblies in the United States and Canada have now been completed. The assembly locations are listed below, along with the rooming headquarters address for each city. Each of the Peace-pursuing District Assemblies will be four days in duration, and all of Jehovah’s witnesses and others who are interested in peace will want to be present for the entire assembly. Beginning five weeks before the date of the assembly that you plan to attend, you may write to Watchtower Convention, at the rooming headquarters address, and they will be glad to assist you in obtaining rooming accommodations.

APRIL 21-24: Anchorage, Alaska, Sydney Laurence Municipal Auditorium, 6th and “F” Street. Rooming: 1438 Medfra St., Anchorage.

JUNE 23-26: Fort Worth, Tex., Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum, Amon Carter Square, 3401 W. Lancaster St. Rooming: 4205 Baldwin St., Fort Worth 15. Nashville, Tenn., Grandstand, Tennessee State Fairgrounds, Nolensville Rd. Rooming: 608 Snyder Ave., Nashville 9.

JUNE 30–JULY 3: Toronto, Ont., Grandstand, Exhibition Park. Rooming: 959 College St., Toronto 4.

JULY 7-10: Los Angeles, Calif., Wrigley Field, 435 E. 42nd Place. Rooming: 10615 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles 3.

JULY 14-17: Sydney, N.S., Sydney Forum, Falmouth St. Rooming: Breton St., Whitney Pier. Washington, D.C., Griffith Stadium, 7th St. & Florida Ave. Rooming: 5113 14th St. NW., Washington 11.

JULY 21-24: Sacramento, Calif., Grandstand, State Fairgrounds, Corner of Broadway & Stockton Blvd. Rooming: 3965 12th Ave., Sacramento 17.

JULY 28-31: Detroit, Mich., Briggs Stadium, Trumbull & Michigan Aves. Rooming: 2484 Grand River, Detroit 1. Edmonton, Alta., Edmonton Gardens, 118th Ave. & 79th St. Rooming: 9603 79th Ave., Edmonton. Portland, Oreg., Multnomah Stadium, SW. 18th & Morrison. Rooming: 3390 SE. Milwaukie Ave., Portland 2.

AUG. 4-7: Salt Lake City, Utah, Utah State Fairgrounds Coliseum, 9th West & N. Temple Sts. Rooming: 986 S. 4th East, Salt Lake City 11.

AUG. 11-14: Boston, Mass., Fenway Park. Rooming: 295 Huntington Ave., Boston 15.

AUG. 25-28: Kansas City, Mo., Kansas City Municipal Stadium, Brooklyn Ave. & 22nd St. Rooming 4619 E. Truman Rd., Kansas City 27. Miami Beach, Fla., Miami Beach Exhibition Hall, 1700 Washington Ave. Rooming: 6620 N. Miami Ave., Miami 50.

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“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

May 22: Universal Disarmament by the Kingdom of Heaven, ¶1-20. Page 232.

May 29: Universal Disarmament by the Kingdom of Heaven, ¶21-37. Page 237.

June 5: Universal Disarmament by the Kingdom of Heaven, ¶38-55. Page 242.