The Watchtower — March 1, 1960

Government by God

A GOVERNMENT by God is no strange thing to this earth. In Eden man was ruled by God. Centuries later the Israelites enjoyed God-rule. Jehovah gave them the Ten Commandments and many other regulations, which are recorded in the Bible. He established a system of worship for them. He appointed kings over them and established the dynasty of David. He clothed and fed them. He fought their wars and blessed their peace. He made them a holy nation. Jehovah was their government, as they proclaimed: “Jehovah is our Judge, Jehovah is our Statute-giver, Jehovah is our King; he himself will save us.”—Isa. 33:22.

That unique government by God was typical. It pointed forward to the everlasting government by God that should rule this earth. That is why Jesus Christ taught men to pray: “Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:9, 10) The time for the establishment of that everlasting government in the heavens, according to Bible prophecy, was the year 1914.

So let it be known that the true Christians on earth are living under the real heavenly kingdom of God right now! Jesus Christ, the “Lord of lords and king of kings,” is the head of that newborn heavenly government. (Rev. 17:14) The princely rule rests on his shoulders. He is the Prince of Peace. “To the abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end,” Isaiah’s prophecy says. All kingdoms of earth in opposition to that heavenly government now ruling will come to their end at Armageddon, the war of the great day of God Almighty.—Isa. 9:7; Rev. 16:16; Dan. 2:44.

Is the kingdom of God a real government? Yes! It has its King Jesus Christ and 144,000 associate kings. On earth it has subjects who submit to its rule and power. In fact, the New World society does that very thing. It recognizes God as rightful ruler. It abides by that fact in its organizational structure and operations, and it holds fast to God’s Word as furnishing mankind with a working constitution and righteous laws. The heavenly Kingdom government by God has close to a million earthly representatives, who submit to it by carrying out its laws. These representatives advocate the Kingdom government throughout the world as mankind’s only hope, as Jesus said would be done, at Matthew 24:14.—Rev. 14:1-3; 20:4.

Therefore, government by God is a reality in our day! No one need wait for it. Creatures of earth need only to ally themselves with it through faith, live by its principles, declare it to others and trust that it will accomplish God’s purpose.

What Is God’s Way to Salvation?

Salvation from what? Why can no one ignore it?

IF A doctor were tell you that you were going to die in a certain number of weeks, would you leap for joy? Would you have a celebration? Would the arrival of your last day of life be the happiest one in your life? Of course not! It would be the unhappiest one for you and your loved ones. No person in his right mind would be happy about dying. It is only natural that you should want to keep living.

It is because of your love for life that God’s provision for salvation is of utmost importance to you. It is the means by which your life be extended indefinitely. It is the means by which you can be made free from the curse of death, which, at this time, comes inevitably to all humans. Surely, something that can do so much for you is worth your consideration. It is worth the time it takes to learn about it.

Since the time when the first man willfully violated God’s law and brought death upon himself, death has been the conqueror of mankind. As weaknesses that make one particularly susceptible to certain diseases are passed on by parents to their offspring, so death has been passed down to us by our first parents. The Holy Bible points this out when it says: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.”—Rom. 5:12.

There has been no way for man to free himself from inherited death or to release those already taken by it. Only Jehovah God, man’s Creator, could save him from this predicament. Since he has provided the means for salvation, it would be foolish to ignore it or refuse to get the benefits of it.

Not only can the living benefit from God’s provision for salvation, but even the dead can. They can be rescued from death’s grip and be brought back to life, not by man’s power, but by God’s. Regarding this, Jesus Christ, who plays an important role in God’s provision for salvation, said: “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28, 29) This occurs at Jehovah God’s appointed time.

That eternal life is possible is shown by these words: “Furthermore, this is the promised thing which he himself promised us, the life everlasting.” (1 John 2:25) The Supreme Sovereign does not make promises that are not kept. His promise of salvation from death will be fulfilled for those that love and obey him. He certainly cannot be expected to give eternal life to persons that rebelliously refuse to obey him or that ignore his provision for salvation. “Jehovah is guarding all those loving him, but all the wicked ones he will annihilate.”—Ps. 145:20.

SOURCE OF SALVATION

Although some political governments want people to look to them for salvation, there is actually only one source, Jehovah God, to whom man must look for it. He is man’s Savior. He saved the human race from complete destruction during the great Flood, and he saved the nation of Israel from enslavement time and time again. King David viewed him as the source of salvation when he said: “Jehovah is my crag and my stronghold and the Provider of escape for me. My God is my rock. I shall take refuge in him, my shield and my horn of salvation, my secure height.”—2 Sam. 22:2, 3.

As he saved righteous persons from the Flood and from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, so will he save such ones from the destruction of this present wicked world. But he will do more than that. He will save them from Adamic death. This was made possible by his providing the means for canceling out the effects of Adam’s sin.

Since Adam was a perfect man before he sinned, only the life of another perfect man could ransom or bring release to his descendants. It was impossible for the human race to produce this perfect human of itself, for all have been born imperfect because of having received their life force through sinner Adam. “Who can produce someone clean out of someone unclean? There is not one.”—Job 14:4.

As mankind’s source of salvation Jehovah God provided the perfect man, whose life could ransom the human race, by transferring the life force of his chief angelic Son in the heavens to the womb of a virgin. Because the child that was born did not receive its life through Adam’s line of descent but from God, it was perfect. Thus Jesus Christ became equal to Adam and able to ransom mankind by laying down his perfect human life. “Just as the Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his soul [or life] a ransom in exchange for many.”—Matt. 20:28.

DIFFERENT VIEWS OF SALVATION

As might be expected in a world that thinks too highly of human philosophy, there are many views regarding human salvation. There are, for example, religious persons that think belief in Jesus Christ is practically all that is necessary for salvation. Some of their preachers can be heard from time to time urging people, in a highly emotional manner, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Once a person is thus “saved” he is thought to be always “saved.” He is considered as having gained salvation and need never fear about losing it. What he is thought to have been saved from is the fiery hell that the unsaved or lost ones are thought to be headed for. Regarding this the evangelist Billy Graham said: “It was the awfulness of hell that caused God to contrive the marvelous atonement of Christ on the cross. . . . It was man’s utter lostness that inspired God’s uttermost salvation. . . . We should certainly shun hell because of the price God paid to save us from it.”

Another view of salvation is that held by those who believe in universal salvation. Persons that hold to this view believe that it is incredible that God would torture unsaved ones eternally. They believe in the ultimate restoration of all sinners to God’s favor. One of the early believers in universal salvation, a bishop by the name of Titus, said, A.D. 364, that the severity of the torments of hell would “lead the wicked to repentance and so to salvation.”

Those persons that become a bit confused by the different views on salvation often develop a theory of their own. They conclude that as long as a person leads a good life and does not harm his neighbor, that is all that is required for salvation. They think that God expects nothing more from them.

Finally we come to those persons that reject man’s need for salvation. In their eyes the shedding of Christ’s blood as a ransom sacrifice had no value. Not only is this view held by atheists but also by persons that claim to be Christians. The Christian Science textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures states: “The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon the accursed tree, than when it was flowing in his veins as he went daily about his Father’s business.”

The various views on salvation may appear valid to the persons holding them, but that does not mean they are correct. There is only one place where authoritative information can be found on the subject and that is the Holy Bible.

WHAT MUST BE DONE TO BE SAVED

God’s written Word reveals that more than profession of belief in Jesus is required for salvation. Just saying that one believes is not enough. When Paul and Silas told the Macedonian jailer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will get saved,” (Acts 16:31) they were not limiting salvation to belief that Christ is the Redeemer. They knew that more was involved. Besides believing that Christ is God’s Son and mankind’s Redeemer, knowledge of the Scriptures is necessary as well as a willingness to follow Christ’s example. His faith in the heavenly Father was shown by his works of public teaching of spiritual truths that brought honor to his Father and comfort to the people. This fine example must be followed by those who say they believe in Christ. Their faith must be accompanied by similar works. This is pointed out by the Bible writer James, who said: “Show me your faith apart from the works, and I shall show you my faith by my works.”—Jas. 2:18.

When a person, on the basis of the Scriptural knowledge he has gained, has belief in Christ as the Savior whom God provided and shows that faith by his works, he can consider himself as being on the way to salvation. It would be a mistake for him to think that he is now saved and cannot fall. He must show by his endurance in the Christian faith that he is worthy of salvation. “Let him that thinks he has a firm position beware that he does not fall.”—1 Cor. 10:12.

What he is on the way to being saved from is not the torments of a fiery hell, for such a place exists only in the imagination of misinformed persons. God’s Word says nothing about eternal torment of lost souls in a fiery hell as being the punishment for wickedness. Instead, it simply says: “The wages sin pays is death.” “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” “All the wicked ones he will annihilate.” (Rom. 6:23; Ezek. 18:4, AS; Ps. 145:20) God’s loving provision is salvation from eternal death. It means freedom from the curse of death that comes because of Adam’s sin.

Salvation from death is a gift from God to those that obey him, not to those that disobey. It does not go to the wicked, which fact means that not all humans will benefit from it. The Bible limits it to persons of all kinds that exercise faith. “For I am not ashamed of the good news; it is, in fact, God’s power for salvation to everyone having faith.” Regarding those that do not have faith, the apostle Peter says that God will “reserve unrighteous people for the day of judgment to be cut off.” That is, they will be cut off from life. He goes on to say that they will “suffer destruction in their own course of destruction.”—Rom. 1:16; 2 Pet. 2:9, 12.

PRINCIPAL REQUIREMENTS FOR SALVATION

For a person to gain salvation God requires that he exercise faith in Him and Christ Jesus. A person cannot expect God’s favor when he refuses to exercise faith in the Father as a Savior and in the One whom the Father sent to make salvation possible. It is written: “For ‘anyone that calls upon the name of Jehovah will be saved.’” (Rom. 10:13) This has to be done by faith, not only in Jehovah and his Son, but also in the truthfulness of his Word. “Moreover, without faith it is impossible to win his good pleasure, for he that approaches God must believe that he is and that he becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.”—Heb. 11:6.

The faithless person does not change reality by his denying the existence of sin and the need for salvation. Although he may refuse to recognize it, he is still a sinner. “If we make the statement, ‘We have no sin,’ we are misleading ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) When a person exercises faith in God’s written Word as being true he will acknowledge that he is in a sinful state because of Adamic sin and is in need of a Redeemer. He will show repentance for his sins against God because of his imperfection. “True, God has overlooked the times of such ignorance, yet now he is telling mankind that they should all everywhere repent.”—Acts 17:30.

It is only right that the Creator should require obedience from man. In times past those that obeyed him were the ones that he favored. It is no different today. Salvation through the coming war of Armageddon and from death depends upon obedience to Jehovah God and to Jesus Christ, whom he has anointed to be earth’s ruler. This is shown at Hebrews 5:9, which says regarding Christ: “After he had been made perfect he became responsible for everlasting salvation to all those obeying him.” Here again the Scriptures show that salvation is limited and not universal.

Endurance in the way to life is also a requirement for salvation. It does no good if a person starts out on a faithful course of obedience to God but fails to continue on it. He must remain faithful as long as he lives, even when his faithfulness brings the threat of death. “But he that has endured to the finish is the one that will be saved.”—Matt. 24:13.

A person must manifest his faith in the manner Christ did by dedicating himself to Jehovah God, symbolizing that dedication by water immersion, and making public proclamation of the truth. He must be a teacher of God’s Word and purposes. He cannot remain silent, thinking that belief alone is sufficient for salvation. Silence is not God’s way to it. “For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.”—Rom. 10:10.

For the select few that have been chosen to rule with Christ in the heavens salvation comes by resurrection from the condition of death. But for the great multitude of people of all kinds that anticipate eternal life on earth salvation will come during Christ’s thousand-year reign. Christ will at that time apply toward them the benefits of his ransom sacrifice, that they may be released from Adamic sin, made free from death and lifted to human perfection in an earthly paradise. This is the certain result of following God’s way to salvation.

[Picture on page 132]

UNIVERSAL SALVATION

THERE IS NO SIN

GOD’S WAY TO SALVATION

ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED

DOING NO HARM TO OTHERS

Be Swift to Hear, Slow About Speaking

“Know this, my beloved brothers. Every man must be swift about hearing, slow about speaking, slow about wrath.”—Jas. 1:19.

1. What is the prime purpose of the human tongue, and how are many tongues being so used today?

THE prime purpose of the human tongue is to glorify man’s grand Creator, Jehovah the Almighty God. As an instrument to bring praise to God, the tongue is being used world-wide today to announce the established kingdom of the heavens. This is good news that Jesus said “will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations.” How precious is the tongue that is speaking this gladsome message! “The tongue of the righteous one is choice silver.” The righteous will of God is that true Christians ever be ready to speak this Kingdom good news to others: “Preach the word, be at it urgently in favorable season, in troublesome season.”—Matt. 24:14; Prov. 10:20; 2 Tim. 4:2.

2, 3. What did the disciple James basically mean when he counseled about being “slow about speaking”?

² It may strike some as strange that, in view of the urgency of speaking the Kingdom message, the disciple James wrote this inspired counsel: “Know this, my beloved brothers. Every man must be swift about hearing, slow about speaking, slow about wrath.” It is not concerning the preaching of the Kingdom that Christians must be “slow about speaking.” The disciple James had other thoughts in mind.—Jas. 1:19.

³ The import of the divine counsel at James 1:19 is that by being “swift about hearing, slow about speaking, slow about wrath,” we guard against spoiling pure worship and guard against bringing ruin upon ourselves especially by the wrong use of the tongue. If any Christian thinks there is little need to bridle his tongue, he should give heed to the divine warning: “If any man seems to himself to be a formal worshiper and yet does not bridle his tongue, but goes on deceiving his own heart, this man’s form of worship is futile.” If the Christian is to avoid rendering his worship futile in God’s sight, he must not only praise God by announcing his glorious kingdom but also cause his tongue to be a blessing to mankind as well. As an aid to bridling the tongue, James recommends being “swift about hearing, slow about speaking.”—Jas. 1:26.

4. How does James describe the tongue and the effect it can produce, and so what is the course of wisdom?

⁴ When we realize the mighty effect of the tongue, we see the great value in James’ counsel. True, the tongue is a small member; but a horse’s bridle and the rudder of a ship are comparatively small things, yet their effect is tremendous: “If we put bridles in the mouths of horses for them to obey us, we manage also their whole body. Look! even boats, although they are so big and are driven by hard winds, are steered by a very small rudder to where the inclination of the man at the helm wishes. So, too, the tongue is a little member and yet makes great brags. Look! how little a fire it takes to set so great a woodland on fire! Well, the tongue is a fire. The tongue is constituted a world of unrighteousness among our members, for it spots up all the body and sets the wheel of natural life aflame and it is set aflame by Gehenna. For every kind of wild beast as well as bird and creeping thing and sea creature is to be tamed and has been tamed by humankind. But the tongue, not one of mankind can get it tamed.” Since the way the Christian uses his tongue means life or death and since no man today has perfect control over his tongue, it is the part of wisdom that one’s speech should not be hasty.—Jas. 3:3-8.

TOO MUCH TALKING

5. What is a serious danger in talking too much, and what is the relationship between listening and learning?

⁵ Being quick about speaking words that are not improper in themselves can even be to a Christian’s detriment. A person can talk too much of the time and thus not be “swift about hearing.” There needs to be a balance between speaking and hearing. Since it is primarily in regard to God’s Word of truth that we should be swift to hear, some persons do not advance to spiritual maturity because they are not good listeners. They spend more time than they should talking. Ministers of Jehovah’s witnesses have sometimes conducted home Bible studies with persons who are loquacious, or very talkative. These persons often make little advancement spiritually because of their time-consuming talking. Such persons need to realize that “a wise person will listen and take in more instruction.” So how one listens has a direct bearing on what he learns. Talk has its place, but it should not be allowed to crowd out listening, especially when one is being instructed in the Word of God. When Mary, the sister of Martha, “sat down at the feet of the Master,” it was time for her to learn. So she “kept listening to his word.”—Prov. 1:5; Luke 10:39.

6. Why are some persons poor listeners? With what result?

⁶ It is noticed in conversations today that many persons are not good listeners. They want to do most of the talking. When it is time for listening and they persist in talking, they deprive themselves of what may be important instruction. One who should be listening all too often has his thoughts elsewhere, perhaps rehearsing in his mind the words he will effuse when he can grab a conversational opening. It sometimes seems hopeless to teach these persons, since the Bible rule is: “Have you beheld a man hasty with his words? There is more hope for someone stupid than for him.” “The foolish one speaks many words.” Small wonder that many persons unnecessarily ask “What was that?” right after someone has spoken to them! If they were not overly concerned about talking, they probably would not have to ask the speaker to repeat his words. Paying attention is something that we must continually improve upon, for so much of our learning depends upon it.—Prov. 29:20; Eccl. 10:14.

PAYING ATTENTION

7. When is it the time for being especially swift about listening, and why?

⁷ When one is being instructed in God’s Word, such as at a congregational meeting or a large assembly of Jehovah’s people, it is not the time for visiting and talking. Counsels Jehovah’s Word: “Guard your feet whenever you go to the house of The true God; and let there be a drawing near to hear, rather than to give a sacrifice as the stupid ones do, for they are not aware of doing what is bad. Do not hurry yourself as regards your mouth.” Sometimes at a large assembly persons will be speaking to one another unnecessarily, visiting with those they have not seen for a long time, and so forth—doing this at the very time important Bible truths are being spoken from the platform. This shows disrespect for God’s Word and his organization. There should be “a drawing near to hear” during meetings and sessions at assemblies. Afterward is the time for visiting.—Eccl. 5:1, 2.

8. Why is it so important to pay attention, and what will help in this regard?

⁸ Being swift to hear means paying attention to what we hear, letting God’s truths sink deeply into our heart and mind. One can be listening but not really paying attention. The mind should not be allowed to wander. This matter of paying attention to teaching from God’s Word is so important that an apostle of Christ counseled: “It is necessary for us to pay more than the usual attention to the things heard by us, that we may never drift away.” So the Christian needs to be alert when he is receiving Bible instruction. Realizing the need for being awake mentally, a person does not eat too heavily just before meetings, knowing that it is difficult to listen well with a drowsy mind. Good listening can also be heightened by the right kind of ventilation in places of assembly and by maintaining a proper temperature when possible, one neither too cool nor too warm. So do what is reasonable that you may “pay more than the usual attention” to God’s Word of truth. “Happy is the man that is listening to me by keeping awake.”—Heb. 2:1; Prov. 8:34.

REASONABLENESS AND REPROOF

9. Why is being swift about hearing an aid to being reasonable, and why is this especially vital for overseers?

⁹ Being swift to hear, as a general rule, aids one in being reasonable. God’s Word says: “Let your reasonableness become known to all men.” How can you do that well if you do not listen? Often it is necessary to listen patiently to both sides of a matter, instead of putting in one’s words hastily. If one does not listen enough, he may not draw the right conclusions. Overseers of Christian congregations, Paul says, must be “reasonable.” (1 Tim. 3:2, 3) Hence, in their dealings with their Christian brothers, overseers must be ‘swift to hear.’—Phil. 4:5.

10, 11. (a) What is a danger in not being swift about hearing, and so how does God’s Word show our ears should be trained? (b) What about when overseers speak or give counsel?

¹⁰ A grave danger in not being swift to hear is that such behavior puts up a barrier to benefiting from counsel and reproof. Ears do not naturally like to hear reproof. But the Christian must train his ears to be swift about hearing in this regard. “Give a reproof to a wise person and he will love you.” “Listen to counsel and accept discipline, in order that you may become wise in your future.” “A rebuke works deeper in one having understanding than striking a stupid one a hundred times.” To be wise and understanding, one’s ears must be trained to be swift about hearing counsel and reproof, not becoming offended or angry because of it. “The ear that is listening to the reproof of life lodges right in among wise people.”—Prov. 9:8; 19:20; 17:10; 15:31.

¹¹ When overseers speak in this regard, giving reproof and correction, then we must be especially swift to hear. Jesus’ apostles had to be swift about hearing. Once James and John became swift about wrath and wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy the inhabitants of an inhospitable Samaritan village. Luke 9:55 says that Jesus “turned and reproved them.” They did not become offended. They had to be swift about hearing to benefit from Jesus’ reproof. “He that is holding to discipline is a path to life, but he that is leaving reproof is causing to wander.”—Prov. 10:17.

THE MILD ANSWER

12. When misguided persons reproach the Kingdom minister, how will he respond?

¹² Those who are swift to hear God’s Word, counsel and instruction are the ones most inclined to be “slow about speaking, slow about wrath.” Being slow about speaking means that one will not be quick to talk back huffily when he is counseled or even when he is treated unkindly. When one is confronted with a stimulus toward anger, he must especially be slow about speaking or returning wrathful words. When bringing the Kingdom message to others, the minister of God may at times be upbraided and become the target of hard words of denunciation. But the Kingdom minister will graciously overlook such affronts; he knows that no good comes from returning evil with evil. He knows, too, that “a mild tongue itself can break a bone.” A person may be as hard as a bone, but this hard outer covering can be softened up by mild speech. “Pleasant sayings are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and a healing to the bones.” Returning wrathful words for wrathful words would only make it difficult for the next Kingdom minister coming along. So the tongue of the Kingdom minister answers in a gentle, mild and friendly way: “An answer, when mild, turns away rage, but a word causing pain makes anger to come up. The tongue of wise ones does good with knowledge, but the mouth of the stupid ones bubbles forth with foolishness.”—Prov. 25:15; 16:24; 15:1, 2.

BEING SLOW TO SPEAK COMPLAININGLY

13. What guards against being quick to voice foolishness and complaints, and what counsel did Paul give regarding speech?

¹³ We will not bubble forth with foolish complaining or fault-finding if we are slow about speaking. If we have our minds filled with Kingdom truths and are busy expressing these truths, busy speaking the Kingdom good news, busy encouraging one another with Kingdom ministry experiences, busy expanding our own ministry, busy encouraging others in expanding their ministry, we will be less tempted to allow the tongue to spew forth a flood of idle talk, foolish speech and complaining words. Such talk is not upbuilding. Counseled Paul: “Let a rotten saying not proceed out of your mouth, but whatever saying is good for building up as the need may be, that it may impart what is favorable to the hearers.”—Eph. 4:29.

14. Why is quickness about speaking complainingly unwise, and so what should we recognize?

¹⁴ Being quick to express fault is not imparting “what is favorable to the hearers.” A complaining spirit is a tremendous obstacle that must be overcome, for the sake of bridling one’s tongue. Admittedly, none have perfectly tamed the tongue, and your brothers make mistakes, but so do you. Do not expect perfection from them and Jehovah will not require it from you. Recognize that there will be mistakes made with the tongue; but at the same time recognize them for what they are, small things of little importance beside the great truths of the Kingdom.

15. If one is quick to speak complainingly, how might he act, and why is such course wrong?

¹⁵ If anyone is quick to speak words of complaint, he might question some of the decisions of the congregation service committee. He might even talk to others, being swift to pass words of complaint to as many as possible. Such one does not appreciate the theocratic organization that Jehovah has here on earth, and such action is really against God. Jehovah, through his holy spirit, has appointed these servants; and they have the responsibility of caring for the congregation and must keep it clean and spiritually healthy. If these servants are not properly caring for Kingdom interests, then Jehovah will remove them in the same way they were assigned, through his visible organization. Do not, then, be swift to speak words that tear down. This is the time to “keep on exhorting one another each day, as long as it may be called ‘Today’.”—Heb. 3:13.

“SPEAK INJURIOUSLY OF NO ONE”

16. When talking about personalities what is an ever-present danger, and what is the Bible counsel in this regard?

¹⁶ Being slow about speaking means that we will be careful not to speak injuriously of anyone. When discussing personalities there is always the danger of injuring someone’s good name. Since no man measures up to perfection, it would be easy to dig up faults about anyone; yes, even oneself. So Paul counseled: “Continue reminding them . . . to speak injuriously of no one.” The good name of others is to be respected, not injured by someone’s purposeful or thoughtless distorting of the facts, thus creating the wrong impression in the minds of hearers. The fact that someone’s words were thoughtless does not lessen the damage done to one’s good name. Even if not distorted or magnified, digging up the faults of others makes them objects of open shame, makes it difficult for them to keep friends: “A good-for-nothing man is digging up what is bad, and upon his lips there is, as it were, a scorching fire. A man of intrigues keeps sending forth strife, and a slanderer is separating those familiar with one another.” If one has true Christian love, he will not make common knowledge of his brother’s faults, for love “does not behave indecently.” “The one covering over transgression is seeking love, and he that keeps talking about a matter is separating those familiar with one another.” Do not make it difficult for others to keep friends.—Titus 3:1, 2; Prov. 16:27, 28; 1 Cor. 13:5; Prov. 17:9.

17, 18. How was Paul spoken of injuriously, and what reproof did he give to those who used their tongues improperly?

¹⁷ In the days of the apostle Paul there were some professed Christians who used their tongues unprofitably. Paul himself became a victim of wagging tongues, of tongues that were quick to speak injurious things. Such talk aroused Paul’s indignation, just as the scripture says: “The wind from the north brings forth as with labor pains a downpour; and a tongue giving away a secret, a face stirred with indignation.” So he wrote: “You look at things according to their face value. . . . even if we should boast a bit too much about the authority which the Lord gave us to build you up and not to tear you down, I would not be put to shame, that I may not seem to want to terrify you by my letters. For, say they, ‘his letters are weighty and forceful, but his presence in person is weak and his speech contemptible.’ Let such a man take this into account, that what we are in our word by letters when absent, such we shall also be in action when present.” “But even if I am unskilled in speech, I certainly am not in knowledge, but in every way we manifested it to you in all things.” “For I am afraid that somehow, when I arrive, I may find you not as I could wish and I may prove to be to you not as you could wish, but, instead, there should somehow be strife, jealousy, cases of anger, contentions, backbitings, whisperings, cases of being puffed up, disorders.” “I have said previously and . . . I say in advance to those who have sinned before and to all the rest, that if ever I come again I will not spare, since you are seeking a proof of Christ speaking in me.”—Prov. 25:23; 2 Cor. 10:7-11; 11:6; 12:20; 13:2, 3.

¹⁸ Because of being swift about speaking what they should not, members of that Corinthian congregation needed reproof. Paul was courageous enough to give that righteous reproof. Though it might hurt their feelings for a while, it would do them good, and in time they would appreciate that reproof. “He that is reproving a man will afterward find more favor than he will that is flattering with his tongue.”—Prov. 28:23.

19. If one wants to do a great deal of talking, what should he consider?

¹⁹ Those who want to use their tongues in a great deal of talking should remind themselves that they must eat the fruitage of their tongues: “From the fruitage of a man’s mouth his belly will get its fill; he will get his fill even of the produce of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and he that is loving it will eat its fruitage.” If the fruitage is Kingdom fruitage, the preaching of the good news, such leads to everlasting life in God’s new world. But if one is quick to speak what is rotten, injurious and foolish, then it will be as Jesus warned the Pharisees: “I tell you that every unprofitable saying that men speak, they will render an account concerning it on Judgment Day; for by your words you will be vindicated, and by your words you will be condemned.” How true it is: “He that would love life and see good days, let him restrain his tongue from what is injurious and his lips from speaking deceitfully”!—Prov. 18:20, 21; Matt. 12:36, 37; 1 Pet. 3:10.

“PUTTING UP WITH ONE ANOTHER”

20. What is the trend in the world today, and why must Christians not be like this?

²⁰ Whether it be in the congregation or in the family circle, there are many small things that do not really matter whether they are done one way or the other. To be quick in expressing fault in these unweighty matters shows unbalance. It shows a lack of love because love “does not look for its own interests.” The trend in the world today is to be swift about insisting on one’s own way by being quick to speak fault-finding, nagging, carping words. There are verbal tyrants in small things. Little wonder that a worldly wit has said: “My wife is too beautiful for words—but not for arguments!” Such carping must not exist among Christians. Follow God’s will as expressed at Philippians 2:14: “Keep doing all things free from murmurings and arguments.” Really do as the apostle admonished: “Continue putting up with one another and forgiving one another freely if anyone has a cause for complaint against another.” Following such counsel will make for pleasantness and unity both within the family circle and the congregation. “Look! how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!”—1 Cor. 13:5; Col. 3:13; Ps. 133:1.

AVOIDING RASH WORDS WHEN ANGERED

21. Why be “slow about speaking,” especially when provoked to anger, and what example shows the folly of speaking quickly in anger?

²¹ Especially when incited to anger must the Christian be “slow about speaking.” Otherwise foolish, regrettable, rash speech may result; for especially when provoked to anger is it true: “In the abundance of words there does not fail to be transgression, but the one keeping his lips in check is acting discreetly.” Showing how easy it is to sin with the tongue when angered is the example of Moses. The murmuring Israelites “caused provocation at the waters of Meribah, so that it went badly with Moses by reason of them. For they embittered his spirit and he began to speak rashly with his lips.” When the Israelites needed water, Jehovah commanded Moses to take his rod and bring forth water from a crag. Moses did it, but because of his anger at the complaining Israelites he was swift to speak: “Hear, now, you rebels! Is it from this crag that we shall bring out water for you?” Later Jehovah said to Moses: “Because you did not show faith in me to sanctify me before the eyes of the sons of Israel, therefore you will not bring this congregation into the land that I shall certainly give them.” It was a big price to pay for rash speech.—Prov. 10:19; Ps. 106:32, 33; Num. 20:10, 12.

22. Why were Moses’ rash words not caused by a rebellious or proud heart, and so what lesson do we learn?

²² It was not that Moses was rebellious in his heart. Rather, in a moment of anger, he was swift about speaking. What came out was not to the glory of God. Moses’ words left the impression that he and Aaron were the providers of the people, whereas it was Jehovah who had provided for them all those years in the wilderness. Nor was it that Moses was proud and arrogant. “The man Moses was by far the meekest of all the men who were upon the surface of the ground.” Yet he sinned with his tongue. Even for the most humble servant of God there is a need to guard one’s mouth: “The one guarding his mouth is keeping his soul. The one opening wide his lips—he will have ruin.”—Num. 12:3; Prov. 13:3.

23. How will James’ counsel aid us?

²³ So take to heart James’ counsel: “Be swift about hearing, slow about speaking, slow about wrath.” It will aid you to bring forth fruitage acceptable to God. It will aid you to use your tongue to the glory of the Creator. It will aid you in carrying out the divine will as expressed at Romans 14:19: “Let us pursue the things making for peace and the things that are upbuilding to one another.”

Being Slow About Wrath

“Man’s wrath does not produce God’s righteousness.”—Jas. 1:20.

1. Why is there no unrighteousness produced by God’s anger, and how does Jehovah set the example?

ANGER in itself is not evil. The anger of Jehovah is the justifiable reaction of the wholly righteous God against sin, wickedness and all forms of unrighteousness. “Because of the aforesaid things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.” God’s wrath is completely under the control of his attributes of justice, wisdom, love and power. “Jehovah is slow to anger”—this the prophets Nahum, Joel and Jonah affirm. The psalmist says: “Jehovah is gracious and merciful, slow to anger.” And Jehovah himself gives this description at Exodus 34:6: “Jehovah went passing by before [Moses’] face and declaring: ‘Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness.’” Thus Jehovah sets the example in being slow about wrath.—Eph. 5:6; Nah. 1:3; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2, AS; Ps. 145:8.

2. Why is slowness about wrath important for imperfect humans?

² How fitting, then, that God should require us to be slow about wrath. Explaining why slowness about wrath is especially important for imperfect humans, the inspired writer James said: “For man’s wrath does not produce God’s righteousness.” This is true for many reasons. Man’s anger is often excited without sufficient cause; it often transcends the cause, if any cause really exists. Man’s anger tends to operate without due regard to consequences; hence it inclines one toward all kinds of injuriousness. Human anger often leads to loss of self-control—to stormy rages and violent “fits of anger,” and this is classed among those unrighteous things of which the Bible says: “Those who practice such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.” No, man’s wrath does not lead one to live by the righteous standards set by God.—Jas. 1:20; Gal. 5:20, 21.

3. What is the result of being quick to anger?

³ The Christian witness of Jehovah is therefore keenly interested in being slow about wrath, that he may win the approval of the righteous God. “Jehovah is righteous in all his ways,” and the expression of his wrath is therefore righteous. But when a man acts in anger, he usually does not work out divine righteousness; indeed, he usually does something that he himself will later regret. The divine rule is certain: “The stupid is becoming furious and self-confident. He that is quick to anger will commit foolishness.” It has not escaped our notice that when men and women are quick to anger they usually make fools of themselves. This fact should make a deep impression on us. Not only does the one quick to anger tend to make himself appear foolish, but the result of his actions will be so much foolishness. Those who are quick to anger usually injure others, either by verbal or physical blows. Human anger thus tends to be selfish and injurious.—Ps. 145:17; Prov. 14:16, 17.

4. (a) What is indignation, and who exemplified its proper use? (b) Why is it wise not to be quick in expressing even indignation?

⁴ Unselfish, righteous anger is called indignation. When one’s conscience has been trained according to the righteous laws of God, it reacts spontaneously against what is wrong or evil in God’s sight. Jesus’ indignation resulted in firm speech and actions that worked out God’s righteousness. (Mark 3:5; John 2:14-17) The righteous anger of Christ Jesus was always under his control, always based on the grounds of truth and righteousness. The indignation of imperfect humans, however, could lead to unrighteousness, if prompted by misunderstanding and false reasoning. While Jesus was in Bethany a woman poured perfumed oil upon his head. “At this there were some expressing indignation among themselves: ‘Why has this waste of the perfumed oil taken place? For this perfumed oil could have been sold for upward of three hundred denarii and been given to the poor!’ And they were feeling great displeasure at her. But Jesus said: ‘Let her alone. Why do you try to make trouble for her? She did a fine deed toward me.’” Jesus went on to explain why their indignation was improperly aroused. So even when it comes to what men call indignation, it is the part of wisdom to be slow in expressing it, by allowing opportunity for all the facts and circumstances to be understood.—Mark 14:3-9.

5. After one comes to a knowledge of God’s truth, what kind of change must he make?

⁵ Before coming to a knowledge of the divine will, a person is often quick about anger, perhaps given to explosive fits of temper, resulting in filthy speech and violent actions. “We all at one time conducted ourselves in harmony with the desires of our flesh, doing the things the flesh and the thoughts willed.” After one comes to a knowledge of Jehovah’s righteous will, he must make a change. God’s Word commands Christians: “Now really put them all away from you, wrath, anger, injuriousness, abusive speech, and obscene talk out of your mouth.” Note what unrighteousness is closely linked with wrath and anger—“injuriousness, abusive speech, and obscene talk.” How vital to make this change from being quick to anger to being slow to anger!—Eph. 2:3; Col. 3:8.

PUTTING ON THE NEW PERSONALITY

6. (a) Being slow about wrath is part of what basic change that must be made? (b) Why is the new personality not outward character development?

⁶ Being slow about wrath is part of the identifying mark of what the Bible calls “the new personality.” Describing the change that must be made by those seeking divine approval, the apostle writes: “Put away the old personality which conforms to your former course of conduct and which is being corrupted according to his deceptive desires; but that you should be made new in the force actuating your mind, and should put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will.” So it is God’s will that this change be made. God’s spirit is the force by which one makes his mind over, by which his mind must be actuated. Accurate knowledge of the divine will also plays a key role in effecting this change: “Strip off the old personality with its practices, and clothe yourselves with the new personality which through accurate knowledge is being renewed according to the image of the one who created it.” The “new personality” is not some kind of beautiful-looking mask that one puts on over “the old personality.” No, the “new personality” is not character development in which one develops outwardly sweet manners but inwardly he is still the same “old personality,” the mind not really being renewed according to God’s spirit and the divine will. There is no insincerity or hypocrisy associated with the “new personality.” It is genuine. It is not the “old personality” in disguise. It really shows heart-deep evidence of the fruits of God’s spirit: “The fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.”—Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9, 10; Gal. 5:22, 23.

7. How do some worldly persons view the new personality, and why is their understanding wrong?

⁷ It is not impossible to make the change that God wills. Some persons are skeptical, especially those who are not associating with Jehovah’s witnesses. Many of these persons who have written a theme on the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses study this matter of conforming one’s mental attitude according to God’s will as a mere beautiful theory. They do not get the spiritual sense, the impulsive force. They do not understand the power of accurate knowledge, the power of God’s spirit, the power of a dedication to God for the doing of his will. The truth about the “new personality” is that it is not a theory; it is not man-made at all. “The new personality,” said Paul, “was created according to God’s will.”—Eph. 4:24.

8. Why is the change to the new personality not impossible, and does God make an exception for those who inherit a temperament that is quick to anger?

⁸ God’s Word, then, is not written with the idea that a change cannot be made. It is written with the idea that a change can be made and must be made. God does not accept the excuse of a professed Christian who might say: “Why, I have always had a quick temper; it’s my temperament; I can’t change now.” In stating God’s will at Ephesians 4:31, the apostle makes no exception for those whose temperaments make them prone to be quick about wrath. Emphatically he states God’s will: “Let all malicious bitterness and anger and wrath and screaming and abusive speech be taken away from you along with all injuriousness.” So the common belief that the quick and explosive temper is an inherited trait and beyond restraint or change is false. There is abundant evidence that the change can be made. Thousands of persons in the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses once had quick tempers; today they are “slow about wrath.” They have truly put on the “new personality,” knowing that the Bible is written with the idea, not that we cannot change, but that we can!

9. How does one make the change to the new personality?

⁹ What must one do to make the change? One must seek accurate knowledge of God’s Word. This requires private study of the Bible. It requires association with those who are doing the divine will and who have put on the “new personality.” By attending congregational meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses, one is continually built up spiritually, enabling one to make constant progress in putting on the “new personality.” True, it takes time to become a new personality, but, by setting the mind to make the necessary changes, one gains God’s approval and help. Pray for God’s spirit to actuate your mind.

10. How does a quick temper affect peace and unity, and why is it vital for those association with the New World society to put on the new personality?

¹⁰ Remember, too, that “an enraged man stirs up strife.” On the other hand, “one that is slow to anger quiets down contention.” (Prov. 15:18) Since peace and unity must prevail in Jehovah’s organization, there is no room for those who let their quick tempers stir up trouble and strife among God’s people. If one associating with the New World society persists in allowing his uncontrolled temper to stir up strife, Jehovah’s angels will take action against such offender and remove him from God’s organization. It is a serious matter to resist God’s will and spirit by refusing to put on the “new personality.”

MAN’S WRATH PRODUCES UNRIGHTEOUSNESS

11, 12. Why does God’s Word outlaw quickness about wrath, and how do examples in the Bible and in the newspapers show the wisdom of divine law?

¹¹ In ruling against being quick to wrath, God’s Word roots out the cause of so much injuriousness. By even a casual glance at the newspapers, we observe how human anger readily associates itself with the desire to injure others or to inflict pain on them. Since there is usually a loss of self-control at the same time, what monstrous violence can result from a quick temper! Newspapers often tell about fights and killings caused by quickness about wrath. One newspaper recently told about a young boy who killed his mother “in a fit of rage” because she refused him the use of the telephone. How many murders have been committed in a fit of anger! They are beyond counting. Even husbands and wives, newspapers disclose, not infrequently kill one another, because someone has lost self-control in a fit of anger. The Bible tells how “Cain grew hot with great anger.” The result was the murder of his brother. King Saul hurled a spear at his own son Jonathan. “Saul’s anger grew hot against Jonathan. . . . At that Saul went hurling the spear at him to strike him.” No wonder the Bible outlaws the quick temper and fits of anger and tells Christians to let all anger and wrath be taken away from them with all injuriousness.—Gen. 4:5; 1 Sam. 20:30, 33.

¹² Worldly lawmakers make laws against murder, but they do not make laws against “fits of anger.” They do not legislate against quickness about wrath. But God’s law forbids these very things. So divine law gets right down to the root cause of so much injuriousness.

13. How does the law Christ Jesus laid down go beyond the Law of Moses, and what danger arises it one continues angry with his brother?

¹³ The Law of Moses outlawed murder, but the law that Christ Jesus laid down is much more far reaching: “You heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You must not murder; but whoever commits a murder will be accountable to the court of justice.’ However, I say to you that everyone who continues angry with his brother will be accountable to the court of justice.” (Matt. 5:21, 22) One might have good reason for anger, but if he continues angry with his brother he may sin, since anger too long protracted tends to become revengeful. So God’s Word commands: “Be angry, and yet do not sin; let the sun not set with you in a provoked state, neither allow place for the Devil.” By sleeping upon anger, we nurse it and keep it warm—this gives the Devil a chance, as it were, and we may play into his hands, because “man’s wrath does not produce God’s righteousness.” So not only the quick temper produces unrighteousness but also the one nursing his anger, letting it simmer and turn into revenge or vindictiveness. “Return evil for evil to no one,” says God’s Word. “Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but yield place to the wrath.”—Eph. 4:26, 27; Jas. 1:20; Rom. 12:17, 19.

MISTAKEN BELIEFS

14. What false belief exists about the quick temper, and why is this belief false?

¹⁴ Many are the mistaken beliefs regarding man’s anger. To give way to an angry temper, for instance, is sometimes believed to be a proof of strength of personality. Thus some persons may believe that an explosive temper is a proof of strength. How foolish! When a person flies into a fit of anger, we say he has lost his temper. He has really lost self-control. How could there be any real power in the absence of self-control? Oh, there is power but it is destructive, ruinous, deadly. A mighty conqueror might capture a city, but without self-control he could bring that city to ruin by some foolish outburst of temper. So what is real strength and might? God’s Word answers: “He that is slow to anger is better than a mighty man, and he that is controlling his spirit than the one capturing a city.” Being slow about wrath is strength—strength greater than that of a mighty warrior. The person who rules his temper is the strong person, not the one who loses his temper. Fits of anger not only displace reason and self-control but turn them out of doors and bolt the door against them. Fits of anger and an angry rage are not to be viewed as strength or indignation.—Prov. 16:32.

15. Why is there a place for indignation, and is the quick-tempered person more indignant than one slow to anger?

¹⁵ There is, of course, a place for indignation and firm action based on it, as Jesus took in the case of the money-changers in the temple. (John 2:13-17) There are times when not to be indignant would be wrong and would show a sympathy with the wrong or a lazy fear of the result of opposing it. But just because a person has fits of temper does not mean that he is more indignant than those who are slow to anger. A person with self-control may contain twice as much feeling, but he directs it, like explosions in the cylinder of a gasoline motor, to righteous results.

16. Why must overseers be slow about wrath?

¹⁶ Since man’s anger does not bear fruit that is acceptable to God, overseers of God’s people must set the right example. They must be slow about wrath, slow to take offense. The quick temper is a sign of weakness. It is the kind of weakness that disqualifies one from overseer privileges in God’s congregation. One could hardly be trusted as an overseer of Jehovah’s flock if such a person had not learned how to rule his temper. “An overseer must be free from accusation as God’s steward, not self-willed, not prone to wrath, . . . [but] self-controlled.” (Titus 1:7, 8) If an overseer were prone to wrath, he could bring trouble and discord upon a congregation, even ruin. So God’s Word disqualifies those persons who are quick about wrath; they are too weak to be overseers!

17, 18. What belief is there regarding wrathful explosions of temper, and why is it false, both from the spiritual and physical viewpoint?

¹⁷ There is a belief that giving full vent to one’s anger is a good way to work off something bad, a good way to release pent-up emotions. This is false. What if some worldly psychiatrists believe that it may be good to blow off steam in this manner? Christians should let God’s Word direct their conduct, not the theories of men. Jehovah’s Word has no good thing to say about those who give full vent to anger, nor does it say that such actions accomplish any good.

¹⁸ Even looking at it from the physical standpoint, there is no good arising from fits of anger. Man’s Creator says: “A heart that is joyful does good as a curer, but a spirit that is stricken makes the bones dry.” (Prov. 17:22) A person stricken by the emotions of anger and resentment and revenge is only injuring himself. More and more doctors are learning of this injuriousness. In Your Body and Your Mind Dr. Frank G. Slaughter writes: “Studies by Drs. B. Mittelman and H. G. Wolff showed that in patients with ulcer, resentment and anger caused increased secretion of highly acid gastric juice, marked increase in stomach contractions, and a generalized increase in the flow of blood through the mucous membrane lining of the stomach and duodenum. . . . Since these changes are usually associated with a heightening of ulcer symptoms, resentment thus actually caused acute pain. . . . stomach mucous membrane is delicate and easily injured, and normally is covered with a protective layer of mucus, keeping the stomach lining from being digested by the hydrochloric acid which continually bathes it. In studies of the normal stomach, much of the mucus layer was seen to be washed away when increased acid secretion occurred from emotional causes. Also small hemorrhages and actual breaks in the mucous membrane lining of the stomach and duodenum were common. We have here, then, all the necessary factors to bring about ulceration; if repeated often enough they undoubtedly do just that.”

19. What wisdom have heart experts found in the Bible command: “Let anger alone and leave rage”?

¹⁹ But the effects of anger and rage can be far more serious than the harm that may be done to one’s stomach. “A calm heart is the life of the fleshly organism,” says the Bible. (Prov. 14:30) Recently seven heart experts offered advice on how to avoid sudden heart attacks. They advised a calm heart, the avoiding of anger and rage. One of the doctors, Dr. Harry Gold, professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the Cornell University Medical College, said, as reported by the New York Times of December 1, 1955: “We must convince our patients that in rage and anger, when they are endeavoring to kill someone else, they are actually accomplishing just the opposite—they are killing themselves.” These heart experts who warned against anger and rage may have had in mind the case of the famous Scottish surgeon, John Hunter. He had a heart attack that nearly killed him. Being a doctor, he knew the importance of emotions in affecting the heart. When he recovered, he said: “My life is in the hands of any rascal who chooses to annoy and tease me!” He was unable to keep his temper under control, however, and one day he lost control in a fit of rage when contradicted by another doctor; he had a heart attack that killed him. How wise it is to follow the counsel of man’s Creator: “Let anger alone and leave rage; do not show yourself heated up only to do evil”!—Ps. 37:8.

20. How does God’s Word describe the man who gives full vent to his anger, and what danger is there in fellowshiping with such persons?

²⁰ What folly to think that losing self-control in a fit of anger is a good way to work off pent-up emotions! “As a city broken through, without a wall, is the man that has no restraint for his spirit.” (Prov. 25:28) So God’s Word does not agree with those beliefs that a quick temper may sometimes be a proof of strength of personality and that it may be good to release pent-up emotions in a fit of angry temper. Temper explosions do not cleanse the atmosphere; they poison it. The poison may contaminate others, so Jehovah warns: “Do not have companionship with anyone given to anger, and with a man having fits of rage you must not enter in, that you may not get familiar with his paths and certainly take a snare for your soul.”—Prov. 22:24, 25.

21. What is the prime reason for a Christian’s becoming slow about wrath, and how do the Scriptures show this is the course of wisdom?

²¹ It is not merely to avoid injuring one’s own health that the Christian avoids quickness about wrath. Primarily he is interested in doing the divine will, living according to the righteous principles found in the Holy Scriptures. Though some persons may not be ashamed of their bad tempers and may even be quite proud of them, the true Christian takes the course of wisdom and becomes slow about wrath: “A man of discernment is cool of spirit.” “All his spirit is what a stupid one lets out, but he that is wise keeps it calm to the last.” “He that is slow to anger is abundant in discernment, but one that is impatient is exalting foolishness.”—Prov. 17:27; 29:11; 14:29.

22, 23. (a) Being slow about wrath guards against what tendency? (b) What is needed for curing a quick temper?

²² Being slow about wrath also means being slow about taking offense. This guards against peevishness—undue sensitivity to trifles, annoyance at them far beyond what their real significance warrants. The new personality does not and can not possess an oversensitive spirit, a spirit that is ready to fly into a rage over fancied or real affronts. No, the new personality, created according to God’s will, does not become easily offended: “Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended, for the taking of offense is what rests in the bosom of the stupid ones.” (Eccl. 7:9) If some unkindness really does come our way, we are still at fault in God’s sight if we are swift to take offense, swift to become angry: “The insight of a man certainly slows down his anger, and it is beauty on his part to pass over transgression.”—Prov. 19:11.

²³ What, then, is the cure for the quick temper? It is the same remedy as for the ear that is not swift to listen and the tongue that is not slow about speaking. It is this: The firm desire to do God’s will and to have his approval. Such a person will put on the new personality and do his “utmost to be found finally by him spotless and unblemished and in peace.”—2 Pet. 3:14.

Religious Hunger

After analyzing hundreds of people the psychoanalyst Donald Slesinger observed: “Religious hunger is as strong and universal as that for sexual union. . . . The worship of God is man’s need, not God’s.”—Cosmopolitan, December, 1958.

Nineveh—“The Bloody City”

“WOE to the bloody city!”—this was God’s decree upon Nineveh, once the queen city of the earth. Capital of Assyria under its greatest kings, Nineveh was like a den of lions: Ferocity and rapacity reigned supreme. By warfare Nineveh enriched itself, becoming the greatest and most feared city on the face of the earth.—Nah. 3:1, AV.

Not surprising that war and bloodshed and cruelty were the favorite pastimes of Nineveh’s rulers. Why, Nineveh’s very founder was the cruel, ruthless Nimrod: “He went forth into Assyria and set himself to building Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah and Resen between Nineveh and Calah: this is the great city.”—Gen. 10:11, 12.

Nineveh, together with its suburbs such as Calah and Resen, constituted one great city. Because of its great wickedness, God sent the prophet Jonah to Nineveh. The Ninevites’ timely repentance at the preaching of Jonah saved the city from swift destruction at God’s hands. But the inhabitants of this great city relapsed and again took to their wicked ways. During the reigns of Kings Sargon, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon and Ashurbanipal, Nineveh reached the height of its wickedness and bloody doings.

Nineveh would devour a city, bring in the loot and treat the captives cruelly. As C. W. Ceram says in Gods, Graves and Scholars: “Nineveh was impressed on the consciousness of mankind by little else than murder, plunder, suppression, and the violation of the weak; by war and all manner of physical violence; by the deeds of a sanguinary dynasty of rulers who held down the people by terror and who often were liquidated by rivals more ferocious than themselves.”

When the Assyrian armies returned to Nineveh with prisoners, the captives suffered unspeakable cruelty. They were often led about by cords attached to hooks that pierced the nose or the lips. Nineveh’s king sometimes blinded his captives by putting their eyes out at the point of a spear. Other prisoners were impaled or flayed alive. Nineveh was the heart of a great military machine that mercilessly ground to dust all weaker states and peoples.

GREEDY MERCHANTS AND PRIESTS

Warfare benefited the city’s merchants, who, for their numerousness, seemed like the stars of the heavens. Loot poured into the great city. Nineveh’s shops were supplied with all the appliances of luxury that the world could then supply. What treasures filled the city! Declared God’s prophet Nahum: “There is no end to the stores, an abundance of all sorts of valuable articles.”—Nah. 2:9, AT.

With all its ferocity, Nineveh was exceedingly religious. There was a whole pantheon of gods, many of them being imported from Babylon. Note the number of deities mentioned in this passage from the Annals of Ashurbanipal: “By the command of Ashur, Sin, Shamash, Ramman, Bel, Nabu, Ishtar of Nineveh, Ninib, Nergal, and Nusku, I entered the land of Mannai and marched through it victoriously. Its cities, great and small, which were without number, as far as Izirtu, I captured, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire.”

The priests of Nineveh were not at all opposed to war. “Fighting was the business of the nation,” says the volume Ancient Cities, “and the priests were incessant fomenters of war. They were supported largely from the spoils of conquest, of which a fixed percentage was invariably assigned them before others shared, for this race of plunderers was exceedingly religious.” Greedy priests exulted at the sight of armies going out and returning with booty.

JEHOVAH DECREES NINEVEH’S RUIN

What are we to think of this city of plunderers? What are we to think of a city whose inhabitants delighted in fiendish cruelty? What are we to think of a proud, arrogant city that said to itself: “I am, and there is none else”? It deserved destruction. But who could destroy such a great city as Nineveh? Jehovah, the God of heaven and earth, could, and through his prophet Nahum Jehovah declared: “Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will uncover thy skirts upon thy face; and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock. And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her?”—Zeph. 2:15, AT; Nah. 3:5-7, AS.

But how would Jehovah bring about Nineveh’s ruin? Enemy armies would besiege Nineveh. “The battering ram is set up.” Enemy soldiers would gain entrance to the city: “The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace melts away.” Foretelling Nineveh’s doom in graphic language, Jehovah’s prophet declared: “The crack of the whip, and the noise of the rumbling wheel, and the galloping horse, and the jolting chariot; the charging horseman, and the flashing sword, and the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a mass of bodies, and no end to the corpses! They stumble over the corpses!” Dead Assyrian soldiers would litter the ground; the victors would step upon and trip over the corpses.—Nah. 2:5, 6; 3:2, 3, AT.

Nineveh’s plundering days were to come to an end, and people would wonder as to the whereabouts of this great city of lions. God’s prophet says: “Where is the den of the lions, and the cave of the young lions, whither the lion went, bringing in prey, the lion’s cub, with none to disturb? where the lion tore enough prey for his cubs, and rended for his lionesses, filling his den with prey, and his lair with booty?”—Nah. 2:11, 12, AT.

If the princes and merchants of Nineveh thought this prophecy was incredible and farfetched, then God’s prophet reminded them to ponder the fate of the famous Egyptian city of Thebes. Despite a formidable military force and despite its boasted impregnability, Thebes was razed to the ground; and it was shattered by none other than the Assyrian king himself. Indeed, King Ashurbanipal made an inscription concerning the fall of Thebes: “The entire city . . . my hands captured—silver, gold, precious stones, the contents of his palace, all that there was; parti-coloured raiment, cloth, horses and people, male and female.” So the prophet says to Nineveh: “Are you any better than Thebes, that sat by the great Nile? . . . yet even she became an exile; she went into captivity; even her children were dashed in pieces . . . You too shall reel and swoon; you too shall seek refuge from the foe.”—Nah. 3:8-11, AT.

TURNED INTO A RUIN

Nineveh’s doom was sealed, for Jehovah’s words can never fail. About 633 B.C. it happened. The supposedly impregnable fortress of Nineveh easily fell into the hands of the besiegers, the Medes and the Chaldeans. The Babylonian king Nabopolassar, in his annals, describes the capture of Nineveh by the Medes and Babylonians: “By the bank of the Tigris they marched against Nineveh: a mighty assault they made upon the city, . . . a great havoc of the chief men was made. . . . The spoil of the city, a quantity beyond counting, they plundered, and turned the city into a mound and a ruin.”—Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to The Old Testament.

What jubilation throughout the world at the news of Nineveh’s fall! Even this rejoicing was foretold by God’s prophet: “Everyone who shall hear the news about you, will clap his hands over you. For against whom has not your malice continually gone forth?” The “bloody city” deserved its fate. Would Nineveh rise again? Never; there will be no need for God to bring another destruction on Nineveh: “He is about to execute complete destruction; he will not take vengeance twice upon his enemies.” What a hideous end for Nineveh! “He will make Nineveh a desolation.”—Nah. 3:19; 1:9; Zeph. 2:13, AT.

Nineveh’s fall was its ruin. So complete was its ruin that soon its very site was forgotten. We learn from Xenophon’s Anabasis that, when this Greek historian passed Nineveh’s site at the beginning of the fifth century B.C., it had so completely perished that he did not hear its name. What about Herodotus? This historian writes of the Tigris as “the river upon which the town of Nineveh formerly stood.” Hardly two centuries had passed since Nineveh’s fall, and yet Herodotus passes it over as if the jaws of history had opened its mouth and swallowed up the city, leaving not a vestige worthy of viewing. Alexander the Great may have marched over the ruins of Nineveh; his victory at Gaugamela was won almost in sight of Nineveh’s ruins. Yet Alexander’s historians, with the exception of Arrian, do not even allude to Nineveh. The Greek writer Lucian wrote, about A.D. 150, that “not a trace of it remains.” Vanished from history!

Before the age of great archaeological discoveries, skeptics ridiculed the Bible, denying that Nineveh of the Bible could have ever existed. The time came when people visited the general area, looking for some trace of Nineveh. At the close of the sixteenth century Sir Anthony Shirley visited the area and said: “Nineveh, that which God Himself calleth That great Citie hath not one stone standing which may give memory of the being of a towne.”

EXCAVATIONS AT NINEVEH AND ITS SUBURBS

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, archaeologists have excavated various parts of Nineveh and its suburbs. The excavation area is tremendous. The area has a mound that is one of the largest in Mesopotamia, and it is estimated that 14,000,000 tons of earth would have to be moved to excavate it completely. “Nineveh is a site so enormous,” says Harper’s Bible Dictionary, “that it may never be completely excavated, as Albrecht Goetze pointed out. . . . Though scholars have been investigating Nineveh for nearly 100 years, the lower strata remain untouched.”

What have scholars found at Nineveh’s ruins? Innumerable objects, monuments of many kinds and the remains of palaces that must have been, in their day, wonders of the world.

Inscriptions and monuments agree with the Bible that Nineveh was a den of lions. In fact, colossal lions with human heads, together with huge winged bulls, were found guarding temples and palaces. The lion seems to have been a kind of national emblem. The streets of Nineveh that once rang with the tramp of soldiers were paved with blocks of limestone that show the deep ruts worn by war chariots some twenty-five centuries ago.

Sir Austen Layard, noted author of Nineveh and Its Remains, gave a speech in London in 1854 and said: “But who could have believed that records themselves should have been found which, as to the minuteness of their details, and the wonderful accuracy of their statements, should confirm almost word for word the very text of Scriptures?” Inscriptions have been uncovered that mention such Bible characters as Jehu, Menahem, Omri, and Hazael. Hezekiah is mentioned in Sennacherib’s own account of his invasion of Palestine.

Sennacherib’s palace has been uncovered, laying bare seventy-one rooms and almost two miles of sculptures. Its magnificent entrance was decorated with ten colossal winged bulls with human heads, the bulls being inscribed with the annals of six years of his reign. The inner surfaces of his palace walls once gleamed with facings of enameled bricks, blue, orange and red. The floors were of marble inlaid with metal arabesques. On a palace wall Assyrian warriors are shown impaling prisoners and flaying them alive. Sennacherib is shown sitting on a throne with a long procession of captives advancing toward the king. An inscription says: “Sennacherib, king of the world, king of the land of Ashur.”

Another palace uncovered belonged to King Ashurbanipal. What a surprise greeted scholars at this location—the king’s royal library! It contained thousands of clay tablets. The king had obtained some of the tablets from private sources, but the largest section consisted of copies he had made of originals scattered throughout all the provinces of his realm. Among the tablets found were the Babylonian accounts of the creation and of the Flood. Some tablets had inscriptions written in letters so fine that a magnifying glass was required to read them. An inscription shows the great interest King Ashurbanipal took in his library: “I read the beautiful clay tablets from Sumer and the obscure Akkadian writing which is hard to master. I had my joy in the reading of inscriptions on stone from the time before the flood.”

King Ashurbanipal, like the other Assyrian kings, was cruel and ruthless. He shut up captives in cages, exposing them to the derision of jeering spectators; he forced captives to carry in processions the heads of their former comrades in arms. On their own admission, from their own records comes evidence that Nineveh was one of the most warlike cities on the face of the earth. “Woe to the bloody city!”

Its fate was deserved and unavoidable. Today its desolate-looking ruins and mounds are a haunt for wild creatures, and the pillars of palaces are perches for birds. The traveler to Iraq who visits Nineveh’s ruins does well to reflect on the prophet Zephaniah’s words, words that express God’s determination: “He will make Nineveh a desolation, a drought like the desert; and herds shall lie down in the midst of her, every beast of the field. Both jackdaw and hedgehog shall lodge in her capitals; the owl shall hoot in the window, the bustard on the threshold; for I will destroy her city. . . . How she has become a ruin, a lair for wild beasts!”—Zeph. 2:13-15, AT.

[Picture on page 149]

From palace wall in Nimrud (Calah)

Part 33—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

With the overthrow of the Nazi-Fascist Axis Powers at the close of World War II in 1945 the ruling factors of Communist Russia undertook the role of the “king of the north,” whose long history is set forth in Daniel’s prophecy, chapter eleven. This symbolic king of the north defies not only the king of the south, the Anglo-American dual world-power, but also the God of gods, namely, Jehovah the God of the prophet Daniel. Verses 41-43 of Da 11 (JP) go on to say: “He shall enter also into the beauteous land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall be delivered out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries; and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” What does this mean?

59. In Daniel 8:9, 23-25 what did we find the “beauteous land” to symbolize, and hence in Daniel 11:41 who are forewarned of a final assault by the king of the north?

⁵⁹ In Daniel’s earlier vision, Daniel 8:9, 23-25 (JP) speaks of the “beauteous land” toward which the “little horn” or “king of fierce countenance” would extend his power in the latter time of worldly kingdoms, where we are now. In that prophecy the “beauteous land” took on a spiritual meaning. It pictured, not Palestine, but the earthly condition of Jehovah’s sanctuary class in their relationship to Jehovah by his new covenant. Likewise, in the final activities of the king of the north, this spiritually “beauteous land” of the sanctuary class is the realm that he invades. He has already tried to profane the sanctuary. (Dan. 11:31, JP) But now at God’s appointed time for the Armageddon fight the king of the north sets out to destroy the “beauteous land” to wipe it off the earth. In this course he acts as an earthly instrument of Gog of Magog, who is Satan the Devil. Ezekiel 38:14-17; 39:1-6 (JP) foretells that Gog with his earthly hordes actually invades this “beauteous land” of restored spiritual Israel. This becomes the time for Jehovah to begin the war of his great day. Consequently, in Daniel 11:41, the sanctuary class are forewarned against the final assault of the king of the north under the unseen leadership of Gog of Magog.

60. What meaning, therefore, must Edom, Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon here take on, and so whom do they picture?

⁶⁰ To balance in a proper way the spiritual meaning of the “beauteous land” of spiritual Israel, the lands of Edom, Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon must take on a spiritual meaning, rather than refer to modern Jordan the capital of which is Amman (ancient Rabbath Ammon). The sanctuary class of Jehovah is not in the Republic of Israel of today, although a few members might be found there. The remnant of the sanctuary class are found all around the earth, and their “land” or earthly condition is flourishing with the beauty of spiritual prosperity. Hence as Edom, Moab and Ammon in ancient times bordered on the land of Jehovah’s people, so the symbolic Edom, Moab and Ammon of the prophecy must picture those whose lives touch upon and have to do with Jehovah’s sanctuary class of today. Ancient Edom, Moab and Ammon were long-time, unchanging enemies of Jehovah’s faithful people. For this reason they came under God’s condemnation. (Jer. 48:1 to 49:22; Ezek. 25:1-14; 35:1-15, AS) Reasonably, then, they picture the hard-set enemies of Jehovah’s sanctuary class, his spiritual Israel, of today.

61. So why does the king of the north not stretch out his hand upon them, as he does upon other “countries”?

⁶¹ Naturally the enemies of the sanctuary class would be the friends or be on the side of the king of the north. So he would not stretch out his hand against those symbolized by Edom, Moab and Ammon. These modern organizations would be delivered or would escape out of his hand, whereas many other “countries” or modern earthly organizations, institutions or situations would “be overthrown.”

62. Out of whose hand will symbolic Edom, Moab and the chief part of the children of Ammon not be delivered, and where?

⁶² Although the symbolic Edom, Moab and Ammon may escape from the hand of the Communist king of the north, they will not be delivered from Jehovah’s hand at Armageddon. In ancient time Ammon, Moab and people of Mount Seir (Edomites) marched against Jerusalem in the days of King Jehoshaphat but were thrown into confusion by Jehovah’s strange power and were maddened into killing one another off. So at the coming battle of Armageddon, Jehovah will by his irresistible power throw the symbolic Edomite, Moabite and Ammonite enemies of his sanctuary class into disorder and confusion. They will turn their destructive weapons against one another. (2 Chron. 20:1-24) Any who escape this self-slaughter will be pursued and be destroyed by Jehovah’s angelic armies under Christ. His sanctuary class in the “beauteous land” will be protected and survive.

63. Since Daniel 11:42, 43 speaks of the “costly things of Egypt,” when was literal Egypt a rich country?

⁶³ Jehovah’s angel foretold further aggressions by the Communist king of the north before his end in Armageddon: “And he will stretch forth his hand against some countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. And he will have control over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the costly things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians will follow at his steps.” (Dan. 11:42, 43, Le) Back in the days of the Ptolemaic kings Egypt was a rich country. Its seaport and capital, Alexandria, was second city to Rome, and was a great commercial as well as cultural center.

64. When did modern Egypt gain its independence, and what led up to the formation of the United Arab Republic as a neutral country?

⁶⁴ As for modern Egypt, it gained its full independence A.D. 1936 and the erstwhile British High Commissioner was taken away and British troops were withdrawn from the land, except that those guarding the Suez Canal and the British naval base at Alexandria continued. During World War II the British troops prevented the Nazi king of the north from reaching and taking over the Suez Canal and Alexandria and overrunning Egypt. In 1945 Egypt proved to be one of the fifty-one original members of the United Nations. In 1952 King Farouk was expelled and governmental changes took place. Finally Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser became president of the Republic. The British withdrew from Alexandria and from the Suez Canal by June 13, 1956. The dangerous Suez Canal incident took place later in 1956, but President Nasser came forth with enhanced prestige throughout the Arab world. February 1, 1958, the republics of Egypt and Syria joined together as a unified state called the United Arab Republic. For this union President Nasser thanked Allah. March 8, 1958, the kingdom of Yemen joined the U.A.R. to form the United Arab States, and President Nasser prayed to Allah in behalf of this enlarged union. He strongly proclaimed his determination to steer his country on the course of “positive neutrality” toward the Communist Eastern bloc and the democratic Western bloc.

65. Why is Egypt to be viewed symbolically in Daniel 11:42, 43, and in what way is the king of the north selfishly interested in this symbolic Egypt?

⁶⁵ In the angelic prophecy to Daniel, Egypt was the seat of the king of the south. Hence the attack upon Egypt from the north, to push back the king of the south. In the fulfillment of the prophecy today this does not have reference to the literal land of Egypt, for the “beauteous land” to the north has taken on a spiritual or symbolic meaning. So, too, Egypt must be viewed spiritually, as in the last book of the Bible, which says of Jehovah’s “two witnesses”: “Their corpses will be on the broad way of the great city which is in a spiritual sense called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also impaled.” (Rev. 11:8) Since Jesus Christ the Lord was actually put to death at Jerusalem in Judea, he could have been impaled in “Egypt” only in the spiritual sense that Egypt symbolized this world of which Jesus said that he and his faithful followers were no part. (Luke 13:33, 34; John 15:18, 19; 17:14-16) It is this world in which the Communist king is bent on winning the dominant position. He now claims that he can capture world domination without general war, but by an ideological, commercial, scientific, cultural campaign. He is out, not only to win over the neutral bloc of nations, but also to pull in or subvert the nations that adhere to the democratic king of the south, the Anglo-American dual world power. So he continues to “stretch forth his hand against some countries [or earthly realms of interest] “ by various means.

66. Since World War II, how has the king of the north pushed his offensive wherever possible?

⁶⁶ During the past he distinguished himself by infiltrating Communist spies and subversive agents, by bribery and corruption, by trade agreements, by offering loans and technical assistance, by threatening retaliation to nations seeking to defend themselves, by taking the initiative in propaganda to put his opponents in a bad light, this by radio, by political conferences on various levels clear to the summit, and by speeches even in the United Nations Assembly. He has posed as the champion of the forces of peace and has made peace proposals. He has promised liberation from colonialism, from imperialism and from warmongering capitalism. He has led off in the field of missiles and put up the first and second sputniks into outer space by means of intercontinental ballistic missiles during the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year.a He has waged a terrific “cold war” and has warred also to capture the minds of men. He has vehemently attacked with words the defense alliances of nations, such as the NATO and the SEATO and the Baghdad Pact. He has paid official courtesy visits to neutral nations and has supplied military equipment to those refused by the king of the south. In all directions he has pushed his offensive.

67. Over what does Daniel 11:43 predict the king of the north to gain control, and in what way will the Libyans and Ethiopians be “at his steps”?

⁶⁷ How far the king of the north will have got when he reaches his “time of the end” the future alone will tell. But he is predicted to gain control over the treasures of gold, silver and all the precious things of this commercialized, materialistic world, including oil. Those who are neighbors to this world, pictured by Egypt’s neighbors, the Libyans and Ethiopians, will be “at his steps,” following the king of the north, either by compulsion or willingly for selfish reasons. This turns out to be, of course, with considerable loss to the king of the south in various ways.

68. Does Daniel’s prophecy indicate that the king of the north will destroy the king of the south, or that he himself will come to his end by the king of the south?

⁶⁸ He does not destroy the king of the south, nor does the king of the south destroy him. What, then, causes the king of the north to take the final step to his own destruction? Jehovah’s angel throws light on this by the prophecy: “But reports out of the east and out of the north will terrify him; and he will go forth with great fury to destroy, and to exterminate many. And he will pitch the tents of his palace between seas and the glorious holy mountain [the beauteous holy mountain, JP]; and he will come to his end, without one to help him.”—Dan. 11:44, 45, Le.

69. From whom could those terrifying reports not come to the king of the north?

⁶⁹ The terrifying reports out of the east and north could not be reports from the king of the south. Neither are they from his own kingdom of the north. The reports must come from outside the realms of the king of the north and the king of the south, between whom this earth is divided. Neutral nations do not count much, because of not being nuclear nations. Although the symbolic Gog of Magog is prophesied to come down from the “farthest ends of the north” (Ezek. 39:2, Le), yet the terrifying reports do not come from Satan the Devil, for this symbolic Gog of Magog leads both the king of the north and the king of the south in his train. From whom, then, do the reports come with terrifying effect?

70. In coming from the east and the north, from whom, then, must the terrifying news come, and what does the news contain?

⁷⁰ In the prophecy of Daniel the king of the north had pushed south, penetrated into Egypt, grabbed control over its precious things and influenced the southern peoples, the Libyans and the Ethiopians, to follow at his steps. From this strategic southern location of the king of the north the “beauteous land” or land of Judea was to his north and east, or northeast, just as ancient Judea was northeast of Egypt. The terrifying reports must therefore come from Jehovah’s sanctuary class in the “beauteous land” of spiritual prosperity. Up to now the sanctuary class, supported by the great crowd of “other sheep,” have been reporting on Jehovah’s universal sovereignty, on the establishment of his kingdom by Christ at the close of the “appointed times of the nations” in 1914, and on the coming “war of the great day of God the Almighty” commonly called the battle of Armageddon. What contents the reports will finally bear so as to infuriate him to go forth to bring the sanctuary class and their fellow worshipers to ruin and to devote them to destruction, Jehovah now knows and will yet determine.

71. Besides the news, what else will come from the north and the east against the king of the north, and so how long will the news keep coming to him?

⁷¹ Since the reports really issue forth from Jehovah and through his reigning King Jesus Christ, it is Scripturally well said that the reports are out of the north and the east. The Scriptures locate Jehovah God relatively in the north. (Ps 75:6, 7; 48:2) He the King of eternity and his reigning King Jesus Christ are symbolically spoken of as the “kings from the rising of the sun” or from the east, who move against the organization foreshadowed by Babylon on the Euphrates River. (Rev. 16:12) Jehovah speaks of calling his reigning King from the east or sunrising. (Isa. 46:10, 11) So, not merely the reports, but also the forces of destruction will come from those directions upon the king of the north. As the reports must reach this king by means of Jehovah’s visible earthly channel of newsreporting, so as to infuriate the king to his ruinous course, this prophecy makes one thing clear: Jehovah’s sanctuary class and their great crowd of fellow worshipers will persist in obeying Matthew 24:14 by preaching “this good news of the kingdom” in all the inhabited earth down to the “time of the end” of the king of the north. He will not stop them!

72. In his purpose to destroy, where will he pitch his palatial campaign tents, according to Jehovah’s angel?

⁷² The king of the north will sally forth to destroy and to exterminate many, but how far will he get with his destructive purpose? Where does he establish his base of operations? Jehovah’s angel prophesied that the king would pitch his palatial campaign tents “between the seas and the beauteous holy mountain.”—JP.

73. According to this campaign base, what would be the main point of attack by the king of the north, and by whom will he be finally joined in this attack?

⁷³ From Daniel’s viewpoint, this tent location would be between the Mediterranean, the Great Sea, and the holy mountain of Jehovah’s sanctuary or temple. Because of its excelling greatness in comparison with the Palestinian Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, the Mediterranean could, in Hebrew, be spoken of as “seas.” The king’s camp would therefore be in the land of Jehovah’s dedicated people, the “beauteous land,” and the king’s main point of attack would be against the “beauteous holy mountain,” where Jehovah’s sanctuary is and where his “holy nation” together with aliens of good will worship him. Plainly the king of the north is set to wipe out Jehovah’s worship, the sanctuary of which the king of the north profaned and trampled upon in times past. Its persistent survival and its unchecked growth, even in underground ways, irritates the king. The reports that the sanctuary class and the worshiping “other sheep” announce from house to house and publicly and unpublicly underground disturb the Communist dictatorial power. A campaign against these Kingdom publishers becomes more important than the king’s aggressive campaign against the king of the south. The relations between the king of the north and the king of the south are not so serious and threatening. In fact, the unseen mastermind, the symbolic Gog of Magog, maneuvers both kings into joining him in a final, full-scale assault upon Jehovah’s “beauteous land.”

74. Why is the goal of his attack the “beauteous holy mountain,” and what does prophecy say about the success of his attack?

⁷⁴ The mountain upon which Jehovah’s material temple stood till A.D. 70 and which the kingdom of Jordan held fast because the Mohammedan Dome of the Rock has stood there is no longer holy to Jehovah God. Hence this earthly mountain in the Middle East is not the real goal of the infuriated king of the north. It is Jehovah’s remnant of the sanctuary class and the great crowd of “other sheep.” These worship Jehovah and refuse to worship the “image of the beast” or the self-deifying king of the north or the political State or the “god of the fortresses.” Will the king of the north succeed? Will he put an end to this disapproved, condemned banned worship? The voice of prophecy answers: “And he will come to his end, without one to help him.” He reaches his “time of the end,” and it comes at the “time appointed.”

75. Why does he carry his fighting too far, and why will he have none to help him?

⁷⁵ He has not believed the “reports out of the east and out of the north” warning him of his destruction for fighting against Jehovah God and his kingdom. He carries his fighting too far in making his attack under Gog’s leadership upon Jehovah’s sanctuary at his “beauteous holy mountain.” He meets his end, his Armageddon, at Jehovah’s appointed time for it. He has none to help him, not even the king of the south, for this king also is destroyed at Armageddon: “he shall be broken without hand.” (Dan. 8:25, JP) The demonic Gog of Magog, Satan the Devil, together with all his demons, will prove unable to help the king of the north in his last fight of history, for Gog himself will be crushed in defeat.

76. How do we learn why he must “come to his end” at Armageddon in utter helplessness?

⁷⁶ Why will this two-thousand-year-old “king of the north” thus “come to his end” there in utter helplessness? The continuing angelic prophecy gives the grand, inspiring answer.

(To be continued)

[Footnotes]

Furthering Reconciliation with Perfect Government

NEVER before has this earth seen so much strife, confusion and dishonesty within and between nations as today. What is the remedy? What is needed is a perfect world government with the power to enforce its perfect decrees.a

As Christian witnesses of Jehovah we know that God alone is the provider of such a world government for man. It is the kingdom for which men have been praying for nineteen centuries. Jehovah will see to it that men of good will toward him someday will be able to enjoy to the full such a government. His Word leaves no question about that. In fact, Jesus’ very prayer is a guarantee that God’s kingdom rule will hold sway over this earth. All who would enjoy its benefits must become its loyal subjects.—Matt. 6:9, 10.

Fulfillment of Bible prophecy shows that God’s kingdom has been ruling in the midst of its enemies since 1914. Shortly now, within this generation Jesus assures us, God’s kingdom will make an end of all opposition, both invisible and visible, and establish a righteous rule upon earth. It is therefore extremely urgent that all men of good will toward God be informed about His perfect government so that they can become reconciled to it before it is too late, before that perfect government destroys all enemies of God at Armageddon.

Whose privilege and responsibility is it to tell all about this perfect government and reconciliation with it? All those who already have been reconciled with it, as we read: “We are therefore ambassadors substituting for Christ, as though God were making entreaty through us. As substitutes for Christ we beg: ‘Become reconciled to God.’”—2 Cor. 5:20.

What good news we bear in this ministry of reconciliation! Here is a perfect government that will do everything perfectly: It will bring in perfect peace upon earth, perfect weather, perfect food, and an abundance of it. Its mental and physical health programs will give to mankind perfect bodies, perfect minds and even perfect dispositions! And, above all, everyone will be united in the perfect religion, worshiping the one true God Jehovah and loving his neighbor as himself. Then, too, instead of men dying, they will be coming back from the grave.—Isa. 11:9; John 5:28, 29; Rev. 21:4.

Surely, in view of such a message and in view of the urgency of the time we are living in, everyone that knows that these things are true will do all he can to further reconciliation with that perfect government. All should ask themselves, Am I truly doing all I can, buying out the opportune time, both for regular field ministry and incidental preaching? What about the quality of my preaching? Am I truly a teacher? During March let all of us make the most of all our opportunities to further reconciliation with God’s perfect government.

[Footnotes]

‘Accurate in the Smallest Details’

Writing in The Bible as History, Werner Keller cites an example of what he says “shows how accurate the Bible is even in the smallest details and how reliable are its dates and information.” Writer Keller first quotes from the book The Romance of the Last Crusade, by Major Vivian Gilbert, a British Army officer: “In the First World War a brigade major in Allenby’s army in Palestine was on one occasion searching his Bible with the light of a candle, looking for a certain name. His brigade had received orders to take a village that stood on a rocky prominence on the other side of a deep valley. It was called Michmash and the name seemed somehow familiar.

“Eventually he found it in 1 Samuel 13 and read there: ‘And Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash.’ It then went on to tell how Jonathan and his armor-bearer crossed over during the night ‘to the Philistines’ garrison’ on the other side, and how they passed two sharp rocks: ‘there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez and the name of the other Seneh.’ [1 Sam. 14:4] They clambered up the cliff and overpowered the garrison ‘within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plough.’ The main body of the enemy awakened by the mêlée thought they were surrounded by Saul’s troops and ‘melted away and they went on beating down one another.’ [1 Sam. 14:14-16].”

Tersely telling the remainder of the story, writer Keller says: “Saul attacked with his whole force and beat the enemy. . . . The brigade major reflected that there must still be this narrow passage through the rocks, between the two spurs, and at the end of it the ‘half acre of land.’ He woke the commander and they read the passage through together once more. Patrols were sent out. They found the pass, which was thinly held by the Turks, and which led past two jagged rocks—obviously Bozez and Seneh.

“Up on top, beside Michmash they could see by the light of the moon a small flat field. The brigadier altered his plan of attack. Instead of deploying the whole brigade, he sent one company through the pass under cover of darkness. The few Turks whom they met were overpowered without a sound, the cliffs were scaled, and shortly before daybreak the company had taken up a position on ‘the half acre of land.’ The Turks woke up and took to their heels in disorder since they thought that they were being surrounded by Allenby’s army. . . . ‘And so,’ concludes Major Gilbert, ‘after thousands of years British troops successfully copied the tactics of Saul and Jonathan.’”

Questions From Readers

● What should a congregation committee do in the case of one who has committed acts deserving being put on probation or disfellowshiped and who now claims that in the light of what The Watchtower, August 1, 1958, had to say about valid and invalid baptisms, his baptism was not a valid one?

We well know that Christendom professes to be Jehovah’s organization and in the new covenant with him. It has never renounced that relationship, although it is a false claim and pretense. Yet because of the appearance that Christendom puts on before the world and the demands that it makes according to its boastful claims, Jehovah God will judge Christendom just the same as if she were in actual covenant relationship with him. She will be judged unfaithful and punished accordingly because she has acted hypocritically and brought reproach upon his name.

Likewise, if an individual who has made a profession of dedication to God through Christ and after the baptismal talk submits to water baptism and then continues to associate with the congregation, even though spasmodically, claiming to be a dedicated, baptized member of the congregation and never renouncing that relationship with the congregation, then that individual has to be judged by the congregation according to the appearance of things that is being offered by this person.

The congregation credits the individual with honesty and with having intelligently entered into a full membership in the congregation by virtue of dedication and baptism. The congregation is not God, who is able to read the heart, nor does it have supernatural gifts as did Peter and other apostles so as to know whether the individual is earnest and sincere and is not dishonest and hypocritical. If the individual permits himself to be accepted by the congregation upon the basis of the congregation’s own understanding and view of the matter, then this individual subjects himself to be judged and dealt with according to the standards that the congregation owns up to as found in the Word of God.

If, after the individual commits a wrong that deserves disfellowshiping, the individual first then disclaims having actually been what he has all along pretended to be and what he has let the congregation think he is, then he certainly is trying to take advantage of the congregation and is trying to crawl out from underneath responsibility and due consequences for his acts. He cannot now properly claim that he was not really dedicated and that his baptism was all a mistake and that in reality he never was a member of the congregation and of the New World society and so cannot be chastened by or expelled from it.

This particularly follows in the case of such a one’s making a confession. If inside himself he did not count himself a member of the congregation, then why make a confession to the congregation in the first place? An undedicated, unbaptized person is not obliged to confess all his sins and wickedness that he committed before dedication to the congregation and ask their forgiveness. All that is necessary is that he clean up his life, then make a dedication and act in harmony with that dedication and present himself for baptism.

But whether confessing or not, when a person is found guilty of misconduct he must be dealt with according to the appearance he gave those of the New World society and must therefore be put on probation or disfellowshiped as the situation may call for. If after he has been reinstated he still is convinced that he had not made a dedication before his baptism and it therefore was invalid, he should, if he has not already done so, make an intelligent, binding dedication to God now that he has repented and proved his repentance by works befitting such and then he should be baptized. We cannot trifle with Jehovah God. This is a serious matter and should be treated seriously.

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

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“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

April 10: Be Swift to Hear, Slow About Speaking. Page 136.

April 17: Being Slow About Wrath. Page 142.