The Watchtower — October 15, 1960

Gratitude for Little Things

IF SOMEONE gave you a large sum of money without expecting anything in return, would you not voice your thanks? Surely you would consider one an ingrate who did not express appreciation for this generosity. The benefactor might even be tempted to withdraw his gift because of such ingratitude. How much better it would be to show sincere appreciation!

Yet, no part of this gift could be enjoyed without the things we so often take for granted, things that we may consider small in our lives, but on which our life depends. What could be enjoyed if the sun ceased to shine? if we had no air to breathe? if there was no water to drink? if the vegetation did not grow? How could we appreciate living without a refreshing night’s sleep or our marvelous senses?

All the many things needed to sustain and enjoy life are free gifts from God. Psalm 106:1 counsels: “Give thanks to Jehovah, for he is good; for his loving-kindness is to time indefinite.” Many of earth’s inhabitants never turn to God in prayer to acknowledge this loving-kindness. (2 Tim. 3:2) We should be thankful that he does not withdraw his gifts because of such ingratitude.

Some who turn to God in prayer do so only when they want to ask for something. While it is proper to make a request if it is in harmony with his will, can we expect God to listen if we do not regularly communicate with him to thank him for what he has already given? “Be persevering in prayer,” said the apostle Paul, “remaining awake in it with thanksgiving.” “In everything by prayer and supplication along with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God.”—Col. 4:2; Phil. 4:6.

Since gratitude is an expression of thanksgiving for a favor received, giving thanks in prayer should not be done in a mechanical manner, without meaning. Our prayers should be heartfelt expressions of appreciation to God for the things he has given to us, things that have far more value than large sums of money. When Jesus provided food for about five thousand men, he “took the loaves and, after giving thanks, he distributed them to those reclining.” (John 6:11) We could not imagine Jesus giving thanks hurriedly, as if he wanted to get it over with.

Being grateful to God for what he has provided is one way to show our love for him. Loving God is the greatest commandment, Jesus said. If gratitude is included in our love for God, would it not also be included in the other great commandment, that of neighbor love? Jesus stated: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” Gratitude shown to our fellow man for kindnesses we receive is one way to show this love.—Matt. 22:37-39.

Too often humans are prone to look at what others have not done for them. How much friendliness and love would be aroused, though, if gratitude were shown for what is done! If such is expressed in words and deeds of appreciation, it will encourage others to continue their kindness. Have you ever held a door open for a stranger who rushed by without thanking you? Did you think kindly of him? How much better you felt when someone smiled and thanked you! It encouraged you to continue doing these little things.

When leaving a bus or subway, do you not appreciate it when others move aside to let you out? Why not express this gratitude with a warm “Thank you”? You will stimulate kindness by doing so.

The same acknowledgment for little things can be displayed in the family circle to make daily living more pleasant. We thank God for providing our food. Why not show gratitude also to the one preparing and serving it? A wife works hard to make her meals appetizing and nourishing. A few words of thanks will encourage her to continue her good work for the family. It adds to her enjoyment of the occasion and will increase her love for the grateful family. If the husband and children leave the table without a word of gratitude, the wife may feel that it does not particularly matter what or how she prepares, since it probably would not be appreciated anyway.

Not to be overlooked is the husband who works hard to provide the family with this food and other necessities as well. He would be heartened if the rest of the family would show him that his efforts are valued.

Our voice quality can also show our gratitude for little things. To voice a cold, lifeless, mechanical “Thank you” for a favor received will not bring out kind, generous and loving qualities in others. The need for kindness and gentleness can be seen even when dealing with the lower animal creation. Have you ever said something to a dog in a gruff, belligerent manner? What was the result? The dog probably put his tail between his legs and edged away from you. But if you said the same thing in a friendly, happy tone of voice, the animal would have leaped toward you eagerly and joyfully! It was not so much what you said, but how you said it. This kindness and gentleness is all the more necessary when dealing with the sensitive higher creation, man. In human relations, what we say is important. How we say it is also important.

Ingratitude for little things can lead to ingratitude for big things. When Jesus healed ten leprous men, how many were grateful? “One of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. And he fell upon his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking him.” (Luke 17:15, 16) The nine others acted as though they deserved to be healed. They expressed no gratitude for the kindness Jesus performed. They were ingrates! The humble Samaritan was grateful, not only for the favor, but also to the one performing it.

Having gratitude for little things enriches lives. It costs nothing, but the dividends it returns to you in love and friendship are enormous. For God’s gifts especially, Paul wisely urged: “In connection with everything give thanks.”—1 Thess. 5:18.

Is Your Religion Good Enough?

“FOR me? Why, yes, I would say so. It was good enough for my forefathers, so it is good enough for me.”

How frequently this position is taken by adherents of this world’s religions! While acknowledging weaknesses in the religious system of their choice, most feel it is better to have some religion than none at all. Slogans in advertising posters such as ‘attend the church of your choice’ illustrate that the important thing is to belong, not which one you belong to.

Do you feel your religion is good enough for you? While you may unhesitatingly answer Yes to this question, could you just as unswervingly answer in the affirmative the following: Is your religion good enough for God? If someone required you to give sound reasons for believing your religion was good enough for God, what would you say? Could you provide Scriptural arguments for your decision? Perhaps you have been told from childhood that your religion is good enough for you, but ask yourself the thought-provoking question: How do I know it is good enough for God?

Consider the hundreds of other religious systems. Are all of them good enough? Perhaps they are good enough for their members, but are they good enough for God? Some contend that it is not so much the system of religion that matters, but the sincerity and intensity of worship by the individual that counts with God. Is this so? Is this God’s mind on the matter, or is this speculation? Either a particular religion is a way of salvation or it is not. It is similar to being alive or dead. A person is one or the other. There is no middle ground.

It might be argued that all religions must be good enough since God has allowed them to exist for hundreds of years. This is the crux of the matter. It is true that up to our time God has permitted all religions to exist. However, now, in our generation, the situation is altogether different. Why? First Corinthians 10:11 answers: “Now these things went on befalling them as examples and they were written for a warning to us upon whom the accomplished ends of the systems of things have arrived.” Yes, we have arrived at the foretold “time of the end,” the day of reckoning for all systems, political, commercial and especially religious. All are on judgment before God. Those not good enough in His sight will not survive this generation, but will be eternally cut off. Only that which is good enough before God will survive the end of this world. Speaking of these critical last days, Jesus warned: “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another.” What of those who meet with his displeasure? Jesus added: “And these will depart into everlasting cutting-off, but the righteous ones into everlasting life.”—Matt. 25:32, 46.

NOT ALL ARE GOOD ENOUGH

We should not be deceived into thinking that all religion is automatically good enough for God, merely because it falls into the category of “religion.” When we examine this word and its usage in the Bible, it becomes apparent that a religion is either wrong or right in God’s sight. Speaking of the time when he was a Jewish Pharisee, the apostle Paul says: “According to the most sure sect of our religion I lived, a Pharisee.” (Acts 26:5, Dy) He also warned the Christians at Colossae: “Let no man seduce you, willing in humility and religion of angels.” (Col. 2:18, Dy) In both instances Paul uses the word “religion” in connection with worship that was false and unacceptable to God.

The Bible writer James uses the word in connection both with worship that is vain and with worship that is true and acceptable to God: “If any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one’s self unspotted from this world.”—Jas. 1:26, 27, Dy.

According to the way it is used in these verses, the word “religion,” simply defined, means a form or system of worship. In harmony with this the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures uses the phrase “form of worship” instead of “religion” in these scriptures. This agrees with the Hebrew word for it, ‛a·boh·dáh, literally meaning “service,” regardless of its true or false nature or to whom it is rendered.

With this understanding it becomes evident that even communism can be included in the term “religion,” since there is worship and service rendered to the State. Money or materialism can also be considered an object of supreme devotion, therefore one’s religion. Hence, not only the religions of Christendom and heathendom are on judgment at this end of the world, but so are these other objects of worship, whether they are governments, institutions, individuals or things.

SINCERITY ALONE NOT GOOD ENOUGH

Merely sincerely accepting and following a religious organization will not guarantee God’s approval and protection through this world’s end. Sincerity, conviction, or intensity of devotion will not change falsehood into truth.

A few centuries ago the learned men of the world sincerely believed the earth to be flat. Did their sincerity and conviction make it so? No. The earth remained round. Man’s devotion to a theory could not alter the fact. The theory had to change, not the fact.

Consider, too, the storm of opposition astronomer Galileo provoked by openly supporting the belief of Copernicus that the earth was not the center of the universe, but that it, together with the other planets, revolved around the sun as a center. Observations through the newly invented telescope convinced Galileo that this position was correct. In 1616 consulting theologians of the Holy Office classified the proposition that the planets revolved about the sun as heretical, and shortly afterward Galileo was admonished by the pope, Paul V, not to “hold, teach or defend” the condemned doctrine. Later, in custody of the Inquisition, he was forced to recant his views.

The church’s theologians no doubt were sincere in their conviction that the earth did not revolve about the sun, as evidenced by their frantic reaction to Galileo’s views. However, did their sincerity, conviction and intensity of reaction make null and void Galileo’s findings? Has not true science determined that the planets do indeed revolve about the sun? Did the church’s stand somehow cause the earth to cease traveling its God-assigned orbit around the sun? No. The church’s views were at fault, incorrect. Their sincerity could not void actuality.

The same is true concerning religion today. Sincerity and conviction are commendable virtues, but they cannot change falsehood into truth, nor can they convert a false religion into a true one. It is a delusion fraught with terrifying consequences to think it does not matter with God, that all religions are good enough. A brief glance into history shows that the false kind has never been good enough for God. False systems of religion, together with their followers, however sincere, have been recipients of God’s wrath in previous judgment periods.

REJECTED BY GOD

Consider the examples of Assyria and Babylon, the second and third world powers respectively. In both dominions religion was prominent. At the peak of Babylon’s power, during a religious feast, her king was told by God’s spokesman Daniel that, because of false worship, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” That very night Medo-Persian hordes invaded the seemingly impregnable city, killed the king and subjugated Babylon. Where is the Babylonian system of worship today? Were her gods and temples spared because it was a religion and its worshipers were sincere? No. It was a false form of worship, disapproved by the Almighty God, who foretold its destruction.

The same was true of the Assyrian form of worship. When Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against Jerusalem he taunted the Israelites with these words: “Have the gods of the nations at all delivered each one his own land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are there among all the gods of the lands that have delivered their land out of my hand?” Sennacherib threatened Jerusalem with overthrow, feeling his god would give him victory. Was his religious conviction realized? Note the conclusion of the matter: “And it came about on that night that the angel of Jehovah proceeded to go out and strike down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When people rose up early in the morning, why, there all of them were dead carcasses.” What of Sennacherib? “And it came about that as he was bowing down at the house of Nisroch his god . . . his sons themselves struck him down with the sword.” (2 Ki. 18:33-35; 19:35, 37) The Assyrian religion did not save the nation or Sennacherib from disaster. Their religion was not good enough for God.

Down at this end of the current system of things a similar fate will overtake those religions not good enough for God. Only the one good enough for God will survive as Daniel survived the overthrow of Babylon and as Jerusalem escaped from Sennacherib’s Assyrian hordes.

WHY NOT GOOD ENOUGH?

What is wrong, and has always been, with false worship? Said Jesus: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Master, Master,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me in that day: ‘Master, Master, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you at all. Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.” These protesting ones thought their religion was good enough for them, but they never bothered to consult God’s Book of requirements to ascertain if it was good enough for Him! They were performing service, but contrary to the way God required. It was their way, not God’s. Therefore, their service was lawlessness, unacceptable worship, rejected.—Matt. 7:21-23.

The world’s religions cannot be doing God’s will today. If they were, we should expect to see the results of it as in the first century with the early Christian organization. One outstanding result of true worship that would set it above all others was mentioned by Jesus at John 17:3: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” Followers of the right religion, the one good enough for God, would KNOW THEIR GOD. They would be familiar with his name, purposes and will.

How many in the world’s religions know these vital points? A typical answer was given by one minister as reported by the Paterson, New Jersey, Evening News of January 2, 1960. He said: “The biggest task the church faces today is converting its own members.” The article added: “Surveys indicate that millions of church members have extremely vague ideas about the central affirmations of the faith . . . One California pastor, for example, was profoundly shocked recently by the discovery that not a single adult member of his congregation could make a passing grade on a test composed of 20 simple questions about the Bible.”

In religions of all denominations the same was observed. One press service in Switzerland related: “Half of the children do not even know what it means to fold their hands and offer prayer. Their parents have never told them.” In a Catholic parish bulletin in France this was stated: “The hundreds of nine-year-olds that we enroll for the catechism know little or nothing about God and Christianity. In temporal, earthly matters, they lack nothing. Religiously, they lack everything, they know nothing.”

Multitudes spend a lifetime in religious organizations, yet are unable to discuss intelligently what they have learned. Ask the average religious person what he believes and, more important, what the basis for his belief is, and he cannot produce the information. What would you think if you provided your child with a college education and found he could not read or write after graduation? If the child was normal, you would be forced to conclude that the educational system was faulty. Likewise, after so much time devoted to religion, when people cannot give a reason for their belief, the conclusion is inescapable that, not only the worshiper, but the system of worship is at fault.

The apostle Peter gave this Christian requirement: “Always ready to make a defense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope in you.” (1 Pet. 3:15) The inability of the adherents of Christendom’s religions to do this proves beyond doubt that God’s spirit is not with these religions, otherwise they would be “aglow with the spirit” and be able to convince others that theirs is the true faith. True Christians in the one right religion can do this. With them knowledge of God, coupled with the ability and willingness to communicate it to others, abounds.

The next time Jehovah’s witnesses call at your door, ask them to give Scriptural reasons for their hope. If they can tell you God’s name, his purposes and his will for our day, then you will know for a certainty they have a religion good enough, not only for Jehovah’s witnesses, but good enough for God to preserve during the world’s end.

How disastrous it would be to complacently follow a religion and find, at divine execution of judgment at Armageddon, that it was good enough for you, but not good enough for God!

Security During “War of the Great Day of God the Almighty”

In this time when disarmament conferences and even summit meetings of the heads of political states are the order of the day for postponing or preventing war from which they fear no one may survive, the article is published, to point to the heavenly counsel that world leaders are overlooking but that leads to true security. It will be wisdom on your part to read and study this message, which has been delivered to large public audiences in a series of assemblies in big cities all around the globe. May this timely message aid you in finding the needed security, is the wish of the Publishers.

1. Why is the “war of the great day” an absolute necessity, and why need men of good will not feel bad at the prospect of this war?

THAT will be a “great day”—the day of the war that will end all wars. Unselfish lovers of peace and brotherhood have looked forward to that day, which will lead to a world of enduring peace among men of good will. The war of that great day is an absolute necessity. Only by it will the war-minded and war-provoking disturbers of all human society be wiped out forever. Although even another world war would be terrible, men of good will do not need to shudder at the thought that there must yet be a war of universal proportions. They need not feel bad that it must be by such a war that wars large and small will be ended for all time. Security will be amply provided for men of good will, to survive that “war of the great day of God the Almighty.”

2. As respects survival, why will that be a war different from a third world war?

² Since security will be provided for some to survive, that must be a different kind of war. When men now speak about a third world war, they see no possibility of survival by anyone, for they know what such a conflict in this age of nuclear power and space missiles would mean. During the ten years of the 1950’s the scientists and the militarists developed so many new death-dealing instruments of war that mankind has perfected what newspaper columnist C. L. Sulzberger calls “the knack of total demolition, previously attributed only to God.”a Mankind already has enough of destructive materials to kill itself over and over again, if it had the power to resurrect itself and repeat the destructive action.

3, 4. (a) Besides being threatened by space missiles, warfare by what other means endangers our lives? (b) To what extent has there been a production of gases for war uses, and what fear is increasing?

³ Today we are not just threatened with bombardment by missiles of the four nations that are already in the “nuclear club.” We also stand in danger of horrible destruction by gas warfare. Today such things as poison gases, disease-spreading gases and nerve gases have been invented—yes, what they call psychochemical gases, gases that affect one’s psyʹchē, soul, or mental and nervous control. Some of these gases can kill tens of thousands of people in not many minutes’ time. Some gases can turn an entire city population crazy; others can paralyze but not kill populations, in order to pave the way to liberate cities from occupation by enemy armies.

⁴ Communist Russia has had a six-year start on the United States of America in developing a whole arsenal of various gases; it should have all the gases that the United States today has, and maybe more. So says Dr. Cecil M. Coggins, who used to be in the United States Army Chemical Warfare service. Some of the poison gases, he told the California Medical Association on February 23, 1960, “were more terrible than nuclear bombs.” Some days earlier, or on February 5, it had been reported that the United States had ceased producing nerve gas, because the nation now had “enough.” In the words of a certain Democratic congressman from the State of Colorado, “enough” means a big enough quantity “to kill every man, woman and child in the world.” Of course, any man who would want to do such a thing would be considered mad. Yet great fear exists today, yes, the fear is increasing, that a third world war in which such devilish things of mass destruction would be let loose may be triggered by some madman or by mere accident or miscalculation.

5. From what source only can the means for man’s survival come, and why?

⁵ Seemingly, within the critical next ten years, all mankind stands in danger of madly destroying itself by its own means. The proposals for “fallout shelters” and for nuclear-age cities with subsurface shelters will provide no real security for living on earth after nuclear and poison-gas warfare on a world scale. Man’s only means of survival could come only from a source higher than man, from someone mightier than man. That one would properly be the Creator both of man and of the earth that man occupies.

6. To whom do nations pray in time of war, and yet to whom may their victory not be ascribed?

⁶ With the possible exception of ungodly Communists, all the nations pray to their gods in time of war to help them win the war. In the case of Christendom, her nations pray to one and the same god, as if he were partial and nationalistic, and would favor one so-called Christian nation against another “Christian” nation. But no nation of Christendom that has gained a military victory can ascribe its victory to the God of heaven and explain the victory by the words found in God’s Holy Bible, in Zechariah 4:6: “‘Not by a military force, nor by power, but by my spirit,’ Jehovah of armies has said.” Yet by their appeals for divine help for winning the war, they confess that God is mightier than all the nations. Moreover, war prayers have gone unanswered, and praying nations have suffered defeat at the hands of the enemy. So God must have been against such losing nations, according to their way of thinking.

7. What practical questions are there for us to ponder regarding the “war of the great day of God the Almighty”?

⁷ What, then, will be the standing of the nations of Christendom and of all the rest of the world before the God of heaven in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty”? Whose war will that be? Will “God the Almighty” actually fight in that war? If so, then against whom, and why against them? These are practical questions of great seriousness for all the nations to ponder. Yes, they are questions that all of us should ponder, for we are all approaching that war of wars! We are in sore need of information.

8, 9. (a) As contrasted with a third world war, why is the “war of the great day” certain to come? (b) Where is that war specifically mentioned, and what is it commonly called?

⁸ The “war of the great day of God the Almighty” will not be a third world war with all the modern hideous means of warfare. We may not be sure of the coming of a third world war, but the “war of the great day” is authoritatively predicted to come. It will come without fail. We have the warning words of God the Almighty himself to assure us of that. In God’s own written Word, in its last book known as The Revelation or Apocalypse, the inspired Christian apostle John tells of his prophetic vision in these words:

⁹ “The sixth [angel] poured out his bowl [of the anger of God] upon the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the rising of the sun. And I saw three unclean inspired expressions that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon [Satan the Devil] and out of the mouth of the wild beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are, in fact, expressions inspired by demons and perform signs, and they go forth to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty. . . . And they gathered them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Har–Magedon [Armageddon].” (Rev. 16:12-16, marginal reading) The mention of the place of battle here is why the war is commonly called the battle of Armageddon, even by political, military and religious figures of our times.

10. (a) Despite what do men feel more insecure? (b) To what are the nations being gathered, and by what means?

¹⁰ Never before our own day have the armaments of the nations been so great, so terrible, so holocaustic. Despite the large national armaments, never have we felt more insecure. The prophetic vision of the apostle John shows that the nations thus armed are being gathered to the “war of the great day,” not by the holy spirit of God the Almighty, but by certain propaganda, doctrine or teaching, “unclean inspired expressions,” “expressions inspired by demons,” demons who are the enemies of God the Almighty. This fact can mean nothing good for the nations. Only war with God!

THE “CASUS BELLI” OR ISSUE

11. What questions regarding the war arise, and how can we be enabled to decide where to take our stand?

¹¹ Every war has some issue over which it is fought. What is the issue of this “war of the great day”? Since it takes place on the “day of God the Almighty,” is the issue one of Christendom against heathendom, or of Western democracy against godless communism? And why can the issue be settled only by war? Will the war result really in victory for neither side? Could the war mean disaster for all, and security for nobody? The answers to these vital questions come to the light when we consider the One during whose day the war is fought. Who is this “God the Almighty”? What is his concern or interest in the day? And must he resort to war? If we learn the answers, we can decide where to take our stand.

12. To whom did God first announce himself as the Almighty, and in what land?

¹² The phrase, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” is taken from the last book of the Holy Bible. In the very first book of that sacred Volume, God the Almighty announces himself. The announcement is made to a man in whom He was keenly interested, and in whom we also should be interested, namely, Abram, a great-grandson of Shem the son of Noah. Abram was born 352 years after the great flood of Noah’s day. For displaying unwavering faith in the unseen God of heaven, Abram came to be called “the Friend of God.” (Jas. 2:23, AV) More than three thousand nine hundred years ago God called Abram out of the city of Ur near the lower end of the valley of Mesopotamia, to go to an unknown land that God promised to give to Abram’s descendants in due time. Abram accepted the call; and after the death of his father he crossed the Euphrates River into the Promised Land, where the city of Salem was located that was later to become Jerusalem. (Genesis, chapters 12-14) For twenty-four years Abram wandered around in this Promised Land. Then God made an appearance to him and announced himself.

13. After announcing himself as almighty, what change of name did God give to his earthly friend?

¹³ In the first book of the Holy Bible, Ge chapter seventeen, verses one to five, we read: “Then Jehovah appeared to Abram and said to him: ‘I am God Almighty. Walk before me and prove yourself faultless. . . . As for me, look! my covenant is with you, and you will certainly become a father of a crowd of nations. And your name will not be called Abram any more, and your name must become Abraham, because a father of a crowd of nations I will grant you to be.’” This new name Abraham means “Father of a Multitude.”

14. How did Jehovah prove himself to be God Almighty to Abraham at that time?

¹⁴ Did Jehovah prove himself to be God Almighty to his friend Abraham? Yes! How? In the year after this appearance and announcement Jehovah gave to Abraham a son by his wife Sarah. But why was this a proof of His almightiness? Because Jehovah proved he was able to fulfill his marvelous promise to Abraham in spite of the age of Abraham and his wife Sarah. At that time Abraham was ninety-nine years old, and his wife Sarah eighty-nine years old. They were both as good as dead as far as producing children was concerned. Yet even before the conception of their son Isaac occurred, Jehovah changed Abram’s name and called him something that Abram was not, namely, “Father of a Multitude”; and Jehovah also changed his wife’s name to Sarah, meaning Princess. The conceiving of their only son Isaac was as if God had raised Abraham and Sarah out of death and had restored them to their years of fertility.

15. As shown in Paul’s comment on this in Romans 4:16-21, because of Abraham’s exercising what quality did this miracle occur?

¹⁵ Isaac’s birth, therefore, was a miracle by Jehovah, who is God Almighty. It occurred because Abraham had faith in God as being Almighty, One for whom nothing is impossible. Commenting on this, the apostle Paul writes to Christians who have faith like that of Abraham: “(He is the father of us all, just as it is written: ‘I [Jehovah] have appointed you a father of many nations.’) This was in the sight of the One in whom he had faith, even God, who makes the dead alive and calls the things that are not as though they were. Although beyond hope, yet based on hope [Abraham] had faith, that he might become the father of many nations in accord with what had been said [by God], ‘So your seed will be.’ And, although he did not grow weak in faith, he considered his own body, now already deadened, as he was about one hundred years old, also the deadness of the womb of Sarah. But because of the promise of God he did not waver in a lack of faith, but became powerful by his faith, giving God glory and being fully convinced that what [God] had promised he was also able to do.”—Rom. 4:16-21.

16. Why is Jehovah God just as almighty today, and what Biblical testimony to this do we have?

¹⁶ This same Jehovah God is just as almighty today as he was a mere four thousand years ago, in Abraham’s day. Just because God’s Holy Bible as a whole is now nineteen hundred years old, he has not died off. He is immortal, fully alive today. Addressing him, the inspired prophet Habakkuk said these remarkable words: “Are you not from long ago, O Jehovah? O my God, my Holy One, you do not die.” (Hab. 1:12; Ro) Seven hundred years after Habakkuk, the apostle John quotes God as saying: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says Jehovahb God, ‘the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.’” John also quotes certain faithful living creatures as saying: “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovahc God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is coming.” (Rev. 1:8; 4:8) It is therefore a right conclusion, that the immortal “Jehovah God the Almighty,” who was to come, is alive today in his all-powerfulness, and that he is alive to the international events on earth today, and that he will shortly come and have his “great day.”

17, 18. (a) What has Abraham to do with determining the war issue? (b) How did Jehovah indicate this in his promises to Abraham?

¹⁷ However, what has Abraham to do with determining what the issue is in the “war of the great day”? He has to do with it because a government in control of all the earth is involved with Almighty God. When he appeared to Abram and changed his name because God was to make him the forefather of a “crowd of nations,” God said:

¹⁸ “I will multiply you very, very much and will grant you to become nations, and kings will come out of you. And I will bless [Sarah] and also give you a son from her, and I will bless her and she shall become nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” (Gen. 17:6, 16) That line of kings that was to come from God’s friend Abraham was to have special value and importance to all the families and nations of the earth. How so? Because God made another promise to Abraham concerning all other families and nations, and it will not fail. It is nothing impossible for Jehovah God. Abraham obeyed God’s call to go to the Promised Land, and this obedience bound Almighty God to keep this other promise to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you, and him that calls down evil upon you I shall curse, and all the families of the ground will certainly bless themselves by means of you.” Furthermore, when Abraham later showed willingness to sacrifice his miraculously given son Isaac, Jehovah’s angel said: “By means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves due to the fact that you have listened to my voice.”—Gen. 12:1-3; 22:15-18.

19. In view of this, what is the issue that must be settled?

¹⁹ In fulfillment of this unbreakable promise Almighty God must produce a king descended from Abraham, and by means of this king all families and nations of the earth may yet bless themselves. There is therefore a kingdom at issue, for the good of all the people of good will toward God. This Kingdom issue must be settled.

THE KINGDOM ISSUE

20. (a) Why have Christendom and the Jews of today failed to provide the kingdom of blessing? (b) Yet why is God’s promise to Abraham no failure?

²⁰ None of the kingdoms of Christendom has proved to be the promised kingdom of blessing. None of Christendom’s kings has been of Abraham’s seed, not even in a spiritual sense; for not one of them has really had the faith of Abraham. Christendom, armed with nuclear weapons and poison gases, is no blessing to mankind today. As for the Jews both in Israel and all around the globe, they have no king. Jews only look back to when they had a line of kings ruling in Jerusalem, a line running from King David and sitting upon the throne till Jerusalem was destroyed for the first time in the year 607 before our Common Era. Jews support the United Nations organization of this world. In spite of this, the divine promise to Abraham of thirty-nine centuries ago is no failure. Today Jehovah God the Almighty does have his King and his kingdom. This government by his King he makes the issue in the war of his great day.

21. In working out his Kingdom purpose, what promise did God make to King David, and why did Jerusalem’s destruction not defeat it?

²¹ In working out his mighty purpose Jehovah God put David of the tribe of Judah upon the throne of Jerusalem, for David was a descendant of God’s friend Abraham. To David Jehovah God promised to set up an everlasting kingdom, inasmuch as from King David there was to be a royal line that would not be broken until the Son worthy to be the everlasting king should come. Said the Lord Jehovah to King David: “Your house and your kingdom will certainly be steadfast forever before you; your very throne will become one firmly established forever.” (2 Sam. 7:16) True, Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 B.C.E.; but that did not wipe out the royal line of King David which was to provide the King for blessing all the nations of the earth.

22. Why is the line of descent of the King of blessing traced, and so who was his earthly mother, and who his father?

²² The line of descent to that all-important King of blessing is traced for us by two inspired historians, Matthew and Luke. In order to name the royal Heir and the correctness of his line of descent, the historian Matthew opens up his account with the words: “The book of the history of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.” (Matt. 1:1) Jesus could thus be the promised Seed of Abraham for blessing people of all the nations. His descent from Abraham was by means of a virgin who had been born in King David’s birthplace, the town of Bethlehem in the tribal territory of Judah. Her name was Miriam or Mary. Matthew (1:16) calls her “Mary, who was the mother of Jesus, who is called ‘Christ’.” However, Almighty God was the Father of Jesus Christ.

23. What did Gabriel’s declaration to Mary prove, and so who will benefit from the royal rule?

²³ An angel named Gabriel was sent from heaven to announce to Mary the divine choice of her to be the mother of the Son of God. Gabriel said: “Have no fear, Mary, for you have found favor with God; and, look! you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you are to call his name Jesus. This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and Jehovahd God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will be king over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom. . . . Holy spirit will come upon you, and power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason also what is born will be called holy, God’s Son. . . . with God no declaration will be an impossibility.” (Luke 1:26-37) This declaration of God’s angel Gabriel proves that Jesus Christ was to be and is today the everlasting Heir to the royal throne of David, his earthly forefather. He is the grand climax in the line of kings that were to come from Abraham through Sarah; and by his royal rule all the families of the earth will procure everlasting blessing on a paradise earth.

24. Why, then, have the kings and other political rulers of Christendom proved to be disappointments and failures, and why do they force the issue?

²⁴ That is why the Catholic and Protestant kings and other kinds of political rulers of Christendom have proved disappointments and failures as regards bringing lasting good and blessing to their own peoples and to the rest of mankind. They are not the one Ruler chosen by Almighty God; and neither have they reigned as vicars or earthly representatives of Christ the King. They have really misrepresented him to the world; and they are in fact opposed to the everlasting kingdom that God has given to Jesus Christ. This fact is what furnishes the issue for the “war of the great day of God.”

OPPOSITION TO THE KINGDOM OF BLESSING

25. From whom has stemmed the opposition to God’s kingdom with his anointed king, and why does it mean woe to those nations being gathered to Armageddon?

²⁵ Opposition to God’s kingdom with his anointed king in the throne is nothing new. From the start His kingdom has met opposition. This opposition has always stemmed from the same source and has followed the same pattern. The source of the opposition is higher than man. The source is the chief opposer or adversary of Jehovah God. It is Satan the Devil, the ruler of the demons; for the title Satan means Opposer, Adversary, whereas the title Devil shows that Satan is also a slanderer, a malicious liar, hence a deceiver. Jesus Christ informed us that Satan the Devil is the unseen “ruler of this world,” who has been a curse to men and nations. (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) Woe, therefore, to the nations who are being gathered by the propagandistic “expressions inspired by demons” to the battlefield of Armageddon for the “war of the great day of God the Almighty”! They are doomed to share the same destruction that previous opposers of the kingdom of Jehovah God suffered in past ages, and they will find no security.—Rev. 12:12.

26. What did the ancient Philistines and the Assyrian world power try to do as respects the kingdom, and with what result to themselves?

²⁶ Three thousand years ago in King David a typical or miniature kingdom of God was set up on earth in the Middle East. King David and his son King Solomon and his other family successors sat upon what the Holy Bible called “Jehovah’s throne.” (1 Chron. 29:23) The Philistines of Gaza and other seacoast cities of Philistia tried to overthrow the kingdom of David but were destroyed. The highly militarized world power of Assyria defied Jehovah God and tried to overturn the kingdom of God in David’s family line. It failed to destroy Jerusalem, or even capture it, but was itself destroyed by the Babylonian conqueror Nebuchadnezzar.

27. (a) What unholy action was Babylon permitted to take, and with what punishment to herself? (b) What warning should we take, and why?

²⁷ At length, however, Jehovah God became righteously indignant that so many kings of David’s line misrepresented Him in “Jehovah’s throne” at Jerusalem. So he decreed that the throne in that city should be overturned, ruined. (Ezek. 21:25-27) In fulfillment of this divine decree Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonian world power, destroyed Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. and took her king captive to Babylon to die in exile. Sixty-eight years later, or in 539 B.C.E., Babylon itself was punished for this unholy action toward Jehovah’s typical kingdom at Jerusalem, and Babylon herself was overthrown and finally ceased to exist. On the other hand, Jerusalem was rebuilt by worshipers of Jehovah God who returned from Babylon. Yet the throne was not restored to Jerusalem. Why not? Because God had in mind the everlasting kingdom of his Son, Jesus Christ, not on earth, but in heaven. Consequently, by the terrible destruction that came upon Babylon and those nations and world powers that opposed, attacked and attempted to destroy the kingdom of Jehovah God, let us be warned. Heeding the warning means security for us.

28. Who has the legal right to the kingdom, and despite what claim by Christendom’s kings?

²⁸ When decreeing the ruin of Jerusalem by Babylon, Almighty God said by his prophet Ezekiel: “A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I shall make it. As for this also, it will certainly become no one’s until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.” (Ezek. 21:27) That one who was to come with the legal right to the everlasting throne in a kingdom of God was Jesus Christ, according to the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary, the virgin in David’s royal line. Jesus Christ, therefore, is the only one that has divine right, even though Christendom’s kings religiously claim to rule “by divine right.”

29. How did Jesus become “Christ,” and why did he promote the preaching of God’s kingdom?

²⁹ Jesus’ title “Christ” means Anointed One. At the age of thirty years, Jesus the “Son of the Most High” was anointed, not with oil poured upon his head by a priest, but with holy spirit poured down from heaven by the Most High God. This occurred immediately after Jesus’ baptism beneath the waters of the Jordan River. By this anointing with holy spirit Jesus became the promised Christ. (Matt. 3:16, 17; Luke 3:21-23) He was anointed to be the king of blessing in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. His anointing also included his being ordained to preach the good news of God’s kingdom and to call out the day of vengeance on God’s part. (Isa. 61:1, 2; Luke 4:14-22) Up and down the land of Palestine he preached during the three and a half years that followed. But he also gathered disciples about himself and taught them and sent them out to preach the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:1-6; 10:1-9) He did not grab at the throne of the Caesars of Rome; he left that to the Devil.

30. How did Rome co-operate against God’s kingdom, and what must she render for this?

³⁰ The haters of God’s kingdom opposed the preaching of God’s kingdom and the chief preacher of it, Jesus Christ. They turned it into a political issue. They said he was making himself a king and was speaking against Caesar of Rome. In a friendly gesture to Caesar, they turned Jesus Christ over to the Roman authorities at Jerusalem, at the same time insisting that he be put to death on a torture stake. Rome, by its representatives, co-operated. So Jesus died on the stake with the title posted over his head as composed by the Roman governor, “Jesus the Nazarene the King of the Jews.” (John 18:28 to 19:22) Thus Rome yielded to religious pressure and executed the Heir of God’s everlasting kingdom. Later on, however, Rome voluntarily undertook to persecute, throughout her empire, the faithful Christians who were called to be joint heirs with Jesus Christ in the heavenly kingdom. Rome thus showed herself against God’s kingdom by his Christ or anointed King. Rome must therefore render an account for this unchristian opposition to the Kingdom.

31. Despite previous humblings, what judgment must Rome yet suffer, and why?

³¹ Already, in August of 410 (A.D.), Rome was captured and then sacked for six days by the forces of Alaric I, the king of the Visigoths. Later, in July of 455, Gènseric, the king of the Vandals, stormed Rome and took her and gave her up to pillage for two weeks. But since then Rome, even though no longer a world power, has greatly added to her antichristian account. Deservedly she must suffer the fate of Babylon in a complete, everlasting destruction in the judgment “war of the great day of God the Almighty.”

32. (a) Why was God’s purpose not defeated by Rome’s putting Jesus Christ to death? (b) What must now follow as a certainty?

³² When Rome put Jesus Christ to a cruel, shameful death to please religious opposers of his promised kingdom, this did not defeat the purpose of his heavenly Father, Jehovah God. It merely fulfilled divine prophecy and proved that God’s word is true and his prophecy is infallible. On the third day of Jesus’ death Jehovah showed again to all the universe that He is God the Almighty by resurrecting Jesus Christ from the dead and clothing him with immortality, incorruptibility and heavenly glory. (1 Cor. 15:3-8, 42-54) Forty days later Almighty God had the Lord Jesus ascend to His own throne in the heavens, to fulfill the prophecy made by King David: “The utterance of Jehovah to my Lord is: ‘Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet.’ The rod of your strength Jehovah will send out of Zion: ‘Go subduing in the midst of your enemies.’” (Ps. 110:1, 2; Acts 2:32-36; Heb. 10:12, 13; 1:3, 4) The subduing of all the earthly enemies of the kingdom of God and of his Christ must now follow as a certainty. Why? Because God Almighty himself has determined to make all of Christ’s enemies his footstool, for his feet to tread down in destruction. Do we want security at that time? We should!

THE NEED FOR SECURITY

33, 34. (a) What is the transcendent issue before all mankind today, and why is the war getting closer? (b) When was God’s kingdom in David’s line overturned, and was God’s kingdom to go out of existence forever?

³³ Today, not total international disarmament, but the kingdom of Jehovah God by his Christ is the transcendent issue before all mankind. Now is the critical time when that burning issue must be settled in vindication of the Supreme Author of the Kingdom, Jehovah God. The “great day of God the Almighty” for the war over the Kingdom issue is getting closer, because now there has been a re-establishment of God’s kingdom with respect to the earth.

³⁴ We do not need to be in any doubt about this, for Jehovah God long ago marked the time for this epoch-making event. The time calendar of secular history, compared with the time schedule of the Holy Bible, furnishes us the calculation that God’s kingdom in the family line of King David was overturned in the year 607 B.C.E. according to God’s own decree. That was when the royal city of Jerusalem was razed to the ground by the world power Babylon. However, God’s kingdom in relation to our earth was not to go out of existence forever. It was to be interrupted only until the one should come who had the legal right to it; then God would give it to him.

35. (a) How is the end of the time of interruption to the kingdom calculated? (b) What was God’s stated purpose in bringing the time of interruption to an end and why must war now decide matters?

³⁵ During the exile of the royal family of the house of David in Babylon, God revealed to his prophet Daniel there in Babylon that the time of interruption till the re-establishment of God’s kingdom would be seven prophetic times, seven symbolic times of 360 years each; which would amount to 2,520 years. The destruction of the throne city of Jerusalem and the desolating of its territory of Judah were completed by the month of October of 607 B.C. Hence those seven times of complete heathenish, Gentile domination of the earth would end 2,520 years from that time, or by October of 1914, in our own twentieth century. (Dan. 4:16, 23, 25, 32) In bringing this interruption of his kingdom to an end in 1914, God had a purpose. It was, as he stated to the king of Babylon, that world rulers might know “that the Most High is Ruler in the kingdom of mankind, and that to the one whom he wants to he gives it.” (Dan. 4:25, 32) World rulers of today do not yet appreciate that fact, and refuse to acknowledge it. Hence the rulership of the Most High God in the kingdom of mankind has become an issue, and there must be a universal war to decide who rules all creation.

36. How is the setting up of the Kingdom being witnessed to, and before what must this Kingdom witness be finished?

³⁶ Men and women still live on earth who are witnesses of the fact that God set up his kingdom in Christ’s hands in 1914. God foretold that he would have his witnesses on the earth to give Kingdom testimony to all the nations. (Isa. 43:10, 12, 21) Back in 1877 Jehovah’s witnesses, both by word of mouth and by printed page, were already calling attention to the end of the seven times of the Gentiles in 1914, at which time there would be a full establishment of God’s kingdom in Christ’s hands in the heavens. In his own prophecy concerning the end of this world system Jesus Christ foretold that after the Kingdom’s establishment Jehovah God would have his witnesses on earth who would bear testimony to all the nations concerning the established kingdom. The apostle Matthew quotes Jesus Christ as prophesying: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) So this Kingdom witness has to take place and be finished before the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” By then many will have found the true place of security.

37. (a) How should the nations of Christendom have acted at the good news of the Kingdom’s establishment in 1914? (b) What gives the undeniable answer as to the sincerity of their prayers?

³⁷ At the good news of the establishment of God’s kingdom by Christ in 1914 the nations of Christendom should have rejoiced. They had the Holy Bible by the hundreds of millions of copies. They had hundreds of thousands of priests and preachers who regularly led hundreds of millions of church members in praying the Lord’s prayer, saying: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.” Did they truly mean that prayer? Did they really want God’s kingdom, or men’s kingdom? Were the kings of Christendom, who required their subjects to recognize their claim to rule “by divine right,” willing to recognize the only one who had the “legal right,” the divine right to rule as king over all mankind, namely, the Christ or Anointed One of the Lord God? The events of 1914 and since then have shown the true, undeniable answer. The nations of Christendom have acted just as Bible prophecy foretold. Their actions have exposed their prayers as hypocritical.

38, 39. (a) In 1914, in what condition were the nations to be according to Psalm 2:1, 2? (b) In fulfillment of Revelation 11:15-18, who were first to ‘become wrathful’ in 1914, and what shows that their attitude since has not changed?

³⁸ Over their actions the prophetic psalm asks: “Why have the nations been in tumult and the peoples themselves kept muttering an empty thing? The kings of earth take their stand and high officials themselves have massed together as one against Jehovah and against his anointed one [his Christ].”—Ps. 2:1, 2; margin.

³⁹ As foretold here, all nations were to be in a tumultuous rage, massed together against the heavenly kingdom. With this agrees the vision that the apostle John had of what would take place at the end of the seven times of the Gentiles in 1914. John says: “Loud voices occurred in heaven saying: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will rule as king for ever and ever.’ And the twenty-four persons of advanced age who were seated before God upon their thrones fell upon their faces and worshiped God, saying: ‘We thank you, Jehovah God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun ruling as king. But the nations became wrathful.’” (Rev. 11:15-18) Not nations called “heathen,” but nations making up Christendom, together with their priests and preachers, were first to ‘become wrathful’ in 1914, so as to break out in a world war for their own world domination. Their hostile attitude to the kingdom of the Lord God and of his Christ has not changed since. A second world war, beginning with the nations of religious Christendom, erupted in 1939. Since its close in 1945 more than eighty nations, under leadership of the nations of Christendom, have massed together in the United Nations organization, not to support the heavenly kingdom in the hands of Christ, who has the legal right to it, but to maintain world domination by earthly men.

40. By what have the nations refused to be led, and hence to what are they being gathered and by what?

⁴⁰ Satan the Devil and his demons are also against the Kingdom. The Revelation, written down by the apostle John, shows that. The nations inside and outside of Christendom have all refused to be led by the good news of God’s established kingdom as preached by Jehovah’s witnesses since World War I. Hence they have not been led into peaceful submission to the divine Kingdom; but, as John’s vision foresaw, they are being gathered by “expressions inspired by demons” under Satan the ruler of the demons to the “war of the great day of God the Almighty,” at Armageddon. (Rev. 12:1-12; 16:14-16) What will that mean for the nations? God tells us.

41. According to Isaiah 13:1, 5-9, what will come upon the nations?

⁴¹ There will be a destruction like that upon Babylon of old, at the hands of God’s forces. Says his prophet Isaiah: “They are coming from the land far away, from the extremity of the heavens, Jehovah and the weapons of his denunciation, to wreck all the earth. Howl, you people, for the day of Jehovah is near! As violence from the Almighty it will come. . . . Look! The day of Jehovah itself is coming, cruel both with fury and with burning anger, in order to make the land an object of astonishment, and that it may annihilate the land’s sinners out of it.”—Isa. 13:1, 5-9.

42. According to Zephaniah 1:2, 3, 14-18, what will come upon the nations?

⁴² There will be a destruction like that which came upon unfaithful Jerusalem by the king of Babylon. In the prophecy by Zephaniah we read: “‘I shall without fail finish everything off the surface of the ground,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.” “‘I shall finish off earthling man and beast. I shall finish off the flying creature of the heavens and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked ones; and I will cut off mankind from the surface of the ground,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘The great day of Jehovah is near. It is near, and there is a hurrying of it very much. The sound of the day of Jehovah is bitter. There a mighty man is letting out a cry. That day is a day of fury, a day of distress and of anguish, a day of storm and of desolation, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick gloom, . . . And I will cause distress to mankind, . . . Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah’s fury; but by the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be devoured, because he will make an extermination, indeed a terrible one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.’”—Zeph. 1:2, 3, 14-18.

THE PLACE OF SECURITY

43. In the face of the threatening war, what do we urgently need, and who can and does provide it?

⁴³ In the face of the threatening “war of the great day of God the Almighty” there is urgent need for a shelter, a refuge, a place of security different from that which worldly-wise men are proposing for surviving a possible nuclear third world war. What men are proposing for human security during future world war by men will not be equal to the security needs during the coming war by God with men and Satan and his demons. Only God himself can tell us what security measures will be adequate, even as he told the godly Noah what security measures to take to survive the Flood that destroyed the wicked world system of 4,300 years ago. Almighty God alone is powerful enough to provide the place of safety and survival during his war for wiping out all enemies of his kingdom by Christ. He has provided the safe place, and he tells us how to get into it.

44. What right course to take does Almighty God advise through Zephaniah, and with what probability?

⁴⁴ To men, women and children who are living among nations and people that do not pale in shame because of their sins and opposition toward Almighty God, he says by the afore-quoted prophet Zephaniah (2:2, 3): “Before the statute gives birth to anything, before the day has passed by just like chaff, before there comes upon you people the burning anger of Jehovah, before there comes upon you the day of Jehovah’s anger, seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” It was very fitting that this probability of being hidden for taking the right course was held out by Zephaniah, because his name means “Jehovah Has Concealed.”

45. Immediately after such advice, what does Zephaniah tell about?

⁴⁵ Immediately after telling of the urgent need to seek the only possible place of being concealed against extermination, Zephaniah tells of the destruction to come upon the modern-day counterparts of the Philistines, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Ethiopians and the Assyrians, all of whom, in their day, showed hatred of Jehovah’s kingdom at Jerusalem or Zion.—Zeph. 2:4-15.

46. In view of such advice, what should we cease to do, and what should we seek with Almighty God?

⁴⁶ This is reliable advice that leads to security, for it is God-given advice. Why, then, should we continue to be terrified at the shape of things to come and to suffer what Jesus Christ foretold, namely, “anguish of nations, not knowing the way out because of the roaring of the sea and its agitation, while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth”? (Luke 21:25, 26) Do not yield any more to the “expressions inspired by demons” and be led into a fight with the nations against God the Almighty and his kingdom by Christ. Listen to the good news of his kingdom now being preached everywhere by his witnesses before the end comes upon the Kingdom’s enemies. (Matt. 24:14) Seek peaceable relations with Jehovah God the Almighty, for upon his mercy depends all our security amid the war of his great day.

47. Who are the ones addressed in the advice given through Zephaniah, and how should we prove ourselves to be such kind of persons?

⁴⁷ Jehovah’s safety instructions are addressed to the “meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision.” Show yourself meek or humble before him, and do so by undertaking to practice his judicial decision. It is handed down in his holy Written Word. Jehovah’s witnesses today practice his judicial decision. They know what he has decided is his will for us to do in this most critical time. If, in the Lord’s Prayer, we pray to the heavenly Father, ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ then let us make an honest effort to find out what his will is now and then do it lovingly, in faith and obedience.

48. (a) Why does seeking Jehovah today mean more than it did in Zephaniah’s day? (b) What does seeking righteousness now mean?

⁴⁸ Seeking Jehovah today does not mean becoming a proselyte to political Zionism and to Judaism with its traditions of men. In Zephaniah’s day Judaism had not even been introduced. Seeking Jehovah now means more than it did in Zephaniah’s day; for in the prophet’s day the typical kingdom was still functioning with kings of David’s line on “Jehovah’s throne” at earthly Jerusalem or Zion. (Zeph. 1:1) Seeking Jehovah today means taking steps also to come into harmony with God’s Son who sits as King on Jehovah’s throne, at Jehovah’s right hand in the heavens far above our earth. After Jesus gave his footstep followers the Lord’s Prayer in which we pray, “Your kingdom come,” Jesus said to them: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” (Matt. 6:9-13, 33) All his Jewish followers left Judaism and took up seeking the kingdom of Jehovah’s Christ. (Gal. 1:13-17) They sought the righteousness that comes from Jehovah God through his Son Jesus Christ, who died as a perfect human sacrifice to relieve believing men and women of their sin and its penalty death.

49. (a) Why do we have today all the more reason to do like Jesus’ personal disciples? (b) Why can we seek Jehovah only through his kingdom?

⁴⁹ We today have all the more reason to do like them, for today the heavenly kingdom of the Christ is established. It has been in operation since the end of the seven times of the Gentiles in 1914. Now Jehovah is proceeding to put all of Christ’s enemies under his feet as though they were a footstool. We do not wish to be put under his feet to be crushed to death as his enemies; for it is written with respect to Christ’s battle action in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” that “he treads, too, the press of the wine of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty. And upon his outer garment, even upon his thigh, he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” (Rev. 19:15, 16) His kingdom is the means for vindicating the sovereignty of Jehovah God as being universal, supreme. It is also the means for blessing all the families of the earth. It is the kingdom of Abraham’s Seed of blessing. We want the blessing, for that means eternal life in the new order of things under the Kingdom. We cannot seek Jehovah today except through the kingdom of his Son, the Mediator between God and men.

50. Where, then, is the place of security, and what prophecy in agreement with that fact did the apostle Peter quote at Pentecost?

⁵⁰ Here, then, is the place of security, namely, on the side of God the Almighty and of his Christ, and under their protection. When God elevated Christ to his own right hand after resurrecting him from the dead, God gave Christ a quantity or measure of the holy spirit to pour out upon his disciples on the earth. This outpouring of spirit began on the day of Pentecost in May of A.D. 33. The apostle Peter, one who got the spirit that day, told the crowd of eyewitnesses that this was the beginning of the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy for the last days. Then Peter quoted these further words of Joel’s prophecy: “I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun itself will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah. And it must occur that everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will get away safe; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will prove to be the escaped ones, just as Jehovah has said, and among the survivors, whom Jehovah is calling.”—Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:1-36.

51. By the expressions Zion and Jerusalem, to what was Peter referring, and therefore on the side of what will the survivors be found?

⁵¹ Of course, the apostle Peter did not mean literal Jerusalem or Zion upon the earth; for Jerusalem that had clamored for Jesus’ death and that afterward persecuted his faithful disciples was horribly destroyed by the Roman legions, just thirty-seven years after that Pentecostal outpouring of holy spirit upon Peter and his fellow disciples. Peter, as well as Joel, whom Peter quoted, referred to the heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly Zion, which is a symbol of God’s kingdom by his Christ. We must therefore seek the now established kingdom of Almighty God and his Christ. Only on its side and under it can we be among the survivors.

52. According to Joel, those doing what will get away safe, and what does the doing of this today mean?

⁵² The prophet Joel, whom Peter quoted, said concerning these days before the “coming of the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah,” that “everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will get away safe.” As we obey the prophet Zephaniah’s words to “seek Jehovah,” we must also do as Joel said, ‘call upon the name of Jehovah.’ Then we shall get away safe during the universal war of the great day. This now requires us to call on Jehovah through his reigning King Jesus Christ. It also means calling out Jehovah’s name publicly, just as his witnesses are doing in all nations, from city to city and from house to house, by word of mouth and by printed page. His name will be glorified by his kingdom, and his kingdom is the all-transcending issue today. So the good news of this kingdom is what seekers of Jehovah today must preach in all the earth for a final witness to all nations, before the end of these nations comes in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” Jehovah’s King, Jesus Christ, has commanded this witness to be given now.

53. By taking the right course, what does Zephaniah say may probably occur to you, and what does Psalm 91:1, 2 say is to be enjoyed?

⁵³ If, in this world’s “time of the end,” we take this plainly stated course, then, says the inspired prophet Zephaniah, “probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” (Zeph. 2:2, 3) O what security there is to be enjoyed in Jehovah’s place of concealment for us! What rest, what peace, what freedom from fear, what buoyant expectation of surviving through the day of his anger against the enemy nations of this world! The inspired psalmist beautifully describes the miraculous safety to be enjoyed there, saying: “Anyone dwelling in the hiding place of the Most High will procure himself lodging under the very shadow of the Almighty One. I will say to Jehovah: ‘You are my refuge and my stronghold, my God, in whom I will trust.’”

54, 55. (a) Under concealment, what may one look on and see? (b) Why will the reward of “length of days” be satisfying, and why will the salvation by Jehovah be eternal?

⁵⁴ Concealed under the shadow of his wings, just think of experiencing these words as the war of God the Almighty exterminates his wicked enemies: “A thousand will fall at your very side and ten thousand at your right hand; to you it will not come near. Only with your eyes will you look on and see the retribution itself of the wicked ones.” O, then, may we be wise and take advantage of the remaining time and seek Jehovah and call upon his name! For, says the Almighty God, “he will call upon me and I shall answer him. I shall be with him in distress. I shall rescue him and glorify him. With length of days I shall satisfy him, and I shall cause him to see salvation by me.”—Ps. 91:1, 2, 7, 8, 15, 16.

⁵⁵ “Length of days” in the new order of things after the “war of the great day of God the Almighty”—what a reward! It will be something satisfying, for the Kingdom in charge of that new order will be a blessing to men of good will. The salvation that God will cause those who seek him to see will be eternal, because his kingdom that brings salvation will endure forever and ever. So our security through the immediate future and for all time to come lies with his Kingdom. Our course will be life-rewarding if we seek it now.

56. Why may we hail the “great day of God the Almighty,” and what should we all join now in finding?

⁵⁶ All hail, then, to the “great day of God the Almighty”! Let it come speedily, for it means glorious victory for the true God Jehovah and a righteous government by his Christ for the everlasting blessing of all men of good will, living and dead. Join now with the happy witnesses of Jehovah’s kingdom in finding safe concealment for our “security during ‘war of the great day of God the Almighty.’”

[Footnotes]

City That Trusted in Fortifications

LACHISH was a city that thought itself secure and impregnable. Yes, its inhabitants put their trust in the city’s fortifications; they forsook Jehovah. Lachish was about thirty miles southwest of Jerusalem. Before advancing on Jerusalem King Sennacherib of Assyria determined to neutralize the stronghold of Lachish. “Now it came about,” says the Bible, “that Sennacherib the king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and proceeded to seize them. And the king of Assyria finally sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem.”—Isa. 36:1, 2.

Archaeological discoveries give us an idea as to the ferocity of the siege against Lachish. Massive reliefs of the siege were produced on orders of King Sennacherib. These reliefs, now in the British Museum, were discovered by Sir Austen Layard at the ruins of Nineveh. Describing the pictures carved on thirteen stone slabs, John Elder writes in Prophets, Idols and Diggers:

“Over them are written the words: ‘Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria, sat upon a nîmedu-throne and passed in review the booty [taken] from Lachish (La-ki-su).’ The walls of the city of Lachish are pictured on the summit of a steep mound. There are towers and projections with small barred windows; wooden railings and what look like round shields project from the parapet of the towers. . . .

“The walls and towers are alive with defenders shooting stones and arrows at the attackers. One can count no less than ten siege mounds which the attackers have raised against the steep glacis protecting the walls. These are built of brick, stone, soil, and the trunks of trees. There are seven battering rams rolled up to the walls on these runways. Each of the siege engines is mounted on four wheels and is leather-covered with a hood in front. Each shelters three men—one to work the battering ram or to use a crowbar with a point to pick stones out of the walls; another to shoot arrows from under cover of the hood; and a third to pour water from a long-handled ladle on the firebrands which the defenders rain down on the primitive tank. Upon this bas-relief everything is happening at once; the investment, the siege, the assault and the surrender.

“Archers are kneeling in the front ranks, in the next they are bending forward, and in the third they are standing upright, all portrayed as discharging arrows at the city’s defenders. Shield-bearers with wicker shields covered with hide are there to protect the archers, who also take shelter behind the ranks. There are slingers and spearmen. Ladders set up for escalading are tumbling from the walls; in a desperate effort to check the advance, the besieged are casting their chariots down on the heads of the attackers.”

When Sennacherib threatened against Jerusalem, King Hezekiah put the defense of the city in the hands of Jehovah, and in one night Jehovah’s angel struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. “Therefore Sennacherib the king of Assyria pulled away.”—2 Ki. 19:35, 36.

Lachish was eventually built up again into a strong city. When Jehovah brought King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon against unfaithful Jerusalem in 607 B.C., Lachish did not escape destruction either. Its inhabitants had forsaken Jehovah, and the city deserved destruction, as Micah had foretold. (Mic. 1:13) The ruins of Lachish were explored in the 1930’s by the Wellcome-Marston Archaeological Research Expedition, headed first by J. L. Starkey. The expedition discovered grim evidence of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege. Says Werner Keller in the book The Bible as History:

“Investigation of the stratum that marked the Babylonian work of destruction produced, to Starkey’s astonishment, ashes. Ashes in incredible quantities. . . . Nebuchadnezzar’s engineers were specialists in the art of incendiarism, past masters at starting conflagrations. Whatever wood they could lay hands on they dragged to the spot, . . . piled the firewood as high as a house outside the walls and set it alight. . . . Day and night sheets of flame leapt sky high: a ring of fire licked the walls from top to bottom. The besieging force piled on more and more until the white-hot stones burst and the walls caved in.”

For trusting in fortifications and military equipment and for forsaking Jehovah, Lachish suffered a just fate. The ruins of this erstwhile stronghold remain as a warning to all who would trust in men and weapons rather than Jehovah Most High.

What Does God’s Kingdom Mean to You?

WHEN you repeat the Lord’s Prayer you utter the words, “Let your kingdom come.” (Matt. 6:10) What does that kingdom mean to you? What part does it play in your life? Why did Jesus instruct us to pray for this kingdom even before asking for our daily bread, forgiveness or deliverance from temptation?

The kingdom of God is referred to so frequently in the Scriptures that it is obviously the theme or central doctrine of the entire Bible. The fact that Jesus urged us to pray continually for it shows its importance in God’s purposes. In the book of Matthew alone the Kingdom is mentioned more than fifty times! But in connection with what? John the Baptist makes mention of it in these words: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” (Matt. 3:2) When Jesus sent out his disciples he commanded: “As you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.’” (Matt. 10:7) This was to be no earthly kingdom, but one that would rule from the invisible heavens over the earth and humans on it.

Who would be the king? Luke 1:31, 33 states: “You are to call his name Jesus . . . and he will be king . . . and there will be no end of his kingdom.” Enthroned in heavenly glory, the King Jesus Christ will destroy this wicked world and all who love it. With wickedness gone, God “will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more.” (Rev. 21:4) Isaiah 9:7 adds: “To the abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end.”

The Kingdom will mean the end of sickness, sorrow, hatred, oppression and war! It will mean freedom from fear, freedom from want and freedom from death. It will mean peace between God and man, peace between man and man, peace between man and his own body, peace between man and the animals, and peace between man and the earth. The whole globe transformed into a paradise! This is the grand purpose of the Kingdom toward man.

WHAT IT SHOULD MEAN

What does the kingdom of heaven mean to God? He is the one who guarantees its coming; it is his kingdom. The Kingdom means so much to God that he provided his only-begotten Son as the King of that kingdom. It means so much primarily because the Kingdom is the means by which Jehovah will vindicate his own name and sovereignty; also it is the means he has provided for bringing relief to distressed humanity!

Men of faith before Jesus looked forward eagerly to the Kingdom as the only possible solution for the world’s problems. Abraham was one such man. “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed in going out into a place . . . although not knowing where he was going. For he was awaiting the city having real foundations and the builder and creator of which is God.” (Heb. 11:8, 10) That heavenly city, the Kingdom, meant so much to Abraham that he was willing to do whatever God required of him, even if he did not completely understand it at the time. He traveled to an unfamiliar land and was prepared to offer up his only son if necessary. The hope of a future kingdom of peace and happiness meant everything to Abraham! All else was subordinated to that hope.

Many others, such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Sarah and Moses, placed the Kingdom hope first in their lives. Did they receive their reward before they died? No. They had to wait until the heavenly kingdom was established. Then they would be resurrected to life on earth under its reign. “In faith all these died, although they did not get the fulfillment of the promises, but they saw them afar off and hailed them . . . But now they are reaching out for a better place, that is, one belonging to heaven.”—Heb. 11:13, 16.

When Jesus was on earth, upon what did he center his teaching? Social reform? Politics? Disarmament? No; the issue of supreme importance was the kingdom of heaven! When Satan tempted Jesus with rulership of earthly kingdoms, he rejected it. The heavenly kingdom meant much more to him. He knew that all earthly kingdoms would pass away eventually, giving way to the permanent rule of God’s kingdom.

As a perfect man, Jesus could have excelled in anything—sports, business, politics, the arts, and so forth. Note what he chose to do: “Jesus set out on a tour of all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom.” (Matt. 9:35) After his death and resurrection, what did the Kingdom mean to him? Acts 1:3 relates: To the apostles also “by many positive proofs he showed himself alive after he had suffered, being seen by them throughout forty days and telling the things about the kingdom of God.” The most important man ever to walk the earth immersed himself in the work of the Kingdom!

JESUS ILLUSTRATES ITS IMPORTANCE

Jesus used illustrations to impress upon his hearers the place that God’s kingdom should have in their lives. He said: “The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid, and for the joy he has he goes and sells what things he has and buys that field.” (Matt. 13:44) What a thrill to find hidden riches! Would we not sell all we have to buy property that would enrich us for life? The man in the illustration did just that. He focused his attention on the most valuable thing. All else was secondary. A fitting illustration of what the kingdom of heaven should mean to the seeker of everlasting life!

Jesus gave another illustration: “Again the kingdom of the heavens is like a traveling merchant seeking fine pearls. Upon finding one pearl of high value, away he went and promptly sold all the things he had and bought it.” (Matt. 13:45, 46) A pearl of high value was to be had! Nothing else could approach it in value. This man “promptly” sold his possessions to raise the price of this pearl. He must have gone to some trouble to make the necessary transactions. How inconvenient to rearrange his personal affairs and property to do this! But no matter. He was seeking fine pearls, and now he had found one that far exceeded all the rest in value. He must act now, before he lost the opportunity! The priceless pearl would make up for the discomfort. So it would be with the Kingdom. Putting it first in our lives might be difficult to begin with. It might raise problems and inconvenience us to some extent. But look at the reward—the Kingdom of the heavens! What else could be compared with such a rare prize?

So important was the Kingdom that Jesus said: “Stop being anxious about your souls as to what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your bodies as to what you will wear. . . . Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” (Matt. 6:25, 33) Did Jesus mean that we should not work or plan our lives? No. Jesus worked. He wanted others to work. What he was pointing out was that our livelihood should not be an obsession to the exclusion of the more important things. The Kingdom should come first in our lives, then the other considerations. If, because of devoting ourselves to Kingdom interests, we should run into difficulty in making our living, then God will assist us.

How unwise to expend our vital energy on things that will not lead to life under the Kingdom. Driving ourselves furiously to make money, to build large estates, or to become prominent will not add one day to our life span. So much effort is put into providing a family with insurance for security. Yet how much is put into the most important insurance: building a good name with God so we can live forever under his kingdom?

To point out forcefully how much the Kingdom should mean, Jesus said: “If ever your hand makes you stumble, cut it off; it is finer for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go off into Gehenna, into the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot makes you stumble, cut it off; it is finer for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be pitched into Gehenna. And if your eye makes you stumble, throw it away; it is finer for you to enter one-eyed into the kingdom of God, than with two eyes to be pitched into Gehenna.”—Mark 9:43-47.

The kingdom of God is such a desirable prize that nothing, no matter how dear, whether possessions, friendships, or even our limbs, should prevent our pursuit of it. If our occupation interferes, a readjustment should be made. If housework occupies all our time, better planning or a smaller house is needed. If our hobbies limit our seeking of the kingdom first, the time spent on them should be reduced. In short, whatever hinders us must be pushed into the background! This does not mean giving up all work, hobbies or recreation. It means putting things in their proper place. The more important things should come first. Eliminating or minimizing some things or long-ingrained habits may be painful, but view it this way: If a painful operation became necessary, with possible loss of a hand or a foot, would we not undergo it to save our lives? Likewise, it may be painful at first to submerge our selfish desires to God’s will, but the operation is vital if we want our lives to be preserved by him!

The Kingdom meant everything to the early Christians. The apostle Paul’s attitude was typical: “I have taken the loss of all things and I consider them as a lot of refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in union with him . . . to see if I may by any means attain to the earlier resurrection from the dead.”—Phil. 3:8-11.

WHAT IT MEANS TO THE WORLD

Does the Kingdom mean all this to the world? No, it does not. This should not be surprising, as “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) Satan has blinded the minds of even the religious leaders as to the purpose of God’s kingdom. Many believe that it means the conversion of the world to Christ. One clergyman, noting the failure of people to let God’s kingdom mean anything to them, said: “People now worship at pagan idols of money, success, status and comfort. We seem somehow to have lost our sense of positive, dynamic mission in the world—the mission of changing the world in the direction of God’s kingdom.” When people are taught that God’s kingdom means the spreading of Christendom’s realm worldwide, is it any wonder that a failure to do so is associated with the failure of God’s kingdom?

The failure of most people to see the Kingdom does not mean that the Kingdom has failed. It proves just the opposite! Look at the world around you today. The distress of nations, the increased lawlessness, and the growing power of godless ideologies are positive proof that the Kingdom has already been set up in the heavens! Why so? The time of trouble the world is now experiencing is just exactly what Jesus said would happen. Bible prophecy clearly shows that since 1914 the kingdom of heaven has been in operation. We live in the transition period between the old and the new. Soon the established kingdom will wipe out this entire system of things, paving the way for peaceful, righteous rule on earth.

YOU CAN SEEK THE KINGDOM FIRST

Today hundreds of thousands are seeking the Kingdom first. An entire society of people, the rapidly expanding New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses, make it the most important thing in their lives. The fact that these people of all races, tongues and backgrounds do it proves that you can do it. The reason they can put the Kingdom first is that they know what its purposes and requirements are. But did it mean so much to them at first? No, perhaps they were not particularly interested to begin with, but increased knowledge changed their viewpoint.

As you learn more about God’s kingdom your love for its author, Jehovah God, and its King, Jesus Christ, will grow. You will also learn to love those who want to live in the restored paradise as subjects of God’s kingdom and who are showing it by putting Kingdom interests first now. You too will want to show by your actions that the Kingdom is the motivating force in your life. With God’s mighty spirit backing up your efforts, you too can seek the Kingdom first.

It is urgent to do so now. Everlasting destinies are being determined in this time of judgment. Those who seek the Kingdom first are promised survival through the end of this world. As a united people they will pass into a world of endless peace, happiness and life, all under the direction of the kingdom of God.

What does God’s kingdom mean to you? Your life depends on your answer.

Pursuing My Purpose in Life

As told by Eva Barney

WHAT more could a person want? What more could anyone wish for in life? Blessed with a comfortable home, a good job, the best of clothing, money in the bank, shares in a well-established firm, the family car for use at any time, and wonderful parents—I thought to myself: ‘Is this pursuing my purpose in life?’ Having made a dedication to Jehovah in 1923, I must do the divine will. My life must henceforth be directed by God’s Word as made plain to me by His holy spirit and His organization.

As a result of diligent study of the Bible, the conviction came that material comforts must be forfeited to pursue my purpose in life, clearing the way to devote all my time, strength and resources to preaching “this good news of the kingdom.” To be convinced mentally was one thing, but to act in harmony with those convictions I found extremely hard. How could I ever leave mother, dad, home, job and relatives? What about finances? What would friends and relatives think? Knowing dad would be very angry raised more questions. Could I do it?

ENTERING THE PIONEER SERVICE

Totally unaware of the battle going on in my mind, my good friend Bessie How, a very zealous witness of Jehovah, wrote me, inviting me to spend my vacation pioneering with her. Happily I accepted her kind and thoughtful offer, little realizing the change to be made in my life by those two weeks in the door-to-door work. So you see I was really a vacation pioneer. Now I can appreciate why the Society has inaugurated vacation pioneer service, because it was that service that revealed to me the way to pursue my purpose in life.

The first step was to leave my secular employment. Here again my good friend Bessie came to my assistance, helping to write out a resignation. Next morning found me in the chief operator’s office with the resignation and the book Deliverance, since I wanted to hand them to her in person. She was not in her office. Fearful of a sudden change of mind, I quickly placed them on her desk and left. Four o’clock that afternoon a call came to report at her office. Having read the letter of resignation, she wanted more information as to why I was leaving. Here was a real opportunity, and I took full advantage of it. Her response to my witness was that never in all her years with the company had she received such a resignation. Ordinarily employees resigned because of getting married or in order to accept a better-paying position. Further, her religion “did not supply that kind of faith—to leave a good job for a work that offered no financial gains.” Considerately she offered six months’ leave of absence during which to “try out your new work.” Declining her offer on the grounds that ‘all bridges must be burned,’ I left with her blessing and best wishes for success. The completion of this step toward the ultimate goal brought great peace of mind. My expressions of gratitude went out to Jehovah for the strength he provided.

Dad, of course, was enraged when hearing about this, and angrily declaimed that if I left home to go out in “that preaching work” I need never come home again. Naturally I felt hurt, but determined to go.

FINDING CONTENTMENT IN THE MINISTRY

Having said good-by to friends and relatives, my partner and I were soon on our way to our first assignment, Iroquois, Ontario. After locating our room and getting settled, I suddenly felt a wave of homesickness. The only thing to do was to make a phone call home. My mother’s voice sounded so satisfying to my ears that the homesickness left, and in its place contentment came. A wonderful feeling of freedom came over me. How delightful it was! Free from the cares of this world! Unencumbered! Full-time service to Jehovah took us next to Cardinal, Ontario, and from there we were directed to Montreal, Quebec. How refreshing it was to work with seven other pioneers, young people like myself, wholly devoted to Jehovah! Yes, we had our problems: bad weather, unforeseen expenses, sickness, religious opposition and almost continuous police interference, with some arrests. Any unpleasant experiences were more than made up for as we found sheeplike persons of good will. As their appreciation of the message grew, our joy increased.

Regularly letters were sent home relating outstanding happy experiences. Mother appreciated these, but dad was only interested in when I was coming home.

With his death another decision had to be made. Should I continue pursuing my purpose in life in Montreal, should I obtain territory at home and pioneer, or should I find employment and become a congregation publisher in order to be at home as company for my mother? Being a devoted Witness, mother insisted on my continuing in the pioneer work. Feeling obligated to remain with her, I obtained territory around the city and pioneered from home.

Suddenly I felt insecure. Doubts and fears took possession of me. All my bank account had been used. My bonds were sold. Leaning to my own understanding resulted in the belief that I needed to build up another supply of money. Early one morning as I was about to leave the house to seek employment, mother handed me a letter. What could this be, at 7:30 in the morning? It contained money and a short note, saying: “Hope this will help you in the pioneer work.” That did it! Never since have I doubted the promise made by Jesus that necessary provision would be made if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. (Matt. 6:33) Not in all my thirty years of pioneering has this ever failed!

TIMES OF PERSECUTION

In 1933 a special work was organized to distribute French booklets in Quebec city. Despite the possibility of arrest and imprisonment, two hundred volunteered. Soon thirty men and women were arrested and taken to police headquarters “for questioning.” Bail money was demanded before release. Even though imprisoned, we all had a happy time. Those in charge of the prison, including the “Mother Superior,” were astounded to find people actually enjoying themselves in prison. And why not? We were Jehovah’s witnesses and had nothing to fear. The charge turned out to be “seditious conspiracy.” The trial, four days long, was lively and interesting. It was a marvelous experience. Jehovah gave us victory.

Early in 1938 when the Society began the special pioneer arrangement, I received an application form. While I was considering it, a mature brother advised me to accept any invitation the Society might extend. The application was approved, and to this day I continue to thank Jehovah for training his worshipers to consider one another and to incite to right works.

That same year another delightful prospect presented itself—marriage. Would marriage interfere? Could we as a married couple continue pursuing our purpose in life? My prospective husband was also a special pioneer. We reasoned that since we were able to work as special pioneers when single, why could we not continue pioneering when married? For twenty-two years my husband has been a loving, considerate companion, ever ready to comfort and encourage.

Two years later, in 1940, the Canadian government placed a ban on the organization of Jehovah’s witnesses in Canada. Immediately the words of a former president of the Society were recalled: “We shall not hole up and hide our faces!” So we determined to continue our preaching of this good news of the established kingdom and upholding Jehovah’s name, regardless of the ban.

The fact that the organization had been declared “illegal” only served to alert us to the possibility of arrest and imprisonment. We did not have to wait long. The following morning, fully aware of the likely consequences, three of us sallied forth to spend the day in the witness work. My husband was arrested and Marjorie Held and I were taken to the police station, held in custody for a short time, then escorted home. This was in Kingston, Ontario.

From here on my purpose in life was pursued from a small cabin trailer. We served at London and Woodstock, Ontario, then Truro, Glace Bay and Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia. During the years of the ban our little “home on wheels” was invaded by the police no less than fourteen times. And many a thrill we had witnessing to the police officers with the American Standard Version Bible!

A new day began for us! My husband brought home a long envelope. It was a letter from the President’s Office, inviting us to attend the fifth class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead at South Lansing, New York. This was something we had hoped and prayed for. This meant: prepare ourselves for five months’ concentrated study; pack up and leave the country; and be willing to go wherever the Society might send us. There was so much we did not know, so much more to learn! Those five months proved to be the most blessed months of our lives! Filled now to overflowing with solid spiritual food, we were eager to get to our “foreign” assignment, the cold, rugged yet colorful island of Newfoundland, just off the east coast of Canada.

‘FISHING FOR MEN’ IN NEWFOUNDLAND

Being well trained now for the work, we began to apply ourselves in a practical way to finding the “other sheep” in the second city of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, located in the Bay of Islands at the mouth of the Humber River. The Humber valley has become famous for its scenic beauty, its majestic hills and its salmon fishing. Here we were about to begin ‘fishing for men.’—Matt. 4:19.

How good it made me feel one morning when I called on a very friendly young woman who ordered a Bible and asked me to call during the weekend when her husband would be home. I called and found him without interest in religion, not having been to church since being married. I told him: “I think you are just the man I’m looking for.” They invited me back. For several calls he listened with rapt attention to Bible recordings. Eventually a Bible study was started in the midst of a veritable smoke screen. Attending the meetings and perceiving that no one smoked, he immediately quit. His wife and family soon began to appreciate the truth. Most of the family are now dedicated Witnesses, pursuing peace.

In the same neighborhood, at the top of a long steep hill, I found a family who were Seventh-Day Adventists but ready for the truth. They took the current literature offer and invited me back. Regular weekly studies resulted in the two girls’ dedication to Jehovah and spending their school vacations in the preaching work with us. Later the parents were baptized. One of the girls became a missionary in Peru, a graduate of Gilead; and the other is pursuing her purpose in life in Carbonear, Newfoundland, as a special pioneer. The parents faithfully serve with the Corner Brook congregation.

Another girl in this west coast city, who was a baptized Witness before our arrival, had run into wrong associations, but decided to make a clean break. Giving up her job, she attended her first large convention of Jehovah’s witnesses at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1946, and upon returning to Newfoundland began pioneering. After two years in the full-time ministry she received a call to Gilead, and is now a missionary in St. John’s.

Words fail me when I try to express all the joys and blessings we received in our six years of loving association in Corner Brook. To leave this thriving congregation was not easy. However, Jehovah had other work for us in St. John’s missionary home, where we can continue to learn to demonstrate our love for Jehovah and our brothers, putting up with one another in love and right works.

How gratifying it is to see our Kingdom Hall filled with praisers of Jehovah and people of good will each meeting night! Because of this, negotiations are under way for the building of a new and larger structure. Among these happy people is a family contacted one bitter cold morning. At the conclusion of the sermon and subscription offer for both The Watchtower and Awake! the seven-year-old son exclaimed: “Give her the two dollars, daddy, and take them both!” Immediately the man subscribed and extended an invitation to return. After I had studied with this family for two years, it was a real joy to see the oldest boy symbolize his dedication to Jehovah along with the many thousands at the Divine Will Assembly at New York city in 1958.

ASSEMBLY AT CORNER BROOK

More blessings were in store for us in 1959! One of these was the Awake Ministers District Assembly in the spacious Humber Gardens at Corner Brook. Arriving by train from St. John’s, we beheld the station platform literally swarming with Jehovah’s witnesses and, ranged outside the station, a long line of cars carrying colorful overhead signs advertising the public address to be delivered by the president of the Society on the final day of the assembly. What a privilege it was to enjoy such close fellowship with others of the happy family of the wonder-working God, especially since we had with us both Brother Knorr and his wife. Without loss of time the incoming Witnesses were taken by these cars to Humber Gardens. At this assembly both parents of the boy baptized at New York took the step of water immersion in symbol of their dedication to Jehovah.

As I look back over the past thirty years of pursuing my purpose in life, how thankful I feel to Jehovah and His organization that through the help, guidance, protection and admonition provided I have come to appreciate clearly that “even when a person has an abundance his life does not result from the things he possesses.” (Luke 12:15) My earnest prayer is that I may continue to love Jehovah with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and my neighbor as myself. Doing this means helping neighbors to take in knowledge of the one true God and Jesus Christ, resulting in blessing. And the blessing of Jehovah—that is what makes rich!

Questions From Readers

● What is meant by ‘looking at the liver,’ as mentioned at Ezekiel 21:21 (RS)?

At Ezekiel 21:21 we read regarding Nebuchadnezzar: “For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the teraphim, he looks at the liver.” (RS) This practice of looking at or inspecting the liver in quest of omens, known as hepatoscopy, was based on the ancient idea that the liver was the center of all vitality, activity, emotion and affection. It doubtless was given this prominence because of its bloody nature, in man one sixth of the blood being found in the liver.

In ancient Assyria the name of the priests was baru, meaning “inspector,” because of the prominence that inspecting the liver played in the life of a priest. The liver being a very diverse organ, consisting of lobes, ducts, appendages, and having veins, ridges and other markings, allowed for the widest variety of interpretations. If, for example, a certain depression was unusually long, it was said to presage a long reign for the king. If there was a reversal in the comparative size of certain parts, this was taken to mean that there would be a reversal, such as that a servant would rule over his master. Then again, if a certain mark or characteristic was on the right side it was considered a favorable omen, if on the left, an unfavorable one. Precedent also played a role. Thus, if a certain condition in the liver was followed by a favorable turn of events, it was believed that a like condition in a newly slaughtered animal would presage a like favorable turn of events. Hepatoscopy was initially practiced or featured by the Assyrians and Babylonians, and later adopted by the Greeks and Romans. In modern times vestiges of it are found in certain primitive lands of Africa and Asia.

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“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

November 20: Security During “War of the Great Day of God the Almighty,” ¶1-28. Page 617.

November 27: Security During “War of the Great Day of God the Almighty,” ¶29-56. Page 624.