The Watchtower — April 15, 1961

Appreciating Life and the Life-giver

DO YOU find pleasure in the beauty of a well-planned flower garden? Do you find keen delight in breathing the fresh air of a woodland or in zipping down a snow-covered mountainside on skis? Are you thrilled at the sight of awe-inspiring scenery? Are you enraptured by the strains of beautiful music? Whatever it is that brings pleasure and delight to you can be enjoyed only because you have life. Without it you could enjoy none of the things that are dear to you. It is your most valuable and, possibly, least appreciated possession.

Because life is commonplace and you have possessed it for many years is no reason to think little of it and put it in jeopardy for the momentary thrill of doing something dangerous. The thrill you may gain is not equal to what you may lose. The same can be said about foolish efforts to rescue a material possession from destruction at the risk of your life. Your life is not like a piece of machinery that can be replaced when it is damaged and ceases to function. It is more valuable than any thrill you could have or any material possession. As far as human efforts are concerned, it is irreplaceable.

You do not possess life because you earned it or because you were entitled to it. Your parents did not originate it, although they were responsible for your being born. They merely passed on to you the life force that was given to mankind a long time ago. Life is a gift from God. It is because of his free gift that you have a conscious existence today. Acknowledging Jehovah as man’s Life-giver, a Bible writer said: “He himself gives to all persons life and breath and all things. And he made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth.” (Acts 17:25, 26) Consider also what Elihu stated: “God’s own spirit made me, and the Almighty’s own breath proceeded to bring me to life.” (Job 33:4) These men were not ashamed to acknowledge God as the One who gave them life; are you?

When someone gives you a valuable gift, do you accept it without expressing gratitude for it? Do you later deny before others that he gave it to you? While you may not be such an ingrate regarding gifts from your friends, what about gifts from God? Do you ever express gratitude for them? Do you ever thank him for the privilege of living and being able to learn about him and the magnificent things he has made? Are you so busy living that you have no time to appreciate your Life-giver and his gifts? Little effort is required on your part to express in prayer your sincere gratitude.

If you appreciate the Life-giver, you will respect his will and be willing to abide by it. But if you never make an effort to learn what his will is, can it be said that you truly respect it? Can it be said that you appreciate him if you can find time to read newspapers, watch television, attend movies, tinker with your hobbies but never have time to study his written Word to learn what his will is? If the head of your nation dictated a letter and had it sent to you, would you be so busy you could never find time to read it? As you would give that communication your closest attention, so should you give close attention to the communication that comes from the Ruler of the universe. His will for man is contained in his written Word, the Holy Bible. Show your respect and appreciation for him by taking time to learn what he has had written down for our instruction.

Long ago King David manifested his appreciation of the great Life-giver when he urged others to show their gratitude: “Thank Jehovah, call upon his name, make his deeds known among the peoples! Sing to him, make melody to him, talk of all his wonderful acts. Make your boast in his holy name, let the heart of those seeking Jehovah rejoice. Search after Jehovah and his strength, seek his face constantly.”—1 Chron. 16:8-11.

The loving-kindness of the Life-giver is shown by another great gift, but this gift is not given indiscriminately to everyone. It is given to those who indicate in advance that they would appreciate it. This gift is life everlasting. As God was able to give man life in the beginning, he is able to extend it indefinitely. While life itself is a wonderful gift, eternal life is a magnificent one. Since it has been promised by One who cannot lie and who never has failed to keep a promise, mankind can look forward confidently to receiving it. His written Word gives us the “hope of the everlasting life which God, who cannot lie, promised long ago.”—Titus 1:2.

If you do not appreciate the gift of life you now enjoy, why should the Life-giver present you with the gift of eternal life? That gift is reserved for those who love him and who gratefully express their appreciation for him by words and deeds. It is a reward for faithfulness and integrity. He will no more give it to ungrateful persons than you would give a superb gift to a person who has shown no gratitude for all your previous gifts.

Since life is your most precious possession and you must have it to enjoy the many good things in which you find pleasure, obtaining the gift of eternal life should be your chief objective. With it the joys of existence will extend far beyond the brief life span we now have. In comparison our life today is like a passing vapor. If you appreciate the gift of life you now have, you will seek the greater gift of eternal life. To get it you must prove yourself worthy of it by learning and doing the will of the Life-giver.

For all the gifts you have received from him and for those he has promised, give thanks. “Thank Jehovah, for he is good, for to everlasting is his loving-kindness.”—1 Chron. 16:34.

The Sacred Bible and Our Problem of Survival

“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 2:32

1. In regard to the art of printing, what proved to be a fitting tribute to the most famous book in all history?

AS LONG ago as the eighth century of our Common Era the Chinese of Asia practiced printing from engraved wooden blocks. In Europe the printing of literature from movable type was invented toward the middle of the fifteenth century, not long before the discovery of America. The first book turned out by the printing press of the inventor was the translation of the most famous book in all history, the sacred Bible, in the international language of that day, Latin. This was a fitting tribute to the value and importance of this great Book.

2. (a) In what language was most of the sacred Bible written, and to whom was this part of the Bible first given? (b) What was printing quickly seized upon to produce, and what circulation has come to be without equal?

² The sacred Bible was written, for the most part, in the language of the ancient patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which language was called Hebrew, since Abraham was a Hebrew. This Hebrew part of the Bible had first been given to the Jews or Israelites; and after printing was invented in Europe they quickly seized upon this newly invented means in order to reproduce copies of their inspired Holy Writings or Scriptures. In 1477 an edition of 300 copies of part of the Hebrew Bible was turned out by a Hebrew printing press in Europe. Then in 1488 a European Jewish printing house produced the first complete edition of the Hebrew Bible with vowel and accent signs. Since then the sacred Bible composed of sixty-six books has reached a circulation unequaled by any other book in all human history, namely, over two thousand million copies in more than a thousand languages. In all centuries of its existence it has proved itself to be a book that deserves the attention, study and obedience of all mankind.

3. Why is the Bible brought into this discussion, and what development has worked right in harmony with the predicted preaching of its message?

³ But why bring the Bible into this discussion? What has the Bible to do with our survival as a race? Those who are not familiar with the contents of the Bible are likely to ask such a question. To this the answer by those well informed on the Bible must be, that the Bible has much to do with our survival in the threatening future just ahead of us, in our generation. In view of this it is timely that the sacred Bible has today the greatest circulation of any book in man’s existence in so many languages, this making it available to more than ninety persons out of every hundred to read. In the Bible itself the divine Author has definitely stated that its message for our day should be preached in all the inhabited earth for the advisement of the people of all nations. Not accidentally the wide spread of the Bible in print, in so many translations, works right in harmony with that divine purpose. It is to our everlasting interest to consider at this time with all honesty what the sacred Bible has to say as to our survival.

4. In this age of atomic bombs, what question of immediate moment has been forced to the front, and how was this worry referred to at a recent session of the National Conference on Social Work?

⁴ We are living in the age of the atomic bombs together with rockets that can hurl them even one third of the distance around the globe. Atomic survival of humankind has been forced to the front as a question of immediate moment. Are we prepared to survive? That question came up at a session of the National Conference on Social Work in Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S.A., on June 8, 1960. A correspondent of the New York Times reported on it; and the next day the report was published under the bold headlines: “MENTAL SPECIALIST FINDS HUMANS UNPREPARED FOR ATOMIC SURVIVAL.” It reported the speech of a former director general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Brock Chisholm of Victoria, British Columbia. He told the conference that ‘nobody had ever had to worry about the survival of the whole human race before. Therefore man now finds himself in as great a crisis as did forms of life that were annihilated in prehistoric times [such as dinosaurs]. Heretofore humans have been concerned only with survival of small groups, such as the family, the clan, the city and state.’—New York Times, June 9, 1960.

5. (a) How was an indirect challenge then hurled at the Bible? (b) How does the Bible stand with regard to traditions of a global catastrophe, and on what global catastrophe through which mankind survived does it report?

⁵ True as that may be, yet this mental health specialist hurled an indirect challenge at the sacred Bible as regards survival. How? He reportedly said that ‘man’s survival in the nuclear age is doubtful because there is no tradition for it.’ Yet all around the earth today, in widely separate places even, there are traditions of a global catastrophe, generally by water, through which the human race survived by but a few human survivors. But, better than furnishing us mere tradition, the Bible presents the actual record of such a global catastrophe of historic times and of how our human family was preserved through it in a few members, to survive till today. The sacred Bible does not depend upon those many traditions among different peoples; the Bible record is merely substantiated by such traditions. The Bible record has borrowed nothing from those traditions handed down from of old; neither is the Bible record a modification of any of such traditions, such as the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic or myth. The catastrophe that then caused worry about the survival of the whole human race was the global flood in the twenty-fourth century before our Common Era. The human race survived through it in our common forefather, Noah, and his three sons and the wives of all four. Eight souls! From Noah’s three sons the three great branches of mankind sprang.

6. In what Bible book were the eyewitness accounts of the Flood embodied, and by whom was writing of the Bible begun and finished?

⁶ In the first book of the sacred Bible, called “Genesis,” we have the eyewitness accounts of the great flood by Noah and his three sons. Their accounts were embodied by the Hebrew prophet Moses in his writing of Genesis. (See Genesis 5:32 to 10:1.) Genesis is the first of the sixty-six books in the complete Bible; and all these books were written over a period of about 1,610 years. It was in 1513 B.C.E. that Moses started the writing of those inspired sixty-six books, and the faithful followers of Jesus Christ finished the writing about the year 98 of our Common Era.

7, 8. (a) The acceptance of the eyewitness history of the Flood by other Bible writers is proved by what recent archaeological find? (b) What does page-column 45 of the Scroll say regarding the Flood, and how does Ezekiel support the Flood as history?

⁷ The eyewitness history of the Flood was never rejected by the other inspired writers of the sacred Bible. A recent archaeological find supports that fact, namely, the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah’s prophecy, found in 1947 and estimated to be more than 2,000 years old. This Hebrew prophet wrote his set of prophecies in the eighth century before our Common Era (about 775-732). Isaiah, who wrote and spoke in the name of his God Jehovah, confirmed the historicalness of the flood of Noah’s day.

⁸ Page-column 45 of the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah assures us that the survival of the whole human race will never again be threatened by a global flood. That page of the Dead Sea Scroll says for our comfort today: “‘This is just as the days of Noah to me. Just as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more pass over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not become indignant toward you nor rebuke you. For the mountains themselves may be removed, and the very hills may stagger, but my loving-kindness itself will not be removed from you, nor will my covenant of peace itself stagger,’ Jehovah, the One having mercy upon you, has said.” (Isa. 54:9, 10) Three times also the prophet Ezekiel, who wrote a century later than Isaiah, refers to the survival of Noah and thus supports that Noah was a historical figure.—Ezek. 14:14, 18, 20.

9. Whose miraculous birth did Isaiah foretell, and how did this one prophesy that survival of our race would become a problem in our day the same as in Noah’s day?

⁹ The prophet Isaiah foretold the earthly birth and the experiences of the Messiah or Anointed One, whom Jehovah God promised to send for the saving of mankind from eternal extinction. Such prophecies of Isaiah were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who miraculously had a virgin birth on earth. Jesus Christ also confirmed the actuality of the Flood. How could he do so? Well, as the Son of God he had viewed it in his prehuman existence in heaven. Prophesying that the survival of the whole human race would again be a problem in our own days as it was in the days of Noah, Jesus Christ said: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as people were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” Those words were part of his prophecy concerning the visible evidences that would mark the time for the end of today’s system of things.—Matt. 24:36-39; see also Luke 17:26, 27.

10. How did the writer to the Hebrews express the importance of faith toward survival of our race?

¹⁰ Faith in Almighty God is important toward the survival of the human race. Testifying to that, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews said: “By faith Noah, after being given divine warning of things not yet beheld, showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household, and through this faith he condemned the world, and he became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”—Heb. 11:7.

11. How did Peter express how the human family barely escaped being annihilated in the Flood?

¹¹ Showing how the whole human family barely escaped being annihilated in the global flood, Simon Peter, a personal companion of Jesus Christ, wrote in his two letters contained in the Bible. In his first letter Peter said: “The patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed, in which a few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water.” (1 Pet. 3:20) In his second letter Peter says concerning this stupendous act of God: “He did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people.” “There were heavens in ancient times and an earth standing compactly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God, and by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.”—2 Pet. 2:5; 3:5, 6.

12. What makes it so remarkable that humankind should be preserved through the Flood in view of its release of natural energies?

¹² Think of a tiny segment of humankind being preserved alive through such a terrific release of natural energies under God’s control! Even today hurricanes as operations of energy are still a mystery. “The energies involved in a hurricane dwarf those of the largest hydrogen bombs. Hence control of such storms will be difficult,” said a hurricane article in the New York Times of October 4, 1959. What starts such a storm and keeps it going is not yet scientifically known. But Almighty God Jehovah started the Flood and accounted for its globe-encircling extent. All the atomic and hydrogen bombs now kept in store by the four nuclear powers hold but a tiny fraction of all the dynamic energy released in the flood of Noah’s time. The waters that fell from the heavens for forty days and forty nights swamped the whole earth up to fifteen cubits higher than the tallest mountains. (Gen. 7:19, 20) And yet, through it all, God kept our human race and the animal and bird forms alive, so that here we are today!

13. In view or this, why is there no need to be doubtful about man’s survival in the nuclear age?

¹³ The Bible account informs us of this, and it is based, not upon tradition, but upon eyewitness accounts, the truthfulness of which is testified to by a number of Bible writers, yes, even by the Son of God himself. Truly there is no need for us to be doubtful about ‘man’s survival in the nuclear age,’ because there is more than mere tradition for it.

WHAT THIS GENERATION FACES

14, 15. (a) What hope do events in connection with the Flood offer mankind today? (b) How do we know for certain whether we face another global deluge or not?

¹⁴ The events of the flood of Noah’s day offer hope of the continuation of human life on earth to mankind who are again worried about surviving as a race. That flood is not just a fact of far-back ancient history. That flood situation foreshadowed our own situation today, according to the prophetic words of Jesus Christ the Son of God. The fact is, our world or system of things measures its duration from that flood in which God destroyed the ancient, ungodly world dating from mankind’s fall into sin. Not that we face another deluge from the skies that will submerge even the Himalaya mountains. Jehovah God, the Bringer of the flood of Noah’s day, assures us of that fact. The latest rainbow that we have seen in the clouds is a guarantee of that. After Noah and his household came out of the ark high up on a mountain’s top in Ararat, God said to Noah and his household while at their altar of worship:

¹⁵ “My rainbow I do give in the cloud, and it must serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. And it shall occur that when I bring a cloud over the earth, then the rainbow will certainly appear in the cloud. And I shall certainly remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living soul among all flesh, and no more will the waters become a deluge to bring all flesh to ruin.”—Gen. 9:13-15.

16. (a) As to our earth’s existence, how does God’s Word contradict the scientists and astronomers? (b) According to statements of worldly spokesmen, to what state of affairs have we come?

¹⁶ What, then, do we face that makes our survival a problem today? Of course, our generation does not have to fear what scientists and astronomers predict, namely, the making of our planet a lifeless, burnt-out cinder, for they locate such an imagined global catastrophe some billions of years in the future. Contradicting such scientists and astronomers, Jehovah God, earth’s Creator, says in his Bible: “He has founded the earth upon its established places; it will not be made to totter to time indefinite, nor forever.” (Ps. 104:5) “The earth is standing even to time indefinite.” (Eccl. 1:4) But world statesmen, militarists and informed spokesmen keep telling us what they have reason to believe that our whole human race now faces. According to them we have come to find ourselves in a world in which it is too dangerous to live.

17. What did the U.S. Congressional Record have to say regarding the possibility of world destruction?

¹⁷ Says the U.S. Congressional Record as of June 13, 1960, on page A 5022: “Senator Kennedy . . . recently cited figures that would mean our arsenal now contains the equivalent of 1,250,000 bombs of the type that leveled Hiroshima. This was confirmed in substance by Thomas E. Murray, former Atomic Energy Commissioner, when he said we now have more than enough weapons to destroy the world.” This does not include atomic weapons of other nations.

18. What did a noted American professor have to say about American doubts concerning survival and the spending of great values in the development of weapons?

¹⁸ In an article headed “National Purpose: Rossiter Concept—A Call to Rise Above Self-Interest to Aid ‘Whole Human Race’,” as published in the New York Times of June 13, 1960, Professor Clinton Rossiter said that the American people are besieged with doubts about their “capacity to flourish and perhaps even to survive”; and that, even though we might hold off a war crisis that will be worse than even war itself, the American people are “left deep in the crisis of a peace that is no peace. We pour an appalling amount of money, resources, skills and energy into the development and production of weapons we pray to God we will never use.”

19. What did an American physicist of note say regarding the burial of our dead after another great war and a newly added cause of disastrous war?

¹⁹ The noted American physicist, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, at an international gathering under the auspices of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, in Berlin, Germany, June 16, 1960, said that all people should know today that if another great war occurs “none of us can count on having enough living to bury our dead.” He went on to say: “In this decade the deadliness, the destructive power, of atomic stockpiles has increased far more than a hundredfold—how much more it may be neither permissible nor relevant to tell. Today . . . they have added chance to anger as another cause of disaster.”—New York Times, June 17, 1960.

20. What was the overriding issue of America’s 1960 presidential election campaign according to a New York Socialist newspaper?

²⁰ In bold headlines on the front page of its edition of May 21, 1960, concerning the American presidential election campaign, the Socialist newspaper Weekly People of New York city screamed: “HUMANITY’S SURVIVAL IS OVERRIDING ISSUE OF THE 1960 CAMPAIGN.”

21. What did the 1959 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize think as to world prospects within the next ten years?

²¹ In 1960 the receiver of the 1959 Nobel Peace prize, Lord Philip Noel-Baker, a British government officer, said: “I think it quite likely . . . that within ten years the governments will not have disarmed, we shall have had a nuclear war; we, our children, and grandchildren will all be dead, and the world will be spinning a lifeless, radioactive, incinerated globe throughout eternity.”—New York Times Magazine, August 14, 1960.

22. What is CBR warfare, and how does it rate?

²² Now the talk is also about CBR warfare, or Chemical, Bacteriological, Radiological warfare, concerning which one American colonel, a director of the United States Army CBR Weapons Orientation Course, is reported as saying: “I’m an enthusiast over biological and chemical warfare. I think it’s great stuff. It’s more humane than anything else we’ve got.” (New York Herald Tribune, August 29, 1960) CBR warfare is profitable, because it leaves standing intact the material properties of the enemies it kills.

23. What did the then American president say to the fifteenth session of the U.N. General Assembly as to the need of disarmament?

²³ In addressing the historic fifteenth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, New York city, Thursday morning, September 22, 1960, the then American president, General Eisenhower, said to the greatest assemblage of statesmen ever to attend a UN meeting: “But armaments must also be controlled here on earth if civilization is to be assured of survival.”

24. According to such prominent spokesmen, what is the outlook for this world, and how does reference to weapons at the Pentagon building bear out this view?

²⁴ These are only a sampling of all the sayings of informed, prominent men of the world, whose utterances are not to be taken lightly. According to their own statements their world system of things is doomed to destruction by its own means. Quite expressive of such an outlook for this overarmed world is the fact that in Arlington, Virginia, opposite Washington, D.C., the people at the Pentagon building, which holds most of the United States Army headquarters offices, speak of “Doomsday weapons.”

25. What question does indignation stir us to ask, and how have the nations thus brought themselves into direct conflict with man’s Creator?

²⁵ In indignation we ask, What group of warmongers, scientists or political rulers has the right to cause destruction to the whole human race, or even to threaten its existence and to make its survival a worrisome problem? This is a threatening to commit genocide on a world scale, the destroying of the entire genus homo, the man genus, the murder of the human family.a The fact that the world family of bloodguilty nations have armed themselves with the means to do this dastardly thing has brought the nations into direct conflict with man’s Creator, Jehovah God. His purpose is that the human family shall inhabit this earth in peace and happiness for all time. “You must not murder,” says the sixth of his Ten Commandments given through his prophet Moses. “Everyone who hates his brother is a manslayer, and you know that no manslayer has everlasting life remaining in him,” says the Christian apostle John, a worshiper of Jehovah God.—Ex. 20:13; 1 John 3:15.

26. Whom are the hate-filled nations threatening to destroy, and hence into what day have they entered and with what expectation?

²⁶ In destroying the human family, the worldly nations filled with hatred would destroy not only their own patriotic, nationalistic peoples but also the faithful servants of Jehovah, who are not of this world but who are for God’s righteous new world. This destruction of his servants by nations opposed to his purpose Jehovah God will never permit. (Ps. 145:20) For bringing themselves to this threatening world situation the nations must render an account, no, not to the United Nations or to its International Court of Justice, but to the Creator, God the “Judge of all the earth.” (Gen. 18:25) The nations have entered their judgment day before God. They must expect an execution of judgment from him.

27. What solemn illustration is there of such coming judgment execution, and what does Peter say is to be expected?

²⁷ Consequently, the execution of divine judgment is what all nations of this unrighteous world face. The execution of Jehovah God’s judgment in Noah’s days upon the ancient world of ungodly people is a solemn illustration of what the violent, ungodly world of today has to expect. This present world had its beginning after the Flood that deluged the earth at God’s word. Says the apostle Peter: “By the same word the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.”—2 Pet. 3:7.

28, 29. Why may we declare such a comparison of judgment executions without hesitation?

²⁸ What the humanly governed, sovereign nations of this world face, therefore, is something comparable with that Flood of floods of Noah’s day. Without hesitation we may declare this, according to the prophetic words of Jesus Christ himself. His reference to judgment executions as reported by his disciple Luke reads:

²⁹ “Just as it occurred in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of man: they were eating, they were drinking, men were marrying, women were being given in marriage, until that day when Noah entered into the ark, and the flood arrived and destroyed them all. . . . The same way it will be on that day when the Son of man is to be revealed.”—Luke 17:26-30.

30. Why have we all the more reason to believe Jesus’ words on this, and how did he emphasize that it would be man’s worst tribulation?

³⁰ We have all reason to believe those words, for Jesus Christ will not forget that he said them, when he is revealed as God’s judge of execution who must judge the living and the dead. Moreover, Jesus Christ is a reliable prophet, for in his prophecy on the end of this worldly system of things he foretold the world events and conditions taking place since A.D. 1914. Had he not done so, he would not have told us also how we may hope to get out of this world mess. That it will be man’s worst tribulation in which the very survival of people of flesh and blood will be in the balance, he said in that same prophecy: “For then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones [of God’s choice] those days will be cut short.” And he added: “Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.”—Matt. 24:21, 22, 34.

31. Why is this the generation there referred to by Jesus?

³¹ The foretold events having begun A.D. 1914, the generation of mankind that is still alive from that year is the generation meant by Jesus Christ. Till now we have seen fulfilled the world-shaking features of the “sign of [Christ’s invisible] presence and of the consummation of the system of things.” (Matt. 24:3) What features? World War I, which failed to be the “war to end all wars”; famines and food shortages; earthquakes; the persecution of Christ’s true, obedient followers; the rise of false religious prophets in Christendom; the disquieting increase of lawlessness; the flight of true Christians to the real place of safety and survival because they see and understand the foretold sign of coming desolation; and, in spite of all the persecution and all the bad times and bad news, the preaching of the good news of God’s own kingdom “in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations.” (Matt. 24:7-28) The occurrence of these things since 1914 is within the knowledge of millions of this generation. It is also a matter of published record for any questioners to examine.

32. Why is survival the problem of this generation?

³² We, then, are the generation that will not pass away till there is fulfilled that “great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.” Survival is the problem of us of this generation.

[Footnotes]

Hope of Survival Faces the Problem

1. Why can no hope of survival be held out to this generation by worldly elements?

NO HOPE of survival can be held out to this generation by politics, militarism, capitalism, communism, socialism, or the religions of Christendom and pagandom. Their defensive measures for what these see coming will not be able to stand up under the execution of divine judgment upon the nations.

2. From a worldly standpoint, why would previous death be better than survival of another world war, and so why ought we to be thankful for having the Bible?

² Back in 1952, the then eighty-year-old British author, philosopher, mathematician, Lord Bertrand Russell, was reported as saying: “I should like to live another ten years provided there is not another world war meanwhile. If there is, there will be something to be said for being dead.” To this British lord death beforehand was to be preferred to living on into another world war, the war with nuclear weapons and CBR war weapons. Say that remnants of nations did survive such a war. Yet the nations can offer no hope of there being afterward anything beautiful, uplifting and healthful for which to live on earth. How glad and thankful we ought to be, then, that we have the sacred Bible! It offers the true, reliable hope. With this hope we can face the problem of survival. Without the Bible we should truly be left without hope.

3. How does God show whether he is interested in mankind’s survival, and what assurance did Jesus give us in his prophecy about the greatest tribulation?

³ The God of the sacred Bible is highly interested in mankind’s survival. In his Bible he holds out the only hope for survival. His Bible plainly states that he has provided for man’s eternal survival. On the pages of the Bible Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has assured us of the survival of human flesh on earth when he added to his prophecy about the greatest tribulation of human history: “In fact, unless Jehovaha had cut short the days, no flesh would be saved. But on account of the chosen ones that he has chosen he has cut short the days.” (Mark 13:19, 20) By such promised miraculous survival Christ’s prophecy will be fulfilled, that it will be just as in Noah’s day, when human flesh as well as flesh of beasts and birds was saved, to live on earth till today.

4. In John, chapter three, how did Jesus point to God’s concern for man’s survival on earth, and what did God’s action include for Jesus?

⁴ God has given the greatest proof of his desire and purpose for man’s survival on earth. Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, pointed to it in these words recorded in the Bible, in John 3:16, 17: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life. For God sent forth his Son into the world, not for him to judge the world, but for the world to be saved through him.” God’s giving his only-begotten Son meant sending him down from heaven to be born as the human son of a virgin and then letting enemies raise him up on a torture stake to public gaze, to die a shameful death. Just previous to the above-quoted words Jesus said: “No man has ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted up, that everyone believing in him may have everlasting life.”—John 3:13-15; see also Numbers 21:4-9.

5. (a) How is it that Jehovah God has his only-begotten Son back with him in heaven? (b) How did Jesus show himself to be like his Father on the matter of mankind’s survival?

⁵ For our sake, however, God has his only-begotten Son back again in heaven, not as a human Son such as he was on earth, but as a glorious, superhuman, spiritual Son. For on the third day of his death Almighty God raised him from the dead to heavenly life. (1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:20, 42-46) In this marvelous way the resurrected Son of God ascended to heaven with the value of his human sacrifice and presented its value or merit to his God, his heavenly Father. This value of Jesus’ human sacrifice Jehovah God lovingly accepted in behalf of believers among mankind. So this perfect human sacrifice was not laid down in vain. Its precious value is yet to be fully applied in behalf of mankind. Jesus Christ showed himself to be like his heavenly Father in being interested in mankind’s survival, for he laid down his human life in sacrifice, that humankind might not die off but gain everlasting life here on earth in a paradise condition, through exercising faith.

DIVINE PURPOSE LINKED WITH SURVIVAL

6. What stated purpose of God are the peace-mouthing nations aiming to frustrate?

⁶ In spite of all their mouthings about peace with justice and universal disarmament, the nations are actually aiming to frustrate God’s purpose in creating man. God’s stated purpose concerning his creating of our earth calls for the survival and preservation of mankind, the human family. Listen to his purpose as he speaks to us through the Bible writer Isaiah: “This is what Jehovah has said, the Creator of the heavens, He The true God, the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, He the One who firmly established it, who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it even to be inhabited.” (Isa. 45:18) Like a vast housing project built in a twentieth-century city, our earth was formed by Jehovah God to be inhabited by human creatures. In further explanation of his purpose respecting our earth the Bible says, in Psalm 115:15, 16: “You are the ones blessed by Jehovah, the Maker of heaven and earth. As regards the heavens, to Jehovah the heavens belong, but the earth he has given to the sons of men.”

7. What purpose of God was to be fulfilled by the perfect man and woman, and from whom do nations of different color today trace their descent?

⁷ The earth was to be inhabited by one family, Adam’s or man’s family. All the nations of today, no matter of what color, are the descendants of the original man Adam through Noah. Correctly the Christian apostle Paul said: “The God that made the world and all the things in it, being, as this One is, Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade temples, neither is he attended to by human hands as if he needed anything, because he himself gives to all persons life and breath and all things. And he made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth.” (Acts 17:24-26) God said to the first man and woman: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is creeping upon the earth.” (Gen. 1:28) This purpose of God was to be fulfilled by the perfect man and wife, beginning from the paradise garden of Eden.

8. Are the expanding nations today working in harmony with God’s purpose for this earth, and how will his execution of judgment not defeat his own purpose?

⁸ Has this divine purpose yet been fulfilled? The nations of today think there has been a population explosion lately and that the earth is about filled with people almost to being uncomfortable. But just when the nations get the earth quite filled with people, they are pursuing a course calculated to wipe out the whole human race and empty the earth. Shortly there will be a tremendous reduction of earth’s population—when God executes judgment on the nations in this their judgment day, because this world or system of things must be destroyed; but God will not wipe out the whole human race altogether. God will save flesh that is not of this world, by shortening the days of the great tribulation.

9. Why is God’s execution of judgment not to be against those of the “flesh” that will be saved?

⁹ The flesh saved will be that of those like Noah, those who, like Noah, walk with God amid this world in which the badness of man is great, every inclination of man’s heart being bad all the time. (Gen. 6:5, 9) Those not of this world follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, who in his days in the flesh on earth also was not of this world. (John 17:14, 16) God’s judgment upon these is favorable in this day of judgment of the nations. These are the ones taking part in the fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations.” That kingdom is not of this doomed world. Jesus Christ said: “My kingdom is no part of this world.” (John 18:36) Hence God’s judgment of destruction is not against the preachers of his New World kingdom.

10. After the completion of the preaching of the Kingdom news, what will come, and to whom or what will this apply?

¹⁰ But after the preaching of “this good news of the kingdom” and after the witness to all the nations has been completed in all the inhabited earth, what? Jesus went on to tell us: “And then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) Not the “accomplished end” of all flesh or of all humankind, but the “accomplished end” of this “system of things,” for its consummation will have reached its climax. (Matt. 24:3, 14) Those who have made themselves a part of this system of things will come to their end with it.

11. (a) In agreement with the result of the Flood, what does the fulfillment of Matthew 24:35 not mean respecting our earth? (b) Why will the Kingdom preachers be excluded from the destruction?

¹¹ With reference to their end Jesus said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.” (Matt. 24:35) God’s enemies in heaven and on earth, who are opposed to his kingdom as proclaimed by Christ’s followers on earth, are the ones that will pass away when God executes judgment against this wicked system of things. The ancient days of Noah with which our own modern days run parallel were not marked by the destruction of mankind’s earthly home, even as those days were also not marked by the drowning of all flesh in the Flood. (Gen. 7:4) So the fulfillment of Jesus’ words will not mean the literal burning up of the earth and its moon and the cremating of every last one of its human inhabitants. True, the Bible writer Peter says that by God’s word “the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire”; but Peter adds that these wicked heavens and earth “are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.” (2 Pet. 3:7) But not all men and women alive today are ungodly. Not Christ’s dedicated followers who are no part of the world and who, in proof of that fact, are going from house to house in every nation preaching “this good news of the kingdom.” Like Noah and his godly household in the flood days, they will not be included in the coming “destruction of the ungodly men.”

12. Nineteen hundred years ago what did Peter write about the long-enduring patience of God?

¹² The second letter of Peter to faithful Christians was penned about the year 64. So it was nineteen hundred years ago that the apostle Peter wrote the following words about the long-enduring patience of Jehovah God: “Let this one fact not be escaping your notice, beloved ones, that one day is with Jehovahb as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Jehovahc is not slow respecting his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance. Yet Jehovah’sd day will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a hissing noise, but the elements being intensely hot will be dissolved, and earth and the works in it will be discovered.”—2 Pet. 3:8-10.

13, 14. To whom, then, are Peter’s next words, in 2 Peter 3:11-14, certainly directed, and evidently why to them?

¹³ As in the days of Noah’s building the ark, so now over forty years since A.D. 1914 Jehovah’s patience has been waiting a long time. All evidences are indicative, in the light of Bible prophecy, that the day of Jehovah for executing judgment against the ungodly is near, within this generation. To us, then, who lay hold on the Bible hope of survival, Peter’s next words are certainly directed:

¹⁴ “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion, awaiting and keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah, through which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved and the elements being intensely hot will melt! But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell. Hence, beloved ones, since you are awaiting these things, do your utmost to be found finally by him spotless and unblemished and in peace.”—2 Pet. 3:11-14.

15. Thus what is Peter telling us of this generation?

¹⁵ Thus, by a letter that has survived until today as a part of the sacred Bible, the apostle Peter tells us what to do in order to escape destruction amid the heat, the hissing noise, the fiery flames and the dissolution process with which the symbolic heavens and the symbolic earth of ungodly people will be put out of operation. Peter of nineteen hundred years ago is telling us of this generation the only possible way to survive the complete end of this ungodly system of things. Will we heed his inspired advice?

16. If we act now like those whose coming Peter foretold, what will befall us, and so how should we act?

¹⁶ Or will we be like those whose coming Peter foretold and in view of whose coming Peter felt urged to write the above exhortation to godliness in these the “last days” of this system of things with its ungodly heavens and earth? “For you know this first,” wrote Peter, “that in the last days there will come ridiculers with their ridicule, proceeding according to their own desires and saying: ‘Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep in death, all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.’” (2 Pet. 3:3, 4) If we now act like such foretold ridiculers, then without fail the fiery judgment day of Jehovah will come upon us suddenly like a thief and we shall not be judged worthy to survive and to be saved into the new order of righteous heavens and earth. However, if with appreciation we hold fast to the hope of the new order, then we will face the problem of survival by doing as Peter urged us to do.

SOMETHING TO SURVIVE FOR!

17. Where will godly members of the human family survive, and when will Isaiah 54:5 concerning the “God of the whole earth” apply?

¹⁷ No vacuum or void or emptiness will be left in the universe by Jehovah’s destruction of the ungodly heavens and earth. No new hole will be created in outer space with its numberless suns and planets, cosmic dust and galaxies. The literal earth will survive as the place for the approved godly members of the human family to survive on, under the surviving sun and moon and stars. In support, it is written concerning Jehovah as Creator of the symbolic new heavens and new earth: “The God of the whole earth he will be called.” (Isa. 54:5) Today this prophecy is not true in the Communist-dominated one third of the earth, nor even in materialistic, worldly Christendom. The prophecy will be true in all the earth after Jehovah executes judgment in his fiery day for destroying the present ungodly system of things. No longer will Jehovah’s chief adversary, Satan the Devil, be the “god of this system of things” in which he is worshiped. This “present wicked system of things” will have been destroyed forever in the judgment day of Jehovah God. Thus Satan will have no more worshipers on earth, and he and all his wicked demons with him will be abyssed and undeified, as false gods.—2 Cor. 4:4; Gal. 1:4; Rev. 20:1-3.

18. (a) How will the prayer of Matthew 6:9, 10 then also be answered? (b) How and why will surviving mankind live under new heavens?

¹⁸ Then it must come true also: “Jehovah must become king over all the earth.” (Zech. 14:9) This will be the glorious answer to Jesus’ model prayer, which he taught his followers to pray to their Father in heaven: “Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:9, 10) Back in 1914, according to Bible prophecy and time-reckoning, Jehovah installed his Son Jesus Christ at his right hand, in his heavenly throne, to rule in Jehovah’s name over all the earth and thus provide one universal government for surviving mankind. For this reason they will live under new heavens, that is, under a new spiritual government. No longer will Satan the Devil be the “ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now operates in the sons of disobedience.” (Eph. 2:2) Then will have been realized the prophetic words of Jesus Christ nineteen hundred years ago at Jerusalem: “Now there is a judging of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” “Because the ruler of this world has been judged.” (John 12:31; 16:11) Satan and his spirit demons will no longer operate unseen as a wicked heaven over worldly mankind, promoting the misrule of the suffering human race.

19, 20. (a) Over whom will the new heavens begin to rule, but who will join these shortly thereafter? (b) Why, according to Jesus’ words, did these latter ones rightly look forward to such a thing?

¹⁹ The “new heavens,” God’s kingdom operated by his enthroned Son Jesus Christ, will begin to rule over all godly ones who survive God’s judgment act executed upon the “heavens and the earth that are now.” Without any interference, reproach and persecution from the ungodly people the survivors will continue to walk with Jehovah God, in the same way that Noah walked with the true God after the Flood just as he had done before, in the ancient world of the ungodly. In fact, Noah himself will shortly join the survivors thereafter and will walk alongside them with the same true God. So will other patriarchs and prophets and faithful witnesses of Jehovah God of ancient times before Jesus Christ died upon the torture stake and was raised from the dead and ascended back to heaven to present to God the value of his ransom sacrifice in behalf of all men and women who would become believers in him. Noah and these other pre-Christian witnesses of Jehovah God looked forward to the resurrection from the dead. Rightly so, for Jesus Christ once said to his marveling listeners:

²⁰ “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment. . . . just as I hear, I judge, and the judgment that I render is righteous, because I seek not my own will but the will of him that sent me.”—John 5:28-30.

21. Hence by whom is the earth not to be occupied solely, but in what mandate will they take part for a time?

²¹ Thus the earth is not to be occupied solely by the survivors of the “great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now.” For a time those earthly survivors whose hope is that of everlasting life in an earthly paradise will take part in the procreation mandate originally given to the perfect Adam and Eve in the paradise of Eden: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:28) This mandate was repeated immediately after the Flood, when Noah and his household came out of the ark and restored Jehovah’s worship on the purged earth and God blessed them, saying: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth.” (Gen. 8:15 to 9:1) Whatever the condition may be in which the “great tribulation” leaves this earth, the survivors will begin to subdue it as well as to populate it as far as God sees good, by carrying out the procreation mandate.

22. What will appear on the earth, and who will supply the rest of its inhabitants, and for how long?

²² A new earthly paradise will make its appearance and will gradually cover the entire earth by the blessing and help of earth’s Creator. Those who are resurrected from the dead will supply the rest of earth’s population. They too will enjoy the earthwide paradise if they choose to worship Jehovah God faithfully and to be unswervingly loyal and obedient to his theocratic government by Jesus Christ. All these faithful ones on the paradise earth will make up, figuratively speaking, a “new earth,” that is, an earthly society organized on a new basis and functioning according to God’s will as made known through his new heavens. This “new earth” will pass God’s final judgment and will abide forever.

23. What preview did the apostle John give us of the new order of things, and why did he write down the description of it?

²³ Do you want a preview of this God-honoring new order of things? The aged apostle John gave it when he wrote the last book of the Bible. He wrote: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea [of ungodly mankind] is no more.” John wrote down the description of the vision, because he was told to do so by Jehovah God on his heavenly throne: “And the one seated on the throne said: ‘Look! I am making all things new.’ Also he says: ‘Write, because these words are trustworthy and true.’”—Rev. 21:1, 5.

24. Why, then, can we be thankful for having the sacred Bible, and into what may we survive according to our hope?

²⁴ How thankful we can be, then, that we have the sacred Bible today! If Jehovah God had not preserved his Book the Bible until now, we should not have an accurate record of his deeds, his purposes and his promises. We could not know how to get through the end of this wicked world into the endless new world that God creates. There is indeed something to survive for; and O how grand it is! We hopeful ones can solve today’s problem of survival by living according to our hope. We will not survive into a postwar order with earth, sea and air poisoned by radioactivity and chemicals and disease bacteria. We will survive into a purified earth, for which paradise beauty is reserved. We will survive into a new order, without Satan and his demons, but with the promised righteous Kingdom of God by Christ in perfect control for the eternal blessing of all believing, obedient humans alive or dead.

25. (a) Whom should those who would survive now seek, and why? (b) By heeding what may we survive, and for how long?

²⁵ All you who would survive the great tribulation in which this doomed system of things will perish, seek Jehovah and his kingdom by Christ. Satan the Devil and his worldly system of things are not interested in your survival nor can they assure your survival. (Rev. 12:12) Jehovah God is lovingly interested in your survival. He can also accomplish your survival through his kingly Son Jesus Christ. In this judgment time when the survival of the whole human family is a problem for worldly rulers, seek Jehovah as your God and Life-giver and Preserver. Now, in a sense as true as in the days of Noah, “Jehovah is guarding all those loving him, but all the wicked ones he will annihilate.” (Ps. 145:20) He has guarded his Word for us in his sacred Bible; and his Word will survive forever. (Isa. 40:8; 1 Pet. 1:25) Survive forever with his imperishable Word by heeding it and doing it.

26. (a) Of what book should we avail ourselves, and why? (b) What help of God’s provision should Bible readers also accept, and how will they face the problem of survival with success?

²⁶ “The world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever.” (1 John 2:17) The sacred Bible, which reveals God’s will, unerringly shows us the solution to the present-day problem of survival. If you are not already the possessor of a copy of the Bible, get a copy quickly in one of its more than one thousand translations. Read it, not just as a piece of beautiful ancient literature, but prayerfully and with faith in it, believing it, “just as it truthfully is, as the Word of God.” (1 Thess. 2:13) Also, accept the help that God provides today for you to understand his written Word, namely, his dedicated witnesses who are preaching “this good news of the kingdom” in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a final witness to all the nations before their catastrophic end comes. (Matt. 24:14) Then you too may qualify to join with them in spreading the glorious Kingdom message of survival and of everlasting life. Rejoice in hope of survival; and by applying the real solution that the sacred Bible provides, face our big problem of survival with success, to God’s glory.

[Footnotes]

Visiting the Sick

“Failure to practice practical religion is Christianity’s disrupting contribution to communism’s program of destruction,” says cleric Caleb J. King, Sr., writing in the Jacksonville, Florida, Times Union of February 21, 1959. “At least 95 percent of the more than a hundred million professed Christians on the enrollment books of the churches of America are Christians in name only—insofar as practicing what Christ teaches about visiting the sick and ministering to the needy, including widows and orphans, is concerned. You can find shocking demonstrations of this fact in virtually every congregation. An illustration came recently in the report of the wife of one of the staunchest supporters of a local church. This couple has held membership and been active for 20 years in the church. Two or three years ago he became ill, and was ill for a long time. But his wife said her husband was not visited by one single person from that church during his entire period of invalidism. Now the couple is trying to find a church whose members have a different attitude toward those who become sick, or are otherwise in trouble.”

Deliverance from Totalitarian Inquisition Through Faith in God

As told by Erich Frost

A LEADING German magazine lies open before me. Life in a concentration camp is the subject of a novel being run in serial form. It is the most genuine picture of camp life I have ever read. Yet the worst has not been told. The pen resists expressing such things on paper.

Not long ago the world was horrified by Nazi hordes crusading eastward to the banks of the Volga and blitzing westward to the Channel coast. From frigid Scandinavia to the hot sands of Africa the totalitarians goose-stepped in triumph. For many years Nazidom suffered no setbacks—except one on the home front.

In Germany itself the Nazis tried in vain to liquidate Jehovah’s witnesses. The clock was even turned back some five centuries to resurrect the terrible Inquisition, which burst into full bloom in the Nazi concentration camp. Through faith in our God thousands like myself are alive to tell the story.

I will go back to events beginning in 1919—events that led one into certain conflict with the totalitarian state. That was the year my mother became one of Jehovah’s witnesses, then known as “Bible Students.” I was interested in music. Her zealous witnessing happily caused my father and me to get baptized as Witnesses in my home town, Leipzig, Germany, on March, 4, 1923. I broke off my music studies and began to earn my living playing in coffeehouses and entertainment spots, which allowed much free time for the Lord’s work. In 1924 I began to serve Jehovah full time working in the Society’s literature depot in Leipzig. Four years later I was invited to join in showing the Society’s Photo-Drama of Creation. Thousands still remember the beautiful slides portraying earth’s creation and God’s purpose for man. It was a wonderful privilege to show the Drama and visit many congregations as a “pilgrim” or Bible lecturer.

THE GATHERING STORM

The witness work spread rapidly in Germany. From 1919 to 1933 the zealous German Witnesses distributed 48,000,000 books and booklets, besides 77,000,000 German copies of The Golden Age, now called Awake! In 1932 the spirit of Nazism began to take over. Often mob action reared its ugly head in connection with the Drama showings. It got so bad that it could be presented only under police protection. During this time I became personally known to several Nazis.

While visiting the home of one of the Witnesses in Nuremberg in January, 1933, we heard the bombastic broadcast from Berlin announcing Hitler’s seizure of power. We suspected what this would mean for us. The storm broke that April when the police occupied the Society’s large new factory and Bethel home in Magdeburg and sealed our printing presses. Since no evidence of subversive activity existed, the property was returned on April 28.

In June seven thousand Witnesses assembled in Berlin and passed a resolution strongly protesting the highhanded action of the Hitler government. Millions of copies were distributed. In three days the property at Magdeburg was confiscated and the staff of 180 were forced to leave. Our religious foes rejoiced when Hitler declared: “I dissolve the ‘Earnest Bible Students’ in Germany; their property I dedicate to the people’s welfare; I will have all their literature confiscated.”

Since the Society in America held title to the property, negotiations ensued between the United States Department of State and Germany. The property was again released, but the ban on our preaching activity was not lifted. Meetings were forbidden. More than $25,000 worth of Bibles and Bible literature was burned. By 1934 many Witnesses began to lose their jobs for refusing to vote or “Heil Hitler.”

In the spring of 1934 I was introduced to the inside of a prison for ten days, then released. Shortly thereafter I managed to get back to Czechoslovakia, where I had previously shown the Photo-Drama. How grateful I am now that at a time when the work had been outlawed in Germany and our office closed I was able to show the Drama 122 times outside the country! And yet it was not as easy as before in Czechoslovakia. Often I was awakened at night by police who feared I was a Nazi!

Meanwhile, the brothers in Germany took a bold and decisive step. Though forbidden, on October 7, 1934, all congregations met and passed a resolution of protest to Hitler’s government advising that worship of Jehovah God would continue at any cost. After solemn prayer, the protests were telegraphed to Berlin. Simultaneously, Jehovah’s witnesses in fifty other lands assembled and cabled strong warnings to Nazi Germany. A plenipotentiary of General Ludendorff later revealed that upon seeing the bold telegrams Hitler jumped to his feet and shouted: “This brood will be exterminated in Germany!”

THE CHRISTIAN UNDERGROUND

Upon returning to Germany in May, 1935, I took part in the underground work. On the night of June 13 I was arrested at my hotel and taken to Berlin’s “Columbia House,” where I spent the worst five months of my life. Clubbed and stepped on, always in solitary confinement, vexed and humbled daily, I learned then that humans could become beasts. A Gestapo agent’s senseless questions failed to convict me of being a revolutionist. Unexpectedly I was released and soon faded back into the underground to serve Jehovah further.

Preparations got under way for a convention in Lucerne, Switzerland. Meanwhile, the Nazis began a new drive against us. Already most of the brothers holding responsible positions had been arrested. My efforts were to pick up the loose ends and get things going again. Numberless back doors and windows provided narrow escapes from the Gestapo, but my mother and brother were arrested.

Attending the Lucerne convention in September, 1936, was the Society’s president, Brother Rutherford, and 2,500 of us from Germany. I was assigned to reorganize the severely disrupted underground work, and began immediately. We also planned a blitz distribution in Germany of a convention resolution. On Saturday, December 12, 1936, between five and seven o’clock in the evening, 300,000 copies were silently left at homes in all of Germany’s big cities. Swarms of police and SS patrols failed to catch even one Witness!

Of course, underground work was done in the face of persecution and the danger of losing freedom and life itself. But the brothers had to have spiritual food to retain strength and also to have something to use in their witnessing. Searches made on trains were constant dangers. Even buying large amounts of paper was considered suspicious. Many carriers fell into Gestapo hands. Several brothers accused of preparing The Watchtower for distribution were executed. Nevertheless, with love for God and neighbor His witnesses kept telling the good news of God’s kingdom under Christ. Our resourcefulness was noted in the report published on the front page of The National Socialist Legal Mirror, official organ of Nazi justice:

“The adherents of the forbidden association tried also to maintain the association among themselves and to strengthen one another in the faith. Aside therefrom, they tried on every possible occasion to bring other fellow citizens to their way of thinking. Very often the Earnest Bible Students, while shopping, out for a walk, sitting in the parks or standing in the street, address people who are strangers to them, engaging them at first in a discussion of present events, then gradually to their faith and forbidden doctrine. They deem it their duty as ‘Witnesses of Jehovah’ to do so.” No matter what the risk to themselves, Jehovah’s witnesses are interested in imparting faith to others so that they too may be delivered at this time of the world’s end.

UNDER NAZI ROOFS

The annual Memorial celebration of Christ’s death was due March 27, 1937. I had arranged to meet with ten brothers at that time to discuss the underground activity. At two o’clock in the morning came heavy blows and kicking against the apartment door! In seconds I hid a small roll of paper containing vital information in the mattress of my couch. In came ten secret police: “All right, get up and get dressed, Frost. The jig is up!” I prayed to Jehovah and proceeded to dress while they turned the room into shambles. The small roll was never found.

Things happened quickly. The Gestapo knew of our plan to meet that Friday for the Memorial, but they did not know where. More than once they beat me into unconsciousness, then poured water over my head to revive me. Soon I was unable to lie down or sit. From Friday to Monday I hardly ate or drank, but kept calling on Jehovah to help me keep silent for the sake of the brothers. When brought before the Gestapo gang again I thought of Daniel in the lions’ den. Their angry flood of words revealed what I was anxious to hear: The police dragnet had failed to catch the brothers! My joy was indescribable.

July brought announcement of my wife’s arrest. Our son would be raised by Nazis. Many other Witness children were snatched from their parents and placed in Nazi homes. Most of these youngsters were strengthened by this ordeal. One girl of thirteen wrote her parents: “I always remember the faithful men like Job, Daniel and others, taking them for an example, and I would rather die than become unfaithful to God.” Despite severe pressure, these children refused to join the Hitler youth movement. Because of their Christian manners some were preferred by Nazi parents ahead of their own children.

FROM PRISON CAMP TO SACHSENHAUSEN

In the Emsland Swamp area the inhuman work requirements and cruel treatment drove one almost to desperation. Perhaps you have heard of the “hell of Waldesrand.” Faith and the companionship of loyal Witnesses enabled me to put up with the most difficult things. On Sundays we held joint Bible studies by recalling from memory what we had learned of God’s Word in previous years. Fellow prisoners were invited to drink the “waters of life” with us. They often listened attentively to our discussions.

My prison term ended after World War II erupted and I was brought back to Berlin. Ninety-nine days later the gates of Sachsenhausen concentration camp shut behind me. Unimaginable was the cruel reception by the SS guards; unimaginable too was my joy when greeted by 280 Witnesses, all proved and strengthened through similar hard trials. These were the faithful Christians mentioned in the best seller The Theory and Practice of Hell: “When the war broke out the Witnesses at Sachsenhausen concentration camp were invited to volunteer for military service. Each refusal was followed by the shooting of ten men from their ranks. After forty victims had been killed, the SS desisted. . . . One cannot escape the impression that, psychologically speaking, the SS were never quite equal to the challenge offered them by Jehovah’s Witnesses.” What joy and consolation to be among them! I understood better than ever what the Bible meant: “By iron, iron itself is sharpened. So one man sharpens the face of another.”—Prov. 27:17.

It was repeatedly thrown up to us that the camp gates would swing open if we would sign a declaration rejecting our faith. Miss Genevieve de Gaulle, niece of France’s Charles de Gaulle, verified this when recalling our sisters in Ravensbruck camp: “They could have been immediately freed if they had renounced their faith. But, on the contrary, they did not cease resistance, even succeeding in introducing books and tracts into the camp, which writings caused several among them to be hanged.” Such fearless witnessing caused 300 young Russian women in that camp to become Jehovah’s witnesses. Though forbidden to speak to other prisoners (who could earn twenty-five lashes and solitary confinement by listening), Jehovah’s people determined to stand firm to the very end, in order to demonstrate Jehovah’s power on behalf of his own. A survivor of Buchenwald camp related that the Witnesses testified to their faith “regardless of prohibitions and punishment.” Their concern was not alone for themselves, but also for others. At Neuengamme camp, near Hamburg, our brothers even produced a regular newspaper, News About God’s Kingdom.

In Auschwitz (Oswiecim) extermination camp one of the brothers was sent to repair the heating system where thirty sisters worked. During dinner hour for six consecutive days he spoke to them about God’s Word, renewing their strength, for which they thanked Jehovah. A sympathetic sentry, with rifle at his feet, sat and listened with interest. It was not unusual for guards to match wits with the brothers in conversation. Our captors always received an open and bold witness, because we knew their eternal life, as well as our own, was at stake. A sister assigned to work in the office of an SS-Obersturmfuhrer (about the rank of major) was often warned by him: “I’ll have your head chopped off!” Unknown to him she was using his equipment to produce literature surprises for a camp convention. Many times she spoke to him about Jehovah’s purposes, and bit by bit he became more friendly. By such fearless preaching and neighbor love faith was often born in the lions’ den. Here and there, in various camps, SS guards renounced their Nazi oath and declared their belief in Jehovah. These “Sauls,” our persecutors, became “Pauls,” our fellow prisoners! Among the political prisoners many men and women also became Jehovah’s witnesses. Even a water barrel served for a baptism pool.

Our faith in Jehovah was never misplaced. What Björn Hallström, well-known Swedish journalist, later reported was true of our brothers throughout the Nazi inquisition: “They were treated worse than any other group, but they managed, through their belief in God, to survive better than any others.”

Outside the camps, Gestapo dragnets ensnared only half the Witnesses at any one time. While about 10,000 of us were incarcerated, equal thousands continued to tell the good news of Jehovah’s kingdom. They held secret meetings at night or in the forests. Even funerals brought precious periods of Christian fellowship.

HANDWRITING ON THE WALL

As punishment for being “ringleaders” sixteen of us each received twenty-five blows with a steel rod, followed by detention detail. Finally, they landed us on the rocky island of Alderney between France and the English coast as a so-called SS building company. Though we had to bear up under many hardships inflicted by our captors, there were also opportunities to fend off dangers and sufferings from our fellow prisoners. As it happened, Hitler’s star began to fall after his armies were stopped at Stalingrad. Nazidom was beginning to understand the handwriting on the wall.

Under starlit skies one June night in 1944, we stood down at the harbor and observed the Allied invasion. Then came our withdrawal in old ships to St. Malo, then by train—sixty persons to each freight car—through France, Belgium, Holland and back to Germany. The plan to sink several ships in Kiel Bay with us aboard miscarried when our transportation to Austria was delayed. On the fifth of May, 1945, American tank troops finally set us free.

About the same time, the pressure of advancing Allied armies caused the gates of various concentration camps to swing open, pouring thousands of gaunt captives into the bombed-out countryside. Under guard they had to march, the SS shooting those too weak to push on or those caught pillaging food along the way. Many were the dead. Jehovah’s witnesses helped each other keep going. Often they preached to villagers who expressed appreciation by sharing their food—another provision of Jehovah. Soon the happy words of one Witness were typical: “Now I am free. I am thankful to the Father and our Leader Jesus Christ that I can continue to praise His name.”

The inquisition had failed.

RECONSTRUCTION

Jehovah’s spirit stimulated us to action. Many of us did not plan to return home, even if we still had one. Our first concern was the Society’s property in Magdeburg. We found it about to be converted into a hotel for the Russians. Making the Soviet officers understand who Jehovah’s witnesses are proved a nerve-racking job. Our work in the Eastern Zone probably never would have been restarted had we not stressed day after day that the headquarters for our organization in Germany used to be in Magdeburg and we planned to direct the work in all four occupation zones from that office. They finally consented, and the work proceeded in the Communist zone as elsewhere.

Soon the German congregations were organized anew. At first we preached almost exclusively with the Bible and one tract, but at least we could meet together in freedom and could aid one another. During those meetings shortly after the war our brothers and sisters sometimes fell from their seats due to hunger and weakness. From Jehovah’s witnesses in America came CARE packages as well as large shipments of clothing from our American and Swiss brothers. This was much appreciated and a great help.

Eagerly 9,000 of us attended a convention in Nuremberg in 1946. Magdeburg also had a convention with 6,000 present. It would be hard to imitate the facial expressions and gestures of the Russians when they heard our singing and saw hundreds walking to the place of baptism. Of course, any gathering on the streets was strictly forbidden, but after we explained the baptism they did not interfere. This freedom under East Germany’s new totalitarian rule was not to last much longer.

The Society’s president, Brother Knorr, came to Germany in 1947. A lease was signed for the building and land in Wiesbaden on which our expanded Bethel home now stands. Here in Western Germany we have rejoiced to see the few thousand Witnesses at the close of the war increase until today there are 68,000 zealously proclaiming the happy news of Jehovah’s new world. My heart overflows with joy and gratefulness to Jehovah for bringing this about. I appreciate too the happy weeks spent in 1950, 1953 and 1958, at the large international conventions in New York. Jehovah has also provided additional assemblies for us here in Germany, such as in 1955, when 125,000 came to Nuremberg and Berlin. How much servants of God can do and see in a few years!

DELIVERANCE CERTAIN

When the Communists were fellow prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps they often threatened: “If we ever gain power, we will hang you bunch of comedians!” In 1950 the totalitarian inquisition was revived in Communist East Germany by a ban placed on Jehovah’s witnesses. The Madgeburg office was confiscated again. And once more, with faith in Jehovah’s ability to deliver, our brothers have accepted the challenge.

Can you appreciate why my thoughts often penetrate the “curtain” dividing Germany and reach out to those Witnesses who suffered for years in Nazi camps and who now endure Communist prisons? At the present time there are 407 faithful Witnesses imprisoned in Eastern Germany. I think of seventy-year-old brothers like Brother X and Brother Y, and others only slightly younger, such as Brother Z, Brother A, and Brother B, each of whom has spent almost twenty years in the hands of cruel enemies of God because of faithfulness to Jehovah.

Reports filtering through are courageous and full of confidence. Our brothers there are remaining steadfast, keeping the Kingdom hope ever before their eyes and before the eyes of their neighbors. Thereby they daily demonstrate that Jehovah through Christ his King is reigning in the presence of his enemies. Totalitarian inquisitions can capture and harass Jehovah’s people if he permits it for a witness; but nothing can imprison Jehovah’s spirit!

Let Christians under totalitarian inquisition and their oppressors never forget: Jehovah was constantly with his Witnesses during the Nazi inquisition. He fed and comforted them when they cried from exhaustion. He revived and refreshed them when they fainted. He gave assurance of deliverance by resurrection for those faithful unto death. And in his due time He threw wide the gates and set his people free!

Deliverance through faith in God is certain. His new world of righteousness is at the doors! Already Jehovah’s witnesses are singing, “Thanks to God, for he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”—1 Cor. 15:57.

Preservation by Obedience to God’s Law on Blood

LIFE or death—the choice is yours! But what will determine your choice? Faced with a crisis that involves your life, will you guide your course by the principles found in the Word of God? Or, if that course seems to put your immediate life prospects in peril, will you rather submit to the coercion of men who urge you to set aside the law of God?—Deut. 30:19, 20; Matt. 16:25.

Early Christians refused to compromise. Their fearless preaching of the Word of God brought them into conflict with the Roman world. Since the Christians did not esteem what the Romans considered honorable, their viewpoint was not to be tolerated. Yet it was no glory to Rome simply to destroy them. If only they could be made to recant. With the Roman judges it became their objective, not to have them executed, but to force them by deeds to show that they had abandoned their Christian faith. “If they consented to cast a few grains of incense upon the altar [in worship of the national gods], they were dismissed from the tribunal in safety and with applause.” In his endeavor to cause the prisoners’ emotions to override their Christian convictions, the judge “set before their eyes every circumstance which could render life more pleasing, or death more terrible; and to solicit, nay, to entreat them, that they would show some compassion to themselves, to their families, and to their friends.”a

Nor was the offering of incense to the emperor the only transgression that they sought to induce these Christian witnesses to commit. In speaking out against the practices of the Roman world of his day, the Christian writer Tertullian says: “Let your error blush before the Christians, for we do not include even animals’ blood in our natural diet. We abstain on that account from things strangled or that die of themselves, that we may not in any way be polluted by blood, even if it is buried in the meat. Finally, when you are testing Christians, you offer them sausages full of blood; you are thoroughly well aware, of course, that among them it is forbidden; but you want to make them transgress.”b So well was it known that Christians would not consume blood that even in ancient Rome a violation of this principle on the part of a Christian was considered to be a renunciation of the Christian faith.

Would it not have been a small thing to offer just a pinch of incense to the emperor? Would it really have been such a terrible transgression for a Christian to take a little blood? Early Christians knew that their choice meant life or death. Holding fast to their integrity would assure them the favor of the Life-giver, their God in heaven, and deliverance from death itself by a resurrection to eternal life.—Matt. 24:13.

In their faith they were like the witnesses of Jehovah who had gone before them. Of them it is written: “Men were tortured because they would not accept release by some ransom, in order that they might attain a better resurrection. Yes, others received their trial by mockings and scourgings, indeed, more than that, by bonds and prisons.” God did not prevent their being imprisoned, beaten and even done to death. Yet their faith did not waver. They did not expect to be preserved from trials at the hands of God’s enemies. Their desire was to be preserved in the memory of God by obedience to his commandments, that they might attain the reward of life in the world to come. With strong faith, they refused to be swayed by the coercion of men who urged them to set aside the law of God.—Heb. 11:35-38; 1 Cor. 10:13.

The need for such faith has not lessened in this modern world. The divine commandments are not different for us today than they were for the early Christians. The pressure from the world, whether in the form of brutality or persuasive argument, has not abated. God’s law against idolatry is still upheld by Christians; so is his mandate forbidding the consumption of blood.

GOD’S LAW ON BLOOD

Just what does the Bible say about the use of blood? Immediately after the flood of Noah’s day, over 4,300 years ago, Jehovah God blessed Noah and his sons, whom He had preserved, and with that blessing he included his mandate on blood, saying: “Every creeping animal that is alive may serve as food for you. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to you. Only flesh with its soul—its blood—you must not eat.” (Gen. 9:3, 4) This divine requirement was emphasized repeatedly to the nation of Israel. Again and again they were told that they must abstain from blood. “Simply be firmly resolved not to eat the blood, because the blood is the soul and you must not eat the soul with the flesh. You must not eat it. You should pour it out upon the ground as water. You must not eat it, in order that it may go well with you and your sons after you, because you will do what is right in Jehovah’s eyes.” Willful violators of this God-given law were put to death.—Deut. 12:23-25; Lev. 17:14.

The prohibition on the consumption of blood did not pass away with the law covenant. It was no mere dietary law of the Jews. It is applicable to all the descendants of Noah, all mankind. Therefore, it was appropriate that in the very first century of the existence of the Christian congregation its governing body should emphasize the importance of the matter and draw it to the attention of all believers again: “For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you, except these necessary things, to keep yourselves free from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things killed without draining their blood and from fornication. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper.” (Acts 15:28, 29) Yes, it is necessary for Christians to keep themselves free from blood. That decree, motivated by God’s holy spirit, his active force, did not limit the scope of the prohibition to animal blood or to the taking of blood through the mouth. The terminology was all-embracing: “Keep yourselves free . . . from blood.”

Inasmuch as the prohibition covered the drinking of animal blood, even more so did it outlaw practices such as rushing into the Roman arena to suck out the blood of the vanquished gladiators, as was done in those days. And since the prohibition is of equal force in the lives of Christians today, not only does it involve such practices as drinking the blood of freshly slaughtered animals and eating blood pudding and blood sausage, but it also makes it unlawful to appropriate the lifeblood of another human to sustain one’s own life.

MODERN-DAY EXAMPLES OF OBEDIENCE

Illustrative of the situations faced almost daily in all parts of the world by those conforming to God’s law on blood is the case of twenty-year-old Hannie in the Netherlands. Since she was eleven she has suffered from hemolytic anemia, a condition in which the spleen destroys an excessive number of red blood corpuscles, resulting in a shortage of oxygen to the body cells and causing the skin to take on a yellowish color.

When Hannie turned nineteen the attacks returned after a relaxation of a few years and increased in severity. Finally a specialist in blood diseases advised the father that the spleen should be removed. The operation, the father was told, might require blood transfusions, but the father explained that as a Christian he could not do otherwise than object to the use of blood in this way, since the Word of God forbids the feeding of blood into the body, whether by the mouth or by any other means that has been devised by science.

About half a year later Hannie fell seriously ill. Her temperature rose to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. From day to day her condition got worse. The surgeon in attendance urged a blood transfusion. But he knew the viewpoint of the parents and the girl and did not force the matter, saying: “In most cases one rescinds such a decision at the last moment.” When the patient’s condition further deteriorated the father called the specialist and urged him to do all that was possible, but without the use of blood transfusion. An hour later the ambulance rolled up in front of the house and the girl was taken to the hospital.

At the hospital the doctors asserted that if blood transfusions were not given, the girl would die at any moment, but in spite of both medical arguments and derogatory accusations designed to cause the parents’ emotions to override their convictions, they failed to shake the deep-seated faith of the family in the rightness of God’s law prohibiting the use of blood. Although the patient was desperately weak and in need of sympathetic consideration, repeated efforts were made to cause her to waver in her decision and to set aside at this crucial time her confidence in the laws of God, around which she had built her life. She relates the experience herself:

“During the night I relapsed into a deep unconsciousness, and as I was in a dying condition my parents were summoned to the hospital. All my reactions had fallen out, even to the point that artificial respiration had to be applied, as I could not breathe. Since I had not eaten or had anything to drink for several days, it was necessary to feed my body by infusion. Although the worst did not come, my condition remained serious and one was prepared for anything . . . All efforts were made to get my parents and my brother and my fiancé to change their minds. Then they advised the physician to ask me himself. . . . I could see the face of the doctor and could smell the revolting tobacco scent as he bent over me and placed the question: ‘Girl, you still have a small chance to remain alive . . . if you do not accept a transfusion you will be dead this evening. Do you want the transfusion?’ I flatly refused, not once but seven times.”

Medical science finally bowed before Christian integrity. The operation was performed, and, thanks to the body’s own God-given recuperative powers, the skill of the surgeon, the devoted care of the nurses and the strong will of the patient to live, Hannie pulled through without a blood transfusion. More important to her, she had not broken her integrity to God.

Another incident occurred a few months ago in Los Angeles, California. A young woman, a Witness, and her two young children were involved in an automobile accident that instantly snuffed out the life of her two-year-old son and left her in critical condition. On her arrival at the hospital, the giving of a blood transfusion almost immediately became an issue. Although she was only semiconscious, she made it clear that she wanted no blood, and when her husband arrived he too refused to consent to a breaking of this law of God. Reports an eyewitness: “If I hadn’t been at the hospital just about around the clock during those days and heard the language of the doctors, and observed the constant pressure they put on this young sister and her husband I don’t think that I would have believed it. They were unmerciful and unyielding in their badgering of these two poor brothers. They called the husband ‘killer,’ ‘murderer,’ ‘ignorant beast,’ and all of this loud enough to be heard throughout the whole section of the hospital. The young sister was told repeatedly that she was dying and only blood would save her. In my own mind I don’t think that they gave her the opportunity to live, for she was kept in a state of fear day and night by both doctors and nurses. Every attempt made by myself or others of the brothers to reason with these doctors met with loud emotional outbursts.” Within a few days the sister died. Would blood have saved her? That is something no doctor could guarantee. It most assuredly is not the only treatment available, nor is it without its own deadly hazards.

Newspapers everywhere have reported on cases such as these in emotion-charged terms, casting the doctor who urges blood in the role of lifesaver and the one who refuses the treatment as a fanatic. During time of war, patriots consider it an honor for a man to die for his country. But how many view it as an honor for a man to be willing to die, if necessary, for refusal to break his integrity to God? More often, they copy the example of the pagan Roman judges who sought to override Christian principles by emotional appeal.

It should not be concluded that these devoted Christians turn their backs on all medical aid and that there is no other treatment that can be administered. There are countless cases in which patients have been turned away by surgeons who refused to operate without blood, but other doctors have been located who have been willing to perform the operations, and have done so successfully—without blood. In many cases there has been considerable blood loss, but plasma volume expanders, often called “blood substitutes,” have been used, and these have made it possible to keep up the blood pressure until the body could compensate for the blood loss through its own mechanism. Often it has called for more skill and greater care to operate without the use of blood, but, more than that, it has called for a doctor who was willing to respect the religious convictions of his patient and still do everything in his power to help. There are doctors in increasing numbers throughout the world who, on coming to recognize the inherent dangers of blood transfusion and particularly on coming to appreciate the sincerity of the religious convictions of their patients who refuse blood, have been willing to treat these cases.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE INCREASES BLOOD HAZARD

In view of the position taken by the medical profession in general in regard to blood transfusions, it is of interest to consider the medical side of the issue.

Doctors in general view blood transfusions as lifesaving. Even those who write on the abuses practiced generally emphasize that, from a medical viewpoint, much good has been done. But can it be said, even from a medical standpoint, that blood transfusions are completely safe and that only good can result from them?

Medical journals themselves score the attitude of doctors who liberally dispense blood. Said the head of the Law Department of the American Medical Association, in the June, 1960, issue of the Medicolegal Digest: “The technique of blood transfusion has become so routine that some physicians tend to disregard the inherent dangers which accompany blood and plasma transfusions. Too many physicians have the mistaken impression that a blood transfusion is as safe as an intravenous infusion of glucose or normal saline solution.”

Blood is a highly complex part of the human body and its use by doctors in transfusion has called for the greatest of care and extensive knowledge of blood itself and the reactions that can occur when it is introduced into the body of another person, if they are to avoid severe complications, even death. But have doctors all kept up with that important information? Says Paul I. Hoxworth, M.D. and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, in the Bulletin of the American Association of Blood Banks, for March, 1960: “The increased use of blood transfusion in recent years has had the strange effect that most clinicians know less rather than more about the subject, simply because its growing complexity has thrust it into the province of specialized knowledge. The physician who orders blood for a patient cannot be expected to be well versed in all aspects of this knowledge . . . [Yet] blood transfusion is a risk which can be calculated only with knowledge of the dangers.”

Even a thorough knowledge of everything that the medical profession has learned on the subject cannot remove the hazards. Says The Medical Journal of Australia, of September 24, 1960: “The problem is really that, in spite of all the advances in blood-grouping and blood-transfusion techniques, there is no entirely satisfactory cross-matching test for all circumstances, and the dilemma of the pathologist cannot be readily solved.” In a similar vein, showing that the procedure of blood transfusion involves matters that no doctor fully understands, Britain’s highly respected medical journal, The Lancet, reports: “Troubles are cropping up which we cannot explain. In spite of all precautions some patients react unfavourably to transfusions which are correctly administered.”

TRANSFUSIONS CAUSE DEATH AND DISEASE

Emphasizing the dangers involved is a report from the Fifth International Congress of Blood Transfusion, which reported on a case as follows: “A patient who had been operated on for a simple ovarian cyst and whose recovery had been uneventful was about to be discharged from the hospital. The physician noted a slight pallor and a complete blood count revealed a low-grade, secondary anemia. He explained to the patient that she could go home that afternoon if she wished, but that it would then be necessary for him, at his office, to treat the anemia, probably for a period of 6 months. He further stated that if, however, she would stay in the hospital one additional day and receive a blood transfusion, she would most likely not need any further treatment. She chose the latter course. Laboratory examination showed that her blood was group B Rh-positive, and 500 cc. of group B Rh-positive were ordered and admittedly received, cross-matched, declared compatible and administered. By that evening the patient’s temperature was 106° F. and by the next morning she was jaundiced and had anuria. Within 24 hours she was dead.”

For those who escape death due to severe transfusion reactions, only the first hurdle has been passed. Disease may lie ahead. Syphilis, malaria, hepatitis and other diseases can be transmitted by blood. Not only can they be transmitted by blood, but they have been transmitted in this way, and even today cases are reported in which they are being transmitted by blood transfusions.c Yes, there are tests that can be performed to determine whether the blood is safe, but the tests are not infallible, nor are those who check the results. Most blood banks do not ask donors if they have syphilis because it is an embarrassing question; if the donor knew he might lie about it; even the laboratory tests do not always register the danger. As for malaria, the possibility is considered remote in most places, so little is done to check for it. Even if a check is made, it may not be caught. And in those parts of the earth where it is a very present danger so many of the donors would have to be rejected if this were taken into account that there would not be sufficient blood; so doctors often feel that the best thing is to give the blood and then treat the malaria. Concerning serum hepatitis, transmitted in regular blood and plasma transfusions, Today’s Health, October, 1960, says that it “is transmitted from donors to recipients on the average of once in every 200 transfusions of whole blood. ‘No laboratory test is known which will detect donors who are carriers of the hepatitis virus,’ says John B. Alsever, M.D., medical director of the Southwest Blood Banks, Phoenix, Arizona. ‘The donor’s history cannot be relied upon to exclude carriers, partly because of possible willful concealment or poor memory, but principally because most are innocent carriers who never have had a clinically diagnosable illness.’”

WISDOM OF OBEYING DIVINE LAW

These statements from medical journals make it clear that blood transfusions cannot be acclaimed as completely safe lifesaving treatments. Medical experience testifies to the fact that in forbidding man’s use of blood Almighty God, the Creator of man, the great Physician who understands the operation of man’s body as no human doctor ever will, was not only requiring obedience of man, but for those obeying that law he was providing preservation from the numerous ills that have come upon men as a direct result of the use of blood.

Doctors may argue that the risk is worth it if there is some chance that a life can be saved. Religious leaders may join their plea, contending that the law of God does not apply where life is involved. Both are wrong. When death impends is no time to vacillate or to turn one’s back on God. It is a time to put complete confidence in the One in whose hands lies the power of life. It is a time when all other persons, whether doctors or friends or relatives, can show their sincere love for the patient and their fear of God by encouraging the patient to hold fast his faith, not to fear, but to put his trust in God Almighty.

Faithful Christians call to mind the accusation of the Devil, who said: “Skin in behalf of skin, and everything that a man has he will give in behalf of his life.” (Job 2:4, margin) He contended that no one would maintain faith in God and obedience to His law if it put his life in jeopardy. But the Devil is a liar, and God-fearing Christians in all parts of the earth daily prove him so by obedience to the divine law on abstinence from blood. For their faithfulness God will preserve them, even if they die, by raising them to eternal life in his righteous new world.

[Footnotes]

Questions From Readers

● Why are the pronouns “he” and “him” used in the New World Translation in reference to the holy spirit in such places as John 16:7, 8, whereas in other places the pronoun “it” is used?—B. H., U.S.A.

As a rule the New World Translation uses the masculine pronouns “he” or “him” when the Greek pronoun referring to the spirit’s office is in the masculine gender and singular in number. It uses the neuter pronoun “it” when the personal pronoun in the Greek text is in the neuter gender. Whenever variations have been made these are noted in the foot notes.

The Greek word for spirit is in itself neuter in gender and is properly referred to, therefore, by the neuter pronoun in English because it does not have personality. The footnotes in the New World Translation also call attention to this matter. However, when the holy spirit is personalized, as is the case at John 16:7, 8, where it is referred to as “the helper,” the pronouns used in Greek are in the masculine gender because in Greek “helper” is a masculine noun, but arbitrarily so in gender.

In this matter it will greatly help when we understand that in Greek and many other languages—different from English—nouns often are regarded as masculine or feminine from the standpoint of grammar although neuter as regards sex. Thus in Spanish mesa, meaning “table,” takes a feminine article, la, and libro, meaning “book,” takes the masculine article el, although obviously neither has sex or personality. In an accommodated sense this is also done in English, for it is common to refer to a certain ship by the feminine pronoun “she.” English is a very convenient language in that its nouns do not have gender arbitrarily and all its articles, “a,” “an,” and “the,” are neuter, but there is much to be said in favor of the arbitrary use of gender as regards exactness, variety and beauty.

That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth.—Ps. 83:18.

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