The Watchtower — December 1, 1961

Are You Considerate of Others?

CONSIDERATION is thoughtful or sympathetic regard for the opinions and actions of others. This is what we are expressing when we speak softly in hallways or when we turn our radios low at night or when we write a thank you note or a letter of condolence. In fact, we are being considerate every time we say “May I?” or “Thank you” or “Please” or “I’m sorry.” The truth is that it is so simple to be considerate that many of us express consideration hundreds of times daily without even being aware that we are doing it. Yet so essential and basic is consideration that without it life would be miserable. Each day’s contacts would rub us raw were it not that others show us some consideration.

Perhaps the best way to test yourself to see whether you are considerate of others or not is to check your attitude toward other people and your treatment of them, especially the people who serve or work for you. Author Frances Benton in his article “Modern Book of Good Manners” makes an interesting observation. He says: “An old axiom states that in all of our relationships with those who are employed to give us service we must be more polite, more considerate, more careful than in our relationships with anyone else. This applies of course to how you treat your cleaning woman, the saleswoman who is waiting on you, the waitress at the lunch counter, your hairdresser, the office boy. It applies also to how each of these people treats the people who serve him. Any rudeness to such an employee is inexcusable because the employee might endanger his livelihood if he answered you in the same way. It is impossible to watch a man argue testily with a waiter or a woman tongue-lash a salesperson without questioning the person’s whole code of behavior and decency.”

Others who serve us and who deserve more than our usual consideration are teachers, lecturers and ministers of God. Habitual latecomers to classes or meetings, doodlers or people who indifferently allow themselves to fall fast asleep or to drowse during lecture periods or religious services are usually lacking in consideration. Also, those who mill around in the corridors during assembly sessions, when they should be seated listening, display this same disregard for the speaker as well as for what is said.

Another expression of our basic consideration for others is how we act at home. There are persons who put on their best manners for outsiders, but disregard those nearest and dearest to them in the family circle. Many of these people will wipe their shoes clean before entering the neighbor’s house, but never do the same when entering their own house. They will have the best of table manners when away from home, but discard them when at home. They would not think of leaving a messy bathroom at a friend’s house, but at home they are untidy. They force others to clean up after them. Think of the change it would make at home if they were constant and impartial in their consideration. The house would be neater and relations would be by far friendlier. Each would be looking out for the other person’s interests. That is the way it should be, according to the Bible. Paul, the apostle, writes: “Let each one keep seeking, not his own advantage, but that of the other person.” Again he counsels: Keep “an eye, not in personal interest upon just your own matters, but also in personal interest upon those of the others,” because love “does not look for its own interests.” If such interest is shown at home, then at the dinner table one would not wait for the other to ask for the food to be passed, but would be observant of the others’ needs. The hostess would inquire before serving, appreciating that not all have the same eating habits. Thus consideration makes for a happier, fuller life.—1 Cor. 10:24; Phil. 2:4; 1 Cor. 13:5.

Still other expressions of our basic consideration for others can be seen in the way we conduct ourselves in public. Making a show of oneself is not being considerate of others. Speaking loudly in a crowded elevator or monopolizing a conversation is not only inconsiderate but rude. Smoking in public conveyances or where others cannot get away from you is also very impolite and inconsiderate. Coughing your cold into other people’s faces does not speak very highly of you and your respect for other people. There are other things one might unconsciously do out of force of habit, such as combing one’s hair or cleaning one’s fingernails at the dinner table or removing one’s false teeth in public. But, remember, as to personal habits, it is not considerate to do anything in public that might annoy, embarrass, disgust or inconvenience others.

Considerate people do not crowd the sidewalk by walking three or four abreast so others cannot pass easily or by holding a conversation right in the middle of the sidewalk. They move off to one side if they meet a friend to whom they want to talk. Consideration for others suggests that one not stand or sit in front of a doorway and thus force others to step over him or push past him to enter.

Good advice for all is to be considerate of the other person’s desire for privacy. The Scriptures state: “Make your foot rare at the house of your fellow man, that he may not have his sufficiency of you and certainly hate you.” Do not wear out your welcome by making too frequent visits to the house of your fellow man is the counsel of the proverb.—Prov. 25:17.

Bear in mind that consideration for others is in reality love in action, our showing neighbor love. This being the case, we should be on the lookout for ways to express this quality. We can be considerate of all men by being tactful in our speech and considerate in our actions, thus making life happier for all concerned.

Where to Turn in Time of Stress

Why do many prayers fail? How can we find relief in time of stress?

STRESS is one of the great hazards of our time. It well deserves its reputation as a killer. Besides its knack for causing heart attacks it has a way of undermining the normal protective ties of love, human warmth, duty and need, thereby destroying the anguished soul’s will to live. Among its frequent victims are hundreds of single and married women who commit suicide because of emotional problems and despite popularity, loving husbands, doting parents, beauty and wealth. Stress can also cripple the mind and body, filling the hospitals with mental patients and thousands of cases of psychosomatic-induced illnesses.

Against this plague men have attempted many defenses, including the popular tranquilizers and psychiatrists. Besides the Save-a-Life League for preventing suicide, there are relief and welfare agencies, legal aid societies, rescue squads and every branch of medicine. All have varying degrees of success. All are affected by time and circumstance.

SEARCHING FOR GOD

Human remedies failing him in time of stress, man naturally looks to God. In search of a miracle many desperately look for God in church. Why are they disappointed so often? That question is being answered by clergymen in many parts of the world. Last February a Canadian minister wrote in the Winnipeg Tribune: “It can’t be Christianity you find in churches . . . Something has to be said and done. . . . Otherwise the church is doomed as a source of renewal, as a place to find God for this generation.” Said a minister in Norway: “A new revival of ministers is absolutely necessary if we are to expect a revival of the people. We ourselves should be the last to deny that spiritual sleep is a typical trait of us clergymen today.” An Australian bishop expressed his view: “The modern church seems to me to be lacking dangerously in both knowledge and devotion.” Speaking in Dallas, Texas, last May, an Episcopal bishop declared: “A large number of people in the United States don’t think the church is very relevant to life today . . . and their judgment is probably true. It’s not that the Gospel is irrelevant. Only we are irrelevant.” He told his audience there is little about the average church except the Sunday sermon to remind people of God. It is not surprising that when many under stress search for God in church they fail to find him.

But why is it that many who sincerely pray privately in time of stress still find only disappointment? Typical is the housewife who told one of Jehovah’s witnesses that she had given up belief in God after many prayers for a sick brother failed to prevent his untimely death. What is the reason for such disappointments in time of stress?

Part of the answer comes from Professor P. G. Lindhardt of Denmark: “To pray to God has become a kind of mental hygiene. Prayer has become a part of the tendency of the twentieth century toward self-reflection, a means through which to enforce one’s own will. Many Christians are really so naïve as to believe, like the pagans, that they by steady and persevering prayer can wrest from God things He would otherwise not give.”

But what did Jesus mean when he said: “All the things you ask in prayer, having faith, you will receive”? (Matt. 21:22) Note that this was not promised to the world at large, but to his followers, men of faith. John, his beloved companion, explains: “No matter what it is that we ask according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 5:14) According to his will? Yes, along with faith there must be good understanding of what we may and may not request in prayer. How many people take the time to learn God’s will through Bible study? How many show by their actions that they believe Jesus’ words: “It is written, ‘Man must live, not on bread alone, but on every utterance coming forth through Jehovah’s mouth’”? (Matt. 4:4) Is it God who fails men, or men who fail God by ignoring his Word? Prayers offered in conflict with God’s will and purpose readily lead to disappointment.

PRAYER AND KNOWLEDGE

The case of an Italian army officer well illustrates that a successful search for God involves prayer and something more. Cornelius, a man who often prayed, was instructed to send for someone to come into his home and teach him God’s will. Peter and other true Christians gladly came to Cornelius’ home. With Cornelius were relatives and close friends, “all present before God to hear all the things [Peter had] been commanded by Jehovah to say.” (Acts 10:1-33) It was Bible discussion that showed Cornelius, his family and friends how to turn to Jehovah and find him. It meant salvation.

No less is accurate Bible knowledge needed today. Upon us now are the critical times hard to deal with that were predicted by God’s Word. (2 Tim. 3:1) Stress is greatly increased, not only by man’s foolishness, but also because the great stress-producer, Satan the Devil, has stepped up his vicious efforts to rule or ruin the human race. (Rev. 12:12) To know how to deal with these critical times man needs wisdom from God. The Bible says it is proper to ask Jehovah God for this wisdom. (Jas. 1:5) But, as in Cornelius’ case, there must be a searching out of true Christians who are willing to come to your home and impart the truth Jehovah has commanded them to speak in all the world for a witness to the nations.—Matt. 24:14.

Through family Bible study, hundreds of thousands of men and women are learning that knowledge of Jehovah’s will makes a difference in time of stress. No longer are their prayers offered for things not in harmony with God’s will. For example, while millions pray for this world’s peace, those gaining accurate knowledge see that Jesus was careful to “make request, not concerning the world,” but only for those persons who desired to do God’s will. (John 17:9) Once fearful that the next war would destroy man and his earthly home, those turning to Jehovah learn that God foreknew man’s suicidal course and has promised to “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” His great act of intervention is called “Armageddon.” (Rev. 11:18; 16:16) Will Armageddon leave just one or two survivors on a desolate beach? No, into the post-Armageddon new world of righteousness will go those who have turned to Jehovah in time of stress—survivors “out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues”!—2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 7:9, 10.

But what of personal stress now, before Armageddon? Death causes perhaps the greatest distress today, whatever its immediate cause. Sickness and old age can also be distressing realities. Does a turning to Jehovah bring practical relief? Yes! Grief over the death of one loved is turned into assured expectation of the resurrection promised by Jesus, who said: “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.” (John 5:28, 29) Faith in the early fulfillment of that promise instills a strong will to live. Learning Bible principles and the good news of God’s kingdom brings healthful peace of mind and guides one away from unwise actions that would produce further stress. It becomes possible to bear old age and chronic illness cheerfully when one knows that our generation is on the threshold of the time when sickness, pain, sorrow and death will be removed from mankind.—Rev. 21:3-5.

Not only does turning to Jehovah give one strength to endure physical illness patiently, but in spiritual sickness due to transgression one can ask mature Christians to pray to God for his forgiveness and his healing spirit on behalf of the distressed one. (Jas. 5:13-15) In economic crisis Jehovah’s servants properly request him to make possible their getting sufficient “daily bread.” (Matt. 6:11; Prov. 30:7-9) Under stress of persecution Christians turn to Jehovah for deliverance or strength to endure for righteousness’ sake. (Ps. 143:9; 1 Cor. 10:13) For deliverance from temptation we can also ask with confidence.—Matt. 6:13; 26:41.

AT YOUR DOOR

When the Christian witnesses of Jehovah call at your door with Bible in hand, remember Cornelius’ wise course. Gather your family together to hear the things Jehovah has commanded them to say. They will eagerly teach you how to turn to Jehovah in these times of increasing stress. In fact, take the initiative, as Cornelius did; send word to the nearest Kingdom Hall for one of Jehovah’s witnesses to call at your home. Making known the true God and his wonderful purpose for mankind is their delight. To you and your friends Jehovah’s witnesses enthusiastically say: “Look! This is our God. We have hoped in him, and he will save us. This is Jehovah. We have hoped in him. Let us be joyful and rejoice in the salvation by him.”—Isa. 25:9.

Yes, get to know Jehovah God without delay. He is the one to whom to turn in time of stress.

Religious Delinquents

“Virtually all of the 761 delinquents examined in Passaic, N.J., by sociologist William C. Kvaraceus of Boston University were affiliated with some church, and three quarters of them attended church regularly or occasionally. Of the 2,317 delinquents studied by Dr. William Wattenberg of Wayne University in Detroit, 43.5 percent attended church regularly and 25.5 percent occasionally. And a surprisingly high proportion of the juvenile delinquents brought to the courts of Boston and New York city have also been found to be regular church attenders, according to a study of the Harvard Divinity School,” says Parent’s Magazine of November, 1960. Does this not suggest that there is a decided deficiency in the educational program of these churches? Yes, there is a “famine . . . for hearing the words of Jehovah.”—Amos 8:11.

United Against Nations in the Valley of Decision

“Crowds, crowds are in the low plain of the decision, for the day of Jehovah is near in the low plain of the decision.”—Joel 3:14.

1. Why must a decision be made sometime, and by whom?

A DECISION must be made sometime. A decision must be handed down by a competent judge and must be executed. Things cannot be left to go on indefinitely as they are. This is no time for indecision. The earthly situation must not be left to get out of hand, otherwise a worse disaster would result to all mankind at the hand of the nations now so hopelessly divided. A decision simply has to be made and executed with power and authority. Man’s plain common sense can see that.

2. Why are many disturbed people feeling hopeless, and why may Christendom not be looked to hopefully?

² We are living in a time of “anguish of nations, not knowing the way out.” There is no denying that the situation is proving too difficult for the nations and their political, economic, military and religious advisers. Numberless people are seriously disturbed; they feel hopeless. This is because they view things humanly, and humanity has nothing to offer in itself. Repeatedly humanity has demonstrated that it cannot pull itself up by its own bootstraps. No longer has it any reason to look to Christendom hopefully. Humanity has looked to Christendom in vain. Now Christendom herself threatens total obliteration for all mankind.—Luke 21:25.

3. Why should lovers of humanity no longer feel hopeless, and why will it not be hard for this earth to be regulated?

³ However, there is good reason why all sincere lovers of humanity should no longer feel hopeless. The time is here, and the determining decision has been made! The world situation has not got out of hand for the great Regulator of all the universe. Unless he had permitted it, the situation could not have got to the present state of affairs. He has not meant for things to go on indefinitely as they have been, till at last men will have done their worst. He has decided to bring all things afflicting mankind to a halt. His time for executing his decision is near. Figuratively speaking, the nations are in the valley of judgment, where his decision will be executed, and that shortly. In carrying out his righteous decision it will not be hard for him to regulate this small part of his universe, the earth, because he is God Almighty, the Creator, the One alone whose name is Jehovah.—Joel 1:15; Isa. 40:28.

4. Why will Jehovah not use Christendom in straightening out world affairs?

⁴ No! He will not use Christendom in straightening out world affairs. Christendom claims to have a connection with him, but what do her claims amount to? She has printed Bibles in more than 1,150 languages and dialects. Many of these Bible versions set forth more or less frequently the Creator’s personal name, Jehovah; and Christendom has circulated hundreds of millions of these Bible translations containing his holy name. But Christendom has not lived up to the Bible, for in one hand she offers mankind the Holy Bible but in the other hand the nuclear bomb mounted on a ballistic missile.

5. How is Christendom like the tribe of Ephraim, and how will Jehovah God treat her?

⁵ Christendom is like the tribe of Ephraim mentioned in the Bible. Just as this tribe led the nation of Israel in mingling among the worldly peoples, Christendom has mingled herself with unchristian peoples. She has made herself a part of the nations of this world. (Hos. 7:8-11) She is the founder and main supporter of the United Nations, into which one hundred nations of all sorts have already been drawn. She is no better than the rest of those nations. In fact, in the light of the Bible that she puts out world-wide, she has proved herself to be worse than those nations. No wonder that Jehovah God has not used her and will not use her to put worldly affairs in order! His decision is to treat her like the other nations, only worse, according to her responsibility before him.

6. (a) Where could Christendom read for herself about what God will do to her, and has God left her to only that source of information? (b) What, then, is as a plague to Christendom?

⁶ God’s own Book, the Bible that Christendom still continues to distribute, tells what he will do with her. Really she could read in it for herself what God will do with her when he executes his decision in the valley or the “low plain of the decision.” But he has not left it to the Bible itself to tell her what he will do with her and all other worldly nations. He has sent forth true Bible Christians, his witnesses, to tell Christendom and all other nations about His decision. In this way Jehovah God has been serving notice upon Christendom in warning. So she is doubly inexcusable for not knowing. In itself the circulating of Bibles inside and outside of Christendom by her Bible distributors has not been a plague to her. But Jehovah’s sending forth his anointed witnesses with the announcement of his decision—this has been a devastating, insufferable plague to Christendom. The Bible foretold this plague upon her.

SYMBOLIC LOCUST PLAGUE

7. Who alone on earth used to possess Jehovah’s law and commandments, and of what plague upon their land for disobedience were they informed?

⁷ No plague from God comes without cause. Up till nineteen hundred years ago the Jewish people with their capital at Jerusalem or Zion were his chosen people. They alone were the possessors of God’s law as stated in the Ten Commandments and the other commandments given through Moses and the other Jewish prophets, all these being contained in the inspired Bible books from Genesis to Malachi. In the fifth book of Moses, called Deuteronomy, Jehovah God told ancient Israel of the curses that he would bring upon that nation if they did not keep his commandments. Among the curses was to be this plague: “A lot of seed you will take out to the field, but little will you gather, because the locust will devour it. Vineyards you will plant and certainly cultivate, but you will drink no wine and gather nothing in, because the worm will eat it up. All your trees and the fruitage of your ground whirring insects will take in possession.”—Deut. 28:38, 39, 42.

8. What was the worst plague of that kind foretold to come, and what cause was there to be for this?

⁸ The worst plague of locusts and worms ever foretold to come was that one of which Jehovah’s prophet Joel gave forewarning. That plague was not threatened by Jehovah God without a just cause occasioned by his people. That is why in Joel’s prophecy Jehovah presents himself as at war with his own people. Here let Christendom who today claims to be God’s people take serious notice!

9. Who was this Joel, and what war cry of alarm did he give?

⁹ But who was this prophet Joel? One of Jehovah’s witnesses. In fact, his name Joel means “Jehovah Is God.” Joel was true to his personal name, for he witnessed to the fact that Jehovah is God. Joel was the one whom Jehovah used to bring to His people the description of the threatened plague and to tell them how to have God turn it aside. Speaking as Jehovah’s mouthpiece, Joel (2:1, 2) says: “Blow a horn in Zion, O men, and shout a war cry in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land get agitated; for the day of Jehovah is coming, for it is near! It is a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick gloom, like light of dawn spread out upon the mountains.” What a war cry of alarm!

10. In His day, with what does Jehovah come against his own people, and what is the effect of this with which he comes?

¹⁰ In this “day of Jehovah” he comes with his army of devastation and urges them on against his own people: “And Jehovah himself will certainly give forth his voice before his military force, for his camp is very numerous. For he who is carrying out his word is mighty; for the day of Jehovah is great and very fear-inspiring, and who can hold up under it?” (Joel 2:11) But in this case Jehovah’s army, his “military force,” is of a very unusual kind. He himself explains later what it is, saying: “And I will make compensation to you for the years that the locust, the creeping, unwinged locust, and the cockroach and the caterpillar have eaten, my great military force that I have sent among you.” (Joel 2:25) With such an army of insects no direct killing of human creatures is done. But the effect is the same as that of a vast military host passing through the land, seizing all the available food supplies and denuding the land and wrecking the appearance of the landscape, even barking the trees, and leaving in its wake hunger and famine, from which numberless people will die.

11. How long did the Jews wait for fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, and who declared it to be fulfilled, and when?

¹¹ We have no Biblical record that such a plague of voracious insects afflicted the land of Israel for years and invaded Zion or Jerusalem. The Bible does indicate, however, how Joel’s prophecy of the plague of locusts, cockroaches and caterpillars was to be fulfilled. Hundreds of years the Jews waited for Joel’s prophecy to be fulfilled. Then in the spring of the year 33, on the day of Shabúoth or Pentecost, the Jewish Christian Peter rose up in Jerusalem under new inspiration of God’s spirit and made an application of the prophecy. Peter quoted from Joel’s prophecy, from the same second chapter in which the insect plague is foretold. Peter quoted Joel 2:28-32, which tells of Jehovah’s pouring out his holy spirit on all sorts of flesh “after that,” so that all those who received the spirit, young and old, male and female, slave and free, prophesied in Jehovah’s name. On that day of Pentecost when God’s spirit was poured out upon the 120 faithful disciples of Jesus Christ gathered in Jerusalem and they spoke miraculously in foreign languages, Peter declared that Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled.—Acts 2:1-21, 33.

12. What conversion resulted in Jerusalem from fulfillment of that part of Joel’s prophecy?

¹² Because those 120 Christian disciples, who were anointed with God’s spirit, spoke in foreign tongues “about the magnificent things of God,” about 3,000 Jews and proselytes got baptized in water as converts to Christianity. Later the number of converts right there in Jerusalem or Zion rose to about 5,000. (Acts 2:11, 41, 47; 4:4) But what about that part of the prophecy regarding the locust plague?

13. Did John the Baptist’s diet indicate any fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, but what happened after that event on the day of Pentecost?

¹³ During the four years that John the Baptist and Jesus Christ preached, no literal locust plague had laid the land barren like a wilderness. True, John the Baptist had eaten insect locusts for food in the wilderness of Judea, but these were solitary locusts, not those in swarms big enough to become a plague. (Matt. 3:1-4) But after Jesus Christ died and was resurrected and was called back to heaven by his heavenly Father and then received a measure of the holy spirit and poured it out upon his disciples in Jerusalem at Pentecost, what happened? The Jewish religious leaders and their followers became plagued. No, not with literal locusts, but with symbolic Christian locusts. The disciples of Jesus Christ, who had been anointed with holy spirit, carried on a campaign of prophesying or preaching throughout Jerusalem about God’s kingdom and about the destruction of that “crooked generation” of anti-Christian Jews.

14. Where did those symbolic locusts preach, and how were they urged on?

¹⁴ They preached in Jerusalem’s house of worship or temple. They preached in the private homes of the people. Daily these thousands of Christian believers, filled with God’s spirit, did this. (Acts 2:40, 46, 47; 3:1 to 4:2) There was no controlling them. They were moved by God’s spirit, and they overran the city. Even the angel of Jehovah God urged them onward over the protests of the priests and other religious leaders. (Acts 4:31; 5:12-20) What a plague from Jehovah God this was for unrepentant Jews!

15. What did Joel tell religious leaders to do, but what befell their city and its temple and why?

¹⁵ Joel’s prophecy had told religious leaders what to do in the face of the impending plague: “Between the porch and the altar [of the temple] let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep and say, ‘Do feel sorry, O Jehovah, for your people, and do not make your inheritance a reproach, for nations to rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples: “Where is their God?”’” (Joel 2:17) The Jewish priests of those days refused, however, to call upon Jehovah’s name through Christ for salvation. So destruction came upon them A.D. 70, when the Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem and its temple and laid the land of Judea waste, and the minority of surviving Jews were scattered abroad as slaves to face the question: “Where is their God?”

16, 17. (a) How did those religious leaders show that they were heavily plagued, and what indicates whether the plague let up? (b) What could not have vexed them more than this, and what did it portend?

¹⁶ As to how heavily plagued the priests and associated religious leaders felt at the preaching campaign spearheaded by Jesus’ apostles, we read: “So they brought them [under arrest] and stood them in the Sanʹhedrin hall. And the high priest questioned them and said: ‘We positively ordered you not to keep teaching upon the basis of this name [of Jesus], and yet, look! you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you are determined to bring the blood of this man upon us.’” In reply, Peter and his fellow apostles showed themselves to be true witnesses of Jehovah by saying: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men. . . . And we are witnesses of these matters, and so is the holy spirit, which God has given to those obeying him as ruler.” (Acts 5:27-32) The apostles were beaten and let go. Then what did they do? Acts 5:42 answers: “Every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus.”

¹⁷ A plague of literal locusts could not have vexed those Jewish religionists more than did the Christian witnesses of Jehovah who filled Jerusalem with their teaching by bearing witness publicly and from house to house. This plague of symbolic locusts portended a literal destruction upon their religious institutions later.

THE MODERN PLAGUE

18, 19. (a) Why does God not need any material temple or city on earth today? (b) Of what does Christendom claim to be the modern counterpart, but in what aspect is she the counterpart of this?

¹⁸ Jerusalem or Zion with its temple perished in the year 70. But Jehovah God has his spiritual temple, of which Jesus Christ is the foundation cornerstone and his faithful disciples are the superstructure of “living stones.” (1 Cor. 3:16, 17; Eph. 2:20-22) This spiritual temple of God has a secondary foundation of the Christian apostles and prophets. So too God’s New Jerusalem, which is the spiritual “bride” of Jesus Christ, is built upon the foundation of the “twelve apostles of the Lamb [Jesus Christ].” (John 3:28-30; Rev. 21:2, 9-14) Thus Jehovah God needs no material temple or city on earth any more. In the religious realms of today Christendom claims to be the modern counterpart of ancient Jerusalem or Zion. She applies to herself the promises and prophecies that the Bible addresses to Jerusalem or Zion. However, Christendom is the modern counterpart of unfaithful, disloyal Jerusalem, such as Jerusalem (Zion) was in the first century. At that time she refused Jesus Christ, who came riding into her on an ass, and she had him killed outside her walls and then persecuted his disciples.—Matt. 21:1-16; 23:37-39.

¹⁹ Modern Christendom, now living in this time of the “conclusion of the system of things,” is the Zion or “holy mountain” that professes to belong to God but that refuses to heed the warning that is prophetically given in Joel, chapter two, verses one to three.

20. (a) Hence, what must likewise come upon Christendom? (b) How does Revelation indicate that this was to come upon Christendom?

²⁰ Christendom is God’s people in name only. She is thus the religious system of today that must suffer from a symbolic locust plague, as earthly Jerusalem or Zion did in the days of the apostles of Christ. She is the religious realm upon whom the plague foretold in Joel’s prophecy must come. That there would be a symbolic locust plague in this time of the “conclusion of the system of things” was foretold in the last book of the Bible. This book called Revelation was written by the apostle John about twenty-six years after unfaithful Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Therefore this Revelation shows in symbolic language what was to come, not upon the ancient Jerusalem that was unfaithful and that had been destroyed, but upon unfaithful Jerusalem’s modern antitype, Christendom, for the Revelation tells of the “things that must shortly take place. . . . for the appointed time is near.” (Rev. 1:1-3) In chapter nine is described a symbolic locust plague. This was to be the first of three final woes that were to come upon Christendom before God’s universal war would take place at the “low plain of the decision.” Revelation 9:1-11 borrows a number of expressions from Joel’s prophecy, and in it John says:

21. What did John see fall from heaven, and whom did this symbolize?

²¹ “I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to the earth, and the key of the pit of the abyss was given him. And he opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke ascended out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun was darkened, also the air, by the smoke of the pit.” Falling stars, such as the Bible uses to symbolize unfaithful servants of God, disappear from sight in the night. But not so with this star, for it symbolizes the Lord Jesus Christ at his return in Kingdom power and glory to bless God’s faithful servants and to execute God’s judgments upon all servants of Satan the Devil, who is the “ruler of this world.”—Rev. 22:16.

22. How is this shown to be the right application in regard to the “key of the pit of the abyss”?

²² Nineteen centuries ago when Jesus died and was buried, he went into the abyss of death. (Rom. 10:6, 7) When Almighty God raised him out of the abyss on the third day, he gave to Jesus the “key of the pit of the abyss,” to lock or unlock it. Hence, in Revelation 1:18, the resurrected, glorified Jesus says in the vision to John: “I became dead, but, look! I am living forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Haʹdes [the common grave of dead mankind].”

23. Why was it necessary for Jesus Christ to use that “key” in 1919, and how did he do so?

²³ In the Revelation vision John saw the Lord Jesus Christ at God’s spiritual temple. In modern fulfillment, in 1918, during the throes of World War I, the heavenly Lord Jesus Christ in company with Jehovah God came to the spiritual temple to put to the test all those who claimed to be his Christian disciples. In the course of that critical year of 1918 the enemies of the Christian witnesses of Jehovah took advantage of martial law and fanatical patriotism and religious hatreds that then prevailed, and they reduced these witnesses to a state like that of death and burial, by suppressing and killing their witness work. But not for long! In the spring of 1919 Jesus Christ the King, “the angel of the abyss,” used the key and brought his remnant of anointed followers out of this abyss of spiritual inactivity and reanimated them in God’s service. It was then a time for issuing God’s fiery judgments, as suggested by the smoke that ascended out of the opened abyss.

24. Who are those “men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads,” and how are they harmed?

²⁴ Hence John says: “And out of the smoke locusts came forth upon the earth; and authority was given them, the same authority as the scorpions of the earth have. And they were told to harm no vegetation of the earth nor any green thing nor any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” Such men were not sealed or impressed with the spirit of God, and so were not producing the fruitage of His spirit but were imitation Christians, imitation spiritual Israelites. To these the anointed Christian witnesses of Jehovah who are pictured by the locusts out of the smoke of the abyss give a stinging, burning pain like that inflicted by scorpions. How? By means of the judgment message that these “locusts” proclaim.

25. What did the symbolic locusts go forth to do to these men from 1919 onward, and was this to be fatal?

²⁵ John says further: “And it was granted the locusts, not to kill them, but that these should be tormented five months, and the torment upon them was as torment by a scorpion when it strikes a man.” The life cycle of the locust (schistocerca [or split-tailed] gregaria) is about six months. So for that length of time the locust can do damage. The symbolic locusts who were revived in 1919 for God’s service went forth into the postwar world, but not to kill their persecutors, the religious clergy of Christendom who had no seal of the spirit from God. They went to declare to them God’s judgment message. But this did not please the religious rulers of Christendom. It put them in great pain as if from a scorpion’s sting, but such a sting, though painful, is not necessarily fatal.—2 Cor. 10:3-6.

26. How long are Jehovah’s witnesses authorized to strike with this tormenting message, and when will the clergy find relief from it?

²⁶ How long are the remnant of the anointed Christian witnesses of Jehovah authorized to strike the religious clergy with this tormenting message? For the period of their life before God’s war of Armageddon, as symbolized by the five months assigned to the locusts. Since Jehovah’s anointed remnant are not authorized to act as his executioners of men who persecute them for preaching God’s message, the religious clergy are left alive to suffer the tormenting pain from God’s judgment message. Not that the clergy would not prefer to die rather than endure this judgment proclamation any longer; but as the apostle John says of them: “And in those days the men will seek death but will by no means find it, and they will desire to die but death keeps fleeing from them.” God’s execution of judgment, his infliction of death upon these hypocritical Christian clergy, is delayed till he begins his universal war of Armageddon.

27. How does John describe the looks of the locusts, and, according to this, for what were the remnant brought forth in 1919?

²⁷ What do these symbolic locusts look like? John says: “And the likenesses of the locusts resembled horses prepared for battle; and upon their heads were what seemed to be crowns like gold, and their faces were as men’s faces, but they had hair as women’s hair. And their teeth were as those of lions; and they had breastplates like iron breastplates. And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running into battle. Also, they have tails and stings like scorpions; and in their tails is their authority to hurt the men five months.” From this description we note that the remnant of Jehovah’s anointed witnesses were brought forth in 1919 for warfare, a spiritual warfare from that year till the actual outbreak of the “war of the great day of God the Almighty,” commonly called Armageddon. (Rev. 16:14-16) Hence they looked like horses, which in Bible times were used for warfare. “The horse is something prepared for the day of battle,” says Proverbs 21:31.

28. What is denoted by the crowns on the locusts’ heads, their having hair like women, and their having breastplates like iron ones?

²⁸ The symbolic locusts are royal warriors, as denoted by the goldlike crowns upon the locusts’ heads; for by being anointed with God’s spirit they have been made “joint heirs with Christ” and have been assigned a crown and throne in Christ’s kingdom of a thousand years. (Rom. 8:16, 17; Luke 22:28-30; Rev. 3:11, 21) During this time of spiritual warfare with Christendom these symbolic locusts are mere humans gifted with intelligence, as denoted by their “men’s faces.” Like Hebrew warriors in the field who did not have barbershop facilities, they let their head of hair grow to the length of women’s hair, so that they had a hairy mane and looked like lions for fierceness. (1 Chron. 12:8) Appropriately, then, “their teeth were as those of lions,” that could devour solid food, flesh, like the strong judgment message of God’s vengeance against Christendom. (Heb. 5:12; 1 Cor. 3:1, 2) Their hearts, the organs of love for God and for his righteousness, hence hearts that know no fear but are courageous, are well protected as if by impenetrable breastplates of iron. So they never lose love and courage.

29. How do the symbolic locusts make a terrific noise, and for how long are they authorized to torment men not having the seal?

²⁹ Like a huge swarm of winged locusts that are capable of flying for a thousand miles or more, they unitedly make a noise that sounds like a squadron of war chariots rattling along to the beat of many horses’ hoofs into the battle. It is a terrific sound. The symbolic locusts shout as from the house-tops and let God’s judgment message be heard over a vast distance in the territory that they cover. Fear of the enemy does not soften down their message to a mere whisper. Jehovah’s war declaration must be sounded loudly. He is responsible for the hurting of feelings that the message causes to the ones who are stung by it. For the brief time interval till Armageddon breaks out, “five months,” as it were, the symbolic locusts must use their scorpion-like tails, God’s Word, “the sword of the spirit,” and must strike men against whom God’s judgment is directed. It is not God’s time to spare feelings. His enemies have to be exposed and notified of coming judgment.—Eph. 6:17.

30. Who is king over the symbolic locusts, and what do his names in Hebrew and Greek mean and show?

³⁰ The symbolic locusts must follow their King, Jesus Christ. John says of them: “They have over them a king, the angel of the abyss. In Hebrew his name is Abadʹdon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.” The resurrected heavenly Jesus Christ is the “angel of the abyss,” for he holds the “keys of death and of Haʹdes.” In the finale of the universal war of Armageddon he will bind and pitch Satan the Devil and his spirit demons into the abyss of deathlike inactivity. (Rev. 20:1-3) When Jesus was on earth as a man, he was a Hebrew, and now in his capacity as Jehovah’s royal Executioner he is called by the Hebrew name Abadʹdon, which means Destruction. (Job 26:6; 28:22; 31:12; 12:23; 14:19) In the Greek in which the inspired Christian Scriptures were written his similar title is Apollyon, which means Destroyer. This name clearly shows that he comes to the throne at God’s right hand to rule first in the midst of his enemies and to destroy them in execution of Jehovah’s righteous judgment, Jehovah’s judicial decision against them.—Jas. 4:12.

31. (a) How, like locusts, do the Witnesses move forward, and of what quality is this indicative? (b) What keeps them united?

³¹ The symbolic locusts who must proclaim the judgment message before the judgment is executed in the “low plain of the decision” have Jesus Christ as their King, but he is invisible. They have no visible king any more than literal locusts have: “The locusts have no king, and yet they go forth all of them divided into groups.” For the reason that they move forward in groups or swarms, they are “instinctively wise,” although being among the “smallest” things on earth. (Prov. 30:24, 27) The symbolic locusts, the anointed witnesses of Jehovah, move forward united, grouped according to their local congregations. But this is not due to any locust instinct. It is due to the heavenly wisdom imparted by God’s spirit. Also, their following their heavenly King Jesus Christ as the Leader whom God had enthroned is what keeps them united in their attack upon the men not sealed. (Rev. 7:2-8; 9:4) Willingly, obediently, they subject themselves to his command; and this is what may also be pictured by the fact that the symbolic locusts “had hair as women’s hair,” since a woman’s long hair naturally is a sign of her subjection, a sign of having authority on her head.—1 Cor. 11:10, 15; Ps. 110:3.

UNSTOPPABLE, IRRESISTIBLE

32, 33. (a) As what does Joel, chapter two, describe the locusts of the plague, and in what way are they mighty? (b) How has this been true of the anointed remnant?

³² The unitedness of the symbolic locusts is described more fully in Joel 2:2-11. There they are described as a people, which they actually are in the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. “There is a people numerous and mighty; one like it has not been made to exist from the indefinite past, and after it there will be none again to the years of generation after generation. Ahead of it a fire has devoured, and behind it a flame consumes. Like the garden of Eden the land is ahead of it; but behind it is a desolate wilderness, and there has also proved to be nothing thereof escaping.”

³³ Locusts are insects small in themselves, but when they migrate in a swarm they are mighty. Then they are mighty for their numerousness as a group, a united band. So numerous are they that their swarm will cover square miles of area, and they fly along with a roaring noise like a cataract. They literally darken the heavens and cast a great shadow upon the ground. So it has been since 1919 with respect to the symbolic locusts, the anointed remnant of the joint heirs of Christ’s kingdom. In themselves each one is small and insignificant; but when united in worship and action, they are a mighty people, “full of power, with the spirit of Jehovah.”—Mic. 3:8.

34. In what way is it that a fire has devoured before the invasion of the symbolic locusts?

³⁴ Locusts come in the hot summer months. Likewise the heat of Jehovah’s anger against his professed people in Christendom precedes the invasion of his symbolic locust swarm who proclaim the “day of vengeance on the part of our God.” (Isa. 61:2) Jehovah God had a reason for burning like a “consuming fire,” for in 1919, after Christendom had destroyed human lives and property by her first world war, she rejected God’s kingdom as proclaimed by Jehovah’s anointed witnesses and came out in support of a League of Nations that paraded under the disguise of being “the political expression of the kingdom of God on earth.”—Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29.

35, 36. (a) In what way does a flame consume behind the locust invasion? (b) What notice did the symbolic locusts serve upon Christendom that affected her future?

³⁵ First, Jehovah’s military host of symbolic locusts passes over Christendom with his judgment message. After this Jehovah’s angelic hosts under the King Jesus Christ will sweep over her and consume her like a fire, leaving nothing but ashes. Before the symbolic locust invasion began, Christendom’s premises looked like a religious garden of Eden. She had her Councils of Churches, her Catholic Action, her nationalist movements holding in check atheistic international communism, her relations with political states, and her so-called political expression of God’s kingdom on earth.

³⁶ The future looked promising, until the swarm of Jehovah’s “locusts” began their united invasion around the world. From Bible prophecy they served notice on Christendom that Almighty God would desolate her in the battle of Armageddon, leaving her like a wilderness in which nothing had escaped being consumed. They left no bright hopes for Christendom behind them, especially in the Bible literature that they left behind in the hands of the people upon whom they called from house to house. They foretold that, after the “locust” swarm had passed over and finished serving advance notice upon all the nations of the inhabited earth, then Jehovah God himself with his heavenly hosts would fight against her and destroy her Edenlike appearance and make her like a desolate wilderness.

37. In 1925 what did The Watch Tower make known about Armageddon as a battle?

³⁷ In itself the message that called attention to Jehovah’s battle action at Armageddon indicates when the modern locust plague really began. In The Watch Tower, the official magazine published and distributed by Jehovah’s witnesses, there appeared in its issue of July 15, 1925, the leading article entitled “The Remnant.” This article set forth for the first time that Armageddon is not a disorganized “time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation,” or a violent, anarchistic battle between capital and organized labor, but is a universal fight between Jehovah God and the entire organization of Satan the Devil in heaven and on earth. Said paragraphs 44, 45, under “Great Battle” as a heading:

That we are nearing the time of a great and final battle of the forces of darkness against the Lord is testified to by many Scriptures. (Revelation 17:14; 16:13-15; Matthew 24:21, 22) IT IS THE GREAT BATTLE OF GOD ALMIGHTY. The prophets frequently referred to it as “the day of the Lord”. The prophet Isaiah addresses himself to the faithful of Israel, therefore the remnant class, saying: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen. . . . Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.” (Isaiah 43:10, 12) . . .

Seeing then that the devil and his organization goes forth to make war with the remnant (Revelation 12:17) it is quite evident that in this conflict Satan’s chief purpose is to destroy the “seed of promise” now on earth, and to discredit God in the minds of the people, . . .

Paragraph 63 said:

. . . Even so in the battle with the forces of darkness in this end of the age. The battle is not the battle of the faithful followers of Christ, but the battle is the Lord’s. The faithful ones who shall constitute the remnant will have a part therein in this, that they are told to sing. . . . that our strength is in the Lord and that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

38. How many were reported celebrating the Memorial in 1925, and in the following year what did the book Deliverance say further about Armageddon?

³⁸ That year (1925) the number who participated in celebrating the Memorial of Christ’s death as members of the remnant was reported as 90,434. (The Watch Tower, Sept. 1, 1925, page 263) The following year (1926) the remnant received fuller enlightenment about the battle of Armageddon in the book entitled “Deliverance.” Its chapter 12 was entitled “The Final Battle,” and its thirty pages gave a magnificent description of Armageddon. Page 275 thrillingly stated: “It is God’s fight”; and page 280 said: “The saints do not engage in the actual combat. This is the fight of God Almighty; and the fight is led by his beloved Son, . . . he is fighting for the anointed of God, that they may be vindicated for their faithful witness to the name of Jehovah. . . . Thus is Satan’s empire swept from the earth to oblivion. The name of Jehovah God is vindicated.”

39. Where was Deliverance made a feature release, and on that occasion what did Jehovah’s witnesses do for the first time?

³⁹ This book Deliverance was released in May of 1926. It was made the feature release at the international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in London, England, in the final week of May. Here, for the first time, Jehovah’s witnesses went out from this London assembly onto the pavements to offer Bible booklets to passers-by.

40. (a) So when did the symbolic locust plague begin, and who began to feel torments? (b) How long was this tormenting message to be delivered, and how has the dwindling in the number of the participating remnant been offset?

⁴⁰ In that memorable year of 1926 the symbolic locust plague as described by both Joel and the Revelation began. The religious leaders of Christendom began to feel special torments from the scorpion-like stings of the judgment message proclaimed by Jehovah’s anointed remnant. That message about Jehovah’s fight at Armageddon and the destruction that he will wreak upon Christendom and all the rest of Satan’s world was not delivered in just five literal months of 1926. It continues down to this day and gets stronger and stronger. Just as long as these symbolic locusts are alive and are witnessing on this side of Armageddon they will keep on inflicting torment by Jehovah’s message of vengeance upon religious hypocrites and upon all his other enemies on earth. Since 1931 the number of the anointed remnant still remaining on earth has dwindled; but since then also these symbolic locusts have been joined in the judgment proclamation by hundreds of thousands of God-fearing, sheeplike people, who begin calling upon the name of Jehovah for salvation and who dedicate their lives to him and get baptized in water just the same as Jesus did.

41. What is it that urges this symbolic locust swarm onward, and how have they shown fearlessness?

⁴¹ The spirit of Jehovah God is behind this increased swarm of symbolic locusts. It urges them onward, just the same as the wind did in the plague upon ancient Egypt in Moses’ day: “Jehovah caused an east wind to blow upon the land all that day and all night. The morning came and the east wind carried the locusts.” (Ex. 10:13) The symbolic locusts were filled with a fearlessness that was not of themselves but that was of God’s spirit, as they dashed into this spiritual warfare like horses plunging unafraid into the battle. With every means of publicity they strove to make the good news of God’s kingdom known and to warn Christendom and all her international worldly allies of Jehovah’s day of vengeance.

42. What symbols did Joel use to indicate their fearlessness and the effect of their publicity?

⁴² Says Joel 2:4-6 of this people: “Its appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like steeds is the way they keep running. As with the sound of chariots on the tops of the mountains they keep skipping about, as with the sound of a flaming fire that is devouring stubble. It is like a mighty people, drawn up in battle order. Because of it, peoples will be in severe pains. As for all faces, they will certainly collect a glow of excitement.”

43. (a) With what orderliness did the symbolic locusts deliver the message, and with what calamitous effect? (b) How has the fact of the remnant’s being a “mighty people” been added to since 1931?

⁴³ With their message of God’s universal war, they made the Bible word “Armageddon” well known, to get into popular usage. Orderly, as in battle formation, they proceeded to deliver Jehovah’s declaration of war against Christendom throughout the length and breadth of her realm. Just as a visit of a locust swarm is a calamity, so these symbolic locusts in their united assault were called “calamity howlers.” But their persistence and their fearlessness were in themselves a portent, a proof that sure destruction was coming upon Christendom and her associated nations. Down till 1931 the anointed remnant were prophetically called a “mighty people,” but oh how mighty a crowd there is today since the remnant have been joined by hundreds of thousands of dedicated seekers of eternal life in Paradise on earth! Revelation 7:9 describes these latter ones as a “great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues,” out of 181 lands thus far!

44, 45. (a) What has been said about keeping a devastating locust migration in check, and how does Joel 2:7, 8 picture this fact? (b) What invasion has not been checked even by nations in the recent alliance against the locust plague?

⁴⁴ In an article on “The Locust War” by a zoology professor at the University of Michigan, published in the New York Times Magazine as of May 12, 1960, it was said: “There is no known natural enemy that can keep their devastating migration in check.” (Page 96) Note how true this is of the symbolic plague, as Joel 2:7, 8 goes on to say: “Like powerful men they run. Like men of war they go up a wall. And they go each one in his own ways, and they do not alter their paths. And one another they do not shove. As an able-bodied man in his course, they keep going; and should some fall even among the missiles, the others do not break off course.”

⁴⁵ In 1960 nineteen nations of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and southeast Asia, including Great Britain and France, formed an alliance, through the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, to make a vast concerted drive on the age-old locust plague. But regardless of what success these nations may have in this drive, they have been unable to stop the invasion of these modern symbolic locusts whom the Almighty God Jehovah has sent among them.

46. How have walls raised up for self-protection fared from this invasion?

⁴⁶ No matter how high legal walls are raised in protection, these locusts have climbed up them, even if it meant going as high as the Supreme Court of the land. They have climbed over such walls and kept on going. The walls raised up in defense of Christendom by Nazism, Fascism, Catholic Action, and now, too, the walls raised up by Russian Communism, have proved to be of no avail against Jehovah’s army of “locusts.”

47. In moving forward with the message, how do the symbolic locusts follow the pattern of Joel’s description, and how have “missiles” failed to stop their progress?

⁴⁷ To the enemy that objects to the delivery of this judgment message, Jehovah’s witnesses say from underground as well as above ground: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men. . . . we are witnesses of these matters, and so is the holy spirit, which God has given to those obeying him as ruler.” (Acts 5:29-32) In orderly ranks they march forward with God’s message, not altering their paths from following their King Jesus Christ, not shoving one another or hindering one another but helping and co-operating with one another. Though some fall because of the enemy’s destructive missiles and are killed, thrown into prison, concentration camps, slave-labor camps and isolated places of exile, the others use their liberty and keep active, not breaking off their course.

48, 49. (a) Into what have they penetrated, because of following whose example? (b) How was this pictured in Joel’s description, and following whose battle cry does this movement go forward?

⁴⁸ Into the cities and the countryside, yes, into the very capital or citadel of Christendom, they go. Into the private homes of the people they penetrate despite barriers to keep them away, for they follow the pattern of the apostolic locusts of the first century, who preached and taught “publicly and from house to house.” (Acts 20:20) In an advance description Joel 2:9-11 says:

⁴⁹ “Into the city they rush. On the wall they run. On the houses they go up. Through the windows they go in like the thief. Before it the land has become agitated, the heavens have rocked. Sun and moon themselves have become dark, and the very stars have withdrawn their brightness [because a locust swarm in flight blots out the heavens]. And Jehovah himself will certainly give forth his voice before his military force, for his camp is very numerous. For he who is carrying out his word is mighty; for the day of Jehovah is great and very fear-inspiring, and who can hold up under it?”

50. What prospects does the message hold out for Christendom, and why will she be unable to hold up under Jehovah’s day?

⁵⁰ Jehovah’s judgment message of vengeance offers no bright prospects for Christendom and her worldly allies either day or night. Her future is completely black. Christendom will not be able to hold up under Jehovah’s great, fear-inspiring day for executing his vengeance upon blasphemers, profaners and reproachers of his holy name, because he is mighty enough to carry out his prophetic word as proclaimed by his military force of symbolic locusts.

THE BIG CRUSH IN THE VALLEY OF DECISION

51. (a) What command to Jehovah’s people indicates that this must be a spiritual, not a carnal warfare by them? (b) Of what kind is his command to Christendom and all other nations?

⁵¹ All this is a spiritual warfare against Satan the Devil’s organization visible and invisible. It is not carried on with carnal weapons of warfare. Jehovah’s anointed remnant of spiritual Israel and the “great crowd” of their dedicated companions from all nations and peoples are all under Jehovah’s command to “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears” and not to lift up sword, nation against nation, and not to “learn war any more.” (Isa. 2:2-4) But for Christendom and all other nations Jehovah’s command is not a peaceable one. It is a challenging incitement to war. By his swarm of symbolic locusts Jehovah says, in Joel 3:9-11. “Proclaim this, you people, among the nations, ‘Sanctify war! Arouse the powerful men! Let them draw near! Let them come up, all the men of war! Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning shears into lances. As for the weak one, let him say: “I am a powerful man.” Lend your aid and come, all you nations round about, and collect yourselves together.’”

52. Against whom are the nations really fighting, and how much man power do they need to commandeer?

⁵² Inside and outside the United Nations organization the nations are fighting for their own national sovereignty, heedless of God’s Kingdom message. They are really fighting against God. They are now preparing for a final showdown fight. All their man power is needed. The weak and unfit need to be persuaded to join the fight.

53. As we approach the war, what is our prayer to Jehovah?

⁵³ Our prayer, as we approach the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” as nonparticipating bystanders, is, as expressed in Joel 3:11: “To that place, O Jehovah, bring your powerful ones down.” So down there he promises to bring Christ and his holy angels.

54. (a) To where are the nations challenged to come, and why is the place appropriately named? (b) Since 1919 how has Jehovah undone the effect of the nations upon his people, and why has he now sent them forth?

⁵⁴ In Joel 3:12 Jehovah’s judgment message to Satan’s world continues: “Let the nations be aroused and come up to the low plain of Jehoshaphat; for there I shall sit in order to judge all the nations round about.” This valley of battle is well called the “low plain of Jehoshaphat,” for the name Jehoshaphat means “Jehovah Is Judge.” Also, at that symbolic valley of battle Jehovah sits as judge and executes his judgment or judicial decision upon all the nations round about who have mistreated and scattered his dedicated people, his faithful witnesses. Since 1919 Jehovah has freed first his remnant and more recently his “great crowd” of “other sheep” from their spiritual or religious captivity and has brought them together in unity, as his one flock under his one Shepherd Jesus Christ. (John 10:16) Now as his united military force of symbolic locusts he has sent them forth against all the nations to challenge them to do battle against Jehovah, who is “God the Almighty.”

55. (a) Figuratively, where will Jehovah’s witnesses be at the time for beginning the battle? (b) Figuratively, what have the nations produced, and as what will the low plain of Jehoshaphat nicely serve?

⁵⁵ Joel 3:13-17 prophetically locates us at the valley or low plain for the execution of Jehovah’s judicial decision just when the battle of the universe is to begin. On the mountaintops flanking the valley stand the united witnesses of Jehovah as expectant bystanders, their work of serving notice upon the nations having been faithfully completed. The nations have been like a jungle of grapevines that have produced nothing but bitter wild grapes, the worst of fruitage, “the works of the flesh.” Like vines that encumber the ground they need to be cut down to clear the ground. Their huge bunches of grapes of wickedness need to be crushed. The valley or low plain of Jehoshaphat is a fine place to serve as an enormous wine-press trough. So dump the nations into it! To his angels God cries:

56, 57. (a) What does Jehovah cry to his angels, and why? (b) From where does Jehovah roar, and at his order what begins in the valley?

⁵⁶ “Thrust in a sickle, for harvest has grown ripe. Come, descend, for the wine press has become full. The press vats actually overflow; for their badness has become abundant. Crowds, crowds are in the low plain of the decision, for the day of Jehovah is near in the low plain of the decision. Sun and moon themselves will certainly become dark, and the very stars will actually withdraw their brightness. And out of Zion Jehovah himself will roar, and out of Jerusalem he will give forth his voice. And heaven and earth certainly will rock; but Jehovah will be a refuge for his people, and a fortress for the sons of Israel. And you people will have to know that I am Jehovah your God, residing in Zion my holy mountain. And Jerusalem must become a holy place; and as regards strangers [hostile nations], they will no more pass through her.”—Joel 3:13-17.

⁵⁷ Dark indeed will be the period, both day and night, when Jehovah as Judge causes his judicial decision to be executed upon the nations who have been gathered together for being crushed out of existence. From his heavenly habitation, Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, he roars with a battle shout loud enough to set heaven and earth rocking at the shock waves. He orders his King, Jesus Christ, to tread his enemies, who have been made as a foot stool for his feet. Into the valley of decision, as into a vast wine-press trough, the King leaps with his army of holy angels. SQUASH! The treading of the nations, including Christendom, begins. The “low plain of Jehoshaphat,” “the low plain of the decision,” becomes the “great wine press of the anger of God.” His royal Son, Jesus Christ, leads in the crushing. “He treads too the press of the wine of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty,” says Revelation 19:15.

58. How vast will be the slaughter, and how does Revelation 14:20 indicate this?

⁵⁸ Never before in all human history will so many human creatures have been slaughtered. Blood, as representing human lives poured out, will run deep and over a vast distance. Revelation 14:20 paints the appalling picture, saying: “And the wine press was trodden outside the city [God’s organization], and blood came out of the wine press as high up as the bridles of the horses, for a distance of a thousand six hundred furlongs [or, 200 miles].”

59. (a) What flesh will not have its lifeblood trampled out there? (b) What fact does Jehovah say they will have to know, and how will they?

⁵⁹ To a completion Jehovah’s judicial decision will be executed. The nations and their grapes of wickedness will be trampled out of existence, to leave the earth a cleansed place for the righteous to occupy and enjoy. Not all flesh will be in that symbolic wine press. Not all flesh will have its lifeblood trampled out of it. There are those who make Jehovah their refuge and their fortress. These will be kept safe and be preserved, while Jehovah by his King Jesus Christ crushes their enemies and His enemies in the wine press or “low plain of the decision.” These preserved ones are the remnant of spiritual Israelites and the “great crowd” of their dedicated companions who unite with them in calling upon the name of Jehovah for salvation. (Joel 2:32) They are the ones to whom he has prophetically said: “And you people will have to know that I am Jehovah your God, residing in Zion my holy mountain.” With breathless awe they will have looked down from their safe heights into the valley of decision and witnessed how Jehovah gains his magnificent victory by Christ over all the combined nations of Satan’s visible organization.

60. At his victory what will be therefore do, but till then what will we do in obedience to orders?

⁶⁰ At His victory in vindication of his universal sovereignty we witnesses will sing his praises exultantly and will acknowledge him as our God for all time and eternity. We are near the time of his battle and transcendant victory. Till that time his orders for us are to continue united in our service of him. This we will do while we declare his day of vengeance and while we preach and teach the good news of everlasting salvation by his kingdom of his Christ.

The Galilean Paradise

JEHOVAH GOD himself assured the Israelites that the land to which he was bringing them was one that flowed with milk and honey. And Moses, in his parting address to his people, extolled the virtues of the land to which they were about to go. Of the entire land of Palestine Galilee was the most beautiful and fertile, and of Galilee the plain of Gennesaret, northwest of the sea of Galilee, was the choicest. Concerning it the historian Josephus wrote:

“Its nature is wonderful as well as its beauty; its soil is so fruitful that all sorts of trees can grow upon it, and the inhabitants accordingly plant all sorts of trees there; for the temper of the air is so well mixed, that it agrees well with those of several sorts. Particularly walnuts, which require the coldest air, flourish there in vast plenty; there are palm trees also, which grow best in hot air; fig trees also and olive grow near them, which yet require an air that is more temperate. One may call this place the ambition of nature, where it forces those plants that are naturally enemies to one another to agree together; it is a happy contention of the seasons, as if every one of them laid claim to this country; for it not only nourishes different sorts of autumnal fruits beyond men’s expectation, but preserves them a great while; it supplies men with the principal fruits, with grapes and figs continually, during ten months of the year, and the rest of the fruits as they become ripe together through the whole year; for besides the good temperature of the air, it is also watered from a most fertile fountain.”—Wars, Book 3, 10:8.

Helping Men to Security During God’s War

TODAY the nations of the world are interested in security more than ever before. Because of the quarrels they have among themselves relative to world domination, they seek to gain security from one another by making alliances, by means of international espionage and intrigues, by holding summit meetings and by stockpiling all manner of destructive weapons.

With all their feverish activity toward gaining security, they foolishly overlook the greatest threat of all to their very existence, namely, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” That is the war to be concerned about, for it is certain to come and to annihilate all God’s enemies. That war is concerned, not only with global domination, but with universal domination, involving as it does the unseen world. The issue to be settled by that war is Jehovah’s sovereignty by means of his kingdom, for which Jesus taught us to pray.—Rev. 16:14, 16.

Those who would find security during God’s war must heed the call of divine wisdom. Heeding that call provided security for Enoch in a hostile world, for Noah and his family at the time of the Deluge, for Lot and his daughters at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, for the Gibeonites of Canaanland who took their stand with Jehovah’s people in the days of Joshua, even as it did time and again for the nation of Israel.

Concerning divine wisdom and its call we read: “True wisdom itself keeps crying aloud in the very street. In the public squares it keeps giving forth its voice. ‘Turn back at my reproof. . . . As for the one listening to me, he will reside in security and be undisturbed from dread of calamity.’”—Prov. 1:20, 23, 33.a

What is involved in listening to divine wisdom? It means to obey the Scriptural command: “Seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” That means one must show himself meek or humble before God. It also means not only praying, ‘Your will be done on earth as in heaven,’ but making an honest effort to find out what God’s will is now and then doing it lovingly, in faith and obedience. It means calling on the name of Jehovah, making him one’s refuge and dwelling place.—Zeph. 2:3.

As dedicated Christian witnesses of Jehovah we have taken our stand for him and his kingdom, and therefore we can hope for security during God’s war—provided we continue to fulfill our dedication vow, which includes the obligation to sound forth the voice of divine wisdom so that others who are of good will toward God may hear and heed and thus also come in line for this security. More than that, we should be concerned about helping as many as possible to get in line for that security, for each one that does contributes to the vindication of Jehovah’s name.

All this requires of us that we keep on seeking first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, that we buy out the opportune time, for truly the days are wicked, more so than ever before. Let us keep our hope bright, our appreciation keen, our zeal hot for God’s cause. Let us not slack the hand but seek to find ever more and more time, energy and means for letting the voice of divine wisdom be heard on the streets, from house to house, in the homes of the people, from the public platform and incidentally, wherever we can make an opportunity. Let us take care to keep the minor things of life, such as recreation and creature comforts, in their place, making them contribute to our well-being instead of making them the purpose of our life. Let us ever be on guard that the maelstrom of materialism does not suck us into its current and we become of that vast throng today that are lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.

Because of Christendom’s religious holiday season and the vacations that go with it, December is an especially good month for all, young and old, to help men to security during God’s war, and what better instrument could we have than our New World Translation of the complete Bible? Let us get this volume into their hands and then help them to understand it. Doing so will contribute to the vindication of Jehovah’s name and help others as well as ourselves to security during God’s war.

[Footnotes]

The Beloved Apostle Writes the Fourth Gospel

THE four accounts of the good news, the Gospels, are not mere copies. Neither are they the figments of fertile imaginations. The more familiar we become with them the more we learn to appreciate their distinctive features and that they are indeed four independent yet harmonious witnesses to the facts of the earthly ministry of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Each one of the four has its own theme, its own objective, its distinct style of writing and its own peculiar facts, even as each one appears to have been written in a different location: Matthew in Palestine, Mark in Rome, Luke in Caesarea, and John in or near Ephesus. In fact, they are so different that the way each one was written served as an excuse for certain worldly-minded early “Christians” to espouse a peculiar sect: Matthew the Ebionites, Mark the Docetae, Luke the Marcionites, and John the Valentians.

Even though a mere 7 percent of Mark’s Gospel is different from all the rest, yet this 7 percent is so scattered throughout this Gospel that, together with its distinctive theme and style of writing—concise, fast-moving, replete with Latinisms, and so forth—it stands firm as an independent witness. On the other hand, we find that the fourth Gospel, although 92 percent unique, that is, covering points not mentioned by the others, is amazingly like the other three as to the basic truths, the type of characters portrayed, its spirit and impression created.

This might be illustrated by what these have to say about the apostle Peter. Certainly the first three Gospels show Peter to be impulsive in speech and action and so does the fourth Gospel. It shows Peter to be the one that objected to Jesus’ washing his feet and the one that plunged into the sea of Tiberias to swim at once to the shore upon learning that the stranger on the shore was none other than his Master, the resurrected Jesus himself.—John 13:4-10; 21:7.

BASICALLY SUPPLEMENTARY

Without a doubt John had before him the first three Gospels and so made his Gospel supplementary. That it was intended to fill in is apparent both by what it says and what it fails to say. The first three, known as the synoptical Gospels because of having a like point of view, tell of the supernatural birth of Jesus. John’s tells us of the prehuman existence of the Logos and that “the Word became flesh.” Thus also Luke tells of the child Jesus’ submissiveness, while John tells of Jesus’ asserting his independence upon reaching man’s estate: “What have I to do with you, woman?”—John 1:14; 2:4.

The synoptists recorded what took place at Jesus’ baptism, whereas John quotes what the Baptist later had to say about those events: “I viewed the spirit coming down as a dove out of heaven, and it remained upon him.” They pass over the first part of Jesus’ earthly ministry, beginning it with the imprisonment of John the Baptist. John’s Gospel records the first part of Jesus’ ministry together with his first miracle, the changing of the water into wine.—John 1:32.

Jesus’ Galilean ministry is featured by the first three Gospel writers; John features Jesus’ Judean ministry. They tell of Jesus’ parables, even Mark listing four, but John mentions not a one. On the other hand, he alone gives us Jesus’ interviews with Nicodemus, with the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar and with Pilate. At the same time he gives us many of Jesus’ likenesses that they do not give, such as when Jesus likened himself to the serpent Moses lifted up, to a good shepherd and to a vine. They tell of Jesus’ pronouncing woe upon the scribes and Pharisees; John tells of Jesus’ likening Jews to their father the Devil. They tell of Jesus’ cleansing the temple at the end of his earthly ministry; John tells of a cleansing of the temple at its beginning. They tell of Jesus’ instituting the memorial of his death; John tells of Jesus’ washing his apostles’ feet on that occasion, of the heart-to-heart talks he gave and of the prayer he offered on their behalf on that memorable night.

The synoptists mention Jesus’ going to Jerusalem only at the end of his ministry, and from their accounts we could well conclude that Jesus’ ministry was only about one year long. John, however, tells us of Jesus’ going up to Jerusalem repeatedly to the passovers, thereby giving us a clue as to the length of Jesus’ ministry, namely, three and a half years. This is in agreement with Daniel’s prophecy about the seventy weeks of years, in which the Messiah is shown as coming at the end of the sixty-ninth week, and being cut off in death in the midst of the seventieth week, or after three and a half years.—Dan. 9:24-27; John 2:13; 5:1; 6:4; 12:1 and Joh 13:1.

John is also seen to be supplementary as regards Jesus’ miracles. Only he tells us of Jesus’ first miracle, the changing of water into wine, and of Jesus’ last miracle, the draught of fishes after his resurrection. Also, only John tells us of Jesus’ restoring the sight of the man born blind and His raising Lazarus after he had been dead four days.

JOHN THE APOSTLE THE WRITER

For long years some have argued that the fourth Gospel simply could not have been written by the apostle John because of lack of early copies. However, that the Gospel of John was written in his lifetime was proved by the finding of a fragment of his Gospel in Egypt, now known as the Rylands Papyrus 457 (P⁵²), containing John 18:31-33, 37, 38, and preserved at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, England. Concerning it the late Sir Frederick Kenyon of London says in his book, The Bible and Modern Scholarship, published in 1948: “Small therefore as it is, it suffices to prove that a manuscript of this gospel was circulating, presumably in provincial Egypt where it was found, about the period A.D. 130-150. Allowing for even a minimum time for the circulation of the work from its place of origin, this would throw back the date of composition so near to the traditional date in the last decade of the first century that there is no longer any reason to question the validity of the tradition.”

The fact that John’s Gospel puts so much emphasis on love would not necessarily argue that it was not written by him because Jesus referred to him as a ‘Son of Thunder.’ The fact that as a young man he was so described would not argue against his being more mellow at, say, ninety years. It is quite likely that John was the youngest of the twelve, and he may therefore well have been the most idealistic one among them. If so, this would help explain his great devotion for his Master as well as Jesus’ particular fondness for John. It is altogether unwarranted to hold that, because Jesus had this special affection for John, John must have been unusually mild-tempered, weak or even effeminate.

On the contrary, just as Jesus had a burning zeal for righteousness—witness his cleansings of the temple, his denunciations of the clergy of his day—so did John and his brother James. That is why they were given the title Boanerges, “Sons of Thunder.” That the Samaritans of a certain city would not let their Master go through their city because he was going toward Jerusalem so filled them with righteous indignation that they wanted to call down fire from heaven; indicative, incidentally, also of their faith!—Mark 3:17; Luke 9:54.

John’s Gospel reveals the same fierce loyalty, the same intense love, the same righteous indignation. John does not spare Nicodemus but bluntly tells us that Nicodemus came to Jesus under the cover of night because of fear of what others thought. And the same is true of another member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea. Tax collector Matthew, always conscious of monetary values, could not help but note that Joseph was a rich man as well as a disciple of Jesus. Mark, writing for the Romans, tells us that Joseph was a counselor in good standing and also waiting for the kingdom of God. Luke gives us more details: Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin, a good and righteous man, one who had not voted in support of their design and actions against Jesus, and was waiting for God’s kingdom. But John’s loyalty to Jesus, and his keen sense of righteousness, his innate idealism, would no more permit him to overlook a serious flaw in Joseph of Arimathea than it permitted him to overlook the same flaw in Nicodemus: “A disciple of Jesus but a secret one out of his fear of the Jews.” There you have it!—Matt. 27:57; Mark 15:43; Luke 23:50, 51; John 19:38.

John just could not stomach the fact that anyone could profess to be a disciple of his Master and yet be ashamed of it! And so we should not be surprised to note that his reaction to Judas the traitor is the strongest of any of the Gospel writers. Long before Judas betrayed his Master, John tells us, “Jesus knew who were the ones not believing and who was the one that would betray him.” “Jesus answered them: ‘I chose you twelve, did I not? Yet one of you is a slanderer.’ He was, in fact, speaking of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot; for this one was going to betray him, although one of the twelve.” Yes, betray him, though one of the twelve!—John 6:64, 70, 71.

Thus we find that, while the other Gospel writers tell of the complaint made because of the costly ointment with which Mary anointed Jesus shortly before his death, only John tells us who said it and why: “But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was about to betray him,” complained. “He said this, though, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief and had the money box and used to carry off the monies put in it.” Again the ‘Son of Thunder’ expressing his righteous indignation. And it might be observed that, were it not for what John tells us about Judas, that one’s traitorous course would have largely remained an enigma.—John 12:4-6.

OTHER IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS

The very style of the fourth Gospel gives us circumstantial evidence that an “unlettered and ordinary” man, such as John was, must have been the writer. (Acts 4:13) John’s style is extremely simple—simple words, simple sentences, using a vocabulary far smaller than most of the other writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures. At the same time his is on the loftiest plane. As Westcott, noted Bible scholar of a century ago, expressed it: “John’s Gospel is the most consummate art springing from the most consummate simplicity. . . . No writing . . . has greater simplicity with more profound depths.” Thus it is not surprising to learn that John 7:53 to 8:11, concerning which there is a question as to John’s having written it, “is not in John’s easily recognizable style.”—The Four Gospels, Dom J. Chapman.

Even more conclusively pointing to the apostle John as the writer of the fourth Gospel is its use of names. More names appear in it than in any of the other Gospels. It alone tells us that it was Philip and Andrew, Peter’s brother, that conversed with Jesus about feeding the five thousand men; that it was Malchus whose ear Peter chopped off. Yet, although mentioning Peter thirty-three times, this Gospel not once names John nor his brother James, making only one reference to them under the term ‘sons of Zebedee.’ Aside from that, John prefers to remain anonymous under the appellative that was closest to his heart, ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved.’—John 6:5-8; 18:10; 13:23.

Nor is that all. Strongest proof of all that John wrote this Gospel is the fact that the name “John” does appear in his Gospel time and again, but it refers not once to the apostle John but solely to John the Baptist. Yes, John, who is more prone than the other Gospel writers to give us persons’ full names, when speaking of John the Baptist never bothers to call him by his full name but only “John,” although there is another John, himself. The others make this distinction, for how could you tell which John is being referred to, John the Baptist or John the apostle? But the apostle John did not think it necessary so to differentiate, because, after all, when he was talking about “John” he was not referring to himself, he was speaking of the Baptist! Surely, no one but the apostle John himself would have failed to note which John was referred to.

THE BELOVED APOSTLE

Fittingly, in times of stress the beloved apostle John was the closest to Jesus Christ, his Master. At the last passover he was reclining in front of Jesus’ bosom. He followed Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, to whom he was known, and he is the apostle seen with Jesus at Calvary, where he was entrusted with Jesus’ mother.—John 13:23; 18:15; 19:27.

From the fourth Gospel it is apparent that its writer had the keenest appreciation of Jesus’ prehuman existence. “In the beginning the Word was . . . All things came into existence through him.” And he alone quotes the many references that Jesus made to his prehuman existence, such as that he “descended from heaven.” “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” “Before Abraham came into existence, I have been.” “Father, glorify me alongside yourself with the glory that I had alongside you before the world was.”—John 1:1-3; 3:13; 6:41; 8:58; 17:5.

John’s Gospel reaches the greatest heights of divine truth. He gives us the highest appreciation of Jesus as the Logos, the Fine Shepherd, the Light of the world, the Bread of Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life. He has more to say about love than the other three Gospel writers combined. Could we imagine anyone but an intimate disciple of Jesus being able to give us such a portrayal of Jesus?

Of the twelve, Jesus singled out three for special intimacy: Peter, James and John. Only these accompanied Jesus into the house to witness his raising from the dead the young daughter of the presiding officer of the synagogue; these alone accompanied him up the mount of transfiguration, and these alone accompanied him farther into the garden of Gethsemane. Logically it would be one of these three that would give us the most exalted view of Jesus. Peter and James died long before the fourth Gospel was written. The one whom Jesus specially loved must have been one of these three and therefore John.

Some claim that Joh chapter 21 of John’s Gospel, which tells of Jesus’ giving to Peter the threefold commission to feed his lambs and little sheep, was written by a different hand than that which wrote the rest of the Gospel because the last verse of the preceding chapter (20) Joh 20:31 is in the form of a conclusion; but not so. The style of Joh chapter 21 is that of John and doubtless was added later by himself.

What a treasure we have in the fourth Gospel! Well does it serve its purpose: “These have been written down that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that, because of believing, you may have life by means of his name.”—John 20:31.

New World Society Looks Out for Its Youth

CHRISTIAN fathers are counseled: “Do not be irritating your children, but go on bringing them up in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah.” (Eph. 6:4) That the Christian witnesses of the New World society are doing this is being testified to by non-Witnesses.

Thus a Jewish photographer, associated with one of New York city’s leading newspapers, on seeing so many young folks at the United Worshipers District Assembly held at Yankee Stadium, asked: “How do you get all these children to come here? My boy doesn’t like to go to our synagogue. He comes home and says: ‘I didn’t get a thing out of it.’” When it was explained to him how Jehovah’s witnesses look after their youth, he replied, “I think I’d better give you my son.”

And said the publisher of seven of New York city’s neighborhood papers: “One of the many things I like about Jehovah’s witnesses is the order and quietness in the Stadium. I like to see children take an interest in religion, and just look at them here! I told my church committee we should be like Jehovah’s witnesses—have meetings for the whole family. It would be a better world if Protestant religions would copy Jehovah’s witnesses. You have a wonderful organization.”

Among the youthful witnesses of Jehovah who appeared on the platform at the Yankee Stadium assembly was one Gary who lives in the Bronx. Although only six years old, he goes alone from house to house preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. One day, while offering The Watchtower on a subscription basis, he met a woman at the door who patronizingly asked: “Doesn’t a little boy like you find it very tiring to be calling at people’s doors? A little boy like you should be having fun and should be doing something else instead of knocking on the doors of people’s houses.”

Six-year-old Gary, having been properly taught in Bible principles, had the right answer: “The Bible says that there is a time for everything, and when we go from door to door that is the time to speak to the people about God and his kingdom as the only hope for man.” As a result of this Scriptural answer the lady subscribed for The Watchtower and since then a number of calls have been made upon her by Gary and his father.

Where Did It Happen?

Events in the Life of Jesus Christ

Fill in blanks with the most specific possible answer, using names on the map:

1. Jesus Christ was born in ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐.

2. Because of Herod’s wrath, he was taken as a young child to ‐‐‐‐‐.

3. He grew up in ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐.

4. He was baptized in ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐.

5. He performed his first miracle, turning water into wine, at ‐‐‐‐.

6. He walked on the water of ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐.

7. In ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ he brought the message of salvation to the tax collector Zacchaeus.

8. He preached and performed so many miracles in ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ that it came to be called “his own city.”

9. At ‐‐‐‐ he raised from the dead the only son of a widow.

10. In the regions of ‐‐‐‐ he expelled a demon from the daughter of a Grecian woman.

11. In ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ he pronounced woe upon the scribes and Pharisees seven times for their hypocritical religious practices.

12. Though tired out from a journey, he grasped the opportunity to preach to the Samaritan woman by the fountain at ‐‐‐‐‐‐.

13. He raised Lazarus from the dead in ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐.

14. At ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ he spoke his great prophecy on the last days and the end of the world.

15. He died on the torture stake at ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐.

(Answers on page 735)

WHERE DID IT HAPPEN?

Answers to quiz on page 733

1. Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1);

2. Egypt (Matt. 2:13-15);

3. Nazareth (Luke 4:16);

4. the Jordan River (Matt. 3:13);

5. Cana (John 2:1-11);

6. the Sea of Galilee (John 6:1, 16-21);

7. Jericho (Luke 19:1-10);

8. Capernaum (Matt. 9:1; Mark 2:1);

9. Nain (Luke 7:11-17);

10. Tyre (Mark 7:24-30);

11. Jerusalem (Matt. 21:1, 18; 23:1-39; Mark 11:27; 12:38-41);

12. Sychar (John 4:5-42);

13. Bethany (John 11:1-44);

14. the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24:3-51);

15. Golgotha or Skull Place (John 19:17, 18).

[Map on page 733]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

PALESTINE IN THE TIME OF CHRIST

PALESTINE

Mediterranean Sea

Mt. Hermon

Tyre

Capernaum

Cana

Mt. Carmel

Sea of Galilee

Nazareth

Mt. Tabor

Nain

Samaria

Sychar

Jordan River

Joppa

Bethel

Jericho

Golgotha

Mt. of Olives

Jerusalem

Bethany

Bethlehem

Dead Sea

Gaza

Hebron

EGYPT

Questions From Readers

● Is sterilization of a man or a woman permitted under any circumstances, for example, to protect the life of a woman or in cases of extreme economic hardship?

What does sterilization of human creatures mean? It means an operation performed for the purpose of depriving a man or a woman of the power of reproduction. The Encyclopedia Americana tells us that many methods of sterilization might with greater propriety be called asexualization, since they have certain “harmful effects, both physical and mental.” In the case of men the general methods now employed are to remove a portion of a man’s seminal duct by means of which the seed of reproduction is transmitted to the female. In the case of women, it is generally the removal of a portion of the woman’s Fallopian tubes by which her ovum or egg cell is transported to the womb. So sterilization is a destroying of a person’s ability to reproduce his kind by inhibiting the functions of the sex organs implanted by Jehovah God or even by removing the organs.—See Americana, 1929 edition.

With whom did sterilization originate? Today in the United States of America the sterilization of certain persons is actually ordered by a positive legal enactment for reasons of eugenics or therapeutic effects or punishment. In 1907 the State of Indiana passed the first sterilization law, and other American states have since passed similar laws. What is the main object of such legislation? It is to prevent procreation by persons who are habitual criminals or who are feeble-minded or insane. The argument for it is thus seen to be the protecting of society from the breeding of criminally inclined or mentally unbalanced or incapable children. For this reason those states that enacted such sterilization laws felt justified in destroying or interfering with God-given functions to which a creature has a natural right.

Not to criticize states that operate by such sterilization laws, but for our own information we ask, Is such legislation based on God’s law given to his theocratic organization? Did sterilization originate with the organization of his people? Or does it have its origin in this world of which the above states are a part?

Why would God want to destroy a natural function that he put in man and woman for a valid purpose? How could God consistently be the author of a law that ordered or permitted sterilization when he excluded eunuchs from his congregation or forbade his chosen nation of Israel to make eunuchs, that it might have emasculated male Israelites who would be safe bedroom attendants upon Israelite women or be trustworthy in other positions of responsibility? God did not approve of that way of getting guards for the women’s quarters. “No man castrated by crushing the testicles or having his male member cut off may come into the congregation of Jehovah,” says Deuteronomy 23:1. Those organs have to do with the seed of reproduction. In harmony with this no member of high priest Aaron’s family could serve at God’s temple as a priest if he was damaged in that way. (Lev. 21:16-21) God wanted priests who could become father to other priests; he wanted Israelites who could produce other Israelites.

God is the Giver of reproductive powers to human creatures; he set the example by making laws for the protection of these powers. His law stated: “Soul will be for soul, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” (Deut. 19:21) But now suppose a woman’s husband got into a fight with another man. In order to protect her husband and keep him from being whipped or defeated, she reached out and grabbed hold of the other man’s private parts in order to put him out of action! By doing this, the woman doubtless ruined the man’s reproductive powers; she violated God’s law that was against the crushing of a man’s testicles and made this man unfit for God’s congregation. This woman could not argue that she was using jujitsu and acting in defense of her husband and thus for her own self-protection. She had to be punished! How?

She had destroyed the reproductive powers of a fellow Israelite. Well, then, did God order her Fallopian tubes to be cut or her sex organs ruined to prevent her from having children? Or, on the basis of like for like, did God say that, since she had ruined the husband of another woman, so her own husband should have his private parts crushed by the wife of the man whose privates she crushed? Did God say to sterilize her or her husband in order to prevent the reproduction of criminals? God’s law respected her and her husband’s reproductive powers, for it said: “You must then amputate her hand. Your eye must feel no sorrow.” (Deut. 25:11, 12) God’s law said this thing right after it had approved of brother-in-law marriage within a family. This law specified that the man who refused to perform brother-in-law marriage toward his dead brother’s widow should be publicly disgraced, for refusing to give his brother’s widow a child in the name of his dead brother.—Deut. 25:5-10.

All this gives us some idea of how God feels when a person or a nation dedicated to him tampers with the reproductive organs, preventing their normal function. It is true that the Mosaic law containing the above provisions was done away with in Christ, but God has not changed his attitude on sterilization. The sense, the force, the basic, inherent idea and purport of the above laws remain in effect with respect to Christians, who are under a law even higher than that given through Moses. A dedicated Christian is under the law of loving Jehovah God with the whole heart, mind, soul and strength. The force and effect of sterilization is against this, as sterilization harmfully affects the asexualized person physically and mentally. A Christian is not a habitual criminal or an imbecile that needs to be sterilized.

If a doctor claims that for a wife to have another child it would mean the death of her, then what? Then there is another way to prevent her conception, which conception might bring her life in jeopardy, than by violating the law of God, the whole tenor of which is contrary to deliberate asexualizing of a man or woman. If parents are living in poverty and could not afford to have another child, then there is another way to take care of this economic situation than by ruining those organs with which the perfect man and woman were endowed and which enter so strongly into the noble purposes of married life. There is the need for exercising the spirit of the Lord God, one of the fruits of which is self-control.—Gal. 5:22, 23.

When a Christian understands the good purpose for which self-control must be exercised, then it appears to him reasonable and he is strengthened to exercise it, with the aid of God’s spirit.

● In chapter six, page 58, paragraph 15, of From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, the statement is made that “none of the first-born sons of Israel died because of this tenth plague” on Egypt. Does this mean that only males were reckoned as the first-born?—F. D., United States.

It is evident that the first-born denominated in the Scriptures means the males alone. Pharaoh himself was a first-born. However, he would not be involved as he had his own household, and not the head of the household but the first-born son of the household was destined to die. Accordingly, not Pharaoh, but his own first-born son perished on the fateful night of the Passover.—Ex. 12:12, 29.

It is possible that not every Egyptian household had a literal first-born son. But the term first-born could include the chief one in the house who occupied the position of a first-born. Thus the chief male in the house, next to the head of the household, would die as representative of the appropriate first-born by birth. That it was merely the male first-born ones who were designated and whose lives were endangered on that Passover night is evident from the fact that when an exchange was made by giving over the Levites to Jehovah God, only the Levite males were enumerated, and since there were not enough Levite males to account for all the first-born males of the twelve tribes that had been saved from Egypt, a ransom price had to be paid for the excess of Israelite first-born males who were not counterbalanced by the number of Levites exchanged.—Num. 3:40-51.

● Why does the New World Translation state that Joseph considered divorcing Mary, when as yet they had not been married?—H. M., United States.

Matthew 1:18, 19, reads: “The birth of Jesus Christ was in this way. During the time his mother Mary was promised in marriage to Joseph, she was found to be pregnant by holy spirit before they were united. However, Joseph her husband, because he was righteous and did not want to make her a public spectacle, intended to divorce her secretly.”

Thus the record shows that Mary was only engaged and not as yet married to Joseph. However, the word “divorce” is properly used here because among the Israelites the engaged woman was considered under the same obligation as if she were married. Thus when a single girl was found guilty of fornication she and the man, if single also, were required to get married. But if an engaged girl had relations with another man she was stoned the same as an adulteress. Because of the binding nature of the engagement back there it is proper to speak of Joseph considering divorcing Mary even though no marriage ceremony had taken place, uniting him and her in wedlock.—Deut. 22:22-29.

● Will you please explain Jeremiah 31:22 (AV): “A woman shall compass a man”?—J. B., Nyasaland.

This phrase in itself is capable of more than one rendering. Thus the Revised Standard Version reads: “A woman protects a man.” Moffatt’s translation reads: “Frail woman becomes manly!” Rotherham reads: “A female defendeth a strong man!” A number read as does the question based on the King James Version. None of these, however, take into consideration the context, which deals with Israel’s unfaithfulness.

The New World Translation of Jeremiah 31:22 reads much more understandably, namely: “A mere female will press around an able-bodied man.” This is the new thing that Jehovah God says he would create in the earth. Up till then his people, to whom he was in the relationship of marriage, were turning this way and that in unfaithfulness. Now Jehovah God invites the virgin of Israel to set up roadmarks and signposts to guide her back and to fix her heart upon the highway that leads back. Jehovah will put his spirit in her so that she will be most eager to come back. Thus as a wife would press around her husband in order to get back into good graces or relations with him, so Israel, to whom Jehovah God had been married, would press around him in order to get back into good relations with him as her husband according to the Law covenant. Incidentally, this thought is also implied in the reading of An American Translation: “The woman woos the man!”

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“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

January 7: United Against Nations in the Valley of Decision, ¶1-29. Page 712.

January 14: United Against Nations in the Valley of Decision, ¶30-60. Page 719.