The Watchtower — August 1, 1963

Be a Happy Giver

“GIVE till it hurts!” So say those conducting charity drives. But not God in his Word, the Bible. In it we read: “God loves a cheerful giver.” He puts the emphasis where it belongs, on the motive, on the quality of the giving. Where there is cheerful giving the amount will take care of itself.—2 Cor. 9:7.

Why does God love a cheerful giver? Not because he needs anything, for he does not; “the beasts upon a thousand mountains” belong to him. He loves a cheerful giver because cheerful giving implies love and he has a kinship with those who manifest love. “God is love.” The cheerful giver is glad he is able to give, that he has an opportunity to give or to help another.—Ps. 50:10; 1 John 4:8.

Much giving today, however, is not such cheerful giving. For example, industry in the United States gave upward of $55 million in goods, services and cash to ransom the Cuban “freedom fighters.” To get these contributions, subtle political pressure was used together with the promise that contributions would be tax deductible and could be charged at wholesale rather than manufacturing rates. (As a result, not a few drug companies actually made a profit from their contributions!) For others, political pressure was not subtle. Thus one firm facing a government lawsuit was bluntly directed how much to contribute in goods and cash. Obviously, all such were not cheerful givers!

To whom should we give? To all asking? To all we would like to help? It would take a man as rich as Croesus to be able to do that. First we should be certain that those to whom we give are either deserving or necessitous, if not both. It is a tendency of fallen human nature to want to give to the rich, to those not having any need, with hope of repayment, and to overlook the poor. That is why Jesus counseled us to invite the poor when we want to spread a feast.—Luke 14:12-14.

Opportunities to give continually present themselves. Be alert to take advantage of them, and do so cheerfully. There is the family circle. Before a man and woman became husband and wife they each found ever so many opportunities to give to each other or to do for each other favors, and they did them cheerfully; no question about that. After marriage, why not keep that love alive by going beyond what duty requires of you and continue to give and do “extras,” to make the other happy, and doing so cheerfully? The same applies to the parent-children and brother-sister relationships.

Or is yours the opportunity to extend hospitality to relatives, acquaintances or fellow Christians? How shall you show it? “Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.” It means so much to the recipients of your hospitality when you extend it cheerfully, as though it were a privilege. And that it is, for is there not “more happiness in giving than there is in receiving”?—1 Pet. 4:9; Acts 20:35.

Not that this matter of giving cheerfully is limited to material things. Depending upon your maturity, understanding, influence and the Christian fruitage of God’s holy spirit in your life, you will have opportunities to give of your time, your knowledge, your interest, your companionship, yes, yourself, to another that is deserving or necessitous. Let your heart go out to such a one, put yourself in his place, exercise empathy, give of these things cheerfully. Do not give because of a feeling of compulsion, grim duty, but, as Christian shepherds are counseled, give willingly, eagerly, yes, cheerfully.—1 Pet. 5:2.

Then, too, because none are perfect, we all err, we offend or are offended by others. It may be necessary for us to call another to account, or another may come to us with an apology. Shall we be severe and exact, demanding the last ounce of flesh, Shylock-like? Or, if we do extend mercy, will we do it reluctantly, rubbing it in, as it were, as if we are doing the erring one a favor? No, rather, let us heed the counsel: “He that shows mercy, let him do it with cheerfulness.” Be a cheerful giver of forgiveness!—Rom. 12:8.

But the best gift we could possibly give one is a knowledge and understanding of God’s Word, the Bible. Jesus appreciated this truth. His cures and his feeding the multitudes were incidental to his preaching the good news about God’s kingdom and gaining everlasting life. In fact, he rebuked those who were interested only in his material gifts: “You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate from the loaves and were satisfied. Work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for life everlasting, which the Son of man will give you.”—John 6:26, 27.

Of course, for selfish persons, those who lack appreciation and who would exploit our giving cheerfully, such as spoiled mates or children, our giving may justifiably be done in measure so as to drive home the point that it is a gift and not a debt being paid. Thus one who abuses mercy repeatedly would no longer be deserving of mercy. That is why Jesus also said: “Do not . . . throw your pearls before swine.”—Matt. 7:6.

However, we do not want to overlook the fact that there is a reverse side to this “coin” of being a cheerful giver, namely, the privilege of the one who is on the receiving end to do his part toward making giving a cheerful matter. Do not take gifts, kindnesses or favors for granted, regardless of how often you may be the recipient of them. Do not always be expecting a certain favor; express sincere appreciation each time you have the blessing of receiving, and do not always limit this expression to words. For example, you might show appreciation by helping to pay for the gasoline when you go along on an auto trip. At times you may want to make a gift of some flowers or a box of sweets. Thus you will also be sharing in the blessing of giving.

Truly, God loves a cheerful giver and so does everyone else. Be one yourself, and make it easy for others who give to you to be cheerful givers by showing fitting appreciation.

Do You Pay for Your Sins After Death?

Nearly all the world’s religions answer Yes. But what does the Bible say?

DO YOU pay for your sins after death, especially in a purgatory? Yes, say ever so many of the world’s religions. The devout Chinese believes that “a spirit wanders in purgatory for two years after death and must be assisted before it can enter heaven.” To aid such spirits, in times past the Chinese used to offer up sacrifices, but now they burn houses made of paper especially for this purpose.¹ There is an elaborate description of purgatorial suffering in the sacred writings of Buddhism.²

In fact, we are told that “an analogy to purgatory can be traced in most religions. Thus the fundamental ideas of a middle state after death and of a purification preparatory to perfect blessedness are met with in Zoroaster, who takes souls through twelve stages before they are sufficiently purified to enter heaven; and the Stoics conceived of a middle place of enlightenment,” which they called empurosis, that is, a place of fire.³

As for Christendom, while here and there a Protestant clergyman may subscribe to the purgatory teaching,⁴ it is especially known as a teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. Said its Council of Trent: “Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has from the Sacred Scriptures and the ancient tradition of the Fathers taught . . . that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar; the Holy Synod enjoins on the Bishops that they diligently endeavor to have the sound doctrine . . . regarding purgatory everywhere taught and preached, held and believed by the faithful.”⁵ So it is a teaching of the Catholic church that you do indeed pay for your sins after death.

While this is the official position of the Roman Catholic Church, there is the greatest vagueness about the details of this teaching. Just where is purgatory located? What is the duration of the suffering and how can one tell when one’s loved ones have finally reached heaven? And in particular are there vagueness and decided difference of opinion as to the exact nature of the suffering.

Says Jesuit writer R. W. Gleason: “We must remark that at times purgatory has been presented as a veritable antechamber of hell; and this by theologians of no small merit. The souls imprisoned there are tortured by demons, we are told; their sufferings are more intense than any imaginable on this earth.” However, not all are so certain. As Gleason also notes: “When Bellarmine tells us that it is indeed certain that the pain of fire exists in purgatory, but that the word ‘fire’ may be taken in a metaphorical or a proper sense, that it may refer to pain of sense or to pain of loss, he really leaves us without much that is clear-cut in our certitudes.”⁵

In fact, there are some Catholics who even hold that those in purgatory are happier than those upon earth. Indeed, “Catherine of Genoa emphatically assures us that no joy on earth is comparable to the joy of purgatory, no joy in fact save the joy of heaven itself.”⁵ But if this is so, it may well be asked what sort of deterrent is purgatory supposed to be, and why are prayers said for those in it if they are better off than those on earth? Truly, there is much ambiguity on the subject.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the same Council of Trent that defined purgatory at the same time admonished the Catholic clergy that “they must not allow uncertainties or things which have the appearance of falsity to be given forth or handled, and they are to prohibit as scandalous and offensive such things as minister to curiosity or superstition or savor of filthy lucre. Let the bishops see to it that the prayers . . . be not rendered in a perfunctory manner but diligently and punctually.”⁶

THE VOICE OF TRADITION?

“Catholics Thank God There IS a Purgatory.” So reads an advertisement sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Among the claims made in these advertisements for purgatory’s existence is that “the fathers and doctors of the Church speak repeatedly of the first Christians praying for the dead.” Also that “Tertullian, second century, admonished ‘the faithful wife to pray for the soul of her deceased husband.’ The fourth century historian Eusebius, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Ephrem, St. Ambrose and St. John Chrysostom all speak of prayers for the departed souls.”

But that these claims presume more than the facts warrant is apparent from the testimony of one authority, that “it is impossible to point out in any writing of the first four centuries any passage which describes the state of any of the faithful departed as one of acute suffering . . . Still less would it be possible to show that the intermediate state was regarded by them as one in which satisfaction was made for sin.”⁷ This is further borne out by the vagueness with which the Eastern Orthodox Church presents its teaching of purgatory. So the voice of tradition is far from conclusive in this regard.

But even if the voice of tradition were not ambiguous, it of itself would not prove the existence of a purgatory. Why not? Because the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures warned that there would be a falling away from true faith after their departure, in fact, that it had its beginning even in their day. Moreover, it is granted that some of this early testimony which purported to favor the teaching of purgatory must be credited to “the survival of pre-Christian customs.”⁵—Acts 20:29, 30; 1 John 2:18.

SCRIPTURAL

It is also claimed that the teaching of purgatory finds support in the Scriptures. Among the leading texts used to prove this is 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, which reads: “Other foundation no one can lay, but that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. But if anyone builds upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—the work of each will be made manifest, for the day of the Lord will declare it, since the day is to be revealed in fire. The fire will assay the quality of everyone’s work: if his work abides which he has built thereon, he will receive reward; if his work burns he will lose his reward, but himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”—Cath. Confrat.

Can this text be used to prove a purgatory? No, it cannot. In the first place, since a Christian’s works are not literally gold and silver, hay or straw, neither would the fire be literal. In the second place, the fire is said to consume one’s work if it is not the right kind. Certainly it is not the works that go to purgatory. Thirdly, the statement is that the person shall be saved “as through fire,” not actually through fire. Apparently in an effort to make this text say more than it does, Msgr. Knox rendered it: “Yet he himself will be saved, though only as men are saved by passing through fire.”

So what is Paul speaking about at 1 Corinthians 3:11-15? Gold, silver and precious stones endure through flames, but wood, hay and stubble do not. Likewise works of which God approves are not destroyed by his judgments, but erroneous doctrines and works cannot stand before Jehovah’s fiery tests. If the one performing these latter works is prepared to suffer the loss of them when confronted by counsel or judgment from God’s Word of truth, then he will be saved by this cleansing, as though by fire. The Christian minister in his planting and watering work needs to watch how he works, that he builds with durable materials, doing all things in harmony with the truth and according to the example set by Christ Jesus.—1 Cor. 3:5-10.

Matthew 5:25, 26 (Cath. Confrat.) is another text quoted to prove there is a purgatory: “Come to terms with thy opponent quickly while thou art with him on the way; lest thy opponent deliver thee to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Amen I say to thee, thou wilt not come out from it until thou hast paid the last penny.” But what Jesus is here discussing is not the payment for sins after death but the wisdom of settling cases out of court. By no stretch of the imagination can this be used to prove purgatory. Only if purgatory itself were proved could this principle be said to apply to it. Besides, Jesus’ words imply that anyone can escape the penalty, which is something denied by those teaching purgatory.

Still another text used to teach purgatory contains these words of Jesus: “Whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the world to come.” (Matt. 12:32, Cath. Confrat.) It is argued that this implies forgiveness in the world to come, and for this to be so there must be a purgatory. But not so. First, the basic sense of the text is simply that such sin against the holy spirit is unforgivable at any time, and even in “the world to come” there will be no provision for such forgiveness. (Compare Mark 3:29.) The Bible does speak of a resurrection of judgment for those who have done vile things but not willfully so.

When that resurrection takes place there will be the opportunity for such ones to gain everlasting life through their obedience, but it will also be possible for them through disobedience then to sin against the holy spirit. This will prove to be an unforgivable sin for them, and will result in everlasting destruction.—Acts 24:15; John 5:28, 29; Rev. 20:11-15.

THE BIBLE ANSWER

Do you pay for your sins after death? Not according to the Bible, the Word of God. In the first place it tells us that man does not have a soul but is a soul: “The Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Secondly, the Bible testifies that the soul is mortal, not immortal: “The soul that sinneth the same shall die.” “He [Jesus] hath delivered his soul unto death.” And, thirdly, it assures us that the dead are unconscious: “They live under sentence of death; and when death comes, of nothing will they be aware any longer; no reward can they receive, . . . no love, no hatred, no envy can they feel . . . Whatever lies in thy power, do while do it thou canst; there will be no doing, no scheming, no wisdom or skill left to thee in the grave, that soon shall be thy home.”—Gen. 2:7; Ezek. 18:20; Isa. 53:12, Dy; Eccl. 9:5, 6, 10, Knox.

So if man is a soul rather than having a soul, and if that soul is mortal, and if at death his thoughts perish, then how could man be conscious in purgatory after death?

The idea of atoning for one’s sins by suffering after death, or even in this present life, is foreign to the Scriptures. When Jesus cured the paralytic brought to him, Jesus simply said: “Take courage, son; thy sins are forgiven thee.” That was it. Jesus said nothing about his needing to suffer for them. Likewise when he showed his disciples that “repentance and remission of sins” was to be preached, he said nothing about doing penance or suffering later for one’s sins. And so also the apostle Peter counseled the Jews: “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,” but again nothing about penance or suffering for sins. Testifying to the same truth, the apostle John wrote: “If we walk in the light as he also is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” If the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, that leaves none to be cleansed by purgatorial fires.—Matt. 9:2; Luke 24:47; Acts 3:19; 1 John 1:7, Cath. Confrat.

The Word of God does not present as alternatives life in bliss or life in blisters, but life or death. Jehovah God is loving and just. Everlasting life is one of his gifts. If man does not appreciate that gift, Jehovah God does not torture him. Man simply does not receive everlasting life. When Adam showed that he did not appreciate everlasting life, God did not tell him that he would go to a purgatory, or to a burning hell for that matter, neither did he hold out any hope of Adam’s getting to heaven. Plainly he told Adam: “Still thou shalt earn thy bread with the sweat of thy brow, until thou goest back into the ground from which thou wast taken; dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” As so plainly put by the apostle Paul: “The wages of sin is death.”—Gen. 3:19, Knox; Rom. 6:23, Dy.

But perhaps someone will object, saying, ‘What about such expressions as “where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched,” “lifting up his eyes, being in torments,” “their portion shall be in the pool that burns with fire”? Do not such statements as these contradict the foregoing?’ Not at all. The Bible, being God’s Word, cannot and does not contradict itself. We all use figurative or symbolic language at times, expressions that are not to be understood literally, and so also with the Bible writers. If we but examine the subject matter and the context of such expressions we will find that they are not to be taken literally.—Mark 9:47; Luke 16:23; Rev. 21:8, Cath. Confrat.

The testimony of the Bible is unequivocal, reasonable and just. The idea that you pay for your sins after death, and that by suffering, is pagan, not a Scriptural teaching. Man pays for his sins with death. Yes, “sin offers death, for wages.”—Rom. 6:23, Knox.

REFERENCES

¹ The World’s Great Religions, 1957. Time, Inc., p. 90.

² Harvard Classics, 1910, Vol. 45, pp. 701-704.

³ The Encyclopœdia Britannica, 11th Ed., Vol. 22, p. 660.

⁴ Our Sunday Visitor, October 26, 1952.

⁵ America, November 1, 1958, pp. 135, 136.

⁶ The Encyclopœdia Britannica, 9th Ed, Vol. 20, p. 120.

⁷ Ibid., p. 121.

Religion and the Nuclear Age

“But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.”—Ps. 37:11.

1. What challenging questions face mankind today, but what does the Creator assure us?

WHAT will our earth look like one hundred years from now? This is a challenging question. Will the nuclear age have made life a mere push-button affair for our children’s children? Will earth and its environs still be a battleground for communism and capitalism, or their successors? Or will the earth have been burnt to a nuclear cinder? Why, some are even prophesying extinction for mankind within the next ten years! However, we can be sure of this one thing: That ten years, a hundred years and a thousand years from now, the earth and man will still be here. The Author of true prophecy, earth’s Creator Himself, assures us of this, saying that he “did not create it simply for nothing, [he] formed it even to be inhabited.”—Isa. 45:18.

2. What momentous changes have the past hundred years witnessed?

² If earth is to continue as man’s habitation, what outcome can be expected for this nuclear age? Will the changes in human affairs continue to accelerate, as they have done during the past hundred years? In so short a space of time, man has come from the horse-and-buggy era clear through into the day of the astronaut. Particularly since A.D. 1914 there have been world-shaking upheavals. Two great world wars have devastated the earth. Kingdoms have toppled, and great empires have crumbled. The Communist state, appearing during World War I, has reached out to embrace one-third of earth’s inhabitants and to set up a great power struggle with the capitalist states of Christendom. Christendom, on its part, has taken the lead in establishing first the League of Nations and later the United Nations, crying out hopefully, “‘There is peace! There is peace!’ when there is no peace.”—Jer. 6:14.

3. Wherein has worldly religion failed?

³ Strange as it may seem to some, the answers to the momentous questions of the nuclear age are to be found in—RELIGION. Some may ask, How can this be so, when religion has failed so miserably in its efforts to stop the nuclear arms race? True, worldly religion has become divided and ineffectual. Christendom has turned largely to human, materialistic philosophies, instead of the Word of God. (Jer. 2:13) The many sects of Catholicism, Protestantism and so-called heathendom continue to disagree, and the issue is becoming further confused with the appearance of many additional new religions. As nuclear stockpiles grow, the people look in vain to the leaders of sectarian religion, even as Ezekiel prophesied: “There will come anguish, and they will certainly seek peace but there will be none. There will come adversity upon adversity, and there will occur report upon report, and people will actually seek a vision from a prophet, and the law itself will perish from a priest and counsel from elderly men.”—Ezek. 7:25, 26.

4. Does the Red religion have the recipe for peace?

⁴ Yet, we say RELIGION has the answer to our problems. By this, do we mean the Red religion of communism? Certainly not! It is true that, over a great part of the earth, communism has plowed the traditional religions underground, substituting in their place its own cult of State- and hero-worship. Published photographs of Moscow crowds frenziedly hailing large pictures of astronauts (such as the “heavenly twins” of August, 1962, space flight) show how deep-rooted is the Communist religion. Moreover, it has abandoned the finer qualities of loving-kindness, trueness, righteousness and peace, to boast loudly of its nuclear ascendancy. (Ps. 85:10) A noted columnist indicated recently what may happen to it, in these words: “The fact that the Russians and Chinese both profess the secular religion of communism is no reason why they should not fall into a vital conflict. We should not forget how ferocious have been the wars of religion within Christendom. We who have, we hope, outlived those wars, need not be surprised to see them break out among the Communists.”a Whether it comes to this extreme or not, it is certain that the Red religion does not have the recipe for peace.

5. What fate awaits worldly religion?

⁵ If it is RELIGION that has the solution to nuclear age problems, it must be a religion far different from the thousands of conflicting sects of Christendom, heathendom and communism. Far from bringing peace to the earth, these worldly religions are prophesied to perish with the nuclear powers with which they fellowship. The prophecy of Revelation chapter 17 describes harlotrous religion as riding atop the UN “beast,” and her devastation by “horns” that rise up from within the very organization that she sponsored. Any triumph by these radical “horns” will also be short-lived, for they too will be thrown into confusion as God’s judgment of Armageddon catches up on them. (Rev. 16:14, 16; Hag. 2:21, 22) It is woe to those who worship man-made gods or the god of war, putting faith in ICBM’s, space rockets and asteroid bombs!—Ps. 20:7.

6. What is the religion that will succeed, and what does it promise?

⁶ The RELIGION that will succeed is no part of this condemned world. It is no new religion. It is far, far older than Communism, Protestantism, Catholicism, Mohammedanism and the time-honored religions of the Orient. It is the original religion for mankind, the religion that promises something far better than nuclear annihilation for the human race, for it holds faith in the Almighty God, who says: “And just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more; and you will certainly give attention to his place, and he will not be. But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.”—Ps. 37:10, 11.

7. What marks the only path of salvation?

⁷ Faith in the Creator-God of the true religion is a prime necessity in this nuclear age, for it marks the only path of salvation. “Moreover, without faith it is impossible to please him well, for he that approaches God must believe that he is and that he becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.”—Heb. 11:6.

‘BELIEVING THAT HE IS’

8, 9. (a) By whom has God made a record concerning his purposes? (b) Who was the prophet first inspired to write, and what were his qualifications?

⁸ Belief in the true God is essential to survival. Foreknowing these critical times, God provided a basis for faith by making a wonderfully convincing record of his divine works and purposes. “God . . . long ago spoke on many occasions and in many ways to our forefathers by means of the prophets,” and these words of God were recorded in great detail for our later use. (Heb. 1:1) They are the words that make up the Holy Bible. “For all the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope.”—Rom. 15:4.

⁹ The first prophet used by God to make an inspired written record as it appears in the Bible was Moses. How was Moses qualified for this task? Was it by his superior education “in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” whose civilization was one of the most advanced of ancient times? (Acts 7:22) No doubt this education gave him background knowledge, but what really counted was the godly education supplied by his own Hebrew mother, Jochebed, during his tender, early years. (Ex. 2:1-10) Moreover, when the issue had been forced as to whether he would continue to enjoy a soft, materialistic life among the luxuries of Pharaoh’s house, or throw his lot in with God’s persecuted people, he “by faith” chose the hard way.—Heb. 11:23-28.

10. What did Moses compile, and by what direction?

¹⁰ Moses believed in God, and what he wrote should strengthen our belief. Under inspiration of God, he edited the earliest human writings, compiling them into what is now known as the Bible book of Genesis. These included “a history of the heavens and the earth” and “the book of Adam’s history,” which had been written down by the original man on earth. (Gen. 2:4; 5:1) Being “by far the meekest of all the men who were upon the surface of the ground,” Moses implicitly obeyed the directions of God’s invisible, activating force in making the permanent, reliable record concerning God’s creations. He was one of those men of faith who “spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.”—Num. 12:3; 2 Pet. 1:21.

11. What fact concerning the creation record strengthens faith in God?

¹¹ The creation record made by Moses has stood firm against the assaults of critics for close on 3,500 years! This all builds faith in God as the Inspirer of His Word. Moreover, proved science today continues to produce evidence upon evidence in support of God’s own account of creation. Of course, it has to be that way, for the Great Scientist and Designer of the laws upon which creation rests would not err in making the record of that creation. The accuracy and immutability of the Genesis account are faith-inspiring indeed!—Mal. 3:6.

12. How has Genesis 1:1 been vindicated?

¹² It is a scientific axiom that the simplest explanation of any phenomenon usually proves to be the correct one. How beautifully simple is the opening statement of the Bible, and what a wealth of meaning does it contain! “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1) Oh, yes, some have tried to argue their theories that the universe never had a beginning, that it is continuous in space and time, that the heavens are older than the earth, and so forth. However, in recent years, the 100-inch telescope and probes by man-made satellites have compelled the critics to retreat to the position held by Moses 3,500 years ago. The study of the heavens has now revealed an expanding universe, said to be five or six billion years old, and all of it still flying apart as the result of one initial, creative explosion! This first and most stupendous of nuclear explosions, if that is what actually occurred, was for a wise purpose, in bringing forth the vast material universe, with all its order and design. How puny and destructive by comparison would man-made explosions of the newborn “nuclear age” be!

13. What scientific discoveries appear to harmonize with Genesis 1:2, 3?

¹³ “Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep; and God’s active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters.” (Gen. 1:2) This was the situation some billions of years after the original creative act, as recorded by Moses. Again, atheistic scientists have drawn issue, not only with God in using his active force, but with the statement concerning “darkness upon the surface of the watery deep.” In the first place, we might ask, If it was not God’s active force, what other marvelously controlled force brought forth all the design and purpose to be seen in mineral, vegetable and animal creations here upon earth? As to the “darkness,” mighty telescopes are again forcing the critics into retreat. These are now revealing great celestial systems similar to our own, the dark “diffuse nebula” in space, in which they say a bright, shining sun is later formed to give light to nearby bodies. This harmonizes with Moses’ statement: “And God proceeded to say: ‘Let light come to be.’ Then there came to be light.”—Gen. 1:3.

14, 15. What other facts of creation testify to the supreme wisdom of the Creator?

¹⁴ We could continue verse by verse through the entire period of the six creative days, periods of time that other Bible passages show to have been each 7,000 years in length.b Science now stands in line with the Bible, confirming the order of the appearance of dry land, the earth’s putting forth vegetation, the appearance of the heavenly luminaries, and the bringing forth of fish, bird, animal and human souls. Advancing scientific investigation has been compelled to ditch Darwin’s theories in favor of the Great Scientist’s age-old statement that he created every living thing “according to its kind,” so that it could change and reproduce only within divinely appointed boundaries. (Gen. 1:11, 12, 21, 24, 25) No mechanical assembly-line reproduction is this, but there is wondrous variation among the individuals of each kind.

¹⁵ Man himself is the crowning point of all this earthly creation, testifying to God’s marvelous creative ability. Man was created higher than the animals, and was given wisdom from above, so that he could have appreciation of spiritual values and a strong moral sense, and be capable of expressing love toward his Creator and fellowman. He was wonderfully equipped to carry out the mandate that God gave him: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.” (Gen. 1:26-28) Man was made for the earth, not for the moon or outer space.

16. Why could God the Creator not be the author of the religious confusion on earth?

¹⁶ Truly, all the harmony and design in creation testify to an order-loving God. Many people will argue convincingly on the existence of God, basing their conclusions on the order that they see in His creation. By the same line of argument, they should be showing that the confused sectarianism to be seen in the multitude of religions on earth today is clear proof that these religions are not of God. “God is a God, not of disorder, but of peace.” (1 Cor. 14:33) Thus, God purposed only one religion for mankind on this earth, a realistic, practical religion that would unite all men as children around their heavenly Father. This religion they would express, not by some mystic chanting or formalism, but thankfully in loving service to God, the Creator, according to His divine will.—1 John 2:17.

17. Now did the false religion originate, and what are its fruits?

¹⁷ The first man started out as an obedient son of God. The pity is that he later willfully abandoned his belief and faith in God, lost the true religion, and embarked on a course of sectarian rebellion. As a result, false religion has engulfed most of mankind, to becloud the identity of the true God and His religion. (2 Cor. 4:4) The cumulative fruits of false religion are to be seen in today’s nuclear-age problems.—Matt. 7:15-20.

18. What ignorance prevails as to the Creator-God?

¹⁸ There are many today who acknowledge that there is a Creator-God. Yet, ask them his name, and they cannot tell you. They are confused as to his identity. Some say he is Jesus Christ. However, the Bible says that Jesus is “the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation by God.” (Rev. 3:14) Others hold that the Creator, Jesus and “the Holy Ghost” are a trinity of three Gods in one, and that Jesus was actually a God-man while on earth. However, the Bible says that Jesus was merely a man while on earth: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim. 2:5) The “God-man” idea actually comes from “heathendom.” It was prominent in the Roman religion, which exalted the emperor as god incarnate. It is similar to the recently dissolved emperor worship of Japan, in which the emperor was described as “arahito-Gami,” meaning “God in man’s form.” In view of the worldwide confusion as to the identity of the true God and Creator, it is important to faith that he be identified by His name.

BELIEVING WHO HE IS

19. What is God’s name, and how did Moses glorify it?

¹⁹ In addition to writing the faith-inspiring creation record, Moses wrote much concerning the Creator-God and His awe-inspiring Name. On one occasion God placed Moses in the cleft of a rock, and passing by, He declared His name. Was it “Lord, Lord”? No! It was “Jehovah, Jehovah,” and Jehovah went on to describe the illustrious qualities that His name stands for. (Ex. 33:21–34:7) At the end of a long line of faith-building experiences, Moses had compelling reason to glorify Jehovah by name: “For I shall declare the name of Jehovah. Do you attribute greatness to our God! The Rock, perfect is his activity, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness, with whom there is no injustice; righteous and upright is he.”—Deut. 32:3, 4.

20. Why is the Name important?

²⁰ As this inspired record by Moses shows, God has an illustrious name. In the Hebrew language it is written יהוה, and is believed to have been pronounced like the romanization Yahweh. In English it is pronounced Jehovah, in Spanish Jehová, in Japanese Ehoba. Though the pronunciation varies from language to language, the name is easily recognizable in each language, serving to distinguish the Lord of the universe and the God of all creation from all the inferior lords and gods known in both Biblical and secular history. The name has its own distinctive meaning: “I shall prove to be what I shall prove to be.” (Ex. 3:14) Jehovah vindicated his name in a typical way, when he delivered Israel from Egypt as a people for his name, striking Egypt with devastating plagues and finally destroying the flower of its military might in the Red Sea. It was no wonder that “the people began to fear Jehovah and to put faith in Jehovah and in Moses his servant.”—Ex. 14:28-31; Acts 15:14.

21. How do many modern religions show disrespect for the Name?

²¹ However, there are many religions today, especially in Christendom, that profess to believe the Bible, but that shy away from putting faith in Jehovah, the Creator-God of the Bible. They say they believe in God, but they do not want Jehovah as their God. They agree with what Moses wrote about creation, but they do not agree with what he wrote about God. They prefer to worship a mystic Trinity of gods, a “God incarnate,” or a nameless “Lord.” They are so sensitive about the name “Jehovah” that they even expurgate it from their modern Bible translations. Their substitution of “Lord” or “God” for “Jehovah” is not translation. It is interpretation, a ‘taking away’ from God’s Word, in direct violation of Jehovah’s command through Moses, at Deuteronomy 4:2.

22. What reason does one translation committee give for rejecting the Name, but is this a valid reason?

²² Thus the ten-man panel chosen by the Joint Committee of the Churches in Great Britain declares through its director, Professor Godfrey R. Driver, that in its new translation of the Old Testament of the Bible, the name “Jehovah” will not appear. Why? Because “the word ‘Jehovah’ (is) merely a solecism produced in 1502,” says Driver.c If “Jehovah” is a “solecism” (a corruption of, or deviation from the original, according to Webster), would it not be more honest on the translators’ part to write the Name in its original form? The name “Jehovah” in English, and its equivalents in other languages, have become recognizable by long usage. How ridiculous to say now that the name should be eliminated because of a deviation in pronunciation! By the same argument, the name “Jesus” should be removed, for “Jesus” is a solecism based on the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Jehoshuah.” Following the same reasoning, we should substitute “he,” “she” or some other identity-destroying pronoun or common noun in place of many other names whose original pronunciation has not been carried over into the translation. In time, some of these translators might even come out with a Bible that omits all names, for fear of pronouncing them wrong!

23. What reason actually lies behind rejecting the Name?

²³ Why this widespread reticence in using God’s name? There is a strong reason. The great religious systems of Christendom have ceased to trust in the Creator-God, Jehovah. Instead, they have rested hope of survival in the political nations of the West, with their nuclear armaments. They have taken the “religion of their choice,” so that they may be free from responsibility to Jehovah, the God of the Bible. In this way they have lined themselves up with an opposing god, the originator of earth’s multitude of religious sects, the one whom Jehovah’s Chief Witness, Christ Jesus, referred to as “the father of the lie.” (John 8:44) Thus they disqualify themselves from the blessing that Moses bestowed prophetically on the Christian nation of spiritual Israel: “Happy you are, O Israel! Who is there like you, a people enjoying salvation in Jehovah, the shield of your help, and the One who is your eminent sword?”—Deut. 33:29.

24. Why may “the Israel of God” be termed happy?

²⁴ Happy today is this “Israel of God,” made up of the Christian witnesses of Jehovah. These are truly “enjoying salvation in Jehovah,” and they look forward confidently to their “eminent sword” solving all nuclear-age problems, as he crushes warlike nations, together with their devilish instruments of annihilation, in Armageddon’s war. In faith they take up the song of victory, as Moses did at Jehovah’s miraculous victory at the Red Sea. “My strength and my might is Jah, since he serves for my salvation. This is my God, and I shall laud him; my father’s God, and I shall raise him on high. Who among the gods is like you, O Jehovah? Who is like you, proving yourself mighty in holiness? The One to be feared with songs of praise, the One doing marvels. Jehovah will rule as king to time indefinite, even forever.”—Ex. 15:2, 11, 18.

25. What is the content of the ‘song of Moses and of the Lamb’?

²⁵ Yes, Jehovah will rule as king forever. Already, in A.D. 1914, he established his heavenly kingdom in the hands of his Son, Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God. Christ’s footstep followers, many of whom have been resurrected to share with him in his Kingdom glory, are now “singing the song of Moses the slave of God and the song of the Lamb, saying: ‘Great and wonderful are your works, Jehovah God, the Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of eternity. Who will not really fear you, Jehovah, and glorify your name, because you alone are loyal? For all the nations will come and worship before you, because your righteous decrees have been made manifest.’”—Rev. 15:3, 4.

26. What faith do men of goodwill now hold?

²⁶ Today, men of goodwill from all the nations are also embracing the true religion, the worship of Jehovah, and are busily witnessing concerning his righteous decrees. They have faith, too, that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God will result in benefits of eternal life for them. It will be a happy, fruitful life on earth, where they will be co-workers with God, performing his divine will in transforming this globe into a delightful garden park. Thus, the true religion, the worship and service of Jehovah, will bring everlasting delight to the Armageddon survivors, to their children and their children’s children. It will also bring delight to their fathers, and their fathers’ fathers, and to all others who have gone into the common grave of humankind through the millenniums of human history, and whom Jehovah purposes to bring forth to life through a resurrection. (John 5:28, 29) All men who choose to embrace the true religion on earth will live for an exhilarating eternity of praise to that greatest of all names—JEHOVAH.—Ex. 3:15.

[Footnotes]

Wrong Kind of Christianity

In discussing the decision of the United States Supreme Court banning official prayers in the public schools, Edward O. Miller wrote in The Christian Century of August 1, 1962: “Business leaders who have consistently demanded that the government stay out of their domain now proclaim that unless the government undergirds religion, the God of Abraham and of Jesus could be overthrown. Since when do Christians run to the government to save God? Christianity came near to destruction when the Roman emperor Constantine gave it official sanction and made it respectable. As Kierkegaard wrote in his Attack Upon Christendom, a Christianity that looks to government for aid ‘betrays the fact that it is not the Christianity of the New Testament.’”

Surviving Through Faith

“He that approaches God must believe . . . that he becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.”—Heb. 11:6.

1. Who are promised the reward of survival, and what must they do?

MANY claim to believe in God, but do they believe in him as God, Jehovah? Do they ‘look intently toward the payment of the reward,’ as did that bold champion of Jehovah’s name, the prophet Moses? (Heb. 11:26) It is only the “meek ones of the earth,” those who wholeheartedly “seek Jehovah,” together with righteousness and meekness, that are promised the reward of survival through “the day of Jehovah’s anger” into his new world of peace. (Zeph. 2:3) They must earnestly seek God through his Word, the Bible, and in association with his witnesses. They must realize that, while the creation may stand in proof of the existence of God, it is only the Bible, his revelation to mankind through his prophets, that makes known his eternal Name, the fullness of his abounding love, and his glorious purpose to deliver those who love him, in vindication of his Name.—1 Pet. 1:25.

2. Through whom must men seek Jehovah, and why?

² Preeminently, God “has at the end of these days spoken to us by means of a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the systems of things.” (Heb. 1:2) This Son is also named the Word and Christ Jesus. Having been Jehovah’s companion worker in the creation, he is well qualified to speak of all the glories of Jehovah’s accomplishments. “So the Word became flesh and resided among us, and we had a view of his glory, a glory such as belongs to an only-begotten son from a father; and he was full of undeserved kindness and truth.” (John 1:14) All who seek the Father, Jehovah, must do so through His Son, for he is the one who shed his own human lifeblood to redeem man from sin, and who is thus able to make intercession with Jehovah on behalf of sinful men.—John 14:6; Heb. 9:11-14.

3. How is he the Prophet like Moses, and why greater than Moses?

³ The Son is not only the Mediator between God and man, but he is also the greatest of all prophets. He is the one of whom Moses spoke: “At that Jehovah said to me, ‘. . . A prophet I shall raise up for them from the midst of their brothers, like you; and I shall indeed put my words in his mouth, and he will certainly speak to them all that I shall command him. And it must occur that the man who will not listen to my words that he will speak in my name, I shall myself require an account from him.’” (Deut. 18:17-19) Peter later identified this prophet typified by Moses as “the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.” (Acts 3:19-24) In whose name did he prophesy? In his own name, Jesus? No, but in the name of the God who sent him, Jehovah. Thus he testified concerning his Father, Jehovah: “I cannot do a single thing of my own initiative; just as I hear, I judge; and the judgment that I render is righteous, because I seek, not my own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (John 5:30) He taught his followers to pray, “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified,” and he himself prayed in an hour of trial, “Father, glorify your name.” (Matt. 6:9; John 12:28) As the Prophet greater than Moses, Jesus did even more than Moses in declaring and glorifying Jehovah’s name. At the close of his earthly course, he could say in prayer to Jehovah: “I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world. . . . Sanctify them by means of the truth; your word is truth.”—John 17:6, 17.

4. What great prophecies did Jesus speak that are of vital concern in this nuclear age?

⁴ In the name of Jehovah God, the prophet Jesus spoke prophecy that is of vital concern to men living on earth in this nuclear age. In Matthew chapters 24 and 25, he foretold the world wars, the famines, the earthquakes, the increase of lawlessness, the preaching of God’s kingdom, the rise to prominence of the UN, the growth of materialism, and many other evidences marking this age as “the conclusion of the system of things.” Culminating this great prophecy, Jesus spoke of himself as coming in Kingdom glory to separate the nations as sheep and goats. To the sheep he says: “Come, you who have my Father’s blessing, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.” These sheeplike ones are depicted as showing goodwill to Christ’s brothers. (Matt. 24:3, 7, 12, 14, 15, 37-39; 25:31-46) Today, those who earnestly seek Jehovah’s reward through faith do well to associate and serve with the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses.

5. How did Jesus emphasize joyful endurance, both in word and deed?

⁵ In connection with this end of the world, Jesus also said: “But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.” (Matt. 24:13) This endurance in faith is important to all who will survive and attain to the reward. Jesus himself is the superlative example of endurance, so that we are all admonished to “look intently at the Chief Agent and Perfecter of our faith, Jesus. For the joy that was set before him he endured the torture stake, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Indeed, consider closely the one who has endured such contrary talk by sinners against their own interests, that you may not get tired and give out in your souls.” (Heb. 12:2, 3) “For the joy that was set before him”! So, too, we may endure all trials, “as seeing the One who is invisible,” and in the glorious prospect of Jehovah’s new-world blessings!—Heb. 11:27.

6. What rewards await the “little flock” and the “great crowd”? Why?

⁶ What is the reward, for which we are admonished to strive so earnestly? To his joint-heirs in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus said: “Have no fear, little flock, because your Father has approved of giving you the kingdom.” “Seek continually his kingdom.” (Luke 12:32, 31) Again, Paul says: God “will render to each one according to his works: everlasting life to those who are seeking glory and honor and incorruptibleness by endurance in work that is good.” (Rom. 2:6, 7) So the prize for the “little flock” of 144,000 followers of Jesus Christ is Kingdom glory with everlasting life. After describing this flock of spiritual Israel in Revelation 7:4-8, the prophet Jesus goes on to give a vision of “a great crowd, which no man was able to number,” taken from among all tribes of mankind. These also seek God’s reward in faith, by “rendering him sacred service day and night in his temple.” Will they be disappointed? No, for the prophecy goes on to say that “the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, will shepherd them, and will guide them to fountains of waters of life. And God will wipe out every tear from their eyes.” (Re 7 Vss. 9-17) Whether the reward is eternal life with the Lamb, Christ Jesus, in his heavenly Kingdom, or eternal life in the earthly realm of that kingdom, how worth-while it is to strive after that reward in strong faith, and with endurance!

TRIALS OF ENDURANCE

7, 8. (a) What results through keeping integrity in faith? (b) What aids immeasurably toward endurance?

⁷ Viewed properly, the trials that confront men of faith are a cause for rejoicing. Why so? Because, properly met, they will bring satisfaction, and with it the strength that results from keeping integrity. For this reason Peter writes: “In this fact you are greatly rejoicing, though for a little while at present, if it must be, you have been grieved by various trials, in order that the tested quality of your faith, of much greater value than gold that perishes despite its being proved by fire, may be found a cause for praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. 1:6, 7) Like the faithful prophets of old, like Jesus, the great prophet and exemplar, like the courageous modern-day overcomers among Jehovah’s witnesses, let all with rejoicing keep up this battle of faith!

⁸ As an aid to enduring in strong faith, we should always regard as precious our inestimable privilege of holding high the glorious Name of Jehovah God. (Psalm 145) It is because of Satan’s wicked challenge to Jehovah’s supremacy that he has been permitted to test and persecute God’s servants up until this day. (Ex. 9:16) By enduring in integrity we may share in Jehovah’s vindication. What a deep love do we have for Jehovah’s holy Name! That Name means more to us than any other name in the wide universe! Only by holding integrity to Jehovah can we show our heartfelt appreciation of all that he has created and made, our appreciation of the gift of life, yes, our appreciation of his overwhelming loving-kindness in providing the way of everlasting life through his Son, Christ Jesus. Thus, in exultant faith we respond to the call: “Sing to Jehovah, bless his name. From day to day tell the good news of salvation by him.”—Ps. 96:2.

9, 10. (a) What must be coupled with love for Jehovah? (b) Why is study of such vital importance, and what are some Scriptural examples?

⁹ Coupled with a love for Jehovah and his righteousness, we must have a deep hatred for what is unrighteousness, that which reproaches or defames Jehovah’s name, or transgresses his righteous principles. In this, we should be like-minded with Christ Jesus, of whom it was prophetically written: “You have loved righteousness and you hate wickedness. That is why God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of exultation more than your partners.” (Ps. 45:7) May we, too, share in that joyful exultation by hating everything that violates Jehovah’s right principles. Not that we will hate individuals as such, but we will certainly not want to company with those who say of Jehovah: “In the knowledge of your ways we have found no delight.” (Job 21:14) Rather, let us spend time with others of like precious faith, and in studying the thoughts of Jehovah. “How great your works are, O Jehovah! Very deep your thoughts are. No unreasoning man himself can know them, and no one stupid can understand this.”—Ps. 92:5, 6.

¹⁰ Yes, study! What a help to endurance! What a faith builder, setting hearts on the attainment of the reward! Do we all appreciate, and dig deep down for the full wealth of information contained in each issue of The Watchtower? In most countries today, religion is a mere social convenience, to be called on for christenings, weddings and funerals. There is much ceremonial, but interest in doctrine or prophecy is practically nil. There is no living faith, there is none of the zealous search for Scriptural truth that was so forcefully exemplified by the early Christian witnesses. Why, “day after day they were in constant attendance at the temple with one accord” for Bible instruction, and as they preached to others the grand truths they learned, these also “received the word with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so.” (Acts 2:46; 17:11) It was a daily matter; it was their very life. So, today, those who seek the rewards of faith must abandon the lazy customs of old-world religion, set eyes in faith on Jehovah’s new world and become whole-souled in daily personal Bible study, as well as in regular meeting attendance with true Christians.

11, 12. (a) What modern-day example illustrates appreciation of Jehovah’s provision? (b) Why are study and association so essential at this particular time?

¹¹ A modern-day example of true Christian zeal for the Bible and its study is found in those witnesses of Jehovah who suffered in the Nazi concentration camps. After her own release from concentration camp, Genevieve de Gaulle, niece of General de Gaulle, the present president of France, had this to say concerning Jehovah’s witnesses in the Ravensbruck Women’s Camp: “Indeed, I have true admiration for them. They belonged to various nationalities: German, Polish, Russian and Czech, and have endured very great sufferings for their beliefs. . . . All of them showed very great courage and their attitude commanded eventually even the respect of the S.S. They could have been immediately freed if they had renounced their faith. But, on the contrary, they did not cease resistance, even succeeding in introducing books and tracts into the camp, which writings caused several among them to be hanged.”a

¹² Think! Is our own faith so strong that we would risk being hanged to obtain the latest issue of The Watchtower? Have we built up our faith to the point where we are confident of withstanding any test that the final assault of Gog of Magog may bring upon us? The day may come when it will be very difficult to meet together, even as our brothers met such trials in Nazi concentration camps, and as others are meeting them in Soviet camps today. Now, in this breathing space of comparative freedom of assembly there is the golden opportunity to meet together regularly four or five times a week, and to drink in both Christian association and those precious Bible truths that will fortify our faith to survive into the new world of righteousness. “Look! Now is the especially acceptable time. Look! Now is the day of salvation.”—2 Cor. 6:2.

13. Why should we guard against “lofty eyes”?

¹³ Other trials of faith are not the direct frontal attack of persecutions. They are the indirect attack, the ambushes that Satan sets along the way, and they may come unexpectedly at any time. Again, it is strong faith and deep appreciation of Jehovah’s righteousness that will win the day. As Proverbs 6:16-19 advises, there are seven things that are detestable to Jehovah’s soul. The first of these is “lofty eyes.” One might study hard, gain a fine knowledge of the Scriptures, and progress to great service privileges in Jehovah’s organization. However, what will all this benefit if he gets puffed up, and starts to think that he is someone? His pride will only preface a great fall. Self-assurance will open him wide to Satan’s attack, and the large shield of faith will be missing when one of the wicked one’s burning missiles strikes through to humble him. (Eph. 6:16) Even the man of faith, Moses, stumbled on one occasion, only to recover himself and remain in God’s favor. (Num. 20:7-13) Despite his glorious privilege as God’s prophet, Moses remained the ‘meekest of men,’ and in this we do well to follow his example.

14. What other hateful things must be guarded against, and why?

¹⁴ Living in a corrupt, delinquent world, the man of faith is surrounded by so many evil influences, that he must keep up his guard at all times. There are other “things that Jehovah does hate,” and which we should likewise hate with a godly hatred. They are “a false tongue, and hands that are shedding innocent blood, a heart fabricating hurtful schemes, feet that are in a hurry to run to badness, a false witness that launches forth lies, and anyone sending forth contentions among brothers.” These hurtful things belong in Satan’s world, and they will perish with Satan’s world. In the zeal of true faith, we must guard against their entry into our individual lives and into the Christian congregation. Remember, “Jehovah is righteous; he does love righteous acts. The upright are the ones that will behold his face.”—Ps. 11:7.

15. What wonderful privilege accompanies a living faith?

¹⁵ A live faith is not content with receiving. It is the faith that gives! How better can one give of his faith than by regular weekly service to Jehovah, in companionship with others of like faith? Yes, work with a purpose, calling again on goodwill persons, studying with them, and sharing to the full in the happy sequence outlined in Romans 10:13-15: “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.’ However, how will they call on him in whom they have not put faith? How, in turn, will they put faith in him of whom they have not heard? How, in turn, will they hear without someone to preach? How, in turn, will they preach unless they be sent forth? Just as it is written: ‘How comely are the feet of those who declare good news of good things!’” Comely indeed in Jehovah’s sight are those whom he sends forth, and who accept this grand privilege of sharing faith with others!

16. What advice applies to the young generation today?

¹⁶ Today, there is a new and young generation growing up in the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. These, too, need faith. Many who are now coming to associate with Jehovah’s people have not had to endure fiery persecutions such as those of World War II. They have not passed through mobbings, prison camps, jailings, bannings and reproaches that older Witnesses have experienced. Yet, these, too, should study to build the same sterling quality of faith that has characterized Jehovah’s servants in all ages. These, too, should be diligent to equip themselves with faith’s armor, heeding Paul’s admonition to the young man Timothy: “Fight the fine fight of the faith, get a firm hold on the everlasting life for which you were called and you offered the fine public declaration in front of many witnesses.”—1 Tim. 6:12.

17, 18. Why is this the time to “be vigilant with a view to prayers”?

¹⁷ Faith in Jehovah will draw one closer to Jehovah, and drawing close to Jehovah means approaching him in prayer. In this connection Peter exhorts: “But the end of all things has drawn close. Be sound in mind, therefore, and be vigilant with a view to prayers. Above all things, have intense love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Pet. 4:7, 8) Keep close to Jehovah in prayer, for it is the prayer of faith, coupled with love, that keeps one’s feet on the path toward the reward of life everlasting in God’s new world.

¹⁸ Truly, “the end of all things has drawn close,” and this can be well appreciated by the way the nations of mankind are struggling under the problems of their self-made nuclear crisis. It is the time to be completely vigilant, to keep one’s faith at concert pitch, so as to be ready to follow every leading of Jehovah and his Son, during these climactic days leading to Armageddon. What a tremendous day will that be, and may we then, all of us, be able to show the tested quality of our faith, for praise and glory and honor at the Armageddon “revelation of Jesus Christ”!—1 Pet. 1:7.

19, 20. (a) What glorious promise of protection is contained in the 91st Psalm 91? (b) Why does Jehovah provide such protection?

¹⁹ Reverting again to the prophet Moses, we may read in his psalm how great are the rewards for men of faith who earnestly seek after God. These are the ones who come to dwell “in the secret place of the Most High” and “under the very shadow of the Almighty One.” They say to Jehovah, “You are my refuge and my stronghold, my God, in whom I will trust.” To these trusting ones, Jehovah gives assurance: “You will not be afraid of anything dreadful by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in the gloom, nor of the destruction that despoils at midday. A thousand will fall at your very side and ten thousand at your right hand; to you it will not come near. Only with your eyes will you look on and see the retribution itself of the wicked ones. Because you said: ‘Jehovah is my refuge,’ you have made the Most High himself your dwelling; no calamity will befall you, and not even a plague will draw near to your tent. For he will give his own angels a command concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.” What glorious promise of protection during the fastgathering storm of Armageddon!

²⁰ Why does Jehovah promise such protection? The psalm continues: “I shall protect him because he has come to know my name.” It is because the one diligently seeking God has come to know Jehovah, and all that His glorious name stands for. It is because he believes that God, Jehovah, exists, and because he has complete faith in attaining to Jehovah’s promised rewards. It is because he calls upon Jehovah in faith. “He will call upon me, and I shall answer him. I shall be with him in distress. I shall rescue him and glorify him. With length of days I shall satisfy him, and I shall cause him to see salvation by me.”—Ps. 91:1, 2, 5-11, 14-16.

21. (a) In what may Armageddon survivors rejoice? (b) What is the conquest that overcomes the world, and with what reward?

²¹ As “length of days” extend out into an eternity of joyful service of the Creator-God, Jehovah, the recipients of his blessings in the new world will rejoice that they became men of faith during the closing days of this old world. They will rejoice that they had belief in Jehovah God, and belief in his power to reward them. They will rejoice that their faith became a vibrant, living thing, and that it strengthened them to withstand the buffetings of Satan’s world during its nuclear-age death throes. The rewards of that faith will be the grandest kind, an eternity of rewards, with exultation rising upon exultation, as man peers more and more into the glorious works of Jehovah, and experiences more and more His paternal goodness. Those holding fast the faith of the true religion during the momentary “last days” of this old world will be amply rewarded in the eternity of peaceful, joyful living in the new world to come! “And this is the conquest that has conquered the world, our faith.”—1 John 5:4.

[Footnotes]

Recommending the Truth by Fine Conduct

CHANGE IN ATTITUDE

The apostle Paul, at 2 Corinthians 6:3-10, tells how true Christians recommend the truth to others by their conduct and fine qualities, such as kindness. Recently a Witness in the State of Indiana offered The Watchtower and Awake! to a householder and was told: “This time I’ll take them and read them.” She proceeded to tell the Witness that she was very grateful to one of Jehovah’s witnesses who had called on her mother and kindly comforted and encouraged her while her father was in the hospital. This householder had previously been very opposed to the truth, but the kindness shown her parents changed her attitude.

NEATNESS IMPRESSED THEM

A Witness, doing rooming work for an assembly at Americus, Georgia, reported calling at two motels: “I called on the manager of a motel and told him that I was with the Watchtower Rooming Committee. He said, ‘You don’t mean Jehovah’s witnesses, do you?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘My wife and I were talking about you people the other day. We had just had a group here at our motel who were attending a religious meeting. They and their children were very careless about caring for their rooms; they strewed papers and trash on the grounds and were very noisy. My wife had said, “Why couldn’t they have been like Jehovah’s witnesses?” When they were here they left their rooms so neat and clean that we didn’t have to do much after their assembly. Even the maids mentioned the difference in Jehovah’s witnesses and other people. We’re so glad to have you folks back!’

“I later called at another motel. The lady in charge asked me what I was selling. I said, ‘I’m not selling anything. I’m with the Watchtower Rooming Committee. We’re going to need rooms for an assembly.’ She said, ‘Well, we certainly want to welcome you back.’ She then showed me how neat and clean the rooms were and stated the rates. As I was ready to leave, she said, ‘I would like to ask one favor of you.’ She explained, ‘I would like for you to send the same people in here as I had at your last assembly. They were the nicest and neatest people I ever met.’ I told her that I could not promise that, ‘but I would like for you to have someone else stay here and see if they are not just as nice and neat.’ She replied, ‘I’m sure that they will be just the same, but I just thought so much of the others that I wanted to have them back.’”

NO PROBLEMS

A circuit minister of Jehovah’s witnesses in British Columbia, Canada, reports: “While serving the Lonsdale congregation I was doing store-to-store work with the magazines in the territory which included a hotel. I called on the manager with the magazines and he readily took them. He said that there must be something in these journals. I asked him why he said so. His reply was that he had had his hotel full of Witnesses during the assembly and he said, ‘Frankly, I wish I could have my hotel filled with them every day. You don’t know how good it is to have people in a hotel who cause no problems. So if these magazines teach people to behave this way then I want to read them.’”

CONDUCT THAT BEARS WITNESS

A minister in Alberta, Canada, tells how he and another Witness called at a home in Calgary and a lady came to the door: “The lady asked us: ‘Are you Jehovah’s witnesses?’ On finding out we were, she invited us inside and told us she respected Jehovah’s witnesses because of their conduct and thoughtfulness of others. She told us that at one time she was a lady detective and as such she was very observant of people. One day she and her husband stopped at a restaurant in British Columbia. While they waited for their meal, she was watching the waitresses as they went about serving their customers. Finally she said to her husband: ‘I can tell you the religion of that girl over there.’ He said, ‘Oh, what is it?’ ‘She is one of Jehovah’s witnesses,’ the lady told her husband. So they called the girl over, and it was true. After the waitress left, the husband asked, ‘What made you think she was one of Jehovah’s witnesses?’ The detective-minded lady said, ‘Her conduct and thoughtfulness of others, seeing to it that they were well cared for.’ As a result of that girl’s conduct, several magazines were placed and arrangements made for a back-call.”

Observing Subjection in All Realms of Life

SUBJECTION! Ever so many persons rebel at the thought of subjection, but dedicated Christians know that, like it or not, all except God are and must be in subjection to someone. Even Jesus Christ is in subjection to his Father, trinitarian dogma to the contrary notwithstanding.—1 Cor. 11:3; 15:28.a

We cannot escape it. Jehovah God is a God of order. To have order requires organization, and to have organization involves the principle of subjection, which principle applies to every sphere of human activity, to every realm of life. As the apostle Peter expresses it: “Be in subjection . . . But all of you gird yourselves with lowliness of mind toward one another.”—1 Pet. 5:5.

Thus there is no question about slaves being in subjection to their masters, which subjection they are to render uncomplainingly. Not, however, in everything, but only in things to which their masters have a legal right. Masters may not properly interfere with the religion of their slaves, neither may they demand of their slaves criminal acts. This underscores the fact that the subjection of slaves to their masters is a relative, a comparative subjection, not a total one. It does not leave God out of consideration. To the extent that Christians today are beholden to employers so as to provide things honest in the sight of all men, to that extent they may be said to be similarly in subjection.—Titus 2:9-12.

Relative subjection is also required of Christian wives, and that regardless of whether their husbands are Christians or not. While they are to be in subjection “to their husbands in everything,” this subjection must be balanced with a fear of God and a conscientious regard for God’s will. (Eph. 5:24) Proof of its being a relative subjection is seen in the fact that it is to be done that no reproach may fall upon Jehovah’s worship.—Titus 2:3-5.

Then there is the relative subjection of all Christians to the superior authorities, the political rulers that have been set in their relative positions by God. Christians cannot escape this subjection so long as both are upon this earth. Though Christians are free, they may not use this freedom as an excuse to flout the laws that do not conflict with God’s laws nor to indulge in moral badness, arousing the governments to righteous indignation. Rather, Christians will give to all their due, honor and respect according to their station.—Rom. 13:1-7.

Such subjection, however, does not mean making concordats with worldly governments, in which certain favors are gained in exchange for letting the governments pass on appointments to high office, as some have done. Such friendship with the world would mean enmity with God; it being a subjection that makes them part of the world. That the subjection of Christians to Caesar is relative is also seen in the fact that it is a matter of conscience.—Jas. 4:4; John 17:16.

But, above all, Christians must be in subjection to Jehovah God and his visible earthly instrument or channel. Concerning this subjection within the Christian congregation, the apostle Paul writes: “Be obedient to those who are taking the lead among you and be submissive, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will render an account; that they may do this with joy and not with sighing, for this would be damaging to you.”—Heb. 13:17.

Subjection within the Christian congregation has many facets, as it were. The young are to be in subjection to the older, the women to the men, the individual members to the appointed servants, the ministerial assistants to the presiding overseer. Such submission or subjection is shown by cooperating with one another, by being punctual, by being dependable, by doing one’s best. In particular does it mean being in subjection to the arrangements for the field ministry, be those instructions given by the governing body directly or through its traveling or local representatives.

By observing subjection in all the realms of life, total subjection to Jehovah God, theocratic subjection within his New World society of witnesses, and relative subjection to those over them as economic masters, husbands or the political superior authorities of this old world, Christians will be keeping integrity, avoid casting reproach upon Jehovah’s pure worship and gain Jehovah’s approval and everlasting life in his new world of righteousness.

[Footnotes]

Proper Viewpoint of Discipline

“NO DISCIPLINE seems for the present to be joyous, but grievous; yet afterward to those who have been trained by it it yields peaceable fruit, namely, righteousness.”—Heb. 12:11.

When the great Universal Sovereign, Jehovah, disciplines an individual, that individual will want to exert himself strenuously to take corrective measures in harmony with Jehovah’s requirements. He should not look lightly at the correction that comes from God. The Christian apostle Paul said: “My son, do not belittle the discipline from Jehovah, neither give out when you are corrected by him; for whom Jehovah loves he disciplines.” (Heb. 12:5, 6) Because of God’s great love for his servants, and because “he does not desire any to be destroyed,” he disciplines in righteousness.—2 Pet. 3:9.

Some forms of discipline are more severe than others. The consequences are correspondingly more severe, as noted in the articles “What Disfellowshiping Means” and “Family Responsibility in Keeping Jehovah’s Worship Pure,” found in the July 1 and 15, 1963, issues of the Watchtower magazine.

If a person takes correction with the proper attitude, the benefits and blessings are many. Proverbs 6:23 says: “The reproofs of discipline are the way of life.” Yes, everlasting life is bound up in the way one receives discipline from Jehovah.

This proper attitude toward discipline is especially needed when one has been disfellowshiped, or excommunicated, from Jehovah’s visible organization. One who has committed sins against God and man to the extent that he must be cut off from the Christian congregation has lost Jehovah’s favor. It is imperative that he regain it if he wants life in God’s new world of righteousness. But how is it possible for one who has been disfellowshiped to be reinstated in Jehovah’s organization and reestablish a proper relationship with Jehovah?

HOW REINSTATEMENT IS POSSIBLE

To be reinstated means to be put back, or established again, as in a former state. For someone who has been cut off from God’s visible organization to be reinstated means for him to be put back, or established again, as a member of the congregation.

To put oneself in the way of being restored, one should do as Jehovah commands at Isaiah 1:18: “Come, now, you people, and let us set matters straight between us.” The results of doing this or not doing it are noted: “If you people show willingness and do listen, the good of the land you will eat. But if you people refuse and are actually rebellious, with a sword you will be eaten up.”—Isa. 1:19, 20.

Reinstatement is not just a matter of waiting for a specified time to elapse and then making the proper request in writing to the congregation. No; during the period of excommunication the wrongdoer’s heart condition, his basic attitude, must undergo a profound change. The sinner must fully realize the gravity of his wicked course and the great reproach he has brought upon Jehovah and his organization. He must feel cut to the heart. But he must do more. He must go farther than mere recognition of a wrong and feeling sorry. He must repent, which means to feel such sorrow for sin or fault as to be disposed to change one’s life for the better. There has to be a converting or changing of his entire course of action. Yes, he must “set matters straight” in harmony with God’s righteous requirements. Then he can approach the congregation committee, acknowledge his wrong, and give evidence he is living a clean life and will continue to do so. In this way he will prove that he is worthy of receiving Jehovah’s undeserved kindness and be reinstated.

If these necessary evidences of sorrow and change are present, then his reinstatement could be considered by the congregation committee after sufficient time had elapsed, which in most cases is at least a year.

WHY CONFESS?

When the Christian considers the Scriptural aspects of disfellowshiping it should make him keenly aware of the displeasure God expresses toward persistent wrongdoing. It should make him realize just how serious a thing it is to practice sin. It should make him reaffirm his determination never to pursue a course of wrongdoing. How disastrous it is to be disfellowshiped! What great reproach is brought upon God, upon God’s congregation, upon the individual concerned and upon his family members!

With such grave consequences involved, a few who have fallen into sin might be tempted to reason this way: ‘Well, I know I have done wrong, but I also know that if I tell anyone about it I might be disfellowshiped. I’ve learned how terrible this can be, and I don’t want to go through that. I had better not tell anyone about this. Nobody will ever know, and all that shame will be avoided.’

Such reasoning ignores many things. One is God’s quality of mercy. Another is the benefit that comes from being disciplined by Jehovah. The heart attitude of such a person is wrong. His reasoning is fallacious and dangerous to himself. In the first place he does not appreciate that this will begin to sear his conscience and open the way for more wrongdoing. Since he “got away” with it once, it will be easier to do again. The fallacy is that his sin is not against just another person, or against just God’s congregation. His sin is against Jehovah! While it might be possible to hide a course of wickedness from other people for a while, it is not possible to hide it from Jehovah!

Jehovah observes what men do. “Jehovah is in his holy temple. Jehovah—in the heavens is his throne. His own eyes behold, his own beaming eyes examine the sons of men. Jehovah himself examines the righteous one as well as the wicked one.” (Ps. 11:4, 5) “The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, keeping watch upon the bad ones and the good ones.” (Prov. 15:3) “For my eyes are upon all their ways. They have not been concealed from before me, neither has their error been hid from in front of my eyes.” (Jer. 16:17) “As for Jehovah, he sees what the heart is.”—1 Sam. 16:7.

From this it is evident that a person overtaken in serious violations of Jehovah’s laws should not try to “get away” with sin and think he will be free from Jehovah’s discipline. “God opposes the haughty ones, but he gives undeserved kindness to the humble ones.” (Jas. 4:6) Jehovah will oppose any who sin grievously and who then try to remain in his clean organization without confessing their error to the visible authorities in the Christian congregation. The person who falls into sin, but who wants to do what is right, should go to the overseer of the congregation and make an honest confession of his transgression. Said the Bible writer James: “Therefore openly confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may get healed.”—Jas. 5:16.

If this openness, humility and willingness to confess are not manifested, then this person will be plagued by a guilty conscience whenever he hears or reads counsel regarding such matters in the future. If he hardens himself, he will eventually be taken out of God’s congregation by the angels. Jesus warned: “The Son of man will send forth his angels, and they will collect out from his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and persons who are doing lawlessness.” (Matt. 13:41) Jehovah withdraws his spirit from such an individual, as in the case of King Saul. (1 Sam. 16:14) With this powerful force for protection gone, the person may be led to complete debauchery and control by demonic forces.—1 Cor. 5:5.

The honest-hearted person should not lose sight of Jehovah’s marvelous quality of mercy when he considers seeking out the overseer for confession and correction. If someone is overtaken and breaks God’s law, but quickly confesses, it may be that in Jehovah’s undeserved kindness he will not be cut off from the congregation. Instead, other disciplinary measures may be taken. However, this is for the congregation committee to decide in harmony with Jehovah’s just requirements balanced by His mercy and forgiveness.

What if a Christian knows definitely of a grievous sin that was committed by another in the congregation? Is he under obligation to bring it to the attention of the congregation? If the sin is the kind that would bring reproach upon God and upon His congregation, especially if it could lead to disfellowshiping, then the Christian is obligated to go to the congregation committee and tell them what he knows of this. One who fails to do this fails to show love for God and the congregation, because he allows uncleanness to remain in it.

HOW TO AVOID WRONG CONDUCT

To avoid a course that might lead to disfellowshiping, each Christian will want to stick close to God. This can be done by continually feeding from Jehovah’s spiritual table. Study his Word, the Bible, continually. Associate with other Christians who will strengthen you and serve as wholesome companions in this evil-filled world. Fill your time by participating in the work that Jehovah has given his servants to do at this time.

Constantly seek to improve the quality of your worship. Train your perceptive powers by using the things you learn in your daily life. This will help you to progress toward Christian maturity, for the apostle Paul said that mature persons are “those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong.” (Heb. 5:14) This does not mean that a mature person can be careless where sin is concerned. All must “keep strict watch that how [they] walk is not as unwise but as wise persons, buying out the opportune time for [themselves], because the days are wicked . . . go on perceiving what the will of Jehovah is.” (Eph. 5:15-17) Yes, “having this advance knowledge, be on your guard that you may not be led away with them by the error of the law-defying people and fall from your own steadfastness.”—2 Pet. 3:17.

Sin begins in the mind. Wrong desire will grow if not curbed. It will eventually give birth to sin. As James 1:14, 15 states: “Each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin.” Wrong desire is like quicksand and can pull one down into sin if not counteracted immediately.

If improper desires are aroused—and this is not difficult for imperfect humans—determine the source of those desires and seek to keep away from it. If one is susceptible to overdrinking, then he should not buy alcoholic beverages or accept them if others offer them. If one finds himself in dangerous situations with members of the opposite sex, then that association should be limited to gatherings where one will not be alone with one of the opposite sex. Do not overestimate your ability to resist temptation of this sort. “Let him that thinks he is standing beware that he does not fall.” (1 Cor. 10:12) Young people wisely will accept the grouping of themselves in company with others, under the guidance of a mature adult or Christian couple. Christian parents will carefully guide their young to keep them out of the way of immorality by not permitting their “going steady” or “dating” when too young. Do not let the corrupt standards of this dying world be the standards by which you guide your children. Since marriage is the proper reason for members of the opposite sex keeping company, they should obviously be of a more responsible age before going out together. However, even adults must carefully guard their conduct with the opposite sex. It is not only the young that can get into difficulty.

Do not take the first step toward sin, whether it is in regard to alcohol, sexual morality, or any other type of difficulty. Small things lead to big things. Small thefts will dull the conscience and permit big thefts. Small lies train the mind for big lies. Not saying “No” to that extra drink will weaken the resolve and pave the way for drunkenness. “Necking” and “petting” can lead to fornication. Irregularity in meeting Christian obligations will weaken one’s ability to fulfill his worship to God.

Profit by the discipline given to others. When discipline is administered through the medium of Christian publications or from the platform in Christian meetings, take the counsel to heart. See how it could apply to you. Let it serve as a warning for you to keep your guard up and not relax your vigilance where the performance of God’s will is concerned.—1 Tim. 5:20.

As you stay close to God’s word and his organization, and pray for his spirit to guide you, your love of God will grow. That love of God will serve as a mighty bulwark against the encroachments of sin, since it will help you to grow in your love for what is right and your hatred for what is wrong.

The proper viewpoint of discipline will aid all in the congregations of Jehovah’s people. It will enlarge our appreciation for God’s ways of dealing with his people. It will make us realize that, since thousands have been disfellowshiped, it could happen to us if we do not walk carefully in the ways that Jehovah has outlined in his Word. It will also encourage us to serve Jehovah God, who is so concerned with his people, when we understand the reasons for discipline and the benefits that are derived.

We can therefore look forward with confidence to God’s new world where all who are living will be educated and trained so they will worship Jehovah properly and enjoy loving, clean association with their fellowman.

Papias—and the Gospels of Matthew and Mark

ARE you a Bible lover? If so, the name of Papias (Paʹpi·as) will be of interest to you. Why so? Because his writings contain the earliest information we have on the origin of some of the books of the Christian Greek Scriptures, that is, apart from the testimony of the Scriptures themselves.¹

Various dates are given for both the birth and death of Papias, but “no fact is known inconsistent with c. [A.D.] 60-135 as the period of Papias’ life.”² He was a companion of Polycarp, who, it is said, had personally known some of the apostles,³ and he resided in the region of Phrygia in the province of Asia, today known as Asia Minor.

According to the second-century religious writer Irenaeus, Papias was a learned man and held in high esteem and respect as a reliable channel for the apostolic teachings.⁴ Eusebius, prominent church historian of the fourth century, however, gives contradictory testimony regarding Papias. First he speaks of him as “well skilled in all manner of learning, and well acquainted with the Scriptures,” and then later describes him as a man “of limited understanding” and one who had gathered “certain strange parables of our Lord and his doctrine, and some other matters rather too fabulous.”¹

But the reason why Eusebius disagreed with Papias was apparently that the latter believed in a millennial reign of Christ upon earth.² This, however, was the prevailing view of those professing Christianity in the second century.⁵ In fact, they held that the world would continue as it was for six thousand years and then would come the millennium for the seventh thousand years.⁶ They also understood that some Christians would gain a heavenly reward, whereas others would be rewarded with life in a Paradise earth.⁴ If, as Eusebius implies, Papias was inclined to apply figurative language in a literal way, nevertheless, the record concerning him indicates that “he was careful to insist on good evidence for what he accepted as Christ’s own teaching, in the face of then current unauthorized views.”²

HIS WRITINGS

As for his works, these consisted chiefly of a five-book commentary (most likely five chapters, the books being more like the shorter “books” of the Christian Greek Scriptures than ordinary books), entitled “Exposition of the Lord’s Oracles.” It has been quoted by a number of writers, and copies of it were in existence as late as A.D. 1218, but since then it has disappeared entirely.⁷

In his preface or introduction Papias explained his method. He carefully gathered information from those who had personally known such apostles as Andrew, Peter, Philip, Thomas, James, John and Matthew. He also noted that he did not take pleasure in those who spoke much but in those who taught the truth and that he preferred getting his information firsthand from living witnesses rather than from written sources.⁸ Most important of the fragments of his work that have come down to us is the one relating to the writing of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew:

“The presbyter [who, some say, may have been the apostle John] said this: Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered. It was not, however, in exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of Christ. For he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him. But afterwards, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who accommodated his instructions to the necessities [of his hearers], but with no intention of giving a regular narrative of the Lord’s sayings. Wherefore Mark made no mistake in thus writing some things as he remembered them. For one thing he took special care, not to omit anything he had heard, and not to put anything fictitious into the statements.” “Matthew put together the oracles [of the Lord] in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could.”⁸

In other places Papias quotes from the first letters of both Peter and John, showing that they were used in his day. His testimony in favor of the book of Revelation is particularly noteworthy, he thereby being one of the oldest witnesses to its inspiration and creditability.⁵ He also mentions the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which, according to some, was Matthew’s Gospel in its original tongue.

The remarks of Papias regarding the Gospels of Mark and Matthew find corroboration in the Gospels themselves. What he states about Mark’s Gospel accounts for its vivid style, obviously that of an eyewitness; and its rapid-moving pace is just what we would expect if it were told by Peter or received from him. What Papias stated about Matthew’s Gospel also fits the facts, for it is clear that Matthew wrote first in Hebrew, as he prefers to quote from the Hebrew itself rather than from the Greek Septuagint Version, as was the custom of the rest of the Christian Greek Scripture writers. No doubt Matthew himself later translated it into Greek so that it might have a wider circulation. This would account for the fact that it does not read like a translation.

These early religious writers, such as Papias, who lived before the Council of Nicaea convened A.D. 325, are generally termed the “Ante-Nicene Fathers.” Concerning their testimony it has been said: “These writings . . . are primary evidences of the canon and the creditability of the New Testament. . . . These disciples are confessedly inferior to their Masters, they speak with the voices of infirm and fallible men, and not like the New Testament writers, with the fiery tongues of the Holy Ghost.” Yet they are of value.⁹

These writers may be said to give twofold testimony concerning the inspired Christian Scriptures. They give historical facts regarding the writing of these Scriptures, on the one hand, and, on the other, by their shortcomings they underscore the fact that the Christian Greek Scriptures are indeed of divine inspiration. The strongest evidences of the inspiration of the Christian Greek Scriptures, however, are found right in those inspired writings themselves.

REFERENCES

¹ M’Clintock & Strong’s Cyclopœdia, Vol. 1, p. 638.

² The Encyclopœdia Britannica (1961 Ed.), Vol. 17, p. 238A.

³ Ibid., Vol. 18, p. 180.

⁴ A Literary History of Early Christianity, Crutwell, pp. 102-108.

⁵ History of the Christian Church, Schaff, Vol. 2, p. 696.

⁶ History of the Christian Religion and Church, Neander, p. 650.

⁷ The New Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia, Vol. 8, pp. 336-339.

⁸ The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Coxe, Vol. 1, pp. 151-155.

⁹ Ibid., p. 1.

How Many Israelites Left Egypt?

THE question of how many Israelites left Egypt on the night of Nisan 14, 1513 B.C., is raised by Exodus 12:37, 38, where we read: “The sons of Israel proceeded to depart from Rameses for Succoth, to the number of six hundred thousand able-bodied men on foot, besides little ones. And a vast mixed company also went up with them, as well as flocks and herds, a very numerous stock of animals.” From this it would appear that some two to three million all told, men, women and children, Israelites and mixed company, began to leave Egypt that night.

But not so, says A Catholic Bible Commentary. “The 600,000 gebarim on foot are interpreted by some as the fighting men, which implies an absurd total of about three millions. . . . So large a number of persons with their cattle and belongings could scarcely cross the Reed Sea by a ford in a single night. . . . The number given therefore is doubtful and may be due to a textual corruption.”

The Protestant Interpreter’s Bible agrees with this Catholic position: “It is plausible that this impossible number rests on a numerical interpretation of the Hebrew letters in the phrase ‘sons of Israel.’ . . . That the figure has no basis in fact is clear from almost every point of view. Such a large number could not have lived in Egypt or survived in the desert. Nor could they have found room in Canaan.”—Vol. I, page 925.

Of the same opinion is Jewish archaeologist and scholar Nelson Glueck. According to him, “the usual translation in Exodus [12:37] of the number of Israelites who left Egypt as being ‘six hundred thousand’ simply does not make sense if taken literally.”—New York Times Magazine, September 25, 1960.

Agreeing with the foregoing religious authorities are such secular ones as The Encyclopedia Americana, which states, among other things: “The Book of Numbers, where the census of the tribes is recorded, may have exaggerated the number of people involved—the desert could not have supported such masses.”—Vol. 10, page 641.

What about all these objections? Has there been a mistranslation, or a corruption of the text or an exaggeration? Was it impossible for Egypt, for the desert, for the Promised Land to hold so many persons? The answer to all these questions must be an emphatic, No!

The candor of Moses’ writing at once dispenses with the argument of there having been an exaggeration. As for a mistranslation or a corruption of the text at Exodus 12:37: If it crept in there, then it must also have crept in at Exodus 38:26, where the more exact figure of 603,550 is given as the total of males of twenty years and older that were registered for service. Then it must also have crept in the first chapter of the book of Numbers where the numbers of the individual tribes are given, for a like grand total. And further, then, at Numbers 11:21, there was also a corruption or mistranslation of the text, for there Moses, in complaining to Jehovah about his people’s cry for meat, speaks of them as 600,000 men on foot.

That the numbers of the Israelites must have truly been considerable is indicated by their building the cities of Pithom and Raamses; by Pharaoh’s saying, “The people of the sons of Israel are more numerous and mightier than we are”; and by the fact that Pharaoh mustered all his military force to retrieve the Israelites.—Ex. 1:9-12; 14:6-9.

As to their numbers being able to cross the Red Sea in one night, there is nothing in the record to state how wide the passage was and so it is merely a matter of its being wide enough for all the Israelites to cross in one night. As for supporting this great number in the wilderness, do we not read that Jehovah provided manna six days a week to feed the Israelites and on two occasions large flocks of quails?—Ex. 16:4-18; Num. 11:31, 32.

As to whether Egypt would have been able to support and contain this number of Israelites William Jenks states in his Bible Commentary: “Many have supposed this increase incredible; but that the soil of Goshen even at the present day could support this number [has been] proved . . . What serious difficulty then is there, that 3,000,000 should be supported on 8,000 sq. miles?” Today the Republic of Israel has an area of some 8,000 square miles and a population of over two million. In years gone by Israel occupied an area of more than 10,000 square miles, as some of its territory lay east of the Jordan.

Also supporting the Scriptural position is the footnote in the Soncino Bible at Exodus 12:37: “There are no doubt difficulties in conceiving the departure at one time and in one place, of such a large body of men; but the event has its parallels in history. At the close of the 18th century, 400,000 Tartars started in a single night from the confines of Russia towards the Chinese borders.”

Yes, when taking into consideration all the facts the Scripture record stands vindicated.

Psychoanalysis Was Wrong

◆ Following is an excerpt from a book published in 1960, called “The Informed Heart: Autonomy in a Mass Age,” by Vienna-born psychoanalyst Dr. Bruno Bettelheim, who was imprisoned in the Buchenwald and Dachau Nazi concentration camps during 1938 and 1939 and who is now director of the Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago: “Similar behaviour characterised another group which, according to psychoanalytic theory, would have had to be viewed as extremely neurotic or plainly delusional, and therefore apt to fall apart, as persons, under stress. I refer to the J. W’s [Jehovah’s witnesses], who not only showed unusual heights of human dignity and moral behaviour, but seemed protected against the same camp experience that soon destroyed persons considered very well integrated by my psychoanalytic friends and myself.”

“As conscientious objectors, all Jehovah’s Witnesses were sent to the Camps. They were even less affected by imprisonment, and kept their integrity, thanks to rigid religious beliefs. Since their only crime in the eyes of the Nazis was a refusal to bear arms, they were frequently offered freedom in return for military service. They steadfastly refused. Members of this group were . . . exemplary comrades, helpful, correct, and dependable. They were argumentative . . . only when someone questioned their religious beliefs. Because of their conscientious work habits they were often selected as foremen. But once a foreman, and having accepted an order from the S.S. they insisted that prisoners do the work well and in the time allotted. Even though they were the only group of prisoners who never abused or mistreated other prisoners, S.S. officers preferred them as orderlies because of their work habits, skills or unassuming attitudes. Quite in contrast to the continuous warfare among the other prisoners groups, the Jehovah’s Witnesses never misused their closeness to the S.S. officers to gain positions of privilege in the camp.”

Questions From Readers

Why does the New World Translation at Proverbs 27:6 read: “The wounds inflicted by a lover are faithful, but the kisses of a hater are things to be entreated”? Various translations in various languages read that such kisses are profuse, lavish, false, deceitful, frequent, plentiful, and so forth.—M. F., United States.

It is true that many other English translations, as well as translations in other languages, do not read the way the New World Translation does in its main text at Proverbs 27:6 regarding the kisses of a hater. However, the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, Vol. III (1957 edition), does contain a footnote to Proverbs 27:6, which reads: “By corrections of the Hebrew text it may read: ‘are excessive,’ or, ‘are corrupted.’”

Some translators thus have chosen to change the Hebrew word involved. These translators did not accept the original Hebrew word but substituted a Hebrew participle that looked like the original one and that they thought must have been the original reading. For example, the Lexicon for the Old Testament Books, by L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner, suggests the substitute word, ra‛a‛, in the niphal (reflexive) form. The Hebrew word ra‛a‛ means to be bad, worthless and hence deceitful.

Now the question is whether to use this substitute word in the main text of a translation of the Holy Scriptures or to keep the original. The original Hebrew word in the Masoretic text is the reflexive participle of the verb athar, and, according to the aforementioned Lexicon, the word means “be entreated.” The New World Translation thus sticks to the original word and renders it “be entreated.”

Another translation that basically sticks to the original Hebrew word is The Soncino Books of the Bible, which renders Proverbs 27:6 this way: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are importunate.” The word “importunate,” of course, conveys the thought of asking repeatedly or of entreating. This same translation also has a footnote on Proverbs 27:6, showing the problem with which translators are faced: “Importunate. It is uncertain what [the translator] intends by this translation. A.V. has deceitful and R.V. profuse. . . . Modern commentators emend the text to obtain a more usual word meaning ‘deceptive’ as a contrast to faithful; but Eitan and Ehrlich maintain that the Hebrew word has that signification [that is, importunate] on the analogy of the [related] Arabic, although each connects it with a different Arabic root.”

Here is an instance, then, where Bible translators, not appreciating what the writer meant, changed the text so that it would read in a way that made sense to them. But the thought seems to be that a lover will inflict a wound upon one in a faithful way in order to do one good. On the other hand, if one wants to have a hater do one a nice, kind thing, he would have to entreat him, because his hate does not naturally incite him to bestow kisses upon the object of his hatred. Instead, he wants to act cruelly. So one has to importune or entreat a hater to render one a kindness. One may even have to entreat the indifferent person. In the parable of the widow and the judge, Jesus Christ told about a judge who did not fear God or have any respect for man. It was only because the widow kept on entreating the judge that he finally responded to her appeals and saw that she got the relief to which she was entitled. (Luke 18:1-5) The judge did not have his heart in it. Likewise even if a hater does render a kindness to one, as a result of being entreated, he may not have his heart in it or behind it and may do it just to be relieved of that one’s entreaties. A person does not have to entreat his hater to inflict a wound upon him; but something nice like a kiss, yes. But the lover who inflicts faithful wounds does so with love in his heart and without having to be entreated.

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