The Watchtower — January 1, 1963

Has God Forgotten Man?

Do life’s problems indicate that God has forgotten us? What solution does the Bible offer?

IN THE privacy of their modest home a serious-faced railroad man and his wife discussed life’s problems with a visiting minister. They had experienced their share of sickness, worry and the struggle to make a living, but they were not complaining. Yet the man of the house did have a question that had often puzzled him: “How is it that a man who tries to live right has such a hard time, while bad people seem to have it good?” This situation made him wonder if God had forgotten. How would you explain it?

The minister had been asked that question before. In fact, people were asking just about the same thing in the days of the prophet Malachi. Here is what the prophet told his countrymen: “You have said, ‘It is of no value to serve God. And what profit is there in that we have kept the obligation to him, and that we have walked dejectedly on account of Jehovah of armies? And at present we are pronouncing presumptuous people happy. Also, the doers of wickedness have been built up. Also, they have tested God out and keep getting away.’” (Mal. 3:14, 15) Even men who loved God and served him faithfully sometimes asked: “Has God forgotten to be favorable, or has he shut off his mercies in anger?”—Ps. 77:9.

Today lawbreakers still echo the insolence of the wicked men who boasted: “God has forgotten. He has concealed his face. He will certainly never see it.” (Ps. 10:11) Yes, the railroad man asked a common question. Both good and bad people have imagined that God has forgotten man. In our day some arrive at that conclusion, not only because of personal problems, but due to the condition of the world in general.

For example, they reflect on the fact that in spite of many prayers for peace, our century has seen two world wars. They hear of prayer campaigns to convert atheist Russia, but the dangerous cold war continues. Compounding the risk is the ever-present threat of nuclear war. Even that problem may have stiff competition in a few years, according to Dr. Firuz Kazemzadeh, professor of history at Yale University, who says that overpopulation “in fifteen years will be as serious a problem as A-bombs.”

Further aggravating man’s fears and doubts is the rising number of serious crimes, the rapid growth of juvenile delinquency and persistent widespread hunger. These are some of the major worries that trouble people in Christendom, where the landscape is dotted with churches—but where the parishioners often wonder, Has God forgotten?

WHO HAS FORGOTTEN WHOM?

In all fairness we ask, Who has done the forgetting? Is it God’s fault that the world is in its present shape? Is it not true that in the beginning God provided the heat and light of the sun for our comfort, convenience and life? Did he not create a marvelous water exchange system that brings rain for our crops and drinking water? And what about the very atmosphere in which we breathe? All these bounties we still enjoy. (Matt. 5:45) God also planted many kinds of delightful vegetation and he created animals to serve us and supply food. With divine laws to guide him, the first man started on a wonderful career as overseer of the earth. But then someone forgot. Was it God?

The sacred record shows that it was not God who forgot. No, it was not God who brought sin, suffering and death into the world. Jehovah had told the first human pair how to stay happy and alive, but they did not have enough love for him to obey. Man and woman deliberately ignored God’s laws, and when they ignored his laws they ignored him. Violation of God’s law brought the fixed penalty: death. Even then God did not forget man. He remembered that Adam’s unborn children would need hope in their sinful, dying condition. He determined to vindicate his own name of the reproach brought upon it by the rebellious spirit son, Satan the Devil, who used the lowly serpent to deceive Eve. (Rev. 20:2) Jehovah God stepped in with a promise to send a deliverer and free mankind from the deathtrap.

As succeeding generations were born God reinforced his promise of deliverance by giving instruction and encouragement to such righteous men as Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. True to his word, God made a great nation out of their descendants. Through Moses he gave the nation of Israel many wonderful laws to guide them straight to Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. The law would teach them just as a tutor instructs his pupil. (Gal. 3:24) Along with the law God gave many inspired prophecies to build up men’s faith in the coming Messiah, Jesus. For instance, God foretold his birth in Bethlehem, his ministry in Galilee, the manner of his death and his marvelous resurrection. (Mic. 5:2; Isa. 9:1, 2; 53:1-12; Zech. 11:12; Ps. 22:1, 18; 16:10) All of this proved that God had not forgotten man, but could men speak as well for their memory?

Unfortunately, even the chosen nation, Israel, often forgot God. The Bible record at Jeremiah 3:21 states: “They have twisted their way; they have forgotten Jehovah their God.” His counsel did not seem good to them, any more than it did to Adam and Eve. Jehovah used his prophet Hosea to tell them exactly why they would lose his favor: “My people will certainly be silenced, because there is no knowledge. Because the knowledge is what you yourself have rejected, I shall also reject you from serving as a priest to me; and because you keep forgetting the law of your God, I shall forget your sons, even I.” (Hos. 4:6) When Jehovah finally withdrew his protection the northern kingdom of Israel fell, in 740 B.C., and in 607 B.C. those of Judah went into seventy years’ captivity in Babylon. Restoration followed, but not with the glory and prosperity once enjoyed in the reign of King Solomon. One hope remained: the coming Messiah whose appearance was foretold in Eden. The prophecy of Daniel 9:25 indicated that the Messiah would appear A.D. 29. Would God remember?

GOD’S LOVE FOR MANKIND

At the appointed time Jesus came into the world and began his important ministry at the age of thirty. Electrifying were his words and miracles! In three and a half years he died—then he was resurrected. Here was convincing proof of God’s love for the world of mankind. (John 3:16) But that was nearly 2,000 years ago. What of all the concentrated woes that have hit the earth beginning with World War I? Has God forgotten to answer Jesus’ prayer for God’s kingdom to come and for his will to be done on earth and in heaven?

As the apostle Peter foretold, many imagine so. He wrote: “In the last days there will come ridiculers with their ridicule, proceeding according to their own desires and saying: ‘Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep in death, all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.’” (2 Pet. 3:3, 4) So they say, but are the scoffers right?

On the contrary! The fearful events of our time, and the ridiculers, are pointed fulfillments of Bible prophecies marking the heavenly establishment of God’s kingdom under Christ the reigning king. That is the true meaning of the unprecedented world wars, great earthquakes, epidemics, food shortages, increased lawlessness and the anguish of nations with fear of the things coming upon the earth. (Matt. 24:3-12; Luke 21:11, 25, 26) Jesus explained this when he said: “But as these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.” “With that he spoke an illustration to them: ‘Note the fig tree and all the other trees: When they are already in the bud, by observing it you know for yourselves that now the summer is near. In this way you also, when you see these things occurring, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you, This generation will by no means pass away until all things occur.’”—Luke 21:28-32.

The woes afflicting this generation are not evidence that God has forgotten man. Rather, they are assurance that God has remembered his promise to bring paradise back to earth through his kingdom. (Isa. 65:17; Dan. 2:44) The rising of nation against nation in the first world war was not the only struggle taking place at that time. Revelation chapter twelve indicates that Michael, who is Christ in heaven, came to the heavenly throne of God’s kingdom at that time and warred against the great Serpent, Satan the Devil, expelling him from heaven. The hurling of this wicked one to the earth has meant further “woe for the earth . . . because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (Rev. 12:5-12) Under Satan’s goading, men and nations oppress their fellowman, bring about bloody wars, terrible food shortages and much misery to mankind. These are the pangs of distress afflicting our generation even since the birth of God’s kingdom in heaven. What then? Has God’s King forgotten to act as a deliverer?

Not at all. God’s love has provided that men now living shall have an opportunity to know of the Kingdom’s establishment. Jehovah has raised up an international group of Christians who vigorously witness to the fact of the Kingdom’s establishment. They urge all to worship Jehovah, the true God, with hope of surviving his war of Armageddon into God’s new world. (Matt. 24:14; Rev. 16:14, 16) To the very doors of mankind God has sent these witnesses with assurance that he has not forgotten. Their message declares that soon Christ will crush the serpent, Satan, and “break up the works of the Devil.” (Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8) Following that victorious Armageddon fight, the King of kings will subdue all enemies, including Adamic death, and bring in a paradise of peace and happiness to the extremity of the earth. (1 Cor. 15:25, 26; Ps. 46:9; 72:7) Even the dead in God’s memory will get their promised resurrection. No longer will the Devil or devilish men oppress the lowly, for “the meek ones themselves will possess the earth.” (John 5:28, 29; Ps. 37:11) “Look!” Jehovah says, “I am making all things new.”—Rev. 21:5.

WHO REMEMBERS GOD?

Since Jehovah’s purpose is clear and his patience is to our advantage, there is no cause to think that he has forgotten man. The question is, Who will remember God and survive Armageddon? Jehovah says: “Wicked people will turn back to Sheol, even all the nations forgetting God.” (Ps. 9:17) Therefore it is important to remember the words of the prophet Malachi and consider our own standing with God. Malachi wrote: “At that time those in fear of Jehovah spoke with one another, each one with his companion, and Jehovah kept paying attention and listening. And a book of remembrance began to be written up before him for those in fear of Jehovah and for those thinking upon his name. ‘And they will certainly become mine,’ Jehovah of armies has said, ‘at the day when I am producing a special property. And I will show compassion upon them, just as a man shows compassion upon his son who is serving him. And you people will again certainly see the distinction between a righteous one and a wicked one, between one serving God and one who has not served him.’” (Mal. 3:16-18) Soon no one will ask the railroad man’s question, “How is it . . . bad people seem to have it good?”

When Armageddon’s fury breaks in this generation, God will remember those who have served him, just as he remembered to save righteous Noah and his family at the time of the Flood. We have the assurance recorded in his own Word: “God is not unrighteous so as to forget your work and the love you showed for his name.” (Heb. 6:10) We have every reason for confidence in that statement. The evidence shows that Jehovah made provision for man’s deliverance; that he gave believing men his laws to guide them and set a real hope before mankind. Moreover, in spite of the fact that most men have forgotten Him, the Bible shows that God will soon remove the oppressor, restore perfect life to obedient men and resurrect the dead. These are some of the blessings in store for those who remember Jehovah God now and honor his name.

Will you do so?

Living One’s Faith

✔ The Catholic column of the São Paulo, Brazil, newspaper Diário da Regiāo of June 15, 1962, urged Catholics to take their religion more seriously and proclaim it to others. Pointing to a modern-day example, it said: “We see in this respect the Jehovah’s Witnesses getting thirty times as many conversions as the Catholics. And why? Because each Witness is an apostle who sacrifices himself for the belief he professes; because he is not undermined by that false shame that the majority have to go from house to house advertising his faith.”

How Strong Is Your Faith?

“You endured a great contest under sufferings, sometimes while you were being exposed as in a theater both to reproaches and tribulations.”—Heb. 10:32, 33.

1. Why is strong faith needed by Christians now, and who serve as examples in this regard?

IT TAKES real faith for a Christian to endure suffering, to be abused and tormented and made a public show because of what he believes and preaches concerning God’s kingdom. It takes real fortitude for other Christians to stand loyally by and watch the treatment that faithful men who love God receive because of their not breaking integrity. Jesus Christ, their Exemplar, endured to the death. He said: “He that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.” (Matt. 24:13) Jesus knew of men who displayed such magnificent faith before he himself became a man to save the world by a ransom. The record of their faith stands as a testimony to this day in the book of Hebrews, chapter eleven. Faith is not just a thing of the past that prechristian people showed, but something that Christians must display now. In the face of all the modern ideas, scientific knowledge and theories taught today, how strong is your faith in Jehovah God, in his Son Christ Jesus and in the written Word of God, the Holy Bible?

2. What dilemma faces many in Christendom?

² In the Western world, or in Christendom, people will say, “I believe in God.” That is very easily said. But do they really believe what Jesus said? For instance, he said: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) The majority of “believers” in God will say “Yes” to the question but at the same time express belief in the theory of the evolution of man. If one believes in the evolution of man, how can he believe in the creation of man by God and the fall of man into sin and death? And if he does not believe the Bible account of creation, why exercise faith in Christ Jesus?

3, 4. (a) What attitude regarding the Bible have some clergymen taken? (b) Does the Interpreter’s Bible commentary encourage faith in the Bible? Why?

³ It is not uncommon to hear clergymen say that the creation account of the Bible is a myth. If they believe that, then they do not believe God’s written Word, as the whole Bible rests its teaching on the creation of man by God. Redbook magazine of August, 1961, under the heading “The Surprising Beliefs of Our Future Ministers,” had this to say: “The Reverend James A. Pike, Episcopal Bishop of California, recently startled many United States churchgoers when he declared that he does not believe in the Biblical account of the virgin birth of Christ. It is a primitive religious myth . . . Asked to name other religious myths, Dean Pike mentioned Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden.” When this clergyman rejects the Adam and Eve account, then there is no need for the ransom sacrifice of Christ Jesus to take away the sin of the world, as he sees it. Mr. Pike assumes he has greater knowledge than the One who inspired the writing of the Bible. Whom do you believe, God or a mere man?

⁴ The Australian journal Pix in its issue of October 21, 1950, reported that Bishop Barnes of Birmingham, England, said: “The Old Testament was full of ‘folklore, defective history, half-savage morality.’” Another statement showing the clergy’s rejection of the Bible is found in the pamphlet In the Beginning. It reads: “Stories of the Patriarchs were passed from mouth to mouth for many hundreds of years before they were written down. We must not be surprised to find that they are sometimes inconsistent; we are not bound to believe that everything happened just as it is told in Genesis.” It is not surprising, therefore, that, although Jesus himself referred to it, the Genesis account in the Bible about Sodom, and Lot’s fleeing from that city, is referred to as a “myth” by many of the clergy of Christendom. In The Interpreter’s Bible, on page 626, under chapter nineteen of Genesis, the commentary says: “This story—belonging to a widely diffused class of tales having possibly a mythological background (See Skinner, Genesis, pp. 311-12)—of the destruction of a city which had once stood in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, probably at its southern end, was presumably current in Hebron when the Israelites settled there.” The critics of the Bible, yes, many clergymen of today, say the Bible story of Lot has a mythological background, but did Jesus believe this Bible story to be a myth? No! He told his apostles: “Remember the wife of Lot.” (Luke 17:32) Whom do you believe, Jesus or the higher critics? As for us, we believe Jesus, who himself believed the things “written aforetime.”

5. What was the apostle Paul’s view of holy writings?

⁵ It was about the year 56 (A.D.) that Paul wrote: “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) What hope is offered us today in the Sodom and Gomorrah record in the Bible?

LOT AND SODOM AND GOMORRAH

6, 7. (a) Describe the conditions existing in Sodom where Lot lived. (b) What instructions regarding that city’s future and Lot’s future did the angels give?

⁶ Lot was the nephew of Abraham and resided in the city of Sodom. One evening about 1919 B.C.E. two angels who had previously visited Abraham at Mamre, near Hebron, west of the Salt Sea, came to the city of Sodom located in the “Low Plain of Siddim, that is, the Salt Sea,” probably in what is now the southeast corner of the Salt Sea. (Gen. 14:3) Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. He invited the angelic visitors to his home and urged them to stay overnight. “Before they could lie down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from boy to old man, all the people in one mob. And they kept calling out to Lot and saying to him: ‘Where are the men who came in to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intercourse with them.’ Finally Lot went out to them to the entrance, but he shut the door behind him. Then he said: ‘Please, my brothers, do not act badly.’” (Gen. 19:4-7) These men of Sodom wanted to use the two male strangers for their sexual pleasure. Lot refused, and the mob became angry. If it had not been for the angels’ pulling Lot back into the house and shutting the door, it would have been ruinous for Lot.

⁷ The angels were insistent that Lot, his wife and two daughters leave the wicked city early in the morning. The angels said to Lot: “We are bringing this place to ruin, because the outcry against them has grown loud before Jehovah, so that Jehovah sent us to bring the city to ruin.” So Lot prepared to leave. “When the dawn ascended, then the angels became urgent with Lot, saying: ‘Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are found here, for fear you may be swept away in the error of the city!’ When he kept lingering, then in the compassion of Jehovah upon him, the men seized hold of his hand and of the hand of his wife and of the hands of his two daughters and they proceeded to bring him out and to station him outside the city.” Lot and his family were then told: “Escape for your soul! Do not look behind you and do not stand still in all the District! Escape to the mountainous region for fear you may be swept away!”—Gen. 19:13-17.

8, 9. How did the prediction of Sodom’s end come about?

⁸ Lot did not want to die. He asked God to preserve his soul alive, but was unable to climb the mountain as directed. He pleaded for permission to flee to a nearby city and there, as he said, “my soul will live on.” They hurried on to the city of Zoar, and “the sun had gone forth over the land when Lot arrived at Zoar. Then Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah. So he went ahead overthrowing these cities, even the entire District and all the inhabitants of the cities and the plants of the ground. And his wife began to look around from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”—Gen. 19:18-26.

⁹ But what of Lot’s uncle? “Now Abraham made his way early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Jehovah. Then he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the District and saw a sight. Why, here thick smoke ascended from the land like the thick smoke of a kiln!”—Gen. 19:27, 28.

10. Had the destruction of Sodom been of concern to Abraham? Why?

¹⁰ As the smoke ascended Abraham must have wondered about the safety of Lot. The day previous, Abraham had made the request of Jehovah to save the city if only ten persons were doing what was right. But there must not have been even ten righteous persons in Sodom; so it came to ruin. However, “God kept Abraham in mind in that he took steps to send Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when overthrowing the cities among which Lot had been dwelling.”—Gen. 19:29.

11. Why should we believe in and have faith in the Sodom and Gomorrah account in the Bible?

¹¹ Read the full account of this in your Bible at Genesis, chapters eighteen and nineteen. Is your faith in God’s Word strong enough to believe Sodom was destroyed at God’s direction and Lot and his two daughters reached Zoar safely? Jesus believed it, because he referred to this as happening and said: “Likewise, just as it occurred in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building. But on the day that Lot came out of Sodom it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed them all. The same way it will be on that day when the Son of man is to be revealed.”—Luke 17:28-30.

AN ILLUSTRATION FOR US

12. How were the Bible stories of Sodom and Noah’s day used by Jesus?

¹² Jesus was talking to his disciples about the time when this whole wicked worldly system of things, the present Sodom and Gomorrah in which we are now living, would be destroyed. The ancient destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was one of the historical illustrations Jesus used to help his faithful followers get the right understanding of what was going to happen during his second presence and to “give us more faith.” (Luke 17:5) But Jesus gave them additional true history from God’s Word as set forth in the book of Genesis to establish their faith. He said: “Just as it occurred in the days of Noah, so will it be also in the days of the Son of man.” (Luke 17:26) By these illustrations what was Jesus trying to impress upon their minds and ours? Deliverance! But in order to gain salvation they had to come out from and be no part of this old world. In our present day there is a class of people, a great crowd, pictured by Lot and his two daughters. We see them fleeing this old world that is doomed to sudden destruction. They appreciate God’s loving-kindness, just as Lot said, “to preserve my soul alive.” (Gen. 19:19) For this they have to seek safety according to God’s arrangements. That means flee modern Sodom. Flee quickly from this old world in its time of the end.

13, 14. Whom do we not want to be like, and so what should we do?

¹³ Do not be like Lot’s wife, who stopped, looked back and got encrusted so as to turn into a pillar of salt. She never got to Zoar, but Lot with his two daughters did. That was their place of safety. Lot had faith, and it carried him through. Today people of goodwill must have the same strong faith in order to be taken through this time of trouble and the battle of Armageddon into God’s new world of righteousness. They must keep on praying the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth.” That prayer will get an answer. Those who do the will of God will find complete safety and happiness under God’s kingdom.—Matt. 6:9, 10.

¹⁴ People of goodwill who are really seeking this kingdom today may escape with their souls. God’s prophet said: “Seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” (Zeph. 2:3) They dare not look behind. Otherwise, they too will be swept away “in the day of Jehovah’s anger.”

15. How did Peter view the Bible account of Lot and Sodom?

¹⁵ Just as Jesus believed in the history of Lot, so also Peter believed the story. So what if modern religionists do not? Listen to Peter’s strong language concerning evildoers and his confidence in Jehovah’s judgment upon them as recorded in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Peter said: “Certainly if God did not hold back from punishing the angels that sinned [in Noah’s day], but . . . reserved [them] for judgment; and he did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others . . . ; and by reducing the cities Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them, setting a pattern for ungodly persons of things to come; and he delivered righteous Lot, who was greatly distressed by the indulgence of the law-defying people in loose conduct—for that righteous man by what he saw and heard while dwelling among them from day to day was tormenting his righteous soul by reason of their lawless deeds—Jehovah knows how to deliver people of godly devotion out of trial, but to reserve unrighteous people for the day of judgment to be cut off.” (2 Pet. 2:4-9) Peter had faith and believed that Jehovah God did all these things. He believed this when he wrote about it A.D. 64, over 1,980 years after Sodom’s destruction.

FAITHLESSNESS IN CHRISTENDOM

16, 17. Show how faithlessness exists in Christendom.

¹⁶ Even though Jesus referred to it, still many of the modern-day clergy do not believe the story of Lot. What must they think of Jesus? The religionists cannot think much either of Peter, for he also referred to Sodom when describing the situation that would exist at this world’s end. Honest Christians who take time to study and search the Scriptures will discern the truth in them and build up their faith, wisely so, for one must “have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.”—Heb. 10:39.

¹⁷ How strong is your faith about Christ Jesus? According to your faith, did he exist? Was he the Son of God? Do you believe he died that mankind might live? Do you believe that he provided the ransom sacrifice and that without him no human creature can gain everlasting life? Have you not read First Timothy 2:5, 6, wherein it says: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all”? It may be that you believe, but do you know there are a number of prominent clergymen who do not have faith in this truth? For example, Dr. Lyle Weatherhead, president of the Methodist Conference in Britain, said: “I do not believe Christ’s crucifixion was the will of God. Christ came to the world to be followed, not to be murdered.” (Awake! April 22, 1958, page 27) It is not at all surprising when we hear a religious leader like Harry Emerson Fosdick saying:

“Of course I do not believe in the Virgin Birth, or in that old fashioned substitutionary doctrine of the Atonement; and I do not know any intelligent Christian minister who does. The trouble with these fundamentalists is that they suppose that unless one agrees with them in their doctrinal set-up, he cannot believe in the profound, substantial, everlasting truths of the Christian gospel that transform men’s lives, and are the only hope of Christ’s saviorhood in this world.”—Christian Beacon, May 9, 1946, Vol. XI, No. 13.

If some clergy do not believe in Christ Jesus, his birth as the Son of God and his death as an atoning sacrifice, why should they stand before congregations claiming to be Christians? How can they build faith in others if they themselves have none? It is not difficult to understand how a “doctor of divinity,” like D. R. Keating, a minister of the United Church, could say:

“In the present condition of the churches I cannot figure out why a person, especially a man, wants to become a member of the church. He must either have relegated religion to one of the dispensable trivialities of his life, socially useful and personally harmless, or he has illusions about what he is getting into. Maybe he has been reading the New Testament and assumes that is what he will find in the churches. I, for one, admit that I can’t think of a church that I would bother crossing the street to enter if I were a layman.”—Winnipeg, Canada, Tribune, March 4, 1961.

How can anyone expect people to have faith in God and Christ Jesus when clergymen stand before the congregations and tell them that it was useless that they came to hear their sermons? Clergymen are supposed to be teaching faith in Christ as the way of salvation.

18. How does a Lutheran bishop view the world in which we live?

¹⁸ The New York Times of March 11, 1960, carried the following from a sermon by the “Right Reverend” Hanns Lilje, Lutheran Bishop of Hanover, Germany: “The scenery for Christianity has changed in our time more deeply and more fundamentally than most people realize. We do live for all practical purposes in a nonchristian world. The term should be used in its precise meaning. It is not an anti-Christian age. We live in a nonchristian period.” He ought to know! He is one of the leaders in the Lutheran religion and he in effect is saying that people in Christendom are non-Christians. His “church” and denomination make up part of Christendom, and Mr. Lilje says “we live in a nonchristian period.”

19. (a) In view of Christendom’s failure what should Christians do? (b) How does one gain faith?

¹⁹ If no one today is following in the footsteps of Christ Jesus it is high time that a strong call go out to flee, get out of Christendom’s false religions. Jesus said he was not a part of this world, including its religious system, although he was born under one, the Jews’ religion. He condemned its leaders as hypocrites. Millions of persons are born into a religious system today, but the people who love truth must think for themselves and then flee from Christendom and serve the true God Jehovah. Many of the religious clergy do not believe the story of Adam and Eve and some even reject Christ; but Paul said: “Just as in Adam all are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22) So Paul believed in both. But this being made alive is not going to be forced upon everyone. Each person must have faith. “Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.” (Heb. 11:1) Paul argued: How could anyone call on the name of Jehovah to be saved if he never had faith in that one? And, further, how could anyone have faith if he never heard about the true God! In order to get such faith there must be a preacher of the good news. But how can there be a preacher unless he is sent forth? Paul concludes by saying: “So faith follows the thing heard. In turn the thing heard is through the word about Christ.”—Rom. 10:13-17.

GOD’S WORD BUILDS FAITH

20. Name some of the facts true Christians are acquainted with and accept in faith.

²⁰ The very first Christians had faith in Christ Jesus because they saw and heard him. They had an assured expectation of things hoped for. They knew Jesus healed the sick, opened blind eyes, raised the dead and he himself was raised from the dead by Jehovah God. What more assurance of their hope did they need? They had faith based on real things that happened. Now we have the written record in God’s Word the Bible. We know what happened during Christ Jesus’ life on earth. We also have a sure record of what the apostles did. We see a Christian’s faith is based on the truth of real things seen, heard and that occurred. We know, and the early Christians knew, that they were condemned to death through Adam’s sin, as Paul explains: “That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12) Christians know why man dies and they also know that life is a gift from God through Jesus Christ our Lord. “For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23) Paul knew this and he believed it! Do you today? If you do, you have faith in God’s written Word.

21. (a) Who should also believe these facts? (b) What is it, then, that has caused disbelief?

²¹ Every clergyman in the world today representing Christendom ought to have that faith too; but their power to build such faith is gone. They have turned to the theories of men, evolution and to the education of the space age. To them the Bible is just a book out of date; but it is much better to listen to Jesus and the apostles who knew God’s purposes, and this is strengthening to our faith. Jesus said: “It is unavoidable that causes for stumbling should come. Nevertheless, woe to the one through whom they come! It would be of more advantage to him if a millstone were suspended from his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to stumble one of these little ones.” (Luke 17:1, 2) How many good people with some faith have been turned away from God and Christ by a faithless clergy! For this they must answer to God!

22. What is the fate of those renouncing faith?

²² True Christians will keep faith in God’s Word, the Bible, and in the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, but Paul warns all who renounce the faith and says: “If we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and there is a fiery jealousy that is going to consume those in opposition.” (Heb. 10:26, 27) Christ is not going to die again to save these who once had a knowledge and faith in Christ Jesus and who accepted him as their redeemer. If they throw their faith to the wind and reject God, his Word, and his Son, then God will not arrange to redeem them again. There is no longer any sacrifice for sins left! There is coming a judgment, a fearful one! Remember Sodom and Gomorrah. Faithless ones will not be able to flee like Lot and his two daughters. They will be caught in the fiery destruction. Some may try to escape but they will look around at antitypical Sodom, even as Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt, and in the battle of Armageddon others will die in the attempt to escape.—Gen. 19:26; 2 Pet. 3:10-13.

THE FAITH OF EARLY CHRISTIANS

23, 24. How does H. G. Wells show the difference in early Christianity and the church from A.D. 325 forward?

²³ The clergy of Christendom today must take the responsibility, because through their organized religions since A.D. 325 Christendom has been pulling farther away from true Christianity and the Bible’s teaching. Modern historians recognize this fact. In the book The Outline of History by H. G. Wells, it is stated: “This date 325 A.D. is a very convenient date in our history. It is the date of the first complete general (œcumenical) council of the entire Christian world. . . . It marks the definite entry upon the stage of human affairs of the Christian church and of Christianity as it is generally understood in the world to-day. It marks the exact definition of Christian teaching by the Nicene Creed.

²⁴ “It is necessary that we should recall the reader’s attention to the profound differences between this fully developed Christianity of Nicaea and the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. All Christians hold that the latter is completely contained in the former, but that is a question outside our province. What is clearly apparent is that the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth was a prophetic teaching of the new type that began with the Hebrew prophets. It was not priestly, it had no consecrated temple and no altar. It had no rites and ceremonies. Its sacrifice was ‘a broken and a contrite heart.’ Its only organization was an organization of preachers, and its chief function was the sermon. But the fully fledged Christianity of the fourth century, though it preserved as its nucleus the teachings of Jesus in the gospels, was mainly a priestly religion of a type already familiar to the world for thousands of years. The centre of its elaborate ritual was an altar, and the essential act of worship the sacrifice, by a consecrated priest, of the mass. And it had a rapidly developing organization of deacons, priests and bishops.”—Third Edition, pages 522, 523.

25. Who in our day see the difference in the Christianity of Nicea and the teachings of Jesus?

²⁵ This is a historian writing in 1920, and he saw “the profound differences between this fully developed Christianity of Nicaea and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.” Anyone today who is familiar with the Bible and the life of Christ can clearly see the profound difference between what Jesus and the early apostles did and what the clergy of Christendom are doing. Nineteen hundred years ago Christians were strong in faith. Where is that faith today in Christendom? God’s book, the Holy Bible, is considered by many as a fine piece of literary work but the Ten Commandments are just to be read, not something to live by.

26. (a) What did Paul say resulted to those disregarding the law of Moses? (b) What were some things Moses wrote about under the direction of Jehovah?

²⁶ However, listen to what Paul says to us: “Any man that has disregarded the law of Moses dies without compassion, upon the testimony of two or three. Of how much more severe a punishment, do you think, will the man be counted worthy who has trampled upon the Son of God and who has esteemed as of ordinary value the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has outraged the spirit of undeserved kindness with contempt?” (Heb. 10:28, 29) Do you say that was “too severe” upon one who disregarded the law of Moses? Do you agree with those who say that what Moses wrote about, namely, Adam, Lot, Sodom and the Messiah (Christ), was nothing more than myths? Do you think Moses was wrong when he wrote: “You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. . . . You must not desire your fellow man’s house . . . wife . . . slave . . . nor anything that belongs to your fellow man”? Moses was the one who also wrote that “you must not take up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way, for Jehovah will not leave the one unpunished who takes up his name in a worthless way.” He also commanded that you people “must not make for yourself a carved image . . . because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion.” Moses wrote this, not on the stone tablets, but in Exodus 20:1-17; but Jehovah directed him to write it all for our benefit.

27. How did Paul encourage the young man Timothy when it came to the Holy Scriptures?

²⁷ Paul was convinced that Jehovah was behind the writing of the Scriptures. He told a young Christian full of faith: “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17) Paul believed the Bible. He had faith in its teachings.

28. What did Paul have to say to encourage those in need of keeping faith?

²⁸ In these last days it takes strong faith to be a Christian, and to believe what is written in the Bible; but some people have it, and equip themselves to proclaim a message of God’s kingdom in spite of clergy ridicule. Paul knew that Christians would be having a hard time keeping in the ministry not only in his day but through all ages, due to governments and faithless religious leaders. So he admonished Christians, saying: “However, keep on remembering the former days in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great contest under sufferings, sometimes while you were being exposed as in a theater both to reproaches and tribulations, and sometimes while you became sharers with those who were having such an experience. For you both expressed sympathy for those in prison and joyfully took the plundering of your belongings, knowing you yourselves have a better and an abiding possession.”—Heb. 10:32-34.

MODERN-DAY FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS

29, 30. Contrast the statement of one Dr. Baillie with the experiences of Jehovah’s witnesses during World War II and since.

²⁹ In the days of the apostles many thousands of persons were enlightened with the truth of God’s Word and they walked in the footsteps of Christ Jesus and experienced what Paul described. They learned a new way of life, and this brought them real satisfaction, but along with it some opposition. This is what Christians today must remember. Just as Christians in former days were enlightened and endured a great contest under suffering, so Christians must do today. There is no easy way to be a true Christian. Dr. Baillie of the Union Theological Seminary, commenting on the present state of Christianity, is reported to have said: “That which has been on trial all these years is not Christianity at all. The experiment of living in a Christian way has not been made and until it is we just do not know anything about it. . . . Perhaps the world no longer persecutes Christians because there are no longer any Christians.”

³⁰ We ask, Has Dr. Baillie observed the activity of Jehovah’s witnesses in the past forty-five years? True, if he is only looking at the Protestant and Catholic religious systems, there is no persecution of them. But what about the small group of Christian witnesses of Jehovah in Hitler’s day in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and, in fact, all the world, including the United States and Canada, during World War II? And how about today? What is happening in East Germany, Poland, Russia and Christendom’s Catholic Spain? In these places Jehovah’s witnesses are enduring “a great contest under suffering,” and Jehovah’s witnesses in other parts of the world “express sympathy” for those in prison.

31. Why do Jehovah’s witnesses endure suffering the world around?

³¹ Jesus said concerning real Christians: “He that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.” (Matt. 24:13) A true Christian will endure suffering, and certainly those who stand firm for the principles Jesus lived by will have the experiences of “reproaches and tribulation” for being Christian. Jehovah’s witnesses have experienced the concentration camps, the gas chambers, starvation diets and imprisonments in most of the countries of Christendom. Furthermore, their work of preaching God’s kingdom was banned for years in many countries of Christendom. Why? Just because Jehovah’s witnesses wanted and insisted on living a Christian life, and they were willing to endure a great contest under suffering to do it. While not every one of these Christian witnesses of Jehovah was thrown into concentration camps, others who expressed sympathy for those in prison joyfully took the plundering of their belongings. Read the history of the modern-day witnesses of Jehovah as told in the book Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, and there you will learn of the persecution they endured at the hands of the clergy and the political rulers in Germany, Greece, Poland, Russia, Dominican Republic, Quebec, yes, in all parts of the world. However, they are still proclaiming God’s kingdom in all these countries today.

32. How do true Christians differ from Christendom’s religions when it comes to endurance in exercising freeness of speech?

³² A true Christian must be strong and, even though persecution gets more intense, he must still listen and do what God inspired Paul to write: “Do not, therefore, throw away your freeness of speech, which has a great reward to be paid it. For you have need of endurance, in order that, after you have done the will of God, you may receive the fulfillment of the promise.” (Heb. 10:35, 36) Jehovah’s witnesses will not give up their freeness of speech because of persecution. Jesus did not close his mouth because of the power of the political and religious crowd of his day. The religionists had to kill him to take away his freeness to speak the good news of God’s kingdom. Christians will not change today. On the other hand, Christendom’s religious organizations today do the bidding of the political rulers. In many places the pulpit has become the mouthpiece of the government’s ruler. The clergy have thrown away their freeness of speech to preach God’s kingdom in order to play favorite to the worldly political rulers. A Christian cannot compromise, because he knows that his ‘freeness of speech has a great reward to be paid to him.’

33. Why are many pulling away from Christendom’s religions, and whose example do they follow in so doing?

³³ Hundreds of thousands of people are pulling away from the false religious organizations of Christendom because these institutions hold forth no promise. What can they promise? They reject the Bible. They have no “assured expectation of things hoped for.” But as for those seeking truth, God’s Word has brought them knowledge and understanding, and they have faith that God’s kingdom is near at hand. They believe what Paul said, even though written nineteen hundred years ago. “For yet ‘a very little while,’ and ‘he who is coming will arrive and will not delay.’” (Heb. 10:37) There has been no delay in the arrival of Christ Jesus. His second presence has been made manifest since 1914.a The time of the end is near! It is time to get out of this modern-day Sodom, just as Lot and his two daughters fled that wicked city centuries ago. Those who want to live in God’s new world will have to flee the Devil’s organization and find security in Jehovah’s organization. God will provide the safe place for all during the time of the battle of Armageddon. Do you have faith that God will do this for you? Lot and his two daughters had faith and they got to Zoar and lived on.

34. How are Jehovah’s witnesses showing they live by faith?

³⁴ How true God’s Word: “‘But my righteous one will live by reason of faith,’ and, ‘if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him’”! (Heb. 10:38) Today Jehovah’s witnesses must live by faith, but it is an assured expectation with full confidence in the future, because the written Word of God tells them the future. They see things have happened and are happening that God’s Word said would occur. So this is no time for anyone knowing God’s Word to shrink back and return to the wicked organization of the old world, for God will have no pleasure with such a one. Paul was a determined man, strong in mind and of great faith, and could strengthen the faith of others. With conviction he said: “Now we are not the sort that shrink back to destruction, but the sort that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.”—Heb. 10:39.

ANALYZING OUR FAITH

35. In analyzing our faith what questions demand an answer?

³⁵ What kind of faith do you have? Is it the kind that shrinks back at every trial or difficulty that arises, or is your faith strong, built on the solid foundation of God’s Word? Is your faith strong enough to carry you on to ‘the preserving alive of your soul’?

36. How does Philippians 4:9 help us build a strong faith?

³⁶ Paul, writing to the Philippians, said: “The things that you learned as well as accepted and heard and saw in connection with me, practice these; and the God of peace will be with you.” (Phil. 4:9) What did the early Christians learn from Paul? What did they hear? What did they see? What had they accepted? Surely they saw Paul as a staunch Christian, dedicated to Jehovah God, walking in the footsteps of Christ Jesus. They knew a man willing to go through all kinds of sufferings, persecution, trials and even face death without shrinking back. They read his letter containing the experiences of what he went through for the sake of the good news of Christ. They knew Paul believed that Christ Jesus laid down his life for the saving of mankind and that Paul showed his belief by preaching God’s kingdom with Christ as King. These are just a few things Christians learn from Paul. Through Paul’s many letters and personal association he built up in others the necessary faith. The things that Paul preached and lived by, the early Christian witnesses of Jehovah learned, heard and saw and accepted. Now what? Will you faithful followers of Christ Jesus today practice these things? If so, with what result? “The God of peace will be with you.”

37. How does one gain the peace of God today, and who serves as the primary example of exercising proper love?

³⁷ How can a person gain the peace of God today? First of all, by withdrawing from this wicked system of things. Then devote yourself wholly to the doing of the will of Jehovah God. Moses wrote: “I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion.” (Ex. 20:5) Therefore you as a Christian must serve God with your whole heart, with your whole mind, with your whole soul, with your whole strength. This will prove your real love for your Father in heaven. Add to that the second commandment you must follow, and that is, Love your neighbor as you do yourself. The best example that you have of this kind of love is the Son of God, Christ Jesus. If you want to become a Christian you must be as much like him as possible. You will want to copy him in everything he did. To do that you must read about him, find out all you can about his life and his work. This information is found in the written Word of God, the Holy Bible.

38. Why can we be sure that it is not a theological education that qualifies one as a true minister of Jehovah?

³⁸ To follow in the footsteps of Christ Jesus does not require a training in a theological seminary or a religious college. If such higher education were necessary, then Peter and John could not have been apostles of Christ Jesus. Those two men were ordinary men with sound minds. They appreciated and loved truth. They were men who listened and learned from their teacher Jesus Christ. When their resurrected Teacher explained to them why he had died upon the torture stake, they were not the kind to shrink back but they were ready to move out, and at Pentecost they preached the things that they heard and believed. So the Bible record tells us that when the Jewish Sanhedrin “beheld the outspokenness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were men unlettered and ordinary, they got to wondering. And they began to recognize about them that they used to be with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13) It is the spirit in a person, his zeal, devotion and knowledge that count, not his degree or diploma that hangs on a wall. These men had gained true knowledge because they had been with Jesus and learned the truth. They were fearless in expressing that truth. It was not their college education, or the rabbinical schools of their day, that qualified them as ministers of God. They never enrolled in them. They were ordained as God’s ministers by God, not by men. To wear “the cloth” the clergy of Christendom may trace their lines of descent back to A.D. 325 and the Nicean creed, but not back to Christ Jesus or the Word of God.

39. (a) What must every Christian be, and how did H. G. Wells show this to be the case with early Christianity? (b) Did Paul’s example show the early church to be a preaching organization? How?

³⁹ This information should be of real encouragement to individuals in all parts of the world who love the Bible, and it should help them in taking their stand for the ministry. If Peter and John, fishermen, could be apostles of Jesus Christ and could qualify to represent God as his ordained ministers in the earth, then why cannot anyone who loves the truth in God’s Word and who is devoted to God and has dedicated his life to God’s service do likewise? All the early Christians were ministers and they studied God’s written Word. It becomes clear that every person who becomes a Christian must also be a preacher of the good news. The difficulty in Christendom today is that the clergy are the only ones recognized as ministers, and their congregations have been made a listening flock, not a preaching flock. There has been a development of the clergy class and a laity class in Christendom, and, as was pointed out in The Outline of History, H. G. Wells saw “the profound difference between the fully developed Christianity of Nicaea and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.” Of early Christianity he said: “Its only organization was an organization of preachers, and its chief function was the sermon.” That is what real Christians today see the need for the organization to be. The whole organization of Jehovah’s witnesses is made up of ordained ministers, and their chief function and training is the use of the sermon. They use Bible sermons from door to door and in their home Bible study work. Christians now must be just like Jehovah’s witnesses in the days of the apostles, who went from house to house and delivered sermons to the people of the homes visited, to any family, and they studied the Bible with them. Paul said: “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.” (Acts 20:20) H. G. Wells showed that from and after A.D. 325 the religious leaders of Christendom established elaborate rituals around an altar, consecrated deacons, bishops, priests, and established the mass, and went into the construction of temples. What a difference from the way true Christians worshiped the Almighty God Jehovah!

EACH ONE MUST EXERCISE FAITH

40. (a) What have Christendom’s leaders done for the people? (b) How did one religious leader describe the need in today’s religious organizations?

⁴⁰ Christendom’s leaders have brought themselves into the position in which they find themselves today. They have made their millions of churchgoers, the laity, useless as far as the spreading of Christianity is concerned. The clergy have taught them to listen and to go through set formalisms in their temples each week. They put no responsibility upon their flock to preach in behalf of Christ and to tell others the good news of God’s kingdom. There are some clergymen today that realize their failure. For example, the “Reverend” John Heuse, director of New York city’s Trinity Parish, had this to say in his lecture “What Are Churches For?”

“No parish can fulfill its true function unless there is at the very center of its leadership life a small community of quietly fanatic, changed and truly converted Christians. The trouble with most parishes is that nobody, including the clergyman, is really greatly changed; but even where there is a devoted self-sacrificing priest at the heart of the fellowship, not much will happen until there is a community of changed men and women.”—Reader’s Digest, June, 1962.

41. (a) Who are at fault because of weak parishioners? (b) What basic quality of Christianity is missing?

⁴¹ Whose fault is this? The clergymen are to blame. They are not trying to turn their parishioners into Christians who would “endure a great contest under suffering.” Their parishioners do not want to be “exposed as in a theater to both reproaches and tribulation” for Christ’s sake. They refuse to be like early Christians, willing to go to prison if necessary just for the sake of preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. Why has Christendom failed? Their people do not “have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.” They do not know, nor have they been taught, what Christian work is. The people of Christendom have not been trained to stand up for that which is right. How could they? Jesus said: “If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matt. 15:14) Their flocks have not learned what Christianity is, what truth is. How could anyone expect them to, when one of their own clergymen says: “I, for one, admit that I can’t think of a church that I would bother crossing the street to enter if I were a layman.” (See pages 11, 12.) And a good many men and women do not go to their churches either. Very likely these nonchurchgoers noticed the true condition of the churches even before this clergyman did.

42. Why will ecumenical councils not unite the various religious denominations?

⁴² Let all the heads of the different denominations of the world gather together with Pope John XXIII in another ecumenical council. Let them try to unite the various religious denominations, both Protestant and Catholic, into a solid organization. Yet they will never make Christians out of their members. It takes more than consolidation. It takes God’s blessing, his spirit, his Word and the individual’s faith to be a Christian. Christendom has strayed too far away from God’s Word, the truth, to return. Too many of Christendom’s clergy have chosen small bits of the Bible to believe and scrapped the rest as a myth. In exchange they give their flocks their own ideas and, as Paul puts it, they “pay attention to false stories and to genealogies, which end up in nothing, but which furnish questions for research rather than a dispensing of anything by God in connection with faith.”—1 Tim. 1:4.

43. What is the Bible to a true Christian?

⁴³ The real Christian knows through study of the Bible that the whole Bible is a book of action, a book of service, a book of faith, a book of truth and truly the Word of the Almighty God Jehovah. Christ Jesus only nineteen hundred years ago believed its true stories as written in the Hebrew Scriptures and he quoted them from the books of the Bible. Are you, then, going to teach others the same things that Jesus taught back there? Have faith in God’s Word. Study it! “Preach the word,” as Christians must! Then “be at it urgently in favorable season, in troublesome season.”—2 Tim. 4:2.

44, 45. How is a strong faith shown?

⁴⁴ You believe that “with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.” (Rom. 10:9, 10) Well, then, is your faith strong enough to make you speak out as a Christian and to tell the truth of God’s promises regarding his kingdom, which is mankind’s only hope? Or, are you going to be like a certain group of so-called followers of Christ that James described as “hearers only, deceiving yourselves with false reasoning. For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, this one is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, and off he goes and immediately forgets what sort of man he is.”—Jas. 1:22-24.

⁴⁵ The logic of James is conclusive. He says: “Indeed, as the body without breath is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (Jas. 2:26) Faith expresses itself. It makes proclamation. Faith is not a dead thing, but it goes to work. Faith lets other people know what it believes. It speaks out from house to house. A minister of God with faith must be active. One who knows the Word of God preaches it. Faith has no fear to give testimony, Peter said. “But sanctify the Christ as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a defense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope in you, but doing so together with a mild temper and deep respect.” (1 Pet. 3:15) One with faith in God and the Bible makes a defense before everybody.

46. Whom did Jesus choose to be his light bearers, and what example did he leave them?

⁴⁶ Jesus, when speaking to Jews who were looking for the Messiah, did not pick out the scribes and the Pharisees to be the light of the world. He just chose ordinary men, men of faith. You remember that he said: “You are the light of the world. A city cannot be hid when situated upon a mountain. People light a lamp and set it, not under the measuring basket, but upon the lampstand, and it shines upon all those in the house. Likewise let your light shine before men, that they may see your fine works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.” (Matt. 5:14-16) This instruction in his Sermon on the Mount he gave to men and women alike. What an excellent service sermon it is! Jesus encouraged all people listening to take up the ministry, to represent God’s kingdom and work for it. He said: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness.” (Matt. 6:33) He taught lovers of righteousness how to pray. He showed them the need to sanctify the name of the Father, Jehovah, and pray for his kingdom so that his will would take place on earth just the same as in heaven. (Matt. 6:9-15) To keep at this ministry work personally requires real faith in Jehovah God, his Son Jesus Christ and God’s Word.

47. What should each one do now toward preserving alive the soul?

⁴⁷ If you have such faith it will mean the “preserving alive of the soul.” So flee from the old world, headed for destruction as was Sodom, and be like Lot and his two daughters. Get up and go; be a minister of the good news! Do not hesitate to endure a “great contest under sufferings, sometimes while you [are] being exposed as in a theater both to reproaches and tribulations.” (Heb. 10:32, 33) Serve God as a real Christian and be strong in your faith. Believe his Word and gain everlasting life in the new world of righteousness.

[Footnotes]

‘Fight a Fine Fight for the Faith’

1. How could Paul speak with authority on fighting for the faith?

THESE words by the apostle Paul to Timothy: “Fight the fine fight of the faith,” had real meaning to Paul. He had been persecuted by his own race, the Jews, beaten with many stripes, stoned and imprisoned. He experienced shipwreck, dangers from highwaymen, dangers from false brothers, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, yes, all kinds of trials and tribulations. While under all this pressure, he still had rushing in on him “the anxiety for all the congregations.” (2 Cor. 11:23-28) So, then, these words of Paul, “Fight the fine fight of the faith,” are not idle words. Would you do the same as Paul for the sake of the good news? You would if you had faith like Paul and Timothy had, and you would ‘get a firm hold on the everlasting life for which you were called and you would offer the fine public declaration in front of many witnesses.’—1 Tim. 6:12.

2. Why is patience necessary for one who is charged with teaching others, and how did the apostle Paul especially show this by his comments?

² Paul in his letters to Timothy was instructing this dedicated young Christian to carry out his duties as a true follower of Christ. As an overseer and a brother he must teach those with whom he associated only the sound doctrine that he had received from God’s Word. He was not to be full of idle talk or his own ideas. Timothy knew the truth, and it was the truth that he must teach, nothing else. This teaching would take time and patience because God’s people are not the worldly-wise, the highly intelligent men, but rather humble people. That is what Paul wrote the Corinthians: “Not many wise in a fleshly way were called, not many powerful, not many of noble birth; but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put the wise men to shame; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put the strong things to shame; and God chose the ignoble things of the world and the things looked down upon, the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are, in order that no flesh might boast in the sight of God.” (1 Cor. 1:26-29) In the uneducated, noninfluential and poor people Timothy had to build up faith and then bring them to a point where they could offer a “fine public declaration in front of many witnesses.” Are you doing that kind of Christian work? You should!

3. What does the Bible show with regard to those chosen to do Jehovah’s work?

³ From God’s own Word we see that those who were highly educated in the world, and the most prominent men, were not the ones called. Look at those whom the Son of God chose: fishermen, tax collectors, men who were looked down upon by the scribes and Pharisees. When ordinary police officers were sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees to take Jesus and to bring him to them they came back without Jesus, and the officers said: “Never has another man spoken like this.” In turn the Pharisees answered: “You have not been misled also, have you? Not one of the rulers or of the Pharisees has put faith in him, has he?” (John 7:45-48) Even these men with great wisdom and high education who had the Hebrew Scriptures handy in scrolls, men who were supposed to be the representatives of God, had no faith in the Son of God. They argued that no rulers or Pharisees had put faith in him. Have things changed much in our day? Who turn out to be the true Christians?

4. Therefore, who are the ones chosen primarily to do Jehovah’s work today?

⁴ Look around the world. Check the nations’ rulers since World War I began, A.D. 1914. Consider: Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, a so-called Christian out for world domination; Adolf Hitler, a Catholic German dictator who signed a concordat with the pope in 1933; and Mussolini, who with the blessing of the Catholic Church invaded Ethiopia. Have these dictators acted the part of true Christians? They did attend church, did they not? But do you think God called these men to be heirs with Christ Jesus? Were these rulers in their positions “by divine right” and walking in the footsteps of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? He did not choose the ‘rulers or the Pharisees’ as a whole to be his followers, did he? It does not appear that he is choosing them today. The faithful followers of Jesus, Peter and John, Matthew and others, were not of the ruling class. True, Paul was a converted Pharisee, but how true were his words: ‘Not many powerful were called’! Besides, here is what James had to say about the matter: “God chose the ones who are poor respecting the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him, did he not?” (Jas. 2:5) Persons who are trying to walk as Christians should keep these scriptures in mind and walk in humility and show love to their fellowman.

5. How does one rich in this world’s goods put up a hard fight for the faith?

⁵ What must one do really to put up a fine fight for the faith if he is a man in politics, business or religion? If someone rich and powerful comes to a knowledge of the truth and declares himself a real Christian, then let him listen to Paul’s stern words written to Timothy: “Give orders to those who are rich in the present system of things not to be high-minded, and to rest their hope, not on uncertain riches, but on God, who furnishes us all things richly for our enjoyment; to work at good, to be rich in fine works, to be liberal, ready to share, safely treasuring up for themselves a fine foundation for the future, in order that they may get a firm hold on the real life.” (1 Tim. 6:17-19) Rich men should be helped to realize that this life in the present evil world is transitory and not until anyone really dedicates his life to the service of Jehovah God and walks in the footsteps of Christ Jesus, preaching the good news of God’s kingdom, can he ever get “a firm hold on the real life.” Jesus said: “Whoever wants to save his soul [life] will lose it; but whoever loses his soul [life] for the sake of me and the good news will save it.” (Mark 8:35) Being a faithful Christian does not mean being a member of a “church” having a fine building. Being a Christian means living as one according to the Word of God, offering “the fine public declaration in front of many witnesses.” Are you doing this? If you are not, you can! It will take faith and courage to do so, but it can be done and is being done by those who truly love Jehovah God and his kingdom.

ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY

6. How did Jehovah’s servants in the first century carry out their responsibilities as witnesses?

⁶ Jehovah’s witnesses around the world have a responsibility to help every Christian and person of goodwill who seeks truth and righteousness to “fight the fine fight of the faith” and to “get a firm hold on the everlasting life.” (1 Tim. 6:12) How do Jehovah’s witnesses help people find this kind of faith to fight for? First, an individual must hear the good news. But in order to hear there must be a preacher. (Rom. 10:13-15) In Christ’s time the disciples listened to their teacher and then were taught to go from house to house. Jesus said: “Go on telling them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” (Luke 10:9) His little band of seventy faithful followers must have spent many hours talking about the kingdom of God to individuals that they had never before met. But that was the will of God. On the day of Pentecost after the holy spirit descended upon the 120 persons in the upper room Peter spoke to thousands of interested people and there were 3,000 who “embraced his word heartily” and dedicated their lives to Jehovah’s service through his Son Jesus Christ and were baptized. They became true Christians, and “they continued devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles.” (Acts 2:41, 42) They must have gone to all the homes in Jerusalem in a short time and from there returned home after Pentecost to scatter throughout the land, where thousands more heard the good news and came into the Christian congregation. The true ministry of Christ had begun!

7. Why do Jehovah’s witnesses keep track of the time spent talking about God’s kingdom, and how much time did they spend during the 1962 service year in talking to people about this important news?

⁷ In those days when Christ’s disciples preached the good news there was no record kept of the time spent in their preaching work. But today, that the Watch Tower Society may know where the preaching work has been accomplished, it keeps a record of the hours spent by Jehovah’s witnesses talking to people about God’s kingdom. During the twelve months from September 1, 1961, to August 31, 1962, Jehovah’s witnesses spent 142,046,679 hours preaching the good news of the Kingdom publicly. That is 9,351,139 more hours than they spent the year before in their field service. Where did they spend all this time preaching? Consult the chart on pages 24-27 and you will see the list of 189 countries, protectorates, islands of the sea and colonies where Jehovah’s witnesses preached the good news in cities, villages, hamlets, on rural roads, in offices, business houses, anywhere, everywhere, when they had the opportunity of talking to people.

8, 9. (a) Outline the work of (1) special pioneers, (2) regular pioneers, (3) congregation publishers. (b) How many engaged in each field of the ministry in 1962, and what was the average number of ministers each month during the service year?

⁸ Who did all this preaching? True Christians, Jehovah’s witnesses, men and women, young and old, all dedicated to doing the will of Jehovah God. These ministers went from house to house and, where they could arrange to study with people in their homes, they did so. Those who spend 150 hours or more in the field work each month are called special pioneers. Some of these are missionaries who have graduated from the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. All together during the year there were, on an average, 6,934 special pioneers engaged in the work every month. Then there were 26,626 pioneers who spent about 100 hours each month declaring the message of salvation. They worked in the territory of their own congregations or went out on their own into places where the need was great for telling out the good news, in isolated places, as special pioneers do. Then there are those Christians who have secular occupations and families to care for. They may be carpenters, farmers, office workers or factory workers. They cannot arrange their time to spend 100 or 150 hours a month in the ministry, but they do strive to spend a minimum of ten hours each month in the preaching activity being carried on in all parts of the earth. There were 887,360 of these witnesses of Jehovah working diligently in all parts of the world. They are called congregation publishers.

⁹ From this we see there were, on an average every month throughout the year, 920,920 different persons, all Jehovah’s witnesses, who preached and taught from God’s Word and who enjoyed spending time telling other people about God’s kingdom. They love peace and righteousness and want to tell others about it.

10-12. (a) What new peak in publishers was reached? (b) What percentage of increase is this? (c) Why does it appear that there has been a decrease in the work behind the Iron Curtain? (d) Why should we be joyful with the work done?

¹⁰ There were many other people who associated with Jehovah’s witnesses during the year that spent some time in different months talking to others about this wonderful hope and about the things they learned from God’s Word. Therefore some months there were peaks in the number of proclaimers of the good news, and so at one or more times there were 989,192 different individuals who were in the field service. We hope that they continue in this grand work of announcing the King and Kingdom.

¹¹ While we are on this point of ministers, it should be pointed out that during the 1962 service year there were 36,333 more ministers in the field on the average every month than there were during the previous year, or an increase of 4.1 percent. However, please observe in checking the chart that there are twelve countries where it is unwise to show how many publishers there are in each country, and in these lands there was a 9.6-percent decrease. This is due to the scarcity of reports from some countries. We earnestly feel, however, that it is only due to communication difficulties between Jehovah’s workers in lands where Jehovah’s witnesses must work underground that the available information makes this report lower. In a number of the countries behind the Iron Curtain there have been marked increases. If the local government under totalitarian rule knew just how many witnesses of Jehovah there were in each country they would push even harder against them.

¹² It is of real interest, too, to point out in the chart, page 27, that in the 177 countries outside the very troublesome areas there was an increase of 46,798 publishers. This is an increase of 6 percent in publishers, whereas for the whole world, taking into consideration the losses behind the Iron Curtain, the increase was only 4.1 percent. So there really has been a fine ingathering of those who love truth and righteousness during the 1962 service year, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Think of the difficulties in Russia, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Ethiopia and other parts of our earth! In many places, however, persecution against Jehovah’s witnesses has been overcome, and this is due to their trust in Jehovah God.

LITERATURE PLACEMENTS AND BIBLE STUDIES

13, 14. Outline the interesting facts on literature placements.

¹³ These faithful Christians who go from house to house not only preach with their lips but also leave Bible literature with the people, that they may better understand the Word of God. During the twelve months of 1962 Jehovah’s people placed 4,680,233 Bibles and books and 11,664,763 booklets in 189 different lands in 158 languages. Christ Jesus commanded: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) He foretold this work that Jehovah’s witnesses would do and are doing.

¹⁴ Other publications that Jehovah’s witnesses use to spread the good news of God’s kingdom are magazines, The Watchtower and Awake! They obtained in their house-to-house witnessing work 1,386,404 new subscriptions. This was 63,709 more subscriptions than were obtained the year before. You may often have seen Jehovah’s witnesses on the street corners presenting the magazines The Watchtower and Awake! to passersby, or they may have stopped at your home or store and offered you these magazines. By doing this kind of work they distributed 112,788,689 copies of The Watchtower and Awake! The Watchtower is printed in 65 languages, Awake! in 25 languages.

15, 16. Show what was done in the Bible study and public meeting fields.

¹⁵ The work of God’s Christian ministers does not end with the placement of Bible literature. Jehovah’s witnesses return to the homes of the people and offer to answer their Bible questions. Many people are willing to have Jehovah’s witnesses call regularly so that Bible studies can be conducted in their own homes. Each week there were 654,210 different home Bible studies conducted throughout the world by Jehovah’s witnesses. What a fine way to help a family, the father, the mother and the children, as well as neighbors who might come to visit! What a changed outlook toward world conditions comes to those who study God’s Word of prophecy! With such studies whole families can “fight the fine fight of the faith.”

¹⁶ Not only did Jehovah’s witnesses spend freely of their own money to travel to different parts of their territory to preach and conduct home Bible studies, but hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by local congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses to sponsor public meetings, in all parts of the world. They arranged 793,136 public meetings. At the close of the year there were 22,166 congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses, arranged in 1,725 circuits. The circuits were grouped into 209 districts. Regular visits are made by circuit and district servants, appointed by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, to each one of these congregations so as to help them with their problems and their ministry.

OTHER INTERESTING FACTS

17. What work of production was performed by Bethel families in different parts of the world?

¹⁷ At the 87 branch homes and offices established in the principal countries of the world there is a working force of 1,423 ministers. Besides taking care of the Bethel homes and offices of the Watch Tower Society they had the privilege of printing and shipping 6,438,898 bound books and Bibles, 15,871,445 paper-covered booklets, 100,361,485 Watchtower magazines and 90,658,305 Awake! magazines. Many of these Bethel family members have enjoyed the fellowship of the congregation servants of their country while they attended the Kingdom Ministry School at the branch office. This four-week-long schooling and refresher course has aided the overseers of the congregations to get a clearer appreciation of their duties and responsibilities toward Jehovah’s sheep allotted to their care.

18, 19. (a) How many attended the Memorial celebration, and how many partook of the emblems of bread and wine? (b) While 69,649 were baptized, what should we all remember?

¹⁸ Once a year there is a very important celebration observed by all of Jehovah’s witnesses around the earth, and that is held on the anniversary night of the death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In memory of him all of Jehovah’s witnesses gathered together for the Memorial, known to some as the Last Supper, that Jesus partook of with his disciples. At this one meeting on the night of April 17, 1962, there were 1,639,681 persons in attendance. There were 12,714 who attended that partook of the emblems, the bread and the wine, symbolizing the flesh and the blood of Christ Jesus; and these 12,714 partaking of the emblems indicated to others that they were of the anointed body of Christ, the remaining ones of the remnant still on earth. This means that 570 fewer people partook of the emblems, because during the year they finished their earthly course in death.

¹⁹ While the remnant of the body of Christ grows smaller, the great crowd of “other sheep” that Jehovah God through his Son Christ Jesus is gathering out of all nations, kindreds and tongues, is growing larger. These, too, like the remnant who had dedicated their lives to God’s service, have symbolized their dedication to God’s service by water baptism. There were 69,649 individuals who did this. The baptizing of such a great crowd in just one year places a grave responsibility upon those who are already in the truth. It reminds us of what Paul said to 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) Here is where the responsibility comes upon God’s servants. These newly interested persons who have heard the truth and who have shown appreciation start in the service work preaching the good news, but sometimes they cool off. Their interest wanes. That is why Paul admonished the young overseer, Timothy, to fight the fine fight of faith. Of course, being an overseer, he was to help many others to do the same thing.

20. How does one get a “firm hold on the everlasting life,” and how does he aid others to do so?

²⁰ On the other hand, it is not just the responsibility of overseers to aid people to remain Christians and to stay in Jehovah’s visible organization. It is the responsibility of every Christian within Jehovah’s organization to help each one. True, our love goes out to God, and Jesus said we should love Jehovah our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, but he also said we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves. If we really do this, then as Christians we must love and aid our neighbors to put up a fine fight for the faith. Why should Christians want to do this? Because, like Paul, Christians must be able to say: “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.” (Acts 20:20) Christians will never “get a firm hold on the everlasting life” unless they keep on serving God in every way day by day. So it is necessary to help one another, especially in these perilous times, days that are hard to deal with, days in which every man’s hand is against his neighbor, days in which the love of the greater number grows cold, days in which immorality is rampant. So it is excellent admonition that Paul gave Timothy. Every Christian should help his brother to ‘fight the fine fight of the faith, to get a firm hold on the everlasting life.’ This is in full accord with the text that Jehovah’s witnesses have chosen for 1963: “Have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.” (Heb. 10:39) With these thoughts in mind it is hoped, not only that those who are now Jehovah’s witnesses will keep a firm hold on the real life, but also that hundreds of thousands, yes, millions of other persons still groping for the light will find it, if it pleases God. Bringing them the light is the great responsibility resting upon Jehovah’s witnesses. They must take the truth and light from the Word of God to the ends of the earth. This they will do by Jehovah’s undeserved kindness right on up to the end of this system of things. Jesus has declared that it will be done. Said he: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.”—Matt. 24:14.

[Chart on page 24-27]

1962 SERVICE YEAR REPORT OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES WORLD WIDE

(See bound volume)

Serving the Ruler Out of the House of Bread

WHAT an honor, what a privilege, what a blessing it is to serve the Ruler out of the House of Bread! He is no ordinary, imperfect, selfish or even well-intentioned feeble human that has a fading glory and a fleeting life. No, this Ruler is one that Jehovah God himself chose. Foreseeing mankind’s need of a righteous ruler, God caused one of his prophets long ago to foretell concerning this Ruler: “O Bethlehem Ephrathah, . . . from you there will come out to me the one who is to become ruler.”—Mic. 5:2.a

When Jesus came to earth more than nineteen hundred years ago, he was born in Bethlehem in initial fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy. Most fittingly God’s angels at that time announced: “There was born to you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in David’s city. Glory in the heights above to God, and upon earth peace among men of good will.”—Luke 2:11, 14.

With full confidence Jehovah God could appoint this one to be Ruler, for had he not faithfully served with his Father from time indefinite, gaining experience, adding to his knowledge and wisdom in his exclusive association with his Father? (Prov. 8:22-31) No question about his being the best one that God could possibly have chosen. And after his coming to earth and learning obedience from the things he suffered, Jehovah God exalted him to his own right hand, awaiting the time for the fulfillment of Micah 5:2 on a grander scale.—Heb. 5:8.

Bible prophecy locates the grander and complete fulfillment of Micah 5:2 at the end of the times of the nations, which came in 1914. At that time the words of Jehovah applied: “I, even I, have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. . . . You are my son; I, today, I have become your father. Ask of me, that I may give nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your own possession.”—Ps. 2:6-8.

How can it be said that this glorious divine Ruler at that time came out of Bethlehem? Because Bethlehem means ‘house or place of bread,’ and the place from where this great Ruler comes is the House of Bread for all mankind. What caused it to become this House of Bread? Jesus’ ransom sacrifice, the merit of which he presented to his Father upon his ascension to heaven. It is by means of this merit that Jesus Christ can give life to all obedient ones of mankind, he being, as he himself stated, “the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever; and, for a fact, the bread that I shall give is my flesh in behalf of the life of the world.”—John 6:51.

Further, just as the little town of Bethlehem was located in Judah, meaning [Jehovah-] Lauded, so this greater Bethlehem is situated in the heavens among the angelic hosts, all of whom laud Jehovah. And even as Bethlehem was not situated all over Judah but had a definite location, a certain spot or point or territory in Judah, so the symbolic Bethlehem, the spiritual House of Bread, does not take in all of heaven, but is located where Jesus himself is, since he is the life-giving Bread.

Associated with this Ruler out of the House of Bread, not as Bread Providers, or as coming themselves out of the House of Bread—for they themselves first had to take of the living Bread—are his faithful footstep followers, the “called and chosen and faithful,” who, with him, constitute God’s capital organization that rules over his universal organization.—Rev. 17:14; 14:1, 3.

Of course, if Jesus Christ had been made Ruler without coming from this heavenly House of Bread, without his first having ransomed mankind and presented the merit of his sacrifice in heaven, he could not give everlasting life to mankind, regardless of how able and beneficent his rule might be. On the other hand, without his being sent forth as the Ruler, he could not give mankind the benefit of his being the Bread of life in the House of Bread.

How much all of us are indebted to this Ruler out of the House of Bread! What a fine example he set for all his followers! Dedicated Christians who appreciate the benefits that are and will yet be theirs and the example he set will delight to serve him. They will do as he did when upon earth, go about “preaching and declaring the good news of the kingdom of God.” (Luke 8:1) And as he trained others, so these will also do. For many, January will be a long, cold month, but what are the discomforts of inclement weather compared with the joys that come from being in the direct service of the Ruler out of the House of Bread, bringing the Bread of life to deserving hungry and dying ones!

[Footnotes]

Do You Remember?

Have you read the recent issues of The Watchtower carefully? If so, you should recognize these important points. Check yourself.

● Why is it not safe for Christians to follow men?

Because men are imperfect, make mistakes and at times prove unfaithful. However, so long as they are of “those who through faith and patience inherited the promises” they may be imitated.—P. 535.a

● What light do the Psalms throw on life’s roadway?

They contain accurate history, inspired prophecy, sound doctrine and admonition to right conduct.—Pp. 550, 551.

● Why cannot 1 John 5:7 be used to prove the trinity teaching?

Because it is spurious, not genuine; it being added later.—P. 556.

● Did the apostle John borrow from Plato his teaching regarding Jesus’ being the Word?

No, he did not. He termed Jesus the Word because the Bible shows that the prehuman Jesus was God’s spokesman.—Pp. 602, 603.

● Is extrasensory perception for Christians?

No; for its manifestations, such as clairvoyance, telepathy, visions, object readings and prediction indicate spiritism.—Pp. 647, 648.

● What is relative subjection?

It is a subjection related to something else; specifically, a subjection limited or qualified by God’s will.—P. 651.

● Who is the “king” mentioned at 1 Peter 2:17, for whom Christians are to have honor?

Any king or any political ruler having governors under him.—Pp. 659, 660.

● What is the “human creation” to which Christians are to subject themselves?

A ruling office created by humans of this world or the one occupying such an office.—P. 660.

● To whom is “relative subjection” due?

It is due to husbands, parents, masters of slaves and political governments.—Pp. 665, 666.

● Who are the “superior authorities” to whom Christians are to be in subjection?

The duly constituted political governments of this world.—Pp. 684, 685.

● In what way are the “superior authorities” God’s ministers?

In that they punish wrongdoers.—P. 712.

● For what compelling reason should Christians be in subjection to the “superior authorities”?

For conscience’ sake.—Pp. 714, 715.

● Why is faith termed “the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld”?

Because it makes evident what has not been discerned before and at the same time refutes what appears to be the case but is not.—P. 751.

[Footnotes]

Questions From Readers

● How are we to understand that part of Micah 4:3 that reads: “He will certainly render judgment among many peoples, and set matters straight respecting mighty nations far away”?—L. S., United States.

This part of Micah’s prophecy must be understood in harmony with the context. At Micah 4:2 we read that “many nations” will be saying: “Come, you people, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” These many nations and people do not refer to the political nations and governments as such. Rather, these many nations and people are the individual believers out of all the political nations that come to Jehovah’s mountain, even as explicitly stated at Revelation 7:9.

Consequently, verse three of Micah chapter four, which says that Jehovah will certainly render judgment among “many peoples” and set things straight respecting “nations far away,” is not referring to interference by Jehovah in the affairs of the political nations. Rather, it must refer to his rendering judgments and setting matters straight in a spiritual way for those believers who have come out of the political nations and have taken their stand for Jehovah’s kingdom.

These conform to these judgments by doing what the rest of Mic 4 verse three states: “And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. They will not lift up sword, nation against nation, neither will they learn war any more.”

True Christians are doing this in keeping with the Resolution they passed at their 1958 Divine Will Assembly, and which reads in part: “Figuratively speaking, we have beaten our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning shears and, although of so many nationalities, we will not lift up sword against one another because we are Christian brothers and members of the one family of God, neither will we learn war against one another any more, but we will walk in God’s paths in peace, unity and brotherly love.”

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

Jesus Christ, who is the Ruler out of the House of Bread, has abundant provision of Bread to sustain the lives of all who seek Jehovah God. Distributing Bible-study publications that direct attention to this spiritual Bread supply is the privilege of his followers on earth. During January they will do this by offering a year’s subscription for The Watchtower, with three booklets, for $1.

1963 YEARBOOK AND CALENDAR

For years, one of the highlights of each year’s preaching activity for Jehovah’s witnesses has been the annual report of the Society’s president, the Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. This year is no exception. And with good reason! The 1963 Yearbook contains one of the most gratifying reports to date. Over 142 million hours of zealous labors of love by 989,192 faithful ministers! And, as might be expected, all those hours have brought heart-stirring experiences. Read them. Send for the 1963 Yearbook. It is only 50c. Send also for the beautiful 1963 calendar depicting Jehovah’s deliverance. It is 25c.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

February 10: How Strong Is Your Faith? ¶1-22. Page 7.

February 17: How Strong Is Your Faith? ¶23-47. Page 13.

February 24: ‘Fight a Fine Fight for the Faith.’ Page 21.