The Watchtower — January 15, 1963

Do You Stumble over Imperfection?

WHEN someone says or does something that you do not approve—something that affects you personally—do you become offended? If that person claims to be a Christian, do you perhaps take even greater offense than otherwise because you expected better things from him? There are many who find themselves in this position, stumbling over the imperfections of others. They may even find themselves drawing back from the service of God. Is their reaction right?

They may feel that a Christian should have known better than to act as that person did. They may expect perfection from him because Jesus told us to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) But Jesus was not speaking of perfection as to mental and physical capacities, nor was he referring to perfection as to sinlessness. On this earth only Adam and Christ had that kind of perfection. As shown by the preceding verses, Jesus meant that we must be faithful, of a sound and complete heart, not easily offended, but delighting in mercy, even as Jehovah does.

The Scriptures show that no follower of Christ is free from imperfections. For example, Peter asked: “Lord, how many times is my brother to sin against me and am I to forgive him?” Evidently Christians were sinning against one another then or Peter would not have asked that question. In replying, “Up to seventy-seven times,” Jesus also showed that our brothers may sin against us frequently, and we against them. (Matt. 18:21, 22) In fact, Jesus’ brother James states emphatically: “We all stumble many times. If anyone does not stumble in word, this one is a perfect man, able to bridle also his whole body.” (Jas. 3:2) Where among the ranks of Christians since the death of Christ has such a perfect man been found? Are you perfect? Certainly not. Neither is your brother.

If you have been offended, very likely what you are stumbling at is not some great moral offense, for if that were the case, the Christian congregation would have dealt with the offender in a disciplinary way. No, your stumbling block is probably some personal, petty action that reflected the thinking of an imperfect individual. It was not Jehovah or Christ who moved the other person to do or say what offended you. But you may be curtailing your relationship with God and Christ because they did not send fire down out of heaven and discipline the offender. You may, even without being aware of it, feel that you cannot associate with Jehovah’s organization if this sort of imperfection is going to be tolerated by God. But is this reasonable?

What if the guardian angels of Jehovah’s earthly people said: ‘Jehovah, we cannot associate with these imperfect men and women that you are using on earth to do your will. Either they go or we do’? No, you cannot picture the angels taking that position, but is that not the position you are taking if you stumble over your brother’s imperfection?

Really, it is to the advantage of all of us that Jehovah is long-suffering with his people. If he has long tolerated the world that opposes him, should he be less merciful to the imperfect men and women who are earnestly trying to do his will? Never forget the patience and mercy that God has shown you in forgiving your debt of sin. It is not just on your part to withhold forgiveness to your brother for a much smaller debt, is it?—Matt. 18:23-35.

Rather than stumble over imperfection, copy the wise course of Jehovah’s faithful servants in earlier times. When Jesus’ disciples abandoned him, he was not stumbled. John says that he “loved them to the end.” (John 13:1) When John and James permitted their mother to seek a favored place for them in the Kingdom, the other apostles were indignant, but they did not stumble over this imperfection. They did not threaten to leave Jesus or slow down in their service to God. When Paul refused to take Mark along on a tour and a burst of anger flared up between Paul and Barnabas, they did not stumble over each other’s lack of self-control. While taking different assignments, they all continued in Jehovah’s service. (Acts 15:36-40) Surely it would be wrong to maintain that Jesus, the apostles, Barnabas and Mark should have stopped serving God because of their brothers’ imperfection or disagreeable actions. When confronted with similar situations, follow their example.

This is not to say that a Christian has the right to offend you or anyone else. He does not, nor does he imagine so. He is aware that Jesus told his disciples: “See to it that you men do not despise one of these little ones.” (Matt. 18:10) Very likely your brother tries to follow Paul’s counsel: “It is well not to eat flesh or to drink wine or do anything over which your brother stumbles.” (Rom. 14:21) He will not intentionally stumble you. He knows that he must strive to abound in love and discernment, that he “may be flawless and not be stumbling others up to the day of Christ.” (Phil. 1:9, 10) That is the perfect standard at which he aims—and which he never quite makes as long as he is in the imperfect flesh, any more than you do. If you make allowances for yourself, why not make them for him?

Actually your brother’s imperfection is a test of your love and devotion to Jehovah God and his Son. Are you out to vindicate Jehovah’s name and righteousness or your own? If you sincerely want to uphold God’s name and Word you will not view your brother’s faults as a license for you to hold back from paying your vows to God. Your life depends on your continuing to associate with Jehovah’s people and to have a part in the final witness. (Heb. 10:25; Matt. 24:14) No less does deliverance into God’s new world depend on your continuing to love Jehovah with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. This love “does not keep account of the injury.” (1 Cor. 13:5) Love will keep you from stumbling over imperfection. “Above all things,” then, “have intense love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”—1 Pet. 4:8.

Where to Turn for Counsel

There are times in everyone’s life when he needs help. Where is reliable counsel available?

WISE men appreciate the value of good advice. Today advice is the stock in trade, not only of the lawyer, but of the doctor, minister, social worker, lovelorn columnist, witch doctor and crystal-ball gazer. You can get professional counsel on marriage, education and vocation. There are advisers to schoolboys and presidents; counselors for young mothers and queens upon their thrones. From the judge on the bench, the business forecaster, editorial writer and newspaper advertiser people daily receive advice. All the world seems to be preoccupied with getting it or giving it.

WHY THIS NEED?

The tremendous demand for counsel is not unrelated to our peculiar times. Rather, this growing need for counsel accurately reflects our tense, restless generation with its many anxieties and conflicts. Never before has any generation been bombarded so regularly with problems of an emotional, moral, marital, financial and spiritual nature. As noted in Counseling, A Modern Emphasis in Religion: “A strong interest in counseling of all types and in all spheres has developed during the years since World War II.” Faced with complex modern society, parents and others often feel inadequate for the counseling tasks they formerly handled with assurance. So much is this the case that one of the leaders of Reform Judaism recently complained because personal guidance and counseling have become “the overwhelming concern of the minister.”

Bible readers are not surprised at this trend. Jesus warned of a time when society would be perplexed by “anguish of nations, not knowing the way out . . . , while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.” (Luke 21:25, 26) The apostle Paul wrote of this same period of transition: “Know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here.” (2 Tim. 3:1) What explains these critical times?

There are two basic reasons why living is very difficult now. The East-West struggle and the nuclear threat are not the basic causes of man’s problems but merely a reflection of them. Fulfillment of Bible prophecy shows that we are living in the last days of this system of things. Satan and his demons are raging upon the earth because they know that they have a short period of time left to try to turn all men away from God and his righteous principles. (Rev. 12:7-12) Satan has been the chief problem-maker for mankind since he began.

The second reason for our critical times is modern man’s rejection of God’s Word the Bible. Enemies such as Wellhausen and his prejudiced school of higher critics, Darwin and his evolutionists, Freud and his theories, Marx and his atheistic revolutionists—all these have played a sinister role in destroying the guiding influence of the Bible for many; especially since so many of the clergy have adopted such worldly wisdom. This anti-Bible trend has saturated the educational institutions, books, the public press, TV, radio and the motion-picture industry. Rejection of Bible wisdom has opened the floodgates for a surge of lawlessness and unprincipled conduct that has nearly drowned society in problems.

BROKEN CISTERNS

A fitting description of this foolish course is found in God’s words to his people of long ago: “They have left even me, the source of living water, in order to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot contain the water.” (Jer. 2:13) However sincere it may be, the advice bubbling forth from worldly fountains of wisdom is a far cry from the life-giving wisdom of God’s Word.

Consider the lovelorn columns seen in newspapers from London to Manila. In the United States alone 1,500,000 letters are received every year requesting advice on a wide range of anxieties. Millions of readers devour the syndicated replies and often try to fit the counsel to their own similar problems. But how reliable is this journalistic advice? Among America’s newspaper experts on love and marriage are a divorcee and a counselor separated from her husband. Do they have the sound spiritual qualifications needed to give help to readers with serious problems? Their glib, superficial counsel seems to be aimed at building fame, fortune and newspaper circulation rather than happy lives.

Better motivated and better qualified are the professional marriage and family counselors who have a commendable desire to help people untangle their knotty problems. But it is also a fact that the quality of counsel varies widely with the ability and experience of the professional counselor. Then, too, this counsel is not likely to be free, except in hardship cases. At nonprofit agencies fees are usually scaled to your ability to pay for the counsel. Agency fees for those able to pay may run from $4 to $10 per office visit. A private marriage counselor may charge from $10 to $20 an hour for his wisdom. He may ask you to return regularly over a period of many months or even for a year. For many this is inconvenient. The majority of people in trouble need handy counsel that is not only authoritative but inexpensive.

Psychoanalysis does not fit that category either. High fees and many consultations are associated with this branch of medicine that deals with the science and practice of treating mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. Just how scientific psychoanalysis really is no one is certain. At best it leaves much to be desired. Its aim to help people achieve a normal capacity for living is not wrong, but some of its methods are. While some psychoanalysts may take religion seriously in their personal lives, the profession generally ignores man’s vital relationship to God. According to Freud, one of psychiatry’s chief authorities, religion is a great illusion that man will get rid of someday. Psychiatry stresses, “Know thyself,” as if an enlightened self-love is sufficient for successful living. More than ignoring God, analysts often contradict God by advising those with guilty consciences that fornication, adultery and sodomy are not wrong in themselves. The charge rightly has been made that such counsel tends to “exterminate the conscience.”

In psychoanalysis there is also the great danger that the analyst may impose his own values on you, confusing his personal ideals with impersonal truths. Patients often develop an exaggerated admiration for their analysts. As Abraham Kaplan, professor of philosophy and member of the Academy of Psychoanalysis, warned: “The danger here is that the analyst may accept the role of omniscient moral authority in which the patient casts him.” But the analyst is not an all-wise authority on morals, as Kaplan readily admits: “Psychoanalysis cannot tell us what is virtuous and what is not. It cannot establish premises to deduce the principles of morality.” Obviously, psychoanalysis is not the answer to some very basic questions. If it helps people get on the go again, it does not point them in God’s direction. Being able to travel is not enough; you must know where you are going. If psychoanalysis cannot tell us what is moral or immoral in the sight of God, who judges our actions, then it is hardly a safe guide.

THE IDEAL COUNSEL

The ideal counsel must be convenient, understandable, available to all and inexpensive. It must give right moral standards and direction, and it should be absolutely correct. Is there such counsel available today? Yes, there is. The Creator saw to that when he provided the sixty-six inspired books of the Holy Bible. Here you find counsel that is convenient, inexpensive and completely reliable. In contrast to the human counselors who have lived short lives and often erred, the eternal God who gives counsel has “done wonderful things, counsels from early times, in faithfulness, in trustworthiness.” (Isa. 25:1) Through his book of counsel God gives commandments, instruction, discipline, wisdom and understanding for successful living. (Prov. 4:1-9) The Bible’s power for lighting your way was aptly expressed by the inspired psalmist: “Your word is a lamp to my foot, and a light to my roadway.”—Ps. 119:105.

Sacred history contains many examples of persons who faced personal crises and came through them successfully by heeding Jehovah God’s advice. The record also contains the tragic cases of men and women whose lives and eternal hopes were lost by ignoring or opposing Jehovah’s counsel. It is for our lasting benefit that the heavenly Father admonishes: “My son, my law do not forget, and my commandments may your heart observe, because length of days and years of life and peace will be added to you. Trust in Jehovah with all your heart and do not lean upon your own understanding. In all your ways take notice of him, and he himself will make your paths straight.”—Prov. 3:1, 2, 5, 6.

In God’s book of counsel you will find, among other things, practical advice on marriage problems, child training, chastity, right view of money, good manners, how to handle disputes, business and labor practices, peace of mind, happiness, how to pray and the proper worship of your Creator. Thoroughly discussed is God’s purpose for man and this earth. You will learn why God has permitted wickedness for a time, how his Kingdom will usher in a new world of life and righteousness, and when he will resurrect the remembered dead. In the Bible is hope for the future and courage for the present. This counsel from God is in your own home, in your own copy of the Bible.

Turn to the Bible for God’s advice. Put Scriptural principles into practice and you will see how clearly and wisely they light your path. Then, like the psalmist, you will confidently say: “Your reminders are what I am fond of, as men of my counsel.”—Ps. 119:24.

The Challenge of the “Good News”

1. Which is the best news to be heard today, and why so?

EVERYONE likes to hear good news. How happy is the husband when he hears that his wife has successfully given birth to their firstborn son! How happy we are to hear of an impending visit to our home of good friends or dearly loved members of the family, mother or father perhaps! How happy is the farmer when he hears good news from the fields, that the seed sown is beginning to sprout! How happy is the man who, after searching many months for employment, finally obtains a job! Once again he will have money to provide the necessities of life for himself, his wife and children. Yes, there are many events that can mean good news for us, but of all the news that is good none could be better than the “good news of [God’s] kingdom,” since it holds out the hope of eternal blessings of life and peace for obedient mankind in a new world.—Matt. 24:14.

2. What often comes with hearing good news? Illustrate.

² But note that along with good news there often comes responsibility. It presents a challenge. It calls on the receiver of the good news to act, to do something to show his appreciation for the good news so that he may fully benefit by it. The arrival of a firstborn is good news to the husband and wife, but by this miracle of birth they become father and mother. It calls for them to adjust their lives to the new situation and shoulder the responsibility of parenthood. The arrival of guests means work for the householder, though it is happy work, providing the needed hospitality. The springing up of a new crop in the farmer’s fields is a challenge to him. It requires his time and attention—scaring off the birds that might attack the new growth, hoeing out the weeds and watering the young plants. It spells hard work as he cares for the new crop until it grows to maturity and is successfully harvested. The good news of employment for the unemployed man brings with it responsibility. Now he has a contract of work to which he must be loyal in order to retain his job. The challenge to him is, Will he prove to be a good workman?

3. (a) What does the “good news” tell us of the future of this earth? (b) What questions do sincere persons now ask?

³ Likewise with the “good news of the kingdom.” The hearing of this good news is a challenge—it calls upon those hearing it to do something that will demonstrate they appreciate it. And what good news it is! God’s kingdom under Christ Jesus to destroy this wicked system of things; to bring to an end hatred and war, sickness, disease and death; to restore this earth to a paradise populated by perfect, healthy men and women in peace and happiness, and to bring this about in the very near future, within this generation. (See Daniel 2:44; Psalm 37:10, 11; 46:9; Isaiah 9:6, 7; Revelation 21:3, 4; Matthew 24:3-14, 32-34.) Without doubt you are already somewhat familiar with this good news. The fact that you are reading these pages indicates your interest in the “good news” and in God’s purpose by means of his kingdom. Without doubt it is your wish to live under that best of kingdoms and eternally enjoy its blessings. If this is your sincere desire, then it is natural for you to ask, “What will this require of me? If I accept the good news of God’s kingdom, how will it affect my life now?”

4. What kind of conduct is now required of those who wish to gain life under God’s kingdom, and why does this mean a change?

⁴ We can all agree that the words of the apostle Paul at Ephesians 5:16 are true of our time: “The days are wicked.” Yes, we most certainly live in a wicked world, a world of unrighteousness, where men’s thoughts and deeds are bad. The conduct of men and nations does not bring glory to God and is unworthy of his kingdom. We have grown up in this world, amidst its traditions and customs, many of which are contrary to God’s righteous principles, and in company with people whose conduct falls far short of the standards we find in the Bible, God’s Word. This has all had its effects on us and on our way of life. Also, having grown up in a divided world we have acquired different loyalties—loyalties to family, tribe, race and nation—often resulting in division, hatred, suspicion and false pride, a feeling of superiority over others. But when we read about God’s kingdom from the Bible we learn of another loyalty that is required of those who will gain everlasting life. This is loyalty to Jehovah, the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and to his kingdom under Christ Jesus, and we learn of a new way of life in obedience to the rule of that kingdom. This calls for conduct different from that of the world. It calls for one to “behave in a manner worthy of the good news.”—Phil. 1:27.

5. What does it mean for us to accept the “good news of the kingdom”?

⁵ It is important to appreciate that the “good news” concerns a kingdom, God’s kingdom. A kingdom is a government and thus exercises rule or governs those who are its subjects. Just as other governments have laws to govern their subjects, so God’s kingdom has laws or rules governing the conduct of its subjects. Therefore, acceptance of the “good news” really means to accept the responsibility of being a subject of God’s heavenly kingdom, to be submissive to it and humbly to accept and obey the commands of the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, Jehovah God. Only by doing this could one be “counted worthy of the kingdom of God.”—2 Thess. 1:5.

6. Why is this a very urgent matter today?

⁶ This is a matter that requires the urgent attention of all persons living upon the earth. The “good news of the kingdom” is now being preached worldwide—that cannot be denied. This is because we are living in the “last days” of this present world, and a time of final judgment for all living on the earth is at hand. What will decide between life and death for you is how you listen to the “good news” and whether you are willing to be obedient to it and bring your life into harmony with it. Very soon now Christ Jesus as King of God’s kingdom, along with his holy angels, is due to bring “vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus.”—2 Thess. 1:7-10.

THE GOOD NEWS DECLARED TO ISRAEL

7. What good news was declared to the nation of Israel while they were in Egypt?

⁷ The Israelites, descendants of Jacob or Israel, the son of Isaac, son of Abraham, resided for many years in the land of Egypt. There they became numerous. There, in that land of the Pharaohs, they came to be hated and persecuted. They were reduced to being a slave people and suffered much oppression. But in the midst of their affliction there came to them good news! That is why many years later they were spoken of as the people “to whom the good news was first declared.” (Heb. 4:6) Jehovah God, through his spokesman Moses, addressed this thrilling message to the Israelites: “I shall bring you up out of affliction by the Egyptians to the land of the Canaanites . . . to a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Ex. 3:17) What a comforting message! And with what joy the Israelites heard it! What joy too when they later beheld the miraculous deliverance that Jehovah wrought for them as he demonstrated his almighty power on their behalf by means of the ten plagues and finally in destroying the Egyptians at the Red Sea, while the Israelites under the command of Moses walked through on dry land to safety! (Exodus, chapters 7 to 15) While still down in Egypt Moses had been further commanded to declare to this people: “Therefore say to the sons of Israel, ‘I am Jehovah, and I shall certainly bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from their slavery, and I shall indeed reclaim you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And I shall certainly take you to me as a people, and I shall indeed prove to be God to you; and you will certainly know that I am Jehovah your God who is bringing you out from under the burdens of Egypt.’” (Ex. 6:6, 7) Here was the blessed promise to the Israelites of being brought into a special relationship with Jehovah as his people, and this would most certainly require of them conduct worthy of that great privilege.

8. (a) How would the Israelites show appreciation for the good news declared to them? (b) What quality did the nation demonstrate that led to their deliverance from Egypt?

⁸ Appreciation for this good news and the privilege of having Jehovah as their God would surely cause the nation of Israel to be eager and willing to do obediently all that Jehovah commanded them. The opportunity to demonstrate such obedience came very soon, when, through Moses, Jehovah commanded the people while still in Egypt to celebrate the Passover. Each family had to assemble in its own home on the night of Nisan 14 (Jewish calendar). A lamb was to be slain and the blood sprinkled on the doorposts. (Ex. 12:1-23) After receiving these instructions from Moses “the sons of Israel went and did just as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron. They did just so. (Ex. 12:28) The obedience of the Israelites on this occasion resulted in their homes being “passed over” when the angel of Jehovah struck down all the firstborn of the Egyptians. “And it came about on this very day that Jehovah brought the sons of Israel together with their armies out of the land of Egypt.”—Ex. 12:51.

9. (a) What did Jehovah say the nation of Israel would become? (b) What did he require of them?

⁹ In the third month after their leaving Egypt the Israelites came to Mt. Sinai and there Jehovah, again through Moses as his spokesman, made clear to them the new relationship into which they were now to enter as his people. “And Moses went up to the true God, and Jehovah began to call to him out of the mountain, saying: ‘This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and to tell the sons of Israel, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, that I might carry you on wings of eagles and bring you to myself. And now if you will strictly obey my voice and will indeed keep my covenant, then you will certainly become my special property out of all other peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me. And you yourselves will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” These are the words that you are to say to the sons of Israel.’ So Moses came and called the older men of the people and set before them all these words that Jehovah had commanded him. After that all the people answered unanimously and said: ‘All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do.’”—Ex. 19:3-8.

10. To what extent did Jehovah make laws governing his covenant people?

¹⁰ The nation of Israel was unique. The whole nation, every man, woman and child, came under that covenant arrangement, often called the law covenant, and by it they literally became a separate nation or people for Jehovah. Indeed, Jehovah was their King and so exercised the right to make laws governing the lives of his subjects covering every aspect of life. The laws given to them through Moses concerned their worship of God, the making of offerings and sacrifices; there were laws concerning eating, concerning spiritual and physical cleanness, concerning proper moral behavior; laws were given regarding the proper relationship in marriage, the duties of husbands and wives, and parents and children; there were laws and principles guiding their relationship with one another as neighbors, emphasizing the need for honesty and justice as well as mercy and love in dealing with one another.

11. What law concerning blood did God give to Israel, and on what previous command was this law based?

¹¹ Some of these laws merely enlarged principles or laws already given previously and which were, and still are, binding on all men as descendants of Adam and Noah. For example, laws concerning the sanctity of blood given to Israel were based on the divine command given by God to Noah following the flood, at Genesis chapter 9. “Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for you. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to you. Only flesh with its soul—its blood—you must not eat. And, besides that, your blood of your souls shall I ask back. From the hand of every living creature shall I ask it back; and from the hand of man, from the hand of each one who is his brother, shall I ask back the soul of man. Anyone shedding man’s blood, by man will his own blood be shed, for in God’s image he made man.” (Gen. 9:3-6) The reason for showing such respect in the use of blood was that blood represented life, or soul; and since life is a gift of God, he has the right to require men to respect the lives of other men and women and also animals. Though man was allowed to kill animals for food, there was to be no wanton slaughter of animals for sport. Hence in God’s law to the Israelites respect for life was emphasized, including respect for blood as representing life. Jehovah commanded: “As for any man of the house of Israel or some alien resident who is residing as an alien in your midst who eats any sort of blood, I shall certainly set my face against the soul that is eating the blood, and I shall indeed cut him off from among his people. For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for you to make atonement for your souls, because it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul in it. That is why I have said to the sons of Israel: ‘No soul of you should eat blood and no alien resident who is residing as an alien in your midst should eat blood.’ As for any man of the sons of Israel or some alien resident who is residing as an alien in your midst who in hunting catches a wild beast or a fowl that may be eaten, he must in that case pour its blood out and cover it with dust. For the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood by the soul in it. Consequently I said to the sons of Israel: ‘You must not eat the blood of any sort of flesh, because the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood. Anyone eating it will be cut off.’” In the sixth of the Ten Commandments the sacredness of life was again emphasized in the words, “You must not murder.”—Lev. 17:10-14; Ex. 20:13.

12. What is set out in the Ten Commandments, which Jehovah wrote on the stone tablets?

¹² The Ten Commandments stated ten basic laws or rules governing the Israelites. They were inscribed by God himself by the power of holy spirit on two stone tablets that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Rightly they occupied the preeminent place in the law code given to Israel, though remaining part of it. They set out basic laws or principles, rules of conduct governing first the relationship of the Israelites to God and then their relationship to the family unit and to one another. The first four emphasized the need for wholehearted and exclusive worship of Jehovah as God and obedience to his commandments. The fifth showed the need for family unity, the children respecting the father and mother; and the remaining five related to dealings with fellow creatures: not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to testify falsely against another, not to covet, that is, not to desire wrongfully something that belongs to another.—Ex. 20:1-17.

NATION OF ISRAEL PROVIDES WARNING EXAMPLE

13, 14. (a) What would result to Israel by obedience to God’s laws? (b) What blessing did come to them, and why did this not last?

¹³ Obedience to Jehovah’s laws would bring untold blessings to the Israelites. His commandments would guide them in wholesome conduct that would promote unity in the nation, good health and happiness. But most important of all, they would direct them in right worship, in right conduct that would be pleasing to Jehovah their God, and would ensure his favor. Their obedience would protect them from false religion and from immoral practices that would lead to sin and rebellion and eventually rejection by God.

¹⁴ True to his promise, God did lead the Israelites to a land flowing with milk and honey. (Ex. 3:8; Num. 13:27) After many experiences the nation was settled in the Promised Land, Canaan or Palestine, and it is reported that under the rule of King Solomon “peace itself became his in every region of his, all around. And Judah and Israel continued to dwell in security, everyone under his own vine and under his own fig tree, from Dan to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.” (1 Ki. 4:24, 25) But such blessings did not last. Repeated disobedience to God’s law finally reaped its proper reward—rejection by God as his people. Instead of blessings, there came upon the nation the curses that God had foretold for such disobedience.

15. (a) Upon what two basic commands was the relationship of Israel to Jehovah based? (b) Why would any hypocritical form of worship not deceive Jehovah?

¹⁵ While the law covenant had the Ten Commandments as a foundation, the relationship of the nation with God was based really on two fundamental principles—love of God and love of neighbor. (Deut. 6:5-9; Lev. 19:18) Faithfulness to these two principles was most essential to remaining in God’s favor. Weakness or temporary failure due to human imperfection, while bringing correction and reproof, could still be forgiven, but when the nation lost its love for God and no longer served him with a whole heart this could only lead to disaster. (1 Chron. 28:9; Prov. 4:23) No hypocritical form of worship could deceive him, for Jehovah is a God who ‘sees the heart’ and who is ‘searching the hearts’ of men. The hearts of the greater number of the people of Israel turned from love of God and neighbor to love just for themselves, and Jehovah discerned this. He could see the wicked deeds performed, first in the dark and then openly in the daylight, as the hearts of the people became hardened in bad conduct.—1 Sam. 16:7; Jer. 17:10.

16. (a) How did calamity come upon that nation? (b) How did the prophet Jeremiah explain the reason for this?

¹⁶ The Israelites entered the Promised Land in 1473 B.C., and the land was finally subdued under them in the time of King David, whose reign of forty years ended in 1037 B.C. Forty years later the nation was torn in two by jealousy and rivalry, and so, following the death of King Solomon in 997 B.C., the original nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel to the north with Samaria as capital, and the two-tribe kingdom of Judah to the south with Jerusalem as capital. The northern ten-tribe kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians in 740 B.C., and then in 607 B.C. the kingdom of Judah was destroyed by the Babylonians. Not long before this end to the kingdom of Judah, Jeremiah uttered to them these words: “‘“For I solemnly admonished your forefathers in the day of my bringing them up out of the land of Egypt and down to this day, rising up early and admonishing, saying: ‘Obey my voice.’ But they did not listen or incline their ear, but they kept walking each one in the stubbornness of their bad heart; and so I brought upon them all the words of this covenant that I commanded them to do, but that they did not do.’” Furthermore, Jehovah said to me: ‘Conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have returned to the errors of their forefathers, the first ones, who refused to obey my words, but who themselves have walked after other gods in order to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I concluded with their forefathers. Therefore this is what Jehovah has said, “Here I am bringing upon them a calamity that they will not be able to get out of; and they will certainly call to me for aid, but I shall not listen to them.”’”—Jer. 11:7-11. Compare Deuteronomy 6:12-15 and Deut 28:15, 45-47.

17. What temporary restoration did the Israelites receive?

¹⁷ Jehovah, in his great mercy and in fulfillment of his promise and purpose, did restore a remnant of the nation from Babylon back to the Promised Land after a period of seventy years’ desolation. Once again good news of this deliverance came to the people of Israel while in a captive state. This remnant of natural Israel was returned to Palestine in order that Jehovah’s worship might be restored there, though they were not restored as an independent nation, a separate kingdom.

18. Did the nation of Israel prove “worthy of the good news” that was proclaimed to them?

¹⁸ Did that ancient nation of Israel in the end prove “worthy of the good news” that had been preached to them by Moses down in Egypt? Did they fulfill the promise made by their forefathers to do all that Jehovah commanded them and to be truly his people, doing his will? The inspired Record answers No! Their complete unworthiness as a nation was clearly seen by their attitude toward Jesus, the promised Messiah, whom they rejected and had impaled on a stake. Just before his death Jesus pronounced judgment upon the nation when he said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! Your house is abandoned to you.”—Matt. 23:37, 38; Luke 23:18-25; Acts 2:23.

19. (a) What great privilege had the Israelites enjoyed while they were faithful? (b) When God finally rejected that nation, did this mean the end of God’s dealings with mankind?

¹⁹ The Israelites had enjoyed the high privilege of being a nation of Jehovah’s witnesses. (Isa. 43:10-12) Not that they were commanded to preach concerning Jehovah to all the other nations of the earth; but they had been set apart for Jehovah’s exclusive service and worship. By the wonderful works that Jehovah performed on behalf of them and by their practicing true worship when they were faithful, Jehovah made a great name for himself. But they could only continue as his witnesses by holding to true worship and honoring the covenant he made with them and by obeying his commandments. This they failed to do. So Jehovah cast off natural Israel. The law covenant arrangement with them came to an end, being fulfilled in Jesus and its law being nailed to the torture stake. (Col. 2:14) But this did not bring to an end all of God’s dealings with men. Now, with Christ Jesus as Mediator, a new covenant arrangement was inaugurated, not with natural Israel, but with a nation producing the right fruits, whose conduct would be worthy of a heavenly kingdom of God with Christ as King.—Heb. 8:6; Matt. 21:43.

Innocence Established

In Brazil one of Jehovah’s witnesses was employed, along with a worldly man, to dig a well. They worked until the well got to be quite deep; then an accident occurred. The working companion of the Witness fell into the well and was killed. The police took the Witness into custody to be questioned and possibly charged with murder, since oftentimes murders are committed under these circumstances. It looked very bad for the Witness, since there were no persons to prove him innocent. Finally the police asked him to show his identification documents. He did not have them with him. The only thing he had with him was his minister’s identification card signed by the congregation servant and which identified him as being one of Jehovah’s witnesses. He showed it to them. When they discovered that he was in fact one of Jehovah’s witnesses, the attitude of the police changed entirely. They said, “We know that Jehovah’s witnesses do not kill. You are an innocent man.” The Witness was immediately released.

The “Good News” Separates ‘A People for Jehovah’s Name’

1, 2. (a) To what kingdom did Jesus refer at Matthew 21:43? (b) Who is king of that kingdom, and when did he begin ruling in full Kingdom power? (c) Is that kingdom meant for any special race of people?

TO WHICH nation did Jesus refer when he said, at Matthew 21:43: “The kingdom of God will be . . . given to a nation producing its fruits”? And what is the kingdom here referred to? No, the nation so blessed is not any particular race of people, belonging to some special branch of the human family and bound together under some man-made kingdom. Jehovah God now purposed to call persons out of all nations to be associated as a people separate from the world, “a people for his name.”—Acts 15:14.

² The kingdom, whose interests they are to serve, is no earthly kingdom with a capital city at Jerusalem or any other city on the earth. The kingdom referred to is God’s “heavenly kingdom.” (2 Tim. 4:18) Christ Jesus, who was rejected by the unfaithful nation of Israel and put to death, was resurrected and later ascended into heaven. There he awaited God’s due time for him to begin his rule in full Kingdom power. (Heb. 1:13; Acts 2:32-36) That time came A.D. 1914. Then followed “war in heaven” resulting in Satan, the great opposer of God and of faithful men on earth, being cast out from heaven, and now he is due to be crushed shortly along with all his wicked angels, worldly governments and unrighteous men who have opposed God’s rule. This would take place in the “war of the great day of God Almighty” called Armageddon.—Rev. 12:7-12; Dan. 2:44; Rev. 16:14, 16.

3. What is the relationship to the Kingdom of (a) the “little flock,” and (b) the “other sheep”?

³ Now ruling from the cleansed heavens is the heavenly kingdom of God under Christ Jesus. This kingdom in its completeness is made up of 144,000 persons selected from the nations of the earth and who rule as “kings” with Christ. (Rev. 20:6; 14:1-4) Compared to the large number of persons who gain life on earth under the Kingdom, those receiving this heavenly reward are indeed a “little flock.” In addition to that “little flock” there are “other sheep,” including a great crowd of persons of goodwill toward the “good news” living at this time of the end, who become earthly subjects of the Kingdom in a paradise earth.—Luke 12:32; John 10:16; Rev. 7:9, 13, 14; Ps. 37:11, 29. See “This Good News of the Kingdom,” paragraphs 23-28.

4. Why could it be said that when the first members of the 144,000 began to be gathered 1,900 years ago they came under Kingdom rule?

⁴ When the “good news of the kingdom” began to be preached by Jesus and then by his apostles and disciples of the first century, the purpose was to gather out from among the nations those who would make up ‘the people for Jehovah’s name,’ the 144,000 who were to be united with Christ Jesus in Kingdom rule. They were being called to a heavenly destiny with Jesus their Lord, and this was being done by means of the “good news.” (2 Thess. 2:14) While in those days the heavenly kingdom of God had not yet begun to exercise its rule toward the earth in full power, yet, because Jehovah always remains “King of Eternity” and Jesus was the invisible head over the new Christian nation, it could be said that through Christ Jesus those who believed came under Kingdom rule. When they heard the “good news of the kingdom,” accepted it and dedicated themselves to God’s service, it was said of them that they were ‘delivered from the authority of the darkness and transplanted into the kingdom of the Son of his love.’—Col. 1:13.

5, 6. (a) What question then faced those early Christians, and what similar questions face Christians today? (b) What identifies the true followers of Jesus as being ‘a people for Jehovah’s name’?

⁵ How would this change affect them? They were still living in the same world, in territories ruled over by various national governments. The sixth world power, Rome, dominated most of the civilized world at that time where the first Christians lived. What was now to be their relationship to Rome and other governments of the earth?

⁶ Today, 1,900 years later, the same questions are appropriate. The preaching of the “good news” is not now primarily for the purpose of calling persons to the heavenly kingdom but is directed to all men of goodwill who hope to live forever on a paradise earth. Since the year 1914, as the fulfillment of the Bible prophecies prove, the kingdom of heaven has been ruling in power, and this means the end of this system of things soon. “This good news of the kingdom” is now being preached to people in 189 lands and islands of the seas who live under many different kinds of government and forms of political rule. Indeed, in many lands the form of rule often changes, as a different political party comes into power, or local national movements take over from colonial administrations. What is the relationship of the Christian to such governments and to such changes? Is it possible for the true followers of Christ Jesus to become a united people despite their different racial and national origins, a people separate from the world, serving the interests of God’s kingdom, a people for Jehovah’s name? If so, how are they so identified? It is by conduct “worthy of the kingdom.”—2 Thess. 1:5.

7. How, then, is the “good news” a challenge?

⁷ Just as the “good news” that was first preached to Israel down in Egypt was a challenge to them, requiring a certain course of conduct, of faithfulness to the law covenant and subjection to Jehovah as their King and obedience to his commands, likewise, from the beginning of the calling out of the new nation of spiritual Israel of 144,000 down to this day and the calling out of the great crowd of “other sheep,” the “good news of the kingdom” presents a challenge to those who accept it. Will they “behave in a manner worthy of the good news”?—Phil. 1:27.

SEPARATE FROM THE WORLD

8. (a) What principle governing the Christian’s relationship with the world is made clear at John 17:14-18? (b) How are Jehovah’s witnesses of today a New World society?

⁸ In his final meeting with his disciples just before his death, Jesus, in prayer to his heavenly Father, made clear a principle concerning the Christian’s relationship to the world. “I have given your word to them, but the world has hated them, because they are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world. I request you, not to take them out of the world, but to watch over them because of the wicked one. They are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world. Sanctify them by means of the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me forth into the world, I also sent them forth into the world.” The true followers of Jesus are, therefore, no part of this world, in that they separate themselves from its wicked ways and do not place their hope for the future in the schemes and organizations of men. Rather, their hope is in the new world ruled over by God’s kingdom and they have their interests centered on that new world. So it is proper to say that the modern Christian witnesses of Jehovah are a New World society. This New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses is united by their all having the same wholehearted love for God, by recognizing Jehovah as the Supreme Ruler of the universe and by their submission to God’s kingdom.—John 17:14-18.

9. What proof is there that God’s kingdom exists and is now ruling?

⁹ Because God’s kingdom is heavenly and hence invisible to humans on the earth, the worldly nations refuse to recognize it or take it into account. But because God is invisible to human eyes that does not mean that he does not exist. The evidence of his existence is seen in his creation. (Rom. 1:20) Proof of the existence of God’s kingdom is seen by the very existence of the New World society—hundreds of thousands of persons coming from all nations, united, at peace and accepting the Kingdom rule. This is in harmony with the inspired words at Psalm 72:7, 8: “In his days the righteous one will sprout, and the abundance of peace until the moon is no more. And he will have subjects from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.” So it is that those making up the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses are found literally to the “ends of the earth.” They demonstrate that they are truly subjects of the kingdom of God by their being obedient and submissive to the divine will and by active support of God’s kingdom, preaching it throughout the earth.

10. Why do Jehovah’s witnesses not take sides in political issues or in wars between nations?

¹⁰ In order to keep their unity the true servants of God must follow the principles, set out above, to be separate from the world. It is for this reason that Jehovah’s witnesses do not take sides in political issues. Just think what this would mean if they were to do so! The congregation of true Christians would be divided against itself if individual members supported different political organizations, joining in the ridiculing or opposing of some other group of which others in the congregation might be members. How could this possibly harmonize with Jesus’ further words in Joh 17 verses 21 and 22 of John chapter 17? Jesus there prayed concerning his followers, “That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in union with me and I am in union with you, that they also may be in union with us, in order that the world may believe that you sent me forth. Also, I have given them the glory that you have given me, in order that they may be one just as we are one.” On an international scale also this unity is preserved by Jehovah’s witnesses not joining in wars and struggles between nations, which are divided by man-made barriers.

PAYING BACK “CAESAR’S THINGS TO CAESAR”

11, 12. How does a Christian pay back “Caesar’s things to Caesar”?

¹¹ However, Jehovah’s witnesses continue to live in territories ruled over by earthly governments, which Jehovah has permitted to continue up till this time. In explaining the relationship of the Christian to such governments Jesus stated another very well-known principle: “Pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.” (Matt. 22:21) These words show that earthly governments (or “Caesar”) may properly require certain duties from their Christian subjects. For example, in Matthew chapter 22 Jesus was discussing the matter of paying taxes. The governments render many services to Christ’s followers, such as in the field of education, the building of roads, the control of law and order through the police and courts of justice, making available water, electricity and other supplies, all of which have to be paid for. So Christians “pay back” with a good conscience, by means of taxes, and so forth, for these various services.

¹² In addition, true Christians prove themselves to be law-abiding and respectful. For example, they comply with regulations governing traffic, not driving with excessive speed beyond what the law allows, and otherwise conforming to regulations governing the normal orderly business of living. In doing so, they also show respect for those having to administer the law. This is in harmony with the apostle Paul’s words at Romans 13, verses 6 and 7: “For that is why you are also paying taxes . . . Render to all their dues, to him who calls for the tax, the tax; to him who calls for the tribute, the tribute; to him who calls for fear, such fear; to him who calls for honor, such honor.”

13. What do Jehovah’s witnesses do in the face of changing forms of governments?

¹³ The Christian pursues this course irrespective of the government in power. The government may change, a different political party coming into power. However, Jehovah’s witnesses continue to follow the same law-abiding course toward the new government just as they did toward the old one, and this they will continue to do for as long as God may permit earthly forms of government to rule.

PAYING BACK “GOD’S THINGS TO GOD”

14. (a) What things belong to God that must be paid back to him? (b) Where there is a clash between what God requires and what Caesar demands, what course does the Christian take? (c) What principle did Peter and the apostles follow in this connection?

¹⁴ Notice that Jesus said a Christian was to pay back, not only “Caesar’s things to Caesar,” but also “God’s things to God.” Jehovah God is the Creator of all living things and so our lives belong to him. Since he is the Supreme One in the universe and the only true God, our worship belongs to him alone. The true worship of God includes in these last days the public declaring of his name and the preaching of “this good news of the kingdom.” (Nah. 1:2; Matt. 24:14) At times there may be a clash between what “Caesar” demands and what God requires. Then what must the Christian do? The proper course for one to follow if he wishes to prove “worthy of the good news” is clearly illustrated in a case involving Christians of the first century. Peter and some of the other apostles had been brought before the Jewish high priest, who said to them: “We positively ordered you not to keep teaching upon the basis of this name, and yet, look! you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you are determined to bring the blood of this man upon us.” In answer Peter and the other apostles said: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” These early Christians saw that their worship was involved and so they refused to comply with that particular order of the court commanding them not to preach. In faithful recognition of the Supreme Law of God the record shows they continued their preaching, “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy to be dishonored in behalf of his name.”—Acts 5:28, 29, 40-42.

15. What conduct should the Christian manifest under persecution, in harmony with Romans 12:12-21?

¹⁵ This opposition and persecution did not cause the apostles to turn against those authorities in physical retaliation, nor, when before the courts, did they show a lack of respect. Rather, with dignity and calmness they defended their position, maintaining their integrity in obeying Jehovah’s law above that of men. Likewise, in these days, even where Jehovah’s witnesses are persecuted, as in Communist countries, they do not join up in any rebellious movements to overthrow the existing authorities, but, rather, they faithfully explain their position as servants of God and as his witnesses commissioned to preach concerning his kingdom. With firm faith in the hope of life in the new world they are able to endure such tribulation. They do not allow themselves to become bitter and to try to return evil to others for the evil done to them. Rather, they try to continue living in a peaceable way and even try to help opposers to learn the truth of God’s Word and find a blessing. Writes the apostle: “Rejoice in the hope ahead. Endure under tribulation. Persevere in prayer. . . . Keep on blessing those who persecute; be blessing and do not be cursing. . . . Return evil for evil to no one. Provide fine things in the sight of all men. If possible, as far as it depends upon you, be peaceable with all men. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but yield place to the wrath; for it is written: ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says Jehovah.’ But, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing this you will heap fiery coals upon his head.’ Do not let yourself be conquered by the evil, but keep conquering the evil with the good.”—Rom. 12:12-21.

16. What has resulted to Jehovah’s witnesses from following the Bible principles so far discussed?

¹⁶ It is by following the principles discussed above at John 17:14-18, 21, 22, Matthew 22:21 and Acts 5:28, 29 that the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses has been separated from the nations of the world in a special way. They are, indeed, a people for Jehovah’s name and kingdom. In obedience to the words of Jesus at Matthew 6:33 they are “seeking first the kingdom and [God’s] righteousness.”

17. What requirement for salvation is made clear at Romans 10:10?

¹⁷ So, then, to answer the challenge of the “good news,” is it just a matter of joining an organization such as Jehovah’s witnesses, and joining the ranks of preachers of the “good news of the kingdom”? It is certainly true that those who would gain life in Jehovah’s new world must share in the public declaration of the truth. “For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.” (Rom. 10:10) It is, therefore, right for one hearing the “good news” and exercising faith in it to apply himself to gaining an accurate knowledge of the truth through a study of the Bible in order that he might share in this public declaration. By doing so he shows his appreciation for the “good news” and also his desire to worship Jehovah.

A NEW PERSONALITY

18. How great a change in our lives does the “good news” call for?

¹⁸ But the “good news of the kingdom” requires an even greater change in our lives. Indeed, it calls for us to bring our whole lives into harmony with Bible principles, becoming submissive in every part of our life to the will of God. As the Bible admonishes: “Whatever you are doing, work at it whole-souled as to Jehovah,” and “whatever it is that you do in word or in work, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, thanking God the Father through him.” (Col. 3:23, 17) We can say that it is really beginning a new life, becoming a new person. We must seek first, not only God’s kingdom, but also his righteousness, that is, seeking to do what is right in God’s eyes in all our conduct at all times.

19, 20. (a) How does the apostle Paul describe this change at Colossians 3:5-10? (b) What kind of a change must this be in order to please Jehovah and gain life in his new world?

¹⁹ This means putting away what is unrighteous or bad, causing the things that are bad in God’s sight to die out of our lives, and then to replace what is bad by what is good. The apostle wrote on this point at Colossians 3:5-10: “Deaden, therefore, your body members that are upon the earth as respects fornication, uncleanness, sexual appetite, hurtful desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of those things the wrath of God is coming. In those very things you, too, once walked when you used to live in them. But now really put them all away from you, wrath, anger, injuriousness, abusive speech, and obscene talk out of your mouth. Do not be lying to one another. Strip off the old personality with its practices, and clothe yourselves with the new personality, which through accurate knowledge is being made new according to the image of the One who created it.”

²⁰ This clothing of oneself with the new personality must spring from a sincere heart, from a sincere desire to bring one’s life into harmony with God’s will in order to please him, with the hope of gaining life in his new world. It cannot be hypocritical, like putting on a new suit of clothes just for one day in the week. So much of religion today is just like that, people putting on their “Christianity” when they go to church and then putting off their “Christianity” like a suit of clothes and returning to the bad ways of the world for the rest of the week. There needs to be a conscious effort to put away, to deaden what is bad, to “strip off” the old personality with its practices and put on the new personality by the sincere seeking to do God’s will. Nor can one make this change just to please men, just to be someone who is looked on by others as a good man. While a Christian naturally desires the respect of his fellowmen, and especially of his Christian brothers, he must first be seeking to please God. He appreciates what Jehovah God said to the prophet Samuel: “For not the way man sees is the way God sees, because mere man sees what appears to the eyes; but as for Jehovah, he sees what the heart is.”—1 Sam. 16:7.

21. What step will the sincere person want to make?

²¹ It is a great privilege to be associated with the ‘people for Jehovah’s name,’ for it brings with it the joy of serving the true God. But more important is the relationship entered into with Jehovah God. The one with a good heart, who appreciates the “good news” and has a sincere desire to do the divine will, will want to use his life to the praise of Jehovah. To that end he makes a dedication of his life, making a solemn promise in prayer to Jehovah that from henceforth he will seek, not his own will, but God’s will, just as Jesus did. (Pss. 40:8; 143:10; Luke 22:42; John 5:30) The Christian recognizes that it is by means of the mediator Christ Jesus that he is able to enter into this dedicated relationship with God.—See “This Good News of the Kingdom,” paragraphs 45-51.

22. What is necessary in order for one to “walk worthily of Jehovah,” as explained at Colossians 1:9, 10?

²² It is only by maintaining this relationship with Jehovah God through Jesus Christ that one can properly maintain his association with the ‘people for Jehovah’s name.’ Since to continue in Jehovah’s favor requires one to be doing the divine will, then an accurate knowledge of that will is most important. So the Christian will earnestly strive to “be filled with the accurate knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual discernment, in order to walk worthily of Jehovah to the end of fully pleasing him as you go on bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the accurate knowledge of God.”—Col. 1:9, 10.

Christendom’s Idolatry Foreshadowed

Christendom guilty of idolatry? In what ways?

GOD’S Word, the Bible, is clear and unequivocal on the subject of idolatry. There is no mistaking the words of Jehovah addressed to the Israelites, whom he had just brought out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves: “You must not have any other gods against my face. You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them.”—Ex. 20:3-5.

Christians, although “not under law but under undeserved kindness,” are, nevertheless, explicitly and emphatically likewise warned against idolatry: “Idolaters” will not “inherit God’s kingdom.” “Neither become idolaters.” “Beloved ones, flee from idolatry.” “What agreement does God’s temple have with idols?” “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, and they are . . . idolatry.” “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” And among those barred from the holy city, those to have their destiny in the lake of fire, the second death, are idolaters.—Rom. 6:14; 1 Cor. 6:9, 10; 10:7, 14; 2 Cor. 6:16; Gal. 5:19, 20; 1 John 5:21; Rev. 21:8; 22:15.

What is idolatry? Of course, idolatry includes the worship of literal idols, images, statues, physical representations of a deity. But it is by no means limited to these. It is the worship of any one or any thing aside from the true God. As modernly defined: “The giving of absolute devotion and ultimate trust to something that is not God; immoderate attachment or veneration for something; respect or love that approaches that due a divine power.”—Webster’s Third New International Dictionary.

POPULAR IDOLS

Christendom claims to worship the God of the Bible and it looks down upon what it terms pagan idolaters. However, the facts show that the people of Christendom themselves are guilty of idolatry, and that in ever so many ways. For example, there is the idolatry of political heroes. Today Perón of Argentina has again become an issue. Apparently many still feel as did his wife Evita, when she once exclaimed: “He is God for us, so much so that we cannot conceive heaven without Perón. . . . He is our sun, our air, our water, our life.”

There is also the idolatry of movie stars in Christendom, especially by its youth. Certainly the German teen-age girls were guilty of idolatry when they painted on the portals of the Bamberg Cathedral in Munich the words, “Elvis Presley—my God.”

Then, again, there are those who become so attached to an animal pet that they put the life of it ahead of their own. Others have lavish funeral services for their pets. All such are likewise guilty of idolatry.

A little more than a year ago twenty-five leading theologians of the United States accused or charged its people with worshiping the false gods of scientism, political demagogues, the Western way of life, sex, physical power, comfort, man’s own self, and so forth. All such worship is idolatry.

Also, there are many people who kneel and pray before carved images of Jesus or of the “saints.” While this worship is said to be only relative and actually directed to God, the facts show that much of it does go to the images themselves. Thus in backward lands devotees bestow much affection upon them, talk to them and even bring food to them. And the very fact that certain images are more highly esteemed than others, have pilgrimages made to them and otherwise have much ado made over them, shows that these images in themselves are viewed as having special merit aside from the one they represent or there would be no distinction made between them. All such is a form of idolatry. Early Christians had no images whatever in their places of worship.a

The Bible foretold these conditions. It predicted that a time would come when the love for God by the majority would grow cold, when there would be a falling away from the true faith and when men would be lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.—Matt. 24:12; 1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:1-5.

PROPHETIC PATTERNS

In addition to foretelling such conditions in so many words, the Bible gives us a detailed picture of the present-day idolatry in Christendom by means of a prophetic vision that the prophet Ezekiel received regarding conditions in his day and which find their counterpart in our day. That we should find these ancient accounts filled with meaning for us is clear from the words of the apostle Paul: “All the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction.”—Rom. 15:4.

Ezekiel, the son of a priest, was taken captive to Babylon during the reign of King Jehoiachin. He had a vision six years before Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed, by means of which Jehovah God revealed to him the gross idolatry that was then being practiced in Jerusalem and for which Jehovah’s vengeance was coming upon the city and its people. It is recorded in Ezekiel chapter 8.

The vision consisted of four scenes, each depicting a different kind of idolatry. The first scene showed a symbol of jealousy standing in the entranceway of the temple. The second depicted seventy men offering up incense in the temple, the walls of which were covered with pictures of loathsome beasts, and so forth. The third showed women weeping for Tammuz. And in the fourth scene Ezekiel saw twenty-five men worshiping the sun. All this in violation of God’s law forbidding idolatry. No wonder Jehovah God permitted the world power of Babylon to wreak destruction upon the nation of Israel six years later! A destruction, incidentally, that Ezekiel foretold in the very next chapter of his prophecy.—Ezek. 9:1-7.

THE SYMBOL INCITING TO JEALOUSY

To what idolatry in Christendom does the first example, the symbol of jealousy inciting to jealousy, refer? God’s Word tells us that Jehovah brooks no rivalry, that he is jealous or insistent on exclusive devotion. (Ex. 20:5) Here, then, must be something that competes with God and therefore arouses him to jealousy. It was an image that stood where it had no right to stand, in the courtyard of the temple of Jehovah. It calls to mind what Jesus said in his great prophecy about “the disgusting thing that causes desolation . . . standing in a holy place,” or “standing where it ought not.” What is there in Christendom that fits this description?—Matt. 24:15, 16; Mark 13:14; Ezek. 8:3, 5, 6.

God’s Word shows that his kingdom is the only hope of mankind and that it will make an end of war and bring lasting peace. (Ps. 46:8-10; 72:1, 7; Matt. 6:9, 10) The clergy of Christendom, however, today look to the United Nations to accomplish this, even as yesterday they looked to its predecessor, the League of Nations.b By holding forth these man-made organizations as mankind’s hope instead of God’s kingdom, the clergy have placed them where they ought not to stand, in a holy place. Such presumptuousness is an insult to God and arouses him to jealousy, especially since these clergy claim to serve God. It is indeed a form of idolatry that is disgusting to God.

Because Jehovah God cannot deny himself he will not always tolerate this symbol that incites him to jealousy by posing as a substitute for his kingdom. At the rapidly approaching battle of Armageddon he will destroy both it and all those who have idolized it.

EVOLUTIONISTIC CLERGY

After boring a hole in the wall of the temple courtyard, in vision, of course, Ezekiel next saw “every representation of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the dungy idols of the house of Israel, the carving being upon the wall all round about. And seventy men of the elderly ones of the house of Israel . . . were standing before them, each one with his censer in his hand, and the perfume of the cloud of the incense was ascending.”—Ezek. 8:10, 11.

What could all this represent in our time? Animals in Jehovah’s house of worship may be said to find their counterpart in Christendom’s adoption of the evolution theory, which ties in all the lower animals with the “ascent” of man. The modern clergy of Christendom have substituted the principle of evolution for the Creator, the God of the Bible. The Bible says that the first man Adam was the “son of God,” but according to the evolutionistic clergy the first man was the son of some lower animal; just which one is a question upon which evolutionists cannot agree.

The evolution theory has destroyed the faith of countless millions, even as Darwin admitted that it had caused him to become an out-and-out agnostic.c By crediting evolution with the marvelous brain and organism of man and thereby robbing God of the credit, are not the clergy of Christendom guilty of idolatry? Surely!

THE FUNDAMENTALISTS

Christendom consists primarily of two factions, the modernists and the fundamentalists. The modernists put the wisdom of this world above the wisdom of God as found in the Bible, preaching politics, social reform, higher criticism, which denies the inspiration of the Bible, and evolution. The fundamentalists profess to believe in the inspiration of the Bible, but when confronted with a conflict between their creeds and the Bible they put their creeds ahead of the Bible. They are not at all happy about the trend in Christendom toward modernism and worldliness. In particular do they mourn the decline of their institutions, if not always in numbers, then in quality and influence.

These seem well pictured by what Ezekiel next saw at the entrance of the gate of the house of Jehovah, ‘women sitting, weeping over the god Tammuz.’—Ezek. 8:14.

Women weeping for the god Tammuz was a distinctive feature of many ancient pagan religions. In the Scriptures religious organizations are repeatedly referred to as women. (2 Cor. 11:2; Gal. 4:27, Rev. 22:17) Further, it is well known that in most of the religions of Christendom the women are in the great majority; it is primarily their interest and support, financial and otherwise, that keeps these professedly Christian organizations going.

While the fundamentalists take the position that they use their religious organizations in their worship of God, yet when brought face to face with what God says in his Word, they prefer their dying organizations to God’s Word, thus convicting themselves of idolatry also.

THE SUN OF INTELLECTUALITY

In the final scene of his vision Ezekiel saw twenty-five men between the porch of the temple and the great altar, with their backs to the temple, worshiping the sun. (Ezek. 8:15, 16) What could this picture? We know the sun gives light, and light is a symbol of knowledge, because knowledge gives light to the mind even as the sun gives light to the body, the organism. The sun, however, is a creation, and in spite of its role in sustaining life upon the earth it does not deserve being worshiped, it being inanimate, merely following God’s laws.d

This worshiping of the sun therefore well represents the modern worship of knowledge, of philosophy, of psychology, of intellectuality as practiced by the clergy and their followers. It is a worship or valuing of knowledge per se. As one leading member of the Canadian Anglican Church expressed it, ‘God is being replaced by the intellect of man as the moving force shaping the world.’

This tendency has ever been a snare to the professed people of God. It ensnared the Jews just before the time of Christ and shortly thereafter. It ensnared the early Christian congregation after the apostles fell asleep in death, resulting in the great apostasy and the adopting of such teachings as the trinity and the immortality of the human soul. In modern times it also takes the form of discussions of ontology, the teaching of “being” and which is also known as the “first philosophy”; of existentialism, which is wholly man-centered wisdom, much of it even atheistic; of Zen and other current trends in religions Oriental and Occidental. All those who thus prefer the wisdom of man to the wisdom of God are showing disrespect to Jehovah God and therefore are guilty of idolatry.

Is Christendom guilty of idolatry? She truly is. In addition to the images that adorn many of her churches, her idols include the United Nations, the evolution theory, her religious institutions and intellectuality. What will Jehovah God do about this idolatry? He will wipe it out, even as he wiped out the idolatrous practices of the Israelites in the days of Ezekiel. At Armageddon Jehovah will again act in anger against all those who have offended him by worshiping idols instead of the one true God Jehovah, the only One who deserves our worship.—Ezek. 8:17, 18; Rev. 16:14, 16.

Those who are wise today will abandon all the idolatrous practices of Christendom and will ‘seek Jehovah, righteousness and meekness’ in the hope of being hidden in the day of God’s anger.—Zeph. 2:1-3.

[Footnotes]

Paganism in Greece

“The pre-Christian legacy, all over Greece, is never far from the surface. Among the Sarakatsans pagan magic survives in a yet more pronounced shape. . . . All over Greece, the army of saints has taken the place of the ancient polytheistic pantheon.”—The Atlantic, June, 1962.

Taking Jehovah’s Side of the Great Issue

As told by Lilian Ruetimann

I WAS a little girl of six when air planes roared over our heads on a hot August afternoon in 1914. In the pleasant English garden I leaned against my father’s knee and listened to the grown-ups talking about the war that had just started.

My father was an active member of the Liberal Party and manager of a branch of the Co-operative Society in our country town in England. Mother was a schoolteacher, interested in all educational activity. She had bought a book called “The Divine Plan of the Ages.” My parents read it eagerly and then took part in a regular Bible study with two other married couples. In the spring of 1916 my mother and father were baptized in symbol of their decision to do Jehovah’s will.

A home Bible study was started with us children, and all four of us were required to attend meetings with the Christians who are today called Jehovah’s witnesses. We joined forces with the few like believers in the nearby towns and held Bible lectures in the riverside towns for forty miles right out to the mouth of the Thames. As we zealously distributed tracts and invitations, little groups began to spring up, eventually becoming flourishing congregations of Jehovah’s people lining the Thames east of London.

In the fall of 1916 my father took a firm position of neutrality toward the war. This caused no little stir in our small town where he had been politically active before. Not only was there a court case along with publicity, but we children also had to defend our belief at school. Father was finally exempted on health grounds and was assigned to work in the service of the food distribution council.

Our village home was open to our weary city friends, but I found nothing so exciting as to visit London and attend a “big” meeting. There I saw the Bible Students’ “Photo-Drama of Creation,” a beautiful explanation of the Bible by means of slides, recorded speech and appropriate music. During one of these visits to London exciting news came through of that now historical Watch Tower convention in Cedar Point, Ohio, in 1922.

PERSONAL DECISION

The preaching work was now under way under the slogan “Millions now living will never die!” My elder brother had left for India and my sister was baptized. I took this all very much for granted until, in 1924, a mature Christian friend showed me my individual privileges. I suddenly realized that one does not grow up in the faith automatically, but must make an individual decision. Could I do this?

From my childhood days I had been looking forward to the Millennium when lion and bear would lie down with the ox and a little child would lead them. Of course, I wanted to do Jehovah’s will, but His will as we understood it then was to bring out the last members of the bride of Christ for heavenly life. It meant giving up all earthly hopes and eventually dying. My parents counseled me to count the cost carefully. If faithful, I would see Jehovah and Christ Jesus. This magnificent hope was decisive. Shortly before I was seventeen I was baptized in London, in January, 1925.

The house-to-house preaching was a constant stimulus and education for me. In those days we had just started, but some full-time workers who came to help in our territory gave me a lot of good counsel. Appreciation for the truth went deeper and deeper into my heart.

The convention in Alexandra Palace, London, in 1926 was an outstanding event. I think I will never forget the thrill of excitement when the book Deliverance was released. The public lecture in the Royal Albert Hall, “Why World Powers Are Tottering—The Remedy,” climaxed this convention and we returned home to distribute the booklet The Standard for the People for the remainder of our vacation. I just devoured the book Deliverance with its magnificent theme about the great issue between Jehovah and Satan as well as the coming vindication of Jehovah’s name. Appreciation of this issue was like fire in my bones. From now on, every Saturday afternoon when free from my secretarial work I filled my case, mounted my bicycle and preached in the outlying countryside, joining my parents and the little congregation for Sunday-morning house-to-house service.

My sister entered the full-time preaching work in February, 1927, and I was left with my brother as the only younger members of our little congregation. It was rather flat country leading out to the mouth of the Thames, and sometimes I longed to travel and see beautiful country, but I quickly suppressed this longing, reasoning that with time so short for this system of things I had better lose no time. I would see it all better from heaven anyway. Jehovah took note of my longing and later blessed me beyond my dreams.

NO MIXED MARRIAGE

I was nearing womanhood now, an impetuous, enthusiastic girl with an abundance of vitality, but I had safely navigated the various phases of growing up. Now I found myself deeply in love. Unfortunately the young man did not accept the faith and I realized this was one of the costs I had to count. I knew I could never be wholly for Jehovah’s side of the issue if I nourished this affection and I made a solemn vow to Jehovah that I would never marry out of the faith. This was my great protection. I began to stamp this thing out of my heart. It can be done if one puts Kingdom interests first.

One incident of that time stands out clearly in my mind and it has been like a beacon light in my life. It had been quite an eventful afternoon in the rurals. Several people had been very rude to me and one woman, sick in bed, had asked me to pray with her. I pondered over the great issue raised by Satan and my heart was full as I thought about the effects of Satan’s rebellion. As the sun dipped down to the west I mounted my bicycle for the ride home. There was a long rather steep slope for a mile or more. I free-wheeled and let the wind toss my hair and whistle in my ears. Through clenched teeth I repeated: “I’ll fight the Devil till I die!” In times of crisis that evening scene has come to my mind and acted like a stimulant in my veins. Never sink! Fight on Jehovah’s side of the great issue!

In the spring of 1930 we attended a small convention, or I think we called them “combined service efforts” in those days, at a seaside resort near my home on the Thames. Many had come down from London too since it was just an hour’s run. This was a happy event for me, as I could also meet others of the younger generation. It was while we were enjoying the seaside after engaging in the ministry that I met a serious young Swiss. I heard his foreign accent and mentioned that I was learning German. Alfred was gentle, quiet and absorbed in studying, but he seemed a little lonely. In our jolly teasing family he seemed out of place.

Alfred’s background had been so different from mine. He grew up in a kindly Swiss home, and after finishing secondary and commercial schools and his apprenticeship he had left for Belgium to concentrate on languages and accounting. Before leaving he had seen the Photo-Drama of Creation and obtained some of the Watch Tower Society’s literature. While he was in Belgium helping in the social work of the Swiss church, questions were raised in his mind and his minister could not answer them. He remembered the book The Divine Plan of the Ages and upon returning to Switzerland for a vacation he spent much of his leisure time studying it and other publications on the subject. After visiting the local office of the Society he went back to Belgium, joining a brother from Holland in the very early beginnings of the Society’s work in Belgium. When the famous financier Loewenstein, his employer, fell from his plane over the English Channel, Alfred was invited to go to London to work for a Swiss financier. And that is how our pathways met.

We spent a very happy and busy year, and then, in May, 1931, we were married at the London Tabernacle and went to Switzerland. Here I was to see for myself this beautiful country that has become my home. Later we went to the Paris convention, where Alfred interpreted some of the talks. In Paris the Society’s president, Brother Rutherford, invited us to work at the Society’s Paris office. I recognized Jehovah’s will in this, and when my husband wanted to know how I felt about it, it did not take me a second to decide. So we returned to England to dispose of the home we had so recently furnished and prepare for a new life together.

LIFE IN A BETHEL HOME

At the Paris office I was faced with two language barriers, German in the home and French outside. It was not easy for me and often I was the lonely one. Then I found I was going to have a baby. Alfred was overjoyed that we could continue our life at Bethel. There was much translation work to do in order to provide literature for a bevy of enthusiastic English and Swiss full-time pioneer ministers working in France.

Then the blow fell for the Paris Bethel. Our work had disturbed the bishop living nearby, and we foreigners were ordered to leave the country within a few days. This meant that five of us from Bethel and about a dozen pioneers had to find new places in which to serve Jehovah. Alfred and I left with an American pioneer sister for Switzerland very early one morning.

And so it came about that our little daughter was born ten days later in Switzerland. When she was a few months old we moved into the Bethel home in Berne and focused our minds on serving Jehovah’s side of the great issue. But do not think that life from then on was a bed of roses. My husband was wholly absorbed in his work, steadily burning the candle at both ends, and I had a little girl to bring up in addition to my Bethel duties. I often chafed at the discipline of Bethel with its rigid schedule in contrast to my carefree girlhood. At times I felt frustrated, like a bird caught in a cage. Sometimes I was discouraged and the waves threatened to swamp me. Then I would think of the great issue.

Gradually I began to learn all the household chores, to wash and iron, to cook and mend. Our Bethel family in Berne numbered around sixty in those days. The hum and buzz, the coming and going broke the monotony of those stacks of plates and dishes to dry each day and the never-ending baskets of stockings to mend—like the bottomless pit! The seasons came and went with spring-cleaning, the canning and bottling of fruit and vegetables, to the storing of the last crate of apples in the cellar. Yes, I learned to esteem deeply the privilege of serving the Bethel family here and to nurse them when they were sick. And I learned to appreciate the fine women with whom I worked. So the first ten years passed.

WAR YEARS

One event of that time I have never forgotten. Alfred had been sent to Czechoslovakia to care for the interests of our brothers there. The Germans were about to enter Sudetenland. As the German troops entered and the people hurried away, my husband traveled toward them. Our little daughter was with her grandparents in England before going to school and I was to fetch her later. War was imminent and our little family was in three different countries. Then came Chamberlain with his umbrella; Hitler was appeased for a little while and war was averted. Our family was safely united again.

But war was inevitable. I was in the hospital undergoing an operation when France fell to Germany in 1940. Hardly had I returned home when Bethel was occupied by military authorities and searched. Later a big court case was brought against the Society, and my husband was sentenced to three months in a penitentiary because of his neutrality. Our Bethel family dwindled to about twenty-five to thirty, and I cooked for them for some time. Alfred came out of prison in time to attend a convention in Zurich, where our daughter was baptized in symbol of her dedication and stand on Jehovah’s side of the great issue.

In time the war was coming to an end. As the Germans were pressed back, reports began to come in from countries formerly under the jurisdiction of the Society’s Central European Branch, and all these reports had to be translated. I was gradually drawn into this new sphere of activity and threw myself into it with great joy. The war ended and we entered the most thrilling phase of theocratic activity. Hardly were the borders opened when the Society’s new president, Brother Knorr, and his secretary, Brother Henschel, arrived with firsthand reports of what was going on in other parts of the world.

TRAVELERS

For my husband the most interesting and exciting period of his life began. As translator he joined Brother Knorr in visiting several other countries, meeting very dear friends again and learning how they had fared during those terrible war years. Meanwhile our Bethel factory was busy again catching up on the latest publications. In 1946 the first of our growing Bethel family traveled to the Cleveland, Ohio, convention and attended the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. I had hardly dared to hope that I might one day go to Gilead and was overjoyed when Brother Knorr invited us and our daughter to attend. In January, 1950, we traveled to New York to attend the fifteenth class of Gilead. It was a marvelous experience. We graduated as a little family in Yankee Stadium at the 1950 convention. Alfred and I returned to Berne Bethel; our daughter went down to Italy to join the little group of Kingdom publishers there.

The short span of freedom that had been enjoyed in the Eastern countries when released from Nazi oppression came to an end as communism took over and clamped down on our work. My husband’s journeys became less frequent and more hazardous. This decade was one of ever-increasing work in the service of our brothers, interspersed with one grand international assembly after another in different countries. Alfred was completely absorbed in his translating work. At the big New York convention in 1958 he gave a report on the work behind the Iron Curtain, including the playing of a tape recording of a Kingdom song by brothers in that part of the world.

A great change came in my life in 1956 when the German translation department was moved to Wiesbaden to streamline production. Overnight my colleagues and my precious work were gone. But one’s hands are always filled at Bethel. Quickly I was initiated into the Magazine Department, where I found deep satisfaction serving my brothers in the field and feeling the pulse of the preaching work beating all around the globe, to my continual wonder and enthusiasm.

HEARTACHE

Alfred’s resistance seemed to be breaking under the constant emotional as well as physical strain of his work. To aggravate his condition he developed influenza just before he was to make an important journey in the spring of 1959 and did not recover as well as he might have done. When he returned from his trip he seemed very weary and quiet but content. We were happy to attend a circuit assembly together at the end of April. It was not late when we returned home and we had the rare pleasure of a quiet hour together in “our castle,” as Alfred liked to call our home.

As we enjoyed the little supper I had prepared, Alfred took out his notebook and began to jot down various events coming up, among them Brother Knorr’s expected visit. We laughed in happy anticipation. Looking over these dates, I burst out: “Whatever happens in the future, Alfred, we have spent good, rich years of service together, haven’t we, dear?” With deep gratitude I cherish this last quiet moment of reflection, because the next night he was taken ill and died a few hours later of heart failure—worn right out in faithful service. Stunned with shock and grief, I slipped to my knees at the bedside and voiced my deep conviction: “My darling! I know you will have an early resurrection.” Mother died a few months later. I experienced just how great an enemy death is.

During the weeks and months that followed, occupied with my many duties, I worked as an automaton, strangely detached and apart, looking to Jehovah as my pillar of strength. I lived in the heart of this beloved family and shared their kindness and consideration. Serving others is the greatest healer. Gradually I healed and adjusted. The gap remains, but I am learning to become reconciled to it. To “sing and make joyful noise” to Jehovah is our great protection when the waves of sorrow threaten to overwhelm us at such a time.

STILL ON JEHOVAH’S SIDE

I am a grandma now and my hair is growing white. When I see my grandson, how comforting it is to hear him call: “Grandma, come and tell me a story out of the Bible!”

Many have come and gone again over the thirty years I have been a member of this Bethel home, and I loved them all. In this hive of busy workers where life is ordered by the ringing of a bell you learn to respect the individual characteristics of each one, to be a friend to all but not to become too intimate with any one person, to be impartial and adaptable and to respect the little privacy that each one likes to enjoy. Yes, Bethel life is a good life, a rich life.

As I come to the close of my story a letter has arrived with an invitation to accompany a dear friend from California on the world convention tour soon to begin. I humbly bow my head in deep gratitude for this undeserved kindness from Jehovah, who blesses us “more than superabundantly beyond all the things we ask or conceive.” Glowing in my heart is the same live hope that was decisive for me many years ago, to see Jehovah and Christ Jesus and share in the vindication of Jehovah’s name. Gratefully I join my voice with the great crowd of praisers, confident of the triumphant outcome of the great issue.

Gilead’s Thirty-seventh Graduation

THE graduations of Gilead School, operated by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, are always joyous occasions; and this was especially true of the thirty-seventh one. The class consisted of 103 students from 50 different lands.

The graduation took place on Monday, November 26, 1962, at the Brooklyn headquarters of the Society, the program beginning at 3:30 p.m., with song and prayer. After the opening remarks by the president of the School as well as of the Society, N. H. Knorr, the four instructors were briefly heard.

Fred Rusk based his remarks on Isaiah 2:2-4, likening the Christian course of the students to climbing a high mountain that brought to view the sanctuary of Jehovah’s worship. He concluded with the admonition to cherish Jehovah’s house and prove worthy to remain therein. Harry Peloyan compared the students to spears that had been sharpened but now had to prove what kind of metal they were made of by enduring in their assignments. Ulysses Glass, basing his remarks on James 1:22-25, stressed the need of the students’ being doers of God’s Word and always viewing themselves as brothers regardless of what supervisory position they may hold. Edward Dunlap, who also serves as the school’s registrar, reminded the students of the importance of joy, the strength it gives and how they can maintain it, by prayer, by giving, by taking an interest in others and by noting the fruits of their labors.

Next, the many telegrams received from six continents and from some fifty different lands were individually acknowledged and the contents of some were read as time permitted. Then the factory servant, Max Larson, was heard. He stressed the importance of the training they had received and their now knowing how to train others. The Bethel home servant also gave fine counsel, using as his theme Jehovah the Potter.—Isa. 64:8.

Fred Franz, the Society’s vice-president, next spoke on the subject of the Christian’s “deposit” or trust, basing his remarks primarily on 1 Timothy 6:20 and 2 Timothy 1:12-14. The fine instruction and training that the students had received for the past ten months were part of this deposit or pattern of healthful words. He counseled them to add continually to their deposit and also to safeguard it lest empty speeches that violate what is holy, such as the things mentioned at Ephesians 5:3-5, enter the mind and cause them to lose their deposit or pattern of healthful words.

Then came the main talk of the graduation, “Qualified to Teach,” by N. H. Knorr, with remarks based on 1 Timothy 3:2 and; 2 Timothy 2:24. He noted that the students had been invited to this school not because they had been coming short as teachers but rather because they had been doing so well that it was considered advisable to bring them to the School to train them to do still better. Also, he said that while they needed to be qualified to teach all people the truth in simple, easily understood language, even more important was their being able to teach their brothers in the Christian congregation. At times, he said, they may need to be firm with those who contradict, but at all times they must be patient and kind. As an aid to remaining qualified, he counseled the students to pray as did David, “Make me walk in your truth,” “Teach me to do your will.” Yes, pray, ‘Make me to do your will.’—Ps. 25:4, 5, 9; 143:10.

At the conclusion of President Knorr’s remarks the students received their assignments. They were being sent to 64 different lands, to serve in many different capacities, such as special pioneers, missionaries, circuit, district, branch or zone servants. Then one of the students, Alexander Tharp, read a Resolution that the class had adopted that voiced their thanks to Jehovah and to all others that had contributed in any way to make their training at Gilead possible or profitable. It was indeed a warm expression of appreciation, and this class had special reason therefor, because in addition to the regular missionary course they daily received training in the operation of Bethel homes, branch offices and printing plants.

There was an intermission from 5:45 to 7:30 for the enjoyment of a fine farewell dinner, and then the program was resumed. It began with a condensed study of the week’s Watchtower lesson, “Take Courage—God’s Kingdom Is at Hand!” selected students furnishing the comments. After this some forty of the students had opportunity to relate experiences and impressions and express individually their appreciation for the training received. A closing song, “O Walk with God,” and a prayer by Brother Knorr brought the joyous and highly upbuilding program to a close at 11:30 p.m.

Questions From Readers

● Is it wrong to have a pet operated on so as to prevent its having offspring?—R. M., United States.

The law of Moses specifically forbade the Israelites to offer any animal as a sacrifice that had been operated on in this way: “A bull or a sheep . . . having the testicles squeezed or crushed or pulled off or cut off you must not present to Jehovah, and in your land you should not render them up.” While that law did not entirely forbid the Israelites to perform such an operation on their domestic animals, the voice of Jewish tradition indicates that this law was so construed. And that may well be, because the fact that such an animal could not be offered as a sacrifice might serve as a deterrent. Interestingly, in this connection, when some translations of the Bible refer to the ox as an animal for sacrifice, it is a mistranslation, since the ox is a castrated animal. The proper rendering is “bull.”—Lev. 22:23, 24; 7:23, 25; 27:26; Deut. 18:3.

However, what the Israelites did is not necessarily binding upon Christians, since Christians are not under law but under undeserved kindness. (Rom. 6:14) Man has dominion over the lower animals and, while he may not abuse that dominion, either by killing them for sport or causing them to suffer needlessly, it is for him to determine just how they can best serve him, dead or alive, with or without their reproductive powers.—Gen. 1:28.

● Does the statement at Ephesians 3:10 mean that God teaches the heavenly governments and authorities, the angels, through the members of the Christian congregation while they still are on earth?—B. F.

No, that is not what the apostle was referring to. Examine the context and note that what is under consideration is, not a knowledge of all the purposes of God, but his purpose to take from among men a group to be joint heirs with Christ in heavenly glory.

Beginning with verse 5, we read: “In other generations this secret was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by spirit, namely, that people of the nations should be joint heirs and fellow members of the body and partakers with us of the promise in union with Christ Jesus through the good news. . . . To me, a man less than the least of all holy ones, this undeserved kindness was given, that I should declare to the nations the good news about the unfathomable riches of the Christ and should make men see how the sacred secret is administered which has from the indefinite past been hidden in God, who created all things. This was to the end that now to the governments and the authorities in the heavenly places there might be made known through the congregation the greatly diversified wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose that he formed in connection with the Christ, Jesus our Lord.”—Eph. 3:5-11.

God created man a little less than the godlike ones or angels, so it does not seem reasonable that the angels would have to wait on men for instruction. To the contrary, Jehovah God has repeatedly used angels in teaching earthling man, and in particular to minister to those who are members of the Christian congregation with a heavenly calling.—Dan. 10:10-14; Heb. 1:14.

Then how is it that God makes known his greatly diversified wisdom through the congregation? In that what God does by, for and with this congregation serves as an illustration of the greatly diversified wisdom of God. This sacred secret is something for the angels to view with admiration and amazement, and so it can be said that through it these angelic creatures get to see the greatly diversified wisdom of God as they had not known it before.

What about 1 Peter 1:12? It reads: “It was revealed to them that, not to themselves, but to you, they were ministering the things that have now been announced to you through those who have declared the good news to you with holy spirit sent forth from heaven. Into these very things angels are desiring to peer.” This text refers to the same thing as does Ephesians 3:10. Angels were desirous of understanding the things the prophets of old wrote about the Christian congregation, but their understanding awaited God’s unfolding of his purposes, as at Pentecost, and not their being taught by the earthly members of the Christian congregation.

The point being made by Ephesians 3:10 might be illustrated in this way. By observing the starry heavens we are impressed by God’s attributes and so it can be said that through these galaxies, inanimate celestial bodies, God teaches us of his qualities. It is not that these bodies know something that man does not know, for they know nothing, but by their very existence they teach us. And so with regard to the angels and the earthly members of the Christian congregation. Through what God has done for the congregation and will yet do for it He is making known to the heavenly governments and authorities, the angelic hosts, his greatly diversified wisdom.

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