The Watchtower — November 15, 1963

How Do You Make Decisions?

EVERYONE has to make decisions. Some are quite easy and even pleasant to make, such as what clothes to wear, what entertainment to enjoy, or what friends to choose. Others are more difficult and some are very unpleasant. Emotional entanglements make many decisions hard. Young people, “head over heels” in love, find themselves up against the barrier of different social status or different religion and wonder what to do for the best. A man or a woman with an unfaithful marriage partner wonders whether to try to pick up the pieces and start again or to sue for divorce.

With such a variety of problems facing people, it is not surprising that they have many ways of making decisions. Some do what appeals to them most at the moment, or take the course offering immediate benefits, or the path of least resistance. Others do what their friends or family would have them do. So what is the best way to make decisions?

Many decisions involve matters of principle. Sometimes it is quite a simple matter of right or wrong: whether to make true or false tax returns; whether to follow honest or shady business practices. Other decisions may not be clearly matters of right or wrong but still involve principles. In making such decisions it is vital to have a standard to guide you. Otherwise, you will inevitably find your decisions being influenced by tendencies of the flesh, such as selfishness, fear, pride and jealousy, bringing unhappy results.

The finest Standard is God’s Word, the Bible. (Ps. 119:105) It is the accumulated wisdom from Jehovah, the true God, and gives sound guidance in making all kinds of decisions involving right principles. To those who feel the Bible is out of date in relation to modern problems, the wise Solomon answers: “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccl. 1:9) Principles do not change, and Bible principles apply to our problems today just as well as they applied to the human problems of Solomon’s day. If we would make wise decisions we must know God’s required standard and apply it rightly in solving our problems.

Take the matter of choosing one’s religion, one of the most important decisions and one which each one of us must make. Many automatically choose the religion of their fathers without questioning whether it is right or not. Some join a religion that seems to satisfy their needs or is profitable in their business contacts. Still others make their choice to please their marriage mate or because of the emotional pleadings of an evangelist. But right worship is a matter of what is pleasing to God, not to us. The apostle Paul, who had made a wise choice of religion and who is therefore well qualified to advise us, said: “Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord.” Yes, in religion God comes first. Showing that knowledge of Jehovah is essential in choosing the right religion, Jesus said: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” Study God’s Word and “be filled with the accurate knowledge of his will” so that you may make a wise choice of religion.—Eph. 5:10; John 17:3; Col. 1:9.

When making a decision it is always wise to consider the probable outcome, and not only immediate gain. Why throw away something valuable for a temporary pleasure? “There exists a way that is upright before a man, but the ways of death are the end of it afterward.” (Prov. 16:25) Impetuous youth, in particular, has to be on guard against making foolish snap decisions, which can only lead to shame and heartache afterward.

Many of our decisions have far-reaching effects on others and this must be considered, especially by family heads and spiritual overseers. King David failed to consider this when, headily, he numbered the fighting men of Israel contrary to Jehovah’s will, and brought untimely death on seventy thousand of his subjects. What a terrible penalty for one man’s rash decision! (2 Sam. 24:1-15) Marriage partners may at times feel their marriage has reached the breaking point. But a hasty decision to break up might be avoided if they would consider the effect it would have upon their children.

But our making decisions should be influenced chiefly by the knowledge that every single thing we do affects our relationship with God. (1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17) For this reason a mature Christian makes his decisions on the basis of not only whether it is right or wrong but whether it will draw him nearer to God or lead him farther away. As Paul expressed it: “All things are lawful; but not all things are advantageous. All things are lawful; but not all things build up.” (1 Cor. 10:23) The Christian’s close, personal relationship with God is his most treasured possession and he will not make any decision that might damage that bond. His attitude is expressed by the words of the psalmist: “I have placed Jehovah in front of me constantly. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be made to totter.” (Ps. 16:8) One who stays as close as that to God will turn naturally to him in reaching decisions. No matter how hard the decision may be, the knowledge that this is God’s will is sure to strengthen him to go through with it to the end. Decisions made in this way result not simply in temporary pleasure but in real, lasting happiness and satisfaction, because they are pleasing to Jehovah.

These are perilous days in which we have to make many hard decisions, and it calls for clear thinking abilities and a good understanding of God’s Word and its perfect standard. When faced with the need to make a decision, know the principles involved, consider the outcome of each possible course, both for yourself and others who may be affected; but, above all, consider how it will affect your relationship with God. Then you will be able to make right and upbuilding decisions.

Foreview of God’s New Order of Things

No need to dream about the future. Read what God’s Word says about it.

WHAT do you foresee as the future of man and the earth for the next thousand years or so? Some foresee oblivion; others have pipe dreams of a streamlined, scientific, pushbutton system of things with man as the master of all that surrounds him. Others say they could not care less! But all of this is wrong thinking. Tomorrow’s system of things will be one in which man’s fondest desires and greatest needs will Read what God’s be amply satisfied, but God, not man, will be its absolute master.

Yes, a new order, a perfect paradise, is already in the making. Its government is now in operation; a nucleus of its future inhabitants is being gathered and trained; instructions for the changeover to a new way of life are now being applied; and the full-scale operation is due to begin in the near future. The Christian apostle John helps us to determine this because he was given an inspired revelation of the events of this twentieth century that would lead up to the exit of the old order and the entry of the new. In his vision he saw that “the earth and the heaven fled away” from before God and there was no longer any place found for present wickedness. This was due to happen at the beginning of a 1,000-year period in which God would rule the earth in righteousness, and Bible prophecy shows that this time is fast approaching. John tells us that he “saw a new heaven and a new earth” where God “will wipe out every tear from [the people’s] eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more.”—Rev. 20:4, 11; 21:1, 4.

But do not think of this as just another version of Hilton’s Shangri-la, or Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. The apostle John had reason to believe, yes, to be absolutely convinced, that what he saw in Word says about it. this revelation would become a reality. Not so with authors Hilton and More. Just think of the name “Utopia.” It is a combination of two Greek words meaning “not” and “a place.” Put them together, and what do you have? No place! The name means “Nowhere”! But God’s new order is not like that. It is very definitely somewhere, with its government in the “new heavens” administering blessings to men of the “new earth.” That is why God sealed John’s vision with his word of guarantee, saying: “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”—Rev. 21:5.

Did you say that only a miracle could bring this about? You are right! But the Creator of the new order is a God of miracles. Assuring us of his ability, he states: “Here I am, Jehovah, the God of all flesh. For me is there any matter at all too wonderful?” In connection with the miraculous birth of Jesus, God’s angel said to Mary, “With God no declaration will be an impossibility.” (Jer. 32:27; Luke 1:37) These statements stand proved by the miracles that were performed by Jesus, God’s own Son, for many of the things that he did while on earth were foregleams of the earthwide miracles that will take place in the new order.

PREVIEWS OF THINGS TO COME

First, it would be good to understand why it was that Jesus, in particular, could perform miracles of the nature that he did. You see, the present unhappy condition of man springs basically from just one thing—he is a sinner. There was a time when Adam was not a sinner and then his environment was perfect. If it had been possible at that time for someone to have informed Adam that the earth would later be filled with wickedness and with unhappy, sick and degenerate people, Adam would have found this hard to believe; he would not have known what the person was talking about. But since we today have been conceived and born in sin and live a sinful life, it may be hard for us to believe that there once was, and that there will be again, a perfect system of things such as Adam once enjoyed. But since the change from good to bad was brought about by sin, then a change from bad to good is made possible only through the removal of sin. It is only through the sacrificial death of Jesus, the perfect man, that this can be effected. Knowing this, he began a sacrificial course at the time of his baptism at Jordan. This would not be finished until the time of his death on the torture stake, but in the meantime God’s power enabled him to perform miracles which demonstrated the everlasting benefits to come to men when the merits of his human sacrifice would be extended to them directly. It was for this reason that on performing many of his miracles Jesus could say to persons cured: “Your sins are forgiven.”—Matt. 9:2.

Of the thirty-six or more individual miracles of Jesus narrated in the four Gospels, at least half of them were acts of physical healing. When he was at home in Capernaum crowds surrounded the house where he lived. In an effort to reach him, four men carrying a paralytic removed a portion of the flat roof to let the helpless invalid down to where Jesus was. Perhaps he had suffered considerable brain damage. Could Jesus do anything for him? First he tells him that his sins are forgiven, and then: “Get up, pick up your cot, and go to your home.” The man obeyed instantly.—Mark 2:1-12.

Have you ever seen a leper? There were many of them in Jesus’ day and there are many now. But there will be none in God’s new order, at least not for long! Listen to Luke’s account: “On a further occasion while he was in one of the cities, look! a man full of leprosy! When he caught sight of Jesus he fell upon his face and begged him, saying: ‘Lord, if you just want to, you can make me clean.’” Jesus wanted to. He reached out to touch him, saying: “Be made clean.” Immediately the disease vanished. Can you see earth’s new Ruler multiplying this a thousandfold, a millionfold if necessary, to wipe out leprosy and any similar plagues?—Luke 5:12-14; Heb. 4:15.

Jesus’ power over blindness was shown a number of times, but blind Bartimaeus was an outstanding example, for he did not let obstacles prevent his being healed. He shouted out his faith in Jesus’ healing power and “at this many began sternly telling him to be silent; but he kept shouting that much more.” His faith was rewarded. Jesus called him and restored his sight to him. This will also be the lot of the physically blind today who express strong faith like that of Bartimaeus and who work for entry into God’s new order.—Mark 10:46-52.

FREEDOM FROM DEMONS, DEATH AND WANT

In this world of which Satan is the invisible ruler, mental illness abounds. Some cases of this are outright obsession by demons who are making a concerted attack on the minds of men today. But at the very outset of God’s new order one of the first things that Christ Jesus will do is to render Satan and his demons impotent. This is stated prophetically for us in the vision of John of which we were speaking. Satan and his legions of demons will be abyssed, “that he might not mislead the nations any more.” (Rev. 20:1-3) Why, even when Jesus was on earth he performed miracles showing his power over demon forces. At Mark 5:1-20 we find the record concerning a man possessed by, not one, but many demons. Jesus cast them out of the man.

Of all of man’s enemies, death is the most relentless. Man’s fondest dreams and achievements collapse in the face of death. But even many of those who are already dead will return to life in God’s new system of things. Jesus said, “This is the will of him that sent me, that I should lose nothing out of all that he has given me but that I should resurrect it at the last day.” Knowing that actions speak louder than words, Jesus drove his point home with convincing demonstrations. Most thrilling of all was his resurrection of his friend Lazarus. A decaying corpse of four days, a body far beyond man’s help, now returning to the dust, lived again by a resurrection when Jesus cried out: “Lazarus, come on out!” What joy this brings to our hearts as we foresee, in God’s new system of things, our dead ones likewise responding to that same commanding call!—John 6:39; 11:1-44.

Jehovah promises an abundant, happy life in his new order. That this will present no problem was demonstrated in Jesus’ ability to make provisions when the need arose. His first miracle, performed at the marriage feast in Cana, provided about 100-150 gallons of the finest wine! There is no fear that there will be food shortages when one reads of how Jesus fed five thousand men besides women and children. With what? Nothing but five loaves and two fishes. This miracle must have made a deep impression on the minds of his disciples, for it is the only one recorded by all of the Gospel writers.—Matt. 14:14-22; John 6:1-13.

Perhaps you wonder how it will be possible for all of this to be accomplished on an earthwide scale. Will Jesus have to return to our planet and spend many years going from one place to another to heal wounds and sicknesses? No, it is not necessary for Jesus to be personally present for his healing work to take place. Jesus healed an army officer’s servant although he had never laid eyes on him. He repeated this with a Phoenician woman’s daughter and the son of a nobleman in Capernaum. (Matt. 8:5-13; 15:22-28; John 4:46-54) Now on his heavenly throne, ‘all authority has been given him in heaven and on the earth.’ (Matt. 28:18) From the heavenly heights Jesus and the angels at his disposal have access to all parts of the universe. From there he is able to dispense to faithful men around the globe the benefits of his ransom sacrifice. There will be a gradual progress of all faithful humans toward perfection, miraculously made possible, because people will stop dying. Health will make constant improvement. Gone will be wars, racial problems and oppression of every kind. God’s new order will be a perpetual miracle from its beginning.

Why We Should All Join in a Resolution

THIS year the convention of God-fearing persons from many lands was given the title “Everlasting Good News” Assembly. It was worldwide in its embrace, for in the course of ten weeks (June 30 to September 8, 1963) it was held in twenty-four cities north and south of the equator, all around the globe. Hundreds attending the New York convention of this chain of gatherings followed the eastward course of the assembly by attending the successive gatherings in the many countries until the last convention in the land from which it started, really making it one continuous assembly that features the “everlasting good news.” As a whole, this Around-the-World Assembly was attended by bearers of the Good News from a hundred and sixty-one lands.

1. What is it we see evident in our earth today?

SUCH a global assembly as this brings vividly to everyone’s attention that there is an unusual current that is flowing irresistibly all around the earth. It is one of the two great currents that are in flow throughout the earth, each current with a different destination or in a different direction, each one being moved along by forces more than human, by forces invisible. There is more to the earthly scene of movement than meets the naked human eye.

2. In what way is the wisdom of the Bible far superior to this world’s wisdom?

² Persons who are wise in the ways of this world may smile sophisticatedly at the remark that forces higher than man and unseen to man are playing an intelligent, guiding part in the two opposite currents among humanity. Such worldly-wise persons know that belief in the existence of the so-called “disembodied spirits” of persons who were once human creatures on earth is widespread, and they reject such belief as not being scientifically proved. However, thousands of years before modern science, the sacred scriptures of the Holy Bible plainly taught and proved that such “disembodied spirits” did not exist, because all the dead of humankind are dead, which means lifeless, unconscious, inactive. So if the human dead are to live again it must be, not by a clothing of “disembodied spirits” again with flesh, but by a resurrection of the dead, mortal human souls. At the same time the Holy Bible teaches the existence of intelligent, superhuman spirits, demons, against whose malicious influence and operations mankind has to be on guard.

3. What intelligent warning did Paul give Ephesian Christians 1900 years ago?

³ Nineteen centuries ago in the city of Ephesus, Asia, where the mythological Artemis or Diana was worshiped as a goddess in a temple that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Christian apostle Paul preached for about three years. This led many Ephesian believers to make a public bonfire of their books on magical arts worth “fifty thousand pieces of silver,” or thousands of dollars in modern values. Later, by letter, the apostle Paul warned those same Ephesian believers against the demons, the evil spirit intelligences. Paul wrote: “Put on the complete suit of armor from God that you may be able to stand firm against the machinations of the Devil; because we have a fight, not against blood and flesh, but against the governments, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.”—Eph. 6:11, 12.

4. How do Christ Jesus and Paul give testimony on the wicked spirit forces operating on earth?

⁴ The existence of these “wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places” is real, although they are unseen to us, and the scientific advancement that this nuclear, space age has made has not wiped out their existence. The scientific progress and achievements of even the most enlightened country have not reduced the dire need to arm ourselves spiritually to carry on a successful fight against these forces, which are mightier than “blood and flesh.” Modern science has not nullified the “machinations of the Devil.” The apostle Paul calls this Devil the “god of this system of things,” “the spirit that now operates in the sons of disobedience.” (2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2) Jesus Christ, the Founder of Christianity, called the Devil the “ruler of this world,” and he himself was subjected to temptation by this Devil and had to fight against him with the spiritual armor of God. (John 12:31; 14:30; Matt. 4:1, 8-11) The Devil is also called “the ruler of the demons,” which means that he is the ruler of the “wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.” (Matt. 12:24-27) Because of being “god of this system of things” and also “ruler of this world,” he and his demons are invisibly directing the bigger one of those two currents that are in flow among mankind today.

5. (a) Who else, however, are operating in the spirit realm and who is their Creator? (b) Can they be of any help to righteous mankind now?

⁵ On the other side of the situation, there are spirit forces in the heavenly places that are good, righteous, pure, holy and having nothing to do with magical arts. They are not under the rulership of Satan the Devil. Their Ruler is the Creator, the God of the universe, and they are his holy angels, serving before the throne of God. They are as real as are the Devil and his demons, but concerning the holy angels it is written: “Are they not all spirits for public service, sent forth to minister for those who are going to inherit salvation?” (Heb. 1:13, 14) Do we want to have the help of these “spirits for public service”? Do we want the benefit of their ministry? Our having their help and service signifies salvation to us in God’s righteous new order of things now so near. Whereas the demons have Satan the Devil as their ruler, these angelic “spirits for public service” are under the King Jesus Christ, for, when he was a perfect man on earth, Jesus Christ said concerning our day: “When the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another.” (Matt. 25:31, 32) This prophecy of Jesus indicates that the angels will have part in this work of separating humanity.

6. What choice faces us in this day of judgment and toward what are we moving irresistibly?

⁶ The very last book in the Holy Bible, the Apocalypse or Revelation as it is called, gives us illustrations of the important parts that the demons, on the one hand, and the holy angels, on the other hand, are performing in human affairs of our day. We are being led along and guided either by the demons or by the holy angels. We are either fighting against the demons and the machinations of the Devil their ruler or fighting against the holy angels and their Ruler the King Jesus Christ. We are under judgment. This is a time of judgment. For whom are we? Against whom are we? We cannot ignore the actuality of this judgment now in progress. We cannot stay ignorant and at the same time fight against the Devil and his demons. We cannot stay ignorant and at the same time move under the guidance of the King Jesus Christ and his angels. The time is irresistibly approaching when the separation work will be completed among all the nations, and the King Jesus Christ will say to those who have neglected to take the right course: “Be on your way from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” (Matt. 25:41) The Bible book of Revelation shows how we can act in cooperation with the holy angels under the direction of the King Jesus Christ. That will mean our being blessed instead of being cursed and everlastingly destroyed.

7. What course have the majority of people followed since Noah’s day, and with what result?

⁷ Today the command from heaven is to worship God, the Creator of heaven and earth and its waters. (Rev. 14:6, 7) Throughout the thousands of years since the global flood of Noah’s day men have turned their backs on the Creator and have tried to maintain stable, settled conditions on earth. To keep the earth and its peoples in order they have established human governments, the creations of men. These are now reaching the climax of their difficulties, and to maintain these governments they insist on worship of the State by the people. They also set up an international society of nations to maintain peace and security among nations and to keep the world from committing suicide. Instead of being favored with life, peace, prosperity and happiness, the worshipers of these human creations are afflicted with a spiritual plague, like a malignant ulcer that makes death certain.—Rev. 16:2.

8. How is it evident now that stability in government is being greatly shaken?

⁸ Dissatisfied with earthly conditions under the traditional, religiously dominated political governments of the past millenniums, radical elements have arisen. They have raged at the seemingly stable governments, like wild waves of the sea raging against the rocky shores and headlands. Since A.D. 1914 they have brought about tremendous revolutions, great political overturnings, and now threaten all mankind with world domination. They scheme and manage to keep human affairs in a disturbed, unsettled, fearful state, but they bring no life to the people. It is a political movement of death, with as much life in it as the congealed shed blood of a dead man. Everyone who gets caught in this political movement dies.—Rev. 16:3.

9. How have men rejected God’s new order that promises life, and what will the end result be?

⁹ Rather than turn to the life-giving Word of God, which is being preached by Jehovah’s witnesses, men stubbornly and proudly choose to look to human sources for their drinking “water” to sustain life. They reject Jehovah God as the Source of true provisions for everlasting life in a righteous new order, and they continue to drink the waters of human philosophies, man-made religious traditions, militarism and materialistic science. Filled with such, they have stained the pages of history with blood. Their drinking water is as blood. Drinking it will result in their drinking their own blood at God’s hand, for he will make them pay with their own lives.—Rev. 16:4-7.

10, 11. What great ignorance has man shown in the way he worships, and even when his wrong worship is exposed, what do many yet refuse to do?

¹⁰ Men rejoice in the sun, and they enjoy its light and manifold benefits, but they refuse to recognize the sun’s Creator as their spiritual Sun, the source of spiritual light and guidance to free them from the darkness of sin and death. They glorify men and human organizations as the sun in their political, social, economic and religious heavens, and treat these as the source of their enlightenment, the sun that will brighten their lives with freedom, material prosperity, moral uplift and social betterment. Yet, since the end of world War I, the “sun” that they have looked to for healing and betterment of conditions has scorched them with its oppressions. Because of this they blaspheme God’s name Jehovah by blaming the Creator for their sad, worsened plight rather than the men who try to shine in world affairs. They do not repent and glorify Jehovah God when he exposes the man-made creations that are radiating the scorching heat upon them.—Rev. 16:8, 9.

¹¹ Men have enthroned their political systems alongside God, claiming that their rulers rule by divine right and by the grace of God as though God the Creator of heaven and earth were the source of their political governments. They refuse to believe that Satan the Devil is the “ruler of this world” and is the source of their political rulerships since the days of Nimrod the first king of Babylon. It has been a plague to them for Jehovah’s witnesses under angelic guidance to show from the Bible why the kingdom of worldly politics is one of darkness, without the light of God’s favor and blessing. Therefore, men who trust in human politics rather than in having the kingdom of God blaspheme him and unrepentantly continue suffering from spiritual “ulcers.”—Rev. 16:10, 11.

12. (a) What end awaits false religion, and what will take its place? (b) Are the political systems marching primarily to a third world war, or what?

¹² Men have not benefited from the kingdom of false religion. As ancient Babylon founded by Nimrod sat astride the Euphrates River, so the great false religious system that was prefigured by ancient Babylon has sat oppressively and expensively upon the masses of people, for support and protection. Now these symbolic waters must be dried up to strip her of her defense, that this great religious system may make way for the kingdom of God. The political kings of the earth do not favor the kingdom of God by his Messiah who has the divine right to universal rulership. They lend their ears to demonic propaganda that issues from the invisible “ruler of this world” and from the political systems that he has kept in power over the earth. Hence the kings and their armies are influenced by this propaganda inspired by demons and are marching unitedly, not primarily to a third world war with nuclear weapons, but to the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” The Hebrew name for the battlefield is Har–Magedon (or, Armageddon). They feel plagued when Jehovah’s witnesses notify them that it is God Almighty against whom they fight under demonic influence and that they will be destroyed at Har–Magedon.—Rev. 16:12-16.

13. (a) What accounts for today’s violence and ungodly works, and, therefore, what is bound to happen? (b) What is the reaction to this warning by the political, religious and materialistic systems?

¹³ Today it is not just the natural air but a bad spirit that the people breathe in. It is the spirit of this world, and the spirit of the world is the spirit of Satan the Devil. This accounts for all the violence and ungodly works of the degraded flesh with which the nations abound today. For this reason human society will yet be rocked as by an earthquake of an intensity never experienced before, and the cities and political institutions of men must fall in ruins and disappear. The time has come for God Almighty to bring to mind the wicked deeds of that false religious system prefigured by ancient Babylon, and he must make her drink from his cup the wine that will make her so dead-drunk that she will never wake up. Advance notice of this act of God Almighty strikes politically, religiously and materialistically minded people like hundred-pound hailstones, but Jehovah’s witnesses under the angelic lead must serve such notice before the earthquake of unparalleled world trouble. We are not surprised that hard-hit people should blaspheme Jehovah God for this. It merely shows that they breathe in the spirit of the Devil.—Rev. 16:17-21.

14. (a) Where is the information on these plague-like conditions found, and who thus is credited with giving this information? (b) Since we do not want to be led by the wicked demons on a course leading to collision with God Almighty, what is the path of wisdom now?

¹⁴ These things, which are like plagues to this world, are revealed to us in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of the Revelation 15, 16 to John the apostle. We do not take the credit for this, but give to God the credit through Jesus Christ and acknowledge the part that the holy angels of God have in this, as vividly pictured in those chapters of Revelation. We sincerely desire to follow the lead given us through God’s holy angels. We do not want to be caught in the current that is being swept along by the “wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places” and run into a collision with God Almighty at Har–Magedon. That is why we who are attending these assemblies around the world should all join in making a resolution.

The Resolution

1, 2. Name four points we first of all declare and resolve as outlined in paragraph two.

WE JEHOVAH’S witnesses, met together in [City, State, Country]a, in one of the “Everlasting Good News” assemblies being held in a continuous chain around the whole world this year of 1963, do this day declare and resolve as follows:

² THAT the one living and true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, whose name is Jehovah, is the only God whom we fear and glorify. Him alone will we worship; for him only will we be witnesses in the universal contest now in progress over the question, Who is the Everlasting, All-wise, All-powerful God? and him alone will we urge all peoples everywhere, of whatever race, nationality, tribe, color and language, to worship as the true God without equal;

3. What do we declare regarding the Holy Bible?

³ THAT the Holy Bible, written under inspiration originally in Hebrew, Aramaic and ancient Greek, is his written Word. It is the channel of the one revealed religion that is the absolute truth and that is the unerring guide to pure worship acceptable to God;

4. What are our feelings about Jehovah God the Creator, his King and kingdom?

⁴ THAT God the Creator, to whom his own written Word gives the name Jehovah thousands of times, is the King of Eternity and the Eternal Sovereign of the universe, and to him we owe our supreme allegiance and unqualified obedience. Only by his permission and tolerance have men set up political governments for what is understood to be the public good. His permission for this was not to continue forever or even indefinitely, but was to be brought to an end by the establishment of the kingdom of his beloved Son, the Messiah or Anointed One, the Christ, who was named Jesus when on earth as a perfect man. In the year 1914 the combination of events began on earth that he said would be a visible sign to us that Jehovah God had taken his sovereign power in that year and had set up the kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ for the government of this earth. According to the published information from the Holy Bible, the time then came for all the political nations to yield their sovereignty in the earth peaceably over to the heavenly kingdom of God’s enthroned Son Jesus Christ. World history shows that, instead, more than a score of nations, led by Christendom, engaged in a global war for world domination. Because of this course the nations entered into the “time of the end” foretold in the Holy Bible, which will reach a conclusion in their violent destruction;

5. (a) What viewpoint have the nations of this world taken on preventing war, and what is now their aim regarding all mankind? (b) As Jehovah’s witnesses what will we continue to do?

⁵ THAT, in order to prevent the destruction of the nations by their own means in war, the nations further refused the surrender of their sovereignty to God’s Messianic kingdom by setting up a society of nations, which, since 1945, has taken the form and the name of the United Nations, with international headquarters at New York city. This international organization stands for world sovereignty by political men. For years men without faith in God’s kingdom have endeavored to get all people to worship this international image of human political sovereignty as the best hope for earthly peace and security, in fact, the last hope for humanity. To date 111 nations have given worship to this political image by becoming members of it. However, we, as witnesses of the Sovereign God Jehovah, will continue refusing to engage in such idolatrous worship, for we see, under angelic enlightenment, that God has smitten such idolaters with a malignant ulcer, symbolically speaking, that will spell death to them as spiritually diseased image worshipers who worship a man-made political creation rather than the Creator of heaven and earth;

6. What is our resolve regarding radical, revolutionary movements by men?

⁶ THAT radical governments have been formed and taken over the control of powerful nations and they rage like the restless sea against the older, traditional forms of human government that have long ruled the earth. The ideal life for mankind will not come by means of such radical, revolutionary governments, which have already proved themselves unsatisfactory and incapable. God the Creator judicially pronounces such radical political institutions to be dead, death-dealing, as dead as a dead man’s shed blood that has congealed. Everyone trying to live in that element must die. We, as witnesses of God the Source of all life, will maintain our Christian steadfastness and have no part in such radical movements, but will hold fast to our Christian neutrality toward all radical and other types of human government over earth;

7. What have the “waters” of this world caused the drinkers of such to do, and what, then, is our resolve?

⁷ THAT the waters that the people have drunk from the rivers and fountains of human philosophies, political theorists, social organizers, economic advisers and advocates of religious traditions have resulted in no real life-giving refreshment to the drinkers. Such waters have even led the drinkers to violate the Creator’s law concerning the sacredness of blood and to engage in religious persecutions and in shedding the blood of even the holy ones and prophets of Jehovah God; for which reason he has judicially decided that they must suffer the full penalty for shedding blood, doing so either as individuals or as a community. We, however, will avoid this divine judicial decision by drinking only of Jehovah as the Fountain of living water, doing so by means of his Holy Word;

8. To whom will we look and give honor?

⁸ THAT we will continue to look to Him as the great Sun from whom comes our enlightenment, guidance and healing. We will glorify him and not join idolatrous men in looking to bright-shining ones of mankind as the source of mental and spiritual enlightenment and of worldly prosperity. In this way we save ourselves from taking part with disappointed men in blaspheming God the Creator because the symbolic “sun” that they idolized and looked to for enlightenment and a brighter future has scorched them with unbearably hot world conditions rather than with a healing of the state of mankind;

9. What price have political kingdoms paid for their right of rulership, and what attitude toward God’s witnesses do they take?

⁹ THAT we accept the Bible’s proof that Satan the Devil is the “ruler of the demons” and also the “ruler of this world,” from whom our Leader Jesus Christ refused to accept any throne of rulership. But ever since the days of Nimrod, king of Babylon, the political system of this world has accepted its throne of political rulership from the satanic “ruler of this world,” and to this ruler the worldly political system has paid his fixed price for the throne, rendering him worship and service. Since the decisive year of 1914 the political system of human government has refused to vacate this throne and cease rendering service to the “ruler of this world.” For this reason the darkness of God’s disfavor has settled down on the kingdom of this worldly political system, and there is no political light to show human rulers the way out of the increasing “anguish of nations.” With no repentance they persist in their works for self-salvation, and blaspheme God for paining them by having His witnesses showing that their doomed condition is beyond healing through human remedies;

10. (a) What is our declaration concerning ancient Babylon’s counterpart today and her political companions? (b) Just how will we conduct ourselves now?

¹⁰ THAT Nimrod in rebellion against Jehovah God founded his capital city Babylon on the Euphrates River in the Middle East, and by its waters this imperial city protected itself and carried on selfish commerce with the peoples. Ancient Babylon has now a modern counterpart that enriches and protects itself by sitting oppressively upon symbolic waters, the peoples, and even holding a religious kingdom over the political kings of this earth. Now the time has come for God to dry up these wealth-bringing protective “waters” and bring about the fall and destruction of Babylon’s modern counterpart. As for her political companions, these are marching to the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” Under propaganda and programs inspired by demons and voiced by political systems serving the “ruler of this world,” the kings of the earth and their armies are being led, not to the Euphrates River, but to the battlefield with the Hebrew name Har–Magedon (or, Armageddon). We, who are Jehovah’s witnesses, will not obstruct them in their military preparations, and yet we will not march with them to Har–Magedon, for we refuse to fight against God Almighty and his kingdom by Jesus the Messiah;

11. (a) Though we are in the world, what do we refuse to do? (b) What has Babylon’s modern counterpart not done, and so what result can be expected?

¹¹ THAT, although at present we are obliged to be in this world, we will not breathe in the spirit of this world, for it is not the spirit of God but is the spirit of the devilish “ruler of this world.” Led by the spirit of its unseen ruler, the world of mankind has for thousands of years cultivated the works of the fallen, degraded flesh. Now the world is reaping the results of breathing in the spirit of Satan the Devil and cultivating the works of their flesh, which is at enmity with God. Babylon’s modern religious counterpart has not cultivated in the people the spirit of God, that they might reap the fruitage of God’s spirit to the attainment of eternal life in His new order of things. The world therefore faces an earthquake of world trouble the like of which it has never known, and all its political institutions and its modern religious Babylon will be shaken to bits, even human institutions as imposing and stable as mountains or isolated like islands disappearing;

12. (a) So, then, where is it that we firmly resolve to be in this day of judgment? (b) Finally, what is our resolve as regards the “everlasting good news”?

¹² THAT, therefore, we have immediately ahead of us the most momentous period in the history of mankind; the hour of the execution of God’s righteous judgment is about to strike, and we are in the day of decision. Whereas we see all the nations of this doomed world marching under superhuman demon influence, it is our resolution to remain immovable on the side of the established Messianic kingdom of Jehovah God, ever praying that he will give us more and more of his spirit. And as we endeavor to cultivate the fruitage of the spirit of God and carry on His pure and undefiled worship, we will keep on the full suit of armor of God and continue fighting, not against blood and flesh, but against the “wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places” until the satanic “ruler of this world” and his demons are abyssed for the thousand years of Christ’s reign. We thank Jehovah God for the ministry of his holy angels under Jesus Christ in our behalf. With their help and with the help of his holy spirit and Word we will continue to declare to all peoples without partiality the “everlasting good news” concerning God’s Messianic kingdom and concerning his judgments, which are like plagues to his enemies but which will be executed for the liberation of all persons who desire to worship God the Creator acceptably with spirit and with truth.

(The above Resolution was adopted at all 24 assemblies by a grand total of 454,977 conventioners.)

[Footnotes]

Popularity of Prediction

◆ Reporting on the popularity of the art of prediction, an evidence of the operation of wicked spirit forces throughout the world (Acts 16:16-18), Léon Christiani writes in Evidence of Satan in the Modern World: “The present popularity of various forms of prediction is almost unbelievable. The following figures are given for all forms of fortune-telling in France: 6,000 practitioners registered with the police in Paris alone, and 60,000 for the whole of France, with an annual turnover estimated at, at least, 60 milliard francs. The ancient forms of divination . . . have given way to the cards, the lines of the hand, the study of coffee dregs and all kinds of other methods, all equally imposing. And, as in antiquity, there is still astrology, considered to be the most satisfactory way of foretelling human destiny. . . . We are none the less entitled to consider that the Devil is well satisfied with such aberrations, and that prediction, in its contemporary forms, is one of the devices of Satan to ensnare humanity.”

Execution of Divine Judgment upon False Religion

“Come, I will show you the judgment upon the great harlot who sits on many waters.”—Rev. 17:1.

1. What right does each person have, and what is the duty of others in this regard?

EVERYONE has the right to practice the religion of his choice. This holds true at present, unless a person’s religion proves to be grossly immoral, licentious, shocking the public decency. Everyone should respect the right of everyone else to choose and live his own religion. We must observe religious toleration.

2. (a) What does religious toleration not mean? (b) How does one Hindu author view the names of many gods, raising what questions in our minds?

² Our granting everyone his religious right, our refusing to interfere with each one’s religious practice, does not signify, however, that we approve of his religion or that we approve of all other religions besides our own. Our practicing religious toleration does not mean we believe that all religions are right and beneficial and that all of them lead to an eternal happy future in endless enjoyment of the god that a person worships. Neither does it mean that we recognize that, after all is said and done, still we all worship the one and the same god only under different names or by different ways of approach to him or by means of different religious ceremonies. As one Hindu author recently wrote: “Names of gods do not make religion any more than the names of men and women make up their personality. . . . Whether it be God, Jehovah, Bhagwan, Iswar, Allah, Hari, Siva or Rama, it is the same Being that in vague manner is recalled by every devotee when he utters the name which he has been brought up to associate with the mystery of the universe and idea of worship.a But is that true? Do all the names of the different gods have the same history? Do they all suggest to the worshipers one and the same personality?

3. (a) Why is it not wrong to expose a false religion? (b) What must be the basis for such exposure?

³ Can there be false religion? It is not a form of religious persecution for anyone to say and to show that another religion is false. It is not religious persecution for an informed person to expose publicly a certain religion as being false, thus allowing persons to see the difference between false religion and true religion. But in order to make the exposure and show the wrong religions to be false, the true worshiper will have to use an authoritative means of judgment, a rule of measurement that cannot be proved faulty. To make a public exposure of false religion is certainly of more value than exposing a news report as being untrue; it is a public service instead of a religious persecution and it has to do with the eternal life and happiness of the public. Still it leaves the public free to choose.

4. What should one having the true religion be able to do?

⁴ Why should anyone practice a religion unless he is convinced that it is true and right? It is not egotistical for a worshiper to say and believe that his is the only true religion. However, he ought to be able to prove that his is the only one that is correct and that results in eternal blessings. Otherwise, his faith in his religion is foundationless and is mere credulity.

5. (a) If all religions were true, what would we see? (b) How are we assured that not all religions are true?

⁵ It may strike some persons as a new thought that not all religions are true and right, and that there is in fact only one true religion, only one true form of worship of a higher or supreme intelligent power. If all religions were true and right, they would bring improvement, protection and lasting benefits to all religionists. False religion ends up with bad results, with debasement and deterioration. Since this is the effect of false religion in this life, how could it really save us? How could it usher us into a better world, an improved world in spite of the fact that there the same religion is to be practiced as was practiced in this life on earth? Not all religions could be true, for they all contradict one another, but the really true religion must contradict all others.

6, 7. (a) What does true science reveal? (b) How does God’s Word show there is divine intelligence behind the creation of our universe?

⁶ Necessarily there must be just one true religion, just as there is only one true science. Nineteen centuries ago a learned defender of the true religion warned against the “oppositions of science falsely so called,” or, “contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge,” because the acceptance of such falsely called science or knowledge caused many believers to turn away from the true faith. (1 Tim. 6:20, AV; RS) The one true religion must be in perfect harmony with science that is proved, not just called so.

⁷ Science or knowledge that is true, because it is proved, reveals the laws of our universe. It brings to our view more and more plainly the wonderful harmony of all the works of creation and all the laws of our physical universe. The unity and harmony of our universe are discovered in more detail by scientific searchings, but even with our natural eyes we can see enough to prove that there is but one God, one Creator of our all-harmonious universe. That divine intelligence is behind or responsible for our harmonious universe was long ago expressed in these words written against men who deny the existence of the one supreme Creator God: “What may be known about God is manifest among them, for God made it manifest to them. For his invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable.” (Rom. 1:19, 20) What conclusions, then, are we obliged to draw from this?

8. (a) Show what requirements have to be met for a religion to be the one true worship. (b) Why must true worship triumph?

⁸ One God alone could be supreme and all-powerful; and one such God could mean only one true religion, namely, the one right worship of this one supreme, almighty God. His religion is one of right belief and is harmonious in all its expressions, just as true physical science is harmonious and not self-contradictory. The true religion of the one God does not disagree with itself, deny itself or get divided with itself. If it had internal disagreement, contradiction and disunity, it could never stand; it could not be simple truth; it would disagree with the scientific laws of the universe; it could not triumph in the long-drawn-out conflict between true religion and false. But true religion must triumph, because truth cannot be destroyed. That is why, despite all the many false religions in the world, the true religion has lived through till this day, although it stands alone. Certainly the one almighty God could not do otherwise than preserve his own religion.

9, 10. (a) With whom did the family line of true worship end, and why with him? (b) How did he feel about giving Jehovah exclusive devotion?

⁹ For the first four thousand years of man’s existence there was a family line of men in which the worship of the true God kept enduring. That family line ended with Jesus Christ, who refused to worship anyone else but the true God. In answer to Satan, the Opposer of the true God and his religion, Jesus Christ said: “Go away, Satan! For it is written, ‘It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.’” Jesus Christ there quoted from what is written in the Law of the prophet Moses, in Deuteronomy 5:9; 6:13, where the original language of the Law tells us God’s name, that is, Jehovah.

¹⁰ Jesus Christ did not marry and raise a family in which to continue the worship of the true God, Jehovah. From written prophecies inspired by Jehovah God, Jesus knew that he must die a martyr’s death for the truth. So he gathered about him faithful followers, who would carry on the true religion after his death.—John 18:37.

11. What change of religion took place for some Jews in the days of Jesus?

¹¹ The twelve apostles whom he chose had up till then tried to live according to the Law of Moses. Now, though, Simon Peter and his brother Andrew changed their religion, from being Jewish religionists who had nothing to do with non-Jewish nationalities to being Christians, followers of Jesus Christ. Also the apostles John and James changed their religion in the same way, and so did all the other apostles, as they were all natural Jews by birth. Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul, formerly followed Judaism or the Jews’ religion and persecuted Christians, but, shortly, because of a miracle, he changed from Judaism to Christianity. (Gal. 1:13-16; 2 Cor. 11:22, 23; Phil. 3:5, 6) This change of religion, however, did not mean that now those apostles tried to prove the Bible wrong.

THE MEANS FOR JUDGING ALL RELIGIONS

12. (a) What did Jesus show to be the measuring line for truth? (b) How much of such truth was available when he said those words?

¹² Just the opposite was true. Those apostles and fellow Jewish converts presented still more proof, up-to-date proof, to show that the Hebrew Scriptures were true. Those Jewish Christians at that time had the Hebrew Scriptures from Genesis to Malachi, all together thirty-nine books as they are divided up today. Jesus Christ himself constantly upheld the truthfulness of those Hebrew Scriptures and called attention to the fulfillment of their prophecies. In his final prayer with his apostles he said to Jehovah God concerning those Hebrew Scriptures: “Sanctify them by means of the truth; your word is truth.” His Jewish disciples, his followers from the nation of Israel, followed his example and, like him their Leader, they proved the Hebrew Scriptures to be true, divinely inspired.—John 17:17; Luke 24:25-27, 44-46; Acts 17:2, 3.

13. (a) In what way did the early disciples of Jesus follow his counsel recorded in John 17:17? (b) What came to constitute the complete Word of truth, and of what is it the standard down to our day?

¹³ So what those Jewish converts to Christianity actually did was to join Jesus Christ in exposing as false the religious traditions that men had attached to the Hebrew Scriptures and to Jehovah’s worship, because such man-made traditions contradicted the Holy Scriptures and made God’s commandments of no force. They held strictly to the thirty-nine books of inspired Hebrew Scriptures as being the standard by which to determine whether religious teachings and practices were true or false. In harmony with those true Hebrew Scriptures there were now written twenty-seven Christian books, written originally in Greek by eight inspired apostles and disciples. These books were added to the inspired Hebrew Scriptures to make one volume of sixty-six books. In harmony with the practice of Jesus Christ and his first-century disciples, we use this inspired Volume, known as the Holy Scriptures or Holy Bible, as our God-given standard today for proving a religion true or false.

DIVINE OPPOSITION TO FALSE RELIGION

14. Since neither God nor Christ can lie, what is their attitude toward false religion?

¹⁴ The only living, true God does not lie and cannot lie. (Titus 1:1, 2; Heb. 6:18) Because of his unswerving adherence to the truth, he is against all false religion; and so is his Son Jesus Christ. In the very last book of the Holy Bible they cooperated in giving us, through the apostle John, a prophecy, in symbols, describing the fall and destruction of all false religion.

15. (a) Who is the source of false religion, and what are his names? (b) Why does false religion predominate in our earth?

¹⁵ As the one true religion proceeds from the one living and true God, Jehovah, and represents him, so all false religion represents the invisible spirit creature who is the false god of this world or system of things. (2 Cor. 4:4) He is the source of false religion, because he is a liar and fathered all lies, and he is opposed to the true God the Creator. The last book of the Bible speaks of him as being “the great dragon . . . , the original serpent, the one called Devil [Slanderer] and Satan [Opposer], who is misleading the entire inhabited earth.” (Rev. 12:9) Except for those who faithfully worship the true God through his Son Jesus Christ, Satan the Devil misleads the “entire inhabited earth” by means of false religion. That is why false religion predominates in the earth.

16. (a) Do peaceful relations exist between true and false religions? (b) Why must the true religion prevail?

¹⁶ Neither the true God nor the false god approves of the religion of the other. The true God is against the religion of the false god, Satan the Devil. The false god is against the religion of Jehovah and leads his servants to persecute the religion of the true God. Hence, down through the ages the true worshipers have suffered greatly at the hands of the false religionists. False religion may now have the power and the numbers in the inhabited earth, but which religion will triumph at last? There is only one answer: As truth cannot be destroyed, it will be false religion that will suffer defeat and be destroyed. This is just as certain as that the true God will triumph over the false religious god.

17. (a) What power does the true God possess, as shown by the Bible account of the Flood? (b) Therefore, why has he permitted false religion to exist till now?

¹⁷ Now, in an instant, the true God could blot out false religion and thus free his worshipers from opposition and persecution. In Noah’s day he blotted out the false religionists by a global inundation. Eight faithful worshipers of His survived, Noah and seven immediate family members. (Gen. 6:5 to 7:24) Since that global Flood the Almighty God has only permitted false religion. He has tolerated it in order to test the sincerity and faithfulness of his own worshipers. His inspired written Word, the Bible, plainly shows that he will not always tolerate the prevalence of false religion. How long will he yet tolerate the practice of false religion on his property, this earth that he owns as his own creation?

18. How do we know the end of false religion is near at hand?

¹⁸ From when the original perfect man in Eden sinned against his Creator God the Bible counts about 1,656 years down to the flood of Noah’s day. From the Flood’s beginning down to now is more than twice that length of time, namely, more than 4,300 years. According to information from all parts of the inhabited earth, conditions today are worse than those reported to exist on earth before the Flood came and wiped out the false religionists. Jesus Christ gave a prophecy to show when false religion and the rest of the Devil’s system of things would be brought to their end. In his prophecy Jesus pointed out the similarities between conditions on earth before the Flood and conditions that are to exist on earth before the end of the Devil’s world. (Matt. 24:36-39; Luke 17:26, 27) Because the events and conditions that Jesus Christ predicted are being realized in human history since the year 1914, and since our times resemble those of Noah’s time just prior to the Flood, evidently the end of all false religion is near.

HOW IT STARTED

19. Following the Flood who gave false religion its start, and what lie about the Flood story did false religion tell?

¹⁹ Where, then, and how did false religion get its start after the Flood? It was in the days of one of Noah’s great-grandsons named Nimrod, and at the city of Babel or Babylon. Nimrod was a great huntsman in opposition to Jehovah God and became the king of Babel and its huntsman hero. (Gen. 10:8-10; 1 Chron. 1:10) From this start Babylonian religion was built up and expanded. However, the Babylonians traced the beginning of their religion from the creation of heaven and earth. So Babylonian religion had its mythical cosmogony or philosophy on the creation of the universe and also had a Flood story, which Flood it survived; and hence it claimed to be the one, original religion and so the true religion.

20. Show how Noah and Shem rightly viewed this new spread of false religion.

²⁰ The facts show, however, that Noah and his son Shem, who survived the flood with Noah, did not join the religious rebels in building Babel or in promoting the social, political and religious idea that was behind the building of this city and its skyscraper tower. Noah and Shem did not join in worshiping the new god set up at Babel or Babylon. They kept worshiping the only true God, the Creator and the Flood Bringer. They stayed away from worshiping the false gods described in the Babylonian creation account.

21. Through whom was true religion kept alive?

²¹ In that way false religion was set up at Babel (Babylon). True religion continued where Noah and Shem lived, and Shem lived on into the days of a man called “Jehovah’s friend,” namely, Abraham the Hebrew. (Jas. 2:23; 2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8) Abraham was a prominent descendant of Shem, and by means of him the worship of the true God, whose name is Jehovah, was kept alive on earth.

22, 23. (a) How did the true God express disapproval of Babylonian religion? (b) What label did false religion give to Nimrod’s city, but what did Jehovah call this city, meaning what?

²² God did not approve of Babel or Babylon—no more so than of her false religion. To express his disapproval of Babel and her religious skyscraper, Almighty God mixed up the language of the builders and scattered them. Doubtless Nimrod’s own language was changed and he no longer spoke the pure Hebrew. But whether in a new language or not, he kept up his false religion, and in one of the new languages his city was called by the name meaning “Gate of God.” Not, of course, the Gate of Jehovah, to whom Nimrod was opposed, but the religious center and capital of the new false god.

²³ In the original Hebrew, God’s written Word calls Nimrod’s royal city Babel (Babylon, in the Greek language). This Hebrew name Babel does not mean “Gate of God”; it means “Confusion.” God’s act of judgment upon the city was the reason for calling the city by that Hebrew name. False religions, which try to glorify Babel or Babylon, do not give the city the name “Confusion” in their language but put god, their god, in the city’s name. Shem’s history calls it Babel (”Confusion”), and so do later Bible writers in Hebrew and Greek.—Gen. 10:2 to 11:10; Ps. 137:1, 8; Matt. 1:11, 12, 17.

24. What came to be the course of false religion after the confusing of tongues of men at Babel, and so what has happened worldwide?

²⁴ By the confusing and scattering of her builders, Babylon’s false religion was not destroyed. Her false religion was really spread by this scattering, and it became practiced in different languages, hence with different names for its gods. Thus by the scattering of Babylon’s builders her religion was carried, in different tongues, into all Asia, Africa and Europe, to be practiced all over the inhabited earth and not merely in Babylon. In this way a world empire of false religion was established, with its priesthood and religious ceremonies. In this empire all the component religions differed in language and names of things and religious clothing, but all such religions rested on the one and the same foundation, the false religion begun at Babylon.

25. How have world empires been afflicted by Babylonish religion?

²⁵ The world empire of Babylonish religion has continued since then by God’s toleration. Thus it has dominated the seven political world powers of which the Holy Bible takes note historically and prophetically. In the order in which they rose to world domination they are (1) Egypt, (2) Assyria, (3) Babylonia, (4) Medo-Persia, (5) Greece or Macedonia, (6) Rome, both pagan and that of Christendom, including the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire, and (7) Britain-America, even though these two modern political allies claim to practice, not Babylonish religion, but Christianity.

26. (a) Why might some people not classify Christendom as resting on a Babylonish foundation? (b) How can we be sure the world empire of false religion cannot last?

²⁶ The religions prevalent in all those world powers, as well as in the lands or territories lying outside such seven world powers, rested on Babylonish foundations. They were all under the unseen domination of the false god of this world. This includes Christendom; but her religionists do not realize it, because her religious features are smeared over with Christian or Bible names. Because of the origin and foundation of this world empire of false religion, the last book of the Holy Bible pictures it under the symbol of Babylon the Great and calls it that. Calling it by that name betokens its sure downfall and destruction, just as its ancient prototype by the name of Babylon fell ingloriously and went to utter ruin.

27. What do the 111 members of the United Nations have in common, including Red Soviet Russia in spite of the complaint of the Soviet press?

²⁷ The world empire of Babylonish religion has dominated the seven successive world powers down to this day when there has risen on the world stage the international organization known as the United Nations. This age-long domination by Babylonish religious imperialism is prophetically pictured in the Bible’s last book, Revelation, chapter seventeen. Today the United Nations has 111 member nations, and all these practice some religion, including the radical Red Religion with its state worship and hero worship resembling the worship of Babylon’s hero, the huntsman Nimrod who rebelled against his great-grandfather’s God, Jehovah. In telling of Red Soviet Russia The Americana Annual, 1963, says, under the heading “Religion” on page 692:

In 1962, as before, the Soviet press complained that religion was still a strong force in Soviet life, and urged all intensification of antireligious propaganda. During 1962 more than 20 Pentecostal ministers and at least seven ministers of Jehovah’s witnesses were imprisoned for illegal religious activities, . . .

THE MYSTERY OF THE SCARLET-COLORED WILD BEAST

28. What is pictured by the marine beast with seven heads and ten horns, and what curious event takes place?

²⁸ In Revelation, chapter seventeen, the Christian apostle John is reported as seeing a “scarlet-colored wild beast that was full of blasphemous names and that had seven heads and ten horns.” (Rev. 17:3) From where this beast comes or just how it comes into existence is not disclosed here. But in general outline it resembles another wild beast that John previously saw in the vision, a wild beast that the Dragon, Satan the Devil, watched as it rose up out of the sea and to which the Dragon gave a throne and power and great authority. This marine beast also had seven heads and ten horns on its heads, there being ten diadems upon the ten horns. In the light of previous Hebrew Bible prophecy this sea beast pictures Satan the Devil’s visible political organization on earth, from the days of ancient Babylon till now. As for those seven heads of the sea beast, these picture the aforementioned seven world powers that successively took headship in world politics, from the ancient Egyptian World Power down to the Anglo-American World Power of today. Curiously, an image was made of this sea beast.—Rev. 13:1-7, 14, 15.

29. (a) Of what, then, is the scarlet beast of Revelation, chapter seventeen, verse three, an image, and so what do Bible symbolisms argue it to be? (b) What does John say about this beast at Revelation 17:7, 9-11?

²⁹ Except for skin color, the scarlet wild beast of Revelation, chapter seventeen, is an image of the seven-headed, ten-horned wild beast out of the sea. Bible symbolisms argue that the scarlet beast is a political organization. Its heads have the same significance as the similar heads of the sea beast and thus symbolize the seven world powers of the past and present, of all of which there remain political remnants or relics to this day. This meaning is given to the heads by the angel that brought the Revelation to the apostle John. In explaining the “mystery of the wild beast,” the angel said: “Here is where the intelligence that has wisdom comes in: The seven heads mean seven mountains, where the woman sits on top. And there are seven kings: five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet arrived, but when he does arrive he must remain a short while. And the wild beast that was but is not, it is also itself an eighth king, but springs from the seven [kings, symbolized by the seven heads], and it goes off into destruction.”—Rev. 17:7, 9-11.

30, 31. (a) How do we know the scarlet wild beast does not picture Rome even though one might find certain “apparent” similarities? (b) Therefore, what does this scarlet wild beast picture, and what do its seven heads symbolize?

³⁰ What does that scarlet wild beast picture? Rome, where Vatican City is located? It is true that, when John saw this vision, Rome was dominating as the Sixth World Power and had exiled John to the penal isle of Patmos as a part of its program of persecuting Christ’s true followers. It is also true that the city of Rome back there sat on seven hills. However, the seven heads that are compared to mountains and kings do not represent seven Roman kings or rulers sitting one each on each one of the seven hills of Rome. Nor do they represent seven Roman emperors ruling in succession, with five then gone, one then ruling, and one yet to arrive at Rome.

³¹ No, that scarlet wild beast does not picture the pagan Roman Empire. It pictures something far bigger, older. It stands for the Devil’s entire visible political system that began in the days of Babel or Babylon. Its seven heads stand for the seven successive world powers, five of which had been overthrown, the sixth one of which, the Roman World Power, was then ruling in John’s day, and the seventh one, the Anglo-American World Power, being due to arrive long after John’s death.

32. What else does the Revelation account say the scarlet-colored beast is, and so when does it arise on the world scene?

³² As regards the scarlet-colored wild beast itself, the angel said that it sprang from the seven world powers but was in itself an eighth king, an eighth world power. In the Bible, seven is a number denoting perfection; and as eight is one more than this perfect number, eight stands for something in excess, something superfluous. Since the scarlet wild beast is an eighth king or world power, the last one, it pictures a political organization that is formed after the Seventh World Power of Britain and America in alliance. The first outstanding alliance of the British Empire and the United States of America was in the first world war of 1914-1918, although there was considerable international cooperation between the two political powers prior to that war.

33. Therefore, what does the Eighth World Power represent, and how do we know it is not the Communist bloc of nations?

³³ What, then, is that Eighth World Power that is last, and most recent, to step upon the world stage of action? Not the powerful Communist bloc of nations, even though the Bolsheviki took control of Russia as recently as November of 1917, after Britain and America allied themselves in World War I. Communist Russia and its satellite nations do not fit the Revelation picture; it cannot be said of this Communist bloc that it “springs from the seven,” that is, from the seven preceding world powers. The Tsarist Russian Empire was never a part of those seven world powers. The Eighth World Power that did ‘spring from the seven’ within recent years and since World War I is not international Communism. Rather, it is the international peace-and-security organization, first in the form of the League of Nations and now in the form of the United Nations.

34. Who, especially, backs this Eighth World Power and to what extent, according to Revelation 13:15?

³⁴ The Seventh World Power, of Britain and America, has been the chief advocate and backer of this international organization for world peace and security. In Revelation 13:11-15 the British-American dual world power is prophetically seen as proposing and giving the breath of life to this international organization, which is an image of the political wild beast out of the sea.

35, 36. What other remarkable information did John receive about this Eighth World Power, as shown in Revelation 17:8?

³⁵ In harmony with this, the scarlet-colored, seven-headed wild beast, which is the Eighth World Power, must be a symbol of the now-dead League of Nations and its living successor the United Nations. Even its double appearance, or its twofold form, was foretold, not in Revelation, chapter thirteen, which tells how it comes into existence, but in Revelation 17:8, which reads:

³⁶ “The wild beast that you saw was, but is not, and yet is about to ascend out of the abyss, and it is to go off into destruction. And when they see how the wild beast was, but is not, and yet will be present, those who dwell on the earth will wonder admiringly, but their names have not been written upon the scroll of life from the founding of the world.”

37. Explain how Revelation 17:8 was fulfilled in the activity of this Eighth World Power.

³⁷ The appearance of this scarlet wild beast on the earth was interrupted by its going down into the abyss, at which time it ceased to function on the earth. When did this occur? According to history, it was when World War II broke out in September of 1939 in spite of the existence of the League of Nations, which had been organized after World War I in order to preserve peace and make the world secure against, at least, another world war. From the start of that second world conflict the symbolic scarlet wild beast showed its lack of strength, its helplessness. It became, in effect, nonexistent. It indeed went down into an abyss of deathlike inability, unable to live up to its charter. It did not protect the United States of America, not a League member, from being forced into the war and again becoming a war ally of Great Britain, a League member. It did not hasten the ending of the war and the arranging of a peace conference. It was the superior might of the democratic allies, coupled with the introduction of the atomic bomb into warfare, that did so. Certainly the symbolic scarlet wild beast was in the abyss during 1939-1945.

38. Did the rising again of this scarlet-colored wild beast surprise Jehovah’s witnesses? Why?

³⁸ But from the mid-war year of 1942 the ascending of the scarlet wild beast out of the abyss was expected by Jehovah’s witnesses, and they courageously made known their expectation in public, by word of mouth and in print, basing their confident expectation on the prophecy of Revelation 17:8.b This conviction of theirs was solidly based, and so their expectation did not miscarry. Before World War II was completely over, the United Nations Conference on International Organization was being held, from April 25 to June 26, 1945, by representatives of fifty nations, not including the Nazi-Fascist powers and allies. Where? In a city of the Seventh World Power, namely, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. The Conference there concluded with the signing of the United Nations Charter by representatives of those fifty nations.

39, 40. Who, again, was foremost in organizing this Eighth World Power and giving it life, and when did it once again begin functioning?

³⁹ Who were the ones that were foremost in arranging for the United Nations organization? The same nations that had proposed and given life to the League of Nations, namely, that two-horned world power of Britain and America, which was foretold in Revelation 13:11-15. The United Nations was very similar to the League of Nations, having the same objective by similar means, and it was, in effect, the same symbolic scarlet wild beast. Thus the scarlet wild beast ascended out of the abyss.

⁴⁰ On October 24, 1945, the Charter of the United Nations got the ratification of twenty-nine governments, including the leading allied powers known as the Big Five. By virtue of this the UN Charter then became part of international law. There the symbolic scarlet wild beast got out of the abyss and, in spite of some financial difficulties, it has been exerting itself as the Eighth World Power ever since. The reappearance of the scarlet wild beast on the world scene caused great wonderment among those dwelling on earth, except Jehovah’s witnesses, who were informed on the prophetic Scriptures.

41. What comments by world leaders show the United Nations to be like its predecessor, full of blasphemous names?

⁴¹ Such dwellers on earth wondered admiringly at the revived scarlet wild beast. Much reliance was placed in its ability to be a power for world peace and security. Great expectations were held out for it, and it was given designations that were really blasphemous from the standpoint of the Holy Bible. How so? In that to this “wild beast” powers were ascribed and tasks were assigned that really belong to God’s kingdom and its Messiah or its Christ. Back in 1919 the scarlet League of Nations had been seriously called “the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth.” And now the United Nations, the successor of that League, has been called the best means for peace, yes, even more than that, the “last hope for peace.” So today we can see in actuality what the apostle John saw in symbol, that that scarlet-colored wild beast is “full of blasphemous names.” Those expressions of admiration for it turn false religionists, not to the worship of Jehovah God the Creator, but to idolatry of a man-made creation, the worship of a political image, the worship of an international organization for world peace and security.—Rev. 17:3.

ITS RIDER

42. (a) Why will those worshiping this beast not be saved? (b) What timely question is thus asked, with what startling answer?

⁴² Is such worship of the scarlet wild beast going to save such admiring dwellers on the earth? No! For it is written that “their names have not been written upon the scroll of life from the founding of the world.” (Rev. 17:8) But why is their religion not holding them back from committing idolatry, which is contrary to the first and second of the Ten Commandments of Jehovah God? Revelation, chapter seventeen, symbolically shows us why. It is because there is a woman riding the scarlet beast. We read:

43. (a) Describe the appearance of the woman riding this beast. (b) What is her name, and on what has she gotten drunk?

⁴³ “And he [the angel who appeared to John] carried me away in the power of the spirit into a wilderness. And I caught sight of a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored wild beast that was full of blasphemous names and that had seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and was adorned with gold and precious stone and pearls and had in her hand a golden cup that was full of disgusting things and the unclean things of her fornication. And upon her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ‘Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.’ And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. Well, on catching sight of her I wondered with great wonderment [but, of course, not admiringly].”—Rev. 17:3-6.

44. (a) Her being drunk with the blood of God’s servants proves what about her? (b) What is the significance of her name, Babylon the Great?

⁴⁴ The fact that the woman was “drunk with the blood of [God’s] holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus,” what does that prove? It proves she is against Jehovah God and against his Son Jesus the Messiah or Christ. She is therefore not on the side of the one true worship, the one true religion. The name on her forehead, although a mystery, betrays who the woman is. The main part of her name is the name of Jehovah God’s ancient enemy, Babylon. But she is greater than that city built under Nimrod’s direction on the Euphrates River; that is why she is called “Babylon the Great.” The ancient city of Babylon was, clear down to its disastrous fall in 539 B.C., outstandingly religious; she was a leader in false worship. Ah, now, we see that the mysterious Babylon the Great is, not pagan Rome of the seven hills, but the world empire of Babylonish religion that gathers all the world in under its dominion.

45. (a) What do the waters where the harlot sits represent, and how long has she been astride those waters? (b) What agility has this harlot shown over the years?

⁴⁵ That is why the angel said to John in explaining the mystery: “The waters that you saw, where the harlot is sitting, mean peoples and crowds and nations and tongues. And the woman whom you saw means the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.” (Rev. 17:15, 18) She sat on those symbolic waters and held kingdom over earth’s rulers long before the scarlet beast was set up as an idolatrous image. As soon as this symbolic wild beast appeared after World War I she climbed on its back. In view of her religious power, that was easy for her. When the scarlet “wild beast” went into the abyss during World War II she continued to sit “on many waters,” namely, on the peoples, crowds, nations and tongues, and to exercise “kingdom over the kings of the earth.” (Rev. 17:1) When the “wild beast” ascended out of the abyss with the help of especially its seventh head, the Anglo-American World Power, Babylon the Great at once climbed upon its back, and there she sits till this day.

46. How has this wicked woman shown herself to be “the mother of the harlots”?

⁴⁶ It was but to be expected that she would ride this beast, it being a political organization, a world power. Babylon the Great is a harlot and is named “the mother of the harlots.” God’s angel said she is the “great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, whereas those who inhabit the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” (Rev. 17:1, 2) Since the scarlet wild beast symbolizes a political organization, the Eighth World Power, and its seven heads symbolize “seven kings” or seven world powers, Babylon the Great would follow her regular course and commit fornication with it just as she had committed fornication with the previous seven world powers and other “kings of the earth.” Symbolically speaking, she would be committing fornication with a wild beast, which act is bestiality, a sin that is loathsome and that is condemned by God’s law.—Lev. 20:15, 16.

47. Why is this harlot so interested in world politics, and to what extent has she gone to win the favor of world governments?

⁴⁷ Her fornication consists in her uniting of her religion with politics, playing along with politics for her own enrichment. She is intensely interested in politics, but this is especially in order that she may control worldly politics for her own advantage, dictating to the politicians. She presumes to have the divine right to crown and uncrown kings. She has prostituted herself to the political rulers. She has yielded her religious power to serve the ambitions of the rulers, even to blessing their armies with slaughter weapons and sanctifying their selfish wars, and giving to those who get killed while trying to kill others in warfare a direct passport into heavenly glory. No wonder she is so brilliantly dressed.

48. Explain the expression “those who inhabit the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

⁴⁸ What, though, have the common people got from her committing her fornication with worldly rulers? This, as stated: “those who inhabit the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” They have been made to suffer from all the selfish, ambitious, aggressive, covetous schemes that she blessed and in which she cooperated just to please the political rulers, her handsomely paying paramours. The people have been made to reel and have been stupefied by all the trouble, affliction, privation, hardship and oppression that have been given them to drink from the “golden cup” of Babylon the Great. The fact that she has religiously told the suffering peoples that these things are Heaven’s will for them has not lightened their sufferings, healed their wounds or comforted their aching hearts. Her golden cup is filthy inside.

49. Who are the daughter organizations that Babylon has produced?

⁴⁹ Babylon the Great’s harlotry has made her a mother, but a mother of bastard children, who take after their mother’s ways. So she is the “mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.” Locally, in the various nations, she has produced daughter organizations, religious systems either united with the local government in unions of Church and State or closely tied in with the national political system and serving as a handmaiden, a concubine for it. She also mothers disgusting things, things that are particularly disgusting to God, such as persons sanctified for prostitution at her temples, gambling on religious property for receiving her percentage of the unjust gain, idolatries with images, and so forth.

50. Name the various ways in which Babylon is responsible for heavy bloodguilt.

⁵⁰ A heavy bloodguilt before God the Creator weighs down on Babylon the Great. She shares in the blame for the wars she has not used her mystical power to prevent. She shares in the guilt for the bloodshed of those she blessed as she offered them for sacrifice to the god of war, even though they fought on opposite sides of the conflict, religious brother against religious brother. In the name of religion she has carried on intolerant persecution. She has stirred up brutal religious wars, of one religion against another. She has proclaimed holy wars, with promises of heavenly rewards for those who die fighting in them. She has promoted fanatical crusades, not only against the so-called infidel, but against those whose religion she has tried to wipe out with flame and sword. Her religious inquisitions have been hideous, fiendish. History records how subserviently she played her mighty part in both of those bloodiest conflicts of mankind, World War I and World War II. In these ways she killed off mainly her own religionists, yet these have all been God’s creatures, and he holds Babylon the Great accountable for their blood.

51. How has she specially sinned against God?

⁵¹ In her religious persecutions she has specially sinned against God the Creator. The apostle John calls attention to her bloodguilt in this respect by saying: “And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.” (Rev. 17:6) Drinking blood has been no problem for her, even though Noah, the great-grandfather of Nimrod, was given God’s command to drink no blood. (Gen. 9:3, 4) Babylon the Great, however, has experienced intoxicating pleasure by drinking the blood of God’s holy ones and the witnesses of Jesus Christ, by declaring them heretics, a menace to Babylonish religious society, and persecuting them to the death with help of the State.

52. What words of one of the seven angels are next of particular interest?

⁵² Is it any wonder, then, that a vision was given to one of these suffering “witnesses of Jesus” to picture how divine judgment will be executed upon this world empire of Babylonish religion? Not at all! John introduces this particular part of the Revelation to us, saying: “And one of the seven angels that had the seven bowls [full of the anger of God] came and spoke with me, saying: ‘Come, I will show you the judgment upon the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, whereas those who inhabit the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.’” (Rev. 17:1, 2) How was the judgment executed?

EXECUTING THE JUDGMENT

53. Then what judgment takes place, and whose will is it that this judgment is executed?

⁵³ John gives us a picture of it with these words: “And the ten horns that you saw, and the wild beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshy parts and will completely burn her with fire. For God put it into their hearts to carry out his thought, even to carry out their one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God will have been accomplished.”—Rev. 17:16, 17.

54. What do the ten horns of the scarlet-colored beast represent, and why ten?

⁵⁴ Those ten horns were pictured as being on the seven heads of the scarlet-colored wild beast. What do they represent? The heavenly angel told John, saying: “And the ten horns that you saw mean ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they do receive authority as kings one hour with the wild beast. These have one thought, and so they give their power and authority to the wild beast.” (Rev. 17:12, 13) Thus the horns symbolize governmental rulers. (Compare Daniel 8:2-8, 20, 21.) As the number ten in Scripture is a symbol of completeness, “ten kings” would stand for all the governmental rulers, particularly those who are part of the symbolic scarlet wild beast, the international organization for world peace and security.

55. What did not Babylon or the ten horns do at the close of World War I?

⁵⁵ At the close of World War I Babylon the Great did not tell those symbolic “ten horns” to yield over their national and imperial sovereignties to God’s Messianic kingdom that had been born in the heavens to take over the rulership of all the earth. Neither did those “ten horns” want to make such a surrender. During World War I they persecuted Jehovah’s Christian witnesses and disdainly refused to accept the message of God’s established kingdom.

56. How do the ten horns now carry out God’s thought?

⁵⁶ God purposed the destruction of these symbolic “ten horns,” even as he had long previously foretold this. It was his thought to maneuver them now to their destruction, to destroy them in a combination, all at one time. Accordingly, by his unseen maneuvering, “God put it into their hearts to carry out his thought.” How would they carry out God’s thought for them to get into combined opposition to Him? By their coming to a oneness of thought or idea and chartering an international organization for world peace and security and then joining it as one family of nations, joining particularly the United Nations of today. So, instead of giving their kingdom to God in surrender of their earthly sovereignty to his Messianic government, they proceeded, as Revelation 17:17 says, “to carry out their one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God will have been accomplished.”

57. How did the nations give power and authority to the “wild beast”?

⁵⁷ So from 1919 onward, when the Charter of the League of Nations was ratified, they began giving their kingdom to the scarlet-colored “wild beast.” They gave their power and authority to it. By becoming member nations of the international organization for world peace and security, the Eighth World Power, “they do receive authority as kings one hour with the wild beast.” (Rev. 17:12, 13) In a comparative sense, it is only “one hour” to the beast’s destruction. It has only “one hour” of life.

58. How did Babylon feel about this “wild beast,” and what will be the final result to her and to the beast?

⁵⁸ Babylon the Great, who was eager to ride such a “wild beast,” approved of this international action, even though it was against the heavenly kingdom of the Lamb of God that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses were proclaiming. What is and will be the result of this giving of national power and authority to the “wild beast,” the pet of Babylon the Great? Revelation 17:14 answers: “These will battle with the Lamb, but, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, the Lamb will conquer them. Also, those called and chosen and faithful with him will do so.” In that way, or, for that reason, the scarlet “wild beast” that is now present after getting out of the abyss will “go off into destruction.” When that takes place, “the words of God will have been accomplished.”—Rev. 17:8, 17.

59. However, who goes into destruction first and at whose hands?

⁵⁹ Will Babylon the Great, the rider of the scarlet “wild beast,” be destroyed at the same time with the “wild beast” and thus enjoy her ride as a harlot on it till its finish? No! Not according to the already recorded judicial decision of Jehovah God. His sentence already handed down is that the very objects of her love must destroy her, before they themselves are destroyed. She has long had the selfish love of a harlot or fornicatrix for that “wild beast” and its ten horns. She feels that she will be always attractive to them and be able to hold their patronage by satisfying their selfish immoral pleasure. But in this she fools herself and opens herself to a shocking surprise.

60. Describe the disastrous end of the harlot.

⁶⁰ God Almighty will break up that selfish unity between the harlot and the ten-horned wild beast. He will turn their selfish love to contemptuous hatred and will present reasons to the beast and ten horns to hate the harlot on top of them and to vent their hatred furiously upon her. They will drive her from a religious paradise into devastation. They will strip off her purple and scarlet garments, her adornments of gold and precious stones and pearls, and knock that golden cup full of disgusting things out of her hand. She will be exposed nude as a religious fraud. No longer will her flesh hold an attraction for petting and immoral union, but the “wild beast” and its ten horns will feed in a beastly way upon her fleshy parts. Her skeleton they will reduce to mere lime by burning it with fire. Thus the world empire of Babylonish religion will be reduced to ashes, to be trampled underfoot by the surviving worshipers of the true God, Jehovah, the faithful followers of his reigning Son Jesus Christ.—Mal. 4:3.

61. Who will see to it that the scarlet “wild beast” goes into destruction?

⁶¹ After that the scarlet “wild beast” and its ten horns will go, no, not back into the abyss, but into total destruction forever. The conquering Lamb, against whom they fight, will see to that.

62. What advice is given to those who do not wish to share Babylon’s fate?

⁶² Knowing now in advance the judgment to be executed shortly upon false religion, what shall we the people do? The Babylonish harlot sits upon “many waters,” many peoples, crowds, nations and tongues. Is she still sitting upon any of us? If she is, then, in order to escape suffering destruction with her at the time of the execution of divine judgment upon her, there is one thing to do, without delay: In the love of the one true religion, get out from under her! She is doomed! By the judgment of Jehovah God, Babylon the Great experienced a fall in 1919, since which year more than a million men, women and children have marched out of her into religious freedom as Christian witnesses of Jehovah. Now in her fallen condition she is approaching her terrible eternal destruction. Hence we say to seekers after God who are still under her religious sway: Forsake Babylon the Great!

63, 64. Who will such not join to escape Babylon’s fate, but with whom will they take sides for everlasting salvation?

⁶³ This does not mean joining with the “wild beast” and its “ten horns” in violently destroying that world empire of Babylonish religion. Such violent action by the “wild beast” and its “ten horns” will not gain salvation for them or salvation for anyone who joins in with them in such violence. Let those disillusioned political powers do that as visible agents of God in the execution of his divine judgment on false religion. But that work is not for us!

⁶⁴ The one true religion is our salvation, for by it we worship the one living and true God who offers us salvation through his Son Jesus the Messiah, the Christ. Remember the words of Jesus in prayer to Jehovah God: “Your word is truth.” (John 17:17) It is this truth that sets us free from Babylon the Great. Let us enter that glorious religious freedom by embracing God’s word in his Holy Bible and then following in the footsteps of the victorious Lamb of God. He will conquer the political paramours of Babylon the Great and usher us into full freedom under the triumphant kingdom of God. Let God’s Messianic kingdom rule forevermore!

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 692]

Babel—From here false religion spread worldwide

[Picture on page 700]

Destruction of the world empire of Babylonish religion, as described in symbols by an angel to the apostle John

‘Never Have Enough of That Literature’

Two witnesses of Jehovah in Texas called at a prison to talk to the assistant warden. Their report says: “We sat and talked for about an hour. We asked if the prisoners needed some Watchtower and Awake! magazines to help them in their Bible reading and study. He promptly replied, ‘We never have enough of that type of literature. We would be glad to have it, and I will go to your car and bring it in.’ So we left seventy copies of The Watchtower and Awake! I asked about the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures that we had left on a previous call. His reply: ‘It has just come back from the lower wing where it was widely used and now I am sending it to the upper wing where we have gotten a lot of requests for it.’ I asked him if the only copy was adequate for that unit, and he said, ‘They could use several more copies.’ The assistant warden spoke with keen appreciation for our calls and for the New World Translation, as well as the magazines. He stated that while in the air force he had read the literature while flying back and forth. We look forward to calling again at the prison.”

Questions From Readers

● How old was Timothy when Paul counseled him, “Let no man ever look down on your youth”? (1 Tim. 4:12)—C. S., United States.

The general impression is that Timothy at this time was quite young, perhaps a teen-ager, but not so. While the Scriptural record does not state his age at this time in so many words, there are enough facts to approximate his age.

According to the best information at hand, Paul began his second missionary journey in about A.D. 49. Toward the beginning of it he met Timothy, who by now already was a mature Christian and no mere boy, as can be seen from Luke’s account: “A certain disciple was there by the name of Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman but of a Greek father, and he was well reported on by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium. Paul expressed the desire for this man to go out with him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews that were in those places, for one and all knew that his father was a Greek.” It is reasonable to assume that for Timothy to have such a reputation he must have been at least in his late teens if not in his early twenties.—Acts 16:1-3.

The words of Paul at 1 Timothy 4:12, that Timothy should not let anyone look down on his youth, were written from twelve to fifteen years later, between A.D. 61 and 64. It therefore follows that Timothy must have been some thirty years old at that time. But even at this age Timothy would feel relatively young as compared with the older men he was authorized to appoint as overseers in the various congregations; besides, he was without doubt a rather diffident young man.—1 Cor. 16:10, 11; 1 Tim. 1:3; 3:1-15.

At that time and place it was common to speak of a person of his age as a youth or even a boy. Thus we are told: “The term pais (‘boy’) . . . is sometimes extended to an older period of life. Eusebius, for example, calls Origen a boy when he was a theological teacher, and certainly above eighteen . . . and Constantine speaks of himself in the same way at the outbreak of the Diocletian persecutions when he was almost thirty.” Thus also we find a writer referring to his “early years,” meaning anywhere from eighteen to forty years of age.—Schaaf-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, p. 1117.

In the Hebrew Scriptures we also find the terms “child” and “boy” used in a relative sense. For example, Reuben refers to Joseph as “the child” although he was seventeen years old. (Gen. 37:2, 30) At Genesis 44:20, 22, Judah speaks of Benjamin, who by that time must have been thirty years old, as “a child” and “the boy.” Similarly, when Jeremiah said, “I am but a boy,” he may well have been such only in his own estimation. In fact, it may be questioned whether Jeremiah would have been commissioned for his weighty assignment had he been literally a boy, a lad, hardly in his teens.—Jer. 1:6.

From the foregoing, however, we must not conclude that Jehovah God does not use persons of tender years to serve him. Samuel was quite young when he was serving at the tabernacle and Jehovah’s angel appeared and gave him the warning message regarding Jehovah’s judgments upon his people. According to Josephus, Samuel was twelve years old at this time, and that may well have been. We know that Jesus was of that age when he so amazed the teachers in the temple with his questions and answers.—1 Sam. 1:24; 3:1-18; Luke 2:42-47.

Years later, during Jesus’ ministry, in fact, toward its close, there were boys in the temple hailing Jesus, saying: “Save, we pray, the Son of David!” When the chief priests and scribes objected, Jesus answered them: “Did you never read this, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have furnished praise’?” (Incidentally, “babes” and “sucklings” are here used also in a relative sense.)—Matt. 21:15, 16.

Clearly, when reading such expressions as that made by Paul regarding Timothy, we must take into consideration the context to see whether they are meant to be taken literally or in a relative sense.

● Does Zephaniah 2:3 mean that, even if one is in the truth, doing God’s will, he is not sure of receiving eternal life?—H. B., Puerto Rico.

This scripture reads: “Seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” The King James Version says, “It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger.”

The Hebrew word translated by the English expression “it may be” in the King James Version is ulaí. This Hebrew word does not convey any idea of positiveness. It may be rendered “perhaps,” “probably,” “it may be,” or “maybe.” It is translated in the New World Translation as “maybe” at Genesis 43:12 and; 1 Kings 18:27. It is rendered “perhaps” in Joshua 9:7. At Zephaniah 2:3 it is rendered “probably.” In agreement with this thought the Revised Standard Version of 1952 renders Zephaniah 2:3 as follows: “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the wrath of the LORD.”

Sometimes ulaí expresses doubt, but it may also express hope. Hope is apparently indicated at Genesis 16:2, where we read: “Hence Sarai said to Abram: ‘Please now! Jehovah has shut me off from bearing children. Please, have relations with my maidservant. Perhaps I may get children from her.’ So Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.” Hope is also expressed at Amos 5:15, which says: “Hate what is bad, and love what is good, and give justice a place in the gate. It may be that Jehovah the God of armies will show favor to the remaining ones of Joseph.”

Zephaniah 2:3 shows that those who start out to seek righteousness and meekness are not guaranteed that they will be hid in the day of Jehovah’s anger just because they have started out on a right course. But there is hope of their qualifying to be hidden. Being concealed is a probability.

Yet there is a considerable element of uncertainty indicated by the wording of this text. That uncertainty, however, does not apply to God in the sense that he is incapable of concealing faithful seekers of righteousness and meekness at Armageddon. Not at all. The point is that God is not obligated to do so, and that is the thing that causes or leaves room for uncertainty. We cannot take preservation for granted as if it were something due, something owed us. It all depends upon God’s mercy, his undeserved kindness to us sinners, for really our sins deserve death for us. However, the only way by which we can Scripturally hope for mercy to us on God’s part is by our seeking Him and righteousness and meekness, before it is too late. Then it may be that he will show consideration for our repentance, conversion and dedication to him. The Scriptures give us reason to believe he will probably do so.

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

“Persons taught by Jehovah” daily add to their knowledge of him and enjoy peace in their relationship with him and with others who love and serve him. This knowledge from his Word they gladly share with others. During November Jehovah’s witnesses will do this by offering to all persons Bible study aids designed to enable others to gain precious knowledge of Jehovah God and his purposes. They will offer the new book “Babylon the Great Has Fallen!” God’s Kingdom Rules! or the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, with a booklet, on a contribution of 75c.

1964 YEARBOOK AND CALENDAR

After December 1, 1963, the 1964 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses will be available. Its thrilling report of worldwide expansion through the preaching of the “everlasting good news” will encourage you and stimulate your faith. Available also will be the beautiful pictorial calendar emphasizing the year’s text. This year the calendar may be obtained with the Scripture text in any of these languages: English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. Write today. For the Yearbook, send 50c. For the calendar, send an additional 25c.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

December 15: Why We Should All Join in a Resolution, and The Resolution. Page 680.

December 22: Execution of Divine Judgment upon False Religion, ¶1-31. Page 688.

December 29: Execution of Divine Judgment upon False Religion, ¶32-64. Page 695.