The Watchtower — December 1, 1964

Efficiency with Consideration

ARE you perhaps one of those multitudes of persons who have felt themselves to be just small, slighted cogs in a large, efficient, machinelike organization? If so, you probably feel justified in being resentful. Even if there is justification, however, is it really to your advantage to allow resentment to eat away at your sense of happiness and well-being? Surely not. How much better to try to understand the value of genuine efficiency, apply it in your own life and relationships, and confidently expect that your good example will rub off on some of those who observe you.

When Pharaoh of Egypt discontinued supplying straw to Israelite slaves but insisted that they find their own straw and maintain the same production of bricks, this was not efficiency. It was downright oppression. On the other hand, if you are head of a family, you do like to see the household operating smoothly and economically, do you not? Efficiency means attainment of the desired results without waste. So, is not that the very thing you are after?

Now, take a look at how things go in your own family. If you demand perfection of everyone and set up rules and regulations to enforce your requirements, you soon encounter a reaction of resentment if not open rebellion. But is it wrong to expect your family continually to do better and better? No, for Jesus called upon his imperfect followers to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) We know, of course, that man in his present state is not perfect. Nevertheless, this invitation is to strive to be like our heavenly Father. Striving to be like him will keep us on the right path and in the right mental attitude, and will result in our spending our lives in a happy, productive and satisfying manner.

From your own experience you know that efficient handling of your household takes more than a list of cold rules and regulations. It takes patient education of the family on your part, a readiness to give personal demonstrations of how things should be done. Then, too, you have to take into account the age, ability and emotional makeup of each member, and give to each one just the right kind of encouragement and help. From this you begin to see that the wastage that combats genuine efficiency is not merely waste of time and material. It includes waste and wear of the precious human assets that go to make up a family. Worldly bosses often do not take this most vital asset of their organization into full account. Their programs of efficiency are devoid of loving consideration.

While it is true that no family head and no overseer of men can afford to countenance laziness or heedlessness, they should realize that pressuring people or expecting too much of them is not the way of efficiency. The highest standard of work will be performed by those who are in a happy, contented frame of mind. Such ones will be willing to accept correction when deserved, as long as they are also receiving commendation for jobs well done. And when they do make an infrequent blunder, patient training, and not the crack of a whiplike tongue, will work wonders.

Consider the position of a Christian who happens to be an overseer in some plant or office. He is properly anxious to promote and increase the interests entrusted to his care, for this is in accord with Bible principle. (Luke 19:11-27) How will he achieve efficiency? Not by cold, impersonal directives and not by loud, insistent demands for greater and greater production. Rather, he will be convinced that, of all the assets of the organization he is serving, human creatures are the most valuable; for they have a marvelous potential of intelligence, resourcefulness and adaptability. The finest machines in the world are useless without the know-how and technique of the men and women required to operate them. So he will be concerned about their well-being, their mental and emotional as well as their physical health. He will strive to maintain a relationship with each one of them on a level that accords with the proper dignity of human creations of God.

It is well known that when machines are continually operated at speeds beyond those for which they were built, the life of the machines is drastically shortened and costly repair bills make their appearance. This reminds us that machines are usually started off, when new, at comparatively low speeds, and then gradually stepped up to maximum speed as time goes on. The wise operator knows when he has reached the safe maximum speed. Though humans are not machines, the Christian overseer will see in this illustration the basis for expecting each worker gradually to build up his or her efforts to maximum efficiency, and will perceive when the safe peak of efficiency has been reached in each individual case. That safe peak is the tempo of production at which the worker can continue indefinitely without undue physical or mental strain.

Thus, while a Christian will work hard to keep waste at a minimum and guard against slothfulness, he knows that he cannot produce perfection out of imperfection. The hard-driving, demanding boss may be extolled in the business world, but he is disapproved by God’s Word for his lack of consideration. Under inspiration Solomon wrote: “I myself have seen all the hard work and all the proficiency in work, that it means the rivalry of one toward another; this also is vanity and a striving after the wind.” (Eccl. 4:4) The world’s tactics in this respect grow out of the selfish nature of the works in which they are engaged. They produce ruthless competitions, hatreds, stomach ulcers and a host of other ills—in a word, vanity.

Even though you may feel, then, that you are not receiving proper recognition and loving consideration, why indulge in resentment? It can only do damage to you. Rather, determine that the members of your family and others who may work under your direction are going to be aided, with loving consideration, to be efficient.

Persecution—Badge of the True Christian

Do you have this mark of distinction?

A BADGE is worn mainly to let people know what you stand for, or what group you belong to, whether it be religious, political or social. The value of such a badge is diminished through its being worn by unauthorized or unworthy persons. So whether it be a small metal cross, a star, a crescent, or a scarab, such badge is frequently no true identification. Its wearer could have picked it up on the street, or he may no longer have any genuine interest in or identification with what it represents.

How different the badge that distinguishes the true Christian! There are various marks by which you can identify the genuine follower of Christ, but this is one that is easily observable by all. In fact, its absence puts into grave doubt the claim of being such a follower. The apostle Paul focuses attention on it when he writes: “In fact, all those desiring to live with godly devotion in association with Christ Jesus will also be persecuted.” (2 Tim. 3:12) The Lord Jesus had already laid down the rule: “A slave is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:20) Persecution truly identifies the Christian.

Not just any kind of persecution will meet the requirement here. Persecution for right or justice in the abstract, or for personal right and opinion in the fields of religion, politics and social betterment is not involved here. It must be persecution for righteousness’ sake, and, since it is God’s righteousness, this sort of suffering comes upon one simply because he insists upon doing the will of God. Millions of persons have suffered for their own personal ideas, whether right or wrong, but still they have not been thereby identified as true Christians.

Not just anyone can wear this badge of distinction. Unworthy ones are quickly detected and exposed. Those who suffer because of their earnest efforts to “live with godly devotion in association with Christ Jesus” react to their sufferings in a manner that cannot be duplicated by the insincere. As with their Forerunner, so with them: “When he was being reviled, he did not go reviling in return. When he was suffering, he did not go threatening, but kept on committing himself to the one who judges righteously.” (1 Pet. 2:23) On the other hand, spurious Christians will become embittered, self-justifying and combative.

THE FORETOLD IDENTIFICATION

Warning his followers of the sufferings they might expect after his leaving them, Jesus declared: “But before all these things people will lay their hands upon you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, you being haled before kings and governors for the sake of my name.” (Luke 21:12) The record in the Acts of the Apostles shows that such persecution did come upon those early Christians. Why? Because they were busy doing God’s will, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom message to all. They did not follow the passive course of just belonging to some respectable religious group and attending services once a week if convenient. Had they done so they would have escaped persecution. They did not take the position that they were paying some clergyman to do the preaching. They well knew they had a personal responsibility before God to be witnesses to the things they had seen and heard about the Christ.

Faithful Christians today are also living in an anti-Christian world and are suffering like persecutions. The most common and widespread form of suffering Christians are called upon to endure today is the attitude adopted by so many persons on whom they make friendly visits. People otherwise polite become intolerant and insulting. Rebuff after rebuff is experienced, besides what Jesus himself suffered, namely, the “contrary talk by sinners against their own interests.” (Heb. 12:3) This sort of suffering, calculated as it is to wear down patience and courage, does not succeed in disheartening loyal ministers of God, for they obey the inspired injunction to “keep comforting one another and building one another up.”—1 Thess. 5:11.

Instead of withdrawing into inactivity so as not to become the targets of the enemy, they have gone forward boldly with their work in all lands, yes, even in Hitler’s Germany and now in Godless Russia, even though forced to operate underground. They have withstood confiscations, threats, arrests, sadistic beatings and tortures, and braved the danger of death, ‘rejoicing because they have been counted worthy to be dishonored in behalf of Christ’s name.’ (Acts 5:41) They draw great comfort from Jesus’ assurance: “It will turn out to you for a witness.” (Luke 21:13) Is not that the main purpose of their lives, to bear witness to the name of God and the kingdom of his Christ? Persecutions, court appearances and imprisonments only widen the opportunities to bear testimony to the truth. Court officials, jail keepers, judges and rulers all have heard the Kingdom message under circumstances that have served to impress it upon their minds, whether they accept it or not.

Merely professing Christians shrink from such experiences because they lack courage, and courage, in turn, is lacking because they have not engaged in a thorough study of God’s Word so as to be “always ready to make a defense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope in you.” (1 Pet. 3:15) The genuine follower of Christ makes such a progressive study a part of his life so that when the time comes to answer for his faith under persecution he is prepared for that eventuality. This is why Jesus could say: “Therefore settle it in your hearts not to rehearse beforehand how to make your defense, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your opposers together will not be able to resist or dispute.” (Luke 21:14, 15) A well-founded faith based upon accurate knowledge of the Bible equips anyone to present and maintain the truth before all who may inquire, even under the most adverse circumstances.

During the early centuries of Christianity many families were divided over the acceptance of Christ and his message. During periods of intense persecution we may be sure that sentiments of patriotism, pagan religious fanaticism or abject fear for their own safety moved some to betray members of their own family to the rigors of the persecuting authorities. Frequently this would lead to a cruel death in the arena. Jesus had warned of this, saying: “Moreover, you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death.” (Luke 21:16) Under totalitarian rulerships in our day there have likewise been instances where true Christians have been betrayed into the hands of sadistic persecutors by relatives and fair-weather friends.

Today, as in the early Christian days, the ruling and upper elements of society who control the various media for public information, and who thereby set the human standards as to what is and what is not acceptable or respectable, frequently make it their business to smear the true Christian witnesses. Any pretext is used to lower them in the public esteem. Hatred against them is kept alive because the ruling elements are out to discount and silence their bold Bible message. (Luke 21:17) After all, that message disturbs the complacency of those who ignore God and insist that they can solve national and international problems and bring in an era of peace and plenty. If true Christians were not thus hated and persecuted and spoken against, how could they be among those described by Jesus: “Happy are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, since the kingdom of the heavens belongs to them. Happy are you when people reproach you and persecute you and lyingly say every sort of wicked thing against you for my sake”?—Matt. 5:10, 11.

PATIENTLY ENDURING

Christians patiently endure and go on with their preaching ministry despite all types of persecution. And when their fellow servants suffer in other parts of the world, they speak out boldly in their defense, unashamed to be identified with them. Theirs is not just a passive sympathy with the persecuted, but a willingness to expend themselves by sharing zealously in features of the preaching work that are denied to those who are imprisoned. Also, they are only too glad to contribute toward the legal costs of defending those sufferers in the courts. This is in accord with the faithful pattern of the early Christians, of whom it is written: “You endured a great contest under sufferings, sometimes while you were being exposed as in a theater both to reproaches and tribulations, and sometimes while you became sharers with those who were having such an experience. For you both expressed sympathy for those in prison and joyfully took the plundering of your belongings.”—Heb. 10:32-34.

Genuine Christians bear up under persecution because they have so many assurances from God’s Word, like that at Luke 21:18, 19: “And yet not a hair of your heads will by any means perish. By endurance on your part you will acquire your souls.” They do not expect some miraculous deliverance from abuse or even death. They are confident in Jehovah’s power to resurrect them out of death to a grand reward in harmony with Jesus’ promise: “He that finds his soul [life] will lose it, and he that loses his soul for my sake will find it.”—Matt. 10:39.

Jesus’ fellow witnesses are determined that no amount of persecution will separate them from the congregation of those who love and obey God. While never courting persecution, as some fanatics do, they know from God’s Word that it will come upon them, and when it does they are ready to meet it without flinching. To them persecution for the right reason, for righteousness’ sake, is a badge of honor and a cause for joy.

Passing Over from Death to Life

“The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgement.”—John 5:28, 29.

1, 2. (a) How did Saul of Tarsus get to appear before the Roman court in Caesarea? (b) What did he make the real point under dispute, and how?

IN A Roman court in southwest Asia nineteen hundred years ago a man stood accused by people of his own Jewish race. He was Saul of the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor. By Roman soldiers he had been rescued from a violent mob in the temple of Jerusalem and also from the hands of brawling judges in the Supreme Sánhedrin of Jerusalem. Eleven days after being rescued from the confused Sánhedrin he stood before the Roman Governor Felix in the seacoast city of Caesarea to disprove what his accusers had just said. In the course of his defense Saul said words that have comforted countless millions all around the earth. Those words have also been quoted very frequently, because they set out powerfully the hope of a resurrection of the dead. Making the resurrection of the dead the real point under dispute, Saul said to the court:

² “I have hope toward God, which hope these men themselves also entertain, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. . . . let the men here say for themselves what wrong they found as I stood before the Sánhedrin, except with respect to this one utterance which I cried out while standing among them, ‘Over the resurrection of the dead I am today being judged before you!’”—Acts 24:15-21.

3, 4. (a) How had Saul become the apostle Paul? (b) How was Paul’s hope of a resurrection of the dead guaranteed?

³ What a hope that is, that “there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous”! That hope was really guaranteed by means of Saul’s spiritual Leader, Jesus Christ, who himself had been resurrected from the dead. Saul personally had met him in a miraculous way, to get instructions as to his future course in life. Saul at once became a footstep follower of the resurrected Jesus Christ and was later made an apostle of Christ, his name being changed from Saul to Paul. In arguing that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has made possible the “resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous,” this apostle Paul wrote:

⁴ “For if the dead are not to be raised up, neither has Christ been raised up. Further, if Christ has not been raised up, your faith is useless; you are yet in your sins. . . . However, now Christ has been raised up from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep in death.”—1 Cor. 15:16-20.

5. How, before the Supreme Court of Athens, Greece, did Paul point out what was the purpose of God?

⁵ Having a judgment day in view for all mankind, God raised up his Son Jesus Christ from the dead. The apostle Paul pointed out that purpose of God in these words before the Supreme Court in Athens, Greece: “He has set a day in which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has furnished a guarantee to all men in that he has resurrected him from the dead.”—Acts 17:22-31.

6. How did the apostle Peter, also at Caesarea, point to the future judgeship of Jesus Christ?

⁶ In a private home in Caesarea Paul’s fellow apostle Peter also pointed to the future judgeship of Jesus Christ when he said to Italian Centurion Cornelius: “God raised this One up on the third day and granted him to become manifest, not to all the people, but to witnesses appointed beforehand by God, to us, who ate and drank with him after his rising from the dead. Also, he ordered us to preach to the people and to give a thorough witness that this is the One decreed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone putting faith in him gets forgiveness of sins through his name.”—Acts 10:40-43.

7. (a) Who is the Supreme Judge, and why did he appoint another judge over humankind? (b) In harmony with this, what purpose does the resurrection of the dead serve?

⁷ Almighty God, who raised his Son Jesus Christ from a martyr’s death, is the great Supreme Judge of heaven and earth. We read, in Hebrews 12:23, that he is “God the Judge of all.” God has the right to appoint other judges, and he appointed his Son Jesus Christ to be the future judge of all mankind because he had died sacrificially for them. When he was a man here on earth, Jesus Christ called attention to his heavenly Father’s appointment of him to be judge of humankind. He pointed out that there was going to be a judgment day in which he would serve as the judge appointed by God his Father, even though it required a resurrection of the dead for him to hold court and carry out this judgment work toward all. Hence the resurrecting of both the righteous and the unrighteous was just a means to that end.

8. Following up Jesus’ miracle at the pool of Bethzátha, why did the Jews accuse him of being a lawbreaker and a blasphemer?

⁸ At the pool of Bethzátha Jesus had instantaneously healed a Jewish man who had been lying sick for thirty-eight years. Since Jesus had done this good work with God’s help on the Jewish Sabbath day, they persecuted him. In answer Jesus said: “My Father has kept working until now, and I keep working.” The criticizing Jews found fault with those words, for we read: “On this account, indeed, the Jews began seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.” Or, as another translation puts his words, “making himself equal with the deity.”—John 5:17, 18, NW; The New Testament—An Expanded Translation (Wuest).

A FIGURATIVE RESURRECTION NOW

9, 10. What did Jesus then say that called attention to his being appointed to be a judge under God?

⁹ It was in this connection that Jesus called attention to his being appointed to be a judge under God. The account of this as given by Jesus’ apostle John the son of Zebedee says:

¹⁰ “Therefore, in answer, Jesus went on to say to them: ‘Most truly I say to you, The Son cannot do a single thing of his own initiative, but only what he beholds the Father doing. For whatever things that One does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father has affection for the Son and shows him all the things he himself does, and he will show him works greater than these, in order that you may marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead up and makes them alive, so the Son also makes those alive whom he wants to. [Why?] For the Father judges no one at all, but he has committed all the judging to the Son, in order that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He that does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Most truly I say to you, He that hears my word and believes him that sent me has everlasting life, and he does not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life.’”—John 5:19-24.

11. How had God raised up dead persons before our Common Era, and what resurrection did he perform in the year 33 C.E.?

¹¹ Prior to Jesus, by means of holy prophets God had raised up dead persons, for instance, the sons of two mothers. Concerning this we read, in Hebrews 11:35: “Women received their dead by resurrection.” Now, in a matter of two years after Jesus spoke the words in John 5:19-24, the time came for God to raise up his own Son Jesus Christ from the dead, on the sixteenth day of the Jewish lunar month of Nisan in the year 33 of our Common Era.

12. At the resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ, what power did God give him and what was he then able to do, as he said above?

¹² By this resurrection God made his Son Jesus Christ alive forevermore in heaven, by clothing him with immortality and incorruptibility as a spirit Son of God. (Rev. 1:5, 18; 1 Pet. 3:18, 19) It was then that God gave life-giving power to his Son, so that he was able to make alive those whom he wanted to make alive, thus opening up the way for them to live forever in God’s coming righteous order of things. In that way the Son would copy his heavenly Father by doing all the things that the Father shows him are to be done in behalf of dead mankind. These future works of the Son of God will be greater than those he did when he was on earth, greater than when he healed the man who lay sick for thirty-eight years. That is why God the heavenly Father appointed him to be a judge.

13. (a) With regard to greatness, how do God and his Son stand toward each other? (b) Why should we honor the Son just as we do honor the Father?

¹³ The Sender is greater than the one sent. Jesus himself said that. (John 13:16) God the Greater sent the Son the Lesser, for which reason Jesus also said: “The Father is greater than I am.” (John 14:28) The Father the Greater appointed the Son the Lesser to be a judge, committing all the judging with reference to mankind to the Son, who died sacrificially for them. If we humans respect the Father’s power to appoint, we ought to honor the one whom he appoints as judge. Just as we should honor God the Father who is “the Judge of all,” so we should honor the Son whom he appoints to judge mankind. Certainly if we do not honor the Son as God’s appointed judge, we do not honor God the Father who clothed his Son with judicial power. We cannot claim to honor God the Father and at the same time rightly ignore the Son as judge.

14. (a) What depends upon our thus rendering honor? (b) After hearing Jesus’ words, upon whom must we believe for life?

¹⁴ Our everlasting life depends on our thus honoring the Son as judge in the same way as we honor the heavenly “Father who sent him.” Today, by means of John’s written account in the Holy Bible, we are hearing Jesus’ words in this regard. If, after thus hearing, we do as Jesus said, namely, ‘believe on him that sent me,’ we shall have everlasting life. This life we shall enjoy in God’s promised righteous order of things under his kingdom.

15. From what and to what does a hearer and believer pass over?

¹⁵ Note the remarkable thing about those who thus have everlasting life because they hear Jesus’ words with faith and obedience and then believe on the Father who sent him. Jesus says about each one of such: “He does not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life.” (John 5:24) There is a special spiritual sense in which such a hearer and believer passes over from death to life now during this present time of believing.

16. What did Jesus place as an opposite of one’s passing over from death to life, and of what kind is this?

¹⁶ Let us note here that Jesus places the word “judgment” as an opposite to one’s having “passed over from death to life.” In view of that fact it is evident that the word “judgment” as here used by Jesus means a contrary judgment, a condemnatory judgment, a sentencing of a person to endless death. This explains why the Bible translation by Dr. James Moffatt says: “He will incur no sentence of judgment, he has already passed from death across to life.” Also, away back in the year 1611 the Authorized Version Bible as approved by King James of England said: “He . . . shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”a

17. About whom was Jesus particularly speaking in John 5:24, and how does Matthew 19:27-29 have a relation to such?

¹⁷ Nineteen hundred years ago when Jesus Christ spoke those meaningful words he was speaking particularly of the congregation of believers whom God the heavenly Father was to take out from among men to become associate judges with Jesus Christ in the heavens. It was with reference to this congregation of associate judges that Jesus said to his apostles: “Truly I say to you, In the re-creation, when the Son of man sits down upon his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also yourselves sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone that has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive many times more and will inherit everlasting life.” (Matt. 19:27-29) There will, of course, be more than twelve associate judges of Jesus Christ in his heavenly kingdom.

18. Whom will the whole congregation of judges judge, and how does Paul refer to this fact in 1 Corinthians 6:2?

¹⁸ The whole congregation of associates will judge many more than the literal twelve tribes of Israel. Under the Superior Judge Jesus Christ they will judge all mankind, the living and the dead. On this point the apostle Paul wrote to the congregation: “Do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you unfit to try very trivial matters” now? (1 Cor. 6:2) Thus the associate judges will be many.

19, 20. (a) When was the time for passing over from death to life, according to Jesus’ words in John 5:25? (b) Who are the “dead” of whom he spoke, and how does Matthew 8:21, 22 illustrate this?

¹⁹ However, we here return to a consideration of Jesus’ words spoken to the Jews who wanted to kill him for seemingly being a Sabbath breaker and a blasphemer who made himself equal to God. After speaking about escaping judgment and passing over from death to life, Jesus pointed out that the time for this remarkable thing was then at hand. He said: “Most truly I say to you, The hour is coming, and it is now,b when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who have given heed will live.”—John 5:25.

²⁰ Who are these dead ones who hear the voice of the Son of God and who, on giving heed to it, live now? Very plainly they are not persons already dead in the graves. This could not be so, because Jesus said that the hour when such dead would hear his voice and would live because of giving heed was not only coming but “it is now.” That is, at the time that Jesus spoke. Those who “live” now were people on earth once dead in a spiritual sense, in a figurative way, not in actual graves. At that time when Jesus spoke, all mankind were under the condemnation of death before God the Judge of all. To such kind of spiritually dead persons Jesus must have referred when he said to the Jewish son who wanted to go home first to bury his father: “Keep following me, and let the dead bury their dead.” (Matt. 8:21, 22) The Jew should let his spiritually dead relatives bury his father when he was physically dead and ready for the grave. By following Jesus he would be on the way to eternal life and not be among the spiritually dead who were condemned before God.

21, 22. (a) According to Ephesians 2:1, 2, 4-6, who were once among such spiritually dead people, and in what way? (b) How were they made to pass over from death to life?

²¹ Those who become Christians with a true belief were once among the spiritually dead people of the world. The apostle Paul reminded the congregation of this fact, saying: “It is you God made alive though you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you at one time walked according to the system of things of this world. . . . But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with the Christ, even when we were dead in trespasses—by undeserved kindness you have been saved—and he raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus.”—Eph. 2:1, 2, 4-6.

²² Thus because of their no longer walking in trespasses and sins against God, he lifted his condemnation from them since they had faith in Christ. He raised them up out of spiritual death and gave them hope of everlasting life in his coming new order.

23. (a) How have the “dead” heard the voice of God’s Son since? (b) How does 1 Peter 4:5, 6 show who such “dead” are?

²³ When Jesus was present as a man on earth, the Jews heard his voice directly. By giving heed to what he had to say they could get onto the way to everlasting life now. But after he died and was resurrected and he finally ascended back to heaven, they could hear the “voice of the Son of God” only indirectly. How? By hearing his teachings preached or by reading what he preached and taught. The apostle Peter had in mind such spiritually dead persons who heard the good news about Jesus by means of preachers, when Peter wrote: “These people will render an account to the one ready to judge those living and those dead. In fact, for this purpose the good news was declared also to the dead, that they might be judged as to the flesh from the standpoint of men but might live as to the spirit from the standpoint of God.”—1 Pet. 4:5, 6.

24. How are such “dead” ones made to live from God’s standpoint?

²⁴ By accepting the good news and walking according to it, they become spiritually alive from God’s standpoint. By means of his life-imparting spirit God raises them up out of their spiritually dead, condemned state and activates them to follow in the footsteps of the Son of man, Jesus Christ.

25. (a) Into what do those passing over from the one state to the other not come? (b) According to John what quality do they exercise in proof of having passed over from death to life?

²⁵ Since they have been relieved of the condemnation, they do not “come into judgment” but become persons who have “passed over from death to life,” as Jesus previously said. (John 5:24) This transfer from deadness in trespasses and sins to spiritual life is described by the apostle John in these words: “Do not marvel, brothers, that the world hates you. We know we have passed over from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a manslayer, and you know that no manslayer has everlasting life remaining in him.” That his Christian brothers might continue to prove worthy of everlasting life in God’s new order of things, John adds: “Little children, let us love, neither in word nor with the tongue, but in deed and truth.”—1 John 3:13-15, 18.

26. What does such love move them to do, and hence from whose standpoint are they alive?

²⁶ Such love is a fruitage of God’s spirit with such Christians, and it moves them to obey God’s commandments. As 1 John 5:3 reminds us: “This is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome.” Those who keep God’s commandments as applying to Christ’s followers are really alive from God’s standpoint, spiritually alive now.

[Footnotes]

“Verse 24. . . . The [making alive] is accomplished in him, he has eternal life (Joh 3:15), that is, the highest spiritual life, which, upon his entrance into the Messiah’s kingdom, reaches its consummation in glorious Messianic [life]. He has, in that he is become a believer, passed from spiritual death . . . into eternal life (the life par excellence), and cometh not into (condemnatory, compare Joh 3:18) judgment, because he has already attained unto that life. The result of this is: [death he will by no means see], Joh 8:51. On the perfect [he has passed over] see Joh 3:18; 1 John 3:14.”

The italicized words enclosed with parentheses or with brackets in the above quotation are an English translation of Greek words used by Doctor Meyer.

Out of the Tombs to a “Resurrection of Life”

1. Into what kind of life have those who become associate judges with Christ entered while yet on earth, and how?

DOWN through the past nineteen centuries the persons whom God has chosen to become associate judges with his Son in the heavenly kingdom have heard the voice of the Son of God and, because of giving heed to what his voice told them to do, they have entered into a spiritual life while yet on this earth. They have been justified from the condemned condition of the world of mankind that is dead in its trespasses and sins and hateful spirit. God has relieved them of the condemnation of death through the sacrificial death that his Son suffered for all believers.—Rom. 5:1; 8:1-4.

2. To what, in John 5:26, did Jesus refer by the expression “life in himself”?

² Jesus Christ referred to his part in connection with God’s act of bringing the believers from death across to life, when Jesus next said: “For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted also to the Son to have life in himself.” In view of how Jesus argued in his discourse here, he did not refer to what some persons call “inherent life” in either his heavenly Father or himself, or ‘self-existence’ according to An American Translation. (John 5:26) According to his argument Jesus referred to the power to impart life. Hence the New English Bible (of 1961) puts Jesus’ words this way: “For as the Father has life-giving power in himself, so has the Son, by the Father’s gift.” The Roman Catholic translation by Monsignor Ronald A. Knox conveys the same idea, reading: “As the Father has within him the gift of life, so he has granted to the Son that he too should have within him the gift of life.” The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, of 1950, presents the same thought: “For just as the Father has in himself the gift of life, so he has granted to the Son to have also in himself the gift of life.”

3. Why could God and why did God grant to the Son to have “life in himself”?

³ How, when and why did the heavenly Father grant to his Son Jesus Christ to have life-imparting power within himself? As Jehovah God is the “source of life,” he could grant to his Son to have lifegiving power in himself. (Ps. 36:9) Why he did so was because the human family was dying as a result of the sin committed by its first human father, Adam.—Rom. 5:12.

4, 5. (a) By means of his Son, how did God provide for this imparting of life to mankind? (b) To whom therefore, does Hebrews 10:5-10 apply the words of Psalm 40:6-8, and how?

⁴ Everlasting life could be imparted to the condemned, dying race of mankind only by means of a human sacrifice. To provide this human sacrifice for offsetting mankind’s sin and relieving them of their condemnation to death Jehovah God the heavenly Father sent his Son, transferring his life from heaven to earth. Miraculously he had his Son born as the babe Jesus in Bethlehem of Judea. Jesus grew up to be a perfect man at the age of thirty, the equivalent of the perfect man Adam in Eden. True, he now had perfect human life, free from condemnation, but he had to make this human life of his available for mankind by sacrificing it in the service of his heavenly Father. So at the age of thirty years Jesus presented himself for this sacrificial service, to serve as a priest of God. In Hebrews 10:5-10 the inspired writer applies the words of Psalm 40:6-8 to Jesus and says:

⁵ “Hence when he comes into the world he says: ‘“Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but you prepared a body for me. You did not approve of whole burnt offerings and sin offering.” Then I said, “Look! I am come (in the roll of the book it is written about me) to do your will, O God.’” After first saying: ‘You did not want nor did you approve of sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sin offering’—sacrifices that are offered according to the Law—then he actually says: ‘Look! I am come to do your will.’ He does away with what is first that he may establish what is second. By the said ‘will’ we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.”

6. In harmony with that, what did Jesus have done to himself, and what did God then give to him to a limited extent?

⁶ In order to symbolize this presentation of himself to God’s special service even to the death, Jesus had himself baptized in water by John the Baptist. (Matt. 3:13-17) Right after Jesus was baptized in water Jehovah God baptized his now dedicated Son with holy spirit from heaven and declared him to be his spiritual Son. There at that baptism the Father granted to the Son to have in himself life-giving power to a limited extent. It was because of this fact that the Son was able to cure the man who lay sick for thirty-eight years and also to raise Jews from the dead, even bringing his dear friend Lazarus back to life after four days of entombment. But Jesus did not yet have power to impart everlasting life to members of the condemned human family. Why not? Because he had not yet sacrificed his perfect human body in actual death.

7. (a) What power did God exercise on the third day after Jesus’ death, and how? (b) With what did Jesus ascend to heaven, and why with this?

⁷ However, a dead Jesus Christ could not impart life to dying mankind. Hence Jehovah God the Father, who has lifegiving power in himself, raised his Son from the dead on the third day to immortal life in heaven, in the spirit realm. When Jesus ascended to heaven forty days after his resurrection from the dead, he did not take the sacrificed human body to heaven with him—an impossibility!—but took with him the value of his sacrificed perfect human life, in order to present this to the heavenly Father in behalf of mankind. God the Father accepted this sacrificial presentation and he made Jesus Christ his High Priest in behalf of man.—Heb. 9:24-26.

8. What kind of person did Jesus become in his resurrection?

⁸ Accordingly, the apostle Paul, when writing about the resurrection of the Christian dead and about the sort of body with which such dead come to life, says: “It is sown a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual one. It is even so written: ‘The first man Adam became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Cor. 15:44, 45) The apostle Paul calls Jesus Christ “the last Adam” and says he became a “lifegiving spirit” in his resurrection.

9. (a) As what was the Son of God now able to act? (b) Why was it necessary for him to become the “Son of man,” and why is the death of the majority of mankind no hindrance to him?

⁹ That is how Jehovah God the Father granted to his Son Jesus Christ to have life-giving power in himself. This enabled the Son to act as judge, not only of the living, but also of the dead whom he could raise to life at the time of his heavenly kingdom. For this reason Jesus Christ continued his argument and added the words: “And he has given him authority to do judging, because Son of man he is.” (John 5:27) If the heavenly Son of God had not become the “Son of man” for sacrificial purposes, he could not have come into this privilege of obtaining lifegiving power and being appointed the Judge of mankind, the Judge of the dead and the living. Of course, the majority of the human race would be dead by the time that his kingdom is established. However, that fact would not keep him from judging them, for now he has life-giving power and can summon them before him by raising them from their graves.

A GREATER MARVEL STILL

10. Of what greater marvel did Jesus tell those murderminded Jews in John 5:28-30?

¹⁰ When Jesus spoke about his being granted life-giving power and about his being authorized to do judging, it doubtless caused the Jews who wanted to kill him to marvel. But if they marveled at such things, then there was something still more marvelous to occur. They had not heard the climax of the matter. So Jesus went on to say: “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombsa will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment. I cannot do a single thing of my own initiative; just as I hear, I judge; and the judgment that I render is righteous, because I seek, not my own will, but the will of him that sent me.”—John 5:28-30.

11, 12. (a) How many will come out, and will it be all together at one time? (b) Why does Jesus’ use of the word “hour” not require the coming out to be all at one time?

¹¹ Observe that Jesus here said that “all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out” in obedience to him, the Judge who has life-giving power. This requires that there should be a resurrection of them all, that is, all the dead, good and bad, who are kept in mind to be raised. This does not mean, however, that they are all resurrected or must all be resurrected at the same time, on the same day. True, Jesus did say that the “hour” is coming in which all this will occur. Certainly, though, the word “hour” here does not mean just sixty minutes, or 3,600 seconds exact.

¹² Certainly the apostle John, when writing about the year 98 C.E., did not mean a twenty-fourth part of a full day when he wrote: “Young children, it is the last hour, and, just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now there have come to be many antichrists; from which fact we gain the knowledge that it is the last hour.” (1 John 2:18) So Jesus’ use of the word “hour” here means a period of time under God’s established kingdom, which time period will be a critical one, as it were, a critical “hour.”

13. Because of all coming out of the tombs, what kind of resurrection does Jesus mean, and why does this not argue for their all coming out at one time?

¹³ When Jesus said that all the dead in the memorial tombs will hear his judicial voice and come out, it meant that there will be one big, general, all-inclusive resurrection. He points out, though, that the results to people having part in this comprehensive resurrection will be different. But that this all-embracing resurrection does not also mean their coming out all at the same time, on the same day, in the same year, is indicated for us elsewhere.

14. How, in 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23, does the apostle Paul indicate there will be order in the resurrection?

¹⁴ The apostle Paul, when discussing the certainty of the resurrection, said: “For just as in Adam all are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive. But each one in his own rank: Christ the first fruits, afterward those who belong to the Christ during his presence.” (1 Cor. 15:22, 23) Not all the spiritual Christians who will be associate judges with Jesus Christ in his kingdom will be dead at the time of his arrival. Some will have to finish their earthly lives in sacrificial death later, when finishing their God-given work on earth.

15. How does Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17, indicate a difference in time of resurrection?

¹⁵ Thus there will not be a simultaneous resurrection of them all at the time of Jesus’ arrival, but, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17, the apostle Paul says: “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with the Lord.” Those words “first” and “afterward” denote a difference in time of resurrection.

16, 17. In Revelation 20:4-6, what does John have to say about those who will be associate judges with Jesus Christ in heaven?

¹⁶ Concerning those who will sit on heavenly thrones to act as associate judges with the Superior Judge Jesus Christ, the apostle John has this to say, in Revelation 20:4-6:

¹⁷ “And I saw thrones, and there were those who sat down on them, and power of judging was given them. Yes, I saw the souls of those executed with the ax for the witness they bore to Jesus and for speaking about God, and those who had worshiped neither the wild beast nor its image and who had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand. And they came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Happy and holy is anyone having part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.”

18. In what resurrection do they take part, and why is it rated in that way?

¹⁸ Those who sit on the heavenly thrones and to whom the “power of judging” is given take part in what the apostle John calls “the first resurrection.” The word “first” distinguishes their resurrection from that of the rest of mankind. It is first, not only in the matter of importance, but also in the matter of timing.

19. (a) How, in Philippians 3:11, does Paul refer to timing of the resurrection? (b) Whom will the partakers in the first resurrection include?

¹⁹ The apostle Paul had this matter of time in mind when he wrote of his efforts that, as he says, “by any means I may advance to the early resurrection, which is from among the dead.” (Phil. 3:11, Rotherham’s translation; NW) Those who take part in the “first resurrection” and sit down on those thrones of judging will include the twelve faithful apostles of Jesus, as he himself promised. (Matt. 19:27, 28) The apostle Paul said that it would also include his faithful, sanctified Christian brothers. (1 Cor. 1:1, 2; 6:2) All together, they will number 144,000, whom the apostle John in vision saw sealed in the foreheads with the seal of the living God and standing with the sacrificed Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, on the heavenly Mount Zion.—Rev. 7:4-8; 14:1-3.

“THE REST OF THE DEAD”

20, 21. (a) In what resurrection do the “rest of the dead” have part? (b) How does the apostle John describe their resurrection and being judged?

²⁰ The resurrection of the 144,000 partakers of the first resurrection, who sit on thrones with the “power of judging,” leaves the “rest of the dead” to be accounted for. Since these have no part in the first resurrection, they must have part in a second or after resurrection. In the same vision the apostle John saw the resurrection of the “rest of the dead” and described it this way:

²¹ “And I saw a great white throne and the one seated on it. From before him the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life. And the dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds. And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Hades gave up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds. And death and Hades were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire. Furthermore, whoever was not found written in the book of life was hurled into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:11-15) The “lake that burns with fire and sulphur” is mentioned again in Revelation 21:8, but there in connection with Christians who were in line to become part of the 144,000 but who fail because of not overcoming this world through cowardice, lack of faith and turning to wickedness.

22. Why are the earth and the heaven that flee away not literal?

²² The earth and the heaven that flee away from the one seated on the great white throne of judgment are, of course, symbolic, and not the literal earth and heaven. Otherwise, where would resurrected people stand before the judgment throne? Or how could they come out of the memorial tombs that are on the literal earth, or come out of Hades, which is the common grave of dead mankind in the literal earth, or come out of the sea where many have drowned? So the earth and the heaven that fled away are symbolic.

23. When or in what way will the symbolic earth flee away, and then the symbolic heaven?

²³ The symbolic earth flees away when Babylon the Great is destroyed and immediately thereafter the symbolic wild beast and the “false prophet” and the kings of the earth and their armies are destroyed in the war of Har–Magedon, as described in Revelation 16:13-16; 17:15-18; 19:19-21. The symbolic heaven flees away when Satan the Devil and his demons are chained and shut up in the abyss for the thousand years of Christ’s reign over the earth, as described in Revelation 20:1-3. Thus those wicked earthly and heavenly powers will not be present to interfere with the judgment of the earthly dead during the thousand years of Christ’s reign.

24. (a) Why is it unreasonable to think that this Judgment day is only twenty-four hours long? (b) How do we figure the length of that judgment day?

²⁴ Remember that the apostle Paul indicates that there is to be order and rank in the resurrection of the dead. So we must not conclude that those earthly dead are raised out of Hades and the sea all at the same time or all in one twenty-four-hour day. There is no need for such a hurried judgment procedure. In view of so many humans being dead, tens of billions of them, how could they all be properly judged in one twenty-four-hour day, even by the 144,000 associate judges along with their Superior Judge, Jesus Christ? Since the 144,000 associate judges live and reign with Christ for a thousand years, the judgment day of the human dead will be a thousand years long. This will allow enough time for each resurrected one to be put on trial and to determine whether his name should be written on the scroll of life or not. Does not 2 Peter 3:8 say: “Let this one fact not be escaping your notice, beloved ones, that one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day”? Yes. So let us reason Scripturally.

25, 26. (a) How is order and rank with regard to the earthly human resurrection suggested in Hebrews 11:35? (b) For whom was this reserved, and what were they called for a long time?

²⁵ Now note something that suggests order and rank with regard to the earthly human resurrection. In Hebrews 11:1 to 12:1 the writer gives a brief account of “so great a cloud of witnesses,” who lived before Jesus Christ died and was resurrected and who were Jehovah’s witnesses back there. (Isa. 43:10-12; 44:8) In the thirty-fifth verse of chapter eleven Heb 11:35 the writer evidently speaks of them all as due for a better resurrection. The verse says: “Women received their dead by resurrection; but other men were tortured because they would not accept release by some ransom, in order that they might attain a better resurrection.”

²⁶ This “better resurrection” was evidently what was reserved for all this “so great a cloud of witnesses,” for which reason some were even willing to be tortured to death in order to attain it. After we are told about their hardships and sufferings, Hebrews 11:38 says about these ancient witnesses: “The world was not worthy of them.” Consequently, for a long time Christian Bible students used to call them and refer to them as “the ancient worthies.”b

27. (a) How does Hebrews 11:39, 40 indicate a difference in resurrections, and what is the difference? (b) How is the resurrection of the ancient witnesses a “better” one?

²⁷ That there would be a difference between the resurrection of that ancient “cloud of witnesses” and the resurrection of the 144,000 Christians who become associate judges with Christ in the heavens, Hebrews 11:39, 40 says this about these ancient witnesses: “And yet all these, although they had witness borne to them through their faith, did not get the fulfillment of the promise, as God foresaw something better for us, in order that they might not be made perfect apart from us.” Yes, God foresaw something better for Christ’s faithful followers, something better than what the ancient “cloud of witnesses” get when resurrected. The “cloud of witnesses” do not have part in the first resurrection, which is a heavenly or spiritual resurrection. They have an earthly resurrection. Yet their resurrection is better than what those persons got whom the ancient prophets raised from the dead, the persons meant in the words, “women received their dead by resurrection.” Their resurrection will be under God’s kingdom with Christ as King. Hence they will not need to die again if they remain faithful.

28. To whose forefathers does Psalm 45:16 refer, and what will be done with them?

²⁸ Psalm 45 refers to some of those ancient pre-Christian witnesses who are in line for that “better resurrection.” Psalm 45 talks prophetically about the Messianic King, Jesus Christ, and about his marriage to the bride class, the 144,000 joint heirs of him in the heavenly kingdom. Then, in addressing the King Jesus Christ, Psalm 45:16 prophetically says: “In place of your forefathers there will come to be your sons, whom you will appoint as princes in all the earth.” Among the forefathers of Jesus Christ as a man are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and King David, who were faithful men, faithful witnesses of Jehovah.

29, 30. (a) What can be said about whether the appointment of princes in all the earth will be limited to Christ’s forefathers? (b) What does their appointment as princes argue about people’s coming forth in the resurrection?

²⁹ In order to appoint his faithful forefathers as “princes in all the earth” under his heavenly kingdom, Jesus Christ will have to resurrect them from the memorial tombs. If the other people on earth are to get the benefit of the princely rule of Christ’s faithful forefathers during his thousand-year reign, such forefathers need to be resurrected early during his reign, even though they died thousands of years ago. If the reigning King Jesus Christ restricted the appointment of princes in all the earth to only the godly forefathers of his, there would not be many such princes in all the earth. Other ancient men were equally faithful among that “so great a cloud of witnesses.” So it is only reasonable that such faithful witnesses would likewise be considered worthy to be appointed as princes in various parts of the earth.

³⁰ Their appointment to princely office argues that they would be resurrected earlier than the other earthly subjects of God’s kingdom. This suggests that order and rank will be observed in the earthly resurrection. That being so, then the earthly dead will not be given up by Hades and by the sea all at one time, without making arrangements beforehand to care for the returning dead.c

“RESURRECTION OF LIFE”

31. (a) How have some Bible commentators wondered about John 5:28, 29? (b) How did Jesus Christ split up those having a resurrection?

³¹ Jesus spoke of the coming out of the memorial tombs as one general operation. However, he points out that such a resurrection of all will lead to different results for different persons. In John 5:28, 29 he says: “All those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” Hence some Bible commentators have wondered whether this meant two resurrections along these two lines, of the two classes here indicated.d However, here Jesus Christ is not discussing resurrection and splitting it up according to the “first resurrection” and the resurrection of all “the rest of the dead.” He splits up mankind only as to the outcome of the resurrected ones.

32. Whom do the doers of good who gain the “resurrection of life” include?

³² In John 5:29 we find the only place in the Bible where the expression “resurrection of life” occurs. Jesus said that those who enjoy it are “those who did good things.” Whom do such doers of good things include? The Bible answers, ALL those resurrected ones who attain to everlasting life in God’s coming righteous new order of things under his Messiah, regardless of whether that life is immortal life in heaven as joint heirs and associate judges of Jesus Christ or is life in human perfection on earth under God’s kingdom of his Messiah.e Such life is gained through Jesus Christ.

33, 34. (a) In itself does the expression “resurrection of life” mean an instantaneous entering into perfection of life? (b) What, though, can be said about the resurrection of Christ and his 144,000 joint heirs and the remnant of these?

³³ The “resurrection of life” does not in itself mean an awakening from death to an instantaneous entering into perfection of life either in heaven as spirit creatures or on earth as human creatures. In the case of the 144,000 Christians who prove worthy of becoming associates of Jesus Christ as judges, kings and priests in heaven, their resurrection will indeed mean an instantaneous perfecting of them as immortal, incorruptible spirit sons of God. When their Leader Jesus Christ was resurrected, it was an instantaneous perfecting of him as the chief spirit Son of God. Like his, will be the resurrection of his 144,000 joint heirs. (Rom. 6:5) When the apostle Paul discusses the resurrection he speaks of faithful Christians who survive on earth till their Lord arrives and who do not need to sleep in death when finishing their earthly career, sleeping till his return. In 1 Corinthians 15:49-54 Paul writes:

³⁴ “And just as we have borne the image of the one made of dust [the first man Adam], we shall bear also the image of the heavenly one [Jesus Christ]. However, this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Look! I tell you a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep in death, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, during the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised up incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this which is corruptible must put on incorruption, and this which is mortal must put on immortality. But when this which is corruptible puts on incorruption and this which is mortal puts on immortality, then the saying will take place that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up forever.’”

35. Do the 144,000 undergo a judging before their resurrection to instantaneous perfection, and what does 2 Corinthians 5:10 indicate?

³⁵ Since the 144,000 are resurrected to instantaneous perfection of heavenly spiritual life, does this mean that they are not first put under a judging? No! In 2 Corinthians 5:10 the apostle Paul writes to the congregation of Christ’s faithful followers: “For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of the Christ, that each one may get his award for the things done through the body, according to the things he has practiced, whether it is good or vile.” Thus Christ’s joint heirs are under a judging now.

36. Accordingly, what warning does 1 Peter 4:17, 18 give to the 144,000?

³⁶ This is what the apostle Peter warns them about, in 1 Peter 4:17, 18, saying: “For it is the appointed time for the judgment to start with the house of God. Now if it starts first with us, what will the end be of those who are not obedient to the good news of God? ‘And if the righteous man is being saved with difficulty, where will the ungodly man and the sinner make a showing?’”

37. When and where do the 144,000 have to be proved “those who did good things”?

³⁷ Therefore before ever they die and enjoy the “resurrection of life” the Judge must prove the fact that they are of “those who did good things.” Since in the resurrection these 144,000 joint heirs experience an instantaneous perfecting of life as spirit creatures in heaven, they must be proved to be doers of good in this era, in the flesh. This has to be done before ever they are instantaneously clothed upon with immortality and incorruptibility in heaven.

THE OTHER DOERS OF GOOD

38. As regards those resurrected to an opportunity for everlasting life on earth, what will determine their being written or staying written in the “scroll of life”?

³⁸ What about persons who have an earthly resurrection with a hope of perfect life in an earthly paradise under God’s kingdom? These do not need or have an instantaneous transformation to human perfection on being awakened from death in the memorial tombs. Works will determine whether they will be written on the scroll of life or stay written there, but such works are not yet all in the past. What will their works on earth be during the thousand-year reign of Christ? Besides that, there lies ahead of them all the final testing when Satan and his demons are loosed from the abyss at the end of the thousand years. (Rev. 20:7-10) At that future time it will be decisively established whether they are “those who did good things” by remaining faithful under this test.

39, 40. (a) What will that “so great a cloud of witnesses” have to learn, even including John the Baptist? (b) What will that “cloud of witnesses” have to prove themselves, and of what provision for sins will they be able to avail themselves?

³⁹ Take, for instance, that “so great a cloud of witnesses” of ancient times, including Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, King David, John the Baptist. These we expect to be made “princes in all the earth.” They will have much to learn, especially about the Messiah Jesus and what part he plays in God’s purpose and arrangements. They will have to come to an understanding of this and be tested as to this information given to them after their resurrection. John the Baptist was beheaded about two years before Jesus Christ died and was resurrected and went back to heaven. So John has much to learn and to be tested upon after he is resurrected to life on earth. Even from his prison cell John the Baptist sent to inquire of Jesus whether he was the complete fulfillment of the Messiah or a different one was yet to come to complete matters.

⁴⁰ Consequently, down to the end of Christ’s thousand-year reign the members of that “so great a cloud of witnesses,” who enjoy a “better resurrection,” will need to prove themselves doers of good things. In ancient times they had the benefit of only animal sacrifices that could not really take away human sins; but after they are resurrected on earth they will be able to avail themselves of Jesus’ ransom sacrifice and of his services as God’s High Priest for human sinners. Their everlasting life depends on this.

41. (a) To what class does the “great crowd” of Revelation 7:9-17 belong? (b) What is their hope of survival, and will they be transformed instantly to human perfection?

⁴¹ In Revelation 7:9-17 a “great crowd” is described. This is an earthly class of people. They are not a class begotten by God’s spirit. So they are not a class having a heavenly destiny. They belong to the “other sheep” whom the Fine Shepherd Jesus Christ brings into his one fold of saved persons, according to what he said in John 10:16. All the “other sheep” are to live in the “new earth” under God’s heavenly kingdom. But many of the “great crowd” of today expect to survive the war of Har–Magedon with which this system of things ends, just as the sons and daughters-in-law of Noah survived with Noah and his wife in the ark. Thus they expect to live on into the new system of things after Har–Magedon without dying. They will not be transformed instantaneously into perfect human creatures right after the war of Har–Magedon. As a class they will not attain to human perfection till the end of the thousand-year reign of Christ through the help of his kingdom.

42. When will those of the “great crowd” who die before the war of Har–Magedon gain human perfection and prove to be “those who did good things”?

⁴² Many of this “great crowd” have already died faithful in God’s service. Others of them will yet die before the war of Har–Magedon. So they will need to hear the voice of the glorified Son of man and come out of the memorial tombs in resurrection. They will not be raised instantaneously to human perfection any more than earthly survivors of the war of Har–Magedon will be transformed in an instant to human perfection right after Har–Magedon ends. Like such earthly Har–Magedon survivors those coming out of the memorial tombs will not attain to human perfection till at the end of Christ’s thousand-year reign. And then they will have to face the loosing of Satan and his demons, to prove whether they will keep on doing good things. Only those “who did good things” despite the brief loosing of Satan will gain everlasting life on earth.

43. Whom do the dead ones mentioned in Revelation 20:11-13 include?

⁴³ As regards the dead of mankind in general, Revelation 20:11-13 says that both Haʹdes and the sea will give up the dead that are in them. Such dead ones will include the faithful prophets and witnesses from Abel down to John the Baptist, and also those of the present-day “great crowd” who die before Har–Magedon, and all the rest who are then, as Jesus said, “in the memorial tombs.”

44. What will then be the question with regard to them and according to what will they be judged?

⁴⁴ Then the question is, Who will get his name written or keep his name written on the “scroll of life”? Evidently those who are finally judged as “those who did good things.” To be finally pronounced such, they must bring their lives into harmony with the symbolic “scrolls” of divine instruction that will be opened during the thousand-year reign of Christ. They will need those opened scrolls as a guide to their deeds during Christ’s reign, because it is “according to their deeds” that people standing before the “great white throne” will be judged.—Rev. 20:12.

45. (a) When will any of these be judicially pronounced “those who did good things?” (b) What will happen to those not found written in the book of life?

⁴⁵ When the deciding test comes upon them by the loosing of Satan and his demons for a little while at the close of the thousand-year reign of Christ, they will have to pass this test faithfully. First after they pass this final, decisive test they will be judicially pronounced as being unchangeably “those who did good.” Their names will be “found written in the book of life.” Yes, some will be found written in the book of life, for what will happen to those who are then not found written in it is told in Revelation 20:15. Those unwritten ones will die the “second death.” In this way it will at last be determined who of those persons who came out of the memorial tombs came out to a “resurrection of life.”

[Footnotes]

“In the tombs (en tois mnemeiois). Taphos (grave) presents the notion of burial (thapto, to bury) as in Matthew 23:27. mnemeion (from mnaomai, mimnesko, to remind) is a memorial (sepulchre as a monument).”

“Here it is as little said that all shall be raised at the same time, as in Joh 5 verse 25 that all the spiritually dead shall be quickened simultaneously.”

The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Volume 4 (1955 edition), discusses “Resurrection” and on page 2564a refers to John 6:39, 40, 44, 54; 11:25 and John 5:28, 29 and says: “Whether these passages imply two resurrections or emphasize only the extreme difference in conditions at the one [resurrection] cannot be determined.”

Out of the Tombs to a “Resurrection of Judgment”

1. Who are the ones that John 5:29 speaks of as “those who practiced vile things”?

WHO are the ones whom Jesus, in John 5:29, called “those who practiced vile things” and who come out of the memorial tombs “to a resurrection of judgment”? Evidently these are all the ones who have not proved their resurrection to be a “resurrection of life.”

2, 3. (a) In John 5:29, does the word “judgment” allow for two possibilities for the ones judged? (b) At whom is the judgment directed, and what, in the light of other scriptures, would this indicate as to the kind of judgment for them?

² In Jesus’ expression “resurrection of judgment,” does the word “judgment” mean an opportunity to have the court judge decide in favor of the person on trial? No! “Judgment” here does not mean a judicial trial with two possibilities, either that of the judge’s pronouncing a person not guilty and releasing him or that of the judge’s condemning him and adjudging him to punishment.a “Judgment” means the act of judging, the intellectual or mental process of forming an opinion by considering the facts of the case, the judicial decision of a case in court.b It must be either favorable or unfavorable. Which is the “judgment” here in John 5:29?

³ The very fact that, in John 5:29, the judgment is directed at “those who practiced vile things” indicates that it is an unfavorable judgment, a condemnatory judgment. Concerning persons who now make a practice of doing vile things, Jesus said: “He that practices vile things hates the light and does not come to the light, in order that his works may not be reproved. But he that does what is true comes to the light, in order that his works may be made manifest as having been worked in harmony with God.” (John 3:20, 21) In a warning to us against jealousy and contentiousness James 3:14-16 goes on to say: “This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is the earthly, animal, demonic. For where jealousy and contentiousness are, there disorder and every vile thing are.”—See Titus 2:8.

4. What kind of judgment and judging is referred to in Jude 4, 14, 15 and Acts 7:7?

⁴ In a number of Bible verses the words “judge” and “judgment” have the force of condemning, condemnation. For example, in Jude 4, 14, 15, which reads: “Certain men have slipped in who have long ago been appointed by the Scriptures to this judgment, ungodly men, turning the undeserved kindness of our God into an excuse for loose conduct and proving false to our only Owner and Lord, Jesus Christ.” “Look! Jehovah came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment [krisis] against all, and to convict all the ungodly.” Acts 7:7 says concerning Egypt: “‘That nation for which they [the Israelites] will slave I shall judge,’ God said, ‘and after these things they will come out and will render sacred service to me in this place.’”

5. When appointments are considered, against what kind of judgment should the newly converted man be protected?

⁵ The apostle Paul instructed to appoint, “not a newly converted man, for fear that he might get puffed up with pride and fall into the judgment [krima] passed upon the Devil.”—1 Tim. 3:6.

6. According to Revelation 18:8, 20 and Re 19:2, what kind of judgment is applied to Babylon the Great?

⁶ The world empire of false religion symbolized as Babylon the Great will have no resurrection from her coming destruction. So, according to Dr. Robert Young’s literal Bible translation, Revelation 18:8, 20 and Re 19:2 read: “In fire she shall be utterly burned, because strong is the Lord God who is judging her.” “Be glad over her, O heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, because God did judge your judgment on her!” “Because true and righteous are His judgments, because He did judge the great whore who did corrupt the earth in her whoredom, and He did avenge the blood of His servants at her hand.”

7. What kind of judging is indicated in Jeremiah 51:9, Psalm 9:19, Joel 3:12 and Obadiah 21?

⁷ In Hebrew the word mishpát is used in the sense of “cause or ground of condemnation.” Jeremiah 51:9 says about Babylon: “Clear to the heavens her judgment has reached.” In Psalm 9:19 and Joel 3:12 we read about how the nations are judged unfavorably. Obadiah 21 says concerning the ungodly nation of Esau or Edom: “Saviors will certainly come up onto Mount Zion, in order to judge the mountainous region of Esau; and the kingship must become Jehovah’s.”

8. What kind of judging or judgment is referred to in John 7:51 and Matthew 23:33?

⁸ The Jewish ruler Nicodemus defended Jesus Christ with the words: “Our law does not judge a man unless first it has heard from him and come to know what he is doing, does it?” (John 7:51) In Matthew 23:33 Jesus says to the Jewish scribes and Pharisees: “Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgment of Gehenna?” If this judgment is something from which to flee, how could this judgment (krisis) mean an opportunity to escape from Gehenna or endless destruction? It does not mean such!

CONTRASTS, OPPOSITES

9, 10. (a) In John 5:29, what is Jesus making between the things there mentioned? (b) What does he contrast in John 3:17-19?

⁹ Keep in mind also that, in John 5:29, Jesus Christ is making contrasts. He is contrasting “those who did good things” and “those who practiced vile things.” Correspondingly, he contrasts the “resurrection of life” and the “resurrection of judgment.”

¹⁰ In other places Jesus makes the same contrast between salvation (or life) and judgment. For example, after telling of God’s great love for the world of mankind Jesus said: “God sent forth his Son into the world, not for him to judge the world, but for the world to be saved through him. He that exercises faith in him is not to be judged. He that does not exercise faith has been judged already, because he has not exercised faith in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. Now this is the basis for judgment [or, this is the krisis], that the light has come into the world but men have loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were wicked.” (John 3:17-19) In those verses all the cases of judging and of judgment are in a condemnatory sense. All are contrasted with salvation to everlasting life.—Compare John 12:47; Matthew 25:46.

11, 12. (a) In John 5:24, what does he contrast with each other? (b) In John 5:28, 29, what two opposite outcomes does Jesus show for those coming out of the memorial tombs?

¹¹ In John 5:24, just a few verses ahead of where Jesus mentions the resurrection of the dead, he makes the same contrast between life and judgment, saying: “He that hears my word and believes him that sent me has everlasting life, and he does not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life.” Hence in John 5:28, 29 Jesus shows the two distinct and opposite outcomes of the general resurrection or coming out of the memorial tombs.

¹² They are (1) “life” and (2) “judgment,” that is, a condemnatory judgment, a condemnation, a “damnation” in the now out-of-date language of the King James Version Bible; an adjudging to punishment by the utter loss of all life anywhere.

13. (a) A real contrast between “life” and “judgment” will not allow for what interpretation of the word “judgment”? (b) So then, what kind of thing does the word “judgment” here mean?

¹³ Jesus does not contrast (1) “life” and (2) a “judgment” the outcome of which is uncertain, either life if the resurrected one turns from practicing vile things or death if he does not turn from such practice. This would be no real contrast, for eternal life would then be possible by the “resurrection of judgment” as well as by the “resurrection of life.” And since Jesus said that “all” would come out and that all would come out to a “resurrection,” to a “resurrection” either of life or of judgment, it would then reduce itself to a universal salvation of “all those in the memorial tombs” who hear Jesus’ voice and come out. To the contrary of this, “judgment” here means, not a divisible judgment, but a single judgment with but one sentence that adjudges the practicers of vile things to a loss of all life.

14. (a) Since the word “judgment” is used only in connection with “those who practiced vile things,” does this mean that the gainers of life do not pass through a testing? (b) Since the 144,000 gain an instantaneous perfection in heaven, when do they have their judgment period?

¹⁴ Accordingly, John 5:28, 29 indicates two general classes that are distinguished from each other by the outcome of their course of action after they are resurrected. In John 5:29 Jesus uses the Greek word krisis only in connection with those who do vile things, but this does not mean that those who gain the “resurrection of life” do not pass through a trial or testing before they actually enter into their life eternal.c In the case of the 144,000 who become associate judges with Jesus Christ in heaven, they have an instantaneous entrance into perfect immortal spirit life with Christ. But they have been on trial here on earth, for, as 1 Peter 4:17 says, “it is the appointed time for the judgment to start with the house of God. Now if it starts first with us, what will the end be of those who are not obedient to the good news of God?” Consequently, when they die faithful in the flesh, the end of their judgment period comes. In God’s due time they take part in the “first resurrection” and then “the second death has no authority” over them. (Rev. 20:4-6) They then become judges instead of being put on judgment.

15. When do those who experience the “resurrection of judgment” have the judgment executed upon them?

¹⁵ However, when do those who come out of the memorial tombs to a “resurrection of judgment” on earth have the judgment pronounced and executed on them? Not immediately after they take their stand before the “great white throne and the one seated on it,” but only after they “practiced vile things” either during Christ’s thousand-year reign or at the end of the thousand years when Satan and his demons are released from the abyss to tempt restored mankind.

16. Having their names “written in the book of life” depends upon what, and when may the “second death” be applied, and why then?

¹⁶ Revelation 20:11-15 pictures how all those on earth who are given up by the sea and Hades and death have an opportunity to get their names “written in the book of life.” Whether they will be judged worthy of that will depend on how they lived up to the “scrolls” of instruction that will then be opened up and according to which they will be judged. Some of these may be found unworthy before the thousand years are ended. So they may then and there be executed with the “second death,” because in a vile way they have refused to live up to the Kingdom requirements and to progress toward human perfection and holiness.

17. When will others be executed, and why then?

¹⁷ Others will be executed after the thousand years are over. By then they will have attained to human perfection and to ability to live sinlessly in harmony with all the laws of God and in support of his universal sovereignty. But when Satan and his demons are loosed to test them, they will vilely turn from righteousness and side in with Satan the Devil, the great rebel against the universal sovereignty of the Most High God. For committing such vileness they will fail under the final test and prove unworthy of eternal life. They will then be “those who practiced vile things.”

WARNING

18. For such people their resurrection turns out eventually to be what kind?

¹⁸ Revelation 20:14, 15 says: “This means the second death, the lake of fire. Furthermore, whoever was not found written in the book of life was hurled into the lake of fire.” For such people the resurrection that they enjoyed when they came out of the tombs turns out to be a “resurrection of judgment,” to annihilation; because when the time finally came for the judicial award of life or condemnation to be made, their record showed them to be “those who practiced vile things.”

19, 20. (a) In the face of this understanding of John 5:28, 29, does it matter how we live now? (b) How do Peter’s warning and the fulfillment of prophecies for our time determine the right answer?

¹⁹ From all the foregoing, let nobody draw the conclusion that it matters little how we live now and that only what we do under God’s kingdom after Har–Magedon will really decide our eternal future. Remember 1 Peter 4:17 to the effect that the appointed time of judgment has already begun at the Christian house of God. Also, Babylon the Great (the world empire of false religion) is in the “hour of the judgment by him,” that is, judgment by God. She has fallen under his adverse judgment and is now approaching her violent destruction from God. The kings of the earth and their armies are also being gathered under demon influence to their destruction at Har–Magedon. Do we want to be destroyed with all of them and forfeit a resurrection from the dead? Then get out of Babylon the Great now! Break away from the international march to Har–Magedon. Save yourself from Gehenna!—Rev. 14:7, 8; 16:13-16; 18:4; 19:19-21.

²⁰ The people of the nations are now being separated like sheep and goats according to the parable that Jesus gave at the close of his prophecy on the end of this system of things. Do you want to prove yourself a “goat”? No! For “these will depart into everlasting cutting-off [punishment, the opposite of life], but the righteous ones [the sheep] into everlasting life.”—Matt. 25:31-46.

21. (a) If we die before the destruction of Babylon the Great and the war of Har–Magedon, in what condition do we want to die? (b) What other possibility is there for us of today?

²¹ A short time remains yet before Babylon the Great’s destruction and the war of Har–Magedon. If we die before then, we want to die worthy of being kept in God’s memory, like being kept in the “memorial tombs.” Then, in due time, we shall hear the voice of the Son of man and come out to the prospect of everlasting life in God’s righteous new order of things, to a “resurrection of life.” But it is also possible that we may be among those of the “great crowd” who will not die but who will live through the war of Har–Magedon and pass directly on into God’s new order of things.

22. What, then, would it be well for us to do now, and with what benefit to ourselves?

²² How advisable it is for us, then, to keep from practicing vile things now and to prepare for the righteous new order! In the love of righteousness we do well to choose to do good things in harmony with God’s will and in imitation of his Christ now! In that way we shall get an advance start in the way of righteousness that leads to everlasting life in happy harmony with God.

[Footnotes]

“The rendering of our Common Version, ‘resurrection of damnation,’ is a serious error which has greatly assisted in beclouding the minds of many respecting the true import of this passage. Many seem to gather from it the thought that some will be resurrected merely to be damned or condemned again. The very reverse of this is the truth. The word rendered ‘damnation’ in this verse is the Greek word krisis, which occurs repeatedly in the same chapter and is properly rendered judgment. It should be so rendered in this case, and is so rendered in the Revised Version.”

Krisis is also rendered judgment in the New World Translation.

“1. separating, distinguishing; 2. decision, judgment; 3. choice, election; 4. interpretation of dreams or portents, LXX, Daniel 2:36; II. judgment of a court; b. result of a trial, condemnation. Matthew 10:15; 2. trial of skill or strength; 3. dispute. III. event, issue; 2. turning point of a disease.”

In A Greek and English Lexicon to the New Testament, by Parkhurst, on page 342a of the 1845 edition, the meanings of krisis in the Christian Greek Scriptures are given as follows: “I. judgment; II. Judgment, justice. Matthew 23:23. Compare Mt 12:20: III. judgment of condemnation, condemnation, damnation. (Mark 3:29; John 5:24, 29); IV. the cause or ground of condemnation or punishment. John 3:19; V. a particular court of justice among the Jews. Matthew 5:21, 22.”

The meanings of the Greek verb krinein (to judge) run parallel with the meanings of krisis above.

Keeping Filled with the Spirit of God

PAUL the apostle assured fellow Christians: “Now we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God.” (1 Cor. 2:12) Everyone is being controlled by either one or the other of these spirits, for in every individual one will dominate. How important to be sure that we are motivated by the right one!

What is “the spirit of the world”? It is the frame, inclination or tendency of the mind that controls and colors the thinking of the majority of humans. In the Scriptures it is called, among other things, “the spirit of error,” “the spirit of fear” and “the spirit of bondage.” It is a spirit of selfishness. In view of its nature and its fruitage it will be completely dispelled by God’s coming new order of things.—1 John 4:6; 2 Tim. 1:7; Rom. 8:15, AV.

As slaves dedicated to God we must be on guard against the spirit of the world, for it is at enmity with God. Also, we must expose it for what it is by sharing in the pouring out of God’s plague-like denunciations on this present wicked system of things. (Rev. 15:5 to 16:21) This involves self-denial and much hardship, but we can endure if we are ‘keeping filled with the spirit of God.’—Eph. 5:18.a

In order to keep getting filled with God’s spirit we must avail ourselves of the many generous provisions he has made to aid us. The inspired Holy Bible must be read regularly. Its subject matter must be pondered carefully and impressed on our minds. Prayer to God for more of his spirit and association with others who have his spirit are also vital. In fact, we are assured by Jehovah that the prayer of faith will be favorably heard and that by regularly gathering ourselves together and inciting one another to love and fine works we shall be enabled to stand approved before him.—Luke 11:13; Heb. 10:24, 25.

During the month of December, particularly, we will be manifesting that we are filled with God’s holy spirit by uniting with our brothers in presenting the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures and the book “All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial” to everyone we can reach, thus giving them the opportunity to get clear of the baleful influence of the spirit of this world and become filled with “the spirit which is from God.”

Thus, by study of God’s Word, by applying it in our lives, by preaching it to others, by prayer and by association with others who have God’s spirit, we ourselves can be filled with it.

[Footnotes]

Jehovah, Enforcer of Prophecy

MEN interpret events to try to make prophecy. Some have made forecasts, but they have been very vague and sketchy, unable to give details. None have proved to be wholly accurate and reliable. In many instances, those who have believed in and followed their prophecies have experienced disastrous results.

Only Jehovah can make true prophecy, for he has a perfect understanding, not only of the mind of man and all the factors, animate and inanimate, that bear upon events, but also of the other essentials, namely, the ability and power to move all these things to bring about the fulfillment of his prophecy. Jehovah utters prophecies so that his people may know his purposes. He then backs up his word with all his mighty invisible angelic organization and with his irresistible holy spirit or active force; so he sees to it that prophecy is enforced to come true. He works out his good purpose, and never violates any of his righteous principles in doing so.

JUDGMENT ENFORCED ON JERUSALEM

To warn ancient Jerusalem, and for our benefit today, Jehovah by his prophets foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the desolation of Judah and gave details concerning it. Exactly on time he used the king of a world power as an instrument to enforce these prophecies. In previous issues we have discussed why this judgment was determined and how it began to be enforced by the siege of Jerusalem. Finally, the Babylonian army entered Jerusalem on the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of King Zedekiah of Judah. On the tenth day of the fifth month, Ab (August 2-3, 607 B.C.E.) , they completely destroyed the temple, the royal palace and the walls of the city. Jeremiah, an eyewitness, tells us that the Babylonians broke up the copper pillars of the temple and the gigantic copper basin, the “molten sea.” They also took the utensils of copper, silver and gold. As for the golden ark of the covenant that contained the two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, it had seemingly disappeared already, so that it did not fall into pagan hands.—Jer. 52:12-14, 17-23.

God also enforced his judgment on the unfaithful priesthood of the defiled temple, as foretold at Ezekiel 9:6-8. “The chief of the bodyguard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three doorkeepers, and from the city he took one court official that happened to be commissioner over the men of war, and seven men of those having access to the king, who were found in the city, and the secretary of the chief of the army, the one mustering the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city. . . . And these the king of Babylon proceeded to strike down and to put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah went into exile from off its soil.”—Jer. 52:24-27.

The executioners were cruel, hanging some of the Jewish princes by just their hand. They raped the women right in Zion itself. They slaughtered King Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes and deported him to Babylon, where he died. This act against the king was like stifling those who had respect for the royal line of David: “The very breath of our nostrils, the anointed one of Jehovah, has been captured in their large pit, the one of whom we have said: ‘In his shade we shall live among the nations.’”—Lam. 4:20.

COVENANT WITH DAVID CONTINUES IN FORCE

Though Jehovah enforced this judgment exactly as foretold, he did not forget his unbreakable covenant with David. He providentially preserved one of the royal line through whom the promised Shiloh could come. It was Jehoiachin, a nephew of Zedekiah, who had been taken into captivity in 617 B.C.E. Jehoiachin had sons at Babylon, Shealtiel, Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah. Of these sons, Shealtiel was reckoned as the father of Zerubbabel, who became governor of Judah under Persia and who rebuilt the temple at restored Jerusalem.—1 Chron. 3:15-19; Ezra 3:2, 8; Matt. 1:12; Luke 3:27.

Likewise, when the high priest Seraiah was put to death Jehovah saw to it that his son Jehozadak was spared and taken into exile to Babylon. (1 Chron. 6:14, 15) He had a son named Jeshua (or, Joshua; LXX, Jesus). Joshua was the one who cooperated with Zerubbabel in rebuilding the temple at the restored Jerusalem. In this way neither the line of the house of David nor the Aaronic family line of high priests was broken, but continued on until Jesus Christ appeared on the scene.—Ezra 3:2; Neh. 12:26; Hag. 1:1; Zech. 3:1; Luke 3:1, 2.

Nebuzar-adan, the chief of the bodyguard, let some of the lowly people of the land remain as vinedressers and compulsory laborers. He appointed over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan. (2 Ki. 25:12, 22) But Jehovah had said that he would “make Jerusalem piles of stones, the lair of jackals,” and the cities of Judah “a desolate waste, without an inhabitant.” (Jer. 9:11; 4:7; 6:8; 26:9; 32:43; 33:10, 12; Zech. 7:5, 14) How would he enforce this?

Jeremiah, who was also allowed to remain with the people there, reports that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama of the royal offspring came with a group of men and assassinated Gedaliah, and fled out of Judah to Ammon. The remaining leaders of the people asked Jeremiah to pray for Jehovah’s counsel, and received advice to stay in the land of Judah as servants of King Nebuchadnezzar. But they rejected this counsel and went down to Egypt, taking along with them Jeremiah and Baruch his secretary. They took up dwelling in Egypt in Tahpanhes, Migdol and Noph (Memphis) and in the land of Pathros. (Jer. 41:1 to 44:1) But they could not escape God’s judgment there, for Jehovah told them that he would also give Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt into the hand of his enemies.—Jer. 44:2-30; compare Ezekiel 29:17-20; 30:22-26.

WILD ANIMALS ONLY INHABITANTS FOR SEVENTY YEARS

By this move of the people in the middle of the seventh month, Tishri or Ethanim, which would be near the Gregorian calendar date of October 1, 607 B.C.E., the land of Judah was left completely desolate, without human inhabitant or domestic animal. The timing of the enforcement of Jehovah’s prophecy here is remarkable. For it was in this seventh month Ethanim, on the tenth day, the day of atonement, that the trumpet was blown in a Jubilee year to “proclaim liberty in the land to all its inhabitants.” It began a sabbath year for the God-given land. (Lev. 25:8-22) So exactly at the appropriate time of the year an uninterrupted run of sabbath years began, in compensation for all the sabbath years that the disobedient Israelites had failed to keep. The land was to enjoy, figuratively, a perfect number of sabbath years—seventy, during which time it was to be utterly desolate, without human inhabitant, a place to be shunned like a haunted place by passers-by. The record written later on, a testimony to Jehovah’s ability to enforce his word, reads:

“So he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, . . . And he proceeded to burn the house of the true God and pull down the wall of Jerusalem; . . . Furthermore, he carried off those remaining from the sword captive to Babylon, and they came to be servants to him and his sons until the royalty of Persia began to reign; to fulfill Jehovah’s word by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had paid off its sabbaths. All the days of lying desolated it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”—2 Chron. 36:17-23; compare also Daniel 9:1, 2.

The Jewish secular historian, Flavius Josephus, of the first century of our Common Era, corroborates the Bible account, writing about Jerusalem’s desolation:

He [the Chaldean historian Berosus in the third century B.C.E.] gives us a catalogue of the posterity of Noah, who adds the years of their chronology, from Noah himself to Nabulassar king of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, with an account of this king’s exploits. He tells us that he sent his son Nabuchodonosor with a mighty army into Egypt and Judea where, upon his being informed of a revolt, he reduced the people to subjection, set fire to our temple at Jerusalem, and carried off our whole nation in captivity to Babylon. After this our city lay desolate during an interval of seventy years, till the days of Cyrus, King of Persia.—Book 1, section 36, of To Epaphroditus on the Antiquities of the Jews in Answer to Apion.

And such was the end of the nation of the Hebrews; it having twice gone beyond Euphrates. For the people of the ten tribes were carried out of Samaria by the Assyrians, in the days of King Hoshea. After which the people of the two tribes, that remained after Jerusalem was taken, were carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon and Chaldea. Now as to Shalmaneser, he removed the Israelites out of their country, and placed therein the nation of Cutheans who had formerly belonged to the interior of Persia and Media; but were then called Samaritans; by taking the name of the country to which they were removed. But the King of Babylon, who brought out the two tribes, placed no other nation in their country. By which means all Judea, and Jerusalem, and the temple, continued to be a desert for seventy years.—Book 10, chapter 9, last paragraph, of Antiquities of the Jews, edition by Whiston.

So just when did the foretold seventy years of the desolation of Jerusalem and Judah begin to count? Not in 626 B.C.E., the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim, for there was no captivity of Jews in Babylon then. Even in his ninth year, 620 B.C.E., Jehoiakim merely became tributary to the king of Babylon. In the eleventh year of his reign, in 618 B.C.E., he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who came up against him.a Shortly before the end of Jehoiakim’s eleventh year his son and successor, Jehoiachin, who reigned only three months and ten days, went out in self-surrender to Nebuchadnezzar, who was besieging the city. It was on Nisan 1, 617 B.C.E., (in the spring) that the first regnal year began for Zedekiah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, whom Nebuchadnezzar made king of Jerusalem in place of Jehoiachin. (2 Ki. 24:12-18) This, then, was not the desolation but only the captivity of comparatively few, namely, 3,023 Jews with their wives and families.—Jer. 52:28.

WHEN DESOLATION BEGAN AND ENDED

Certainly, when King Jehoiakim was in open revolt against Nebuchadnezzar and, later on, when Zedekiah broke his oath and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar in the last part of his reign, the nation could not be said to be captive to Babylon. Thus the seventy years of unbroken captivity to Babylon did not begin until 607 B.C.E., in the month Ethanim, when the land was left completely desolate when its remaining inhabitants went down to Egypt. Then the Jews as a nation went into exile at Babylon, without a king at Jerusalem. This exile was for an uninterrupted period of seventy years. (Dan. 9:1, 2) The seven hundred and forty-five Jews taken into exile, as mentioned at Jeremiah 52:30, were not taken from the desolated land of Judah, but were captured later when Nebuchadnezzar, as Jehovah’s symbolic cup, made nations that bordered on the land of Judah drink the bitter potion of being violently conquered.—Jer. 25:17-29.

When would the desolation end? In 537 B.C.E., when King Cyrus of Persia released the Jewish remnant and they left Babylon and began to repopulate the land of Judah. This date can be established by use of the records of secular history. The period of desolation of the land of Judah began seventy years earlier, in 607 B.C.E. No settlers were brought in by Nebuchadnezzar to occupy the land of Judah, as had been done by the king of Assyria in the land of Samaria when he captured that land. Jehovah enforced his prophecy by miraculous means and the land of Judah was kept a complete desolation, that it might rest the foretold seventy years.—2 Chron. 36:21-23.

Ezekiel, over in Babylonia, heard about the destruction, evidently before Nebuchadnezzar’s troops arrived back victorious, in the eleventh year of his exile in Babylon. He says: “At length it occurred in the twelfth year [by a certain calculation], in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month of our exile, that there came to me the escaped one from Jerusalem, saying: ‘The city has been struck down!’” (Ezek. 33:21) From then on, Ezekiel could prophesy about the coming restoration at the end of the seventy years of desolation.—Ezek. 36:1 to 37:28.

Though Jehovah enforced his prophecy, was this something of joy to him and to his faithful prophet Jeremiah? No. He inspired Jeremiah to write the Bible book called Lamentations, describing the sad state of Jerusalem:

“O how she has come to sit solitary, the city that was abundant with people! How she has become like a widow, she that was populous among the nations! . . . Her adversaries have become the head. . . . Because Jehovah himself has brought grief to her on account of the abundance of her transgressions, her own children have walked captive before the adversary. And from the daughter [city] of Zion there goes out all her splendor.”—Lam. 1:1-6, 17; 2:13; 5:16-22.

But this regrettable state of the people who had God’s name upon them and who suffered because of their sins against Jehovah did not in any way cancel Jehovah’s covenant nor make him unhappy with his purposes. It is true that in 607 B.C.E. the adversaries of Zion became “the head.” “Jehovah’s throne” in Zion had been overturned. The typical or miniature kingdom of God had passed away. No longer was there any typical kingdom of God on earth to block the Gentile or non-Jewish nations in their way to full world domination. By God’s permission they had complete sway.

GOD’S KINGDOM NOT FOREVER OVERTURNED

Why was Jehovah God not unhappy? Because, though these uninterrupted “times of the Gentiles” or “appointed times of the nations” set in at the desolation of Judah in the seventh Jewish month of 607 B.C.E., they would last only until Shiloh, the One who has the legal right to the overturned kingdom of God, should come and God should give to him the crown, the royal turban, and the scepter, to rule in the midst of the Gentiles, the worldly nations who are his enemies. But when would the enthronement of the royal Son of David be? The heavenly King of Eternity had set the time. He foretold it and had it recorded in his inspired Word. He would certainly enforce it. The next issue of The Watchtower will consider the length of the “times of the Gentiles.”—Gen. 49:10; Luke 21:24; Ezek. 21:25-27; Ps. 110:1-6.

In their days the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel had seen many former prophecies of Jehovah come true, and they had complete confidence in the ability of Jehovah to foretell events and to enforce his words of prophecy. Therefore the prophecies, many of which these very men were inspired to write, concerning the One who had the legal right and concerning his coming to exercise kingship upon Jehovah’s throne, were even more sure for the apostles and early Christians, for they had a record of and even witnessed the fulfillment of many of the prophecies of these prophets. Peter expressed this confidence: “Consequently we have the prophetic word made more sure; and you are doing well in paying attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place.”—2 Pet. 1:19.

Since the days of the apostles, nineteen centuries have passed and we can be yet more sure than the first-century Christians, for multitudinous prophecies have since been fulfilled. The One whose legal right it is will take world domination completely out of the hands of the nations and hold it permanently for the blessing of all families of the earth. For we must remember, as Peter went on to say: “No prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.” The all-wise Giver of prophecy is also the all-powerful Enforcer of it.—2 Pet. 1:20, 21.

[Footnotes]

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FIELD MINISTRY

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ARE YOU DISCOURAGED AT TIMES?

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“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

December 27: Passing Over from Death to Life. Page 712.

January 3: Out of the Tombs to a “Resurrection of Life,” ¶1-37. Page 717.

January 10: Out of the Tombs to a “Resurrection of Life,” ¶38-45, and Out of the Tombs to a “Resurrection of Judgment.” Page 725.