The Watchtower — November 1, 1964

Do You Have Sufficient Determination?

THOUSANDS of Christians were flocking from all over England to attend the “Everlasting Good News” Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in London. This promised to be a grand spiritual feast that would help Christians mold their lives in harmony with God’s Word, and many were determined to be there. But a problem faced eighty-year-old Mrs. Halsey when she missed the bus that had been arranged to carry her congregation from Great Yarmouth 140 miles to the assembly. What would she do? With firm determination she set out to cycle those 140 miles, and actually covered eighty miles before a bus from another congregation stopped and gave her a ride! With this type of determination marvelous things can be accomplished.

How much determination do you have? When you have assignments to accomplish, goals to reach or responsibilities to discharge, do you persist despite obstacles and against any opposition that may arise? In this life few worthwhile endeavors come easily. You need to have the determination to carry on to the finish if you are to realize success.

It may be that you are seeking employment, or are endeavoring to master a new job. Oftentimes this involves long hours of relentless search, or much patience and intensive study. It is easy to become discouraged and give up; yet if you determinedly persist, with faith in God’s promises to provide his servants the means for acquiring daily necessities, in time you will be rewarded with success. (Ps. 37:25; Matt. 6:11, 25-33) Jesus Christ himself emphasized the need for such persistence when he said in his Sermon on the Mount: “Keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you.”—Matt. 7:7.

While it often takes real determination to provide a household with material sustenance, it also requires determination on the part of parents to give children in that household the disciplining and training they need. The Bible encourages parents to “train up a boy according to the way for him,” and then “even when he grows old he will not turn aside from it.” (Prov. 22:6) As parents, have you shown the necessary persistence required to form good habits in your children? Do you regularly read to them from the Bible, inculcating its righteous principles in their minds?

Perhaps you may object that your children simply are too full of energy to sit and listen, that they are interested only in playing and watching television. But could it be that the real problem is your own lack of determination to fulfill your obligation to discipline them? You need persistence. Consider, for example, how one mother whose husband did not appreciate the value of Bible knowledge was able to discipline her three boys.

“When it was stressed that it was the parents’ responsibility to see that children had daily Bible instruction, I decided to set aside time for daily Bible reading,” she said. “This raised a howl of protest from my boys, ages seven, five and three, as it always seemed to come at their most enjoyable time. After the account of creation they lost interest, and the howls grew louder as I turned off the television every night and announced it was time for Bible reading. Many times I sat with the Bible in one hand and the rod of correction in the other. However, day by day the antagonism eased, and now, three years later, they not only are willing listeners but ask to have the Bible read and take part in reading and even want me to quiz them on what we have read.

“The effects of this habit have truly been far-reaching. Not only are they getting a good knowledge of what is in the Bible, but our family relationships have greatly improved and the need for discipline has lessened. And it has also helped to bring them to the top of their classes at school, the result of the practice of reading aloud and sounding out difficult words.” There is no question about it, determination pays off!

Firm determination is especially the need of those who would be pleasing to God by walking in the footsteps of his dear Son, Jesus Christ. It is not easy to be a Christian and to obey Christ’s command to “preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.’” (Matt. 10:7) Especially is this true when one is crippled by muscular dystrophy and is confined to a wheelchair. But even with this handicap Lottie Rose of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been able to engage in full-time ministerial service.

She used to make it a habit to speak to every person that came to her home, and in this way was able to place a great deal of Bible literature with visitors. But she was determined to do more. She writes as to how this was possible: “I would arrange to have someone take me to the front door of my house in my wheelchair and whenever anyone passed by I would speak to them. With what result? Well, during one month I placed 120 magazines. Sometimes I spent as many as seven hours a day preaching this way. In all, during one month, I was able to put in 128 preaching hours, had more than forty return visits with persons showing interest and had the wonderful opportunity of feeding three sheeplike persons in regular Bible studies.”

Truly, many marvelous works to God’s praise can be accomplished if one has sufficient determination to persist despite obstacles and opposition. It requires faith in God and his promises, as Jesus showed when he said: “That expression, ‘If you can’! Why, all things can be to one if he has faith.” So exercise faith in God. Trust in him for support. Set your mind on his Word and make a firm mental resolve that you will be obedient to his will regardless of the difficulties or troubles that may come. Your very life depends upon whether you have sufficient determination to remain faithful to such a resolve.—Mark 9:23.

Wolves in Sheep’s Covering

Can you detect them? How can you avoid becoming their prey?

DECEPTION caused Eve to become prey to the great Devourer, Satan the Devil. Thereafter her husband and children fell into the clutches of a wolfish god who has robbed them of everything in life that is worthwhile—fear of God, self-respect, genuine love for neighbor and love of the truth. Today, therefore, hypocrisy and treachery are rife. Each worshiper of the true God is required to be wide-awake, alert to the numerous deceptions that continually beset his path.

To his first-century disciples Jesus sounded a warning that applies to us today with even greater force: “Look out that you are not misled; for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, ‘I am he [Christ],’ and, ‘The due time has approached.’ Do not go after them.” (Luke 21:8) He also admonished: “Be on the watch for the false prophets that come to you in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves.” (Matt. 7:15) Watchfulness and caution are therefore essential to avoid becoming prey to greedy, wolfish men.

Just as wolves will cut off their intended victims from the main flock before attacking and devouring, so it might be expected that human wolves would act. So the apostle Paul under inspiration declared: “I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness, and from among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.” And Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, also spoke of this peril: “There will also be false teachers among you. These very ones will quietly bring in destructive sects and will disown even the owner that bought them . . . Also, with covetousness they will exploit you with counterfeit words.” Jesus’ brother and disciple Jude, in turn, wrote that “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.” The apostle John adds his testimony: “Young children, it is the last hour, and, just as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now [about the year 98 C.E.] there have come to be many antichrists; from which fact we gain the knowledge that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of our sort.”—Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; Jude 4; 1 John 2:18, 19.

The combined testimony of these faithful witnesses pointed to danger from within the ranks of professed Christians. The peril would be not so much from the openly avowed opponents of Christ as from those who would rise up claiming to be Christ or claiming to exercise the rights and prerogatives of Christ as his empowered representatives. Disarmed by an outward show of godliness and by “smooth talk and complimentary speech,” many unwary Christians would be seduced into following ‘wolves in sheep’s covering’ and eventually becoming prey to such selfish deceivers.—Rom. 16:18.

HOW TO DETECT THEM

The apostle Paul disclosed two giveaway signs of deception, namely, a twisting of the words of truth and a lack of the spirit of tender affection. Peter speaks of counterfeit words and the promotion of sects, groups following men. Jude intimates that a departure from the high moral standards of the Bible would be a danger signal. John points to a denial of the true relationship existing between the heavenly Father and his Son, Christ Jesus, as another indication of antichristian deception.—1 John 2:19, 22.

The facts in fulfillment confirmed those timely warnings. Many false Messiahs (Christs) have arisen since the middle of the first century, men who have duped multitudes of Jews. From time to time men have also arisen, up to and including our own time, claiming to be Christ, deceiving gullible persons who professed to be Christians. Then there is the long line of self-styled vicegerents of Christ who have sat upon a throne in Rome and who have promulgated the idea that their church rule was indeed the foretold thousand-year reign of Christ. In effect they were saying: “The due time has approached,” and have thereby stifled the expectations of many in a genuine Kingdom rule with blessings for all peoples. Add to this the multitudes of nominal Christians who have placed their own personal ideas and selfish desires ahead of the teaching of Christ, and who have to that extent usurped the position of Christ as the authoritative Teacher of the Christian congregation.

Since Jesus stated, “Really, then, by their fruits you will recognize those men,” let us take note of the fruitage of their selfish and wicked operations. (Matt. 7:20) Promotion of the clergy-laity distinction among nominal Christians paved the way for harsh and autocratic rule of the masses, lacking in tenderness and love. Some denied the virgin birth of Jesus, while others substituted for the clear teaching of God’s supremacy the pagan idea of a trinity of coequal gods, whereby they denied the true position of both the Father and the Son. One so-called Christian leader of the second century is reported to have taught that “the way to eternal salvation was open to those souls only which committed all kinds of enormity and wickedness.” Bloody and ineffectual Crusades and wars were fought in the name of Christ. Pagan philosophies were freely mixed with teachings of the Bible. Thus nominal Christians in our day have become inheritors of a host of false and twisted teachings, such as the deathless human soul, purgatory, hellfire torments, celibacy, a man-made system of fasts and abstinences from meat, all accompanied by a great relaxation of the moral requirements set forth in God’s written Word.

How utterly at variance all these counterfeit teachings with the clear mandate given by Christ to every one of his followers: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you”! (Matt. 28:19, 20) It surely is vital for each sincere worshiper of God to look well to his beliefs and associations, for the snares and pitfalls that threaten the purity of one’s faith today are vastly multiplied.

HOW TO AVOID BECOMING PREY

Since twisted and counterfeit words and lip service to the Holy Scriptures are seen to be the point of departure from what is sound and true, it follows that our protection must be in a strong faith in the written Word of God. Tradition will not suffice; nor will some isolated Bible text that is interpreted in such manner as to do violence to the other plain teachings of the Bible. Whatever anyone asks you to accept as truth, be sure to require of him some clear basis for the teaching in Holy Scripture. Even as regards the religious association to which you now adhere, do not hesitate to inquire into the Scriptural foundations for its teachings. All of this means that you must be a diligent student of God’s Word. Paul counseled the young man Timothy: “Continue in the things that you learned and were persuaded to believe, knowing from what persons you learned them and that from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through the faith in connection with Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 3:14, 15) So, too, if you have been taught from the Holy Scriptures, continue to study them.

It may be that you have entertained the idea that the older a religious organization, the sounder it must be, or, the larger its following, the more likely it is to have the truth. Age and numbers do not determine truth and error. The world empire of Babylonish religion, which has bequeathed its corruptions to the thousands of modern religious systems, was false and poisonous in its teachings from its very start over 4,000 years ago. In Noah’s day the majority of humans were wrong, and again in Jesus’ day the majority of the Jews were wrong. You may also have concluded that the religion that appeals to highly educated, rich and influential people must be the true one. Yet the apostle Paul declared: “Not many wise in a fleshly way were called, not many powerful, not many of noble birth; but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put the wise men to shame; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put the strong things to shame; and God chose the ignoble things of the world and the things looked down upon, the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are, in order that no flesh might boast in the sight of God.”—1 Cor. 1:26-29.

If you do not want to be exploited by selfish, wolflike men masquerading as sheeplike Christians, men who suavely discourage you from making a thorough study of God’s Word, why not associate with those who demonstrate a deep love for the written Word, and who are regularly studying it and applying its precepts in their lives? Shun the company of those who have dethroned Christ Jesus in their lives and set up in his place their own imperfect opinions. The fruits of your own beliefs need to be examined often, for they should harmonize with the attitudes and actions of your Master, Christ Jesus. “Keep testing whether you are in the faith, keep proving what you yourselves are,” is the advice of the Scriptures.—2 Cor. 13:5.

You do not want to become prey to unscrupulous men who will only use you for the advancement of their own power and position, and without any regard for your eternal welfare and happiness. So check the credentials of those who come on the basis of Christ’s name, or who claim to be Christian teachers, and, if they do not prove to be authentic, then by all means obey the Lord’s warning: “Do not go after them.” Rather, seek the safety of the true flock of God’s sheep.

Jerusalem—“A Burdensome Stone to All the Peoples”

“And it must occur in that day that I shall make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all the peoples.”—Zech. 12:3.

1. Why has ancient Jerusalem been outstanding on the international scene recently?

OUTSTANDING on the international scene today is the ancient city of Jerusalem. It is of burning interest to three of the largest religious organizations of the world of mankind, namely, to Mohammedanism, to Christendom and to Jewry. Events of historical importance to all these religious organizations have taken place at this city. Many spots inside and close by the city are considered sacred and are marked by a religious building or otherwise. That is why the city is divided today, the older but smaller part belonging to the Mohammedan nation of Jordan, and the newer but larger part belonging to the Jewish Republic of Israel.

2. In view of the difficulty about the ancient city, what question may someone ask?

² Since World War II there has been much dangerous international and interreligious difficulty over Jerusalem. Having all this in mind, someone may ask: ‘Is this a modern fulfillment of what Zechariah, an Israelite prophet, wrote in the sixth century before our Common Era regarding this city?’

3. What did the prophet Zechariah write, as referred to by the questioner?

³ Here is what Zechariah the son of Berechiah the son of Iddo wrote at a time when the holy city was an entirely Jewish city: “‘The word of Jehovah concerning Israel,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, the One who is stretching out the heavens and laying the foundation of the earth and forming the spirit of man inside him. ‘Here I am making Jerusalem a bowl causing reeling to all the peoples round about; and also against Judah he will come to be in the siege, even against Jerusalem. And it must occur in that day that I shall make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all the peoples. All those lifting it will without fail get severe scratches for themselves; and against her all the nations of the earth will certainly be gathered.’”—Zech. 12:1-3.

4. What is the right answer to the question, and what is the basis for such an answer?

⁴ The answer to the question is No! The earthly Jerusalem with which Bible prophecy has to do passed out of existence in the year 70 of our Common Era. In that year the Roman legions under General Titus destroyed the city after a horrible slaughter of the Jews. For sixty years the city lay desolate. After that, when a city was built on that once holy spot, it was built, not by Jews or Israelites, but by pagan Romans. It was in the year 130 that the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited the ruins and ordered a city to be built there. It came to be called Aelia Capitolina, and on the former temple area a sanctuary was built to the pagan god Jupiter.

5. What changes of aspect and ownership did Jerusalem experience from the days of Emperor Constantine the Great down till now?

⁵ In the early part of the fourth century Emperor Constantine put on an appearance of becoming a Christian. So Jerusalem, then under Roman control, was given a Christian status. But in 637 C.E. this Jerusalem fell before the Moslems. Later, in 1099 C.E. the Crusaders of Christendom took over the city. On the matter of how the Jews fared in this, The New Jewish Encyclopedia of 1962 (page 237) says: “After the Moslem conquest, Jews were permitted to settle in Jerusalem, but the entire Jewish community was wiped out during the expeditions of the Crusaders.” In the year 1187 Jerusalem fell again before the Moslems, who held the city until the armies of Great Britain took it away in 1917 during World War I. It was in 1948 that the Old City of Jerusalem was cleared of all Jews, after the Jewish garrison in the Old City surrendered to the Moslems on May 28.

6, 7. (a) Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 C.E. fulfilled God’s prophecy by whom, and why could God let earthly Jerusalem be destroyed then? (b) What comparison does the apostle Paul make of the two Jerusalems?

⁶ Now, as regards the prophecy of Zechariah 12:1-3, back in the year 70, when the Roman legions surrounded the rebellious city of Jerusalem and wiped it out of existence, that prophecy certainly was not fulfilled. Such destruction of ancient Jerusalem by the Roman armies had been foretold by another prophet of Jehovah God, namely, Jesus Christ. According to Jesus’ own statement Jehovah God had abandoned Jerusalem’s house of worship, its temple, and so God did not defend the antichristian city in that year 70. He let it be razed to the ground. God had another Jerusalem in existence at that time, and no Roman armies could destroy it. The Christian apostle Paul called attention to this other Jerusalem even before the earthly Jerusalem was wiped out. When writing to Christians in Asia Minor, Paul spoke of Sarah the true wife of the patriarch Abraham and Hagar his Egyptian concubine, and made this comparison:

⁷ “Now this Hagar means Sinai, a mountain in Arabia [where the Ten Commandments were given], and she corresponds with the Jerusalem today, for she is in slavery with her children [her Jewish citizens]. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. Wherefore, brothers, we are children, not of a servant girl, but of the free woman.”—Gal. 4:25, 26, 31.

8. How was this other Jerusalem referred to in the letter written to the Christianized Hebrews?

⁸ This other Jerusalem, this “Jerusalem above,” was referred to in another letter written years before the Romans destroyed earthly Jerusalem in 70 C.E. This letter was addressed to Hebrews who had become Christians and said to them: “You have not approached that [Mount Sinai] which can be felt and which has been set aflame with fire, and a dark cloud and thick darkness and a tempest [when the Ten Commandments were given there], . . . But you have approached a Mount Zion and a city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads of angels, . . . and God the Judge of all, . . . and Jesus the mediator of a new covenant.”—Heb. 12:18-24.

9. On what did the apostle John in vision see Jesus Christ and his followers standing, and what kept existing there after 70 C.E.?

⁹ Later on, in a miraculous vision, the Christian apostle John saw the sacrificial Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, standing on the heavenly Mount Zion, and with him there were the 144,000 faithful followers who follow him even to their death. (Rev. 14:1-5; 7:4-8) So, then, the Christians were approaching something heavenly, something that the Romans could never destroy. Consequently, when the Roman legions did destroy the rebellious, antichristian Jerusalem on earth, God’s heavenly Jerusalem on the heavenly Mount Zion kept on existing and serving as the faithful organization of God.

10. Why, then, can we not regard the earthly Jerusalem of today as our religious capital?

¹⁰ Well, then, if the apostle Paul and the apostle John did not concern themselves about any earthly city named Jerusalem and its politics, why should we do so today, if we are true Christians? Why should we join Emperor Constantine the Great in considering the pagan city built on the site of the destroyed Jerusalem as a place of sacred Christian history and as something to be cherished religiously? Why should we regard the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which Constantine built in the city, as a holy place or a shrine for Christians? We should not do so. Like Paul and John, we keep in mind the heavenly Jerusalem and the heavenly Zion, to which we are approaching. Hence we cannot regard the earthly Jerusalem of today as our religious capital, nor can we follow the religious theory that, after the year 70 C.E., the religious capital was transferred from earthly Jerusalem to Rome, the destroyer of Jerusalem.

THE JERUSALEM OF THE FULFILLMENT

11. In what ways will earthly Jerusalem of today not fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 12:2, 3, and will it be spared from destruction?

¹¹ In harmony with the above, intelligent Christians of today cannot view Jerusalem in the Middle East as the city upon which the prophecy of Zechariah 12:2, 3 is to be fulfilled. She is not the city that Jehovah causes to be a bowl from which all the peoples round about go drinking and reeling. She is not the Jerusalem that Jehovah makes “a burdensome stone to all the peoples,” so that, if they try to lift it out of the way, they get scratched very badly. Earthly Jerusalem today does not represent anything divine, deserving to be spared destruction. God did not spare the Jerusalem of Jesus’ day from destruction. Why, then, should the present-day walled city of Jerusalem and the unwalled Jerusalem be spared from destruction in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Armageddon? (Rev. 16:14-16) It will not be spared. It is not the city that Jehovah God means when he speaks, in Zechariah 12:8, about being a “defense around the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Who inhabit earthly Jerusalem today?

12, 13. (a) Was the prophecy of Isaiah 28:16 fulfilled in earthly Jerusalem? (b) How does Paul provide the correct answer in Romans 9:31-33?

¹² In the prophecy of Isaiah 28:16 Jehovah God made this promise: “Here I am laying as a foundation in Zion a stone, a tried stone, the precious corner of a sure foundation. No one exercising faith will get panicky.” Was the earthly Jerusalem the city in which Jehovah God fulfilled that promise? Not at all!

¹³ This prophecy of Isaiah 28:16 is quoted by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Roman Christians, and in his argument he does not apply it to the doomed earthly Jerusalem of his day. Right ahead of quoting Isaiah’s prophecy Paul says: “Israel, although pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to the law. For what reason? Because he pursued it, not by faith, but as by works. They stumbled on the ‘stone of stumbling.’” Then Paul quotes from Isaiah, saying: “As it is written: ‘Look! I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock-mass of offense, but he that rests his faith on it will not come to disappointment.’”—Rom. 9:31-33.

14, 15. (a) To whom, then, was the apostle Paul applying Isaiah 28:16, and why? (b) How did God lay the symbolic precious cornerstone there?

¹⁴ The Jews of Israel did not exercise faith in Jesus Christ as being God’s Son and the promised Messiah. They stumbled over him as over a stone. So they handed him over to the Romans to be nailed to a stake. Rejecting him, they were disappointed in all their hopes. It is evident, therefore, that the apostle Paul was applying the prophecy of Isaiah 28:16 to the heavenly Jerusalem.

¹⁵ In the heavenly Zion or Jerusalem Almighty God Jehovah laid his martyred Son Jesus Christ by raising him from the dead on the third day and by exalting him to heaven to be the Chief One in God’s heavenly organization, that is, in the heavenly Zion or Jerusalem. There the resurrected Jesus Christ was seated at God’s right hand.—Ps. 110:1, 2; Acts 2:22-36; Heb. 10:12, 13.

16. According to the apostle Peter, what happened to the Jews who rejected the Stone, but what happened to the believers in the Stone?

¹⁶ To those who then believed in Jesus Christ as being the prophetic Stone of Isaiah 28:16 the apostle Peter wrote: “It is to you, therefore, that he is precious, because you are believers; but to those not believing, ‘the identical stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,’ and ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock-mass of offense.’ These are stumbling because they are disobedient to the word. To this very end they were also appointed. But you are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession, that you should declare abroad the excellencies’ of the one that called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. For you were once not a people, but are now God’s people.” (1 Pet. 2:7-10) Thus the Jewish disbelievers were cast away, and the believers in that Stone became God’s people. Hence God let earthly Jerusalem be destroyed in 70 C.E. The heavenly Zion or Jerusalem in which he had laid the Stone remained.

17. (a) Till when did Jesus Christ wait in the heavenly Jerusalem, and what command was then given to him? (b) To whom are the earthly nations enemies?

¹⁷ The resurrected Jesus Christ was that royal Stone that Jehovah God laid in the heavenly city as a sure Foundation, in the year 33 C.E. There, at God’s right hand, Jesus Christ had to wait until, as Jehovah God said in Psalm 110:1, 2, “I place your enemies as a stool for your feet.” The time of waiting at God’s right hand would end with the end of the Gentile Times in the year 1914 C.E., at which time Jehovah God would send the rod of Christ’s strength out of the heavenly Zion or Jerusalem, saying: “Go subduing in the midst of your enemies.” Who would those enemies be? All the earthly nations who oppose God’s heavenly kingdom as exercised through his enthroned Son Jesus Christ. As they are the enemies of the royal Stone laid in the heavenly Zion or Jerusalem, they are also the enemies of that heavenly city. The royal Stone Jesus Christ and the heavenly Jerusalem are inseparably linked with each other. In this connection the term Jerusalem has reference more to the capital part of God’s universal organization and hence includes no angels.

18, 19. When does Jehovah make the heavenly Jerusalem a bowl causing reeling and a burdensome stone, and to whom?

¹⁸ Not all nations of today are hostile to earthly Jerusalem, but all are hostile to the heavenly Jerusalem. How, then, does God make the invisible heavenly Jerusalem a bowl causing reeling and a burdensome stone causing lacerations to the peoples of all these earthly nations? When does he do this? And why?

¹⁹ He would do it after the year 1914 of our Common Era, a year of universal importance. It was in that year that the time for the royal Stone Jesus Christ to wait at God’s right hand ended. Why? Because in the seventh Jewish lunar month of that year, or about October 1, 1914, the “times of the Gentiles” ended.—Luke 21:24, AV.

20. Down to the year 1914, how had God not interfered with the nations, but how did he begin to do so in 1914?

²⁰ Long previous, in the year 607 B.C.E., the Gentile world power of Babylon had overturned God’s kingdom at earthly Jerusalem, and a succession of world powers followed Babylon in exercising political control of all the earth. During all those 2,520 years Jehovah God did not interfere with those nations by setting up again a kingdom in the hands of a royal descendant of King David. But in 1914 the time came for God to do so, at the end of the Gentile Times for domination of all the earth. Then he put in power the royal Stone that had been laid in the heavenly Zion or Jerusalem in the year 33 C.E., namely, Jesus Christ the Son of David.

21. Where was God’s kingdom thus reborn, and what was the big question at that time?

²¹ Thus God’s kingdom in the royal line of David was reborn, not in earthly Jerusalem, which was then under Turkish control, but in heavenly Jerusalem. At that time the big question was, Were the nations, both those inside Christendom and those outside, willing to submit to God’s newborn kingdom in which Jesus Christ the “Son of David” sat ruling at the heavenly Zion or Jerusalem?

22. How did earthly Jerusalem become involved in World War I, and how did control of the Old City shift down till 1948?

²² In the year 1914 earthly Jerusalem in the Middle East became involved in an international war over world domination, for Jerusalem was then a part of the Turkish Empire. On October 30, 1914, the Allied nations began declaring war on Turkey, as it was then siding with the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On November 5, 1914, Great Britain declared war on Turkey. Thus it came about that on December 9, 1917, the British armies under General Allenby captured earthly Jerusalem, thereby bringing this city under the control of Christendom. Later the British were given the mandate over Palestine by the League of Nations, and the British held this till it ended at 12:01 a.m. of May 15, 1948. After that the Arabs and Jews fought for possession of the Old City. The Arabs won out and the Jews were expelled. All this time none of those nations had heavenly Jerusalem and its King in mind.

23. How did the nations who engaged in World War I really prove to be against the heavenly Jerusalem?

²³ Well, then, were the nations that engaged in World War I really against the heavenly Zion and the kingdom of God’s Son Jesus Christ now reigning in her? Yes! They fought to determine which political bloc of nations should hold the leading place in the Gentile domination of all the earth. They ignored and trampled upon the right of heavenly Jerusalem’s King to rule all the earth. Our preaching such a thing angered those nations. (Rev. 11:15-18) In this way they revealed their opposition to God’s kingdom and its King Jesus Christ. They betrayed their anger by becoming angry with true Christians who recognized the beginning of the heavenly kingdom of Jesus Christ and who submitted themselves to its right to rule all the earth. Who were such true Christians?

24. Who were such true Christians against whom the nations became angry?

²⁴ They were the earthly ambassadors of the heavenly kingdom. These were imitating the apostle Paul, who said: “God was by means of Christ reconciling a world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and he committed the word of the reconciliation to us. We are therefore ambassadors substituting for Christ, as though God were making entreaty through us. As substitutes for Christ we beg: ‘Become reconciled to God.’”—2 Cor. 5:19, 20.

25. During World War I, what were those Kingdom ambassadors proclaiming, and what were they calling upon the people to do?

²⁵ The Kingdom ambassadors were proclaiming that the Gentile Times had ended in 1914 and that the outbreak of World War I with all the horrible things accompanying it was the foretold proof that those “appointed times of the nations” had ended then. They were proclaiming that the nations not submitting to God’s established kingdom would be destroyed in the approaching battle of Armageddon. They called upon the people to turn peacefully to God’s kingdom through Christ, for the people doing so would escape from being destroyed by God’s King now enthroned in the heavenly Jerusalem.

26. Who was then foremost among those Christian ambassadors, and why did they become objects of hatred among all the nations?

²⁶ Recorded history informs us that foremost among those Christians who were thus acting as ambassadors for God’s established kingdom during the years 1914-1916 was a fully dedicated, baptized Christian named Charles Taze Russell. He was then president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society with its headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. Christians who associated with this Mr. Russell in proclaiming the end of the Gentile Times and the full establishment of God’s kingdom in the heavens were reproachfully called “Russellites” by their enemies. They continued to be called such even after Russell died on October 31, 1916, after which Joseph F. Rutherford became president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society and the foremost spokesman for these international Christian Bible students. At that time the religious clergymen of Christendom actively joined in supporting both sides in World War I in the enormous spilling of blood. However, the Kingdom ambassadors conscientiously refused to be combatants in the international war over political world domination. For this they became objects of hatred among all the nations, as Matthew 24:9 had foretold.

27. What notable book was published in 1917, what notable lecture first given in 1918, and what legal matters developed in 1918 regarding eight prominent men of the Bible Society?

²⁷ In the World War year of 1917 the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society under President Rutherford published The Finished Mystery, a book giving an explanation of the Bible prophecies of Ezekiel and Revelation. The following year, on February 24, at Los Angeles, California, President Rutherford first delivered his famous speech on the electrifying subject “The World Has Ended—Millions Now Living May Never Die.” Not many months later, on June 21, 1918, Rutherford and seven of his Christian associates in the Bible Society were sentenced in Federal Court, under the law against espionage and sedition, to twenty years of imprisonment on each of four counts, these four terms to run concurrently. On Independence Day, July 4, 1918, these eight sentenced representatives of the Bible Society were transferred from Long Island City prison, New York, to the Federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia.

28-30. (a) Against what was this treatment of Christian men really an attack? (b) According to the book Preachers Present Arms, who was behind this attack?

²⁸ This proved to be an attack on Christian men. But it was more than that. It was an attack upon the heavenly kingdom of God for which these men were ambassadors. Who was behind this attack? Was it Moslems? Or Hindus? Or Buddhists? Or Confucianists? For our answer we go to a book published in 1933 by a degreed Doctor of Philosophya of the Department of Sociology of the University of Pennsylvania. The book is entitled “Preachers Present Arms.” In its chapter 10 on “Groups of Irreconcilables” it says, pages 183-185:

²⁹ “An analysis of the whole case leads to the conclusion that the churches and the clergy were originally behind the movement to stamp out the Russellites. In Canada, in February, 1918, the ministers began a systematic campaign against them and their publications, particularly The Finished Mystery. According to the Winnipeg Tribune, the attention of the attorney general had been called to the Russellites, and the suppression of their book was believed to have been directly brought about by the ‘representations of the clergy.’

³⁰ “In Worcester, Massachusetts, B. F. Wayland called upon the authorities to arrest the International Bible Students and prevent them from meeting in their halls. Following this and similar pleas by the hierarchy of the orthodox churches, the Russellites began to be arrested in various centers.

31. How did the religious clergy react to the sentencing of these Christians to prison, and what had the government apparently accomplished for the clergy?

³¹ “When the news of the twenty-year sentences reached the editors of the religious press, practically every one of those publications great and small, rejoiced over the event. I have been unable to discover any words of sympathy in any of the orthodox religious journals. ‘There can be no question,’ concluded Upton Sinclair, that ‘the persecution . . . sprang in part from the fact that they had won the hatred of “orthodox” religious bodies.’ What the combined efforts of the churches had failed to do the government now seemed to have succeeded in accomplishing for them—the crushing of these ‘prophets of Baal’ forever. . . .

32. How did the clergy react to the later release of those Christians?

³² “One year later, after the condemned men had spent the twelve months in the Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision and the men were free. This verdict was greeted with silence in the churches. . . .

33. Under spell of wartime hysteria, what matters did legal courts see good to take up?

³³ “ . . . Long-lived religious quarrels and hatreds, which did not receive any consideration in the courts in time of peace, now found their way into the courtroom under the spell of war-time hysteria.”

A “BOWL CAUSING REELING”

34. What did such a climax to the religious persecution affect, and what prophecy in Revelation about God’s witnesses was thus realized?

³⁴ The persecution against those dedicated Christians during World War I apparently reached a climax in the above-mentioned imprisonment of topmost representatives of the Kingdom ambassadors. It affected very much the witnessing to God’s established kingdom by those Christian Bible Students. Here apparently the prophecy of Revelation 11:7-19 was realized, that the symbolic “two witnesses” of God were killed by the political “wild beast” that had ascended out of the abyss. Truly at the death of the “two witnesses” the people dwelling on the earth rejoiced and celebrated and left what was left of the “two witnesses” lying exposed to public shame.

35. Whom, really, were men persecuting by persecuting the Kingdom ambassadors during World War I, and according to what rule laid down by Jesus Christ?

³⁵ In the prophetic parable of the sheep and the goats Jesus Christ as King lays down the rule: “To the extent that you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Matt. 25:40) When the Jewish Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, was persecuting the Jewish Christians, the resurrected Jesus Christ miraculously appeared to him and applied this rule of judging and said: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4; Phil. 3:4-6) Similarly, during World War I, when men persecuted and opposed the Christian ambassadors of God’s kingdom, they were persecuting and opposing Jesus Christ, the royal Stone who had been laid in the heavenly Zion or Jerusalem. This violent opposition, however, was not to be without its consequences for the persecutors.

36. Against what course of action had Jehovah God warned the nations in Zechariah 12:2, 3?

³⁶ Long ago, in Zechariah 12:1-3, Jehovah God had warned the peoples of the nations not to tamper with his heavenly Jerusalem and its King of the royal house of David and of the tribe of Judah. If they did such tampering, they would do so with hurt to themselves. Jehovah the Creator said: “Here I am making Jerusalem a bowl causing reeling to all the peoples round about; and also against Judah he will come to be in the siege, even against Jerusalem. And it must occur in that day that I shall make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all the peoples. All those lifting it will without fail get severe scratches for themselves; and against her all the nations of the earth will certainly be gathered.”

37, 38. (a) According to Zechariah’s prophecy, against whom was the siege to be? (b) In our day who are the Judeans meant in Zechariah’s prophecy?

³⁷ Against whom did this prophecy say the siege would be? Not just against the capital city Jerusalem, but also against Judah. In the days of the prophet Zechariah Judah was the land over which the rebuilt Jerusalem ruled. The people of Judah were the subjects of Jerusalem and its royal house of David’s family line.

³⁸ In our day the land of Judah against which the siege foretold by Zechariah 12:2 is carried on is held by the spiritual Judeans, the spiritual ambassadors of the heavenly Jerusalem. A remnant of these spiritual Jews, some thousands of them, still remains in the earth. Remember that, in Romans 2:28, 29, the apostle Paul says that a person is not a Jew or Judean who is one outwardly in his circumcised flesh. The real Jew or Judean is the person who is such on the inside, with a circumcised heart. Each one of the remnant is such.

39. With whom will this remnant at last be joined, and so a siege against them is in effect a siege against whom?

³⁹ As Hebrews 12:22 states it, the remnant have approached a Mount Zion more exalted than the earthly one, on which is the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.” When those in this remnant finish their earthly career as ambassadors substituting for Christ, they will be joined with the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, now reigning in heavenly glory on Mount Zion. (Rev. 14:1-3) So by besieging this remnant, the enemy peoples are also in effect besieging the heavenly Jerusalem or Mount Zion. They are trying to block Christ’s rule over all the earth and its inhabitants.

40, 41. (a) In Revelation, chapter twelve, this devilish activity against Kingdom ambassadors is seen in connection with what birth and what war? (b) What other offspring does the heavenly Jerusalem have, and what does the ousted Satan the Devil do toward them?

⁴⁰ This devilish activity against the peaceful ambassadors of God’s kingdom was foreshown in prophetic picture in chapter twelve of the Revelation to the apostle John. Re Chapter twelve pictures the heavenly Jerusalem, God’s organization, as a woman made radiant with heavenly light. As God’s woman or wife, she gives birth to a son. The son is snatched from the jaws of the fiery Dragon, Satan the Devil, and is caught away to the woman’s husband, God, and is seated on God’s throne. This foils the Dragon’s scheme. A war in heaven follows this birth and enthronement of God’s kingdom with Christ in royal authority. The Dragon and his demon angels are whipped and cast out of heaven and down to our earth. A triumphant cry rings through heaven, saying: “Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God!” (Rev. 12:1-10) Thus the son of the heavenly Jerusalem is shown to be God’s kingdom with Jesus Christ as acting King.

⁴¹ The heavenly Jerusalem has other offspring or seed. These are yet down on the earth. So what does the Dragon, Satan the Devil, do, now that he has been cast down to the earth? Up in heaven he could not devour heavenly Jerusalem’s son who was caught away to God’s throne. So at the earth he tries to devour the rest of her offspring or seed. By persecuting them and fighting against their Christian work he persecutes their mother, God’s woman, the heavenly Jerusalem. Revelation 12:17 describes this, saying: “The dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” Such remaining ones of the offspring of the heavenly Jerusalem must today bear witness to Jesus as being the reigning King whom God enthroned.

42. By what means does the invisible Dragon wage war upon these Kingdom ambassadors on earth?

⁴² How, though, does the invisible, spiritual Dragon, Satan the Devil, wage war upon these ambassadors of the newborn Kingdom? By using the earthly, visible kingdoms of this world, of which he is the god. (2 Cor. 4:4) The Dragon can use these worldly kingdoms to pass laws against the Kingdom ambassadors in order to stop them.

43, 44. (a) How did the reappearance of the Kingdom ambassadors in 1919 affect their enemies? (b) How was this pictured in the Revelation to John?

⁴³ During World War I these Kingdom ambassadors had a temporary setback. But in the spring of 1919 they reappeared on the earthly scene of activity, after the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society and his seven fellow prisoners were released from the Federal penitentiary of Atlanta, Georgia, never to return there. Ever since then the abased Dragon has waged war upon them. He has been the unseen instigator behind the persecution carried on by the worldly nations. These Kingdom witnesses were under Christ’s command recorded in Matthew 24:14 to preach this good news of the kingdom of God in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations. When they arose to this work, their reappearance was frustrating to the Dragon, yes, and to all the worldly nations lying under the power of that wicked one. It was like their resurrection from the dead, like a rising from international disgrace to heavenly honors. This is exactly how it was pictured in the Revelation to John. He tells us this about the “two witnesses”:

⁴⁴ “And after the three and a half days spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon those beholding them. And they heard a loud voice out of heaven say to them: ‘Come on up here.’ And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them.”—Rev. 11:11, 12. Compare with this Revelation 9:1-6.

JUST HURTING THEMSELVES

45. In what condition with relation to the heavenly Jerusalem are the spiritual Judeans pictured in Zechariah 12:7?

⁴⁵ The spiritual resurrected Kingdom ambassadors are really spiritual Jews or Judeans, who have not yet entered into the heavenly kingdom, in the heavenly Jerusalem. As they are yet on earth and are exposed to the Devil’s warfare by means of his earthly governments, they are outside the heavenly Jerusalem and thus are tenting in the field outside her walls. From this standpoint Zechariah 12:7 prophetically says: “And Jehovah will certainly save the tents of Judah first, to the end that the beauty of the house of David and the beauty of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not become too great over Judah.”—Compare 2 Samuel 11:11.

46. Why are those spiritual “tents of Judah” saved first, and what is the enemy made to realize thereby?

⁴⁶ Naturally, those tenting out in the open fields of the territory of Judah are the first ones whom the enemy can reach. Hence they need salvation first. The beauty of salvation by Jehovah needs to be seen to be upon these tenters also, and this first. The spiritual nation as a whole is involved, and not just the capital city and the royal family there. Jehovah’s salvation of the tents of the spiritual Judeans first makes the enemy realize that the Judean remnant of Kingdom ambassadors are of value in God’s estimation, more so than the scornful enemy had thought. Thus the enemy is forced to appreciate that the remnant are just as precious to Jehovah God and just as deserving of his salvation as are the other members of the spiritual Israel who are already glorified with the reigning King Jesus Christ in the heavenly kingdom.

47. What is the “beauty” that must be also upon the remnant of spiritual Judeans yet on earth, and why may they not be left out of account?

⁴⁷ The remnant yet on earth will share in the beauty of salvation along with the heavenly Jerusalem and with her King of the “house of David” and all his joint heirs. The Kingdom will not leave out of account this faithful remnant yet on earth. They too must be made joint heirs in the Kingdom in order for the Kingdom’s royal family to be complete according to the purpose of Jehovah God. Thus, although Jesus Christ is God’s appointed Head of the heavenly royal family, he shares his heavenly glory with joint heirs. (John 17:22-24) The final glory of the whole royal family will be rightly balanced or adjusted for all its members. In this way the beauty of the house of the Greater David and the beauty of the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem (his joint heirs) will not be too great over that of the remnant of spiritual Judeans yet on earth under siege.

48. By laying siege against God’s royal interests, how do the enemies affect themselves, and why?

⁴⁸ The nations of this earth besiege the heavenly Jerusalem and her royal “house of David” in that they lay siege to the remnant of her Kingdom ambassadors. By doing this they only hurt themselves. They get an experience that sends them reeling. Yes, they come away all cut up. They have to settle with God whenever, in their malice, they touch the interests of God’s kingdom and the interests of God’s Kingdom ambassadors. Even now before the battle of Armageddon breaks out, they are made to know this in a preliminary sense.

49. How do the enemies gather as around a community drinking cup, and how does what they drink affect them?

⁴⁹ The nations have much glee at the time that they persecute the Kingdom ambassadors and despoil them. But this brings them no lasting satisfaction and no final triumph. In the heavenly Zion or Jerusalem the royal Stone Jesus Christ has been firmly laid, and so when they gather around the Kingdom ambassadors as around a community drinking cup and expect to drink the tastiest wine, they do drink something. But what a drink! It gives them no lasting pleasure and no sense of complacency. Instead, they are sent reeling with a dizziness that deprives them of their knowing what to do next or where to go. This reaction makes their fall certain.

50. What warning illustration of the boomeranging of matters was given in the days of Mordecai the Jew?

⁵⁰ Here are a number of warning illustrations of backfire and boomeranging of matters taken from true life. The prophet Zechariah completed his book of prophecy in 519 B.C.E. About forty-five years after this the Amalekite Haman was prime minister of the Persian Empire. He caused an unchangeable law to be enacted against Jehovah’s people throughout the empire’s one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, including Jerusalem rebuilt. According to this law all of Jehovah’s people were to be massacred on the thirteenth day of the month Adar in the year 474 B.C.E. For a time Haman gloried in his spite work against Jehovah’s people, and then reverses began to come. His wife forewarned him: “If it is from the seed of the Jews that Mordecai is before whom you have started to fall, you will not prevail against him, but you will without fail fall before him.” (Esther 6:13) Haman had gloried over his political and legal triumph over Jehovah’s people, including Jerusalem. Suddenly his joy was turned to chagrin when he himself was hanged on the very gallows that he had prepared for the Jew Mordecai. Later, on the fatal day, Jehovah’s people defended themselves with imperial authority and slaughtered their enemies who dared to act on Haman’s law. As a climax Haman’s ten sons were hanged on the scaffold that their own father had built to hang one of Jehovah’s hated people.

51. What warning illustration was given at the time that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon set up his golden image?

⁵¹ Years before that, some Babylonian soldiers threw the faithful Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into the fiery furnace for refusing to bow down in worship before the idolatrous golden image set up by King Nebuchadnezzar. But the Babylonian soldiers were themselves burned to death by the furnace flames, whereas the three faithful worshipers of Jehovah God came out alive.—Dan. 3:21-27.

52. What illustration was given at the time that the prophet Daniel refused to stop praying to his God?

⁵² Years later, their close friend, Daniel the prophet, was thrown into the lions’ den for refusing to stop praying daily to Jehovah God. Political schemers had forced through a law to make Daniel a criminal for keeping up his worship of Jehovah. Next day Daniel was taken out alive, unhurt, but the schemers themselves were thrown to the lions and were devoured.—Dan. 6:1-24.

53. What illustration was given at the end of Jesus’ first presence on earth in 33 C.E.?

⁵³ In the year 33 of our Common Era Jesus Christ was put to death at the urging of Jerusalem’s religious leaders, who cried out: “We have no king but Caesar.” By accomplishing his death at Roman hands the enemies thought they had forever silenced the preaching work of Jesus’ devoted followers. But on the third day after Jesus’ death God raised him from the dead. Then Jesus commanded his followers to take up preaching again, not only in Jerusalem and Judea but in all the inhabited earth, everywhere making disciples for Jesus from people of all the nations.—Matt. 28:19, 20; 24:14.

54. What illustration was given in the days of the twelve apostles down till Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 C.E.?

⁵⁴ Because the apostles of the resurrected Jesus obeyed him and preached openly in the temple, the religious authorities of Jerusalem objected. They jailed the apostles, but God’s angel let them out by night and told them to go back and resume preaching in the temple. Arrested and brought before the religious Supreme Court, they explained their not stopping preaching by saying: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men. . . . And we are witnesses of these matters, and so is the holy spirit, which God has given to those obeying him as ruler.” Reeling back at this insuperable defense, the Court judges took counsel and then followed Gamaliel’s advice: “Do not meddle with these men, but let them alone; (because, if this scheme or this work is from men, it will be overthrown; but if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them;) otherwise, you may perhaps be found fighters actually against God.” (Acts 5:17-39) Despite persecution, the Christian congregation continued in Jerusalem. Only when Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans in the year 70 approached did the Christian congregation flee from the city beforehand. The fighters against God again lost, badly cut up!

55. How do the religious systems of Christendom refer to Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, and how did Hitler lose in his fight against their God?

⁵⁵ However, let us come down now to our own days. The Dragon, Satan the Devil, has egged on the peoples of the nations to war against the anointed ambassadors of God’s established kingdom. In 1931 these Kingdom ambassadors began identifying themselves by the name “Jehovah’s witnesses.” The religious systems of Christendom have despised this name and continue calling us the “false witnesses of Jehovah.” After World War I Satan the Devil raised up political dictators to stamp out the witnesses in various nations. In 1934 there was worldwide protest made against Hitler’s diabolical persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses. In Berlin, Germany, Dr. Wilhelm Frick, the Minister of the Interior, in irritation at the protest, said to the dictator: “If the Bible Students do not immediately get in line we will act against them using the strongest means.” Thereupon Hitler screamed: “This brood will be exterminated in Germany.” But Hitler just made trouble for himself. He lost his fight against God. Today Jehovah’s witnesses continue openly meeting and preaching in West Germany. Even in Communist East Germany Jehovah’s witnesses faithfully carry on, but underground.

56. How has Communist Russia been served with notice and how are they losing in their fight against the God of the Witnesses?

⁵⁶ In Communist Russia dictator after dictator has taken control. Jehovah’s witnesses, being declared outlaws in Russia and its Communist satellites, have gone underground. At the risk of life and freedom they choose to obey God rather than men. In 1956-1957, by Resolutions adopted at large district assemblies in free countries around the globe, they related to the prime minister instances of Communist Russia’s persecution. They asked for the situation of Jehovah’s witnesses to be reconsidered on the basis of freedom of religion. What was Dictator Khrushchev’s answer? A stepping up of the persecution.b Yet reports successfully get out of Russia to prove that Jehovah’s witnesses are very much alive underground, to the great concern of the Communist fighters against God. In this fight they are the ones to get hurt, not God nor Jerusalem above.

57, 58. (a) How have Jehovah’s witnesses been besieged in lands called democratic? (b) How did the American Supreme Court indicate it had got scratched in connection with its decision regarding schoolchildren of Jehovah’s witnesses?

⁵⁷ Even in lands called democratic, governments and peoples have besieged Jehovah’s witnesses to break down their Christian integrity. Communities have framed mischief against them by law, causing them to be haled before courts of law and jailed, with the aim of stopping our preaching of God’s kingdom from house to house.

⁵⁸ Such attempts at misapplying the law have failed. Because we decline to break our Christian neutrality toward the mortal conflicts of this world, our meeting places and public assemblies have been mobbed. In 1940 the United States Supreme Court by a vote of 8 to 1 decided that children of Jehovah’s witnesses attending public school must obey school ordinances to ascribe their protection and salvation to a national emblem and give it religious devotion. The wave of mobbings that followed throughout the land became a national scandal. The Supreme Court felt severely scratched or lacerated. On June 14, 1943, by a vote of 6 to 3, the high court reversed itself on this same issue and declared in favor of freedom of religious worship according to one’s conscience, handing down this courageous decision while World War II was still raging.

59, 60. (a) How have the enemies created legal fights for themselves, and with what results? (b) What spirit since World War II is causing further difficulties for the Witnesses?

⁵⁹ Repeatedly Jehovah’s witnesses have fought back legally as in Queen Esther’s day and have carried the fight even up to the American Supreme Court. They have won 36 out of 50 cases reaching this highest court. In Canada similar legal fights have been waged by Jehovah’s witnesses and victories have been won in its courts.

⁶⁰ Other national governments have tampered with the religious rights of Jehovah’s witnesses, but with distasteful results to themselves. (Prov. 6:27, 28) But the spirit of nationalism is getting stronger in all the earth during these years since World War II, and this is creating further difficulties for Jehovah’s witnesses.

61. What has been the effect of the Dragon’s warfare against the remnant upon many observers, and what have they done?

⁶¹ For forty-six years now the abased Dragon, Satan the Devil, has led earthly nations in warring against the remaining ones of the offspring of heavenly Jerusalem, the anointed ambassadors of God’s heavenly kingdom of the “house of David.” What, however, has been the effect of this warfare? Hundreds of thousands of observers have discerned that these religious and political systems of this world are actually fighting against God, fighting against heavenly Jerusalem and its enthroned royal family of the “house of David.” These observers have gratefully accepted the witness given by the Kingdom ambassadors and have aligned themselves on the side of the Kingdom ambassadors, on the side of the heavenly Jerusalem and its recently born kingdom of the “house of David.” They forsake the ranks of those who are laying siege to the heavenly Jerusalem and its Davidic kingdom. They join the anointed Kingdom ambassadors in preaching the Kingdom message all around the globe. They give their full dedicated support to the “tents of Judah” out in the field of action, whose tents Jehovah has promised to save first.

ANNIHILATION FOR BESIEGERS

62. Such experiences resulting to the nations from tampering with Kingdom representatives are preliminary to what final fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy about the burdensome stone?

⁶² Thus far the peoples and nations have been sent reeling and been given severe lacerations for tampering with the visible representatives on earth of the heavenly Jerusalem and its King of the house of David. But this is only the preliminary to the grand final fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy. Not yet have nations learned enough to quit meddling, to lift their siege. Under unseen demonic influence they are being gathered to a situation that calls for a final, all-decisive war with God the Almighty, an Armageddon battle. (Rev. 16:14-16) In their last attempt to move God’s kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem out of the way like a big obstructing stone, by trying to have us Kingdom preachers moved out of the way, they will be lacerated to shreds. The royal Stone laid in Zion (or Jerusalem) will smash them, as the stone smashed the metallic image seen in the king of Babylon’s dream. Jesus Christ, the royal Stone, said to his opposers: “The person falling upon this stone will be shattered. As for anyone upon whom it falls, it will pulverize him.”—Matt. 21:44; Dan. 2:34, 36, 44, 45.

63. As the enemies tighten their siege, why need we not give way to panicky fear?

⁶³ Consequently, as the earthly enemies strengthen and broaden their siege against us preachers and upholders of God’s kingdom as the only rightful government for all the earth, we need not give way to panicky fear. Almighty God will give us courage to meet the final situation. “‘In that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘I shall strike every horse with bewilderment and its rider with madness; and upon the house of Judah I shall open my eyes, and every horse of the peoples I shall strike with loss of sight. And the sheiks of Judah will have to say in their heart, “The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a strength to me by Jehovah of armies their God.” In that day I shall make the sheiks of Judah like a fire pot among trees and like a fiery torch in a row of newly cut grain, and they must devour on the right hand and on the left all the peoples round about; and Jerusalem must yet be inhabited in her own place, in Jerusalem.’” (Zech. 12:4-6) So we can be courageous.

64. What will Jehovah do to the enemy war machine, and what will the spiritual “sheiks of Judah” have to admit?

⁶⁴ Our God Jehovah promises us to take care of the attacking horse and its rider, the visible war machine of Satan the Devil. Jehovah will blind it and throw it into bewilderment, but he will keep his own eyes open on his spiritual Judeans on earth and their loyal companions, to preserve them and look out for their welfare as His people. The spiritual sheiks of the royal tribe of Judah will have to admit that the strength to keep on upholding the heavenly Jerusalem and its royal house is not their own strength. It results, rather, from the invisible backing that they get from the royal inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem, mainly Jesus Christ.

65. How do those “sheiks” and those serving under them fight against the enemy, and to what is the effect thereof likened?

⁶⁵ The spiritual sheiks of Judah and, of course, those who serve under them will not fight the foe with mortal fleshly weapons. Our only weapons are spiritual ones, the written Word of God and its messages. By publishing God’s Word so as to make the besiegers and attackers feel the consuming heat of Jehovah’s indignation the spiritual sheiks of Judah will, figuratively, cause a conflagration. Even now, under angelic guidance, they are being used to pour out the ‘seven last plagues of the anger of God’ on all peoples alienated from Him. (Rev. 15:1 to 16:21) O how this pains our besiegers!

66, 67. (a) As respects the enemy nations, what will Jehovah then be seeking? (b) As respects the spiritual Judeans and their loyal helpers, what will Jehovah find?

⁶⁶ At the time for the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” he will not have to look far to find a just cause for annihilating those who attack the spiritual Judeans and their dedicated companions. But he will find much for which to protect his Kingdom ambassadors and their loyal helpers. Hence by his prophet he says:

⁶⁷ “And Jehovah will certainly save the tents of Judah first, to the end that the beauty of the house of David and the beauty of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not become too great over Judah. In that day Jehovah will be a defense around the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the one that is stumbling among them must become in that day like David, and the house of David like God, like Jehovah’s angel before them. And it must occur in that day that I shall seek to annihilate all the nations that are coming against Jerusalem.”—Zech. 12:7-9.

68. “In that day” with what will the besiegers really be tampering?

⁶⁸ “In that day” the heavenly Jerusalem will in the fullest way be made a drinking bowl causing reeling and a burdensome stone causing severe scratches to those who think they are strong enough to lift God’s kingdom out of the way. Their malicious tampering with the Kingdom interests of the heavenly Jerusalem will backfire and hurt the tamperers. They tamper with their own annihilation at the hands of Jehovah God, who can destroy both body and soul in the Gehenna of everlasting destruction. (Matt. 10:28) Let them beware!

69. What is our obligation toward God’s angel who goes before us, and what is reserved for those who do this?

⁶⁹ As for us, when we consider the enemies to be faced on earth, we may feel weak, like stumblers, like those unable to keep walking erect. But the heavenly kingdom is strong, mighty enough to smash all the enemies into nonexistence. Her reigning King, Jesus Christ of the “house of David,” will live up to his God-given name “Mighty God.” He will be Jehovah’s angel to go before us. We must continue following him, the Greater David. Hence there is every reason for us to trust in Jehovah God and to draw strength to endure till the utter annihilation of the enemy besiegers. For the spiritual “tents of Judah” and for the “great multitude” of their loyal companions on earth there will be final salvation from Jehovah our God by his invincible King of kings, Jesus Christ.—Isa. 9:6; Rev. 7:9-17, AV.

[Footnotes]

“In recent years, much of the anti-religious propaganda has been aimed especially at the small groups, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who actively promote non-obedience to the state.”

Keeping in Touch with Persons Who Move

● When persons move from place to place it may be hard for Jehovah’s witnesses to keep in touch with them, but that it is well worth the effort is the feeling of a Witness in Manitoba, Canada. She writes:

“Last spring a young couple were contacted by a Witness in Winnipeg. They showed interest and several discussions were held, but then they moved. The publisher did not forget about them, though, and she sent the information to the congregation where they had moved. They were visited by the congregation servant, and then, as I already held a study nearby, it was arranged that I call on them. After just a few calls a regular study was arranged in the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained. This study has been held regularly. Each week they have had many questions to ask. They have shown a keen desire to do what is pleasing to Jehovah. They are attending many of the congregation studies and are having a study with their six children. In less than a year they have both begun sharing the good news of the Kingdom with others. We can certainly see the benefits of striving to keep in contact with those who show an interest in God’s Word.”

BIBLE STUDY BY MAIL

● “A study was being conducted with a young Air Force man and his wife here in Canada,” reports one of Jehovah’s witnesses. “The study progressed well, to the point that they started attending meetings. But then the Air Force was going to transfer him to a remote part of northern Quebec. Of course, there would be no congregation there; in fact, there was not one brother within two hundred miles. Nothing could be done to change his assignment, so arrangements were made at least to continue the study by mail, and this arrangement went along all right. Then we received this letter:

“‘Guess what! Bob came home the other night with our Awake! and tied to it was one of our neighbor’s Awake! magazines. So I went over to see her. She went to the meetings occasionally in Ottawa and also had a study in her home. She has four children but her husband is opposed. I’m going to see if she’d like to study with us, so you just never know. It seems as if we were just meant to get her Awake!’

“That was very encouraging, but they were still restricted to receiving their spiritual nourishment through the mail and we did not believe they would make marked spiritual progress until they moved to a place where they could be associated with Witnesses. Then the brother of this lady moved there. What did they do but start studying the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained with him. According to their letters he is progressing quite well. Not satisfied with these things, the couple then started studying together the book ‘Equipped for Every Good Work.’ Now things really began moving. With their next letter they requested another Paradise book and three new subscriptions. In the letter they explained why:

“‘We received your book. I’m sending it to my husband’s sister. We’re going to start working on his family. I’ve been reading “This Means Everlasting Life.” This book is very clear. I find “Your Will Be Done on Earth” very interesting and it is starting to sink in. I had a very interesting talk about the truth to an old friend who was stationed at Cranberry Portage with us. She is coming to my house soon to look at some of the books.’

“Thinking over their letters, I am reminded that they have now placed two books, a number of subscriptions and other literature, which this young man has been placing with his friends. All this has helped to disprove the thought that nothing could really be accomplished through a study by mail.”

Helping Captives to Get Out of Babylon the Great

“HE CRIED out with a strong voice, saying: ‘She has fallen! Babylon the great has fallen.’ And I heard another voice out of heaven say: ‘Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues.’”—Rev. 18:2, 4.

How happy is the lot of all the dedicated Christian witnesses of Jehovah who have heeded the call to get out of Babylon the Great! Just think of the many blessings that are yours if you are one who has done so!

For one thing, you have been made free from her false religious teachings. No longer is your mind shackled by such unreasonable doctrines as that of the trinity; no longer do you fear death because of such morbid teachings as eternal torment and purgatory. You also have been set free from such varied, vain and pagan practices as bowing before images and counting prayer beads. Consider also the freedom that is yours because you no longer stand in fear of false religious shepherds who had overawed you by reason of their garb, their titles, their higher learning and their proud manners. Truly the truth has set you free!—John 8:32.

More than that, because of having fled from Babylon the Great, you know you are not sharing in her sins against both God and man and therefore you will not receive part of her plagues of death and destruction, even as you are not suffering from the plagues of truth poured out upon Great Babylon at the present time.—Rev. 16:1-21; 18:5-8.

However, in the world empire of false religion, Babylon the Great, there are still many unwilling captives. These are honest-hearted ones, lovers of righteousness “that are sighing and groaning over all the detestable things that are being done” in the midst of both Christendom and the rest of Great Babylon.—Ezek. 9:4.

Do you appreciate your having got out of Babylon the Great? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Do you believe in doing to others the way you would have them do to you? If so then you have no alternative but to do all you can to help other honest-hearted persons who are captives in Babylon the Great to get out of her before it is too late. And make no mistake about it, there is an urgency about fleeing from Great Babylon. Even Satan, the king of Babylon the Great, knows that the time is short!—Rev. 12:12.

There are ever so many ways in which you may be able to help honest-hearted captives to get out of Babylon the Great. One of these is “incidental witnessing.” Are you alert to engage your traveling companion, your fellow employee, your schoolmate or the business caller at your home in conversation? Neighbor love will help you to do so and to steer the conversation to the message of liberation from Babylon the Great, doing so tactfully, of course.—1 Cor. 9:19-23.

And how about “buying out the opportune time” for yourself by arranging your affairs so as to have ever more time for such regular Christian ministerial activity as going from house to house and approaching others with this vital message?—Eph. 5:16.

But do not overlook the fact that for persons to get out of Babylon the Great they need more help than they can get from merely an occasional conversation about God’s kingdom or from having received some Bible literature. They need someone to take a real, unselfish interest in them, one who will study the Bible with them regularly week after week so as to enlighten them and strengthen their convictions so they will have the courage to break away from Babylon the Great.

To help such honest-hearted ones to flee from Babylon the Great is truly a grand privilege. And let it be noted that it is not at all limited to the adults in good health. Many who are feeble, aged and even bedridden are helping others to get out of Great Babylon, some by letter writing, others by using the telephone. Why, even children, some as young as eight years of age, have helped persons to flee from Babylon the Great; first placing Bible literature with such and then regularly conducting Bible studies with them in their homes until they saw their privilege of getting out of Babylon the Great! Surely if an eight-year-old child can do this, every adult can!

During the month of November dedicated Christian witnesses will be spearheading their efforts to help persons flee from Babylon the Great by offering the Bible-study aid “Babylon the Great Has Fallen!” God’s Kingdom Rules! at every opportunity.

Babylonish Religion Brings Violence and National Ruin

IN EVERY nation violence has risen up into an ever-present danger. The increasing lawlessness is attributed to various causes, such as nationalism, racism, poverty and unemployment. But what is the primary root of the trouble? and is there any protective step that can be taken? If we honestly and sincerely want the answers to these questions and have the courage to face the truth, we can get the answers. Then we as individuals can, with such courage, together with knowledge and quick response, save the lives of ourselves and our families.

We find a parallel in the bad circumstances that came to a head in the land of Judah just before the destruction of that nation. In fact, God saw to it that a description of Judah’s deplorable condition and the root cause were written down, as a sample of what would exist on a far greater scale today. God set the issue plainly before his professed people and did not let them go on without warning, but revealed with full impact the kind of nation they had become. Hosea, who prophesied to both the northern kingdom of Israel and to Judah, boldly said: “There are the pronouncing of curses and practicing of deception and murdering and stealing and committing of adultery that have broken forth, and acts of bloodshed have touched other acts of bloodshed.” Jeremiah described Jerusalem: “She is nothing but oppression in the midst of her. . . . Violence and despoiling are heard in her; sickness and plague are before my face constantly.” Ezekiel said that the land was filled with violence.—Hos. 4:2; Jer. 6:6, 7; Ezek. 8:17; 9:9.

THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF TROUBLE

What brought about this state of affairs? Hosea explains: “There is no truth nor loving-kindness nor knowledge of God in the land.” (Hos. 4:1) So the root cause was that the people had forsaken the law and the knowledge of God. But this was not all, because along with the forsaking of God’s law they had come under the corrupting influence of Babylonish false religion. How can false religion bring such a thing about? What religious practices cause such degradation, bringing a nation to decay and to the brink of destruction? If we examine the account we shall see.

Violence reached a saturation point in Jerusalem during the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, who was made a vassal by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Third World Power, in 617 B.C.E. The prophet Jeremiah foretold the complete desolation of Judah and also a later fall for Babylon. But he wrote to those Jews who had been taken into captivity in 617 B.C.E. and who were in Babylon, that their nation had gone too far in disobedience to God, that they would not be brought back to their homeland before a period of seventy years and that they should not be rebellious toward Babylon.—Jer. 29:1-10; 27:1-15.

But at Babylon itself there was also another prophet of Jehovah. His writings, especially, give us a picture of how the root of Judah’s trouble was Babylonish false religion. This was Ezekiel, who started to prophesy in Babylonia in 613 B.C.E., continuing for twenty-two years.—Ezek. 1:1-3; 3:15; 29:17, 18.

While Ezekiel, captive in Babylonia, was not in Jerusalem to see what was going on there, God, by the inspirational power of his spirit, transported Ezekiel in vision to the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem. There, at the inner north gate, he saw a detestable idol set up in violation of the exclusive devotion demanded by Jehovah God and contrary to the Second of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:4-6) Inside, carved on the temple, was “every representation of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the dungy idols of the house of Israel.” Seventy elderly men of Israel were actually offering incense to these idolatrous carvings. They thought that Jehovah did not see them doing so.—Ezek. 8:1, 3-12.

WORSHIP OF NIMROD

This was Babylonish false religion. How do we connect it up with Babylon? Ezekiel tells us: “So he brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of Jehovah, which is toward the north, and, look! there the women were sitting, weeping over the god Tammuz.” Here, in Ezekiel 8:13, 14, the Roman Catholic Douay Version calls this god “Adonis,” for that is what the official Latin Vulgate version calls him. Who was he?

The name Adonis, by which this deity was known to the Greeks, is none other than the Phoenician אדון, ’Adhōn, which is the same in Hebrew. . . .

(1) The name of a Phoenician deity, the Adonis of the Greeks. He was originally a Sumerian or Babylonian sun-god, called Dumuzu, the husband of Ishtar, who corresponds to Aphrodite [Venus] of the Greeks. The worship of these deities was introduced into Syria in very early times under the designation of Tammuz and Astarte, and appears among the Greeks in the myth of Adonis and Aphrodite, who are identified with Osiris and Isis of the Egyptian pantheon, showing how widespread the cult became. The Babylonian myth represents Dumuzu, or Tammuz, as a beautiful shepherd slain by a wild boar, the symbol of winter. Ishtar long mourned for him and descended into the underworld to deliver him from the embrace of death. . . . This mourning for Tammuz was celebrated in Babylonia by women on the 2d day of the 4th month, which thus acquired the name of Tammuz. . . . The women of Gebal [Syria] used to repair to this temple in midsummer to celebrate the death of Adonis or Tammuz, and there arose in connection with this celebration those licentious rites which rendered the cult so infamous that it was suppressed by Constantine the Great.—The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, edition of 1955, Volume 5, page 2908a.

According to The Encyclopedia Americana (Volume 26 of the 1929 edition, page 238), the name Dumuzu in Sumerian means “the sun of life.” But The Two Babylons, by Hislop, page 245, says:

The name Tammuz, as applied to Nimrod or Osiris, was equivalent to Alorus, or the “god of fire,” and seems to have been given to him as the great purifier by fire. Tammuz is derived from tam, “to make perfect,” and muz, “fire,” and signifies “Fire the perfecter,” or “the perfecting fire.” To this meaning of the name, as well as to the character of Nimrod as the Father of the gods, the Zoroastrian verse alludes when it says: “All things are the progeny of ONE FIRE. The FATHER perfected all things, and delivered them to the second mind, whom all nations of men call the first.” . . . And hence, too, no doubt, the necessity of the fire of Purgatory to “perfect” men’s souls at last, and to purge away all the sins that they have carried with them into the unseen world.

Further, on Tammuz, Hislop adds, on pages 21, 22:

In scripture he is referred to (Ezekiel 8:14) under the name of Tammuz, but he is commonly known among classical writers under the name of Bacchus, that is, “The Lamented One.” To the ordinary reader the name of Bacchus suggests nothing more than revelry and drunkenness, but it is now well known, that amid all the abominations that attended his orgies, their grand design was professedly “the purification of souls,” and that from the guilt and defilement of sin. This lamented one, exhibited and adored as a little child in his mother’s arms, . . .

It is not hard to see how this permeation of Babylonish false religion incurred God’s displeasure and brought a most debasing influence on the Jews’ way of life. Babylon had been the source of confusion and the beginning of violence in the earth after the Flood. (Gen. 10:8-12; 11:8, 9) Its religion promoted all forms of lawlessness and vice, including demonism, magic, charms and sorcery. It glorified sex and promoted perverted sex practices.a

THE CROSS SYMBOLIZES NIMROD

Among the Babylonians an upright cross was a sacred symbol. As in the Hebrew alphabet, such a cross was the original form of their letter T (or Taw), and so it was the initial letter of the name of their god Tammuz, or Bacchus. The cross was worshiped centuries before the so-called Christian era. That this worship spread from Babylon is noted by archaeologist V. Gordon Childe:

A ‘seal’ from Mohenjodaro depicts a horned deity with three faces sitting crosslegged in the attitude of ritual meditation between various wild animals; he is obviously the prototype of Siva, ‘three-faced,’ ‘lord of beasts,’ ‘prince of yogis,’ . . . Several clay tablets depict a male deity; one shows a river gushing out of a goddess’s womb. . . . The swastika and the cross, common on stamps and plaques, were religious or magical symbols as in Babylonia and Elam in the earliest prehistoric period, but preserve that character also in modern India as elsewhere.b

Says The Two Babylons (Hislop), on pages 199, 204, 205, regarding the cross:

It was worshipped in Mexico for ages before the Roman Catholic missionaries set foot there, large stone crosses being erected probably to the “god of rain.” The cross thus widely worshipped, or regarded as a sacred emblem, was the unequivocal symbol of Bacchus, the Babylonian Messiah, for he was represented with a head-band covered with crosses . . . This symbol of the Babylonian god is reverenced at this day in all the wide wastes of Tartary [Asian and European location of Tatars], where Buddhism prevails, and the way in which it is represented among them forms a striking commentary on the language applied by Rome to the Cross. “The cross,” says Colonel Wilford, in the Asiatic Researches, “though not an object of worship among the Baud’has or Buddhists, is a favourite emblem and device among them. . . . [in Christendom] the Tau, the sign of the cross, the indisputable sign of Tammuz, the false Messiah, was everywhere substituted in its stead [in the stead of the Greek Letter Chi or X as in Christós]. . . . ”c

Doubtless, the cross was sacred as a symbol among those apostate Jewish women who polluted Jehovah’s temple by sitting there and weeping over the Babylonian Bacchus,d the god Tammuz. These women were, in effect, bewailing the death of the mighty hunter Nimrod, the founder of Babylon, who no doubt met a violent death because he was guilty of violence toward man and beasts. (Gen. 10:8-10; 9:6) Whereas those Jewish women were indirectly worshiping the sun-god in the same way that Babylonian women did, the prophet Ezekiel saw men performing direct worship of the sun at Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem.—Ezek. 8:16.

NIMROD WORSHIP FOSTERS VIOLENCE

Nimrod was the father of violence after the Flood. He not only killed animals in wanton slaughter, but he also hunted men and taught others to hunt and slaughter men. So the worship of Nimrod as the god Tammuz or Bacchus would naturally cause these people to act like Nimrod, since it is a principle that a person imitates the god he worships, and takes on the qualities, good or bad, attributed to that god. (Rom. 1:22-28; John 8:44; 1 Cor. 11:1; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:22-24; Gal. 5:22, 23) The Babylonians also supported Nimrod-like violence by their belief that life in the cavernous Aralu, their supposed abode of the dead, was more tolerable for soldiers than for the rest of mankind.e And the god Bacchus is even today a symbol of wanton revelry. Cross-represented Nimrod worship could produce nothing else but violence and debauchery throughout the land.

The debasing and morally filthy Babylonish worship to which the Jews degraded brought in many loathsome diseases. Where righteousness and law-keeping had resided, murder became a commonplace thing. (Isa. 1:15, 21; Jer. 7:9; Deut. 28:58-61) Hatred and violence were directed especially against those who stood for the worship of Jehovah and for his law. (2 Ki. 24:3, 4; Jer. 26:8; 32:2, 3; 37:15, 16; 38:4) Did God see and care, enough to take action? He said to Ezekiel: “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it such a light thing to the house of Judah to do the detestable things that they have done here, that they have to fill the land with violence and that they should offend me again, and here they are thrusting out the shoot to my nose?f And I myself also shall act in rage. My eye will not feel sorry, neither shall I feel compassion. And they will certainly call out in my ears with a loud voice, but I shall not hear them.”—Ezek. 8:17, 18.

RUIN OR PEACE HINGES ON WORSHIP

In Ezekiel’s vision Jehovah’s executioners started by killing first those twenty-five sun-worshipers, then the seventy men who were worshiping idolatrous carvings on the walls and those women who were weeping for the cross-marked god Tammuz. (Ezek. 8:17 to 9:8) This was but a preview of what was about to befall Jerusalem, to be discussed in later issues of this magazine.—Jer. 25:9, 15-18.

This page of Judah’s history clearly shows that Babylonish false religion was truly the cause of the troubles of Judah, a nation who had Jehovah for their God, his law being their national law, and who had experienced his protection and peace, prosperity, moral and physical cleanness while they were obedient to him. It helps us to see that Babylonish false religion is at the root of the evils and the lawlessness and violence in the world. Its bad practices in the name of God have turned many, even in Christendom, completely away from belief in God and have caused them to be prey to ideologies such as atheistic communism, which in turn brings in more violence. No nation today can last, anymore than Judah did, if its religious systems follow the practices of Babylonish worship.

But Jesus Christ gave encouraging direction to honest individuals among the nations by his words: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3) Taking in the true knowledge of Jehovah God and his Son and associating with those who worship God with spirit and truth will not develop confusion or the superstitious fear of purgatory or hellfire. Neither will it promote wrong sexual appetite or the desire to do violence to property or to our fellowman. It will prevent us from going down the degraded road to destruction that the nations are traveling. It will make us clean and bring us peace and the favor of God, with an assurance of life in his new order of righteousness.—John 4:23, 24.

[Footnotes]

The cross as a symbol dates back to an unknown antiquity. It was recognized in all countries throughout the world at all times. Before the present era the Buddhists, Brahmans, and Druids utilized the device. Seymour tells us: “The Druids considered that the long arm of the cross symbolized the way of life, the short arms the three conditions of the spirit world, equivalent to heaven, purgatory and hell.” With the ancient Egyptians the cross was a reverenced symbol. Their ankh (crux ansata or handled cross) represented life, and a perpendicular shaft with several arms at right angles (Nile cross) appears to have had some reference to fertility of crops. Five of their planet symbols . . . were represented by a cross attached to a circle or part of a circle. Prescott says that when the first Europeans arrived in Mexico, to their surprise, they found “the cross, the sacred emblem of their own faith, raised as an object of worship in the temples of Anahuac.”

Be Honest in Everything

THOSE who want to please God take to heart the Christian standard of honesty. They realize that “the devious person is a detestable thing to Jehovah, but His intimacy is with the upright ones.”—Prov. 3:32.

At first glance, honesty may appear to be no problem to many. They may feel that they do not deliberately scheme and practice dishonest things such as lying, cheating or stealing. However, there is more to it than that. A person may feel he is living up to high Christian standards of honesty, but at the same time may be engaged in activities that are really not honest at all. Hence, it would be well for each one to reexamine his position in this matter, in the light of what follows, to determine whether his thinking and acting need adjusting to harmonize with Christian honesty.

HONESTY TOWARD GOVERNMENTS

Some kinds of dishonesty are more obvious, such as outright stealing or lying. But others are more subtle and must be guarded against even more carefully.

One such area for caution is in regard to the relationship a Christian has with civil authorities. He must honestly render the government its dues, even though that same government may not be honest with him. Jesus Christ said to “pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar.” (Matt. 22:21) Does the government assess its citizenry with various taxes? Then the Christian should not cheat the civil authority out of these taxes. For example, he should not falsify his income tax by claiming more deductions than he is entitled to, or by saying he has contributed to a charitable organization when he has not, or by inflating the volume of such contributions beyond what he has actually donated.

One might try to justify cheating on taxes by saying the government takes too much anyway, but this is not the Christian’s right. Caesar violates none of God’s laws by asking for just taxes. If governments overtax, or misuse the taxes they collect, then they will answer to God for it. But the Christian is not the judge in these matters. He is under obligation, not just to the government, but to God, to pay exactly what is required. The Christian apostle Paul said: “Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities . . . Render to all their dues, to him who calls for the tax, the tax; to him who calls for the tribute, the tribute.”—Rom. 13:1, 7.

Related to this is the practice of smuggling, buying things in a neighboring country and then sneaking them across the border to avoid paying import tax or duty. While this may be a common practice in some lands, it should not be practiced by Christians, because it denies the government what it lawfully requires. The civil authority is entitled to set up duties if it wants. Since their doing so does not conflict with God’s laws, it must be complied with. The Christian who smuggles is acting dishonestly and can be held accountable, not only by the police, but also by the Christian congregation.

Some may not consider themselves smugglers, but from time to time when they do make a trip abroad and return, do they fill out the customs declaration in an honest way? Do they declare everything that is required by law, or do they try to figure out how to get things in free when they should be paying duty on them? It does not matter whether the item is small or large, or whether the person considers it insignificant. The only consideration where honesty is concerned is, Does the government tell me that I should pay duty on this item? If so, the Christian must pay that duty. To avoid doing so is being dishonest.

Governments also lay down rules for traffic to promote public safety. In many countries a red light means to come to a full stop, as does a stop sign. But does one slow down at stop signals only to check to be sure no policeman is in sight, and then drive on? And what about the speed limits? Are they exceeded just because no one is watching? These things are dishonest practices. Why? Because they are not obeying the “superior authorities.” One may scoff at traffic rules not to his liking, but “foolish are those who make a derision of guilt.” (Prov. 14:9) It is Caesar’s right to determine what the traffic laws will be, and it is for the protection of the people. Since this regulating does not break God’s laws, the Christian must obey as unto God.

AT WORK

Business firms, too, have regulations. A person may feel he would never steal money or merchandise from his employer, because that would be dishonest. But does he take company postage stamps, stationery and other goods for personal use? Yes, even taking a pencil or paper clips would be dishonest if it is not authorized by the company, since these things are company property.

Also, there is the matter of using company telephones for personal calls. When the company rules against it, then to do so is dishonest, regardless of how many others may do it. The Christian is obligated to pay for personal calls he makes, since he is using facilities not his own. A similar dishonest practice involves the use, in any one of a number of ways, of telephone services without paying for them. But this amounts to stealing, because a person withholds the money he would normally be required to pay for the telephone call. And if you think dodging payment for a telephone call is not really dishonest, then test your theory by asking the telephone company how they feel about it!

At times, stores allow their employees to purchase goods at reduced rates for personal use only. Some employees feel they can resell this merchandise at the reduced price to friends or relatives to help them save money. However, this is not honest, because it is not complying with the arrangement specified by the company. They have the right to set the rules. The Christian must comply.

Some have an expense account in connection with their secular work. Here the Christian exercises care not to round off figures to the next higher one, or include items that are really personal and not meant to be covered by the company. The Christian includes on his expense account only what he has actually spent and only what the company allows for, nothing more.

Consider, too, the matter of lying to one’s employer to get time off from work. What same persons may consider a good reason for lying still cannot be justified by God’s standard of honesty. Perhaps they think it would be all right if they wanted to attend a Christian assembly and did not think their employer would give them time off. But how could the Christian justify lying to an employer to attend an assembly where God’s Word is taught and Christian conduct, including honesty, promoted? Such reasoning is inconsistent, even hypocritical. In most cases an employer will respect your honesty in regard to wanting time off for an assembly. But even if it results in the loss of your job because you seek first the Kingdom, God is not going to forsake you when you do what is right.—Matt. 6:33.

Often, Christians are employed in domestic work, doing housecleaning, cooking and other chores in a home. While they may know it is wrong to take clothing, dishes, silverware, and other such items, do they realize that it is just as wrong to take things that may not be as readily missed? Taking flour, sugar, fruits or vegetables is just as much stealing, is just as dishonest, as if one walked off with a more valuable item. If the employer specifically gives his employee some of these items, that is different. But one must be careful not to interpret an employer’s generosity on an occasion or two to mean that pilfering is justified. It is not.

HONESTY IN ALL THINGS

There are many other ways in which honesty is displayed. It is involved even when borrowing things from others. You should return what you borrow at the time specified, or before. It may be a small item and you may not consider keeping it to be of any consequence, but what would happen if you tried borrowing even a little money from a bank and not paying it back on time?—Ps. 37:21.

In the Christian congregations there are certain ones assigned to handle monies needed for paying expenses. Using any of this money for oneself, however briefly, would be dishonest. Even if a person is completely without funds he must never consider using money that does not belong to him without the owner’s consent. It is no small matter. Judas Iscariot misused money entrusted to him and was branded “a thief.” (John 12:6) He met an untimely death out of God’s favor.

Sometimes a person does a thing of which he is ashamed. He feels others would look down on him if they knew about it. While we certainly are not under obligation to divulge the private affairs of our life to everyone, the Christian still is not free to lie to save face if a matter comes before the congregation judicial committee and he is requested to tell the truth.

Appreciate that dishonesty in little things leads to dishonesty in big things. The process starts small, ends up big. The mind is gradually conditioned for larger transgressions each time smaller ones are not resisted. Jesus said: “The person faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and the person unrighteous in what is least is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you have not proved yourselves faithful in connection with the unrighteous riches, who will entrust you with what is true? And if you have not proved yourselves faithful in connection with what is another’s, who will give you what is for yourselves?”—Luke 16:10-12.

If you love God, if you want to live in his righteous new order of things, you will want to be honest and do what is right. “He that would love life and see good days, let him restrain his tongue from what is bad and his lips from speaking deception, but let him turn away from what is bad and do what is good.”—1 Pet. 3:10, 11.

Yes, be honest in everything. Then you, too, will be able to say as did the apostle Paul: “We trust we have an honest conscience, as we wish to conduct ourselves honestly in all things.”—Heb. 13:18.

Questions From Readers

● In the King James Version of the Bible, Matthew 28:9 tells of the women that met Jesus after his resurrection. It says: “And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.” Is this not a clear contradiction of the teaching of Jehovah’s witnesses that Jesus is not to be worshiped?

Trinitarians who believe that Jesus is God, or at least the second person of the triune God, do not like to have Jehovah’s witnesses say that it is unscriptural for worshipers of the living and true God to render worship to the Son of God, Jesus Christ. To the trinitarians that means denying worship to Jehovah God. However, we know that when Jesus was in the wilderness and tempted by the Devil and invited to perform an act of worship to the Devil in order to gain all the kingdoms of this world at the Devil’s hands, Jesus referred to the book of Deuteronomy and said, according to the King James Version: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” (Matt. 4:10) By those words Jesus debarred his followers from worshiping him.

The King James reading of Matthew 28:9 appears on the face of it to look like a flat contradiction of what Jehovah’s witnesses teach, but, of course, the King James Bible translators would naturally want to support their trinitarian view by rendering the Greek word here into English as “worshipped.” However, it is interesting to note how The Complete Bible, An American Translation by Smith and Goodspeed renders Matthew 28:9. It reads: “And Jesus himself met them, and said, ‘Good morning!’ And they went up to him and clasped his feet, and bowed to the ground before him.” The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures says: “They approached and caught him by his feet and did obeisance to him.” This bowing to the ground or doing obeisance to the resurrected Jesus does not mean worshiping him. If it did, then men of God in ancient times could be found guilty of worshiping human creatures, because they bowed before them; whereas the angel that was used to transmit the Revelation to the apostle John stopped him when he wanted to worship the angel, and told him to worship only God.—Rev. 19:10; 22:8.

The Greek verb in Matthew 28:9 that the King James Version renders as “worshipped” is proskynéo. This Greek verb occurs in the Greek Septuagint version of the Hebrew Scriptures. It occurs in the Greek Septuagint in its rendering of Genesis 23:7, where the King James Version reads: “And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.” The book published by Samuel Bagster & Sons, Ltd., of London, England, and entitled “The Septuagint Version, the Old Testament With an English Translation,” shows this Greek verb proskynéo in the Greek text of the Septuagint, and instead of saying that Abraham worshiped the people of the land, even the sons of Heth, this English translation of the Greek Septuagint says in Genesis 23:7: “And Abram rose up and did obeisance to the people of the land, to the sons of Chet.”

Consequently, for trinitarians to argue that the rendering of Matthew 28:9 by the King James Version, or some other trinitarian version, proves that we must worship Jesus as a member of the trinity, means that these trinitarians base their argument on a very weak foundation. All the way through the King James Version the Greek verb proskynéo is rendered as “worship,” even in Revelation 3:9, where Jesus says to his followers: “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.” Here the King James Version shows the weakness of its translation, since not even trinitarians claim that others will worship Jesus’ followers.

While the King James Version renders proskynéo as “worship” throughout, other modern translations do not uniformly do so. This variation agrees with the Hebrew text, for in Hebrew the verb shahháh is the one that is translated in the Greek Septuagint by the verb proskynéo and it is the Hebrew verb that occurs in Genesis 23:7. In the King James Version this Hebrew word shahháh is translated in various places as “to bow down, to make to stoop, to humbly beseech, to crouch, to fall down, to fall flat, to do obeisance, to make obeisance, to do reverence and to worship.” Since the Greek verb proskynéo is the equivalent of the Hebrew word shahháh, the same thing should be done with regard to rendering proskynéo into English so as to indicate that it does not always mean worship such as is to be rendered to the Most High God Jehovah himself, alone.

Other translations, such as An American Translation, recognize the need to do this. Weymouth’s The New Testament in Modern Speech renders Matthew 28:9 this way: “And then suddenly they saw Jesus coming to meet them. ‘Peace be to you,’ He said. And they came and clasped His feet, bowing to the ground before Him.” The New English Bible, published in 1961, renders it in this manner: “Suddenly Jesus was there in their path. He gave them his greeting, and they came up and clasped his feet, falling prostrate before him.” So these, as well as other translations, show that because the King James Version renders proskynéo as “worshipped,” this does not make it right. Hence, Matthew 28:9, in its correct rendering, by no means contradicts the teaching of Jehovah’s witnesses that Jesus is not to be worshiped, as we worship only Jehovah God.

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