The Watchtower — November 15, 1964

Never Too Old to Change

LAST year a seventy-year-old minister in Sweden received an invitation to attend the 39th class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead in Brooklyn, New York. Rather than thinking he was too old to receive ten months of intensive ministerial training, he was happy at the prospects. He was anxious for the advanced training, even though the many things learned might necessitate making changes in the way he had been doing certain things.

It is this willingness to do something new, to make changes and adjustments when needed, that keeps older persons active and young at heart. There is no need to feel bound to familiar ideas and habits just because you are advanced in years. When long-held beliefs are shown to be in error, there is no excuse for dismissing the responsibility that new information may bring by saying: “I’m too old to change.” As long as one is alive, he is never too old to change his ways.

One who continues to follow religious teachings that are in conflict with God’s Word the Bible is displeasing to God. So a difficult decision faces an older person when he learns that his religious beliefs do not have Biblical support. What will he do? Will he meet the challenge, even though it may involve a radical change in his life? Unfortunately many lack the initiative, courage and humility to make a careful study of God’s Word and to bring their lives into harmony with its righteous principles. There are, of course, exceptions.

One such exception is ninety-six-year-old Sista Vasquez, who lives in Golfito, Costa Rica. As a Roman Catholic, she had failed to receive instruction from God’s Word throughout her long life. But on learning what God requires, as a result of a study of the Bible with visiting ministers, she was baptized in water last year, symbolizing her dedication to serve Him. Although Sista Vasquez is blind and cannot walk, she never misses an opportunity to witness to the many people that visit her home. Talking to others about the good news of God’s kingdom brings her a happiness that she would never have realized had she felt that she was too old to change.

It is true that it is much better to do as the Bible says, and remember “your grand Creator in the days of your young manhood.” Later, when “the calamitous days proceed to come, or the years have arrived when you will say: ‘I have no delight in them,’” it is much more difficult to be active in serving God. But even though you are now old and the calamities associated with old age have caused you to lose your delight in life, this does not mean that it is too late to change. Really, the only way to find true contentment is to make the changes needed to do the will of God.—Eccl. 12:1.

Suba Sesay, who was born 110 years ago, on August 8, 1854, in Sierra Leone, Africa, will be one of the first persons to vouch for this. After a very active life, Pa Suba, as he is called by acquaintances, went blind in 1938. “I used to pray sincerely to die,” he explained. “I was made to believe that my blindness was a punishment for the seventy-five leopards I killed as a hunter.” As a result of such false teachings and his loss of sight, life had become a calamity for Pa Suba, and he found no delight in living.

This outlook soon changed, however, when Bible truth was finally brought to him by one of Jehovah’s witnesses and he learned the true cause for suffering and about God’s promised new system of things. (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:4) He gladly accepted this Bible message and conformed his life to its teachings. “If it pleases Jehovah God to overlook my past life and accept me,” he said, “why should I feel too old to change?” So at the age of 107 he was baptized at a Christian Bible assembly in Port Loko.

Since that time Pa Suba has found real happiness and contentment in associating with Christian people and in preaching the good news of God’s kingdom to others. Although blind and slightly incapacitated, he, nevertheless, uses every opportunity to talk about the Bible to anyone that calls to say Hello. He also goes out on his porch and witnesses to passers-by. In this way he was able to maintain a monthly average of fourteen hours in the preaching work last year—and that at the age of 109!

It is extremely unlikely that you are that old. So if persons well past a hundred years old can learn Bible truth, conform their lives to it and preach it to others, you can too. In fact, it is absolutely necessary that you make such a change. Your life in God’s new system of things depends upon it.

But perhaps, in addition to being advanced in years, your native tongue is not the language of the community in which you live. Should a person consider himself too old to learn a new language in order to express to his neighbors the good things he has learned from the Bible?

Two years ago a young Italian-speaking minister in Providence, Rhode Island, started a Bible study with an eighty-year-old man who did not think that he was too old to learn to speak English. When it was pointed out to this man that he should attend all congregation meetings, he started doing so, even though, to begin with, he could not understand everything that was said. But as a result of his regular attendance and use of the English language, he was soon able to speak English clearly enough to give an effective Bible sermon. Although he is now eighty-two years old, he is a regular house-to-house preacher who also shares in the full-time ministry during certain periods of the year!

How evident it is that if one truly wants to do the will of God, he is never too old to do so! True, it may be much more difficult for an older person to make the adjustments to serve God, but it can be done. Jehovah God himself will help you change. He promises his support. In his Word he says that “even to one’s old age I am the same One; and to one’s gray-headedness I myself shall keep bearing up.”—Isa. 46:4.

Sign of the Kingdom in Power

Can we see it today? Is it unmistakable?

THE weather signs are carefully noted each day by multitudes of persons all around the globe. Comfort, livelihood and even life itself may well depend upon doing so. Yet these same multitudes pay little attention to the signs of the times in which we live, signs that point to a great storm of trouble ahead. If, instead of adopting the position that the future is a sealed book that no one should even try to understand, people would seek reliable information about it and how to read the signs of these times accurately, they would be asking as did Jesus’ disciples: “Teacher, when will these things actually be, and what will be the sign when these things are destined to occur?”—Luke 21:7.

What were “these things” about which the disciples inquired? At Lu 21 verse six of this same chapter of Luke’s Gospel there is record of Jesus’ warning about the approaching destruction of the temple at Jerusalem. At Lu 21 verses twenty to twenty-four he also prophesied that Jerusalem would be desolated and her inhabitants would “fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.” One of those four inquiring disciples (John) survived to the year 70 C.E., when over a million Jews perished, mostly by the sword, and when General Titus shipped almost 100,000 into slavery in various parts of the Roman Empire. The city and its temple were burned and razed to the ground. Events thus proved the accuracy of Jesus’ prophecy.

WARS AND DISORDERS

In a parallel account it is to be noted that the disciples also inquired about something else: “Tell us, When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?” (Matt. 24:3) Note now Jesus’ reply to this inquiry. After pointing out that many would come and falsely claim to be the returned Lord and unduly excite people about the imminence of the end of the system of things, he declared: “Furthermore, when you hear of wars and disorders, do not be terrified. For these things must occur first, but the end does not occur immediately.” (Luke 21:9) This, then, is an intimation that a considerable period must elapse before the sign of his second presence would be observed.

The “wars and disorders” heard about by that and succeeding generations of Christians doubtless included the Jewish rebellions against Rome, one in 66 C.E. and another in 132 C.E., the long struggle between the Eastern and Western portions of the Empire for supremacy, the invasions by northern barbarians, the numerous wars among the splinters of the disintegrating Empire, the Crusades, the Thirty Years’ War, the Napoleonic War and many others. Why may we so understand the matter? Because Jesus had informed his disciples that “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24) Through all that turbulent history up to the close of the nineteenth century they saw no emancipation for Jerusalem.

Not until in the latter half of the nineteenth century did watchful Christians begin to realize from prayerful study of Bible chronology that “the appointed times of the nations,” a period of 2,520 years during which godless human rulerships were to enjoy sway over earth’s inhabitants uninterrupted by heavenly intervention, were due to run out in the year 1914.a Not until that date, then, could there be fulfillment of the prophecy: “When the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him” for judgment. (Matt. 25:31-33) So that year 1914 was awaited with great expectation. When World War I broke out that year involving all the leading nations of earth, and when unprecedented disease, epidemics and famine conditions followed, students of the Bible quickly detected fulfillment of Jesus’ words: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another pestilences and food shortages; and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs.”—Luke 21:10, 11.

THE “SIGN” OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE

Distinguishing this war from the “wars and disorders” that preceded it, we should note that the national economies of all the combatant nations were so geared that every man, woman and child was forced to contribute toward the war effort. This war’s cost in terms of human lives lost in combat alone—almost 13,000,000—was more than double the cost of all the wars of the previous 125 years put together. In money value the cost ran well over $337,000,000,000, a staggering figure indeed. As the war drew to a close the “influenza” epidemic spread across the earth, greatly debilitating the more than 500,000,000 stricken by it, and leaving over 20,000,000 dead in its wake. Food shortages, occasioned in part by the concentration of manpower in war, took their ghastly toll of life also. In Soviet Russia alone several millions died from starvation between World War I and World War II.

After 1914, particularly since 1948, great subterranean forces seem to have been at work, convulsing our planet, rippling its surface with tremors and almost annually producing one or more disastrous earthquakes. In 1960 Peru, Morocco, Algeria, Japan and Chile were all stricken, with a total death toll exceeding 26,500. In Chile alone damage was estimated at more than $300,000,000. In 1962 Iran and Colombia suffered from great upheavals, Iran reporting some 12,400 dead. In 1963 Libya, Yugoslavia and Kashmir, India, were hardest hit, with a total of 1,390 dead and some 16,000 rendered homeless. Early this year, 1964, Alaska literally writhed, and damage from the quake and the subsequent seismic sea wave was reported to be in the neighborhood of $750,000,000. Certainly Jesus’ forecast that “there will be great earthquakes” has been undergoing a striking fulfillment in our time.

Jesus also foretold “fearful sights and from heaven great signs.” Had we been within a kilometer of Hiroshima, Japan, on that fateful date in 1945 when an atomic explosion mushroomed into the skies and rained down a living death upon any remaining life in the immediate area, we should have experienced the chill of fear. Since then, as we learn of mere humans having it in their power to explode bombs of vastly greater power of destruction, mankind’s future seems very limited. As men with their greatly improved scientific instruments probe into the mysteries of sun, moon and stars, doing so with military objectives as the main concern, fear and anxiety for the future are greatly heightened. Conjectures of some scientists about the future of the sun and our planet are most disquieting to many people. Some foresee the sun running out of energy and leaving our earth out in the frigid cold, while others see the sun’s radiance intensifying to the point where earth and its contents are roasted to a crisp. The specter of fear today haunts all mankind.

JERUSALEM STILL TRAMPLED BY NATIONS?

Surely all the features comprising the “sign” of Christ’s second presence with Kingdom power are now observable! But what about earthly Jerusalem? Would she now be emancipated? No; rather, strife and partition have come to that Palestinian city where Arab and Jew haggle over real estate. But reverent students of God’s Word have come to realize that it was not this Jerusalem and Israel to which the promised relief would come. Had not Jesus clearly stated that “the kingdom of God will be taken from you [fleshly Israel] and be given to a nation producing its fruits”? (Matt. 21:43) What nation is that? Paul shows that all the promises that fleshly Israel failed to obtain would now be fulfilled on Abraham’s spiritual descendants, for he declares: “Moreover, if you belong to Christ, you are really Abraham’s seed, heirs with reference to a promise.” (Gal. 3:29) As to that spiritual Israel the same apostle writes that “our citizenship exists in the heavens,” while John testifies that the holy city, the New Jerusalem, has its location in heaven.—Phil. 3:20; Heb. 12:22.

In 1914 the “appointed times of the [Gentile] nations” ended and the heavenly Jerusalem gave birth to God’s kingdom that must rule all those Gentile nations with a rod of iron, to smash them to bits. (Rev. 12:1-5) Now those Gentile nations must themselves be trodden in the winepress of God’s anger. (Rev. 19:15, 16) Their end nears!

In the year 1919 spiritual Israelites still on earth who were suffering from a crippling of their God-given preaching work by the nations of earth were freed from a state of fear and inactivity and disorganization. From then till now their fearless preaching of the Kingdom good news in all the earth, in peacetime and in wartime, regardless of the national and international pressures exerted against them, can be explained only by the fact that the invisible Kingdom rule of Christ has emancipated these citizens of the New Jerusalem for the very work foretold by Jesus: “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) Only after heavenly intervention came due, when the “appointed times of the nations” were fulfilled in 1914, could such a message be appropriately proclaimed earth-wide.

How unmistakable, then, the “sign” of the Kingdom’s powerful invisible presence! Forearmed with this information, we can and should take the steps that will bring protection from the oncoming, greatest storm of all time, the storm of Jehovah’s anger and execution against all the nations and their system of things. “Seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger,” is the counsel of God’s prophet. Concealment will mean life under the righteous, everlasting rule of Christ’s peaceful kingdom.—Zeph. 2:3.

[Footnotes]

Employment and Your Conscience

THROUGHOUT life a Christian must make decisions. Some he finds hard to make, others easy. Some decisions relate to what kind of employment he will accept in compliance with 1 Timothy 5:8, which points out that it is a Christian responsibility to provide for one’s own household. First of all, he should view his problem objectively, making sure that he knows just what is involved in the kind of employment in question. Then he should consider any Biblical law or principle that may be involved. Though at times it may be difficult to do so, he should decide in favor of Scriptural laws or principles, when applicable to his situation, because a Christian is dedicated to Jehovah and must do His will. Certainly if a Christian willfully breaks the law of God he cannot consider himself guiltless, for God does not take such a view. Solomon said: “The conclusion of the matter, everything having been heard, is: Fear the true God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole obligation of man.”—Eccl. 12:13.

Commandments of God do come into consideration by a Christian when choosing his employment. Exodus chapter 20 lists ten of God’s commandments, and the second one forbids the making of images for worship. In 1 John 5:21 Christians too are urged to guard themselves from idols. Hence, a Christian could easily decide not to accept employment in the manufacture of images or medals for false religious use. Related to this is the inspired statement of Revelation 18:4, 5, which, when considered by the Christian, would cause him to refuse regular employment in a false religious organization.

Other commandments of Jehovah are: You must not murder; you must not commit adultery; you must not steal. (Rom. 13:8-10) Therefore, a dedicated Christian can easily decide that he cannot let himself be employed by organizations whose business is murder, illicit sex relations or theft, nor would he individually engage in these practices. Regarding involvement in political affairs of the world, he will maturely consider such texts as John 17:14; John 15:19 and Daniel 2:44. Considering Isaiah 2:2-4 and Micah 4:3, a Christian can determine whether his associations or conduct would give any support to a violation of such principles of peacefulness. Also, in the light of Isaiah 65:11, 12 and 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, the Christian could not conscientiously work for an enterprise, the entire function of which was gambling or a lottery, or any other form of extortion. Obviously, the Christian could not properly be employed in any manner that would conflict with the righteous laws and principles of God’s Word.

KEEPING FREE FROM BLOOD

Christians are told to abstain from blood. (Acts 15:20, 28, 29) Just how far-reaching is that? What do the Scriptures require of a dedicated servant of God? If you are killing an animal or a bird, then, to comply with God’s law and to render that creature suitable for food, you must drain the blood. According to God’s law you must refrain from eating blood or taking it, as in a transfusion, to sustain life. Genesis 9:3, 4 and Deuteronomy 12:23, 24 contain Scriptural commands. Leviticus 17:10 points out that those in ancient Israel who willfully took in blood would be cut off by Jehovah. However, if an Israelite happened to eat the flesh of a clean animal that died of itself or was torn by a wild beast, he was declared unclean until the evening, provided he cleansed himself. (Lev. 17:15, 16) With Christians too, if someone partook of the meat of an animal that had not been properly drained of its blood when slaughtered, and it was not deliberate on his part and he repented when it later came to his attention, avoiding a recurrence of such wrongdoing, Jehovah would mercifully forgive him.

Various uses of blood today are objectionable from the Biblical standpoint. Blood could be used on the altar under certain circumstances in ancient Israel, and if it was not used in that manner it was to be disposed of. (Lev. 17:11-14) Not only is blood being used in connection with modern medical practices, but it is reported that blood is now being used in a variety of products, such as adhesives for making plywood, particle board, hardboard, bottle crowns, furniture and musical instruments. Blood is also being used in polymerization of rubber compounds, insecticidal binder, settling compound for industrial waste treatment, clear water purification (paper industry), uranium purification, foaming agent for lightweight cellular concrete, fire foaming agent, wine clarifying agent, paper coatings and binders, paper flocculants and sizes, replacement of casein in latex emulsions, emulsified asphalt, cork composition, photoengraving platemaking solutions, leather-finishing operations, water-resistant binder of pigments for print dyeing on cotton cloth, fertilizers, animal foods, and amino acid production, such as histidine and histamine, for example. Perhaps additional uses of blood will come to light in the future. In the world the uses of blood are numerous and none of these is in accord with the Biblical method of handling blood, which is to be spilled on the ground. However, the Christian is not responsible for the worldly misuse of blood, what other people do with it, and he cannot spend all his time undertaking detailed research regarding the various misuses of blood in the world of mankind, especially when it comes to nonedible products. If he did so, he would have less time left for preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. To some persons, it may be a hard decision to make as to where one should be employed. It resolves itself to a matter of conscience.

The Israelites were told: “You must not eat any body already dead. To the alien resident who is inside your gates you may give it, and he must eat it; or there may be a selling of it to a foreigner, because you are a holy people to Jehovah your God.” (Deut. 14:21) So whether a Christian who works in a store will dispose of blood goods, such as blood sausage, by selling such goods to persons of the world who are willing to pay for them is a matter of conscience. It is also a personal matter as to whether another Christian will sell blood items to worldly persons in a drugstore or will spread blood fertilizer on the field of a worldly employer at his request. Naturally, a Christian could not properly encourage persons to obtain blood goods rather than those free from blood and he could not advocate any misuse of blood. However, we must leave it up to the conscience of the individual Christian as to what he will do when it comes to matters of this nature in handling such products. One Christian should not criticize another Christian for the decision he makes, just as one Israelite could not reasonably criticize another Israelite for selling to a foreigner an animal that died of itself and hence had not been properly drained of its blood.

The use of blood in adhesives for manufacturing plywood and other commonly used materials has now come to the attention of Christians, and we use plywood as an example. Much plywood is made using blood glue, but some plywood is blood-free. A Christian purchaser or contractor may seek to obtain blood-free plywood if he can do so; however, if he decides to use all types of plywood, it must be left to his conscience. It is not always possible to determine just how the plywood has been made. Because blood may be used in some plywood, this does not mean that a Christian could not buy, sell or rent a home or purchase a trailer in which plywood is found. The extent to which he would check on such matters is for him to decide.

Also, if a Christian is working for a company that uses blood glue in some of its plywood or other products, he would not necessarily have to quit his job. He may work in the woods, cutting down the trees. Part of the lumber is used one way and part another. The employee is not responsible for what happens to the wood after he has done his job. Of course, if a Christian worked in a plywood plant and it was required that he prepare the blood glue or apply it to the plywood, he might feel he could not conscientiously do this. He might request that his employer give him some other kind of work not handling blood. But even this is a personal matter. By doing other work for the same company, such as working as a truck driver, salesman, and so forth, the individual may feel he is free from responsibility for any misuse of blood. Since blood is used in the manufacture of so many common products, it becomes almost impossible for the Christian to avoid all contact with them—leather goods, furniture, bottle tops, cotton cloth, and so forth. So just what the Christian will do is a matter of conscience, and others should not criticize him. Certainly it would not be fitting to disrupt the unity of a Christian congregation in a certain locality by becoming involved in detailed discussions and contentions over the personal decision in this respect on the part of some Christian associated with that congregation.—Ps. 133:1; Prov. 26:21; Jas. 3:16-18.

The Society does not endorse any of the modern medical uses of blood, such as the uses of blood in connection with inoculations. Inoculation is, however, a virtually unavoidable circumstance in some segments of society, and so we leave it up to the conscience of the individual to determine whether to submit to inoculation with a serum containing blood fractions for the purpose of building up antibodies to fight against disease. If a person did this, he may derive comfort under the circumstances from the fact that he is not directly eating blood, which is expressly forbidden in God’s Word. It is not used for food or to replace lost blood. Here the Christian must make his own decision based on conscience. Therefore, whether a Christian will submit to inoculation with a serum, or whether doctors or nurses who are Christians will administer such, is for personal decision.a Christians in the medical profession are individually responsible for employment decisions. They must bear the consequences of decisions made, in keeping with the principle at Galatians 6:5. Some doctors who are Jehovah’s witnesses have administered blood transfusions to persons of the world upon request. However, they do not do so in the case of one of Jehovah’s dedicated witnesses. In harmony with Deuteronomy 14:21, the administering of blood upon request to worldly persons is left to the Christian doctor’s own conscience. This is similar to the situation facing a Christian butcher or grocer who must decide whether he can conscientiously sell blood sausage to a worldly person.b

MAKING YOUR DECISION

These few examples of how Christians may go about deciding on their employment may be helpful when it comes to considering types of employment mentioned here. The Christian should always consider God’s laws in everything he does; and whatever he does, he does unto Jehovah. (1 Cor. 10:31) If what he does is not contrary to God’s law and “Caesar’s” just laws, he is within his rights in doing it, and no one should criticize him. When a Christian is in doubt about what he should do, he should pray to Jehovah God. (1 Pet. 5:6, 7) He should read the Bible and consider Christian publications that deal with his problem. (The Watch Tower Publications Index contains many references under “Employment.”) He can talk to the congregation overseer. However, after doing these things it is the individual who, knowing all the circumstances and consequences, must analyze matters and then decide. Others cannot make his decision, if it is a matter of conscience.

When faced with a decision, you may feel in advance that your conscience would bother you if you decided in a certain manner. The thing to do, then, is to avoid that which will cause you to have a troubled conscience. Christians desire to please Jehovah and so, whatever their employment, it should be the kind of work they can do with a clear conscience before Jehovah. “Whatever you are doing, work at it whole-souled as to Jehovah, and not to men.”—Col. 3:23; 1 Tim. 1:18, 19; 1 Pet. 3:16.

[Footnotes]

Sunday School Unsatisfying

◆ In Florida one of Jehovah’s witnesses had the following experience: “A nine-year-old girl living on my street came to my home one evening. She said she had heard that I was a Bible instructor and asked if I would be willing to study the Bible with her, because, after attending Sunday school for three years, they were still reading stories about pictures they colored. I gave her the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained and the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures for her parents to look over. The next evening I called on the parents, explained our work and method of study. They gave their daughter permission to study during summer vacation but said she would have to go back to Sunday school when school started. During our studies sincere appreciation and much enthusiasm were shown.

“The first time she was back in Sunday school she told her classmates about Paradise and the Kingdom for which Christians are to pray. The teacher was amazed and asked her where she got her information. ‘From the Bible,’ she answered, ‘and a nice lady helped me to understand it.’ Every Sunday she came home from Sunday school crying because she did not learn anything about God’s kingdom or about God’s name. Finally she thought of an idea. She looked up scriptures and bombarded her parents with questions that they could not answer, with the result that we resumed our study in the Paradise book and she no longer goes to Sunday school. Also, she brought over her seven-year-old neighbor boy to get him started in studying the Bible.”

Keeping the Organization of Public Servants Pure, Chaste

“In every way we recommend ourselves as God’s ministers, by the endurance of much, . . . by purity, by knowledge.”—2 Cor. 6:4, 6.

1. What assignment of public service is the grandest that has been given to any organization on earth?

NO OTHER organization on earth has a grander assignment of public service than this organization of public servants. Nineteen centuries ago its Head Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, handed out a worldwide assignment in these words: “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth. 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. 28:18-20) That nineteen-hundred-year-old command must still be complied with. But the service assignment that Jesus has given for today adds something extra, something glorious, to it. This service assignment was outlined in Jesus’ prophecy on the evidences that were to mark the “time of the end” of this system of things and was given in these words: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.”—Matt. 24:14.

2. How may this organization of Kingdom witnesses be identified today, and for what reason will these witnesses be made public servants in a more powerful way in the future?

² There is an organization of such Kingdom witnesses on earth today. It is no part of Christendom nor of any other segment of the world empire of Babylonish religion. It is identified as the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses. This Christian society is the only religious society putting the kingdom of the heavens first and keeping free from earthly politics. Thus it can freely preach what Jesus called “this good news of the kingdom,” that is, God’s kingdom. By specializing on this it is the organization rendering to all mankind a public service without compare. By proving faithful in this public service they will be made public servants in a more powerful way in the future for the good of all mankind.

3. From what standpoint does this Society prove to be an organization of public servants, rendering the greatest service?

³ The facts and figures published year after year in editions of the Yearbook prove that the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses is carrying out the assignment to preach the good news of God’s kingdom for which God-fearing men and women have prayed for thousands of years. In carrying out this assignment the Society is rendering the greatest public service on earth today. From that standpoint the Society is an organization of public servants, even though not all of them give talks from the public platform.

4. What questions may people who are doubtful about public officials ask about the individuals in the New World Society?

⁴ However, people who have been disappointed at the conduct of public officials in the political rulerships of this world may be doubtful also about the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses. They may say, ‘Yes, Jehovah’s witnesses as a New World Society are undeniably rendering a public service on a worldwide scale, but what about the private lives of the individual witnesses of Jehovah? What kind of life do they live in their homes, in their secular business and inside their religious congregations? What about their morals in private, away from the public eye?’

5. What kind of answers to these questions should we expect on the part of the baptized persons in the New World Society, and why?

⁵ Those are proper questions. By their private lives how do Jehovah’s witnesses in the New World Society answer those questions? We should expect satisfying answers. Why so? Because each baptized person in the New World Society belongs to the Most High God of the universe. That is so because water baptism is a symbol of a person’s complete dedication of himself to Jehovah God through Jesus Christ. Without any limitations the New World Society of baptized Jehovah’s witnesses belongs to Him. That being so, Jehovah God requires that this organization of public servants be pure, chaste. Never would He give to this organization the assignment of preaching his Kingdom message worldwide unless this organization measured up to His divine requirements. Because his witnesses represent Him he is rightly concerned about their moral purity, their chastity, their right conduct. He is seriously interested in keeping the organization to which he gives such a responsible service assignment clean, pure, chaste, inasmuch as he refuses to use an unclean, impure organization.—Ps. 50:16-23.

GIVING NO CAUSE FOR STUMBLING OTHERS

6. How do dedicated persons who receive a service assignment from God need to act, and what makes it advisable to do so?

⁶ Dedicated public servants who have God’s name called upon them and who receive a service assignment from him need to walk worthily. They cannot preach and teach one thing and at the same time live contrariwise and expect to have God’s approval. Nobody can fool God, pull the wool over his eyes. He knows, his King Jesus Christ knows, and the angels know whether an individual is living in private contrary to what he publicly preaches and teaches. God has feelings. He keenly feels any reproach that is thus being heaped upon his own name, upon his beloved organization, upon his truth and upon the good news of His kingdom. So the private lives of his dedicated public servants are a concern to him. This stern fact makes it advisable for each public servant to walk worthily.

7, 8. (a) Why did the apostle Paul keenly appreciate this fact? (b) In order to advance his message of salvation, what was Paul willing to suffer or to fulfill as his responsibility?

⁷ The Christian apostle Paul deeply appreciated this fact. It was well that he did so, for he was one of the most prominent public servants on earth of the Most High God. Paul knew that the chasteness of his private life ought to recommend to others the Christian message that he preached and taught. Also, the purity of what he taught ought to recommend his message to others and not be a stumbling block or hindrance. It ought to lead to a clean organization. In order to live, to preach and to serve for the unhindered advancement of his message of salvation, Paul was willing to suffer anything. So, after referring to himself and Timothy as ambassadors substituting for Christ, Paul made this statement:

⁸ “In no way are we giving any cause for stumbling, that our ministry might not be found fault with; but in every way we recommend ourselves as God’s ministers, by the endurance of much, by tribulations, by cases of need, by difficulties, by beatings, by prisons, by disorders, by labors, by sleepless nights, by times without food, by purity [or, chastity], by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by holy spirit, by love free from hypocrisy, by truthful speech, by God’s power.”—2 Cor. 6:3-7; 5:20.

9, 10. (a) How would Paul’s companion Timothy keep himself chaste with respect to other men appointed to a congregational office? (b) Who else would benefit from his chasteness in this regard?

⁹ Take note of Paul’s mention of purity or chastity. In this he included his missionary companion Timothy with himself. He insisted that this younger man Timothy be pure or chaste personally and as respects other persons. Under God’s direction Paul clothed this younger man with the authority to do the appointing of overseers and ministerial servants in newly organized congregations. If Timothy did not exercise caution in appointing men to office, and if he let his appointments be influenced by some selfish personal bias of his, he might put into office men who would commit sins as public servants. He would share the blame for their sins and how those sins affected the congregation and the Christian cause.

¹⁰ By taking good care and impartially striving to put in office men truly capable and of good, reliable conduct, Timothy would keep himself free and pure from sharing the blame for another man’s sins in office. Said Paul: “Never lay your hands hastily upon any man; neither be a sharer in the sins of others; preserve yourself chaste.” (1 Tim. 5:22) By not appointing men liable to turn out bad he would not only keep himself chaste and clear of any share in the blame but also keep the congregation chaste. It would not have the bad example of a sinful man set in front of it.

11, 12. (a) Why did Timothy as a servant who had to pass along instructions to others have to set a right example? (b) In this regard, what did Paul write Timothy?

¹¹ Timothy had to watch not to pave the way for someone else to set a bad example in office. Besides that, he himself as a public servant had to set a right example worthy of imitation. He was to do more than merely tell other brothers what to do, passing along to them instructions that came from the governing body of God’s earthly organization. He had to show himself worthy of telling others what to do according to organization instructions. In that way he had to add force to his commands and instructions by himself leading an exemplary life. The ripeness of his Christian development both in mind and in spirit would correct any wrong impression on others that his bodily youngness might make. This was the point that Paul made when he wrote to Timothy:

¹² “Keep on giving these commands and teaching them. Let no man ever look down on your youth. On the contrary, become an example to the faithful ones in speaking, in conduct, in love, in faith, in chasteness. While I am coming, continue applying yourself to public reading, to exhortation, to teaching.”—1 Tim. 4:11-13.

13. How has the New World Society been able to purify its doctrines and to keep them pure?

¹³ Today those words are followed in the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses in order to keep this organization of public servants pure, chaste. The teaching or doctrine has to be kept pure. It can be kept this way only by keeping it in harmony with God’s inspired Word. “The sayings of Jehovah are pure sayings,” said the psalmist David, “as silver refined in a smelting furnace of earth, clarified seven times.” (Ps. 12:6) Truth is pure, and Jesus Christ the Son of David said in prayer to God regarding God’s written Word: “Sanctify them by means of the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17) By faithfully appealing to this pure Word of God the New World Society has been able to purify its doctrines and to keep its teaching pure and truthful.

14, 15. (a) In comparison with the course of Jehovah’s witnesses, what statement about going back to the Scriptures comes late in the day from Roman Catholicism’s head? (b) How does he clutter up the way of such a return to the Bible?

¹⁴ From the very first number of the Watch Tower magazine in July of 1879, which is eighty-five years ago, it has been the endeavor of Jehovah’s dedicated people to do this. So it is very late in the day that the statement comes from the Roman Catholic Pontifex Maximus Paul VI, just back from his pilgrimage to the Middle East, as reported by the New York Times under the dateline “Rome, Jan. 8,” namely:

Pope Paul stressed that “anyone who wants to be true Christian” must go back to the Scriptures. “The return to the Gospel must be our continual exercise of thought, spiritual fervor, moral renewal, religious and human sensitiveness,” he declared.

¹⁵ However, the Roman Catholic Pontifex Maximus cluttered up the way of this return of Roman Catholics to the Bible:

He said that study of Scripture did not imply disavowal of church traditions, “but an increasing effort to bring our Christian faith closer to its original concept, search for greater essential faithfulness to the thinking of Our Lord, and spiritual invigoration of what the authentic development of tradition has brought down to us.”—N.Y. Times, Jan. 9, 1964.

16. How does the New World Society endeavor to do just the contrary of this?

¹⁶ To the contrary of this, the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses endeavors to purify itself of all religious traditions and to adhere to the pure written Word of God. We remember Jesus’ condemnatory words against man-made traditions.—Matt. 15:1-14.

17, 18. What kind of purity was the apostle Paul talking about when he wrote 2 Corinthians 11:2-6?

¹⁷ Very plainly the apostle Paul was talking about doctrinal purity and about keeping the true Christian organization free from the teaching of false apostles, when he wrote these words to the congregation that he had founded in Corinth, Greece:

¹⁸ “I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I personally promised you in marriage to one husband that I might present you as a chaste virgin to the Christ. But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent seduced Eve by its cunning, your minds might be corrupted away from the sincerity and the chastity that are due the Christ. For, as it is, if someone comes and preaches a Jesus other than the one we preached, or you receive a spirit other than what you received, or good news other than what you accepted, you easily put up with him. For I consider that I have not in a single thing proved inferior to your superfine apostles. But even if I am unskilled in speech, I certainly am not in knowledge.”—2 Cor. 11:2-6.

19. (a) In what respect was the serpent in Eden trying to corrupt Eve? (b) Similarly, how were men in Corinth in Paul’s day trying to corrupt the congregation?

¹⁹ Certainly, when the serpent in Eden tempted Adam’s wife Eve in order to seduce and corrupt her, its effort was in the matter of doctrine, in the matter of religious belief. It was not in moral or sexual behavior. The serpent induced Eve to believe that her Creator, Jehovah God, was a liar in what he had taught her husband Adam. In a like cunning manner, during Paul’s absence from Corinth, those so-called “superfine apostles” were trying to corrupt the Christian congregation there. How? By preaching a Christ different from the one whom Paul had preached, by trying to put in the congregation a spirit different from the one they had got through Paul along with its gifts, and by preaching a kind of “good news” different from the good news that Paul had preached to them. Thus those so-called “superfine apostles” were trying to marry off the Corinthian congregation to a different Christ as a spiritual husband. This was leading to a spiritual immorality. How?

20. How was the corrupting influence of those “superfine apostles” leading to spiritual immorality on the congregation’s part?

²⁰ The apostle Paul had already promised them in marriage to Jesus Christ the heavenly Son of God. So now if they let themselves become engaged to marry some other Christ, they would be losing their spiritual morality. They would be losing their spiritual chastity, their virgin chastity, that they owed to Jesus Christ as their promised Husband. The apostle Paul wanted to present this Christian congregation that he had founded as a “chaste virgin to the Christ,” but here those “superfine apostles” were trying to break the congregation’s engagement to Jesus Christ and switch it over to a counterfeit Christ. They were trying to seduce the already engaged congregation to commit spiritual immorality, spiritual adultery, inasmuch as in Jehovah’s law given through Moses an engaged virgin was considered as already the wife of the man to whom arrangements had been made to marry her.

21. What kind of jealousy did Paul have over the congregation in Corinth, and to whom was he a true friend?

²¹ Hence the apostle Paul likened those so-called “superfine apostles” to the serpent in Eden, and he tried to protect the Christian congregation from them. The jealousy that Paul had over them was not a selfish, impassioned, ungodly jealousy, but was a godly jealousy that tolerated no rivalry but insisted on exclusive devotion to Jesus Christ their original Bridegroom. Paul was truly a “friend of the bridegroom,” and he desired to experience in due time the friend’s “joy on account of the voice of the bridegroom” when speaking to his “chaste virgin” Bride in heaven.—John 3:29.

SEXUAL PURITY (CHASTITY) ALSO

22. (a) About what other kind of purity of the congregation was Paul concerned? (b) What did he write about a pertinent case in the congregation in Corinth?

²² As a general overseer who had the “anxiety for all the congregations” in Gentile lands of the West, the apostle Paul was also deeply concerned about the bodily chastity or sexual purity of the organization of God’s public servants. Paul knew that a local congregation could not remain a part of God’s organization and at the same time allow the moral impurity of any of its members. The congregation needs to free itself, vindicate itself from all community responsibility for the sexual immorality of any of its members. Listen to this case that Paul handled for the congregation at Corinth in the first century of our Common Era. It was a shocking case, for Paul writes: “Actually fornication is reported among you, and such fornication as is not even among the [Gentile] nations, that a wife a certain man has of his father. And are you puffed up, and did you not rather mourn, in order that the man that committed this deed should be taken away from your midst?”

23. In that connection, what kind of responsibility did Paul not want to share, and so what did he do about the situation?

²³ As Paul had founded that congregation and had the apostolic oversight over it, he was not for a minute going to become soiled with any community responsibility for such immorality inside God’s organization of public servants. So he immediately follows up the charge that he files against the congregation by writing: “I for one, although absent in body but present in spirit, have certainly judged already, as if I were present, the man who has worked in such a way as this, that in the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are gathered together, also my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus, you hand such a man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. . . . Do you not judge those inside, while God judges those outside? ‘Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.’”—1 Cor. 5:1-5, 12, 13.

24, 25. (a) In Paul’s mind, what was the question now with regard to the Corinthian congregation? (b) How did the congregation demonstrate itself to be chaste in this matter?

²⁴ In Paul’s mind the question now was, Will the Christian congregation with its so-called “superfine apostles” clear itself of any community responsibility for this shocking case of incestuous immorality? Would it be saddened because it had tolerated this immorality within it for any length of time without proper action? Would it vindicate itself by promptly carrying out the apostle’s orders to remove that wicked man from the congregation? Paul’s mind was later set at rest when his missionary companion Titus came back from Corinth and told him that the congregation had done so. Giving official approval to this, Paul wrote them:

²⁵ “(I see that that letter saddened you, though but for a little while,) now I rejoice, not because you were just saddened, but because you were saddened into repenting; for you were saddened in a godly way, that you might suffer no damage in anything due to us. For sadness in a godly way makes for repentance to salvation that is not to be regretted; but the sadness of the world produces death. For, look! this very thing, your being saddened in a godly way, what a great earnestness it produced in you, yes, clearing of yourselves, yes, indignation, yes, fear, yes, longing, yes, zeal, yes, righting of the wrong! In every respect you demonstrated yourselves to be chaste in this matter.”—2 Cor. 7:8-11.

26, 27. (a) Only after what developments would it be safe for the Corinthian congregation to take the incestuous man back again? (b) Nevertheless, against what did the congregation have to keep on watching, and what did Paul write them to indicate this?

²⁶ Certainly only after the congregation had vindicated itself by showing that it did not uphold sexual immorality among its members, only after they had demonstrated themselves “to be chaste in this matter,” only after that would it be safe for the apostle Paul to advise the congregation to let that wicked man come back into the congregation again. Not only had the man sincerely repented of his incestuous sin, between the time that the congregation received Paul’s first letter and the time that it got his second letter, but the congregation as a whole had taken the right stand and action toward the matter. (2 Cor. 2:6-11) But, whether they forgave this man for his proved repentance and took him back in again or not, Paul knew that the Corinthian Christians had to keep on watching against sexual immorality in the congregation. They were living in a very sexy pagan city and many members of the congregation had come in from that sex-crazed world. Hence toward the end of his second letter (2 Cor. 12:20, 21) Paul made this remark:

²⁷ “I am afraid that somehow, when I arrive, I may find you not as I could wish and I may prove to be to you not as you could wish, but, instead, there should somehow be strife, jealousy, cases of anger, contentions, backbitings, whisperings, cases of being puffed up, disorders. Perhaps, when I come again, my God might humiliate me among you, and I might mourn over many of those who formerly sinned but have not repented over their uncleanness and fornication and loose conduct that they have practiced.”

28, 29. (a) How is the same situation true of the New World Society today, especially as more persons come into it? (b) Why may Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 well be said to the Society today?

²⁸ The same situation is true of the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses. It is living in the midst of a sex-maddened world, a regular modern Sodom. Not all the members of this New World Society have been born and reared in the homes of Christian witnesses of Jehovah. The vast majority of them have come out from Babylon the Great, that is, the world empire of false religion, and from among her immoral political paramours. And the more tens of thousands there are who come into the Society from this sexually disturbed world year after year, the more the Society as a whole is subjected to an immoral pressure, because of the immoral leanings of a growing number of incomers. Accordingly, to the Society of today the following words of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Christians may well be said:

²⁹ “What! Do you not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom. And yet that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean . . . in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the spirit of our God.”—1 Cor. 6:9-11.

30. (a) What fact makes it all the more difficult to keep the Society clean as time goes on? (b) Against what did the apostle Peter warn all the washed ones?

³⁰ Yes, as the New World Society grows, “that is what” more and more of Jehovah’s witnesses inside the Society once were. This fact makes it all the more difficult to keep such a growing Society clean, pure, chaste. But all baptized persons today in the Society would never have been admitted into it if first they had not been washed in the name of the Lord Jesus and with the spirit of our God. So in his second letter (2 Pe 2:22) the apostle Peter warns all of us washed ones that we should not go back to such worldly uncleanness, like the “sow that was bathed to rolling in the mire.”

31, 32. (a) Even if not such kinds of persons previously, against what do members of the Society have to watch? (b) For instance, what did Paul have to write Timothy about chastity inside the congregation?

³¹ Many members were not such kinds of persons before they came into the Society. Yet they should keep on watch against falling into temptation to such unclean practices. Take, for instance, Timothy, the missionary who joined Paul in writing the second letter to the congregation at Corinth. He was half-Greek, half-Jew, and was brought up in a godly way by his Jewish mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. (2 Tim. 1:5) Yet after Timothy had worked with him for about fifteen years Paul saw good to write Timothy the following words on moral chastity inside the congregation:

³² “Do not severely criticize an older man. To the contrary, entreat him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters with all chasteness. Honor widows that are actually widows.”—1 Tim. 5:1-3.

33. (a) To whom especially are Paul’s words to Timothy directed with regard to dealing with the womenfolk? (b) Hence the treating of them immorally would be just as abominable as what?

³³ When it came to dealing with womenfolk in the congregation, the young and the old, it called for moral chasteness on Timothy’s part, though now he was no longer a teen-ager. Remember, please, this letter to Timothy was to a regional overseer of congregations, and not to a congregation in general. So the instructions to deal with the “younger women as sisters with all chasteness” stands directed with special force to Christian men who serve as district servants, circuit servants and congregation servants in the New World Society of today. If these today pursue this clean, chaste conduct toward those of the opposite sex, such servants should be strengthening examples to all the other dedicated, baptized men in the Society. If such servants treat the younger women in the Society as they treat their own sisters of their personal family, then they will not morally injure these younger women of the Society any more than they will their own fleshly sister. Committing fornication with one of the younger women of the congregation would be just as abominable as committing incest with one’s own fleshly sister.

34, 35. (a) To what other persons did Paul need to give moral instructions, and with what end in view? (b) In that behalf, what must the older women do in behalf of the younger women?

³⁴ On the other hand, moral instructions needed to be given also to the women of the Christian congregation. To another fellow missionary named Titus, Paul wrote the following words: “Let the aged women be reverent in behavior, not slanderous, neither enslaved to a lot of wine, teachers of what is good; that they may recall the young women to their senses to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sound in mind, chaste, . . . so that the word of God may not be spoken of abusively.”—Titus 2:3-5.

³⁵ What must older women do to recall the younger women to their senses, that these may love their own husbands instead of some other woman’s husband, and may be chaste toward all of the opposite sex? The aged women must themselves set the example of personal chasteness. Chasteness on the part of a woman in the New World Society can help another person to take up the Christian course of life.

36. How did the apostle Peter emphasize this fact to Christian wives, with what reflection on God’s Word?

³⁶ The aged apostle Peter emphasized this fact by writing to Christian wives: “You wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, in order that, if any are not obedient to the word, they may be won without a word through the conduct of their wives, because of having been eyewitnesses of your chaste conduct together with deep respect.” (1 Pet. 3:1, 2) The more corrupt that a community is outside the congregation and outside the home of a Christian wife, the more the chastity of the faithful wife shows up to good effect, with greater impressiveness. It reflects well on God’s Word.

How the Organization Should View Chasteness

1, 2. (a) How is human sex to be viewed, and why so? (b) How does Genesis 1:27, 28 explain the origin and the purpose of sex?

CHASTENESS takes sex into account. In the light of God’s holy Word sex is sacred. Sex did not spring from blind, unintelligent, unmoral, accidental evolution operating toward a selfish end. Human sex, as well as the sex of animals, fish, birds, insects, and plants, is of God. Is God immoral because he created sex? No! He did not purpose the great wave of sex madness that is sweeping the world, resulting in all kinds of terrible social diseases or unhealth. He purposed that sex should serve a miraculous purpose, that of propagating life in its various forms on earth, including human life. In very simple language the first chapter of the Holy Bible explains to us the origin and the purpose of sex in mankind. Ge Chapter one, verses twenty-seven and twenty-eight, of Genesis (the first book of the Bible) says:

² “And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. Further, God blessed them and God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.’”

3. In harmony with this, what purpose were the sex organs to serve, and why is there a sacred aspect about them?

³ The male sex organs and the female sex organs were to cooperate in fulfilling this God-given command. Thus the sex organs are not playthings to have a lot of fun with, for such fun does not serve the divine purpose. It results in injury not alone to the sex organs but to the whole individual who tries to have fun in this way. The sex organs, rather than being toys, serve a most serious purpose. For that reason the sex organs, male and female, have a sacred aspect or way of being looked at. They have to do with life, especially the life of a coming generation of humans.

4. Is the life of the coming generation to be considered sacred, and how can the sixth of the Ten Commandments be violated regarding that generation by one’s sexual conduct?

⁴ Is not life, to begin with, a gift from God, and is it therefore not sacred? The life of every human creature now breathing the air is to be considered sacred. Is not the life of the coming generation also to be considered sacred? It is. Remember the sixth and seventh of the Ten Commandments, as given by God to his prophet Moses for the nation of Israel: “You must not murder. You must not commit adultery.” (Ex. 20:13, 14) Do you want to kill or even cripple the coming generation, a baby, a child? You can do so by tampering with the sex organs, by using them in a way contrary to God’s purpose and law regarding them, hence in an immoral way that produces loathsome diseases that affect human offspring, fatally.

5, 6. (a) How is the seed of life that is put in man and woman to be considered, and how is a life in the female womb to be considered? (b) How was this fact borne out in God’s law in Exodus 21:22-25?

⁵ Life, as a gift from God, is sacred. So the seed of life that God put in man and woman is sacred and is meant to serve the noble divine purpose. For that reason, when the life of an individual of the coming generation was started in a woman’s womb, that life was considered sacred. Killing it deserved punishment by taking the life of the killer. In God’s law through Moses the unborn child, the fetus, in the womb of the woman was considered a life, with the right to live through a birth from its mother.

⁶ In the very next chapter after the one that sets forth the Ten Commandments, God’s law said: “In case men should struggle with each other and they really hurt a pregnant woman and her children do come out but no fatal accident occurs, he is to have damages imposed upon him without fail according to what the owner of the woman may lay upon him; and he must give it through the justices. But if a fatal accident should occur, then you must give soul for soul, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, branding for branding, wound for wound, blow for blow.” (Ex. 21:22-25) Thus life had to go for life in this case.

7. (a) Consistent with this, how do some Orientals date their age? (b) How is the human embryo to be viewed and so the destruction of it means what violation?

⁷ Quite consistently with this fact, some Orientals like the Koreans date their age in life from the time of their being conceived in the womb of their mothers, not from the day of their birth. This points up the fact that the human embryo is a living creature and should not be destroyed at any stage. Says Dr. J. B. Glenn, in his book The Bible and Modern Medicine (page 176, paragraph 2, edition of 1963),a concerning the embryo that is capable of living: “The viable embryo in the uterus is a human individual, therefore destroying it, is a violation of the sixth commandment.”

8. (a) What about the misuse of the male seed of life, and what Bible illustration do we have regarding this? (b) How is disrespect for life shown in the case of an illegitimate child?

⁸ Correspondingly, the life-giving seed in a male should not be willfully misused. Recall the case of Onan the son of the patriarch Judah. He refused to perform his duty to provide a male heir for his dead brother Er by having sex relations with the childless widow Tamar. God killed Onan, not just for this unbrotherly conduct, but because the reproductive seed that should have given life to an heir for his dead brother was purposely spilled upon the ground. For this Onan deserved greater punishment than to have the widowed Tamar draw a sandal off his foot and spit in his face and say before elderly witnesses: “That is the way it should be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s household.” (Deut. 25:9; Gen. 38:6-10) On the other hand, no man should engage in sexual immorality and start another human life that he does not want because it will be an illegitimate life. Because it is illegitimate, he purposes to abandon the child and never own it or confess to the fact that he is the father of the illegitimate child. Such a course shows no respect for human life, for the life of a helpless infant.

9. When is the indulging in sexual intercourse a sinning against the participant’s own body?

⁹ Everyone who commits sexual immorality not only breaks God’s law against adultery and fornication, but sins against his own body, a fact that is plainly stated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:18. When sexual union is effected in a legal, Scriptural marriage, it is not a breaking of God’s law or a sinning against the married person’s body. It is in harmony with God’s command to the first human male and female in their physical perfection and innocence.

10. What does such sinning against one’s own body produce?

¹⁰ The Christian letter to the Hebrews (13:4) says: “Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” It is the conduct of the adulterers and fornicators in sinning against their own bodies that brings about the ghastly social diseases and that thus perverts the divine purpose, degrading the sex organs that God created for such high purposes and that he clothes with such importance and dignity. Consequently, can you not be glad that your parents lived morally clean both before and after their marriage?

11. (a) According to what God set before man and woman in Eden, to what does every human have the right, and what, therefore, have others no right to do? (b) Respect for whose bodies should we show?

¹¹ Originally, legal marriage was the natural outlook that God set before men and women. Every human has the right to lead a clean life in anticipation of an honorable marriage. No person has the right to pollute his fellow creature who has such a God-given prerogative by forcing sexual immorality upon his fellow creature or by tempting him into it. No selfish person has a right to spoil the privilege and prospects of a fellow creature to an honorable, happy, healthy marriage. No one has a right to prevent another from having such a desirable marriage by misusing the sex organs or processes of that one. We should respect the bodies of other persons as well as our own. Hence no Christian girl should make herself like a public towel on which any man can wipe his hands by means of immorality. What self-respecting man who believes in health and hygiene would want to wipe his hand on a dirty public towel by marrying a girl who makes a harlot of herself, a prostitute? Girls, do not make yourselves a dirty towel for public use, available to the dirty hands of any whoremonger, any symbolic “dog.”

12. What is the argument of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:23-25, and what bodily parts are therefore included?

¹² We should honor our sexual parts. Said Paul to the Corinthian Christians: “The parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, these we surround with more abundant honor, and so our unseemly parts have the more abundant comeliness, whereas our comely parts do not need anything. Nevertheless, God compounded the body, giving honor more abundant to the part which had a lack, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have the same care for one another.”—1 Cor. 12:23-25.

13. To what dishonor to the human body does Romans 1:24 call attention, and till when will God permit this to go on?

¹³ Those who indulge in sexual uncleanness or immorality dishonor their bodies. “Therefore,” says Paul to the Roman Christians, “God, in keeping with the desires of their hearts, gave them up to uncleanness, that their bodies might be dishonored among them.” (Rom. 1:24) Until the oncoming battle of Armageddon and the binding and abyssing of Satan the Devil and his demons, God will let immorality prevail and increase on the earth, according to the debased desires of worldly sinners. But fornicators, adulterers, sodomites and Lesbians will not survive into God’s righteous new order.

14. What kind of purpose was to be served by human marriage, and this is in harmony with what will of God concerning all our life processes?

¹⁴ Marriage of the human sexes was purposed by God the Creator and set up by him to serve a happy purpose, that of filling a paradise earth with a healthy, righteous race of perfect men and women. It was our Creator who designed and arranged all our life processes. According to his will, all our normal life processes were made to be happy and healthy. This includes the important sexual union for conceiving children to expand the human family and fill all the earth with human creatures in God’s image and likeness.—Gen. 1:26-28.

15. Obedience to God’s command to fill the earth was to be what kind of experience for man and woman, but outside of what relationship may this experience not be enjoyed?

¹⁵ According to the way in which God made the male and the female, their obedience to his command to fill the earth with their kind was not to be a hardship to them, a burden to them. It was to be a pleasant, delightful procedure, one that contributed unspeakable happiness to living and serving God. But by whom was this to be enjoyed? By married people, by those whom God had joined together, by those who through honorable, legal marriage should become one flesh and stay that way. Those who try to enjoy the ecstasies of sexual union outside the marriage bond dishonor God, disobey him.

16. (a) What helps us to overcome animal passions? (b) Why are the sex organs not to be worshiped?

¹⁶ The right viewpoint of these vital concerns according to the inspired Holy Bible helps us to overcome animal passions and to guard against lustfully planning ahead of time on how to satisfy the sexually excited flesh in an immoral way. (2 Sam. 13:1-14) Let us keep always in mind the purpose of God’s endowing us with sex organs. Let us look at them according to their sacred aspect. This in no way means that we should worship the sex organs and engage in phallic worship, committing immorality as a religious privilege and obligation. The sex organs are not to be worshiped, even in one’s mind by one’s constantly or primarily thinking on sexual parts and activities. The sex organs did not give life to the human family. They are only the marvelous means by which life is to be transmitted to our children according to God’s will.

17. In that regard, where is worship to be directed, and what, therefore, is sex worship?

¹⁷ God the Creator is the sacred “Source of life.” He alone is the One to be worshiped as the Giver of life to mankind and the Giver of the reproductive organs for the increase of the human family. (Ps. 36:9) Sex worship is therefore idolatry. Naturally, it leads to moral uncleanness. By all means avoid it.

HOW TO KEEP PURE, CHASTE

18. (a) Why especially in the case of dedicated Witnesses in the New World Society is life to be considered sacred? (b) What may result from immoral conduct, but what is certain to result to the participants?

¹⁸ We who are associated with the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses should always bear in mind that life in itself is sacred as being a gift from the sacred heavenly “Source of life.” But especially in our case is life sacred because we have dedicated our lives to Jehovah God through his greatest Public Servant, his High Priest, Jesus Christ. We are under obligation and command to invite and help others to come to the “water of life,” namely, God’s provisions for everlasting life in his new order of righteousness. (Rev. 22:17) It ill befits us, therefore, to abuse our God-given physical powers for transmitting life to offspring by immoral conduct between the sexes. Such conduct may result in an illegitimate, unauthorized offspring as a living witness of its parents’ shameful secret conduct or in a foul social disease. But certainly it will result in the condemnation by the pure-minded Creator, who made male and female for an honorable, happy purpose. If anyone abides under his condemnation it means being deprived of eternal life for having abused life and the power to transmit life.

19, 20. (a) According to 1 John 3:2, 3, whom must we make our model of chastity? (b) Why especially must the spiritual remnant do so, in harmony with their hope?

¹⁹ To help us to get out of uncleanness and stay out of it, we need to make God our model or standard of purity or chasteness. Said the aged apostle John to Christians who had the heavenly call: “Beloved ones, now we are children of God, but as yet it has not been made manifest what we shall be. We do know that whenever he is made manifest we shall be like him, because we shall see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope set upon him purifies himself just as that one is pure.”—1 John 3:2, 3.

²⁰ The spiritual remnant who expect to become members of God’s heavenly kingdom under Jesus Christ and to see God face to face must by all means live in harmony with their hope of seeing this pure, chaste God just as he is. How could they even hope to be like him in heaven when they have not purified their lives here on earth first? How could they ever desire to be like him, if till their death here on earth they kept on loving impurity, unchastity and moral uncleanness and did not cultivate an enjoyment of the clean qualities that make God what he is? They could not do so.

21. Why do the sheeplike people with earthly prospects likewise need to keep pure?

²¹ Likewise with all those sheeplike persons who have been separated from the goatlike people of the nations. (Matt. 25:31-46) They have set their hope upon the same God. In harmony with their hope of living in a perfectly pure and righteous paradise earth after Armageddon, they have to purify their lives now. They need to keep pure.

22, 23. (a) Because our hope is in harmony with what will we be helped to keep clean, and why? (b) Because they were given a new birth, what did Peter tell God’s spiritual children to put away?

²² Our hope, if it is not to be disappointed, must be in harmony with God’s truth. Like water with which we wash and in which we bathe to keep clean, the truth of God’s written Word helps us to clean up and keep clean, individually and as a New World Society. After we have purified our lives or souls by living up to the truth, there is something else we need to do in a pure, chaste way. The apostle Peter indicates this when he writes to the Christians who had come out of Babylon the Great in his day:

²³ “Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth with unhypocritical brotherly love as the result, love one another intensely from the heart. For you have been given a new birth, not by corruptible, but by incorruptible reproductive seed, through the word of the living and enduring God. For ‘all flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like a blossom of grass; the grass becomes withered, and the flower falls off, but the saying of Jehovah endures forever.’ Well, this is the ‘saying,’ this which has been declared to you as good news. Accordingly, put away all moral badness and all deceitfulness and hypocrisy and envies and all sorts of backbiting, and, as newborn infants [who are innocent of any desires of sex], form a longing for the unadulterated milk belonging to the word, that through it you may grow to salvation, provided that you have tasted that the Lord is kind.”—1 Pet. 1:22 to 2:3.

24. (a) In harmony with Peter’s words, in what regard should we become like “newborn infants”? (b) Accordingly, in what regard should we be full-grown men and women?

²⁴ Newborn infant boys and girls do not know what sex is about. They have no unclean sexual desires. Hence the apostle Peter says that Christians should “put away all moral badness.” We should become like “newborn infants” as to innocence in this regard. We should be full-grown men and women as to understanding what sex is about and as to our moral self-control. The apostle Paul had this in mind when he wrote to the congregation in Corinth these words: “Brothers, do not become young children in powers of understanding, but be babes as to badness; yet become full-grown in powers of understanding.”—1 Cor. 14:20.

25. (a) What kind of hygiene is needed in addition to the physical kind? (b) What kind of circumcision should a Christian get, and how?

²⁵ Consequently we need to have mental hygiene as well as physical hygiene. Among the ancient Jews under Jehovah’s law through Moses the circumcision of the flesh of the males proved to be very hygienic and helped to safeguard the health of both male and female Jews. Christians who have been relieved of this law of circumcision do, however, have to practice the ‘circumcision of the heart.’ No Christian could be a spiritual Jew in God’s sight unless he had this circumcision “of the heart by spirit.” (Rom. 2:28, 29) God’s spirit is certainly needed to get such circumcision.

26. To enjoy mental hygiene, what does Paul tell us to do, in Philippians 4:8, 9?

²⁶ For mental hygiene, which leads also to physical hygiene, our mind has to be kept fixed on the upbuilding things. Advising us to do this, the apostle Paul writes: “Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are of serious concern, whatever things are righteous, whatever things are chaste, whatever things are lovable, whatever things are well spoken of, whatever virtue there is and whatever praiseworthy thing there is, continue considering these things. The things that you learned as well as accepted and heard and saw in connection with me, practice these; and the God of peace will be with you.”—Phil. 4:8, 9.

27. With what kind of motive should we preach the Christ, and whose example helps us to do this?

²⁷ The apostle Paul said that in Rome where he was imprisoned his enemies were publicizing Christ with a malicious, impure motive, but, on the other hand, “some are preaching the Christ . . . through good will. The latter are publicizing the Christ out of love, for they know I am set here for the defense of the good news.” For this reason Paul rejoiced. (Phil. 1:15-18) So our thinking on Paul and our practicing what he did helps us to keep clean.

28. If we want to be wise with heavenly wisdom, what must we be “first of all”?

²⁸ We long to be wise with heavenly wisdom, do we not? Then we will be chaste, pure. The unchaste are not wise, but are animalistic. The disciple James, just before rebuking those who are spiritual adulterers, says: “But the wisdom from above is first of all chaste, then peaceable, reasonable, ready to obey, full of mercy and good fruits, not making partial distinctions, not hypocritical.” (Jas. 3:15 to 4:4) So remember, heavenly wisdom is “first of all chaste.”

29. In harmony with the case of ancient Israel when keeping God’s law, what should be the result of our endeavors to keep the organization clean and chaste?

²⁹ It is the part of heavenly wisdom for us to strive to keep the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses clean, chaste. The results of this continual striving in that direction are becoming manifest all the time, under God’s blessing. As regards ancient Israel, their observance of Jehovah’s laws and commandments made them the healthiest nation on earth, free from the many social diseases that plagued the pagan or Gentile nations. (Deut. 28:1-10, 15, 27-37) Correspondingly, our endeavors to keep the organization of God’s public servants clean, pure and chaste should result not only in keeping us doctrinally pure but also in making us the healthiest society on earth, especially as to social diseases.

30. (a) Amid all our efforts to keep the organization clean, to whom should we always look, and because of what service assignment? (b) Who takes the main responsibility for keeping the organization clean, and so under what process do we find ourselves now?

³⁰ However, all the time that we are putting forth our personal and organizational efforts, we need to keep looking upward to God the Maker of his organization of public servants under Jesus Christ the King of kings. This organization is now bringing to completion its service assignment of preaching the good news of God’s established kingdom in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations. Jehovah God has charged himself with the main responsibility for keeping his earthly organization that is engaged in this public service clean. Accompanied by Jesus Christ his Messenger or greatest Public Servant, Jehovah has come to his spiritual temple for judgment work. So, in a warning, he says to his professed people: “I will come near to you people for the judgment, and I will become a speedy witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those swearing falsely, and against those acting fraudulently with the wages of a wage worker, with the widow and with the fatherless boy, and those turning away the alien resident, while they have not feared me.” (Mal. 3:1-5) So now his organization of public servants on earth is under judgment.

31. (a) Why should we not want God to testify against us as being like “adulterers”? (b) To remain in the Society, what will each one of us do?

³¹ Do we desire the great Judge Jehovah God to bear witness against us individually as being like “adulterers,” that is, morally unclean, unchaste? If he has the evidence against us on this score, he will unfailingly cause his witness or testimony against us to be made known, in his time, and this will lead to our being put out of his New World Society of His witnesses, that our presence might not defile it. However, do we with all our heart desire to remain in that New World Society for God’s public service? Since our obvious answer is a fervent Yes, then we will each one do his part toward keeping it pure, chaste, to His praise and in behalf of our precious public service for Him.

[Footnotes]

Safety During a Nation’s Destruction

IT ALWAYS seems safer to go along with public opinion. This is especially so in a time of crisis, when a nation struggling for its life. History proves that those who have followed and preached God’s Word have, especially in critical times, been called “calamity howlers,” haters of everyone. The reason is that God’s Word condemns this system of things, declaring it to be the enemy of God and due for destruction. The historian Tacitus writes of Nero’s persecution of Christians in the first century: “An immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing [Rome], but of hatred against mankind.”a

But what is the really safe course? The prophet Jeremiah provides a case in point. In his forty years of prophesying he never said what people wanted to hear about Jerusalem but what God commanded him to say. He denounced the God-dishonoring course of action of Jerusalem and its rulers and spoke of Jerusalem’s destruction as being near at hand. Even when Jerusalem was in its direst straits he kept on preaching. Was Jeremiah wise? Would it not have been safer to be quiet and go along with things, waiting to see the outcome?

Things were progressing fast toward a climax in Jerusalem. Fear and anxiety prevailed. The ninth year of King Zedekiah was an important year, a partial sabbath year, in which the land was to lie uncultivated. (Lev. 25:1-10) It provided Zedekiah’s last opportunity to let the God-given land get its required rest, but there is no record in the Bible that he and the priests obeyed. Now Jehovah himself would enforce the land’s sabbaths.—Lev. 26:2, 31-35.

Already Judah’s sins had caused God to permit Babylon to make Judah a vassal kingdom. Later, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had put Zedekiah under oath in the name of Jehovah, but in this year of 609 B.C.E. he broke his oath and rebelled. Jehovah informed Ezekiel, 500 miles away in Babylonia, of his anger at this:

“He [Zedekiah] finally rebelled against [Nebuchadnezzar] in sending his messengers to Egypt, for it to give him horses and a multitudinous people. . . . he has despised an oath in breaking a covenant, . . .

“Therefore . . . he will certainly be caught in my hunting net; and I will bring him to Babylon and put myself on judgment with him there respecting his unfaithfulness with which he acted against me. And as regards all the fugitives of his in all his bands, by the sword they will fall, and the ones left remaining will be spread abroad even to every wind.”—Ezek. 17:15-21.

Because of Zedekiah’s covenant-breaking course, King Nebuchadnezzar marched toward Jerusalem. At a fork in the road he superstitiously employed Babylonian divination to determine whether to attack Jerusalem first or to go to the siege of another rebellious city, Rabbah of Ammon. Would Jerusalem escape? By no means. Jehovah had said that Jerusalem must be the first to drink the cup of the wine of God’s rage at the hand of her God whom she had rejected. So Jehovah maneuvered the Babylonish divination, and Nebuchadnezzar took the fork of the road that branched toward Jerusalem.—Ezek. 21:14-24.

GENTILE GOVERNMENTS TO RULE UNTIL SHILOH COMES

Now an important prophecy was directed by Ezekiel in Babylonia toward Zedekiah:

“And as for you, O deadly wounded, wicked chieftain of Israel, whose day has come in the time of the error of the end, this is what the Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Remove the turban, and lift off the crown. This will not be the same. Put on high even what is low, and bring low even the high one. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I shall make it. As for this also, it will certainly become no one’s until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.’”—Ezek. 21:25-27.

Jehovah had made a covenant with David that kings of his line would sit upon “Jehovah’s throne” in an everlasting kingdom. (2 Sam. 7:12-16; 1 Chron. 29:23) But now active rule of the house of David in the city of Jerusalem would cease. It had been the highest kingdom, in the sense of being the miniature representation of God’s kingdom on earth. It had been like a roadblock to the Gentile rulers who sought world domination. Now the Gentile powers, which had been treated as low, were to be raised high and Gentile domination would come for a time with no interference on the part of any miniature kingdom of Jehovah God. This certainly did not mean, however, that God had broken or changed his covenant with King David for an everlasting kingdom or that the scepter was to turn aside from the tribe of Judah.

God gave assurance when he said: “It will certainly become no one’s until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.” This meant that active rulership on “Jehovah’s throne” would be held for a time in abeyance, with no one of the line of David occupying it until Shiloh, which name means “The One Whose It Is,” would come and take up the kingdom. This event would spell the end of those Gentile times of world domination.

Ezekiel in Babylonia was kept informed by Jehovah God of the movements of King Nebuchadnezzar as Jehovah’s executional officer. Ezekiel writes: “And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, saying: . . . ‘The king of Babylon has thrown himself against Jerusalem on this selfsame day. And compose a proverbial saying . . . and you must say . . . “This is what the Lord Jehovah has said: . . . ‘Woe to the city of deeds of bloodshed!’”’”—Ezek. 24:1-6.

A FALSE IDEA AS TO THE SAFE COURSE

Ignoring Jehovah’s command through Jeremiah to go out and surrender to the king of Babylon, to save the city from destruction, Zedekiah and his princes thought to do something less than that and yet gain Jehovah’s favor by carrying out a part of his law that they had long neglected. That was the law to set Hebrew servants free on the seventh year, after six years of servitude. So they made a covenant with the people over a sacrificial victim and proclaimed liberty to their Hebrew servants.—Jer. 34:8-10; Deut. 15:12-18.

But the hypocrisy of these leaders of Jerusalem manifested itself when news came that an Egyptian army under Pharaoh (Apries, or Hophra) was on the way to assist Judah. (Jer. 37:5, 7) Nebuchadnezzar was forced to take care of this threat and marched away, giving relief to Jerusalem. The wicked rulers of Jerusalem took confidence at this and showed their complete disregard for God, also for their covenant with the people. They felt so safe that they broke their covenant granting servants liberty and brought them back into servitude again. (Jer. 34:11-16) This made Jehovah God indignant. To be true to Jehovah and to his responsibility toward the people, whose lives were in danger, Jeremiah had to declare publicly God’s sentence on these powerful men in Jerusalem:

“You yourselves have not obeyed me in keeping on proclaiming liberty each one to his brother and each one to his companion. Here I am proclaiming to you a liberty, . . . to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine, . . . And I will give the men sidestepping my covenant, . . . namely, the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the court officials and the priests and all the people of the land who went passing between the pieces of the calf [in confirming their covenant]—yes, I will give them into the hand of their enemies . . . and their dead bodies must become food for the flying creatures of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth. And Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes I shall give into the hand of . . . the military forces of the king of Babylon who are withdrawing from against you men.”

How would this be? Jehovah explained how:

“Here I am commanding, . . . and I shall certainly bring [the Babylonians] back to this city, and they must fight against it and capture it and burn it with fire; and the cities of Judah I shall make a desolate waste without an inhabitant.”—Jer. 34:17-22.

Through these conditions how did Jeremiah fare? For a while he was free to go in and out among the people. ‘Perhaps,’ thought King Zedekiah, ‘I might get on the good side of God,’ as he sent representatives to Jeremiah to ask him to pray to Jehovah to reverse His announced purpose. But Jeremiah replied with a message from Jehovah that dashed Zedekiah’s hopes to the ground and put Jeremiah in greater danger from Jerusalem’s rulers:

“Look! The military force of Pharaoh that is coming forth to you people for the purpose of assistance will have to go back to their land, Egypt. And the Chaldeans will certainly come back and fight against this city and capture it and burn it with fire. . . . Do not deceive your souls, saying, ‘The Chaldeans will without fail go away from against us,’ because they will not go away. For if you men had struck down all the military force of the Chaldeans who are fighting you and there remained over among them men pierced through, they would each one in his tent rise up and actually burn this city with fire.”—Jer. 37:3-10; 44:30.

So, when Jeremiah wanted to make a visit to his home territory in Benjamin, an officer grabbed Jeremiah, saying: “It is to the Chaldeans that you are falling away!” Jeremiah denied: “It is false! I am not falling away to the Chaldeans.” But the princes struck Jeremiah, fettered him and put him in detention in Jerusalem under very bad conditions, in “the house of the cistern.”—Jer. 37:11-16.

In the meantime, just as Jeremiah had faithfully said, the Babylonian forces turned the Egyptian forces back toward Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar returned to resume the siege of Jerusalem. Jerusalem must drink first the cup of the wine of Jehovah’s rage; Egypt, later.—Ezek. 30:20, 21.

GOD FEEDS, PROTECTS HIS SERVANT

King Zedekiah even yet sought a change of Jehovah’s mind, but Jeremiah did not water down Jehovah’s message. He replied: “Into the hand of the king of Babylon you will be given!” In the face of all this we see Jehovah God’s protection and care for his servant Jeremiah even in the midst of bitter enemies, for at Jeremiah’s request Zedekiah had Jeremiah transferred to the Courtyard of the Guard. “And there was a giving of a round loaf of bread to him daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread was exhausted from the city.”—Jer. 37:17-21.

Under custody Jeremiah evidently had the opportunity to talk to the people, and he gave them Jehovah’s advice to go out in self-surrender to the Chaldeans to save their lives, for the city would certainly fall. The princes complained that Jeremiah was breaking down the morale of the besieged people. King Zedekiah weakly surrendered him into their hands. He would not protect God’s prophet if it jeopardized him. “And they proceeded to take Jeremiah and throw him into the cistern of Malchijah the son of the king, . . . Now in the cistern there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah began to sink down into the mire.” He could not preach down there, the princes thought!

Were there any others who thought it was the safe course to listen to Jehovah’s word and follow it, even though extreme nationalism and hatred for Jeremiah’s preaching activity now prevailed in Jerusalem? Yes, and such a one God used as an instrument to save faithful Jeremiah out of the mire. This was Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, one of the king’s eunuchs. He had heard of Jeremiah’s plight and had gone to the king and said: “O my lord the king, these men have done bad in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have thrown into the cistern, so that he will die where he is because of the famine. For there is no bread any more in the city.” At the king’s orders Ebed-melech brought thirty men and equipment and hoisted Jeremiah out. “And Jeremiah continued to dwell in the Courtyard of the Guard.”—Jer. 38:1-13.

For taking this action in behalf of Jeremiah, was Ebed-melech risking his life? Yes. But he knew that Jeremiah was truly Jehovah’s prophet. Ebed-melech’s action condemned the rulers of Jerusalem for their unbelief in Jehovah. Jehovah was not unmindful of Ebed-melech. Hear his words of comfort to him: “Here I am bringing true my words upon this city for calamity and not for good, and they will certainly happen before you in that day. And I will deliver you in that day, . . . For I shall without fail furnish you an escape, and by the sword you will not fall; and you will certainly come to have your soul as a spoil, because you have trusted in me.”—Jer. 39:15-18.

Zedekiah still had opportunity to surrender to the Babylonians and save his household and prevent the burning of Jerusalem. He even went to Jeremiah secretly and was given assurance to this effect. But he feared man. He feared reprisal from those who disagreed with that action. He looked in the wrong direction for safety. He was thereby led into a deadly snare.—Jer. 38:14-28.

As the siege of Jerusalem continued for nearly a year and a half, the people in Jerusalem were in terrible distress indeed. There was no bread for the people. (2 Ki. 25:1-3) Mothers were eating their own babies. (Lam. 2:19, 20) Would Jeremiah’s course now show up to be the wise course of action? Would he survive the siege?

JERUSALEM FALLS

At last, in the month Tammuz, the Babylonians made a breach in the wall and entered and took possession of the Middle Gate. It was too late now for King Zedekiah to surrender. He fled by night, but was overtaken in the desert plains of Jericho near the Jordan River and taken to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah in Hamath. There the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and killed all the nobles of Judah. Then he blinded Zedekiah and took him in fetters to Babylon, where he died. (Jer. 39:2-8) Just as Ezekiel had foretold, he came to Babylon, but did not see it—Ezek. 12:12, 13.

As for Jeremiah, the fall of Jerusalem served for his liberation. The Babylonians had heard about his preaching. They treated him kindly. The chief of the Babylonian bodyguard, named Nebuzar-adan, brought him out of the Courtyard of the Guard. (Jer. 39:13, 14) Jeremiah got mixed in with the Jews who were being carried captive to Babylon but the chief of the bodyguard saw him and said to him: “Now, look! I have let you loose today from the handcuffs that were upon your hands. If it is good in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, come, and I shall keep my eye upon you. But if it is bad in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, refrain. See! The entire land is before you. To wherever it is good and right in your eyes to go, go there.”—Jer. 40:1-4.

While Jeremiah hesitated, the chief of the bodyguard told him to go back and live under Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had commissioned over the cities of Judah, living wherever he wanted to. Then he gave Jeremiah a food allowance and a gift and let him go. Accordingly, Jeremiah went to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and resided there until later developments, to be discussed in this magazine’s next issue.—Jer. 40:5, 6.

WE CAN TAKE THE SAFE COURSE

So, in Jerusalem’s dark hour, it looked as if Jeremiah, in a besieged and starving city, and a prisoner therein at that, in disfavor with the ruling elements, would never be able to survive. But by maintaining firmness in his dedication to Jehovah, even though his preaching condemned the rulers of the land and foretold destruction for Jerusalem itself, he actually took the course of safety.

We can learn a lesson from this. Jehovah’s anointed witnesses proclaim destruction upon this system of things because of its being influenced by Babylonish false religion and for turning away in disobedience from Jehovah God. They have thereby experienced what Jesus foretold at Matthew 24:9: “You will be objects of hatred by all the nations.” To them, many of whom are even now in prison and suffering persecution in many lands, the experience of Jeremiah gives assurance that they will escape the condemnation of this world and that as a group they will survive the destruction of this system of things. Ebed-melech, who befriended Jeremiah because he recognized him as a prophet of Jehovah, was spared with Jeremiah. Those today who come alongside God’s servants in faithful dedication and activity will receive Jehovah’s favor and protection just as surely as did Ebed-melech, according to the rule stated by Jesus Christ himself: “He that receives a prophet because he is a prophet will get a prophet’s reward, . . . And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink because he is a disciple, I tell you truly, he will by no means lose his reward.”—Matt. 10:41, 42.

Anyone dwelling in the secret place of the Most High will procure himself lodging under the very shadow of the Almighty One.—Ps. 91:1.

[Footnotes]

Questions From Readers

● Is it proper for a dedicated Christian witness of Jehovah to work in the employ of one of the religious organizations of Christendom or any other part of Babylon the Great?

In determining the answer to this, it is good to keep in mind the clear-cut command that Jehovah issues to his people concerning the entire world empire of false religion. That religious empire is called Babylon the Great because it is far greater in scope than ancient Babylon but it bears all the earmarks of that ancient seat of worship in opposition to Jehovah. Concerning it, Revelation 18:4, 5 urges: “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. For her sins have massed together clear up to heaven, and God has called her acts of injustice to mind.”

Now, how could a dedicated Christian witness of Jehovah conscientiously work for an organization, the whole operation of which is in opposition to Jehovah God? Jehovah God says that, from his standpoint, these false religious systems have a record of sin that has massed together clear up to heaven. They have lied about God, turned the people away from his loving provisions for life and, instead, blessed the nations in their slaughter of the inhabitants of the earth. Who wants the work of his hands to contribute to the operation of such a God-dishonoring empire?

If a person who professes to be a dedicated Christian witness of Jehovah were to accept a job in the direct employ of such a religious organization, he would, in actuality, become a part of that organization. If the one who did that knew what such a thing meant and did it anyway, what could we conclude but that he was an apostate and should be disfellowshiped from the Christian congregation? However, it might occur that one works for a worldly commercial employer, and that employer may regularly handle work on church properties. Now, it is true that one doing such work is actually in the employ of a commercial firm, but in accepting work of that type as a regular thing he shows that he is not a mature Christian, and so, while he might be permitted to report as a publisher of the Kingdom, he could not be a servant who is looked to by the rest of the congregation as an example to imitate. If the commercial firm only occasionally handles a job for a church, which is true in many lines of work, one would not be disqualified as a servant in the congregation for accepting such employment, unless it became a cause of stumbling to others in the congregation. Even here, however, he may be able to arrange with his employer to assign him to other jobs, or he may, for reasons of conscience, prefer to look for employment that has no business contacts at all with false religious organizations.—1 Pet. 3:16.

Certainly, though, no Christian witness of Jehovah, knowing what the Bible says about the record of Babylon the Great, would himself personally contract for work, either as a regular thing or as an incidental job, with a false religious organization. And if there is anyone who has done so, without realizing the seriousness of the situation, to maintain a clean conscience before God and a right standing with his organization, he should correct the situation just as soon as possible.—2 Cor. 6:16, 17.

Though it is true that at times it is difficult to find employment in this old system of things, and one may feel pressed from an economic standpoint, if we are faithful to Jehovah God we can be assured that he will continue to answer our prayers and bless our efforts to obtain “our bread for the day according to the day’s requirement.”—Luke 11:3; Matt. 6:25-34; Ps. 37:25.

● The Watchtower of January 15, 1964, on page 42, states: “Never in the Christian Greek Scriptures do we read of the end, conclusion or consummation of the kósmos.” How are we to understand this statement in view of the fact that 2 Peter 3:6 says that a kósmos suffered destruction in Noah’s day?

The words “end,” “conclusion” and “consummation” were here used together because of the original Greek words that they translate. In the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures “end” translates telʹos, and “conclusion” or “consummation” (1st Ed.) the related Greek word syntelʹeia. These words invariably relate either to time or to completion, or to objective or to the finale, rather than to the destruction of a thing.

Thus we read that Jesus loved his disciples to the telʹos or end; that at the telʹos or end of his thousand-year reign he will turn the kingdom back to his Father; that Christians will receive the telʹos or end of their faith, the salvation of their souls. Especially noteworthy is the expression that Jehovah is the beginning and the telʹos or end. In none of these instances could we substitute “suffered destruction” for “end,” could we?—John 13:1; 1 Cor. 15:24; 1 Pet. 1:9; Rev. 21:6.

Because of this meaning of telʹos we find it at times rendered variously: as “outcome” at James 5:11; and as “objective” at 1 Timothy 1:5.

As for syntelʹeia, it also does not have any connotation of a destruction. Rather, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words tells us that this word “signifies a bringing to completion together . . . marking the completion or consummation of the various parts of a scheme.” Thus we read at Matthew 13:39 that “the harvest is a conclusion [or syntelʹeia] of a system of things.” Jesus’ disciples asked him about the same “conclusion” or syntelʹeia, and when he finally left them he promised that he would be with them “all the days until the conclusion [or syntelʹeia] of the system of things.”—Matt. 24:3; 28:20.

A related Greek word is the verb synteléo, the rendering of which in the New World Translation may be said to make the same point. Luke used it in saying that the days of Jesus’ fasting had been concluded, and that with Satan’s third temptation he concluded his tempting of Jesus.—Luke 4:2, 13.

Since nowhere do we find these Greek words used in connection with the kósmos, the New World Translation does not use their English equivalents in speaking of the “world,” or kósmos. True, 2 Peter 3:6 does speak of a world, a human society, a kósmos, as suffering destruction, and in that sense it might be said to have come to an end, but only by violence. But Peter here did not mean that the human race at that time had reached its conclusion, its close, its termination or objective.

So we see that in the Scriptures the Greek words telʹos, syntelʹeia and synteléo and their English equivalents do properly apply to a discourse, a reign, a period of service, a system of things or an age, but not to the human race or kósmos, for the human race will not draw to a close; Jehovah God purposed it to last forever, even as will the earth on which it lives. That is why there will be no new kósmos. While a kósmos did suffer destruction at the Flood, it was only the kósmos as it applies to mankind opposed to God. Those that survived could not properly be said to constitute a new kósmos or world, for they had previously existed as part of the pre-Flood kósmos or world for which Christ died.

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

It is the privilege and responsibility of those who have already been liberated from Babylon the Great to help others who are unwilling captives of that wicked empire of oppression to “get out of her.” That you can do during November by sharing in the distribution of the revealing book “Babylon the Great Has Fallen!” God’s Kingdom Rules! It will be placed, along with a Bible-study booklet, for 75c.

1965 YEARBOOK AND CALENDAR

As evidence that Jehovah’s witnesses during the past service year were truly “filled with the holy spirit” and were “speaking the word of God with boldness,” the new 1965 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses presents a report of preaching activity that surpasses anything done to date. The thrilling experiences recorded of those who have overcome difficulties and hardships to preach the “everlasting good news” will deepen your own faith and incite you to greater works. Obtain your copy. Send 50c. Write for the 1965 calendar also. It is 25c. Both are available after November 23.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

December 13: Keeping the Organization of Public Servants Pure, Chaste. Page 684.

December 20: How the Organization Should View Chasteness. Page 691.