The Watchtower — December 1, 1966

Be Dependable in All Things

WHEN someone has an appointment with you, would you rather have him come on time or be late? If you give a person a job to do, would you rather have him fulfill it, or ignore it unless you stand over him? When you purchase a machine, do you want one that runs, or one that is constantly malfunctioning?

Almost everybody will recognize the desirability of the former in each instance. We like people to be on time for work. We want them to fulfill work obligations. And we want machines that work.

In each case the desired quality is dependability. There is little doubt that almost everyone wants dependability in other persons, and in things they may be using. But what is often more difficult is for the person himself to be that way.

If you want people to be dependable, are you? If you want them to be on time for appointments, are you? If you want others to be dependable when they work for you, are you careful to be dependable when working for others? Yes, dependability works both ways. If it is good for the other fellow to be that way, it surely must be good for each one, individually, to be that way also. Your desire for dependability in others is shared equally by their desire for you to be dependable when dealing with them.

But wanting dependability in others, and being that way oneself, are two different things. It is relatively easy to want dependability from others, but not as easy to be dependable oneself. Why? For one thing, not everybody is dependable, and that sets a bad example for others. In fact, more and more the trend in the world is away from dependability and toward getting as much for as little effort as possible. This is hardly conducive to encouraging dependability in the majority of people.

For another thing, dependability comes hard because it is not a trait that we inherit from our parents; it must be taught, cultivated and practiced before it becomes habitual. We can see the lack of it in young children. Can you expect your child to be dependable in keeping his clothes clean, in brushing his teeth, or in putting things away, or even in being honest, unless you take the time to teach him those things? No, because the truth of the matter is just as the Bible says at Proverbs 22:15: “Foolishness is tied up with the heart of a boy; the rod of discipline is what will remove it far from him.”

But if dependability is hard to come by, and the trend is away from it, what is the motive for wanting to be dependable ourselves? The motive is that it is right, regardless of what anyone else may choose to do, and that it benefits others and ourselves as well. It is like the matter of morality. It is right to be moral, regardless of the fact that others may be immoral. And being moral benefits others and the one who practices it, physically as well as mentally. It is the same with being dependable.

This is particularly so from the viewpoint of the one who fears God and wants to please him, for God wants his faithful creatures to imitate what is right, not what is wrong. And being dependable is a godly trait. It is right. It also brings benefits to others and ourselves as well. These are motives enough.

God’s Son, Jesus Christ, showed that dependability was right, and that it should be practiced even in small things, since being dependable when doing small things is the road to learning how to be dependable when doing big things. Jesus said: “The person faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and the person unrighteous in what is least is unrighteous also in much.” (Luke 16:10) In one illustration Jesus commended the worker who was dependable in what was assigned him and showed that it proved him worthy of greater responsibilities. He said: “Happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so. Truly I say to you, He will appoint him over all his belongings.” (Matt. 24:46, 47) The reward for dependability in a lesser task was the trusting of one with greater responsibility.

The logic of this is evident, for who would trust a person with a big job if he was undependable in a small one? If a man could not get along with his fellow workers in a department, would it be logical for the company to make him personnel director for the entire firm? If a man were unable to be a cashier because he could not add or subtract correctly, would he be asked to be the head bookkeeper of a company? No, only when dependability is demonstrated on the lesser task is someone ready for one that is greater.

Being dependable brings many benefits. It means you will work better, keeping your employer satisfied; it will enable you to keep the arrangements you make with others, and on time, making you a more desirable associate; and in the family circle, being dependable as a husband or wife will make for a happier family relationship.

Think, too, of other benefits it can bring you individually. For instance, a person who has learned to be dependable in putting things where they belong can depend upon their being there when he looks for them. He will not have to spend much time and undergo aggravation searching for them. Also, if one cultivates the habit of allowing enough time to keep appointments, he saves himself trouble and irritation, because the perpetual latecomer is usually rushing and is often upset because he is late.

The dependable person is happier in his work. The one who is not dependable must always be worried about whether his employer will find out about his bad work habits. He must be making excuses for poor work. He is usually on the defensive, for he knows he should do better, but does not. That is no way to achieve satisfaction in one’s work. But when one cultivates the habit of being dependable at work, he knows that he has done what is required, what is right, and can enjoy peace of mind.

Yes, in just about everything we can do in life there will be an improvement if we are dependable. Our work, family life, associations, yes, even our own self-respect will benefit. So be dependable in all things!

“Happy Are the Pure in Heart, Since They Will See God”

What does it mean to be pure in heart? How can one see God?

IN THE educational film “Unseen Enemies” the producers highlighted, among other things, the importance of pure water. They graphically portrayed the terrible suffering that impure water and insects cause by spreading such disfiguring diseases as leprosy, elephantiasis, yaws, and so forth. In fact, cleanliness and purity of water are so essential to the health of man that one medical historian stated that man’s conquest of many of the infectious diseases was more due to his progress in sanitation than his progress in medicine.

Appreciating the importance of purity in food and drugs, modern governments have pure food and drug laws and departments concerned with enforcing such laws. All such makes for the physical well-being of the people. Because of the importance of cleanliness, someone long ago coined the expression, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”

Important as are purity of water and of food, there is a purity that is far more vital. God’s Word, the Bible, therefore stresses purity of heart or spiritual cleanliness. When the inspired Scriptures say, “Let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh,” they are urging us to stay morally clean. Thus also when we read, “Let us approach with true hearts in the full assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience,” it refers to sprinkling by the cleansing blood of Christ.—2 Cor. 7:1; Heb. 10:22; 13:4.

Yes, the Christian Greek Scriptures link godly devotion with spiritual cleanliness, with cleanness of mind and heart, with having also a clean conscience. They command us to hold “the sacred secret of the faith with a clean conscience.” For Christians to be pleasing to God they must engage in the “worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father,” to which end they must keep themselves “without spot from the world.”—1 Tim. 3:9; Jas. 1:27.

Why, Jesus Christ attached so much importance to this kind of purity that he said, as his sixth felicity or beatitude, “Happy are the pure in heart, since they will see God.” Of all the desirable things that Jesus held out in his Sermon on the Mount, this might very well be said to represent the greatest happiness, the very acme of bliss, being able to see Jehovah God, the Creator, the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, himself!—Matt. 5:8.

The apostle Paul appreciated this relationship between being pure in heart and seeing God, for he wrote, “Pursue peace with all people, and the sanctification [or holiness] without which no man will see the Lord,” the glorified Jesus Christ. Seeing him would assure one of also seeing Jehovah God, for since his resurrection Jesus Christ is in his Father’s express image as well as being in his presence.—Heb. 12:14; 1:3.

On the other hand, the apostle John shows that the hope or prospect of seeing God as he actually is serves as a spur, an incentive to being pure in heart: “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 [Jehovah God] 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.

WHAT PURITY OF HEART INCLUDES

What does it mean to be pure in heart? Above all else it means to have pure motives. It means having a heart that is free from malice, free from bitterness or resentment, free from such defiling uncleannesses that at times may lodge in the heart as “wicked reasonings, murders, adulteries, fornications, thieveries, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things defiling a man; but to take a meal with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”—Matt. 15:19, 20.

To be pure in heart also means to be sincere, to be free from hypocrisy, having all of one’s affections focused or set in one direction, on one thing, on gaining God’s approval. The apostle Paul was concerned lest the Christians at Corinth have their minds corrupted “away from the sincerity and the chastity that are due the Christ.” He counseled slaves, and therefore all in the employ of others, to serve, “not with acts of eyeservice, as men pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, with fear of Jehovah.”—2 Cor. 11:3; Col. 3:22.

In a similar vein the Christian disciple James gave counsel to those Christians who were trying to be friends of Jehovah God and at the same time friends of the world: “Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you indecisive ones,” literally, you “two-souled” or two-minded ones. Jesus had a like thought in his head, no doubt, when he said: “If, then, your eye is simple [sincere, in focus, all one way], your whole body will be bright.” And the words of the apostle Paul to Timothy seem to combine the two thoughts of the heart’s being pure as to virtue and its being pure as to sincerity and singleness of purpose: “Really the objective of this mandate is love out of a clean heart and out of a good conscience and out of faith without hypocrisy.”—Jas. 4:8; Matt. 6:22; 1 Tim. 1:5.

Nor may we overlook the fact that to be pure in heart also means having full trust, full faith in the Creator, Jehovah God, for Christians are warned: “Beware, brothers, for fear there should ever develop in any one of you a wicked heart lacking faith by drawing away from the living God; but keep on exhorting one another each day, as long as it may be called ‘Today,’ for fear any one of you should become hardened by the deceptive power of sin.” In other words, Jehovah God does not view anyone as being pure in heart even though he may be sincere and morally clean unless he also has faith in the one true God Jehovah.—Heb. 3:12, 13.

SOME WILL LITERALLY SEE GOD

Then will everyone who exerts himself to be pure in heart in these several ways see Jehovah God? Not necessarily. At least not literally, for “God is a Spirit,” and a spirit cannot be seen by human eyes, even as Jesus pointed out to the Jewish religious leader Nicodemus, a Pharisee: “What has been born from the flesh is flesh, and what has been born from the spirit is spirit. The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going.”—John 4:24; 3:6, 8.

The apostle John, therefore, wrote, at the beginning of his Gospel: “No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten god [Jesus Christ] who is in the bosom position with the Father is the one that has explained him.” In fact, it would be impossible for any human to see God and survive, because, as Jehovah himself told Moses when Moses asked to see God’s face: “No man may see me and yet live.”—John 1:18; Ex. 33:20.

But there are and will be some, a comparatively small number with pure hearts, that will literally see God. Who are they? They are the ones the apostle John saw standing upon heavenly Mount Zion, the 144,000 redeemed from the earth, who will share heavenly glory with their Lord Jesus Christ.—Rev. 14:1; 20:4.

Why will it be possible for these to see God? Because they will have spirit bodies, having been raised from the dead “changed,” for “flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.” (1 Cor. 15:50, 51) These will have a share in what the Scriptures term “the first resurrection,” concerning which we further read: “It is sown a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body. . . . For this which is corruptible must put on incorruption, and this which is mortal must put on immortality.” Sharing heavenly glory with Jesus Christ as incorruptible, immortal spirits, these will indeed be able to see Jehovah God literally and yet live.—Rev. 20:6; 1 Cor. 15:44, 53.

SEEING GOD FIGURATIVELY

However, while the promise of Matthew 5:8 about the pure in heart seeing God has its primary and literal application to those belonging to the anointed Christian congregation against whom the gates of Haʹdes will not prevail, there might be said to be a principle stated in Jesus’ words that has a wider application. Thus, for example, after Jehovah God had given Job a lesson on how great Jehovah is compared with puny and tiny man, Job exclaimed: “I have heard about you, but now my own eye does see you.” Not with his literal eye but with his eye of understanding, his eye of faith and appreciation, Job could now look at God’s work and God’s dealings with him and see God as he had not been able to see him before.—Job 42:5; Matt. 16:18.

Thus even to those pure in heart whose eternal destiny is life on earth God reveals himself in both his written Word and his book of the visible creation. Because of having pure hearts of faith these, like the prophet Moses, are able to continue “steadfast as seeing the One who is invisible.” And soon, in the coming system of things, these will see more evidence all about them that God exists and that he is indeed the kind of God the Bible shows him to be, infinite in wisdom and power, perfect in justice and the very personification of love.—Heb. 11:27.

However, we should not conclude that the happiness of the pure in heart is limited to seeing God, either literally or figuratively. Jesus does not say that; he merely implies that that is its chief reward. But there are other blessings that come to the pure in heart even now. Being pure in heart gives one peace of mind and a clear conscience. It makes for contentment. It also works for peaceful relations with Jehovah God and with one’s neighbors, be they the people living next door, one’s fellow employees or one’s fellow worshipers in the Christian congregation. And surely all this is added reason for striving to be among those who are “pure in heart.”

Liberty-giving Worship

“For such freedom Christ set us free.”—Gal. 5:1.

1. What did the sight-seeing Russian ambassador see up above on the Washington Railroad Station?

THE freedom of the city was being extended to the Russian ambassador, no travel restrictions being placed upon him. This being his first presence in Washington, D.C., he was taking a leisurely sight-seeing tour, visiting places of interest. As he approached the Union Terminal Railroad Station, which looks down the length of Delaware Avenue to the National Capitol, he glanced up. There, up above the central arch of the front portico, he saw engraved the words: “THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.”—JOHN 8:32.

2, 3. (a) What could the Russian ambassador have thought at the sight of those words? (b) The words seen by the ambassador were from what book, and copies of this book had been shipped into Russia by what Society in 1946?

² Whether the Soviet ambassador thought those words were taken from some American political document or educational document, we will not say. Whether he agreed with those words, we will not say.

³ He could have thought of how his people tried to free themselves from slavery to a false religious system during their Bolshevik revolution of the year 1917. Yet, by such violent action against the clergy of the Russian State Church, those revolutionists did not get the truth that makes men free. Understandably not, for those words at which the Russian ambassador gazed were quoted from a book thousands of copies of which the Soviet Union had authorized to be shipped into the country in 1946, shortly after World War II, and for the first time in many decades. The facts on this were given out in the annual report of the American Bible Society made at its New York city Bible House, to the effect that a shipment had been made containing 5,000 New Testaments and 100,000 copies of the Gospels in Russian and 500 copies of the New Testament in the ancient Greek, these Greek Testaments to be distributed among theological students. An acknowledgment of this gift had been made by Archbishop Alexi of the Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow.a

4, 5. (a) The words quoted were from whom? (b) Why might the ambassador and also educators and scientists agree with the words?

⁴ So the words on the portico of the Washington Railroad Station were quoted from the Gospel of the Christian apostle John, chapter eight and Joh 8 verse thirty-two. They were the words of the appointed founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ. The Russian ambassador might have agreed with the words quoted, for they were taken by themselves, apart from their connection with Jesus Christ.

⁵ Educators will agree that knowledge of the truth in its abstract sense frees one from the bondage of ignorance and superstition and deception. College and university students are out on their campuses fighting for intellectual and academic freedom to pursue their quest for knowledge unhindered by church traditions and the control of clergymen. The secular scientists are trying to learn more and more about the creation, its laws, its forces, its order and arrangements and features, the age of our universe and how far into boundless space it extends itself. All the truth gained in these realms of knowledge sets man free at least to some extent, as these worldly truth seekers claim.

6. Knowledge of such secular truth brings with it what danger, and so what has actually resulted to its possessors?

⁶ We are not afraid of the truth. Along with others, we highly value the truths gathered in these various fields and the freedom of mind that they bring. We are glad that they have been shared with us. However, knowledge of such secular truth brings a danger. Such secular truth may be put to a wrong use and be used to lead its possessors into a new bondage. Today, in this twentieth century, scientists abound as never before, and most political governments of the day are aiding in the endeavor to produce more scientists for the good of the country. Admittedly the scientists have learned truths about the things of creation, but it has made them free in only a relative sense, liberating them from slavery to many false theories or slavery to ignorance of certain facts. Yet, along with that, there has come an enslavement of scientists and their followers, an enslavement to science itself, making it an idol to be worshiped like the sacred cow of the Hindus of India.

7. Feeling their power, what do scientists try to do, and what threat does this pose as warned of by a scientific writer?

⁷ Feeling their power, the scientists try to subject others to a slavery to the scientific group, subjecting even the political governments to a dependence upon secular science. The scientists would make themselves a priesthood of this new idolatry, a thing that is warned against in the book issued in 1965 entitled “The New Priesthood,” by the distinguished scientist Ralph E. Lapp, author also of the book Man and Space. This “new priesthood,” namely, “the scientific elite,” presents a threat to democracy, for the scientists have a specialized knowledge that “gives them truly formidable authority in the councils of political power.” So the question arises, Does democracy face a takeover by the scientific technologists of today?

8. What other professional group tries to set itself up as a priesthood, and how has it influenced a disregard of Christian conscience?

⁸ Not only that question worries liberty-loving people, but now, too, the medical doctors try to set themselves up as a priesthood of public health and compel all citizens to submit to its medical opinions and yield to its medical treatment against the will and desire of the patient, under force, and contrary to the patient’s constitutional rights and privileges. Exceptionally is this so today when medical doctors appeal to judges of the law and influence them to rule that Jehovah’s witnesses must have their minor children contaminated with a blood transfusion contrary to God’s law on the sanctity of blood. Yes, this medical priesthood prevails upon judges to override the conscientious religious belief even of adult witnesses of Jehovah and by arbitrary judicial ruling force a gross violation of God’s sacred law on these Christian adults who are entitled to equal freedom of religion with Roman Catholics and Christian Scientists.b The medical priesthood would now persuade the lawmaking body of the nation, the Parliament or the Congress, to pass a law requiring patients who adhere to God’s law on the sacredness of blood to submit to a blood transfusion if the doctor or the hospital thinks it necessary.

9. (a) To what type of political government have some men long looked for freedom? (b) What government of this type was set up more recently in North America, and under what Declaration?

⁹ As long as two thousand years ago men looked to democracy to give them freedom. Political democracy was born in ancient pagan Greece before the days of Jesus Christ, but it was democracy for only the free citizens of the land, as a large section of the population was made up of slaves. More recently, in the year 1775 of our Common Era the thirteen British colonies in North America began a revolution to establish themselves as an independent democratic nation. The following year, on July 4, a Declaration of Independence was signed at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the second paragraph it says these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, . . . ”

10. (a) How was the main composer of that Declaration at disagreement privately with those words in paragraph two? (b) When was abolition of slavery announced as applying in America?

¹⁰ The composing of this Declaration was assigned to Thomas Jefferson of the colony of Virginia, and the language of the Declaration is practically all Jefferson’s. In the light of this man’s home life, the question arises, Who was Jefferson that he should be writing a declaration about the unalienable right of liberty that was to be enjoyed or pursued by all men who are created equal? Why, Jefferson himself was then a slave owner! In fact, eighty-seven years passed by before the American president, on January 1, 1863, announced an abolishing of slavery in certain parts of the United States of America.—The Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 8, pages 561, 562; Volume 10, page 271.

11. What has been said and published recently as to the success of the French Revolution in giving democratic freedom?

¹¹ The American Revolution was followed by the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century. Now, after more than a century and a half of republican government in France, there appears an article in the New York Times Magazine, as written by a Frenchman, Jean-François Revel, under date of November 7, 1965. On page 29, as headlines to Revel’s article, appear the words: “The French Revolution Has Been Lost: Eyeing France today, a Frenchman says democracy there is only skin-deep and usually has been.” Then Revel’s article proceeds to state the facts in proof of it.c

12, 13. (a) What did the Bolshevik leader think was necessary for the success of the Communist revolution in Russia? (b) After much work to remove this obstacle to success, what question arises?

¹² In the year 1917, amid the horror of World War I, there broke out the Russian revolution by which the Communist Bolsheviki came to political power under their leader Vladimir Ilich Lenin. This man had no faith in God, especially the God taught by the Russian Orthodox Church. Believing that the religion of Christendom was the opium of the people, Lenin said: “Our revolution will never succeed until the myth of God is removed from the mind of man.” Apparently the Russian Communist revolution has broken down belief in God in the minds of the majority of people in both Russia and satellite countries. The attitude of the younger generation of Communists is expressed in the answer of a twenty-year-old boy who was interviewed by a bureau chief of the magazine Newsweek, as reported in the magazine’s issue of April 16, 1956, page 54. After answering the question, “Is it difficult for you to adjust academically?” he was asked, “And the Bible?” At this he laughed and answered: “Nobody but Jehovah’s Witnesses read the Bible.”

¹³ However, after all such removal of God from the minds of the people, can the Russian revolutionists boast of success?

14. After an examination into democratic and republican governments, what must we conclude as to the freedom gained, and what question do we ask on Jesus’ statement about freedom?

¹⁴ After an examination into “people’s republics” and popular democratic governments of men from the days of ancient Greece, honest hearts have to admit one thing: republican, popular or democratic government has failed to bring liberty in its most vital aspects. This is true even of the most enlightened and most progressive countries, having the highest educational standards and social provisions and using the most fully the services of scientists and doctors of law, philosophy, medicine and theology. The modern enlightenment and worldly progress of the nations have set men free to an extent that falls far short of the freedom of which Jesus Christ spoke. This explains why dissatisfaction, unrest and turbulence are increasing on earth today. What, then, is the truth that Jesus Christ said would make us free?

THE TRUTH THAT SETS FREE

15, 16. (a) What did the station building designers omit about Jesus’ words, and this in agreement with what dislike? (b) Why is there such a dislike, as shown in John 8:28-32?

¹⁵ Jesus’ words as engraved above the entrance of the Washington Railroad Station were carved there without their context. The station building designers ignored the context of Jesus’ words. Men in general do not like to accept the context of those words. Why? Because Jesus limits the application of his words to those who become his disciples, and these followers of his must fulfill a certain proviso or condition. Take note of this as we read John, chapter eight, verses twenty-eight through thirty-two:

¹⁶ “Therefore Jesus said: ‘When once you have lifted up the Son of man [upon a stake of execution to die], then you will know that I am he [the promised Messiah or Christ], and that I do nothing of my own initiative; but just as the Father taught me I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me; he did not abandon me to myself, because I always do the things pleasing to him.’ As he was speaking these things, many put faith in him. And so Jesus went on to say to the Jews that had believed him: ‘If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

17. To whom were Jesus’ words not said, and upon what did one’s gaining of the freedom mentioned depend?

¹⁷ Take note! The freedom that the truth brings about is dependent upon a big IF. Jesus said: “If you remain in my word.” If they did this, they would prove themselves to be real disciples of Jesus; then, as he said to his listeners, “you are really my disciples.” In that case they would know the truth and the truth would set them free. These words were not said to the pagan physical scientists or to the pagan philosophers and educators of that day. The words were said to people at Jerusalem who “put faith in him,” who “believed him.” They had faith, they believed that God his heavenly Father had sent him to earth to perform a Messianic work in behalf of the kingdom of God, with blessings for all mankind. Having begun to believe and put faith in him, they had to decide whether they would remain in his words, in his teaching, and learn all the rest of the truth. If they did so, then his promise to them would be fulfilled, that they would know the truth and be set free by the truth.

18. What is this truth here spoken of, and why can we not expect to get it from scientists and educators today?

¹⁸ The truth that does this is not truth in general, such as is learned by worldly people. It is the truth that comes from a certain source and through a certain channel of instruction. The source is the One who sent Jesus Christ to earth as a Teacher, and that one is the heavenly Father, Jehovah God. Concerning him, Jesus said: “Just as the Father taught me I speak these things.” (John 8:28) God’s channel of instruction is, therefore, his Son Jesus Christ. That is why it is necessary to remain in the word or teaching of Jesus in order to know the truth and be set free by such truth. So we cannot expect today to get this freedom-giving truth from or through the physical scientists and worldly educators and philosophers of this twentieth century. Because we have not got it from them and cannot get it from them, the whole world of mankind has not won real freedom through them. The real freedom is something that they can never give us. What is it?

19, 20. (a) Why were the pride and religious feelings of his listeners hurt by Jesus’ words about knowing the truth and being set free? (b) Who did Jesus say was a slave needing to be freed?

¹⁹ What this freedom is came to light in the further conversation that Jesus Christ had with his listeners. By birth they were descendants from a free man, the patriarch Abraham, who was the friend of God and whom God brought out of Mesopotamia and into the Promised Land of Palestine. (Gen. 12:1-3; 15:1-7; 2 Chron. 20:7; Jas. 2:23) When Abraham’s descendants sojourned in Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them, Jehovah God freed them from Egyptian bondage and brought them into the Promised Land. Through God’s prophets they got the inspired Hebrew Scriptures, from the first book thereof, Genesis, to the last and thirty-ninth book thereof, Malachi; and these set forth the only true worship of God at that time. So when Jesus spoke to them about knowing the truth by remaining in his word and being set free by the truth, it hurt their pride and religious feelings. Hence we read:

²⁰ “They replied to him: ‘We are Abraham’s offspring and never have we been slaves to anybody. How is it you say, “You will become free”?’ Jesus answered them: ‘Most truly I say to you, Every doer of sin is a slave of sin. Moreover, the slave does not remain in the household forever; the son remains forever. Therefore if the Son sets you free, you will be actually free. I know that you are Abraham’s offspring; but you are seeking to kill me, because my word makes no progress among you. What things I have seen with my Father I speak.’”—John 8:33-38.

21. From what things was the freedom to be, and how did Jewish listeners to Jesus show that they were slaves?

²¹ Ah, here it comes to light that the freedom of which Jesus spoke was the freedom from sin. This meant also the freedom from death, for “the wages sin pays is death.” (Rom. 6:23) Those listeners of Jesus might pride themselves on being natural descendants of Abraham; but if any of them were not wanting Jesus’ word to make further progress in them and if they wanted to kill him by lifting him up on a stake of execution to die, they were not free offspring of Abraham. They were not sons of the heavenly Father, Jehovah God. They were certainly the slaves of sin to a very low degree, and they indeed needed to be set free.

22. (a) What did Jesus’ listeners need to remember about Abraham’s children? (b) So now what danger was there with regard to the Jews?

²² Those Jews who were proud of their descent from Abraham needed to remember that Abraham had two sons, first one by a slave girl, Hagar, and then one by a free woman, his wife Sarah. Later the slave girl’s son Ishmael, was dismissed from Abraham’s household; but the free woman’s son, Isaac, remained in Abraham’s household and became his heir and also heir of the promise that Jehovah God made to Abraham. Likewise, the Jewish descendants of Abraham were but slaves toward God, not sons. Jesus was a Son of God and was free. There was, therefore, the danger that the slavelike Jews would not remain in God’s household forever but would be dismissed, cast off like Ishmael. Jesus as a free and faithful Son of God would properly be retained and would remain in God’s household forever. So he could set the Jews free.

23. Only by what course could those Jews be set free?

²³ Only by accepting the word of truth through Jesus and letting it make progress among them could they be set free and become free sons of God and abide forever in God’s household, enjoying everlasting life. They need to have the Son of God free them by his truth and the sacrifice of himself as a ransom for them.

THE SLAVERY OF ALL MANKIND

24. Why does our dying state prove that we are sinners, and by what means only can we be freed for life?

²⁴ Who today can prove that he is not a slave of sin and receiving in himself the wages that sin pays, namely, death? Lenin has had those wages paid to him in full; he is dead, which proves that he was a slave of sin. Too bad for him if God and resurrection of the dead were only a myth! All mankind born from the sinful first man (Adam) have been born sinners. That is why they have been under the condemnation of death. We have all needed to be freed from sin and its penalty of death. The Son of God and his truth are the only means by which we can be set free and gain eternal life as free children of the Most High God.—Rom. 5:12-18.

25. How did Paul describe his own physical and spiritual state in Romans 7:19-25?

²⁵ The Christian apostle Paul described his own physical and spiritual state when he wrote these words to the early Christian congregation in Rome: “The good that I wish I do not do, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice. If, now, what I do not wish is what I do, the one working it out is no longer I, but the sin dwelling in me. I find, then, this law in my case: that when I wish to do what is right, what is bad is present with me. I really delight in the law of God according to the man I am within, but I behold in my members another law warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive to sin’s law that is in my members. Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from the body undergoing this death? Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, then, with my mind I myself am a slave to God’s law, but with my flesh to sin’s law.”—Rom. 7:19-25.

26. In the case of whom else must that state as described be true just as fully, if not more so?

²⁶ Now, if that was true of the Christian apostle Paul, who had seen the resurrected Jesus Christ and who had received so abundantly the gifts of God’s holy spirit, it is just as fully true in the case of each and every one of us, if not more so!

27. (a) To what form of worship did the Jews become enslaved? (b) What kind of woman, therefore, was their capital city Jerusalem like?

²⁷ Along with that enslavement to inborn sin and its penalty of death, the world of mankind has become enslaved to a system of false religious worship. The Jews had been liberated from ancient Egypt and had been given the sacred pronouncements of God in the thirty-nine books of the inspired Hebrew Scriptures. Yet they became slaves to a system of deceptive, hypocritical religious worship, which the Holy Bible calls Judaism. (Rom. 3:1, 2; Gal. 1:11-16) Just like the one-time Jewish Pharisee Paul, all the Jews needed to be delivered from that enslaving system of Judaism. Only the truth through Jesus Christ could do this, as it did in the case of Paul. Furthermore, God’s own Law given to the Jews through the prophet Moses condemned those Jews to death as sinners unable to keep God’s perfect Law. For this reason they could be cursed by God. Hence the Law served as a yoke on them, that they could not carry by themselves. It proved them to be slaves of sin and deserving of death. The addition of Judaism made the slavery worse! As a result their capital city Jerusalem was not a mother of free children, but was like a slave woman, in bondage with her children. What was the worship to give them liberty?

28. (a) What, then, was the worship that would give them liberty? (b) Like the son of what woman did those accepting that worship become, and what did Paul show they now needed to do?

²⁸ It was the worship of the one living and true God Jehovah through his Son Jesus Christ. Some Jews accepted and remained in the truth that came through Jesus Christ, letting it make progress among them. Those were the ones who learned the truth that set them free. These gained the pure, true worship that gives liberty! These were no longer children of a slave woman, but were children of a free woman, God’s free spiritual organization. They were like Isaac the son of the free woman Sarah, Abraham’s wife. The thing now to do was to remain free, fighting to keep freedom. Hence the apostle Paul wrote to fellow Christians who were acquainted with Judaism: “Wherefore, brothers, we are children, not of a servant girl, but of the free woman. For such freedom Christ set us free. Therefore stand fast, and do not let yourselves be confined again in a yoke of slavery.”—Gal. 4:31; 5:1.

29. (a) In spite of what privileges had the Jews come into a religious slavery? (b) Why more so did the Gentiles need to be set free, and when did the Son of God begin to set them free?

²⁹ Those words were specially fitting for natural, circumcised Jews who had been brought out of Judaism into the liberty-giving worship of true Christianity. The Jews had come into a religious slavery in spite of their having the Law of Jehovah God and being in a national covenant with him. How much more was it true that all the non-Jews, the uncircumcised Gentiles, who did not have God’s law, were in a religious slavery! So if the Jews needed liberation, how much more so did the Gentiles need to be set free? Why so? Because the Gentiles were in bondage to a larger religious organization, namely, Babylon the Great, which is the worldwide empire of false religion. Such Gentiles, in slavery to false gods, really to demons, needed to be turned away from such idolatry to serve the living God, Jehovah, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was first three and a half years after his resurrection from the dead that the Son of God began to set such Gentiles free. That was when he sent his apostle Peter to the Mediterranean seaport of Caesarea to convert the household of the Italian centurion Cornelius.—Acts 10:1 to 11:18.

30. (a) So what do those freed Gentiles now need to do? (b) Why does this slavery include the people of Christendom?

³⁰ Thus for freedom from the international religious harlot, Babylon the Great, Christ set the Gentiles free. Therefore, these also need to stand fast in the liberty-giving worship and not let themselves become confined again in a yoke of religious slavery. This slavery includes the churchgoing people of Christendom. Christendom was established in the fourth century, in the days of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, and she took in the territories of present-day Portugal and Spain. While still holding the pagan office of Pontifex Maximus, Emperor Constantine called together the council of Nicaea in Asia Minor; and, after the bishops had wrangled for weeks, he decided in favor of what is Christendom’s most important religious doctrine. This is the trinity, the belief that there are God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and yet there are not three Gods but only one God in three Persons. In this doctrine Christendom apes the pagans or heathen.

CHRISTENDOM AN UNFREE PART OF THIS WORLD

31. How did Christendom not really gain but thus come into bondage, as shown by M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia?

³¹ Christendom may have thought that she gained something by submitting to the domination of the Roman Pontifex and by accepting the support of the political state. Yet she came into bondage that led to continual difficulties between Church and State, down till today. Says M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia, Volume 2:

Numerous, however, in various points of view, as were the advantages accruing to it from this change, it soon began to suffer from being brought into close contact with the fostering influence of secular power. The simplicity of the Gospel was corrupted; pompous rites and ceremonies were introduced; worldly honors and emoluments were conferred on the teachers of Christianity; and the kingdom of Christ in a great measure converted into a kingdom of this world.—Page 488.

32. (a) In view of what Jesus told Pilate, why is Christendom no part of Christ’s kingdom? (b) Who can set churchgoing people free from Christendom?

³² However, Jesus Christ plainly said to Governor Pontius Pilate, who was a representative of the Roman Pontifex Maximus Tiberius Caesar, this: “My kingdom is no part of this world. If my kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews. But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source.” (John 18:36) Therefore, Christendom, which has refused Christian liberty and independence in favor of religious union with the State and dependence on the State, is no part of Christ’s kingdom. Consequently, the churchgoing people of Christendom, with its confusion of divisive religious sects, need to be freed from bondage to Christendom. Christendom is the most prominent and powerful part of Babylon the Great. Not modern-day science or worldly education, but only Christ’s truth can free them!

[Footnotes]

Freedom of Worship

1. (a) What did Jesus say regarding his disciples in relation to this world? (b) What does being no part of this world mean for Christians?

JESUS CHRIST said that, not only his kingdom was no part of this world, but also his disciples were no part of it either. In a final prayer with his apostles, Jesus said to God: “I have given your word to them, but the world has hated them, because they are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.” (John 17:14, 16) Jesus had previously told his disciples: “If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you.” (John 15:19) The fact that true disciples of Jesus are no part of this world means more than that they keep absolutely neutral toward the squabbles, controversies and conflicts of the nations of this world. It means their being free and independent of this world, hence in no slavery to it. The pure worship of God into which they have been brought through the truth has given them liberty from this oppressive, corrupt world.

2. Does such Christian liberty mean freedom from subjection to the superior authorities, and how far does this matter go?

² Bear in mind, however, one point: Their having this liberty because of the truth and the true worship of God does not mean that they are free from rendering any subjection to the political “superior authorities” of this world. No! Jesus said: “Pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.” (Matt. 22:21) And the apostle Paul said, in Romans 13:1-5: “Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except by God; the existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God. . . . There is therefore compelling reason for you people to be in subjection, not only on account of that wrath but also on account of your conscience.” Christian subjection to the superior authorities can thus be only a relative subjection. Subjection to the superior authorities cannot go so far as to violate Christian conscience and violate God’s truth as found in the Holy Bible.

3. (a) Does freedom from this world mean also for Christians freedom from persecution? (b) When were Christians denied freedom of worship in the Roman Empire?

³ Likewise, the fact that true Christians are no part of this world and have been set free from it does not mean that they will enjoy freedom of worship in this world. Because of Jewish religious opposition, Jesus Christ was put to death by the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, but on the false charge of sedition. The apostle Paul was also accused of sedition and was imprisoned. These charges being political in the cases of Jesus and Paul, the Roman government did not proceed against them because of their religion. There was thus no depriving of them of the freedom of religion and of worship. At the time that Christianity was established in the years 29-33 C.E., there was freedom of worship in the Roman Empire. It was first after Rome was burned by the great fire of the year 64 C.E. that freedom of worship was denied to Christians. Faithful Christians refused to compromise and worship the Roman State or the Roman Emperor.

4, 5. (a) In lands where there was a state religion, how was refusal to render the religious rites viewed by the authorities? (b) Also, how was the right to teach other doctrines viewed, and why did rulers and clergy fear religious dissent?

⁴ Says The Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 17 of the 1929 edition, page 346, under the heading “LIBERTY, Religious”:

⁵ “It is hardly more than a century ago that it was finally conceded by the governing power that religion is not a state but a purely personal affair. Even at the present time this is not conceded in all countries. From time immemorial the state has had its religion as by law established, the idea being that the safety and welfare of the state depended upon the proper performance of the state religion. To protest and refuse to perform these religious rites was to become a disorderly and possibly a revolutionary element within the state. Thus the issue was joined, those in control of the government insisting that the public order and safety required all to worship according to the established religion and in no other way and in opposition to these an increasing number demanding as a divine right the freedom to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience. Something more than that is involved—and this is the most serious part of the trouble; the right of a person not only to worship but to teach, propagate the doctrines he believes true, so that others may be led to worship in his way. This, under the old system of state religion, plainly amounted to nothing less than a right to form a party within the state at variance with the state religion and the state government. . . . Thus the political rulers dreaded the revolutionary possibilities of religious dissent; and the ecclesiastical authorities feared that the freedom to teach heretical doctrines would lead the souls of men to perdition.”

6. Against whom has Portugal adopted such an attitude, and in one recent case what have her police done to these?

⁶ In those words The Encyclopedia Americana described the very attitude that the unitary corporative Republic of Portugal has adopted toward the Christian witnesses of Jehovah, even till this year 1966. What Portugal has been doing to Jehovah’s witnesses in her land and in Angola is common knowledge throughout the world. And so we are here free to comment publicly about Portugal’s conduct in this regard, even as others have already done. The Portuguese police, in one of recent cases, have arrested and brought into court forty-nine native witnesses of Jehovah. They have faced an accusation by the Magistrate of the Public Ministry. The bail allowed to them pending their trial and sentence was set at thousands of Portuguese escudos apiece. As you now listen to the accusation leveled against them, call to mind the Americana article just read on religious liberty. Here is what the accusation says:

7-12. What charges did the Portuguese Magistrate of the Public Ministry level against the arrested witnesses of Jehovah?

⁷ “All the accused are material authors of the crime against the internal security of the state, of instigation to collective disobedience, foreseen and punishable under Article 174 of the Penal Code, with the additional punishment outlined in Article 175 of the same Code, since the judicial proceedings accordingly show the following:

⁸ “The accused are ‘members’ of the sect named ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses,’ directed by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, with head offices in New York, which they obey even to the smallest detail.

⁹ “They internationally develop various activities that expressly preach collective disobedience to the national laws of public order and to the legitimate orders of the authorities; the Fatherland, all the constituted powers and principally the Army, are, besides, false religions, the greatest creations of the kingdom of Satan that it is necessary to destroy; they consider themselves ambassadors of the Theocratic Kingdom and, as such, affirm that they should not obey the regulations of the authorities, participate in elections or collaborate in the public administration.

¹⁰ “The saluting of the National Flag is an act of idolatry and the soldier that fights for the Fatherland is an enemy of God, because he fights for Satan.

¹¹ “They constitute a political movement, coming from various countries, with aims of disobedience, agitation and subversion of the popular masses and especially the youth of popular age.

¹² “The Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society prohibits all the followers of the religious sect Jehovah’s Witnesses to fulfill military service. . . . ”

CASES REFUTING THE ACCUSATION

13. (a) Why would such Portuguese accusers, if back in the early centuries, have persecuted Christianity? (b) What in the Portuguese accusation would it be illegal for the Watch Tower Society to do?

¹³ In the face of such an accusation, it is not an exaggeration to say that if the Portuguese accusers of Jehovah’s witnesses were back in the early centuries of the true Christian church, they would have been among the persecutors of apostolic Christianity. Why so? Because the worldly histories of those times plainly report that the martyred Christians of the first and second centuries were banned, driven underground into catacombs, and imprisoned and executed with cruel tortures under the same accusations that the Portuguese authorities level against Jehovah’s witnesses of today. The Portuguese charges against them are nothing new, just as valid authentic history shows. And as for the accused Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, which was founded by Pastor Charles Taze Russell under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania in 1884, it would be doing something illegal in the land of America, where it was founded, if it interfered with and obstructed the military and defense operations of the domestic national government, not to speak of its encouraging such tactics by Jehovah’s witnesses in foreign lands like Portugal.

14, 15. (a) How was the then president and other representatives of the Watch Tower Society treated by the government in 1918? (b) What did the Americana say about this case and the religious issue?

¹⁴ Pastor Russell, the first president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, died October 31, 1916. The next year the United States of America got involved in World War I. Then the succeeding president and other prominent officials and representatives of the Watch Tower Society were accused in 1918 of interfering with war activities and being a threat to national security. They were imprisoned in the Federal penitentiary without benefit of appeal or admission to bail. The above-mentioned article of The Encyclopedia Americana (page 349) says as to this famous case:

¹⁵ “The practice of persecuting persons for dissent and heresy gradually went out of fashion. More and more frequently the courts ruled that it was not the business of law to prohibit a person from exercising his religious faith so long as it did not, as Blackstone put it, ‘threaten ruin or disturbance of the state.’ In the noted trial (1918) of the followers of Pastor Russell the court made it plain that religious freedom never could be stretched to confer the right to commit crime.”

16. (a) What did the Americana article fail to report about these eight accused representatives of the Watch Tower Society? (b) If the president, Judge Rutherford, had been a felon, what would the U.S. Supreme Court never have permitted?

¹⁶ This Americana article fails to report that these imprisoned associates of Pastor Russell were kept in prison for nine months and then released on bail in March of 1919 after an appeal of their case was granted. In the following year (1920) all eight were exonerated of all the false charges under which they had been railroaded into prison. They were legally proved to be no felons, no criminals threatening the peace, security and good order of the State.a And in the year 1940 the once imprisoned president of the Watch Tower Society, known as Judge Rutherford, who was a member of the legal Bar of the State of New York, was admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 1940. Such a thing the Supreme Court would never have permitted if Judge Rutherford had been a felon.

17, 18. (a) On that occasion, what did the Supreme Court allow to Judge Rutherford and his associate? (b) In the close of his address, what did he say to the Court regarding conscience and being witnesses of Jehovah?

¹⁷ The Court even allowed to him and Professor Gardner of Harvard University an extension of time, to argue for an hour and a half in behalf of the famous Flag Salute case that involved the youthful son and daughter of a Pennsylvania family who refused to salute the American flag in the public school. In the close of his address to the Supreme Court, Judge Rutherford said:

¹⁸ “This is a matter that is sacred to every American who loves God and his Word. The members of this Court respect Jehovah God and I assume that they are desirous of serving Him, because in no other way can anyone gain life. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania can grant life to no one. The United States of America can grant life to no one, because Jehovah God is the fountain of life. ‘Salvation belongeth to Jehovah.’ The respondents in this case conscientiously relied upon the Bible. Their conscience is not to be controlled or interfered with by any human power, as stated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in its own Constitution. Therefore the decision of the trial court and of the Court of Appeals should be affirmed and thus make the members of this Court witnesses to the name, majesty, and supremacy of ‘the Most High, whose name alone is Jehovah.’”b

19. How did the Supreme Court handle this flag-salute case in 1940 and then in 1943?

¹⁹ In the midwar year of 1940 the Supreme Court rendered an adverse judgment by a vote of eight to one. But several years later the Court reconsidered its decision and on the national Flag Day, June 14, 1943, the Court reversed itself. It handed down a decision recognizing Christian conscience even when it considers the saluting of the flag of any country to be an act of idolatry and so a violation of God’s Supreme Law.—1 John 5:21; Ex. 20:1-5.c

GOD’S LAW CALLS FOR FIRST OBEDIENCE

20, 21. (a) What counsel does Psalm 2:10, 11 offer for kings and judges to follow today? (b) Why do the Witnesses not need the Watch Tower Society to tell them what to do in this regard, and the example of what apostle do they follow?

²⁰ In the Second Psalm 2, verses ten and eleven, we read: “Now therefore be wise, O ye kings: Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”—AS.

²¹ That Second Psalm 2 is being fulfilled in our day, since 1914. So it is high time for kings, presidents, dictators, rulers and judges of the earth to recognize that the Law of the Most High God is supreme, and that followers of his Son Jesus Christ must recognize God’s Law as supreme and obey it when there is a clash between the Law of God and the laws of men. The Christian witnesses of Jehovah in Portugal and everywhere else do not need the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society to tell them this; they have read it for themselves in the Portuguese Bible and in copies of the Bible in all the other languages in which it is published. And they need no priest of Christendom to interpret it for them. The apostle Peter, whom the Roman Catholic Church claims as its first pope, was the one who said to the Supreme Court in Jerusalem: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) And in this regard Jehovah’s witnesses everywhere follow the example of Peter.

22, 23. (a) What does the Britannica say regarding the aforementioned English jurist Blackstone? (b) What did Blackstone say as to the “law of nature . . . dictated by God himself” and human laws?

²² In the foregoing quotation from the Americana it mentions the eminent English jurist Sir William Blackstone of the years 1729-1780. In an article on this Blackstone, The Encyclopædia Britannica (eleventh edition), Volume 4, page 26, says: “He regarded the law of gravitation, the law of nature, and the law of England, as different examples of the same principle—as rules of action or conduct imposed by a superior power on its subjects.” Then the Britannica refers to this statement in Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, in paragraph nine of its Introduction:

²³ “This law of nature, being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.”d

24. (a) In view of that, what shall we say regarding God’s written law? (b) What command for today do Jehovah’s witnesses carry out, and why cannot doing this be called seditious?

²⁴ If what Blackstone says is true with regard to God’s law in “nature” or physical creation, where God’s law is not written readably, how much more is it true of God’s supreme law set out in writing in his inspired Book of freedom, The Holy Bible? The baptized witnesses of Jehovah are unreservedly dedicated to him, to walk in the footsteps of his Son Jesus Christ by imitating him and carrying out his commandments. This includes the prophetic command that Jesus gave in his prophecy on the “conclusion of the system of things,” saying: “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) When he foretold this Kingdom preaching world wide, Jesus was not telling his disciples to do anything that any nation can rightly call seditious.

WHO IS SERVING SATAN THE DEVIL?

25. Who is the “god of this world,” and whom is any nation serving when it persecutes Jehovah’s Christian witnesses?

²⁵ Jesus Christ called Satan the Devil “the ruler of this world.” (John 12:31; 14:30) The apostle Paul called Satan the Devil “the god of this system of things.” (2 Cor. 4:4) And in the last book of the Bible, Jesus Christ pointed out to the apostle John that it is Satan the Devil that causes the persecution of those who observe God’s commandments and bear witness concerning Jesus. (Rev. 12:13-17) Accordingly, when any nation inside or outside Christendom engages in persecuting the Christian witnesses of Jehovah, whom is that nation really serving, Jehovah God or Satan the Devil? Just before his own death, Jesus told his disciples: “Men will expel you from the synagogue. In fact, the hour is coming when everyone that kills you will imagine he has rendered a sacred service to God.” (John 16:2) But this wrong imagination will not excuse the killer of true Christians.

26. (a) Who crowd the prisons of Christendom, but what do Jehovah’s witnesses do? (b) Even when persecuted, Jehovah’s witnesses act how toward the government responsible?

²⁶ The religionists of Christendom are the ones who are crowding the prisons for breaking the laws of God as well as of men. But Jehovah’s witnesses are peacefully striving to help all peoples to gain everlasting life in God’s new order by preaching the good news of His long-prayed-for kingdom. Even when Jehovah’s witnesses are persecuted by the superior authorities of a nation, they do not rise up in armed rebellion or secretly conspire to subvert or overthrow the existing political government. For conscience’ sake they continue paying first God’s things to God and then Caesar’s things to Caesar. They accept the persecution as a test of their faithfulness and obedience to the Most High God. They leave it to God to take care of their persecutors when, shortly, he destroys Babylon the Great, and then her political paramours in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Armageddon.—Rev. 16:13-16; 17:5.

27. (a) Though not enjoying religious freedom everywhere, Jehovah’s witnesses are still a liberated people in what way? (b) How do they keep this liberated state?

²⁷ Although they may not everywhere enjoy freedom of worship, still Jehovah’s Christian witnesses are a liberated people. They strive to keep the liberty that their practice of the pure worship gives to them. (Jas. 1:27) They are determined to keep the freedom for which Christ has set them free. They well know that they are in the world, but, as Jesus has told them, they are no part of this world. They keep free from involvement in its active affairs that are meant to perpetuate this system of things whose certain end Jesus Christ foretold. (Matt. 24:3-22) They do not trust in this world or its princes. (Ps. 146:3-5) They do not let themselves become dependent upon this world so as to come under obligation to it to please it and become the slaves of men. As Jesus Christ told them in his Sermon on the Mount, they seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and trust in Jehovah God to provide all the other things necessary for them.—Matt. 6:33.

28. (a) For thousands of years, what has Jehovah God granted to nations that practice false worship? (b) When will this grant end, and what will be the case of religion afterward?

²⁸ For thousands of years now the Most High God Jehovah has granted to the nations freedom of religion and worship, from the days of ancient Babylon till today. Soon now their freedom of practicing false worship will end with the destruction of these nations by God’s Messianic kingdom, for which true Christians pray in the Lord’s Prayer. (Matt. 6:9, 10) Then in the new order under God’s kingdom there will be full, unhindered freedom for the worship of the true God through Jesus Christ. This true worship will give obedient men the liberty of the earthly sons of God, forever!

[Footnotes]

Pertinent to the above, on pages 966-969 Volume 2 of A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations, by Thomas M. Cooley, L.L.D., 4th edition, as published in Boston in 1927, we read:

“Those things which are not lawful under any of the American constitutions may be stated thus:-

“1. Any law respecting an establishment of religion. . . .

“2. Compulsory support, by taxation or otherwise, of religious instruction. . . .

“3. Compulsory attendance upon religious worship. Whoever is not led by choice or a sense of duty to attend upon the ordinances of religion is not to be compelled to do so by the State. It is the province of the State to enforce, so far as it may be found practicable, the obligations and duties which the citizen may be under or may owe to his fellow-citizens or to society; but those which spring from the relations between himself and his Maker are to be enforced by the admonitions of the conscience, and not by the penalties of human laws. Indeed, as all real worship must essentially and necessarily consist in the free-will offering of adoration and gratitude by the creature to the Creator, human laws are obviously inadequate to incite or compel those external and voluntary emotions which shall induce it, and human penalties at most could only enforce the observance of idle ceremonies, which, when unwillingly performed, are alike valueless to the participants and devoid of all the elements of true worship.

“4. Restraints upon the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of the conscience. No external authority is to place itself between the finite being and the Infinite when the former is seeking to render the homage that is due, and in a mode which commends itself to his conscience and judgment as being suitable for him to render, and acceptable to its object. . . .

“5. Restraints upon the expression of religious belief. An earnest believer usually regards it as his duty to propagate his opinions, and to bring others to his views. To deprive him of this right is to take from him the power to perform what he considers a most sacred obligation.”

Can This World’s Armageddon Be Avoided?

ARMAGEDDON is a Bible word and in that book it is mentioned only once, but so strong has been the impression upon the minds of the people that it has become almost a household word. Many politicians have used it when they thought that the world was at a crisis. It has been considered something to be feared and to be avoided. Generally, it has been viewed by men as a final war to be fought by worldly forces. Today, politicians and statesmen feel that with the development of nuclear weapons, guided missiles and other scientific developments that could result in mass destruction, Armageddon, as they see it, is possible. Fear of starting such a war, which would result in loss to all and gain to none and might even result in the destruction of all mankind, has caused the politicians to make many moves and plans to avoid such a terrible holocaust.

Is such a feared war among the world powers really Armageddon? and can politicians by means of their peace talks, maneuverings, concordats, compacts and leagues avoid the Bible Armageddon? Can we rely upon them to steer us safely around it? The way to find out is to turn to the book that is the source of the term and see what it says about this battle and the forces involved. The word is found in the Bible, in Revelation, chapter 16, in connection with the pouring out of the sixth of seven plagues of the bowls of God’s anger on the earth. (Re 16 Vss. 12-16) Where is Armageddon to be located? Not on the Euphrates at Babylon, for Revelation 16:16 says: “And they gathered them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Har–Magedon.” This is after the mention of the drying up of the Euphrates. The name seems to mean “Mountain of Megiddo,” not only because the name is Hebrew, but also because it appears to contain the name of the Hebrew fortress city of Megiddo. The place named is to be associated with Hebrew territory.a It is reported that, near here, Heaven fought for the victory of Jehovah’s people under Judge Barak and the prophetess Deborah. In their victory song they sang:

“Kings came, they fought; it was then that the kings of Canaan fought in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. No gain of silver did they take. From heaven did the stars fight, from their orbits they fought against Sisera. The torrent of Kishon washed them away.”—Judg. 5:19-21.

Says The International Standard Bible Encyclopædia, Volume 2, page 1340: “These low hills around Megiddo, with their outlook over the plain of Esdraelon, have witnessed perhaps a greater number of bloody encounters than have ever stained a like area of the world’s surface.” The name Megiddo enters very nicely into the matter, not merely because of its historical associations, but because, as Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon (1859 edition) suggests, the name may mean “the place of crowds” (locus turbárum).

WHAT ARMAGEDDON IS

Actually, in Revelation the name Har–Magedon does not refer to a geographical location. As a matter of fact, on no geographical map does a place named Har–Magedon (Armageddon) appear.b In Revelation 16:16 this name does not literally refer to the neighborhood of Megiddo in the plain of Esdraelon. It symbolizes the place where, within the realm of Jehovah’s witnesses’ experiences on earth, this final war is fought out. At exactly the right point of time and circumstances, when the great preaching work “in all the inhabited earth” has gathered in the “great crowd” who respond to the Kingdom message, the attack will come. The issues will be clear. God will doubtless give his people a very strong message to proclaim just before the enemy attack.—Matt. 24:14; Dan. 11:44, 45.

Armageddon is to be fought on the earth, which is shown by the fact that the earthly kings and their armies are said to be gathered together there. (Rev. 16:14) They are fighting against God’s kingdom. Of course, they cannot touch the heavenly, invisible kingdom of Jesus Christ, but they can fight those who represent his kingdom here on earth, namely, the remnant of Christ’s spiritual, anointed brothers. So the earthly kings under demon influence invade the holy estate that these Christian witnesses have in relationship with their God Jehovah and they try to destroy it, getting in an indirect way at Jehovah God and his Messiah. These kings are not gathered against one another for the purpose of killing one another off, but they are gathered against God. There they will come into collision with Jehovah’s holy, royal interests.

Jehovah’s people on earth will have no part in the fight and the destruction. It will be Jehovah’s invisible forces under his Field Marshal Jesus Christ who will come into violent conflict with his enemies and defeat them in a final, decisive war that will need no repeating. God will gain an everlasting victory, just as he did over the ancient “kings of Canaan” by the waters of Megiddo. Satan and his invisible forces, which are now cast out of heaven and down into the vicinity of this earth, will maneuver these forces and try to help them gain a victory. They will lose. However, Satan and his demon forces in the heavens will be put out of action, not at Armageddon, but immediately thereafter, when Jesus Christ hurls them into the abyss of deathlike inactivity.—Rev. 19:19 to 20:2.

“UNCLEAN INSPIRED EXPRESSIONS”

But what about the political efforts of men? Are they helpful to the nations in staving off this battle as long as possible? Let us see what God says through his angel. At Revelation 16:13 we read: “And I saw three unclean inspired expressions that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the wild beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are, in fact, expressions inspired by demons and perform signs, and they go forth to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty. . . . And they gathered them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Har–Magedon.”—Rev. 16:13-16.

In the Law covenant God made with Israel, he classified frogs as unclean animals. The use of frogs here would indicate that the inspired expressions are something unclean in God’s sight. Being inspired by demons, it is certain they are directly against God and detrimental to those who follow such expressions. The “inspired expressions” do not originate with men. So, whoever on earth are the human mouthpieces, they are not speaking altogether of themselves but as inspired by the adversary of God, the Devil, the prince of the demons.

Frogs make a croaking noise. They come out of the mouth of three creatures, and so must symbolize official proclamations, announcements, predictions or propaganda, especially to influence kings or rulers of this world. The froglike inspired expression out of the mouth of the symbolic dragon, who is Satan the Devil (Rev. 12:9), must say that Jehovah God is not the Sovereign of the universe and that his rightful Messianic kingdom over earth is not to be recognized or surrendered to, even if the Gentile Times ended in 1914. Satan is the one who challenged Jehovah God in the beginning, and right down to the war at Armageddon he makes efforts more and more desperate as the end nears, in an attempt to prove his assertion. So this frog would say also that Kingdom preaching by Jehovah’s witnesses must therefore be stopped, and if they refuse to stop preaching Jehovah’s kingdom by Christ, we must war against them.

The “wild beast” out of the sea is the Dragon’s visible political organization for governing mankind. In Daniel’s vision of four of the world powers, represented as beasts, he recounts: “I happened to be beholding in my visions during the night, and, see there! the four winds of the heavens were stirring up the vast sea. And four huge beasts were coming up out of the sea, each one being different from the others.” (Dan. 7:2, 3) So Satan the Devil by means of his demons, represented by the four winds, was stirring up the sea of mankind alienated from God to great turbulence, forming his political organization from this sea of restless people who rely upon what the politicians say to guide them.

Now, the “wild beast” is loyal to the Dragon, to whom it is indebted for its political power, throne and great authority. It worships the Dragon. So the inspired propagandistic expression out of the wild beast’s mouth backs up what the Dragon says. It argues for the sovereignty of the various national groups and tells them to conspire against Jehovah and his Anointed One or Messiah and to break all bands, restrictions and limitations that these would impose on them, now that the Gentile Times have ended. (Ps. 2:1-10) Certainly nationalism is at present one of the greatest menaces to mankind’s welfare.

The third frog came out of the mouth of the “false prophet.” Who is this “false prophet”? He is a new figure introduced in this chapter 12 of Revelation. But he is new in name only and is used in Revelation as a separate figure because of the prominent part he plays in world affairs and the way he performs with great influence before the rest of the political governments represented by the beast. He is really the other “wild beast” that ascended out of the earth and that had two lamblike horns. It is no one else than the dual world power of Britain and America who cooperate economically, politically and militarily, in English, and largely on the Protestant side of religion. But since Revelation 13:11 says that this two-horned beast speaks as the Dragon does in blasphemies of God and his heavenly residence, and since it makes the “image of the wild beast” speak, the two-horned beast is here cast in the role of a prophet, not for Jehovah, of course. So it is a “false prophet.” As it is the seventh head of the seven-headed “wild beast” out of the sea, it assumes to speak nowadays for the entire “wild beast.”

From its position of economic, political and military strength, the two-horned beast or “false prophet” speaks very impressively, for it predominates today as the Seventh World Power. This Seventh World Power has always appeared lamblike in its pretentions, for it claims always to fight on the side of liberty and freedom. It claims never to fight in an aggressive, but only in a defensive, protective war. At the same time it speaks like the Dragon who is the great deceiver and it roars out with a fear-inspiring voice that has cowed smaller nations into subjection so that it could pursue its commercial, selfish exploitations in many countries of the earth.

This political “false prophet” system, speaking like the Dragon, also speaks against God’s kingdom but in favor of human sovereignty of the earth and now advocates self-determination of the peoples and an international alliance. First it recommended the League of Nations and now backs the United Nations, to keep a nuclear-powered world from destroying itself in world war.

“SIGNS” PERFORMED

These demon-inspired expressions from the three sources “perform signs.” This is in order that they may clothe themselves with authority and impressiveness before the people. At times they call for action on the part of the Dragon, the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” to enforce what the inspired expressions say. The Devil backs up these expressions and maneuvers the “wild beast” in holding peoples under subjugation. And as for the two-horned beast, or “false prophet,” it appears to “make fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the sight of mankind.” (Rev. 13:13) The Seventh World Power has used its might to bring about its will, with the backing of the clergy of Christendom. This makes the inspired expressions seem to be coming true and having the god of this world backing them up.

No matter how much these expressions may croak on the subject of international peace, they are really for war, war against Jehovah God the Almighty and his Messiah. Therefore, their political promises and arrangements are not sidestepping Armageddon but steering the nations directly into it. John says that the inspired expressions go forth to the worldly rulers, who today possess mass-killing weapons, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty. Yes, they are really gathering them together to fight Jehovah, who is the Almighty God, a fight about which Jehovah’s witnesses are warning the nations. The nations plainly show that they are marching to that final war, for in these last days they fight against Jehovah’s witnesses who preach the good news of God’s kingdom.

We should not waste vital time listening to the political promises or looking to this or to that political party to stave off or avoid Armageddon. The warning concerning this battle has been going out for many years and the day is fast approaching. As long ago as 1897 the publishing agent of Jehovah’s witnesses, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, published the book called “The Battle of Armageddon” (at first called “The Day of Vengeance”). This book presented a certain understanding of what this final war would be. However, it was not till the Watch Tower magazine’s issue of July 15, 1925, that Jehovah’s modern Christian witnesses got better understanding, that this final war would be, not a mere anarchistic human struggle for domination here on earth, but a universal war. It would be really a war with God Almighty, in which he would destroy the Devil’s entire organization. “This is the fight of God Almighty; and the fight is led by his beloved Son,” said page 280 of the book Deliverance, issued in 1926.c This information has since been expanded and enlarged upon Scripturally. It has plagued the sensibilities of world rulers.

“YOU MAY BE CONCEALED” SAFELY

There is a place of safety in which one can be preserved, in effect, hidden, at the great battle of Armageddon. This is by placing oneself under the protection of Jehovah’s kingdom now established under his Son Jesus Christ. It means that those who will receive protection will be neutral as to this world’s politics, having no share in it. They will be active in proclaiming the established kingdom of God by Jesus Christ. One doing this is in a favored position, and the Scriptures say: “Before the statute gives birth to anything, before the day has passed by just like chaff, before there comes upon you people the burning anger of Jehovah, before there comes upon you the day of Jehovah’s anger, seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.”—Zeph. 2:2, 3.

It will require courage to take such a position and maintain it because of the opposition of the Dragon, the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” and the inspired expressions that come forth like unclean frogs from their mouths. But those who diligently study God’s Word, trust in him and maintain faithful integrity, will have help, they can endure, to be hidden, covered over, or preserved during that time. They will enjoy the fine privilege of seeing Satan’s complete organization on earth and all wickedness destroyed off of it and the dawning of a righteous new day in which a new world order under the peaceful kingdom of Christ will be ushered in to rule everlastingly.

For a consideration of all seven plagues of Revelation, chapter 16, see the book “Babylon the Great Has Fallen!” God’s Kingdom Rules! by Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Brooklyn, New York.

[Footnotes]

At any rate, Schonfield associates Armageddon with Jewish territory, although east of the Jordan River, in the aforetime territory of the tribe of Gad. He does not locate it near the Euphrates.

‘For the Sake of Your Name You Led Me’

As told by Bert Horton

THERE are periods in everyone’s life that stand out. It is not always that they bring joy, for sometimes they bring the opposite. One such period for me was the year 1920. At that time I was a very perplexed and distressed man, seeing no letup in the dismal trend of human affairs. The future certainly did not seem to offer a contented life.

I believed in God as far as I understood. However, religion as I knew it was taboo for me. I looked for an alternative, but found none. Politics had a passing interest for me, but gave no real relief. Then I became secretary to a trade union, which in some ways I thought would absorb my discontent and allow me to help my fellowman. However, two years of this served only to confirm my conclusion that neither legislation nor any ideology could rehabilitate a very sick world.

THE YEAR 1922

By the year 1922 I had left my position as union secretary, and my life had become sort of a vacuum. My age was thirty, and I was now employed as a member of a fire brigade in Western Australia, “down under.”

But now for the better part of my story. In fact, I can say that the year 1922 stands out as a wonderful year in my life. How so? Because my mother had given me a book she had acquired entitled “The Divine Plan of the Ages.” Before I had finished reading that book I knew I had found the truth! No longer was I weary and distressed. Now I could really appreciate Jesus’ words: “Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you.” (Matt. 11:28) I was so glad to respond and so convinced that what I had found was the truth that I quickly resigned from all my old associations with politics and unionism.

My secular work afforded me much time for study and I enthusiastically absorbed all the good things God’s Word contained, appreciating very much the fine Bible-study aids supplied by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. As I studied, I told my associates at work the wonderful blessings God had in store for mankind, and had the joy of conducting a Bible study right there in the fire station. Apparently my earnest confession of faith had an effect upon the other workers, for, while they had been inclined to ridicule before, now they listened with respect.

Up to this time I had no contact with any of the Bible Students, as Jehovah’s witnesses were called in those days. But then one day I had a visit from one when I was on duty. How glad I was to see him! I was so full of the truth that I did all the talking, having to tell him all I had learned! However, he was very understanding and easily recognized me as one who had newly found the truth.

I inquired if there were any meetings of Bible Students that I could attend. He said there were, and so I went to my first meeting where they were studying the publications entitled “The Time Is at Hand” and “The Finished Mystery.” I was entering into a new life and without any reservation I gladly associated myself with this little band of sincere Christians. What a happy day that was!

As the months passed quickly by, my mother and sister also accepted the truths of God’s Word as I had. Now the crucial time of my life had been reached. My appreciation for my heavenly Father had deepened enough for me to see the great step that I must take next. Consequently, along with my mother and sister, my baptism in symbol of dedicating my life to God followed in April 1922. We were baptized in very primitive surroundings—in a family bath in a miner’s hut!

PLEASANT ACTIVITY

Now my years were no longer weary. Instead, my heart was a fruitful field and my vocation gave me much time to preach. The experiences I had livened my spiritual outlook and I felt the urging of God’s spirit to do more. I realized that I must be a full-time servant of God. My decision was stimulated by a tract discussing the example Jesus gave of only one leper out of ten who came back and praised God when healed. I did not want to be like the other nine who did not.—Luke 17:11-18.

In all of this I could see Jehovah’s guidance. The Master said, “Go, preach” (Matt. 10:7), and my heavenly Father opened the way. How could I doubt it? My application to preach full time was sent to the Watch Tower Society and I received a reply asking me where I wanted to go. I replied: “Just where you want to send me.” It was such a rare commission and could not better be decided than through Jehovah’s visible organization on earth. I was again conscious of God’s leading.

The territory I was assigned to preach in was all of Western Australia, some thousands of square miles! I contacted another spiritual brother who was already preaching full time, and we decided to set out as did the disciples, without extra money or provisions. All the time we were conscious of God’s direction.

But we would need transportation for that vast territory. Where would it come from? I treasure this part of my story because it shows once again our heavenly Father’s care and guidance. A person who had been interested in the message of truth had left an amount of money to the local congregation to be used in preaching the good news in Western Australia. Our joy was overwhelming when we were informed that this money would be used to supply us with a van for our work! Surely this was God’s hand. So with this wonderful backing, who could dare doubt His leading? To me it was like Gideon’s fleece so well dewed from heaven.—Judg. 6:36-40.

With a good supply of Bible-study aids we sallied forth and copiously planted the seeds of truth. It was the beginning of greater things to come, for later other brothers would reap the fruitage. We covered that vast territory twice. Our zeal in the ministry was having a good effect, because it encouraged other brothers in the scattered congregations to give their lives full time to the ministry.

A NEW ASSIGNMENT

Then I received an invitation from the Watch Tower Society. Would I be prepared to take our van across the Nullarbor Plain to Sydney? That was a distance of about 3,000 miles, and that plain had no roads in those days! I had only one answer: I would do whatever Jehovah’s visible organization requested.

So through the sand tracks of the Nullarbor, with two other brothers, we went. The only mechanical casualties were broken springs and a few chassis bolts. It was more than a journey because we visited congregations along the way and gathered and recruited more full-time preachers as we went. Finally, we arrived at the branch office in Sydney. What now? First of all, I was given the privilege of representing the Society at the Melbourne convention. Then I was assigned as a traveling representative of the Society, visiting congregations and isolated brothers in Australia and New Zealand. It required much traveling.

In the years to follow I participated in street witnessing, church-door witnessing, preaching from door to door with the aid of phonographs, and the work with sound cars. At times of special preaching campaigns large numbers of full-time preachers and their partners, loyal congregation publishers, banded together to witness to specially assigned localities. Sometimes we met with opposition, but also with much joy, as up and down the land we went.

In the year 1936 I met my future wife. This has been another blessing to me, because I have had a faithful companion fighting side by side with me through the years since then. There have been times when, through ill health and toil, we had to put up a grim fight to keep an unbroken line of full-time service, but our heavenly Father has blessed our efforts right up to this moment. Surely he leads.

THE WAR YEARS

And now a change. World War II began and the conflict spread to our part of the world. As a result, persecution came. The preaching work in Australia was banned by the government. Properties were seized and the homes of brothers invaded. Literature was confiscated. So the work went “underground.”

Spiritual food in the way of printed information was hard to get, but the brothers had to be fed and God saw that they were. They were given their spiritual meat in due season, and not always by orthodox means. Jehovah filled the need and the truth filtered down through human links as a result of Christian love and service.

Toward the end of the year 1942 the war danger became serious, particularly in the northern part of Australia, as it was open to invasion. So the Society saw the need of getting the brothers away from the coastal areas. My activities now involved arranging for those living inland to open their homes to the brothers from the coast. And the brothers responded to a man! Yes, all could be accommodated. Although the invasion did not come, that activity provided a fine testimony to show that in difficult times brotherly love among true Christians abounds.

Under difficult circumstances assemblies were arranged in 1942. One was in the danger spot of Townsville in North Queensland. What about a meeting place? Halls were impossible to hire, so the brothers came with trucks and axes and foraged the bush for miles seeking building timbers. An interested person gave us a building site and we erected a hall that could seat everyone.

However, because of the critical war situation, the Society wisely decided that the assemblies throughout Australia were to be held in the homes of brothers. While we did not then use the hall, we still had our convention, the full program. Not one part was omitted. Our spiritual food, and our physical food, were relayed by the brothers from home to home!

After that, my wife and I had other assignments out west, constantly meeting up with military and police interference, being dogged with threats and interrogation. Accommodations were very hard to find, and often we were turned out of places. Yet, before the end of each day our heavenly Father always found some place for us to lay our heads, increasing our consciousness of His leading as we worked to magnify his name and purposes.

AND THEN BETHEL

Up to this time I had many changes. But then came one we did not even imagine. We were called into Bethel, the branch office of the Watch Tower Society in Australia! After sixteen years of full-time preaching and traveling, being called to the “house of God” proved to be a providential change our bodies needed. We could stay put for a while in one place. We also felt the need of the spiritual fellowship that Bethel provides. We had been giving out much spiritual food, and now we would be receiving even more spiritually.

While we were at Bethel, the government lifted the ban on our work. It was a glad day, just like returning from captivity. There was no more apprehension. However, the experiences the brothers had strengthened them and they could confidently anticipate future activities.

I have been at Bethel well over twenty years now. They have been years crowded and busy as I attended to my duties in the shipping department. I am happy to be here at Bethel, where I have experienced overflowing Christian love. I am also so grateful for its kindly discipline through the years. Also, I have been able, by God’s undeserved kindness, to attend to the duties as a school servant and as an overseer in a local congregation.

Although I travel no longer, I still have God leading me and pray for that guidance forever. My continued happiness will mean completing my ministry of praising Jehovah to the end and following wherever God decides to lead me.

There are letters of recommendation too; that is, individuals that have been the fruitage of my ministry in this harvesttime. They, too, are worshiping God at his “temple.” This has been an untold blessing to me and adds to my thanks to our Great Shepherd. I thrill when I see how copiously Jehovah is using these living letters of recommendation to share the burden of older shoulders by carrying on what we shortly will relinquish on this earth. They are reaping the seed previously sown in God’s field of cultivation, and even if I were only an onlooker I would rejoice. But thanks to Jehovah, I have had a share too.

The years from 1922 until now have seemed to me much less than “a watch during the night,” as Psalm 90:4 states. During that time I have received great blessings as I sought the leading of our heavenly Father in taking care of the Kingdom interests he gave to me. Now I want to continue to be a faithful steward to all eternity, knowing that the faithful God will lead me forever.—Ps. 31:3.

Helping Others to Find God to Be True

EVERY dedicated Christian witness of Jehovah has found God to be true. There is no question in his mind that “it is impossible for God to lie.” Has not God caused to be recorded more than seventy instances of his backing up his word with his oath so that his servants might have the utmost confidence in his word? (Heb. 6:18) With the apostle Paul, each one of these witnesses says: “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.”—Rom. 3:4.a

They let God be found true whenever there is a dispute between God and the word of men, for they have found Bible principles, Bible history and Bible prophecies to be dependable. More than that, they give the truth to God s Word by their very actions, even as Jesus did by his obediently fulfilling Bible prophecies.—John 9:4.

Having for themselves found God to be true, they have the obligation to show love of God and neighbor by helping others also to find that God is true. So they look for those with the will to believe God by going from house to house offering to study the Bible with those they meet, by offering Bible literature to passersby on busy thoroughfares and by being alert for opportunities to ‘preach the word’ incidentally. Only by engaging in such activities can they hope to locate those willing to be helped to find God to be true.

After finding those with ears willing to hear, what will the zealous Christian minister do? Place Bible literature with them and let it go at that? By no means! If we would help others to find God to be true we must keep calling back upon them time and again, pointing out to them why we know that God is indeed true, that we can depend upon his promises and his prophecies. How necessary such return visits are the 1966 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses repeatedly shows. For example, see page 198, paragraph 3.

But all this we will do only if we have a keen appreciation of our privileges as well as of the peoples’ need. And we must take a genuine interest in these persons, even as did the apostle Paul when teaching the newly interested ones at Thessalonica. Why, he says of himself and those with him: “We became gentle in the midst of you, as when a nursing mother cherishes her own children. . . . we were well pleased to impart to you, not only the good news of God, but also our own souls, because you became beloved to us.”—1 Thess. 2:7, 8.

Such a mental disposition includes much. It means being tactful, dependable, punctual, patiently teaching them, not easily discouraged because of a lack of progress or dependability on their part. Rather, let us make certain that we ourselves manifest the right appreciation, that we are dependable, that we have a keen love of the truth. If we consistently manifest these qualities in our teaching and conduct, we can hope to help others to find God to be true.

[Footnotes]

Questions From Readers

● Is it proper for dedicated Christians, who are supposed to be exemplary in morals, to imitate the extreme styles of clothing and grooming of the morally decadent world?—W. R., U.S.A.

We all have personal likes and dislikes in connection with clothing and hair styles, but it is not our personal opinion on these matters that is to light the roadway for others; the Bible does that. It says at 1 Timothy 2:9, 10: “I desire the women to adorn themselves in well-arranged dress, with modesty and soundness of mind, not with styles of hair braiding and gold or pearls or very expensive garb, but in the way that befits women professing to reverence God, namely, through good works.”

Notice that the apostle Paul does not give many details. The Bible allows for considerable variety, so we can express our own individual taste in clothing. However, he does encourage Christian women to be neat, to have “well-arranged dress,” and most women who are Jehovah’s witnesses are exemplary in that regard. He also says that they should dress “with modesty and soundness of mind.” Dress that is modest is not lavish, nor is it indecent; it does not embarrass others who observe the wearer. But, as we all know, many of the styles worn by women in the world today are not modest; they are designed for showy display and to make a woman look sexually attractive. They both embarrass and disgust clean-minded observers.

Worldly boys, too, like to wear certain types of clothing that draw attention to them. They are usually styles that have come to be associated in the public mind with groups that have low morals or are defiant of the law. But since true Christians do not keep “running with them in this course to the same low sink of debauchery,” they are wise if they avoid anything in their dress that would make it appear that they still are part of those wayward groups.—1 Pet. 4:4.

Of course, when individuals begin to associate with Jehovah’s witnesses it takes time until Bible principles really govern their thinking in all the matters of life. Even some who have been associated with the organization for many years may be careless in this regard. This is evident from the fact that nearly every week the Watch Tower Society receives letters from individuals who are shocked by the tight-fitting, excessively revealing or suggestive clothing that some who attend congregation meetings wear. Usually those who take offense are rather new in the truth, though not always. But, whether they are newer ones or not, we do not want our personal conduct to stumble them, do we? We feel as did the apostle Paul, when he wrote, at 1 Corinthians 10:23, 24: “All things are lawful; but not all things are advantageous. All things are lawful; but not all things build up. Let each one keep seeking, not his own advantage, but that of the other person.” Generally speaking, Jehovah’s witnesses are exemplary in their modesty, but it is not good to become careless about it.

The Watch Tower Society is not going to make rules on these matters. Personal tastes vary, and the Bible does not restrict a person so that no individuality may be shown in selection of clothing. Furthermore, modes of dress and the way hair is worn vary greatly from one part of the world to another. What might be acceptable in some places would land a person in jail in another. So we have to consider local custom, and at the same time be careful not to follow the example of those whose way of dress is really a reflection of their immoral thoughts.

Just as the disciple Timothy was given the counsel noted above to use as necessary in aiding the congregation in Ephesus, so today there may be times when the overseer in a congregation feels that it would be a loving thing to draw to the attention of certain ones what the Bible has to say on the subject. If so, he should do it in a kindly way. But in most cases these problems are ones that can be worked out in each household. Rather than being unduly critical of what others do in this matter, let us make it our determination to encourage them in the right way by setting a fine example ourselves.—Rom. 14:13.

Announcements

FIELD MINISTRY

Jehovah’s witnesses know that the things that God says in his Word are true, and by their ministry they endeavor to aid others to have that same conviction. (Rom. 3:4) For that reason, during December they will be calling at the homes of persons everywhere to talk to them about the Bible, and, to aid in a study of God’s Word, they will offer them the modern-English New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures and the 416-page book Life Everlasting—in Freedom of the Sons of God, with two booklets, for only $1.50.

ARE YOUR HOPES HIGH?

Life is man’s dearest possession. But life in good health and in peace is almost too much for most persons to hope for. Yet the Bible’s promise is endless life under perfect conditions for those who seek to know God’s will and do it. What God expects of us in these modern times and how we can fit our lives into the pattern of this world’s complex and conflicting demands without violating Scriptural principles are satisfyingly considered in the book Life Everlasting—in Freedom of the Sons of God. Read it with great profit by comparing it with the Bible. Send for a copy, along with the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, a modern-language edition of the complete Bible. Both together for only $1.50.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

January 1: Liberty-giving Worship. Page 712. Songs to Be Used: 48, 99.

January 8: Freedom of Worship. Page 720. Songs to Be Used: 65, 62.