The Watchtower — November 1, 1967

Something Others Do Not Have

IS THERE something in life that you cherish and that not many others have? Perhaps the affection of a marriage mate or a child? Outstanding talents? Or is it robust health? Keen eyesight? Knowledge of several languages? Or a rich and varied background? Any one of these things is a blessing indeed to those who know how to turn it to lasting benefit to themselves and others. Few could truthfully say that they enjoy all these prized things.

To some people, however, comes an opportunity when some special job, one’s qualifications for the job and the ripe time to do the job coincide. To such as are blessed with such a circumstance, it could with greater force be said that they have something others do not have.

In the sphere of spiritual things lie the greatest and most rewarding opportunities. Consider, for instance, those persons who in this critical time in history have shown themselves willing to become qualified to serve the interests of God’s established kingdom and to preach “this good news.” (Matt. 24:14) They have reached a time when opportunity to do this Kingdom preaching will soon close down. But there is still time, and they readily accept a special assignment. Surely they have something others do not have.

Stressing this very matter of having spiritual privileges that others do not have, the Watch Tower Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, speaking to the 102 students of the 44th graduating class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, on September 10, offered some excellent parting admonition. The place was Jehovah’s Witnesses Assembly Hall in New York city with 2,069 persons in attendance. Here are a few of his remarks:

“You students are actually living in a most wonderful time. You are able to have something others do not have. You are living in the ‘last days’ of this system of things. You are living at the time when the good news of God’s established kingdom must be preached before the end of this system of things comes. You 102 students, out of the more than three thousand million people living on earth today, have something others do not have. Nor will they ever get it, for we are too far along in the life of this system of things. In good time you offered yourselves willingly. You have said, ‘Here I am! Send me.’

“You have before you a unique privilege of service​—to get out to a foreign field and preach the good news and open up new lands right on down to the end of this system of things. You are being sent to thirty-four different lands. Your service to Jehovah God is because you love him and want to serve him. You love him with all your heart, soul and strength. You have something not many others have​—the opportunity of going to the ends of the earth to preach the Kingdom. Jesus foretold this would be done, and we are happy that you offered yourselves at the acceptable time. Hold on to this privilege of service; make a success of it and Jehovah will bless you.”

What a fine spirit of willingness the graduates of Gilead School have shown! It is something not many have today. In offering themselves for this service they did not first ask, ‘What are the living conditions in those missionary fields?’ No, for they put the doing of God’s will ahead of material comforts. Do you feel that way? Is your faith that strong? What are you doing to increase your privileges of serving God? Do you have the spirit of the prophet Isaiah, who said: “Here I am! Send me”?​—Isa. 6:8.

Those 102 students were not novices. They did not offer themselves out of a mere desire for adventure. They were all experienced preachers of the good news, the group averaging 10.4 years of dedicated service. They have steadily progressed, and now, in accepting a missionary assignment, they have taken another big step forward.

Illustrative of their experiences is that of one young man from El Salvador who, at the age of ten, submitted to baptism in symbol of his dedication to God. At twelve years of age he was assigned an isolated area in which to preach, where he made excellent progress and aided others to become servants of God. Now, in 1967, at the age of twenty-four, he is ready to proceed to a missionary assignment in Honduras after twenty weeks of special missionary training. He surely has something that others do not have.

Not all Christians can be missionaries, it is true. But do you have the spirit of the missionary, this willingness to seize opportunities to enlarge the scope of your service of God’s kingdom? What are you doing with a view to enjoying eventually privileges and spiritual treasures that others do not have? Can you offer yourself for full-time preaching in your own city or country?

Of course, all who have stepped out and followed the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, even though unable to engage in full-time preaching activity, have come to possess something that others do not have. Consider the matter of peace and unity, for example. In this connection, those attending the graduation of this 44th class of Gilead School heard something interesting from F. W. Franz, vice-president of the Watch Tower Society, about his recent visit to Bible lands. He told about a unique international assembly of Christian witnesses in the old section of Jerusalem, August 6. Against a background of international hatreds intensified by the recent Arab-Israeli war, Jehovah’s Christian witnesses of Jewish and Arab descent met peacefully to hear the Word of God discussed. Discourses were translated into Arabic and Hebrew. The entire audience of 176 persons certainly enjoyed something that their neighbors do not have.

What they have is what those 102 graduates of Gilead want to share with others as they spread out to the ends of the earth! Wherever they go, they will find this incomparable peace, love and unity among those who have already accepted the message of God’s kingdom, and they will be instrumental in bringing it to multitudes of persons who long to know God and to learn how to please him. Yes, those missionaries have something that others do not have.

Are There Intelligent Creatures in Outer Space?

ON THE night of October 30, 1938, there was panic in widely scattered parts of the United States. Terrified persons rushed from their homes only partially clothed. Others leaped into cars and raced wildly through crowded streets. They believed that inhabitants of Mars had landed in New Jersey and were slaying all who opposed them with a sinister “heat-ray.”

The nationwide panic was caused by Orson Welles’ now-famous radio dramatization of a Martian invasion. It demonstrated that millions of persons were willing to believe that Mars is inhabited by intelligent creatures hostile to humankind. In recent years, however, increased knowledge has conclusively confirmed that no such creatures could exist either on Mars or upon the other planets of our solar system aside from the earth.

But what about outer space beyond our solar system? Are there intelligent creatures living there? Has earth ever been visited by superior creatures from distant space?

LIFE ELSEWHERE

Reporting on a three-day gathering of some 300 scientists who met in California to discuss the subject of life in outer space, Science Digest of August 1966 observed: “The prospect of extraterrestrial life and of how to find it and communicate with it is today a dead-serious business. It’s a business engaging the attention of biologists, geologists, astronomers and space engineers. . . . Some of the most prominent Americans in those scientific fields told their plans for contributing to the great search for life elsewhere.”

Dr. Harlow Shapley, Harvard’s renowned astronomer, explained to reporters: “I’ve been a leader in the thought that there is lots of life in the universe.” He said that there is a high probability that organic life developed “on a great many planets in a great many galaxies.”

Dr. Bernard M. Oliver of Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, California, expressed the opinion: “There may be on the order of a million highly developed civilizations.”

Some time prior to the conference, Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dr. Melvin Calvin noted in a speech that “other planetary systems may be inhabited by organisms far more skillful and knowledgeable than we,” and said: “This kind of reasoning has already led to an attempt to listen with our own newly acquired radio-telescopes for messages from such organisms.” However, he admitted: “This has, as yet, been fruitless.”

It is not only in the United States that scientists have met to discuss the subject of “Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life.” In the fall of 1964 a conference on “extraterrestrial civilizations” was held at the Burakan Astrophysical Observatory, one of the foremost of such institutions in the Soviet Union.

Yes, search for life elsewhere in the universe is now being made in earnest by top scientists of the world.

PAST VISITS FROM SPACE?

The assumed prevalence of life in outer space has caused some well-known scientists to believe that earth already has been visited by creatures from space. In their recent book, Intelligent Life in the Universe, astronomers I. S. Shklovskii of Moscow’s Sternberg Astronomical Institute and Carl Sagan of Harvard argue that “it seems possible that the earth has been visited by various galactic civilizations many times.”

Contributing to the opinion that intelligent creatures from outer space have visited earth are legends regarding human contact with them. Of such a legend, Sagan writes: “Taken at face value, the legend suggests that contact occurred between human beings and a non-human civilization of immense powers on the shores of the Persian Gulf, perhaps near the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Eridu.” A huge deluge was also reported as occurring in connection with such a visitation.

What do the facts show? Is it reasonable, or scientific, to believe that “highly developed civilizations” composed of “organisms far more skillful and knowledgeable than we” populate other planets?

BASIS FOR SCIENTISTS’ BELIEF

The basis for many scientists’ believing that intelligent creatures exist on other planets is the conviction that intelligent life is the product of inevitable evolutionary processes. It is reasoned that, since there are over 100,000 million stars or “suns” in our galaxy, and perhaps some 100 million other galaxies in the universe having a similar number of “suns,” the probability that intelligent life has evolved on some of the planets circling these “suns” is so great that it can be considered an almost certain fact. But is this reasoning sound?

Even prominent evolutionists balk at such an assumption. Loren Eiseley, a well-known anthropologist, wrote: “The precise accidental duplication of a complex form of life is extremely unlikely to occur in even the same environment, let alone in the different background and atmosphere of a far-off world . . . Of men elsewhere and beyond, there will be none forever.”

The prominent paleontologist at Harvard University, George Gaylord Simpson, expressed himself similarly, concluding: “There is, then, no clear evidence of life anywhere else in our solar system. . . . The assumption, so freely made by astronomers, physicists, and some biochemists, that once life gets started anywhere, humanoids [living organisms with intelligence comparable to man’s] will eventually and inevitably appear is plainly false.”

The fact is, even life on earth did not evolve from inanimate matter. Intelligent humans are not the product of hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary development.a Instead, man was divinely created. Life proceeds only from preceding life, and Jehovah God is the source of all life, as the inspired Bible psalmist wrote: “With you is the source of life.”​—Ps. 36:9.

INTELLIGENT LIFE DOES EXIST IN SPACE!

But despite the fact that there are no “evolved” forms of life, splendid, intelligent creatures in the region of what men call “outer space” do exist! Further, contact with them has been made!

The superhuman, intelligent creatures that exist in outer space were created by Jehovah God. Their creation took place even before planet Earth was prepared for human habitation. In his Word the Bible Jehovah God speaks of the time that he founded the earth. At that time, he explains, “the morning stars joyfully cried out together, and all the sons of God began shouting in applause.” (Job 38:4, 7) These “sons of God” are powerful angelic creatures who are indeed “far more skillful and knowledgeable than we.” In the past they were often used by God to communicate with humans.

One such superhuman messenger, or angel, referred to in the Bible is named Gabriel. Some 2,500 years ago he was sent forth to communicate with the Israelite Daniel, as he explained: “O Daniel, now I have come forth to make you have insight with understanding. . . . I myself have come to make report.” Gabriel then proceeded to give the valuable information as to the exact time that the Messiah, mankind’s savior, would appear. And exactly at the end of the period indicated by Gabriel (which was sixty-nine weeks of years, or 483 years, after the command was issued to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in 455 B.C.E.) Jesus was anointed at his baptism in 29 C.E. and became the Christ or Messiah! What a reliable and important message from the invisible area of “outer space”!​—Dan. 9:22-25; Neh. 2:1-8; Matt. 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-23.

Later, when the time arrived for Jesus to be born as a human, Gabriel again was used; first to announce the birth of Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist, and then Jesus’ own birth. To John’s father, Zechariah, the materialized angel, Gabriel, said: “I am Gabriel, who stands near before God, and I was sent forth to speak with you and declare the good news of these things to you.” Then, about six months later, Gabriel appeared to the Jewish virgin Mary and proclaimed: “Look! you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you are to call his name Jesus.”​—Luke 1:19, 31.

Here are communications from the far reaches of space, yes, from one who stands right “near before God”! How much easier to understand are his messages than the coded communications radio astronomers hope to hear from space! And of what marvelous import these messages were​—preparing people for the appearance of the one through whom Jehovah God has made provision to save believing mankind!

OTHER VISITATIONS FROM SPACE

Not all earth visitations, however, have been by creatures sent by God with important communications from Him. In fact, a number of angelic sons of God rebelliously left their heavenly positions, came to earth in the form of men, and “went taking wives for themselves, namely, all whom they chose.” A disciple of Jesus Christ by the name of Jude said that these “angels that did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place [God] has reserved . . . for the judgment of the great day,” at which time they will be destroyed.​—Gen. 6:1, 2; Jude 6.

Jesus’ apostle Peter also spoke of these powerful spirit creatures, and identified the time of their earth visitation. He said it was “when the patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed.” Yes, it was just prior to the “deluge upon a world of ungodly people.” The lawless conduct of these superhuman visitors from “outer space,” and the ungodly hybrid offspring produced from their “relations with the daughters of men,” contributed greatly to the wickedness of those pre-Flood days.​—1 Pet. 3:19, 20; 2 Pet. 2:4, 5; Gen. 6:4.

Hence, there is indeed substance to the legends that some scientists have interpreted as perhaps indicating visitations from outer space. There actually were earth visits by intelligent ‘nonhuman creatures of immense powers.’ No, these were not organisms from other planets who had evolved greater intelligence than man, as some scientists may suppose, but they were disobedient angelic creations of God.

When the Deluge came, these superior creatures were able to escape by again taking on spirit form. Although restrained by God since then from materializing as humans, these lawless spirit persons are working from their base in the invisible realm in the vicinity of the earth to bring the human family to ruin.

OUR LIVES AFFECTED

Do not dismiss this idea as a fictional myth, placing it in the same category as you might a radio broadcast warning of a Martian invasion. Powerful, intelligent creatures in invisible space do exist, and that some of them are seeking your injury is no fanciful fabrication. Fully appreciating this fact, the Christian apostle Paul wrote to fellow Christians that they should “stand firm against the machinations of the Devil; because we have a fight, not against blood and flesh, but against the governments, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.”​—Eph. 6:11, 12.

During his earthly ministry Jesus frequently encountered these wicked invisible forces. On occasions they possessed the minds and bodies of unwary victims, and Jesus mercifully freed persons from their influence. (Matt. 8:16, 28-34) After his death and resurrection, Jesus sent to earth an angelic messenger who revealed the war action by which Satan the Devil “was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.” These wicked creatures in invisible space are now confined to the vicinity of the earth, and they have ‘great anger because they know that they have but a short period of time’ before they are abyssed.​—Rev. 1:1; 12:9-12; 20:1-3.

To obtain protection from their influence we need the help of God and his faithful angels. Happily, this help is promised, the comforting assurance being: God “will give his own angels a command concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.” “The angel of Jehovah is camping all around those fearing him, and he rescues them.” (Ps. 91:11; 34:7; Heb. 1:7, 14) This rescue eventually will be into a grand new system of things soon to be ushered in here upon earth. So in the not too distant future, as Jesus’ angelic messenger reported, “death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.”​—Rev. 21:3, 4.

This is not a fictional report! Rather, it is a divine message, transmitted through a mighty spirit creature from the invisible realm of outer space. It represents a wisdom far greater than man’s, for such messages are from Almighty God himself. What is more, these can be read in your own copy of the Holy Bible. How thrilling it is that we have preserved in written form communications from powerful, intelligent creatures from the region of outer space! We do well to study their messages carefully, and then to heed them.

[Footnotes]

“Let God Arise, Let His Enemies Be Scattered”

“Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, and let those who intensely hate him flee because of him.”​—Ps. 68:1.

1, 2. Whom does God have as enemies, some of these not knowing?

GOD has his enemies! Millions of people today are enemies to the very thought that there is a God, the Most High and All-powerful One, the Divine Being who is without beginning and without end, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Maker of man, the One to whom all intelligent human creatures on earth are responsible, in full dependence upon Him.

² There are other people who pretend to be worshipers of God, but who are really his enemies, most likely his worst enemies for the reason that they misrepresent him and are thus religious hypocrites. It is as one lover of God long ago said: “They publicly declare they know God, but they disown him by their works, because they are detestable and disobedient and not approved for good work of any sort.” (Titus 1:16) Hundreds of millions of others are enemies of God without their knowing it, not that they worship false gods, but because they are friends of this world: “Do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” (Jas. 4:4, NW; Dy) Beyond all contradiction, God has his enemies, unhappily for them!

3. (a) To what extent will Jehovah now arise against his enemies? (b) What is his purpose as declared in Isaiah 28:21, and of what ought this to make the enemies think?

³ The time has come for God to rise up against his enemies on earth in one final move to dispose of them entirely. Cases are on the pages of history of where God has arisen against certain enemies of the day to relieve himself of their resistance. But now, according to his declared purpose, he will arise to rid the earth of his enemies of today in one big all-embracing movement, allowing none to escape. He has not forgotten his declared purpose, although it was recorded twenty-seven centuries ago: “Jehovah will rise up just as at Mount Perázim, he will be agitated just as in the low plain near Gibeon, that he may do his deed​—his deed is strange—​and that he may work his work​—his work is unusual.” (Isa. 28:21) History shows what occurred at Perazim on that occasion, and it should be enough to make the enemies of Jehovah today think of how his destructive forces will burst forth like overwhelming waters to sweep them and their idols away.

4, 5. (a) Who witnessed what God did at Perazim and Gibeon, and what role did this one have to perform toward God’s enemies in all the land? (b) In Psalm 68:1-3, what did he pray regarding enemies and righteous ones?

⁴ A man who witnessed both what took place at Perazim and what took place later at Gibeon in the eleventh century before our Common Era was King David of Jerusalem. (2 Sam. 5:17-25; 1 Chron. 14:8-17) The clearing out of those Philistine enemies at Perazim and Gibeon did not do away completely with all the enemies of God’s kingdom that Jehovah had established there in the Middle East with King David as his visible representative on the throne of Jerusalem. There were many other enemies that yet remained in the strip of land that Jehovah God had promised to give to David’s forefather, the patriarch Abraham, a strip running from the great river Euphrates to the river of Egypt. (Gen. 15:17-21; 12:1-9; 13:14-18) Other powerful enemies, such as the Syrians, remained in this general land area and needed to be either destroyed or subdued and made vassals. King David was under God’s command to deal with these enemies in such a way as to bring fulfillment to God’s promise to give “all the land” to the descendants of his faithful friend Abraham. David must have had these enemies in mind when he wrote the opening words of Psalm 68 (verses one through three):

⁵ “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, and let those who intensely hate him flee because of him. As smoke is driven away, may you drive them away; as wax melts because of the fire, let the wicked ones perish from before God. But as for the righteous, let them rejoice, let them be elated before God, and let them exult with rejoicing.”

6, 7. (a) Whom did the psalmist David there quote, and what was that one instructed to make to represent God’s presence? (b) When and why did this one say the words quoted by David?

⁶ As there were yet unsubdued enemies in the Promised Land, the victory march of Jehovah God against his enemies was not yet completely done. Fittingly, then, King David was inspired to write and to quote the words of the man whom Jehovah God used when starting this victory march, namely, the prophet Moses, in the sixteenth century B.C.E. Moses at that time found himself in the wilderness of Sinai in Arabia, along with the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel and also with a “vast mixed company” of non-Israelites. (Ex. 12:38; Num. 11:4) The whole encampment was made up of millions of people. In the spring of the previous year Jehovah God had miraculously delivered all these from Egypt, even destroying the armies of the Egyptians under Pharaoh when they tried to overtake the fleeing Israelites as they crossed through the dried-up bed of the Red Sea. In the third month thereafter the Israelites and the “mixed crowd” reached Mount Sinai, and there Jehovah God made a national covenant or contract with them.

⁷ According to the law of this national covenant a sacred tabernacle was erected for God’s worship. Into the innermost room of this tabernacle was put the golden ark of the covenant to represent God’s presence there. Whenever the Israelites struck tents and moved to the next place, the ark of the covenant would be carried on the shoulders of priests to that next stopping point. Thus God and his people were on the march to take possession of the Promised Land. There were many enemies in the way before ever they would get complete possession of the whole land. In recognition of this, Moses as mediator between God and the nation of Israel called upon God to take the lead, just as Numbers 10:35, 36 tells us in these words: “It would occur that when the Ark would set out, Moses would say: ‘Do arise, O Jehovah, and let your enemies be scattered; and let those who intensely hate you flee from before you.’ And when it would rest, he would say: ‘Do return, O Jehovah, to the myriads of thousands of Israel.’”

8, 9. In Psalm 68:4-6, what did King David call upon his people to do respecting God?

⁸ Jehovah’s victories and all his merciful treatment of his people deserved to be celebrated with song in praise to Him. The psalmist King David, who was a singer and a musician, called upon his people, the twelve tribes of Israel, to do so:

⁹ “Sing you to God, make melody to his name; raise up a song to the One riding through the desert plains as Jah, which is his name; and jubilate before him; a father of fatherless boys and a judge of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God is causing the solitary ones to dwell in a house; he is bringing forth prisoners into full prosperity. However, as for the stubborn, they have to reside in a scorched land.”​—Ps. 68:4-6.

10. How, in Israel’s case, had God shown himself to be (a) a father to fatherless boys and (b) a judge of widows?

¹⁰ No nation or people on earth today could have a better ruler than the ancient nation of Israel had in its God, their invisible King. Their whole nation had been prisoners unwillingly and undeservingly in pagan Egypt; but Jehovah God desolated the land of Egypt with ten miraculous plagues and brought them out into prosperity, which reached its fullness by the time of King David. In Egypt the nation of Israel had been like a fatherless boy, but Jehovah proved himself to be a father to them, calling the whole nation “my first-born.” (Ex. 4:22) When he brought forth Israel his firstborn from oppression under the God-defying Pharaoh, all the firstborn males of Egypt were slain. God’s people down there were like a helpless widow with no one to plead for her in court, and he stepped in like the righteous Judge of the Supreme Court and saw that the afflicted nation got justice, a liberation. He came to be as a husband to his people.​—Isa. 54:5; Jer. 3:14; 31:31, 32.

11. How did God deal with the “solitary one” in contrast with the “stubborn” ones, and with what name did he ride along?

¹¹ Treated as dangerous slaves in Egypt, the Israelites were like solitary persons in an unfriendly wilderness, with no home to which to go. But Jehovah brought them out and settled them as in a house, in the Promised Land. Those who showed themselves his enemies and stubbornly resisted him, he made to reside without the refreshing blessings of divine favor as in a land scorched by the sun. His name is Jah, which is an abbreviation for the name Jehovah. He made known his name Jehovah to his people down in Egypt as they and their faithful forefathers had never before known it. (Ex. 15:1, 2; 17:16) With this name, upon which he had heaped fame, he rode through the desert plain as he led his people through to the land of promise. Raise up a song to Him!

THE MARCH FROM SINAI TO ZION

12, 13. As the psalmist David reminds us, what things can God move to show his power as Creator, and how did he demonstrate this at Sinai?

¹² It is nothing for this Almighty God Jehovah to move heaven and earth to show that he is the God of creation and all its laws. He displayed his power to do so at Mount Sinai in Arabia, where he brought his people in the third month after delivering them from slave-driving Egypt. Before ever he declared the Ten Commandments from atop Mount Sinai, he caused terrifying demonstrations in earth and sky, to impress the people of Israel with the fact that their Lawgiver was no mere puny human creature, but was the God of heaven and earth. If the inanimate things of creation are moved at his invisible presence, why should not his intelligent human creatures who behold his wondrous works of creation also be moved? He can move heaven and earth to carry out his will. The divine quality of power to do this the psalmist King David called to mind and mentioned, to Jehovah’s praise, as he said:

¹³ “O God, when you went forth before your people, when you marched through the desert . . . the earth itself rocked, heaven itself also dripped because of God; this Sinai rocked because of God, the God of Israel. A copious downpour you began causing to fall, O God; your inheritance, even when it was weary​—you yourself reinvigorated it. Your tent community​—they have dwelt in it; with your goodness you proceeded to make it ready for the afflicted one, O God.”​—Ps. 68:7-10.

14. (a) How did God refresh his inheritance when it was weary? (b) How long was his people a “tent community,” and what resistance did they at last meet?

¹⁴ The people of Israel had been taken out from the pagan nations to be God’s own exclusive possession, and he called it his inheritance. (Deut. 32:8, 9) It had been afflicted in Egypt; and when it reached the foot of Mount Sinai in the wilderness, it was doubtless weary, like a thirsty land. But there, by giving them the Ten Commandments and all the other laws of his covenant and by establishing his pure organized worship among them, Jehovah God began causing a downpour of spiritual blessings. This was spiritually reinvigorating to the people of his inheritance and strengthening to them like food. They found that they had to live, not by physical food alone, but by every word proceeding out of God’s mouth. They spent a long time​—forty years—​as a tent community in the wilderness and outside the borders of the Promised Land. But in the closing year Jehovah brought them to the borders of the “land flowing with milk and honey.” Then the local kings began offering resistance. What now was there to do? Listen:

15, 16. As noted in Psalm 68:11, what part did the women of Israel have in connection with God’s victories by means of their men?

¹⁵ “Jehovah himself gives the saying; the women telling the good news are a large army. Even the kings of armies flee, they flee. As for her who abides at home, she shares in the spoil. Although you men kept lying between the camp ash heaps, there will be the wings of a dove covered with silver and its pinions with yellowish-green gold. When the Almighty One scattered abroad the kings in it, it began to snow in Zalmon.”​—Ps. 68:11-14.

¹⁶ In ancient times women did not take part in battle action, but when the victorious troops returned they streamed forth from their homes to celebrate and to declare the good news with dance, song and music. Miriam, the sister of Moses: led the Israelite women in dance and song after their God Jehovah overthrew the Egyptian armies in the Red Sea. (Ex. 15:20, 21) Jephthah’s daughter came out to meet him with dance and music when he returned from his victory over the enemy Ammonites. (Judg. 11:34) When King Saul in company with his general David returned from victory over the Philistines, the women came out of all the cities to greet them with music, song and dance. (1 Sam. 18:6, 7) The women were not to keep silent on such occasions. It was their men who had been used in the victorious fighting under God, and they were entitled to join in the victory celebration and give the glory and credit for the victory to God, whose will their men had done.

17. (a) Why are the women of today obligated to tell the “good news”? (b) What was the “saying” that God gave to ancient Israel, and what was obedience to the “saying” to furnish?

¹⁷ Women of that kind are not enemies of God. Grand as the good news was that the womenfolk had to tell back there in the time of which the psalmist David wrote, the women of this modern day have still grander good news to tell and thereby prove that they are, not enemies, but friends of God. They get the good news from God, and it is their right and obligation to tell it. Back there in the days of the young nation of Israel, ‘Jehovah himself gave the saying.’ What was the saying? As the Israelites approached the Promised Land to wrest it out of the hands of God’s enemies, His “saying” to them would be to go forward courageously and take possession of it, executing with weapons of war God’s enemies who occupied the Promised Land without God-given right to it. The obedience to this command or “saying” on the part of the fighting men of Israel was to have what outcome? The God to whom the prayer was raised, “Do arise, O Jehovah, and let your enemies be scattered,” guaranteed that the outcome would be victory! It would result in “good news” that the women would be moved to celebrate with music and dance and to tell out with song.

18. (a) In what sense could God be said to give the “saying” to the womenfolk? (b) In what way did it begin to “snow” in Zalmon when God scattered enemy kings?

¹⁸ By fighting for his people and giving them victory, Jehovah would be giving the womenfolk something to tell. He would be supplying them the theme of their song of celebration; he would be giving them the good news. In this sense he could be spoken of as giving the saying. At the victory celebration the women would tell how the pagan kings of the enemy armies had fled from before Jehovah God, when he arose against them in battle. The women would tell that, when God the Almighty scattered the enemy kings in the way of Israel, the dead bodies of the enemy armies covered the field like snow, as in Zalmon; or, possibly, that, to grant victory to his people, he had called for a miraculous snow in Zalmon. The victorious fighters for God would return home after stripping the slain enemy, and they would share the spoil with their women who had to be left home to take care of the house.

19. How, though the men lay among camp ash heaps, was there to be a dove covered with precious metals?

¹⁹ It may have been that, although God’s executional armies had to lie down between the ash heaps during the campaign, there was a dove made of precious metals, with feathers covered with silver and its pinions with yellowish-green gold, to take home as a trophy of Jehovah’s victory. But then, too, the nation of Israel was called Jehovah’s “turtledove.” (Ps. 74:19) From this standpoint, although the men of this turtledove nation of God had had to lie between the ash heaps of the encampment, during a campaign of fighting against God’s enemies, they would come forth like a turtledove, strong of wing and clean in appearance, gleaming as if it were covered with silver and yellowish-green gold. Thus God would not give his turtledove nation into the hands of His foes.

20. What is it that the enemies keep doing since 1914, so that Jehovah must arise against them at Armageddon?

²⁰ The force of this poetic account of God’s dealings ought not to be lost on God’s enemies today. These enemies try to stand in the way of God’s accomplishing his purpose with regard to his people, his bringing them successfully into the righteous new order that he has promised. The “time of the end” as foretold in his Word has come upon the nations of this world, beginning in 1914 at the end of the Gentile Times, “the appointed times of the nations.” They refuse to get out of power during this “time of the end” and peacefully give way to God’s exercising sovereignty over the earth of his creation. So it becomes necessary for Almighty God to oust them. He must arise against them in battle. This he will do at the battlefield of Armageddon. In the meantime the enemy nations continue to block the progress of God’s people as they work at advancing the earthly interests of God’s kingdom.

21. As in David’s case, how did the enemies try to keep Jesus Christ from reigning, and with what success?

²¹ The kingdom is not that of ancient David in earthly Jerusalem, but that of the promised Son of David, Jesus Christ, who was born into the family line of David through the Jewish virgin Mary by a miracle of God. The enemies tried to keep David from ruling as king on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, but they were disgracefully defeated when God arose against them. Likewise the enemies tried to keep the Son of David, Jesus Christ, from ruling as king, but they too bowed in defeat. They killed Jesus Christ outside Jerusalem on the day that the Jewish passover lamb was killed, but on the third day Almighty God raised him from the dead as a glorious immortal spirit Son. The Son of David then ascended to his heavenly Father. There Jehovah God laid him as a royal Stone in the heavenly Zion, to begin ruling there in God’s due time, that is, in 1914. Then God would begin to make all the Gentile nations a footstool under the feet of the Son of David.​—Luke 21:24; Isa. 28:16-21; Ps. 110:1, 2; Acts 2:34-36; Heb. 10:13.

22. To what have the Gentile nations put up a resistance since 1914?

²² Since 1914 the Gentile nations have refused to recognize the end of the “appointed times of the nations” and have resisted being made the footstool of the reigning Son of David. But their stubborn resistance will prove to be in vain at Armageddon.

SERVING NOTICE ON THE NATIONS

23, 24. (a) What was the “saying” that Jehovah gave in 1914? (b) What did Jesus foretell to occur after 1914, and does this come under the mandatory “saying”?

²³ As Psalm 68:11 long ago said, “Jehovah himself gives the saying.” At the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 Jehovah God gave the saying for the ouster of the enemy nations on earth. They are in their “time of the end.” (Dan. 11:40; 12:4) As regards what was to happen during this “time of the end,” the Son of David, Jesus Christ, foretold, not only world war, famines, pestilences, earthquakes and distress of nations, but also the proclaiming of the good news of a new government, the rightful government of the earth, namely, God’s kingdom. After he predicted the persecutions upon his faithful followers, Jesus said: “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. 24:7-14.

²⁴ Thus God is serving notice upon the enemy nations. He has given the “saying” for such enemies to be subdued, made like a footstool under the feet of the Son of David. This mandatory “saying” includes also the serving of notice on them before He arises against them at Armageddon. Has this notice been served?

25. (a) Serving notice has meant what for the Kingdom witnesses and what for God? (b) Likewise the birth of the Kingdom meant what, and what kind of news resulted?

²⁵ Yes, particularly since the year 1919. This has meant a fight on the part of Jehovah’s Kingdom witnesses since that year. But these Kingdom witnesses have prayed: “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered.” In answer, God has cleared the way for them to serve notice upon the enemy nations by preaching the good news that God’s kingdom was established in the hands of the Son of David in 1914. This has meant a series of victories for Jehovah, making it possible that today the Kingdom notice is being served on the nations in 199 lands and in 164 languages. The very birth of God’s kingdom in the heavens meant a victory by Him over Satan the Devil and his demons. (Rev. 12:5-12) The expanding of the work of serving notice about the Kingdom upon more and more nations has meant further victories for Jehovah God. Such divine victories serve as good news that should be told to the peoples.

26. (a) How is it true today that “the women telling the good news” are a large number? (b) Why is the word “army” a good word for this band of women?

²⁶ Those spiritual victories of God till now have been celebrated world wide. God’s “saying” has not been in vain. As a result of his proceeding to carry it out victoriously, “the women telling the good news are a large army.” (Ps. 68:11) The reported facts prove that. In April of this year of 1967 there were all around the globe 1,154,079 serving notice concerning God’s kingdom and announcing His deeds in his victorious march to Armageddon. That is a large company of celebrators. And if we examine into the personnel of this throng of celebrators, we shall find that the large majority of them were women. Hence out of those 1,154,079 celebrators the number of the womenfolk would make up a “large army.” And “army” is a good word for this band of women who are “telling the good news.” Why? Because they are fighters under God, whose name is Jah, or Jehovah. Many of them may have to mind the house as a mother, wife or daughter, but they are sharing in the spoils of God’s victories through his Kingdom witnesses on earth. In going from house to house preaching, these women are as a whole doing more than all the menfolk.

God’s Ascent on High Above All Enemies

1. What measure of interest do men show toward God’s kingdom, and what do they envy about it?

IF MEN, for the most part, will not celebrate the established kingdom of God by means of the heavenly Son of David, Jesus Christ, a “large army” of women will do so. Men are largely interested in the politics of this world. They prefer human politics and nationalism to the kingdom of God, which reigns from the heavenly Mount Zion. (Rev. 14:1-5; Heb. 12:22-28) The political governments of mankind envy the place that the Holy Bible, God’s Word, assigns to the heavenly kingdom of the Son of David. They ignore its existence and its right to rule all the earth. They consider themselves bigger, higher, than the kingdom of God. They resent being rejected by God. Their envious attitude compares with that poetically attributed by the psalmist David to the mountains of the region of Bashan, when these compared themselves with Mount Zion, where Jerusalem was located.

2, 3. How did Bashan figure as to height, and what mountain did Jehovah show he had chosen as the seat of government, and how?

² Says the psalmist David: “The mountainous region of Bashan is a mountain of God; the mountainous region of Bashan is a mountain of peaks. Why do you, O you mountains of peaks, keep watching enviously the mountain that God has desired for himself to dwell in? Even Jehovah himself will reside there forever. The war chariots of God are in tens of thousands, thousands over and over again. Jehovah himself has come from Sinai into the holy place. You have ascended on high; you have carried away captives; you have taken gifts in the form of men, yes, even the stubborn ones, to reside among them, O Jah God.”​—Ps. 68:15-18.

³ The mountainous region of Bashan may be said to reach its crest in Mount Hermon, over nine thousand feet high. It is now thought that the “lofty mountain” on which Jesus Christ was transfigured before his disciples Peter, James and John was Mount Hermon. (Matt. 17:1, 2) Despite the height of the mountainous area of Bashan, Jehovah God chose Mount Zion as the height on which to establish the capital city of King David and to have his holy ark of the covenant located there, near David’s palace. (2 Sam. 6:12-16) That is why he enabled King David to capture the stronghold of Zion and move his seat of government from Hebron to Mount Zion. (2 Sam. 5:4-10) The capture of Zion was a victory for Jehovah God; and when his ark of the covenant was moved up there by King David, it was as if Jehovah was beginning to reign in Zion over the nation of Israel. On Mount Zion King David was said to sit on “Jehovah’s throne” as his visible representative.​—1 Chron. 29:23.

4. (a) In David’s time, how did Jehovah ascend on high? (b) How did Jehovah carry away captives and take “gifts in the form of men”?

⁴ Mount Zion reaches only about twenty-five hundred feet above sea level. When Jehovah, as represented by his ark of the covenant, moved there, he was ascending on high, accompanied triumphantly by tens of thousands of war chariots, as it were, seeing that Mount Zion had been gained for his earthly kingdom by war. David his anointed king was given victory over the enemies in the Promised Land. Many captives were taken, many of these stubbornly resisting God’s chosen people in taking over the land. It was as though Jehovah himself was taking the captives and returning to Mount Zion in triumph. Many of these were available as slaves; and with these captives gifts could be made in the form of men, especially to the Levites to do the menial work at the tabernacle of God’s worship. (Ezra 8:20) In this way Jehovah did take “gifts in the form of men.” Also, he started residing in the Promised Land, even though stubborn enemies had to be subdued.

5. (a) Where did Jehovah lay Jesus Christ as the Royal Stone, and how? (b) In regard to that Royal Stone, how do the rulers of Christendom compare with the Jewish rulers?

⁵ Earthly Mount Zion was where David himself reigned. Because Jehovah’s only-begotten Son Jesus Christ as a man was the Son of David, the heavenly height on which Jehovah has enthroned this glorified Son may be likened to Mount Zion. There in the celestial Mount Zion is where Jehovah God laid Jesus Christ as the Royal Stone after he had resurrected him from the dead, all of this in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 28:16. (1 Pet. 2:5-7) But when it came to accepting Jesus Christ the Son of David as the rightful Heir to David’s kingdom because of his human descent from David, the Jewish rulers of nineteen centuries ago cried out to Governor Pontius Pilate, who served Emperor Tiberius Caesar: “We have no king but Caesar.” (John 19:15) However, by God’s resurrection power this Son of David began ruling on the heavenly Mount Zion. Jehovah chose this symbolic mountain as the seat of government instead of the earthly Mount Zion or any mountain peak of Bashan. But, like the Jewish rulers, the kings of Christendom do not want any heavenly seat of government over them; they prefer their own lofty governmental mountains on earth.

“GIFTS IN THE FORM OF MEN”

6, 7. In his letter to the Ephesians, how does the apostle Paul prove that Psalm 68 is prophetic?

⁶ This is no imaginary way of our looking at things. It is the fulfillment of prophecy. The apostle Paul took Psalm 68 as prophetic. In writing to the Christian congregation in ancient Ephesus, Asia Minor, he quoted from Psalm 68:18 and explained how this prophecy had its fulfillment in Jesus Christ and his congregation of disciples. Thus, in Ephesians 4:7-13, Paul wrote:

⁷ “Now to each one of us undeserved kindness was given according to how the Christ measured out the free gift. Wherefore he says: ‘When he ascended on high he carried away captives; he gave gifts in men.’ Now the expression ‘he ascended,’ what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions, that is, the earth? The very one that descended is also the one that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might give fullness to all things. And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelizers, some as shepherds and teachers, with a view to the training of the holy ones, for ministerial work, for the building up of the body of the Christ, until we all attain to the oneness in the faith and in the accurate knowledge of the Son of God.”

8. (a) What meaning has been given to the fact that Paul applied Psalm 68:18 to Jesus Christ? (b) In David’s day, how did Jehovah do the things described in Psalm 68:18?

⁸ The way that the apostle Paul here explains the fulfillment of Psalm 68:18 does not mean or say that Jesus Christ is Jehovah God. But in the Hebrew Bible is not Psalm 68:18 addressed to Jehovah? Yes. But in the typical fulfillment of these words, in which King David took part, it was not Jehovah himself that literally ascended on Mount Zion and took his royal seat there and pitched his tent of worship there. In a direct way it was David, the anointed ruler and warrior who represented Jehovah, that did so. So, as represented in David, Jehovah God did these things. Although David himself did these things, David looked upon Jehovah God, who was the responsible One, as doing these things. So, then, David addressed Jehovah God as being the Doer of these things. The like procedure is true also in the fulfillment today.

9. (a) In the complete fulfillment of Psalm 68:18, how did Jehovah descend and ascend? (b) How did Jesus Christ “ascend far above all the heavens”?

⁹ In this complete fulfillment it was not Jehovah himself who “descended into the lower regions, that is, the earth.” It was Jehovah’s only-begotten Son who actually descended, even going into the depths of Sheol or Haʹdes, his corpse being laid in a burial place carved in a rock. (Isa. 53:9; Matt. 27:57-61; Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:25 32) Jesus Christ ascended out of the earthly grave, but not by his own power. (How could a dead man resurrect himselfa or, harder still, make himself alive in a spiritual resurrection?) Repeatedly the inspired Scriptures say that it was God who raised Jesus Christ, the Son of David, from the dead. Neither was it in a literal way Jehovah God who ascended from earth back to heaven, to the heavenly Mount Zion. It was the resurrected Son of David, Jesus Christ, who, on the fortieth day from his resurrection, ascended back to heaven. In the heavenly Mount Zion he was laid as a precious Cornerstone by Jehovah God. Jesus Christ “ascended far above all the heavens” in that Jehovah God gave him a place higher than that of all other heavenly creatures, a position higher above them than what he had had before.​—Phil. 2:5-11.

10. (a) When quoting Psalm 68:18, why did Paul use the pronoun “he” instead of “you”? (b) How was it that “he carried away captives,” and what did he do with them?

¹⁰ It is notable, therefore, that, when the apostle Paul quoted from Psalm 68:18, he did not address it to Jehovah God and use the personal pronoun “You” but said “he.” Paul knew that on the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E. the ascended Jesus Christ received from Jehovah God the holy spirit and poured it out upon his waiting disciples down in Jerusalem, about one hundred and twenty of them. “He carried away captives,” not by resurrecting the pre-Christian faithful servants of God and taking them to heaven with him, inasmuch as on the day of Pentecost the apostle Peter himself said that even the pre-Christian King David had not ascended to heaven but still lay buried in the land of Judea. (Acts 2:1-34) The “captives” that Jesus carried away and that he, like David, turned over to God’s service, were those one hundred and twenty in Jerusalem upon whom he poured out holy spirit. About three thousand more “captives” were added to his victory procession that same day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:37-42) Under those circumstances he could, as Jehovah’s representative, give gifts in men.

11. How was it, then, that Jehovah both took and gave “gifts in the form of men”?

¹¹ By Jesus, whom he resurrected, Jehovah God had “taken gifts in the form of men.” (Ps. 68:18) By the resurrected Jesus he could also ‘give gifts in men’ on the day of Pentecost and afterward.

12. (a) What “gifts in men” did Jesus Christ bestow, and upon whom? (b) Of what fact was the bestowal of such “gifts in men” tangible evidence?

¹² The “gifts in men” in the form of the twelve apostles, some of whom were also Christian prophets, were markedly in evidence on that day of Pentecost in 33 C.E. (Acts 2:37, 42, 43) These apostolic and prophetic “gifts in men” were promptly accepted by the other captive disciples. But there were other “gifts in men” that the victorious Christ at God’s right hand in heaven gave to his congregation of disciples on earth, namely, evangelizers, spiritual shepherds and teachers. Dedicated, baptized, spirit-filled men served prominently in these capacities in the activities of the first-century Christian congregation, according to the Bible record. That was why the apostle Paul spoke of “gifts in men” in Ephesians 4:11 and Acts 20:28. (Acts 21:9; 2 Tim. 4:5) When such “gifts in men” were bestowed upon the newly formed Christian congregation in Jerusalem, it was tangible, visible evidence that the resurrected Jesus Christ had victoriously “ascended” to the heavenly Mount Zion, where Jehovah God laid him as a precious “foundation cornerstone.” On him his congregation is built up.

13. (a) What “gifts in men” does the Christian congregation have today, and particularly since when? (b) How did the nations of Christendom reject God’s Royal Stone, but what did God do to him?

¹³ Even today the true Christian congregation has such “gifts in men.” We do not have the apostles and Christian prophets in person, but we do have them with us in their inspired writings in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Furthermore, we of the true Christian congregation have the other “gifts in the form of men” in the capacities of evangelizers, spiritual shepherds and teachers, particularly since the year 1919. By waging the first world war of 1914-1918 the nations of Christendom proved that they rejected God’s kingdom and rejected the Royal Stone to whom he had assigned a place on the heavenly Mount Zion, the rightful seat of government for all the earth. They climaxed this rejection of God’s Royal Stone by voting in 1919 in favor of a League of Nations, mainly nations of Christendom. But the Royal Stone whom the political builders, backed by the religious clergy, thus rejected, Jehovah God confirmed in his exalted position on the heavenly Mount Zion, in a complete fulfillment of Isaiah 28:16. Jehovah God made that fact apparent by freeing his people in 1919 from Babylonish bondage and then giving “gifts in men.”

14. (a) How does Jehovah now reside among the “stubborn ones”? (b) What do the willing “captives” become, and how does Jehovah reside among them?

¹⁴ The “stubborn” resisters of God’s victorious kingdom are really accomplishing nothing against it. At Armageddon, when Jehovah God rises up against them as at Mount Perazim and at Gibeon, he will utterly destroy them by means of his exalted Royal Stone, Jesus Christ. Meantime God still resides as King among even the “stubborn,” and in spite of them. To his Royal Stone, Jesus Christ, on the heavenly Mount Zion Jehovah says: “Go subduing in the midst of your enemies.” (Ps. 110:1, 2) But those who accept “this good news of the kingdom” and willingly become “captives” of the victorious Jehovah God and his Christ become his “men of good will.” (Luke 2:14) He builds them up spiritually as a Christian congregation by means of “gifts in the form of men,” namely, evangelizers, shepherds and teachers. By his holy spirit Jah God resides among such willing captives.

NONE OF HIS ENEMIES TO ESCAPE

15, 16. In the light of what David said in Psalm 68:19, 20, how only can the escape of those chosen for the heavenly kingdom from extinction be explained?

¹⁵ Today, forty-nine years after the close of World War I in 1918, as we look back we can express for ourselves the words of the psalmist David, together with his strong assurances for the future: “Blessed be Jehovah, who daily carries the load for us, the true God of our salvation. . . . The true God is for us a God of saving acts; and to Jehovah the Sovereign Lord belong the ways out from death. Indeed God himself will break the head of his enemies in pieces, the hairy crown of the head of anyone walking about in his guiltiness. Jehovah has said: ‘From Bashan I shall bring back, I shall bring them back from the depths of the sea, in order that you may wash your foot in blood, that the tongue of your dogs may have its portion from the enemies.”’​—Ps. 68:19-23.

¹⁶ During this “time of the end,” and under the worldwide persecution that was foretold to come upon Christ’s faithful followers, just how the willing “captives” of the victorious Jesus Christ ever escaped being wiped out of existence is a wonder. It can only be explained by the fact that Jehovah is a “God of saving acts” and to him “belong the ways out from death.” In this connection we must remember that from 1918 onward till Armageddon God cut short the days of the tribulation upon the worldly nations and kingdoms. He did this, as Jesus Christ foretold, for the sake of his chosen ones, in order that some flesh might be saved on earth. (Matt. 24:21, 22) This cutting short of the tribulation has worked out for the salvation of even the anointed remnant of those whom God has chosen for the heavenly kingdom with Christ.

17. What other willing “captives” today have reason to bless Jehovah for acts of salvation?

¹⁷ Not only these, but also the “great crowd” of other willing “captives” on earth have reason to bless Jehovah as a “God of saving acts,” “the true God of our salvation,” the One “who daily carries the load for us.” Exactly this is what the “great crowd” now do, as foretold in Revelation 7:9, 10.

18. In what way will Jehovah bring them back from Bashan and the depths of the sea, and to what kind of treatment?

¹⁸ Jehovah God will perform no “saving acts” for his enemies. He will arise against them at Armageddon, to break their heads in pieces, to break the hairy crown of those who are guilty before him and who keep on adding to their guilt. At the destruction of religious Babylon the Great and in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Armageddon these enemies will try to escape to places high and low, hiding in places seemingly beyond reach of anybody. If, as it were, they should go into the mountainous region of Bashan and onto its high peaks, from there the inescapable Jehovah God will bring them down and back to punishment. If, even in atomic-powered submarines, they should try to hide themselves in the depths of the sea, the unavoidable Jehovah God will bring them back. To what? To face slaughter, that their lifeblood might be poured out. This will enable the true followers of the Son of David, in effect, to wash their foot in the blood of their enemies. No decent burial will be given such detestable enemies, but, if we have any Biblically despised dogs in our service, God will let them lick up the blood of the enemies against whom God has arisen.

TRIUMPHAL PROCESSIONS

19. What victory processions have the “stubborn” enemies seen, and what tribes take part in these processions?

¹⁹ Already in these exciting times before the war of Armageddon the stubborn, unyielding enemies have seen the victory processions of Jehovah’s people. These are celebrating jubilantly the notable victories that Jehovah God has already gained by the Son of David since 1914, when the “time of the end” began. Today no tribes of natural Israel may be identified, such as the tribes of Benjamin, Judah, Zebulun and Naphtali, since Jewish genealogical records were lost during the last half of the first century of our Common Era. But we do have a remnant of the “twelve tribes” of spiritual Israel, who will stand with the Son of David on the heavenly Mount Zion. (Rev. 7:4-8; 14:1-5; Gal. 6:16) This small remnant of spiritual Israelites have joined in these modern-day victory processions in honor of victorious Jehovah God and his Son of David. It is like what David described concerning his own day:

20, 21. (a) To what did such victory processions proceed, and why were they called the processions of God? (b) Why did David call Jehovah “my God, my King”?

²⁰ “They have seen your processions, O God, the processions of my God, my King, into the holy place. The singers were in front, the players on stringed instruments after them; in between were the maidens beating tambourines. In congregated throngs bless God, Jehovah, O you who are from the Source of Israel. There is little Benjamin subduing them, the princes of Judah with their shouting crowd, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali. Your God has laid command upon your strength. Do show strength, O God, you who have acted for us.”​—Ps. 68:24-28.

²¹ In ancient Israel each victory of Jehovah God became the reason for a victory procession on the part of his chosen people, who would march to his sanctuary or central place of worship. Processions of such kind were called God’s processions, as if he were heading the procession to his sanctuary. By victory for his people he had confirmed his kingship over them, for which reason the psalmist David spoke of Jehovah God as “my King.” Hence, he deserved to be publicly praised with music and song, with men and women participating from all the tribes of Israel.

22. (a) Who was the “Source of Israel” from whom the Israelites came? (b) Why could God lay command on their strength, and why did he have to show his own strength?

²² The singers and the women beating tambourines could sing: “In congregated throngs bless God, Jehovah, O you who are from the Source of Israel.” (Ps. 68:26) The earthly source of all twelve tribes of Israel was, of course, the patriarch Jacob, surnamed Israel; but their real Source as a chosen nation was Jehovah God, and him they should bless when in congregated throngs as on the occasion of a victory procession. From him had come the nation’s strength, and so he rightly laid command on its strength for his service. But for the nation to succeed and triumph, He must show his strength and must act for them against the enemies.

23. (a) Since 1919, how have the Gentile nations seen the processions of “my God, my King”? (b) Who have taken a large part in such?

²³ In modern times, since 1919 of our Common Era, Jehovah’s Christian witnesses have had such victory processions in honor of the victories of their God Jehovah. Unitedly, “in congregated throngs,” they have gone forth bearing witness to his name and kingdom both publicly and from house to house, as the apostles of Jesus Christ used to do. (Acts 5:42; 20:20) They have done this under the invisible leadership of Jehovah God, whose name they bear. In this way the people of all Gentile nations have seen the processions of the God and King of Jehovah’s witnesses. In such processions of witness work the large section of dedicated women witnesses has gained a prominence that cannot be overlooked or left unmentioned.

24. In that connection, where have “congregated throngs” actually been seen?

²⁴ In connection with these modern victory processions, O what vast “congregated throngs” have been seen at the circuit and district and national and international assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses! Note, for example, the public meeting in New York city on Sunday, August 3, 1958, when the talk entitled “God’s Kingdom Rules​—Is the World’s End Near?” was delivered by the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society to 253,922 hearers!

25. (a) When will the greatest victory celebration be held, and why? (b) For what will the strength of those in the procession be commanded?

²⁵ Ah, but what a victory procession there should be world wide after Jehovah arises against his enemies at the battlefield of Armageddon and gains his greatest victory of all time! O how the favored survivors of the war of Armageddon will celebrate his eternal victory with song and music, blessing him who is the Source of life of his people! In response to their fervent prayers he will there have shown his strength for the vindication of his universal sovereignty and his holy name. He will also have acted for their deliverance. In appreciation of their indebtedness to him they will continue to respond to the commands that he lays upon their physical and spiritual strength. During the thousand years of Christ’s reign that follows they will joyfully use their strength in telling about Jehovah’s acts and glorious victory to the thousands of millions who are resurrected from the dead.

REBUKES FOR ALL BRINGING NO GIFTS BEFORE ARMAGEDDON

26, 27. Why, as set out in Psalm 68:29-35, is it advisable to make a right decision now?

²⁶ The years remaining now before God arises against his enemies at Armageddon are critical years, making very advisable a right decision on the part of everyone. Rebukes will be administered at Armageddon, and for one to be rebuked there will mean one’s destruction. Very fittingly the psalmist David recommended a right decision as the wise thing for our momentous time, saying:

²⁷ “Because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings will bring gifts to you yourself. Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds, the assembly of bulls, with the calves of the peoples, each one stamping down on pieces of silver. He has scattered the peoples that take delight in fights. Bronzeware things will come out of Egypt; Cush itself will quickly stretch out its hands with gifts to God. O you kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, make melody to Jehovah— . . . to the One riding on the ancient heaven of heavens. Lo! He sounds with his voice, a strong voice. Ascribe strength to God. Over Israel his eminence is and his strength is in the clouds. God is fear-inspiring out of your grand sanctuary. The God of Israel he is, giving strength, even might to the people. Blessed be God.”​—Ps. 68:29-35.

28. In what sense have “Egypt” and “Cush” furnished gifts to Jehovah God?

²⁸ Who, then, is “King of the nations,” yes, “the King to time indefinite”? It is Jehovah God, the Universal Sovereign, who is superior to all the kings of the nations. (Jer. 10:7, 10) Even his Son Jesus Christ is superior to them all. (Rev. 17:14; 19:16) The kings of Christendom as well as of pagandom refuse to recognize Jehovah’s supreme kingship. But they have been obliged to make contributions to Jehovah’s worship as carried on in his spiritual temple, of which Jesus Christ is the Foundation Cornerstone and his faithful disciples are “living stones.” (1 Pet. 2:5-9) Since Jehovah’s worshipers, his Christian witnesses, have determinedly obeyed God as Ruler rather than men, the earthly rulers have been obliged to make legislation and render court decisions that have shown favorable regard for the faithful worshipers of Jehovah at his temple. In this fashion, as it were, bronzeware gifts have come out of the old enemy nation of Egypt; and Cush or Ethiopia, another enemy, has been quick to hand over gifts to Jehovah God.

29. (a) How should people of the “kingdoms of the earth” sing to the Rider of the heavens? (b) How will the “beast of the reeds” and the “assembly of bulls” be rebuked, and why?

²⁹ Now is the time for peoples of all the “kingdoms of the earth” to listen to the Kingdom message proclaimed by Jehovah’s Christian witnesses and join in singing praises to Jehovah, the One who rides triumphant, as on a war chariot, upon the highest heavens from ancient times onward. The mighty rulers of the earth, like the “wild beast of the reeds,” the hippopotamus, or like the “assembly of bulls,” with their subjects following them like “calves of the peoples,” will be rebuked by Jehovah God at Armageddon, because they offer him no “pieces of silver” as tribute but keep “stamping down” that which belongs to him. They “delight in fights” with him and his faithful worshipers. In answer to our prayer to arise against such opposers, Jehovah God will scatter them and destroy them and deliver his persecuted people. Like loud thunder, his “strong voice” will sound out in rebukes that will forever put all opposing enemies to silence.

30. (a) Why should we ascribe strength to God? (b) How is his “eminence” over his people?

³⁰ Do we really believe that Jehovah God has the strength to do this? It is vital for us to ascribe such strength to him. To this very day he has given strength and might to his remnant of spiritual Israel and to their dedicated earthly companions to do what he has commanded them to do as his witnesses during these perilous days before Armageddon. To him we must give, to him we must ascribe the strength for what we ourselves have been able to accomplish because of the marvelous victories that he has given us. Among us he is accorded the highest place of “eminence,” no other gods or earthly rulers being recognized as superior to him or even as high as he is. His “eminence” as Universal Sovereign is plainly over us, because we obey him as Ruler and preach his kingdom by the Son of David world wide.

31. How is his strength “in the clouds”?

³¹ Truly “his strength is in the clouds,” in the skies, higher than outer space, for he is the Almighty One. At Armageddon he will display his omnipotence above men and devils, to vindicate his universal sovereignty. Ought we not to bless him as God? Yes, both now and forevermore!”b

[Footnotes]

How Clean Must a Government Be?

CAN a government that has only a few flaws, if not in its constitution, in some of its members, stand? We know that no great power of past history has continued to stand. They have had flaws that caused them to crack and fall in ruins. Britain, which now, along with the United States, is the Seventh World Power, has not yet stood as long as the Sixth World Power Rome, and it is already having grave difficulties. We can find flaws in all of history’s past man-made governments.

Consider how flawless a government would have to be to remain. It governs millions of subjects, each with his own problems and pressures. The government has to do with all aspects of their lives, from home and family to employment, business and other matters of economy, city planning, traffic, rights of individuals as well as organizations, their limitations, and so forth. Now, one slightest wrong directive, one wrong decision or wrong example has the effect of interfering with the intricate interwoven society under it. One injustice or the smallest breakdown in enforcing a law can easily start a chain reaction that will multiply the matter millions of times. We have experienced the far-reaching and devastating results of a little bit of corruption or of wrong examples in government in our times. When disrespect for government is caused by the rulers, it grows until that government can no longer stand.

NO HOPE FROM HUMAN SOURCES

For this reason the government that rules the earth and that is able to remain must be from a perfect source, with perfect rulers in whom no flaw can arise. This definitely rules out all man-made governments. It leaves only one source, a superhuman power that is righteous.

The Creator of the earth has certainly made all things that man needs and has arranged them for the welfare and happiness of man on earth. But man has brought in imperfection and corruption. In our issue of July 15 we discussed how the Bible book of Revelation points out that the chief disturber of all mankind, the one responsible for man’s deviation, will be put out of the way, as well as all those who desire to do wickedness. Then what kind of a government will exist? How can it be without flaws?

JEHOVAH REQUIRES PERFECTION

First of all, the Creator, the Almighty God Jehovah, is a perfectionist. This is not to say that he is a demanding God, having no mercy toward the shortcomings of imperfect men. No, but when he brings about his completed purpose toward the earth, everything has to be perfect, and of necessity the government that rules it will have to be perfect, for he cannot look upon and tolerate forever in his universe that which is bad.​—Hab. 1:13.

Turning back now to Revelation, chapter 22:1, 2, we find in the first two verses a description of Jehovah’s provisions for mankind on earth to have life. These Re 22 verses 1, 2 were discussed in the previous issue of this magazine. In Re 22 verse three Jehovah tells us just how right the conditions will be during the thousand-year reign of Christ, which will restore mankind to the liberty of the sons of God: “And no more will there be any curse. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his slaves will render him sacred service.”​—Rev. 22:3.

The rule of the “holy city,” New Jerusalem, is here referred to. It is God’s heavenly government of blessing for the peoples of all the nations. ‘No curse’ would mean that all those in the New Jerusalem will have God’s complete favor, for they will be like fruitful ground that comes under no curse. (Heb. 6:7, 8) Thus the New Jerusalem will have God’s unchanging blessing. As this blessed New Jerusalem will govern the earth, all mankind will get the benefit of this blessed condition of New Jerusalem.

FLAWLESS PRINCIPLES

How can we be sure that the government of the New Jerusalem will be flawless, not only in its governmental principles, but even in its membership? Well, the heavenly Revelator says that the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city. The location of the throne of God is a sanctuary, which means that it is sacred, set aside for a holy purpose or use. It is clean and no taint of unrighteousness whatever can exist there. The seraphs around Jehovah’s heavenly throne cry out: “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of armies.” The triple emphasis on the word “holy” denotes the superlative cleanness and righteousness of Jehovah.​—Isa. 6:2, 3.

The Lamb is there too, and even during the sojourn of this One on the earth while surrounded with men having sin and imperfection, it could be truly said that he was like “an unblemished and spotless lamb.” (1 Pet. 1:19) Of him it is written that he was “loyal, guileless, undefiled, separated from the sinners” and that he has become “higher than the heavens.”​—Heb. 7:26.

So the holy city, the heavenly government, will be so fruitful, so productive of good works and good results in God’s service, that it will never come under his curse like ground that has been blessed with rain from heaven and yet brings forth thorns and thistles. (Heb. 6:7, 8) God’s throne and the throne of the Lamb could be only where righteousness and judgment are found. (Ps. 89:14) Jehovah will be there, literally present, and this ensures the everlasting righteousness of God’s government. In Bible times Jerusalem was called the city of “Jehovah’s throne,” and the law of the nation was God’s perfect law. But imperfect men sat on the throne and the law was imperfectly administered. Even that government endured for hundreds of years. However, that earthly throne was only typical and pictorial of the actual, far greater throne of Jehovah in the heavens.​—1 Chron. 29:23; Matt. 5:34, 35; Rom. 7:12.

INCORRUPT RULERS

Who are the “slaves” spoken of in Re 22 verse three who will ‘render God sacred service’? These are also members of this government. Well, one might say, with the membership of the government expanded, might not that bring in a flaw? No, for the Bible says they will be God’s slaves, not slaves of the Devil, and they will render sacred service to God. The heavenly Revelator tells us: “And they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” (Rev. 22:4) (In the days of the apostle John, earthly slaves were marked, commonly on the forehead, so that all could plainly see to whom they belonged.) Their righteous actions show they serve God, not unrighteousness. And when God puts his name on one’s forehead, this certainly indicates his approval. They are God’s special purchased property, his devoted slaves.​—1 Pet. 2:9.

But slaves of God can have flaws, can they not? Yes, but not these slaves. Giving special assurance of the righteousness of the governmental members, numbering 144,000, standing with Jesus Christ the Lamb on the heavenly Mount Zion, is the fact that “no falsehood was found in their mouths; they are without blemish.” (Rev. 14:1-5) Moreover, the strongest of recommendations for them is given here, in that “they will see [God’s] face,” for this proves, on the basis of Jesus’ own words, that they have to be pure in heart. (Matt. 5:8) Therefore, as his slaves they will carry out in pureness of heart all of his will with complete righteousness and justice.

Since New Jerusalem is a heavenly government, it will not be dependent on the sun for light, nor on the moon or any lamplight, because no night will be there. This is by reason of the fact that Jehovah God will shed light upon them, and he is all light, with no darkness. He is always at the zenith of his ability and willingness to shower down his loving-kindness and blessings. No “political science” will be consulted as to running this government. The heavenly government will be always full of truth and light, constantly awake and able to enlighten mankind.​—Rev. 22:5; 1 John 1:5-7; Jas. 1:17.

NO SUCCESSORS

There is no need for such governmental authorities to have successors and there will be no such, for ‘they will rule as kings forever and ever.’ While they exercise special rule and attention toward this earth during the thousand-year reign of Christ, the end of the thousand years will not end their reign, for, with God’s Son Jesus Christ, they will continue as the capital organization of God’s universe forever.​—Rev. 20:6.

Encountering imperfection every day and everywhere we turn, some might say that this is too good to be true. For this reason Jehovah God patiently and empathetically strengthens our faith by what he caused the apostle John, who beheld this marvelous vision, to write next: “And he said to me: ‘These words are faithful and true; yes, Jehovah the God of the inspired expressions of the prophets sent his angel forth to show his slaves the things that must shortly take place.’”​—Rev. 22:6.

NOT AN IDEA OF MEN

The truthfulness of the Revelation is not lessened or weakened just because an angel was used to deliver the vision and a mere man, John, wrote it down. Jehovah God can use angels and men as his instruments just as a man can use pen and ink. Just as Jehovah caused the faithful Hebrew and Christian prophets to write down things in the Bible, so also he inspired this Revelation to John. None of the things written by inspiration have ever been disproved. Rather, there is a wealth of evidence of Bible accuracy and fulfilled prophecy that stamps the Bible as the enduring Word of the true and Almighty God.a​—1 Pet. 1:24, 25.

Those who are serving God as his slaves on earth should and must be wholeheartedly interested, because it is for these that the Revelation was given so that they might be informed in advance. No excuse exists for any of them not to know what they should be doing or what to expect in the future.

CLEAN GOVERNMENT NEAR

The things in Revelation are to take place in a short period of time from 1914 forward, and now in this fifty-fourth year of that time period the things to happen are very shortly ahead indeed. The highly important thing to expect is revealed next: “And, look! I am coming quickly.” (Rev. 22:7) This coming is not Jesus’ coming into Kingdom power, which took place in 1914 C.E. and which was described earlier in Revelation (chapter 12), but it is the last previously mentioned coming, namely, his “coming as a thief” in connection with the war of the great day of God the Almighty, with which Har–Magedon is connected. (Rev. 16:14-16) This will be the day that Jesus said will come as a snare “upon all those dwelling upon the face of all the earth.” He warned: “Keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man.”​—Luke 21:35, 36.

Revelation tells us that there is no need to live in dread of that day: “Happy is anyone observing the words of the prophecy of this scroll.” (Rev. 22:7) The scroll tells us just what to do and what to expect, and our happiness is ensured by reading and acting now on the words in this scroll. This will be a sure and safe guide, and all things will turn out happily for him who follows it.​—Compare Revelation 1:3.

EXAMPLE OF GOVERNMENTAL INCORRUPTNESS

John, in exile on the Isle of Patmos, was greatly strengthened by having the vision and being able to write it down for us to read so as to understand the things happening in our day. He says: “Well, I John was the one hearing and seeing these things. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel that had been showing me these things. But he tells me: ‘Be careful! Do not do that! All I am is a fellow slave of you and of your brothers who are prophets and of those who are observing the words of this scroll. Worship God.’”​—Rev. 22:8, 9.

Here is an example of the incorruptness that we can be sure of in God’s heavenly government. Even the angel messenger, who was sent as a slave of God through Jesus to bring this revelation, would not let any homage be paid to him. Even though he had this great privilege and the superior power and glory that an angel has with relationship to a man on earth, he would not take any of the praise of a man or even let John worship God relatively through him. John, one of the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, will be one of the 144,000 members of God’s government. This was a fine example set before him by the angel, repeating a caution already given earlier, in Revelation 19:10. It makes us happy to know this; it makes us happier still to read the words of this scroll and get ourselves in harmony with it without delay.

The Bible points out that those who will be with Christ in the heavens as members of God’s heavenly universal government will reign as kings and priests with him. They will be immortal, incorruptible. (Rev. 20:6; 1 Cor. 15:53, 54) Then there will be no flaw, for God has placed them there because of their proved loyalty and has made them in the image of his Son Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:49; Phil. 3:21) Furthermore, even the angels, who will be slaves of God and of Christ, serving under this government, are also of unquestionable moral integrity and will carry out the orders of the government in completeness and perfection. They will see that the righteous earthly princes serving under the heavenly Kingdom carry out pure righteousness on earth.​—Ps. 45:16; Isa. 32:1.

A HAPPY OUTLOOK

Then the directives given by the government will be right, the judgments pure and holy in every way, through and through, spiritually, morally and physically. (Ps. 19:7-9) There will be no wrong directive; no flaw will be taken up by any of the earthly subjects and multiplied among them. There will be no injustice, no failure to enforce God’s clean, righteous laws, no cause for disrespect of his government. That is how clean God’s everlasting government will be and how clean it must be to endure. Perfect confidence in the government will pervade mankind. How the eyes of the people under it will shine! How happy are those now who have this faith, and how happy all mankind will be to sing: “Happy is the one who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, of the sea, and of all that is in them, the One keeping trueness to time indefinite. Jehovah will be king to time indefinite, your God, O Zion, for generation after generation. Praise Jah, you people!”​—Ps. 146:5, 6, 10.

[Footnotes]

An Abundance of Holidays

Probably there is not a year that goes by in which you do not have your schedule or activities interrupted by some holiday you forgot. Had you lived in ancient Rome during the days of Julius Caesar your problems with an overabundance of holidays would have been worse. In the 40’s B.C.E. the Romans had over one hundred holidays each year, often involving religious offerings and sacrifices. How the hardworking Christians must have stood in contrast after 33 C.E., since the only day during the year that they celebrated was the annual observance of Christ’s death!.​—Luke 22:19.

Have You Attended the Meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses?

LAST year Jehovah’s witnesses conducted, on the average, 802,473 Bible studies with other persons, in most cases once each week. By far the majority of these studies were held with persons in their own homes, and at their own convenience. Since many of the studies are with families of several members, probably well over a million persons are regularly sharing in these weekly Bible discussions. Perhaps you are one of such persons.

If so, have you not found it a real pleasure to become more familiar with your Bible? Undoubtedly these studies have caused you to appreciate more fully the inspired Bible counsel regarding the way in which we should live. How pleasant life can be when humans listen to the Word of God! Possibly your own marriage ties have been strengthened by considering the Bible’s instruction for husbands “to be loving their wives as their own bodies,” and for wives to “be in subjection to their husbands.” (Eph. 5:21-25, 28, 33) Perhaps, too, the Bible’s counsel on rearing children, and on how children should respect their parents, is exercising a beneficial effect in your family.​—Eph. 6:1-4.

But besides becoming familiar with such excellent Bible guidance and instruction, consider the marvelous hope for the future that your study of God’s Word has opened before you. No longer are you perplexed regarding the distressing world conditions that have plagued humankind during the past generation. You have come to see in present events the fulfillment of Bible prophecies that show we are living in the final days of this system of things. (Matt. 24:3-14; 2 Tim. 3:1-5) Your study of the Bible has revealed that we are right at the portals of a new system of things in which “righteousness is to dwell.”​—2 Pet. 3:13.

As a result of studying the Bible with Jehovah’s witnesses, your confidence in God and his promises has undoubtedly grown. Your faith has become stronger in such Bible prophecies as that recorded by the apostle John: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more.” (Rev. 21:3, 4) What marvelous blessings God has in store for those who serve him!​—Compare Isaiah 11:6-9; 65:21-24.

OBLIGATION TO ASSEMBLE TOGETHER

However, in order to become recipients of these blessings it is necessary to abide by the divine requirements of God’s Word, including the one at Hebrews chapter ten, verses twenty-four and twenty-five, which says: “Let us consider one another to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together, as some have the custom, but encouraging one another, and all the more so as you behold the day drawing near.” This, therefore, puts you under obligation before God to associate with fellow Christians at congregation meetings.

Perhaps, though, this divine requirement raises a question, for besides enjoying a home Bible study with Jehovah’s witnesses, you may also be a member of one of Christendom’s religions. So you might wonder: “To fulfill my Scriptural obligation, with whom should I associate? With Jehovah’s witnesses at their local meeting places, or with the church that I have attended in the past? Does it really make any difference?” How can you determine what course is pleasing to God?

The common view is that one should attend the church of his choice​—which one that might be is generally considered unimportant. Yet, from your study of the Bible, is it not clear that God does not approve of all religious practices and teachings? In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus Christ himself said: “Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.”​—Matt. 7:13, 14.

Obviously, then, not all religious paths please God. “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens,” Jesus said, “but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will.” To those who cling to false religious practices and teachings, Jesus says: “Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matt. 7:21-23) But how can you determine which religion is really doing God’s will and is thus the proper one with which to associate?

DETERMINING WITH WHOM TO ASSEMBLE

In order for a religion to do God’s will, is it not essential that it teach right doctrine about Him? It certainly is! Well, then, does the church with which you have associated teach the trinity, namely, the doctrine that, according to the popular Athanasian Creed, asserts: “The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet there are not three Gods, but one God. . . . And in this Trinity . . . the whole three persons are coeternal together, and coequal”?

If a religion teaches this unscriptural doctrine, it does not direct you to the true God. It does not teach you to worship the Father of Jesus Christ, the one to whom Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours take place,” and of whom Jesus said, “The Father is greater than I am.” (Luke 22:42; John 14:28) Jesus clearly showed that he and his Father are not “coequal” and “coeternal,” as the trinity asserts. You may not think that the church you have attended teaches this doctrine, yet it is more than likely that it does, since the World Council of Churches, which includes most major religions of Christendom, requires belief in the trinity as a basis for membership. Is your church a member of that Council?

Another thing to consider: What does the church with which you have associated teach regarding man’s hope for the future? If, like other religions of Christendom, it proclaims that the hope of future life is based upon the possession of an immortal soul, how could that religion be true in view of the Bible’s plain statement: “The soul that is sinning​—it itself will die”? (Ezek. 18:4) These matters are the very core of religion. Is it not clear, then, that if the concept of God and the hope that is held out are wrong, the religion itself must also be false?

Jesus Christ emphasized the necessity of proper knowledge to travel the cramped road to life, saying: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3) Since right knowledge about God and his Son is essential to everlasting life, it is evident that remaining a part of a religion that teaches false doctrines will put one on the broad road leading to destruction.

Can you, therefore, fulfill the Bible requirement to assemble with fellow Christians, as recorded at Hebrews 10:24, 25, by associating with persons who are participating in unscriptural worship? Of course not! We have discussed these matters very frankly because your life is involved. Yes, the proper worship of God is a life or death matter!

MEETINGS OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

It is for this reason that Jehovah’s witnesses are desirous of helping you to obtain an accurate knowledge of the Bible. If they regularly conduct a Bible study in your home it is because they want to see you gain everlasting life. But as was noted, assembling with others who are taking in this life-giving knowledge is also necessary.

You are familiar with the question-and-answer method followed in your home study. Well, on a midweek night, usually it is Tuesday at 8 p.m., Jehovah’s witnesses gather together in a nearby private home and have a similar one-hour discussion. The groups are small, generally around a dozen persons, affording opportunity for all to share in a lively consideration of a Bible topic. If you enjoy the study in your home, you are certain to derive much pleasure from attending this weekly discussion.

Another meeting of Jehovah’s witnesses that you will enjoy attending is held on Sunday at the local Kingdom Hall. On that occasion a qualified speaker gives a fifty-five-minute talk on an appealing Bible subject. In the weeks to come some of the discussions to be heard are on how archaeology confirms the Bible record, the value of prayer, proof that the Bible does not contradict itself and many other topics of interest to a Bible student. Also on Sunday, a one-hour Bible study based on material found in a recent issue of the Watchtower magazine is conducted. This, too, follows the lively question-and-answer method. At these meetings you are sure to learn things that will help to equip you to serve God acceptably.

The same is true during the one-hour Theocratic Ministry School meeting held at the Kingdom Hall​—usually on a Thursday or Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. Recently an informative chapter-by-chapter study of the entire Bible was completed, taking more than three years. Now the students give their talks on specific Scriptural topics, which are assigned in advance. On the same evening there is a one-hour Service Meeting during which practical suggestions are given on how to share God’s Word with other persons, as Jesus and his apostles did. You will enjoy attending these sessions and receiving the upbuilding instruction from God’s Word.

At none of these meetings will you be expected to offer comments unless you volunteer by raising your hand. Nor are collections ever taken up. Attending these meetings does not mean that you are one of Jehovah’s witnesses, but it does give you an opportunity to see what the organization is like. You will find that persons who assemble there are persons who want to please God, just as you do. You will feel right at home among them.

Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity cordially to invite you to attend the meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses. By associating with them you will be able to fulfill the Bible requirement ‘not to forsake gathering together’ with fellow Christians for worship.​—Heb. 10:24, 25.

Build Godly Personalities on the Right Foundation

AMONG the various kinds of activity to which the Scriptures liken the work of Christian ministers is that of building. “If anyone builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, . . . each one’s work will become manifest, . . . because it will be revealed by means of fire.”​—1 Cor. 3:12, 13.a

The right foundation upon which the Christian witnesses of Jehovah are to build is Jesus Christ, who is not only man’s Ransomer but also earth’s rightful King, now reigning. And what are they to build on this foundation? Christian personalities, even as the context shows. With what are these Christian personalities to be built? With that which is pictured by the noninflammable materials of gold, silver and precious stones, namely, godly qualities.​—1 Cor. 3:9-11.

Yes, we are living in very critical times, and if one who is a servant of God does not want his building work to be destroyed by the fiery tests and opposition all about us, he must build with the right materials. He must build these materials, or Christian qualities, into those whom he is teaching. These qualities are heavenly wisdom and spiritual discernment, appreciation of integrity and devotion to Bible principles, respect for all God’s laws and commandments, faith in his written Word, loyalty to God’s visible organization and an unbreakable attachment to His kingdom. Building such godly qualities into persons makes them strong, able to resist the fiery trials that Satan and his agents bring against all those who would serve Jehovah God.​—2 Tim. 3:1-5.

For Jehovah’s witnesses to build these godly qualities into persons with whom they are studying the Bible, what must they do? First of all, they must set a good example. They must have and display these godly qualities themselves, at no time stumbling those with whom they are studying by careless, indiscreet or selfish conduct. (Phil. 1:9-11) Further, they must stress the importance of these qualities and show how these can be applied to one’s own life. Thus if they are studying with a person who is proud, or one who uses profane language, or one whose conduct tends toward uncleanness, they must tactfully, as opportunity affords, point out to that person the need for humility, for clean speech and purity of conduct. More than that, they must impress upon the minds of these persons how they can cultivate godly personalities, by regular study of God’s Word, by meditating on it, by prayer and by association with God’s people.

In all such ways Jehovah’s witnesses build Christian personalities on the foundation of Jesus Christ. They help sincere persons to acquire godly qualities that will enable them to withstand all the fiery tests that may come upon them, all to Jehovah’s glory, to their eternal salvation and to the lasting joy of those who have helped them.

[Footnotes]

Questions From Readers

● Is it proper to use Isaiah 40:22 to prove that the Bible teaches that the earth is round, Isaiah’s words being written at a time when men thought the earth was flat? Some have expressed the thought that the word “circle” could refer to something circular but flat.​—J. L., Denmark.

Isaiah 40:22 reads: “There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth.” When this text says that God sits above the circle of the earth, this harmonizes with the fact that the earth is circular, viewed from all directions, but that also makes it globular in form. The Hebrew word hhug here is defined in A Concordance of the Hebrew and Chaldee Scriptures by B. Davidson as “circle, sphere.”

This same Hebrew word for circle is found in Job 22:14, where the New World Translation says of God: “On the vault of heaven he walks about.” Now, we know that the vault of heaven as seen from the earth is hemispherical, or like a half globe. The other half of the hemispherical vault of heaven extends below the earth upon which we stand and hence cannot be seen directly by us. In harmony with this fact, when Isaiah 40:22 says that God sits above the circle of the earth, then the word “circle” here is in the same Hebrew sense as that found in Job 22:14.

Thus it follows that the word “circle” in Isaiah 40:22 must mean something that is rotund, just as the appearance of the sky viewed from the earth is rotund and like a vault.

● If the Bible teaches that heaven is “up” (Acts 1:9), does it not convey an ignorance of earth’s rotation and the structure of the universe?​—C. P., U.S.A.

The Bible account of Jesus’ ascension states that while his disciples “were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud caught him up from their vision.” They continued looking into the sky until advised otherwise by the angels, who informed them that “Jesus who was received up from you into the sky will come thus in the same manner as you have beheld him going into the sky.” (Acts 1:9-11) Some have raised objections to the account of the ascension, saying that it conveys the primitive concept that heaven is “up” from the earth. However, to satisfy such critics would, in effect, require the virtual elimination of the words “up,” “above,” and so forth, from human language. Even in this space age, we still read of astronauts orbiting the earth as having “ascended to 739 nautical miles” above the earth (New York Times, September 16, 1966), whereas we know that technically they “moved out or away” from the earth’s surface that distance.

Interestingly, the account of the angelic delegation that chorused the announcement of Jesus’ birth reports that, when their mission was completed, “the angels had departed from them into heaven.” (Luke 2:15; compare Acts 12:10.) Thus Jesus’ ascension, while beginning with an upward movement, as related to the earthly locality where his disciples were, may have thereafter taken any direction required to bring him into his Father’s heavenly presence. It was an ascension, not only in a directional sense, but, more importantly, as to the sphere of activity and level of existence in the spirit realm and in the lofty presence of the Most High God, a realm not governed by human dimensions or directions.​—Compare Hebrews 2:7, 9.

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FIELD MINISTRY

The true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are builders. They build up Christian personalities on the right foundation of Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 3:11-13) They know that among the problems that hinder some from being built into Christian personalities is failure to understand why God has permitted wickedness. Some persons, stumbling over this issue, have become easy prey for such teachings as evolution. These persons need help, and Jehovah’s witnesses have the means to help them​—a recently released, delightfully illustrated book that discusses both evolution and God’s permission of wickedness. This enlightening volume entitled “Did Man Get Here by Evolution or by Creation?” they are offering to all sincere seekers of truth during November, along with a booklet, for only 25c.

WILL MAN EVER BE FREE?

The greatest cry in the world today is the cry for freedom. Everyone wants to be free: youth, the workingman, racial minorities, nations. Yet the stronger the struggle, the more men seem to be enslaved. How is freedom to be realized? Will the shackles that have enslaved mankind for centuries ever really be broken? What hope does the future hold? Read the stimulating and encouraging hardbound book Life Everlasting​—in Freedom of the Sons of God. It is only 50c. Send now and receive free the timely booklet Healing of the Nations Has Drawn Near.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

November 19: “Let God Arise, Let His Enemies Be Scattered,” ¶1-19. Page 649. Songs to Be Used: 16, 116.

November 26: “Let God Arise, Let His Enemies Be Scattered,” ¶20-26, and God’s Ascent on High Above All Enemies, ¶1-12. Page 653. Songs to Be Used: 114, 3.

December 3: God’s Ascent on High Above All Enemies, ¶13-31. Page 658. Songs to Be Used: 90, 2.