The Watchtower — March 15, 1968

What Kind of Future Can You Give Your Child?

PARENTS want the best for their children—a really pleasant future. And it is often observed that they labor hard to give them a comfortable life. Yet, despite such efforts, youngsters frequently are disrespectful. At home they often talk back to their parents; in school they get into trouble; and soon they are involved with the police. They live for “good times.” Their chief concern often is to satisfy their appetite for “kicks” or “thrills.” A frightening number are doing this through experimentation with sex, the use of marijuana, LSD, and even more potent drugs.

Last June many parents were shocked by a report of the President’s Crime Commission, which estimated that 40 percent of the male children living in the United States will be arrested for a nontraffic offense sometime in their lives. “For boys living in cities,” the Commission reported, “the figure is on the order of 60 percent.” The number of children turning delinquent truly is staggering! In the United States alone, over two and a half million youngsters in the ten-to-seventeen age-group already have police records!

While boys are the principal offenders, many girls too are throwing off all moral restraint. This is particularly apparent in their sexual promiscuity. Teen-age girls in the United States account for about 100,000 illegitimate births a year. And some experts estimate that at least two out of five teen-age brides, perhaps one of every two, are pregnant on their wedding day! How many youths have had their futures ruined!

Nevertheless, parents usually are surprised when they learn about the criminal or immoral activities of their children. A prominent New York City jurist observed: “How many parents have stood before me, after I have sentenced their children to prison, and asked, ‘Judge, what did I do that was wrong? I sacrificed for him, gave him a good life, put him through school . . . ’”

WHAT IS WRONG?

The trouble generally does not lie with what these parents did, but, rather, in what they failed to do. Dr. Benjamin B. Wolman, professor of psychology at Long Island University, recently emphasized this failure of many modern parents. He said: “I’m tired of wealthy people who give their children cars, but no moral values, coming to me and saying they don’t know what’s wrong with their youngsters. What’s wrong is that the parents are leading hollow, empty, shallow lives and not giving their children anything to hold onto. . . . The abdication of parents seems general.”—New York Times, October 19, 1967.

If children are to enjoy a happy future they need to have inculcated in them a set of proper values, deep spiritual convictions, and something worth while for which to live and work. It is a tragic misconception of many modern parents to think that simply giving their youngsters expensive material comforts will prepare them for a pleasant future. True, providing material needs is necessary, and is a responsibility that Almighty God places upon parents, yet this is only a part of a parent’s responsibility.—1 Tim. 5:8.

PROPER INSTRUCTION VITAL

Whether parents appreciate it or not, providing a child wholesome instruction is as important to his future as furnishing him physical nourishment and other material needs. This is because such instruction will assist a youngster to form values and convictions to which he can hold, and which will sustain him in a proper course as the child grows older. Therefore, the inspired Bible proverb wisely encourages parents: “Train up a boy according to the way for him; even when he grows old he will not turn aside from it.”—Prov. 22:6.

But what instruction is it vital that you give your child? Which counsel will put him in the way for future happiness? Is it enough to teach your child an appreciation for fine literature and beautiful things? Is it sufficient to cultivate in him good manners and proper habits, such as to be neat, orderly, punctual, and so forth? Although this is important, it is not enough.

This has so often been illustrated in recent years. Many parents who have inculcated these things in their children have received the shock of learning that their youngsters have become involved in the use of drugs, or other criminal activities. Or they were horrified to find out that their daughters had become pregnant as a result of illicit sex relations. Obviously something vital was missing in the teaching that these parents gave their children.

The trouble was that they failed to provide them anything really substantial to hold onto. They did not give them proper moral guidance. Nor did they inculcate within them a love of God, and a love of truth and righteousness. If you desire to assure your child a happy future, this vital instruction cannot be neglected.

Notice how God’s Word the Bible emphasizes the importance of imparting spiritual values and moral guidance to children, saying: “You must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your vital force. And these words that I am commanding you today must prove to be on your heart; and you must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.”—Deut. 6:5-7.

What are “these words” that God’s people were urged to teach their children? First of all, that they were to love their Creator, Jehovah. But “these words” also included the commandments that the prophet Moses had just reiterated, namely, that one should not bear false witness, should not steal, should not murder, should not commit adultery, and so forth. (Deut. 5:6-21) Youngsters were to be taught by their parents that these are laws of God, and that their very life and happiness depend upon obedience to them.

It is similar instruction that Christian parents need to provide for their children today if they are to ensure them a happy future. (Matt. 22:37; 1 Cor. 6:9, 10; Rev. 21:8) As a parent, you must impart to your child a love of truth and righteousness, and instill within him spiritual values and a firm faith in his grand Creator. And notice how regularly this instruction should be given—‘when you sit in the house, when you walk on the road, and when you lie down and when you get up.’ In other words, you should at all times have in mind building within your youngster godly qualities.

LOVING DISCIPLINE NECESSARY

In order to guard your child’s future effectively, this program of instruction must also include loving discipline. Training up a child according to the way for him involves more than simply telling the child what is the right way. He must be molded or motivated so that he actually pursues the proper course. This requires, not only frequent repetition of the instruction, but also correction, and even, at times, sanctions for disobedience.

Children are not naturally inclined to do the right thing. It is as the inspired Bible proverb says: “Foolishness is tied up with the heart of a boy; the rod of discipline is what will remove it far from him.” (Prov. 22:15) It is entirely a mistaken belief that children should be allowed to do what pleases them, without any restrictions. Therefore, a parent who is truly concerned about his child’s future will act in harmony with the inspired recommendation of Proverbs 29:15: “The rod and reproof are what give wisdom; but a boy let on the loose will be causing his mother shame.”

Really, the administering of reproof is evidence that a parent loves his child and wants a happy future for him, as God’s Word makes plain: “The one holding back his rod is hating his son, but the one loving him is he that does look for him with discipline.” (Prov. 13:24) The loving parent desires to see his child do the correct thing, and so he takes the necessary steps to direct his child in the right way. Proper discipline is invariably beneficial, as the Bible explains: “To those who have been trained by it it yields peaceable fruit, namely, righteousness.”—Heb. 12:11.

Contrary to popular opinion, children appreciate it when their parents give them guidelines and set reasonable restrictions on their activities. Some of them may complain at times, but they learn to love and respect parents who show a genuine interest in their welfare. Deep in their hearts they desire rules to govern their activities. For then they know what they can do and what they cannot do, and it relieves them of what are often difficult decisions. One teen-ager whose parents imposed a set of guidelines said: “It’s taken a terrific load off my mind.”

Although it may sound strange, modern youths sometimes yearn for stricter guidelines. For instance, a group of New Jersey high school students took exception to one rule laid upon them by parents, namely: “Reasonable hours for beginning and ending parties.” The students unanimously agreed that it was too vague. “Our parents,” said one youth, “should let us know exactly what time to be home.”

Permissive parents who allow their youngster free rein, thinking that they are being kind and will win his friendship, are sadly mistaken. Their child is likely to turn on them in anger or hatred, as did one young girl, after finally confessing to being pregnant: “Why didn’t you stop me? You knew what was going on. You let me stay over there at Jimmy’s when his mother and father were away. You just didn’t care what I did.” If you care about your child’s future, you will administer loving discipline.

PROTECTION FROM MORAL POISON

A prominent feature of discipline should be directed toward guarding your child from the present-day flood of moral poison. If you are to protect his future, you cannot afford to let his mind become filled with the sex, violence and immorality glamorized in modern literature and over radio and TV. You must take protective measures, even as you do to safeguard your child’s physical health.—Eph. 5:3-5.

For example, if you allowed dirt to accumulate on your dishes and silverware, germs would multiply, and a child could easily get sick if permitted to eat from these things. So you are careful to keep your dishes and silverware clean, is that not true? Well, polluted information can have an equally bad effect. It can sicken a child’s mind and influence him to pursue a course of crime and immorality that can ruin his future. Nevertheless, permissive parents today commonly allow their children to devour moral rot, as a Texas police chief noted: “We are careful to see that the silverware and glasses are sterilized, but we let their minds feed on garbage.”

Even though other parents allow their youngsters to consume this filthy diet, you need not. (Phil. 4:8) Furthermore, you need to protect your children from the association of such worldly youths. (1 Cor. 15:33) An effective way is to be a frequent companion of your child, sharing regularly with him in recreation and work.

REGULAR BIBLE STUDY

As part of their program of activities, many Christian families set aside a definite time each week when they get together for Bible study. The father properly takes the lead, thus fulfilling his Scriptural obligation to “go on bringing [his children] up in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah.” (Eph. 6:4) The family discusses, not only Bible principles governing proper moral behavior, but also Scriptural teachings regarding Jehovah God and his wonderful purposes for blessing obedient mankind. This builds up faith and encourages young ones to want to serve and obey God.

Children come to appreciate that we are living at the conclusion of this system of things—that the deterioration of morals and the rejection of God’s standards of righteousness are evidences of this very fact. (2 Tim. 3:1-5; Matt. 24:3-21) And they see that it is God’s purpose to usher righteously disposed persons into His wonderful new system of things, where perfect health and everlasting life will be enjoyed by everyone. What a glorious future for which to live!—2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:3, 4.

Of course, to instruct your child effectively in these matters, you yourself must be familiar with God’s Word, and have a firm faith in Jehovah God and his promises. Jehovah’s witnesses will be glad to help you build this firm faith through Bible knowledge. At your invitation they will conduct a Bible study with you in your own home free of charge. This study will assist you to carry out your Scriptural responsibility to ‘go on bringing up your children in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah.’ Only in this way can you assure a lasting, happy future for your child.—Eph. 6:4.

Easter—Relic of Ancient Sex Worship

FROM the time you were a child you may have been told that Easter is a Christian celebration that commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If so, what you have been told is not the truth. Rather than being a Christian celebration, Easter is pagan, with roots deep in ancient sex worship. This may be difficult for you to believe, but consider what some authoritative works of history have to say about Easter.

Confirming its pagan background, The Catholic Encyclopedia, edition of 1909, states in Volume 5, on page 227: “A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. . . . The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility.” In harmony with this The Encyclopedia Americana, edition of 1956, states in Volume 9, on page 506: “According to the Venerable Bede, English historian of the early 8th century, the word [Easter] is derived from the Norse Ostara or Eostre, meaning the festival of spring at the vernal equinox, March 21, when nature is in resurrection after winter. Hence, the rabbits, notable for their fecundity, and the eggs, colored like rays of the returning sun and the northern lights or aurora borealis.”

If Easter were truly a Christian celebration, why the eggs and rabbits? What connection could they have with the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Obviously none whatsoever! They are traditional in Easter because the ancient pagans used them when celebrating their spring festival. Both were important symbols in pagan sex worship. On this point, consider what is said by Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, edition of 1949, Volume one, page 335:

“Children roll pasch eggs in England. Everywhere they hunt the many-colored Easter eggs, brought by the Easter rabbit. This is not mere child’s play, but the vestige of a fertility rite, the eggs and the rabbit both symbolizing fertility. Furthermore, the rabbit was the escort of the Germanic goddess Ostara who gave the name to the festival by way of the German Ostern.” Do you think it is a Christian practice to encourage children to engage in a pagan fertility rite?

NO SCRIPTURAL BASIS FOR EASTER

But, you may object, the word “Easter” appears in the Bible at Acts 12:4. Why is it there if it is a pagan celebration? The word is used in the Authorized Version of the Bible, but it is the result of poor translating from the Greek language in which the book of Acts was originally written. Other translations properly render the Greek word pascha as passover, not Easter. Note what The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible has to say about this on page 145: “Easter. Originally the spring festival in honor of the Teutonic goddess of light and spring known in Anglo-Saxon as Eastre. As early as the 8th century the name was transferred by the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian festival designed to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. In A.V. [Authorized Version] it occurs once (Acts 12:4), but is a mistranslation.”

Was there truly a Christian festival in the spring that was “designed to celebrate the resurrection of Christ”? Not in the days of Christ’s apostles. As foretold by the apostle Paul, after their death a great falling away from true Christianity occurred, which resulted in many unscriptural celebrations. (Acts 20:29, 30) Although the apostle Paul pointed out, under inspiration, that Christians were not to become tied to a tradition of observing days, months and seasons and years, some Christians proceeded to do it anyway. (Gal. 4:9-11) They apparently were persons who insisted on continuing the festivals of the Mosaic law but enlarged them to be commemorations of what they foreshadowed. Thus the Passover was given additional significance in Jesus Christ, the antitypical Passover Lamb, and in his resurrection. To this annual observance apostates gradually added practices and symbols from the pagan spring festival, which resulted in the celebration now called Easter.

That the celebration finds no authorization in the Holy Scriptures or precedent among early Christians is pointed out by The Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition, Volume 8, page 828: “There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians. . . . The ecclesiastical historian Socrates (Hist. Eccl. v. 22) states, with perfect truth, that neither the Lord nor his apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival . . . and he attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of an old usage, ‘just as many other customs have been established.’” The old usage was the practice of pagans to have a festival in honor of their goddess of spring.

NOT FOR CHRISTIANS

The association of Christ’s resurrection with Easter has not changed the celebration into something that is acceptable to true Christians. A rotten apple is not transformed into wholesome food merely by wrapping it in the skin of an orange.

Notwithstanding the fact that religious leaders of Christendom proclaim Easter as a Christian celebration, it is still pagan. You might say, “What difference does that make as long as it honors Christ?” The difference is between having the approval of God or having his disapproval, and that is the difference between eternal life and eternal death.—2 Thess. 1:8, 9.

If you desire the approval of the true God consider the command given to Christians at 2 Corinthians 6:14, 15, 17: “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what sharing do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what portion does a faithful person have with an unbeliever? ‘Therefore get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing.’”

The Easter festival is an “unclean thing” because its roots are in pagan sex worship. People who celebrate it dishonor Jesus Christ by associating his name with that abominable form of worship. Why continue to do what is disgraceful to him and dishonoring to God? Heed the Scriptural command to separate from this false religious practice and those who advocate it. Recognize Easter for what it actually is, a relic of ancient sex worship.

True Worship Under Challenge

“And there will certainly occur a time of distress such as has not been made to occur since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time your people will escape.”—Dan. 12:1.

1. What kind of era started in 1914, and where do we find the answer to its problems?

THE year 1914 started something. Two great global wars, the overthrow of long-established empires and kingdoms, the rise of international communism, the attempts to bolster peace—first by the League of Nations and then by the United Nations—the advent of the space, missile and nuclear ages; this era of upheavals had its beginning back in 1914. And mankind is now faced with complex problems that threaten its very survival. What is back of this explosive situation? We must turn to God’s Word for the answer.

2, 3. (a) How does the “time of distress” get started? (b) Who is Gog, and how does he come to attack God’s “people Israel”?

² The prophecy of Daniel, quoted above, tells us that this “time of distress” gets started when the archangel Michael stands up for the salvation of his people. And Revelation chapter 12, verses 7 to 9, describes this same Michael standing up, the enthroned King, Jesus Christ, hurling the archenemy, Satan, down from heaven to the vicinity of the earth. Thus Satan takes on the role of Gog, the enraged prince of demons, who storms forth from the limited spirit realm still left to him, the land of Magog, for a final assault upon the realm of true worship that God’s people now occupy on earth. Will Gog and his demon henchmen, and their mustering of the combined armies of the nations of earth with nuclear firepower, succeed in wiping out God’s true worshipers, the Christian witnesses of Jehovah? Let God’s own Word answer:

³ “Therefore prophesy, O son of man, and you must say to Gog, ‘This is what the Lord Jehovah has said: “Will it not be in that day when my people Israel are dwelling in security that you will know it? And you will certainly come from your place, from the remotest parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great congregation, even a numerous military force. And you will be bound to come up against my people Israel, like clouds to cover the land. In the final part of the days it will occur, and I shall certainly bring you against my land, for the purpose that the nations may know me when I sanctify myself in you before their eyes, O Gog.”’”—Ezek. 38:14-16.

4. How have events since 1914 been foreshadowed?

⁴ But how does Jehovah sanctify himself in Gog? The thrilling drama enacted in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah, in the eighth century before our Common Era, illustrates what happens today after the accession of a Greater-than-Hezekiah, Christ Jesus, to power in God’s heavenly kingdom in 1914 C.E.

PREPARING TO MEET THE THREAT

5, 6. (a) Describe Sennacherib’s advance. (b) What assurance did Jehovah give, and why is this of interest today?

⁵ The Assyrian hordes were on the move. Outwardly, it may have appeared in that ancient day of nationalistic strife that King Sennacherib was swinging into action against Egypt, his sole rival to world domination. But the cities of Judah lay in his line of march. One by one these were overwhelmed by the totalitarian flood. Isaiah 10:28-32 describes his fearsome advance, city by city, from Aiath to Nob, and now, within sight of the walls of Jerusalem, “he waves his hand threateningly at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.” Are the people of Jerusalem dismayed? No, for “the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies,” himself has given marvelous assurance:

⁶ “Do not be afraid, O my people who are dwelling in Zion, because of the Assyrian, who with the rod used to strike you and who used to lift up his own staff against you in the way that Egypt did. For yet a very little while—and the denunciation will have come to an end, and my anger, in their wearing away.” (Isa. 10:24, 25) In the face of the modern-day threat of nationalism, we also may draw comfort from this prophetic assurance.

7, 8. (a) By what conspiracy did Satan move against the restored remnant? (b) In harmony with what other prophecy did Jehovah’s witnesses labor in preparation to meet the assault?

⁷ And why? In modern times, no sooner had the reigning King, Jesus Christ, restored the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses to their land of theocratic worship, in the year 1919, than Satan began to bring vicious opposition to bear upon them. Though the Germanic “king of the north” had suffered a severe head wound in World War I, he very soon became the leading partner in a new Satanic conspiracy to seize world domination and wipe out true worship in the earth. (Rev. 13:3) The history of the 1920’s and the 1930’s reveals the rise of the Nazi-Fascist-Catholic Action power that not only tried to overthrow the democratic nations, as pictured by the Egyptian “king of the south,” but also moved against the small, zealous group of Jehovah’s witnesses.

⁸ These worshipers of the true God had faith that the words of another of God’s prophets would be fulfilled: “And he [Christ] will certainly bring about deliverance from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land and when he treads upon our territory.” So they labored hard in the ministry, “to raise up against him seven shepherds, yes, eight dukes of mankind”—sufficient dedicated overseers, and more, to take the lead in worship. (Mic. 5:1, 5, 6) Moreover, by 1938, the theocratic structure had been fully restored in the congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses world wide, so that they were prepared, by Jehovah’s undeserved kindness, to withstand any “Assyrian” assault.

9. How did Hezekiah ward off the immediate threat, and of what significance may this be today?

⁹ Of the invasion in Hezekiah’s day, the record tells us: “And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib the king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and proceeded to seize them.” In warding off the immediate threat, Hezekiah agreed to pay tribute to Sennacherib, and he even cut off the overlaid doors and doorposts from Jehovah’s temple, in order to make this payment. (2 Ki. 18:13-16) No doubt this was part of Hezekiah’s theocratic war strategy, a move to gain time, and to put him in a better position to grapple with the enemy. Likewise, today, there are occasions when Jehovah’s witnesses have to move cautiously in preserving their God-given right to true worship. In strongly nationalistic countries, open house-to-house or magazine witnessing is not always possible, and Jehovah’s people may have to yield this door of service to the enemy. However, by incidental witnessing, park witnessing, back-calling and studying with those known to be interested, and by other means, they continue their precious service to Jehovah, often at great personal cost.

10, 11. (a) What other wise steps did Hezekiah take, and why? (b) In the fulfillment, how have the remnant acted today?

¹⁰ But Hezekiah took other wise steps looking to the preservation of Jehovah’s city and temple of worship. “When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come with his face set for war against Jerusalem, then he decided with his princes and his mighty men to stop up the waters of the springs that were outside the city; and so they helped him. Accordingly many people were collected together, and they went stopping up all the fountains and the torrent that floods through the middle of the land, saying: ‘Why should the kings of Assyria come and actually find a great deal of water?’” (2 Chron. 32:1-4) Instead, these precious water supplies were tunneled into the city.—2 Ki. 20:20.

¹¹ In like manner, following the reactivation of true worship in 1919, the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses, representing Christ Jesus here on earth, has paid attention to the supplies of Kingdom truth, as provided by Jehovah through his Son. These refreshing waters of truth do not flow for the benefit of the willful opposers of Almighty God. They must be covered over against enemy interference. But through the building of factories, and the carrying out of printing activity throughout the earth, whether above ground or underground, the remnant has fulfilled its prophetic mission as “the faithful and discreet slave” by seeing that spiritual provision is made available “at the proper time” for all of God’s household on earth, and this despite bitter opposition in police states.—Matt. 24:45-47.

12, 13. (a) What was pictured by Hezekiah’s further courageous action? (b) Why may Jehovah’s servants now be glad?

¹² “Furthermore, [Hezekiah] took courage and built up all the broken-down wall and raised towers upon it, and on the outside another wall, and repaired the Mound of the city of David, and made missiles in abundance and shields.” (2 Chron. 32:5) In the fulfillment, Christ Jesus has built up the organization of Jehovah’s witnesses for spiritual warfare, and has repaired the breaches made by Christendom’s apostate course over the centuries, as well as by their own failure to preach boldly during World War I. Moreover, the King has equipped his followers with “the large shield of faith” and “the sword of the spirit, that is, God’s word,” and has revivified them for theocratic service.—Eph. 6:16, 17.

¹³ Having this spiritual armor and an abundant supply of waters of truth, the remnant and their companion worshipers are indeed blessed, and so they may be glad, as were the sons of Korah who sang at Jehovah’s temple in Hezekiah’s day: “There is a river the streams of which make the city of God rejoice, the holiest grand tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city; it will not be made to totter. God will help it at the appearance of morning.” (Ps. 46:4, 5) How true, in ancient times and also today!

14, 15. (a) What timely encouragement was next provided? (b) What similar provision has been made today, and with what result?

¹⁴ Hezekiah now proceeded to assemble the people, and to “speak to the heart of them, saying: ‘Be courageous and strong. Do not be afraid nor be terrified because of the king of Assyria and on account of all the crowd that is with him; for with us there are more than there are with him. With him there is an arm of flesh, but with us there is Jehovah our God to help us and to fight our battles.’ And the people began to brace themselves upon the words of Hezekiah the king of Judah.” (2 Chron. 32:6-8) What a grand assembly of encouragement that must have been! As at assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses today, so then, words of upbuilding counsel went right to the hearts of the Judeans, encouraging them to be fearless in the face of the nationalistic threats of those who can do no more than “kill the body.”—Matt. 10:28.

¹⁵ As the modern-day Nazi-Fascist-Catholic Action threat increased, Jehovah continued to provide timely encouragement through his channel on earth. The Watchtower magazine of November 1, 1933, published most strengthening information in the article, “Fear Them Not.” And as Jehovah’s witnesses in Germany and other totalitarian lands began to suffer concentration-camp imprisonment and torture, articles on Daniel’s prophecy in the October, November and December, 1934, issues of The Watchtower strengthened them to endure in the ‘crucible’ of persecution and to survive the “lions’ pit.” The flood of totalitarian nationalism was powerless to breach their Christian integrity, even as it is powerless to do so today, thirty years later.

THE ISSUE DRAWN

16. (a) What situation now existed in Judah? (b) What demonic purpose lies behind Satan’s propaganda today?

¹⁶ But now Sennacherib has devastated many of the cities of Judah. He is encamped against Lachish, one of the last outposts, some thirty miles to the southwest of Jerusalem, “and all his imperial might with him.” (2 Chron. 32:9) Likewise in modern times, Satan the Devil has invaded the land of Jehovah’s worship, and he has gathered “the kings of the entire inhabited earth” to fight against God’s people and to take Satan’s side in “the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” at Har–Magedon. In furtherance of this purpose, Satan has whipped up demonic propaganda, which proceeds not only from his own dragon mouth but also “out of the mouth of the wild beast [the animalistic political system of earth] and out of the mouth of the false prophet [the loudmouthed Anglo-American Empire].” (Rev. 16:13, 14, 16) All this croaking in support of the tottering nationalistic governments, the divided UN and other human agencies, is, in effect, the mouthing of opposition to Jehovah’s established kingdom by Christ.

17. How does the modern Rabshakeh try to get through to Jehovah’s witnesses with his propaganda?

¹⁷ Ah, but the intent of Satan’s propaganda is also to break down and intimidate those who are truly serving God on earth at his place of worship. And how well this is pictured by Sennacherib’s sending Tartan, Rabsaris and Rabshakeh with a heavy military force to taunt the Judeans shut up in Jerusalem! Rabshakeh, whose name appears to be a title signifying “Chief Cupbearer,” is spokesman for the group, the one entrusted with pouring out a potion of Assyrian propaganda for the Jews. He is a renegade Jew, according to Josephus, and able to speak “the Jews’ language.” And, like Rabshakeh, Satan’s cupbearers today try to get through to Jehovah’s witnesses with intimidating words that will, they hope, swerve these from their integrity to God.

18. What hateful actions resulted from the propaganda of World War II years, but did these succeed in their purpose?

¹⁸ This corresponds well with the critical late 1930’s and early 1940’s, when Satan’s propagandists, including Christendom’s clergy, whipped up white-hot hatreds against Jehovah’s witnesses, demanding that they pay homage to the swastika, or whatever other flag might be the local emblem of nationalism. Under the dictatorships, Jehovah’s witnesses were thrown into prison camps and killed. In democratic lands, they were set upon by howling mobs, their homes and meeting places broken into and wrecked, and their children expelled from the schools—and all as a result of nationalistic propaganda. But with all his threats, the modern-day “Rabshakeh” failed to dent the integrity of God’s witnesses. They zealously continued their service to God, with the result that the 71,509 ministers reporting service in the year before World War II broke out, in 1939, increased to 141,606 in 1945, the year the war ended.

19, 20. (a) How did Rabshakeh speak in mockery of Jehovah? (b) In the fulfillment, how are his boasts partly true, partly false?

¹⁹ Rabshakeh spoke in mockery of the true God, Jehovah: “This is what Sennacherib the king of Assyria has said, ‘In what is it that you are trusting while sitting quiet under siege in Jerusalem? Is not Hezekiah alluring you so as to give you over to die by famine and by thirst, saying: “Jehovah our God himself will deliver us out of the palm of the king of Assyria”? . . . Who was there among all the gods of these nations that my forefathers devoted to destruction that proved able to deliver his people out of my hand, so that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand? And now do not let Hezekiah deceive you or allure you like this and do not put faith in him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand and out of the hand of my forefathers. How much less, then, will your own God deliver you out of my hand?’”—2 Chron. 32:10-15.

²⁰ How true, in the fulfillment, that the gods and religions of the peoples of earth have not been able to preserve them from falling victims to nationalism! In time of crisis, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists and others have all been caught up into the mesh of nationalistic war machines. But real Christians, the spiritual Judeans who trust in Jehovah and the God-strengthened Christ, are not frightened by taunting threats. Patiently, they wait on Jehovah.

21, 22. (a) What tempting offer did Sennacherib next make? (b) How did the people respond, providing what precedent for us today?

²¹ The king of Assyria offered a tempting reward at the price of compromise: “Make a capitulation to me, and come out to me, and eat each one from his own vine and each one from his own fig tree and drink each one the water of his own cistern, until I come and I actually take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil-olive trees and honey; and keep living that you may not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah, for he allures you, saying, ‘Jehovah himself will deliver us.’” Why, even neighboring Israel has fallen! However, “the people kept silent and did not answer him a word, for the commandment of the king was, saying: ‘You must not answer him.’”—2 Ki. 18:31-36.

²² Likewise, today, Jehovah’s witnesses do not wrangle or debate with Satan’s propagandists. Rather, they heed the example of Hezekiah and his illustrious forefather, King David, who said: “I will set a muzzle as a guard to my own mouth, as long as anyone wicked is in front of me.”—Ps. 39:1.

23. How did modern-day Jehovah’s witnesses turn back a Sennacherib-like offer?

²³ The Assyrian’s offer resembles that made by the Nazis to Jehovah’s witnesses while in German concentration camps. After these Christians had been imprisoned for years because of their refusal to heil the Nazi “god,” they were offered their freedom—on the condition that they sign a renunciation of their faith. What was their reply? An eyewitness writes: “They could have been immediately freed if they had renounced their faith. But, on the contrary, they did not cease resistance, even succeeding in introducing books and tracts into the camp, which writings caused several among them to be hanged.”a Even with the danger of death, they held to true worship and kept integrity to Jehovah, the Supreme Sovereign and God of resurrection.

24. (a) Why was Hezekiah grieved, and how did he act? (b) What is pictured today in Hezekiah’s turning to the prophet Isaiah?

²⁴ Hezekiah was grieved at heart on hearing the words of Rabshakeh. Was this because of fear of those who might now “kill the body” or of the cruel tortures that the sadistic Assyrians might inflict upon him and his fellow Judeans? Not at all! Hezekiah was grieved because of the vile reproaches heaped upon Jehovah’s name. So “he immediately ripped his garments apart and covered himself with sackcloth and came into the house of Jehovah.” He sought communion with Jehovah at his place of worship. (2 Ki. 19:1) And today the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses and their companions, who serve under the Greater-than-Hezekiah, Christ, find strength and comfort in times of stress in zealous service to God and association together as his temple worshipers. Moreover, they inquire for the right course from the “faithful and discreet slave” organization of Jesus’ anointed followers on earth. In the same way, in the crisis involving Jehovah’s name, Hezekiah looked for counsel to Jehovah’s channel of communication—the faithful prophet Isaiah.—2 Ki. 19:2.

25, 26. (a) For what do God’s people have ‘no power in the day of distress’? (b) But what assurance did Isaiah give?

²⁵ Humbling themselves in sackcloth, Hezekiah’s household officials and the elder priests proceeded to say to Isaiah: “This is what Hezekiah has said, ‘This day is a day of distress and of rebuke and of scornful insolence; for the sons have come as far as the womb’s mouth, and there is no power to give birth. Perhaps Jehovah your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his lord sent to taunt the living God, and he will actually call him to account for the words that Jehovah your God has heard. And you must lift up prayer in behalf of the remnant that are to be found.’” (2 Ki. 19:3, 4) In their own strength, Jehovah’s people are powerless to survive the threat of nationalism. But what of Jehovah’s strength? What assurance did Isaiah give in this regard?

²⁶ “Then Isaiah said to them: ‘This is what you should say to your lord, “This is what Jehovah has said: ‘Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard with which the attendants of the king of Assyria spoke abusively of me. Here I am putting a spirit in him, and he must hear a report and return to his own land; and I shall certainly cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’”’”—2 Ki. 19:5-7.

27. How will prophecy be fulfilled in the breaking of the nationalistic kings and the destruction of Satan’s organization?

²⁷ Ah, here was positive assurance that Sennacherib would at last be led back in abject defeat! And today, through his word of prophecy, Jehovah has likewise assured his integrity-keeping witnesses that Satan and his armed hosts will be finally crushed. As for the nationalistic “king of the north,” it is foretold that “there will be reports that will disturb him,” reports from the direction of Jehovah and his King, and conveyed through the anointed witnesses on earth, that will goad this “king” into rage against God’s people. But then Jehovah will act! The totalitarian “king of the north” will perish, “and there will be no helper for him.” The “king of the south” will also be broken “without hand.” (Dan. 11:44, 45; 8:25) The entire earthly organization of Satan will be “hurled into the fiery lake” of eternal destruction. What comforting assurance from Jehovah!—Rev. 19:20.

28. What provision did Jehovah make, and how did His witnesses answer the challenge of nationalism?

²⁸ But what of the crisis that faced Jehovah’s witnesses as the clouds of World War II threatened? With nationalism now the issue in democratic as well as totalitarian lands, Jehovah lovingly strengthened his people with “food at the proper time.” The article “Neutrality” in The Watchtower of November 1, 1939, helped many to chart an uncompromising course through the nationalistic storms of World War II. Jehovah’s witnesses refused the doctrine that they should slay their fellow Christians who happen to live in a different nation. At the cost of reproaches, imprisonments and even life itself, they held to their Christian neutrality, displaying a ‘love among themselves’ that transcended all nationalistic barriers. They proved themselves to be “no part of the world” of the modern Sennacherib. Their resolute stand on behalf of Bible principle provided a complete answer to the propagandists. Jehovah’s name was honored!—John 13:34, 35; 17:14.

29. (a) Corresponding to the type, what temporary relief did Jehovah’s witnesses gain at the close of World War II? (b) But why must we expect further difficulties?

²⁹ From the record it appears that Sennacherib did not immediately follow through on Rabshakeh’s boastful challenge. This may have been due to a temporary reverse suffered at the hands of Tirhakah, ruler of Egypt to the south. This could well correspond to the democratic nations’ swallowing up the totalitarian “river,” spewed out by Satan with the prime intent of engulfing the anointed remnant, who represent Jehovah’s womanlike organization on earth. But this relief gained at the close of World War II is at most only temporary. Gog of Magog is still on the loose! The prophecy says of him: “And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” (Rev. 12:15-17) And the final outcome? This we shall now see!

[Footnotes]

Sanctifying “the Holy One of Israel”

“And my holy name I shall make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I shall no more let my holy name be profaned; and the nations will have to know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel.”—Ezek. 39:7.

1. What situation now confronts mankind, and Jehovah’s witnesses in particular?

THOUGH two world wars have passed, bringing untold distress to mankind, the communistic “king of the north” and the democratic “king of the south” have again filled the earth with nationalistic propaganda. As they glare at each other over their respective nuclear stockpiles, they now ‘engage in a pushing’ through “cold” and “vest-pocket” wars. (Dan. 11:40) They croak about competitive coexistence, but each is determined that the other will cease to exist. As tensions heighten, nationalistic loyalties are whipped to a frenzy around the earth. The mastermind behind it all, the debased Satan, or “Gog of Magog,” thus maneuvers into position for his final assault upon the anointed witnesses of Jehovah, the representatives on earth of “the town of the grand King,” the heavenly Jerusalem where Jehovah resides by his spirit.—Ps. 48:2.

2. How did Sennacherib renew his threat against Jerusalem?

² Turning to the record at 2 Kings 19:8-10, we find that the king of Assyria has moved closer to Jerusalem and is “fighting against Libnah,” only twenty-five miles distant. Now he sends threatening letters to Hezekiah, telling his messengers, “This is what you men should say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you are trusting deceive you, saying: “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’”

3. (a) What bullying tactics has the communistic “king of the north” adopted? (b) According to one commentator, what has resulted from the persecutions of Jehovah’s witnesses in the Soviet Union?

³ Likewise, in this post-World War II era, Satan’s boastful propagandists not only continue to gather all nations to Har–Magedon, but they also try to bully Jehovah’s faithful worshipers into compromising their stand before their God. The “king of the north,” now predominantly Communist, has been particularly bitter in his attacks on Jehovah’s witnesses. They have been subjected to a cruel propaganda. Moreover, it appears that up until April 1951 as many as 7,000 of Jehovah’s witnesses were arrested in the western republics of the Soviet Union and deported to slave labor camps in the Urals, Siberia, Vorkuta and Kazakhstan. How did they meet this threat to their Christian integrity? In his book, Religion in the Soviet Union, Walter Kolarz writes:

This was not the end of the ‘Witnesses’ in Russia, but only the beginning of a new chapter in their proselytising activities. They even tried to propagate their faith when they stopped at stations on their way into exile. In deporting them the Soviet government could have done nothing better for the dissemination of their faith. Out of their village isolation the ‘Witnesses’ were brought into a wider world, even if this was only the terrible world of the concentration and slave labor camps. There they met a large number of disillusioned and maltreated people and many were predisposed to accept their promises of a total change in the world’s political structure within the lifetime of the present generation.

With the proclamation of the Soviet amnesty in 1955, both the ‘Witnesses’ of long standing and their new converts either returned to their homes or remained as free laborers in their places of banishment. In this way the Jehovists . . . spread to many parts of the Soviet Union. They reappeared in all the Western Soviet Republics. They established new organizations in the former forced labor areas such as the Far East and the Komi Republic, where there are Jehovist branches along the ill-famed Pechora Railway line with its terminus at Vorkuta. The Jehovists also invaded Siberia and Kazakhstan, where they are particularly numerous. . . . A Jehovist organization was also established in Daghestan. . . . In short, the Russian branch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses may be regarded as one of the strongest in the world, and there is certainly no branch anywhere which receives so much adverse publicity from the secular power. . . .

Only the future will show whether Khrushchev has been more successful in fighting the ‘Jehovist’ danger than either Hitler or Stalin.

Hitler, Stalin and Khrushchev have now all had their day, but the reviled spiritual Judeans in the lands of the “king of the north” continue to expand their worship, to Jehovah’s praise.

4. (a) How did Sennacherib continue to reproach Jehovah? (b) How have the Communist propagandists followed a similar patern, and with what outcome?

⁴ Another account summarizes the second violent propaganda attack on Jerusalem in these words: “And [Sennacherib’s] servants spoke yet further against Jehovah the true God and against Hezekiah his servant. Even letters he wrote to reproach Jehovah the God of Israel and to talk against him, saying: ‘Like the gods of the nations of the lands who did not deliver their people out of my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people out of my hand.’” (2 Chron. 32:16, 17) In like fashion, the Communist propagandists have written books, including one of 159 pages entitled “Going by the Name of Jehovah God,” have published denunciations in Pravda and Trud and illustrated magazine articles, such as one in Krokodil on “The Spiders,” and have distributed derogatory films, two of these being entitled “Armageddon” and “Apostles Unmasked”—in an all-out effort to reproach Jehovah’s name and berate the preaching activities of His witnesses. But have Jehovah’s witnesses flinched in the face of the Communist assault? Reports from inside Russia say, No! The following is typical:

Being situated, as it were, at the factual heart of the “king of the north,” our brothers have sacrificed for Jehovah and his truth their entire life and all their possessions and belongings and are standing devotedly and loyally at the side of Jehovah God, the Great Sovereign and Theocrat. In this decisive and bitter fight for the faith they are battling in favor of their God Jehovah. The message of God’s kingdom is triumphing from the Carpathians to the Kuril Islands.a

5. What follies have the Communists committed, in line with the blasphemy of Sennacherib’s propagandists?

⁵ The blasphemous insults continued: “And they kept calling with a loud voice in the Jews’ language to the people of Jerusalem that were upon the wall, to make them afraid and to disturb them, in order that they might capture the city. And they went on speaking against the God of Jerusalem the same way as against the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of man’s hands.” (2 Chron. 32:18, 19) Pitiable, blind propagandists! They think that our God is no stronger than the gods of clay and stone, the useless images of the nations. And though the Communists may have awakened to the hypocrisy behind the icons that their forefathers worshiped, what folly for them now to give glory to national heroes and the military “god of fortresses,” and to brag of their scientific accomplishments! (Dan. 11:38) How senseless for them to say, “There is no Jehovah,” because they have spotted no floating image of God from their tiny spaceships!—Ps. 14:1.

6. Who now joins in the propaganda campaign, and so where do Jehovah’s witnesses look for help?

⁶ And now, with the worsening world situation, the democratic nations of the “king of the south” are starting to churn out their own brand of nationalistic propaganda. At the height of the crisis, what will Jehovah’s witnesses do, who belong neither to the “north” nor to the “south”? Why, exactly what Hezekiah and Isaiah did! “Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, kept praying over this and crying to the heavens for aid.” (2 Chron. 32:20) What a fine example for Jehovah’s people today!

TRUST IN JEHOVAH

7, 8. (a) What plea did Hezekiah make? (b) Why would his prayer, as also that in Psalm 83, not go unheeded?

⁷ The account in 2 Kings (also, Isaiah chapter 37) describes the course of events in greater detail. “Then Hezekiah took the letters out of the hand of the messengers and read them, after which Hezekiah went up to the house of Jehovah and spread it out before Jehovah. And Hezekiah began to pray before Jehovah and say: ‘O Jehovah the God of Israel, sitting upon the cherubs, you alone are the true God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You yourself have made the heavens and the earth. Incline your ear, O Jehovah, and hear. Open your eyes, O Jehovah, and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God.’”—2 Ki. 19:14-16

⁸ In what was Hezekiah interested primarily—self-salvation, or removing the reproach cast on Jehovah’s name? Let his prayer concerning the Assyrian answer: “And now, O Jehovah our God, save us, please, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Jehovah, are God alone.” (2 Ki. 19:19) This reminds of another well-known prayer, which includes “also, Assyria itself”: “O may they be ashamed and be disturbed for all times, and may they become abashed and perish; that people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth.” (Ps. 83:8, 17, 18) These are prayers that do not go unheeded!

9, 10. (a) What answer did Jehovah give through his channel, and whom does this channel typify? (b) How do the remnant triumph against Satan’s taunts? (c) Who really is to be taunted, and why?

⁹ Will Jehovah prove his Godship? Will he sanctify his name before all the nations? The reply that he gave Hezekiah through his prophet Isaiah leaves no room for doubt. And this well typifies the message that Jehovah proclaims through his modern-day channel, “the faithful and discreet slave”—the remnant of his anointed witnesses on earth: “The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you, she has held you in derision. Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem has wagged her head. Whom have you taunted and spoken of abusively? And against whom have you lifted up your voice and do you raise your eyes on high? It is against the Holy One of Israel!”—2 Ki. 19:21, 22.

¹⁰ Try as they may, Satan and his dupes must learn that all their efforts to break down the integrity and worship of God’s people on earth are doomed. Taunts and abuse will avail nothing. The remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses continue to maintain Christian virginity, proving themselves worthy of espousal to Christ. (2 Cor. 11:2) It is the boastful Satan that is really to be taunted. What a fall he suffered when he essayed to exalt himself above the newborn Kingdom, only to have Christ hurl him down, with his demons, to become Gog of the land of Magog! (Rev. 12:1-9; Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 38:2) Gog’s schemings against “the virgin daughter of Zion” mark him for ignominious destruction. He cannot ravish her by carnal warfare. His final, vicious assault only shows he is actually fighting “against the Holy One of Israel,” Jehovah God himself.

11. What boast does the modern Assyrian make, but how does Jehovah answer him?

¹¹ To the boastful Assyrian, nothing appeared too hard to attain, whether it be lopping down the lofty cedars of Lebanon or drying up the canals of the Nile. Likewise, the modern Gog, with his nuclear armaments of both the “north” and the “south,” considers no conquest to be beyond him. Only Jehovah has the answer for this tyrant. And it has been expressed with unswerving purpose through his prophets from times of old: “Have you not heard? From remote times it is what I will do. From bygone days I have even formed it. Now I will bring it in.” (2 Ki. 19:25) Even with the Satanic backing of Gog, no individual or organization on this earth can stand against the expression of Jehovah’s righteous judgments.

12. What fate awaits false religion and its adherents, at the hand of the armies of the “Assyrian”?

¹² The “king of the north” under Gog will assuredly play his part in devastating the modern-day world empire of false religion. Revelation chapter 17 makes this plain, showing that Jehovah will use the “ten horns,” or complete number of national rulers on earth, in carrying out “his thought” or purpose, including the destroying of these religious systems. (Rev. 17:16, 17) In the same way that ancient Assyria devastated the “fortified cities” of demon-worshiping nations, so the armies of the modern “Assyrian” will share in wreaking havoc on false religion today. And as these nationalistic systems go crashing to their ruin, all who have sought refuge in them will indeed become “feeble-handed . . . terrified . . . ashamed.” They will perish as “vegetation of the field and green tender grass, grass of the roofs, when there is a scorching before the east wind.” (2 Ki. 19:25, 26) See also Revelation 18:9-19.

13, 14. (a) Wherein did the Assyrian make his big mistake? (b) What did Jehovah now declare, and what assurance do Jehovah’s witnesses thus have today?

¹³ But the Assyrian monarch himself has now made his big mistake! He has planted himself in the land that Jehovah gave to his true worshipers. He has closed in on Libnah, and Jerusalem—so he thinks—will be next. It has come to a showdown: Sennacherib versus “the Holy One of Israel.” Jehovah has the measure of his enemy, and he taunts the Satanic Gog: “Your sitting quiet and your going out and your coming in I well know, and your exciting yourself against me, because your exciting yourself against me and your roaring have come up into my ears.” (2 Ki. 19:27, 28) Rage as Gog may in the close confines of the land of Magog, he has met his match!

¹⁴ The kings of Assyria were accustomed to lead captive kings back to Nineveh by a hook piercing the nose. But now it is Gog’s turn! Jehovah declares: “And I shall certainly put my hook in your nose and my bridle between your lips.” The dastardly attempt to beat Jehovah’s faithful witnesses into submissive compromise fails! They have prayed to Jehovah, and made him their trust. Let the modern Assyrian mass all his forces. Let him conscript men by the hundreds of millions for the final assault on the citadel of true worship that Jehovah by Christ has built up in the earth. Jehovah’s witnesses will still hold fast to their Christian neutrality. They will not fall to nationalistic propaganda. They will remain secure in their strong tower, Jehovah, and nothing will succeed in blocking the song of praise and worship that they raise to his name. Jehovah’s word to the archenemy is final: “And I shall indeed lead you back by the way by which you have come.”—2 Ki. 19:28.

“THE SIGN FOR YOU”

15, 16. What sign did Jehovah give his people, and how must they act in harmony therewith?

¹⁵ Jehovah next says through his prophet Isaiah: “And this will be the sign for you: There will be an eating this year of the growth from spilled kernels, and in the second year grain that shoots up of itself; but in the third year sow seed, you people, and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. And those who escape of the house of Judah, those who are left remaining, will certainly take root downward and produce fruitage upward. For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth and those who escape out of Mount Zion. The very zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.”—Isa. 37:30-32; 2 Ki. 19:29-31.

¹⁶ It was already long past seedtime. Due to the Assyrian invasion, there was no possibility of a harvest that year. So Jehovah gave a “sign” in that he made a miraculous provision for his people. He caused an abundance of food to spring forth from the kernels spilled during the harvest of the previous year. But that was not all! The following year was to be a sabbath year, in which faithful Judeans must demonstrate reliance on Jehovah by letting their fields lie fallow. Would Jehovah provide? Surely faith in Him would have its reward, in a further “eating” of grain that grew of itself! And in the third year, the Judeans would again enjoy the fruitage of their own labor.

17. How has the first part of the sign been fulfilled in modern times?

¹⁷ This “sign” has had a marvelous fulfillment since 1914 C.E. At the time when the proud “Assyrian” and his mob make the holy city of Jehovah’s worship the “daughter of an invasion,” Jehovah sends forth his Son as ruler out of Bethlehem, his heavenly House of Bread, with bounteous supplies of life-sustaining spiritual food. (Mic. 5:1, 2) Gog and his hordes are powerless to stop up this miraculous provision, and it is assured, also, as long as Jehovah’s anointed people continue to keep sabbath through faith and by daily obedience to their God. This remnant of spiritual Judeans will be nourished to the end of Satan’s warfare against them here on earth, and beyond that. It will be shown that they are firmly rooted in the land of God’s true worship, and they will be established as eternal fruit bearers in the kingdom of God. Just such a remnant is to go forth in victory “out of Jerusalem,” and all of this will serve as a “sign” in connection with the sanctification of Jehovah’s name. “The very zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.”—2 Ki. 19:31.

18, 19. What is pictured in the final part of the “sign,” and how do we see this in fulfillment today?

¹⁸ And as the final part of the “sign,” Isaiah prophesied concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not come into this city nor will he shoot an arrow there nor confront it with a shield nor cast up a siege rampart against it. By the way by which he proceeded to come, he will return, and into this city he will not come, is the utterance of Jehovah. And I shall certainly defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant.” (2 Ki. 19:32-34) What comfort these words do provide for the anointed remnant and their companions today! However much Gog and his totalitarian hordes may threaten and revile, they may come only so far. It appears that, in their final approach, Sennacherib’s invading forces never got closer to Jerusalem than Libnah, some twenty-five miles distant. Oh, they howled their threats and shook their fists at distant Jerusalem, and Sennacherib sent his reproachful propagandists to browbeat and intimidate Hezekiah and his people. But in vain! Assyria was powerless to impose any real threat to the citadel of true worship.

¹⁹ As the modern Assyrian maneuvers to plant his nationalistic tents in the land devoted to Jehovah’s praise, so he, too, finds himself impotent as an opposer of the divine will. His prisons and concentration camps, whether Nazi, Soviet or Chinese Communist, have discovered no formula for “brainwashing” Jehovah’s witnesses. These have invincible faith. Individually and collectively, they stand impregnable against the enemy. Jehovah has cleansed the organization of his people from false, demonic religion and from the immoral ways of the world, and never will he permit the demon-controlled nationalistic rulers to break into and contaminate the true worship that is holy to Jehovah. For the sake of his great name, and of his Kingdom covenant which now centers in the Greater David, Christ Jesus, Jehovah defends the earthly representatives of his holy city. (Ps. 89:34-37) He prepares to lead the modern Assyrian back where he belongs.

20, 21. What dramatic reversal now took place before Libnah?

²⁰ But look, now, at the drama that unfolds before Libnah! Sennacherib’s lackeys have returned to camp after serving final notice on Hezekiah. The ultimatum has been given! And there, sprawled out on the Shephelah, lies the flower of Assyria’s might, its grand army that knows no defeat—the sledgehammer that is raised to deliver the knockout blow on Jerusalem. The pride of Assyrian militarism is about to pluck one of its richest plums of conquest, “the town of the grand King,” Jehovah. Night settles down. All is quiet. It is like the calm before a storm.

²¹ But it remains quiet! With the break of dawn, an eerie stillness hovers over the camp. Nothing stirs. At last, some Judeans venture out from Libnah to investigate. Come all of you, and look! What a sight! For it happened “on that night that the angel of Jehovah proceeded to go out and strike down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When people rose up early in the morning, why, there all of them were dead carcasses.”—2 Ki. 19:35.

22. How does this foreshadow Jehovah’s action at Har–Magedon?

²² It will be the same when the night of Har–Magedon settles down on the earth. Jehovah’s archangel and Executioner, Christ Jesus, will come swiftly, quietly, thieflike. There will be no escape for Gog’s mob. Their last taunting challenge against the assembled remnant of Jehovah’s anointed people will be turned back as God’s King proceeds to smash them with a rod of iron, and to mash them in the winepress of the wrath of Almighty God. (Rev. 19:15) It will be just as in Hezekiah’s day: “And Jehovah proceeded to send an angel and efface every valiant, mighty man and leader and chief in the camp of the king of Assyria, so that he went back with shame of face to his own land.”—2 Chron. 32:21.

23. What final fate befell Sennacherib, and what does this picture?

²³ But is the arrogant “king of Assyria” to escape merely “with shame of face”? God’s righteous judgment decrees more than this. It is recorded concerning Sennacherib in God’s Word (and confirmed in the recently discovered prism of Esarhaddonb) that “later on he entered the house of his god and there certain ones that had come out of his own inward parts felled him with the sword. Thus Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and out of the hand of all others and gave them rest all around.” (2 Chron. 32:21, 22) Satan, “the father of the lie,” will likewise find that his self-made religion is no protection. For Christ will surely bind him and hurl him down into the lifeless abyss, shutting and sealing it over him. (Rev. 20:2, 3) Only then will God’s true worshipers have “rest all around.”

24. As indicated in the type, how will Jehovah and Christ then be exalted in the eyes of many?

²⁴ What an occasion to praise Jehovah! The account at 2 Chronicles ends with the words: “And there were many bringing gifts to Jehovah at Jerusalem and choice things to Hezekiah the king of Judah, and he came to be exalted in the eyes of all the nations after that.” (2 Ch 32:23) And as the morning of God’s new order dawns after Har–Magedon, we can be certain that all who survive will offer sacrifices of praise in honor of Jehovah and his victorious Christ, the Greater-than-Hezekiah. All the earth will come to enjoy the sabbath rest of Christ’s 1,000-year Kingdom reign, and—marvelous prospect!—the Redeemer Christ will be exalted also in the yes of many from the nations of mankind who will be brought back from gravedom by a resurrection.—John 5:28, 29.

25. (a) In what triumph do Jehovah’s worshipers thus share? (b) What grand privilege is now to be enjoyed, and on what should we set our hearts?

²⁵ What a triumph for the heavenly Mount Zion! What joy to all who dwell securely behind its rampart, holding fast to true worship! “March around Zion, you people, and go about it, count its towers. Set your hearts upon its rampart, inspect its dwelling towers, in order that you may recount it to the future generation. For this God is our God to time indefinite, even forever.” (Ps. 48:12-14) How beauteous is this heavenly Zion, beloved of Jehovah! And how grand our privilege of recounting its glory to the “great crowd,” of the generation that will survive Har–Magedon and find everlasting life in an earth-wide sanctuary of praise! All together, may we set our hearts on the true worship of the one, true, eternal God, Jehovah. May the name of this “Holy One of Israel” be vindicated and sanctified forever!

[Footnotes]

Do Not Think More of Yourself than Is Necessary

“I TELL everyone there among you not to think more of himself than it is necessary to think; but to think so as to have a sound mind.”—Rom. 12:3.

Throughout God’s Word, the Christian is admonished to acquire and maintain a balanced perspective of himself. While it is necessary for the Christian to think of himself sufficiently to take care of his mind and body and use them in the right way, it is vital for him not to go beyond that. He is not to think more of himself than is necessary.

If a person thinks too much of himself, he will be in danger of becoming conceited, proud, unloving. He will be too interested in his own desires and will not be concerned enough about others. Then he will find it difficult to obey the divine command to “love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”—Matt. 22:37-39.

CULTIVATING RIGHT QUALITIES

Among the many qualities that help the Christian not to think more of himself than is necessary are submissiveness and humility. The submissive Christian is always learning from God’s Word and applying what he learns to his own life. He eagerly does God’s will as it is progressively revealed through Jehovah’s visible organization.

To be submissive to Jehovah and his arrangements, the Christian needs humility. Being humble is the opposite of being proud. A humble person does not have an inflated opinion of himself. He is not overly assertive in manner or spirit. He is moderate, not presuming too much, not being vain or conceited. He is kind, mild-tempered.

Thus, the person who has the right viewpoint of himself, God’s viewpoint, will cultivate humility, for that is the quality that makes submissiveness to Jehovah and his arrangements a pleasure. It is the proud, arrogant person who does not want to submit to Jehovah’s righteous requirements. But “everyone that is proud in heart is something detestable to Jehovah.”—Prov. 16:5.

Since humility and submissiveness go hand in hand toward maintaining the balanced perspective of not thinking more of oneself than is necessary, they are qualities to strive diligently to acquire and improve. And what better time is there to begin acquiring them than in youth?

CHRISTIAN YOUNG TAUGHT TO KEEP PLACE

Christian parents have a marvelous opportunity to mold the minds of their children in the right direction in this matter. If they teach their children not to think more of themselves than is necessary, their young ones will likely grow up to be mature Christian adults who have the balanced perspective of themselves. The Bible states: “Train up a boy according to the way for him; even when he grows old he will not turn aside from it.” (Prov. 22:6) Because “foolishness is tied up with the heart of a boy,” children will need to be taught how not to think more of themselves than is necessary. As they learn this, they can be encouraged to apply it in their everyday lives.—Prov. 22:15.

On occasion, young ones who have been taught God’s purposes are in a position to make expressions in school on the Bible’s view of certain matters. These Christian children have God’s truths. They know right from wrong on many matters as a result of their Biblical training. They are able to correct certain mistaken beliefs on the part of others, including students and even teachers. However, they must be taught to make their expressions with respectfulness. Jehovah’s Word counsels: “Sanctify the Christ as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a defense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope in you, but doing so together with a mild temper and deep respect.”—1 Pet. 3:15.

If the Christian youth answers in this way, others will observe that increased knowledge has not made him proud or arrogant, as it often does those not tempered by godly principles. Honest-hearted persons, young and old, who observe the humble, sincere, respectful and polite manner of the Christian youth are impressed by these qualities and may look more favorably on his Christian faith.

At times, a young person may be taught from God’s Word by one parent only, because the other parent is not a dedicated Christian. The young person needs to be taught not to become disrespectful toward the unbelieving parent. How would a father view the Bible if he observed his children studying it with the mother, yet noted that they were becoming hostile to him? No, the young Christian should grow in respectfulness toward his parents even if they do not believe as he does. God’s Word says: “You children, be obedient to your parents in everything, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord.” (Col. 3:20) Treating an unbelieving parent with respect may influence him to investigate the faith of the child whom he observes being changed for the better.

OLDER ONES ACQUIRE NEW PERSONALITY

Older persons also need to appreciate that the truths of God’s Word are not freely dispensed by the Creator to make persons proud or elevate them above their fellowman. They are to do the opposite. They are to make persons humble, respectful, submissive, loving. Of all Christians, regardless of age, it is true that they are not to think more of themselves than is necessary, for if the spirit of God is active in their lives, then that spirit will produce the fruitage of “love, . . . long-suffering, kindness, goodness, . . . mildness, self-control.”—Gal. 5:22, 23.

This fruitage gradually will change the personality for the good. That is why the apostle Paul could confidently recommend: “Strip off the old personality with its practices, and clothe yourselves with the new personality, which through accurate knowledge is being made new according to the image of the One who created it, . . . clothe yourselves with the tender affections of compassion, kindness, lowliness of mind, mildness, and long-suffering. . . . But, besides all these things, clothe yourselves with love, for it is a perfect bond of union.”—Col. 3:9-14.

Christians who work diligently to develop such a new, godly personality will not look down on their fellowman. They will not be rude or insulting even to those who oppose them because of their bearing Jehovah’s name. Rather, they will “always pursue what is good toward one another and to all others.” (1 Thess. 5:14, 15) They will be careful not to build themselves up at the expense of others, either by competing with them or by downgrading them in the eyes of others. Neither will they strive for prominence or glory. Instead, humbly they will look for ways to build up others. “Let each one keep seeking, not his own advantage, but that of the other person.”—1 Cor. 10:24.

AVOIDING PRIDE OF WEALTH

Some Christians have more of this world’s material goods than other Christians. Should this induce them to think they are better than their Christian brothers who have much less?

The well-to-do Christian must appreciate that his abundance of material possessions is not a direct gift from Jehovah. If this were a reward for faithfulness, then there would be no Christian anywhere in the world who would have little of this world’s goods. But those who are most active in seeking first Jehovah’s kingdom interests are usually ones who have just enough of this world’s goods to sustain their daily living.—Matt. 6:9, 10.

Paul shows how to regard material possessions when he states: “Brothers, the time left is reduced. Henceforth let those who . . . buy [be] as those not possessing, and those making use of the world as those not using it to the full; for the scene of this world is changing.” (1 Cor. 7:29-31) It is wise not to put too much stock in material wealth, for one cannot know if he will still have it tomorrow. And at Armageddon, all of this world’s financial systems will dissolve. (Zeph. 1:18) In Jehovah’s new system, the use of earth’s resources will be directed by God’s heavenly kingdom. Through it Jehovah will make distribution of material wealth as it pleases him for the benefit of all, not for just a few. Thus, Paul counsels: “Give orders to those who are rich in the present system of things not to be high-minded, and to rest their hope, not on uncertain riches, but on God, . . . to be liberal, ready to share.”—1 Tim. 6:17, 18.

So while today wealth can be used properly to advance Kingdom interests, it can also become a divisive factor. But with the right viewpoint, one who has more will appreciate that he is not better than his Christian brothers who have less, and that “even when a person has an abundance his life does not result from the things he possesses.”—Luke 12:15.

MINISTERIAL SERVANTS

In each of the more than 25,000 congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses throughout the earth there are men who have spiritual qualifications and who have been appointed to positions of responsibility. They are ministerial servants. (1 Tim. 3:8-10, 12, 13) These Christians particularly must be aware at all times that they should not think more of themselves than is necessary, as their conduct can affect many others.

Because of a person’s background, training, or education, he may have made rapid advancement, being appointed as a servant sooner than someone else who takes longer to mature spiritually. Never should the ministerial servant think he is better than that humble, slower one who perhaps has had less formal schooling. Accurate knowledge is a necessity, but if it does not motivate one to right conduct toward his Christian brothers, it is vain. “‘Knowledge’ breeds conceit; it is love that builds. If anyone fancies that he knows, he knows nothing yet, in the true sense of knowing. But if a man loves, he is acknowledged by God.”—1 Cor. 8:1-3, The New English Bible.

If you are one taking the lead as a ministerial servant, you should actually be “considering that the others are superior to you.” (Phil. 2:3) Jesus stated: “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them and the great men wield authority over them. This is not the way among you; but whoever wants to become great among you must be your minister.” (Matt. 20:25-27) Ministerial servants, therefore, need to be exemplary in girding themselves “with lowliness of mind toward one another, because God opposes the haughty ones, but he gives undeserved kindness to the humble ones.”—1 Pet. 5:5.

If you are a ministerial servant, especially one who has good ability and education, you have a wonderful opportunity to help others improve their knowledge of God. This is also true outside the congregation as you use your ability to bring the lifesaving message from God’s Word to others. But you should never permit your knowledge and ability to cause you to look down on unbelievers or be quick to condemn them. Rather, feel as Jesus did toward the common people: “On seeing the crowds he felt pity for them, because they were skinned and thrown about like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matt. 9:36) This is the attitude of Jehovah’s humble ministerial servants today.

OVERSEERS TAKE THE LEAD

Those who have the greatest responsibility to avoid thinking more of themselves than is necessary are the overseers in Jehovah’s visible organization. Whether overseers of a local congregation, or circuit or district overseers, whatever their capacity of oversight within Jehovah’s organization, they ought to set the example in not thinking more of themselves than is necessary.

The overseer acts as a shepherd. But the flock he shepherds is not his own. It is God’s. (1 Pet. 5:2) God has paid a price for it; the overseer has not. It is “the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son.” (Acts 20:28) So the flock belongs to Jehovah, bought by the blood of his own Son, and is left only in trust to undershepherds, overseers.

Jesus stated this principle for these overseers: “The greatest one among you must be your minister.” “Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.” (Matt. 23:11; 20:27) Hence, Jehovah requires them as overseers to be foremost in serving, or ministering, to their Christian brothers. To do this requires great humility, for it is not common in this system of things to combine great authority with great servitude. But humble Christian overseers, trained in the wisdom coming from Jehovah, do so. They are not like worldlings who wield power and crush others beneath them. They do not seek glory or domination of others, as do the clergy.

Lowliness of mind enables the overseer, above all others, to consider ‘that the others are superior to him.’ (Phil. 2:3) He also endeavors to do as Paul stated at Romans 12:10: “In brotherly love have tender affection for one another. In showing honor to one another take the lead.” Since the overseer takes the lead in the congregation, he also needs to take the lead in showing honor to those he shepherds, considering them as being superior to him. By his taking such lead, the spirit of brotherly love is built up. All will see demonstrated, lived, the reality of Jesus’ words when he said: “All you are brothers.” (Matt. 23:8) A young man who was a Christian overseer was appropriately admonished by the apostle Paul: “Do not severely criticize an older man. To the contrary, entreat him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters with all chasteness. Honor widows that are actually widows.”—1 Tim. 5:1-3.

By shepherding their Christian brothers, serving and honoring them, overseers imitate the Master, Jesus, who said: “If I, although Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash the feet of one another. For I set the pattern for you, that, just as I did to you, you should do also.” (John 13:14, 15) Although the custom of feet washing has passed, the importance of serving others, showing them honor without partiality, considering them superior, is as great as ever.

ATTITUDE TOWARD SERVANTS

What should be the attitude of all in the congregation toward overseers and ministerial servants? God’s Word says: “Be obedient to those who are taking the lead among you and be submissive, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will render an account; that they may do this with joy and not with sighing.”—Heb. 13:17.

Taking the lead in the congregation requires much hard work and long hours spent in handling assignments and problems. If some do not cooperate but act contrary to godly principles, then servants may begin to be robbed of some of their joy, for it is no pleasure dealing with violators of Jehovah’s laws. But by cooperating, each one doing his part, servants can joyfully carry out their work.

At times, servants err, being imperfect as everybody else is. Thus, they should not think they are beyond correction, or are above listening to suggestions for improvement. They should not feel that only what they suggest to others is counsel but that what others suggest to them is criticism. There is a vast difference between constructive suggestions and unfounded criticism or chronic complaining.

Yet, in spite of their own imperfections, servants work hard in fulfilling their responsibilities. This includes firmness for what is right. At times, overseers particularly must “admonish the disorderly.” In fact, it may be necessary to “keep on reproving them with severity, that they may be healthy in the faith.” And at other times it may even be required to “reprove before all onlookers persons who practice sin, that the rest also may have fear.” Thus, while overseers and ministerial servants are not to think more of themselves than is necessary, they are to give counsel, correction and discipline to upbuild the congregation and to keep it morally pure.—1 Thess. 5:14; Titus 1:13; 1 Tim. 5:20.

Jehovah acknowledges and blesses the hard work of his servants. That is why Paul said: “Now we request you, brothers, to have regard for those who are working hard among you and presiding over you in the Lord and admonishing you; and to give them more than extraordinary consideration in love because of their work.”—1 Thess. 5:12, 13.

What a grand spirit exists when ministerial servants and overseers take the lead in working hard, giving honor, considering those in their care superior, and, in turn, the brothers respond by giving them more than extraordinary consideration in love! What a pleasure it is to associate with an entire society of persons who endeavor to live in accord with the counsel not to think more of themselves than is necessary but to work unselfishly for the common good and upbuilding of all! How wonderful are Jehovah’s ways!—Ps. 107:8.

Endurance with Patience Brings Joy

As told by Josef Scharner

I WAS one of the 10,000 witnesses of Jehovah that the Nazis threw into their fiendish concentration camps. For more than nine years I endured their hatred for being a lover of God’s Word, the Holy Bible, and for refusing to renounce Jehovah my God.

Shortly after my being imprisoned it became evident that no matter what the Nazis did I could endure it with the strength Jehovah gave me. But before relating some of my experiences during those years, permit me to tell you why I became one of Jehovah’s witnesses. The story begins in 1914 when I was ten years old.

Being a zealous member of the Roman Catholic Church, my mother made sure that we attended church regularly. But after war broke out in 1914 the priest made it a practice to conclude every Sunday sermon by saying: “God bless the German army. God bless the German soldiers. God bless the German weapons. We want, we will and we must have the victory.” We children did not think this statement by the priest amiss, but our mother did.

One Sunday, upon coming out of church, my mother turned to us and said: “Children, something is wrong here! Whom shall the beloved God help? What will the priest in Russia pray? What will the priest in France pray? For all of us there is only one God.” I never forgot these questions. Obviously, God could not answer the prayers for victory coming from both sides in the war. The more I thought about these questions the more I wondered why Christian people are not able to live in peace. I found the answer in 1925.

A CHANGE IN MY LIFE

Just after finishing apprentice time for my trade I was put to work with another employee who was one of the Bibelforschers or Bible Students, known today as Jehovah’s witnesses. He always spoke of God’s kingdom and how it will bring permanent peace to the earth. He offered me the book The Divine Plan of the Ages, which I took and read. Here I found the answers to my questions and a hope for the future.

One day I asked my co-worker where he went on Sundays, and he explained to me the Christian ministry in which he engaged on Sunday, called the “colporteur work.” When I asked if I could go with him, he quickly consented and assured me that the work was not difficult. I found this to be so. After accompanying him to three houses, I asked if I could try the next house by myself. From that time until now I have found the house-to-house ministry a source of joy.

I studied diligently the Bible-study aids given me, and my knowledge of the Bible and appreciation for it grew. I soon made a dedication of myself to God and symbolized it by water baptism. Six months later, in the fall of 1925, I began devoting my full time to talking about God’s kingdom from house to house.

With a bicycle, a suitcase and parcels of Bible-study aids published by the Watch Tower Society, I headed for the town of Hohenstein, where I was assigned to serve full time as a pioneer minister. My assignment also included the small village of Tannenberg. Great was the joy I found there talking to the people about the good news of God’s kingdom and the peace it will eventually bring to all mankind.

Later, in 1931, while working in a village near the German town of Johannesburg, I found some young men who were interested in Bible truth. They were all in the chorus of the local church. When the priest heard that I was talking with these men, he announced from the pulpit that every Bibelforscher that came into the village should be chased away. The next time I came and began going from house to house, talking with the people about the good things in God’s Word, a man came at me with a long knife. I took my Bible in my hand and took two steps toward him, saying: “I have a better weapon, the sword of the spirit, which is God’s Word. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself to come at a man with such a dirty weapon, a man who wants to talk with you about the kingdom of God? Was it your priest who told you to take such action? Jesus Christ told his disciples to love their neighbors. Do you?” The man became confused, turned red and went away grumbling.

When I related this incident to the young men with whom I was studying the Bible, they became very angry with the priest. One said: “I shall withdraw from the church.” Three days later the priest came to the home where I was having a Bible study. During the discussion the interested persons asked the priest questions and asked for scriptures to support what he said. He then became angry and left. Now the young men in the chorus began leaving the church one after the other because they had found true Christianity. Later some of them began engaging in the full-time Christian ministry as pioneers, just as I was.

ENDURANCE DESPITE PERSECUTION

It was in the fall of 1935 when I was imprisoned for being one of Jehovah’s witnesses. In June of 1933 Hitler’s government had banned all activity of Jehovah’s witnesses as to meetings and the distribution of aids to Bible study. So it was no surprise to me when I was finally arrested and imprisoned for being a Christian servant of Jehovah God. When that happened I was thankful that I had not neglected personal Bible study, as it helped me to have the faith to endure. Frequently I thought about the endurance mentioned by the Bible writer James, who said: “Look! We pronounce happy those who have endured.”—Jas. 5:11.

Although the prison officials took the Bible away from me, they permitted other prisoners to have it. They thought that my faith would become weak if I did not have the Bible, and I would therefore renounce my faith by signing a declaration to that effect prepared by the Nazis. They failed to realize that I had impressed the truth of God’s Word deeply upon my mind by personal and group Bible study long before I was imprisoned. They could not remove those faith-strengthening truths from my mind.

One day I was put into a cell with a prisoner that had been sentenced to death for robbery and murder. The guards had permitted him to have a Bible. Just before he was executed he was transferred to another cell, but he left his Bible behind, much to my joy. Now I could feast upon the strengthening Word of God. Every day I read it and tried to commit many of its verses to memory. Very often I thought of Jesus’ words: “He that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.”—Matt. 24:13.

After I had been in prison for six years a possibility arose that I might be released. An officer from the Gestapo (Security Service) interviewed me regarding it. He asked whether I was cured of my wrong ideas after the six years and whether I still believed in Jehovah. I made it clear that I was still devoted to the worship of the true God, Jehovah, and that I would not sign the declaration renouncing my faith. The order was then given that I should be shipped off to a concentration camp. The official from the Gestapo said: “There another wind will blow. There you will keep quiet, and your way out will be only through the chimney if you refuse to sign.”

ENDURANCE WITH PATIENCE

Every opportunity I had in the concentration camp to speak about the good news of God’s kingdom and the comforting promises of his Word was a source of joy to me. I recall an experience that I had when I was in the camp hospital for a while. There was a young prisoner there who was very sick and always said to me: “Tell me something about the Kingdom. What you say is so comforting.” He was especially interested in hearing about the resurrection of the dead because he did not expect to recover from his illness. It was a pleasure to be able to give him hope with the truth of God’s Word.

On another occasion when I was sick with typhoid fever and was put into the camp hospital, I had the privilege of talking with the other sick persons there about the many blessings that God will give suffering mankind under the rule of his kingdom. The doctor, who also was a prisoner, said: “Your faith and your joyful attitude will help you to get well quickly.”

Again and again I experienced the joy of Jehovah when I spoke to others about the truths of his Word. I even had the opportunity to give a witness to some SS officers that came to inspect a piece of land. They looked around, and when one saw my lilac chevron, which had to be worn by Jehovah’s witnesses as a mark of identification, the officer called to me: “Lilac! Come here!” When I approached, he asked: “Why are you here in the concentration camp?” I told him that I believe in the Bible as God’s Word and spoke about it. He then said: “So you are a Bibelforscher.” I told him that I was. He then asked: “Did you sign the papers?” My reply was that I had not, and he wanted to know why. “I do not want to make myself a traitor.” He observed: “Then you must be a real Bible student and must know when peace will come.” I told him that peace will come only when God’s kingdom under Christ establishes it.

The SS officer turned to his fellow officers and said: “Look at these people! One can imprison them, take everything away from them and even kill them, but they do not give up their belief in Jehovah. They do their work well and are honest people, but for war they are no good.” Prisoners that heard this conversation had greater respect for us. There were, of course, some that said we were stupid for not signing the papers, renouncing our faith, so that we could be released and go home.

LIBERATION AT LAST

After spending more than nine years in a prison and the concentration camp in Stutthof near Danzig, I finally regained my freedom. It came after about 900 prisoners were moved to another location. We were put into a small coal barge that was pushed by a tugboat. While crossing the Baltic Sea to Flensburg in northern Germany, many of the sick prisoners were thrown overboard by the guards. I am sorry to say that one of them was one of Jehovah’s witnesses from Poland, Ignatz Ukrzewski. The sick were crammed into a three-yard-deep coal bunker with no room to move about. Some even lay on top of one another. When the SS men learned that we were talking with the sick prisoners, they confined us to the other end of the barge.

After the Allied occupational forces freed us in Flensburg, I took up once again the Christian work that had been interrupted by my arrest more than nine years before. I began preaching the good news of God’s kingdom from door to door.

There were few of Jehovah’s witnesses that were capable of giving public talks in Germany right after the war. So I had the privilege of giving such talks in a number of villages and towns. Being able to talk about God’s Word in this manner was a source of great joy to me. Then when the Watch Tower Society began sending special representatives, called circuit servants, to the various German congregations, I was invited to be one of these representatives. What a joy that was! It was a real privilege to engage in a work that strengthened the congregations, that helped my Christian brothers toward spiritual maturity and that encouraged them to endure faithfully in Jehovah’s service.

In 1946 I was blessed with a lifelong companion when I married a spiritual sister whose first husband and oldest son had been executed by the Nazis for maintaining integrity to Jehovah God by refusing to break their neutrality in the war. Since then we have served Jehovah together as full-time servants.

From the time I began the joyful service of our Creator until now more than forty-two years have passed. Although I have had many severe trials that required patient endurance, I have had many rich blessings because I trusted in Jehovah, kept integrity to him and put his interests foremost in my life. I know from personal experience that those who trust in him are able to stand firmly like a mountain against all attempts to break their Christian integrity. Looking back on my life, I am more convinced than ever that endurance with patience eventually brings innumerable joys and blessings.—Ps. 125:1; Luke 21:19.

Questions From Readers

● In what way does “nature itself teach” that it is a glory for women to have long hair but a dishonor for men to have long hair, as the apostle Paul wrote at 1 Corinthians 11:14, 15?—G. N., Canada.

The comments made by Paul to support what he was writing concerning the position of women in the Christian congregation were very meaningful to the Corinthians. He wrote: “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him; but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her?” (1 Cor. 11:14, 15) Under certain circumstances a Christian woman should wear a head covering as a sign of her recognition of theocratic headship. (1 Cor. 11:5) And this should have been suggested by what occurred naturally among those to whom Paul wrote, and by the customs with which they were familiar.

The Corinthian congregation was probably composed largely of Greeks and Jews, and among such people it is natural for women to have longer hair than men. This is not necessarily true among all peoples. Scientists usually recognize three characteristic types of hair: the long straight hair of Orientals and Indians, the short wooly hair of Negroes and Melanesians and the wavy hair of Europeans and Semites. Of the first two types, “the difference of length in man and woman is scarcely noticeable” if allowed to grow uncut. But not so with the third type. In general, among men “the length rarely exceeds 12 to 16 in. [30 to 40 centimeters], while with women the mean length is between 25 and 30 in. [63 and 76 centimeters] and in some cases has been known to reach 6 ft. [1.8 meters] or more.”—The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th Ed., Vol. 12, p. 823.

Additionally, those Christians were aware that it was the general custom for men to clip their hair to a moderate length. This was common with Jewish men, the long uncut hair of Nazirites marking them as men not following the general custom. (Num. 6:5) In contrast, Jewish women usually had their hair of considerable length. (Luke 7:38; John 11:2) Even the Greeks reading Paul’s comments would have appreciated his remarks concerning women having longer hair than men. This would have been emphasized to them by the fact that, in Corinth, shaving a woman’s head, or clipping her hair very short, was a sign of her being a slave girl or of being in disgrace for having been caught in fornication or adultery.—1 Cor. 11:6.

So Paul could draw on these normal differences to illustrate that there was a distinction between the sexes. The difference should have served as a reminder to those in the congregation.

What about the length of one’s hair today? Just as the natural length of hair differs among races, so do customs and personal tastes. The short style of men’s hair in the Western world is patterned after the Roman custom, and it is considerably shorter than the style common for Jewish men in Jesus’ time. Similarly, women today quite often cut their hair shorter than was usual among ancient women. Yet, there is still a marked difference between the sexes. So, while personal taste and local custom have a definite bearing on how long a Christian man wears his hair, he does want it to reflect his masculinity. Similarly, Christian women style their hair modestly and with evident femininity, so it will be a glory for them.—1 Pet. 3:3; 1 Tim. 2:9; 1 Cor. 11:15.

In either case, though, mature Christians, men or women, take into consideration how their personal appearance will affect others. This is so that “in no way are we giving any cause for stumbling, that our ministry might not be found fault with; but in every way we recommend ourselves as God’s ministers.”—2 Cor. 6:3, 4.

● Did Jesus partake of the bread and wine when he instituted the Lord’s evening meal?—M. C., U.S.A.

No, the record of how Christ instituted the memorial of his death, or the Lord’s evening meal, does not state that he himself ate of the loaf of unleavened bread and drank of the cup of wine. Nor is there a Scriptural basis for thinking that he would have.

The account presented in Mark reads: “As they continued eating, he took a loaf, said a blessing, broke it and gave it to them, and said: ‘Take it, this means my body.’ And taking a cup, he offered thanks and gave it to them, and they all drank out of it. And he said to them: ‘This means my “blood of the covenant,” which is to be poured out in behalf of many. Truly I say to you, I shall by no means drink any more of the product of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’”—Mark 14:22-25; Matt. 26:26-29.

Some feel that because Jesus said, “I shall by no means drink any more of the product of the vine,” he must have partaken of the Memorial emblems. But, remember, they had just finished celebrating the annual Jewish Passover. As part of the celebration, Jesus drank wine and ate unleavened bread. Referring back to that, Christ said that he would not again share with them in such joy, as symbolized by the fruit of the vine, until he was ruling as king and had exercised his kingly power to awaken his anointed followers out of death. (Ps. 104:15; Rev. 11:17, 18) Jesus had partaken of the passover wine, but there is no reason to believe that he partook of the Memorial emblems.

Please note that the account says that Jesus gave the emblems to “them,” and that “they” drank of the emblematic wine. As symbols during the Memorial celebration, the unleavened bread stood for Jesus’ body, and the wine stood for his blood.

The Lord Jesus did not have to accept or partake of the benefits of the sacrifice of his own body and blood. He gave his “flesh in behalf of the life of the world.” (John 6:51) He sacrificed his blood and flesh to cover the sins of repentant but sinful humans. (Heb. 9:12-14; 10:10) As a perfect human he did not need the ransom benefits of that sacrifice, so he could say to his followers that the sacrifice was made “in your behalf,” not in my behalf. (Luke 22:20) Christ could sacrifice humanity, and blood in which the life of humanity is found, because he would not need these things himself when resurrected as a spirit with heavenly life in view.—1 Cor. 15:45, 50.

But, even though he did not need the benefits of what was symbolized by the emblems, would he have partaken as an example for the apostles? No, they knew how to eat unleavened bread and drink wine. As Jews they had just done so in the Passover celebration. All that was necessary for Jesus to do was to set up this Lord’s evening meal, and then command his followers to observe it in remembrance of him.

Announcements

LORD’S EVENING MEAL

The date for observing the Lord’s evening meal in 1968 is Friday, April 12, after 6 p.m. Standard Time. Each congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses is making arrangements so that all who are regularly associated with the congregation and other interested persons can gather together for this occasion. In harmony with Jesus’ instructions to his disciples while he was still on earth, those who are heirs of the heavenly kingdom will partake of the emblematic bread and wine on that occasion. In addition, all who look forward to life under that kingdom are urged to be present to observe this Scriptural commemoration.

FIELD MINISTRY

As “fishers of men,” Jehovah’s witnesses obey the Lord Jesus Christ, so during March they will continue to ‘let down their nets for a catch’ by sharing in the ministry. (Matt. 4:19; Luke 5:4) As they do so, they will offer to all persons a year’s subscription for The Watchtower, along with three booklets, for $1; or a year’s subscription for both The Watchtower and Awake!, along with six booklets, for $2.

MEETING GOD’S REQUIREMENTS

Jesus commanded those whom he had instructed: “Go therefore and make disciples . . . teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19, 20) That means all Christians must be ministers. Are you? Regular instruction is conducted free by all congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses. Along with the Bible, one of the current textbooks used at the Kingdom Hall is Qualified to Be Ministers. Get your copy today and join this most profitable training course. The book is only 50c. The training is free.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

April 14: True Worship Under Challenge. Page 169. Songs to Be Used: 87, 116.

April 21: Sanctifying “the Holy One of Israel.” Page 175. Songs to Be Used: 57, 59.