The Watchtower — October 15, 1968

Your Bible Questions Answered

Have you wondered why God has permitted wickedness for so long? And when you see crime and violence increasing, have you asked, ‘What’s this world coming to?’ What does the future hold?

Then again, perhaps you have experienced the loss of a loved one in death. Have you wondered what happens to a person when he dies? Why is it that man grows old and dies after such a brief existence, when even some trees live thousands of years? Did God make man to die?

Also, which of the many religions on earth does God approve? How can you determine which is the right religion? Really, what does God require of you?

All of these questions, and many others, do have an answer. But the answers that satisfy will never come from the teachings or philosophies of men. They can come only from the Almighty God and Creator, who originated life and who knows for a certainty what the answers are. And he has given mankind a source that provides the answers to such troublesome questions. That source is God’s own Word, the Bible.

God himself gives his assurance that what you read in the Bible is the truth. There he has had it recorded: “God . . . cannot lie.” (Titus 1:2) “It is impossible for God to lie.” (Heb. 6:18) So when you go to the Bible to find answers to your questions, you can have complete confidence that what you read is the truth.

Jesus Christ himself quoted the Scriptures as God’s Word. His disciples also accepted them as such. Other first-century Christians knew that God had revealed himself to mankind through his Word. That is why the apostle Paul said: “When you received God’s word, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but, just as it truthfully is, as the word of God.”—1 Thess. 2:13.

So the Bible is not the product of men’s minds, but is the product of God’s mind: “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight.” (2 Tim. 3:16) Hence, whatever your Bible questions are, you can be sure the Bible will ‘set things straight.’

However, you no doubt have observed people who have Bibles but who cannot authoritatively answer questions such as were raised at the beginning of this article. Why is that? One reason may be that they are not really searching God’s Word. When the first-century Christians wanted answers to Bible questions, what did they do? The record says: “They received the word with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11) That was the key! They carefully examined the Scriptures to find answers to their questions.

Yet, many persons who read their Bibles wish they could have some help in understanding it. A disciple of Jesus named Philip once approached a man who felt this way. The man was reading the Scriptures. Philip asked him: “Do you actually know what you are reading?” The man answered: “Really, how could I ever do so, unless someone guided me?” (Acts 8:30, 31) Then Philip took time to explain what the portion of Scripture he was reading meant. It thoroughly satisfied the man. He had his Bible question answered.

Thus, in addition to our searching the Bible for answers, the assistance of persons who are well acquainted with the Bible, who understand it and believe it, is most beneficial. But are there persons like Philip today who will take the time to assist others? Yes, there are. In fact, there are hundreds of thousands of such persons who perform the same service that Philip did, free of charge.

You may already recognize that it is Jehovah’s witnesses who come to your home to offer you this free assistance in getting answers to your Bible questions. It may surprise you to know how many people take advantage of their service. In 198 lands throughout the world, they assist people in well over a million homes each week to find answers to their Bible questions.

Is there a ‘catch’ to this service? Is there an ulterior motive somewhere? You cannot be blamed for being suspicious, as so much that is done in the world today is motivated by selfishness. But Jehovah’s witnesses have no selfish motives in this. They take their own time, and at cost to themselves, to assist others.

Why do they do this? Because they take to heart the two great commandments Jesus noted, that of loving God and that of loving one’s neighbor. (Matt. 22:36-39) They have cultivated this motive of unselfish love because they appreciate how much genuine happiness, peace of mind and hope they have received themselves as a result of getting their own Bible questions answered. Therefore, they sincerely want to share with others what they have learned. This brings them further joy, for, as Jesus said, “there is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.”—Acts 20:35.

By letting God speak to you through his Word, you will no longer have to wonder about life’s perplexing questions. You will know for sure such things as why we grow old and die; where the dead are; what God approves and disapproves in religion; why God permits wickedness; what the increase of lawlessness in our time means; what the future holds; when God will bring perfect peace, happiness and life to mankind; and what God requires of you.

Yes, you can have such basic questions, and many more, answered to your complete satisfaction. Why not write the publishers of this magazine and request the free service that Jehovah’s witnesses provide for answering your Bible questions? Or the next time that Jehovah’s witnesses call, why not invite them in and ask them to show you how to find these answers? And why is this important to you? Because “if you search for [God], he will let himself be found by you.”—2 Chron. 15:2.

Why We Grow Old and Die

Every normal person desires life with good health. We seek relief from the pain and suffering that disease brings and we long for some way to escape from the weakening effect old age has on our bodies. It hurts us, too, when we see those we love afflicted by these things. Because of this, many persons ask, “Was all this part of God’s original purpose? When God created man, was it his purpose that man should grow old, and become deaf or blind? Did he mean for man’s skin to wrinkle with age, his heart to become diseased and his other organs to break down? Really, did God make man to die?”

No, Jehovah God did not create man for such a miserable future. The Bible tells us that Jehovah provided a lovely garden home for the first human pair, and he blessed them. Reviewing his creative work, God rightly declared it “very good.” (Gen. 1:28, 31) This means that Adam and Eve were created perfect, without a defect in mind or body. (Deut. 32:4; Prov. 10:22) They had the prospect of living forever.

Interestingly, modern scientists know that the human body continually renews itself by replacing its cells. And they say that, under the right conditions, it is capable of living forever. A Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Linus Pauling, explained that man’s bodily tissues replace themselves and, theoretically, should continue to do so forever. Biochemist William Beck also observed: “I can see no reason why death, in the nature of things, need be inevitable.” Yet, in spite of being so made, men continue to grow old and die. Why? God’s Word the Bible gives us the satisfying answer.

RESULTS OF DISOBEDIENCE

When Jehovah created Adam and Eve, they became the earthly part of God’s great family, which already included a great number of spirit creatures in the heavens. God was the Father of the human pair, since he had given them life. The gift of life, however, was conditional; that is, it would continue to be theirs only as long as they met the condition of loving obedience to their heavenly Father. Obedience to law is necessary to continued peace and good order, so they had to recognize God as their Supreme Ruler. Did they know this? Yes, because Jehovah placed upon them a test that emphasized the seriousness of obedience. He said to Adam: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”—Gen. 2:16, 17.

This test of obedience was not a difficult one. They were not deprived of needed food, nor were they tested beyond their ability. However, their obedience would show that they appreciated their relationship with God. (1 John 5:3) Although some persons have the idea that the ‘forbidden fruit’ had to do with sex relations between the man and woman, this was not the case. God himself had already told them to “be fruitful and become many and fill the earth.” (Gen. 1:28) When God commanded them not to eat the fruit of a certain tree it merely meant that God singled out one of the many fruit trees of Eden and commanded the human pair not to eat of its fruit.

Why was the tree called “the tree of the knowledge of good and bad”? Because, as a result of God’s command, its fruit symbolized knowledge, even apart from the express commands of God, of what is “good” and what is “bad” for them. So, for the human pair to take of this fruit would mean that they were turning their backs on their heavenly Father and rejecting his divine guidance and perfect will. While simple, the test involved much. It involved man’s dependence on his Creator and man’s recognition of divine authority. Remember, too, that Jesus Christ applied to imperfect humans the rule that “the person faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and the person unrighteous in what is least is unrighteous also in much.” (Luke 16:10) How much more did this apply to perfect creatures!

Why did Eve break God’s law and eat of the fruit? The idea did not begin with her but was presented to her by a spirit creature using a lowly serpent through which to speak. That spirit creature, identified in the Bible as Satan the Devil, is therefore called “the original serpent.” (Rev. 12:9) The invisible creature speaking through the serpent openly denied the truth of God’s command that Eve quoted. He represented the tree’s fruit as being able to cause her to be like God, deciding for herself what was “good” and what was “bad.” Eve then began to view the fruit as very desirable and she disobeyed God by eating of it. Adam, her husband and head, upon finding out what she had done, did not oppose her course but joined her in it.—Gen. 3:1-6; Jas. 1:14, 15; 1 Cor. 11:3.

By this lawless act they became guilty of sin, and so they brought upon themselves the penalty of sin. (1 John 3:4) In considering the rightness of God’s decision we should not make the mistake of judging the seriousness of what Adam and Eve did by the way many people view things in our time. Today disobedience to parents is common, often going unpunished. Stealing also is common, and many think that, if what is stolen is small, the theft does not matter much. Rebellion and speaking against authority are likewise frequent today. But that does not make these things right! Much of the rotten fruitage we see today in the form of growing delinquency and crime is due to failure of parents and others in authority to correct matters at the start.—Prov. 13:24; Eccl. 8:11.

God was not going to encourage wrongdoing by a failure to enforce his own law. By their disobedience Adam and Eve showed a great lack of love for the One who had provided so wonderfully for them. They were guilty of stealing, because they took what their Creator said was not theirs. Still worse, they joined with God’s enemy and, by their actions, called God a liar. Jehovah owed it to himself and to all his universal family to uphold the law. This he did. As a result of their deliberate sin the lawless couple were driven out of Eden to die.—Gen. 3:22-24.

The effect of sin upon them might be illustrated by what happens to a piece of fine machinery when it is not used properly, according to the maker’s instructions. The machine will develop weaknesses and, in time, break down. Similarly, as a result of ignoring the instructions of their Maker, Adam and Eve lost their perfection. Their minds and bodies began to break down, and finally ceased to function, in death. That is what disobedience and removal from God’s favor meant for them. (Gen. 3:16-19) After Adam had used up the tremendous vitality of his once-perfect body, he died at the age of 930 years. This was within the symbolic “day” of one thousand years that God had set.—Gen. 5:5; 2 Pet. 3:8.

EFFECT UPON OFFSPRING

But, since we today did not disobey that law in Eden, why is it that we also get sick and die? It is for this reason: All of Adam’s offspring were born after his disobedience and after he had been expelled from God’s family. Thus his offspring inherited sin and death from him. All men inherit imperfection, because all come from Adam and Eve. As the Bible book of Job tells us: “Who can produce someone clean out of someone unclean? There is not one.” (Job 14:4) Also, at Romans 5:12 the Bible explains: “Through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men.” Just as a perfect piece of machinery cannot be produced from an imperfect mold, so Adam in his imperfection could not produce perfect children, free from sin.—Ps. 51:5.

The effect of Adam and Eve’s sin upon their offspring can be compared with what often happens when people who ignore God’s law and live immorally bring forth children. Such people may get diseased in the sex organ that God gave them to bring forth their children. The children of such “unclean” parents may be born physically or mentally damaged because of the sin of their parents. So, too, our first parents became “unclean,” imperfect, subject to sickness, and finally death. They could pass on to their offspring only what they themselves had: imperfection, sickness and death. That is why we all grow old and die, and why we so easily do what is wrong.

However, it is one thing to make unintentional mistakes because of inherited sin, but entirely another matter deliberately to practice what one knows to be wrong. (1 John 5:16) If one is truly repentant over mistakes he makes because of inherited weaknesses, he can expect merciful forgiveness from God. (Prov. 28:13) But he must be careful that, once he knows what is right, he does not deliberately choose to follow a course contrary to God’s will. To do so would mean loss of God’s favor and of life itself.—Deut. 30:15-20; Heb. 10:26, 27.

Happily, Jehovah has made loving provision to save repentant ones from the bad effects of inherited sin and death. This grand relief will come through the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Concerning this provision the Bible says: “God sent forth his only-begotten Son into the world that we might gain life through him.” (1 John 4:9) So, in God’s due time, under the Kingdom rule of his Son, inherited human imperfection will gradually be taken away, and mankind will no longer feel the effects of Adam’s sin. Why, even the death we inherited from Adam will no longer have power over us! (Rev. 21:3, 4; 1 Cor. 15:26) You can be one who will enjoy such blessings. How? By taking advantage of the provisions that Jehovah has made and proving your love for him by keeping his commandments.—Jer. 7:23; Eccl. 12:13.

Man’s Rule About to Give Way to God’s Rule

“Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth.”—Matt. 6:10.

1. (a) What meaning for the word “rule” are we interested in, and from what Latin words is its derivation? (b) With such understanding, how do right-minded individuals view “rule”?

RULE, as we here consider it, means the exercise of authority or control. The word also carries with it the thought of a period of time during which a special ruler or government exercises control; also, the state of being governed. In languages that are drawn from or built upon the Latin, the word comes from the Latin word regula, which means “straightedge, rule”; and, in turn, this word comes from the Latin verb régere, which means “to lead straight; to guide.” The word “government,” which is associated with the word “rule,” is drawn from the Latin verb gubernáre, which is borrowed from the Greek verb kybernán, which means “to steer,” and then “to guide, to govern,” and “to act as a helmsman, a pilot.” When it is viewed from this understanding, there is nothing wrong in itself with the idea of “rule” by means of a government. And what right-minded person does not want “rule”? Especially when a person is imperfect, as all of us are, who does not want a “rule,” a “straightedge”? If we are anxious to go straight, to do things right, who does not appreciate being steered right, directed and governed right? In such a world as this, many of us still do. Such a straight rule by right government will shortly be given to mankind, with wonderful blessings resulting. But by whom?

2-4. Why can it be said man is well acquainted with rule and government, and what interesting comment on this is made by The Encyclopœdia Britannica?

² Man today is well acquainted with rule and government, for all his experience therewith. The estimates made by devotees of the evolution theory as to the length of man’s existence upon this terraqueous globe cannot be relied upon; they are mere wild, unfounded, unreasonable guesses. According to the most authoritative source of information, the accurate history of man from his true beginning, man has been upon this earth now close onto six thousand years. During almost all that time he has been subject to man’s rule, in varieties thereof at various times or in various parts of the earth. What form of rulership and government has man not tried for his benefit, from cruel despotisms to modern-day republics and so-called “people’s democracies”? The Encyclopædia Britannica takes note of this. Under the heading of “Government” (in Volume 10, edition of 1946) it says:

³ “Government in the ancient world presents three main types—the great despotic empires of Sumeria, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Macedon; the city states of Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, and the unique empire in Rome of a city-state gradually becoming the centre of empire, and, in the process, changing its republic system into an autocracy, limited only by the survival of some republican institutions and traditions. . . . the Roman theory of universal domination lasted on throughout the Middle Ages and, through the titular supremacy of the Holy Roman Empire, delayed the emergence of national territorial states with a clear title to independence. This delay was assisted by the equally universal claim of the popes to human obedience, and by the efficient organization of the Church system of Government through the canon law, and the courts which administered it, throughout the Christian world. . . . ”

⁴ Pointing to the effects of political developments during the sixteenth century upon government, the same Encyclopædia article says: “MODERN TIMES. If the modern nation-state clearly emerges in the 16th century the history of modern government falls equally clearly into two main periods since that time, the period before and the period since the French Revolution [of the eighteenth century]. . . . Modern democracies show great variations in their governmental organization,” and it speaks of the flexible kinds and the rigid kinds.—Pages 560-565.

5. What book far older than the Britannica deals with ancient governments, and what advantage does it have over other books?

⁵ The same ancient governments mentioned by The Encyclopædia Britannica, namely, those of Sumeria (or Babylonia), Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Macedon, Greece and Rome, are dealt with in a book far older than the Britannica and parts of which, in fact, were written right in Babylonia, Persia, Macedonia, Greece, and Rome in Italy, and thus giving us a direct insight into the rule and government of those places. That accurately informative and authoritative book, although finished in the first century of our Common Era, has today a wider circulation than The Encyclopædia Britannica and is still found to be an authority even regarding modern times. That book is The Holy Bible or The Sacred Scriptures.

6. Outline the many excellent features of this book called the Bible.

⁶ It is the only book that gives mankind an authentic account of its beginning and of its history for more than four thousand one hundred years. Furthermore, some of its many predictions or prophecies which have not yet been fulfilled carry us right down into this twentieth century of our Common Era and even for a thousand years from today. Rightly, this marvelous Book tells us much about man’s rule and how it would work out. It is the only book that assures us that man’s rule is now about to give way to God’s rule. This is because this book was written under the inspiration of God’s invisible, directive active force or spirit and hence comes to us from the hand of God the Creator, who has preserved it to this day for our salvation.

WHY MANY TODAY DO NOT WANT GOD’S RULE

7. Why do many millions of people detest the thought of a rule by “theocracy”?

⁷ The thought of coming under God’s rule is becoming detestable to more and more millions of people today. To their minds it brings the thought of theocracy, which is really what God’s rule means. But to many of those persons who revolt at the idea of God’s rule, theocracy makes them think of corrupt, oppressive rule by immoral, greedy, self-seeking, totalitarian religious priests and clergymen, who demand the absolute, unquestioning obedience of all mankind and who demand also their money under the cloak of false religious pretenses. For many centuries Europe had such a so-called theocracy run by priestcraft. This time of priests openly meddling in worldly politics and trying to hold the political rulers subject to them is referred to in The Encyclopedia Americana (in Volume 13, edition of 1956), in its article on “Government,” in the following words:

8. How does the Encyclopedia Americana define the sources of governmental authority?

⁸ “SOURCE OF GOVERNMENTAL AUTHORITY. Various ideas have been held by different people in different periods of history as to the source from which government derives its authority. . . . For many years in many countries, kings claimed to rule by divine right. They asserted that their governmental authority came to them directly from God. Many rulers in Europe have acknowledged that the pope was the direct representative of God on earth and had taken their authority from the popes as God’s agent on earth. The divine right of kings was claimed by some rulers later than 1600. James I of Great Britain (reigned 1603-1625) was a staunch advocate of divine right.”—Page 89.

9. What meaning came to be given to the word “theocracy,” and so how do people often feel when such a theocratic rule is recommended for mankind?

⁹ Not only the earlier kings of Europe during the time of the Holy Roman Empire considered the pope of Rome to be “God’s agent on earth,” but the popes themselves and the religious hierarchy under them as well as the common people thought the same as those kings. Thus such popish rule through his hierarchy was considered a theocracy, and that is one of the meanings given by the dictionary to the word “theocracy.” Thus, too, because of considering themselves to be “the direct representative of God on earth,” the popes claimed to wield universal sovereignty, universal domination. What student of European history does not know of the pope’s claim to the right to crown and uncrown kings, to enthrone and unthrone kings? What student does not remember how Pope Leo III crowned King Charles the Great or Charlemagne at Rome on Christmas Day of the year 800? But it was Napoleon Bonaparte who crowned himself emperor in the presence of the helpless pope, shortly after the French Revolution. What wonder, then, that intelligent persons of today who are informed on the kind of rule that prevailed during the time of the popish “theocracy” cannot stomach the thought of God’s rule being about to come, if God’s rule means the restoration of such a hierarchical rule!

10. What must happen to the religio-political rule by priests and clergy of Christendom and pagandom?

¹⁰ Fortunately such priestly theocratic rule has been only a sad part of man’s rule, for religious popes and priests and clergymen are mere imperfect, dying men. Certainly such religio-political rule by the priests and clergy of Christendom has disgracefully misrepresented God’s rule. Hence when man’s rule gives way to God’s rule the politico-religious rule of the priests and clergy of Christendom and also of pagandom must also give way and disappear for all time, to mankind’s eternal relief.

HIGHER RULE THAN MAN’S INEVITABLE

11. Why can we be assured that a rule on earth other than man’s is going to be a reality?

¹¹ Yet when we talk of man’s rule giving way to something else, the question arises, Can there be any other kind of rule over the whole earth than man’s rule? The evolutionist and the materialist will emphatically answer No! But they stubbornly blind themselves to the facts of history. Man is certainly not ruling the rest of the visible, tangible universe, even by means of his rockets and spacecraft. The Creator of the universe, God Almighty, does that. He has the Creator’s right to do so. He rules all the rest of the universe, so why not also the earth? It is impossible to stop him from doing so. Just because man has lived upon the earth now for about six thousand years and more than three thousand million humans today inhabit the earth, this does not give them the legal right to the earth and its rulership. God never gave up his Creator’s ownership of the earth and his right to rule it and its inhabitants. He was ruling the earth when he created man and gave man his start in earthly life. That was almost six thousand years ago. Was there anything wrong or bad about God’s rule then?

12. In what condition or state was the first man created, and how under divine inspiration does Moses show this to be so in Deuteronomy 32:3-6?

¹² Consider: God did not create man a grunting, beastlike caveman partway up any scale of natural evolution. The Creator of all the glorious universe in outer space created man as a creative work that would bring credit to his divine creative ability. God himself is perfect and all-good, and he created a perfect work when he made the first man. The Bible writer named Moses, who lived for forty years under ancient Egyptian rule, got God’s spirit of inspiration and wrote concerning God’s creative work: “I shall declare the name of Jehovah. Do you attribute greatness to our God! The Rock, perfect is his activity, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness, with whom there is no injustice; righteous and upright is he. They have acted ruinously on their own part; they are not his children, the defect is their own. A generation crooked and twisted! Is it to Jehovah that you keep doing this way, O people stupid and not wise? Is he not your Father who has produced you, he who made you and proceeded to give you stability?” (Deut. 32:3-6) From these inspired words there is no mistaking that Jehovah God created the first man perfect.

13. (a) Why is the evolutionist theory of man’s existence false and misleading? (b) How did the Creator, Jehovah, purpose to deal with man whom he had created?

¹³ The hairy, low-browed, vicious-looking caveman imagined by the evolutionists could never be in God’s image and likeness. The creation account written by the inspired prophet Moses says that God purposed to create man in his image and likeness and that he actually did so. For this first man he also created a perfect wife. When he thus finished his creative work respecting our earth, God took an overall view of his work and he pronounced it to be “very good.” God the Creator is the best critic in all existence, and when he pronounced his earthly work “very good,” it was indeed so. (Gen. 1:26-31) In this “very good” state of human perfection man got his start, this indicating that God the Creator purposed to rule over intelligent earthly creatures with whom he could deal on the basis of their perfection, a man and woman who reflected what God was and who could appreciate what God was and who would be able to yield perfect obedience to him, even in the smallest thing, as well as in all other things.

14. What type of living conditions for the perfect man and woman did God purpose, and how is this evident from the Bible account at Genesis 2:8-15?

¹⁴ What kind of living conditions did God’s rule mean for that perfect first man and woman? Poor, slummy, crowded living quarters in a polluted atmosphere and general environment? Or in a jungle where he was constantly in danger of being attacked by ferocious wild animals or vipers? To do so would have been inconsiderate, inconsistent, unloving on the perfect God’s part. Only perfect conditions would be suitable for his perfect human creatures. A paradise of Eden, a garden of pleasure! In proof that God’s rule is good for its subjects, Genesis 2:8-15 tells us: “Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, toward the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Thus Jehovah God made to grow out of the ground every tree desirable to one’s sight and good for food and also the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. . . . And Jehovah God proceeded to take the man and settle him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to take care of it.”

15. What ability did the perfect man in God’s image have, and so why was the limitation of Genesis 2:16, 17 placed on the perfect man?

¹⁵ God created this perfect man, who bore God’s “image and likeness,” with the ability to appreciate law and order. In order to keep this perfect intelligent creature aware of the fact that he was responsible to his Creator and was subject to God’s rule, God placed a simple limitation upon him, a small one indeed but one that would therefore prove the perfectness of his obedience. Genesis 2:16, 17 informs us: “And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: ‘From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.’” God as Creator and Lawgiver was perfectly within his right in laying such a command upon his human creation. It did not imply that the man had criminal tendencies that needed to be legislated against to curb his wicked inclinations. It merely asked for him to restrain himself in one small regard in order to show respect for his Creator and perfect love for his heavenly Father.

16. To what would obedience on the part of the man lead, and of what remind him?

¹⁶ The man, being newly created, had yet to prove his obedience to his invisible heavenly Creator, and his keeping of this simple command would lead him to perfect his obedience to God. It would remind him that his enjoying everlasting life in happiness in a paradise earth depended upon perfect obedience to his Creator God and Father. Thereafter the perfect man had to decide whether he desired to continue forever under God’s rule or not.

17. What further law or command did Jehovah place on the first man and woman in the paradise of Eden, and was it a good law or a bad one?

¹⁷ It was after this that God created a wife in lovely perfection for the man and married them. In order to inform the man and woman why he had put them on earth and had married them in the paradise of Eden, Jehovah God stated his further law to this perfect couple. It was not a law for them to refrain from doing anything bad, but it was a law for them to do good to the very ends of the earth, and this under God’s blessing. Genesis 1:28 tells us: “Further, God blessed them and God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.’”

18. (a) What was not included in man’s authority on this earth? (b) Who, then, was to rule over man, and with what result?

¹⁸ Ah yes, “have in subjection” all the lower animal creations, but not have in subjection all other human creatures who as their offspring and descendants would in due time fill the earth that would be subdued to a paradise beauty everywhere. God issued to the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, no commission to set up man’s rule over humankind. God’s rule, that then obtained there in the garden of Eden, was to continue, and all the perfect offspring of Adam and Eve were to be subject to God’s rule. It was to be a pure, ideal theocracy, with no human priests or pope. What would this mean for all mankind under such rule by the invisible God and heavenly Father? Everlasting life in human perfection, in peace and happiness, in an earth-embracing paradise!

START OF MAN’S RULE

19. How, then, did man’s rule get its start on earth, and who was responsible for starting such rule?

¹⁹ Under such paradise conditions, with such wondrous divinely ordained goals set before one, who would want to start man’s rule in the earth? In fact, who started man’s rule such as we have today throughout the earth? When was it started? Man himself started it, back there in the paradise of pleasure almost six thousand years ago. Before they started filling the earth with perfect offspring, the woman Eve and the man Adam did so. It took only one small act to do so, and that was to break the law of God’s rule against the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. Adam and Eve’s doing so was induced, not by God their Creator and Father, but by a newly arisen rebel who opposed God’s rule, not only in the earth but throughout all heaven. In the language of Adam and Eve their word for “Resister” or “Opposer” was Satan, and for this reason this original rebel against God’s rule in heaven and earth is called in God’s written Word “Satan.”

20. In what way did Satan suggest that breaking God’s law would lead to desirable results for Eve, and what promise was he falsely holding out for the first human couple?

²⁰ Satan was not visible to Adam and Eve, for he is a superhuman, invisible spirit creature. By tricky use of a serpent or snake in the garden of Eden and making human speech appear to come forth from it, he first suggested to the unsuspecting Eve the desirability of breaking the law of God’s rule and the setting up of man’s rule on earth. With regard to God’s warning of the punishment of death for eating disobediently from the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, Satan said through the serpent: “You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” (Gen. 3:1-5) In other words, Eve and Adam did not need God’s rule in order to know what was good and what was bad. By breaking his law and eating the forbidden fruit, they would become like God their Creator in ability to know good and bad and they could set up their own standards of good and bad and of right and wrong. Thus they would enjoy man’s rule and this would give them independence and freedom. Did ever any politician use any argument slicker than that?

21, 22. (a) Because first Eve and then Adam decided for human rule, what did Jehovah now do, and how was this really a merciful action on his part? (b) What words of condemnation did he have for Satan the Devil?

²¹ First Eve decided for human rule of mankind, and then she prevailed upon her husband Adam to decide for man’s rule of man. (Gen. 3:6, 7) The garden of Eden was God’s earthly realm, where God’s rule or theocracy should hold sway; it was no place for man’s rule. So God the Creator drove them out of the garden of Eden, under condemnation of death. He could have executed them in death on that very same twenty-four-hour day, but mercifully did not do so. He had purposed that Adam and Eve should have offspring, and he stuck to this purpose. Why? In order that he might have mercy upon their offspring and might reestablish divine rule or theocracy over them in the earth. Thus he would vindicate his own universal sovereignty as the Great Theocrat and also vindicate his purpose in placing man upon this earth. His self-respecting purpose to do this was really behind the belligerent declaration that he now made to the serpent who pictures Satan the Devil:

²² “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.”—Gen. 3:15.

23. What Biblical guarantees do we have that Jehovah continues to hold to his original purpose to rule this earth himself?

²³ That vindicative purpose Jehovah God has stuck to for all these millenniums of time till now. In the first century of our Common Era he inspired the Christian apostle Paul to write to the faithful Christians in Rome: “I want you to be wise as to what is good, but innocent as to what is evil. For his part, the God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.” (Rom. 16:19, 20) Furthermore, the last book of the Bible, called Revelation or Apocalypse, is undergoing fulfillment in our very day, and it describes in symbolic vision how Satan the Devil and his wicked seed will be crushed and bruised in the head. (Rev. 19:11 to 20:10) This is all a guarantee that Jehovah God still holds to his original purpose to destroy Satan, who wickedly instigated man’s rule in the earth, and will reestablish God’s rule, theocracy, here. It is positively certain, therefore, that Almighty God has purposed to let man’s rule continue in the earth for only a limited time. That time is now very near its end. For this we should be glad!

MAN’S RULE DISASTROUS—GOD’S RULE THE REMEDY

24. Cite examples to show that man’s rule from the start has not had the blessing of the Creator.

²⁴ Yielding to Satan the Devil, the first man and woman chose man’s rule. So God let them have it, not inside the theocratic garden of Eden, but outside it. There God let Adam and Eve and their offspring have man’s rule till now. In view of the way in which it got started on the earth, could it have the blessing of the only living and true God, the Creator of man? The answer to that question is found in the answer to the question, Is there any evidence to show that man’s rule has had the blessing of the God whose rule man has rejected? The true-to-fact answer is No! The first man born to Adam and Eve committed murder upon his own godly brother and afterward started the building of cities, with all the problems of city government and life. (Gen. 4:1-17) Fifteen centuries after that the inhabited earth became so filled with violence of corrupt-minded people that God wiped out that human society and its cities in a world-engulfing flood.—Gen. 6:1 to 7:24.

25. (a) What happened to man’s rule at the time of the Flood? (b) What command given to Adam and Eve did Jehovah now repeat to the Flood survivors, resulting in what today?

²⁵ Had that global flood not occurred, the world population would have been greater today, the world’s population explosion would have come sooner with all its problems of jobs for everybody, food for everybody, housing adequate for everybody, tax burdens and increasing costs of governments. The human family started off anew with only eight survivors of the Flood, or with four married couples. For a time man’s rule was wiped out by this “act of God,” the Flood. The prophet Noah, who was instructed by Jehovah God to build the great ark for the preserving alive of himself and his immediate family, was a believer in God’s rule. After the Flood he continued walking with God, just as he had done before the Flood. (Gen. 6:8, 9; 8:18-22) Jehovah God gave Noah and the three sons His laws for living in the post-Flood earth and, as he had said to Adam and Eve, so he said to Noah and his sons to multiply their offspring and make the earth swarm with their descendants. (Gen. 9:1-7) Do we have a swarm of people on earth today, more than forty-three centuries after the Flood? Yes, according to the opinion of some, but not too great a swarm, only badly distributed.

26. (a) How did man’s rule again get started on a notable scale? (b) How was Nimrod like Cain, and was this a good thing for the people?

²⁶ The earliest effort to set up man’s rule again on a notable scale came in the days of Noah’s great-grandson named Nimrod the son of Cush. Note how the Bible, in Genesis 10:8-12, describes it: “And Cush became father to Nimrod. He made the start in becoming a mighty one in the earth. He displayed himself a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah. That is why there is a saying: ‘Just like Nimrod a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.’ And the beginning of his kingdom came to be Babel [or, Babylon] and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land he went forth into Assyria and set himself to building Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah and Resen between Nineveh and Calah: this is the great city.” The beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom at Babel or Babylon was not the beginning of the kingdom of God, a theocracy. It was the outstanding beginning of man’s rule under Nimrod, the “mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.” Like the murderer Cain, Nimrod began herding people into cities under his control. Was that a good thing? For the correct answer we have only to look at the mounting problems to which that small beginning has led today!

27. (a) Has there been any rule by God since Nimrod’s day, and, if so, when and where? (b) Who was the king, and what type of government was it called by Josephus?

²⁷ Ever since Nimrod’s day we have had man’s rule in the earth. During all these thousands of years have we had any rule of God, a kingdom of God, a theocracy? Yes, but only on a small scale, only a miniature foreview of the coming theocracy, the coming kingdom of God. When was this? In the year 1513 before our Common Era, in the days of the prophet Moses, and for nine centuries after that, or down till 607 B.C.E. After delivering Moses and his people from the then dominant world power, Egypt, God assembled them at Mount Sinai in the Arabian Peninsula. There he organized them as a nation and gave them the basic Ten Commandments and hundreds of related laws and also a system of religious worship that was pure and acceptable to him. He gave them strict rules and laws for a clean, helpful priesthood. He gave them no visible king. He himself was their invisible heavenly King, their Lawgiver, their Judge as well as their God. (Ex. 15:18-21; 19:1 to 20:26; Isa. 33:22) That was, as the historian Flavius Josephus of our first century calls it, a “theocracy” over one nation of earth.

28. Was there anything wrong with such theocracy, and, if not, why did the people lose out on the Creator’s blessing and protection?

²⁸ As in the case of the theocracy in the garden of Eden, we ask, What was wrong with this post-Flood theocracy? Nothing! And as long as that nation lived in harmony with that theocracy or expression of God’s rule they had his protection and blessing and prospered in their God-given land, over there in the Middle East. Only when the people forgot Jehovah God their King and Ruler and departed from his worship and broke his laws and followed the customs and worship of the surrounding pagan nations, they got into trouble. For their disciplining, Jehovah God let them come under man’s rule as exercised by pagan nations nearby. Only when the afflicted people sorrowed over their wrong, unfaithful course and pleaded to come under God’s rule again, He delivered them from their oppressors and gave them theocratic freedom and favor again.—Judg. 1:1 to 16:31; 21:25; Acts 13:16-20.

29. Why do the descendants of that people ruled by God not have a theocracy today?

²⁹ The descendants of that people who were then under God’s rule or theocracy have survived for thousands of years down to this day and even have nationhood. Why do they have a democratic republic today, and not a theocracy? It was because of a faithless desire that they expressed long ago for man’s rule like that of the pagan nations right around them. Lacking faith in their invisible heavenly King, Jehovah God, they asked the prophet Samuel to set a visible human king over the nation.

30. What did God instruct his prophet Samuel to do when His people asked for a visible, human king?

³⁰ Samuel believed in theocracy or God’s rule, and he was very much upset over their request. But Jehovah God said to Samuel: “Listen to the voice of the people as respects all that they say to you; for it is not you whom they have rejected, but it is I whom they have rejected from being king over them.” Under God’s direction, Samuel told the people about all the problems and burdens that having a visible human king over them would bring, but the people persisted in demanding such a human king. (1 Sam. 8:1-22) So God instructed Samuel to anoint such a human king over the nation. How did this form of man’s rule work out?

MINIATURE KINGDOM OF GOD BY HIS ANOINTED ONE

31. What kind of kings did Saul, David and Solomon prove to be in Israel?

³¹ The first king anointed was Saul the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin. Because of later on disobeying God’s commands and at last going over to demonistic spiritism King Saul proved to be a failure. (1 Chron. 10:1-14; Acts 13:20, 21) Then God set up as king over the nation of his people the former shepherd boy of Bethlehem, David the son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah. Because of David’s devotion to the worship of Jehovah God, there was given to him God’s promise or covenant to set up a dynasty of kings in David’s royal family forever. (Acts 13:22; 2 Sam. 2:1 to 7:17) Accordingly David’s beloved son Solomon became his successor to the throne, to rule at Jerusalem as the visible representative of God. About this we read, in 1 Chronicles 29:23: “And Solomon began to sit upon Jehovah’s throne as king in place of David his father and to make a success of it, and all the Israelites were obedient to him.” It was in the days of wise King Solomon that this form of theocracy with a visible human king sitting “upon Jehovah’s throne” at Jerusalem reached its peak of prosperity and glory.

32. Describe conditions for the people under the rule of theocratic King Solomon. Of what was this a prophetic picture?

³² Contrast the condition of all the man-ruled nations of our twentieth century with the historical account of the reign of theocratic King Solomon, as found in 1 Kings 4:24, 25: “And peace itself became his in every region of his, all around. And Judah and Israel continued to dwell in security, everyone under his own vine and under his own fig tree, from Dan to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.” There was an abundance of people in the nation, but there was no food problem, no starvation creeping up upon the nation. Rather, 1 Kings 4:20 reports: “Judah and Israel were many, like the grains of sand that are by the sea for multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing.” This was, not only an example of the blessings of the people under God’s rule or theocracy, but also something more important: it was a prophetic picture of the coming blessings for all mankind under God’s kingdom in the hands of his heavenly Son, Jesus Christ, who has proved to be wiser and greater than ancient Solomon.—Matt. 12:42.

33. (a) What led to a loss of blessings and protection that Israel had under Solomon’s theocratic rule? (b) What does history show happened first to the separated kingdom of Israel and then to Judah under the dynasty of King David’s family?

³³ Since the blessings of that ancient miniature, limited theocracy were so great, why do not the natural descendants of Solomon’s people enjoy the blessings of theocracy today, enjoying God’s rule? The answer of God’s written Word is plain: the worship of false gods, the gods of the ancient pagan nations, worked its way into the nation of Jehovah’s favored, chosen people. This took them away from God’s rule and put them under the rule of demons exercised through the demon-worshiping pagan nations. After King Solomon’s death the nation was broken into two parts, in the year 997 B.C.E. The larger part lasted as a separate kingdom for 257 years and was finally swallowed up by the Assyrian World Power in 740 B.C.E. The smaller part continued as a kingdom, with capital at Jerusalem, under the dynasty of King David’s family, more than a century longer, until 607 B.C.E. Then the Almighty God, in fulfillment of his own prophecies, permitted the kingdom of Jerusalem to be overturned by the world power of Babylon. (2 Ki. 25:1-26; 2 Chron. 36:11-21; Ezek. 21:18-27) With that disastrous event the typical theocracy of Jehovah God in the earth went out of existence.

34. (a) Under whose rule did the restored people of God come after seventy years in Babylon? (b) When God’s Son Jesus came to earth, how was he received by the religious leaders of the Jews?

³⁴ From that year 607 B.C.E. onward man’s rule has dominated all the earth till now. True, Jehovah God mercifully brought back his repentant remnant from exile in Babylon after seventy years of desolation of the land of Judah and Jerusalem, but he did not reestablish the typical theocracy among his restored people. They were then in subjection to the Persian World Power, until the Macedonian or Grecian World Power overthrew Persia. Finally, in the first century B.C.E., the Roman World Power took control over them, and in the days of Emperor Caesar Augustus, Jesus Christ was born in David’s town of Bethlehem and as a royal descendant of King David. (Luke 2:1-20) By his teachings, his miraculous cures even to raising the dead, and by his fulfillment of prophecies, this Jesus proved that he was the promised Messiah or Christ, and yet religious leaders of Jerusalem did not want this true Heir of King David to be their King to rule in the name of Jehovah God. They falsely accused him before the Roman governor as being a seditionist who claimed to be a king. So whose rule did they want?

35. (a) How did such religious leaders show they preferred man’s rule to God’s rule? (b) To what did man’s rule lead in the year 70 C.E.?

³⁵ When the Roman governor asked these accusers: “Shall I impale your king?” the chief priests, who should have been theocratic, led the crowd in shouting back: “We have no king but Caesar.” (John 19:1-15) Thus they cried out for man’s rule instead of for God’s rule by his Messiah of the royal family line of David. They got it. But thirty-three years after Jesus Christ was impaled, buried and resurrected from the dead to heavenly life, they rebelled against Caesar as king. God did not help them, but man’s rule by Caesar prevailed, and in the year 70 C.E. over a million of the rebels were killed, 97,000 were carried away into slavery, and Jerusalem and her magnificent temple of worship were destroyed. All this fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus Christ, who said: “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.”—Luke 21:20-24.

MAN’S RULE UNDER SATAN’S RULE

36. For how long has man’s rule continued, and in reality whose rule has it been, and who says so?

³⁶ Man’s rule over all the earth has continued on down to the end of those appointed times of the nations in the year 1914 C.E. Those “appointed times of the nations,” the Gentile Times, began back in 607 B.C.E. at the first destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian World Power, which meant the overturning of the typical theocracy, the typical kingdom of Jehovah God in the hands of a royal descendant of King David. Those Gentile Times continued on after the second destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman World Power. It can be proved from God’s written Word the Bible that those Gentile Times were due to run for 2,520 years from Jerusalem’s first destruction, or until the year 1914 of our twentieth century. During all those years the world of mankind has suffered under man’s rule. It has really been Satan’s rule, for Jesus Christ pointed to Satan the Devil as “the ruler of this world,” and the Christian apostle Paul called him “the god of this system of things.” (John 12:31; 14:30; 2 Cor. 4:4) Not even the establishment of religious Christendom in the fourth century brought in the kingdom of God or God’s rule. It has been Satanic!

37. What is the state of earth’s affairs now after more than 2,520 years of man’s rule?

³⁷ After now more than the 2,520 years of the Gentile Times, what promise does man’s rule give of peace and stability and security, prosperity and plenty, to the world of mankind? What promise has man’s rule given of fulfilling the commission given to the perfect Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden to subdue all the earth and convert it into a global paradise for mankind’s everlasting happy home? Well, after the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 man’s rule brought on two world wars and an era of violence surpassing even that of Noah’s days before the flood. Since the end of World War II in 1945 man’s rule has made this earth an arsenal for the stockpiling of atomic and nuclear bombs of frightful killing power. The problem of poverty has become tougher than ever, while at the same time the ruining of the earth rapidly proceeds.

38. What proof have we that mankind in general today has no desire for the earth to be ruled by God?

³⁸ Does mankind in general today want God’s rule because of the difficulties and mortal dangers into which they have come? Hardly. Mankind in general fights, not only against the laws of God as set out in the Holy Bible, but also against the laws of God’s creation, which scientific men call “Nature.” In demonstration of this note what was discussed and brought out at the sessions of the American Association for the Advancement of Science as held in New York city during the last week of the year 1967. It showed the damage that man in this scientific, nuclear, space age is doing to his natural environment. The so-called “balance of nature” is being destroyed. The amount of oxygen for mankind to be breathed is being reduced. The earth’s soil and waters are being befouled for the commercial profits of modern industry. The intricate network of natural processes for the maintenance of animal and human life is being disrupted.

39. What warning was contained in a New York Times editorial entitled “Man versus Nature”?

³⁹ One university professor said that man’s environment is being put under a stress “to the point of collapse” and that our planet earth is getting close to “a crisis which may destroy its suitability as a place for human society.” In the closing paragraph of its editorial on the subject “Man versus Nature,” the New York Times, under date of January 1, 1968, said: “Earth’s capacity to support human life is finite. If that limit is exceeded vast disasters could result—and some of those disasters may not be far off. What is implied in these discussions is a direct challenge to popular ideas about ‘progress.’ Humans can survive only if the natural environment that has produced and supported it is protected against the powerful threats that now impinge as man uses godlike powers with much less than godlike wisdom.”

40. How is it undeniably plain that man is unable to rule himself?

⁴⁰ Viewed from the standpoint of the world situation today, it is becoming undeniably plain that man is unable to rule himself. He is unable to survive by his own human efforts and without the help, guidance and blessing of the God who created man and all the laws that govern man’s environment. From sheer necessity of man’s present extremity, the time has come when God simply has to take over the rule of this earth for the saving of the human race.

GOD’S TIME AT HAND!

41. (a) Besides man’s urgent necessity for God’s rulership, what else of even greater importance needs consideration? (b) Will man give up his rule of earth peacefully, and, if not, what will be necessary?

⁴¹ However, man’s urgent necessity is not alone the thing that dictates that the Almighty God and Creator must take over the rulership of all the earth by his Messianic kingdom. God’s own self-appointed time dictates that he now reestablish his rule on earth. In spite of human rulers and their political supporters who feel that man’s rule absolutely has to be carried forward in order to avoid world disaster, God as a precise Timekeeper will follow his own time clock and at the exact time he will restore theocracy, God’s rule, to this planet, over all the earth. His time is near, which is why man’s rule is about to give way to God’s rule. Man’s rule will not give way peacefully, but human rulers will continue to fight against God’s kingdom to maintain their domination of all the earth. Man’s rule will therefore have to give way under defeat and destruction brought upon it in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at what is called Armageddon. (Rev. 16:14, 16) God’s rule will triumph and prevail on earth forevermore.

42. (a) When did man’s uninterrupted Gentile rule of earth cease, and how can we be assured that this is so? (b) What was established in 1914 to replant God’s rule in the earth?

⁴² It is not mere imagination for us to say that the Gentile Times of man’s rule under Satan’s rule ended in the year 1914 C.E. This bold fact is proved by the world war beginning that year and followed by famines, pestilences, earthquakes, religious persecution and international distress and perplexity, just as foretold by Jesus Christ in his prophecy on the “conclusion of the system of things.” (Matt. 24:3-12; Luke 21:10-19) The ending of the Gentile Times in that unforgettable year meant that God’s kingdom in the hands of descendants of the royal line of King David that was overturned at Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. was reestablished, not at earthly Jerusalem over in the Middle East, but in the heavens. Its authority was put into the hands of God’s resurrected Son, Jesus Christ, who as a man on earth was the rightful and permanent heir to the throne of King David. (Luke 1:26-37) That kingdom now rules at the “heavenly Jerusalem” far beyond any power of the Gentile nations to trample upon it. That heavenly kingdom of the Christ will be the divine means to replant God’s rule in the earth.

43. Through whom will Jehovah displace man’s rule, and what is to happen to the symbolic serpent who promoted man’s rule originally?

⁴³ All honest persons who have lost faith in man’s rule have solid reason now to rejoice that man’s rule is about to give way to God’s rule. For over sixteen centuries Christendom has hypocritically prayed the “Lord’s prayer” but at the same time individual genuine Christians have also prayed the prayer, “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:9, 10) The heavenly Father will without fail answer this prayer that was taught by his own faithful Son, Jesus Christ. The taking place of God’s will here on earth as also in the heavens means that God’s rule will displace man’s rule and will be enforced over all the earth by his kingdom in which his heavenly Son Jesus Christ reigns. He primarily is the Seed of God’s woman that was promised in the garden of Eden about six thousand years ago. He, then, is the particular One that will bruise the symbolic serpent, Satan the Devil, in the head. (Gen. 3:15; Rom. 16:20) That symbolic Serpent was the One that promoted and maneuvered man’s rule in the earth ever since man rebelled in Eden.

44. (a) What parallel of survival forty-three centuries ago does a “great crowd” of earthly lovers of God’s rule look forward to today? (b) What will be their attitude under God’s rule in the new order on earth?

⁴⁴ Forty-three centuries ago Noah and his family in the ark survived the end of the “world of ungodly people” through the flood. (2 Pet. 2:5; 3:5, 6) In a parallel fashion, in this generation a relatively “great crowd” of earthly lovers of God’s rule, who pray for his kingdom to come, will survive the violent end of man’s rule in the earth. Under God’s protection they will realize their hope of being preserved through the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Armageddon and of entering into God’s new order on earth. There they will wholeheartedly submit to God’s rule. They will not be like the faithless people of the prophet Samuel’s day and demand to have a visible, earthly, human king over them. They will rejoice in the invisible heavenly King whom Jehovah God has installed in royal power and will lovingly and faithfully obey him. Their blessings under God’s rule through this heavenly King, Jesus Christ, will be far greater than those enjoyed by the people under the reign of wise King Solomon.

45. In addition to preserving a “great crowd” through Armageddon, what else will God’s rule through his Messianic kingdom do?

⁴⁵ Man’s rule today, reinforced by stockpiles of nuclear bombs, threatens to annihilate the whole human race. God’s rule through his Messianic kingdom will do more than preserve the lives of those who survive the war of Armageddon. It will restore to life on earth the unnumbered thousands of millions who died during the thousands of years of man’s rule. When a man on earth, Jesus Christ promised that there would be a resurrection of the dead for whom he laid down his perfect human life as a sacrifice. (John 5:25, 28, 29; 11:25, 26) As heavenly King he will see to it that such resurrection takes place. The wonderfulness of it all is beyond our powers to comprehend.

46. What opportunity will be offered mankind in God’s Messianic kingdom, and so in what should we now rejoice?

⁴⁶ To all those granted the gracious favor of living in the paradise earth under God’s rule as enforced by his Messianic kingdom the opportunity will be offered of gaining endless life in human perfection and godliness, with perfect peace and security. Man’s rule could never bring this about. God’s rule will do so. How glad, then, we can be that man’s rule is now about to give way to God’s rule forevermore!

[Picture on page 617]

ACCURATE HISTORY—HOLY BIBLE

SUMERIA

EGYPT

ASSYRIA

PERSIA

MACEDON

GREECE

ROME

[Pictures on page 625]

Solomon’s reign was accompanied by peace, security and plenty

Wise Use of Bible Tracts

● In the United States a woman benefited from the wise use of Bible tracts. One of her workmates in her place of employment in Maryland was a witness of Jehovah. One day she asked the Witness questions about the various religions. Could they all be right? Since time was limited at her place of employment, the Witness gave her the Bible tracts Which Is the Right Religion? and What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Believe?, encouraging her to read them. After reading them, she wanted more information; and a home Bible study was started. Four months after first receiving the Bible tracts, this woman was attending meetings at the Kingdom Hall and sharing in the Kingdom ministry.

God’s Name and Christendom

WHILE the church service proceeds in many of Europe’s religious buildings, attenders may chance to look around them and examine the ornate furnishings, the intricate carved work, the frescoes and murals that embellish walls and ceilings—mementos of the Baroque Period of European art. Observant ones will note many symbols and try to figure out what they all mean. There is one symbol among them that may well be puzzling. What can it be?

Often it occupies the most exalted place in the scheme of decoration, so it must be representative of something or someone quite important. It looks like a word of four letters—but, to most people, very strange letters. Frequently the four letters are framed in a triangle that is set amid a brilliant sunburst, either painted or sculptured. What is the meaning of this mysterious symbol that is not even mentioned during church services?

Well, the dictionary has a word for it, a word from the Greek language meaning “four letters.” It is “Tetragrammaton.” It is defined as “the four Hebrew letters usually transliterated YHWH or JHVH that form a biblical proper name of God.” Does it not seem rather odd that there is a Biblical proper name for God and yet clergymen have very little, if anything, to say about it?

PERHAPS IN YOUR CHURCH

Many churches and cathedrals, particularly those dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and even earlier, feature this divine name in Tetragrammaton form. Perhaps it is to be found in your church. Why not look around and find out?

The church at Steinhausen, Germany, for example, has a fresco on the ceiling depicting angels and clouds, the central position occupied by a triangle framing the four-letter name. And far above the altar of the Catholic Basilica in Gossweinstein, Frankish Switzerland, the same symbol appears amid a gilded sunburst. Other locations in Germany where God’s proper name appears in Hebrew lettering are: the Basilica at Ottobeuren; the parish church of St. Trudpert, Minstertal; the Catholic Church at Vilseck, Oberpfalz; the monastery church of the Benedictines at St. George, Isny, Allgäu; the palace chapel of Zeil Palace, near Leutkirch, Allgäu; the Lorenz Church in Kempten, Allgäu.

Since God’s personal name was important enough to be placed in such prominent positions when those churches were built, why is this four-letter Hebrew word not explained to parishioners? Why, in fact, is it usually studiously avoided by clergymen? Is there something embarrassing about this name to modern theologians? Could their tendency to shy away from this subject be due, as some claim, to the fact that the original vowel sounds with which the name was pronounced in ancient Hebrew are no longer known? No, that can hardly be accepted as an adequate reason, for then all of the other proper names in the Hebrew Scriptures would have been dropped—names such as Abraham, Joshua, Melchizedek, and so on. Can you imagine a history without names?

Netherlands clergyman Hellmut Rosin admits that ecclesiastics had to make a decision, in face of the more than 7,000 occurrences of God’s personal name in the original Scriptures. The choice before them, according to this religious spokesman, was ‘to take this sacred name seriously or view it as only a matter of historical interest.’

That some clergymen of an earlier era did take it seriously is obvious. Inside the dome of the Nordlingen Church, Germany, this name dominates the scene. In a ceiling mural of yet another church at Salem, near the Boden See, Moses is depicted at the burning thornbush, and the Tetragrammaton serves as the symbol of God’s presence. Still other occurrences of the name are to be seen in the monastery church in Schöntal, in a church at Waldenburg, twenty miles from Stuttgart, in the monastery of Speinsharth in Kemnath/Bayreuth, Bavaria, and in the Evangelical Church at Fürstenau.

In Strasbourg’s cathedral church, to the left of the clock, is a circle containing three words, one under the other: the Tetragrammaton, and the word for “God” in Greek and in Latin. And not only in Germany, but in Roman Catholicism’s own homeland there are examples of the four-letter divine name. On the facade of the Basilica of St. Victor in Varese it appears prominently in the pediment over the main entrance. Even in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome there are at least two occurrences of the name.

Is it not to be expected, then, that Catholics should know something about this personal name of God—a name so prominent in church decoration? Yet the experience of a visitor to the cathedral in Toledo, Spain, indicates that this is by no means the case. In this church the artist El Greco included the four-letter Hebrew name in one of his famed murals. The visitor was erroneously informed by a tour guide, a professor from Barcelona University, that these four letters stood for “Gloria Maria” in cryptographic Latin.

HOW DOES CHRISTENDOM EXALT GOD’S NAME?

Christendom’s churches, Catholic and Protestant, have made free use of the Bible’s book of Psalms in their liturgies. Yet her parishioners must often be in doubt about who is the subject of their formal praise songs, the Lord Jesus Christ or the Father of Christ Jesus. Throughout the original text of the Psalms the four-letter Hebrew name of God appears more frequently than in any other Bible book, and the underlying theme of the Psalms is powerfully expressed in the words of Psalm 34, verse 3: “O magnify Jehovah with me, you people, and let us exalt his name together.” But worshipers in Christendom’s churches sing about an anonymous “Lord.”

Instead of magnifying the name of the Sovereign God, clerical policy has been to keep silent about the divine name. In fact, theologian Johann D. Michaelis, whose eighteenth-century translations of the Hebrew Scriptures frequently have the German form “Jehova,” admits that his “friends insisted that I not at all insert this foreign word.” Who those “friends” were he does not say, but in response he told them that ordinary integrity as a translator demanded that he reproduce the proper name of God just as other proper names, such as Abraham, Isaac and Joshua, were reproduced.

Meantime, renovation of religious buildings has scarcely kept pace with the brainwashing of Christendom’s divinity students. In the cathedral at Grenoble, France, can be seen an example of the four-letter name, though it is upside down; also in Switzerland, in the Jesuit church at Einsiedeln, in the canton of Schwyz, it appears high up in the ceiling. And in St. Martin’s Church at Olten, Switzerland, in the prominent place usually occupied by the Tetragrammaton, church decorators have placed the name JEHOVAH, spelled out in full.

There can be no doubt that ecclesiastical respect for the One “whose name alone is JEHOVAH” (Ps. 83:18, AV) has greatly diminished. Queen Elizabeth I of England, for example, as titular head of the English Catholic Church, ascribed to Jehovah, rightly or wrongly, deliverance from the Spanish Armada, for her commemorative medal declares: “יהוה [not ‘God’ or ‘LORD’] blew with his wind and they were scattered.” But under her successor, King James, religious dignitaries who undertook the translation of the English Authorized Version Bible determined to follow superstitious custom and uniformly insert “LORD” or “GOD” in almost every occurrence of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton.

Nonetheless, visitors to St. Nicholas Chapel, on England’s Isle of Wight, can still see the Tetragrammaton in a prominent place on the ceiling. And in the royal city of Edinburgh, over the entrance of the choir room of St. Mary’s Cathedral, the name “JEHOVA” appears in an inscription dated 1614. Also, the city of Plymouth has, on its municipal coat of arms the legend: “The name of Jehovah is the strongest tower.” (Prov. 18:10) Even Westminster Abbey, London, is not without its specimen of the four-letter Hebrew name of the Creator.

King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway (1588-1648) was another monarch of Christendom who professed recognition of Jehovah. On Copenhagen’s Round Tower, on Købmagergade, completed in 1642, he arranged for a rebus inscription that may be translated: “May true teaching and righteousness guide, Jehovah, in the heart of the crowned Christian IV.” Elsewhere in Denmark are to be found examples of prominent use of the Tetragrammaton: above the altarpiece in St. Paul’s Church on Bornholm; in churches at Tønder and Møgeltønder; on the outside gable of the Holmens Kirke (Dockyard Church) in Copenhagen.

King Christian also accorded to the four-letter Hebrew name of the Creator a prominent place on the ceiling of the hall at Frederiksborg Castle, Hilleröd. Also, one of his coins, dated 1644, bears the inscription “יהוה Justus Judex” or “Jehovah the righteous Judge.”

In Sweden, in the Church of St. Mary, Hälsingborg, the Tetragrammaton appears in a rail before the altar. In Finland it is to be noted over the west door of St. Charles Church in Helsinki, as well as in Kuopio Cathedral, the new church in Kauhajoki, East Bothnia, in an old church in the market town of Lohja, and in Oulu Cathedral in the north.

As part of the religious decoration of the Baroque Period the Tetragrammaton symbol found its way across the ocean to the Americas. In St. Paul’s Chapel, Trinity Parish, New York city, a structure completed in 1776, the four Hebrew letters of the divine name appear immediately above the altar. Also, they are to be noted at the center of the arch above the altar, in a gilded, wooden cartouche depicting the rays of the sun. Also, in Trinity Church on Wall Street, in stained-glass windows above the altar, appear letters that are representative of the divine name.

But now, Christendom’s representatives are prepared to forget about God’s own personal name. The inspired Word of God, on the one hand, declares: “Everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.” (Rom. 10:13; Joel 2:32) But modernist clergymen share the attitude voiced by a Canadian cleric: “The name that people give to God is also unimportant. He is not likely to listen to their prayers less carefully because they address him as ‘Allah,’ or even, like the North American Indians, as ‘Manitou.’” They ignore the fact that it is not a question of what the people name God, but rather the name that He himself announces as his own personal one.—Isa. 42:8.

THE MYSTERY MAINTAINED

So the policy of keeping quiet about the sacred name is followed throughout Christendom. The significance of that four-letter symbol that dominates so much of church decoration remains a mystery to most churchgoers. Perhaps they view it as just one more of the mysteries of their religion—something they will never be able to fathom. While they repeat the words of the Lord’s Prayer, “hallowed [or sanctified] be thy name,” few worshipers—whether in the church at Palafrugell-Gerona, Spain, or in Belgium’s huge Arlon Cathedral, or in Luxembourg’s churches at Differdange and Dudelange, or in the Cathedral Church of St. Charles in Vienna, Austria—are aware of the relationship of that symbol on their church walls and the prayer they are voicing.

Of course, modern clerics have particular reason, so they think, for maintaining a ban on God’s own personal name as regards their religious services. This is the era of ecumenism, when stress is laid, not on what one believes, but on how far one is prepared to yield on Bible principles in order to achieve a deceptive union of religionists with divergent views. To Bible-forsakers the God of the Bible, under his own chosen name, Jehovah, is too stern, too much of a disciplinarian, too intolerant of lies, hypocrisy and moral delinquencies—a God who demands of his worshipers exclusive devotion.—Nah. 1:2.

Thus, in producing modern Bible translations, Christendom’s theologians and translators prefer to drop the Tetragrammaton or the more understandable Jehovah or Yahweh, and substitute some more neutral-sounding expression such as “Lord.” However, the Bible assigns no other name to the true God, though it does describe him under various titles. It has only one personal name for God—a name that he himself proclaims and that we should not ignore.—Ex. 34:5-7.

CHRISTENDOM’S FAILURE

The failure of Christendom to magnify God’s own personal name is one of the powerful indications that she has outlived her usefulness. Even in the face of so many examples of where the sacred name was at one time the object of higher regard, clergymen today have banished the name from their formal services. They cavil about the form of the name, whether it should be Jehovah, Yahweh, Yahve, and so on, and in the end decide to forget about it and substitute the vague title “Lord.”

But this failure on the part of ecclesiastics is not allowed to pass unnoticed. Long ago the God of the Bible declared: “My name will be great among the nations.” (Mal. 1:11) He has raised up witnesses in this time of the end loudly to proclaim his name and fame to the ends of the earth. Those Christian witnesses of Jehovah are fully aware of their responsibility to follow faithfully in the steps of the chief Witness, Christ Jesus. They keep ever mindful of the fact that during his ministry on earth Christ Jesus ‘made his Father’s name known to his disciples.’ (John 17:26) They, too, as dedicated slaves of the Most High God, must make known the personal name of the true God as well as his grand purposes toward man and the earth.

[Picture on page 631]

The Tetragrammaton on the facade of the Basilica of St. Victor, Varese, Italy

[Picture on page 632]

The name JEHOVAH on the ceiling of the St. Martin’s Church, Olten, Switzerland

Why God Decreed Extermination for the Canaanites

WHAT a grand liberation it was! Jehovah God freed the Israelite descendants of faithful Abraham from oppressive slavery in Egypt. Miraculously the Red Sea opened, the Israelites escaped through the passageway dry-shod, but their Egyptian pursuers perished when God brought the held back waters down upon them. (Ex. 14:1-31) He explained to the Israelites: “I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan.”—Lev. 25:38.

In keeping with God’s decree, the Israelites under commander Joshua subjected Canaanite cities to complete destruction when they eventually came into the land. The instructions from God were: “You should without fail devote them to destruction. You must conclude no covenant with them nor show them any favor.” In obedience to this command, “Joshua proceeded to strike all the land of the mountainous region and the Negeb and the Shephelah and the slopes and all their kings. He did not let a survivor remain, and everything that breathed he devoted to destruction, just as Jehovah the God of Israel had commanded.”—Deut. 7:2; Josh. 10:40.

But was it not needlessly cruel to destroy all resisting Canaanites, including women and children? Why did God decree such a complete extermination? Many persons who have read the Bible have wondered about this. While not being critical of God, nevertheless, they have not fully understood the purpose of decreeing total destruction for the Canaanites.

WAY GIVEN THE LAND

Just prior to their entry into Canaan, Moses made clear to the Israelites why Jehovah would back them up in the conquest of the land. He explained:

“Hear, O Israel, you are today crossing the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than you . . . And you well know today that Jehovah your God is crossing before you. A consuming fire he is. He will annihilate them, and he himself will subdue them before you; and you must dispossess them and destroy them speedily, just as Jehovah has spoken to you.

“Do not say in your heart when Jehovah your God pushes them away from before you this, ‘It was for my own righteousness that Jehovah has brought me in to take possession of this land,’ . . . in fact, it is for the wickedness of these nations that Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you, and in order to carry out the word that Jehovah swore to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”—Deut. 9:1-5.

Thus, there were principally two reasons why Jehovah gave the land of Canaan to the Israelites and authorized them to dispossess the Canaanite populations. First, centuries before, God had promised this very land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And secondly, because of their extreme wickedness the Canaanite people merited destruction.

PROMISED TO THE PATRIARCHS

It was at Jehovah’s instruction that Abram or Abraham packed up his household and left his own country to travel ‘to the country that God would show him.’ The Bible record relates: “Finally they came to the land of Canaan. And Abram went on through the land as far as the site of Shechem, near the big trees of Moreh; and at that time the Canaanite was in the land. Jehovah now appeared to Abram and said: ‘To your seed I am going to give this land.’”—Gen. 12:1-7; 13:14-16.

Later Jehovah God specified the boundaries of the land, and by means of a covenant deeded it to the seed or descendants of Abraham. The Bible says: “On that day Jehovah concluded with Abram a covenant, saying: ‘To your seed I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.’” (Gen. 15:17-21) To Abraham’s son Isaac and to Isaac’s son Jacob, Jehovah God reaffirmed this covenant, promising the land to their descendants.—Gen. 26:3-6; 28:13-16.

Certainly Jehovah God, the Almighty Creator, has the sovereign right to give any portion of land to whomever he desires. As the Christian Greek Scriptures explain: God “made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth, and he decreed the appointed seasons and the set limits of the dwelling of men.” (Acts 17:26) Yes, God reserved the right to set limits or boundaries for peoples, as the Bible says: “When the Most High gave the nations an inheritance, when he parted the sons of Adam from one another, He proceeded to fix the boundary of the peoples with regard for the number of the sons of Israel.”—Deut. 32:8.

Therefore, to the Israelite descendants of blessed Abraham Jehovah God apportioned the land of Canaan. God had a very important purpose for doing this. He desired to have a special people governed by his righteous laws, and through them to bring forth the Messiah, the savior of obedient mankind. Eventually, by means of this Messianic Son of God, all nations of mankind would have the opportunity to bless themselves.

True, God could have apportioned some other land to Israel, thus making it unnecessary to dispossess the Canaanite people. But by giving this land to Israel he used them as his instruments to destroy the grossly wicked Canaanites.

A LONG HISTORY OF WICKEDNESS

The Canaanites had a long history of wickedness. They descended from Canaan, the grandson of Noah, through Ham. (Gen. 9:18) And apparently Canaan had a definitely corrupt trait, perhaps of a lustful nature, that was manifested by some abuse in connection with his grandfather Noah. Canaan’s father Ham, though having knowledge of this act, either failed to prevent it or to take disciplinary action against the offender. So Canaan received a divine curse. (Gen. 9:20-25) By means of his foreknowledge God could see the bad results in which this evil characteristic would eventually culminate among Canaan’s descendants.

Even by Abraham’s time one segment of the Canaanite population, those residing in the neighboring cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, were so given over to indulgence in loose, immoral conduct in defiance of every law, that God reduced their cities and their whole populations to ashes. Abraham had pleaded in their behalf, but not even ten righteous persons could be found in the cities.—Gen. 18:20–19:29; 9:19; 2 Pet. 2:6-8.

Also indicative of the badness of the Canaanites is the effect upon Isaac and Rebekah that their son Esau’s marriage to Canaanite wives had. The Bible says that these wives were a “source of bitterness of spirit to Isaac and Rebekah” to the extent that Rebekah had ‘come to abhor her life because of them.’—Gen. 26:34, 35; 27:46.

Therefore, Jehovah God purposed to set a limit upon the Canaanite badness, during which time it would become obvious to any honest observer that they were deserving of destruction. That period paralleled the time during which God was preparing a people for his name from among Abraham’s descendants. Note how Jehovah informed Abraham about the future movements of his posterity: “In the fourth generation they will return here, because the error of the Amorites [apparently the strongest Canaanite tribe] has not yet come to completion.”—Gen. 15:16.

Thus Jehovah had been long-suffering. He had been undeservedly kind to those corrupt and wicked tribes of Canaan, permitting them to squat in a fruitful land, a “land flowing with milk and honey,” and pollute it with all of their abominations. Now the day of reckoning approached. They had refused to reform. They must take the consequences.

WICKEDNESS REACHES ULTIMATE

But were the Canaanites really that wicked to merit extermination? Did the women and children also have to be wiped out? Was it in harmony with God’s justice and love to subject those people to such complete destruction?

The Bible reveals that the Canaanites were indeed that wicked. After commanding the Israelites to avoid incest, fornication and other such practices, God commanded: “You must not allow the devoting of any of your offspring to Molech. . . . And you must not lie down with a male the same as you lie down with a woman. It is a detestable thing. And you must not give your emission to any beast to become unclean by it, and a woman should not stand before a beast to have connection with it. It is a violation of what is natural. For all these detestable things the men of the land who were before you have done, so that the land is unclean.” (Lev. 18:2-23, 27) Yes, child sacrifice, incest, sodomy and bestiality were the way of life of the Canaanites! In addition, they practiced magic, divination, sorcery and other things detestable to God.—Deut. 18:9-12.

The Canaanite religion was extraordinarily base and degraded, their “sacred poles” evidently being sex emblems and many of the rites of their “high places” involving gross sexual excesses and depravity. No wonder God ordered their extermination! If even the women and children were allowed to remain, they would entice the Israelites to practice immoral, false worship.—Ex. 23:24; 34:12-17; Num. 33:52; Deut. 7:3-5; 20:16-18.

From secular sources, particularly the ancient documents discovered in 1929 at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) on the Syrian coast, much has been learned about the gross immorality of Canaanite worship. Baal is presented as the most prominent of the gods, and Astarte or “Ashtoreth” as a prominent goddess, even as the Bible record shows to have been the case.—Judg. 2:12, 13; 6:25-32; 10:6; 1 Sam. 7:3, 4.

A god of fertility, Baal is described as going through recurrent cycles of dying and reviving, corresponding with the seasonal cycles of growth and decay or dormancy of the vegetation on earth. Thus, Baal’s coming to life again to be enthroned and mated with his wife, considered to be Ashtoreth, was celebrated with licentious fertility rites at the autumnal new year. Worshipers gave themselves up to drunkenness and sexual orgies of unrestrained debauchery, believing that their sexual intercourse helped to bring about the full awakening and mating of Baal with his wife.

Although Ashtoreth was represented principally as a fertility goddess, she also symbolized the qualities of violence and war. Thus Professor John B. Noss in his book Man’s Religions, notes of her: “She sometimes took sword in hand, sprang naked upon a horse, and rode forth to bloody slaughter.” Among the Philistine inhabitants of Canaan, Ashtoreth was apparently a goddess of war, since the armor of defeated King Saul was placed in the temple of the Ashtoreth images.—1 Sam. 31:10.

Archaeological finds have pointed to the gross immorality associated with the worship of Ashtoreth. Halley’s Bible Handbook, 1964 printing, page 161, says of such finds: “Also, in this ‘High Place,’ under the rubbish, Macalister found enormous quantities of images and plaques of Ashtoreth with rudely exaggerated sex organs, designed to foster sensual feelings.

“So, Canaanites worshipped, by immoral indulgence, as a religious rite, in the presence of their gods; and then, by murdering their first-born children, as a sacrifice to these same gods.”

How despicable! Can any person properly find fault with God for ordering the extermination of such immoral, wicked people? Unger’s Bible Dictionary, page 912, observes: “Canaanite religion with its orgiastic nature worship, the cult of fertility in the form of serpent symbols, sensuous nudity and gross mythology are revealed in their stark reality in these texts [discovered at Ras Shamra]. No longer can critics accuse the God of Israel of injustice in ordering the extermination of these debilitating cults.”

IN KEEPING WITH GOD’S JUSTICE AND LOVE

The Canaanites knew forty years in advance of Israel’s coming and had powerful evidence that Almighty God was with them. (Josh. 2:9-21, 24; 9:24-27) However, with the exception of Rahab and her family and the cities of the Gibeonites, those who came in for destruction neither sought mercy nor availed themselves of the opportunity to flee, but instead chose to harden themselves in rebellion against Jehovah. So there was no injustice on God’s part in ordering the execution of such stubborn opposers.—Josh. 11:19, 20.

The decreed extermination of the Canaanites was actually a loving command of Jehovah God, and by failing to carry it out completely the Israelites suffered greatly. For the continued presence of the Canaanites among them brought infection into Israel that, in the course of time, undoubtedly contributed toward more deaths (not to mention crime, immorality and idolatry) than the decreed extermination of all the Canaanites would have produced had it been faithfully effected.—Num. 33:55, 56; Ps. 106:34-43.

By his execution of the Egyptian armies in the Red Sea, his fiery overthrow of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and his decreed extermination of the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, Jehovah God reveals that he will not tolerate wickedness indefinitely. Therefore, how happy we can be that very soon, by means of his chief executioner Jesus Christ, he will destroy this wicked system of things and usher in a new order of righteousness!—2 Thess. 1:6-9; Rev. 19:11-21; 2 Pet. 3:13.

Missionaries Encouraged to Mirror Godly Qualities

“WHAT do you see when you look into a mirror?” This question set the theme of an address by N. H. Knorr, the Watch Tower Society’s president, on the morning of September 8, 1968. The occasion was the graduation of the 46th class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead in New York city.

Holding up a large mirror, the president asked the audience of 2,045 persons what they could see when they looked into it. It would be their reflection. But that reflection would be only of one’s physical, or outward, appearance. It would not reveal what a person was really like on the inside.

Then, the president held up an open Bible and asked: “What do you see when you look into this mirror?” When a person looks into this book, does he see himself? By reading the Bible, we listen to Jehovah God talk to us. We will thus see what Jehovah requires of us and can compare what we really are to God’s standards. How much better a Christian can see himself when peering into God’s Word than he can when looking into a literal mirror! The audience appreciated this fine illustration.

From the book of James, chapter 1, it was pointed out that if a person is just a hearer of God’s Word, but not a doer, then “this one is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, and off he goes and immediately forgets what sort of man he is.” (Jas 1 vss. 23, 24) But one who persists in peering into the perfect law of God and who takes to heart its counsel will change his personality to conform to God’s law. Then this person, “because he has become, not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, will be happy in his doing it.”—Jas 1 vs. 25.

This counsel was especially appropriate for the ninety-nine missionaries being sent to other lands after their training at Gilead School. They were reminded that their physical appearance is not what counts with God, for “God does not go by a man’s outward appearance.” (Gal. 2:6) Far more important is what they look like when compared to God’s Word. Since these missionaries will be taking the truths from the inspired Scriptures to persons in other lands, it is vital that they let people see what they are really like, that they uphold God and his Word and live by his laws.

After this address, diplomas were given to the graduates, and the country to which each would be sent was announced for the benefit of the audience. In all, the ninety-nine graduates had come from eight countries and would be sent to thirty-two different lands, most of which would be located in Latin America and Africa.

Earlier, the Society’s vice-president, F. W. Franz, showed that as a person’s literal breath gives evidence of his physical or emotional condition or what he has taken into his mouth, so what a person figuratively ‘breathes out,’ that is, what he gives vent to, is evidence of his personality, or inmost self. (Prov. 20:27) Reference was made to Acts chapter 9, verse 1, where it relates how Saul was “breathing threat and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” But after his conversion to Christianity, he became the apostle Paul and uttered expressions that worked for the benefit of others.

The vice-president pointed out that those who take in the atmosphere of this wicked world under Satan will be influenced to breathe out what works for the hurt of others. But those who continue taking in knowledge of God and applying it in their lives will be influenced to work for the good of others. Their ‘breath’ will be that of love, peace, mercy and a desire for the salvation of others. Missionaries, and others, by breathing out the good news of God’s kingdom will receive God’s favor and be blessed with the literal breath of life forever in God’s new system.

After an intermission for lunch, the program in the afternoon included musical selections and an outstanding discussion on the theme “When Experience Speaks, Do You Listen?” The upbuilding experiences of older Christian brothers and sisters serve as a great encouragement for younger ones as they contemplate full-time work such as missionary activity, or being at Bethel homes such as the one housing the Watchtower Society’s headquarters in New York.

Following this, the program concluded with a striking dramatization of the theme “Maintain Courage Through Trust in Jehovah.” Highlighted was the fact that today, as in times past, Jehovah’s people can have full confidence that what Jehovah has promised will without fail come to pass. Vividly portrayed was the faith that the prophet Daniel had in Jehovah’s promises during the reign of King Belshazzar of Babylon. After this inspiring drama, a final song and prayer brought the graduation exercises to a conclusion. Those in attendance were heard to express deep appreciation for the truly upbuilding information that helps to fortify Christians for the work ahead.

Questions From Readers

● In what way did the Israelites in the wilderness “drink from the spiritual rock-mass that followed them,” as stated at 1 Corinthians 10:4?—I. M., U.S.A.

The apostle Paul commented about the provisions God made for the Israelites after they left Egypt, saying: “All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they used to drink from the spiritual rock-mass that followed them, and that rock-mass meant the Christ.”—1 Cor. 10:3, 4.

It seems that the apostle had two meanings in mind here, the first literal and the second spiritual.

In view of his preceding comments about passing through the Red Sea, it is apparent that Paul was alluding to the literal food and drink that God provided miraculously for the Israelites in the wilderness. Jehovah supplied manna on a regular basis for them. Since this literal food was produced miraculously or through Jehovah’s spirit, it might be termed “spiritual food.”

Similarly, God through his spirit provided drink for them. Shortly after leaving Egypt the people lacked water. At God’s direction Moses took his rod and struck a rock, producing water for the some two million Israelites as well as for their animals. (Ex. 17:5-7) Near the end of their forty-year trek Moses again struck a rock and water gushed forth for that huge congregation.—Num. 20:1-11.

How did they drink in a literal way from a “rock-mass that followed them”? While the rock Moses initially struck did not roll along after them for all those years, the fact is that they had divinely provided water from a rock-mass on at least two occasions, one near the beginning and one near the end of the forty years. So the literal water might be said to have followed them in that sense. Or, when the water was provided in such enormous amounts, it might have been somewhat of a river that “followed” them or went along with them, kept up with them, in that they could drink from it for a while as they journeyed.

But how is this suggestive of a way that those Israelites back there partook of spiritual provisions that followed or went along with them? The Israelites were expecting the “seed” promised to Abraham, Shiloh who was to come. (Gen. 22:18; 49:10) The sacrifices and ceremonies connected with their sins and their need for forgiveness pointed to the Messiah, the antitypical “rock-mass.” As Paul wrote in other places: “The Law has a shadow of the good things to come,” and, “The Law has become our tutor leading to Christ, that we might be declared righteous due to faith.” (Heb. 10:1; Gal. 3:24) So, along with providing literal food and drink for the Israelites, God provided spiritual sustenance which followed them or went along with them through the wilderness. The spiritual things relating to the Messiah could sustain their hope and spiritual life.

When Jesus did come as the Messiah, there flowed out from him spiritual waters of life and provisions far more valuable than those literal things given the Hebrews. Jesus said: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He that puts faith in me, just as the Scripture has said, ‘Out from his inmost part streams of living water will flow.’” (John 7:37, 38) Many Israelites who drank from the rock-mass in the wilderness did not even enter into life in the Promised Land. But to the later Jews who did not stumble over Jesus as the “rock-mass of offense,” Christ gave spiritual waters that became “a fountain of water bubbling up to impart everlasting life.”—Rom. 9:32, 33; John 4:14, 15.

Announcements

WHAT IS YOUR VIEW OF EVOLUTION?

What view do you take of the origin of life and the beginning of man’s existence? Do you hold to the commonly accepted teachings of evolution? What do you personally know of the evidence for the belief? In recent months hundreds, yes, thousands of persons have been amazed to learn that there is actually another side to this subject, an opposing one, yet one that has factual evidence to support it as well as reason and scientific argument. Obtain and examine carefully the book Did Man Get Here by Evolution or by Creation? It is only 25c. Your life and future are involved.

FIELD MINISTRY

Millions of persons are in bondage to superstition and false religion. Shackled by doctrines that are contrary to the Bible, they are in fear of mortal men and religious systems. But the truth that Jesus Christ taught can free them. All who would be free today and who would stay free spiritually need to follow that Fine Shepherd and walk in the paths of divine truth. First, however, people must wake up to their bondage to religious superstition and falsehood. To help people wake up and break free and stay free by means of God’s truth, Jehovah’s witnesses are offering in their ministry during the month of October a year’s subscription for the Awake! magazine, with three Bible-study-aid booklets, on a contribution of $1.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

November 10: Man’s Rule About to Give Way to God’s Rule, ¶1-23. Page 616. Songs to Be Used: 19, 59.

November 17: Man’s Rule About to Give Way to God’s Rule, ¶24-46. Page 622. Songs to Be Used: 10, 90.