The Watchtower — November 1, 1973

The Best Time to Be Alive

‘OH! FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS!’

How many times have you said this?

But would you actually have wanted to live in your grandfather’s day? Think of World War I and perhaps even World War II, which you would have had to endure.

Or, suppose you had lived earlier, in the “dark ages.” Would you have had to undergo fewer hardships back then? Would you have had a better hope, if any at all?

The Bible counsels against longing for former days. It warns: “Do not say: ‘Why has it happened that the former days proved to be better than these?’ for it is not due to wisdom that you have asked about this.”​—Eccl. 7:10.

Really, NOW is the best time yet to be alive, in spite of the increased distress in the earth.

Why? Because we are nearer to the fulfillment of God’s purpose toward the earth. We are near the peaceful thousand-year reign of God’s kingdom, which will bring enduring blessings to mankind.

This is no false hope. It is not some kind of theoretical, wishful thinking. It is based on reality. It is based on the promise of the Creator​—not only on a promise, but upon the sure prophetic words of One who has already proved that he can do it, and who has also proved that he can foretell such a thing.

MANKIND’S BENEFIT IN MIND

The Almighty God chose to give a clear vision of that kingdom to the apostle John, who had been a faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ for some sixty-five years. John was invited to look ahead, down the stream of time, to see that government actually administering all earth’s affairs. John wrote down what he saw in the Bible book that is called Revelation or Apocalypse, which means, An Unveiling.

Because of John’s continuing to proclaim the good news of Christ’s coming kingdom he had been branded as a criminal by the Roman Empire​—banished into exile on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. No doubt this marvelous vision was a great comfort to him. It was a reward for his long years of faithful work, to be the first to see many details about that kingdom and to know that it will rule for a thousand years, resulting in earth’s becoming a paradise. Such information can also be very comforting to us.​—Rev. chaps. 20, 21.a

This kingdom will rule for the good of mankind. True, it will bring honor to God and will establish his sovereignty everlastingly over everything on the earth. It will bring this single rebellious planet into harmony with the rest of his universe. But the real beneficiaries will be humankind. Its King is the “seed” by means of whom “all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves.”​—Gen. 22:18.

A DEMONSTRATION OF GOD’S TRUTHFULNESS AND POWER

But what about the sureness of hope in this beneficial rule​—the reliability of the promise? Note what God did, demonstrating his ability to exercise rulership over men, and to foretell years ahead what he will do.

About twenty-five centuries ago a certain king, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, was the undisputed world ruler. Babylon had crushed the Second World Power, Assyria, and now became the great Third World Power of the Bible’s historical record.

But its king, Nebuchadnezzar, made a serious mistake. In his pride and arrogance he overlooked the fact that the God of heaven had merely permitted him to be where he was. God had allowed him to take the Jewish nation, God’s own people, into exile because of their disobedience, as a disciplinary punishment. It was not Nebuchadnezzar’s strength that enabled him to take Jerusalem. To illustrate this for Nebuchadnezzar and for succeeding generations, God sent a message to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream that greatly disturbed the king.

After conferring with his religious soothsayers and astrologers and getting no satisfactory explanation of the dream, Nebuchadnezzar called in a Jewish slave, the prophet Daniel.​—Dan. chap. 4.

Daniel explained what the dream meant. It foretold for Nebuchadnezzar a humiliating seven-year discipline from God. Nevertheless, a year later, Nebuchadnezzar began to brag, glorying over his capital city Babylon. Hardly had he finished his boast when he heard a voice out of the invisible​—out of heaven, saying:

“To you it is being said, O Nebuchadnezzar the king, ‘The kingdom itself has gone away from you, and from mankind they are driving even you away, and with the beasts of the field your dwelling will be. Vegetation they will give even to you to eat just like bulls, and seven times themselves will pass over you, until you know that the Most High is Ruler in the kingdom of mankind, and that to the one whom he wants to he gives it.’”​—Dan. 4:29-32.

What followed immediately? Exactly what God said would happen. It is in Daniel’s account. Babylonian records that have been unearthed provide no account of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar was mad for seven literal years, as the Bible shows to be the case. But would we expect the supporters and servants of a dictator king to record his humiliation? We cannot imagine Hitler’s historians recording Hitler’s defeats if he had returned to power as did Nebuchadnezzar at the end of his seven years’ madness. Other nations also have followed the policy of “whitewashing” their rulers and governments, as we can see in the annals of ancient Egypt, Assyria and many modern countries. But the Bible gives us the true, candid, unvarnished historical record.

When Nebuchadnezzar’s sanity was restored by God, little did he realize that the “seven times” were to have a greater fulfillment of a year for each day of the seven prophetic years of 360 days each, a total of 2,520 (7 x 360) years. Little did he realize that it was a prophecy revealing that, from the overthrow of God’s representative kingdom when Jerusalem was desolated in 607 B.C.E., there would be no king of the line of David exercising ruling authority in the affairs of mankind for 2,520 years. During this time ‘Jerusalem would be trampled on by the nations until the appointed times of the nations should be fulfilled’​—that is, God would permit Gentile domination of the earth, with no king on the throne representing God. At the end of the 2,520-year period God’s due time would arrive to set his Messiah upon the throne in the heavens. According to Bible chronology and world conditions fulfilling prophecy, these “times of the Gentiles” expired in 1914 C.E.​—Luke 21:24, American Standard Version; Ezek. 21:27.

This would mean that we are now in the short period of time before the Messianic kingdom ‘comes’ against the present wicked system of things and ushers in the peaceful thousand-year reign.​—Matt. 6:10.

CAN A BOOK WRITTEN BY MEN BE RELIABLE?

Some may be hesitant to rely on the Bible, since it was written by men. But often authors dictate their thoughts to others who act as mere secretaries. Similarly, historical and documentary works are not the ideas of their writers or compilers. While it is true that the Bible was written by men, it does not have to be the word of men. In its own pages the Bible claims to be the work of divine inspiration, and is written over the name of “the Most High himself, and the One living to time indefinite.” After his humiliating experience, Nebuchadnezzar himself clearly saw and acknowledged that Daniel’s words in interpretation of the dream were not merely Daniel’s words. He admitted:

“At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up to the heavens my eyes, and my own understanding began to return to me; and I blessed the Most High himself, and the One living to time indefinite I praised and glorified, because his rulership is a rulership to time indefinite and his kingdom is for generation after generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are being considered as merely nothing, and he is doing according to his own will among the army of the heavens and the inhabitants of the earth. And there exists no one that can check his hand or that can say to him, ‘What have you been doing?’”​—Dan. 4:34, 35.

Really, the fact that men were used as secretaries in recording what God desired in the Bible does not lessen its authenticity or its impact upon mankind. The experiences of Job, David, Daniel and other men, their feelings, trials, their keeping integrity under test, give a reality and feeling of closeness that nothing else could give. Also, it encourages us as ordinary humans, for we can identify ourselves as undergoing many of the same things, and know that integrity can be maintained by humans if they continue to put trust in God. It gives the Bible a fine, comforting warmth and a stronger ring of truth than a book that claimed to be dropped coldly out of heaven could give.

Consider these facts: God could foretell with accuracy that Nebuchadnezzar would be mad for seven years and then be restored to his throne. Jesus Christ himself referred to the prophecy about the “times of the Gentiles” as authentic, and indicated that these were to come to their conclusion in a time long after his own day on earth. Then ask yourself: Would it not be possible, also, for God to foretell a thousand years of his Messiah’s reign?

Certainly men cannot bring about a thousand years of peace. In fact, they cannot even bring about a thousand-year world rule. Hitler tried it, and lasted twelve years. And now, particularly, many serious students of government and of world conditions​—statesmen, scientists and others—​are saying that mankind will not even be able to survive to the year 2000 C.E. They base their outlook, not on the Bible, but on the hard facts of today and upon the now irreversible trend of things that involve all of us. The Bible tells of these hard times that we are experiencing as a sign of the nearness of the end of this system.​—2 Tim. 3:1-5.

We can well believe the Bible on the nearness of this system’s end. But we have no basis to believe the gloomy forecast of mankind’s destruction, or the often-mouthed, age-old claims that politicians make, of world peace through continued domination by governments of men. We have no basis upon which to believe these promises. But we do have basis to believe the Creator, and we should welcome his predictions. These are not forecasts of gloom for the human race, but, rather, of a thousand-year rule that will bring mankind to perfection. God tells us that he will make this earth a jewel of beauty and its people harmonious. Furthermore, he promises everlasting continuance of life on earth, with happiness.

THE BEST TIME OF OPPORTUNITY

If we believe God, this is indeed the best time yet in which to be living. For we, of all generations of people, have the opportunity to see the destruction of wickedness, the cleansing of the earth, and the survival into a righteous new order. Do you believe that God has this fine purpose toward the earth? If so, take immediate steps to assure his favor when his Messianic king executes judgment upon this decadent system of things.

If you are one who tends to be skeptical, why not at least consider carefully what God says and compare it with what men offer? Is there any other hope to compare with God’s promise? And is not what God promises in harmony with man’s natural inborn desires? Is it not even more logical than what men promise? Take advantage of today’s unparalleled opportunity to reason on what he says and to learn his purposes. Jehovah’s witnesses will delight in assisting you, in your home, free of charge. Or you can attend meetings at their Kingdom Halls to hear these things discussed there.

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 645]

When the Kingdom of the World Was Entrusted to Christ

Bible foretold God would give “the kingdom of the world” to Christ (Rev. 11:15)

When would this be? After seven symbolic “times” had passed (Dan. 4:10-17)

Immense tree representing kingdom power “cut down” when Jerusalem fell, 607 B.C.E. After “seven times” expired, “bands” would be removed; tree would grow

How long would the “seven times” prove to be? Far more than seven literal years

When on earth, Jesus indicated the symbolic “times” had not expired. (Luke 21:24) Revelation 12:6, 14 shows 1,260 days is equal to three and a half “times”

Each of the “times” must be 360 days (3 ¹⁄₂ × 360 = 1,260)

Each day of prophetic “times” stands for a year (Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6)

Thus “seven times” (7 × 360) is 2,520 years

When did the seven symbolic “times” (2,520 years) begin?

In autumn of 607 B.C.E. when the territory of the typical kingdom of God in Judah was left desolate

When did the seven symbolic “times” end?

2,520 years brings us to autumn of 1914 C.E. (606 ¹⁄₄ + 1913 ³⁄₄ = 2,520)

1914 C.E.​—the marked year when “the kingdom of the world” was entrusted to Christ

Appreciation Stressed at Gilead Graduation

“WHAT do you mean when you say, ‘I appreciate it very much’? Is it just words or is it full of meaning?” With those remarks, N. H. Knorr, president of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, opened his address to the graduating students of the fifty-fifth class of this missionary school. It was September 10, 1973; the place, Jehovah’s Witnesses Assembly Hall in New York city, where a crowd of 1,975 had assembled. The fifty graduating students heard good counsel about the meaning of true appreciation.

The talk helped them to appreciate the value of knowledge and what Jehovah God is doing for us. “God appreciates us,” Brother Knorr said, and quoted Jesus’ words, “the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Matt. 10:29-31) The speaker stressed the need for the students to appreciate the value of their faith.​—Gal. 5:6.

Brother Knorr, commenting on 1 Peter 1:7-12 (The New English Bible), said that ‘trials come so that your faith may prove itself worthy of all praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Then you will reap the harvest of your faith, that is, salvation for your souls.’ Preachers brought these students the good news of salvation, and now they would be going out as missionaries to bring this good news to others. Brother Knorr closed his talk, telling them to ‘appreciate their faith,’ adding: “You must keep your faith strong, that it may never waver and never get weak. Jehovah God appreciates your faith because that brings honor and glory and praise to him.”

With the conclusion of his talk, the graduating students from nine different countries filed past the Society’s president to receive their diplomas and hear mention of their assignments to twenty-four lands, including Honduras, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Iceland, Liberia, Peru, Thailand, India, Korea, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Pakistan and South Vietnam.

Just prior to the main address, there was a series of brief talks. For example, school instructor U. V. Glass told the students that they had been tested in many respects. For instance, 40 percent of them got baptized while their parents were not believers in God’s truth; further, half of these experienced family opposition. “This determination for God’s truth,” Glass counseled, “should stay with you”​—because there were other areas in which they had not been tried. New things would come up to test their faith. He warned against the danger of being a complainer and of tiring out when we are so near the end of the present system of things.

M. G. Henschel explained why the future missionaries needed a five-month course of special training​—that they might be spiritually strong to face up to different things, including a new language, a new climate, and so forth. ‘But others have done it, and you can too,’ he said. ‘And one thing that will help you to cope with annoyances,’ Henschel added, ‘is to keep a good sense of humor.’

F. W. Franz, vice-president of the Watchtower Society, encouraged the students to benefit by the example of a man who is seldom, if ever, spoken of as an example to imitate. This was a man of the tribe of Judah. What he did is mentioned in only two verses of the Bible. (1 Chron. 4:9, 10) His name was Jabez, and he became “more honorable than his brothers.” How? Because he called on the God of Israel: “If you will without fail bless me and actually enlarge my territory and your hand really proves to be with me, and you really preserve me from calamity, that it may not hurt me,—.”

Jabez was not making a vow but was offering a heartfelt prayer. Was he seeking more territory at the expense of others? No, explained Franz, he was praying for the peaceful enlargement of his territory. According to ancient Jewish tradition, he said, Jabez wanted to establish a school and teach the worship of Jehovah God. He wanted to get disciples for God. Since his motive was good, the Bible says: “Accordingly God brought to pass what he had asked.” So Jabez tried to cooperate with God, and Franz encouraged the graduating students to be like him, and, in effect, say: ‘Oh, if you will without fail bless me and actually enlarge my territory,’ enabling them to make more disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ!

In the evening the students put on a delightful musical program, which was followed by a thrilling Bible drama that presented the highlights of the career of the apostle Paul.

The entire program built up one’s faith and helped Jehovah’s people to appreciate that ‘the tested quality of our faith is of much greater value than gold and is a cause for praise and glory and honor.’​—1 Pet. 1:7.

Victory over the World Without Armed Conflict

“In the world you will have trouble. But courage! The victory is mine; I have conquered the world.”​—John 16:33, The New English Bible.

1. (a) Why would world victory without armed conflict be quite an achievement? (b) What do some Bible interpreters expect regarding world dictatorship, and will there be such?

VICTORY over the whole world of mankind without an armed conflict would certainly be a remarkable achievement. It seems impossible​—especially with the world’s being an armed camp, as it is today. World victory without a military conflict is not the idea of the political nations at present. They do not believe that any nation or any individual man could, by sheer peaceful political diplomacy, gain a world victory and thereafter dominate the world. The long-existing political governments are too smart with regard to the trickiness of international diplomacy to let such a thing be put over on them. Some few religious leaders of Christendom who try to interpret the prophecies of the Holy Bible predict a world dictatorship in the near future. By whom? By the one whom they call “the Antichrist,” whom they also understand to be “the man of sin,” “the son of perdition.” (2 Thess. 2:3-10, Authorized Version; 1 John 2:18) However, contrary to such a belief, there will be no individual antichrist that will gain the victory over the world without armed conflict.

2, 3. (a) According to the Sacred Scriptures, who today can gain such a world victory, and what is the prize thereof? (b) What historic example do we have to show its possibility, and what triumphant words do we have of that one?

² The inspired Sacred Scriptures are very plain as to the matter of who comes off victorious over the world without taking up the violent weapons of blood-spilling warfare. According to these God-given Sacred Scriptures, we ourselves as God-fearing persons can win such a victory. The prize of such a victory is the gift of everlasting life in a happy, righteous new order of things, in which we shall not have this present wicked world to contend with. Such a prizeworthy victory is worth winning, is it not? A victory with such a matchless reward we should all desire to gain, should we not? Stupendous though it may seem, it can be done. We have a historic example to prove that it can be done. This encouraging example is that of a man who did it nineteen hundred years ago, a man whose name is not unknown to the whole world of mankind. That man was Jesus Christ. On his last day as a man on earth, he said, with a ring of triumph in his voice:

³ “I have spoken all this to you in order that in me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction. But keep up your courage: I have won the victory over the world.”​—John 16:33, The New Testament in Modern Speech, by R. F. Weymouth (1902).

4. In view of what developments shortly after Jesus’ statement claiming victory do we ask in what way he had gained the victory?

⁴ It is now the year 1973 of our Common Era, and yet the world has not been won over to belief in Jesus Christ. So in what way did Jesus Christ win the victory over the world? When he died like an accursed criminal just some hours after claiming victory over the world, he had not won over his own nation, the Jewish people, to an acceptance of him as their promised Messiah, as God’s Anointed One. Fifty-one days after his disgraceful death, there were only about one hundred and twenty of the Jews in Jerusalem who held to him as the Messiah who fulfilled Bible prophecy. (Acts 1:15) How, then, was Jesus Christ justified in saying that he had won the victory over the world? In what possible way could his claimed victory be of benefit to us today? Let us see.

5. (a) The way in which Jesus was executed indicated that the Romans and Jews had what feeling toward him? (b) Jesus told his disciples that the hatred would be by how many?

⁵ Look at him there on that Friday, Nisan 14, of the year 33 C.E., nailed to a stake in the way that the pagan Romans impaled condemned slaves, yes, and hanging there in between two notorious evildoers! That situation branded him as a hated man, hated both by the Romans and by the Jews who had handed him over to the Romans to be executed in the most disgraceful manner. Even hours before his execution there at Calvary outside the city of Jerusalem, Jesus Christ admitted that he was a hated man. It is bad enough to be hated by someone else unjustly, but by how many was Jesus Christ hated? To the eleven faithful ones who remained of his original twelve apostles Jesus Christ said: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you.”​—John 15:18, 19.

6. What were the apostles individually obligated to do about the world hatred against them?

⁶ Thus Jesus gave his apostles to understand that the world hated him, and likewise the world would hate them. What would they have to do about this? Well, when the whole world hates a person, a person has the whole world with which to contend and so a person has to gain a victory over the whole world. A person hated world wide must either defeat the world or else be defeated by it. How otherwise would a person prove that he is in the right, that he is true, that he is faithful?

WHY WORLD HATRED?

7, 8. (a) What about the world’s hatred causing Jesus any surprise? (b) What do we read of his discussion with his half-brothers shortly before the festival of tabernacles in 32 C.E.?

⁷ To understand how Jesus Christ gained a victory over the world, we have to understand why the world hated him. For being what or for doing what did he have to stand up against the whole world? He was not surprised at the world’s hatred of him. He understood why it expressed hatred for him, and so he could take it, endure it. He pointed out the cause of the world’s attitude toward him after about three years of his public activity in the land of Palestine. This happened in the latter half of the year 32 C.E., up in the Roman province of Galilee, where Jesus had been a carpenter at the city of Nazareth up until thirty years of age. He had a number of younger half-brothers, the sons of his mother Mary, and, unbidden, these half-brothers offered him some advice about his public career. Even at that time the hostile Jews were waiting for the opportunity to kill him, out of their hatred for him. So the question was, Would he expose himself publicly to them at Jerusalem at the autumn festival of tabernacles that was drawing near? As a Jew under God’s law through the prophet Moses, Jesus was obligated to be there. On his discussion with his half-brothers, we read:

⁸ “The Jews were seeking to kill him. However, the festival of the Jews, the festival of tabernacles, was near. Therefore his brothers said to him: ‘Pass on over from here and go into Judea, in order that your disciples also may behold the works you do. For nobody does anything in secret while himself seeking to be known publicly. If you do these things, manifest yourself to the world.’ His brothers were, in fact, not exercising faith in him. Therefore Jesus said to them: ‘My due time is not yet present, but your due time is always at hand. The world has no reason to hate you, but it hates me, because I bear witness concerning it that its works are wicked.’”​—John 7:1-7.

9. How did Jesus not fail to attend that festival of tabernacles, and what victory did he gain there at the temple?

⁹ Did Jesus Christ faithfully go up to Jerusalem, where those hating him would be flocking for the festival of tabernacles? Yes, he did so, but not in a foolhardy way. On this we read: “But when his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up himself, not openly but as in secret.” At the appropriate time, he spoke openly to the festival celebrators there in the temple. Orders were sent out by the Jewish authorities to arrest him, but these were not carried out by the police officers. (John 7:10, 32-48) Was that not a victory for Jesus Christ?

10. (a) What did Jesus say to his half-brothers was the cause of the world’s hatred of him? (b) Since Jesus did not go outside Jewry, how could it be said that his witness concerning the world’s works was correct?

¹⁰ What reason did he give for the world’s hatred of him? The reason, as stated to his half-brothers, was: “It hates me, because I bear witness concerning it that its works are wicked.” (John 7:7) Well, now, if the works of the Jews to whom Jesus had confined his preaching were “wicked,” what could be said about the works of the pagan world outside Jewry? They must have been no less wicked than those of the Jews hostile to Jesus Christ. Therefore, concerning the whole world of mankind, Jew and Gentile, the witness could be correctly given that its works were “wicked.” Is that not enough to stir up hatred on the part of the world?

11. (a) By what personal example did Jesus bear witness that the world’s works were wicked? (b) How did Jesus’ action at the temple near the beginning of his public career prove the world’s works to be wicked?

¹¹ How, though, did Jesus bear witness to the world and show that its works were “wicked”? Both by word of mouth and by action. He himself had to be guiltless of wicked works. Who of his days on earth could truthfully accuse him of a single wicked work? Even Jewish unbelievers he challenged with the question: “Who of you convicts me of sin?” (John 8:46) When, toward the beginning of his public career, he went into the temple of Jerusalem and drove out the money changers and the merchandisers, saying: “Take these things away from here! Stop making the house of my Father a house of merchandise!” he was bearing witness to those profaners of the temple and to the Jewish authorities who allowed it that their works were “wicked.”​—John 2:13-17.

12. How did Jesus, by healings on the Sabbath, by expulsion of demons, by giving no heavenly sign, by making himself no part of the world, cause a witness against wicked works?

¹² When, on the legal Jewish Sabbath Day, situations presented themselves for him to do good works of healing and he performed such healings despite the fact that he knew he was going to be criticized and condemned therefor, he bore witness that the deeds of his critics were “wicked.” (Matt. 12:9-16) When he cast out demons from obsessed persons and was accused of being in league with Beelzebub the ruler of the demons for doing so, Jesus made it manifest that the works of his opposers were wicked. (Matt. 12:22-37) When the unbelieving Jews asked for a sign from heaven in proof of his being the Messiah and he refused to dispel their unbelief by undue signs, he bore witness that their wicked works were those of a “wicked and adulterous generation.” (Matt. 16:1-4; 12:38-45) Jesus’ refusal to imitate this world and make himself like it or a part of it was a witness in itself that the works of the world were “wicked.”

13, 14. (a) In what two general ways did Jesus bear witness that the works of the world were wicked? (b) How did Jesus’ preaching harmonize with what he said in John 3:17?

¹³ However, not just by letting his life speak for itself did Jesus bear witness against this world so as to call forth its hatred. He also did so directly by word of mouth. What does this mean?

¹⁴ Well, Jesus himself said to the Jewish ruler Nicodemus: “God sent forth his Son into the world, not for him to judge the world,” that is to say, to judge it adversely or condemn it, sentencing the human race to destruction. (John 3:17) Even so, Jesus did not go around the land condemning everything that he saw, doing so all the time, proclaiming only the “day of vengeance on the part of our God.” No, but he had a positive message that led to freedom from condemnation. This was the message of the Kingdom.​—Isa. 61:1, 2; Luke 4:16-41.

15, 16. (a) How did the introductory words of Jesus’ Kingdom message bear witness that the world’s works were wicked? (b) How did the very content of the Kingdom message also bear such a witness?

¹⁵ But did this positive message bear witness concerning the world that its works were wicked? Yes! And this is shown in the way that the royal message was introduced. Matthew’s account tells us how John the Baptist introduced the Kingdom message and then how Jesus Christ himself did so. After the imprisonment of John the Baptist, Jesus Christ took up John’s message and enlarged upon it. Concerning this, Matthew 4:17 informs us: “From that time on Jesus commenced preaching and saying: ‘Repent, you people, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.’”

¹⁶ That very word of introduction of the message, “Repent,” indicated that the works of the hearers of the Kingdom message were wicked. They needed to repent from such wicked works and turn around and prepare for the coming of the Kingdom. Why so? Because that divine government was not going to let its subjects practice wicked works. In fact, those who practiced wicked works were not going to be admitted into governmental offices in that kingdom. (1 Cor. 6:9, 10) That kingdom was to be a righteous government, and the fact that the God of the heavens saw the need to set up such a kingdom condemned all the kingdoms of this world as being wicked. It bore witness that those worldly systems of rulership were wicked and would one day, in God’s appointed time, have to be destroyed. This was why those proclaiming and advocating the “kingdom of the heavens” could not consistently engage in the politics of the world, could not hold political office in any man-made government or take part in any armed conflict to maintain such worldly rulerships. As ambassadors and envoys of God’s kingdom they abstain from unclean human politics.

17. Why did the world rulers and their backers hate Jesus for preaching the Kingdom message?

¹⁷ Did the world hate Jesus for preaching the good news of the “kingdom of the heavens”? The evidence shows that the world hated him on that account. The world rulers and their backers had their own ideas and plans on how the earth and its peoples should be ruled. They hated a message that held forth Jehovah God as having in mind to destroy their kingdoms and rulerships in His due time. They preferred a message that presented God as being behind their man-made governments, approving them and purposing to improve them and keep them in power. Consequently, a message that advertised a kingdom that would not cooperate with their systems of rulership and really work through them was something that the political elements of this world did not relish. They hated both it and the proclaimers of it. They hated the Anointed One whom God purposed to put in power in the “kingdom of the heavens.”

OVERCOMING WORLD HATRED

18, 19. (a) What was it that induced the world to hate Jesus for preaching the Kingdom message? (b) How did Jesus tell his apostles that the world’s hatred was for no valid reason?

¹⁸ Did Jesus deserve the world’s hatred for preaching God’s Messianic kingdom? Was he preaching thereby something that would be for the hurt of all mankind? No, but something for their everlasting good. Personal pride and selfishness were the things that induced the world to hate Jesus for proclaiming the Kingdom message that was really good news, Gospel, the Evangel. That the world’s hatred of him was actually for no valid reason, Jesus plainly told his faithful apostles, saying:

¹⁹ “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hates me hates also my Father. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have both seen and hated me as well as my Father. But it is that the word written in their Law may be fulfilled, ‘They hated me without cause.’”​—John 15:22-25; Pss. 35:19; 69:4.

20. How did the Jews, when before Governor Pilate, show that Jesus was hated for preaching the Kingdom message?

²⁰ As showing that the world hated Jesus for preaching the righteous kingdom of his heavenly Father, Jesus’ enemies resorted to a political trick to have him executed by the Romans who were not then interested in religious issues. They used Jesus’ preaching of a perfect government for mankind as a tool for charging him with a political crime against the Roman Empire, the world power of that time. When the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, wanted Jesus’ accusers to treat the matter as a purely religious one involving their religious law and said to them: “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law,” they answered: “It is not lawful for us [under Caesar’s law] to kill anyone.” (John 18:31) To give a political twist to what Jesus preached, his accusers said to Pilate: “This man we found subverting our nation and forbidding the paying of taxes to Caesar and saying he himself is Christ a king. . . . He stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, even starting out from Galilee to here.”​—Luke 23:1-5.

21. How did the accusers of Jesus make Pilate feel personally involved in the matter?

²¹ Then, finally, to make Governor Pilate feel personally involved in the matter, the accusers of Jesus said: “If you release this man, you are not a friend of Caesar. Every man making himself a king speaks against Caesar. . . . We have no king but Caesar.”​—John 19:12-15.

22, 23. (a) How was Jesus then directly made an object of hatred by “the world”? (b) How did Jesus’ disciples, later on in prayer, point out this fact?

²² By thus forcing the pagan Romans to take a hand in doing away with this Preacher of the “kingdom of the heavens,” the Jewish accusers obliged the Roman Empire to commit a hateful act against Jesus. Before the Roman soldiers led him off to the place of execution at Calvary outside Jerusalem, they treated him scandalously like a criminal seditionist. That in this way Jesus was directly made an object of world hatred, his own disciples pointed out later on when offering prayer to God, saying:

²³ “Sovereign Lord, you are the One who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all the things in them, and who through holy spirit said by the mouth of our forefather David, your servant, ‘Why did nations become tumultuous and peoples meditate upon empty things? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers massed together as one against Jehovah and against his anointed one.’ Even so, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with men of nations and with peoples of Israel were in actuality gathered together in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, in order to do what things your hand and counsel had foreordained to occur.”​—Acts 4:24-28.

24. What design behind the world’s hatred against Jesus was it that had to be victoriously overcome?

²⁴ Nobody can call into question that Jesus Christ faced world hatred. But the vital question is, Did he let world hatred win the victory over him? Did he finally bow in defeat to it? Well, what was that world hatred trying to force Jesus Christ to do? It was stirred up by Satan the Devil to frighten him into submission. It was meant to induce him to stop doing his miraculous powerful works that testified to the fact that he was the promised Messiah sent by Jehovah God. It was designed to persuade him against preaching the good news of God’s Messianic kingdom any longer, to silence him as a Teacher and Preacher. It was meant to make him rebellious against Jehovah God who anointed him and commissioned him as the Messiah. Yes, this world hatred was roused up against Jesus Christ to make him get back at the people and hate them and break off from his self-sacrificing course of laying down his perfect human life that they might gain everlasting life under the promised Messianic kingdom of God. The world hatred was aimed at destroying him by making him seek to save his earthly human life, only to lose his soul, his hope of resurrection to life eternal.

25. How did the worldly hatred fail to stop Jesus from performing miraculous powerful works even down to within a few hours of his execution?

²⁵ Did world hatred succeed in accomplishing all these things with respect to Jesus Christ? Did he acknowledge defeat and stop performing miracles and good works that the promised Messiah was commissioned to perform? No! Down to within a few hours of his being sentenced to death, he performed a miracle, to show that he was against any armed conflict. At the time of his being betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane near Jerusalem, his apostle Peter drew a sword and struck off the ear of a man of the armed band that came out to arrest him under cover of darkness. But Jesus expressed disapproval of the use of the sword and then healed the man’s ear, thereby giving a testimony to the high priest of the Jews, for this healed man, Malchus, was a servant of the high priest.​—Matt. 26:48-54; Luke 22:47-51; John 18:10, 11.

26. What is there to say on whether Jesus let world hatred keep him from enlarging the Kingdom-preaching down till the last half year of his public ministry?

²⁶ Well, then, did the continuous world hatred beat Jesus Christ into submission and force him to keep his mouth shut and no longer preach the good news of the Kingdom? The testimony of eyewitnesses answers No! Leading off alone in the proclamation of the nearness of the Kingdom after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, Jesus gathered disciples to himself and chose twelve who should be with him all the time and whom he designated apostles. As the third Passover celebration during his public ministry drew near, he sent out these twelve apostles by twos, to preach the same message that he had continued preaching, for he said to them: “As you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.’” (Matt. 10:1-7) After the third celebration of the Jewish festival of tabernacles during his public ministry, Jesus sent out seventy other disciples as evangelizers, also by twos, and to them he said: “Whenever you enter into a city and they receive you, eat the things set before you, and cure the sick ones in it, and go on telling them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” (Luke 10:1-9) This was during the last half year of his human life.

27, 28. (a) How did Jesus bring the nationwide Kingdom-preaching to a grand climax with a dramatic flourish? (b) When urged to do so, why did Jesus not stop the Kingdom shouting on that occasion?

²⁷ Now the fourth and last Passover of his public ministry drew near. A day of excitement that religiously rocked the city of Jerusalem arrived. This was on Sunday, Nisan 9, of the year 33 C.E., five days before his shocking death. That day Jesus brought his nationwide preaching of God’s kingdom to a grand climax with a dramatic flourish. Upon the Mount of Olives to the east of Jerusalem, he seated himself upon an ass colt and rode like the Messianic King toward the royal city, not attended by an imposing body of cavalrymen armed with spears, not with a squadron of rattling war chariots or with a battalion of fully armored infantrymen, no, not with a mighty military force that would have caused the Roman soldiers to stream out from the soldier barracks in the Castle of Antonia at the northwest corner of the temple area, in order to resist the invasion of Jerusalem. No, but in fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, he rode in a peaceful triumphal procession attended by a jubilant crowd of unarmed men, women and children, whom he let do the Kingdom proclaiming for him.

²⁸ Among the cries that burst forth from the marching crowd were these: “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Blessed is the One coming as the King in Jehovah’s name!” “Save, we pray you! Blessed is he that comes in Jehovah’s name, even the king of Israel!” When the hate-filled enemies objected to these Messianic shouts of the people, Jesus insisted that the prophecy had to be fulfilled by saying: “I tell you, If these remained silent, the stones would cry out.”​—Matt. 21:6-16; Mark 11:4-11; Luke 19:32-40; John 12:12-16.

29. How did Jesus thus fulfill prophecy, and of what did he make a picture?

²⁹ Thus not in vain had the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 declared five hundred years earlier: “Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion! Shout with gladness, daughter of Jerusalem! See now, your king comes to you; he is victorious, he is triumphant, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Jerusalem Bible) “For see, your king is coming to you, his cause won, his victory gained, humble and mounted on an ass, on a foal, the young of a she-ass.” (The New English Bible) Not as a piece of mere showmanship, but in obedience to God’s unbreakable prophecy, Jesus courageously faced the hatred of the world and dramatically witnessed to God’s Messianic kingdom. In this way he portrayed prophetically how after the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E., and after the close of the war in heaven, he would ride triumphantly and present himself to Jehovah’s theocratic organization as her rightful King.​—Luke 21:24; Rev. 12:5-10.

A JUST CLAIM TO VICTORY OVER THE WORLD

30. (a) How did Jesus not let world hatred affect his personal disposition and attitude? (b) How did he denounce religious hypocrisy with regard to the Kingdom?

³⁰ World hatred stopped Jesus neither in performing miracles in proof of his Messiahship nor in his preaching of the good news of the Messianic kingdom of God. Neither did it cause him to imbibe its spirit and get filled with a malicious hatred of the human race whom he had come to ransom, nor did it pressure him into becoming rebellious against God and the divine will. At the temple, in an expression of his pity for the deceived, oppressed people, he openly denounced religious hypocrisy and said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the kingdom of the heavens before men; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in.” (Matt. 23:1-13) Three days later, in no spirit of rebellion against God, Jesus celebrated the Jewish Passover at Jerusalem with his apostles. Immediately afterward he started a new observance, a new supper, as a memorial of his death as a human sacrifice.

31. How did Jesus’ words over the wine cup and in connection with the Kingdom not belie his claim afterward about winning victory over the world?

³¹ When explaining the meaning of the cup of wine that was to be drunk at this memorial supper, Jesus said to his faithful apostles: “Drink out of it, all of you; for this means my ‘blood of the covenant,’ which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins.” (Matt. 26:26-28) No hatred of the human race was evident in those words, neither any rebelliousness against God’s will for him that involved a sacrificial death. Then, in the course of the conversation afterward, Jesus said to the apostles: “You are the ones that have stuck with me in my trials; and I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Luke 22:28-30) Later, at the close of his conversation and before offering a final prayer to God, Jesus said to them: “In the world you will have trouble. But take courage! The victory is mine; I have conquered the world.”​—John 16:33, NE.

32. (a) Why did Jesus at that night hour have the right to claim victory over the world? (b) How did his testimony before Pilate back up his claim?

³² At that hour of the night of Nisan 14, did Jesus have the right to claim victory over the whole world? In view of his faithful, loving course of life down till then, we can answer, Yes! Jesus was there making no idle boast of self-glorification. His unswerving course of obedience to God in the hours that followed proved that. When standing before the highest local representative of Caesar of the Roman Empire, Jesus refused to deny that he was God’s anointed King but said to Governor Pontius Pilate: “My kingdom is no part of this world. If my kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews. But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source. . . . You yourself are saying that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.” Although his Messianic kingship was a thing charged against him by his haters as a legal ground for the Romans to execute him, Jesus did not renounce God’s kingdom.​—John 18:36, 37.

33. (a) On the torture stake, how was Jesus’ victory completed, and how was this proved less than three days later? (b) What victory with regard to this world yet awaits the glorified Jesus?

³³ Shortly afterward, as Jesus hung nailed to the torture stake at Calvary, when his haters passed by and reviled him, he did not make himself like them and give them like for like. When, about three o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus said: “It has been accomplished!” and bowed his head and breathed his last, he had indeed gained the victory over the world, and that without armed conflict. (John 19:30; 1 Pet. 2:22-24) The world had killed him as a man, but he died undefeated. The hateful world got no satisfaction out of his death. It could not, and did not, prevent him from gaining the glorious prize for his world victory. Three days did not fully pass before Almighty God raised him from the dead in a stupendous victory over death and then exalted him to the right hand of his heavenly Father’s throne, far beyond the reach of the hateful world down below on earth, God’s mere footstool. (Phil. 2:5-11; 1 Pet. 3:22) Another kind of victory awaits him, and this one with his holy warrior angels at the coming “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon.​—Rev. 16:14, 16; 19:11-21.

[Picture on page 653]

Jesus did not let world hatred win the victory over him by stopping his miracles and good works. No, but within a few hours of his being sentenced to death he miraculously healed a man’s ear after Peter had struck it off

Fellow Victors over the World

1. Jesus’ victory over the world set a pattern for whom, and how was the aged apostle John an illustration of this?

JESUS’ victory over the world without engaging in a conflict with it by the use of military arms stands as a pattern for his disciples. His faithful apostles of the first century C.E. copied that pattern. All the world’s hatred over decades of time failed to break their unswerving devotion to God’s Messianic kingdom and to silence their preaching of it world wide. Just a few years before the end of that century the Christian apostle John, likely the last of the apostles to survive, wrote to fellow Christians and said: “I John, your brother and a sharer with you in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in company with Jesus, came to be in the isle that is called Patmos for speaking about God and bearing witness to Jesus.” (Rev. 1:9) Like those faithful apostles, the true disciples of Jesus are copying his pattern to gain victory over this twentieth-century world.

2. How, according to Jesus’ prophecy concerning the hardships of his followers, is he an object of hatred by the world?

² Although he is no longer on the earthly scene, Jesus Christ is an object of world hatred even today. This statement may be objected to by the nearly one thousand million church members of Christendom, who will insist, “We do not hate him!” And yet there is a test by which we can know whether we hate Jesus today. In a prophecy concerning what his disciples would undergo, Jesus said these words of advance warning to them: “You will be objects of hatred by all people on account of my name; but he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.” “Then people will deliver you up to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name.” (Matt. 10:22; 24:9) Logically, then, the hating of the disciples of Christ on account of his name means the hating of Christ himself at the same time.

3. To remain a genuine follower of Jesus, what victory must one likewise gain, and with what reward therefor?

³ There is no dodging the naked truth: the genuine disciples of Jesus Christ have to face and endure the world’s hatred just the same as he did. So, for a disciple to remain such in a real sense, it means that he has to gain victory over the world. Not by means of any violence, but without armed conflict, as in Jesus’ own case. The question for a disciple is, Will the world defeat him, or will he defeat it? If he suffers defeat, he must also suffer the sad consequences of defeat. If, however, he defeats the world, he will be rewarded with the grand prize of victory​—at God’s hand.

4. What proves that, today, one’s being hated by all nations and peoples on account of Christ’s name does not mean being hated merely for being called a Christian?

⁴ This being hated by all people and nations on account of Christ’s name, what does it mean? Does it signify being hated by people and nations just for being called a Christian? No, not today. Today there are hundreds of millions of religious people who are called “Christian” and who are in good standing with the rest of the world of mankind and in friendly relations with them. Who are these so-called Christians who enjoy world friendship and are not undergoing world hatred? According to all observations, these are the members of the religious sects of Christendom. They are not undergoing persecution as a class, are they? They are not banned or proscribed as a class and driven underground, are they? Oh, they do fight among themselves, not over being called Christian, but over belonging to different religious sects of Christendom. The issue of which religious authority they want to be ruled by is involved.

5. So, then, Jesus’ expression “on account of my name” means on account of what?

⁵ Jesus’ expression “on account of my name” means on account of adhering to Jesus for what he officially is, the Messianic King appointed by Jehovah God. It means on account of our confessing and obeying him as a real Lord, our heavenly Lord whose commands we carry out as being ahead of those of any earthly ruler. It means sticking to the Messianic government that he represents and not dividing one’s loyalties by mixing in the affairs of any earthly man-made government. It means viewing oneself and acting as the slave of Jesus Christ, a slave not belonging to oneself but owned by Jesus Christ at the cost of his own lifeblood. Yes, it also means being a witness of the God and Father of Jesus Christ, namely, Jehovah, the Source of the Messianic kingdom.

6. Hence, being called by Christ’s name means what, and living up to his name obligates us in what way?

⁶ Hence, being called by Christ’s name means far more than merely clean living. It requires one to identify oneself as not belonging to the worldwide system of things of which Christendom is the most prominent and powerful part, but as belonging to God’s clean, new system that he has in reserve for earth’s inhabitants. It places one in the position of being an alien resident, temporary dweller in this passing worldly system of things. (1 Pet. 2:11) This debars a true Christian from being one with the people of the world and conforming to their ways, being emotionally stirred and controlled by worldly nationalism, pride of earthly country. Concerning himself, Jesus said to nationalistic Jews: “You are from the realms below; I am from the realms above. You are from this world; I am not from this world.” (John 8:23) Jesus thus made himself no part of this world with its selfish aspirations. Living up to his name obligates his disciple likewise to be no part of this world.​—John 17:14, 16.

7. What is the normal reaction of worldlings to nonparticipation of true Christians in favorite worldly affairs, and how did Jesus explain this?

⁷ Does such a position stir up resentment or cause a flush of heat of indignation to rise up in the person friendly to this world? This hostile sentiment is a normal reaction toward the nonparticipation of the true disciple of Christ in the favorite affairs of this world. Worldlings are not fond of such a Christian stand. As Jesus told his apostles: “If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you.” (John 15:19) Christ’s name stands for separateness from this world. Being hated on account of Christ’s name means being hated because one is no integrated part of this world, inasmuch as Christ has chosen such one out of this world.

HATED BECAUSE OF WHAT IS PREACHED

8. The preaching of God’s kingdom by Christ will incline the world in what way toward the Kingdom preacher, and why?

⁸ Before Governor Pontius Pilate, Jesus said: “My kingdom is no part of this world. . . . But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source.” (John 18:36) How, then, could one who is a real Christian be a part of this world and at the same time be in favor of God’s kingdom by Christ, which is no part of this world and does not have its source in this world? A true Christian could not do so, for Jesus said that Satan the Devil is the “ruler of this world.” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) For this reason the preaching of the nonworldly kingdom of Jesus the Messiah will bring the world’s hatred upon the preacher; it will line up the world against the preacher. It did so in the case of Jesus himself; it has done so and will do so in the case of his true disciples.

9. For what reason must the Kingdom preacher endure to the end in order to win victory over the world?

⁹ And yet, after telling of the world hatred coming upon his disciples, Jesus said: “He that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved. And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.” (Matt. 24:13, 14) The preaching of this kingdom, although it is good news, will incur the hatred of the world. Why so? Because God’s Messianic kingdom and the political kingdoms of the world are enemies. For God’s kingdom by Christ to take over the complete control of the earth, it requires the bringing of the man-made kingdoms of this world to their everlasting end. (Dan. 2:44) Here, then, is where the true-blue Christian must gain the victory over the world.

10. To gain victory, the Christian must challenge the world’s hatred in order to do what, and the example of whom must they imitate?

¹⁰ How so? Not by carrying a Bible in one hand and a sword, grenade or rapid-fire gun in the other! But by challenging the world’s hatred and peacefully going forward, unarmed, in preaching “this good news of the kingdom” world wide for a witness to all nations with no exceptions, before the end of this system of things comes. The Kingdom preacher must not let the world’s hatred, hostility and opposition defeat him. He is under the superior orders of the one who commissioned him to preach this good news, Jesus Christ, who is his Lord. He must be like his Lord and Master. This Jesus Christ was the greatest Preacher of good news from God ever on earth. Those called by his name do as he did; they must do as he both said and did. First when he had finished his Kingdom preaching despite world hatred and opposition did he say: “I have won the victory over the world.” (John 16:33, Weymouth) In this he set the example for us.

11. What work is there yet to be done, and only when can complete victory be claimed?

¹¹ There is yet preaching of “this good news of the kingdom” to be done world wide. From the postwar year of 1919, this good news has been preached by Jehovah’s Christian witnesses uninterruptedly clear through World War II and down till now. They are under divine command through Christ not to stop this bearing of witness to God’s Messianic kingdom world wide until the end of this system of things comes. Only when they have preached “this good news” to the finish and the victorious Kingdom has brought this worldly system to its complete end will they be able to say, each one for himself: “I have won the victory over the world.”

12. In order to win such a victory, what kind of courage is needed, as stated by the apostle John?

¹² Such a victory is possible for us! Jesus Christ will have fellow victors over this world. The victory will be hard-won, but it can be won as Jesus’ own victory proves to us. “Take courage,” said Jesus. And the winning of the victory will take courage. It must be a courage born of faith in the Almighty God. On this the apostle John, who recorded the triumphant words of Jesus, said, shortly before his own victory at death: “To love God is to keep his commands; and they are not burdensome, because every child of God is victor over the godless world. The victory that defeats the world is our faith, for who is victor over the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”​—1 John 5:3-5, NE.

13. Who today have the “victorious principle” of faith, and how is this shown with respect to Jesus the son of Mary?

¹³ It is essential to have that spiritual quality of faith. As the Weymouth translation of 1902 renders John’s words: “For every child of God overcomes the world; and the victorious principle which has overcome the world is our faith. Who but the man that believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world?” (1 John 5:4, 5) Such a victorious principle of faith is the inward force that moves Jehovah’s Christian witnesses today and holds them true to the Son of God. They believe, not that he was a mere man begotten by a mere man wedded to a wife, but that he was born of a virgin Jewess to whose womb Almighty God transferred the life of his only-begotten Son from heaven, to be born as a human Son of God. They believe that immediately after his baptism in the Jordan River, he was begotten with God’s holy spirit and anointed as the Messiah; but that on the third day of his sacrificial death he “with power was declared God’s Son according to the spirit of holiness by means of resurrection from the dead.”​—Rom. 1:3, 4; Acts 13:32, 33.

14. How do Jehovah’s Christian witnesses show that they take heed to John’s warning against antichrists?

¹⁴ Taking heed to the warnings by the apostle John concerning the antichrists that were to arise, Jehovah’s Christian witnesses during this “conclusion of the system of things” do not let themselves be deceived and drawn after false Christs, antichrists that present themselves in Christendom or under the sponsorship of Christendom, like the United Nations for world peace and security. They have identified the true Messiah, the true Christ, and they cleave to him and to the God-given Kingdom that he represents. They have the faith that this Messianic kingdom was established in the heavens in the year 1914 C.E., at the end of the Gentile Times. They therefore cannot accept and worship the symbolic “wild beast,” that is, the Devil’s worldwide system of political rulership, as the rightful government of the earth. Neither can they worship and pin their hopes to the political “image” of that “wild beast,” namely, the United Nations that Christendom has sponsored for the perpetuation of imperfect human rulership over all mankind to time indefinite.

15. How do they take their stand with those described in Revelation 15:2-4?

¹⁵ Never, no, never can they do such an idolatrous thing. With a faith victorious over the deceptions of this world, they take their stand with those pictured in the fifteenth chapter of the Revelation given to John, verses two through four, where the apostle John says: “I saw what seemed a sea of glass shot with fire, and beside the sea of glass, holding the harps which God had given them, were those who had won the victory over the beast and its image and the number of its name. They were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, as they chanted: ‘Great and marvellous are thy deeds, O Lord God, sovereign over all; just and true are thy ways, thou king of the ages. Who shall not revere thee, Lord, and do homage to thy name? For thou alone art holy. All nations shall come and worship in thy presence, for thy just dealings stand revealed.’”​—Rev. 15:2-4, NE; Weymouth; NW; Young.

16. From what have Jehovah’s Christian witnesses come off victorious thus far, and only when will their victory be complete?

¹⁶ By acting in harmony with their faith in Jehovah God the Almighty and in his Son Jesus Christ, the Christian witnesses of Jehovah have thus far “come off victorious from the wild beast and from its image and from the number of its name.” (NW; An American Translation; Rotherham) This they have done even though this political “wild beast” has waged war upon them and temporarily conquered them during World War I. (Rev. 13:7) But victory over the Devil’s worldwide political system of rulership and its political image (the United Nations) is not yet complete, as long as the Sovereign Lord God permits them to remain on earth. We shall come off victorious completely only when that political “wild beast” with the reproachful number 666 lies destroyed on the battlefield of Har–Magedon. (Rev. 13:18) If we desire to be fellow victors with Jesus Christ the Son of God over that enemy organization, we must continue to keep from being marked like a slave with the numerical name of the “wild beast” and not idolatrously worship its political image.

17. If we have such victorious faith, we will never let ourselves be kept from doing what, and so what is it our determination to do?

¹⁷ Do we have the victorious faith with which to do this? If we do, then we shall never let the “wild beast” keep us from preaching “this good news of the kingdom” until the Kingdom witness in all the inhabited earth is finished. Our victory is to be, not merely over the “wild beast” and its “image,” but over the world, just as that of Jesus Christ was. So we shall not let the world’s hatred and the tribulation that it causes us overpower us and force us into rebellion against God. Till he himself gains his own personal victory at Har–Magedon, we will continue to sing his praises in order that individuals out of all nations may come and worship before him through the victorious Son of God, Jesus Christ.

A Large Door Leading to Activity Opens

As told by George Fredianelli

MY LIFE since becoming a servant of God is well summed up by the words of the apostle Paul: “A large door that leads to activity has been opened to me, but there are many opposers.” (1 Cor. 16:9) In fact, shortly after I entered through the door of activity to preach God’s Word, I met opposers. It was in San Rafael, California, July 1940, while I was offering the Watch Tower Society’s magazines on the street. An air force officer interrupted and attempted to have a mob run me out of town on a rail.

The man was very incensed about the neutral stand with regard to war taken by Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, so he began to shout obscenities and insults at me. As he continued, a crowd gathered. Incited by the man, the crowd grew uglier by the second. It was then that I silently prayed to Jehovah to help me to be faithful whatever the crowd decided to do.

No sooner had I finished the prayer than two men pushed their way into the crowd and placed themselves between the crowd and me. They began reasoning with the people, asking, ‘What good is it to fight a war against foreign destroyers of freedom if here at home we destroy it ourselves?’ The crowd calmed down, and one by one moved off up the street, until only the air force officer remained. Greatly frustrated, he shook his fist in my face, muttering angrily to himself and went on his way.

Though my entering the ‘large door of preaching activity’ brought opposers, as it did for the apostle Paul, it has also brought unbounded blessings. But how did God’s truth enter my life and the ‘large door leading to activity’ open?

LEARNING GOD’S TRUTH

One evening my brother Bruno arrived home from work bringing with him a number of brightly colored books. My brother Charles and I were curious. But Bruno locked them up, saying they were “Protestant” books and not for us to read.

You see, we were Italian Catholics, my father and mother having immigrated to America in the early years of the twentieth century. Sunday in our house meant attending Mass. Probably I would have continued on in this routine of living had not my brother Bruno brought those books home in the early nineteen thirties.

Not many weeks after Bruno brought the Watch Tower Society books into our home, he began telling us what they contained, urging us to read them. My brother Charles and I read some of the literature. The Bible’s message sounded logical to us, and it held out a wonderful hope for the future.

Right away at school I began telling all my Catholic schoolmates about the Bible’s truth, expecting them to find it just as logical and wonderful as I had. But how wrong I was! They strongly opposed my preaching and abused me orally. I had not expected so many opposers to such wonderful truths, and under pressure I finally stopped reading and talking about the Bible’s truth. It was not until about five years later, in 1938, that my interest in God’s truth was rekindled.

After a long illness, my father died that year. Before his death the members of our family took turns sitting up all night to care for him. During those nights, I began reading various publications of the Watch Tower Society. What I read about Jehovah’s love and name stirred up in me a deep sense of gratitude toward the true God for the abundant provisions he had made for our blessing and salvation. But most of all, I was profoundly struck by the truth that Jehovah’s vindication was even more important than man’s salvation. Then and there an intense desire was born in me to share in the vindication of Jehovah’s name.

This desire I revealed to Bruno on the day of my father’s funeral. At this time, too, my younger brother Charles expressed his desire to serve Jehovah. And so it happened that on the same day that I was sad at the loss of my father, nonetheless, my heart was filled with the hope and joy that comes to a person when he learns God’s truth.

‘THE LARGE DOOR OPENS’

A month later, on March 17, I joyfully crossed the threshold of the ‘large door’ that was to lead me to a marvelous field of activity in the land of my fathers, Italy. On that day I began preaching the good news of God’s kingdom from house to house. Each week thereafter my happiness continued to grow as I regularly shared God’s truths with others. Engaging in the preaching work refreshed me after a week of association with worldly workmates.

Bruno, Charles and I would spend evenings together talking about the Bible’s truth and the happiness that it had brought us. It was while reflecting on Jehovah’s blessings that we reached an important decision. Our reasoning was that if just three or four hours of preaching a week made us so happy, what greater happiness would be ours by becoming pioneer or full-time ministers! So we left our jobs, obtained territory assignments from the Watch Tower Society and made arrangements to leave our home in Pittsburgh for our first pioneer assignment, in Clay County, North Carolina.

MOVING ON TO GREATER HAPPINESS

In April 1939, we headed south. We were very excited and wondered what our first assignment would be like. There was only one family walking in the truth in Clay County, the Coffey family. I will never forget their warm welcome, kindness and hospitality. The territory was rural; the people were poor but hospitable, with great respect for the Bible. They listened gladly to the Bible’s message. That is, they did until the local clergymen turned them against us by saying we were the “no hell people.” I will never forget the lady with a broom raised who asked me: “Do you believe in hell?” It was a relief when, on answering that I did believe in the Bible hell, the broom came down to the ground and she allowed me to tell her about God’s kingdom.

Later, while serving as a full-time minister in San Francisco, California, and the surrounding area, a very important event in my life came about. Coming home from the field ministry one day, my brothers and I found a letter for each of us, a letter from the Watch Tower Society. What wonderful news it contained! The Society was arranging to open up a school for training missionaries to send to foreign lands. We were invited to come in February 1943 to attend the first class!

What memorable five months those at Gilead proved to be! What happy times we students had preparing our lessons together each evening for class the next day! Weekends offered us satisfying opportunities to apply in a practical manner in the field what we were studying in class. Often Saturday evening would be spent recounting our many experiences in the full-time preaching work. Those days passed so quickly that before we realized it graduation day had arrived, June 23, 1943.

After his discourse to the graduating class, the Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, read off the future assignments of each one of us. Many of us would not be going to foreign countries yet, since the war was still going on. How thrilled I was, nevertheless, to hear that my assignment was as a circuit overseer to visit and encourage congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses in the New England States! Charles and Bruno would also be traveling overseers, Charles in Texas and Bruno in Minnesota. So for the first time in our lives we would be separating.

The visits of the circuit overseer to the congregations in those days were quite different from what they are today. My schedule was the following: I would spend one day visiting congregations with from one to twenty publishers; when the congregations had from twenty-one to forty publishers, I visited them for two days, and if they had over forty, the visit lasted three days. I remember that one month I served thirty congregations. Usually I spent the nights traveling from one appointment to another, leaving after the meeting with one congregation and arriving early next morning at my next appointment.

ON TO ITALY

In March 1946 I received a letter from the Society inviting me to go to Italy as a missionary. On September 30, 1946, I set sail from New York city, heading for Italy on a ship that had been used as a troop transport. On October 19, 1946, I landed in Naples. Naples, with its teeming population of over a million inhabitants and with not even one preacher of the Kingdom good news, made me realize what an immense field of preaching activity Italy was. There were less than one hundred proclaimers of the good news in this vast field of forty-five million people. I had indeed entered through “a large door that leads to activity.”

From Naples I traveled to Milan, where the Society’s branch office was then located. I will never forget the first meeting that I attended in Italy. It was the Watchtower study held on Sunday, the day after my arrival in Milan. We were seven at that meeting, conducted by Brother Giuseppe Tubini, now serving in the Society’s Rome branch office.

My assignment in Italy was to serve as circuit overseer. How wide an area did my circuit embrace? All Italy, including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia! The immediate task on what might be called my first missionary journey was to visit the few congregations already established, to organize new ones and make calls on persons known to be interested in God’s truth.

It was a faith-strengthening privilege during this first tour of Italy to meet my Christian brothers who had steadfastly upheld true worship during the harsh years of Fascism.

My years of service in Italy have not passed without encountering many obstacles. First of all, the Italian language was, for me, a problem. Though my parents were Italians, the language learned from them was a hybrid Italian consisting of Italianized English words. I still remember the puzzled expressions that met me when I would try using some of these words. To solve my problem, I thought it would be a good idea to prepare a manuscript talk. But this did not turn out too well. The brothers were usually very tired after working hard from sunrise to sunset, and so while I read my manuscript, many slept. So I threw away the manuscript and began speaking extemporaneously, asking those listening to me to help me out whenever I got stuck. This worked out fine for them and me, as it kept them awake and it helped me to progress in the language so that now it is more difficult for me to speak English than Italian.

My heart was touched by the great poverty existing in the land. There were times when, on certain calls, I found people who had not eaten that day. So I would buy some food and share it with them, while at the same time nourishing them spiritually. The zeal and generosity of my Christian brothers were quite moving. They would share the little food they had with me and often insisted on my sleeping in their bed while they slept on the floor without covering. Territory was reached on foot and often we would walk many miles to get to it.

Due to the war, sanitary conditions were very bad. Many were the sleepless nights I had due to bedbugs and cockroaches, which were sometimes so numerous that the floor and walls seemed to be on the move. On one occasion I sat up three nights on a table, as it was impossible to get near the bed. Of course, conditions have changed greatly since then.

When I left for the city of Caltanissetta, in central Sicily, I traveled by a train with a steam locomotive. It took me from six in the morning till about ten that night to travel the fifty to sixty miles. How glad I was to arrive in Caltanissetta, as I could now go to a hotel, take a much needed bath and go to bed! But it was not to be so. There was a festa going on in town for the patron “Saint” Michele. As a result, every hotel in town was packed out, mainly with nuns and priests. Back to the station I went, planning to stretch out on a bench I had noted in the waiting room. But this was not to be so either. The station was locked up. So there was nothing else to do but sit down on the steps of the station and try to get some rest.

“THERE ARE MANY OPPOSERS”

Of course, the ‘great door of activity’ opened to preachers of God’s Word is not without opposers. And this has been true also in the large field of activity here in Italy. The clergy have resorted to several means in their attempts to keep the humble people from hearing God’s truth. They incited the people and the authorities to interfere with our house-to-house preaching work. When we preached in small towns, the people would pour out of their homes and surround us, shouting for us to go. This either frightened the householder to whom we were speaking at the moment so that he would close the door on us, or he would join up with the crowd to harass us.

To do some preaching in the small town of Monte Pagano overlooking the Adriatic Sea, another Witness and I had to leave town four times. Whenever they would force us to leave from one end of town, we would circle it and enter it from the other side. Then we were able to call at a few homes until the crowd discovered us again and forced us to leave. How wonderful it is to see that despite such opposition, in almost all towns where these tactics were adopted, there are now flourishing congregations of Jehovah’s people!

In the city of Taranto I had the experience of giving a public talk while, behind me, a mob outside was shouting all kinds of profanity, even trying to batter down the door. But Jehovah gave me the strength to continue till the end of the talk, and the mob’s efforts to interrupt it failed.

MARVELOUS BLESSINGS

But such difficulties were nothing compared to the joyous experiences that I had through the years. How many times I have had experiences similar to those of the apostle Peter in his visit to the Gentile army officer, Cornelius! Often on arriving at the home of an interested person, I would find his house full of his “relatives and intimate friends.”​—Acts 10:24.

This happened, for example, in the city of Bisceglie. At the station on my arrival, I found Pasquale De Liddo waiting for me, together with almost forty of his neighbors and relatives who wanted to hear the good news. All day long they asked questions on the Bible and were overjoyed at the truth. In northern Italy, at the home of Battista Dialley, there were about sixty people waiting when I arrived. We then began a question-and-answer session that ended in the wee hours of the next day.

What a marvelous privilege Jehovah has given me in being an eyewitness to the great growth of the Kingdom work in this land! Recently I was thrilled at the news that Italy had a peak of 30,822 Kingdom preachers in June 1973. When I remember back to the time of my arrival in Naples when there was not a single proclaimer of the good news, and I look at Naples today with its eleven congregations of Jehovah’s praisers, my heart swells with thanksgiving to Jehovah. And what about the city of Milan, where, on my arrival in Italy, I met with six others for a Watchtower study? There thirteen congregations now exist.

With the growth in congregations, the need to have a full-time district overseer arose. This was another field of activity to which Jehovah’s organization assigned me in 1954. So again, my territory, as at the beginning of my service assignment, took in all Italy, from the Alps to the island of Sicily. It was while holding a circuit assembly in Alessandria in 1954 that I met Eva Celli, a full-time preacher of God’s truth. In July of the following year we married, so that after almost twenty-five years of traveling alone, I now had a wife to accompany me. The 1950’s were very busy years, visiting congregations, serving at circuit assemblies and, in between, preparing for district or national assemblies.

In 1959 Jehovah showered another blessing and privilege upon me. I was invited to attend the Kingdom Ministry School, then being held at South Lansing in New York State. This was to prepare me for serving as school instructor for the Kingdom Ministry School in Italy.

In January 1961 I began teaching the congregation overseers in Italy the course that I had taken at South Lansing. In January 1963 the school was suspended to permit me to serve as assembly overseer for the 1963 “Everlasting Good News” Assembly in Milan. Never had I expected on my arrival in Italy, about seventeen years before this, that I would not only attend an assembly of such large size in Italy but also have the privilege of organizing it. What a joy it was to see 20,000 people gathering in the Vigorelli Volodrome for the public talk! And in 1973 it was an even greater thrill to be present when over 57,000 gathered for the “Divine Victory” International Assembly in Flaminio Stadium in Rome.

During the late 1960’s my feet began to give me much trouble, and the problem became more serious with the passing of the years. Realizing that I could no longer do justice to my service in the district, I made a request to the Society’s president to serve at the branch office in Rome. Thanks to Jehovah and his organization, my request was granted, and my wife and I became members of the Bethel family in April 1970.

I am very grateful to Jehovah for this assignment to Italy, permitting me to have a part in contributing to the expansion of true worship in this land. It is another great kindness from Jehovah to live in the new beautiful Bethel home in Rome, built just last year. There is no lack of work for me to do as the expansion in Italy goes on. How profoundly thankful to Jehovah I am for having supplied me with endurance for these past years in Italy! Since Jehovah opened the ‘large door that leads to activity’ to me, I will continue relying on him to supply me with the endurance needed to carry out any future activity that he chooses to assign me.

Should You Drink Alcoholic Beverages?

Helpful facts that young people want to know

MORE and more young persons are facing this question today. What facts will be of real help to you in knowing how to view this matter sensibly, for your own lasting good?

Alcoholic beverages cover a wide range. Some have quite a low alcohol content, as does beer. Others are moderately higher, as are most table wines. Then there are what are called “distilled spirits” with high alcohol content, such as brandies, whiskeys, gin, vodka, Latin-American tequila or Greek ouzo.

Regional attitudes and customs are also of wide variety. In some lands​—France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Chile and other countries—​wine is used as a common beverage at the family table. This may be due to a problem in obtaining good water supplies or may just be due to custom. But even in these lands the attitude toward use of alcoholic beverages will vary from family to family.

Not only this, but the results from using alcoholic beverages also vary from country to country, from family to family, and from person to person. You need to keep this in mind to develop a sensible viewpoint toward such beverages.

Well, then, in view of all this variety, is there any stable, consistent standard to guide you in this matter? Yes, the Bible provides this for us. Its inspired counsel gives a very balanced view on the use of alcoholic beverages.

THE BIBLE’S BALANCED VIEWPOINT

The Bible shows that from ancient times wine was a common beverage with meals, being used by such persons as King-Priest Melchizedek, by Abraham, Isaac and many others. (Gen. 14:18, 19; 27:25; 1 Sam. 16:20; Eccl. 9:7) Jesus provided wine for a wedding feast, and the apostle Paul counseled the young man Timothy to “use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent cases of sickness.”​—1 Tim. 5:23; John 2:1-10.

Rightfully the Bible lists wine as among God’s provisions and blessings for the enjoyment of mortal man. (Deut. 11:13, 14; Ps. 104:15; Joel 2:19) It also shows that God’s people used other alcoholic beverages.​—Deut. 14:26.

Does this mean there is no need for caution on your part as to drinking alcoholic beverages? By no means. For the Bible shows the ‘other side of the coin’ as well. There are many things in life that are not wrong in themselves but which can bring serious consequences if misused or used too soon. God gave man procreative powers, but these are to be used only in honorable marriage and their use can bring heavy responsibility of caring for a family. Fire, steam, electricity and various tools can be very helpful to men and women in their work, but, used without due caution, they can also be very harmful. Consider now just what the effect of alcohol is on the human system.

Unlike other substances, alcohol needs no digestion. It begins to be absorbed into the bloodstream as soon as it enters the stomach, though most absorption takes place in the small intestine. It is quickly carried to the brain, the liver and other parts of the body. Since alcohol contains calories, the body now sets about metabolizing it, that is, transforming the alcohol into a chemical form that the body can, in effect, burn up as fuel. Most of this work is done by the liver. The lungs and kidneys lighten some of the load as they expel some of the alcohol through the breath and urine.

Once in the bloodstream, what effect does alcohol have on the person? If taken in any quantity, it does not stimulate the body cells, but acts to depress them. In small amounts, the effect is that of mild sedation, relaxation or tranquillity. At higher levels, the effect it has of depressing or suppressing the brain’s ‘switchboard controls’ may, at least in some people, cause them to become very talkative, excessively active and even aggressive.

In still greater concentrations, the brain becomes severely depressed, the central nervous system is affected, and the individual begins to have difficulty in coordinating his movements. That is why he has trouble in walking, seeing and speaking clearly, becomes confused and muddled in his thinking. (Compare Psalm 107:27.) The problem is made worse by the peculiar effect alcohol has in making the person think his senses are really operating better than usual. So, he is generally the last one to realize that he has taken too much. And once he reaches the point of intoxication only time can bring any relief.

The Bible gives us a very accurate picture of the dangers and the discomfort that come with overindulgence in alcoholic beverages. At Proverbs 23:29-35, we read: “Who has woe? Who has uneasiness? Who has contentions? Who has concern? Who has wounds for no reason? Who has dullness of eyes? Those staying a long time with the wine, those coming in to search out mixed wine. . . . Your own eyes will see strange things, and your own heart will speak perverse things. And you will certainly become like one lying down in the heart of the sea [experiencing confusion and helplessness like that of a drowning person], even like one lying down at the top of a mast [where the rocking back and forth of a ship is most keenly felt, making a fall very likely]. ‘They have struck me, but I did not become sick; they have smitten me, but I did not know it [for the drunken person is insensible to what is going on and often is not aware of his wounds until he has become sober].’”

A GROWING PROBLEM FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

But are young people in any real danger of experiencing intoxication or even becoming alcoholics? Yes, they are. Newsweek magazine of March 5, 1973, shows a growing trend among teen-agers toward alcohol, often in place of drugs. And many are drinking to the point of intoxication.

In one Boston suburb, for example, one out of every three students in the eighth grade was reported to have experienced intoxication at least once. In southern California, one teen-ager in every twenty is a “problem drinker,” and, according to the National Council on Alcoholics, the age of the youngest alcoholics in the nation has dropped from 14 to 12. France has for long faced a serious problem of alcoholism among children, some showing signs of cirrhosis of the liver at an early age. In Hungary (a country with one of the highest rates of suicide), medical centers in recent years have been treating thousands of children annually for intoxication.

Why do young people get into this problem? In many cases there is someone in their family who is already an excessive drinker. In many other cases, it is because they begin drinking at the instance of other young people. Sometimes a young boy is put under pressure by others of his age to ‘prove he is a man’ by drinking a heavy amount of some alcoholic drink, or a young girl is made to feel she is socially backward if she does not drink.

Does drinking an alcoholic beverage really prove anything as to the kind of person you are? Obviously not, since even animals can be induced to drink it. Really, what do persons who would pressure you to drink want? Are they seeking your good, something that will benefit you? Or are they, rather, just trying to put you in the same class with themselves, perhaps hoping to have the ‘fun’ of seeing you lose control and act, not like a grown man or woman, but like a small child who cannot walk, talk or see clearly and who does and says foolish things?

Note what one authority, Dr. Giorgio Lolli, is quoted as saying of alcoholics: “The alcoholic is retreating from the adult world into infancy, physically and psychologically. His mental perceptions and bodily sensations become indistinguishable. Like the infant, he becomes helpless and requires a baby’s care.” Furthermore, persons seeking sexual immorality may also encourage one to drink so that his or her self-control deteriorates.

Surely giving in to any of these pressures would show​—not that one has strength or is grown up—​but that one is weak and lacks moral courage. With good reason Proverbs 20:1 warns that wine can become “a ridiculer, intoxicating liquor is boisterous, and everyone going astray by it is not wise.” You do not need to experience drunkenness to know how undesirable it is​—any more than you need to break a leg to know how painful that can be.

It is not merely the danger of becoming a “problem drinker” or an alcoholic that calls for caution. Just one bad experience with alcohol can bring lasting damage: a serious auto accident, possibly with loss of life or limb​—your own or that of some innocent person; or an act of immorality that puts a stain on your whole life and that may bring thorny complications; or perhaps some violent conduct that you will long regret. Why take an unnecessary risk?

The possibility of such tragic results is clear from the fact that, of the 50,000 persons dying each year on the highways of the United States, more than half the deaths are from accidents that have alcohol-related causes. And a New York Times report of July 18, 1972, says that “more than 80 per cent of homicides and aggressive assaults are committed by intoxicated persons.”

WEIGHING THE MATTER WITH WISDOM

In weighing the matter, remember that alcoholic beverages are not one of life’s essentials as are air, food and water. You can get along without them, and many prefer to do so. Remember, too, that the person who wants to have the approval of Jehovah God, the Life-Giver, must serve him with his ‘whole heart, soul, mind and strength.’ (Luke 10:27) Misuse of alcohol can not only rob one of mental clarity and alertness and physical strength, but also affect one’s heart, leading to the development of bad motives.​—Isa. 28:7, 8; 1 Thess. 5:6-8; Hos. 4:11.

True, the Bible speaks approvingly of the moderate use of such beverages as wine. But what if one looks to such alcoholic drinks as an escape from the reality of life or from boredom by achieving an artificial glow of happiness and a synthetic feeling of comradeship? Or as a personality medicine to ‘brace one’s nerves’ in overcoming timidity or fear? He may well find that the cure is worse than the ailment. What good is money if it proves to be counterfeit? And what good is a feeling of happiness or courage if it proves to be only artificial?

An enlightening report by the National Institute of Mental Health (published by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) shows that dangers of misuse of alcohol were least likely to appear where the following circumstances prevailed:

(1) Where the individual’s earliest contact with alcoholic beverages came within a strong family or religious group and where the beverages usually were of low alcohol content (such as table wines or beer) and usually taken at mealtimes as just part of the meal. (2) Where use of these beverages was viewed as neither a virtue nor a sin, drinking not being considered as any measure of adulthood or of one’s being a “real man.” (3) Where no one was pressured to drink and where turning down a drink was no more looked down upon than turning down a piece of bread. (4) Where drinking in excess was strongly disapproved, being considered neither ‘stylish’ nor comical nor something to be tolerated. And, perhaps most importantly, (5) where there was united and consistent agreement on what is right and wrong as regards the use of such beverages, parents presenting a good example of moderation.

Your finest and safest guide, of course, is God’s Word. As we have seen, it provides examples of the proper use of alcoholic beverages and strong warnings against their misuse. It counsels young persons to “be obedient to your parents in union with the Lord, for this is righteous.” (Eph. 6:1) Respect your parents’ judgment, based on God’s Word, as to whether you should drink alcoholic beverages or not or under what circumstances you may do so. You are wise if you avoid indulging in them when those partaking are all young persons with no parents or relatives present to provide a controlling influence.​—Prov. 1:7-9; 6:20-22; 22:15.

Above all, for your lasting happiness, “whether you are eating or drinking or doing anything else, do all things for God’s glory.”​—1 Cor. 10:31.

Victory over Alcohol

● An experience related on June 30, 1973, at the Los Angeles “Divine Victory” International Assembly was about a man in the Dominican Republic who was the town drunk. When he received his paycheck he went out for several days and drank it up. Since he was a good schoolteacher, he was not fired, but his classes were canceled until he sobered up. One of Jehovah’s witnesses started a Bible study with him. As he made progress in Bible knowledge, the man quit drinking and smoking. The change was so great that people would stop him on the street and ask what had happened. He told them that the only ones who were able to help him were Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. His victory over alcohol abuse has given him occasion to speak to many persons about God’s truth and its power to transform lives.

Questions From Readers

● If a young person is forbidden by his father (or his mother) to study the Bible or to associate with Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, is he obligated to obey in these matters?​—U.S.A.

The Bible commands children: “Be obedient to your parents in union with the Lord, for this is righteous.” (Eph. 6:1) “Be obedient to your parents in everything, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord.” (Col. 3:20) As firm advocators of the Bible, Jehovah’s witnesses constantly urge youths to follow that divine advice. However, the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is brought into the matter shows that obedience to parents is not absolute. The authority of Jesus Christ is far greater than that of any earthly father. Jesus has been given ‘all authority in heaven and on the earth,’ and is the “head of every man.”​—Matt. 28:18; 1 Cor. 11:3.

Accordingly, whenever a father demands that his children disobey the law of Christ and hence also the law of God, he is going beyond the realm of his authority. At such times, therefore, children have to decide what they will do. For example, what if a father commands his son to steal, lie, cheat or engage in other lawless acts? The son may be aware that God forbids these things. Hence, a son may choose to obey the superior law of God and of Christ and not go along with his father.

Even the law of the land places a certain responsibility on children in this regard. It may hold a child accountable for committing a crime at the direction of the father. Says American Jurisprudence: “A child acting under his parents’ command may, in a proper case, be excused for a crime committed by him, although the father’s command does not always excuse the infant in committing a crime. When a child commits an unlawful act in the presence of his father, at his direction, and because of the criminal intent of the father, it must appear that the child was of immature years or mind and entirely under the domination, direction, and control of the father, before the crime becomes that of the father, and not of the child.”

Similarly, the law of God does not excuse children for lawless acts merely on the basis of their being minors. For instance, when small boys showed gross disrespect for the prophet Elisha, Jehovah God did not spare them from punishment, even though it may have been the attitude of their parents toward Elisha that moved them to do it. (2 Ki. 2:23, 24) This illustrates that Jehovah God holds children accountable for knowingly violating his commands.

Of course, very young children neither know nor understand all of God’s requirements. Therefore, even if only one parent is a true servant of God, young children are mercifully viewed as holy or clean from God’s standpoint. (1 Cor. 7:14) Of course, the believing parent has a responsibility of teaching the children the divine will regardless of the attitude of the unbelieving mate. (Prov. 6:20) Then, as children grow older, they come under responsibility before God to act in harmony with what they know to be right. This includes matters relating to true worship. It is God’s will that his approved servants study his Word, assemble with fellow believers and proclaim Bible truth to still others.​—Matt. 24:14; John 17:3; Heb. 10:24, 25.

However, if a father forbade such Christian activity, the children might reasonably and respectfully explain their position to him. Such an explanation will carry weight when backed up by exemplary conduct. Really the father should have no legitimate complaint to make about children who are seeking to do the divine will. If children can help him to appreciate that they have become better sons and daughters since starting to study God’s Word, this can do much to break down any prejudice. It can help him to see that his children are a real credit to him and stand out in stark contrast with the growing number of disrespectful and lawless youths in the world today. After reflecting on such points he may not at all object to his children’s continuing to pursue a course that is making it easier for him as family head.

There are times when children are the only ones in a family that want to learn about God’s Word. They might come to the home of one of Jehovah’s witnesses and ask Bible questions or even attend meetings at the Kingdom Hall. If parents demand that their children cease all association with Jehovah’s witnesses, the children will have to decide what they are going to do on the basis of what they know to be right. If parents begin directly supervising every aspect of the activity of their children and cut them off from all possible association with Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, this does not prevent youths from demonstrating their desire to do God’s will by maintaining fine conduct, studying the Bible on their own and praying that the time may come when they will be freer to pursue true worship and can continue to seek the permission of their parents to share more fully in Christian activity.

On the other hand, though denying a child’s request to attend Christian meetings or to let a minister come and study the Bible with him, perhaps the parents do not exercise any strict supervision. What is the responsibility of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses toward such a child? Jehovah’s witnesses rightly respect the wishes of parents as to what will be done in their own home. But this does not mean that Jehovah’s witnesses cannot answer Bible questions raised by youths who visit them or who meet them on the street or elsewhere. Jehovah’s witnesses have no responsibility to turn children away from their Kingdom Halls because parents may not want them to attend meetings there. The Bible says: “Let anyone that wishes take life’s water free.” (Rev. 22:17) If youths are among those desiring life’s water, who is there that should turn them away? Jesus Christ told his disciples: “Let the young children alone, and stop hindering them from coming to me, for the kingdom of the heavens belongs to suchlike ones.”​—Matt. 19:14.

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