The Watchtower — April 15, 1976

Is It Possible to Know About God?

IT IS a generally accepted fact that if there is a God who created the universe, he must be invisible and far superior to man. Would this mean that humans cannot understand him at all? Is God so lofty that He has little or no interest in man whom He put on earth? Is it impossible to learn why we humans are here, and why things occur as they do? Or, can we find out what God has in mind for us?

Yes, we can find out. First of all, we have evidence of God in the creation around us. One of the Bible writers called attention to this fact, saying: “For [God’s] invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made.” (Rom. 1:20) In considering the creation of the universe, and this earth with life upon it, we see tremendous power manifest, as well as surpassing wisdom. Also, we can discern great love on the part of the Creator in the way that things work together to sustain life, and to make life enjoyable for us. Observing these qualities in the Creator should draw us to learn more about him.

Another thing making plain that God is interested in us and wants us to live in a way that is beneficial is the fact that He has given every man a conscience that constantly monitors his decisions and actions, to help him to take a right, moral way. Furthermore, everyone has a natural desire to find out about himself, why he is alive on earth and what his future will be. Men also have an innate urge to worship someone. Is it at all logical that an intelligent God would not let his intelligent creation know about him? Not at all.

Note what the apostle Paul said in this regard when speaking to an audience gathered in the Court of Areopagus in Athens. He spoke of God’s purpose for men to “seek God, and, it might be, touch and find him; though indeed he is not far from each one of us.”​—Acts 17:27, New English Bible.

So God is not hard to find. He had the Bible written in plain language that is easily understood. His Son said: “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened.” (Matt. 7:7, NE) This promise assures that, when a person finds parts of the Bible difficult to understand, he can receive help. But he must first really want to know about God and his purpose, then he must ask God and show his sincere desire by looking into the Bible. He can be assured that God wants to and will help him to understand and to take the life-giving course. Says the Bible: “The LORD is good and upright; therefore he teaches sinners the way they should go. If there is any man who fears the LORD, he shall be shown the path that he should choose. The LORD confides his purposes to those who fear him.”​—Ps. 25:8, 12, 14, NE.

On his own part, God’s concern is so great that he has sent people to help others to learn of him, though he has had to bear them up through many difficulties. Foremost among these, God’s own Son Jesus Christ was most vigorous in telling and instructing others about God’s purposes. More than that, Jesus underwent the greatest of opposition and persecution from his own countrymen, though a number of them became his disciples. These disciples, in turn, experienced all manner of hardships, privations, cold, hunger, even shipwreck on behalf of the good news. But they were faithful in making known God’s purpose to provide a righteous rule over the earth, with health and life for mankind.​—2 Cor. 11:24-27.

This helping people to learn about God​—should we expect it to come from world leaders or through the major news channels of the world? No. And the facts bear out this conclusion. The world leaders, instead of acknowledging God’s promises and announcing his Kingdom purpose to halt injustice and suffering, advocate political, commercial and scientific means to cure the world’s ills. Those whom they allow prominence before the public support such worldly aims. Therefore, assistance to learn about God is not furnished through these channels.

From where does help come in knowing God, which, as Jesus said, was essential? He declared: “Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3, New American Bible) You will note in reading the Bible that, for the most part, God used as his agents common men, lacking worldly prominence. Two of the foremost apostles, Peter and John, were interrogated by the Jewish leaders, the priests, the elders, and those versed in the law governing that nation. When the apostles spoke intelligently in reply, the account says: “Observing the self-assurance of Peter and John, and realizing that the speakers were uneducated men of no standing, the questioners were amazed. Then they recognized these men as having been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13, NA) Yes, though they were not prominent men at all, they had received education through Jesus Christ so that they knew God and could explain his purposes to others.

Education in knowledge of God is what God is making available for the people. People who have desired such education and who have looked to the Bible for it are engaged in this educational program. They are not doing it so much as a duty, but willingly, and certainly they are not seeking material gain, but they are happy to have found that God really cares. (Ps. 110:3) They have learned that he has beneficial purposes for humankind, and promises to deliver them from oppression, insecurity, sickness and death. So they want to tell others.

This helpful educational work is what Jehovah’s Witnesses are doing. They can help the sincere seeker to learn what God has in mind for mankind. You can begin to learn by reading the Bible, and by getting the free help of these people, who are sincere students of the Bible. You may have a humble and inquiring mind, as did the man in the first century who was reading the Bible and was approached by one of Christ’s disciples. The disciple asked him: “Do you really grasp what you are reading?” “‘How can I,’ the man replied, ‘unless someone explains it to me?’” The disciple, Philip by name, in a Bible study helped the man to understand clearly what he was reading. (Acts 8:30-35, NA) You can avail yourself of such help, without cost. The knowledge that you can receive by understanding what God has in mind can give you renewed hope, peace of mind and a purpose in life.

Patience Pays a Fine Reward

IN THIS world dishonesty, injustices, oppression and other unfavorable circumstances abound. As a result, many people become highly incensed. Faced with a distressing situation, they tend to become impatient, wanting immediate relief. But what is really accomplished by becoming angry or impatient?

Surely our becoming disturbed or impatient will not change the world or remove human imperfection. As long as this system continues to exist, there will be troubles and problems. By getting ourselves unduly upset about this time and again, we can actually hurt ourselves. We can become unhappy and may eventually ruin our health.

The wiser course is to follow the counsel of the Christian disciple James: “Exercise patience . . . Look! The farmer keeps waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, exercising patience over it until he gets the early rain and the late rain.”​—Jas. 5:7.

When it comes to needed rain, the farmer cannot control matters. He can plant and try to keep the cultivated field comparatively free of weeds. But his worrying about rain will not help him to have a better harvest. Undue worry could, in fact, rob him of a measure of strength and joy in doing his work. So the farmer simply has to show patience.

When it comes to patience, God’s ancient servants set a fine example. The disciple James, after giving the illustration of the farmer, pointed to the faithful prophets: “Brothers, take as a pattern of the suffering of evil and the exercising of patience the prophets, who spoke in the name of Jehovah. Look! We pronounce happy those who have endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome Jehovah gave, that Jehovah is very tender in affection and merciful.”​—Jas. 5:10, 11.

The prophets who were sent to the nation of Israel often encountered unfavorable response. The Bible tells us: “Jehovah kept warning Israel and Judah by means of all his prophets and every visionary, saying: ‘Turn back from your bad ways and keep my commandments, my statutes, according to all the law that I commanded your forefathers and that I have sent to you by means of my servants the prophets’; and they did not listen.” (2 Ki. 17:13, 14) Besides facing unresponsiveness, many of the prophets were reviled, physically abused and even killed. Because of this shameful record of mistreatment, Jesus Christ could speak of the capital city Jerusalem as “the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her.” (Matt. 23:37) Still these prophets remained faithful to God, patiently enduring persecution.

Did their patience bring a reward? Yes. Above all, these prophets maintained a clean conscience before God and men. They had the joy of knowing that their service was pleasing to Jehovah God. And, though now dead, they live from God’s standpoint, as it is his purpose to resurrect them. (Rom. 4:17) They will see fulfilled toward themselves the words spoken to the prophet Daniel: “You will rest, but you will stand up for your lot at the end of the days.”​—Dan. 12:13.

As the disciple James wrote, the case of Job well illustrates that the Most High has tender affection for those who endure patiently. Jehovah expressed his love for Job by acknowledging him as his approved servant. To Job’s three false companions, he said: “You men have not spoken concerning me what is truthful as has my servant Job. And now take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job, and you men must offer up a burnt sacrifice in your own behalf; and Job my servant will himself pray for you. His face only I shall accept.”​—Job 42:7, 8.

Jehovah showed not only love but also mercy toward Job. In his compassion the Most High offset the calamity that he had allowed Satan to bring upon this faithful man. And, although Job, according to his own acknowledgment, failed to glorify his God to the full, he was shown abundant mercy because of his repentant attitude. (Job 42:2-6) The Bible reports: “Jehovah began to give in addition all that had been Job’s in double amount. . . . He blessed the end of Job afterward more than his beginning.”​—Job 42:10-12.

Even if a person were not to experience a complete reward for his endurance during this lifetime, as did Job, he would not miss out on Jehovah’s blessing. He still has the prospect of a resurrection to life under righteous conditions. It was firm faith in this reward that enabled many in the past to remain loyal when their lives were threatened. Says Hebrews 11:35: “Men were tortured because they would not accept release by some ransom [some compromise], in order that they might attain a better resurrection.” Because there is a resurrection, absolutely nothing can prevent a person’s being rewarded for patient endurance.

Besides being certain of a future reversal of all unfavorable circumstances, the person who patiently puts up with unpleasantness even now experiences rewards. He preserves a good conscience and is happy that he is doing what is pleasing to the Creator. Also, his keeping himself restrained when provoked can prevent violent quarrels. As Proverbs 15:18 states: “An enraged man stirs up contention, but one that is slow to anger quiets down quarreling.”

But what is the secret of remaining patient under severe stress? The disciple James posed a similar question and then gave the answer. He wrote: “Is there anyone suffering evil among you? Let him carry on prayer.”​—Jas. 5:13.

By appealing to Jehovah God for help, we ‘throw our burden upon him.’ As to the result of doing this, Psalm 55:22 says: “He himself will sustain you. Never will he allow the righteous one to totter.” Study of God’s Word, coupled with prayer, gives us insight as to the reason things are the way they are in this present system. This enables us to avoid needless upsets about things that cannot be changed. Furthermore, by means of his spirit, Jehovah God brings back to our minds points we have considered from his Word, giving us the spiritual comfort we need to exercise patience under difficulty. Should the problem intensify to the point where the situation appears hopeless, Jehovah may use his spirit to motivate others to come to our aid. As long as we rely upon him, we can be certain that he will never allow us to experience spiritual ruin and to lose out on the reward of patient endurance.

May we, therefore, continue to exercise patience in a lawless world. Thereby we can preserve a good conscience before God and men, quiet down quarreling, maintain joy despite unfavorable situations and avoid ruining our health because of our becoming unduly disturbed about matters that we cannot change. Then, too, we can look ahead to the marvelous prospect of endless life under righteous conditions. Truly, being patient pays a fine reward.

Insight on the News

Pontiff’s Protection

● The Vatican’s Swiss Guards have now added tear gas to their arsenal, according to a recent Associated Press report. The ninety-man force was said to want some protective weapon “less harmful” than their submachine guns and bayoneted rifles, or the combination spear and battle-ax with which they stand guard. But why should Vatican City have such armed guards in the first place? “Their principal function is the protection of the person of the pontiff,” says the “New Catholic Encyclopedia.” However, what of the one whom this pontiff as the “vicar of Christ” claims to represent? Jesus Christ said to Roman Governor Pilate: “Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews”​—for execution. For this reason, Christ’s “men” did not need an arsenal. But the pope apparently feels that his “men” do. It seems that neither his faith, courage nor “kingdom” matches that of Christ.​—John 18:36, Catholic “Jerusalem Bible.”

Blood Tells All

● Forensic (criminal) medicine may soon ‘make it possible to reconstruct the personality image of every person who leaves behind a bloodstain,’ according to English criminologists who spoke at a meeting of the International Juridic Scientists in Zürich, Switzerland. As reported in the German newspaper “Die Welt,” researchers have found that each person’s blood carries a great variety of disease antibodies accumulated throughout life that mark the blood of that person as distinct from all others. “It is today accepted that every person has his own specific type of blood with which no other blood can compare exactly,” notes the paper. Information about where a person has lived, his approximate age, his allergies, even something about his occupation and sexual habits, is coming within the scope of blood analysis. “In short there seem to be no limits to the possibilities of reconstructing a ‘recognizable’ person together with his life’s history and his environment,” the article concludes. Truly it can be said that, in more ways than one, “the life of every living creature is the blood.”​—Lev. 17:11, 14, “New English Bible.”

Event Clarifies Bible

● The recent Guatemalan earthquake affected even some of those already dead. “Time” magazine reports that “several mourners who went to bury their dead in family plots found that the coffins of long-dead relatives had been uncovered by the quake.” Something similar occurred during an earthquake in the Jerusalem area at Jesus’ death. At that time, dead bodies were customarily placed in vaults or chambers cut from Palestine’s soft limestone rock, often in hillsides. A report in the Bible, as translated by Johannes Greber, says that when Jesus died, “the earth quaked, and the rocks were shattered. Tombs were laid open, and many bodies of those buried there were tossed upright. In this posture they projected from the graves and were seen by many who passed by the place on their way back to the city.” Hence, rather than a resurrection, as some Bible translations imply, there appears to have been merely an exposure of the dead to observers, as in Guatemala.​—Matt. 27:51-53.

Bad Precedent

● India’s Cardinal Joseph Parecattil, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference, has urged that Catholicism in that country strive to develop into “an Indian Church.” At a general meeting of the conference, he emphasized the need, as reported in the Indian “Express,” of drawing on the vast resources of Indian religions, thought and systems of philosophy, for this purpose. As a precedent, he referred the bishops to ‘the first four centuries [after Christ, when] Christian theologians were open to constructive dialogue with other faiths.’ Of course, the only ‘other faiths’ were non-Christian, but that did not hinder the cardinal from pleading that, as in the first four centuries, ‘this absorption of terms and thought patterns from local cultures should be an ongoing process in the church.’ Thus Cardinal Parecattil confirms the accuracy of the Bible’s warning about “the apostasy,” and that its beginnings were “already at work” from the first century onward.​—2 Thess. 2:3, 7.

Who Is Jesus Christ, so that We All Need Him?

“There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is not another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved.”​—Acts 4:12.

1. Why is it a world savior that all of us in common need?

A WORLD SAVIOR​—that is what the world of mankind needs so urgently today. A rescuer of the whole human family! We are all of the same flesh and blood, with one common start. We are all on the same spaceship​—this planet earth. If this ship were to sink, we would all have to go down with it into the bottomless sea of unfathomable space. Is this going to happen to us? From the way things are going on our planetary spaceship, it looks as if this global catastrophe is much nearer than modern scientists calculate. But is such a horror going to occur? Who and where is the world savior that can prevent it? More and more people would like to know.

2. In what important cities of today is the world savior not to be found, and what demonstrates this fact?

² The world savior is not over in New York city today​—with its building complex of the United Nations. The 144 nations that are members of that organization for world peace and security are having a hard time in keeping themselves individually afloat. The world savior is not over in Moscow, Russia, where a succession of dictators has ruled with an iron hand and with the vision of a world turned Communist. The world savior is not over in Jerusalem, Israel, where three leading religions of the world have long-standing interests, but in conflict with one another. Neither can the world savior be found in any other city of past or present world importance. The continued anguish of the nations and the increased groaning of the people demonstrate this fact.

3. At what truth do worldly people balk, but where is it reasonable and sensible for us to look for a world savior?

³ The world situation may be totally unpromising in its plain meaning. Yet people who follow the modern way of thinking are dead set against admitting the truth. What truth? That the needed world help will have to come from a source higher than men. They balk at giving up their confidence in men, the only powerful, intelligent helpers that they can visualize in their materialistic minds. If we follow their line of thinking, we are left without a sense of direction. We get nowhere. But regardless of how prominent such worldly-minded persons may be, we know for ourselves that we are neither the creators nor the creatures of ourselves. We are too marvelously designed and made and gifted to be of mere human construction. Our Designer and Constructor, who put us on this planetary spaceship, must be superhuman. He must be as high above us as the heavens are higher than our earthly spaceship. As marvels of His workmanship He ought to be interested in us. It may not be modernistic, but it is reasonable and sensible to look to Him as being able to produce a world savior for us.

4. Who inspired in human breasts the hope of a world savior, and to whom did he long ago tell us to turn for salvation?

⁴ Well, then, is it likely that this Creator of us is the One that inspired in human breasts the hope of the rescue of all mankind? By some world savior? Yes! From where else could such a bold, magnificent idea come? Over seven centuries before our Common Era, yes, more than a century before the Buddhist Era, that One had the statement put down in writing: “Turn to me and be saved, all you at the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no one else. By my own self I have sworn​—out of my own mouth in righteousness the word has gone forth, so that it will not return—​that to me every knee will bend down, every tongue will swear, saying, ‘Surely in Jehovah there are full righteousness and strength. All those getting heated up against him will come straight to him and be ashamed.’”​—Isa. 45:22-24.

5. What should not make us feel ashamed to turn to Jehovah for salvation, and why not?

⁵ Salvation by Jehovah can reach to the far ends of the earth and take in all the world of mankind. He is the One to whom to turn in hope of everlasting salvation and with a confident request for it. The world’s hatred for the name Jehovah should not make us feel ashamed and turn us in a direction away from him. All of those who get heated up against him will be the ones to come direct to Him and be ashamed. They will fail to get the salvation reserved for those who, under no compulsion, turn to him for salvation.

6. How does the last book of the Bible show that Jehovah’s invitation of long ago to turn to him would have a worldwide response?

⁶ Jehovah’s invitation to turn to him as the only God of salvation was written down in the twenty-third book of the Holy Bible. That book contains the inspired prophecies of the Middle Eastern man named Isaiah the son of Amoz, a resident of ancient Jerusalem. That the divine invitation would get a worldwide response is foretold in the sixty-sixth and last book of the Holy Bible called Revelation or Apocalypse and written in the first century of our Common Era. In Re chapter seven, verses nine and ten, the inspired writer, John the son of Zebedee, describes the prophetic vision that he saw. Showing that, in our own time, an innumerable crowd of people would turn to Jehovah God for salvation, John writes: “Look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands. And they keep on crying with a loud voice, saying: ‘Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”

THE WORLD SAVIOR IDENTIFIED

7, 8. (a) In what sense is the designation “the Lamb” to be understood? (b) Where does Revelation begin using the designation, and to show what?

⁷ Why, though, does this crowd made up of persons of all races, nations and colors confess to owing their salvation, not only to God, but also “to the Lamb”? Can we accurately find out the identity of this one who is figuratively called “the Lamb”? Yes!

⁸ Certainly we need to identify him. In the first place, the designation “the Lamb” is not used as a term of endearment, as when we say to someone dear to us, “My little lamb!” Rather, the designation calls attention to sacrifice, to a most necessary sacrifice in behalf of us all. In the book of Revelation the designation “Lamb” (or, “Lamb’s”) is applied to this needed one twenty-seven times. These references to “the Lamb” begin in Re chapter five, where the writer John was told of the vital role that “the Lamb” was to play. John was told: “Stop weeping. Look! The Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so as to open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Rev. 5:5) When John stopped weeping, what did he see? He says: “I saw standing in the midst of the throne . . . a lamb as though it had been slaughtered.”​—Rev. 5:6.

9. Who is this ‘Lion of the tribe of Judah,’ and what does this title indicate about him?

⁹ Who, now, is this Lamb whom the Holy Bible identifies as the “Lion that is of the tribe of Judah” and as a life-giving “root” to the first Judean king of Jerusalem, named David? It is Jesus Christ, the fleshly descendant of the patriarch Abraham and of King David of the tribe of Judah. (Gen. 49:9, 10; Matt. 1:1-6) His being called “the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah” means that he was the “Shiloh” who was to come and to whom “the obedience of the peoples will belong.” This meant that he was to be the King (as his forefather David had been) of a real government to which all the peoples of the earth would have to be subject for their own good. As David had been anointed as king and was therefore an anointed one, so his royal Descendant would be an anointed one, whom the Hebrews called “Messiah” but whom the Greek-speaking Jews called “Christ.” That is why we have the expression “Jesus Christ” (Jesus An Anointed One) or “Christ Jesus” (Anointed Jesus). But if he is likened to a kinglike Judean lion, why is he also likened to a “lamb”?

10. According to what John saw, what had happened to this Lamb, and with what purchase resulting?

¹⁰ The writer John explains why, as he tells us what he further saw and heard, saying: “And when he took the scroll, . . . they [sang] a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slaughtered and with your blood you bought persons for God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.’”​—Rev. 5:8-10.

11. For what purpose was this lamblike one slaughtered, and how had Isaiah, chapter fifty-three, foretold this?

¹¹ So this kingdom-making “Lion that is of the tribe of Judah” was slaughtered in sacrifice, just the same as God’s Law given to the nation of Israel through Moses provided for the sacrifice of an unblemished lamb for sins. He was the righteous “servant” of Jehovah, concerning whom the inspired prophet Isaiah made the following predictions: “He was hard pressed, and he was letting himself be afflicted; yet he would not open his mouth. He was being brought just like a sheep to the slaughtering; and like a ewe that before her shearers has become mute, he also would not open his mouth. . . . he poured out his soul to the very death, and it was with the transgressors that he was counted in; and he himself carried the very sin of many people, and for the transgressors he proceeded to interpose.”​—Isa. 53:7, 12; Acts 8:30-35.

12. Why can we not disprove that we need the sacrifice of the Lamb because of our being sinners and transgressors?

¹² This brings to the fore a strong reason why we need Jesus Christ. We need him like a sacrificial Lamb that was offered up to Jehovah God, the Creator of man. Isaiah’s prophecy just quoted speaks of sinners and transgressors. Now people in general do not like to be called sinners and transgressors. All the same, none of us can deny that we all have defects and tendencies toward wrongdoing. We got these things from somewhere. We can all lay the blame upon our parents. But they, in turn, got imperfection and wrongful tendencies from their parents. And so we can go back all the way in an unbroken chain to the first married couple, whom the Holy Bible calls Adam and Eve. The charging of parents with giving to their offspring imperfection and wrongful inclinations stops with Adam and Eve. Why so? Because Adam and Eve did not get their imperfection and sinfulness from God, their Creator and heavenly Father. “Perfect is his activity,” and he made Adam and Eve perfect, inasmuch as they were created in his own image.​—Deut. 32:4; Luke 3:38; Gen. 1:26-28.

13. What question arises as to the place of our birth, and what kept all of us from being born perfect?

¹³ For the past six thousand years, none of us were born in paradise, that is, in the Garden of Eden. But Adam and Eve were created and put there. (Gen. 2:7-25) Of course, that original earthly paradise would not be able to hold all of us comfortably today; it would have to be expanded to embrace all the globe. Still, why were we not all born in an earthly paradise of global size? Yes, and why were we all born imperfect, subject to bad tendencies, sickly and dying? The only reasonable explanation could be that the first human couple, from whom all of us descended, went wrong. Well, the true-to-fact historical record in the Holy Bible agrees with such a reasonable explanation. Before ever Adam and Eve had children they went wrong. This means that they did not do what God told them to do. They disobeyed him, their heavenly Father. Thus they sinned or aimed away from the mark of human perfection.

14. Why was God within his right in driving Adam and Eve out of paradise, and what mercy on His part has led to our being alive today?

¹⁴ Can we blame God for sentencing Adam and Eve to what he said would be the sure penalty for the slightest act of rebellion against him as the Supreme Lawgiver and Judge? We could not justly do so. But can we blame God for driving them out of their paradise? No! As Creator of the Garden of Eden he has property rights. He has the perfect right to decide who should be tenants on his property. Look at how selfish, thoughtless people reduce fine housing projects to something resembling ghettos and slums. Look at how the human race in general is ruining the earth as a whole, threatening it with nuclear warfare, with all the ruination and pollution that this would signify for earth’s surface. When we come to think about it, it is a wonder that God permitted sinful Adam and Eve to take up living outside the paradise of Eden, so as to people the earth to the extent that it is populated today. Certainly it was merciful on God’s part to let Adam and Eve continue living so as to bring forth children, so that now we find ourselves alive on earth six thousand years later.​—Gen. 3:1 through 4:2.

15. What kind of father did Adam decide to be to his offspring, and how did we all become sinners in him?

¹⁵ When under temptation to sin along with his wife Eve, Adam had to decide what kind of father he would be to his offspring, whether a God-fearing father, perfectly obedient to his heavenly Father and in unbroken relationship with Him, or a father in rebellion against his Life-Giver and under sentence to death, the penalty for sin. (Gen. 2:15-17) Adam chose to be the latter kind of father to us. So we cannot charge our imperfection and sinfulness to God the Creator of man. We ourselves cannot help it, but it is now just as the first-century Bible writer, the Christian apostle Paul, wrote, saying: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12) Since God planted reproductive seed in the first man, all of us his descendants were in his loins when Adam sinned. Thus all of us sinned inside him and, as a result, we have all been born sinners, under the condemnation of death.

16. What balancing of the scales of divine justice should we not overlook, and how does 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22 assure us of this?

¹⁶ Here let us not fail to note one important thing taught in God’s Holy Bible. What is that? This: That just as God holds the one man Adam responsible for all the sin and its penalty death in the world today, so he can hold one other man, the equal of Adam, responsible for canceling the sin of the world and lifting the penalty of sin from off the sinfully born world of mankind. With such a wise, merciful arrangement, the scales of divine justice balance perfectly. This is something that all of us needed, and this is what we are assured of in God’s Holy Bible, in 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22, in these words: “Since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a man. For just as in Adam all are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive.”

17. How only could Adam’s equal be produced on earth, and to whom was the birth of that one appropriately announced?

¹⁷ What a wonderful and economical arrangement this proves to be, and all so simple! All that we needed was just one man, the equal of Adam when in his human perfection and sinlessness. How could such a man be produced on earth, inasmuch as not one of us descendants of the first human couple was born as the equal of Adam in his innocence in Eden? The needed man could be provided only by a miracle of God the Almighty. This divine miracle did occur toward the end of the first century before our Common Era. It resulted in the appearing of the one whom the Revelation repeatedly calls “the Lamb.” Although lamblike, this one proved to be “the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah” and “the root of David.” All the testimony of God’s Holy Bible points to this one as being Jesus Christ, born in David’s city of Bethlehem in the early fall of the year 2 B.C.E. In fine accord with his becoming like a sacrificial lamb, his birth was announced by God’s angel to God’s chosen witnesses, to shepherds watching over flocks of sheep by night.​—Luke 2:4-18; Matt. 2:1-18.

18. Whose Son was this one “from the seed of David” called by means of resurrection from the dead?

¹⁸ All of this was, as the Christian apostle Paul calls it, “good news, which he promised aforetime through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who sprang from the seed of David according to the flesh, but who with power was declared God’s Son according to the spirit of holiness by means of resurrection from the dead​—yes, Jesus Christ our Lord.”​—Rom. 1:1-4.

19. On what level was Jesus declared to be God’s Son by resurrection, but what had he been before when on earth?

¹⁹ Now as regards one’s being in a real sense a son of God, well, according to the fleshly genealogy of Jesus Christ as given in Luke 3:23-38, the first man Adam was a “son of God.” But he disobeyed his heavenly Father and died and brought sin and death upon us all. He is still dead; he has not been resurrected from the dead. He lost his sonship of God. But Jesus Christ has been resurrected on the spirit level and has thus been declared anew to be God’s Son with power greater than what he had on earth. But even when he was on the earthly level, and even though he was born as a fleshly human through the Jewish virgin named Mary, Jesus was a Son of God. There is no reason for us to question that fact. Why not?

20. Why was it that, not just out of his own reasoning on matters, John the Baptist testified that Jesus was the Son of God?

²⁰ At that time the needs of the situation required a “son of God” to be available on earth. Jesus Christ proved to be the needed Son of God. When he became full-grown at the age of thirty years, he got baptized in water by John the Baptist, the son of a Jewish priest named Zechariah. Whom did John publicly declare Jesus Christ to be? John the Baptist told his disciples that Jesus Christ was God’s Son. John knew this, not just out of his own reasoning on matters. Why so? Because immediately after he baptized Jesus, John heard God’s voice saying out of heaven: “This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.” (Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21, 22) So, in public, John said: “I have seen it, and I have borne witness that this one is the Son of God.”​—John 1:34.

21. Why could Jesus not have had a human, fleshly father, but who confessed to the fatherhood of him?

²¹ However, Jesus’ sonship of God did not begin with his human birth through Mary, the Jewish virgin. Since Jesus was born of a virgin who had not had any sexual relations with a male descendant of Adam, He could not have had a human, fleshly father. No angel was his father, for Mary did not have sexual relations with a materialized angel like in the case of the mothers of those notorious Nephilim in the days of the ark-builder Noah. (Gen. 6:1-4) The angel Gabriel, who appeared to Mary and explained to her how in a miraculous way she would become the mother of Jesus, was not the father of Mary’s firstborn son. (Luke 1:26-38; Matt. 1:18-25) Modern science today may dispute the virgin birth of Jesus on the claim that it is impossible, but the angel Gabriel removed any possible question from Mary’s mind by saying: “With God no declaration will be an impossibility.” (Luke 1:37) Accordingly God confessed before all the universe his Fatherhood of the baby Jesus in David’s line.

22. How did John’s words and those of Jesus in prayer to God indicate that Jesus had been a Son of God in heaven?

²² All of that is true, but was Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem-Judah the start of his existence as a Son of God? No! John the Baptist, who was born about six months before Jesus, said publicly regarding the Jesus whom he had baptized: “See, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! This is the one about whom I said, Behind me there comes a man who has advanced in front of me, because he existed before me.” (John 1:29, 30) Now, since Jesus did not exist as a man on earth before John the Baptist, where had he existed before John? It was up in heaven. There he had existed as a Son of God. There he had personal contact and association with his heavenly Father. This accounts for it that, on the night before he suffered death as a martyr outside the walls of Jerusalem, he said in prayer to his heavenly Father: “I have glorified you on the earth, having finished the work you have given me to do. So now you, Father, glorify me alongside yourself with the glory that I had alongside you before the world was.”​—John 17:4, 5.

23. From where was it that God sent his Son into the world, and how?

²³ So, the one who became Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God,” had existed as a Son of God alongside his heavenly Father in the invisible spirit realm. Hence, in order to become the human Son of God under the name Jesus Christ, he had to let Almighty God transfer his life from heaven to the human ovum in the body of the Jewish virgin. In this way God continued to be his Father at his birth in Bethlehem. It could be only from heaven that God transferred the life of his Son miraculously and thereby “sent” his Son, just as Jesus Christ told the Jewish ruler Nicodemus: “God loved the world [of mankind] so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life. For God sent forth his Son into the world, not for him to judge the world, but for the world to be saved through him.”​—John 3:16, 17.

24. Why do we need God’s Son as “the Lamb”?

²⁴ In this way we see how God provided the one man whom we needed for our everlasting salvation, the one man who was the equal of Adam during his perfection and sinlessness in the Garden of Eden. This man alone was able to offer himself to God to be sacrificed as “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Because this includes our sin, we need him.

Why We Need the Kingdom of Jesus Christ

1. Of which “god” was Jesus born as a son, and why not accidentally so?

ONE important thing we notice about the Son of God who was on earth as a man during the first century of our Common Era. He was not born into some Hindu family in India. He was not born into some Buddhist family in Tibet, nor into the royal family of ancient China, nor into the family of the imperial Caesar of Rome. (Esther 1:1; Luke 2:1, 2) Rather, he “sprang from the seed of David according to the flesh.” (Rom. 1:3) This was not accidental. There was need for this Son of God to be born as the “seed of David.” This was the reason why God chose a Jewish virgin girl who was of the fleshly line of David of Bethlehem to become mother to Jesus Christ. (Luke 1:26-32) This Mary was a worshiper of the God who made her fertile miraculously, and so her son was not born as the son of some Hindu god or of some Buddhist deity or of the Roman Jupiter or of the Grecian Zeus.​—Luke 1:34-55; Acts 14:12, 13.

2. Why did Jesus not have to be born of the tribe of Levi and of the family of Aaron in order to be the sacrificial Lamb, and on what day did he die?

² In ancient Israel, King David’s tribe was that of Judah, a tribe from which no priests were taken to offer sacrifice. Nonetheless, Jesus Christ could be born as “the seed of David” of the tribe of Judah and still become “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) He did not need to be of the tribe of Levi and of the priestly family of Aaron, from which family the priests of Israel were taken. He could be born in David’s tribe of Judah and still be a perfect, sinless man suitable for sacrifice acceptable to God because of being perfect and unblemished by sin. The perfection and sinlessness that he had maintained as the Son of God in heaven continued with him when he was sent to earth to become the man absolutely equal to the perfect, sinless Adam at the day of his creation in the Garden of Eden. Jesus Christ needed to be such in order to ‘give himself as a corresponding ransom for all.’ (1 Tim. 2:5, 6; Matt. 20:28) He poured out his blood as a sin-atoning sacrifice on Passover Day of 33 C.E., the day when the Jews sacrificed the Passover lamb and ate its roast flesh in celebration of their nation’s deliverance from ancient Egypt.

3. What did Leviticus 17:11, 12 say about blood, and so what benefit is it that we get from Jesus’ blood, and how?

³ In God’s covenant with ancient Israel he said the following words, as found in Leviticus 17:11, 12: “The soul [or, life] of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for you to make atonement for your souls, because it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul [life] in it. . . . ‘No soul of you must eat blood and no alien resident who is residing as an alien in your midst should eat blood.’” So, in pouring out his blood in sacrifice to God, Jesus Christ was pouring out his life as an atonement sacrifice for all of us descendants of the sinful Adam. He presented the lifeblood of his perfect human sacrifice to God in heaven, and so we cannot eat or drink Jesus’ blood in order to get the benefit of it. We must exercise faith in it as fully atoning for our death-dealing sins to benefit from Jesus’ lifeblood.​—Heb. 9:11-14, 24.

4. How do Simon Peter’s words about Christ’s blood make it fitting that Revelation features him as a Lamb?

⁴ One of the first-century Jews who believed in the atoning value of Jesus’ blood was Simon Peter, once a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. When writing to his fellow believers, Simon Peter said: “It was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, that you were delivered from your fruitless form of conduct received by tradition from your forefathers. But it was with precious blood, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, even Christ’s.” (1 Pet. 1:18, 19) So, now, we can appreciate the fitness of the book of Revelation in continually featuring Jesus Christ as “the lamb,” the one that was “slaughtered.” (Rev. 5:6) All we of mankind certainly need such an atoning Lamb who, with his blood, can cleanse us from our sins and lift from us the condemnation of death. Without life through the sacrifice of this Lamb none of us could enjoy anything in the future with a clean conscience before God. For a fact, then, we cannot do without this Lamb!

5. In offering himself as a sacrifice, Jesus Christ served as the antitype of whom on Israel’s Day of Atonement?

⁵ In offering himself up as a sacrificial Lamb, Jesus Christ served as God’s High Priest who was foreshadowed by Israel’s first high priest, namely, Aaron of the tribe of Levi. All the further sacrificial high priests of ancient Israel descended from this Aaron the brother of Moses. That is another reason why all mankind needs Jesus Christ, for him to serve as the antitype of Israel’s high priests in taking the blood of the sacrifices into the Most Holy of the temple on the annual Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

6. To whom were the Christianized Jews told to look for atonement for sins, and why?

⁶ The resurrected Jesus Christ carried out this Atonement Day picture when he ascended from earth back to heaven, to appear in God’s presence and offer the merit or value of his perfect human sacrifice in atonement for the sins of all mankind. That is why the Christianized Jews were told to look no longer to the Aaronic high priests but to the antitype thereof, in these words recorded in Hebrews 3:1, 2: “Consequently, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest whom we confess​—Jesus. He was faithful to the One that made him such, as Moses was also in all the house of that One.”

SOMETHING MORE THAN A HIGH PRIEST NEEDED

7. In what way is Jesus Christ a suitable high priest for us, and where does chapter one of Revelation picture him as serving as such?

⁷ In explaining further to Christianized Jews how Jesus Christ as High Priest serves more effectively than did Aaron and his successors, the book of Hebrews goes on to say, in Heb chapter seven, verse twenty-six: “Such a high priest as this was suitable for us, loyal, guileless, undefiled, separated from the sinners, and become higher than the heavens.” The book of Revelation, chapter one, verses twelve through eighteen, pictures the glorified Jesus Christ as serving as High Priest for the Christian congregations. However, Re chapter five pictures him as being more than God’s High Priest. This points up the fact that we all need Jesus Christ for another reason besides his being a sacrificial Lamb and our High Priest.

8. What titles are given to the Lamb in Revelation 5:9, 10, and to what does all of this have reference besides priesthood?

⁸ Revelation 5:5, 6 identifies the Lamb who was slaughtered as being “the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.” Such titles indicate something regarding the Lamb Jesus Christ. Re 5 Verses nine and ten give additional emphasis to this. In those verses it is said to the Lamb: “You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slaughtered and with your blood you bought persons for God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.” To what, then, does all of that have reference besides priesthood? Why, of course, to government, to kingdom. Ah, yes, we all need a perfect, righteous government over all the earth.

9. According to Genesis 49:9, 10, what was the ‘Lion of the tribe of Judah’ to have, and, in this connection, what made it necessary for Jesus to be “the root of David”?

⁹ According to the prophecy in Genesis 49:9, 10, the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah was to have a scepter and a commander’s staff, and the obedience of all the peoples was to belong to him rightfully. That meant government for the Lion of the tribe of Judah. David was of the tribe of Judah, and for forty years he ruled as king over the Israelites. Jesus Christ had to be “the root of David,” for to King David of Jerusalem God had promised a dynasty of successors in his family that would have a kingdom forever.

10. According to Gabriel’s words to Mary, whose throne was her son to have and for how long?

¹⁰ That is to say, as a reward to King David for his unswerving exclusive worship of Jehovah as the one living and true God, Jehovah made a covenant with David for an everlasting kingdom in his family line. (2 Sam. 7:1-17) That is why the angel Gabriel, when announcing the coming birth of Jesus to Mary, who was of the tribe of Judah, said: “Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule as king over the house of Jacob [Israel] forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom.”​—Luke 1:26-33.

11. When we pray the words of Matthew 6:9, 10, we are admitting to God our need of what?

¹¹ What, now, if we pray to Jehovah God as Jesus instructed his disciples to pray: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth”? Well, thereby we are admitting to God that we need the kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ.​—Matt. 6:9, 10.

12. In what effort has Christendom failed, and therefore what will God’s kingdom by Christ have to do to the kingdoms of this world?

¹² So-called Christendom has never been God’s kingdom by Christ. Christendom has failed in her attempt to convert the governments of the world to be really Christian governments. How, then, are we ever to have Christ’s kingdom over the earth when all these political governments are around and running earth’s affairs? We cannot under those circumstances. That is why we need to have these imperfect failing governments of men put out of the way, cleared off the earth. This cannot be done by human power. For that reason we need the kingdom of Jesus Christ for this job. It will carry out this job, according to God’s prophecy in Daniel 2:44, which says: “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.”

13. When and where will the violent removal of those worldly governments take place, but what more will the earthly survivors need to have?

¹³ This violent removal of the political governments of today will be accomplished at the height of the coming “great tribulation” at what Revelation 16:14, 16 calls Har–Magedon. There will be human survivors of that “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon. These will need to have more than an earth rid of the corrupt, incapable governments of sinful, dying men. What more than that will they need? Nothing less than the removal of all the invisible wicked superhuman intelligences that have masterminded these political governments. But what are those unseen superhuman intelligences? Modern science will not believe it when we answer, Satan the Devil and his demon angels. But let Jesus Christ himself, not modern science, be found true. He said that Satan the Devil is “the ruler of this world.” Certainly Jesus Christ, whom God sent from heaven, ought to know.​—John 12:31; 14:30.

14. What government will be powerful enough to dislodge Satan and his demons from their position over earth’s inhabitants, and how?

¹⁴ Also, in the vision that the glorified Jesus Christ transmitted to the Christian apostle John he pointed out that Satan the Devil is the one “who is misleading the entire inhabited earth.” (Rev. 12:9) So it will require a heavenly spiritual government to dislodge Satan and his demon angels from their controlling position over all earth’s inhabitants. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is just such a heavenly government powerful enough to bring this relief to mankind. This, too, is why we need that kingdom. After its victory in the war at Har–Magedon, it will bring about the imprisonment of Satan the Devil and all his demon angels in an abyss far away from the vicinity of our earth. Their imprisonment will last for the thousand years of Christ’s kingdom.​—Rev. 19:11 through 20:3.

15. How does Revelation picture the life-giving benefits abounding for all those on earth under Christ’s kingdom?

¹⁵ During this millennial reign of Jesus Christ, life-giving benefits will flow like a river to all those on earth for whom he gave his life as a sacrificial Lamb. This is beautifully pictured in the last chapter 22 of Revelation. In it the apostle John shows the source of the provisions for the everlasting life of the human family. John says: “And he [an angel of God] showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of [the city’s] broad way. And on this side of the river and on that side there were trees of life producing twelve crops of fruit, yielding their fruits each month.”

16. In what do all such life-giving benefits find their source, and how will the Kingdom see to it that there is no more a curse upon mankind?

¹⁶ Then, to show that such blessings find their source in the royal throne of God and of the Lamb Jesus Christ, the apostle John adds these words: “And no more will there be any curse. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his slaves will render him sacred service.” (Rev. 22:1-3) God’s kingdom by Christ is one for blessing mankind, and not for a curse upon them. God’s Son, Jesus Christ, will see to it that affairs on earth are carried on in righteousness so as to result in blessings.

NEED OF THE KINGDOM BY THE HUMAN DEAD

17. Who will be first to partake of those life-giving provisions, but why will there be other partakers?

¹⁷ First to partake of those life-giving provisions from God’s throne through Christ will be the “great crowd” of worshipers who are survivors of the “great tribulation” in which the kingdoms of this world are crushed. (Rev. 7:9-14; Dan. 2:44; Matt. 24:21, 22) Well, then, will there be other partakers of the symbolic river of water of life and symbolic trees of life? Yes, inasmuch as Jesus Christ died as “the Lamb of God” for more humans than just those tribulation survivors. Let us recall what Jesus said not far from a burial tomb at Bethany near Jerusalem in the year 33 C.E. At that time he said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He that exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life; and everyone that is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all. Do you believe this?” Martha, the sister of dead Lazarus, answered: “Yes, Lord; I have believed that you are the Christ the Son of God, the One coming into the world.” (John 11:25-27) Now what about us today? Can we ourselves give the same answer of faith to that question?

18. Why do we have solid reason for answering Yes to Jesus’ question, as Martha did, and why can Jesus still say: “I am the resurrection and the life”?

¹⁸ We have solid reason for answering Yes, because Jesus then supported his remarkable words by resurrecting his friend Lazarus although it was on the fourth day of that one’s death. (John 11:28-45) Not long after that, the time came for Jesus himself to be resurrected from the dead. He died on Passover Day. On the third day therefrom he was raised from the dead by the almighty power of his heavenly Father. On the fortieth day therefrom, he ascended into heaven from a place near Bethany on the Mount of Olives. (Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:1-12) In heaven the glorified Jesus Christ can still say: “I am the resurrection and the life.” That he is authorized by God his Father to raise the dead, he assures us by his words in the Revelation vision to John: “I became dead, but, look! I am living forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”​—Rev. 1:18.

19. How was Jesus Christ, when resurrected, “the firstborn from the dead,” and not his friend Lazarus and others whom Jesus resurrected?

¹⁹ Jesus Christ was the first one to be resurrected from the dead to live as a resurrected person forever. So he is correctly called “the firstborn from the dead” and “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in death.” (Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 15:20) Even his friend Lazarus and others whom he and his apostles raised from the dead succumbed thereafter to death and were buried in the common grave of mankind, that is to say, in Hades. Their earlier release from death and Hades had been only temporary. Hence, “the gates of Hades” must remain closed upon such ones and upon all the other ransomed human dead until the establishment of Christ’s kingdom in the heavens at God’s appointed time.​—Matt. 16:18; Isa. 38:10, 18.

20, 21. When and where was Christ’s kingdom established, and whom would he as reigning King resurrect first?

²⁰ World history in our twentieth century furnishes us the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and indicates that Christ’s kingdom was born in the heavens at the close of the Gentile Times in the year 1914 C.E. (Luke 21:24; Ezek. 21:25-27) In heavenly Kingdom power Jesus Christ would direct his attention first to his dead faithful disciples, such as his apostles and other disciples who were called to the heavenly kingdom with him. These he would resurrect to immortal heavenly life, in order for them to be a “kingdom and priests to our God,” as stated in Revelation 5:10. Thus would be fulfilled what the apostle John tells us in Revelation 20:4-6:

²¹ “And I saw thrones, and there were those who sat down on them, and power of judging was given them. Yes, I saw the souls of those executed with the ax for the witness they bore to Jesus and for speaking about God, . . . And they came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for a thousand years. . . . This is the first resurrection. Happy and holy is anyone having part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.”

22. During his millennial reign, how will Jesus Christ use the “keys of death and of Hades,” and in what way will the “great crowd” of tribulation survivors see something never before witnessed on earth?

²² During his millennial reign Jesus Christ as High Priest as well as King will use the “keys of death and of Hades” in behalf of the rest of dead mankind. These dead will hear his voice and will come forth, just as he himself foretold in his words recorded in John 5:28, 29. Then the “great crowd” who live through the “great tribulation” and the binding and abyssing of Satan and his demons will witness a miracle without any equal. They will witness the return to life on earth of all the human dead for whom the High Priest Jesus sacrificed his perfect human life as “the Lamb of God.” (John 1:29; 1 Tim. 2:5, 6; Heb. 2:9) Eventually the number of resurrected ones will mount up into the billions, all these being descendants of sinful Adam from whom they inherited imperfection, sinfulness and condemnation to death. Never will there have occurred anything like this on earth. The apostle John was given a brief vision of this marvelous miracle of God through Christ, and John describes it in Revelation 20:11-14.

23. Why was John not dismayed at the resurrection vision, and when will earth’s inhabitants see 1 Corinthians 15:26 fulfilled?

²³ Was John dismayed at the sight? Did he see the earth overfilled with people? Not at all! Jehovah God made the earth to be comfortably filled with men and women in human perfection, with no condemnation of death resting upon them but with the right to everlasting life granted to them in reward for unbreakable devotion to Jehovah God. All will live in a global paradise! (Gen. 1:26-28) So, when the last one of the ransomed human dead has been called forth through the opened “gates of Hades,” the common grave of mankind will exist no more. Hades will have been cast into the “lake of fire,” to its own eternal death. And when all those living on earth under Christ’s millennial kingdom have responded to its discipline and thus been freed from all sinfulness and healed of all human imperfections, they will then indeed be alive, fully so. Then “death,” the death that mankind inherited from Adam, will join Hades in the “lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:14) At that glorious accomplishment men will see fulfilled the words of 1 Corinthians 15:26: “As the last enemy, death is to be brought to nothing.” Any who are destroyed thereafter with Satan and his demons for willful disobedience will suffer “the second death,” from which there is no resurrection.

24. Why do we never need to be ashamed to bear witness to Jesus, and with whom are we moved to bear witness to him?

²⁴ Time would fail us to bear witness to Jesus Christ and tell all that he means to us as members of the fallen human family. Never will we be disappointed in him. “For the Scripture says: ‘None that rests his faith on him will be disappointed.’” (Rom. 10:11; Isa. 28:16) We need never be ashamed to bear witness to Jesus Christ by word of mouth or by printed page. Increased appreciation of how much we need him moves us to join angels in bearing witness to him for the glory of Jehovah God and for the sake of mankind in its present desperate plight.

25. Why should no credit go to us Witnesses for the substance of the witness that we give, and who inspired the prophecies about Jesus, and for what purpose?

²⁵ Let us remember what the angel said when the apostle John gratefully fell at his feet to worship him: “All I am is a fellow slave of you and of your brothers who have the work of witnessing to Jesus. Worship God; for the bearing witness to Jesus is what inspires prophesying.” (Rev. 19:10) So no credit should go to us humans as though the substance of the witness to Jesus Christ originated with us. It is Jehovah God who saw our dire need and helplessness and who lovingly provided his heavenly Son to become the man Jesus Christ in behalf of us all. Furthermore, God by his active spirit inspired all the Bible prophecies concerning Jesus Christ that, by them, we might be directed to “the Lamb of God,” to this High Priest of God, to this Messianic King who will give long-misruled mankind finally a perfect, righteous government.

26. To what answer have we been led by our study of the question, Who is Jesus Christ, so that we all need him?

²⁶ Who then, is Jesus Christ, so that we all need him? Our fact-finding study of this challenging question has led to a satisfying answer. He is the needed One whom the Creator of all things provides and uses to restore us to the happy, blessed family of our heavenly Father. Within that universal family circle we shall enjoy life in bliss forever, abounding in his love and care and lovingly worshiping and serving him to all ages.​—1 Cor. 15:28; John 14:6; Acts 4:12.

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What Was the Length of Jesus’ Ministry?

THE question as to the length of Jesus’ ministry receives various answers from Bible scholars. Some claim that it was just one year long, others say two years, and still others hold that it was three or three and a half years long. Bible prophecy and Bible history combine to show that it was indeed three and a half years from the time Jesus was baptized, and received God’s holy spirit under the symbol of a dove, this making him the Messiah, until the time of his death on the stake.​—Luke 3:21, 22; 23:46.

Most conclusive as to the time of Jesus’ ministry is the prophecy found at Daniel 9:24-27. It pinpoints both the very year of the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and the length of his ministry and is known as the prophecy of “seventy weeks.” These “weeks” are generally recognized as being “weeks of years.” An American Translation reads: “Seventy weeks of years are destined for your people.” (See also Encyclopædia Judaica, Vol. 5, col. 1281.) The prophecy further states that “from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks.” In other words, the Messiah would come at the end of sixty-nine “weeks.”

LOCATING THE “WEEKS OF YEARS”

When did those “weeks of years” begin? In the year that Governor Nehemiah was authorized to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, the exact year being 455 B.C.E. (Neh. 2:3-9) Sixty-nine weeks of years are 483 years, which reach from 455 B.C.E. to 29 C.E. That Jesus did come as Messiah in 29 C.E. is indicated by a comparison of Luke 3:1, 2, 23 with the dates of the rulership of Tiberius Caesar, who is mentioned there in Luke’s account.

Daniel’s prophecy further states that the “Messiah will be cut off, with nothing for himself.” Just when would he be cut off, that is, put to death? Da 9 Verse 27 tells us, for it states that “at the half of the week he will cause sacrifice and gift offering to cease.” What is meant by his causing these two things to cease? That the sacrifices and gift offerings required by the Mosaic law would no longer be of any value or have any merit with Jehovah God. No longer would they serve to cleanse in a typical way the sins of those who offered them. Why? Because “by means of his flesh,” that is, his human sacrifice, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, “abolished . . . the Law of commandments.” (Eph. 2:15) The law of Moses with its animal sacrifices and gift offerings, being merely “a shadow of the good things to come,” ceased to be effective after the coming of the reality, namely, the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God.​—Heb. 10:1-10; John 1:29.

Thus from Daniel’s prophecy we see that the Messiah came at the end of the sixty-nine weeks of years, in 29 C.E., and that in the midst of the seventieth week, or after three and a half years, he was sacrificed, thereby making the sacrifices of the law of Moses no longer necessary. So we have the length of Jesus’ ministry given to us by divine prophecy: from the time of Jesus’ becoming the Messiah until his death, three and a half years.

THE FOUR PASSOVERS

Harmonizing with this prophecy are the Gospel accounts of his life, in particular that by the apostle John. How so? In that it tells us that four Passovers came and went during Jesus’ ministry. The first mentioned by John took place shortly after Jesus performed his first miracle: “Now the passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”​—John 2:13.

Then at John 6:4 we read: “Now the passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.” As usual, Jesus went up to Jerusalem because it was a requirement of the law of Moses. (Deut. 16:2) The last Passover, which is mentioned by all four Gospel writers, Jesus celebrated with his twelve apostles just before his death.​—Matt. 26:17; Mark 14:14; Luke 22:11; John 13:1.

“But this accounts for only three Passovers!” you may exclaim. “Where does the fourth come in?” The fourth quite certainly is the one referred to at John 5:1 although not called a passover: “After these things there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” Helping to identify this festival as the Passover are Jesus’ words found at John 4:35: “Do you not say that there are yet four months before the harvest comes?” The barley harvest got under way at Passover time and it was the only festival during those four months important enough to require Jesus’ presence at Jerusalem. The other two annual festivals requiring him to be present at Jerusalem came later in the year after the Passover.

While Jesus on occasion preached the good news of the Kingdom in such faraway places, comparatively speaking, as Tyre and Sidon (Matt. 15:21), and also in Perea across the Jordan (Matt. 19:1), he spent most of his time preaching and teaching in Galilee, his native province. It was in Galilee that he found the honest, humble, plain folk, such as farmers and fishermen, who heard him gladly. It seems to have taken special occasions for Jesus to go up to Jerusalem. True, the feasts of Dedication and Purim came during those four months, but they could be celebrated wherever Jews lived, since they were instituted after the Jews were scattered abroad.

And there is yet another reason for concluding that the festival mentioned at John 5:1 was a passover. What is that? From the accounts of the other Gospels​—which feature Jesus’ Galilean ministry—​it appears that it would have taken Jesus far more than a year to accomplish all that he did between the Passover mentioned at John 2:13 and the one referred to at John 6:4.

OTHER EVIDENCE

There is yet another line of evidence supporting three and a half years as the length of Jesus’ ministry. From John 19:31 we have reason to conclude that Jesus must have died on a Friday, for it tells that the following day was a “great” sabbath. The weekly sabbath falling on the same day as the first day of the week-long festival of unleavened bread, which first day also served as a sabbath, would logically make it a “great” sabbath. (Lev. 23:6, 7) And not in 31 or 32 but only in 33 C.E. did the Passover, the fourteenth day of Nisan, fall on a Friday. So it must have been on Nisan 14, 33 C.E., that Jesus died, making his ministry a period of three and a half years.

Thus we have several ways of coming to the conclusion that Jesus’ ministry was not only one year, or two years, but three and a half years long: the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27; the fact that four Passovers took place during his ministry; and the fact that Nisan 14, full moon, occurred on Friday in 33 C.E., not in 31 or 32 C.E.

I Lived to Fly

IT IS the late winter of 1960​—more exactly, the morning of March 10, 1960. I report to the control tower at Büchel in the Eifel, Germany, asking for landing instructions. Promptly the answer comes: “A.B. 234 clear for landing.” I am then given the runway number and the wind velocity and direction.

I go through the usual motions of decelerating. The earth shoots up toward me. I throttle back, round out, touch down. At the end of the runway I turn around to the parking area. The howling of the jet becomes softer, and finally stops. I loosen my parachute belt, and climb out of the fighter bomber type F-84-F.

This is my last flight. Never again will I take a “stick” in my hand to fly a fighter plane. That was my decision in the late winter of 1960, and it is still one with which I am in agreement.

DEEP LOVE FOR FLYING

When you consider how much I loved flying, you will realize what a difficult decision this was for me. As a child I watched every airplane in the sky with yearning eyes. When I was six or seven years old my parents took my brother and me to an airport near our home in Gleiwitz, Germany. In fascination I watched the planes land and take off. My parents had their hands full trying to get me away from the airport. Flying became my greatest desire.

In 1939, when I was just thirteen years old, the second world war broke out. I was sorry there would not be opportunity for me to distinguish myself as a fighter pilot, for at the time we were all certain the war would end soon. But the war raged longer than expected. I joined the Hitler Youth organization, as almost all young boys were required to do. Opportunity was here open to receive preliminary flight training, and I quickly grabbed it. I learned to fly a glider. My dream, my goal, seemed to be reaching fulfillment. My enthusiasm for flying grew.

With the permission of my parents, at the age of sixteen I volunteered for the German Air Force. I passed all tests, and was called up for officers’ training early in 1944. However, by the time I received my pilot’s license the war was nearing its end. Germany’s famed Luftwaffe had suffered tremendous losses in planes, and I never did have the opportunity to fly a fighter plane in combat. I was taken captive, and ended up at the Munsterlager prisoner-of-war camp.

It appeared that my opportunity to fly was gone forever, since Germany experienced bad times after the war. After returning from the prisoner-of-war camp I went to work in the salt mines in order to receive additional ration stamps for foodstuffs. I had married in 1949, and at least my job enabled me to feed my family. But work in the mines did not satisfy me, not by any means. I still had a consuming desire to fly, and I longingly watched the fast English and American fighter jets zoom overhead. So when hearing the news in 1954 that Germany was to be rearmed, that it was to have an air force again, I was overjoyed.

I seized the opportunity, and applied for the Air Force. I passed the new aptitude tests and flying-fitness tests and was accepted. In June 1956 I was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the new German Air Force. Now I learned to fly the modern jet fighters. After completion of my instruction I was promoted to captain, and became a flying teacher and test pilot.

What a vast difference! Previously, I was 600 meters (1,968 feet) under the earth in the mines. Now I was up 15,000 meters (49,212 feet) in the sky. I had attained the goal of my dreams. My future looked rosy. My livelihood seemed secure. Who could pull me down from those heights?

IS THERE A GOD WITH A PURPOSE?

In the meantime my parents had moved from Sachsen in Eastern Germany to the Federal Republic of Germany. While in Sachsen they had begun studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses and, in time, accepted the Bible truths that they were learning. After moving to Cochem, not far from where my wife and I lived, they would often visit and talk to us about the wonderful hope for the future that they had come to have. But I just laughed about their ideas of a peaceful new earth. Why?

For one thing, I knew how unrealistic such a prospect appeared to be, since I was in a position to know how heavily the nations were arming themselves with weapons for destruction. Besides, my parents had reared me in the Roman Catholic religion, and I had no intention of changing now. I felt that my father was just getting old, and was simply seeking his salvation through such prophets as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Nevertheless, my parents brought me a Bible, and since they asked me to, I began to read in it. But I must admit that I did not understand one word that I read. At their next visit I gave the Bible back to them with the remark that no sensible human could understand it. I just was not willing to listen to God.

Yet every time my parents and I got together discussions ensued about the Almighty God Jehovah, and about his purposes. They would claim that Jehovah God purposes to create a new order, and that his earthly subjects will be able to enjoy everlasting life in an earth of restored paradisaic beauty. Irritated by one such conversation, I went so far as to say: “The God that can get me away from flying has yet to be born.”

However, my parents were patient. My father especially did not give up showing me logical evidence that there simply had to be an Almighty Creator for our life to have any meaning. I had to admit that it really did seem reasonable that God must have had some purpose in creating us and our earthly home. My wife especially began to be impressed by my father’s arguments. She said to me: “You cannot disprove a thing. What Jehovah’s Witnesses say sounds true and logical.”

I started to wonder: Could this really be the truth? What is the purpose of life?

Slowly I began to see things in a different light. One afternoon we visited my parents again. This time they had arranged for me to listen to a Bible talk that had been recorded on tape. It was a discussion of the ransom. Jehovah’s love and the love of his Son Jesus Christ were especially emphasized. I did not understand the half of it. Nevertheless, the talk had an effect. From that time on I often said in conversations with Jehovah’s Witnesses, “If I could only believe all of that.”

One day a special representative of Jehovah’s Witnesses came to our door. I agreed to have a home Bible study, for I began to see that there was more behind what the Witnesses were saying than I had originally supposed. We started to study the Bible, using the Bible study aid From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained. My wife and I soon began to realize that what we were learning was the truth regarding God’s purposes.

I could not take in knowledge fast enough. I read entire volumes of The Watchtower, which the Witnesses brought to me. I also began to pray. Now I understood what I was reading in the Bible. We also realized that we had to do something about it. My wife and I agreed that we should attend the weekly Christian meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

A VITAL DECISION

At the time, however, I was still serving in the jet bombing squadron of the German Air Force. But the more I studied the Bible, the clearer it became to me that training to wage war was not proper for me. How could I continue to teach young men to fly fighter bombers when the Bible explains that the people serving God would be taking an entirely opposite course? The Bible says that God’s people in these days would “have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.”​—Isa. 2:4.

Furthermore, it seemed to me that belonging to the military was not in keeping with the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. For example, he told his disciples: “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”​—John 13:34, 35.

In view of his teachings, I just could not believe that if Christ were on earth today he would engage in training to fight and kill persons of a different race or nationality. It did not seem reasonable to me that he could do so and still be consistent with his own teachings. And, in time, I learned that many early Christians had felt the same way about it.

For example, I discovered that Christians in the early centuries would not fight in Rome’s imperial armies. One modern historian, Ernest William Barnes in The Rise of Christianity, explained: “A careful review of all the information available goes to show that, until the time of Marcus Aurelius, no Christian became a soldier; and no soldier, after becoming a Christian, remained in military service.”

So such thoughts about living a Christian life had been going through my mind for some time. One night early in 1960 I returned from a flight and was not able to land immediately. The control tower sent me into a holding pattern. It was a beautiful night. Above me were magnificent stars, and beneath was the sea of lights from the cities and villages. I was up 6,000 meters (19,685 feet). Then I prayed to Jehovah and asked him to help me to make the right decision.

Jehovah did help me. After I publicly identified myself with Jehovah’s Witnesses, I was called to appear before the commanding officer. Rather than being frightened by this, I was happy for the opportunity to explain to him that I had decided to become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

My superiors gave me a vacation for the purpose of reaching a final decision. In order to influence me, I was given a considerable amount of literature written to “expose” Jehovah’s Witnesses. Prayerfully I examined this literature, but it became clear to me that it was written by persons with improper motives who twisted the evidence.

My superior officer also insisted that I visit the Catholic military priest. However, using the Bible, and with the help of the Scripture texts listed in the book “Make Sure of All Things,” I was able to give him a good witness about true Christian living. Afterward I was even more determined to resign from the military.

Confidently I wrote up my resignation. True, my superior, as well as my comrades, doubted my sanity, but I was sure that my decision was pleasing to Jehovah God. So in June 1960 I became a civilian once again.

BLESSED IN MY DECISION TO SERVE GOD

Now a big problem arose for me: How would I earn a living? Would I have to give up flying? Would I be forced to return to work in the mines? All my efforts to get into civilian aviation were to no avail.

I prayed intensely to Jehovah for help. I thought of the Bible text at Malachi 3:10, where Jehovah challenged the Israelites to serve him by giving him what he deserved. If the Israelites did, Jehovah promised that he would then open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing upon them until there would be no more want. This is what has occurred in my case.

Only about two weeks after sending in my resignation, my problem of earning a livelihood was solved in an astonishing way. With the help of some Witnesses, I found a position working for an insurance company. To me, it seemed as though Jehovah was waiting to see the decision I would make, and once I made it in favor of his service, he blessed me richly.

My wife and I dedicated our lives to serve Jehovah God and symbolized our dedication by undergoing water baptism in July 1960. In 1968 my wife began the full-time preaching work, called “pioneering,” and later I joined her in this service. We had fine opportunities to serve in territories where there was a particular need for Kingdom proclaimers. Now I serve as a “circuit overseer,” visiting a different congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses each week to help them in the preaching work.

While it is true that I miss flying, I can honestly say that helping other people to learn the purposes of Jehovah God brings me even greater satisfaction and joy. So rather than living to fly, I now live to do the will of our loving heavenly Father.​—Contributed.

Why “Many Diadems”?

● Revelation 19:12 describes Jesus Christ, the “King of kings and Lord of lords,” as having “many diadems” upon his head. Why is this? When having authority over more than one land, kings of ancient times often wore more than one crown or diadem. For example, the fact that Upper and Lower Egypt were ruled over by one monarch could be seen from the royal headdress​—a double or combination crown. The many diadems upon the head of the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, would point to his having extensive, earth-wide dominion as “King of kings.”​—Rev. 19:16.

Job​—Key to Why God Permits Evil

THE book of Job has ever been highly praised as a literary masterpiece. And this is said to be so even though the book suffers greatly in translation from Hebrew into any other tongue. Thus Martin Luther, who translated it into German, complained: “Job is suffering more from my version than from the taunts of his friends.”

That such a sublime piece of writing should have been penned some thirty-five centuries ago amid pastoral surroundings might of itself be said to argue for divine inspiration of this sacred poem. And thirty-nine of its forty-two chapters are poetry.

But how sad it is that with most persons this appreciation of the beauty of the book of Job is accompanied by a lack of understanding as to what its divine Author, Jehovah God, purposed to teach us by having it recorded! In fact, ever so many individuals who profess great appreciation for its beauty even doubt its historicity, claiming that it is merely an allegory based on a folk tale.

However, to deny that the book of Job tells what actually took place is to fly in the face of both reason and Scripture. How so? Because Job is listed with two other faithful men who have an assured place in history, at Ezekiel 14:14, 20: “Had these three men proved to be in the midst of it, Noah, Daniel and Job, they themselves because of their righteousness would deliver [only] their soul.” Would Job be listed with Noah and Daniel if he never really lived?

More than that, the disciple James points to Job as an example of patient endurance: “Look! We pronounce happy those who have endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome Jehovah gave, that Jehovah is very tender in affection and merciful.” (Jas. 5:11) If Job had not actually lived and he had been merely an allegorical figure, what encouragement would he be to Christians trying hard to endure? Yes, an author can make an allegorical character endure all sorts of things by means of his imagination, but what help would all such be to imperfect creatures who actually undergo tests of endurance? None whatever! No, for us to be able to look to Job for encouragement, he must actually have lived.

And what is the purpose of the book of Job? It furnishes a key to mankind’s most baffling problem: Why does God permit evil? Or, why does God permit the innocent to suffer harm?

Do you know why He does? From the book of Job we can see that Jehovah has permitted such because of a boast that his adversary, Satan the Devil, made, namely, that he could turn all men away from God. Yes, Satan claimed that Jehovah God does not deserve to be feared and worshiped and that the only reason why men do obey him is to make selfish gain for themselves. Satan boasted that if God would let him get at Job, a very righteous man, Satan could cause Job to curse God. God accepted the challenge and let Satan bring all manner of hardship and suffering on Job. Job’s name means “object of hostility,” and he certainly was the object of Satan’s hostility. But Satan failed to turn Job against God. Job thereby upheld Jehovah as the rightful Sovereign and the One deserving to be feared and worshiped.

WHO? WHEN? WHERE? WHAT?

Who wrote the book of Job, and when? Modern critics insist that its writer cannot be known, and they date it as late as the sixth century B.C.E. However, there is reason to believe that it was written many, many centuries earlier and by none other than Moses. There are both poetic and prose parts in Moses’ writings that sound quite similar to parts of Job. That Moses was the writer is also the opinion of early Hebrew and Christian scholars.

When and where did Job live? The account reveals that Job lived when there was no one like him in all the earth. So he must have lived after the faithful patriarch Joseph died and before Moses had been raised up as Jehovah’s prophet, between the seventeenth and sixteenth centuries B.C.E. He lived in the land of Uz, located in what is today known as Arabia.

The book of Job might be viewed as having five distinct parts: First, the why of Job’s tragedy. Second, the speeches of Job and of his three friends. Third, the speeches of Elihu, who sets straight the four previous speakers. Fourth, the pronouncements by Jehovah God himself. Fifth, the outcome.

THE TESTING OF JOB

The book opens by telling us about Job’s blameless and righteous course, about his family and his enjoying great material prosperity. Then we are given a view of heaven, where Satan appears among loyal sons of God in Jehovah’s presence. God calls Satan’s attention to Job’s upright course, implying that the issue had been raised before. In effect, Jehovah said to Satan: ‘So you claim that there is no man on earth that fears me and practices righteousness? How about my servant Job?’ And Satan replies: ‘Oh, yes? Sure he serves you. But look how prosperous you made him​—7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, and so forth! Take away everything he has and you’ll see how he really feels about you!’ Accepting the challenge, Jehovah allows Satan to rob Job of all his possessions, including his children.

But Job is not serving God and doing what is right because of the material blessings he enjoyed, but, rather, because of love of God and of righteousness. Again Satan appears in heaven and, when told to consider Job’s steadfast course, replies that if Job himself were made to suffer he would turn against Jehovah God. God then lets Satan inflict a loathsome and extremely painful disease upon Job, from head to foot. Now even his wife urges him to give up: “Curse God and die!” But Job rebukes her: “‘You talk as any wicked fool of a woman might talk. If we accept good from God, shall we not accept evil?’ Throughout all this, Job did not utter one sinful word.”​—Job 2:10, New English Bible.

SPEECHES BY JOB AND HIS THREE FRIENDS

Three friends of Job, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, hear of the calamity that befell Job and come to comfort him. So shocked are they at his wretched state that they sit silent for seven days. Job breaks the silence with a speech in which he curses the day he was born. In reply Eliphaz argues that, since God is just, Job must be getting what he deserves. Job answers him and asks to be shown where he has done wrong. Next Bildad and Zophar argue to the same effect, and each time Job maintains his innocence, justifying himself, however, rather than Jehovah God. And then there is a second round of speeches, and part of a third. Mistakenly trying to help Job, his three friends actually become his enemies, and far from comforting him, they add to his misery!

Repeatedly he reproves them for their harsh words, which become stronger and more in error as the discussion progresses: “What does reproving on the part of you men reprove?” “You men are smearers of falsehood; all of you are physicians of no value.” “What galls you, that you answer?”​—Job 6:25; 13:4; 16:3.

Through it all Job holds on to his integrity and his faith in God. In fact, time and again in the midst of his replies he addresses God rather than one of his friends: “Cause me to know why it is that you are contending with me.” (Job 10:2) Indicating a hope of a resurrection are Job’s words: “O that in Sheol you would conceal me, . . . that you would set a time limit for me and remember me! If an able-bodied man dies, can he live again? . . . You will call, and I myself shall answer you. For the work of your hands you will have a yearning.” (Job 14:13-15) In his final speech (Job chapters 26 to 31) Job insists on his innocence: “Until I expire I shall not take away my integrity from myself!” (Job 27:5) He calls attention to God’s great unfathomable wisdom; tells how very great his own fame was and how highly he was held in esteem but how low he has now fallen in the eyes of others; then again he dwells on his righteous course. No, he had not done anything to deserve what has befallen him.

ELIHU AND JEHOVAH ANSWER JOB

Listening to all of this is Elihu, who hesitated to speak up because of his comparative youth. But he can no longer keep quiet, because Job is so concerned with justifying himself rather than God. Also, Job’s three friends had not been able to convince Job and so “had let God appear wrong.” (Job 32:3, NE) Elihu pleads: “O Job, please hear my words. . . . Look! I am to the true God just what you are.” (Job 33:1, 6) He speaks in vindication of Jehovah’s justice and ways and man’s need to be submissive to God. He stresses the need to know Jehovah God; shows that Jehovah is balanced in his dealings and in conclusion extols the Creator’s unsearchable greatness.

A storm starts brewing as Elihu completes his speech. Jehovah now speaks out of the windstorm: “Who is this that is obscuring counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins, . . . let me question you, and you inform me. Where did you happen to be when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you do know understanding.” (Job 38:1-4) Jehovah then calls attention to man’s insignificance and temporary existence compared with the eternalness of the Creator, His own greatness, His power and wisdom as displayed in all creation, from the vast starry heavens to such powerful mundane creatures as the hippopotamus and the crocodile.

After hearing Jehovah God speak in this way, Job acknowledges that he spoke rashly, without full knowledge, and repents “in dust and ashes.” Thereupon Jehovah speaks again, this time censuring Job’s three friends. He requires them to make sacrifices and instructs Job to intercede for them. Thereafter Job is blessed with seven sons and three beautiful daughters and twice as much livestock as he had before. Living for 140 years longer, Job dies “old and satisfied with days.”​—Job 42:1-17.

Truly the book of Job enlightens us as to why God allows evil, why he permits the righteous to suffer. He has done this to prove false Satan’s boast that he can turn all men away from God. At the same time this gives all lovers of God and of righteousness the opportunity to demonstrate the sincerity of their worship, proving themselves keepers of integrity. Will you be one of these? If so, you may have the reward of everlasting life that Jehovah God holds out to all of his faithful servants. This has been made possible by the sacrifice of that greatest of integrity-keepers, Jesus Christ.​—John 3:16.

Questions From Readers

● Did Adam have reddish skin, as his name has been said to suggest?

No one on earth today can say with certainty what Adam’s skin color was. We do know, however, that he was the progenitor of all humans, with all the variety of skin colors that now exist. But why does the idea come up that Adam’s skin may have had a reddish hue?

The Hebrew word adam is translated “Adam.” In addition to being a name, it means and is rendered “man” or “earthling man,” either one man or mankind in general on earth. (Gen. 1:26; 6:7; 7:21; 9:6; 1 Sam. 15:29) The word adam is related to another Hebrew word, adamah, which means “earth” or “ground.” The prevailing view among Hebrew scholars is that both of these words are drawn from the Hebrew adom, which means “red.” The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (1974), in offering a possible reason for deriving “ground” from “red,” suggests that the land may have contained iron and thus had a reddish appearance. Similarly, some authorities who hold that adam (Adam, man) is derived from adom (red) have speculated that Adam may have had reddish-colored skin.

However, note the connection presented in Genesis 2:7: “God proceeded to form the man [adam] out of dust from the ground [adamah] and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man [adam] came to be a living soul.” Is the Bible here discussing the color of the soil or trying to indicate the hue of the first man’s skin? No. The key linkage is between “man” and “ground.” God’s Word was focusing attention on the fact that man was from the ground; he was a groundling or an earthling. All of Adam was from the same source​—his skin, his hair, his eyes, his teeth, and so forth. No matter what their texture or color, all of Adam’s body parts were from the same ground. They were not all reddish just because the soil may have been. After Adam sinned, God told him what would happen to him outside the Garden of Eden: “You [will] return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.”​—Gen. 3:19.

Consequently, Adam’s skin may have been reddish, or it may not have been. Since the basic relationship between adam (Adam, man) and adamah (ground) at Genesis 2:7 stressed that Adam was an earthling, from the ground, his skin color could have been any of the various hues we find today among peoples earth wide.

A fundamental fact that we should not overlook is that all humans have descended from the first man, Adam. All persons​—whether their skin is red, olive, brown, black, white or yellow—​are equally linked, by descent, with Adam. We are all his children. The Bible says: “[God] made out of one man [Adam] every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth.” (Acts 17:26) The genetic makeup that God gave to Adam was such that extensive variety could develop among his offspring, variety in their hair color and texture, skin color, body size, facial characteristics, and so forth. It seems that, as a result of geographic isolation and other factors, the particular traits became prominent among closely related peoples that in modern times have been termed the races of mankind. (For details, see Awake! of February 8, 1973, pages 5-7.) Still, we are all Adam’s descendants.

Questions about Adam’s skin color or particular facial or bodily characteristics cannot be settled at this time. Thus, artists’ drawings of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that appear in the publications of the Watch Tower Society are simply efforts to convey the thought of the first two humans in paradise. Similarly, the “last Adam,” Jesus, might be depicted as a Jew, but no human today knows precisely what his appearance was. (1 Cor. 15:45) But, more important than presently undeterminable questions about Adam’s bodily features is why and how Adam lost God’s approval, and what meaning this has for us.​—Rom. 5:12.

If we concern ourselves with this important Bible teaching, we can now unite with Christian witnesses of Jehovah of all races who are striving to do the Creator’s will. Neither the nation where a person was born nor the color of his skin determines his gaining the Creator’s approval. As the apostle Peter said: “For a certainty I perceive that God is not partial, but in every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.”​—Acts 10:34, 35.

Persons today who meet His requirements can look forward to living in the earthly paradise that God will soon establish. There they will be able to converse with Adam’s resurrected son Abel and to learn firsthand much about the start of the human family. They will also be able to share in the fulfillment of God’s purpose to have the earth filled with a delightful variety of humans who live in peace and unity and who can serve him forever.

What Does It All Mean?

Crime increases. Food prices skyrocket. The energy crisis persists. Consideration for others declines. Why? What is the meaning of these things?

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