The Watchtower, September 1, 1950
Download: PDF — The Watchtower, September 1, 1950
WATCHTOWER
SEPTEMBER 1, 1950 Semimonthly
TAKING IN LIFE GIVING KNOWLEDGE
LIVING ACCORDING TO SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE
VICTORY OVER DEATH
GOOD NEWS FROM GREECE
Announcing JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM
WRITING BEFORE THE FLOOD
©WTB&TS THE PURPOSE OF "THE WATCHTOWER"
Literal towers in Bible times were elevated vantage points from which watchmen could observe happenings, warn of danger, or announce good news. Our magazine figuratively occupies such a vantage point, for it is founded on the very pinnacle of wisdom, God's Word. That elevates it above racial, national and political propagandas and prejudices, frees it from selfish bias. It is not bound by any traditional creed, but its message advances as the light on God's purposes and works increases.—Habakkuk 2:1-3.
It sees things Scripturally. When it observes this generation afflicted with greed, delinquency, hypocrisy, atheism, war, famine, pestilence, perplexity and fear, and persecution of unpopular minorities, it does not parrot the old fable about history repeating itself. Informed by Bible prophecy, it sees in these things the sign of the world's time of the end. But with bright hope it also sees opening up for us just beyond these woes the portals of a new world.
Thus viewed, "The Watchtower" stands as a watchman atop a tower, alert to what is going on, awake to note signs of danger, faithful to point out the way of escape. It announces Jehovah's kingdom established by Christ's enthronement in heaven, feeds his kingdom joint-heirs with spiritual food, cheers men of good will with glorious prospects of eternal life in a paradise earth, comforts us with the resurrection promise for the dead.
It is not dogmatic, but has a confident ring in its voice, because it is based on God's Word. It does not privately interpret prophecy, but calls attention to physical facts, sets them alongside prophecy, and you see for yourself how well the two match, how accurately Jehovah interprets his own prophecy. In the interests of our salvation, it keeps sharp and faithful focus on Bible truth, and views religious news generally.
'Be watchful in these perilous times,' God admonishes. So keep on the watch by regularly reading "The Watchtower".
PUBLISHED BY THE WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY
117 Adams Street
Brooklyn 1, N. Y., U. S. A.
N. H. KNORR, President
GRANT SUITER, Secretary
"They will all be taught by Jehovah."—John 6:45, NW; Isaiah 54:13
CONTENTS
Taking In Life-giving Knowledge
Living According to Superior Knowledge
Clergyman Notes Faith of Jehovah's Witnesses
Victory over Death
Good News from Greece
Isolated Publishers in Hawaii
Writing Before the Flood
Joseph, the Foster Father of Jesus
"Stick to Your Work"
Questions from Readers
Announcements
Abbreviations used in "The Watchtower" for the following Bible versions
AS - American Standard Version LXX- The Septuagint Version
AT - An American Translation Mo - James Moffatt's version
Da - J. N. Darby's version NW - New World Translation
Dy - Catholic Douay version Ro - J. B. Rotherham's version
ED - The Emphatic Diaglott RS - Revised Standard Version
Le - Isaac Leeser's version Yg - Robert Young's version
Unless otherwise indicated, the Bible used is the King James Version
Printing this issue: 1,210,000 Five cents a copy
PUBLISHED IN THE FOLLOWING LANGUAGES
Semimonthly
Monthly
Afrikaans
Ilocano
Arabic
Portuguese
Cebu-Visayan
Italian
Chishona
Russian
Danish
Norwegian
Cinyanja
Siamese
English
Pangasinan
Greek
Slovak
Finnish
Spanish
Hungarian
Slovenian
French
Swedish
Ibo
Ukrainian
German
Tagalog
Malavalam
Yoruba
Hollandish
Visayan
Polish
Zulu
Watch Tower Society offices Yearly subscription rate
America, U.S., 117 Adams St., Brooklyn 1, N.Y. $1
Australia, 11 Beresford Rd., Strathfield, N.S.W. 6s
British West Indies, 21 Taylor St., Port of Spain, Trinidad$ 1.25
Canada, 40 Irwin Ave., Toronto 5, Ontario $1
England, 34 Craven Terrace, London, W. 2 5s
Jamaica, 151 King St., Kingston 5s
New Zealand, G.P.O. Box 30, Wellington, C. 1 6s
South Afrjea. 623 Boston House, Cape Town 5s
Remittances should be sent to office in your country in compliance with regulations to guarantee safe delivery of money. Remittances are accepted at Brooklyn from countries where no office is located, by international money order only. Subscription rates in different countries are here stated in local currency. Notice of expiration (with renewal blank) is sent at least two issues before subscription expires. Change of address when sent to our office may be expected effective within one month. Send your old as well as new address.
Act of March 3, 1879. Printed in U. S. A.
TAKING IN LIFE-GIVING KNOWLEDGE
"This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ."—John 17:3, NW.
EHOVAH, the Lord God, spoke of our own day, when he said long ago by his prophet Hosea: "Hear the word of the LORD, O Israelites! For the Lord has a quarrel with the inhabitants of the land; because there is no fidelity, no kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery—they break out, and one crime follows hard upon another. Therefore the land mourns, and everything that dwells therein languishes, even to the beasts of the earth, and the birds of the air; and the fish of the sea also are swept away. Yet, let no one make charges, and let no one accuse; for with you is my quarrel, O priest; and you shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your people. My people are destroyed for want of knowledge—because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you from being my priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I likewise will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; they have exchanged their glory for shame. They feed on the sin of my people, and for their guilt they whet their appetite. So it has become 'like people, like priest';
and I will visit his ways upon him, and requite his deeds to him."—Hos. 4:1-9, AT.
2 A few years after Hosea finished his prophesying the northern kingdom of Israel fell to pagan conquerors, and in the following century the holy city of Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed and the Jews were uprooted from their land. A like destruction in the near future faces Christendom. Do students of world conditions want to know the cause responsible for such destruction? With modern Christendom in mind let them mark those words of the prophet: "cursing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery—they break out, and one crime follows hard upon another," and at the bottom of all this, "no knowledge of God in the land." At whose door does the Lord God lay the responsibility for this ignorance? At the door of the religious leaders, the priests and the prophets, for it is their duty to teach the people about God, and the people look to them for such instruction. And now the people are about to be "destroyed for want of knowledge" in a world destruction. But the God of justice decrees that it will become "like people, like priest", and the priests and clergy will fare no better than the people.
At Hosea 4:1-9 what did Jehovah long ago say for our day?
What is the cause responsibe for destruction? Due to whom?
They have led the people in rejecting the knowledge of the truth; and if the blind guides the blind, then both will fall into the pit, but the guide is the one with the greater responsibilityMatt.15:14.
God's written Word, the Bible, has been spread by the hundreds of millions of copies, and yet the religious clergy have not turned this great opportunity and advantage to good account, so as to incite the people to study that Holy Word and inform themselves of God and his kingdom. Is it any wonder, then, that, go where you will in Christendom, you will find the people in religious confusion, none of them clear on why God Almighty has permitted this reign of wickedness and woe till now and what he purposes to do now about this state of affairs and what his will is for lovers of life and security to do? Because the Bible with its divine information has been so available to the clergy and they have rejected its truths and enlightening prophecies, the great God of spiritual plenty has rejected them as his spokesmen and channels of Scripture information and instruction. They are rejected from being his priest, for it is written: "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts." (Mal. 2:7, AS) Thus spiritual famine has struck Christendom as forewarned: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst [for the waters of truth]." (Amos 8:11-13, AS) In place of finding the words
of Jehovah among the clergy and religious systems of Christendom, you come face to face with the nasty fact of religious persecution against the witnesses of Jehovah who speak His word.
SUCCESSFUL RUNNING TO AND FRO FOR INFORMATION
The anguished cry of the people today is for life. How are they to find the way to it? If the rule God announces holds true that "my people are destroyed for want of knowledge", then the converse must hold true, that the people will be saved and preserved alive by the possession of knowledge. This is the time of greatest need for life-giving knowledge, because all the developments since the year 1914 prove that this world has entered its "time of the end" and is now nearing the disastrous close of that period. The much needed information God has mercifully promised, for he long ago said to Daniel the prophet: "Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." (Dan. 12:4) But if the people's running to and fro through the midst of Christendom fails to locate the words of Jehovah for the relief of the spiritual famine, then what running to and fro is it that results in the promised increase of knowledge? It is the running to and fro in the written Word of God, that is to say, the scrutinizing and examining of the Holy Bible for our direct instruction. If the paid religious clergy and spiritual advisers reject the Bible in favor of worldly philosophy and traditions of men contrary to God's Word, then the people who earnestly want life must themselves run to and fro through the pages of the sacred Book if they are ever going to get the life-giving increase of knowledge. So let the people act independently of the religious leaders who have failed them.
Let them exercise faith and run to and fro through God's now unsealed and opened Book. His spirit that searches the "deep things of God" has been poured out. His marvelous time for spiritual illumination has come.
5 The greatest service any man or woman could possibly render to humanity
today is to impart to them the knowledge of God and encourage them to run to and fro through His Book in personal Bible study. The religious clergy have missed out in this service of
Jesus cried out to them: "Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgment of Gehenna?" (Matt. 23:33, NW) By keeping the people ignorant they led them into having Jesus killed on a torture stake at Calvary. Thirty-seven years later this willfully cultivated ignorance led to its fatal consequences, the destruction of the city of Jerusalem with an enormous
most urgent importance, the same as in Jesus' day. The Son of God courageously pointed out the ones whom God held accountable for the death dealing state of ignorance of the people. At the risk of stirring up the combined opposition of the priests and religious leaders he said: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the kingdom of the heavens before mankind; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in." "Woe to you who are versed in the Law, because you took away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not go in, and those going in you hindered!"—Matt. 23:13 and Luke 11:52, NW.
6 By thus withholding the truth from the people those clergymen of Jesus' day were leading the people to destruction and their nation to ruin. Because of their responsible part in it the religious leaders were earning for themselves also annihilation. Hence
loss of human lives, just as Jesus had predicted, and the breaking up of the Jewish nation till this day. And now in this "time of the end" the revived nation of Israel with capital at
the modern city of Jerusalem chooses to go on in the steps of its forefathers, ignoring the counsel of Jehovah God. It has again chosen "Caesar" as its friend in preference to God's kingdom by Christ. It has gone after and gained membership in the United Nations of this doomed world. There is only one outcome possible: destruction with this world because of taking the wrong course for want of the knowledge of Jehovah God and his Messianic kingdom.
THE EXEMPLARY COURSE
7 Jesus Christ was the greatest Jew, for he was the Jewish Messiah, the Christ. King Solomon of Jerusalem, as long as he walked in Jehovah's way, was the wisest man of ancient times; but Jesus Christ was something greater than Solomon. He knew what we need to know in order to gain everlasting life. He was wiser than the ancient pagan philosopher, Thales of Miletus, who said: "Know thyself." Yes, wiser than the English poet, Alex.
Pope, who is considered famous for saying: "The proper study of mankind is man." Jesus pointed to a greater knowledge as absolutely vital to life. Certainly if a man seeks to know himself, the only honest conclusion he can come to is that he is imperfect like all other men and is a sinner and that the means of salvation is not in himself or other men. Even what relics of conscience he has inherited from Adam, the once perfect man, will remind him he is a sinner and will condemn him.
The way of salvation, the means of gaining everlasting life, is not in man himself, even when given a perfect law. For fifteen centuries the Jewish nation lived under the law Jehovah gave them through Moses. But that good and holy law of God was more than they could measure up to, and it only showed them up all the more to be sinners. The lesson to be learned from this the apostle Paul summed up in these words: "Now we know that all the things the Law says it addresses to those under the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become liable to God for punishment. Therefore by works of law no flesh will be declared righteous before him, for by law is the accurate knowledge of sin." (Rom. 3:19,20,NW) How glad we can be today that we do not need to go through Israel's fifteen centuries of experience to find out that our salvation is not by our own attempts at self-righteousness!
To be wise for eternal salvation we must heed the words of the One who is greater than Solomon, Jesus Christ. When on earth he told men and women to follow him and imitate him. We can do so by taking up the work which he did. Being born a perfect man by the miracle of Jehovah God his heavenly Father, Jesus was
the only man that could lay down his life as a ransom sacrifice for mankind to gain everlasting life in the new world. But before laying down his life, what work did he take up as pleasing to God and of highest importance? To what did he devote himself as being the most pressing need of the people who were facing destruction? At the appointed time marked out in prophecy he abandoned his carpenter work and took up preaching. Though he knew it would lead to a martyr's death in public disgrace, he devoted himself to spreading the knowledge of Jehovah God. He thus established preaching God's Word as being the highest vocation. This world may sneer at preaching the Bible as being foolish and most impractical, especially in this crucial period of world history; but all the world with its political offices and Big Business jobs and honored religious pulpits could never offer us a higher vocation than that which Jesus set as a pattern for us. For his loyal course in the midst of a hostile, unappreciative world he earned for himself the title, "The faithful and true witness." (Rev. 3:14; 1:5) Can we today enjoy any higher privilege than to be witnesses like him, witnesses of Jehovah, and to prove ourselves faithful as such? Jesus' example says No!
THE TEACHERS
10 Next to vindicating Jehovah's ruler ship as being the only rightful sovereignty of the universe, Jesus was interested in the abundant, everlasting life for the people. God had given him power over all flesh, and Jesus was interested in giving mankind perfect life in God's image and likeness, free from sin. He knew what we needed to gain this, and he devoted himself to giving this to us. He knew the value of knowing God, and so he said: "I am the right shepherd, and I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I surrender my soul in behalf of the sheep."
And in his last prayer on earth with his sheep he said: "Righteous Father, the world has, indeed, not come to know you, but I have come to know you." (John 10:14,15; 17:25,NW) It was his personal knowledge of God that made Jesus strong to stand up for God's universal sovereignty and to carry out God's loving purpose toward mankind, cost what it might. So in his final prayer to God with his faithful apostles he said to his heavenly Father: "Glorify your son, that your son may glorify you, according as you have given him authority over all flesh, that, as regards the whole number which you have given him, he may give them everlasting life. This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ."—John 17:1-3,NW.
11 No, the counsel that leads to endless life is not: "Know thyself." The greatest study of man is not man, either yourself or other men. The greatest study of man is God and God's Chief Agent, Jesus Christ. True, God himself is invisible and infinitely high beyond the reach of man, and yet God has made this study of him possible for man by means of his written Word and with the aid of his illuminating active force or spirit. Such a study deals with the highest things and leads to the results of highest importance to us. We must pursue this study if we want to take in the knowledge which means everlasting life in the new world. Why so? Because it is the taking in of knowledge of the great Fountain of life, Jehovah the only true God, and also the knowledge of the Chief Agent which God uses for making this life possible to us, Jesus Christ, whom God sent forth
into this world to declare God to us as no other prophet had done. When we study man, we are studying a dying creature. When we study God, we are studying the life-giving Creator. Certainly it is more vital to get acquainted with the Creator and get into relationship with him than to study sinful creatures of earth who are condemned to death. Certainly, too, it is more important to get to know the Creator's Chief Agent of life than to interest ourselves in creatures who need life and have no means of saving themselves. The higher study leads to everlasting life.
12 When we turn to God and Christ and take up a study of God's Book, then He becomes our Teacher, and surely he knows how to teach us the way to attain eternal existence in peace and happiness. God caused it to be written in the prophets. "And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall be the peace of thy children." (Isa. 54:13, AS) These words were addressed to God's "woman", that is to say, Jehovah's Theocratic organization called "Zion" which brings forth those who become the spiritual children of God. The chief one of her children is Jesus Christ, who was anointed to be Jehovah's King for the promised kingdom. The others of her children here spoken of are the footstep followers who are anointed with God's spirit to be associated with Jesus Christ in the heavenly kingdom. On bringing forth these royal children, beginning with Jesus, she is told to sing and cry aloud for joy at having ceased from her barrenness. (Isa. 54:1) The apostle Paul shows that this woman is Jehovah's Theocratic organization and that her children are Jesus Christ and his body of faithful followers, by saying: "The Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: 'Be glad, you barren woman who does not bear children; break out and cry aloud, you woman who does not have childbirth pains; because the children of the desolate woman number more than those of her who has the husband.'
Now we, brothers, are children belonging to the promise the same as Isaac was. Wherefore, brothers, we are children, not of a servant girl, but of the free woman."—Gal. 4: 26-28,31,NW.
13 How precious it is to have Jehovah God himself for our Teacher! There could be no education higher than this, for it is a receiving of knowledge from the highest source in the school of life. And God has called into service as his fellow teacher his royal Son Jesus Christ. For that special reason Jesus said to his followers: "But you, do not you be called 'Rabbi', for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers. Neither be called 'leaders', for your Leader is one, the Christ." (Matt. 23:8, 10, NW) So we must be taught by Jehovah God through Jesus Christ.
14 Because the teaching is through Jesus Christ as Chief Instructor, many refuse to be taught, for they do not wish to be made like their Teacher. Hence not all men and women are admitted or do apply for admittance into this school of highest learning, but only those who love and fear Jehovah God and whom he draws. Jesus made that fact clear when he said: "No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him, and I will resurrect him in the last day. It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by Jehovah.' Everyone that has heard the Father's teaching and has learned comes to me." (John 6:44, 45, NW) According to Jesus, the learning a Christian gains in this Theocratic school leads to resurrection from the dead and everlasting life in the
opening thousand years of the New World. Those taught in this school are blessed with peace and prosperity and are kept from the selfish, deadly conflicts of this old world. Let us see to it, therefore, that our teachers are not men with their dead precepts, traditions and worldly philosophies, but that our teachers are the two great Instructors of the universe, Jehovah God and Jesus Christ. It signifies life for us to do so.
15 Jesus met all the qualifications of a trustworthy instructor. He did not sit in the teacher's seat of Jehovah's school of life and then turn aside to the empty philosophies of this world and teach his followers something contrary to the topmost Educator, Jehovah God, just to be popular with this world. What God requires of all those who profess to represent and speak for him is that they tell the truth about God and impart the real knowledge of him to the people. On two occasions Jesus is reported as quoting from Hosea's prophecy, chapter 6, which reads: "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me." (Hos. 6:6,7; Matt. 9:12,13; 12:7) That was why Jesus wielded God's prophetic Word like a sword and drove it into those religious clergy and slew their religious pretensions.
16 Hosea's prophecy in the preceding verses foretold this action of Jesus, saying: "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. Therefore have I.hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth."—Hos. 6:4,5.
17 The whole teaching of the Bible from cover to cover is that the people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge of God the Creator and Savior. To supply the need God offers the people the knowledge in his inspired Book. Therefore let us who want to be his faithful witnesses bear this in mind and not be turned aside to something else. Let us hold strictly to dispensing the pure Word of God to his honor and to the saving of the people. It is because the religious clergy of Christendom have turned from doing this and have imitated the clergy of Jesus' day that now it has come their turn to be 'hewed by the prophets and slain by the words of God's mouth'. Like it? Well, of course, they do not; and they hate Jehovah's witnesses for declaring the prophecies and publishing the words of God's mouth, which has such a slaughtering effect on the clergy before the people.
ROUNDED-OUT INSTRUCTION NEEDED
18 When we take God's instruction through the Bible, let us take all it teaches. The Supreme Teacher warns us that we must neither add worldly false knowledge to his Word nor take away from it. We must have the full information for the obtaining of the salvation which He provides. For thousands of years godly men and women had been seeking information on the One whom God was to send forth
and were wanting to identify him and unite with him. In due time the Messiah came in the person of Jesus Christ. If we were to follow the course of the religious clergy of Jesus' day and reject the facts about him as foretold in the prophecies, we would never gain everlasting life. We would be like those Jews who perished for rejecting this knowledge. The knowledge of God minus his Son Jesus Christ is only partial. Life by the law of Moses is impossible. Likewise the knowledge of Jesus Christ minus Jehovah God is only partial, as in Christendom's case today. To know Jehovah God and to know Jesus Christ are inseparable for salvation.
19 John 3:35,36 (NW) tells us: "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. He that exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life; he that disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him." And 1 John 2:22,23 (NW) says: "Who is the liar if it is not the one that denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one that denies the Father and the Son. Everyone that denies the Son does not have the Father either. He that confesses the Son has the Father also." And to this 1 John 4:15 (NW) adds: "Whoever makes the confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God remains in union with such one and he in union with God." There is no other way about it: our taking in knowledge of the only true God and of his Sent One, Jesus Christ, as well is what means everlasting life to us.
Hence to be God's faithful witnesses what course must we pursue?
18, 19. Why is partial knowledge not enough for gaining salvation?
Living According to SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE
IF WE imitate Jesus Christ we shall never go wrong. He feared God and taught others the fear of God according to the truth. We must have this correct fear of God if we aim at getting the information that leads to life that really is life. Proverbs 1:7 (AS) tells us: "The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction." Such fear of the only true God is the beginning, that is, the chief part or the first thing in knowledge. Because the wise, brainy, powerful people of this world do not have that fear of Jehovah, all the knowledge they accumulate and hand out does not save the world or result in life. By the Holy Bible we are taught the fear of God. And it is wise that we fear him, for he is the Source of all life. For us not to fear him but to reject him means cutting ourselves off from the great Fountainhead of life. This would spell absolute annihilation for us. God's own Word tells us also to honor Jesus Christ because of the key part that he performs in the life-giving arrangements of God. So we gladly accept the Son of God. For us to reject him means we are cutting ourselves off from the central connection with God, the one channel of life from God; and this would likewise spell utter destruction for us. How grand and beneficial it is, then, to take in knowledge of both the Father and the Son!
2 Our doing this can never stop. We must advance to perfection. We have gained real enlightenment only by going to the Book
of truthful information, that is, the Bible, God's gift to us. What knowledge we have already gained has been by studying that Book. But to continue in the fear and knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ we need to keep on studying that Book, and to do so with all the faithful helps which the heavenly Father provides through his Theocratic organization. From what we have learned out of the Holy Scriptures we have faith in God and Christ and are able by this to please God. This faith, Hebrews 11:1 (NW) tells us: "is the assured expectation of things hoped for." And so we have hope, a wonderful hope of a perfect new world, with a new heavens and a new earth, in which we may enjoy the promised everlasting life in unspeakable happiness. But faith and hope are not all that is necessary. They are quite proper in themselves. It is written: "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." (Prov. 13:12) We do not know what heaven is to be like for the 144,000 Christian overcomers of this world, but we could write a book and paint a vivid picture of the paradise that is to be renewed on earth and we could set this hope before people of good will now seeking life in it. But powerful as this hope might be as a stimulant, it is not all that is necessary to keep a person faithful.
3 Long ago miraculous gifts passed out of the life of the Christian congregation, but the things that now remain are not only faith and hope but also love: "these three, but the greatest of these is love."
Why must we fear God, and why must we honor Jesus Christ?
(a) To continue in this fear and knowledge what must we do? (b) How do we gain faith and hope, and are these all that is needed?
What quality is most essential for right living now? Why?
(1 Cor. 13:8-13, NW) The new world for which we hope is at the door, but we are still living in the degraded old world, and besides faith and hope, love is most essential for right living amid these debasing conditions. We need love now while surrounded with this selfish world, for without love we are nothing in God's sight. We are in most perilous times, and living now is a great problem. We must keep on studying God's Word in order to learn how to live right and how to show love that is godlike. The new world is still a hope, but this old world is a present reality. We must yet face it, and this creates difficulties for us. We have to meet these without compromising God's cause. So we must know how to meet them, and this calls for knowledge right now. Hence the need for us to study the Bible further on what it has to say with regard to our relations with this existence, for if we do not handle these aright, we shall not be found worthy of life in the future world.
PRESENT PROBLEMS
4 The "appointed times of the Gentiles" expired in 1914, but the Gentile governments still continue as going concerns, wrathful against God's established kingdom. "Caesar" still holds the reins of earthly government, and totalitarian governments are more powerful than ever. We need to know from the Bible that the "superior authorities" to whom Christian souls must be subject are Jehovah God and Christ Jesus, if we want to escape divine wrath. We need to be taught how our first duties are to God, obeying Him as Ruler in preference to men, and then giving to Caesar only what belongs to Caesar.—Rom. 13:1-4 and Matt. 22:21, NW.
Another problem is to know the places men and women occupy in the Theocratic
organization of Jehovah God. It is true that in the Christian congregation "there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in union with Christ Jesus". (Gal. 3:28, NW) But we are still male and female in the flesh; we can still marry and produce children, we can still be moved by passion and be tempted to commit sexual abuses. So woman's position in the congregation and in the home needs to be adjusted according to God's will for the safety and happiness of all concerned, that the Theocratic rule may be carried out and no reproach be brought upon God's name and his organization. Children are still being brought into this world. We love them and we long to see them succeed in the most important thing. But how to bring them up under present conditions of increasing parental and child delinquency poses a serious problem. We need to know how to bring them up "in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah", that we may educate and train them for everlasting life with us in the blessed new world. (Eph. 6:4, NW) How glad we are that we have God as our Teacher by Jesus Christ and have the Holy Bible for our book of instructions!
We are living at a time when God by his Right Shepherd not only is gathering the remnant of his 'little flock' and is almost through, but in view of the new world near at hand, is now also gathering a numberless flock of "other sheep" whose destiny will be, not immortal life in heaven with the "little flock", but complete human life on earth in the restored paradise. We have to determine our destiny and act accordingly. Has God called us to heaven to reign with Christ or to the paradise earth? To determine this is a problem with many, and to solve it each one must study God's Word further and be convinced in his own mind.
What problem must we meet living under present governments?
What problem does sex present? And children?
What problem of destiny now presents itself?
We are living at the climax of this wicked world and at the culmination of Christendom's existence. Pagan philosophies and doctrines of demons and manmade religious traditions masquerade under the guise of Christian doctrine and practice. Evilminded men slyly watch for an opening and try to creep into our Christian companies for immoral purposes and to abuse God's undeserved kindness and corrupt the faith and manners of those whom they can victimize. We are
living, indeed, in among seductive conditions, and lest we stray there is every need for us to do as it is written: "Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." (Jer. 6:16) We need to go back direct to the inspired Scriptures themselves, examining them daily against what is taught us by men, and by this course get back to the "faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones". And having rediscovered what it is, then we must "put up a hard fight" for it, to hold it and to practice it, as Jude 3 says (NW).
Christ stands for. Let the world know the position of morality that Jehovah's Theocratic organization takes, that they may know that it is a pure organization. Keep the organization that way, as far as in you
8 In harmony with the original faith it becomes our duty toward God to resist those impure-minded persons who try to sneak in and lure unsuspecting Christians into sexual abuses by wrongly claiming God's mercy for willful sins. It is part of our fight for the faith to hold high the Bible principles concerning human marriage and the pure relations between men and women in the congregation. Stick by these. Let the evil-designing sneaks and all worldly persons know what high moral principles the true knowledge of God and
lies, that the organization into which you invite the Shepherd's "other sheep" may be a clean, purifying organization. True love is pure. The fear of Jehovah is clean. Love and godly fear will help you meet the moral problems which are still with us while we are in this old world.—1 Cor.
13:5,6,NW; Ps.19:9,AS.
MANIFESTING IT TO OTHERS
Thus for our own selves to gain everlasting life we must continue taking in knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ, whom He sent forth. Mankind are not yet in paradise. Satan and his demons are not yet bound nor his wicked seed destroyed from the earth. On the contrary, he has been cast out of heaven and is now restrained to the earth and is bringing great woes upon the people and creating many problems for God's righteous people. So be on guard. Proverbs 11:9 (AS) assures us: "Through knowledge shall the righteous be delivered." Conversely, through lack of knowledge those who profess to be God's people are destroyed. In Christendom we see exemplified what this lack produces, in harmony with what the apostle said, at Romans 1:24-31: "Therefore God in keeping with the desires of their hearts gave them up to uncleanness, that their bodies might be dishonored among them, even those who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and venerated and rendered sacred service to the creation rather than the One who created, .
And just as they did not approve of holding God in accurate knowledge, God gave them up to a disapproved mental state, to do the things not fitting, filled as they were with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, injuriousness, being full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malicious disposition, being whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, insolent, haughty, self-assuming, inventors of injurious things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, false to agreements, having no natural affection, merciless."—NW.
10 Hence not merely heathendom, but Christendom has magnificently demonstrated what the want of knowledge of Jehovah God will do to the hurt and disgrace of the people. Now it is the turn of you who are Jehovah's witnesses to demonstrate what the true knowledge of God will do for a people, an organization of people on a world-wide scale. You who are Jehovah's witnesses are living at the culmination of God's new covenant through Christ, when it is being crowned with success by taking out the final
members to complete the "people for his name". Besides the forgiveness of sins through the Mediator of that covenant, one of its blessed provisions is this: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every
man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah."
(Jer. 31:31-34, AS; Acts 15:14) Jehovah's witnesses, indeed, now know him from the least to the greatest of them; but Christendom, by her willful ignorance of Jehovah God, proves she is not in the new covenant and that she is not the "people for his name" which he has been taking out of all nations during the past nineteen centuries.
11 One of the ways by which we must manifest to all the world what the knowledge of God does for the people is by acting as his witnesses to mankind both in word and in action. We must speak and act in harmony with the will of God. What is that? It is written: "This is right and acceptable in the sight of our Savior, God, whose will is that all kinds of men should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all—this is what is to be witnessed to at its own particular times." (1 Tim. 2:3-6, NW) Now is the time of all times to be bearing witness, Now, when God by his Right Shepherd is gathering under his Theocratic
organization a "great crowd" of persons of good will "out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues", "all kinds of men." By the witness we are giving in all nations this "great crowd" know where their salvation comes from. What a joy it is to us now to hear them in their hundreds of thousands crying with a loud
voice before the divine throne: "Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Rev. 7:9,10 NW) Let the numbers of this great crowd
Contrary to ignorant Christendom, what must Jehovah's witnesses now do under the provisions of the new covenant?
How must we show what knowledge does for us, especially now?
increase by our intensifying the witness in all nations as never before.
12 Jehovah God has given us knowledge under his new covenant for the express purpose of our being his witnesses. He reminds us: "Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may KNOW and believe me, and understand that I am he: . . . I have declared, and I have saved, and I have showed; and there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I am God." (Isa. 43:10-12, AS) And what an opportunity for witnessing we now have! We have the Book of books, the Holy Bible; and now, too, we have the 1950 New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. To aid us to gain knowledge of God from his Book, we have the supplementary Bible literature published by a proved instrument of God and Christ, the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society.
13 The great enemy of life, Satan the Devil, is opposed to the spreading of the life-giving knowledge, even though in Eden he pretended to want to increase mankind's knowledge by seducing Eve into disobediently eating of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil". Evil, yes! But he has never favored mankind's gaining a knowledge of good. He is the "god of this system of things", and all along he has "blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through". But by the irresistible power of God the light has broken through the devilish opposition and has reached us, and He "has shone on our hearts to illuminate them with the glorious knowledge of God by the face of Christ". (2 Cor. 4:4-6, NW) Let us, in turn, rise
and shine, reflecting the light on to others. If the people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge, let it not be because of any negligence and failure on our part. If a great crowd of good will is now being led to salvation, let it be by God's use of us through his Shepherd.
"THEY SHALL KNOW"
14 Christendom will go on refusing to accept the knowledge of Jehovah God at the mouths and hands of his witnesses. But the awesome hour draws near when she will be made to know that these have been God's witnesses, his "prophet among them", and that He is Jehovah and that since 1914 his King, Jesus Christ, rules in the kingdom for the new world. But being MADE to know Jehovah at that time will be no blessing to her or the rest of this world. It will mean her own destruction amid a world destruction! Because of Christendom's willful lack of knowledge, she is opposing Jehovah's kingdom by his Christ. She is lining herself up with all the forces of Gog of Magog for the final assault upon the visible Theocratic organization of Jehovah's people on earth. The propaganda inspired by the demons is hurrying all her rulers blindly, madly, on to the warfront of Armageddon. (Rev. 16:14-16) Shortly, at a thieflike hour, the Supreme Warrior for truth and righteousness will make himself known to all his opposers in a language that they will understand, the language of cosmic forces that will speak destruction to them. There was never anything like it before except the great deluge of Noah's day. Meaning Gog and all his forces, Jehovah says:
15 "And I will call for a sword against him unto all my mountains, saith the Lord Jehovah: every man's sword shall be against his brother. And with pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain upon him, and upon his hordes, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
And I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that dwell securely in the isles; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. . . . neither will I suffer my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel. Behold, it cometh, and it shall be done, saith the Lord Jehovah; this is the day whereof I have spoken."—Ezek. 38: 21-23 and 39: 6-8, AS.
16 Christ Jesus the King will act as Jehovah's executional officer amid that world destruction, and the fact that he is now present in his kingdom and owns the earth as his domain will be forcibly revealed to all his opposers. Their destruction will bring welcome relief to all of us who choose to know and obey God. As it is written: "It is righteous on God's part to repay tribulation to those who make tribulation for you, but, to you who suffer tribulation, relief along with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings due punishment upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will pay the penalty of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength, at the time he comes to be glorified." (2 Thess. 1: 6-10, NW) What an INGLORIOUS end for their disobedient failure to take in now the knowledge of the only true God and of
Jesus Christ, whom he has now sent forth as King!
SURVIVAL
17 However, that is not the way we want to learn to know Jehovah God and his Christ. We want to know them in a way that means everlasting life, not destruction. God has given us his holy spirit, and he has baptized his faithful remnant of Kingdom heirs with his spirit and enlightened them with the deep things revealed by that spirit in God's Word. But Christendom will shortly be baptized with fire, the fire of destruction at Armageddon. (Matt. 3:11,12) We do not await destruction at the battle of Armageddon, but confidently expect to survive through that fiery time into the new world. Nevertheless, to realize such preservation at the end of this world, just as Noah and his ark companions enjoyed preservation at the watery end of the former world, we must live according to knowledge. The knowledge which God has revealed to us by his spirit in these last days sets up high principles of living. We must live up to those principles. We must hold fast to this knowledge by living according to it and by giving it out to others. We must increase in knowledge in harmony with the predicted increase of knowledge, to make us strong to bear all the pressures of these perilous times. "A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth might." (Prov. 24:5, AS) So let us wisely continue taking in knowledge from on high.
18 We may not know now the day or the hour when the battle of Armageddon will break out and the wicked heavens and earth of the Devil's world will be dissolved to make way for the new heavens and earth of the precious new world. We do not need
Who will act as God's executional officer? How will he reward the obedient ones and those willfully ignorant?
What do we expect for ourselves at Armageddon? So what must we do now respecting knowledge?
Do we know the time for Armageddon? How, then, must we live?
to know, but every day we can live in the consciousness that it is near. We can live lives that harmonize with our steadfast hope of soon entering the glorious new things which Jehovah God will create. No more living for the old world for us!
19 The apostle Peter looked forward to this new world, and he tried to live worthy of entering it. And especially for the benefit of us living at this world climax he wrote telling us how he tried to live and how we ought to live. After describing the world-wide flood of Noah's time and then the thieflike arrival of Jehovah's destructive day upon the Devil's heavens and earth, Peter wrote: "Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion, awaiting and keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah, through which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved and the elements being intensely hot will melt. But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell. Hence, beloved ones, since you are awaiting these things, do your utmost to
What sort of persons does Peter say we ought to be?
be found finally by him spotless and unblemished and in peace. Furthermore, consider the patience of our Lord as salvation." 2 Pet. 3:11-15, NW.
20 As we are expecting to enter the new world in which righteousness is to dwell, then let us live in righteousness. We know the Lord God's day is coming for the destruction of all those who are spotted and blemished with this world and not at peace with God. He will approve only those whom he finds spotless, unblemished and in peace. These he will preserve through the world's end. And if we daily do our utmost to be found finally, at that last day of this world, in a spotless, unblemished and peaceful condition, what else could this mean but that we will win his approval and protection and will survive the fiery end into the bright new world with its glories? What a wonderful possibility! What an opportunity of all opportunities! By the undeserved kindness from on high, we will avail ourselves of it by faithfully taking in the knowledge of the true God and of Jesus Christ, for "this means everlasting life". John 17:3, NW.
What does living that way mean for us at the world's end? So what will we do?
Clergyman Notes Faith of Jehovah's Witnesses
One of Jehovah's witnesses preaching from door to door in Arkansas met a householder who said, "I wish all you Jehovah's witnesses could have heard our pastor yesterday. He gave a wonderful sermon on faith." Then this person quoted the clergyman as saying: "I don't know how you feel about it, but in my estimation there is only one organization on this earth that really has faith in what they believe, and that is the organization of Jehovah's witnesses. Would you [pointing to congregation] have the faith and courage to stand on the street corner and put forth your views and be laughed at, scorned, mocked, arrested, beaten and put in prison and still continue to do it? Would you have the faith and courage to stand there in the snow, rain and heat and not become discouraged? Would you have the faith and courage to ring door bell after door bell and receive in return doors slammed in your face and still continue in your belief? I don't believe you can say that you have that kind of faith. If our church had the kind of faith that this group of Jehovah's witnesses have, we'd have a tremendous organization."
THE majority of men fight death with the wrong weapons. The first human pair blundered, for they sought to retain life by disobeying God. Rejecting Jehovah's warning that disobedience to him would mean death, Eve listened to Satan's prescription that godlike living safe from death would come to her by eating forbidden fruit. Adam, though not deceived, foolishly followed his wife's diet that she supposed would lead to an enlightened existence as gods. But instead it opened the door to death, not only for Adam and Eve but for all their descendants.—Gen. 2:17; 3:3-6, 19; 5:5; Rom. 5:12.
Satan had said to Eve "Ye shall not surely die" and "Ye shall be as gods"; and since false religion's beginning till now it has taken up these satanic lies as its chief assurance against death. Religious teachings of reincarnation and of immortality of the human soul are as false as their foundation laid by Satan the Devil. The following Bible texts prove them so: "What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?" "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." "That which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." "The living know that they
shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." "The soul that
sinneth, it shall die." "The wages sin pays is death."—Ps. 89:48;146:4;Eccl. 3:19,20; 9:5,10; Ezek. 18:4; Rom. 6:23, NW.
VICTORY EFFORTS OF FALSE RELIGION
But false religion in ancient times had more to offer than Satan's lie that death was just the doorway to spirit immortality. It sought to heal through the practice of medicine, and from ancient times the priests of pagan religions were the doctors and physicians, and claimed to possess supernatural powers to cure both body and soul. They believed sickness the work of an evil spirit or visitation from a deity, and the prescription involved sorcery or occult divination. If the ailment was from a demon, the patient was subjected to horrible treatment in the belief that if the demon's abode, the patient's body, was made miserable enough the demon could not stand it and would flee. So the medicine men made deafening noises and terrifying faces, while the sick one underwent heat or other pain and inhaled nauseating odors. Quite a bedside manner, those religious doctors had.
Some of the Jews that fell away from God's worship used as medicines such items as fish gall, saliva, cowdung, urine, and bat's blood. Chinese medicine men brewed superstitious prescriptions with quackery and black magic. Powdered turtle shells were to give long life, tiger bones soaked in wine were to give the tiger's strength, gorilla blood for feminine ailments, powdered snakeskin for rheumatism, and powdered lizardskin for stomach trouble and hiccups.
Herbs were used to a degree, especially by the Hebrews and Egyptians, and the latter gained a meager knowledge of anatomy and produced a few surgical instruments. The Greeks combined the superstitions of Babylon and Persia with the medical learning of the Egyptians, and medical schools sprang up, one of which is attributed to Hippocrates, who is called the father of medicine.
Medical knowledge with which to fight death was on the advance, but with the rise of papal dictatorship by a religious organization during the Dark Ages this advance was halted and turned back. The prevailing religion of that time was opposed to the invasion of the field of healing by scholarly doctors, was against the spoiling of pastures long dominated by the priests. Surgery and bodily cleanliness and other health measures were opposed, and in their stead were practiced such superstitions as carrying horse chestnuts in your pocket to cure rheumatism, placing a catfish on your brow to cure epilepsy, wearing amulets and religious medals to cure anything and everything, and even eating pages of the Bible that told of miracles was practiced to gain miraculous cures. But during all this time priestly medicine men of these false religions gained no victory over death.
MODERN MEDICINE SEEKS VICTORY
After the Reformation medical knowledge surged ahead, and in this atomic age its discoveries rocket along at supersonic speed. The attacks on the enemy death come from many battle fronts—from physicians, surgeons, herbalists, dieticians, chiropractors, osteopaths, etc., and even from some religionists who say that your ruptured appendix or your gallstones are only in your head. But, despite it all, the
enemy death continues laying low patient and healer alike. Against the penalty of death is directed the full force of what men hail as science's brilliant accomplishments, as different brands of doctors massage muscles, manipulate bones, jab with their needles, inject their serums, pepper you with pills, reduce you, fatten you, fast you, feed you, exercise you, and even slit you with the surgeon's blade to cast as a peace offering to the enemy death an appendix, a tonsil, a kidney, a leg or an arm—but even this desperate retreat before disease soon comes to a stone wall as some vital organ is cornered and death collects its prey.
Do not misunderstand. Doctors today relieve much suffering, prolong many lives, render praiseworthy service to humanity, and deserve credit for the good they do. But the point being made is that their battle against death is only a delaying action, not a final victory. Any deliverance from disease they effect only hands the patient over to the clutches of old age. The delaying action is but brief postpone ment, and death is so patient, the grave can wait. And it never has to wait long, even if man reaches the Biblical life span of "threescore years and ten" or "fourscore years". (Ps. 90:10) At best, man's present life on this earth is fleeting. As Job said: "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." Job 14:1,2; Ps. 102:11; 144:4; Isa. 40:6,7.
Today's doctors may not lay a fish on your head to cure epilepsy or give you powdered lizardskin for hiccups, but for all their scientific advances they are no nearer to a real victory over death than the witch doctor of antiquity. What if science has brought a torrent of brilliant medical weapons up to the front to fight death?
Death continues to stalk through the fields of humanity and leaves in its wake windrow upon windrow of felled corpses. Several causes might be cited as contributors to death's rising toll, but the two vital ones are man's continuing degeneration and Satan's foretold woes of wars and calamities, famines and pestilences, for these last days of this evil world.—Matt. 24:3,7; Rev. 12:12.
HOW VICTORY COMES
Yet this flood of death-dealing woes is no cause for being disheartened or downcast, for after predicting such things Christ Jesus said: "But as these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near." (Luke 21:28, NW) Deliverance from suffering, sickness and death by this world's end and a righteous new world's beginning. But by whose hand does deliverance from death come? From men? Psalm 49:7,14,15 answers no: "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave."
Jehovah God redeems men by meeting the law requirement of a ransom, by sending Jesus to earth "to give his soul a ransom in exchange for many". (Lev. 17:11; Deut. 19:21; Matt. 20:28, NW) And how in a practical way does this victory over death come through Christ Jesus? By a resurrection of the dead! By opening the graves, emptying them, releasing from them the numberless human dead that the death penalty has stored up for the past thousands of years! Scriptural testimony abounds on this point. "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." "There is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous." "The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment." (1 Cor. 15:21, 22; Acts 24:15; John 5:28, 29, NW) Those who then obey will live forever, for it is concerning that resurrection time that Jesus said, "Everyone that is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all." —John 11:23-26, NW.
…