The Watchtower, November 1, 1955
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The WATCHTOWER
Announcing
JEHOVAH'S
KINGDOM
NOVEMBER 1, 1955
Semimonthly
QUALIFIED TO BE MINISTERS
ORDINATION OF
THE QUALIFIED MINISTERS
THE WAY TO REAL HAPPINESS
PURSUING MY PURPOSE IN LIFE
"A WIDER INTERPRETATION OF
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH"?
©WTB&TS
"YOU ARE MY WITNESSES," SAYS JEHOVAH.—Isa. 43:12 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
"A Wider Interpretation of the Christian Faith"? 643
The Way to Real Happiness 645
Using Wisely the Reduced Time Left 648
Modern History of Jehovah's Witnesses
Part 21: Education for the Theocratic Ministry Advanced 649
Jesuit Implies Hierarchy Blame 652
Pursuing My Purpose in Life 653
Qualified to Be Ministers 657
Ordination of the Qualified Ministers 661
Questions from Readers 671
Announcements 672
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
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"A Wider Interpretation of the Christian Faith"?
JUST how widely can one interpret the Christian faith and still be a Christian and still have faith? So widely as to rob the Bible of all semblance of truth? That is what an ever-increasing number of clergymen hold who profess to be Christian.
Take, for example, the "Rev." H. S. McClelland of the Trinity church, Glasgow, Scotland. On May 8, 1955, he told his congregation: "The Bible covers more than twelve centuries, and in it there are stories that nauseate sensitive minds. They go back to the Bronze Age. There is a motley company of writers in the Bible-as far removed from one another as a Bedouin dervish from a Glasgow University professor. If you followed some texts from the Bible you would become cruel and sadistic, and if you tried to follow them all, you would have a soul like a Tartar. The Bible is full of kindergarten stories-of axes that float, she-wolves, and donkeys talking, and they don't belong in this modern universe." "What right has God to punish me for my sins if I am by nature a sinner? Why, if it is as natural for me as for a wolf to pull down an antelope?"—Scottish Daily Express, May 9, 1955.
And in letters to the newspaper in answer to his critics this clergyman went on to state that the body is full of vestigial relics and that man was on earth a million years. He said that with few exceptions
his audience expressed their gratitude for the "wider interpretation of the Christian faith" that they had received from him.
Again we ask, how widely can the Bible be interpreted and still leave one in possession of a Christian faith? Does not having a Christian faith mean having the same faith as Christ Jesus did? Now if there is anything that the Christian Greek Scriptures make clear it is that Christ had implicit faith in the Hebrew Scriptures as the inspired Word of Jehovah God. He credited Moses with inspiration: "In fact, if you believed Moses you would believe me, for that one wrote about me." He gave credence to Moses' account of creation: "Did you not read that he who created them at the beginning made them male and female?" And he referred to the account of the manna falling from heaven as historical: "Your forefathers ate the manna in the wilderness and yet died." John 5:46; Matt. 19:4; John 6:49, NW.
Christ did not consider the story of the deluge as fiction, but said: "For as the people were in those days before the flood, . . . they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be." Likewise he accepted the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: "On the day that Lot came out of Sodom it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed them all."
Nor was the account of Jonah in the belly of a huge fish too much of a "fish story" for Christ to accept, for he said: "Just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights."—Matt. 24:38, 39; Luke 17:29; Matt. 12:40, NW.
As for the "Rev." McClelland's science, it is strange how suspicious he is about all that is recorded in the Bible as fact and yet how ready he is to swallow all the theories of scientists, which they admit are only theories and which are continually being proved wrong. Thus in recent years, due to invention of the atomic clock, scientists have had to revise their estimates regarding how long man was on earth and now hold it to be only 50,000 years. At least so say the scientists at the University of Chicago, the ones best qualified to speak on the subject. And as for man's being just full of vestigial organs, there was a time when physiologists held that there were some 180 vestigial organs in the human body but today only a handful are mentioned, and many doctors now refuse to term any organs vestigial. Just because man does not know the function of an organ does not make it vestigial. As one professor expressed it: "He would be a rash man indeed who would now assert that any part of the human body is useless."
the authenticity and general integrity of these Scriptures as we have them today.
But back to Jesus' testimony. Christ Jesus, the man who more profoundly affected the human race for good than any other man that ever walked upon this earth, whose life record is without equal as regards wisdom, virtue and love, considered the Hebrew Scriptures as authentic and authoritative and inspired by God. Nor can it be successfully argued that the Gospel records are not reliable, for papyrus manuscripts going back all the way to the early second century have fully established
Of course, to such clergymen as McClelland Christ Jesus and his apostles and early disciples may have been self-deceived, duped, laboring under hallucinations due to a Messiah complex, naive carpenters, fishermen and tax collectors whose testimony must be disregarded. Such clerics may think Bible believers are victims of a gigantic hoax. But it is modern wiseacres that perpetrate hoaxes upon their unsuspecting countrymen, as was the case regarding the Piltdown man.
Freedom of religion allows all such clergymen to believe and teach whatever they wish along such lines. But just common honesty before God and man requires that they do not pose as Christian ministers, for their "wider interpretation of the Christian faith" contains not a shred of faith nor can it be termed Christian.
Christ Jesus met up with such religious leaders in his day and he did not mince any words in describing them: "Let them be. Blind guides is what they are. If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." And again: "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, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you traverse sea and dry land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one you make him a subject for Gehenna twice as much so as yourselves. Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgment of Gehenna?" Strong words, but none too strong considering the enormity of their crime, nor too strong in view of the danger that their teaching presents to those who listen to them.—Matt. 15:14; 23:13-15, 33, NW. THE WAY TO REAL HAPPINESS
HOW much of your life has been spent in trying to find real happiness? Yet how successful have you actually been in reaching that goal? The search for happiness involves our time, our labors, our money; it fills our private lives and takes up most of our day-to-day activity. Men try to achieve happiness through wealth or position,
Everyone desires it, everyone strives for it, yet few really find it. What then, really is the source of true happiness?
through the love of their families, or through hobbies, music, art or some other activity that especially interests them. Some people even try to gain happiness at the expense of others, and in the process either lose their own peace of mind or harden their own hearts. But however men search for happiness, few can say that they are truly happy today.
There is a book that shows why these men are not happy and what course really does lead to true happiness, even today. That book, the Bible, gives outstanding examples of men who had varying degrees of happiness and of those who were most unhappy. It also explains the real source of true happiness. What can you learn from its examples?
Your Bible shows how the first man had true happiness, but threw it away. He had the opportunity of a glorious family arrangement, having been instructed: "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it." He had a beautiful place in which to live, in a garden that Jehovah God planted. He would never be in shortage, because God had said: "Here I have
given to you all vegetation bearing seed which is on the surface of the whole earth and every tree on which there is the fruit of a tree bearing seed. To you let it serve as food." He would never be bored, for he was given the opportunity to occupy his mind and to use his hands to cultivate and to take care of the beautiful garden that was his home. Could any man want more? Yes, there was one remaining thing, and this man had that too. He had the blessing of his Creator who pronounced both man and the creation in which he was placed as being "very good."—Gen. 1:28, 29, 31; 2:15, NW.
Although they had blessings, security, contentment and greater happiness than any man could hope for, our first human parents disobeyed the simple instruction that was given them by their Creator, and in doing so their happiness fled. They found their paradise gone, that the ground was cursed, and this family that had been given such glorious prospects lived even to see its first-born son commit the terrible crime of becoming the murderer of one of his own younger brothers. What a sad end their disobedience to God brought this family!
Since their time men have had varying degrees of happiness, but no imperfect man has ever had it to the extent that this first human pair did. Their experience, however, points out the importance of obedience to God on the part of all those who want real happiness.—Gen. 3:17-19.
The lives of other men have illustrated the same thing. Even Adam's murdered
vah." "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God." "He that giveth heed unto the word shall find good; and whoso trusteth in Jehovah, happy is he." But can such statements possibly apply to today's troubled world? Most certainly they do! In fact, there is even greater reason for happiness today than when these statements were
son Abel, who truly served God, was happier than his murderous brother Cain who said: "My punishment for guilt is too great to carry." Certainly the righteous man Noah was happier than the wild-living people of his time that God destroyed. Consider, too, the example of Abraham. Through his faith in God he was given the outstanding privilege of being an earthly forefather of the Messiah. And after this faithful man's long and blessed life, we read: "Abraham expired and died in a good old age, old and satisfied." What brought there men unquail happiness? It
first written.—Ps. 144:15; 146:5; Prov. 16:20, AS.
EVEN GREATER HAPPINESS NOW
There are several reasons why true Christians can have even greater happiness than did these faithful men of pre-Christian times. The first reason is that Jesus provided a great deal of additional, spiritually strengthening knowledge that even the ancient men of faith did not have. Further, Jesus provided the ransom, buying back what Adam had lost for the hu-
is clear that their obedience to Jehovah's instructions is what did so.—Gen. 4:13; 6:9; 25:8, NW.
The experience of the entire nation of Israel further illustrates this point. When they properly served their God, Jehovah, they were the happiest of people. But when they chose to reject true worship, exactly the opposite was true! In the Bible books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and in many of the prophetic writings you can read how hobnobbing with devil worship
man race and thereby really opening the way for man to receive God's blessings and everlasting life. Then, too, we now have the added example that Jesus and the apostles set regarding the course that actually does lead to true happiness—the course of obeying the divine instructions and of making one's major purpose in life that of helping others to understand them. Jesus said: "If you know these things, happy you are if you do them." And he further said: "There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving."—John 13:17;
brought divine woes upon them, while a sincere return to true worship would bring abundant blessings. The lesson that is here taught again is that true happiness goes hand in hand with obedience to the universe's Supreme Sovereign.
The Psalms and Proverbs have much to say about the source of true happiness. "Happy is the people whose God is Jeho-
Acts 20:35, NW.
Hence, real happiness comes through the constructive and fruitful work that we have been assigned by God. Adam was happy at his God-assigned work. So was Jesus. And, though it amazes the world, so are his followers today! The work that has been commanded for this day is one that requires those who perform it to have a sound knowledge of God's Word, and that gives them the great reward of happily being able to give to others who are in need.
This is the work that Jesus spoke of when he said concerning our very day: "And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come." Matt. 24:14, NW.
Yes, a major reason why one can have even greater happiness now than was possible long centuries ago is that ours is the time to which all these faithful men of God looked forward. Now is the time when God's kingdom has been established, is being preached throughout the inhabited earth, and when the accomplished end of Satan's wicked rule is at hand. The world today fears the future, and unless it changes its course and conforms to God's Word it has every reason to do so.
But the people today who have a sound knowledge of God's Word, who know from it the reason for earth's present troubles, how these troubles will end and what they should do about it now, are not oppressed by the world's fears. They are indeed happy to know that we are living in the days that the Bible spoke of when it said Satan would know that he has only "a short period of time." Rather than being troubled by earth's upset conditions, these people who have a true knowledge of God's Word see in these conditions the sign that marks the approaching end of Satan's wicked rule and the establishment of righteous conditions earth-wide.—Rev. 12:12; Matthew 24, NW.
Would proof that such good news is true make you happy? Would the opportunity of telling such good news to others add to your joy? Jehovah's witnesses have seen that proof. They have this happiness. And they consider it an unspeakably joyful privilege to be able to tell this good news to others. Their happiness frequently prompts comments from outsiders, as when the New York World Telegram and Sun headed an article about them: "They're Brothers, Sisters in Gigantic Family of Faith." This unusual happiness comes from their knowledge of God's Word, their obedience to his instructions and their activity in telling others the good things that they have learned.
They know that while Adam's rebellion apparently postponed Jehovah's purpose to have this earth peopled with righteous, peaceful, happy creatures, that purpose has not been thwarted. Does it sound impossible that right here upon this earth you still could have the opportunity of enjoying the blessings that Adam lost? The ever-increasing numbers of Jehovah's witnesses have seen the positive Scriptural proof of the fact that those conditions are soon to be restored.
Will you investigate to see why they are so convinced of the matter, and why this knowledge gives them such joy and contentment today? Certainly it is worth your time and effort to see how you, too, can gain this real happiness now and the promise of everlasting joy in the future. Will you examine the evidences regarding this most important subject? Jehovah's witnesses earnestly urge you to do so.
USING WISELY THE REDUCED TIME LEFT
ARE you using wisely the reduced time left? "Reduced time left?" you ask. Yes, Bible prophecy shows that we are living in the days of Christ's second presence and therefore "this generation will by no means pass away" until this system of things comes to its end. It follows that there is an urgency regarding the preaching of "this good news of the kingdom," and regarding letting all men of good will know that they must "begin fleeing to the mountains" before it is too late. It is therefore imperative that we be found using wisely the reduced time left.—Matt. 24:34, 14-16; 1 Cor. 7:29; Eph. 5:15, 16, NW.*
Time spent in trying to accumulate wealth, fame or power or in trying to perpetuate this old system of things is wasted, and that is what more than 99.9 per cent of this earth's population are doing. And time can also be wasted on careless habits. It is so easy to waste time when going over the daily paper or with popular magazines and comic books. The same is true of radio, television and movie habits. Worrying wastes time and so does arguing about speculative and hypothetical propositions.
And then there is also the matter of wasting the time of others. We should not expect others to do what we can do for ourselves, for that is not doing to them what we would want them to do to us. Matt. 7:12.
And what does it mean to be using wisely the reduced time left? For one thing it means contenting ourselves with just the absolute essentials as regards the basic things of life. We make wise use of that time when we study God's Word, together
with the aids he has provided. Wise use, that is, if we study efficiently. That means not trying to do two things at one time, such as studying and watching television, but concentrating on what we are studying. It also means making the best use of all the various aids available, as well as being practical in order to do our studying under the most favorable conditions possible. Our new aid, Qualified to Be Ministers, gives many valuable suggestions along this line.
Attendance at congregational meetings and assemblies is a wise use of our time, provided we prepare in advance and take part to the extent of our opportunities. Unless we keep our minds on what is being presented we shall be wasting our time even though in an assembly of Jehovah's people. And time spent in prayer is also used wisely. Let us not be too busy to start and close each day with prayer, nor to give thanks to Jehovah each time we sit down at a meal.
And the most important, the wisest use of the reduced time left is, of course, that spent in preaching the good news of the Kingdom. It brings honor to Jehovah's name and means life for our hearers as well as for ourselves. So let us carefully budget our time, to be able to devote as much as possible to preaching, and then make the best possible use of it by being properly equipped, alert and tactful. It follows that our goal should be the fulltime ministry.
By using wisely the reduced time left, instead of having time dragging on our hands we shall have the happiness of giving. Also there is the joy of seeing fruits of our wise use of time and the satisfaction of laying up treasures in heaven, assuring us everlasting life in God's new world of righteousness.
E. THE remnant of Jehovah's wit ford faithfully finished his earthly course as
MODERN HISTORY of Jehovah's Witnesses
Part 21
EDUCATION FOR THE THEOCRATIC MINISTRY ADVANCED
Of the remnant of Jehovah's witnesses pictured by the prophet Jeremiah it was foretold: "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." (Jer. 1:10, AS) So amid the fiery judgment work of exposing apostate Christendom, 1942 began a turning point.
After the St. Louis convention of August 6-10,1941,where J.F.Rutherford addressed his largest visible public audience
a warrior for The THEOCRATIC GOVERNMENT and a minister of the Word of God. Knowing of your deep concern and of your prayers to God for him ever since his serious illness prior to the Detroit Convention of July, 1940, we hasten to notify you. It was Brother Rutherford's desire to 'die fighting with his boots on'; and this he did. The Lord graciously spared him to complete the report of the 1942 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, therein showing that the greatest witness ever given had been accomplished and that the year's distribution of books and booklets reached the grand total of 36,030,595 copies. He always had foremost
of 115,000, also releasing the book Children and making known for the first time that universal domination was the great issue, the Watch Tower Society's president, now 72, progressively failed in health. a Finally, on January 8, 1942, J. F. Rutherford died, having served in the office of
in mind to DO THIS ONE THING, to declare the name of Jehovah and his kingdom, to keep covenant with Him, and to look well to the interests of his brethren."b
Thus ended the energetic earthly ministerial career of an uncompromising fighter for righteousness. Vigorous and extensive was Brother Ruth-
president of the Society for twenty-five years and two days. Following is an excerpt from the Watch tower announcement, under the title "A Faithful Witness":
"To ALL LOVERS OF THE THEOCRACY: On January 8,1942, our beloved brother, J. F. Ruthererford's unselfish contribution toward the upbuilding of the New World theo cratic society. Still today he lives the memory of scores of thousands.
The transition to a new administration headed by the Society's third president was
quick, smooth and without friction.
This was entirely different from the experience of 1916 at the death of C.T.Russell,the Society's first president, when there was an interval of nearly ten weeks before J.F.Rutherford was elected as the second president.The February 15,1942, Watchtower, under the heading "United Servants," reports the corporational changes as to officers.
"On the afternoon of January 13, 1942, the full membership of the two boards convened in the parlor at the Brooklyn Bethel home. Nathan H. Knorr, who at the last general election at Pittsburgh was elected vice-president, had requested several days before that the members of the boards make it a point to earnestly seek divine wisdom by prayer and meditation, that they might be guided aright; and this they did. The joint meeting opened with prayer, especially requesting that Jehovah God might grant wisdom in the choice of such servants as He desired to represent him in a legal way under the organizations. After due and careful consideration the following brethren were respectively nominated and unanimously elected, namely, Nathan H. Knorr, as president, and Hayden C. Covington, as vice-president, of the two corporations.c Later that same day, at a gathering of the Bethel family at Brooklyn, the results of the election were announced by the secretary of the board of directors, and met with an enthusiastic response."d
From many parts of the world letters and cablegrams were received, expressing
delight in the choice of Brother Knorr as the Society's new president.
Even during dark days of World War II in 1942 there opened up in a small way a program of "building" and "planting" within the theocratic ministerial organization. This was destined to make the New World society in "Beulah" land blossom forth in paradisaic beauty and prosperity as never before. At the New World Theocratic Assembly at Cleveland, Ohio, September 18-20, 1942, there was introduced to Jehovah's witnesses the new president of the Society, Nathan Homer Knorr. Fifty-one other convention cities were tied in with the key assembly at Cleveland to hear the outstanding addresses, the principal one being the public talk on "Peace—Can It Last?" by President Knorr to a total audience of 129,699. Thirty-three other conventions outside the United States convened about this same time. At this significant convention a "go ahead" signal was given, and from Revelation 17:8-18 it was made clear that the dead League of Nations would be revived after the war, after which there would be a limited peace, allowing for a greatly expanded preaching activity. The new book The New World and the Society's No. 10 Bible of the King James Version were released to spark off a new educational campaign. e
A brief biographical sketch of the Society's third president shows that Nathan Homer Knorr was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1905, of American-born parents. He graduated from Allentown (Pennsylvania) High School in June, 1923. At 16 he became associated with the Allentown Congregation of Jehovah's witnesses, having resigned membership in the Reformed Church. In 1923, at 18, he became a full-time preacher, at which time he had been invited to become a member of the headquarters staff of the Society at Brooklyn Bethel.
There he made rapid progress in his ministerial training and later traveled week ends giving Bible lectures to congregations within two hundred miles of Brooklyn. In course of time he was assigned as co-ordinator of all printing activities in the Society's plant, in 1932 becoming general manager of the publishing office and plant. He was elected in 1934 as one of the directors of the Society's New York corporation (now Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc.) and in 1940 he was made a director and chosen as vice-president of the Pennsylvania corporation, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. His election to the presidency of both American societies and of the British corporation, International Bible Students Association, came in January, 1942. In February, 1943, he became president of the newly founded Watchtower Bible School of Gilead at South Lansing, New York. He also directs the activities of the Society's radio station WBBR, Brooklyn, supervises administration of the Society's affairs in all parts of the earth, and is a global traveler. He is the Society's chief speaker at all international assemblies. Likewise he supervises the Society's extensive editorial work and directs the foreign missionary activities of the witnesses. He resides along with his wife at the Brooklyn Bethel, 124 Columbia Heights. f
Seeing the urgent need for greater ministerial training of all the Society's ministers, the Society's new president together with his new staff of administrative associates set about to design a long-range program of theocratic education. (Eph. 4: 12, NW) The first stage of the program was revealed on Monday, February 16,
1942, at which time an evening school was opened at Bethel, offering an "Advanced Course in Theocratic Ministry." Enrollment was open to only male members of the Society's headquarters staff. The school met once a week, Monday evenings. For the first period they met in the auditorium where a lecture was delivered to the entire school enrollment. The Bethel sisters were also invited to attend. Next there followed a brief recess allowing the audience to divide as several classroom groups. During this second period classroom student talks were given on Biblical subjects under the tutorship of trained classroom counselors. Courses in speaking and general Bible studies were offered uniformly in the progressive program carried out at this Bethel school. Remarkable improvement in lecture presentations became apparent immediately when employing all the latest technique of extemporaneous speaking in public. There was also perceptible improvement in the house-to-house preaching by both male and female members of the Bethel family. Here was manifested Jehovah's blessing upon this new program. The Bethel school has been in operation for over thirteen years, aiding hundreds of young ministers to improve their Bible knowledge and their speaking ability. h
The Bethel school's having become such a success prompted the Society to embark on the next step of its new educational program, that of establishing a ministerial school of higher learning to train foreign missionaries and foreign ministerial representatives. The Society's premises at the Brooklyn Bethel were inadequate for operation of such a proposed educational institution. Fortunately, however, since 1935 the Watch Tower Society had been owning and operating a large 800-acre tract known as Kingdom Farm, where foodstuffs were being raised principally for the Brooklyn Bethel family.
(By 1955 a permanent farm-family staff of about 50 had volunteered their services to operate this large project.) Kingdom Farm is beautifully located,255 miles northwest of New York city, in the Finger Lakes section of New York state near the city of Ithaca, site of famous Cornell University. In the course of years several buildings had been constructed on this land, including the large brick administration building completed in 1941, which was named "Gilead," meaning "heap of witness." Here was the ideal location for the establishment of a Bible school, which the board of directors
approved in September, 1942. Immediately a faculty of four ordained ministers of the Bethel staff was appointed to proceed to design a course of study, to work up lectures, to search out suitable textbooks, to gather together a small library of 800 books of vital Biblical reference works and to proceed to formulate a college schedule of classes. Structural adjustments were made in the existing buildings to provide for classrooms, an auditorium, a dining hall and sleeping quarters. Provisions were made for a school term of five months with a hundred students registered, housed and fed for a given term. i
1 1943 Yearbook, pp. 25-27.
(To be continued)
JESUIT IMPLIES HIERARCHY BLAME
WITHOUT a question of doubt the Roman Catholic Church has been and is the most outspoken in denouncing communism as a threat to religion. Roman Catholic prelates from the pope down and Roman Catholic politicians from Senator McCarthy up are continually being quoted in this regard.
However, time and again the Watch Tower publications have put the blame for communism in such predominantly Roman Catholic lands as Poland, Italy and France squarely on the shoulders of the Roman Catholic Church. And time and again Roman Catholic apologists, such as Our Sunday Visitor, have argued that this was unjust. To prove their point they have cited Ireland, Portugal and Spain as examples of Roman Catholic countries where communism does not prevail, overlooking the fact, however, that in such lands communism has been kept down only by resorting to communistic methods of circumscribing liberty.
It is interesting, therefore, to note what the seniors of the Roman Catholic University of Fordham were told on June 5,1955, by the associate editor of the Jesuit weekly, America, Vincent J. Kearney, as to how communism can be defeated: "The success or failure of the enemies of God and country, of the world which we know, will be determined by the way Christians not only live their Christianity but apply it to modern society." He further stated that communism "will not disappear, only by denouncing it," its final defeat can come about only when "we begin practicing Christian social principles that counteract the evils on which communism thrives."
Since according to V. J. Kearney communism thrives where Christian principles are not applied to social problems, and it is in preponderantly Roman Catholic Poland, Italy and France where communism has thrived, what conclusion can one draw?
The Swing to Religion
Beer-making concerns do not in every case sponsor baseball games over the radio. At Yuma, Arizona, radio station KOLD has sold sponsorship of a baseball game, played by the local team of the Arizona-Mexico League, to an Episcopal church. Between innings the baseball game swings to religion: the minister does a commercial and the baseball fans are invited to attend his church.
Pursuing my Purpose in Life
As told by Hazel O. Burford
AVE you ever wanted something so intensely that every fiber of your being seemed to crave it? And then, how superbly happy you became when you attained it! You know now what pioneering has meant to me. From the time that I made my dedication at the age of fourteen I have wanted to do just what I then vowed to do—give all time, strength, energy to studying and then to helping others learn the truths that so delight me. To me, obeying Romans 12:1 meant fulltime service; so my high-school years were not completely happy ones.
Came graduation, but not a realization of my dream. My parents, not dedicated, never opposed me in making or fulfilling my dedication. They felt they gave me an education. Now it was up to me to make my own way. Accordingly, I turned to my second love, nursing. For training I entered Children's Hospital in Denver, Colorado, September 1, 1925. That work I enjoyed tremendously. But here came a new peril to the pursuing of my purpose in life:
On duty ten hours out of each twenty-four, besides our class periods and studying, meant my attendance at meetings and time in service were very irregular, finally tapering off as cares of this life crowded out production of Kingdom fruit. Zeal had cooled. Some excellent Scriptural counsel then was given me by one of the members
of the Denver congregation. Ashamed, I reluctantly agreed to meet the group for service the following Saturday afternoon. I went; but no one else came. My reluctance gradually gave way to eagerness. If only someone would come; I wanted to go in the service. After an hour's wait, a cold terror began to grip me as my conscience condemned me. I had been so negligent—Jehovah had turned His back on me! Returning to my room at the nurses' home, I threw myself on my knees, pleading forgiveness and another opportunity to serve. After some time, calmness returned as I determined to do my best from that point on and to leave the outcome with a merciful and loving God.
The intervening years have abundantly proved that only as I do my best to perform the obligation to pursue my purpose in life will I have peace of mind and contentment.
In the fall of 1929, as the depression began, I graduated from nursing school. Some thirty other graduates had priority over me and cases were few and far between, and those only the least desirable ones. Next January (1930), through help of a family friend, I was accepted for work with one of the best and busiest surgeons in the West. Pay excellent, raise every six months, hours of work regular-enabling me to attend all meetings and go in service every week end. What more could I ask for?
Full-time service was my goal! But I discovered that even among some of the dedicated I was considered a fanatic for considering such a thing. I knew I had dedicated to give all and principally myself and I could not be satisfied with less.
Announcement of the international convention in Columbus, Ohio, in July, 1931 next confronted me. Summer is the year's busiest time in Colorado. In the doctor's office no one took vacation from May through November; so the convention for me was out.
However, never having attended any large assembly, as the time neared my desire to be there became almost irresistible. I had about a thousand dollars saved, so the first of June I quit my job and sent in my application for pioneer service, planning to attend the convention, find a partner and go on pursuing my purpose in life: full-time service.
The convention was grander than I had ever dreamed—a marvelous springboard to launch me on my chosen career. Next came finding a partner. I looked for someone with a car but soon saw all other prospective pioneers were doing that; so the bulk of my savings I took to buy a car. Then, leaning heavily on Jehovah's promise to provide if we seek first the Kingdom, another young girl and I went to Texas to work. She also had never pioneered.
By the trial-and-error method we learned, and it was lots of fun. We had territory in east Texas, near Gladewater's new oil field, where depression had not yet arrived. Our placements were quite good, but not enough to rent our furnished room. So we pooled our meager resources, bought a tent and other camping gear, and "took to the woods." Excellent during bright autumn weather! We saved on gas and traveling time, camping wherever our work ended one day or began the next. But coming of winter rains, occasional sleet and snow, compelled us to have more shelter; so we rented one-room shanties that farmers maintain for their cotton-field workers. Luxurious? No, not exactly; but with water to carry, wood to cut, cooking over an open fireplace, it was exhilarating to face and surmount each problem, with the satisfaction of having "done as thou hast commanded me" and of having helped still others to learn the way to life. Constant rains and almost impassable roads
traversed by us in our endeavor to reach every house in our territory contributed toward our success. Oil-field workers, loggers and farmers daily helped us out of one mudhole after another. Always they wanted to know just why two lone young women had to get to that house on such a road in such weather. So we had many opportunities to witness while sitting on the end of a pry pole or chucking rocks under the wheel thus lifted from its bed of slime. It was hard on the car and on us, but at the end of each such day deep sleep of contentment was ours.
In the spring my partner married and her husband's sister became my partner; so the four of us worked together. Since there was no back-call or home-study work in those days, we had completed our assignment by May and set out for the Panhandle to work en route to summer territory in my native Colorado. But a month after arriving there my original partner and her husband left the pioneer work for a while and his sister and I continued alone for the next five years. As a baby she had had polio and was too badly crippled to do many of the physical tasks necessary in isolated territory; so my manual labor share was heavier in chores such as tire changing, car greasing, etc., but she was excellent as a Bible student, very mature spiritually, a real help to me. Her brother and his wife made us a trailer, which enabled us to continue in very difficult territory. We learned the difference between getting by with necessary things and having the things we thought were necessary.
But my zealous little partner's afflicted body could not keep up with the willing spirit, and in the spring of 1937 she had to give up full-time service.
Pursuing my purpose in life, I continued pioneering with a family from Oregon, with their generous assistance moving with them to Kentucky to work and gain enough to attend the Columbus, Ohio, convention that summer.
That was a real feast to me after the years in isolated territory. Also I found a veteran pioneer sister to work with. Alabama cotton plantations proved much easier to work than Texas ranches, and placements were good, enabling me to make a trip home to visit my invalid father whom I had not seen in nearly eight years. From my home congregation a young sister joined me who had been wanting to pioneer but just needed a little help to break loose. For several years we worked together in the South and since then she has graduated from Gilead and now is serving as a missionary in El Salvador.
In 1941, when working isolated territory in western Kentucky, we attended the zone (now circuit) assembly at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. While preparing the evening meal in the cafeteria I was called to answer a long-distance telephone call offering me the privilege of helping to nurse Brother Rutherford, then very ill in a hospital in Elkhart, Indiana. Shocked by news of his illness, overwhelmed by tremendous responsibility I would be expected to shoulder, my first reaction was to refuse; but, ever fearful of refusing an assignment for fear another would not be given, I prayerfully accepted. At once I left the assembly headquarters and made the necessary preparations for my new duties, upon which I entered thirty-six hours later when I entered the sick room of our stricken brother. A week later I was privileged to accompany Brother Rutherford and his party to California, where we lived in Beth-Sarim, the "House of the Princes," for the next eight weeks until his death January 8, 1942. Had I not been a pioneer that unusual and precious service would
not have been mine, as all his associates and helpers were from ranks of full-time workers.
From California I returned directly to my former group in Somerset, Kentucky. Here we met real opposition, were repeatedly arrested and spent some time in jail; but, as a consequence, a decision in our favor finally was secured in a high court of Kentucky that ever since has kept the way for work there open.
In theocratic history 1943 is outstanding for the opening of Gilead. To my inexpressible joy I was called for the second class to matriculate in September. That summer I visited my widowed mother, accompanying her to the district assembly in Denver. My cup of joy was really brimming as I witnessed her immersion. Then to Gilead for five months of the purest joy I have ever experienced.
The next year was a real battle for me. I yearned so desperately for that New World atmosphere of Gilead that I came very close to being discontented with my assignment in Perth Amboy, New Jersey; but by compelling myself to go ahead pursuing my purpose in life I finally conquered and began really to enjoy the service again.
Then came word that four of us were to work in Panama. The steaming tropics! I would not survive long in that heat, I first began thinking. But other humans like me had lived there for generations, I assured myself, so why couldn't I work there? Nine years of missionary service here on the Isthmus of Panama have proved the falsity of my misgivings. On my arrival December 28,1945, another truth was borne in on my consciousness: That my family, my people, are everywhere in the world and as a missionary one need never be homesick or lonesome. Bright and early the morning after our arrival, one of the publishers from the other side of the Isthmus was at the door to take us in his car to our assignment in Colon on the Atlantic side.
Although his skin was many shades darker than ours, he had that radiant Kingdom smile, the same loving consideration and desire to serve as our brothers right there in Bethel. From that first morning of our acquaintance on through the more than four years of our working together, he and our other brothers and sisters never were too busy or too tired to help us with any problem in our new home. They were so eager for help in doing the work and so co-operative that in that period of time we rejoiced to see the tiny group of some fifteen publishers grow into a well-organized congregation of close to a hundred. After working there about two years it was thought advisable to form a Spanish-speaking congregation, and, although my Spanish was still very poor, I was privileged to work with the congregation from its formation and even serve as a servant in it.
With the congregations in the Canal Zone's terminal cities functioning smoothly the Society determined to help the people of good will in Panama's "Interior"; so in 1950 I was one of the four chosen to move out to Chitre. Here we definitely began to realize the import of the miracle worked by
Jehovah at the Tower of Babel as we struggled to put our precious Kingdom message into understandable Spanish. Ever since our basic training at Gilead, we had consistently studied and we could read quite well, but we now discovered our usage of the language was entirely inadequate for the many situations we were meeting. After about a year a congregation was organized, we four sisters occupying places as servants; and when, in December, 1952, we were called into Panama City we were able to leave in Chitre a group of eight publishers, with native brothers trained for the servants' positions. Under Jehovah's blessing by now the congregation at Chitre has about doubled.
In May, 1954, a congregation was organized in the Canal Zone itself, eight publishers first reporting; twelve months later, twenty. Jehovah's blessing is making us all rich and strong spiritually. In many sections all day long we work amid squalor and filth of overcrowded tenements. At night we come home to a clean, comfortable missionary home maintained by the Society, our brothers. So these last twenty-three years I now see have been very well spent pursuing my purpose in life, and I hope to continue in full-time service forever in whatever assignment Jehovah may graciously give me.
To Start Action
The pastor at the First Methodist church in Cordele, Georgia, announced not long ago that the offering plates on a special Sunday would be filled with one dollar bills. The Sunday came. Each person present was asked to take out one one-dollar bill from the offering plates as they were passed among the parishioners. "Our people are faithful and loyal in their offerings to the church," explained the pastor, "and we like the idea of the church giving an offering to the people so that they might in turn invest this offering for Christ and his church." Observers could not help thinking of a rather apt illustration: pouring water into a pump to start action.
Qualified to be Ministers
"Our being adequately qualified issues from God, who has indeed adequately qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant." 2 Cor. 3:5, 6, NW.
IN THIS age of materialism and of spreading communism mankind stands in great need of adequately qualified ministers. In itself, being adequately qualified means being suitable, being fit, having what is necessary for the ministry, being equal to the requirements of the ministry, in order to carry it out successfully and produce the results desired, namely, other real Christians able to meet the tests of the day, overcome all the faith-destroying, morals-corrupting influences, keep on imitating Christ and gain the approval of God for eternal life in the new world.
2 Unless a person is ordained by God and has been sent out by him to carry on the ministry or service, he can never be an adequately qualified minister. Take the apostle Paul, for example; to begin with, he was named Saul of the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor, a Hebrew of Hebrew parentage, a Jew belonging to the nation of Israel that Jehovah God had chosen for his special people. He was a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a member of the sect of the Pharisees, zealously trying to live up to the righteous standards of God's law
through Moses, but thinking he had to persecute the newly begun Christian congregation in order to do so. From the Jewish standpoint Saul was blameless. As a student of the Mosaic law he attended school in Jerusalem and sat at the feet of the noted lawyer Gamaliel. Trying to have the law of Moses pronounce him righteous, Saul of Tarsus was trying to live under the old covenant that Jehovah God had made with the Israelites at Mount Sinai in Arabia. (Phil. 3:3-6, NW; Acts 22:1-5) Manifestly at that time Saul wanted to be a minister of God, a minister of His old law covenant with Israel, but did all these things adequately qualify Saul or make him suitable, fit, for God's ministry? No! Why not?
Because Jehovah had abolished the old covenant with its Mosaic law and had begun a new covenant with the people of his choice. The old law covenant had had Moses as its mediator. It had its priesthood of the family of Aaron and its temple servants of the tribe of Levi. It had its material temple at Jerusalem and its animal sacrifices. It had its law, the Ten Commandments of which had been written by the "finger of God" upon two stone tablets. It put Jehovah God in covenant relationship with the twelve tribes of Israel, with whom there was associated a great crowd of non-Israelite sojourners or temporary residents.
But that law was pictorial of greater arrangements by God; it foreshadowed good things to come. After 1,545 years of operation it had grown old and was due to be taken away when Christ died, was resurrected, ascended to heaven and appeared in God's presence with the value of his human sacrifice. So on the day of Pentecost, A.D. 33, Jehovah God inaugurated the new covenant through Jesus Christ as his Mediator. Jehovah had already sworn by an oath in his own name that Jesus should be a priest like Melchizedek king of Salem, and he now made this Melchizedekian priest Jesus Christ the High Priest of the new covenant.
4 The Christians on earth who accepted Jesus as their Mediator and High Priest were brought into this new covenant, their sins were forgiven them according to the terms of the new covenant, and they were made the people of the covenant, the spiritual "Israel of God." They became the people of Jehovah, who were to know him "from the least of them unto the greatest of them," and they bore his name. Faith in Jesus Christ rather than circumcision in the flesh was now the sign of their righteousness. (Jer. 31:31-34, AS; Gal. 6:15, 16) They were made Jehovah's under priests, Jesus Christ their Mediator being their great High Priest, through whom they were to offer the sacrifices of praise and good works to God. So God was no longer qualifying ministers of the old law covenant, and the efforts of Saul of Tarsus to be a minister of that covenant proved him to be out of date. Jehovah God was now qualifying his ministers of the new covenant. Being a minister of God's new covenant meant being one of the under priests
of Jesus Christ the High Priest, one of the "royal priesthood" of Jehovah God. (Heb. 3:1;1 Pet.2:9; Rev.5:9,10) Saul's dependence upon his fleshly works and upon what he himself was in the flesh no longer counted. By none of these things could Saul adequately qualify himself as God's minister. Neither can any other man adequately qualify himself or qualify another man. But what we cannot do, God can do.
Now, as illustrated in the case of Saul of Tarsus, how does God qualify anyone adequately and put him into the Christian ministry? Saul's case shows there is hope for even persons who are now persecutors of Jehovah's people if they are honest and willing to be corrected, for Saul too was a bloodstained persecutor of the Christian "Israel of God." He needed God's mercy. In mercy God stopped him in order to put him into the ministry of the new covenant. Says Paul the apostle: "I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who delegated power to me, because he considered me trustworthy by assigning me to a ministry, although formerly I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man. Nevertheless, I was shown mercy, because I was ignorant and acted with a lack of faith. But the undeserved kindness of our Lord abounded exceedingly along with faith and love that is in connection with Christ Jesus. Trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance is the saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am foremost. Nevertheless, the reason why I was shown mercy was that by means of me as the foremost case Christ Jesus might demonstrate all his longsuffering for a sample of those who are going to rest their faith on him for everlasting life." (1 Tim. 1:12-16, NW) If anyone has been a persecutor of Jehovah's people and now realizes his error and gross sinfulness, let him take courage.
Look at Saul as a sample and have faith that you too can be shown mercy.
Remember that the perfect human sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the Mediator put the new covenant in force. This allowed for God to forgive sin and iniquity according to his express promise in that new covenant. So Jesus the glorified Mediator of that covenant stopped Saul the persecutor on the road to Damascus by blinding him and sent him into the city to await the coming of a faithful Christian whom Saul had been bent on persecuting, Ananias of Damascus. When Ananias came to Saul on his third day of blindness, he explained how Jehovah God was adequately qualifying Saul for the ministry of the new covenant. "He said: 'The God of our forefathers has chosen you to come to know his will and to see the righteous One and to hear the voice of his mouth, because you are to be a witness for him to all men of things you have seen and heard. And now why are you delaying? Rise, get baptized and wash your sins away by your calling upon his name.'" (Acts 22:14-16, NW) "And immediately there fell from his eyes what looked like scales, and he recovered sight, and he rose and was baptized," and he was "filled with holy spirit." (Acts 9:17, 18, NW) He washed his sins away in the cleansing blood of the Mediator of the new covenant by calling upon the name of the great Author of the new covenant, Jehovah God, who had covenanted to forgive iniquity and remember sin no more.—Heb. 9:14-26.
7 Saul, now baptized, forgiven and filled with holy spirit, felt adequately qualified and sent by God. Hence he at once took up
the ministry for which he had been made fit. Note how he proved qualified: "He got to be for some days with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately in the synagogues he began to preach Jesus, that this One is the Son of God. . . Saul kept on acquiring strength all the more and was confounding the Jews that dwelt in Damascus as he proved logically that this is the Christ." Because of a plot to kill him, "his disciples took him and let him down by night through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket." He then came down to Jerusalem and got to be introduced to the apostle Peter and Jesus' half-brother James. "And he continued with them, carrying on his daily life in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord, and he was talking and disputing with the Greek-speaking Jews. But these made attempts to do away with him." So the Christian brothers sent him back to his home town Tarsus.—Acts 9:19-30, NW.
STEPS TOWARD QUALIFICATION
No one can be adequately qualified to be a minister of God in his new covenant unless, like Saul, he has the light from God through Christ shine upon him, repents of his sinful course, accepts God's mercy, calls upon God's name as the Forgiver of sins to have his sins washed away in the blood of Jesus' sacrifice and gets baptized in water and thus shows faith and makes a public confession of that faith. The apostle Paul presses home these points to us when he discusses his qualifications for the ministry. He mentions the veil of unbelief that once blinded him and says:
9 "When there is a turning to Jehovah, the veil is taken away. Now Jehovah is the spirit; and where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom. And all of us, while we with unveiled faces reflect like mirrors the glory of Jehovah, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, exactly as done by Jehovah the spirit.
That is why, since we have this ministry according to the mercy that was shown us, we do not behave improperly, but we have renounced the underhanded things of which to be ashamed, not walking in craftiness neither adulterating the word of God, but by making the truth manifest recommending ourselves to every human conscience in the sight of God. . . . For we are preaching, not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. For God is he who said: 'Let the light shine out of darkness,' and he has shone on our hearts to illuminate them with the glorious knowledge of God by the face of Christ. However, we have this treasure [of the ministry] in earthen vessels, that the power beyond what is normal may be God's and not that out of ourselves. . . Now because we have the same spirit of faith as that of which it is written [Psalm 116:10], 'I exercised faith, therefore I spoke,' we, too, exercise faith and therefore we speak, knowing that he who raised Jesus up will raise us up also together with Jesus . . . Therefore we do not give up." —2 Cor. 3:16 to 4:16, NW.
10 Paul here referred to Moses the mediator of the old law covenant. Moses, because of communing with Jehovah's angel in Mount Sinai, became charged with a glory light, so that, on coming down from the mountain, "the skin of his face emitted rays" and he had to veil his face as long as he talked with the terrified Jews and until he returned to speak with Jehovah's angel. (Ex. 34:29-35, NW) Now the apostle Paul himself was reflecting like a mirror Jehovah's glory as it shone in the
face of Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant. Paul was being transformed into the same image from one degree of spiritual glory to another, exactly as done by Jehovah the spirit whom he was coming to know more and more.
11 Certainly as long as Paul was thus reflecting glory light and was being transformed, he could not behave improperly in his ministry. He could not walk in craftiness nor adulterate God's Word with any impurity. He had to renounce the underhanded things of which to be ashamed. By making the truth manifest in its purity he had to recommend himself to every human conscience in the sight of God. He could not veil anything from those to whom he preached as a minister of the new covenant. So if the good news that he declared was veiled, Paul was not to blame. Satan the Devil, the god of this system of things, had veiled it by blinding the minds of all who did not believe, "that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through." (2 Cor. 4:3, 4, NW) Veiling nothing, Paul could not be a commercial peddler of God's Word as the paid clergy of Christendom are. Paul had to speak sincerely the message with which God sent him. Knowing that he was "under God's view, in company with Christ," Paul had to "glorify my ministry," not degrade it.—2 Cor. 2:17 and Rom. 11:13, NW.
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