"They shall know that I am Jehovah?

-Ezekiel 35:15.

Unity and Peace ........................................

The One Visible Organization of Peace A Unitary Corporate Organization ......

Interdependence of Members ................

For International Unity..........................

The Common Objective............................

Persons Of Good-Will in Antityrical Jerusalem ..............

Asa in Action Against Religion............

Field Experiences......................................

“God’s Truthfulness”

Testimony Period................................

1947 Yearbook of Jehovah’s witnesses

1947 Calendar..............................................

“Watchtower” Studies ............................

Published Semimonthly By

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY 117 Adams Street -   - Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S.A

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N. H. Knorb, President        W. E. Van Amburgh, Secretary

“And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” - Isaiah 54:13.

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH is the only true God, from everlasting to everlasting, and Is the Maker of heaven and earth and Giver of life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning of his creation and his active agent in creating all other things; and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised the issue of His universal sovereignty;

THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for the earth and placed him upon It; that man yielded to unfaithful Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully disobeyed God’s law and was sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam’s wrong act all men are born sinners and without the right to life;

THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death In order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all power and authority as head of God’s new capital organization;

THAT GOD’S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION is a Theocracy called Zion, and that Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and is the rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed followers of Christ Jesus are Zion’s children, members of Jehovah’s organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privilege it is to testify to Jehovah’s supremacy and declare his purposes toward mankind as expressed In the Bible;

THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to vindicate His name and establish the “new earth”;

THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only by Jehovah’s kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His next great act is to destroy Satan’s organization and establish righteousness completely In the earth; and that under the Kingdom the people of good-will surviving Armageddon will carry out the divine mandate to “fill the earth” with righteous offspring, and that the human dead In the graves will be raised to opportunities of life on earth.

ITS MISSION

HIS journal Is published for the purpose of enabling the people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed in the Bible. It publishes Bible instruction specifically designed to aid Jehovah’s witnesses and all people of good-wiiL It arranges systematic Bible study for its readers and the Society supplies other literature to aid in such studies. It publishes suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means of public instruction in the Scriptures.

It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for its utterances. It is entirely free and separate from all religion, parties, sects or other worldly organizations. It is wholly and without reservation tor the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King. It is not dogmatic, but Invites careful and critical examination of Its contents in the light of the Scriptures. It does not Indulge In controversy, and its columns are not open to personalities.

Notice to Subscribers: 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 stated below in local currency. Notice of expiration (with renewal blank) is sent at least two issues before subscription expires. Change of address when sent to onr office may be expected effective within one month. Send your old as well as new address.

Please address the Watch Tower Society in every case.

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ALL SINCERE STUDENTS OP THE BIBLE who by reason of Infirmity, poverty or adversity are unable to pay the subscription price may have The Watchtower tree upon written application to the publishers, made once each year, stating the reason for so requesting it. We are .glad to thus aid the needy, but the written application once each year is required by the postal regulations.

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Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Brooklyn, N. F., under the Act of March S, 1879.

“GOD’S TRUTHFULNESS” TESTIMONY PERIOD

The Testimony Period during February, stressing God’s truthfulness, will catch up the four-month-long subscription campaign for The Watchtower and Awake! and will carry it forward through this midwinter month. Hence, the same as during the campaign’s initial month, January, all active readers of these magazines will keep on offering jointly the subscriptions for both of these magazines, together with the premium of two bound books (Watchtower publications), all at the regular rate for the two subscriptions, namely, two dollars. By determined efforts on the part of all having strong convictions concerning the truthful contents of The Watchtower and Awake! the subscription campaign will suffer no lag during this month of heavy winter up north, and we believe your field-service reports for February will show this. Many Watchtower readers will want to swell the ranks of the house-to-house subscription-takers, and so we say to all-those-who want to make a start during “God’s Truthfulness” Testimony Period: Write us at your earliest for all needed information and references.

1947 YEARBOOK OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

The first postwar year of action by the Lord’s kingdom publishers in more than fifty lands is reported on in the 1947 'Yearbook of Jehovah’s witnesses. This report was prepared by the president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. It discloses the growing magnitude of Jehovah’s visible organization and of the “strange work” he is accomplishing through it. Supplementing this interesting report is the president’s comment on the yeartext for 1947, together with a daily Bible text for the year’s 365 days and a comment thereon as taken from this past year’s issues of The Watchtower. The limited printing obliges us to post the contribution rate for this 1947 Yearbook at 50c a copy, mailed postpaid to you. All group units should combine the orders of their members and forward same here through the appointed servant, to bring about economies of time and expense at this end.

1947 CALENDAR

The yeartext for 1947 is “Oh praise Jehovah, all ye nations”. (Ps. 117:1, Am. Stan. Ver.) The Society’s new calendar features this over a composite three-color picture that differentiates it from any previous calendar and shows the tangible agencies that will be used for time to come in extending the call of the yeartext to earth’s many nations. The calendar date-pad beneath is a real service reminder, designating the six testimony periods and the special objectives of the alternate months. The contribution is 25c a calendar, mailed postpaid, or $1.00 for five copies to one address.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of February 2: “Unity and Peace,” fl 1-20 inclusive, The Watchtower January 1, 1947.

Week of February 9: “Unity and Peace,” fl 21-40 inclusive, The Watchtower January 1, 1947.

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM

Vol. LXVIII                            January 1, 1947                                   No. 1

UNITY AND PEACE

“Keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.”—Eph. 4: 3.

JEHOVAH is the great Unifier and Peacemaker. He is the Father of “The Prince of Peace”. He gave mankind a natural basis for being united and at peace with one another, and that is that they are all of one flesh and blood. Jehovah God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth”. (Acts 17:26) This natural basis for human harmony and oneness as of one human family was upset when selfishness entered and led to disobedience to Him the Creator, which disobedience is sin.

• ² The first man, Adam, was created a “son of God”. (Luke 3: 38) Had he and his wife Eve kept on in an obedient childlike relationship with their Creator, their children would naturally have been born as children of God, and in righteousness and perfection. Continuing as such, men would have loved one another and consequently been at peace with one another as in one amiable family circle. Moreover, their earthly parent Adam, as the head of the human household, would have taught them all the love of God and the worship of God. This perfect human family would thus have been all united around the worship of the one true and living God, and. such common worship and love of God would have barred out all division, confusion and discord with one another. The rule would have applied to them as much as it now applies to God’s spiritual family: “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” (1 John 4:20,21) But Adam and Eve let themselves be turned from the love of God by his great adversary, Satan the Devil. Thereupon peace left the earth.

• ³ What was essential for humanity’s unity and peace back at the start of our race remains true in this the sixtieth century since then. The simplicity

• 1. What basis for unity and harmony did God first give humankind? and how was it upset?           •

• 2. Around what would the perfect human family have been united? and what rule of love would have applied?

• 3. (a) What is the essential basic principle for an undivided, peaceful new world? (b) What has acted as a divisive force, and who confesses to that fact? of this truth should not make us scoff at it as too elementary and as not on a level with this highly educated, far-advanced, worldly-wise twentieth century of the so-called “age of brains”. The harmonious worship of the one living and true God, whom all the scriptures proclaim to be Jehovah, is the basic principle for an undivided, peaceful new world. Religion, or “more religion” than what this earth has had for the past six thousand years, will not pacify the peoples and nations and bring mankind into unity with God, the one Source of life. The part that religion has played in keeping men apart from one another is owned up to by all honest thinkers. And now comes the noted clergyman the minister emeritus of the Riverside church in New York city and publicly admits the same thing. Incidentally he shows up the difference between religion and Christianity, which is the worship of God as Christ Jesus taught it. Sunday, September 29, 1946, this clergyman addressed a sermon to an overflow’ congregation ; and, to quote from the report of his sermon in the New York Times of the next morning:

“Asserting that ‘Christianity’s hope now^T depends on presenting to the world the universal profundities of the Gospel,’ Dr. Fosdick said that religion today, ‘which ought to unite humankind, divides mankind instead and helps to increase the world’s confusion.’ ” “Referring to recent riots in India, he said: ‘The wmrld is certainly a mess and what helps to make it a mess is not simply politics, nationalism, imperialism and all the ungodly forces that divide us, but alas, religion.’”—New York Times, September 30, 1946.

‘ The truth of what this religious clergyman says is so obvious that other clergy, Protestant, Jewish and Catholic, dare not deny it. Everywhere, by the conditions inside and outside of Christendom, the truth stands demonstrated that Jehovah God, the almighty Peacemaker, has removed his peace from this messed-up world and its organization of politics, commerce and religion. Is he, then, to be charged with its wars, tribulations and woes upon the people ?

• 4. If God has removed his peace from this world, why Is he not responsible for its wars, tribulations and woes on mankind?

No; but Satan the Devil, who is “the god of this world”, is the one chargeable. As many times published in this magazine, The Watchtower, backed with Scriptural and factual proof, God’s kingdom by his anointed King Christ Jesus was brought to birth in the heavens A.D. 1914. War ensued up there against the opposers of the newborn Theocratic Government. In the outcome of that war beginning A.D. 1914, Satan and his invisible demon hosts were worsted and they were, so to speak, “cast out into the earth” and have been restrained thenceforth down to this earth’s vicinity. Therefore a voice sounded out in heaven, saying, according to the prophetic account at Revelation 12:10-12: “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. . . . Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” That shows this world does not have God’s protection against woes from Satan.

• ⁵ Till this cast-down Satan the Demi is bound by Jehovah’s King Christ Jesus for the thousand years of his reign there will be no unity and peace among mankind in general, regardless of how feverishly the politicians, big business men, militarists, social reformers and religious clergymen plan and scheme together. Satan the Devil is not just interested in driving mankind farther and farther away from Jehovah God and his King Jesus Christ by embittering them with woeful sufferings. He is also desperately anxious to break up the peace and unity of Christ’s brethren on earth whom he has continuously accused falsely before God in heaven day and night. His accusation against them has been that none of Christ’s brethren on earth would keep their integrity toward God and hold fast to God’s universal sovereignty and kingdom by the time that Satan the Devil got through tempting and persecuting them. This accusation has, of course, been proved false by the faithful practicers of Christianity, because, as Revelation 12:11 says, “they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb [Christ Jesus], and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

THE ONE VISIBLE ORGANIZATION OF PEACE

• ⁶ There is only one visible organization on earth where peace and unity should and must exist, and where they do exist, and it is the organization of

• 5. What is Satan now interested in doing? and how have Christians proved him a false accuser?

• 6. What is the one visible organization of unity and peace? and why does it need God’s protection and preservation?

Christ’s falsely accused brethren. They stick to the fact that they were bought by the blood of Christ Jesus and are no longer their own, and therefore they are obligated to serve God, who thus bought them, and not serve men of this world. They publicly give their word of testimony; and, by thus bearing witness, they are the witnesses of Jehovah God in behalf of his Son Jesus Christ, the Lamb. They do not care if this course of action costs them their human lives. They do not let Satan’s terrorism make them surrender to his world organization by denying Jesus’ blood and by silencing their testimony as Jehovah’s witnesses. They cling fast to God’s Theocratic organization, which is His woman and their mother. Hence Satan, God’s enemy, wars upon such children of God’s woman; as we read: “And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child [the new Government]. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 12:13,17) Whereas Almighty God does not protect this world against the malicious Devil, he does protect and preserve the organization of the faithful remnant of the brethren of Christ against the warlike attacks of Satan the Devil.

• ⁷ Under the driving force of fear of the things threatening to come upon the earth the political, commercial and religious leaders are working anxiously for the unity and peace of the world. If we peep behind the visible scene by means of the revealing Word of God, we see also the Devil and his demons, who know they have but a short time left, gathering all nations and their rulers into a united opposition to God’s kingdom by his Son. They have no peaceable feelings toward that kingdom, but are bent upon a showdown fight against it at the field of Armageddon. (Rev. 16:14-16) Faced with such united world opposition to God’s kingdom, and under the stress of the war which the Dragon, the Devil, is malting upon them, the faithful remnant of Christ’s brethren need to look very carefully to peace and unity within their own ranks. For certain the wily adversary is bent on disturbing the visible organization of God’s remnant. Since God prevented him from destroying the remnant in this last global war, he now tries to break up the organization and thus hinder them from together keeping God’s commandments and together holding forth the testimony to God’s name and kingdom, which testimony Jesus Christ now commits to them to hold forth.

• ⁸ In an effort to weaken and break down the

• 7. In view of world developments, why do the remnant need to look carefully to peace and unity within their own ranks’’

• 8. In an effort to weaken and break down the organization how does Satan now use certain professed Christians ? organization Satan causes certain professed Christians to get filled with a spirit of independent thought and action. He raises these up to publish and declare that Jehovah God has no recognizable united, compact organization of his people upon the earth, which organization He uses as his chosen servant and through which he feeds his people with spiritual truth and sends them instructions as to how they may jointly serve Him with a combined effectiveness. The persons with such anti-organization ideas say that for us to hold to God’s organization of His servants is “channelism”. Such persons argue in favor of making God’s consecrated people loose, insubordinate to all organization, subject to their own decisions as to how to serve God, and left foot-loose to wander hither and yon seeking spiritual food wherever they think they see it, from indiscriminate sources or channels, themselves to be the judges as to whether it is truth or not and “meat in due season”. They argue that they themselves are individual channels of divine truth as much as anybody else or any organization; that they are specially chosen of God as individual purveyors to provide the present truth. They say that the channel they once recognized has denied the Lord and his voice is no longer heard in or through it, and hence God’s consecrated servants should break loose and look to new channels, themselves.

• ⁹ The intent of all that is to disjoint all members of God’s organization and make them fly apart, to depend upon direct individual leadings of the Lord God with no organization to bind them together as brethren, as members of God’s family with one standard of faith, hope and action. Thus disconnected from all organization, they become easy marks for the adversary and his hosts to pick off one by one and to shoot down with his fiery darts. All who care for their own spiritual safety will resist such disruptive arguments of men who seek to draw away disciples after themselves. They will keep their vision of Jehovah’s Theocratic organization clear and unblurred and will preserve their unity with it.

• ¹⁰ All mankind are one human family. They are like one big human organism, of one flesh and blood. Naturally what hurts one member hurts them all, and neglect or oppression toward one member leads to injury of-the whole corporate humanity at last. Man’s failure to appreciate this fact is reaping frightful consequences today. Quite aptly, then, the apostle Paul compares the congregation of Christ’s followers to a perfect human body. He does so in order to illustrate that there must be unity between

• 9. What is the intent of all such? and what will those careful for their own spiritual safety do about it?

• 10. By comparing the Christian congregation to the human body, what does the apostle show as regards organization? this body of Christians under Jesus Christ their Head. In likening this body of Christians to the most wonderful organization known to man, namely, the human organism, the apostle shows that Jehovah God has a visible organization and that his consecrated people under Jesus Christ the Head must be that visible organization. Let the opposers and the self-governing independents call this “channelism”, if they will, but the Bible shows that Jehovah God anointed this body of Christ, and it alone, with his holy spirit. By it he carries on his work in the earth. Upon it, and it alone, he bestowed his gifts of the spirit through Jesus Christ. In support of this truth we have but to consider the apostle’s argument in his several letters to the organized Christian congregations of his day.

• ¹¹ Paul founded the congregation at Corinth. Writing it, he says: “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that when ye were Gentiles ye were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye mig'ht be led.” (1 Cor. 12:1,2, Am. Stan. Ver.) Jehovah God did not use those speechless idols as channels to convey spiritual gifts. Those images had no power to speak or see or teach and could not give any spiritual gifts of speaking out truths or prophecies or foreign languages, to the ignorant pagans that worshiped them. God gives the spirit and spiritual gifts through Jesus Christ. “Wherefore I make known unto you, that no man speaking in the spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema; and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the holy spirit.” (Verse 3) The spirit or active force of God does not operate contradictorily and contrary to itself. It does not cause one man to say that Jesus is accursed and another man to say Jesus is the Lord and Master. Any spirit or active force that causes any person to say a curse upon Jesus must, therefore, be of God’s adversary, the Devil, for God’s spirit is one and is at agreement with itself. It is holy, and therefore it causes Christians to confess God’s holy Son Jesus as the Lord who bought them with his precious blood of human sacrifice. That spirit of God promotes and preserves unity among all those upon whom it operates.

• ¹² But, you may ask, if it is one spirit or active force coming from Jehovah God and through his one channel, Jesus Christ, why is it, then, that Christians do different works? Why would they not all be equal to one and the same work by the spirit of God? The apostle replies: “Now there are varieties of gracious gifts, but the same spirit; and there are varieties of services, and the same Lord, and there are varieties

• 11. How does Paul show the former worshipers of dumb idols that God’s spirit is not self-contradicting?

• 12. What varieties of operations does Paul next describe, but by what does he say all are done ? of workings, and the same God is he who works all things among all. And to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the benefit of all. For to one is given, through the spirit, a word of wisdom; and to another, a word of knowledge, according'to the same spirit; and to another, faith by the same spirit; and to another, gifts of cures by the same spirit. And to another, operations of mighty works; and to another, prophecy; and to another, discriminations of spirits; and to another, different languages ; and to another, interpretation of languages.” —1 Cor. 12:4-10, The Emphatic Diaglott.

¹⁸ The varieties of spiritual gifts and powers bestowed upon various Christians do not argue against there being just the one God over all of them, and one Lord Jesus as his appointed Head over them, and one and the same spirit or active force from the one divine Source. The fact that all Christians did not speak with miraculous gifts of foreign languages does not mean that those lacking the gifts of tongues were lacking God’s spirit. The gift of tongues was not the one exclusive test to prove they were accepted with God and were accepted with his Christ and had the spirit of God. And the fact that God’s consecrated witnesses of today do not miraculously speak and preach -with foreign tongues does not, therefore, mean that Jehovah God’s spirit has not been poured out upon them in these last days. (Joel 2:28,29) Those gifts of tongues and of healings were especially bestowed by and through the twelve apostles and passed away with their death. (Acts 8:14-20; 10: 44-47; 19: 6; Rom. 1:11) But the spirit or active force of God is capable of a great variety of manifestations in harmony with God’s holy purpose. Hence varied manifestations of the spirit are not meant to counteract one another and produce disunity and friction. They are meant to be for the profit of all Christians who have been anointed with this one and the same spirit of Jehovah God.

¹⁴ It is not the individual Christian that makes the choice of a particular gift of the spirit. If it were left to each individual Christian to choose, there would likely be an overweight or preponderance of one kind of gift as against others, leading to an unbalance and to an artificial scarcity of other valuable gifts. It is Jehovah who governs those consecrated to him through Christ, and he determines what particular gifts shall be bestowed by his spirit or active force and upon whom. To this effect Paul says: “But all these things performs the one and the same spirit, distributing to each in particular as it will.”—1 Cor. 12:11, Diaglott.

• 13. Why is not the variety of gifts and powers a reason for disunity and friction?

• 14. Who determines’ the spiritual gifts to be bestowed? and why?

A UNITARY CORPORATE ORGANIZATION

• ¹⁵ God’s one corporate organization can be acted upon by the one spirit of the one God but •with varieties of manifestation through the active organization members. How so? The apostle illustrates. All these organization members are anointed with the one spirit of God. “Now he which establisheth us ■with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God,” writes Paul to his Corinthian brethren. (2 Cor. 1:21) The title Christ means Anointed One; and thus all these organization members under Christ Jesus their Head are members of the Christ company or congregation or body. Their anointing with God’s spirit is unto service, as the apostle has shown above. So, with this understanding, Paul continues his explanation, saying: “For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, many as they are, form one body, so it is with Christ. For we have all—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free men—been baptized in one spirit to form one body, and we have all been saturated [imbued] •with one spirit.”—1 Cor. 12:12,13, An Amer. Trans.

• ¹⁶ There is no more closely knit, compact and harmonious organization than the human body. The Christ company under Jesus their Head is like that body and is therefore a united organization. It must stay closely bound together and at peace with itself, so as to get the benefit of all the varied services of all its members. Differences of services rendered by the many members do not mean the organization is not one body under Jesus the Head; no more than the different performances by the different members of the human organism make it a disunited, shapeless, unidentifiable, inharmonious collection of different things. No; but the body is outfitted with various parts and members so as to be suited for life upon this earth •with dominion over the lower animal creatures. It is one soul, with one head, and with one life-force which is in the one blood-stream that feeds the whole body. Likewise with the organization of God’s anointed Christians under their Head Jesus; they are members many in number and with a variety of service and activity, but they have all been made to drink of one spirit, namely, the one holy active force that descends from the Power Plant, Jehovah God, and through their one capital member, Jesus Christ. Although they were, to start with, Jews and non-Jews, slavemen and free, male and female, they have all been imbued or saturated with this one spirit, because they are a unitary organization under one Head.

• ¹⁷ Difference and variety of service do not divide them, but the one spirit binds them together. All

• 15. By reason of their anointing what do these Christians compose? and unto what is their anointing?

• 16. Why is the Christ company like the human body?

• 17. For what common good and purpose are all services? services are for the benefit of all those of the organization, and for the carrying out of the one over-all purpose of the organization, namely, the service commission which was put upon Jesus, the Head of the organization, when he was anointed with God’s spirit, namely: “The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that he may be glorified.”—Isa. 61:1-3, Am. Stan. Ver.; quoted by Jesus Christ, at Luke 4:16-21.

INTERDEPENDENCE OF MEMBERS

• ¹⁶ In Christ’s body Jehovah God finds a usefulness and service for each and every member, and therefore he anoints each and every member with his holy spirit or active force. Mindful of this comforting fact, no member of the body will feel so inferior that, because he does not have a more outstanding and far-reaching part in God’s service, he will view himself as no part of the body of Christ. Because Paul, as an apostolic member of the governing body of the church, declared: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection,” and, “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence,” that does not mean that women devoted to God and anointed with his spirit are no part of Christ’s body nor given a certain service therein to render. (1 Tim. 2:11,12) To correct such a discouraging, divisive outlook the apostle further wrote, using the body to illustrate:

• ¹⁹ “If the foot says, ‘As I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,’ that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, 'As I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,’ that does not make it any less a part of the body. If all the body were eye, how would we hear ? If it were all ear, how could we have a sense of smell? As it is, God has arranged the parts, every one of them in the body as he wished-them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you,’ or the head to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’ ”—1 Cor. 12:14-21, An Amer. Trans.

• ²⁰ Here the apostle Paul was not likening Christ’s

• 18, 19. Why should no member feel so inferior as to think himself outside the body? and what illustration does Paul use?

• 20. Why was the apostle not likening the Christ to a body whose various parts existed separately during the successive centuries? body to an elongated body whose length stretched over centuries of time and whose distinct parts come into existence one after another during the successive centuries of time, with the shoulder members existing in the first century in the apostolic times, and the other members coming alive during the later centuries, with finally the feet members coming into existence in this century in the “time of the end”. Such a view would mean that in the first century the Lord’s Theocratic organization was all shoulders, and that down here in these “last days” the Lord’s organization is all feet. It would mean that the organization in the first century did get along as shoulders without the help of the rest of the body and ■without the feet. It would mean that in this time of the end the “feet” do get along without the upper members of the body, including the shoulders. To the contrary of such a view, the apostle says: “The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.”—Verse 21.

• ²¹ Manifestly, then, the apostle compares the Lord’s visible organization on earth, at any time that it exists, to a whole body having many members, with many forms of service accordingly, and with all members interdependent upon one another. Where there is interdependence of the members of an organization upon one another, there must be unity. Why? In order to work together for the benefit of the whole organization and all its members. Hence, not only should the organization of Jehovah God’s people throughout the world take to heart this illustration drawn by the apostle, but each local company and unit of Jehovah’s organized people should apply the illustration to itself. Take also the organization’s legal servant, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. It has now fifty-seven Branches outside the United States in different countries of the earth. So it is needful for the same principle of unity to govern all Branches and for all to keep at one with the central office and carry out instructions from headquarters in their respective countries or territories. Suppose we take the following example:

• ²² Paul and Barnabas had been out on foreign missionary service, and at the time were serving at their posts in Antioch of Syria. Certain divisive elements showed up to stir up much local disturbance, debate and discussion. Paul and Barnabas were assigned to go up to the then headquarters at Jerusalem, to a meeting of the governing body there, to have the troublesome matter fully aired and a decision rendered thereon with the help of God’s spirit. After receiving the decision through the

• 21. In what way, then, does Paul compare it to the human body? and who should take to heart this illustration of unity?

• 22. What illustration do we have of this in Barnabas, Paul and Silas? governing body at Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas returned and the decision was put in effect in Antioch. Afterward, as Paul and Silas made missionary revisits in other Roman Empire provinces, they published and put into effect the decision of the central governing body at Jerusalem. For so doing, it would be wrong and unscriptural to accuse Paul and Silas of “channelism”. Rather, they saw and acted with the Lord God’s organization. In place of trying to be democratic, self-guiding, self-choosing, independent, they submitted to organization orderliness and worked for peace and unity with the organization and within it, in every land they visited. —Acts 15:1-16: 5.

• ²³ No one in the organization should feel so superior as to ignore others, such as those doing a very common or menial-looking service. An uplifted, offish attitude of one rendering a prominent or seemingly important service does not build up unity in the organization. An individual ought to remember that he himself is not important or irreplaceable, but it is the office of service that is important and that must be carried out. It has a relationship close or remote with all other offices or kinds of service in the organization, regardless of how inferior. What makes for unity in the organization is the unselfish concern of all the members for one another, with humility and with the effort to aid another member where he may lack. After all, this is all for the good of the organization as a whole and for its proper appearance before the world. This works out for the glory of the Lord God, because it proves his spirit is upon the organization. It oils up and smooths the way for the whole organization to do God’s appointed work with no grinding and clashing in any of its parts. This follows the principle according to which the Lord God fashioned the human body; just as the apostle goes on to illustrate, saying:

• ²⁴ “But much more necessary are those members of the body which are thought to be more feeble; and those parts of the body which we esteem to be less honorable, around them we throw more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness; and our comely parts have no need. God, however, put together the body, having given somewhat more abundantly to that part which was lacking, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may be concerned equally for each other; and whether one member suffer, all the members sympathize; or, whether one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it. Now you

• 23. Why should none exercise a superior feeling over others’ and why should there be common concern for all members?

• 24. How does the apostle next illustrate this? are a body of Christ, and members in part.”—1 Cor. 12:22-27, Diaglott.

• ²⁵ The little finger and the little toe are in themselves feeble members of the body, and yet how necessary they are to proper handling and walking! In a jostling crowd we safeguard the little toe, because, if this feeble member is stepped on by a heavy heel, how it makes the whole body contort with pain and the mouth give explosive outcry in sympathetic reaction! Likewise, in cold weather, if the hands and feet are kept warm it contributes to the general comfort of the entire body. Hence the members of the human body, despite performing different services, do not isolate themselves from one another, but co-operate with one another, looking to one another’s welfare and proper performance with ease. If the head is crowned with the reward of service, no envy or begrudging is aroused in another member, but all the rest of the body responds to that fact and rejoices. If the feet are shod with unsightly or ill-kept shoes, the rest of a self-respecting person responds to that fact and feels embarrassed and ill at ease in the presence of company.

• ²⁶ The apostle presses the point that the congregation of Christ at any time in its existence on earth during “this present evil world” should be just like the human body in these vital respects. In creating mankind’s first parent, Adam, Jehovah God made him with no design of divisions or schisms to be in perfect man’s body, but that all parts and members thereof should naturally care for one another. Just like that it should be with that larger organization, the body of Christ, of whom the anointed Christians are members in particular. All must bear a responsibility toward one another, and-this should be borne with love, such love as Jehovah God had in making the human body. “But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17, Am. Stan. Ver.) We should have mutual love for one another as members of the Lord’s organization under Christ Jesus, mainly because the Lord’s commissioned work for the '"body of Christ” is concerned, namely, that of proclaiming the Kingdom gospel. Such love is Christlike. It is a fruit of God’s spirit and is a great unifier and binder within the organization; as it is written, at Colossians 3:14: “And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.” —Am. Stan. Ver.

" With loving helpfulness to one another in rendering our several services to God there will be no open-

25 What practical examples of the apostle’s points can we give’ 26. With what quality should all bear responsibility toward one another, and why ?

• 27 . Why Is not Christendom with Its sects and cults comparable to the human body and its many different parts? ing for schism and division in His visible organization, such as exists in the religious organization of Christendom which is divided into hundreds of cults, sects and so-called “churches”. Under no circumstances can such various sectarian religious organizations be compared to the various members of the human-body which have each a different function. Why not? Because the members of the human body, despite being many with different services to perform, are nevertheless one body. The religious organization of Christendom is not one body, but is split up and fights within itself over various political and racial as well as religious disagreements. The apostle compares the members of the human body, not to the sects which he deplores in his letter, but to individual members of Jehovah’s Theocratic organization under Christ Jesus the Head. (1 Cor. 12:25; 1:11-13; 3:3-5; 11:18,19) Christendom’s religious organization lias never taken to heart the apostle’s illustration from the human body, and she does not have unity and peace inside her religious structure. How, then, could she be a really effective force for the unity and peace of the proposed “one world created by human hands”?

• ²⁸ God is not responsible for the different religious sectarian organizations, Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish, but He is responsible for the difference of services rendered by the many individual members within his Theocratic organization. It is He as Creator of his Theocratic organization that has set the members of the organizational body every one according as it pleased him. It is his purpose that they should all co-operate with one another in love, like the different members of the one human body. Hence the apostle says: “Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” According to the facts, the answer was No!

• ²⁹ In one respect all members could be alike. That was in love. Love would abide and endure after miraculous gifts passed away at the passing of the church out of its primitive infancy. So Paul does not give the self-evident answer to his question, but adds this admonition for miraculous speakers with tongues and for prophets and other gifted ones: “But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And moreover a most excellent way show I unto you. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not

• 28. Who Is responsible for the difference and variety of services, and how so?

• 29. In what one respect should they be alike in development? love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. . . . But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 12: 27-13:13, Am. Stan. Ver.) This is a warning for us regarding all service that we render in the organization as members thereof according to God’s gracious gift to us. We must be moved by love of God and of our brethren in order for the service to count in His sight. Various forms of activity and service may pass out as time moves on, but the development of love within us will remain and will hold us true to Jehovah God and his organization under Christ.

FOR INTERNATIONAL UNITY

^so The Christian congregation at Corinth, Greece, to which Paul wrote as above, was over 600 miles southeast from Rome, which was in a different nation, of course. Nonetheless, the Christian congregation there at Rome, Italy, was also a part of the body of Christ as thus far expanded. So the apostle Paul wrote them instructions like those sent to Corinth, because the same instructions applied to all parts and members of Christ’s body, whether at Rome or at Corinth or at Jerusalem. Their being of different nationalities according to the flesh did not call for different sets of instruction. To warn the Roman Christians lest any of them grow conceited and think themselves different and superior to others of the body and thereby start divisive schisms among the body members, the apostle Paul wrote:

• ³¹ “In virtue of my office [as an apostle and a member of the church’s governing body], I tell every one of your number who is self-important, that he is not to think more of himself than he ought to think; he must take a sane view of himself, corresponding to the degree of faith which God has assigned to each. In our one body we have a number of members, and the members have not all the same function; so too, for all our numbers, we form one Body in Christ and we are severally members one of another. Our talents differ with the grace that is given us; if the talent is that of prophecy, let us employ it in proportion to our faith; if it is practical service, let us mind our service; the teacher must mind his teaching, the speaker his words of counsel; the contributor must be liberal, the superintendent must be in earnest, the sick visitor [or one acting with mercy] must be cheerful. Let your love be a real thing, with a loathing for evil and a bent for what is good. Put affection into your love for the brotherhood;... Keep in harmony with one another; instead of being ambitious, associate with humble

• 30. Why were like Instructions sent out, although to congregations in different nations ?

• 31. What like Instruction did Paul write the Christians at Rome? folk; never be self-conceited.”—Rom. 12:3-16, Moffatt.

• ⁵² All such instruction had as its purpose the promoting and strengthening and preserving of unity within the Roman congregation of Christians. And as a sister to such organizational unity there would exist harmony or peace. But to remind us specifically of the pacific purpose of Christians one toward another and toward all "with whom we must associate in life’s dealings, Paul makes this further remark: “Be at peace with all men, if possible, so far as that depends on you.” (Rom. 12:18, Moffatt) Those heeding this apostolic instruction will avoid being troublemakers and disturbers, and will carry on quiet dealings with others. They will not intentionally provoke strife, turmoil and quarrel; but if controversy and disagreement are stirred up, they will let it be from the other party, because he objects to their proclaiming the truth of God’s Word. Even the Perfect One, Jesus Christ, ran into controversy, opposition and disturbance because he preached the Kingdom truth. We, his followers, are not above him or better than he and cannot do other than also rouse up opposition and debate because of sharing in the “testimony of Jesus Christ” and proclaiming the truth. The purpose of the gospel is not to stir up strife and controversy, but it is the antagonists of the truth that hatefully stir up such. Such is unavoidable in those cases, and we should not stop publishing the Kingdom truth in order to avoid such. Paul did not do so.

• ³³ However, among brethren within the Theocratic organization of Christ’s body, such controversy, strife, contention, wrangling and strained relations with one another should not be, because all are understood to be and taken to be lovers and upholders of the truth. As far, then, as depends upon us, we should seek to get along in peace with those devoted to the truth and wanting to serve God. If we love the truth, then let us look above our personal feelings and desires to the one over-all purpose of the Lord’s organization in Christ. Then we will rise above petty personal things of strife and will go along harmoniously with our brethren in the paramount service of God. We must get along accordantly with one another in God’s organization. Are we not all subject to the same regulations and to the same general witnessing obligations? Are we not all targets of the one common enemy, the world? Are we not all bound together in the one purpose of vindicating God’s name and universal sovereignty? Yes! Then, as far as depends upon us, let us be

• 32. (a) What was the purpose of Paul’s instruction? (b) Why should peace with all men be as far as possible and as it depends upon us? 33. Why should not strife and strained relations be between the brethren, but, instead, efforts toward peace and unity? dependable to work and live in the interests of unity and peace.

“ This is the course of heavenly wisdom: “But if ye have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace.”—Jas. 3:14-18, Am. Stan. Ver.

THE COMMON OBJECTIVE

• ³⁵ In every direction this energetic missionary apostle, Paul, found it advisable and timely to send out inspired exhortations to unity and peace. Turning in the other direction from Rome, eastward to Asia Minor, he wrote instructions like those sent to Corinth and Rome and sent such to the congregations in Ephesus and in Colosse, because they, too, were part of the one body of Christ. To the Colos-sians he wrote: "And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye were called in one body.” (Col. 3:14,15, Am. Stan. Ver.) Today, nineteen centuries from then, the call still is to peace among the remnant of Christ’s body members, now when religious Christendom is split and at odds with herself in a thousand and one ways over one selfish cause or another. The divisive spirit pervading religious Christendom the remnant of Christ’s brethren cannot afford to let infiltrate among themselves, because the body of Christ is called to peace. His peace must rule among them. They are his friends, not his enemies. He must rule among them, his friends, his brethren, as their “Prince of Peace”, especially so now since he was enthroned in the Theocratic Government at the right hand of Jehovah God A.D. 1914. “The government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called . . . , The Prince of Peace.”—Isa. 9: 6.

• ³⁸ With like exhortation the apostle wrote to the Ephesians from his prison in Rome: “I exhort you, therefore, I, the prisoner for the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which ye were called, with all humility and gentleness; with patience, sustaining each other in love; using diligence to preserve the unity of the spirit by the uniting bond of peace; there being one body and one spirit, as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one immersion; one God and Father

• 34. Why is this the course of heavenly wisdom, and not earthly?

• 35. What like Instruction did Paul send to the Colossians? and why is this call to peace especially applicable since A.D. 1914?

• 36. What corresponding instruction did Paul send to the Ephesians? of all, he who is over all, and through all, and in all. But to each one of us was given favor according to the measure of the free gift of the Anointed One [Christ]. Therefore it is said, ‘Having ascended on high, he led a multitude of captives, and gave gifts to men.’ And he gave indeed the apostles, and the prophets, and the evangelists, and shepherds and teachers.”—Eph. 4:1-8,11, Diaglott.

^3T Here we pause for a question to sharpen our interest in what the apostle next says, namely, What was the objective in all such gifts of different servants in the body of Christ? was it, indeed, to pit one kind of servant against another kind in competition and to create an uppish clergy and a nether laity and thus produce divisive distinctions? Answer to the question comes with a positive No in the apostle’s next words, namely: “For the complete qualification of the saints for the work of service, in order to the building up of the body of the Anointed One [Christ]; till we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the full stature of the Anointed One; .. . but being truthful in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the Head,—the Anointed One; from whom the whole body, being fitly joined and united, by means of every assisting joint, according to the proportionate energy of each single part, effects the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”—Eph. 4:12-16, Diaglott.

³⁸ Now, in this “time of the end”, is most decidedly the time when the body of Christ, or its remnant on earth, should rightly be expected to attain to that maturity of spiritual growth like the stature of a perfect man, one body, in Christ. Maturity and the full stature of Christ’s body means unity and harmonious, peaceful functioning of all the members of His body with mutual interdependence and helpfulness. It means standing firm in the one faith and in the one hope, immovable in this stormy time when the mighty winds of false religious doctrines and propaganda blow and the smooth-handed trickery of political, commercial and religious men of this world is craftily practiced by means of errors that are against the established kingdom of God. The men and women of Christendom betray themselves to be like immature infants swayed and carried to and fro by these winds of doctrine and propaganda. They are childishly-tricked and fooled repeatedly by the cunning craftiness of power-grabbing rulers and office-seekers of the world.

• 37. What was the Lord’s objective in giving such gifts of different servants?

• 38. What do maturity and the full stature of Christ’s body mean now?

• ³⁸ But not so the mature remnant of the body of Christ yet on earth, and not so their loyal companions of good-will. The remnant, with their goodwill companions inseparably at their side, stand upright like mature, strong men, unbending, unswayed, uncompromisingly firm and steady for the truth and for clean-handed, above-board dealings in publishing the truth. The Theocratic organization which holds them stands united in its immovableness, its members fighting fearlessly “shoulder to shoulder” for the faith of the gospel of God’s kingdom. (Phil. 1:27, 28) Unitedly they uphold the universal sovereignty of their one God, Jehovah. Unitedly, they hold fast to the Headship and Leadership of their one Lord, Jesus Christ. Unitedly they resist the confusing, selfish spirit of this world, but pray and open their hearts fully for the one spirit proceeding from God and through Jesus Christ, and which holy spirit is an active unifying force, energizing them to combined, concordant activity in the service of God.

• ¹⁰ Jehovah God now makes peace within his visible organization on earth. (Ps. 147:14) To the wicked, however, he decrees no peace, and there is no peace in this world. (Isa. 48:18, 22) His “Prince of Peace”, Christ Jesus, now reigns at His side in the kingdom that was born A.D. 1914. Jehovah’s command to Christ is: “Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” (Ps. 110: 2) With those enemies Jehovah will make no peace negotiations. At the field of Armageddon where all nations are lining up for the final display of their might against Jehovah’s universal sovereignty He will smite through them and destroy them, to give ever-enduring proof that he is the rightful sovereign over all the earth and all the rest of the universe. In blessed contrast therewith, Jehovah’s enthroned “Prince of Peace” rules in the midst of his remnant and their good-will companions with all peaceable purposes, to hold them together in one under his protection and blessing. Hence, in the midst of a strife-torn, disquieted world, there should be one visible organization where permanent peace and unity exist, and that should be Jehovah’s organization of His •witnesses under the “Prince of Peace”, Christ Jesus. It should stand, and, by God’s grace, it does stand, to the glory of Jehovah God, as a visible, tangible sample of the everlasting peace and unity of the righteous new world which He will early usher in by his kingdom under Jesus Christ.

• 39. How do the remnant and their loyal companions show maturity iu contrast with the men and women of the world?

• 40. What is now the contrast between Jehovah’s rule toward his enemies and that toward his remnant and their companions?

  Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; and let them say among the nations, Jehovah reigneth.

  —1 Chronicles 16:31, A.S.V.

  
  

THE Jewish prophets, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, both of them priests of the tribe of Levi, were contemporaries. However, Jeremiah was selected to prophesy thirty-three years before Ezekiel. In the twenty-ninth year-of Jeremiah’s prophesying, Ezekiel was one of the young men who was carried away captive with King Jehoiachin to the far-distant land of Babylon by Emperor Nebuchadnezzar. This deposing of King Jehoiachin and carrying away of thousands of Jewish captives to Babylon was because of the abominations that Jehoiachin and many of his subjects were committing religiously in the capital city Jerusalem and the rest of the kingdom of Judah.

Although carried off captive, Ezekiel was not slaughtered, and the reason was that he was a faithful servant and witness of Jehovah God and was not guilty of the religious abominations committed by the majority of his fellow countrymen. Hence, in the fifth year of his captivity in Babylon God raised up Ezekiel to be his prophet among the Israelite captives in that heathenish land. There Ezekiel protested against the many abominations still being committed in Jerusalem and he gave numerous prophecies against such. In this protest against abominations of religion, Ezekiel was associated with Jeremiah, although far away, because right in Jerusalem itself the prophet Jeremiah made like protests in the name of Jehovah God against the religious abominations committed in that city and the rest of the kingdom. These prophetic protests by both Ezekiel and Jeremiah continued until the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C., when many thousands of Jews, guilty of religious abominations, were slaughtered by the conquerors.

Jerusalem of that day professed to be a holy city, dedicated to God and the capital city of his Theocratic kingdom organization on earth. In such regards unfaithful Jerusalem was a type of modern-day Christendom, which likewise professes to be holy to God and to be His visible organization of his people. Therefore Christendom is the antitypical unfaithful Jerusalem. In the ninth chapter of Ezekiel’s prophecy is recorded a prophetic picture of the “abominations” that refer ahead to the wickedness done in Christendom of the present time. The prophetic picture is symbolic and shows six men, each of whom is armed with a weapon of destruction called a “slaughter weapon” and standing ready to destroy the city. This has a present-day meaning for the religious organization called “Christendom”. The city of Jerusalem is the city meant in Ezekiel’s prophetic picture and symbolically represents the corresponding organization of Christendom, which claims to serve God and Christ but in fact serves Satan the Devil. Along with those six armed men of the prophetic picture is another man, but “clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side”. This man compared with Ezekiel and Jeremiah who were faithful witnesses of Jehovah back there, and hence he pictures Jehovah’s witnesses of today, the faithful followers of Christ Jesus who go to make up his remnant of heirs of the heavenly kingdom of God yet on the earth. On the other hand, the six men with slaughter weapons picture the invisible forces of the Lord that will destroy antitypical Jerusalem (or Christendom) at the battle of Armageddon.

In the prophetic picture Jehovah’s command to the man clothed with linen and with the inkhorn by his side is that he go through the city and put a mark “upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof”. Antitypically, this means the religious abominations that are now done within the realm of Christendom.

This part of the prophetic picture shows that Jehovah’s witnesses of Christ’s remnant must go throughout Christendom and declare God’s message concerning his name and his kingdom, and this message includes the prophecies long ago pronounced by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. By so doing, Jehovah’s witnesses of today put a “mark upon the foreheads” of the persons who desire to learn the truth regarding Jehovah’s purposes. The forehead represents the seat of knowledge and means, antitypically, that the persons on earth who are of good-will toward Jehovah God receive a knowledge of God’s truth and give heed thereto with mind and heart. There are today within Christendom many persons of such kind who have been associated with the religious systems because they did not know anything better. They observe the many abominations committed by the religionists contrary to God’s Word. For instance, they see the religious leaders or clergymen indulging in the crooked politics of this world and in many unscrupulous and unrighteous schemes, teachings and practices. They see the clergy and hear them proclaiming false doctrines and resorting to lies and deceptions in order to operate and carry on a racket by which the people are robbed.

For example, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy now works in full accord with political leaders (not to mention her former concordats with Hitler and Mussolini) and does so in an effort to rule the world arbitrarily as the power behind the throne and eventually to take away the liberties of the people as was once done during the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini. The proof is at hand to show that the Hierarchy foments and carries on wicked wars and all manner of cruel schemes resulting injuriously to the people and to the dishonor of God’s name. To add to this, the Hierarchy teaches such false un-Biblical doctrines as “purgatory”, which, in effect, is that a person, when he dies, goes to “purgatory” and is there suffering conscious torment, until the religious priests can offer prayers and relieve the dead one supposed to be there suffering of that punishment; and this falsehood is used to work on credulous people so as to wring money from living friends of the deceased.

Seeing these many abominable things committed, the honest and sincere persons in those religious institutions cry to the Lord God. Being of good-will toward Jehovah God, they desire a knowledge of him and his righteous ways, and the Lord God hears their cry and sends his message of truth to them by and through his faithful servants who together are pictured by the man clad in linen with the inkhorn at his side. When these persons of good-will learn of Jehovah God and his King Christ Jesus and of the Theocratic Government now reigning, they readily turn to Him and serve Him and his enthroned King. Those who have thus sighed and cried because of the religious abominations done in Christendom and who receive the Bible truth and obey the Lord God are the ones marked in their forehead. These are the ones who have the assurance that, at the destruction of antitypical Jerusalem (Christendom) in the battle of Armageddon, they will be spared from the slaughter weapons of Jehovah’s executional officer, Christ Jesus, with all the holy angels with him. Hence they will survive that battle alive and enter without dying into the new world of righteousness which will follow Armageddon. Continuing faithful in their integrity throughout that new world, they will live forever in happiness on earth perfected.

THE MODERN EBED-MELECH OF GOOD-WILL

Years before Ezekiel, Jehovah God sent his faithful prophet Jeremiah to give warning to Jerusalem of her impending destruction at the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian armies. In this work Jeremiah pictured the remnant who, as Jehovah’s witnesses today, are sent to give warning to Christendom of her impending destruction at the universal war of Armageddon. Because of Jeremiah’s faithfulness in declaring Jehovah’s stern message Jeremiah was cast into prison at the instance of Jerusalem’s religionists. However, while he was in that filthy prison a swarthy friend appeared.

Consider, now, how Jehovah has very -wonderfully and in simple manner pictured those who put their trust in him, and not in the imposing worldly powers. In the royal house of Jerusalem’s last king, Zedekiah, there was an Ethiopian, whose name was Ebed-melech. His name means “servant of the king”. He was a eunuch. (Jer. 38:7) He was not an Israelite; and this is made certain by the fact that he had been sterilized and made a eunuch, which God’s law made it contrary to do to Israelites. In effect, Ebed-melech was a prisoner of unfaithful Jerusalem, being a trusty and a harmless man, who had general access to the king’s house to serve the king. He was not at all in sympathy with the harsh deeds of the ruling house of Jerusalem, and therefore Ebed-melech pictured a class today subjected to Christendom but not at all in sympathy with the harsh and cruel methods employed by Christendom’s rulers political and religious. Being a slave, this Ethiopian could not take the advice of Jeremiah to forsake the doomed city and go away to the Chaldean besiegers. He saw the great injustice that had been done to Jeremiah in throwing him into a deep, muddy dungeon. He had faith in Jeremiah’s God. Hence he pictured the same class as those who cry and sigh for all the abominations that are done in the city. As an Ethiopian, a man of color, he symbolized a natural sinner who desires to learn of God. He had heard of God’s purposes through Jeremiah’s preaching. This is in harmony with the words of Psalm 68 •. 31: “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands 'unto ‘God.”

King Zedekiah was sitting in the Benjamin gate of Jerusalem, probably holding court there, and it was then that Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian, had the opportunity to publicly approach the king and speak to him in open court. In doing this the Ethiopian pictured those persons, other than the remnant of spiritual Israelites, who take their stand on the side of Jehovah God and speak in favor of the remnant engaged in witness work like Jeremiah’s. Correspondingly, early in the year 1919, and while a number of official representatives of Jehovah’s visible organization were literally in a Federal prison, many thousands of persons of goodwill toward God and his people gladly signed a petition to the American government that the Society’s servants might be given a hearing and released from prison. (See The Watchtower of 1919, page 101.) Since then, Jehovah’s witnesses have many times been cast into prisons for faithfully preaching the Kingdom message to Christendom, and many persons of good-will have come to their aid, to relieve them in their imprisonment and to help in their release. This is action like that of Ebed-melech of old, during the siege of Jerusalem.

Approaching King Zedekiah, Ebed-melech the Ethiopian addressed him and said: “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city.” (Jer. 38:9) King Zedekiah heard his speech and then commanded the Ethiopian to take thirty men to assist him and to draw Jeremiah out of the dungeon. (Jer. 38:10) This corresponds with the releasing of God’s people who come into prison and under unjust restraints. The Ethiopian, with the other men, proceeded to make arrangements to take Jeremiah out of the dungeon and to do so in the most comfortable manner that they could, thus preventing the least possible injury to him. (Jer 38:11, 12) This shows that, antitypically, the faithful followers of Christ Jesus are imprisoned and restrained and are visited with help by persons of good-will, who are commended by Jehovah’s King, Christ Jesus, in these words: “I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” (Matt. 25: 36) The Ethiopian showed much kindness to Jeremiah in putting old clouts under his arms to lift him out of the prison. The clergy had done exactly the contrary when they shoved Jehovah’s faithful remnant on earth into prisons and concentration camps. In taking this kind of action toward Jehovah’s servants the Ethiopian probably had in mind the words of the psalmist, as set forth in Psalms 1-12, 102 and 69. Those of good-will lent their efforts to the Lord God to draw his servants out of prison, and thus “the Lord looseth the prisoners”.—Ps. 146: 7.

Neither the religionists nor the politicians lifted the Lord’s servants out of the dungeon in this “time of the end”. Back in 1919 no effort was made to do so until the people of good-will filed an urgent petition with the public officials. Likewise since. It has been the Ebed-melech class of modern days that has showed sympathy for and interest in God’s faithful servants, whom the Lord causes to be released from prison. The releasing refers to all those who were faithful as Jehovah’s remnant, some of whom have actually been in prison and others of whom were under prison-like restraint.

“So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken."—Jer. 38:13, 28.

From the time of their release in 1919 until now, Jehovah’s remnant as foreshadowed by Jeremiah have been under surveillance by the ruling factors as if in a prison court, and particularly so at the instance of Christendom’s clergy, who increasingly try to limit and circumscribe the freedom of activity of Jehovah’s faithful servants on earth. Regardless of this surveillance and restraint Jehovah’s remnant and their good-will companions go on. Jeremiah was in the prison court until Jerusalem was taken by King Nebuchadnezzar’s armies and destroyed, which restraint of Jeremiah foreshadowed the surveillance of Jehovah’s devoted remnant now. But did Jeremiah stop testifying to the name of the Lord God? Not by any means; and neither do Jehovah’s witnesses under surveillance today stop. We read: “Now the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the guard, saying, Go, and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished before thee in that day. But I will deliver thee in that day, saith Jehovah; and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid. For I will surely save thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee; because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith Jehovah.” —Jer. 39:15-18, A.S.V.

Today, in the face of the destruction of Christendom and the terrific slaughter there in the battle of Armageddon, those of good-will who continue faithful as the Ebed-melech class may take this comforting promise of Jehovah to themselves, in hope of survival of the battle of Armageddon and of entry into the glorious new world of righteousness created by Jehovah’s hands.

ASA IN ACTION AGAINST RELIGION

RELIGION stood as a powerful antagonist of true worship when Asa ascended the throne of Judah. It was subtle demon religion that had previously overpowered the once-wise King Solomon and caused the nation of Israel to be split after his death. During the seventeenyear reign of the first king of the two-tribe kingdom of Judah religion ensnared the inhabitants, and its close grip was not loosened in the three years of Abijah’s succeeding kingship. Hence when Rehoboam’s grandson and Abijah’s son, Asa, began ruling over Judah, in 978 B.C., he was at the head of a nation alienated from Jehovah God and in bondage to demonism. To burst the shackles and effect a reconciliation with God would call for vigorous and decisive action. Was King Asa a man of such action?

The chronology of the times indicates that Asa reigned one year with his father, Abijah, and that his total kingship reached a forty-first year, or down to 938 B.C. Early in his reign young Asa remembered his Creator in the days of his youth and moved with vigor against the demon religion that had dogged the steps of the Judean kingdom for the past twenty years. “Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God: for he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him.”—2 Chron. 14:2-5.

Note the good effects of this hard-hitting action against religion: “In his days the land was quiet ten years. And he built -fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those years; because the Lord had given him rest. Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us; because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought him, and he hath given us rest • on every side. So they built and prospered.” (2 Chron. 14:1, 6, 7) Peace and a reconstruction work and prosperity came as a result of the purge against religion. Then, rightfully filling in the hearts and minds of the people the place once wrongfully occupied by demon religion, the true worship of Jehovah God flourished. It is true that King Asa was against religion, but he was not a godless atheist against the true worship of Jehovah as well. Had he not “commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment” ?

World statesmen of today, as they listen to the threatening voice of organized religion shouting out that she alone can assure peace through her “moral law”, would do well to recognize the wise distinction Asa made between religion and true worship. Religion meant ruin for Israel, whereas true worship guaranteed peace and protection. The truthfulness of this becomes evident as the history of Asa’s reign continues. It develops that Asa had an army of three hundred thousand spearmen from the tribe of Judah and two hundred and eighty thousand bowmen from the tribe of Benjamin. Against this force came “Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots”, that is to say, a million men. When the battle lines were set in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah, Asa, outnumbered almost two to one, cried unto the Lord Jehovah, saying, “Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, 0 Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. 0 Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.” When the battle was over the Judeans returned to Jerusalem with much spoil, for Jehovah had put the Ethiopian hordes to flight and blessed his own true worshipers with victory.—2 Chron. 14:8-15.

Asa was stirred to take even further action against religion. A prophet of God, Azariah by name, met the returning victorious army -with King Asa at its head and focused attention on the cause for the triumph: “The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.” (2 Chron. 15:2) These words prompted by the spirit of God upon the prophet built up even more courage in Asa for the fight against demonism. More abominable idols toppled as the purge continued in Judah and Benjamin and extended into cities Asa had taken in Mount Ephraim.

Not just a tearing-down action against religion did the king effect, but in reconstructing Jehovah’s true worship Asa “renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord”.—2 Chron. 15:8.

By now the Bible account has carried the reader into the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign, and his action against demon religion has been noised throughout the length and breadth of Canaanland. No such purge as this had taken place in the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel to the north of Judah, and it attracted to the southern kingdom many seekers of the Lord Jehovah that resided in Israel. In droves they came up to Jerusalem with offerings for Jehovah God, and in a new-found unity, the binding tie being true worship rather than divisive religion, they entered into a solemn covenant to seek Jehovah and his ways, along with the Judeans. So drastic was the action against religion that death was ordained for any not seeking Jehovah. Why, King Asa even ousted his grandmother Maachah from the queenship because she had made an image in a grove.—2 Chron. 15: 9-18.

The next two verses of the record raise a chronological snag, reading: “There was no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa. In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.” (2 Chron. 15:19; 16:1) King Baasha of Israel died in the twenty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, which precludes his being present to build Ramah in Asa’s thirty-sixth year. (1 Ki. 16:6-8) The marginal reference to 2 Chronicles 16:1 gives Usher’s suggestion that it was the thirty-sixth year of Judah as a two-tribe kingdom, that the rending of the ten tribes from Judah, over which Asa was now king, took place thirty-six years before. If this is the import of the text, then Baasha’s building of Ramah occurred in Asa’s sixteenth or seventeenth year. This would be a logical time for Baasha’s action, because his purpose in rearing up Ramah just to the north of Jerusalem was to halt the flow of peoples in and out of Judah, and because it was only a year or two before that so many Israelites had trekked from Israel into Judah. He would hardly defer action much longer to stop the exodus of his subjects.

Asa’s countermeasure was a mistake. With silver and gold from the temple at Jerusalem he bribed Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, to attack Israel in the north. This drew Baasha back from Ramah and into defenses against Syria, leaving Ramah to be dismantled by Asa. Jehovah’s expression of displeasure came to Asa through Hanani the seer. The king had trusted in Syria more than in Jehovah. He lost sight of Jehovah’s power to deliver, which he had witnessed in the routing of the million-strong army of Ethiopians. The spokesman for Jehovah God continued: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” —2 Chron. 16:2-9.

Another mistake King Asa adds to his account. Rather than accepting reproof humbly and manifesting repentance, Asa “was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing”. Here again Asa acted foolishly, for “anger resteth in the bosom of fools”. (Eccl. 7:9) It is especially so when the anger is directed against one of the Lord’s witnesses, because then the temper is vented against the Lord himself. It may be that this move against the seer caused some stir of protest from the people; at any rate, when the servant of God was imprisoned “Asa oppressed some of the people the same time”.—2 Chron. 16:10.

The closing years of the lifetime of King Asa did not pass pleasantly. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign he was smitten with a disease in his feet, which disease continued to grow more and more painful. “Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.” (2 Chron. 16:12) However, they proved to be physicians of little value to Asa. Many Bible scholars believe that Asa was afflicted with gout. Incidentally, the name of this king who trusted in human physicians means “healing; physician”. Two years after the start of the malady, in the forty-first year of his reign, in 938 B.C., Asa died and was given honorable burial in the city of Jerusalem. Replacing him on the throne of Judah was his faithful son Jehoshaphat. —2 Chron. 16:13, 14; 17:1.

In spite of Asa’s numerous mistakes, as in the case of his forefather King David, it seems that the balances swung in his favor. His action against the demon religion that had plagued Judah for so many years was vigorous enough to uproot it and once more plant in its place the true worship of Jehovah God. The divine record supports this view of ultimate approval for Asa when it says: “Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” Again the account testifies: “Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.”—2 Chron 14:2; 15:17.

FIELD EXPERIENCES

LETTING GOD BE TRUE ON “HELL”

California : "On the second back-call a study was started with a mother of a large family in the book 'Let God Be True’. After studying the first chapter, we made a quick preview into the book to see what would come from future studies. The chapter ‘Hell, a Place of Rest’ was met with optimism. By Jehovah’s grace, I applied what we had learned in chapter one, and we then agreed to analyze her belief and also the statements made in this new book; and whichever proved to be backed up by the written Word of God that would be what our understanding and hope would be based on in the future. By so doing, it was explained to her, we would ‘let God be true’. The next visit we studied the chapter on ‘Hell, a Place of Rest’. The results were wonderful. She asked very intelligent questions and was amazed and relieved to find out the vast difference between Sheol and Gehenna, and commented very sincerely on the urgent need for others to be enlightened. She contributed for a 'Let God Be True’ book, even though I could not supply it until our shipment arrives. She also subscribed for the magazine Awake! Jehovah’s ‘sheep’ hear His voice and follow Him, don’t they, dear brethren?”

Kentucky : “I would like to relate an experience I had. I walked into a grocery store and, after explaining to the manager what I was doing, I offered him the new book 'Let God Be True’. The topic on ‘Hell’ interested him, and he asked me to show him in the Bible where ‘hell’ meant ‘the grave’. His wife tried to interfere, and, failing, threatened to burn the book if he brought it home. Having a ■will of his own, he took the book, whereupon his wife exclaimed: ‘You’re becoming more like an infidel every day! ’ ”

MORE IDOL DESTRUCTION IN CAMAGUEY AREA (CUBA)

“While witnessing from house to house I placed a 'Truth Shall Make You Free’ ■with a man and his wife who showed a real desire to know the contents of the book. Seeing the interest manifested, I called back the very next week to show them how to study the book together with the Bible. As I handed the man the Bible he said: ‘This is the first time I have one in my hand.’ I invited them to the Watch-tower study and two weeks later they came. In our next study the lesson dealt with the use aud worship of images. To bring the point more forcefully to them I always call attention to the images that almost all Cubans have on the walls of their homes and to which images flowers, food and prayers are offered. So, remembering the idols they had displayed on the wall, I started to call attention to it—but, to my surprise, not an image could I see. They both laughed and said: ‘After we attended the Watchtower study and learned how Hezekiah cleansed the temple of the Lord, we came home and cleansed our house.’ They are both Kingdom publishers now helping others of good-will to clean up their houses.”—Missionary graduate of Watchtower Bible School of Gilead.

NOW SHE CAN READ THE BIBLE (MONTREAL. QUE., CAN.)

“Aside from the police interference encountered in St. Lambert, Quebec, we have enjoyed greatly the service here, especially in Greenfield Park and Mackayville. There the interest is most manifest and soon we hope to put on a series of public talks in Greenfield Park. Mackayville is nearly all French, but all our French literature has been placed and we found much interest. One woman upon whom I called and with whom I left a French booklet was reading it when I returned and immediately called my attention to the books advertised on the back cover, saying: ‘And I want this book, too, and this one,’ etc., till she had gone over the ■whole list. When I showed her a French Bible, her eyes opened wide and she said: ‘All my life I have wanted to own and read a Bible.’ It has been a wonderful experience each time I call to see how eagerly she picks up some gems of truth. Nothing could compare with this glorious treasure of service, and we are grateful to Jehovah for these privileges.”—Special pioneer.

ON THE STREETS OF BRISBANE (QUEENSLAND), AUSTRALIA

“I was standing with my magazine bag when a man came over and said: ‘Well, I’ve been in many places, and have often heard of Jehovah’s witnesses, but I had to come to Queensland to meet you.’ He is now very much interested. Another day I witnessed to a young, colored girl, placing 'The Truth Shall Make You Free’ and a booklet. Later, I went to her home, placed more literature, started a study, and now there are twelve in attendance. One morning I handed a leaflet to a man who said, ‘Religion! Take it away! I want none of that!’ He turned to go, but I tapped him on the shoulder, and said: ‘Excuse me, sir. You have made a slight mistake.’ Then I told him of the difference between ‘religion’ and Christianity. He took the book Religion and promised to come to the public lecture. Advertising outside the Kingdom Hall I invited four lonely-looking soldiers to come inside. One of them was particularly interested. He is now a policeman in New South Wales, but writes to me quite regularly. He says he will drop his policeman’s uniform and go along to the convention of Jehovah’s witnesses, and that when he sees the witnesses in the streets he will pat them on the back.”

IN THE BRITISH COLONY OF JAMAICA

“In Jamaica we have been unable, until now, to take part in all the different features of the publishing work, due to a ban having been placed on Watchtower literature during the war. Despite this great handicap Jehovah’s witnesses did not abate their zeal in carrying the Kingdom message to the people. With the use of the Bible we went into their homes, teaching the truths contained in it. We found the conducting of home studies the most effective method. On one occasion I met a lady who had a copy of Deliverance, purchased by her long before the war. She had never really read it, but when she saw in the newspapers that a ban had been placed on these books she became curious about it and put the book aside for consideration at some future time. I arranged to study this book with her. With each study she manifested a keener interest, declaring that she had always thought she was well acquainted with the Bible, but now knew that all that lifegiving knowledge was to be found there. Now that the ban has been lifted, the books and magazines are once more available. There is a large scope for the work in Jamaica, so we look forward to its expansion when this literature gets to the people and still more studies in them can be arranged.”

“I arranged to take a lady with whom I had been conducting studies to the Kingdom Hall, three miles away from her home. Her husband, who was not interested, told me he would like to have a talk with me when we returned from the meeting. On our return he said to me: ‘You ought to know my attitude towards your beliefs, and I do not wish to have my house divided. Therefore as master of this household I request that you do not return.’ His wife was very embarrassed. I assured her she need not worry about my feelings, as I was prepared for such incidents. Noting how downcast she was, I wrote her the following day showing her I was not concerned with myself but was concerned with her welfare. I succeeded in arranging to send her literature by her maid, and arranged with another publisher that lived but of town to call on her whenever he happened to be in town. The Lord soon had things well arranged, in that her husband was transferred to another town and visits can now be freely made on her. She now subscribes for both The Watchtower and Awake!”