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The Bible’s Author

Into the Fab East

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CONTENTS

Judgment Dat foe Jehovah's

Vindication

Vol. LXVIII

Semimonthly

No. 12

THE WATCHTOWER.

Published Semimonthly By

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

Officers

N. H. Knobs, President              Grant Suiter, 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-wilL 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 for 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.

A’oHca to Suiacribero; Remittances should be sent to office in your country in compliance with regulations to guarantee sate delivery ot 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 our office may be expected effective within one month. Send your old as well as new address.

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Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Brooklyn, N. Y., under the Act of March S, 1819,

“JEHOVAH’S CHRISTIAN WITNESSES” TESTIMONY PERIOD

The month of June, designated as above, started off the fourmonth campaign of reaching out into the extensive rural territory with the message of Jehovah’s kingdom by his Christ. The special offer featuring the campaign is that of three bound books on a $1.00 contribution, this to include, if possible, the Theocratic ministry school book “Equipped for Every Good Work" and “Let God Be True" along with one other Watchtower publication. Placed alone, “Equipped for Every Good Work" will continue to be offered on a half-dollar contribution. In view of the worthiness of it, preparations for this expansion work should go forward as early as possible, individually and collectively. A mere postcard or other request notice will call us to your aid and instruction if you, as a Watchtower reader, want to lend a hand in this work. Please report your June witnessing activity.

EASTERN SEABOARD CONVENTION

Many Watchtower readers find themselves unable financially or otherwise to attend the convention at Los Angeles, California, in August. Now we are very happy to advise that there will be a like convention for the benefit of the brethren in the East. The commodious Convention Hall, 34th Street near Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has now been engaged for a three-day convention, November 21, 22 and 23, 1947. At this convention the president of the Society and other official members will be in attendance and serve from the platform. More information later.

ROOMING COMMITTEE ADDRESS FOR LOS ANGELES ASSEMBLY

Watchtower readers planning to attend the national convention in Los Angeles, California, August 13 to 17, are hereby informed that the address of the Rooming Committee for that assembly is Watchtower Convention Rooming Committee

106 W. Venice Boulevard

Los Angeles 15, California

Kingdom publishers will please see the June Informant for further details.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of July 20: “And After This Cometh Judgment,” fl 1-19 inclusive, The Watchtower June 15, 1947.

Week of July 27: “And After This Cometh Judgment,” fl 20-39 inclusive, The Watchtower June 15, 1947.

USE RENEWAL SUBSCRIPTION BLANK

The renewal blank sent you prior to the expiration of your Watchtower subscription should be filled out and returned to the Brooklyn office or to the Branch office in the country where you reside. Servants in the companies, and individuals, when sending in renewals for The Watchtower, should always use these blanks. By filling in these renewal blanks you are assured of the continuation of your Watchtower from the time of expiration, and without delay. It will also be a great help if you sign your name uniformly, and note any recent change of address, on the renewal slip.

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM

Vol. LXVIII                             June 15, 1947                                   No. 12

JUDGMENT DAY FOR JEHOVAH’S VINDICATION

“He hath prepared his throne for judgment; and he will judge the world in righteousness, he will minister judgment to the peoples in uprightness. Jehovah hath made himself known, he hath executed judgment"—Ps. 9: 7,8,16, Am. Stan. Ver.

JEHOVAH God will vindicate his universal I sovereignty by holding a judgment day over J which he will preside. The One worthy to act as judge over all the universe could be only the Supreme One, and Jehovah is He. No one else could assume that position. His acting as Judge in the Highest Court will be no farce. His decisions will have all the authority of his high position and will have the backing of his irresistible and invincible force. Those of his adversaries who have flouted his sovereignty for the past six thousand years and who have not been brought to judgment will be unable to escape or nullify the execution of his sentences.

• ² Jehovah will make himself known as the Most High God of righteousness by the court rulings which he puts through to their full execution. He will clear his universal sovereignty of all suspicion of instability, invalidity, wrongfulness and dishonor by carrying out his righteous will and by upholding the laws and principles of justice and uprightness. He will exhibit the perfection of his judicial mind by bringing to a just and right settlement every question and problem over which there has been controversy. His solving of all matters will stand forever without appeal therefrom and without reversal. Righteousness will come fully in control of this earth, and all lovers of truth and righteousness on earth will find relief and will joyfully honor and praise the great “Judge of all”.

• ³ Correctly understood, then, Jehovah’s great “judgment day” is something to look forward to with heartfelt desire and thankfulness, and not with blood-chilling dread. Do men on earth dread the coming of court days when the judge must sit on the bench and the trying of important cases under dispute must go forward to a final decision? Not so those who are innocent and in the right and wanting justice done, but only those who are guilty and who do not want their guilt proved and their sentence imposed and carried out.

* So, too, with the universal judgment-day foretold and described in the sacred Bible. Even the devils know it must come, although they keep on in their deviltry; concerning which the Bible says: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” (Jas. 2:19) And concerning the time that the apostle Paul appeared before the bribe-hungry judge Felix and spoke about faith in Christ Jesus we read: “And as he reasoned of righteousness, and self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified, and answered, Go thy way for this time; and when I have a convenient season, I will call thee unto me.” (Acts 24:25, Am. Stan. Ver.) Brought face to face with the Bible facts about Jehovah’s great day for holding court, selfish men with an inner sense of guilt against God try to dismiss it from mind. They hope it will never come in their day, while their slavish attachment to sin and selfishness keeps them from reforming. Those persons, however, who long for God to rid the universe of wickedness and to enthrone righteousness everywhere, to vindicate himself, yearn for Jehovah’s day to act as Judge. They are like the long-suffering Job who said: “But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives; and as the next-of-kin he will stand upon my dust; and as the next-of-kin he will rise as my witness, and I shall see God as my defender; whom I shall see on my side.” (Job 19: 2527, An Amer. Trans.) All those, therefore, who long to have their devotion to God’s righteousness vindicated are bound to rejoice that Jehovah’s great day of judicial action is at hand! Are you one of such?

⁶ Persons of good-will toward God will not approach the following consideration of His judgmentday with any hesitancy, in the fear that they will find themselves headed for condemnation and punishment in that day. They will approach with calm confidence, keenly interested in how the almighty and all-wise God will set all matters straight, exalting what is right and putting an end to what is wrong, and handing down rewards and recompenses accordingly. They are anxious to learn how he will do justice to himself by vindicating himself and at the same time vindicate those who love and serve

him. They desire to know what course they should take now in this time of decision in order to meet with his approval and to be judged worthy of living forever in his favor in the New World. A Scriptural examination of this subject, apart from all the false ideas and teachings that the various religious systems have spread about it, is certain to bring great relief and assurance of heart and mind. Yes, it will bring genuine joy, because the day is at hand and we may live to see it.

’ One of God’s servants long ago said of that day: "And he charged us to preach unto the people, and to testify that this [Jesus] is he who is ordained of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.” (Acts 10:42, Am. Stan. Ver.) This makes it certain that some persons of good-will are to be living upon earth when that great day sets in and, if the Judge rules that they are worthy of everlasting life for their faithfulness, they will never suffer a stopping of conscious existence on earth but will live on forever without going down into the grave. What a possibility for today I

AND AFTER THIS COMETH JUDGMENT

TEERE would never have been such a judgment had it not been for what took place about six thousand years ago. It is to this that the apostle Paul refers, at Hebrews 9:27,28, saying: "And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men [or, is laid up for men] once to die, and after this cometh judgment; so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.” (Am. Stan. Ver.) It is a mistake for anyone to think from this statement that the perfect Adam and Eve in Eden were appointed to death before they sinned and that their living upon this earth was meant to be merely for a time, and, after they proved faithful in Eden during a period of trial, they would die and be judged worthy and go to heaven and be like the angels. In Eden the first man and woman were not on trial for either heaven or a fiery place of torment. They were on trial for eternal life on earth or for eternal death in the dust of the earth from which they were taken. They were never destined for heaven, if faithful. It is impossible for man to go to heaven, and long centuries after the death of faithful Enoch and Elijah the Lord Jesus said to a Jewish ruler: "I tell you of heavenly things. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man.”—John 3:12,13.

² Mankind was destined solely for this earth; and upon the truthfulness of this fact the apostle Paul has written: “The first man is of the earth, earthy: ... As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: . . . flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incor-ruptiofi.” (1 Cor. 15:47-50) Jesus went to heaven only after he sacrificed his human life forever and then was resurrected to spirit life. Likewise for his loyal disciples there must be a change, resulting in their becoming spirit creatures in the resurrection, before they can inherit actually the heavenly kingdom of God.—1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15: 51-54.

• 1. Were Adam and Eve appointed unto death before sinning? and for what were they on trial?

• 2. How only could Jesus and his disciples inherit the Kingdom?

⁸ In front of the first man Adam there was set the opportunity for eternal life, with never a promise of being taken body and soul to heaven. He was no more of the heaven, heavenly, than the land animals, birds, and fish round about him. He was of the earth, earthy; and earth was made for him to occupy. Even if he never ate of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, man was not promised a transfer of home from earth to heaven. He was merely promised a continuance of his life as a human creature, in earthly perfection and under the rulership of the universal Sovereign, Jehovah. But if man ate of the forbidden fruit-tree, what! Eternal torment in a fiery place within the bowels of the earth? Absolutely not; but Jehovah God said, in simple, unmistakable language to the perfect man: “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen. 2:16,17) It follows that if he never ate of it as long as God’s prohibition rested upon it he would never die off the earth of which he was a living part. For him the test must result in either life or death, existence or nonexistence. Hence no one should fear that, while assigning faithful human creatures to eternal life in heaven, the divine decisions will assign disobedient human creatures to eternal life in frightful torments in a fiery chamber under charge of red devils. For those willfully refusing to turn to righteousness and obey the great Judge the-divine sentence will be eternal death, everlasting destruction. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”—Rom. 6: 23.

⁴ The Judge’s own Word tells us when and why it was “appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”. This appointment was made after Adam and Eve had sinned, and it was because they had sinned and would thereafter bring forth their children in sin. It was not a case of further judgment

• 3 What outcome to his course of action was set before Adam?

• 4 For whom was judgment after death appointed, and why? for Adam and Eve. They had had their chance; they had been on trial and had willfully failed and were therefore justly sentenced to death, to return to the ground from which Adam had been directly taken. But Adam and Eve’s future offspring had not been directly on trial in Eden, and for them there would be a future judgment possible.

’ Future judgment for Adam’s offspring would be possible because of God’s purpose which he there disclosed when Adam and Eve heard God say to the great Serpent, Satan the Devil: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman [God’s universal organization], and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3:15) The Seed would be brought forth from God’s holy organization, and then the Seed would triumph over suffering and death and would finally bruise the Serpent’s head. This would open up the way for Adam’s offspring to be resurrected out of the graves of death and to be given the opportunities and benefits of a judgment day. The Seed, because of faithfully resisting the Serpent and bruising his head, would be appointed by Jehovah God to be the Judge representing him on that judgment day. That day would result in the Judge’s assigning many of Adam’s offspring to everlasting life under Jehovah’s universal sovereignty, and thus Jehovah God would be vindicated against the false charges and the seditious conspiracy of the Serpent, Satan the Devil.

’Adam’s offspring can die only once because of what he disobediently did in Eden, in offense against God. Showing why “it awaits men to die once, but after this a judgment”, it is written, at Romans 5:12: “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (See also Hebrews 9: 27, The Emphatic Diaglott.) It is only once that men can be affected unto death by what Adam did, because they all descended from him as a dying sinner, under divine condemnation. Hence when men were born as his offspring it unavoidably awaited them to die or to exist under the inherited condemnation of death. All were naturally in the same condition as King David, who said concerning himself: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” At the same time, a sinful father begot him. (Ps. 51:5) However, after men, Adam’s offspring, are put' on judgment before Almighty God, then Adam will not be responsible for whether they gain eternal life or suffer everlasting destruction, “the second death.” Do you ask why? It is because, during the period of judgment, the divinely stated rule applies: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The Son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither

6. In view of what promise was such judgment possible, and why?

6. Why, before judgment, can men die only once for what Adam did? shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” —Ezek. 18: 20.

^T Christ Jesus bore the sins of only those under death inherited from disobedient Adam. Hence Jesus died only once, and that once for all. We are warned that there will be no repeat performance of this: “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin [due to Adam] once: but in that he liveth, he live th unto God.” (Rom. 6:9,10) Christ’s death and resurrection had long been foreshadowed by the Jewish high priest’s going into the Most Holy of the tabernacle with the blood of the bullock and of the Lord’s goat on the annual atonement day. If men die after judgment which follows as a result of Christ’s death for them, he will not redeem them again. He died to cancel the sin and death inherited only from Adam, and their death because of sinning during the period of judgment will not be due to inheritance from Adam. After entering their period of judgment they as sons will not die for the iniquity of their father Adam, but will die by reason of their own willful choice of sin. Their own iniquity will be upon their own head, and for this sin they will die, and there will be no mortal Christ to die for them again to ransom them. If, however, after entering into the period of judgment before God, they turn to righteousness with the help of Christ Jesus the Seed of God’s woman, then they will enter into the way of everlasting life. They will avoid the “second death”, everlasting destruction, from which there is no redemption or recovery.

⁸ Hence it does not unavoidably await men, nor is it appointed unto men, to die after they enter the period of judgment. Eternal salvation is possible for them; and many will gain this gift.

DECISION UNTO CONDEMNATION

* Back in Eden the judgment or decision rendered by Jehovah God was one of condemnation to death. It resulted in condemnation to more persons than Adam and Eve. We read: “And not as through one having sinned, is the free gift. For indeed the sentence was from one [from Adam] to condemnation; but the gracious gift is from many offences [by Adam’s many offspring] to righteousness. Besides, if by the fall of the one, death reigned through that one; much more will those having received the abundance of the favor and the righteousness [from God] reign in life through the one—the Anointed Jesus.” Now, God’s judgment or sentence in Eden

7, 8. Why did Jesus die only once, and why are men not appointed to die after judgment?

• 9. God’s judgment in Eden was to the condemnation of how many? was to the condemnation of how many? The authoritative answer from his Word is: “Therefore, indeed, as through one offence, sentence came on all men to condemnation; so also, through one righteous act [by Jesus], sentence came on all men to justification of life.” (Rom. 5:16-18, The Emphatic Dia-glott) There we have the inspired comment on the judgment that was rendered in Eden against the sinner Adam: the effect of it was to bring condemnation upon “all men” descended from Adam, no matter which of the branches and families of the human race they are of, Japhetic, Hamitic, Semitic, Jew or Gentile.

• ¹⁰ If Adam had stayed obedient and faithful to God as universal Sovereign, the divine judgment would have been one justifying him to eternal life on earth, and he would have started off his family in the way of life and without any inherited condemnation. It is worth noticing here that judgment does not necessarily mean condemnation. In Adam’s case the judgment might have been to his eternal justification for obedience, but actually the judgment that God rendered was to condemnation for his false step of disobedience. So all his offspring were children of a condemned sinner and were born sinners and under condemnation. Judgment day in Eden followed quickly upon Adam and Eve’s sinning against the one great Lawgiver and Judge, who is able to save and to destroy. It came right after they had sinned and in the “cool of the day”, which was doubtless in the fresher eventide. It was therefore at the beginning of a new day, because back there the 24-hour day began at even; as it is written: “And the evening and the morning were the first day,” and so, too, ■with the other days of creation. At that “cool of the day” or at the evening that opened up the new day the great Judge Jehovah came and thus the judgment day in Eden came. Sentence was pronounced at that time, but the full execution of the sentence upon Adam did not come until nearly a thousand years later, when Adam was 930 years old. He died then and returned to the ground from which he had been taken when created.—Gen. 3:8; 1:5; 5:5.

• ¹¹ All men descending from the sinners in Eden were caught in the condemnation that God there expressed as Judge. For Adam’s offspring it could have turned out to be an unchangeable sentence to destruction, had it not been for Jehovah’s covenant in Eden regarding the Seed of his “woman”. That is to say, in the light of what we now know, the condemnation upon all of Adam’s descendants would have been to our everlasting destruction had it not been for Christ Jesus’ sacrificial death as a man and

• 10. When was judgment pronounced and fully executed upon Adam?

• 11. Why did condemnation not turn out to be eternal destruction? his presenting the value of his perfect sacrifice to God in heaven in order to ransom all those who believe in him and obey him. Concerning the Seed of God’s woman the Scripture says: “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered [as a result of the Serpent]; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.”—Heb. 5:8-10.

• ¹¹ Our only escape from the condemnation or adverse judgment is by getting in union with Christ Jesus, the Seed who suffered the heel wound. Such union is gained by believing in him as the promised Seed and by accepting his perfect sacrifice and devoting ourselves completely to Jehovah God in full consecration. The Bible expresses it just that way, saying: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus; for the spirit’s law—life in Christ Jesus—has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what was impossible to the Law—thwarted as it was by human frailty—God effected. Sending his own Son in the form of sinful humanity to deal with sin, God pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature; in order that in our case the requirements of the Lawmight be fully met.” (Rom. 8:1-4, 'Weymouth') The law that the Scripture here speaks of is the law that Jehovah God gave to the nation of Israel through the prophet Moses. The fundamentals of this law-were summed up in the Ten Commandments.

• ¹³ God’s law was given through Moses at Mount Sinai in Arabia in 1513 B.C., but it did not remedy matters for any of the human race. That is, it did not lift the nation of Israel out from under the condemnation inherited from Adam, because, if it had done so, it would not have been needful for the Israelites to have even Moses’ brother Aaron and his sons serve as a priesthood for the nation. The law, being from God, was all right, perfect in itself, righteous, holy. But the human flesh upon which the law was made binding was what caused the difficulty. The flesh prevented the Israelites from measuring up to the standard of human perfection and so proving worthy of the right to life, free from condemnation. (Rom. 7:15) Even after they were given the law, the sin and imperfection and adverse judgment of God remained upon the Israelites the same as upon the rest of mankind, except that now-, being favored with such a set of God-given laws, the Israelites came under a special accountability to the great Lawgiver and Judge, Jehovah. By being breakers of this law of their national covenant with God the Israelites came under the divine curse. Jesus Christ’s death on the tree alone could rescue them

• 12. How is escape from this condemnation gained by us?

• 13. Why did the Mosaic law not remedy matters for the Israelites? from it. “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”—Gal. 3:10,13.

ABRAHAMIC PROMISE REMAINS IN FORCE

• ¹⁴ The mediator Moses was a minister or servant of that law covenant with Israel. The law of the covenant failed to legislate righteousness into the Israelite nation. It exposed them plainly as sinners, unable to justify themselves by any works of righteousness of their own. Moses’ bringing the law to the Israelites has rightly been spoken of, therefore, as “the ministration of condemnation”. It was such because the law that Moses ministered simply made it appear all the more strongly that they had inherited condemnation from Adam and that God was right in condemning them as well as all the rest of mankind. The law made them acquainted with what sin is. It showed them up as being in sin, the wages of which is death. For that reason, too, Moses’ ministration of the law to Israel was also properly called “the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones”. (2 Cor. 3: 7,9) Although it was a ministration of condemnation and of death, the delivery of the Mosaic law was made the occasion for marvelous supernatural sights and sounds around Mount Sinai and even with glory beaming from Moses’ face so that he was obliged to veil his face from the terrified Israelites. This glorious background to the law of the covenant was in order to give the law covenant a fitting send-off, to show the dignity of it and the seriousness of it, and to show its authenticity or genuineness as being truly from Jehovah the Almighty God and Supreme Lawgiver. Also it foreshadowed the giving of a better covenant, a new covenant, which was to be marked with even greater glory, a glory that should not pass away as Moses’ glory did.

• ¹⁵ For a fact, the entrusting of that law to Jacob’s descendants, the Israelites, was an honor to them, for Jehovah God did not deal so with any other people. What nation on earth was there then, or is there to this day, that had or has such a marvelous law? “He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.” (Ps. 147:19,20) Said Moses to the Israelites: “What nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him

• 14. How did Moses minister condemnation and death? Why with glory? 15 Why must a day come for God to hold final judgment with them? for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” (Deut. 4:7,8) Therefore there must come a day when God would hold final judgment with that nation of Israel for the great favor and privileges which he had long let them enjoy by the law. That he would do so, he reminded them, saying: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”—Amos 3: 2.

• ¹⁸ The law given through Moses did not cancel or set aside the promise that had been made to the patriarch Abraham 430 years earlier. At that time, because of Abraham’s faith and devotion, Jehovah God entered into a covenant with him, the terms of which were dictated by Jehovah God and which said: “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” After Abraham had proved •willing to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac to God, this covenant promise was enlarged to say: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 12:3; 22:18) This covenant with Abraham concerning his seed still stood after the giving of the Mosaic law to the nation of Israel, and the Israelites thought that by keeping the Mosaic law they could become that seed for blessing all other nations.

• ¹⁷ If, though, the privilege of being the seed to bless all families and nations of the earth was to be by their own righteousness through keeping the Mosaic law, then the Abrahamic covenant would have been made useless or set aside. If that was the purpose of giving them the law at Sinai, then it would have been as if God said to them: ^trWell, now, with this law you can earn your own salvation, and the sending of the Seed of the Abrahamic promise is no more necessary. By the works of this law you can justify yourselves and prove yourselves deserving of eternal life and worthy of my everlasting blessing. By this law is your chance for eternal life and blessing.” To the contrary of this, the Mosaic law, because of the very unattainableness of its righteousness by condemned, imperfect men descended from Adam, was given for the sake of showing up their sins rather than their self-righteousness. It was given in order to teach the Israelites all the more that they needed to have Abraham’s Seed btjui in Liieii uenaix, uuvauou the JJiuoaw iuvy uitiue them all the more conscious of their sins and helplessness, and their inability to earn their own eternal salvation by self-righteousness. In view of this distressing fact, the Abrahamic covenant should have been a comfort to all faithful, believing Israelites, instead of being ignored because of the Mosaic law.

• ¹⁸ The law covenant was a schoolmaster to point

• 10. What covenant still stood after giving Israel the law?

• 17. What, then, was the purpose in adding the Mosaic law?

• 18. How was it a schoolmaster? and why not with an eternal curse? them to Christ the Messiah. Along with having it, they could still trust in the Abrahamic covenant. They could still hope in the promised Seed, desiring his coming in order that they might get the blessing that would relieve them of the divine condemnation through the Law. The condemnation or curse of the law was not something that could not be lifted from the faithful-hearted ones. It was not a curse to a destruction from which there was no escape or release. The condemnation was not something which could not be changed by suitable means. Had it been such a thing, then the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant would have been of no benefit to Israelites. But the Abrahamic covenant was meant to include them, because the promise said that in Abraham and his seed, namely, in Jehovah God and his Seed of his “woman”, Jesus Christ, all families and nations of the earth would be blessed. That meant also the Israelites, and them first, too, because they were the natural descendants of the faithful Abraham of old, who was a prophetic type of Jehovah God. The law covenant through Moses was therefore not intended to continue upon the nation forever. Neither was the law covenant intended to be extended and applied to all the Gentile nations, for the blessing of the Israelites and of all the Gentile nations was not possible by that Mosaic law-covenant.

¹⁸ The ministration of the law covenant was a ministry of condemnation, but the Seed of Abraham was promised for the blessing of all families and nations with righteousness unto life everlasting. This is the teaching of the apostle’s words at Galatians 3:15-19, 24, namely: “Brethren, I speak according to man;—no one sets aside or superadds conditions to a ratified compact, though human. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, even for his seed. He does not say, ‘And to the seeds,’ as concerning many, but as concerning one; ‘And to thy seed,’ —who is Christ. Now this I affirm, that a covenantengagement previously ratified by God, the law, issued four hundred and thirty years afterwards does not annul, so as to invalidate the promise; for if the inheritance be by law, it is no longer by promise; but God graciously gave it to Abraham by promise. Why then the law? It was appointed on account of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise related; having been instituted by mean's of angels, in the hand of a mediator. So that the law has become our pedagogue to lead to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”—The Emphatic Diaglott.

ISRAEL’S DAY OF RECKONING

²⁰ Above, the apostle plainly says that the promised Seed of Abraham is Christ, that is to say, the

19. For what purpose was Abraham’s seed promised, unlike the law? 20. Why was the law due to pass after Jesus' anointing? anointed Jesus. It was at the Jordan river, immediately after his baptism by John the son of priest Zacharias, that Jesus was anointed with the holy spirit of God and thereby became Christ or Anointed One. Since the Mosaic law-covenant was a later addition to the Abrahamic covenant and to continue only until this promised Seed of Abraham should arrive, it follows that with Jesus’ arrival and anointing the days of the Mosaic law-covenant with the nation of Israel were numbered.

• ²¹ That law covenant had been added for the sake of transgressions. It was added to convict the Jews of transgressions and to convince them they were sinners unable to justify themselves by self-righteousness. It was therefore to prove to them that they needed the foretold Seed of Abraham, and was to serve as a school-attendant to guide them to Christ the Seed. This was the thought behind Jesus’ own words to the Jews: “Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.” (John 5:46) The question that now arose with Jesus’ presence among the nation of Israel was, Would the Israelites now be led by the Mosaic law to him as the Abrahamic Seed of blessing? With Christ Jesus among them, preaching God’s kingdom and performing many miracles, the nation of Israel entered into a period of trial, a day of judgment. It was an end of a world for them, because it was the time when that system of things ended which had been in force for 1,542 years according to the law covenant made with their forefathers at Mount Sinai.

• ²² At Jesus’ anointing with the holy spirit A.D. 29 he became God’s anointed High Priest, not according to the Levite family of Aaron, but according to the rank of the non-Israelite, non-Levite high priest Melchizedek who had once blessed faithful Abraham. By possessing his own perfect human life the High Priest Christ Jesus was in possession of a holy and acceptable sacrifice that he could offer up to God. It would really take away sins and would provide a righteous standing for sinners that accepted it. Because the sacrifice of himself as a perfect man could do this, he as High Priest needed to offer just one sacrifice, himself, and no more. On this account it is written concerning Christ Jesus: “Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the [Jewish! high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others [and not his own]; for then must he [that is, Jesus Christ] often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto

• 21. How did Israel enter a day of judgment and end of a world?

• 22. What kind of priest was Jesus, and why needing to offer just one sacrifice? them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”—Heb. 9: 25-28.

• ²³ Christ Jesus manifestly came for a positive purpose, not for a “ministration of condemnation” like that of Moses when mediating the law covenant with Israel. He came for a work of salvation in vindication of God’s name and sovereignty. All those saved will be delivered to the everlasting obedience to God’s universal sovereignty. Hence Jesus said to the Jewish ruler: "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” (John 3:17-21) Thus, while Jesus was not sent into the world expressly to condemn mankind by a “ministration of condemnation”, there were many that were condemned in connection with his coming and presence. This was true, although the judgment of all the world, Jew and Gentile, had not yet come.

• ²⁴ Jesus said: “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judg-eth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." (John 12:46-48) From this we gather the thought that then, at his first coming, which was in the flesh, he did not come to start a judgment day of all humankind. That would come “in the last day”. He confined his preaching and activities strictly to the Israelites or Jews, and this put the Israelites specially on trial before God. On this basis Jesus did not contradict what we have quoted above when he said in the hearing of the Jewish Pharisees: “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.”—John 9: 39.

• ²⁵ The man that had been sightless from birth and whom Jesus had healed said in answer to the question, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” “Lord, I believe,” and then worshiped Jesus. But the Pharisees heard Jesus say that many who claimed to have spiritual sight would be made blind, and so they said to him: “Are we blind also?” And Jesus replied: “If

• 23. With what positive purpose did Jesus come in the flesh?

• 24. How did he not come to judge the world, yet come for judgment? 25. What judgments came upon the seeing ones and the blind? ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.” (John 9: 35, 38, 40,41) It is beyond contradiction, then, that the presence and the preaching and the works of the Son of God put the Israelites on trial. The whole nation of Israel as such entered into a day of judgment. There was a division of the Israelites into the spiritually blind and the spiritually seeing ones. The ones that saw by having faith such as their forefather Abraham had saw that Jesus was the Son of God, the promised Seed of Abraham for their blessing. They proved themselves to be real children of faithful Abraham, because they did not trust in any selfrighteousness of their own by the works of the Mosaic law-covenant. All these were harvested from among the nation of Israel and brought into Jehovah’s Theocratic organization under Christ the Seed of Abraham. All the rest of the nation continued under condemnation and the curse of the law covenant that they had not kept.

• ²⁶ Concerning that season of judgment and the division of the nation into two classes John the Baptist said this as a prophet: “And even now the axe lieth at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the holy spirit and in fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.” (Matt. 3:10-12, Am. Stan. Ver.) Of necessity, Jesus as the tree chopper or as the harvester with the fan or winnowing fork had to act as judge, to determine which trees to chop down and destroy with fire and to decide which Israelites were wheat to be baptized with the holy spirit and which were chaff to be baptized with fiery destruction. Hence that was a national judgment day, from which only a remnant of natural Israelites came forth bearing the Kingdom fruits like good fruit-bearing trees and like spirit-baptized wheat preserved within Christ’s Theocratic organization. With reference to that national judgment-day or harvest Jesus said to his apostles: “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. I sent you to reap.” (John 4:35,36,38) That harvest-judgment ended with Jerusalem’s fiery end A.D. 70.

• ²⁷ At Jesus’ first coming to the Israelites, therefore, he came to carry out God’s judgment long ago 26. How was it a judgment day as described by John the Baptist? 27. Why should we today take that judgment of Israel seriously? foretold when the prophet Isaiah had a vision of Jehovah’s glory at his temple. Accordingly it is recorded of Jesus: "But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? For this cause they could not believe, for that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and he hardened their heart; lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and should turn, and I should heal them. These things said Isaiah, because he saw his glory; and he spake of him.” (John 12:37-41, Am. Stan.Ver.) This class of Israelites with eyes blinded by the Jews’ religion and with hearts hardened by selfish unbelief was the condemned-tree class. They were the throw-away chaff class that were burned with fire of terrific tribulation at the close of that judgment-period when Jerusalem was destroyed, many of the hard-hearted unbelievers being destroyed with it in the year 70. This matter is to be taken seriously to heart by us today. Why? Because that destructive culmination of the judgment time upon the Jewish nation was but a smallscale typical picture of the culmination of the judgment period into which the world of today has entered, and particularly so-called “Christendom”.

THE PRINCE CAST OUT

• ²⁸ Just a few days before being lifted up on the torture stake to die in agony Jesus called attention to the judgment at that time. He said: “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.” “Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die. The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?” (John 12: 27-34) God’s permitting the death of Christ Jesus on the tree was a point of judgment for them. It stumbled many who did not appreciate the sufferings that Christ the Messiah must first undergo from the Serpent at his heel before entering into his heavenly glory. The Jewish nation of that day being made the direct spectators of these things right in their midst were

• 28. How did Jesus’ death test them and put them to judgment? subjected to a judgment confined strictly to them.

• ²⁰ Jesus well stated it then, when he said: “Now is the judgment of this world,” because that Jewish nation throughout his three and a half years of ministry proved itself to be a part of this world. Under judgment they proved they hated him, and hence Jesus said to his apostles: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.” (John 15:18,22-25) For this reason the “prince of this world” was to be cast out or expelled.

• ⁸⁰ Who is this “prince” ? Satan the Devil, who, Jesus said, would shortly come and find Jesus refused to have anything in common with him and would therefore bruise the heel of the Seed of God’s woman. (John 14:30) The prince of this world had taken control of the majority of the Jewish nation and put them at enmity with the Seed of God’s woman. This was notably true of the rulers of the Jews who led off in the persecution of Jesus Christ and in procuring his death on the tree at Roman hands. As to the fact of this Peter said to the Jews: “Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of Efe, ... And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.” (Acts 3:14-17; John 12:43,44) Further concerning these Jewish princes the apostle Paul said: “They that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.” (Acts 13:27,28) And then to Christians he said of those Jewish rulers: “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”—1 Cor. 2:6-8.

• ⁸¹ As represented in that hard-hearted, unbelieving nation and primarily its willfully ignorant rulers or princes, Satan the Devil was cast out as “the prince of this world”. Their capital city with its

• 29. Why then, did Jesua Bay: “Now Is the judgment of this world”? 30. Who Is “the prince” that was to be cast out then?

31, 32. How does Pam throw light on this costing out? temple house was abandoned by God to continual decline and final destruction A.D. 70. Therefore Jesus publicly spoke woe to the prominent and highly respected scribes and Pharisees and said: “0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house [the temple of you scribes and Pharisees] is left unto you desolate.” That was the house or temple that Jesus said they had turned into a den of thieves, and hence a place of their “father the Devil”. (Matt. 23:1-38; 21:13; John 8:44) The casting out of this nation which had come under control of the “prince of this world” was long previously foreshadowed in the household affairs of Abraham. It was when he with God’s approval dismissed Hagar the Egyptian mother of his firstborn son Ishmael from his establishment. He sent her and the boy away to shift for themselves in the world. Abraham did so at the urgent request of his true wife Sarah, because Ishmael menaced the life and happiness of Isaac, the beloved son that Sarah had borne to Abraham. The apostle Paul explains it thus, saying:

• ³² “For it has been written, That Abraham had two sons; one from the bond-woman, and one from the free-woman. Now, the one from the bond-woman was naturally produced; but the other from the free-woman was through the promise. Which things are allegorical; for these represent two covenants; one indeed from Mount Sinai, breeding children for servitude;—that is, Hagar. Now Hagar signifies Sinai (a mountain in Arabia), and it corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in bondage with her children. But the exalted Jerusalem represents the free-woman, who is our mother. ... Now you brethren, like Isaac, are children of a promise. But just as then, the one born according to flesh, persecuted him born according to spirit; so also now. But what says the scripture? 'Cast out the bond-woman and her son; for the son of the bond-woman should not be an heir with the son of the free-woman.’ Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free-woman.”—Gal. 4: 22-31, The Emphatic Diaglott.

• ³³ Those who indulged in persecuting Christ Jesus and his faithful followers or brethren lent themselves to Satan the Devil as his seed, 'the seed of the Serpent.’ When God rejected the Israelite nation of opposers to Christ, it was therefore a judgment down upon Satan the world’s prince. This judgment was further shown in the fact that God’s holy spirit from Pentecost onward was not poured out upon the

33, 34. (a) How was this judgment shown in regard to God's spirit? (b) How did it convict concerning sin, righteousness, judgment?

Jewish princes and rulers and religious heads but was poured upon the small remnant that accepted Jesus as Messiah, the promised Seed of Abraham. As respects this judgment upon Satan and his visible organization Jesus specifically spoke after his last supper with his disciples. He then told them of the comforting holy spirit and said: “It is better for you that I should go away; for if I go not away, the helper will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you. And having come, he will convict the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment; concerning sin, indeed, because they believe not into me; but concerning righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you behold me no more; and concerning judgment, because the ruler [or prince] of this world has been judged.”—John 16:7-11, Diaglott.

• ³¹ Under the power of God’s outpoured spirit from and after Pentecost the good news about his anointed Son was preached, but for^- stubbornly refusing to accept him as the Messianic Seed the Jews failed to receive the spirit and were convicted as being unbelieving sinners. But a faithful remnant out of the nation believed in the Son of God as their escape from divine condemnation, and they had righteousness imputed to them through Christ Jesus, who had gone to heaven to his Father and presented the merit of his human sacrifice to Him. Furthermore, the outpouring of the spirit was a judgment against Satan the Devil and his earthly seed because it proved that Christ Jesus had been recovered from the heelwound inflicted by the Serpent and had been raised from the dead and had ascended to his heavenly Father’s right hand. So now the eventual bruising of the Serpent’s head was a dead certainty.

• ³⁵ Satan, the prince of this world, had lost out and was condemned as a liar, whereas Jesus had won out because of maintaining his integrity to God while persecuted by the Serpent and his seed. God therefore appointed him to be Judge of both the dead and the living and the Judge of all of Satan’s world. (Acts 10:42) The final judgment day on which Jehovah God will be fully vindicated through his appointed Judge is therefore a certainty to be faced by the dead and the living. “He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”—Acts 17: 31.

FAVORABLE OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL NATIONS

• ³⁸ Owing to the Jews’ hard-hearted unbelief and their adulterous connections and alliance with this wicked world Jesus pointed in warning to that com-

• 35. Why Is the judgment day of the living and dead a certainty?

• 36. Why and how will the repentant Nlnevites condemn that generation of Jews in the judgment day? ing day of judgment wherein even the dead will rise from the graves. Showing the disadvantage that the Jews would have because of lack of faith and humility toward God, Jesus made out that they were worse off than the out-and-out heathen, by saying: “The Ninevites will stand up in the judgment against this generation, and cause it to be condemned; for they reformed at the warning of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” (Matt. 12:41, Diaglott) That is not saying that the rebellious Jews of that time or generation who persistently persecuted Jesus and his apostles will rise in the judgment day of the world. At death they went to Gehenna, but the Ninevites that repented will have a part in the general resurrection of judgment, not to be judges of the Jews, however. All judgment has been given into the hands of Jehovah’s Judge, Christ Jesus, and he will therefore make all the dead in the graves hear his rousing voice and come forth to the opportunities of the New World under his kingdom. So, what Jesus meant was this: Those Ninevites, by their course of conduct during Jonah’s preaching among them, set up a standard of faith and humility against which the Jews of Jesus’ day and since could be measured. The measurement was sure to be, not favorable to the proud, self-righteous religious Jews, but condemning toward them.

³⁷ God’s purpose in sending Jonah to the inhabitants of heathenish Nineveh was evidently to show up the Jews in this respect. It also provided some wonderful prophetic pictures, such as Jesus’ resurrection from hell, which resurrection was a forerunner and guarantee of the resurrection of the repentant Ninevites and of all others in the graves. Jesus was the Greater Jonah. His preaching laid the basis for condemning the unrepentant, unreforming Jews living in the days of the public ministry of Jesus and his twelve apostles. To this day the vast majority of the natural Jews have failed to follow the example of the Ninevites and have refused to repent at the things preached by the Greater Jonah and to turn to him as the true Messiah, Abraham’s Seed. For this reason they have turned down the divinely provided way of salvation, and the Kingdom privileges have been extended to the Gentiles. Many of 37. With what purpose did God send Jonah to Nineveh to preach? and how has this been fulfilled regarding the Greater Jonah since?

these have had faith and humility like those ancient Ninevites that repented at Jonah’s warning of destructive judgment as about to be executed by Jehovah God upon their mighty and populous city.

^S8 Justly the nation of natural Jews was cast out of God’s favor and organization, and the Kingdom gospel was sent afar to all the nations. As at other Gentile cities, at Antioch in Pisidia the apostle Paul and the Levite Barnabas preached in the synagogue to the Jews and to Gentile proselytes to Judaism. Here is what happened to show that the judgment went against the Jews and piled up against them till Jerusalem was wiped out A.D. 70. “But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.” Unlike the majority of the Jews then, “when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”—Acts 13: 45-48.

” That was a serious charge made by the apostle, that the unbelieving natural Israelites had judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life. It was a warning of everlasting destruction. That day of national judgment for those natural descendants of Abraham was climaxed by Jerusalem’s destruction by Roman military might in that fateful year 70. But it was a portentous foreshadowing of something future. It showed what was certain in the long process of time to befall the Gentile nations among whom the Kingdom gospel should be widely preached and who profess to accept it. Bluntly stated, it was an ominous foreshadowing of the judgment to come upon Christendom in our marvelous twentieth century. But this and other questions on judgment we leave to a supplementary article to explain, next issue.

38. How did the judgment of Jews show up at Antioch In Plsldla? 39. (a) Why was the apostle's charge against the Jews very serious? (b) Why was the nation’s break-up a serious portent for Christendom?

THE BIBLE’S AUTHOR

BEFORE we can know the Author we must believe that he exists. How can we believe? By first having some knowledge. Take in such knowledge by looking around and reasoning upon what you see. Those flowers blooming in your garden: out of the same soil grow the many floral varieties of different hues and colors. Likewise from the same soil spring the divers kinds of trees, bringing forth different fruits at different seasons of the year. Some wisdom superior to man’s must have arranged these things. And some wisdom greater than puny man’s must have created the broad fields, the lofty mountains, the mighty rivers, the restless oceans, and surrounded this earthly ball with an expansive universe that staggers the mind of man. Gaze with awe into the silent heavens at nighttime. Can you number the stars and planets moving through limitless space? Not with the most powerful telescope! Vast numbers of these heavenly bodies are so large that they dwarf the earth, yet each hangs in its place and noiselessly speeds in its orbit. Surely not all this has come about by chance, but the faculty of reason forces the conclusion that a Creator greater than this marvelous creation put them there!

That Creator is Jehovah God. (Gen. 1:1; Isa. 40: 28) He is without beginning and without end; as Moses wrote of Him under inspiration: “From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” (Ps. 90:2) The four great and eternal attributes of Jehovah God are love, wisdom, justice and power, which are manifested in various times and ways. Wisdom is particularly manifested in Jehovah’s great purpose, which is set out in the book of which he is the Author, namely, the Bible. Far in advance of accomplishment Jehovah could state his purpose in the Bible because his wisdom enabled him to see the end from the beginning. (Isa. 46: 9-11; Acts 15:18) Since man is the very highest type of all living earthly creatures and his intelligence is far superior to that of any other creature on earth, and since man is fearfully and wonderfully made, it is reasonable that his Creator would reveal to him something of the divine greatness and purpose. This Jehovah God has done through the Bible.

Who wrote the Bible? Men devoted to righteousness were moved to write by the invisible power of Jehovah; and several writers so state. (2 Sam. 23: 2; Luke 1:70; 2 Pet. 1:21) This invisible power or spirit of God operated upon the minds of honest men who loved and were devoted to God’s righteousness and promised Government of the New World. In the work of creation the invisible power or spirit of Jehovah operated, and in like manner it later moved men to write at its dictation. (Gen. 1:2) Thus did Moses write the first five books of the Bible. God’s invisible power, which is the holy spirit, operating upon Moses’ mind, enabled him to make a record of the chief events that had occurred and to write the law of God as given to the nation of Israel through Moses. In no other way could the true history of creation have been written. Such facts and truths were, therefore, written by inspiration of God, and not by imagination of ancient men.—See 2 Timothy 3:16; Job 32:8.

Before Christ there were more than twenty-eight writers of the Hebrew Scriptures, some of whom were prophets and by God’s power foretold events yet far in the future. Christ Jesus when on earth spoke wisdom from God, including many prophecies, and years after his resurrection the holy spirit operated upon his disciples to record these wise and prophetic words, along with other essential truths regarding Jehovah’s purpose. Hence it may be said that such Bible prophecy is history written before it occurs.

No human mind could of itself actually foretell facts or events to happen in the future. Only the divine mind, knowing the end from the beginning, could do that. If, then, we find that the Bible foretold certain facts and events centuries before they were to happen, and if now these events and facts are established as having taken place, such agreement of prophecy and later facts would be the strongest proof that the writers of such prophecies were inspired to write by the divine, all-knowing mind. That is exactly the type of evidence that confronts this generation of modern times. It comprises the strongest circumstantial proof that the Bible is inspired, and that Almighty God, Jehovah, and not the holy men whom he used as his secretaries or scribes, is the Author of the Bible. The collection of the Bible’s sixty-six books into one volume was under the guidance of its Author. Its preservation through the centuries cannot be ascribed to any religious organization, but to its Author, who preserved The Book that it might serve the purpose for which it was written. —1 Cor. 10:11.

INTO THE FAR EAST

TIE two world-travelers N. H. Knorr and M. G. Henschel, whose globe-girdling service-tour we are following in these columns, have now finished up their work in behalf of God’s kingdom in the island continent of Australia. They are on their way to Mascot Airport at Sydney, preparing to leave for the next leg of their round-the-world trip that started from Brooklyn, New York, early last February. Workers at the Strathfield Branch office of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society were all anxious to go to the airport to see the Society’s president and his secretary off. The Society’s truck was rigged up with benches and practically the entire family had boarded it and were escorting the travelers to the suburban area of Sydney at seven-thirty o’clock on the evening of Thursday, March 27. Upon arriving at the airport the travelers went through the customary procedure for departing persons and then there were the final few minutes with the members of the Strathfield Bethel family and the visitors from the Sydney company of Jehovah’s witnesses. To all it seemed much too soon when the large remodeled four-engine Lancaster bomber taxied up to the terminal building. Our travelers were not anxious to leave, but since they must part from their brethren they looked forward to returning to Australia at another time.

Shortly before 9 p.m. six passengers and the crew boarded the plane. It was quite a new experience for the travelers from America, for they had never been inside a plane with so small a cabin and so few seats. There were seats for nine passengers, but, instead of facing to the front as is usual, they were lined up side by side, so that the pilots’ cabin was to the left of the passengers as they were seated. Bunks had been mentioned to them by the Qantas Empire Airways, the operators of the Lancastrian Service, and we could see three overhead. The seats were large and comfortable, and we were to find later on that these were made up into berths for sleeping of three more passengers; but these berths or bunks were none too large.

A few minutes after 9 p.m. our plane was gaining altitude over the brightly lighted city of Sydney, passing over the bowling greens and tennis courts used at night by the pleasure seekers, tipping its wings to the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge, and then speeding toward the northwest and the next airport, Darwin. In a very short time the lights of Sydney faded in the distance and there was not much left to do but retire. We had to crowd into a corner or stand up somewhere in the cabin while the steward made up the bunks and assigned us to our places. It seemed to us that we had put forth a lot of effort and used a lot of time getting ready and using the bunks, for the little amount of sleep we were able to get was interfered with abruptly at four o’clock in the morning, when the steward brought a cup of coffee to each passenger and instructed each one to dress and prepare for landing at Darwin. Eight and a half hours after take-off we landed at Darwin; so we realized how fast our plane had traveled, for we knew it was 1,966 miles from Sydney to Darwin.

At Darwin’s aerodrome we found out how warm the north part of Australia could be. It was dark in the early morning hours, “cool,” they said; but the passengers were not used to that tropical weather and perspired freely as they were escorted from the plane to the waiting bus that was to take them into the city. As we sped along the highway, all we could see was the four-foot grass and a few trees. All the men were taken to Mess No. 1 building and the one woman passenger to the hotel. Showers were available and, though the shower felt refreshingly cool, as soon as one dressed again he felt as if he had not dried himself. Perspiration flowed freely. Cool drinks were served, but still it was a warm country. Then back to the bus and over to the hotel for breakfast. After breakfast the passengers were permitted to stroll about the streets near the hotel. As the travelers awaited word that the plane was once again ready to fly they could sec the sun begin to rise over the bay. Soon the light of day began to reveal the make-up of the city, and we began to feel that we knew where we were. We could see the bay and its few naval tugs, as well as some of the city streets and shops. Then came word to return to the aerodrome. On the trip there we got a better idea of what Darwin was like. We found it was not a very large place; houses were scattered here and there, most of them being built high off the ground on concrete blocks or piling of six or more feet in height. There was nothing very attractive about Darwin; it appeared to be in a rather unfruitful country.

When we boarded the plane and waited for the take-off, we found that we had another man with us as passenger. He joined us at the take-off in viewing the contours of Darwin’s harbor. While there was nothing outstanding about it, there is something interesting for air travelers where the coastline joins the breakers. The land in the background was flat and uninteresting, tropical but not picturesque. And it was not long before we were flying at 10,000 feet at a speed of 238 miles per hour. The first large body of land sighted was the island of Timor, that territory in the East Indies that for so long had been shared by the Dutch and Portuguese. Its bluish-gray hills could be seen off in the distance as we passed over the Timor sea; and as we approached we found the western portion of the island we were to cross was very rugged, green and apparently full of beauty spots. From the air we could see many cliffs and ravines, which had been formed by the fast-moving rivers down through the years. At the high rate of speed of our plane it did not take us long to cross the elongated island and the Sawoe sea.

Next the island Flores. Heavy vegetation was seen to be all over this island, and one or two plantation houses were visible near the cultivated spots. Then the Flores sea came under us, and multitudes of islands which looked from high above like brilliant jade gems in the midst of deep-blue water. Each one appeared to be a paradise all its own, and most of them were very small. How striking they were, those gem-like isles of green in the vast blue seas whose pounding surf upon the shores formed a contrasting silver-white setting! And on the horizon the huge billowy white clouds interspersed with patches of blue sky served to accentuate the beauty of the scene.

SINGAPORE

As we reached the Java sea we beheld to the north the shore of the fabulous island of Borneo. At the east there were high mountains, but soon the terrain became flat and marshy, there being many rivers draining into the sea. In story books they have told of wild men of Borneo, and when we saw a few palm huts occasionally we would wonder whether there were some of the wild men living there. All along the south coast of Borneo we flew. Then at 1: 35 p.m. we crossed the equator and were soon over the islands lying just below Singapore, which city of world fame is approximately sixty miles north of the equator. Once over the harbor at Singapore we began to see the evidence that war had been fought through recent years. Funnels of ships and parts of hulls could be seen in the water. Docks had been damaged. At the Civil Airport, Kallang, where we were to land we could see the rusting steel frames of hangar buildings that had been burned out during the war. Our aircraft circled the city twice and then made a smooth landing on the steel mesh runway.

At the airport we were met by a pioneer Kingdom publisher who had served for many years in the Far East. Our luggage was inspected and put on the airways’ bus by which we traveled through the city to the airways’ office at the Raffles hotel. The trip was very interesting. First we passed the rows of Chinese shops. Every opening in the wall was used, by either a blacksmith, a cobbler, a merchant, or a jeweler. There were many eating places, too, but it seemed that many vendors of food had set up their restaurants along the curbs and were preparing their meals on the streets, where squatting persons were eating. It was very plain to see that the Chinese had retained their customary dress and habits of old China. This set them in contrast with the various Indian peoples who identified themselves by their turbans or a colored fez. Europeans, civilian and military, were also about in smaller numbers, some with sun helmets and shorts on, and others in conventional European attire. Occasionally we saw a Chinese or Indian who had gone over to the use of white man’s clothing; but for the most part they appeared to be proud of their nationality and glad to identify themselves by their dress.

Signs were posted all over the business districts on posts and walls, but we were unable to understand the majority of them because we were not students of Eastern languages. Trucks whizzed by that had all sorts of Chinese writing on the sides. Taxis of every description were plentiful, and there were thousands of bicycles on the streets. We had heard of the jinrikishas and had seen pictures of them in travel books, but here in Singapore we were surprised to find that almost all of them were tricycle-style and no longer pulled by a Chinese on foot.

We had been warned by the steward aboard the plane that accommodations were very scarce and that petty pilfering was very rife in Singapore. So we consulted the Qantas Empire Airways representatives at the Raffles hotel about rooms for the night. Since we were transit passengers en route to Manila the airways furnished free rooms for us at the hotel, which we were pleased to accept. A third person was staying in the room, a Chinese businessman who had come from Sydney a week before and whose plane had been delayed a week before departing for China. Later on we were to witness to him concerning God’s kingdom and to place some booklets and magazines of the Watch Tower Society with him.

When we heard his story about delays, we lost no time in finding out about our connecting plane to Manila. In New York we had been told that the plane would leave on March 29 and would fly direct to Manila; but when we contacted the agent we were advised that departure would not be until the 30th and that then there would be stopovers at Bangkok and Hong Kong. We had expected to remain in Singapore over one night only, but now we were given an extra day in that warm city. We would also have to register with the police department and get permission to leave Singapore on the 30th. The trip to the police headquarters took us into another part of the city and gave us the opportunity of seeing more interesting sights. We could see close at hand how the people lived and did business. It seemed as though there were many flags of various colors and shapes hanging on poles down the street, but as we came closer we found it was washday and the Chinese had the custom of hanging their clothes out on bamboo poles over the streets to dry. There were hundreds of them, and in among the clothes we could pick out lots of Chinese flags flying from the buildings. This we were told showed how glad the Chinese of Singapore were that the Japanese army was no longer in control there. At the police headquarters we saw some of the Japanese prisoners of war who had been held to do laboring work in repairing some of the destruction wrought by the war.

The city itself is built around the water, and there is a canal that passes through the heart of the business area. Here we saw sampans, junks and small boats of various kinds, just about anything that would float. Stevedoring work was being done by men and women alike, mostly Chinese coolies, unloading rubber, pineapples, firewood, or huge crates of goods. The waters were very dirty, and a variety of" odors’greeted our nostrils; yet there were the Chinese children swimming in among the boats and having a good time.

The buildings in the part of the city we visited are all stone and concrete. We were told that no one knows how many of the natives, particularly the Chinese, live in one room, and that many of them have merely a place in which to change their clothing or store their few personal possessions. Many of them live on the streets day and night, and they say it is the best place to keep cool. Our hotel rooms were kept cool by fans going all night. Here we were to have our first experience of the trip sleeping under mosquito nets.

While in Singapore we arranged for two meetings, Friday and Saturday evenings at six o’clock. Eight attended the first meeting, and nine the second. The group of interested ones is made up of Europeans, Indians and Chinese. All of them are able to speak some Malay and some English. Some of them had been in prison camps for years during the occupation by the Japanese and suffered considerable losses of personal property as a result. Others had known of the truth before the war and, because they were not Europeans, had not been imprisoned. Still others had been interested after the return of the British to Malaya. It was gratifying to meet these brethren, for here was a nucleus for the re-establishment and development of the Kingdom work in Malaya. They expressed themselves as desirous of having regular study meetings once more, and were glad when Brothers Knorr and Henschel told them that two graduates of Gilead were to arrive on April 5 and that these brethren would be glad to show them what to do for the advancement of the service. A missionary home would be established and the brethren would be organized into a company. This made our extra day’s stay in Singapore seem worth while, and we were satisfied that it was the Lord’s will in the matter.

At six o’clock on Sunday morning, March 30, we were on our way to the airport to depart for Bangkok, Siam. It was raining hard, and Brother J. F. James, who took us to the airport, said it was unusual weather, but we soon found out that our plane would leave as scheduled. It was a pleasure to have two of the brethren with us at the airport, and we expressed to them our hope that sometime we might be privileged to return to Singapore and find a larger organization there. In our minds or in the minds of these brethren there is no question that a great work is yet to be done in Singapore. And that the literature will be printed in Malay, Chinese and Tamil, the principal languages used by the people in Malaya in addition to English, is their hope. They told us how much they desired to have the latest publications in these languages as soon as possible; so we assured them that we would see what we could do in China and India to forward the translation work.

BANGKOK

The plane we were boarding now was a DC-3, American-made. It was fitted out with two rows of bamboo armchairs on one side and bucket seats on the other. It was a former army-transport plane, but it was not up to perfection, because the driving rains came in through the doors; but we got into the sky in good order and the pilot steered the plane 40 miles off course so as to avoid the rain and storms over the land. He traveled right up the Gulf of Siam, and in 4| hours we were flying over the extremely flat lowlands of Siam. We noted the many rivers and canals coursing through the land, and how the people had built their houses all along the canals. In the many rivers were fishtraps. These are common along the coast of the lands of the Far East. From the sky they looked like long picket fences which lead into a funnel and then through a narrow opening into a heart-shaped trap, where the fisherman can gather the fish at will. The Don Muang Airport in Bangkok is about twelve miles north of the city, so we were not able to see the city from the air. This was just a stopover on our way to Hong Kong and Manila, but the brethren from Bangkok had been notified and were on hand to meet us. They took us into the city where we were to stay overnight. On the way into town over the rough road, from the car we got a close-up view of the canals, many of them filled with beautiful water lilies. The rice paddies had just been harvested. Hundreds of flat-horned water buffalo that are used for cultivating farms were roaming around the fields. People were washing themselves and their clothes in the muddy-water canals. Several Buddhist temples were seen along the way.

The brethren accommodated us at their home, which is the depot of the Society. These two pioneers who met us were German brethren that had escaped from the Nazis before the war and had come to Siam and had found a place to do good work in the interest of the Kingdom. We arrived at the depot, where one other German pioneer and the Siamese brethren were assembled for the Siamese Watchtower study. Immediately thereafter the English Watchtower was studied, and Brother Knorr was asked to read the paragraphs. It was an unexpected visit, because we were to spend five days in Bangkok a week later, at which time a public meeting was to be arranged for. After that a typical Siamese meal was provided, including soup and curry and sweet pork and rice.

Early in the morning we rose to leave for the airport. As we traveled through the outskirts of the city toward the airport we saw many men dressed in yellow robes walking along the side of the road. We were told these were Buddhist priests going along from house to house begging for their food. Each morning these priests walk along the roadsides and byways of the country, and people come to the road with large platters of rice and other foods. As the priests come by they put some rice in their bowls. Not a word is spoken; everything is done in silence. We must have passed more than a hundred of these priests on our drive of twelve miles to the airport.

HONG KONG

We were supposed to depart at 8 a.m. for Hong Kong on the Commercial Airlines, a Filipino company, but when the Siamese customs men made their inspection of the plane they found that during the time the plane was at the airport someone had smuggled some suitcases into the plane. Two small cases were taken into the customs office for inspection, and it was found that they contained thousands of bahts’ worth of silver jewelry. The captain of the ship was called in to sign papers showing he knew nothing of the cases, and then we were permitted to go. When we boarded the plane there was little done to us, because we were in transit, but the Chinese passengers who got on at Bangkok were thoroughly searched and all their clothing checked for smuggled goods. We had a full load as we took off for Hong Kong and still the plane got off the ground quickly. We flew above the clouds and got only an occasional view of the mountains of Indo-China and the Chinese island of Hainan. As we neared Hong Kong at about 3 p.m., we saw how mountainous the area was. This is one of the most difficult places in the world on which to effect a landing of aircraft, because on three sides of the airfield it is bounded by mountains or hills of as much as 2,300 feet in height and there are only two gaps through which the planes can approach the airport. Because of the hazardous conditions no night-flying is allowed. When coming into the airport the passengers often wonder how the pilot will make it, but he skims the plane over the hilltops and we know he has full control. He made a very smooth landing on our trip. Then there were the usual formalities of immigration and customs, after which we were given a ride on a truck to the Peninsula hotel, in Kowloon, where we were to stay overnight. Kowloon is on the mainland; Hong Kong is on the island across the bay. We were given good rooms at the hotel as guests of the airline.

A few months before we left New York an American brother in Hong Kong wrote to the Society’s office making inquiry about the work in Hong Kong and telling us of his interest in the work. He was associated with an American firm doing construction work on Hong Kong. We had his address when we arrived at Kowloon, and so we looked him up and, to our surprise, we found four persons interested in the truth, and it was indeed a pleasure to spend the evening with them. All were A-mp.-ricans who had come out to the Far East for work. We talked about the truth and found out something about the colony of Hong Kong. The brethren wanted literature with which to work, and arrangements were made for something to be shipped to them as soon as possible from the United States.

It was our schedule to leave the airport at ten o’clock the next morning, so our good friends accompanied us to the airport, where we took off for Manila. The weather at this time of the year is quite cloudy at Hong Kong, and as a result many of the early planes were grounded at the airport until just before we left. Clouds hanging low over the hills do not make for good flying conditions in Hong Kong. Though the clouds were at a low level and we could not see the tops of the hills around the airport, our plane sped along down the runway and the pilot knew where he was heading. We looked out of the window and saw how close to the hillsides we were as we gained altitude. Along the sides of the hills we could see how well the Chinese had terraced the land and arranged their little paddocks for the growing of food. It seemed that every possible inch of ground was in use on the hills.

The plane we were in took on new passengers at Hong Kong, and it became more like a menagerie. When Chinese travel they take the most unusual things with them. As baggage they had many baskets of ducks, chickens and other fowl, as well as a lot of chow puppies. What a serenade followed! The whining of the puppies, the peep of the chicks, the quacks of our web-footed friends, a veritable barnyard it was—almost a Noah’s ark of the sky!

Then out over the South China sea toward the island of Luzon in the Philippines we flew. But about that, more later!