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

Officers

N. H. Knobb, 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-wllL 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.

Notes 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 our 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.

Offices                                        Yearly Subscription Rate

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Translations of this journal appear in many languages.

ALL SINCERE STUDENTS OF THE BIBLE who by reason of infirmity, poverty or adversity are unable to pay the subscription price may have The Watchtower free 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.

Printed in the United States of America

Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Brooklyn, N, Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879.

“ALL NATIONS EXPANSION” TESTIMONY PERIOD

The entire month of August is a special testimony period designated as above, and the theme of expansion will be forwarded as Kingdom publishers everywhere enlarge their witnessing activities to take in the extensive rural sections of territory. The favorable weather of this midsummer month in the Northern Hemisphere invitingly calls for concentrated work in the countryside, and the offer is worthy of our best effort. For the third consecutive month the featured presentation will be three bound books on a $1.00 contribution, this to include, if at all possible, the Bible handbook “Equipped for Every Good Work” and the revealing textbook on fundamental Bible doctrine, "Let God Be True”, along with any other Watchtower bound-book publication. “Equipped for Every Good Work” will continue to be placed alone on a 50e contribution. By means of this offer during August the message of God’s established Kingdom will spread and expand in many nations. You, as a Watchtower reader, may share in the expansion work. A postcard or letter will bring us to your aid in putting you in touch with others near you active in this work, or in instructing you how to proceed. Please report your work accomplished during August, that the record of expansion in all nations may be complete.

UBE 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.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of August 3; “Judgment of Church and World,” fl 1-15 inclusive, The Watchtower July 1, 1947.

Week of August 10: “Judgment of Church and World,” fl 16-27 inclusive, also “Trial of the Quick and the Dead,” fl 1-3 inclusive, The Watchtower July 1, 1947.

Week of August 17: “Trial of the Quick and the Dead,” fl 4-19 inclusive, The Watchtower July 1, 1947.

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.

JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM

July 1, 1947

JUDGMENT OF CHURCH AND WORLD

"For Jehovah will judge his people." "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." —Deut. 32:36, Am. Stan. Ver.; Acts 17:31.

CCTEHOVAH is our judge, Jehovah is our law-| giver, Jehovah is our king; he will save us,” J sang the prophet Isaiah to the nation of Israel about twenty-seven centuries ago. (Isa. 33: 22, Am. Stan. Ver.) In the first century of our so-called “Christian era” Jehovah judged the Jewish church in a final way, as shown in our last preceding issue of The Watchtower.

• ² Properly that time of accounting caught up with Jewry because in every way they had been advantaged far above the Gentile nations by the mercy and favor of Jehovah God. In the wilderness at Mount Sinai in Arabia the circumcised Israelites had been given his Theocratic law through his mediator Moses the prophet. “This,” said Stephen to the Jewish Supreme Court, “is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel that spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received living oracles to give unto us.” (Acts 7: 38, Am. Stan. Ver.) And Paul writes to Christians at Rome in the first century and asks: “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much every way: first of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of God.” “My kinsmen according to the flesh . . . are Israelites; whose is the adoption [by God], and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises ; whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God [be] blessed for ever. Amen.” (Rom. 3:1, 2 and 9: 3-5, Am. Stan. Ver.) In view of those peculiar blessings ahead of the uncircumcised Gentiles a judgment day was due to arrive upon the Jewish church-nation at the coming of the Messiah, the Christ.

• ³ When the blessed privileged position with Jehovah God was vacated by the Jewish church because of their rejecting His promised Messiah, the newly organized church under Jesus Christ the Head succeeded to the favored place as the spiritual Israel of God, his “new creation”. They have the circumcision of the heart, inward cleanness of mind, in

1, 2. When did God judge the Jewish church finally, and why?

• 3. How did the Christian church come under heavier responsibility? place of the outward circumcision of the flesh; and they are the ones meant in the words of blessing: “As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” (Rom. 2:28,29; Gal. 6:16) Upon them are fulfilled the special blessings foretold in the oracles of God which had previously been held only by the Jewish church. For this reason the new “church of God” under Jesus Christ came under a special responsibility, even heavier than that which had rested upon the Jewish church because of the greater and higher favor bestowed upon Christians. They must be judged by God according to the grander privileges and opportunities that He conferred upon them, and on account of this the apostle Peter writes: “If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Pet. 4:16-18) Christians entrusted with the gospel of God are put in a very responsible position.

• ⁴ From the time of becoming members of God’s household under his Head Son Jesus Christ the Christians are due to be judged by Jehovah God according to what they do henceforth till the day of their death in the flesh. Their judgment for eternal life or eternal death will not be based upon any opportunity to do righteousness after the resurrection from the dead under God’s kingdom. No second chance for them in the New World! Nineteen centuries ago at the day of Pentecost (A.D. 33) the time came or arrived for the members of God’s household of sons to become accountable for what they did henceforth. Upon their acts from then on in the flesh the final judgment upon them must be based. If they kept their integrity to God the Father by living up to His gospel which they had accepted through Christ, then the final judgment would be for their

• 4. How did judgment begin? and with what chance for salvation?

salvation. But it would be a difficult thing for them to remain righteous in Christ and gain everlasting salvation: they would scarcely or with difficulty be finally saved, because it is a narrow way in which the Christians must walk through this world. Those professed Christians who grow careless and loose and then become ungodly and sinful because of disobedience to the gospel can hardly be expected to keep their integrity to God and win a favorable decision from him as Judge and be saved to eternal life. They will appear on the condemned side because of not having kept integrity.

• ⁵ Since the house of God, his church, comes under judgment first it is such a serious matter for all the members thereof, and none can afford to fall back into disobedience, ungodliness and sin like a worldling. Because judgment begins at the house of God’s spiritual sons due to the exceeding favor into which they have come, it proves that their judgment precedes that of this world and of its inhabitants. This world is condemned to destruction; and with the best of reasons, therefore, the Christians are warned not to come into the condemnation resting upon this world. They are instructed to examine themselves carefully to see if they are staying true to Christ as members of his body, the church, or whether they are getting weak in Christian faith and getting spiritually sick and falling asleep as to their Christian opportunities and obligations toward God. They should especially judge themselves thus or search themselves through carefully at the season when they partake of the supper memorializing Christ’s death. Their self-examination should prove them to be worthy to partake of the Memorial bread and wine, because they are continuing dead to sin and crucified to this world.

• ⁸ This is written to the “house of God”: “But let a man examine himself, and thus let him eat of the bread, and let him drink of the cup; for he eats and drinks judgment to himself, who eats and drinks not discriminating the body. Through this, many are weak and sickly among you, and some sleep. If, however, we examined ourselves, we should not be judged; but being judged by the Lord, we are corrected, so that we may not be condemned with the world.” (1 Cor. 11:28-32, Diag.') This statement shows that there is some distinction between judgment and condemnation, and that a judgment need not necessarily be condemnation to destruction. For a Christian of the “house of God” to be condemned with this world it would mean his destruction in the “second death”, without possibility of a resurrection from the dead. Going back to the ways and companionship of this world of which Satan the Devil is god and prince is most serious. “For if after they have

• 5. Why should they judge themselves? and when?

• 6. What would condemnation of them with the world mean? escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.” (2 Pet. 2: 20, 21) If this world were not condemned to annihilation, then condemnation with the world would not be so calamitous for those of the "house of God”. But the world is condemned to destruction!

"THAT DAY”

• ¹ It is true that 'judgment began with the house of God’ back there at Pentecost of A.D. 33, because the spirit-filled Christians became directly responsible to God for what they did from then on. They were finally to be judged accordingly and to have their eternal destiny determined on that basis. But this does not signify that there would not come a specific day or season in the future when there would be a special judgment time of the house or church of God. There was such a final judgment-time that come upon the Jewish church with the Messiah’s arrival, and that was a prophetic picture of what must likewise come upon the Christian church that succeeded to the place of God’s favor when the Jewish church was finally cast out for unbelief and disobedience. Thus a day or period would come in which all the church together would be put on judgment and the decisions finally rendered and the rewards or recompenses be handed out by the divine Court. This would be at the time that the great Judge, Jehovah God, or his judicial Associate, Christ Jesus, would come for the holding of judgment, beginning with the “house of God”. This would be when its prospective membership of 144,000 is complete and its last members are on the earth.

• ⁸ The apostle Paul repeatedly refers to this judgment day upon the church, when the decision of the great Judge is to be disclosed to all creation. Paul spoke of it as “that day”. He was confident of a favorable decision toward himself because of the faithful life he had lived and according to which he was to be judged, for he said during his last imprisonment : “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto ail them also that love his appearing.”—2 Tim. 4:6-8.

’ In the day of judgment upon the Jewish church

• 7. Why must a final period of judgment come upon all the church? 8. How did Paul speak of that Judgment day to Timothy?

• 9. Why will It be a “day of wrath” for many Christian professors? nineteen centuries in the past the judgment went against them. Hence the day wound up in an expression of God’s wrath against them, and only the believing remnant of Jews that accepted the Messiah escaped condemnation with it. They were rewarded with the divine favor and were entrusted with God’s service and with the world-wide preaching of the gospel of His kingdom by Christ Jesus. So, too, as respects that day when Paul hoped to receive the crown of righteousness at the hands of the Lord, the righteous Judge: this will be a “day of wrath” for many of those who profess to be the “house of God” or his church. Christendom professes to be that house or church, and therefore she must be judged upon the basis of her claims and appearances. Here is how the apostle describes that day:

• ¹⁰ “We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that practise such things. And reckonest thou this, 0 man, who judgest them that practise such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? [As when religious organizations condemn gambling and yet practice it in their consecrated buildings themselves.] Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ? but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his works: to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, [he will render] eternal life: but unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace [shall be] to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek: for there is no respect of persons with God.” (Rom. 2:2-11, Am. Stan. Ver.) “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”—1 Cor. 4: 2-5.

• ¹¹ Plainly this judgment day comes with the arrival of the great Judge Jehovah in the person of his judicial representative, Christ Jesus. Since it is a day of wrath against this world, it comes at the end of this world. It is now in progress, for since A.D. 1914

• 10. What exposures, rewards and recompenses will then be given? 11. When comes such day? and why with resurrection of Christians? we are living in the “time of the end”, as is proved by all the visible signs and events that were foretold to mark such time. This means the arrival of a time of judgment upon all the church or house of God. Inasmuch as the members of his house of the past centuries were dead by the time that the "time of the end” began and the Judge came, the resurrection of the dead faithful members of God’s house was timely and necessary. Their awakening out of the death state in the graves was foretold to fall due at the “time of the end” of the world and its nations, for it is written: “The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord [Jehovah God], and of his Christ: and he shall reign for ever and ever. ... We give thee thanks, 0 Lord God, the Almighty, who art and who wast; because thou hast taken thy great power, and didst reign. And the nations were wroth, and thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, the small and the great; and to destroy them that destroy the earth. And there was opened the temple of God that is in heaven.”—Rev. 11:15-19, Am. Stan. Ver.

• ¹² The anger of the nations began A.D. 1914, World War I beginning then. Particularly since then the nations, and outstandingly those of Christendom, have been corrupting and destroying the earth. Forasmuch as judgment time begins at God’s house first, the time came for the dead members of it, the “saints”, to be awakened from the dead in order to receive their heavenly reward. Their resurrection has not been discerned by the angry nations because they are resurrected as spirit persons to be united with Christ Jesus in the invisible heavens. They are part of the church or body of Christ of which we read: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body”; and human eyes cannot see a spiritual body. (1 Cor. 15:44) Our time, then, is “that day” on which Paul and all those that love the Lord’s appearing receive the crown of righteousness laid up for them. This is the day in which the “temple of God” in heaven is opened, in order that his judicial representative, Christ Jesus, might come there and take his seat and start off the judgment beginning with the house of God. On this account it was foretold to us that, at his coming to the temple, “the dead in Christ shall rise first.”—1 Thess. 4:16.

“ Just before his own resurrection A.D. 33 Christ Jesus came to his Father’s house in Jerusalem, the temple, and cleansed it by casting out the religious racketeers, and this cleansing was three and a half years after he was baptized and anointed with the spirit in the fall of A.D. 29. Parallel to this, his promised coming to the spiritual temple of God 12. Why did not the nations see the resurrection of these ?

13. How do we calculate when the Judge came to the temple? would be three and a half years from when the “time of the end” began in the fall of A.D. 1914, at which time the 2,520 years of the Gentile times ended and Christ Jesus was enthroned in the heavens as Jehovah’s anointed King. That means he came to the temple as Judge of the dead and the living in the spring of A.D. 1918, and all the events since then in church and world verify that conclusion as correct. This was long ago foretold by Jehovah’s prophet, at Malachi 3:1-4. That, then, is when the dead begin to rise according to God’s time-schedule.

BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL OF CHRIST

• ¹⁴ Faced with such a prospect, the apostle wrote: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2 Cor. 5: 8-10) Christ Jesus sits upon the judgment seat after his enthronement in the kingdom of God, which enthronement was in 1914; and the service as Judge is one of his kingly duties. He is “the Son of David”, hence heir of the Kingdom covenant that Jehovah God made with David when king in Jerusalem. One of King David’s responsibilities was to serve as judge for the nation of Israel, and concerning him we have it reported: “David reigned over all Israel; and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people.” (2 Sam. 8:15) When wise young Solomon came to the throne of Israel at his father David’s death, he prayed to God and said: “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?” And in Solomon’s first recorded sentence as royal judge he made a reputation for himself, so that we read of him: “All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.”—1 Ki. 3: 9, 28.

• ¹⁵ Fittingly, too, Christ Jesus undertakes the judgment proceedings after he becomes God’s acting King in 1914. Then on coming to the temple in 1918 he starts judgment first at God’s house. Hence the thoughts of the apostle were properly put together when he wrote of his hopes of the crown of righteousness in “that day” and said to Timothy: “I charge thee in the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom.” He associates judgment with the kingdom and the appearing of the Judge at the temple.—2 Tim. 4:1, 8, Am. Stan. Ver.

14 Why does his sitting as Judge come after his enthronement? 15. When, therefore, did he start judgment at God’s house?

” Christ Jesus himself indicated that judgment work at God’s house would follow his entrance actively upon the duties of the Kingdom. In parables he illustrated how he would start judgment with those of his responsible servants yet alive in the flesh on earth at his coming to the temple in 1918. One of these parables, that of the pounds, he spoke as he went up to Jerusalem because the people thought he was about to set up God’s kingdom then-at his first coming. The record says: “And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds [for example, £10], and said unto them, Occupy [or, Trade with this] till I come. . . . And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound [£1] hath gained ten pounds [£10]. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.”—Luke 19:11-17.

• ¹¹ This proves that the Kingdom did not get established at Jesus’ first coming and that the final judgment of his servants, his followers, did not begin at the “house of God” back there in the first century. However, back there he did begin entrusting the valuable treasure of gospel service (the pound to be used in active trading) to his consecrated followers upon earth. And as these consecrated believers have entered the ranks of his followers down the centuries to this year 1947, Christ Jesus has entrusted to them the symbolic pound, the precious gospel ministry. By the use of this pound each one might prove his zeal and devotion to his Lord and King down till the time of finishing his earthly course and making his final appearance before the judgment seat of Christ Jesus the enthroned King and Judge. Back in the first century the apostle said concerning this: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” (2 Cor. 4:7) Thus, even since his coming into the Kingdom in 1914 and then coming to the temple for judgment in 1918, he entrusts the symbolic pound of the Kingdom interests to the remnant of his consecrated brethren of the house of God. The remnant must each “trade” with them or put them to use in God’s service till death occurs and till their case comes up for final decision at the bar of Christ the Judge.

• 16. How did Jesus illustrate such succession of events?

• 17. What does that parable prove as to Kingdom, judgment, pounds?

• ¹⁸ The same thing is illustrated and taught in Jesus’ like parable of the talents, which he inserted in his lengthy prophecy on the signs that would appear at this end of the world. His including it in his prophecy on the end of the world argues that the fulfillment of the final part of this parable of the talents occurs in the “time of the end” of this world, namely, since 1914. Jesus said to his disciples: “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.. . . After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth [or, settles accounts] with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matt. 25:13-21) This is further proof that final judgment of the church takes place in “that day”, a long time after his ascension to the "far country” of heaven, and first after he becomes a ruler and suddenly comes, at an unpredicted day and hour, to the temple to judge the "house of God”.

• ¹⁹ Many faithful servants died before his becoming Idng and arriving at the temple for judgment, but had faithfully used their precious talents or pound for the increasing of the Kingdom interests. These were resurrected, of course, into the presence of their reigning King and Judge at the temple. Their resurrection and uniting with him there was an expression of judgment toward them, a judgment of approval. By “patient continuance in well doing” they had sought for “glory and honour and immor-tality”, and now they were judged worthy and were raised to eternal life in inseparable union with Christ Jesus in the heavens. (Rom. 2:7) They have risen first; but the remnant of His servants yet alive in the flesh must continue faithful until death before they can join in that “first resurrection” and appear before him face to face. They must keep on using the pound or talents of precious Kingdom service diligently in order that Jehovah God may bless it with increase to the approval of their Judge Jesus Christ. This remnant found alive on earth from and after his coming to the temple in 1918 are brought together as a united, co-operative servant-body under him their Head, and accordingly they are likened to a 18, What does the parable of the talents show as to order of events? 19. How are the faithful dead and faithful living then dealt with? composite servant that is faithful and discreet.

• ²⁰ As regards how this remnant fares in the end of the world at Christ’s sudden arrival at the temple, Jesus said further in his parable on the world’s end: "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods.” (Matt. 24:45-47) From this it is plain that even before the members of the remnant complete their earthly course, they have a measure of judgment executed toward them by the Lord at the temple, in that he retains them in his service because he finds them faithful at their duties in the household of God. He executes judgment against the evil, slothful, self-seeking servant by taking away from such a class the talent or pound of service privileges inside Jehovah’s Theocratic organization and by then putting them out of the organization, to be condemned with the world and to share its tearful fate. —Matt. 24:48-51; 25: 24-30; Luke 19:20-26.

• ²¹ However, the “faithful and wise servant” class is rewarded now even on this earth while they are in the flesh. They are appointed to be the visible servant with whom Jehovah God deals by Christ Jesus and through whom, therefore, God does his Kingdom-witness work in the earth. They are made his visible channel, and under Christ Jesus their Head they are given the “meat in due season”, all the Kingdom truths revealed from time to time, in order that they may minister this to all of God’s household of sons and to all the consecrated persons of good-will in all nations of this world. (Ps. 75: 6,7; Luke 12:42-44) But one sober fact must not be overlooked: the members of this “faithful and wise servant” class must each be faithful on his own part with the pound and talents placed in his personal care. Each must be faithful till death in order to continue a member of that approved class and in order to be found worthy of a resurrection into the exalted, majestic presence of the Judge in the heavenly temple. By this course alone can they avoid being shifted over to the ranks of the evil, slothful servant class.

SENTENCE UPON CHRISTENDOM

• ²² This judgment at the house of God in the “time of the end” is the one referred to at Psalm 50:3-6: “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by

• 20, 21. (a) How are the faithful servant and the unfaithful-servant class handled? (b) What must members of the servant not overlook’ 22. Why must Christendom then be jndged, too? sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself.” Christendom with her hundreds of religious organizations sanctimoniously claims to be God’s people, or saints. She must therefore be judged to prove publicly whether she does make up his saintly people or is a hypocritical religious liar.

“ Under judgment since A.D. 1918, Christendom is found to be a modern Sodom and Gomorrah. She is a modern counterpart of the Jewish church cast away in the first century. The words of Isaiah fit her: “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that deal corruptly! they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward. Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant [Jehovah’s witnesses], we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: . . . And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood [of two world wars and other bloodguiltiness].” (Isa. 1:4,9-11, 15, Am. Stan. Ver.) Christendom, disturbed at her own internal condition, cries out imploringly for “more religion”. At the same time she scoffs at the Kingdom message proclaimed by the "very small remnant” of Jehovah’s witnesses who say His kingdom by Christ Jesus is the only hope of lovers of life, peace and happiness. During World War I Christendom knocked into a dead appearance the work of Jehovah’s witnesses in her midst with the result foretold, namely: “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom.” (Rev. 11:8) After World War I ended Jehovah brought his witnesses to life again, but to date Christendom fights their Kingdom message.

²⁴ At this late date Christendom, or organized religion, is yet like the “great whore”, “the mother of harlots,” described at Revelation 17. Shining up to the “kings of the earth” in this atomic age and letting them use her religious organization for their unclean worldly purposes, Christendom has saddled herself upon the monstrous man-made creature of many heads, the United Nations organization. She has no faith or desire toward God’s kingdom as proclaimed in all nations by Jehovah’s witnesses, and she would gladly kill them all off if Almighty God would only let her. She is already “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus”, many of whom she killed since 1914. The Revelation says about the kings of the earth with

23. Of what is Christendom proved to be a modern counterpart? 24. How is she pictured in Revelation 17, and with what fate due? whom she commits religious fornication to buy their favors and protection: “These shall make war with the Lamb [Jesus Christ], and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” (Rev. 17:6,14) Seeing that she will not have Jehovah’s anointed King reign over her, but sides with his enemies in this time of judgment, she will have executed upon her the sentence of the Judge: “Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” (Luke 19:27) Thus in this trial period she is publicly proved not to be God’s saintly people and will suffer the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, fiery overthrow.

• ²⁵ This world, under Christendom’s political, commercial and religious leadership, will no more be spared by Jehovah God the great Judge than was the old world of Noah’s day or Sodom and Gomorrah. This sure destiny is made certain for this world by the apostle’s words, at 2 Peter 2:4-9: “For if God . . . spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample [unto whom?] unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:... the Lord know-eth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” (Also Jude 7) Will any serious student of the Bible deny that since 1918 we are in the day of judgment of the nations? When was Christendom ever in a more responsible time before God, “the judge of all the earth”? Almighty God has let the imitation-Christian nations of Christendom exist on down to this day of judgment, because it was for this day that he was reserving them to be punished with destruction in the final end of this world.

• ²⁶ But, as with Noah and Lot, Jehovah God has faithfully kept his little band of witnesses. He will deliver them out of this crucial period of world temptation and will bring them alive through the catastrophic end of this world and over into the everlasting righteous new world to follow. Their eyes will be gladdened with the sight of what the aged apostle John saw in symbol by the help of God’s angel. He writes: “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her

• 25. How does Peter show this world will meet certain destruction? 26. What will become of God's witnesses, and what will they see? fornication.... the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” Then the world rulers making up the world combine long dominated by organized religion will themselves be crushed with their world league by Jehovah’s King and Judge, for “in righteousness he doth judge and make war”.—Rev. 17:1,2,16; 19:11.

²⁷ Jehovah God now issues his challenge to the nations to come down to the low place of opposition to his kingdom where he will execute his righteous

27. What is foretold to happen at the "vallev of Jehoshaphat”? judgment upon them, saying: “Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. . . . Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat [the name means 'Jehovah is Judge’]; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. . . . for their wickedness is great.” (Joel 3:9-13, Am. Stan. Ver.) They will never leave the valley alive. It will spell the end of their world in total destruction, and Jehovah’s universal sovereignty will be vindicated by his King by whom he makes war and executes his judgment upon all opposers.

TRIAL OF THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

WHILE the nations are being assembled to the symbolic valley of Jehoshaphat for the showdown fight over world domination, another judgment procedure is in motion. The very small remnant of Christ’s brethren of the house of God are proclaiming the message of salvation by God’s kingdom throughout the habitable earth. It is for a witness to all nations. (Matt. 24:14) Who will accept the witness and act upon it? Those who are teachable and leadable and inoffensive like sheep will do so, no matter of what nationalities they are. Jesus’ final parable in his prophecy on the end of the world illustrates this comforting fact; and again in the parable he underlines the truth that it is as King that he acts as Judge. That is to say, after the Kingdom of God has been set up, then Christ Jesus the enthroned King comes to the temple for the judgment of the quick as well as the dead. Note the words: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them [the individuals of all these nations] one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” This testing time determines who are “sheep” and who “goats”.—Matt. 25:31-33.

¹ This is not the same judgment process as that pictured at Revelation 20:11-15. Those divided as 'sheep” and “goats” are not individuals brought back from the unconscious, inactive death state in the sea or in hell (the grave). These are the peoples of the nations living since the Bang’s coming to the temple in 1918. They are included among the “living” or the ‘quick”, whom the Scripture says he will judge together with the dead at his kingdom and appearing. The time is the time of the Kingdom, because the

• 1. What other judgment-procedure is now in progress, and why?

• 3. (a) Why is this different from the judgment at Revelation 20:11-15? (b) Who are the “sheep”, and how are they rewarded? King says to those who prove to be “sheep”: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matt. 25:34) These “sheep” do not inherit a place on the heavenly throne alongside of Christ Jesus. They are not members of the “house of God”, the spiritual brethren of the King. They become children of Christ Jesus, “The everlasting Father.”—Isa. 9: 6.

’ The “sheep” are these who do good to the King’s brethren, such as giving them something to eat or wear, housing them, relieving them in illness, or aiding them when under arrest or in prison for preaching the good news of the Kingdom. They are not the remnant of the King’s brethren, because in doing the aforementioned kindnesses they confess they did not realize they were in fact doing such things to the King. Because they thus showed they were in favor of the kingdom of God by Christ, and because they lent support and active co-operation to the remnant of his brethren in increasing the Kingdom interests under hardship and opposition, the King judges them worthy of everlasting blessing on the earth in the new world and under the kingdom of heaven. —Matt. 25: 35-40.

• ⁴ Those who turn out to be “goats” are also included among the “quick” or living ones whom the King judges after coming to the temple in 1918. In condemnation he says to these on his left hand: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt. 25:41) Because they are condemned with the world, including Satan the Devil and his demon angels, Christ Jesus the King will not preserve these in the everlasting fire, as God preserved the three faithful Hebrews in Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace in Babylon. He will everlastingly destroy them therein just as the fire from that ancient fiery furnace destroyed the mighty army-men that threw the three Hebrews into it.

4, 5. (a) What evidence condemns the goat class? (b) What is their punishment, and how is it everlasting?

(Dan. 3:20-27) "Jehovah preserveth all them that love him; but all the wicked will he destroy.” (Ps. 145: 20, Am. Stan. Ver.) The damaging evidence that condemns the goatlike ones is that they did not love God’s kingdom and lent no support to it. Oh, the "goats” may blubber to the King that they did not know they were not helping him by not helping the remnant of his brethren of the "house of God” who were acting as ambassadors of the Kingdom upon the earth and preaching it. But if they had really loved the King, whom men cannot see, they would have loved the message of his kingdom and they would have loved his brethren whom men can see and hear. (1 John 4:20, 21; Matt. 10:40-42) Therefore the King says to those accursed ones: “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”—Matt. 25: 45.

• ⁵ The “goats” inherit no earthly blessings under the kingdom of heaven in the new world. As it is written: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment [kolasis}; but the righteous into life eternal.” (Matt. 25: 46) The punishment that is everlasting upon the “goats” is destruction without end, a total cutting off from all life in contradistinction to the “life eternal” that the “sheep” inherit in the new world. For this reason The Emphatic Diaglott reads here: “And these shall go forth to the aionian cutting-off [kolasis]; but the righteous to aionian life.” And this agrees with how it reads at 2 Peter 2:9: “The Lord knows how to rescue the pious out of trial, and to keep the unrighteous for a day of judgment to be cut off [kolazo].” This carries as its consequence that the “goats” will not survive the end of this world as Noah and his household survived the watery end of the old world, or as Lot survived the fiery end of Sodom and Gomorrah. At this world’s end in the “battle of that great day of God Almighty” they suffer destruction as ungodly creatures, together with the invisible and visible parts of the Devil’s world organization. Concerning this the apostle Peter writes: “But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Pet. 3:7,8, Am. Stan. Ver.) Our literal earth, the Lord’s good creation, will survive the fiery destruction which will rage about it to consume Satan’s world of demons and wicked men.

THOUSAND-YEAR DAY OF TEST

’By the destruction of Satan’s demonic heavens and corrupt earthly organization at the close of the judgment of the nations, Satan the Devil is bound 6. When does the thousand-year day of test start? and whom does it affect?

for a thousand years. (Rev. 19:19-21; 20:1-3) Then follows a thousand-year day of test which will affect even the dead. The prophetic vision of this is given at Revelation 20:11-15, in these words: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades [the concealed state of those buried in the ground] gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.”—Am. Stan. Ver.

• ¹ The One seated upon the great throne the whiteness of which symbolizes purity and righteousness is Jehovah God (Rev. 20:12); but at this time of judgment he is represented by his anointed and enthroned Son, Christ Jesus. No one should marvel at this. Long ago Jesus said concerning this: “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”—John 5: 26-30.

• ⁸ Now, in a return to consideration of Revelation 20:11-15: The dead pictured as coming from out of the sea, death and Hades (or buried condition), do not include the 144,000 members of the “house of God”, the spiritual brethren of Christ Jesus the Head. Jesus said regarding these consecrated followers of his: “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death -unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” (John 5: 24, 25) These faithful Christians were once under condemnation of death with the rest of sinful mankind, but the Kingdom gospel was preached to them and they believed on Jehovah God and his King. “For, for this cause was the gospel

• 7. Who site upon the white throne? and who judges for him?

• 8. Why Is the church not included in that judgment of those dead? preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1 Pet. 4:6) And the apostle John writes to these, to say: “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother [hence the world that hates Christ’s brethren] abideth in death.” (1 John 3:13,14) And John also shows, at Revelation 20:4-6, that these take part in the “first resurrection”, ahead of dead humankind in general, and that, at the beginning of the thousand-year-long day of judgment, they are enthroned with Christ Jesus and the privilege and power of judging with him as the Chief Judge is conferred upon them. —1 Cor. 6:2, 3.

’ Besides these faithful brethren of Christ who live and reign with him for the thousand years, others will come forth from the graves “unto a resurrection of life”. Many will be the devoted people of God who lived prior to Christ’s death and resurrection but who suffered for their faith and devotion to God, “that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Faithful ones, from Abel to John the Baptist, are here meant. (Heb. 11: 35) Besides that, there are sheeplike persons of good-will who have appeared during this “time of the end” and thus during the present judgment of the nations. They have manifested faith like those men of old, but some have died and will yet die faithful before the fiery end of this world in Jehovah’s great battle for vindicating his sovereignty. These modern-day “sheep” as well as the faithful ones of old will come forth to a “resurrection of life” on earth. At once on coming forth from the graves they will step onto the way to everlasting life, and the King will have nothing against them, just as he will have nothing against the “sheep” that survive the Battle in which this world ends. However, for them there is yet a final test to pass, and that is, when Satan the Devil will be loosed for a ‘flittie season” to test those dwelling upon the earth under the Kingdom.

“UNTO THE RESURRECTION OF DAMNATION”

• ¹⁰ So, then, for the others of dead mankind that come forth from the graves, or from the sea and Hades, there remains the provision for them to hear the voice of the Son of man, the Judge, and to “come forth . .. unto the resurrection of damnation”. This is because they “have done evil” in this life and have never come under God’s favor for exercising faith and obedience toward him. The old English word ‘damnation” is out of date, because the King James Version Bible translation was published in 1611. The modern-day translations render the original Greek

9. Who besides them will come forth to a “resurrection of life”? 10. Who come forth to “resurrection of judgment”? “Goats”?

word (krisis) at John 5: 29 no more by “damnation” but by “judgment”, and speak of the “resurrection of judgment”. The cursed “goats” of the present “time of the end” will not come forth in this “resurrection of judgment”. Why not! Because, at the destruction of all the “goat” class by the time of Jehovah’s battle to destroy this world, the King-Judge appoints them to the destructive “fire reserved for the Devil and his angels” and they go into “everlasting cutting off’’ from all life. They, at death, go into the symbolic “lake of fire”, namely, “the second death,” from which there is no redemption by Christ Jesus, because he has died only once.—Rev. 20:14,15; Heb. 9:28.                                   .

• ¹¹ The “resurrection of judgment”, or standing up to judgment, does not mean that those who are reserved for this are damned or condemned right at the start and that there is no show for them during Christ’s thousand-year reign. There is a difference between “judgment” and “condemnation”. Proving this, Jesus said: “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” And the apostle Paul wrote: “Thou art inexcusable, 0 man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.”—Luke 6: 37; Rom. 2:1.

• ¹² This distinction between mere judgment and condemnation shows that the “day of judgment” need not necessarily be a day of condemnation for all, and the judgment meant in the “resurrection of judgment” does not necessarily mean the “judgment of Gehenna” such as the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day could hardly escape. Jesus said to them back there: “Serpents, progeny of vipers! how can you escape the judgment of the Gehenna?” But he will not say that to those coming forth from the graves to the “resurrection of judgment”. (Matt. 23: 33, Diaglott) If he were to do so, why, then, should he call them forth, seeing that Gehenna is the same as the symbolic “lake of fire” or “second death”? Those of the scribes and Pharisees back there that did not escape the judgment of Gehenna at the time when their nation was judged did not at death go to sleep in the graves to await a resurrection, but were forever destroyed. They are not included in the dead “in the graves”, or in the memorial places, who are to hear the voice of the Son of man and to come forth.

• ¹³ It is because Jesus Christ came to “give his life a ransom for many” that “all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth” by a resurrection. Consequently, Paul said, “there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”

• 11. Does judgment mean their condemnation right from the start? 12. Why will it not mean a “judgment of Gehenna” for all then? 13, 14. (a) Because of what provision do the “unjust” come forth? (b) According to what will they be judged, and why?

(Matt. 20:28; Acts 24:15) The unjust are the ones that come forth to the resurrection of judgment, to be “judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works”. The ‘things written in the books’ do not mean the records of all their past unjust lives and all the evil they have done before dying and descending into the graves. True, such evil lives and things of the present will have a hindering effect upon them in the thousandyear judgment day, because they will be the same personalities in the resurrection. But those things are in the past, just as a Christian’s life before accepting Christ and consecrating to God is a thing of the past and Christ’s ransom sacrifice takes care of all that. So the future is what counts for them.

• ¹⁴ Christ’s “ransom for many” opens up the way back to everlasting perfect human life for those coming forth in the resurrection of judgment. Only now, under the thousand-year rule of Christ the Judge, they have to be tested to prove themselves worthy of a decision of everlasting life in their favor. How the judgment will go in their case will depend upon their works, not their works in the past when Satan and his demons were on the loose, but their works henceforth under the righteous Kingdom. If their works are in harmony with the “things which were written in the books”, then the judgment rendered toward them will be to justify them to everlasting life on a paradise earth. The books are therefore not personal-record books, but are God’s books setting forth God’s will concerning humankind during the Kingdom rule. Those things of God’s law are the things worth reading and being published, and by these things which the Judge Jesus Christ publishes for all mankind’s guidance they will be able to learn righteousness that tendeth to everlasting life. Such books undoubtedly symbolize something additional to the present-day “Bible” or “Holy Scriptures”. —Isa. 2:2-4.

“WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE”

• ¹⁵ Moreover, the “book of life” is something still different. It symbolizes God’s unerasable records of those judged worthy of life eternal on the perfected earth of the New World of righteousness. No records will be preserved of those who are destroyed: “the memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.” (Prov. 10:7) To get one’s name written'in that book of life will depend upon one’s works, whether they are in fulfillment of God’s will and approved by his Judge and King. During his thousand-year reign, those coming forth from the graves as immature children will be granted the opportunity to grow up to responsible age, and every opportunity and advantage will be put in their way

• 15. What help will be given to get written In the “book of life”? by the King and Judge to ”bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” according to the books that are then opened. In fact, instruction in the Lord’s way will fill the earth and be made available for all, both young and old. Each one, according to this knowledge gained, will be made responsible for his own works. No one will be prejudged or be held accountable for the willful sin of his present parents or offspring or other relatives according to the flesh.

• ¹⁶ The Lord God’s rule will then apply: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezek. 18:4, 20) And the adequate opportunities to learn and to do right and to prove worthy of life will correspond with what is written at Isaiah 65: 20: “No babe shall die there any more in infancy, nor any old man who has not lived out his years of life; he who dies youngest lives a hundred years; anyone dying under a hundred years must be accursed by God.” (Moffatt) By living up to the wide-open opportunities to learn righteousness and to be lifted up to human perfection in God’s image and likeness they can live on to an eternal age, in the new world which is a world without end. But those who by persisting in willful disobedience become accursed of God will be destroyed, after full opportunity.

¹⁷ The Judge’s writing in the book of life of all the names of those judged worthy of everlasting life in the new world will take place at the finish of the thousand-year judgment-day. At that time all on earth will be subjected to a final and determinative test of their integrity and indestructible faithfulness to the universal sovereignty of Jehovah God. This test will be imposed by the loosing of Satan the Devil for a “little season” when the thousand years are ended. He will go out from his prison for a little period of license and will use it to deceive as many as he can. (Rev. 20: 7-10) The eternal issue of Jehovah’s sovereignty will be also then the primary issue before mankind, and all on earth must face this final test, namely, the faithful ones of ancient times, the “sheep” of this time of the end, and all those or any of those included in the “resurrection unto judgment”. If any then selfishly yield to the Devil’s deceptions and rebel against being delivered by Christ over to Jehovah’s universal and everlasting sovereignty, they will be condemned and sentenced to unending destruction. The Supreme Judge’s decision already written and posted in prophecy is: “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:15) Satan the Devil that deceived them into this rebellious course will suffer the same fate as they.

• ¹⁸ All living mankind, then lifted up to human per-

• 16. Why may some live to an eternal age? and others not?

• 17. When will the names be written In the book of life? and why? 18 When will the Supreme Judge justify them? and to what? fection by the Judge's curative and uplifting power during the thousand years, will be able to resist the Devil’s deception and to yield perfect obedience and flawless loyalty to the Most High God. All those lovingly choosing to do so during the Devil’s short-time loosing.will therefore hold fast their integrity to God and will not deflect one iota from their allegiance to him. They will be for his universal sovereignty first, last, and all the endless time of eternity. Successfully enduring this perfective test to prove them perfect in their obedience to God, the Supreme Judge will justify them to everlasting life, by declaring them to be right in his holy sight. (Rom. 8: 33) Then his Associate Judge, Christ Jesus, will inscribe their worthy names in the “book of life”, which will signify their receiving the priceless right to eternal life in human perfection in the earthly paradise. Then Jehovah’s universal sovereignty toward this earth will be vindicated and will never again be challenged or interrupted.

“ By the faithful kingship and judgeship of the beloved Son of God, Christ Jesus, the close of the thousand-year day of judgment will witness Jehovah’s name and sovereignty vindicated forever in heaven and in earth. “Blessed be Jehovah God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things: and blessed be his glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen.”—Ps. 72:18,19, Am. Stan. Ver.

19. Through what agency will Jehovah be thus vindicated? and where?

CONVENTION AND MEMORIAL IN THE FAR EAST

IT IS Tuesday, April 1, and a plane of the Commercial Airline, a Filipino company, has set out from the Hong Kong airport eastward over the South China sea toward the Philippines, bearing among its passengers the president of the Watch Tower Society and his secretary. Three hours of flying and they catch sight of the Lingayan gulf, which indents Luzon island on the northwest. Then they fly over some of the beautiful country of the Philippine Islands. It was mountainous and green at first, but as they approached the city of Manila they saw that it became flat and swampy. There were many rivers flowing into Manila bay. As they flew over the city of Manila they could see signs of the devastation of war. There were many buildings -without roofs or windows, particularly in the old walled city, and there were temporary bridges over the Pasig river.

At Makati Airport a delegation of the brethren from the convention of Jehovah’s witnesses then in session gave our world travelers, N. H. Knorr and M. G. Henschel, a rousing greeting. Newspaper reporters were there. Photographers were on hand. They had banners on their cars advertising the public meeting to be held as the climax of the convention.

Accommodations in Manila were practically impossible to get. A committee of the brethren had been searching all over the city for suitable places. The brethren themselves had no rooms and their homes were filled by conventioners. Every good hotel seemed to be filled. Brethren attending the convention were sleeping in the open. Before the global war there was a ten^;story hotel in Manila called The Great Eastern. During the fighting around Manila it had been bombed and burned and quite thoroughly ruined. However, some repairs had been made on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors, and the brethren were able to arrange for a room on the fifth floor of that hotel. Our hotel and all other large hotels in Manila employ guards with rifles for protection at the entrance.

The car provided for the visitors by one of the brethren was used to take them to the hotel, and on the way in they passed through much of the good part of the city that had been destroyed. The large government buildings had been used by the Japanese as fortresses at the time the American forces fought for Manila, as well as the large hotels and apartment houses in the good part of the city. Blocks and blocks of the city that had been homes of the people were now cleared-off open country; it was truly much worse than anything we had seen in Europe a year ago. The walled, ancient city where the Japanese made their final stand was practically completely destroyed, although the walls remain standing to the height of 18 to 20 feet. It is no wonder there is a shortage of housing facilities and hotel accommodations in Manila. When we reached our hotel room we looked outside of the window and saw what had been a department store or office building next door. It was now nothing but four stories of walls held together by twisted, rusting steel I beams. Yet, down on the street level, some of the people were using the floor as space for shops and other business enterprises, apparently not afraid that portions of the building might fall down on them at some time. Across the street the buildings had been blown out and some reconstruction was going on. All about us we could see the destruction that had been caused by shells and bombs. But Manila was a busy city, with plenty of traffic and noise.

As aforesaid, the convention of Jehovah’s witnesses was on in Manila. The day before Brothers Knorr and Henschel arrived the brethren had assembled from all parts of the Islands expecting their arrival. We were two days late because of the change of schedule back there in Singapore and the necessity of staying over en route at Bangkok and at Hong Kong. But the convention was making good progress. The conventioners had gone right ahead advertising the public meeting, which was to be held on Wednesday afternoon, April 2, at the Santa Ana Racetrack. We could not go to the convention immediately because we had to check on our plane reservations for the flight from Manila to Shanghai and other places in the East, but immediately after making all the arrangements for travel we went to the Santa Ana Racetrack, where 2,200 brethren were assembled.

The chairman, Brother Liwag, the district servant, had withheld the address of welcome to the convention until the American representatives arrived; so that evening he delivered his talk. He pointed out that all the brethren present were made of one blood, all of one family, and that all there who worshiped Jehovah, be they Portuguese, American, Chinese, Ilocano, Tagalog, Pangasinan, Pampango, Bico-lano, Cebuano, Boholano, Hongo, Leyteno, Samareno, Igo-rot, or Bagobo, were brethren. He also mentioned that now for many years they had longed for the president of the Society to visit them. The work in the Philippines began back in 1912, when Charles T. Russell, the first president of the Watch Tower Society, visited the city of Manila and delivered a public address on the subject “Where Are the Dead?” No one in all the Islands was in the truth then. That was the beginning of the sowing of good seed insofar as the Philippines were concerned. Since then much work had been accomplished in the Islands, and now their hopes had been realized and the president of the Society, N. H. Knorr, had come to meet with them and to help them in better organization. The brethren were very enthusiastic and welcomed with heartfelt applause the two American visitors.

In talking to the brethren that evening the president pointed out that there are now 2,700 publishers in the Islands, and this despite the great opposition shown by the Japanese toward the work and the putting of many brethren into prison camps during the war period. The brethren had been scattered by the war. Before the war there had been 380 publishers in the Islands, but these publishers never eeased talking and, when it was time to reorganize the work, the people of good-will who had heard the truth came forward. The brethren were told that the Society was sending four of the graduates of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead to the Philippine Islands to help them with the reorganization. This announcement was received with great joy. Brother Knorr also invited the pioneers to meet with him the next morning. (At that time 36 filed preliminary applications looking forward to the time when they could attend Gilead and go on in missionary service in any part of the earth. There is much room for missionary service in the Philippines.)

Wednesday, April 2, was a very busy day for the brethren. They assembled in the morning for the discourse on baptism, and then those who had the desire to symbolize their consecration to Jehovah’s service were taken to waiting trucks and jeeps and driven to the beach near Dewey boulevard at the edge of Manila bay. There were 151 immersed that morning. In the background could be seen the remains of many ships which were lost by the Japanese during their battle at Manila with the United States army. It was an interesting setting for these publishers of peace.

PUBLIC MEETING

That morning was also a faithfully employed time for the Kingdom publishers. They had the public meeting to advertise for the last time. Newspaper ads had been run for some days, and now the brethren themselves were going out with the placards and handbills for the last effort. It was daylight then, and we could see what the grounds looked like. The racetrack itself was as usual. There were two grandstands fitted with planks for seats, and the brethren assembled in front of the speaker’s stand. The administration building of the Philippine Racing Association had been demolished by the war, but the stands still stood. They were built to accommodate almost ten thousand persons, and so the brethren had a big work to do to advertise the public lecture.

By three o’clock that afternoon 4,200 persons had assembled to hear the lecture as advertised, “The Joy of All the People.” The audience paid close attention despite the many distracting features. One of the brethren in Manila has a motion-picture company and he wanted to take plenty of pictures so that he could make up a short feature to be run in all the theaters in the Philippine Islands. He had permission from the Branch servant to get some of these pictures, and hence everything was set up for the public meeting. As the public meeting began the flood lights on the platform were turned on, making it warmer than ever for the speaker. Two cameramen moved their cameras about during the whole program, taking pictures from many angles. The equipment was made for sound work, and everything was recorded as well as photographed. These photographers moving around with their lights and cameras caused some disturbance, but the audience soon got used to it and the speaker had to ignore it.

The brethren had arranged to broadcast the entire lecture over station KZPI, which station was of sufficient power to cover all the islands of the Philippines. They arranged for an hour and a half. Therefore Brother Knorr had to speak extemporaneously for about twenty-five minutes in addition to the regular talk given at other places. Comments on the convention were made by a staff announcer of the station at the beginning and ending of the lecture, with the result that a good testimony was given to the predominantly Catholic people of the Philippines.

In the afternoon a strong wind began to blow up from the direction of the bay, and it continued to increase until at about 4 p.m. it was sufficiently strong to blow plants off the platform. Finally, at 4:15, it ripped the big text-banner off the top of the platform. The platform itself was constructed of rough lumber and galvanized iron, which caused considerable rattling. The radio station’s microphones had pennants on them with the call letters, which made good sails, and so every so often the speaker would have to reach out to keep the microphones from blowing over. Besides this, it was the dry season of the year and there was plenty of dust to fill the nostrils and eyes of the speaker. But all went well. The message was very well received and it is reported that the entire broadcast went over the air.

The closing session of the convention was that Wednesday evening. The wind had died down by then and the skies cleared and the moon shone brightly, which made a very pleasant setting for this last night of assembly. Brother Henschel, the president’s secretary, who had spoken twice before, spoke first, using as his theme the good use of the tongue. He gave some excellent advice to the brethren on field matters. After his hour-and-a-quarter discourse, Brother Knorr followed with general counsel on company organization and the duties of the servants in the companies. Some of the brethren had the idea that when one becomes a servant he must show his authority, but it was pointed out that when the Lord Jesus came to earth he washed the feet of his brethren and he had come to serve the disciples, not to be served by them; and so all the servants appointed by the Society should act in a like manner by being anxious to serve the brethren as servants and not lord it over their fellow workers.

After the closing remarks the conventioners were anxious to know when the two visitors would return. Many were told that probably we shall see some of the Filipino brethren at the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead before we return to the Philippines.

The following day, Thursday, April 3, was spent at the Branch office of the Society in Manila. All of the servants to the brethren and the Branch servant and the district servant had a special meeting with the president, going over problems peculiar to the Islands and arranging details for the future work. Much mail was answered that day, and the rest of the time was devoted to going over the Branch office records and making plans for the future,' leaving written instructions as to what should be done to advance the work which was being carried on very well. This was attested to by the fact that there are now 2,700 publishers and that approximately 5,000 are attending meetings regularly throughout the Islands. This is amazing when we realize that many of the brethren cannot speak English, let alone read it; and they have only one or two booklets in some of their dialects. Yet they meet together regularly, and through the translating by one of the brethren who knows English they are able to get much of the good, strengthening spiritual food so necessary now for the Lord’s servants. An effort will be made to provide for the brethren more literature in the dialects, particularly in the Tagalog, which has been adopted together with English as an official language to be taught in all schools in the future under administration of the Republic of the Philippines. All this great increase has come in since the war began. The Filipino brethren love righteousness, and there are many of goodwill of the same mind who are anxious to have the truth. While most of them understand some English, they prefer their own languages, such as Tagalog, Ilocano and Visayan. It is a real pleasure to have a share in serving them.

The visiting brothers counted it a privilege to have their meals with the brethren at the Branch during the day. The evening came much too soon for departing to the hotel and packing for their flight the next morning to Shanghai, China.

DELAYS

Getting-up time Friday morning, April 4, was at four o’clock, and we left the hotel for the airport. Many of the brethren arrived at the airport to give us their final good wishes, and they saw us leave in a large, new four-engined Douglas transport, the latest type. As we waited in the plane for the take-off we felt the heat of the sun beating on the outside of the cabin and while we hoped for a quick take-off we perspired. We had dressed up for the cooler weather of Shanghai, not for the heat of Manila. There was no difficulty in taking off and rising rapidly, because there were only a few passengers and not much freight. But while we headed north something went wrong with the No. 4 engine. It stopped running! So we had three engines left to get along with. The captain radioed back to the airport that we were returning to find the cause of this engine trouble. The big plane turned back toward Manila, flying high over the rice paddies which seemed to dominate the landscape. It would not have been safe to land with the full load of gas, and wisely the pilot headed out over the water and dumped about a thousand gallons of gasoline. It was 9:45 a.m. when we were again back at Makati Airport waiting in the terminal building until some decision would be made concerning the trip. After waiting for a while, the second officer came in with the report that no flight would be made that day and that all passengers were to go to the Manila Hotel on the company bus. Information would be given later on during the day concerning the time for departure. So we got our bags and boarded the bus. This time we drove into the city by a rough back-road and all along this road were wrecked freight cars and other wardamaged machinery, tons and tons of scrap iron. At the Manila Hotel the Pan American Airways representative arranged for rooms for us and in the afternoon we checked on the flight, but there was still no news. Then we were told to check again at eight o’clock. This allowed time for a trip to the Branch. That evening we paid a surprise visit to the Branch office. There they told us that word had come through a brother that a plane was due to return because of engine trouble; but they were not too sure about it, because we were not able to get there by noon. Of course, we were in custody of the airline people and were not sure what we were going to do during the day.

After returning from the Branch to the hotel we learned from the airline people that the engine could not be repaired for at least three days. This made our possibilities of getting to Shanghai very doubtful, but we talked the matter over and arranged for the next best thing, making arrangements to go to Hong Kong early the next morning and from there we would try to get a plane for Shanghai. So up we were at three o’clock the next morning, Saturday, April 5. We took off at dawn on the Trans-Asiatic Airways and flew northwest over the island of Luzon. This plane had the bucket seats along the side, with cushions, which provided us difficulty in seeing all the passing countryside. To the west we could see the mountains of Bataan peninsula and almost all of Manila Bay to the south. But soon we were above the clouds. At 10 a.m. we were flying over Hong Kong. Here we had to come down through the cloud bank, and the pilot cautiously worked his way down to the airfield, accomplishing this feat very skillfully despite the mountains round about.

As soon as we could do so, inquiries were made concerning planes going to Shanghai. Much to our dismay we learned that one had gone at seven o’clock that morning and there would be none that day or the next, Sunday, but we could check in the city to make sure about Sunday. When we arrived at the Peninsula hotel we found that there was no possibility of going to Shanghai before Monday morning. It was very disappointing, because it meant that if we were going to keep the rest of our schedule according to the reservations made it would be impossible for us now to go on to Shanghai and visit the brethren there. A cable was sent notifying the brother in charge of the work there that he should try to fly to Hong Kong on Monday if it was at all possible, in order that the work of witnessing in China might be discussed and plans made for the future activity. (Readers of The Watchtower will be pleased to know, however, that three graduates from the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead are being sent to Shanghai to take care of the Branch office there.)

THE LORD’S SUPPER IN HONG KONG

Finding out that we could not go to Shanghai, we reconciled ourselves to staying in Hong Kong. We looked up our brethren here, and they were pleased to see us. They were surprised, too, because they expected us from Shanghai on Monday. Now we were able to visit with them and to deliver to them a packet of books that we picked up in the Philippine Islands and brought along for their use in the field service. One of the brethren had already made arrangements to start two book studies. In the afternoon one of the brethren was to leave for Tientsin, China, so we saw him to his boat at the pier in Kowloon and then went to Hong Kong on the ferry to find out if we could register with the Police Department and arrange for our departure permits. We found it was impossible for that day: we would have to return on Sunday morning. We made preparations that afternoon for the celebration of the Memorial or Lord’s supper, getting the wine and arranging with a Chinese cook for the baking of the unleavened bread to be used as the Memorial emblems.

Sunday morning we arranged our business at the Police Department, and then had a few moments to look at Hong Kong. We observed that there is a cable tram running up the side of the mountain and that the buildings toward the top of the hill were all of the appearance of burned-out or war-wrecked buildings. We were told that following the capitulation of the Japanese army in Hong Kong the Chinese entered the big houses of the city and removed everything of value, including even the window frames. Hundreds of fine houses were thus ruined, not by war, but by stealing. Up near the summit of Castle Peak there is a walk that runs around the hill, but at this time of the year it is often in the midst of the clouds that hang close to the peak. Hong Kong is a city built on an island that is really composed of three large hills. The city runs from the waterfront uphill for about a mile. Beyond that point the houses become scattered as they approach the summit of the hills. The governor’s mansion is located at about the center of the city, overlooking the main business district and the harbor. It is a very busy city, containing all classes of people. Thousands of coolies are running about carrying heavy loads divided in two and balanced evenly at each end of the bamboo pole they carry across their shoulders. It is amazing, the great weights they are able to lift by this means. Some have said, ‘You can put anything on a coolie’s shoulder and he’ll carry it.’ They do not appear to be able to lift with their hands and arms, but they have strong legs and backs.

The hawkers are seen all along the curbs. They have developed a competition with the regular shops by parking themselves in front of the shops and then proceeding to sell their wares, which are the same as those the shops carry, at a reduced price. The police are continually rounding them up, but as soon as they are free they go back again. Jewelry shops are many in number, and in front of each, as is true of banks also, there are men stationed with rifles ready to stop anyone who wishes to steal some valuables. It seems to be the custom here that the Chinese steal what they can. Prices are inflationary throughout the East now, and Hong Kong is a good example of it. Perhaps that is one reason why the people steal—to keep alive. The multitudes of the people in the East and the vastness of the territory that has never been given the Kingdom message, these features are impressive. The majority of the people have little or nothing. Many of them sleep on the streets at night. Others live on sampans and junks all their lives, often fishing green bananas and other things from the bay to feed upon. Yes, we wondered if the Lord God would show mercy to these millions of Asia by providing them with an opportunity to hear the message of His kingdom, and we recalled the words concerning Jesus at Matthew 9:35-38 as he compassionately looked at the weary people scattered about like straying sheep without a shepherd. We must look to the Lord to direct His service.

At six o’clock, Sunday night, April 6, four of us gathered together in the hotel room and discussed the Memorial of Christ’s death. Brother Knorr gave the talk concerning the Memorial and its importance. It was a joyful occasion, and the privilege of the two brethren that partook of the emblems in association with the two persons of good-will was greatly appreciated. We thought of our fellow workers throughout the whole world who were assembling in small conventions and local companies and how, hour after hour as the earth rotated, the Memorial would come to each part of the earth. We were some of the first brethren to celebrate the Memorial that day, at least 13 hours before our brethren of the Brooklyn Bethel home in the United States would.

Monday came, and there was no reply or news from our brethren at Shanghai. In checking with the airlines we found there was only one plane due in from Shanghai and our brother did not come on it. We concluded that since we were unable to get to Shanghai the Lord would provide some other way, probably through the visit of the Gilead brethren, for the assistance of the Kingdom publishers in Shanghai and for the advancing of the Kingdom service in China, that mighty country of the East where so little truth is known.

O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God! Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd.—Isaiah 40: 9-11, A.S.V.