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“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 AD. 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

THIS 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 tor 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 tree 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.

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“ALL NATIONS ADVANCE” TESTIMONY PERIOD

April is the last of the four-month Watchtower subscription campaign and it has been named “All Nations Advance” Testimony Period. This name agrees with the international effort that this campaign has been witnessing to secure at least 300,000 new subscriptions for The Watchtower in the sixteen languages in which it appears. The special campaign offer, of a year’s subscription together with a premium of eight vital booklets issued by the Watch Tower Society, at the regular subscription rate of $1 (American money), expires at the close of April. All Watchtower readers who want its contents to get to other hundreds of thousands should take advantage of this attractive inducement to subscribe by taking part in the campaign during the remaining time. Help make it an “all nations” participation by seeing that you are with us in the field presenting this offer in your respective nation. We have references and instructions for anyone writing in for them. Let us serve you. To know the scope of the “all nations” effort we ask each campaigner to turn in his report at the glorious end, April 30.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of April 4: “The ‘Trinity’ Opposed to God's Kingdom," fl 1-18 inclusive, The Watchtower March 1, 1948.

Week of April 11: “Why the Holy Scriptures Teach No Trinity,” fl 1-15 inclusive, The Watchtower March 1, 1948.

Week of April 18: “Why the Holy Scriptures Teach No Trinity," fl 16-29 inclusive, The Watchtower March 1, 1948.

“AWAKE!”

This magazine stepped into the field of public service at the Glad Nations Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in August of 1946, and is published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc. It answers the rousing call for fearless information, not because we have entered the atomic age, but because the world is fast asleep near the brink of that universal war Scrip-turally called “Armageddon" and lovers of life in security need to be awakened to the real sense of the news and the pressing issues upon which to decide. Awake! is aimed to help them make a right decision that leads to life unending in the now-close New World of righteousness. It is a magazine of 32 pages devoted to news and information of world import, gained from world-wide sources. Its make-up is of fine appearance. Its leading articles, without compromise toward commercialism, politics and religion, present the straight facts, without fear to publish the plain truth. Much variety of interest is also provided in shorter articles of educational and instructive value. Under the heading “Thy Word Is Truth”, each number of Awake! offers a moderate-length discussion of Bible teachings of importance. A final section, headed “Watching the World", makes note of the latest world news before going to press and gives the pith of all news items, uncolored, undistorted, concise. Awake! is published on the Sth and 22d of each month. A year’s subscription of 24 issues is $1, American money; individual copy, 5c; mailed anywhere.

ffieWWCmOWER

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM

THE “TRINITY” OPPOSED TO GOD’S KINGDOM

'"The Lord our God is one Lord.”—Deut. 6:4, Rom. Cath. Douay Version.

(CTEHOVAH our God is one Jehovah: and thou I shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, J and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deut. 6: 4, 5, Am. Stan. Ver.) For the reason which Moses here gave, neither he nor the faithful prophets that followed him, down to Malachi, taught a “trinity” or believed in any such thing. The heathen nations of their times did teach various ideas of a trinity, such as the Babylonian, the Assyrian, the Grecian, the Chinese, the Hindu, etc., but not Jehovah’s chosen nation. All his holy prophets warned his chosen people against adopting or compromising with any of the religious teachings of such heathen nations. The reason why was that such teachings, including a so-called “trinity”, were false. They were “doctrines of devils”, inspired by wicked demons opposed to the one living and true God. For this reason the apostles of Jesus Christ followed in the steps of the faithful prophets before them in likewise not teaching any such thing as a “trinity”, but to the very contrary.

² The Greek word trias came into use before Christ, in the writings of the pagan philosopher of Athens, Greece, named Plato, belonging to the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. This word, meaning the number three or triad, occurs in Plato’s work entitled Phaedo, this being a dialogue on the idea of the immortality of the human soul. The word trias, or trinity, does not occur in the sacred Greek Scriptures written by the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ, from the gospel account by Matthew to the Revelation by John. The book of Acts of the Apostles was written about 61 (A.D.), about 28 years after Jesus Christ, and yet it nowhere gives any account of his apostles’ meeting together and framing a creed in which they state a belief in one God in three persons, all three persons being one and the same God, of the same identical substance, all three being equal in existence, power and glory. John was the last of the apostles to survive. He wrote his three epistles and his gospel account and the Revelation in the last decade of the first century A.D., or more than 60

• 1. Why did God’s prophets and people not believe in a trinity?

• 2, 3. How, when, by whom, was a triad of three persons introduced? years after Jesus Christ. Yet, neither does this late writer teach or betray any belief in a triad of three co-equal, consubstantial, equipotential persons, all three distinct from one another and yet all three blended together in one God.

• ³ Platonic-minded Theophilus of the second century, who was a bishop of Antioch, Syria, introduced the word trias into his religious writings about A.D. 180. Toward the end of the same century the Latin writer, Tertullian, translated trias into Latin by the word trinitas, meaning trinity, and thus the term was introduced into the religious writings of Christendom. This Tertullian was also the first to use the Latin term persona, or person, to mean a single individual with peculiar qualities of his own; and he speaks of the Father and the Son and the holy spirit as being tres personae, or three intelligent persons. At the same time Tertullian insisted they had a unity of substance (unitas substantiae) because they all three had no beginning but existed from the eternal past. We can thus see that the doctrine that Jehovah God and Christ Jesus and the holy spirit are three persons in one God, or a three-in-one God, does not date from apostolic times or the first century. It dates from almost a century later, which was late enough for the apostasia, or the falling away from the true faith which Paul said was already working in his day, to get far off from the truth and into the cunning teachings of paganism.—2 Thess. 2: 3-12.

• ⁴ In the fourth century, in the year 325, came the religious council of Nice because of the heated debate over that trinity teaching. At this council, not the bishop of Rome, but the unbaptized Emperor Constantine presided as the pontiff or pontifex maximus. By decree of Pontifex Maximus Constantine a ban was laid upon Arius, who had opposed the trinitarian doctrine, and the emperor gave his support to the statement of belief which was drawn up by the trinitarians under Athanasius and which has been called the Nicene creed. By the sword of the emperor this creed was enforced as the rule of belief for the Roman empire. The Nicene creed was written, not in

• 4. How was the Nicene creed drawn up on the trinity?

Latin, but in Greek, and it declared: “We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God begotten of the Father, Only begotten, that is of the substance of the Father; God of God; Light of Light; very God of very God; begotten, not made; of the same substance with the Father; by whom all things were made, both things in heaven and things in earth.... And in the Holy Ghost.” The creed ends up with cursing or anathematizing those who do not accept it. We dare to challenge that anathema.

• ⁵ As in its issue of Sunday, October 10, 1943, the Catholic newspaper The Register in its local edition of Denver, Colorado, might choose to publish that our stand “is actually reviving Arianism!” But we are not going back to the teachings of Arius. We are going farther back, to the teaching of the apostles, and therefore we shall appeal to the Holy Scriptures themselves, three centuries earlier than Arius. Then by examining what Jesus said and did and what his apostles and disciples said and did we shall determine firsthand whether they taught any such confused, unreasonable and inexplainable thing as a trinity. Let no one sidetrack us from this search by saying that the trinity is a mystery that we are not supposed to explain or understand. Let us prayerfully do as the Christians of Berea did respecting the teachings of the apostle Paul, namely, “They received the [apostolic] word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17: 11) Thereby we shall arrive at what God’s Word says on the subject, and not follow traditions of the religious elders, which traditions Jesus Christ condemned.—Matt. 15:1-9.

• ⁶ Discussion of whether there is a trinity might seem like going back to something away out of date, belonging to the time when musty old theology held the floor in Christendom. But that is not so. Nothing else could be of more timeliness now, when the nations of the earth are in turmoil and the visible part of the world is being divided into a western bloc of nations and an eastern bloc, the eastern bloc being led by those who deny the existence of Jehovah God, and the western bloc claiming to believe in a trinity and thus thinking they have the support of a divine trinity on their side. In the midst of this selfish struggle for the domination of this world the time has come for the living and true God, Jehovah, to vindicate himself as to who he is and what is his true and rightful position and his power and authority in the universe. We are at the time when the prophecy is undergoing fulfillment: “And there were loud voices in heaven saying, ‘The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of 5. How will we disprove the false charge of '‘Arianism”?

• 6, 7. Why is it now most timely to discuss the “trinity”? his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. . . . We give thee thanks, 0 Lord God almighty, who art. and who wast, because thou hast taken thy great power and hast begun thy reign. And the nations were angered, but thy wrath came and the time for the dead to be judged.’ ”—Apocalypse 11:15-18, Catholic Confraternity New Testament.

• ⁷ The question of world domination having now been pushed to the fore as at no time in the past, there was never a world situation before that made it more fitting that the truth of Psalm 83 should be proved to everybody, namely: “Keep not thou silence. 0 God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, 0 God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: ... let them be put to shame, and perish: that men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.” (Ps. 83:1, 2, 17, 18) The question of supremacy is here involved and must be openly settled, because Moses said there is only one Jehovah, not three Jehovahs. Hence, Is Jehovah supreme as the Most High God?

• ⁸ Whereas the Communist-led eastern bloc deny Jehovah’s existence, the western bloc of nations solemnly declare that Jehovah is not alone in his supremacy. They declare he shares it with two more persons whom they designate as the Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. The so-called “Athana-sian creed”, which has been adopted by the Greek, Roman and Protestant religious organizations, makes this strong statement: “And in this Trinity none is afore or after other; none is greater or less than another. But the whole three persons are coeternal together, and coequal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.” Let the religionists so state, but the belief in a “trinity” will not save the western nations at the battle of Armageddon toward which both the western and eastern blocs are marching in combined opposition to God’s kingdom. And neither will their trinitarian belief save the religious systems of Christendom from a whore’s fiery end at the hands of disgusted world rulers, as described at Revelation (or Apocalypse), chapter 17, verses 12-18. There will be no three-in-one god to come to the rescue of organized religion with her Athanasian creed, because no such god exists.

NO EQUALITY

’ In establishing the kingdom of God it is Jehovah God that puts his Son Jesus Christ upon the throne to reign and thereby blesses him. This is pictured at Revelation 12:5 as the catching up of the newborn man-child “up unto God, and to his throne”, where he must rule all nations, the eastern and western

• 8. Why will belief in the Athanasian creed not save the nations? 9, 10. How does the Kingdom’s establishment disprove equality? blocs thereof, with a “rod of iron”, to dash them all to pieces at the final war of Armageddon. His being enthroned by Jehovah God both argues and demands that Christ Jesus be subordinate and not equal to Jehovah. Why so? and let us have Scripture proof for it. Such proof follows.

• ¹⁰ At Psalm 21:1-6 David prophetically referred to Christ Jesus and his being raised from the dead and being enthroned as King and says: “The king shall joy in thy strength, 0 Jehovah; . . . For thou makest him most blessed for ever.” (Am. Stan. Ver.) Also Psalm 45:6,7 refers to the enthronement of Christ as King in the heavens, and the apostle Paul quotes those verses and says, at Hebrews 1:8, 9: “But of the Son he saith, Thy throne is God for ever and ever; and the sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” (Am. Stan. Ver., margin) Now fix your attention upon the fact that Jehovah God is the One that confers these royal blessings upon Christ Jesus in the heavens; which fact explodes the trinitarian creed that “none is greater or less than another”. Since Christ Jesus is thus blessed by Jehovah God his God, then Jehovah God the Blesser must be greater and higher than the Blessed One, for the apostle Paul states the rule: “And without all contradiction, that which is less, is blessed by the better.” —Heb. 7: 7, Douay Version.

• ¹¹ The subordinate place of Christ Jesus in the kingdom of God is shown in that it is at the right hand of Jehovah God that he sits, and not in the central position; as it is written, at Psalm 110:1: “Jehovah saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” (Am. Stan. Ver.) This scripture the apostle Peter applies to the resurrected Christ Jesus.

• ¹¹ Unlike Satan the Devil, the enthroned Jesus Christ does not use his Kingdom power to try to make himself equal with God or “like the Most High”. Before he became a man, he did not try to usurp Jehovah God’s power and place, for we read: “Let this disposition be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though being in God's form, yet did not meditate a usurpation to be like God, but divested himself, taking a bondman’s form, having been made in the likeness of men.” (Phil. 2: 5-7, The Emphatic-Diaglott) Neither will he attempt a usurpation now that he has ascended up to the heavens to God's right hand. This is proved by what is foretold to take place at the close of his reign after he destroys all of the foes of Jehovah God and of man. After describing Christ’s resurrection and then his second coming to reign in the Kingdom, the apostle

• 11, 12. How does Jesus show subordination in the Kingdom?

Paul says: “Afterwards the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall have brought to nought all principality, and power, and virtue. For he must reign, until he hath put all his enemies under his feet. And the enemy death shall be destroyed last: For he hath put all things under his feet. And whereas he saith, All things are put under him; undoubtedly, he is excepted, who put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then the Son also himself shall be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Cor. 15: 24-28, Douay) Thus, to the contrary of trying to put Jehovah God under his feet and usurp his power, Christ Jesus excepts or makes an exception of Jehovah God, and at the end of his reign he himself subjects himself to Jehovah God, and shows that the trinitarian co-equality is a religious falsehood.

• ¹³ It is useless for trinitarians to argue that Christ Jesus in the kingdom of God in heaven subjects himself only as far as his human nature, his flesh and blood, is concerned, because up there in heaven in the kingdom of God the glorified Christ Jesus has no human nature. We do not say so, but the apostle Paul says so, saying: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God.” —1 Cor. 15: 50, Douay.

• ¹⁴ In this connection one noteworthy Scriptural fact further exposes the religious idea that the Father and the Son and the “holy ghost” are three intelligent persons, and all of them co-equal, copowerful and co-eternal together. It is this: In all the visions given us in the Apocalypse or Revelation Jehovah God is pictured as sitting upon the throne, and Jesus Christ the Lamb of God is pictured as standing in the midst of the throne, but a “holy ghost” is nowhere envisioned as sitting in or upon the throne at God’s left hand. Look up in Revelation every reference to the heavenly throne, and you will find no mention of any “holy ghost” therein. Why such an insulting omission if there is a trinity of co-equal divine persons, indivisible and inseparable? Also, the great multitude that is seen “standing before the throne, and in the sight of the Lamb”, cry out: “Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb.” Why do they make no mention of a “holy ghost”, if such ghost is an intelligent person in a trinitarian Godhead? If this “great multitude” believed or believes in the Athanasian creed of three co-equal persons, why ignore the so-called “third person”, this “holy ghost”?—Apoc. 7: 9,10, Douay.

• ¹³ Let trinitarians also explain why it is that Revelation 5: 6, when describing the Lamb of God stand-

13. Why Is Jesus not subject only as to his human nature? 14, 15 How do visions of the throne disprove the trinity? ing in the center before God’s throne before he goes to it and takes the sealed book out of God’s right hand, says: “A Lamb standing as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes: which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth”? (Douay) Are there seven “holy ghosts”, instead of one, thus enlarging the trinity to a “nine in one Godhead”? (Rev. 4:5) At the time that faithful Stephen was being stoned to death, the account at Acts 7:55, 56 tells us, “he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’” (Cath. Conf rat.) But faithful Stephen does not tell us of seeing any “holy ghost” standing or sitting at the left hand of Jehovah God to form an indissoluble “trinity”. And in the vision of Daniel concerning Christ’s enthronement at the end of the political powers of this world, note that the prophet Daniel reveals no “holy ghost” as being seen anywhere around, when he says: “I beheld till thrones were placed, and the Ancient of days sat: ... I beheld therefore in the vision of the night, and lo, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the Ancient of days: and they presented him before him. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away.”—Dan. 7:9-14, Douay.

¹⁶ However, such reception of power in heaven and in earth does not make this “Son of man”, namely, Christ Jesus, all-powerful and almighty. After his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ declared that his Father and God gave him all the necessary power in heaven and in earth for his future work. (Matt. 28:18) However, that this did not make him all-powerful or almighty the apostle John shows. He describes the end of this world and says: “There were great voices in heaven, saying: The kingdom of this world is become our Lord’s and his Christ’s, and he shall reign for ever and ever. ... We give

16 How do Daniel and Revelation show Jesus is not co-powerful? thee thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty, who art, and who wast, and who art to come: because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and thou hast reigned." (Apoc. 11:15-17, Douay) Do not fail to note the omission of all mention of a “holy ghost” with the Lord God Almighty and his Christ. Note also that neither here nor anywhere else in the Apocalypse or Revelation is Jesus Christ called the Pantokrator or Almighty One; and neither is the “holy ghost”.

¹¹ Jehovah God the Father is alone the Pantokrator or Almighty One. He bestows upon his Son Jesus Christ all the power or authority that he needs in heaven and earth to carry out his royal office. Along with this power or authority Jehovah God Almighty gives to Jesus Christ the holy spirit, which is not a “third person” at all, but is the impersonal, invisible active force which emanates or proceeds forth from Jehovah God. The apostle Peter so stated on the day of Pentecost, at which time he said: “This Jesus God has raised up, and we are all witnesses of it. Therefore, exalted by the right hand of God, and receiving from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this Spirit which you see and hear.” (Acts 2:32,33, Cath. Confrat.) The listening multitude did not see the holy spirit itself. They saw just its manifestation upon Peter and his fellow disciples by their speaking with tongues after flames of fire had hovered above their heads, accompanied by a rushing sound as of a violent wind. —Acts 2:1-4.

• ¹⁸ Since Jesus Christ has come into the Kingdom, in 1914, he has poured out afresh of this spirit or active force upon the faithful remnant of his followers in the earth, in a final fulfillment of Joel 2: 28, 29. By the illuminating power of this holy spirit from God through his Christ, this remnant now see Jehovah God and Jesus Christ and the holy spirit in the right relationship and that they do not compose any triune God or trinity. Thus, viewed from the standpoint of the kingdom of God, the so-called “trinity” is seen to be a blasphemous false doctrine. The very intrinsic idea of it is opposed to God’s kingdom by Christ Jesus.

• 17. What is the holy spirit shown to be in actuality?

• 18. What do the remnant now see as to Father, Son and spirit?

WHY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES TEACH NO TRINITY

TESUS Christ always confessed and showed himI self inferior to Jehovah God. All the Holy Scrip-J tures bear witness to his subordinate place toward Jehovah the Most High God. Jesus always spoke of himself as the one that God his Father had sent. In his last prayer in company with his faithful apostles he said to his heavenly Father: “And this is life

1 How was Jesu* the Apostle of Jehovah God? eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast senf.” (John 17: 3) The apostle John heard that prayer and tells us: “For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand [not meaning that the Father retained nothing for his own self].” (John 3: 34, 35) Jesus also told the murder-minded Pharisees: "If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.” Jesus Christ was God's Sent One or Apostle, and in this capacity he was “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession”. —John 8:13, 39-42; Heb. 3:1.

• ² Jesus Christ did not in any shame hide the fact that he is the one sent and thus is inferior to God his Father who sent him. When he washed his disciples’ feet, he commented: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” (John 13:16) “For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.” (Luke 22:27) Being sent of God, Jesus was not greater than his Father the Sender, neither was he as great. John the Baptist publicly announced himself as sent to baptize, and therefore he served as a servant inferior to God. John accordingly baptized the Son of God in the Jordan river. (John 1: 32-34) Just as Jehovah God with superiority over his Son Jesus Christ sent him to this earth, likewise Jesus Christ as Head and Master over his apostles and disciples sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God. He said in prayer to God his Father: “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 0 righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.”—John 17:18,25.

’ Incidentally, in like manner the so-called “holy ghost” or holy spirit is proved to be inferior both to Jehovah God and to Christ Jesus. Why? Because Jesus told his disciples that the heavenly Father would send the holy spirit as a comforter in Jesus’ name, and Jesus added that he, in turn, would send this spirit comforter from the Father to his faithful disciples. And at Pentecost Peter declared that Jesus had shed this spirit comforter upon them. (John 14:26; 15:26; Acts 2:33) There is or has been no human nature about this “holy ghost” or holy spirit; and its being sent from God and through Christ proves it is subject to both God and Christ. It cannot be said that the holy spirit is subject only as to its human nature, because it never had any human flesh and blood. That fact alone is sufficient to wreck the whole idea of the “trinity” as to the co-equality of a “holy ghost” person.

• ⁴ Let no one raise his eyebrows in amazement at our speaking of Jehovah God as superior to his Son Jesus Christ. Just read 1 Corinthians 11:3, where the apostle writes: “I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the

• 2. How does Jesus’ being sent disprove trinitarian equality?

• 3. How is the holy spirit likewise proved not co-equai?

• 4, 5. How do headship and servitude disprove the trinity? woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” To correspond with the fact that God is his Superior and Head, Jesus declared he came, not to do his own will, but that of his Father, and not to speak his own words or doctrines, but those of his Father.

• ⁵ In harmony with the prophecies of old Jesus declared himself to be a servant to God, and not a person co-equal with God. Some prophetic utterances of Jehovah God respecting Jesus Christ as his servant are: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. . . . the isles shall wait for his law ” “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.” (Isa. 42:1-4; 52:13; 53:11) These prophecies the disciples applied to Jesus, as anyone can prove by referring to Matthew 12:17-21 and Acts 8: 27-37. Doing no dishonor to Jesus Christ by calling him a servant, the disciples in united prayer at Jerusalem said to the Lord God: “The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth there assembled together in this city against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do what thy hand and thy counsel decreed to be done.”—Acts 4:26-28, Cath. Conf rat.

• ⁶ Shortly before the above prayer Peter said to the Jews regarding the resurrected, glorified Jesus Christ: “The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Servant Jesus;... Unto you first God, having raised up his Servant, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.” (Acts 3:13,26, Am. Stan. Ver.) That this servanthood of Jesus toward God means his lower station and subordination to Jehovah God is made certain by Jesus’ own announced rule: “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.” But this is not saying that for the servant to be like his lord he becomes one person with him, and is at the same time his own lord and his own servant. (Matt. 10:24,25) Toward the close of his earthly life Jesus stressed a servant’s inferiority to his lord or master by saying to his disciples: “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.” (John

• 6. What did Jesus show servanthood meant?

72 15:20,21) It is because of the servant’s inferiority to his lord that he must suffer with his lord.

NOT SELF-PLEASING

^T As a servant, an apostle and a disciple of Jehovah God the great Teacher, Jesus Christ tried to please his heavenly Father, his Life-giver. By this course he denied equality with his Father. It was in order to please his Father with perfect obedience to the death that Jesus submitted to being lifted upon a torture stake by his enemies. “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.” (John 8: 28, 29) Now, suppose that Jesus were the “second person” of a religious trinity, co-equal with his partners. In that case he would be inferior to nothing, and would be free to please himself. But such was not the case, for Jesus had someone greater than himself to please, namely, his heavenly Father. To this effect the apostle writes: “For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.” The One whose reproaches he bore as a servant was separate and distinct from Jesus, just as our Christian neighbors whom we are exhorted to please are individuals different from ourselves. Hence the apostle uses Christ’s course of not pleasing himself as a reason for saying to us: “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.”—Rom. 15: 1-3.

• ⁹ Clearly enough for all but trinitarians to see, Jesus came out definitely with the announcement that the Father had superiority over the Son. In the parable in which he likens his followers to sheep Jesus said: “My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:29, Am. Stan. Ver.) The Father’s superior greatness over all others included being greater than his Son, and Jesus said so in these unmistakable words to his disciples: “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28) True, Jesus was yet in the flesh when he said those words; but he had been begotten of God’s spirit after his baptism in the Jordan, and it is begging the question to say that the Father was greater than Jesus only as to Jesus' flesh or human nature. If, by the personal pronoun I, Jesus here meant his flesh, then, by the same reasoning, when Jesus said to the Jews, “Before

• 7. As to pleading another, how did Jesus show inferiority? 8. How did Jesus state the Father's superiority over him'*

Abraham was, I am,” he meant that, before Abraham was, Jesus’ flesh or human nature was. That would mean that before coming to earth Jesus had flesh as a man in heaven. But, of course, such was not the case.—John 8: 58.

• ⁹ By taking on human nature and becoming a man, the Scriptures tell us, “we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.” (Heb. 2:9) The trinitarians claim that, at his return to heaven, Jesus took his flesh and bones and blood with him. Then they must also agree that forever Jesus Christ is not only lesser than his heavenly Father but also a little lower than the angels. To the direct opposite of such a thought Paul, in the first chapter of Hebrews, argues to the effect that Jesus Christ “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” (Heb. 1:3,4) Agreeing that Jesus was exalted to become better than angels, Peter says: “By the resurrection of Jesus Christ: who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.” That certainly does not mean making Jesus’ flesh in which he hung on the tree to be higher than the angels, for such a thought is unscriptural, according to Psalm 8:4-8 and Hebrews 2:9. Hence the Scriptures teach that Jesus did not and could not take his flesh with him to heaven to make himself always less than angels. He went to heaven as a glorious spirit. Peter positively says so: “Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit.”—1 Pet. 3:18, Douay; 3: 21, 22.

• ¹⁰ The Scripture evidence is all against the trinitarians, for when Jesus said his Father was greater than the Son, he was not referring to his flesh. He was referring to himself as an individual, even before he came to this earth and was made man. Did not Jesus repeatedly say that God the Father sent him and that the Sender is greater than he that is sent? Yes; and when God sent the Son, the Son was still in heaven and not yet a man of flesh and blood. God sent him, not from Bethlehem or from Nazareth as a man, but down from heaven as his Son. In thus sending Jesus from heaven, Jehovah God showed he is greater than the Son whom he sent down.

• ¹¹ Because the Father was greater than the Son, Jesus could tell his disciples to rejoice. Why? Because greater results would follow if he went to his Father in their behalf. Jesus had done many wonderful works by virtue of the power of God’s spirit upon him. But now by his going to the Father, the Greater One, the results would be greater with

9. How was he once lower than angels, but why not for always? 10. 11 What proves Gori greater more than as to Jesus' flesh?

his disciples. Hence he said in this talk with his disciples: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” (John 14:12) Yes, greater works shall he do because I go unto my Father, who is greater than I am, is what Jesus here meant.

JESUS HAS A GOD

• ¹² Because Jehovah alone is the Supreme One and is the Almighty One, he is a God to his Son Jesus Christ. The Son therefore worships and adores and serves Jehovah God. In the forty days of temptation in the wilderness Satan the Devil came to Jesus and promised him all the kingdoms of this world and their glory if he would worship Satan. “Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Jesus there quoted the scripture written at Deuteronomy 6:13: “Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; and him shalt thou serve.” (Am. Stan. Ver.) Jesus thus made it crystal-clear to Satan the Devil that He was determined to keep on worshiping Jehovah as His God. (Matt. 4:8-10) Later on he told the Samaritan woman at the well that he worshiped Jehovah. He showed her the difference between himself and her people, the Samaritans, by saying: “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22) What Jesus worships is, not himself, but God.

• ^1S While yet in heavenly glory, that is, before becoming a man, the Son worshiped the Almighty and Supreme One, Jehovah, as his personal God. Before any other things were created in all the universe the Son worshiped the Father as his God. Psalm 22:1,18 foretold that some day the Son on earth would say: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” When the Son Jesus Christ was hanging upon the torture stake this prophecy went into fulfillment: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27: 46) Jesus, whom the scribes and Pharisees called a blasphemer against God, there acknowledged his Father Jehovah as “my God”. Furthermore, the third day afterward, when he was resurrected, Jesus once again acknowledged Jehovah the Father as his personal God. He said to Mary Magdalene: “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your

• 12. How did Jesus¹ words show be worships Jehovah?

• 13. How did Jesus* words show he has a God?

God.” This shows that Jesus was not Jehovah God, nor a “second person” in a “triune God”. A week later he materialized in flesh and revealed himself to Thomas, and this doubter now exclaimed in astonishment: “My Lord and my God.” By this exclamation Thomas was not saying Jesus was Jehovah God. Why not? Because Jesus had just said that Jehovah was his God and the God of Thomas, and the apostle John, who records Thomas’ exclamation, says right afterward: “But these [things] are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”—John 20: 31.

• ¹⁴ Because Jehovah is his God, Jesus Christ the Son could minister to Him as his high priest. A high priest worships the God to whom he offers sacrifices, just as Aaron the high priest of Israel did. A high priest is certainly not as great as the God whom he worships and to whom he ministers and offers sacrifice. The Son did not assume to be an equal of the Father by taking the office of high priest to himself, but he waited for his Father to swear him into the office. As it is written: “And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him. Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb. 5:4-6) Since it is forever that he is High Priest after Mel-chizedek’s order, Christ Jesus in heavenly glory worships Jehovah God as his personal God forever.

• ¹⁵ In witness that the Father Jehovah is God Almighty to Jesus the Son, the apostle Peter writes: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Pet. 1:3, Douay) And Paul writes: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation, in the knowledge of him.” (Eph. 1: 3,17, Douay) In the original Greek text, 2 Corinthians 1: 3 reads exactly like Ephesians 1: 3 above, and hence the Douay Version and American Standard Version read: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” Further proving the fact that Jehovah the Father is the God whom the Son Jesus Christ worships as his Superior, the apostle John writes regarding Jesus: “He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father.”—Rev. 1: 6, Am. Stan. Ver.; also Rev. 3:12.

• 14. On this point, what doea Jesus' being high prleat show? 15. How do the words of the apostles show Jesus has a God?

UNITY, IN WHAT WAY?

• ¹⁶ Trinitarians are swift to rush to John 10: 30 for support, for there Jesus the Good Shepherd states: “I and the Father are one.” {Douay; Am. Stan. Ver.) But where is there mention here of any “holy ghost”? Not once in all of Jesus’ parable of the Good Shepherd and his sheep does he even mention the holy spirit; and it takes three persons to make a trinity. At most, then, Jesus’ words here could only speak for a duality. But notice that Jesus did not say he and his Father are one God, so as to make one God in two persons. In all the parable Jesus was not arguing in support of such a thing. He was rather illustrating that his heavenly Father and he have a likeness of occupation, they have common interests and concerns, and they have one purpose, Jesus’ purpose being blended in with that of his Father. Jesus informs us that the Father gave him the sheep and hence Jehovah is the great Shepherd. Jesus was "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”, as John the Baptist called him. Jehovah was therefore a Shepherd even to Jesus, and a shepherd is greater than his sheep. Jehovah permitted Jesus to be ^,rbrought as a lamb to the slaughter”, where he was dumb without complaint, just like a "sheep before her shearers”. (John 1: 29, 36; Isa. 53v 7) So, at Psalm 23:1, the shepherd-psalmist David was in reality speaking prophetically for Jesus Christ, when he said: "Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want.”—Am. Stan. Ver.

• ¹⁷ In the parable Jesus also said: "I am the good shepherd.” By this he showed oneness with his Father, because he was engaged in a common work with his Father and toward a common end, the eternal salvation of the sheep. In accord with this common purpose Jesus said: “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” (John 10:11,14, 28-30) At this the listening Jews jumped to a wrong conclusion and prepared to stone him because, as they said to him, “thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” But even then, Jesus did not argue and maintain he was Jehovah God. He argued that he was simply the “Son of God”, whom God had sanctified and sent into the world. Jesus quoted from Psalm 82:6 to prove he was not blaspheming in saying so. He showed that others also were addressed as “gods”.

^ia Jesus did the works of his Father. He did them in his Father’s name as being his Father’s visible representative; and this was what made him and his Father one. (John 10:25,37,38) Being eonsub-

16, 17. What did he mean by saying “I and the Father are one”?

18, 19. How did Pau) illustrate such oneness, at 1 Corinthians 3:5-9’’ stantial or being one and the same substance was not necessary to this unity. How two separate and distinct individuals, by colaboring together and having a common interest and one aim, become one, the apostle Paul illustrates when saying: “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.” One in substance? one in person? one in co-equality? By no means; but just one in God’s work. This becomes plain from the entire argument of Paul, to this effect: “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered: but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.”—1 Cor. 3: 5-8.

• ¹⁹ Paul’s planting and Apollos’ watering and God’s giving the increase did not make them a trinity or “three in one” God. Paul was an apostle of Christ before ever Apollos became a Christian and he had greater responsibility and a more important position in God’s organization than Apollos did; yet they two were one because of peacefully colaboring together in God’s organization and service. Because God was the real One that was accomplishing the results through them, therefore Paul spoke of the Corinthian church which he founded as being, nonetheless, God's husbandry, God’s building: “For we are God’s helpers, you are God’s tillage, God’s building.” —1 Cor. 3: 9, Cath. Conf rat.

• ²⁰ That this was the style of unity that existed between the Son and his Father Jesus explained in his last prayer with his faithful apostles. He said: “And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me.” (John 17:20-23, Douay) In this prayer for oneness Jesus does not mention once any “holy ghost”. No one will reasonably argue from Jesus’ prayer here that he was praying Jehovah God the Father that some “trinity” might be enlarged in order that these disciples might be made part of the ‘several in one’ God and that, in place of being a triune affair, it might become a multiple unity of many persons in one, and yet all one God and all equal in power and glory. Ridiculous 1 you say. And yet belief in a “trinity” or “triune God” reduces itself to this absurdity, in view of Jesus’ prayer above.

• 20. Hew did Jesus’ prayer ehow the kind of oneness meant?

“A GOD”

” Informed Catholic theologians know better today than to rely on 1 John 5: 7, 8 for support. In their Douay Version those verses read: “And there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And there are three that give testimony on earth: the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one.” They know that the words “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth” do not appear in the oldest Greek manuscripts available, namely, the Vatican MS. No. 1209 and the Sinaitic MS., both of the fourth century, and the Alexandrine MS. of the fifth century. They know such words appear in no Greek MS. earlier than the fifteenth century.* Most plainly they are a forgery and an uninspired interpolation.

• ²² In a footnote on 1 John 5:7 in the 1931 Westminster Version of the New Testament, Volume IV, the Jesuit editors explain why they left the words in their translation, saying that according to the opinion of “nearly all critics and of most Catholic writers of the present day” those trinitarian words were not found in the original text written by the apostle John, but that until further action is taken by the pope at the Vatican it is not allowed to Boman Catholic editors to cut out the. disputed words from any translation that they make for the use of Roman Catholics. The 1943 translation made by the episcopal committee of the “Confraternity of Christian Doctrine” makes a like comment in a footnote on 1 John 5: 7.

• ²³ Here is the place to say that the words in question do not appear even in Jeromes Latin Vulgate translation made in the fourth and fifth centuries, as is shown by Wordsworth and White’s edition of 1911 of the “Latin New Testament according to the edition of St. Jerome”. The words appear in no Latin MS. earlier than the ninth century. A Latin writer of no outstanding importance, one Vigilius of Thapsus,

"John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of Methodism, once preached a sermon on the ‘•trinity” and in support of it. In this particular sermon he quoted the words of Michael Servetus, namely: “I scruple using the words Trinity and Persons because I do not And those terms in the Bible.” Wesley’s belief in the doctrine of the “trinity” was based upon the text 1 John 5: 7. Wesley said: “I would insist only on the direct words, unexplained as they lie in the text.” He used the King Janies translation, which contains the text. Evidently he did not know that the Alexandrine MS. of the fifth century, which was then in possession of the king of England, did not contain the text. He did not know of the Vatican No. 1209 MS., which was published in the century following Wesley, nor know of the Sinaitic MS. which Count Tischendorf discovered in 1859. Since Wesley would not use the words trinity and persons for not being found in the Bible, what would he have taught had he known that all three of these most ancient Greek MSS. did not contain those trinitarian words in 1 John 5:71

• 21, 22. Can theologians rely on 1 John 5:7? and why?

• 23. What Latin support is there for 1 John 3.7?

North Africa, is the first to cite the text toward the end of the fifth century, long after Jerome. The modern non-Catholic translations are honest enough to omit the words outright.

• ²¹ All trinitarians, however, make a strong appeal to John 1:1, to uphold their idea that the Father and the Son as well as the “holy ghost” are one God, one in substance and co-eternal. They try to explain away the fact that in this verse the apostle John himself makes a distinction between “God” and “the Word”, namely, by speaking of God with the definite article (ho in the Greek), but omitting such definite article when referring to the Word as “God”. Trinitarians pass over the fact that here only God and the Word are mentioned, but there is no mention of the “holy ghost”, the “third person” of their trinity, in John 1:1. In fact, no mention of the holy spirit is made by John until later, 31 verses later, at John 1:32, 33, where he describes Jesus’ being baptized with the holy spirit, which spirit was visibly represented, not as a person, but as a bird, a dove. Will trinitarians argue that the holy spirit is subject to God only as to the bird flesh!

• ²⁵ John well knew that Jehovah God and his Son the Word were separate individuals. He intelligently omitted the definite article (ho) with reference to the Son in order to show the difference. Hence the verses John 1:1, 2 are properly translated: “The Word was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. This Word was in the beginning with God.” Such translation is not ours. It is that of “The New Testament in an Improved Version, upon the basis of Archbishop Newcome’s New Translation”, said William Newcome having been archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland till his death in 1800.* The grammatical correctness of the above translation can be checked by any possessor of The Emphatic Diaglott, by referring to its Greek text and to the word-for-word English translation underneath such Greek text.

• ²⁸ The apostle John knew that the Word, who became Jesus Christ, was a creation of Jehovah God, the first creation. How so! Because John wrote his gospel account, including John 1:1, 2, about A.D. 98, and hence after the Apocalypse or Revelation which Jesus Christ gave to John about A.D. 96. And in this Revelation Jesus Christ said to John: “Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God.” (Apoc. 3:14, Cath. Conf rat.) Here the expression “the beginning” does not mean the author, but means the first one of God’s

• • Newcome’s work was entitled “An Attempt towards Revising our English Translation of the Greek Scriptures” (Dublin, 1796, in two volumes, of royal 8vo, size).

• 24, 25. Why does not John 1 . 1, 2 really >upport the “trinity”?

26. How did John know The Word. Christ Jesus, was create! ? creation, the creation with which Jehovah God began. Hence John began his gospel account by writing: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God [ho theos], and the Word was God [just theos]. The same was in the beginning with God [ho theos].”—John 1:1,2, Douay Version*

• ²⁷ The Word, or Jesus Christ, was God’s first creation. Hence when the next verse says, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3), it means all other things were made by him as God’s Agent or Servant. That the word other is to be understood here is according to the same Scripture practice followed at John 12:44, where some distinguishing words are due to be understood. John 12:44 reads: “Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.” He

•One Roman Catholic publication, attacking Jehovah’s witnesses and their presentation of these facts, tried to deny the non-trinitarian translation by saying: “The article was omitted in the expression, 'The Word was God,’ merely in accordance with the general rule of Greek grammar that in the simple sentence the subject takes the article, whilst the predicate omits it!”

By emphasizing such a “general” rule do those Catholic clergy attempt to explain away the omission of the definite article before the second theos in John 1:1. But their “general rule” does not hold good in numerous examples in the Christian Greek Scriptures. It does not hold good at their favorite text, Matthew 16:16 and 22: 32, 26: 63; John 1: 49; 6: 29; 11: 27; 20 : 31; and many other scripture texts with predicate phrases, which any student can check with his copy of a Greek text, for example, The Emphatic Diaglott with its Greek text and the sublinear translation. According to their “general rule” why do not translators put “the” before “Spirit” at John 4:24?

At John 10:33, the Jews said to Jesus, “Thou, being a man. makest thyself God,” omitting the definite article ho before “God”. However, as the Diaglott sublinear reading shows, the Jews said in fact to him, not that he made himself “The God” or Jehovah, but, that, “Thou, being a man, makest thyself a god.” In answer Jesus quoted Psalm 82: 6, “I said, Ye are gods,” omitting the article before “gods”. And then to show a distinction between those “gods” and Jehovah God, Jesus said that ‘the word of The God came unto them’, and then added, ‘I am a Son of The God.’ It is plain that Jesus (or his recorder John) omitted the definite article to show that those addressed as “gods” were different from the God Jehovah. Otherwise stated, the omission of the definite article ho is made at John 10: 34,35 in order to show a distinction between the personalities involved. Why, then, should not this also be true of John 1:1 with its omission of the definite article? It is true, because there two individuals are involved, The God and The Word. John writes of the Word as being a god, or a mighty one, just as properly as the apostle Paul writes of Satan the Devil as being a god, or “the god of this world”, at 2 Corinthians 4: 4.

We remind our critics of what J. H. Moulton’s Prolegomena says, on page 83, top, namely: “For exegesis, there are few of the finer points of Greek which need more constant attention than this omission of the article when the writer would lay stress on the qualitv or character of the object.”—Third edition reprint of 1930. '

Space does not permit here of our taking up a consideration of each of the cases in John’s writings where the definite article is omitted before "God” {theos), including John 1: 6, 12, 13, 18. However, a consideration of them all only confirms us in our understanding thereof as given in paragraphs 25, 26 above.

27 How do we know Jesus was a creator ol all other things? did not mean that a person who believes on Jesus does not believe on him but believes only on God that sent Jesus as his servant. Hence, although the English translation does not exactly say it, Jesus meant that such person believed not only on Jesus but also on the One sending Jesus. We have to understand those words only and also in order to get the right sense out of Jesus’ words. The same is true where Jesus also said: “Whosoever shall receive me. receiveth not me, but him that sent me.” (Mark 9: 37) He meant that such person received not Jesus alone, but also God who sent Jesus, as is proved at Matthew 10:40, Luke 9:48, John 13:20. Likewise, since the Word was with God “in the beginning"”, then it must have been after that beginning, or afterward, that the Word began making things, namely, all other things, after creations.

• ²⁸ John survived the apostle Paul by about 35 years. He was well acquainted with Paul’s writings which were then circulating, particularly Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colosse, about a hundred miles from Ephesus where John is understood to have died. John knew that in Paul’s letter to the Colossians he spoke of the Son of God as a creature of God and an image of God, and not as Jehovah God the Creator. Paul wrote of the Son: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things [that is, all other things besides himself the firstborn] created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all [other] things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things [not before his own heavenly Father, however], and by him all [other] things consist.” (Col. 1:15-17) Because Almighty God created his Son the Word first, without the colaboring of any other person, Jesus Christ is spoken of as “his only begotten Son”. (John 3:16,18; 1:14,18) No other creature enjoyed the distinction of being created directly by Jehovah God alone, for after creating his only begotten Son the Word, then he used this Son as colaborer in making all other creations.

• ²⁹ Many other Biblical facts are to be found to show why the Holy Scriptures do not teach any such thing as a “trinity”. But space does not allow for us to summon those other facts from the Bible. Yet sufficient evidence has been mustered in the foregoing paragraphs to show that the “trinity” is an unscriptural pagan doctrine invented by the demons who bring reproach upon God’s name and most high position. For discussion of further evidence we shall wait upon further issues of The Watchtower.

28 How is Christ Jesus the “only begotten” Son?

• 29. What do all the foregoing paragraphs show as to a “trinity”?

Sanctifiy them through thy truth: thy word is truth.—John 17: 17.

A FLYING CONVENTION TOUR THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

DELAYED because of the big New York snowstorm was the Pan American Constellation plane that the Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, and his traveling companion, M. G. Henschel, planned to take south from Accra to Leopoldville, Belgian Congo. On January 1 the travelers had time to attend the service meeting at Accra, where 60 were present, a growing company. Then they traveled to the airport. The Gold Coast brethren said a final good-bye at 12:15 early Friday morning.

High above the clouds we flew through the night toward Belgian Congo. It had been hoped that we could stop in Leopoldville for a few days to meet with some of the interested people there, but the fact that the planes were flying behind schedule made it advisable for Brother Knorr to go right on to Johannesburg, South Africa, where a convention was to begin on Saturday, and Brother Henschel could stay at Leopoldville to look after the interested persons. Our arrival at Leopoldville was early in the morning of January 2. While Brother Henschel was checked through the customs control, Brother Knorr had breakfast with the other passengers and then boarded the plane for Johannesburg.

Brother Henschel was taken into the city in the airways car and located at a hotel. Then he started out in search for some people of good-will. He found a Greek man who had some of the literature and who was interested in the work. It was possible to explain to him further the purposes of the Society in preaching the gospel in all the world for a witness. Through this man of good-will several other interested persons were reached. Before it was time for him to leave these persons, Brother Henschel had arranged for them to receive and distribute the Society’s publications among the French-speaking population of Leopoldville. There are brethren in other parts of the Congo, but none was able to make the long trip to Leopoldville. Most of them live in the eastern part of the country, in Elisabethville and vicinity. But it was good that Brother Henschel was able to stop for a day and get acquainted with someone in Leopoldville and to observe the conditions in the city. Leopoldville is a clean, well-planned city with beautiful tree-lined streets and boulevards. It is built up on the south bank of the mighty Congo river, many miles from the Atlantic. The climate is hot and damp, typically tropical. Many new homes and office buildings are being constructed in this city of great prosperity. It was the most modern city visited on the west coast of Africa. It is hoped that some day soon a good witness will be given in the Congo by some of the graduates of Gilead.

JOHANNESBURG, TRANSVAAL

Brother Knorr was flying southeastward for Johannesburg. The weather was good and the land below could be easily seen. Over the steaming green jungles and mountains of Belgian Congo and across a corner of Angola the huge plane flew. It was headed toward Livingstone, in Northern Rhodesia. Northern Rhodesia is a very flat country in the western part, and the Zambezi river drains much of the swampy territory there. In the course of this winding river its waters rush over the famous Victoria falls. The captain of the ship was kind enough to go a little out of his way and fly over the falls to show them to the passengers. He dropped the plane from 17,000 feet above sea level to about a thousand feet above the falls and so gave the passengers a good look at the marvelous cascade and the deep canyons which the mighty waters had formed in a zigzag course for a number of miles. For several miles before reaching the falls we could see the mist that rises like a cloud into the air, and there is no disappointment when the falls can actually be seen. Even from such a height the wonderful beauty of God’s creation can be appreciated. After going back and forth across the falls three times the plane headed toward Johannesburg.

Brother Knorr was a day early in arriving in Johannesburg, because he was expected at 6 o’clock in the evening of January 3 and he arrived at 4: 30 p.m. on the 2nd. It was not until the next morning, however, that he was able to locate some of the brethren. Having walked the streets through the main part of the city and having found none of the brethren advertising the public lecture, because they were in assembly in the City Hall, he walked down to the railway station and there located some of the brethren who acted as guides to incoming conventioners. He was directed to the convention hall. Great was the surprise of the brethren, for they had heard that the visitors from America would not arrive until that evening and now one of them was in their midst, creating a buzz of conversation. It was a joy for the president to meet with the brethren and to talk to a number of the graduates from Gilead who were now in South Africa and to hear their problems in the work they were accomplishing. Brother Milton Bartlett, an American graduate, was serving as district servant in the Union. Already the South African brethren had made him one of their own.

A very interesting program had been arranged for the day in both English and Afrikaans. The Branch servant, Brother G. R. Phillips, gave his address of welcome in both of these languages and the audience was indeed pleased that he addressed them in their native tongue. Other Gilead graduates also participated in the program.

At 6: 30 in the evening the brethren that had planned to meet the travelers at the airport in Palmeitfontein went forward with their large banner and gave Brother Henschel the reception that they had planned for Brothers Knorr and Henschel. Only this time Brother Knorr was on the other side of the fence with the South African brethren welcoming Brother Henschel. Brother Henschel was hurried away from the airport directly to the convention of native brethren assembled at Communal Hall, Orlando, while Brother Knorr went on to Johannesburg to address the Europeans. There were 2,500 Zulu-speaking brethren assembled that evening and 1,100 Europeans.

Throughout the days before the convention much advertising was done in connection with the public lecture that was to be given Sunday. The lecture to the natives had been arranged at the Communal Hall for 3: 30 in the afternoon; but the Hall was much too small to accommodate the crowd anticipated, so the front steps were used as the platform and the audience assembled on the large lawns to the front and sides of the building. The lecture delivered was “Permanent Governor of All Nations”. When the count was taken it was found there were 7,276 African natives that had filled the yard and overflowed onto the street and into the fields beyond. All heard very well through the public-address system that was installed. The lecture was interpreted in Zulu. All rejoiced at this splendid attendance, which showed the keen interest on the part of the natives in the message of God’s Word.

That morning 378 natives had been baptized.

The public meeting for the Europeans was arranged for at the 20th Century Theatre in Johannesburg, a very modern, new movie house. By 8 o’clock two thousand persons had filled the theater almost to capacity. Many were the expressions on the part of the public to the brethren attending the public meeting that they had never heard anything so plainly stated; they were interested in getting more information by having someone of Jehovah’s witnesses call at their homes.

Johannesburg is a large, thriving industrial center in the Union of South Africa. Its population is constantly growing. The principal industry in the area is the mining of gold, but despite the people’s being interested in commercialism some are showing interest in the truth. There is a big field here on the Reef where many thousands of Europeans live and work. The Africans are not allowed to take up living quarters within the principal cities themselves, and compounds or large locations are set aside where only the natives can live in cottages constructed by the municipalities. Natives are allowed in the cities during the day and up until 9 o'clock at night, but after that all natives are to be in their own quarters unless they have a special pass permitting them to be on the streets.

Monday, January 5, brought the convention to a successful close. The hall at Johannesburg was not available for use that day, so the assembly moved out to the Town Hall in Germiston. Germiston is about twenty miles from Orlando; so it was a busy day for the speakers, because they had to journey from one place to the other. They were shuttled back and forth in order to do their talking to the two assemblies.

Both of the conventions had been well organized. There were cafeterias, bookrooms, etc., at the African and the European halls. The brethren in South Africa know how to organize their work. The announcement of the new pioneer requirements was greatly appreciated and all the pioneer application blanks that the European assembly had on hand went quickly; 40 had signed up for pioneer work. Those who were already in the pioneer work were interviewed and given information about Gilead School. There are many in South Africa who want to attend Gilead and join in the world-wide missionary work.

CAPE TOWN, CAPITAL OF THE UNION

South Africa is the only country where a Branch is established that does not have its own Bethel home where the family can live together as a family; so time was spent during the next few days in both Johannesburg and Cape Town looking over properties that might be suitable for use as a Bethel home. After seeing what was available at Johannesburg and vicinity, Brothers Phillips, Knorr and Henschel flew to Cape Town and there checked into the Branch office, handling problems that affect all of South Africa. The flight down the middle of the Union was quite interesting. The first part was over the flat plateau area of the Orange Free State. It appeared to be a dry, dusty part of the country. An hour before getting to the south coast the flight is over very jagged mountains, with deep valleys that are green and well cultivated. Cape Town itself is an outstanding sight, with its beautiful backdrop, Table Mountain. Table Mountain comes right up out of the sea, so it appeal's, to a height of 3,000 feet. It is very flat on top and doesn’t go to a peak. To the north and south of the mountain are two peaks of about the same height as Table Mountain, adding considerably to its beauty. The city is built between the foot of the mountain group and the calm expanse of Table Bay. It is very easy to see why the early settlers chose this spot for their home. The Cape Town brethren gave the travelers a splendid welcome and it was a pleasure to meet the members of the Branch family who were in the group.

Approximately 200 brethren assembled in the evenings of the 7th and Sth at the Woodstock Town Hall. During the day the majority of these were busy advertising the public meeting to be held in Cape Town City Hall on Friday evening, the 9th. The two evening meetings were devoted to giving instruction on field service and bringing to the brethren spiritual food. Hany had not been able to travel the great distance to the Johannesburg assembly and they especially enjoyed themselves.

Each morning at 7:45 all those working at the Cape Town office assembled for morning worship; 18 brethren considered the morning text, had their discussion, and closed with prayer. They went to work at 8. For the visitors the days were spent looking over properties and locations that might be suitable for a Bethel home where all could live together, as well as going into matters in the office. Time flew by quickly; there was more to be done than could possibly be accomplished.

On Friday evening at the City Hall there were 950 present, including Europeans, Indians and Cape Coloured. African natives were not permitted in the 'hall by the management. It was a good audience, considering the fact that it was the summer season and most people spend their summer evenings enjoying the outdoors.

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

Saturday afternoon we left for Johannesburg again with the Branch servant. This was the start of a tour of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland. Sunday morning we flew from Johannesburg to Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, in a 22-passenger-capacity Viking aircraft. For several hours we flew over the wilds of Bechuanaland and Southern Rhodesia. Upon arriving at Bulawayo we got a real surprise. Here in the heart of Central Africa is a very beautifully laid-out city, with broad streets and many modern stores and buildings. There are about 12,000 Europeans living in the city, with many coming in daily from Britain, besides many natives in the compound at the edge of the city. It was a revelation to find such an up-to-date, clean city filled with attractive homes of bungalow style. We traveled by car from the airport to our hotel.

That afternoon the African brethren had assembled at Mzilikazi Village, in an open space, to hear discussions by various company servants. They were present in the number of 1,200 strong. It was interesting to note that to the right of the speaker all of the sisters sat together and in front of the speaker and to his left sat the men. It is an African custom not to mix the sexes in meetings. Most of the brethren had collected red bricks and they used one or two brieks as seats; the others sat upon the ground.

Brother Knorr addressed the assembly through two interpreters, who spoke Cinyanja and Chishona. In the course of the meeting he brought great rejoicing to the brethren by announcing the release of the first issue of The Watchtower in Cinyanja. The ban against the Watchtower publications had recently been lifted and now things were going forward. The brethren will benefit greatly by the study of The Watchtower, for therein they get valuable instruction they have never had before to equip them to be more able ministers to instruct others.

While this meeting was going on, Brother Henschel talked to some thirty Europeans who make up the small company at Bulawayo.

Later in the evening Brother Henschel spoke to the African brethren in the village while Brother Knorr addressed the public meeting held in the City Hall, where 115 Europeans were in attendance.

In Bulawayo the Society maintains a depot for supplies. It comes under the direction of the South African Branch. Here some literature is stored and the correspondence with the various companies and servants to the brethren is handled in the native languages or in English, as required. Several native brethren work there translating literature into Chishona and Cinyanja, and they are now producing The Watchtower in Cinyanja by use of a mimeograph machine. It was good to be associated with the brethren, particularly with Eric Cooke, a recent graduate of Gilead who is now assigned to Southern Rhodesia to assist in the depot and to be district servant. Plans were laid for establishing a new Branch office in this country beginning with the end of the service year, and it seems very necessary to send more Europeans into this territory to properly eare for the work that must be done, along the lines of organization among the Europeans and Africans.

After this very brief stay in Bulawayo the party of four— Brothers Phillips, Knorr, Henschel, and Fergusson, a Gilead graduate—and the Southern Rhodesia brethren, R. McLuckie and Cooke, traveled by air to Salisbury, the capital of Southern Rhodesia, on the 12th. On arrival Brother Knorr spoke to 135 native brethren that were assembled in a small hall in the native location, while Brother Henschel spoke to a small group of European brethren. The stop was just over night, as at Bulawayo, and connections were made to take another plane to Blantyre, Nyasaland.

NYASALAND

The party of four were safely aboard a small plane that had a full load of eight passengers when they waved good-bye to the group of brethren at the airport. After a short spurt down the runway the little plane soared into the air and headed oS to the east. The flight took us over Mozambique, where, it is reported, many companies of brethren have recently sprung up. We crossed the Zambezi river, as well as many mountains and native villages, and in a few hours landed at the airport in Chileka, about 12 miles from Blantyre. While coming in for the landing we looked for signs of a city but saw none. There were a few grass-covered huts visible in the distance. The depot servant and another brother were there at the airport to meet us. The question asked us was whether we had any Watch Tower literature in our possession, for the publications are under ban in Nyasaland. Having none, we were permitted to go to Blantyre in a car with the brethren. Along the sides of the winding dirt road we often saw small scantily clad native children standing beside small piles of yellow and green mangoes. They had gone into the woods where the mango trees are numerous and gathered fruit to sell to passers-by. Twenty-four luscious-looking mangoes could be had for only two cents American money or one penny British money. On we traveled into the heart of Blantyre, which we found to be a very small community with houses widely scattered over rolling hills. A few roads were paved, but the majority were not. Natives were repairing the roads by throwing several red bneks into depressions and then squatting down beside them and smashing them with small hammers. The grass was high along the roadsides; everything was green.

As soon as we got settled in our hotel we were informed that we should prepare to depart for the capital, Zomba, which is about forty miles away. An appointment had previously been arranged for by the depot servant with the chief secretary to the governor of Nyasaland. The purpose of the visit was to discuss restrictions still imposed against the Society’s Bible-study books since the middle of the war and to try to arrange for the bans to be rescinded. En route to Zomba we enjoyed the delightful mountainous plantation-country scenery and the rich green color of the very prolific foliage. The roads were unpaved and often quite narrow. We had a blowout of one tire, but fortunately it was between rains. Shortly after we were on the road again the heavens opened up and poured down water in great quantities. It did not take long until the road was covered with about two inches of water. We came to a little dip in the road and our native driver hesitated before attempting to ford the temporary river flowing across the road. He decided it would be safe to proceed; so into the flood we plunged, wondering all the time whether the roadbed had been washed out. But the water was never more than eight inches deep, and we made it. The territory around Zomba is famous for its heavy rains. One day last year 28 inches fell in one day, nearly ruining the city so proudly perched on high ground at the foot of a high mountain. We were glad the rains were comparatively light this day.

The interview with the chief secretary and the police commissioner consumed about an hour’s time. We felt that it was very profitable, for many misunderstandings were cleared away and it was made clear why our publications should be freely circulated in the country for the education of the people along Bible lines. The officials seemed afraid that the natives would gain too much knowledge and the result would be dissatisfaction with the strict rule of the government. But it was pointed out that knowledge of the Bible truths and adherence thereto would make the natives a better people who would obey the laws. Before we left them the government representatives agreed to review the entire matter again and said a report will be made later as to whether they see fit to lift the ban. By the time the interview had finished the rains had ceased, and our journey back to Bulawayo was made without mishap or undue concern.

That night a meeting was held at the Blantyre Town Hall. The hall is used as a bioscope (we would call it a moving picture theater), and seats about 200 people. Only the Europeans and Indians were permitted to attend. Considering the fact that there are only about 250 Europeans in the community it was thought the attendance of 40 to hear “Permanent Governor of All Nations” delivered by Brother Knorr was quite good.

While we were in Nyasaland the mornings were always clear and warm and the native brethren always rose early. In fact, their program called for getting up at 5 o’clock. The native brethren had assembled at a point about five miles outside of Blantyre, not far from Limbe, the tobacco center, at a very lovely spot. They had erected the usual native huts with thatched roofs. Additionally, many lean-tos or temporary shelters were built in a grove of trees. In the center of this setting was the arena for the assembly of the brethren. A small platform was arranged for, about a foot and a half from the ground, and at 8 o’clock in the morning out in the open 3,000 of the Lord’s servants, all native Africans, gathered together to hear from the speakers. They sat on logs and branches of trees, for the ground was wet from the rains of the previous day. Many had climbed up into the mango trees and taken seats on the limbs. The speakers stood in the center of a complete circle of interested faces. The depot servant, Brother W. McLuckie, interpreted m Cinyanja, and did remarkably well.

The program ran from 8 in the morning until noon. Brothers Phillips, Henschel, Fergusson and Knorr spoke, in that order. It was a real treat to the African brethren to have the Society’s president in their midst. When noon came they did not like to see the meeting come to an end, but they had the prospect of hearing from Brother Knorr later. It was announced that all of the afternoon sessions would be held at the location of the public meeting, between Blantyre and Limbe, also in an open lot, it being provided by a man of good-will. Now it was time for lunch of mealie meal, which is a paste made from maize. It was cooked in big drums, and the African brethren enjoyed eating it with their hands.

At 2 o’clock the trek was on. These thousands of brethren were moving down the roadside, a number carrying some of their possessions. Many had bundles on their heads. The women carried their children on their backs. Some had cycles. All were headed for the public meeting site. Brother Henschel was scheduled to speak before the public meeting. As the time drew near the skies darkened and the afternoon rains began to sprinkle lightly. When the question was put to the brethren they all expressed themselves in favor of putting up with the rains and hearing from the speaker rather than taking shelter. They gathered in the open garden area near the garage owned by the man of good-will who provided the land on which to hold the meeting. There was a lean-to beside the garage and in that shelter Brother Henschel and Brother McLuckie stood to speak to the brethren. After about forty minutes the rains increased in volume to the point where the brethren thought they should seek shelter, so the meeting was interrupted. But there was little shelter to be found.

The rain abated somewhat after a few minutes, so Brother Knorr asked Brother Fergusson, temporarily assigned to work in Nysaland, to speak to the brethren. He had been going only a few minutes when torrential rains descended. They beat on the corrugated iron roof of the lean-to so hard that no one was able to hear the speaker. Meetings were adjourned until the time of the public lecture.

A few found shelter, but the majority could find none. So they stood in the rain and sang songs. The singing of the brethren in Nyasaland surpassed anything the travelers had heard anywhere in the world for congregational singing. They used their own melodies.

At about 4:10 the rains let up and the public began to assemble from the near-by compounds. By 4: 30 there was no rain falling, so Brother Knorr and interpreter McLuckie went out into the middle of the open field where the people had been gathered. Some large tree trunks were in the field and each speaker stood on one. There were six thousand people standing out in the muddy assembly place to hear “Permanent Governor of All Nations”. There was no loud-speaker equipment, hence both speakers had to speak with strong voices so that all could hear. The audience was very quiet and it eould easily be seen from the attention paid that all heard clearly. They were listening to every word, especially the Cinyanja, which they understood best. At about 5 o’clock the overcast skies began to darken and soon a fine drizzle descended. But this did not disturb the audience. However, when the clouds really opened up a few minutes later the drenching downpour came and the public began to scatter to shelter of the trees and small houses near by; but the brethren remained and Brother Knorr brought his talk to a close while holding an umbrella over his head. Then Brother Knorr assured the brethren that he would take their love and greetings with him as he met the other congregations throughout Africa and back in America. The storm broke up the meeting, but not without the message of the Kingdom being proclaimed clearly to the public. Brother McLuckie, who has been serving in Nyasaland for the past 14 years, said that the very fact that the president of the Society, a European, stood out in the rain and continued to talk to the people and the brethren in sueh weather showed to the natives that the people associated with the Society are truly interested in the welfare of the natives, for this is something that the local Europeans would never have done.

After the meeting a visit was made to the residence of the provincial comTnissinner to further discuss the matters relative to importation of literature. A fine interview was had with him and he is definitely in favor of helping the Society.

NORTHERN RHODESIA

The next day we (Phillips, Knorr and Henschel) had to travel on to Lusaka; and this was accomplished in a 5-seater biplane of the Central African Airways. We landed at Zomba and Lilongwe m Nyasaland. The first passenger to disembark was a puppy that had a little boy waiting to see him at Zomba. The mail sacks under our feet were disposed of at Lilongwe. Then over to Fort Jameson we flew, where we took on two additional passengers. A new pilot came aboard, too. On to Lusaka through the rain we flew; the mountains and rivers visible to us provided interesting looking and made the long journey seem much shorter than it actually was. The small plane held up well after traveling through heavy rains and rough winds.

We arrived at Lusaka, the new capital of Northern Rhodesia, late in the afternoon. Brother L. Phillips, the depot servant, and Brother H. Arnott, a Gilead graduate assigned to work the European population, were at the airport to meet us. With them we traveled by taxi to the Society’s depot. A very fine building it was. The records were checked over and then late that evening the president interviewed the African servants to the brethren.

The convention at Lusaka was a four-day affair, but the visiting brethren could spend only a few hours on the 16th with these Northern Rhodesia publishers. At 8 a.m. the district servant, Brother Kabungo, brought the meeting to order and introduced Brother G. Phillips, the South African Branch servant. He in turn called upon Brother Knorr to speak to the brethren.

For a number of weeks it seemed practically impossible to arrange for the assembly of the native brethren in or near Lusaka, but finally a very kind European woman offered part of her land on which the natives could assemble. As soon as the local officials learned that the brethren had found a place to hold the convention a commissioner of the government called on this kind widow and said, ‘Do you know that Jehovah’s witnesses are going to assemble on your property?’ And she said she did. He tried to tell her some derogatory things' about the brethren and the work, but she answered that she was a free thinker and the brethren are Christian people. ‘This is my property; if I want them on this property it is my business. Why don’t you mind your business and I’ll mind mine?’ She did not go back on her agreement; and after 8 o’clock, when Brother Knorr started speaking, it was good to see that she had driven from her farm to the meeting place, and she sat on the platform and listened to all the lectures from 8 until noon. The speaking was done through interpreters in Cinyanja, Sikololo and Chiwemba.

A few minutes after 9 the meeting was turned over to Brother Henschel, while Brother Knorr and three other brethren went into the city to see government officials about the ban on some of the literature that the Society wanted to ship to Northern Rhodesia. They saw the head of native affairs, as well as the attorney general, and were informed that within thirty to sixty days the officials felt sure the ban would be lifted and that no further restrictions would be put on the Society’s work.

Upon Brother Knorr’s return to the convention at 11:15 Brother Henschel relinquished the platform to him and Brother Knorr again addressed the 3,103 in attendance and released a new booklet in Sikololo, “The Kingdom of God Is Nigh’’, which the government had approved for circulation in the country.

The setting of the convention was a picture. The brethren had arranged a fine platform of their own. They gathered clay and built up an earthen platform. Poles were implanted in the dirt and a shelter or roof of grass was made to cover the platform. The audience was arranged in a semicircle in front of the platform. This time the sisters were to the left of the speaker and the brothers to the right. A mixed chorus of very good singers was organized and they sat at the front of the platform, a little to the right. Most of the sisters were wearing knitted tarns. They were very colorful headgear and the women sat so close together that that part of the audience looked like a bed of beautiful flowers. It was a grand audience to talk to, for their attention was undivided. They were happy to get the good news we brought.

SALISBURY, CAPITAL OF S. R.

Shortly past noon of Friday we had to hurry away from this pleasant convention, for we were scheduled to be in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, that evening. So on to the airport we went. Into the Viking plane we proceeded and by 4 p.m. we were in Salisbury. At 5: 30 Brother Knorr was standing on the steps of the Recreation Hall of the native compound in Salisbury addressing 4,000 natives who had assembled in public meeting. That same evening he addressed the European public meeting, where 82 were present. While Brother Knorr was speaking to one group Brother Henschel was speaking to the others. The newspaper of Salisbury gave a very fine report next morning on the public meetings.

On Saturday at 8:15 a.m. the African brethren had been gathered together at their convention grounds under the trees. There were 2,045 present. Brother Knorr spoke to them for a while. At 9 he turned the meeting over to Brother Henschel. He then went on to the European assembly and addressed them. Then he visited the government officials concerning certain import restrictions on our literature; the difficulties were overcome.

By noon we were on our way to the airport, there to take a plane for Johannesburg. There was a delay at the airport; but many of the brethren had come to the airport to spend a few last minutes with us, so we had a fine time waiting. The skies were stormy and we had rough weather all the way. A stop at Bulawayo delayed us further, so we were an hour late arriving in Johannesburg. It was necessary for us to go through customs in order to enter the country, and it so happened that two large air transports had landed just ahead of us and there were 80 passengers to be taken care of by customs and immigration before we were entered. Here we lost two hours. Brother Knorr was scheduled to speak at 7: 30 to the Johannesburg company, but he could not get there before 8: 30. Knowing this he asked Brother Bartlett to go to the Hall and talk to the congregation. His Gilead training came in handy. He had only 30 minutes to get an hour’s program all lined up and keep things going until Brother Knorr arrived. There were 450 in attendance. They enjoyed hearing a report of the trip through Portugal, Spain and all of Africa.

FLIGHT HOMEWARD TO A HAPPY LANDING

Our schedule called for returning to the United States beginning Sunday morning, the 18th. We had to get up at 3 o’clock in order to be at the airport by 4:30. More than 40 of our brethren from Johannesburg and near-by companies assembled at the airport in this early hour to wish us bon voyage. It was a joy to talk to them and be with them for a while. The weather was cool.

Promptly at 6 a.m. our plane started away for its 50i-hour trip back to New York. On leaving Johannesburg we went through some rough weather A stop was made at Leopoldville, which by contrast was very warm. Then on to Accra, Gold Coast, where Brothers Baker, Wilkinson, Brown and Amegatcher met us at the airport. We had an hour to discuss some of the details of the work that had been accomplished since leaving here. Then off again, this time to Dakar and Lisbon. Again in Lisbon we had a pleasant visit with Brother Garrido during the two-hour stopover. Then to Santa Maria, Azores. Because of strong winds from the west we flew on to cold Gander, Newfoundland, and then down to New York. We arrived at 1: 30 a.m. Tuesday, the 20th. It was good to meet members of the Bethel family and then get home after spending two days in the air.

REVIEWING THE WORK

in South Africa and Central Africa reveals that a great expansion is being accomplished by the brethren in this territory. There is certainly room for much more of it. There are thousands upon thousands of people of good-will. With European brethren serving in this area better organization can be accomplished and more respect will be paid to the work by the officials because of seeing Europeans taking more active charge of the preaching of the gospel. The officials seem to be fearful that the African will gain too much power and influence in the community. It is true that the native Africans need education, and this was one of the things that got stress. They should all learn to read their own language and thus be better equipped to preach the good news. They have the zeal and determination to press on, and this they will do regardless of whether they can read or not; but it was pointed out to all of these native brethren that it was the keen desire of all to live forever and that some day they would certainly want to read the Lord’s Word and there was no better time than now to learn to read. It was not necessary to put it off until the new world was brought in, but they should start now. They appreciated this admonition, and every effort will be made by the servants to the brethren and the company servants and publishers in the villages who can read to carry on the great educational work and promote the true worship of Jehovah. Being able to read and write all will be better qualified to fulfil their mission.

All of the European brethren in convention assembled and the native brethren too requested the president of the Society to convey their love and greetings to their fellow workers throughout all the world, especially to the Bethel family in Brooklyn, New York, who are anxious and willing to provide them with the literature they so much need in these dark countries. With the bans removed, a great work will be accomplished, by the Lord’s grace. Africa is a big field; more workers are needed. And they are enming by the thousands.