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“And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great .shall be the peace of thy children.” - haiah 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 cnn 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 for its readers and the Society supplies other literature to aid In such studies. It publishes suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means of public instruction in the Scriptures.

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

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“PATIENCE MEANT FOR SALVATION” TESTIMONY PERIOD

Here is a special opportunity for all our Watchtower readers, a time to join with hundreds of thousands of others throughout all nations in telling to others the good news of God’s kingdom that you have learned through the Scripture publications of the Watchtower Society. This opportunity is the “Patience Meant for Salvation” Testimony Period during the entire month of August. Think how much patience God had to exercise until his gospel of salvation was accepted by you, and then know that your taking part in the telling of it out to others means not only making your salvation sure but also salvation to others who hear you and accept. This Testimony Period schedules as an offer to the people any bound book and any four booklets, on their contribution of 50c. That is a very inviting offer. Will you be presenting it T Many Watchtower readers will be taking up this salvation publicity work for the first time during August. Our services are available to help all such. Apply to us for what help you need, be it territory, references, suppUes, or instructions. As this month closes the 1949 service year, we want a report from all taking part in this special Testimony, either directly or indirectly. We count on you.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of September 25: “The True Israel of God,” 1} 1-23 inclusive, The Watchtower August 15, 1949.

Week of October 2: “The True Israel of God,” 1j 24-33 inclusive, also “Peoples and Nations Going Up to Eon”, 1-9 inclusive, The Watchtower August 15, 1949.

“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, Ine. 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, nneolored, undistorted, concise. Awake! is published on the 8th and 22d of each month. A year’s subscription of 24 issues is $1, American money; individual copy, 5c; mailed anywhere.

ffieWffCHTOWER

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM

ISRAEL

"Peace and mercy be on all who will follow this rule, and on the true Israel of God” —Gal. 6:16, An Amer. Trans.

JEHOVAH, by his angel, bestowed the name “Israel” upon Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”¹ Hence the name is understood by some to mean “prince with God”. Others understand it to mean “striver, or wrestler, with God”, because Jacob strove, not against God, but with God for His blessing.

• ² That was eighteen hundred years before our common or so-called “Christian” era. More than thirty-seven hundred years later, on May 14, 1948, a new republic was born over in Palestine. The Constitution proposed for the new political state says, under its “General Provisions”: “Article 1: The name of the State is Israel. Article 2: The State of Israel is a sovereign, independent, democratic republic.” The state is now recognized under that name.

• ³ In between the two foregoing events, or about the middle of the first century of the “Christian era”, a natural-born Jew, a one-time member of the Pharisee sect, wrote to Jewish and Gentile Christians in the Roman province of Galatia and said: “Peace and mercy be on all who will follow this rule, and on the true Israel of God.” (Gal. 6:16, An Amer. Trans.) Properly, the question comes up, Is the State of Israel, now in its second year of existence, and are all persons throughout the world who adhere to its state religion, the true Israel of God here mentioned? Do all these come under the blessing of “peace and mercy” that the above-quoted writer prayed for from Jehovah God? The questions are of such importance as to merit a thorough examination in the light of the divine Word, the Holy Scriptures. Then we shall know, from the only inspired source of information, what to expect respecting “the world’s youngest democracy”, as it has been called.

* The touchy matter of religion is involved here. But we dare not let religious prejudice or bias affect us in our decision. We will not do so if we let God’s impartial Word and the facts of the situation guide

plucked from off the land whither thou goest in to possess it. And Jehovah will scatter thee among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers, even wood and stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but Jehovah will give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were even! And at even thou shalt say, Would it were morning! for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.”—Deut. 28: 63-67, Am. Stan. Ver.

* True, Moses and Jesus predicted such things, but that fact does not excuse Christendom and heathendom for perpetrating the crimes and injustices of which they have been guilty to this day against the persecuted Jew. The predicting of such things upon the dispersed Jews was no license for Catholic and Protestant religious organizations and others to commit such cruelties against the helpless people. No true follower and imitator of Jesus Christ, filled with God’s spirit, has shared in such crimes. The witnesses of Jehovah condemn and protest against such things.

TOWARD THE FOUNDING OF A NEW MODERN STATE

• ⁷ Naturally, under such miseries, the Jew has longed for a place where he could dwell under his own government and be free from Gentile persecution and oppression. He remembered the free and independent government that his forefathers enjoyed in the land of Palestine, and his pious heart turned in that direction. Thus efforts were made to establish Jewish colonies in that land.

• ⁸ This colonizing effort was speeded up by organizing Zionism under the leadership of Theodor Herzl, editor of The Jewish State, in 1897. At the first Zionist Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland, that year, it was declared: “Zionism aims to create a publicly secured, legally assured home for the Jewish people in Palestine. In order to attain this object, the congress adopts the folio-wing means: (1) The promotion of the settlement in Palestine ... (4) The procuring of such government sanctions as are necessary for achieving the objects of Zionism.” In 1914 World War I broke. The Jewish scientist, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, rendered valuable assistance to the British and Allied cause in the military prosecution of the war to Allied victory over the Teutonic powers, including Turkey. His assistance received recognition, and on November 2, 1917, as the capture of Jerusalem by British forces and the liberation of Palestine from the Turks drew near, the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration that His Majesty’s Government approved of establishing a Jewish National Home in Palestine. On July 24,1922, the Council of the League of Nations, treating Palestine as in need of a responsible government over it, appointed Great Britain as the mandatory power for administering Palestine until May 14, 1948. This mandate, of course, did not give Great Britain possession of Palestine to give it to Arab, to Jew, or to anyone else, at the end of the mandate.

• ⁹ World War II retarded the immigration of Jews into the land, but immigration efforts were renewed at the close of that fight, in which many Jewish youths took part and learned the arts of modern warfare. When the United Nations was organized in 1945 to take the place of the dead League of Nations, it continued to recognize the British mandate over Palestine. Thus it came about that at the end of the British mandate in 1948 there was a sizable population of Jews in certain areas of the land, well entrenched and determined to fight with carnal weapons to maintain their position in the land. When the British served notice of moving out at the conclusion of the mandate without giving the Jews any further semblance of protection against their enemies, the nationally minded Jews decided to establish their own political state and declare their independence. They did so, and on Friday, May 14, 1948, at 4 p.m. Palestine Time, David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the National Council and the first premier of the new state, declared the State of Israel during a simple but solemn ceremony held at the Museum of Art in Tel Aviv, the temporary capital. In the proclaiming of the new state its government appealed to the United Nations to “assist the Jewish people in the building of its state and to admit Israel into the family of nations”.

• ¹⁰ The Jewish sabbath came at 6 p.m., and at midnight, or, more specifically, at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 15, 1948, Britain’s mandate over Palestine ran out. Israel’s enemies at once began attacking. After an eleven-day battle the Israeli garrison in the old city of Jerusalem surrendered to Trans-Jordan Arab Legion troops on May 28, and thus the battered old city was cleared of all Jews. Despite this loss, the little Jewish state surprised the world with a plucky fight against an enemy fifty times its size, pushing back the foe and extending its own territories. In the eyes of many it showed its worthiness to exist as a nation, winning for itself international recognition, even from its enemies. In this way it survived to celebrate its first anniversary this past May 14. Following upon a national election in January, the first Assembly was formed on February 14, 1949, to draw up a constitution, and on February 17 at the new city of Jerusalem Dr. Chaim Weizmann, till then the provisional president, was elected Israel’s first president, but after a long, stormy session of the Constituent Assembly. An interim constitution was also adopted. Jewish immigration continues from all parts of the world, going on at the rate of tens of thousands monthly.

“THE TRUE ISRAEL OF GOD”

WORLD events since A.D. 1914 are very significant. So, do the above-described political developments of the Jews signify they are the “true Israel of God”? Was their reoccupation of part of Palestine and their setting up of the State of Israel a proof of it from Jehovah God? Let us see.

• ² The faith of the Orthodox Jews is summed up in a creed which says, among other things: “I believe with a true and perfect faith (1) that God is the creator, governor and maker of all creatures, and that he hath wrought all things; . . . (12) that the Messiah is yet to come; and, although he retard his coming, yet T will wait for him till he come’; (13) that the dead shall be restored to life when it shall seem fit unto God, the Creator, whose name be blessed and memory celebrated -without end. Amen.” To this God the Orthodox Jews -will attribute their recent successes in this world. Many religionists of Christendom will agree and will say: ‘This is of God!’ On this point a Manifesto, issued by eight prominent preachers of England in the latter part of war-year 1917, said: “First. That the present crisis points toward the close of the times of the Gentiles. . . . Fourth. That Israel will be restored to its land in unbelief, and be afterward converted by the appearance of Christ [the Messiah] on its behalf.”* But many Jews in America and other parts of the earth are completely attached to the countries in which they live. They declare themselves Jews only as to religion, and they will be of mixed opinion as to whether Almighty God favored the political building of Israel. We are therefore obliged to turn to the prophecies and principles of the Word of Jehovah God in now examining the facts.

• ³ There are many prophecies in the ancient Hebrew Scriptures that promised the return of the Israelites to their homeland after a period of its desolation and their exile in a foreign land. These are often quoted and applied to the natural Jews of today and to the literal land of Palestine over in the Near East. For example, the following are specially favored quotations which are interpreted to mean that, before Messiah comes and God’s kingdom is set up, the natural Jews will be regathered to Palestine, though they are yet in unbelief toward the true Messiah or Christ:

* See The Watchtower in its issue of July 1, 1949, page 197.

1, 2. To whom do many attribute setting up the State of Israel? 3, 4. What prophecy is applied to regathering Jews to Palestine?

* “As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture; and upon the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord Jehovah.” “And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I, Jehovah, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them; I, Jehovah, have spoken it.” “And I will raise up unto them a plantation for renown, and they shall be no more consumed with famine in the land, neither bear the shame of the nations any more. And they shall know that I, Jehovah their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord Jehovah. And ye my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord Jehovah.” —Ezek. 34:12-15, 23, 24,29-31, Am. Stan. Ver.

‘ To the present repopulating and rebuilding of various parts of Palestine by the natural Jews the following prophecy is also applied by various religionists:

’ “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which are become a prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are round about. ... Surely the nations that are round about you, they shall bear their shame. But ye, 0 mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown; and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded.” “Thus saith the Lord Jeho-

5, 6. What prophecy la applied to Jews' rebuilding ot Palestine? vah: I do not this for your sake, 0 house of Israel, but for my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations, whither ye went. And I ■will sanctify my great name, which hath been profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, saith the Lord Jehovah, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.” “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock. As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.”—Ezek. 36:4,7-10,22-24, 37, 38, Am. Stan. Ver.

• ⁷ But the above-quoted and other like prophecies once had their fulfillment long ago upon natural Israel, or “Israel after the flesh”. Those prophecies were uttered before the seventy years of desolation of Jerusalem and the land of Judah, from 607 B.C. to 537 B.C. So they were fulfilled, though in a miniature way, upon natural Israel when Jehovah God caused the mighty empire of Babylon to be overthrown and then caused King Cyrus the Persian conqueror to let a faithful remnant of the Jews return to Palestine to rebuild the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem. Hence those prophecies have not gone without a literal fulfillment upon the ancient chosen people, the natural seed of Abraham. But the present-day establishment of the political state of Israel cannot be harmonized with sacred prophecy. It cannot be proved to be the second and final fulfillment of the restoration of God’s people. Let us be courageous and honest enough to face and admit the facts regarding Israel after the flesh.

• ⁸ In this connection we quote an International News Service (INS) dispatch dated Jerusalem, January 28, 1949, It reads:

“The Israeli Ministry of Justice studied a petition today asking that the trial of Jesus Christ almost 2,000 years ago be reviewed by Israel’s high court of justice. The petition, submitted by an unnamed Dutch national, declared that the court has a 'moral duty⁵ to review the 'mistrial’, and 'exonerate’ Christ from the charges which led to his crucifixion. The petition added that Israel’s present government, descended from the Jewish state of 2,000 years ago, has the necessary ‘jurisdiction’ to review the case. Government sources said the petition will be considered at a high cabinet level before a decision is made. The carefully documented petition, running more than 30 pages, is based upon legalistic and ^2 3 formal arguments. It maintains that the 71-judge Sanhedrin court which condemned Christ was not qualified and it questions the jurisdiction of Pontius Pilate. The Israeli Supreme Court, which received the petition by registered mail from Holland, was asked not to reveal the appellant’s identity until a date has been set for a hearing. The petitioner claims he is in possession of documents supporting his contentions. Legal circles in Tel Aviv believe that the petitioner is a noted jurist.”

A NEW CHOSEN NATION

• What further has been done with the above petition has not yet been reported, but a few days before Jesus of Nazareth was impaled on a tree he said to the Jews at Jerusalem: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Later that same day he predicted their house of worship (Herod’s temple) and the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed and they would be dispersed among all nations. This Jesus is established as a true prophet of Jehovah by the faithful fulfillment of his words in Jerusalem’s destruction by Roman legions A.D. 70. The dispersion of the Jews ever since proves that Jehovah God has cast them off from being his people as a nation. Were it not for a faithful remnant of natural Jews, they would all have been cast away. But this faithful remnant accepted Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, a natural descendant of King David and his legal Heir to the Davidic covenant for the Kingdom. On the day of Pentecost after his death and resurrection from the tomb this believing remnant of Jews were baptized with God’s holy spirit from heaven, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28,29. On that occasion the devoted Jewish apostle, Simon Peter, declared that Jehovah God had confirmed Jesus as Messiah or Christ by raising him from the dead and exalting him to his own right hand in heaven, thus making Jesus Christ higher than King David, so making him David’s Lord and so fulfilling Psalm 110:1.

• ¹⁰ There, as recorded at Acts 2:1-42, God established a new chosen nation, a new Israel, an Israel after the spirit. The natural Jews who are today gathered in Palestine under their so-called “star of David” claim natural descent from Abraham. They insist, therefore, that they are by fleshly connections the “seed of Abraham”. But fleshly descent does not prove and establish a people as Abraham’s seed. What does so is one’s having the faith of Abraham, by which faith righteousness with God is gained. The natural Jews regathered in Palestine are able to show circumcision in their flesh. But Jehovah God told those who would be his true people to circumcise their hearts. This circumcision of the heart is

• 9. What saved Israel from all being cast away as a nation?

• 10, 11. What new nation did God establish, justifying its members? what proves a person a true Jew in God’s sight. —Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4.

• ¹¹ Righteousness was reckoned to Abraham before ever he was circumcised in the flesh. Likewise a faithful, believing person of any nation can be justified in God’s sight without having circumcision in the flesh. Because of having a faith in God as Abraham had it, such an uncircumcised believer can be a true child of Abraham according to the spirit. Hence the Jewish-Christian writer Paul says to the followers of Jesus: “He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”—Rom. 2:28,29; 4:3-12.

• ¹² It thus came about that, when only a remnant of the natural Jews recognized the fulfillment of the prophecies in Jesus Christ and accepted him as Jehovah’s Messiah, the good news of salvation was carried to the uncircumcised Gentiles to afford them a chance to show faith in God like Abraham’s and become children of Abraham. Many believed Jehovah and accepted his Messiah, the resurrected Jesus at God’s right hand. Those that did so were justified for their faith and were anointed "with God’s spirit as his spiritual children. In this way they became part of God’s new nation, his Israel after the spirit. These believing Gentiles were Jews or Judeans inwardly and they held fast to the Messiah of the tribe of Judah. They praised Jehovah God, for the name Judah means “praise”, that is, praise to Jehovah.—Gen. 29:35, Am. Stan. Ver.

• ¹³ That these believers in Jesus from both the natural Jews and the uncircumcised Gentiles make up the true Israel whom Jehovah now accepts and uses, the same Jewish-Christian writer shows. He says: “Why, even those who let themselves be circumcised do not observe the Law themselves! But they want you to let yourselves be circumcised so that they can boast of that physical fact about you! But I never want to boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, on which the world has been crucified to me and I have been to the world. For neither circumcision nor the want of it is of any importance, but only a new creation. Peace and mercy be on all who will follow this rule, and on the true Israel of God.”—Gal. 6:13-16, An Amer. Trans.

• ¹⁴ This true Israel of God forms with Jesus Christ the seed or offspring of Abraham, in whom all families and nations of the earth are to be blessed. In this same letter this Jewish-Christian writer says: “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all 12, 13. How did Gentiles become part of It, though unclrcumclsed? 14, IS. With which Israel does God deal, to bless all nations?

nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And tcseeds, as of many [seeds]; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”—Gal. 3: 8, 9, 16,28,29.                                                 .

• ¹⁵ In the light of that statement God is not dealing with two Israel? today, a spiritual Israel and a fleshly Israel. He is dealing with the one “true Israel of God”, the spiritual seed of Abraham. It is to this true Israel, particularly the remnant of it living on earth today, that Jehovah’s promises concerning the restoration of his people have their major and final fulfillment.

THE FLESHLY NOT FULFILLING THE PROPHECY

• ¹⁸ The Bible itself shows that the prophecies respecting restoration to their own land had a literal fulfillment upon fleshly Israel in the sixth century B.C. The circumstances surrounding that ancient restoration foreshadow and illustrate how the complete and final fulfillment of the prophecy takes place in our momentous day. Now do the circumstances and developments connected with the Jewish colonization of Palestine and setting up of the republic of Israel match those of the miniature fulfillment of the prophecies long agol No! Back there Almighty God overthrew Israel’s oppressor, wicked Babylon, and raised up Cyras to promote the return of the Israelites to the land of Judah to rebuild the temple. But the British Empire, which held the mandate over Palestine, has not proved to be a modern Cyrus toward the natural Jews. The Zionist Jews themselves have complained long and loud that Britain did not live up to its own Balfour Declaration, and it gave no encouragement whatsoever to the creation of an independent Jewish state in Palestine. First on January 29,1949, or eight months after the establishment of the State of Israel, Britain granted de facto recognition, thus being, not first, but thirty-third in line to recognize the new state.

• ¹⁷ When the Jewish remnant returned from Babylon to Jerusalem in 537 B.C. to rebuild the temple of worship of Jehovah, the city and its realm had lain desolate for seventy years, without human inhabitant or domesticated beast. Jehovah’s miraculous power kept things that way, and the faithful remnant moved into an uninhabited land. (Jer. 33:10,12; 32: 43 ; 26: 9) But was such the case when the Jews began pushing the colonizing work in the nineteenth century, and particularly after the 16. How do modern facts not match ancient fulfillment as to Cyrus? 17. How do facts not match ancient fulfillment as to desolation² League of Nations confirmed the Palestine mandate in 1922? No! There was already a city centuries old standing on the site of ancient Jerusalem, with a Mohammedan mosque on the temple site. The land was already occupied, by the Arabs, true, sparsely in some places, but occupied just the same. Much of the land that was to be colonized the Jews were required to buy from these Arabs. What they have gained in addition since May 14, 1948, they have gained by force of carnal weapons in sanguinary warfare, and hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of the land felt obliged to flee and become refugees in neighboring lands of the Arab league. Where does all this match the prophecies and the historic pattern furnished us by the literal fulfillment of prophecy in a miniature way in the days of Cyrus king of Persia?

• ¹⁸ As evidenced by the above-quoted Manifesto of Protestant preachers (page 245 U 2), certain religionists of Christendom claim that the fleshly Jews would be restored to Palestine in unbelief and then would come the manifestation of Jesus Christ as their Messiah, by which the Jews would be converted en masse to him, and he would make them the ranking nation of the earth. But such private interpretations of prophecy do not match the prophecies nor the pattern set by the miniature fulfillment of them. When King Cyrus released the Jews from Babylon, the remnant of about 50,000 that volunteered to go back to Jerusalem in a body did not go back in unbelief. They left Babylon for a desolate land with ruined cities, why? Because they had faith in Jehovah and were devoted to his worship in obedience to his commandments. No, they did not go up in unbelief; they went up to build the temple of their God Jehovah and to restore his worship at the place where he had chosen to put his name. Shortly after arriving at the temple site they builded an altar to him and began offering sacrifices to him by legitimate priests of the family of Aaron. Seven months later, after winter was past, they began laying the temple foundation.—Ezra 1:1-8; 3:1-13.

• ¹⁹ But fleshly Jews today returning to Palestine do not go there to rebuild the temple to Jehovah nor to revive His worship according to the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. They go there with their traditional religion as contained in the Jewish Talmud and which nullifies the laws and commandments of God. So they do not take up their position in the land to magnify Jehovah’s name and resume his pure worship free from Babylonish traditions of the religious fathers. The Mohammedan Mosque of Omar on the ancient temple site bars their rebuilding of a national house of worship there. Little good it would do them to rebuild one, for they have no 18, 19 How does Jewish unbelief not match the ancient fulfillment? certified priesthood, nor do they have any certified descendant of the royal line of David, the genealogical records of the Aaronic priests and of the descendants of King David having been destroyed in the national calamity of A.D. 70.

"They have no faith or belief in Jesus Christ, that he is Jehovah’s verified “priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek”, and that he is the One to build the temple: “Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: and he shall grow up out of his place; and he shall build the temple of Jehovah; even he shall build the temple of Jehovah; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne.” (Ps. 110:4; Zech. 6:12,13, Am. Stan. Ver.) The temple this Priest-King builds is a "spiritual house”, made not of material wood and stone, but of “living stones”, the members of the “true Israel of God”. (1 Pet. 2:4-10) For this mighty reason the natural Jews today in Jerusalem never could match the miniature fulfillment and thus bring about the major, final fulfillment of the prophecies. Moreover, Jesus once said to the woman at the well near Mount Gerizim: “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.”—John 4:21,23.

• ²¹ Still, someone objects, could they not be gathered as they are, in unbelief, and then when Jesus appears again as the Messiah be converted to him as a nation? Jesus’ words and action when on earth nineteen centuries ago are against the suggestion that the Jews regathered in Palestine will be given a special sign by him from heaven in order to convert them to him as Messiah. Their need for such a sign simply proves them to be the kind of generation their ancestors were in Jesus’ day. When the Pharisees together with the Sadducees put him to the test by asking him to show them a sign from heaven to prove he was Messiah, Jesus refused and said: “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of Jonah.” That “sign of Jonah” is long past. It will not be repeated by Jesus. What was it? His resurrection from the dead: “for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”—Matt. 16:1-4 and 12: 38-40, Am. Stan. Ver.

• ²² Now, since the end of the “times of the Gentiles” A.D. 1914, the “sign of the Son of man in heaven” has appeared, but it is for the benefit, not of one 20 Why cannot the Jews fulfill the prophecy as to the temple?

• 21, 22. why will they not be converted en masse to Jesus by a sign? earthly nation, but of all nations, Jew and Gentile. This “sign"’ is the birth of God’s kingdom with his Messiah on the heavenly throne. (Matt. 24: 30; Rev. 12:1-5) World-wide witness has been given to this, but the mass of the natural Jews as well as of the Gentiles continue to ignore the world-wide testimony given to the "sign” by Jehovah’s witnesses. Now is the time for conversion. When this witness to the Kingdom has been preached to all nations, Jew and Gentile, then the time comes for the King’s power to be revealed by the universal war of Armageddon and it will be too late for conversion, either by individuals or by nations. That will be the "day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment df God; who will render to every man according to his deeds: tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile”. —Rom. 2: 5, 6, 9; Rev. 16:14-16; 2 Thess. 1: 7.

• ²³ Every development in connection with the newborn republic of Israel proves it was not established by God or with his help, nor will it be accepted of him as his chief nation in the coming new world of righteousness. When Jehovah God first established the Israelites in the Promised Land fifteen centuries before Christ, he organized them as a Theocracy according to the law of Moses. When the faithful, believing remnant returned from Babylon in the sixth century B.C. they also organized their nation according to that Theocratic law. Not so the political Zionists today, filled with political aims. They try to copy the Gentile nations of this world, as their forefathers did in the prophet Samuel’s days when they demanded of him a visible human king, dissatisfied with having Jehovah as their true invisible King. So now they organize in worldly style and form themselves into a democracy. Just how far to admit certain parts and features of Jehovah’s Theocratic law through Moses into the law of the State of Israel has become a painful and difficult problem. The government takes into its composition leftwingers and anti-clericals, and the Talmud of un-scriptural religious traditions gets more recognition than Jehovah’s pure Word and law. Yes, in trying to become one of the modern family of political nations the new state has to compromise.

GOING DOWN TO EGYPT FOR HELP

• ²⁴ Recognition? Yes, Israel has plenty of that from the vote-getting politicians and the nations of this world. But not from Jehovah God and his Messiah! Widespread approval by the religions and nations of this world is no evidence of divine approval. God’s rule, stated by the Jewish-Christian writer James to the unfaithful ones, says: "Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with

• 23 . How do state structure and law not meet God's requirements?

• 24 , 25. By whom is Israel recognized? Why not In harmony with God? God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.” (Jas. 4:4, Am. Stan. Ver.) Note how this world made friendly advances to Israel and how pleased Israel was to get them.

• ²⁵ The first to recognize the republic of Israel was President Truman of the United States, startling the political world with the promptness with which he did so. How did this come about and under what influence? Certainly not under the influence of Jehovah the God of ancient Israel. The very next Sunday, May 16, 1948,'the nationally known commentator, Drew Pearson, broadcasting from Washington, D.C., over a nation-wide radio network, laid bare the following facts:

• ²⁸ No sooner was the new Jewish state proclaimed at Tel Aviv than the leaders of the Democratic political party of America got busy, such as Senator J. Howard McGrath, of Rhode Island, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, “boss” Edward J. Flynn of the Bronx, New York, and Frank Hague, then in his thirty-second and last year as mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey. All these men are religious adherents- of the Vatican. These and others of their party at once wired or telephoned Truman, urging him to recognize the State of Israel. Truman owed Flynn and Hague something. At the presidential nominating convention of the Democratic party in 1944 at Chicago, Illinois, Flynn and Hague got together with two other Roman Catholics, Robert E. Hannegan, then national chairman of the Democratic party, and Edward J. Kelly, mayor of Chicago. To block the party’s nomination of either Jas. F. Byrnes or Vice-President Henry A. Wallace for the next vice-presidency, the four said political potentates sat together and arranged to put over the successful nomination of then Senator Truman for office of vice-president of the United States. Roosevelt and Truman won in the national elections, and when Roosevelt died in 1945 Truman succeeded him to the presidency.

• ²⁷ 1948 was presidential election year. So, when McGrath, Flynn and Hague urged Truman to recognize Israel, Truman had to consider, not a Jewish vote, but the Roman Catholic vote by which he hoped to gain and by which he did gain re-election to the presidency in the coming fall. The Catholic politicians who urged him to the step had in mind the interests of the Vatican in Palestine, particularly the so-called “holy places” and educational institutions. Moreover, the Vatican was engaged in a war with Communism, and there was Soviet Russia to beat in recognizing Israel, almost her next-door neighbor.

• ²⁸ Now Israel had not yet requested the United States for recognition. So, to hasten the procedure, 26-28. How was United States recognition ot Israel speeded up? the White House at Washington got in touch with C. David Ginsburg, related to the Jewish Agency, and asked him to put in a request for recognition. He did so. Then President Truman made the following announcement: “This Government has been informed that a Jewish State has been proclaimed in Palestine and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new state of Israel.”

• ²⁸ Because Truman thus stole a march on them, the Russians gnashed their teeth and indulged in bitter accusations; and then, to go farther with recognition than the United States did, Soviet Russia by a note from its Foreign Minister Molotov granted, not de facto, but de jure recognition to Israel. Was the clean hand of Jehovah God in this? we ask. But Israel felt flattered at the recognitions from more than thirty nations that followed in the course of months and Israel felt her position in this world greatly strengthened. It accepted and depended upon the friendship of this world, but which is adulterous enmity in the sight of God.

• ³⁰ In this did Israel imitate the faithful little remnant that returned to Jerusalem in 537 B.C. and put its trust in Jehovah? Israel must be judged by its deeds in the light of God’s commandments. Through Moses, at Deuteronomy 7:2, Jehovah said concerning leagues with Gentile nations: “When Jehovah thy God shall deliver them up before thee, and thou shalt smite them; then thou shalt utterly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant with them.” (Am. Sian. Ver.) By his angel he reminded them of this, saying: “I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars.” (Judg. 2:1,2) Ancient Egypt was a mighty military and commercial power, but Jehovah warned Israel not to look to that world power for help against enemies. Showing disapproval of going to this old world for help, he said to the Israelites: “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Jehovah!” (Isa. 31:1, Am. Stan. Ver.; 30:1,2) But modern Israel has disregarded these divine counsels. The very afternoon that the new state was proclaimed its government appealed to the United Nations to “assist the Jewish people in the building of its state and to admit Israel into the family of nations”. The next Sunday, May 16, 194S, it applied to the United Nations for membership. It also addressed itself to the United States for financial help.

• 29. What attitude did Israel take toward recognitions by nations?

• 30. From its start what counsels on leagues did Israel Ignore?

• ⁸¹ Before the United Nations admitted Israel, there were certain developments. During the fighting that went on in Palestine, the pope expressed concern over the so-called “holy” places. In his second encyclical on the subject, on April 15, 1949, Pope Pius XII made Israel recognize Roman Catholic power in the United Nations. How? Twenty-three Catholic nations are members of the United Nations. The pope appealed to the leaders of these to ask the Israeli government for guarantees on the centuries-old rights of the Catholic religion in Palestine and to do so before voting for Israel’s admission. He also demanded international rule for Jerusalem.

• ⁸² That same month Israel’s president, Chaim Weizmann, visited the United States. He was obliged to pay court to the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. On April 26 he and A. S. Eban, Israel’s representative at the U.N., attended an informal dinner at Cardinal Spellman’s home in New York city and conferred on the question of free access to Jerusalem’s “holy” places. On May 5 Eban told the U.N. Assembly’s Ad Hoc Political Committee that Israel would agree to an international regime for Jerusalem which would concern itself with only the city’s “holy” places, leaving secular matters to the Arab and Jewish authorities. That same day it leaked out who had arranged for President Weizmann’s visit with Cardinal Spellman. As he left New York to return to Israel he told news reporters he had discussed Jerusalem with the cardinal. At whose instance? Why, that of a leading politician who is heavily indebted to the Vatican and the Roman Catholic vote. The interview -with the cardinal, Dr. Weizmann declared, had been arranged “through the good offices of President Truman”. He said “the talks had cleared the way for a settlement”. Also a representative for the cardinal said that “there was a feeling that Israeli and Catholic views might have been brought closer together by the Weizmann-Spellman talks”. (N.Y. Times, editorial section, May 8,1949) Although Pope Pius XII claims to be vicar of Christ, Israel’s recognition of the Vatican in these matters constitutes no fulfillment of Jesus’ words to the Jews at Jerusalem: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord [Jehovah].” —Matt. 23:38, 39; Ps. 118:26, Am. Stan. Ver.

• ⁸³ At last, after repeated applications by the new republic, the General Assembly of the United Nations admitted Israel to membership on May 11, 1949, by a vote of 37 to 12, with nine members abstaining, including Britain the former mandatory power over Palestine. By this, Israel became fifty-ninth member of the United Nations and became in a complete

• 31. 32. How was Israel made to pay court to the Catholic Hierarchy? 33. How and with whom did Israel seal her doom to destruction⁹ sense a part of the family of nations of this world. The Bible shows the United Nations, successor to the dead League of Nations, to be the present form of the “abomination of desolation” foretold by both the prophet Daniel and Jesus Christ. Its appearance denotes that this world is now in its “time of the end” and that Jesus Christ is present in God’s kingdom on the heavenly Mount Zion. (Dan. 11: 31; 12:11; Matt. 24:15) That “abomination of desolation” sets itself up in antagonism to the reigning King Jesus Christ for world domination. It is therefore doomed to destruction at the approaching battle of Armageddon. Instead of recognizing Jehovah’s King and saying, “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of Jehovah,” the republic of Israel unites itself ■with His enemy and says, in effect: “We have no king but Caesar.” By this the young republic caps the climax of proof that it is not the “true Israel of God”. It seals its doom to destruction with the United Nations organization at the final war of Armageddon. Nineteen centuries ago the apostle Paul referred to the Jewish capital as “Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children”. (Gal. 4: 25) All the facts of today disclose that the earthly Jerusalem of our twentieth century is as much in bondage to this Babylonish world as Jerusalem of Paul’s day was.

PEOPLES AND NATIONS GOING UP TO ZION

NOT in the republic of Israel and her Jerusalem do we find the fulfillment today of the prophecy: “Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come peoples, and the inhabitants of many cities; and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to entreat the favor of Jehovah, and to seek Jehovah of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek Jehovah of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, they shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” (Zech. 8:20-23, Am. Stan. Ver.) The earthly Jerusalem is not the one to which all nations are today going up to seek and worship Jehovah of hosts, but the worldly nations by dictating as to disposing of Jerusalem are the ones asking the Israeli republic to come to that city. So the prophecy must have a grander, higher fulfillment than one on the natural Jew and his earthly Jerusalem.

² Christ Jesus, the King now reigning upon the heavenly Mount Zion, is the great Jew or Praiser of Jehovah God. He and his consecrated followers, anointed with God’s spirit, are the true Israel of God. To them the apostle Paul writes: “Ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, .. . and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant.” (Heb. 12:22-24, Am. Stan. Ver.) They are Jews inwardly having the circumcision of the heart, a spiritual thing. It is upon the remnant of this true Israel of God today that this prophecy of Zechariah as well as all other prophecies concerning restoration find fulfillment. Jehovah has taken them out of the nations as a “people for his name”, and true to this name they have been acting

1. How 1g Zechariah 8:20-23 not being fulfilled on Jerusalem now? 2. Upon whom is it being fulfilled? After what experience by them? as “Jehovah’s witnesses”. (Acts 15:14; Isa. 43:10, 12) During World War I, from 1914 to 1918, they came under great reproach and persecution as His witnesses, and religious enemies and political powers of this world conspired to suppress and destroy them. By forcible restraints upon their -witness work they came into captivity to Great Babylon, the Devil’s world organization. Centuries after ancient Babylon on the Euphrates river was overthrown, the last book of the Bible prophesied of the great anti typical Babylon and its oppressive operations against Jehovah’s witnesses.—Rev. 14:8; 16:19; 17: 5 to 18: 21.

’ Especially in the spring of 1918 that mighty organization desolated the earthly condition of Jehovah’s witnesses symbolized by the ancient land of Judah, and they languished in a condition of exile from God’s service and open public worship. But in 1919 Jehovah God, by his Greater Cyrus, Christ Jesus, released them from Babylonish exile and restraint. He restored them to their “land”, their rightful condition on earth in his service. He restored them to service at his spiritual temple. Their restoration, the regathering of them to Jehovah’s Theocratic organization, this, and not the return of natural Jews to Palestine, is a prominent part of the great “sign” that Jesus predicted would be evidence of his second presence and the end of this world. The remnant of the true Israel, Jehovah’s witnesses, are the “elect” whom he said he would send forth his angels to gather together “from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other”.—Matt. 24: 30, 31.

* Unlike the Jews of the republic of Israel, this anointed remnant have been gathered away from this world. They are clean from friendship and contamination with this world, its politics,.its selfish commerce and its religion. They have obeyed God’s command to the faithful remnant of ancient time: “Touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her

• 3. How have they been restored? As a sign of what today?

• 4. How do they differ in course from the political Israelis?

[Babylon]; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.” (Isa. 52:11) Therefore since 1919 Jehovah has been pleased to use them as his restored witnesses.

⁵ For many years we have looked kindly upon the return of the Jews to Palestine, particularly from the publication of our article “Jewish Restoration” in the Watchtower issue of March, 1880. During all the years since then till 1932 Jehovah’s witnesses have taken the view common in Christendom that the prophecies of restoration applied to the natural Jew and his return to the literal land of Palestine. By much literature specially meant for Jewish readers and distributed to them, and by many public lectures held on subjects of Jewish interest, Jehovah’s witnesses have lovingly tried to help the natural Jews to see and accept the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. We are happy to say some Jews have responded, although comparatively few. We deny that in all this time we have been backed by Jewish bankers and Jewish organizations. In due time a concentrated study of Ezekiel’s prophecy in the light of modern events was undertaken, and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society published a series of three books entitled “Vindication”. In Book Two, published in 1932, Vindication discussed verse for verse Ezekiel’s prophecies on restoration, and then, on pages 257, 258, it said the following:

⁸ “There was a partial fulfillment of this prophecy upon Palestine in the days of Ezekiel and Nehemiah. The complete fulfillment could not apply to the literal land of Palestine. The Jews were evicted from Palestine and ’their house left unto them desolate’ because they rejected Christ Jesus, the beloved and anointed King of Jehovah. To this day the Jews have not repented of this wrongful act committed by their forefathers. Many of them have been returned to the land of Palestine, but they have been induced to go there because of selfishness and for sentimental reasons. During the long period elapsing from the time of their expulsion to the present day the Jews have not ’borne the shame of the heathen’ for Jehovah’s sake, nor for the name of Christ. During all this period of time, and particularly during the World War [No. 1], the true followers of Christ Jesus devoted to God, and to his kingdom, have been bearing the shame of the heathen and have been hated by all the nations for Christ’s sake and for the sake of Jehovah’s name. (Matt. 24:9; Mark 13:13) In contrast with this, during the World War [No. 1] the Jews received recognition of the heathen nations. In 1917 the Balfour Declaration, sponsored by the heathen governments of Satan’s organization, came forth, recognized the Jews, and bestowed upon them great favors. In this the seventh world power [Britain-America] took the lead. Now Big Business and other wings of Satan’s organization place the Jews alongside of and in the same category as the Gentiles. Heretofore even God’s people have overlooked the fact that the affairs of God’s kingdom with reference to the things of earth are of far greater importance than the rehabilitation of that little strip of land on the eastern side of the Mediterranean sea. The Jews have received more attention at their hands than they have really deserved. Therefore this prophecy must have its chief fulfillment upon the true people of God’s kingdom which are now on the earth.”

MIRACLE OF PRESERVATION

^T How well the world developments since publication of the above statement in 1932 bear out its accuracy! This should only help to correct any wrong views we have had on the subject. It was once said: "Among the relics of antiquity that have come down to our day, there is no other object of so great interest as the Jewish people.”* The preservation of the natural Jews from the days of Jacob has also frequently been held forth as a miracle of God. But the real miracle is the preservation of Jehovah’s witnesses since the days of the first martyr Abel down to our day. That miracle receives emphasis in Jehovah’s preservation of the “true Israel of God” as his people and witnesses during these past nineteen centuries since the days of Jesus. They, rather than the natural Jews who were blinded by the “god of this world”, have been the main target of Satan the Devil. By all the powers and organizations of his wicked world he has tried to exterminate this spiritual Israel, these Christian witnesses of Jehovah the living and true God. By violence, force and intimidation his great organization, modern Babylon, took them into captivity and exile during World War I, but in 1919 Jehovah God acted for his own name’s sake and delivered and restored them as His namepeople.

⁸ It is time for all people of good-will, whether natural Jew or Gentile, to awake to this great spiritual truth, letting it act as a true, safe guide for conduct today. If the repatriated Jews in Palestine were there by God’s will as the nucleus of the “new earth” of his righteous new world, then it would be the right thing for all people of good-will of all nations to take hold on the citizens of the Israeli republic and go up to their organization. But now we see that to go with them means to link up with the "abomination of desolation”, the United Nations, and to doom ourselves to destruction with that abomination at the

• • Page 243 of Thy Kingdom Come, published by our Society in 1891.

coming battle of Armageddon. It is the faithful remnant of Christ’s anointed followers, “the true Israel of God,” who are the inward Jews today that are going up to the heavenly Jerusalem, where Christ Jesus thrones as King for Jehovah. Despite all their persecutions from this world, the facts show that God is with them as his approved name-people and witnesses. They are completely devoted to God’s kingdom, and not to the antagonistic United Nations. Therefore it is upon the skirts of these inward Jews of spiritual Israel that all men of good-will, ‘ten men out of all languages of the nations,’ should now take hold and say: “We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you.” That they may do so, the remnant of spiritual Israel will continue to ‘preach this gospel of the Kingdom in all the world for a witness unto all nations’.

’ Let the people of good-will of all nations show

• 9. How are they more acceptable to God than Israelis? To what end? faith in God like that of Abraham and let them go up with the spiritual remnant to His Theocratic organization. By manifesting such faith they show that they are more Jewish inwardly than the natural Jews who are regathered to Palestine in unbeEef. They show themselves ahead of such fleshly Israelis in Abrahamic faith. Such faith in these consecrated people of good-will is more valid with God than the fleshly tie that natural Israelis have to Abraham of old. So let them associate themselves with the spiritual Israel and say also to other inhabitants of all the nations: “Let us go speedily to entreat the favor of Jehovah, and to seek Jehovah of hosts: I will go also.” (Zech. 8:20-23, Am. Stan. Ver.) This will bring them into harmony with the living God through his King Jesus Christ. It will lead to their preservation through the battle of Armageddon and to Efe eternal in the new world under the everlasting Kingdom of righteousness.

WISE USE OF TIME

JEHOVAH God can stop time dead in its tracks, as he did in Joshua’s day when the sun stood still. He can turn it back, as he did in Hezekiah’s time when causing the shadow on the sun dial to go backwards. But we cannot call time out in our living. We cannot turn time back to relive it if we have been wasteful of it. There is no second chance for Christians in the use of consecrated time. Nor can Christians expand their ministry by expanding their time. Jesus said, “Which of you, by being anxious, can prolong his life one moment?” (Matt. 6:27, Diaglott) So do not say, “I’ll get busy next month or next year.” There is no guarantee you will be here then. Do not gamble with time you may not have. And even if you have it, do not gamble with time that is not yours but which you have consecrated to God. Pay over now in full the time consecrated, without withholding an excessive pleasure tax.

Why do some who have consecrated their time to God fail to use it in gospel-preaching? Too young? Samuel started serving Jehovah God at the tabernacle full-time as soon as he was weaned. Too old? The apostle John must have been close to 100 years of age when he was finishing off his share of Bible-writing around A.D. 99. Too sick? Faithful Job, that man of integrity, served God while afflicted with the loathsome disease of black leprosy. Is any consecrated Christian today younger than the babe Samuel was when he started service at the tabernacle? Or older than 100 years of age? Or afflicted with something worse than black leprosy?

Others may object that they cannot speak well enough. That was what Moses once thought about himself; but how wrong he was is shown by some of the recorded speeches he made to the Israelites during the wilderness sojourn. Perhaps some feel timid and frightened at the prospect of witnessing publicly. The prophet Jeremiah had such misgivings but he was instructed by Jehovah to fear not the faces of the adversary and was assured that Jehovah God would put the words into his mouth. (Jer. 1:4-9,17) His service record eloquently testifies that Jehovah God fulfilled that promise to the prophet. Does any consecrated Christian fear he will be unable to answer the questions propounded? Diligent study will make him able to apply the words of Psalm 119: 98,100 to himself: “Thy commands make me wiser than my foes; ... I know more than these sages, for I carry out thy behests I”—Moffatt.

In Jesus’ day some were too busy to serve Jehovah God and follow in the footsteps of Christ. Like some of those objectors, do any Christians today have a new farm, new oxen, a new wife, and because of the time consumed by these things say they have no time for the New World? The Bible classes such objections as excuses. If time is found for such pursuits as reading newspapers, shopping for temporal food, visiting, listening to radio, watching television and many other activities, certainly time should be available to use in Jehovah God’s service. Christians should unload excuses. Carrying them around and scrapping with their conscience tires them more than would the gospelpreaching work.

One solution is to budget consecrated time. Jehovah God budgets time. He marked off the time of creative days as 7,000 years each, sets times and seasons, fixed the seven times of the Gentiles, and appointed a time for the final end. He instructs that there is a time to plant and to harvest, to kill and heal, weep and laugh, mourn and dance, speak and be silent, love and hate, to war and to be at peace. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven,” says Jehovah God’s Word. The Almighty Creator has endless time, yet he budgets it, and no one makes him break his schedule. “Woe unto them that draw iniquity . . . that say, Let him [God] make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it.” (Isa. 5:18, 19) He does not get behind schedule, nor will he speed up His schedule for the strange work or strange act just to convince scoffing worldlings. When we make a time budget for service, we should not break it to please worldlings, or other witnesses, or ourselves.

The Scriptures state that earthly masters give the dogs the crumbs from their table; however, some negligent ones who have consecrated themselves to God fail to give their Lord and Master even a few crumbs from their timetable. Greedily they consume all time upon themselves, with none left for God, though all of it is consecrated to him. They fail to pay their vows, and remind us of the empty clouds and blowing winds spoken of at Proverbs 25:14: “Clouds and wind that bring no rain—like him who promises what he never gives!”—Moffatt.

But a budget, faithfully followed, will insure the Christian of wise use of consecrated time. It will make the Christian fruitful regularly. Just as excess branches and twigs are trimmed off fruit trees so that there will be plenty of strength for fruit-bearing for the good branches left on, so the Christian can trim out the excesses and non-essentials from his time budget so that ample time will remain for strong activity and good fruitage in Kingdom ministry. Like the trees of Revelation 22 growing by the river of life, the Christian can bring forth fruit monthly the year round by redeeming time, by buying it off at the cost of nonessential things, by trimming off time-wasters.

The publisher of the Kingdom gospel should be aware that someone else wants to budget his time, namely, Satan the Devil. He -will budget your time for himself, if you fail to budget it for Jehovah God. In fact, Satan has already done so in a subtle way if you are failing to put time in the field service. Recall how Pharaoh of Egypt budgeted the time of the captive Israelites, so much so that they had no time left to worship Jehovah God! “They did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, . . . [Pharaoh said] they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work be laid upon the men.” (Ex. 1:11; 5:8, 9) Thus Pharaoh did tie down the Israelite captives with burdensome work and rob them of time that should have been used in worshiping Jehovah God. So today Satan will steal the consecrated time of Christians, cause them to rob God if he can. He will slyly trespass on time in a thousand subtle ways if the Christian does not have a budget that posts his time with ^<rNo Trespassing’' signs, “Satan, Keep Out!” “Hands Off Consecrated Time!”

Proverbs 18: 9, according to Moffatt’s translation, states: “A man slack at his work is as bad as a waster.” Do not be a slacker. Do not slack up and waste consecrated time. Let time-wasting by-gones be by-gones, as is stated at 1 Peter 4:2, 3: “In God’s will ye may live the still remaining time. For sufficient is the bygone time to have wrought out the will of the nations.” (Rot/i.) Colossians 4:5, according to Weymouth, says, “Behave wisely in relation to the outside world, seizing your opportunities.” This stands as a warning to Christians that they should not let relations with the outside world monopolize their time, but should seize opportunities of service and tie down their available time in a budget. Tie it fast so that its cords will not be snapped by yourselves or others. The remaining time till Armageddon lived according to God’s will will not drag. Why, the Bible says that Jacob served for seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him as a few days, for the love he had for her. Because of the love that Christians have for God, seven years or two or three times seven years will seem only as a fast stream of pleasant days to us.

This old world has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Its days are numbered. Even its hours are numbered, as Jesus stated that Jehovah God in heaven knew the hour that its final end would come. Hence the hours of Christians for the service of gospel-preaching are numbered with it. The Devil knows his time is short, and he has sense enough to use the time left to him as a wild, raging, roaring lion in a desperate endeavor to prove his side of the challenge. (Rev. 12:12; 1 Pet. 5:8) Certainly Christians should have as much sense as the Devil in the use of their time for its consecrated purpose, realizing that the time to preach is short and that they must use that time as zealously for good as Satan the Devil uses it for wickedness.

Do not be deceived. Do not expect God to stop the sun while you play, or turn it back in its course so that you can live over wasted time. Grab your time now. Seize it, wrest it violently from Satan’s world, wrest it from selfish self if need be, tie it down, budget it, use in a wise way the time you have consecrated to God. Then when the time is no more for the work of gospel-preaching and the fateful hour of Armageddon strikes, the zealous Christian will be preserved unto life and endless blessings in Jehovah God’s New World without end.

OBADIAH PROPHESIES AGAINST EXALTED ONES

SATAN was the first to exalt himself. “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God,” he said in his heart, and covetously added, “I will be like the most High.” Yet how he has fallen from heaven! how he will soon crash into the abyss of the grave! (Isa. 14:12-15; Rev. 20:1-3) His sly deception induced the first human pair to seek to exalt themselves as gods, but the result was a fall into sin and death. With them in their plunge into delinquency they took the entire human race. Moreover, in the degradation that followed human creatures did not learn of their errors in humility, did not learn from the hard knocks of experience, but took more and more bruising falls in the wake of pride and self-exaltation. To this very twentieth century experience has failed to teach men to avoid this snare; on the contrary, the heady and high-minded among men increase in these 'Hast days”. (2 Tim. 3:1, 4) Why, some arrogant few even match Satan’s folly by exalting themselves above Jehovah God, pretending that they daily order God from his heavenly throne down to this earth to be sacrificed by them on a religious altar!

But not all men have tumbled into the snare that tripped foolish Satan to a fall. Not all of them have thought more highly of themselves than they ought. Among the many that exalt themselves and who will suffer abasement in time, there are a few that abase themselves and who will be exalted in due course by God. An arresting contrast from the past proves the point. Go back in time some six hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Jerusalem’s fall to the king of Babylon in 607 B.C. has taken place. Obadiah is proclaiming a message of doom against proud and haughty Edom, but Obadiah himself is in sharp contrast with the exalted Edomites.

Obadiah’s name means “servant of Jah”, and this mere beginning of information about the man is also the end. The Bible book bearing Obadiah’s name, the shortest book in the Hebrew Scriptures, opens simply, “The vision of Obadiah.” Nothing further concerning the man. When he was born, where, of what tribe, his station in life—none of these personal bits of information appear. From remote antiquity there is a multitude of opinions concerning the identity of Obadiah, but their very variety and wide discrepancy are the strongest proof of their worthlessness. Obadiah was writing no autobiography to converge attention upon himself. Beyond his identity as a servant of Jah, he saw himself of no consequence. He opened his prophecy with the words, “Thus saith the Lord God,” and that vouched for its authenticity and lifted responsibility for it from human hands, though it was sounded through human lips. The identity of the human writer was not allowed to compete with the message: full focus of undivided mental powers upon the prophecy!

Tidings from Jehovah and an ambassador sent among the nations proclaimed: “Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.” Though Edom had puffed itself up big, God made it small; though it was inflated with pride, Jehovah called it despised. Its haughty spirit is challenged by these words from the Most High: “The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, 0 thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou mount on high as the eagle, and though thy nest be set among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence, saith Jehovah.”—Obadiah 1-4, Am. Stan. Ver.

The proud hearts of the Edomites had deceived them because of geography of their homeland. Stretching south from the Dead sea and rising up east of the Arabah is the wild and rugged range of Mount Seir, a jumbled mass of jagged rocks and crags, cliffs and serrated ridges. These mountain fastnesses of sandstone, limestone and porphyry jut up more than three thousand feet above the floor of the Arabah, and the narrow trails twisting their way among the precipitous cliffs make penetration of the country hazardous. Cradled in the highest crags like some huge eagle’s nest was the capital city. It was called Sela and later Petra, both names meaning rock in Hebrew and Greek respectively. It lies in a natural hollow, surrounded by steep cliffs of rose-colored sandstone, is roughly a mile long and a half mile wide, with smaller valleys and canyons opening into it. Above it like a huge and silent sentinel towers Mount Hot. Part of the city was hewn out of solid rock. Entrances to it were through mountain passes and chasms. Little wonder the Edomites felt safe and secure in their high cliff dwellings!

But though their nearest neighbors were the eagles that screamed and circled among the crags and their close companions were the stars that seemed to hover just out of reach, Jehovah would see to it that the arrogant Edomites would be toppled from their perch. And not in just a sobering letdown for a lesson, not just a partial comedown to knock sense into haughty heads, no, but a nonstop crash dive to the bottom of the grave’s pit! Thieves do not steal everything, and grape-gatherers leave some gleanings behind, but former confederates will hem in these Edomite descendants of Esau and rob them of all their hidden treasures. The wisdom of their wise men will perish, the understanding of the prudent will vanish, and the mighty military hosts will stand dismayed, all to the end that these self-exalted ones may be cut off by slaughter.

—Obadiah 5-9.

But why? Just because they dwelt in the cliffs of the mountains? Just because they loved the highland haunts of the eagle? because they lived nearer the stars of heaven? No, of course not. These natural surroundings doubtless fed their vanity of invincibility, nourished their cocksureness, and made their myth of unconquerability grow. But Obadiah put the prophetic finger on their sin that would catch up to them and overwhelm them in destruction. He outlines their fate and the cause of it, at verses 10 to 15:

'Tor the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you and you shall be cut off forever. On the day when you stood by, while aliens carried off his goods, and foreigners entered his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, you, too, were as one of them. You should not have gloated over your brother, on the day of his adversity. You should not have rejoiced over the Judeans, on the day of their ruin. You should not have made a wide mouth, on the day of trouble. You should not have entered the gate of my people, on the day of their calamity. You should not have gloated over his misfortune, on the day of his calamity. You should not have put forth your hand upon his goods, on the day of his calamity. Nor should you have stood at the breach, to cut off his fugitives, nor have delivered up his refugees, on the day of his trouble. For the day of the Lord is near, upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deed shall return upon your own head.”—An Amer. Trans.

Fitting in the facts that support these charges, we can see the foundation for the destruction of the Edomites. They had descended from Esau, the Israelites from Jacob, and Esau and Jacob were twin brothers. Hence it is that violence done to the Israelites is spoken of as against “your brother Jacob”. From the setting the violence here denounced seems to refer to the time of Jerusalem’s fall to the Babylonians in 607 B.C. Not only did the Edomites stand by approvingly, but they urged on the conquerors in making the desolation complete: “The Edomites! remember against them, Eternal, that day of Jerusalem’s fall, when ‘Down with her! down with her!’ Edomites cried, 'Raze her to the ground!’” (Ps. 137:7, Moff.) When the conquerors cast lots for the spoils of Jerusalem, the Edomites “were as one of them” and came in for a share of the booty and put forth their hand on part of the loot. Moreover, they blocked key roads and passes to cut off escapees and delivered fleeing Jews to the Chaldeans. The Edomites had forwarded the desolation against the Jews; upon their own heads would fall a desolation just as complete, and more permanent.

There would come a restoration for the Jews and a rebuilding for Jerusalem and Judah: “In mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And they of the South shall possess the mount of Esau, and they of the lowland the Philistines; and they shall possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria; and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. And the captives of this host of the children of Israel, that are among the Canaanites, shall possess even unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, that are in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the South. And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be Jehovah’s.” (Obad. 17, 19-21, Am. Stan. Ver.) But no such restoration for Edom!—“For the house of Jacob shall be fire, and Joseph’s house a flame, with Esau’s house like straw to be kindled and consumed, till not a soul is left of Esau’s house.”—Obad. 18, Moff.

Obadiah’s prophecy against Edom was fulfilled in miniature. Proof thereof is the capital city Petra, the supposedly impregnable stronghold cut out of a rocky cliff. Today it is an uninhabited relic of the distant past. Typical Edom has been cut off forever. Their extermination began with the invasion by Nebuchadnezzar’s army, about five years after Jerusalem’s fall. More than one hundred and fifty years later Malachi’s prophecy refers to Edom’s fall. (Mal. 1: 2-5) Eventually Edom’s foretold doom came to pass with such literalness that that nationality was lost forever. Not only did Jehovah announce this impending doom through Obadiah, but at about the same general time added to his voice the testimony of two other witnesses, namely, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.—Jer. 49:7-22; Lam. 4:21, 22; Ezek. 35:1-15.

The descendants of Esau lost the birthright to God’s kingdom because of the little value Esau placed upon it. He thought more of his own body and its comfort, thought more of a mess of pottage than of the kingship. The Edomites thereafter followed in the footsteps of their forefather, placing no value upon God’s kingdom, and jealous and envious of and violent toward those that did. Proudly, haughtily, they exalted themselves and looked down upon the Jews in scornful arrogance. But Jehovah abased them in time. So will it be with those who exalt themselves in this twentieth century, and particularly the arrogant religious leaders of Christendom. Like the Edomites, they had opportunity to stand for Jehovah’s kingdom by Christ, but they do not wish to lose their personal identity and be known simply as servants of Jah. They crave attention, adulation, titles, exaltation, and jealously goad on persecutors of Jehovah’s true witnesses. Though they exalt themselves as saints and gods, they will be abased as low down as the Edomites and Satan himself when they go down into the Gehenna of destruction at Armageddon!

FIELD EXPERIENCES

FRUITFULNESS DESPITE ADVERSITY IN PERU

“For about two years I have studied with a young married woman, who, despite being practically barred from attending meetings or participating in active field service because of domestic opposition, has made rapid progress in the knowledge of the truth and understanding of Theocratic order. As a result of her diligence in witnessing to her friends a lady came one evening to the Kingdom Hall asking for me and holding in her hand the private card of the person with whom I had been studying. This lady requested that I conduct a study at her home for the benefit of herself and her family. This was done, and for some months this lady has been a regular publisher as well as her daughter, who also took her stand for The Theocracy. Now eomes the first assembly in Lima and the Lord made it possible for my first student to attend. With tears in her eyes she sought advice as to whether or not the privilege of baptism was hers, since opposition in her home prevented her from doing public witnessing from door to door. Counsel was given, and imagine her joy on finding that her friend and her daughter were fellow candidates for baptism that glorious Sunday morning! Her cup of joy was truly full when informed also that day of the new provision of counting time in service, thus enabling her to be a regular publisher because of her zeal in witnessing to her friends and at every opportunity. In spite of adversity Jehovah gives the increase.”

OVERCOMING HANDICAPS IN ARKANSAS

“My family and I have been deeply interested in the Society’s work and literature for four or five years, but have never before been so situated that we could attend the regular studies, as we have during the past six or seven months. We now see and feel the necessity for each of us to do all we can in helping to publish the Kingdom message. I myself am physically handicapped and have to use crutches (a victim of polio), and I am unable to participate in group witnessing, house-to-house, street work, etc. So I try to get in my quota of field service hours through the medium of correspondence. I am enclosing herewith a quotation from part of a letter I received recently from a friend whom I’ve never met personally, but who seems to appreciate my efforts very much and is progressing wonderfully in learning the truth. She writes:

“ ‘I have been reading your wonderful letters. I shall keep them always, for reference; also the books you sent. I appreciate them, and the book “Equipped for Every Good Work” is a treasure! I have discovered that I can get The Watchtower in our little shopping center; good people offer it to the passer-by, and it is nice to be able to do that. Your letters are an inspiration. You and your family have certainly found the way to successful living. As I told you before, I didn’t find it after twenty-five years of devotion to church work and teaching. I guess what I taught was the lesson prepared and handed to me (anyone could do as much!), but to have a true, deep conviction and working, living knowledge of the Scriptures is another thing altogether. You have more than I have; however, if study and prayer and thought is of any benefit I will succeed yet. It seems like the ministers of the churches are taught to worry and confuse the people. There, is little comfort and encouragement in the churches, the one place you would expect to find it.’

“I thought that the Society might be interested in hearing from one who, though handicapped, is helping to publish the news of the Kingdom, with at least a small degree of success.”

¹

Genesis 32: 29, Hebrew Publishing Co. translation; also 35:10.

²

When were those prophecies fulfilled upon natural Israel?

³

What petition concerning Christ’s trial has been submitted?