RATHER THAN GO TO HEAVEN, would you prefer to stay on earth if it could be made a suitable place in which to live with good neighbors and a government not run by unclean, selfish politics?

Now, DON'T SAY, Well, what good would it do me to prefer such a thing, when it is impossible? Read this booklet and check it against the authorities cited therein, and then draw your honest conclusions.

— THE PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1945

AND PUBLISHED BY

WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC.

International Bible Students Association

Brooklyn. N. Y., U. S. A.

Made in the United States of America

'The Meek Inherit the Earth'

IN A time of world turmoil and total war it would seem to many persons most unsuitable and unfitting to quote any part of the "sermon on the mount". But in just such a time the oppressed and afflicted people need most the comfort and the rays of hope held forth in the blessednesses spoken in that sermon. The third one of those blessednesses seems most untrue to facts today. It says: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." — Quoted from Matthew 5: 5.

That saying of Jesus Christ on the mount was a partial quotation from the psalmist of a thousand years earlier, who confidently sang: "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." (Psalm 37:10,11) Recently a prominent American news analyst borrowed a bit of the language of Jesus and of the psalmist. Speaking with other noted personages at a Spanish democratic rally in Madison Square Garden, New York city, January 2, 1945, he said, among other things: "The hour has struck for democracy to inherit the earth!" (New York Times, January 3, 1945) Hope-rousing though such a stirring statement may be, it is not the equivalent of the blessedness uttered by Jesus, neither does it give promise of as much. For even under democracy the meek do not inherit the earth; it was not so in ancient Greece, the cradle of democracy, where slavery of the majority of the population flourished under a minority of free citizens enjoying democratic rights; it is not so today in the best of democratic lands.

Most certainly today the meek ones on earth are not blessed with inheritance of the earth, nor do they delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Not since the time that the great Teacher spoke his oft-quoted words on the mount have the meek possessed the earth; and now from the trend of world affairs it looks as if it would be a long time before the meek will peaceably possess the land, if ever they will do so. In this twentieth century the domination of the earth on a global scale is the issue that has come to the front and all nations have become embroiled therein. From the time of great antiquity the control of the land has been the grounds for bitter quarrel and bloody conflict. Human history has witnessed one land-grab after another by strong aggressors, from the time of Nimrod, who was worshiped for his prowess as the "mighty hunter before Jehovah". (Genesis 10:8-11, Am. Stan. Ver.) Mighty empires have been built up by the forcible seizure of territory or by the persuasion of the weaker through a frightful display of power and might by the powerful.

The lust for more territory, the coveting of the lands of others, has been not merely for political domination over a wider field, but also for the selfish commercial benefits and natural resources that are tied in. And in the special case of "Christendom", another dynamic reason for fixing greedy eyes on control of more of this earth is the desire to extend spiritual domination and the domination of certain religious leaders. The year 1939 marked the beginning of a war for the greatest land-steal in all mankind's history. It developed into the total war between political leaders having concordat relations with the greatest religious organization on earth on the one side and the liberal, democratic nations on the other side. For self-evident reasons it will be denied in certain circles, but careful examination of the facts and of published statements at the time prove it, that that global war was launched for the purpose of setting up again the so-called "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", but this time on a global scale.

The well-concealed objective behind this was to spread the religious control of the state of Vatican City over all the nations of the earth, and to enthrone the Roman "church" earth-wide alongside the political state. The benefit that the common people were to receive from this was the turning of the clock back to the Middle Ages, the so-called "age of faith", when there was said to be unity within the realms of the "Holy Roman Empire".

If such a return to the Middle Ages had been accomplished by religion's use of the totalitarian Nazi-Fascist military might, it would not have meant that the meek were now to come into their inheritance, the possession of this earth in peace and security. Not if the economic condition of the Middle Ages of "Christendom" is taken as any standard of judgment; for back there the religious Hierarchy were owners of tremendous estates and were the intimate friends and supporters of the wealthy landlords. The position of the toilers of the soil was that of serfs. Who the Roman Catholic Hierarchy think the blessed ones are that should inherit the possession of the land is manifest from the country of Mexico, as an example, where, before the revolution, the Catholic clergy owned ninety-five percent of the land and the dreaded Inquisition was enforced to keep the people in ignorance, poverty and subjection. No one having the "mind of Christ" will claim that the haughty, elegantly dressed, richly propertied, power-wielding Hierarchy are the meek ones whom Jesus Christ meant in the sermon on the mount.

The outlook for the after-war period is no better for the meek ones of the earth. The foremost worldly minds are agreed that the peace and security of the postwar world must be backed by force. To that end the biggest and mightiest world powers must be united in an executive council charged with the duty of enforcing the peaceful relations of all nations. According to the worldly wisdom with which they reason, the earth must be divided up into spheres or regions of influence under the respective strongest political power in each of such regions. Even before the global war ends the nations that are planning the peace are eager to carve out such regions of influence for themselves and are yielding to the temptation to take one-sided action in order to do so. While being promised the standing of equality as peace-loving, sovereign states, still the smaller, weaker nations are being pushed into a secondary place; and their territories and boundaries are being decided upon by the leading members of the proposed Executive World Council. At the same time, the religious Hierarchy, which has gained tremendously by its collaboration with the Nazi-Fascist totalitarian aggressors, seeks to hold all that it gained and aims to acquire more in the postwar times. And so it smoothly plays up to the side apparently winning.

In the face of such world developments, if the meek of the earth are to come into possession of the land to live thereon in peace and without fear and oppression, it must be by the power of the Lord God Almighty. The greatest organization the world has ever known is being built up before our eyes for regimenting and oppressing the people; and now, even more so than at any time in the past, the meek need to have faith in the Lord's words addressed to them, namely: "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against them that work unrighteousness. Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil-doing. For evil-doers shall be cut off; but those that wait for Jehovah, they shall inherit the land." (Psalm 37:1, 7-9, Am. Stan. Ver.) That divine promise is sure of early fulfillment toward the meek ones of earth. It is the happy hour for the meek to know that the days of occupancy of the earth by wicked oppressors and aggressors are few in number, because the great Meek One has come into the inheritance. But how?

THE MEEK INHERITOR

Christ Jesus, who called the meek happy, said respecting himself: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30) Christ Jesus is the great Meek One. He did not let himself be easily irritated and excited, but endured with patience all the affliction that God permitted to come upon him at the hand of the wicked ones for a test of His faithful integrity toward God. One of Jesus' apostles wrote, saying: "Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:1) One of the ancient prophets also foretold concerning Jesus, saying: "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." (Isaiah 53:7; Acts 8: 32-35) This prophecy about Jesus' meekness under the mighty hand of God found its fulfillment at the time that he was nailed to the tree and unmurmuringly suffered to the death. For such unbreakable meekness and integrity of Jesus, God raised him from the dead and exalted him to His own right hand and confirmed Jesus as his Heir. Christ Jesus is therefore declared to be "his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things". (Hebrews 1:2) That signifies that Jesus is also "heir" to this earth, and hence he is the first and chief one in whom his own saying must be fulfilled, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."

Never will the wicked political and religious dictators of the earth be able to bar the rightful Heir Christ Jesus from his earthly inheritance. Besides that, another glad fact is that the Heir Christ Jesus has already come into his inheritance, and hence the wicked, whose devices against the meek seem to be meeting with global prosperity, are really facing their ejection from the face of the earth. The inspired Scriptures and the events at hand in our day are in perfect agreement to prove this heart-cheering fact. In proof that Christ Jesus is now moving in favor of the occupancy of this earthly globe by the meek ones in the early future, let these Scriptural truths be briefly considered: Jehovah God, and not any council of world powers nor any Hierarchy, is the owner of all the earth. Says He to his chosen people: "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me. above all people: for all the earth is mine." (Exodus 19: 5) It is also written: "The earth is Jehovah's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." — Psalm 24:1, Am. Stan. Ver.

More than nineteen centuries before Christ, Jehovah God made this promise to the faithful servant Abraham: "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.... Unto thy seed will I give this land.... For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." (Genesis 12: 3, 7; 13:15) Abraham's faith and obedience toward God won for him this promise; and for this cause it was later written: "The promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." (Romans 4:13) Although God brought him into the Promised Land of Palestine and while Abraham sojourned there with his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, yet God did not give Abraham and his son and grandson a foot of the land as their possession.

Yet God's promise did not fail, because Abraham was simply being used as a type or prophetic figure of Jehovah God himself, and Isaac was being used as a type of the Son of God. The real Seed of Abraham in whom all the families of the earth are due to be blessed in God's appointed time is his beloved Son, Christ Jesus. This explanation is no mere evasion nor any attempt to get around a seeming failure of the promise. It is the unraveling of the mystery of God's own Word, which says: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one [seed], And to thy seed, which is Christ." (Galatians 3:16) Viewed in this divinely given light, God's promise to bestow the land and to bring the "heir of the world" into his possession has not failed, although Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lie sleeping in the grave. The promise has undergone a marvelous fulfillment, in vindication of Jehovah's Word; and with that fulfillment 'the meek has inherited the earth and come into his possession'. Jehovah God is the Greater Abraham, the Father of the Seed which is Christ; and the world of which the great Father is the Heir is the new world of righteousness, which Jehovah God has announced it to be his purpose to establish.

For about nineteen centuries the Seed of Abraham, which is Christ Jesus, sat meekly at the right hand of God awaiting the time for his enemies in heaven and in earth to be made his footstool. While he waited to come into active possession of his inheritance at the earth, the seven "times of the Gentiles" were running their course on earth, and the Gentile nations were carrying on an uninterrupted rule of the earth, with oppression of all the meek of the earth. In 1914 the accurate timepiece of Almighty God rang out, proclaiming to the universe that the "times of the Gentiles" had expired and the long period of the Devil's uninterrupted rule had ended. The hour had struck for God's promise to Abraham to go into effect. As the prophecies had long foretold, Jehovah God took to himself his almighty power and began reigning with respect to this earth. He did so by establishing the Theocratic Government of the promised New World, namely, by installing Christ Jesus the Seed of Abraham on the throne and conferring upon him authority as King of the New World. It was the due time for Christ Jesus to respond to God's invitation: "Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Psalm 2:8,9, Am. Stan. Ver.) Christ Jesus the King made the request, and thus the Seed of Abraham, the Meek One, came into his inheritance of the earth. He now possesses it. Also the time of his meekness toward his enemies is past.

The time having come to make the enemies of Christ the Seed of Abraham to be his footstool, the prophecy then went into effect which said: "Jehovah will send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion [God's capital organization]: Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power, in holy array." (Psalm 110: 1-3, Am. Stan. Ver.) The Scriptures, as backed up by physical facts on earth, disclose that forthwith at the birth of the new Theocratic Government there was "war in heaven" and the chief enemy, Satan the Devil, together with all his demon angels were cast down from their lofty station and sphere of influence in heaven and were confined to the vicinity of this earth. Simultaneously with the "war in heaven", Satan, who is the "god of this world", caused the Gentile nations to express their anger at this turn of events by launching World War I for the domination of this earth. Nevertheless, Jehovah God reigns by his King Christ Jesus. He has said: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." And with Satan and his demon hosts cast down and restricted to the earth, all the enemies of Christ the Seed of Abraham have been made his footstool.

Still Christ's 'willing people', the "meek of the earth", are greatly oppressed by Satan the Devil's organization, which tries to perpetuate its possession and control of the earth. But these willing meek ones need not fret or grow angry. They may rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. They are happy and blessed in the sure knowledge that, "yet a little while," and their King Christ Jesus will brandish his irresistible "rod of iron" and will dispossess i the nations of the earth, breaking them in pieces like an unsatisfactory, useless potter's vessel. Hence the meek will not have to engage angrily in any physical violence; for Jehovah by his King will fight that final war of Armageddon for them. "For the battle is not yours, but God's." — 2 Chronicles 20:15,17.

Hence it is written, at Psalm 76:6-12, concerning the aggressors against Jehovah God and his King: "At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot [of war] and horse are cast into a dead sleep. Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still, when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth....

He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth." In that final universal battle the postwar world organization for international collaboration and peace, together with its component nations and its religious clergy-supervisors, will be broken to shivers and destroyed. Not only that, but also Satan and his wicked demons who have overreached such nations and lined them up against Jehovah and his King will be brought to nought in death. That will mean the complete end of this world, both its heavens and its earth, in a catastrophe such as has never been known since the beginning of creation. — Matthew 24: 21, 22; Mark 13:19, 20.

But some readers will ask, If the coming battle of Armageddon means the end of the world, both heavens and earth, how will there be any earth for the meek ones among men to inherit, possess or occupy? In answer, let this be said: The statement of Jesus and the psalmist David that "the meek shall inherit the earth" is one of the many Bible proofs that the end of the world does not mean the literal burning up and destruction of the terrestrial globe upon which we live. The world that now faces absolute destruction is Satan's creation, his world. Its "heavens" are the invisible, superhuman governing body of Satan and his spirit demons; and its "earth" is his visible organization among men, combining religion, polities and commerce. For such reason, the apostle John, when describing his vision of the establishment of the new world, says: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea [of humanity alienated from God]." As to the present heavens and earth which will be no more, John says: "I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it [Jehovah, with Christ Jesus beside him], from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them." — Revelation 21:1; 20:11.

The new heavens, which supplant the former devilish heavens, are Christ Jesus and his meek followers, who are faithful with him to the death and who are glorified with him in the new heavens. These inherit the earth with him as his joint-heirs. These meek ones, who reign with him on the heavenly Mount Zion, God's capital organization, are just 144,000, being those who denied themselves and undertook to follow his steps till death, and who were "redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb". (Revelation 14:1-4) The new earth supplants the visible human organization that has till now abused its control of the terrestrial globe. It will be the righteous visible organization which Christ Jesus will establish among the meek ones of the earth who survive the battle of Armageddon.

IN THE INHERITANCE AT LAST

The religious Hierarchy of Vatican City and other religious clergymen who collaborate with this present world will not sit on top of that new earth under God's kingdom. Not at all; for Christ Jesus said to religious leaders of that type these words: "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." (Luke 13:27-29; also Matthew 8:11,12) Here it is plainly revealed who will be in that visible "new earth" organization as representatives of the "new heavens" kingdom. They will be the faithful witnesses of Jehovah God of old time, including those who were the forefathers of Christ Jesus, such as Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob. These being resurrected by the King Christ Jesus, he thus becomes their Life-giver or Father, and they will be his children, whom he redeemed by his precious ransom sacrifice. Their installation as "new earth" officers was foretold in these words addressed to the King Christ Jesus: "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, o mighty one, thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride on prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness: and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp; the peoples fall under thee; they are in the heart of the king's enemies. Thy throne is the throne of God for ever and ever: a sceptre of equity is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou shalt make princes in all the earth." — Psalm 45:3-6, 16, Am. Stan. Ver., marginal reading.

When these princely children of "the everlasting Father", Christ Jesus, are installed in office on this globe, the new world of righteousness will be complete. Then no more will the meek ones be looking forward to what the apostle Peter holds before us, saying: "We, according to [God's] promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13) The "new earth" organization as well as the "new heavens" will be here!

Thus after the end of this wicked world there will be no need for a new terrestrial globe to be created upon which Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the prophets, and other meek ones down to today may live in peace and plenty. This literal earth of ours, purged of the oppressive occupiers, will be like Jehovah God's sanctuary in the heavens. As it is written: "And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath established for ever." (Psalm 78:69, Am. Stan. Ver.) The coming battle of Armageddon, which will rid this earth of all of Satan's organization, was long ago foreshadowed by the flood of Noah's time. By the flood God Almighty brought an end to the "world that then was", but he preserved Noah and his household of seven members alive through it in the ark. When they emerged from the ark after the flood and renewed the worship of Jehovah God in the earth, the Lord God expressed his pleasure, saying: "Neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease:" (Genesis 8:21,22) Until the death due to Adam's sin is wiped out by God's kingdom under Christ, the inspired Scripture is true which says: "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever." — Ecclesiastes 1: 4.

If the meek ones of men did not sometime occupy this globe as children of God's Heir of the earth, Christ Jesus, then God's purpose in creating this earth would fail; and that shall never be. His sacred Word is unbreakable which declares: "He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great. The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children. Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given

to the children of men." — Psalm 115:13-16.

This earthly ball will not be destroyed by the battle of Armageddon, neither will it be left desolate after that battle. As surely as God did not leave his Holy Land for ever desolate after the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C., but brought back to it a faithful remnant to worship him, just that surely will he not leave this earth a vast desolate wilderness. Canceling out all such possibility, he has said: "I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. For thus saith the LORD [Jehovah] that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.... I the LORD

speak righteousness, I declare things that are right." (Isaiah 45:12, 18, 19) Hence, as it was once said of the Holy Land when occupied by his restored remnant, it shall likewise be said in due time after Armageddon's devastations: "This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden." — Ezekiel 36: 35.

The immutable God has therefore not changed from what was his original purpose in putting the first man upon the earth. That man was "of the earth, earthy". He was perfect, as God's workmanship, and God gave him a perfect wife. He did not create and put them in a desolate part of the earth, but at once homed them in a delightful cultivated region, "the garden of Eden," Paradise. Who made us? and why are we here on earth I they may have asked. God answered by giving them this mandate or authoritative command: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and [fill] the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Genesis 1: 28, 26) Thus the Creator expressed his purpose to have the entire earth beautified like the paradise of Eden and to have it filled with a righteous, perfect race of human creatures, and living under the Theocratic arrangement of Jehovah God.

The brilliant cherub Lucifer was put in Eden as man's invisible guardian. Had he stayed meek and not tried to grab the earth for his own independent possession, the course of human affairs until to date would have been different. Had Adam and Eve remained meek, waiting upon the Lord God and not being provoked into sin by unfaithful Lucifer, they would not have been driven out of the possession of Eden and all their unborn offspring along with them. Their expulsion from Eden proved God's rule, that "the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace". Adam and Eve's lack of meekness took away peace, and the satanized Lucifer established himself as a wicked invisible overlord over humankind. The divine mandate to fill the earth with meek and righteous human creatures was therefore suspended; but the divine purpose to have that mandate carried out in vindication of Jehovah's name was not abandoned. His purpose to break the power of Satan's Babylonish organization over the earth and to have the divine mandate fulfilled is guaranteed in these strong words: "For the LORD [Jehovah] of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" — Isaiah 14:27.

The carrying out of the divine mandate must proceed after the battle of Armageddon, and the meek ones of men will immediately thereafter begin to possess the earth. That this may be so, Jehovah God will preserve only the meek ones on earth and carry them alive through the great tribulation of Armageddon. Therefore he now sends forth the cry of instruction through his prophecy to men on earth: "Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of Jehovah come upon you, before the day of Jehovah's anger come upon you. Seek ye Jehovah, all ye meek of the earth, that have kept his ordinances; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye will be hid in the day of Jehovah's anger." (Zephaniah 2:2,3, Am. Stan. Ver.) Besides a remnant yet on earth of the 144,000 who will be united with Christ Jesus in his heavenly kingdom, there are other meek ones on earth. These expect to remain on earth forever according to the Lord's promise, and they are coming more and more to preponderate in numbers. These are the Lord's "other sheep", whom he is now gathering into the fold of divine safety in companionship with the remnant of Christ's "little flock". (John 10:16; Luke 12:32) Sheep are meek animals; and these "other sheep" of the Lord are those who now turn from the haughty, self-seeking, self-glorifying human leaders of this world and choose to follow the meek Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus.

This means that they make a full consecration of themselves to Jehovah God through Christ Jesus, to follow whithersoever the Good Shepherd leads. All this world is engaged in breaking the ordinances of the Most High God Jehovah; but these "other sheep" strive to copy the Good Shepherd by keeping God's ordinances. They do not permit the prejudice and hostility of this world against Jehovah to keep them from seeking Him and his New World of righteousness. They seek righteousness in that they seek to learn Jehovah's will and his righteous requirement for life and then to do the same in unswerving obedience. They seek meekness in that they avoid the spirit of this proud, aggressive world, and put themselves on the side of Jehovah and his kingdom by Christ Jesus; and there they endure the world's reproaches and persecutions for their steadfast stand. They do not let themselves be provoked and irritated into any wickedness and unfaithfulness toward God because of the present prosperity of the wicked ones religiously, politically, and commercially.

What, then, is the hope that the Lord God's promise holds out to these meek "other sheep", who now seek Jehovah and his righteousness? The Lord's Word replies: "It may be ye will be hid in the day of Jehovah's anger." The day of Jehovah's anger begins at his due time for the battle of Armageddon to begin. His promise to the meek means that, if they continue meek and faithful, his Executor of divine vengeance, the King Christ Jesus, may spare them from execution with the wicked world at Armageddon. As the Israelites and the mixed multitude of companions with them passed through the Red sea alive and escaped the fate of Egypt's wicked hosts, so these may be hid safe through the tribulation of Armageddon. As Noah and his wife and their six companions weathered the great deluge in the ark and came out alive after the floodwaters had swept away all traces of the wicked, so these meek seekers of Jehovah now may be shielded from God's destructive wrath at Armageddon and may live through to see the New World fully in operation. That is equal to saying that there is set before them the possibility of entering into eternal life on the earth without ever dying. Those meek ones, remaining faithfully obedient, will never die.

The marvelous prospect before them is one that no postwar "peace and security" arrangement created by men's hand can provide. Hence the meek ones will wait on the Lord God and put their trust in him and will not join in the schemes for world preservation and prosperity. When the oppressions of the post-bellum ruling powers increase upon the people, they will pray to Him in the words of the psalmist: "Arise, o LORD [Jehovah]; o God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none. The LORD [Jehovah] is King for ever and ever: the heathen [the nations] are perished out of his land [his earth]. LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress." — Psalm 10:12-18.

This is therefore a day of great opportunity for the meek ones of the earth. This day began in 1914 (A. D.), and for this day Jesus Christ foretold this prophecy, namely: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matthew 24:14) This good news of God's established Kingdom is the gospel that only Jehovah's witnesses are proclaiming to all nations. By such proclamation of the glad tidings from God's Word the meek ones of the earth are learning of Jehovah's righteous Theocratic Government, and they are rejoicing in hope of the deliverance which it will bring to all men having good-will toward Him and his King Christ Jesus. As the prophecy states: "In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in Jehovah, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scoffer ceaseth, and all they that watch for iniquity are cut off." — Isaiah 29:18-20, Am. Stan. Ver.

This preaching of "this gospel of the kingdom" by Jehovah's witnesses in all the habitable earth is therefore not of mere men, but is of God; and it will not come to nought. Back of it is Christ Jesus the King, who stated this to be His commission: "The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." — Isaiah 61:1,2, Am. Stan. Ver.; Luke 4:16-21.

THE "GOOD LAND"

When the "day of vengeance of our God" will have passed and the "meek of the earth" will come forth from their place of hiding from Armageddon's storm, they will look for the place once occupied by the wicked bosses and oppressors of men. But it shall not be! There will be a free New World, free from unrighteous men and from the demons under Satan. The "cleansed earth will be open for occupancy by the meek; and they will appreciate the literal fulfillment of the divine promise: "Wait on the LORD [Jehovah], and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it." (Psalm 37:10, 34) Do not imagine, however, that they will then rush forth in a mad scramble and try to get ahead of others to a preferred locality and to stake out their claims. In times past that took place when the American government fixed a day and threw open free territory for land-seekers to settle themselves. Also dismiss from the mind all thought of great land or realty corporations in existence, to hold claims to vast territories and sending out real-estate agents. At Armageddon the wealthy landlords, and the system of absentee landlordism, must pass, with its system of peonage or cropsharing or ground rents. The get-rich-quick land booms, and all speculating in land conducted by gambling exchanges, must likewise go. The Theocratic rule stated in God's Jubilee law must then hold good: "The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine." — Leviticus 25:10, 23.

The meek ones surviving the battle of Armageddon will realize that all the land is the Creator Jehovah's. They will appreciate, too, that Christ Jesus, the Seed of Abraham, is Jehovah's Heir, and that he holds the land for its Creator, his Father. The disposal of all the land therefore rests within Christ the King's hands. He must determine who shall be settled upon it, and where. Instead of wildly and greedily rushing forth, leaning to their own understanding, the meek will wait upon the King and his visible princes in the earth to locate them and assign them their portion in the land. They will not be able to buy it from Him with mammon or money, putting up a better price for it than some other bidder. They will gladly accept the grant of land that the King graciously makes to them.

When Jehovah God in ancient days settled the nation of Israel in the Promised Land of Palestine, he aided them by his miraculous power to dispossess the wrongful, wicked occupiers thereof, the religious demonworshiping heathen. He thrust out the Canaanites, who were gross violators of God's law. In their place he located the Israelites who kept covenant with him. The religious worshipers or false gods were not let possess the land, but those who worshiped the true and living

God Jehovah were planted in the land. When the time came for dividing up the land between the twelve tribes and for locating the many families of the nation in the God-given land, the matter was not left to individual choice. Purchasing power played no part. The land distribution was determined by Jehovah God their Theocratic Ruler, either by directly stated assignments of land or by the casting of lots which was supervised by Jehovah's power and wisdom. (Numbers, chapter 34; Joshua, chapters 14-20) Thus the chosen people of God were settled according to the divine will, and no discrimination and unrighteousness was put across on the people.

The Lord's prophecy (Ezekiel 45:1-8; 47:13-23; 46:16-18) gives a symbolic vision or fore-gleam of conditions on earth during the rule of Jehovah's King after Armageddon. It indicates a like distribution of the land Theocratically, that is, according to the perfect will of God. Wherever any of the meek "other sheep" class are settled, they may be sure of the fulfillment of the promise of Him who never breaks his word: "Out of Zion [the capital organization] shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem [the heavenly city or government under Christ]; and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off [at Armageddon]: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it." — Micah 4:2-4, Am. Stan. Ver.

The meek ones will each regard his grant of land as a sacred trust from Jehovah God through his reigning King Christ Jesus, and they will endeavor to hold it in faithfulness. Each one will recognize his responsibility to The Higher Powers, Jehovah God and Christ Jesus, for his use of his plot of land; and he will tend it and seek to keep it in proper condition to God's glory. No AAA (or Agricultural Adjustment Act) will then be needed, nor, when that is declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, will any substitute SCA (or Soil Conservation Act), nor any OPA (Office of Price Administration), find a place in the lives of earth's inhabitants then, to determine marginal and submarginal lands, or to pay farm benefits for not growing this and that crop, or to order them to plow under the surplus crops, or to fix prices on farm products or on working supplies needed. The meek who come from all families and nations are to be blessed through no such bureaucracy as that. Their blessing is by the Seed of Abraham. This exhortation is, therefore, addressed to them: "O, let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah [Pause]. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him." — Psalm 67: 4-7.

All this opens to our view how God's original mandate to the perfect man and woman in Eden will be fulfilled, particularly that part commanding man to subdue the earth. But how shall that related part of the mandate be fulfilled, namely, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and [fill] the earth"? — Genesis 1: 28, Am. Stan. Ver.

Those words were first addressed to righteous man and woman in Eden under the guardianship of a righteous invisible protector. They were repeated to righteous Noah and his family after surviving the flood in which the world existing till then ended. The new world with its new heavens and new earth, wherein righteousness dwells, as due to follow Armageddon, will provide the righteous environment and righteous supervision for the renewing of the divine mandate to fill the earth with a righteous offspring. The fathers and mothers thereof, to whom that divine mandate will be reissued, will be the Lord's "other sheep", the meek ones, who are hid through Armageddon and who survive on earth into the new world. While being no more perfect than Noah and his family after the flood, they will be accounted righteous because of now seeking Jehovah and meekness and righteousness and keeping their integrity toward God. The marriage of these faithful and meek survivors of Armageddon will cause homes and family circles to spring up throughout the earth. Beautified earth will cheerily ring with the sweet voices of children, whom these devoted parents will conceive and bring forth in righteousness. Not yet perfected themselves, the parents will not be able to generate their children in perfection, but will do so in righteousness. They will thereafter bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord

God and under the righteous supervision of the "new heavens" and its princely representatives. Earth's population will rapidly multiply and spread to the ends of the earth, and the paradise condition of the earth will expand with its joyous population.

Probably with some dismay you will cry out: "If the earth is to be thus filled with a righteous race, what about the resurrection of the dead from their graves'? Where will there be room for the risen dead?" Do not be disturbed! The filling of the earth by the divine mandate will not make null God's promise and purpose to raise the human dead from their tombs; neither will the raising of such dead make it inconvenient for the fulfilled mandate. Today it is estimated there are about two billion persons all together on earth. Beckoned according to the Bible, it has been not quite six thousand years, or sixty centuries, since man's creation. To be most liberal: If we reckon three generations to each century, and if we allow two billion persons to each of the 180 generations all the way back to the two persons, Adam and Eve, it totals up to 360 billion (3 X 60 X 2,000,000,000) persons that have lived till now upon this earth. If we allow eighteen square feet of ground in which to bury each man, woman, child and baby that died, it would require 232,438 square miles to bury them all. The island of Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, with its 241,094 square miles, and hence much less than the state of Texas, would accommodate all such dead, with 8,656 square miles of area to spare. However, conservative calculations have placed the earth's population that have died to date at somewhat over 20 billions, or less than one-tenth of the above ridiculously high figure. Furthermore, the present land surface of our globe is calculated at 51,230,217 square miles, or more than 212 times the area of Madagascar. Hence the fulfillment of the divine mandate and the resurrection of the dead from the graves will, under God's perfect adjustment, cause no overcrowding of the paradise earth.

In every way Almighty God will vindicate his word and his name. His divine mandate will have a glorious fulfillment toward the earth, which the meek shall possess. The subduing of the earth under heaven's blessing will cause paradise to be restored to this earth and to be extended all round the globe before the thousand-year reign of Christ is ended. The wondrous promise of comfort, that "there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" (Acts 24:15), will thereafter be fulfilled. It will reflect the power of God which he showed when he raised his beloved Son Christ Jesus from the dead as an assurance of the coming resurrection of all those redeemed by his sacrifice. (Acts 17:31) Such resurrection will not overpopulate the earth or create any food shortages.

The coming forth of the dead to the Paradise earth during the thousand-year reign of Christ will open up to these revived ones the opportunity for a "resurrection of judgment". (John 5:28,29, Am. Stan. Ver.) The King Christ Jesus, who laid down his perfect human life, will raise up to human perfection all creatures on earth who loyally submit to his rule. All such will have the opportunity of proving their unbreakable integrity toward God at the end of the thousand: years of his reign, when the adversary, Satan the Devil is loosed for a little season. (Revelation 20: 7, 10) All those who are then provoked to evil-doing and wickedness, as the perfect man and woman were back in Eden, will be destroyed, together with Satan the Devil himself, everlastingly. Those who keep their integrity toward Jehovah God and his King will be blessed with the gift of the right to life eternal in the terrestrial paradise.

With this glorious climax, the righteous principle of Jehovah God will be vindicated, that "the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace". The beloved Son of God was and is right: "Blessed are the meek: for THEY shall inherit the earth."