00:00:01 Welcome, everyone!
00:00:02 In this program,
00:00:04 we are going to find out
00:00:06 what the yeartext will be for 2023.
00:00:09 So stay tuned.
00:00:11 But first, here are a few updates.
00:00:15 No doubt we all enjoyed the “Pursue Peace”! Convention.
00:00:20 Wasn’t that an outstanding program?
00:00:23 It was so practical.
00:00:25 And how thrilling it was to hear the announcement
00:00:27 that we’re planning in-person regional conventions for 2023!
00:00:32 After three years,
00:00:34 it’ll be so good to meet together with our brothers and sisters
00:00:38 in person at a convention.
00:00:41 It’s also exciting that we’ll return to the house-to-house ministry
00:00:44 starting September 1
00:00:46 —just in time for our worldwide campaign to start Bible studies!
00:00:51 And I’m sure the angels are going to be excited too
00:00:53 because it’ll give them opportunities to help us with our ministry.
00:00:58 We pray for Jehovah’s rich blessing on our efforts
00:01:01 to offer Bible studies to as many people as possible.
00:01:06 It’s been so refreshing —hasn’t it?—
00:01:09 to resume more and more of our theocratic activities in person.
00:01:13 We’re grateful for the good direction Jehovah is providing.
00:01:17 It strengthens our faith in him and our confidence in his organization.
00:01:22 What a contrast with the world!
00:01:25 People today are suffering from a crisis of confidence.
00:01:29 They have doubts about whether the people they look up to
00:01:33 —politicians, scientists, businessmen—
00:01:37 really have their best interests at heart.
00:01:39 They wonder, ‘Do they really care about me,
00:01:42 or are they just out for themselves?’
00:01:46 What about the clergy of Christendom?
00:01:48 Many have lost respect for them too.
00:01:51 So it’s not surprising that they’re skeptical about the book the clergy claim to represent
00:01:55 —the Bible.
00:01:57 How can we help people to have the same confidence in God’s Word that we have?
00:02:03 Let’s consider three reasons why we can trust the Bible:
00:02:07 the accuracy of the text,
00:02:10 the fulfillment of Bible prophecy,
00:02:13 and the Bible’s power to change lives.
00:02:17 First, the accuracy of the text.
00:02:21 Bible writing was completed almost 2,000 years ago.
00:02:26 And as far as we know,
00:02:28 not one of the original manuscripts has survived to our day,
00:02:31 so all we have are copies of copies.
00:02:35 Understandably, some wonder if with all that copying and recopying,
00:02:40 the Bible’s message has been changed.
00:02:43 After the Babylonian exile,
00:02:45 a group of professionals intensified efforts
00:02:48 to make copies of the Hebrew Scriptures,
00:02:50 and they took their work seriously.
00:02:53 Later copyists were very conscientious.
00:02:56 They began to count not only the words
00:02:58 but even the letters they copied
00:03:00 to make sure that no changes were made.
00:03:03 Even so, because of human imperfection,
00:03:07 some small errors crept into the Bible text.
00:03:11 Modern scholars have a reliable way of identifying those errors.
00:03:15 How so?
00:03:17 Let’s illustrate.
00:03:19 Suppose 100 men are assigned to copy a page of text
00:03:24 and one of the men makes a slight error in his copy.
00:03:28 Now, one way we could find that error
00:03:30 is by comparing his copy with the 99 others.
00:03:33 Similarly, by comparing a number of Bible manuscripts,
00:03:37 scholars are able to identify errors
00:03:40 or omissions that one copyist made,
00:03:43 and these can be corrected.
00:03:45 So we can have confidence that our modern Bibles
00:03:50 accurately reflect God’s message to mankind.
00:03:55 Just how diligent were those men in copying Bible manuscripts?
00:04:00 The oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Scriptures
00:04:03 dates back to 1008 or 1009 of our Common Era.
00:04:08 It’s called the Leningrad Codex.
00:04:11 In recent times,
00:04:13 a number of Bible manuscripts and fragments have been discovered
00:04:16 that are about 1,000 years older than the Leningrad Codex.
00:04:21 We might think that after those manuscripts
00:04:23 were copied and recopied over a period of 1,000 years,
00:04:27 there’d be a big difference between the text of the Leningrad Codex
00:04:31 and the older manuscripts.
00:04:33 That’s not the case.
00:04:35 Scholars have carefully compared the earlier manuscripts with the later ones
00:04:39 and have found that God’s message to mankind
00:04:43 has been accurately preserved.
00:04:47 The early Christians diligently made copies of the Greek Scriptures,
00:04:51 which they used at congregation meetings and in the ministry.
00:04:55 Scholars who have compared copies of those manuscripts
00:04:59 have concluded that our Bibles carry the message
00:05:02 that the original writers wrote down.
00:05:06 No doubt it was Jehovah
00:05:09 who made sure that his message to mankind was accurately preserved.
00:05:13 We’re reminded of the words found at Isaiah 40:8:
00:05:19 “The word of our God endures forever.”
00:05:25 Of course, some may argue
00:05:27 that just because the Bible has been preserved
00:05:29 doesn’t prove that it was inspired by God.
00:05:32 Fair point.
00:05:34 So let’s consider evidence of the Bible’s inspiration.
00:05:38 The Bible contains many prophecies that have already been fulfilled.
00:05:43 Daniel’s prophecy regarding the Anglo-American World Power
00:05:46 is just one example.
00:05:48 Let’s read the prophecy as found at Daniel chapter 2,
00:05:52 verses 41 to 43,
00:05:55 and you can follow the text on-screen if you wish
00:05:58 —Daniel 2:41-43.
00:06:02 “And just as you saw the feet
00:06:04 “and the toes to be partly of clay of a potter and partly of iron,
00:06:08 “the kingdom will be divided,
00:06:10 “but some of the hardness of iron will be in it,
00:06:13 “just as you saw the iron mixed with soft clay.
00:06:16 “And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay,
00:06:20 “so the kingdom will be partly strong
00:06:23 “and partly fragile.
00:06:26 “Just as you saw iron mixed with soft clay,
00:06:29 “they will be mixed with the people;
00:06:31 “but they will not stick together, one to the other,
00:06:36 just as iron does not mix with clay.”
00:06:42 According to the prophecy,
00:06:44 Britain and America would be partly strong and partly weak.
00:06:49 They showed their strength when they played a role
00:06:51 in winning World War I and World War II.
00:06:53 But their power has been weakened,
00:06:55 not so much by their enemies as by their citizens!
00:06:59 The citizens insist on their rights
00:07:02 through labor unions, civil rights campaigns,
00:07:04 and independence movements.
00:07:07 One expert in world politics recently observed:
00:07:10 “There is no advanced industrial democracy in the world
00:07:15 “more politically divided, or politically dysfunctional,
00:07:20 than the United States today.”
00:07:23 What about the other part of the dual world power, Britain?
00:07:27 It’s been especially divided over the ties it should maintain with the European Union.
00:07:31 So it’s been almost impossible
00:07:34 for the Anglo-American World Power to act decisively.
00:07:39 Seeing this prophecy and so many others being fulfilled strengthens our faith
00:07:44 that Jehovah will keep all of his promises.
00:07:48 What does the song say?
00:07:50 “What he foretells comes to be.”
00:07:54 For a third reason why we can trust the Bible,
00:07:57 let’s see how following the Bible’s advice
00:08:00 affected a violent criminal we’ll call Jack.
00:08:02 Now, Jack was in prison
00:08:04 waiting for the death sentence to be carried out.
00:08:08 He had the reputation of being one of the most dangerous inmates on death row.
00:08:13 One day, Jack sat in on a Bible study,
00:08:17 and he was impressed by the love
00:08:19 and the kindness of the brothers who were conducting the study,
00:08:23 so he asked for his own study.
00:08:25 As he applied what he was learning,
00:08:27 his conduct and personality began to change.
00:08:31 In time, he got baptized.
00:08:34 During his time in prison, he helped at least four of the inmates to learn the truth.
00:08:41 When the day of his execution arrived,
00:08:43 one of his lawyers said:
00:08:45 “Jack is not the same person I knew 20 years ago.
00:08:50 The teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses have changed his life.”
00:08:54 Well, we know that it’s the Bible that changes lives.
00:08:59 Jean is another person
00:09:02 whose life was radically changed by Bible principles.
00:09:06 He grew up in an African country.
00:09:08 When civil war broke out,
00:09:10 he joined the army but later fled to a neighboring country
00:09:13 where he came in contact with the Witnesses.
00:09:16 He says: “I learned that followers of the true religion
00:09:20 “don’t get involved in politics and are not divided.
00:09:23 Rather, they love one another.”
00:09:26 Jean says: “I had dedicated my life to defending a country.
00:09:31 “But when I learned Bible truth,
00:09:33 I was moved to dedicate my life to Jehovah.”
00:09:37 Jean changed completely.
00:09:41 Instead of fighting against people of a different background,
00:09:44 now he shares the Bible’s message with everyone he meets.
00:09:48 The fact that the Bible’s advice works so well
00:09:50 for people from so many different backgrounds
00:09:53 is powerful proof that we can trust God’s Word.
00:09:59 So we’ve considered three simple lines of evidence
00:10:04 that we can point to in order to convince people
00:10:06 that they can have confidence in God’s Word.
00:10:08 Remember what they were?
00:10:11 The Bible’s message has been accurately preserved,
00:10:15 ancient Bible prophecies are being fulfilled today,
00:10:19 and the Bible changes lives.
00:10:24 As this world goes from bad to worse,
00:10:27 our confidence in the truth will be put to the test.
00:10:30 People may try to sow doubts in our mind
00:10:33 —doubts about the truthfulness of the Bible, for example.
00:10:36 If we are convinced that God’s Word is always true,
00:10:40 we will be able to resist such attacks on our faith.
00:10:45 Bible truth stabilizes us,
00:10:48 it gives us a definite purpose and clear direction in our lives,
00:10:52 and it provides us with a wonderful hope for the future.
00:10:59 The writer of Psalm 119
00:11:01 was absolutely convinced that God’s Word is a reliable guide.
00:11:05 Now, we don’t know who that writer was,
00:11:08 but we do know that he cherished God’s Word.
00:11:11 To remind us of how important Bible truth is to us,
00:11:15 the Governing Body has chosen as our yeartext for 2023
00:11:19 words from the 119th Psalm.
00:11:23 Are you ready?
00:11:25 Here it is,
00:11:27 the yeartext for 2023:
00:11:30 “The very essence of your word is truth.”
00:11:35 “The very essence of your word is truth.”
00:11:40 —Psalm 119:160.
00:11:45 With these thoughts in mind,
00:11:47 how wonderful it will be to share in our worldwide campaign
00:11:51 to help honesthearted people to study the precious truths found in God’s Word!
00:11:56 May Jehovah bless us all as we share in the campaign!
00:12:01 From the World Headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses,
00:12:04 this is JW Broadcasting®.
