The New World (1942)
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THE NEW WORLD
“Wherein
dwelleth righteousness”
“It
shall stand forever”
By
THE PUBLISHERS
of
CHILDREN
SALVATION
RELIGION
RICHES
PROPHECY
GOVERNMENT
and
other books
ONE
MILLION EDITION
PUBLISHERS
WATCHTOWER
BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC.
International
Bible Students Association Brooklyn, N. Y., U.S.A.
ALSO
London,
Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Berne, Strathfield, Bombay, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico
City, and other cities. Copyright,
1942 by Watchtower Bible and Tract
Society, Inc.
Made
in the United States of America
DEDICATED
TO THE
CREATOR
OF THE
NEW
WORLD
“Thus saith God Jehovah, he that created the heavens,
and stretched them forth; he that spread abroad the earth and that which cometh
out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them
that walk therein: Behold, the former
things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth
I tell you of them.” – Isaiah 42:5, 9, Am. Rev. Ver.
"God,
who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;"
–
Hebrews 1:1, 2.
CHAPTER 1. THE NEW WORLD
A NEW WORLD! Who can create such a thing? What will it be like?
According to whose ideas will it be made? Will it suit everybody that lives?
Shall it endure forever? The right answer, backed by authority that cannot be
questioned, comforts those that mourn because of wicked world conditions, and
quiets all fears of the future that is shrouded in darkness and uncertainty. It
fills the heart of righteous persons with hope. Receiving that authoritative
information, such ones are put at ease with the assurance that the new world
will be absolutely perfect and will completely satisfy their heart’s desire and
more than fulfill their highest expectations. Trusting in that reliable
information, and comparing it with the distress of nations and increasing
perplexity and confusion, such favored persons are fairly overwhelmed with the
conviction, yes, their hearts bound up with joy, that the new world is at
the doors. Its light pierces through the gloom of earth and brightens up
their faces. That cheering light they reflect to other hearts in sadness.
It is a time for all lovers of righteousness and truth to take
courage and rejoice. It is a time for all who would live under a righteous rule
to examine the facts in the light of that incoming new world and to learn the
truth and then be guided by it. The difficulties in the way and the cost of
time and study on your part are not to be compared with the rewards to you of
knowledge, understanding, peace, joy and hope of life. The time is short. Those
who do not inform themselves and who do not now choose the new world which
Higher Powers shall establish will never live to enter into blessings and
glories. It is for those who desire it and prepare for it. None shall be forced
into it against their will and choice.
The new world means more than the nations realize. It calls for
more than they can muster. The
bald fact is that they do not want it. For that reason the promised new world
of lasting peace, which world shall be what all lovers of right want, should
not be confused with the so-called “new order” or “new world order” which is
today held up by political and religious dictators as a lure to the people. The
righteous new world is the very opposite of that selfish and ambitious human
scheme. Such scheme seeks realization by harsh, brutal might, by the
destruction of millions of lives and peaceful homes, by the forcing of the
common people contrary to their conscience and personal free choice, and, for
shame! by the co-operation of religion to persuade the subjected peoples that
such “new order” is according to the will of Almighty God. Set up by such means
and ways and for such purposes, that proposed “order” could never be the
expression of the will of a God of truth and justice. It shall never endure,
even though backed up by religion. Because it stands in the way of the new
world and poses as a counterfeit substitute for it, that “order” shall go down,
and its allies with it.
Not by human wish and power and effort shall this be, but by the
almighty power and decree of the great Ruler of the universe. He is the Great
Authority on questions affecting the universe, including our earth and the
nations and people thereon. He is the one
source of dependable information that satisfies the longing of honest
hearts for the truth. His revealed Word, the sacred Bible, was written by
truthfid men at His inspiration. It is his means or channel for bringing this
unerring information to the teachable persons who seek righteousness and life.
He is the One Interpreter of his own prophetic Word. He brings to pass in our
day the conditions and events which fulfill and make clear the hidden meaning
of the prophecy, and then he opens the eyes of the searchers of his Word to see
the agreement or correspondency between prophecy and the hard facts in evidence
today. With confidence and without fear of disappointment, therefore, the
sincere seekers can approach his Word: “knowing this first, that no prophecy of
scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will
of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the holy spirit.” (Quoted from 2
Peter 1: 20,21, Am. Rev. Ver.) Therefore, to the great Ruler of the universe
all credit, honor and thanksgiving are due for all the revealed information on
the new world which shall transform the lives of humankind on earth.
Great upheaval is under way on earth. With the new methods of
warfare, with the modern means of travel and communication, with the startling
discoveries of science, and with the truth flashing forth and exposing
unfounded claims and doctrines of religion, there must be a change. The need of
the new is admitted; the old must pass out. Humans are prone to cling to the
old, because accustomed to it, notwithstanding it has been to their hurt. A few
selfish men have reaped profit, advantage, power and control from the old and
prefer it. Painfully aware of the forces moving in the direction of the new,
they try to control the movement. They offer things which they call new, but
which are merely camouflaged with modern names and dress and are underneath the
same old things to their selfish benefit. The suggested “new world order” is
just such an instance, of where men call black white and white black. Careful
investigation discloses that there are forces stronger than man which prevent
him from setting up a truly “new order”. Man can change only the surface
appearance of a few things on parts of the earth and can make them look new for
only a part of the time; he cannot control the things which are higher than man
and unseen to him. However, the One who sits upon the throne of the universe
has said and has had it recorded for our comfort today: “Behold, I make all
things new. . . . Write; for these words are true and faithful.”—Revelation
21:5.
Man’s talk about a “new world” by human accomplishment is very
recent and is really designed to check man’s progress and freedom. Already six
thousand years ago the Creator foretold the building and coming of the new
world and that it would liberate obedient men from deception, oppression and death.
In all those centuries since he has never forgotten that promise and covenant.
In our day he redeems that irrevocable promise and proves his word faithful and
true and hence trustworthy always. Concerning him it was said under
inspiration: “His work is perfect.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)
Why, then, in the very dawn of man’s habitation on the earth did
the Creator of perfection foretell a new
world f For an answer to that question it is necessary to review the facts
concerning the world which the Creator made originally and what happened to it,
and then the facts concerning the world that now exists and the causes for its
present distress.
“WORLD”
The word “world” as used by the great Creator is not limited to
the earth and the things visible to man. The inspired Scriptures of truth show
that “world” includes the heavens, or things higher and unseen to man, as well
as the earth. It means the invisible and the visible together, the invisible
affecting what is visible to the human eye and dominating it. Hence for our
good cheer in the time of the seeming triumph of wickedness this sure word of
Almighty God is given: “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the
wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to
cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. Therefore I will shake
the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his
fierce anger.” (Isaiah 13:11,13) This proves that the misnamed “new world
order” shall be shaken out as wicked.
The world that God created originally and as man first knew it was
altogether different from this world into which we have been born. It was
different from what the new world shall be. The account of creation or of the
genesis of man opens up, saying: “In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) The material, visible things are to man the truthful
evidence of the existence of higher and invisible things, particularly the
existence of the Supreme One, the invisible Creator who is divine and therefore
God Almighty. “For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his
everlasting power and divinity.” Hence all who deny the existence of the Most
High God are “without excuse” and show themselves to be fools.—Romans 1:20,
A.R.V.; Psalm 14:1.
The first man “Adam”, being the handiwork of Almighty God, was
perfect. A wife and helpmeet, Eve, was made from bone of his bone and flesh of
his flesh, and she likewise was perfect. “For Adam was first formed, then Eve.”
(1 Timothy 2:13) Adam was therefore head over the woman, and she was the
helpmeet to him. He was the one having communication with the invisible spirit
representative of the Almighty God. As such Adam was a part, the visible and
earthly part, of that original world. What, then, was the superior part, or the
“heavens”, of that world? That part was spirit, just as God himself is a
spirit, and hence was invisible to the perfect man. The fact that there was a
spiritual power operating in Eden is proved by the fact that one of the
creatures in Eden, the serpent, talked with Adam’s wife concerning the things
of God, miraculously. Unseen spirit power was behind that.
The creation of the heavens was first. Unmeasured time before
man’s creation the invisible Ruler of the universe created and surrounded
himself with heavenly creatures and caused these spirit creatures to move
throughout the universe in the obedient performance of his commands. Concerning
them it is written: “Bless the Lord,
ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of his word.” (Psalm 103: 20) Receiving their life from the
great Fountain of life, these were all “sons of God”, spirit sons. Who was the
first son of God created? The very one who is “the beginning of the creation of
God” identifies himself to us. He is the same one that later was born as a man
by the miracle of God and was called Jesus Christ. (Revelation 3:14) He is “the
firstborn of every creature”, firstborn not only in time of being created, but
also firstborn in his priority or pre-eminence among all God’s creatures.
(Colossians 1:15) Being the first and direct creation of God, he is “the only begotten
Son” of God, “the only begotten of the Father.”—John 1:14,18; 3:16.
All other sons of God, including the perfect Adam, were brought
into existence by God the Father through his firstborn Son. This co-operation
at the time of man’s creation is indicated by the words: “And God said, Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) God’s
firstborn and only begotten Son was the mouthpiece of the Most High God and the
Executor of His word to all the other sons of God. Hence he was called “The
Word of God”. In this position “The Word” was a mighty one, or “a god”, and
represented the Most High God; and concerning him it is written: “The same was
in the beginning with God [Almighty]. All things were made by him; and without
him was not any thing made that was made. And the Word [spokesman] was made
flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”—John 1:1-3,14.
The creation of God’s only begotten Son, “The Word,” was only the
dawn of creation by God. Shortly thereafter came the morning of creation by God
through his firstborn and beloved Son. Therefore it appears that the one next
thereafter created was called the “son of the morning”. His name was Lucifer,
and he is thus addressed: “ O Lucifer, son of the morning!” The name means “brilliant
star”, or, “lightbearer.” (Isaiah 14:12, marginal reading) The title “star”
designates a prince in God’s heavenly organization, one who is first in time
and position. Because God’s only begotten Son, The Word, and Lucifer were
princes, being brought forth at the very beginning of all creation, they are
called “the morning stars”. For a long time they worked together, and on
special occasions of joy “the morning stars sang together” to the praise of the
great Creator. (Job 38: 7) The Firstborn Son of God identifies himself as a
“star”, saying: “I am . . . the bright and morning star.” And concerning his
appearance among men in preparation for the new world it is written: “There
shall come a Star out of Jacob,
and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel . . . Out of Jacob shall come he that
shall have dominion.”—Revelation 22:16; Numbers 24:17-19.
After the mighty “morning stars” the other spirit sons of God were
brought forth, all perfect, glorious, and holy. All these were organized in an
orderly manner for God’s service and to carry out his good purposes. Some were
given positions and service as seraphim, others as cherubim, and others as
archangels, and others as angels, which last name means “messengers”. All these
organized countless myriads of glorious spirit creatures made up God’s
universal organization, all in harmony and in tune with him and all subject to
His direction. To Him the prayer rises: “Thou that dwellest between the cherubims,
shine forth.” (Psalm 80:1) Thus, over and above all his universal organization,
the Almighty God held the supremacy and exercised the universal domination.
Because this universal organization is subject to him and is united to him with
a holy attachment, it is spoken of in God’s own prophecies as his “woman”, or
“wife”, to whom he, the Creator of her, is the “husband”. He also gives her the
name “Zion”, and he uses her, that is, his universal organization, to bring
forth or to produce the creatures that shall have the dominion in the new
world. — Isaiah 54: 5,13.
Then God by his great Executive Officer, The Word, made the earth
for man and prepared it for human habitation, specially planting a garden spot
or paradise in Eden. He created and put the perfect man and woman therein. In
their innocence and perfection these human creatures became the visible or
earthly part of God’s universal organization, and to them God assigned their
duties as members of his organization. The Creator’s will must be done in the
earth as in heaven. His will and purpose was and is that the earth shall be
made everywhere a paradise and shall be peopled with a righteous race, all the
members of which shall be in God’s image and likeness and live in peace and
happiness on earth for ever, to the glory of their Maker and Life-giver. Hence
to Adam and Eve, the perfect and righteous ones, the great Universal Ruler
said: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and [fill] the earth.” (Genesis 1: 28) That
command coming from the divine Being, it was the divine mandate to man. That
would be a joyous privilege, but, together with the extending of the paradise
of Eden to the four corners of the earth, it would present many problems to
perfect man and woman. They were intelligent and capable and were the highest
of earth’s creatures, yet they were the most recent, and hence needed guidance
and instruction from above. Furthermore, their Maker put them under a test of
integrity or faultlessness of devotion to him, that they might demonstrate
their perfection of obedience to him. He barred them from the eating of one
fruit of the paradise garden, and gave the warning that to break God’s
commandment in this one particular would mean their loss of everything: “But of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) To
assist man in maintaining his integrity and to guide him in doing the will and
the work of God, a guardianship over him would be helpful and a loving
provision for man’s good. It was provided.
“HEAVENS”
Adam in his perfection was the son of God. (Luke 3:38) The great
heavenly Father placed as invisible guardian over his earthly son the beautiful
“morning star”, Lucifer, to enlighten the path of his earthly charges. This was
a weighty trust to Lucifer, and the good and worthy name of the Creator was
implicated with it. By faithfulness to his trust Lucifer would act in support
of the universal domination of Almighty God in the earth and also for the lasting
welfare of man. Being anointed or designated to that protective position over
perfect man, Lucifer was called “the anointed cherub that covereth”. To him the
words apply: “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; . . . Thou art the
anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy
mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of
fire.” (Ezekiel 28:13,14) All things considered, it is plain that Lucifer did
not work single- handed. Being a mighty one and also a prince, or “morning
star”, he was given and placed over a large body of lesser spirit creatures or
angels, legions of them. These were organized into a working force under
Lucifer to do their duties in the particular part of the universe, namely, the
earth, to which the Supreme One assigned them. Thus all these angels with their
princely head made up a special organization with a particular assignment, but
this organization, as long as it remained faithful, was also a part of God’s
universal organization.
That special organization of angels under Lucifer was spiritual,
higher than man and invisible to him, and hence they constituted “the heavens”
of that original world. The perfect man who was given the dominion over the
fish and fowl and land creatures was the visible part of that world. He was “of
the earth, earthy”, and he constituted what was called “the earth”. That
“heavens” and that “earth”, therefore, composed the then perfect and righteous
world. Did it remain such ? Would it continue a part of God’s universal
organization and submit to his universal domination?
THEOCRATIC
RULE
In that original world, what was the manner of rule over man? Was
it totalitarian rule? Was it democratic rule? Was democratic rule purposed for
the earth? Was the foundation there laid for democratic rule that it should not
perish from the earth? Was man made to be the total ruler of earth’s affairs?
No! The Bible, God’s Word, shows that it was a Theocratic rule. That is to say,
the man derived his power to serve from God and he served by God’s consent and
authorization. The law given to man was not any law of a political party, and
hence was not man-made, but was from God. That law applied not to one section
or continent or local spot, but to all the earth and to all who should live
therein. Man’s obedience to that law would be his recognition of and submission
to the universal domination of the Supreme Power, God Almighty, the Origin of
all just, right laws. Man’s departure from the Theocratic rule over earth proved
to be his undoing and led to the great havoc visible on earth today.
Under the Theocratic rule all was happiness, peace and blessedness
on the earth. Sickness and disease and want and fear were unknown, the worship
of God was pure and free and in spirit and in truth, and man was at peace with
the lower animal creatures, over which he held the dominion. Then Lucifer
became ambitious and began to encroach on man’s freedom to worship God his
Maker. Lucifer began to crave from man the worship man was giving to God
Almighty. He knew that the one whom man would worship was or would be the one
whom man would serve. To gain the worship for himself, Lucifer, would mean that
man would serve Lucifer, and that would take man out from under the universal
domination of God. Serving in a subordinate position under God’s universal
domination and at the same time serving to maintain that domination in the
earth became galling to Lucifer. In his heart he determined to challenge the
universal domination of the Most High God and to rebel against it. That was
where iniquity, or lawlessness, entered into and seized the heart or moving
power of Lucifer. He set his heart on making universal
domination the issue that would rock all creation. Then it was true
concerning him: “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast
created, till iniquity was found in thee.” —Ezekiel 28:15.
Trying to upset and take away the universal domination of the
Supreme One will surely prove Lucifer’s complete downfall shortly. Foretelling
this for a certainty as if already accomplished, the prophecy tells the reason:
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou
cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in
thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars
of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the
north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the Most
High.” (Isaiah 14:12-14) As long thereafter as that rebel lived that great
issue would be pressing for a settlement.
SATAN
APPEARS
Lucifer now departed from the ways of perfection and proceeded to
carry out his iniquitous ambition. He rebelled against the Universal Governor
and entered into a course of opposition to him. He there became Satan, which
name means “opposer; adversary, antagonist”. Lucifer already had an
organization under him, hut, to start off his own domination independent of
God, he would attack at the weakest and lowest part of that original world,
namely, at man. He would capture the service of man by turning man aside from
the worship of the Universal Rider, who is God. But how?
Strange as it may sound, Satan proposed to do this by introducing
religion into the world. Lucifer became religious and proceeded to set himself
up as the founder and teacher of religion. He hated man’s worship of God in
spirit and in truth. Therefore the unfaithful Lucifer began to practice
religious intolerance; he would uproot and destroy the worship of the true and
living God from the earth. God’s holy name was bound up in this matter, because
the righteous creatures hallowed that name and loved it. God’s sure and
dependable word was also included. God had said, and would He do it? God’s
almighty power was also included. Could He exercise sufficient power to fulfill
and keep his word in the face of stiff opposition? Never before had he been
opposed. God’s word had declared that man should die if disobedient. Lucifer,
as the “covering cherub” over man, had been given the “power of death” as God’s
representative toward man. (Hebrews 2:14) By rebelliously refusing to exercise
that power of death against man if man would join him in rebellion against God
Satan would bring God’s name into disrepute, his word under suspicion, and his
power into contempt.
RELIGION
Religion became Satan’s means of attack, and he used the serpent
as the symbol thereof. The serpent became his agent in the work of deception.
Therefore it became a symbol of the great religionist, Satan himself. He
approached the “weaker vessel”, the woman Eve, and through the serpent he
called into question both God’s word and his good name for honesty and
unselfish benevolence. “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the
garden?” Then after Eve repeated God’s word of command and warning, Satan the
great Viper told the first lie. It was a doctrinal lie contradicting God’s word
and his expressed purpose. It misrepresented God and slyly suggested
disobedience to God’s command under the idea that it would be for man’s highest
and everlasting welfare. “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not
surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis
3:4,5) That was religion. The undeniable proof thereof is the fact that all the
religions today of “Christendom” and of heathendom teach as their fundamental
doctrines the very things here stated by Satan the Serpent. Here Satan laid the
basis for “Christendom’s” religious doctrines, namely, the inherent immortality
of the human soul and that man becomes a spirit creature or angel after a
merely physical death; also the existence of a “Purgatory” for such “immortal
souls” and therefore the utility of offering masses and prayers for the human
dead; and also the existence of a place, misnamed “hell”, for the “eternal
torture” of “immortal souls” in everlasting fire and among undying worms.
By these religious arguments of Satan the Serpent Eve was
deceived; which proves that religion is a snare, entrapping the one who gets
religion into disobedience to God and his word and command, as Eve disobeyed.
Eve there began the practice of religion. She then proceeded to make someone
else a proselyte to religion and succeeded with her husband, who under this
test displayed love of self rather than love of God. Adam disobeyed God’s
command by joining Eve in eating the forbidden fruit to share the same destiny
with her. Thereby he adopted religion and left off the worship of God. He
turned from the word of God and followed the word of God’s enemy, the teacher
of religion, the Devil. By lying against God’s word and thus slandering God’s
name, the rebellious Lucifer became the Devil, which name means “slanderer”
against God. Religion, like its founder, slanders God, and
Adam and all religionists after him have believed the Devil’s
slander against God’s name and word. Religion is therefore Scripturally defined
as everything that is against doing the will of God. It is a form of worship,
but which worship is given to the false god and hence given to a creature. It
is based upon the sayings and ordinances handed down by creatures and hence
contradicts God’s word and disannuls it and makes it of none effect. It is the
fear of creatures rather than the fear of Almighty God. It is the exact
opposite of the worship of God, which worship is the serving and doing of the
will of God as his only begotten Sou does that will, and which is called
“Christianity”.
WORLD DOWNFALL
Man went over to the enemy’s side of the controversy and joined
Satan in bringing reproach upon God’s name. Hence that name must be vindicated,
that is to say, avenged, cleared, justified; and it shall be shortly. Satan had
now gained man to his side, and so won over the visible or earthly part of that
world. Satan turned next to the organization of angels which had been assigned
to him. These also he corrupted with religion, using man’s decision as an added
argument and also holding out the promise of universal domination. (Ezekiel
28:16-18) That invisible spirit organization went over to Satan and thereby
severed their connection with God’s universal organization. Those angels fell
from holiness and purity and integrity and became demons, and Satan the head of
the organization became the “prince of the demons”. He darkened their minds
with religion and became “the prince of darkness”. Those angels left the estate
to which God had assigned them in a righteous organization and forsook their
habitation as sons of God. (Jude 6) On this wise Satan corrupted the invisible,
spirit part (“the heavens”) of that world and turned it against God.
God sentenced those rebellious angels to death, but did not at
once execute that sentence; he took other action. He degraded them to the
lowest as condemned and sentenced ones, and withheld from them all further
light concerning his purpose. He put them under surveillance and thus reserves
them to the time of the settlement of the great issue. On this it is written: “God
spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and
committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” (2 Peter
2:4, Am. Rev. Ver., margin) God likewise sentenced the sinner Adam to death and
drove him and his companion in sin out of the garden of Eden for the carrying
of that sentence into effect. They had now lost their innocence and perfection,
they were no longer righteous, and they began to die amid conditions of sweaty
labor and sorrow. They were permitted to reproduce their kind, but could not
carry out the divine mandate because no longer serving and worshiping God and
no longer righteous nor having the right to life. The children they brought
into existence were all imperfect, sinful, and unclean, and hence condemned and
dying; they inherited death. Wherefore it is written : “By one man [as the
servant of Satan] sin entered into the world [the visible earthly part
thereof], and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned.”—Romans 5:12.
Great was the loss of privilege by angels and man. By religion
Satan had caused the downfall of that original “heavens” and the “earth”
beneath it, and thus he accomplished the downfall of that world. All by
religion, mark you, Satan caused the revolting of that world from the universal
domination of the Most High and Almighty God and he set out to use that world
to gain universal domination for himself. Thereby he forced the issue of
universal domination to the fore, and that question outweighs and overshadows
all other issues now agitating angels and men. Satan’s action and success with
that world were a challenge to God’s entire universe. On which side of the
great issue do you take your stand, on God’s or on Satan’s? You must choose
quickly, with the true facts before you, because the issue will now have an
early settlement. The information here given is to help you choose wisely with
lasting good to yourself.
NEW WORLD PROMISED
Adam and Eve, by yielding to religion, broke their integrity, that
is, their innocence, blamelessness, faultlessness, toward God. Satan’s success
with them was in effect a challenge to God to put on earth a man who under test
by God’s opposer would hold allegiance and maintain his integrity toward God.
Thereafter, in so many words, Satan, before the angels of heaven, charged that
God could not do so, and challenged Him to the test. Right then in Eden God
countered the early success of Satan with the solemn covenant or statement of
purpose that in due time He would bring forth from his universal organization
creatures of integrity and would set up a new world that Satan and all his
organization or world could not and never will corrupt into breaking their
integrity. In symbolic speech God said to the great Serpent, Satan: “And I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”— Genesis 3:15.
Almighty God could have crushed the Serpent’s head right there and
destroyed the Devil. That, however, would not have answered the question as to
the ability and the determination of those who shall have the dominion in the
new world to resist the Devil’s fiercest onslaughts and to hurl the lie back
into Satan’s face by holding fast their integrity toward the great Universal
Ruler. Such ones must honor and vindicate God’s name and prove His word true.
Therefore, in explaining why he has permitted Satan to continue living and
slandering and reproaching God’s name till this very day God said to Satan’s
representative, and hence to Satan: “For this cause have I allowed thee to
remain, in order to show thee my power; and in order that they may proclaim my
name throughout all the earth.” (Exodus 9:16, Leeser) The new world shall be
established in power, and it shall vindicate God’s name and make it glorious
for evermore.
That prophecy by God of and concerning the Seed whom he would
bring forth from his “woman” or universal organization and who would destroy
the Serpent and all its seed was the first prophecy given to humankind. It was
concerning the new world. It was not given as a comfort to Adam and Eve; for
they shall have no part in that new world. It was given as a challenge to them
and to all like rebels against God’s domination. That promise was given as a hope
and comfort only to those of their offspring who should turn out of the steps
of their first parents and put themselves under the rightful domination of the
Supreme Ruler. Satan challenged God to produce any such. The Lord
God accepted the challenge. Not only did he let Satan remain
alive, but, as the Scriptures show, God permitted Satan to remain in heaven
with access to the angels who continued faithful, all for a test to them. Satan
was to remain in heaven till he should be ousted at the beginning of the new
world.
BEGINNING OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES
Very few men today believe God’s solemn promise of a new world, or
even concern themselves about it. Instead, men turn to imperfect and dying
creatures and organizations of men. They eagerly swallow down and put
confidence in and even lay down their lives for the glowing promises of
ambitious persons who consider themselves “men of destiny”. The authentic
record of the Bible names the first man who believed and acted upon God’s
promise of the new world. That man of faith was Abel, the second son of Adam
and Eve.
Living away back there, Abel was one of the “elders” or ancients
recognized by God. Eve may have conceitedly thought that she would be the
mother or the “woman” who was to bring forth the promised seed. After her
firstborn son and heir of the family, Cain, had grown up he, it appears, was
credulous enough to think like his mother, that he, Cain, was the man of
destiny, the seed who should make a name for himself in history and put the
whole human race in debt to himself. Cain’s credulity and his being envious of
anyone else who gained the favor of God showed that Cain was a religionist. His
was a form of worship, but it was not accepted of God and hence was religion.
He performed religious service at the altar in the hope of deceiving God and
getting something out of it to satisfy his selfish ambition. He wanted to be
God’s pick, not for humanity’s deliverance from the great Serpent, but for the
personal glory and world domination he could get out of it. That was his
religion, and it drove him to murder. Seeing the manifestation of God’s
acceptance of Abel’s pure worship and proper sacrifice, Cain feared that Abel
was his rival for his dream of world domination as the seed. Therefore Cain
slew that righteous man who worshiped God and who witnessed for God’s name and
purpose to create the new world. Moreover, Abel maintained his integrity toward
God, whom Abel believed. He was a proof that Satan’s charge and challenge to
God was a lie, and therefore Satan induced Cain to put Abel out of the way.
Abel was a man of faith, and hence not a religionist like his
credulous brother. Abel hoped for the new world, and he had the substance of
it, or the foundation for confidence in its coming, in God’s prophetic promise
in Eden. The new world did not begin to appear in Abel’s day; he did not
discern the physical facts of its establishment then. What he did have was the
word of God, and Abel’s faith helped him to appreciate God’s word and to frame
and adjust in his mind and heart the vision of the new world which shall last
for the ages, or forever. This frame of that new world was based solely upon
God’s word, so that what Abel saw with the eye of faith was not based on any
circumstantial facts appearing in his day. This faith helped him to be a
faithful witness for God to all those of Adam’s family, and therefore it helped
him to keep a clean and good report or record of integrity toward God.
Concerning this faith triumphant it is written: “By it the elders obtained a
good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed [adjusted
to the understanding of men of faith] by the word of God, so that things which
are seen [by faith’s eye] were not made of things which do appear. By faith
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he
obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it
he, being dead, yet speaketh. ” — Hebrews 11:1-4.
The apostle, writing to the Hebrew’s, gives a list of those
“elders” or ancients who overcame the world by their faith, and Abel is rightly
the first one in the list. The apostle describes their acts and deeds of faith,
and immediately after refers to those faithful dead ones as those who testified
to God, saying: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a
cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin [religion] which
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us.” (Hebrews 12:1) Abel was the first of a cloud of witnesses for God,
“whose name alone is JEHOVAH.” (Psalm 83:18) Therefore Jehovah’s witnesses
began with Abel. God made known to Abel His promise and revealed to him the
proper typical sacrifice of worship, and thereby Jehovah God made Abel his witness.
Hence no man is the founder of Jehovah’s witnesses; God alone is. They must be
and are all witnesses to the new world. Abel was in the world that had become
ungodly, but because of his faith he was not of that ungodly world. He took his
stand for and looked and pointed forward to the new world. Hence Satan had Abel
slain.
FURTHER “NEW WORLD” PROPHECY
In the days of Adam’s grandson Enos, “then began men to call
themselves by the name of the Lord
[Jehovah].” (Genesis 4:26, margin) Their lips mentioned his name, but their
hearts were not devoted to him or the promised new world. They were
religionists, like Cain, and had not faith in God’s promise, and hence were not
witnesses of Jehovah. The historic record at Genesis chapter five and the
apostle’s list at Hebrews chapter eleven name only one approved man of faith
during the period that followed. That man was Enoch, who walked with God, and
not with the ungodly world about him. In hope of the new world he kept himself
unspotted from the ungodly world and was a faithful witness to Jehovah. Satan
would have had Enoch killed, as was Abel, but Jehovah God did not permit this.
While Enoch was yet young as compared with life expectancy in those days, God
translated him in a vision to see the new world wherein obedient men shall not
die. Amid this rapture God took Enoch away from violent harm by Satan and his
religionists and Enoch never experienced the pangs of death. (Genesis 5:21-24;
Hebrews 11:5) Concerning the testimony of Enoch to the ungodly people of his
day of and concerning the coming of the Seed who should bruise the Serpent’s
head, the apostle writes: “And Enoch also, the seventh [in line of descent]
from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten
thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that
are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly
committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken
against him.”—Jude 14,15.
LAST DAYS OF THAT WORLD
The period that followed the translation of Enoch is of great
significance to us living today, because that was the time of Noah, and what
occurred during that turbulent period was a foreshadowing of what should occur
and is occurring in our own day. Who said so*? Why, the greatest prophet ever
born and the most understanding commentator on historic events and their real
meaning. The modern world conditions from and after A. D. 1914 only confirm the
truth of his prediction. Said he: “But as the days of No'e were, so shall also
the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:37) “And as it was in the days of
No'e, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” (Luke 17:26)
Sixty-nine years after Enoch, and six hundred years before the greatest
calamity of the ancient world, Noah was born. He and his sons survived that
world catastrophe; which also is deeply significant. Besides the eating and
drinking immoderately, and besides the selfish concern for marriage and
material things and the ignoring both the signs of the times and Noah’s bold
warning of doom, another thing marked the conditions as unusual. Bear in mind
the issue, universal domination, and Satan’s false charge against Jehovah God.
Satan’s defiant position required that the domination of the “earth” must
remain his; also all men of integrity must be corrupted or cleared off the
earth. That meant that any or all witnesses of Jehovah must be wiped out and
their witness work stopped!
What was Satan’s plan of action? Toward the beginning of those six
hundred years it appeared that he had practically succeeded. It appeared that
there was just one man of integrity left on the earth among all the men that
had multiplied on the earth. That man was Jehovah’s witness named Noah, and he
walked with God as Enoch did and was perfect in his generations. He was a
preacher of righteousness. (2 Peter 2:5) To offset the power of Noah’s
testimony and preaching, the challenger of Almighty God worked out something
new. It was the scheme of race contamination and a rule of violence to
terrorize all men into continued obedience to demon rule or the domination by
the wicked heavens, the invisible, spirit part of that world.
The demons had not been cast out of heaven. Now according to
Satan’s strategy many of the demons came down and materialized in flesh as
giants or bullies. They were called “Nephilim”, that is, “fellers,” and they
felled or caused to fall down the religious ones and those who stood in fear of
creatures and who worshiped heroes, creatures of might and prowess. Men in
general feared to confess the name of Jehovah God or to own his supremacy. The
Nephilim bullied all the people and bossed them in a dictatorial fashion, and
those who did not conform readily they dealt with summarily. Violence increased
and filled the earth. To add to this, many spirit “sons of God” were drawn to
likewise materialize in the flesh, but their thought was to marry and cohabit
with the fair daughters of men. What well- intentioned plans they had for
purifying or bettering the race or bringing forth a “master race”! Alas, the
offspring that this intermixture of materialized angels and human daughters
brought forth were “mighty men”, supermen, so to speak, men who made renown for
themselves but did not magnify the name of God before men. The divine record on
this reads:
“The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and
they took them wives of all which they chose. There were giants [Nephilim] in
the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto
the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty
men, which were of old, men of renown.” (Genesis 6:2,4) As a result the
wickedness of men became great, and God was not in all their thoughts and
imaginations. Lawlessness and wickedness filled the place which God had
purposed to be inhabited by peaceful, godly and perfect men in joyful obedience
to the law of God and lovingly submitting to his universal domination. The one
man that could not be coerced, neither contaminated, was Jehovah’s witness,
Noah. He kept on witnessing and preaching righteousness, which righteousness
inchided the vindication of God, In due time Noah married an uncontaminated
woman. and in the sixth century of his life he begat and raised a family of
three sons. These he himself instructed at home and brought them up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord and led them in His ways.
Then came God’s announcement of the end, not of his wondrous
creation, the earth, but of the ungodly world. God also instructed Noah to
provide a hiding-place to survive during that end. It had not rained on earth
during all those days of man on the earth. Floods were till then unknown, but
Jehovah’s witness kept integrity and obeyed God in faith and built the ark. He
brought his sons into this service work of faith. High on an elevation of land
he built the ark, where the first impact of the flood waters would not crush or
engulf it. The apostle’s record of Jehovah’s witnesses reads:
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet,
moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he
condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
(Hebrews 11:7) This is a historic guarantee that Satan will be whipped in his
further efforts to wipe all the righteous servants of Jehovah God off the face
of the earth, in harmony with God’s promise: “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that
fear him, and delivereth them.” (Psalm 34: 7) It is a historic example that the
small number of Jehovah’s witnesses can
be the only ones who are on the side of right, truth and security, although all
the world sneer and be arrayed against them with its religion, politics and
commerce. It is a historic proof that at the coming of the greater world
catastrophe which the Flood foreshadowed men will witness “things not seen as
yet” and it will be a strange “act of God”. It is a historic answer to Satan’s
false charge and challenge, and proving that Almighty God can put on earth men
who under pressure of an opposing world will maintain their integrity toward
Him, keeping themselves unspotted from that world and keeping their faith in
and devotion to God’s new world complete.
As it was in Noah’s day, so it must be today. This is according to
the authority of Matthew 24: 37. Persons of good-will who love righteousness
must come out of the Devil-ruled world and take their stand for God’s new
world. In Noah’s day his three sons shunned the wicked and condemned world and
joined their father in the work God assigned to him. Also three young women
left the debauched race and sought shelter with Jehovah’s faithful witness Noah
and became the wives of his three sons. This pictures how some in the “last
days” of this “present evil world” pull away from the jazzing, hilarious,
self-seeking course of this world and become companions of God’s approved
servants in giving witness both to men and to angels. Noah and his companions
maintained their integrity in that ancient time; so, too, thousands today
forsake the present fast-fading world because they love righteousness, and
these hold fast in their devotion to God. So doing, they give answer to Satan’s
false charge and challenge and have a part in proving that Almighty God can and
does have on earth human creatures who love Him and who resist the world
pressure and maintain their integrity toward Him. Are you or do you desire to
be one of these ?
WORLD DESTROYED
Back there that was not a mere local flood or washout ; it was the
end of a world, and therefore took in both “heavens” and “earth ”. It was a
manifestation of the power of Almighty God showing that he can decide the
question of world domination. Such showing of power over the combined
opposition was given after God’s name had been declared in the earth by his
faithful witness and the world had been given due warning, especially while the
ark of safety and deliverance was under preparation. Concerning the Bringer of
that catastrophe and the extent thereof the inspired writer says: “God . . .
spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of
righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.” (2 Peter
2:4,5) That demonstration of divine power to destroy a world of long standing
should serve as a solemn warning to all humankind, particularly “Christendom”,
so called.
Religious persons have no faith in God’s word of warning. Rather
than turn from their selfish course and path of ease and of least resistance
they willingly choose to forget that that original world which God created in
righteousness according to the word of his decree, but which world was
corrupted by the bringing in of religion, was destroyed by the watery
cataclysm. The religionists scoffed at Noah’s warning, and “as the days of No'e
were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be”. The scoffing at God’s
Word today is therefore a sure token of certain things warned of to come. The
very ones whose loud religious professions bind them to accept the “sure word
of prophecy” are scoffing, “and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for
since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the
word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water
and in the water: whereby [on account of which heavens and earth becoming
ungodly, unbelieving and disobedient] the world that then was, being overflowed
with water, perished.” —2 Peter 3: 3-6.
That “old world”, “the world of the ungodly,” perished, but the
earthly globe upon which the ungodly generation of men were corrupting their
way remained and was cleansed of that crowd. “One generation passeth away, and
another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” (Ecclesiastes 1: 4)
“The earth which he hath established for ever.” (Psalm 78: 69) The literal
earth is the creation of Him whose “work is perfect” and who pronounced the
earth good. His divine mandate to fill it with righteous men and women and to
beautify it forever as the footstool of his universal domination shall be
fulfilled. The time of fulfillment thereof during the new world is so near that
persons of good-will living today look forward eagerly to having an obedient
part in that blessed privilege.
It was the symbolic “earth”, the visible human part of that
corrupted “old world”, that perished. All the wicked generation of men that
scoffed at God’s word and that religiously served the demons were destroyed.
Their perishing may be considered as cutting them off from any part in the
resurrection of those who are dead in the graves. Eight persons, just Noah and
his household, were carried over alive through the Flood. Though they had been
in that old world, they were not of it. None of those of that old world
survived; all perished with it. Only those with faith and hope of the new world
and keeping themselves unspotted for life in it were delivered from the world
destruction and preserved for God’s further service on the earth. As for the
symbolic “heavens” of that “world of the ungodly”, they also were affected by
the world disaster.
The demons, or Nephilim, that had materialized in the flesh as
rowdy giants to cause a reign of terror, were obliged to quit this direct
manifestation of themselves among creatures on earth. To this day there has
been no repeating of this, evidently due to God’s forcible restriction upon the
anarchistic spirits. The overspreading of the earth with violence in these days
appears to want or need nothing because of the failure or inability of the Nephilim
to reappear. Furthermore, the Scriptures clearly show that an internal
reorganization then took place in the spirit organization of that old Serpent,
the Devil. His organization thereafter came to be symbolized as a leviathan
monster, ‘a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven
crowns upon his heads; and his tail.’ It became a “wonder in heaven’’, the time
not having then come to begin the “war in heaven” against it and to cast the
Devil and his demons out of the heaven and down to the earth. (Revelation 12:
3,4) Thus the old or former organization of those demon “heavens” disappeared.
A rearranged organization appeared that was new and different.
Truly the old world had perished!
TYPICAL FULFILLMENT
That typical event casts light upon the events which are
immediately before us. That living prophecy did not end with the stopping of
the forty days of continuous downpour or with the subsiding of the waters and
the draining off the waters from the land into the great ocean beds created to
receive and contain them. That prophetical pattern of preservation and
deliverance was not complete until the door was opened and Noah and his
companions came forth from their hiding-place and set foot upon the dry land.
Possibly of some symbolic significance is the fact that the great ark landed on
top of a mountain, Ararat, which name is understood to mean “holy ground”. The
Flood survivors came forth into a cleansed earth, and they gave thanks to their
great Preserver and immediately engaged in the worship of Jehovah God.
Certainly that was typical of great and blessed events to come, and what God
said in connection therewith must likewise be typical. Except for those eight
righteous survivors the earth was depopulated; and an uninhabited earth was not
God’s purpose. Therefore as Noah and his companions worshiped, the divine word
came to them. As it is written: “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And you, be ye
fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply
therein.” And then God’s rainbow, symbolic of his everlasting covenant with
humankind concerning the sanctity of the blood of life, appeared in the sky. —
Genesis, chapters eight and nine.
That was a restatement of the divine mandate, which divine mandate
had first been given to Adam and Eve when righteous in Eden. Noah and his sons,
because of their faith and obedience as servants and witnesses for Jehovah,
were considered righteous. Hence the divine mandate was fittingly restated to
them, as there was then harmony between man and the great heavenly Universal
Ruler, Jehovah. Noah’s name means “rest”, or, “comfort.” He was so called
because at his birth it was prophesied: “This same shall comfort us concerning
our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.” (Genesis 5:29)
Immediately after Noah came forth from the ark and engaged in worshipful
sacrifice to God, then, as it is written, “the Lord
smelled a savour of rest,” and he foretold the lifting of the curse from the
earth. (Genesis 8: 20-22, margin) Therefore Noah was typical of a Greater One
to come who should bring rest and comfort to men of good-will in the new world.
Accordingly the Bible discloses that Noah did not take part in fulfilling that
divine mandate. His companions, or sons and daughters-in-law, did so.
Being imperfect and not having the right to everlasting life,
Noah’s sons could fulfill the mandate in only a typical or pictorial sense.
Therefore the account given in the tenth chapter of Genesis lists their names
and the names of their offspring and generations as just seventy, the name of
the wicked, rebellious hunter Nimrod not being included in that perfect number,
a multiple of ten times seven. Ten and seven each symbolize completeness. With
those seventy the typical picture of the fulfillment of the divine mandate
ends, and thereafter other events of new prophetic significance came to pass.
Sufficient evidence, however, is to be found in the type or prophetic pattern
to show that during the new world the divine mandate will be fulfilled in
perfectness, to vindicate God’s word.
CHAPTER 2. OTHER HEAVENS AND
EARTH
THE scene now changes, and new conditions arise. This does not mean that the new world promised of God in Eden came after the great Flood. Rather, God
began to make a new series of prophetic pictures brightening the vision of the
new world yet to come. More than two thousand years after that typical
fulfillment of the divine mandate by Noah’s sons the inspired writer wrote:
“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (2 Peter 3:13) Today unrighteousness
has gone to seed, in spite of all religious reformation and all human attempts at moral reconstruction of man. Thank God that
the new world, wherein dwells righteousness, does not wait for man and does not come by man! Therefore let the lovers of
righteousness not be disheartened and despair because of the present great unrighteousness
which is beyond human power to remove. Let them lift up their heads and rejoice
at the signs of the new world at hand.
Almighty God, ever in control of the situation, permitted the
defeated Satan and his demons to remain after the Flood and to reorganize,
because it was not yet God’s time to settle the primary issue once and for all
and to usher in the new world. Satan immediately began to set up another world
with its “heavens” and “earth”. His “heavens” of wicked spirits or demons he
organized. Because he is a counterfeiter he, in this organizing work, mimicked
the organization of the One whom he would be like, the Most High God. Therefore
the apostle who was given many “visions and revelations of the Lord” writes
this warning to the Christians, particularly to Jehovah’s witnesses and their
companions in this crucial time: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places. ’ ’—Ephesians 6:11, 12, margin.
Scheming religionists maliciously say that Jehovah’s witnesses
are subversive and fighting against the government of men. To such let those foregoing words of the inspired apostle be the
authoritative answer that the true Christians who witness for Jehovah and His
new world are not fighting men and have no fight with them or their visible
governments. The fight of Jehovah’s witnesses is now and ever since the days of
Abel has been with the demons, the promoters of religion. Out of all creatures
on earth the fight of the demons is primarily against Jehovah’s witnesses.
Therefore religious men and organizations and their political allies who fight
against Jehovah’s witnesses are wittingly or unwittingly lending themselves to
the service of the demons in their crusade.—Romans 6:16; 1 John 3:12.
Before Jehovah God gave his next revelation concerning the new
world of promise, Satan had gotten his dragon organization set up in heaven and
also gotten the “earth”, or visible part of his organization, established. As
long as Noah lived he stood for and upheld the Theocratic rule respecting men.
But the later descendants of Noah forsook the faithful instruction of their
forefather. They turned their faces away from the new world to come. They
became blind to God’s promise and would not wait upon him to fulfill it in His
own time and way and by the Seed of his “woman”. They quickly forgot the
meaning of the Flood and departed from the fear of the Almighty One, who there
demonstrated his power, and they fell to the religion of the fear of men and creatures and hence to the fear
and worship of the demons. They looked to the creature instead of to the
Creator. (Romans 1: 21-32) Instead of waiting and looking to God to produce His
Seed, the Deliverer, they yielded to the suggestions of the demons and rallied
to the one whom the demons designated as the “seed of the woman’’, but who was
no other than one of the seed of the Serpent that opposes the true Seed. There
is cause to believe that the demons excited the bodies of the wild beasts and
so controlled those wild animals that Nimrod was forced to the fore as a
“mighty hunter before the Lord’’, that is to say, superior to and in opposition
to Jehovah God. (Genesis 10:7-10; McClintock & Strong Cyclopaedia, on
“Nimrod”) Thus men put their trust in a man who could fight their battles with
carnal weapons. Him they hailed and honored and worshiped as the promised seed.
Nimrod dishonored Jehovah God by accepting all this worship and gave no glory
to God. On this wise the demons used Nimrod to organize religion in the earth.
He was canonized as a saint or deity after his death, history shows.
Having got the religious fear and attachment of the people,
Nimrod next organized human government. It was under demon rule, because it was
…