The truth shall make you free (1943)
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“THE TRUTH HALL MAKE YOU
FREE”
"Open ye the gates, that the
righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in." - Isaiah 26:2
PUBLISHERS WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC
International Bible Student Association
2,000,000 Edition
Copyright 1943
by
WATCHTOWEB BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC
Made in Undated States of America
Dedicated to
Jehovah
“A God of truth
and without iniquity, just and right is he.” – Deuteronomy 32:4
and to Jesus
Christ
“I am the way,
and the truth, and the life." - John 14:6
CONTENTS
CHAPTER | PAGE
I. "The
Truth Shall Make You Free" | 9
II. "A God
of Truth" | 25
III. Spirit Sons
of God | 40
IV. Earth's
Creation | 54
V. Human Souls
Created | 69
VI. Loss of
Freedom | 81
VII. Deliverance
Promised | 92
VIII. Divine
Mandate Suspended | 103
IX. Advocates of
Freedom | 114
X. Deliverance
Foreshadowed | 128
XI. The Count of
Time | 141
XII. Enemies of
Freedom | 153
XIII. The
Covenant for Freedom | 165
XIV. Birthright
of Freedom | 177
XV. A Free
Nation Is Born | 189
XVI. Producing
the Book of Freedom | 202
XVII. A Royal
Theocracy | 218
XVIII.
"Seven Times" | 231
XIX. Freedom’s
King Appears | 242
XX. From Death
to Immortality | 256
XXI. The Church
of Freemen | 268
XXII. "The
Time of the End" | 281
XXIII. Manner of
the King’s Coming | 293
XXIV.
Freedom-loving Witnesses | 305
XXV. "Men
of Good-Will" | 317
XXVI.
"Abomination of Desolation" | 328
XXVII. Final War
for Freedom | 341
XXVIII. Princes
of a Free Earth | 352
XXIX. The Thousand-Year
Reign | 360
XXX. Freedom
Now! | 371
“THE TRUTH SHALL
MAKE YOU FREE"
CHAPTER I
IT WAS the 22nd day of the
month Ethanim, the month which the Romans called October. Great were the
multitudes that thronged the areas for the common people in the temple of
Jerusalem. The seven-day feast of the harvest ingathering had just been
celebrated, the most joyous event of the year to the people of the nation. Its
celebration was a happy expression of the people’s conviction that there would be
freedom from want for at least the year to come.
Today was the eighth day. The
people had not yet dispersed to their homes throughout Palestine and other
provinces of the Roman Empire, because this eighth day was a further day of
festive gathering, a sabbath of refraining from work, and hence a holiday. It
was called the “last day, that great day of the feast”. That morning one of the
temple priests had gone forth, trailed by a rejoicing multitude waving branches
of palm and other trees, and had fetched water from the fountain of Siloam. The
golden pitcher of water was brought into the temple’s court of the priests amid
the shouts of the worshipers and the sound of cymbals and trumpets, and was then
poured over the great copper altar of sacrifice. The ceremony recalled the time
when their forefathers dwelt in tabernacles in the wilderness for forty years
and divine power caused water to issue forth miraculously from a flinty rock to
refresh the thirst- crazed people. More than this, now the seedtime of the farmers
was approaching, and the offering of Siloam’s water to the God who had
performed that miracle was a petition for his blessings of the rain upon the
seed sown. The due season of the year for the early rain was at hand. The
people looked to the great Rainmaker to keep them free from want.
Pontius Pilate was then Rome’s
governor of its province of Judea. During the great feasts of these Judeans it
was his custom as procurator to remove from Caesarea, on the Mediterranean
seacoast, and to come up to Jerusalem and reside there. Pilate had taken up his
duties in Judea some six years previously, in A.D. 26. His family name, or
cognomen, suggests that he was descended from a freedman, who had been given
the pileus or cap of liberty.
From the household of Tiberius
Caesar, the Roman emperor, Pilate came, to govern for ten years, trying to keep
the Pax Romana in Palestine. He little understood the Jews. Under him they
appeared to enjoy freedom of religion. This, however, was not without a
struggle, for Pilate quarreled with them almost continuously. Hence they did
not altogether enjoy freedom from fear. They remembered how at the very
beginning of his administration Pilate had transferred the headquarters of his
army from Caesarea to Jerusalem. Of course, the soldiers took with them their
standards bearing the image of the emperor and brought them into the hallowed
city, whose God had given his people the command: “Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.”1 Cautiously the soldiers
took in their standards by night.
No former governor had
attempted such a thing which to the Jews was a desecration of the sacred city.
Their rage and indignation were great on discovering those flags or image-
bearing standards in the midst of Jerusalem. In large crowds they streamed down
to Pilate, then at Caesarea, and implored him to remove the images. The fifth
day of the discussions Pilate treacherously planted soldiers in places of
concealment. At a given signal he caused them to surround the petitioning Jews
and to put them to death if they refused to break off their entreaties. This
only made them stronger in their determination. They declared themselves ready
to die rather than to give in to such idolatrous encroachment upon the sacred
realm of worship. Only then did Pilate yield and order the military standards
cleared out of Jerusalem and returned to Caesarea. Yet later he caused some
inscribed shields to be hung up in Jerusalem, and it was finally by order from
Emperor Tiberius himself that those things esteemed defiling were removed from
the city. These and other unwise moves stood out as sore spots in the struggle
for freedom of worship according to the dictates of Jewish conscience.
Continual vigilance was the price of their liberty from defilement.
1 Quoted from Exodus 20: 4, 5,
in the Holy Scriptures.
Now another thing had appeared
to disturb, and that from their own midst. A man had suddenly risen up from
Galilee. “A Nazarene” they called him. For this reason the “holier than thou”
religious leaders despised him. It was known he had been baptized in Jordan
river. It was thought that he had thereby acknowledged himself to be a sinner.
For three years he had gone about Palestine, tramping from place to place and
preaching and teaching in the synagogues, in the homes of the people, in the
mountains, at the seaside, and in the temple. Indeed he was in the temple this
very day.
The whole nation was in a
ferment religiously. This unusual man from “Galilee of the Gentiles” had come
out for the worship of God clean and pure, not only from Gentile defilements
such as image-bearing standards and inscribed shields, but also from all
religion. He had taken issue with the religious practices of the Jewish elders,
scribes, Levites, priests, Sadducees and Pharisees. A number of these were
members of the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court, having power over the Jews
which was limited only by the Roman governor. These high-ranking men were
strong advocates for what one of them called “the Jews’ religion”, or
“Judaism”. They were ever on the lookout for false prophets, subject to trial
before the Sanhedrin.
One day a number of scribes and
Pharisees from Jerusalem came to this wonder-working preacher from Galilee with
the question: “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders by
not washing their hands before meals?” To this he retorted: “Why do you, too,
transgress God’s commands for the sake of your tradition? God said, Honour thy
father and thy mother’; and ‘Let him who reviles father or mother be put to
death’; but you say: 'If a man says to his father or mother, “This thing is
consecrated, otherwise you should have received it from me,” he shall be
absolved from honouring his father’; and so you have rendered futile God’s word
for the sake of your tradition.” Then this Galilean made bold to call them
religious hypocrites and to apply against them a verse from God’s prophet
Isaiah. He said: “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, ‘This people
honours me with their lips, while their heart is far from me; in vain do they
worship me, while giving as doctrines the mere precepts of men.’ ”1
On another occasion this
Galilean openly taught the people from a mountainside and exposed religion and
its widely advertised works of charity, self-inflicted fasts and other
exhibitions. He said: “Beware of doing your good actions in the sight of men,
to attract their gaze; if you do, there is no reward for you with your Father
who is in heaven. When you give in charity, do not blow a trumpet before you as
the hypocrites do in the synagogues and streets in order that their praises may
be sung by men. I solemnly tell you that they have received in full their
reward. But when you are giving in charity, let not your left hand perceive
what your right hand is doing, that your charities may be in secret; and your
Father-He who sees in secret-will recompense you.
1 Quoted from Matthew 15:2-9,
Weymouth’s translation, 8th edition.
“And when praying, you must not
be like the hypocrites. They are fond of standing and praying in the synagogues
or at the corners of the wider streets, in order that men may see them. I
solemnly tell you that they have received in full their reward. But you,
whenever you pray, go into your own room and shut the door: then pray to your
Father who is in secret, and your Father-He who sees in secret-will recompense
you. And when praying, do not use needless repetitions as the heathen do, for
they expect to be listened to because of their multitude of words. Do not,
then, imitate them; for your Father knows what things you need before ever you
ask him. . . .
“When you fast, do not assume
gloomy looks as the hypocrites do; for they disfigure their faces that it may
be evident to men that they are fasting. I tell you in truth that they
have received in full their reward. But, whenever you fast, pour perfume on
your hair and wash your face, that it may not be apparent to men that you are
fasting, but to your Father who is in secret; and your Father-He who sees in
secret -will recompense you.”1
Such speech was decidedly
antireligious to the high priests, scribes, and Pharisees of Jerusalem and the
members of their Supreme Court. To them, it was unreligious conduct when this
Galilean performed miraculous cures of sick and afflicted people on the weekly
rest- day, the sabbath. The common people heard him gladly. This fact robbed
the religious leaders of their freedom from fear; more so when the people came
to look upon this ambulating teacher as one of God’s prophets. The question
then arose, and was openly discussed, as to whether this was the mighty Prince
that was foretold to come, the Messiah, whom Greek-speaking Jews at that time
called “Christ”. It was hoped that the Messiah, or Christ, would destroy the
yoke of Rome from off the necks of those who worshiped the Most High God. He
was to set up the kingdom of God, which would be a blessing to men and women of
all nations, the Gentiles, and would usher in a free world without end. Now on
that “great day of the feast” the people who listened to the Galilean teaching
at the temple were heard to discuss among themselves. Some said: "Of a truth
this is the Prophet”; that is, the prophet who should arise after Moses and be
like Moses.
1 Quoted from Matthew 6:1-18,
Weymouth’s translation.
Others said: “This is the
Christ.”1
The religious leaders began to
think that freedom of speech was not a good thing for this bold young man, who
was "not yet fifty years old”, only thirty-three years old, in fact. They
wanted to kill him, but were afraid to lay hands upon him because of the
people. How they despised the people for listening to him! They called such
people am ha-arets (people of the earth) and said they were unworthy of
a resurrection to life eternal. that day, while the Galilean was instructing
the people, they said: “This people who knoweth not the law are cursed.” So the
chief priests and Pharisees sent out officers of the law to arrest him at the
temple and break up his preaching in public. The officers were more honest than
their religious dictators and came back without the preacher. Asked why, they
replied: “Never man spake like this man,”
“This man” did not ask the
political or the religious rulers for the right or guarantee of the freedom of
speech to preach the message he gave. He already possessed that right as a right
given to him by the One who had sent him to preach and teach “the kingdom of
heaven”. That One, he said, was his Father above. No one could, therefore,
properly interfere with his right of freedom of speech for the Kingdom, Fear of
death-that he did not have; for he said: “When ye have lifted up the Son of
man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as
my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with
me.”1
1 Quoted from John 7:
26,37,40,41.
Why did this Galilean speak
thus boldly, with complete freedom from fear of religionists who attempted to
mob him, to arrest him and to kill him? There he stands, speaking in the temple
to those believing on him. Listen to him! Hear for yourself his own answer to
the question: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and
ye shall know the truth, and THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.”
Here is the secret of the
Galilean’s courage to speak out plainly against religion and religious
hypocrites and their sins. He had the truth, and knew it, and spoke the truth
uncompromisingly for the sake of the freedom of the people. He recognized that
the religious leaders and their dupes were in a worse bondage than they
realized, a bondage to their worst adversary, the Devil. Some of these
religionists objected and said that they were the seed or descendants of the
faithful patriarch Abraham and hence were never in bondage; and how, then,
could the Galilean make them free?
The Galilean answered; “Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. ... If
the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye
are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in
you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye
have seen with your father. . . . Ye do the deeds of your father.” Thereupon
the self-righteous religionists slurred the Galilean’s birth and said: “We be
not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.” They trusted in the
“fatherhood of God”, at least for their nation out of all the nations.
1 Quoted from John 7 : 32,
45-49; also John 8: 28,29.
Who needed to be told the truth
more than they, that they might realize their bondage and learn the path to
freedom? Therefore the Galilean, this one named Jesus, said
straightforwardly to the religionists: “If God were your Father, ye would love
me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he
sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech ? even because ye cannot hear my
word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speak- eth a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is
a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me
not.”
Jesus was not the servant of
sin or the Devil and his lies; Jesus was free. Therefore he asked them: “Which
of you convinceth me of sin ? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye
are not of God.” Hence they were not free from blindness by the father of lies,
but were bound with his murderous spirit.
Angered by the truth from this
One who spoke with perfect freedom from fear, the religionists accused him of
having a devil and being in bondage to it. “Jesus answered, I have not a devil;
but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. And I seek not mine own glory:
there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man
keep my saying, he shall never see death.”
Remarkable, this saying; for here
is promised everlasting freedom from death, and this by keeping the saying of
truth. Are there believing persons now living on earth who will literally
experience the fulfillment of this promise? The religionists who heard Jesus
rejected the truth of his testimony concerning himself and his Father. “Then
took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the
temple.” To their sin of unbelief of the truth they would add the devilish deed
of murder. They soon died in their willing bondage, as Jesus had warned them:
“I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe
not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”1
WHAT IS TRUTH?
Today, nineteen centuries
removed from the time of the utterance, “The truth shall make you free,” the
world is not free. Who can honestly contend that it is? The very fact that, in
the 1940’s, politicians of “Christendom” publish a statement to the world
guaranteeing the so- called “Four Freedoms” is a blank admission that the peoples
and nations are not free. Nevertheless “Christendom”, which, according to her
profession of the name “Christian”, ought to be free, claims to have continued
in the word of Jesus and to be his disciple indeed. The facts belie her claim.
Instead of knowing the truth, “Christendom” is a confusion of religions,
Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish, and pagan, and a confusion of political
systems, democratic and totalitarian. All are now fearfully groping in darkness
for some inter-religious and international arrangement whereby they can all
survive and get along together.
This serious plight of
“Christendom” stands as a condemnation that her political and religious leaders
during the sixteen centuries of her existence have not continued till now in
the word of Jesus and have not been his disciples indeed.
1 Quoted from John 8:24-59.
Today, in “Christendom”, are
fulfilled the words of the ancient prophet: “None calleth for justice, nor any
pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive
mischief, and bring forth iniquity. . . . Judgment is turned away backward, and
justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot
enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a
prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no judgment.”1
The most pressing need of all
people who desire life and liberty in a free world is for the truth. To
continue in the word of a mere man who speaks out of his own wisdom makes one a
disciple of such man, but also leads to bondage. Not so, however, with the word
of Jesus. To continue in His word makes us free as his disciples, knowing the
truth, because his is not the word of one merely of human origin or possessed
of mere human wisdom. He called upon his hearers to be honest and to examine
and recognize his real identity and that of his Father. Why! Because, said he,
“this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent.”2 That truth is echoed by one of his
disciples, who wrote: “This is the true God, and eternal life."3
1 Quoted from Isaiah
59:4,14,15.
2 Quotation from John 17: 3 and
3 from 1 John 5: 20.
Jesus stuck to the word he
preached, because it was the truth. He was finally arrested by religionists,
held in custody and abused and derided, falsely accused, and then nailed to a
tree till lifeless. But he died a free man. He died because he did not choose
to fight back with powers that were at his command. He yielded to death because
he knew more benefit would result from his death than to fight for further life
in the flesh. He died because the interests of the truth concerning himself and
his Father would be more fully served by suffering innocently unto death than
by continuing to live as a man. As truth cannot for ever be crushed to earth,
so neither could this faithful Truth-teller; for his Father duly freed him from
death’s bonds and ushered him into a freedom as wide as the universe and
wherein he will “never see death”.
What is his word, or doctrine,
wherein we must continue in order to be his disciples and know the truth and be
free? We cannot turn to any of the many conflicting religions for His word,
because he told the practicers of religion they were guilty of “making the word
of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered”.
Thereafter the religionists killed him, because his word found no place in
them. Jesus did not teach like the religionists, who referred to human
authorities and traditions of religious men. Hence, “the people were astonished at
his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the
scribes.”1 Jesus revealed the source of his word of truth.
He said: “My doctrine is not
mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the
doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” Privately he
said to his disciples: “The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s
which sent me.” Then, joining with his disciples in prayer, he said to his
Father: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”2
It is his Father’s written Word
that is the truth; which was why he repeatedly quoted it as his authority and
guide during his earthly life. If we would continue in his word and be his
disciples, we must likewise turn to his Father’s word of truth. Then we shall
come to know the truth and be made free with a God-given freedom that no human
or devilish powers can take away. To find life eternal we must know in truth
“the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom [He] has sent”. This knowledge we can
rightly acquire only by means of the written Word of God. That Word instructs
the truthseekers and freedom-lovers: “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also
wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.” “Have not I written to thee
excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the
certainty of the words of truth;
1 See Mark 7:1-13; and John 8 :
43, 45, 47; and Matthew 7:28,29.
2 Quotations are
from John 7:16,17; 14: 24; 17:17.
that thou mightest answer the
words of truth to them that send unto thee!”1
You must buy the truth at the
cost of your time and effort spent in searching God’s written Word, doing so
without religious bias and prejudice. Otherwise you will be like the religious
leaders, "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth.” The divine instruction given through one of Jesus’ faithful disciples
who continued in His word and came to know the truth is: “Study to shew thyself
approved unto God, a workman that need- eth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth.”
To enable you thus to buy the
truth and thereafter continue in it and “sell it not”, this book is published.
Through all the following pages, this book will continue in His word, and those
pages will set out the scriptures in support of the truth, as quoted
principally from three versions of the Bible, the Catholic Douay Version (Douay), the King James
or Authorized Version (A.V.), and the American Revised Version (A.R.V.). Each such
citation of Scripture will set out the particular book of the Holy Scriptures,
then the chapter thereof, and then the verse or verses; as, for example, 2
Timothy 3: 7 and 2 Timothy 2:15, for the two scripture texts quoted in .the
above paragraph. Man’s chief and most vital study is God and His purpose.
Rightly our consideration begins with him.
1 Quotations are from Proverbs
23:23; 22:20,21.
CHAPTER II
"A GOD OF TRUTH”
PEN your copy of the Bible at
the first book thereof, which is called “Genesis”, and at the first verse. It
matters not whether you use the Catholic Douay Version, or
the Jewish Leeser Version, or the Protestant
versions, either the King James or the American Revised. They all translate the
same opening Hebrew words of the original Bible, B’reshith'
bara' Elohim', and they all read the same way: “Tn the beginning God
created,”
These inspired words put God
first. They do not begin with raising the question posed by worldly scientists,
Is there a God? because, all things considered, that question is foolish. “The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done
abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven
upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that
did seek God.” (Psalm 53:1, 2) The course of action of those who deny or doubt
the existence of God, and the outcome thereof, prove them fools. They deny the
central truth, and are in bondage to error, which leads to destruction. To get
free from such death-dealing error and to come to the great Giver of life and
truth, man must believe that God is. There is no end of proof that He is. “But
witbout faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him.” (Hebrews 11:6) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but
fools despise wisdom and instruction." “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of
life, to depart from the snares of death.”-Proverbs 1:7; 14:27.
He is a “God of truth”. It is
“impossible for God to lie”, and “he cannot deny himself”. Hence he begins his
inspired book of Genesis with the self-evident truth that God is: “In the
beginning God created.” This could not mean there was a beginning to God; but
that he is the Beginner of all things that exist. He is the Creator, the Source
of all creation. The man whom God inspired to write the book of Genesis also
wrote: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the
earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”-Psalm
90: 2.
It is only fitting of God that
his eternal existence should be beyond finding out by lowly man with limited
powers and who can not even search out to the bottom the secrets of the wonderful
works of God round about him, and of which works man himself is one. “For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8,9) Having no beginning, God the Creator is therefore
the one and only Being. He is the Supreme One. “Who only hath immortality,
dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen,
nor can see; to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.”-1 Timothy 6:16.
There was a time when God began
to create. Before that he was all alone in the universe, for immeasurable time.
He was not lonesome; because he is perfect, being complete in himself. Hence his
pleasure is absolutely independent of creatures, although he does find pleasure
in the exercise of his boundless powers of creation. Those who worship him
truthfully say in adoration : "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure
they are and were created.”-Revelation 4:11.
There was never a time when
there was chaos, that is, a formless, disorganized and confused state,
throughout the universe. It is only pagan Greek mythology that claims that Chaos was the most
ancient of the gods. Exposing the foolishness of such idea of pagan science,
the divine Word of truth says: "God is not the author of confusion, but of
peace.” “God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.” (1 Corinthians 14:33, A.V. and A.R.V.) He did not bring
order out of chaos, because chaos never existed contemporaneously with “the
true and living God”. The universe was never out of his control. When
He, the sole inhabiter of the
universe and of eternity, began to create, he proceeded orderly. His processes
of creation, whether instantaneous or progressive, operated under his
regulation and according to laws which he established to govern the creative
process to its perfection. Nothing can get beyond his control and mastery.
As being undeniable proof of
his existence and his supremacy, unsearchable wisdom and almighty power, God
calls man’s attention to the works visible to man in the heavens, the earth,
and the seas, which works operated before man's appearance on the earth and
which continue to operate without man’s aid and beyond man’s power to explain
or control.-Read chapters 38 to 41 of the book of Job.
The sensible man, marveling at
such works of divine power and intelligence, exclaims: “I have heard of thee by
the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.” That man appreciates the inspired words of the
psalmist: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him!
and the son of man, that thou visitest him!” (Job 42: 5, 6; Psalm 8: 3,4) To
such honest man the heavens, though silent, testify that God is and is
glorious: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his
handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth
knowledge. There is no speech nor language; their voice is not heard. Their
line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the
world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, . . . there is nothing hid
from the heat thereof.” -Psalm 19:1-6, A.R.V.
God, that is what the
Almighty One is. To those who transgress against this truth he says: “Remember
the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and
there is none like me.” (Isaiah 46: 9) Religionists point to the fact that the
word God here, as well as at Genesis 1:1, is the
word Elohim in the Hebrew original, and that Elohim is the plural
number of the Hebrew word Eloah. Hence they claim that here in
these verses and in others Elohim means “gods” and that this
proves that God Almighty is a trinity of persons, all three being uncreated,
having an eternity of existence together, and being equal in power and glory.
Not only is such teaching of a trinity of persons in one god unreasonable and
beyond the ability of these trinity-teachers to explain, but not even the word
“trinity”, nor even the idea of such, appears in God’s Word of truth. The
trinity of gods, however, does appear as a teaching of pagan religions in
Egypt, Babylon, Greece, China, and elsewhere long before its adoption by the
religionists of so-called “Christendom”. The foolishness and unscripturalness
of such trinity doctrine, and its evident pagan origin, will appear more
plainly as this discussion goes along. The brightening truth about the “true
and living God” will make you free of one of the greatest blasphemies and
confusing doctrines of religion.
Here let it be sufficient to
say that Elohim, though being plural in form, is
accompanied by a singular pronoun and a singular verb when it refers to The
Supreme and Almighty One. This fact shows his unity and oneness of Being, there
existing none besides him, none like him, none equal to him in power and glory
and eternity. Wherefore the plural form Elohim, as meaning God
Almighty, is merely the plural of excellence and majesty and means one Person. Eloah (singular) and Elohim (plural) are
both enlarged from the original Hebrew noun El; and El is, in turn,
drawn from the verb ool, which means to be strong and
mighty or to be before or ahead of. Hence the plural Elohim fits and
describes the Supreme One as summing up all power and might and as surpassing
all and being before all in His excellency and eternal existence.
If God is what he is,
what is his name? That question was put long before this, even thousands of
years ago, in the days of Moses. By the miracle of the burning bush Almighty
God manifested his presence to Moses for a very decided purpose. “Moses said unto
God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them,
The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What
is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God [Elohim] said unto Moses,
I am that I am: and he said,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you.
And God [Elohim] said moreover unto Moses, Thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God [Elohim]
of your fathers, the God [Elohim] of Abraham, the
God [Elohim] of Isaac, and the God [Elohim] of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for
ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.”-Exodus 3:13-15, A.R.V.
Elohim here is Jehovah,
and there are not three persons Jehovah; only one. In the greatest commandment
of the law the Lord God says by his prophet Moses: “Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our
God [Elohim] is one Jehovah: and thou shalt love
Jehovah thy God [Elohim] with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deuteronomy 6: 4, 5, A.R.V.) Thus the
argument that the title Elohim supports the trinity doctrine
falls flat as foolish.
By his prophet Isaiah the Lord
God announces: “I am Jehovah, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to
another, neither my praise unto graven images.” (Isaiah 42:8, A.R.V.) At what time the
Lord God revealed this name to mankind on earth is not definitely stated. It
first appears in the Hebrew text of the Bible at Genesis 2:4, and occurs
thereafter six thousand six hundred times, from Genesis to Malachi. The English
Bible versions, the Catholic Douay, the Jewish Leeser, and the King
James or Authorized Version, hide this important truth by translating Jehovah by the words Lord, God, and The Eternal. The King James
Version makes only four exceptions to this practice which obscures the truth.
However, the name Jehovah is found first on the lips of
the first woman, at Genesis 4:1, A.R.V. The first man
shown to address Him by the name is Abraham the patriarch, “the friend of God,”
at Genesis 15:2,7,8: God “said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of
Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, O Lord
Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?”-A.R.V.
The Lord God also revealed
himself to Abraham under another title: “And when Abram was ninety years old
and nine, Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God Almighty.”
(Genesis 17:1, A.R.V.) This title was to strengthen
Abraham’s faith in God’s promise to him of a miraculous birth of a son.
That Abraham and others before
Moses’ day knew the name but did not appreciate its inward meaning is stated by
God himself: “God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah : and I
appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my
name Jehovah I was not known to them.” (Exodus G:2, 3, A.R.V.) Jehovah went on
to state his purpose concerning his chosen people, then slaves in Egypt. His
purpose was to fulfill a certain part of his covenant made with their
forefather Abraham and to make them his covenant people. That was the occasion
of making known the inward meaning of God’s name. From the emphasis laid upon
it on this occasion, and from God’s special choice of it in announcing his
purpose to vindicate himself and the word of his covenant, it is plain that the
name Jehovah means or signifies The Purposer, or His purpose
toward his creatures. The name does not call notice to His being the Eternal
One, which he is, of course. The name is the causative form of the
Hebrew verb havah (to be) and literally means “He causes
to be”, that is, he causes according to his purpose.
For many centuries,
particularly after the days of Jesus and his apostles, the meaning of the name Jehovah has been lost to
sight, and even the very name has been pushed into the background. Only in very
recent years has God caused his name to be brought forth again to the light and
its meaning to be made known to his faithful servants, because it is the due
time and the vindication of his name Jehovah draws near.1
Let none now ignore that name!
At Genesis 2:4 the designation
“Jehovah God” first appears in Sacred Writ. Being God (Elohim), Jehovah is
divine. He is The Divinity or Divine One. “Being therefore the offspring of
God, we must not suppose the divinity to be like unto gold, or silver, or
stone, the graving of art, and device of man.”-Acts 17: 29, Douay.
Jehovah is unseen to human
eyes, but he gives mankind evidence of his divinity by his works visible to
them. “For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power
also, and divinity.” (Romans 1: 20, Douay) It would be
improper to speak of Jehovah as having the “divine nature”, because nature means that which
is born or produced, or, that which is according to birth and growth; whereas
Jehovah is without birth or beginning or growth. He is ever perfect, and
produces all things righteous, good and perfect. However, to creatures who
prove themselves faithful discipies of Jesus, it is written by the disciple
Peter: “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that
pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called
us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature [(literally)
a divine nature], having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust.” (2 Peter 1:3,4) Such faithful disciples, together with Jesus, become
partakers of “a divine nature” by reason of being specially begotten by the
invisible force of the Divine One, Jehovah God.
1 See The
Watchtower, June 1, 1928, p.5; January 1, 1933, pp. 4, 5, 6.
God is invisible, beyond the
power and capacity of man to see Him. To the prophet Moses he said: “Thou canst
not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” (Exodus 33: 20)
Hence human nature could never ascend to heaven and see God. In support of this
a disciple of Jesus writes: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” “And
no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the
Son of man.” (John 1:18; 3:13) This holds true because human nature is “of the
earth, earthy”, but God is spirit and is The Spirit. Concerning the great
Spirit and the manner of worshiping Him, Jesus said: “The hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:
for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit: and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”-John 4: 23, 24.
Is it now necessary to go to
some religious temple or cathedral in order to worship God, who is spirit? His
servant Paul gives the true answer: “God that made the world and all things
therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples
made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed
any thing, seeing he give th to all life, and breath, and all things; . . .
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the
Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now cornmandeth all men
everywhere to repent.”-Acts 17: 24-30; 7:48-50.
Is, then, anyone worshiping God
when he offers incense and bows down to an image of any kind or material and
says prayers on his knees before such image! That is the practice of religion,
but it is not the worship of God, the God whom Jesus worshiped in spirit and in
truth. (John 20:17) All the faithful worshipers of God from Abel to Moses did
not worship God in man-made temples or before images. At Mount Horeb, in
Arabia, Jehovah God gave a terrifying manifestation of his power and then
called Moses up into the mountain and gave to that prophet the stone tablets of
the Ten Commandments written in His own hand, “written with the finger of God.”
The first two of these commandments read: “I am Jehovah thy God
[Elohim], who brought thee
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other
gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness
of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor
serve them; for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God.”-Exodus 20:2-5, A.R.V.; and 31:18.
A religionist may not excuse
himself by saying that he merely gives the image “relative honor and worship”
and is not worshiping the image itself, but the one for whom the image stands.
That is the very argument that the pagan heathen gave as an excuse for using
images in their religion and worshiping the sun, moon and stars, and the “queen
of heaven”, as they called it. (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-25) Such religious
practice is self-deception, and God does not excuse the use of images under
this pretext, but calls it a snare and expressly forbids it to those who
worship him in spirit and in truth. Even to wave the hand and give a salute and
throw a kiss was forbidden by him as idolizing the image or thing.
Therefore God inspired Moses to
utter and write down this warning to God’s covenant people: “Take ye therefore
good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of form on the day that Jehovah
spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; lest ye corrupt yourselves,
and make you a graven image in the form of any figure, the
likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the
likeness of any winged bird that fiieth in the heavens, the likeness of
anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the
water under the earth; and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when
thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven,
thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Jehovah thy God hath
allotted unto all the peoples under the whole heaven.” Against such religious
practices Jehovah God warned, saying: ‘‘Neither shalt thou serve their gods;
for that will be a snare unto thee. The graven images of their gods shall ye burn
with fire: thou shalt not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor
take it unto thee, lest thou he snared therein; for it is an abomination to
Jehovah thy God.” (Deuteronomy 4:15-19; 7: 16, 25, A.R.V.) God’s Word of truth
thus declares that religion is a deadly snare.1
At Psalm 84:11 is the inspired
statement: “Jehovah God is a sun and a shield.” (A.R.V.) But that is no
justification for worshipers of Jehovah God to kiss the hand to the sun or a
shield or to salute them and bow down to them because they are used as symbols
of God. From such obeisance to creatures and man-made things the pure and true
worshiper of God must hold back, as did the faithful man Job. Said he: “If I
have made gold my hope, oi' have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;
if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten
much; if I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;
and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: this
also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the
God that is above." -Job 31:24-28; 1 Kings 19:18; Hosea 13:2.
1 Concerning James 1:26,27, see
pages 87-89.
Nothing could be of greater
importance than to worship Jehovah God in spirit and in truth, as Jesus said.
This is a God-given right of all His creatures, and no human government, no
matter how high it is on earth, has any right to interfere therewith and to
dictate contrary to the rule and commandment of the worship of Jehovah God.
Jehovah is the Supreme Power. (Ecclesiastes 5:8) The very life of intelligent
creation depends upon such true worship of the Supreme Power. “Therefore choose
life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed; to love Jehovah thy God, to
obey his voice, and to cleave unto him; for he is thy life, and the length of
thy days.” (Deuteronomy 30:19,20, A.R.V.; 32:47) “This is
the true God, and eternal life.” (1 John 5: 20) “The gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”-Romans 6:23.
There came a time when the
great Creator and Life-giver began his creative work. This was an expression of
his love; for “God is love”. (1 John 4: 16) What was his first creation, the
beginning of the creation of God? And was it living or inanimate?
CHAPTER
III
SPIRIT
SONS OF GOD
SCIENCE of the men of this world
cannot solve the secret of the first creation of God. The secret is solvable
and is, in fact, now revealed to those who fear God and who therefore have the
“wisdom that is from above”. The worldly and religious scientists, worshiping
their own brains and the brains of other men, pass by the very source of
truthful information, God’s Word, or they reject its testimony. Thereby they
deny God its Author and make fools of themselves. They continue to gaze into the
endlessness of space with their telescopes and to peer through their magnifying
glasses into the realm of microcosms and to dig into the earth for fossil bones
and remains, but never learn the source of life nor come to life-giving wisdom
and truth. They never get free from the bonds of their misleading human
imaginations and suppositions. They go from one delusion to another, while
those who trust in their theories fall into deeper darkness and humankind
continues to fight and suffer and die, and the old world faces a terrible end.
The almighty, all-wise God who
brought forth his first creation at an unknown time in the past is also able to
create now a new world of righteousness wherein men who fear him and worship
him in spirit and in truth may live freely in light, peace and joy forever. His
first creation has an important and vital connection with the establishment of
the hoped-for new world. It is therefore no matter of idle speculation or
impudent curiosity for God-fearing men to examine into this question. What God
has caused to be recorded in his Word of truth is proper for man to desire and
to seek to understand. At the due time God makes it understandable. “The secret
things belong unto the Lord our God: but
those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever,
that we may do all the words of this law.” - Deuteronomy 29:29.
God’s first creative work was
no experimental model. It was his best work of creation till nineteen centuries
ago. It was a perfect work and perfectly showed forth the wisdom and knowledge
and praiseworthy workmanship of the Creator. It was deserving of bearing the
name of Jehovah its Maker. “For I will proclaim the name of Jehovah: ascribe ye
greatness unto our God. The Rock, his work is
perfect; for all his ways are justice: a God of faithfulness and without
iniquity, just and right is he.” (Deuteronomy 32: 3,4, A.R.V.) All Jehovah’s
works are an honor and credit to him, and the study of them in order the better
to know him leads to wisdom and the understanding of the truth. “The works of
the Lord are great, sought out of all
them that have pleasure therein. His work is honourable and glorious: and his
righteousness
endureth for ever. The works of his hands are verity and
judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and
are done in truth and uprightness.-Psalm 111: 2, 3, 7, 8.
God’s first creation was living
and intelligent and was made to possess wisdom. “For Jehovah giveth wisdom; out
of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:6, A.R.V.) Hence in the
book of inspired proverbs the Creator causes the one who is the beginning of
His creation to speak under the symbolic figure of Wisdom and to say: “Jehovah
possessed me [(marginal reading) Jehovah formed me] in the beginning of his
way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the
beginning, before the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought
forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains
were settled, before the hills was I brought forth; while as yet he had not
made the earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the world.
When he established the heavens, I was there: when he set a circle upon the
face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when the fountains of the
deep became strong, when he gave to the sea its bound, that the waters should
not transgress his commandment, when he marked out the foundations of the
earth; then I was by him, as a master workman; and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in his habitable earth; and my
delight was with the sons of men.”-Proverbs 8: 22-31, A.R.V.
Jehovah God had now set out on
the purpose of endless creation. He now had beside him a “master workman”
endowed with wisdom. This one had received life from God. This made him the Son
of God. In begetting this Son or bringing him forth to life Jehovah was the
only Producer or Creator, unassisted. His first living creature was therefore
the “only begotten Son of God”. He was a spirit like Jehovah his Father and
could see Him and be with Him. Being a spirit and in the image of God, this
only begotten Son was in the “form of God”. He was perfectly subject to his
Father and Creator. Not once did he meditate upon a usurpation to be equal with
his Father; such equality he knew wisely is an impossibility. He recognized
Jehovah as the Supreme Power and as his Head. He never turned aside from that
rule. Hence the only begotten Son is spoken of as the one “who, existing in the
form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be
grasped”. (Philippians 2: 6, A.R.V.) Jehovah the Father dearly
loved his only begotten Son, and the Son loved the Father and proved that love
by unselfish obedience to Him and keeping His commandments. He feared Jehovah,
not with a tormenting, selfish fear, but with a dread of ever displeasing his
Father and God and not glorifying Him. The Son worshiped Jehovah God, which
means, not idle adoration and admiration, but service actively to God and
thereby honoring and exalting Him.
Did this firstborn Son possess
immortality, that is, deathlessness! That he did not have this quality and was
not immortal at that time is proved by later facts as well as plainly stated in
the Bible. Endless life is dependent upon unending obedience to God. By
faithful and perfect obedience the Son would live by his Father’s approval and
could live with him forever. The time came, however, that Jehovah God opened up
to his Son the opportunity to gain immortality. That the Father gave the Son
such opportunity is proved by the Son’s statement: “As the Father hath life in
himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.” (John 5: 26)
This also proves that Jehovah is the Lifegiver to the Son.
The Father, Jehovah God, made
the Son his mouthpiece or spokesman, which in itself meant that there were to
be other creatures and that toward these the Son of God would declare and
execute the word of God. Therefore in this position the Son was called “The
Word of God”. This position of being the Chief Executive Officer of Jehovah put
the only begotten Son in a superior position with respect to all other creatures
that should be. The Father clothed the Son with power befitting his position,
and thus the Son, this “master workman” with God Jehovah, was a mighty one, and
was before others, Jehovah only excepted. Concerning the Son in the office of
“The Word of God” it is written:
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made
that was made.”-John 1:1-3.
Does this mean that Jehovah God
(Elohim) and the only begotten Son are two persons
but at the same time one God and members of a so-called “trinity” or “triune
god”? When religion so teaches it violates the Word of God, wrests the
Scriptures to the destruction of those who are misled, and insults God-given
intelligence and reason. Note first that the above quotation of John 1:1-3
mentions only two persons, not three. The very words of the text also show that
the Son, who receives life, could not be coeval or co-existent from eternity
with the Father, who gives life to the Son and so begins him. Though there is
no beginning of God (Elohim), or Jehovah, there was a
beginning of speech or word; and it was God who began or produced speech or
word. Thus the very title shows that Jehovah God produced or began the one who
is called “The Word”. “Thy word is true from the beginning”; or, according to
the marginal reading of the Bible, “The beginning of thy word is true.” (Psalm
119:160) God is the origin of the Word. “And God [Elohim] said.”-Genesis 1:
3, 6, 9,11,14, 20, 24, 26.
The confusion is caused by the
improper translation of John 1:1-3 from the Greek, in which the text was
originally written, into the English, such translation being made by
religionists who tried to manufacture proof for their teaching of a “trinity”.
This fact is made plain in a book entitled “The Emphatic Diaglott”, which sets
out the original text of the Scriptures in Greek letters and under each line of
the Greek text it presents a word-for-word translation of the original Greek.
This sublinear English translation reads, as you will note in reproduction
below: “In a beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and a god
was the Word. This was in a beginning with the God. All through it was done; and
without it was done not even one, that has been done.” You will also note that
in the regular English in the right-hand column The Emphatic Diaglott emphasizes the
distinction between the Creator as the God and the Word
(Logos) as a god by printing the word “God” when referring to the Creator and “God”
when referring to the Word or Logos.
By remembering that the word
“god”, according to the Hebrew, means “mighty one” or “one who is before
(others)”, and by remembering the Son’s power and position with reference to
all the rest of creation, it is easily grasped that God’s Son, the Word, was and
is “a god” (El), or “mighty one”, pre-eminent above other
creatures, whereas Jehovah, the Producer of the Word, is “the God” (Elohim), without
beginning and “from everlasting to everlasting”.
By referring to John 10: 34-36
you will note that Jesus quotes from the law at Psalm 82: 6 and says: “Is it
not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called
them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou
blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” If those mighty men of earth
against whom God directed his word of condemnation could be called “gods”, much
more could and do the true Scriptures speak of God’s Son, the Word, as “a god”.
He is a “mighty god”, but not the Almighty God, who is Jehovah. (Isaiah 9: 6)
Certainly, then, John 1:1-3, according to its original Greek text, is no proof
that Jehovah God and his Son are “one in person, equal in power and glory”, as
religious catechisms say without Scripture proof. The contrary is true. God the
Speaker has power over the Word, and sends forth the Word to bear and fulfill
God’s message. In agreement with this John 1:18 reads: “No one hath seen God at
any time; an
only begotten God, the one existing within the bosom of the
Father, He hath interpreted him.” - Rotherham’s translation; see also the A.R.V. translation, marginal reading.
The question now arises as to
the other creatures that were produced after God’s firstborn Son, the Word.
Were these other creatures each a direct creation of God as his Son the Word
was? The firstborn Son’s title “only begotten Son” indicates that the other
creatures were not God’s direct creation without any agent in between. After
Jehovah God created the Word direct, then he used this only begotten Son as His
agent or “master workman” in the creation of everything else. To this effect
John 1: 3 testifies concerning the Word: “All things were made by him; and
without him was not any thing made that was made.” John 1:14 also declares that
God’s only begotten Son, the Word, was the One who in due time became the “man
Christ Jesus”; it says: “And the Word 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.” Also 1 John 1:1 reads: “That which was from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled, of the Word of life.”
God’s use of his Son the Word
in the creation of all things after him is further stated at Ephesians 3:9:
“God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” Also at Colossians 1:15-17 it is written
concerning the Word or Jesus Christ: “Who is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are
in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by
him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
God’s Word, Christ Jesus, would have to be the “firstborn of every creature”,
to be before all other creations and to be God’s “master workman” in producing
them. In proof of this Christ Jesus says concerning himself : “These things saith
the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.”-Revelation
3:14.
Being the only begotten Son of
God and “the firstborn of every creature”, the Word would be a prince among all
other creatures. In this office he bore another name in heaven, which name is
“Michael”. It means “Who is like God?” and marks its bearer as one who upholds
the majesty and supremacy of Jehovah God and who will vindicate Jehovah’s name
and word against any possible false charges and misrepresentations. Other names
were given to the Son in course of time. In all the principalities which were
created in the invisible spirit realm Michael was “one of the chief princes”,
and in due time he became the invisible prince of God’s chosen people of
Israel. (Daniel 10:13,21; 12:1; Jude 9; Deuteronomy 34:5,6) As Jehovah’s mighty
prince and message-bearer, Michael has angels under his command,
and hence he is an archangel. It is he whom Jehovah uses to clear out all
rebellion from the universe, though it be attended by a time of trouble on
earth such as has never before been known.-See Revelation 12: 7-9; Daniel 12:1;
Matthew 24: 3, 21, 22; 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
For how long Jehovah God and
his beloved Son were together without other companionship and enjoying each
other’s love the inspired Word of truth does not reveal. However, Jehovah has
pleasure in the work of creation and in bestowing his loving-kindness upon
creatures, and his time came for other creatures to be brought forth. Now he
worked jointly with his Son, his only begotten Son being in complete harmony
with his Father’s purposes and acting in perfect unity and full co-operation
with Him. Properly, then, the Son could say: “I and my Father are one.” (John
10: 30) The Son under his Father’s direction proved himself a “master workman”
and produced other spirit creatures who were given various rank and power and
authority, namely, cherubim, seraphim, and angels.
Cherubim is understood to
mean the office of bearers, that is, of God’s throne; they
are an escort of His throne and uphold His majesty in the throne as the Supreme
Power of the Universe. Hence Jehovah God is addressed, at Psalm 80:1, in this
manner: “Thou that sittest above the cherubim, shine forth.” (A.R.V.) Also Psalm
18:10: "And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly
upon the wings of the wind." Also Psalm 99:1: “Jehovah reigneth; let the
peoples tremble: he sitteth above the cherubim."-A.R.V.
On the lid of the ark of the
covenant which Jehovah commanded Moses to make were two golden representations
of cherubim, one at each end of the mercy seat. But the high priest and people
of Israel were not permitted to worship and adore these cherubic images. To
prevent this, God commanded that, when the ark of the covenant was carried
about from place to place, the entire ark including the cherubim must be
covered over with a cloth that they might not even be visible to the people.
(Exodus 25: 18-22; Numbers 4: 5) Man came in contact with living cherubim early
in human history.-Genesis 3:24; Ezekiel 28:13,14.
Seraphim means fiery or burning ones. The divine
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