Mans salvation out of world distress at hand (1975)
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MAN'S SALVATION OUT OF WORLD DISTRESS AT HAND!
MAN'S SALVATION OUT OF WORLD DISTRESS AT HAND!
A candid consideration in the light of Bible prophecy of what is immediately ahead of this generation of mankind, and Scriptural counsel for dealing with these things for our lasting good.
"Jehovah, be gracious to us; we hope in you; be our arm morning by morning, our salvation withal in time of distress."—Isaiah 33:2, according to The Bible in Living English by S. T. Byington, 1972 edition.
COPYRIGHT, 1975
by
WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY
OF PENNSYLVANIA
FIRST EDITION:
2,500,000 Copies
PUBLISHERS:
WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY
OF NEW YORK, INC.
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
Made in the United States of America
DEDICATED
to the God of those who will pass alive through this world distress into His new order
Abbreviations of Scripture translations quoted or cited in this book
AS - American Standard Version
AV - Authorized Version, or King James Version
ERV - English Revised Version
Je - The Jerusalem Bible (Roman Catholic), English translation
LXX - The Greek Septuagint Version
NE - The New English Bible
NW - New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
NOTE: Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible quotations and references are according to the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, the revised edition of 1971 C.E.
Dates of events before the Common Era are marked by the abbreviation B.C.E. Dates of events during the Common Era are marked by the abbreviation C.E.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER AND TITLE PAGE
The Outlook After Sixty Years of World Distress . . . . .
The Outlook After Sixty Years of World Distress
HOW much more will the present generation of mankind have to take of this world distress that has plagued us since 1914 C.E.? How much more can we take of it without reaching the worst—the end of mankind? Quite a number of us have managed to reach seventy years of age or more. Fewer of us have attained to eighty years of age or more. In times such as these, such an age attainment is very good, according to the age-old saying that set a reasonable time-length for a generation:
2 "The days of our years in this life are seventy years; and if by uncommon vigour they be eighty, yet is their greatness trouble and mishap; for it soon hasten off, and we fly away."*
8During those seven or eight decades of our lives, oh, what we have experienced! For good reason, then, the announcement "Man's salvation out of world distress at hand!" is good news indeed.
4 The big turning point in our conditions of life was the year 1914 C.E. The things since then about which we have to tell younger persons are not things of the dead past about which we read in history books. No, but they have been a part of our own life. We have seen, felt, endured and survived them, and, thankfully, we are alive to tell about them as real facts of this twentieth century.
5 Today we do not have the peaceful outlook for the future that we had back there up till the summer of 1914. A "peaceful outlook" back there—yes, except for those International Bible Students who had been saying since the year 1876 that the Biblical "times of the Gentiles" would run out in the autumn of 1914 and that this would mean unparalleled trouble for the whole world. Why, about two thousand of them were peacefully met together in general convention in the Memorial Hall, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A., on that Sunday of June 28, 1914, when the shot rang out that was heard around the earth, the assassin's shot that triggered World War L*. Till then politicians and especially religious clergymen who claimed to know their Bible
better than those Bible students were inclined to smile at the prediction and brush it off—life in general had been so genial and promising till then.
Besides, did we not have back there the Permanent Court of Arbitration, at The Hague, Netherlands, for the arbitrating of international difficulty peacefully?
World War I was bad enough for us. We saw some new things added to modern warfare—the use of airplanes and the introduction of the armored "tank" moving on a caterpillar tread, as introduced by the British, and poison gas that called for gas masks as part of the regular equipment of a soldier. However, World War II, twenty-one years after the first world war ended, was four times as destructive. It came to a frightening climax with the explosion of two atomic bombs over two populous cities in the Far East. Shortly thereafter came the invention of the hydrogen bomb, with far greater capacity for mass slaughter, and then intercontinental ballistic missiles with warheads to carry such bombs and capable of spanning oceans and arriving at target without advance notice. We well remember the air-raid shelters of World War II. Six nations from East to West are now armed with nuclear bombs, and well into the summer of 1974 test explosions of nuclear bombs were being made in the air over the Pacific Ocean.
The stockpiling of nuclear weapons for missile warfare disquets the whole world. It threatens the existence of all mankind. Compared with the situation in the first half of 1914, the foundations for preventing international warfare short of a third world war, introduced by nuclear bombs, are very shaky indeed. This holds true in 1975 in spite of the existence of the world organization for peace and security, the United Nations with 138 member nations, and the coordinated International Court of Justice, at The Hague.
Well knowing the instability of human relations, international statesmen are grimly working at establishing a "peace for our generation," or, better, "a peace for generations to come." The announcement "Man's salvation out of world distress at hand!" comes not from those statesmen. Peace with endless stability will without fail shortly come to distressed humanity, but not in their way. In a better way!
SURVIVAL OF SCOURGES, FOOD DEARTHS
However, there were other factors that contributed to the world distress. The sickle of Death reaped a tremendous harvest of human lives by means of pestilence, the scourge! Well can we remember the scourge that excelled the Black Plague of the Middle Ages. Toward the end of World War I in 1918 it came like a wave that swept over the whole globe. Because of its place of origin it was called "the Spanish flu." Many of us can remember being laid low with this dread fever and being kept away from our working jobs, but, happily for us, we did not prove to be among the 20,000,000 victims that were prostrated in death. Other pestilences have taken a heavy toll of our generation. For example, now, owing to a society (including religious clergymen) that defies the natural laws for sexual health, loathsome sex diseases have become epidemic, baffling the modern medical profession. Unknown to many, the widespread resort to blood transfusions has resulted in the spread of crippling diseases, fatal in many cases, not to speak of deaths directly caused by this medical practice, still pursued by many.
9 Not alone is world health under attack by pestilences from time to time, in addition to the chronic diseases like malaria, but world health is also being affected by undernourishment on account of food shortages. We vividly remember the devastating famines that resulted from the ravages of international wars, from droughts, from floods, from pests.
Even in the days of good crops by the farming nations, thousands have been poorly fed, or left starving. But today, as never before, the world's breadbasket is threatened. Yearly there are more mouths to feed, by the tens of millions, without more farming land being available or being put under cultivation. The farming population decreases, but the world population increases. In our experience since 1914 C.E., in spite of World War I, pestilence and famine, the world population swelled to 2,000,000,000 in 1930. In just thirty years more, it swarmed up to 3,000,000,000. And now, in just fifteen years, the population growth is reaching four thousand million. So, even world famine shortly is predicted!
10 All of us like to be secure in our persons and property, do we not? When we oldsters were young people back in the first two decades of this twentieth century, life felt more secure; it was more secure. We did not hear much about pollution. We did not know of this thing called "ecology," which has to do with our natural living environment. But now, since some fifteen years ago, we have been hearing more and more insistently about the growing pollution of our natural surroundings upon which the security of our persons, healthwise, depends. Now, to an alarming extent, pollution of the air we breathe, the water depended upon for bodily needs, the soil from which come foodstuffs, also the rivers, lakes and seas that are a source of fish and marine foods, yes, pollution of about every aspect of our natural, life-sustaining environment nears the point of crisis. The damage already done has gone too far to be counteracted within our generation. The way in which our modern industrialized, commercialized, mobilized, concentrated society has been living for decades is to blame for this recent threat to human existence.
11 Little do most people think of security for their vital natural environment. They are far more aware of their need for physical security and security of properties. We remember the statement of one authoritative voice not so many years ago, that, at the current rate of crime increase, the world would become too dangerous a place in which to live. More and more people are coming to think that we have reached that state of affairs now. One big reason for this is not hard to find. Historians agree that with the engaging in world war with total mobilization in 1914 an age of violence was introduced on the earth. The rise of unprincipled dictators and the six years of World War II with aggravated violence and terror have spread and intensified the spirit of violence. What people learned during wartime they carry over into peacetime. The violent, lawless elements resort to the latest types of weapons, such as machine guns, bombs, as well as unbridled rioting accompanied by looting and wanton destruction of valuable properties.
12 In the lands that, according to what they religiously claim to be, should be models of right conduct and conscientious respect for law and order, namely, in the lands of Christendom, we have observed the worst offenders against moral law and security of others. Why, today Christendom estimates it has more than a quarter of the world's population as members of its churches, and these people are supposed to be examples of Christian living to the so-called "pagan" world. But, in fact, pagandom has learned many bad things from Christendom. Pagandom does not forget that two world wars started in Christendom, that in her the nuclear bomb was developed, and that in her is the birthplace of international Communism. "Pagans" have not been impressed very much by the "Christianity" of Christendom.
According to the Holy Bible of Christendom, her church members are more pagan than the unbelieving pagans themselves!
13 Love of fellowman is becoming a scarce article nowadays. Even some of the popular songs have taken up the theme of love—about What the world needs is more love, and about liking to teach the world to love. As the world distress grows more poignant and the need for self-preservation becomes more acute, inborn human selfishness is bound to rise above any remaining traces of love of fellow humans and to seek primarily physical, material comfort of oneself. For the most part, the adhesive, unifying force of sincere love is gone. What wonder that there is so much rivalry, contentiousness, prejudice, resentment, covetousness, greed, cheating, stealing, taking advantage of others today! And if there is lack of love for fellowman, whom human creatures can see and have contact with directly, how can there be love for the One whom Christendom claims to worship, God, the Creator of man in His image? So, with the loss of the love of fellowman, the love of God has cooled off. Religious hypocrisy takes the ascendancy!
WHAT IT ALL ADDS UP TO AT THIS LATE DATE
14 What does all of this, which we oldsters have observed personally since 1914, total up to as three quarters of this twentieth century closes? Does it add evidence that, after sixty years of acquaintance with world distress, man has learned by experience and now knows how to adjust himself to the distress of nations? Does it add convincing evidence that man is able to solve his problems by himself? Not that we intelligent observers in our seventies and eighties can see. And man himself has come to realize that hard fact. So, when problems are not worked out, then what?
Failure! Man cannot encourage himself with the old slogan, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!" The problem at which to try again does not remain the same. It becomes worse! Harder! The question is forced on us, How long will man continue to fail, to the endangerment of his own existence?
15 Where is man to turn for salvation from the disastrous problems of his own making? Materialistic men, believers in the theory of man's self-evolution, see only man to whom to turn. Will such men turn to the once-popular traditional religions that have long been practiced in the temples, mosques, cathedrals and church buildings? For example, Will Russian Communism turn back to the Russian Orthodox religion that it overthrew in 1917 and give up its dictum that "religion is the opium of the people"? Since disestablishing the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Soviet Union has used what remains of that church system as a mere handmaid of the State, and this weak religious tool has provided no solution for the problems of Communist Russia.
18 In other parts of Christendom outside Communist lands, will the politicians and scientists turn to the religious clergymen, Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, for salvation? These clergymen the State has used as chaplains in its fighting forces and as "men of God" to invoke the divine blessing upon their lawmaking bodies. These religious clergymen, although they have turned from a purely religious Gospel to a social, materialistic Gospel, have come up with no solutions to world problems. Will Communist Red China, now engaged in war on Confucianism, feel obliged at length to go back to dead Confucius for aid? Also, in other lands that still have a large non-Christian religious organization, will the politicians and rulers of state keep turning to their priests whose religions have till now offered no explanation of the present world distress and so cannot show the way out of it?
17 Many are the political leaders and the economic guides who have found their long-held religions disappointing. They have even lost faith in such. Will they now call for a religious revival as the last resort and act as the ancient proverb has said: "The dog has returned to its own vomit"?*
18 Such a thing is hardly to be expected! Common sense and reason do not argue for such a thing. The faith of those worldly men in what is superhuman, in what is spiritual, has been weakened, or worse, destroyed. Under such circumstances they feel left to only human resources. When, at last, all human resources fall them, they will be at their wits' end!
19 Surely it is now the time to ask ourselves, Do we want to be among such perplexed men when they are reduced to desperation? They will not turn from the course of fighting against their own interests, unfortunately to the endangerment of the eternal interests of everybody else! Will we let ourselves be induced to go along with them? We do not have to do so. On the very best of authority it can confidently be announced, 'Man's salvation out of world distress is at hand!' We have somewhere to turn, without becoming liable to disappointment, frustration, destruction. The increasing stress of the times makes it urgent upon us to be teachable and to inform ourselves where to turn in the hope of complete satisfaction.
The Reliable Commentator on This World Distress
THE world distress that man has experienced without letup since 1914 C.E. must have a meaning. Is it left for man himself to figure out its meaning? What is the reason for it, and for it to persist so long? As it had a beginning, so it must have an end, but how will it end? Who has the right, the authority, to say that man will be saved out of it? And that this salvation is at hand? The person able to comment on man's present world distress with answers to these vital questions would have to be an extraordinary person. None of us oldsters who have gone through all this world distress since its inception in 1914 will claim to be that person, even with all the observations each one of us has made and the experience that we have gained. Rather, we prefer to point all men to that qualified person.
2 Many predictions have been made concerning future times by men and women, by spiritists or fortune-tellers, for example, but of what benefit are such predictions to us as world distress threatens to reach a climax that we do not like to think about?
8 The foreteller of events whom we would like to consult today, right now, would be the one that has proved to be correct in predicting events and conditions that affect us now at this stage of world distress. Since he proved himself true with regard to what has happened till now, he can be relied upon as being true in what he foretells as being just ahead of us. His prediction of man's salvation out of this world distress is something upon which we can confidently base our hopes and plans for the future.
4 We here desire to refer to such a trustworthy person. He was not out to deceive people. He was born into our race as a man. Thus he came to sense man's problems keenly, firsthand. Today all mankind is concerned about what is going on in the Middle East. Mankind knows that the two nuclear-equipped superpowers are involved in what goes on in that sector of the earth. Likewise, the aforementioned man of reliable prophetic ability was keenly interested in the course of events in the Middle East, during the first century of our Common Era. What was to take place there was to set a pattern for the course of world events since the critical year of 1914 C.E. So what he had to predict interests us today.
It was on the eleventh day of the spring month that was then locally called Nisan, in the year 33 C.E. At the time when a prophecy that deserves world attention was to be forthcoming, the prophet sat upon what is still called the Mount of Olives, which rears itself up to the east of that controversial city, Jerusalem. As he looked down upon the eastern section of the city he did not see on the sacred area of the city the Mohammedan mosque of today, called the Dome of the Rock. He saw a religious structure built by a non-Jew, the Edomitish king called Herod the Great. It was a gorgeous temple to the God to whose worship Herod and his family had become proselytes. Outside the northwest section of the temple area was the Tower of Antonia, where occupation troops representing the Roman Empire were quartered. Earlier on that day of Nisan 11 and while the prophet was down in the city and at the temple, he predicted the destruction of that awe-inspiring temple, within that generation. This to the consternation of twelve intimate men who were accompanying him then.
He also intimated that he himself was going away and would return, when he said: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! Your house is abandoned to you. For I say to you, You will by no means see me from henceforth until you say, 'Blessed is he that comes in Jehovah's name!'"*
7 When, shortly afterward that same day, this man made further prediction about the destruction of that "house" or temple, he did not predict also the rebuilding of that temple. He gave no prophecy that such a thing would ever occur. It is not strange, therefore, that today, nineteen hundred years after the destruc-
tion of Herod's temple, the Mohammedan "Dome of the Rock" stands upon the location of the former Jewish sanctuary.
After the destruction of the Jewish temple in the first century C.E., no further temple of stone and wood would ever again be needed there on Mount Moriah of Jerusalem for the worship of Jehovah. The Jerusalem temple of that day was then in its "time of the end." So it would not be to any such material "house" or temple that the prophet then taking his farewell would be welcomed back by people with the jubilant outcry: "Blessed is he that comes in Jehovah's name!" Obviously, the close of an era, the end of a national system of things, was in the offing! It proved to be so!
A PREDICTION TO BE VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN EVENTS
*The man that sat there on the Mount of Olives on that Tuesday, Nisan 11, 33 C.E., looked down upon the then holy city of Jerusalem and its temple with more than a feeling of sheer admiration at the beauty of the sight. His twelve intimate associates were greatly disturbed at what they had heard him say. One of those men, named Matthew Levi, has recorded the triple question that was put to that man with confidence in his prophetic ability to give the reliable answers. Are we today, like those men back there, aware that we also are close to the end of an era, to what promises to be the disastrous end of a system of things? If so, then we should be interested in what they asked the man who qualified as a prophet. They asked: "Tell us, When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?"—Matthew 24:3.
<sup>9</sup> By this inquiry the questioners were asking for prophetic information about the destruction of Jerusalem, which, because of its temple, was considered "a holy place," "the holy city."
(Matthew 24:15; 4:5) Preoccupied as we are today with the pressing problems of a crumbling world, some persons might exclaim: "Oh, just a city in a small country of the world destroyed! Of what consequence to me is that?" So it might seem to some, but—what if, shortly, Vatican City, which occupies 108.7 acres of modern Italy, were violently destroyed? Would that be of little concern, little consequence to hundreds of millions of religious people throughout the earth today? Would such desolation of Vatican City arouse in other millions dread forebodings for other politico-religious organizations with which they are connected and about which they have awe-inspiring views? Likewise, if something that is the modern-day counterpart of that Jerusalem of the first century C.E. ends in a violent way, it will directly affect at least a quarter of the present world's population! It will also forebodingly indicate something as imminent for other hundreds of millions!
10 Back there, as the inquiring men listened to the "answer man," they had their times in mind. And we today, as we listen in on the answer given to their inquiry, can have our times in mind. To get the proper appreciation of the prophetic answer, we should have in mind the modern-day parallels and counterparts, inasmuch as such things do really exist. As we now read just twenty verses out of the lengthy answer given, let us see whether we of ourselves can see some of the modern-day parallels and counterparts. We shall read from the records made by Matthew Levi and the medical doctor Luke:
PROPHETIC ANSWER
11 'Look out that nobody misleads you; for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. You are going to hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not terrified.
For these things must take place, but the end is not yet. [Why not?]
12 "For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another [and in one place after another pestilences (Luke 21:11)]. All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress.
10 Then people will deliver you up to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name. Then, also, many will be stumbled and will betray one another and will hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and mislead many; and because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off. But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved. And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.
14 "Therefore, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, (let the reader use discernment,) then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains. Let the man on the housetop not come down to take the goods out of his house; and let the man in the field not return to the house to pick up his outer garment. Woe to the pregnant women and those suckling a baby in those days! Keep praying that your flight may not occur in wintertime, nor on the sabbath day; for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world's beginning until now, no, no will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short."—Matthew 24:4-22.
15 "They will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."—Luke 21:24, The American Revised Standard Version Bible.
PARALLEL SIGNIFICANCE TODAY!
10 In agreement with that prophetic statement that "Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled," the predictor of the world distress carried on his prophecy much farther, even with definite reference to our own twentieth century. No part of the question back there was. "What
asked back there was, "What will be the sign . . . of the conclusion
of the system of things," the predicted things that reached a high point in the desolation of Jerusalem and the province of Judea in the year 70 C.E. marked the calamitous end of the then system of things, a system that revolved around the "holy place," "the holy city," Jerusalem.
17 Parallelwise, what turning point in history shall we reasonably say is marked by those things that we oldsters of this generation have seen occur on a global scale since 1914 C.E., that year which those International Bible Students had been declaring since 1876 C.E.
would seal the end of the "times of the Gentiles"?
18 We would be blinding ourselves to the ominous "sign" if we did not discern that the end of the global system of things is marked by such things occurring since 1914 C.E. From that never-to-be-forgotten year onward this world system of things can be impeached before all humanity for the most gory wars of all human history, for food shortages humanly induced to a large extent, for pestilences traceable to human misconduct, for increase of lawlessness, for the cooling off of the divine quality of love, for betrayal of mankind, for outright hatred and persecution in all the nations toward those Christians who were counteracting false prophets by preaching in all the inhabited earth "this good news of the kingdom" for a "witness to all the nations!"
10 This system of things stands guilty according to all those articles of impeachment. All those articles of impeachment are provable by the historical records kept since 1914 C.E. The Highest Court of the Universe is aware of all of this, and this global system of things is answerable to that Supreme Court. Accordingly this Court is left to but one decision to render. Its decision must be consistent with that which it pronounced in the year 70 C.E. on the system of things that had synagogues both inside and outside the Roman Empire. The Court's consistent decision for today must be for the end of this global system of things in the "great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world's beginning until now, no, nor will occur again." Matthew 24:21.
20 This is the tribulation that will end the world distress, for it comes according to the judicial decision of the Highest Court of the Universe against this global system of things that has caused so much distress for all mankind. Since the year 1914 this system of things has been undergoing "pangs of distress," which pangs will cease only with the painful death of the system. The outlook is mournful indeed for the system of things and for those who are selfishly wrapped up in it. But we do not need to have their outlook; we do not need to mourn. We know that it is only in one respect that the "sign" appearing since 1914 means "the conclusion of the system of things," but we note another significance, an accompanying significance, to that "sign." What the important side effect of this "sign" would be, the first-century prophet on the world distress indicated when he said to his listeners:
21 "Note the fig tree and all the other trees: When they are already in the bud, by observing it you know for yourselves that now the summer is near. In this way you also, when you see these things occurring, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you, This generation will by no means pass away until all things occur. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away."—Luke 21:29-33.
22 That is it! Not only would the "sign" mean the "conclusion of the system of things" in "pangs of distress," but the calamitous things that combine to make up this "sign" would indirectly indicate that the "kingdom of God," welcome like summer in the Middle East, was near. What wonder, then, that the commentator on world distress had said just before this in his prophecy: "But as these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near!"
(Luke 21:28) More than sixty years ago we saw these things start to occur from 1914 onward, and we of this twentieth century, rather than those men of the first century, are the ones that have the strongest of reasons to raise ourselves up out of a dejected posture and lift our heads up with radiant faces. Our deliverance has drawn near, is now nearer than ever before. Yes, "the kingdom of God is near"!
23 There is solid basis for announcing that 'Man's salvation out of world distress is at hand.' In saying this we are not attaching any false meaning to the "pangs of distress" that have been racking the whole system of things since 1914 C.E. These things were foretold nineteen centuries ago in answer to a specific question on what to look for that would indicate a certain thing or set of things. Hence, the things foretold, on coming true, have this certain meaning. In this way the man who foretold them has proved himself to be a reliable commentator on the world distress. He can therefore be considered most reliable in predicting also a salvation of some of mankind alive out of this worsening world distress so as to enjoy on earth the blessings of God's kingdom. This is the government that will bring in a joy-laden righteous new system of things.
24 The man with whose prophecy we have here been dealing said that his disciples would become "objects of hatred by all the nations" on account of his name. (Matthew 24:9) This meant that he himself would be hated, and that anything to which his name was attached would also be hated or discredited. We have thus far let his prophecy go nameless, that the prophecy might speak for itself.
For the time being we have avoided causing any favorable or unfavorable reflection to be cast upon the prophecy by naming the source of the prophecy. The point has been, when viewed objectively, has the prophecy proved true or not? Is the prophet, regardless of his name, proved true or false? Prejudice against a person's name or identity should not sway us in our judgment of truth or falsehood. In the light of the facts, both of the first century and of our twentieth century, the prophecy is proved true. So, in all fairness, it must be said that Jesus Christ was a true prophet of God and a reliable commentator on the world distress. We do ourselves harm in not heeding what he has said.
25 In this time of world perplexity with politicians not knowing which way to turn and the clergymen of Christendom not having any relevant message for the people, it will do us good to remember that the aforementioned prophet is not a dead person of the past. He is a living person of today! Yes, and highly interested in the fulfillment of his own inspired prophecy! His life on earth nineteen hundred years ago was a marked life. It had been foretold, in its vitally important aspects, in the inspired Hebrew Scriptures, in order to identify who the Messiah from God was. Inasmuch as the Messianic prophecies of those Hebrew Scriptures were fulfilled in this Jesus, the descendant of the patriarch Abraham and of King David of Jerusalem, he was proved beyond doubt to be the Messiah or the Christ. In harmony with the inspired Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus Christ foretold his own violent death and his resurrection from the dead on the third day of his death. He, as well as the Hebrew Scriptures, proved to be absolutely true in these regards. That is why he lives today, nineteen centuries later! Psalm 110:1-4 foretold his glorification to God's right hand!
20 It is of no use for us today, almost two thousand years later, to quibble about whether this Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the third day. We have Jewish witnesses to that fact, not just the two or three witnesses required by the Mosaic Law, but "upward of five hundred" Jews who saw him at one time, on one occasion, before he ascended to God's right hand forty days after his resurrection. (1 Corinthians 15:3-6) We have today, in thousands of handwritten copies, the written testimony of seven of these eye-witnesses of his resurrection, namely, Matthew Levi, John Mark, John the son of Zebedee, Peter the son of Jonah (John), James and Jude, both half brothers of Jesus Christ, and Saul of Tarsus, who was surnamed Paul. Their testimony is contained in the inspired Christian Greek Scriptures.
27 The fact of the matter is that the twenty-seven books of those inspired Greek Scriptures would never have been written if Jesus Christ had not been raised from the dead and thereafter glorified with Jehovah God in the heavens. Furthermore, the inspired Hebrew Scriptures, from the writings of Moses down to the prophecy of Malachi, would have fallen flat to this day if Jesus Christ had not been resurrected from the dead by the almighty power of Jehovah God. (Luke 24:44-48; Revelation 19:10) The eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus Christ were willing to stake their lives upon the actuality of his resurrection. Stephen of Jerusalem suffered stoning to death for testifying to the Messiah's resurrection. James the brother of the apostle John was put to death by the sword by King Herod Agrippa I of Jerusalem. The apostle John was sentenced to exile on the penal island of Patmos by Rome's decree for testifying to Messiah's resurrection.
28 And what about that former Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, who was surnamed Paul? In synagogue after synagogue in Palestine, Asia Minor and Greece, he testified to his fellow Jews regarding the resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus. Before the pagan Greek judges of the Court of the Areopagus in Athens, Greece, he was bold enough to give like testimony. From the staircase of the Tower of Antonia he faithfully bore testimony to a Jewish mob that had tried to tear him to pieces in the temple courtyard of Jerusalem. To the doctrinally divided Sanhedrin Court of that holy city, he said: "I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. Over the hope of resurrection of the dead I am being judged." (Acts 23:6) To successive Roman governors of Judea, Felix and Festus, he emphasized the resurrection hope that was based on Messiah's own resurrection. Later, Paul's graphic testimony about his miraculous encounter with the resurrected Jesus caused faithless Governor Festus to cry out: "You are going mad, Paul! Great learning is driving you into madness!" Then, when the guest of Festus was questioned by Paul about his faith, the Jewish proselyte, King Herod Agrippa II, said:
28 "In a short time you would persuade me to become a Christian."—Acts 26:24, 28.
The fact of the matter is, that, if the Messiah Jesus were not raised from the dead to heavenly life, there would be no future "resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous." (Acts 24:15) So much depended upon Messiah's resurrection, and the apostle Paul had suffered so much persecution for preaching it, that if Paul were a liar, then, as he wrote: "In fact, also, those who fell asleep in death in union with Christ perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied."
(1 Corinthians 15:18, 19) So, too, with our generation in this twentieth century. After all that we have gone through since 1914, our generation would be, of all generations, the "most to be pitied."
31 Think of it, though! Worthy ones of this generation of mankind will be saved alive out of the rest of this world distress so as to survive the worst of it and enter into God's Messianic new system of things and not need a resurrection from the dead to life here on earth! This is a valid hope well founded on what was said by Jesus Christ in his prophecy on the "sign of [his] presence and of the conclusion of the system of things." (Matthew 24:3) But our being thus spared alive through the rest of the world distress under God's protection will mean that we shall yet have to pass through stirring events and trying situations. These we do well to consider now according to Bible prophecy, that we may know better how to react when we encounter these foretold things.
A Transformed Messiah with Whom Politicians Must Cope
IN THE near future the political rulers of all nations and peoples will have to decide in a final way what to do about the Messiah. Near the middle of the first century of our Common Era this Messiah, Jesus the Descendant of King David, had direct encounters with a couple of worldly political rulers. King Herod Antipas of Galilee discredited Jesus as being the Messiah and made fun of him in the courtroom and sent him back to the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, for final trial. Governor Pilate, representing Emperor Tiberius of Rome, yielded to pressure from an anti-Messianic mob and sentenced Jesus to die by being nailed to a stake as a criminal slave. (Luke 23:1:25) But today the political rulers have a Messiah with whom to cope, far different from the self-sacrificing Messiah of the year 33 C.E.
2 Political rulers, especially those of Christendom, are more or less familiar with the Gospel accounts of the earthly life of Jesus Christ. Likely the most familiar mental picture that they have of him is that presented by many religious artists, that of a Jesus with drawn facial features beneath a crown of thorns, nailed hand and foot to a cross. Little, or, rather, not at all, do the political rulers of today count on having a confrontation with Jesus Christ as a mighty heavenly King all equipped to fight with his earthly enemies. To their utter amazement, it will be a transformed Messiah whom they will have to confront shortly.
2 This amazing transformation of the Messiah in his position and also what he is commissioned to do officially were foretold in the prophecy of Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12. It is now timely to examine that particular prophecy and also the facts that show how the prophecy has worked out. This is of importance to us today.
4 After Isaiah, chapter 52, tells of the release of the Jews from decades of exile in the foreign land of Babylon in the Mesopotamian valley, verse 13 makes an abrupt turn in what is considered. Note how the closing verses of the chapter read:
"Look! My servant will act with insight. He will be in high station and will certainly be elevated and exalted very much. To the extent that many have stared at him in amazement—so much was the disfigurement as respects his appearance more than that of any other man and as respects his stately form more than that of the sons of mankind—he will likewise startle many nations. At him kings will shut their mouth, because what had not been recounted to them they will actually see, and to what they had not heard they must turn their consideration."—Isaiah 52:13-15.
"Who is it that Jehovah God here speaks of prophetically as "my servant"? Orthodox Jewish opinion is that it is not an individual. The footnote on this in the book of Isaiah, by Dr. I. W. Slotki, M.A., LITT.D., published by The Soncino Press in 1949, reads: "The servant is the ideal Israel or the faithful remnant. That he is not an individual is the opinion of all Jewish and most modern non-Jewish commentators. Whatever causes may have tended to stimulate the advocacy of this form of interpretation (viz. the Christological), it is important for Christian exegetes to recognize that this path of Jewish exposition is in the main right, and that the path of Christian interpreters down to the time of Rosenmüller (i.e.
1820) has been in the main wrong'. (Whitehouse)." But is such "path of Jewish exposition" right?
In considering the above-expressed Jewish opinion as to the identity of "my servant," we are obliged to ask, Who today or where today is what Dr. Slotki calls "the ideal Israel"? Is it to be found in this generation of natural Jews that has survived the regime of the Nazi dictator Hitler in Europe and Communist oppressions and that yet number some 14,443,925? Do we find the "ideal Israel" or that "servant" of the Most High God in the present-day Republic of Israel, particularly its Jewish population that controls the political government? What Jew, either of the Orthodox religious section or of the Reform religious section, sees in all Jewry or any part of Jewry today "the ideal Israel," over 2,700 years after the giving of the prophecy of Isaiah? So they have no proof at all that the "servant" of Isalah's prophecy is the "ideal Israel" made up of natural Jews.
If we desire to identify the true "ideal Israel," we can find the inspired description of it in the Revelation that was received by the former Jewish fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, John the son of Zebedee, when John was suffering exile and imprisonment on the Roman penal isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. The evidence is that this Revelation was given to John after the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans in the year 70 C.E. This was after the burning of Rome by Emperor Nero, which led to persecution of the falsely accused Christians. In one of the revelatory visions John saw and heard an angel say to the four angels that were holding back the stormy winds of the earth: "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until after we have sealed the slaves of our God in their foreheads" (Revelation 7:1-3) Then John proceeds to write:
And I heard the number of those who were sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel:
Out of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand sealed;
out of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand;
out of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand;
out of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand;
out of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand;
out of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand;
out of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand;
out of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand;
out of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand;
out of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand;
out of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand;
out of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand sealed.
—Revelation 7:4-8.
The number of those sealed Israelites is certainly an ideal number, that is to say, twelve times twelve thousand, or one hundred and forty-four thousand, a perfectly balanced number. But what makes them an "ideal Israel" is not entirely their number, but, rather, their moral, religious qualities. In an inspired comment on those qualities, John writes:
10 "And I saw, and, look! the Lamb standing upon the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound out of heaven as the sound of many waters and as the sound of loud thunder; and the sound that I heard was as of singers who accompany themselves on the harp playing on their harps. And they are singing as if a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one was able to master that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been bought from the earth. These are the ones that did not defile themselves with women; in fact, they are virgins. These are the ones that keep following the Lamb no matter where he goes. These were bought from among mankind as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, and no falsehood was found in their mouths; they are without blemish."—Revelation 14:1-5.
11 These are spiritual Israelites, those who have done what the prophet Moses told the ancient nation of Israel to do: "You must circumcise the foreskin of your hearts and not harden your necks any longer." Also: "Jehovah your God will have to circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, that you may love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul for the sake of your life." (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6) Even if some of these spiritual Israelites were Jews naturally, they must have the circumcision of the heart and be Jews inwardly like all the rest of spiritual Israel. (Romans 2:28, 29) Even the one whom they follow, "the Lamb," Jesus Christ, became a spiritual Israelite, when he was anointed with God's spirit right after being baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.—Matthew 3:13-17.
12 That the "ideal Israel" is, in fact, the spiritual Israel is illustrated further in Revelation 21:2, 9-14. There the twelve tribes of Israel, composed of the 144,000 sealed "slaves of our God," are likened to the New Jerusalem, "the bride, the Lamb's wife." Concerning this heavenly, spiritual New Jerusalem, it is written: "He showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God and having the glory of God. Its radiance was like a most precious stone, as a jasper stone shining crystal-clear. It had a great and lofty wall and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names were inscribed which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. On the east were three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. The wall of the city also had twelve foundation stones, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."
13 Natural, fleshy Israel was founded upon the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob, but it is the spiritual Israel, the Christian Israel, that is founded on the twelve apostles of the Lamb Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2:20) So, without question, it is this spiritual Israel that is "the ideal Israel." But that by no means proves that it is the "servant" described in chapter fifty-three of Isaiah's prophecy.
INSPIRED IDENTIFICATION OF 'MY SERVANT'
14 So, then, who exactly is the one to whom God refers as "my servant," not only in Isaiah 52:13 but also in Isaiah 53:11? Instead of taking the opinions of such men as Dr. I. W. Slotki of 1949 C.E. and of the German Orientalist Ernst F. K. Rosenmüller of 1820 C.E., we shall be left in no uncertainty by taking the identification of "my servant" as given in the inspired Holy Scriptures. This interpretation of God's words, "my servant," was given to a Jewish proselyte, an Ethiopian, who had gone up to Jerusalem of the first century C.E. to worship at the temple there. The inspired account of the incident reads:
18 "Jehovah's angel spoke to Philip, saying: 'Rise and go to the south to the road that runs down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' (This is a desert road.) With that he rose and went, and look! an Ethiopian eunuch, a man in power under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, and who was over all her treasure. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, but he was returning and was sitting in his chariot and reading aloud the prophet Isaiah. So the spirit said to Philip: 'Approach and join yourself to this chariot.' Philip ran alongside and heard him reading aloud Isaiah the prophet, and he said: 'Do you actually know what you are reading?' He said: 'Really, how could I ever do so, unless someone guided me?'
And he entreated Philip to get on and sit down with him. Now the passage of Scripture that he was reading aloud was this: 'As a sheep he was brought to the slaughter, and as a lamb that is voiceless before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. During his humiliation the judgment was taken away from him. Who will tell the details of his generation? Because his life is taken away from the earth.'
18 "In answer the eunuch said to Philip: 'I beg you, About whom does the prophet say this? About himself or about some other man?' Philip opened his mouth and, starting with this Scripture, he declared to him the good news about Jesus. Now as they were going over the road, they came to a certain body of water, and the eunuch said: 'Look! A body of water; what
prevents me from getting baptized? With that he commanded the chariot to halt, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. When they had come up out of the water, Jehovah's spirit quickly led Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him anymore, for he kept going on his way rejoicing. But
Philip explains Isaiah's prophecy to an Ethiopian eunuch Philip was found to be in Ashdod, and he went through the territory and kept on declaring the good news to all the cities until he got to Caesarea."—Acts 8:26-40.
17 The Scripture passage that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading aloud is today numbered as the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, verses seven and eight. This has reference to the one whom God calls "my servant," in Isaiah 52:13; 53:11. The Jews in the temple at Jerusalem had not pointed out to this Ethiopian convert to Judaism just who that "servant" was. Who, then, was Scripturally qualified to identify that "servant" for the Ethiopian eunuch back there about 34 C.E. and for us today? Certainly it was Philip, "the evangelizer," whom Jehovah's angel had directed to the chariot of this Ethiopian Bible student. And who did this Philip say that the "servant" was? It must have been Jesus Christ, for Acts 8:35 says: "Starting with this Scripture, he [Philip] declared to him the good news about Jesus." It is true that this Jesus is the heavenly Head of the spiritual Israel, but Philip did not apply the Isaian prophecy about Jehovah's "servant" to the congregation of spiritual Israelites but applied it only to the Head, Jesus Christ.—Acts 21:8; Colossians 1:18.
18 Philip was not alone in making this application of the prophecy. Other inspired writers made the same application, as we shall see. With this correct identification of this particular "servant" of Jehovah, we can proceed to examine the prophecy in detail. This will help us to appreciate more the Messiah with whom worldly politicians will have to deal in the near future.
19 If we omit that latter part of verse fourteen, which is between dashes because of being a parenthetical thought and comment, the prophecy opens up, saying: "Look!
My servant will act with insight. He will be in high station and will certainly be elevated and exalted very much. To the extent that many have stared at him in amazement . . . he will likewise startle many nations. At him kings will shut their mouth, because what had not been recounted to them they will actually see, and to what they had not heard they must turn their consideration." -Isaiah 52:13-15.
20 Does that not sound as though the fulfillment of this prophecy would affect all the politicians of this twentieth century? There can be no question about that! A transformed Messiah is what the nations and their political rulers will have to deal with in the near future, a Messiah different in his position and commission from the Messiah with whom the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Gentile nations and King Herod Antipas and Roman Governor Pontius Pilate dealt in the year 33 C.E. Back there Jesus the Messiah did "act with insight" into the Bible prophecies that applied to him, to guide him into doing the will of Jehovah God. Since his resurrection from the dead and later his ascension to heaven, he has come to be "in high station." Has he been "elevated and exalted very much"? As an answer we can take what the Christian apostle Peter said to thousands of Jews who were celebrating the festival day of Pentecost ten days after Peter saw Jesus Christ ascend heaven:
23 "Actually David did not ascend to the heavens, but he himself says, 'Jehovah said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet."' Therefore let all the house of Israel know for a certainty that God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom impaled."—Acts 2:34-36.
22 Years later, in an inspired letter, Peter wrote: "He is at God's right hand, for he went his way to heaven; and angels and authorities and powers were made subject to him."
(1 Peter 3:22) Concerning the highness of the elevation and exaltation of Jesus the Messiah, the apostle Paul wrote: "He humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, yes, death on a torture stake. For this very reason also God exalted him to a superior position and kindly gave him the name that is above every other name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the ground, and every tongue should openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." —Philippians 2:8-11.
23 What effect should all of this have upon the position of the politicians of this world? Not for a moment should anybody think that the elevating and exalting of Jehovah's "Servant," Jesus Christ, very high, in fulfillment of Isaiah 52:13, would be without effect upon earthly nations and their political rulers! The politicians should not shrug off the matter and say: 'Jesus Christ has been exalted to heaven, has he? So what?' They should not take the attitude that, 'Now since he is in heaven, he is out of our way. And let him take care of things up in heaven, while we take care of things down here on earth; this is our responsibility. We are not going to hear from him again as to how we rule the earth!'
24 A political attitude such as that is absolutely wrongly based. The elevating and exalting of Jehovah's "Servant" very high will have the most serious consequences for them and their continuing in earthly office. They must remember that, when Jesus Christ ascended back to Jehovah God in heaven, he did so still in possession of the right and title to the royal government of King David over all the land in Palestine that was promised to his forefathers Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob...Luke 1:31-33; 2 Samuel 7:11-16; 1 Chronicles 17:10-14; Luke 22:29; 3 Psalm 89:27-37.
25 Moreover, he ascended firmly in possession of the value of his human sacrifice by means of which he could buy all the human family that descended from Adam and Eve. (1 Timothy 2:5, 6) Presenting the merit of his ransom sacrifice to God in heaven, he bought back the human family that had been sold under sin, condemnation and its penalty death. (Hebrews 9:24-28; Matthew 20:28) Consequently, the common people over whom all the politicians rule belong to Jehovah's "Servant," Jesus Christ, by right of purchase, and politicians do have to settle with him as to how they rule.
26 Especially today, in this critical period of human history, let us not forget or discount that Jesus Christ the royal Descendant of David has certain established legal rights with respect to this earth. These were not to be set aside forever without being acted upon. National governments and their political rulers were to be granted only a fixed, limited period of time during which to exercise political control over the earth. A "time of the end" was fixed by Jehovah God for man-made governments and their kings, emperors, presidents, shahs, sheikhs and other governors. The 2,520 years that began counting from the first desolation of Jerusalem, in 607 B.C.E., and that are called "the times of the Gentiles" ran out in the autumn of 1914 C.E. Since that date the man-made governments on earth have been in their "time of the end." Their end is now in sight.—Luke 21:24; Daniel 12:4.
27 In contrast with that, the time of waiting at God's right hand in heaven ended for the "Servant," Jesus Christ, in that autumn of 1914 C.E. (Psalm 110:1, 2; Hebrews 10:12, 13) For him the year 1914 marked the commencement of a 'time of beginning' in the active exercise of his kingly rights.
Then, right on time, the Messianic kingdom of God was born in the heavens, too high above the feet of the Gentiles for them to trample upon in defiance of God. (Revelation 12:1-5; Luke 21:24; Ezekiel 21:25-27) The time then came for the newly enthroned King, Jesus the Messiah, to act upon the prophetic invitation contained in Psalm 2:8, 9: "Ask of me, that I may give nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your own possession. You will break them with an iron scepter, as though a potter's vessel you will dash them to pieces."—Revelation 2:27; 12:5; Daniel 2:44.
AMAZEMENT OF POLITICIANS
28 In the light of those prophetic statements of Jehovah concerning his "Servant," it will indeed be a transformed Messiah with whom all the politicians of earth will have to deal in the near future. The transformation will be so great as to amaze them. When the final confrontation between them and him comes shortly, they will 'stare at him in amazement.' Not that they will literally see him with the naked eye, but they will see the visible evidences of his power as a Battler for Jehovah God and they will know that these evidences are from this elevated, exalted Messiah. This will be far different from the way in which the clergy of Christendom have played Jesus Christ up.
29 By their crucifixes and their church Masses the clergy of Christendom have caused the political element of the world to view Jesus Christ as a bedraggled figure. They claim that at his ascending to heaven he even took along with him the human body in which he was nailed to the stake, still bearing the scratches of the crown of thorns in his forehead and the gory nail holes in his hands and feet and the spear gash in his side.
True, Jesus Christ did suffer an excruciatingly painful and disgraceful death, for certain reasons. But before that, he was discredited, grossly misrepresented, accused of being a lawbreaker, a Sabbath violator, mad, possessed of a demon, a blasphemer, a false Christ, a deceiver, a menace to the Jewish nation, a seditionist against pagan Rome. Certainly his reputation was distorted, the image of him that was painted by his false accusers was altogether disfigured; and it is in this sense in particular that Isaiah 52:14 is to be understood:
"So much was the disfigurement as respects his appearance more than that of any other man and as respects his stately form more than that of the sons of mankind."
81 The discrediting, maligning and misrepresenting of Jesus Christ in absentia has continued to this very day. But today, nineteen hundred years later, he is no longer a "baby Jesus" (bambino Gessu); he is no longer a 'suffering Servant' upon earth, nonresistant to his malicious enemies. He is now the elevated, exalted "Servant," the accredited Messiah of God. Whatever the politicians under the misguidance of their religious clergy may have said against Jehovah's "Servant" and in defiance of him, they will cease to be so loudmouthed in saying words of contempt when they confront the once-humiliated "servant" in the coming test of power over the question. Who shall rule the earth? For then the politicians will actually see the exhibition of what their religious clergy have not recounted to them; they will be forced to turn their consideration to what they had not heard in warning from their highly respected religious leaders. As Isaiah 52:15 says: 32 "He will likewise startle many nations.
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