The Watchtower, July 15, 1936
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“JEHOVAH’S PRAISE” TESTIMONY
The midsummer testimony period, August 1-9, is designated “Jehovah’s Praise”. This will be an excellent time for as many as can to arrange to take their vacation, thereby to be able to devote as much time as possible to this privilege than which none is higher or grander, Jehovah’s praise. That all his devoted ones may begin at once to plan and arrange therefor it is here stated that the feature of this testimony period will be the offering bound in a special wrapper Books One, Two and Three of Vindication, on contribution of 50c. Vindication, with its full statement on the work of ‘the man with the inkhorn’ and the Jehu-Jonadab picture, etc., should prove excellent material to place following the recent wide distribution of the book Riches. It will also be proper to offer in combination with the above three books the two books Light with the book Prophecy, all on a $1.00 contribution. “Praise ye Jehovah.” Due reports of your praise efforts should be made, to the Brooklyn head office direct if you are not under Branch supervision. Distribution of the above book offers will continue throughout the entire month of August.
VACATION
Factory and Office Closed—July 25-August 9
The factory and office at Brooklyn will be closed from July 25 to August 9 inclusive. During those two weeks the Bethel family will have the opportunity to take part in the field privileges with all other kingdom publishers. No shipments of literature can be made to anyone during that time. Please get your orders in to the Brooklyn office sufficiently ahead for handling and filling before thee above date, and make certain thereby that you will not run short of literature supplies during the month of August. Bear in mind the special testimony period at that time.
Orders cannot be filled during vacation period, as no one will be here to answer letters, but all mail will have immediate attention on the reopening of the factory on August 10.
NEW PORTABLE PHONOGRAPH
The Society now manufactures and has to offer a light-weight phonograph of new design, which is 14 by 13 by 5 inches in size, and covered with blown cloth and having rounded corners. It weighs 9 pounds 13 ounces, which is 5 1/2 pounds lighter than the previous model manufactured by the Society. With the three phonograph discs which can be carried in it, it weighs 12 pounds 6 ounces. The volume of sound is just as strong as that of the previous model, and the tone is of the best quality As shipped out from our factory, the phonograph is timed properly, at 78 r.p.m., and should be cheeked from time to time. This new model, including three discs, is offered on a contribution of $10.00; without the three discs, $8.00. Remittance should accompany orders. Also specify the particular discs wanted.
Vol. LVII
July 15, 1936
No. 14
OBADIAH
PART 3
"For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shall be cut off for ever.” —Obad. 10.
JEHOVAH GOD is the Most High, and before him there is no other. Any creature who exalts himself to a high place commits a presumptuous sin and so is an abomination in the sight of God. It was Lucifer who said: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the Most High.” (Isa. 14:14) The Devil formed a conspiracy against God and drew into that conspiracy a host of spirit creatures and a multitude of earthly creatures. Those conspirators have defied God and reproached his holy name. The end of such conspirators is destruction, and Jehovah has so written the judgment. (Ezek. 28:18,19) God’s rule is established, and he changes not. Destruction is the fate of all the wicked conspirators. The name of Jehovah is directly related to his faithful people. Those who hate them hate Jehovah and Christ Jesus. Those who conspire against the people of God conspire against the Lord himself. Jehovah has exalted Christ Jesus to the highest place in his organization. A hill is the highest part of the mountain, that is to say, it is the very pinnacle of the mountain ; and concerning the position in which God places Jesus he says: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.”—Ps. 2:6.
2 The Devil, Gog, the wicked angels, the clergy and others conspire together against God and against his anointed. (Ps. 2:2,3) Christ Jesus, the King and Judge, now at the temple sends forth his anointed and approved ones to proclaim the message of the kingdom, and those who prove true and faithful to him in declaring that message form a part of the holy nation of Jehovah. The haters of God and of Christ and of the faithful remnant conspire together to destroy the remnant or “holy nation”, as it is written: “They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent; they are confederate against thee.”—Ps. 83: 3-5.
3 In the conspiracy here mentioned the Edomites are specifically named. (Vs. 6) In the present-day conspiracy to destroy Jehovah’s witnesses the chief ones on earth are the Roman Catholic Hierarchy or clergy. Into that conspiracy or confederacy have been drawn the commercial traffickers and professional political rulers. Now, says Jehovah by his prophet Obadiah: “All the men of thy confederacy [All thy covenant-men (Roth.)] have brought thee even to the border; the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee; there is none understanding in him.”—Obad. 7.
4 The clergy have taught their other confederates to hate those who are on the side of Jehovah and his King, and for that reason the faithful witnesses of Jehovah now are “hated of all [nations] for my name’s sake”, says the Lord. (Matt. 10: 22) The conspirators are all against God and Christ and his kingdom and all who are favorable to that kingdom. Those in the conspiracy or confederacy aside from the clergy are doubtless the ones described as “the principal of the flock” of the religionists. These are the “kings of the earth” who have “committed fornication” with Edom, the old “whore”, the religious systems. (Rev. 17:1,2) They constitute the “threescore and six” elements in the number of the beast. (Rev. 13:18) Concerning these confederate men, the principal of the flock, the Lord by his prophet says: For they “brought thee [(R.V.) brought thee on the way] even to the border”, that is, to the boundary line or to the limit, to the exit or jumping-off place. Those covenant men, that is, the commercial and political elements, come to discern the hypocrisy of the modern-day Edomites and they show those Edomites the exit and tell them to get out. In this connection it is interesting to note that at the battle in the valley of Berachah Jehovah of hosts, the God of battle, confused the allied forces so completely that Moab and Ammon fought against Edom first and destroyed the Edomites, and thereafter “every one helped to destroy another”. (2 Chron. 20: 23) This picture seems to imply that the “principal of the flock” will drive the clergy into the hands of a mob from which they will receive no sympathy. That does not at all mean that the principal of the flock or the mob will then show any favor to the remnant of Jehovah. Those who serve God look to Him and his King and to none other for aid and protection.
5 Continuing to address his words to the Edomites, Jehovah by his prophet says: “The men that were at peace with thee [(margin) the men of thy peace] have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee.” According to Rotherham this scripture reads: “The men thou wast wont to salute,” or, “The men wont to salute thee.” More literally, and according to the marginal reading of Rotherham: “The men of thy salaam.” The present-day facts exactly fit this part of the prophecy. Today the clergy and ‘the principal of their flock’, the commercial traffickers and politicians, have formed a mutual admiration society. The clergy pay high compliments and great respect to the big politicians, whom they call “great statesmen”, and to the money-changers, whom they call “great financiers”. In their sermons or speeches from their pulpits they extol the goodness and the virtue of these principal ones of their Hocks, at the same time holding their hands behind them, and wholly ignore the name of Jehovah and his King. The “principal of the flock”, the politicians and commercial traffickers, pay great respect to the clergy, calling them “father”, “reverend,” “doctor,” and similar titles.
6 A leading politician of the present day made a speech on the 23d day of February, 1936, calling upon all the clergy, regardless of denomination, to form a “brotherhood”, as he called it, and join hands and stand firm together against those who are exposing or attacking their “faith”. The clergy and the principal of the flock praise each other and pat each other on the back. When there is a great function, political or otherwise, the clergy 'love the uppermost rooms at these feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and love to be greeted in the market place and be called by other men, Rabbi (doctor, reverend, or father, or papa] ’. (Matt. 23: 6, 7) Their confederacy goes to the limit, and they come to the end.
7 Today the clergy rely not upon God and Christ but depend upon the ‘principal of their flock’ to feed them and keep them in the limelight. Concerning this unholy alliance Jehovah says: “The men of thy peace (reliance] have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee.” Those ‘seed of the Serpent’ may expect that very thing.
8 The Scriptures show that the money-changers become weary listening to and submitting to their so- called “spiritual advisers”, the religionists, and they throw them off, as Napoleon did the clergy of his day, and as the Bolsheviks of Russia did a few years ago. The political and financial men who form the “principal of the flock” well know that the clergy are hypocrites who claim to be followers of Christ, and yet who organize and carry on persecution against harmless men and women who do the will of God by telling of his name and his kingdom. God by his prophet says, ‘They reach the limit’; and that limit is about at hand.
9 For some time political and financial men have furnished the wherewithal to “spread the butter on the bread” for the clergy, in this, that they have held them high up and induced the common people to think that they are worth while; and the common people have supported them with their contributions, and the rich have contributed on the theory that the clergy could render them some good. Those same men have sat at the table of the clergy and have fed upon the so-called provender that the clergy provided and handed out to them. To be sure, the Lord foreknew this, and foretold it in these words: “They that eat thy bread [(margin) The men of thy bread] have laid a wound [(R.V.) a snare] under thee.” Stated in other phrase, for some time the clergy have been considered an advisable adjunct to big polities and big business, and in turn the big clergy have attempted to supply some kind of so-called “spiritual food” upon which to feed the principal of their flock. But according to the prophecy the time arrives when these “principal of the flock” see the progress of the war between the modern Edomites and the remnant of the Lord, and, clearly discerning the hypocrisy of the Edomites, they say to their erstwhile allies, the clergy: “It is enough. What is the use of having those barnacles hang on to our boat? Let us break them loose and set them adrift.” Corroborating this the prophet of the Lord says: “And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother (providers and nourishers] that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord [that is to say, you loud, lying fakes, you do not represent God and Christ Jesus] ; and his father and his mother [who have acknowledged and supported the clergy who claim to be prophets of God] that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”—Zech. 13:3,6; see Preparation, page 252.
10 This seems to point to the fact that the clergy during the period of war, which is now in progress, will be exposed, disgraced and east aside, and then will follow their destruction at Armageddon. In the Devil’s organization affection changes or pretended, feigned affection ceases and the apparently best of friends fall out and fight against each other. As God’s prophet Ezekiel puts it: The “untempered morter” fails to permanently bind them together. (Ezek. 13:10-15; 22:28) “Therefore, O Aholibah [Jerusalem; professed and hypocritical clergy], thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side: They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels. And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare; and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.” —Ezek. 23: 22,26, 29.
11 The clergy have no understanding of the Word of God. To them it is ancient history written by old fogies. The clergy have cast the Bible on the side. Although the overwhelming physical facts plainly appearing before the eyes of everyone, together with the Scriptures written for this very time, show clearly that Jehovah’s King is here, the clergy refuse to hear anything about the kingdom of God, and those who tell of God's kingdom are hated and greatly persecuted by the Hierarchy and their allies. Therefore Jehovah by his prophet Obadiah says of the modern Edomites: ‘‘There is none understanding in him [of it (margin)].” This prophecy is fully corroborated by these scriptures following: “They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are out of course.” (Ps. 82:5) “A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.” (Prov. 18:2) “None of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.”—Dan. 12:10.
12 Concerning the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and the other clergy allied therewith it is written: “For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. ” (Deut. 32: 28) Those clergymen are blind guides of the blind, and the ditch of destruction is their end. (Luke 6:39; Matt. 23:24) Only those who now love and serve God will understand.
WORLDLY WISE
13 The Roman Catholic Hierarchy in particular, and almost all clergymen in general, are ‘wise in their own conceits’. They do not have the wisdom that is from above, and this is proved by the fact that they do not understand or even study the Word of God. They quote the words of men, citing such as authority for the expressions of wisdom by which they expect others to be guided. They extol one another while they “strut their own stuff”, speaking with high-sounding and meaningless phrase. The Hierarchy in particular speak in Latin, a language foreign to most people, and especially to Americans. In this way they hope to overawe the common people who will look upon them and say: “What a wonderfully wise man that is!” They are fertile liars and supremo frauds. So wise are they in their own minds that they arbitrarily tell the people what they should and should not hear or read. They substitute their own doctrines for the Worf of God. The day must come when God will expose them and then destroy them completely. Therefore says Jehovah by his prophet: “Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?”—Obad. 8.
14 The Roman Catholic Hierarchy and its tools are so “self-wise”, and regard themselves as so very important, that they call upon the public rulers, judges of courts, and officers of the lower rank, and tell such officers what they may or may not do; and up to the present time almost all such officers are fools enough to listen to them. If a radio station is broadcasting some matter of importance to the people, but which is not according to the pleasure of the wise modern Edomites, and which truth so broadcast “shocks their religious susceptibilities”, they immediately wait on the radio manager and demand that programs of such cease, and arrogantly and boldly threaten to destroy the value of the radio station if the expressed wishes of the clergy are not acceded to. The Hierarchy sends its “wise men” and its “silly women” to the merchants and threatens them with boycott, if they dare have about their store anything that is not according to the pleasure of the Hierarchy. At Washington, D.C., the Hierarchy has established itself “high up on a hill”, and issues orders to the daily newspapers, telling them what they shall and what they shall not publish, and such papers as the Washington Star and the Washington Post obey the commands of the Hierarchy. As to political affairs the Hierarchy brings into Washington its willing “yes men” from every part of the hind and puts them in political jobs of importance, and key places, like that of “Postmaster General”, and issues orders as to what shall be done in the political affairs of the nation. The foolish “Protestant” clergy, so called, fall right, in with the Hierarchy, and the Jewish rabbis do likewise, and all of them look upon the Hierarchy as holding in its ranks the wise men of the world who must be obeyed. Now the Lord has caused a work to begin and to progress, which is uncovering the crookedness of the modern-day Edomites. The preaching of the Scriptures to the people reveals to them that the Hierarchy and allies possess no wisdom from the Lord, but that they have the wisdom of this world, which is devilish and injurious to those who desire righteousness. The war against that wicked crowd now progresses and proves to honest people, in the light of prophecies, that within a short time the modern Edomites will be completely exposed and their bluff and bluster will come to an end. Even now many of the commercial men and politicians clearly discern the hypocrisy of the so- called “wise men” of the clergy who attempt to give spiritual advice to others. The common people are seeing as never before, and are discerning, that the clergy are cither willingly or unwillingly ignorant of the Word of God and hence are unsafe advisers. The entrenched lies and hypocrisy of the clergy will be completely uncovered and exposed to public gaze to their own confusion. We know this is true, because Jehovah God so states. (Isa. 28:17) Concerning the clergy, the modern-day Edomites, Jehovah says: “For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed.”—Isa. 29:10,11.
15 Because the clergy have only the wisdom of this world they have no understanding of the Word of God, and concerning them it is written: ‘‘For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; for it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.” (1 Cor. 3:19, 20) ‘‘For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Cor. 1:19,20) Furthermore says Jehovah: ‘‘I am the Lord, that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish.”—Isa. 44:24,25.
16 When will the Lord bring upon the modern Edomites the calamities mentioned? He says, ‘‘In that day,” that is, the day of Jehovah, when he, rises up in judgment for the deliverance of his own, and particularly for the vindication of his own name. The Devil has used his worldly-wise clergy for many years to defame the name of Jehovah, and now the day of the Lord has come when he will bring them all to a fearful account. The Scriptures seem clearly to teach that after the Lord has torn off the mask now worn by the hypocritical clergy, the Hierarchy and others, and behind which they have hidden to carry on their crookedness, and after he has exposed them to public contempt and disgrace, then he will literally destroy them. They had the opportunity to know God and to embrace the birthright of the Abrahamic promise, but, like their ancestor Esau of old, they regarded the birthright as of no value, and hence they threw it aside. They have gathered together great crowds of gullible persons, deceived them, and wrung from them support for themselves. They have assumed the positions of shepherds of the flock for the common people, but not for the benefit of the flock, but, on the contrary, that the clergy might feed and clothe themselves and live wantonly. Knowing their crookedness the Lord caused his prophet to say concerning them: ‘‘Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the dock. . . . But with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.”—Ezek. 34: 3, 4.
17 Not only have the clergy failed to feed the hungry souls upon the truth of God’s Word, but they have used all their power and influence to prevent the flock from receiving nourishment at the hands of those who really serve God. Therefore to the modern Edomites, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and other clergy, Jehovah says: “Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet ? And as for my flock, they cat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.” (Ezek. 34:18,19) The judgment of the Lord God written concerning those false shepherds, the modern Edomites, is that their destruction is certain, and they shall find no way of escape. ‘‘Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock ; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the shopherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.” (Jer. 25:34,35) The wisdom of Satan, together with the wise men of this world, shall perish for ever, and the name of Jehovah God shall be exalted for ever.
18 Teman was a prominent stronghold of the ancient Edomites, and therefore pictures the prominent clergymen strong in power of the church organizations, foremost in the religious organizations with the political officers of the world, and these in the Scriptures are ironically called ‘‘mighty men”; and concerning them the Lord, by the prophet, says: ‘‘And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.” (Obad. 9) It is appropriate here that notice be taken of the fact that the three religious hypocrites, or frauds, appeared to suffering Job on the pretext of giving him comfort, but in fact to torment Job, the latter being faithful to Jehovah God. Eliphaz took the leading part in chastising Job with ironical words of pity, and Eliphaz was a Temanite. (Job 2:11) The Roman Catholic Hierarchy takes the lead in ridiculing and persecuting and tormenting Jehovah’s faithful remnant and therefore is well foreshadowed by Eliphaz, and the other clergymen of ‘‘organized religion” trail along and do as the Roman Catholic Hierarchy leaders do. The ‘‘mighty men”, the Temanites, are specifically the Roman Catholic clergy, and those Jehovah particularly declares shall be dismayed and cut off.
19 What will dismay those worldly-wise Edomites of the modern day? In a scornful manner and with boastful words they say: ‘We are safe and secure behind our mountain of lies; the scourge shall not come nigh us; who can find us out?’ And Jehovah says: ‘The truth shall sweep away those lies and expose to view the hypocrisy of the fertile liars.’ That now jars the ‘‘wise” Temanites somewhat, even to hear it at the mouth of Jehovah’s witnesses. It will jar them more in the Lord’s due time. The Lord says he will put it in the heart of the rulers, the kings of this world, to strip the old ‘‘whore” naked and apply the branding iron, and that will dismay them some more and bring them into complete contempt and shame. “The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken; Io, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them ?” (Jer. 8: 9) These things are now made known to Jehovah’s witnesses who are in the war, and God gives them this information as he pleases, that they might with patience and comfort of heart, and with strong hope, continue to push the fight against the enemy by declaring the message of God’s hard with the zeal peculiar to the Lord’s house. In doing this work the faithful remnant will not permit themselves to be adversely influenced by that other class of self-constituted “wise ones” who assume to tell the Lord that the great multitude will be gathered after what is unwisely called “the first phase of Armageddon”. Such presumptuous speech before the people of God tends to defile the temple of God when spoken by one who claims to be of the temple. Manifestly the apostle had such in mind when he wrote these words: “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” (1 Cor. 3:17,18) Those who have ‘the wisdom that cometh down from above’ will stand shoulder to shoulder now in the fight for the kingdom gospel, being careful to obey the Lord's commandments and not to try to appear wise in the eyes of others by advancing some fanciful theory builded on credulity and not upon faith.
20 Why is Jehovah now using the remnant to proclaim the truth concerning the modern-day Edomites? The answer is, that the hiding place of lies, which the Hierarchy has builded up, may be made manifest and exposed to view. Everything ecclesiastical, and which is therefore hypocritical and religious, Jehovah declares he will expose and then destroy utterly: “A sword [Jehovah's sword of execution, which is preceded by his Word, at the mouth of his witnesses] is upon the liars; and they shall dote [be foolish; do foolishly] ; a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed.” (Jer. 50:36) “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.” (Ezek. 25:13) ‘And the shepherds [modern Edomites] shall have no way of escape.’ (Jer. 25:35) The lime will come, the Scriptures declare, when these worldly-wise modern- day Edomites will boastingly and arrogantly say: ‘We are in peace and safety’; and then sudden destruction shall come upon them as travail upon a woman’. —1 Thess. 5: 3.
THE REASON
21 Why will Jehovah humiliate and disgrace the modern Edomites, the Hierarchy and their allies, and then completely destroy them? By his prophet he answers: “For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.” (Verse 10) Repeatedly Esau showed violence toward his brother Jacob. From the time that Esau lost his birthright and from the time Jacob received the blessing, Esau persecuted Jacob. “And Esau hated Jacob became of the blessing wherewith his father blessed hint; and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob.”—Gen. 27:41.
22 The Scriptures show that he continued to persecute Jacob; and this applies both to Esau and to the ones whom Esau foreshadowed. (Pss. 83:6; 137:7; Ezek. 35: 6-9,14,15) From the time that the modern- day Edomites, the clergy, discerned that God’s favor was upon his faithful witnesses, and particularly the remnant since the year 1918, those clergymen June put forth their best endeavors to destroy Jehovah’s witnesses, the antitypical Jacob class. Particularly the Roman Catholic Hierarchy has manifested its enmity against Jehovah’s witnesses and the truth as told by those witnesses has exposed the crookedness of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, particularly since 1918. The clergy have murder in their hearts against the faithful witnesses of the Lord. During the World War those clergymen met at Philadelphia to further work out their conspiracy against Jehovah’s witnesses. They framed a case against some of those witnesses, and by fraud, deceit, lies and the connivance of crooked men in official positions, railroaded some of Jehovah’s witnesses to the penitentiary, and then tried to prevent an appeal of those cases to the higher courts. Later, when the Supreme Court of the United States got to these cases, Jehovah’s witnesses were immediately released from prison and admitted to bail, and the government dismissed the cases, and the judgment of the lower court was completely set aside. Now the cowardly Hierarchy and their newspapers falsely publish as fact that these men are ex-convicts, well knowing that such a statement is a deliberate lie. A man is not a convict until a judgment is final against him. They have not the courage to come into the open and fight and answer the Scriptural charges against them, but strike in the dark and thus attempt to poison the minds of their parishioners to prevent them from hearing the kingdom message of truth.
23 These wicked clergymen, failing in their efforts to destroy Jehovah’s witnesses during the excitement of the World War, have constantly persecuted the faithful remnant since that time. The modern-day Edomites seem to have no conception or understanding that they are fighting against God and his King. Like the Pharisees of old, those clergymen of the present day have turned themselves wholly to Caesar and recognize none other as their king. Their persecution of the faithful witnesses of the Lord is, as Jesus states, a persecution of himself, and the Lord will not permit such wickedness to pass unnoticed.—Matt. 25:32-46.
24 Jehovah has declared his purpose to humiliate those wicked persecutors by causing his witnesses to proclaim his message of truth throughout the world, and in obedience to his commandment the witnesses are now doing that very thing. The truth vexes the Hierarchy and puts its men to shame. “Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed; let them return and be ashamed suddenly.’’ (Ps. 6:10) “Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt; let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul; let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.” (Ps. 35:26,4) Those who really love and serve God will not be ashamed. They will look the enemy square in the face and tell them the truth. “Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed; let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.” (Ps. 25:3) “Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee; let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.”—Ps. 31:17,18.
25 That Jehovah’s witnesses may be assured and comforted and continue, to pursue with patience their warfare against the modern Edomites, the Lord continues to pour into their minds his expressed purpose to destroy those who have defamed his name. To the modern-day Edomites the Lord says: “And thou shalt be cut off for ever.” Furthermore God calls these hypocritical, persecuting clergy “the people of my curse”. (Isa. 34: 5) And no wonder; for their wickedness is brought to mind. Those self-worldly-wise ones, who claim to be the special representatives of God and the recipients of his blessings, who claim to rule in the name and stead of Christ Jesus, Jehovah condemns, and says: ‘You shall be cut off for ever.’ The modern-day Edomites have called themselves “nobles”, and are looked upon by their allies as nobles. They have made believe that they are the possessors of the high places in the kingdom of God, but, says the Lord to them, “they shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.” (Isa. 34:12) “Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever; but I will send a fire upon Toman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.”—Amos 1:11,12.
26 God’s Word is that the Edomites shall share the same fate as Babylon, which shall be cut off permanently. (Mal. 1: 4) Perpetual hatred of and malicious persecution against the faithful servants of God and Christ is a “sin unto death”. The Lord declares that those evil persecutors who thus sin are “goats” and that these shall go away into everlasting cutting off. (Matt, 25: 46, Diag.) The clergy have maliciously and wickedly persecuted God’s faithful witnesses, and still do so. “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, . . . ? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. ’ ’—Luke 18: 7, 8.
ANTI-KINGDOM
27 The Roman Catholic Hierarchy has always been against the kingdom of God, while hypocritically and falsely claiming to rule by divine right and authority. In recent years “Protestant” clergymen, so called, have gone completely over to the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, and now all are in the same bag. During the World War practically all these clergymen took sides against the kingdom of God, refused to hear the testimony that the Lord had returned and that his kingdom is at hand, and joined in cruelly persecuting those who proclaim such truths of the Lord. To that anti-kingdom clergy crowd, the Lord says: “In the day [particularly in 1917 and 1918, when the clergy sought to have enacted an espionage law by which Jehovah’s witnesses might be destroyed] that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.”—Obad. 11.
28 There is but one right side, and, in the language of the scripture, “the other side” is anti-kingdom-of- God, and it is on this “other side”, or the anti-kingdom side, that the modern Edomites stand and have for a long while stood. It was the clergymen who were on the war draft boards that urged the rigid enforcement of the conscription law against Jehovah's witnesses, and did that in utter disregard of their conscientious objection and their privileges as provided by that law. The clergy induced the government to rule that Jehovah’s witnesses could not take advantage of the “conscientious scruple proviso of that draft law” because they were not “a recognized religious organization”. It was the clergy who insisted on the wrongful enforcement of the espionage law against God’s faithful people because those faithful ones were, telling the truth of and concerning the kingdom of God. Those same persecutors attempted to compel God’s faithful witnesses to take an active part in the mortal combat, and caused those who refused to do so to be cruelly punished. It was the clergy who brought about the imprisonment of many of the faithful witnesses of the Lord, and when those faithful followers of Christ Jesus were confined in prison, and when the war had ended, the clergy did not ask amnesty in behalf of God's servants, but, on the contrary, sought to hold those faithful servants of the Lord in prison that they might die there. The clergy were the chief ones who indulged in the slaving of God’s faithful witness Antipas. (Rev. 2:13; 11: 7) The modern-day Edomites, who collectively make up the old “whore”, gleefully ‘rode on the back of the scarlet-colored beast that bore her up ’.—Rev. 17: 3.
29 During the World War “strangers”, or aliens from God and his kingdom, put the Lord’s faithful servants under restraint, many of them behind prison bars, banned the published message of the Lord, and relentlessly persecuted the faithful followers of Christ Jesus. Those “foreigners”, particularly the Roman Catholic clergy and their allies, unknown to God and his kingdom, effectually stopped up the gates or ways that Jehovah’s servants entered to render praise unto the Lord, and they reduced the companies of God’s faithful people to the despicable level of that which results from a game of chance. They belittled, profaned and ridiculed God’s earthly organization and made it appear that God could not furnish protection for his people. In carrying on this wicked persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses by public officials the clergy urged it be done, and stood with those more actively engaged as spoilers; and concerning the clergymen the Lord says: “Even thou wast as one of them.” The clergy hypocritically posed as the representatives of the Lord and as the spiritual advisers of the “strangers” or “foreigners”, who actually imprisoned Jehovah’s faithful servants. They conspired, and connived at and urged the committing of all the cruel atrocities against those who serve God and his kingdom; and now the Lord tells them, his witnesses, to make known his purpose to mete out to his enemies a just recompense.
30 For many years the modern Edomites, the Hierarchy and their allied clergy, have nursed a burning hatred of God’s faithful servants, and the coming of the World War opened to them the way for them to gratify their wicked spleen. They looked with keen satisfaction upon the day when apparent disaster camo upon the faithful preachers of God’s Word of truth, and now the Lord by his prophet says to that wicked, hypocritical Hierarchy crowd: “But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger [in the day of his disaster (R.V.)]; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.”—Ohad. 12.
31 The “evil servant” class connived with the Hierarchy and the other clergy in bringing about the apparent disaster upon Jehovah’s witnesses. So satisfied were they with the punishment that befell the faithful servants of God that they laughed with glee. When once these faithful servants of the Lord were imprisoned the clergy spoke not one kind word to them or about them, giving them not even a cup of water to drink or any other means of comfort, but, on the contrary, gloated over them in an arrogant and insolent manner, as the billy goat does over his vanquished foe. The clergy rejoiced together that the faithful servants of God were thrown into prison, even as the Lord foretold they would do: “And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.”—Rev. 11: 9,10.
32 When the clergy saw the faithful servants of God in distress they laughed at their misery and said to each other: “We did it, and now we are rid of that pestiferous crowd that interfered with us.” The Lord by his prophet says to them: “Neither shouldest thou have magnified thy mouth [enlarged thy mouth in a laugh (Roth., margin)] in the day of [their] distress.” — Margin.
33 Those in that day known as the “Bible Students”, and who were the faithful servants of God, were the only ones during that period of the World War that firmly and steadfastly stood by the organization of God and his Word; and because of their faithfulness in so doing they were persecuted and punished at the instance of the clergy, who took great delight therein, and the clergy thereby showed themselves to be enemies of God and his people, and against his kingdom. Foreknowing this, the Lord caused his faithful prophet to write these words: “Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?” (Ps. 41:5) “For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, saying, God hath forsaken him; persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him.” (Ps. 71:10, 11) “But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together; yea, the objects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not; with hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha! our eye hath seen it.” (Ps. 35:15,16,21) “They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.”—Ps. 22:13.
34 Those clergymen have wickedly blasphemed the name of God. hypocritically claiming to be his representatives, and at the same time have rejoiced over the calamity of “Jerusalem” (that is, God's organization on earth) and “Judah” (the people who praise and serve Jehovah), and therefore Jehovah says to them: “Because thou hast said, These two nations, and these two countries, shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the Lord was there: . . . thou shalt know that I am the Lord, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume. Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.”—Ezek. 35:10,12,13.
35 Furthermore the Lord takes the modern Edomites to task for their wicked conduct and says to them: “Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity.”—Obad. 13.
36 The clergy connived at and worked with others of Satan’s organization to bring suffering upon the true people of God during the World War period, and ever since that day they have continued to do so. The clergy have not even kept aloof as neutral, but, instead, they have been active enemies of God and his people. They have sought gain out of the, calamities that fell upon God’s faithful servants and have tried to get them out of the way so that the future work of the clergy in collecting money from the people upon false pretenses might not be hindered. Cruel selfishness has moved the clergy, and so now moves them, in every part of the earth in their attempt to prevent Jehovah's witnesses from proclaiming the truth, in order that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and other clergy may have some personal selfish profit by further playing upon the credulities of the people.
37 The Roman Catholic Hierarchy and allied clergy have banded together with others of Satan's representatives and maliciously demand the annihilation of Jehovah’s witnesses, and to them Jehovah says: “Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape , neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.’’—Ohad. 14.
38 God did not commission Edom to punish his chosen people, nor has he commissioned the clergy to punish his faithful servants now on the earth. During the World War the clergy secured exemption from military service of all whom they desired, but. on the contrary, they asked for the destruction of Jehovah’s servant class, who were real conscientious objectors against breaking the everlasting covenant. Concerning these faithful ones of the Lord the clergy said: “Make them come in line with the government [Babylon], and if they refuse, the firing squad for them.’’ Their father the Devil put it into their mind to completely rid the earth of those who completely served God and his kingdom. The day of reckoning must come and the clergy will be brought to full account, as the Lord declares.
39 The judgment day of the Lord, and the terror to the wicked that accompanies it, is at hand, and to the modern Edomites Jehovah now says: “For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen; as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee; thy reward shall return upon thine own head.”—Obad. 15.
40 “Organized religion” should not expect to be protected or find a way of escape when the Lord's wrath is expressed. Organized religion is truly heathen, because it is against God and his King and those who truly worship the Most High. All nations and peoples that are anti-kingdom of God are included in the foregoing words of Jehovah’s prophet, and this is confirmed by the words of the Lord from another prophet, to wit: “For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies; he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven ; behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood; it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs, and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.”—Isa. 34:2-G.
41 During the World War the modern Edomites, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, and others compelled God’s faithful people to drink the cup of bitterness, and the day of retribution must come upon those Edomites, and is near at hand; and therefore the Lord says to them: “For thus saith the Lord, Behold, they [God’s faithful servants] whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken [by compulsion at the hands of the Edomites] ; and art thou [modern-day Edomites] he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shall not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. For I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.”—Jer. 49: 12, 13.
42 Edom is specifically named to receive of the wrath of God. It is the duty of Jehovah’s witnesses to now ‘declare the day of the vengeance of our God' against the modern Edomites: “For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me, Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it. . . . Edom . . . and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: . . . And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Ye shall certainly drink.”— Jer. 25:15-28.
43 Retribution shall come upon the modern Edomites, because God has so declared unto them : “As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee.” Jehovah of hosts will see to it that it is done, and he declares he will put it into the heart and mind of the “ten horns” and the “beast” to have part in the execution and the burning of the old “whore”.—Rev. 17 : 16, 17.
44 Jehovah emphatically states that he will do it. “Because thou hast said, These two nations, and these two countries, shall be mine, and we will possess it ; whereas the Lord was there: . . . thou shalt know that I am the Lord, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume. As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee; thou shall be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it; and they shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezek. 35:10,12,15) The beastly rulers that have been in an alliance with the clergy, and who have eaten the clergy’s fodder, will have part in inflicting retributive justice, which shall and must come upon the Hierarchy and their allied clergy.— Obad. 7.
45 Jehovah can prevent the clergy from inflicting punishment upon his people, even as he could have prevented the Devil from persecuting his beloved Son Christ Jesus, but Jehovah has given the Devil and his seed all the rope they want. But the end thereof must be reached, and that end has now come, and they shall have some of their own medicine, as Obadiah says: “Thy dealing shall return upon thine own head.” (A.R.V.) Jesus announced the unchangeable rule of Jehovah, to wit: ‘‘For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”—Matt. 7: 2.
46 To be sure, Jehovah needs no creature to give a hand in the destruction of the enemy clergy, but he expresses his purpose to give his people a share in that work: ‘‘Thus saith the Lord God, Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them; therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword. And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel [the Head and Prince of which is Christ Jesus, the Executioner] ; and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger, and according to my fury ; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord God.” (Ezek. 25:12-14) At the present time Jehovah’s witnesses on earth are vigorously engaged in their part of the warfare by proclaiming the truth, which includes the ‘‘vengeance of our God”, and are making known to the people that Jehovah’s day of deliverance is at hand.
47 While there is no directly divine record that the Edomites were on Mount Zion, yet it can be inferred from the psalmist that they stood on the east side of the brook Kidron looking toward Mount Zion, and in a maudlin, drunken manner cried out, as Jerusalem was attacked: ‘‘Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.” (Ps. 137:7) It is certain that the Edomites, when they saw the Israelites in distress, indulged in a drunken feast because thereof; so Jehovah says to the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and their allies, the Edomites of the present time: “For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually [(Roth., margin) round about], yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. ” (Obad. 16) This last drunkenness of the modern Edomites will not be with jubilation and pleasure, but will be an effort to drown their chagrin, shame and disgrace. “Yea, they shall drink,” until they are beastly drunk, and what they shall drink is far worse than the Prohibition “hooch” formerly used in America, because they will drink themselves to death: “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture, and he poureth out of the same; but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.” (Ps. 75:8) According to Rotherham: “Yea, they shall drink and swallow down [(margin) stagger, reel]”; “they shall . . . talk foolishly” (R.V., margin), thus losing their balance, reason and self-control, in their drunken efforts to make believe that they are cheerful and optimistic. That drunken brawl will witness the passing of the Edomites, for, says the prophet of Jehovah, “they shall be as though they had not been,” and those who survive that day will put the Hierarchy and their allies for ever out of memory. It is Jehovah God who is now maneuvering the enemy, and who will hand them a cup and compel them to drink it. It is a picture of their destruction. It is God’s work, and it will seem very strange to them and to others, because they have, for many years, hypocritically deceived honest people and made them believe that they are the representatives of God and Christ, when in fact they have been representatives of the Devil all the time. Jehovah has caused many pictures to be recorded concerning the destruction of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and their allied religionists, and Obadiah’s prophecy is but one of them. All those prophetic pictures show one thing, to wit, the complete destruction of the hypocritical religionists, who have blinded the people and defamed God’s holy name; and even they shall know that Jehovah is the Almighty God when their end comes.
48 The organized religionists are now being exposed by the proclamation of the kingdom message, and this is the part in the war that is performed by Jehovah’s witnesses in advance of the destruction of the Edomites; and Jehovah shows it now to his covenant people, and this he does for their comfort, that they may be fully assured and have strong hope. Those who will profit by this information will be the ones who appreciate the goodness of Jehovah and who “fear his name” and who fear not man nor devil. Let the fate of the Edomites be a warning to them that put a stumblingblock in the way of their brethren. Jehovah makes it clear that he will permit no creature to interfere with his work. Those who attempt to do so will come to grief. The faithful may expect no favor, protection or salvation from men or man-made organizations, and they will not look for such. Those who love God and his kingdom will look to the Most High for salvation through Christ Jesus. Even after the fall of the Edomites no favor will be received by Jehovah’s witnesses from the rulers of this world. It is war to the bitter end, and God through Christ Jesus will deliver those who love and serve him.
(To be continued)
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY
1, 2. Account for conspiracy against Jehovah and against his anointed. Who are in that conspiracy, and what is their purpose?
3, 4. As foretold in Obadiah 7, who are “the men of thy confederacy”? How have they “brought thee even to the border’’?
5-8. Further, in verse 7, who are “the men that were at peace with thee’’? and how and why have they manifested that “peace’’? How and why have they “deceived thee’’, and “prevailed against thee’’?
9,10. How have they ‘eaten thy bread’, and “laid a wound under thee’’?
11,12. With related scriptures, and facts, show that the clergy do not understand the Word of God, and why.
13-15. What doctrines are taught, and tactics employed, by the clergy, particularly by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, to retain their hold upon and support by the people? What is the “strange work’’ that is being done at this time, and the already manifest result thereof? Why do the clergy, in their “wisdom’’, walk on in darkness?
16,17. Apply Ezekiel 31: 3,4,18,19, showing justification of the calamity foretold in Jeremiah 25:34,35.
18-20. “Thy mighty men, O Teman’’: who are they? They shall be “dismayed’’: how, and why? How will this be “to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter’’? What timely instruction in relation hereto is seen in 1 Corinthians 3: 17,18?
21-26. With scriptures and facts, show why Jehovah will humiliate and disgrace the modern-day Edomites, and then destroy them. How will their humiliation and destruction be accomplished? What is the prayer, by the psalmist, “written aforetime” for God’s faithful servants now?
27-29. What are the facts showing fulfillment of Obadiah 11?
30-34. Point out fulfillment of verse 12, together with other scriptures foretelling the same conditions, and that Jehovah has heard the prayer of his people.
35-38. How have the modern Edomites “entered into the gate of [God’s] people”, “looked on their affliction,” and “laid hands on their substance”, “in the day of their calamity”? How have they “stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape”, and “delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress”?
39-44. In verse 15, what is the “day of the Lord”, which is near? How is it “near”? and why “upon all the heathen”? What is it (a) that “thou hast done”? (b) That “shall be done unto thee”? Why is it said “thy reward shall return upon thine own head”? Show, by God’s word through his prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, whether organized religion may escape from his wrath. Why is Edom specifically named to receive God’s wrath? Why also Mount Seir and Idumea?
45,46. Why does not Jehovah prevent the clergy from inflicting punishment upon his people? Compare Jesus’ wools of Matthew 7:2 with the words of the prophet Obadiah in verse 15. What does this mean for “Edom”?
47. Apply Obadiah 16.
48. What, then, is thus tar seen foretold by Obadiah’s prophecy? What part in that war is graciously given to Jehovah’s witnesses to perform? How will this prophecy, now made clear, serve both as a comfort and as a warning? What will the fall of the Edomites mean for Jehovah’s covenant people?
WHEN ALL SHALL KNOW JEHOVAH
KNOWLEDGE of God has been sought by many honest-hearted persons in all times past. The time is now come, according to the prophecy of the Scriptures, when all shall know Jehovah, the eternal God.
Among all the benefits that men will receive under the righteous government of Christ Jesus the greatest will be to know God. He is the everlasting One, who created heaven and earth and all things therein. No human eye will ever sec God, but all human intelligent creatures will have an opportunity to discern him and his loving-kindness. When that great truth is fully realized by man, then he will understand why God at stated intervals has made his name prominent before his creatures. It is written: “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. ” (Isa. 11:9) How will the knowledge of God result beneficially to man? It was Jesus who answered that question: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”—John 17:3.
That which man desires above all things else is that he might have life in happiness. God created man and gave him life, and no creature can with propriety take away life without God’s consent. It follows that no man or other creature could have eternal life without the consent of Jehovah God. To know God, therefore, means to live.
The people must come to a knowledge of the fact that God is love. That means that he is so unselfish and that his desire to bless man is so great that he gave his dearly beloved Son to die and raised him out of death that man might get life. (John 3:16; 10:10) Surely when man learns that great truth he will have gratitude towards God. They will learn that Jehovah is their true friend because he has loved them all the time even while they were his enemies. (Prov. 17:17) Satan the enemy being removed, the profile will travel unhindered the great highway that leads to life, giving unstinted praise to Jehovah. As they progress under the just and righteous government of the Lord their knowledge of the loving-kindness and the glory of God will increase. All those who then willingly obey him and walk in the way of righteousness shall live for ever and never die.—John 8:51; 11: 26; Ezek. 18:27,28.
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