The Watchtower, September 15, 1942
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“THE WISE” TESTIMONY PERIOD
The month of October is known by Jehovah’s witnesses as “The Wise” Testimony Period During that month the servants of Jehovah will put forth an extraordinary effort to magnify the name of the Lord and to advertise his kingdom in the earth It is good to serve the Lord and to aid others, and those persons who are wise will put forth every effort to aid those who love righteousness to seek the truth. In Proverbs, chapter 8, verse 31 onward, this thought is brought to our attention, “Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareto me, . . . for whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.” During “The Wise” Testimony Period Jehovah’s witnesses will offer to the people the book Children and the booklet Hope, on a contribution of 25c, so that the people of good-will may receive instruction and be wise. All persons who love righteousness and want to help others find the way to life and learn of Jehovah’s kingdom will share in the witness work during this period. If you are not already associated with a company of Jehovah’s witnesses and would like to be, write to Watchtower, 117 Adams St., Brooklyn, N. Y., and we will get you in touch with the nearest company, so you may share with these servants of the Lord in the proclamation of the Kingdom. In these perplexing times the wise man will seek the Lord and share his knowledge with others, so “that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God”.
NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING
Pursuant to the provision of law and the charter of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, notice is hereby given that the annual business meeting of the said Society will be held at Pittsburgh. North Side (formerly Allegheny), Pennsylvania, at ten o’clock a. m., Thursday, October 1, 1942, at which the usual annual business will be transacted.
ADDITIONAL ADDRESSES OF ROOMING COMMITTEES
In each instance the address will be Watchtower Convention Committee. Committee addresses are as follows:
FLORIDA
Jacksonville (See Waycross, Ga.)
LOUISIANA
621 Foster St., Baton Rouge
MAINE
48 Arsenal St., Augusta NORTH DAKOTA
% Martin Lahren, 1311 - 1st St. S. W., Mandan (instead of Fargo) “WATCHTOWER” STUDIES
Week of October 18: “Assembly unto the Kingdom,” fl 1-22 inclusive. The Watchtower September 15, 1942.
Week of October 25' “Assembly unto the Kingdom,” fl 23-47 inclusive, The Watchtower September 15, 1942.
No. LXlll
September 15, 1942
No. 18
ASSEMBLY UNTO THE KINGDOM
"But you have approached to Zion, a mountain and city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriads of angels, a full assembly; and to a congregation of firstborn, having been enrolled in the heavens"—Heb. 12:22,23, Emphatic Diaglott translation.
JEHOVAH calls for the assembly unto the great Government that shall rule the world in righteousness. Lovers of righteousness are responding to the call and assembling unto that Government of Righteousness. All creatures, whether political systems, religious organizations, or individuals, who try to interfere with and to prevent that assembly do so at their peril. Jehovah’s Righteous Government is likened to a great mountain of glorious majesty and of holiness unto Him. “Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God hath made himself known in her palaces for a refuge. For, lo, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together.” (Ps. 48:1-4, Am. Rev. Ver.) Jehovah foretold the presumptuous efforts of kings, political and religious and using totalitarian methods and regimentation, to block the assembly of the righteous to the great mountain of his Government. Warning of the fate such totalitarian combine will surely meet, the divine prophecy says: “And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas [and] the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” (Daniel 11:45, Young’s) The assembly at the mountain shall be held. Jehovah’s call and invitation shall not go forth in vain.
2 In this critical year all the nations of the earth are caught in the overflowing current of a conflict for world domination. One nation after another has been sucked or swept in contrary to its wish. Whither the increasing current will carry them they cannot surely tell. Those who frame the policy for the nation, and who combine with others to frame the policy for the future of the whole world, can only hope for the success of their plans, and that such will be the best for the people that survive. No one questions their sincerity, and the true Christian will not interfere with their plans. But the worldly policy-makers with their dreams of their kind of world before their vision cannot for certain know whether they can attain them and make them a permanent reality. They and all must admit that the future lies with God. “There are many devices in a man’s heart; but the counsel of Jehovah, that shall stand.” (Prov. 19:21, Am. Rev. Ver.) It is different now with the nations than before A. D. 1914. That year the times of the Gentiles or nations ran out. There the time for their self-determination without interference from God ended. His decisions as to what should take place on earth from and after that year were long ago made. His decisions as to the future shall stand, and they shall be executed. Therefore those who look not to man but to God and who pray for His will to be done know for an absolute certainty that his purpose as laid out in his Word, the Bible, shall be accomplished without failure in the least detail. They are lifted up above the world current and are going whither he leads them. They know where they are going, and that is, to the Kingdom of God, the Government of the Theocratic new world. They have heard the invitation of the Almighty Theocratic Ruler, and they respond and assemble unto His Government. He bids them to invite others to come along.— Isa. 2: 2,3.
3 Those who prefer the schemes and the promises of mere men put themselves in the way of the assembly and seek to break it up. They are fighting against God, and to Him they shall finally have to answer. The time for settlement of accounts is very near, and there is no escape for a single opposer of Jehovah God and his Theocratic Government. The advice to the religious opposers still stands good: “For if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." (Acts 5:38,39) But that is not all. It is not merely a question of refraining from interfering and directly fighting against God. That will not save one or cause one to be spared. It is a question of joining in the assembly and positively taking the side of the sure Government of the new world. There is no neutrality.
4 Those who are indifferent to The Theocratic Government and making no decision are passive resisters to it, and they give comfort and aid thereby to the enemies of the Government. The King of The Theocracy is the One who stated the strict, unbending rule: “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” (Matt. 12:30) The time for indecision is past. The King spews out the lukewarm ones. (Rev. 3:16) Those who do not join the assembly unto the Kingdom of God simply do not believe his Word. They do not consider his invitation worth the acknowledging, and they thereby do not honor him or fear him or love his righteousness. If they are not found in the assembly, they must share the fate of all others outside who are actively fighting Jehovah’s Theocracy of everlasting life and peace. The flood of Noah’s day caught all those outside the ark.—Matt. 24: 37-39.
5 A man may say, “But I do not like the name of Jehovah.” That may be because the person loves this world of unrighteousness and selfish pleasure and hates the righteousness for which the name of Jehovah stands. Or it may be that, because the religions of “Christendom” have misrepresented and reproached the name of Jehovah, the person does not know the truth about Jehovah to love him. It is of Jehovah that the scripture speaks when it says: “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” (1 John 4: 8, 9) Mighty Pharaoh of ancient Egypt did not like the name of Jehovah, from the very first that the name and the purpose for which it stood were announced to Pharaoh by Jehovah’s witnesses, Moses and Aaron. The time had come for the name of God Almighty to be declared throughout all the land, because it was the time for the assembly unto the great mountain outside of Egypt and which mountain symbolized the Kingdom of God. If Pharaoh put himself in the way of that assembly, then Jehovah God would show his power over Pharaoh and over Satan, who was backing Pharaoh in opposition to Jehovah and any movement of the people to His side. That show of power became necessary, and it foreshadowed accurately the course of events in these last days of the world symbolized by Egypt.
6 Through his witness Moses Jehovah God revealed his purpose to Moses’ people, the children of Israel. He extended to them his gracious invitation to assemble to his mountain symbolizing his Theocratic Government and there to worship and serve him. If the governmental and religious authorities of Egypt would co-operate with the Israelites in getting to the place of worship and service it would be of benefit to the people of Egypt and would spare them much vexation, sorrow and loss. But did those authorities do so!
7 Jehovah’s people, the Israelites, were in Egypt, but they were not a part of that world organization. The Egyptians were very religious and worshiped demons. Therefore they hated Jehovah’s people, and in this they set the pattern of action for religionists to this very day. They set themselves up as the “master race” and reduced the condition of Jehovah's people to slaves, heaping all manner of unjust burdens upon them and framing mischief against them by laws of state. They denied their right to serve Jehovah God rather than Egypt, and they denied them the liberty to do so. God had set the time as exactly four hundred years from the time of Ishmael’s afflicting of their forefather Isaac that the Israelites should be permitted to suffer affliction: “And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.” (Gen. 15:13,14) That four-hundredth year was now ending, and the time was at hand for Jehovah’s people to freely worship him. The time was at hand for them to assemble to Jehovah’s holy mountain for his service.
8 Jehovah sent word to the ruling authorities of Egypt concerning his requirements upon his chosen people, notifying Pharaoh by Moses and his brother Aaron. “And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto Jehovah our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.” (Ex. 5:3, Am. Rev. Ver.) But Pharaoh put the interests of the political-religious state up above Jehovah God, and barred the “three days’ journey into the wilderness” for sacrifice to God. He insisted that Jehovah’s people must compromise and worship in Egypt subject to state regulation and contrary to God’s requirements. (Ex. 8:25-28) The threat of the Egyptians’ stoning and mobbing Jehovah’s people did not concern the state ruler. The chief of government repeatedly promised action, but always yielded to the pressure of the priests and practitioners of religion and kept up the interference with the assembly unto Jehovah’s service. He sought to deprive them of the means to worship and serve the Lord God, and at length threatened God’s witness Moses with death.—Ex. 10:24-29.
9 Final warning was given to the state, but was not heeded. The fight of that totalitarian world power of Egypt against Jehovah proved disastrous to it. Jehovah showed his supremacy over that political power and its god Satan. Its firstborn, the future hope of that world power, Jehovah slew; and its six hundred chariots and other armed might he swallowed up in the depths of the Red sea while they were in hot pursuit of Jehovah’s servants marching to liberty. Jehovah there made a name for himself, and the assembly of his redeemed ones unto the mountain of God went through.—2 Sam. 7: 23,24.
10 Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Jews today may belittle, reproach, ignore and treat with contempt the name of Jehovah, but that does not deny the existence to this day and forever of Jehovah. Couple with his eternal existence the fact that he changes not. (Mal. 3:6) His course of conduct toward the religionists and politicians of Egypt shows forth his unchanging rule of action toward those who take themselves so seriously as to oppose that upon which the name of Jehovah is called. Of still more serious concern is this fact: Jehovah’s own inspired witness, the apostle Paul, writes that what befell Egypt in its opposition to the assembly of Jehovah’s chosen people was typical and would find fulfillment upon a world-wide scale in the “time of the end” of the world, where we have been since 1914. Mark his words: “Now all these things happened unto them for types: and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.” (1 Cor. 10:11, marginal reading) Both the political and religious rulers of ancient Egypt and also the common people who backed them up in the fight against Jehovah were caught in the national disaster that struck them at the hand of Jehovah, whom they scorned. Therefore let rulers and peoples today be sure of this one thing: that as they put up like resistance to the great assembly unto the Kingdom of God, they must expect to come upon them, with strange suddenness shortly, and without a loophole of escape, a catastrophe like Egypt’s, but of such proportions as to make Egypt’s beating very light in comparison. Jehovah God shall not be mocked without consequences.—Gal. 6: 7.
TYPICAL ASSEMBLY
11 Its being thirty hundred years in the past does not lessen for us the great present-day meaning of circumstances and events that went with the typical assembly to the mountain of God. A comparison of such with the events on earth since 1914 only serves to prove that the time is here for the assembly and that it has been in progress particularly since 1918 and is steadily approaching a climax, and will reach it right soon. Certainly nothing could be of greater importance to the person desiring eternal life and righteousness than to consider these things in the light of Jehovah’s Word, the Bible. Those who engross themselves in the lofty-looking programs and schemes of men of the world mimic Pharaoh’s challenge, saying: “Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto his voice to let Israel go?” All such shall shortly find themselves hopelessly entrapped in a course that means their destruction with all nations of the world. Those who act meekly and wisely and who join in and help others into the gathering to The Theocratic Government shall survive and go free.
12 In the third month after the Israelites were delivered from bondage in Egypt they reached the base of Mount Sinai and encamped before the mountain of God, the appointed place of assembly. (Ex. 3:1,11,12; 19:1,2) Jehovah had made the law covenant with the Israelites in Egypt over the blood of the passover lamb which was sprinkled upon the entrances of their homes, and this covenant he now dedicated, inaugurated or confirmed toward the Israelites, using the prophet Moses as his mediator toward Israel. Through Moses Jehovah said to them: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Ex. 19:5, 6) Then Moses notified Israel of the coming manifestation of God’s presence on the third day thereafter: “Be ready against the third day: for the third day Jehovah will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: no hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, he shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.”—Ex. 19:11-13, Am. Rev. Ver.
13 Those words of dire warning apply to the antitypical or real things in these momentous times; and yet religionists, politicians and judges of “Christendom” make bold to touch in hostility that which is symbolized by the holy “mountain of God”. They even attempt to pollute that “holy place” with the new human order for which they are fighting that it shall forever dominate the earth. Under examination, religion will be found to be responsible for this.
14 With the terrific events and conditions since 1914 looming large before us and demanding an explanation, the record of the typical happenings at the “mountain of God” is read with tense interest. “And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their garments. And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not near a woman. And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud; and all the people that were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai, the whole of it, smoked, because Jehovah descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And Jehovah came down upon mount Sinai, to the top of the mount: and Jehovah called Moses to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.” “And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before you, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.”—Ex. 19:14-20; 20:18-21, Am. Rev.Ver.
15 On that spectacular occasion the “mountain of God” became the official seat of the great Lawgiver Jehovah. Through his mediator Moses He gave the Theocratic law of the “ten commandments” and the related statutes and ordinances. That law placed Jehovah God first. It commanded those who enter a covenant with God to put and keep Jehovah first and above all: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” (Ex. 20:1-7, Am. Rev. Ver.) The unchanging principles of these commandments concerning the worship of Jehovah are restated in the writings of Christ’s apostles as applying to Christians.
16 Today under the spreading influence of totalitarianism, which is demonism, the supremacy of Almighty God’s law is being challenged by the highest courts of “Christendom”, and faithful Christians who abide by Jehovah God’s law as supreme and binding in their lives at all times and everywhere are punished for holding fast their integrity to the Most High God. And the religious leaders of “Christendom” applaud this. “Christendom” pretends to be in the solemn covenant with Almighty God to obey his commandments, but she has broken every one of them flagrantly, and has therefore taken God’s name in vain. The calamitous outcome which came upon her prototype, unfaithful Israel, who broke her covenant with God, makes certain the sore evil to come upon “Christendom”, which is under greater responsibility.
ANGELS
17 Moses as mediator between Jehovah God and Israel was a type of a Greater One to come. (Deut. 18:15-18) God so testified to Moses by his angel at Mount Sinai when the people asked that Moses speak to them instead of God. “This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers; who received the lively oracles to give unto us.” (Acts 7: 37,38) The Greater One foreshadowed by Moses is the promised Seed of Abraham, Christ Jesus, Jehovah’s King of The Theocracy. “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it [the law covenant] was ordained by angels, in the hand of a mediator.” (Gal. 3:18,19) The religious leaders killed that promised Seed when here in the flesh, and therefore the faithful witness Stephen said to them: “Ye do always resist the holy [spirit] : as your fathers did, so do ye. Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.”—Acts 7 : 51, 53.
18 Israel’s modern counterpart, “Christendom,” has received God’s law as given through his Greater Mediator, Christ Jesus, but her religious and political powers fight over world domination and reject the great salvation offered by the Greater Moses. To her therefore apply the words of stern warning: “For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the holy [spirit], according to his own will! For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.” (Heb. 2:2-5) Jehovah God has ordained the inhabitants of the world of righteousness to be subject to his King of The Theocracy, made higher than angels. (Heb. 1:4-14) To him all must assemble for salvation; “unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”—Gen. 49:10.
PLACE OF ASSEMBLY
19 It is no mere imagination that the events at Mount Sinai at the dedication of the old law covenant were prophetic of more awe-inspiring things to come in this period of history. Those events it is of surpassing importance for life-seekers to study intently today for counsel and guidance. This is not the interpretation of The Watchtower, but of Jehovah God himself by a faithful apostle of Jesus Christ, at Hebrews, chapter twelve. More serious are the times now than at Mount Sinai three millenniums ago. The responsibility upon individuals, organizations and nations is greater far. The course of those who took a fatal and disastrous course in ancient times is warned against in God’s Word of admonition and should be avoided by the wise.
20 “Christendom” claims to be Christ’s kingdom, and that she will spread the kingdom of God throughout the world. She, and particularly the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, claims to have a monopoly of rights on this undertaking. “Christendom,” however, under the religious lead of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy with headquarters at Vatican City, has gone after the satisfaction of her belly, selfishness. She has tried to gain the world and its kingdom, which Christ Jesus in the mountain of temptation refused at Satan’s hands. That is why “Christendom” today is a house divided against itself in a total war; and over what? Jehovah’s kingdom under Christ? No, but over world domination; concerning which world God’s apostle writes: “The friendship of the world is enmity with God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (Jas. 4:4) Hence God has doomed “Christendom” to destruction at Armageddon, and all the pope’s prayers for peace and all his blessings upon the world, and all postwar attempts at religious revival, will not persuade God to repent and turn from his unchangeable decision and purpose.—1 Sam. 15: 29.
21 “Christendom’s” selfish worldly course proves she has no rights in the kingdom of God. She commits spiritual fornication with this world and is profane. She opposes and persecutes those who join the assembly unto the Kingdom. Therefore she has gone in the way of Esau, who despised The Theocracy and sold away his claim on the birthright for a mess of pottage. “Christendom” has not heeded the warning at Hebrews 12:16,17: “Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person like Esau, who for the sake of one meal yielded up his own firstborn rights; for ye know that afterwards, when he even wished to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for place of repentance found he none [in his divinely directed father Isaac], even though with tears he diligently sought it” (Rotherham’s translation) There is therefore no hope of salvation by means of “Christendom”; God’s judgment is upon her unto destruction. Salvation is alone by his Kingdom, symbolized by Mount Zion. “And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be Jehovah’s.” (Obad. 21, Am. Rev. Ver.) The choice must now be made by all, whether to drift along with “Christendom” toward her proposed new order or to assemble unto Jehovah’s glorious Mount Zion, his Theocracy by Christ Jesus. Why so? The inspired answer from the great Theocrat Jehovah follows.
22 “For you have not approached to a mountain, touched and scorched with fire, and to a thick cloud, and to darkness, and to tempest, and to a sound of a trumpet, and to a voice of commands, the hearers of which entreated that not another word should be added to them; (for they could not endure the injunction, 'If even a beast should touch the mountain it shall be stoned’; and so terrible was the scene that Moses said, 'I exceedingly fear and tremble.’)” (Heb 12:18-21, Emphatic Diaglott) It was the Israelites according to the flesh that approached to such a mountain, namely, Mount Sinai, when God dedicated the law covenant with that nation and declared the Theocratic requirements for divine approval and preservation and blessing. That situation was serious enough, calling for great anxiety and carefulness, with “fear and trembling”, to keep the commandments of Jehovah God and carry out the covenant with him. But here, in the letter to the Hebrews, the apostle is addressing those who are foreshadowed by those Israelites according to the flesh. The apostle is addressing those who are Hebrews or Israelites according to the spirit, new creatures, “the Israel of God” in the new covenant with him. (Rom. 2: 28, 29; Gal. 6:15,16; Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:11) “Christendom” pretends to be such, but her telltale fruits and works disprove her pretensions and show her to be a religious counterfeit.
23The apostle’s words at Hebrews, chapter twelve, are specifically directed to the remnant of the spiritual Israelites on earth in these the “last days”, because it was in A. D. 1914 that God’s holy “mountain” of his kingdom was established. It is the Mount Zion, upon which he set his anointed King of the new world, Christ Jesus. (Ps. 2:6) Of this mountain it is written: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills: and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isa. 2: 2, 3) In fulfillment of this prophecy not only the remnant of the “little flock” of spiritual Israel assemble unto the mountain of his Righteous Government, but also the “other sheep” of the Lord whom Christ Jesus, “the Good Shepherd,” now gathers from out of all nations.— Luke 12:32; John 10:10,16.
24 This agrees with the fact that when the natural Israelites assembled at Sinai on the typical occasion, there came along with them a “mixed multitude” forsaking worldly Egypt with Jehovah’s covenant nation and assembling with them at the “mountain of God”. (Ex. 12: 38; Num. 11: 4) These are the ones meant by “the stranger that is within thy gates” mentioned in the ten commandments there given. (Ex. 20:10) Such “strangers” or “other sheep” are not spiritual Israelites, but are persons of good-will with hopes of everlasting blessings on earth under God’s kingdom and who become the faithful companions of the remnant of spiritual Israel since A.D. 1918.
25 Why is the world in the most critical time of all history! and why therefore are the remnant and their companions, the “other sheep”, in a position so very serious that they must exercise the greatest caution to take the right course in obedience to the Theocratic rule! The apostle addresses them with the answer: “But you have approached to Zion, a mountain and city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriads of angels, a full assembly; and to a congregation of firstborn, having been enrolled in the heavens: and to a Judge who is God of all; and to spirits of the righteous made perfect: and to a Mediator of a new covenant, Jesus; and to a blood of sprinkling speaking something better than Abel.”—Heb. 12: 22-24, Diaglott.
26 This means that we have reached the established kingdom of God. The events on earth fulfilling the apostle’s words that immediately follow the above quotation prove it beyond all denial. In A. D. 1914 The Theocratic Government of the new world was born, and since then Jehovah has held the nations of earth in derision and says to them: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” (Ps. 2:1-6) Therefore mount Zion represents the official Theocratic residence of Jehovah, the only true and living God. Let Vatican City, who calls Rome “The Eternal City” and who persecutes Jehovah’s witnesses and palms herself off on the nations as God’s chosen favorite, take the rebuff of Jehovah God in this declaration, namely: “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.”—Ps. 132:13,14.
27 Those who seek God, Christianity, life and peace assemble unto the Theocratic Mount Zion rather than to that political-religious city on the Tiber river, the heart of totalitarian Fascism. Let the Vatican observe that the name of Jehovah’s heavenly Theocratic Government under Christ is not “the heavenly Rome”, even though Rome’s armies did destroy the earthly Jerusalem in A. D. 70, which was many years before the apostle John wrote the description of the heavenly city of God in The Revelation or Apocalypse. Rome has no part in anything heavenly. The name which the God of the new world gives his heavenly Theocracy is "the heavenly Jerusalem”. Rome has ever meant war and oppression; the name “Jerusalem” means “possession of peace”. In the typical Jerusalem of ancient time the temple was built upon Mount Zion in Jerusalem and there Jehovah’s presence was represented in the Most Holy of the temple. Therefore Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem both symbolize Jehovah’s divine city or organization, The Theocratic Government; but Zion pictures it as being the capital organization of God’s universe, while Jerusalem pictures it as the heavenly organization of perfect order, peace, unity and prosperity, and always successful to the vindication of Jehovah’s name.
28 In A. D. 1914 the “times of the Gentiles”, that is, the times of the nations of the world of which Satan the Devil is god, ended, and Satan’s period of rule uninterrupted by Jehovah God expired. The great interruption or end came by Jehovah’s establishment of the Righteous Government, the heavenly Theocracy, and His empowering it to act at once according to the will of God and against the plans of all enemies. The birth of that Theocratic Government of the living God affected all the universe, because The Theocracy is the capital organization thereof. Its coming into control and proceeding to act was therefore an occasion of universal interest and one of great joy and importance to all the holy angels of God’s universe. Jehovah’s firstborn and only begotten Son Christ Jesus is the Chief of that Government of the new world. His installation as King thereof in 1914 affected the angels of God as described at Hebrews 1:6: “And when he again bringeth in the firstborn into the world he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.”— Am. Rev. Ver.
29 Therefore in 1914 all the holy angels assembled, that is, took their stand on the side of that capital organization and its anointed Head, and pledged their everlasting and undying allegiance and service unto him. There was thus a “full assembly” of them, and it was a time of the greatest joy thus far in universal history because the long-promised Theocratic Government that will vindicate Jehovah’s holy name before all creation had now begun to function with its King upon the throne. The apostle Paul in the original text of Hebrews 12:22,23 used the word “panegyris” in that connection, and which word means “mass assembly” or “gathering of all”, and from which word the English word “panegyric” is derived. It means a high and most important occasion. Therefore one emphatic translation renders the text: “Unto myriads of messengers in high festival.” (Rotherham) Concerning those faithful messengers the King foretold, saying; “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him [for him and on his side], then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.”—Matt. 25:31.
30 The allegiance of the angels to the newly installed King, Jehovah’s God-like Son whose official title in heaven is “Michael”, was immediately put to the test. After the birth of The Theocratic Government from the womb of God’s universal organization, or “woman”, the “war in heaven” was begun against the demon organization that had long been tolerated in heaven. The holy angels proved they were with and for Jehovah’s installed King, and they fought under this “Michael” against that frightful dragon organization. It was ousted from heaven and thrust down to the vicinity of the earth. Therefore the abased Devil is mad and brings all manner of woes upon the nations of earth. It is a time of woe for the earth and sea, but a time of rejoicing for those in the heavens. The victory of the New Government at its birth is a sure guarantee of its victory over Satan’s entire organization at Armageddon in vindication of Jehovah’s name.—Rev. 12:12.
“FIRSTBORN"
31 In the ancient days Jehovah’s temple stood on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Three and one-half years after Jesus was anointed with God’s spirit at Jordan he rode amid the acclamation of a great multitude into Jerusalem and came to the temple and cleansed it. Correspondingly, after the birth of the New Government and the cleansing of the heavens by the ousting of Satan and his demons, Jehovah’s great Messenger and King turned his attention to the spiritual temple of God. Christ Jesus as King and High Priest of God is the chief comer stone of that temple. All his faithful body members, the “little flock”, are made “living stones” of that temple, and in it Jehovah dwells by his spirit of divine power. In 1918, in fulfillment of the prophecy at Malachi 3:1-4, Jehovah’s Messenger or Deputy Officer came to the temple; that is, he directed his attention thereto and took action respecting it. A bodily coming was not necessary, as his “all power” in heaven and in earth extends whithersoever he directs it.
32 The majority of the temple class were, at his coming, sleeping in death in the graves; only a remnant of those in line for the temple were yet alive on earth. The sleeping temple members He raised from death and exalted them to heaven, in contrast with Satan and his demons, who had been cast down from it. He gathered them to him on Mount Zion. Then he judged the remnant on earth, purged them, and brought them into a unity with him and into his service at the temple even while they yet continue on earth as publishers of the good news of the Kingdom unto all nations. All these, the resurrected temple members and the approved remnant on earth, constitute the true church, “the assembly of firstborn ones enrolled in the heavens.” (Rotherham) They are begotten of God’s spirit unto a heavenly life, to be associated with Jehovah’s firstborn Son Christ Jesus in the heavenly kingdom. To them it is written: “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” (Jas. 1:18) All religious organizations on earth reject these witnesses of Jehovah, because such witnesses of Almighty God have abandoned all religion for Christianity. Though religion casts out their names as evil, their names are enrolled in heaven as members of the true church, which church numbers only 144,000 members.—Rev. 7 : 4-8.
33 The resurrected temple members and the remnant being all gathered unto the Lamb of God at the temple, the glorious picture at Revelation 14:1-4 is now fulfilled: “And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads... . These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.” It is unto this assembling of the “church of the firstborn” that we have come since 1918. Let us therefore not be shaken from our firm position for The Theocratic Government.— 2 Thess. 2:1,2.
JUDGMENT
34 After his coming to the temple Christ Jesus begins judgment: “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” (1 Pet. 4:17) Jehovah has committed all judgment into the hands of his devoted Son, who has power also to execute God’s judgment. Therefore by his Son as his representative at the temple Jehovah is “God the Judge of all”, and before his seat all, both men and nations, must appear. (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10) After the remnant are judged at the temple, Jehovah’s King and Judge proceeds to the judgment of all the nations on earth. That judgment is now on. The persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses, and the dividing of the people of the nations into classes, the sheeplike ones in favor of Jehovah’s Theocracy and the goatlike ones in opposition to it, these things are certain visible proofs that the judgment of the nations is on. The “sheep” are gathered to the right side of “Mount Zion” on which reigns the King. Being assembled on that side of favor and approval, the faithful “sheep” are the companions of the remnant and shall enjoy the King’s blessings and protection and preservation unto life everlasting on earth. The “goats” at the left and in opposition to “Mount Zion” meet utter destruction in the fire of Armageddon.—Matt. 25: 31-46.
35 The spirits of all creatures are being judged, which creatures are being shown to be either of a faithful spirit toward God and his Kingdom gospel or of an unfaithful and opposing spirit toward God and his gospel purpose. Therefore among other notable things unto which we have come or approached the apostle mentions “the spirits of righteous ones made perfect”. (Heb. 12:23, Rotherham) These righteous ones made perfect are the spirit-begotten remnant of the “little flock”, who are approved at the temple judgment and anointed to be Jehovah’s witnesses and hence covered over with his “robe of righteousness” and “garments of salvation”. (Isa. 61:1,10) These must be perfected in their integrity and in their spirit of obedience and devotion toward God, just as it was necessary for Jesus to ‘learn obedience and be made perfect in this by the things he suffered’.—Heb. 2:10; 5:8.
36 Hence the remnant are now severely disciplined by the suffering of reproach and persecution, and to them the apostle’s words apply: “The fathers of our flesh we used to have as administrators of discipline, and we used to pay deference: shall we not much rather submit ourselves to the Father of our spirits and live?” (Heb. 12:9, Rotherham) They must therefore strictly conform to Jehovah’s “gospel scheme” or “gospel purpose and procedure”. As an example to us Christ Jesus conformed to it and kept his integrity and he was justified in spirit or declared of God to be perfectly right in his spirit toward God his Father. Concerning this it is written: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness [(Strong’s Concordance) the mystery of the gospel scheme]; He who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels [after his resurrection and ascension to heaven], preached among the nations [after the pouring out of the spirit at Pentecost], believed on in the world [by those forsaking this world], received up in glory [at the birth of The Theocratic Government in 1914]." (1 Tim. 3:16, Am. Rev. Ver.) The “captain of our salvation” was perfected in obedience to God by suffering. Like-wise must the “righteous ones” of the remnant who have the Lord’s spirit be thus perfected before they finish their earthly course and experience their resurrection change to glory, honor and immortality with Christ Jesus in the heavenly Theocracy. They must come to that perfecting, and the apostle’s words give assurance that they shall.
NEW COVENANT INAUGURATED
37 When the Israelites of old and their multitude of companions came to Mount Sinai the law covenant was inaugurated and dedicated toward them through Moses as mediator. Thereby the Israelites became a people upon whom Jehovah’s name was called. Christ Jesus is “the mediator of a new covenant”. His lifeblood he shed at his first coming to make that covenant valid or operative toward those of his body members, the “little flock”. (Matt. 26:28) At his coming to the temple in 1918 he inaugurated or dedicated that new covenant toward the approved remnant whom he assembled to himself at the temple. How? The purpose of the new covenant was and is to ‘take out from all the nations of the earth a people for Jehovah’s name’, with a view to the vindication of His name. (Acts 15:14) That name must be declared throughout the earth by his witnesses before he shows his power over Satan’s entire organization in the battle of Armageddon. That battle is, by all signs and prophecies, very near at hand. It will burst upon the nations suddenly, like an unexpected thief in the dead of night. Hence Jehovah’s name and the purpose for which it stands must be declared by his remnant now, from and after the Lord’s coming to the temple and before the outbreak of “the battle of that great day of God Almighty”.
38 When the Lord came to the temple Jehovah’s consecrated people on earth had yielded to fear of men and were lax and delinquent toward their obligations to praise Him and proclaim his established Kingdom. Jehovah was therefore angry toward them for their failure. To continue in this disapproved condition would have meant their destruction at the hands of Jehovah’s Executioner at Armageddon. For his name’s sake, however, and in his infinite loving-kindness, Jehovah had mercy upon the consecrated ones of faithful heart and spirit who were anxious to resume his service. The blood which validated the new covenant was still available and of power to cleanse them. In the far past the blood of Abel was spilled upon the ground by a religionist and it cried to God for vengeance upon the slayer. The blood of the new covenant calls for mercy upon the ones who repent and turn from coming short of their obligations toward God. Therefore Jesus’ blood is the "blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel”. That blood was foreshadowed by the blood of sacrificial victims that Moses sprinkled upon the people when dedicating the old law covenant at Mount Sinai. Therefore, at Mount Zion, Jehovah by his Mediator Christ Jesus sprinkled the sin-purging blood of the new covenant upon the faithful remnant and cleansed them, and thus again brought them into proper relationship with that covenant
39 In keeping with the purpose of that covenant to bring forth a people for his name Jehovah poured out his spirit upon the remnant in the flesh and made them his official witnesses. He called them by the “new name”, that is, “Jehovah’s witnesses,” and sent them forth as such to publish his name throughout all the earth before Armageddon. This the remnant under the new covenant are doing, and will continue to do unto the final end.
“REFUSE NOT"
40 Seeing that we have come to the things described above, what then! We cannot now go in the course of the world. Amid the violent conflict between “the king of the north” and “the king of the south” all the religionists of “Christendom” are excusing themselves from strict obedience to God. They are finding deceptive excuses to justify themselves for breaking their implied covenant with God. With high-sounding phrases and slogans and catchwords they try to deceive also the remnant and their companions. (Matt. 24:24) To whom shall we listen! “Beware lest ye excuse yourselves from him that speaketh: for if they [the Jews] escaped not who excused themselves from him who on earth was warning, how much less shall we who from him that warneth from the heavens do turn ourselves away?”— Heb. 12: 25, Rotherham.
41 At verse 19, describing events at Mount Sinai, the apostle mentions “a trumpet’s peal, and a sound of things spoken: from which they who heard excused themselves”. (Roth.) To us, who have entered into a covenant to do Jehovah’s will, it would mean destruction were we to follow “Christendom’s” course and excuse ourselves from fulfilling the Theocratic law and rules which Jehovah by his Greater Moses speaks from Mount Zion, The Theocratic Government. Shall we obey God or totalitarian- Fascist statesmen? There will be no escaping complete destruction for those who reject God and obey men. (Acts 5:29) We have come to that “full assembly” of myriads of holy angels. These will act with Christ the King as executioners of the disobedient at Armageddon.
42 The shaking at Mount Sinai due to the presence of Jehovah’s mighty angel there was local; but all of Satan’s world is shaking now. It is the voice of the living God, Jehovah, which is responsible. “Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” (Heb. 12:26,27) The fearful shaking at Mount Sinai was actual, but was also prophetic of a larger shaking, the shaking of Satan’s world with its “heavens and the earth, which are now.”—2 Pet. 3: 7.
43With the setting of Jehovah’s King on Mount Zion of The Theocracy in 1914 the shaking began. The “war in heaven” shook the invisible part of the enemy organization, Satan and his demons, down from the heavenly position to the vicinity of this earth. That shake-down is only preparatory to the complete removal of those Satanic heavens in the climax of the shaking at the battle of Armageddon. “For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house [the temple of The Theocracy] with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.”— Hag. 2: 6, 7.
44 The “earth”, or visible part of Satan’s world organization, is also shaken. The shaking out of heaven which the “god of this world” has undergone has filled him with raging madness and he brings woe upon humankind to blind and embitter them against God and to turn them away from assembling to the Kingdom of God. (Rev. 12:7-12) But the voice of Jehovah from Mount Zion is also heard by the “earth” and the “nations” thereof, and by its “sea” of restless humanity alienated from God, and by its “dry land”, the totalitarian ruling organization which tries to remain stable and hold back the peoples.—Luke 21: 25, 26.
45 By such visible parts of Satan’s world organization Jehovah’s “voice” is heard in his message of the Kingdom and of the day of his vengeance which Jehovah’s remnant and their companions proclaim. This so terrifies the elements of the “earth” that they shake with wrath and rise up in bitter persecution in all nations against Jehovah’s Kingdom publishers. They are further shaken by the fearlessness in the face of all adversaries as displayed by Jehovah’s witnesses, who obey God’s word of command and keep coming with his message of the new world, like an irresistible swarm of locusts that darkens the heavens for the multitude thereof. (Phil. 1:28; Joel 2:6-11) Soon the rulers of the “earth” will yield to demon pressure and take drastic action against Jehovah’s witnesses and try to quiet their own shakiness and will cry “Peace and safety!” Then “tidings out of the east and out of the north” shall cause them to quake worse than ever. (Dan. 11:44) They shall be shaken into their final all-out action against Jehovah God and his Kingdom, only to run into Armageddon’s shaking. In that universal war, beyond power of human imagination to picture in its horror and magnitude, Satan’s “heavens” and “earth” and “sea” shall be shaken so terribly and mightily that they will vanish into invisible vibrations and dissolve into disorganization.—Ps. 46: 6-9; Ezek. 38.
RESOLVED, SINCE THESE THINGS BE SO
46 “Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:28,29) “May we hold fast the favor, through which we may serve God acceptably” (Emphatic Diaglott); “let us have gratitude, whereby we may be rendering divine service well-pleasingly unto God, with reverence and awe; for even our God is a consuming fire.” (Rotherham; Am. Rev. Ver., margin) Great favor has been bestowed upon us to have revealed to us Jehovah’s Theocratic Government by Christ Jesus and to be privileged to devote ourselves to Jehovah and to assemble unto His Kingdom. That Righteous Government of the new world shall not disappoint or fail us; it is here, and “it shall stand for ever”. (Dan. 2:44) May we therefore never forsake it or keep silent about it. Keeping confidence in it and standing immovably by it at Armageddon, we shall not be shaken and removed while the terrific shaking of the Devil’s wicked “heavens” and “earth” tears them to pieces.—Ps. 46:1-3.
47 To our enemies who hate The Theocracy let our awe-inspiring God be a “consuming fire” at Armageddon. But as for us, let us with fear and trembling seek to find further grace in his sight, continuing during hot persecution to do personal witnessing for Him. Let us with great gratitude continue to serve him in the manner acceptable to him, though not acceptable to this world. “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”—Heb. 10: 23-25.
WHO MUST CONTROL THE EARTH?
IN THE day of his triumphal ride into the city of Jerusalem to present himself as King of the new world, Christ Jesus, God’s anointed One, quoted from the Eighth Psalm. The Psalm must therefore be something more than a mere poetic statement of the glory of God and his work of creation seen by men. The Eighth Psalm is ascribed to David, the shepherd boy who became king, and who foreshadowed Christ Jesus. No psalms or songs were composed by David until after his anointing as God's choice for the kingdom.
God’s anointed speaks and says: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou are mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Psalm 8, verses 3,4) This clearly refers to the physical heavens a portion of which are visible to the eye of man. Men who know not God think themselves and other men are great, and they give honor and glory to men and to the work of man’s hands. Only the servant of Almighty God Jehovah can appreciate the insignificance of man as compared with the Most High God, the Creator. Both the Scriptures and the facts show that it is the anointed of God speaking these words: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”—Vss. 4-8.
At the time of the garden of Eden God did not put all things under the perfect man Adam and did not give him dominion over all things. He has, however, put all things under Christ Jesus. Therefore the words of the prophet David, namely, “the man,” must mean Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul, at Hebrews 2:5-9, quotes the psalmist’s words and applies them to Christ Jesus, saying: “For not unto angels did he [Jehovah God] subject the inhabited earth to come, whereof we speak But one hath somewhere testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. . . . For in that he subjected all things unto him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man ” (Am. Rev. Ver., margin) Here the apostle says, in substance, that God made Jesus a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor as the greatest of all men, that he might prove his integrity in vindication of God’s name and be also the Redeemer of humankind; and God gave him dominion over all the things of the heaven and the earth. God did not crown Adam with glory and honor, and God will not make man ruler of the earth. The psalmist David spoke the words of this prophecy, and he spoke not for himself, nor of and concerning Adam. Being a prophet he spoke of Christ Jesus.—Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27-30.
“The Son of the man’’ is one of the titles that properly belongs to Jesus. He applied this title to himself after he was anointed to be the King. (Matt. 13:41; 24:27-30; 25:31; John 6:62; 3:13) The first time the term “son of man” is applied to any specific creature is when it appears in Psalm 8. The expression is found in the book of Job, but only in a general descriptive sense. “The man Christ Jesus” became the owner of everything that Adam might have possessed had Adam remained in harmony with God; but those things would have been confined to the earth. Christ Jesus became owner of all things, both in heaven and in earth Concerning him it is written that God has anointed him heir over all things and put all things under him. (See Hebrews 1:2 and Philippians 2:10,11.) Not only did Jesus become the owner of everything that Adam might have possessed, but by the covenant that Jehovah God made with him he became the owner of all creation in heaven and in earth and under the earth, which includes the lower animals and man. It is true that the great multitude of survivors of the battle of Armageddon will have a position superior to the lower animals and that these animals will be subject to the great multitude that lives forever on earth; yet such “men of good-will” will themselves be subject to the heavenly King, Christ Jesus, who is the real owner of all things. Regenerated man on earth will not be a ruler of other men. He will be glad to have everlasting life on earth and the blessings incident thereto, but there is nothing to indicate he will rule his fellow man. The resurrected faithful men of old, from Abel to John the Baptist, who will become children of “the Everlasting Father”, will be made “princes in all the earth”, but they shall be simply the visible representatives of Jehovah’s King of The Theocratic Government, Christ Jesus.—Ps. 45:16, Isa. 9:6.
God made a covenant with the man Christ Jesus for the Kingdom, which covenant carries with it the rulership over all things. By the grace of God Jesus invited his disciples to have a part with him in that covenant. God’s expressed purpose is to make all the faithful disciples or followers the members of the glorified body of Christ whose title is “The Man” because of having redeemed all that which the perfect man Adam forfeited through sin of rebellion. (Phil. 3:20,21; 1 Cor. 15:47) It is those consecrated followers taken into the Kingdom covenant with Christ Jesus whom Paul means when he says: “God . . . will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who, by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life.” (Rom. 2:5-7; Eph. 4:13) Those in the covenant with God for the Kingdom and who are his anointed saints have the specific promise that if they suffer with Christ Jesus and continue faithful to the end they shall be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, who is the heir of all things.—Rom. 8:16,17; 2 Tim. 2:11,12.
God visits his faithful creatures for their good. This is to be understood, when the psalmist says. “What is man . . . ! and the son of man, that thou visitest him!” The Scriptures show that God did visit his beloved Son and favored him with honor and glory above all creation and made him the Vindicator of Jehovah’s name and the Redeemer of man. Then the apostle shows that God’s purpose is to bring many sons to glory under the Head and Captain of their salvation, Christ Jesus. These he visits and takes out of the world for His name’s sake, making them a “people for his name”. (See Hebrews 1: 9; 2: 9-11; Acts 15: 14-16.) Concerning their relationship to the “man Christ Jesus” it is written: “The first man [Adam] is of the earth, earthy; the second man [Christ Jesus] is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly [Christ Jesus], such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” (1 Cor. 15:47-50) It is the man Christ Jesus under whom God has put all things, and all things, God himself excepted, must be subjected to Christ Jesus; as it is written: “For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, All things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him.” (1 Cor. 15:27) The proof is therefore conclusive that the words of Psalm Eight, “What is man ... and the son of man ... !” do not refer to Adam and his posterity, but do apply to Christ, into whose body God brings the faithful disciples by adoption, making them joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.
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