The Watchtower, April 15, 1949
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“And a^l thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” - Isaiah 54:13.
THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES
THAT JEHOVAH Is the only true God, from everlasting to everlasting, and Is the Maker of heaven and earth and Giver of life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning of his creation and bis active agent in creating all other things; and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised the issue of His universal sovereignty;
THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for the earth and placed him upon it; that man yielded to unfaithful Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully disobeyed God's law and was sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam’s wrong act all men are born sinners and without the right to life;
THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death In.order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all power and authority as head of God's new capital organization;
THAT GOD’S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION Is a Theocracy called Zion, and that Christ Jesus is the Chief Officer thereof and is the rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed followers of Christ Jesus are Zion’s children, members of Jehovah’s organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privilege it Is to testify to Jehovah’s supremacy and declare his purposes toward mankind as expressed in the Bible;
THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan’s uninterrupted rule, ended A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to vindicate His name and establish the “new earth”;
THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only by Jehovah's kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His next great act is to destroy Satan’s organization and establish righteousness completely in the earth ; and that under the Kingdom the people of good-will surviving Armageddon will carry out the divine mandate to “fill the earth” with righteous offspring, and that the human dead in the graves will be raised to opportunities of life on earth.
ITS MISSION
THIS journal is published for the purpose of enabling the people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed in the Bible. It publishes Bible Instruction specifically designed to aid Jehovah’s witnesses and all people of good-will. It arranges systematic Bible study for its readers and the Society supplies other literature to aid in such studies. It publishes suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means of public instruction In the Scriptures.
It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for Its utterances. It is entirely free and separate from all religion, parties, sects or other worldly organizations. It Is wholly and without reservation for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King. It 1b not dogmatic, but Invites careful and critical examination of Its contents in the light of the Scriptures. It does not Indulge in controversy, and its columns are not open to personalities.
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“NATIONS’ HOPE” TESTIMONY PERIOD
How will the nations be able to set their hope now on the great King whom God has raised up to rule the new world unless they learn about him T This is the question that will make each already informed person realize his responsibility during the month of April of taking part in the “Nations’ Hope” Testimony Period throughout this month. April brings to a close the four-month campaign for taking 500,000 subscriptions for the Watchtower Society’s magazines in the 22 languages in which they are published. Hence the special offer continues in force, namely, a year’s subscription each for The Watchtower and Awake! together with the premium gift of the latest bound book and booklet, to each taker, at the subscription rate of both for $2.00. All lovers of their fellow man want the God of hope to fill as many others as possible with the joy and peace of believing in the Kingdom hope, and therefore we again remind all Watchtower readers of our readiness to help any that desire to have a hand in this hope-inspiring educational work. Let us hear from all such before this campaign ends, and also let every participant turn in his report at the close of the Testimony Period.
“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES
Week of May 22: “Restoration to Life by Resurrection,” fl 1-22 inclusive, The Watchtower April 15, 1949.
Week of May 29; “Restoration to Life by Resurrection,” fl 23-28 inclusive, also “Preservation of Identity in the Resurrection”,
fl 1-13 inclusive, The Watchtower April 15, 1949.
“THE KINGDOM HOPE OF ALL MANKIND”
For 4,000 years human kingdoms have tried in vain to realize the hopes of man. But with the passing of each, the hope that men had pinned to it collapsed, and today the world flounders hopelessly in the accumulated failures of 4,000 years. Now in a final desperate effort to salvage hope the nations pool their power in a United Nations organization. But as hope in it fades, the nations realize that many failures added together do not sum up to success. With driving logic the widely delivered public lecture entitled “The Kingdom Hope of All Mankind” pressed these points home, and thence struck a theme that proves the situation is not hopeless. Nor was it hopeless as far back as Adam’s day, for it was then that Jehovah God first revealed the kingdom hope for all mankind. He has never lost sight of it since, and has made provision for hopeful men to keep it in view. That hope is the promised kingdom of Christ. It will be realized by this generation. All this hopefulness shone brightly through the public lecture, and because of the need for hope now it has been preserved in print in the 32-page booklet, The Kingdom Hope of AH Mankind. Its novel cover captures the theme to depict that the message of salvation for good-will persons must be sent out to all nations and tongues and all are entwined in this one kingdom hope. Your personal copy of the booklet is now available on the contribution of 5c.
ffieWffCHTOWER
ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM
Vol. LXX
April 15, 1949
No. 8
RESTORATION TO LIFE BY RESURRECTION
"If a man die can Jie live again?”—Job 14:14, Rotherham.
JEHOVAH God the Creator was the only One that could conceive of such a thing as the resurrection of the dead. He was the only One that could bring it to pass. It takes faith for us to believe God could raise the dead, and it was for the purpose of testing men’s faith in him that he gave the promise of a resurrection, doing so at the very time that “sin entered into the world, and death by sin”. (Rom.- 5:12) The resurrection of dead men had to be by a special arrangement. Something preliminary had to provide grounds for it. For this reason the first resurrection that God foretold was, not that of a man dying for his sin. It was of a son of God who would die martyrlike for his absolute faithfulness to Jehovah God. For this he would be worthy of being raised from death to life in a state more exalted than this faithful son of God had ever enjoyed before. At the same time the human life that he would thus sacrifice forever would be the basis for God to raise human sinners from the dead to avail themselves of the benefit of the sacrificed life of the son of God.
2 All this wonderful arrangement was concealed in the declaration that Jehovah God made in Eden, saying to the wicked introducer of sin: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel.” (Gen. 3:15, Catholic Conf rat. trans.) How could the woman’s Seed, after being bruised to death at the heel, crush the wicked Serpent’s head? Only after being resurrected from the death inflicted by that wicked one. What could this resurrection prove but that Jehovah God has the power to raise the dead? And what would the death of the son of God as a sacrifice mean but that Jehovah God would raise humans that had died because of being born in sin in the midst of a sinful world? All the sacred Scriptures assure us they will be raised to life in fulfillment of Jehovah’s Edenic promise.
8 Men who held true to Jehovah as God treasured his Edenic promise and exercised faith in the resurrection of the dead and let this hope for the future
1. Who only could conceive of the resurrection, and why so? 2. In what promise was this arrangement concealed, ana how?
3, 4. To whom was this hope committed? How is this shown by Paul? influence their lives in the right direction. They taught it to their offspring. Under Jehovah’s guidance the doctrine of the resurrection was delivered to those who descended from faithful Abraham to make up the nation of Israel, the Jews. Thus to these were committed the divine pronouncements or utterances, including the doctrine of the resurrection. No one of any religion can dispute what the Jewish-Christian writer argues concerning this, when he says: “What advantage is there then in being a Jew, and what is the use of circumcision? A great deal, from every point of view. In the first place, the Jews were intrusted with the utterances of God.”—Rom. 3:1, 2, An Amer. Trans.
* Because the Jews entertained the resurrection hope, this same writer when brought into court by Jewish accusers said to Judge Felix: “I believe everything that is taught in the Law or written in the prophets, and I have the same hope in God that they themselves hold, that there is to be a resurrection of the upright and the wicked.” Before a strictly Jewish court he had also said: “It is for my hope for the resurrection of the dead that I am on trialAnd so, showing that the Jews, including himself, looked for the realization of the resurrection hope, he said later to King Herod Agrippa I: “To-day I am standing my trial for hoping in the promise made by God to our fathers, a promise which our twelve tribes hope to gain by serving God earnestly both night and day. And I am actually impeached by Jews for this hope, 0 king! Why should you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?”—Acts 23:6 and 24:14, 15, An Amer. Trans., and Acts 26: 6-8, Moffatt.
5 Not only King Agrippa, but also all the non-Jewish world thought the resurrection of the dead incredible, or had never heard of such a thing. It was because non-Jews believed in the false teaching of the inherent immortality of the human soul. They understood such soul to be an immaterial, intelligent thing dwelling in the human body and acting through it until death overtook the body, and then leaving the body to continue its conscious existence elsewhere. The pagan believers in such immortality of the 5, 6. How did the non-Jews react to the resurrection doctrine? Why?
human soul reasoned that if the soul did not die, how could there be a resurrection of the dead and why was a resurrection of the dead even necessary! They did not have or believe in the divine utterance: “The soul that sinneth, the same shall die." (Ezech. 18:4, 20, Cath. Douay) Hence it is that we read about Paul’s first visit to Athens and his talking to the pagan Greeks there: “And certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics disputed with him; and some said: What is it, that this word sower would say! But others: He seemeth to be a setter forth of new gods; because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.”—Acts 17:18, Douay.
8 So it was not strange that Paul should be met with unbelief or wonder when he climaxed his speech to the Greek council of the Areopagus by saying: “While God overlooked those times of ignorance, he now calls upon all men everywhere to repent, since he has fixed a day on which he will justly judge the world through a man whom he has appointed, and whom he has guaranteed to all men by raising him from the dead.” The reaction to this on the part of those Grecian believers in human immortality is described as follows: “When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, We should like to hear you again on this subject.’ ” (Acts 17:19-32, An Amer. Trans.) This in itself proves that the Bible doctrine of the resurrection cannot be harmonized with the teaching of the immortality of the human soul, because the latter teaching is of pagan source and is false.
HOW
7 The apostle Paul based himself upon the inspired Scriptures when he said to the Athenians that Almighty God had fixed a day for judging the world in righteousness. That day will not be forever coming, but will begin at God’s pre-determined time. For this judgment day he had raised his beloved Son Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus having died as a man and as a sacrifice for sinful humankind, the work of judgment would properly be committed to him by God his Besurrector. The Son of God testified to this very fact when he told the Jews: “For the Father passes judgment on no one, but he has committed the judgment entirely to the Son, so that all men may honor the Son just as much as they honor-the Father. And he has given him the authority to act as judge, because he is a son of man. Do not be surprised at this, for the time is coming when all who are in their graves will listen to his voice, and those who have done right will come out to resurrection and life, and those who have done wrong, to resurrection and judgment.”—John 5:22, 23, 27-29, An Amer. Trans.
8 The day for this judgment is the time of his rule
7, 8. Why will resurrection time surely come? What shows It near? as King in the kingdom of God. The apostle Paul associates the judgment with the time of Christ’s appearing and kingdom, saying: “I charge you in the sight of God and Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom.” (2 Tim. 4:1, An Amer. Trans.) By all the world conditions fulfilling Bible prophecies since A.D. 1914, we have every reason to know and be assured that the Kingdom is at the door and the resurrection of the human dead to life on earth under that Kingdom is near.
’ Much speculation has taken place as to how the resurrection of these dead will occur. We recall the address, reported in the public press, as given about 1891 by a very learned Presbyterian clergyman to an audience in our city of Brooklyn. He tried to explain that the resurrection would consist in a regathering and revivifying of all the bones and sinews and all the flesh and skin, etc., that had ever constituted human bodies, no matter how they had been disposed of, by fire, disintegrating in the grave, or otherwise. Yes, no matter if parts had been taken out by surgeons, or destroyed by accident, or eaten by fishes, birds, or beasts of prey; or if they had rotted and gone as fertilizer into various fruits, vegetables, grasses, etc., and thus been transformed over and over again and assimilated by other living creatures. To him, the “last day” was to be one of 24 hours before the final burning up of our earthly sphere. The after part of the 24-hour day would be devoted to a work of judging the world, while the fore part would be occupied by the resurrection work, during which the air would be black with hands, arms, feet, fingers, bones, skins, sinews, etc., of the billions who have lived and died, all these seeking the other parts of their respective bodies. After the bodies were thus fitted together, the human souls would come from heaven and hell and be imprisoned in such resurrected bodies.
10 Thus the clergymen tried to explain what his religious creed calls <“the resurrection of the body”. The Bible does, indeed, speak much of the resurrection of the dead, but speaks nowhere of the “resurrection of the body”, meaning the identical original body with which a person died, bit for bit, atom for atom. Therefore the Bible doctrine of a resurrection does not call for any such fantastic scene prior to the time of the world’s judgment as the religious clergyman described. Today we appreciate how the absolute basis of all earthly matter is a particle of electrical energy and that all particles of energy are alike. We can see how one particle is as good as another and that to recreate a person it would not require Almighty God, the Supreme Scientist of the universe, to use exactly the same, identical particles 9 How did one Presbyterian clergyman describe resurrection day? 10. Why was he not only unscientific but also unscriptural? that formed the person’s body at the time he died. What difference would it make, as the electronic building blocks of all matter are alike! The creedal doctrine of the “resurrection of the body” with its ghastly conception of the resurrection day is not only unscientific but unscriptural as well. What makes a recreated human the same individual character he was before? It is not the same material out of which he was constructed before, but it is a body belonging to his nature with all the peculiar traits, propensities, knowledge, memory and mental development that he had in his previous existence. That is what makes, what distinguishes you.
11 Religionists of Christendom teach the “resurrection of the body”. They do so in spite of the scientific statement made by the apostle Paul in his wonderful resurrection chapter, as follows:
1S “But someone will say, 'How can the dead rise? What kind of a body will they have when they come back?’ You foolish man, the very seed you sow never comes to life without dying first; and when you sow it, it has not the form it is going to have, but is a naked kernel, perhaps of wheat or something else; and God gives it just such a form as he pleases, so that each land of seed has a form of its own. Flesh is not all alike; men have one kind, animals another, birds another, and fish another. There are heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies, but the beauty of the heavenly bodies is of one kind, and the beauty of the earthly bodies is of another. The sun has one kind of beauty, and the moon another, and the stars another; why, one star differs from another in beauty. It is so with the resurrection of the dead.” Here the apostle is discussing only the resurrection of members of the true Christian‘church, the members of the “body of Christ”, of which Jesus the Messiah is the Head. This must be so, because it is only of the resurrection of such body-members of Christ, and not of the resurrection of dead mankind in general, that the following words of the apostle are true: “The body is sown in decay, it is raised free from decay. It is sown in humiliation, it is raised in splendor. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength. It is a physical body that is sown, it is a spiritual body that is raised. If there is a physical body, there is a spiritual body also.”—1 Cor. 15: 35-44, An Amer. Trans.
BY “METEMPSYCHOSIS”?
13 Without discussing now the subject of the spiritual resurrection of the members of the body of Christ or Christian congregation, we turn our attention to another speculation as to how the resurrection will take place. Back in the days when Charles T. Russell was president of the Watch Tower
11, 12. Contrary to what resurrection statement do clergy so teach? 13, 14. What argument did a theorist use for soul transmigration? Bible & Tract Society the suggestion was made by a man interested in the truth that the resurrection would occur by what is called metempsychosis, or the transmigration of the human soul. His view was that the soul of a person who had died would be transferred to a human body that was newly being born to a married couple. He quoted the prophecy of Jehovah God at Malachi 4:5,6: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Am. Stan. Ver.) About four hundred years later John the Baptist was born to the Jewish priest Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth in the hill country of Judea. John the Baptist performed his life work, and died by beheading at the hands of King Herod Antipas. Then the following discussion occurred between Jesus’ disciples: “And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come ? And he answered and said, Elijah indeed cometh, and shall restore all things: but I say unto you, that Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they would. Even so shall the Son of man also suffer of them. Then understood the disciples that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.”—Matt. 17:10-13, Am. Stan. Ver.
14 Hence this advocate of transmigration argued that John the Baptist was literally the prophet Elijah come back from the dead. How? Why, his soul, from the body which he had hundreds of years before in the days of Queen Jezebel, transmigrated into the body of the babe born by natural reproduction to John’s parents. But the transmigration theorist failed to note the following facts:
16 The angel Gabriel who announced the coming birth of John the baptizer to Zacharias did not say that John would be the literal Elijah resurrected from the dead through the process of human reproduction. Gabriel said that John would have merely the spirit and power of Elijah and would do a work like Elijah’s of old: “And many of the children of Israel shall he turn unto the Lord their God. And he shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just; to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.” (Luke 1:16,17, Am. Stan. Ver.) By these words did Zacharias understand that the son resulting from his reproductive union with Elizabeth would be, not his own child, but a child born to him with the soul of the original Elijah superimposed upon it? No! but Zacharias correctly understood that the child Elizabeth would conceive would
15 . What Scriptural tacts did that theorist tall to note? be his very own son, but would perform a work corresponding to Elijah’s, the work foretold at Malachi 4:5, 6. Malachi’s prophecy was no prophecy of the resurrection of the original Elijah. It was a prophecy of a work that would be performed like Elijah’s, which work would be performed before the “great and terrible day of Jehovah’’ arrived.
18 Zacharias was not a Cabalist. Cabalists were Jewish rabbis who indulged in a mystical interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and interwove into their interpretation the doctrine of transmigration of the soul. Says their Zohar, or Book of Light: "All the souls are subject to the trials of transmigration.” They did not know how many transformations and mysterious trials these souls must undergo or how many souls and spirits come into this world without returning to the palace of the divine King. But such souls finally had to re-enter the absolute substance out of which they had emerged. To accomplish this end they had to develop all the perfections, the germ of which perfections was planted in the soul; and if they did not fulfill this condition during one life on earth they must commence a second, a third, and so on, until they had attained the condition fitting them for reunion with God. On the ground of this doctrine the Cabalists held that the soul of Adam migrated into David, and will come into the Messiah; that the soul of Noah’s son Japheth is the same as that of Simeon, and that the soul of Abraham’s father Terah migrated into Job. In the time of Jerome, translator of the Holy Bible into Latin, the doctrine of transmigration was taught as a tradition to be communicated to only a select few who were supposed to have inside knowledge; and the more speculative or mystical ones among the religious fathers of the Roman Catholic Church resorted to that doctrine in order to explain what they did not Scripturally understand.
1T Astounding as it may seem, yet certain ones today claiming to be Christians teach that the resurrection of the dead will shortly occur, yes, has already begun to occur, by what is nothing less than transmigration. Yes, transmigration of the souls of those dead in the grave to bodies now being born and yet to be bom to married Christians by natural reproduction, but into which newborn bodies the germ of the dead is being injected by divine power to bring them back to life on earth. Nothing could have more condemnation by the Scriptures concerning the resurrection than such a disguised pagan doctrine. Transmigration was a Persian religious belief before the time of Zoroaster and was drawn from East Indian sources. Pherecydes, the Greek philosopher of the island of Syros, of the sixth century B.C., taught the existence of the human soul after death; and his disciple Pythagoras, if he did
16 . What did Cabalists teach? Also early religious lathers?
17 , 18. How do some now teach resurrection by transmigration? Why? not get this doctrine of transmigration from Pherecydes who taught him, got it in Babylon from the Magi. Quite to be expected, the ancient pagan Egyptians taught transmigration. For this reason they embalmed the dead so as to oblige the departed soul to return to the body it had once occupied and so prevent its passage into other forms, animal or plant. Professed Christians who speculate turn to the doctrine of transmigration in order to explain the resurrection.
18 These do not take fully Jehovah’s unmistakable statement: “The soul that sinneth, the same shall die.” 'Tie hath delivered his soul unto death.” (Ezech. 18:4 and Isa. 53:12, Douay) No, they claim that some germ from the dead remains over as a definite something for preservation, and that in the resurrection time this germ is superimposed upon the bodies of children produced by Christians through natural reproduction. By not taking God’s Word in its pure meaning these speculating Christians open their minds unwittingly to the "doctrines of demons”, for the demons under Satan their prince are the source of the transmigration idea.
BY THE POWER OF A REMEMBERING GOD
18 In our article of last November 15, 1948, entitled “When Immortality Came to Light”, we produced overwhelming proof to show that God’s Word, the Bible, teaches that the human soul is the human creature himself and that the human soul dies and ceases to exist. The human soul would never exist again were it not for Jehovah’s provision to resurrect all the dead that are in the graves. The resurrection of the dead is not dependent upon some immortal germ or deathless seed that carries over after the individual dies. God does not have to preserve such a thing and in the resurrection day transplant it into a body that married Christians will produce. God respects the right of a Christian father to raise up seed to his own name, and God would not cheat a Christian husband of this privilege by superimposing upon his intended offspring the germ and characteristics of someone not his own but long ago born to other parents. The law of levirate marriage which God established among the ancient Israelites for the sake of men who died leaving a childless widow was established out of divine respect for a married man to have a child to bear his name. (Deut. 25:5-10) Christ Jesus, whom God uses to raise the dead, will not act contrary to God’s law and arrangement and impose upon a woman’s ovum anything from the dead and thus cheat her husband. If God were dependent upon such a method to resurrect the dead, why use husbands at all? Why not have virgin birth for the dead?
19. What concerning human reproduction bars out transmigration?
20 Jesus’ birth may not be held forth as an illustration of how this might be done. His birth was not of a woman who had already had contact with a husband. So his life was never superimposed upon a sperm that had been communicated to Mary by a husband. Joseph had not touched her before Jesus was born, and so Jesus was born of a virgin. His birth cannot be viewed as a resurrection of the dead, for he had not died when he left heaven in order to be born as a human. It was not a case of his dying, but the miraculous power of God his Father transferred the life of his Son who laid aside all his heavenly glory, transplanting this life into the womb of the Jewish virgin, in order for him to be born in due time as any other humans are born. Thus Jesus’ birth was not an incarnation of a spirit, as when the angels materialized fleshly bodies and appeared to men. His birth was a real production of a perfect human child, since his life forces from heaven were perfect. Hence his mind underwent the regular development of any other born child. He knew nothing about his miraculous birth and the circumstances connected with it except what Joseph and Mary his mother could tell him. From this he knew that God was his Father.
21 It was not till he quit carpentering at about thirty years of age and devoted himself exclusively to God’s ministry, symbolizing this step by being baptized, that God’s spirit came upon him. There his memory of his prehuman life in heaven with Jehovah God returned to him. There he was begotten of God as a new creature, for then God’s voice came to him from the heavens: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”—Matt. 3:13-17.
22 This was the start, therefore, of Jesus’ return to heaven from which he had come down. It was therefore fitting that the memory of his previous life up there should then come back to him. As he said to the Jews: “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” (John 6:62) So from the time of his anointing with God’s spirit he was no longer just a human Son of God, but was a spiritual Son. Presenting his human life in sacrifice for sinful mankind, he was made God’s High Priest and was called to enter heaven itself to appear in God’s presence, there to offer the value of his human life which he was laying down. Thus, to experience this being born again, from heaven, Jesus did not have to do as Nicodemus suggested, saying: “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” (John 3:4) No; but God started Jesus off on a new life as a Son, with a new relationship to God, calling him back to heaven and hence command-
20. Why was Jesus’ birth neither resurrection nor Incarnation?
21, 22. When did his memory of prehuman existence return, and why? ing him to lay his human life down forever in sacrifice in behalf of condemned mankind.
THE GIFT OF LIFE IN HIMSELF
28 How Jesus must undertake this sacrificial course in order that a resurrection might come and the dead might live again, he said: “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it bears rich fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who cares not for his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall my servant also be.” (John 12:23-26, Moffatt) Thus unless he died an innocent death, Jesus would remain alone as a perfect man, without imparting eternal life to others of mankind. But if he did not show selfish love for this earthly life in this world, but laid it down sacri-ficially in obedience to God’s will, what? Then he would be the means of imparting eternal life to all of mankind that would accept it. Those of men who now became his servants, following in his steps even till death, would be glorified in heaven with him, that where he is, they might be also. He should have many with him enjoying eternal life with him. This would not be by any transmigration of immortal souls, so to speak. It would be by virtue of the ransom sacrifice which he provided as God’s High Priest, and, as a result, by the resurrection of the dead.
24 Jesus referred to this life-giving arrangement of God for sinners and this life-giving course of God’s Son for them. After performing a work of healing he said: “For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and greater works than these will he show him, that ye may marvel. [What greater works?] For as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. [Why?] For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself: and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.”—John 5:20, 21, 24-29, Am.Stan. Ver.
26 Mark that statement, “As the Father hath life
23. By what course would Jesus be privileged to Impart lite? 24. what did Jesus say regarding this Ule-glvlng arrangement?
25, 26. In what way do God and his Son have Ute In themselves? in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself.” (John 5:26, Am. Stan. Ver.) Taken by itself, this would seem to refer to the immortality possessed by Jehovah God the heavenly Father and to the immortality which he conferred upon his Son when resurrecting him from the dead. In harmony with this thought An American Translation renders John 5:26 as follows: “For just as the Father is self-existent, he has given self-existence to the Son.” Hence it renders John 6: 53: “I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no self-existent life.”
28 However, in the light of the context, the Father’s having life in himself and the Son’s also having life in himself appears to mean having the power to give life to dying and dead sinners. By consulting any standard Greek dictionary, such as Liddell and Scott’s (Greek-English) or John G. Schneider’s (Greek-German), you will find that in the Greek text of the Bible the word which Jesus used (so ee) stands in some cases for “a living, that is, means of life”. Hence, in harmony with the argument Jesus is making about resurrecting and giving others life, he said: 'As the Father has in himself the means of life for condemned sinners, so he has granted his Son to have in himself the means of life for such sinners.’ In agreement with this line of argument the 1944 translation by the Roman Catholic monsignor, Ronald A. Knox, renders John 5: 25, 26 as follows: “Believe me, the time is coming, nay, has already come, when the dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen to it will live. As the Father has within him the gift of life, so he has granted to the Son that he too should have within him the gift of life.”
27 Other scriptures agree with this, to show that God’s gift of life to sinners is by his Son Jesus Christ. For example, Romans 6: 23, which reads: “Sin’s wage is death, but God’s gift is life eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Moffatt) Jesus himself said: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live [that is, by a resurrection]: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” Also: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”.(John 11:25,26 and 17:3) To illustrate that 27. What other scriptures agree with this understanding? the means of life was like life-sustaining bread and that the imparting of life to sinners included the resurrecting of the dead, Jesus compared himself to heavenly manna and said: “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”—John 6:33,38-40.
28 Then, to show that faith in his sacrifice of flesh and blood was necessary and that spiritual Israelites must exercise such faith in order to live with him and to dispense the blessings of life to others, Jesus further said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.” (John 6: 53-58) From all this it is clear that the heavenly Father has the means or gift of life for his repentant creatures upon earth. The privilege of being the means of giving life to human sinners God bestows upon his Son. Hence as God the Father raises those already dead in the graves, so his Son does also. (John 5:21) This giving of life to creatures by the Son is very different from the Son’s activity in heaven when he created all other creatures in the universe, including the perfect man and woman, Adam and Eve on earth. Such creatures had never existed before. When created, they were sinless creatures, in original perfection as God’s handiwork by his Son. But as for giving life to sinful, dying mankind Jesus could not do this life-giving work until God authorized him to do so by his ransom sacrifice.
28. How does this diner from giving Ute at creation?
PRESERVATION OF IDENTITY IN THE RESURRECTION
ALL the foregoing discussion in accord with the inspired Bible argues against the demoninspired theory of the immortality of the human soul and against the doctrine dependent upon
1. Why Is resurrection by a transmigration Impossible? it, namely, the transmigration of the human soul. It wholly rules out a resurrection of the dead by anything like a transmigration of the soul. There is absolutely nothing left alive of the dead to transmigrate, and that is why the apostle Paul said they would totally perish, were it not for God’s raising of the dead on the basis of his resurrecting of Jesus: “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” (1 Cor. 15:16-18) So the resurrection could never be dependent upon some immortal seed, some surviving germ, from the dead to be transplanted to a woman’s womb and combined with a child to be born, thus to restore the dead to life.—See page 118, H17.
’Resurrection is a restoration to life of the nonexistent dead. Hence it is a miracle only the Omnipotent God could accomplish, and there is no profit in speculating about it fruitlessly. The resurrection is dependent upon God’s marvelous power through Christ and upon His memory of the dead. By the life each individual has lived and by the thoughts he has thought, he has built up a living pattern which represents himself. It is what he is, regardless of the creative material of his body. Triplets may have the same kind of human body and yet each one produces an altogether different life pattern. God's Word names the breathing, living, sentient human creature in its entirety a “living soul”. This name soul applies to the creature, from the first man onward, for Genesis 2:7 says: “And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” (Douay) Consequently when man sinned and died, the human living soul died; and there was nothing that carried over alive from such dead creature.
’ This requires God in the resurrection of the dead to recreate the soul. He can easily create souls. But what will make the souls he creates on resurrection day by Christ the souls that once died and went to the grave? It is this: Each one of such souls before death developed a life-pattern, resulting in certain habits, leanings, mental abilities, memories, and history. In view of the ransom sacrifice of his High Priest Christ Jesus, Jehovah God remembers that life pattern of each one in the grave, and he will reproduce it exactly in the soul he creates. Thus he will resurrect the dead. Concerning his ability to remember and to reproduce a previous work, we read Job’s words of appeal to God: “0 that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me I If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou ■wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” (Job 14:13-15) Thus God by Christ Jesus will not be creating any new human creatures, in violation of his great rest
2, 3. (a) In the resurrection what Is recreated? (b) How will such ones be the same as the people once dead, and not new creations? day since Adam’s creation. No; but he will be reproducing the souls that have died and for whom Christ provided a ransom. He will lift them out of the pit of death without violating his great 7,000-year-long Sabbath day, just as his law to the Jews made it perfectly proper to show mercy and lift out an animal that had fallen into a pit on the sabbath day. —Matt. 12:11,12.
* Since the dead are lifeless and unconscious, it follows that their dying thought or last conscious observation or utterance will connect up with the opening thought at awakening from death. So they will know themselves and recall their past living. Call to mind Jesus’ own memory on his resurrection day as he talked with his astonished disciples and went over the things of his past life on earth in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. (Luke 24:25-47) So the dead will come forth from the graves, which are memorial places, places whose occupants will be remembered by God and his Son. Jesus said: “The hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28,29, Douay) Jesus’ revelation to the apostle John also says: “And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades [the grave, of mankind in general] gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” (Rev. 20:13, Am. St an. Ver.) But if the dead are unconscious in non-existence, how will they hear the voice of God’s Son calling them? In the same way that Lazarus heard when Jesus stood before his tomb in which he had lain dead for four days and said to him: “Lazarus, come forth.” Lazarus responded to the call, awakening from his dead unconsciousness. (John 11: 43, 44) Yes, they will respond in the same way that Jesus himself did, when, on the third day of his death, his Father called him back to life, in this way not leaving Jesus' soul in hell or Hades. —Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27-32.
B In Jesus’ case we have illustrated how it is not necessary for a dead person to have identically the same body at his resurrection in order to be the same person. When Jesus was a man on earth and was anointed with God’s holy spirit, he certainly did not have the same body that he had when he was up in heaven. To become man, he “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men”. (Phil. 2:5-7, Am.Stan. Ver.) And yet he was the original only begotten Son of God. At his resurrection he was “made alive in the spirit”, not in the flesh which he gave in sacrifice for the life of man-
4. How will the resurrection life connect up with the previous?
5, 6. (a) How did Jesus' human birth show no need of the same body lor Identity? (b) How did his resurrection show It also? kind. (1 Pet. 3:18, Am. Stan. Ver. and Doziay) This followed the rule stated at 1 Corinthians 15:44: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” All the same he was truly Jesus, because God had reproduced his matchless individuality and personality in the new incorruptible spiritual body with which God glorified him in the resurrection.
’ But if resurrection required all or even some part of the former body to be carried over to the person when resurrected, then Jesus in his spirit body is not the same Jesus. Nor are we to think he was the same Jesus by having his flesh-and-blood body revivified and then spiritualized so that he could disappear and ascend to God’s presence in heaven. That would mean that human corruption would inherit incorruption. But 1 Corinthians 15:50 strictly declares: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” Jehovah God knew and remembered his beloved Son better than anyone else. So, by his all-accomplishing power he resurrected him by reproducing him accurately, clothing him upon with immortality and incorruption in the spirit realm. In this way, “the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” As such, he gives life, not only to his church, “the body of Christ,” but also to all other believers of mankind.—1 Cor. 15:45, Am. Stan. Ver.
7 It is written: “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.” (1 Cor. 15:47) Hence all of Adam’s offspring were of the earth, earthy, of the same earth as that from which he was originally made. In this respect earth may be spoken of as the mother of the human race, in that she provided the human body from her womb. This was doubtless what Job in his affliction meant by saying: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither.” (Job 1: 21) From the womb of this same earth-mother, which first mothered Adam, God creates the human bodies of mankind whom he resurrects, to match the personalities or individualities they had when they died and which God reproduces with perfect faithfulness. They will be resurrected only because such souls “died in Adam” and have been redeemed by Jesus Christ, “the last Adam.” As it is written regarding the church: “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.” (1 Cor. 15: 21, 22) Thus the natural tie that they had with Adam in this sinful, imperfect life counts in behalf of their being raised from the dead, inasmuch as Jesus Christ died for only Adam’s offspring, to become their “everlasting Father”.—Isa. 9: 6.
8 Today there is a “great multitude” of persons seeking Jehovah and meekness and righteousness,
7. How are the ones resurrected tied In with the first Adam?
8. How will Armageddon survivors be tied to Adam, but relieved? in response to his command at Zephaniah 2:1-3. These consecrated persons of good-will may be “hid” during the day of Jehovah’s anger. Being “hid”, they may survive the battle of Armageddon in which this wicked world will end. Passing thus alive from the old world into the righteous new world, they will continue to be of the original flesh and blood that they inherited from Adam. But by the curative, reconstructive power of God’s kingdom these Armageddon survivors will be progressively relieved of the sinfulness, weaknesses and imperfections inherited from Adam and Eve. Eventually they will be brought to human perfection, to serve God forever in their earthly paradise. They will be on hand here on earth to welcome back the dead and to assist them materially and educationally when God by Jesus Christ resurrects the earthly dead. What an indescribable time of joy and privilege that will be I
PASSING FROM DEATH TO LIFE NOW
’ As to the resurrection of all the faithful members of the true church, “the body of Christ,” these expect the fulfillment of the divine promise: “It is sown a natural body [because of descent from Adam]; it is raised a spiritual body.” But we must not overlook the raising from a dead condition to a new life which these experience here and now on earth’. Jesus called attention to this when he said: “I tell you, whoever listens to my message and believes him who has sent me, possesses eternal life, and will not come to judgment, but has already passed out of death into life. I tell you, the time is coming—it is here already!— when those who are dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen to it will live.” —John 5:24,25, An Amer. Trans.
10 Who are those dead who during this present evil world listen to the voice of God’s Son and now pass from death across to life? It is the Christians whom the living God begets with his spirit to be his spiritual sons. Back in Jesus’ days on earth they were the Jewish disciples who literally heard his voice preaching the gospel of life. Like all others of mankind, those Jews were dead through trespasses and sins against God. (Eph. 2:1) Moreover, as Jews under the Mosaic law, they were condemned by that law and were under a curse. But believing in the message of God’s Son and accepting the benefits of his ransom sacrifice, they were justified by God’s grace and were brought out of this condemned and cursed condition. They were given God’s spirit as a counterforce to the sinful tendencies of their bodies. This corresponded to a spiritual resurrection in their case, and in this view the apostle Paul speaks of it to the Christians at Ephesus, saying: “We also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of
9. How did Jesus speak of & figurative resurrection now?
10. How did this take place with Jesus' disciples, as Paul shows? the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:—but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.”—Eph. 2:3-6, Am. Stan. Ver.
11 The apostle Peter tells the Christians who are now alive from the dead that they should show that this is so by leading a changed life, a life no longer like that of the nations dead in trespasses and sins. “For unto this end,” says Peter, “was the gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1 Pet. 4:1-6, Am. Stan. Ver.) What should we care about the judgment of the nations who pass judgment upon us as though we were still men like themselves? In our spirit, in our purposes and endeavors, we will live with the aim of pleasing and serving God. If we are such Christians, then the words of Paul are very fitting to us: “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto
11. What do Peter and Paul tell such ones now “'alive from the dead"? God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” —Rom. 6:11-13.
““Alive unto God,” and “alive from the dead”, yes, that we are, if we are conducting ourselves now by faith and in obedience to God. What if the world does hate us? Our true Christian brethren love us, and we love them. “We know,” says the apostle John, “that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:13-15) If we thus live now as “new creatures” in relation to Christ we shall not come into a judgment against us, but we shall have the “resurrection of life”, to union with him in the heavenly kingdom.
“ Now, too, a “great multitude" of persons of good-will hear his voice, his life-giving message, and by reason of responding to it their feet have been turned into the way of life in the new world. Their continuing to heed it and tell it out to others guarantees that they too will not come into condemnation or adverse judgment now or at the battle of Armageddon. Hence they will be carried alive through the world’s end into the new world with the possibilities of eternal life for the living and with'resurrection for the dead.
12. What does John say shows we have passed across to life?
13. Who else are now walking in the way of life?
DEMON PRACTICES
THE prophetic spirit of God was not wrong when it predicted that in later times many who professed to be Christians would fall away from the truth and take up doctrines which have the malignant invisible demons as their source. Under inspiration of God’s spirit the apostle Paul wrote: “But the spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth.” (1 Tim. 4:1-3, Am. Stan. Ver.) For this reason, during the centuries of the Christian era, systems of religion that would be built up would adopt the name Christian but would- in reality be practicers of demon religion.
The Holy Scriptures speak of Satan the Devil as “the prince of the demons”, and demon religion is in fact the product of Satan. (Matt. 12:24, Am. Stan. Ver.) It has been used by Satan and the other demons to debauch the human race and to defame the worthy name of Almighty God. It has been and is the most subtle instrument to deceive and to bring about the destruction of men and of nations, yes, including Christendom. Now, if Jehovah God in his written Word makes known that it is his purpose to destroy the Devil at a set time, it is reasonable to conclude that God will also destroy everything that the Devil and his associate demons have used and are using to defame Jehovah’s name and to entrap mankind. This will be a surprise to many, who will be inclined to ask: Are not Satan the Devil and his associate demons to continue existing forever so as to be in charge of a fiery hell of everlasting torment for the souls of dead wicked persons? Do you actually mean to say that they will be destroyed? The Holy Scriptures answer in no uncertain terms. At the time that a beautiful spirit creature yielded to selfish ambition and made himself Satan or Opposer of God and wickedly challenged Jehovah God’s universal sovereignty, at that very time the judgment of destruction was entered by Jehovah God against this newly arisen Satan the Devil. This judgment is recorded in God's Word from its first book, Genesis, clear on through to its last book, Revelation. God gave his Opposer to understand that he would permit him to remain for a certain time and thus give him an opportunity to prove his wicked challenge. Then in due time Almighty God would exercise his supreme power against Satan the Devil and destroy him.
Thus for millenniums that wicked one and his associate demons have taken advantage of the time and have put forth every possible effort to support the ungodly challenge, and their inability to back up the challenge has been fully and completely established. The time is therefore at hand for the execution of the judgment against the wicked invisible spirits, and this Satan the Devil well knows. At Revelation 12:12, which applies since A.D. 1914, it is written: “He knoweth that he hath but a short time.” At Hebrews 2:14 it is plainly stated that the Son of God came to earth as a man and died a martyr’s death that he might bring to nothing and destroy the death-dealing Devil. As to the wicked demons under him, the judgment of death is written against them in these words: “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 6) All the demons, including Satan their prince, are incorrigibly wicked, and hence they are included under God’s promise: “Jehovah preserveth all them that love him; but all the wicked will he destroy.” (Ps. 145: 20, Am. Stan. Ver.) The execution of the wicked will take place at the battle of Armageddon, that final world conflict called the “battle of that great day of God the Almighty”.—See Revelation 16:14-16 and 19:11 to 20:3.
All the nations, including the so-called “Christian nations” of the "West, have fallen under the control of Satan the Devil and will likewise be destroyed. The Bible word “hell” stands for the grave in an all-inclusive sense, and of the destruction of entire nations we read: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” (Ps. 9:17) Today every nation on the earth is against Jehovah God and his Government, that is, The Kingdom, for which the Son of God taught his faithful followers to pray to Jehovah God: “Our Father in heaven, your name be revered! Your kingdom come! Your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven!” (Matt. 6:9, 10, An Amer. Trans.) This same Son of God, when on earth, also said: “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gath-ereth not with me scattereth abroad.” (Matt. 12:30) All nations, including those of Christendom, practice demon religion in defiance of Jehovah God and his kingdom. We say “including those of Christendom” because she pretends to serve God, but does so hypocritically, drawing near to him only with a form of words but not in fact nor in Scriptural truth. In proof of this it is significant that it is inside of Christendom that atheistic communism has arisen in recent centuries.
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