Golden Age, April 8, 1936
Download: PDF — Golden Age, April 8, 1936

The Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
in this issue
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN GERMANY
CHURCH'S COMMISSION
"IN PRISONS OFT"
OBEISANCE TO THE POPE IN GRIFFIN, GA.
OBEDIENCE RETAINS HEAVENLY FAVOR
every other WEDNESDAY
five cents a copy
one dollar a year
Canada & Foreign 1.25
Vol. XVII - No. 432
April 8, 1936 CONTENTS
LABOR AND ECONOMICS
Fascism Means Ruin 427
Satan’s Victory at Lonhatan 431
Nazism in Practice 431
Will Be Broke by Midsummer 1937 431
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES IN GERMANY 419
GERMAN JUSTICE A TRAVESTY 423
PERSECUTIONS OF FLESHLY ISRAEL 428
Inquisitors Kill Book Business 430
New Press Laws 430
Still Bitten with Superman Bug 430
Terrible Breakdown in Morality 432
Wife a Nazi Would Accept 432
CHURCH’S COMMISSION 433
South Dakotan Writes Judge Rutherford 434
“IN PRISONS OFT” 435
Town Crier Used in Trinidad 437
OBEISANCE TO THE POPE IN GRIFFIN 438
How Lecture Was Heard in Japan 438
REPORT FROM PALESTINE 439
New Jersey Courts of Peculiarity 439
OBEDIENCE RETAINS HEAVENLY FAVOR 444
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
The Progressive A&P 440
Morgan Does Not Always Win 440
Wholesale House on Wheels 440
Vanishing Train Dispatchers 440
Railroads Waking Up 442
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
CATHOLIC ACTION TRIUMPHANT 421
The Reichstag Arson Order 426
Achievements of Nazism 426
Nuggets of News 427
Spends $4,000,000,000 for War 427
THE KINGDOM OF USAM 441
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
Agricultural Liberty (?) 426
Burning Oat Fields in Kansas 441
Why Go to Alaska? 443
HOME AND HEALTH
New York’s Lightning Dressmakers 442
New York Chiropractors Celebrate 443
Miracles of Surgery at Cardiff 443
Cancer Killed 17,000 in New York 443
Increases in Staple Foods 443
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
When the Walls of Jericho Fell 442
Seal of Gedaliah Found 442
Fragments of Ivory Couches 442
King Trying to End Old Customs 443
THE STYLE SHOW 447
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
PROTESTANTISM DESTROYED IN THE LAND OF LUTHER 420
Nazism as a Religion 425
Gleanings 428
Off-Again On-Again Gone-Again Coughlin 441
Did He Bless the Kitchen Utensils? 447
Published every other Wednesday by
GOLDEN AGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A.
Clayton J. Woodworth President Nathan H. Knorr Vice President
Charles E. Wagner Secretary and Treasurer
FIVE CENTS A COPY
$1 a year, United States; $1.25 to Canada and all other countries.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS
REMITTANCES: For your own safety, remit by postal or express money order. When coin or currency is lost in the ordinary mails, there is no redress. Remittances from countries other than those named below may be made to the Brooklyn office, but only by INTERNATIONAL postal money order.
RECEIPT of a new or renewal subscription will be acknowledged only when requested. NOTICE OF EXPIRATION is sent with the journal one month before subscription expires. Please renew promptly to avoid loss of copies.
SEND CHANGE OF ADDRESS direct to us rather than to the post office. Your request should reach us at least two weeks before the date of issue with which it is to take effect. Send your old as well as the new address. Copies will not be forwarded by the post office to your new address unless extra postage is provided by you.
PUBLISHED also in Bohemian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish.
OFFICES FOR OTHER COUNTRIES
British 34 Craven Terrace, London, W. 2, England
Canadian 40 Irwin Avenue, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada
Australasian 7 Beresford Road, Strathfield, N. S. W., Australia
South African Boston House, Cape Town, South Africa
Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
The Golden Age
Volume XVII Brooklyn, N.Y., Wednesday, April 8, 1936 Number 432
Jehovah’s witnesses in Germany
The Witness
THE witness in Germany, prior to the advent of Hitler the Madman, was one of the most complete ever given to any land. There are approximately 15,000,000 families in Germany, and in the fourteen years from 1919 to 1933 they received an average of three books or booklets and more than five periodicals, besides a large distribution of free literature. ‘To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required; and to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more.’
Excuses for Imprisoning Jehovah’s witnesses
FOR attending a meeting of Bible study three of Jehovah’s witnesses were imprisoned for short terms at Bad Harzburg, Germany. The court declared: “The National-Socialist State is not minded to misuse its organs to supervise the family life of individuals, still less to interfere with their religious beliefs; but when a group of men exert themselves to bring about the collapse of the state system and erect an international sovereignty in its place, that is not religious, but political activity.” Thus the Nazi State in effect forbids anybody to pray with sincerity, ‘Thy kingdom come; thy will be done,’ and insists that present devilish governments like their own must continue for ever.
Jehovah’s witnesses Still in the Fires
IT IS significant that at the same time that the German secret police seized 150 Roman Catholic priests for possessing and circulating Communist literature they also resumed their attacks upon Jehovah’s witnesses, the innocents.
The Situation at Magdeburg
A BELATED dispatch from Berlin indicates that the property of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society at Magdeburg, Germany, is being liquidated under joint supervision of the American Chamber of Commerce and an officer of the German secret police. At hand a copy of “The Black Corps” (“Das Schwarze Korps”), official organ of Hitler’s personal bodyguard among the storm troopers. The page contains seven illustrations, the evil intent of which is to represent Jehovah’s witnesses as a commercial group. One of the pictures shows the plant at Magdeburg closed, with signboards across the entrance which state that the property is for sale or for rent in whole or in part. Also, to bring intended ridicule upon the cause of Jehovah God, over one of the entrances there is a huge cartoon poster announcing a masquerade ball at The Crystal Palace. Does anyone who has any reverence for Jehovah God imagine that these bitter, malevolent persecutions of His people will go unpunished?
Constitution Destroyed
FORBIDDEN to hold meetings in Germany Jehovah's witnesses appealed to the Weimar Republican Constitution. The Nazi court at Hamburg thereupon officially declared that the Constitution is dead, having died the day the Nazis came into power. Jehovah's witnesses will be much interested in this official declaration that Germany legally ceased to exist when the Nazis gained control. Most certainly the present "government" is a new and peculiar beast, and manifests it in every way.
"Der Neue Tag" — The New Day
COLOGNE, Germany, has a newspaper called Der Neue Tag ("The New Day"). It tells of two of Jehovah's witnesses charged with offering literature to the people and oral 'explanations' of the Bible. Terrible crime, isn't it? For this work, and because these witnesses believed at their trial, and still believe, that 'the whole world lieth in the Wicked One' and that all earthly governments are under the control of the one who offered those governments to the Savior, they were sentenced to nine months in prison, and warned that if after nine months they had not changed their minds toward God and His Word they would be sent up for another term.
Until the Final Victory
A TRAVELING man, one of Jehovah's witnesses, says:
"While in Germany I had opportunity to speak to several brethren who are in prison. I found that they are not discouraged, but continue to give testimony concerning Jehovah's purposes until the final victory."
Nazi Bishop Weiderman, of Bremen, will rewrite the Bible and make it nearer the Nazi heart’s desire. (American clergy, take notice.) What condemned criminal would not like to rewrite the law that condemned him? But what can one expect of one whose only nourishment is the hogwash the Nazi party dishes up, his only exercise wallowing in the slime of a civilization returning to the Dark Ages, his highest ambition to “Heil Hitler” with a more degrading and crawling servility? There will be peace to the ashes of this whited sepulcher only because the dead know not anything.
Farcical Trials
LETTERS from Germany describe the Sondergericht or Volksgericht (emergency courts or people's courts) introduced by Hitler. The letters say, succinctly, "There is no trial, only conviction, and no appeal." What degradation! And this in the face of the new worship of the German blood by which the German people are encouraged to deify themselves in the silly belief that they are not like other men, but are gods.
Crime to Praise God
IT IS now a crime in Germany to praise God. In Berlin on January 16, 1936, twenty-one of Jehovah's witnesses were sent to prison for from three to four months for singing hymns in praise of the Most High God. It was charged that they did not forsake the assembling of themselves together, as commanded by God's Word, but continued to meet despite the demands of the Ratti-Hitler combination that they cease doing so.
Efforts to Destroy the Word of God
GERMANY is witnessing a most extraordinary attempt to destroy the Word of God. Suddenly a new order was issued that the only Scriptures that may be circulated in Germany must be printed in Gothic characters. A column account says at its conclusion: "The Bible societies are getting rid at heavy discounts of their old stocks of Bibles printed in Latin characters. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, an American organization, seems to be one of the agencies most affected by the new order." "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; [Jehovah] shall have them in derision."—Psalm 2:4.
Catholic Action Triumphant
Co-operation Between Nazis and Catholics
AS IN Italy Mussolini is determined that the state shall be first and the Roman Catholic church second, so with the Nazis in Germany. Yet there is an understanding between the two organizations. This was in evidence in Berlin, August 4 last, when red placards at every street corner warned Nazis and others that "outrages against the Roman Catholic church" must cease and that "the government and the party will put an end to the shameless practice".
"Merely Political Differences"
IGNORING the fact that 1,200 of Jehovah's witnesses in Germany are in prison because of their faith, German ambassador Dr. Hans Luther said, at Minneapolis, that it is impossible to keep church and state entirely separate, and that the differences between the Nazi government and the Roman Catholic church are merely political differences. He ought to know.
The German "Who's Who"
AN ARTICLE in the New York Times shows that in the new German Who's Who, called Fuehrerlexikon, "many high German Catholic dignitaries are listed"; thus showing the general sympathetic understanding and support of Nazism by the Roman Hierarchy, despite all the newspaper propaganda to the contrary. Tender "religious susceptibilities" need protection, surely.
The Mask Gets Thinner and Thinner
HITLER'S deal with the pope gets plainer and plainer, and the mask of pretense gets thinner and thinner. Only a few hours after Cardinal Bertram advised all Catholics to vote for Hitler in the March 29 elections, that gentleman seized the left bank of the Rhine.
"Nazis to Protect Church"
UNDER the title "Nazis to Protect Church" the New York Times contains a wireless dispatch from Frankfurt am Main which says: "The court at Cleves in the Rhineland today sentenced a man to two months' imprisonment for having insulted Catholics who were taking part in this year's Corpus Christi procession. In explaining the sentence the court emphasized that the present German State would not allow institutions and customs of the churches to be insulted."
Bishop of Berlin Interview
COUNT VON PREYSING, Catholic bishop of Berlin, had an interview with Chancellor Hitler, and the next day an order was issued determining that church flags, i.e., the flag of the pope, may fly on every other day, but on national holidays only the swastika flag may fly. The partnership between the pope and Hitler is somewhat like that of two boys sleeping in an attic in New York state in the winter. Both are trying to get into the middle of the bed, and, though neither one entirely succeeds, each has some share.
"Absent in America"
WHEN five nuns were to be tried in Germany for treason against the people, in shipping foreign currency out of the country, all five were reported as "absent in America". This, of course, was all fixed up beforehand between Hitler and the pope, all being Catholics together.
Hitler and Goebbels Stood
AT St. Hedwig's cathedral Hitler officially attended "requiem mass" for the soul of Marshal Pilsudski, and at the elevation of the little piece of bread both Hitler and Goebbels, reared Catholics, remained standing.
Protestantism Destroyed in the Land of Luther
Best Wishes to Vatican
A LITTLE dispatch tucked away in a Catholic paper tells a lot. In the headline it says, "Hitler Sends Best Wishes to Vatican"; which is all it needs to say. Hitler is a Catholic and governing Germany with an eye to its eventual complete submission to the pope. Whether or not he can "deliver the goods" is another matter. Many of his subordinates are not easily controlled.
Nazi Discrimination Against Protestants
DISCLOSING the real partnership between the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and the Nazis, all Protestant churches in Germany were required to fly the swastika flag on October 26, 1935, but the Catholic churches were not required to fly it. That speaks for itself. The pope, through his automaton, Hitler, has been placed in full control of Protestant Germany.
Nazi Robbery of Protestant Churches
ON November 29 the Nazis seized the funds of the Confessional Church and Confessional Synods, consisting of voluntary contributions of Protestants throughout the Hitler realm. Don't make anybody with a sore mouth laugh by asking if the Nazis would have done this to funds similarly raised by the Catholics.
Holy Water for Mamma and the Babies
Nazi Suppression of Protestant Schools
IN ONE day 125 Nazi police, all Roman Catholic or under Roman Catholic control, descended upon two Protestant seminaries in Berlin, expelled the professors and students and locked and sealed the buildings. Hereafter, the German people will take what "religious" instruction Hitler and the pope see fit to give them, or get none at all. Neither one of these gangsters is in a mood to be trifled with.
Protestantism Destroyed
ALBION Ross, in a wireless dispatch to the New York Times, used the following language to describe the collapse of German Protestantism: "The supremacy decree enables Mr. Kerrl to appoint and recall bishops and pastors from their charges, control all church finances, issue church laws, erect and tear down church buildings, create and dissolve bishoprics and parishes, create and suppress Protestant organizations, appoint a church directorate to exercise his dictatorial powers and recall one that refuses." Protestantism in Germany has received its death blow and is completely in Roman hands.
Camouflage in Germany
IT SUITS the pope well to have it thought that he and Hitler are at swords' points. The camouflage is thus concealed that the two are working for the same end, the complete subjugation of Protestant Germany to Catholicism. The Nazis themselves report that in one place a Catholic burned an altar and left false clues to throw the blame on Hitler's storm troopers.
Priests Are on Inside of Intrigues
NAZI political workers are impressed with the fact that the Catholic clergy know all that is going on, having exact knowledge of orders issued to the secret police, almost as soon as they are issued. The partnership of Ratti and Hitler works well.
Banning the Name of Jehovah
THE Nazi governor of the province of Hanover, Germany, has ruled that the hymn "To Thee, Jehovah, I will sing" is objectionable. Jehovah's people rejoice that His name is at stake in Germany; they know the sure outcome.
German Justice a Travesty
“Ley de Fuga”
THE infamous Ley de Fuga (shooting prisoners under pretense that they tried to escape), once practiced throughout South American countries, has been inaugurated in Germany. Friedrich Husemann, 61-year-old mine workers’ leader, before arrested by the Nazis, assured his wife and a committee of mine workers that on no account would he attempt to escape, yet he was shot by the Nazis; and his body was cremated, to destroy the evidence.
Courts of the Devil
COURTS of the Devil in Germany have now descended to the low level that any marriage, even if the husband and wife are happy in each other’s love, may be broken up by the state if either party is politically opposed to the Nazi state.
Torture of Prisoners
THE Manchester Guardian tells of the torture of prisoners in Germany, to make them confess against their friends and relatives. Starvation is common, beatings are common, the taking of innocent hostages into custody is common, the chaining of prisoners is common, and deaths are frequent. When a prisoner is beaten to death the body is cremated, to destroy the evidence of the Nazi (Catholic Action) maltreatments. The Guardian tells of one instance which shows the work of these fiends. It says:
“A workman was chained in his cell so that his body was kept bent for three days, during which he got nothing to eat. On the fourth day he was chained with his back to the wall, his hands being behind his back. He was allowed just enough free play to kneel and bend forward. Then a bowl of food was placed before him. As he bent down to eat straight out of the bowl like a dog, the bowl was dashed against his face by a warder and the food was scattered.”
“Doesn’t he play nice with the children, Adolff”
Done to Death at Dachau
THE Manchester Guardian gives the names of 44 prisoners done to death at Dachau prison camp, Germany. Two of these were frozen to death in unheated cement cells. Some were murdered in such brutal fashion that it was impossible to let the relatives see the dead bodies. A favorite Nazi “joke” is to tell defenseless prisoners to prepare to die. Guards stand by with loaded rifles and, at command, fire so as to miss; but they occasionally do kill a few, so that the terror will be maintained.
Nazis Raid the Masons
THE Nazis have taken it upon themselves to close up freemasonry in Germany. While one of the oldest lodges in the country, The Three Globes, founded by Frederick the Great, was in session, secret police swooped down, seized all papers and documents, arrested the master mason and took the names and addresses of all persons present.
Some of the Nazi Punishments
IN THE Nazi prisons all humane treatment of prisoners has been discarded. For writing letters of what happens in concentration camps there are fifty blows with a stick. For collecting data about concentration camps, or repeating such data, or mentioning the same to outside visitors, the penalty is death by hanging. One who refuses to work is shot on the spot or hanged later. One who sends out blood-stained clothing is punished with three days of close arrest. Anyone who writes more than two letters or postcards a month gets eight days of close arrest. One who omits the Hitler salute gets twenty-five blows followed by eight days close arrest, followed by twenty-five more blows with the stick at its close. One who declares his innocence gets fifty blows.
A Land of Madmen
“Our Work Stands for All Time”
“OUR work stands for all time,” so said Hitler, and that despite the statement that Daniel made. For fear Adolph never knew about that statement it is here quoted as it appears at Daniel 2:44: “And in the days of these kings [Hitler is a king in the sense of the text] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms [including Hitler’s], and it shall stand for ever.”
Cannot Stand Being Laughed At
NO PERSON who is ridiculous can stand being laughed at. For caricaturing Hitler a carnival was broken up at Heddenheim, Germany, and in Tokyo an official protest was made to the Japanese government because a paper cartooned him.
The staff artist submitted the above picture with the title “Scenic Beauties in New Germany”. Accompanying the picture was a letter in which he laments that he despaired of actually capturing the scene by brush or pen, and adds: “You ought to see the original.” After scanning it carefully one is inclined to believe that he made an error in the title and that it should be “Panorama in a Madhouse”. How else could you explain the presence of Reichsminister Goering, Der Sturmer-minister Streicher (Jew-baiter), the Reichs protestant church (upholding a pair of boots), Reichspropaganda minister Goebbels, and, in the center of the picture, Der Fuhrer himself in a familiar pose with Reichs-harlot-minister Madame Papacy, flanked by a little scene between Reichsjustice minister Thierack and Justice and ably supported by an all-star cast, including the Reichstorture ministers, the Reichs-Hitler-worship-minister, the Reichs-vulture, the Reichs-crematory-for-mutilated-victims, and a few other little things. Liberty swings merrily, from the rafters, an aged Jew hears a talk on blood purity and the Reichs-womanhood heroically Heils Hitler ere she collapses. Any other item you can find is yours, and needs no word from us unless it be the Reichs-REAL-minister in the background—Gog. Hitler was a house-painter by trade. Find the brush.
Making Hereditary Soldiers
THE process of making hereditary soldiers goes on apace in Germany, and is one of the rapidly developing curses of the world. Children of German government officials as well as children of all members of the regular German army are now compelled to join the Hitler Youth. Their “religion” from that moment is Hitlerism.
Spending Millions in Face of Poverty
THE German government is spending millions in the face of poverty. Savings banks, insurance companies, trade unions, co-operative associations, churches and businesses of all kinds are being literally compelled to invest their funds in so-called “rearmament notes”. In other words, Germany is being bled white to prepare for another war to end war.
Women Denounced as Property
ONE of the latest decrees of the German “government” is that “no German woman, whether young or old, and no German girl of today, has the right to consider herself a private person who can do with her body as she pleases”. In other words, she exists for the purpose of perpetuating the Nazi state.
12,000,000 Children in German Balilla
IT IS the intention of the present so-called “government” in Germany that by the end of 1936 every German boy and girl between the ages of 10 and 14 will be under the direct control of the military, with the definite aim of militarizing the entire nation.
At Nuremberg
AT A Hitler demonstration in Nuremberg, where it is claimed 50,000 lads and 20,000 workers were presented to him, one of the themes was "Flag to which we have all pledged our lives—flag that is our beginning and our end". One of the responses as to what would happen if there were not time to pray before death was this blasphemy, shouted by the whole crowd: "God will nevertheless understand us, for whoever consecrates his life to his nation will be honored by a blessed stand next to the Lord." How perfectly idiotic!
Nazism as a Religion
HANS KERRL, Nazi minister for church affairs, sees the Nazi philosophy as a religion. Indeed he says of it: "That was the message that our Savior brought 1,900 years ago when He preached that the kingdom of heaven is within us and that all a man needs to guide him he finds in his conscience." (Kerrl misunderstands this text entirely; Jesus was explaining that at His second advent, now a reality, He as King would be present among men, but would not be seen.) He goes on to say: "We recognized in 1923 (in the Munich beer hall putsch) the faith that removes mountains."
Hopes for World Dominance
IN AN address at a Nazi rally at Essen, so says the Berlin correspondent of the London News Chronicle, Dr. Ley, leader of the Labor Front, made the statement: "There are great battles ahead of us; but do not let us get worried, or let the crisis overwhelm you. Hitler has not only conquered Germany, but he will conquer the whole world." No doubt Gog and his forces have persuaded Ratti, Hitler and others that their plans for world domination have spiritual backing and that they cannot fail.
"Heil Hitler" Madness
THE latest form of "Heil Hitler" madness in Germany is that brides and bridegrooms when pledging their troth to each other, instead of saying "I do", now say "Jawohl! Heil Hitler!" if they are members of the so-called "German People's Church". If they have children, probably the first words the kids will be taught will be "Heil Hitler", and they will not be given their nursing bottles until after they make the Hitler salute.
"Security"
HITLER thinks he has everything sewed up tight in Germany. He said: "The Reich is no longer an object of foreign maneuvering, but is in security; in security, not by pacts, but by the real power of the nation and by the firm will of its leadership. It is not necessary for us to prove our security by any demonstrations. It is sufficient that we ourselves know it."
Inquisitors Will Have No Snoozers
THE German Inquisitors will have no snoozers. While Chancellor Hitler was delivering himself of a radio speech, his high functionaries were ordered to sit and listen. One high official of the financial administration, a man of over 60, and by now tired of all the Hitler bunk, nodded a little; the spies reported it, and he was ordered to resign within five days. Nice, eh? America will soon be just as bad. See page 438.
New Way to Say "Hooray"
NOBODY in Germany feels any more like giving an old-fashioned "Hurrah"; it would not be Hitlerified or Heilified sufficiently, and so all the troops hereafter will shout "Siegheil" when they wish to show that they have mentally placed Hitler or the German nation on a pedestal.
A Good and Poor Catholic
DR. EWART EDMUND TURNER, former pastor in Berlin, in an address in Minneapolis said that Hitler is "both a good and a poor Catholic. He was born a Catholic and was a choir boy in Austria. He grew up with great reverence for the Roman Catholic church as a successful organization".
His Knees Are Stiff!
CATHOLIC papers say that Hitler attended "church" at least once during 1935, but that he did not bend the knee. It is hard for dictators to bow the knee to anybody or anything. Hitler is a Catholic only for political advantages it may bring to the Nazi party.
Prayers to Der Fuehrer
PRAYERS to Hitler are now being offered in some places instead of prayers to God, in certain sections of Germany.
Agricultural Liberty (?)
AT Gera, Thuringia, Germany, a tenant farmer was sentenced to a month's imprisonment and a fine of $90, and the landowner and his wife to two weeks' imprisonment and fines of $40, for not delivering all their milk to the central authorities, according to the new agricultural regulations. Instead, they kept back some of the milk, made it into butter, and got a higher price for it than they were supposed to get. Other farmers have been sentenced to heavy fines for selling pigs above the permitted price.
Courts a Laughingstock
THE courts of Germany have become the laughingstock of mankind. Thus the Superior Court ruled that the practice of patronizing Jewish business firms violates the honor of every German; a court endorsed the action of a registrar who refused to issue the banns for a wedding between a man of German blood and a Jewess. Carried away with their devilish dictatorship, the people of Germany, as a whole, seem to have lost both reason and shame.
Against the Law
IT IS against the law in Germany to fail to give the Hitler salute when the Horst Wessel song is sung or played; it is also against the law to address a public official without saying "Heil Hitler"; it is also against the law to make unfavorable comments about the Nazi state or political party; it is against the law for a German girl to sit in public with a Jew; and it is against the law to sell real estate to a Jew.
No Sense of Humor
NAZIDOM has officially decided that it has no sense of humor. It has suppressed the paper The Program, official publication of those in the cabaret, vaudeville and circus business, because persons in those organizations have hitherto poked fun at prominent persons. This inability to see the humorous side of hypocrisy is a sure sign of insanity or imbecility, or both.
To Help Along the War Against Ethiopia
TO HELP along the war, German Catholics have been authorized to apply for a permit from the German government to loan $8,000,000 to Mussolini for war purchases in Germany. The pope is thus willing to do what he can to break the everlasting covenant.
The Reichstag Arson Order
IN THE magazine Liberty Princess Radziwill asserted that the reason why Dollfuss was murdered, and Roehm and Mrs. von Schleicher were tortured and then done to death, was that the Nazis could recover the written order that Hitler gave to Roehm to burn the Reichstag. She asserts that the monarchists have the original order, and copies of it, and are only waiting their opportunity to get rid of Hitler and put a Hohenzollern in his place. Circular letters, dated three days before his death, were prepared and circulated in Germany in anticipation of the death of Chancellor Dollfuss, showing that the murder, in all its details, was a carefully laid Nazi plan.
Achievements of Nazism (Catholic Action)
THE achievements of Nazism (Catholic Action) are: workmen forced into Fascist organizations, their social insurance funds plundered, their mills and factories turned into barracks; the young dismissed wholesale and forced to work in labor camps, with continuous military drilling; the trusts made more dominant and arrogant than ever; the servitude of the peasants made more complete, so that they are now even deprived of the elementary right of free movement; women reduced to be only cooks and breeders; 4,200 honest opposers to Nazism slain and 317,000 arrested; 1,200 of Jehovah's witnesses imprisoned. God save His people.
Planning to Overthrow Czechoslovakia
CZECHOSLOVAKIA is much disturbed by the positive proof that the Ratti-Hitler combination which overthrew the German Republic and destroyed Protestantism throughout Germany has the same program far advanced for the same ends in their own land. Twenty-eight spies were caught selling state secrets to Germany. Germany's Roman Catholic minister of propaganda, Goebbels, is doing everything possible to inflame the German people against the Czechs.
British and German Officer Exchange
FOR the first time in many years the British and German armies are exchanging officers. The idea back of this is that, if a war should start, everybody would know as well how to kill as the next fellow. The munition peddlers have always encouraged this amity between armies of all nations.
Nuggets of News
IT WAS officially announced by the Reich ministry of justice that Hitler’s will is the supreme law of the land in Germany. A polypus tumor was removed from Hitler’s right vocal cord. A Frankfort restaurant keeper was imprisoned for permitting customers to criticize the State. All German barbers and restaurant keepers were warned that they will be arrested and their licenses withdrawn if they do not immediately report to the police any talk hostile to the government heard in their places of business. Dr. E. Schmucker, metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox church in Germany, put in a concentration camp, was kicked and forced to work in freezing weather clad only in trousers and shirt. A London lawyer, at the International Penal Congress, in Berlin, stirred all the delegates mightily when he said: “The idea of giving the judge the right to curtail the length of speeches and to refuse evidence to shorten the trial is entirely contrary to British ideas of justice. We feel that the proposal to shorten trials has been introduced here to obtain international sanction for that type of trial which takes place in this country.”
Fascism (Catholic Action) Means Ruin
SAID David P. Berenberg, in the L. & S. Press Service: “Those, again, who look at Italy and Germany, and think that in those countries the middle class is winning back, under Fascism, its old place of power and respectability, do not understand Fascism. In the Fascist countries the capitalists used the middle class as a cat’s-paw to aid them in breaking up the organizations of labor. Now that job is done, Italy is going to war with Abyssinia to keep the middle class from learning the truth—that Mussolini cannot restore their wealth and power. He hopes to keep them quiet by giving them ‘glory’ as did Napoleon with the French more than a hundred years ago. Hitler in Germany is arming for the same reason. Both the Italian and German armies can be used at home, should the middle class become restless, suspicious and rebellious.”
All Germans Must Stand By
ALL Germans, in foreign lands, even those having double citizenship, must report to their consuls and be ready for service whenever called. Sounds like 1914.
Traces His Downfall to a Kiss
IT IS best to be careful what you kiss. Wide World published a photographic reproduction of Dr. George von Dehn, German envoy to the Irish Free State, prostrating himself before Monsignor Paschal Robinson, papal nuncio in Dublin, and kissing his episcopal ring, whatever that is. At the time he kissed he had been promoted to be minister to Rumania, and was saying good-bye. The photographers spoiled it all. They got the picture into Hitler’s hands, and Hitler gave the kisser his walking papers, on the ground that his mode of farewell was unmanly. Now he is out of a job, all because of a kiss.
Oranienburg and Hubertshof
FUGITIVES who escaped from the Hitler prison camps of Oranienburg and Hubertshof tell of places of a thousand tortures, of men beaten with rubber cudgels, mercilessly overworked and nearly starved compelled to deny all this over the radio, and compelled to sing in chorus so that the cries of pain and horror in the camp can be muffled, of men compelled to crawl on all fours and to bark like dogs, and to do other things unprintable, at the hands of those who, for the moment, have the power in their hands. The Lord put it in a nutshell when He said: ‘As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man.’
Spends $4,000,000,000 for War
SAID Winston Churchill, at an address in England:
“When I know that Germany is spending much more than £800,000,000 in warlike preparations in the course of a single year, that she is ruining her finances and depriving the German people of pork, butter and other foodstuffs in order to turn the whole nation into the most prodigious and terrible fighting engine the world has ever seen, I cannot help asking, ‘For what is this terrible preparation made? and what awful event hangs over the future of Europe?’”
Practically Told to Mind Their Own Business
THE thirteen nations that censured Germany for rearming were all practically told to mind their own business on the same day that Adolf Hitler received birthday gifts of military displays and fighting planes. With a great deal of truth the Germans called attention to the fact that France and other nations violated the Versailles treaty long before the Germans did.
Persecutions of Fleshly Israel
Robbing Jews
WHEN a Jew wishes to leave Germany he has to submit to being robbed of about 90 percent of his fortune. The way in which this is done is explained in the Manchester Guardian by L. G. Montefiore:
“A German Jew who wants to sell his business gets a bad price, first, because of the damage caused by the boycott. Secondly, the liquidation bank, by creating a sort of monopoly for buying Jewish concerns, forces the price down further, as behind the liquidation bank stands the National-Socialist State, and any resistance against it is treason. Thirdly, of the low price received, if it still exceeds 50,000 marks, 25 percent must be paid as emigration tax. Fourthly, the remainder is paid over in Sperrmarks, and can be realized abroad only at a rate of less than 30 percent. As the rate of the Sperrmark is largely determined by actions of the German government, there is the possibility of its being brought down still further. Jewish fortunes in Germany, created by the industrious work of generations, are almost entirely expropriated by the Nazi State, which does not bother if the Jewish family starves abroad. But foreigners who visit Germany are told that Jews in Germany are obviously quite happy, since they do not emigrate.”
Happenings
DISPATCHES from Germany mention 139 German citizens, many of them born in Germany, deprived of their citizenship. They thus become aliens, requiring even a permit to work, so that in effect they are sentenced to starvation. In a nation-wide window-dressing contest youths of Jewish birth are forbidden participation, but Gentile youths employed by Jewish concerns may participate, provided they dress the store windows of Gentiles. In the register of doctors there is such a use of punctuation as to show which are Jews and which have Jewish wives, so that they may be boycotted. In Nuremberg hatred of the Jews went to such length that fake ads appeared in the papers, such as “For sale, good Jewish wine, mixed with human blood”. Since the Nazis came into power 40,000 Jews have left Germany and it is illegal for Jewish speakers to urge Jews to remain in Germany.
The Impossible Courts
A JEWISH lawyer in Magdeburg sued a German lawyer for insulting him as a Jew. The Jew was thereupon sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for insulting an Aryan by suing him.
Gleanings
FRENCH and Spanish delegates to the International Penal Congress in Berlin, to their lasting credit be it said, expressed the opinion that all prisoners should be granted ameliorations in the execution of their penalties and the idea of vengeance must disappear from every form of justice, else there is a return to barbarism. The Nazi attorneys present defended German brutality in the prison camps and extolled the Hitler régime as genuine democracy. It is now impossible for any but Jews to watch a Jewish performance of any kind, except by special permit. Premises for Jewish performances must be obtained from Jews, wherever possible. Canvassing for Jewish newspapers and periodicals is forbidden. For the time the lowest type of humanity is directing affairs in Germany, regardless of the apparent “progress” of the German nation in some respects. A government built on blood will not last.
Unlawful to Pray for Jews
GEORGE ALTHAUS, Timmerlach, Germany, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for having said in a prayer in the church of which he was pastor, “God protect the poor, persecuted Jews.” The courts in Germany have become objects of the withering contempt of all decent people.
Jews May Not Teach Music
INCREDIBLY small and mean as it may seem, the German “government” has forbidden Jews to teach music, even privately. Another order compels them to vacate within three months low-rent municipal apartment houses specially built for them, under Von Hindenburg’s régime.
Rules Regarding Jews
GERMAN Jews cannot be citizens, cannot vote, and have been removed from all positions as civil servants. No maidservant under 35 years of age who is a non-Jew may work in a Jewish household.
No More Jewish Doctors
THERE is now a “law” in Germany that there may be no more Jewish doctors, nor may they be doctors if Jewish hybrids, or married to Jews or Jewish hybrids.
Report of One of Jehovah's witnesses
MRS. ——, of Teplitz-Schoenau, Czechoslovakia, reports that she has been well informed by brethren from Germany that the present conditions in Germany are very similar to those during the Dark Ages, when the Roman Catholic Inquisition was in power. The former outward enthusiasm of the people has cooled off greatly. Numerous rhymed sayings which are now circulating amongst the people in Germany about Hitler indicate that they are hoping for his speedy downfall.
The people in general are much embittered about the cruel persecution of the Jews. "We are very well informed concerning several cases [of such pogroms] that they were staged by the rulers themselves." At the order of the government their Jew-baiters and Jew-beaters had to leave their uniforms at home lest they be recognized as official agents. The next day after the mistreatments of the Jews the newspapers report that 'the common people expressed their sentiments against the Jews, who are to be blamed for all the ills of Germany, by a spontaneous anti-Semitic demonstration'. Some men who were ordered to take part in those atrocities returned home brokenhearted and wept bitter tears for the violence they had committed, and which they committed against their own conscience and sentiments under coercion by the government.
The people know very well that the newspaper reports are deliberate falsehoods, and therefore they are full of indignation. Every honest German knows from personal observation that the public press is full of lies and deceit in order to hoodwink the people. At present they give little attention and consideration to the reports of the newspapers. Germany has become for multitudes a country of great sadness, a veritable valley of the shadow of death.
The Czechoslovakian government is against the Nazis, and this is a favorable condition for the [Kingdom] publishers in that country. But now the "ravens" [the clergy in black garb] are trying to denounce them as Nazis in order to hinder the proclamation of the truth! Of course, those inveterate liars know very well that Jehovah's witnesses are not Nazis, but, on the contrary, hate that damnable rabble which persecutes God's people so cruelly.
Clever Scheme of Paying Jews
STUNG by the world's bitter comments regarding its outrageous treatment of the Jews, and yet determined to get all possible out of the circumstances, Germany invented a plan for recompensing those forced out that is unique and practical and from some points of view is fair. Heretofore the fugitive could take with him about 25 percent of his property; the rest was lost. Now he may turn his German fortune over to some German concern that has export connections and accept his pay in a mortgage at 4 percent. In the fourth year he receives 10 percent of the principal, and from then up to the thirteenth year equal annuities each year. By this method, though he gets nothing the first three years, the Jew, if nothing happens to Germany in the meantime, gets back about 65 percent of his property in thirteen years, and meantime has every reason in his new homeland to wish prosperity to Germany, and especially to the concern in which he has his mortgage interest. The efficiency expert that thought out that scheme was certainly a clever schemer.
A Nice Problem for the Inquisitors
RUDOLF SELZ, born in Germany, emigrated to England, became a British citizen, and fought against Germany in the World War. Twenty-five years after leaving Germany he returned and was arrested by the Nazi police. The British embassy will now have something to say and will surely say it. Selz was arrested on the charge that he is a Jew. "Racial pollution" is something Britain does not know anything about, nor does anybody else with any sense, and the Inquisitors are in for a bad hour.
"The Cause of the Black Death"
JAMES G. McDONALD, high commissioner for refugees from Germany, in resigning his post reminds the League of Nations that in the Middle Ages the Jews were massacred and expelled from the German States as the cause of the black death. He likens their present horrible condition in Germany to what then prevailed.
"Don't Tell My Father"
FROM Germany comes the tale of a Jewish boy, Abramovitch, who stopped a runaway horse bearing down on Hitler. Asked what he could do to reward his benefactor, the youth is alleged to have replied: "Don't tell my father."
Educational Aspects
Inquisitors Kill Book Business
CONTROL of all publishing businesses by the Ratti-Hitler Inquisitors has killed the German book business. Nobody wants books from a country that is under the thumb of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. In 1930 the German publishers had a turnover of 1,320,000,000 marks; in 1934 this had fallen to 754,000,000 marks, a decline of 43 percent. Now the morons are wondering why the publishing business is in such a bad way in Germany and what to do about it. Newspaper ownership will henceforth be limited to Nazis. To question anything today in Germany, no matter how honestly the inquirer desires information, results in the questioner's landing in a concentration camp. How would you like to live in a country like that? That is a picture of what America will be when the Hierarchy gets full control. See page 438.
New Press Laws
NO Jew may now have any part in the newspaper business of Germany. No one can own a newspaper, hold any shares in one or sit on the board of directors of one unless he can prove pure Aryan descent for the past 135 years; if married he must prove the pure Aryan descent of his wife. In cities where several papers are published the government can stop all the others and allow the Nazi organ to continue.
A Compositor's Big Joke on Rudolph Hess
RUDOLPH HESS, one of the leaders of the Nazi party in Germany, addressed 1,800 Hitler Youth, congratulating them on having had a share in the greatest liberty movement in German history, but when the speech was published it was found that by a substitution of four letters in one of those long German words, Hess was alleged to have congratulated them on "the mightiest robbery of liberty in German history", which is, in fact, what they have done.
Still Bitten with the Superman Bug
STILL bitten with the superman bug, that a German, because he is a German, is superior to any other man on earth, the Nazis have now selected 12,000 super-Nazis, called "Schutzstaffel", all about six feet high. These must be Nordic, Teutonic and Aryan and must select Nordic, Teutonic and Aryan mates to breed bigger and better Nazis and more complete and absolute fools, if that is possible, which is doubted.
Shooting Things Up at Thanksgiving
GERMANY celebrated Thanksgiving October 6 by bombing of a cardboard village. Just how "the thunder of heavy guns, the crackle of machine guns, the rumble of tanks, the roar of army planes and the dropping of bombs on a cardboard village" until it went up in smoke and flames could be a suitable expression of thanks to the Creator for His mercies is something that only a crazy man could understand.
Infinite Capacity for Being Ridiculous
THE military leaders of Germany seem to have an almost infinite capacity for making themselves ridiculous. This was seen at Christmas time near Berlin, where a military cycle squad circled a Christmas tree to the tune of machine-gun fire and distributed models of tanks among the little folks they anticipate will make the next batch of cannon fodder.
To Build Most Powerful Radio Station
CRITICISM of the Nazi régime is finally getting under Germany's hide and she is now building the world's most powerful radio station, at Zeesen, with the avowed intent of sending out her own side of the story to all the world in German, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
New Toys
NEW toys in Germany are a boys' bombing plane, which circles around a room, and, as it goes, drops torpedoes which explode as they hit the floor. There is also a toy tank which races up an incline, discharging fireworks as it goes. The whole nation is insane again, as in 1914.
Blackmailing as a Business
THE silly laws of Germany against Jews have made possible an entirely new enterprise in that country, that of scientific blackmail. Jews are threatened with denunciation for 'racial disgrace' or some other imaginary violation and have to pay handsomely to avoid trouble.
Passports of Jews Confiscated
IN Munich there was a general raiding of Jewish homes and the confiscation of passports, it having been discovered that Jewish merchants had been selling their wares abroad and keeping the proceeds there instead of bringing the cash back to Nazidom.
Economics
Satan's Victory at Lonhatan
(From the German Golden Age)
MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE and Baron de Coupene had charge over a church property or estate named Lonhatan. It lay in a lonely but fertile valley, which well provided its two hundred inhabitants. Lonhatan shut itself off from the rest of the world, knew no difference in social standing or work, and the people were happy, lived a regular life and grew old. This peaceful corner made Satan angry, and one night he suggested to the stupidest man in Lonhatan to send his son away to be educated. He did so.
When the young man came back, educated as a lawyer, a goat was missing just at that time. Goats then disappeared quite often, but no one became excited about it. This time, however, the lawyer hollered so much about the goat's being stolen that he got his first lawsuit, parties were formed, there was mudslinging, and shortly the young advocate had a good income and was satisfied.
Since anger is bad for gall and bladder, a few of the inhabitants fell ill, and a young doctor happening to visit the lawyer found it profitable to take up his domicile in the community. He taught the people how much pain they could have, and from how many diseases they could die. Up to that time everything in Lonhatan had been treated with garlic, and with good results, but after the doctor arrived only bad-tasting and expensive medicines were used.
To make the medicines the doctor called for a druggist. From that time the mortality took such a jump that the cemetery was enlarged and a young clergyman was engaged.
Seeing that only four men of science were in Lonhatan, every family wanted one of their own to have the title of doctor. Alas! it was all over with equality in social standing and work. The "brains" were triumphant and duly honored. As soon as Satan saw that twelve graduated Bachelors of Science had come to live in the once peaceful valley, he saw that he could turn his attention to some other place; for in Lonhatan his business was in good hands.
Housewives Suffer
GERMAN housewives are registered at the grocery stores where they usually trade, and may not purchase elsewhere articles (such as butter) of which there is a shortage. If they grumble they are brought into court.
Nazism (Catholic Action) in Practice
I HAVE spent hours in the cities of Germany, hunting for a smile on a human face, and have been disappointed in my quest. I found women in the churches who had come to believe that God had forsaken them.
I found blacklisted workers and their families hiding in their hovels, who told me that they were starving to death and were utterly without hope.
The Nazi system is a return to savagery, and civilization in Germany is being uprooted and destroyed. Germany is ruled by a clique of criminal racketeers. In the purge of last year Hitler murdered, with his own hand, one of his best friends, the commander-in-chief of the Nazi militia, a man whose jealous personal enemies succeeded in temporarily obtaining the ear of der Fuehrer.
This man and his clique rule through a party of 2,000,000 members who are organized and drilled as an army. However, the racketeers are now freeing themselves from their own party and regimenting the whole German people into the totalitarian state. These two millions act as spies during the day, permeating every factory and street corner crowd. They do their drill during the evening hours and on Sundays.—Dr. Frank Bohn, in the Cleveland (Ohio) News.
Will Be Broke by Midsummer 1937
FRAZIER HUNT, in an uncensored NEA dispatch from Berlin, states that in Germany "three million persons formerly unemployed are now working on war preparations" but that "Germany will face a problem in eighteen months of frankly what to do when her ready money is gone. A hungry man will not care to buy a revolver instead of food".
Catholic Action
FASCISM (Catholic Action) is not such a boon to the middle classes of Germany, for the cost of living is rising and wages are falling, according to their own official statements. The only ones going ahead are the makers of war implements and poison gas. These, and the pope, were the ones that first financed Hitler.
Nazis Get the Postal Jobs
MORE than 12,000 men and women have been compelled to sacrifice their jobs to members of the Nazi party in Germany.
Social
Terrible Breakdown in Morality
IN THE Medical Record Hendrik de Leeuw tells of the horrible conditions that have arisen in Germany under the Nazi régime. Some of the items for which De Leeuw vouches are that there are 45,000 homosexuals in Berlin; that in Berlin there are more abortions than births; that in Berlin there are almost as many midwives as doctors, and one of these midwives interviewed by De Leeuw and another doctor admitted that she performs on an average four abortions a day; that since his last visit to Germany prostitution has increased tenfold; that there have been more cases of rape by German Nazis on Jewish women than in any previous time during the history of Germany. De Leeuw marvels at the mental conditions that would permit the Nazis to "in the same breath shout for extermination of the Jew and in the other debauch and defile young Jewish women and girls, many of the latter being under age". He states that there are nine thousand registered and fourteen thousand clandestine prostitutes in Berlin, with the girls' fees ranging from one to three marks. This information was sent to The Golden Age by a New York physician who thinks that, under the circumstances, the Nazi boast that Germany has a superior civilization falls of its own weight.
Wife a Nazi Would Accept
ONE of the Nazis advertised in the Deutscher Bauer for a wife. At the outset he was willing to content himself with the following: "I want a brave, original German girl as a comrade for life. She must be of northern blood and character, rectangular in body and soul, of healthy natural feelings, with a sense of sacrifice, a thirst for freedom, a woman's pride, and a joy in singing. She must have a passionate devotion to her nation and a heart in love with nature, sun and bodily exercise. She must be a real woman, symmetrically straight, perfectly healthy, undeviatingly true and honest, a fearless, faithful girl, determined to find a newer, finer life. She must be ready for agricultural work and fitted for it and she must be ready to take her place by the side of a straight, healthy, nature-loving, sport-loving, rustic German man. Dolls of dancing and of fashion need not apply. Private fortune not indispensable." What such a woman would want with such a man is the unsolved problem.
Not Christ, but Hitler
HANS KERRL, Reich minister for Church Affairs, did not come out openly and say that the German people must ignore Christ and come out for Hitler as their Savior, but he might as well have said so. In his New Year greeting for 1936 there was no mention made of Christ, but he did lead up to his grand climax of idolatry of Hitler in his closing remark, that "it lies with the churches to find their way freely to the leader of the German nation".
Women Walk to Doom with Dignity
WHEN the so-called "German Government" resumed the practice of the French Revolution of beheading women, it was noteworthy that the two women first beheaded walked to the guillotine without murmuring a single word, while men usually have to be dragged to the axe. The account says, "The executioner and his assistants wore black tailcoats, top hats and white gloves."
Judge Rutherford Heard in Iceland
A LETTER from Reykjavik, Iceland, says: "We heard Judge Rutherford's lecture from Los Angeles all the way through from Radio Normandie, France. As soon as the lecture was over I went to two other places where I knew people were going to listen in. It was fairly good, loud at times, but some fading."
Also in Finland
CORRESPONDENCE from Finland, referring to the reception there of Judge Rutherford's lecture, "Separating the Nations," notes that the best reception was from Radio Lyon, of France, but that EAQ, Madrid, was also heard; all in all, "A great spurring to us and a mighty testimony to those who heard."
Heard Their Own Radiogram Broadcast
A NOTE from Leicester, England, says: "We arrived there (Birmingham) in time for the midnight broadcast. Only ten cities in Britain were having the second speech diffused, so those from surrounding areas closed in on these. Again we had a treat, and were delighted to receive the greetings of the brethren in Los Angeles. We actually heard our own Leicester telegraph message read out. Indeed, we felt we were at the convention, truly a world-wide one."
Church’s Commission
A five-minute talk by Judge Rutherford
GOD has called and selected His church for a specific purpose. He has commissioned His church to do certain things. A commission is a warrant of authority commanding the performance of certain duties. The Lord Jesus is the head or chief one of the church, and that commission applies primarily to Him. That commission is recorded at Isaiah 61:1, 2, and, amongst other things, says: ‘The spirit of Jehovah is upon me, because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach the good news unto the teachable.’ This commission applies to all of those who are in Christ Jesus and faithfully following in His footsteps. Each one, in obedience to this commission, must give testimony of the truth or good news. Jesus declared the very purpose of His coming to earth was to bear witness to the truth, and which is in fulfillment of this commission.
That message of good news or gospel, in brief, is this: That Jehovah is the only true and almighty God; that Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, is the Redeemer of man and the world’s rightful Ruler; that in God’s due time Christ Jesus will take over all power and authority, destroy all wickedness, and rule the world in righteousness, and that all who obey the Lord shall live for ever in happiness, and all others shall be destroyed. In harmony with the commission the angels of heaven announced at the birth of Jesus these words from Jehovah: ‘Behold, we bring you good news of great joy which shall be unto all people. . . . Glory in the highest unto God, and on earth peace amongst men of good will.’ (Luke 2:9-14, Rotherham) That means that only those who have good will toward God are brought into the condition of peace with God.
Those who voluntarily agree to do God’s will and wholly devote themselves to the Lord He calls to a place in His organization and commissions them to follow Christ Jesus and be witnesses to Jehovah. To them He says: ‘Ye are my witnesses and my servant; ye are my witnesses that I am God.’ (Isaiah 43:9-12) In order to receive the approval of God these witnesses must faithfully perform the commission, which means that they must tell others who will hear the good news concerning Jehovah and His kingdom. Such witnesses are true Christians because true followers of Christ Jesus. They are not commissioned to save souls, but to tell the truth, that others may learn the only way of salvation. Concerning these commissioned ones called to be members of the church of God He caused to be addressed in these words (1 Peter 2:9, Diaglott): “You are a chosen race, . . . a holy nation, a people for a purpose; that you may declare the perfections of him who called you from darkness into his wonderful light.” All who become members of the real church must do faithfully what God has commanded them to do.
Those who receive this command from God, and who faithfully perform that commission, are ultimately changed in the resurrection from human to spirit creatures, and will for ever be associated with the Lord Jesus in heaven. (Revelation 20:4) The whole number thereof is limited to 144,000. No man or body of men selects them, because God alone selects and commissions His church. These are taken to heaven only upon condition that they prove entirely faithful in the performance of their God-given commission, and are the only ones of the human race that will ever be taken to heaven. There are millions of persons on earth who want to know God and Christ Jesus and serve in His kingdom, but who are not commissioned or anointed of the Lord, and they will never be taken to heaven. These are mentioned in the Scriptures as the “great multitude”, and will be considered on another occasion.
…