The Watchtower, September 15, 1947
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Me WATCHTOWER.
Published Semimonthly By
WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY 117 Adams Street • • Brooklyn 1, N.Y,, U.S.A.
Officers
N. H. Knobb, President Grant Suiter, Secretary
“And all 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 his 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 mau, 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
HIS 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 is 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.
Notice to Subscribers: Remittances should be sent to office in your country In compliance with regulations to guarantee safe delivery of money. Remittances are accepted at Brooklyn from countries where no office is located, by international money order only. Subscription rates in different countries are stated below in local currency. Notice of expiration (with renewal blank) is sent at least two issues before subscription expires. Change of address when sent to our office may be expected effective within one month. Send your old aa well as new address.
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“FEARLESS AGAINST CONSPIRACY” TESTIMONY PERIOD
October is annually a special testimony-period month, and this year it is designated “Fearless Against Conspiracy” Testimony Period. The fact today of world conspiracy against Jehovah God and his kingdom by Christ cannot be denied, and it falls not amiss that during this special testimony His fearless publishers will offer the challenging book “Let God Be True”, making it their initial offer on a contribution of 35c, American, or the equivalent of this in foreign lands. Many new Watchtower readers doubtless feel emboldened by its message to take part in this special effort to place the said book and to lay the foundation for future studies of the Bible with it in the private homes of the obtainers. We invite all such into the ranks of active publishers of God’s presentday message. In harmony therewith we wait to hear from you if wanting to get instructions and any references to companies or groups with whom you can associate unitedly in this privilege of service. For the part that it plays in compiling a world-wide report, we ask for your report of work at the end of October.
“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES
Week of October 19: “Turning In the Report,” fl 1-15 inclusive, The Watchtower September 15, 1947.
Week of October 26: “Turning In the Report,” fl 16-28 inclusive, The Watchtower September 15, 1947.
Week of November 2: “Turning In the Report,” fl 29-35 inclusive, also “What the Report Showed,” fl 1-7 inclusive, The Watchtower September 15, 1947.
NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING
On Wednesday, October 1, 1947, at 10:00 o’clock a.m,, the annual meeting of the members of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, a nonprofit Pennsylvania corporation, will be held at the registered office of the Society located in the Wabash Building, 410 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh 22, Pennsylvania, at which the regular business of the corporation will be transacted.
Notices of the meeting and proxy forms are being mailed to the members. Every member, whether attending the meeting in person or not, should mail his proxy to the office of the secretary of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn 2, New York, on or before September 15,1947.
EUROPEAN RELIEF
In accord with the announcement by the Society’s president Friday mght, August 15, at the “All Nations Expansion” Assembly at Los Angeles, Calif., the Watch Tower Society is now supervising through its Branch office the sending of relief in the form of food supplies to the needy brethren in Germany. The organization CARE is being used to prepare special 21-pound packages of select food at $7 a package. We remind all Watchtower readers in America, to whom this opportunity is restricted, that the privilege of sending financial contributions for this purpose closes September 30.
ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM
Vol. LXVIH
September 15, 1947
No. 18
TURNING IN THE REPORT
“The man in linen with the ink-horn made his report: 'I have obeyed thine orders’” —Ezek. 9:11, Moffatt.
JEHOVAH God gave Ezekiel a vision in the sixth I year of this prophet's captivity at Babylon and J therefore five years before Jerusalem's destruction in 607 B.C. Jehovah did so for the sake of giving us today a solemn warning of Christendom’s coming destruction and also a comforting hope that some of our generation will escape being wiped out with her. (1 Cor. 10:11) The vision shows that those who are responsible to Almighty God will have to turn in a report of their works on earth, just before or when such destruction strikes the hypocritical religious organization.
2 The setting for the vision to Ezekiel was at the temple in Jerusalem. By means of his glorious angelic representative Jehovah God came to it for an inspection. “In the visions of God” he brought the prophet Ezekiel along with him. (Ezek. 8:1-3) The inspection shocked Ezekiel, because it disclosed that right there at the temple which had Jehovah’s name called upon it, yes, right there under his very nose, the Israelites were practicing false worship. They were not worshiping the Creator, Jehovah God, although they were in the house dedicated to him. They were worshiping created things such as (1) a hideous man-made image that provoked God to jealousy and resentment, and (2) pictures and engravings of animals and of idols, and (3) the demongod Tammuz, and (4) even the rising sun to the east. They were religious hypocrites, and their idolatrous acts of worship within the house nominally His were disgusting and abominable to Jehovah. They made a joke of his simple, plain words to them through his prophet Isaiah: “I am Jehovah, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise unto graven images.”—Isa. 42: 8, Am. Stan. Ver.
3 More than 150 years passed after that inspection of the temple at Jerusalem. Then Jehovah God foretold how at a future time he would come by his
1. To give and show ub what was the vision given to Ezekiel?
2. Why did the inspection of the temple shock Ezekiel?
3. What other inspection did God foretell, and when fulfill it?
special messenger to his spiritual temple for an inspection. At that time he would be a swift-acting witness against those religionists who profaned his name and his worship. “Behold,” says He, “I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts. . . . And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me; saith Jehovah of hosts. For I, Jehovah, change not.” (Mal. 3:1-6, Am. Stan. Ver.) There is much in modern history to show that the coming to the temple which Jehovah of hosts here predicted took place in the spring of 1918. He foreshadowed it by the temple inspection in Ezekiel’s day. The Watchtower has published much to show that since 1918 the special inspection has been directed upon all those who claim to be worshiping and serving at God’s temple, and that the glorified Jesus Christ is Jehovah’s Messenger and Judge at the temple. He will act swiftly as a witness and executioner against all those who do not fear Jehovah as God but who bring scorn and shame upon his sacred name.
4 For this reason Christendom ought to be most interested. At her hands Jehovah’s faithful witnesses have received their worst persecutions and opposition in recent years. She should notice the purpose of God which he plainly declared in Ezekiel’s vision after inspecting the temple and exposing the abominations done there by professed people of God. The vision as written down says: “Then I heard him shouting at the pitch of his voice, ‘Come here, you executioners of the city, each with his deadly weapon!’ And six men came from the direction of the upper gate that faces north, each holding a
4. Who were God’s executioners in type, and whom do they depict7 275
battle-axe, and accompanied by another man in linen dress, with a writer’s ink-horn at his side. They passed inside the temple, and stood at the bronze altar.” (Ezek. 9:1, 2, Moffatt) Five years later Jehovah God called the executioners to execute his indignation against religious Jerusalem. They were the armies of the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, who came down from the north. Today ancient Babylon and her Chaldean armies are no more. Who, then, will be the six modern-day executioners whom Jehovah of hosts will call to visit his indignation upon the antitypical city of Jerusalem, namely, Christendom? They will be his heavenly hosts under his anointed and enthroned King, Christ Jesus, at the battle of Armageddon, to which Christendom and all nations on earth are being gathered by superhuman forces.—Rev. 16:14-16.
5 Hence the visionary six men with battle-axes do not picture six literal men, but picture the organized hosts that Jehovah God uses for executing his righteous fury against Christendom because of her religious abominations. So with that seventh man, in linen dress, with a writer’s inkhorn at his loins. He pictures, not some individual man on earth today, but the organization of Jehovah’s anointed servants on earth who are members of the “body of Christ”. Jesus Christ is their invisible Head, and they are the remaining members of “his body” yet found on earth. By the Scripture rule that “the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Rev. 19: 8), this composite man in linen is in the righteous service of the Lord God and has no sympathy and no connection with the unrighteous organization of Christendom and her religious abominations.
6 Different from the six executioners with battleaxes, this Christian company pictured by the linenclad man are not equipped for violent combat and destruction. They are neutral regarding the conflicts that divide Christendom into hostile camps, because they have a commissioned service from God that assigns to them other work, on which they are bound to turn in a final report. Their God-given righteous work is denoted by the writer’s inkhorn at the man’s side. It has to do with the inspired written Word of God and with the publishing of it to those who stand in danger because the execution of God’s wrath is threatening modern Christendom and all nations allied with her in an international compact. From this peaceable, salutary work God’s anointed servants cannot turn aside to intermeddle with the conflicts and strife of doomed Christendom and her allies. Neither can they presume to take upon themselves the destructive work that is delegated to the six men with battle-axes to do upon Christendom.
5 Whom does the man in linen with the writer's inkhorn picture? G. How do we know what is the work assigned to this man to do?
They have but one special assignment of service on which to report. What it is in actuality, watch that “man clothed with linen” and see.
“SET A MARK”
T The bronze altar beside which the seven men took their stand awaiting orders was located in the inner court of the temple and before the threshold of the porch of the sanctuary. Just on the other side or west side of the altar, hence between the altar and the temple porch, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the holy sanctuary. (Ezek. 8:16-18) Although they were facing the seven men near to the altar, they were evidently so intent on worshiping the sun to the east that they did not pay any serious attention to those seven men that had just now come in through the north gate. The seven did not stand near to the bronze altar to offer a sacrifice, but to do a work of obedience according to the commands that the Lord should now issue to them. Hence we read the following words concerning Jehovah of hosts, who is said to dwell in the midst of the cherubim: “And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn by his side. And Jehovah said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof.”—Ezek. 9: 3,4, Am. Stan. Ver.
8 The movement of God’s glory to the temple threshold points forward prophetically to A.D. 1918, the time that Jehovah God, by his glorious Messenger, the reigning Christ Jesus, came to the temple. Malachi’s prophecy quoted above foretold that Jehovah’s Messenger at the temple would do a cleansing work upon his consecrated followers and also a judgment work against the religious hypocrites, against whom he would execute a swift witness by destroying them. (Mal. 3:1-5) The cleansed and purified followers are the anointed remnant of the members of Christ’s body. As a united company they are pictured by the man in linen standing alongside the altar and receiving the divine orders. They are at the nominal temple of God which the religionists of Christendom have defiled, and hence they are in the midst of Christendom, with all her abominations, but they are not a part of these things. The orders of Jehovah God through his Messenger to the man in linen now show forth what must be the activity of his approved, anointed remnant on earth from and after 1918. It is important for the members of the remnant to note what those orders say, that so
7 Near where did the seven men take their stand, and why?
8 . How were the anointed remnant made suitable for this work? they may obey this divine commission and turn in an acceptable report at the finish of the work.
9What must they do? Not go home, not stay at home, while God’s executioners are at close hand awaiting the divine signal to go into action! Now is not the time to just enjoy the comforts of home or a pleasant seat in a Kingdom Hall. It is the time to go outside and through the midst of the city, that is, through the midst of Christendom. There put your writing equipment to work and do the work of marking human foreheads. Of course, it is not a work of using a literal ink and putting a visible tau or crossmark on the foreheads of persons throughout Christendom. In the days of Ezekiel and in the five years that remained before Jerusalem’s terrible destruction, no one did such literal marking of Jewish foreheads in that city. But Ezekiel did write messages from God to that city; and his fellow prophet Jeremiah there at Jerusalem or at Anathoth just three miles northeast of Jerusalem preached to its inhabitants and its visitors down till the end of forty years of such preaching work, continuously warning them of the coming desolation of that unfaithful religious city. Thus these two priests, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, together with their devoted helpers, such as Baruch the son of Neriah, who did much writing for Jeremiah, did do a public and private work that affected the minds of those who were humble enough to hear for their good, such as Ebed-melech the Ethiopian.—Jer. 45:1,2; 36:4-32; 38:7-13; 39:15-18.
10 In effect, then, they did do a work of setting a mark in the foreheads of such persons, that is, in their seat of intelligence, which made these openly confess themselves to be for the pure worship of Jehovah God. The city of Jerusalem as a whole did not get such a mark of truth in her forehead. She set her forehead like a “whore’s forehead” and refused to be ashamed of her spiritual uncleanness and adulterous ties with this world; for which reason she was destroyed. Individuals within her, like those twenty-five sun-worshipers, who made their foreheads hard, like flint, against Jehovah’s warning message by his prophets, did not humble themselves in repentance over Jerusalem’s abominable religious practices. Naturally they did not get any mark of truth in their foreheads, figuratively speaking. They refused to take their stand openly for Jehovah and for a worship unmixed with any heathen religion. (Jer. 3:3; Ezek. 3: 8, 9)'But some did receive such a figurative mark through God’s ‘man in linen’. In God’s Word of prophecy he specifically named Ebed-melech and the Rechabites the sons of Jonadab as marked off for preservation from the midst of doomed Jerusalem.—Jer. 35:1-19.
11 Today a marking work is going on by the agency
9,10. What must they do, as illustrated by Ezekiel and Jeremiah?
11. Why must the Kingdom message they proclaim include vengeance? of the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses. It has progressed from and after the coming of his Messenger, Christ Jesus, to the temple in 1918. That means from and after the close of World War I. Jehovah’s witnesses had been made captive during that internal controversy of Christendom. In 1919 the faithful ones were delivered and made bold and free to proclaim the message of God’s established kingdom to all the nations inside and outside of Christendom. Unavoidably this Kingdom message tells of God’s vengeance against Christendom and her allied nations and kingdoms, for the divine prophecy respecting God’s kingdom declares: “In the days of these kings 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, and it shall stand for ever.” (Dan. 2:44) Accordingly God’s commission to his anointed ‘man in linen’ company requires them to tell of his breaking of the nations and kingdoms of this wicked world to pieces in the day of his vengeance at the battle of Armageddon. (Isa. 61:1, 2) Consequently Jehovah’s anointed witnesses must proclaim the day of His vengeance against the abominations of Christendom in order to fulfill the vision of the ‘man in linen’.
12 It is by the righteous, peaceful means of preaching this good news of God’s kingdom and of his vengeance that men today are marked in the forehead. There is no other way of marking them than by the bringing of them to a knowledge of God’s kingdom and of his purposes by it. The King Jesus Christ declared in prayer to Jehovah: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” (John 17: 3) The persons with foreheads marked by the perception and acceptance and confession of the Kingdom truth are the ones that will call upon Jehovah’s name through Christ for salvation in this day of crisis. Hence the questions raised by the apostle are as true today as ever: “How then shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ?” (Rom. 10:13,14) Today the ‘man in linen’ company must be preachers in order to do the marking work which they are specifically sent forth to do on those who hear.
“FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE”
13 In obedience to the commission to go through the midst of Jerusalem and use up the ink in his horn by marking the foreheads of those persons sighing and crying, we can imagine the man in linen tramping through the streets of the walled city and going
12. By what means is the marking done, and why that way?
13. How did the man in linen work, and how has the remnant worked? from house to house and knocking at the doors to summon the people as well as speaking to persons he met on the streets and in the public squares. Will anyone suggest how otherwise he did the marking work? In that very same way the remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses have obediently been doing the marking work since the Lord came to the temple for inspection and judgment in 1918. All Christendom knows that. To the point of persecuting them, she objects and will keep on objecting to this coming of Jehovah’s witnesses to the doors of her people, just as ancient Jerusalem objected to Ezekiel’s and Jeremiah’s preaching because she had the temple built by Solomon in her midst. Christendom has hundreds of religious organizations and hundreds of thousands of religious buildings known as “churches” (253,762 in the United States alone), and she protests against Jehovah’s witnesses for repeatedly coming and flooding the land with their message both spoken and on the printed page.
14 However, through his royal Messenger at the temple Jehovah’s command to this ‘man in linen’ class of today is: “Go through the midst of the city,” that is, through Christendom, which is unfaithful Jerusalem’s modern counterpart; and go Jehovah’s witnesses must and will. They cannot be obedient to Him and stay at home to themselves. They cannot righteously be held back from the doors of the homes of the people, if God’s will is to be done and He is to be pleased. Governments and worldly authorities cannot, without direct opposition to God’s express command, ban, proscribe and prohibit them from spreading the Kingdom message all over Christendom and repeatedly preaching it in order to make on some minds an impression deep enough to leave a mark that will shield persons from execution by God’s “six men” at Armageddon. But, when they are forbidden by worldly authorities to keep on with their work, Jehovah’s witnesses know from God’s Word what to do. As the apostle Paul has said: “Ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God.” (1 Thess. 4:9) Consider here an illustration from God’s Word by which he teaches his witnesses today:
15 The situation in the day of Jesus’ apostles was like that in the days when Ezekiel had his vision of the man dressed in linen. Jesus with weeping had just recently given his dire prophecy concerning Jerusalem’s destruction by Roman armies, saying: “Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44) A few
14 Why does the remnant keep on working despite bans?
15 . How were the Jews warned of the national disaster of 70 (A.D.)’ days thereafter they shed the blood of Jesus, the mob crying out: “His blood be on us, and on our children.” (Matt. 27:25) After that, surely the destruction of Jerusalem and her temple and the slaughter of her inhabitants were impending. The fiftieth day after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead came the feast of Pentecost accompanied by the outpouring of God’s holy spirit upon the faithful Jewish remnant that had followed in the steps of Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah. After quoting Joel’s prophecy about the outpouring of the spirit “in the last days” at which critical time only those calling upon the name of Jehovah should be saved, the apostle Peter preached Jesus as Jehovah’s Messiah to the people of Jerusalem and said: “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” (Acts 2:14-40, Am. Stan. Ver.) They were facing national disaster which was due to arrive A.D. 70.
16 Many of those there at Jerusalem believed the message. They then engaged in a thoroughgoing educational campaign from house to house, about Which we have this record: “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple [at Jerusalem], and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” (Acts 2:46,47) The religious authorities of Jerusalem objected to this intensive and persistent educational activity promoted by Jesus’ anointed followers, and conspired together to persecute them in order to silence them and stop their organized work for human salvation. On the third time that they arrested Jesus’ apostles and brought them into court, the high priest as president of the Jewish supreme court (the Sanhedrin) said to them: “Did we not straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name [of Jesus as Messiah] ? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” (Acts 4: 28) What reply could the apostles now give to this highest Jewish court, especially when it had recognition from the imperial authorities at Rome? It had delegated to it authority and jurisdiction to deal with certain matters that affected the religion of Jewry, as, for instance, when the Roman governor said to the Jewish chief priests and their attendants concerning Jesus: “Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.”—John 19: 6.
17 The imperial powers of Rome, indeed, recognized the Sanhedrin and allowed it certain functions in the land of Judah, but also that Jewish supreme court claimed to represent God and act for him. Did God authorize that court at Jerusalem to forbid the apostles to preach the name of Jesus as His Messiah?
16. In court, how did the authorities object to the apostles?
17. Whose action did God authorize, and who must report to him?
Or contrariwise, did God authorize the apostles to teach the people in the name of Jesus the Messiah? That question is answered by getting the answer to another question, namely, To whom did God give his holy spirit as foretold in the prophecy of Joel, thereby giving a divine ordination and commission to such anointed ones? Not to the Jewish supreme court, but to the apostles of Jesus Christ, for which reason to obey the Jewish court and quit preaching about the Messiah that Jehovah God had raised up would be to grieve and fight against the holy spirit. Jehovah God is higher than any human court, and the spirit of God is mightier than the orders from any such court. To Jehovah God as the Highest Power and Authority the apostles must turn in their final report to declare how they had carried out their commission from him and co-operated with his holy spirit. There was no other choice for them than to obey him and his holy spirit.
18 It was therefore not with insolence or any finable contempt of court that the apostles made answer to the court. True, the court once before had threatened them, “that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:17-20) Hence the apostles had kept on speaking. Now up before the same supreme court for a rehearing of the case, the apostles did not leave it to the human court to hand down the ruling whether it was righteous to listen to judicial men rather than to the Most High God. The apostles bluntly and fearlessly answered the court’s question as each apostle took the witness stand; and their precedential answer has been written in the law of God recorded in the Bible for the guidance of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses in all like future cases. There we read their precedential answer in these words: “But Peter and the apostles answered and said, We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, hanging him on a tree. Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins. And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the holy spirit [which] God hath given to them that obey him.” —Acts 5: 27-32, Am. Stan. Ver.
19 Their being given the holy spirit proved that they were the ones obeying God. Since their witness agreed with that of God’s holy spirit, they did right in ignoring the supreme court’s previous order. They
18. How did the apostles answer the court, as a precedent for us?
19. How were the apostles proved right In Ignoring the court’s order? and of what was Jerusalem’s destruction an example? did right in ignoring the same court’s order which it now stubbornly handed down again in a losing fight against Jehovah God and against his invincible holy spirit within his faithful witnesses. Less than forty years thereafter, namely, A.D. 70, destruction came upon religious Jerusalem when the Roman armies under Titus laid her and her temple even with the ground, and reportedly 1,100,000 Jews were slaughtered amid her destruction. None of the apostles and their fellow Christian educators perished in that slaughter, but they could turn in a report to God clean of responsibility for the frightful slaughter of the Jews with stubborn foreheads who had resisted the education of their minds in the truths concerning Jehovah’s true Messiah. As for that Jewish supreme court and other religious leaders of Jerusalem, they could not turn in to God a final report that would clear them of responsibility for the deaths of those slaughtered. (Luke 11:46-52; Matt. 23:34-36) Horrible as those destructions of Jerusalem were both in Ezekiel’s time and in the apostles’ time, they were simply local, small-scale examples of the destruction that is predicted in Bible prophecy to come upon Jerusalem’s twentieth-century counterpart, Christendom, which dominates and extends all round the earth.
20 In this most critical period of human society since A.D. 1918, the example of the “man clothed with linen” and the example of the apostles under the prohibitory court order stand forth distinctly as the righteous criterion for Jehovah’s anointed remnant of witnesses to follow throughout Christendom. In these last days before the battle of Armageddon Jehovah’s anointed remnant, in the role of the modern ‘man in linen’, will conform to that righteous standard of conduct, and so will also their fellow workers of good-will. They are seriously concerned with what report they will turn in to the Lord God when the final war of Armageddon breaks out.
CONTINUOUS COVERAGE OF TERRITORY
11 From and after 1918, when Jehovah’s Messenger came to the temple, or for almost thirty years now, Jehovah’s witnesses have gone through the midst of anti typical Jerusalem, or Christendom. Like the man clad in linen, they have been marking foreheads publicly and from door to door. In some territories, particularly in North America and Europe, they have tramped over the field again and again, and the religious enemies complain that they have filled the land with their doctrine about Jehovah God and his kingdom by Christ Jesus. In many places Jehovah’s witnesses are meeting up with general indifference and public apathy or with organized religious opposition. Should they now think they have covered 20. What standard of conduct must we follow, and why with concern? 21. Due to repeated working of territory, what questions arise? their territory and been over it enough times to fill it with the message? Is their territory now too small and ought they to be given new and wider fields for finding new interest? Faced with these questions it is advisable for us to note the judicial complaint of the Jewish court to the apostles: “Did not we straitly command you, that ye should not teach in this name ? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.” Granted that the apostles and their fellow disciples had filled Jerusalem with Christian doctrine, did they stop giving the witness there as though enough had been done and Jerusalem needed no more testimony and could produce no more converts ? Did they raise the point that their local territory had grown too small, not allowing for enough work among the people?
22 Consider this: On the day of Pentecost when the great preaching campaign backed up and guided by God’s holy spirit began, there was reported to be a congregation of 120 members there who received the first outpouring of the spirit. The city of Jerusalem was naturally their territory for giving the witness. How big was Jerusalem? According to the best maps available, Jerusalem on that day of Pentecost was about 4,000 feet long from north to south, and 2,600 feet wide from east to west. That is to say, as to size, it covered an area of less than half a square mile. This included the great spacious temple area. Of course, the city streets were generally narrow and the houses were crowded together and several stories high, so that the population was considerable. But think of it! For this small witnessing territory of less than half a square mile, or, say, 72 residential blocks in New York city, there was a company of 120 witnesses, to begin with. Is your territory for witnessing so crowded as that with Kingdom publishers ?
23 Yet, on that same day of Pentecost, “there were added unto them about three thousand souls,” and the Scripture record tells us of their “continuing daily with one accord in the temple [at Jerusalem], and breaking bread from house to house” and “praising God, and having favour with all the people”. Think of having 3,000 Kingdom witnesses in 72 city blocks, at least that many for the duration of the Pentecostal feast, with, no doubt, a large camp of feasters having their booths and tents pitched outside the walls of Jerusalem! Later, some time after Pentecost, as a result of apostolic preaching publicly at the temple, the record tells us, “many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand." (Acts 4:4) With so many publishers within the confined limits of Jerusalem, how could they provide enough territory for everybody and a field for witness work? But they did, and the record still later tells us, at Acts 6:7, 22, 23. How big was the territory at Jerusalem, and how well supplied with gospel publishers did it become?
“the word of God increased [that is to say, God’s message continued to spread through preaching; with what result?]; and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” —Acts 6:7; An American Translation.
21 About twenty-five years later, when the apostle Paul made his last visit to Jerusalem, there was still a company of Christians there in the city among whom the disciple James is specially mentioned. (Acts 21:17-20) That company of Christians continued there in that same territory until shortly before the Roman armies closed in upon Jerusalem in a last assault to destroy it, A.D. 70. (Luke 21:20-24) They stayed put in the city as anointed servants of God charged with delivering a continuous witness in that city, notwithstanding the objection of the religious leaders and the fierce persecutions from the Jewish religionists. They got out of the city and abandoned that territory only when it became necessary to obey Jesus’ prophetic words because its destruction by Roman armies was about to begin. But when they at last got out and left Jerusalem to her dire fate, the work of witness there had really been finished. They could turn in a faithful final report of how they had discharged their responsibilities in that city territory while it still stood with its many thousands of inhabitants. For a certainty, then, after making a comparison with those Jerusalem Christians, we in this day cannot justly say that our territory is too confined and has been covered too many times and there is not room or opportunity for more Christian educational work in Christendom. We cannot with fairness say so at any time this side of Armageddon, when Christendom will be destroyed with a great slaughter because the witness work by Jehovah's faithful remnant and their consecrated companions of good-will is actually finished
25 The consecrated companions of good-will are those who receive the mark of truth in their foreheads. The witnessing activity of the anointed remnant, the ‘man in linen’ company, put it there. Under the direction of this anointed remnant the marked ones of good-will join in helping with this educational work. They have been marked because of hearing with faith and coming to the Lord in consecration and public confession of him; and his command through his Messenger at the temple is, “Let him that heareth say, Come,” that is, say “Come” to still others who are willing and in need of receiving the mark in the forehead before Christendom falls at the battle of Armageddon. (Rev. 22:17) Of what benefit can the mark possibly be to them? Ezekiel’s vision shows us most forcefully.
24. (a) Why could the company there finally turn in a good report on Its work? (b) What, therefore, are we barred from arguing?
25. How were good-will persons marked, and what must they do’
26 We read: “And to the others he said in my hearing, 'Pass through the city after him, and slay without mercy or pity. Old men, young men and maidens, little children and women—strike them all dead! But touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary!’ So they began with the elders in front of the house [those twenty-five sun-worshipers]. Then he said to them, 'Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Then go out, and slay in the city!’ As they went on slaying, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face, and cried out, saying, 'Ah Lord God ! wilt thou destroy all that remains of Israel, in this outpouring of thy fury upon Jerusalem?’ So he said to me, 'The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is immeasurable. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of oppression; for they think, “The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see us.” Therefore I on my part will show no mercy or pity; I will requite their doings upon their heads.’ ”—Ezek. 9: 5-10, An Amer. Trans.
27 In Ezekiel’s time the benefit of having the mark was to escape being slaughtered by Jehovah’s execu-tional forces with the unmarked religious covenantbreakers, and to receive mercy and pity from him in the way of his protection and deliverance. In our own period since the coming of Jehovah’s Messenger to the temple in 1918, the benefit of having the mark in the intellectual forehead is to avoid being sentenced to destruction by Jehovah’s executioners and being destroyed with Christendom at the end of this world, but to obtain divine mercy and pity through Christ Jesus, that, so, one may be counted worthy of life in the righteous new world under God’s kingdom. After hypocritical Christendom is destroyed without mercy or pity toward her supporters and onhangers at the final battle fought by Jehovah’s executional forces, those marked ones who may have in the natural course of things died before Armageddon’s outbreak will be resurrected to life on earth. The other marked ones will be spared and preserved alive through the tribulation of Armageddon. Thus all such marked ones together will enter into the privileges of life on the purified earth in the righteous world of “new heavens and a new earth”. (2 Pet. 3:13) The forehead mark is therefore one for salvation to life in the righteous new world, on earth.
28 In order for persons of good-will to receive this mark before the world's final end at Armageddon, Jehovah God spared his anointed remnant alive beyond A.D. 1918, because he purified them by his Messenger who then came to His temple. This remnant in the flesh are the elect ones of whom Jesus spoke in his prophecy on the “end of the world”, when he said: “For then shall be great tribulation,
26. How does the vision show the mark would be of benefit?
27 Since A.D. 1918, of what benefit is it to have the mark?
28 For whose salvation is the work of marking, and why so? such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matt. 24:21,22) Opportunely in the time interval since A.D. 1918 the anointed remnant must do the marking work, like the man in linen. God sends them out to do this work while he holds back the antitypical six executioners with battleaxes till his due time for the short but thoroughgoing final tribulation at Armageddon. Their doing of this educational marking-work is for the salvation of the anointed remnant to eternal life in the heavens as well as for the salvation of those marked for earthly salvation, because it is solely by obedience to their commission from God to do this work now that they follow their Leader, the Lamb of God, whithersoever he leads, and thus prove worthy of life with him in his heavenly kingdom. The rule is: “In doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (1 Tim. 4:16) The anointed remnant cannot be self-centered and concerned just about their own salvation. Like the man in linen, they must be interested in the salvation of others, exceptionally so in this time of world crisis.
GIVING OPPORTUNITY TO ALL
20 Now assisted by a multitude of marked companions of good-will, the anointed remnant must continue to go through the midst of Christendom with the Kingdom message of salvation that conveys the mark. Setting the mark on people’s foreheads does not mean the remnant are the ones to judge individuals and decide whether such are worthy of salvation or of execution. We must let the Kingdom message itself do the searching out of those worthy to be marked and willing to submit to the mark. Hence we must keep on preaching the divine message through the midst of Christendom regardless of whether the majority keep on in false religious worship and refuse the mark or not. In the days of Ezekiel and Jeremiah comparatively very few were saved from slaughter at Jerusalem’s destruction. The prophetic vision of Ezekiel and other Bible prophecies make sure that it will be the same at Armageddon.
80 Christendom’s religious clergymen, Catholic and Protestant, may smile or sneer at such a statement from Jehovah’s witnesses, as if it were overdrawn or were wishful thinking. But no one knows better than do Jehovah’s witnesses the religious attitudes of the people of Christendom and their inclinations or disinclinations toward God. They know better than the American Institute of Public Opinion could
29. If not judges, why do the markers keep on preaching?
30, 31. Why. better than any Institute of public opinion, should Jehovah !, witnesses today know about the state of the people? know by means of one of its famous Gallup polls, invented by Dr. George Gallup. For information as to public opinion through a Gallup poll, this American Institute sends its agents out to get in touch with only a cross-section of the population. These interview just a representative few of each class of persons whose opinions are wanted for comparison and tallying up. Conclusions drawn from such polls have been substantially right in many cases.
51 Jehovah’s witnesses, on the other hand, are more thorough than any institute of public opinion. They do not keep to a representative few of each class of people. By God’s command through Christ Jesus they call upon all the people in their territories, and try not to miss a single intelligent person. They do so in order to avoid acting as judges of anybody. They let all have an opportunity to hear and to decide for themselves. To this end Jehovah’s witnesses today follow the effective example of Jesus Christ and his apostles by going from house to house to preach to those in the homes as well as preaching publicly. (Acts 20: 20) In this way they get in personal touch with all the people, of all classes, and learn firsthand their attitudes and decisions toward the things of God. Since the year 1920 Jehovah’s anointed remnant and their good-will companions have distributed more than a half billion books and booklets on the Bible, not including magazines and free tracts and handbills, in as many as 88 languages, world-wide, to the end of August. How many homes and shops do you suppose Jehovah’s witnesses have had to visit in order to accomplish all that distribution, and how many times over the territory? During this past service year of 1947 alone these faithful witnesses have been regularly active each month in the field to the number of 202,100, and have delivered to the people 20,000,000 books and booklets, besides distributing more than 12,000,000 individual copies of our Society’s magazines, and making nearly 2,000,000 return visits on interested persons. This has cost them over 40,000,000 hours of time out in the field in direct contact with the people of all classes, friendly and opposed.
32 Has this not given them direct information on the state of the people ? Could any organization know better than such active witnesses how accurately God’s words to Ezekiel concerning the Israelites of old fit Christendom today, namely, “The iniquity of Israel and Judah is enormous, the land is full of bloodshed, the city is full of rampant injustice; for men think that the Eternal [Jehovah] has left the land, the Eternal [Jehovah] will never see them”? (Ezek. 9: 9, Moffatt) Notwithstanding such a religious condition in ancient Judah and Jerusalem, there were some persons ready to be marked. God knew that and 32. While having such information and knowledge, why do Jehovah's witnesses still persist in going through the midst of Christendom? sent his “man clothed with linen” through all the city to find at least some to mark in the forehead who cried and sighed over all the abominable religious deeds done in her. Equally so today, despite the low, deplorable religious state of Christendom generally, there are some persons in her that sigh and cry or will yet sigh and cry in disgust and desperation at the religious, political and commercial abominations. Jehovah’s witnesses know that! Hence there is reason for them to persist still further in going through the midst of Christendom in order to find all those distressed ones. Such meek ones they must mark in the seat of intellectuality by bringing God’s “present truth” to them for their salvation.
33 The clergy of Christendom cry out to Jehovah’s witnesses, “Stay out of our religious fields and keep away from our people. We have 592,406,542 Protestants and Roman and Orthodox Catholics in all Christendom. In the United States itself, in 1945, we had 67,722,202 members. Let them be I” But the Most High God, mindful of the oncoming destruction by his executioners, sends his ‘man in linen’ class, his anointed remnant, accompanied by their good-will companions, out ahead of his executioners, and solemnly commands them: ‘Go through the midst of Christendom and mark!’
31 What, then, if the religious population of Christendom in general will not accept the truth and submit to the saving mark? In the United States, for instance, the number of nominal Protestants and Catholics may be 67,722,202 members, but that is less than half of the total population. What about the other half? Let Jehovah’s witnesses in America go through the land regularly and persistently and see how many of the other half of her population sigh and cry over Christendom’s abominations and want salvation from the destruction that hangs over Christendom’s head. If the religious, church-going people of Christendom will not take the Kingdom message at the hands of Jehovah’s witnesses, then let the nonreligious hundreds of millions scattered in among Christendom have an opportunity to be marked or to reject it. Christendom is not the one to decide on the salvation of any individuals. Our orders from God, as given also to Ezekiel, are: “Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.”—Ezek. 2:7.
33 Our report must at last be turned in to God our Commander, and not to Christendom, for she will perish forever at Armageddon. Our final report will show either obedience to Jehovah God or obedience to Christendom. Which will it show? We cannot obey both; only one.
33. What do the clergy command, but what does God command us?
34. If religious churchgoers will not submit to the mark, for whom, then, should we show consideration and work7
35. To whom must we turn in our final report, and to show what?
THE vision to Ezekiel tells for certain what Jehovah’s faithful anointed remnant will do. Ezekiel tells us: “And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.” (Ezek. 9:11) That report was accepted by Jehovah God. Its being approved is shown in that the next chapter of Ezekiel’s prophecy describes the man in linen as being entrusted by Jehovah with something further to do in divine service. (Ezek. 10:1-7) The Almighty God thus informs us that he foresaw a certain company of anointed ones that will unitedly do as he commands them, that is, mark the people of good-will unto salvation. Who the anointed individuals of that company will be, by name, the inspired Record does not reveal. Each consecrated Christian anointed with God’s spirit must determine for himself whether he will be of that obedient and approved company by merging his identity with the company engaged in the marking work and by unitedly working -with it as one of its members. Each anointed one is responsible to do so, for God approves of no schism or split among his organized people on earth. Jesus prayed for their unity, and they must be one in God and in his work. And to be on God’s side of salvation today, the marked ones of good-will must display their mark by joining in the work with the modern-day ‘man in linen’ whose Head is Christ Jesus. They must help others who sigh and cry over Christendom’s death-deserving abominations to a knowledge of the life-giving truth.
2 Each one of the anointed remnant and of their good-will working associates is finally responsible to no individual on earth. Each one must make final report to Jehovah’s Messenger at the temple. Hence, when making out the weekly and monthly reports on the work that he has done in this educational campaign throughout Christendom by preaching God’s message both by word of mouth and by scattering the printed page, a full-time pioneer publisher or a local company publisher will not pad his report just to show large figures of accomplishment or to pretend to be meeting special service requirements. We are not the servants of men and of human organizations, but of God. Hence, in making any such reports, each one should observe the rule of honesty: “Not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God. To your duties heartily and willingly, as though it were for the Lord, not for men, for you know that everyone, slave or free, will be rewarded by the Lord for his good conduct.”—Eph. 6:6-8, An Amer. Trans.
1. (a) What does Ezekiel 9:11 show God foresaw? (b) How is the identity of the members of the ‘man id linen' company determined?
2. Why be honest in making out our reports on field service?
3 Each one also that has any responsibility to collect and tabulate reports of work done by others should keep in mind that such workers are not his servants serving him and he is not to judge and criticize them over such reports. While such reports may indicate the qualification or disqualification of the workers for other special privileges and places of service, no one handling the report is authorized to find fault, complain, and abuse these willing workers. No one engaged in this educational work has been commissioned by any man on earth to be the servant of such men. All members of the ‘man in linen’ company and all the fellow helpers of goodwill are consecrated to God and are servants to Him and doing the work at His orders. Why, then, should anyone of us try to take the place of God and act as judge of others? As it is written: “But thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou again, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord [Jehovah], to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.” (Rom. 14:10-12, Am.Stan. Ver.) Each one should therefore be given credit for what he tries to do as unto the Lord God, and be encouraged.
‘Whether the “man clothed with linen” reported the number of persons whom he marked in the forehead, the vision to Ezekiel does not disclose. Why should he not have been interested in personally keeping a count ? He was sent out through the city to mark, and he must have marked some, for he finally reported that he had obeyed his Commander’s orders. So he did engage in the marking work, and he did it before the six executioners came along. His faithfulness in the marking work is what counts. Today the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, and the witnesses of Jehovah who are associated with it, are dedicated to the marking work as being God’s commanded work for these days before Armageddon. It is true that in its Yearbook and other publications the Society does show figures as to the number of active Kingdom publishers engaging in the marking work. This is not done in order to show that our reliance is upon numbers. It is not done in order to brag and make our boast over numbers.
6 King David was once punished for numbering the children of Israel, but this befell David because it was contrary to God’s orders to number the Israelites. (1 Chron. 21:1-30; 27:23,24) No such orders apply to the footstep followers of Christ Jesus. The original remnant of Israelites that came back from Babylon to Jerusalem to build the temple were definitely numbered, even as to their livestock. (Ezra
3. Why not complain and abuse another for his reports of work?
4, 5. (a) Did the man in linen count those he marked, or what counted as respects his report? (b) Why is the Society right in counting?
2:64-70; Neh. 7:66-73) The book of Acts of the Apostles, written by one of his followers, three times mentions the number of the Jewish remnant of believers at Jerusalem in order to give numerical proof of the growth of the Christian church in those days that closed with Jerusalem’s destruction. (Acts 1:15; 2:41; 4:4) His record says: “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” “And the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.” (Acts 2: 47; 6:7) It is fully as right today to number those associating with God’s 'man in linen’ company who take part in the work of marking persons to salvation.
’ There is no limit set for us as to the number marked. Christ Jesus the Good Shepherd is gathering his “other sheep” into his fold of safety and security. (John 10:16) The number of these marked “sheep” is predicted to become a “great multitude, which no man could number”. We are therefore authorized to keep on working to mark as many as we can. We cannot of ourselves know beforehand what number they will be at length, but we can keep on numbering them as we go along in God’s appointed service, in order to make note of the increase and to rejoice at it because of God’s blessings upon our efforts. (Rev. 7: 9-17) We can never stop at any certain number and say the work is finished, because the final number is not foreknown or foretold to us. Therefore, as long as there is time to work before Jehovah God sends his symbolical six executioners into action to start the slaughter work of Armageddon, we are obliged to keep on working in hope of 6. Why work on without stopping at any fixed number?
an increase in the number of the “great multitude” of marked ones. If we are unselfishly interested in the salvation of others and in the increase of God’s praises from the lips of others, we will rejoice in the growth in number of the “great multitude” being gathered.
7 This is a work of salvation in which we are engaged, by God’s grace through Christ. Nothing is of greater importance to the people within and without Christendom. No grander privilege could there now be on earth than to have a share in this work to the extent of our consecrated abilities. Now is the time to do it. Armageddon comes on apace, at which time Jehovah God will command his executioners under the King Christ Jesus to follow up the 'man in linen’ company and go through all the earth and slay off all the unmarked persons, young and old, male and female. Then the marking work will be carried on no farther. (Rev. 19:14-21) Instead, the fateful time for turning in the final report to our divine Commissioner, Jehovah, will have come. By our course of action now in this gracious period of opportunity, all the faithful-hearted ones will determine to be associated with that company that will then report to Him: “I have done as thou hast commanded me.” Such a report will please and make glad the heart of our heavenly Father, because it will vindicate his worthy name and his sovereignty over us. It will also make record of the salvation of an unnumbered multitude of humankind through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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