The Watchtower, November 15, 1964

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The Watchtower — November 15, 1964

Source: jw.org

Contents

Never Too Old to Change

Sign of the Kingdom in Power

Employment and Your Conscience

Sunday School Unsatisfying

Keeping the Organization of Public Servants Pure, Chaste

How the Organization Should View Chasteness

Safety During a Nation’s Destruction

Questions From Readers

Announcements

Never Too Old to Change

LAST year a seventy-year-old minister in Sweden received an invitation to attend the 39th class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead in Brooklyn, New York. Rather than thinking he was too old to receive ten months of intensive ministerial training, he was happy at the prospects. He was anxious for the advanced training, even though the many things learned might necessitate making changes in the way he had been doing certain things.

It is this willingness to do something new, to make changes and adjustments when needed, that keeps older persons active and young at heart. There is no need to feel bound to familiar ideas and habits just because you are advanced in years. When long-held beliefs are shown to be in error, there is no excuse for dismissing the responsibility that new information may bring by saying: “I’m too old to change.” As long as one is alive, he is never too old to change his ways.

One who continues to follow religious teachings that are in conflict with God’s Word the Bible is displeasing to God. So a difficult decision faces an older person when he learns that his religious beliefs do not have Biblical support. What will he do? Will he meet the challenge, even though it may involve a radical change in his life? Unfortunately many lack the initiative, courage and humility to make a careful study of God’s Word and to bring their lives into harmony with its righteous principles. There are, of course, exceptions.

One such exception is ninety-six-year-old Sista Vasquez, who lives in Golfito, Costa Rica. As a Roman Catholic, she had failed to receive instruction from God’s Word throughout her long life. But on learning what God requires, as a result of a study of the Bible with visiting ministers, she was baptized in water last year, symbolizing her dedication to serve Him. Although Sista Vasquez is blind and cannot walk, she never misses an opportunity to witness to the many people that visit her home. Talking to others about the good news of God’s kingdom brings her a happiness that she would never have realized had she felt that she was too old to change.

It is true that it is much better to do as the Bible says, and remember “your grand Creator in the days of your young manhood.” Later, when “the calamitous days proceed to come, or the years have arrived when you will say: ‘I have no delight in them,’” it is much more difficult to be active in serving God. But even though you are now old and the calamities associated with old age have caused you to lose your delight in life, this does not mean that it is too late to change. Really, the only way to find true contentment is to make the changes needed to do the will of God.—Eccl. 12:1.

Suba Sesay, who was born 110 years ago, on August 8, 1854, in Sierra Leone, Africa, will be one of the first persons to vouch for this. After a very active life, Pa Suba, as he is called by acquaintances, went blind in 1938. “I used to pray sincerely to die,” he explained. “I was made to believe that my blindness was a punishment for the seventy-five leopards I killed as a hunter.” As a result of such false teachings and his loss of sight, life had become a calamity for Pa Suba, and he found no delight in living.

This outlook soon changed, however, when Bible truth was finally brought to him by one of Jehovah’s witnesses and he learned the true cause for suffering and about God’s promised new system of things. (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:4) He gladly accepted this Bible message and conformed his life to its teachings. “If it pleases Jehovah God to overlook my past life and accept me,” he said, “why should I feel too old to change?” So at the age of 107 he was baptized at a Christian Bible assembly in Port Loko.

Since that time Pa Suba has found real happiness and contentment in associating with Christian people and in preaching the good news of God’s kingdom to others. Although blind and slightly incapacitated, he, nevertheless, uses every opportunity to talk about the Bible to anyone that calls to say Hello. He also goes out on his porch and witnesses to passers-by. In this way he was able to maintain a monthly average of fourteen hours in the preaching work last year—and that at the age of 109!

It is extremely unlikely that you are that old. So if persons well past a hundred years old can learn Bible truth, conform their lives to it and preach it to others, you can too. In fact, it is absolutely necessary that you make such a change. Your life in God’s new system of things depends upon it.

But perhaps, in addition to being advanced in years, your native tongue is not the language of the community in which you live. Should a person consider himself too old to learn a new language in order to express to his neighbors the good things he has learned from the Bible?

Two years ago a young Italian-speaking minister in Providence, Rhode Island, started a Bible study with an eighty-year-old man who did not think that he was too old to learn to speak English. When it was pointed out to this man that he should attend all congregation meetings, he started doing so, even though, to begin with, he could not understand everything that was said. But as a result of his regular attendance and use of the English language, he was soon able to speak English clearly enough to give an effective Bible sermon. Although he is now eighty-two years old, he is a regular house-to-house preacher who also shares in the full-time ministry during certain periods of the year!

How evident it is that if one truly wants to do the will of God, he is never too old to do so! True, it may be much more difficult for an older person to make the adjustments to serve God, but it can be done. Jehovah God himself will help you change. He promises his support. In his Word he says that “even to one’s old age I am the same One; and to one’s gray-headedness I myself shall keep bearing up.”—Isa. 46:4.

Sign of the Kingdom in Power

Can we see it today? Is it unmistakable?

THE weather signs are carefully noted each day by multitudes of persons all around the globe. Comfort, livelihood and even life itself may well depend upon doing so. Yet these same multitudes pay little attention to the signs of the times in which we live, signs that point to a great storm of trouble ahead. If, instead of adopting the position that the future is a sealed book that no one should even try to understand, people would seek reliable information about it and how to read the signs of these times accurately, they would be asking as did Jesus’ disciples: “Teacher, when will these things actually be, and what will be the sign when these things are destined to occur?”—Luke 21:7.

What were “these things” about which the disciples inquired? At Lu 21 verse six of this same chapter of Luke’s Gospel there is record of Jesus’ warning about the approaching destruction of the temple at Jerusalem. At Lu 21 verses twenty to twenty-four he also prophesied that Jerusalem would be desolated and her inhabitants would “fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.” One of those four inquiring disciples (John) survived to the year 70 C.E., when over a million Jews perished, mostly by the sword, and when General Titus shipped almost 100,000 into slavery in various parts of the Roman Empire. The city and its temple were burned and razed to the ground. Events thus proved the accuracy of Jesus’ prophecy.

WARS AND DISORDERS

In a parallel account it is to be noted that the disciples also inquired about something else: “Tell us, When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?” (Matt. 24:3) Note now Jesus’ reply to this inquiry. After pointing out that many would come and falsely claim to be the returned Lord and unduly excite people about the imminence of the end of the system of things, he declared: “Furthermore, when you hear of wars and disorders, do not be terrified. For these things must occur first, but the end does not occur immediately.” (Luke 21:9) This, then, is an intimation that a considerable period must elapse before the sign of his second presence would be observed.

The “wars and disorders” heard about by that and succeeding generations of Christians doubtless included the Jewish rebellions against Rome, one in 66 C.E. and another in 132 C.E., the long struggle between the Eastern and Western portions of the Empire for supremacy, the invasions by northern barbarians, the numerous wars among the splinters of the disintegrating Empire, the Crusades, the Thirty Years’ War, the Napoleonic War and many others. Why may we so understand the matter? Because Jesus had informed his disciples that “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24) Through all that turbulent history up to the close of the nineteenth century they saw no emancipation for Jerusalem.

Not until in the latter half of the nineteenth century did watchful Christians begin to realize from prayerful study of Bible chronology that “the appointed times of the nations,” a period of 2,520 years during which godless human rulerships were to enjoy sway over earth’s inhabitants uninterrupted by heavenly intervention, were due to run out in the year 1914.a Not until that date, then, could there be fulfillment of the prophecy: “When the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him” for judgment. (Matt. 25:31-33) So that year 1914 was awaited with great expectation. When World War I broke out that year involving all the leading nations of earth, and when unprecedented disease, epidemics and famine conditions followed, students of the Bible quickly detected fulfillment of Jesus’ words: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another pestilences and food shortages; and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs.”—Luke 21:10, 11.

THE “SIGN” OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE

Distinguishing this war from the “wars and disorders” that preceded it, we should note that the national economies of all the combatant nations were so geared that every man, woman and child was forced to contribute toward the war effort. This war’s cost in terms of human lives lost in combat alone—almost 13,000,000—was more than double the cost of all the wars of the previous 125 years put together. In money value the cost ran well over $337,000,000,000, a staggering figure indeed. As the war drew to a close the “influenza” epidemic spread across the earth, greatly debilitating the more than 500,000,000 stricken by it, and leaving over 20,000,000 dead in its wake. Food shortages, occasioned in part by the concentration of manpower in war, took their ghastly toll of life also. In Soviet Russia alone several millions died from starvation between World War I and World War II.

After 1914, particularly since 1948, great subterranean forces seem to have been at work, convulsing our planet, rippling its surface with tremors and almost annually producing one or more disastrous earthquakes. In 1960 Peru, Morocco, Algeria, Japan and Chile were all stricken, with a total death toll exceeding 26,500. In Chile alone damage was estimated at more than $300,000,000. In 1962 Iran and Colombia suffered from great upheavals, Iran reporting some 12,400 dead. In 1963 Libya, Yugoslavia and Kashmir, India, were hardest hit, with a total of 1,390 dead and some 16,000 rendered homeless. Early this year, 1964, Alaska literally writhed, and damage from the quake and the subsequent seismic sea wave was reported to be in the neighborhood of $750,000,000. Certainly Jesus’ forecast that “there will be great earthquakes” has been undergoing a striking fulfillment in our time.

Jesus also foretold “fearful sights and from heaven great signs.” Had we been within a kilometer of Hiroshima, Japan, on that fateful date in 1945 when an atomic explosion mushroomed into the skies and rained down a living death upon any remaining life in the immediate area, we should have experienced the chill of fear. Since then, as we learn of mere humans having it in their power to explode bombs of vastly greater power of destruction, mankind’s future seems very limited. As men with their greatly improved scientific instruments probe into the mysteries of sun, moon and stars, doing so with military objectives as the main concern, fear and anxiety for the future are greatly heightened. Conjectures of some scientists about the future of the sun and our planet are most disquieting to many people. Some foresee the sun running out of energy and leaving our earth out in the frigid cold, while others see the sun’s radiance intensifying to the point where earth and its contents are roasted to a crisp. The specter of fear today haunts all mankind.

JERUSALEM STILL TRAMPLED BY NATIONS?

Surely all the features comprising the “sign” of Christ’s second presence with Kingdom power are now observable! But what about earthly Jerusalem? Would she now be emancipated? No; rather, strife and partition have come to that Palestinian city where Arab and Jew haggle over real estate. But reverent students of God’s Word have come to realize that it was not this Jerusalem and Israel to which the promised relief would come. Had not Jesus clearly stated that “the kingdom of God will be taken from you [fleshly Israel] and be given to a nation producing its fruits”? (Matt. 21:43) What nation is that? Paul shows that all the promises that fleshly Israel failed to obtain would now be fulfilled on Abraham’s spiritual descendants, for he declares: “Moreover, if you belong to Christ, you are really Abraham’s seed, heirs with reference to a promise.” (Gal. 3:29) As to that spiritual Israel the same apostle writes that “our citizenship exists in the heavens,” while John testifies that the holy city, the New Jerusalem, has its location in heaven.—Phil. 3:20; Heb. 12:22.

In 1914 the “appointed times of the [Gentile] nations” ended and the heavenly Jerusalem gave birth to God’s kingdom that must rule all those Gentile nations with a rod of iron, to smash them to bits. (Rev. 12:1-5) Now those Gentile nations must themselves be trodden in the winepress of God’s anger. (Rev. 19:15, 16) Their end nears!

In the year 1919 spiritual Israelites still on earth who were suffering from a crippling of their God-given preaching work by the nations of earth were freed from a state of fear and inactivity and disorganization. From then till now their fearless preaching of the Kingdom good news in all the earth, in peacetime and in wartime, regardless of the national and international pressures exerted against them, can be explained only by the fact that the invisible Kingdom rule of Christ has emancipated these citizens of the New Jerusalem for the very work foretold by Jesus: “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) Only after heavenly intervention came due, when the “appointed times of the nations” were fulfilled in 1914, could such a message be appropriately proclaimed earth-wide.

How unmistakable, then, the “sign” of the Kingdom’s powerful invisible presence! Forearmed with this information, we can and should take the steps that will bring protection from the oncoming, greatest storm of all time, the storm of Jehovah’s anger and execution against all the nations and their system of things. “Seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger,” is the counsel of God’s prophet. Concealment will mean life under the righteous, everlasting rule of Christ’s peaceful kingdom.—Zeph. 2:3.

[Footnotes]

For a detailed discussion of this point, see the book “Babylon the Great Has Fallen!” God’s Kingdom Rules!, pages 174-181.

Employment and Your Conscience

THROUGHOUT life a Christian must make decisions. Some he finds hard to make, others easy. Some decisions relate to what kind of employment he will accept in compliance with 1 Timothy 5:8, which points out that it is a Christian responsibility to provide for one’s own household. First of all, he should view his problem objectively, making sure that he knows just what is involved in the kind of employment in question. Then he should consider any Biblical law or principle that may be involved. Though at times it may be difficult to do so, he should decide in favor of Scriptural laws or principles, when applicable to his situation, because a Christian is dedicated to Jehovah and must do His will. Certainly if a Christian willfully breaks the law of God he cannot consider himself guiltless, for God does not take such a view. Solomon said: “The conclusion of the matter, everything having been heard, is: Fear the true God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole obligation of man.”—Eccl. 12:13.

Commandments of God do come into consideration by a Christian when choosing his employment. Exodus chapter 20 lists ten of God’s commandments, and the second one forbids the making of images for worship. In 1 John 5:21 Christians too are urged to guard themselves from idols. Hence, a Christian could easily decide not to accept employment in the manufacture of images or medals for false religious use. Related to this is the inspired statement of Revelation 18:4, 5, which, when considered by the Christian, would cause him to refuse regular employment in a false religious organization.

Other commandments of Jehovah are: You must not murder; you must not commit adultery; you must not steal. (Rom. 13:8-10) Therefore, a dedicated Christian can easily decide that he cannot let himself be employed by organizations whose business is murder, illicit sex relations or theft, nor would he individually engage in these practices. Regarding involvement in political affairs of the world, he will maturely consider such texts as John 17:14; John 15:19 and Daniel 2:44. Considering Isaiah 2:2-4 and Micah 4:3, a Christian can determine whether his associations or conduct would give any support to a violation of such principles of peacefulness. Also, in the light of Isaiah 65:11, 12 and 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, the Christian could not conscientiously work for an enterprise, the entire function of which was gambling or a lottery, or any other form of extortion. Obviously, the Christian could not properly be employed in any manner that would conflict with the righteous laws and principles of God’s Word.

KEEPING FREE FROM BLOOD

Christians are told to abstain from blood. (Acts 15:20, 28, 29) Just how far-reaching is that? What do the Scriptures require of a dedicated servant of God? If you are killing an animal or a bird, then, to comply with God’s law and to render that creature suitable for food, you must drain the blood. According to God’s law you must refrain from eating blood or taking it, as in a transfusion, to sustain life. Genesis 9:3, 4 and Deuteronomy 12:23, 24 contain Scriptural commands. Leviticus 17:10 points out that those in ancient Israel who willfully took in blood would be cut off by Jehovah. However, if an Israelite happened to eat the flesh of a clean animal that died of itself or was torn by a wild beast, he was declared unclean until the evening, provided he cleansed himself. (Lev. 17:15, 16) With Christians too, if someone partook of the meat of an animal that had not been properly drained of its blood when slaughtered, and it was not deliberate on his part and he repented when it later came to his attention, avoiding a recurrence of such wrongdoing, Jehovah would mercifully forgive him.

Various uses of blood today are objectionable from the Biblical standpoint. Blood could be used on the altar under certain circumstances in ancient Israel, and if it was not used in that manner it was to be disposed of. (Lev. 17:11-14) Not only is blood being used in connection with modern medical practices, but it is reported that blood is now being used in a variety of products, such as adhesives for making plywood, particle board, hardboard, bottle crowns, furniture and musical instruments. Blood is also being used in polymerization of rubber compounds, insecticidal binder, settling compound for industrial waste treatment, clear water purification (paper industry), uranium purification, foaming agent for lightweight cellular concrete, fire foaming agent, wine clarifying agent, paper coatings and binders, paper flocculants and sizes, replacement of casein in latex emulsions, emulsified asphalt, cork composition, photoengraving platemaking solutions, leather-finishing operations, water-resistant binder of pigments for print dyeing on cotton cloth, fertilizers, animal foods, and amino acid production, such as histidine and histamine, for example. Perhaps additional uses of blood will come to light in the future. In the world the uses of blood are numerous and none of these is in accord with the Biblical method of handling blood, which is to be spilled on the ground. However, the Christian is not responsible for the worldly misuse of blood, what other people do with it, and he cannot spend all his time undertaking detailed research regarding the various misuses of blood in the world of mankind, especially when it comes to nonedible products. If he did so, he would have less time left for preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. To some persons, it may be a hard decision to make as to where one should be employed. It resolves itself to a matter of conscience.

The Israelites were told: “You must not eat any body already dead. To the alien resident who is inside your gates you may give it, and he must eat it; or there may be a selling of it to a foreigner, because you are a holy people to Jehovah your God.” (Deut. 14:21) So whether a Christian who works in a store will dispose of blood goods, such as blood sausage, by selling such goods to persons of the world who are willing to pay for them is a matter of conscience. It is also a personal matter as to whether another Christian will sell blood items to worldly persons in a drugstore or will spread blood fertilizer on the field of a worldly employer at his request. Naturally, a Christian could not properly encourage persons to obtain blood goods rather than those free from blood and he could not advocate any misuse of blood. However, we must leave it up to the conscience of the individual Christian as to what he will do when it comes to matters of this nature in handling such products. One Christian should not criticize another Christian for the decision he makes, just as one Israelite could not reasonably criticize another Israelite for selling to a foreigner an animal that died of itself and hence had not been properly drained of its blood.

The use of blood in adhesives for manufacturing plywood and other commonly used materials has now come to the attention of Christians, and we use plywood as an example. Much plywood is made using blood glue, but some plywood is blood-free. A Christian purchaser or contractor may seek to obtain blood-free plywood if he can do so; however, if he decides to use all types of plywood, it must be left to his conscience. It is not always possible to determine just how the plywood has been made. Because blood may be used in some plywood, this does not mean that a Christian could not buy, sell or rent a home or purchase a trailer in which plywood is found. The extent to which he would check on such matters is for him to decide.

Also, if a Christian is working for a company that uses blood glue in some of its plywood or other products, he would not necessarily have to quit his job. He may work in the woods, cutting down the trees. Part of the lumber is used one way and part another. The employee is not responsible for what happens to the wood after he has done his job. Of course, if a Christian worked in a plywood plant and it was required that he prepare the blood glue or apply it to the plywood, he might feel he could not conscientiously do this. He might request that his employer give him some other kind of work not handling blood. But even this is a personal matter. By doing other work for the same company, such as working as a truck driver, salesman, and so forth, the individual may feel he is free from responsibility for any misuse of blood. Since blood is used in the manufacture of so many common products, it becomes almost impossible for the Christian to avoid all contact with them—leather goods, furniture, bottle tops, cotton cloth, and so forth. So just what the Christian will do is a matter of conscience, and others should not criticize him. Certainly it would not be fitting to disrupt the unity of a Christian congregation in a certain locality by becoming involved in detailed discussions and contentions over the personal decision in this respect on the part of some Christian associated with that congregation.—Ps. 133:1; Prov. 26:21; Jas. 3:16-18.

The Society does not endorse any of the modern medical uses of blood, such as the uses of blood in connection with inoculations. Inoculation is, however, a virtually unavoidable circumstance in some segments of society, and so we leave it up to the conscience of the individual to determine whether to submit to inoculation with a serum containing blood fractions for the purpose of building up antibodies to fight against disease. If a person did this, he may derive comfort under the circumstances from the fact that he is not directly eating blood, which is expressly forbidden in God’s Word. It is not used for food or to replace lost blood. Here the Christian must make his own decision based on conscience. Therefore, whether a Christian will submit to inoculation with a serum, or whether doctors or nurses who are Christians will administer such, is for personal decision.a Christians in the medical profession are individually responsible for employment decisions. They must bear the consequences of decisions made, in keeping with the principle at Galatians 6:5. Some doctors who are Jehovah’s witnesses have administered blood transfusions to persons of the world upon request. However, they do not do so in the case of one of Jehovah’s dedicated witnesses. In harmony with Deuteronomy 14:21, the administering of blood upon request to worldly persons is left to the Christian doctor’s own conscience. This is similar to the situation facing a Christian butcher or grocer who must decide whether he can conscientiously sell blood sausage to a worldly person.b

MAKING YOUR DECISION

These few examples of how Christians may go about deciding on their employment may be helpful when it comes to considering types of employment mentioned here. The Christian should always consider God’s laws in everything he does; and whatever he does, he does unto Jehovah. (1 Cor. 10:31) If what he does is not contrary to God’s law and “Caesar’s” just laws, he is within his rights in doing it, and no one should criticize him. When a Christian is in doubt about what he should do, he should pray to Jehovah God. (1 Pet. 5:6, 7) He should read the Bible and consider Christian publications that deal with his problem. (The Watch Tower Publications Index contains many references under “Employment.”) He can talk to the congregation overseer. However, after doing these things it is the individual who, knowing all the circumstances and consequences, must analyze matters and then decide. Others cannot make his decision, if it is a matter of conscience.

When faced with a decision, you may feel in advance that your conscience would bother you if you decided in a certain manner. The thing to do, then, is to avoid that which will cause you to have a troubled conscience. Christians desire to please Jehovah and so, whatever their employment, it should be the kind of work they can do with a clear conscience before Jehovah. “Whatever you are doing, work at it whole-souled as to Jehovah, and not to men.”—Col. 3:23; 1 Tim. 1:18, 19; 1 Pet. 3:16.

[Footnotes]

Concerning these matters please see The Watchtower of September 15, 1958, page 575, and November 1, 1961, page 670.

See The Watchtower of February 15, 1963, pages 122-124.

Sunday School Unsatisfying

◆ In Florida one of Jehovah’s witnesses had the following experience: “A nine-year-old girl living on my street came to my home one evening. She said she had heard that I was a Bible instructor and asked if I would be willing to study the Bible with her, because, after attending Sunday school for three years, they were still reading stories about pictures they colored. I gave her the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained and the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures for her parents to look over. The next evening I called on the parents, explained our work and method of study. They gave their daughter permission to study during summer vacation but said she would have to go back to Sunday school when school started. During our studies sincere appreciation and much enthusiasm were shown.

“The first time she was back in Sunday school she told her classmates about Paradise and the Kingdom for which Christians are to pray. The teacher was amazed and asked her where she got her information. ‘From the Bible,’ she answered, ‘and a nice lady helped me to understand it.’ Every Sunday she came home from Sunday school crying because she did not learn anything about God’s kingdom or about God’s name. Finally she thought of an idea. She looked up scriptures and bombarded her parents with questions that they could not answer, with the result that we resumed our study in the Paradise book and she no longer goes to Sunday school. Also, she brought over her seven-year-old neighbor boy to get him started in studying the Bible.”

Keeping the Organization of Public Servants Pure, Chaste

“In every way we recommend ourselves as God’s ministers, by the endurance of much, . . . by purity, by knowledge.”—2 Cor. 6:4, 6.

1. What assignment of public service is the grandest that has been given to any organization on earth?

NO OTHER organization on earth has a grander assignment of public service than this organization of public servants. Nineteen centuries ago its Head Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, handed out a worldwide assignment in these words: “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth. Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:18-20) That nineteen-hundred-year-old command must still be complied with. But the service assignment that Jesus has given for today adds something extra, something glorious, to it. This service assignment was outlined in Jesus’ prophecy on the evidences that were to mark the “time of the end” of this system of things and was given in these words: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.”—Matt. 24:14.

2. How may this organization of Kingdom witnesses be identified today, and for what reason will these witnesses be made public servants in a more powerful way in the future?

2 There is an organization of such Kingdom witnesses on earth today. It is no part of Christendom nor of any other segment of the world empire of Babylonish religion. It is identified as the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses. This Christian society is the only religious society putting the kingdom of the heavens first and keeping free from earthly politics. Thus it can freely preach what Jesus called “this good news of the kingdom,” that is, God’s kingdom. By specializing on this it is the organization rendering to all mankind a public service without compare. By proving faithful in this public service they will be made public servants in a more powerful way in the future for the good of all mankind.

3. From what standpoint does this Society prove to be an organization of public servants, rendering the greatest service?

3 The facts and figures published year after year in editions of the Yearbook prove that the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses is carrying out the assignment to preach the good news of God’s kingdom for which God-fearing men and women have prayed for thousands of years. In carrying out this assignment the Society is rendering the greatest public service on earth today. From that standpoint the Society is an organization of public servants, even though not all of them give talks from the public platform.

4. What questions may people who are doubtful about public officials ask about the individuals in the New World Society?

4 However, people who have been disappointed at the conduct of public officials in the political rulerships of this world may be doubtful also about the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses. They may say, ‘Yes, Jehovah’s witnesses as a New World Society are undeniably rendering a public service on a worldwide scale, but what about the private lives of the individual witnesses of Jehovah? What kind of life do they live in their homes, in their secular business and inside their religious congregations? What about their morals in private, away from the public eye?’

5. What kind of answers to these questions should we expect on the part of the baptized persons in the New World Society, and why?

5 Those are proper questions. By their private lives how do Jehovah’s witnesses in the New World Society answer those questions? We should expect satisfying answers. Why so? Because each baptized person in the New World Society belongs to the Most High God of the universe. That is so because water baptism is a symbol of a person’s complete dedication of himself to Jehovah God through Jesus Christ. Without any limitations the New World Society of baptized Jehovah’s witnesses belongs to Him. That being so, Jehovah God requires that this organization of public servants be pure, chaste. Never would He give to this organization the assignment of preaching his Kingdom message worldwide unless this organization measured up to His divine requirements. Because his witnesses represent Him he is rightly concerned about their moral purity, their chastity, their right conduct. He is seriously interested in keeping the organization to which he gives such a responsible service assignment clean, pure, chaste, inasmuch as he refuses to use an unclean, impure organization.—Ps. 50:16-23.

GIVING NO CAUSE FOR STUMBLING OTHERS

6. How do dedicated persons who receive a service assignment from God need to act, and what makes it advisable to do so?

6 Dedicated public servants who have God’s name called upon them and who receive a service assignment from him need to walk worthily. They cannot preach and teach one thing and at the same time live contrariwise and expect to have God’s approval. Nobody can fool God, pull the wool over his eyes. He knows, his King Jesus Christ knows, and the angels know whether an individual is living in private contrary to what he publicly preaches and teaches. God has feelings. He keenly feels any reproach that is thus being heaped upon his own name, upon his beloved organization, upon his truth and upon the good news of His kingdom. So the private lives of his dedicated public servants are a concern to him. This stern fact makes it advisable for each public servant to walk worthily.

7, 8. (a) Why did the apostle Paul keenly appreciate this fact? (b) In order to advance his message of salvation, what was Paul willing to suffer or to fulfill as his responsibility?

7 The Christian apostle Paul deeply appreciated this fact. It was well that he did so, for he was one of the most prominent public servants on earth of the Most High God. Paul knew that the chasteness of his private life ought to recommend to others the Christian message that he preached and taught. Also, the purity of what he taught ought to recommend his message to others and not be a stumbling block or hindrance. It ought to lead to a clean organization. In order to live, to preach and to serve for the unhindered advancement of his message of salvation, Paul was willing to suffer anything. So, after referring to himself and Timothy as ambassadors substituting for Christ, Paul made this statement:

8 “In no way are we giving any cause for stumbling, that our ministry might not be found fault with; but in every way we recommend ourselves as God’s ministers, by the endurance of much, by tribulations, by cases of need, by difficulties, by beatings, by prisons, by disorders, by labors, by sleepless nights, by times without food, by purity [or, chastity], by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by holy spirit, by love free from hypocrisy, by truthful speech, by God’s power.”—2 Cor. 6:3-7; 5:20.

9, 10. (a) How would Paul’s companion Timothy keep himself chaste with respect to other men appointed to a congregational office? (b) Who else would benefit from his chasteness in this regard?

9 Take note of Paul’s mention of purity or chastity. In this he included his missionary companion Timothy with himself. He insisted that this younger man Timothy be pure or chaste personally and as respects other persons. Under God’s direction Paul clothed this younger man with the authority to do the appointing of overseers and ministerial servants in newly organized congregations. If Timothy did not exercise caution in appointing men to office, and if he let his appointments be influenced by some selfish personal bias of his, he might put into office men who would commit sins as public servants. He would share the blame for their sins and how those sins affected the congregation and the Christian cause.

10 By taking good care and impartially striving to put in office men truly capable and of good, reliable conduct, Timothy would keep himself free and pure from sharing the blame for another man’s sins in office. Said Paul: “Never lay your hands hastily upon any man; neither be a sharer in the sins of others; preserve yourself chaste.” (1 Tim. 5:22) By not appointing men liable to turn out bad he would not only keep himself chaste and clear of any share in the blame but also keep the congregation chaste. It would not have the bad example of a sinful man set in front of it.

11, 12. (a) Why did Timothy as a servant who had to pass along instructions to others have to set a right example? (b) In this regard, what did Paul write Timothy?

11 Timothy had to watch not to pave the way for someone else to set a bad example in office. Besides that, he himself as a public servant had to set a right example worthy of imitation. He was to do more than merely tell other brothers what to do, passing along to them instructions that came from the governing body of God’s earthly organization. He had to show himself worthy of telling others what to do according to organization instructions. In that way he had to add force to his commands and instructions by himself leading an exemplary life. The ripeness of his Christian development both in mind and in spirit would correct any wrong impression on others that his bodily youngness might make. This was the point that Paul made when he wrote to Timothy:

12 “Keep on giving these commands and teaching them. Let no man ever look down on your youth. On the contrary, become an example to the faithful ones in speaking, in conduct, in love, in faith, in chasteness. While I am coming, continue applying yourself to public reading, to exhortation, to teaching.”—1 Tim. 4:11-13.

13. How has the New World Society been able to purify its doctrines and to keep them pure?

13 Today those words are followed in the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses in order to keep this organization of public servants pure, chaste. The teaching or doctrine has to be kept pure. It can be kept this way only by keeping it in harmony with God’s inspired Word. “The sayings of Jehovah are pure sayings,” said the psalmist David, “as silver refined in a smelting furnace of earth, clarified seven times.” (Ps. 12:6) Truth is pure, and Jesus Christ the Son of David said in prayer to God regarding God’s written Word: “Sanctify them by means of the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17) By faithfully appealing to this pure Word of God the New World Society has been able to purify its doctrines and to keep its teaching pure and truthful.

14, 15. (a) In comparison with the course of Jehovah’s witnesses, what statement about going back to the Scriptures comes late in the day from Roman Catholicism’s head? (b) How does he clutter up the way of such a return to the Bible?

14 From the very first number of the Watch Tower magazine in July of 1879, which is eighty-five years ago, it has been the endeavor of Jehovah’s dedicated people to do this. So it is very late in the day that the statement comes from the Roman Catholic Pontifex Maximus Paul VI, just back from his pilgrimage to the Middle East, as reported by the New York Times under the dateline “Rome, Jan. 8,” namely:

Pope Paul stressed that “anyone who wants to be true Christian” must go back to the Scriptures. “The return to the Gospel must be our continual exercise of thought, spiritual fervor, moral renewal, religious and human sensitiveness,” he declared.

15 However, the Roman Catholic Pontifex Maximus cluttered up the way of this return of Roman Catholics to the Bible:

He said that study of Scripture did not imply disavowal of church traditions, “but an increasing effort to bring our Christian faith closer to its original concept, search for greater essential faithfulness to the thinking of Our Lord, and spiritual invigoration of what the authentic development of tradition has brought down to us.”—N.Y. Times, Jan. 9, 1964.

16. How does the New World Society endeavor to do just the contrary of this?

16 To the contrary of this, the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses endeavors to purify itself of all religious traditions and to adhere to the pure written Word of God. We remember Jesus’ condemnatory words against man-made traditions.—Matt. 15:1-14.

17, 18. What kind of purity was the apostle Paul talking about when he wrote 2 Corinthians 11:2-6?

17 Very plainly the apostle Paul was talking about doctrinal purity and about keeping the true Christian organization free from the teaching of false apostles, when he wrote these words to the congregation that he had founded in Corinth, Greece:

18 “I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I personally promised you in marriage to one husband that I might present you as a chaste virgin to the Christ. But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent seduced Eve by its cunning, your minds might be corrupted away from the sincerity and the chastity that are due the Christ. For, as it is, if someone comes and preaches a Jesus other than the one we preached, or you receive a spirit other than what you received, or good news other than what you accepted, you easily put up with him. For I consider that I have not in a single thing proved inferior to your superfine apostles. But even if I am unskilled in speech, I certainly am not in knowledge.”—2 Cor. 11:2-6.

19. (a) In what respect was the serpent in Eden trying to corrupt Eve? (b) Similarly, how were men in Corinth in Paul’s day trying to corrupt the congregation?

19 Certainly, when the serpent in Eden tempted Adam’s wife Eve in order to seduce and corrupt her, its effort was in the matter of doctrine, in the matter of religious belief. It was not in moral or sexual behavior. The serpent induced Eve to believe that her Creator, Jehovah God, was a liar in what he had taught her husband Adam. In a like cunning manner, during Paul’s absence from Corinth, those so-called “superfine apostles” were trying to corrupt the Christian congregation there. How? By preaching a Christ different from the one whom Paul had preached, by trying to put in the congregation a spirit different from the one they had got through Paul along with its gifts, and by preaching a kind of “good news” different from the good news that Paul had preached to them. Thus those so-called “superfine apostles” were trying to marry off the Corinthian congregation to a different Christ as a spiritual husband. This was leading to a spiritual immorality. How?

20. How was the corrupting influence of those “superfine apostles” leading to spiritual immorality on the congregation’s part?

20 The apostle Paul had already promised them in marriage to Jesus Christ the heavenly Son of God. So now if they let themselves become engaged to marry some other Christ, they would be losing their spiritual morality. They would be losing their spiritual chastity, their virgin chastity, that they owed to Jesus Christ as their promised Husband. The apostle Paul wanted to present this Christian congregation that he had founded as a “chaste virgin to the Christ,” but here those “superfine apostles” were trying to break the congregation’s engagement to Jesus Christ and switch it over to a counterfeit Christ. They were trying to seduce the already engaged congregation to commit spiritual immorality, spiritual adultery, inasmuch as in Jehovah’s law given through Moses an engaged virgin was considered as already the wife of the man to whom arrangements had been made to marry her.

21. What kind of jealousy did Paul have over the congregation in Corinth, and to whom was he a true friend?

21 Hence the apostle Paul likened those so-called “superfine apostles” to the serpent in Eden, and he tried to protect the Christian congregation from them. The jealousy that Paul had over them was not a selfish, impassioned, ungodly jealousy, but was a godly jealousy that tolerated no rivalry but insisted on exclusive devotion to Jesus Christ their original Bridegroom. Paul was truly a “friend of the bridegroom,” and he desired to experience in due time the friend’s “joy on account of the voice of the bridegroom” when speaking to his “chaste virgin” Bride in heaven.—John 3:29.

SEXUAL PURITY (CHASTITY) ALSO

22. (a) About what other kind of purity of the congregation was Paul concerned? (b) What did he write about a pertinent case in the congregation in Corinth?

22 As a general overseer who had the “anxiety for all the congregations” in Gentile lands of the West, the apostle Paul was also deeply concerned about the bodily chastity or sexual purity of the organization of God’s public servants. Paul knew that a local congregation could not remain a part of God’s organization and at the same time allow the moral impurity of any of its members. The congregation needs to free itself, vindicate itself from all community responsibility for the sexual immorality of any of its members. Listen to this case that Paul handled for the congregation at Corinth in the first century of our Common Era. It was a shocking case, for Paul writes: “Actually fornication is reported among you, and such fornication as is not even among the [Gentile] nations, that a wife a certain man has of his father. And are you puffed up, and did you not rather mourn, in order that the man that committed this deed should be taken away from your midst?”

23. In that connection, what kind of responsibility did Paul not want to share, and so what did he do about the situation?

23 As Paul had founded that congregation and had the apostolic oversight over it, he was not for a minute going to become soiled with any community responsibility for such immorality inside God’s organization of public servants. So he immediately follows up the charge that he files against the congregation by writing: “I for one, although absent in body but present in spirit, have certainly judged already, as if I were present, the man who has worked in such a way as this, that in the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are gathered together, also my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus, you hand such a man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. . . . Do you not judge those inside, while God judges those outside? ‘Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.’”—1 Cor. 5:1-5, 12, 13.

24, 25. (a) In Paul’s mind, what was the question now with regard to the Corinthian congregation? (b) How did the congregation demonstrate itself to be chaste in this matter?

24 In Paul’s mind the question now was, Will the Christian congregation with its so-called “superfine apostles” clear itself of any community responsibility for this shocking case of incestuous immorality? Would it be saddened because it had tolerated this immorality within it for any length of time without proper action? Would it vindicate itself by promptly carrying out the apostle’s orders to remove that wicked man from the congregation? Paul’s mind was later set at rest when his missionary companion Titus came back from Corinth and told him that the congregation had done so. Giving official approval to this, Paul wrote them:

25 “(I see that that letter saddened you, though but for a little while,) now I rejoice, not because you were just saddened, but because you were saddened into repenting; for you were saddened in a godly way, that you might suffer no damage in anything due to us. For sadness in a godly way makes for repentance to salvation that is not to be regretted; but the sadness of the world produces death. For, look! this very thing, your being saddened in a godly way, what a great earnestness it produced in you, yes, clearing of yourselves, yes, indignation, yes, fear, yes, longing, yes, zeal, yes, righting of the wrong! In every respect you demonstrated yourselves to be chaste in this matter.”—2 Cor. 7:8-11.

26, 27. (a) Only after what developments would it be safe for the Corinthian congregation to take the incestuous man back again? (b) Nevertheless, against what did the congregation have to keep on watching, and what did Paul write them to indicate this?

26 Certainly only after the congregation had vindicated itself by showing that it did not uphold sexual immorality among its members, only after they had demonstrated themselves “to be chaste in this matter,” only after that would it be safe for the apostle Paul to advise the congregation to let that wicked man come back into the congregation again. Not only had the man sincerely repented of his incestuous sin, between the time that the congregation received Paul’s first letter and the time that it got his second letter, but the congregation as a whole had taken the right stand and action toward the matter. (2 Cor. 2:6-11) But, whether they forgave this man for his proved repentance and took him back in again or not, Paul knew that the Corinthian Christians had to keep on watching against sexual immorality in the congregation. They were living in a very sexy pagan city and many members of the congregation had come in from that sex-crazed world. Hence toward the end of his second letter (2 Cor. 12:20, 21) Paul made this remark:

27 “I am afraid that somehow, when I arrive, I may find you not as I could wish and I may prove to be to you not as you could wish, but, instead, there should somehow be strife, jealousy, cases of anger, contentions, backbitings, whisperings, cases of being puffed up, disorders. Perhaps, when I come again, my God might humiliate me among you, and I might mourn over many of those who formerly sinned but have not repented over their uncleanness and fornication and loose conduct that they have practiced.”

28, 29. (a) How is the same situation true of the New World Society today, especially as more persons come into it? (b) Why may Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 well be said to the Society today?

28 The same situation is true of the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses. It is living in the midst of a sex-maddened world, a regular modern Sodom. Not all the members of this New World Society have been born and reared in the homes of Christian witnesses of Jehovah. The vast majority of them have come out from Babylon the Great, that is, the world empire of false religion, and from among her immoral political paramours. And the more tens of thousands there are who come into the Society from this sexually disturbed world year after year, the more the Society as a whole is subjected to an immoral pressure, because of the immoral leanings of a growing number of incomers. Accordingly, to the Society of today the following words of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Christians may well be said:

29 “What! Do you not know that unrighteous persons will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom. And yet that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean . . . in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the spirit of our God.”—1 Cor. 6:9-11.

30. (a) What fact makes it all the more difficult to keep the Society clean as time goes on? (b) Against what did the apostle Peter warn all the washed ones?

30 Yes, as the New World Society grows, “that is what” more and more of Jehovah’s witnesses inside the Society once were. This fact makes it all the more difficult to keep such a growing Society clean, pure, chaste. But all baptized persons today in the Society would never have been admitted into it if first they had not been washed in the name of the Lord Jesus and with the spirit of our God. So in his second letter (2 Pe 2:22) the apostle Peter warns all of us washed ones that we should not go back to such worldly uncleanness, like the “sow that was bathed to rolling in the mire.”

31, 32. (a) Even if not such kinds of persons previously, against what do members of the Society have to watch? (b) For instance, what did Paul have to write Timothy about chastity inside the congregation?

31 Many members were not such kinds of persons before they came into the Society. Yet they should keep on watch against falling into temptation to such unclean practices. Take, for instance, Timothy, the missionary who joined Paul in writing the second letter to the congregation at Corinth. He was half-Greek, half-Jew, and was brought up in a godly way by his Jewish mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. (2 Tim. 1:5) Yet after Timothy had worked with him for about fifteen years Paul saw good to write Timothy the following words on moral chastity inside the congregation:

32 “Do not severely criticize an older man. To the contrary, entreat him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters with all chasteness. Honor widows that are actually widows.”—1 Tim. 5:1-3.

33. (a) To whom especially are Paul’s words to Timothy directed with regard to dealing with the womenfolk? (b) Hence the treating of them immorally would be just as abominable as what?

33 When it came to dealing with womenfolk in the congregation, the young and the old, it called for moral chasteness on Timothy’s part, though now he was no longer a teen-ager. Remember, please, this letter to Timothy was to a regional overseer of congregations, and not to a congregation in general. So the instructions to deal with the “younger women as sisters with all chasteness” stands directed with special force to Christian men who serve as district servants, circuit servants and congregation servants in the New World Society of today. If these today pursue this clean, chaste conduct toward those of the opposite sex, such servants should be strengthening examples to all the other dedicated, baptized men in the Society. If such servants treat the younger women in the Society as they treat their own sisters of their personal family, then they will not morally injure these younger women of the Society any more than they will their own fleshly sister. Committing fornication with one of the younger women of the congregation would be just as abominable as committing incest with one’s own fleshly sister.

34, 35. (a) To what other persons did Paul need to give moral instructions, and with what end in view? (b) In that behalf, what must the older women do in behalf of the younger women?

34 On the other hand, moral instructions needed to be given also to the women of the Christian congregation. To another fellow missionary named Titus, Paul wrote the following words: “Let the aged women be reverent in behavior, not slanderous, neither enslaved to a lot of wine, teachers of what is good; that they may recall the young women to their senses to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sound in mind, chaste, . . . so that the word of God may not be spoken of abusively.”—Titus 2:3-5.

35 What must older women do to recall the younger women to their senses, that these may love their own husbands instead of some other woman’s husband, and may be chaste toward all of the opposite sex? The aged women must themselves set the example of personal chasteness. Chasteness on the part of a woman in the New World Society can help another person to take up the Christian course of life.

36. How did the apostle Peter emphasize this fact to Christian wives, with what reflection on God’s Word?

36 The aged apostle Peter emphasized this fact by writing to Christian wives: “You wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, in order that, if any are not obedient to the word, they may be won without a word through the conduct of their wives, because of having been eyewitnesses of your chaste conduct together with deep respect.” (1 Pet. 3:1, 2) The more corrupt that a community is outside the congregation and outside the home of a Christian wife, the more the chastity of the faithful wife shows up to good effect, with greater impressiveness. It reflects well on God’s Word.

How the Organization Should View Chasteness

1, 2. (a) How is human sex to be viewed, and why so? (b) How does Genesis 1:27, 28 explain the origin and the purpose of sex?

CHASTENESS takes sex into account. In the light of God’s holy Word sex is sacred. Sex did not spring from blind, unintelligent, unmoral, accidental evolution operating toward a selfish end. Human sex, as well as the sex of animals, fish, birds, insects, and plants, is of God. Is God immoral because he created sex? No! He did not purpose the great wave of sex madness that is sweeping the world, resulting in all kinds of terrible social diseases or unhealth. He purposed that sex should serve a miraculous purpose, that of propagating life in its various forms on earth, including human life. In very simple language the first chapter of the Holy Bible explains to us the origin and the purpose of sex in mankind. Ge Chapter one, verses twenty-seven and twenty-eight, of Genesis (the first book of the Bible) says:

2 “And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. Further, God blessed them and God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.’”

3. In harmony with this, what purpose were the sex organs to serve, and why is there a sacred aspect about them?

3 The male sex organs and the female sex organs were to cooperate in fulfilling this God-given command. Thus the sex organs are not playthings to have a lot of fun with, for such fun does not serve the divine purpose. It results in injury not alone to the sex organs but to the whole individual who tries to have fun in this way. The sex organs, rather than being toys, serve a most serious purpose. For that reason the sex organs, male and female, have a sacred aspect or way of being looked at. They have to do with life, especially the life of a coming generation of humans.

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The Watchtower, November 15, 1964