The Watchtower, February 15, 1965
Download: PDF — The Watchtower, February 15, 1965
The Watchtower — February 15, 1965
Source: jw.org
Contents
Do Not Be Anxious
For Whom There Are Resurrection Hopes
Part Two
A Universal Court Case
How Did the Israelites Get Sealskins?
Does Jehovah Require Too Much?
“I Will by No Means Leave You”
Finding Answers to Your Bible Questions
Questions From Readers
Announcements
Do Not Be Anxious
Do Not Be Anxious
OUR time is one that is full of anxiety. The world staggers from one crisis to another, keeping mankind in a state of constant agitation.
No one can escape being affected by this strife, for it is global. In Asia, Africa, Europe, Central and South America, as well as in the United States, racial hatreds, revolutions, guerrilla wars and other upheavals occur with frightening rapidity. There are food shortages, pestilences, earthquakes and the ever-present threat of a nuclear holocaust.
Persons who put their hope and trust in this system of things are understandably filled with anxiety, for they find the proposed remedies of world leaders failing time and again. As Jesus Christ predicted would be the case, men everywhere are becoming “faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.” Nowhere does there seem to be stability and security.—Luke 21:26.
Yet, in the face of the worsening world conditions, Jesus encouraged Christians not to be in fear, not to be anxious. “As these things start to occur,” he said, “lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.” And the early Christian apostle Peter said: “The object of their fear do not you fear, neither become agitated. But sanctify the Christ as Lord in your hearts.”—Luke 21:28; 1 Pet. 3:14, 15.
It is not easy to remain fearless and unburdened by anxiety when one’s means of livelihood or one’s life is threatened. Firm faith in God is required. A person must believe that Jehovah God exists and that he is concerned about the welfare of those that serve him. Only with this confidence in God and his ability to protect and provide can one remain calm and peaceful when beset by trials and difficulties.
The importance of remaining close to God in prayer cannot be overemphasized, for it is the key to avoiding anxiety. Note how the apostle Paul drew this to the attention of the early Christians at Philippi. He wrote: “Do not be anxious over anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication along with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God; and the peace of God that excels all thought will guard your hearts and your mental powers by means of Christ Jesus.”—Phil. 4:6, 7.
If you keep close to Jehovah God by means of prayer and by studying his Word the Bible, you will come to appreciate why world conditions have taken such a turn for the worse. The evidence will become clear that the present difficulties are in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy concerning conditions that would mark the end of this wicked system of things. You will see, therefore, that God’s kingdom is now at hand and that soon God will wipe from the earth all traces of wickedness and will usher lovers of righteousness into a new order of peace and happiness.—Matt. 24:3-14, 32-34; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; Dan. 2:44; Rev. 21:3, 4.
This knowledge will help you to avoid anxiety. Even should governments change and anti-God elements gain control, you will not panic and necessarily think that one will be better off by fleeing to another location. You will appreciate that there is no physical location of real peace and safety, for trouble can quickly strike anywhere on earth. Therefore, you will look to God for help, and continually pray for his spirit and direction. Yes, in keeping with the apostolic encouragement, you will “throw all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you.”—1 Pet. 5:7; Ps. 55:22.
But in this connection, did not Jesus say: “When they persecute you in one city, flee to another”? (Matt. 10:23) Does this not indicate that Christians should flee from areas of persecution? How is Jesus’ instruction to be understood?
Jesus was not advocating fearful flight. He had just told his disciples to ‘shake the dust off their feet’ and move to another place when people did not receive them—not because of fear, but in order to reach persons to whom they could preach the Kingdom message. Similarly, when they were persecuted in one city by those who rejected the message, Jesus advised his disciples to flee to another city. So it was that when Paul’s life was threatened in Damascus because of his preaching, he left town secretly at night; and when persecution made it impossible for Paul and Barnabas to continue preaching in Iconium, they fled to other cities.—Acts 9:23-25; 13:49–14:6.
However, that Jesus did not mean that Christians should quit preaching because of fear of what would happen to them is indicated by his following words: “Do not fear them . . . What I tell you in the darkness, say in the light; and what you hear whispered, preach from the housetops. And do not become fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be in fear of him that can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. . . . Therefore have no fear.”—Matt. 10:26-31.
Mature Christians do not abandon their ministry because they fear men who may kill their physical body. They are not consumed with anxiety over their personal safety or whether they will be able to obtain necessary material provisions. Rather, their chief concern is caring for the spiritual needs of those who show themselves righteously disposed toward God. They are confident that, not some physical location on earth, but “the name of Jehovah is a strong tower. Into it the righteous runs and is given protection.”—Prov. 18:10; Matt. 6:25-34; Ps. 37:25, 40; Isa. 41:10.
How evident it is that developing and maintaining strong faith in God is the only way to overcome the anxieties that clutch at the hearts of men! So look to Jehovah. Keep close to him through prayer and obedience to his commandments. Fearlessly continue to preach God’s Word of truth, saying “to those who are anxious at heart: ‘Be strong. Do not be afraid. Look! Your own God will come with vengeance itself, God even with a repayment. He himself will come and save you people.’”—Isa. 35:4.
For Whom There Are Resurrection Hopes
For Whom There Are Resurrection Hopes
“And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Hades gave up those dead in them, . . . And death and Hades were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire.”—Rev. 20:13, 14.
1, 2. (a) What power has man’s great enemy, and who is he? (b) By whom will he be brought to nothing, and through what course of that one?
MAN’S great enemy has the power to cause death. He is soon now to be brought to nothing. This is one of the wonderful things that will result from the death of Jesus Christ nineteen hundred years ago. Previous to then Jesus had been the glorious heavenly Son of God, but he humbled himself under his heavenly Father’s mighty hand. He set aside his heavenly glory and, by God’s power, he was born as a human babe of blood and flesh, as a descendant of the patriarch Abraham through King David of Jerusalem. He became like one of the children of Abraham, by means of a Jewish virgin named Mary, a descendant of King David. On the Passover day of the year 33 of our Common Era, Jesus died. On that day the Passover lamb was slaughtered by the Jews, but then Jesus let himself be slaughtered like a lamb by the earthly servants of the Devil, the one “having the means to cause death.” Of the deliverance that results from Jesus’ death we read:
2 “Therefore, since the ‘young children’ are sharers of blood and flesh, he also similarly partook of the same things, that through his death he might bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil; and that he might emancipate all those who for fear of death were subject to slavery all through their lives. For he is really not assisting angels at all, but he is assisting Abraham’s seed.”—Heb. 2:14-16.
3. By his sacrificial death, to what was Jesus Christ brought down, but how was Psalm 16:10 fulfilled toward him?
3 Thus, for sacrificial purposes according to God’s will, Jesus Christ was brought down to Sheol or Haʹdes, the common grave of the humans who lie dead in the dust of the ground. However, Almighty God did not let Sheol hold his faithful Son forever and thus let his flesh undergo a gradual decay in the memorial tomb. On the third day God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and thus fulfilled Psalm 16:10, as written by King David. The Christian apostle Paul quoted from Psalm 16:10 and said: “Hence he also says in another psalm, ‘You will not allow your loyal one to see corruption.’ For David, on the one hand, served the express will of God in his own generation and fell asleep in death and was laid with his forefathers and did see corruption. On the other hand, he whom God raised up did not see corruption.”—Acts 13:35-37.
4. Why will Jesus Christ be able to bring the death dealing Devil to nothing, and how will he do so?
4 Almighty God raised up Jesus Christ out of Sheol as an immortal spirit person, far mightier than Satan the Devil, “the one having the means to cause death.” In God’s due time the resurrected Jesus Christ will bring to nothing this death-dealing Devil. He will bind him and all his demon angels and imprison them in an abyss where they will not be able to interfere with the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ as God’s anointed King.
5. (a) When will that take place, and thus what will flee away? (b) What vision of Judgment Day will then be fulfilled?
5 This will be immediately after the battle of Armageddon, in which the Devil’s earthly organization of political rulers will be defeated by the heavenly warrior Jesus Christ and his angels. (Rev. 19:11 to 20:3) It is in this way that the symbolical heaven and earth are made to flee away from before God’s great white throne of judgment. This will make room for “a new heaven and a new earth.” (Rev. 20:11; 21:1) It will be then that the vision of the Christian apostle John is fulfilled: “I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life. And the dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds. And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Haʹdes gave up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds.”—Rev. 20:12, 13.
6. Why does not that vision include the 144,000 disciples?
6 Revelation 20:13 says that “the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Haʹdes gave up those dead in them.” This does not include the 144,000 footstep followers of Jesus Christ who are referred to in Hebrews 2:16 as “Abraham’s seed,” by means of whom all the nations of our earth will procure an everlasting blessing. (Rev. 7:3-8; 14:1, 3; Gen. 12:3; 22:18) Nineteen centuries ago Haʹdes or Sheol gave up the dead Jesus Christ, and these 144,000 faithful followers who are his spiritual brothers are made like him in having part in what is called “the first resurrection.”
7, 8. (a) When did their resurrection begin? (b) How does Revelation 20:4-6 picture their resurrection?
7 According to indications in the Bible, their resurrection began in the year 1918 C.E., or three and a half years after Jesus Christ was enthroned and crowned as heavenly King to begin ruling in the midst of his enemies. (Ps. 110:1, 2; Heb. 10:12, 13; Rev. 14:13) Hence before Revelation, chapter twenty, tells us about the delivering up of the dead ones by the sea and by death and Haʹdes, it tells us first about the resurrection of the 144,000 spiritual followers of Jesus Christ, in the following words:
8 “I saw thrones, and there were those who sat down on them, and power of judging was given them. Yes, I saw the souls of those executed with the ax for the witness they bore to Jesus and for speaking about God, and those who had worshiped neither the wild beast nor its image and who had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand. And they came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Happy and holy is anyone having part in the first resurrection; over these the second death [symbolized by the lake of fire] has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.”—Rev. 20:4-6, 14; 21:8.
“THE FIRST RESURRECTION”
9. (a) Does this mean that the 144,000 joint heirs of Christ never go to Haʹdes or Sheol? (b) According to Jesus’ words to Peter in Matthew 16:18, what will not overpower the 144,000?
9 When we say that Revelation 20:13 does not include the above-mentioned 144,000 joint heirs of Jesus Christ, we do not mean that these 144,000 do not go at death into Haʹdes or Sheol, or into death in the sea if they should die at sea and their bodies not be recovered for burial on the dry land. In order to have part in “the first resurrection,” they need to be raised out of Haʹdes or out of death in the sea. The words of Jesus Christ plainly give us to understand this fact when he told his twelve apostles about building his church or congregation upon himself as the foundation rock, for he said: “On this rockmass [petra] I will build my congregation, and the gates of Haʹdes will not overpower it.” (Matt. 16:18) And after his own resurrection from the dead, Jesus said in his vision to the apostle John: “I am the First and the Last, and the living one; and I became dead, but, look! I am living forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Haʹdes.” “Let the one who has an ear hear what the spirit says to the congregations: He that conquers will by no means be harmed by the second death,” and so he will be resurrected.—Rev. 1:17, 18; 2:11.
10. (a) As respects death and Haʹdes, how does Jesus Christ break their power toward his 144,000 joint heirs? (b) As regards judgment, how does Revelation 20:4 picture the 144,000?
10 The resurrected Jesus Christ will bring to nothing the Devil “having the means to cause death.” As Jesus possesses the keys of death and of Haʹdes, he will not permit Haʹdes to overpower his faithful congregation of 144,000 spiritual brothers. After his heavenly enthronement as King in 1914 C.E., he breaks the power of death and of Haʹdes and releases the dead members of his congregation to take part in “the first resurrection.” By this invisible, spiritual resurrection, the 144,000 join him in the heavens as his joint heirs to reign and be priests and judges with him for the thousand years that Satan the Devil is bound in the abyss. They are not pictured as standing before the “great white throne” to be judged. Instead, Revelation 20:4 says that they sat down on thrones and “power of judging was given them.” Thus their death in Haʹdes does not become an endless death, an everlasting death, which is what is signified by the expression “the second death.”
11, 12. How, in John 6:39-54, did Jesus assure his disciples that death and Haʹdes would not overpower them forever?
11 Repeatedly Jesus Christ assured his faithful disciples that death and Haʹdes would not overpower them forever. As God’s instrument for resurrecting, he would see to it that their death in faithfulness to him did not become everlasting. He said:
12 “This is the will of him that sent me, that I should lose nothing out of all that he has given me but that I should resurrect it at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone that beholds the Son and exercises faith in him should have everlasting life, and I will resurrect him at the last day.” “No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him; and I will resurrect him in the last day. . . . Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood [by means of faith], you have no life in yourselves. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I shall resurrect him at the last day.”—John 6:39, 40, 44, 53, 54.
13. Of what power did Jesus give an example in connection with his friend Lazarus, and how?
13 Even on earth Jesus Christ gave us examples of his coming resurrection power. He brought back to life his dear friend Lazarus, who was then in Sheol for the fourth day. Just before that Jesus said to Martha, the sister of Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the life. He that exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life; and everyone that is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all.” After that Jesus had the stone taken away from in front of the memorial tomb and then called Lazarus back to life and out of the tomb. In this miraculous way Martha got her brother Lazarus back sooner than she expected, for she had said to Jesus: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.”—John 11:24-44.
14. What happened to Lazarus later on, but what is our expectation for him?
14 Of course, Lazarus died again, presumably as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. So he returned to Sheol or Haʹdes. But Haʹdes will not overpower him as a member of the faithful Christian congregation, for it could not overpower him on that day when Jesus came to Bethany to awaken him from his four-day sleep of death. Only this time, after he is raised from Haʹdes with the rest of the Christian congregation by Jesus Christ when ruling as King in God’s kingdom, Lazarus will never die again.—John 11:26.
15. By “first resurrection,” what is indicated regarding resurrection as a whole, and how does 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 prove it?
15 Since Revelation 20:5, 6 speaks of “the first resurrection,” it indicates that there is a certain order followed in the resurrection as a whole. This is clearly told to us in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, which speaks to us about the resurrection of the 144,000 disciples who will have a glorious, heavenly, spiritual resurrection. Those verses cited read: “Now Christ has been raised up from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep in death. For since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a man. For just as in Adam all are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive. But each one in his own rank: Christ the first fruits, afterward those who belong to the Christ during his presence.”
16. How does Revelation, chapter twenty, also indicate order as to resurrection?
16 Revelation, chapter twenty, also indicates order by depicting for us first the coming to life of the 144,000 joint heirs of Jesus Christ, who are made happy in the first resurrection, and later the deliverance from the sea and from Haʹdes of all the other dead who get the opportunity for eternal life on earth.
“A BETTER RESURRECTION”
17. In Hebrews 11:35, to whom is the expression “better resurrection” applied?
17 In Hebrews 11:35 occurs this interesting expression about people who lived before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: “Women received their dead by resurrection; but other men were tortured because they would not accept release by some ransom, in order that they might attain a better resurrection.”
18. About whose exploits does Hebrews, chapter eleven, tell us, and how does it show their resurrection to be certain?
18 This verse is found in a chapter that tells us about exploits of “so great a cloud of witnesses,” running from the time of John the Baptist all the way back to the first faithful witness for Jehovah, Abel the younger brother of Cain, the son of Adam and Eve. (Heb. 11:4 to 12:1) The resurrection of these ancient men and women of godly faith is certain, for the Christian writer of Hebrews, chapter eleven, proves that they believed that “God was able to raise . . . even from the dead,” and at the close of this chapter he says to his Christian readers: “And yet all these, although they had witness borne to them through their faith, did not get the fulfillment of the promise, as God foresaw something better for us, in order that they might not be made perfect apart from us.”—Heb. 11:19, 35, 39, 40.
19. In what way does their resurrection not take place “apart from us” (the 144,000)?
19 The 144,000 faithful disciples of Jesus Christ are all going to be “made perfect” by resurrection from the dead, even as Jesus Christ himself was. Apart from such Christians, or before such Christians are “made perfect” in the heavens, the resurrection of the “cloud of witnesses” of pre-Christian times could not take place. This is so because the faithful 144,000 joint heirs of Jesus Christ take part in “the first resurrection,” a resurrection that is first in time as well as in quality and importance.
20. (a) Will it be “a better resurrection” in comparison with that of the 144,000? (b) In what way will it be “a better resurrection”?
20 Hence the “better resurrection” that the ancient “cloud of witnesses” will have will not be better than the resurrection of the 144,000 heirs of God’s heavenly kingdom. It will be better than that of the persons who were raised from the dead by the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Yes, even better than the resurrection of those whom Jesus Christ and his apostles raised from the dead.a How “better”? Because all those whom these servants of God raised to life had to die again in the flesh and go into Haʹdes or Sheol. Why so? Because God’s heavenly kingdom by his Son Jesus Christ had not yet begun its rule, inasmuch as the “times of the Gentiles” for ruling the earth were not due to end until the year 1914 C.E. The “better resurrection” of the ancient “cloud of witnesses” will take place under God’s heavenly kingdom, which has now been established. When Jesus Christ the heavenly King uses the “keys of death and of Haʹdes” and brings those ancient witnesses forth from Haʹdes or Sheol, they will not need to die again. Why not?
21. Why after resurrection will those ancient witnesses not need to die again?
21 By keeping their names written on the “scroll of life” through their continued godly faith and obedience they will be gradually lifted up to human perfection. Finally they will be given the prize of everlasting life in human perfection on our earth transformed into a Paradise. They will not be “hurled into the lake of fire,” that is to say, into the “second death.” Since they are persons of faith to begin with at their resurrection, they should all the more easily make progress toward human perfection then.
22. Of what was Daniel assured in Daniel 12:13, at what time?
22 For instance, there was the prophet Daniel. “In the third year of Cyrus the king of Persia” God’s angel gave to Daniel a marvelous prophecy concerning this “time of the end.” He ended this prophecy by saying to Daniel: “And as for you yourself, go toward the end; and you will rest, but you will stand up for your lot at the end of the days.” (Dan. 10:1 to 12:13)b Daniel is no doubt one of those referred to in Hebrews 11:33, who “stopped the mouths of lions.” He will “stand up” for his lot by a resurrection under God’s kingdom.—Ezek. 14:14, 20; 28:3; Matt. 24:15.c
23. (a) To what did Abel go down at his murder? (b) What will happen to those whose memorial tombs perished before the Flood or have perished since the Flood?
23 When the first one of that ancient “cloud of witnesses,” namely, Abel, was killed by his brother Cain and was buried, he went down to Sheol. Whether Abel was put in a memorial tomb, the Bible does not state. (Matt. 23:35; Luke 11:51; Heb. 12:24; Gen. 4:8-11) Doubtless many memorial tombs were made for the dead from Abel’s time down to the earth-wide flood of Noah’s day, but, for the most part, those memorial tombs were wiped out by that destructive flood. However, the all-knowing God Jehovah knows and remembers all those who went down into Sheol or Haʹdes before the Flood, “both the righteous [like Abel and Enoch] and the unrighteous.” Jehovah will cause Haʹdes or Sheol to deliver up all those dead under his kingdom by Jesus Christ. The same will be true regarding the many graves and memorial tombs that have disappeared since that flood in 2370 B.C.E. down to our own day.
GEHENNA, “THE VALLEY OF HINNOM”
24, 25. (a) Jesus spoke of some men as going to what different place at death, and what would this mean for them? (b) In Matthew 23:13-33, whom did Jesus specify those men to be?
24 In the year 33 C.E., when Jesus was speaking about the “righteous blood spilled on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah,” he spoke of men then living who at death would go, not to Haʹdes or Sheol, but to another place, to Gehenna. For that reason it would mean “woe” to them. Who were those men? In the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, Jesus specified who they were, saying:
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the kingdom of the heavens before men; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you traverse sea and dry land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one you make him a subject for Gehenna twice as much so as yourselves. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the graves of the prophets and decorate the memorial tombs of the righteous ones, and you say, ‘If we had been in the days of our forefathers, we would not have been sharers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you are bearing witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. . . . Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgment of Gehenna?”—Matt. 23:13-15, 29-33.
26. Why were such ones subjects for Gehenna or liable to its judgment, and how did Jesus then show this?
26 Thus those religious persons who were subjects for Gehenna and who were liable to the judgment of Gehenna were the unrepentant Jewish scribes and Pharisees and their proselytes. They were persons who were unrepentant and who refused to enter into the kingdom of the heavens. Jesus showed this by next saying: “For this reason, here I am sending forth to you prophets and wise men and public instructors. Some of them you will kill and impale, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city; that there may come upon you all the righteous blood spilled on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to you, All these things will come upon this generation.”—Matt. 23:34-36.
27. How does the book of Acts show whether some of such liable ones fled from the judgment of Gehenna?
27 Some Pharisees did repent and quit shutting up the kingdom of the heavens, like Saul of Tarsus who became the Christian apostle Paul. (Acts 7:58; 8:1-3; 9:1-30; 22:1-5; 23:6; Phil. 3:4-6) Also, Acts 2:10; 8:27-39 speaks of circumcised proselytes, and Acts 6:7 says: “The number of the disciples kept multiplying in Jerusalem very much; and a great crowd of priests began to be obedient to the faith.” These gave up all religious hypocrisy and stayed faithful to the Christian faith. Thus they successfully fled from the judgment of Gehenna to which they had been liable. They proved that they were not “serpents, offspring of vipers,” sons of the Devil as a religious father, offspring of the “original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan.”—John 8:44; Rev. 20:2.
28. From what is the Greek word Gehenna drawn, and what is the literal translation of the original expression?
28 Just what is this place called Gehenna, or what does it symbolize? The Greek word “Gehenna” is a transliteration of the Hebrew expression Gei-Hinnom, meaning “the valley of Hinnom.” In the Greek word Gehenna the syllable “Ge” stands for the Hebrew word Gai (גיא) meaning “Valley,” and the addition “henna” stands for Hinnom, the name of a man in the days of Judge Joshua.
29. What was the original Gehenna, and what did it mark according to Joshua 15:8; 18:16?
29 This Valley of Hinnom or Hinnom Valley is first mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 15:8 as marking the boundary between the territories of the tribes of Judah and of Benjamin, and it is associated with Jerusalem: “The boundary [of Judah] went up to the valley of the son of Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusite at the south, that is to say, Jerusalem; and the boundary went up to the top of the mountain that faces the valley of Hinnom [Gei-Hinnom, Hebrew; Ge-Ennom, Latin] to the west, which is at the extremity of the low plain of Rephaim to the north.” Here the Greek Septuagint translation calls it the Pharanx of Onom, that is to say, the Cleft (Chasm, Ravine, Gully) of Onom. Hinnom Valley or Valley of Hinnom is also mentioned in Joshua 18:16, in connection with the territorial boundary of the tribe of Benjamin.
30. How did Gehenna come to be misused by the Israelites, and how was it made unfit for such misuse?
30 The Valley of Hinnom, lying to the west and southwest of ancient Jerusalem, came to be misused by the backsliding Jews. In 2 Chronicles 28:3 we read about King Ahaz of Jerusalem: “He himself made sacrificial smoke in the valley of the son of Hinnom [Gai-benenom, LXX] and proceeded to burn up his sons in the fire.” (Also, 2 Chron. 33:6; Jer. 7:31, 32; 32:35) Faithful King Josiah saw good to defile this Valley of Hinnom because it had been used for the idol worship of Baal and for offering human sacrifices to this false god. In 2 Kings 23:10 it says of Josiah: “And he made unfit for worship Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no one might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to [the false god] Molech.”d The modern name of the valley is Wadi el-Rababi.
[Footnotes]
See 1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:17-37; 13:20, 21; Matthew 10:8; 9:18-26; Luke 7:11-15; John 11:38-44; Acts 9:36-41; 20:7-12.
Daniel 12:2 has been applied to Christians who were merely spiritually dead and who were awakened from their religiously dead condition after the year 1918 C.E.—Compare with Revelation 11:7-13.
In the Greek Septuagint translation of Daniel 12:13 the Greek word for “stand up” is anastései, from which is derived anástasis, meaning “resurrection,” in the Christian Greek Scriptures.
See also Nehemiah 11:30; Jeremiah 19:2, 6. Hinnom Valley is mentioned thirteen times in the inspired Hebrew Scriptures.
[Map on page 107]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
JERUSALEM
VALLEY OF HINNOM
TRIBE of BENJAMIN
TRIBE of JUDAH
PLAIN OF REPHAIM
Part Two
Part Two
1. In Jesus’ day, what was Gehenna, and of what punishment was it used as a symbol?
GEHENNA, or the Valley of Hinnom, is mentioned twelve times in the Christian Greek Scriptures. In the days of Jesus Christ on earth it was a fiery place and, being a valley outside the walls of Jerusalem, it was on earth. It became a symbol of the worst punishment that could befall a person. For instance, in Matthew 5:22, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “Everyone who continues wrathful with his brother will be accountable to the court of justice; but whoever addresses his brother with an unspeakable word of contempt [Raca] will be accountable to the Supreme Court; whereas whoever says, ‘You despicable fool!’ will be liable to the fiery Gehenna.” Thus Jesus grades the “fiery Gehenna” as third and worst. Why? Because the one who called another a despicable fool and who was sentenced to the fiery Gehenna is put to death and not given a burial. His corpse is burned up in the fires of Gehenna and the ashes are never collected for preserving in an urn. So he was pictured as not going to Haʹdes.
2, 3. What does Matthew 5:29, 30 show as to a sinner’s corpse?
2 A few verses later on in the same Sermon on the Mount Jesus shows that the sinner’s corpse is thrown into Gehenna as a crematory. In Matthew 5:29, 30 Jesus says:
3 “If, now, that right eye of yours is making you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you. For it is more beneficial to you for one of your members to be lost to you than for your whole body to be pitched into Gehenna. Also, if your right hand is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you [not, torment it]. For it is more beneficial for one of your members to be lost to you than for your whole body to land in Gehenna.”
4. In what sense did Jesus there use Gehenna, and how is this shown?
4 From this language we see that Jesus used in a symbolical manner the ancient Gehenna that was located outside the walls of Jerusalem. Jesus did not mean that his followers should pluck out a literal eye or chop off a literal right hand. Rather, Jesus was talking about something precious that causes us to sin with the right eye or the right hand. Accordingly, then, as the eye and right hand were spoken of symbolically, Gehenna must also have been spoken of in a symbolical way, not literally.
5. In Matthew 18:8, 9, with what does Jesus contrast one’s being thrown into the symbolical Gehenna?
5 Notice how Jesus contrasts one’s being thrown into Gehenna with one’s entering into life. This indicates that the symbolical Gehenna is a place of no life at all. In Matthew 18:8, 9 Jesus said: “If, then, your hand or your foot is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you; it is finer for you to enter into life maimed or lame than to be thrown with two hands or two feet into the everlasting fire. Also, if your eye is making you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you [not, torment it]; it is finer for you to enter one-eyed into life than to be thrown with two eyes into the fiery Gehenna.” In this “fiery Gehenna” is where the “everlasting fire” burns, symbolically speaking.
6, 7. (a) Besides fire, what other destructive things were present in the Gehenna outside Jerusalem? (b) How did Jesus point this out in Mark 9:43-48?
6 Jesus reminds us that in the Gehenna outside Jerusalem there were also worms or maggots, not, of course, in the fire, but on decaying organic matter near the fire. These are, of course, not earthworms such as crawl through the ground and feed on human bodies buried in graves. They are like the worms from which King Herod Agrippa I died, according to these words of Acts 12:23: “Instantly the angel of Jehovah struck him, because he did not give the glory to God; and he became eaten up with worms and expired.” Using this same Greek word (skólex), Jesus said:
7 “If ever your hand makes you stumble, cut it off; it is finer for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go off into Gehenna, into the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot makes you stumble, cut it off; it is finer for you to enter into life lame than with two feet to be pitched into Gehenna. And if your eye makes you stumble, throw it away; it is finer for you to enter one-eyed into the kingdom of God than with two eyes to be pitched into Gehenna, where their maggot [skólex] does not die and the fire is not put out.”—Mark 9:43-48; Isa. 66:24.
8. Thus Gehenna was pictured as a place of what, and how does M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia speak about Gehenna?
8 So, if the dead body pitched into the Gehenna outside Jerusalem did not land in the fire mingled with sulphur, it would be consumed anyhow. How? By the maggots from the eggs that flies would lay in the decaying corpse. Gehenna was thus a place of total destruction or consumption, into which the dead bodies of those persons who were considered unworthy of being buried in a marked grave or memorial tomb were pitched. Concerning Gehenna, page 764 of Volume 3 of the Cyclopædia by M’Clintock and Strong says:
In consequence of these abominations the valley was polluted by Josiah (2 Kings 23:10); subsequently to which it became the common lay-stall of the city, where the dead bodies of criminals, and the carcasses of animals, and every other kind of filth was cast, and, according to late and somewhat questionable authorities, the combustible portion consumed with fire. From the depth and narrowness of the gorge, and, perhaps, its ever-burning fires, as well as from its being the receptacle of all sorts of putrefying matter, and all that defiled the holy city, it became in later times the image of the place of everlasting punishment, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched;” in which the Talmudists placed the mouth of Hell: “There are two palm-trees in the valley of Hinnom, between which a smoke ariseth . . . and this is the door of Gehenna.”a
WHAT IT SYMBOLIZES
9. (a) What did Jesus say about Gehenna in Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:4, 5? (b) When God destroys both body and soul, what results?
9 Regardless of what any reference authorities have to say regarding Gehenna, what did Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have to say about it? What did it mean for the person sentenced by God the Almighty to the symbolical Gehenna? Jesus plainly answered when he sent his twelve apostles out on missionary work and said: “And do not become fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be in fear of him that can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matt. 10:28) On another occasion Jesus said to a crowd of thousands: “Moreover, I say to you, my friends, Do not fear those who kill the body and after this are not able to do anything more. But I will indicate to you whom to fear: Fear him who after killing has authority to throw into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear this One.” (Luke 12:4, 5) When Almighty God destroys both body and soul of a human creature, what is left? There is complete destruction; and, because this destruction is everlasting, such destruction of human body and soul is an everlasting punishment. There is no resurrection out of such destruction.
10. What is to be understood by the “fire” of the symbolic Gehenna’s being an “everlasting fire”?
10 Jesus thus used Gehenna as a symbol of complete, endless destruction, just as fire is destructive. Because the destruction is everlasting, the fire of the symbolic Gehenna is said to be “everlasting fire.” This means that such a Gehenna will always exist; it will never give up those in it; it will never be emptied, never be wiped out as Adamic death and Haʹdes will be. (Rev. 20:13) Figuratively speaking, the symbolic Gehenna always burns and will always be available for executing any who rebel against God throughout everlasting time, all eternity.
11. Why is there no resurrection from the symbolic Gehenna?
11 Since the symbolic Gehenna is the place of everlasting destruction, Jesus correctly set a person’s entering into Gehenna as the opposite of one’s entering into life. Hence if anyone enters into the symbolic Gehenna, in which God destroys both body and soul, how can anyone have a resurrection to an opportunity for everlasting life in God’s heavenly kingdom or in Paradise restored here on earth under God’s kingdom? There is no resurrection from the symbolic Gehenna.
12, 13. (a) The uncontrolled tongue can inflame how many and spot up what? (b) Like Gehenna, what can it cause?
12 Because fiery Gehenna is destructive, the disciple James ties it in with the uncontrolled human tongue, in these words: “Well, [like the little fire setting aflame a great woodland] the tongue is a fire. The tongue is constituted a world of unrighteousness among our members, for it spots up all the body and sets the wheel of natural life aflame and it is set aflame by Gehenna.”—Jas. 3:6.
13 Hence, all the world of mankind, not one particular person, has to watch the tongue, for all the world is born in unrighteousness. The tongue, by its propaganda that spreads from tongue to tongue, can inflame a whole world of people and incite them to unrighteousness. It spots up not just the mouth in which it wags, but all the human body; so that, if one has a beautiful body but an uncontrolled tongue, it takes away from the fine impression made by the attractive body. This is especially so before God, because, as Jesus tells us, by our words we shall be declared righteous and by our words we shall be condemned. (Matt. 12:37) Like Gehenna, the tongue can cause destruction that is beyond repair.
14. To what can the tongue, when “set aflame by Gehenna,” cause one to be sentenced?
14 One’s whole round of living can be affected by fiery words that defile the speaker’s body, inflaming it to destructive action. James 3:8 well says: “But the tongue, not one of mankind can get it tamed. An unruly injurious thing, it is full of death-dealing poison.” The tongue, when “set aflame by Gehenna,” can cause the user to be sentenced by God to go to the symbolic Gehenna, as it denotes a bad heart condition.—See Psalm 5:9; Romans 3:13.
THE “LAND OF NO RETURN”
15. (a) How is what Gehenna stands for symbolized in Revelation? (b) How did fire and sulphur from heaven affect Sodom and Gomorrah?
15 In the last book of the Bible, A Revelation to John, the word “Gehenna” does not occur. However, what Gehenna stands for is there symbolized by “the fiery lake that burns with sulphur,” or, “the lake of fire and sulphur, “the lake of fire,” “the lake that burns with fire and sulphur.” (Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8) We know what the effect of fire mingled with sulphur is upon combustible things. In the days of Abraham and his nephew Lot, as Genesis 19:24 tells us, “then Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah.” How this affected Sodom and Gomorrah Jesus tells us, saying: “On the day that Lot came out of Sodom it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed them all.”—Luke 17:29.
16. (a) In Sodom’s case, how was a lake associated with fire and sulphur? (b) What was the temporary effect and the final effect of the fire and sulphur rained down on the people?
16 Moreover, Sodom was close to the Dead Sea or Sea of Salt. This is a big inland lake in which nothing alive exists; which fact adds to the thought of the complete deadness caused by the literal fire and sulphur that rained down upon the cities of that district. Thus, too, as in Revelation, we have a deadly lake associated with fire and sulphur (brimstone). The people upon whom the fire and sulphur rained may have been tormented for the time that they continued conscious, but the final effect of the fire and sulphur together was to destroy them.b This destruction preceded by torment is the thought conveyed in Revelation 14:10, 11, and also in Psalm 11:5, 6, where fire and sulphur are mentioned together, evidently in a symbolic sense.
17. What will be rained down upon the army of Gog of Magog, and what will be the effect of this?
17 Among the destructive forces that God will pour down upon the army of Gog of the land of Magog when it attacks Jehovah’s restored people, “fire and sulphur” are included, in Ezekiel 38:22. While these elements may torment and agonize the army of Gog for a while, they at last destroy the enemy army, killing them off. That this is the case is shown in the next chapter, in Ezekiel 39:11-20, which describes how the dead bodies of the army of Gog of Magog are disposed of down to the very last bone.
18. In Revelation 20:14, how is the difference between Haʹdes or Sheol and the lake of fire and sulphur shown?
18 From all the foregoing it is unmistakably evident that Haʹdes or Sheol is different from Gehenna and the “lake that burns with fire and sulphur.” Otherwise, how could Revelation 20:14 state: “Death and Haʹdes were hurled into the lake of fire”? This verse also shows the meaning of the “lake of fire,” saying: “This means the second death, the lake of fire.”
19. (a) Does the “second death” (“lake of fire”) deliver up those hurled into it? (b) Hence of what is Gehenna or the lake of fire and sulphur a symbol?
19 Thus the death that spread to all men by birth from Adam will be put to death in the “second death.” Death will be destroyed in the “second death” and will not be tormented there forever. Neither will Haʹdes be forever tormented in the “second death,” but it will be destroyed forever in this symbolic “lake of fire.” This “lake of fire” or “second death” never delivers up “death and Haʹdes” that are hurled into it. Hence Gehenna or the lake that burns with fire and sulphur is a Bible picture of eternal or absolute destruction from which there is no resurrection. That is why resurrected persons who have been given up by inherited death and by Haʹdes can later be “hurled into the lake of fire” and undergo the “second death,” because they do not get their names written on the scroll of life.—Rev. 20:15.
20. (a) Into what are the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” hurled, when, and for how long? (b) What is symbolized thereby?
20 According to Revelation 19:20, the symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are to be “hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur” during the coming “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” This occurs just before the Devil, Satan, and his demons are bound and cast into the abyss for the thousand years of Christ’s reign. At the end of the thousand years the symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are still in that symbolic “lake of fire and sulphur” and are not released from it even when Satan and his demons are released from the abyss to try to mislead mankind. The symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are never released from that place of destruction, “the second death,” but they are still there when they are joined by all those who are later on hurled into the “lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:10, 15) Thus in the coming “war of the great day” at Armageddon the symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are to be destroyed for all time, with no hope of resurrection ever.
21. (a) Where is Satan the Devil hurled after his brief release from the abyss, and how is Hebrews 2:14 thus completely fulfilled? (b) How is his place of everlasting punishment symbolized in Matthew 25:41?
21 At the end of the thousand years of Christ’s successful rule over redeemed mankind, Satan and his demons will be released from the abyss. Thus, in effect, that abyss will cease to exist, being emptied of them. During their little time of freedom they try to mislead into destruction as many of the earthly subjects of God’s kingdom as they can. After that they are hurled into the “second death,” where the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” have been all this time. (Rev. 20:1-3, 7-10) In this way it is that Jehovah God works out his glorious purpose through his self-sacrificing Son Jesus Christ, “that through his death he might bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil.” (Heb. 2:14) This punishment of “everlasting destruction” is what is symbolized by the “everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels,” to which also the cursed goatish people of the earth will be sent at Armageddon, according to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-33, 41, 46.
UNDESERVING OF RESURRECTION
22, 23. (a) In what terms did Jesus warn the Jewish religious leaders, but with what effect? (b) How did Stephen’s words to the Jerusalem Sanhedrin show whether those judges had heeded Jesus’ warning?
22 Nineteen centuries ago, in his days as a man on earth, Jesus Christ warned the Jews of that generation of the danger of their going into everlasting destruction symbolized by Gehenna. He told the hypocritical religious leaders of the Jews that they made the Gentile people whom they proselytized a “subject for Gehenna twice as much so as yourselves.” He called the hypocritical Jewish scribes and Pharisees serpents and offspring of vipers, thus identifying them as children of Satan the Devil the “original Serpent.” Then he asked how they could “flee from the judgment of Gehenna” when they willfully kept on opposing God’s kingdom and the preachers of that kingdom. (Matt. 23:13-15, 29-36) They kept on in the lying, murderous deeds of their “father the Devil.” (John 8:44) And just before they killed Stephen, “a man full of faith and holy spirit,” he said to the Jewish judges in the courtroom:
23 “Obstinate men and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you are always resisting the holy spirit; as your forefathers did, so you do. Which one of the prophets did your forefathers not persecute? Yes, they killed those who made announcement in advance concerning the coming of the righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, you who received the Law as transmitted by angels but have not kept it.”—Acts 6:5; 7:51-60.
24. (a) Into what did the unrepentant Jewish religious leaders go at death, and with what possibility of resurrection? (b) Who went there with them, according to Matthew 15:12-14?
24 Any of such Jewish religious leaders as did not repent of this course of resisting the holy spirit and of opposing God’s Messianic kingdom and of persecuting the Kingdom preachers did not “flee from the judgment of Gehenna.” At their death, whenever this occurred, they went into Gehenna. For this reason they will have no resurrection on earth under God’s kingdom. They may have been honored with solemn funeral rites but they did not go to Haʹdes or Sheol. From God they suffered the “judgment of Gehenna.” They were “blind guides,” and the religiously blinded Jews and proselytes who followed these hypocritical blind guides in such a course ended up with them in Gehenna. Both guides and guided ones “will fall into the pit,” said Jesus in Matthew 15:12-14. They go into “second death,” and Christ’s sacrifice does not procure for them a resurrection from the dead. He did not die for those who go to Gehenna.—Matt. 23:16, 17, 19, 24, 26.
25, 26. (a) What question arises as to the entire Jewish generation throughout the earth in that day? (b) According to Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:39-42, by whom would that generation be condemned?
25 What about that generation of Jews as a whole, scattered throughout the then known inhabited earth, in that first century of our Common Era? Because of not becoming Christians with a heavenly hope, did they all come under a Jewish community responsibility that doomed them to Gehenna at death, making them all undeserving of a resurrection? To help us to the right answer, Jesus made a comparison of that Jewish generation with others and referred to the prophet Jonah and the queen of Sheba, saying:
26 “A wicked and adulterous generation keeps on seeking for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Men of Nineveh will rise up [anastesontai] in the judgment [krisis] with this generation and will condemn it; because they repented at what Jonah preached, but, look! something more than Jonah is here. The queen of the south will be raised up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, but, look! something more than Solomon is here.”—Matt. 12:39-42; Luke 11:29-32.
27. For the Assyrian Ninevites to do this, what will they have to have, agreeably to other scriptures?
27 For the “men of Nineveh” to rise up or come forward in the judgment as witnesses it will be necessary for them to have a resurrection from the dead. Nineveh was the royal capital of ancient Assyria. We remember that Ezekiel 32:21, 22 reveals to us that it is in Sheol or Haʹdes “where Assyria and all her congregation are. His burial places are round about him.” Inasmuch as Haʹdes or Sheol will give up all the dead people in it on the day of judgment (Rev. 20:11-15), we can appreciate that this will mean a resurrection of the dead Ninevites from their burial places on earth during the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ.
28. Would the Ninevites do such condemning without the resurrection of that generation of Jews, and how would they condemn these?
28 Examining the language of Jesus, we note that he said that the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment “with this generation,” not against this generation. This indicates that not all the Jews of that generation in the days of Jesus and his apostles were sentenced with the “judgment of Gehenna” at their death. Under God’s mercy they went to Haʹdes or Sheol, despite the fact that they did not die Christian converts. They will be resurrected the same as the Assyrians and Ninevites will be, to stand alongside one another in the judgment before the “great white throne.” Then by their mere conduct long ago in Jonah’s day those Ninevites of the eighth century before our Common Era will condemn those Jews of Jesus’ day. Why? Because the Assyrian Ninevites repented at the preaching by Jehovah’s prophet Jonah, although they did not become Jewish proselytes, whereas the Jews did not repent at the preaching of Jesus Christ, who was far greater and more important than Jonah.
29. (a) Will the condemning by the Ninevites mean the sentencing of the Jews? (b) How will it be proved whether they came forth in a resurrection to adverse judgment or not?
29 The Ninevites will thus condemn the Jews of that generation for their unbelief and hardheartedness, but they will not sentence such Jews to Gehenna. Only the heavenly Judge, Jehovah God, and his Deputy Jesus Christ, can do that. By what the Jews of that condemned generation do on earth during the remaining years of the millennial reign of Christ, they will prove one of two things. What? Whether they deserve to be sentenced to Gehenna or the “lake of fire,” “the second death,” or deserve to have their names entered on the “scroll of life.” They will thus have to prove whether they came forth from Haʹdes or Sheol to a resurrection of life or to a resurrection of adverse judgment.—John 5:28, 29.
30. (a) By whom else will a condemnation come upon that Jewish generation? (b) To that end what will the queen of Sheba have to have?
30 Similar condemnation of those Jews of Jesus’ day will come from another quarter besides that of the men of Assyrian Nineveh, namely, from the “queen of the south.” According to 1 Kings 10:1-10 and; 2 Chronicles 9:1-9, she was the queen of Sheba. Her country, Sheba or the land of the Sabaeans, lay over a thousand miles to the south of Jerusalem, in southwest Arabia, probably in the eastern area of what is today known as Yemen. Her land or people is not named in Ezekiel, chapters 31 and 32, among those nations whose dead are declared to be in Sheol or Haʹdes, but her land was in that general land area. This queen of the south or of Sheba will “be raised up in the judgment with [not, against] this generation.” This will require a resurrection of her, and it is not reasonable to think that she will be the only one of her people to rise up in that judgment before the “great white throne” during the thousand years of Christ’s reign. Like those others whom Ezekiel named, the queen of the south and her people are in Sheol or Haʹdes and will therefore have a resurrection.
31. (a) Why was the queen of the south’s conduct condemnatory of the Jewish generation of Jesus’ days? (b) How should this affect them on Judgment Day?
31 Among her resurrected people the queen in particular will condemn the Jewish generation of Jesus’ day, by her conduct a thousand years before Jesus’ day. She came all that distance by the transportation of that time to hear the wisdom of King Solomon and to behold his works at Jerusalem; and as a result she acknowledged the God of King Solomon. But Jesus Christ was far greater and more important than King Solomon; and yet the Jewish generation of Jesus’ day, for the most part, would not listen to his heavenly wisdom. So, on the judgment day during Christ’s reign, the contrast between them and the queen of the south will be something additional to humiliate them. This ought to help them to be obedient to the millennial kingdom of the Greater Solomon.
32. What question arises as to King Solomon himself, and how do 1 Kings 11:43 and; 2 Chronicles 9:31 throw light upon the matter?
32 The queen of Sheba will be favored with a resurrection from Sheol or Haʹdes, but what about King Solomon whom she visited? His father David is mentioned in Hebrews 11:32 as being among the approved ancient witnesses of Jehovah, but Solomon, the wisest king of ancient times and the writer of three Bible books, is not mentioned there. Some time after the queen of Sheba visited him, he yielded to the influence of his hundreds of wives and concubines and fell away to the foolish worship of pagan idols. (1 Ki. 11:1-8; Neh. 13:25, 26; Rom. 1:25) However, both 1 Kings 11:43 and; 2 Chronicles 9:31 say that “Solomon lay down with his forefathers” and was buried “in the city of David his father.” So, since Solomon lay down to sleep in death with his forefathers, including David, that puts him in Sheol or Haʹdes, with the prospect of being brought forth therefrom under the kingdom of the Greater Solomon.—Compare Deuteronomy 31:16; 2 Samuel 7:12; 1 Kings 1:21; 2 Kings 20:21.
[Footnotes]
On page 18 of the Alphabetical Appendix to the New Testament of The Emphatic Diaglott by Benjamin Wilson we read:
“GEHENNA, the Greek word translated hell in the common version, occurs 12 times. It is the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew words which are translated, ‘The valley of Hinnom.’ This valley was also called Tophet, a detestation, an abomination. Into this place were cast all kinds of filth, with the carcasses of beasts, and the unburied bodies of criminals who had been executed. Continual fires were kept to consume these. . . . Gehenna, then, as occurring in the New Testament, symbolizes death and utter destruction, but in no place signifies a place of eternal torment.”
Under HINNOM the Cyclopædia by M’Clintock and Strong says:
“We learn from Josephus that the last terrible struggle between the Jews and Romans took place here (War, VI, 8, 5), and here, too, it appears the dead bodies were thrown out of the city after the siege (V, 12, 7). . . . Most commentators follow Buxtorf, Lightfoot, and others, in asserting that perpetual fires were kept up for the consumption of the bodies of criminals, carcasses of animals, and whatever else was combustible; but the combined authorities usually brought forward in support of this idea appear insufficient. . . . ”—Volume 4 (edition of 1891), page 266.
Since the elements making up the human body are over 90 percent water, it would require a fire with volcanic heat, a fire reaching a temperature of from 3000 to 5000 degrees Fahrenheit, to destroy it. Thus we can appreciate why sulphur (brimstone) was added to the fires burning in the Gehenna outside the walls of ancient Jerusalem in order to speed up and effect as far as possible the total destruction of the dead bodies pitched into it.
Dr. Wilton Krogman, professor of physical anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has said that he has watched a body in a crematorium burn at 2000 degrees Fahrenheit for more than eight hours, burning under the best possible conditions as regards heat and combustion, everything being controlled; but at the end of that time he saw scarcely a bone that was not still present and altogether recognizable as a human bone. True, it was calcined, but it had not become an ash or powder. It was only at more than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit that he saw a bone turn liquid and run and become volatile.—See the article “The Baffling Burning Death,” by Allan W. Eckert, in the magazine entitled “True The Man’s Magazine,” as of May 1964, pages 33, 105-112.
A Universal Court Case
A Universal Court Case
DID you know that there is a universal court case now being tried? that witnesses are being called and arguments being heard? In this case almost everyone is interested, though he may not understand all the issues thoroughly; and everyone is involved, whether he knows it or not. Everyone is a witness in this case, for one side or the other. The question at issue is: Is there a true God who has the power and the willingness to deliver mankind from their present distressful and seemingly inextricable condition and bring about the right kind of government?
…