The Watchtower, September 15, 1966

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The Watchtower — September 15, 1966

Source: jw.org

Contents

There Is Much for Which to Be Grateful

Is the World Bloodguilty Before God?

Jehovah’s Witnesses Endure for His Sovereign Godship

Jehovah Taunted by Babylonish Hostility Against Anointed Witnesses

A Family Moves to Tropical West Africa

Youths, Parents and the Christian Congregation

Questions From Readers

The Bible—“Real People and Real Events”

Announcements

There Is Much for Which to Be Grateful

TRULY, we are living in an era when complaints and causes of complaint are multiplying, and when multitudes are unthankful just as the apostle Paul foretold for these critical times. (2 Tim. 3:1, 2) Yet there is still much for which we can all be grateful, many gifts that come to us daily, things that are really satisfying and refreshing as long as we do not permit the spirit of selfishness and ingratitude to creep in and take control of our thinking.

The fact that many of the gifts that come to us each day are shared with all others of humankind is no reason to view them as though they were due us. All of God’s provisions for imperfect, sinful creatures should be viewed as undeserved kindnesses, and duly acknowledged as such. There are, for example, the sun and the rain that Jehovah God sends alike upon those who love him and those who deny him; also, the air we breathe and the fruits of the ground, all made available by a loving Creator.—Matt. 5:45; 2 Cor. 9:10.

How wonderful to be able to step out into the warmth of the sunshine and then later retreat into the cool shade of trees, or step from stuffy indoors into the fresh air outside! We have all enjoyed such experiences, not once but many times. But, are we grateful to God for them?

Think of the many things that delight the eye, with rest on one hand, and with stimulation on the other. The green velvet of a grassy slope or the colorful display of the sunset. Perhaps you have stretched out on the grass in some quiet glade and taken note of the way the foliage filters the sunlight with a sort of dappling effect. Then, too, there is the sight of snow-white clouds drifting lazily across the blue sky. You may even have seen the effects of a light wind drawing patterns on a field of uncut grain. How beautiful all these sights! Surely they should call forth thanksgiving to the One who made them all possible!

Sounds, too, can be so delightful, if we but give them attention. Not the raucous, artificial noises of industry, but the gay laughter of children at play, the rustle of leaves in the forest, the murmur of a brook, the patter of rain on the roof, the soft whisper of wavelets upon the beach, the chirp of a cricket, the wild laugh of a loon on some remote lake. All these and a multitude of other sounds communicate to the listener a variety of pleasant moods. Together with the gift of hearing, they are all generous provisions of Jehovah for our listening pleasure.

And is it not a fine thing that we have been equipped with a taste mechanism with which we can delight in all the subtle flavors of food? How different had we been made sensationless as to taste! Mealtime then would be just like stoking a furnace. Instead, the taste buds on our tongue detect and communicate to the mind a variety of sensations that so refresh and satisfy the physical body. Surely there is every reason to offer thanks to the Provider, not only for the things we eat, but also for the pleasure of eating he has made possible for us!

In the field of human relations we find many causes for gratitude. Is it not a grand thing that the Creator did not stamp out each human creature in the same mold, with the same appearance and the same personality? Instead, we note that each has his characteristic personality, never intended to be lost in the drab uniformity of a regimented mass. Genuine gratitude to the Creator on this score is demonstrated by those who take into account personality differences, and who do not expect others to conform to their own personal view in every matter.

In the home a grateful spirit can produce great happiness. When a husband comes home from work he does not have to note immediately the things his wife has failed to accomplish. Surely it is much more conducive to peace and relaxation in the home when he expresses gratitude and commendation for the things she has done, however small they may be! And she will be encouraged to do more. Certainly for wife and children a smile or some happy words are so much more upbuilding than a frown or a grunt.

Likewise with the wife. Is it not far better to offer the home-coming husband a warm, pleasant greeting, than to launch immediately into a long story about the day’s reverses and troubles? Surely the wife who appreciates her husband wants him to be glad to get home. Then certainly she will not pile up problems on top of those with which he has had to contend during the day. Why not first speak to him about the good things of the day?

Parents can also be grateful for children. Why view them as just a nuisance to be tolerated, when they are, in fact, an inheritance from Jehovah? (Ps. 127:3) Gratitude for such a legacy is demonstrated by those who rear and train their children with love, striving to inculcate in them also the spirit of gratitude. So, at mealtime for instance, the head of the household will give an excellent example to the children in expressing appreciation for the food served, even when some part of the meal is not up to his expectation. Complaints and sharp criticisms will only hurt, whereas expressions of appreciation and gratitude spur to better efforts.

Rather than permitting the mind to dwell upon the petty disappointments, the mistakes of others, the failure of plans, how satisfying and exhilarating to ponder the good and pleasant things that surround us and make some expression about them! Let us not put gratitude into a straitjacket by waiting to express it only when someone does us some special favor. Acknowledge the small services too. Be generous with commendation.

Truly, there is much for which we can be grateful even amid this selfish system of things. The grateful spirit, properly cultivated, will help us avoid the negative, the complaining and the critical attitudes and bring us great happiness and satisfaction in life.

Is the World Bloodguilty Before God?

THERE are three ways of becoming bloodguilty before God. One of them is by committing murder, bloodshed. (Gen. 9:5, 6) Another is by drinking or eating blood, or by improper use of it. (Gen. 9:4; Acts 15:20, 29) The third way is by failing or refusing to warn those who we know are in danger of losing their lives through taking a course of action against God and his Word.—Acts 20:26, 27.

In God’s law covenant with Israel the penalty for drinking blood was death. (Lev. 17:10, 14) On the other hand, water is essential for life. If, then, the sources of drinking water were turned into blood it would mean death for the drinkers thereof.

This very thing happens, symbolically, in the third plague of Revelation, chapter 16. God uses the illustration to reveal the state of affairs as regards his principle on blood and what results to mankind from it. We read: “And the third [angel] poured out his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of the waters. And they became blood.” (Rev. 16:4) This plague reminds us of the first plague that came upon ancient Egypt by means of God’s prophet Moses. Because of it the Egyptians’ sources of water, the Nile River, the reedy pools and the impounded waters of the land became blood, which the Egyptians could not drink and in which the fish died and stank. (Ex. 7:14-25) This bowl, like the other six of Revelation, chapter 16, was poured out from the heavens and down into the earth, so it could not affect the heavens, where Jehovah, the Source of living waters, resides. Therefore, it could not affect God’s spiritual water supplies to his true worshipers. Jehovah being the source of life, the waters he provides sustain life. (Ps. 36:9; Jer. 2:13; 17:13) What then are the water fountains and rivers of this earth that are turned to blood?

WHAT THE “FOUNTAINS” AND “RIVERS” ARE

Just as servants of Jehovah, true Christians, look to Jehovah through Christ Jesus for life, and just as he supplies them with His Word, which is pure, like living waters, so the people of this old system of things have sources to which they look for life. They have bypassed the Bible to a great extent because of their religious clergy and have preferred to look to water from other sources, from worldly political, commercial and religious systems. Particularly have the people looked to religious systems because they have felt that these contained the truth and the way to life, but actually they have been greatly deceived. The religious systems, instead of teaching the Bible, have taught traditions, performed ceremonial rites and upheld many conflicting doctrines that blaspheme God. They have made these appear to contain refreshing, life-giving water. They have demanded that their flocks accept their doctrines in blind credulity instead of with intelligent faith based on inspired Scripture.

Those who claim to serve God and who at the same time go to these worldly sources for waters of life are like the apostate Israelites who preferred to drink from the Nile River along which Egypt was located and from the Euphrates River along which Assyria was situated. (Jer. 2:17-19) Those Jews “rejected the waters of the Shiloah that are going gently,” which waters correspond with the “river the streams of which make the city of God rejoice, the holiest grand tabernacle of the Most High.”—Isa. 8:6, 7; Ps. 46:4.

Besides the false doctrines and the theories and teachings of philosophy and ideas from human, earthly origins, these worldly “rivers” and “fountains” have gushed forth programs, plans and arrangements for solving mankind’s problems. By drinking from these the people have been led into an activity contrary to God’s Word and have come under the condemnation of his laws. Some have not willfully and deliberately done so, but share community responsibility for supporting the spilling of blood in wars. They have been led to use blood wrongly in other ways, some by drinking it, others by transfusions and variously misusing it. They have had and are having opportunity to know God’s requirements, for they have heard the good news of God’s kingdom established in the heavens preached since 1919 by Jehovah’s witnesses. If they listen and repent of this course they can get forgiveness and life-giving waters from God. But the clergy of Christendom, Jewry and pagandom have united in supporting and advocating misuse of blood. At the same time they have ignored Jehovah, the great Fountain of life, his provision through Christ’s ransom and his Messianic kingdom for imparting life to believing, obedient mankind. Moreover, they have rejected and opposed the good news, thereby blocking others from hearing, bringing bloodguilt upon them in this way.

WHY WATERS BECOME BLOOD

John hears the angel’s expression of gratification over the work done: “And I heard the angel over the waters say: ‘You, the One who is and who was, the loyal One, are righteous, because you have rendered these decisions, because they poured out the blood of holy ones and of prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.’” (Rev. 16:5, 6) So God is entirely just in dealing with them in this way. Those drinking from the contaminated worldly sources have been led into fighting against God’s holy ones and prophets, Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. Especially have they been egged on to do so by Babylon the Great, the false religious empire over the peoples of earth. (Rev. 17:6, 18) Jehovah cannot approve of their blood-spilling course of action. He is loyal to his faithful witnesses and is righteous in executing his judicial decision upon those who violently pour out the blood of his servants. God judges them this way only after they show themselves unworthy of life and fully deserving of letting their drink be blood, which means that their punishment is death.

Now an unexpected and amazing thing happens: “And I heard the altar say: ‘Yes, Jehovah God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judicial decisions.’” (Rev. 16:7) What is the “altar”? The altar in the tent of meeting in Israel was God’s arrangement upon which sacrifices were to be offered to him. The “altar” is God’s symbolic altar-like arrangement for Jesus’ sacrifice. God provided his Son as a sacrifice, arranged for him to come to earth as a man, die here, be resurrected and appear in heaven with the value of his sacrifice to buy life rights for sinful mankind. Such arrangement was undeserved kindness on God’s part. Faithful footstep followers of Jesus Christ, his spiritual brothers, have followed closely in his steps. (1 Pet. 2:21) All of them die his kind of death, that is, as a sacrifice, not that their shed blood has any part in sin atonement, but that they might experience Jesus’ kind of resurrection. Many have been literally martyred by those who drink from the fountains and water sources of this world.

How does the altar “speak”? According to Revelation 6:9, 10, the altar has underneath it the souls or lives of those “slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work that they used to have.” Their souls or lives resided in their blood, and their blood was poured out at the base of the altar. That is why their souls are pictured as being down there and crying out for divine vengeance in the way that martyred Abel’s blood cried out from the ground. (Gen. 4:8-11; Lev. 17:11-14) So the altar of sacrifice symbolically speaks or has something to say about this judgment and it fully agrees, because of the many things it has witnessed, that Jehovah is true and righteous when he gives death-dealing blood to the worldly opposers of his people.

DECLARING THE THIRD PLAGUE

The third plague is very tormenting and painful to those who have drunk from the worldly water sources, for the drink has not really been satisfying to them and it has caused much death all around them. In order that many who may feel the plague and who desire life-giving waters to drink may do so, Jehovah’s witnesses have been busy proclaiming the meaning of this third plague to the best of their ability. At Columbus, Ohio, at a convention of Jehovah’s witnesses on July 25, 1924, an outspoken declaration in this connection was made in a resolution entitled “Indictment.” Two days after the resolution was adopted, namely, on Sunday, July 27, the president of the Watch Tower Society gave the public address entitled “Civilization Doomed” to an audience of about 35,000, emphasizing these facts. In harmony with the angelic pouring out of the third bowl the speaker said:

“Jesus Christ is the great Prince of Peace. He said: ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ He taught his disciples and his followers to refrain completely from the use of carnal weapons. Yet the clergy, who claim to be teachers of his doctrines, have sanctified war and made it a holy thing. They have delighted to have their portraits and statues exhibited side by side with those of bloody warriors. They have hailed the greatest warriors as the greatest heroes of all time. [Like Constantine and Charlemagne]

“ . . . The nations are all mustering their forces for the great conflict foretold; for God purposes to overthrow Satan’s organization through his beloved Son, Christ Jesus. . . . ”

In further warning mankind that they are bloodguilty by being under the influence of the false religious system of Babylon the Great, the book entitled “Creation,” published in 1927 by the Watch Tower Society, said, on page 103, under the subheading “Everlasting Covenant”:

This covenant is the first expression of God’s will concerning the sacredness of human life. The will of God is his law. All life proceeds from Jehovah; and since no one can give life to another except by Jehovah’s arrangement, no one has a right to take away life except by Jehovah’s permission. After the terms of this covenant the law that must for ever govern the human race is that no man can take the life of another with impunity. . . .

. . . The terms of the everlasting covenant have been broken by every people and every nation of earth, and some day God will require at the hands of the responsible ones a full account thereof.

The clergy claim to be the representatives of the Lord, and assume to teach his Word; yet they have openly advocated the killing of human beings in war without just cause or excuse.

REACTION TO PROCLAMATION ABOUT PLAGUE

Not having learned the lesson not to trust in worldly sources for plans, schemes and propaganda, the world went on heedless of these warnings from Jehovah’s witnesses. Under German Nazism and Roman Fascism the blood of thousands of Jehovah’s witnesses was poured out as martyrs in the heart of Christendom. Then World War II came on with the greatest destruction of human life to date. (Rev. 12:13-16) Because so many were wounded, blood transfusions increased.

To clarify thoroughly what is God’s will on use of blood, Jehovah’s witnesses made a special Scriptural study, the results of which appeared in the July 1, 1945, issue of The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. The leading article of this issue discussed Psalm 16. On pages 198-201 it discussed the attitude of King David toward taking the blood of others into his human system when he said, in Psalm 16:4 (AV): “Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.” This article quoted page 113 of Volume 4 of The Encyclopedia Americana (1929 edition), which said:

Transfusion of blood dates as far back as the time of the ancient Egyptians. The earliest reported case is that practiced on Pope Innocent VIII in 1492. The operation cost the lives of three youths and the Pontiff’s life was not saved.

Disregarding what was clearly God’s law, medical men used transfusions on a mass scale during the Korean War, and now in Vietnam, and blood is used in some foods and other products. In fact, blood, which contains the life of the creature and which belongs to God, has been misused by men as though the life belonged to them. The religions of Christendom and Jewry completely reject what Jehovah’s witnesses clearly show is God’s viewpoint on blood. They make all kinds of excuses nullifying God’s law, to give a clean appearance to those who violate it. Until now the controversy rages, many of Jehovah’s witnesses suffering great persecution because they refuse to take blood in any form. They are often denied medical and surgical help. In some cases, through court orders, transfusions have been forced on them. Jehovah takes notice of all these atrocities committed against his people.

Jehovah’s witnesses are concerned primarily with what God’s law is on blood, not the medical aspect. However, it is true that a great spread of diseases, such as hepatitis, syphilis and malaria, and many deaths have resulted from the practice of transfusions—evidence of the practical wisdom of God’s law. To help reasonable persons to give full consideration to this vital subject, Jehovah’s witnesses circulate a 64-page booklet entitled “Blood, Medicine and the Law of God,” which was released on June 22, 1961, at the international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Yankee Stadium, New York city. It provides a well-documented treatment of the subject, highlighting what God’s Word says about it. If you want to avoid being bloodguilty with the world and becoming as the worldly ones are, “drunk with their own blood,” you will listen to the Source of the true waters of life and get away from the plague that is on all those drinking from the bloody, worldly fountains and rivers.—Isa. 49:26.

For a discussion of the first and second plagues of Revelation, chapter 16, see the two preceding issues of this magazine. Plagues four to seven will be discussed in succeeding issues, or see the book “Babylon the Great Has Fallen!” God’s Kingdom Rules! by Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Brooklyn, New York.

Jehovah’s Witnesses Endure for His Sovereign Godship

“Look! We pronounce happy those who have endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome Jehovah gave.”—Jas. 5:11.

1, 2. (a) How and why does hostility due to the Godship issue continue into our time? (b) What does it mean that Babylon the Great fell in 1919, and how does this enable a rescue work to take place?

JESUS CHRIST, as the Greater Job (or “object of hostility”) of his day, proved Satan’s accusation involving Jehovah’s universal Sovereign Godship as utterly false. He had withstood all the Babylonish religious pressures brought against him. Victoriously Jesus endured and his outcome was a happy one at the hands of the true Sovereign God, Jehovah. The Devil, wanting still more of an answer to his challenge against Jehovah, has kept up a campaign of hostility and false accusation against Jesus’ true anointed footstep followers down through the centuries.

2 In fact, at the very time that Christ Jesus was being enthroned as King of the heavenly kingdom in 1914 (Dan. 7:13, 14), Satan was permitted to enforce a grueling ‘Babylonish-like captivity’ upon the anointed remnant on earth from 1914 to 1919.a The Kingdom’s establishment in 1914 immediately brought war between its enthroned King, Christ Jesus, called Michael, and the opposer Satan with his wicked angels. This resulted in Satan’s complete defeat by 1918, when he and his wicked forces were ejected from the heavenly realm to be cast downward into the vicinity of the earth. (Rev. 12:7-10) Like kings Darius and Cyrus of old, the conquerors of ancient Babylon, the “kings from the rising of the sun,” Jehovah God and Christ Jesus, followed up the heavenly victory by taking adverse judgment action against Satan’s earthly masterpiece of false religion, Babylon the Great. (Rev. 16:12) Without a fight Christ Jesus as the Greater Cyrus gained the upper hand over Babylon the Great. This meant bringing about her encirclement, her fall from seeming heavenly favor, her initial fall into Christ’s superior hands of surveillance. (Rev. 14:8; 18:2) The ensuing period of surveillance continues, pending Babylon the Great’s complete destruction later at Jehovah’s time of choosing. (Rev. 17:15-18) During this mercifully extended time of encirclement from 1919 onward, Christ Jesus has painstakingly and lovingly delivered the true Christian remnant out of the control of their earlier Babylonish captors. (Rev. 18:4) Actually the merciful process of delivering continues to this very time of 1966 whereby a vast crowd of other lovers of righteousness are rescued from Babylon the Great. (Rev. 7:9, 14) After his being thrust out of heaven Satan now finds himself a ‘stool for Christ’s feet,’ a somewhat restrained “god” of a Babylon the Great under Christ’s encirclement. (Ps. 110:1, 2; 2 Cor. 4:4) Nevertheless, Satan is permitted since 1919 to continue his heat of Babylonish hostility not only to reproach the anointed remnant of Christ’s followers but also to reproach the many others who now flee Babylon to share as refugees in championing Jehovah’s Sovereign Godship.—Rev. 12:13-17.

3. Apply Proverbs 27:11 to the situation today.

3 So, as in the case of ancient Job and as experienced by the Greater Job, Jesus Christ, the modern Job-like group of Christian witnesses of Jehovah has had to furnish God an answer for Satan all these years even after Satan’s fall from heaven, that Satan may have no grounds for reproaching Jehovah in their case. Their heavenly Father Jehovah now says to them: “Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice, that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.”—Prov. 27:11.

BABYLONISH APOSTASY OF CHRISTENDOM

4, 5. (a) Who are the “object of hostility” today, and why? (b) What two-pronged campaign of apostasy developed, and from what source?

4 Our study of the fulfillment of the prophetic drama of Job now shifts from Jesus’ day to that of this twentieth century. The faithful anointed ones, being footstep followers of Jesus, as a group become the modern Job, the major “object of hostility.” As jointly persecuted ones along with Jesus they have suffered as did he for holding fast their integrity to the true God, Jehovah, and for withstanding all manner of Babylonish religious hostility. (John 15:20) A brief historical sketch of Jehovah’s anointed witnesses bears out all this very vividly as background information. (See Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, published in 1959, for further details.)

5 After the death of the last of the apostles at the turn of time into the second century C.E., growing numbers of those who practiced the true Christian religion defected or became apostate. Subtly the old enemy Satan was out to defile the true worship of Jehovah by means of a two-pronged campaign. Firstly, by means of introducing untheocratic forms of church government he would defile the original clean temple structure of organization as set by Jesus Christ. (Eph. 2:19-22) Secondly, by means of introducing pagan teachings and pagan holiday celebrations he would defile the right public declarations or ‘sacrifices of praise’ (Heb. 13:15) offered by the temple class of anointed Christians. All this apostasy stemmed from the same general Babylonish source as did the influences that had produced apostate Judaism in the centuries before Jesus’ day. Babylonized Hellenism again was the force used by Satan to inundate and overwhelm an increasing number of those who claimed to be Christians.

6. Present some wrong practices that began to be accepted.

6 Gradually some of the overseers and elders of the congregations were induced to consider themselves as rulers over the flock. Thus in time a clergy class began to dominate over a laity class, quite contrary to Jesus’ set order: “One [Christ] is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers.” (Matt. 23:8) Pagan holidays such as Christmas and Easter came to be celebrated festivals. Birthdays of secular rulers became honored. Sometime in the third century the divine name, Jehovah, was taken out of all copies of the sacred Greek Scriptures including that of the Greek Septuagint.b The title Lord (kýrios) was substituted for the personal name Jehovah. As may be remembered, the apostatized Jews had done the very same thing after their Babylonish captivity of the sixth century B.C.E. At that time they followed the custom of the Babylonians, who no longer called their chief god Marduk by his personal name but came to prefer the title Bel (Master or Lord) instead. This made it possible for the general title Bel to become more acceptable to the other religiously sensitive peoples.

7. (a) Name some Babylonish-originated doctrines that crept in. (b) What happened to the “weeds” and “wheat” mentioned in Jesus’ illustration? (c) What is the “man of lawlessness” mentioned by Paul? Describe its rise.

7 The Babylonish-originated doctrine of the immortality of the soul likewise crept in through pagan Greek religious influence. In this way also the Greek (Hellenistic) conception of hades or hell as a place of conscious torment for the souls of the wicked became an unbiblical matter of belief. Exactly in harmony with Jesus’ prophecy the “weeds” or apostate, imitation Christians with their “sibboleth” (Judg. 12:6) teachings of Babylonish Christianity began to obscure from historical view the true “wheat” or anointed ones with their “shibboleth” teachings of true Christianity. (Matt. 13:24-30) Paul confirms this prophesied rise of organized apostasy by adding that a powerful “man of lawlessness” would develop to be “set in opposition” and to sit “down in the temple of The God.” (2 Thess. 2:3-8) By 325 C.E. this “man of lawlessness” class of apostate leaders came to be recognized by pagan Rome under Emperor Constantine as religious rulers of a new Roman state religion, a fusion of Christian apostasy with Roman paganism. What is now known as Christendom came into being to become the dominant part of Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion. From that time the “man of lawlessness” class has been the collective group of Christendom’s clergy from its many sects that had at that time become wholly Babylonized as an integral part of Babylon the Great. Thus in the sixteen centuries that have followed 325 C.E. the clergy of Christendom have dominated the world stage of false religion and as the “man of lawlessness” have cultivated symbolic “weeds” or false Christians.

WHEATLIKE CHRISTIANS REAPPEAR

8. How did the wheatlike Christians reappear?

8 True to the same above prophecy of Jesus, the “wheat” or true Christians did again become apparent historically to stand apart from the “weeds” or apostates as the time of the “harvest” approached at the “conclusion of a system of things.” (Matt. 13:37-43) So it turned out to be after the 1870’s that a small group of sincere, anointed ones came together to form eventually the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society under the presidency of Charles Taze Russell. Those anointed ones later embraced the name “Jehovah’s witnesses.” To this day in 1966 they appear as such Christian witnesses on the world stage.

9. Present the false and then the clarified understanding as to certain basic teachings.

9 Early this group of anointed ones cleared away many of the false Babylonish beliefs that had encumbered their Christian way. Some of the clarifications were that man does not have an immortal soul but that man is a living soul (Gen. 2:7); that Christ Jesus the Ransomer was not half man and half God but that he was completely human (1 Tim. 2:5, 6; 1 John 4:2, 3); that in the resurrection there is no “resurrection of the body” but a resurrection of the dead “soul” or individual (John 5:25-28); that there is no such mystery as a “trinity” but that Jehovah is supreme and exclusive in his Sovereign Godship. (1 Cor. 8:4-6) They turned ‘the hose on hell’ to put out the false fires of Hellenistic teachings that the wicked are being roasted in a hades or hell.c (Acts 2:31) In time the very name Jehovah was restored for use at their congregational meetings, reappeared in their Biblical publications and was even restored 7,198 times in their New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.d

HOSTILITY FROM THE SECTARIAN CLERGY

10, 11. (a) Who today are prefigured by Job’s three false companions? (b) How have some religious writers expressed themselves about Jehovah’s witnesses?

10 Right from the 1880’s this Job group of gathering anointed ones drew fire of religious hostility from the “man of lawlessness” class, Christendom’s clergy now divided into numerous sects. So these Job-like anointed ones came to have “false companions” to argue against them even as did the ancient Job with his three and Jesus with the religious sectarian pressure groups. Again, “three” in being a number indicating emphasis well stresses the all-out, united opposition that Christendom’s sectarian clergy have been hurling against the modern Job-like ones. It is a matter of history that, as Job and Jesus were considered “outcasts” of their day, so Jehovah’s witnesses are found to be unwanted, smelly outcasts of Christendom.—Job 2:7, 8.

11 For example, the Witnesses are not considered “respectable” or “regular” when spoken of in connection with the weedlike sects of Christendom.

“At all events, whether they are liked or disliked, approved or disapproved, they [Jehovah’s witnesses] continue their witness not only in America but in many foreign lands with a vigor and persistence which one could wish were more often found in one’s own and other eminently respectable ‘regular’ churches.”e (Italics ours)

By the well-to-do religious leaders the “wheatlike” Witnesses are branded as an “unorthodox cult” of ‘poor and uncultured’ ones.

“Jehovah’s Witnesses belong to one of those unorthodox religious cults . . . which prosper among those burdened with everything except worldly possessions and cultural graces.”f (Italics ours)

Also, these “outcast” Witnesses are referred to as ‘deviationists.’

“Many observers of the Jehovah’s witnesses have concluded that it is a ‘Christian deviation’ in that its system of doctrine imitates, and at the same time distorts the essential Christian beliefs.”g (Italics ours)

Lastly they are considered “odious” and “fanatical” by the clergy.

“A curb upon the propagandist activity of the odious sect—unless it can be shown to be a definite peril to society—is a potential attack upon the liberties of all citizens. Jehovah’s Witnesses are, in our judgment, a particularly odious and fanatical sect, but the truth or falsity of their teaching is not at issue and no charge of antisocial tendencies was involved in the case upon which the Supreme Court rendered its [unfavorable] decision.”h (Italics ours)

BABYLONISH WAYS REMOVED

12. What early ways of Christianity were reinstituted after the 1880’s?

12 From the 1880’s onward the modern Job-like anointed ones additionally had reinstated the early ways of Christianity. This enabled all to serve as ministers together, shining to the public as “the light of the world.” (Matt. 5:14-16) This was done by reinstituting the house-to-house witness work and the making of private return visits to homes as did even Jesus and the apostles in their day. Furthermore, all forms of ritualism were rejected at their congregational assemblies and, instead, their meetings were of an educational nature, making an intellectual appeal by means of Bible study, rather than of an emotional, ritualistic nature. This group of anointed ones also shared in a wide distribution of Bibles, Biblical literature and tracts, numbering into the hundreds of millions.

13. As to 1914, what was heralded? How zealous were the anointed, and what reflections were being cast upon the clergy?

13 They particularly heralded that the year 1914 was a marked year for the ending of “the times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24, AV) and for the time of the establishment of Christ’s kingdom in heaven. All of this proved to be true and was verified by the beginning of World War I with its associated events among the Gentile nations. Their Christian work being conducted on a wide scale in many lands remarkably brought the anointed ones onto the world stage of religious history. Their zealous religious works put to shame the “man of lawlessness” class of sectarian clergy. Such members of the clergy should have been taking a more careful interest in their teaching the Word of God to their flocks instead of offering their parishioners a poisonous diet of Babylonish doctrines. Thus it was that this small minority of anointed ones began to manifest an integrity toward Christ Jesus and toward God that cast guilty reflections upon Christendom’s Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical clergy.

PREOCCUPATION WITH PERSONAL DEFENSE

14. Describe how deeply the anointed became preoccupied with self-defense.

14 Similar to the case of Job of old, these modern witnesses were vilified and misrepresented by the religious clergy and leaders of Christendom, who were foreshadowed by Job’s three companions who turned out to be poor comforters and false friends. They were called by all sorts of degrading names, such as “no-hellers,” “soul sleepers,” “Russellites,” “Rutherfordites,” “Millennial Dawnists,” “unpatriotic pacifists,” “twisters of the Scriptures,” “unordained preachers,” etc. Their ministry of the Word of God was challenged as being fraudulent, deceptive, not ordained by God, and carried on under different names or titles such as Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, International Bible Students Association, People’s Pulpit Association, in order to confuse and conceal the fact that they were “Russellites.” They were looked upon as being false Christians, as in fact no Christians at all, as being “false prophets,” anti-Christian, and having no standing with God at all. Against such religious accusations of being an unorthodox sect of religious hypocrites, Jehovah’s anointed remnant had to defend themselves, just as Job had to do, in an endeavor to prove their integrity as true Christians, their being the “real thing,” and their really being in harmony with God and his Word and having God’s favor and being true Christian ministers ordained by God and not by religious institutions of religious clergymen. There thus arose a great controversy between the religious clergy and God’s anointed, ordained remnant, just as Job got involved in controversy with Eliphaz, Zophar and Bildad. Thus, like Job, the anointed remnant became especially preoccupied with themselves and their personal standing with God. They failed to give full appreciation to God’s name Jehovah and to see that the vindication of God’s name and universal sovereignty was the chief thing, so that they should be his witnesses with that chief issue in view. Their getting to heaven was not the main thing.

ELIHU’S RIGHT ESTIMATION

15, 16. (a) What corresponds to Elihu today, and how so? (b) How is The Watchtower used to present right estimations?

15 Who, then, was it that finally made a right estimation of these basic matters and published such for the attention of the anointed ones to set matters straight? (Isa. 1:18; 2 Tim. 3:16) As it was young Elihu that made the right assessment as to elderly Job in Job’s day so it was the modern young Elihu who brought about the reproving of the 1,900-year-old Job-like anointed ones. Against ancient Job, Elihu’s “anger blazed over his [Job’s] declaring his own soul righteous rather than God.” (Job 32:2) The modern Elihu seems well to comprise the spiritual governing body of the anointed remnant of Christ’s body always closely associated with the directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.i This governing group of anointed ones having become a working unit since the 1870’s makes it young historically in comparison to the 1,900-year-old “faithful and discreet slave,” collectively made up of the faithful anointed ones alive on earth at any given point of time. (Matt. 24:45, 46) The Elihu governing unit has been responsible since 1879 for publishing the Watchtower magazine.

16 When the Elihu of today gained the right estimation of matters it used its instrument, the Watchtower magazine, to counsel the anointed ones progressively. It was The Watchtower that first published that the vindicating of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty was more important than the vindicating of any individual man. In the giving of its advice, like young Elihu of Job’s day, the historically youthful governing group showed more of a youthful reliance upon the spirit of God in rendering spiritual counsel than in looking to age-old human wisdom and philosophy as the clergy were doing. For this reason the modern Elihu through The Watchtower could further take the lead in exposing the 1,600-year-old “man of lawlessness” class, the sectarian clergy. With Christian boldness since 1919 The Watchtower could maintain with a right estimation that Christendom’s clergy have “proceeded to pronounce God wicked” by their agelong preaching of things that were based on anti-Jehovah, Babylonish teachings. (Job 32:3) In this way a right assessment and the correct estimation of religious developments become progressively available to all righteously inclined individuals by means of The Watchtower.

JOB-LIKE TESTING

17. Describe the Babylon-like captivity experience that came upon the anointed ones from 1914 to 1919.

17 Now a special Job-like time of testing came upon the few thousand anointed ones from the autumn of 1914 to the spring of 1919. A period of Babylon-like captivity came to be forced upon them. Ridicule was heaped upon them by the clergy. During World War I they were slanderously branded as “security risks.” This brought governmental opposition upon them in Canada, the United States and other countries. Their publications became subject to ban. Those taking the lead among them came to be imprisoned. Finally their organized public witness work was crippled by the summer of 1918. Their headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, had to be shut down, with temporary offices maintained back in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Places of their religious meetings were raided and closed. Yes, a spiritually destitute, forsaken condition came upon them. To the faithful anointed ones questions came as to what all this meant and why Jehovah was permitting all this open hostility. Had they not in the name of God and Christ been undertaking a great public witness work among the nations in the thirty-some years before 1914? Did not Jehovah seem to favor that work by granting it continued growth before 1914? The Job-like ones wanted to know: Why now all this adversity and hostility?—Matt. 24:9, 10.

18. What corresponded to Job’s children taken away and his sickness?

18 Many who, like spiritual children, had looked to them for spiritual guidance and help now abandoned their association. All together, it was a time of destitution as to “spiritual children” and means for religious worship. Considered by the sectarian clergy as outcasts and spiritually diseased ones who were to be loathed and shunned, the anointed ones were left by 1918 to ponder their sad spiritual state, present and future. (Rev. 11:7-10) A state of spiritual unhappiness had been enforced upon them by Satan and all his earthly forces. But again and again the Job-like anointed ones asked in their prayers: Why, O why is Jehovah allowing all this?

19. Describe the set course today of those prefigured by Job’s three companions.

19 While the anointed endured this low state the modern ‘three false companions,’ the collective group of Christendom’s clergy, stepped up their burning hostility upon the remnant. Unloving in their thinking and hearts, the religious leaders put to use all their Babylonish tactics and arguments. They pretended to worship the God of the Bible but in fact were out “to pronounce God wicked.” (Job 32:3) Jehovah God found them untruthful in their arguments and attacks, whereas the anointed ones were found to be truthful. (Job 42:7, 8) The doctrines and traditions of the clergy are those that have come down through the ages from Babylon and not from the Bible. From 325 C.E. to the present, Christendom’s clergy have been the most powerful part of Babylon the Great. They have been and are now the worst persecutors of Jehovah’s witnesses. These modern ‘three false comforters’ in their bitterness will continue to be, figuratively speaking, ‘after the hide’ and ‘on the necks’ of the true witnesses right down to the very ruinous end of Babylon the Great.

DELIVERANCE INTO SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY

20. Describe the restoration the anointed ones have had, and since when has it been?

20 As Job was made happy in his outcome of a restoration, so the modern anointed ones came to experience a spiritually paradisaic restoration from 1919 onward. This restoration has meant great spiritual prosperity and happiness for them in Jehovah’s royal Kingdom service. To add to their joy, a vast crowd of sheeplike persons has been directed to flee from Babylon the Great and to come over into their realm of spiritual favor. Actually in 1934 the “other sheep” were told to get dedicated and baptized and to become the happy spiritual children of the anointed remnant.j But it was not until 1942 that the fulfillment in complete force of the bringing forth of Job’s ten new children began to take place.k From then on by the hundreds of thousands the figurative “ten children” have come to the aid of the modern Job, the anointed remnant.—Isa. 2:2, 3; Zech. 8:23.

FORMER CLERGYMEN NOW WITNESSES

21, 22. (a) How does Job 42:8, 9 have application today? (b) What course have such repentant ones followed, according to modern experiences?

21 In Job’s day of restoration, Eliphaz, Zophar and Bildad took Jehovah’s advice to repent of their false religious stand, to accept the priesthood services of Job so that no “disgraceful folly” should come upon them. (Job 42:8, 9) Also after Jesus’ restoration by resurrection and exaltation to heaven, his effective priesthood services were accepted as “a great crowd of priests began to be obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7) Has there been a parallel development in these last days? Yes! In the decades of restoration since 1919, right-hearted clergymen of various religious sects in different parts of the earth have repentantly accepted the priesthood services of the anointed remnant of Job-like ones by becoming rebaptized and ordained as true ministers of Jehovah.l Even clergymen in prominent places have made this about-face, including one priest who had formerly been a Greek Orthodox bishop. No longer seeking worldly fame, these many reformed ministers now zealously preach the good news of the Kingdom right in the same places where they had functioned as sectarian clergymen. But instead of preaching from a pulpit in a church building they now have the doorstep as their right pulpit.

22 What has resulted to these former clergymen for following this right and humble course? From their former clergy “friends” they get much Babylonish hostility and reproach, which they have courageously and faithfully endured. From the Sovereign God Jehovah they get goodwill for worthily bearing the divine name, making known Jehovah’s Sovereign Godship from house to house even as Jesus Christ did. After years of right preaching activity, several of these former clergymen have become appointed as presiding ministers of local congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses. They, in turn, have had the privilege of attending the Watchtower Society’s Kingdom Ministry Schools for further ministerial training. Here, then, is another merciful reason for Jehovah’s permitting Babylon the Great to exist a while longer so that more of such humbled, right-hearted, captive clergy individually may follow the lead set by these earlier ones and get out soon before “disgraceful folly” comes upon all who are left in Babylon the Great.

CLERGY HOSTILITY STILL PERSISTS

23, 24. Explain why clergy hostility still persists as pictured in (a) Joseph’s case in Egypt and (b) a parable of Jesus.

23 But why is it that the modern Job still experiences increasingly bitter hostility from the unrepentant Babylonish clergy, if this is the time of the restoration and ascendency for the anointed ones? The situation is similar to the antitypical seven years of famine and seven years of prosperity in Egypt during Joseph’s administration.a (Gen. 41:29-32) In their present-day application those two antitypical seven-year periods run concurrently. Upon Christendom’s land or realm there is great spiritual famine for the hearing of the Word of God. (Amos 8:11) While upon the land, realm or situation of the true anointed ones there is great spiritual abundance.

24 Such concurrent fulfillment is confirmed in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. (Luke 16:19-31) Here the condition of both the “rich man” or the clergy class and that of the “Lazarus” group, the anointed remnant, takes place at the same time, namely, from 1919 to the present. The physical facts abundantly show that since 1919 the anointed witnesses of Jehovah have enjoyed spiritual prosperity as to their ministry while during the same time the clergy have been experiencing increased frustrations and spiritual failures as to their ministries. All this bears evidence of their “torment.” Earlier in this article there was presented another confirmation in that while Babylon the Great fell under the encircling power of Christ Jesus in 1919, it is permitted to exist with all its spiritual corruption and hostility until the rescue of her captives is concluded, at which conclusion she will then be totally destroyed.—Rev. 18:4; 17:15-18.

25. (a) What is another purpose for Jehovah’s permitting Babylonish hostility to continue in our time? (b) What can be expected in the next Watchtower article?

25 In Jehovah’s wisdom he has permitted this continued Babylonish hostility to persist for another purpose. Why? Because it now gives the “great crowd” of the “other sheep” also an opportunity to support the anointed ones in giving an answer to Satan as to his tauntings and challenges concerning Jehovah’s Sovereign Godship. With all this background information, we are now ready to consider the physical evidences of the great religious controversy that has been raging between the anointed ones championing Jehovah’s Godship on the one hand and the Babylonish clergy of Christendom on the other hand. How remarkably the detailed experiences and arguments against Job in his day and against Jesus in his time are being duplicated in printed form today on an enlarged scale of hostility against the modern Witnesses!

[Footnotes]

Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, pp. 74-90.

New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, p. 18.

Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, p. 42.

“Let Your Name Be Sanctified,” p. 26.

The Christian Century, Feb. 2, 1944, p, 140.

An editorial, The Christian Century, July 5, 1939, p. 843.

The Theology of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1962, by George D. McKinney.

The Christian Century, June 24, 1942, p. 798.

Watchtower, 1957, p. 603.

See August 1 and 15, 1934, Watchtower featuring articles I and II of “His Kindness,” urging the “other sheep” to enter the antitypical “Cities of Refuge.”

At the multi-city assembly with Cleveland as the key city (Sept. 18, 19, 20, 1942) the increase of the “other sheep” was signaled by the resolution that was there adopted, part of which says—“All the increase that God gives to this work in gathering His ‘other sheep’ into the fold we acknowledge to be the Lord’s and shall yield up such to the Lord to be used wholly in His service.”—w42, p. 319.

w51, p. 650; w52, p. 684; w55, p. 255; yb63, p. 149.

You May Survive Armageddon into God’s New World, 1955, pp. 327-330.

Jehovah Taunted by Babylonish Hostility Against Anointed Witnesses

“Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice, that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.”—Prov. 27:11.

1, 2. (a) Who is being taunted, by whom and how? (b) In what way will the parallel experiences of today be demonstrated with those of Job’s time?

LIKE the taunting from wicked King Sennacherib of ancient Assyria, so today Satan keeps up his taunting of the true God Jehovah by speaking abusively of His anointed witnesses. (Isa. 37:21-33) By their faithfully enduring the Babylonish hostility against them, the Job-like anointed ones enable Jehovah, as He says, to “make a reply to him [Satan] that is taunting me.” (Prov. 27:11) In the meantime, in their championing Jehovah’s Sovereign Godship on earth they bear up under much reproach. “With murder against my bones those showing hostility to me have reproached me, while they say to me all day long: ‘Where is your God?’”—Ps. 42:10.

2 To demonstrate the full extent of the modern parallel of the experiences of Jehovah’s witnesses today with those of ancient Job, we will now highlight cases of Babylonish hostility of the clergy against the anointed witnesses on each of the taunts made against ancient Job by his three Babylonized companions. This will be done by taking each of the speeches of Job’s companions in turn and showing how the clergy of Christendom have spoken in the same sibboleth fashion as those ancient agents of Satan. (Judg. 12:6) As this develops it will be observed that the sectarian religious statements have the same ring of hostility as the pronouncements of ancient Eliphaz, Zophar and Bildad. By them the Job-like anointed ones continue to be branded as the world’s No. 1 Religious Badmen to be avoided like poison.—Job 22:5.

FALSE CHARGE OF BIAS

3. What false charge of bias has been made, and by whom? How does this parallel Job’s day?

3 In the frame of thinking of Eliphaz, the clergy claim in effect that it is the religiously unclean, the sinners, the biased ones that bring upon themselves merited reproach and divine punishment. (Job 4:2-8) A Roman Catholic monsignor writes in a nationwide Catholic newspaper in the United States a harsh condemnation of the Bible Society of Jehovah’s witnesses.

“Rejecting the idea of the Holy Trinity, the Bible society translation [the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, 1950] replaces the phrase ‘the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost,’ used frequently [once] throughout the King James version with ‘the spirit and the water and the blood.’ (1 John 5:7) . . . Something of the shallow scholarship in the sect in adopting the word Jehovah as part of its title is shown by the Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia’s treatment of this word.”a (Bracketing ours)

4, 5. What defense have the Witnesses made (a) as to biased translation and (b) for their use of the name Jehovah? (c) How has this been in accord with Job 6:10?

4 Making a proper defense not only of their own rightness but also of the Sovereign Godship of Jehovah as did ancient Job, the modern Witnesses say: “I have not hidden the sayings of the Holy One.” (Job 6:10) In an open letter dated October 11, 1950, a printed six-page reply was published by Jehovah’s witnesses in their Watchtower magazine of December 1, 1950. (Pp. 469-474) There overwhelming evidences were published proving beyond doubt that Jehovah’s witnesses not only are not biased in their New World Translation, but have honestly reproduced the sense and wording of the original-language texts. Note the above Watchtower answer to the charge of biased tampering with the Bible.

“The New World Translation has rewritten no part of the Greek text, not even 1 John 5:7 which is cited in your article as a place where Jehovah’s witnesses clash with the trinitarian doctrine. . . . This is a literal translation of the Greek text by the above-named Augustinus Merk, S.J. . . . it is also a literal translation of the Greek text by the other Roman Catholic scholar, Joseph M. Bover, S.J. . . . Your own precious Vatican Manuscript No. 1209 of the early 4th century does not contain the words, but brands them spurious.”

Thus was crushingly demonstrated the authentic nature of the New World Translation and the falsity of the charge against the anointed witnesses.

5 In addition The Watchtower vindicated its use of “Jehovah” this way:

“Why, then, does the New World Translation use the name Jehovah 237 times in its main text? Is it due to ‘shallow scholarship,’ as you insinuate? No. . . . In addition to the 19 Hebrew versions, it cites versions of the ‘New Testament’ in 38 languages besides English and Hebrew where the translators use a vernacular form of the Hebrew tetragrammaton [Hebrew occurrence of the divine name].”

Then The Watchtower proceeded to identify a long series of Catholic authorities and their usages of the name Jehovah down through the centuries, such as Thomas Cardinal de Vio Cajetanus in his Commentary on the Pentateuch. Who, then, displays bias—the Catholic clergy or Jehovah’s witnesses? You decide.

DEMON INFLUENCE

6. What parallel is there to Job 4:15 as to appealing to demon influence and the result?

6 From ancient Babylonish times, religious leaders like Eliphaz have appealed to emotional influences obtained from invisible spirits or demons to build up their religious posture rather than build faith based on the Bible. (Job 4:12-17) Recently one of the Pentecostal sects emotionally belittled the Bible knowledge of Jehovah’s witnesses and their associates.

“I wish it were possible for everyone in the Watchtower Society, more than a million and one half ministers and over fifty million brain washed followers, to feel what I am feeling, and sense what I can sense. . . . If they can do it [their worldwide work] with power that is not of God, what can we do if we are anointed by the Spirit of God . . . I want you to pray with us, ‘Lord, find the Kingdom Halls and pour out your Spirit until they are filled. Tear them up. . . . Shake them up like they’ve never been shaken before!’”b (Italics ours)

Here the religionists appeal to “feeling” and a “sense” of something unseen and indefinable. The result? They exhort violence and hostility, “tear” and “shake.” But Jesus said, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”—Matt. 22:39.

DENOUNCED FOR THEIR OBEDIENCE

7. Describe the parallel as to Job 4:18.

7 The Eliphaz-like religious leaders also revel in independency from God and Christ. (Prov. 3:5) They infer that God does not take special note of the obedience and faithfulness of his servants to Him. (Job 4:18; Matt. 17:12, 13; 24:45) One German religious writer reproaches Jehovah’s witnesses for holding to a unity of thought and organization in their Christian way. (Isa. 55:8; Prov. 12:15) He writes:

“The members of the organization [of Jehovah’s witnesses] are obligated to unconditional obedience. This obligation includes the duty of accepting the word of God only in the interpretation offered them by the Brooklyn publications. The Watchtower Society has divine authority and hence also possesses a monopoly on the truth and on the proper proclamation of the Gospel. It is forbidden to nourish oneself from other sources or to think one’s own thoughts.”c (Italics ours)

8. How have the Witnesses replied to the denouncement?

8 In reply Jehovah’s witnesses contrast their unified source of spiritual abundance with the spiritually sickening table spread by the clergy in their “independence.”

“What orthodox religious organization in Christendom provides new spiritual food for these critical times? Are not the fundamentalists still offering the same dry husks, still prattling the same centuries-old creeds, and monotonously repeating again and again their few basic doctrines borrowed from paganism? Truly, ‘their religion is a mockery, a mere tradition learned by rote.’ (Isa. 29:13, Mo) The modernist churches have brought forth new teachings to fit the times, but their new offerings are not fit for gospel-preaching. Instead, they scuttle the Bible, dismissing it as myth and legend, at best only good literature, and offer science and evolution, psychology and psychiatry, in an endeavor to be popular with a materialistic civilization. God bluntly says Christendom’s ‘tables are full of vomit.’ [Isa. 28:8] Among them spiritual famine reigns supreme. What a contrast between the condition of their followers and that of Jehovah’s witnesses!”d

Let the “independent” clergy still advocate what leads to spiritual anarchy but Jehovah’s unified witnesses will still stick to the one vinelike channel.—John 15:5, 6.

REPROACHED BY SECTARIAN TRADITIONALISTS

9. How have the Witnesses been reproached in accord with Job 8:8?

9 It is well known that many of the “man of lawlessness” class of clergy are pillars and champions of orthodoxy, holding tenaciously to early, Babylonish wisdom of the “former generations” and from the “fathers,” like Bildad of old. (Job 8:8) Down from the heights of Babylonish traditions they look condescendingly upon the Bible-trained witnesses of Jehovah. Hear what a Catholic Jesuit weekly magazine had to comment about Jehovah’s witnesses in international assembly.

“It [the assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses] was an impressive demonstration of the hold that primitive—and perverted—religion exercises on simple minds in a hour of humanity’s confusion. It was an illustration also of the compelling power of a few ideas strongly held.”e (Italics ours)

10. What has been the answer by the Job-like ones?

10 Following is the answer the Job-like anointed ones gave in reply to the clergy thrust against them for their rejection of tradition:

“In substituting ancient paganisms or modern philosophies for the truths contained in the Bible, Christendom’s religions match backsliding Israel who professed to be Jehovah’s people: ‘The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people shows no understanding.’ (Isa. 1:3, AT) They put themselves in position for stinging condemnation, which they cry out against [us] as intolerant. But does not God himself here say they have less sense than the ox and the ass?”f

…

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The Watchtower, September 15, 1966