The Watchtower, April 15, 1970

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The Watchtower — April 15, 1970

Source: jw.org

Contents

The Road Back to Peace in Paradise

The Leader on the Road to Peaceful Paradise

Does Church Failure Mean that God Is Wrong?

Questions That People Ask About Jehovah’s Witnesses

Gossip Can Be Deadly

Questions From Readers

Announcements

The Road Back to Peace in Paradise

1, 2. (a) What are some spontaneous reactions to God’s earthly creation that cause us to ask, Why? (b) Why are we so appreciative of such earthly creations?

WHY is it that you enjoy going into the garden of your home or into the city park? Why do you like to get out of the city and into the open country? Why do you have an appreciation of the beauties of the natural scenery? Why do you take such delight in gazing at the river majestically flowing along in peace through the valley? Why do you feel carried away with pleasure at seeing the gently sloping hillsides garmented with stately trees and shrubs and flowers? Why do you stand in awe at the higher elevations, the mountains, rearing themselves up into the azure skies and with gleaming clouds nestling near their summits or calmly floating by?

2 Why do you stop spellbound at the music of the bird singing its happy song in the treetop? Why do you feel a pleasant sense of excitement at seeing the wildlife of the forest or plain suddenly put in appearance, free in its native state and pursuing its instincts—the graceful deer bounding along, the kangaroo hopping about, the emu or cassowary bird speeding over the ground with great strides—or even a flock of sheep in the field? Why do all the glories about you, in sky, in earth and in stream, fill you with the delicious taste of being alive as an intelligent creature? It is because you were made to live in a paradise!

3. From whom have we received our appreciation for paradise?

3 No! You were never in paradise, but the first human couple, our first human father and mother, were in paradise to begin with. You got your appreciation of what a paradise is like from them. They got their appreciation of paradise from their Creator, whom they recognized as their God. He made them that way, because he himself has a perfect sense of beauty and of peaceful harmony. He made the earthly Paradise especially for them, for he is the greatest Gardener in existence, the greatest Park Keeper, the greatest Forester. He desired to delight them with their Paradise home, and so he put in them the godlike qualities by means of which they could enjoy paradise and never get tired of it. He made them in such a way that they could pass on the same awareness of paradise and joyful appreciation of it as they, the parents, had. We inherited this ennobling trait from them. Shall we, then, enjoy getting back to paradise, if that be the Creator’s will and arrangement? We most certainly shall!

4. With what qualities did Jehovah originally endow man, showing what as regards his human creation?

4 How good it was on the part of the heavenly Creator to start the human family off in a Paradise home! How like God to do such a thing! Just because we are human and are made of the dust of the ground, he did not degrade us. He dignified us, he gave us the greatest dignity on earth, by creating our first parents perfect human creatures, the most beautiful living creatures on earth, with godlike qualities because our first human parents were made in God’s image and likeness. He was not ashamed to call them his children, even though they were somewhat lower than angels of heaven. In perfect accord with their fine sensibilities and their healthy, perfect, handsome bodies, he put them in a home to match their capabilities, an earthly paradise that only Almighty God could design. In telling us what it was like, his written Word, the Holy Bible, calls it the “garden in Eden,” the name “Eden” meaning “Pleasure.”—Gen. 1:26-28; 2:7-14.

5. How do we know the Garden of Eden was not just a small park of beauty?

5 This Garden of Eden, this Paradise of Pleasure, was no small area, like a city park. Besides other kinds of vegetation, it had trees of all sorts, trees good to look at and trees bearing fruits for food. It was full of bird and animal life. But to give some indication of its size, there was a river that took its source in this paradise and that flowed forth with so much fresh water that it could break up into four headwaters, which in turn resulted in rivers. Fish abounded in those waters, although the great seas and oceans may have been far distant. There were doubtless hills and valleys in this select Paradise spot on earth, man’s first home.

6. Why is it that mankind was not born in Paradise?

6 Today, after almost six thousand years from that start of human life in Paradise, the earth is certainly no paradise, no peaceful Garden of Eden. What happened to that Paradise of the first human couple in southwestern Asia? Why were not all of us born in Paradise? It was because our first human parents, before they had any children, were driven out of the Garden of Eden. Then, over sixteen hundred years later, a deluge that covered all the earth destroyed the abandoned Garden. But the Euphrates River and the Tigris River, which once had their source in that Paradise, are still flowing, in undeniable testimony to the truthfulness of this matter. It is no myth of superstitious people. That first man’s name was Adam and means “From the Ground.” His wife’s name was Eve and means “Living,” because she came to be the mother of all other human creatures. All these, including us today, began to be born to them after they were driven out of the paradisaic Garden of Eden.

7. (a) What is God’s unchangeable purpose for this earth? (b) How did the Lord Jesus Christ show his faith in God’s Word, giving us conviction of its truthfulness?

7 Who, though, had the right to drive Adam and Eve out of that Paradise? Who had the right to destroy that Paradise and keep us out of it? It was God, the Creator of it as well as of Adam and Eve. He has also the right to promise us to replant Paradise on earth. He has, in fact, given us this promise, and he had this promise written down in his inspired Word, The Holy Bible. When he first planted the paradisaic Garden of Eden in southwestern Asia, it was his unchangeable purpose to have that Paradise extended all over the earth, all over Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, North and South America, and the islands of the seven seas. He has not changed his loving purpose in this regard. He was not defeated in his original purpose. He is no quitter. He still holds to his original purpose. In proof of that happy fact he has provided for the human family the road back to Paradise, to a Paradise as big as he at first purposed it to become, to an earth-wide Paradise of eternal peace. He will finally make this earth even more beautiful than it appeared from outer space to those astronauts when they were orbiting the moon in their man-made spacecraft. This is no religious myth. If it were a myth, then God, who is responsible for the writing of the Holy Bible, would be making a laughingstock of himself. In that case, the religious clergymen of Christendom and the modern-day scientists would be justified in laughing at Him and poking fun at his Bible. But a man who was greater than all these clergymen and scientists put together talked very seriously about our first human parents. In an argument, when he was questioned about the subject of marriage and divorce, he said: “Did you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’? So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has yoked together let no man put apart.” (Matt. 19:3-6) That man was Jesus Christ, and he was there quoting from the first and second chapters of the Holy Bible.—Gen. 1:27; 2:24.

8, 9. Why could Jesus speak with authority about man’s creation and man’s future?

8 Before he came down from heaven to earth to be born as a perfect man, it was this Jesus Christ to whom God in heaven said on the sixth day of creation: “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth.” (Gen. 1:26) Therefore, Jesus Christ could speak with authority about the creation of Adam and Eve and their Paradise home.

9 At this invitation of God, Jesus Christ in his prehuman existence had a hand with God in the creating of Adam and Eve and their Paradise. He was there in heaven and heard God bless Adam and Eve and say to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.” (Gen. 1:27, 28) Jesus Christ knew directly from this that God’s purpose was for all the earth to be subdued and cultivated to a Paradise state and to be filled with the children of Adam and Eve, all of them in God’s image and likeness and having all the fish, birds and domestic and wild animals in subjection, and not worshiping these lower creatures as gods and goddesses. What a lovely, glorious place this earth will be when Almighty God brings this purpose to full realization, for God has not changed his mind about this.

MAN’S CREATION AND FALL FROM PERFECTION

10. How does Genesis, chapter two, describe man’s creation?

10 The second chapter of the Holy Bible tells how God created Adam first, this to be followed shortly thereafter by the creation of his wife Eve, and then their marriage. What chapter two tells us we are now quoting from the Roman Catholic Douay Version of the Holy Bible, which says: “And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherein he placed man whom he had formed.”—Gen. 2:7, 8.

11, 12. Before creating Eve, what did God have Adam do, and what command did he give Adam?

11 But before God created the woman Eve, he had Adam name the flying creatures and the land animals, and he also put a command upon Adam not to eat from a certain tree, namely, the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. We read:

12 “And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it. And he commanded him, saying: Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.”—Gen. 2:15-17, Dy.

13. (a) Because mankind dies, what becomes immediately evident regarding Adam’s obedience? (b) What did Jesus say about obedience in small things?

13 There the Lord God set before our first human father the choice between everlasting life in the paradise of pleasure and everlasting death. At once we can suspect that in course of time Adam ate from the forbidden fruit and was sentenced to death by the One whose law he broke. Otherwise, why is it that all of us who are Adam’s descendants are dying? That is right. But whatever induced Adam to break this law in spite of the penalty of death? It was but a small thing that God commanded him not to do, but, because of its being such a small thing, it tested the perfection of Adam’s obedience. It required only a small beginning in badness to destroy Adam’s Godlike perfection and to make a bad man out of him. Jesus Christ, who kept his own perfection in spite of great temptation and test, said: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which is greater: and he that is unjust in that which is little is unjust also in that which is greater.” (Luke 16:10, Dy) From the small sin committed by the perfect man Adam, all the injustice of mankind today has developed. So why did Adam sin? The Bible tells us.

14. What was Eve’s reply to the inquiry about the forbidden tree, and who made the inquiry?

14 After God created the woman Eve and presented her to Adam as his wife, Adam told her about God’s command against eating from the tree of knowledge of good and bad and the death penalty for disobediently eating from it. Later, when Eve was asked about that forbidden tree, she said to the inquirer: “Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.” (Gen. 3:2, 3, Dy) Who, now, was this one that was inquiring about this forbidden tree? To all appearances it was a snake, a serpent. But snakes do not talk man’s language. Hence, the voice must have come from some invisible person, who was using this snake as a ventriloquist uses a dummy. So Eve did not suspect that the inquirer was really an unseen spirit person that was determined to mislead her into breaking God’s command and thus sinning. So later Eve said in explanation: “The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.”—Gen. 3:13, Dy.

15. How did the serpent in speaking to Eve slander God, and so why is the title “Devil” appropriate to that unseen spirit creature who first spoke to Eve?

15 Here was where the first lie was spoken, for the invisible one speaking to Eve now contradicted God’s word of warning. He made himself a liar, but he tried to make out that God had lied to Adam and was the liar. We read: “And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:1-5, Dy) All of us today know that this was a lie, for all of us are dying and we inherited death. God was not the liar, but the operator of the serpent was the liar. Who was he personally? Jesus Christ said that he was “the devil” and added: “He was a murderer from the beginning: and he stood not in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.” (John 8:44, Dy) How fitting it was for Jesus Christ to call that one a devil, for “Devil” means “Slanderer,” and that one had slandered God. He murderously misled Eve into the way of death.

16. (a) What thoughts now began to run through Eve’s mind? (b) What did she do and then persuade her husband to do?

16 Eve let the lie lodge in her head. She began to disbelieve God her Creator and Father. The forbidden tree now began to look like something desirable instead of something to be shunned, like the plague of death. Desire for the fruit of the forbidden tree now rose in her heart. She did not let God be found true, but let her growing desire overpower her and move her to eat the forbidden fruit. She had broken God’s law and sinned in the first human sin. But she did not at once drop dead, seemingly proving the serpent operated by the Devil to be right, for the moment. Afterward when her husband Adam came and found her still alive, she persuaded him to accept some of the forbidden fruit at her hand. He knew the full penalty for doing so, death, but he selfishly chose to die with her at God’s hand rather than live in Paradise without her. Immediately they lost their peace of heart and mind. Their consciences bothered them. They had lost their perfect innocence they looked unclean to themselves. They also lost their peace with God. They fled and hid themselves at the very sound of God’s invisible approach.—Gen. 3:6-10.

17. How was the Devil proved to be a liar, and what actually did happen to Adam and Eve?

17 In answer to inquiry by God, Eve and Adam confessed to their willful sin. They had no basis for asking for His forgiveness and they did not ask for it, for that would have meant for God to set aside his own law. Contrary to what the Devil had said by means of the serpent, God justly stuck to his law and sentenced Adam and Eve to death. He did not sentence them to everlasting life in a place of fiery torment; he sentenced them to what his law had stated—death. This meant that they must return to the place from which Adam had been taken, to the dust of the ground, thus to a state of nonexistence. A person’s assignment to nonexistence is not a reward for personal merit, as is taught in the religious doctrine of Nirvana. It is a punishment for willful disobedience to God’s law, willful sin. The Christian apostle Paul wrote: “The wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Rom. 6:23, Dy.

18. By their course of action what had Adam and Eve determined to do, and therefore what action did God now take?

18 How did God carry out the sentence? By eating from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and bad, Adam and Eve had decided to be like gods in determining for themselves what was good and what was bad. Hence God’s record, at Genesis 3:22-24 (Dy), says: “And he said: Behold Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil: now, therefore, lest perhaps he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken. And he cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” The Bible record indicates that Adam’s wife Eve was cast out with him. Adam’s sin affected his bodily perfection so little that, outside the paradise of pleasure, he lived to be nine hundred and thirty years old, this allowing him to become father to many sons and daughters. (Gen. 5:1-5) By remaining obedient inside the Paradise, Adam could have lived forever and could have become father to all his sons and daughters in human perfection.

19. How was the road back to Paradise at that time barred to the first human couple and their offspring, and what eventually happened to that Paradise of Eden?

19 That was the road out of Paradise and out of its peace with God, peace of man with woman and peace of man with the animals, birds and fish. The way back was barred by the presence of those guardian cherubs, superhuman creatures of God, and by the flaming blade of a sword that turned in all directions. For sixteen hundred and fifty-six years man was unable to get back to Paradise and its tree of life, not even godly men like Abel, Enoch and Noah being admitted back. Then came the globe-encircling deluge of Noah’s day and wiped out the Paradise. (Heb. 11:1-7; Gen. 6:5 to 8:22) It has not been discovered since.

20. (a) Has our earth since the Flood been converted into a paradise, and what now threatens this globe? (b) Why cannot man make this earth a paradise?

20 Since that Deluge of more than forty-three centuries ago mankind has been unable to convert this entire earth into a paradise, even though mankind has increased to more than three thousand four hundred million persons and we are going through what is called a “population explosion.” Another world war, this one with nuclear weapons, chemical and biological weapons and radiological weapons threatens to make this earth an uninhabited planet, left to grow wild and uncultivated, polluted from end to end. The facts speak for themselves: man cannot in his present state transform this planet earth into a paradise to compare with the original Garden of Eden or Paradise of Pleasure. Why not? Because man is not at peace with God, the Creator of Paradise. Man can no longer lay claim at all to perfection of body and mind, or to perfect innocence, or to perfect morality. He is just what the Holy Bible calls him, sinful. For that reason man is under God’s condemnation and is subject to death.

THE ROAD BACK UNDER PREPARATION

21, 22. Did the disobedience of Adam and Eve forever thwart God’s purpose to have this earth a paradise, and how do we know?

21 Is the case therefore hopeless? Is any road back to peace in Paradise impossible? By man’s own efforts, Yes! But by God, No! On the very first day of creation, when God said, “Let light come to be,” he had in mind for this earth to become a global paradise. At the end of the sixth creative day He let the newly created Adam and Eve know that this was his purpose and he assigned to them their part in the fulfillment of this divine purpose. (Gen. 1:3, 28) The sinning on the part of Eve and Adam halted the expansion of the paradise to earth’s limits. But Almighty God is not One to be defeated in his loving purpose by the Devil, the operator of the serpent. Before he drove the sinful Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, God let both of them and the Devil know that He was sticking to His purpose and indicated that He would restore mankind to Paradise. How did God indicate this? By what he said to the Devil. We read, according to the American Standard Version of the Bible:

22 “And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”—Gen. 3:14, 15.

23. (a) Who are the symbolic serpent and the symbolic woman mentioned in Genesis 3:14, 15? (b) What would the bruising of the serpent’s head eventually mean for mankind?

23 That cursing of the serpent was really God’s cursing of the Devil, the operator of the serpent. The serpent became a symbol of the Devil. (Rev. 12:9; 20:2) If the symbol, the literal serpent, was degraded, the Devil too must be degraded. God’s calling the Devil “the original serpent” indicated that degradation. Accordingly, the serpent’s seed or offspring became a symbol of the Devil’s seed or offspring. The woman’s seed or offspring became a symbol of the seed or offspring of God’s symbolic “woman,” namely, his holy, faithful heavenly organization of spirit creatures. The bruising of the serpent’s head by the woman’s seed meant the bruising of the Devil’s head, a wound that spelled death and destruction for him. But there was to be not only this punishing of the Devil, “the original serpent,” but also an undoing of his wicked work. This had to include the restoration of mankind to an earthly paradise.

24. What blessing was due to the seed of God’s “woman” for fighting the “serpent” and its seed, and where can we find identification of the seed of God’s “woman”?

24 The getting bruised in the heel was not to be for nothing. For his being bruised the woman’s seed was to be rewarded, for it came from fighting on the side of Jehovah God in the warfare that results from the enmity that God put between the serpent and the woman and between the serpent’s seed and the woman’s seed. His being bruised was to be rewarded with the honor and glory of carrying out Jehovah’s will and bruising the great Serpent’s head, destroying this chief opposer of God. We are getting very close to the time when the seed of God’s “woman” will win eternal glory by bruising the great Serpent’s head. All mankind that lives will then be indebted to this glorious Seed for this act of liberating them from this chief enemy of theirs, the Devil. But do we know who this seed of God’s “woman” is? History identifies him for us, and that indisputable history is found in the pages of the Book that also tells us about the coming replanting of Paradise for mankind, namely, the Holy Bible. Let us swiftly trace the clues of identification.

25, 26. Trace the line of history starting with Shem that will lead us to the seed of God’s “woman.”

25 We do not get this information from worldly, secular historians. Secular history generally overlooks, misses and leaves out the historical facts that really count. It is to the Bible that we go to learn that Noah’s son Shem was specially singled out when Noah blessed Shem and said: “Blessed be Jehovah, Shem’s God, and let Canaan become a slave to him. Let God grant ample space to Japheth, and let him reside in the tents of Shem.” (Gen. 9:24-27) By now passing down nine generations after Shem we come to Shem’s descendant Abram (or Abraham) in the land of Mesopotamia. Shem’s God, Jehovah, revealed himself to Abraham and said: “Go your way out of your country and from your relatives and from the house of your father to the country that I shall show you; and I shall make a great nation out of you and I shall bless you and I will make your name great; and prove yourself a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and him that calls down evil upon you I shall curse, and all the families of the ground will certainly bless themselves by means of you.” (Gen. 12:1-3) Abraham obeyed God and won his blessing.

26 Abraham proved himself to be a blessing to all the families of the ground, not by means of his first son Ishmael, but by means of his second son Isaac. When Abraham showed himself obedient to Jehovah God even to the point of sacrificing his beloved son Isaac at God’s command, God said to Abraham at the altar of sacrifice: “I shall surely bless you and I shall surely multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand that are on the seashore; and your seed will take possession of the gate of his enemies. And by means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves due to the fact that you have listened to my voice.” (Gen. 22:15-18) God’s promise here indicated that the seed of his “woman” was to become associated with the seed of Abraham for the blessing of all the nations of the earth.

27, 28. (a) Through whom did this line of descent to the Seed continue after Isaac? (b) What does the Bible record then show with regard to the blessing of the twelve sons of Israel?

27 Jehovah God repeated his promise of blessing to Abraham’s son Isaac. But Isaac had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. God chose the second son, Jacob, and repeated his promise of blessing to him. He also changed Jacob’s name to Israel. The Israelites of today are descendants from Jacob or Israel, and yet, today, all nations of the earth are far from wanting to bless themselves by means of these fleshly descendants of Jacob or Israel. Why is this? Bible history makes plain to us the reason. By following its record we note that Jacob had twelve sons, who were to become the patriarchal heads of the twelve tribes of Israel, a family nation. Through which of these twelve sons in particular would the seed of God’s “woman” come for the bruising of the great Serpent’s head and for the blessing of all the nations of the earth without any partiality? Jacob on his deathbed down in Egypt indicated who it would be. When giving his prophetic blessings to all twelve sons, he said to his fourth son, Judah:

28 “As for you, Judah, your brothers will laud you. . . . A lion cub Judah is. . . . The scepter will not turn aside from Judah, neither the commander’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him the obedience of the people will belong.”

29. What facts do we now have on this seed of God’s “woman”?

29 Those words, preserved for us in Genesis 49:8-10, made it certain that the Bruiser of the great Serpent and the Blesser of all the obedient people had to be a Judean or Jew. He was to wield the royal scepter, and the staff of the rightful commander was to rest between his feet or against his lap. He was to be the One to whom the name or title “Shiloh” belongs, this title meaning “The One to Whom It Belongs.” As the Ruler appointed by Jehovah God he would have the right to the obedience of all the people who are seeking the blessing by the Seed of Abraham.

30. How do we know that David and Solomon, descendants of Judah, did not qualify as that seed of God’s “woman”?

30 Six hundred and forty-one years later, or in 1070 B.C.E., a descendant of the patriarch Judah did become king of a nation, namely, David the son of Jesse of the town of Bethlehem. As king in Jerusalem, he commanded the obedience of all twelve tribes of Israel. He finished conquering all the land that God had promised to give Abraham in the Middle East, and the peoples in those conquered areas had to be obedient to King David. But neither David nor his son and heir to the throne, Solomon, commanded the obedience of the peoples all around our earthly globe. World rulership, however, was to come to one of David’s royal descendants to whom God would give an everlasting kingdom. God indicated this to King David by the covenant promise that God made with him. (2 Sam. 7:4-17) Under the peaceful rule of David’s son Solomon much of the land of Israel was brought to a condition closely like that of Paradise.—1 Ki. 4:20-25.

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Man’s Creator started the human family off in a peaceful paradise home

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Adam and Eve’s disobedience was the road out of paradise and out of its peace with God

The Leader on the Road to Peaceful Paradise

1. Who today do not qualify as the descendants of Judah and David to be that promised Seed, but who does qualify?

TODAY the earthly kingdom of King David of Jerusalem is no more, not even since the setting up of the Republic of Israel in the year 1948, nor since the Jews captured all of Jerusalem in 1967 C.E. No Jew on earth today can prove that he is a royal descendant of King David. But in heaven there is One today who can prove that he was born on earth in the tribe of Judah and in the royal family of King David. Who is that? If we turn to the last book in the Holy Bible, that is, to Revelation 5:5-12, we find one who is called “the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah,” and concerning whom it is said: “The Lamb that was slaughtered is worthy to receive the power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.” This one also speaks and calls himself “the root and the offspring of David” and claims to have the “key of David” for opening and shutting. (Rev. 22:16; 3:7) Who is that one? He speaks of himself as Jesus.

2. Why did Jesus refuse to become a king on earth?

2 Ah yes, this one is Jesus Christ, who was born in David’s town of Bethlehem not quite two thousand years ago but who has been glorified in heaven by his heavenly Father Jehovah God. But he had to sacrifice his human life in order to gain that place in heaven at God’s right hand. That is why he is spoken of as “the Lamb that was slaughtered.” Although he was the rightful heir of King David, he refused to become a king on earth. He preached “the kingdom of the heavens,” “the kingdom of God.” However, when he was put to death on an execution stake outside the walls of old Jerusalem, the Roman governor of the land had posted above Jesus’ head the words: “Jesus the Nazarene the King of the Jews.” (John 19:16-22) No wonder that one of the evildoers who was hung on a stake beside Jesus showed his belief in the resurrection of the dead and said to Jesus: “Jesus, remember me when you get into your kingdom.”

3. What future hope for a Paradise earth did Jesus give in speaking to the evildoer hanging alongside him, and how are we assured it is earthly and not heavenly paradise?

3 The reply of Jesus showed also his faith in the resurrection of the dead for both himself and this friendly man. Jesus said to him: “Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43) There was only one Paradise that this dying Jewish evildoer knew of, and that was, not a paradise in heaven, but the Paradise in Eden in which Adam and Eve had been created in human perfection. That was the Paradise to which Jesus referred. His words to the evildoer meant that when he got into his kingdom by resurrection from the dead, he would restore Paradise to earth and he would remember this dead evildoer and see to it that he enjoyed this earthly Paradise by resurrecting him from the dead. Jesus’ words also meant that the original purpose of Jehovah God to have all our earthly globe transformed into a Paradise was to be realized under the kingdom of Jesus Christ. On the day that Jesus said those words to the evildoer, it looked very unlikely that such a thing would ever be. But let all mankind rejoice. Paradise will soon be restored!

4. What promises regarding Jesus did God give through Gabriel to the Jewish virgin Mary?

4 The earthly, worldwide Paradise is an absolute future certainty, just as the heavenly kingdom of Jesus Christ is now a present actual certainty. Before Jehovah God transferred the life of his beloved Son from heaven to earth, he sent his angel Gabriel to a Jewish virgin of David’s royal family to tell her that God had selected her to become the mother of His son as a man. The angel Gabriel went on to say to this unmarried girl concerning her miraculous son-to-be: “You are to call his name Jesus. This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; and Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule as king over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom.”—Luke 1:26-33.

5. How did Jesus prove worthy of the kingdom and being God’s seed?

5 This Jesus had to prove worthy of the kingdom, not merely by fleshly descent from King David of the tribe of Judah, but also by keeping faithful to his heavenly Father Jehovah God even to a martyr’s death. At the same time he must die as a perfect, sinless human sacrifice for the “sin of the world,” the sin that Adam had brought upon all mankind by his disobedience in the Paradise of Eden. (John 18:36, 37; 1:29, 36; Rom. 5:12) But by making this sacrifice of his perfect humanity, he could be raised again to life as a spirit son of God, clothed upon with the reward of immortality in heaven and still keeping his unforfeited right to the kingdom of his ancestor David. (1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:45-47) Thus he becomes a king at God’s right hand in heaven, just as King David had prophesied in Psalm 110:1-4. As heavenly king he has to keep his promise to the dying evildoer. He must produce better living conditions on earth than King Solomon did.

TIME NEAR FOR AN EARTHLY PARADISE

6. When did the time come for God to give the kingdom to Christ Jesus, and so what, then, must be very near?

6 The earthly kingdom of David’s royal family line was overturned more than two thousand five hundred years ago, in the year 607 before our Common Era. It was not to be restored until God’s time came for Him to give the kingdom to the one that has the right to it. (Ezek. 21:25-27) So it was not to be restored until the “appointed times of the nations” ran out. Those times of the Gentile nations were to run for two thousand five hundred and twenty years from the overthrow of David’s kingdom in 607 B.C.E. Those Gentile Times ended therefore in the year 1914 of our Common Era. (Luke 21:24; Dan. 4:16, 23, 25) By that time the Gentile political powers and governments had had their day, and the rulership of the royal house of David was due to be restored in agreement with God’s covenant with David for an everlasting kingdom. So the resurrected Permanent Heir of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, was installed as king in heaven, to rule the earth from up there. Earthly events since 1914 C.E. prove that fact. This means that the restoration of Paradise to earth must soon begin.

7. How do we know a Paradise earth can never be brought about by man’s efforts alone?

7 Since that important year of 1914 the Gentile governments have tried to continue ruling the earth in their way, not God’s way. Has this been beneficial to mankind? Has it brought worldwide peace to all peoples? Has it done away with hunger and poverty and disease and old age? Has it resulted in a global paradise as a decent place for the human family in which to live? Has it bruised the Great Serpent Satan the Devil and his seed in the head? All of you know the answer! What fact remains plain, therefore? That the everlasting blessing of all mankind can never come through these man-made political powers and their scientific, commercial, social, educational and religious institutions, but it can come only through the promised Seed of God’s “woman,” the Seed of Abraham. By this Seed all nations will bless themselves.

8-10. How did the Secretary General of the United Nations speak about our present-day world problems?

8 According to the way world conditions are going, this heavenly seed of God’s “woman” needs to take full charge of earth’s affairs very soon. Just this past May 9th, Secretary General of the United Nations, U Thant, of Burma, spoke at the United Nations, New York, at a closed meeting before thirty-five leaders from various countries in order to talk over the strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade, namely, the nineteen-seventies. In his speech Mr. Thant said:

9 “I do not wish to seem overdramatic, but I can only conclude from the information that is available to me as Secretary General that the members of the United Nations have perhaps ten years left in which to subordinate their ancient quarrels and launch a global partnership to curb the arms race, to improve the human environment, to defuse the population explosion and to supply the required momentum to world development efforts.”

10 Thus, in his estimate the world had only about ten years left in which to avoid disaster by finding answers to the problems of the arms race, pollution and overpopulation.—The New York Times, May 10, 1969, page 3, column 3.

11. (a) Why will Almighty God not wait upon the nations to bring Paradise conditions to our earth? (b) How only can our earth be transformed into a paradise?

11 Given any amount of time, the nations would continue to fail and leave the world hopeless. God will not wait upon them. He has his own fixed time to remove these incompetent rulers, whose continuance in power will ruin the earth even more and threaten the existence of all mankind. He will do so, and that shortly, in what Bible prophecy calls “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” This will mean an Armageddon disaster and destruction for world rulers who show themselves to be the earthly “seed” of the Great Serpent. (Rev. 16:14, 16; 19:11-21) Only in this way will this earth be cleared of those who are “ruining the earth.” (Rev. 11:18) This will be followed by the bruising of the head of the Devil, the Great Serpent, putting him and his invisible demon seed completely out of action and out of control in an abyss.—Rev. 20:1-3.

WILL YOU GET ON THE ROAD TO IT?

12. Who will survive God’s war of Armageddon, and what assignment will they be given?

12 Would you like to survive that Armageddon war of God the Almighty? Revelation 7:9-17 tells of a “great crowd” of people of every nation, tribe, people and language that will survive that “great tribulation.” Just as the patriarch Noah and his family survived the global deluge and had the privilege of cultivating the cleansed earth to make it a suitable living place, so with the “great crowd” of survivors of the “great tribulation” at Armageddon with which this wicked system of things on earth will end. They will have the privilege of doing under Jesus Christ the heavenly king what Adam and Eve were told to do but failed to do because of violating the law of Paradise, namely, to “subdue” the earth and thereby extend Paradise to the four quarters of this earth. (Gen. 1:26-28; 2:7 to 3:6) They will do this in absolute peace, peace with God, peace with one another and peace with the lower creatures of earth, for all the promoters of war and violence and organized crime will have been destroyed.—Isa. 2:2-21.

13. What blessings lie ahead for survivors of God’s war of Armageddon?

13 Their Davidic King is the heavenly Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, and he will enforce “peace on earth.” There will be no end to earth’s peace under his kingdom. (Isa. 9:6, 7; Luke 2:14, Mo) As the earthly survivors of God’s war at Armageddon work away at cultivating and tending to their earthly home they will have the blessing of God’s kingdom by Christ, and will rejoice to see Paradise taking form and spreading everywhere. As their own living conditions improve, their health will improve and the effects of old age will pass away. They will not now need to die, no matter how long they live, because mankind will now be started on its way back to eternal life in peaceful Paradise.

14. Who, in time, will join those who have survived?

14 In God’s own time these pioneer workers for Paradise will be joined by countless others. From where? Not just from any families that they might raise, but mainly from the returning dead, those being resurrected from the common grave of mankind. Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God,” will not have been slaughtered in sacrifice in vain. His own resurrection from the dead is God’s guarantee that those for whom “the Lamb of God” died will likewise be resurrected from the dead under the Lamb’s kingdom. (1 Cor. 15:13-20; Acts 17:31) For all the human dead to be raised at one time would indeed create a “population explosion.” But Jesus Christ himself said when on earth: “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out” to the opportunity for everlasting life in God’s new system of things. (John 5:28, 29) Jesus Christ the King is to become the Eternal Father to redeemed mankind, and as he calls them forth they will come from mankind’s common grave. How soon he will call out that evildoer of nineteen centuries ago we do not know; but by then Paradise should well be extended throughout the earth.

15. In time what will be completely missing from this earth, and how does Revelation 21:3, 4, describe the conditions?

15 In the course of the thousand years of Christ’s reign the entire common grave of mankind will be completely emptied; there will not be a single cemetery left on earth. Paradise is a place in which to LIVE, to live forever, and not a place of death. Adam and Eve were turned out of the original paradise after sinning in order that they might die OUTSIDE. Of this restored Paradise, extended earth wide, the comforting prophecy will be true: “And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.”—Rev. 21:3, 4.

16. By what means is the road back to Paradise provided, and what must all who want to live in that Paradise now do?

16 Since you were meant to live in such an earthly Paradise, do you find yourself naturally warming up to this bright prospect for the early future as held out, yes, to “this generation”? (Matt. 24:32-34) Time fails to quote from Bible prophecies the description of natural beauty of earth that reflects the glories and peace of the Paradise earth under God’s kingdom by means of the Seed of His “woman.” The road back to peace in Paradise is by means of that perfect heavenly government. You can start now on that road back. In order to do so, imitate those of the “great crowd” described in Revelation 7:9-17. By an active faith, wash white your robe of religious identification in the redeeming “blood of the Lamb” now. Hail Jehovah God and his sacrificed Lamb and publicly ascribe your salvation to them. Worship Jehovah as the one living and true God and take up his service in his temple of worship. Follow undeviatingly in the footsteps of his Lamb as your loving Shepherd. He will safely bring you into eternal peace in Paradise.

[Picture on page 237]

Jesus’ answer to the evildoer’s request meant that Paradise would be restored to earth under the kingdom of Jesus Christ

[Picture on page 239]

The “great crowd” of “tribulation” survivors will be started on the way back to eternal life in peaceful Paradise, extending it earth wide

Does Church Failure Mean that God Is Wrong?

“CHURCH IN A CRISIS—‘AN HOUR OF SELF-DEMOLITION.’”

“Sell All the Churches.”

“The Religious Institution Is Dying.”

“If all the churches were burnt down overnight we should be a lot better off.”

Who are saying such shocking things? If it were atheists who said them you might not be surprised. But all of the above statements were made by religious clergymen—in this case, the pope; a Methodist minister; the ex-bishop of Woolwich, Dr. John Robinson; and an Anglican vicar. How can they say such things?

A commentator writes: “In spite of permissive parsons, swinging deans, broad-minded bishops and folk-groups on the altar steps, the churches are emptying, the flocks are diminishing and the black sheep proliferating.”a Have such activities made you stop going to church?

“Methodists worried at fall in members,” reports a London newspaper correspondent. “A decrease of 1,231 in the number of East Midlands Methodist members is revealed by figures in the Annual Methodist Conference agenda.” In the Church of England, “the infant baptism rate has dropped in 10 years by 15 per cent . . . [the confirmation rate] by nearly one-third in six years . . . [ordinations] have plummeted by a quarter in the last five years.” So the former bishop of Woolwich informs us.

All over the world, many sincere people are distressed at the overwhelming evidence of the failure of their churches and the admission of failure on the part of their church leaders. Falling church attendances in many countries show that crowds of church members have quit attending church. Others, still nominal members, have ceased to take seriously what the churches do or say and no longer look to them for guidance on the serious problems of life.

HAS GOD FAILED?

What does all this mean? Does the failure of the orthodox religions mean that God is dead? Does the failure of “churchianity” mean also the failure of Christianity?

No, indeed. There is a God who is the Creator, and man’s delinquency and failure have not changed this indisputable truth. But how can we be sure of this when institutions claiming to represent God, and which formerly stood apparently “rocklike” and immovable, are shaking and trembling like leaves in an autumn wind?

We can be grateful that creation still testifies in a wonderful way to God’s existence. “For his invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship.” (Rom. 1:20) Natural laws, which have stood unchanged since the creation, still hold good throughout the universe. Men reaching out to conquer space recognize this as true. In planning their journeys to the moon they must take fully into account these unalterable and unchallengeable laws, or face disaster. In the midst of religious confusion, the continuation of these unchangeable laws proves that neither has their Creator changed.

But could it be, as some fear, that God, although still in existence, has lost interest in the human race? Not at all. The evidence is to the contrary. For example, when humans tire of other humans, they cease providing for them and abandon them. But our Grand Creator is still providing for all of us in a most wonderful way, even for the godless and ungrateful ones. The sun still shines, the rain falls, the seasons turn and the food grows. All these forces of creation were set in motion by God.

Think what this means to us. It means that our life is sustained because of the processes that Jehovah originated. We have air to breathe and food to eat because of God. If he were to cut off his power or the processes that he originated, what would happen to all human life? So in our daily lives, our eating and drinking and other pursuits, we should be aware of God’s never-failing interest in us and his kindly provisions for us in so many ways. When we really appreciate this we can readily accept the apostle Paul’s counsel to us: “Whether you are eating or drinking or doing anything else, do all things for God’s glory.”—1 Cor. 10:31.

Perhaps you will reply: “But I always believed I was living my life ‘for God’s glory’ by sincerely following my religion and going to church. Now that people are turning away from churches, and ministers are admitting failure, I am confused. How do I know what God wants me to do when my church cannot tell me? Does Almighty God really communicate with humans, revealing who he is and what his purposes are?”

HOW GOD SPEAKS TO US

Yes, indeed, the living Creator of all things speaks to us as a Father speaks to his children. He hides no good thing from us. He speaks to us clearly and authoritatively, answering our natural questions and pointing out the way we must walk to please him. How? Through his revealed Word the Bible.—2 Tim. 3:16, 17.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, said: “Your word is truth.” (John 17:17) Jesus knew what truth was, for he had come forth from the God of truth and was able to explain God to his followers accurately. (John 1:18) It was because Jesus faithfully taught the Word of God that his teaching had power, changed the lives of his followers, and has endured almost two thousand years until our day. Those who heard him recognized the power of his words. On one occasion officers, who were sent by religious priests to arrest Jesus, returned empty-handed, saying: “Never has another man spoken like this.” At the end of his famous sermon on the mount we are told: “Now when Jesus finished these sayings, the effect was that the crowds were astounded at his way of teaching; for he was teaching them as a person having authority, and not as their scribes.”—John 7:46; Matt. 7:28, 29.

Yes, when Jesus was on earth many had lost faith in their religious leaders who had left the Word of God for human philosophies. But those honest-hearted ones who longed to know God’s will for them gladly turned to Jesus, recognizing the ring of truth in his teaching of God’s Word the Bible. In the same way, if you have been discouraged by religious leaders who claim to represent God but who no longer believe or teach his Word, it does not mean that you too must reject the Bible.

You may have seen for yourself how sterile and outdated are church dogmas and creeds, and you may have been repulsed by the artificiality of church pomp and show. But did you know that the Bible itself is the most outspoken critic of false religion? Read Jesus’ condemnation of the false religious leaders, as recorded at Matthew 15:1-14. Among other things he said: “Isaiah aptly prophesied about you, when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. It is in vain that they keep worshiping me.’” No wonder he advised his disciples: “Let them be. Blind guides is what they are. If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

So, please, do not follow such blind guides. Follow the Word of God, which is ‘a lamp to your foot, and a light to your roadway.’ The Word of God will never lead you into a pit!—Ps. 119:105.

THE BIBLE A TRUE GUIDE TODAY

Although it is acknowledged even by non-Christians that the Bible contains fine moral principles, you may still be wondering whether you can accept it as a true guide in your life today. Is not the Bible out-of-date? Was it not written long ago in totally different times? Can it really tell us what is going to be the outcome of the turbulent times in which we live?

Surprising as it may seem, you yourself have been an eyewitness of events that prove conclusively that the Bible is the surest and most up-to-date guide we have today. You can prove this to your own satisfaction by opening your own Bible to Matthew chapters 24 and 25, Mark 13, Luke 21, 2 Timothy 3 and Revelation 6 and reading there an accurate and detailed description of conditions that have swept the entire inhabited earth in the past fifty-five years. Do you know any human today who can accurately foretell events like this almost two thousand years in advance, or, for that matter, twenty years ahead? Any reasonable person must agree that these writings are of suprahuman origin.

Honestly, has there ever been another time in human history when world war was a reality, and the complete destruction of the human race a distinct possibility? Does not the description of lawlessness, lovelessness, Godlessness, insecurity, fear of the future and hopelessness found in the above chapters fit our own generation?

Then is the future truly hopeless? Not at all, for Jesus said: “But as these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near. In this way you also, when you see these things occurring, know that the kingdom of God is near.” (Luke 21:28, 31) Notice, too, how close this world-changing event is: “Truly I say to you, This generation will by no means pass away until all things occur.” (Luke 21:32) The long-awaited kingdom of God is now at hand and will transform this beautiful earth of ours into a paradise like Eden. And all of this before the generation that saw the beginning of these turbulent events in 1914 passes off the scene!

Do you fully appreciate what this means to you and your family? Your life and theirs are now in the balance. Your present and future happiness is bound up with a right relationship with God. How can you build a fine relationship with your Creator? What does he require of you?

First, you must believe in the existence of God and you must have strong faith in Him. “Without faith it is impossible to please him well, for he that approaches God must believe that he is and that he becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.” (Heb. 11:6) That is not unreasonable, is it? God would hardly reward a person who did not even believe in His existence, would he? But how can you build faith? By taking in knowledge of God, by studying his Word the Bible. (Rom. 10:17; John 17:3) Are you taking time to do this? Are you willing to do so?

Of course, you may well feel that a study of the Bible is a very big task. You may wonder how you could do it without help. Where can you turn for help in getting life-giving understanding of God’s Word? Certainly not to churches that are rejecting the Bible and its upright standards.

Would you be willing to accept the help of Christians who hold the Bible to be inspired and true? Jehovah’s witnesses believe this. Their entire faith is built upon this revealed Word of God, the whole book from Genesis to Revelation. Each week they hold five meetings based entirely on the Bible. They can help you and your family to learn what you need to know for your present peace of mind and your hope for the future. If you would like them to provide you with a free, six-month course of basic Bible study in your own home, you need only write to the publishers of this magazine and it will be arranged at a mutually convenient time. You are also invited to share with them in worship at your nearest Kingdom Hall. In addition to a warm welcome, you will get a clear understanding of the Bible and the way to life in God’s new order now near at hand.

Do not be dismayed by the crumbling decay of Christendom’s churches. They are reaping what they have sown. (Gal. 6:7) The abandoning of the Bible as God’s Word by the churches is causing thousands to leave their organizations in disillusionment. “They have rejected the very word of Jehovah, and what wisdom do they have?” (Jer. 8:9) You cannot be pleasing to God if you remain a part of churches that reject Him and His Word and support them. They are doomed to destruction at God’s hand, and his command to you is to “get out” of them.—Rev. 18:4.

The failure of the churches does not mean that God is wrong! It means that men and organizations that reject God’s Word are wrong! God has not changed. His promises cannot fail. (Isa. 55:11; 1 Pet. 1:24, 25) So, search his Word now. Study it, accept it, exercise faith in Jehovah, and so be found among those who will live forever on a paradise earth in the joy and happiness of His kingdom.

[Footnotes]

London Evening News, October 13, 1969, under “Why the Church Is Losing Its Hold.”

Questions That People Ask About Jehovah’s Witnesses

THE remarkable growth of Jehovah’s witnesses in recent years has attracted the attention of news writers the world over. While unbiased accounts are often written about their growth, yet news reporters seldom seem able to state accurately what Jehovah’s witnesses believe. Therefore, many persons ask the Witnesses directly, or write to the Watch Tower Society, wanting to know what Jehovah’s witnesses really believe. Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.

In this day when attitudes toward the Bible are changing, what attitude do Jehovah’s witnesses have toward the Bible?

Jehovah’s witnesses believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, God’s revelation to mankind. They are convinced that the Bible is authentic, reliable and the only guide that leads to everlasting life. It is their textbook. They study it and use it until they know how to find the principle, the proverb or example that fits the need or the problem of the moment. To Jehovah’s witnesses the Bible is the Book of the Creator, in which God tells his creatures about creation, about Himself, about His rules of life—rules that are simple and practical. The Bible proves itself to be the revelation of the true God. No other book can do that.—2 Tim. 3:16, 17; 1 Thess. 2:13.

What is the basic difference between Jehovah’s witnesses and other religions?

Jehovah’s witnesses truly believe what the Bible says and try to live according to its principles. Others may say that they believe God’s Word, but do they? Does their manner of life show it? Because they believe the Bible, Jehovah’s witnesses also believe that the end of this wicked system of things is very near, and so they are busily engaged in warning people of this fact. They believe that, after the wicked ones are destroyed, under God’s heavenly rule people are going to live forever in perfect health here on this earth restored to paradisaic conditions. This is God’s promise, and Jehovah’s witnesses believe it.—Ps. 37:9-11, 29.

Why do Jehovah’s witnesses call on the homes of people who already have a religion of their own?

Because Jehovah’s witnesses believe that it is the will of God that they do so. Jesus Christ visited the people at their homes to talk to them about God and his purposes, even though many of them had views on religion that were different from what Jesus taught. Since he instructed his followers to do the same, Jehovah’s witnesses consider it imperative that they follow his example closely. (1 Pet. 2:21; Matt. 10:11-15; Acts 5:42; 20:20) Their calling on people at their homes is a fine thing, because people need to learn of God’s marvelous purposes. Jehovah’s witnesses want people to know that God is going to bring an end to wicked conditions in the earth and replace them with righteousness by means of his perfect, heavenly Kingdom government. The time for that to happen is very near; it is to occur in this generation. People must be warned of this fact and be told what to do to receive God’s protection and blessing. The churches of Christendom are not teaching people these vital Bible truths.—Dan. 2:44; Matt. 24:14, 34.

Why does the Watch Tower literature have so much to say against other religions?

Why is there so much written about cigarette smoking and other forms of pollution today? Simply because many persons are not fully aware of the dangers of these things to humanity. Many persons are not aware that there is such a thing as false religion and the danger it poses to them individually. How many are aware that adhering to false religion can mean their eternal destruction? How many know that false religion has been responsible for much of the ignorance, poverty and wars down through the ages; that it has denied people their rights, opportunities and freedoms? Some clergymen today condone fornication, adultery, homosexuality, wars and violence—the very things that God strongly condemns in his Word. Are true Christians going to stand by quietly and say nothing about such gross misrepresentations? Hardly! Speak out they will, as did the prophets and Jesus Christ and his disciples.—Mal. 1:6-9; Matt. 23:13-36; 2 Cor. 10:4, 5.

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The Watchtower, April 15, 1970