The Watchtower, November 15, 1972

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The Watchtower — November 15, 1972

Source: jw.org

Contents

Beware of Complacency!

They Recognized the Truth

Producing the Chief Agent of Divine Rulership

Following the Chief Agent of Divine Rulership

Water Baptism’s Connection with Salvation

Persistence

Pittsburgh Meeting Points Up Urgency of the Times

Questions From Readers

You Can Enjoy Happiness in a Paradise Earth

Beware of Complacency!

Beware of Complacency!

HAVE you ever said, when spoken to by a student of the Bible: ‘I feel that religion is a personal thing, not to be discussed. I don’t want to get my mind all stirred up, confused’? Do you prefer to be complacent? Yet Jesus Christ himself said of our times:

“Pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be instantly upon you as a snare. For it will come in upon all those dwelling upon the face of all the earth. Keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man.”​—Luke 21:34-36.

Of course, complacency and contentment, with peace of mind, can be good. But complacency that relies on unfounded hopes or ideas can be most dangerous.

For example, there is no wisdom in sitting in one’s home in a complacent attitude when storm and evacuation warnings are coming over the radio. Certainly the Bible proverb has proved true toward many of such complacent, unheeding persons: “The simpleton turns a deaf ear and comes to grief, and the stupid are ruined by their own complacency.”​—Prov. 1:32, The New English Bible.

Some may argue with regard to warnings as citizens in some recently flooded areas did. Said a report: “A complacent public, thinking itself protected because of levees and other flood control works built after the famous ‘hundred year flood’ of 1946, ignored the warnings that a worse flood might be yet to come.”

But what about a warning of divine origin, particularly if that warning had been given over a period of years, and if an unbiased examination of the facts proved that the warning was justified? Would complacency then not be even more foolish?

IS CHRISTENDOM NEAR COLLAPSE?

There is such a warning, and that warning is of the collapse of the religions of Christendom, together with the fabric of society into which these religions are interwoven. But do the facts justify such a warning and the need to forsake a complacent attitude, if a person belongs to one of these church systems?

Well, consider the record of the churches. Have they truly raised the moral standards of the people, even of their own members? Rather, have they not gone along with the world, abandoning Bible standards and lowering themselves to the point that to follow them would be no different from following any worldly organization? Have the churches proved able to make their members different, or better equipped to live more decent, moral lives?

What about politics, nationalistic divisions, and war? The religions of Christendom have not warned the people of the danger, in fact, the hopelessness of relying on men. Instead, they have backed man-rule and promoted nationalism. In many cases they have gone so far as to direct their members as to whom to vote for in political elections. They have fomented and encouraged wholesale slaughter of men, including civilian populations, in sanguinary warfare.

Consequently, should a person belonging to a religion in the so-called Christian part of the world feel that he is safe? Should he believe that, no matter what happens, Christendom cannot fall, to his own loss?

DANGER OF COMPLACENCY ILLUSTRATED

If anyone tends to be complacent and unheeding toward the warning message that calamity is about to come upon Christendom, let him consider a Bible illustration that should shake such a one from his complacency.

The illustration is one that would hardly be used today, especially in the Western world. Nevertheless, it is as forceful and pictorially accurate as an illustration can be.

This illustration was given to the prophet Ezekiel only about five years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Ezekiel, in vision, saw twenty-five complacent men. They were princes of Jerusalem. As prominent men of the city, counselors of the king, they were giving bad counsel to Jerusalem. Not only were they going contrary to the warnings given by the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, but they were very likely encouraging King Zedekiah to rebel against Babylon and break the covenant that he had made under oath before God. (2 Chron. 36:11-13; 2 Ki. 24:18 to 25:1) They were relying on the military power of Egypt, the ‘arm of flesh,’ to save them. For it was within the three years after Ezekiel’s vision (612 B.C.E.) that King Zedekiah did rebel, with their approval.

God actually said this to Ezekiel in the vision and illustration he gave the prophet. Ezekiel reports:

“And a spirit proceeded to lift me up and bring me to the eastern gate of the house of Jehovah that is facing eastward, and, look! in the entrance of the gate there were twenty-five men, and I got to see in the midst of them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. Then he [Jehovah] said to me: ‘Son of man, these are the men that are scheming hurtfulness and advising bad counsel against this city; that are saying, “Is not the building of houses close at hand? She is the widemouthed cooking pot, and we are the flesh.”’”​—Ezek. 11:1-3.

These governmental princes and counselors of King Zedekiah felt complacent inside the strongly fortified Jerusalem. The city walls were like the sides of a metallic pot, unbreachable, as they thought. Like flesh cooking inside an iron pot, they would not be taken out, dispossessed. The counselors felt that they could ensure their permanent residence by appealing to the king of Egypt for help against Babylon. So they reasoned that it was time to build houses, with long-term occupancy in view.

These complacent, overconfident ones and the rest of the people in Jerusalem needed warning. Therefore God commanded Ezekiel to give a prophecy that proved to be very pointed and powerful. Jehovah said:

“‘You people said the right thing, O house of Israel; and as regards the things that come up in your spirit, I myself have known it. You have caused your slain ones in this city to be many, and you have filled her streets with the slain ones.”’ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘As regards your slain ones whom you people have put in the midst of her, they are the flesh, and she is the widemouthed cooking pot; and there will be a bringing forth of you yourselves out of the midst of her.’”​—Ezek. 11:5-7.

These men had gone so far as even to kill off those in the city who favored continued submission to Babylon. But God showed that, instead of these princes staying inside Jerusalem, as they supposed, it was the ones they had killed who would stay there. It would be the overconfident princes that would be dragged out of their homes by the Babylonians. They would see their houses burned before they fell by the sword of the king of Babylon. Ezekiel said to those princes:

“‘A sword you have feared, and a sword I shall bring upon you,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. ‘And I shall certainly bring you forth out of the midst of her and give you into the hand of strangers and execute upon you acts of judgment. By the sword you will fall. . . . On the border of Israel I shall judge you, and you will have to know that I am Jehovah, because in my regulations you did not walk and my judgments you did not do, but according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you, you have done.’”​—Ezek. 11:8-12.

Of course, these words show that Jehovah would really be the one executing judgment on these complacent schemers. But in doing so he would use the “sword” in the hands of foreign “strangers,” the Babylonians, to do the actual killing. Those who survived the “sword” would not be safe inside the walls of that symbolic “pot,” Jerusalem. Dragged outside, they would be judged “on the border of Israel.” And it took place that way. It was at the northern tip of that territory that had been conquered by King David, namely, at Riblah toward Hamath, that the following occurred:

“Furthermore, the chief of the bodyguard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three doorkeepers, and from the city he took one court official that happened to be commissioner over the men of war, and seven men of those having access to the king, who were found in the city, and the secretary of the chief of the army, the one mustering the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city. So these Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard took and conducted them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. And these the king of Babylon proceeded to strike down and to put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah went into exile from off its soil.”​—Jer. 52:24-27.

JEHOVAH NOT COMPLACENT TOWARD COVENANT BREAKERS

Jehovah thereby showed that he is the unfailing Covenant Keeper. He is not complacent about the agreements he makes. He lives up to them to the letter, and he will not ignore those who are untrue to their agreements and who disobey God’s laws and complacently feel that it makes no difference, and that they are safe. He said with plainspokenness to those complacent ones in Jerusalem: “I shall judge you.” Why? “Because in my regulations you did not walk and my judgments you did not do, but according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you, you have done.”​—Ezek. 11:11, 12.

Has modern-day Christendom, like ancient Israel, professed to be in covenant relationship with God? Yes. She has distributed millions of copies of the Bible in more than a thousand languages. These Bibles have established his divine name as being Jehovah or Yahweh. She claims her mediator between this God and men to be Jesus Christ the Son of God, and that she is in the “new covenant” with God. (Jer. 31:31-34; Luke 22:20; 1 Tim. 2:5, 6) However, she has violated his laws, broken her covenant with God. In addition to her bloodguilt she has condoned immorality among her church members, and declared that God is dead, that he has no interest in men and has no part in the historical record. Her clergymen say, in effect, that he has forgotten his new covenant. When warning is presented to them they ignore it, even scoff at it. (2 Pet. 3:3, 4) Like the counselors of King Zedekiah of Judah, they prophesy good things for Christendom’s religious, political and commercial establishments, telling the people to put their trust in the ‘arm of flesh,’ and actually causing their church members and others to sit back complacently.​—Jer. 6:14.

Christendom does not have a stone wall around her as ancient Jerusalem did. Nevertheless, her clergymen and leaders may feel as Jerusalem’s princes did, that she is in a safe place, just as flesh inside the confines of an iron vessel. Her “wall” is that in which she puts her trust, the military might of the nations. She advocates man-rule, especially through a world organization such as the United Nations. In fact, the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America called its predecessor the League of Nations “the political expression of the kingdom of God on earth.”

Will Jehovah do anything about Christendom’s actions that have defamed his name? Will he shake the false religious leaders as well as those politicians who claim that the nations they are leading are Christian nations? Will they be jolted from their complacent attitude? Note what happened in Ezekiel’s case:

“And it came about that as soon as I prophesied Pelatiah the son of Benaiah himself died, and I proceeded to fall upon my face and cry with a loud voice and say: ‘Alas, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah! Is it an extermination that you are executing with the remaining ones of Israel?’”​—Ezek. 11:13.

In the vision, what was it that caused Pelatiah the prince to drop dead after Ezekiel had prophesied and served notice upon the twenty-five “princes of the people”? According to what he cried out in fear, the prophet Ezekiel took it to be a direct execution of judgment from Jehovah. He took it as a sign not only of impending death for the other twenty-four princes, but, alas! also of a coming extermination of all the “remaining ones of Israel.” He did not, however, challenge God’s right to exterminate them all.

Seeing how God viewed these men in Jerusalem who broke his covenant and complacently considered themselves safe in their materialistic trust in secular power, how does God view Christendom and her leaders? Will he let them continue to say “God is dead,” ignore the laws of his new covenant in which they claim to be joined to him, and ridicule the warning from his Word the Bible, now being publicly declared?

If anyone has tended to be complacent, not really serving God and paying no attention to his Word or the warning of the nearness of the ‘great tribulation,’ he should beware! He should awake from any sleepy, lethargic state, sit up and give immediate heed to what God has to say. If not, God will be acting entirely in harmony with justice and righteousness in destroying him at the coming crisis upon this world.

QUESTIONS DESERVING ANSWER

Just as Ezekiel feared the destruction of all Jehovah’s covenant people during the threatening destruction of Jerusalem, a similar fear might be excited in the hearts of religiously minded persons who do not appreciate the distinction between Christendom and true Christianity. Does Christendom’s attitude toward God and her failure mean that Christianity has failed?

Thinking on these things, a person might fearfully be moved to ask the question, ‘If in the coming “great tribulation” upon the whole system of things Jehovah exterminates all of Christendom and her worldly allies, will this mean the destruction of true Christianity as a whole?’

There are those who would like to have it so. Communist and other radical elements who hate the Christianity of the Bible would like to share in wiping out, not only the hypocritical Christianity of Christendom, but also the “pure religion,” the true Christian worship of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.​—Jas. 1:27, Authorized Version.

Will these irreligious radicals have the satisfaction of seeing Christianity erased from the earth? Or will there be a definite line of demarcation between the hypocritical false religion and true Christianity, so that Christianity will survive? Remembering that, though secular powers will be used in destroying Christendom, it is really God’s judgment that is being executed, we will look forward to what the prophet Ezekiel next heard from God. This will be discussed in a forthcoming issue of this magazine. In the meantime, sincere persons will not be complacent, but will be searching to see what God’s will is for them, that they may determine in what way, if any, God has provided for survival.

They Recognized the Truth

They Recognized the Truth

ABOUT 1,900 years ago many honest-hearted Jewish priests accepted the truth proclaimed by the followers of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us: “The word of God went on growing, and the number of the disciples kept multiplying in Jerusalem very much; and a great crowd of priests began to be obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7) Also today numerous clergymen are responding favorably to the activity of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses.

In a Latin-American country, a man who came to a small city to shop obtained literature from Jehovah’s witnesses. He and his family had some difficulty in understanding it. So they asked their Pentecostal clergyman for an explanation, but he was unable to help them. For this reason they requested that one of Jehovah’s witnesses come to help them. The Witness who responded to their invitation was greeted warmly by a group of twenty-two persons, including the clergyman, assembled in the church. They wanted to know about Christ’s coming. After an hour and ten minutes of Biblical discussion on this subject, they voiced their agreement, acknowledging that everything was clear.

The following week the Witness delivered the discourse “Who Are Jehovah’s Witnesses?” Those hearing this talk understood that true Christians should be bearers of the name “Jehovah.” Arrangements were made to study the Bible with the aid of the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life. Shortly afterward the clergyman said he wanted to get baptized because he realized that his former baptism was valueless. He was baptized in February of 1971 and eight former church members are sharing with him in proclaiming to others the things they have learned from the Bible.

Producing the Chief Agent of Divine Rulership

Producing the Chief Agent of Divine Rulership

“God exalted this one as Chief Agent and Savior to his right hand, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”​—Acts 5:31.

1. Why will it not work out in salvation for us if we ignore the Chief Agent of Divine Rulership?

THE ONE whom the Divine Ruler of the universe exalts to be his Chief Agent and a Savior we cannot afford to ignore. If we ignored that Chief Agent and tried to come to the Divine Ruler in worship, it would not work out in salvation for us. It is only by means of his Chief Agent that the Divine Ruler gives to us the means for gaining salvation to perfect life and happiness in the blessed new order that the Divine Ruler has promised. People everywhere need to know this vital fact.

2. In view of what recent action by the Jerusalem Sánhedrin did that judicial court need to know that fact?

2 Nineteen hundred years ago the highest religious dignitaries in Jerusalem needed to know that fact. Those men made up the supreme judicial court of the land, the Sánhedrin. In a judgment handed down some weeks previous, they had condemned that much-disputed person, Jesus Christ, to death. Before them they now had the twelve leading followers of that controversial person. On the witness stand Simon Peter and the other eleven followers told the Court that the man whom they had condemned to death was made God’s “Chief Agent and Savior.” In response to a Court order they said:

3. In response to the order of the Sándedrin, what did those twelve followers of the condemned man say about obedience and the Chief Agent?

3 “We must obey God as ruler rather than men. The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew, hanging him upon a stake. God exalted this one as Chief Agent and Savior to his right hand, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these matters, and so is the holy spirit, which God has given to those obeying him as ruler.”​—Acts 5:29-32.

4. The one exalted to be Chief Agent and Savior was to give what to Israel, and according to what covenant of God?

4 Let the high court of Jerusalem like it or not, that impaled Jesus was alive from the dead, even at God’s right hand, and thus able to act as the Chief Agent and Savior for the Divine Ruler, in behalf of the nation of Israel. A “Chief Agent and Savior,” to do what? “To give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” This “forgiveness of sins” was to be according to a “new covenant” that the Divine Ruler had promised to establish with his chosen people.​—Jer. 31:31-34; Luke 22:20.

5. (a) Before Jesus’ death, by whom had repentance been preached to Israel? (b) What questions were now pertinent as to repentance and forgiveness of sins and the relationship of the members of the Sánhedrin to God?

5 That Jerusalem Court knew that before the appearance of Jesus Christ on the earthly scene, John the Baptist had preached: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” Then, after John the Baptist was imprisoned, this Jesus Christ whom John had baptized took up the same message, saying: “Repent, you people, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” (Matt. 3:1, 2, 13-17; 4:12-17) This continued down till Jesus’ death under the instigation of the Jerusalem Sánhedrin Court. Was there now any difference in the matter of repentance on Israel’s part? What were the sins that were to be forgiven? Were not the members of the Court given good cause for thought by the words of Simon Peter before them? How was their relationship with God now affected? Did this relationship rest on the same basis as before? Let us see.

6. How did Jehovah become obliged to redeem his people Israel out of Egypt, and how did he do so?

6 The nation of Israel came into existence down in the land of Egypt, during the 215 years of sojourn of Jacob (Israel) and his descendants down there. (Gen. 49:28-33) Sometime after the death of the Egyptian prime minister Joseph, the son of Jacob, the Israelites were brought into slavery, and an attempt was made to wipe out the nation. Then at God’s own foretold time he brought these descendants of Jacob (Israel) “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.” This was after God had ordered them to celebrate a new Supper, the Passover supper, there in Egypt on Nisan 14 of the year 1513 B.C.E. On the evening of that day the Passover lamb was slaughtered and its blood was splashed upon the doorposts and lintels of the Israelite houses, and it was then roasted whole and eaten behind blood-marked closed doorways. God accepted the sacrifice of that Passover lamb and delivered them from Egypt after their sacrificial supper. He had, as it were, purchased them through that sacrificed Passover lamb. (Ex. 12:1 to 13:18) Thus the nation of Israel was a people “whom God went to redeem to himself as a people.”​—2 Sam. 7:23.

7, 8. (a) How, at the Red Sea, did God further establish his ownership of the people of Israel? (b) What did Jehovah proceed to enter into with Israel at Mount Sinai, and what did he tell Moses to say as a proposal?

7 Under the leadership of the prophet Moses, God led the redeemed Israelites safely through the waters of the Red Sea but drowned behind them the Egyptian army that was in pursuit. (Ex. 14:1 to 15:21) This miraculous deliverance of the nation of Israel established all the more God’s ownership of them; they really belonged to him. In the third lunar month (Sivan) after their coming out of the land of Egypt, God brought them to the foot of Mount Sinai on the Arabian Peninsula. The prophet Moses, as the mediator between God and the nation of Israel, went up into Mount Sinai (Horeb) to deal with God in behalf of this redeemed people. Now steps were taken to establish a covenant, that is, a solemn, validated contract, between God and this redeemed people of Israel. Note what God told Moses to tell the people:

8 “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, that I might carry you on wings of eagles and bring you to myself. And now if you will strictly obey my voice and will indeed keep my covenant, then you will certainly become my special property out of all other peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me. And you yourselves will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”​—Ex. 19:3-6.

9. Did God proceed on the basis of his right, to bring Israel into a holy covenant with him, or how did he handle the matter?

9 In that way the obligations of the covenant were clearly stated and the covenant was given a definite purpose, to produce a “kingdom of priests,” a “holy nation,” belonging to God. Here it is not to be overlooked that God did not force this covenant upon the nation of Israel. He did not say: ‘I have redeemed you from slavery in Egypt and I have also delivered you from the waters of the Red Sea, and therefore you belong to me by right and purchase. I can do with you what I want, and what I say goes as law and you will have to obey it.’ Instead, what God instructed Moses to tell the people indicates that God wanted to know whether his redeemed people desired, were willing, to enter into a holy covenant with him. Rather than dictatorially, tyrannically, force a covenant upon them, God waited for them to express their will in the matter. No willingness on their part, no covenant!

THE EXPRESSED WILL OF THE REDEEMED PEOPLE AWAITED

10. Why did that covenant require a mediator, and what human factor did God recognize in the matter?

10 This was to be a bilateral covenant, that is to say, a solemn contract or engagement between two parties. Inasmuch as it was to be a covenant between the Most Holy God and imperfect, sinful human creatures who had inherited condemnation and death from Adam and Eve, this covenant required a mediator, whom God recognized as righteous because of faith, namely, Moses the son of Amram the Levite. (Gal. 3:19, 20) God, the one Party, showed his desire to enter into the covenant, but now, what was the will of the other party that was invited to enter into the covenant? The formal inaugurating of the covenant between God and Israel waited upon the expression of the will of the invited lesser party. To such an extent as this God recognized human will.

11. What attitude did Israel express toward the proposed covenant, and before that expression to Jehovah, what did Jehovah not state to them?

11 What attitude did the people, who were here represented by their national elders, assume toward the proffered covenant? The Bible record says: “So Moses came and called the older men of the people and set before them all these words that Jehovah had commanded him. After that all the people answered unanimously and said: ‘All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do.’ Immediately Moses took back the words of the people to Jehovah.” (Ex. 19:7, 8) Before Jehovah God received that expression of willingness on the part of the people, he did not state to them from the top of Mount Sinai the Ten Commandments, the fundamental laws of the proposed Law covenant.​—Ex. 19:9 to 20:22.

12. (a) So what was it left to the people to do about the covenant? (b) What shall we call that act of the Israelites toward the covenant, and what descriptive term is expressed in Romans 6:13?

12 It was left to the people to express their free choice, either to accept or to reject the divine proposal. It was left to them to decide with free moral agency either to become Jehovah’s “special property out of all other peoples” or to refuse to become such because of the terms laid down. So, when this redeemed people answered as one man to the divine proposal, “All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do,” or, literally, “we shall be doing,” what were they doing? What shall we call that act of theirs, in other words? Is it too much to say that it was a committing of themselves to Jehovah God to do his will as spoken by Him? Does it parallel what the Christian apostle Paul said to the Christian congregation in Rome: “Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, also your members to God as weapons of righteousness”? (Rom. 6:13) An American Translation renders this stronger, saying: “Offer yourselves to God.” The New English Bible: “Put yourselves at the disposal of God.” The Revised Standard Version: “Yield yourselves to God.” Moffatt’s A New Translation: “You must dedicate yourselves to God.”

13, 14. (a) Why was it that Jehovah offered to them the covenant rather than force it upon Israel, and, by their response, what were they in effect doing? (b) When did they reaffirm their will, and what did they thus become to Jehovah?

13 Jehovah did not use heavy persuasion with the Israelites, saying: ‘I have redeemed you from Egypt and I have delivered you from the Red Sea. Moreover, you are the natural seed of Abraham my friend. Therefore you must enter into this covenant with me.’ True, it was for those reasons that God offered to them a covenant relationship with him, and he did set an inviting prospect before them for entering the covenant. But it rested with the Israelites to choose whether to become the people of Jehovah as their God. Accordingly, when they said: “All that Jehovah has spoken we shall be doing,” they were dedicating themselves to Jehovah to be His people, to do His will that was to be set out in the covenant. Later, after the giving of the Ten Commandments and then the delivery of a set of laws to Moses, the covenant was validated over the blood of animal victims. And thereby the Israelites became the dedicated people of God in a binding covenant with Jehovah God. On that occasion, even with better knowledge, the people reaffirmed their determination to do Jehovah’s will, for the record at Exodus 24:7, 8 tells us:

14 “Finally he [Moses] took the book of the covenant and read it in the ears of the people. Then they said: ‘All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do and be obedient.’ So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people and said: ‘Here is the blood of the covenant that Jehovah has concluded with you as respects all these words.”’​—See also Hebrews 9:18-20.

15. Of how long a duration was that covenant, and upon whom was it binding?

15 That covenant, inaugurated with those members of that redeemed people there at Mount Sinai, was not only binding upon those present but binding also upon their fleshly, natural descendants. It was a “covenant to time indefinite.” (Lev. 24:8) This put all their natural descendants in a covenant relationship with God for as long as the covenant endured. As a consequence those Israelites who were born in the wilderness after the inaugurating of that covenant at Mount Sinai were in that covenant with God in the fortieth and last year of their enforced wandering in the wilderness. So they continued to be a dedicated people or nation.

16. On the plains of Moab, how did many choose not to remain in covenant relationship with Jehovah?

16 However, in that final year (1473 B.C.E.) thousands of members of that dedicated nation did not choose to remain in covenant relationship with Jehovah. They proved this on the plains of Moab. In Moses’ account of this we read, in Numbers 25:1-5:

“Now Israel was dwelling in Shittim. Then the people started to have immoral relations with the daughters of Moab. And the women came calling the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people began to eat and to bow down to their gods. So Israel attached itself [or, Israel paired themselves off, AT; or, Israel yoked himself, RS] to the Baal of Peor; and the anger of Jehovah began to blaze against Israel.

“Hence Jehovah said to Moses: ‘Take all the head ones of the people and expose them to Jehovah toward the sun, that the burning anger of Jehovah may turn back from Israel.’ Then Moses said to the judges of Israel: ‘Each one of you kill his men who have an attachment [who paired themselves off, AT; yoked themselves, RS] with the Baal of Peor.’”​—NW; Mo.

17. (a) How many died there for breaking their covenant with Jehovah? (b) How does Jehovah, at Hosea 9:10, speak of their attaching themselves to the Baal of Peor?

17 There were twenty-four thousand who died as a result of this breaking of their engagement to do “all that Jehovah has spoken.” (Num. 25:9; 1 Cor. 10:8) More than seven hundred years later Jehovah referred to this shocking incident, by means of his prophet Hosea. He first tells how desirable the nation of Israel was to him and then tells how it was that many Israelites made themselves disgusting to him. Jehovah says: “Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel. Like the early fig on a fig tree in its beginning I saw the forefathers of you people. They themselves went in to Baal of Peor, and they proceeded to dedicate themselves to the shameful thing, and they came to be disgusting like the thing of their love.” (Hos. 9:10, NW; AT) Moffatt’s Bible translation says: “They devoted themselves to Baal the Infamous.” (Also Leeser’s) Because it was from Jehovah God that those Israelites were separating themselves to go over to another deity, the Revised Standard Version says: “They . . . consecrated themselves to Baal.” (Also American Standard Version; New American Bible; New English Bible)

18. (a) How does the Jewish Publication Society translation of Hosea 9:10 bring out the disloyalty of their act toward Jehovah? (b) How is the disloyalty brought out in connection with the same Hebrew word in Ezekiel 14:7, 8?

18 Those unfaithful Israelites had been dedicated to the only living and true God, but now they separated themselves from Him to devote or dedicate themselves to Baal. To bring out that disloyal act, the Jewish Publication Society Bible says: “They separated themselves unto the shameful thing.” The vital Hebrew verb here is na·zarʹ, and is used in connection with what a Jewish Nazirite did when he specially separated himself to God. (Num. 6:1-8) In the days of the prophet Ezekiel, shortly before the first destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., there were many Israelites who acted similarly to what the unfaithful Israelites did in the days of Moses on the plains of Moab. In regard to such disloyal ones Jehovah said to the prophet Ezekiel:

“Any man at all from the house of Israel or from the alien residents that reside as aliens in Israel, that withdraws himself [na·zarʹ] from following me and that brings up his dungy idols upon his heart and that sets the very stumbling block causing his error in front of his face . . . I must cut him off from the midst of my people; and you people will have to know that I am Jehovah.”​—Ezek. 14:7, 8.

19. (a) Does the dedication of those disloyal Israelites to the Baal of Peor involve any other dedication? (b) Instead of speaking of a separating of themselves to Baal of Peor, what does Numbers 25:3 definitely say?

19 Thus the very language indicates that those separatist Israelites were first in a covenant relationship with Jehovah God, into which relationship their forefathers had brought them by saying to the mediator Moses: “All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do and be obedient.” (Ex. 24:7; 19:8) But now, by forsaking the covenant and going over to idolatry, they were breaking their dedication to Jehovah and dedicating themselves to the thing idolized. Numbers 25:3, instead of speaking of Israel’s separating itself to Baal, says definitely: “So Israel attached itself [yoked himself, RS; AS; let himself be bound, Ro; joined himself, Yg;a Mo; Le; Je;b also Nu 25 verse 5] to the Baal of Peor.” This should be a warning to us today, if any of us have any relationship with Jehovah God. (1 Cor. 10:6, 11) We do not desire to commit the same fatal mistake. It would mean disloyalty to or rebellion against divine rulership.

LEADING THE WAY TO A NEW COVENANT

20. (a) Why was that first covenant not faultless, and so what did this allow for? (b) Through what prophet was the new covenant foretold, and what did Moses say about the better mediator?

20 The covenant that Jehovah made through Moses with the dedicated people of Israel was a “covenant to time indefinite.” That covenant entered into at Mount Sinai was not faultless, because of the imperfection of the Israelites and their mediator Moses. It allowed place, therefore, for a better covenant, a new covenant. Accordingly Jehovah God purposed a new covenant, and the privilege of entering into this second covenant was to be offered to the nation of natural Israel. More than six hundred years before this new covenant was inaugurated through a new mediator, Jehovah foretold it through the prophet Jeremiah in the seventh century before the coming of that better Mediator. (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:6-13) The coming of this better and greater Mediator was foretold by the prophet Moses, and he said that this coming mediator would be raised up from among the Israelites; he would be a natural Israelite.​—Deut. 18:15-19; Acts 3:22, 23; 7:37, 38.

21. (a) When, where and with what announcement was this better mediator born? (b) Why did Jesus celebrate the Jewish Passover, and at his last celebration, what did he identify himself to be, and how?

21 In the year 2 B.C.E. that better Mediator was born, as a descendant of King David and in David’s city, Bethlehem. At the same time he was the Son of God, and at his birth the angel of God announced to the shepherds in the fields near Bethlehem: “I am declaring to you good news of a great joy that all the people will have, because there was born to you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10, 11) Being born of a Jewish mother, this one who was to be “Christ the Lord” was a natural Jew and under the Law of the covenant that Moses had mediated between God and Israel. In confirmation of this we read, in Galatians 4:4: “But when the full limit of the time arrived, God sent forth his Son, who came to be out of a woman and who came to be under law.” Being under the law of the covenant with Israel, Jesus Christ celebrated the Passover supper. At his last celebration of the Passover, in 33 C.E., he pointed to himself as being the Mediator of the promised new covenant. How? He now set up what is called the Lord’s Supper, and when he handed out the cup of wine to his faithful apostles he said: “This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood, which is to be poured out in your behalf.” (Luke 22:20) Jesus shed his own blood to validate that covenant.

22. (a) When did Jesus undertake to become the mediator of the new covenant? (b) Why did John at first object to baptizing Jesus?

22 However, like the prophet Moses, the Lord Jesus had to undertake to become that Mediator of the new covenant. When did he undertake to do this? At the time of his baptism in the Jordan River. At the age of thirty years he left his carpenter shop in Nazareth and went to John the Baptist to be immersed in water. This was a new kind of baptism for John to perform. Up till then, as we read in Mark 1:4, “John the baptizer turned up in the wilderness, preaching baptism in symbol of repentance for forgiveness of sins.” (Luke 3:3) But Jesus the Son of God did not come to John the Baptist to be baptized in symbol of repentance for forgiveness of sins. Jesus was perfect and sinless. (Heb. 7:26) He did not come to John with a bad conscience and seek to have a “request made to God for a good conscience.” (1 Pet. 3:21) John knew this, and that is why we read that John “tried to prevent him, saying: ‘I am the one needing to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me?’” What, though, did Jesus reply?

23. What did Jesus reply to John, and why did he speak of its being “suitable for us to carry out all that is righteous” even though he had kept the Law?

23 “In reply Jesus said to him: ‘Let it be, this time, for in that way it is suitable for us to carry out all that is righteous.’” (Matt. 3:13-15) What did Jesus mean by that? As a natural Jew, he had kept the law of the Mosaic covenant faultlessly. On this point he said later on in his Sermon on the Mount: “Do not think I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I came, not to destroy, but to fulfill.” (Matt. 5:17) Of course, the Law covenant with Israel was God’s will, but Jesus had been carrying out God’s will in that respect all through his earthly life down to his baptism. So Jesus’ words, “all that is righteous,” meant something that went beyond the Law covenant, but something that would be in fulfillment of the symbolic features of the Law covenant. This was “all that is righteous,” for it was God’s will for him to carry this out. So this is what he undertook to do at his baptism.

24. According to Hebrews 10:5-10, which particular one of the prophecies was Jesus fulfilling by presenting himself for baptism?

24 By presenting himself for baptism, Jesus really fulfilled the words of “the Prophets,” just as he said. The apostle Paul indicates which of the prophecies Jesus fulfilled, in Hebrews 10:5-10, where we read concerning Jesus at the time of his coming for baptism: “Hence when he comes into the world he says: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but you prepared a body for me. You did not approve of whole burnt offerings and sin offering.’ Then I said, ‘Look! I am come (in the roll of the book it is written about me) to do your will, O God.’ . . . By the said ‘will’ we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.” Jesus was thus fulfilling Psalm 40:6-8. The “will” of God called for Jesus to sacrifice himself, his “body.”

25. (a) Of what, then, was Jesus’ water baptism a symbol? (b) How was Jesus already dedicated and redeemed?

25 Since the prophecy called for this, well, then, Jesus would have had a bad conscience if he did not come to do God’s special will and therefore present himself to John for baptism. It is evident that Jesus’ being baptized was symbolic. His baptism was not “in symbol of repentance for forgiveness of sins.” It was in symbol of Jesus’ coming or presenting himself to do God’s will, which divine “will” included the offering of Jesus’ body in sacrifice once for all time. As a natural Jew he was already under the Mosaic law and was a member of the only nation on earth then dedicated to God, to do “all that Jehovah has spoken.” Also, as the firstborn son of Mary, whose firstborn son her husband Joseph adopted as his own firstborn son, Jesus was sanctified to God and belonged to him. (Ex. 13:1, 2) For this reason Jesus had to be redeemed by Joseph and Mary in order to allow him to engage in secular work. (Num. 3:13-51; 18:14-16) So Jesus’ baptism pictured, not a dedication of himself to God, but the presentation of himself to do God’s will even to the point of sacrifice.

26. (a) How did God make manifest his acceptance of Jesus’ presentation of himself? (b) To what extent did Jesus in the flesh carry out that divine “will”?

26 Jehovah God made manifest that he accepted this presentation of his Son Jesus in that He poured out his holy spirit upon the baptized Jesus and let His voice be heard from heaven, saying: “This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.” (Matt. 3:16, 17) Thereafter John the Baptist announced the anointed Jesus as “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:28-36; Acts 10:37, 38) Jesus carried out God’s will to the very end of his days in the flesh on earth. During his last night on earth in his natural human body he prayed to God and said: “My Father, if it is not possible for this to pass away except I drink it, let your will take place.” (Matt. 26:39-44) On the following afternoon, about three o’clock, while Jesus was hanging on the torture stake, as John 19:30 tells us, “Jesus said: ‘It has been accomplished!’ and, bowing his head, he delivered up his spirit.” Thus, according to God’s will, Jesus’ body was offered up once for all time.

27. (a) What kind of resurrection did Jesus Christ have, and why? (b) How did he then come into possession of all mankind, with what in store for the dead?

27 In harmony with this sacrificial offering up of his perfect human body, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the third day, not in a body of blood and flesh, but in a spirit body. (1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:42-45) On the fortieth day from his resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven and there presented to God the value or merit of his human sacrifice in behalf of all mankind. He had said on earth that he had come “to minister and to give his soul a ransom in exchange for many.” (Matt. 20:28) The apostle Paul speaks of Jesus as “having suffered death, that he by God’s undeserved kindness might taste death for every man.” Paul also speaks of “a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.” (Heb. 2:9; 1 Tim. 2:5, 6) Thus Jesus Christ, by presenting to God the life value of his human sacrifice, ransomed all mankind, purchased them, even without their requesting him to do so. On this account, there will be, under his heavenly kingdom, a “resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Acts 24:15) Jesus Christ owns them all.

28. (a) Thus the resurrected Jesus Christ became what with respect to mankind’s salvation? (b) Of what greater thing does he serve also as Chief Agent?

28 In this way, according to the divine “will,” Jesus Christ the Son of God became the Chief Agent of salvation to all mankind. This is what we are to understand from Hebrews 2:9, 10, which reads: “We behold Jesus, who has been made a little lower than angels, crowned with glory and honor for having suffered death, that he by God’s undeserved kindness might taste death for every man. For it was fitting for the one for whose sake all things are and through whom all things are, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Chief Agent of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” And in Hebrews 5:9, 10: “And after he had been made perfect he became responsible for everlasting salvation to all those obeying him, because he has been specifically called by God a high priest according to the manner of Melchizedek.” This one proved himself worthy to serve as the Chief Agent of Divine Rulership.

[Footnotes]

Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible (1862).

The Jerusalem Bible (1966).

[Picture on page 682]

Although the people of Israel really belonged to Jehovah, he did not force his covenant upon them but waited for them to indicate their desire in the matter

Following the Chief Agent of Divine Rulership

Following the Chief Agent of Divine Rulership

1. (a) Why did the decision that their forefathers made at Mount Sinai not count for the natural circumcised Jews now when it came to the new covenant? (b) Whom did those Jews have to imitate, and in what way?

FOR the natural circumcised Jews things were not the same after Jesus Christ ascended to the heavenly presence of Jehovah God and offered to him the precious merit of his human sacrifice. By reason of this the old Mosaic covenant was canceled, and a new covenant was validated with the blood of the Son of God, the Mediator of this covenant. The opportunity to be taken into this new covenant was first offered to the natural Jews. Their forefathers of fifteen centuries previous had declared to the mediator Moses: “All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do.” But this did not count for their descendants as respects the new covenant. For this latter covenant there was a new Mediator greater than Moses, namely, Jesus Christ. To be taken into the new covenant they had to answer to this better and greater Mediator: “All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do and be obedient.” In imitation of the Chief Agent of Divine Rulership, Jesus Christ the Mediator, these natural Jews had to present themselves to Jehovah, to do his will as transmitted to them through this new and greater Mediator.

2. According to what Peter said to the Jews on Pentecost of 33 C.E., what had God done to Jesus that changed the situation for those natural Jews?

2 Truly a new situation had arisen for the natural Jews and they individually had to adjust themselves to it. The Christian apostle Peter pointed this out to them on the festival day of Pentecost of 33 C.E., after Jehovah God through Jesus Christ poured out the holy spirit upon the faithful followers of the Chief Agent of Divine Rulership. After explaining what had miraculously taken place and why, Peter said to those thousands of assembled Jews: “Actually David did not ascend to the heavens, but he himself says, ‘Jehovah said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet.”’ Therefore let all the house of Israel know for a certainty that God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you impaled.”​—Acts 2:34-36.

3. (a) How, as illustrated by their forefathers at Mount Sinai, would those Jews show themselves worthy to be taken into the new covenant? (b) After doing what Peter and the other apostles told them to do, what would signify that those Jews had been taken into the new covenant?

3 How, now, under the new set of circumstances did those listening Jews declare, “All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do,” and thus show themselves worthy to be taken into the new covenant? It was by accepting the once impaled Jesus as their Lord and as Jehovah’s Christ or Messiah and as their Mediator who was foretold and foreshadowed by the prophet Moses. Salvation could come to them through no other way. Thousands of those Jews were stabbed to the heart by what they heard Peter say. So, when they asked Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men, brothers, what shall we do?” Peter directed them to God’s Chief Agent of life by saying: “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the free gift of the holy spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all those afar off, just as many as Jehovah our God may call to him. . . . Get saved from this crooked generation.” (Acts 2:37-40) If after they got immersed in water they received the free gift of God’s holy spirit through Christ this meant that they were taken into the new covenant.

4. What, then, did the water baptism of those Jesus symbolize?

4 Well, then, what did their baptism in water symbolize? Inasmuch as their baptism was to be “in the name of Jesus Christ” and since it was preceded by their repentance toward Jehovah God, it symbolized their presenting of themselves to God to do his will. Doing his will included their accepting of Jesus Christ as their God-given “Lord” and as their God-given “Christ” or Messiah.

5, 6. (a) Their receiving forgiveness of sins would come through whom, and what were their sins that now needed to be forgiven? (b) According to Hebrews 9:14, in what would the forgiveness of their sins result for them?

5 Without accepting Jesus Christ as “both Lord and Christ” they could not gain “forgiveness of [their] sins.” These sins that God now forgave through Jesus Christ were not the sins that they had committed against the Mosaic Law covenant. That covenant with natural Israel was now past, canceled, and the promised new covenant had now been mediated by the better Mediator, Jesus Christ. So the sins over which they needed to repent toward God were primarily their sin against God by sharing in the impalement of his Son Jesus Christ together with their sins in general. Their receiving forgiveness of sins from God through Christ would result in their getting a good conscience. Regarding this we read:

6 “How much more will the blood of the Christ, who through an everlasting spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works that we may render sacred service to the living God?”​—Heb. 9:14.

7. According to the terms of the new covenant, what was promised respecting sins, and through whom were those baptized Jews taken into that covenant?

7 This forgiveness of sins that results in a good conscience toward God was what He had promised in the terms of the new covenant. When Jehovah foretold the new covenant by the prophet Jeremiah, Jehovah closed this prophecy by saying: “For I shall forgive their error, and their sin I shall remember no more.” (Jer. 31:31-34) Centuries later, when the apostle Paul wrote to the Christianized Hebrews, who were the natural descendants of Abraham, “Jehovah’s friend,” he quoted from Jeremiah’s prophecy and went on to say: “‘For I shall be merciful to their unrighteous deeds, and I shall by no means call their sins to mind anymore.’ In his saying ‘a new covenant’ he has made the former one obsolete. Now that which is made obsolete and growing old is near to vanishing away.” (Heb. 8:12, 13) It logically follows, therefore, that the three thousand Jews who repented and got baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and received the free gift of the holy spirit were taken into the new covenant through the ‘better mediator,’ Jesus Christ.​—Acts 2:41.

8, 9. Some days later in the temple, to whom did Peter point the Jews, and what did he declare that they needed to do, with what result to them?

8 Some days after that Pentecostal experience, Peter and John found themselves at the temple in Jerusalem. In addressing the crowd that gathered about them, Peter again pointed the Jews to the Chief Agent for divine rulership. Peter also pointed to their need to repent and be converted, seeking the refreshment that comes from the forgiveness of their sins from God through Christ. Peter went on to say:

9 “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has done this honor to his servant Jesus, whom you betrayed and disowned before Pilate, when he had decided to let him go. But you disowned the Holy, Righteous One. You asked to have a murderer released for you, and killed the very source [the prince, Je; the Chief Agent, NW] of life. But God raised him from the dead, as we can testify. . . . So repent and turn to God, to have your sins wiped out, and happier times will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will send Jesus, your destined Christ. . . . It was to you that God first sent his servant after he had raised him from the dead, to bless you by making every one of you turn from his wickedness.”​—Acts 3:13-26, AT; Je; NW.

10. Why was there no baptism of repentant Jews on that occasion, and what did Peter and John tell the Court was the only name by which to gain salvation?

10 Before Peter and John could arrange for any repentant Jews there in the temple to get baptized, the situation changed, for we read: “Now while the two were speaking to the people, the chief priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being annoyed because they were teaching the people and were plainly declaring the resurrection from the dead in the case of Jesus.” (Acts 4:1, 2) So Peter and John were taken into custody for the night, and the next day they were put on trial and released. Before the Court they declared that there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which to be saved except the name of the Chief Agent of Jehovah’s divine rulership. (Acts 4:3-23) The apostles refused to stop following that one with such a precious name.

11. (a) How did Philip the evangelizer come to preach in Samaria? (b) In whose name were the believing Samaritans baptized, and so whose disciples did they become?

11 Vicious persecution broke out later in Jerusalem and the faithful Jewish Christian Stephen was stoned to death. The disciples of Christ were scattered from Jerusalem, with the exception of the twelve apostles. Among the scattered ones was Philip the Evangelizer. He went north to the city of Samaria and “began to preach the Christ to them.” Philip brought great joy to the city by what he preached and the miraculous signs that he performed. The Samaritans held to the Pentateuch or five books written by Moses, and they practiced circumcision. Accordingly, many of them accepted Jesus Christ as the ‘better mediator’ who was foreshadowed by Moses. In the case of these Samaritan believers, Philip carried out what Jesus had commanded to do, for we read: “But when they believed Philip, who was declaring the good news of the kingdom of God and of the name of Jesus Christ, they proceeded to get baptized, both men and women.” (Acts 8:1-13; Matt. 28:19, 20; Acts 1:8) Those Samaritans were baptized in the name of Jesus; they became believing, baptized disciples of him.

12. (a) How did Philip come to preach to an Ethiopian eunuch in his chariot, and in whose name did Philip baptize him? (b) What course did that baptism indicate that the Ethiopian had taken?

12 After making many disciples among those circumcised Samaritans, Philip was directed by God’s angel to a circumcised proselyte to Judaism. This man, an Ethiopian eunuch, was returning from worship at Jerusalem. When Philip hailed the chariot and accosted him, the Ethiopian was reading in the prophecy of Isaiah 53, in what is now the fifty-third chapter. The Ethiopian asked Philip as to whom Isaiah was there describing. Then, as Acts 8:35 tells us, “Philip opened his mouth and, starting with this Scripture, he declared to him the good news about Jesus.” Philip also told the Ethiopian about water baptism, and the man asked to be baptized as soon as they reached a suitable body of water. Philip baptized him, of course, in the name of Jesus. (Acts 8:36-39) Like those believing Samaritans, this circumcised Ethiopian presented himself to Jehovah God to do his will as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

“CONVERSION OF PEOPLE OF THE NATIONS”

13. (a) How did the Gentiles differ from the Jews as to responsibility for Jesus’ death and as to the curse of the Law? (b) When and with whom did Jehovah begin granting repentance to the Gentiles?

13 Unlike the circumcised Jews who shared in a community responsibility for the putting of Jesus Christ to death outside Jerusalem, the people of the Gentile nations did not have to repent over any part in the impalement of the innocent Son of God. They were not under the curse of the Mosaic Law covenant. (Gal. 3:13) However, they were sinners who descended from sinful Adam and Eve, and they had plenty of pagan sins over which to repent and for which they were condemned to death by God. They were, as the apostle Paul said to them, “without Christ, alienated from the state of Israel and strangers to the covenants of the promise, and you had no hope and were without God in the world.” (Eph. 2:12) They were generally uncircumcised people. But in the year 36 C.E. Jehovah God mercifully began to grant “repentance for the purpose of life to people of the nations also,” through Jesus Christ. (Acts 11:18) The one with whom He started was Cornelius of Caesarea. This city was the provincial seat of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the province of Judea.

14. Did Cornelius and those gathered together in his house know already something about Jesus, and what did Peter tell them about getting forgiveness of sins?

14 The Italian centurion Cornelius and those whom he gathered into his house already knew something about Jesus Christ. So the apostle Peter, who was sent to preach to them, said to them: “You know the subject that was talked about throughout the whole of Judea, starting from Galilee after the baptism that John preached, namely, Jesus who was from Nazareth, how God anointed him with holy spirit and power, and he went through the land doing good and healing all those oppressed by the Devil; because God was with him. And we are witnesses of all the things he did.” Peter continued on to say finally: “To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone putting faith in him gets forgiveness of sins through his name.”​—Acts 10:37-43.

15. What shows whether those listening Gentiles received the forgiveness of sins, and, at Peter’s command, what did they become?

15 Silently, in their hearts, Cornelius and those Gentiles who were assembled with him became believers in Jesus Christ and they received this forgiveness of sins through his name and consequently a good conscience toward God. What evidence was there to that effect? The account tells us, saying: “While Peter was yet speaking about these matters the holy spirit fell upon all those hearing the word. And the faithful ones that had come with Peter . . . heard them speaking with tongues and [magnifying] God. Then Peter responded: ‘Can anyone forbid water so that these might not be baptized who have received the holy spirit even as we have?’ With that he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” (Acts 10:44-48) These became believing baptized disciples of Christ.

16. How did Paul and Silas come to find themselves in jail in Philippi of Macedonia, and what happened there at midnight?

16 This was the start, and afterward, as time went on, other uncircumcised Gentiles were converted and got baptized in the name of Jesus. Take the case in Philippi of Macedonia, about the year 50 C.E. After the apostle Paul had healed a demonized fortune-telling girl, he and his companion Silas were imprisoned on false charges. About midnight, as they were audibly praying and praising God, a great earthquake occurred and all prisoners miraculously found themselves free of bonds. Paul called out to the frightened jailer not to kill himself, for no prisoners had escaped. What now happened? Let us read:

…