The Watchtower, November 15, 1973

Download: PDF — The Watchtower, November 15, 1973

The Watchtower — November 15, 1973

Source: jw.org

Contents

What Stands in the Way of World Peace?

They Found the Key to Peace

Sowing Seeds of Good News in a War-plagued World

Telling of the Good News Bearing Fruit World Wide

Going to a Wedding?

Bush Medicine—Should Christians Seek Its “Cures”?

Bible Truth Brings Freedom

Footnotes That Magnify Jehovah God

Questions From Readers

Will Prayers for God’s Kingdom Soon Be Answered?

What Stands in the Way of World Peace?

What Stands in the Way of World Peace?

TRY as they might, the people of the world have been unable to achieve genuine peace. Why?

Until two obstacles are removed, true peace can never come.

The first of these obstacles, according to the Bible, is the world’s false religious systems. Informed men are also beginning to view world religions as an obstacle.

Under the headline “Now Church Upsetting World,” John Chamberlain, editorial commentator for the King Features Syndicate, calls attention to the churches’ interfering in politics, their even going so far as to support revolutionary movements. He writes:

“Ironically, the biggest enemies of the growing spirit of universal détente [a relaxing of strained relations between nations] are a few functionaries who claim to be speaking in the name of Christianity. The World Council of Churches is the worst offender. But the Roman Catholic Church has produced its own radicals, whom it should disown.”​—The Daily Oklahoman, August 8, 1973.

And the United States president, in his August 15, 1973, television address to the nation, implicated the clergy in political meddling and lawbreaking when he said that, in the nineteen sixties,

“individuals and groups increasingly asserted the right to take the law into their own hands, insisting that their purposes represented a higher morality. Then, their attitude was praised in the press and even from some of our pulpits as evidence of a new idealism. Those of us who insisted on the old restraints, who warned of the overriding importance of operating within the law and by the rules, were accused of being reactionaries.

“That same attitude brought a rising spiral of violence and fear, of riots and arson and bombings, all in the name of peace and in the name of justice.”

Actually, the Bible says that the true servants of God should stay out of politics completely, being totally neutral, and should proclaim the kingdom of God as the hope of the world. But, instead, world religion, particularly the churches of Christendom, has meddled in politics, has taken sides in national disputes and has misrepresented God. Therefore it has his disfavor. He has said that he will destroy it. How?

God’s instrument will be the political elements with which the religious organizations have ‘played the harlot.’ But right now, in most of the so-called “Christian” nations, the religious leaders “hobnob” with politicians and are often prominent in their political gatherings. Even though there are some godless rulers, it is not to be expected that the political elements, on their own, would act unitedly to destroy false religion. What, then, will cause them to do so? Note what action God says he will take toward harlot-like world religion.

THE “WILD BEAST”

In his Word the Bible God describes the great world political organization as a “wild beast.” We know this from what God revealed centuries ago through his prophet Daniel. Daniel was given a vision in which he saw beasts​—a lion, a bear, a leopard and a fearsome beast with iron teeth. God’s angel explained, “as for these huge beasts, because they are four, there are four kings that will stand up from the earth.” These turned out to be Babylon (then in power), Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.​—Dan. 7:4-7, 17; compare Daniel 8:3-8, 20, 21.

Likewise, in the book of Revelation the apostle John reports a vision in which he saw a “wild beast” having seven heads and ten horns. This beast, being a composite, represents the world political organization that has expressed its authority through seven world powers. (Rev. 13:1, 2) The Devil is shown to be its real ruler and god.​—2 Cor. 4:4; Matt. 4:8, 9.

THE “HARLOT”

An “image” of the symbolic “wild beast,” an international organization for peace and security, now known as the United Nations, has been set up, its membership being comprised of the chief political powers of earth making up the political “wild beast.” Its “ten horns” represent all the national rulers therein. This “image,” also called a “scarlet-colored wild beast,” is ridden by the “harlot” “Babylon the Great,” the world empire of false religion. She is shown directing this “wild beast” toward total war against the “Lamb,” Jesus Christ, and his Kingdom interests in the earth. False religion has had a strong influence in directing the political rulers against Jehovah’s witnesses, and they have been bitterly persecuted. “Babylon the Great’s” powerful influence makes her a religious “empire” over the earth’s political organization, as the Bible says: “And the woman whom you saw means the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.”​—Rev. 17:1-3, 5, 13, 14, 18.

How does the end of the entire false religious system come? The Bible answers: “The ten horns that you saw [all the national rulers], and the [scarlet-colored] wild beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshy parts and will completely burn her with fire.”​—Rev. 17:16.

What prompts them to act, since they have not done so even though they see the churches meddling in political matters? Jehovah God himself. “For God put it into their hearts to carry out his thought, even to carry out their one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God will have been accomplished.”​—Rev. 17:17.

False religion’s end will therefore come with surprising suddenness, while she is thinking, “I sit a queen, and I am no widow, and I shall never see mourning.” But God says: “That is why in one day her plagues will come, death and mourning and famine, and she will be completely burned with fire, because Jehovah God, who judged her, is strong.”​—Rev. 18:7, 8.

REMOVING THE SECOND OBSTACLE

What, then, is the second obstacle to world peace? It is the “wild beast” itself, the earth-wide political organization that governs this world.

The “wild beast’s” record is indeed a bad one. It is a record of far more years of war than of peace. And even during peacetime millions of people have always been under oppression or in slavery. Now nationalism forms a positively impenetrable barrier to world peace. So God’s Word tells us that, after false religion is ‘burned up,’ right on its heels will come the destruction of the “wild beast” and all who support it.

Does this destruction come by a nuclear and chemical war? Enough of these weapons are now stockpiled to destroy the entire human race. But no, the Bible shows that the entire “wild beast” fights against God and his kingdom in the hands of Christ Jesus. From heaven, Christ conquers them. This is the battle that takes place at the stage of world developments called Har–Magedon, as it is written: “And they gathered them [the kings of earth] together to the place that is called in Hebrew Har–Magedon.”​—Rev. 16:14-16.

Therefore, let no reformers think that by protests and demonstrations they can make the “wild beast” a tame ‘peace beast,’ assuring human rights to all earth’s peoples. Nor should revolutionaries think that by violence, guerrilla tactics or terrorism they can unseat the “wild beast” from its control of earth. The book of Revelation, describing Har–Magedon, reveals the only way that the “wild beast” can be subdued:

“And I saw the wild beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage the war with the one seated on the horse and with his army. And the wild beast was caught, and along with it the false prophet that performed in front of it the signs with which he misled those who received the mark of the wild beast and those who render worship to its image. While still alive, they both were hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur. But the rest were killed off with the long sword of the one seated on the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth. And all the birds were filled from the fleshy parts of them.”​—Rev. 19:19-21.

The one seated on the horse is described earlier (Re 19 verses 11-16) as the “King of kings and Lord of lords.” Who else but the “Lamb,” the Lord Jesus Christ, would be the one on the horse, fighting this battle of the “retribution of God the sovereign Lord”? (Rev. 19:15, The New English Bible) Notably, along with the “wild beast” there is seen a “false prophet.” This evidently would be a part of the “wild beast’s” forces acting as a mouthpiece or chief spokesman. And we find that this “false prophet” is the very one that spoke so loudly to get the “image of the wild beast” set up for the people to worship, to look to for world peace and security.

Yes, it is one of the heads of the beast and is itself a “wild beast” when viewed as a single world power, as were Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. It is represented as a “two-horned” wild beast. (Rev. 13:11-15) It proves to be the seventh world power, having two “horns,” two separate but usually cooperating ruling political powers, Britain and the United States.

HAR–MAGEDON NOT OF LONG DURATION

No part, therefore, of this world’s political system will be on the sidelines. Even so, the heavenly forces under Jesus Christ will not take long to wipe out the entire military forces of all the armies of earth and all their equipment at Har–Magedon. Earthly weapons cannot touch the heavenly forces, of course. But weapons can threaten those on earth who stand on the side of God’s sovereignty. Yet these earthly servants of God will not engage in any fighting. They rely on Christ’s heavenly forces, which the “wild beast,” however powerful and elusive, cannot evade. It will be “caught” while committing its last misdeeds against the faithful worshipers of Jehovah God.

If one angel of God could destroy 185,000 of the chief men and leaders of the Assyrian army in one night, how long would it take all the myriads of angels under Christ’s command to annihilate the armies of this world, even though they should number into tens of millions?​—2 Ki. 19:35; 2 Chron. 32:21; Dan. 7:9, 10, 13, 14.

At Har–Magedon the King of kings issues the order for the destruction of God’s enemies at the hands of the heavenly angels under his command. While “still alive”​—strong, functioning institutions—​the political organizations are annihilated by being thrown into the symbolic “lake of fire.” What disorganization and confusion this destruction of their organization brings among the ranks! But it proves too late for flight and too hopeless to fight. Jesus Christ, by the ‘long sword proceeding out of his mouth,’ orders their execution as if a long sword of an officer with authority were being applied.

SURVIVORS

Note that the account does not say that God will burn up the literal earth over which the world political system ruled for centuries and which it polluted and desolated to a great extent. Neither does the prophecy say that the earth will be a dead, uninhabited place. There will be survivors. How do we know?

Jesus Christ himself implied survival by giving instructions for survival and then saying: “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 21:36.

Accordingly, not all will worship the “wild beast” or its “image.” The pressure applied to make everyone do so provides a test of endurance for the spiritual brothers of Christ on earth. (Rev. 13:7-10) But they defeat the “wild beast’s” efforts and are ‘conquerors’ of the world without armed conflict.​—John 16:33; Rev. 2:7, 17, 26.

Besides these spiritual brothers of Christ, who have heavenly hopes, the Bible definitely shows that there are others who do not worship the “wild beast.” These are the “great crowd” of Revelation 7:9-17, who are specifically said to “come out of the great tribulation” and over whom God will spread his “tent” of protection, and his Lamb will “guide them to fountains of waters of life.” These are not of the “new creation” that make up the “Israel of God.” (Gal. 6:15, 16) The apostle John saw them appear on the scene after he had witnessed the sealing of the 144,000 of spiritual Israel.

Also, these are depicted as the “sheep” who do good to Christ’s spiritual brothers during his presence in Kingdom power. They are invited: “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.”​—Matt. 25:34.

Consequently there will be no vacuum, no empty, uninhabited earth. God will merely cleanse the earth of polluters, ruiners. (Rev. 11:18) He will annihilate his enemies. All who survive will see the disgrace of those who fight against God, and all living will praise him for his justice, righteousness and mercy.​—Ps. 145:9-21.

They Found the Key to Peace

They Found the Key to Peace

THROUGHOUT the earth many people are filled with bitterness. They do not enjoy peace with their fellowmen. Persons of one nationality, race or skin color feel animosity toward individuals of another nationality, race or skin color, often because of injustices committed in the past. Can such persons overcome their animosities?

The experience of a minister of Jehovah’s witnesses in California shows what can be done. He was engaging in the house-to-house ministry, speaking with people in the neighborhood about God’s purposes. He says:

“At one door, a six-foot-tall man answered. As soon as I introduced myself, he interrupted, saying, ‘I don’t talk to white people!’ Sincerely wanting to speak with him, I asked him what the problem was. He told me that he was an American Indian and that the whites had taken their land and killed off his people.

“I acknowledged that a great wrong had been done. I also informed him that I was Armenian and that if I wanted to take the same attitude, I could feel the same way about the people who had massacred thousands of Armenians. But I assured him that I was placing my trust and faith in Jehovah God, knowing that he would soon rectify matters through his heavenly Kingdom government. Then I assured him that this is why I was at his door, to explain how present world conditions gave proof that soon God’s kingdom will end injustice, prejudice and wickedness throughout the earth.

“That so appealed to him that he accepted a Bible study aid designed to help people understand God’s purposes. When I returned on a later occasion, we began a regular study of the Bible. Since then he and his wife have come each week to the meetings at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses and are making rapid progress in learning the Bible’s sure hope for the future.”

Even persons trained for war can change their ways and begin pursuing peace. A man from Belgium relates:

“I was a mercenary in the African Katangese army and faced many perilous situations. In one campaign the Katangese army killed every creature, man and animal. Fearful of losing my life, I vowed, ‘If I get out of here alive, I will go back to church.’ I came out alive. Katanga was defeated and, as if by a miracle, I escaped death.

“Many years previously I had left the Catholic Church. But now I went back. The first time I went back they preached about hell. The illogical comments of the aging priest gave me such a shock that I left the church immediately. Later, I went back on Christmas night. I arrived just at midnight. The church door was locked. After knocking, I was let in. In the rear, amidst drunken Christmas celebrators, I felt fully absolved of my vow made on the battlefield. I left the church, never to return.

“However, from that time onward I thought more about the existence of God. I prayed to God to reveal himself to me by means of a sign so that I could fulfill the vow I had made to him.

“Then something happened. One of Jehovah’s witnesses came to our door and I took everything that he offered to me and read it with keen interest. I examined, compared and studied.

“Soon afterward, I decided to test out what I had learned by visiting the Kingdom Hall. Impressed by the friendly and happy atmosphere, I soon became a regular attender. Never in my whole life, eventful and colorful though it was, with much travel, had I found the love and unity that I found in this Kingdom Hall.”

This man had tremendous changes to make. As he put it: “All my life I had been trained for carnal warfare and now I had to learn to become a spiritual soldier of Christ.”

Truly, then, a good relationship with the Creator, based on accurate knowledge of his Word, is the key to peace with fellowmen. If you are disturbed about the bitterness and prejudice existing today, why not take the opportunity to speak with Jehovah’s witnesses. Find out from them what sure proof there is that God will soon terminate national and racial prejudice, as well as war earth wide. And also learn what steps to this end are already being taken by hundreds of thousands of Christians all over the globe.

Sowing Seeds of Good News in a War-plagued World

Sowing Seeds of Good News in a War-plagued World

“This hope you heard of before by the telling of the truth of that good news which has presented itself to you, even as it is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world.”​—Col. 1:5, 6.

1. What two kinds of seeds are being sown world wide, and by whom?

TWO KINDS of seeds are being sown world wide today​—the seed of good news of a lasting peace and the seed of war propaganda. The latter seed is being sown by the majority, the first-mentioned seed by the minority.

2. (a) What law works out regarding what is sown, not only in the field of agriculture, but also in international affairs? (b) What rule as stated by Paul holds true with regard to sowing seeds of good news?

2 The armed nations are occupied with sowing the seed of war preparedness. Both in the field of agriculture and in the field of international relations it always works out that what is sown reproduces itself, produces its own kind. This has been true ever since the first man took up farming. (Gen. 3:17-19; 4:1, 2; 1:11, 12; 9:20) This law also operates relentlessly in the lives of nations. The divine prophecy has been true of many nations, and not just of ancient Israel: “It is wind that they keep sowing, and a stormwind is what they will reap.” (Hos. 8:7) Since the majority of men are engaged in sowing the seed of war preparedness, what about the seed of peaceful good news? Can it thrive and produce fruit and increase? Yes, for time and again it has been demonstrated to be an infallible rule that “whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap.” (Gal. 6:7) Man’s Creator fixed it that way.

3. (a) When did this work of sowing the peaceful seed of the good news get started? (b) What decision on sowing do we have to make in this war-plagued twentieth century?

3 Today those who are sowing the seed of the good news of lasting peace are really carrying on a work that started nineteen centuries ago. They are now carrying on this work upon such a scale that it cannot help but be observed by all the world. What was experienced by the seed sowers back there in the first century of our Common Era is being experienced by the seed sowers of today in this war-plagued twentieth century. Lovers of a lasting peace on earth ought to be interested. But we all have to decide on whether we care to be sowers of war propaganda or sowers of the peaceful good news. Our decision will determine the consequences to us.

4, 5. (a) Back there in the sixties of the first century C.E., what religiously shocking disaster was in the making? (b) In view of such a disaster, what was the thing mentioned by Jesus that would bring comfort to the Jew who accepted it?

4 During the sixties of the first century C.E., the air was electric with heated feeling against the Roman Empire. This was particularly so in the Middle East in the Roman province of Judea. Rebellion was brewing against the occupancy and domination of that land by the Roman armies under a pagan Roman administrator. The violent end of the sacred city of Jerusalem was drawing near. That city as a center of Jewish worship was in its time of the end. The generation of Jews whom Jesus Christ himself addressed during his public ministry on earth was the one that he said would not pass away until Jerusalem and its gorgeous temple were destroyed. (Matt. 24:34, 1-22) History records that this terrible destruction came in the mournful year of 70 C.E. Was there anything that could keep Jews from being overwhelmingly grieved at such a religiously shocking destruction? Yes, there was! There was just one thing that could comfort a Jewish heart, provided that the Jewish heart would accept it. What was that? Jesus Christ mentioned it when giving his marvelous prophecy upon the conclusion of the Jewish system of things over there in the Middle East. This cheering, heartwarming thing he spoke of after telling of the persecutions that would come upon his faithful disciples. He said:

5 “But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved. And this GOOD NEWS of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.”​—Matt. 24:13, 14.

6. What kind of news was it that Jesus proclaimed, and about what government did it tell?

6 The calamitous destruction of Jerusalem and her temple was heartbreaking news to the Jews around the world who still looked to that earthly city as their religious center. It was for them the worst of news. But the information that Jesus Christ proclaimed throughout his earthly ministry was GOOD NEWS, gospel, evangel! But good news of what kingdom? It was not the kingdom that Jesus Christ said would rise against kingdom at the same time that nation would rise against nation, to be accompanied by famines, pestilences and earthquakes in one place after another. It was the only kingdom that Jesus advocated and proclaimed. It was the one that he mentioned in this selfsame prophecy, calling it “the kingdom of the heavens.” (Matt. 24:7; 25:1) He foretold the signs of its nearness, saying in this very prophecy: “In this way you also, when you see these things occurring, know that the kingdom of God is near.”​—Luke 21:10, 31.

7. (a) Before Jerusalem’s destruction, what was to be accomplished by Christ’s disciples? (b) Why was Jerusalem’s destruction no shock to the Christians, leaving them hopeless?

7 So, then, even before the destruction of earthly Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E., because of her rebellion against the Roman Empire, “this good news” of God’s kingdom, of the kingdom of the heavens, was to be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, nations inside and outside the Roman Empire. With what effect? Well, when the Roman legions wrecked Jerusalem and her temple, this would not shock the Christian believers in God, even the Christianized Jews. These were actually expecting that destruction. The Christianized Jews in Jerusalem and in all the rest of the province of Judea acted upon the advice given in Jesus’ prophecy; they fled from Judea and Jerusalem as quickly as they could after the temporary surrounding of Jerusalem by Roman armies in the year of Jewish revolt, 66 C.E. (Matt. 24:15-22; Luke 21:20-24; Mark 13:14-20) They knew that the desolating of Judea and Jerusalem did not mean the destruction of the “kingdom of the heavens,” “the kingdom of God.” No earthly city represented God’s kingdom to them any longer. They rested their hope in God’s heavenly kingdom that was to come, in which they were to share.

8. (a) The Christians were filled with more confidence in what government, and how was this shown down to the end of the first century? (b) For whom was a pattern of activity thus set?

8 Jerusalem’s destruction filled them with more confidence than ever in the true Messianic kingdom of God. The evidence is that they continued to proclaim the good news of that kingdom to the very end of the first century, in spite of bitter persecution by the Roman Empire. The Christian apostle John, who died about the year 100 C.E., received the Revelation (the book listed last in the Holy Bible) shortly before his death. In the opening chapter he writes: “I John, your brother and a sharer with you in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in company with Jesus, came to be in the isle that is called Patmos for speaking about God and bearing witness to Jesus.” (Rev. 1:9) By this time the “good news of the kingdom” had been preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations to even a greater extent than such good news had been preached before Jerusalem’s end in the year 70 C.E. Thus Jesus’ prophecy concerning the worldwide preaching of the good news of God’s Messianic kingdom had not failed. This set the pattern for similar preaching of “this good news of the kingdom” in our present-time conclusion of the system of things, to which Jesus’ prophecy applies in a culminating sense.

“INCREASING IN ALL THE WORLD”

9, 10. (a) The worldwide preaching of the good news before Jerusalem’s destruction was testified to by whom, and how? (b) In his letter to the Colossians, how did Paul involve himself with the unknown congregation?

9 That the foretold preaching of the good news of the Kingdom was accomplished before Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 C.E. was testified to even years before that Jewish calamity. Testified to by whom? By the Christian apostle Paul. About the year 60 or 61 C.E., he found himself under Roman custody in a private house in Rome and in chains. During his two years or longer of house arrest in Rome he wrote inspired letters to Christian congregations in Greece and Asia Minor. One of these letters was to the congregation in the Asia Minor city of Colossae, which lay near to the cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis, where there were Christian congregations also. Modern Turkey now holds these locations. The apostle Paul sends his letter in the names of himself and of Timothy, a fellow missionary. Paul had not founded the congregation in Colossae, and his letter indicates that he had never been there. But through a visiting fellow Christian, Paul heard about this Colossian congregation. He was so stirred by this report which came through Epaphras, that he was moved to write this letter to Christians unknown to him. He introduces himself, saying:

10 “We thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ always when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in connection with Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the holy ones because of the hope that is being reserved for you in the heavens. This hope you heard of before by the telling of the truth of that good news which has presented itself to you, even as it is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world just as it is doing also among you, from the day you heard and accurately knew the undeserved kindness of God in truth. That is what you have learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow slave, who is a faithful minister of the Christ on our behalf, who also disclosed to us your love in a spiritual way.”​—Col. 1:3-8.

11. (a) That worldwide preaching was meant is shown how in Colossians 1:23? (b) In what sense was this true of the preaching by then?

11 At the time of writing this letter Paul, as an informed, widely traveled missionary, testified to the worldwide preaching of the good news by what he says in the above introduction of his letter. He writes of the “telling of the truth of that good news which has presented itself to you, even as it is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world.” (Col. 1:5, 6) That he means a worldwide preaching Paul confirms some sentences later, when he speaks of their “not being shifted away from the hope of that good news which you heard, and which was preached in all creation that is under heaven. Of this good news I Paul became a minister.” (Col. 1:23) This, of course, did not mean that every individual on earth under heaven was being personally reached. It meant that the preaching of the good news was being pushed to all quarters of the inhabited earth under heaven and that all human creatures, without regard for language, color, race or nationality, were being given the opportunity to hear the Kingdom message. There were no limits. In his earlier letter to the congregation in Rome (about 56 C.E.), Paul expressed his intention to carry the good news into Spain. The Americas still farther west were not then known to him.​—Rom. 15:24.

12. Was that the complete fulfillment of the prophecy on preaching, or what was yet due?

12 This preaching of “this good news of the kingdom” by the then small band of disciples of Christ during the first century in Asia, Europe and Africa was in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. (Matt. 24:14; Mark 13:10; Acts 1:8) But it did not complete the fulfillment of the prophecy. It was to be duplicated in a climactic way on a global scale after the discovery of the Americas by Europeans and before the destruction of the antitypical rebellious Jerusalem, modern-day Christendom, in this time of her end since 1914 C.E.

13. According to Paul, what was the effect of the spreading of the Kingdom hope, as illustrated in the case of Colossae?

13 The spiritual effect of this spreading of the Kingdom hope now should be the same as that in the days of the apostles of Jesus Christ during the first century C.E. Accordingly let us consider what the apostle Paul says of its effect with reference to the congregation there in Colossae, Asia Minor. He says that to the Colossians there had been a “telling of the truth of that good news which has presented itself to you, even as it is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world just as it is doing also among you.” (Col. 1:5, 6) So the “telling” of the spoken word “of the truth of that good news” was “bearing fruit” world wide, including Colossae.

14, 15. (a) To what did Paul thus liken the good news as truthfully told? (b) The picture here drawn corresponds with what parabolic illustration given by Jesus?

14 The apostle Paul here likens the “good news” that was truthfully told to them to seed planted in the ground. The ground or soil is good and fine, and seed takes root and sprouts and produces fruit, a fruit of its own kind. This picture corresponds with the parabolic illustration that Jesus Christ gave about the productive abilities of four types of soil. Here is what he said:

15 “Look! A sower went out to sow; and as he was sowing, some seeds fell alongside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell upon the rocky places where they did not have much soil, and at once they sprang up because of not having depth of soil. But when the sun rose they were scorched, and because of not having root they withered. Others, too, fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them. Still others fell upon the fine soil and they began to yield fruit, this one a hundredfold, that one sixty, the other thirty.

16. What explanation did Jesus himself give of this illustration?

16 “You, then, listen to the illustration of the man that sowed. Where anyone hears the word of the kingdom but does not get the sense of it, the wicked one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart; this is the one sown alongside the road. As for the one sown upon the rocky places, this is the one hearing the word and at once accepting it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself but continues for a time, and after tribulation or persecution has arisen on account of the word he is at once stumbled. As for the one sown among the thorns, this is the one hearing the word, but the anxiety of this system of things and the deceptive power of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. As for the one sown upon the fine soil, this is the one hearing the word and getting the sense of it, who really does bear fruit and produces, this one a hundredfold, that one sixty, the other thirty.”​—Matt. 13:3-8, 18-23.

17. (a) The hearts of the Colossians were like what in Jesus’ illustration, and who had done the sowing of them directly? (b) In actuality, what is the “seed,” and in what situation?

17 According to what the apostle Paul had heard from his visitor, Epaphras, the members of the Christian congregation in Colossae had hearts that were like the “fine soil” described by Jesus. Hence, the “word of the kingdom” that was sown upon their hearts bore fruit and produced in varying amounts, like a hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold. The apostle Paul had not sown the Kingdom seed among the Colossian hearts, but, apparently, this Epaphras of Colossae had done so, for Paul speaks of him in the letter to the Colossians as “Epaphras, who is from among you, a slave of Christ Jesus.” Paul also says to them: “That is what you have learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow slave, who is a faithful minister of the Christ on our behalf, who also disclosed to us your love in a spiritual way.” (Col. 4:12; 1:7, 8; Philem. 23) This “minister of the Christ” was merely acting as an agent of the Great Sower of the seed, Jesus Christ. Said Jesus: “The seed is the word of God.” (Luke 8:11) It is the “word of the kingdom.” But it is not seed in a storehouse, but is seed that is “sown,” that is to say, God’s “word of the kingdom” that is preached, proclaimed, taught.

18. (a) How did Paul in his custodial house in Rome continue to sow the “seed”? (b) What does this “seed” contain within itself, and what is necessary for it to take root in human hearts?

18 Those disciples who join together under the Great Sower, Jesus Christ, in sowing, preaching, proclaiming, teaching the seed of the “word of the kingdom” are, as the apostle Paul calls them, “my fellow workers for the kingdom of God.” (Col. 4:11) Even while Paul was there in the custodial house in Rome, he did more than write letters, such as the one to the Colossians. He “would kindly receive all those who [like Epaphras] came in to him, preaching the kingdom of God to them and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with the greatest freeness of speech, without hindrance.” (Acts 28:30, 31) Since this spiritual “seed” is the “word of God,” the “word of the kingdom,” it contains in itself good news, a message of hope, a message of the grandest government for the blessing of all mankind, God’s Messianic kingdom. This message contained in the “seed” is something that the receiver of the “seed” has to understand and appreciate. He has to get the meaning of it, the sense of it, with his heart. In this way the “seed” will take root in his heart.

FAITH AND LOVE WITHIN THE HEART

19. (a) According to Paul, what effects did the telling of the good news have within the hearts of the Colossians? (b) Because of the “seed” sown, why must there be a development of faith and love in the heart?

19 What effect did the “good news” as truthfully told to them have within the hearts of the members who made up the congregation in Colossae? It had an effect that moved Paul, when he heard about it, to write them his excellent letter. The effect within their hearts was what Paul mentions: “your faith in connection with Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the holy ones,” “your love in a spiritual way.” (Col. 1:4, 8) Such faith and love had to be cultivated in their hearts for the “seed” of the “word of God” to take root downward and sprout upward and make an outward expression, thus producing new, living seed grains thirty, sixty or a hundred times as many as the original seed. There must be this development in the heart first before there is an outward expression that reproduces what was sown inside.

20. (a) Why did the Gentiles especially have to exercise faith in order to accept the “seed”? (b) Whether Jew or Gentile, they had to accept what vital facts concerning Jesus?

20 As regards Gentiles, non-Jews, such as many of the Colossian congregation were, it had taken faith on their part to accept the “seed” of the word of God. They had to abandon the many Greek and Roman gods to which they were dedicated and concentrate their belief upon the only living and true God, the Creator of heaven and earth and of all things in them, whose name is Jehovah. But whether they were uncircumcised Gentiles or were natural Jews, they also had to believe in Jesus Christ, that this Jesus the descendant of King David of Jerusalem was the promised Messiah or Christ. They had to believe that this one was the “firstborn of all creation.” They needed to believe that he was also “firstborn from the dead,” because Jehovah God has resurrected him from the dead to immortal life in the heavens. Besides, they had to believe that Jesus Christ is the “head of the body, the congregation,” to which they desired to belong. Also, that “carefully concealed in him are all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge,” so that their pagan philosophies or their man-made religious traditions must no longer be held to.​—Col. 1:15-18; 2:3, 8; Acts 14:11-18.

21. (a) What did the Colossians have to do with that “word” that had been placed in their mouths, and why? (b) What quality did they have to exercise with their hearts to move them to give outward expression?

21 Those were some of the vital things that were contained in the “truth of that good news,” and in these things they had to have faith with their hearts. It was just as the apostle Paul had written years previously to the Romans: “The ‘word’ of faith, which we are preaching. For if you publicly declare [or, you confess] that ‘word in your own mouth,’ that Jesus is Lord, and exercise faith in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration [or, one confesses] for salvation.” (Rom. 10:8-10) Because the hearts of the Colossians were like “fine soil,” they did exercise faith with their hearts and accepted the “seed” of the “word of the kingdom,” the “word of God,” and they did let it take root in their heart and express itself.

22, 23. (a) Those Colossians were obliged to believe Jesus occupied what official position, and so under what rule were they? (b) Hence, like Paul the letter writer, what position with reference to that government did they hold, and what command of Jesus did they share in carrying out?

22 In conjunction with their faith that Jesus was the Messiah or Christ, they had to believe that Jehovah God had seated him at His own right hand like a King-Priest, who was foreshadowed by Melchizedek the ancient king of Salem. In consequence of this, they had come under Christ’s spiritual kingdom. Yes, they were required to believe that God “delivered us from the authority of the darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.” (Col. 1:13) Not only were they under the present kingship of the Son of God’s love, but they were also “ambassadors substituting for Christ” in God’s program of “reconciling a world to himself” by means of Christ. (2 Cor. 5:19, 20) While in the prison from which Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians, he spoke of “freeness of speech to make known the sacred secret of the good news, for which I am acting as an ambassador in chains.” (Eph. 6:19, 20) So, like the apostle Paul, the Colossian congregation was a body of ambassadors for the “sacred secret of the good news.” They were obliged to take part in the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy, in Matthew 24:14:

23 “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.”

24. (a) To what nation did those Colossians now belong, and what fruits were they obliged to bring forth? (b) So what kind of fruitage was it that the “seed” sown on their hearts was bringing forth?

24 By engaging in this ambassadorial activity in behalf of the Messianic kingdom of God, those Colossians were bringing forth the fruits of the Kingdom. They proved themselves to be part of the “nation producing its fruits.” The “kingdom” that had been taken away from the nation of natural, circumcised Israel had now been given to the nation of spiritual Israel, to which nation those Colossian Christians belonged. (Matt. 21:43) The symbolic “seed” of the “word of the kingdom,” “the word of God,” had been sown on their hearts, and now that their hearts were found to be fine soil they were producing a crop of the same kind of thing that had been sown on their hearts. That is, they too were bringing forth, preaching, teaching, the “word of the kingdom” to others, those outside the Colossian congregation.​—Matt. 13:19; Luke 8:11, 15.

25. In view of the example set by the Colossians, what questions do we ask as regards our war-plagued century, and for what will we thank God?

25 An excellent example worthy of imitation was set back there in the first century C.E. in connection with the Christian congregation in Colossae, Asia Minor. Is it being duplicated today in this war-plagued twentieth century? If so, then we, like the apostle Paul, will have cause to “thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ always” when we pray to Him regarding the religious situation.

Telling of the Good News Bearing Fruit World Wide

Telling of the Good News Bearing Fruit World Wide

1. What was the hair-raising event of the first century C.E., and, before it became known world wide, what had been preached world wide?

IN THE first century with which our Common Era began, the most hair-raising event was, not the burning of the city of Rome in 64 C.E., but the siege and destruction of the city of Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. For his ou[t]standing victory over that mightily fortified city, the Roman General Titus was rewarded with a victory procession on his return to Rome in 71 C.E., a triumphal arch being erected in his honor. However, the sanguinary war with the rebellious Jews did not end until the capture of their last Judean stronghold, the fortress of Masada that overlooks the Dead Sea, in the year 73 C.E. This brought great shame, reproach and religious frustration to the Jews world wide, with tens of thousands of them being sold into slavery. However, years before this bad news for those circumcised Jews became known world wide, the good news of an everlasting joy had been spread throughout the then known world. It was the good news of the Messianic kingdom of God, a kingdom that is not dependent upon earthly Jerusalem.

2. (a) Who were the bearers of that good news in that first century C.E.? (b) How wide a spread did Christianity have from east to west, before the burning of Rome?

2 Who were the bearers of that good news in that first century C.E.? Not the natural circumcised Jews who looked to Jerusalem as their religious center. Rather, it was those who were falsely accused by Emperor Nero for the burning of Rome, namely, the peaceful, harmless followers of Jesus Christ who had been called “Christians” first in the Syrian city of Antioch. (Acts 11:26) Back there those Christian disciples included thousands of Jewish believers, like the Christian apostles Simon Peter and Paul. Before the burning of Rome the apostle Peter found himself in Babylon, Mesopotamia, from which he wrote to the Christians throughout Asia Minor. The apostle Paul found himself, for at least the first two years of his stay in Rome, Italy, under house arrest and booked for having his appeal in behalf of Christianity heard before Emperor Nero. (1 Pet. 5:13; Acts 28:30, 31) From Babylon, near the eastern limit of the Roman Empire, to Rome itself was a distance of about two thousand miles. Quite a spread for Christianity!

3, 4. (a) Before his letter to the Colossians, how had the truth penetrated deep into Africa as well as elsewhere? (b) According to Paul’s letter, how extensively was the “good news” bearing fruit?

3 Through the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch of Queen Candace by the evangelizer Philip, Christianity had also penetrated far south, all the way down into Ethiopia south of Egypt. (Acts 8:26-39) Thus the good news of God’s Messianic kingdom was penetrating deep into Africa and Asia and Europe. Among the Christians to whom the apostle Peter wrote in his first general letter, in five provinces in Asia Minor, were the Christians in Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis in the Roman province of Asia. (1 Pet. 1:1) About the time of Peter’s general letter, the apostle Paul wrote directly to the Christian congregation in Colossae and mentioned to them his letter to the congregation in Laodicea. (Col. 4:16) It was to these Colossian Christians that Paul spoke of the “telling of the truth of that good news” world wide, this being years before the end came upon earthly Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. Along with such good news there went a hope for those accepting the good news, and with reference to this Paul writes, saying:

4 “This hope you heard of before by the telling of the truth of that good news which has presented itself to you, even as it is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world just as it is doing also among you, from the day you heard and accurately knew the undeserved kindness of God in truth.”​—Col. 1:4-6.

5. In Colossians 1:23, how did Paul emphasize the preaching of the good news world wide?

5 That the hope of God’s heavenly kingdom had been spread world wide is emphasized by Paul when his letter continues on to say to the Colossians: “Provided, of course, that you continue in the faith, established on the foundation and steadfast and not being shifted away from the hope of that good news which you heard, and which was preached in all creation that is under heaven. Of this good news I Paul became a minister.”​—Col. 1:23.

6. (a) Who were ministers of the good news, besides Paul? (b) How did those ministers share jointly the hope of the good news with others?

6 The apostle Paul was not the only minister of the good news back there. All the faithful Christians of that first century were, including the disciple Epaphras of Colossae, who visited Paul during his house arrest in Rome. (Col. 1:7, 8; 4:12, 13) All these ministers of the good news joined in sharing their hope with others, not particularly by copying by hand the inspired Gospel accounts of Christ’s life and the letters written by his inspired disciples, but especially by word of mouth, by preaching to all hearers and by giving oral teaching to all interested ones. The amount of work connected with this we can only imagine for workers under those first-century circumstances. Those Christian ministers had the only good news to tell to the first-century world. They were not silent about the Kingdom, but were very vocal about it.

7. (a) Because the “seed” of the good news was not sown on unproductive soil, what occurred in the congregation of Colossians and others? (b) Because the “good news,” as truthfully told, was “bearing fruit,” what was accomplished within thirty years from when Jesus started preaching?

7 The “seed” of the “word of the kingdom” that was spoken to them did not fall upon unproductive soil. But up from the fine soil of good and honest hearts there sprang a growth bearing seed like that sown. There came forth the multiplying of the seed of the good news of God’s Messianic kingdom by the telling of it to all others within reach or hearing distance. Thus, just as the apostle Paul remarked to the Colossian Christians, “the telling of the truth of that good news . . . is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world just as it is doing also among you.” (Col. 1:5, 6) The “telling of the truth of that good news” was bearing fruit and increasing not only among the congregation in Colossae but also in all other congregations in Europe, Asia and Africa. The “seed” that they brought forth was used in sowing the Kingdom message in the hearts of others. What wonder, then, that within a matter of thirty years from the time that Jesus Christ began sowing the seed by his preaching of the kingdom of God such a witness to the Kingdom was brought about in “all the inhabited earth”!​—Matt. 4:12-17; 24:14.

ANY MODERN SIMILAR FEAT?

8. How great is the power of growth of a seed rightly sown, and has the seed of the “word of God” lost such power of growth in this twentieth century?

8 The power of growth in a seed that is planted in fertile soil is astonishingly great. The “seed” of the “word of the kingdom” amazed the world with its power back there nineteen hundred years ago. Has that seed of the “word of God” lost its power in this twentieth century? That should not be the case, and it is not the case! What was written to the Christianized Hebrews nineteen centuries ago remains true today: “The word of God is alive and exerts power and is sharper than any two-edged sword.”​—Heb. 4:12.

9. (a) Has old age decreased the grow power of the “seed” of God’s Word? (b) Why do we here consider the growth of Christendom’s membership?

9 Age has not decreased its grow power. What do we have to show for this fact? Shall we say that it is the religious realm known as Christendom? According to the published estimates of the church membership of Christendom, after reaching a peak in the 1960’s she suffered a temporary slump in membership by the tens of millions. But now the latest estimate gives Christendom a new peak of 985,363,400 members.​—See The 1973 World Almanac and Book of Facts, page 343, under the heading “Religious Population of the World.”

10, 11. (a) What question about growth arises as to Christendom, and does numerical growth prove she is not in her “time of the end”? (b) What conditions foretold by Paul for the “last days” may be the reason for Christendom’s religious difficulties?

10 Let it be admitted that Christendom is not declining in its claimed membership. Yet, may it also be that the quality of her members is increasing in spirituality, to produce more genuine Christians? Let us compare them with the brand of Christians at Colossae, to whom Paul was strongly moved to write spontaneously. Those Colossian Christians were far different from what most people who claimed to serve God would be much later on, “in the last days.” The fact that Christendom, after more than sixteen centuries of existence, is increasing does not disprove that she is in her “last days.” That she is in “critical times hard to deal with” cannot be questioned. What did the apostle Paul foretell would be the reason for this, and is this the reason for Christendom’s religious difficulties? Paul said:

11 “But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. [Why?] For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power.”​—2 Tim. 3:1-5.

12, 13. (a) How, then, does Christendom compare spiritually with the ancient Colossian congregation? (b) How does Christendom explain that the Lord’s Prayer will be fulfilled regarding the heavenly Father’s kingdom?

12 Who is there that can deny that this prophetic description explains the reason for Christendom’s difficulties today, after sixteen centuries of numerical growth. In having this inspired prophecy fulfilled upon her, Christendom proves herself to be diametrically opposite from what the Colossian congregation was. For all these centuries Christendom has regularly prayed what she calls the Lord’s Prayer. This model prayer as offered by the Lord Jesus Christ in his Sermon on the Mount begins by saying: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:9, 10, Authorized Version) Christendom today explains this coming of the heavenly Father’s kingdom to be by the establishing of the Kingdom in the hearts of the believers. As Dr. Adam Clarke said in commenting on Matthew 6:10:

13 “When the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Spirit, is established in the heart, there is then an ample provision made for the fulfillment of the Divine will.”​—Commentary, Vol. 5, page 86, col. 1.

14. (a) Since Christendom’s growth lags behind that of the world population, how do her clergy explain the Kingdom’s coming? (b) how do two world wars inside of thirty-two years raise a question about the Kingdom’s coming as regards Christendom?

14 For a long time it was thought that God’s kingdom would come by the converting of all mankind to be church members of Christendom. But now that Christendom is lagging behind the world’s population growth, the religious clergy say the Kingdom’s coming is only into the hearts of as many as believe. There is no teaching that God’s Messianic kingdom will come against this present worldly system of things and destroy it and then rule as an actual government over all the inhabitants of the earth and fill the whole earth with righteousness and peace and happiness forevermore. (Dan. 2:44; 7:13, 14) Jesus Christ said: “A good man brings forth good out of the good treasure of his heart.” And: “Where your treasure is, there your hearts will be also.” (Luke 6:45; 12:34) But where is the evidence that God’s kingdom has been established in even the hearts of the church members of Christendom and that their hearts are with God’s kingdom as their treasure? Are two world wars inside of thirty-two years of this twentieth century the evidence that God’s “kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Spirit” was established in the hearts of the hundreds of millions of church members of Christendom?

15. (a) Between the two world wars, what organization was Christendom’s “treasure”? (b) What is the League’s successor doing about the arms race?

15 During the twenty years between the two world wars the League of Nations for world peace and security was the treasure of Christendom, for her churches said: The League of Nations is “the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth.” But where is the League of Nations today? And what is its successor, the United Nations, accomplishing in halting the international arms race for military superiority in a third world war that threatens the existence of all mankind? The making of more deadly weapons answers.

16. Is God’s kingdom truly coming in spite of Christendom’s condition, and how are all mankind being told about this today?

16 All these things prove that the kingdom of God has not been established in the hearts of the clergy and church members of Christendom and that it has not come into their hearts. The kingdom of God cannot be expected to come in that way, and it will not come in that way. Yet the kingdom of God by Christ is coming in answer to the Lord’s Prayer, and that theocratic government is now actually at the doors. This is what all mankind are today being told in the “good news of the kingdom” that Jesus Christ prophesied would be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations before the end came. (Matt. 24:14) This good news, “the word of the kingdom,” is being sown like seed in all the earth, in 208 countries and island groups, and it is bearing fruit the same as in the days of the apostle Paul. And as he said to the Christian congregation in Colossae, “it is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world just as it is doing also among you.” (Col. 1:6) Inside and outside of Christendom this seed of the good news is being sown.

17. (a) If not the Kingdom, what is it that is established in the hearts of humanity, and how? (b) So, as in Paul’s day, how has the “bearing fruit and increasing” of the good news come about, despite Christendom?

17 And as regards the relationship between God’s kingdom and the human heart, it is not the Kingdom, but the seed of the good news of God’s Messianic kingdom that comes into the heart. This “seed” is established there by taking root and bearing fruit. This seed is sown by the preaching of the good news to all those who will listen to it and receive it. This seed of the good news bears fruit by causing the mouth to speak, out of the abundance of the heart of those in whose hearts the seed has been planted. Thus the implanting of the “seed” makes everyone in whose favorable heart the seed has been sown become a new proclaimer of the good news. That is the way the seed of the good news is increasing through the proclaiming of the good news by more and more preachers of the Kingdom. And whereas Christendom tries to prevent the sowing of the seed of the Kingdom in human hearts, the Christian witnesses of Jehovah keep on scattering the seed of the good news world wide. Likewise, just as in the apostle Paul’s days, the bearing fruit and increasing have taken place​—world wide, Christendom notwithstanding.

THE ATTENDANT FRUITAGE

18. What has the sowing of the “seed” produced besides more Kingdom proclaimers, and so what qualities mark Jehovah’s Christian witnesses today?

18 This sowing of the seed of the Kingdom good news has abundantly borne fruit and increased in more than merely producing more Kingdom proclaimers. It has had an attendant fruitage in the hearts of those in whom the seed has been sown and who proclaim the Kingdom. It has produced the contrary of what the apostle Paul foretold for Christendom in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 regarding her. It has produced the same things that it did in the hearts and lives of the Christian congregation in Colossae to whom Paul wrote his letter. It has produced the Christian qualities that Paul mentions in his letter, namely, love, hope and faith. Miraculous powers and abilities marking the true Christian congregation might pass away after the death of the Christian apostles, but, said Paul, “now, however, there remain faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:13) These are the things that remain, not with war-plagued Christendom, but with Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. Faith, hope, love mark them.

19. (a) What did Paul have to write about the faith, love and hope of the Colossian congregation? (b) What kind of love is it that moves Jehovah’s Christian witnesses to open their mouths in preaching?

19 Said Paul to the Colossians: “We heard of your faith in connection with Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the holy ones because of the hope that is being reserved for you in the heavens. This hope you heard of before by the telling of the truth of that good news . . . Epaphras our beloved fellow slave . . . also disclosed to us your love in a spiritual way.” (Col. 1:4, 5, 7, 8) Not the sexy, passionate, fleshly love that characterized the pagan Greek-speaking world in the apostle Paul’s day, but “love in a spiritual way”​—this is what has been produced by the sowing of the good news in the hearts of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses of today. This true Christian love is part of the fruitage of God’s spirit, according to Paul’s words in Galatians 5:22. It is this spiritual love in the heart that moves them to open their mouths in preaching.

20. What, as foretold, is happening to the quality of love in Christendom today, and so what prayer of Paul must they cooperate with him in fulfilling, and how?

20 Jesus’ prophecy respecting the conclusion of this worldly system of things is being fulfilled in Christendom today, namely, “Because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off.” (Matt. 24:12) But the prayer that the apostle Paul expressed when writing to the Colossians is being fulfilled toward Jehovah’s Christian witnesses today: “that their hearts may be comforted, that they may be harmoniously joined together in love.” (Col. 2:1, 2) But they must cooperate with the apostle’s prayer for them by doing what the apostle wrote to the Colossians: “Clothe yourselves with love, for it is a perfect bond of union.”​—Col. 3:14.

…