The Watchtower, December 1, 1973

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The Watchtower — December 1, 1973

Source: jw.org

Contents

Religion Seeks Peace with Communism—Why?

Gaining Wealth for Earth’s New King

Spared from Slaughter with the King’s Enemies

Declaration and Resolution

What Is the “First Resurrection”?

Jehovah Brings ‘Sealing’ of His Chosen Ones to a Close

The Seed Finally Germinated

Questions From Readers

Do You Know the Source of True Peace and Security?

Religion Seeks Peace with Communism—Why?

Religion Seeks Peace with Communism​—Why?

DOES it surprise you that religion is seeking peace with Communism? Did you consider the churches to be a bulwark against atheistic Communism?

You may have got that impression from the strong pronouncements of the Catholic Church years ago condemning Communism. Yet those pronouncements had little effect. After the second world war Catholic leaders in Communist-controlled countries, such as Hungary and Poland, compromised and swore loyalty oaths to atheistic regimes.

True, Catholic officials did not approve of this. For example, when the archbishop of Hungary, Joseph Groesz, warmly greeted the visiting Soviet premier, the Catholic magazine America, of April 26, 1958, said: “It was a disagreeable shock to see a Catholic archbishop shaking hands with Bolshevik Number One.” Also, the Vatican’s Cardinal Ottaviani complained: “Some still stretch out their hands to the new antichrists and even race to see who can first shake hands with them and exchange sweet smiles.”

But that was the Catholic attitude over a decade ago. Since then Communism has made great advances. Has this affected the official Catholic position toward Communism?

Indeed it has! Now even the pope greets and exchanges sweet smiles with the highest Soviet officials. Communist heads of state show up regularly at the Vatican for papal audiences. And two years ago Archbishop Agostino Casaroli became the first Vatican official to visit Moscow since the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. A recent Vatican publication even said that it found “Christian values” in the teaching of Communist China’s Mao Tse-tung. Reporting on this radical change in attitude, the Panama Star & Herald of September 1, 1973, said:

“The Vatican has ended its cold war with the communist world and is moving steadily toward coexistence with Red regimes.

“Twenty-five years ago Pope Pius XII decreed excommunication for ‘atheistic communists.’ But today Pope Paul VI is dispatching envoys to communist capitals and concluding agreements with some governments.”

Thus far the Vatican has established full-fledged diplomatic relations with two Communist countries, and is seeking such ties with others. “Only the largest and the smallest Communist nations​—China and Albania—​have spurned all Vatican overtures so far,” the New York Times notes.

But it is not only Catholicism; other religions, too, seek peace with Communist regimes. In fact, the Orthodox churches work hand in hand with them. The Catholic World of February 1971 said:

“The Orthodox Church of Rumania and the Communist government have a de facto marriage of mutual interest which fosters nationalistic aims of Rumanians. It sometimes startles outside visitors to see President Nicolae Ceausescu and Patriarch Justinian present together to greet foreigners. . . . both the church and the state are prospering under this strange ‘marriage’ between church and Communist state.”

A similar friendship exists between Church and State in the Soviet Union. In fact, a few years ago the New York State Court of Appeals, ruling on a case involving the Moscow Patriarchate, concluded: “No other view is possible than that the Russian Church is a tool exploited by the communist rulers.”

It is noteworthy that the Russian Church and other Communist-supported Orthodox churches have received membership in the World Council of Churches. Under their influence the World Council has initiated “Marxist-Christian dialogues.” But why do the churches seek peace with atheistic Communism?

Because they fear that, if they do not, their religion will be stamped out by Communist regimes. So the churches make concessions; they compromise. The Baptists, for example, have been a “recognized” religion in the Soviet Union. But even their own members complained, according to New York Times correspondent Grose, that “Baptist leaders had shown themselves too pliable before state authorities.”

It is the same with the Catholic Church. The Panama Star & Herald reports: “The Pope’s approach to communism, Vatican sources say, is based on reality and his diplomatic initiatives are seen as the only realistic way to protect the Church and its estimated 65 million followers in communist lands.”

But why are Communist leaders willing to negotiate with the churches and make concessions to them? Because a significant number of their people still are religious, and so by permitting to function those churches that will do as they say, easier control over the people is maintained. Thus, as reported in The National Catholic Reporter of December 17, 1971:

“Cuban Premier Fidel Castro says that as a revolutionary he regards the growing cooperation between Marxists and Christians in Latin America as ‘something useful.’”

However, it should not really be surprising that worldly religion is seeking peace with Communism. It is not a new tactic. Time and again the churches have prostituted themselves to the political powers. For example, in seeking accord with the Nazi regime, the Vatican, in 1933, signed a concordat that required each Catholic bishop, before taking office, to take an “oath of loyalty” to the government.

Indicating the extent to which the church would go, Pope Pius XI said: “The Head of the Catholic Church would consider it his duty to deal with the Devil himself . . . if reasonable grounds existed to support the hope that such dealings would protect, or advance, the interests of religion among mankind.”​—The Brooklyn Eagle, February 21, 1943.

No wonder the Bible depicts world religion as “the great harlot . . . with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication.” (Rev. 17:1, 2) The churches have clearly abandoned Christ, who proclaimed: “My kingdom is no part of this world,” and who said that his disciples “are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.” (John 18:36; 17:16) So, then, if you desire to have God’s favor it is vital that you have no share with religion that has ‘gone to bed’ with haters of God.

Gaining Wealth for Earth’s New King

Gaining Wealth for Earth’s New King

“The pleasure of a king is in the servant who is acting with insight, but his fury comes to be toward one acting shamefully.”​—Prov. 14:35.

1. What kind of man put the words ordering the slaughter of enemies into the mouth of the king in the prophetic parable?

“MOREOVER, these enemies of mine that did not want me to become king over them bring here and slaughter them before me.” Those words of the king ought to strike terror into the hearts of the ones against whom they were directed! But who said those words? It was a man who most people might think would never issue such a harsh order. He put those words into the mouth of the king about whom he was speaking in a parable or prophetic illustration of his. But he was really speaking for himself, inasmuch as he himself was the one pictured by the king in the parabolic illustration.​—Luke 19:27.

2. (a) At the time, where was Jesus heading, and with what event in view? (b) On his descent of the Mount of Olives, what prophecy against Jerusalem did Jesus utter?

2 At the time, Jesus Christ was in the city of Jericho, about fourteen miles northeast of Jerusalem, and the spring month of Nisan of the year 33 C.E. was beginning. Jesus had crossed the Jordan River and come into Jericho, where he made an overnight stop. He was on his way to Jerusalem, to make his triumphal ride into the holy city on Sunday, Nisan 9, five days before the Jewish passover. It was on this triumphal ride that he stopped the procession of his disciples on the descent of the Mount of Olives and shed tears over the city of Jerusalem, saying: “If you, even you, had discerned in this day the things having to do with peace​—but now they have been hid from your eyes. Because the days will come upon you when your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side, and they will dash you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave a stone upon a stone in you, because you did not discern the time of your being inspected.”​—Luke 19:41-44.

3. When did the slaughter thus predicted by Jesus take place, and to what extent?

3 Was Jesus thus describing how the king of the prophetic parable would have his enemies slaughtered for not wanting him to be their king? As matters turned out, the city of Jerusalem did not welcome Jesus Christ as King on his triumphal ride into her. Five days later, or on Passover Day, the enemies in Jerusalem had Jesus executed like an accursed criminal on a stake outside the city walls. The enemies objected strenuously because the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate had an inscription posted on the stake, announcing in Hebrew, Latin and Greek: “Jesus the Nazarene the King of the Jews.” (John 19:17-22) They did not want the man whom they accused of being a blasphemer against their God and a seditionist against imperial Rome to be called their King. Thirty-three years later when they themselves revolted against Rome, it was not in favor of Jesus as their Messiah and King, but in favor of their own Messianic ambitions. In the fifth year of their revolt against Rome, there came the terrible slaughter predicted by Jesus. During the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem, one million one hundred thousand rebellious Jews lost their lives, only 97,000 surviving and being led away captive.

4. (a) Of what was that slaughter at Jerusalem typical or pictorial? (b) By doing what now can we avoid that slaughter?

4 However, after that destruction of Jerusalem and her temple by the Romans in the year 70 C.E., Jesus Christ did not forcibly impose his kingship upon the surviving Jews either in the land of Palestine or throughout the rest of the inhabited earth. The Roman Empire continued to hold the territory of Palestine for centuries thereafter. Evidently, then, the slaughter of the antichristian Jews in Jerusalem by the pagan Romans in 70 C.E. was only pictorial or typical of the slaughter on a grander scale, on a worldwide scale, of all those on earth who did not want Jesus Christ as earth’s new king at his second coming. So the time is yet to come​—but it is very near—​when, in fulfillment of his parable, the resurrected, glorified Jesus Christ will command his heavenly angels to bring his enemies on earth before him and to slaughter them as irreconcilable enemies of his kingdom. This signifies that we today are living in a dangerous time and we need to find out whether we are foes of his kingdom or not. By taking the right stand now we can be saved from the coming slaughter.

THE PARABOLIC ILLUSTRATION

5, 6. What were his disciples expecting Jesus to do at Jerusalem, and so why did he give them the parable?

5 As an aid to direct us in taking the right stand now, we do well to examine and get the sense of the entire parable given by Jesus Christ there in Jericho in the early spring of 33 C.E. As a result of Jesus’ visit in the home of the chief tax collector in Jericho, this despised man Zacchaeus had become a believer in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah or Christ. (Luke 19:1-10) Because Jesus’ face was set to go up to Jerusalem, his disciples thought that he was going to declare himself as the Messiah at Jerusalem and restore the kingdom to the nation of Israel, taking the control out of the hands of the imperial Romans. To disabuse the minds of his disciples of this wrong idea, Jesus Christ gave the parable to indicate that his kingdom was a long way off.

6 With regard to this, we read: “While they were listening to these things he spoke in addition an illustration, because he was near Jerusalem and they were imagining that the kingdom of God was going to display itself instantly. Therefore he said: ‘A certain man of noble birth traveled to a distant land to secure kingly power for himself and to return.’”​—Luke 19:11, 12.

7. (a) In the parable, how did Jesus indicate that the securing and applying of the kingly power would require a long time from then? (b) How was Jesus indeed a “man of noble birth”?

7 In this way Jesus hinted that he did not have the kingly power as yet, but that he had to travel a long distance in order to secure it for himself. In view of the relative slowness of travel nineteen hundred years ago, a journey to a distant location and then the return journey would indicate the passing of a long period of time. Jesus was not traveling to as near a place as Jerusalem, fourteen miles from Jericho, to secure the kingly power to which he was entitled because of his noble birth. (Luke 19:12, Jerusalem Bible; New American Bible; New English Bible; New World Translation) Although Jesus had been a lowly carpenter in the city of Nazareth, yet he was indeed a nobleman or “man of noble birth.” He was a natural descendant of King David, whose capital city had been Jerusalem. As such a person, he was entitled to inherit the kingdom of David over all Israel, with Jerusalem as his capital. Jesus had performed so many miracles by the power of God, and now his disciples thought that the Messianic “kingdom of God” would display itself in a miraculous manner by making Jesus the acting King over Israel in spite of the Roman occupation of the land. Thus the Messianic kingdom of God could be established instantly. But Jesus knew that the Kingdom was not as near as the time it would take for him to get to Jerusalem.​—Luke 3:23-31; Matt. 1:1-17.

8, 9. (a) Was the time involved the amount of time it took to make the trip to and from Rome, and why not? (b) How, in his words to King Zedekiah of Jerusalem, did Jehovah indicate that he was the One to bestow the kingly power?

8 Neither was the time that was involved the amount of time that it took to journey from Palestine to imperial Rome in Italy and then to return to Jerusalem. Rome was not the location for Jesus Christ to get his kingly power. The source of his kingly power was not Caesar or the Roman Senate. That fact was painfully demonstrated when the Roman soldiers impaled him on Passover Day as a seditious claimant to kingship. The distant place for Jesus to travel to in order to get the kingly power was the location of the One who had established the Messianic kingdom of Jesus’ forefather David. That One was Jehovah God, and his location was in heaven. Jehovah indicated that He was the One to bestow the kingly power upon the rightful descendant of King David, when he said to King Zedekiah of Jerusalem, shortly before his dethronement in the year 607 B.C.E.:

9 “Remove the [royal] turban, and lift off the crown. This will not be the same. Put on high even what is low, and bring low even the high one. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I shall make it. As for this also, it will certainly become no one’s until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.”​—Ezek. 21:26, 27.

10. Why was Jesus not assuming or presumptuous in imitating the nobleman and going on a long journey to get kingly power?

10 Jesus Christ was not assuming or presumptuous when he determined to imitate the nobleman of the parable and go on what would be a journey consuming a lot of time in order to secure kingship for himself. Just before he was conceived in the womb of his earthly mother Mary of the royal house of David, the angel Gabriel said concerning her son whom she was to call Jesus: “This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; and Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule as king over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom.” (Luke 1:31-33) Now it required a divine miracle for this Son of the Most High to have his life transferred from heaven to earth. So, now, how was Jesus Christ to get back to heaven in order to secure the Davidic kingdom from his heavenly Father?

11, 12. (a) By what miracle was Jesus enabled to make the journey to the location for receiving the kingly power? (b) Why is such a resurrection of Jesus not our theory on the matter?

11 The divine rule is unalterably laid down: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom.” (1 Cor. 15:50) Evidently, then, it would have to be by another miracle that Jesus Christ would take the journey back to heaven to the Supreme Authority who could bestow the Kingdom upon him. Obviously Jesus would have to lay aside his “flesh and blood.” This would require him to lay down his perfect human life innocently as a human sacrifice. But this sacrificial death would not put him in heaven. God would have to bring his sacrificed Son back to life again, but not as a Son of “flesh and blood” again. It would have to be as a spiritual Son with a spirit body, invisible to human eyes but visible to heavenly eyes. So this would require Almighty God Jehovah not only to perform the miracle of resurrecting his sacrificed Son but also to resurrect him as a spirit being, with the promised reward of immortality and incorruptibility. This is exactly what Jehovah did. This is not our theory, but the apostle Peter writes:

12 “Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison.”​—1 Pet. 3:18, 19, Revised Standard Version of 1952.

13, 14. (a) At Jesus’ death as a man of “flesh and blood,” where did he come to be? (b) How do we know whether immediately after his resurrection Jesus started on his journey to the “distant land” of the parable or not?

13 Of course, at Jesus’ death as a man of “flesh and blood,” he did not go to the “distant land” of the parable, that is, to the heavenly presence of his Father. He was really dead, and his body was put in a tomb, so that, for parts of three days, Jesus was in what the Jews called Sheol and the Greeks called Haʹdes. On his resurrection as a spirit person on the third day, Jesus had with him the value or merit of his sacrificed human life, but he did not at once start on his journey to the “distant land.” On that same day he appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden of the tomb and said to her:

14 “Stop clinging to me. For I have not yet ascended to the Father. But be on your way to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.’” (John 20:17) For forty days he continued invisibly in the vicinity of the earth, at times materializing in human form and appearing to his disciples to prove to them that he was again alive, resurrected from the dead.​—Acts 1:1-5.

15, 16. (a) When did the resurrected Jesus start on the journey to that “distant land,” and before what witnesses? (b) By when must he have reached that “distant land,” and how does Peter verify this?

15 When the resurrected Jesus Christ did ascend to his heavenly Father would be the time that he started traveling to the “distant land.” This was on the fortieth day from his resurrection from the dead. As a number of disciples on the Mount of Olives saw the materialized body in which Jesus had appeared ascending into the sky and disappearing, two angels stood by them and said: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who was received up from you into the sky will come thus in the same manner as you have beheld him going into the sky.” (Acts 1:11) How long it took Jesus Christ in the spirit realm to reach the “distant land” of the parable, we do not know, but it was within ten days, or before the festival day of Pentecost of that year of 33 C.E. On that day the holy spirit was poured out upon Christ’s disciples in Jerusalem, and the apostle Peter spoke under inspiration and said to thousands of listening Jews:

16 “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.

“DO BUSINESS TILL I COME”

17. How does Jesus’ parable indicate what his disciples were to do on earth during his long absence?

17 So Jesus Christ was to come again​—but this time with “kingly power.” The parable that Jesus gave because his disciples “were imagining that the kingdom of God was going to display itself instantly,” indicated that Jesus Christ, like the “man of noble birth,” would be absent a long time. (Luke 19:11, 12) Well, then, what were his disciples to do in the meantime, while waiting for his return with “kingly power”? Jesus did not leave them without instructions specifically as to what they were to do. Jesus’ parable illustrated that he would do this. We read with respect to the departing nobleman: “Calling ten slaves of his he gave them ten minas and told them, ‘Do business till I come.’”​—Luke 19:13.

18. (a) What value do various Bible translations and Aid to Bible Understanding attach to the ten silver minas? (b) What were the slaves to do with the silver minas?

18 An American Translation attaches a money value to the ancient mina and translates this verse: “And he called in ten of his slaves and gave them each twenty dollars and told them to trade with it while he was gone.” Moffatt’s Bible translation attaches a British valuation to the mina and reads: “He first called his ten servants, giving them each a five-pound note, and telling them, ‘Trade with this till I come back.’” The New English Bible of the year 1970 values the mina at just a “pound.” The New American Bible is indefinite and says that the man of noble birth gave his servants “sums of ten units.” The 1971 publication entitled “Aid to Bible Understanding” reckons the silver mina of the first century C.E. at $14.094. This was a lot of money in Jesus’ day, it being equivalent to 100 drachmas, although it was worth only one sixtieth of a silver talent amounting to $845.64. Whatever the value of the silver mina would be today, the ten slaves of the man of noble birth were to do business with the silver minas by trading operations and thereby gain wealth for the prospective king.

19. Whom did the “ten slaves” picture, and what did the “ten minas” picture?

19 The ten slaves of Jesus’ parable pictured the disciples of the Lord Jesus. After his resurrection from the dead, what did he leave in trust with his disciples before he ascended into heaven ten days before the festival day of Pentecost of 33 C.E.? At his death on the stake at Calvary, Jesus had been stripped of absolutely every material thing on earth of any value. At his resurrection from the dead on the third day, even the burial bandages and headcloth were left behind in the tomb. (John 20:6, 7) What, then, did Jesus possess to entrust to his disciples before ascending to the heavenly “distant land”? It was something that, like the ten silver minas, had a value that could serve as a base or asset for making a valuable increase for the prospective King, the Messiah. As it was not something material, it was something intangible and yet it was there, it existed. What? The field of interest that Jesus had cultivated respecting God’s Messianic kingdom by his public ministry of about three and a half years in Israel.

20. (a) So what valuable quality had been imparted to the field of activity that Jesus’ disciples could turn to profit as if doing business with ten minas? (b) How did one slave and Jesus himself indicate such a useful valuableness imparted to a field of activity?

20 Yes, those ten symbolic “minas” of silver represented the effects that Jesus’ intensive teaching and preaching had produced in the Jewish or Israelite world so that Jehovah’s chosen people were inclined toward accepting Jesus as the promised Messiah. Thus there was the prepared field for Jesus’ disciples where they could operate, to build up and encourage along to maturity in Jews the readiness to believe or to be persuaded that Jesus was Jehovah’s Anointed One because of what Jesus taught and did in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. It was a field that Jesus’ disciples could make very productive by occupying themselves with what Jesus told them to do. In the parable one of the ten slaves likened it to a field or farmland when this slave said to the returned king: “You reap what you did not sow.” (Luke 19:21) Jesus also illustrated it earlier when he said to his disciples while in Samaria: “The saying is true, One is the sower and another the reaper. I dispatched you to reap what you have spent no labor on. Others have labored, and you have entered into the benefit of their labor.”​—John 4:37, 38.

21. (a) What was it that Jesus wanted more of? (b) If the Jewish field would not prove productive enough, what were the disciples to do?

21 Thus Jesus’ disciples had something useful, something valuable, something adaptable, effective, with which to begin working or ‘doing business’ and gain increase. It was not more silver or gold that Jesus desired to gain through his disciple-slaves. What he wanted more of was disciples who followed in his footsteps and were in favor of him as the Messianic King. And if the already cultivated Jewish field would not produce them all, especially the 144,000 heirs of the Kingdom with Jesus, then the disciples could enlarge the field of their activities into the Gentile or non-Jewish realm. In this manner they would increase the cultivated field that would produce five or ten times more the area under cultivation to produce adherents to Christ’s kingdom.

22. The “slaves” in being ten in number picture whom, in the complete fulfillment of the parable?

22 The “ten slaves of his” in Jesus’ parable did not find their complete fulfillment in the apostles and disciples of the first century of our Common Era. Appropriately, the number of “slaves” was set at “ten,” inasmuch as ten is used in Bible illustrations to stand for allness or completeness, particularly with respect to earthly things. Thus, the “ten slaves” of the parable would nicely picture all the spirit-begotten, anointed slaves of Jesus Christ who are prospective heirs with him in the heavenly kingdom and who have been produced all down through these past nineteen centuries until Christ’s coming into kingly power at the close of the Gentile Times in the year 1914 C.E. and till now. This must be the case, because the apostles and other disciples of the first century C.E. have not survived in the flesh down till Christ’s invisible return with Kingdom power in this twentieth century.

23. (a) The parable’s culminating features find their counterparts with Christ’s disciples of what period? (b) In view of the impending slaughter of the King’s enemies, what is it in our interest to do as regards the parable?

23 Consequently, the final culminating features of Jesus’ parable of the “ten slaves” with ten minas must find their counterparts with the baptized, spirit-begotten, anointed disciples of Jesus Christ alive on earth during this twentieth century. Investigation reveals that there is a remnant of around ten thousand yet on earth, who are ‘doing business’ with the ten symbolic minas for increasing the wealth of earth’s new King. These ten thousand are indeed but a small remaining number when we compare them with the full number of 144,000 disciples who are to be united with Jesus Christ in reigning with him for a thousand years to God’s glory and the everlasting blessing of all mankind. How all these figurative ten slaves have done business or traded with the “ten minas” of the prospective King provides an interesting story. In view of the impending slaughter of all the enemies of earth’s rightful Messianic King, it will be to our interest to follow the story through to the finish and see what proper part we can play in the modern fulfillment of Jesus’ parable.

[Picture on page 713]

In Jesus’ parable the departing nobleman gave each of ten slaves a mina, telling them: “Do business till I come.” The ten slaves pictured Jesus’ disciples

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After Jesus’ resurrection he gave out the symbolic minas, as noted at Matthew 28:18-20

Spared from Slaughter with the King’s Enemies

Spared from Slaughter with the King’s Enemies

1. Our rejecting of earth’s new King now can mean what consequences, according to what warning example of long ago?

LIVING as we do in the “time of the end” of the present “system of things,” it can mean the most serious consequences for us if we reject earth’s new King. (Dan. 12:4; Matt. 24:3) Nineteen hundred years ago the consequences were very serious for the Israelites who were living in the end of the Jewish system of things that revolved around Jerusalem and its temple. (Heb. 9:26) That was a warning example for us today. This warning is emphasized for us in Jesus’ parable of the man of noble birth who entrusted ten silver minas to ten of his slaves.

2. When did Jesus as the prospective King depart, and who were his fellow “citizens” who were to send a delegation after him to oppose his kingship?

2 In the parable Jesus goes on to say: “But his citizens hated him and sent out a body of ambassadors after him, to say, ‘We do not want this man to become king over us.’” (Luke 19:14) It was after his resurrection from the dead that Jesus as the one anointed with God’s holy spirit to become the Messianic King ascended from earth to heaven, just ten days before the festival day of Pentecost of 33 C.E. According to Jesus’ fleshly nationality, “his citizens” were the Israelites or Jews. In line with this fact, it is written: “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, that he might release by purchase those under law, that we, in turn, might receive the adoption as sons.” (Gal. 4:4, 5) “He came to his own home, but his own people did not take him in.” (John 1:11) Well, now, after Jesus’ ascension to heaven, how did his Jewish fellow citizens send a delegation or deputation after him to voice their objections to Jesus’ exercising royal power over them?

3. Since his fellow “citizens” were of flesh and blood, how could they send a delegation “after him” to object to his kingship?

3 Being of flesh and blood, no body of Jewish ambassadors could go to heaven and appear in God’s holy presence and tell him not to give the Messianic kingship to his resurrected Son Jesus. But they did not have to do this. They served notice on God just as effectively. How? It was from the festival day of Pentecost forward, for then the Christian disciples who had been keeping “underground” came out into the open. It was then that the apostle Peter, acting as the spokesman for about 120 disciples, said to more than three thousand assembled Jews in Jerusalem: “Let all the house of Israel know for a certainty that God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you impaled.” (Acts 2:36) But did the religious authorities in Jerusalem agree with that announcement of Jesus as the Messiah? Not so, if their opposition and persecution of Jesus’ disciples thereafter are any indication. So by their official objection to the witness given by the disciples that Jesus was God’s promised Messiah, they were serving notice upon God in heaven that they did not want his resurrected Son as their Messianic King.​—Acts 5:34-39.

4. (a) By rejecting Jesus as the Messianic king, to what did the Jewish “citizens” expose themselves? (b) To what outcome did this lead such “citizens” later, but how did the Christianized Jews fare?

4 Jesus’ fellow citizens had their own ideas about who should become their king in the role of Messiah. They thus exposed themselves to being deceived by false Messiahs, false Christs. It was under false Messianic ideals that the nationalistic Jews revolted in the year 66 C.E. against having Caesar any longer as their king. (John 19:15) The few years of independence that they gained from the Roman Empire ended in the reducing of Jerusalem and its temple to ruins in the year 70 C.E. The thousands of Christianized Jews were thankful that they had not been deceived into joining the Jewish Messianic revolt, and they continued on ‘doing business’ with the figurative silver minas given to them by Jesus Christ before he departed to the heavenly “distant land.” They did not lose anything spiritually by the horrible destruction of Jerusalem and by the cruel dispersion of the unbelieving Jews.

DOING BUSINESS WITH THE KING’S VALUABLES

5. When, in the parable, the returned nobleman took account with his slaves, what did the first one to present himself have to say?

5 In Jesus’ parable, it is only after the “man of noble birth” got back from his long journey abroad, that we learn what his ten slaves did with the silver minas committed to them. We read: “Eventually when he got back after having secured the kingly power [or, the kingdom], he commanded to be called to him these slaves to whom he had given the silver money, in order to ascertain what they had gained by business activity. Then the first one presented himself, saying, ‘Lord, your mina gained ten minas.’” (Luke 19:15, 16) According to An American Translation this slave said: “Your twenty dollars has made two hundred, sir!” According to Moffatt’s translation, he said: “Your five pounds has made other fifty, sir.” He gained ten times as much as he had been given.

6. (a) What did this first slave picture? (b) How was business down with the Lord’s silver “mina” from Pentecost onward?

6 Since the “ten slaves” of the parable pictured all the spirit-begotten anointed disciples of Jesus Christ from Pentecost of the year 33 C.E. down till now, this first slave pictured a class or group of such Christian disciples. Doubtless, the twelve faithful apostles and the apostle Paul belonged to this class. Being apostles or “sent-forth ones,” they certainly widened out the field under cultivation that their Lord Jesus Christ had left as something valuable and productive with which to start working or doing business. How they did business with the symbolic silver mina the book of Acts of Apostles shows. From the festival day of Pentecost forward we read of “the teaching of the apostles” to which the Christian believers devoted themselves, and that “many portents and signs began to occur through the apostles,” and that “at the same time Jehovah continued to join to them daily those being saved.”​—Acts 2:42, 43, 47.

7. Under persecution, what did the apostles do, as, for example, after their experience with the Jerusalem Sanhedrin?

7 The apostles kept up their work of preaching and teaching, in spite of being unjustly punished for doing so. For example, this is what happened after the apostles had had their hearing before the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem: “They summoned the apostles, flogged them, and ordered them to stop speaking upon the basis of Jesus’ name, and let them go. These [the apostles], therefore, went their way from before the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy to be dishonored in behalf of his name. And every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus [or, Jesus the Messiah].”​—Acts 5:40-42, New World Translation; New English Bible; New American Bible; see also Moffatt.

8. Due to the apostles’ strict adherence to preaching and teaching, what happened with reference to the number of believers?

8 In strict adherence to their ministry, the twelve apostles told the Jerusalem congregation: “We shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4) It is no wonder that thereafter we read: “Consequently the word of God went on growing [by the preaching and teaching], 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.” The number of believers must now have risen above five thousand, for some time earlier we read: “Many of those who had listened to the speech believed, and the number of the men became about five thousand.”​—Acts 6:7; 4:4.

9, 10. (a) How was the field of cultivation widened out, according to Acts, chapters eight through ten? (b) What explanation does the apostle Paul give of how he did business with the symbolic silver mina?

9 Thereafter, from Jerusalem as a base of operations, the field of operations was extended to the circumcised Samaritans, and to a circumcised Ethiopian proselyte, and then, at God’s appointed time, to all the uncircumcised non-Jews or Gentiles. (Acts chapters 8-10) At the council of the Christian governing body in Jerusalem, the disciple James commented on the widening of the field of cultivation to embrace the Gentile world, saying: “Symeon [Peter] has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name. And with this the words of the Prophets agree.” (Acts 15:14, 15) After that the apostle Paul went on his second missionary tour and penetrated into Europe. Concerning himself, Paul said: “Forasmuch as I am, in reality, an apostle to the nations, I glorify my ministry.” (Rom. 11:13) On the return journey of his third missionary tour, Paul explained how he did business with the symbolic silver mina that the Lord Jesus Christ had entrusted to him, saying to the elders of the congregation of Ephesus, Asia Minor:

10 “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house [or, in public or at your houses, AT, NE, Rotherham; in public or in private, NA]. But I thoroughly bore witness both to Jews and to Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.”​—Acts 20:20, 21.

11. As a result of the Christian slaves doing business with the symbolic mina, how much of a witness had been given about ten years before Jerusalem’s destruction?

11 So, then, did the apostles and their anointed fellow disciples back there in the first century increase the symbolic minas that the Lord Jesus Christ had committed to them as his Christian slaves? Yes, they did. We have here the written testimony of the apostle Paul, when he wrote his letter to the Colossians from his prison house in Rome about ten years before the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E., speaking about the spread of the good news: “That good news which has presented itself to you, even as it is bearing fruit and increasing in all the world . . . that good news which you heard, and which was preached in all creation that is under heaven.” (Col. 1:5, 6, 23) Thus, years before the end of the Jewish system of things that revolved around Jerusalem, a world witness had been accomplished.

TRADING WITH THE “MINAS” IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

12. (a) Why is credit not to be given to Christendom for the modern-day “increasing in all the world” on the part of “that good news”? (b) To whom is the credit to be given, and why?

12 Today, after the passing of nineteen hundred years, can it also be said that the good news is “increasing in all the world” and that it has been “preached in all creation that is under heaven”? Yes, far more so than in the first century C.E. The credit for this is not to be assigned to Christendom now over sixteen centuries old. She and her hundreds of millions of church members are not proclaiming that the Lord Jesus Christ secured his “kingly power” at the close of the Gentile Times in 1914, the year of World War I. They are not proclaiming the good news that the Messianic kingdom in the hands of the Lord Jesus was born in the heavens when the Gentile Times ended in 1914 and that his heavenly kingdom has nothing to do with the League of Nations or the United Nations, which Christendom depends upon for maintaining world peace and security. Not to Christendom, but to the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses is the credit to be given for the preaching creation-wide of the good news of such a Messianic kingdom as now established in the heavens since 1914 for ridding the whole earthly creation of all unrighteousness and for blessing mankind with a perfect, divine government.

13. (a) After the anointed remnant emerged from World War I, how numerous were the adherents to the newborn Kingdom, and why? (b) How did this remnant come into possession of symbolic “minas,” and how did they do business with them?

13 When that anointed remnant emerged from World War I and its persecutions in the year 1918, they were an object of hatred by all the nations and were under ill repute religiously. (Matt. 24:9) The cultivated field that remained to them for the producing of more adherents to the newborn Messianic kingdom of God was very small. They were like the apostles and fellow disciples of Christ between the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from disgraceful death and the festival day of Pentecost. So what occurred was like a new committal of the symbolic silver minas in the year 1919 to the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. In that year, 1919, came the first postwar general assembly of the anointed remnant, at Cedar Point, Ohio, and, with a renewal of the spirit of Jehovah God, the anointed remnant set itself anew to doing business or trading with the symbolic silver minas freshly received from the Lord Jesus Christ now clothed with kingly power. In their manner of doing business or trading with those “minas,” they imitated the apostolic example of the first century by preaching and teaching “this good news of the kingdom.”​—Matt. 24:14.

14, 15. (a) Who are now being called to account on how they handled the “minas”? (b) In the parable, what were the rewards for the slaves that gained wealth for their Lord?

14 Now the members of the anointed remnant are being called to account as to how they have handled the symbolic minas. They know that increase is expected of them by their Lord. What is the reward for increasing the number of symbolic minas? Jesus’ parable, after telling of the accounting rendered by the slave that gained ten minas more, goes on to answer this question:

15 “So he [the returned Lord] said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because in a very small matter you have proved yourself faithful, hold authority over ten cities.’ Now the second [slave] came, saying, ‘Your mina, Lord, made five minas.’ He said to this one also, ‘You, too, be in charge of five cities.’”​—Luke 19:17-19.

16. (a) The fact that the “man of noble birth” was able to give rulership over fifteen cities to but two slaves of the ten, indicates what? (b) As for the members of the remnant who now gain wealth for the returned Lord Jesus Christ, what about their getting rulership now on earth over cities?

16 The fact that the returned “man of noble birth” could appoint the good and faithful slaves who brought increase to rule over cities, the one slave over ten cities and the other over five, proves that he had secured the kingly power and was now exercising it. The nobleman’s being able to appoint slaves over fifteen cities, in the case of the first two, shows that his kingly power was quite extensive. Because they had proved faithful with a relatively small sum like a silver mina, they could be entrusted with larger responsibility, rulership over cities. In the present-day fulfillment of the parable, those of the anointed remnant who are increasing the valuables of the now-reigning Lord Jesus Christ have his approval and favor at present. They retain their hope of rulership with him in the heavenly kingdom. But at present, during their active service on earth, they are given no literal rulership over a number of earthly cities. Their Lord’s approval still does not authorize them to dabble in world politics and gain political rulership on earth. They must remain no part of this world down till death in order to reign with Christ above.

THE “WICKED SLAVE”

17. What question arises about one’s resenting being required to bring increase to the Lord, and what case of resentment does Jesus’ parable show?

17 Does any one of us resent and take offense at the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, now vested with royal power, requires an increase on what he commits to his slaves? Whether we are excusable for feeling that way about it is shown in the case of the slave who differed from those who got busy with their minas. We read: “But a different one came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, that I kept laid away in a cloth. You see, I was in fear of you, because you are a harsh man; you take up what you did not deposit and you reap what you did not sow.’”​—Luke 19:20, 21.

18. Why was this profitless slave not to be excused on the basis of conscience?

18 Was this different slave to be excused on the basis of conscience? No; for he was not asked to do a wrong thing, namely, put his Lord’s mina to use in making dishonest profit. Regardless of his view of his master, he was a mere slave and should have done the honest thing that his master asked him to do. If he was too lazy to work, he should have put the mina in the bank and let the bankers do the work for him. So he had a lame excuse.

19. According to what did the master answer this slave, and how?

19 His master answered and judged him according to his own excuse, for we read: “He said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I judge you, wicked slave. You knew, did you, that I am a harsh man, taking up what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Hence, why is it you did not put my silver money in a bank? Then on my arrival I would have collected it with interest.’”​—Luke 19:22, 23.

20, 21. (a) Was the master’s calling the slave “wicked” an improper, harsh, inconsiderate thing? (b) What does the parable show as to whether the “wicked slave” deserved another opportunity?

20 Calling this worthless slave “wicked” was not an improper, harsh, inconsiderate thing, for this slave who was afraid to work with his master’s valuable mina had deliberately caused his master a loss. Valuable time and money were involved, and the slave had not made use of them in loyalty to his master or with the desire for the prosperity and increase of his master’s belongings. The slave’s handing back merely what he had received a long time ago was no fit way for a slave to welcome home a king! How cheap! How disrespectful! How undignifying! How lacking in joy and enthusiasm over the newly established kingdom of his master! Here was an absolute failure to render any service whatsoever to his master when he had the time and means with which to do so. At the time of settling accounts, did he deserve further opportunity? Notice:

21 “With that he [the master] said to those standing by, ‘Take the mina from him and give it to him that has the ten minas.’ But they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’​—‘I say to you, To everyone that has, more will be given; but from the one that does not have, even what he has will be taken away. Moreover, these enemies of mine that did not want me to become king over them bring here and slaughter them before me.’”​—Luke 19:24-27.

22. (a) Thus what royal opportunity did that profitless slave lose? (b) On whose side did that slave really put himself, and how did his master’s words make it look bad for that slave?

22 The taking of the mina away from the profitless slave meant that he lost his opportunity to prove himself worthy to “hold authority over ten cities” or to “be in charge of five cities” and thus to share in the kingdom of his now royal master. (Luke 19:17, 19) He could not be trusted with any Kingdom responsibilities. Although he had a negative attitude toward his master’s kingdom, he put himself on the side of those of a positive attitude against having this man rule as king over them. Whether he was slaughtered with the master’s enemies who did not want him to become king over them, the parable does not state or show. But the parable does show that right after the master says that a slave who has no zeal and interest toward his master’s kingdom will have what opportunity he has taken away from him, the master tells his royal subjects to slaughter his enemies before him.

23. (a) For what misdeeds was that slave not branded as “wicked”? (b) In the light of that slave’s failure, what are the baptized, anointed “slaves” of Christ under obligation to do since the end of the Gentile Times in 1914?

23 It is to be noted that this profitless slave was not branded as being “wicked” for abusing his fellow slaves or for having committed immorality such as fornication, adultery or homosexuality. No, but he was judged as being wicked for his lack of support of his master’s Kingdom prospects, his not working for the increase of the wealth of his master’s kingdom. In not being for his master as king, he was against him. (Matt. 12:30; Luke 11:23) So, too, since the end of the Gentile Times in 1914, it is a serious thing for the baptized, anointed “slaves” of the now-reigning King Jesus Christ to neglect their duty to increase the public knowledge, support and loyal adherence with respect to his kingdom. They are held accountable to “do business” with the symbolic minas that have been entrusted to them for use till he holds account with them.

24. (a) What privilege do these Christian “slaves” not want to be transferred to someone else? (b) For them to lose the royal reward would mean to lose what?

24 They should not want their privileges with regard to Christ’s kingdom to be removed from them and given to a zealous Kingdom preacher and teacher like the slave who gained ten minas. For them to have the symbolic mina taken away from them would mean for them to miss out on gaining a place in the heavenly Kingdom, to rule, as it were, over “ten cities” or “five cities.” For them to lose that would mean to lose all. It would mean their destruction with the direct enemies of God’s Messianic government who do not want Jesus Christ to exercise kingly power over them for a thousand years. (Rev. 20:4, 6) The time for the holy angels that accompany Jesus Christ at his coming to execute divine vengeance upon all opposers and nonsupporters of the Messianic kingdom is getting closer. It will begin before the battle of Har–Magedon.

25. (a) Why will the execution of divine vengeance begin before the battle of Har–Mageddon? (b) What will it then mean for us if, as professed Christians, we are found like that “wicked slave”?

25 It will begin with the destruction of religious Babylon the Great at the outbreak of the “great tribulation” pictured by the siege and destruction of Jerusalem back there in 70 C.E. (Rev. 17:1-16; Matt. 24:15-22) Woe betide us then if we belong to that class of professed Christians pictured by the “wicked slave” who saved his mina in a cloth only to lose it eventually! It will signify everlasting destruction for us in the “great tribulation” along with the King’s “enemies.”

26. What two classes will be spared from slaughter with the King’s enemies? And why?

26 The anointed Christian “slaves” who bring spiritual gain to their heavenly Master, the King Jesus Christ, will be spared from slaughter with the King’s enemies. So also will be the “great crowd” who respond to the business activities of the faithful, profitable “slaves” and who loyally take their stand before the throne of Jehovah God and of his Lamb Jesus Christ and who enthusiastically cry out for all to hear: “Victory to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”​—Rev. 7:9, 10, 14, 15, NE.

Declaration and Resolution

Declaration and Resolution

1. Who were assembled in international assembly, and in whose name did they make a declaration and resolution?

WE, a body of advocates of the best possible government for all the human family, being gathered together this Saturday, the ‐‐‐‐ (date) day of ‐‐‐‐ (month) of the year 197‐‐ at the “Divine Victory” International Assembly of the Christian witnesses of Jehovah that is being held in ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ (city), ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ (country), make the following public declaration and resolve in the name of the one and only Source of all righteous government, the Sovereign Lord of the universe:

2. What has study of the Holy Scriptures shown as to the start of humanity’s present distress, and what about any deadness of the Universal Sovereign to mankind’s affairs?

2 As fellow human creatures we are deeply moved in our hearts at the continuing and increasing distress of all humanity since World War I broke out in the year 1914. We who are living during the generation that knew, felt and survived that first world conflict have sought for an explanation of humanity’s distress in the inspired written Word from the Source of all perfect government, that is to say, the Sacred Scriptures or Holy Bible. From its pages as illuminated by the light of modern events we have learned that the worldwide distress and anguish of nations did not begin back there in 1914 merely by accident, without intelligent purpose, without occurring at a foreordained, due time. Rather, this unparalleled distress of humanity started at the precise time marked by the Greatest Timekeeper of all, the Universal Sovereign, the Creator of the time-observing sun, moon and stars. He is not dead toward human affairs, but the interests of all humanity are of keen concern to Him. He is fully alive to humanity’s needs.

3. Timewise, what did the year 1914 mark, and is God responsible for the human distress since then, or who is?

3 Historians of the world refer to 1914 as the year marking the end of an epoch. The One who from time to time has made himself felt in human history, namely, man’s Creator, marked that same year as the one for the ending of the “appointed times of the nations,” the so-called Gentile Times. The ending of these Gentile Times was long awaited, for in the year 33 C.E., more than nineteen hundred years ago, God’s own Son Jesus Christ spoke of those Gentile Times and prophesied concerning the fulfillment of them. (Luke 21:24) He prophesied of what his heavenly Father, Jehovah God, would do at the end of those Gentile Times. What men and nations on earth did at that important date was their own responsibility. He did not force them to take the action that they then took, and so he is absolved from all responsibility for humanity’s distress that has dragged on till this day.

4. Upon what city did the Gentile Times begin, and upon what “city” do they come to their fulfillment, and why?

4 In recent centuries, since the printing and distribution of the Holy Bible world wide in many language translations, Bible students have formed ideas as to what the Most High God would do at the end of the Gentile Times. Their attention has focused on Jerusalem of the Middle East, under Turkish control for centuries, then passing under British control in 1917, and now being under Israeli control. Measuring the Gentile Times according to their count of time, those Bible students have expected the wrong thing to take place at the end of the Gentile Times. They fail to take note that God’s interest has shifted from earthly Jerusalem of the days of Jesus Christ and his apostles to the “heavenly Jerusalem,” which is the city that the Holy Bible now calls the “city of the living God.” (Heb. 12:22) The 2,520 years of the Gentile Times began in the year 607 B.C.E., with the desolation of the earthly Jerusalem by the armies of Babylon. Those Gentile Times, therefore, did not come to their complete fulfillment on the earthly Jerusalem of Jesus’ day. They did come to their complete fulfillment upon the “heavenly Jerusalem,” an indestructible seat of government.

5. Since the desolation of Jerusalem and Judah in 607 B.C.E., what royal right has been trampled on, and why did Jesus, when on earth, not establish a kingdom at Jerusalem?

5 At the end of the Gentile Times the reverse is to be expected of what took place at their beginning in 607 B.C.E. The desolating of Jerusalem and Judea at that time is not the vital thing. No, but it was the overturning of God’s Messianic kingdom that had been established at Jerusalem in the hands of the royal family of David of Bethlehem. From that overthrow onward the right of the royal family of King David to have a government over the earth has been trampled on by successive Gentile world powers, namely, the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, the Roman, and the Anglo-American. During all those Gentile Times Jehovah God did not interfere in human affairs by reestablishing the Messianic kingdom at rebuilt Jerusalem on earth. That explains why his Son Jesus Christ did not overturn the Roman Empire and establish an earthly kingdom of David’s royal family in earthly Jerusalem. Instead, he predicted the continuance of the Gentile Times until God’s time for their end. Instead of seating himself on David’s throne at Jerusalem, he died innocently as King David’s royal Heir, on the third day he was resurrected from his martyr’s death, and he ascended thereafter to heaven to be seated at the right hand of his heavenly Father’s throne.​—Acts 2:32-36.

6. Where and when did reestablishment of the Messianic kingdom take place, and was this what touched off World War I?

6 Up there God’s Son Jesus the Messiah continued waiting till the end of the Gentile Times. (Heb. 10:12, 13) Likewise, Jehovah God restrained himself till then. But in 1914, or 2,520 years from the desolating of Jerusalem and Judah by the Babylonians, the Supreme Ruler of the universe took due action. He reestablished the Messianic kingdom of David, this time in the hands of David’s heavenly Heir, Jesus Christ. The Gentile nations on earth could not interfere with this. No longer could they trample upon the right of King David’s family to Kingdom power. The “appointed times of the [Gentile] nations” had ended. From then on, David’s Permanent Heir, Jesus the Messiah, reigns in the “heavenly Jerusalem.” (Rev. 12:1-11) That heavenly birth of the Messianic kingdom did not touch off World War I on earth. Already, before the Gentile Times ended in 1914, the Gentile nations had gone to war​—two months beforehand. They started their own war on a global scale, for world domination. They recognized no end of the Gentile Times.

7. Under whose superhuman influence did the Gentile nations then act and have they acted since?

7 Under whose influence did the Gentile nations then act and have they acted since? Certainly not under the superhuman influence of Jehovah God, nor was this God on any side in World War I, for they were all warring for world domination by man, not for world domination by the “heavenly Jerusalem” and its new King, Jesus the Messiah. Logically, then, the Gentile nations were acting under the influence of the enemy of Jehovah God and his Messiah Jesus. Who is that superhuman Chief Enemy of Jehovah God? It is the one whom Jesus Christ called “the ruler of this world,” and whom the Christian apostle Paul called “the god of this system of things.” He is Satan the Devil.​—John 12:31; 14:30; 2 Cor. 4:4; Rev. 12:7-13.

8. Who are the chief figures involved in this controversy over world domination, and what question can we not escape facing with respect to this controversy?

8 Not carrying on their political affairs on God’s side by handing over their earthly sovereignty to God’s kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem, the Gentile nations can locate their own selves only on one other side, the side of God’s Chief Adversary, Satan the Devil. The controversy over world domination since the year 1914 involves more than mere nations of mankind. It involves chiefly the Most High God Jehovah and Satan the Devil. Who will win out of these two chief contestants? is the question. Who will gain the victory? There can be no uncertainty about the outcome. The Holy Bible, God’s infallible Word, confidently declares that the Lord God Almighty, Jehovah, will gain the divine victory. (Rev. 16:16; 19:11 through 20:3) The question that no one of us can now escape facing is, With whom do I want to be, the Loser or the Winner?

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