The Watchtower, July 15, 1976

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The Watchtower — July 15, 1976

Source: jw.org

Contents

My Struggle to Be Best—Was It Worth It?

“Snow in the Day of Harvest”

Insight on the News

A Look at Some Miracles of Jesus

Keeping a Balanced View of Time

A Solid Basis for Confidence

‘Who Is the Faithful and Discreet Slave?’

Colossians Counseled on Truth and Conduct

Questions From Readers

Most Widely Read Newsmagazine

My Struggle to Be Best—Was It Worth It?

Reflections of an Olympic Track Star

FOR years I had dreamed of this moment, competing in the Olympic Games. It was Saturday, October 17, 1964, the eighth day of the Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Every one of the 75,000 seats in the National Stadium was filled. The streets of Tokyo appeared deserted—practically everyone was at a television set. The time had arrived for the finals of the 200-meter dash.

I lined up at the starting blocks along with seven other sprinters. Each of us had survived the series of elimination heats run on previous days. For this distance, we were the fastest humans in the world.

The pressure was almost unbearable, and it wasn’t just the millions watching that made it so. There was the nationalism. The Games were turning out to be one big competition between the Russians and the Americans. Daily comparisons of medals won by each country flashed world wide. Our schools, mayors, governors, and even the president, had sent telegrams telling us to remember that we were competing for our country, and that our country is best.

The newspapers, too, put pressure on us, counting the medals we were supposed to win. They made it sound as if winning was a life-or-death matter, as though the country would lose its honor if we lost. In fact, Kokichi Tsuburaya, the Japanese marathon runner, did commit suicide after losing. He left a note apologizing for ‘failing’ his country.

So I began to think: ‘I can’t let my country down. I can’t face them back home if I lose.’ I was the 200-meter world-record holder, so they expected me to win.

Blacks, searching for identity, also applied pressure. I was often told how other blacks had lost, and let our people down. So now I had to win for the blacks of America. Yet other blacks exerted pressure to boycott the Games, to show America that it couldn’t win without us blacks.

But mostly I thought about my family and friends. I didn’t want to embarrass them. I was their hero. They supported me; they cheered for me. When I won, they won. When I lost, they lost. Perhaps you may understand this better if I give you an idea of my background.

RISE TO PROMINENCE

I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, the ninth of eleven children. As long as I can remember, mother and dad were separated. Mother worked long hours doing housework trying to support us.

I was always athletic. Since reading and writing were difficult for me, being the fastest kid on the block or the best player meant something; it was a boost in life.

In high school, almost right away I did very well in sports. For three years—1959, 1960 and 1961—I made the All-American High School Track Team. The 220-yard dash was my speciality. I was also selected for the All-State teams in football and basketball for two years.

Ordinarily, college would have been out of the question. But now universities started bidding for my services. I traveled to several campuses around the United States and the universities would try to entice me with gifts. As a result, despite the poverty of my family, I was able to have money in my pocket, and even to drive a Cadillac! I received my driver’s license in the dining room of a bar, without even taking a driver’s test! One of the nearby universities that was trying to recruit me arranged for this.

However, I chose to go to Arizona State University, and quickly gained world prominence in the track world. In my sophomore year I broke the world record for the 220-yard dash. World leaders wanted to meet me and shake my hand. In Moscow I met Nikita Khrushchev. But all the fame and world travel to compete in track meets seemed unreal to me.

Back at Arizona State I enjoyed favored treatment simply because I was a fast runner. People would shower me with gifts—‘sugar daddies’ athletes called them. So I had money all the time, new clothes and a car. Often I would send money home to help out members of my family. Sure, I liked the favors and attention. But I knew it wasn’t proper; we were supposed to be unpaid amateurs. Yet this was the way things were.

UNJUST REALITIES

Though my abilities brought me praise, just the month before coming to Tokyo I’d been run out of a motel in the southern United States because I was black. The lady hollered at me, “We don’t serve your kind here.” It was late and all I wanted was a place to sleep.

About this same time whites murdered three civil-rights workers in Mississippi. Dogs were being turned on blacks in the South just because they sought a better education. But my world travels convinced me that injustices exist everywhere. In other lands personal freedoms that I took for granted in the United States were often severely restricted.

My heart went out to suffering persons. But what could I do? I realized that the problem in the United States wasn’t just a racial one. When blacks were in control they’d sometimes treat fellow blacks just as badly as whites did. Common sense told me that there really wasn’t anything I could do, and so I decided I wasn’t going to jeopardize my prospects by getting involved.

As for me at that time, everything was going well. When I was a kid we were so poor that I’d go to bed hungry at night, and I didn’t want that again. So I learned to be the well-mannered, mild type of person that the system liked. People often told me: ‘If you just win the big one in the Olympics you’ll have nothing to worry about. Some big company will hire you because you’re an Olympic hero.’ So I just wanted to avoid trouble and win in Tokyo.

Some say I was a ‘natural’ runner, ‘the smoothest sprinter since Jesse Owens was in his prime.’ But let me tell you, I worked hard to develop my ability. It was a struggle to become the best. But if winning in the Olympics would do for me what people said, then I figured it was worth it.

I never felt so much pressure in my life as when we lined up at the starting blocks for the Olympic finals.

THE OUTCOME

I bent down at the starting blocks in Lane Seven. My strategy was to get out in front before we came to the curve, and make the others strive after me, to make them strain a little harder. Because if a person is not running relaxed, he can’t do his best.

The official announced: “On your mark. Get set!” Then the gun sounded: “BANG!” I got a good start. Coming into the curve my thoughts were: ‘It worked! I’m ahead! I’m going to win.’ All I could see was the finish line. I lifted my legs high and stretched out, and there it was. I’d won!

I was in another world. Everything seemed motionless; I was emotionally high. It was a new Olympic record, and it was said I would probably have broken my own world record if there hadn’t been a head wind.

Standing at the top of the victory stand, with “The Star-Spangled Banner” playing, I wanted to be proud of what I’d done for my country. And I did enjoy the thousands cheering. But, at the same time, I realized it was phony. Because the same injustices that had been choking people before I stood there on the victory stand were still around.

I wondered: ‘What’s going to happen to me now that it’s all over? What will my backers do? Will they abandon me? What kind of job will I get?’ I was happy, scared as well as angry—all at the same time.

As I rode back to the Olympic Villages, I took my first real look at the gold medal. It wasn’t what I expected; it was just an oversized silver dollar. I actually asked myself: ‘What in the world! For all these years I have been working hard, and to receive this?’ I was mad, when I should have been happy. It was a real letdown.

A few days later I ran the last 400-meter leg of the 1,600-meter relay. We set a new Olympic and world record, and I received another gold medal. After a trip to Australia to compete in some meets, I returned home.

Hit By Realities—The Consequences

On the way home I focused on the new phase of my life just beginning—getting a job and rearing a family. First, though, along with other Olympic team members, I went to the White House and received President Johnson’s congratulations.

I expected to consider various job offers, and choose the one I wanted. For years people had been telling me that this is how it would be if I won for my country in the Olympics. But this wasn’t true. Everywhere I went people didn’t seem to care that I was an Olympic winner. Oh, they’d like to talk about it. But when it came down to hiring me, they just looked upon me as another black, someone who didn’t fit in with their purposes. Naturally, I began to get bitter.

After a few months, I received a phone call asking if I was interested in playing professional football. I hadn’t played football for two years, since I’d been concentrating on track. But I was desperate for a job, and so said “Yes.” The New York Giants signed me, figuring that with my speed I might be of use.

Well, desperate as I was, I really worked hard and made the team. For three years I did very well, and was for a time defensive captain. One sportswriter said: “Carr, joining the New York Giants, became one of the league’s best defensive backs.”

With just three games left in my third season I injured my knee, and the trainer told me I was through for the year. But later the doctor called and said that the coaches wanted me to play. Controversy developed over the seriousness of the injury, for earlier in the year I had been involved in a racial controversy on the team.

As a result, at the end of the season I was traded. The word was out that I was a troublemaker and couldn’t play when I was hurt. I received similar treatment by the team to which I was traded. So I decided to quit, even though I had made $27,000 the previous year.

A LOSER

I tried, but couldn’t find a decent job. Finally I invested in a fast-hamburger chain, and lost money. I became angry and bitter. People, I felt, were beginning to look on me as a guy who had a chance to make it, but didn’t.

This affected me mentally. I was losing all grip on life. I became a daily marijuana smoker, dreaming how I would be on top again. My wife wanted to help, but couldn’t. I felt that my family (we had two children now) would be better off without me. So I left home.

In time I hit rock bottom morally as a man, coming into association with drug dealers and prostitutes. I started gambling and sniffing cocaine. Having grown up in a Detroit ghetto, I knew many of these people I was now running with. Soon they looked upon me as one of the ‘boys,’ and arranged to set me up as a drug dealer.

After several months, I stopped and took a good look at myself. I had become involved in the very things I had always hated. Everything was negative; I had no pluses going for me. I didn’t know what to do or where to turn. I had a Bible and started to read it, but it didn’t seem to make sense. I decided to return home.

ACHIEVING A WORTHWHILE LIFE

My wife was understanding. And that the children had truly missed me was evident by the look in their eyes. I took a job with the county, working with juvenile delinquents. But soon budget cutbacks were announced, meaning I would be laid off. Because of my pride, I felt desperate again.

With my wife’s consent, I sold some property we owned and used the money to form an advertising agency. My partner was a very talented commercial artist, and I did the public-relations work. People knew and recognized me, and soon I was traveling back and forth to New York seeing clients. The business prospered.

On my returning from work one day, my wife asked if it would be all right if she studied the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. I asked, “Why?” She said that the parents of one of her students (she taught elementary school) had given her this book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life. And another teacher had told her that if she wanted to know anything about the Bible, she should ask Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Recently we had talked about various religions, for our boy was nearing school age and we felt it important that he have a religious education. But our discussion hadn’t included Jehovah’s Witnesses. I only knew that they were considered some kind of religious freaks. However, if she wanted to study with them, it was okay with me.

I was working around the clock, but at odd moments my wife would mention things she was learning. A week or so later the husband of the woman she was studying with visited me.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

He spoke of what a beautiful place the earth could be if only people lived together in peace. I agreed. Then he said: “Isn’t it obvious that Almighty God isn’t responsible for world conditions today?”

This surprised me. “If God isn’t responsible, then who is?” I wanted to know.

“Satan the Devil,” he said. And what amazed me was that he opened the Bible and showed me. Second Corinthians 4:4 says: “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”—Authorized Version.

The Witness explained that Satan is “the god of this world.” And this really made sense when he drew attention to the terrible injustices committed world wide. This is Satan’s world and he is influencing its people, the Witness emphasized. And this helped me to understand another scripture I was shown. Jesus Christ said: “The ruler of this world will be cast out.”—John 12:31.

Obviously, humans can’t get rid of the powerful spirit person, Satan the Devil. But God can, the Witness explained. And he will, so that his purpose to create a peaceful earth under his Kingdom rule can be realized. This seemed reasonable. It was really something to think about.

HELPED TO A RIGHT DECISION

The Witness returned a number of times, and if he found me at home we’d have another Bible discussion. I really began to believe what I was learning, since it was right from God’s Word. For instance, I didn’t know that God had a name. Yet right there in the Bible at Psalm 83:18 it says that his name is JEHOVAH. I enjoyed learning such things.

But what the Bible says about Satan’s being the god of this world began to bother me. And especially when it says that Christ’s followers are no part of the world. (John 17:14-16) One reason was that I was involved with politics, a major advertising client being the top black candidate for mayor in Detroit.

So one day I told the Witness: “I know you’re serious; you’re trying to help me. But I’m just too tied up with my new advertising business, and I don’t want to inconvenience you, having you come over when I may not be at home.”

Well, shortly after this I hurt my back and was in bad shape, eventually ending up in the hospital. During this time the Witnesses came to visit me, and they really showed concern. I thought: ‘These people don’t know anything about me. They only know I’m Glenda’s husband, and they’re treating me like this.’ I loved it, though.

Meanwhile, I’d seen changes in my wife. As an example: The little daughter of one of the Witnesses had died, and my wife was really concerned about the mother. I looked at her and thought: ‘She hasn’t ever acted like this before. Why is she so interested in cooking meals for this lady and going over there and helping her?’ These things came to mind as I lay there in the hospital.

In the meantime our advertising business was suffering badly. It had grown to a four-man operation, and I was needed to keep things going. By the time I got out of the hospital the business had so deteriorated that everyone had given up. Again, I was a loser financially.

I knew what type of person I wanted to be—to be able to love and be loved, and to be happy. I saw the changes in my wife, and decided that this is what I wanted too. And what stuck in my mind was that Satan is the god of this system, and that I needed help to fight his influence. So when I got out of the hospital, I called the Witness and told him I wanted a Bible study.

HOW CHANGES WERE MADE

After my first study in December 1972, I went to the Kingdom Hall. Everyone was concerned and glad to see me. And I could see my wife light up, happy that I was there. I remember one of the speakers mentioning how the husband is head of his household, and should take the lead. And I thought, ‘My wife has been doing this, studying with the kids, taking them to meetings, praying with them, and I haven’t been doing anything.’

Next week the kids were sick, and my wife said: “Well, you stay with the kids, I’m going to the meeting.” She didn’t think I wanted to go. But I looked at her and said: “I’m the one who is supposed to be taking the lead. So you stay home with the kids.”

She just looked at me, surprised—but I think she was glad. I felt good too, kind of proud that I was beginning to take the lead. I can count the times that I’ve missed meetings since. They’ve really helped me to make changes that have brought our family happiness.

In the meantime, I was able to find the type of job I always wanted, as advertising executive for a newspaper. I was busy—on the move—people knew me and I knew people, and I began to see how I could make advancement. In fact, I had several additional job offers. But I kept going to the meetings, and it was a good thing because what I learned there really affected my life.

For example, I knew the harm of hard drugs. And I had quit using them. But I was still smoking marijuana. It didn’t dawn on me that it was really wrong, since its use is so common. But at a meeting it was shown how smoking is unscriptural. The Bible says we should “cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit.” It was clear to me that this meant giving up marijuana if I wanted to please Jehovah God.—2 Cor. 7:1.

At another meeting it was emphasized that adultery is wrong. The Bible says: “Let marriage be honorable among all, and the marriage bed be without defilement, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” (Heb. 13:4) So I saw that I was going to have to make some deeper changes.

I wanted to please God and so I would go in prayer to him about these matters. But then I read something in The Watchtower about the need always to be truthful with Jehovah. So I told him from my heart that I did enjoy these bad things—and even had looked forward to them—yet that now, above anything else, I really wanted to please him. By thus being truthful with God and relying on him for help, I pulled away from these bad habits. Even marijuana smoking wasn’t as hard to give up as I thought it would be.

It was amazing how much happier I was. I began to have a purpose in life, a direction. My children began to look to me for guidance. We all appreciated Jehovah and the meetings we attended together. It was just wonderful! I enjoyed these happenings and changes that were coming upon me and my family more than anything in the world.

I was convinced we’d found the truth. And I thought that all my friends—who were frustrated, going through problems and mixed up in immorality—would surely want to hear about it. But not one did, not even one. In fact, they started making fun of me, calling me “the preacher.” “Here comes the preacher,” they’d say.

So I could see that these people in the world weren’t really my friends. I wanted as friends persons who loved God. So to symbolize that we had dedicated our lives to serve Jehovah God, my wife and I were baptized May 20, 1973.

I came to treasure above everything else the fine things that were happening to me—my good relationship with God, with my family and with fellow Christians. Although I had an interesting, well-paying job, it divided my interests, and there were bad associations and temptations connected with it. I kept thinking of the scripture: “Bad associations spoil useful habits.” (1 Cor. 15:33) So I quit my job as an advertising executive, even though it had been the type of job I had long desired.

MATERIALLY POORER, BUT RICH

A Witness in the congregation hired me as a painter’s assistant. I didn’t make much money, but I was happy. I wasn’t worried about maintaining an image. I just wanted to serve Jehovah. I knew that he is a real person, the only Person who can straighten out all injustices. Bible evidence—the fulfillment of prophecies, and the Bible’s power to straighten out lives—convinced me of this.

After returning from a large assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1973, I told my wife: “I should be pioneering (doing full-time preaching).” Since we had more property that we could sell, there was nothing to stop me. So I started pioneering.

After a while I thought, ‘We could be of more use where the need for Kingdom preachers is greater.’ By coincidence Fred Cooper, a person with whom I went to high school, called me from Georgia. He is an elder in a congregation there, and he’d heard I’d become a Witness. I told him I was thinking of going where the need was greater. So we ended up selling our home and moving to Georgia.

Pioneering was a real joy, but due to my back problem and the need to get a job to support the family, I eventually had to give up pioneering in May 1975. However, in September I was appointed to be an elder in the local congregation. Since then both my wife and I have done some teaching in elementary school to meet expenses. No, we don’t have much materially, but we are rich in more important ways.

To give you an example, my son takes an interest in spiritual things—he reads the Bible and our Bible study aids. About a year and a half ago, when he was seven, he asked me if he could join the congregation’s Theocratic School. Inside I just bubbled with joy. At his age all I ever thought about was sports, about becoming a big sports star. And I knew Peyton could have been begging me to join a Little League team or something.

WHAT IS WORTH WHILE

I think sports are good—in their place. But right from the start there’s deception. Athletes are idolized as special people—when they’re really only flesh and blood like everyone else. And kids are pushed to excel in sports—it’s actually a business, not a sport. And look at the damage done to youngsters who are put under pressure to be best when most of them simply can’t be.

Even when one becomes the best, it’s a deception. Why? Because it’s not lasting, nor really satisfying. Stars are soon replaced and generally forgotten. Then disappointment, depression and physical problems often follow. What’s worth while then?

Rather than competing with others to be best, helping and serving others is what brings true satisfaction. That is what Christ did. He came ‘to serve, not to be served.’ (Matt. 20:28) Yes, the warm unity that this spirit of unselfishness and love imparts in a family and a congregation is what makes life truly worth while—struggling to be best does not.—Contributed.

[Picture on page 421]

“I received another gold medal”

[Picture on page 422]

“The New York Giants signed me”

[Picture on page 425]

‘I began to study the Bible with my family’

“Snow in the Day of Harvest”

● At Proverbs 25:13, the refreshing effect of a faithful envoy upon those sending him forth is compared to the “coolness of snow in the day of harvest.” Evidently this refers to the refreshing coolness of a drink chilled with snow from the mountains, something that would be greatly appreciated by those working hard in the harvest.

Insight on the News

Paying for VD

● An unusual Wyoming court decision recently awarded a woman $1.3 million damages from a man who allegedly had infected her with VD. Her testimony revealed that she had willingly engaged in intercourse with the man, but was not told that he had gonorrhea until the last time. She complained of pain and damage to her reproductive organs from the disease, perhaps making it impossible for her to have children.

Her lawyer stated that “this case stands for the proposition that citizens have the right to be protected against being negligently infected by VD . . . by the same rights that protect them against negligent drivers or the negligent manufacturers of a product.”

But was the negligence only on the part of the one who did the infecting? Are such persons alone responsible for the estimated 2.6 million cases of gonorrhea in the U.S.? Or does the fault lie in the moral climate that permits or promotes illicit sex outside of honorable marriage? That there is a price to pay for such conduct is only to be expected. “God is not one to be mocked,” says the Bible. “For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap; because he who is sowing with a view to his flesh will reap corruption from his flesh.”—Gal. 6:7, 8.

$6 Million Man

● The chemical value of a human body has often been estimated to be a few dollars at most. But such estimates consider only the raw materials and in their simplest basic form. Recently Yale University biochemist Harold J. Morowitz checked a supply catalogue for prices of the complex and sophisticated chemical compounds that actually make up the human body. He found such substances as hemoglobin priced at $285 per gram; insulin at $48.50 per gram; the enzyme trypsin, $36; the amino acid bradykinin, $12,000; the milk-stimulating hormone prolactin, $17,500,000; and so on.

Morowitz concluded that humans are actually worth an average of about $245 per gram, dry weight. After discounting the two thirds water in his own 158-pound frame, he arrived at a value of $6,000,015.44 for the remaining substances! However, he says that if chemists had to synthesize all those compounds from raw materials rather than just separating them from existing natural products, the cost would be more like $6 billion. And though it is impossible for humans to assemble these chemicals into cells, he nevertheless estimated the cost of doing so at $6,000 trillion.

Is it reasonable to conclude that such marvelous complexity is merely the result of blind evolutionary chance? Or is the sounder judgment that of one appreciative observer who said: “In a fear-inspiring way I am wonderfully made. . . . Your eyes saw even the embryo of me, and in your book all its parts were down in writing”?—Ps. 139:14, 16.

Adding and Taking Away

● After eighty-six years, the Mormon Church recently added another two written “revelations” to its scriptures. Both of the “revelations” hold out greater opportunities after death for people who either have not heard the gospel, have rejected it, or were too young to be ‘accountable’ at death.

On the other hand, Mormon “revelations” have not been so kind to living black church members as to dead unbelievers. When a protesting Mormon lay high-priest recently performed an unauthorized ordination of a black, Church authorities rejected the ordination, in keeping with their rule banning black members from the priesthood. The racial ban appears to take away from the Bible that they also accept, which clearly teaches that “God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. . . . [He] hath made of one blood all nations of men.”—Acts 10:34, 35; 17:26, “Authorized Version.”

In addition to adverse publicity, those who add to and take away from God’s revealed Word must also consider the principle found in God’s true Revelation: “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life.”—Rev. 22:18, 19, “AV.”

A Look at Some Miracles of Jesus

WHEN you hear the term “miracle,” how do you react? Do you feel that miracles are something that persons living today cannot accept? This is a popular view.

However, the Holy Bible, accepted by hundreds of millions of persons as the inspired Word of God, relates numerous miracles effected by divine power. Outstanding among these were the miracles performed by Jesus Christ.

Can these Bible accounts of miracles that took place thousands of years ago benefit people today? A look at some of Jesus’ miracles can help us to answer this question.

MIRACLES OF HEALING

Jesus performed feats of healing unparalleled in all human history. Were these acts attended by superstitious ceremony, fiery speeches, or the taking up of money collections, as is the case with modern-day “faith healers”? Let us consider what took place during the year 33 C.E., at the time of Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem:

“While he was going to Jerusalem he was passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he was entering into a certain village ten leprous men met him, but they stood up afar off. And they raised their voices and said: ‘Jesus, Instructor, have mercy on us!’ And when he got sight of them he said to them: ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ Then as they were going off their cleansing occurred.”—Luke 17:11-14.

There is nothing fantastic in the record of this miracle. Just the simple command that the men afflicted with leprosy show themselves to the priests. Their healing took place en route, without Jesus being present. On other occasions the Son of God performed similar miracles of healing from a distance.—Matt. 8:5-13; John 4:46-54.

An unprecedented example of miraculous healing is found at John 9:1-7:

“Now as he was passing along he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him: ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered: ‘Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but it was in order that the works of God might be made manifest in his case. . . .’ After he said these things, he spit on the ground and made a clay with the saliva, and put his clay upon the man’s eyes and said to him: ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which is translated ‘Sent forth’). And so he went off and washed, and came back seeing.”

Did Jesus really heal congenital blindness? If not, this would be a perfect opportunity for the Pharisees, who were religious opposers of Jesus, to deny the whole episode and to expose him as a fraud. But did they?

The Gospel account continues: “However, the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and had gained sight, until they called the parents of the man that gained sight. And they asked them: ‘Is this your son who you say was born blind? How, then, is it he sees at present?’ Then in answer his parents said: ‘We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how it is he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know.’”—John 9:18-21.

When questioned by the Pharisees, the man who received sight replied: “This certainly is a marvel, that you do not know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. . . . From of old it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of one born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing at all.”—John 9:30-33.

Nothing in that account bears the marks of fiction. There are no mythical details. Instead, we have mention of persons, places and conversation characteristic of Palestine during the first century C.E.

THE DEAD RETURN TO LIFE

Among all Jesus’ miracles, the most outstanding were the cases of his raising the dead. The Bible relates three resurrections that Jesus performed. The first took place at Nain in Galilee and concerned the only son of a widowed woman. We read:

“As he got near the gate of the city [of Nain], why, look! there was a dead man being carried out, the only-begotten son of his mother. Besides, she was a widow. A considerable crowd from the city was also with her. And when the Lord caught sight of her, he was moved with pity for her, and he said to her: ‘Stop weeping.’ With that he approached and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still, and he said: ‘Young man, I say to you, Get up!’ And the dead man sat up and started to speak, and he gave him to his mother.”—Luke 7:11-15.

Similarly, Jesus resurrected the daughter of Jairus, one of the presiding officers of the synagogue at Capernaum. (Matt. 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56) The most impressive resurrection that Jesus performed was that of his close friend Lazarus. The Gospel according to John describes it this way:

“When Jesus arrived, he found [Lazarus] had already been four days in the memorial tomb. . . . It was, in fact, a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said: ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him: ‘Lord, by now he must smell, for it is four days.’ Jesus said to her: ‘Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ Therefore they took the stone away. Now Jesus raised his eyes heavenward and said: ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. True, I knew that you always hear me; but on account of the crowd standing around I spoke, in order that they might believe that you sent me forth.’ And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice: ‘Lazarus, come on out!’ The man that had been dead came out with his feet and hands bound with wrappings, and his countenance was bound about with a cloth. Jesus said to them: ‘Loose him and let him go.’”—John 11:17, 38-44.

Once again the Bible account presents no magic incantations. Just the simple command: “Lazarus, come on out!” The miracles of Jesus are an integral part of the often-praised “accurate history” of the Gospel records. Still, some individuals consider it unreasonable to believe in miracles. Why do they hold that viewpoint?

MIRACLES AND YOUR EXPERIENCE

“Seeing is believing,” goes a popular saying. Some push that attitude to extremes. In certain cases they refuse to believe in what they have not personally experienced. Is it wise to reason that way?

It is important to bear in mind that our orderly, harmonious universe demands a Creator with incalculable intelligence and power. (Rom. 1:20) Would it prove too difficult for the Creator to maneuver the course of natural laws for a special purpose? Anyone who would deny this is going beyond his realm of knowledge into the area of blind speculation.

As for your experience, how far does it actually reach? During their limited lifespan, few persons have had opportunity to learn much by direct personal experience. For example, has your personal experience included direct observation of the approximately 800,000 varieties of insects that scientists have discovered? If you live in a Western land, have you visited the Orient, isles of the sea or other faraway places to observe firsthand their interesting people, peculiar customs and breathtaking scenery? Likely you have not; yet you have no difficulty believing that the insects, peoples and places exist. Why? Because in everyday matters you accept the testimony of others. Most of your knowledge has been obtained in this indirect way. Is it reasonable to reject the same type of testimony simply because it deals with miracles?

NON-BIBLICAL TESTIMONY

We have noted that the Bible presents the miracles of Jesus in a simple, straightforward way. Did you know that similar testimony exists in non-Biblical writings, even in some by opposers of Christianity? Consider:

Eusebius of Caesarea, in The Ecclesiastical history, provides an interesting statement by a certain Quadratus, who wrote an “apology” in behalf of Christianity to Hadrian, emperor of Rome from 117 to 138 C.E. Quadratus declares: “The works of our Saviour were always conspicuous, for they were real. Both they that were healed, and they that were raised from the dead, were seen, not only when they were healed or raised, but for a long time afterwards; not only whilst he dwelt on this earth, but also after his departure and for a good while subsequent to it: insomuch that some of them have reached to our times.”

As to the reaction of people to the miracles performed by Jesus, his twelve apostles and other Christians of the first century C.E., the publication Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity states:

“Seventy years elapsed between the commencement of the ministry of Christ and the death of the last of the apostles. During all this interval, the miraculous gifts in question were exercised. Now, as every repetition in case of imposture multiplies the dangers of detection, and every extension of time makes it the more difficult to keep up the confederated plan, it is no inconsiderable evidence of the genuineness of the miracles of the Gospel, that they continued to be wrought and inspected during a period of so many years, and yet no instance of a failure or of deception was ever discovered by those fierce and untiring enemies with whom Christianity was always surrounded.”

Regarding enemies of Christianity, T. H. Horne remarks in An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures: “In fact, both Jews and heathens were constrained to admit them [the miracles]; though they ascribed them to various causes . . . While the facts were too recent to be disputed, Celsus, Porphyry, Hierocles, Julian, and other adversaries, admitted their reality, but ascribed them to magic, and denied the divine commission of him who performed them. But to whatever cause they ascribed them, their admission of the reality of these miracles is an involuntary confession that there was something [supernatural] in them.”

Miracles served a special purpose in connection with Jesus and his disciples. God foretold that the promised Messiah would be ‘a prophet like Moses.’ (Deut. 18:15-19) Since Moses performed miracles to prove that God was backing him up, the Jews expected that the Messiah would do likewise. (Ex. 4:1-9) As a result, when persons “saw the signs [Jesus] performed, they began to say: ‘This is for a certainty the prophet that was to come into the world.’” (John 6:14) Too, the miraculous powers that the disciples of Jesus displayed made it evident that God had shifted his favor from the nation of natural Israel to the Christian congregation. (Matt. 21:43) Once this fact was well established, there was no longer a need for Christians to display miraculous powers, and such powers ceased according to divine purpose.—1 Cor. 13:8-10.

LEARNING FROM JESUS’ MIRACLES

Can persons today benefit from the accounts of Jesus’ miracles? Consider the occasion when he resurrected the son of the widow of Nain. What motivated Jesus to do this? The Gospel account states: “When the Lord caught sight of her, he was moved with pity for her.” (Luke 7:13) Jesus expressed similar compassion when he resurrected Lazarus. (John 11:33, 35, 36) What a fine quality for all to imitate in their attitude toward others.—John 13:15.

The accounts of the healing of the ten lepers and the curing of congenital blindness contain another important lesson for persons who wish to please God. The men with leprosy first had to obey Jesus’ instructions to show themselves to the priests. (Luke 17:14) And the blind man had to get on his way to wash in the pool of Siloam. (John 9:7, 11) Since neither cure took place before the fulfilling of these requirements, there was a need on the part of the sufferers to trust confidently in Jesus’ willingness and ability to heal them.

How does this affect us today? According to the Bible, Jesus’ miracles were a token in advance of benefits that he would shower upon all mankind during his earthwide reign of a thousand years. The Scriptures predict the healing of all diseases that afflict mankind during that millennial rule. (Rev. 21:4; Isa. 33:24) Too, at that time not just a few individuals, but “all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.” (John 5:28, 29) Are you confident that those promises will come true? Will you prove your faith by studying the Scriptures and obeying God’s requirements for the present day?

Jesus’ miracles are full of meaning for people today. They reveal his compassionate interest in human welfare and ability to rectify all physical woes that afflict mankind, including death. The Gospel records of Jesus’ miracles also demonstrate the need to place full confidence in Jesus Christ as God’s representative and “Chief Agent of life.” (Acts 3:15) Since the miracles of Jesus are among the solidly attested events of human history, there is sound basis for such faith.

Keeping a Balanced View of Time

“Show us just how to count our days in such a way that we may bring a heart of wisdom in.”—Ps. 90:12.

1, 2. What do we all experience as to the passage of time?

LIFE is a precious possession. Without it nothing else matters. (Matt. 6:25-27; 16:26) But even in our modern world the life-span of humans remains short and all too soon comes to an end. Just as the writer of the ninetieth psalm long ago put it: “Seventy years is the span of our life, eighty if our strength holds; the hurrying years are labour and sorrow, so quickly they pass and are forgotten.”—Ps. 90:10, New English Bible.

2 In many lands, when a person has reached thirty years of age he is in what may be called the “prime of life.” Yet, the shortness of the human life-span means that he is then already beginning to go ‘downhill’ physically, beginning to experience a slowing down of body abilities and functions. Yes, how quickly the years pass.

3. Why do people get impatient about accomplishing their desires?

3 No wonder, therefore, that we humans are generally very conscious of time. No wonder, too, that humans alone of all earth’s living creatures are intelligently concerned about the future, actively planning for it, keenly interested in what it will bring. (Eccl. 3:11) Because of having just so much time ahead before their life runs out, people incline to become impatient to see the attainment of their desires.

4, 5. (a) How is Jehovah God different as to his view of time? (b) Why is God’s selection of a time to do a thing more desirable than that of humans?

4 Imperfect man’s situation is therefore very different from that of his Creator, who is eternal, timeless in His existence. The same writer of the ninetieth psalm wrote of Him: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or earth and world were born in travail, from age to age everlasting thou art God. . . . for in thy sight a thousand years are as yesterday.”—Ps. 90:2-4, NE.

5 But does this make Jehovah God indifferent toward time? No; nor does it prevent him from having a keen, active interest in the future and its developments. However, because of his being able to view things, not from the standpoint of imperfect, short-lived humans, but from that of eternity, Jehovah God is never pressured by anxiety to see something realized before time runs out on him. (Ps. 90:2; 2 Pet. 3:8) He is able to survey the whole stream of time and determine just when to act and to cause his unfailing purposes to work out precisely at the right time, the best time for all concerned, neither too soon nor too late.

6. Even though God has eternal time, does this prevent him from committing himself to do a certain thing at a specified time?

6 With his knowledge of the future and his all-powerfulness, God is able to commit himself to a particular time schedule for the future, and at times he has made this known to humans. For example, he told Abram (Abraham): “You may know for sure that your seed will become an alien resident in a land not theirs, and they will have to serve them, and these will certainly afflict them for four hundred years.” (Gen. 15:13; Acts 7:6, 7) True to the prophecy, at the end of the four hundred years Jehovah God freed Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, from slavery, and their exodus from Egypt began.

7. (a) How was God’s time schedule exact in connection with the Babylonish exile of the Jews? (b) With the Messiah’s appearance?

7 Later, God foretold a seventy-year period of desolation for Judah, and when that period expired the Jews were released, right on schedule. (Jer. 25:8-11; Dan. 9:2) Similarly, the appearance of the Messiah was foretold to come 483 years (sixty-nine “weeks” of years) from the time of the issuing of the order to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, and precisely on time, at the completion of that period in the year 29 C.E., Jesus Christ was baptized and anointed as the promised Messiah.—Dan. 9:24-27.

8. Is it possible for us to know when a certain feature of God’s purpose will take place if he has not announced a precise time?

8 So, when Jehovah God makes known a certain time for the outworking of some feature of his divine purpose, his faithful servants can rely implicitly on the exactness of the published schedule. But when he has not made such announcement, then it remains beyond their ability and power to determine the time of the realization of that purpose. That is the case with the timing of the outbreak of the “great tribulation” that God’s Son foretold, a time of divine judgment that opens the way for the start of the thousand-year Kingdom rule, which will bring untold blessings for this earth and its inhabitants.—Matt. 24:21, 22; Rev. 7:14-17.

THINGS CONCEALED AND THINGS REVEALED

9. What does God’s word through Moses at Deuteronomy 29:29 show as to our understanding of His purposes?

9 Should we think it strange that God would retain certain knowledge for himself in this way? As far back as the time when the Israelites were approaching the Promised Land, the prophet Moses recorded these inspired words at Deuteronomy 29:29: “The things concealed belong to Jehovah our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons to time indefinite, that we may carry out all the words of this law.” Yes, all that we really need to know to serve Jehovah God faithfully, and that we need in order to sustain us in our hope and conviction, this, God reveals to us. But where it accomplishes his purpose better, he can also conceal matters, with no hurt or lack to his servants.

10. (a) What do Jesus’ words just before his ascension to heaven reveal as to our knowing certain times or dates? (b) When some of the early disciples made a mistake about timing of events, what did the apostle Paul write to them?

10 The Greater Moses, Christ Jesus, also said to his disciples, shortly before ascending to heaven: “It does not belong to you to get knowledge of the times or seasons which the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction.” This was in answer to their inquiry about the restoring of the kingdom, something they doubtless ardently desired to see. He then went on to say: “But you will receive [what? Not knowledge of those ‘times and seasons which the Father had placed in his own jurisdiction,’ but] power when the holy spirit arrives upon you.” (Acts 1:6-8; 3:20-23) God would and did empower them to accomplish their assigned work and service in harmony with his revealed will for them. There were things, however, they did not know and, later, some disciples were inclined to jump to conclusions about certain promised events, in effect trying to hurry them up. (Compare 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5.) But all that they really needed to know to be of strong faith, conviction and courage, and to act wisely, God supplied to them.

11. Did the disciples know the exact date for the destruction of Jerusalem, or what?

11 It was that way with regard to the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century of our Common Era. Christ Jesus revealed to his disciples the conditions that would precede and lead up to the destruction of that unfaithful city, the center of Jewish worship of that time. Seeing those conditions making up that “sign,” his disciples would “know that the desolating of her [Jerusalem]” had drawn near. (Luke 21:10-20) He told them that “this generation will by no means pass away until all these things happen.” (Mark 13:30) So it was a matter of immediate concern for them, something for their generation. But they were not told just when it would come.

12. (a) Without having a date, how were the Christians in Jerusalem able to escape before the city was destroyed? (b) What test was there on those who withdrew as soon as Jerusalem was freed from siege?

12 The time arrived when they saw the feature of the sign relating to the encirclement of Jerusalem by encamped armies of Rome. Circumstances (the temporary and unexpected withdrawal of Roman forces) thereafter allowed them to flee the doomed city and seek refuge in the mountainous regions. They still did not know just when the actual destruction would take place. In reality, about four years elapsed between the time of their flight and Jerusalem’s desolation. It would have been easy for them during that time to relax their vigil or assume that they had misread the sign and, as a result, fail to give strict heed to Jesus’ warning: “Let those in the midst of her withdraw, and let those in the country places not enter into her.”—Luke 21:20, 21.

13. (a) What time prophecy of Jesus was actually fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem? (b) Was that time warning, though not giving a precise date, profitable for Christians?

13 One thing is sure: Their generation did see the fulfillment of what God’s Son had warned about. Those who had paid attention, who stayed vigilant, succeeded in escaping the disastrous calamity that ravaged Jerusalem. But history shows that hundreds of thousands of other persons did not. These were, in effect, asleep as to the significance of the conditions prevailing and the urgency of the day in which they lived. When Rome finally sent its forces back and sprang shut its military trap on Jerusalem in 70 C.E., it caught the city packed with thousands of visitors attending the Passover festival of that year. Of these and of the local residents, hundreds of thousands died within a period of just about five months. They had failed to show faith in the divine warning given through God’s Son; they had not ‘discerned the time of their being inspected.’—Luke 19:41-44.

14, 15. What evidence do we have that Jesus’ warning then to his disciples has a worldwide fulfillment in our time?

14 Today we live nineteen centuries removed from that momentous period. Yet our time is far more critical. Writing toward the close of the first century, and hence decades after Jerusalem’s destruction, the apostle John described the same things Jesus had given as a “sign” to his disciples in his prophecy embracing Jerusalem’s desolation. But Revelation, received by John from Jesus, was of things future, yet to take place. (Rev. 1:1) And what John recorded shows that the “sign” given by Jesus would take on a global aspect, with war, famine, high cost of food, and disease epidemics affecting large segments of people in many parts of the whole earth. (Rev. 6:3-8) He thereafter refers to “the great tribulation” through which a “great crowd” of God’s servants would pass alive and in safety, persons out of all nations, tribes and tongues. (Rev. 7:9-15) That tribulation, too, was part of the things yet to come.

15 This “revelation by Jesus Christ” therefore demonstrates that Jesus’ prophecy, as recorded at Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, about the “great tribulation” was not limited to the first century. It shows that the tribulation Jerusalem experienced was but a miniature fulfillment of that prophecy and that its major fulfillment on a global scale will make Jerusalem’s tribulation seem small indeed by comparison. Just as surely as the generation living and hearing Jesus’ warning in the first century was the generation that experienced a fulfillment of his words, just as surely will this generation—the generation seeing the major fulfillment of his “sign” identifying the last days of this system of things—be the generation to experience the global tribulation due to come.—Matt. 24:34.

16. Since we do not have a day or even a year for the outbreak of the “great tribulation,” is there reason to be indifferent?

16 What, then, has God revealed to us about this? He certainly has not left us without guidance. By prophecies such as those just considered he enables us to know where we are in the stream of time. The fulfillment of his prophetic word convinces us that God is not sleepy nor slow, and as the apostle Peter said regarding those acting wickedly, “the judgment from of old is not moving slowly, and the destruction of them is not slumbering.” (2 Pet. 2:3) We have ample information and evidence to cause us to be confident that we live in the “time of the end” as regards the present unrighteous system of things. Yet, beyond this, there are things that God has not revealed to us. One of those things is the time for the outbreak of the “great tribulation” prefigured by the tribulation that came upon Jerusalem, a tribulation that will be global in its fulfillment.

TIME FACTORS THAT GOD HAS NOT REVEALED

17. We know that we are at the close of six thousand years of human history, but what relationship does this have to God’s rest day?

17 There are reasons why we cannot know this. For one thing, even though Bible chronology clearly indicates that we have reached the mark of six thousand years since the time of the creation of the first human, Adam, it does not tell us just how long after that event the sixth creative day came to its close and the seventh creative period or “day,” God’s great rest day, began. Genesis chapter two, verse three, says that Jehovah blessed and made sacred that “day,” and it therefore seems reasonable that it will see within its bounds the removal of the wicked old order and the establishment of God’s righteous new order by means of the thousand-year reign of God’s Son. Thus there is reason for believing that that thousand-year period will form the closing part of that great rest day and will restore the earth and its inhabitants to a perfect state. That would enable God to say of that seventh day and its results—as he did of other creative days—that “it was good.”—Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31.

18, 19. (a) What took place, after Adam’s creation, before God’s rest day began? (b) How was Adam, at his creation, quite different from a newborn baby?

18 But that great rest day did not begin immediately after Adam’s creation. Other events took place after Adam’s creation but before the close of the sixth creative day. One of these is of great importance to all of us. That is the creation of the first woman, Eve. Without that none of us would be alive today, for, as the apostle Paul states at 1 Corinthians 11:12, “just as the woman is out of the man, so also the man is through the woman,” all of us needing a human mother to be born.

19 How much time elapsed between the creation of the man and that of the woman? The Bible does not reveal this. It could have been a relatively short time. Adam was created—not as a child or an adolescent—but as a full-grown, fully mature man, both physically and mentally. He did not have to crawl first to learn to walk, nor babble sounds until able to speak. He was created with these abilities and could communicate with his heavenly Creator and could be set to work to cultivate and care for his garden home. He could comprehend divine instructions and also the prohibition concerning the proscribed tree of the knowledge of good and bad. (Gen. 2:15-17) In those respects, then, he would have been in position to receive a wife at any time.

20. Yet, in what respects could Adam at his creation be compared to a newborn infant?

20 True, and yet Adam was in certain respects like a newborn infant upon being created. Why? Because, fully adult though he was, the day of his being created was still the first day he had lived. Everything he saw—every tree, flower, plant, every stream, lake, river, every creature of all the bird, animal and fish creation—he was seeing for the very first time. This was true of everything he did. When he walked he took his very first step; and so too with the experience of running, climbing, touching, smelling, tasting, eating—all were brand-new experiences for him. What enormous curiosity he must have felt as he examined the fascinating handiwork of Jehovah God and became acquainted with his garden home! How long would he be allowed time to satisfy that curiosity before taking on added responsibility as a family head?

21, 22. What factors make it possible that Adam was quite some time in Eden before Eve was created?

21 That Edenic home does not seem to have been some tiny plot of ground. It contained all the varieties of trees within its boundaries, according to Genesis the second chapter. And there was a “river issuing out of Eden to water the garden,” one large enough to separate and form the headwaters of four major rivers, some of which still flow today. (Gen. 2:8-10) It would take time for Adam to go exploring all of this in order to become familiar with the area he was assigned to care for and cultivate.

22 “But,” one might ask, “would it not be pleasant if he were to share all these new experiences right away with a human companion, a wife, and thus learn together with her?” That might be, and yet might it not be more appropriate if he first gained considerable knowledge and experience beforehand? Then, when joined by his mate, he would be in position to answer her questions and explain things to her, thereby enhancing her respect for him as her informed head. (Eph. 5:22, 23) God’s direct warning to Adam regarding the consequences of disobediently eating from the prohibited tree placed Adam in the position of God’s prophet to the companion He would later create for the man.—Gen. 2:16, 17.

23, 24. What, respecting time, does Adam’s naming all the animals indicate?

23 The only information the Bible actually supplies us is that, before creating Eve, God began bringing to the man all the creatures He had formed and “the man was calling the names of all the domestic animals and of the flying creatures of the heavens and of every wild beast of the field, but for man there was found no helper as a complement of him.” (Gen. 2:18-20) It takes but a few words to describe this; but how long did it take in actuality?

24 The brevity of the Genesis account surely does not require our thinking that God simply gathered all the animals and birds into a big group and then had them file past Adam while he quickly called off names for them, one by one. True, he may have had to deal only with basic family kinds rather than all the varieties of creatures that have developed out of those family kinds. But even so, we cannot rule out the possibility that God’s “bringing” these creatures to Adam may have involved their moving in sufficiently close to allow Adam to study them for a time, observing their distinctive habits and makeup, and then select a name that would be especially fitting for each. This could mean the passing of a considerable amount of time. And we may note that, when Adam did finally see his newly created wife, his first words were: “This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” (Gen. 2:23) This too could indicate that he had waited for some time to receive his delightful human counterpart.

25. What conclusion can we reach as to the time that elapsed between the beginning of man’s history and the creation of Eve, along with God’s ‘resting’?

25 What, then, does this mean? Simply this: That these factors, and the possibilities for which they allow, prevent us from saying with any positiveness how much time elapsed between Adam’s creation and that of the first woman. We do not know whether it was a brief time such as a month or a few months, a year or even more. But whatever time elapsed would have to be added to the time that has passed since Adam’s creation in order for us to know how far along we are within God’s seventh “day,” his grand day of rest. So our having advanced six thousand years from the start of human existence is one thing. Advancing six thousand years into God’s seventh creative “day” is quite another. And we do not know just how far along in the stream of time we are in this regard.

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The Watchtower, July 15, 1976