The Watchtower, April 15, 1989
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The Watchtower — April 15, 1989
Source: jw.org
Contents
False Religion Plays the Harlot
The Infamous Harlot—Her Fall
The Infamous Harlot—Her Destruction
A Resolution
Babylon the Great Indicted
A Mission of Mercy Into Judea
A Catholic Dilemma
Insight on the News
Do You Remember?
Divine Warnings That Affect You
Revelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand!
False Religion Plays the Harlot
False Religion Plays the Harlot
1. How has prostitution been viewed by many?
SOME call it the oldest profession—that of the harlot, prostitute, or whore. As commonly used, all these words have the same meaning, referring to an immoral woman who sells the use of her body to men. Yet, there was a time when this was regarded as an honored calling!
2, 3. How did the role priestesses played in ancient Babylon contrast with Jehovah’s law to Israel regarding male and female prostitution?
2 Speaking of ancient Babylon’s priesthood, Professor S. H. Hooke, an authority on Biblical archaeology, stated: “The priesthood was not confined to men, but women formed part of the staff of the great temples. It was considered an honor to belong to the order of priestesses, and we hear of several kings who dedicated their daughters to the priestly calling. . . . Their most important function was to serve as sacred prostitutes at the great seasonal festivals. . . . The temple of Ishtar [goddess of fertility and war], naturally, contained a large staff of such women.”
3 This was in stark contrast with worship that was to be rendered to Jehovah God by the nation of Israel. The Law clearly stated: “None of the daughters of Israel may become a temple prostitute, neither may anyone of the sons of Israel become a temple prostitute [practicing homosexuality]. You must not bring the hire of a harlot or the price of a dog into the house of Jehovah your God for any vow, because they are something detestable to Jehovah your God.” (Deuteronomy 23:17, 18) Thus, a harlot’s payment was unacceptable as a contribution to God’s sanctuary. Even harlotry without any religious connotation was disgraceful. The Israelites were commanded: “Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, in order that the land may not commit prostitution and the land actually be filled with loose morals.” The laws against prostitution and homosexuality, which is described as “a detestable thing,” were a protection for the nation, both spiritually and physically.—Leviticus 19:29; 20:13.
Spiritual Harlotry Even Worse
4. What is the worst form of harlotry?
4 From God’s viewpoint, however, there is a worse form of prostitution—spiritual harlotry, or claiming to worship the true God while actually giving worship and affection to other gods. Ancient Jerusalem took her prostitution a step further. She gave presents to those nations that spiritually fornicated with her, polluting true worship.—Ezekiel 16:34.
5, 6. Who are committing spiritual harlotry in this 20th century, leading to what questions?
5 Even in this 20th century, spiritual harlotry is common in the world religious system. Christendom is the most prominent part of that system—a system that the Bible calls “Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.”—Revelation 17:5.
6 But what is the final destiny of Babylon the Great? And how will that final outcome affect you and your loved ones? If God judged harlots adversely in ancient Israel, what will he do about modern spiritual harlotry? The following articles will examine those questions and related ones.
The Infamous Harlot—Her Fall
The Infamous Harlot—Her Fall
“She has fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen, she who made all the nations drink of the wine of the anger of her fornication!”—REVELATION 14:8.
This article and the one following made up the concluding talk of the symposium entitled “The Appointed Time Is Near,” presented during 1988 at the Divine Justice District Conventions of Jehovah’s Witnesses
1. Who is the infamous “harlot,” and why do we need to know about her?
THE infamous “harlot”—who is she? Why do we need to talk about her? Do not thriller novels, movies, TV, and videos serve up enough sickening doses of immorality? True! But this is no ordinary lady of the evening. She is, in fact, the most influential, the most notorious, the most murderous prostitute in all history. And she has been selling her favors for more than 4,000 years! We need to know about her for our protection. At Revelation 14:8, a heavenly angel calls this woman of ill repute “Babylon the Great” and describes her as a seducer of nations. Since she is that dangerous, we should be happy to know that Jehovah’s “appointed time is near” for executing judgment on her.—Revelation 1:3.
2. From where does this harlot get her name, and how did a world empire of false religion get started?
2 This harlot takes her name from ancient Babylon, the proud city established in Mesopotamia more than 4,000 years ago by Nimrod, the “mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.” When the Babylonians started to build a pagan religious tower, Jehovah confused their language and scattered them to the ends of the earth. They took their religion with them, and that is how a world empire of Babylonish religion got started. Truly, it is Babylon THE GREAT. (Genesis 10:8-10; 11:1-9) Down to our time, the mysteries of ancient Babylon are reflected in the beliefs and practices of the world’s religions. (Revelation 17:7) The Hebrew name for the city, Babel, means “Confusion,” a fitting label for today’s hodgepodge of false religion!
3. (a) For how long did Babylon hold God’s people captive, placing them in proximity with what? (b) When did Babylon suffer a disastrous fall, and why did her end not come at that time?
3 Ancient Babylon recovered from that first setback and, with the overthrow of Assyria in 632 B.C.E., became the third world power of Bible history. Her glory as such was short-lived—less than a hundred years—but for almost 70 of those years, she held God’s people Israel captive. This placed them in proximity to Babylon’s thousand temples and chapels, her triads of gods and triads of devils, her mother-and-son worship, and her astrology that idolized supposedly immortal gods. Thus, the captive Israelites were on hand at the world center of false religion when, in 539 B.C.E., the city of Babylon suffered a disastrous fall. But her end was not yet! Her conquerors continued to use her as a prestigious religious center.
A Global Religious Empire
4. (a) What did Jehovah’s prophets declare regarding Babylon, and what happened to Babylon? (b) What other Babylon lives on, to the detriment of the people of the earth?
4 Jehovah’s prophets had declared his judgment that Babylon must be swept “with the broom of annihilation”—“just as with God’s overthrow of Sodom and of Gomorrah.” Were those prophecies later fulfilled? Yes, to the last detail! In time, ancient Babylon became a pile of rubble—uninhabited except for reptiles and wild beasts—exactly as foretold! (Isaiah 13:9, 19-22; 14:23; Jeremiah 50:35, 38-40) However, that other Babylon, modern-day Babylon the Great, lives on. As the world empire of false religion, she perpetuates the original Babylon’s teachings and haughty spirit. She is Satan’s chief instrument for blinding the people to Jehovah’s Kingdom purposes.—2 Corinthians 4:3, 4.
5. (a) What religions developed while Babylon was at the zenith of her glory, but why did Satan not succeed in swamping the entire world with false religion? (b) How did Satan use false religion after the introduction of Christianity?
5 About the sixth century before Christ, when the world power Babylon was at the zenith of her glory, the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism also came to the fore. But did Satan succeed in swamping the entire world with false religion? No, for a remnant of Jehovah’s ancient witnesses returned from Babylon to Jerusalem to reestablish Jehovah’s worship. Thus, faithful Jews were on hand there, six centuries later, to welcome the Messiah and become the first members of the Christian congregation. False religion brought about the martyrdom of God’s own Son and became Satan’s instrument for opposing true Christianity, just as Jesus and his apostles had warned.—Matthew 7:15; Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Peter 2:1.
6. (a) How did Satan corrupt Christian teachings, and what God-dishonoring teachings developed? (b) What happened to thousands who preferred Bible truth to Babylonish dogma?
6 Particularly after the second destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., did Satan use false apostles to corrupt Christian teachings, fusing these with Babylonish mysticism and worldly Grecian philosophy. Thus, a ‘divine triune,’ the Trinity, was substituted for the Bible’s “one Jehovah.” (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29; 1 Corinthians 8:5, 6) And the doctrine of the immortality of the human soul, as taught by the pagan philosopher Plato, was brought in to negate the precious Bible teachings of Christ’s ransom and the resurrection. This opened the way for belief in a fiery hell and a less fiery purgatory. (Psalm 89:48; Ezekiel 18:4, 20) Such God-dishonoring teachings that play upon people’s fears have helped to fill the coffers of the churches. Further, in the days of the Inquisition and of the Reformation, the clergy could not wait for flames of hellfire to do the tormenting. Thousands who preferred Bible truth to Babylonish dogma were burned alive at the stake by both Catholics and Protestants. But as we shall see, the harlotry of Babylon the Great extends far beyond promoting falsehood.
Jehovah’s Day of Judgment
7. (a) When and how did Jehovah begin to restore basic Bible truths and expose false, Babylonish teachings? (b) What basic Bible truths did the Bible Students restore?
7 Jehovah’s day of judgment of this harlot had to come! (Hebrews 10:30) There was a preparatory period, commencing in the 1870’s, when Jehovah sent his “messenger”—a sincere group of Bible students—to restore basic Bible truths and expose false Babylonish teachings. (Malachi 3:1a) This “messenger” group subscribed to the prophetic words of Revelation 4:11: “You are worthy, Jehovah, even our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.” The “messenger” also became a forthright advocate of Jesus’ ransom sacrifice, God’s provision for redeeming mankind. Redeemed mankind would include, first, the “little flock” that is to rule with Jesus in his heavenly Kingdom and, later, the hundreds of millions who will live forever in the Paradise earth—most of whom will be resurrected from the dead. (Luke 12:32; 1 John 2:2; Acts 24:15) Yes, those Bible Students restored these fundamental truths, and in a figurative way, they even ‘turned the hose on hell and put out the fire’ of the Babylonish eternal-torment dogma!a
8. (a) How did the clergy of Christendom use World War I to try to destroy the Bible Students? (b) What happened to the judge who kept eight officials of the Watch Tower Society in prison by refusing bail?
8 For some 40 years the Bible Students boldly proclaimed that the year 1914 would mark the end of the Gentile Times. As expected, that year brought world-shaking events, not the least of these being the first world war. Oh, how the clergy of Christendom—the most prominent part of Babylon the Great—tried to use the world crisis to destroy those outspoken Bible Students! At last, in 1918, they had eight officials of the Watch Tower Society railroaded into prison on trumped-up charges of sedition. But these officials were released after nine months and were later exonerated. U.S. federal judge Martin T. Manton, who had kept these Bible Students in prison by refusing bail, was later decorated by Pope Pius XI, being made a “knight of the order of St. Gregory the Great.” However, his glory was short-lived, for in 1939 he was sentenced to two years in prison and a heavy fine. Why? Because he was found guilty of selling six court decisions for a total of $186,000 in bribes!
9. How did Malachi’s prophecy explain what was happening to Jehovah’s people, and so judgment began with whom?
9 As we have just noted, Jehovah’s people entered a period of severe testing in 1918. The prophet’s further words at Malachi 3:1-3 explain what was happening: “And suddenly there will come to His temple the true Lord [Jehovah], whom you people are seeking, and the messenger of the [Abrahamic] covenant”—Jesus. Yes, Jehovah came with his Christ for judgment. Jehovah then asks: “Who will be putting up with the day of his coming, and who will be the one standing when he appears? For he will be like the fire of a refiner and like the lye of laundrymen.” According to 1 Peter 4:17, judgment would start with those professing to be of “the house of God.” Thus, true Christians were refined and cleansed for Jehovah’s service.
“GET OUT OF . . . HER, O MY PEOPLE”!
10. What divine judgment came upon Christendom and on all false religion by 1919, resulting in what for Babylon the Great?
10 As an unrepentant part of Babylon the Great, Christendom’s clergy could not stand Jehovah’s judgment. They had sullied their garments terribly as participants in the carnage of the world war and as persecutors of true Christians. (Jeremiah 2:34) Instead of hailing Christ’s incoming heavenly Kingdom, they promoted a man-made League of Nations, which they came to describe as “the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth.” By 1919 it was apparent that Jehovah had passed judgment on Christendom—and indeed on all false religion. Babylon the Great had fallen, condemned to death! It was high time for all lovers of truth and righteousness to act on the prophetic command at Jeremiah 51:45: “Get out of the midst of her, O my people, and provide each one his soul with escape from the burning anger of Jehovah.”
11, 12. (a) What does an angel say at Revelation 17:1, 2 with regard to the judgment on Babylon the Great? (b) What are the “many waters” the great harlot sits on, and how has she made earth’s inhabitants “drunk with the wine of her fornication”?
11 Babylon the Great has fallen! But she is not yet destroyed. As a world empire of false religion, she will exist a short time longer as Satan’s masterpiece of deception. What is God’s final judgment on her? We are not left in doubt! Let us turn in our Bibles to Revelation 17:1, 2. Here an angel addresses the apostle John and, through him, students of prophecy today, saying: “Come, I will show you the judgment upon the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, whereas those who inhabit the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” The term “many waters” refers to the turbulent masses of mankind, so long oppressed by the great harlot. And the prophecy states that “those who inhabit the earth” are made drunk with her wine. They imbibe the false teachings and worldly, immoral ways of Babylon the Great and are sent reeling, as though inebriated by cheap, illicit wine.
12 At James 4:4 we read: “Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God?” Twentieth-century religion is all too ready to curry favor with the world, and that is especially true of Christendom. Not only do her clergy fail to proclaim the good news of Jehovah’s incoming Kingdom but they water down the Bible’s moral teachings, condoning worldly permissiveness among church members. Even the clergy are not so innocent as to fleshly fornication, which was so roundly condemned by the apostle Paul when he said: “Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men . . . will inherit God’s kingdom. And yet that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean.”—1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
“Rolling in the Mire”
13, 14. (a) What examples show that the modern-day clergy have not “been washed clean”? (b) What attitude did a synod of the Church of England take toward homosexual genital acts, and what did a news writer suggest that the church be renamed? (c) The apostate clergy well fit what words of the apostle Peter?
13 Have the modern-day clergy “been washed clean”? Well, as an example, note the situation in Britain, once a stronghold of Protestantism. In November 1987, when Britain’s prime minister was calling on the clergy to provide moral leadership, the rector of an Anglican church was saying: “Homosexuals have got as much right to sexual expression as everybody else; we should look for the good in it and encourage fidelity [among homosexuals].” A London newspaper reported: “The homosexual practices became so rampant in one Anglican theological college that students from another college had to be forbidden by staff to visit it.” One study calculated that “in one London district, the number of clergy with homosexual leanings may be more than half the total.” And at a church synod, 95 percent of the Church of England clergy supported a motion that labeled fornication and adultery as sins, but not homosexual genital acts; such homosexual acts were said merely to fall short of the ideal. Commenting on all of this, one news writer suggested that the Church of England might well be renamed Sodom and Gomorrah. Another London newspaper declared: “The British people are appalled as they contemplate the results of a generation of permissiveness.”
14 How well the apostate clergy over the years fit the apostle Peter’s words: “The saying of the true proverb has happened to them: ‘The dog has returned to its own vomit, and the sow that was bathed to rolling in the mire’”!—2 Peter 2:22.
15. (a) What breakdown in moral values has taken place throughout Christendom? (b) Who must share responsibility for this woeful harvest?
15 Throughout Christendom, and indeed the whole world, there is a frightful breakdown in moral values. In some societies, marriage is now regarded as unnecessary, and those who are married think marital faithfulness is unfashionable. Fewer legalize their unions, and the divorce rate soars among those who do. In the United States, divorces have more than tripled over the past 25 years to well over one million each year. During the 20-year period from 1965, divorces in Britain quadrupled, from 41,000 to 175,000. Singles prefer to cohabit with singles of either sex, and many move from partner to partner. They lament the terrible sexually transmitted diseases, outstandingly AIDS, that proliferate as a result of their immoral life-style but continue to insist on their degrading sexual practices. Christendom’s clergy have not disciplined erring church members. To the extent that they have winked at immorality, they must share responsibility for this woeful harvest.—Jeremiah 5:29-31.
16. (a) What underscores the fact that Babylon the Great has fallen, and what angelic cry at Revelation 18:2 is appropriate? (b) All who want to survive the world’s end must do what?
16 The sorry moral state in the world empire of false religion also underscores the fact that Babylon the Great has fallen. God has judged her and has marked her for destruction. How appropriate, then, is the angel’s strong-voiced cry at Revelation 18:2: “She has fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen, and she has become a dwelling place of demons and a lurking place of every unclean exhalation and a lurking place of every unclean and hated bird!” And how important that all who want to survive the world’s end act now in answering the call in Re 18 verse 4: “Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues”! Getting out of false religion is a vital step toward surviving “the great tribulation” just ahead. (Revelation 7:14) But more is required, as we shall see!
[Footnotes]
On November 1, 1903, following the last of a series of debates at Carnegie Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., between Charles T. Russell and Dr. E. L. Eaton, one of the attending clergymen acknowledged Brother Russell’s victory, saying: “I am glad to see you turn the hose on hell and put out the fire.”
[Box on page 8]
CLERGY MORALS
“Hundreds of children molested by Catholic priests in the United States during the past five years have suffered severe emotional trauma, say parents, psychologists, police officers and attorneys involved in the cases.”—Akron Beacon Journal, January 3, 1988.
“The Roman Catholic Church in the United States has been forced to pay millions of dollars in damages to families who contend that their children have been sexually abused by priests. In spite of that, the problem has grown so severe that many lawyers and victims say the church ignores and covers up such cases.”—The Miami Herald, January 3, 1988.
[Pictures on page 6]
Images of triune gods—from ancient Egypt and from Christendom
[Credit Lines]
Saint-Remi Museum collection, Reims, photo by J. Terrisse
Louvre Museum, Paris
[Picture on page 9]
The Bible likens immoral religious leaders to a bathed sow that returns to rolling in the mire
The Infamous Harlot—Her Destruction
The Infamous Harlot—Her Destruction
“Praise Jah, you people! The salvation and the glory and the power belong to our God, because his judgments are true and righteous. For he has executed judgment upon the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged the blood of his slaves at her hand.”—REVELATION 19:1, 2.
1. How has the great harlot committed fornication with “the kings of the earth,” and in what has this resulted?
ALL that we have been discussing is serious enough. However, we should note that Revelation 17:2 speaks also of the great harlot’s fornication with “the kings of the earth.” Though she has suffered a fall, she is still very much a friend of the world, and she tries to manipulate worldly rulers to gain her ends. (James 4:4) This spiritual harlotry, consisting of illicit relations between Babylon the Great and the political rulers, has resulted in the untimely death of tens of millions of innocent people! It was bad enough that the great harlot was involved on both sides of the fighting in World War I. But her sins in relation to World War II have surely “massed together clear up to heaven”! (Revelation 18:5) Why do we say so?
2. (a) How did Franz von Papen help Adolf Hitler to become the ruler of Germany, and how did a previous German chancellor describe that papal knight? (b) In the Concordat between the Nazi State and the Vatican, what two clauses were kept secret? (See footnote.)
2 Well, to take one example, how did the tyrant Adolf Hitler become chancellor—and dictator—of Germany? It was through the political intrigue of a papal knight whom the previous German chancellor, Kurt von Schleicher, described as “the kind of traitor next to whom Judas Iscariot is a saint.” This was Franz von Papen, who marshaled Catholic Action and leaders in industry to oppose communism and unite Germany under Hitler. As part of a sellout bargain, von Papen was made vice-chancellor. Hitler sent a delegation headed by von Papen to Rome to negotiate a concordat between the Nazi State and the Vatican. Pope Pius XI remarked to the German envoys how pleased he was that “the German Government now had at its head a man uncompromisingly opposed to Communism,” and on July 20, 1933, at an elaborate ceremony in the Vatican, Cardinal Pacelli (who was soon to become Pope Pius XII) signed the concordat.a
3. (a) What did a historian write about the Concordat between the Nazi State and the Vatican? (b) During the celebrations at the Vatican, what honor was conferred on Franz von Papen? (c) What role did Franz von Papen play in the Nazi takeover of Austria?
3 One historian writes: “The Concordat [with the Vatican] was a great victory for Hitler. It gave him the first moral support he had received from the outer world, and this from the most exalted source.” During the celebrations at the Vatican, Pacelli conferred on von Papen the high papal decoration of the Grand Cross of the Order of Pius.b Winston Churchill, in his book The Gathering Storm, published in 1948, tells how von Papen further used “his reputation as a good Catholic” to gain church support for the Nazi takeover of Austria. In 1938, in honor of Hitler’s birthday, Cardinal Innitzer ordered that all Austrian churches fly the swastika flag, ring their bells, and pray for the Nazi dictator.
4, 5. (a) Why does terrible bloodguilt rest on the Vatican? (b) How did the German Catholic bishops give open support to Hitler?
4 A terrible bloodguilt therefore rests on the Vatican! As a leading part of Babylon the Great, it helped significantly in putting Hitler into power and in giving him “moral” support. The Vatican went further in tacitly consenting to Hitler’s atrocities. During the long decade of Nazi terror, the Roman pontiff kept quiet while hundreds of thousands of Catholic soldiers were fighting and dying for the glory of the Nazi regime and while millions of other unfortunates were being liquidated in Hitler’s gas chambers.
5 The German Catholic bishops even gave open support to Hitler. On the same day that Japan, Germany’s wartime partner at the time, made the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, The New York Times carried this report: “The Conference of German Catholic Bishops assembled in Fulda has recommended the introduction of a special ‘war prayer’ which is to be read at the beginning and end of all divine services. The prayer implores Providence to bless German arms with victory and grant protection to the lives and health of all soldiers. The Bishops further instructed Catholic clergy to keep and remember in a special Sunday sermon at least once a month German soldiers ‘on land, on sea and in the air.’”
6. The world might have been spared what great agony and atrocities if there had been no spiritual fornication between the Vatican and the Nazis?
6 If there had been no love affair between the Vatican and the Nazis, the world might have been spared the agony of having scores of millions of soldiers and civilians killed in the war, of six million Jews murdered for being non-Aryan, and—most precious in Jehovah’s sight—of thousands of his Witnesses, both of the anointed and of the “other sheep,” suffering great atrocities, with many Witnesses dying in the Nazi concentration camps.—John 10:10, 16.
A Close View of the Harlot
7. How does the apostle John describe his close-up view of the great harlot?
7 How fitting is the vision that next unfolds in the Revelation prophecy! Turning to Re chapter 17, verses 3 to 5, we find John saying of the angel: “And he carried me away in the power of the spirit into a wilderness. And I caught sight of a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored wild beast that was full of blasphemous names and that had seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and was adorned with gold and precious stone and pearls and had in her hand a golden cup that was full of disgusting things and the unclean things of her fornication. And upon her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ‘Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.’”
8. (a) What does the great harlot carry in her golden cup, thus identifying herself? (b) How is Babylon the Great figuratively “arrayed in purple and scarlet” and adorned with “gold and precious stone and pearls”?
8 Here John observes Babylon the Great at close quarters. She truly belongs in that wilderness, among the wild beasts that inhabit it. This great harlot is clearly identified by what she carries in her cup, though it is deceptively precious-looking from the outside. She drinks of a potion that is disgusting from God’s standpoint. Her friendship with the world, her false doctrines, her moral permissiveness, her philandering with the political powers—none of these things are tolerated by Jehovah, “the Judge of all the earth.” (Genesis 18:22-26; Revelation 18:21, 24) Oh, how beautifully she decks herself out! She is famed for her stately cathedrals with their imposing architecture and stained-glass windows, her bejeweled pagodas and wats, her time-honored temples and shrines. True to the stylized fashions set by the great harlot, her priests and monks are arrayed in costly robes of scarlet, purple, and saffron.—Revelation 17:1.
9. Babylon the Great has what long history of bloodguilt, and how does John appropriately end his description of her?
9 Most reprehensible, though, is her bloodthirstiness. Jehovah has a longtime account to settle on that score! She has sponsored bloodthirsty dictators of modern times, and her disgusting history of bloodletting stretches back through the centuries, through the religious wars, the Inquisitions, the Crusades, yes, back to the martyrdom of some of the apostles and the slaying of God’s own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and beyond. (Acts 3:15; Hebrews 11:36, 37) Add to all of this the killings of Jehovah’s Witnesses in more recent years by firing squad, hanging, the ax, the guillotine, the sword, and inhuman treatment in prisons and concentration camps. No wonder John ends his description by saying: “And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus”!—Revelation 17:6.
‘THE MYSTERY OF THE WOMAN AND THE BEAST’
10. (a) How has the great harlot persecuted Jehovah’s Witnesses down to this day? (b) What kind of leaders are the clergy of Babylon the Great?
10 John “wondered with great wonderment” at what he saw. Today, we also wonder! During the 1930’s and 1940’s, the great harlot used Catholic Action and political intrigue to persecute and ban Jehovah’s faithful witnesses. To this day, where she can exercise sufficient influence, Babylon the Great continues to hinder, restrict, and misrepresent the work of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who proclaim the glorious hope of God’s Kingdom. By keeping hundreds of millions captive in the great harlot’s religious organizations, her clergy serve as ‘blind leaders of the blind,’ leading these toward the ditch of destruction. Never, never could this infamous harlot say with the apostle Paul: “I call you to witness . . . that I am clean from the blood of all men.”—Matthew 15:7-9, 14; 23:13; Acts 20:26.
11, 12. What is the mystery of the “scarlet-colored wild beast” that is carrying the infamous harlot, and what enlightenment did Jehovah’s Witnesses receive on this mystery in 1942?
11 Noting John’s wonderment, the angel said to him: “Why is it you wondered? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the wild beast that is carrying her and that has the seven heads and the ten horns.” (Revelation 17:7) What is this “beast”? More than 600 years earlier, the prophet Daniel had seen visionary beasts, and it had been explained to him that these represented “kings,” or political rulerships here on earth. (Daniel 7:2-8, 17; 8:2-8, 19-22) John here sees in vision a combination of such rulerships—“a scarlet-colored wild beast.” This is the man-made League of Nations that appeared on the world scene in 1920 but plunged into an abyss of inactivity when World War II erupted in 1939. What, though, is “the mystery of the woman and of the wild beast”?
12 By divine providence, Jehovah’s Witnesses received enlightenment on that mystery in 1942. World War II was then raging at its height, and many thought it would escalate into Armageddon. But Jehovah had a different thought! There was still much work for his Witnesses to do! At their New World Theocratic Assembly of September 18-20, 1942, with the key city Cleveland, Ohio, tied in with 51 other locations in the United States, Nathan H. Knorr, president of the Watch Tower Society, gave the public talk, “Peace—Can It Last?” Therein he reviewed Revelation 17:8, which says of the “scarlet-colored wild beast” that it “was, but is not, and yet is about to ascend out of the abyss, and it is to go off into destruction.” He showed how the League of Nations “was” from 1920 to 1939. Then the “is not” stage was reached because of the League’s demise. But after World War II, this combine of nations would ascend out of the abyss. Was that Bible-based forecast fulfilled? Truly it was! In 1945 the international “wild beast” emerged from its abyss of inactivity as the United Nations.
13. How has Babylon the Great continued to pursue her harlotlike ways with the UN “beast”?
13 Babylon the Great, though weakened by her fall, has continued to pursue her harlotlike ways with the UN “beast.” For example, in June 1965, dignitaries from the world’s seven leading branches of religion, so-called Christian and non-Christian, said to represent one half of the world’s population, assembled in San Francisco to celebrate the UN’s 20th birthday.c In that same year, Pope Paul VI described the UN as “the last hope of concord and peace,” and later Pope John Paul II expressed his hope that “the United Nations will ever remain the supreme forum of peace and justice.” In 1986 the world empire of false religion took the lead in sponsoring the UN’s International Year of Peace. But did true peace and security come in response to their religious prayers? Far from it! More and more, member nations of the UN are showing that they have no real love for the great harlot.
Disposing of the Harlot
14. What special service has the UN “beast” to perform, and how is this described by God’s angel?
14 In due course, the “scarlet-colored wild beast” itself must go off into destruction. But before this happens, and even before its final beastly attack on God’s people, that UN beast has a special service to perform. Jehovah puts ‘his thought into the hearts of the wild beast and its militarized horns.’ With what result? God’s angel answers: “And the ten horns that you saw, and the wild beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshy parts and will completely burn her with fire.” “She glorified herself and lived in shameless luxury,” but now all of this is reversed. Her imposing religious edifices and vast property holdings will not save her. As the angel declares: “That is why in one day her plagues will come, death and mourning and famine, and she will be completely burned with fire, because Jehovah God, who judged her, is strong.”—Revelation 17:16, 17; 18:7, 8.
15. How will the harlot’s political paramours, along with big-business magnates, react to her demise?
15 Her political paramours will lament her demise, declaring: “Too bad, too bad, you great city, Babylon you strong city, because in one hour your judgment has arrived!” Likewise, big-business magnates, who made dishonest profits with her, will “weep and mourn, saying, ‘Too bad, too bad . . . because in one hour such great riches have been devastated!’”—Revelation 18:9-17.
16. What response will God’s people make to the great harlot’s destruction, and how does Revelation confirm this?
16 However, what response will God’s own people make? All of these are included in the angel’s words: “Be glad over her, O heaven, also you holy ones and you apostles and you prophets, because God has judicially exacted punishment for you from her!” With a swift pitch Babylon the Great will have been hurled down, never again to reproach Jehovah’s holy name. The destruction of the great harlot will call for celebration and victory songs in praise of Jehovah. As the first of a series of hallelujah choruses, the joyous refrain will sound forth: “Praise Jah, you people! The salvation and the glory and the power belong to our God, because his judgments are true and righteous. For he has executed judgment upon the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged the blood of his slaves at her hand.”—Revelation 18:20–19:3.
17. After the disposal of the great harlot, how will God’s judgment acts continue to completion?
17 God’s judgment acts will run swiftly on to completion as the “King of kings and Lord of lords,” Christ Jesus, treads “the winepress of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty” at Armageddon. There he will dispose of wicked rulers and all other remaining ones of Satan’s organization on earth. Carrion birds will devour their carcasses. (Revelation 16:14, 16; 19:11-21) How happy we should be that God’s appointed time is near for ridding our beautiful earth of everything that is unholy, filthy, and corrupting!
18. What is the grand climax of the book of Revelation?
18 Is that the climax of the book of Revelation? No, not yet! For with the completed resurrection of the 144,000 to heaven, the marriage of the Lamb takes place. His “bride,” adorned for her husband, is installed in “a new heaven,” and from there she descends, figuratively, as her Bridegroom’s helpmeet in carrying out Jehovah’s purpose to ‘make all things new.’ The bride’s spiritual beauty is that of the holy city, New Jerusalem, which Jehovah God the Almighty lights with his glory, and the Lamb is its lamp. (Revelation 21:1-5, 9-11, 23) So here Revelation reaches its grand climax, with Jehovah’s name sanctified and the Lamb, Christ Jesus, along with his bride, New Jerusalem, proceeding to bless obedient mankind with everlasting life in the earthly Paradise.
19. (a) Besides coming out of Babylon the Great, what else is essential to salvation? (b) What urgent invitation is still open, and what should be our response?
19 Have you awakened to the duplicity of false religion and come out of Babylon the Great? And have you taken the further step of coming to Jehovah God, through Christ Jesus, in wholehearted dedication leading to baptism? This too is essential to salvation! As the appointed time for Jehovah’s execution of final judgment draws near, the invitation echoes forth with impelling urgency: “The spirit and the bride keep on saying: ‘Come!’” May all who heed that call dedicate their lives to Jehovah and be zealous in saying “Come!” to still others. Yes, “let anyone thirsting come; let anyone that wishes take life’s water free.” (Revelation 22:17) The invitation is still open. You will be happy indeed if you take your stand and maintain that stand before the throne of God and the Lamb as one of Jehovah’s dedicated, baptized people. The appointed time is nearer than you may think! Yes, the grand climax of Revelation is at hand!
As a conclusion to this week’s Watchtower Study, the conductor should call for the reading of the following Resolution and review it with the help of the questions that are provided. This is the Resolution that was presented worldwide at the “Divine Justice” District Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1988, at the close of the talk “The Infamous ‘Harlot’—Her Fall and Destruction.”
[Footnotes]
For obvious reasons, two clauses of the Concordat were kept secret at the time, these dealing with a common front against the Soviet Union and the duties of Catholic priests conscripted in Hitler’s army. Such conscription was a violation of the Treaty of Versailles (1919) to which Germany was still bound; public knowledge of this clause could have disturbed other Versailles signatories.
Franz von Papen was among the Nazis who were tried as war criminals at Nuremberg, Germany, in the late 1940’s. He was acquitted but later drew a stiff sentence from a German denazification court. Still later, in 1959, he was made a Papal Privy Chamberlain.
Commenting on this gathering, Pope Paul VI said: “How truly right and proper it is that a religious convocation for peace has been included among the ceremonies commemorative of the signing of the United Nations Charter twenty years ago.”
[Box on page 11]
THE POPE’S SILENCE
In his book Franz von Papen—His Life and Times, published in 1939, H. W. Blood-Ryan describes in detail the intrigues whereby that papal knight brought Hitler to power and negotiated the Vatican’s concordat with the Nazis. With regard to the terrible pogroms, which included the Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others, the author states: “Why did Pacelli [Pope Pius XII] keep silent? Because in von Papen’s plan for a Holy Roman Empire of Western Germans he saw in the future a stronger Catholic Church, with the Vatican back again in the seat of temporal power . . . That same Pacelli is now wielding the power of spiritual dictatorship over millions of souls, yet scarcely a whisper was raised at Hitlerian aggression and persecution. . . . As I write these lines, three days of slaughter have passed and not a prayer has come from the Vatican for the souls of the contestants, quite half of whom are Catholic. Terrible will be the reckoning when these men, stripped of all their earthly influences, stand before their God, Who will ask for an accounting. What can be their excuse? Nothing!”
[Box on page 15]
VATICAN INVOLVEMENT
The New York Times of March 6, 1988, reported that the Vatican expected a record budget deficit of $61.8 million for 1988. The paper stated: “One capital expense presumably involves a promise made in 1984 to pay nearly $250 million to the creditors of Banco Ambrosiano. The Vatican was deeply involved with the Milan bank before its collapse in 1982.” So deeply involved in that scandal, indeed, that the Vatican has steadfastly refused to hand over to the authorities three high Vatican officials, including an American archbishop, to stand trial in Italian courts!
[Pictures on page 12]
The Vatican shares a terrible bloodguilt with von Papen and Hitler
[Credit Lines]
UPI/Bettmann Newsphotos
UPI/Bettmann Newsphotos
[Pictures on page 15]
Rather than advocate God’s Kingdom, the popes have proclaimed the UN to be ‘the last hope of peace’
[Credit Line]
Insets: UN photos
A Resolution
A Resolution
Attendance at “Divine Justice” Conventions will no doubt have exceeded that of the previous year, when 6,443,597 assembled at 1,098 locations worldwide, with 93,822 being baptized. The talk, “The Infamous ‘Harlot’” given at all “Divine Justice” Conventions, was followed by the release, in more than 20 languages, of the beautifully illustrated 320-page bound book Revelation—Its Grand Climax at Hand! The speaker told his listeners: “Use this new book well in your personal and congregational studies. Use it, too, in announcing to the world that Babylon the Great is doomed, that the nations now face Armageddon, and that the grand climax will be reached in Jehovah’s magnificent Kingdom rule by Christ and his bride. You will be happy in hearing and observing these things, ‘for the appointed time is near’!”—Revelation 1:3.
We, who since 1914 have been living in “the Lord’s day” and at this time of divine judgment, rejoice in the grandest of all privileges, that of serving the Sovereign Lord Jehovah under his King of kings, Jesus Christ. (Revelation 1:10) As JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES, we testify that:
(1) WE ABHOR the reproach that Babylon the Great, and Christendom in particular, has cast upon the name of the one true and living God, Jehovah. For our part, WE AFFIRM wholeheartedly, in the words of Revelation 4:11: “You are worthy, Jehovah, even our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power.”
(2) WE ABHOR Christendom’s adherence to Babylonish teachings, notably those of a triune god, the human soul’s immortality, eternal torment in hell, a fiery purgatory, and worship of images—such as the Madonna and the cross. In line with Revelation 22:18, 19, WE FIRMLY ABIDE by God’s written Word and all that it contains.
(3) WE ABHOR anti-God philosophies and practices, so common in Christendom, such as evolution, blood transfusions, abortions, lying, greed, and dishonesty. In our worship and way of life, WE WILL HONOR our Creator, Jehovah God, the Almighty, whose ways are described at Revelation 15:3 as “righteous and true.”
(4) WE ABHOR Christendom’s failure to heed Jesus’ messages to the seven congregations at Revelation chapters 2 and 3 in such matters as sectarianism, idolatry, fornication, the Jezebel influence, lukewarmness, and lack of watchfulness. For our part, WE WILL HEAR AND OBEY what “the spirit says to the congregations.”
(5) WE ABHOR the immorality and permissiveness in Christendom and among its clergy, and we welcome Jehovah’s clear judgment stated at Revelation 21:8 that those who continue in their filth—fornicators, liars, and suchlike—will be utterly destroyed. WE WHOLEHEARTEDLY SUPPORT Bible standards on sex, marriage, and family life.
(6) WE ABHOR the centuries-long spiritual prostitution of the clergy of Babylon the Great in conniving with worldly rulers to gain power, wealth, and oppressive dominance over the common people. WE ARE RESOLVED to help honesthearted ones to obey the angel’s call at Revelation 18:4: “Get out of her, my people.”
(7) WE ABHOR the massive bloodguilt resulting from over 100 million lives sacrificed in war in this century alone, largely attributable to the great harlot’s fornication with the political powers. WE REJOICE that the appointed time is near for God to execute judicial punishment on Babylon the Great, as clearly stated at Revelation 18:21-24.
As Jehovah’s Witnesses, WE COUNT IT A JOY AND A PRIVILEGE to announce to the world that in 1914 “the kingdom of the world did become the kingdom of our Lord [Jehovah] and of his Christ.” (Revelation 11:15) WE ARE RESOLVED to move forward fearlessly in making known Jehovah’s declared judgments on Babylon the Great and in warning of the imminence of God’s war of Armageddon. WE ARE DETERMINED to echo, in a loud voice and “to every nation and tribe and tongue and people,” the glad tidings that “a new heaven and a new earth” are at hand for the blessing of obedient mankind. (Revelation 14:6; 21:1) WE REJOICE that as a result of this proclamation, a great crowd of more than three million from all nations is now united with us around the globe. Along with the angel flying in midheaven, all of us declare: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of the judgment by him has arrived, and so worship the One who made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.”—Revelation 14:7.
[Study Questions]
1. In what do Jehovah’s Witnesses now rejoice?
2. On each of the Resolution’s seven points, state (a) what Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor and (b) what positive affirmation the Witnesses make.
3. (a) What joy and privilege do Jehovah’s Witnesses have? (b) What is the resolve of the Witnesses? (c) What also are we determined to do? (d) In what rejoicing and declaration do Jehovah’s Witnesses share?
Babylon the Great Indicted
Babylon the Great Indicted
IN A series of conventions around the world in 1988-89, millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses endorsed the resolution expressing their abhorrence of the conduct of Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion—especially as represented by Christendom. Some sincere persons may ask, Is that not too strong a stand? No, not at all! When we see how the prophets of ancient Israel boldly denounced the idolatry of their day and with what strong language Jesus exposed the religious hypocrisy of his times, we as Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that this stand is fully justified. It is even commanded by God.—Isaiah 24:1-6; Jeremiah 7:16-20; Matthew 23:9-13, 27, 28, 37-39.
So on what basis do we abhor the conduct of Babylon the Great? What historical evidence do we have of religion’s failure to honor the true Sovereign Lord of the universe, Jehovah?
Modern Babylon Despises the Name
The Sovereign Lord of the universe is not anonymous. He has identified himself some 7,000 times in the Bible as Jehovah. He attributes vital importance to his name. The third of the Ten Commandments states: “You must not take up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way, for Jehovah will not leave the one unpunished who takes up his name in a worthless way.” And Jesus highlighted his Father’s name in the Lord’s Prayer, saying, “Let your name be sanctified.”—Exodus 20:7; Matthew 6:9.
Christendom’s record in honoring God’s name is dismal. Even the King James Bible of 1611 uses the name Jehovah, alone and in combination, only seven times.a Other translations have totally eliminated the name. Most religions fail to honor it. Instead, they have elevated their “holy” Trinity and, in some cases, Mary the so-called Mother of God above the God of the Bible. Jehovah’s precious name has been allowed to sink into relative disuse.b
Commendably, Islam recognizes one God, whom they call Allah, in accordance with their holy book, the Koran. However, they do not use his name, Jehovah, as first revealed in the Bible at least two thousand years before the Koran existed. Hindus worship millions of gods and goddesses, but Jehovah is not among them.
Outstanding as an offender regarding God’s name is Judaism. For thousands of years, Jews have claimed to be the name people of God, and yet by reason of their tradition, they have caused God’s true name to fall into total disuse.
Therefore, as witnesses of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, we have to express our disgust at the neglect of God’s holy name on the part of Babylon the Great.
Why We Detest Babylonish Teachings
Millions of people have been exploited and kept in fear on the basis of the Babylonish teaching that man has an immortal soul. From ancient times, false religion has exploited fear of the soul’s possible torture eternally in hellfire after death. A more subtle refinement of that teaching is the temporary suffering in the fires of purgatory. Sincere people pay to have Masses said for the dead but never know when the payments cease to be necessary! These blasphemous doctrines have no basis in the Bible.—Compare Jeremiah 7:31.
In fact, the Bible teaches that man is a living, mortal soul. For his disobedience Adam was not sentenced to hellfire or purgatory but to death. Simply stated, “the wages sin pays is death.” (Romans 6:23; Genesis 2:7, 17; 3:19) The Scriptural hope for the dead is based, not on an immortal soul, but, rather, on God’s promise of a resurrection to perfect life on a paradise earth.—John 5:28, 29; Revelation 21:1-4.
Yet another Babylonish teaching is the “holy” Trinity. This teaching of three persons in one God was never a part of the faith of the ancient Hebrews. (Deuteronomy 5:6, 7; 6:4) A Jew himself, Jesus certainly never believed or taught that he was almighty God. He claimed no part in a triad as taught in Babylonish doctrine or dogma.—Mark 12:29; 13:32; John 5:19, 30; 14:28; 20:17.
Therefore, we reject Babylon’s blasphemous doctrines as taught in the false religions of the world. We render worship to the one true God, Jehovah, through his Son, who became “a propitiatory sacrifice” for the sins not only of anointed Christians but of the whole world of mankind.—1 John 2:2.
Why We Reject Anti-God Philosophies
Christendom’s popes and clergy bewail the upsurge of atheism, and many use it to justify their support of right-wing politics. Yet, the question has to be asked: Who condoned the injustices and inequalities that fomented this rise of atheism, particularly in the last century? It occurred in an outstanding way in the realm of Christendom. For example, the Russian Orthodox Church had consorted with the czars, who had cruelly oppressed the people. The lack of true Christian values on the part of those who presented themselves as representatives of God contributed to conditions that formed a breeding ground for atheism.
Christendom’s religions have also embraced the Creator-dishonoring teaching of evolution. They attribute the complexity and diversity of over a million life forms to the blind forces of nature. In effect, they say that this diversity developed by a series of beneficial flukes. Such a philosophy makes God superfluous and man responsible to no one. Ethics become a matter of personal choice. (Psalm 14:1) One result is that abortions now run into the tens of millions each year—in countries claiming to be religious!
We reject these anti-God philosophies and practices. We worship Jehovah, “the One who lives forever and ever, who created the heaven and the things in it and the earth and the things in it and the sea and the things in it.”—Revelation 10:6; 19:6.
Why We Abhor the Fruitage of Babylon the Great
Christendom has failed to heed the warning messages to the seven congregations set out in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. These counsel against the practice of sectarianism, idolatry, and fornication, and against lukewarmness and negligence.
A visit to almost any place of worship will reveal how many religious people have elevated the creature above the Creator. How so? By their image and icon veneration and their worship rendered to “saints,” Madonnas, and crosses.—Compare Psalm 115:2-8; 2 Corinthians 5:7; 1 John 5:21.
In their case, Paul’s words have a fulfillment: “Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God . . . They became foolish and turned the glory of the incorruptible God into something like the image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed creatures and creeping things.”—Romans 1:21-23.
Why We Condemn Babylon’s Immorality
The last 20 years have seen homosexuality approved or condoned as an alternative life-style. Millions of homosexuals have “come out of the closet” and now parade on the streets, flaunting their “Gay Pride.” How does God view their homosexuality?
The Bible clearly stated some 3,500 years ago: “And you must not lie down with a male the same as you lie down with a woman. It is a detestable thing.” (Leviticus 18:22) And nearly 2,000 years ago Paul showed that God’s standards had not changed when he wrote: “That is why God gave them up to disgraceful sexual appetites, for both their females changed the natural use of themselves into one contrary to nature; and likewise even the males left the natural use of the female and became violently inflamed in their lust toward one another, males with males, working what is obscene and receiving in themselves the full recompense, which was due for their error.”—Romans 1:26, 27; 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10; 1 Timothy 1:10.
Yet, so many of the clergy of Christendom are practicing homosexuals that they have been able to establish a powerful homosexual lobby in many of the major religions. They demand that their life-style be recognized and that they be accorded the status of minister. A case in point is that of Canada’s largest Protestant denomination, the United Church of Canada, whose leaders voted 205 to 160 on August 24, 1988, in favor of admitting homosexuals to the ministry.
Why We Abhor Babylon’s Spiritual Prostitution
Revelation denounces Babylon’s fornication with “the kings of the earth,” its political rulers. The harlot is pictured as sitting “on many waters,” meaning “peoples and crowds and nations and tongues.” (Revelation 17:1, 2, 15) By having a cozy relationship with the political rulers, false religion over the centuries has overtly or covertly used its influence in suppressing and exploiting the common people.
Examples of this dominance are the concordats, or agreements, that the Vatican signed with Nazi and Fascist rulers in this 20th century. As a consequence, church influence over the flocks led to total subservience to ruthless rulers. In 1929 the Vatican concluded a concordat with Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. What followed in Germany? German cardinal Faulhaber, attributing the following words to Pius XI, gives insight into the pope’s thinking about Hitler: “I am pleased; he is the first statesman to have spoken out against Bolshevism.” Faulhaber later noted: “My journey to Rome confirmed what I might have suspected for a long time. In Rome, National Socialism and Fascism are considered the only deliverance from Communism and Bolshevism.”
Germany’s Catholic bishops had opposed the Nazi philosophy prior to 1933. But as German author Klaus Scholder states in his book The Churches and the Third Reich, the bishops were commanded by the Vatican’s ambassador to Germany, Cardinal Pacelli, to revise their attitude toward National Socialism. What prompted this change? It was the prospect of the concordat between the Third Reich and the Vatican, which was concluded July 20, 1933.
Klaus Scholder reports: “At the election and plebiscite of 12 November [1933] Hitler reaped the fruits of the Reich concordat by surprisingly high ‘yes’ votes, above all in predominantly Catholic circles of the electorate.”
Although a few Protestant leaders expressed opposition to the Nazi takeover in 1933, their voices soon became lost in the mass clamor of nationalism. Scholder explains: “There was clearly an increasing readiness in the Protestant church to abandon the caution exercised in the past and now at last also to get caught up in the national enthusiasm. . . . Official church statements appeared for the first time which supported the new Reich without reservations.” In fact, Protestantism sold itself out to Nazi nationalism and became its handmaiden, just as the Catholic Church had done.
Down through the centuries, the historical record shows, false religion has consorted with the powerful ruling elite groups and bolstered their prestige to the detriment of the common people. The ‘mental attitude of Christ’ has not been reflected by the world’s religious leaders, who have hungrily sought after power, property, and wealth. As Jehovah’s Witnesses, we abhor such spiritual prostitution.—John 17:16; Romans 15:5; Revelation 18:3.
Why We Abominate Babylon’s Bloodguilt
In the book of Revelation, Babylon the Great is accused of massive bloodguilt: “And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. Yes in her was found the blood of prophets and of holy ones and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth.”—Revelation 17:6; 18:24.
The history of false religion is one of hatred and bloodshed, with Christendom being the most bloodguilty. Two world wars started in the realm of so-called Christian nations. “Christian” political leaders resorted to arms in 1914 and 1939, and the clergy in all contending nations gave their blessing. The Columbia History of the World states regarding World War I: “Truth was devalued along with life, and hardly a voice was raised in protest. The guardians of God’s word led the martial chorus. Total war came to mean total hatred.” (Italics ours.) Army chaplains urged their soldiers on with patriotic fervor as the youth of both sides became cannon fodder. The same history book states: “The systematic poisoning of men’s minds by paroxysms of nationalism . . . further obstructed the search for peace.”
False religion worldwide continues to engender hatred as conflicts rage between Jew and Muslim, Hindu and Sikh, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu, Buddhist and Hindu. Yes, false religion continues to contribute to the bloodbath “of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth.”—Revelation 18:24.
In view of all the proof set out above, Jehovah’s Witnesses feel that the convention resolution of 1988 is appropriate and timely. Properly, we denounce false religion as the bloodguilty harlot, Babylon the Great. We announce to the world the only true way to peace and true worship—turning to the Sovereign Lord of the universe, Jehovah God, through the One he sent to earth, the Christ, or Messiah, Jesus. This means accepting God’s Kingdom as the righteous, everlasting government that alone can satisfy mankind’s needs. And it also means that now is the time to obey the command: “Get out of her [Babylon the Great], my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues.”—Revelation 18:4; Daniel 2:44; John 17:3.
[Footnotes]
Genesis 22:14; Exodus 6:3; 17:15; Judges 6:24; Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 12:2; 26:4.
For a detailed consideration of the importance and significance of God’s name, see the 32-page brochure The Divine Name That Will Endure Forever, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
A Mission of Mercy Into Judea
Jesus’ Life and Ministry
A Mission of Mercy Into Judea
SOME weeks earlier, during the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem, the Jews tried to kill Jesus. So he traveled north, evidently to an area not far from the Sea of Galilee.
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