Letter
“ON THE DIVINE MANDATE”
October 9, 1949
Dear Brother:
Answering your recent letter regarding birth of children to the “other sheep” class surviving Armageddon:
The Watchtower has a number of times pointed out that Christ Jesus is not yet begetting earthly children and for this reason the present members of the “other sheep” class are not justified to life eternal on earth. The remnant of the anointed members of Christ’s body are likewise not the mother of the “other sheep” class of today, and it would not be right for the “other sheep” to address the remnant as either father or mother in a spiritual sense. During the thousand-year reign of Christ those who come forth from the tombs and gain eternal life are not spoken of as the children of the earthly princes but are said to be “equal unto the angels; and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”. (Luke 20:35, 36, Am. Stan. Ver.) As their life on earth is gained through the sacrifice of Christ’s perfect humanity, he also is spoken of as their “Everlasting Father”. The life these get will be not a life in a spiritual way but in a very literally human or earthly way, and the “princes” do not give them this.
To speak of the “other sheep” that survive Armageddon who marry and bring forth children by intermarriage as being like the “sons of God” that married the daughters of men in Noah’s day is wrong. Their intermarriage is not a turning from the spiritual to the human or earthly, to produce a mongrel race of unapproved hybrids. To say that marriage after Armageddon and then producing children is turning from the spiritual to the carnal is the same as saying for the anointed Christians to intermarry and produce children is turning from the spiritual to the carnal. In cases the apostle Paul advised anointed Christians to marry “in the Lord”, and surely he was not telling them to turn from the spiritual to the carnal and produce a hybrid offspring disapproved by God and doomed to destruction. Nor when an anointed member of the remnant marries one of the “other sheep” and children result is it a dropping from the spiritual to the fleshly and the producing of mongrel children. At 1 Corinthians, chapter 7, the apostle says that where one member of a family union is not Christian, still the children of such union are holy and the unconsecrated husband is sanctified by the believing wife and the unconsecrated wife is sanctified by the believing husband. Why, then, should it be different when Armageddon survivors of the “other sheep” marry, both being consecrated and divinely approved with survival, and then bring forth children? Their children will certainly not correspond to the gibborim or men of renown whom the “sons of God” and the daughters of men brought forth in Noah’s day.—Genesis 6:1-4.
Since both of these “other sheep” marrying are devoted to righteousness, then their children are conceived in righteousness and are righteous. You try to force into the word “righteous” the meaning of physical perfection. Evidently you have forgotten that the booklet ‘The Meek Inherit the Earth’ says, on page 28: “The marriage of these faithful and meek survivors of Armageddon will cause homes and family circles to spring up throughout the earth. Beautified earth will cheerily ring with the sweet voices of children, whom these devoted parents will conceive and bring forth in righteousness. Not yet perfected themselves, the parents will not be able to generate their children in perfection, but will do so in righteousness. They will thereafter bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord God and under the righteous supervision of the ‘new heavens’.”
The flood was a real physical catastrophe to the old ungodly world. The Battle of Armageddon will be likewise a physical catastrophe to this present evil world, and not something just spiritual. The ark of salvation that we enter is not a literal ark but is God’s organization; and as for Noah’s family’s not having children while in the ark, if the “other sheep” class’ now having natural children in the “ark” condition vitiated the picture of the childlessness of the ark’s occupants, then the anointed remnant’s having natural children now would also vitiate the “ark” picture or type. But it does not. Children born now are not born in fulfillment of the divine mandate reissued. When God reissued this mandate to marry and reproduce to Noah after the flood (Genesis 9:1, 7) the mandate was fulfilled in a typical way by a token fulfillment, 70 (10 X 7) generations being listed in Genesis, chapter 10, as springing from Noah and his sons. In the same way the fulfillment of the divine mandate reissued after Armageddon will be, not by crowding it with inhabitants to the saturation point, but by a token fulfillment that will allow for the resurrection of the dead with plenty of room for these resurrected ones. Thus, as pointed out in the Watchtower article “The Apostle’s Counsel on Wedlock”, February 1, 1947, page 45, column 2, footnote, God will show that he can have the divine mandate fulfilled in a very literal way in vindication of his world and he will give a faithful demonstration of its fulfillment. Those having part in its fulfillment will still ‘serve God in his temple day and night’ (Rev. 7:15), they will fulfill Deuteronomy 6:7 as to bringing up their children, and their children will fulfill Ephesians 6:1-3 as to obeying their parents, in the same way that the anointed remnant and their children are instructed to obey these divine commandments.
Faithfully yours in Theocratic service,
WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY