Kingdom Proclaimers Report
“They Continued Without Letup”
SINCE the days of Jesus Christ and his apostles, religious leaders have gone to great lengths in their efforts to impede the preaching of the good news of God’s Kingdom. The apostles were repeatedly and positively “ordered” by the local authorities in Jerusalem to “stop speaking upon the basis of Jesus’ name.” (Acts 5:27, 28, 40) Nevertheless, the Bible account states that “the word of God went on growing, and the number of the disciples kept multiplying in Jerusalem very much.”—Acts 6:7.
Two millenniums later we still find religious leaders in Israel who influence the local authorities to obstruct the work of true Christians in that country. Under pressure exerted by extremist religious elements, in November 1987, local authorities in Tel Aviv, Israel, ordered the Witnesses to stop having Christian meetings at the Kingdom Hall located in the Watch Tower Society’s branch office. The order went into effect in October 1989. In compliance, the Witnesses met in rented facilities in the area for three years while their Kingdom Hall remained virtually unused.
In the meantime, the matter was brought to the attention of the Israeli High Court of Justice. The state attorney’s office reviewed the argument presented by the Witnesses and declared that there was no possible defense against their appeal in the light of the flagrant religious prejudice involved. Thus, the local authorities were left with no choice but to reverse their decision, and Jehovah’s Witnesses happily returned to their Kingdom Hall.
Did the work of preaching Bible truths suffer a setback during those years? Absolutely not! At the time of the Kingdom Hall closure, there were two congregations in Tel Aviv and a separate Bible study group in the nearby town of Lod. Three years later, when the Kingdom Hall was reopened, Jehovah’s Witnesses had multiplied into four congregations, and a new Bible study group was meeting at Beersheba.
The growth in Israel is not limited to the principal language groups, Arabic and Hebrew. There has been a mass influx of emigrants from the former Soviet Union, so Russian-speaking Jehovah’s Witnesses are now busy sharing the good news with them. Some Russian-language meetings are being held in three congregations; more than a hundred people gathered recently for a Russian assembly.
Undoubtedly, prejudiced religionists will continue their campaign against true worship. But Kingdom proclaimers continue to imitate the first-century Christians who, in spite of opposition, “continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus.”—Acts 5:42.