Spain says, ‘You may not worship your God, you may not express your views about God’s Word in this country!’ But arrests and fines and a jail record will not stop genuine Christians. Their worship of Jehovah comes first. In 1950, in Spain, there were only 93 persons talking to those that had ears to hear, and today, in 1965, there are 3,502 witnesses of Jehovah still preaching, including these two young girls. Persecution has not dampened the zeal of Jehovah’s servants in Spain, has it? And persecution has not dampened it in other countries either. What are you doing to bring the message of salvation to those of mankind in your community?

10. What other example of opposition by the Spanish government is cited?

¹⁰ These experiences are not isolated cases. Much information has been published in the Watchtower and Awake! magazines about the persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses in Spain and Portugal, both strongly Catholic dictatorial countries. But to give you another incident, on April 2, 1964, police agents forced their way into a home in Spain. There they took Bibles and Bible literature and the keys of the house and arrested a twenty-seven-year-old minister of Jehovah’s witnesses. He had been arrested previously, in June 1963, and on that occasion spent thirty days in jail for “proselytism,” preaching from the Bible. While the police were making their search another young minister called at the house. He was seventeen years old, and he also was arrested. Both were thrown into prison, held twenty days and then released. Such harassment has not stopped the preaching of the good news of God’s kingdom in Spain. Young men and women and the older folks who are witnesses of Jehovah in Spain will continue preaching. While the Catholic clergy tell the people to give all to Caesar, Jehovah’s witnesses will continue to give Caesar only what is his, but God’s things to God.

11. How have the servants of Jehovah in Cuba been treated because of loyalty first to Almighty God?

¹¹ In Cuba nationalism is sung from the house-tops through television, radio and the press. Loyalty to the nation comes first, say its rulers. So to be a Christian there takes courage. Two of Jehovah’s witnesses were going from house to house preaching God’s kingdom as taught in the Bible. For doing this they were sentenced to four months in jail. Two circuit servants, traveling ministers, spent a month in jail for preaching God’s kingdom. In another part of Cuba six congregation servants were taken to jail, some for three months, some for four months. So it goes if one freely speaks the truth about God and what he has done and will do. Jehovah’s witnesses were all told to stop what they were doing and get in line with the State’s teaching on communism. But how can a Christian do that when God’s Word says: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come”? (Matt. 24:14) Whom would you obey?

12, 13. (a) Why have some political parties in Africa persecuted Jehovah’s witnesses, and to what extent has this persecution gone? (b) What spirit do world rulers have?

¹² In Africa much violence has been brought to bear against Jehovah’s witnesses because political parties are trying to force them to sign up with their nationalistic groups. If a witness of Jehovah refuses to buy a political card from a certain political group, then his house is stoned or broken up and often the occupants are brutally beaten. It takes real faith to stand for Jehovah God and his kingdom against such political violence. An overseer and several Kingdom publishers in Africa were so badly beaten that they had to go to the hospital. Their crops were burned too. In another place Jehovah’s witnesses had their houses, Kingdom Halls and grain storage places all burned to the ground. They were driven from the community and some who were caught were severely beaten by the political party. The cause for such persecution is that Jehovah’s witnesses refuse to engage in politics and worship the State. On the other hand, the false religious organizations, all of which belong to the world empire of false religion, Babylon the Great, do not hesitate for a minute to ride along with the nationalistic trend and “fall down and worship the image of gold. “

¹³ Rulers today do not like this information to be publicized, but really the world of mankind is no better off than it was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, king of ancient Babylon. They have the same spirit and say: ‘If you do not bow down and worship the nationalistic image I have made and do as directed you will be thrown into the burning, fiery furnaces by the mob.’

14. Why must true Christians endure these hardships, and what wise decision should be made now?

¹⁴ These hardships true Christians endure. These few examples show what is going on in all parts of the world today, and they should be a warning to us. The Christian witness of Jehovah cannot compromise. In Communist countries they must preach underground. This means that for Jehovah’s witnesses to meet as a congregation of God they have to do it secretly. Most people say, ‘Jehovah’s witnesses are foolish to go to such extremes. They just bring trouble on themselves.’ But it is not that they want to be persecuted. It is a clear matter of whom do you worship—the State, “Caesar,” or God, Jehovah? You will have to make the decision someday if you want everlasting life under God’s kingdom. Better it is to do it now than to put it off. “Before there comes upon you the day of Jehovah’s anger, seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth.” (Zeph. 2:2, 3) May your decision be to serve Him now.

Worship the God of Resurrection

1. What is it necessary to believe, and how did the mother of Samuel show she had such belief?

IT IS necessary to learn what the Christian knows, that men can kill only the body, but they cannot kill the soul. (Matt. 10:28) In Jehovah God’s written Word he has promised a resurrection of the dead, and today the same Holy Scriptures that the Hebrews in Nebuchadnezzar’s day believed we still have and they are still true. The three Hebrew friends of Daniel knew what their ancestors taught them. For example, Hannah the mother of the prophet Samuel said: “There is no one holy like Jehovah, for there is no one but you; and there is no rock like our God. Jehovah is a Killer and a Preserver of life, a Bringer down to Sheol, and He brings up.”—1 Sam. 2:1, 2, 6.