New World society, enjoying the truths it publishes and the clean Christian fellowship, but who, while saying nice things, refuse to dedicate themselves to do God’s will and then be baptized in symbol thereof.

Far from being like such, let us rather take the step of dedication and prove ourselves to be among the ‘wise that cause many to understand’ by teaching others. Should persecution cause us to stumble, still thereby we shall become refined and made white, all to Jehovah’s glory and our eternal welfare. So let us continually seek to do the divine will on earth now, regardless of opposition.

Part 25—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

In the third year of Cyrus king of the vast Persian Empire of the sixth, fifth and fourth centuries before Christ, Jehovah’s prophet Daniel received his final vision through an angel, which Daniel describes for us in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of his prophetic book. First, the prophetic vision foretells the passing away of the Persian Empire, the fourth world power of Bible history. It would fail to overpower Greece. In fact, it would at last fall before Greece, because, said the angel, “a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.” (Dan. 11:3, JP) That Grecian king proved to be the famous Alexander the Great. By him the Grecian Empire was established, as the fifth world power of Bible history.

12. How long did Alexander enjoy world rulership, and when was his kingdom broken?

¹² Alexander’s enjoyment of world rulership was short-lived. Jehovah’s angel foretold this: “And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion wherewith he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside these.” (Dan. 11:4, JP) At the height of his career, when but in his thirty-third year, the carousing Alexander was struck down by malarial fever at Babylon in 323 B.C., and his plans to make this Scripturally doomed city his world capital collapsed. His vast empire in Europe, Asia Minor, Asia, the Middle East and Egypt broke up to the four winds of the heavens. His body was transported into Egypt and buried in Alexandria by his General Ptolemy, the satrap of Egypt.

13. How did the prophecy prove true that the kingdom should not be divided to Alexander’s posterity?

¹³ The empire did not pass to Alexander’s posterity. He had left behind in Macedonia an incapable brother, Philip Aridaeus. He reigned for less than seven years, and then was murdered by his own mother in 317 B.C. Alexander’s legitimate son by Roxana, Alexander Allou, followed and ruled but about six years. In 311 B.C. he too met violent death at the hand of one of his father’s generals, Cassander, who now usurped the throne of Macedonia and Greece. Alexander’s illegitimate son, Heracles, undertook to rule in his father’s name, but was murdered in 309 B.C. With him the line of Alexander the great bloodspiller died out, in blood. The dominion had departed from his house. The angelic prophecy proved true.

14. How was Alexander’s kingdom divided for a time “toward the four winds of heaven,” and how was this reduced later on to three?

¹⁴ The Alexandrian Empire was plucked up for men other than Alexander’s posterity