10, 11. What great ignorance has man shown in the way he worships, and even when his wrong worship is exposed, what do many yet refuse to do?

¹⁰ Men rejoice in the sun, and they enjoy its light and manifold benefits, but they refuse to recognize the sun’s Creator as their spiritual Sun, the source of spiritual light and guidance to free them from the darkness of sin and death. They glorify men and human organizations as the sun in their political, social, economic and religious heavens, and treat these as the source of their enlightenment, the sun that will brighten their lives with freedom, material prosperity, moral uplift and social betterment. Yet, since the end of world War I, the “sun” that they have looked to for healing and betterment of conditions has scorched them with its oppressions. Because of this they blaspheme God’s name Jehovah by blaming the Creator for their sad, worsened plight rather than the men who try to shine in world affairs. They do not repent and glorify Jehovah God when he exposes the man-made creations that are radiating the scorching heat upon them.—Rev. 16:8, 9.

¹¹ Men have enthroned their political systems alongside God, claiming that their rulers rule by divine right and by the grace of God as though God the Creator of heaven and earth were the source of their political governments. They refuse to believe that Satan the Devil is the “ruler of this world” and is the source of their political rulerships since the days of Nimrod the first king of Babylon. It has been a plague to them for Jehovah’s witnesses under angelic guidance to show from the Bible why the kingdom of worldly politics is one of darkness, without the light of God’s favor and blessing. Therefore, men who trust in human politics rather than in having the kingdom of God blaspheme him and unrepentantly continue suffering from spiritual “ulcers.”—Rev. 16:10, 11.

12. (a) What end awaits false religion, and what will take its place? (b) Are the political systems marching primarily to a third world war, or what?

¹² Men have not benefited from the kingdom of false religion. As ancient Babylon founded by Nimrod sat astride the Euphrates River, so the great false religious system that was prefigured by ancient Babylon has sat oppressively and expensively upon the masses of people, for support and protection. Now these symbolic waters must be dried up to strip her of her defense, that this great religious system may make way for the kingdom of God. The political kings of the earth do not favor the kingdom of God by his Messiah who has the divine right to universal rulership. They lend their ears to demonic propaganda that issues from the invisible “ruler of this world” and from the political systems that he has kept in power over the earth. Hence the kings and their armies are influenced by this propaganda inspired by demons and are marching unitedly, not primarily to a third world war with nuclear weapons, but to the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” The Hebrew name for the battlefield is Har–Magedon (or, Armageddon). They feel plagued when Jehovah’s witnesses notify them that it is God Almighty against whom they fight under demonic influence and that they will be destroyed at Har–Magedon.—Rev. 16:12-16.

13. (a) What accounts for today’s violence and ungodly works, and, therefore, what is bound to happen? (b) What is the reaction to this warning by the political, religious and materialistic systems?

¹³ Today it is not just the natural air but a bad spirit that the people breathe in. It is the spirit of this world, and the spirit of the world is the spirit of Satan the Devil. This accounts for all the violence and ungodly works of the degraded flesh with which the nations abound today. For this reason human society will yet be rocked as by an earthquake of an intensity never experienced before, and the cities and political institutions of men must fall in ruins and disappear. The time has come for God Almighty to bring to mind the wicked deeds of that false religious system prefigured by ancient Babylon, and he must make her drink from his cup the wine that will make her so dead-drunk that she will never wake up. Advance notice of this act of God Almighty strikes politically, religiously and materialistically minded people like hundred-pound hailstones, but Jehovah’s witnesses under the angelic lead must serve such notice before the earthquake of unparalleled world trouble. We are not surprised that hard-hit people should blaspheme Jehovah God for this. It merely shows that they breathe in the spirit of the Devil.—Rev. 16:17-21.

14. (a) Where is the information on these plague-like conditions found, and who thus is credited with giving this information? (b) Since we do not want to be led by the wicked demons on a course leading to collision with God Almighty, what is the path of wisdom now?

¹⁴ These things, which are like plagues to this world, are revealed to us in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of the Revelation 15, 16 to John the apostle. We do not take the credit for this, but give to God the credit through Jesus Christ and acknowledge the part that the holy angels of God have in this, as vividly pictured in those chapters of Revelation. We sincerely desire to follow the lead given us through God’s holy angels. We do not want to be caught in the current that is being swept along by the “wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places” and run into a collision with God Almighty at Har–Magedon. That is why we who are attending these assemblies around the world should all join in making a resolution.

The Resolution

1, 2. Name four points we first of all declare and resolve as outlined in paragraph two.

WE JEHOVAH’S witnesses, met together in [City, State, Country]a, in one of the “Everlasting Good News” assemblies being held in a continuous chain around the whole world this year of 1963, do this day declare and resolve as follows:

² THAT the one living and true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, whose name is Jehovah, is the only God whom we fear and glorify. Him alone will we worship; for him only will we be witnesses in the universal contest now in progress over the question, Who is the Everlasting, All-wise, All-powerful God? and him alone will we urge all peoples everywhere, of whatever race, nationality, tribe, color and language, to worship as the true God without equal;

3. What do we declare regarding the Holy Bible?

³ THAT the Holy Bible, written under inspiration originally in Hebrew, Aramaic and ancient Greek, is his written Word. It is the channel of the one revealed religion that is the absolute truth and that is the unerring guide to pure worship acceptable to God;

4. What are our feelings about Jehovah God the Creator, his King and kingdom?

⁴ THAT God the Creator, to whom his own written Word gives the name Jehovah