means that not only those on the military fighting front in Gog’s attack forces but also those staying at home and making up the civilian front backing up Gog’s hordes will be reached by the destructive forces from on high. Their dwelling securely, easy-going and indifferently will be rudely broken up. Such civilian backers of Gog’s attack must bear their community responsibility for their representative armies at the front. Protest Gog’s attack? No, not they. So they are condemned as heart and soul a part of Satan’s world organization. Jehovah rightly sends his fiery destruction upon them. Thus Satan’s entire seed, seen and unseen, perish.

SHARERS OF THE VICTORY

39. As Gog musters his forces and moves in to the attack, what should those of the New World society do to witness Jehovah’s victorious demonstration?

³⁹ As the New World society see Gog of Magog mustering his forces should they get on the run? Eventually when they see Gog’s forces moving in to the attack like a growling, heavens-blackening storm cloud of living demons and human hordes, should they flee, at least, then? No! Never should they and never will the faithful remnant and their good-will companions abandon the newborn theocratic land of the New World society. This is the Beulah land of prophecy, to which the remnant are married, and never under any stress will they break their marriage ties, and their loyal companions will stick with them. (Isa. 62:4, 5) They will stand their ground, continuing to dwell in this theocratic land, trusting in Jehovah God for security and not in carnal weapons or in speed of compromising flight. Steadfastly doing so, they will witness his victorious demonstration of power over his combined old-world foes, the profaners of his holy name. They will glory in his triumph by Jesus Christ.

40. How will the birds and beasts share benefits of Jehovah’s triumph, and in compensation for what?

⁴⁰ Even the once-terrified birds and beasts of the field will share in the benefits of his triumph. Jehovah bids his prophet to invite those long-mistreated birds and beasts to feast upon His great sacrifice, his slaughter of all his foes, whose carcasses will lie strewn upon the ground like fertilizer, unlamented, unburied, abhorred by the New World society, who survive. Let the birds and the beasts pick the skeletons of these white and clean. Let the bird and animal kingdom thus be repaid for all the wanton slaughter that Gog’s old world has inflicted upon them during the past 4,000 years since the Flood.—Ezek. 39:1-5, 17-20; Rev. 19:17-21.

41. What indicates that the slaughter then will be enormous, and where will the bones be buried, and for what reason?

⁴¹ Enormous will be the mass slaughter of that day of days, for tremendous will be the forces lined up on Gog’s side in that battle. That will indeed be a global conflict if ever there was one, for not a section of the globe will escape the destruction. By the prophecy we are informed that the wooden parts that are left of the man-killing weapons of Gog’s mob will be so abundant that it will take seven years for the surviving Israelites to collect them and use them up as firewood. (Ezek. 39:9, 10) But what about the bones of Gog’s slain hordes? Will they be left to pollute the soil of the “new earth”? No; but Jehovah will assign them a burial place, pictured by the valley of Abarim, where Jehovah brought Gog’s mob to a dead halt in destruction. It lies east of the Dead Sea. As the Dead Sea is a Scripture symbol of everlasting destruction, or “second death,” this burial place pictures that those on Gog’s side are destroyed in second death. (Rev. 20:14, 15; 21:8, NW) So the burial of the bones is for cleansing the land and is not to symbolize any hope of a resurrection for Gog’s mob. The valley of burial will be called The Valley of Gog’s Mob, and the symbolic city nearby will be called Hamonah (that is, Mob), as a memorial of Jehovah’s victory over Gog’s mob.—Ezek. 39:11-16, AT; AS.

42. Why have we no need to fear, and how may we serve as everliving witnesses to Jehovah’s vindication victory?

⁴² Courage, then, every one of you of the New World society! If we keep trusting in Jehovah and proving our trust by holding loyal to his theocratic government and to the proclaiming of the good news of his kingdom by Christ, we have no need to fear, neither from the formidable appearance of Gog’s mob nor from the awesomeness of Jehovah’s supreme display of his battle might, for Jehovah is with us! Cowardly flight could, but Gog will never, dislodge us from our God-given land. Deliverance lies in not running! During this “time of the end,” this “day of Jehovah,” we have been witnesses to Jehovah’s name and kingdom. Shortly now we are to be made eyewitnesses of the most magnificent spectacle when Jehovah reveals his glory at Armageddon in vindication of his creation-wide sovereignty. As beholders of this the New World society can serve as an everliving witness to Jehovah’s vindication victory by relating it to all the children born in the new world, yes, to all those who will be brought forth to life on earth by the resurrection of the dead. So here, in the face of gathering enemies, we stand today in the land of restored theocracy. God grant us to maintain our stand here immovable by ceaseless activity and a vigilant guard until his sublime victory over Gog of Magog.

Questions From Readers

● Acts 14:14 (NW) speaks of “the apostles Barnabas and Paul.” Why was Barnabas, not one of the twelve apostles, here called an apostle?—H. B., Canal Zone.

“Apostle” means an envoy or one who is sent forth. Acts 14:14 speaks of Barnabas as an apostle because he was on a missionary tour with Paul and he had been sent forth by the Christian congregation at Antioch under instructions by the holy spirit. (Acts 13:1-4, NW) At 2 Corinthians 8:23 (NW) Paul speaks about “our brothers” and says that they are “apostles of congregations,” which means, according to the footnote, that they were “envoys; men sent forth.” They were sent forth by the congregations to represent them and at their expense. At Philippians 2:25 (NW) Paul speaks of Epaphroditus as their envoy, or, according to the footnote, their apostle. Even Christ Jesus is spoken of as God’s apostle because he was sent forth from God on an earthly mission.—Heb. 3:1.

This understanding clears away what some thought a discrepancy between Acts 9:26, 27 and Galatians 1:17-19. In Acts it states that when Paul arrived in Jerusalem and sought to associate with the disciples they were afraid of him, not having positive assurance of his conversion; “so Barnabas came to his aid and led him to the apostles,” detailing to them Paul’s conversion and his later Christian conduct in Damascus. (NW) In Galatians when Paul tells of going to Jerusalem, three years after returning to Damascus from a trip to Arabia, he says: “I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. But I saw no one else of the apostles, only James the brother of the Lord.” (NW) The only one of the twelve apostles Paul saw on this trip to Jerusalem was Cephas, or Peter. Yet this does not contradict the fact that at this time Barnabas “led him to the apostles.” It does not say Barnabas led him to the twelve apostles, or the committee of twelve. Peter was the only one of the twelve Paul met then. Any other apostles he may have met there were merely envoys or sent-forth ones. In this sense James the brother of the Lord could be called an apostle, as Paul seems to call him.