their birth, some predestinated to salvation and some ordained to divine wrath, and this without any foreknowledge of how the individuals would act. (¶8) If Jehovah has thus chosen man’s destiny before birth, rendering any future choice by man an empty mockery, Moses would never have been inspired to say to Israel: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that you as well as your descendants may live, by loving the LORD your God, by heeding his injunctions, and by holding fast to him; for that will mean life to you.” (Deut. 30:19, 20, AT) Nor would Joshua have said: “If you find it obnoxious to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve, either the gods whom your fathers served who are beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Josh. 24:15, AT) Again, “Anyone that calls upon the name of Jehovah will be saved.” (Joel 2:32; Rom. 10:13, NW) Unblocked by predestination, any who wish can gain life: “The spirit and the bride keep on saying, ‘Come!’ And let anyone hearing say, ‘Come!’ And let anyone thirsting come; let anyone that wishes take life’s water free.” (Isa. 55:1; Rev. 22:17, NW) Jehovah says: ‘Warn them from me. Let him hear who will, and let him decline to hear who will. Have I any pleasure at all in the death of the wicked, and not rather in this, that he turn from his way and live? Why should you die? I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies. Turn, then, and live!’—Ezek. 3:27; 18:23, 31, 32; 33:7, 11-15, AT.

32. What exposes the folly of predestination?

³² What a hypocritical appeal that would be if the ones addressed were powerless to choose! Would Jehovah predestinate some to death, then say that it would be his pleasure for them to turn from that divine predestination and live? What folly to think so! And would Christ have said it was his anxious desire to gather Jerusalem’s children if they had been divinely predestinated to abandonment? Of course not, and the record shows those persons wanted it that way, contrary to Jesus’ desire: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! your house is abandoned to you.”—Matt. 23:37, 38, NW.

33. Who may gain salvation, and how?

³³ Not by some humanly uncontrollable predestination does everlasting life come, but by taking in knowledge of Jehovah and Christ, by striving to be an approved workman handling properly the truth, by working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, by preaching to save others as well as ourselves, by being doers of the word and not hearers only, by doing God’s will and not lip-serving only. (Matt. 7:21; John 17:3; Phil. 2:12; 1 Tim. 4:16; 2 Tim. 2:15; Jas. 1:22, NW) Not for a restricted few predestinated to salvation did Jesus provide the ransom, but “he became responsible for everlasting salvation to all those obeying him”. (Heb. 5:9, NW) Men are free to choose to serve whom they will and to act as they wish, and thereby fix their own destiny as either life or death.—Rom. 6:16.

34. In what ways is predestination inconsistent with Jehovah’s procedures, and on the basis of what does man reap?

³⁴ If predestination were true, why would Jehovah give his law to Israel or have the good news of the Kingdom preached to the nations? Why would he have judgment periods for determining the destiny of men on the basis of their conduct, judging them “individually according to their deeds”, rendering “to each one according to his works”, and saying “in accordance with their ways will I treat them, and in accordance with their practices will I judge them”? (Ezek. 7:27, AT; Rom. 2:6; Rev. 20:13, NW) Why separate sheep and goats on the basis of their reaction to the message and messengers of Christ? (Matt. 25:40, 45) Why all this, if the destiny of men is fixed before birth? Not God, but man, is responsible for man’s destiny. Not as God predestinates, but as man sows, does man reap. To reap life man must never give out in sowing good: “Each one will carry his own load of responsibility. Do not be misled: God is not one to be mocked. For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap; because he who is sowing with a view to his flesh will reap corruption from his flesh, but he who is sowing with a view to the spirit will reap everlasting life from the spirit. So let us not give up in doing what is right, for in due season we shall reap by not giving out.” (Gal. 6:5, 7-9, NW) God does not show partiality to some, predestinating them to life, and discrimination against others, predestinating them to death or torment. The evidence forces the conclusion: “God is not partial, but in every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.”—Acts 10:34, 35, NW.

35. Yet what must we remember concerning works?

³⁵ From the foregoing none should conclude we can save ourselves by our works. If we could we would earn salvation as our right, but we cannot. It comes through God’s undeserved kindness. (Rom. 11:6; Eph. 2:8, 9; 2 Tim. 1:9) However, by study we gain faith and by works in harmony with our knowledge we prove our faith and obedience. (Rom. 10:14, 17; Jas. 2:18-26) We must do these works to show obedience, for it is to obedient ones that the ransom does or will apply. Without such works salvation is impossible.

36. How did Presbyterians try to extricate themselves from difficulties, and with what results?

³⁶ It should also be noted that in 1902-1903 the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America added two chapters to the Confession of Faith, along with a Declaratory Statement. These additions were apparently made to soften the harshness of predestinationism, and harmonize with scriptures showing individual choice and necessity of good works. But in attempting to do this the additions really contradict the preceding material. If they add these chapters they should delete previous ones to avoid clashes. Yet if they made the necessary deletions they would eliminate predestinarian precepts altogether. So in their quandary they keep both and contradict both themselves and the Bible. They are on the horns of a dilemma of their own making. The new material does not harmonize predestination with Scripture, yet in attempting to line up with Scripture it contradicts predestination. It waters down the doctrine till it is completely washed away. Moreover, they compromise it to death. For instance, Chapter X, Section 3, page 45, states: “Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit.” But the Declaratory Statement, page 125, says this is “not to be regarded as teaching that any who die in infancy are lost. We believe that all dying in infancy are included in the election”. The Bible does not back them up in this.—Ezek. 9:6.

37. What challenging questions remain, but to what may we look forward?

³⁷ The subject cannot be closed at this point, for important questions remain unanswered. Do not predestination believers harmonize their doctrine with man’s free will? And what about Esau and Jacob, and Pharaoh, Samson, Jeremiah, Judas, and even Jesus? Does not the Bible show they and still others were predestinated? Challenging questions these, but space permits no more than the raising of them here. We must defer their answering to our next issue.

Missionaries and “Missionaries”

CHRIST Jesus when on earth worked hard and long to bring the comfort of the truth of his Father’s Word and kingdom to men of good will, and his disciples and apostles did likewise. (Mark 6:30-34; Luke 8:1; John 4:6, 34) Therein they were opposed by a greedy, lazy and hypocritical clergy who not only refused to enter the Kingdom themselves but opposed those desiring to enter.—Matt. 23:4, 13; Luke 16:9-14.

In this twentieth century true Christians follow the example set by Christ Jesus and his immediate followers by likewise busily bringing the comfort of the truth to men of good will. In this they are opposed by the modern counterpart of the scribes and Pharisees, the false religious leaders of Christendom. Representative of the difference between the two classes is the report recently received from two young missionaries who have been preaching the good news of God’s kingdom in Thailand since last July:

“Well, we are getting used to the work here and are getting to feel quite at home. We have a goodly number of Bible studies with the people and some of them are progressing very well. Last Sunday we had our first public talk in Korat. This was in our house and in English. Since not many people here can understand English we were thrilled to see forty at the lecture. Among those present were the assistant inspector of education for the Northeastern Region of Thailand, and the inspector of the interior and a local judge; all three of whom are studying the Bible with one of the missionaries.

“Jehovah surely made a good job of confusing the tongues. It is no easy task, learning one of these Eastern languages, they are so different and seem to have so many exceptions to the rules we learn. However, the people seem to think that we are doing very well and often ask us how many years we have been in Thailand. We hope to have talks in Thai soon. That is encouraging, isn’t it?

“Not only do Eastern languages but also Eastern religions present a big problem. It takes real effort and time to convince a Buddhist of Bible truth. When you begin a Bible study you first have to do a lot of explaining to prove that God really exists; and then they do not have any knowledge about Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, Abraham and Moses, or of any other Bible characters and events; so it is a case of starting from the very beginning.

“There are other missionaries here; they call themselves Missionary Alliance, and are from America. While they have been here many years, they have made little progress. Their Bible class in English on Sundays attracts some who want to learn English and then they also have a Sunday school for children. They spend a great deal of time playing tennis and badminton. The people have already noticed the difference between these and the Watchtower missionaries, and often comment on our always being busy and not playing tennis and badminton, and about the many people we are teaching. They also ask why we do not have servants and automobiles as the other missionaries have. The other missionaries resent our being here, have told us that this was their field, and have asked why we had to come along when they were here first.

“Next month we hope to go to an assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Bangkok, some 180 miles from here. It will be a new experience for us, as the entire program will be in Thai. It will be a real pleasure to meet other missionaries, as there are only five in our group here.”

Yes, there are missionaries and “missionaries”. “Missionaries” whose only concern is to feed themselves, and missionaries whose chief concern is to feed the flock of sheeplike persons, men of good will.—Ezek. 34:2.