of this world but also of its religions. All the religions of this world now associate with the international alliance, the United Nations, and support it. These religions are all symbolized under one figure, that of the great harlot, Babylon the Great, who rides the seven-headed wild beast to a battle against Jehovah’s “Lord of lords and King of kings.” All the blood unrighteously shed on the earth is due to false religion and hence is laid to the charge of this mysterious Babylon the Great. Calling her bloodguiltiness to notice just before she is executed, John the beholder of the Revelation vision says: “I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. . . . Yes, in her was found the blood of prophets and of holy ones and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth.” (Rev. 17:6; 18:24, NW) In executing judgment at Armageddon the God of justice renders to all worldly religion her dues for her sickening bloodthirstiness and bloodguiltiness.

13. What do the heavenly hosts say as respects this act of judgment, and how will the guilty drink their own blood?

¹³ Because of this act of judgment the heavenly hosts give Jehovah praise, saying: “Praise Jah, you people! The salvation and the glory and the power belong to our God, because his judgments are true and righteous. For he has executed judgment upon the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her [religious] fornication, and he has avenged the blood of his slaves at her hand.” The long record of worldly religion, reeking with blood, must now be shown up and the coming judgment of those who have shed innocent blood under the instigation of Babylonish religion must be declared, to show that God is righteous: “You . . . are righteous, . . . because they poured out the blood of holy ones and of prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it. . . . Yes, Jehovah God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your decisions.” (Rev. 19:1, 2; 16:5-7, NW) The guilty will be made to drink their own lifeblood by their own deserved death at Armageddon.—Isa. 49:26.

Avoidance Inside the Cities of Refuge

1. Why do we need a place of refuge at Armageddon, and how did God picture it prophetically for us?

BLOODGUILT cleaves to all the world. While outwardly striving for international peace in her own way, Christendom is at the same time taking the lead in preparing the most sanguinary war of all time. Where is there a place for us to escape from having any part in the world’s bloodguilt at Armageddon, that our own lives may not be required of us according to Jehovah’s covenant concerning the sacredness of blood? Jehovah has provided the only place of escape and refuge, and he pictured it for us prophetically in the cities of refuge that he arranged for in the land of Israel.

2. What were the places of sanctuary among the pagan nations, and why were they reduced in number finally?

² These were not like the places of refuge that were in fashion among the ancient pagan nations. Those places were religiously sacred places, such as groves, temples and altars, and they were given the right of asylum, that is, the right to furnish shelter with protection against punishment for any misdoing. The protective power given to these places extended itself over a considerable area around the holy spot and was sternly guarded and preserved by severe punishments to the violators of the protection offered at the place. However, these places of refuge or of sanctuary were places where, under the cover of religion, the guilty as well as the unfortunate person might find shelter and protection against the officers of the law or those who would take the law into their own hands and inflict punishment. The famous temple of Artemis (or Diana) at Ephesus was a heathen place of asylum or sanctuary and its privileges in this regard expanded as time went on. In time the number of these places of sanctuary multiplied greatly among the Greeks and the Romans, but the privilege of sanctuary was abused and this led to a great increase of criminals. So Roman emperor Tiberius, of Jesus’ day, had a solemn inquiry made into the effects of these sanctuaries, and this resulted in reducing the number of them and limiting their privileges.

3. Were the cities of refuge allowed to multiply in Israel, and when first did Jehovah mention a future place of sanctuary for Israel?

³ The cities of refuge in the land of Israel were limited in number and provided no asylum for the guilty taker of life, but asylum for only the unintentional manslayer. By some it is understood that, while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness for forty years prior to their entering into the Promised Land of Palestine, sanctuary was provided among the encampment of the temple servants known as the Levites, to whom the high priest and his body of underpriests belonged. First when giving the law to the prophet Moses at Mount Sinai, Jehovah God made mention of a future place of sanctuary, saying: “One who strikes a man so that he actually dies is to be put to death without fail. But where one does not lie in wait and God lets it occur at his hand, then I must fix for you a place where he can flee. And in case a man becomes heated against his fellow to the point of killing him with craftiness, you are to take him even from being at my altar to die.”—Ex. 21:12-14, NW.

4. What is meant by taking one guilty of murder even from being at Jehovah’s altar?

⁴ This last statement may mean that even if a man is a priest who serves at God’s altar he is not to be treated as guiltless, but is to be led away to execution for a crafty, planned murder. Or if any willful murderer should flee to the altar as a sanctuary and take hold of one of its horns in hope of being shielded by the sacredness of the altar, he is to be taken away and executed as he deserves. God does not protect willful criminals either by his law or by holy things of his organization. An example of this is the case of general Joab. During the kingship of David he was guilty of shedding the blood of innocent men because he was moved by vengeance and jealousy. To this he added the crime of supporting a usurper of David’s throne instead of God’s choice for the throne, namely, David’s son Solomon. When the would-be usurper still showed ambitions for the throne and King Solomon had him killed, general Joab fled and took hold on the altar horns and refused to come away, saying: “No! For here is where I shall die.” Accordingly King Solomon had him executed there, saying: “Jehovah will certainly bring back his blood upon his own head, because he fell upon two men more righteous and better than he was and he proceeded to kill them with the sword, when my father David himself had not known of it.” (1 Ki. 2:28-34, NW) No murderer or willful sharer in blood shed may expect the sacrifice of Jehovah’s great altar, namely, Jesus Christ, to atone for his crime or share in crime.

5. How many cities of refuge were to be set aside, and why were they not ordinary cities?

⁵ In the fortieth year of their wandering the Israelites reached the desert plains of Moab east of the Jordan River opposite the city of Jericho. Then Jehovah God saw good to order them to set aside six cities of refuge, three on the east side of the river and three on the west side. These were not just ordinary cities, but cities belonging to Jehovah’s special servants attached to his temple, one city, Hebron, being a priests’ city and the other five belonging to the Levites. In harmony with their being places of refuge where the refugee was untouchable by the executioner, they were given a sacred status. So we read of the assignment of the cities: “They gave a sacred status to Keʹdesh . . . and Sheʹchem . . . and Kirʹi·ath-arʹba, that is to say, Heʹbron, . . . Beʹzer . . . and Raʹmoth in Gilead . . . and Goʹlan.” (Josh. 20:7, 8, NW) The cities of refuge therefore had God’s special recognition, and their power to provide refuge deserved to be respected.

6. What was it the purpose of the refuge cities to prevent, and what would result if the Israelites tried to sidetrack or bypass this law?

⁶ The purpose of the refuge cities was to prevent the land from being polluted with innocent blood, not the blood of the person unintentionally killed, but the blood of the unintentional killer who was innocent of any wrong intent: “that no innocent blood may be spilled in the midst of your land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance and no bloodguilt has to be upon you.” (Deut. 19:10, NW) Besides that, if the Israelites failed to carry out the law of the cities of refuge and tried to sidetrack or bypass the law, it would result in polluting the land with the blood of the innocent person, whether killed intentionally or unintentionally. “You must not pollute the land in which you are, because it is blood that pollutes the land and for the land there may be no atonement respecting the blood that has been spilled upon it except by the blood of the one spilling it. And you must not defile the land in which you are dwelling, in the midst of which I am tenting, for I Jehovah am tenting in the midst of the sons of Israel.”—Num. 35:33, 34, NW.

7. To avenge the blood shed, who was the one made in God’s image, and where might a manslayer flee to escape from this one?

⁷ Jehovah recognized the right of the nearest relative of the innocent person killed to put the manslayer to death when he came upon him. Jehovah recognized this nearest relative as the avenger of blood and therefore assigned to him the right and power of executioner. Thus God made the blood avenger “in God’s image,” for God himself has the right and power of executing murderers. (Gen. 9:6, NW) God’s law said: “The avenger of blood is the one who will put the murderer to death. When he chances upon him he himself will put him to death.” (Num. 35:19, NW) However, a man might kill another person or be the cause of another’s death accidentally, unintentionally, without malice aforethought. To protect such a man God provided the refuge cities, that the unintentional manslayer might be spared his life until he stood trial and proved his having no intent to kill and no murderous hatred. (Josh. 20:9) So to the refuge city for his district the innocent manslayer might flee. “And you must choose cities convenient for yourselves. As cities of refuge they will serve for you, and the manslayer must flee there who fatally strikes a soul unintentionally. And the cities must serve you as a refuge from the blood avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the assembly for judgment. And the cities that you will give, the six cities of refuge, will be at your service.”—Num. 35:11-13, NW.

8. What arrangement in Catholic Christendom did such refuge cities not typify, and why was that arrangement at last abolished?

⁸ Jehovah’s law covenant with natural Israel had literal cities of refuge. Jehovah’s new covenant with spiritual Israel provides for a similar refuge. Thus the Israelite cities of refuge typified or foreshadowed a good thing to come, having to do with Christ. (Col. 2:16, 17; Heb. 10:1) What did they typify or foreshadow? Not the Roman Catholic church buildings and precincts where sanctuary used to be provided for offenders against the law. When those who claimed to be Christians began adopting the things of paganism and giving them a Christian appearance, the pagan custom of granting the right of sanctuary at holy places passed over into Christendom. As early as Emperor Constantine of Rome the Roman Catholic churches were made asylums where unfortunate persons could take refuge when pursued by officers of the law or powerful, vengeful enemies. In 681 the synod of Toledo widened the right of asylum to cover thirty paces from each church. Since that time the ecclesiastical privilege held sway in all of Catholic Christendom and continued, at least in Italy, as long as the pope remained independent and had his domains. But this ecclesiastical assumption tended to transfer power from the civil magistrate to the priesthood and worked against the law and the proper administration of justice. It aided the guilty or the sympathizers with the guilty to abuse the privilege. Says The Encyclopedia Americana: “It was the abuses to which this system gave rise, as tending to defeat the ends of justice, that led to its abolition in all Christian countries.”—Vol. 24 under “Sanctuary.”

9. Since when do the cities of refuge find their antitypical fulfillment, and why is there now dire need of such an antitype?

⁹ The typical cities of refuge find their antitypical fulfillment since God’s kingdom was born in the heavens in 1914 (A.D.), for it is to bring about the avenging of the blood of all who have been unjustly slain. The time for the avenging of the innocent blood draws near and there is dire need of the antitypical city of refuge, for since 1918, when the Lord Jehovah came with his Angel of the covenant to the spiritual temple, the time of judgment has been in progress to determine the bloodguiltiness of humanity.

10. What is the antitypical city of refuge today? With whom is it found, and for whose benefit is it?

¹⁰ What is the antitypical city of refuge today? As the typical refuge cities were cities of the temple servants, including the high priest of Jehovah, the antitypical city must be Jehovah’s provision for protecting us from death for violating the divine covenant concerning the sacredness of blood by our coming and remaining under the benefits of the active service of Jehovah’s High Priest Jesus Christ. That provision of protection is to be found with Jehovah’s theocratic organization of his people. It is for only those pictured by the accidental or unintentional manslayer: “When he strikes his fellow man without knowing it and he was no hater of him formerly, . . . he himself should flee to one of these cities and must live. Otherwise, the avenger of blood may, because his heart is hot, chase after the manslayer and certainly overtake him, since the way is great, and he may indeed strike his soul fatally, whereas there is no sentence of death for him, because he was no hater of him formerly.”—Deut. 19:4-6, NW.

COLLECTIVE BLOODGUILT

11. Since when has more blood been shed than ever before, and especially over what great issue?

¹¹ Since the birth of God’s kingdom by Christ in 1914 more blood has been shed than ever before in human history, not only in private, individual killings and accidental killings but more so in collective killings, in the two greatest carnages of all human experience, World Wars Nos. I and II. Both sides to the wild sprees of human butchery try to justify themselves and try to wash their hands clean of bloodguilt in the water of various self-excusing arguments. But we know that both sides engaged in the mass slaughter over the issue of world domination, though they were informed by Jehovah’s people both before 1914 and more particularly since 1914 concerning the ending of the “appointed times of the nations” that year and the establishment of God’s kingdom then. These wars were waged with total warfare, because for the prosecution of them to gain victory the whole nation was mobilized and all citizens were made to contribute their part to the national effort; and civilian population centers behind the lines became points of strategic bombardment.

12. So what scriptures should the worldly organizations that try to justify themselves remember, and why is religion not clean in this respect?

¹² So let the nations and the worldly organizations that feel no sense of guilt before God remember Paul’s words: “I am not conscious of anything against me. Yet by this I do not stand vindicated, but he that examines me is Jehovah.” (1 Cor. 4:4, NW) Also the proverb: “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes; but Jehovah weigheth the hearts.” (Prov. 21:2, AS) Also the apostolic words: “For not the one who recommends himself is approved, but the man whom Jehovah recommends.” (2 Cor. 10:18, NW) Before God, the Giver and Sustainer of life, an all-embracing bloodguilt rests on all mankind, on both those who directly did the shedding of blood and those who lent their support morally or materially. In this respect the skirts of religion are not clean, for in these massacres the religious leaders of all nations at war, even the clergy of Christendom, have prayed to their religious gods for heaven’s blessing upon their own military forces. Hence to Christendom the prophetic words addressed to unfaithful Jerusalem apply: “Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor.”—Jer. 2:34, AS.

13. What typical illustration did Jehovah give of how he lays a joint responsibility upon people regarding bloodshed?

¹³ We must remember that the God of justice lays upon people a joint responsibility in respect to bloodshed. This point he made very sharp and clear in his law to Israel concerning a person slain whose killer was never discovered: “In case someone should be found slain on the ground that Jehovah your God is giving you to take possession of it, fallen on the field, and it has not become known who struck him fatally, then your older men and your judges must go out and measure to the cities that are all around the slain one, and it must prove to be the city nearest to the slain one.” In clearing themselves of guilt the older men of that likely guilty city must break the neck of a young, unworked cow in an unsown torrent valley, doing so before the Levite priests, “because they are the ones Jehovah your God has chosen to minister to him and to bless in the name of Jehovah and at whose mouth every dispute over every violent deed should be disposed of.” The older men of that city then washed their hands over the cow with the broken neck and had to say: “Our hands did not shed this blood, neither did our eyes see it shed. Do not set it to the account of your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Jehovah, and do not put the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.” Only then, said God’s law, “the bloodguilt must not be set to their account. And you—you will clear away the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, because you will do what is right in Jehovah’s eyes.”—Deut. 21:1-9, NW.

14. So today how do all peoples share in a community of responsibility for the blood that has drenched the earth?

¹⁴ So all peoples, especially in these days of total warfare, national mobilization, and international friendships, treaties and trade, share in a community of responsibility for the blood that has drenched the earth, all shed because the nations have refused to acknowledge Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and to bow peacefully before Jehovah’s enthroned King Jesus Christ, seeking his favor.

15. Who today are like the manslayer in Israel who killed without knowing it or without previous hatred, and how so?

¹⁵ Who is without bloodguilt today, either directly or by association, either in times of war or in times of peace? Some may have committed manslaughter by carelessness in driving a car or by other accident or willfully so. Afterward they have repented and, whereas the law may have inflicted upon the guilty ones a penalty that must be paid to “pay back, therefore, Caesar’s things to Caesar,” yet they have implored the mercy of God the Giver of life. Others may have taken part in collective killing, thinking conscientiously that it was their duty, or being persuaded by the religious leaders and teachers that it was God’s will and was a doing of sacred service to God. They have since confessed that they made a mistake and see the need of divine mercy toward them. Others being incited by the venomous hissings of Christendom’s clergy or other religious leaders have joined in persecuting Jehovah’s witnesses, this resulting in death to thousands of them for their integrity toward God. Now they realize how mistaught and misled they were and how they need God’s mercy, the same as Saul of Tarsus did. All of us may be aware of some community responsibility for the violent loss of human life. We feel that, if we had known better and been better instructed, we should not have done it or taken any related part in it. It was all accidental or unintended because of our lack of knowledge and understanding of God’s law and will. All such are like the ancient manslayer in Israel “who slays his fellow without knowing it, while he was not hating him formerly.”

16. (a) What does fleeing to a city of refuge picture? (b) For what nationalities were Israel’s cities of refuge meant?

¹⁶ Fleeing to a city of refuge pictures how we go as quickly as possible, whether we are dedicated to God or not, and we confess our sin of bloodguilt to him and appeal to him to have mercy on us through his great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who provided the ransom sacrifice for all mankind. Thereafter we seek to prove to God that our repentance is genuine by keeping fast to our refuge within his provision and theocratic organization. We must bear in mind for whom the ancient cities of refuge were meant, in order to appreciate who may benefit by their antitype today. Jehovah’s law said: “As cities of refuge they will serve. For the sons of Israel and for the temporary resident and for the settler in the midst of them these six cities will serve as a refuge, for anyone to flee there that fatally strikes a soul unintentionally.” “These became the cities appointed for all the sons of Israel and for the temporary resident who resides for a while in their midst, for anyone to flee there who fatally strikes a soul unintentionally, that he may not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until his standing before the assembly.”—Num. 35:14, 15 and Josh. 20:9, NW.

17. Who, then, were first in taking advantage of the divine protection for unintentional manslayers, and why so?

¹⁷ Hence the members of the spiritual “body of Christ,” the congregation of anointed Christians, need this provision, too, for they are the antitypical “sons of Israel”; they are members of spiritual Israel. The original part of this remnant passed through the years of World War I, during which they became captive to the Babylonish world because they came under the fear of men in high station and their course of action was not altogether clean from this world, not entirely neutral toward the mortal combats of this world. How much of bloodguiltiness Jehovah at his temple judged to be upon them, we do not definitely know. But after he released them from their captivity to Babylon in 1919 they repented of any measure of sin in any respect, confessed their guilt and endeavored to clean up their worship of him under his guidance by Christ. Moreover, since then, and particularly down to 1931, thousands who were definitely tainted with bloodguilt heard the message of the Kingdom and of the coming Armageddon and they began to flee to the antitypical city of refuge. They repented and turned to God for mercy. With faith in his High Priest Jesus Christ they gave themselves in full dedication to God to do his will ever afterward and to remain strictly within his merciful provisions to be safeguarded against the executing of all the bloodguilty at Armageddon. In this time of ‘shortening the days of tribulation for the chosen ones’ sake’ spiritual Israelites were first in taking advantage of this divine protection for the unintentional manslayer.

18. For whom else is the antitypical city of refuge, as foreshadowed by the type, and what does this prove as to the time of fulfillment of the type?

¹⁸ But the ancient refuge cities were also “for the temporary resident and for the settler” in Israel. As these were not Israelites they picture those not of spiritual Israel, those not of the spiritual remnant today, but who turn to the God of spiritual Israel and want to take advantage of his merciful arrangements through his High Priest. Their eyes have been opened to see the bloodguiltiness of all the world and they want no share further in it nor in paying the penalty for it with this world at Armageddon. So they, too, are fleeing from threatening execution and entering into the antitypical refuge city under the High Priest Jesus Christ. In fleeing there they show the sincerity of their repentance and of their reliance upon God’s mercy to spare their lives through Christ. How? By dedicating themselves to God to be subject to the divine will from now on into eternity. Thus today, for their protection from the death of the bloodguilty, hundreds of thousands of refugees of the “temporary resident” and “settler” class are to be found within Jehovah’s provision in company with the members of the remnant, inside the New World society. Now is the time, since 1931, for these “other sheep” of the Lord Jesus to be gathered to his fold, to make them “one flock” with the remnant of spiritual Israel. This fact adds to the proof that now, since 1914, is the time of application of this prophetic picture of the refuge cities.

Formerly I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man. Nevertheless, I was shown mercy, because I was ignorant and acted with a lack of faith.—1 Tim. 1:13, NW.

Keeping Within the Bounds of Refuge

1, 2. Under what restriction was the refugee in the refuge city placed, and for how long?

THE fugitive from the avenger of blood was obliged to prove his innocence of any intent to kill the person accidentally slain. The refuge city to which he fled must first return him to the city in which or in the neighborhood of which the killing occurred. There the assembly must try his case to establish his worthiness to enjoy the protection of a city of refuge: “Then the assembly must judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these judgments. And the assembly must deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood and the assembly must return him to his city of refuge to which he had fled, and he must dwell in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.” (Num. 35:24, 25, NW) Since Hebron, one of the refuge cities, was the city of the high priest and his underpriests, the sons of Aaron, this reminds us that Jehovah’s High Priest Jesus Christ is the one anointed to pass upon the manslayer’s lack of wicked intent in causing loss of life to others. He is the one to decide whether to admit him within Jehovah’s place of refuge in his New World society and to let him stay there.

² Since it was a mercy that the refugee was spared from death, it was perfectly proper for him to be put under bounds, to be limited as to his freedom. He had to stay within his city of refuge and its thousand cubits of open land all around the city. Beyond that limit lay danger to his spared life. “But if the manslayer should at all go out of the boundary of his city of refuge to which he may flee, and the avenger of blood does find him outside the boundary of his city of refuge and the avenger of blood does slay the manslayer, he [the avenger of blood] has no bloodguilt. For he [the manslayer] ought to dwell in his city of refuge until the high priest’s death and after the high priest’s death the manslayer may return to the land of his possession. And you must not take a ransom for one who has fled to his city of refuge to resume dwelling in the land before the death of the high priest.” (Num. 35:26-28, 32, NW) Thus the high priest during whose activity in office the manslaughter occurred must die before the unintentional manslayer could return to his own city or his land inheritance, without fear of the blood avenger. So if the Israelite high priest himself accidentally killed someone he could not leave his refuge city all his lifetime. If a Levite killed accidentally, he could not leave his refuge city to go up to the temple of Jehovah and perform a Levite’s duties there until the high priest died. This showed how the high priest governed the life and liberty of the refugees.

3. So through whom is Jehovah’s protection to blood-tainted refugees now granted, and in what way does one leave the antitypical city of refuge, and with what consequences?

³ This shows, too, that Jehovah’s protection to the blood-tainted refugees today against execution during the avenging of innocent blood at Armageddon is granted through his High Priest Jesus Christ, who gave his own human life to rescue even repentant manslayers besides sinners of all other kinds. Going outside of the refuge city before Israel’s high priest died pictures, therefore, that the one enjoying God’s mercy and protection becomes rebellious at God’s limitations upon him. He loses his appreciation of what God has done for him through Christ and why God has put him under bounds. He becomes like Shimei, who cursed David when fleeing from his son Absalom and whom David’s successor, King Solomon, put under bounds in the city of Jerusalem. Shimei put King Solomon to the test, left Jerusalem to recover two of his slaves, and on his return was put to death for having selfishly broken bounds. (1 Ki. 2:36-46) So the forsaker of refuge comes out from under the atonement covering of Christ’s sacrifice, no more trusting in its merit or feeling its need to safeguard him against the divine penalty for sin. He becomes careless about meeting Jehovah’s requirements and humbling himself under God’s mighty hand, and he develops his own self-righteousness and trusts in it to deliver him. He puts God to the test too far, impaling Jesus Christ afresh for himself and losing all sense of repentance. Outside of Jehovah’s merciful refuge he is certain to become subject to execution when all bloodguiltiness that is not covered is avenged at Armageddon. He will not survive.

4, 5. (a) What questions arise as to the fulfillment of the death of Israel’s high priest? (b) How long therefore, will members of the remnant of spiritual Israel have to remain in their refuge city?

⁴ The High Priest Jesus Christ, since his resurrection from the dead, has the “power of an indestructible life” and “dies no more,” as “death is master over him no more” but he is a “priest forever” like Melchizedek. (Heb. 7:15-17 and Rom. 6:9, NW) How, then, can he fulfill the picture of the death of Israel’s high priest? And so how could anyone come out from the antitypical refuge city in the New World society? How long will the modern-day refugees have to remain there? We must remember that Israel’s high priest, when he died, ceased to serve as high priest and to offer atonement for the accidental manslayer. Hence the members of the remnant within the antitypical refuge city must remain there as long as they live on earth. They hope to survive the battle of Armageddon into God’s new world, but even after that battle and its execution of the bloodguilty they will need the atoning merit of their heavenly High Priest. Why? Because they are still in the imperfect flesh.

⁵ However, when they finish their earthly duties after Armageddon and die and are instantaneously resurrected to life as divine spirit creatures in the heavens, they will no more need the atoning services of Jehovah’s High Priest, for then they have forever left the flesh behind, sacrificed in vindication of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty. Everything that attaches to the imperfect flesh, including accidental bloodguilt, will have passed away from them. Thus the High Priest will have died in an atoning, protective capacity toward them. But clear through Armageddon and until their fleshly tabernacle, their earthly house or tent, is dissolved in death and they gain a “building from God, a house not made with hands, everlasting in the heavens,” they will have remained within the refuge city under the immortal High Priest.—2 Cor. 5:1, NW.

6. How do the Armageddon survivors not of spiritual Israel stay in their refuge city until the antitypical death of the High Priest, and for what might they die after that?

⁶ But how about the modern refugee “temporary residents” and “settlers”? Since they will remain in the flesh forever, when will they ever be able to leave their refuge city and be free from accidental bloodguilt? They may not come out of the refuge city under Christ immediately after Armageddon, because they too, like the surviving remnant, will be in their imperfect flesh, infected with sin. So they will be obliged to remain under the High Priest’s atoning protection; otherwise the blood avenger would kill them. By availing themselves of this throughout the thousand years of his kingship and priesthood they will eventually be lifted to human faultlessness. At the close of the thousand years he will yield them over to Jehovah God together with all the rest of uplifted mankind for a final, eternally decisive test of their integrity, this by the loosing of Satan and his demons for a little while. For passing this test with divine approval, Jehovah God will justify them to everlasting life in the paradise “new earth” of the new world. But when the High Priest yielded them over in human perfection he in effect died to them as atoning, covering Priest, for they passed out from under his protective covering in the refuge city and were placed before God for a test of their own merit. If any die after that, it will not be by the avenger of blood, nor because of previous guilt for accidental bloodshed, but will be because of their willfully failing in the test of their integrity through some selfishness.—Rev. 20:1-6, 11-15, NW.

‘PREPARING THE WAY’

7. How did the ancient refuge city act toward the accidental manslayer, and how did he have to conduct himself in it?

⁷ The ancient refuge city was to open its gates and act as host to the accidental manslayer. “And he must flee to one of these cities and stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and speak his words in the hearing of the older men of that city, and they must receive him into the city to themselves and give him a place and he must dwell with them. And in case the avenger of blood chases after him, then they should not surrender the manslayer into his hand, for it was without knowing it that he struck his fellow man fatally and he was not hating him formerly. And he must dwell in that city until his standing before the assembly for judgment, until the death of the high priest who happens to be in those days. It is then that the manslayer may return and he must enter into his city and into his house, into the city from which he had fled.” (Josh. 20:4-6, NW) While in the refuge city the refugee was deprived of the freedom of going up to God’s temple, yet he was in close touch with the temple servants, the Levites, and at Hebron with the priests and even the high priest, for whose early death, however, he must not long, for that would be tending toward the spirit of murder and rebellion against God’s bounds. He must not be idle, thinking the city owes him a living, and thus become an economic burden on the Levites and priests. But he must learn a trade and become a contributor to the city’s welfare and prosperity.

8. So how must those fleeing to the Christian’s city of refuge conduct themselves, and in what does this result?

⁸ Likewise those fleeing to the Christian’s city of refuge may not be idlers within the New World society. They must show an appreciation of the divine mercy to them and keep in touch with the remnant of the “royal priesthood” and especially with the High Priest under whose covering they find protection. They must not be burdens, drags, on the New World society, retarding its activity, draining away its spiritual prosperity. They must learn a trade in that organization, and in view of the divine obligations laid upon it the only “trade” suitable within that organization is to learn to preach the Kingdom message and declare the “day of vengeance of our God.” (Matt. 24:14; Isa. 61:1, 2) This makes the time within bounds fly by most happily before Armageddon in praise of Jehovah and it results in salvation both to the refugee and to others.

9. To keep free from bloodguilt, for what have the refugees declared themselves and for what covenant have they taken their stand?

⁹ So here in our refuge city we find ourselves now, and here we are determined to stay until the High Priest’s “death.” Because Jehovah’s witnesses are determined to keep within bounds inside Jehovah’s merciful ‘city of refuge’ under his High Priest, these witnesses declared themselves, on November 1, 1939, in favor of absolute neutrality toward the sanguinary combats of this world. Also they have taken their stand for God’s covenant concerning the sanctity of blood, not to violate it by the transfusing of blood that has resulted in so many unreported deaths, to keep themselves from any willful bloodguilt in God’s sight. The willful murderer found no asylum in the ancient city of refuge but was handed over to the avenger of blood to die justly at his hands. We want no persons of that willful kind within the New World society.—Num. 35:16-21, 30, 31; Deut. 19:11-13.—See The Watchtower, November 1, 1939; July 1, 1945.

10. What help to successful flight had to be prepared for the unintentional manslayer, and how was this done in the type?

¹⁰ The priests and Levites of the cities of refuge had to be most helpful to those taking refuge among them and given safe harbor. Furthermore, they and all Israel had to be most concerned about helping the needy fugitives to beat the blood avenger in getting within the safe precincts of the refuge city, thus to prevent innocent blood of accidental manslayers from being shed. Said Jehovah’s merciful law: “You will set apart three [more] cities for yourself [Israel] in the midst of your land that Jehovah your God is giving you to take possession of it. You will prepare for yourself the way and you must divide up the territory of your land that Jehovah your God proceeded to give you as a possession into three parts [west of Jordan River], and it must be for any manslayer to flee there.” (Deut. 19:2, 3, NW) This ‘preparing the way’ meant that the main roads of flight to the cities of refuge had to be made speed roads; hillocks had to be leveled down, stumbling stones had to be cleared out, rivers had to be bridged, the roads had to be broadened to even as much as thirty-two cubits, or forty-eight feet, so that heavy traffic might not block the fugitive, and at the crossroads signs had to be erected marked “Refuge! Refuge!” to point out the direction to the city of asylum. Each division of the land, three east of the Jordan and three west of the river, had its own refuge city, so that the flight would not be overlong to a man in any district. Each one knew his proper refuge city.

11. Because of what provision may all nations be glad with Jehovah’s spiritual people today?

¹¹ What an excellent illustration this is of how the way has had to he prepared for the accidentally bloodguilty today, particularly the antitypical “temporary residents” and “settlers,” the “other sheep,” who are not spiritual Israelites but who are from all nations! Thus these nations may now be glad with Jehovah’s people, the remnant of spiritual Israel. Looking forward to punishing bloodguilt at Armageddon, Jehovah sings out: “I shall intoxicate my arrows with blood, while my sword will eat flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, with the heads of the leaders of the enemy. Be glad, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and he will pay back vengeance to his adversaries and will indeed make expiation for the ground of his people.”—Deut. 32:42, 43, NW.

12. (a) Why is it urgent for us to keep the “way” in excellent condition, and how do we do so? (b) Otherwise, how might we incur future bloodguilt to our own destruction?

¹² As Jehovah has allowed only a “short period of time” till the avenging of the innocent blood at Armageddon, and as that time since 1918 has been reduced so much by now, it has become most urgent for us to keep in excellent condition the way that has been prepared to the present-day city of refuge. Thus we shall make easy the speedy flight of countless others who become aware of their accidental bloodguiltiness before God and his High Priest, and who awake to the peril of the worldwide avenging of blood at the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” We must sound the warning to them, by a fearless, steady declaration of the “day of the vengeance of our God.” We must assist them to speedy flight to the only place of refuge under Jehovah’s High Priest. We must become as signposts along the way announcing “Refuge! Refuge!” and pointing to the only place where to find it now. Everyone must serve in this lifesaving manner in his own division of territory. We dare not fail in our duty as watchmen, pointing at the threatening sword of execution and warning the imperiled people to flee. If we fail in our duty by neglecting to give warning, then our present place of refuge will not benefit us at the crucial time, for the blood of those who might have escaped through proper warning will be required at our hand by Jehovah God. (Ezek. 33:1-9) So let us be on guard against incurring future bloodguilt this way to our own destruction.

THE TREADER OF THE WINE PRESS

13, 14. (a) Who, then, is the antitypical “avenger of blood,” and why so? (b) When and where will he overtake the murderous bloodguilty?

¹³ But who is the “avenger of blood” before whom to flee? Who is this nearest kinsman of the slain ones who has been made “in God’s image” to act as His executioner of the shedder of human blood? (Gen. 9:6 and; 2 Sam. 14:6, 7, 11, NW) To be qualified to avenge the slain of all the earth and especially the slain witnesses of Jehovah God, this avenger must be a kinsman of all mankind and especially of Jehovah’s witnesses. Who must that be? Who could that be but God’s only-begotten Son, who became the man Christ Jesus? He is mankind’s closest relative, for he was born of a woman, born a perfect man with a life so valuable that it could be offered in sacrifice for all mankind to ransom them from everlasting death. He became a brother to his footstep followers, so that what one does to one of the least of these brothers one does it to their oldest brother Jesus Christ; so that one who kills one of his faithful followers kills one of Christ’s brothers and shows he would do it to Christ himself, too. (Heb. 2:11-17; Matt. 25:40, 45) However, as High Priest he is now about to apply the merit of his atoning sacrifice in behalf of all obedient mankind, to make them his children and to become their Everlasting Father. So, anyone that kills one of these antitypical “temporary residents” or “settlers” who have associated themselves with the New World society kills one of Christ’s prospective children, one of the “other sheep” over which he is the One Shepherd, the Right Shepherd who surrendered his own soul for all his sheep.—John 10:16, NW.

¹⁴ Therefore he, “the man Christ Jesus,” stands in the proper relationship to avenge, not the blood of one, but the blood of all the slain, taking action with the swiftness of a pursuing avenger of blood against all the murderous crowd. He will overtake them all at the field of Armageddon. He will find them all outside the antitypical city of refuge, for it will give them no harbor.

15, 16. (a) Who, then, rightly is the one to tread the wine press at Armageddon? (b) However, in Isaiah’s prophecy, who is it that pictures himself as treading the wine press, and in what language?

¹⁵ Rightly, then, Jesus is the one that treads the great wine press of God’s anger at Armageddon, for there the crushing of the life out of the bloodguilty world comes as an avenging of the innocent blood that it has already shed and will yet shed till the Avenger calls the world to account and forces payment. However, Jehovah prophetically pictures his own self as treading the great press to crush those who showed no brotherly love to his people, namely, Edom, the descendants of Jacob’s (Israel’s) twin brother. The prophecy gives us the dialogue between the prophet Isaiah and Jehovah in these words:

¹⁶ “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with deep-red garments from Bozrah [Edom’s capital city], this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?—I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save [my people].—Wherefore is redness in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winevat? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the peoples not a man was with me [none of Jehovah’s witnesses having to engage in violent action to help him at Armageddon, and none of the wicked being able to stand up against Him]; and I have trodden them in mine anger, and trampled them in my fury; and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all mine apparel. For the day of vengeance [against my enemies] was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed [people] had come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: and mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I have trodden down the peoples in mine anger, and made them drunk in my fury; and their blood have I brought down to the earth.”—Isa. 63:1-6, Da.

17. Whom, though, does Jehovah use in treading the wine press at Armageddon, and how does John describe his forevision of this?

¹⁷ But in treading the wine press at Armageddon Jehovah uses the nearest Kinsman of all mankind, the Blood Avenger who is entitled to do the treading for his heavenly Father, namely, “the man Christ Jesus.” The apostle John had a forevision of him going into the loaded wine press at Armageddon and treading it with a troop of heavenly companions: “And I saw the heaven opened, and, look! a white horse. And one seated upon it is called Faithful and True, and he judges and carries on war in righteousness. . . . he is arrayed with an outer garment sprinkled with blood, and the name he is called is The Word of God. Also the armies that were in heaven were following him on white horses, and they were clothed in white, clean, fine linen. And out of his mouth there protrudes a sharp long sword, that he may smite the nations with it, and he will shepherd them with a rod of iron. He treads, too, the press of the wine of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty. And upon his outer garment, even upon his thigh, he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”—Rev 19:11-16, NW.

18. Why may we expect “all the righteous blood spilled on earth” since Jerusalem’s destruction to be visited upon Christendom?

¹⁸ At this Armageddon wine press the flow of blood from the smitten nations will be a flood. Nineteen centuries ago, at the temple of Jerusalem, Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders, teachers and rulers: “I am sending forth to you prophets and wise men and public instructors. Some of them you will kill and impale, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city; that there may come upon you all the righteous blood spilled on earth from the blood of righteous Abel [the first martyred witness of Jehovah] to the blood of Zechariah son of Bar·a·chiʹah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to you, All these things will come upon this generation.” (Matt. 23:34-36, NW) Did they come upon that generation? Yes; for, thirty-seven years after the priest-inspired mob cried out to Governor Pontius Pilate, “His blood come upon us and upon our children,” Pilate’s own fellow countrymen, the Romans, destroyed Jerusalem and her temple after a four-month siege and piled up a death toll of 1,100,000 and scattered 97,000 survivors to the ends of the earth to die as slaves. (Matt. 27:24, 25, NW) So may we expect “all the righteous blood spilled on earth” since then to come upon unfaithful Christendom, the modern counterpart of anti-Christian Jerusalem? Yes!

19. In that connection, what may we expect about Babylon the Great?

¹⁹ Also what may we expect about that four-thousand-year-old harlot, Babylon the Great, drunk with the blood of the holy ones and of the witnesses of Jesus, in whom was found also the blood of prophets and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth? Because, as the Bible says, she dominates all earth’s peoples, she and all peoples under her, including Christendom, will be hurled into God’s globe-encircling wine press. Then blood may be expected to gush out in a torrent.

20. At Armageddon by whom and how is the wine press trodden, and with the juice of the “vine of the earth” pressed out how deep?

²⁰ At Armageddon now near harvesttime comes, then the time of the wine treaders. Jehovah the Supreme Avenger signals, and with exulting shouts Jesus Christ and his troop of treaders leap into the wine trough, not with bare feet, but on horseback, on horses of the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” to crush the tremendous “vine of the earth” and its overload of wicked fruit. Picturing the tremendousness of the Armageddon slaughter, the Revelation says: “He called out with a loud voice to the one that had the sharp sickle, saying: ‘Put your sharp sickle in and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, because its grapes have become ripe.’ And the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and he hurled it into the great winepress of the anger of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress as high up as the bridles of the horses, for a distance of a thousand six hundred furlongs [yes, two hundred miles].”—Rev. 14:18-20, NW.

21. (a) What does the deepness of the grapejuice picture, and what does its being “outside the city” where the wine press is trodden indicate? (b) How, then, may any avoid the wine press of God’s anger?

²¹ The great Armageddon wine press will be trodden “outside the city” and the horses under Christ and his heavenly troops will fairly wade, almost swim, through blood, so many will be those in opposition to Jehovah God and his King of kings. Do not skeptically think this is too gruesome to come true! It is a pictorial prophecy of God’s Word and his Word always comes true, and this picture has every reason for coming true. “Trodden outside the city” means it will be trodden outside the New Jerusalem, outside the theocratic organization, hence outside the Christian city of refuge and outside the New World society. Do any today want to avoid being pitched into the wine press of God’s anger to be crushed? Then make no delay to escape the divine Avenger of blood. Take the road marked “Refuge! Refuge!” and flee to the refuge city under the High Priest Jesus Christ. Then determinedly, wisely, gratefully stay inside it until Armageddon!