“without hand.” (Dan. 11:44, 45; 8:25) The entire earthly organization of Satan will be “hurled into the fiery lake” of eternal destruction. What comforting assurance from Jehovah!—Rev. 19:20.

28. What provision did Jehovah make, and how did His witnesses answer the challenge of nationalism?

²⁸ But what of the crisis that faced Jehovah’s witnesses as the clouds of World War II threatened? With nationalism now the issue in democratic as well as totalitarian lands, Jehovah lovingly strengthened his people with “food at the proper time.” The article “Neutrality” in The Watchtower of November 1, 1939, helped many to chart an uncompromising course through the nationalistic storms of World War II. Jehovah’s witnesses refused the doctrine that they should slay their fellow Christians who happen to live in a different nation. At the cost of reproaches, imprisonments and even life itself, they held to their Christian neutrality, displaying a ‘love among themselves’ that transcended all nationalistic barriers. They proved themselves to be “no part of the world” of the modern Sennacherib. Their resolute stand on behalf of Bible principle provided a complete answer to the propagandists. Jehovah’s name was honored!—John 13:34, 35; 17:14.

29. (a) Corresponding to the type, what temporary relief did Jehovah’s witnesses gain at the close of World War II? (b) But why must we expect further difficulties?

²⁹ From the record it appears that Sennacherib did not immediately follow through on Rabshakeh’s boastful challenge. This may have been due to a temporary reverse suffered at the hands of Tirhakah, ruler of Egypt to the south. This could well correspond to the democratic nations’ swallowing up the totalitarian “river,” spewed out by Satan with the prime intent of engulfing the anointed remnant, who represent Jehovah’s womanlike organization on earth. But this relief gained at the close of World War II is at most only temporary. Gog of Magog is still on the loose! The prophecy says of him: “And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” (Rev. 12:15-17) And the final outcome? This we shall now see!

Sanctifying “the Holy One of Israel”

“And my holy name I shall make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I shall no more let my holy name be profaned; and the nations will have to know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel.”—Ezek. 39:7.

1. What situation now confronts mankind, and Jehovah’s witnesses in particular?

THOUGH two world wars have passed, bringing untold distress to mankind, the communistic “king of the north” and the democratic “king of the south” have again filled the earth with nationalistic propaganda. As they glare at each other over their respective nuclear stockpiles, they now ‘engage in a pushing’ through “cold” and “vest-pocket” wars. (Dan. 11:40) They croak about competitive coexistence, but each is determined that the other will cease to exist. As tensions heighten, nationalistic loyalties are whipped to a frenzy around the earth. The mastermind behind it all, the debased Satan, or “Gog of Magog,” thus maneuvers into position for his final assault upon the anointed witnesses of Jehovah, the representatives on earth of “the town of the grand King,” the heavenly Jerusalem where Jehovah resides by his spirit.—Ps. 48:2.

2. How did Sennacherib renew his threat against Jerusalem?

² Turning to the record at 2 Kings 19:8-10, we find that the king of Assyria has moved closer to Jerusalem and is “fighting against Libnah,” only twenty-five miles distant. Now he sends threatening letters to Hezekiah, telling his messengers, “This is what you men should say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you are trusting deceive you, saying: “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’”

3. (a) What bullying tactics has the communistic “king of the north” adopted? (b) According to one commentator, what has resulted from the persecutions of Jehovah’s witnesses in the Soviet Union?

³ Likewise, in this post-World War II era, Satan’s boastful propagandists not only continue to gather all nations to Har–Magedon, but they also try to bully Jehovah’s faithful worshipers into compromising their stand before their God. The “king of the north,” now predominantly Communist, has been particularly bitter in his attacks on Jehovah’s witnesses. They have been subjected to a cruel propaganda. Moreover, it appears that up until April 1951 as many as 7,000 of Jehovah’s witnesses were arrested in the western republics of the Soviet Union and deported to slave labor camps in the Urals, Siberia, Vorkuta and Kazakhstan. How did they meet this threat to their Christian integrity? In his book, Religion in the Soviet Union, Walter Kolarz writes:

This was not the end of the ‘Witnesses’ in Russia, but only the beginning of a new chapter in their proselytising activities. They even tried to propagate their faith when they stopped at stations on their way into exile. In deporting them the Soviet government could have done nothing better for the dissemination of their faith. Out of their village isolation the ‘Witnesses’ were brought into a wider world, even if this was only the terrible world of the concentration and slave labor camps. There they met a large number of disillusioned and maltreated people and many were predisposed to accept their promises of a total change in the world’s political structure within the lifetime of the present generation.

With the proclamation of the Soviet amnesty in 1955, both the ‘Witnesses’ of long standing and their new converts either returned to their homes or remained as free laborers in their places of banishment. In this way the Jehovists . . . spread to many parts of the Soviet Union. They reappeared in all the Western Soviet Republics. They established new organizations in the former forced labor areas such as the Far East and the Komi Republic, where there are Jehovist branches along the ill-famed Pechora Railway line with its terminus at Vorkuta. The Jehovists also invaded Siberia and Kazakhstan, where they are particularly numerous. . . . A Jehovist organization was also established in Daghestan. . . . In short, the Russian branch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses may be regarded as one of the strongest in the world, and there is certainly no branch anywhere which receives so much adverse publicity from the secular power. . . .

Only the future will show whether Khrushchev has been more successful in fighting the ‘Jehovist’ danger than either Hitler or Stalin.

Hitler, Stalin and Khrushchev have now all had their day, but the reviled spiritual Judeans in the lands of the “king of the north” continue to expand their worship, to Jehovah’s praise.

4. (a) How did Sennacherib continue to reproach Jehovah? (b) How have the Communist propagandists followed a similar patern, and with what outcome?

⁴ Another account summarizes the second violent propaganda attack on Jerusalem