• Part 24—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”
    The Watchtower—1959 | October 15

    • Part 24—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

      Jehovah’s sanctuary is now a living one, made up of “living stones,” the spirit-anointed followers of the Foundation Cornerstone, Jesus Christ. In 1918 the “little horn” of Daniel 8:9, the Anglo-American dual world power, had cast down the place of this spiritual sanctuary, and in 1926 it together with other nations committed the “transgression that makes desolate” in connection with the League of Nations. This marked the beginning of the count of the 2,300 “evenings and mornings” mentioned in Daniel 8:14, at the end of which period of time Jehovah’s sanctuary was to be restored to its rightful state. This period of six years four months and twenty days ended on October 15, 1932, when “The Watchtower,” the official journal of the sanctuary class, published the evidence that the sanctuary class on earth had been cleansed and the sanctuary restored to its rightful state by the abolition from the congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses of the democratically elected “elders” and by the theocratic appointment of service directors to the congregations for preaching the Kingdom good news. Thus theocratic rule took precedence in the congregations of Jehovah’s anointed remnant.

      49. What thereafter did the Watchtower issues of June, 1938, declare, and what resolution did it propose for adoption?

      49 That was only a right beginning, for the sanctuary had to be made theocratic in all respects. Six years later The Watchtower published the article “Organization,” Part 1 in its issue of June 1, 1938, and Part 2 in its next issue of June 15. This article opened, saying: “Jehovah’s organization is in no wise democratic. Jehovah is supreme, and his government or organization is strictly theocratic.” This article also proposed a resolution for each congregation to adopt, the resolution recognizing that “God’s government is a pure theocracy” and requesting “The Society” as his visible representative to organize the congregation for God’s service and to appoint theocratically from the visible top the various servants of the congregation.—Part 2, ¶15.

      50. What action followed on this resolution, what reorganization then took place, and in what did this result?

      50 This theocratic resolution was adopted and acted upon by the congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses wherever found; and the visible governing body at the Society’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, proceeded with theocratically organizing all willing congregations. All new congregations established since then have been organized theocratically in this manner from their very start. This has resulted in a better, more peaceful and more productive organization of Jehovah’s dedicated people, in fulfillment of Isaiah 60:17. This theocratic organization went through World War II, terrifically persecuted indeed by the seventh world power and its allies and its enemies. But in no way did the theocratic organization bow fearfully in slavish bondage to dictatorial or regimented governments and in no way did it cease to render to Jehovah God the daily, continual or constant burnt offering of praise to him and his kingdom.

      51. What has the sanctuary in its rightful state continued to do, and to what fulfillment of prophecy does it look?

      51 Cleansed, vindicated and in its rightful theocratic state, the sanctuary continues rendering divine service till now, regardless of what the symbolic “little horn,” the “king of fierce countenance,” may yet do. The sanctuary class look to the complete fulfillment of the angel Gabriel’s explanation to Daniel concerning this cunning political “king”: “By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall magnify himself. Without warning he shall destroy many; and he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes; but, by no human hand, he shall be broken. The vision of the evenings and the mornings which has been told is true; but seal up the vision, for it pertains to many days hence.”—Dan. 8:25, 26, RS.

      52. What has been the seventh world power’s most flagrant mistake, and hence what must happen to it?

      52 The Anglo-American dual world power still holds its position as the active seventh world power of Biblical prophecy. It has not yielded place to the threatening Communist bloc, which has openly boasted that it will establish itself at last in the world domination. The most flagrant mistake that the seventh world power has made is in high-mindedly standing up against the Prince of princes, Jehovah God, who took to himself his power in 1914 (A.D.) and who is the Most High over all the earth and its princes, including the “king of fierce countenance.” (Ps. 83:18, AV) For especially this reason the seventh world power will shortly be broken, not by the hand of world communism, but by superhuman hand or power.

      53. What is now the state of the “vision of the evenings and the mornings” after the “many days,” and what is yet to be expected?

      53 God’s kingdom, against which the seventh world power has committed the abominable “transgression,” will strike it during the progress of the “war of the great day of God the Almighty,” just as the stone cut out of the mountain in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream struck the symbolic image of successive world powers on its feet and ground it to a powder for winds to blow away. The vision of the evenings and the mornings is no more shut up. After the “many days” of thousands of years, it has been opened up. The greater part of the vision has already been fulfilled. The symbolic “king of fierce countenance” is yet to be broken by divine hand. Then Jehovah God, who dwells by his spirit in his sanctuary, will be vindicated as Universal Sovereign. His will must be done on earth.

      CHAPTER 10

      THE NORTH AGAINST THE SOUTH

      1, 2. (a) How does Daniel’s final vision present the conflict now on between the two great blocs of nations? (b) How did Porphyry view the book of Daniel, but how is his foolishness stripped naked?

      SINCE World War II the tension and “cold war” between the two great blocs of nations have been said to be between the East and the West. The final prophetic vision that was given to Daniel presents it as a climactic conflict between the North and the South. The vision is so accurate in prophetic detail that unbelievers have denied that Daniel received and wrote down the description of the vision. Porphyry, a Greek philosopher of the third century (about 233-304 A.D.), who produced a work called Against the Christians in fifteen volumes, was one of these.

      2 Porphyry recognized Jesus Christ merely as an outstanding philosopher but did not agree with him that Daniel was the author of the Bible book bearing his name. Because Daniel’s last vision seemed to describe so closely the Syrian King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Porphyry could not