When we calculate according to the Jewish lunar calendar that was used at the time of Daniel’s vision centuries before the Julian calendar and Gregorian calendar were introduced, June 1, 1938, falls on the 2nd day of the lunar month Sivan, 1938. Fourteen days later, or June 15, 1938, when The Watchtower published Part Two of the article “Organization” with its Resolution, would fall on Sivan 16, 1938. So now to our question:

28, 29. (a) As counted from the critical period, when did those 2,300 days end? (b) What important events were then taking place with reference to the Eighth World Power?

²⁸ If we thus count from the critical period when theocratic organization was being more fully installed in the congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses, when did the 2,300 days end?

²⁹ Remember, this is a prophetic period. So a prophetic year of 360 days is involved. (Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:6, 14) So 2,300 days would amount to six lunar years, four lunar months and twenty days. That amount of time counted from Sivan 2 (June 1), 1938, would end on Tishri 21 (October 8), 1944, or, counted from Sivan 16 (June 15), 1938, it would end on Heshvan 5 (October 22), 1944.g At that particular time world events were moving closer to the bringing of the beastlike Eighth World Power out of the abyss shortly after World War II, this time in the form of the United Nations organization, for world peace and security. In its chronology for 1944 The Americana Annual reports notable events on the following dates:

October 9​—United States, Great Britain, Soviet Russia, and China announce decision of Dumbarton Oaks Conference to recommend creation of an international security organization, to be called “The United Nations,” and to be empowered “to take such action by air, naval or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security.”

October 23​—Acting Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., announces official American recognition of the French Provisional Government, raising France to a high place among the United Nations and preparing the way for rapid reconstruction; governments of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada issue similar announcements.​—The Americana Annual for 1945, page 730.

30. About that time events in the theocratic realm were moving in what direction, as, for instance, at Buffalo, N.Y., in August?

³⁰ By now the tide of World War II had definitely turned in favor of the Allies, Hitlerite Germany having already been invaded by Allied armies. But what was happening in the theocratic realm of Jehovah’s worshipers at his “sanctuary” in that year of 1944? There events were moving forward to a noteworthy state of affairs by the end of the 2,300 days. This was the thirtieth year from the birth of God’s Messianic kingdom in the heavens at the end of the Gentile Times in 1914. On August 9-13 the United Announcers Theocratic Assembly was held with Buffalo, N.Y., as the key city, with sixteen other American cities being linked with it by telephone wire. On August 12 the president of the Watch Tower Society addressed the assembly on the subject “This Gospel Shall Be Preached,” and after his address the 384-page book entitled “The Kingdom Is at Hand” was released to the visible audience. Two days earlier there had been another release to the Assembly. It was the American Standard Version of the Bible, which features the divine name, Jehovah, and it had been printed on the Society’s own presses.

31, 32. (a) What events marked the first two days of the three-day assembly at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1944? (b) Why was the final day of that assembly, October 2, noteworthy as regards theocratic organization?

³¹ On September 30 through October 2, 1944, a special Service and business Assembly was held at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., where the registered offices of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society are located. On the opening day the Society’s president addressed the gathering of 5,000 on the subject “The Theocratic Alignment Today.” The following day the public address was on the subject “One World, One Government.” The Society’s annual business meeting was postponed from this day to the next day, Monday, October 2. This business meeting, which began at 10 a.m. was noteworthy. How so?

³² After the Society’s directors and its officers were elected by the shareholders there represented, consideration was directed to six amendments that were proposed for the Charter of the Society, which was a Pennsylvania corporation incorporated sixty years earlier, in the year 1884. These would amend Articles 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10. The first amendment resolution that was adopted proposed the enlarging of the purposes of the Society so as to assume properly the great worldwide work that lay ahead. Also, this amendment put God’s name, Jehovah, into the Charter. Amendment Three did away with the original charter’s provision that fixed one’s membership in the Society on the basis of one’s money contributions to the Society; henceforth the membership was to be limited to not more than 500, all of whom were to be chosen on the basis of their active service to Jehovah. As the Watchtower issue of November 1, 1944, said in its report: “This amendment will have the effect of bringing the charter as near to Theocratic arrangement as the law of the land permits.” All six amendment resolutions were adopted.

33. When did those amendments become part of the Society’s Charter, and as whose instrument has the Society served ever since?

³³ It was necessary to get the approval of the State court so as to make all these amendments legal. The following year (1945) the Amendments were duly recorded and thus became part of the Charter. With such an amended Charter the Watch Tower Society has served as a legal instrument of the anointed remnant worshiping Jehovah at his “sanctuary” or “holy place,” ever since.

34. (a) With nice timing, what information was thereafter published in The Watchtower? (b) What was said about “president” and the “governing body”?

³⁴ Nicely timed, though the anointed remnant was then not aware of it, came the publication of the leading article entitled “Organized for Final Work” in the October 15, 1944, issue of The Watchtower. Right on its heels, in the November 1 issue came the leading article announcing “Theocratic Organization in Action.” Under appropriate subheadings this article discussed “President,” “Diakonos, Servant,” “Qualifications,” “Governing Body,” and “Theocratic Conduct.” The term “president” here did not refer to the president of the Watch Tower Society, but paragraph 12 said: “The elders in the congregations, who were also spiritual overseers thereof, presided at meetings of the disciples. Any elder thus acting as chairman of a meeting would be the president of the gathering on that occasion.” Under the subheading “Governing Body” paragraphs 33, 34 said: “In the first century it was the group of the apostles in particular, together with the body of elders that they associated with them at Jerusalem, that made up the visible ruling body of Jehovah’s Theocratic organization on earth. . . . That governing body was not made up of perfect men.”

35. What did the following article, “The Theocratic Alignment Today,” have to say about the “governing body”?

³⁵ In the article that followed the above, in the same issue of The Watchtower, namely, “The Theocratic Alignment Today,” paragraph 3 said: “The visible governing body of the Theocratic organization is and must be appointed only by Jehovah God the Supreme Ruler, and Christ Jesus the Head of His church. Its purpose is to issue directions and spiritual provisions to all God’s people. Acting in harmony with the governing body, all the Theocratic organization and its associates act in unity throughout the earth.”

“TRUE”

36. As illustrated in the Table on the opposite page, what does all that combination of significant events at the critical time indicate?

³⁶ What, then, does all that combination of significant events at the critical time indicate? Apparently this: that Jehovah’s “sanctuary” or “holy place” was “brought into its right condition” on time, at the end of the 2,300 evenings and mornings, in early autumn (October 8-22) of the year 1944. It is as the angel said to Daniel: “And the thing seen concerning the evening and the morning, which has been said, it is true.” (Dan. 8:26) Theocracy as belonging universally to Jehovah God had been magnified. Ahead of all other places, Jehovah’s “sanctuary” or “holy place” is where His theocracy ought to prevail. There it has indeed prevailed, outstandingly so since the autumn of 1944.

37. During World War II the anointed remnant of spiritual underpriests at Jehovah’s sanctuary were put to the test in what respects, but what did they suceed in doing?

³⁷ During World War II the “established place of his sanctuary,” as represented by the remnant of Jehovah’s “holy ones,” was thrown down. This anointed remnant of spiritual underpriests certainly had their theocratic attitude and organization put to a severe test from June of 1938 forward. Whatever success the Anglo-American Dual World Power and its allies had in taking away the sacrificial “constant feature” of Jehovah’s public worship and service made it very difficult for the theocratic “holy ones” to keep on obeying God as Ruler rather than men. Yet, despite this, they succeeded in maintaining Theocracy within his sanctuary.

38. (a) Were the remnant of “holy ones” deceived by the political steps taken by the Seventh World Power during World War II? (b) How did they show whether it mattered that about ten months of world war testing remained after October of 1944?

³⁸ The “transgression causing desolation,” particularly the steps that the Anglo-American Dual World Power took even during World War II to lift the “abomination of desolation” out of the “abyss,” did not deceive the remnant of “holy ones” or turn them aside from their theocratic worship of Jehovah at his sanctuary. At the close of the 2,300 days of great testing, they showed themselves stronger for Jehovah’s Theocratic Government by Christ than ever before. True, after October of 1944, about ten months remained before World War II and its pressures ended. But, at the climax of those 2,300 days they had taken an organized stand for God’s rule at his sanctuary, and such theocratic rule they have unswervingly upheld down to this day. History shows that!h