can calculate are bound to come upon the earth. World famine is predicted for the year 1975. Appeal is being made to the United Nations organization to prevent the spreading of atomic and nuclear weapons into the hands of nations outside the Big Five nuclear powers of today. The missile gap between America and Russia is closing; Russia is nearing equality with the United States. There is great insistence that outer space must not be used for warfare.a

¹¹ Also, defoliation of enemy hideouts by means of herbicides and chemicals needs to be studied as to its long-range effects on man’s environment. Modern industry and even jet-propulsion aircraft are fatally hurting the balance of man’s natural surroundings, in view of which one magazine article headlines and discusses the subject “Can the World Be Saved?” (New York Times Magazine, March 31, 1968) Will our earth shortly become unlivable for the exploding world population? Such are real, valid fears indeed!

12. However, at what time will the great climax to all this come, and how?

¹² Yet it is at God’s prefixed time, not man’s, that the great climax comes, just as the next words of Jesus’ prophecy indicate: “And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:27) This refers to his coming to destroy Babylon the Great, the world empire of false Babylonish religion, and then to the “war of the great day of God the AlMighty” at Armageddon. (Rev. 16:13-16) Invisible in the spirit he will be as if hidden “in a cloud,” but the nations will discern that it must be the foretold “Son of man,” because of the power that is exercised beyond that of man. Christendom will not share then in his “great glory,” but will be destroyed despite all her hypocritical prayers to God. Neither will there be any glory for the former political lovers of Babylon the Great, for after her these political ruling elements will be annihilated, going down in inglorious defeat because of fighting against earth’s rightful King, the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. They will see, appreciate, that their destruction comes from a source higher than human.

ENCOURAGEMENT AND WARNING

13. What did Jesus say about our attitude while the nations are bowed down with anguish and fear?

¹³ Well, now, what about us? What does all this mean for us? Should we share in the present “anguish of nations” and their not knowing the way out, their becoming faint, their fears and terrifying expectations? We do not need to do so. Jesus Christ, after detailing all the foregoing things, said in answer to his disciples: “But as these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.” (Luke 21:28) So, if we are faithful, dedicated, baptized followers of the great Prophet Jesus Christ, we do not need to be bowed down with the nations in their anguish and fears.

14, 15. The deliverance to which we are getting near is from what?

¹⁴ To those of us who become real Christians of that kind the words “your deliverance” should have a stirring, encouraging sound, as they did to the disciples to whom Jesus Christ spoke. Why should not the words be encouraging, rousing, since they tell of being freed from persecutors and haters? For, before telling of the deliverance that is getting near, Jesus said: “But before all these things people will lay their hands upon you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, you being haled before kings and governors for the sake of my name. It will turn out to you for a witness. . . . Moreover, you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death; and you will be objects of hatred by all people because of my name.”—Luke 21:12-17.

¹⁵ Our deliverance is from people who not merely persecute and hate us but who hate Jesus Christ, as it is because of his name that they persecute and hate us. Such haters of Him are part of this “system of things,” and it is thus also from this entire system of things that we persecuted, hated ones are delivered.

16, 17. By whom or by what means with this deliverance come?

¹⁶ What will the passing of this system of things mean? Deliverance from it will come by whom or by what? Evidently by the one whom the nations see “coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:27) This is made certain for us by Jesus’ words after he mentioned “your deliverance.” Luke 21:29-33 tells us:

¹⁷ “With that he spoke an illustration to them: ‘Note the fig tree and all the other trees: When they are already in the bud, by observing it you know for yourselves that now the summer is near. In this way you also, when you see these things occurring, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you, This generation will by no means pass away until all things occur. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.’”—Compare Matthew 24:32-35; Mark 13:28-31.

18. Since what year have we seen “these things” occurring, in verification of whose words?

¹⁸ “These things,” as foretold by Jesus in his prophecy, we who are of “this generation” have seen occurring since the year 1914, in which year the “appointed times of the nations” ended. Sooner would heaven and earth literally pass away than for Jesus’ words to pass away unfulfilled. Therefore Jesus’ words are so worthy of our accepting and believing.

19. From seeing these things occur as foretold, what do we know?

¹⁹ Hence, from seeing these things occurring, what do we know? We know that the divine agency for our deliverance, “the kingdom of God,” is near. What should we do, then, to prove that we do believe this? Jesus said: “But as these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.” (Luke 21:28) We of “this generation” have seen these foretold things “start to occur” in 1914, and now for the last fifty-four years we have seen them occurring. So our convictions have been confirmed. From a long train of foretold events we know that the kingdom of God is getting near to its act of destroying this system of things and its supporters at Armageddon and bringing about our glorious deliverance.

20. Why should we not be bowed down because of the persecution and hatred heaped upon us?

²⁰ Rightly, then, this is no time for us enlightened observers of these fulfillments of Christ’s prophecy to be bowed down, with heads hanging dejectedly, because of the persecution and hatred that are heaped upon us for the sake of Jesus’ name. Better is it for us to suffer thus for the sake of his name than to suffer the “anguish of nations, not knowing the way out because of the roaring of the sea and its agitation, while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.” Worldly men and nations are suffering such things because they are opposing the kingdom of God, but we are suffering at their hands because of proclaiming “this good news of the kingdom” in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations before their end comes. (Matt. 24:14) They face eternal destruction. We face eternal deliverance. Why not, then, raise ourselves erect and hopefully lift our heads up, also lifting up our voices as we keep on proclaiming God’s kingdom?—Mark 13:10.

21. Because of what other things, as mentioned in Jesus’ warning, should our heads not be bowed down?

²¹ Now especially we should never become bowed down and let our heads drop and nod in slumber and drowsiness because of our overindulging ourselves with the worldly nations in their efforts to forget and ignore the things taking place since 1914. Because it is now so late and is so far along in the current of world affairs, it is the time of all times for us to keep alert to what is taking place in the world’s speedy approach to the unavoidable climax, and then to act as observant, understanding Christians. We dare not ignore what Jesus included as a warning in his prophecy: “But pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be instantly upon you as a snare. For it will come in upon all those dwelling upon the face of all the earth. Keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man.”—Luke 21:34-36.

22. (a) What will it mean for those caught by that ensnaring day? (b) What heart condition should we avoid?

²² A snare is triggered to snap in on its victim in a fraction of a second before he can escape. So for us to have that day suddenly be upon us in an instant like a snare means to be caught beyond all chance to work ourselves loose and means death for us. That ensnaring day is fast coming in “upon all those dwelling upon the face of all the earth,” just as surely as day follows night. We are all of us bound to enter into that day since it will arrive suddenly earth wide, no dweller on earth being out of its reach. We must all face it. But how? Doing like the people of Noah’s preflood days, eating and drinking to excess and giving way to the “anxieties of life,” including the anxieties over seeking pleasures? This is what the “evil slave” class does. (Matt. 24:38, 39, 48-51) These are not the things to set our hearts upon, letting our hearts be weighed down with these things and growing fatty, thick and unresponsive to Christ’s call to Kingdom service. In this destiny-determining time we need to pay attention to ourselves in order to avoid such a heart condition.

23. To “succeed in escaping all these things,” how should we keep ourselves mentally, and with the aid of what?

²³ It is a time for us to keep our full powers and faculties awake, active in God’s service, a time for us to make supplication, because we cannot do this in our own strength. Without God’s help we cannot succeed. Only in this way shall we escape sharing in the anguish, fear and dreaded expectation of the worldly nations and being ensnared in destruction with them at Armageddon.

24. Our purpose, along with our strong supplication, is to do what, and fulfilling this purpose will bring us what?

²⁴ What we are striving to do with all our hearts is to stand before the Son of man who comes “with power and great glory” to the execution of divine judgment upon this system of things and its backers. Let all of Christendom, the antitypical Jerusalem and Judea, fall condemned to destruction before this Son of man whom she hypocritically has claimed to serve. Our purpose, along with our making strong supplication, is to stand approved before the Son of man as his true followers who have kept ourselves raised erect, with our heads lifted up, constantly awake and never looking back at Christendom and Babylon the Great, from which we have fled. Erect in the full dignity of our service as free, dedicated servants of the Most High God, we shall keep our heads up, obediently proclaiming the kingdom of our heavenly Father, Jehovah God, and serving its interests. (Rom. 14:4) This active, faithful course will shortly bring us the grand reward of our being delivered from this wicked system of things into God’s blessed new order, there to worship and serve him at his imperishable temple forevermore.

Assyria’s Historical Records and the Bible

DURING the many centuries the names of prominent Assyrian rulers such as Sargon, Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser and Sennacherib have been passed on to generation after generation of Bible readers. With a sense of reality unmatched by any secular record, the Bible related their dealings with the people of Judah and Israel. In the case of Sargon, modern secular historians for long were not even sure of his identity.

Then, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries came the era of the archaeologist. Diggings in mounds or tells of Mesopotamia produced startling finds. Specifically referring to work undertaken by archaeologist Paul-Emile Botta, author C. W. Ceram, in Gods, Graves and Scholars, writes on page 225: “Hitherto only the Bible had had anything pertinent to say about the land between the two rivers, and for nineteenth-century science the Bible was a collection of legends.”

But now those warrior-kings of Assyria lived again, as their own annals, their palaces, their “display” inscriptions and their “king lists” came to light. Assyriology became an accepted science, and its students delved into the mass of unearthed data to build up a history of a little known empire. The facts related in the Bible about Assyria and her rulers were now recognized to be authentic, but modern students began to challenge the chronology or dating of events in Assyrian history as found in the Bible.

So the question now arises, Do the specialists in Assyriology have reliable material on which to base their supposed corrections of the Book that for so many centuries kept alive knowledge of those ancient names and the events connected with them? Have the records and monuments wrested from the dusty mounds of