nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters.”—Isa. 17:12, 13, AS.

¹³ As these human seas, lashed by fears, resentment and ancient grievances, roar and as the waters foam and bring up mire and filth, those political mountains that still remain are trembling and taking measures to guarantee their stability and permanence. Why, even the Vatican City, which claims to be founded on Peter as its rock, does not feel stable any more nor assured of its permanence. It contemplates flight, not to Jehovah God as a refuge and shelter, but to the shores of governments with the strongest arm of flesh and armed to the teeth. To worldly minds the swelling of the indignant, passion-driven waters of humanity is terrifying to observe. Seeing nothing permanent and stable any longer in human society, many are hopelessly resigning themselves to be engulfed in the rising tide.

14. Amid the world change, why should the heirs of the Kingdom not fear or be unsettled?

¹⁴ Amidst all this world upheaval and change, those who have taken refuge in Jehovah God need not fear and be unsettled. We know all this was foretold in his prophecy. It is the sign of the consummation of this system of things, yes, the sign of the unseen presence of his Son Jesus Christ in Kingdom power and authority. We know that his theocratic government is now set up in the heavens and is the only stable government in the universe and the only permanent one. Its power and influence are now exercised toward this earth, and this is what is making the “god of this world”, Satan the Devil, and his demons stir up earthly society and drive all mankind in a mad course opposed to God’s rightful rule of the earth and leading to destruction at his hand. But there are those of us who hope to share with Jesus Christ in that government of the new world with its new earth and heavens. These remember how Jehovah shook the literal earth at Mount Sinai and they now say confidently: “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying: ‘Yet once more I will set not only the earth but also the heaven in commotion.’ Now the expression ‘Yet once more’ signifies the removal of the things being shaken as things that have been made, in order that the things not being shaken may remain. Wherefore, seeing that we are to receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us continue to have undeserved kindness, through which we may acceptably render God sacred service with godly fear and awe.”—Heb. 12:26-28, NW.

15. But to what does Psalm 46:2, 3 really refer to show the degree of fearlessness of the psalmist?

¹⁵ Be the above as it may, Psalm 46 seems to refer to a real earthly cataclysm. To make his point strong, the psalmist says that, even if such a literal cataclysm should take place on earth and the face of the globe should change amid the frightful commotion, yet he would not fear. Nor would he need to fear, for he is safely sheltered and is upheld by a strength that is not his own human strength but is from Almighty God. As the cataclysm of nature roared and raged at the end of the antediluvian world, how free from fear Noah and his family must have felt! Not just because they were sheltered in the ark they had built, but because they were trusting in the great God Jehovah for true shelter. He would not harm them with the deluge with which he destroyed the ungodly, scoffing world. As it was in Noah’s day, so it will be in these days of the invisible presence of the Son of man in Kingdom power.

16. Why need we not fear at such a future cataclysm?

¹⁶ As we get closer to the battle of Armageddon, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” we do not know what cataclysmic forces will be operated by Jehovah God to overwhelm this world and blot it out. The political, military, commercial and religious elements of this world are certain to quake with fear at the sights and sounds and to grow frantic at the sure prospect of destruction for themselves. We under God’s kingdom shelter need not fear. We may naturally be frightened, as Moses was at Mount Sinai, but we shall not share the world’s fear. (Heb. 12:21) We know God is controlling the forces of destruction and we know at whom he is directing them, not at us but at his enemies, our enemies. We have made him our refuge and shelter, and he will safely shield us, passing us over just as his destroying angel passed over all the homes in Egypt marked with the blood of the passover lamb.

17. Why shall we not pass away with this world then?

¹⁷ His act of destroying the old world is the “strange act”, the act of God, for which we have been looking, yes, praying. Our hope and trust are not misplaced in any things created by man’s ingenuity, because we know they are doomed and will pass away with this old world. We have long witnessed and suffered amid this old world and now it will pass away from us because we are not of it. But we ourselves shall not pass away with it, for we are of the new world of righteousness. We belong to God’s theocratic organization under his kingdom. His visible organization will not pass away, but is as stable and permanent as his kingdom. Therefore, come what remarkable, violent changes may in the earth’s physical appearance at the end of Satan’s world, we will not fear.

Early Help for Surviving the World’s End

1. What is the state of world capitals, and why?

THE world capitals are all full of tension in the world’s crisis. They are the scenes of conferences of frightened statesmen, motivated to action by the extreme urgency of the threatening situation. Alarm fills the capitals and they are moved to assume greater powers over the lives and destinies of the people. Uneasiness pervades them all. They have nothing substantial to assure them of good in the immediate future. In none of them is there any real, deep-down gladness, not even in the capital of the United Nations, nor in the religio-political capital, Vatican City.

2. What city, though, is enjoying refreshment and gladness, and how was it foreshadowed?

² One city, though, is enjoying a refreshment and a gladness that the world does not know and cannot understand. It is the new world city toward which the true Christians have been traveling for the past nineteen centuries, God’s capital of the universe. Now it has established its power over our earth. This is the city which the apostle means when he writes: “But you have approached a mount Zion and a city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads of angels, in general assembly, and the congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens, and