30. Why should the remnant’s hope remain firm and sure, and to what end?

³⁰ As a consequence the remnant yet on earth of the 144,000 lesser members of the promised seed of Abraham draw strong encouragement from the sworn oath of the Most High God, who never perjures or forswears himself, because he is “the God of truth.” The remnant’s hope, which is anchored within the Most Holy or heavenly sanctuary of Jehovah God, should ever remain firm and sure, so that they continue to exercise patience and endurance just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did in their days.

31. Who else today are entitled to draw strong encouragement from God’s oath to his promise, and according to what vision to John?

³¹ However, the remnant yet in the flesh of the 144,000 are today not the only ones entitled to draw strong encouragement from the oath that binds God’s promise. Today a great crowd of other believers in God and in Jesus Christ his Lamb are entitled to do so. Why so? Well, after numbering, for the first time in Bible history, the exact membership of the spiritual seed of Abraham, Revelation chapter seven goes on to say: “After these things I saw, and, look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands. And they keep on crying with a loud voice, saying: ‘Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” (Rev. 7:9, 10) Ah, yes, God’s oathbound promise to Abraham was to be fulfilled to more than just those who would become spiritual sons of Abraham, 144,000 in number. It was also to be fulfilled to the earthly nations and families outside this promised seed composed of Jesus Christ and his 144,000 joint heirs. This includes dead humans as well as those now living.

32. What is evident from the fact that the “great crowd” are now seen giving the credit for their salvation to God and his Lamb?

³² Already this “great crowd” of believers from all nations, tribes, peoples and languages have begun to enter into the blessing by means of the seed of Abraham. They know that already, before the remnant are transferred to the heavenly kingdom, they are experiencing precious blessings through the promised seed of the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God. Consequently this interracial, international, intertribal, interlingual “great crowd” are giving the credit for their salvation to Jehovah God on his heavenly throne and to his Lamb Jesus Christ, the Principal Seed of Abraham.

33. Why does also this “great crowd” need to be encouraged, and so what must they too keep in mind?

³³ Destruction of Babylon the Great, and the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” and the binding and imprisoning of Satan the Devil and his demons have not yet taken place to remove all the enemies and persecutors, visible and invisible. Hence this “great crowd” with hopes of an earthly Paradise under God’s kingdom needs to be encouraged to avoid sluggishness and to be faithful and to endure, just as the spiritual remnant do. For this reason the “great crowd” needs to keep in mind God’s swearing by his own Self to confirm his unbreakable promise for their eternal blessing.

34. (a) By what two things has Jehovah’s counsel been rendered unchangeable? (b) As what kind of God has Jehovah already vindicated himself, and, with Paul, what do we declare our position to be toward God?

³⁴ God’s word is unchangeable. God’s oath is unchangeable. Since these two things, His word and His oath, were given in connection with his counsel that he has seen good to reveal to us, this makes his counsel also unchangeable. Even now by what the Most High God Jehovah has already done with regard to his revealed counsel He stands vindicated, justified, before all heaven and earth. Let the devils deny, let all men under control of the devils deny and disbelieve it, yet Jehovah the Most High God stands revealed and proved as “the God of truth.” What do we care whether the overwhelming majority of this world are unbelievers. We believe and accept God’s Word for its own truthfulness. We also respect the unbreakable binding power of God’s oath that he swore by the greatest and highest one in all existence. Therefore we declare unequivocally that our position is the same as that taken by the Christian apostle Paul when he wrote: “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.”—Rom. 3:4.

Do Bible Principles Govern Your Choice of Entertainment?

EXCITEMENT, conflict, violence, passion and beauty are prominent in the entertainment of modern times. They can grip your attention, fire your imagination, stir you emotionally and make you forget for a time your personal cares of life, but such should not be the sole factors in choosing a type of entertainment. The good principles that govern a Christian’s daily living should be taken into consideration.

In the first century of this Common Era, for example, forms of entertainment that were popular with the Romans conflicted with Bible principles. For that reason Christians did not join the thousands of people that crowded into the amphitheaters. That the entertainment there was bad is revealed by the following description of it in The Historian’s History of the World by Henry Williams:

“The amphitheatre brought the greatest possible number of spectators within easy distance of the dead and dying, and fostered the passion for the sight of blood, which continued for centuries to vie in interest with the harmless excitement of the race. . . . It was when man strove with man . . . that the transport of their sanguinary enthusiasm was at its height. . . . The audience became frantic with excitement; they rose from their seats; they yelled; they shouted their applause, as one blow more ghastly than another was dealt by lance, or sword, or dagger, and the lifeblood spouted forth. ‘Hoc habet’—’he has it, he has it!’—was the cry which burst from ten thousand throats, and was reechoed, not only by a debased and brutalised populace, but by the lips of royalty, by purple-clad senators and knights, by noble matrons, and even by those consecrated maids whose presence elsewhere saved the criminal from his fate, but whose function here it was to consign the suppliant to his doom by reversing the thumb