the faithful Kingdom preachers in a bad light before people and in a seditious cast before the militarized political governments. Like Jesus, the remnant of his brothers were insulted with the false charge of sedition, conspiracy and obstruction to national welfare. Outrageously the rod of political and judicial authority was viciously swung to strike them on the cheek, as it were, and to imprison them and put them in detention camps and to ban their literature or prohibit their religious meetings. Did this unjust, antichristian action escape the notice of the heavenly “ruler of Israel” out of Bethlehem? No! As these were his spiritual brothers and his Kingdom representatives, he took it as being done to him. To add further insult to injury, Christendom chose the League of Nations instead of Christ’s kingdom, thinking that she could fool him by calling the League of Nations “the political expression of the kingdom of God on earth.”

25. How had Jehovah foretold this in Micah 5:3, and how was this first fulfilled in the case of fleshly Israel?

²⁵ All this unchristian action in rejecting the Kingdom was permitted by Almighty God Jehovah. It served as a disciplinary experience for his remnant, who had faithful hearts. (Heb. 12:4-11) He foretold it in these words of Micah 5:3, right after telling of the coming of the “ruler in Israel” out of Bethlehem: “Therefore he will give them up until the time that she who is giving birth actually gives birth. And the rest of his brothers will return to the sons of Israel.” Of course, the ancient fulfillment of this prophecy was when the sons of fleshly Israel were, because of disobedience to Jehovah God, delivered over to the Babylonians to be taken as captives into exile far away; but after seventy years of desolation of Jerusalem and her temple a faithful remnant were delivered from Babylon and they returned to their homeland to give a rebirth to their nation and to Jehovah’s temple worship. It was as if God’s visible organization on earth, Zion, had given birth to a new Israelite nation. (Isa. 66:7, 8) Similarly with spiritual Israel!

26. How was Micah 5:3 fulfilled in the case of spiritual Israel in 1918 and 1919?

²⁶ Especially in 1918, the climactic year of World War I, the remnant were besieged by rabid religious assailants. They were overwhelmed and taken into bondage and captivity to the worldly organizations at war. This compared with Israel’s Babylonian captivity, while their capital city Jerusalem lay desolate. Because Jehovah God had adopted these dedicated, baptized members of the remnant as his spiritual children, they could say, as did the apostle Paul long ago: “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” (Gal. 4:26) The spiritual children of the “Jerusalem above” ought to be free just as their heavenly mother is, and not be exiled slaves of modern-day Babylon. So Jehovah God the heavenly Father caused his “woman,” the Jerusalem above, to give birth in the first postwar year, 1919. He broke the power of the Babylonish captivity. He freed his loyal remnant from their bondage of fear, so that they returned to their proper relationship with him as spiritual “sons of Israel.” Not only did they get free from the many limitations imposed upon free speech, action and worship by a world at war, but they broke out of their bondage to the fear of men.—Prov. 29:25.

27. Thus what spiritual birth was there in 1919, and into what did the world war of 1939-1945 fail to bring the remnant?

²⁷ In fulfillment of Matthew 24:14 they renewed their organized work of boldly preaching the “good news of the kingdom.” It was as if their heavenly mother, “the Jerusalem above,” had given birth in 1919 and had brought forth a new nation, a free spiritual nation, in the land of Jehovah’s worship. Since then the remnant have never again yielded to fear and self-surrender to Babylonian bondage, even during the much worse world war of 1939-1945.

28. What was to be expected regarding such a spiritual birth as regards the nations and peoples among whom it occurred?

²⁸ We would not expect this deliverance and birth of a new spiritual nation in the midst of peoples and nations of this world to occur without important notable effects upon those peoples and nations. How was this surprising, totally unexpected birth of a delivered, restored spiritual nation going to affect such peoples and nations? In a way commanding world attention. Let us see!

Like Dew from God and like a Lion Among Nations

1. Who was the ruler of this spiritual nation born in 1919, and how did the Watch Tower magazine then call attention to this?

WHO was the ruler of the spiritual nation that was born in 1919 for postwar service on earth? Not the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, even though the remnant of spiritual Israel do make use of this Society and cooperate with it down to this day. The Ruler out of Bethlehem, the enthroned King Jesus Christ, was their heavenly, invisible King. As the Watch Tower magazine, under date of September 15, 1919, said to its dedicated readers in its article “Announcing the Kingdom” (page 281):

You are an ambassador of the King of kings and Lord of lords, announcing to the people in this dignified manner the incoming of the Golden Age, the glorious kingdom of our Lord and Master, for which true Christians have hoped and prayed for many centuries.

2. In 1919 what did the remnant have evidence enough to prove concerning Jesus Christ, and how was their deliverance that year foreshadowed in 537 B.C. regarding the Jewish remnant?

² The spiritual remnant that survived World War I had Bible chronological evidence as well as circumstantial evidence in fulfilled Bible prophecy that Jesus Christ had returned as he had promised, and that he was invisibly present in the glory of