of spiritualism, immortalism or the immortality of the human soul are detestable to God. He would not touch them except to destroy them at the coming battle of Armageddon, as he destroyed King Saul of Israel at the battle of Mount Gilboa for “asking of a spirit medium to make inquiry” of the dead.—Deut. 18:12; 1 Chron. 10:13, 14, NW.

28, 29. Why was Jesus’ reply to his accusers, on how he expelled demons, unanswerable?

²⁸ Well, then, if Satan is doing the casting out, has he become divided against himself? This question reminds us of how the religious Jewish Pharisees accused Jesus, saying: “This fellow does not expel the demons except by means of Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” Then Jesus, showing that God’s kingdom has nothing in common with the demons, replied: “If Satan expels Satan, he has become divided against himself; how, then, will his kingdom stand? Moreover, if I expel the demons by means of Beelzebub, by means of whom do your sons expel them? This is why they will be judges of you. But if it is by means of God’s spirit that I expel the demons, the kingdom of God has really overtaken you.”—Matt. 12:22-28, NW.

²⁹ Jesus was opposed to Satan the Devil, “the ruler of the demons.” At the end of the third temptation in the wilderness Jesus told Satan to get away from him. At the close of his earthly life, just before he was betrayed by Satan’s agent Judas Iscariot, Jesus said to his faithful apostles: “The ruler of the world is coming. And yet he has no hold on me.” (Matt. 4:10; John 14:30, NW) Jesus died for preaching the kingdom of God, which is destined to destroy the kingdom of Satan at the battle of Armageddon shortly, and what Jesus taught upheld God’s side of the controversy over universal sovereignty. His casting out unclean spirits or demons supported the truth and prophecy of God’s Word. If, now, Jesus cast out demons by means of Satan their ruler, then Satan was indeed divided against himself, for he was using his worst enemy on earth to cast out demons, not in support of the Devil’s side, but in support of God’s side.

30, 31. Demon expulsion by false religionists and spirit mediums differs in what essential ways from such expelling as done by Jesus?

³⁰ The case is different, however, when spirit mediums and other false religionists cast out demons or perform other kinds of healing by means of the ruler of the demons. In that case Satan is using those who are on his side and teaching his doctrines, and his use of them to cast out demons works to the support of his false teachings and demonic kingdom. By using them he is not divided against himself, but by this seemingly good work of undoing the case of demon obsession for which he himself is responsible “Satan himself keeps transforming himself into an angel of light,” to advance his power and influence over the deceived.

³¹ To warn us that the expelling of demons in his name and the performing of many other wonderful works in this day of his second presence, invisibly, in God’s kingdom, was not God’s will, Jesus said: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Master, Master,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me IN THAT DAY: ‘Master, Master, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you at all. Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.”—Matt. 7:21-23, NW.

32. Why is casting out of demons, as done by apostles and evangelists Jesus himself sent forth, not proper practice for today’s Christian witnesses of Jehovah?

³² In the first century of the Christian era the apostles and seventy evangelists of Jesus Christ did cast out demons miraculously in his name. But the miraculous gift of the holy spirit to cast out demons has ceased being imparted, since the death of all those “twelve apostles of the Lamb,” as Paul foretold it would. (1 Cor. 13:8-11) Today the witnesses of Jehovah God are not empowered to cast out demons as a sign of their being Christian witnesses of Jehovah. Neither are Jehovah’s witnesses authorized to do as they were commanded in the days of the typical theocracy of Israel, to kill off all spirit mediums and those who inquired of them or practiced occult arts, as King Saul did. (1 Sam. 28:3) They may not imitate the action reported in the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Press of June 16, 1946, believe it or not: “WITCHERY IN 1515! 500 Swiss women were burned as witches in 2 months—600 women were burned in one German town, and during the year one judge alone condemned 15,000 witches.” But Jehovah’s witnesses are under divine command to keep all spiritism, which is demonism, out of the theocratic organization, keeping on the “full suit of armor from God” as a defense against the assaults of the wicked spirit forces. They must also preach the message of the Kingdom, the truth, which Jesus said “will set you free,” and this will drive away all influence of the demons from all victims who seek to be freed from the enticements or the tightening grip of the demons.

33. What are wrong and right ways for breaking demon power now?

³³ Teaching those who are the targets of assault by the demons to pray to Jehovah God through Jesus Christ is also a powerful means to keep the demons at a distance and to rout them. Deuteronomy 18:11 speaks of “one who binds others with a spell.” (NW) The mistake is oftentimes made of thinking God’s power insufficient to break the spell that a voodooist or other demonist may cast upon one and hence going to another agent of the demons, a witch doctor, to break the power of the spell. Thus the relieved person is obliged to thank the Devil and his demons rather than God Almighty for his deliverance. This glorifies the Devil’s organization rather than Jehovah God; it gains, not divine favor but disfavor, and indebts one to the Devil and weakens one’s defense against him. Prayer, keeping one’s mind filled with the things of God and keeping regularly active in Jehovah’s service will break the enemy’s power and fortify one to resist his further assaults.

34. In this time what unlawful works should be avoided and what lawful work should we clearly understand and do?

³⁴ Inasmuch as the miraculous gifts of the spirit have passed away, we do not attempt to do miraculous works such as those religious workers of lawlessness perform whom the Master Jesus Christ will tell to get away from him because they do not act according to God’s law. We remember the apostle Paul’s words, “If anyone contends even in the games, he is not crowned unless he has contended according to the rules.” (2 Tim. 2:5, NW) So in order to be crowned with God’s approval through Christ we want to do what He has made lawful. The work that he has legalized for this time of the world’s end is that foretold by Jesus Christ: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14, NW) By doing this work till the end of this world comes at Armageddon we are sure to have the enthroned King Jesus Christ class us as ‘workers of lawfulness’ and tell us to come near to him as those approved by his heavenly Father and worthy of being spared through Armageddon into God’s new world.

DEMONS DRIVING HUMAN SOCIETY TO ARMAGEDDON

35. Today’s spread of spiritism makes necessary what protective practices by us?

³⁵ We are living in the “wicked day.” It is especially in this day that we are ordered to “stand firm” in the full suit of armor against the onslaughts of the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places and to use the “sword of the spirit, that is, God’s word,” against these unseen, superhuman forces by obeying God’s law and preaching “this good news of the kingdom” in all the inhabited earth. We are not surprised at the spread of spiritism, which is demonism, even into the highest places of political government.

36. What do Biblical and secular records show regarding spiritistic practices of political and religious leaders?

³⁶ We take it as only a further evidence that the political governments of Christendom are no part of God’s kingdom when the magazine People, in its issue of March 10, 1954, comes out with the announcement “CAPITAL ASTROLOGERS: Top Leaders Seek Her Advice—Jeanne’s Callers Include Mamie Eisenhower, Washington Officials.—In a Washington that constantly scans the horizon for what’s ahead, Jeanne Dixon stands out like a beacon. Using a crystal ball, she has looked into the future, come up with so many astoundingly accurate predictions that today some of the capital’s top leaders and businessmen call on her regularly.” This news confirmed the well-known Drew Pearson’s column published throughout America August 22 to 24, 1953, and carrying headings in different newspapers, such as “The First Lady Enjoys Having Her Fortune Told” and “Eisenhowers Peek into Future.” The Bible as well as ancient secular history shows that kings and emperors as well as the religious leaders engaged in spiritism, seeking information, guidance and help from the demons. Today the wicked spirit forces are making victims of persons high in political and religious circles even in Christendom. History, Biblical and secular, shows that this practice always led to destruction of kingdoms and empires. It will lead to the same result now, at the battle of Armageddon.

37. Scripturally, who today constitute the principal target of enraged wicked spirit forces, and why?

³⁷ The wicked spirit forces are now closer to all mankind than ever before. This is because God’s kingdom by Christ was established in the heavens in 1914. War broke out in heaven immediately and the high heavens were forever cleared of the presence of Satan and all his demon angels. Defeated in that war with God’s newborn kingdom, those demons and their ruler were hurled down here to the earth. Being in a Tartarean darkness as to the details of God’s purpose, they may have thought that Armageddon was immediately at hand and that their being imprisoned in an abyss for a thousand years was therefore near. So they might then have been bent on wrecking human society in order to destroy especially Jehovah’s people who were then in a captive condition to human society. The policy of Satan and his demons who have been the gods and invisible governors of this world is, “Rule or ruin,” but particularly with the ruin of Jehovah’s witnesses in mind.—2 Pet. 2:4, NW; Rev. 12:17.

38. Why have Jehovah’s people of our day kept on successfully withstanding assaults of those wicked spirit forces?

³⁸ However, Almighty God prevented this and foiled the demons’ reckless plan. It was not his purpose to abyss the demons in 1918 or to let them wreck human society as a climax to World War I. He did not let his victorious King Jesus Christ press the war in heaven as far as the Armageddon feature of the “great tribulation” upon Satan’s organization invisible and visible. Jehovah halted that “war in heaven” with the casting of them out of heaven and down to this earth in order that he might let Satan and his demons remain here in their debasement of defeat for a “short period of time” before Armageddon. Thus he cut short the “great tribulation” upon Satan’s world. (Matt. 24:21, 22) He did this, not for the sake of the demons, but for the sake of his “chosen ones,” to enable them to escape destruction with human society of this world. This has meant a constant fight by Jehovah’s witnesses with these wicked spirit forces at specially close range. Yet till now they have been able to “stand firm against the machinations of the Devil.”—Eph. 6:11; Rev. 12:13-17, NW.

39. What Scripturally foretold conditions have prevailed on earth since the recent debasement of the Devil and his spirit allies?

³⁹ The ‘full suit of the armor of God’ and the wielding of the “sword of the spirit, that is, God’s word,” and the offering of prayer and supplication on every occasion have enabled Jehovah’s witnesses to make this unyielding stand and so to remain unhurt by the heavy concentration of demons now at this earth. But for humanity in general it has meant their being urged on in the way that leads to destruction at Armageddon. Concerning this Revelation 12:10-12 (NW) cries out: “The accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! And [our brothers] conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even despite the danger of death. On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” Little wonder, then, that the scientific men of the Devil’s world have eventually invented the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb and other terrifying means of wholesale slaughter. It was war for world domination that speeded up the application of the discovery of splitting the atom, and not the benefits of peace. How demonic that was!

40. What do God’s true worshipers, who obediently follow his Lamb, now see in the invisible realm around our earth?

⁴⁰ Not through the crystal ball of psychic mediums or spiritism, but by the prophetic symbols of The Revelation we see what goes on in the invisible realm surrounding our earth where Satan and his demons are now held down. We see Satan and his demons not gaining victory over Jehovah’s witnesses, not gathering them like goats to a stubborn final fight against God Almighty at Armageddon. Instead, John the writer of The Revelation “saw, and look! the Lamb [Christ] standing upon the mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.” In addition to the 144,000 spiritual conquerors with Christ on the heavenly Mount Zion, John saw the “great crowd” of others from all nations and tongues worshiping and serving God constantly at his spiritual temple.—Rev. 14:1; 7:9-15, NW.

41. Whom did John foresee and whom do we now see as victims of Satan and his earth-confined spirit allies?

⁴¹ Whom, then, did John foresee and whom do we now see victimized in the gathering made by Satan and his wicked spirit forces? Says John: “I saw three unclean inspired expressions that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the wild beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are, in fact, expressions inspired by demons and perform signs, and they go forth to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty. . . . And they gathered them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Har–Magedon [or, Armageddon].”—Rev. 16:13-16, NW, margin.

42. Observing what God-given formula ensures continuous security and triumph for Jehovah’s witnesses over the wicked spirit forces?

⁴² Jehovah’s witnesses do not follow the demon-led “kings of the entire inhabited earth” to their battle lines at Armageddon. They follow “the Lamb [Jesus Christ] no matter where he goes.” (Rev. 14:4, NW) He goes to face all of Satan’s world at Armageddon. By our following him to that battle position there we can triumph over the wicked spirit forces even now during this “time of the end.” At Armageddon we shall witness his own triumph over them.

THE FIGHT MUST GO ON!

43. Why is it needful now, as never before, for us to watch, fight and pray?

⁴³ The fight against the wicked spirit forces is not yet over for Jehovah’s witnesses. The adversary, Satan the Devil, is trying to hold his position as a cosmocrat. He and his demons are cosmocrats, “world-rulers,” as the New World Translation calls them at Ephesians 6:12. Particularly since the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C. and the overthrow of God’s typical theocracy then they have exercised a wicked cosmocracy. Now they are opposed to Jehovah’s witnesses because these preach another cosmocracy, the good news of God’s rulership of the new world by Christ. Jehovah’s witnesses need to watch, fight and pray as never before.

44. In what respects are our days like Noah’s, before the flood?

⁴⁴ It is true that Jesus said concerning this time of his presence in his invisible kingdom: “Just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” (Matt. 24:37, NW) In the days of Noah before the flood there were disobedient spirit sons of God that materialized in human bodies without the aid of mediumship and married the daughters of men and raised unusual offspring called Nephilim, evidently supernormal giants, who helped to corrupt mankind and fill the earth with violence. (Gen. 6:1-4, 11, 12, NW) However, the likeness of these days of the Son of man’s presence to those of Noah before the flood does not mean we are to expect similar materializations of the demons and their visibly meddling in human affairs. No more this than that they should intermarry with the daughters of men today and raise a new crop of Nephilim for destruction at Armageddon. The demons are now “spirits in prison” restrained by God from directly materializing. But they do not have to materialize in order to accomplish their purpose. It is sufficient that in the practice of spiritualism they seize mainly upon the bodies of women to serve as spirit mediums. (1 Pet. 3:18-20, NW) Already, more than forty years since the Kingdom’s establishment in 1914, the wicked spirit forces have shown their ability to exercise their cosmocratic power, without materializations, to spread spiritualism, to corrupt mankind, to cause the earth to be filled with violence and to lead the worldly rulers of all kinds of political systems to a showdown fight against Almighty God and his Christ at Armageddon. The wicked spirit forces have succeeded in misleading the entire inhabited earth, but not the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses.

45, 46. Triumphing now and final triumph result how for Kingdom-preaching members of God’s New World

⁴⁵ Instead of being influenced by the religious and political propaganda, policies and movements of the visible rulers of this world, Jehovah’s witnesses have refused to go along with this world and become a part of it. They have kept separate in full dedication to Jehovah God through his Christ. Courageously they have exposed the demon-inspired expressions that have issued from the mouths of the symbolic Dragon and his political wild beast and false prophet; they have warned others against the machinations of the Dragon the Devil; and they have preached the powerful message of true liberation from the power of the wicked spirit forces, “this good news of the kingdom.” Steadily this proclamation of the good news has pushed back the unseen control of the wicked spirit forces, and hundreds of thousands have come into the New World society where the spirit of Jehovah prevails. Here we stand firm, fighting with the spiritual weapons of our theocratic warfare and praying, triumphing constantly in the power of the Lord and in the mightiness of his strength.

⁴⁶ Final triumph is in sight! Suddenly as in the days of Noah it will be ours, when Jehovah’s day comes as a thief in the night and this world is abandoned to its destruction at Armageddon, all spiritism and the wicked spirit forces are put out of action, and we of the New World society are taken along with the triumphant King Jesus Christ into the demon-free new world of righteousness under God’s universal sovereignty.—2 Pet. 3:10-14, NW.

The “Triumphant Kingdom” Assemblies of 1955

Paris, France, August 3-7, 1955

To crown a successful year of Kingdom service in the field of witnessing in France, along came the second international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Paris during the closing month of the 1955 service year. In the world-wide campaign month of April when the Memorial of Christ’s death was celebrated and the new booklet (Christendom or Christianity—Which One Is “the Light of the World”?) was released, the 183 congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses in France attained a new peak in number of Kingdom publishers, namely, 9,883, which bespeaks an increase of 23 percent over the previous service year. And at the Memorial celebration, although only 225 partook of the emblematic bread and wine, there was a total attendance of 11,894. All of these were now to play host to the assembly of their brothers from the most lands ever to be represented at such a gathering in Paris. In Paris and its suburbs there are about 2,500 witnesses. A record attendance was expected, and the organization at Paris of the New World society made ready for it. French missionaries graduated from Gilead, French pioneers and congregation publishers engaged for many weeks in securing rooms in hotels and private homes to fill the many rooming-accommodations requests.

Paris’ great indoor arena, the Velodrome d’Hiver or Sports Palace, was engaged for the assembly. Four years ago the first international postwar convention of Jehovah’s witnesses in France was held in this same Palais des Sports, and at that time 10,456 attended the public meeting and 351 were baptized, in the meantime the organizational magazine, The Watchtower, in all languages came under ban in France. However, the eternal God, Jehovah, who has made his people a watchman class, continued to feed his people spiritually, and they have grown in spiritual maturity and in numbers in that land of Roman Catholicism and communism. From the Paris branch