MEETINGS THEN WERE VERY DIFFERENT

The congregation meetings have always been strengthening to Jehovah’s people. But at times there were practices that indicated the need for better organization and further spiritual growth. For example, sometimes during the Watchtower Study coffee would be served. And the atmosphere was not always free from tobacco smoke.

THEOCRATIC ORDER STRENGTHENS THE ORGANIZATION

When the 1939 service year began, the brothers in the Netherlands, as in many other lands, were studying the Watchtower articles on theocratic organization. This study helped them to appreciate more clearly their relationship to Jehovah God and Jesus Christ. It made clear how the theocratic arrangement should affect the operation of the congregations. It acknowledged that in some congregations there had been strife and contention but then pointed out that fulfillment of Isaiah 60:17 “must mean that the time comes when there is peace in the organization of the Lord all over the earth.”