means for that one never to get past Armageddon into the New World and its theocratic system. Like Noah’s family, we must now get into the ark all together!

28. What should we do about internal difficulties among ourselves now, and why?

²⁸ For us to be knit closely together now in organization while we are imperfect and have our selfish likes, dislikes and tendencies may result in a bit of rubbing and difficulty for a time. But if we try to show the mental attitude and spirit of Christ and put up with our brothers in love, we shall be able to straighten out our difficulties and hold together in one supreme common cause. We did not come out of the old world and its squabbles just to plunge ourselves into squabbles of our own making among ourselves. So we must learn to surmount our internal difficulties and straighten them out now. Better that than to have to contend with such things among us after Armageddon. Said Paul: “Be angry, and yet do not sin; let the sun not set with you in a provoked state, neither allow place for the Devil.” (Eph. 4:26, 27, NW) We might well say now: Let not Armageddon come down like a thief with you in an angered mood, in a provoked state against your brother. The thing to do is to seek peace and harmony with your brother now. The New World society’s Book, the Bible, instructs you how to do so.—Matt. 18:15-17.

THE SOCIETY’S COMMON LANGUAGE

29. Will the survivors have nationalistic divisions after Armageddon, and what about their language?

²⁹ Right after the battle of Armageddon will the survivors be living under nationalistic governments with divided loyalties, rival claims, proud traditions and ancient hatreds and suspicions? No, not after the King wields his scepter against the raging nations. The survivors will be those who have now come out of this world and who have risen above those selfish things cultivated by the “god of this system of things”. For the time being there will be language groups. Nevertheless, they will all be one theocratic family—even as they are now “one flock, one shepherd”. (John 10:16, NW) There will be no nations, but all will be citizens of the new world, under one King. It will be the same as it is now with Christ’s body, “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, foreigner, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all things and in all.” (Col. 3:11, NW) Already Jehovah God has turned to his people of all national extractions a “pure language”, and it will be the one language all will speak from the very start of the new world, namely, the theocratic Kingdom truth.

30. What essential requirement is now laid upon us even as it was laid upon the Israelites delivered from Babylon?

³⁰ To continue in the New World society one essential requirement is that we must speak the truth. Satan the Devil is the “father of the lie”, and lying is one characteristic of the system of things of which he is god. (John 8:44, NW) One of our great struggles is to get rid of the lies we have inherited by having been part of his old world, particularly the religious lies. After the ancient Israelites were delivered from mighty Babylon, the command that Jehovah God sent to them through his prophet Zechariah for their prosperity was this: “These are the things that ye shall do: Speak ye every man the truth with his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates; and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith Jehovah.” By this faithfulness to truth in speaking with their neighbor, and in holding court and rendering decisions without partiality in the city gates, and in swearing to no false oath for the purpose of hurting a neighbor against whom we devise evil, the city of Jerusalem was to become called “The city of truth”. (Zech. 8:16, 17, 3, AS) The apostle Paul saw this was a requirement for the Christians of his day. After telling them not to keep walking as the worldly nations do in the unprofitableness of their minds but to put on a new personality, he told them how to do this and said: “Wherefore, now that you have put away falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, because we are members belonging to one another.”—Eph. 4:25, NW.

31. What does ‘speaking the truth’ mean for us today, and by our doing so the organization will get to be known as what?

³¹ This same requirement applies to the New World society today, whose members have been delivered from a false, hypocritical old world. We, too, must insist on speaking the truth. That means we must rid ourselves of the old-world lies and the practice of falsehood for any selfish reason. It means we must get free from the lies of false religion, which blaspheme God’s name and distort his purpose and way of salvation, and which lead mankind into destruction at Armageddon. “The truth will set you free,” said Jesus, and that truth we find in God’s Word. It is this truth that we must speak to one another in the New World society to build one another up on our most holy faith. (Jude 20) It is the truth that we should publish abroad outside the New World society, that others who are hungry for truth and righteousness may enter the society and be filled and set free. This is especially necessary where small communities in certain lands have become members of the New World society one hundred per cent. They dare not insulate themselves to enjoy the truth and peace all to themselves, sidestepping the hardships of the witness work. To avoid growing selfish they must get out and preach to those yet in the bondage of error and also support the spreading of the truth by others. By such persistent speaking of the theocratic truth to our neighbors far and near, the New World society will indeed get known as an organization of truth.

32, 33. (a) How has Jehovah restored judges and counselors to us as at the first? (b) What covenant did Jehovah conclude with the Israelites in Moab, and what did Moses then urge them to do?

³² Prophesying of the glorious days of restoration of Jehovah’s people to the theocratic way of organization and activity, Isaiah uttered this promise of Jehovah: “I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.” (Isa. 1:26, RS) Having now enthroned his King as our Judge and “Wonderful Counselor”, Jehovah God has restored things as at the time when Jesus Christ was visibly present on earth in the flesh, and now we enjoy the counsels of God’s unfolding Word as never before. It is incumbent upon us to prove ourselves a faithful society, a loyal representative of God’s heavenly Jerusalem, the “faithful city” above. We stand now in a position like that of the Israelites on the desert plains of Moab shortly before crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Moses, knowing he was to die within a month’s time, assembled the Israelites and gave them a repetition of the Law covenant that Jehovah had made with them at Mount Horeb in Arabia, together with changes that were to go into force under the new conditions in the Promised Land.

³³ At the close of Moses’ repeating the theocratic law there in Moab we read: “These are the words of the covenant that Jehovah commanded Moses to conclude with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab aside from the covenant that he had concluded with them in Horeb.” (Deut. 29:1, NW) This used to be called a “covenant of faithfulness”; but it was in fact a covenant of the repeated law with revisions of the Horeb covenant to adjust it to the arrangements that would go into effect in the Promised Land. Hence the Bible book that contains this repetition of the law is called Deuteronomy. It corroborated and reinforced the law covenant that had been given to the nation of Israel at Horeb or Mount Sinai. It was after this that Moses urged the Israelites to be faithful to this covenant, taking heaven and earth as witnesses against them that he had set before them life and death, blessing and cursing: they should therefore choose life by faithfully keeping the covenant, that they might keep on living in divine favor and blessing.

34. How are we having Jehovah’s theocratic law and requirements restated to us now, and why is it now under the present conditions that we must choose the course of life?

³⁴ Today, since our deliverance from modern Babylon in 1919 and before our entering the new world after Armageddon, we are having Jehovah’s theocratic law and requirements restated to us as never before in Christian history. The whole Bible is being opened up. This is the work of Jehovah’s Greater Moses, Jesus Christ. We are being drilled in the requirements of the New World society, that we may know how to choose the course of life and keep living in God’s favor and blessing now; it may be we shall even be preserved through Armageddon into the new world at its start. The decision is ours to make now, in the light of the revealed theocratic law. It is now we have to meet these theocratic requirements, now in this “time of the end”, and not just after Armageddon. After that war there will be no heathen neighbors to surround us as they did the Israelites after Moses died and they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. No, in the new world there will be no pagans and false religious neighbors surviving Armageddon to beset us and tempt us to worship their false gods and offer their children to us in marriage provided we offer ours to them and thereby make leagues and alliances to our endangerment. It is now that we have to contend with such things. That is why the Greater Moses has restated and amplified God’s laws and requirements to us.

35. To what will our being steadfast now under adversity conduce, and to what course does the Greater Moses urge us?

³⁵ Now it is that we must decide to keep integrity and be faithful to theocracy in order to prove worthy of the coming world of the one true God. If we are steadfast now under adversity in this hostile old world, it will conduce to our being faithful then amid the unbroken spiritual and material prosperity without the temptations of the Devil and his depraved, selfish world. The present is the favorable time for us as members of the New World society to make our final choice between the two courses that the Greater Moses sets before us. His urgent advice is: “Choose life in order that you may keep alive, you and your offspring, by loving Jehovah your God, by listening to his voice and by sticking to him, for he is your life and the length of your days.”—Deut. 30:19, 20, NW.

THE TIME OF MOURNING PAST

36. Why may we not sorrow with the world? Instead, what is it now the occasion for us to do?

³⁶ By keeping our eyes always to the front toward the new world that brightens upon our horizon, it will help us to hold to our decision to gain life in the new world that we represent as a society. Today the dying world mourns for its sufferings, its losses, its disappointments, but it is not saddened in a godly way that makes for repentance to salvation. There is nothing in the world that we have left behind and from which Almighty God has rescued us over which to mourn. We cannot afford to take the world’s mental attitude and estimate of things. To share with the world in its selfish sadness is not healthful for us: “the sadness of the world produces death.” (2 Cor. 7:9, 10, NW) As individuals we have been sinners in the past. We made our mistakes and transgressed God’s law or even opposed him and persecuted his people. Why, even the remnant of his heirs of the heavenly Kingdom erred in times gone by and were guilty of wrongdoing, shortcomings and failures during World War I, and Jehovah was angry with them and let them suffer Babylonish captivity to this world. But why mourn any more over the dead past? God has now delivered his remnant and with them also a “great crowd” of lovers of truth and righteousness and he has formed them into a New World society. Sorrow that led to repentance, and repentance that led to this deliverance, are now things of the past. Now it is the occasion for us, not to sorrow further and be saddened overmuch to our discouragement, but to rejoice at the present salvation we enjoy by Jehovah’s mercy.

37. Why is Jehovah God joyful at the present time, and why should we be joyful with him?

³⁷ Sorrow and sadness and mourning are weakening, but joy is strengthening. Jehovah our God is most joyful at this time. His kingdom by his beloved Son Jesus Christ has begun; his long-tolerated enemies, Satan and the demons, have been cast out of heaven and down to the earth; he has liberated his people from slavery to this world and made them a society of Kingdom announcers; and now the great war for vindicating his universal sovereignty once for all time draws closer, with the victory certain. It is for us to get out of any sorrowful, introverted contemplation of ourselves and think of what God has done, is doing, will do, to his unfading glory and the blessing of his faithful people. Why should we sorrow with God’s enemy, this world? Why should Jehovah’s people be sorrowful when he is glad, overflowing with righteous joy? His Son is here as a joyful Bridegroom, and the “marriage of the Lamb” nears its completion. (Rev. 19:7) Jehovah is gathering all things in heaven and in earth together into one under his sovereignty. We are in the antitype of the ancient theocratic festival of ingathering, the feast of the harvest of the year’s labors, the most joyful festival of all the year. Away, then, with useless mourning and grief over the past. This is the time to rejoice with Jehovah as his friends and lovers, for, in the language of Nehemiah, “the joy of Jehovah is your strength.”—Neh. 8:10, AS.

38. How have we obtained everlasting joy and gladness, and why does present suffering make no difference?

³⁸ The New World society should continue to be the most joyful and optimistic people on the face of the earth. Everlasting joy is upon our heads in the knowledge that the kingdom of Jehovah’s vindication is here for all time and we are its announcers. By coming into the New World society we have obtained gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing have fled away, despite the hatred and persecution that we must suffer internationally for a little while. We count it an honor to suffer for his sake.—Isa. 35:10.

“Make Sure of All Things”

1, 2. With what must we equip ourselves in this wicked day, and what assault should we make?

AFTER the foregoing speech, the President of the Watch Tower Society went on to make the first major release, of a new printed publication, to the assembly with the following words:

² Says the apostle: “Finally, go on acquiring power in the Lord and in the mightiness of his strength.” (Eph. 6:10, NW) We must do this for the endurance test that yet lies ahead and for the work that remains to be done. We are in a life and death struggle, not with flesh and blood in carnal warfare, but with the wicked spirit forces now furious because of being cast out of high heavenly places and restrained to this earth. We need to put on the full suit of armor from God in order, as a New World society, to stand firm and united in this wicked day, presenting a common front against the combined enemies. We have come to close grips with the enemy and, besides the shield of faith with which to quench all the wicked one’s burning missiles and to stop his thrusts, we must have in hand that invincible weapon, “the sword of the spirit, that is, God’s word.” (Eph. 6:12, 17, NW) With this mighty weapon of offense, we must go forth in obedience to divine command and assault the worldly strongholds of error, that lovers of life-giving truth may be set free. “For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful by God for overturning strongly entrenched things. For we are overturning reasonings and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are bringing every thought into captivity to make it obedient to the Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:3-5, NW) To do this with courage and with assurance of victory we must make sure we have the truth and be convinced it is the truth, because it is backed up by God’s own Word.

3. What new printed aid has Jehovah provided for us in living as a New World society, and what are its main features?

³ Mindful of the acute situation we are in today, Jehovah God has provided a new aid for his people in living now as a New World society. This is the new book of 416 pages, in English, entitled “Make Sure of All Things”. This title is based on a text that was written to a Christian congregation under the fire of persecution, namely, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, which reads: “Make sure of all things; hold fast to what is right.” (NW) This is a book of nothing but select Scripture passages, 4,585 Bible texts being quoted at length and 458 additional, corroborative texts being just cited for reference purposes, making a total of 5,043 Scripture texts. However, these have been brought together and arranged under seventy main doctrinal titles, themes or headings that are most controversial today and for which the honest searcher for truth wants the uncolored Bible proof alone or the Bible disproof in the case of false doctrine. Under each of these seventy main headings the pertinent scriptures are grouped beneath numerous subheadings, thus breaking down the subject for you and helping you to a speedy and logical analysis of the subject.

4. In what way is the usefulness of this book enlarged to cover more than seventy main themes?

⁴ But the usefulness of this book is not limited to just these seventy themes. There are really 287 themes of which you can make a particular study by consulting the alphabetical listing of them that is given, with page references for finding the suitable scriptures on each aspect of your chosen subject for study. The Scripture quotations that are presented to you are taken from eleven Bible versions, Catholic and non-Catholic, to obtain the most appropriate or best-stated translation.

5. With this book how would we “make sure” whether many popular religious beliefs and practices are supported by God’s Word?

⁵ Do you want to “make sure” of whether the following are supported by God’s Word or not, namely, ancestor worship, animal worship, apostolic succession, blood transfusion, caste system, communism, confession, cross, evolution, incarnation, interfaith, Jews’ return to Palestine, the mass, purgatory, spiritism, the so-called “ten lost tribes”, transmigration, trinity, and worship of Mary? If so, then quickly find the subject you want in “Make Sure of All Things” and confront yourself with the array of Scripture verses given under an authoritative definition of the subject. In this way you let God speak to you on the subject through his own Word and thus you let him have the deciding say-so.

6. How can we find what God’s Word has to say in settlement of any controversy over certain basic Scriptural doctrines?

⁶ Or do you want to know what his Word has to say in settlement of any controversy over such subjects as baptism, the congregation of God, earth and its destiny, healing, Jehovah, judgment days, law, ransom, religion, return of Christ, sabbath, soul, spirit, superior authorities, tithing and speaking in tongues? These are all some of the seventy main themes, and you have sufficient scriptures under each heading you look up in order to determine God’s mind upon the matter and to “let God be found true, though every man be found a liar”.—Rom. 3:4, NW.

7. In what way does the book’s foreword give helpful advice, and of what may we be confident as respects the future of this book?

⁷ What a handy instrument this new book is for the use of the New World society! Providentially, the book contains a main heading entitled “New-World Living” with nine pages of scriptures quoted under analytical subheadings. For those who have it available in their language the book will be a telling aid in living and working as part of the New World society. There is a fine foreword to the book that gives helpful advice on how you may have this book constantly with you—it is a pocketsize edition—and use it in door-to-door witnessing, in making return visits on the interested, in Bible studies that you conduct in private homes, in your own family Bible study, in casual witnessing anywhere, anytime, and in preparing Bible talks, and in providing features for the weekly service meetings of congregations, yes, and even for informal group gatherings that you might hold now and then for relaxation so as to get real spiritual profit out of them and not fritter away the time in idle gossip and aimless chatter. The basis for this book was laid in years of study and preparation and compiling work, and now Jehovah has brought it forth through his visible New World society. We can be confident that he will bless the wise, courageous and faithful use of this aid for his people to wield the “sword of the spirit, that is, God’s word”. Eventually the benefits of this book are bound to spread to all lands in which the Kingdom truth is proclaimed, to encourage and assist his people in living as a New World society.

Brace up your minds for activity . . . sanctify the Christ as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a defense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope in you.—1 Pet. 1:13; 3:15, NW.