seated on the throne said: ‘Look! I am making all things new.’”—Rev. 21:1-5.

42, 43. What should everyone loving life now do, and what benefits will result now and in the future?

⁴² What a grand vision of paradise regained! Such vision is part of the closing theme of the Book of Freedom, the Bible. It is the full answer to the great prayer taught by Jesus: “Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:10) However, here we have only begun to get a glimpse of the vast field of truth contained in the Bible and, oh, how grand it is! All this information it is impossible to get from nature. The time is now here for every lover of life and freedom to get a copy of the Bible and begin to make a study of its life-giving message. The Bible says plainly: “This means everlasting, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”—John 17:3.

⁴³ Do you already have a Bible? Do you read it regularly? If not, take it down off your shelf of seclusion. Dust it off. Begin to use it daily to guide your life. It will help your family in the way of living now for the new world. See what happiness and unity have come to the New World Society of Jehovah’s witnesses in every part of the earth. You too can have that same joy, satisfaction and spiritual health. No other book or treasure you possess will produce such lasting joy of heart or give such freedom. Why deny yourself its help and profitableness? Take your stand for the true religion of the Bible. Get the truth. Follow it and be set free. Assure yourself of a happy future, everlasting life on this beautiful paradise earth under God’s kingdom.

Part 23—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

Before World War I ended on November 11, 1918, American President Wilson proposed a League of Nations. Before the Paris Peace Conference opened in 1919 the executive committee of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America adopted a Declaration stating that the proposed League was “the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth.” The executive committee also appointed a Special Commission to present officially the Declaration to the Peace Conference then soon to convene at Paris.

32. What record do we have that the Special Commission presented the Declaration to the Paris Peace Conference?

³² Did this Special Commission present the Declaration to the Paris Peace Conference after it opened on January 18, 1919? In the annual report of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America for the calendar year of 1919 there appeared on page 11 this sentence:

At the Peace Conference in Paris a representative committee of the Federal Council was received by officials of the government and presented the actions of the executive committee which they were instructed to convey to the Peace Conference.

33. What further action was taken by the Federal Council of the Churches toward idolizing the League of Nations?

³³ More action than the above was taken. The Peace Treaty was signed on June 28, 1919. The Federal Council Bulletin as of June, 1919, on page 94, said the following in an article entitled “Resolutions Adopted by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in Special Session at Cleveland, Ohio, May 6-8, 1919”:

I. Social Justice . . .

II. National and International Affairs

RESOLVED: That we express our gratitude for the establishment of the League of Nations as agreed upon by the Paris Peace Conference and pledge our support in securing its ratification by the Senate of the United States and our devotion to make it a success.

34. How did the Council’s efforts prove vain?

³⁴ Vain were their efforts. The U. S. Senate never did adopt the Paris Peace Treaty, with its League of Nations charter. The devotion of the Federal Council of the Churches never did make the League of Nations a success. Neither did the devotion of the religious organizations in the British realm of the seventh world power. The League of Nations failed to prevent World War II and the introduction of the atomic bomb. It was formally dissolved on January 10, 1946.

35. As respects God’s Kingdom, what was that Declaration as presented to the Paris Peace Conference? and what action did the churches of Christendom thus take toward the nominal temple of God?

³⁵ Even apart from the prophetic Word of God, the telltale facts of history disclose that the League of Nations was not an earthly image of the Kingdom of God rooted in the Gospel but was a blasphemous man-made counterfeit for the Kingdom of God. It was an idolatrous “image of the wild beast,” to which political beast the great dragon Satan the Devil had given “its power and its throne and great authority.” (Rev. 12:3, 4, 7-9, 13-17; 13:1, 2) The Declaration that the Church Council’s executive committee adopted in Atlantic City and presented by its Special Commission to the Paris Peace Conference in the last part of January, 1919, was a foul blasphemy against the true Kingdom of God. It was a false prophecy that deceived the world and was a disgusting act of idolatry to a beastly “image.” By this action in January, 1919, the religious leaders of Christendom and the politicians of the seventh world power and its allies set an abomination before Jehovah God, a thing disgusting to him. Since the churches of Christendom claimed to be the temple of God, they in effect brought an abominable idol into the religious temple.

36. Whom did Christendom’s churches thus imitate, and what was the seventh world power the instrument in setting up?

³⁶ By setting up this “abomination that makes desolate” the religious clergy of Christendom imitated those who rejected Jesus Christ in 33 (A.D.) and who cried out to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate: “We have no king but Caesar.” (John 19:15) Here the seventh world power became the instrument of the “god of this system of things” in setting up the “abomination that makes desolate,” “the disgusting thing that causes desolation.” (Matt. 24:15) This marks an important point in the count of prophetic time.

“THE TRANSGRESSION THAT MAKES DESOLATE”

37. What is there connected with this desolating abomination, and what did Daniel learn about it from the angel?

³⁷ However, there is a “transgression” that is connected with the “abomination that makes desolate.” Daniel says that an angel asked a question about it: “Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said unto that certain one who spoke: ‘How long shall be the vision concerning the continual burnt-offering, and the transgression that causeth appalment [the transgression that makes desolate, RS], to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled under foot?’ And he said unto me: ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings; then