twinkling of an eye.” (1 Cor. 15:52) If we are of the other sheep it will be just like going to sleep one second and awaking the next. It will not be to us a long, miserable wait. For death is complete absence of life and consciousness—nothingness. On awaking in the new world one’s first thought would probably be a completion of the thought with which he died. Enoch, who will awake with his vision of the new world still in mind, is an example. (Heb. 11:5) While all of Jehovah’s witnesses desire to live and preach as long as Jehovah wills, they do not fear death.

24. How should Christians look upon death in view of this hope?

²⁴ At the death of their loved ones Christians are not like others. They do not sorrow overmuch. While recognizing death as an enemy, they do not go beyond natural love and affection and permit sadness to affect their integrity-keeping course in Jehovah’s service. Rather, they continue more firmly, knowing that faithful service will assure them of a place in the new world, so they will be able to see their loved ones again in the resurrection.

25. Why should the resurrection hope stir us to greater activity now?

²⁵ What a loving, thoughtful God we serve! His resurrection promise should stir us to greater activity now. The time is steadily drawing closer when it will be a reality, not only to members of the 144,000, resurrected since 1918, but to those who will live on earth. Think of the joy Christ and his heavenly joint heirs will have as their hands lovingly administer the merit of Christ’s ransom sacrifice during Christ’s great kingdom sabbath to lift billions of earth’s dead out of the pit of death. (Luke 14:5; John 5:26; 6:53) Think of the joy of Jehovah’s other sheep in the paradise earth when the notification comes from Jehovah, telling his organization to prepare to receive the resurrected dead. Then they will have superabounding joy arranging for feeding, housing, educating and training the resurrected multitudes to fill their places in the New World society. What a grand convention that will be! Wonderful, heart-cheering to look to the time when Sheol-Haʹdes, “gravedom,” is destroyed by the resurrection and when, finally, perfected human society stands before God at the thousand years’ end and, passing the test, hears God’s expressed approval, justifying them as worthy of permanent life on this beautified globe. The resurrection miracle, multiplied a billionfold, will have brilliantly accomplished God’s purposes in victory over death, never needing repetition in the endless ages to come.

Questions From Readers

● Will persons who committed suicide to preserve the honor of the family name, or for some other reason according to the custom of Japan, come up in the resurrection? Also, will murderers be resurrected?—K. H., Japan.

The Jewish nation was in covenant with Jehovah God, and their law said: “You must take no ransom for the soul of a murderer who is deserving to die, for without fail he should be put to death.” Nor could a Christian commit murder and live: “Everyone who hates his brother is a manslayer, and you know that no manslayer has everlasting life remaining in him.” Inasmuch as suicide is self-murder, the same view may be taken of it as of murder. So if anyone who has dedicated his life to Jehovah God sanely takes his life in suicide, or deliberately murders another person, it is doubtful that Jehovah would remember such a person in the resurrection.—Num. 35:31; 1 John 3:15, NW.

However, in the case of a person that did not know Jehovah’s law and was not a dedicated servant of God it would be different. If he died a suicide or as a murderer he would certainly die guilty of grievous sin; but there are many other grievous sins, and for them repentance is possible. At one time Paul wrote some Christians that they had once been extremely immoral and depraved, but had been washed clean because of their repentance of and abandonment of such sinning and their acceptance of Jehovah’s arrangement through Christ. Elsewhere the Bible speaks of murderers failing to repent, which implies repentance was possible for them under certain conditions. (1 Cor. 6:9-11; Rev. 9:21, NW) The sins of suicide and murder need not be sins against the holy spirit, and, if not, would be forgivable. Sin is sin, regardless of what kind, and a resurrection for a suicide or a murderer not in the truth would depend more on how deeply he was steeped in paganism or demonism, on his ability to repent and be recovered from the depths of heathenism, than on the specific sin or sins committed previously. It is Jehovah God and Christ Jesus who will judge this capacity to repent and this ability to recover and who will decide whether to resurrect certain individuals or not. We are content to let the matter rest in their capable, just, merciful hands.

● Some think it is wrong to hunt and fish, while others see no wrong in such pursuits. Some who think hunting permissible do contend, however, that the game should be thoroughly bled immediately after it is shot to avoid violating the prohibition of eating blood. This bleeding is not generally done. What is the Scriptural view concerning these matters?—A. A., United States.

We must neither condemn what Jehovah approves nor approve what Jehovah condemns. The Bible speaks of “unreasoning animals born naturally to be caught and destroyed.” Some argue this applies only after the Noachian flood. But it was true in Eden, when “Jehovah God proceeded to make long garments of skin for Adam and for his wife and to clothe them.” Also, long before the flood Abel was approved for offering an animal sacrifice, whereas disapproved Cain did not engage in killing animals for sacrifice but offered bloodless field products.—2 Pet. 2:12; Gen. 3:21; 4:3-5, NW.

After the Flood man was permitted to kill animals for various reasons. The Mosaic law required the slaughter of different kinds for sacrifice, and animal skins or leather were properly used for not only garments but also such things as shoes, belts, containers, writing material and tabernacle parts and accessories. (Lev. 1:5, 10, 14; 13:59; Ezek. 16:10; Mark 6:9; 2 Ki. 1:8; Matt. 3:4; 9:17, NW; 2 Tim. 4:13; Ex. 26:14; Num. 4:6-14) If an animal killed a person it was to die: “In case an ox should gore a man or a woman and that one actually dies, the ox is to be stoned without fail.” If animals were destructive of man’s property or crops they could be caught and destroyed: “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes, that are despoiling the vineyards, since our vineyards are in bloom.”—Ex. 21:28, NW; Cant. 2:15, AT.

Animals may also be used for food, with the exception of the blood: “Every creeping animal that is alive may serve as food for you. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to you. Only flesh with its soul—its blood—you must not eat.” During the wilderness sojourn Israelites wanting to eat animals suitable for sacrifice had to slay them at the tabernacle so the priest could sprinkle the blood upon Jehovah’s altar. When they had settled in the Promised Land and it would have been too great a hardship to bring animals suitable for sacrifice to the temple at Jerusalem, they could slaughter the animals at home and pour the blood out on the ground and cover it with dust. This was the same way the blood of wild game, such as the gazelle and the stag, was to be disposed of. (Gen. 9:3, 4; Lev. 17:3-6; Deut. 12:15, 16, 20-24, NW) Hunting for food was permitted, but the hunter was warned to bleed his game: “As for any man of the sons of Israel or some temporary resident who is residing for a while in your midst who in hunting catches a wild beast or a fowl that may be eaten, he must in that case pour its blood out and cover it with dust. For the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood by the soul in it. Consequently I said to the sons of Israel, ‘You must not eat the blood of any sort of flesh, because the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood. Anyone eating it will be cut off.’”—Lev. 17:13, 14, NW.

If the hunter failed to bleed his game properly he was put to death, or “cut off.” To eat unbled game not only was prohibited to Israelites under the Law, but also is forbidden for Christians: “Keep yourselves free from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things killed without draining their blood and from fornication.” (Acts 15:29; 21:25, NW) Immediately following the instruction to hunters to bleed their game and that to eat blood will mean their death, we read: “As for any soul that eats a dead body or something torn