on earth? Yes; but from the year 1919 onward. Well, then, why is it we do not find men within Jehovah’s visible organization designated as “princes”? It is because in this world that term carries a political connection. In the original Hebrew of the Bible the word has a broader meaning and may apply to a variety of services in which a man of God is a captain, chief or foremost one in a department of service or in a group or class. In this world the word “prince” carries with it a sort of glamour so that we glorify it out of its proper proportions. But in the Hebrew text the word meant not mere loftiness of a person’s position but also heavy responsibility and hard work in carrying it out. Note now how God’s Word foretold the putting of faithful Christian witnesses of Jehovah in such responsible positions toward his kingdom and how he has fulfilled this word.

21. According to what God foretold, when was it to be that he would put men in such positions?

²¹ God foretold that he would do this in the time when he restored the faithful remnant of his people to the privileges of his theocratic organization. It is noteworthy that when Jehovah’s anointed King, Christ Jesus, first publicly presented himself to his chosen people the time was one of restoration for them. That is why Jesus went throughout the land of Palestine preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” If there was no repentance, there was to be no restoration for the unrepentant Jews. That was why, too, in the synagogue at Nazareth he read Isaiah’s prophecy which foretold Jesus’ anointing to “preach a release to the captives and a recovery of sight to the blind, to send the crushed ones away with a release”. (Matt. 4:17 and Luke 4:18, NW) Only a remnant of the Jews believed, fully repenting of their sins against Jehovah’s covenant, and these were restored from the Babylonish bondage into which their apostate religious leaders had forced them. They were ushered into Christian liberty and were assigned privileges of service in Jehovah’s free theocratic organization. This is also true of Christ’s second coming in his kingdom.

22. In what way is the kingdom by Christ a restoration? What has its establishment meant to Jehovah’s people?

²² The kingdom of Christ Jesus is itself a restoration of Jehovah’s rulership of the earth by his anointed King. It is also His means for restoring all people who desire to come into the favor of God and live eternally under his universal sovereignty. Mindful of how God had overturned his typical kingdom in Israel at the hands of the Babylonian empire in 607 B.C., the apostle Peter called to mind that Jehovah had promised to restore the kingdom with a king of David’s line. So at the temple he said to the Jews: “Repent, therefore, and turn around so as to get your sins blotted out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the person of Jehovah and that he may send forth the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven, indeed, must contain within itself until the times of restoration of all things of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets of old time.” (Acts 3:19-21, NW) Consequently, since the sending forth of Christ Jesus with Kingdom power in 1914 it is a time of restoration with respect to Jehovah’s people on earth. Not just a restoration of lost truths. No; but also a restoration of the Kingdom arrangement among his people, a restoration of the theocratic organization which recognizes and submits to the universal sovereignty of Jehovah God, the King of eternity.

23. Why is it since 1919 that this restoration has taken place for them?

²³ Since the Kingdom was born in 1914, why do we say that this restoration took place for his people on earth since 1919? Because during World War I, which began in 1914, Jehovah’s anointed remnant on earth did not have proper understanding. They were still tainted with Babylonish things and did not have the theocratic method in operation among them. So they yielded to fear and to unwarranted interference from the ruling elements of this world and came into a Babylonish bondage and were taken into exile from Jehovah’s organization. But in 1919 Jehovah God, for his own name’s sake, brought about their release. By his spirit he moved them to reorganize for Kingdom service in the postwar period. In this way he restored them as his active organization; and by his Word and spirit he infused courage and boldness for the Kingdom and its King into them.

24. How did this affect their eyes, ears, hearts and tongues?

²⁴ Christ Jesus approved of his remnant as a “faithful and discreet slave” and set this slave class over all his earthly belongings. Then by the theocratic organization Jehovah led them from one truth to another, opening the eyes of their hearts and the ears of their understanding to see and hear these truths. Being taught to be reasonable and levelheaded by such truths, they no longer acted rashly or hastily, rushing into sin, but they gained true knowledge and they spoke with understanding, with a certainty of belief, and with the courage of conviction, no longer stammering in fear and unsureness. It turned out just as the third verse of Isaiah’s prophecy had said it would be when the king reigned in righteousness and his princes ruled in justice: “And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. And the heart of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.”—Matt. 24:45-47, NW; Isaiah 32:3, 4, AS; Isa 29:18, 19; 35:3-6.

25. Because of what obstructors did God lead his people to see the need of theocratic organization, and what did he promise?

²⁵ Because of their activities in preaching to all nations the good news that God’s kingdom was established in 1914, the Greater Assyrian, Satan the Devil, now cast out of heaven, stormed with rage against them. He tried to break up their organization by persecution, by laws framed with mischievous intent, and by the power of dictatorial and totalitarian governments. Among the remnant there still lingered ambitious persons who wanted to shine in official positions rather than to work with the Kingdom interests and who therefore acted as obstructors of the Kingdom witness. Hence God led his people to see that for their safety and for their unity and harmonious activity they must have restored among them theocratic organization. This meant carrying on their organization with God as Ruler, as he is on top, and with all creatures on earth being in subjection to him as Supreme Sovereign, rather than imitating worldly democracy or people’s rule. Jehovah had foretold this cleansing of his remnant of anointed witnesses when he said to his typical organization of old: “Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries [get satisfaction for myself on my enemies (AT)], and avenge me of mine enemies; and I will turn my hand upon thee, and thoroughly purge away thy dross, and will take away all thy tin [alloy]; and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteousness, a faithful town.”—Isa. 1:24-26, AS, margin.

Theocratic Organization Re-established

1. Following the remnant’s restoration in 1919, how were judges restored as at the first and counselors as at the beginning?

SO THERE was to be a restoration of judges as at the first when Jehovah was King in Israel, and a restoration of counselors as at their theocratic beginning. This followed on the restoration of Jehovah’s faithful remnant in 1919, when they came back to Zion, God’s capital in which his beloved Son Jesus Christ was reigning since 1914. The King Jesus Christ acted as Judge of the remnant to show them their faults and their taints of worldliness and to cleanse them and to deliver them from oppressive Great Babylon, Satan’s world organization. He acted as a royal Counselor to them by unfolding the meaning of God’s Word to them, in this way fulfilling the prophecy, “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor.” Under the guidance of this heavenly Interpreter the remnant carefully examined God’s Word and found in it a “multitude of counsellors” for their safety. (Isa. 9:6; Prov. 11:14; 15:22; 24:6) By his restored Judge Jesus Christ, Jehovah cleansed away their soils from Babylon. The Judge’s angels, like court attendants, gathered out the obstructors and lawless ones and stumblingblocks from among the remnant. He revealed to the remnant the judgment of the great Lawgiver Jehovah, namely, that his organization is theocratic, God-ruled, and that this is the way his visible organization of his remnant on earth must be.

2. Like what appointer of judges was Jehovah not going backward?

² Jehovah God was not here going backward, acting like a reactionary and overturning that which represented real progress among his people on earth. He is not like the president of the United States of America when he appoints judges to the Supreme Court of the land who have no sincere appreciation of the progressive rulings of previous liberal justices. By these rulings Jehovah’s witnesses have gained victories in the past, but the new judges try to subvert these by reactionary decisions. No, Jehovah is not like that chief executive when he appoints judges and arbiters to boards of appeal who hate the very ground Jehovah’s witnesses walk on and who flout the laws of Congress and try to override such by refusing to grant any due advantages, immunities and allowances to Jehovah’s ministers of the good news of the Kingdom. Jehovah does not abrogate his Word, his Constitution for us, even though it was completed nineteen centuries ago at the completion of the Holy Bible. No; he upholds it, and his great Judge Jesus Christ sticks to it rather than swing back against it to bowl it over. Those who proclaim the judgments of Jehovah God today must do likewise. By reason of this we have the kind of judges and counselors as obtained at first, in the babyhood of the Christian congregation.

3. So from what does restoration of theocratic rule release us?

³ If we keep up with God’s Word it means progressiveness. Swinging away from His Word denotes reaction, a movement backward. We can never get ahead of God’s Word. The obstructors of theocratic rule are the ones who are the reactionaries, for they are trying to swing the organization of God’s people back to the worldly method by which they were