the communistic governments, individual publishers of the good news of God’s kingdom have stuck to their ministry and preached to people whenever and wherever possible. So in the 1951 service year new peaks of workers were established in Czechoslovakia (3,705), Hungary (2,583) and Yugoslavia (617) in the face of violent opposition and the jailing of hundreds. More than 15,000 reported in Poland, too. Publishers are at work in the other “red” countries and occasionally they are heard from. All this stands as proof that the message of final warning is being sounded, even as Jehovah foretold in the Bible prophecies, and the fearlessness and faithfulness of Jehovah’s witnesses as they stand for clean, undefiled worship before God’s enemies and theirs “is a proof of destruction for [the enemies], but of salvation for [Jehovah’s faithful ones]; and this indication is from God”.—Phil. 1:27-29, NW.

Publish Uplift and Comfort for the Poor

TODAY poverty is the lot of the great majority of mankind, nearly all of whom look upon material prosperity as the chief good in life. But why set your heart on something unlikely of realization? And even if realized, what have you? Burdens, anxieties and temptations that plunge men into destruction.—1 Tim. 6:9, NW.

Spiritual poverty is even more widespread than lack of material riches, but those who appreciate their spiritual poverty are truly wise. How so? Because God has made it possible for these to become spiritually rich.

Jesus illustrated this change from spiritual poverty to spiritual felicity and prosperity in the parable or illustration of the rich man and Lazarus.a A parable? Yes, for “without an illustration [Jesus] would not speak to them”, and to take it literally involves us in many inconsistencies and absurdities. For one thing, note that nothing is said about the rich man as being wicked or the poor man as being good. Certainly it is inconceivable that such all-important facts would have been overlooked if the account were to serve as a warning to evildoers.—Matt. 13:34; Luke 16:19-31, NW.

Briefly, the illustration shows the following: When Jesus began his ministry he found a class of men who were like the rich man in that they were rich in honor, position and spiritual advantages, the scribes, Pharisees, lawyers and priests. They were proud, haughty, self-righteous, and considered themselves the custodians of the sacred pronouncements.—Matt. 23:2; John 8:39; Luke 16:15; Rom. 3:2, NW.

On the other hand, Lazarus, whose name means “God is helper”, fittingly pictures the poor and humble lovers of righteousness who appreciated their spiritual need. These, in the eyes of the religious leaders, were morally diseased and fit company for dogs, uncircumcised Gentiles.—Matt. 15:26, 27; Luke 18:9-14; John 7:49, NW.

The ministry of Christ Jesus brought about a great change in the condition of each, well pictured by their death. The spiritually poor were comforted by the truth, and by reason of their faith and consistent course of action were brought into God’s favor, well pictured by Abraham’s bosom. (Matt. 5:3-12; 11:28-30; Luke 22:28-30; John 13:23, NW) On the other hand, the plain teaching of Jesus brought so much torment to the religious leaders that they caused Jesus to be murdered. With Pentecost the tormenting message was again heralded forth. They were no more given relief from this torment than was the rich man in the illustration.—Matt. 21:45, 46; 23:1-36; Acts 5:27-33, NW.

Today we see the same thing but on a much larger scale. Again there is the proud and rich, selfish and spiritually favored clergy class; and again we see a lowly class of persons who appreciate their spiritual poverty. Again the preaching of the truth brings torment to the spiritually rich and comfort to the poor, helping them to come into the position of favor with Jehovah God. As the prophet foretold: “Jehovah . . . raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the needy from the dunghill; that he may set him with princes.”—Ps. 113:1, 7, 8, AS.

[Footnotes]

Questions From Readers

● Do the courts of the land have the right to inflict capital punishment on those guilty of murder?—M. W., Washington.

No individual on his own has the right to execute another person because that one has committed a murder. However, we would not say that the community could not do so, acting through its legally constituted courts of law. If a person has been given a fair trial, and irrefutable evidence has been presented that that person is a murderer, then it seems that the community must take some action to protect its citizens. We have always said that jails are not Jehovah’s means of punishment, so we would hardly be consistent in arguing that it would be more in harmony with Jehovah’s law for a murderer to be imprisoned for life than for the murderer to be put to death. Jehovah’s law on the matter was that a murderer should be punished by death, not by imprisonment. If a person is a self-confessed murderer, or has been proved to be such without any shadow of doubt, then the community must take some action against the individual, rather than let him go free to commit further crimes.

At 1 Peter 4:15 the apostle said: “Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a busybody in other people’s matters.” (NW) Then the apostle goes on to show that if we suffer as a Christian we should not feel shame. Peter’s words seem to imply that it was proper for a murderer to suffer for his crime, and we know what the penalty was from God’s standpoint, namely, death, and not imprisonment. Peter does not argue that a murderer should not suffer merely because no man was present to act as an appointed executioner from Jehovah. In Peter’s day the duly constituted authorities of the community were the ones who brought the suffering or punishment upon a murderer, and Peter makes no objection to this practice.

The apostle Paul also seems to take the same position, only he puts it even more clearly. Acts 25:10, 11 (NW) states: “Paul said: ‘I am standing before the judgment seat of Caesar, where I ought to be judged. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also are finding out quite well. If, on the one hand, I am really a wrongdoer and have committed anything deserving of death, I do not beg off from dying; if, on the other hand, none of those things exists of which these men accuse me, no man can hand me over to them as a favor. I appeal to Caesar!’” Please note that here while standing before the judgment seat of Caesar, the duly constituted authority of the community, and not an executioner appointed by Jehovah God, Paul went on record as saying that if he had done anything deserving of death, he would not beg off from dying. This certainly seems to mean that Paul considered the properly constituted civil authorities as having power to inflict the death sentence. Rather than argue that such a human court did not have this power, he seemed to indicate that it did have the power and he would not object to the exercise of that power against him if he had committed anything deserving of death; and certainly a