39. Thus why would the person resurrected be, not some newly created person like him, but the person that died?

³⁹ Thus in the resurrection that person with that personality and brain ability will be the individual that died, not some other person like him. Nobody else made the record that is reproduced in this resurrected person; and no person who is merely like him could account for having such a record in himself since he did not work out that particular record. So if you were to die and have a resurrection, and God provided a body with a brain like yours and with your record at death, that resurrected person would be you, nobody else but you. Your acquaintances would know it was you.

40. (a) What opportunity will the resurrection of dead souls on earth open up to them? (b) What special opportunity do proclaimers of God’s kingdom today have before them, and why?

⁴⁰ How wonderful that in God’s resurrection of the dead souls we shall know one another and also remember God’s past loving-kindness to us! The resurrection of the dead souls to life on earth will open up an opportunity for them to gain life everlasting on a paradise earth under the perfect government of God’s kingdom. (Luke 23:42, 43, Ro; NW) Besides that, there lives on earth today a great crowd of God-fearing people who are proclaiming God’s kingdom worldwide and who will not need a resurrection from the common grave of dead mankind. These people will survive the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” with which this wicked system of things will end shortly. (Rev. 16:14, 16) Thus without dying they will enter into the new world under God’s kingdom and gain the prize of everlasting life for themselves. They will also be on hand to welcome back the earthly dead in the resurrection. But that is a subject for discussion some other time.

Patient Endurance Brings Rewards

One of Jehovah’s witnesses from Ohio related this experience at an assembly in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1962: “About ten to twelve years ago I was working in a little village where I knew nearly everyone, and everyone knew me. When I knocked on one door the lady said, ‘Come in. I’m a Seventh-day Adventist, and there never has been one of Jehovah’s witnesses in my house. In fact, I wouldn’t have let you in if I hadn’t known you. I know enough about the Bible to know there is only one truth, only one religion that God recognizes. We can’t both be right. I want the truth, and I don’t care where it comes from. If my religion can’t stand any test, it isn’t worth much.’ I agreed, ‘We both can’t be right. Like you, I want a religion that can stand any test.’

“So on this basis a Bible study was started in the book ‘Let God Be True.’ We did fine over a period of time till we came to the chapter on the sabbath. During the next six to eight years this person stopped and then resumed the study many times, and the chapter on the sabbath was studied perhaps ten or more times with different Witnesses. During the past five or six years she has been coming to the Kingdom Hall now and then. One never knew who would be with her; maybe her husband, sister, daughter or other relative, or one of the neighbors. In 1960, she started preaching the good news of the Kingdom with me. She is a regular publisher. In September, 1962, she and her sister were baptized. Today one of my greatest joys is to hear her explain the sabbath from the Bible to a person of goodwill.”