a better way than Abel’s blood.” (Heb. 12:22-24) This heavenly kingdom to which we have approached is a “kingdom that cannot be shaken.” It will remain all through this “time of the end” of this world, when Jehovah God is shaking heaven and earth in order to remove this old faithless order of things.—Heb. 12:26-28.

43. How can we now pay more than the usual attention to God’s Son as respects Matthew 24:14?

⁴³ In fulfillment of Jesus’ own prophecy, the good news of this established kingdom is being preached in all the inhabited earth as a witness to all the nations before these are rocked to pieces and removed forever. (Matt. 24:14; Mark 13:10) To that prophecy spoken by God’s Son let us pay more than the usual attention by taking as full a direct part in it as we possibly can. Do so in faith. Preach!

44. What quality is this specially the time for us to have, and with what lasting good result?

⁴⁴ Of all times this is the time to have faith, to mature our faith by increasing our knowledge and understanding, and to prove our faith by teaching it to others. Our faith undergoing perfection will never let us draw back to eternal disaster, the destruction of our souls. Our faith in perfection will lead to God’s preserving of our souls alive forever. Where? In the new order of things, with its “new heavens” and with its “inhabited earth to come” subjected, not to mere angels, but to God’s Son of sons, Jesus Christ, the Chief Agent and Perfecter of our faith.

We Need Jehovah’s Organization

IT WAS with good reason that Jesus Christ likened the worshipers of Jehovah to gregarious sheep. Like sheep, they need one another and the loving oversight of a shepherd. That it is Jehovah’s will for them to be together in one flock instead of being scattered, having a separate spiritual existence, is made evident by what Jesus said in the tenth chapter of John. In the eleventh verse Joh 10:11 he identifies himself as their shepherd, saying: “I am the fine shepherd; the fine shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep.” Then in verse sixteen Joh 10:16 he states: “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; those also I must bring, and they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock, one shepherd.” This gathering of worshipers of Jehovah into one flock shows that it is his purpose for them to be in close association with one another.

Jesus would not have likened Christians to sheep in one flock and one fold if it were not God’s purpose for them to be together in an organization. His spirit is where the Fine Shepherd and the flock are. How can a person expect to continue under the influence of that spirit if he separates from the flock and seeks to live a solitary spiritual life? It is like separating a coal from a bed of coals. As the coal soon cools because of its being separated from the fire, so the spiritual flame in a dedicated servant of God will soon cool and die out when he willfully separates from the flock where Jehovah’s spirit is.

Regarding straying sheep, Jesus said: “What do you think? If a certain man comes to have a hundred sheep and one of them gets strayed, will he not leave the ninety-nine upon the mountains and set out on a search for the one that is straying? And if he happens to find it, I certainly tell you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that have not strayed. Likewise it is not a desirable thing with my Father who is in heaven for one of these little ones to perish.” (Matt. 18:12-14) With the flock of God’s organization there is safety, but there is grave danger in straying from it.

Being in the Christian flock involves more than just belief in Christian teachings. It also means contact with the organization of Jehovah’s worshipers. When sheep are in a flock, they are in physical association with one another. This also is necessary with Christians. The apostle Paul made that clear when he said: “Let us consider one another to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together, as some have the custom, but encouraging one another, and all the more so as you behold the day drawing near.” (Heb. 10:24, 25) Is not a person forsaking the gathering with dedicated worshipers of Jehovah when he tries to live a solitary spiritual life, having no physical association with the Christian flock? Jesus would not have given his illustration likening Christians to a flock of sheep if he did not believe that worshipers of Jehovah need the Christian organization.

EARLY CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATION

The apostles became the principal overseers of the early Christian organization. Those who became Christians looked to them as the channel Jehovah was using to instruct them and guide them in true worship. When there was a dispute among them, they would turn to the apostles for a decision. An instance of this was when a dispute arose in the congregation at Syrian Antioch over the question of circumcision. The congregation sent Paul and Barnabas to the headquarters of the Christian organization at Jerusalem for a decision. “But when there had occurred no little dissension and disputing by Paul and Barnabas with them [the men who were disturbing the congregation], they arranged for Paul and Barnabas and some others of them to go up to the apostles and older men in Jerusalem regarding this dispute.” (Acts 15:2) There a ruling was handed down by the governing body and it was carried to all the congregations. “Now as they traveled on through the cities they would deliver to those there for observance the decrees that had been decided upon by the apostles and older men who were in Jerusalem.”—Acts 16:4.

The governing body of the Christian organization in the first century sent out traveling representatives who began new congregations and visited established ones. They had the authority to appoint persons to positions of oversight in the congregations so that the local organization would function smoothly and fulfill its purpose. (Acts 14:23) At 1 Timothy 3:1-13, we read some of the organizational instructions that Paul, a representative of the governing body, gave regarding overseers and ministerial servants. Thus it can be seen that the early Christians were in one fold that formed an organization. That was where they found Jehovah’s spirit, and that was where they received Scriptural