faith in me will never die at all. Do you believe this?”

Jehovah’s witnesses believe it. This is the hope of the dead and the living. The dead receive it through a resurrection; the living, through the spirit and power of God, who makes this hope both understandable and possible.

The “Time of the End”

“The turning point in our time,” “a dividing line in history,” an “age of violence”—these are terms used by modern historians to describe the epoch that began with the outbreak of World War I. What startling significance lies in their observation? The answer affects your life.

NO DATE in history affects the destiny of every living person so much as the year 1914. That year marked the turning point in the affairs of men. World conditions since 1914 have taken a turn for the worse. War has ravaged the earth, inflation has strangled the world. Countries once prosperous are now plagued with poverty and revolutions. Great empires have collapsed, whole nations and islands hardly known before 1914 have become world problems. Mankind lives in the soul-chilling shadow of atomic annihilation. All this, grimly true as it is, does not explain why world conditions are exactly as they are. It does not explain why 1914 is a turning point. Nor does it explain why 1914 affects your everlasting destiny. What, then, explains the matter? This: in 1914 mankind entered the long-foretold “time of the end.”

Only one book tells of the “time of the end.” That is the Bible. Its prophecies, for the most part, have their major fulfillment in the “time of the end.” Then an understanding of the prophecies would be available to truth seekers: “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Dan. 12:4, AS) Lack of knowledge concerning the “time of the end” leads to death. How vital, then, to have the right answers to certain questions! What is to end? When will it end? How will it end? Who will end it?

Jehovah God has decreed that this earth must eventually become a global paradise, with its inhabitants enjoying everlasting life in perfect health and happiness. So what is to end could not be this literal earth, for the Bible plainly declares: “The earth abideth for ever.” What is to end is this evil system or state of things. This means that the world that mankind has known ever since the days of the Noachian flood will soon be blotted out; a righteous new world will take its place. So the news that 1914 brought the beginning of the end for what the Bible calls the “present wicked system of things” should be a source of great joy for all right-hearted persons.—Eccl. 1:4; Gal. 1:4, NW.

CONSUMMATION OF A SYSTEM OF THINGS

Christ Jesus, the greatest Prophet that ever lived, pointed forward to the “time of the end.” He called it the “consummation of a system of things.” The word “consummation” (Greek, syntéleia) is interesting. This is because syntéleia combines the preposition “with” (syn) with the noun “end” (telʹos). So the word indicates that several things work together or with one another to terminate in a complete end. The consummation (syntéleia) about which the disciples asked is the same as the “time of the end.” It is a period that has a beginning and a completion (telʹos).—Matt. 13:39; 24:3, NW.

How does the “time of the end” come to its completion? It closes with the mighty battle of Armageddon, “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” This war results in the destruction of all the nations of the earth and the abyssing of the Devil and his demons. Since 1914 the Devil has learned he has only “a short period of time.”—Rev. 16:14; 12:12, NW.

But now, how do we know for a certainty that 1914 marks the beginning of the “time of the end”? Because the “Gentile times” or “appointed times of the nations” ended A.D. 1914. Why, as far back as 1880 the Watchtower magazine declared that 1914 would mark the end of the “Gentile times.” Briefly, these “appointed times of the nations” refer to a period when no representative government of Jehovah would exist on earth, but the Gentile nations would dominate the earth. Jesus had said: “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24, NW) With the overthrow of Jehovah’s typical theocratic government, the nation of Israel, in 607 B.C., theocratic rule in the earth ended. “Seven times,” or a period of 2,520 years, must pass before a new theocratic government toward our earth could begin operation. This new government would be a heavenly kingdom under Christ Jesus. The King would rule from heaven while the Devil’s world was still a going concern. So there was need for a sign. True to prophecy, when the 2,520 years of Gentile domination ended in 1914, the great sign of the times made its appearance. In 1914 World War I broke out and the “consummation” or “time of the end” began.

DANIEL AND JESUS FORETELL WORLD WAR

That World War I pointed up the “time of the end” is clear from Daniel’s prophecy. Likening the democratic powers to the “king of the south” and the autocratic powers to the “king of the north,” the prophet wrote: “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through.” (Dan. 11:40, AS) These military movements, affecting the earth from north to south, could not begin, as Daniel says, until the “time of the end.”

Now, from Jesus’ words, we also know that World War I marked the beginning of the “time of the end.” He spoke of the close of the “time of the end” by using the word “telʹos,” meaning “an accomplished end.” Why does not the “accomplished end” occur immediately in 1914, at the close of the “appointed times of the nations”? Jesus explains: “For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress.”—Matt. 24:7, 8, NW.

“PANGS OF DISTRESS” UPON THE NATIONS

The “pangs of distress” began in 1914 with total warfare, an all-out war for global domination, the like of which had never occurred before in history. In explaining further what the “pangs of distress” include, Jesus said there would be “on the earth anguish of nations, not knowing the way out because of the roaring of the sea