THE APPOINTED ONE WITH WHOM NATIONS MUST RECKON

11. What did Jesus, shortly before his death, tell his disciples about world hatred, and why will the nations have to reckon with him in a violent war?

¹¹ When Jesus Christ was on earth as a perfect man, he had his enemies. It is not strange, then, that he still has enemies on earth after his enthronement as king in heaven since “the appointed times of the nations” ended in 1914. (Luke 21:24) Some hours before his martyr’s death he said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18) Today the world has not turned to loving Jesus Christ. Not even Christendom has done so. Her persecution of the true Christlike disciples proves that. The worldly nations would like to block the enthroned Jesus Christ from ruling over mankind. They would like to limit his rulership to heaven and to keep rulership of the earth for themselves perpetually. So the cause of truth, humility and righteousness is implicated. Because the worldly nations have taken such an unyielding stand since the Gentile Times ended in 1914, they will have to reckon with Jesus Christ in a violent war.

12. Because of what would confront the newly enthroned King, what did Psalm 45:3-5 tell him to do?

¹² What would confront the newly enthroned Messianic king was foreseen by the psalmist under inspiration. Hence, he went on to write as with the “stylus of a skilled copyist”: “Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, with your dignity and your splendor. And in your splendor go on to success; ride in the cause of truth and humility and righteousness, and your right hand will instruct you in fear-inspiring things. Your arrows are sharp​—under you peoples keep falling—​in the heart of the enemies of the king.”​—Ps. 45:3-5.

13. How does the psalmist’s description help us to identify the one seen in vision in Revelation 6:1, 2, and who is the one identified?

¹³ Arrows require a bow for propulsion. Hence, the psalmist’s description helps us to identify who is pictured in Revelation 6:1, 2, where the Christian apostle John speaks of a vision and says: “I saw when the Lamb [Jesus Christ] opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice as of thunder: ‘Come!’ And I saw, and, look! a white horse; and the one seated upon it had a bow; and a crown was given him, and he went forth conquering and to complete his conquest.” That crowned bowman astride the white horse pictured the glorified Jesus Christ proceeding to war against his enemies. Victory to a completion is what he aims for. His conquest must be earth wide.

14. Why is the newly inaugurated King a “mighty one,” even as foretold in Isaiah 9:6?

¹⁴ In his dignity and splendor, as of an officially inaugurated king, Jesus Christ girds himself with the sword of war in order to lift it up against the opposing nations on earth. Being no longer a man of flesh and blood, but clothed with heavenly powers, he is now indeed a “mighty one.” The prophecy of Isaiah 9:6 says that one of his titles was to be “Mighty God.” The heavily armed nations of today must yet learn to know him as such a mighty one.

15. In contrast with his triumphal ride into Jerusalem, why will Jesus Christ ride a horse when reckoning with the nations?

¹⁵ Once, like King Solomon at his coronation, Jesus Christ rode a peaceful ass when he made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, offering himself to her as the king of David’s line. (Matt. 21:1-14; Zech. 9:9) But when, shortly, he rides forth in the cause of truth, humility and righteousness, he will, figuratively speaking, ride a war steed. Properly so, for he has a reckoning to carry out with those who violate truth, humility and righteousness.

16. What truth have national governments trampled underfoot despite notification by Jehovah’s Witnesses?

¹⁶ A few days after Jesus rode the ass into Jerusalem, he told Governor Pilate that he had come into the world to bear witness to the truth. That was primarily the truth about God’s kingdom, about which he had just borne witness to Pilate. (1 Tim. 6:13) Today the governments of nations trample that truth underfoot, even though Jehovah by His witnesses has notified them that the Gentile Times of world domination by them ran out in 1914.

17. The cause of what class has Jesus Christ championed, and why must he fight for a new order of righteousness?

¹⁷ Worldly rulers show no humility before God. They do not yield peacefully to earth’s rightful King, Jesus Christ, who showed the greatest humility before God and who championed all the helpless humble ones on earth, especially his persecuted disciples. Now in these “last days” man’s unrighteousness has “gone to seed,” with more and more lawlessness spreading alarmingly. Mankind needs to be given a new start in righteousness. Hence, the Warrior King Jesus Christ must ride in the cause of righteousness and fight for the establishment of a new order over all the earth.​—Isa. 26:9.

18. What warning is given to the nations by the words to the King, “your right hand will instruct you in fear-inspiring things,” and how is the wholesale slaughter indicated in Psalm 45:5?

¹⁸ In modern times, warfare has gone far beyond the use of swords and arrows. Military superpowers now count on using nuclear and neutron bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles. But they should not think that the glorified Jesus Christ cannot surprise them with scientific weapons of war even superior to theirs. Psalm 45:4 sounds the warning to the nations that Christ’s right hand will instruct him in “fear-inspiring things.” His superhuman missiles will not be less accurate than man-made missiles in striking their human targets. With deadly aim, they will hit “the heart of the enemies of the king.” The wholesale slaughter resulting is indicated by the wartime news release that under him “peoples keep falling” in his fight for truth, humility and righteousness.​—Ps. 45:5.

19. What should persons “shocked” by such a picture of Christ and his heavenly Father ask about their own nations, and how will the earth polluted with innocent blood be cleansed?

¹⁹ People of Christendom today may say that such a prospect pictures Jesus Christ as a spiller of blood and his heavenly Father as a cruel, bloodthirsty God. Such persons may claim to be shocked at the presenting of God and Jesus Christ in such a way. But how do they feel about the nations of Christendom of which such persons are patriotic citizens? Are the hands of such nations clean from the stain of blood, shed, not in theocratic warfare, but in unchristian warfare? Let such bloodguilty nations recall that, after the deluge that wiped out all of earth’s population except Noah and his family inside the ark, God said to them: “Anyone shedding man’s blood, by man will his own blood be shed, for in God’s image he made man.” (Gen. 9:6) Christendom has led the nations in shedding blood by political wars, religious crusades and persecuting conscientious Christians who stuck to the Bible. In what way, then, will the ground polluted by human blood be cleansed? Only by the shedding of the blood of the bloodguilty to balance the scales of justice.

20. How does this harmonize with God’s law concerning cities of refuge for unintentional manslayers, and how will our earth be made fit for Paradise to be established upon it?

²⁰ This harmonizes with God’s law concerning the cities of refuge that he set up in Israel for unintentional manslayers. By means of the prophet Moses, he said: “You must not pollute the land in which you are; because it is blood that pollutes the land, and for the land there may be no atonement respecting the blood that has been spilled upon it except by the blood of the one spilling it. And you must not defile the land in which you are dwelling, in the midst of which I am residing; for I Jehovah am residing in the midst of the sons of Israel.” (Num. 35:33, 34) If ever our blood-polluted earth is to be made fit in order that Paradise may be established here for man’s everlasting home, it must be cleansed. The innocent blood spilled upon it must be atoned for by the blood of the nations who today threaten us with a third world war.

21. Why with respect to justice must God give Christ the victory, and what good will the nations’ combining forces in the United Nations do them?

²¹ For this just reason all the nations must shortly reckon with Jesus Christ. He must gain the victory over them. Otherwise the claims of justice would not be satisfied. Jehovah God will give him the victory over them. The combining of their forces in the United Nations organization will not spare them utter defeat. They will fight against the Kingdom interests of the once-sacrificed Lamb of God, and concerning this the last book of the Bible says: “These have one thought, and so they give their power and authority to the wild beast [the United Nations]. These will battle with the Lamb, but, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, the Lamb will conquer them.” (Rev. 17:13, 14) About that fight we further read:

22, 23. (a) What does Revelation 19:11-16, 19 further tell us about that fight? (b) Where is the war fought, and how is the innocent blood shed on earth atoned for, in cleansing the earth?

²² “Look! a white horse. And the one seated upon it is called Faithful and True, and he judges and carries on war in righteousness. . . . Upon his head are many diadems. . . . He is arrayed with an outer garment sprinkled with blood, and the name he is called is The Word of God. Also, the armies that were in heaven were following him on white horses, and they were clothed in white, clean, fine linen. . . . And upon his outer garment, even upon his thigh, he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

²³ “And I saw the wild beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage the war with the one seated on the horse and with his army.” (Rev. 19:11-16, 19) Because the gathered nations insist on their national sovereignty and perpetual man-rule of all the earth, they force the fight that ensues. The world situation to which they bring matters to a climax is likened to the battlefield that, in Hebrew, is called Har–Magedon. (Rev. 16:14-16) There “the war of the great day of God the Almighty” is fought. There the blood of all the nations must atone for all the innocent blood with which they polluted the earth. Thus the whole earth will be cleansed for Paradise to be established here earth wide.

24. Will any of the nations survive that day of reckoning, and about what should we as individuals be concerned?

²⁴ What a day of reckoning that will be for all the nations of the earth, whether inside or outside Christendom! Will any of those nations survive that day? That was the vital question that we raised earlier in this discussion. And now the answer definitely is, No! Not one! That is why we, who are citizens of these doomed nations, should be seriously concerned. We should like to learn how we as individuals can survive guilt-free.

1. Why will the nations not gain the victory at Har–Magedon, and how will their accounts on the day of reckoning be settled?

THE “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon is inexorably ahead for all earthly nations. Although heavily armed as never before for global warfare, they could never be expected to gain the victory over the Almighty God. As Commander in Chief of all the heavenly armies, he will give the victory to his grand Field Marshal, Jesus Christ, because this one is “King of kings and Lord of lords.” He will hold the final day of reckoning with all the opposed nations. Weighed in the scales of divine justice, they will be found wanting. Their accounts will be settled by their everlasting destruction.​—Rev. 19:11-21; 17:14.

2. Why were the words of Psalm 45:6, 7 addressed to the King after the fight, and what does his wielding of the scepter betoken for mankind?

² The victory at Har–Magedon will vindicate the universal sovereignty of God the Almighty. Because he successfully uses Jesus Christ to gain this victory, God will count him worthy to retain his heavenly throne.