‘Dedicated to the Great God Jehovah Forever’

IN APRIL 1935, a well-known American minister and speaker visited Hawaii. This was of special interest to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who numbered only 12 at that time, since this renowned visitor was Joseph F. Rutherford, the second president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. The talk “Who Shall Rule the World?” discussed the incoming world rulership of God’s Kingdom. It was given in a local high school auditorium and received much publicity.

God’s name and his Kingdom have been the theme of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ preaching activity since their modern-day inception. So it is of interest to all who appreciate and use the personal name of the almighty God, Jehovah, that the Hawaiian equivalent, Iehova, was commonly used by early Hawaiian worshipers. One of the first churches built by Christendom’s ministers in Hawaii, the stone church at Kawaiahao in Honolulu, had its cornerstone laid in 1839. Inscribed on this dedication stone are the words: “To Iehova our God forever and ever.”

Since 1935, when Judge Rutherford visited, the work of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hawaii has grown from only 12 active Witnesses to over 5,400 today. They are truly ‘dedicated to the great God Jehovah forever.’