Chapter 16

Awaiting the “New Heavens and a New Earth”

1, 2. (a) Persons in their seventies or eighties have seen what changes in the world since the year 1914? (b) How has what they have observed matched what Jesus foretold, as recorded at Luke 21:25, 26, concerning the “conclusion of the system of things”?

A NEW and better world is at hand​—as this generation nears its end. There is no room for doubt about this. By the word “world” we mean a human society living under a form of government. (Matthew 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32) We older folks of “this generation” in our seventies or in our eighties have seen the present “world” change for the worse, steadily deteriorating since that epoch-making year of 1914 C.E. We, of all persons alive on earth today, can bear witness to the truthfulness of Christ’s prediction of the first century C.E. concerning the “conclusion of the system of things.” From the start of it in 1914 we have observed what he foretold:

² “On the earth anguish of nations, not knowing the way out because of the roaring of the sea and its agitation, while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Luke 21:25, 26) It is a vain, desperate hope to expect the present world to improve and save itself. Righteously disposed persons long for a better world, a better human society. Happily it is at hand!

3. How have the faithful followers of Jesus Christ managed to hold to the right course, despite the deterioration of the world around them?

³ Faithful footstep followers of the Great Prophet, Jesus Christ, have done what his apostle Peter wrote and told them to do. They have paid attention to the fully assured “prophetic word” as they would do to a lamp shining in a dark place, illuminating their hearts. As the apostle Peter wrote in his second letter to fellow Christian believers: “Consequently we have the prophetic word made more sure; and you are doing well in paying attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and a daystar rises, in your hearts. For you know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.” (2 Peter 1:19-21, NW; Knox) Their unswerving attention to such inspired prophecy has held them true to the right course till now. And now the new day is dawning and the daystar has risen, and their eyes are blessed with seeing the modern-day fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

4, 5. (a) As to those inspired prophecies, what does each one of us need to do? (b) What reason for doing so is given by the apostle Peter?

⁴ Although we have seen and experienced so many faith-strengthening evidences of the infallibility of Bible prophecies, we still need to safeguard our faith and confidence in those inspired prophecies that are not yet fulfilled or that are in course of fulfillment. This is the case even though we are living in the “last days” of this old order of things and have been since the end of the “appointed times of the [Gentile] nations” in 1914 C.E. The apostle looked ahead to those “last days” and saw good to write his second letter to warn fellow believers concerning assaults upon their Christian faith that were due to come in those perilous days. After warning of the coming of false teachers and the introducing of “destructive [religious] sects” among Jehovah’s people, Peter went on to explain the purpose of writing his second letter, saying:

⁵ “Beloved ones, this is now the second letter I am writing you, in which, as in my first one, I am arousing your clear thinking faculties by way of a reminder, that you should remember the sayings previously spoken by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. For you know this first, that in the last days there will come ridiculers with their ridicule, proceeding according to their own desires and saying: ‘Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep in death, all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.’”​—2 Peter 3:1-4; 2:1, 2.

6. (a) If we review “the sayings previously spoken by the holy prophets” regarding these “last days,” we will be considering prophecies given over a period of how many years? (b) Does the presence of “ridiculers” prove the prophecies to be wrong?

⁶ In order for us today to counteract the ridicule of the ridiculers whose arising was foretold for these “last days,” it is very urgent that we believers recall what Jehovah’s inspired prophets said, even though this was long before the appearing of these modern-time ridiculers, scoffers, mockers. All the way from the antediluvian prophet Enoch down through almost three thousand years to the postexilic Jewish prophet Malachi, Jehovah’s prophets who preceded Jesus Christ have foretold events and conditions due to mark these “last days.” (Genesis 5:18-24; Hebrews 11:5; Jude 14, 15; Malachi, chapter four) So it is really nothing unexpected that faith-destroying ridiculers should arise in these “last days” of this wicked system of things. Rather, their arising simply confirms the accuracy of the prophecies by fulfilling them.

7. (a) Who is the “Lord and Savior” to whom Peter refers? (b) Through his apostles, what “commandment” did he give, and why considerately so?

⁷ According to the apostle Peter, another thing to be recalled at this late date in human history is the “commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.” (2 Peter 3:2) Jesus Christ is that “Lord and Savior” to whom reference is here made. (2 Peter 3:18) Through his chosen apostles, that is, “the twelve apostles of the Lamb,” and also the apostle Paul, he gave a commandment for all his footstep followers that they should keep continually on the watch and beware of false prophets and false Messiahs or Christs. Since he left his disciples without the knowledge of the precise day and hour that he would come again for the execution of God’s judgments upon the unfaithful and the wicked, he was very considerate in commanding them to keep themselves ready and to stay on the watch. (Revelation 21:14; Matthew 24:36-44; 25:13) They should not let the ridicule of any who have lost faith affect them.

8. When asking, “Where is this promised presence of his?” what would the ridiculers mean?

⁸ The ridiculers were to raise the challenging question, “Where is this promised presence of his?” Yes, they would say, what about this promise of his presence? Where is the evidence of its fulfillment?

9, 10. (a) To whose “presence” would they be referring? (b) What did the apostle Peter do to keep alive in the hearts of fellow believers the earnest expectation of Christ’s “presence”?

⁹ To whose “presence” would they be referring? Evidently to the “presence” of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, about which the apostle Peter spoke toward the beginning of his second letter. The apostle Peter did not expect that “presence” of Jesus Christ in his own day on earth, and yet he did not want to be negligent about keeping alive in the hearts of his fellow believers the earnest expectation of that promised presence. Hence, he wrote:

¹⁰ “So I will do my utmost also at every time that, after my departure, you may be able to make mention of these things for yourselves. No, it was not by following artfully contrived false stories that we acquainted you with the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it was by having become eyewitnesses of his magnificence. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when words such as these were borne to him by the magnificent glory: ‘This is my son, my beloved, whom I myself have approved.’ Yes, these words we heard borne from heaven while we were with him in the holy mountain. Consequently we have the prophetic word made more sure.”​—2 Peter 1:15-19; Matthew 17:1-9.

11. (a) How have wrong expectations concerning the “presence” of Jesus Christ given rise to much skepticism? (b) In the 1870’s, what did Charles Taze Russell discern concerning the second coming of Christ and his “presence”?

¹¹ If the modern-time ridiculers have in mind a visible arrival and presence of Jesus Christ in the flesh, they are grossly mistaken. They were deceived by a misinterpretation of the prophecies such as is widespread throughout Christendom today. During the nineteenth century C.E. there were a number of predictions about the visible coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh in certain years. The failure of such predictions to materialize on the dates announced doubtless brought much reproach upon the Bible doctrine of the second coming of Jesus Christ and his “presence” as a heavenly King. It roused much skepticism, doubt, as to the validity of such a doctrine, the certainty of such a coming and presence of Christ at all. In the 1870’s Charles Taze Russell and his fellow unsectarian students of the inspired Scriptures discerned that the second coming of Christ would be invisible to human eyes, in the spirit, and that this coming would begin the period known as his “presence,” or pa·rou·siʹa (Greek).​—Matthew 24:3, margin, ERV (1881).

12, 13. (a) When, according to Russell’s calculations, had Christ’s “presence” begun, but what is the correct date? (b) Who have seen the “sign” testifying to Christ’s presence beginning with 1914 C.E.?

¹² According to an inaccurate chronology that had been worked out from the King James Authorized Version Bible, Russell calculated that Christ’s “presence” had begun in the year 1874 C.E., unseen to human eyes and seen only by the eye of faith. This was why, when he began publishing a new religious magazine in defense of the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Russell entitled it “Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.” However, events on earth since the end of the “appointed times of the [Gentile] nations” have been fulfilling Bible prophecy and prove that the promised “presence” or parousia of Christ in Kingdom power began first about October 4/5, 1914 C.E. Only since then has it been correct to speak of the invisible, royal “presence” of Christ as being in effect. We older folks of seventy or eighty years of age have seen come to reality practically all the things predicted by Jesus Christ in answer to the question submitted to him by his apostles:

¹³ “When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence [Greek: pa·rou·siʹa] and of the conclusion of the system of things?”​—Matthew 24:3, NW; Rotherham; Young; Diaglott; AS, margin.

14. What has hindered those who adhere to the churches of Christendom from discerning the invisible “presence” of Jesus Christ?

¹⁴ To this day the sectarian churches of Christendom hang onto the common translation of the Greek term pa·rou·siʹa as “coming.” Expecting his coming, if expecting it at all, visibly in the flesh, they refuse to discern the invisible, spiritual “presence” of Jesus Christ in Kingdom power since the close of the Gentile Times in 1914. This has opened the way for ridiculers to ridicule the idea of Christ’s promised “presence” and to offer the reason for their refusing to believe it, saying: “Where is this promised presence [pa·rou·siʹa] of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep in death, all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.”​—2 Peter 3:4.

15. (a) On what basis do the ridiculers argue that Jesus Christ has not yet returned? (b) Why are they wrong?

¹⁵ Such ridiculers see men marrying and women being given in marriage, just as from the days of Adam’s immediate family onward. They see babies being born as from Cain’s birth onward. Men continue dying, just the same as our forefathers have died. There is no stoppage of the dying process, such as is due to occur on earth after the thousand-year reign of Christ begins. There is no resurrection as yet to life on a Paradise earth, such as is promised for the earthly dead that have been ransomed by Jesus Christ. Sin as well as death continue reigning over mankind. So, to the faithless ridiculers, since as far back as their forefathers who died, all things continue exactly as from the beginning of human creation forward. So, according to their view, we are not yet in the “time of the end”; Jesus Christ has not yet made his return; he has not begun such a thing as a presence. All of this, despite all the fulfillment of Bible prophecy since 1914 C.E. that verifies his invisible presence since then. So it is only in their own minds that those ridiculers postpone the promised “presence” of the Lord Jesus Christ.​—Daniel 12:4; Matthew 24:3.

16. What is the intent of the ridicule, but why does it fail to achieve its objective?

¹⁶ The foretold ridiculers of the “last days” include prominent clergymen of Christendom. The idea of the ridicule is to cast doubt upon Bible prophecy or to unsettle the faith and conviction of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, both the remnant of spiritual Israel and the “great crowd” of loyal fellow believers. But, taking heed to the apostle Peter’s warning, these heralds of Christ’s presence in heavenly Kingdom power refuse to be upset in their faith. They rely on the inability of God’s word to fail, even if it is given in the form of prophecy or prediction of things to come. They know that when God says something by way of command, it must be done, it must occur. They believe what Psalm 115:3 says: “But our God is in the heavens; everything that he delighted to do he has done.” And since the ridiculers refer to “creation” in their argument, the faithful believers in Jehovah know that, when he was pleased to create the heavens and the earth, his expressed word came true, produced effects.

THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN “WORD OF GOD”

17, 18. (a) How do the results produced by the “word of God” in connection with creation provide a basis for confidence in the fulfillment of prophecy? (b) So, what are those who scoff with respect to the fulfillment of God’s prophetic word failing to take into account?

¹⁷ According to the account of creation as given in Genesis, chapter one, it worked out just as stated in Psalm 33:9: “He himself said, and it came to be; he himself commanded, and it proceeded to stand so.” As back there at creation, that “word of God” is just as potent today, after thousands of years. In connection with divine prophecy, that “word of God” is just as much an active cause for producing results as it was back there in creation. The ridiculers of today, who scoff with respect to the fulfillment of God’s prophetic word, cannot escape the operation of God’s expressed word for the fulfillment of prophecy about the “presence” of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In their minds they may put off, postpone, the “presence” of Christ, but their ignoring of the evidence of his “presence” will not alter matters. In trying to cast doubt upon the reliability of God’s prophetic word by their ridicule, they are leaving out of account the operational power of God’s word with respect to creation of the heavens and the earth. This is the reason for their ridicule:

¹⁸ “For, according to their wish, this fact escapes their notice, that there were heavens from of old and an earth standing compactly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God; and by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.”​—2 Peter 3:5, 6.

19. (a) To what does Peter refer by the expression “the world of that time”? (b) What were “those means” by which the world of that time suffered destruction?

¹⁹ “The world of that time,” that is, the world up to the year 2370 B.C.E., was destroyed by the “word of God” just as much as the creation of the heavens and the earth had been thus accomplished. The expressed “word of God” created the possibilities for such a global deluge, for the creation account says: “God went on to say: ‘Let an expanse come to be in between the waters and let a dividing occur between the waters and the waters.’ Then God proceeded to make the expanse and to make a division between the waters that should be beneath the expanse and the waters that should be above the expanse. And it came to be so. And God began to call the expanse Heaven. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a second day.” And on the fifth creative day “God went on to say: ‘Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls and let flying creatures fly over the earth upon the face of the expanse of the heavens.’” (Genesis 1:6-8, 20) Those heavens and the waters above and beneath were the means that God’s word called into operation and “by those means” He deluged the “world of that time.”

20. What shows that it was really in response to the “word of God” that the global deluge came?

²⁰ The global deluge came at the word of God, for he timed it. “After that [after the preparing of the ark of survival] Jehovah said to Noah: “Go, you and all your household, into the ark, because you are the one I have seen to be righteous before me among this generation. . . . For in just seven days more I am making it rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe every existing thing that I have made off the surface of the ground.’” That occurred in the year 2370 B.C.E. “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And the downpour upon the earth went on for forty days and forty nights. On this very day Noah went in, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, and the wife of Noah and the three wives of his sons with him, into the ark. . . . After that Jehovah shut the door behind him.”​—Genesis 7:1-4, 11-16.

21, 22. (a) What was the “world” that was destroyed in the global deluge? (b) How did Jesus use what happened then as the basis for a warning that applies in our day?

²¹ The “world of that time” that “suffered destruction when it was deluged with water” is identified for us in 2 Peter 2:5. There we read: “He [that is, God] did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people.” That ancient “world of ungodly people” paid no attention to how God was using Noah and his family during the time of the construction of the huge ark for flood survival. Jesus Christ used that indifference of the “world of ungodly people” toward the “word of God” as an illustration of what would be the case during this “conclusion of the system of things,” saying:

²² “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence [pa·rou·siʹa] of the Son of man will be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.”​—Matthew 24:36-39.

23. (a) In what way was it true that Noah “condemned the world”? (b) Does the expression “world,” in 2 Peter 3:6, include invisible spirits as a “heavens”?

²³ By his course of action in faith Noah condemned that “world of ungodly people.” Noah paid attention to the spoken “word of God” and obeyed it; the “world of ungodly people” did not do so and proved deserving of being condemned to destruction. “By faith Noah, after being given divine warning of things not yet beheld, showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; and through this faith he condemned the world, and he became an heir of the righteousness that is according to faith.” (Hebrews 11:7) The “world” that Noah’s course of faith condemned did not include invisible spirit creatures, wicked demons. In 2 Peter 3:6 the “world of that time” that suffered destruction in the Deluge is not set off in contrast with invisible heavenly spirits, the demons, the angels disobedient to Jehovah God; and these are not there figuratively referred to as “the heavens.” The spirit demons were not destroyed by the Deluge. Ungodly people on earth suffered death.

END OF “THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH THAT ARE NOW”

24. Why is it foolish for anyone today, in this twentieth century, to scoff at the Bible account of what happened to the “world of ungodly people” in Noah’s day?

²⁴ In the light of that destruction of the “world of that time” by the global deluge, the ridiculers of this twentieth century C.E. are acting disastrously for themselves in allowing to “escape their notice” what happened to the antediluvian “world of ungodly people” according to the “word of God.” They are acting against their own eternal interests by not remembering or by ignoring the “sayings previously spoken by the holy prophets” with respect to this time of Christ’s invisible “presence,” this “conclusion of the system of things.” (2 Peter 3:2; Matthew 24:3) Not only did the “word of God” have to do with the existence of the “heavens from of old and an earth,” then populated by the “world of that time,” but that same “word of God” has to do also with the “heavens and the earth that are now” and with which these twentieth-century ridiculers are associated. This fact should not escape the notice of those ridiculers of today who mockingly scoff at the promise of Christ’s “presence,” in order to embarrass Jehovah’s Christian witnesses.

25, 26. (a) To what time factor does the apostle Peter draw attention in warning? (b) Who had earlier made mention of such a thing, and of what should it make us aware?

²⁵ “But,” the apostle Peter goes on to say in warning, “by the same word the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men. However, let this one fact not be escaping your notice, beloved ones, that one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.”​—2 Peter 3:7, 8.

²⁶ The prophet Moses was the first man to be inspired to equate a thousand years of human existence with a twenty-four-hour day in the experience of the everlasting Creator of heaven and earth. This first such comparison is found in Psalm 90:1-4, as written by Moses, in these words addressed to the Creator: “O Jehovah, you yourself have proved to be a real dwelling for us during generation after generation. Before the mountains themselves were born, or you proceeded to bring forth as with labor pains the earth and the productive land, even from time indefinite to time indefinite you are God. You make mortal man go back to crushed matter, and you say: ‘Go back, you sons of men.’ For [in view of God’s turning sinful man back to the dust of the ground in death after such a short life-span] a thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday [of twenty-four hours’ length] when it is past, and as a watch [of four hours] during the night.” (Note the superscription of Psalm 90.) Jehovah God inspired Moses also to speak of the seven-thousand-year-long creative period as “days.” (Genesis 1:1-31; Exodus 20:11) What is quite long in time for mortal man is infinitesimally short to the immortal God.

27. What effect did the deluge of Noah’s day have on the globe itself?

²⁷ When God brought the global deluge in the days of Noah, he did not destroy our literal earthly globe. It survived the Flood and formed catch basins for all the water deluged upon it.

“THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH THAT ARE NOW”

28. (a) So are “the heavens and the earth that are now” a new earthly sphere with a new atmosphere, different from those that existed before the Flood? (b) How do we know that, when God created man, he did not have in mind using for destructive purposes the waters that were suspended above the earth?

²⁸ So, when 2 Peter 3:7 speaks of “the heavens and the earth that are now,” it could not mean a new earthly sphere with a new atmospheric “expanse” around it. It is also to be noted that, in 2Pe 3 verses 5 and 6, the apostle Peter did not say that the “heavens from of old and an earth standing compactly” were stored up for water and were to be reserved for the day of judgment. God did not have such a thing in mind when he originally made the literal heavens and earth and settled man on earth. At that time God gave the perfect man and woman the opportunity to live in an earthly paradise forever without a day of judgment.​—Genesis 2:17-25.

29. (a) Are “the heavens and the earth that are now” the same kind of heavens and earth as are referred to in 2 Peter 3:5? (b) So why must the “fire” referred to in verse 7 also be figurative?

²⁹ Accordingly, “the heavens and the earth that are now” are stored up, not for waters of a global flood, but for fire and are reserved to the day of judgment and of “destruction of the ungodly men.” Evidently this means a heavens and an earth of a kind different from that of the original literal heaven and earth. This being so, then the “fire” here mentioned must be different from literal fire, hence a figurative “fire,” such as is often spoken of in the inspired Scriptures.

30, 31. (a) At Zephaniah 3:8, 9, to what kind of “fire” is reference made? (b) What reference to “fire” is found in Lamentations 2:3, 4?

³⁰ Zephaniah 3:8, 9 speaks of such a figurative “fire” in that it says: “‘Therefore keep yourselves in expectation of me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘till the day of my rising up to the booty, for my judicial decision is to gather nations, for me to collect together kingdoms, in order to pour out upon them my denunciation, all my burning anger; for by the fire of my zeal all the earth will be devoured. For then I shall give to peoples the change to a pure language, in order for them all to call upon the name of Jehovah, in order to serve him shoulder to shoulder.’”

³¹ Also, after the destruction of the city of Jerusalem by the armies of Babylon in the year 607 B.C.E., the prophet Jeremiah made this lamentation concerning the action taken by Jehovah God: “In the heat of anger he has cut down every horn of Israel. He has turned his right hand back from before the enemy; And in Jacob he keeps burning like a flaming fire that has devoured all around. He has trodden his bow like an enemy. His right hand has taken its position like an adversary, and he kept killing all those desirable to the eyes. Into the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his rage, just like fire.”​—Lamentations 2:3, 4.

32, 33. After the flood of Noah’s day, what reassuring promise did God make, of which the rainbow is a reminder?

³² Immediately after the deluge of Noah’s day God caused the rainbow to appear and said to Noah and his family: “Yes, I do establish my covenant with you: No more will all flesh be cut off by waters of a deluge, and no more will there occur a deluge to bring the earth to ruin.” And God added: “This is the sign of the covenant that I am giving between me and you and every living soul that is with you, for the generations to time indefinite. My rainbow I do give in the cloud, and it must serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. And it shall occur that when I bring a cloud over the earth, then the rainbow will certainly appear in the cloud. And I shall certainly remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living soul among all flesh; and no more will the waters become a deluge to bring all flesh to ruin. And the rainbow must occur in the cloud, and I shall certainly see it to remember the covenant to time indefinite between God and every living soul among all flesh that is upon the earth.”​—Genesis 9:11-16.

³³ In Isaiah 54:9 Jehovah God added this assurance: “I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more pass over the earth.”

“STORED UP FOR FIRE”

34. What several facts make it unreasonable to view the fire referred to in 2 Peter 3:7 as being literal?

³⁴ Such a sworn statement against another global flood would be of little comfort to humanity if, instead, God purposed to engulf all the earth with a literal fire, to have a literal worldwide conflagration. Also, if the expression “the heavens and the earth that are now” included the stars of heaven that are visible to the human eye, what would such a literal fire do to the sun of our solar system and to all the other stars in our Milky Way and all the other galaxies that are already balls of fire of a temperature higher than fires generated here on earth? Reducing our earth to a charred cinder by a global conflagration would hardly harmonize with God’s declared purpose to convert this earth into a global paradise by his Messianic kingdom.

35. (a) What, then, is the meaning of “fire” in that scripture? (b) And what are “the heavens” that are “stored up for fire”?

³⁵ Evidently, then, the “fire” for which the “heavens and the earth that are now” are stored up is a symbolic fire that brings about a destruction of condemned things just as efficiently as a literal fire does to combustible things. This being the case, the expression “the heavens and the earth that are now” takes on a symbolic meaning. So “the heavens” symbolize the governmental systems, the governing authorities “that are now” and to which mankind is subject. In Romans 13:1 the Christian apostle Paul calls these “the superior authorities,” saying: “Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except by God; the existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God.”

36. (a) In harmony with that, what is the “earth” that is “stored up for fire”? (b) Give a Scriptural example of such use of the term “earth.”

³⁶ Accordingly, the “earth” that is under these heavens symbolizes the human society that is under and in subjection to the “superior authorities.” At one time, for more than a century after the deluge of Noah’s day, this human society spoke but one language. Genesis 11:1 calls attention to this, saying: “Now all the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words.”

37, 38. (a) To what else that is high or lofty are the political governments likened in the Scriptures? (b) Illustrate this from Isaiah chapter 34 and Micah chapter 1.

³⁷ In full keeping with the reference to the “superior authorities” as “heavens” is the Biblical likening of such political governments to “mountains.” As an example, in Isaiah 34:2-5 the Sovereign Lord God says: “Jehovah has indignation against all the nations, and rage against all their army. He must devote them to destruction; he must give them to the slaughter. And their slain ones will be thrown out; and as for their carcasses, their stink will ascend; and the mountains must melt because of their blood. And all those of the army of the heavens must rot away. And the heavens must be rolled up, just like a book scroll; and their army will all shrivel away, just as the leafage shrivels off the vine and like a shriveled fig off the fig tree. “For in the heavens my sword will certainly be drenched. Look! Upon Edom it will descend, and upon the people devoted by me to destruction in justice.” With the destruction of the armies in the coming “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon, the governments that they have supported will melt, dissolve, like mountains melting in the blood of slain armies.

³⁸ Another picture of the dissolving of the symbolic heaven-high mountains is given in Micah 1:3, 4 in these words: “For, look! Jehovah is going forth from his place, and he will certainly come down and tread upon earth’s high places. And the mountains must melt under him, and the low plains themselves will split apart, like wax because of the fire, like waters being poured down a steep place.” When, shortly, Jehovah God the Almighty, by means of his heavenly executional forces, comes in contact with the governmental mountains of this system of things, it will be like subjecting them to incandescent heat. Their solidity will melt!

39. So what does the future hold for the “heavens and the earth that are now” and for “ungodly men,” and why?

³⁹ So the “day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men” to which the “heavens and the earth that are now” are reserved will be, figuratively speaking, a fiery one for all the destruction that it will cause. It will be the day of the executing of divine judgments upon the entire visible system of things. Also, it will be a day for “destruction of the ungodly men,” inasmuch as they do not view and treat Jehovah God as the August One, the Universal Sovereign. They are irreverential toward Him, the Holy One.

NOT A TARDILY MOVING GOD

40, 41. Though the coming of Jehovah’s “day of judgment” may seem slow to the ridiculers, what fact about time ought to be taken into account?

⁴⁰ It is “by the same word,” that is to say, “the word of God,” that the “heavens and the earth that are now” are unchangeably “stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.” This is something for the modern-day ridiculers, who treat the “presence” of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as not yet in effect, to think about. That “same word” of God, which authoritatively declared the purpose for which the “heavens and the earth that are now” have been permitted to exist so long, will without fail be carried out. This will not be long now! To the ridiculers and the “ungodly men,” it may have seemed like a long time in the coming of that “day,” but for the God who is without beginning and without end, eternal, it has not been a long time. That is why the apostle Peter now says:

⁴¹ “However, let this one fact not be escaping your notice, beloved ones, that one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Jehovah is not slow respecting his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance. Yet Jehovah’s day will come as a thief.”​—2 Peter 3:8-10.

42. (a) Has God’s allowance of a seemingly long time been without concern for humankind? (b) How is ‘one day with Jehovah as a thousand years’ with man?

⁴² What is such a long time to men is really a short time to God. Hence, he can allow to men a seemingly long period of time in their interest. What is a “thousand years” to Him, when it is like a mere twenty-four-hour day in comparison with his eternity of existence? Conversely, one twenty-four-hour day for God is like a thousand years for men, when men consider that what would take them a thousand years to accomplish could be packed by the Almighty God Jehovah into “one day.” Dissatisfied men have for thousands of years been trying to improve this system of things or trying to overturn it for something better, but have till now been unable to do it. However, Jehovah will do it in his “day,” in the brief time period in which he will execute his judgments upon this system of things as by fire and will destroy all those who are in sympathy with it and support it. This indeed is something for the ridiculers to think about.

43. Instead of being impatient about God’s way of handling matters, to what questions ought humans to give serious consideration?

⁴³ It betrays a lack of understanding of God’s way of handling matters, when a person says, impatiently: ‘Why has not God done something about the bad world situation before now? He ought to hurry up and do something for human relief, so that I can get the benefit of it​—quick!’ The main question that such an impatient person should ask himself is: ‘Have I as yet attained to repentance toward God?’ Or: ‘Am I taking advantage of the time to help as many others as possible to attain to repentance?’

44. (a) How have God’s dealings with mankind really displayed incomparable “patience” on his part, and with what objective in view? (b) During this period of time, what has God done with a view to the salvation of as many as possible?

⁴⁴ Who can rightly accuse God of being slow about his promise to cleanse this earth of wickedness and establish a lasting righteous government, when a thousand years of man’s time are as but one twenty-four-hour day to the Eternal God? He has his set day for taking action, and the day set has allowed ample time for countless numbers of men to attain to repentance. Instead of their viewing it as ‘slowness’ on God’s part, they should recognize his having set his “day” for action so far in the future from the beginning of the “heavens and the earth that are now” as incomparable “patience” on his part. This divine patience has been because He does not desire any to perish, be destroyed. So, during the thousands of years that he has allowed till his unchangeably fixed “day,” he sent his beloved Son from heaven to act as a Great Teacher on earth and to die as a ransom sacrifice for all mankind, that there might be salvation of as many as possible. (Galatians 4:4) Since that first coming of his faithful beloved Son to earth, repentance for forgiveness of sins has been preached in all the inhabited earth. For over nineteen centuries such repentance has been preached.

45. Although ridiculers do not appreciate it, how has God dealt even with them?

⁴⁵ The ridiculers of today do not take advantage of the time of God’s patience in order to attain to repentance that they might not be destroyed. Although they do not appreciate it, God has acted very kindly toward them with a view to their repenting. As the apostle Paul wrote, in his inspired letter to the Roman congregation that was made up of Christianized Jews and Gentiles: “Do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and long-suffering, because you do not know that the kindly quality of God is trying to lead you to repentance?”​—Romans 2:4.

46, 47. (a) How has God’s patience, even since the year 1914, proved to be not in vain? (b) In Revelation 7:1-3, how is God’s self-restraint and patience pictured?

⁴⁶ The patience that God has exercised during this time of the “presence” of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in Kingdom power since 1914 C.E. has not been in vain. It has allowed for and resulted in the gathering of the final remnant of spiritual Israelites and also in the gathering of the unnumbered members of the “great crowd,” who are faithful companions of the anointed remnant. The self-restraint and patience of God for the sake of those who can be induced to repent is pictured in Revelation, chapter seven. With reference to the oncoming storm of destruction world wide, the apostle John writes:

⁴⁷ “After this I saw four angels standing upon the four corners of the earth, holding tight the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow upon the earth or upon the sea or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the sunrising, having a seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying: ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until after we have sealed the slaves of our God in their foreheads.’” (Revelation 7:1-3) This was according to God’s patience.

48. (a) What has resulted from this manifestation of patience on God’s part? (b) What action is taken by those who are now coming to appreciate God’s patience, and what remarkable prospect has been set before them?

⁴⁸ What was the benefit of this manifestation of patience on God’s part? The needed remnant of spiritual Israelites were sealed in their foreheads, so that there would finally be the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed spiritual Israelites as foreordained by Jehovah God. (Revelation 7:4-8) However, more than spiritual Israelites who are to reign with Christ on the heavenly Mount Zion have been benefited by God’s patience in this “time of the end.” People with the Scriptural hope of everlasting life in an earthly paradise have been benefited. Since the momentous year of 1935 C.E., they have come out of all nations and tribes and peoples and languages and have dedicated themselves to Jehovah as their God. So they have gotten baptized in symbol of this dedication as Jesus Christ commanded should be done with those who become his disciples. Before this unlimited “great crowd” that is now forming, the remarkable prospect has been set of going through and coming out alive from the stormy “great tribulation” that brings this “time of the end” to a close. The prophetic picture, in Revelation 7:9-17, of this “great crowd” as having safely come out of the “great tribulation” now moves on to glorious realization!

THE COMING OF THE DAY OF THE LORD GOD CERTAIN

49. What will suddenly overtake men who, while counting God slow, are themselves slow in taking action for salvation?

⁴⁹ Men who mistake God’s exercise of long-suffering and patience as slackness, tardiness, slowness on His part and who are themselves slow in taking action for salvation will be suddenly overtaken by destruction from God. The apostle Peter warned against such a mistaken, careless, unwise course of action by saying: “Yet Jehovah’s day [he·meʹra Ky·rıʹou, Greek; day of the Lord]a will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a hissing noise, but the elements being intensely hot will be dissolved, and earth and the works in it will be discovered.”​—2 Peter 3:10, NW, marginal reading.

50. In this connection, what warning is sounded with regard to clergymen who use religion as a means to exploit credulous people?

⁵⁰ The day for the end of the “heavens and the earth that are now” will come without fail, for it is part of God’s declared purpose. His time for its arrival is fixed in his own timetable. Clergymen of Christendom who continue to use religion as a means to exploit credulous people will find that they are the ones slumbering and asleep to the order of events, and not God himself. “Also, with covetousness they will exploit you with counterfeit words. But as for them, the judgment from of old is not moving slowly, and the destruction of them is not slumbering.”​—2 Peter 2:3.

51. Like what did both the apostle Paul and Jesus Christ say that the day of execution for divine judgment would come?

⁵¹ The coming of Jehovah’s day as a thief in the night is commented on also by the apostle Paul, when he writes to the Christians in Thessalonica, Macedonia: “Now as for the times and the seasons, brothers, you need nothing to be written to you. For you yourselves know quite well that Jehovah’s day is coming exactly as a thief in the night. Whenever it is that they are saying: ‘Peace and security!’ then sudden destruction is to be instantly upon them just as the pang of distress upon a pregnant woman; and they will by no means escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3) As Jesus Christ himself will be used by Jehovah God as an executional agent on Jehovah’s day, he warned his disciples of the thieflike approach of the day for execution of judgment to begin, saying: “But know one thing, that if the householder had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have kept awake and not allowed his house to be broken into. On this account you too prove yourselves ready, because at an hour that you do not think to be it, the Son of man is coming.”​—Matthew 24:43, 44; Luke 12:39, 40.

52. As referred to at 2 Peter 3:10, what are the “heavens” that will pass away?

⁵² On Jehovah’s day mankind will find itself enveloped in a fiery situation for this ungodly system of things. The “heavens,” “elements,” and “earth” that mankind has known for thousands of years will be affected ruinously. The “heavens” that will pass away are the political governments that have served as “the superior authorities” by God’s permission and that have prolonged their operation in spite of the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E. They have loomed high like mountains on earth’s scene and have overshadowed the affairs of human society. The priests, prophets and clergymen of religion have meddled with the governments and have tried to involve themselves as an integral part of governments, in many lands producing a marriage of State and Church. In marriages of Church and State that still continue in this “time of the end,” the religious partner is the lesser, the subordinate one and is merely tolerated, not passionately courted.

53. What is indicated by the fact that it is “with a hissing noise” that the “heavens” will pass away?

⁵³ Those governmental “heavens” will pass away “with a hissing noise,” like the prolonged sounding of the letter “s.” This could mean a whizzing sound, like that caused by the rapid passing of an object through the air, as when an eagle nosedives toward its prey. This hissing noise could, accordingly, denote a rapid passing away of these governmental “heavens.” This rapid passing of the governmental heavens will not come about by the action of radical, revolutionary parties among men, for they themselves would only substitute the overthrown government with one of their own. Rather, the passing of political “heavens” will be by the act of Jehovah God. Since they have overlived the “appointed times of the [Gentile] nations,” it would only be fitting for them to be rushed off the scene as in an action that is long overdue. The “hissing noise,” regardless of whatever sound sensation it produces, will be heard by the inhabitants of the earth.

54. Identify the “elements” that, according to 2 Peter 3:10, are to be dissolved.

⁵⁴ The “elements” that will become “intensely hot” and then “be dissolved” are not the so-called “four elements” of the alchemists of the Middle Ages, namely, fire, water, earth and air. “Elements” mean the basic parts of which something, as an organism, is composed. “Elements” could suggest certain things lined up in a certain order, like the letters of the alphabet of a language. The “elements” are mentioned as being distinct from the “heavens” and the “earth,” and as not being primary component parts of such. Between our literal heavens and earth there is the atmosphere, in which mankind lives, breathing it for sustenance of life. This atmosphere is composed of a mixture of gases and so has elemental parts. Similarly, there is a spirit that pervades the earthly realm of mankind, which mankind breathes and which animates them, moving them as by an invisible force to act, think, speak and plan the way that they do. This is the spirit of the world. It has nothing to do with the spirit of God but is at enmity with it. Hence, God is against that worldly spirit in all its elemental parts. On His day he must dissolve it, destroy it in the heat of his anger. All the doctrines, arrangements and schemes that express this worldly spirit and result from it must be dissolved, reduced to nothing, with it.

55. (a) The “earth” here referred to means what? (b) To what does the expression “the works in it” refer?

⁵⁵ Not only the “heavens” and the “elements” come in for divine attention, but “earth and the works in it” must also. These “will be discovered.” (2 Peter 3:10) They will be found out. “Earth” in this case symbolizes human society that is separate and distinct from the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites and from the “great crowd” who are in the spiritual paradise and who are worshiping Jehovah in his spiritual temple. (Revelation 7:15) The expression “the works in it” refers, not to the deeds or acts of conduct of the earthly human society, but to their works of construction, the things that human society builds and produces in the way of structures. Such “works” show the materialistic viewpoint, the earthly tendencies, of this human society, this symbolic “earth.”

56, 57. (a) In what sense are earth and the works in it “discovered,” as stated at 2 Peter 3:10? (b) How is the thought similar to that expressed at 1 Corinthians 3:13-15?

⁵⁶ Why, though, it is said, “and earth and the works in it will be discovered [literally, will be found]”? Why “be discovered,” “be found,” instead of “be burned up,” as in the old King James Authorized Version reading of 2 Peter 3:10? Their being “discovered” or “found” does not mean that on Jehovah’s day they will merely be laid bare to view and be left lying thus exposed. In 2 Peter 3:7 it is stated that, by God’s word, “the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire.” Accordingly, the “earth and the works in it” will not escape the “fire” of destruction any more than the “heavens” and the “elements” will do so. They will be “discovered” or “found” by the fire. The fire will overtake the “earth and the works in it” also. They will be “discovered” or “found” to be combustible, just as the symbolic “heavens” and the symbolic “elements” are combustible. The destructive “fire” of Jehovah’s day will prove that. So the sense of the discovery or finding is like that in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, where the apostle Paul writes:

⁵⁷ “Each one’s work will become manifest, for the day will show it up, because it will be revealed by means of fire; and the fire itself will prove what sort of work each one’s is. If anyone’s work that he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward; if anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. . . .”

58. So what is due to happen to the symbolic “earth and the works in it,” and how is this further shown by the prophetic words of Zephaniah?

⁵⁸ Jehovah’s “day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men” will come as a thief upon the symbolic “earth and the works in it,” and the “fire” of that day for executing divine judgment will prove them to be inflammable, subject to incineration. They will go up in flames. They will not withstand, survive the fiery day of the Lord God Jehovah. The prophetic words of Zephaniah 1:14-18 have solemn significance for our day: “The great day of Jehovah is near. It is near, and there is a hurrying of it very much. The sound of the day of Jehovah is bitter. There a mighty man is letting out a cry. . . . Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah’s fury; but by the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be devoured, because he will make an extermination, indeed a terrible one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.”

‘SPEEDING UP THE PRESENCE OF THE DAY OF GOD’

59. What exhortation of the apostle Peter with regard to expectations and conduct applies with special force to us today?

⁵⁹ In contrast with the ridiculers that were foretold for our time, what sort of persons are we proving ourselves to be in the face of the impending doom of this ungodly system of things? The exhortation of the apostle Peter to the first-century Christians applies with the greatest force to us today: “Since all these things [the symbolic heavens, elements, earth and the works in it] are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion, awaiting and keeping close in mind [literally, awaiting and speeding up] the presence of the day of Jehovah [Greek, of the God], through which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved and the elements being intensely hot will melt! But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.”​—2 Peter 3:11-13; Kingdom Interlinear Translation.

60. (a) If we really believe what God’s Word says, how should we live? (b) To those who have been called to heavenly life, what exhortation does the apostle Peter give?

⁶⁰ True believers in the certain fulfillment of God’s word of prophecy ought to live in harmony with their expectations. They will not selfishly live for this present system of things, that is to say, for the “heavens” and “elements” and “earth” that are to be dissolved, destroyed, in the way that God’s Word describes. Why live for what is soon to perish? And perish with it? Dedicated, baptized Christians, in particular, have “obtained a faith, held in equal privilege with [the apostle Peter’s], by the righteousness of our God and the Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:1, NW; Weymouth; American Standard) To such Christians as have the call to the heavenly kingdom, the apostle Peter goes on to say: “Do your utmost to make the calling and choosing of you sure for yourselves; for if you keep on doing these things you will by no means ever fail. In fact, thus there will be richly supplied to you the entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:10, 11) The apostle Peter says that they are “aliens and temporary residents,” and, hence, they are not part of the symbolic “heavens,” “elements,” and “earth” that are “thus to be dissolved.”​—1 Peter 2:11.

61. (a) In harmony with Peter’s exhortation, what sort of persons and practices do true Christians shun? (b) What is necessary in order to stay in the spiritual paradise?

⁶¹ Consequently, those who take heed to Peter’s exhortation have nothing to do with the “false teachers” who “quietly bring in destructive sects” and who “disown even the owner that bought them, bringing speedy destruction upon themselves.” Christians holding to true prophecy do not follow these false teachers. Such faithful Christians are not among the many who “will follow their acts of loose conduct” and on account of whom “the way of the truth will be spoken of abusively.” (2 Peter 2:1, 2) To avoid causing the way of the Bible truth to be spoken of abusively by ridiculers and other worldlings, Christians who heed the apostle Peter’s words pay constant attention to what sort of persons they ought to be “in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion.” By this course they will escape from “bringing speedy destruction upon themselves” along with “the heavens and the earth that are now” and that are “stored up for fire.” (2 Peter 3:7) By “holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion,” Jehovah’s Christian witnesses today stay in their spiritual paradise.

62. (a) Is there anything that we can do to make the “day of Jehovah” come sooner? (b) How can we show that we ‘keep it close in mind’?

⁶² They do not let themselves be affected by any ridicule of those who postpone in their minds the thieflike coming of Jehovah’s day of judgment. They have long awaited it and, until it arrives, they will keep awaiting the “presence of the day of Jehovah.” Unlike the ridiculers, they are “keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah.” They never let it out of their minds. They keep it constantly in mind as an event that is close at hand. The longer they live on earth, the closer it gets. They cannot hurry it, hasten it or speed it up in a literal way, for they know that Jehovah has his own fixed date for its arrival. But they keep steadily on the watch in order that, no matter how soon and unexpectedly it may come, they will be fit to enter into it in a condition approved by Jehovah God. So their continuing on in “holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion” is in agreement with their “keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah.” They know what the presence of that day means. What?

CLEARING THE WAY FOR “NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH”

63. When the “heavens” are dissolved, what will this mean for them?

⁶³ The “presence of the day of Jehovah” is the means “through which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved and the elements being intensely hot will melt!” (2 Peter 3:12) The governmental “heavens,” to which the worldly religious leaders have clung for support and protection, will be set on fire by Jehovah God. “For,” says Hebrews 12:29, “our God is also a consuming fire.” (Deuteronomy 4:24) This will signify the dissolving, the destroying, of those governmental “heavens.” How this will be brought about as by fire the apostle Peter does not explain. However, the “sayings previously spoken by the holy prophets” describe how this will be.​—2 Peter 3:2; 1:21.

64. Through what inspired prophet was an explanation given as to how those symbolic “heavens” will be destroyed as by fire?

⁶⁴ In the prophetic dream of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon during the days of the prophet Daniel, there was given a picture of those symbolic “heavens” as from the date of 607 B.C.E., when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and its temple, down to the “presence of the day of Jehovah.” The prophetic dream was sent to the king of Babylon by Jehovah God, for the king forgot the dream and it was Jehovah’s prophet Daniel that was the only one who could recall the dream to the king’s mind and then explain it to him.​—Daniel 2:1-30.

65. What did the king of Babylon see in his dream, and what did it represent?

⁶⁵ In his dream the king of Babylon saw the representation of a continuous series of political world powers, from the Babylonian World Power of Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty down to and including the Biblically Seventh World Power, the Anglo-American World Power of our twentieth century. Consequently, the dream image, which was used to portray this series of governmental world powers, consisted of a number of basic materials. The head was of gold, the breasts and arms were of silver, the abdomen and sides of copper, the legs of iron and the feet and toes of iron mingled with clay.​—Daniel 2:31-33.

66. Explain the significance of the various parts of the dream image.

⁶⁶ “This is the dream,” said Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, “and its interpretation we shall say before the king. You, O king, the king of kings [and hence an emperor over a world power], you to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, . . . whom he has made ruler over all of them, you yourself are the head of gold.” (Daniel 2:36-38) Accordingly, the golden head symbolized the Babylonian World Power in Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty. The silver breasts and arms symbolized the succeeding Medo-Persian World Power. The copper belly and thighs symbolized the Macedonian-Grecian World Power. The iron legs symbolized the Roman World Power and the outgrowth therefrom, the British-American Dual World Power. The feet partly of iron and partly of clay symbolized the present-day or final governmental powers that have become partly radical (socialistic; communistic) or partly imperial. During the more than twenty-five centuries since the Gentile Times began at Jerusalem’s desolation in 607 B.C.E., the other political governments on earth have been dominated by that succession of world powers.​—Daniel 2:39-43.

67, 68. Until what period of history does that world-power image continue standing, and what happens to it then?

⁶⁷ According to the king’s prophetic dream, that world-power “image” continues standing, in its historical fulfillment, in the “conclusion of the system of things,” in which we today find ourselves. (Matthew 24:3; 28:20; 13:39, 49) That “conclusion of the system of things” is brought to a grand climax by the “presence of the day of Jehovah,” during which the symbolic “heavens,” “elements,” and “earth and the works in it” are destroyed as by fire. That is the “day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.” (2 Peter 3:7-12) Ominous, therefore, is that part of the king’s dream which presents motion and action and which Daniel recalled to the king’s mind by saying:

⁶⁸ “You kept on looking until a stone was cut out not by hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and of molded clay and crushed them. At that time the iron, the molded clay, the copper, the silver and the gold were, all together, crushed and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away so that no trace at all was found of them. And as for the stone that struck the image, it became a large mountain and filled the whole earth.”​—Daniel 2:34, 35.

69. What does that mean for all human rulerships?

⁶⁹ The fulfillment of this dramatic part of the prophetic dream is immediately ahead of us. According to this, every vestige or trace of the political world powers of human history, including the Eighth World Power, the United Nations, must forcibly be dissipated beyond reconstruction. All subsidiary kingdoms and human rulerships must likewise be cleared off the earth.

70, 71. By what agency does Jehovah bring about that worldwide destruction?

⁷⁰ That is God’s word, not man’s. It is not the work of the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites, neither the work of the “great crowd” of fellow worshipers of Jehovah. The agency that the Almighty God Jehovah will use in bringing about that worldwide destruction was pictured in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as a “stone” that was cut out of a mountain without the aid of human hands. Hence, the “stone” must picture something that is produced by the Creator, the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. What the “stone” symbolized He inspired Daniel to explain, saying:

⁷¹ “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people [as successors]. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite; forasmuch as you beheld that out of the mountain a stone was cut not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the copper, the molded clay, the silver and the gold.”​—Daniel 2:44, 45.

72, 73. (a) What is the “mountain” from which the “stone” is cut without hands? (b) The “stone” itself represents what, and what is taking place in connection with it now?

⁷² As the “stone” pictures a kingdom that the God of heaven sets up, the “mountain” must picture the source of kingdom power and authority, namely, the Universal Sovereignty of the King of Eternity, Jehovah God. The stonelike kingdom thus becomes a subsidiary part and agency of His universal sovereignty. It is his Messianic kingdom in the hands of his only-begotten Son, who became the Lord Jesus Christ. (Daniel 7:13, 14) This kingdom is the one concerning which Jesus Christ made the following prediction in his prophecy on the “conclusion of the system of things”: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) In that same prophecy Jesus Christ envisioned himself as being in that kingdom, when he said:

⁷³ “When the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him.”​—Matthew 25:31, 32.

74. With what assignments has that Messianic kingdom been entrusted by Jehovah?

⁷⁴ All hail to the Messianic kingdom of the Son of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah! It is the heavenly government that is entrusted with ushering out “the heavens and the earth that are now” and introducing the promised “new heavens and a new earth” for the glory of God and the endless blessing of all the obedient of mankind.

[Footnotes]

Chapter 17

The Creating of “New Heavens and a New Earth”

1. (a) Why are we today interested in a dream had by Emperor Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon? (b) In reminding the emperor of the details of the dream, what did Daniel say about a particular “stone” and what it would accomplish?

WHAT the imperial ruler of the Babylonian World Power saw in a prophetic dream more than two thousand five hundred years ago, we are seeing fulfilled today! That God-sent dream helps us to understand what is taking place in our time of deepening world distress. Thankful can we be that this dream, which Emperor Nebuchadnezzar completely forgot beyond recall, was revealed to the prophet Daniel for him to recall and interpret with Almighty God’s help to the much-disturbed emperor. In reaching the climax of his account of the dream “image” that pictured the succession of political superpowers of world history, from the Babylonian Empire to the Anglo-American Dual World Power of today, Daniel went on to say:

“You kept on looking until a stone was cut out not by hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and of molded clay and crushed them. At that time the iron, the molded clay, the copper, the silver and the gold were, all together, crushed and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away so that no trace at all was found of them. And as for the stone that struck the image, it became a large mountain and filled the whole earth.”​—Daniel 2:34, 35.

2. What was symbolized by that “stone”?

² There can be no other explanation of the matter. That “stone” symbolized the Messianic kingdom in the hands of the anointed Son of the Sovereign Lord of the universe, Jehovah God.

3. Explain the connections of this Messianic kingdom with King David, also how the kingdom took on a spiritual aspect.

³ This Messianic kingdom had its roots in the earthly kingdom of David, whom Jehovah caused to be anointed as king over the nation of Israel. The seat of his government came to be, finally, Jerusalem or Zion. With him Jehovah God made a covenant for the Messianic kingdom to continue in his family line and to become an everlasting kingdom. In due time this kingdom took on the aspect of a spiritual kingdom when David’s Permanent Heir arrived on the earthly scene. This was because the heavenly Son of God was miraculously born as Jesus into the royal line of David. By taking on this natural connection, he became the natural heir of the title to the throne of King David. (Matthew 1:1 through 2:6) In harmony with this, immediately after Jesus was baptized in water at the age of thirty years, Jehovah God anointed him with holy spirit to be future King over Israel, “the house of Jacob.” God also begot him to be a spiritual Son of God and acknowledged him as such.​—Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 1:32, 33; 3:21-23; Acts 10:38.

4. How did the Permanent Heir of David actually become a king in the spirit realm?

⁴ Jesus Christ died as a martyr for preaching the kingdom of God, “the kingdom of the heavens.” He died in the flesh, as a perfect human sacrifice; but, says the apostle Peter, “Christ died once for all time concerning sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, that he might lead you to God, he being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18) Israel, “the house of Jacob,” was therefore to have a heavenly king over it, an invisible spirit king, namely, the resurrected Jesus Christ, immortal in the heavens. (Romans 1:3, 4) Thus the resurrected Jesus Christ is the Permanent Heir or Kingly Heir of David, and his kingdom is an everlasting one. This Messianic kingdom is the one that is cut out of the “mountain” of Jehovah’s sovereignty without help of human hands.

5. (a) When was the symbolic “stone” cut out of the mountain? (b) When the “stone” was cut out and sent on its way against the symbolic “image,” what time period began for this wicked earthly system of things?

⁵ When was this royal “stone” cut out and sent on its way against the symbolic “image” of earthly world powers? It was “cut out” at the end of the Gentile Times about October 4/5, 1914, when Jehovah, the King-Maker, installed the resurrected Jesus Christ as empowered King in the heavens. (Luke 21:24; Psalm 2:1-6; Revelation 11:15; 12:5-10) Then it was that the prophetic words of Psalm 110:2 applied to the installed Jesus Christ: “The rod of your strength Jehovah will send out of Zion, saying: ‘Go subduing in the midst of your enemies.’” For that reason the “time of the end” began for this wicked earthly system of things. (Daniel 12:4) Correspondingly, the things foretold by Jesus Christ to happen during the “conclusion of the system of things” have been taking place since the end of the Gentile Times in 1914.​—Matthew 24:3 through 25:33.

6. (a) What is significant about the fact that the stone strikes the image “on its feet of iron and of molded clay”? (b) When does this stone strike the symbolic “image”?

⁶ The fact that, in the king’s dream, the stone strikes the manlike image “on its feet of iron and of molded clay” is significant. It shows that the Messianic kingdom of God strikes the real world-power “image” in the days of the Seventh World Power, the Anglo-American Dual World Power, in the final days thereof. This is the time when human rulerships of this world are divided between the imperial ironlike governments and the radical claylike governments. The two kinds do not mix. The symbolic “image” is not struck at the beginning of the now imminent “great tribulation,” at the time when religious Babylon the Great is destroyed. Rather, it is struck thereafter in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon. (Matthew 24:21, 22; Revelation 7:14; 16:14, 16; 17:1-18; 18:20​—19:3 through 19:3) It is then that the worldly nations, no longer under the religious influence of Babylon the Great, stand unitedly in outright, declared opposition to the Universal Sovereignty of Jehovah God and his Messianic kingdom.

7. In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, is the “stone” shown as striking and crushing rulers in the spirit realm?

⁷ Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic dream does not show the “stone” or the Messianic kingdom as striking against political enemies in the invisible spirit heavens, such as the spirit “prince of the royal realm of Persia” and the spirit “prince of Greece.” (Daniel 10:13, 20) The royal “stone” strikes at something earthly, visible, human, namely, the political governments of this world, whether imperial, democratic, radical, socialistic or communistic.

8. Similarly, in Revelation chapters 17 and 19, against whom and what is the royal “stone” shown as fighting?

⁸ So, too, Revelation 17:12-14 reveals the royal Messianic “stone” as fighting against the militarized representatives of the Eighth World Power, the United Nations, then rid of any domination by Babylon the Great: “These will battle with the Lamb, but, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, the Lamb will conquer them.” Likewise, the detailed account of the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon as given in Revelation 19:11-21 reveals that the royal Messianic “stone” moves in warfare, not against spirit forces in the invisible heavens, but against the worldwide political system on earth, with all its human rulers and their armies, and henchmen.

9. How will all this warfare affect the inhabited earth?

⁹ This warfare results in the worst time of distress that the inhabited earth ever experiences. In foretelling this, Daniel 12:1 says: “And during that time [of the end] Michael will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of the sons of your people [Daniel’s people, Israel]. And there will certainly occur a time of distress such as has not been made to occur since there came to be a nation until that time.”

10. (a) At the climax of the “day of Jehovah,” what will happen to the symbolic “image”? (b) When is it that Satan and his demons are to be chained and hurled into the abyss?

¹⁰ Then it is that the final part of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is fulfilled, that the “stone . . . crushed the iron, the copper, the molded clay, the silver and the gold.” These substances were, “all together, crushed and became like the chaff from the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away so that no trace at all was found of them.” (Daniel 2:45, 35) That is the climax of the “day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.” That day is the “day of Jehovah, through which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved and the elements being intensely hot will melt!” Also, the “earth and the works in it will be discovered [as combustible].” (2 Peter 3:7, 10, 12) It is first after this “destruction of the ungodly men,” according to the book of Revelation, that Satan the Devil and his demon angels are chained and hurled into the abyss for a thousand years. This binding and abyssing of them is pictured as occurring after and separate from the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon.​—Revelation 19:11 through 20:3.

11. How do the Scriptures show who have been the invisible power behind the governmental “heavens” among men?

¹¹ It is true that Satan the Devil has been what Jesus Christ called him, “the ruler of this world.” (John 14:30; 16:11) Besides that, the apostle Paul referred to Satan the Devil as “the god of this system of things” and as “the ruler of the authority of the air.” (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2) Paul also said that Christians have a wrestling match with the “wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) Undeniably they have been the controllers and the invisible power behind those governmental “heavens” among men.​—Revelation 13:1, 2; Luke 4:5-7.

12. (a) Does the description found at 2 Peter 3:10-12 match what happens to Satan and his demons when they are hurled into the abyss? (b) What does their being bound and abyssed mean?

¹² Nevertheless, it remains true that Satan and his demon angels do not suffer the dissolution that is described in 2 Peter 3:10-12. They are not destroyed in the “great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon. Thereafter they are simply put out of the way in a deactivated state, in the abyss, out of reach of the earth. The binding and abyssing of these wicked spirit forces are not described as a fight or war, in the way that the ousting of Satan and his demon angels from heaven is described.​—Revelation 12:7-13.

“NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH” AWAITED

13. To what is it that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses are now looking forward with eager anticipation?

¹³ Jehovah’s Christian witnesses are now doing more than “keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah” during which the symbolic “heavens,” “elements,” and “earth and the works in it” are dissolved, destroyed. They are looking forward eagerly in faith to what immediately follows this “day” of the dissolution of this system of things and the abyssing of Satan and his demon angels. They say with the apostle Peter: “But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.”​—2 Peter 3:13.

14. How does the fulfillment of that promise recorded by Peter fit in with the fulfillment of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream?

¹⁴ The coming in of the “new heavens and a new earth” is where the fulfillment of the final part of Nebuchadnezzar’s prophetic dream occurs, namely: “And as for the stone that struck the image, it became a large mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:35) In this way the heavenly Messianic kingdom is pictured as a mountain on the earth, ‘filling the whole earth.’

15, 16. In what way are the new heavens and a new earth “according to his promise,” that is, Jehovah’s promise?

¹⁵ The apostle Peter says that the awaited “new heavens and a new earth” are “according to his promise,” the promise of Jehovah, to whom Peter made reference in the preceding verse. A divine promise of this kind, in which the expression used by Peter is specifically found, is located in Isaiah 65:17, 18 and Isa 66:22. There it is written under divine inspiration:

¹⁶ “For here I am creating new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart. But exult, you people, and be joyful forever in what I am creating. For here I am creating Jerusalem a cause for joyfulness and her people a cause for exultation.” “‘For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making are standing before me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘so the offspring of you people and the name of you people will keep standing.’”

17. Where and when did that prophecy of Isaiah have a small-scale fulfillment?

¹⁷ This prophecy of Isaiah, written about 732 B.C.E., although applied by the apostle Peter to the future, had a small-scale or miniature fulfillment a couple of centuries after Isaiah’s prophecy. This was when the seventy years of desolation and sabbathkeeping of the land of Judah and of Jerusalem came to an end and a faithful remnant of exiled Jews returned from Babylon to their God-given homeland in 537 B.C.E. Jerusalem was rebuilt and its temple was reconstructed by the year 515 B.C.E., on the third day of the month Adar. (Ezra 6:13-22) In the year 455 B.C.E. the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt under the governorship of Nehemiah, and this was the occasion of a joyful celebration. (Nehemiah 6:15) In course of time Jerusalem again became a world-renowned city.​—Daniel 9:24, 25.

18. In that miniature fulfillment, what were the “new heavens”?

¹⁸ In this miniature fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, the “new heavens” were the new righteous government of Governor Zerubbabel and his successors. This government with its headquarters at the restored Jerusalem replaced the corrupted government of Kings Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, which was overturned by the Babylonians in 607 B.C.E. Governor Zerubbabel was used as the type of the Greater Zerubbabel in the following prophecy of Haggai 2:23: “‘In that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies, ‘I shall take you, O Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, my servant,’ is the utterance of Jehovah; ‘and I shall certainly set you as a seal ring, because you are the one whom I have chosen,’ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies.”

19. (a) What was the “new earth” back then? (b) Was the prophecy fulfilled to its complete extent there in the reinhabited land of Judah?

¹⁹ Those typical “new heavens” that spread out as a government over the reinhabited land of Judah had a “new earth” beneath them. Such “new earth” was the cleansed, restored Jewish remnant that had left Babylon and that rebuilt Jerusalem and its holy temple through which to render pure Mosaic Law worship to Jehovah in harmony with His covenant. (Isaiah 66:8) Inasmuch as that ancient fulfillment of the prophecy was merely an illustrative, small-scale fulfillment, it was only to a limited extent that the prophecy concerning the living conditions under the “new heavens” and in the “new earth” was realized: “‘They will do no harm nor cause any ruin in all my holy mountain,’ Jehovah has said.” (Isaiah 65:19-25) The “new heavens” and the “new earth” in the larger-scale fulfillment of Isaiah 66:22 were the ones that were to remain standing before Jehovah God permanently.

20, 21. (a) What are the “new heavens” that we are awaiting according to God’s promise? (b) How does the Messianic kingdom become ‘a large mountain that fills the whole earth,’ as foretold by Daniel?

²⁰ So, the “new heavens” that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses were long awaiting according to His promise are realized in the Messianic kingdom of God, in the hands of the Permanent Heir of King David. Since this kingdom is the royal “stone” that crushes all the earthly kings and their governments in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon, it leaves no human political rulership existent upon our earthly globe. Hence, that stonelike kingdom of the Messiah must become like a great mountain that fills and covers the whole earth. Does this mean that the Israelite kingdom of David will be reestablished by Christ right here on the earth? No! There will not be even an earthly manifestation of the kingdom of David on the surface of the earth. Jesus Christ, his Permanent Heir, will not reign in the flesh, visibly, in a city of Jerusalem over in the Middle East.

²¹ His seat of government will be the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.” (Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 14:1) His mountainlike government takes the place of all the human political governments that were the symbolic “heavens” of the old system of things. (Isaiah 34:3-5) Thus there will be a new governmental “heavens” that will actually be in the invisible, spirit heavens.

22, 23. (a) How will Jesus Christ eliminate the Satanic influence that has dominated the governmental “heavens” of this system of things? (b) Why is the promise of “new heavens” especially precious to those who are spirit-anointed Christians? (c) In Revelation 21:1-4, what are the “former heaven,” the “former earth” and the “sea,” to which reference is made, and what replaces them?

²² Satan the Devil has been the invisible “ruler” who has dominated those governmental “heavens” of this system of things on earth. The destructive “fire” of the “day of Jehovah” will dissolve, destroy, those governmental “heavens” and will leave Satan the Devil without such “heavens” over which he has dominated for millenniums. (Revelation 13:1, 2; 19:19-21) He will certainly not rule over the “new heavens.” His invisible position of rule over things earthly will be replaced by the invisible superhuman rule of David’s Permanent Heir, Jesus Christ, who, by resurrection from the dead, was made an immortal, incorruptible spirit vastly more powerful than Satan the Devil and all his demon angels. Satan and his angels are to be removed from their location in the neighborhood of the earth under restraint and are to be imprisoned in the abyss from which they can exercise no control over any “heavens” that dominate the earth. (Revelation 20:1-3) Since Jesus Christ is now a heavenly spirit King, his “new heavens” will be a heavens in a very literal sense. No other governmental heavens will exist. The apostle Peter and fellow anointed, spirit-begotten Christians could await with eager expectation the establishment of those promised “new heavens.” Why? Because they have the ‘precious and very grand promise’ from God that they will, if faithful to the death, form a part of those “new heavens” with Jesus Christ. They are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:4; Romans 8:16, 17) The whole congregation of them will make up the queenly “bride” of the King Jesus Christ. Thus, more than eight centuries after God used Isaiah to prophesy about the “new heavens and a new earth,” God gave a further promise of such glorious things by the apostle John, who wrote:

²³ “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven [the political governments along with Satan and his demon angels] and the former earth [ungodly human society] had passed away, and the sea [restless, agitated masses of mankind] is no more. I saw also the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God and prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: ‘Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.’ . . . He spoke with me and said: ‘Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ So he carried me away in the power of the spirit to a great and lofty mountain, and he showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.”​—Revelation 21:1-4, 9, 10.

A RIGHTEOUS “NEW EARTH”

24. What will the “great crowd” be in the “new earth,” and with what favorable circumstances will they set to work?

²⁴ With eager anticipation, the “great crowd” of prospective survivors of the “great tribulation” are also awaiting the “new heavens and a new earth.” This “new earth” will be the new human society living under the “new heavens.” (Revelation 7:9-14) Just as Noah and his family survived the global deluge and formed the nucleus of the new human society on earth, so the “great crowd” will survive the approaching “great tribulation” and will form the permanent nucleus of the new human society, the symbolic “new earth.” They will start off in the spiritual paradise that survives the “great tribulation” with them, but they will then set themselves to the work of converting the literal earth into a paradise all around the globe. Animals, wild and domestic, will be at peace with them.

25. How will the situation then be far more favorable than was that of the restored Israelites when Isaiah’s prophecy had its miniature fulfillment?

²⁵ The privilege of then living on the cleansed earth without pollution under the righteous “new heavens” will be one without compare, far surpassing what the restored Israelites experienced in the miniature fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in the Persian province of Judah. Oh, just think of living on earth when the “former things” have passed away, when death will be no more, when mourning over dead ones will be no more, neither outcry nor pain of heart!

26. At that time, what will Jehovah do even on behalf of the dead?

²⁶ Under the reign of the Eternal Father, Jesus Christ, and his Kingdom joint heirs, the members of the “great crowd” will be on their way to endless life in a global paradise of beauty, plenty, happiness and peace. There will be no need to mourn over dead loved ones, for by means of the “new heavens” Almighty God Jehovah will bring about a resurrection of the human dead for whom the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ avails. (John 11:25, 26; 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15; Revelation 20:11-14) These resurrected ones, including the men and women of faith from Abel to John the Baptist, will have the opportunity of becoming part of that “new earth.”

27. (a) How can we be sure that, despite the bleakness of world conditions, there will really be such a salvation of mankind? (b) What do we individually need to do now to prepare to benefit from that salvation?

²⁷ It seems almost unbelievable that such a heart-consoling prospect should be immediately ahead of us of this generation. And yet it is! World conditions never looked blacker. World distress is deepening. Man’s helplessness becomes more and more evident. Relief from human sources becomes impossible. Still there will be a salvation of mankind out of earth’s distress at its worst. The human family will not die off. It will not be killed off. There will be those of the human family who will emerge from the world distress and pass into a righteous new order in which suchlike world distress will never rise again. We have Almighty God’s own word for that. Our now living with full faith in that divine word will prepare the way for us to be saved out of the world distress. That salvation is at hand!​—Matthew 24:21, 22; Nahum 1:9.

Chapter 18

On Whose Side Are We When World Distress Climaxes?

1. (a) Only by what means will the absolute destruction of the present wicked earthly system of things come about? (b) Why is watchfulness important for all of us?

THE world distress that has gripped the man-made system of things since the year 1914 C.E. has caused incalculable damage. But it has not brought about the dissolution of the political “superior authorities” and of human society organized under such political authorities. (Romans 13:1; Titus 3:1) Symbolically speaking, the old “heavens” and “elements” and “earth and the works in it” are still with us. The absolute dissolution or destruction of such age-old things will be brought about only by the “presence of the day of Jehovah.” Although all Biblical and historical indications are that it is at hand, yet “Jehovah’s day will come as a thief.”​—2 Peter 3:10-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:2.

2. Having in mind that there would still be anointed Christians on earth when Jehovah’s day arrives, what admonition did the apostle Peter write?

² The sure evidence from the Bible is that the final members of the congregation of the Kingdom joint heirs of Christ would still be here on earth when Jehovah’s day arrives upon this system of things. This fact the apostle Peter took into account. That is why, after describing the effect of that “day” upon the symbolic old “heavens,” “elements” and “earth,” the apostle added this admonition: “Hence, beloved ones, since you are awaiting these things, do your utmost to be found finally by him spotless and unblemished and in peace. Furthermore, consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given him also wrote you, speaking about these things as he does also in all his letters. In them, however, are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unsteady are twisting, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”​—2 Peter 3:14-16.

3. In line with that admonition, what have the remnant of spiritual Israel done so as to keep “spotless and unblemished and in peace”?

³ Since they are still awaiting Jehovah’s day and its destruction upon this ungodly system of things, the final members of the remnant of spiritual Israel are doing their utmost to be found spotless, unblemished and peaceful in the sight of the Supreme Judge, the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. Despite all the increasing pressures from this distressed world, they hold to the “pure religion and undefiled”; they hold to the pure “form of worship” by keeping themselves without spot from the unclean world. (James 1:27, AV; NW) They refuse to worship the political “wild beast” and its man-made “image,” the United Nations. (Revelation 13:1-15; 15:2-4) They keep from being stained with bloodguilt, for they keep strictly neutral and nonparticipating with respect to the sanguinary wars of nations and political parties of this world. They copy Jesus Christ their Leader in being no part of this world.​—John 15:19; 17:14, 16.

4. How has it worked out that the “patience of our Lord” has meant “salvation”?

⁴ They obey the exhortation of the apostle Peter: “Consider the patience of our Lord as salvation.” (2 Peter 3:15) They recognize that the patience of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah in not bringing the “day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men” sooner has allowed for their own salvation to be worked out. (2 Peter 3:7) It has also allowed for the means of salvation to be offered to others.

5. To what work have the members of the remnant of spiritual Israel applied themselves, in harmony with the spirit of Peter’s exhortation?

⁵ Taking proper advantage of this time allowance for salvation, they have carried out the command of the resurrected Jesus Christ to go and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in water and teaching them to observe all the things that he commanded them. (Matthew 28:18-20) They have shown what they believe to be the only hope and the only rightful government for all mankind by acting in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.” (Matthew 24:14; Mark 13:10) By this course they have kept “seeking first the kingdom [of the heavenly Father] and his righteousness,” instead of butting in on worldly politics along with the clergymen of Christendom and the priests of pagandom. (Matthew 6:33) Thus they have carried out their commission to be “ambassadors substituting for Christ.”​—2 Corinthians 5:20.

6. Whom have they been aiding to avail themselves of “the patience of our Lord,” and how many will yet be gathered?

⁶ By undeviatingly carrying forward this disciple-making activity world wide according to the patience of the Supreme Judge Jehovah, the anointed remnant of those Kingdom-seekers have been privileged to do more than gather together the last remaining ones of the Kingdom heirs. Since the year 1935 C.E. they have been directed by Jehovah’s Word into gathering together to His spiritual temple of worship the “great crowd” of sheeplike persons foretold in Revelation 7:9-17. That prophecy sets no limit on the number of such sheeplike ones that are to make up the “great crowd,” and so the work goes on of gathering into the spiritual temple as many as possible during the time allowed for by the patience of God, who “does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) Just how many of these will be gathered before the “presence of the day of Jehovah” no man can now predict; but after this “great crowd” comes forth as survivors, out of the “great tribulation,” then it can be learned by a direct count or census just how many the “great crowd” finally includes.

7. (a) All of these, along with the anointed remnant, have accepted what name? (b) How do they endeavor to live up to that name, and in how many lands are they carrying on their activity?

⁷ All the dedicated, baptized sheeplike ones already gathered and also the anointed remnant of the 144,000 spiritual Israelites have declared themselves before the whole world to be Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. (Isaiah 43:10-12; 44:8) By word of mouth and by distributing printed Biblical publications they are sincerely endeavoring to live up to that name, measuring up to the responsibility of that name. The organized congregations of these Christian witnesses of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah run up into the tens of thousands around the globe, the 1975 Yearbook reporting 34,576 congregations as of August 31, 1974. As many as 207 lands and island groups are reporting preaching and discipling activities by zealous witnesses.

8. (a) Whose ownership of them do they all acknowledge, and how does this serve as a protection? (b) Obediently, what anniversary do they keep in remembrance of him, and how long will they continue to do this?

⁸ They heed the warning of the apostle Peter, who foretold the coming of false teachers, who profess to be Christian but who “disown even the owner that bought them, bringing speedy destruction upon themselves.” (2 Peter 2:1) The anointed remnant of Christ’s kingdom joint heirs and those of the “great crowd” who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” loyally acknowledge the ownership of ‘the one that bought them,’ namely, the Lamb Jesus Christ. In obedience to his command for them to act in remembrance of him, they assembled on Thursday, March 27, 1975, which was the anniversary of his death on Passover day of 33 C.E., and they observed the Lord’s Supper that he established as a memorial of his sacrificial death. (Matthew 26:20-30; Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 11:20-26) They are determined to “keep proclaiming the death of the Lord” in this prescribed manner “until he arrives” to take the remnant of his “bride” class to be with him in his heavenly Father’s home above.​—Ephesians 5:23-27.

9. How do the Christian witnesses of Jehovah show that they take to heart the importance of being found “in peace” among themselves?

⁹ In harmony with the exhortation of the apostle Peter, all these Christian witnesses of Jehovah do their utmost to be found finally “in peace” among themselves. Hence, they do not go along with the false teachers who “quietly bring in destructive sects.” (2 Peter 3:14; 2:1, 2) Thus they avoid coming into the religious condition of Christendom, which is split up into a thousand sects or more. It is true that the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites have the heavenly Kingdom hope and the unnumbered “great crowd” has the hope of eternal life in the Paradise earth, but still they all, of both classes, worship peacefully together in Jehovah’s spiritual temple, as “one flock” under the “one shepherd,” Jesus Christ.​—John 10:11, 16; Revelation 7:17; Micah 2:12.

10, 11. (a) What is the “administration” to which the apostle Paul refers and to which both the anointed remnant and the “other sheep” submit? (b) As shown in Ephesians 1:9-14, what is the objective of that “administration”?

¹⁰ In behalf of true Christian peace, the anointed remnant with the heavenly inheritance and the “other sheep” of the “great crowd” with the earthly hope submit to God’s “administration,” which he has been carrying on since the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E. This “administration” or managerial procedure that God has carried on according to his purpose is explained to us in Ephesians 1:9-14. Let us note the objective of that “administration” or managerial procedure, as we read these words concerning Jehovah God:

¹¹ “He made known to us the sacred secret of his will. It is according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself for an administration at the full limit of the appointed times [or, from Pentecost of 33 C.E. onward], namely, to gather all things together again in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. Yes, in him [Christ], in union with whom we were also assigned as heirs [of God], in that we were foreordained according to the purpose of him who operates all things according to the way his will counsels, that we should serve for the praise of his glory, we who have been first to hope in the Christ. But you also hoped in him after you heard the word of truth, the good news about your salvation. By means of him also, after you believed, you were sealed with the promised holy spirit, which is a token in advance of our inheritance, for the purpose of releasing by a ransom God’s own possession, to his glorious praise.”

12. (a) What is “God’s own possession,” referred to in the latter part of that scripture? (b) What are “the things in the heavens,” referred to in Ephesians 1:10, and what does their being gathered together in the Christ mean?

¹² What is “God’s own possession” that is released “by a ransom”? It is the congregation of Kingdom heirs, and these have a heavenly inheritance, the gift of God’s holy spirit to them being a token in advance of this heavenly inheritance. They are “the things in the heavens” that are to be gathered together again in the Christ, lined up under Jesus Christ as the spiritual Head. They were assigned as “heirs” of God and joint heirs of Jesus Christ. The gathering together again of these under Jesus Christ as the Head is the first phase of God’s “administration” according to which he will bring about unity in all the universe.​—Romans 8:16, 17.

13. (a) What further step is there to be taken toward the unification of God’s universe? (b) Is the United Nations contributing to the accomplishment of that purpose?

¹³ However, God’s “administration” or modus operandi does not achieve its full purpose by the gathering together again of “the things in the heavens” into the Christ. Unity throughout God’s universe is not fully accomplished by that first step. There are “the things on the earth” that also need to be gathered together again in the Christ. This earthly gathering is the second and final step toward the unification of God’s universe. Satan the Devil and his demon angels are opposed to this unification of the universe under the headship of the one whom God appointed, Jesus Christ. Likewise, the political governments of this world are opposed to that unification. Their highest conception of the unification of “the things on the earth” is the man-made United Nations, the successor to the League of Nations. Nonetheless, nothing can thwart the purpose of Almighty God, “who operates all things according to the way his will counsels.” His modus operandi or “administration” will prove successful.

14. Since when has the gathering together again of “the things on the earth” under Christ been evident, and to what extent has it proceeded?

¹⁴ It is apparent, now, that Jehovah God is proceeding with the second phase of his “administration” for universal unification. The establishment of the Messianic kingdom in the heavens at the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E. came at an appointed time, following which the gathering together again of “the things on the earth” could go ahead. The gathering of the anointed remnant of Christ’s joint heirs went forward after the close of World War I and moved on toward the completion of the first phase of the “administration” for unification. Rather surprisingly, however, and to the great joy of the anointed remnant, the gathering together again of “the things on the earth” under Christ the Head began in the year 1935 C.E. In the spring of that year the identifying of the long-misunderstood “great crowd” of Revelation 7:9-17 took place according to God’s purpose and time. Even the international commotion caused by World War II did not halt the gathering of the “great crowd” with its earthly Paradise hope. Today, more than forty years later, more than two million are identifying themselves with that “great crowd” at Jehovah’s spiritual temple.

15, 16. What, then, is the ‘sacred secret of God’s will,’ as referred to at Ephesians 1:9, 10?

¹⁵ Thankful can all of us be today that Jehovah God has kindly made known to us the “sacred secret of his will,” or “his hidden purpose,” for the unification of all his created universe. Especially thankful can we be that our own eyes are seeing how his purposed way of managing things in behalf of unification has entered into its second stage by the gathering of the “great crowd” of earthlings who hope for an earthly paradise. Along with the apostle Paul, we can gratefully say with regard to God’s grace or undeserved kindness:

¹⁶ “He has made known to us his hidden purpose​—such was his will and pleasure determined beforehand in Christ—​to be put into effect [or, for an administration] when the time was ripe: namely, that the universe, all in heaven and on earth, might be brought into a unity in Christ.”​—Ephesians 1:9, 10, The New English Bible; Luther (German); NW; Rotherham.

17. What will such unification really mean?

¹⁷ A universe unified under Jesus Christ as Head will mean unity of heaven and earth. This will mean a peaceful universe under Jehovah God the Universal Sovereign. It will therefore mean “upon earth peace among men of goodwill,” among men toward whom God has goodwill.​—Luke 2:14.

UNITEDLY FACING THE ONCOMING ONSLAUGHTS

18. (a) In contrast with the world around them, what is the condition that exists among the anointed remnant and those of the “other sheep,” and why? (b) So how do they feel about the closeness of the “presence of the day of Jehovah” and what it will mean?

¹⁸ In sharp contrast with the increasing turbulence on the earth, those of the anointed remnant of spiritual Israelites and those of the “great crowd” of “other sheep” are found to be “in peace” among themselves in all lands. They are enjoying a spiritual paradise under God’s favor and blessing although the natural environment of man is being polluted more and more. They are enjoying the spiritual security that is picturesquely described in Psalm 91 of the Bible. Together, both the anointed remnant and the “great crowd” are dwelling “in the secret place of the Most High” and have procured for themselves “lodging under the very shadow of the Almighty One.” (Psalm 91:1) They trust in Jehovah their God for protection and rescue. Without fear they await the “presence of the day of Jehovah” with its execution of divine judgments and the “destruction of the ungodly men.” Dissolution of this old worldly system will then occur, but their Christian unity will not be dissolved as they keep gathered together under Christ the Head.

19. Why will the events associated with the “presence of the day of Jehovah” not come as a shock to the anointed remnant and the “great crowd”?

¹⁹ If the people, even those in Christendom, do not believe what has already been said about the matter on a worldwide scale, there is plainly given warning for them to read in the pages of the Holy Bible. Warning of what? This: That during the “presence of the day of Jehovah” will come the shock of a lifetime​—first, the astonishing shock to the religious sensibilities of hundreds of millions of people around the globe! Will those shocked ones include the anointed remnant and the “great crowd” of fellow worshipers in their spiritual paradise? No, indeed! Why, they have been expecting the religiously shocking event! They are in harmony with that event, for it will be the judgment of Jehovah God. For decades they have been serving notice upon the people about it. They have not failed in their duty to forewarn the people who are directly involved about the surprisingly sudden destruction of that internationally notorious religious harlot, Babylon the Great.

20. What urgent counsel from Revelation 18:2-4 have the Christian witnesses of Jehovah broadcast to the world?

²⁰ Jehovah’s Christian witnesses are the ones that have identified who Babylon the Great is, what she symbolizes. And so they have made plain to the people just who are the ones immediately to be hurt. They have not tried to do just a lot of “calamity howling.” It has not been merely a religious scare that they have created, when they broadcast to the world the urgent counsel of the Apocalypse: “Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues.”​—Revelation (Apocalypse) Re 18:2-4, NW; Douay Version.

21. (a) Whom have Jehovah’s Christian witnesses identified Babylon the Great as being? (b) Against what part of Babylon the Great will the execution of divine judgment come first, and why?

²¹ The whole religious realm on earth is involved, for, after much study of the situation, Jehovah’s Christian witnesses have identified Babylon the Great as being, not the Roman Catholic Church, no, not organized Christendom, but the world empire of false religion. The chief component member and mouthpiece in that religious world empire is Christendom! She is the most reprehensible member thereof because she claims to be “Christian.” Her blasphemies exceed those of “pagandom”! Her persecution of religious minorities (including the true Christians) exceeds that of “heathendom”! Her bloodguilt exceeds that of all the non-Christian religious realm! Not out of line with this, Christendom will be given first attention in the execution of divine judgment upon Babylon the Great, according to what appears from the inspired Scriptures.​—Jeremiah 25:13-29.

GOD’S STRANGE DEED AND UNUSUAL WORK

22. (a) Where do we find a historic parallel of modern-day Christendom? (b) How does the language of Isaiah 28:15 well describe the course of the rulers of ancient Jerusalem?

²² Christendom of today finds an ancient parallel of herself in unfaithful Judah and Jerusalem in her final years before the utter desolation of that Jewish religious center and its territory by pagan armies of Babylon in the year 607 B.C.E. As the inspired warnings of Jehovah’s prophets continued to multiply against unfaithful Jerusalem, she tried worldly methods to preserve herself and to prove the divine prophecies to be a lie. She felt that she had made a covenant with Death according to the terms of which Death would not lay her low. She kept persuading herself that she had come to a common “vision” with Sheol, according to which Sheol (the common grave of mankind) would not behold or look upon her going down into the grave like a lifeless corpse. She took refuge in a deceitful worldly arrangement that was to prove a “lie.” She concealed herself from predicted destruction in a scheme that would not prove true to claims and expectations, thus concealing herself in a “falsehood.” She did not take refuge in Jehovah as God and find concealment in Him.​—Isaiah 28:14-16.

23, 24. (a) In what way has modern-day Christendom followed a similar course? (b) So what will come upon Christendom, as foretold by the prophet Isaiah?

²³ Modern-day Christendom has done similarly. She has made adulterous friendly arrangements with the secular political powers for her own perpetuation. She has not put her faith and trust in the heavenly Messianic kingdom of God that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses have been proclaiming world wide since particularly the postwar year of 1919 C.E. Therefore what became true of ancient Jerusalem and Judah in miniature fulfillment of Bible prophecy will now become true in a major, complete fulfillment of the same Bible prophecy. Ancient history shows how true Jehovah’s prophecy proved to be, in which he said of unbelieving Jerusalem:

²⁴ “And I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the leveling instrument [in framing things according to his purpose]; and the hail must sweep away the refuge of a lie, and the waters themselves will flood out the very place of concealment. And your covenant with Death will certainly be dissolved, and that vision of yours with Sheol will not stand. The overflowing flash flood, when it passes through​—you must also become for it a trampling place. As often as it passes through, it will take you men away, because morning by morning it will pass through, during the day and during the night; and it must become nothing but a reason for quaking to make others understand what has been heard.”​—Isaiah 28:17-19, 2, 3.

25. (a) Why, as the prophet says, will hearing the report of what is taking place be a “reason for quaking”? (b) Jehovah’s action at that time will be like what he did on what previous occasions?

²⁵ Why will it be a reason for one to quake on merely hearing the report? Because the report will declare that all the worldly-wise schemes made by unfaithful professed worshipers of God have proved to be inadequate for covering one and for giving one a comfortable ease as in a bed with a sheet over it. “For,” the prophecy through Isaiah goes on to explain, “the couch has proved too short for stretching oneself on, and the woven sheet itself is too narrow when wrapping oneself up. For Jehovah will rise up just as at Mount Perazim [where, after making a frontal attack upon the enemy Philistines, King David said: ‘The true God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a gap made by waters’], he will be agitated just as in the low plain near Gibeon [where, before giving King David a second victory over the Philistines, Jehovah said to him: ‘The true God will have gone out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines down,’ this time from their rear], that he may do his deed​—his deed is strange—​and that he may work his work​—his work is unusual. And now do not show yourselves scoffers, in order that your bands may not grow strong, for there is an extermination, even something decided upon, that I [Isaiah] have heard of from the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies, for all the land.”​—Isaiah 28:20-22; 1 Chronicles 14:8-16; 2 Samuel 5:17-25; also Joshua 10:1-14.

26. What is the ‘strange deed,’ the ‘unusual work,’ that Jehovah will soon perform, and why is it aptly described in that way?

²⁶ What more “strange” deed could there be, what more “unusual” work could there be, on the part of Jehovah God, than His bringing about the destruction of Christendom? Nothing else could be, for a person could ask: Has Christendom not claimed to rule “by the grace of God” over her religious realm, and does she not claim to represent the Christ of God on earth? Yes! And so, should Jehovah not be expected to preserve Christendom, which, by her Bible societies, has spread the Holy Bible throughout the earth in hundreds of languages and by more than a thousand million copies? In the face of these things, the fact that the Almighty God does not preserve Christendom during the “presence of the day of Jehovah” will appear “strange” to the millions of churchgoers of Christendom! The fact that He brings about Christendom’s violent destruction at the beginning of the approaching “great tribulation” will seem to be “unusual” indeed.

DOWN WITH BABYLON THE GREAT AS WITH A SWIFT PITCH!

27. (a) For what reason does Jehovah annihilate Christendom first? (b) Why will her destruction come “as a thief”?

²⁷ The just reason for the annihilation of Christendom first on the list of false religious organizations is that she is not “found finally by him [Jehovah] spotless and unblemished and in peace.” (2 Peter 3:14) This, in spite of all her claims to be God’s one true and only Church! She is found to be hypocritical, parading under the name of Christianity, while at the same time being Babylonish in teaching and practice. Because her fiery destruction on Jehovah’s day for the execution of divine judgment will be a “strange” deed and an “unusual” work, it will come upon her “as a thief.”​—2 Peter 3:10.

28. Why is the destruction of Christendom necessary in order for Jehovah to be vindicated?

²⁸ By His destruction of Christendom the Sovereign Lord Jehovah must absolve himself from all responsibility for her shameful course throughout the centuries of her existence. He must vindicate himself as never having had any connection with her and as never having engaged her for a spiritual wedlock with his beloved Son to be ‘the bride of Christ.’ A religious harlot she has been; and Jehovah God must show that he recognized her as an “enemy of God” because she was a “friend of the world.”​—James 4:4.

29. (a) Does the divine judgment upon false religion stop with the wiping out of Christendom, or what? (b) By what means will Babylon the Great be destroyed, and why do they do it?

²⁹ The divine judgment upon false religion does not come to a halt with the wiping out of Christendom. If the foremost member of that false religious world empire, Babylon the Great, must go, so must all the remaining component parts of her. All of her must go, without any traces of her being left. All the fleshy parts of this international harlot must be eaten up as by a wild beast. She must be made devastated, naked! The consuming of her as by fire must be complete, for so it is decreed in God’s unfailing Word: “And the ten horns that you saw, and the wild beast [the political Eighth World Power of today], these will hate the harlot and will make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshy parts and will completely burn her with fire.” (Revelation 17:16) Ironically, her former worldly friends will be the very ones to destroy her, not out of love for God and Christ, but out of disgust and contempt toward her.

30. When the political powers in the United Nations proceed to strip and destroy Babylon the Great, may Jehovah’s witnesses also feel the effects to some extent?

³⁰ The Eighth World Power, being a globe-embracing political organization with 138 member nations today, will take action against whatever purports to be religious, spiritual, throughout the earth. Even Jehovah’s Christian witnesses cannot escape from being affected. True, the 138 members of the United Nations organization know that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses are no part of Christendom, no, no part of harlotrous Babylon the Great as a whole. They know that Jehovah’s witnesses have not messed themselves up with the dirty politics of this world and have not tried to ride the symbolic scarlet-colored “wild beast” having seven heads and ten horns. So, when getting Babylon the Great off its back and stripping and cremating her, this political “wild beast” will not aim at Jehovah’s witnesses directly when it settles accounts with the hated “mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.” (Revelation 17:5) Nevertheless, it could hardly be otherwise than that, when the political powers represented in the United Nations of today take what they believe are needed measures against all religions, Jehovah’s witnesses will be touched to some extent. For example, by the emergency taxation of all religious property. Or, even the expropriation of all religious valuables and properties. Or the withdrawing of State charters to religious corporations, so as to accomplish their destruction.

31. As illustrated in the case of the apostle John, what position will Jehovah’s anointed witnesses occupy while Babylon the Great is being destroyed?

³¹ However, the prophetic Scriptures picture the Christian witnesses of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah as being spectators to the terror-striking annihilation of millenniums-old Babylon the Great. Apparently, the aged apostle John on the penal isle of Patmos was a representative of the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel today. By one of the seven angels that were charged with pouring out the “seven last plagues” upon the Devil’s visible organization, the apostle John was requested: “Come, I will show you the judgment upon the great harlot who sits on many waters [peoples, crowds, nations], with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, whereas those who inhabit the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”​—Revelation 17:1, 2; 21:9.

32, 33. (a) To what did John then become a spectator? (b) Whom did John not see being destroyed with Babylon the Great, but, instead, who is avenged by that act of divine justice?

³² To what did John then become a spectator? John answers: “And he carried me away in the power of the spirit into a wilderness. And I caught sight of a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored wild beast that was full of blasphemous names [accumulated down through the existence of the Seven World Powers] and that had seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and was adorned with gold and precious stone and pearls and had in her hand a golden cup that was full of disgusting things and the unclean things of her fornication. And upon her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ‘Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.’ And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. . . . ‘And the woman whom you saw means the great city [Babylon] that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.’”​—Revelation 17:3-6, 18.

³³ At his observation point out there in the “wilderness” the apostle John became a spectator to the “judgment upon the great harlot,” the destruction of Babylon the Great by the scarlet-colored wild beast with seven heads and ten horns. John did not see the “witnesses of Jesus” being destroyed with blood-drunk Babylon the Great. (Revelation 17:15, 16) After the apostle John next sees Babylon the Great pictured as a Big Business city laid in ruins, he hears the cry from heaven to the observers: “Be glad over her, O heaven, also you holy ones and you apostles and you prophets, because God has judicially exacted punishment for you from her!” (Revelation 18:20) Thus the God of justice avenges his faithful worshipers who have suffered at the hands of Babylon the Great. A rightful cause for gladness!

34, 35. How does the prophetic vision seen by the apostle John indicate that the destruction of Babylon the Great will not be a long-dragged-out affair?

³⁴ Finally, the apostle John sees in prophetic vision what will be witnessed by modern-day spectators, those who have heeded the divine command to “get out” of Babylon the Great and become the people of Jehovah God the Almighty. The action-packed scene that John sees indicates that the bringing of Babylon the Great down to utter ruin will not be a long-dragged-out affair. John describes this prophetic tableau, saying:

³⁵ “And a strong angel lifted up a stone like a great millstone and hurled it into the sea, saying: ‘Thus with a swift pitch will Babylon the great city be hurled down, and she will never be found again. And the sound of singers who accompany themselves on the harp and of musicians and of flutists and of trumpeters will never be heard in you again, and no craftsman of any trade will ever be found in you again, and no sound of a millstone will ever be heard in you again, and no light of a lamp will ever shine in you again, and no voice of a bridegroom and of a bride will ever be heard in you again; because your traveling merchants were the top-ranking men of the earth, for by your spiritistic practice all the nations were misled. Yes, in her was found the blood of prophets and of holy ones and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth.’”​—Revelation 18:21-24.

36. Why will Jehovah’s Christian witnesses themselves take no part in the violent destruction of Babylon the Great?

³⁶ At the approaching fulfillment of that prophetic vision, Jehovah’s Christian witnesses will take no part in the violent plunging of Babylon the Great into the depths of destruction. They themselves will not be iconoclasts who enter forcibly into religious buildings and smash religious images and pictures to pieces. They will keep in mind that Jehovah God claims the executing of vengeance as his prerogative. They will let him do the avenging, and so will not vindictively try to avenge themselves. Let the Supreme Judge and God of justice use whatever other agencies he desires to use in heaven or on earth, such as the symbolic scarlet-colored “wild beast” with the seven heads and ten horns, but Jehovah’s Christian witnesses find no authorization in God’s written Word for them themselves to take violent action against Babylon the Great. With credit and praise to Jehovah let it be said: “He has executed judgment upon the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged the blood of his slaves at her hand.”​—Revelation 19:2.

DISSOLUTION OF HER ALIENATED LOVERS AT HAR–MAGEDON

37. (a) Only by what means will Jehovah’s Christian witnesses be able to survive the destruction of Babylon the Great? (b) Will there still be more work for them to do at that time in preaching “this good news of the kingdom” for a witness? (c) Instead, what situation will confront them?

³⁷ Only under protection from the Almighty God will Jehovah’s Christian witnesses be able to survive the violent removal of Babylon the Great from the face of the earth. Their being preserved spectators of this world-shaking event will make them witnesses to that “strange” act of the God of pure worship, and this will obligate them to tell others about it in due time. By this time their preaching “this good news of the kingdom . . . in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations” will be ended. Their work from house to house, from door to door, from store to store, and on the streets as heralds, as commanded by the Son of God, will be finished. (Matthew 24:14; Mark 13:10) Now they must stand firm for that Messianic kingdom of God which they have persistently preached during the decades of this “conclusion of the system of things.” Why? Because now they stand face to face with the unreligionized political powers that represent “all the kingdoms of the world.”

38. To what wrong conclusions will the worldly political powers now come?

³⁸ Challenging indeed the situation will be! The worldly political powers, now divorced from all Babylonish religion, will now dispute as never before the right of such a thing as “the kingdom of God” to take over control of the earth. They do not believe in such an invisible, heavenly government. The fact that they have been permitted to destroy the Babylonish world empire of false religion will lead them to wrong conclusions​—that there is no one living and true God and that they are more powerful than whatever claims to represent him on earth and that they can assault even the proclaimers of “this good new of the kingdom” without fear of suffering divine punishment.

39. What is it reasonable to believe that the thinking of worldly political rulers will be at that time?

³⁹ Their view will be entirely materialistic, taking into account nothing but what is material: The rule of the earth henceforth should be entirely by visible human rulers. The earth belongs to man who occupies it. The teaching that they have been under the invisible control of Satan the Devil and his demons is incredible. They do not owe their political power to the Devil as invisible ruler, and they have not ruled the earth for all these centuries merely by permission of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. So they will not recognize any end of the Gentile Times in 1914 C.E. as a meaningful fact, and they will not surrender their political power and national sovereignty to a God in whom they do not believe. All alive on earth must conform to this their line of thinking. All nonconformists, all dissident persons, must be put out of the way, effaced from the earth. By these nonconformists the political destroyers of Babylon the Great mean the surviving witnesses of Jehovah.

40. Why will Jehovah’s witnesses not compromise their position at that time and conform to the world?

⁴⁰ What will make Jehovah’s Christian witnesses not conform at that crucial time is their recognition of the Most High God Jehovah as the Universal Sovereign. To Him as the Creator belong both the earth and the heavens. As the rightful King-Maker, he has appointed his resurrected Son Jesus Christ to reign over the earth for a thousand years in behalf of mankind for whom he died as a ransom sacrifice. The time for that millennial reign of Christ has approached, and Jehovah’s witnesses are awaiting it with full faith in the Holy Scriptures. Under no circumstances will they renounce that theocratic government of which they have been the ambassadors and envoys on earth during the “time of the end.” As such they have not been any “part of the world,” and they refuse now to be forced into becoming part of a world that now stands at Har–Magedon, where the issue over Universal Sovereignty will be decided by a fight to the finish!

41. (a) In view of the position taken by Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, what will be the attitude of the materialistic political powers toward them at that time? (b) How does what is foretold concerning Gog of the land of Magog give an indication of how they will view matters?

⁴¹ Such an obstacle to an undisputed claim to human world domination the materialistic political powers will resent. Out of the way with it! will be their attitude. Furthermore, what does that small band of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses have to back up their position except the Holy Bible, a mere book written by the hand of men. Where is their military backing, where are their carnal weapons with which to fight for their God and their Messianic King? Reasoning like the Gog of the land of Magog in Ezekiel’s prophecy, they will conclude that the unarmed, politically powerless witnesses of Jehovah are defenseless, helpless. (Ezekiel 38:10-12) Apparently, according to the materialistic view of things, it will be a cinch to destroy them, to wipe out their spiritual paradise, to despoil them of their claim to represent the “kingdom of the heavens”!

42. When the members of the United Nations move in to attack Jehovah’s witnesses, against whom, in reality, will they be expressing their defiance?

⁴² Forward, then, to the attack, you united national members of the world organization for international peace and security! Forward, yes, but not really against the surviving witnesses of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah; rather, against their heavenly Leader, Jesus Christ, the once-sacrificed “Lamb of God”! For, respecting the political powers that gave their earthly “power and authority” to the world organization for domination of mankind, it is written: “These will battle with the Lamb, but, because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, the Lamb will conquer them. Also, those called and chosen and faithful with him will do so.”​—Revelation 17:13, 14.

43, 44. (a) Confronted with that attack, what accounts will Jehovah’s servants here on earth need to call to mind? (b) How could the twenty-seventh Psalm encourage them?

⁴³ By such prophetic words Jehovah God discloses his confidence in the faithfulness of his Christian witnesses whom he preserves for this supreme moment of their earthly experience. Whatever form the attack takes world wide, in whatever ways it comes, it will test the faith and devotion of his anointed remnant and the “great crowd” of loyal associates. They will have to recall other occasions as recorded in the Holy Bible where the Almighty God let the enemies attack en masse his seemingly helpless people but he stopped the enemy dead in their tracks. Appropriate it will be for them to remember the words of King David:

⁴⁴ “Jehovah is my light and my salvation. Of whom shall I be in fear? Jehovah is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be in dread? When the evildoers approached against me to eat up my flesh, they being my adversaries and my enemies personally, they themselves stumbled and fell. Though against me an encampment should pitch tent, my heart will not fear. Though against me war should rise, even then I shall be trusting. One thing I have asked from Jehovah​—it is what I shall look for, that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the pleasantness of Jehovah and to look with appreciation upon his temple. For he will hide me in his covert in the day of calamity; he will conceal me in the secret place of his tent; high on a rock he will put me. And now my head will be high above my enemies all around me; and I will sacrifice at his tent sacrifices of joyful shouting; I will sing and make melody to Jehovah.”​—Psalm 27:1-6.

45. What reasons will the ungodly nations have given the Universal Sovereign for destroying them?

⁴⁵ All the holy heavens and all the holy ones on earth are watching what now takes place! Now at last has been reached the culminating point of the brazen defiance and challenge by the nations on earth with respect to the universal sovereignty of the Most High God, the Producer of heaven and earth! Now the heavenly Claimant to Universal Sovereignty must decide as to whose position is right, that of his Christian witnesses on earth or that of the self-glorifying nations of mortal creature men. The nations have not only ‘ruined the earth’ by their pollutions and violations of the Creator’s laws but also now set themselves to destroying His “people for special possession,” the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel, along with the “great crowd” of God-fearing persons who do good to that “people for special possession.” (Revelation 11:18; 1 Peter 2:9) What further reason does the Universal Sovereign need in his seeking for a cause to destroy the ungodly nations? None!

46. (a) How have the nations shown that they have refused to heed the inspired counsel recorded at Psalm 2:10-12? (b) So, in harmony with Psalm 2:5-9, for what action does the time arrive?

⁴⁶ Stubbornly, during all the worldwide preaching of the “good news of the kingdom” for a witness since 1914 C.E., the nations have refused to heed the inspired counsel: “And now, O kings, exercise insight; let yourselves be corrected, O judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with fear and be joyful with trembling. Kiss the Son [the Messiah] that He [Jehovah] may not become incensed and you may not perish from the way, for his anger flares up easily.” (Psalm 2:7, 10-12) The nations have persistently held back from kissing the King whom Jehovah has universally announced to be his only-begotten Son, for the nations have done nothing to soften his face toward a reconciliation. They have refused to surrender to him their sovereignties over their claimed territories. The clock of God’s timetable strikes the hour for Him to ‘speak to the nations in his anger and disturb them in his hot displeasure.’ So now let the rule of the “iron scepter” go into operation. Let Jehovah’s installed royal Son break the nations, dash them to pieces like a potter’s earthenware vessel. (Psalm 2:5-9) At once, then, let the Son of God with the iron scepter engage the enemy forces in battle!

47. (a) Who gives the signal for the heavenly armies to go into action at Har–Magedon? (b) Like what does the Revelation account describe the battlefield as being on that day of slaughter?

⁴⁷ Just as King David at the low plain of Gibeon awaited the battle signal from Jehovah, so Jehovah’s warrior King who is to “shepherd all the nations with an iron rod” has awaited the signal from his heavenly Commander in Chief. (Revelation 12:5) Look! The signal! Instantly the royal Field Marshal spurs his white war horse into action, leading his heavenly armies on white war horses in a victorious charge against all the combined enemies in battle array at the battlefield of Har–Magedon on earth. Treat those enemy kings and their armies and henchmen like grapes gathered to be crushed. Turn that battlefield of Har–Magedon into a winepress! There let the King of kings tread the “winepress of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty.” Let the lifeblood of those “grapes” rise higher and higher in the winepress vat, yes, “as high up as the bridles of the horses.” (Revelation 19:11-16; 14:18-20) Let the long-pent-up anger of the wrath of God the Almighty now at last expend itself fully. Let there remain no need for him to bring such distress of nations a second time.​—Nahum 1:6-9.

48. In what way does Isaiah 34:1-6 describe what will take place then?

⁴⁸ Surely now is the time for all heaven and earth to take note! “For Jehovah has indignation against all the nations, and rage against all their army. He must devote them to destruction; he must give them to the slaughter. And their slain ones will be thrown out; and as for their carcasses, their stink will ascend; and the mountains must melt because of their blood. And all those of the army of the heavens must rot away. And the heavens must be rolled up, just like a book scroll; and their army will all shrivel away, just as the leafage shrivels off the vine and like a shriveled fig off the fig tree. ‘For in the heavens my sword will certainly be drenched. Look! Upon Edom it will descend, and upon the people devoted by me to destruction in justice. Jehovah has a sword; it must be filled with blood.’” (Isaiah 34:1-6) Not in idle jest did Jehovah inspire the writing of those prophetic words. The time nears for them to be fulfilled. The old system of things must die!

49. What urgent decision now faces each one of us?

⁴⁹ Shall we die with the old system of things? Do we choose to be executed along with the political rulers, their armies and their henchmen in that “day” when Jehovah God by his warrior Son Jesus Christ wields his judicial sword for executing all his enemies on earth? Very short must be the time that remains in which we are allowed to make the personal decision that counts for life or for death when the Sovereign Lord God settles accounts with this old system of things. Our being spared alive or our being executed as condemned worldlings will depend upon the side where we now choose to stand. Now is not too soon to decide the question, On whose side shall I find myself when world distress comes to its fearful climax? In wisdom and with good sense may we all make our choice for life in God’s new system of things!

Chapter 19

From World Distress into a Peaceful “New Earth”

1. Why were Noah and his family preserved when the “world of ungodly people” of that time ended, and why is their survival important to us?

ONCE before in human history a “world of ungodly people” ended! The common forefather of us all survived that end of such a “world.” This ancestral forefather of ours was Noah the son of Lamech. Because of taking his stand on the right side, Noah survived, and along with him his wife and three sons and three daughters-in-law. This makes all of us today the descendants of those eight survivors of a world’s end. The world’s end came in a global deluge, the like of which mankind will never see again. Noah came to be called “a preacher of righteousness.” The Bible record says: “Noah walked with the true God.” This was the One on whose side Noah took his stand in the world crisis of his day. That is why he and his family were preserved in the massive ark that he built in obedience to God’s command for the preservation of himself and his household.​—2 Peter 2:5; Genesis 6:9; Hebrews 11:7.

2. (a) Who will survive the end of the “world of ungodly people” that now faces mankind, and what basis is there for such assurance? (b) What are the “heavens” that they will see destroyed as by fire?

² Now, once again, mankind faces the end of a “world of ungodly people.” Regardless of those who ridicule such a tremendous idea, there are many individuals who are taking their stand on the right side, just as Noah did before the global deluge of 2370 B.C.E. Noah was one of Jehovah’s early witnesses. That fact is significant for our critical day. In what way? In this: Like Noah under divine protection, Jehovah’s Christian witnesses of today will survive the coming end of the “world of ungodly people.” On earth they will personally see demonstrated that, as 2 Peter 2:9 says, “Jehovah knows how to deliver people of godly devotion out of trial, but to reserve unrighteous people for the day of judgment to be cut off.” As a class they will be preserved through the “presence of the day of Jehovah, through which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved and the elements being intensely hot will melt!” “And earth and the works in it will be discovered [for burning].” (2 Peter 3:12, 10) They will see the visible governmental “heavens” set aflame by the fiery means that the miracle-working God will then use. They will hear the hissing noise with which those flaming “heavens” will pass away for all time. The “elements” that go along with this worldly system of things will be dissolved, “will melt,” because of the unendurable heat to which they are exposed.

3. Identify the “elements” that “will melt” at that time, according to 2 Peter 3:12.

³ “Elements,” which make up the figurative atmosphere of this transitory system of things, will not be able to hold together and endure under the fire of test. The worldly attitude that man is able to rule the earth independently of God will not stand the fiery test. The desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life, as dominant selfish features of this system of things, will prove as short-lived as this “world of ungodly people.” They go up in smoke in the fiery testing of the judgment day of Jehovah. The “weak and beggarly elements,” that is, the impotent theories, philosophies, practices and rites by which men have sought to gain their own salvation and prove themselves to be self-righteous, all such “elements” will melt in the fiery-hot crucible of test. They will prove to be without strength, impractical, ineffective, having no worth, as worthless as beggars. (1 John 2:15-17; Galatians 4:9, AV) Those “elements” will have to disappear as being no climate, no atmosphere, no natural expanse or vault under which worshipers of God on earth should live.

4. What are the “earth and the works in it” that will perish in the fiery “day of Jehovah”?

⁴ Fire-resistant materials will be found to be missing in the “earth and the works in it” during that super-heated “day of Jehovah.” They will show themselves to be just as combustible as the accompanying “heavens” and the “elements.” Human society as a living base for the system of things of which Satan the Devil has been the god will perish by the execution of God’s righteous judgments. In this way a whole world will end, the “world of ungodly people” that corresponds with such a world in the Noachian deluge. The works that this ungodly earthly human society has built up will not save it, will not serve as any haven of safety for it. The fiery expression of God’s anger, indignation and denunciation will reduce all these things to ashes.

5, 6. (a) During that time of destruction, how may the situation appear to Jehovah’s own worshipers on earth? (b) Only by what means will any come through that time of distress, and what encouragement can they find in the forty-sixth Psalm?

⁵ With the figurative “heavens” and “elements” and “earth and the works in it” undergoing destruction, it might appear to Jehovah’s worshipers who are caught within this world distress without equal that the whole universe is crashing about them. Yes, as though the very ground were moving out from beneath their feet. To the earthly spectators the course of events may take on a frightful aspect. It will become manifest that only by a miracle of the Almighty God can anyone in the flesh on earth possibly survive. Only by reposing full trust in the Universal Sovereign Jehovah will earthly beholders keep from letting terror grip their hearts. Reserved for such an unsettling experience as that is the temple psalm of the sons of Korah, who survived the fiery destruction of their rebellious father and his presumptuous fellow Levites:

⁶ “God is for us a refuge and strength, a help that is readily to be found during distresses. That is why we shall not fear, though the earth undergo change and though the mountains totter into the heart of the vast sea; though its waters be boisterous, foam over, though the mountains rock at its uproar. . . . There is a river the streams of which make the city of God rejoice, the holiest grand tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city; it will not be made to totter. God will help it at the appearance of morning. The nations became boisterous, the kingdoms tottered; He sounded with his voice, the earth proceeded to melt. Jehovah of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is a secure height for us.”​—Psalm 46:1-7 and superscription.

7, 8. In the further verses of the psalm, what assurance do you find that there will be survivors of that world upheaval?

⁷ That there could and would be survivors of such an awe-inspiring upheaval in the natural world, the psalm writers (sons of Korah) immediately go on to indicate, by their next words:

⁸ “Come, you people, behold the activities of Jehovah, how he has set astonishing events on the earth. He is making wars to cease to the extremity of the earth. The bow he breaks apart and does cut the spear in pieces; the [war] wagons he burns in the fire. ‘Give in [Let be then,], you people, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’ Jehovah of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is a secure height for us.”​—Psalm 46:8-11, NW; NE; Numbers 16:1-35; 26:10, 11; 27:2, 3; Jude 11.

9. (a) What must we do now if Jehovah is to be a refuge for us then? (b) To what historic occurrence does Hebrews 12:26-29 point as a reminder when it speaks of the destruction of “heaven” and “earth”?

⁹ Being found in Jehovah God as a refuge then during such world-shaking commotion requires our taking refuge in Him in advance, even now. His power for the shaking of “heaven” and “earth” to destruction was demonstrated in 1513 B.C.E., at his making Mount Sinai quake on the occasion of giving his Ten Commandments to the ancient sons of Israel. (Exodus 20:1-18) “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying: ‘Yet once more I will set in commotion not only the earth but also the heaven.’ Now the expression ‘Yet once more’ signifies the removal of the things being shaken as things that have been made, in order that the things not being shaken may remain. Wherefore, seeing that we [of spiritual Israel] are to receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us continue to have undeserved kindness, through which we may acceptably render God sacred service with godly fear and awe. For our God is also a consuming fire.”​—Hebrews 12:26-29; Haggai 2:6, 7.

10. (a) At that time of intense shaking, what will remain standing, and as an expression of what? (b) Is there anything that Satan and his demons will be able to do to prevent the destruction of the “heaven” and “earth” of the present wicked system of things?

¹⁰ Let the artificial “heaven” and “earth” be shaken to their complete removal in fiery destruction during the “presence of the day of Jehovah,” yet the Messianic kingdom of God in the hands of his Son victorious in battle will remain standing. As an expression of his unshakable Universal Sovereignty, it will stay standing to the eternal vindication of Him as the Sovereign Lord of all. Satan the Devil, “the ruler of this world,” and all his demon angels have long dominated this artificial “heaven” and “earth” of the present wicked system of things. But, despite all their superhuman might, they will be unable to keep the doomed “heaven” and “earth” from being shaken to pieces and being wiped out from the universe. The “short period of time” during which these “wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places” have been restrained here at the neighborhood of the earth will be ended. Immediately after the eternal victory of Jehovah God by Jesus Christ has been won in the “great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon, Satan the Devil and his demon angels will be seized, chained and hurled into the abyss away from the vicinity of this earth.​—Revelation 20:1-3.

11. Will the surviving witnesses of Jehovah be aware that the chaining and abyssing of Satan and his demons has taken place?

¹¹ Although that chaining and abyssing of Satan and his demon angels will be invisible to the eyes of the surviving witnesses of Jehovah, and likely noiseless to their natural ears, they will feel the liberating effects of it. No longer will it be true that “Satan cut across our path,” as we may seek to carry on Jehovah’s reconstruction work on the cleansed earth after the abysmal imprisonment of those spirit forces with whom we now have to wrestle and to fight with spiritual weapons. (1 Thessalonians 2:18; Ephesians 6:12-18) Such wrestling and spiritual fighting will be a thing of the past for them during the thousand-year reign of Christ.​—Revelation 20:1-6; Romans 16:20.

“NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH”

12. At that time, what things foretold by Daniel and by Jesus Christ will be fulfilled prophecy?

¹² Oh, that blessed day, the day that we are so eagerly awaiting! Then it will be all fulfilled prophecy​—that which the prophet Daniel foretold when he said: “And during that time Michael [the glorified Christ] will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of the sons of your people. And there will certainly occur a time of distress such as has not been made to occur since there came to be a nation until that time.” And Jesus Christ, in quoting from those words of Daniel, when giving his prophecy on the “conclusion of the system of things,” added the words: “No, nor will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.”​—Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:3, 21, 22; Mark 13:19, 20.

13. What thrilling realization, what rare privilege, will the remnant and their fellow worshipers have after going through that world’s distress?

¹³ The physical and environmental condition in which the faithful remnant of spiritual Israel and the “great crowd” of loyal fellow worshipers will emerge from that worst world distress of all human experience remains yet to be seen and appreciated. But, oh, the thrilling realization then that at last God’s New Order of righteousness has begun! Oh, the rare privilege of seeing in actuality what the aged apostle John saw long ago only in vision! “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.” (Revelation 21:1) Fulfilled is Jehovah’s prophecy holding out hope of such a thing even back in the ancient days of the prophet Isaiah: “Here I am creating new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart. But exult, you people, and be joyful forever in what I am creating.”​—Isaiah 65:17, 18.

14. (a) In the first century, how were Christians affected by the promise of “new heavens and a new earth”? (b) Why is it that the expectations of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses concerning that promise are running high now?

¹⁴ That promise of the God who does not lie was called to the attention of even the first-century Christians. Having the standpoint of spiritual Israelites, they strengthened themselves in their Christian endurance by awaiting God’s carrying out of his precious promise. In contrast to the sobering description of the fiery dissolution of the existing “heavens,” “elements,” and “earth and the works in it” that he has just written for the recipients of his letter, the apostle Peter adds the cheering words: “But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.” (2 Peter 3:13) Today Jehovah’s Christian witnesses of this twentieth century are also awaiting those same new heavens and new earth. But they know that they are living in the last days of the “heavens and the earth that are now.” The generation that was not to pass away until “all these things” foretold by Jesus Christ had occurred has survived since the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 and has seen practically all “these things” occur. (Matthew 24:3, 34) So now their expectations run high!

15. With what activity should all of us be fully occupied?

¹⁵ More inducement than ever before exists for Jehovah’s Christian witnesses of “this generation” to be fully occupied in “holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion” and to be particularly earnest about “keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah” in which the old unrighteous order will be dissolved in destruction. (2 Peter 3:11, 12) That day is unavoidable. It must come in order to clear the way for the fulfillment of God’s golden promise of “new heavens and a new earth,” in which righteousness is to dwell. The day approaches when those promised new creations will beautify the realm that has so long been marred by the presence of unrighteous heavens and earth of the Devil’s making. What a lovely time in which to be living on earth then!

16. (a) What will that heavenly Messianic kingdom mean for earth’s inhabitants? (b) Of what will it be an expression on Jehovah’s part for mankind?

¹⁶ The reign of the Lord Jesus Christ with his glorified congregational “bride” will usher in an uninterrupted era of righteous rule and peace and happiness for earth’s inhabitants. That heavenly Messianic kingdom will replace the heartless misrule of mankind by devils and men for these past six thousand years. That Messianic government will occupy the place of the wicked old “heavens.” It will be an expression of the infinite love of Jehovah God for man who was created as a “son of God,” in God’s own image and likeness. (Genesis 1:26-28; Luke 3:38) Jehovah God loved the world of mankind so much that he, at great cost to himself, provided his beloved only-begotten Son to be the King in that Messianic government.​—John 3:16.

17. Ahead of the survivors of Har–Magedon will rise what prospect, and, in fact, they are already enjoying what condition?

¹⁷ With the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon in the past and with the imprisoning of the “wicked spirit forces” of Satan and his demons in the abyss accomplished, the favored survivors on earth will fill up with heartfelt elation at realizing that the long-awaited “new heavens” of God’s creation are truly reigning over them. As they look out over the cleansed land that stretches out before them, they will be filled with a pioneer spirit. There is a millennium of work to do throughout the land! The prospect of a global paradise rises before their eyes. They are already enjoying a spiritual paradise by God’s spirit and favor. As in an ark of survival they were preserved in this spiritual paradise during the great cataclysm that dissolved the old system in destruction. That is why God’s promised “new earth” begins with them. O joy, they themselves are the nucleus of the “new earth,” the new human society, the new world of godly people!

18. That is the time for fulfillment of what precious promise recorded at Revelation 21:3, 4?

¹⁸ Here starts the coming true of what the apostle John heard announced from heaven: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples.And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”​—Revelation 21:3, 4.

MARRIAGE OF THE BRIDAL REMNANT WITH THE BRIDEGROOM

19. (a) Why will the surviving remnant of spiritual Israelites not remain indefinitely here on earth? (b) What will their gaining of heavenly life mean for them?

¹⁹ At beholding such a happy start of things on the cleansed earth, the surviving remnant of spiritual Israelites will exult and rejoice to overflowing. They will be instrumental in God’s hands in getting the “new earth” off functioning in harmony with the “new heavens” government. But their ultimate hopes are not earthward; rather, they are heavenward. The spirit-begotten remnant expect that, in the due time, the heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, will take them to his heavenly Father’s home to complete his bridal congregation and thus form the final part of the “holy city, New Jerusalem.” (Revelation 21:2, 9, 10; 20:4, 6; John 14:2, 3; 17:24) Then their departure from association personally with the “new earth” will take place, and they will be united in heavenly wedlock with their beloved Bridegroom along with the others of his bridal congregation. Thereby they will be part of the “new heavens” in its proper location.​—Ephesians 5:25-27.

20. (a) Ever since the year 1935, the “great crowd” have been giving loving aid to the prospective bride class for what reason? (b) Where in his royal realm will the “great crowd” have a place?

²⁰ The “great crowd” of fellow worshipers at God’s spiritual temple will be glad for the marital union of the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel, with whom they have survived the “presence of the day of Jehovah.” All along, during this time of personal association with the bridal remnant since 1935 C.E., they have attended upon the prospective bride class just like bridesmaids. They have done so in loving loyalty to the Bridegroom King. Not being members of his bride class, they will not be taken to heaven. However, they are taken into the Bridegroom King’s realm, to enjoy his reign of a thousand years. They are preserved along with the remnant of the bride class through the “great tribulation” and come out of it into the earthly part of his royal realm, this earthly part necessarily including the territory of ancient Israel where the King’s famous ancestor, King David, used to reign.​—Psalm 72:6, 7; Luke 1:31-33.

21. (a) So what does the King mean when he tells them, as recorded at Matthew 25:34, “Inherit the kingdom . . .”? (b) In what manner are they appropriately described in Psalm 45:14, 15?

²¹ When the Bridegroom King fulfills the parable of the sheep and the goats, it will be the earthly part of his kingly realm that he has in mind when he says to the sheeplike ones at his right hand: “Come, you who have been blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.” (Matthew 25:31-34) His warmly welcoming these sheeplike doers of good, who have been like attentive bridesmaids to his bride class, will correspond with what is said about the virgin bridesmaids in Psalm 45:14, 15: “The virgins in her train as her companions are being brought in to you [the Bridegroom King]. They will be brought with rejoicing and joyfulness; they will enter into the palace of the king.” Not in vain will they have been like attentive bridesmaids to the bride class of Christ. Their reward of being assigned to the earthly paradise of his royal realm will be a most happifying one. There, in loving unselfishness, they will rejoice over the celestial marriage of their heavenly King to his bridal congregation, the final remnant of which they knew personally and to whom they did good for the Bridegroom’s sake.

22. As indicated at Psalm 45:16, what privileges will be open to earthly subjects of the King Jesus Christ?

²² Adding to their joyfulness on earth will be the special privileges of service accorded to the “great crowd” of sheeplike subjects of the Bridegroom King Jesus Christ. Such outstanding privileges of earthly service are alluded to in the next verse of Psalm 45, which is addressed to the Bridegroom King into whose palace the bridesmaids are brought. To him this verse (16) says: “In place of your forefathers there will come to be your sons, whom you will appoint as princes in all the earth.”

23. Although the association of the name of Jesus with those of his illustrious forefathers does reflect some glory upon him, in order for them to make a living contribution to his reign, what must they become?

²³ In order to impart great respectableness and dignity to his active role as Messianic King, the wedded Lord Jesus Christ will not have to appeal strictly to his illustrious forefathers in his earthly ancestry. (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38) His being called “the Son of David” does reflect glory upon him. His being called “the son of Abraham,” the patriarch out of whose loins God promised that kings would come, this also imparted fame to the name of the Bridegroom King. (Genesis 17:6, 15, 16) But these widely known forefathers, like other men of faith and devotion to Jehovah God, have long been dead, and, in that condition, they cannot make any living contribution to the glory of his Millennial reign. Those who will be able to do so will therefore be living sons, even his sons in the earthly realm.

24. (a) How will Jesus live up to his title “Eternal Father”? (b) Who will be the first to become his earthly sons and daughters?

²⁴ Earthly sons? Yes! For, among the grand titles that were foretold for him in Isaiah 9:6 the title Eternal Father is not a mere honorary one, a title given merely for honor but not assigning the duties of such an office. He will really live up to this title by becoming father to children who will live eternally. The first to become his earthly sons and daughters will be the members of the “great crowd” of those who will say after coming out of the “great tribulation”: “Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9, 10, 14) They will ascribe their salvation to Jehovah God through his Lamb, Jesus Christ.

“PRINCES IN ALL THE EARTH”

25. Among the survivors of Har–Magedon will be what qualified men from among whom the King could select “princes in all the earth,” and what experience will they have had?

²⁵ Being the survivors on earth of the world distress in which the “world of ungodly people” will be destroyed, they will be right on hand, immediately available, for the reigning Eternal Father to select from among them the qualified men, his “sons,” to be appointed as “princes in all the earth.” Even among the tens of thousands of congregations of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses today there are thousands of dedicated, baptized men who have been theocratically appointed to the position of official elders. They serve as “overseers” and do pastoral work among the congregations of which they are members. (Acts 20:17-28; Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5:1-4) They are also taking the lead in the work foretold by Jesus Christ for this “conclusion of the system of things,” namely: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations.” (Matthew 24:14) In this manner they endeavor to fulfill their responsibility to the heavenly Messianic kingdom that was established when the Gentile Times ended in 1914.

26. Already, what role are these congregational elders filling, as foretold in Isaiah 32:1, 2?

²⁶ These congregational elders or overseers are faithfully fulfilling the prophetic picture of the “princes” described in Isaiah 32:1, 2: “Look! A king will reign for righteousness itself; and as respects princes, they will rule as princes for justice itself. And each one must prove to be like a hiding place from the wind and a place of concealment from the rainstorm, like streams of water in a waterless country, like the shadow of a heavy crag in an exhausted land.” Thus they are not oppressive religious “princes,” like those in the religious sects of Christendom who are called “Princes of the Church.” Rather, each one of these congregational elders seeks to be a relief giver, a refreshment, to the members of his congregation. He is careful to serve just as princely elders in ancient Israel would serve, “for justice itself.” Thus he copies his heavenly King, who reigns “for righteousness itself.”​—Luke 22:25-27.

27, 28. (a) Will elders be discharged from their theocratic position by the “great tribulation”? (b) So, subject to the will of the heavenly King Jesus Christ, for what service will they be available?

²⁷ As the “new earth,” human society organized under the “new heavens” kingdom, gets under way, there will be need for overseers, superintendents, supervisors of communities and operations. Elders who survive the “great tribulation” and form part of the “new earth” will have gained much experience by their services rendered now in the congregations of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. The “great tribulation” will not have discharged or dismissed them from the theocratic position of elders and overseers among the members of the congregations that survive with them into God’s righteous New Order. They can carry right on in this capacity, if the will of the heavenly King Jesus Christ is in favor of that.

²⁸ At any rate, the experienced elders and overseers will be available for the Messianic King to appoint as “princes in all the earth,” from the very start of his thousand-year reign onward. What a privilege that will be for them to be the visible princely representatives on earth of the millennial Kingdom!

29, 30. (a) When they return from the dead by means of resurrection, who else will no doubt be included among the “princes in all the earth”? (b) Why is it not to be expected that they will have any great difficulty in adjusting themselves to the new circumstances on earth?

²⁹ All the survivors of the “great tribulation” will look ahead eagerly to the beginning of the resurrection of the ransomed human dead. They will look ahead to that “hour” in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear the voice of the glorified Son of man, Jesus, and all these hearing will come forth to a resurrection of life-affording opportunities under the millennial Kingdom. (John 5:28, 29; 11:25, 26; Acts 24:15; 1 Timothy 2:5, 6) They will particularly look forward to the resurrection of the faithful “forefathers” of the Bridegroom King. Oh, how they will hail the restoring to life on earth of Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Boaz, David, Hezekiah and Josiah! Excellent material these will be for the appointed service of “princes in all the earth.” Being once again in the land of the living and now in princely service, they will add further honor to the Messianic King whose earthly ancestors they were privileged to be.

³⁰ What, also, about all the other prophets and exemplars of faith, such as Abel, Job, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and others, all the way down to John the Baptist, the earthly forerunner and “friend of the Bridegroom,” Jesus Christ? In the light of the favorable Bible testimony regarding these men, they have proved themselves worthy of appointment as “princes in all the earth” by the one to whose coming as Messiah they looked, many of them even foretelling it. Without great difficulty, and with assistance of God’s holy spirit, these capable men should be able to fit themselves to the new circumstances on earth during the seventh millennium of man’s existence on earth. The Bible credentials are all in favor of their being honored with the service of “princes in all the earth.” The congregational elders and overseers who survive the “great tribulation” can be of up-to-date help to all of these.

31. (a) Of whom will those “princes” be representatives as they carry out their work? (b) Why will there be a huge educational work carried out then?

³¹ The having of “princes in all the earth” who will rule “for justice itself” gives assurance that in the “new earth” righteousness will indeed dwell, come to stay forever. With the Messianic “new heavens” above, and with “princes” such as these serving as visible representatives of those “new heavens,” the work of beautification of the earth will go forward for mankind’s everlasting paradise home. The thousands of millions of resurrected dead will participate in thus robing all the earth with the glory of Paradise. (Luke 23:43) Ever expanding will the worldwide educational work prove to be as generation after generation of the human dead return from the memorial tombs. They will have to be shown how the Holy Bible is a true history of God’s dealings with mankind and how all the Bible prophecies have come true and are still coming true. They will have to be informed of what is contained in the “scrolls” of divine instruction that will then be opened.​—Revelation 20:12.

32. (a) What happy prospects are there before witnesses of Jehovah who zealously share in the work of Bible education now? (b) In what ways will the Eternal Father Jesus Christ prove to be “a life-giving spirit”?

³² Happy, indeed, are the prospects for all dedicated, baptized witnesses of Jehovah who today are zealously engaged in Bible educational work in all the inhabited earth. It is a life-imparting work that will enable countless persons to escape the destructive execution of God’s judgments in the oncoming “great tribulation.” It is a work that is preparing and fitting them for the far vaster educational work in behalf of all the ransomed human dead whom the reigning King Jesus Christ will call forth to become their Eternal Father. He is the one to whom 1 Corinthians 15:45 applies: “The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” As such, he will impart life to them, not just by giving them a new start in life by their resurrection, but by rearing them for life during his millennial reign.

33. (a) When will all obedient ones on earth be rewarded with life eternal? (b) How will Jehovah’s “administration,” referred to in Ephesians 1:9, 10, then successfully have accomplished his grand purpose?

³³ By the end of his life-giving reign all the responsive and obedient ones will attain the glorious estate of human perfection such as the first Adam had in the original paradise, the Garden of Eden. If, then, in the decisive test, they prove loyal to his Heavenly Father as Universal Sovereign, their reward will be life eternal. Earth, then everywhere arrayed in Paradise beauty, will again be at unity with the holy heavens. Jehovah’s program of “administration” will have been carried out to the successful accomplishment of his grand purpose. “All things” without exception, “the things in the heavens and the things on the earth,” will have been gathered together again “in the Christ,” in the one whom Jehovah God has made the Head of his capital organization, his Son Jesus Christ. Man on earth, enjoying both a spiritual paradise and an Edenic paradise, will again be part of Jehovah’s universal organization. Unity and peace will reign among all his creatures in heaven and on earth. (Ephesians 1:9, 10) Earthly animals will be subject to man.

WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW?

34. On what do we need to keep our eyes of faith firmly fixed, and why can we be confident of its realization?

³⁴ The view of the future that the sure Word of God presents to our eyes of faith is magnificent! The thing to do now is not to lose sight of it. Never may we let our eyes be distracted from it. It is no hallucination, no mirage, no pipe dream. Over the endorsement of God’s own name the grand things to come​—soon—​stand fully guaranteed in prophecies of his indestructible Word. As certainly as time moves on, we are moving forward to them. They are the goal set before us by the God who is “the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.” (Hebrews 11:6) If we hold onto our faith and live and act in harmony with it, nothing is going to obstruct us from gaining the prize that God holds out and promises to us.

35. Will the destruction of Babylon the Great clear all obstructions out of our way, or what will be the situation?

³⁵ Would-be obstructors are sure to present themselves in our pathway that lies ahead of us. Notwithstanding that the day and the hour of the outbreak of the “great tribulation” has not been revealed to us, it is timed by God and will not delay. (Habakkuk 2:3) The “great tribulation” is in the declared purpose of God and it is bound to come. Let us keep in mind that the destruction of religious Babylon the Great in the forepart of the tribulation will not completely clear the way for us. It merely frees the hand of the final remaining obstructors to give undivided attention to interference with our reaching our God-ordained goal. What shall we then do?

36. The crucial situation that will then exist reminds us of what historical situation?

³⁶ The crucial situation that is then to shape itself before us stirs up the memory of the apparently trapped Israelites on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea shortly after Passover of 1513 B.C.E. Before them the sea blocks their direct passage to the Mountain of God, Mount Sinai, on the Arabian peninsula. Their encampment at the sea is menaced from the rear. The Egyptians are coming! Under leadership of the royal Pharaoh of Egypt the war chariots and the cavalrymen are bearing down upon the Israelite camp. How long will it be before the military forces of Pharaoh are upon them? The look of things is most alarming indeed! What shall they do? Under the circumstances cries go up to God, whose leading of them into this perilous situation they cannot understand.

37. Faced with this alarming situation, what seemingly impossible thing did God command them to do?

³⁷ What is the command that they now hear? It is unbelievable, impossible, according to the appearance of things! The divine command is to break camp, not in a panicky stampede before the onrushing enemy, but to march away from them. That meant​—into the sea! That is right, Forward march! “The Eternal said to Moses, ‘Why cry to me? Tell the Israelites to march forward. And as for you, raise your stick and stretch your hand over the sea; part it in two, that the Israelites may march on dry ground through the sea. I am going to make the Egyptians so stubborn that they will pass in after them, and I will gain honour out of the Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots and cavalry​—to teach the Egyptians that I am the Eternal, when I gain honour out of the Pharaoh and his chariots and his cavalry.’”​—Exodus 14:15-18, Moffatt; Byington; Jerusalem Bible; An American Translation; Revised Standard Version.

38. (a) How was the enemy caught in the trap and completely destroyed? (b) What did the Israelites then have good reason to do?

³⁸ Through the corridor that the Almighty God miraculously cut through the Red Sea his threatened people march forward after striking camp. Clear across they march to the shores of the Sinaitic peninsula. Enticingly the escape corridor is left open. The Egyptians, temporarily blocked from charging into the camp of the Israelites, now resume their furious charge. Into the water-walled corridor they roll and gallop in hot pursuit. They are at last all inside the corridor. Then chariot troubles impede progress. So​—beat a retreat before the God of the Israelites who fights for them! But it is too late. At the signal from Moses with his prophet’s stick, the trap is sprung. The waters of the parted sea rush together. Pharaoh’s entire military forces are engulfed. Dead bodies of them are washed up upon the shores of the Sinaitic peninsula. Sing and dance now, you Israelites, over your deliverance by Jehovah’s hand.​—Exodus 14:19 through 15:21.

39. (a) For whose instruction were those things recorded in the Bible? (b) When confronted with the all-out attack by Satan the Devil and his international hordes, to what determination must we stick?

³⁹ Those things, put on record aforetime, were written for our instruction at the most critical time. (Romans 15:4) The future attack of the symbolic ten horns and the then-riderless scarlet-colored wild beast will pose a great threat to our existence and our spiritual paradise, after they have hatefully disposed of the Babylonish world empire of false religion. (Revelation 17:14) The all-out attack by the symbolic Gog of the land of Magog (Satan the Devil) and his international hordes will be aimed at our restored relations with Jehovah God and our intransigent stand for his universal sovereignty and his Messianic kingdom. (Ezekiel 38:10-17) Hatred of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses by all nonreligious nations will be at its highest intensity. What is there then for us to do​—lose hope? Under no circumstances! Our determination, already now formed for that extreme situation, is to stick to the course that will lead to the vindication of Jehovah as the Universal Sovereign!

40. In our case, what will the command to march unitedly forward mean?

⁴⁰ Though it may appear to call for the impossible, the command from the Sovereign Lord Jehovah through his Greater Moses, Jesus Christ, will ring out sharp and clear in our ears, ‘Go forward! March unitedly forward!’ That means, Keep on doing the will of Jehovah God as ruler rather than obey men. Keep on being a disciple of the one whom He has anointed to be the Messianic King over mankind for a thousand years to come! So, then, forward, with eyes still fixed on the goal. It is still ahead. Moving forward undeviatingly will bring us triumphantly to it. (Hebrews 10:39) Try all that the enemy might to drag us back into slavery to this ungodly world, he will fail. The Almighty God will open up for us the corridor to the shores of freedom. The enemy, persisting in the vengeful pursuit of the forward-marching worshipers of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, will enter a trap of destruction.

41. What unrepeatable privilege will be the portion of those who are then alive?

⁴¹ Glorious it will then be when we can imitate the prophet Moses and the Israelites after their deliverance at the Red Sea and sing our own song recounting the exploits of the “manly person of war,” Jehovah, at Har–Magedon and climaxing the celebration song by saying: “Jehovah will rule as king to time indefinite, even forever.” (Exodus 15:1-18) Doubtless heaven as well as the surviving spectators on earth of Jehovah’s all-crowning victory will unitedly sing the praises of the now undisputed King of all the universe. What an unrepeatable privilege it will be to find ourselves among those victory singers!

42, 43. (a) How do the words of Psalm 66:10-12 fit the experiences of those who, as Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, have lived through the events since 1914 C.E.? (b) Regardless of what difficult circumstances may lie ahead for the remnant of spiritual Israel, what grand reassurance do they have in Isaiah 43?

⁴² Unequaled world distress lies just ahead of us, but let us face it undaunted. We oldsters of “this generation” who have passed through two world wars since 1914 C.E. and also experienced the religious persecution of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses that has marked all the years since 1914, we indeed can say with the Bible psalmist of old: “You have examined us, O God; you have refined us as when refining silver. You have brought us into a hunting net; you have put pressure on our hips. You have made mortal man to ride over our head; we have come through fire and through water, and you proceeded to bring us forth to relief.” (Psalm 66:10-12) We may still have to go “through fire and through water” amid the severest world distress just ahead. But the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel have this grand reassurance from Jehovah God:

⁴³ “And now this is what Jehovah has said, your Creator, O Jacob, and your Former, O Israel: ‘Do not be afraid, for I have repurchased you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. In case you should pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not flood over you. In case you should walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, neither will the flame itself singe you. For I am Jehovah your God, the Holy One of Israel your Savior. . . .’ ‘You are my witnesses,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘even my servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and have faith in me, and that you may understand that I am the same One.’”​—Isaiah 43:1-3, 10.

44. Despite what the future may hold, what does Zephaniah 3:16, 17 urge Jehovah’s servants to do, and with what confidence?

⁴⁴ Be it, then, that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses still have to pass through what corresponds with fire and water, he will be with them. He will prove himself to be the same God of deliverance. There is no basis for now slacking our hand and our pace in service as his Kingdom witnesses. Fear of the immediate future on earth should not chill us with fear and stiffen us into inaction. He is happy over what we have done in his Kingdom service until now, for which reason he has marvelously blessed us. For our sakes the prophetic words were written and now have an application to us: “In that day it will be said to Jerusalem: ‘Do not be afraid, O Zion. May your hands not drop down. Jehovah your God is in the midst of you. As a mighty One, he will save. He will exult over you with rejoicing. He will become silent [quiet; at ease; satisfied] in his love. He will be joyful over you with happy cries.’”​—Zephaniah 3:16, 17.

45. So, to what work should we courageously apply our hands?

⁴⁵ May we continue to give the living God of the “heavenly Jerusalem” great cause for being happy and rejoicing over us. So may these hands of ours that have been so active till now in ministering to Jehovah God at his spiritual temple​—may they not now drop down, be slack. Let us courageously apply them to lifesaving work that yet remains to be done before the current world distress reaches its culmination in the “great tribulation.”

46. (a) How long is “this good news of the kingdom” to be preached? (b) To whom will all thanks be given for salvation of obedient mankind from world distress?

⁴⁶ “This good news of the kingdom” was foretold by Jesus Christ to be preached till the end of this system of things comes. (Matthew 24:14) For us, as his faithful and obedient disciples, there offers itself no other right course but to keep preaching world wide until the “new heavens” kingdom is no longer mere “good news” but, O joy! a glorious reality along with a “new earth,” the new human society that will fill Paradise restored with righteousness. Then all thanks will be offered to the tender-hearted God, Jehovah, who saves obedient mankind out of world distress into his peaceful “new earth.”