1955
PUBLISHERSWATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC.INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATIONBrooklyn, New York, U. S. A,
Abbreviations of translations of God's Wordquoted or cited herein
AS - American Standard Version, by the American Committee of RevisionCB -The Holy Bible, translated by the Catholic Biblical Association of AmericaNW - New World Translation of the Holy ScripturesRS - Revised Standard Version, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America
Any quotation not followed by any specific abbreviation is from the Authorized or King James Version.
Made in the United States of America
WORLD CONQUEST SOON -BY GOD'S KINGDOM
NO ONE likes to be conquered, for that means subjection to an enemy. But you would like to see your enemies conquered by your friends,' for that means freedom and relief to you. World con-quest by our enemies is a thing we dread; it seems to be the greatest evil, for it appears to leave us with no hope of deliverance from any quarter. But world conquest could also be by those who love us and have our interests at heart. That would be a thing to be welcomed, for it would denote the overthrow and taking away of all our foes. It would mean a change of world for us, for our good. Which conquest do all of us face? Which conquest is unavoidable, bound to come? Since A.D.1914 the movement of conditions and events in the earth indicates that sooner or later some form of centralized rule of our globe will come, yes, has to come. Men are divided on the question of whether they want such a rule or not. Those who want such a world rule disagree as to what form it should have. There are ambitious men with certain strong persuasions who are determined to take over the rule of the earth. Other men are equally determined that a certain
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type of government should have no place on the earth. Because of this fears are stirred up in the hearts of men, divided fears, for the world is divided today, seemingly having but two choices to make. Those two leading choices are Western Democracy and so-called "godless" Communism. There are men who are trying to hold to a neutralism, an in-between position, but this is a very difficult and wobbly position, not free of some partiality, not free of fear. With nuclear weapons of terrifically destructive power in the hands now of both political blocs of nations, the science of war has reached a point where another world war means world suicide. People who want to live do not want that to occur. They realize that all peoples of whatever political and religious ideas must learn to get along together, to "coexist," as they call it. Recently one newspaper correspondent of the democratic West said: "The scientists, who know most about these things, say that if we don't learn how to coexist upon this earth, we shall cease to exist at all. Yet coexistence does not mean peace. ... It would be better to consider the present contest as 'competitive coexistence.' "-New York Times, November 1,1954. At the bottom of the present competitive coexistence lies fear. Whatever kind of coexistence there might be for a time in the future, the basis for it will be, not mutual love, but mutual fear. Fear, not love, of man holds this world in its embrace. Fear has a stranglehold on it and is killing it. Recently one visitor to Russia held that the Russian fears were worse than those of the West: "The Russians are more afraid of the atom bomb than are the
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free peoples of the West." He held out hope for a pax atomica, a peace in which atomic energy would be used for peaceful purposes, not for war machines. Though the Russians may now be in a state of fear, their leaders boast of their military strength; they claim it is superior to that of the West and that if the imperialistic West starts an atomic war with the Communist East; it will lose. The West, dominated by Christendom, does not hide its own fears. It cautions itself against losing its fear and being fooled by the Communist peace offensive and dropping its guard and leaving itself open to a surprise enemy attack. The democratic nations know that the United Nations Disarmament Commission has failed in its conferences and accomplished nothing. They know that the leopard will not change its spots, the Ethiopian will not change his skin, and the Communist bloc will not change its design, which is "world domination," world conquest, if not by trickery, infiltration and subversion, then by the appalling violence of atomic warfare. They are afraid that the present fears that may hold the Communists back will one day turn to confidence, yes, overconfidence, when they have attained to atomic equality with the West Britain's view of world matters is colored by the threat of hydrogen war. As its former prime minister said, in such a war England would be the Communists' first "bull's-eye." The Communists, we are warned, are dedicated to "our destruction," that is, the destruction of the West with its system of capitalism, free enterprise and other freedoms. The American secretary of state says that the United States' foreign aid program must go on as the best collective defense against this unchanged
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design of the Soviet and Chinese Communists for "world domination." In an address to the chamber of commerce of the United States the country's president voiced the belief that if Americans applied to the friendly independent nations the same principles in thinking, in co-operation, in respect for common values and in trade and commerce "that we have among ourselves, we are certain of defeating communism as we are that we are all in this hall this moment." Yet on another occasion he said the Communist menace may face the "free world" for forty years. Impatiently the president of the American Federation of Labor charged the national government with a "do-nothing policy" during the country's present "drift into defeatism" in world affairs, and that the national Administration was doing nothing to expose the dangers of a policy of "peaceful coexistence" with communism or to halt this policy from gaining converts both in the United States and abroad. One retired American lieutenant general urged the country to break diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and its satellites and refuse to trade with these Communists. To quote the New York Times: "Warning that it is 'very late' - perhaps 'too late' - to halt the Soviet drive toward WORLD CONQUEST, General Wedemeyer said the Free World could meet the challenge only if its leaders worked 'realistically.' " - New York Times, June 11,1954. Such expressions coming from the nation that dominates the democratic powers betrays the general fear of the entire West concerning the openly expressed ultimate aim of the Russians, which is, not to coexist peacefully with "capitalism," but to
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destroy "capitalism" and to create a Communist world directed from the Kremlin of Moscow as the seat of global government. Fear of world conquest - this is what haunts both political blocs of today's divided world. It is a fear by man of world conquest by man. Nineteen centuries ago a prophet whose predictions have thus far proved one hundred per cent true described this present state of world tension and fear accurately when he said that after- international war there would be "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."* The fear here predicted and borne out by the present world state is the fear of what man can do and is inclined to do, no, rather, may be expected to do. This fear blinds the nations to what Almighty God can do. It keeps even Christendom with her hundreds of millions of copies of the Holy Bible from seeing that what all nations certainly face is world conquest by neither the West nor the East but by heaven above, world conquest by God's kingdom, and that soon! * At first the announcement of this future certainty may not be welcomed by many people, because of their differing religious or political beliefs or racial and national likes and dislikes. The simple announcement may therefore fill them with misunderstanding and distaste. Anti-Jewish persons and organizations as well as Moslems holding to
* Quoted from Luke 21:25, 26, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.
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the religion of Islam, which now claims one seventh of the world's population, may fear that the world rule of God's kingdom will mean the rise of the natural Jews, the Israelis, to the controlling position over the earth. But the Holy Scriptures written in the Hebrew tongue foretell that God's kingdom in world power will mean no such thing. Likewise people who are not Moslems may fear that God's kingdom in control over the earth means a Moslem world. The non-Moslems know that Islam worships the one God Allah and that its holy book the Koran predicts that Islam will be the leading religion of the world. Non-Moslems do not forget that not many centuries ago the followers of Mohammed set out to gain world control by flame and sword in harmony with the Koran (Sura 2:186-190,212,213; 8:12; 9:5,124; 47:4) and that the prediction of the Koran that Islam is to be "victorious over every other religion" is still accepted. (Sura 9:33) Will God's kingdom as world conqueror mean such things? The "previous Scriptures" in the Bible, which the Koran is claimed to confirm and safeguard (Sura 5:50-52), answer with a quieting No. A large number of the religionists in the non-Catholic part of Christendom fear world conquest by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy under the headship of the pope at Vatican City. Non-Catholics remember that Pope Boniface VIII (A.D. 1294-1303) issued the decree that still exists in the common law: "We declare, say, define, pronounce it necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff." This papal viewpoint was upheld at St. Patrick's Cathedral Sunday, January 16, 1955, when mass was offered
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for Christian unity "of all peoples of the world" under the spiritual leadership of the pope. The priest preaching at this mass said: "Let us ask God to show all people that the only way to secure an abiding peace within themselves and among all nations is in union with the mother of all churches under the one head, the Holy Father, the successor of the Apostle Peter, the Vicar of Christ on earth." - New York Times, page 20, January 17, 1955. The violent effort to thrust this "salvation" oh all mankind by forcing all to be "subject to the Roman pontiff" has led to cruel suffering for mankind. Non-Catholics recall how the Catholic Doctor Edmund S. Walsh of Georgetown University, before a capacity audience in Memorial Continental Hall, Washington, D.C., February 16, 1940, outlined the Nazi war aims. He said that he had heard Adolf Hitler say that the Holy Roman Empire, which was a Germanic empire, must be re-established. In full harmony with this the pope refused to excommunicate Hitler from the Roman Catholic Church but chose to use him as the sword of the church for re-establishing the Holy Roman Empire and extending it all over the world. Only this past May 1; 1955, in an article entitled "What World War II Did - and Didn't - Settle," published in the New York Times Magazine, the noted English historian Arnold J. Toynbee stated his belief that "if there had been no World War II, Hitler would eventually have attained world dominion," not leaving out even the Soviet Union, the British Commonwealth and the United States, and also dominion over his temporary allies Japan and Italy; that "if Hitler had retained his wartime Continental European conquests, this would have
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enabled him to move forward to world dominion." The Roman Catholic Hierarchy realized this possibility and backed up its aggressive "son of the Church." This twentieth-century world therefore came very near being conquered by a new Holy Roman Empire, which its founders hoped to make last a thousand years. Hitler failed to fulfill his dream, but the aim of the Hierarchy still remains the same, to conquer the world for its church by whatever agent comes to hand. Now does world conquest by God's kingdom mean that? No! Let all non-Catholics understand that. At the international conference at Bandung, Indonesia, by twenty-nine Asian and African nations during April of 1955 the delegates issued a communique in which they agreed ''in declaring that colonialism in all its manifestations is an evil which should speedily be brought to an end." So now let those colored races who for centuries have writhed under the colonialism of the nations of Christendom understand that world conquest by God's kingdom does not mean world rule by this Christendom with any manifestation of colonialism by her. Let the peoples of these colored races be glad that it means, rather, full liberation of men that live from her colonialism to the fullest extent, yes, and also freedom from all Communist imperialism and colonialism. It means conquest of this earth by no oppressors of mankind of any race, color or language, but conquest by true Lovers of mankind, namely, by God, who gave his most beloved, first-born Son for its rescue, and by this Son, who gave his own human life for mankind's happy future in a new and perfect world pervaded with true brotherly love.
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There is every good reason why God himself should conquer the world and rule the earth by his Kingdom. He is the creator of the earth and the rightful owner of all of it. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Those are the opening words of the Holy Bible, the writing of which He inspired. Compared with the vast universe, a small part of which is brought to view by our most powerful telescopes, this earth is a tiny thing. Yet this earth is big enough for us who have to live here, and for ourselves we do not want nor do we need anything bigger. But in the estimation of the Creator himself this earth is a mere atom of matter; it is as nothing. Mindful of this comparison, men of this world smile in doubt at the thought that God is interested in this earth. Marvelous as it may seem, in spite of its microscopic littleness, our earth now claims the first attention of God. Why is that? Because now an issue of universal importance is under debate and calls for an early settlement. That issue is, Who rules the universe? Who is the sovereign of the universe? It is not the size of the earth that counts; it is the issue of universal sovereignty that is the thing, and our earth is especially tied up with this issue. For almost six thousand years now the chief adversary of God has been the invisible ruler of this earth. He is Satan the Devil. His rule has been only by the permission of Almighty God, not to go on forever, but for the purpose of putting the issue to a thorough test. So the point to be settled is, May God's chief adversary lay claim to even such an atom of matter as our earth and rule it indefinitely in defiance of God or is God the sov-
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ereign of even the smallest part of his universe? You are interested in the final settlement of this issue, because you live here. God is interested in you, because he put you here, creating your first father in His own image and likeness. What you think of this God your Creator is of importance to him. He will either kill you for it or keep you alive, for it. It is necessary to your living forever that you recognize him as the Universal Sovereign. In proof of that, the inspired psalmist Asaph long ago prayed concerning the opposers of God's universal sovereignty: "Fill their faces with confusion, that they may seek thy name, O Jehovah. Let them be put to shame and dismayed for ever; yea, let them be confounded and perish; that they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth."-Psalm 83:16-18, AS. The Creator, whose name is Jehovah, has a right to assert his sovereignty over this earth at any time he chooses to do so. By what means has he chosen to do so? It is by means of his kingdom. More than nineteen centuries ago his most beloved, first-born Son was down here on earth as the man Jesus Christ. God his heavenly Father anointed him with holy spirit to be the king of that coming kingdom. Accordingly the Son of God preached: "The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near." He told his listeners: "I must declare the good news of the kingdom of God, because for this I was sent forth." He told his disciples to seek that kingdom first. He taught them this prayer to God: "Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth." (Matthew 4:17; Luke 4:43 and Matthew 6:9, 10,
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33, NW) Ever since then his true followers have offered that prayer and in faith have looked for the coming of the kingdom of their heavenly Father. God promises to answer prayers in harmony with his* will. God's kingdom is therefore under obligation to come; for God's Son taught his disciples to pray for the Kingdom, his disciples have prayed these nineteen centuries for its coming, and God is bound to answer that prayer and bring in his kingdom. God is bound to bring the Kingdom also in fulfillment of his inspired prophecies pronounced in his own name Jehovah. In Psalm 22, many verses of which were fulfilled in his Son Jesus Christ, it is prophesied: "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto Jehovah; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is Jehovah's; and he is the ruler over the nations." (Psalm 22:27, 28, AS) Jehovah promised to have the Kingdom rest upon the shoulder of his Son Jesus Christ, born at Bethlehem-Judah in Palestine over nineteen centuries ago, in this prophecy: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this." (Isaiah 9:6, 7, -AS) We have already had the birth of the promised child, this Son of God. Just as surely there must come the birth of the government that rests
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upon his shoulder. The heated zeal of Jehovah brings that kingdom to birth. His, prophecy through Isaiah said that the government of the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, should be "upon the throne of David." King David of ancient time was a forefather, a royal ancestor, of Jesus Christ, and reigned upon Mount Zion at Jerusalem. This does not mean, however, that Jesus Christ himself must reign on earth at Jerusalem and that he must be the King of the Jews, the Israelis of today in Palestine. Jesus Christ of the conquering kingdom of God is not the "King of the Jews." He is King of the new world. When Governor Pontius Pilate was examining Jesus and asked him: "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus answered: "My kingdom is no part of this world. If my kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews. But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source." (John 18:33-36, NW) Jesus will be king of all the people of the new world. Because he laid down his perfect human life as an atoning sacrifice for all men who gain the new world, these inhabitants of the coming new world were long ago foreshadowed or typified by the twelve tribes of Israel on their yearly day of atonement when sacrifices were offered by the high priest for the sins of the entire nation. For forty years King David ruled over those tribes of Israel or Jacob. It was only because all mankind were typified by those twelve tribes of Israel or Jacob that God's angel Gabriel announced the coming birth of Jesus to his prospective mother, the virgin Jewess Mary, and then said: "This one will be great and will be called Son of
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the Most High, and Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will be king over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom." (Luke 1:26-33, NW) The ancient typical David did reign only over the house of Israel or Jacob and over all the subjected peoples in the Promised Land. But the prophecies show it is not to be so with the King Jesus Christ. Mark this fact: Jesus Christ is not only David's Son but also his "Lord," for in uttering Psalm 110 under divine inspiration King David called him "my Lord," saying: "Jehovah saith unto my Lord." When Jesus asked the Jewish Pharisees: "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" they said: "David's." He then asked them: "How, then, is it that David by inspiration calls him 'Lord', saying: 'Jehovah said to my Lord'?" (Psalm 110:1, AS; Matthew 22:41-44, NW) In being not only King David's Son but also his Lord Jesus Christ is a higher King and his kingdom is therefore a greater kingdom. (Psalm 89:2T) It is to be not just over faithful Christianized Jews but also over all families and nationalities of mankind who likewise accept this Son of David as King and as the Seed of Abraham by whom they can procure the blessing that Jehovah mentioned in his promise to his friend Abraham, the forefather of both King David and Jesus Christ -Genesis 12:1-3; 22:15-18. Psalm 110, in which King David addressed his descendant Jesus Christ as "my Lord," shows that he was to be higher than King David, yes, as high as one could get above King David. The psalm shows him seated, not on David's material throne
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on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, but at the right hand of the Most High God, Psalm 110 opens with the words: "Jehovah saith unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Jehovah will send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion: Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." (Psalm 110:1, 2, AS) Jesus Christ could not be seated at God's right hand and at the same time be seated on the literal Mount Zion on earth, for the earth is God's footstool. It is therefore on the spiritual Mount Zion, the heavenly seat of government, where he sits to rule at God's command. How did Jesus Christ get there? How could he possibly get there since he died a martyr's death more than nineteen centuries ago? It was by resurrecting him from the dead, not to be a human king on earth but to be a spiritual King at God's right hand in the highest heavens. On the day of Pentecost, fifty days from Jesus' resurrection, the apostle Peter explained it all, saying under the power of God's holy spirit: "This Jesus God resurrected, of which fact we are all witnesses. Therefore because he was exalted to the right hand of God and received the promised holy spirit from the Father, he has poured out this which you see and hear. Actually David did not ascend to the heavens, but he himself says, 'Jehovah said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a stool for your feet."' Therefore let all the house of Israel know for a certainty that God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you impaled." (Acts 2:32-36, NW) So it is from heaven that Jehovah God at the due time sends out the scepter of Christ's strength to rule amidst
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his enemies. These enemies include all nations. Including Christendom, which takes the name of Christ? Yes! All these must be brought low like a throne stool on which to put his feet. How? Without our at once stating how Bible prophecies say it will be done, let us see how the world conditions and the line-up of the nations show that it has to be done. After the Holy Roman Empire was set up in 800 (A.D.) with Emperor Charlemagne as the "sword of the Church," the Roman Catholic Hierarchy Wed to carry out its ideas of God's kingdom, to spread and maintain the religious empire by means of wars with carnal weapons, crusades and torture-chamber inquisitions. Napoleon Bonaparte brought about the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire and put a stop to the Hierarchy's violent efforts to conquer the world for the kingdom of the papal Caesars. Later, in World War I, the Hierarchy tried to use Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany as the "sword of the Church," but with failure. Then the Nazi leader, a "son of the Church," came to power and again the Hierarchy tried to use the sword of the state then in Hitler's hands. But again the Hierarchy's hopes were blasted, proving once more that God's purpose to establish his kingdom under Christ will not be by means of the Hierarchy. The apostle Paul wrote that the weapons of Christian warfare are not carnal and that the true Christians should take in hand the "sword of the spirit, that is, the Word of God." (2 Corinthians 10:3, 4; Ephesians 6:17, CB) But the Hierarchy has chosen to take the "sword of the state," the sword of the Caesars of her religious empire. Christ told Caesar's representative, Pon-
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