COPYRIGHT, 1959byWATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA
PUBLISHERSWATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, INC.INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATIONBrooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
Made in the United States of America
WHEN GOD SPEAKS PEACE TO ALL NATIONS
LOVERS of peace with justice and happiness long to hear the voice strong enough to command peace upon all nations. Today in man's most critical time there is no voice on earth with power enough to command peace world-wide. The voice of the League of Nations is dead. While the League lived its twenty-six years of existence, it proved unable to keep the peace even among its more than fifty members. It failed to halt territory grabbing and to prevent the outbreak of the second world war.
2 "The League of Nations is dead! Long live the United Nations!" cried out Britain's aged Lord Cecil in the assembly at the League's palace in Geneva, Switzerland, in April of 1946. The United Nations for lessening the likelihood of war still lives. Its membership has swollen to more than eighty nations, but its voice has proved very weak. Since its creation after World War II ended there have been disturbances of the peace by aggression and by armed conflict in various parts of the earth. Cold war between the two great blocs of nations, the communistic and the democratic, has kept the world near a nervous breakdown. Fear of a hot, shooting war kept mounting in the hearts of the people. The United Nations was not depended upon
1,2. What voice do lovers of peace long to hear, and how have the League of Nations and the United Nations shown lack of ability to speak with it?
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to keep World War III from wrecking civilization and raining down death upon mankind. It is doomed to go the way of its forerunner, the League of Nations. Certainly the voice of someone more powerful has to command peace to all nations.
3 Looking at matters from a perfectly natural standpoint, informed men and women have become convinced that now peace among the nations is an absolute necessity. Said the French writer, Raymond Avon, in his book "On War" (De la Guerre): "Mankind has entered an unprecedented phase in which, for the first time in history, the great powers are getting ready for a war that they do not want to fight." The problem facing the democratic bloc of nations is that it "has failed to find a substitute for total war, aside from peace itself." This is because of what total war, using the ultimate weapons of warfare, will mean to all inhabitants of the earth. The lawmakers of the nations know what it will mean. On February 11, 1959, in the British House of Lords, Earl Bertrand Russell called attention to something that he looked upon as the first practicable move "in a long campaign to ensure the continued existence of the human race.... Hitherto we had thought of nuclear weapons as being in the possession of the east and west, with the east being a threat to the west and the west being a threat to the east. This was not a sensible way to look at it. Nuclear weapons were a threat to mankind, and against this threat man ought to unite. They would unite if it was the Black Death, in order to take the sanitary measures to avoid
3. (a) Concerning the absolute need now of peace among the nations, what did a French writer say? (b) And a British lawmaker?
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this appalling evil. . . . We had got used to war. We had to get unused to it and it was not an easy effort. Unless we did [get unused to it], those who could not make the effort were contributing their little bit to the extinction of our [human] species." — The London Times, February 12, 1959.
4 One day not long ago the readers of the New York Times came to a full-page advertisement and had these bold headlines stare them in the face: "We are facing a danger unlike any danger that has ever existed." What kind of danger? Paragraph 7 of this full-page ad repeated the headline and replied: "In our possession and in the possession of the Russians are more than enough nuclear explosives to put an end to the life of man on earth." This paid ad was published by the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, its headquarters being in New York city. — New York Times, November 18, 1957.
5 Something has to be done about meeting this danger. So men prominent in public life have said. Among these was the former secretary of the United States Air Force. When speaking at Cleveland, Ohio, November 19, 1958, this Mr. T. K. Finletter warned that "the danger of war is steadily on the increase. . . . United States policy-makers . . . are now faced with a 'new imperative': the 'absolute necessity' of creating a world system that will exclude war from human affairs." Said he: "We had better stop talking about disarmament and indeed about peace." — New York Times, November 20, 1958.
4. What did a full-page ad in the New York Times say about the danger that we are facing?5. What did a former secretary of the United States Air Force say regarding the absolute necessity of a certain world system?
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6 Suggesting such a world system for excluding war, Earl Attlee, the former prime minister of Great Britain, spoke in favor of a "world federation" in order to preserve civilization. In his speech at the Newark State College in Union, New Jersey, he said: "The price of survival will be a willingness to unite with the rest of the world." — New York Times, February 24, 1959.
7 Whatever world system the desperate national leaders may at last be driven to unite in creating, it would be nothing more than an old-world system, no more workable than any other man-made thing in the past. We fool ourselves if we expect that suddenly an accidental break-through will occur and the great obstacle will be overcome and man will happily create his own arrangement for a lasting, unbreakable peace. The religious clergy of Christendom have worked along with the politicians, but have proved to be of no help at all. History plainly shows that they have never stood firm as unmovable pillars of peace. No; but in time of test they have wielded their vast religious influence over hundreds of millions of churchgoers against the interests of international peace. They have not spoken with the authoritative voice that has commanded peace upon the nations, for the clergy have never maintained peace even within their own religious ranks.8 The spirit now abroad in the world does not allow for any peace. In itself this spirit reveals
6. What did a former British prime minister say about survival?7. Why would any such world system be unworkable, and of what help have the clergy of Christendom been in behalf of peace?8. Why does the spirit abroad in the world not allow for peace?
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the thing or the person really behind the continual disturbance and clash of selfish interests. Certainly it is not the spirit of love. It is the spirit of worldly wisdom, because the political, commercial and religious leaders are following the philosophies, diplomacies and aims of this world.
9 From whom does this spirit issue? By its very effects this spirit of worldly wisdom shows that it is not good. Hence it is not from a good source. There can be no doubt as to its source, and a writer of nineteen hundred years ago identified the source for us. This was James, who is reported to have been martyred in the city of Jerusalem for his Christian faith, being stoned to death at the sentence of the Jewish Supreme Court of Jerusalem.* In his inspired letter he calls himself "James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ," and he asks and answers a question that Christendom and its professed "Christian" politicians have not taken to heart. Here is what James wrote under inspiration:
10 "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show out of his right conduct his works with a meekness that belongs to wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and contentiousness in your hearts, do not be bragging and lying against the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is the earthly, animal, demonic. For where jealousy and contentiousness are, there disorder and every vile thing are. But the wisdom
* See Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, Book 20, chapter 9, paragraph 1.
9. What shows that this spirit is not good, and who was it that identified the source of this spirit for us? 10,11. What does this James say regarding worldly wisdom and the source of disturbance among professed Christians?
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from above is first of all chaste, then peaceable, reasonable, ready to obey, full of mercy and good fruits, not making partial distinctions, not hypocritical. Moreover, the fruit of righteousness has its seed sown under peaceful conditions for those who are making peace.
11 "From what source are there wars and from what source are there fights among you? Are they not from this source, namely, from your cravings for sensual pleasure which carry on a conflict in your members? You desire, and yet you do not have. You go on murdering and coveting, and yet you are not able to obtain. You go on fighting and waging war. You do not have because of your not asking. You do ask, and yet you do not receive, because you are asking for a wrong purpose, that you may expend it upon your cravings for sensual pleasure. Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God." — James 3:13 to 4:4.
12 Such words of James to his fellow Christians explain something. What? Why Christendom's clergymen, who pronounce blessings upon battleships and other instruments of war, pray to Heaven for world peace and have never had an answer to their prayer and never will have. Why not? Because God does not listen to men who are the fast friends of this world, who are therefore the enemies of God. He does not answer the prayers or bless the arrangements of men who reject the wisdom that comes down from God and who ac-
12,13. (a) What do James' words explain regarding clergy prayers? (b) From whom does he indicate that this wisdom issues, and why, therefore, do worldly-wise men not see the true key to peace?
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cept and follow the spirit of this world. The Christian disciple James bluntly says that this wisdom, with all its world-disturbing effects today, is not the heavenly, Godly wisdom, but "is the earthly, animal, demonic," the devilish. It is the wisdom that issues from the unseen ruler of this world, who came against the man Jesus Christ and had him put to death on a torture stake nineteen centuries ago. Just some hours before his death Jesus said: "The ruler of the world is coming. And yet he has no hold on me. . . . the ruler of this world has been judged." (John 14:30; 16:11) That ruler is Satan the Devil. Little wonder, then, that the worldly-wise ones of Christendom are blind to the true key to universal peace. The devilish god of this world, the prince of the demons, has blinded their minds. To this effect the Christian apostle Paul writes:
13 "If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through." — 2 Corinthians 4:3-5.
THE KEY TO PEACE
14 Because the god of this system of things has veiled the minds of the perishing world leaders by his demonic wisdom, they recommend the United Nations, disarmament conferences, policed control of atomic arms tests or even abolition of all nuclear weapons, increased world trade, cul-
14. (a) Because of such mental blindness, what do world leaders recommend for peace? (b) In wartime how is a pretense made of honoring Christ on December 25?
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tural exchanges between nations engaged in the cold war, a "world federation," and other worldly-wise means as the key to lasting peace and prosperity. This mental blindness afflicts not only the atheistic Communist nations but also the professed Christian nations, the realm of Christendom. During the time of a hot, shooting war, it is customary to halt all firing of guns and killing of human lives on December 25 in order for soldiers at the front to celebrate the traditional Christmas. At that time it is the religious practice to sing Christmas carols that incorporate the words, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:14, AV) In this way the nations of Christendom think they are honoring Jesus Christ and carrying out the spirit of those immortal words. But as soon as the hilarious Christmas celebration is over, the fighting and killing are started anew, and the ill will between nations brushes aside the hypocritical "Christian" mask. Such one-day profession of Christianity has proved to be merely a bit of sentimentalism, emotionalism, allowing for a good time.
15 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" were the words that the angels chanted on the night of Jesus' birth at Bethlehem, the birthplace of ancient King David of Jerusalem. Just before the peaceful shepherds heard the multitude of angels chant that prophetic message, an angel appeared in glory and said to them: "Have no fear, for, look! I am declaring to you good news of a great joy that all the people will have, because there was born to
15. By whom were those words concerning peace and good will first chanted, and after what joy-bringing announcement?
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you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in David's city. And this is a sign for you: you will find an infant bound in cloth bands and lying in a manger." — Luke 2:8-14.
16 Hence the prophetic chant of the angels is notice from God to us that there can be no enduring peace on earth apart from the one who was born in Bethlehem that night. He was really one who had been sent down from heaven in behalf of a peaceful earth for all mankind. God's angel Gabriel, who had appeared to Jesus' mother nine months before then, said to her: "Look! you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you are to call his name Jesus. This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and Jehovah* God will give him the throne of David his [fore]father, and he will be king over the house of. Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom." — Luke 1:30-33.
17 Thus, on the authority of God's angels from heaven, that one then born in Bethlehem was "Son of the Most High," the Son of God. He was the promised Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord, the Messiah whom inspired Hebrew prophets had foretold for thousands of years.
18 It matters not that Jesus Christ, the everlasting Heir to King David's throne, was born as long as nineteen centuries ago. A lasting "peace on earth" beginning in our own day cannot be separated from Him. All prophecies concerning
* Twelve printed Hebrew translations of Luke's Gospel read "Jehovah" here; also NW.
16,17. What notice concerning peace did that angelic chant contain, and how did Gabriel's words to Mary identify the one to be born?18. If we want to enjoy "peace on earth," what do we have to respect concerning him, particularly something said by Isaiah?
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Him have to be respected if we want to enjoy the ever-enduring peace that good-will people of all nations may enjoy. The present-day political and war maneuvers of the nations will not be able to block the fulfillment of divine prophecies given over God's own name, Jehovah. Foretelling the world-important future of the One whose birth at Bethlehem was heralded by holy angels, the prophet Isaiah wrote these words, according to the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible: "For 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) How, then, can there ever be an inviolable "peace on earth" without this Prince of Peace?
19 This does not mean we can have no permanent peace on earth without Christendom and hence the communistic nations had better stop trying to overturn Christendom. Christendom has existed now for sixteen centuries. Yet no clergyman can successfully argue and prove that Isaiah's prophecy of the increase of Christ's government and of peace endlessly has been fulfilled in Christendom. Every history student knows that there has been no increase of Christlike government and of peace with Christendom! Every history book testifies
19,20. (a) Why can no clergyman prove that Isaiah's prophecy has been fulfilled in Christendom? (b) Why may Heathendom not expect an arrangement for enduring world peace through Christendom?
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that the two world wars of this century started in the very heart of Christendom between rulers who the clergy said ruled "by the grace of God," and that the first two atomic ...
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