They Found the Answer

SEEING what is happening in the world, do you ever wonder why there is so much suffering and injustice? Who is responsible? Do you ever wish that you could find reliable answers to such questions or others that may disturb you? Today many people are finding that a study of the Bible with the aid of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses is helping them to find satisfying answers.

● A man now living in the Bahamas relates: “I came from a war-torn country. During the conflict I lost my home. My wife and I were very fortunate to escape with our lives. But we felt tired, miserable and lost. I asked myself: ‘What have I done to be punished like this? Who is responsible?’ I could not find a logical answer to these questions.

“Then one day I was approached by one of Jehovah’s witnesses who told me that Jehovah God had nothing to do with all of this; that, according to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 4, Satan the Devil is the god of this system of things and is chiefly responsible for wickedness. I was assured that this wicked system is going to be destroyed by Jehovah and his Son Christ Jesus. A new system of things is going to replace it. There we are going to live peacefully and happily with one another.

“I started to study with the Witness, and he explained to me the prophecies of the Bible and taught me the commands of Jehovah. Thus I found all the answers to my questions.”

● A woman in the United States was greatly distressed when her small son Tony drowned. Though her husband did not express it audibly, she sensed that he blamed her for what happened, severely straining their marriage.

One day, when her Catholic priest came to her home, this woman asked him, ‘Why did little Tony die?’ The priest’s reply was that ‘God needed another angel in heaven.’ Upset, she called the priest a “liar.” Expressing how she felt at the time, she says: “After all, God knew how hard it was for me to have Tony because of my being a victim of cerebral palsy. So why would God take him away from me?”

Thereafter she went to her brother-in-law, a spiritualist, to find out about her son. He enrolled her in his book club. But what she learned brought her no genuine comfort. Coming to believe that Tony was alive and awaiting his next life on earth, she feared that her son would be off on another life before her own death and her opportunity to be reunited with him. So she decided to commit suicide and also kill her daughter.

First, she tricked her husband into showing her how to load the gun by pretending not to know the purpose of the cartridge belt. On the day she set aside for the execution of her plan she kept her daughter home from school. That day there was a knock at the front door. It was a woman, a witness of Jehovah. The daughter told the Witness that her mother was sick. So this Witness left. But then there was another knock. This time at the back door. It was another Witness. She did not know that someone else had already called at the front door. The daughter also told this Witness that her mother was sick. This Witness, however, did not give up at this objection but told the daughter that she just wanted to talk to her mother about the Bible. The mother then agreed to have the Witness come in. The Witness showed her John 5:28, 29, a scripture about the resurrection of the dead, and told her about God’s purpose to restore paradise to the earth.

As a result, this woman came to have hope for the first time in years. But she feared that her husband simply would not understand, as there was still a rift between them. The Witness then called her attention to what the Bible said about headship. She pointed out that, if the husband did not want Christ as his head, the wife could accept Christ as such. At that the woman agreed to study the Bible.

This woman made fine progress in her study of the Holy Scriptures. Eventually her husband also became interested. Today she and her husband are enjoying the blessing of a united family. Through their study of the Bible they have learned, not only about the reason for death, but also about the marvelous resurrection hope. They look forward to the time when their son, now asleep in death, will be raised, with the prospect of living forever on a paradise earth. As dedicated, baptized witnesses of Jehovah, they are happy to share their Bible-based hope with others.

How comforting indeed are the Bible’s answers to perplexing questions!