Answering the Foes of His Government

1. What proves Christendom has failed? Where does she flee?

CHRISTENDOM is being steadily encroached upon by the aggressions of godless Communism. This is condemning evidence that Christendom has failed. She can definitely trace her existence from the days of Roman Emperor Constantine of the fourth century, and so has had sixteen centuries of opportunity. If Christendom had really lived up to what her name means and had practiced the Christianity or Jesus and his apostles, would godless Communism have had grounds for coming into existence or for taking its birth right within the realm of Christendom herself? Hardly. True Christianity does not pave the way for the rise and growth of atheistic Communism; hypocritical Christianity does! Not remarkable, then, that vast Russia, the one-time domain of the Russian Orthodox Church, is now the formidable stronghold of the Communist power. For help Christendom flees, not to Jehovah God and his government, but to this old world, and she takes her stand with the Western powers and their democratic adherents. With them she shares the dread of the totalitarian Communist menace.

2. How do religionists take advantage of conditions against us?

² No one will deny that the religious systems of Christendom have no sympathy with Jehovah’s witnesses and put no faith in their proclamation that God’s kingdom is now established in the heavens for complete domination of the universe, including our sin-wracked earth. They make efforts to stamp out Jehovah’s witnesses and to misrepresent their Christian work and to prejudice the people’s minds against their Kingdom proclamation. So the religious leaders of Christendom take advantage of the fears and hatreds of the Western democratic bloc. Resorting to the age-old method of involving God’s people with the political powers of this world, they accuse Jehovah’s witnesses who reside in the Western bloc of nations of being communist. They inflame the nationalistic feelings of the people and poison the minds of their religious congregations against Jehovah’s witnesses. Hence, when these carry the Kingdom message from door to door or when they offer Bible literature on the street pavements they are abusively called “Communists!” and their message is refused as dangerous propaganda.

3. How have they misrepresented us as respects Poland?

³ To cite examples of these prejudicial accusations: The Catholic Chronicle, of Toledo, Ohio, on February 27, 1948, published an article headed “Pole Reds Finance ‘Jehovah’ Agents” and which read: “Warsaw—The atheist government of Poland is financing sects like the Jehovah’s witnesses in an effort to destroy the Catholicity of the people. ‘Watchtower’ salesmen are making the rounds of homes with pamphlets reviling the Church. Sunday lectures also are organized, denouncing Catholicism and glorifying communism.” This report was repeated by Father Baker’s Victorian Magazine of June, 1948. The following October 16, 1948, at 6:45 p.m., the religious monsignor who edits the Columbus Register read over radio station WHKC a Catholic report from Warsaw. Besides misrepresenting our relief work to our Polish brethren, it said: “The Soviet satellite government encourages and financially aids the Witnesses, whose free literature bears clear traces of Communist propaganda.” The falsity of such blasphemous lies against witnesses of the Most High God was certainly bound to be exposed in due time by the transpiring of the actual situation to the knowledge of the whole world. The sources of those several religious reports against us knew they were lying when they started them rolling through the news. And now those Catholic news agencies who were so eager to grab and publish untruths and misrepresentations in order to put Jehovah’s witnesses in a false light before the anti-Communist nations ought to feel great embarrassment. Jehovah’s witnesses have now over 18,000 active Kingdom publishers in Poland, and does the arrest of 80 percent or 14,400 of them mean that the Communist Polish Government is encouraging and financing them? Listen to this special dispatch published in the New York Times of June 30, 1950, beginning on its front page, which published in bold type, “Poles Arrest Jehovah’s Witnesses as Spies Directed from Brooklyn”, and which said, in part:

WARSAW, June 29—The complete liquidation of an alleged United States spy ring, with headquarters in Brooklyn, N. Y., was announced today by Poland’s Ministry of Public Security. Approximately 80 percent of the members of the alleged ring have been arrested, the Ministry said.

The ring, which supposedly operated through the religious sect called Jehovah’s Witnesses, was charged with having gathered information on military and commercial objectives and Polish Government institutions.

According to the last official census in 1948 this religious sect, which has a fifty-year-old history in Poland, had 10,000 members in Poland. . . .

Searches carried on in the sect’s offices and members’ homes resulted in the confiscation of a large amount of evidence, the report declared. . . .

Another charge was that the sect counteracted the campaign for gathering signatures for the so-called Stockholm peace appeal urging that the atomic bomb be outlawed.

4. What charges did a British Jesuit make in 1939 and 1942?

⁴ Still earlier, in its issue of August 8, 1939, The Catholic Mind published an article called “Rutherford’s Witnesses of Jehovah: Are They Apostles of Anarchy?” by Herbert Thurston, Society of Jesus, and which was reprinted by the America Press. The psychological effect intended by that title is very apparent, even if all the article were not read. In November, 1942, the booklet entitled “‘Judge’ Rutherford”, written by that same Jesuit, “Rev.” H. Thurston, was published by The Catholic Truth Society in London, England, and on page 14 it says: “Whatever may be the professions of Jehovah’s Witnesses, there is no room for doubt that the practical effect of the Watch Tower activities is to stimulate Communism, not to say anarchy, and to undermine all feeling of reverence for authority.”

5. Against what public declaration is he challenged to harmonize his charges?

⁵ We challenge that British Jesuit to harmonize, if he can, his accusation with the public declaration by J. F. Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society, from London’s Royal Albert Hall, Sunday, September 11, 1938. Delivering his speech “Face the Facts”, which was beamed by radio and carried by direct wire to more than 50 cities in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, and also broadcast by a transcontinental chain of 118 U. S. radio stations, Mr. Rutherford said: “Fulfilled prophecy shows that in 1914 Jehovah enthroned Christ Jesus and sent him forth to rule, while Satan still exercises his power in the world. (Psalm 110:1, 2) In 1917 SATAN BROUGHT FORTH IN RUSSIA A COMMUNIST OR BOLSHEVIK GOVERNMENT, which was the first appearance of a totalitarian rule, and which opposes God and his kingdom. It declares that the State is the supreme power, and it persecutes those who serve God and Christ Jesus.”*

6. What charges have Irish religionists recently made?

⁶ But to continue: On April 17, 1948, the bishop of Cork, Ireland, addressed a letter to clergy in charge of parishes in Cork and vicinity, and which was published in the Cork Examiner that day. After referring to activities of Jehovah’s witnesses, the bishop’s letter concluded: “Some call these activities Communism. Anyhow, all weakening of religion is welcomed by Communism as a preparation for itself.” The Irish Times, Dublin, reprinted that statement two days later. In an article headed “Jehovah’s Witnesses in Sligo”, the Sligo Champion (Ireland) of June 25, 1949, published the letter of the CATHOLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION BUREAU, which said: “The menace of Communism is belittled by the Witnesses who have called it a bogey-man created by the Catholic Church with an ulterior motive. . . . Russian atheism is defended by the Witnesses.” The Dublin Evening Mail of June 22, 1949, also printed that same statement. The Sunday Independent of April 15, 1950, reports the breaking up of a public meeting of Jehovah’s witnesses at The Fountain, Dun Laoghaire [dŭn lâʹrĭ], Ireland, by local townsmen with shouts of “Communists!” “Get out of here!” and, “Go back to where you came from!”

7. Due to clergy slanders how do witnesses fare in Greece?

⁷ In Greece, as a result of slanders by the clergy of the Greek Orthodox Church the witnesses of Jehovah are called traitors, unpatriotic, anarchists, and Communists; and on November 17, 1949, it became necessary for us to write the minister of foreign affairs of Greece, at New York city, to answer the question whether Jehovah’s witnesses are a secret or communistic organization.

OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION PROVES CHARGES FALSE

8. (a) Why is investigation of witnesses in America decisive for the world? (b) What did the Justice Department report in 1941?

⁸ The Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, with main offices in Brooklyn, New York, acts advisorily as the governing body and servant of Jehovah’s witnesses in all lands. So what is true of Jehovah’s witnesses in America must be true of them throughout the earth. Active witnesses are found in their greatest numbers in the United States, with more than 108,000 reporting in April this year. Ever since World War I closed, in 1918, the American government has been alerted to the threat of Communism to American democracy. The Communists are reported operating in America since September, 1919. But in all the years since then official investigation has failed to find the slightest link between the Watch Tower Society or Jehovah’s witnesses and godless communism. In 1941 Senator David of Pennsylvania, the state where the Society was incorporated in 1884, wrote to the United States Department of Justice at Washington, D.C. In response the Department reported that Jehovah’s witnesses were not communistic and had no communist tendencies.

9. What did the Loyalty Review Board’s list in 1948 show?

⁹ Further, in 1948, the United States government, acting through its attorney general, listed all organizations that were totalitarian, fascist, communist, and subversive and which advocate the overthrow of the government by violence or by unconstitutional means. The attorney general supplied this list of organizations to the chairman of the Loyalty Review Board of the United States Civil Service Commission. By letter dated September 21, 1948, (Memorandum No. 19) the chairman of the Loyalty Review Board forwarded a list of such organizations to all executive departments and agencies of the United States government. An examination of that official list of subversive and illegal organizations discloses that the names of Jehovah’s witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society nowhere appear.

10, 11. What error in its Memorandum did the U. S. Marine Corps correct? How?

¹⁰ The misinformation about Jehovah’s witnesses penetrated even into a published Memorandum of the United States Marine Corps. As a result the Marine Corps Memorandum No. 55-49, released on June 6, 1949, stated that Jehovah’s witnesses were associated with communism. This error was called to the attention of the Headquarters of the U. S. Marine Corps at Washington, D. C. In reply to our legal attorney the commandant of the Marine Corps at Washington sent a letter dated December 15, 1949, in which he expressed the conviction that the statement about Jehovah’s witnesses is totally without foundation. His letter says: I have ordered the discussion ‘Communism in the United States’ (Enclosure [B] to Marine Corps Memorandum #55-49), revised so as to eliminate all reference to Jehovah’s Witnesses and I shall direct that all copies presently existing which contain such reference be destroyed. In addition, I am causing a memorandum to be prepared which will be issued by this Headquarters and will receive the same distribution given Marine Corps Memorandum #55-49. This memorandum will state that the reference made to Jehovah’s witnesses in Enclosure (B) of Marine Corps Memorandum #55-49 was completely unfounded, that it was made without proper information, under an entire misapprehension as to the facts, and that this Headquarters regrets that this unfortunate statement was published. . . . Please convey to your clients, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society and Jehovah’s Witnesses, my sincere regret for the publication of the lamentable reference to them. If there is any other action which may be taken by this Headquarters, please do not hesitate to inform me.”*

¹¹ Under date of December 23, 1949, Marine Corps Memorandum No. 131-49 was released and posted up, and it fully carried out all that the commandant had promised in the foregoing letter.* Needless to say, we highly appreciate this honorable course taken by the Headquarters of the U.S. Marine Corps.

PUBLISHED RECORD SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

12. What work and publications show up the charges? To what effect?

¹² The charges that Jehovah’s witnesses are Communists, “apostles of Stalin,” a “fifth column” of communism, and “strive to bring about conditions favourable to the spread of Marxism”, are absolutely without basis and are blasphemous lies against the servants of the Most High God. Their Christian educational work in all lands and their official publications prove that. Throughout the earth the witnesses use the corporation Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society as their legal and publishing servant. They use the publications of said Society in their work of educating the people on the Holy Bible. From earliest times the Watch Tower publications have exposed communism as a world menace and have shown it to be impractical, doomed to failure, and contrary to God’s kingdom by Christ. As early as its third issue, The Watchtower of September, 1879, in its leading article entitled “The Day of the Lord” (paragraphs 7 and 14), said the following, and as you read this we want you to remember this was published, not in 1950, but away back seventy-one years ago:

13. What did The Watchtower of September, 1879, say on Communism?

¹³ “Very many Scriptures seem to teach that the kingdoms of earth will be overthrown by a rising of the people: goaded to desperation from lack of employment and seeking relief from the oppression of bloodthirsty governments. Such a rising and overturning, Socialists, COMMUNISTS, and Nihilists of today would gladly bring about if they could. Now the Scripture recognizes wrong and oppression as existing in the nations and foretells this as the way in which they will be overthrown, and says: ‘Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for the misery that shall come upon you. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth.’ Jas. v. 1. Yet it does not recognize this Communism as right but the contrary rather instructing believers . . . saying to us—‘Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.’ . . . And it is astonishing how very rapidly these things once looked at as absurd and impossible are becoming realities. When we with a few others declared these things only a short time since, and called attention to the fact that trouble was taught to be occasioned by a rising of the people and the overthrow of governments—Communism—we were laughed at; there was truly little sign then of Communism; but today every civilized nation is in dread, and Nihilism, Communism and Socialism, are household words, and we see ‘men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven (governments) shall be shaken.’ Luke xxi. 26.”

14. What did its issue of June, 1883, say on it?

¹⁴ In its issue of June, 1883, The Watchtower (page 8) said: “In other words, remove the element which advises prudence, morality, and right-doing, from the counsels of the restless masses—from the Labor leagues and other associations, and let the lower element control itself, and the result would quickly be the destruction of life, property, laws, and peace—a grand reign of anarchy in the name of communism.”

15. What did its issue of January, 1884, say on it?

¹⁵ In its issue of January, 1884, The Watchtower (page 5) published the article “Light in Darkness” and quoted, in paragraph 5, the statement of Blackwood’s Magazine: “How humiliating, too, is the thought that . . . the dangerous classes, and ‘dissolving forces’ are becoming more formidable than ever, and that the ‘social revolution’—Atheistic Communism and Nihilism—may yet shake to its foundations the entire system of civilization which modern Europe has been so slowly perfecting as the highest product of the Aryan Community of nations.”

16. What did its issue of September 1, 1895, say on it?

¹⁶ Now note these further statements: In its issue of September 1, 1895, The Watchtower, under the heading “They Had All Things in Common”, said this: “Experience proves the failure of communistic methods in the present time. . . . The Bible does not teach communism, but does teach loving considerate individualism, except in the sense of family communism—each family acting as a unit, . . . Moreover, the forming of a commune of believers is opposed to the purpose and methods of the Gospel age. The object to this age is to witness Christ to the world, and thus to ‘take out a people for his name;’ and to this end each believer is exhorted to be a burning and a shining light before men—the world in general—and not before and to each other merely. . . . It is still the work of God’s people to shine as lights in the midst of the world, and not to shut themselves up in convents and cloisters or as communities. The promises of Paradise will not be realized by joining such communes.”

17. What did its issue of January 1, 1902, say on it?

¹⁷ In its issue of January 1, 1902, The Watchtower published the article entitled “The Early Church”, and under the subheading “Communism at Present Impractical” it said: “The early church did not practice what is now known as communism; . . . So far as the record shows there was no compulsory division of wealth, such as communism purposes. On the contrary, everything was voluntary; and everything of the same kind is just as free, just as voluntary, and just as proper, now as then—no more so, no less so. . . . It is noteworthy that the apostles neither commanded nor advised communism; nor do their writings intimate that it prevailed in the early church.”

18. What did The Plan of the Ages (1886) say on it?

¹⁸ In 1886 the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society published the book The Plan of the Ages, and this book continued to be published and circulated by the millions of copies in many languages until 1929, when it was let go out of stock. In chapter 15, entitled “The Day of Jehovah”, page 312 ¶2, this Watch Tower publication said: “Hence, the wealthy are drawn closer to the governments; and the wage-working masses, beginning to think that laws and governments are designed to aid the wealthy and to restrain the poor, are drawn toward Communism and Anarchy, thinking that their interests would best be served thereby, and not realizing that the worst government, and the most expensive, is vastly better than no government at all.”* All the foregoing published record speaks for itself.

PERSECUTION PROVES CHARGE FALSE

19. What persecution in Russia proves the charges false?

¹⁹ Jesus Christ said to his followers: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. . . . If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:19, 20) The persecution that Jehovah’s witnesses have undergone till now proves they are no part of this world and have no connection with or support from political communism or any other political movement. In Russia Jehovah’s witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society are not registered or recognized as legal. They have been outlawed and banned there. Because of their Bible way of worshiping the Most High God they have been cruelly persecuted and exiled to Siberia by the Communists. This is not because they are Titoists, for in 1947 Titoist Yugoslavia seized all the officials representing the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society and Jehovah’s witnesses in Zagreb and banned both the Society and the witnesses. Eleven of such officials were prosecuted and were imprisoned for long sentences ranging from three to twenty years.

20. What persecutions in Russian satellite lands disprove them?

²⁰ The government of Albania has likewise imprisoned Jehovah’s witnesses and banned their organization. Czechoslovakia has put all the officials of the Watch Tower Society and Jehovah’s witnesses carrying on the work there in labor camps, after denying them trials. Romania has placed the officials of the Watch Tower Society in prison, confiscated the Society’s property and banned Jehovah’s witnesses. Bulgaria, too, has banned them and placed representatives of the Society and Jehovah’s witnesses in prison. Persecution is also carried on against them in Hungary and Poland. In Eastern Germany, now dominated by communist Russia, the same persecution goes on against them. More so since July 30, 1949, when 18,000 of Jehovah’s witnesses, while assembled in convention in the Waldbühne (Forest Stage) of Berlin, adopted a resolution exposing the persecution by the Communist powers in Eastern Germany and raised a vigorous protest against it.

21. What about Watchtower publications there? So what do we ask?

²¹ In the above countries the Communist governments have made it illegal to print or distribute the publications of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, though these have free circulation in the United States and other lands of the Western bloc. We ask, therefore, If Jehovah’s witnesses are communistic, as our religious enemies in Christendom declare, then why have the Communist powers proscribed these witnesses who bear the name of Jehovah God and confiscated their property and hounded them with fanatical persecution?

EFFORTS AGAINST EXPANSION DOOMED TO FAIL

22. To whom do we look to vindicate us? Where and how?

²² We look to no government agencies to vindicate us of the false charges which the foes of God’s kingdom raise against us, to blind the people to the facts and the Kingdom truths. Almighty God has promised to vindicate his faithful witnesses, and he will do so at the battle of Armageddon, in which he will totally destroy godless communism and all other elements of the old world. In Daniel’s prophecy concerning the Devil’s world organization at this crucial time where it tries to hold the worldly elements together like clay mixed with iron, it is written: “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people [neither to Communist people nor to any other political group], but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” The prophecy likens God’s kingdom by Christ to a stone which strikes and grinds the Devil’s governmental image to powder, and says: “The stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” (Dan. 2:44, 35) Neither the United Nations nor any totalitarian power will be able to stand up against the fulfillment of that prophecy. Jehovah’s Theocratic government under his Christ will survive the battle of Armageddon as winner and will bring faithful people of good will through as survivors and will thereafter dominate all the earth without any rival powers.

23. What do persecution, misrepresentation and conspiracy now fail to halt? Why?

²³ That government will rule supreme from heaven. It is the Kingdom which Jehovah’s witnesses announce to all nations, and to it they declare their unqualified allegiance before all the world. His kingdom by Christ is bound to increase. The King Jesus Christ has already begun the gathering together of his earthly subjects of good will, and his mighty unseen angels are taking part with him in the gathering work. (Matt. 24:31; 25:31-33) No persecution, no base misrepresentation, no conspiracy by worldly powers can halt the increase of that kingdom and prevent a numberless multitude of devoted subjects from flocking to it as mankind’s rightful ruler and only hope.

24. As shown in April, 1950, what may we expect as we work on?

²⁴ For this reason Jehovah’s witnesses today are preaching the gospel of the Kingdom in greater numbers now than at the time of the Kingdom’s establishment in 1914. For example, in April of this year the world-wide report compiled by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society shows 357,889 active witnesses in 106 lands and in association with 65 Branch organizations. This 1950 international convention, this “Theocracy’s Increase” Assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses here at Yankee Stadium, New York City, is overwhelming testimony of the Kingdom’s increase on earth. We are assured that of the Kingdom’s increase there will be no end. So, as we push ahead with the work Jehovah commissions us to do in these “last days” of this world, the number of ministers of the good news of the Kingdom may be expected to increase in fulfillment of divine prophecy.

25. Our work being peaceful, what course will we take? Why?

²⁵ Ours is a peaceful work. We will keep on obeying Jesus’ command to ‘render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s’. Hence we will be orderly, resorting to no violence or subversion against the political powers of this world, but letting them continue to carry on their political experiments as long as God allows them. We will fulfill our obligation to warn all nations of the coming “act of God” against this world at Armageddon. This course alone can have his approval and assure us of survival at the battle of Armageddon. His Word commands us: “Seek ye Jehovah, all ye meek of the earth, that have kept his ordinances; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye will be hid in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” (Zeph. 2:3, Am. Stan. Ver.) We urge all to this course of godliness with contentment.

26. What position on worship do we take, and despite what ahead?

²⁶ We mark the growing tendency to totalitarian regimentation of the peoples as a desperate final measure to preserve the worldly powers in control. People are being swept into the movement to idolize the state and to exalt it above God, who is the only Supreme Power. The Bible has foretold this. (Rev. 13:16, 17) But we cannot be divided in our worship. Confronted with further encroachments upon our worship of the Supreme Ruler and our devotion to his kingdom by Christ, we are determined to obey our King’s command to “render . . . unto God the things that are God’s”. Mindful of the apostle Peter’s words to the court at Jerusalem, “We ought to obey God rather than men,” we will keep obedience to God’s commands first, together with unbreakable devotion to his kingdom now established. (Acts 5:29) We are bound to suffer more international persecution for this godly course of action, but we warn our persecutors with Jehovah God’s words to his Theocratic organization: “The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.” (Isa. 60:12) Obedience to the great Life-giver spells eternal life for us in the new world, and the old world’s persecution of us will continue failing to halt the Kingdom’s increase.

27. What activity will we keep at, and assured of what increase?

²⁷ We will keep our integrity to God in vindication of his universal sovereignty and his right to rule his creation, this earth and all people permitted to live on it. In Theocratic obedience and faithfulness we will march on toward the New World, rejoicing in all further expansion of his kingdom, for there will be no end to its increase even this side of Armageddon. If we keep on sowing his Kingdom message, we shall reap returns for eternity, for God will give his promised increase. Let Christendom go on sowing to the wind by pursuing the futile course of this old world; she will reap the whirlwind at Armageddon. We who have sown to the interests of Jehovah’s Theocracy by Christ will reap the increase of thousands of other Kingdom adherents, the “other sheep” whom the Good Shepherd will yet gather into the “one fold” of everlasting safety.—John 10:16.

28. How will we recommend God’s kingdom to all men of good will?

²⁸ God’s Word and purpose have never failed so far and will not fail us in the most crucial world period ahead. So on with his work of witnessing to the Kingdom among all nations before the end comes. In faith and obedience, endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Carry out your part as advance publicity agents of the New World government. Fear not the foe, but God only. By godly lives and ceaseless proclamation of the Bible truth, keep on recommending Jehovah’s Theocracy by Christ to all men of good will, confidently looking to him for the rewarding increase.—2 Cor. 4:2.

[Footnotes]

“2. The publication of this statement has reacted unfavorably against the Marine Corps, in that it was published without proper information and has been shown to be completely unfounded in fact.

“3. Commanding officers will take immediate steps to bring the foregoing to the attention of all personnel to whom the original statement contained in reference (a) may have been communicated.”—Dated 23 December 1949.