When God Is King over All the Earth
THIS is the title of a public lecture that all persons rightly disposed toward God will keenly want to hear. How can you hear it? By attending the “Everlasting Good News” Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which will travel around the world this summer, making it possible for hundreds of thousands of persons to hear the inspiring lecture “When God Is King over All the Earth.”
Clearly the title rings with good news—the kind people need today when so many are sighing over world conditions. Indeed, as the Holy Bible says: “When the righteous become many, the people rejoice; but when anyone wicked bears rule, the people sigh.” (Prov. 29:2) What cause for rejoicing, then, is reflected by the title “When God Is King over All the Earth”!
You are invited to attend the assembly and hear this public talk, to be delivered by the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, N. H. Knorr, or other Society official, as this international assembly travels from city to city.
You may have heard one or more of the public lectures given at previous international assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses, such as the one held in New York city, July 30-August 6, 1950—the Theocracy’s Increase Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses. At that assembly, on New World Living Day, Sunday, August 6, a large crowd assembled to hear the talk “Can You Live Forever in Happiness on Earth?” At Yankee Stadium and at overflow areas the throng heard the president of the Society ask: “Could you live happily on an earth so peaceful and secure that there was never any need of military preparedness to forestall or meet the threat of war? Could you live happily on an earth on which human society was not kept in a constant friction by racial divisions, by international boundaries, jealousies, rivalries and hatreds, by commercial monopolies and selfish competition, or by religious prejudices, crusades, inquisitions, bigotry, intolerance and conflict?” A total number of at least 123,707 persons heard the speaker conclusively answer the question that there is hope of living forever in happiness on earth.
Also in 1953, many readers of this journal were present at Yankee Stadium during the New World Society Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses. On Sunday, July 26, 1953, President Knorr addressed the convention on the absorbing subject “After Armageddon—God’s New World.” Those who attended can still remember those thrilling opening words: “Armageddon will be the worst thing ever to hit the earth within the history of man. God’s new world will be the best thing ever to come to distressed mankind and will never pass away.” Filling the stadium and overflow areas was a crowd of 165,829 persons who heard that stirring talk.
Then in 1958 there was still a more memorable assembly, the Divine Will International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, July 27-August 3, at which both the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium in New York city were used. Yet on God’s Kingdom Day, Sunday, August 3, a vast crowd totaling more than a quarter of a million persons filled not only the stands but also the playing fields, corridors, overflow tents and adjoining streets to hear the public lecture “God’s Kingdom Rules—Is the World’s End Near?”
Now 1963’s long-awaited “Everlasting Good News” Assembly is at hand, an assembly that travels around the world, stopping at twenty-four different cities. This will make it possible for many more to hear the public lecture this year than on those previous occasions in 1950, 1953 and 1958. Among the many cities where the Around-the-World Assembly will stop are Milwaukee, Wisconsin (June 30–July 7); New York (July 7-14); London, England (July 14-21); Melbourne, Australia (August 16-20); Auckland, New Zealand (August 21-25); Honolulu, Hawaii (August 28–September 1), and Pasadena, California (September 1-8).
If you are truly conscious of your spiritual need and can possibly travel to one of the convention cities, plan now to do so. Of course, if you are living in one of the convention cities or its suburbs, you will, by all means, want to keep the assembly dates in mind and plan to attend each day’s program. Invite your friends and relatives to the public lecture that will inspire all lovers of righteousness with hope, cheer, courage and confidence. Do not miss “When God Is King over All the Earth.”