Have You Been Studying for Six Months?
ARE you among the over one million persons who are at present being helped by Jehovah’s witnesses to learn what the Holy Bible teaches? If you are, likely you are using the Bible-study aid The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life. Undoubtedly it has helped you to learn many wonderful things about God and his will for mankind.
Those of you who have been studying the Bible for about six months should by now be in position to decide whether you are going to follow through on what you have learned. Do you really want to become a dedicated and baptized worshiper of Jehovah God and do you want to share with others the life-giving truths from God’s Word? Your position in this matter is something to be considered very seriously. No one is going to decide for you, not even the one who is kindly helping you to learn the Bible’s message. This decision is yours.
SIX-MONTH BIBLE-STUDY COURSE
The six-month Bible-study program offered by Jehovah’s witnesses enables persons to get a good picture of the Bible’s message. It puts them in a position to decide intelligently whether they want to accept that message. Yes, six months of study using a book that so pointedly reasons with them is ample time for them to decide whether they want to do something about what they have learned.
This is not saying that six months is all that you need to learn all about Jehovah God’s purposes and requirements. No, it will take much longer than that; we will always be learning new things about our heavenly Father. (Rom. 11:33) However, after six months of regular weekly study a person ought to know whether he really wants to live in harmony with what he has learned from the Bible. Yes, he has laid a fine foundation upon which to base his decision.
What have you decided on the basis of what you have learned thus far? Do you want to learn as much as you can about Jehovah God and share wholeheartedly in doing his will, with the prospect of gaining eternal life in his paradise earth? Have you decided that you want to do the things that please him?
For a moment why not take a glance at the page number in your copy of the Truth book where you are to begin your next Bible discussion? Are you near the end of the book? True, not everyone is able to cover material at the same pace. But have you been regular in your studies? or did you allow minor matters to cause you to postpone your Bible-study appointments? Of course, at times emergencies arise. But when that has happened, have you tried to arrange to have your study on another day of the same week? Doing so shows appreciation for God’s Word and ensures steady progress.
Another factor that is vital to your advancement in learning is the matter of preparing your lesson. Have you been doing this? Do you carefully read the paragraphs and underline the answers to the questions printed at the bottom of the pages in the Truth book? Do you do this before the one who is studying with you comes to your home? Have you looked up in the Bible all the scriptures cited? Such preparation tells the one who is studying with you that you sincerely want to understand God’s Word and do His will. It also shows your gratitude for the help you are receiving.
HAS WHAT YOU ARE LEARNING AFFECTED YOUR LIFE?
Among the many fine things you have learned during the past months are matters that involve your course of conduct in life. These have to do with Jehovah’s requirements that we all must meet in order to gain his approval. Have you begun to try to live up to them? If you have, then you have found that your thinking and way of doing things have been affected. Why is this?
It is because you are beginning to look at things the way God does and are trying to do things in a way that pleases him. You probably noticed that it took some time to let God’s viewpoint influence your thinking on certain matters. Yes, it takes time for one to become sensitive to pleasing God in matters that one simply took for granted before. If this is happening to you, then what you are learning is affecting your life for the good. It is putting you on the way to greater happiness.
For example, one of God’s requirements that you have learned has to do with the matter of idolatry. You learned that God abhors the worship of images because it dishonors him. (Ex. 20:4, 5) Also, you learned that he will not give eternal life to anyone who practices this or is tainted with it in any manner whatsoever. In your study of the Bible you learned what others did about the idols they had in their possession or homes. Yes, they obeyed God and destroyed such as he commanded in Deuteronomy 7:25! These individuals wanted Jehovah God’s favor and blessing. Do you still have any images in your home or atop the dashboard of your automobile? What about religious pictures that depict something false? What have you decided about these things?
Let us consider another vital matter that you learned. This has to do with separating oneself from religions that are part of the world empire of false religion, known as Babylon the Great. You learned that God commands all of his people to get out from among such organizations. (Rev. 18:4) Why? In order that his people may not become sharers in the destructive plagues that will befall all false religion shortly. Jehovah is showing love in warning his people of this. Have you heeded his loving warning? Or do you perhaps still attend religious services where falsehoods are taught about God, or where such ideas are believed? Do you think this is pleasing to God? His Word counsels: “Get out from among them, and separate yourselves . . . and quit touching the unclean thing . . . and I will take you in.”—2 Cor. 6:17, 18.
Remember the two angels who were sent by God to Sodom and Gomorrah. They went to Lot’s home and told him to leave the city because on the next day Jehovah was going to destroy it. Lot had to decide quickly about leaving everything behind and getting out as soon as possible, or staying with the doomed community. It was an urgent matter that he could not ignore or put off! Do you think that God would have canceled his judicial punishment of those sexually perverted cities if Lot had refused to leave them in time? Of course not! The next morning, though Lot and his family lingered momentarily, they willingly went along with the angels of God who lovingly took them by the hand and hurried them off to safety.—Gen. 19:1-17.
Are you allowing Jehovah’s witnesses to lead you out of the danger zone to a place of safety? The need to act promptly is urgent.
APPRECIATING THE BIBLE MEETINGS OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES
No doubt the one with whom you are studying the Bible has invited you to attend the meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses. Do you know why he has invited you to come? Because God’s own Word instructs us to gather together in this way. (Heb. 10:23-25) At these meetings your knowledge of God will increase. Yes, you will learn many, many things that are not included in your home Bible-study program; points that are, nonetheless, vital to your spiritual growth. By association with others at the meetings your own faith will grow and the desire to serve God will be stimulated. You will find that there is an interchange of encouragement. (Rom. 1:11, 12) Have you responded to this invitation and are you attending these Bible meetings regularly?
Do not let anything hold you back from doing so. Others have had problems, but they overcame these in order to receive the benefits of Christian association. For example, there is a woman in Puerto Rico who began to study the Bible with Jehovah’s witnesses. Shortly after she began her studies she realized the need to attend their meetings. Her husband started to oppose her but she resolved to attend regularly. Seeing her determination, he told her that she could go but that she would have to take all eight children with her and then come home in time to prepare food for the family. Did this stop her? Even though she was pregnant, she walked the half-hour journey to the Kingdom Hall with all her eight children. Her obvious appreciation for these Bible meetings resulted in her husband’s starting to study the Bible.
There are so many other cases of persons who, after only a short time, began attending the meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses regularly. Some came to the meetings upon the first invitation and have not stopped coming since. Others even asked the Witnesses if they had a meeting place and if they could come to their meetings. When they came, it did not take them long to feel right at home and notice the spiritual blessings to be had in being there.
DECISION NOW IS VITAL
The urgency of the times in which we are living requires that we do all we can to bring our lives into harmony with God’s will. From what you have learned you know why this system of things is rapidly deteriorating before our eyes. You know the meaning of the unrest and increased violence in all the earth. All this shows that we have approached the very brink of the earth-cleansing destruction of which Jesus and the Bible writers prophesied!
This is the most serious time in human history, and you are living in this time of change. “The world is passing away,” the Bible says, but those who do ‘the will of God will remain forever.’ (1 John 2:17) Your studying the Bible is to equip you to learn that will of God so you can do it. Yes, there is a purpose behind this study; there is a future attached to it.
Carrying out the will of God is not doing what we think is right, but doing what God tells us is right. (Matt. 7:21-23) Avoiding fornication, lying, stealing, murdering and other wicked deeds is not all that Jehovah commands us to do. A rich young man said he did all that and yet Jesus told him that he fell short because he failed to see that more is involved in doing the will of God. (Matt. 19:16-22) An essential part of that will, as we have noted, is to meet together regularly with fellow worshipers of Jehovah God. It is also God’s will that we tell others about him and his loving purposes. (Matt. 24:14; 28:19, 20) If we fail to do this, can we truthfully say that we are doing God’s will?
Perhaps you have already made a decision to apply these things that you are learning from the Bible and are doing so. If so, this is truly commendable. If you have not, we urge you to consider the matter prayerfully and then take positive action now, if you sincerely want to be numbered among those who have God’s approval.
In view of the short time left in which to do their work, Jehovah’s witnesses do not continue to study the Bible with any who fail to respond to its urgent message within six months. The nearness of this system’s end compels them to use their time in the most effective way possible. So they feel obligated to spend their time calling on someone else who might respond by attending meetings at the Kingdom Hall and by speaking to others about the Bible truths learned. Thus it may be that if you have not as yet responded by even becoming a regular attender at some of the congregation meetings, the one who is studying the Bible with you may cancel that study arrangement in order to give his time to someone else. This arrangement is not meant to be harsh, but the urgency of the times in which we live demands it. There are millions of persons who need spiritual help and God’s servants want to reach all they possibly can.
We, therefore, urge you to consider very carefully your position. You have embarked on a course of study that has opened up to you the magnificent opportunity of life forever in eternal happiness. (John 17:3) If you love God and appreciate his provision for eternal life, do not turn your back on it. Realize that God has shown great consideration for you by making it possible for someone to come to your home to help you learn His will and purposes. Respond to his divine love by deciding now to do his will, along with the entire association of those who are serving God “with spirit and truth.”—John 4:23, 24.