The Best Forty Years of My Life
WHEN I was only five years old, I had four younger brothers and sisters, as well as six who were older. Mother died that year—in 1907—and I think that having one baby right after another may have contributed to her death.
My father, a hardworking immigrant to the United States from Italy, was forced to put us five younger ones in a county home. As the eldest, I had the responsibility of looking after the others. Often I was whipped with a strap, sometimes for things over which I had no control, such as when my baby brother wet himself. Somehow, I was supposed to prevent this.
On his regular visits Dad could see how unhappy we were, and he was heartbroken. After about a year he remarried, and the family was together again. Conditions were better, yet those early experiences deeply affected me. I think that they made me more sensitive to all the little wrongs that were done, such as the lying and cheating that everyone seemed to do.
RELIGION AN ANSWER?
Although Dad and Mom believed in God, I cannot ever remember their going to church, and I never went either. It was about all Dad could do to keep our big family going. But I believe that there was deeper reason for his not going to church. I can remember his saying: “The priests aren’t men of principle.”
One thing that bothered Dad was the way the priests would come out to his horse-drawn wagon and pick out the best of his fruit. He would carry it into their quarters for them, and in the basement he saw that they had the best of wines and everything. “They live on the fat of the land,” is the way he would put it. So I think it was such experiences that caused Dad gradually to get away from religion.
No doubt it was Dad’s religious background that caused him, at times, to act without principle. As a boy, I worked with Dad in his fruit and vegetable business in New Haven, Connecticut. On occasion he would say, “Go ahead, son, pick that up too, pick it up and take it along,” even though it was a box of fruit for which we had not paid.
I figured that if this is what we had to do to get by, then we had to do it. So I would go along with such things, but it went against my grain. I was happy that these occasions were rare. I often wondered why there was so much injustice and underhandedness in the world.
When I was in the fifth grade I worked after school for an elderly couple. In the course of housecleaning one day, they gave me a King James Bible that they were discarding, as well as the book Fifty Years in the Church of Rome by ex-priest Charles Chiniquy. I had never yet seen a Bible, but I wanted to know something about religion.
Young as I was, I read this book by the ex-priest with great interest. It made the hairs on my young head stand up, and from then on I had no use for the churches. But especially did I read and reread the Bible with zest and joy. It became my favorite book. Reading it caused me to think more like an adult. I developed a deep interest in spiritual things and in the problems of life. When I read how the Bible describes the superhuman evil influence of Satan the Devil on people, this opened my eyes a little as to why there are so many injustices in the world.
What particularly interested me was the account in Matthew chapter 4 where it tells about Satan’s tempting Jesus three times. Each time Jesus fought back the Devil’s temptations by quoting from God’s Word, saying, “It is written.” (Matt. 4:3-10; Deut. 8:3; 6:16; 5:9) This made a deep impression on me. I thought, ‘If Jesus, the perfect Son of God, referred to God’s Word three times to answer Satan, then what better book could there be? What better book could I use?’
This information was enough to make me a firm believer in the Bible, and I had a keen desire for Bible knowledge. But when anyone at home saw me reading the Bible, they would poke fun and accuse me of being pious. They even cautioned me that if I read the Bible too much I might go crazy.
MAKING MY OWN WAY
Things did not go too well at home with our family. So when my eldest brother and two sisters left home and got married, they took turns at having me live with them. By my early teens I was making my own way.
I shall never forget my first regular job. It was in a corset factory. I received ten cents an hour, and worked ten hours a day. After that I did many types of work, from pick-and-shovel labor to operating all kinds of factory machines. In time I had such positions as foreman of factory operation, chief inspector and sales manager. I even worked as manager of a chain store, and I also became involved in political life.
Yet conditions still bothered me. On the one hand, there was the theft by employees and, on the other hand, the unscrupulous business and political practices. It irritated me that a person who wanted to do right always seemed to get the worst of things, and the one who did wrong seemed to have it a lot better. Then there were the nagging questions: What is the purpose of my being on earth? What will my future be?
TURNING POINT IN LIFE
Meanwhile, in 1925 I married a Catholic girl from Meriden, Connecticut. I explained to her how I felt about the Catholic religion and that I believed in the Bible, what little I then knew about it. In the first four years of our marriage we had two fine boys, and in 1935 we had yet another son. But prior to that, something happened that proved a turning point in my life.
It was in 1933 that my wife obtained several booklets on Bible themes. For several nights I stayed up practically all night reading them, looking up all the scriptures in my Bible. This was just what I had been waiting for! My wife would call and ask me if I knew what time it was, but I was so absorbed I had no consciousness or care about time.
What the churches teach about death and the condition of the dead never did seem right to me. They say that we have an immortal soul that leaves our body at death and, if a person has lived a “bad” life, his soul is tormented forever in a hell of fire. But from what I was reading I could see that the Bible teaches that the soul can and does die. Never does the Bible say that the soul is immortal, or that the soul continues a conscious existence after one dies.—Ezek. 18:4; Eccl. 9:5, 10.
Moreover, it was a wonderful thing to learn that the Bible “hell” is simply the common grave of mankind. This became so obvious! I checked the Bible where Jacob, who, in mourning for his son whom he thought had been killed, said: “I will go down to my son into hell.” Similarly, I read where the faithful man Job prayed to God during his suffering: “Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass.” (Gen. 37:35; Job 14:13, Douay Version) Clearly, hell could not be a place of torment if Job desired to go there!
Equally thrilling to me was the clearer understanding I was gaining about God. He has a personal name, as I read in my King James Version: “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.” (Ps. 83:18) Yes, the name of the Almighty God is Jehovah, whereas Jesus Christ is Jehovah’s son, the one whom God sent to earth. Jesus is therefore an entirely different, subordinate person. How glad I was to learn that the confusing Trinity doctrine, which says that Jesus and God are the same in substance, power and eternity, has no basis in the Bible, but comes from non-Christian religions!
These Bible truths changed my life, especially as I came to appreciate Jehovah’s purpose to bring the dead back to life, as the Bible promises: “There is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Acts 24:15) Yes, I began to see now how God’s original purpose to have a paradise earth under a righteous heavenly rule will be fulfilled, and how God will give everyone opportunity to enjoy its blessings. (Matt. 6:9, 10; Rev. 21:3, 4) I was so grateful to God to know these things. But how could I show this gratitude?
IMPORTANT DECISIONS
First, I decided to find the people who had brought us this information—Jehovah’s Witnesses. About twenty-five of them met regularly in a small upstairs room in downtown New Haven. I began attending these meetings, and soon my family did too. Realizing the joy that these things brought me, I started sharing them with people at their homes, even as Jesus and his apostles had done.—Luke 10:2-11.
The early thirties were depression years, and times were hard. The banks failed and I lost my money. Eventually foreclosure proceedings started on property I owned. At this point my brother, a prominent attorney, offered me a fresh financial start, promising me a fine house in the country and several thousand dollars. But he gave me this condition: ‘You give up this nonsense of being a Jehovah’s Witness.’
As I listened, what came to mind was the occasion when Christ was tempted by Satan. Really, the decision was not difficult. I told my brother that I could not accept his offer, for as Jesus said: “It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.” (Matt. 4:10) Actually, all the money in the world could not have changed my mind. My decision had been made to dedicate my life to God’s service. The assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Washington, D.C., in May/June 1935 afforded me opportunity to symbolize this dedication by water baptism.
The following year I was appointed to be the presiding overseer of the small New Haven congregation. I now was faced with another decision: How would I use the rest of my life?
I was thirty-four years old, and I had acquired business experience and connections that I could perhaps use to achieve a comfortable life. Yet I realized that many people were living their lives as I once did, ignorant of God’s grand purposes. So I went to Jehovah in prayer, expressing my heartfelt desire that I might have the fullest share possible in helping many persons to know and serve him.
After prayerful consideration I began pioneering, as the full-time preaching work is called by Jehovah’s Witnesses. And I can say that the past forty years spent in this activity have been the best years of my life. In 1937 the special pioneer work was begun, and I was one of the some 200 pioneers chosen to start that work, remaining in it for nineteen years.
We are by no means materially rich, yet during all these years I have been able to obtain part-time employment to care for our family. For the past ten years I have worked as maintenance man for a small tool-making factory. Seeing our rather humble circumstances, people have asked: “How can you be happy when you have so little materially to show for years of work?”
HELPING PEOPLE
Yet think: What is it that makes you happy—material things? Perhaps to some extent, but there surely are a lot of unhappy rich people. Jesus Christ said: “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” (Acts 20:35) And what has made my last forty years so satisfying is that I have been able to give so freely, helping people to find a treasure that has made them happier than if I had given them a million dollars. How can that be?
Well, it is like the Bible says: “Happy is the man that has found wisdom, and the man that gets discernment, for having it as gain is better than having silver as gain and having it as produce than gold itself.” It has been my pleasure, over the years, to be instrumental in helping scores of people to gain this wisdom and discernment of such incomparable value.—Prov. 3:13-18.
Many persons have thanked me for helping them to obtain this priceless treasure. In February 1972 I started a Bible study with a Yale University medical student. In 1970 he had been captain of the University’s Ivy League football team. After a few months of Bible study, he began to realize the value of what we were studying. Meanwhile, his future wife was also studying. In time they both dedicated their lives to serve Jehovah God. On one occasion Richard said to me: “Brother Arpaia, you’re more than a father to me. You’ve helped me so much.” Experiences like that have truly brought joy to my life.
Although I have lived in the New Haven area all my life, I have had the pleasure of helping persons to get started in the Kingdom-preaching work who are now serving in many places in the world. Earlier this year the Kingdom Ministry School, a course of advanced training for elders of Jehovah’s Witnesses, was held in New Haven. In the two classes this spring, there were five persons with whom I had at one time conducted home Bible studies.
In what other work could a person be instrumental in effecting such a beneficial change in the lives of so many people? It is truly a pleasure to see persons begin to change to a more wholesome way of thinking. To cite an example: In 1955 I was in London, England, to attend a Christian assembly. The husband of the family that I stayed with professed to be an atheist. One night after his wife and two children had gone to bed, he said: “You answer me one question and perhaps I will listen to you further.”
“What is your question?” I asked.
“Where did God come from?”
“Oh, that is an easy question,” I said.
He looked at me with surprise. “Easy? What do you mean?”
I opened up the Bible (they had a King James Version) and read Psalm 90:2, which says: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
When I got through reading, he said: “Ah, bah!” He was disgusted.
“Well, here we are,” I said, “man to man. The answer did not satisfy you. But let me ask you: Suppose your boy came and asked you a question, and you answered it for him but he did not appreciate the answer. So your son said, ‘Ah, bah!’ Would that please you?”
He looked at me kind of puzzled, and said: “No, I guess it would not please me. What are you getting at?”
“What I mean is this. You asked me, ‘Where did God come from?’ And I gave you God’s answer, the answer that he inspired men to write. You do not appreciate it. Perhaps you do not understand it. But it is an easy answer to accept on one thing, on faith.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Well, suppose God said, ‘So-and-So created me.’ Then you would want to know who created So-and-So. Then suppose He said, ‘So-So-and-So created So-and-So,’ but there would be no ending to it. Yet here God tells you that he always has been and always will be, but you are not satisfied with that answer. This little brain that we have cannot fully comprehend it, cannot accept it because we see things come and go, humans included. And because you cannot comprehend that God always has existed, you are not satisfied. But this is what we need to accept on faith—the very fact that we see all the wonderful creation with its marvels gives sound basis for faith in such an everexisting God.”
This self-styled atheist responded and opened up and became like a little boy, asking: “Tell me more about the Bible.” So we started studying the Bible, and when I left London I turned the study with him over to another Witness. This is the type of experience that has made the last forty years the best years of my life.
How would you feel if you received a wonderful gift? Grateful? Well, I consider the knowledge and understanding of God and his grand purposes to be a gift of inestimable value. And a reason why the past forty years have been the best years of my life is that the work I have been doing is that which Christ Jesus did and encouraged his followers to do. Knowledge of this has built up my faith and confidence in Jehovah’s promises, for, as the Bible says: “God is not unrighteous so as to forget your work and the love you showed for his name.” (Heb. 6:10)—Contributed.
[Blurb on page 486]
“This information was enough to make me a firm believer in the Bible.”
[Blurb on page 486]
“What the churches teach about death and the condition of the dead never did seem right to me.”
[Blurb on page 487]
“All the money in the world could not have changed my mind.”
[Blurb on page 487]
“These Bible truths changed my life.”
[Blurb on page 490]
“You asked me, ‘Where did God come from?’ And I gave you God’s answer.”
[Picture on page 488]
Helping persons to obtain life-giving Bible knowledge has brought me great joy
[Picture on page 489]
The Kingdom Ministry School instructor, myself and five students with whom I had conducted home Bible studies