Kingdom Proclaimers Report
‘The Desirable Things Come In’
THE prophet Haggai penned these words in 520 B.C.E.: “‘And I will rock all the nations, and the desirable things of all the nations must come in; and I will fill this house with glory,’ Jehovah of armies has said.” (Haggai 2:7) “The desirable things” of all the nations that fill Jehovah’s house with glory are his God-fearing worshipers. Such honesthearted ones are responding to the good news in Italy, so that there are now 166,000 Witnesses teaching the people the Bible in that nation. The Catholic clergy in Italy consider our exceptional growth an “increasingly alarming phenomenon” that “worries and dismays” them. Let one truth seeker there relate what happened to her.
“I was a catechist for ten years, and I was convinced that this was the way to express my love for God and neighbor. Even though I had a friend who was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I never took the time to listen to the Bible’s message. Some time ago, however, when the Witnesses called on me, I invited them in. I wanted to tell them not to visit my mother-in-law again, as she was feeling disoriented. ‘Instead of visiting elderly people,’ I told them, ‘talk to people like me.’ From then on they regularly came to my home, but each time they touched on a doctrinal point, I would ask them to defer the conversation until later so I could research the matter.
“I spoke to several priests and noticed that they had no Bible answer. One of them, a missionary, told me it wasn’t really so important to attend Mass. ‘After all,’ he said, ‘in countries like Brazil, for example, people do other things instead of going to Mass. The important thing is to serve God as best one can.’ These words gave me the strength to sever my ties with the Catholic Church. Another priest told my husband, who was also a Catholic, that if I wanted to become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, he should let me do so because Jehovah’s Witnesses have only one fault, that of being too zealous. I was baptized just recently along with one of my sons. My husband is also studying the Bible and showing interest in the Kingdom message.”
As Jehovah rocks the nations by having his judgments declared on earth, many righteously inclined people are abandoning dishonest practices in order to follow Bible principles. Before learning the truth, one Italian man went deeply in debt, figuring he could repay his debt with money from his regular salary and the dishonest “tips” he was receiving. Gaining a knowledge of the truth, he made a difficult decision and quit accepting dishonest “tips.” He and his wife were baptized and right away began serving in the full-time ministry. In the hospital where he works, he often has to undress corpses, and he has frequently found large sums of money on them. For example, once he found 150,000 lire (about $115), and another time 600,000 lire (about $460). Being honest, he returned the money, and this gave him opportunity to speak to the hospital management and doctors about the truth. The hospital management sent him letters of commendation for his honest and responsible conduct.
These experiences from Italy are but a sample of how “the desirable things” are abandoning this wicked, violent system and coming to Jehovah’s clean, peaceful organization before he finally rocks Satan’s political system into destruction at Armageddon.