Making All Mankind One Under Their Creator
This leading article that you are about to read takes on special interest. It is the public talk that N. H. Knorr, president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania, is now in the course of giving to audiences in the major cities of the southwest Pacific and of the Far East during his ten-week tour, beginning February 29 of this year and taking in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, Indochina, the Philippine Islands, Formosa, South Korea and Japan, as well as Alaska. Read this and see how appropriate his message is for us all.
1. As a human family how should all mankind be, but what is their actual condition?
ALL mankind should be one! All mankind will yet be made one. Happy will be that time! It will mean far more than tying mankind together by means of travel and communication and by international alliances. Never before has mankind been more closely tied together by such means than now. Yet never was mankind more seriously divided than now. We talk of the “human family,” but we do not act like one. On every level of human society and in every field of activity and thought differences meet us, such as racial differences, national differences, religious differences, language, money, social, traditional differences and others. The results of these have been so calamitous that they eloquently argue for the speedy making of all mankind one in a true way.
2. According to the sure rule stated by the Christian teacher Jesus, what will happen if mankind’s divided condition keeps up?
2 By the many divisive influences mankind is steadily being broken up into fragments. It is no wonder that world leaders are seriously concerned over the lack of oneness and are seeking to unite mankind before we are broken up into still smaller fragments by atomic and hydrogen bombs. Recently one religious clergyman said that the great sin of human society is “fragmentation.” There seems to be some force trying to make humankind fly apart in every direction, so that we have come near to the state of affairs foretold by the Christian Bible when ‘every man’s hand will be against his neighbor’s.’ (Zech. 14:13; Isa. 19:2) Disastrous selfishness is being given free rein by mankind today, and it has at last become uncontrollable by the human spirit. The continuance and spread of division throughout the earth must end up later in only one grand result. Jesus, the great Christian teacher, said that if a nation is divided against itself it comes to desolation, and if a city or household is divided against itself, it will not stand; and if Satan the Devil is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? (Matt. 12:25, 26) That principle or rule of action stated by Jesus may be a homely one, but history bears out its truthfulness. So, then, mankind divided against itself cannot continue existing.
3. What is really the effect of men’s schemes for making mankind one?
3 Men seek to heal the great breach by various schemes that they propose. But look at these schemes! Why, there are even great differences among them, and this very disagreement of human plans for making mankind one is divisive in its effect. Since 1918 the totalitarian scheme has pushed forward to a challenging position and has caused a deep split among men.
4. What is one of the oldest totalitarian religious systems, and has it changed its final goal?
4 Totalitarian political rule may be recent, but there has long been totalitarian religious rule. There are religious systems that are totalitarian in their rule. History shows one of the oldest of these to be the Roman Catholic religious system. By its spokesmen the claim is made that the salvation of all mankind rests upon the obedience of everybody to the pope at Vatican City. Because it considers itself to be the only agency for human salvation, that religious system has undertaken the program of world conquest. Today, after all its failure to conquer, it has no more changed its final goal—world Catholicism—than has the Russian Soviet changed its ultimate objective—world communism.
5. How have totalitarian religious systems acted to bring about religious oneness, but with what success?
5 Religious systems of a totalitarian kind cannot of themselves bring about world control by strictly religious means. They have had to call upon the strong arm of the political state in order to enforce outward harmony of the people with their religious ideas, doctrines and demands. Where these totalitarian religionists are in the majority this use of force has resulted in the practice of intolerance; but where they are in the minority they call for toleration and plead for it and demand it. Just as soon as they get the upper hand, then they abuse their power and position and they themselves practice intolerance and all other methods to take away religious liberty from others. Yet oneness has not come this way.
6. How do the East and the West and also religion stand with regard to what democracy is or means?
6 A system contrary to totalitarian rule is that of so-called “democracy.” What is democracy? There are various definitions of it. The United States of America and other Western countries have their definition of it. Russia and its satellites have their definition of what real democracy, that is, “people’s rule,” is. For instance, right at the boundary line dividing Berlin between East and West, on the Russian side stands the sign saying, “Beginning of the Democratic Sector of Greater Berlin.” So there is great confusion in defining the same word. Hence one group may speak of “democracy” and another group may speak of “democracy” and yet they will mean opposite things. Not only is there the political definition of democracy, but there is the religious definition, the Roman Catholic one. If we go to the Catholic Encyclopedia and read the article on democracy we learn that in the year 1901 Pope Leo XIII issued a letter to all Roman Catholic bishops throughout the world, in which he defined democracy according to Catholicism. He summed it up as being “Catholic Action,” and the ones taking part in Catholic action were termed “Christian Democrats.” Our latest newspapers inform us that the Christian Democrats are active on the European scene today. All this does not produce democratic oneness.
7. What hot question is now under debate, and what world organization now tries to help answer the question, and how?
7 Today the hot question under debate is: Call mankind be one under these two systems, democratic and totalitarian? Can these two systems keep living side by side, ruling at the same time on the earth? A political attempt at holding them together is the organization of the United Nations. The United Nations of today is really the successor to a failure, the now buried League of Nations. The League was proposed by the American president Woodrow Wilson, but was never joined by his country. In 1955 the United Nations grew to a membership of seventy-six nations, with further nations trying to get in but long being blocked one way or the other. All member nations have held onto their own national sovereignties, thus preventing a stronger oneness.
8. What other schemes for unification do men propose and act upon?
8 Some, not satisfied with the United Nations, argue for world government, with a world capital city and with all the rest of the earth divided up into states, but these without national sovereignty. For defensive and other reasons some advocate a united Europe. Likewise, others propose Pan-Islamism, a union of all the Mohammedan countries in one political body. Meanwhile, ambition for world domination causes cold wars to be waged in the postwar period of peace. Along with these a battle for the control of the people’s minds goes on, great propaganda barrages being hurled over boundaries into other lands to influence the people there mentally. In an effort to overcome the language barrier a committee of linguists appointed by the United Nations recently invented a new language called “Inter-lingua.”
TIME HAS TOLD
9, 10. (a) What has time told regarding the Communist experiment? (b) Why is the totalitarian system feared today?
9 Time has told how effective the various plans and schemes of men are in bringing about world unity or less disunity. Have the thirty-eight years of the Communist experiment proved so full of blessings that now we want all mankind made one by totalitarian rule? No! say those who know it for what it is. In practice it produces a police state. As a whole it is dominated by fear—fear on the part of men high and low. The men high up who are in seats of control are in fear lest there be a popular uprising to try to overthrow them, and they are suspicious of one another. They are afraid of the dreadful purge, that they will be purged from the party because of some unintended misstep. The people underneath are also in a constant state of fear that they will be punished if they do not line up with the men in power. The freedom that is boasted of proves to be the mere freedom to join the Communist party or to vote for its candidates. So a uniformity is forced on everyone below; all elements religious, political, literary, educational, publicity, business, agricultural, scientific, medical, social, theatrical, yes, all fields of human endeavor are regimented and everything is lined up like a monolith underneath those few who are on top. State worship is demanded of everybody beneath, but this state worship is not willingly paid by everybody.
10 The totalitarian system, therefore, has to be enforced by compulsion and is at war with all democratic individuality, with free undertakings and private ownership of property. Today it is looked upon as a threat to the “free world.” It is feared because of its aggressiveness, because of its merciless methods, because the state is a law to itself, in that it determines what is right and what is wrong in its own eyes. So today totalitarian rule is the broad basis for a divided East and West.
11. What facts show up about American democracy, and why is there no real oneness under it?
11 Well, then, do the people generally want democracy? No, for not everything they see about it is good. In America democracy is infested by men who are out for their own selfish interest. The people’s rule is being misguided by crafty politicians and perverted by self-seekers. Dishonest, selfish interests seize the opportunity to take control. Free enterprise is allowed, yes, but it leads to cutthroat competition or to monopoly or to forming international trade combines. In sections of the land freedom is stifled by men who consider themselves to be the law locally. When running for the American presidency back in 1952 General Eisenhower said at St. Louis, Missouri, that the “only way to get an incorruptible government was to axe out the present administration, root and branch, and replace it with ‘incorruptible men and women.’” (New York Times, September 21, 1952) Did his political Republican party bring in such an incorruptible government after he became president of the United States of America? Ask the Socialist party! Ask the Democratic party! Ask those who mix in politics, not us. Then you will find out the disagreement. Democracy shies away from the one-party state such as exists in totalitarian lands. It has rival political parties, but this rivalry blocks unselfish, united cooperation for common good, so that there is no real oneness.
12, 13. (a) What have some understood the slogan “Make the World Safe for Democracy” to mean, but how do Asia and Africa take to democracy? (b) What has democracy no mandate to do to the world?
12 Not all democracies are alike. Not all prefer the American kind. Today “democracy” is a popular term. During World War I Woodrow Wilson as American president invented the slogan, “Make the world safe for democracy!” Ever since then democratic efforts have been made in many parts of the earth. By many that slogan “Make the world safe for democracy!” has been interpreted to mean, “Make the world democratic.” But not all the world wants to be democratic, and not all who want to be such look to America as the model democracy. M. A. Thomas, a clergyman from India, at an assembly in Dayton, Ohio, of the Division of Foreign Missions of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., December 5, 1955, declared that “neither American democracy nor American Christianity could be taken seriously so long as racial segregation was common practice in many areas.” (New York Times, December 6, 1955) At the seventh national assembly of the United Church Women held in Cleveland, Ohio, a number of clergymen spoke. According to the New York Times, of November 9, 1955, “the United States plays directly into the hands of Communists by not understanding the desire of the masses in Asia and Africa to control their own destinies the Reverend Dr. James H. Robinson told the 3,000 delegates. . . . The Reverend Dr. M. A. Thomas . . . warned that democracy would not have ‘a ghost of a chance’ in Asia unless a radical social and economic adjustment took place soon.”
13 No, democracy has been given no mandate to democratize this world. She must allow other people throughout the earth the freedom to choose their own local or national government. That is their right. Unhappily, however, this does not make for mankind’s oneness.
14. (a) How was Pope Pius XII disappointed about religious unity in 1950? (b) What did the religious conference at Lund, Sweden, in 1952 have to say about religious unity?
14 Religious clergymen criticize, but world religions can offer no solution to mankind’s problem. In 1950 the Roman Catholics celebrated a “Holy Year.” Pope Pius XII called it the “year of the great return,” hoping and praying that the Protestant sects would return to the religious fold of the so-called “Mother Church.” The year 1950 passed, but the “great return” of the Protestant branches of religion to oneness with Vatican City did not happen. Protestants are not only divided from Vatican City but divided among themselves. In August, 1952, the Third World Conference on Faith and Order was held at Lund, Sweden, and reports were drawn up by its five subcommittees on “how to attain unity among Christian churches on doctrine, worship and communion.” These reports revealed such wide differences in idea and interpretation that, to quote the New York Times of August 26, 1952, “Archbishop Athenagoras of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus asserted: ‘We may look for church union two centuries hence, but not before.’” At the close of the two-week conference the New York Times of August 29 reported: “The world’s divided churches have failed in their efforts to map a blueprint for a united Christendom, their representatives declared today at the conclusion of a two-week conference. ‘We have not resolved our differences nor brought forth before the world a simple method of achieving unity,’ the report to the Third World Conference on Faith and Order stated.” Now the great question is, Can the people of Christendom and of the rest of mankind wait two centuries for unity of the human race? The threatening future answers No!
15. So what do we see regarding human schemes and proposals for unity?
15 So, surveying the most prominent human schemes and proposals, we see that no one of them has swung the whole world. None of them has proved big enough singly, nor have they proved big enough all together, for the job. They have merely divided and splintered human efforts. Men will never come forth with a successful unifier.
NOT JUST A DREAM
16. Why is the uniting of mankind in brotherhood no mocking dream, and what failure by men has made their own schemes fail in this?
16 Is, then, the uniting of mankind in brotherhood just a mocking dream? No! But why not? Have not the schemes and efforts of man all failed to take this “brotherhood of man” idea out of the dream realm and put it into reality? Yes, but even then it is not a dream, for it is the will of the one all-important Ruler, whom men have not taken into consideration, mankind’s own Creator. What has proved impossible for imperfect, selfish, dying man is possible for God our Maker. His will certainly will be done on earth just as it is done up in heaven. He gave all mankind just one common start in life. Hear what an Asiatic, the Christian apostle Paul, said to the European philosophers at Athens, Greece, nineteen hundred years ago: “The God that made the world and all the things in it, being, as this One is, Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade temples, neither is he attended to by human hands as if he needed anything, because he himself gives to all persons life and breath and all things. And he made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth, and he decreed the appointed seasons and the set limits of the dwelling of men, for them to seek God, . . . For by him we have life and move and exist, even as certain ones of the poets among you have said, ‘For we are also his progeny.’” (Acts 17:24-28, NW) Men have failed to seek this God and follow his ways. So their own schemes have failed.
17. Why are we all one as to body, flesh, dying, marriage and blood?
17 Under the skin we are all one. No matter where people live on earth, we are all alike as to body, although of a different skin color. Why? Because God the Creator started off mankind from just the “one man,” Adam. This first man’s wife, Eve, God built up from a rib taken from Adam’s body. Is that a childish idea? No; for Jesus Christ himself said: “Did you not read [in the Holy Scriptures] that he who created them at the beginning made them male and female and said: ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’? So that they are no longer two, but one flesh.” (Matt. 19:4-6, NW; Gen. 2:21-24) So we are all one flesh, all human, of the dust of this one earth upon which we live. At death we all return to its dust, the lighter-colored races as well as the darker-colored races, there being no absolute white. As one dies, so dies the other, both under one common curse of death, so that no race is superior to any other in this regard. (Eccl. 3:18-21) We can all intermarry. By such marriage of any race or color with any other come children, children not of mixed blood but of one blood, although through different family lines. The specialized marrying within a certain family relationship has made certain features, traits and other things more pronounced in the children of such inbreeding, still the blood is one human blood.
18. Because of man’s cradle of birth, why should the West not dominate the East? Whose domination is predicted soon to end?
18 Why, then, are we not all one? The evidence is that man sprang from an Oriental cradle, not an Occidental cradle, from an Asiatic one, not a European or African one. So why should the West dominate the East? Recently at New York city the famous German Pastor Niemoeller predicted that the end of the “white man’s domination” was near at hand. (New York Times, November 12, 1955, page 8) But why any human group dominate? Why not all live as one?
19. (a) With whom was mankind at one to begin with? (b) What is the Creator’s name, and how does Egypt’s experience show we should not brush his name aside?
19 Where did all our present disunity have its start? To begin with, mankind on earth was at one with God the Creator and with his invisible spirit sons in heaven, for all were creatures of the one Creator. But what is the Creator’s name, so that we may know about whom we are talking? Down south in Egypt, almost thirty-five centuries ago, the Israelites asked God’s prophet Moses: “What is his name?” God told Moses to answer: “‘Jehovah the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name to eternity, and this is the memorial of me to generation after generation.” Now do not brush this name aside with contempt. Egypt’s ruler Pharaoh snarled at Moses: “I do not know Jehovah at all and, what is more, I am not going to send Israel away.” As a result Pharaoh and his Egypt suffered great punishment from Jehovah God, Pharaoh’s many chariots and military forces finally being drowned in the Red Sea like trapped rats.—Ex. 3:13-15; 5:1, 2; 14:23 to 15:19, NW.
20. Who started the disunity in God’s great family, and what did God call him, and why?
20 One of Jehovah’s heavenly, spiritual sons started the disunity in God’s great family in heaven and on earth. He set himself against Jehovah God in order to gain control over mankind, just as Pharaoh opposed Jehovah to try to keep control over the Israelites as his slaves. In the Hebrew language Jehovah God called this unfaithful son’s name Satan, which means “opposer, adversary.” Because this opposing spirit told the first lie by slandering God to deceive the mother of all mankind into sin against Him, Jehovah God called him Malshín, or Devil. This name means “slanderer.” (Job 1:6, 7; Rev. 12:9; 20:2) Complete, universal oneness will come first after Satan the Devil and his followers are destroyed.
21. From whose family did mankind get a new, righteous start, and when and where?
21 The tenth man in line of descent from the first man Adam was Noah, who walked in harmony with God. When the great earth-wide flood came it drowned all who were at disunity with God. It left just one family from which mankind could get a new, righteous start, Noah’s family. From Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, sprang the three great branches of the one human family, beginning from Mount Ararat in Asia, where the great ark landed in which Noah’s family had lived through the flood.—Gen. 8:4, 15-18; 9:18, 19.
22. How was mankind’s disunity started again, and what did Babylon have to do with our many languages and with world domination?
22 For a while now there was oneness between God and mankind. Then Satan the Devil took advantage of man’s free will and his inherited sinfulness and began breaking up the oneness between Noah’s descendants and God. Later at Babylon in southwest Asia those who were disunited with God tried to unite in a scheme against God’s good purpose toward mankind. To break up their unity in a wicked scheme God miraculously broke up their oneness of language by causing them to speak suddenly many languages different from that of Noah, and he provided no interpreters. So, being unable to understand one another, they scattered from Babylon. Today 2,796 languages have been counted by officers of the French Academy. Later Babylon became strong enough to establish the Babylonian empire to dominate the world. But in less than a century Jehovah God caused the Babylonian world power to be destroyed. His witnesses who were held captive in Babylon he set free to restore his pure worship to Jerusalem. (Isa. 43:8-21, AS) From Noah onward the faithful witnesses of Jehovah God since the flood have kept at one with God.
23. How has Satan the Devil tried to unify his world, but with what success?
23 The Christian apostle John wrote to his fellow Christians: “We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19, NW) How true that saying is needs no discussion here. The wicked one, Satan the Devil, has tried to bring unity to his own world by blotting out Jehovah’s witnesses, who would not be one with his world. He even brought about the death of Jehovah’s greatest witness, Jesus Christ the Son of God from heaven. But Almighty God raised his “faithful and true witness” from the dead on the third day and later had him return to heaven. (Rev. 1:5; 3:14; John 18:37) Satan the Devil has never been able to blot out Jehovah’s witnesses nor to unify even his own servants, with whom Jehovah’s witnesses do not mix as respects their politics, religion, social institutions or commercialism.
24. (a) Why can Satan never unify his earthly organization? (b) What dominating question does it face, and who will settle it?
24 Satan will never be able to unify his visible organization on earth. How can he do so when he himself broke up the oneness of the living universe when the perfect man Adam was living in his paradise home, the garden of Eden? Satan cannot supply the perfect bond of union, which is sincere love. He cannot supply such unifying love to his visible organization because he hates love, for he most of all hates God, who is love. “Love is from God.” (1 John 4:7, 8, 16, NW) Today there is one dominating question that Satan’s visible organization faces. It is not the question, All mankind under democracy or all mankind under communism? No, but the dominating question is, All mankind at disunity under Satan the Devil or all mankind at one under God their Creator? Almighty God will settle that question, not man. This will mean an eternal blessing to us.
25. How was the saving of all obedient mankind made possible through one human redeemer, and how did God’s only-begotten Son become that one?
25 The first perfect man, Adam, joined his wife Eve in breaking away from God. His sin of disobedience brought imperfection and death not only upon himself but also upon all his offspring, including us today. (Rom. 5:12) Because we are one as a human family and because the source of all our sinfulness and dying is one man, the saving of all obedient mankind by just one perfect human redeemer or rescuer was made possible. That one could not be a son of sinner Adam. That one had to be the Son of sinless God. So Jehovah God sent his only-begotten Son from heaven. How? He transferred his Son’s life from heaven to the womb of the virgin Jewess Mary that he might be born as a perfect human creature. Jehovah God himself gave him the name Jesus, which name means “Jehovah is salvation.” (Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-35) “Christ” means “Anointed One,” and Jesus became Christ at thirty years of age after he was baptized in water, for then Jehovah God anointed Jesus with his holy spirit from heaven to be the High Priest and King of a righteous new world.—Matt. 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-23; Acts 10:37, 38.
26. Why did the Son of God not come to earth to remain a perfect man forever, and hence what is God’s gift to us through his Son?
26 The Son of God did not come to earth to remain a perfect man forever. To become a perfect man he had to give up his heavenly body and power and position. Likewise, to return to heaven he had to give up his perfect human flesh, bones and blood, that he might become a spirit person again. “A spirit does not have flesh and bones.” “Flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom.” (Luke 24:39 and; 1 Cor. 15:50, NW) God’s loving purpose toward mankind was for Jesus to give up his human life as a perfect sacrifice to God, thus to buy willing mankind back from sin and its punishment death. Hence as through the sin of one perfect man (our first human father) death came upon us all, so through the sacrificial death of one perfect man, Jesus Christ, everlasting life can come to all of us who accept his sacrifice. We can appreciate, therefore, how true the words are: “The wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Rom. 6:23, NW.
27. (a) So what hope has God set before us and what means does he have to make it come true? (b) Why will there be just one government, and so under whom will all lovers of life line up?
27 So in justice and in love Jehovah God has set before us the heart-warming hope that all mankind will be made one under their Creator and his Christ. Not only has he purposed it and foretold it in the Holy Bible, but, as we have seen, he has the righteous means to make it come true. Just how his Son Jesus Christ will be the one by whom this oneness under God the Creator and Father will be realized we read: “When [Jesus] found himself in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, yes, death on a torture stake. For this very reason also God exalted him to a superior position and kindly gave him the name that is above every other name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the ground, and every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:8-11, NW) Besides that, in verse 1, chapter 13, of Romans Ro 13:1 we read: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God.” Yes, “power belongs to God.” (Ps. 62:11, RS) So one future day all the universe must be unified under the all-powerful Ruler of all creation, Jehovah God the Creator. He creates the one government that all creatures in heaven and in earth must bow to, acknowledge and obey. He has already appointed the ruler for that government. It is his once sacrificed Son Jesus Christ, who has now been glorified in heaven, with full power and authority to rule. All persons alive in heaven and earth must line up under him, whether they are angels or men, and all sensible persons who love everlasting life will wisely do so.
28. How will God swiftly do away with all the causes of disunity among mankind?
28 God Almighty has the power to establish this heavenly government for making all creation one. He also has the power to rid this earth of all opposition to the rule of such a government. He will do away with all the causes of disunity among mankind. How? By pleading with all the disunited forces? No! God’s written Word says he will do it by one swift stroke at the coming universal war of Armageddon, sweeping away this present old world of disunity. Satan the Devil is the cause of all this lack of unity. So God will destroy Satan’s organization in heaven and on earth. Satan’s invisible organization in heaven is behind all the wickedness and disunity on earth today. Therefore God will destroy it. As for Satan’s visible organization, which is dominated by politics, selfish commercialism and false religion and which makes gain of mankind, God will pull up this organization from its deep-rooted position and thus clear the earth. Then he will create a complete new world with a new invisible rule and a new earthly society.
29. (a) By supplying what quality does God have the system for making mankind one? (b) So what two great commandments must we keep?
29 Jehovah God has the one system for making all mankind one. He supplies the necessary bond of unity, and that bond is love. All mankind are really hungering for love, first of all, love from God, and then love from one another. God has recommended his love to mankind. How? His Son Jesus Christ told how when he said: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16, NW) In turn, all mankind must love God and one another. Doing so, they will obey the two great commandments of the universe; as stated by Jesus: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’” And Jesus showed that your neighbor is your fellow man, even if he is just now of a nation different from yours, such as a Jew or a Samaritan. (Matt. 22:37-39, NW; Luke 10:29-37) Those who seek mankind’s oneness must come together to a common love of their great Creator and Life-Giver, Jehovah God, and to a love of his Son whom he provided as the sacrifice and ransomer for mankind and whom he has appointed as King of the new world. Then, too, they must love their fellow man, because, if they do not love their fellow man whom they see and with whom they must live here on earth, then they really do not love God whom they do not and cannot see. God loves our neighbor; we must love our neighbor too.
30. (a) Why do all mankind need a new father? (b) Whom did God provide to be such, and how did this one take away the division between the Jews and other nations?
30 Further, to make all mankind one Jehovah God provides for us a new father in the righteous new world. Adam the first man was the father he provided back there in the garden of Eden. But that father brought death upon all of us his children by not staying perfect and entitled to life. He broke his Creator’s command and law. So Adam proved to be a death-giver, not a life-giver for us. He died because of his sin. All the generations of his offspring have died one after the other, and we are dying. So Adam did not become our everlasting father. The one whom our Creator provides is his own living Son, Jesus Christ, who died as a perfect man for us but who now lives as an immortal spirit in his original heavenly home. “It is even so written: ‘The first man Adam became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Cor. 15:45, NW) On earth Jesus Christ was a Jew by nationality, and the Jews were separated from the other nations by their God-given law. But Jesus fulfilled the purpose of that law. By dying as a sacrifice, not for Jews only but for all mankind, he took away the division between Jew and every other nation. He made it possible for people of all nations to become Christians and become one flock in the united worship of the one God, Jehovah.—Eph. 2:11-19.
31. How will saved mankind become one through one fatherhood?
31 In the coming new world Jesus will become the immortal father of all mankind to give them perfect human life on a paradise earth. Jehovah’s own prophecy says: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end.” (Isa. 9:6, 7, AS) By being born as a perfect human and sacrificing his human life as a High Priest he heals the breach between us and our Creator. Just as all mankind are now one flesh and family because of coming from the first man Adam, so all rescued mankind will become one in the new world because of becoming children of the Governor and Prince of Peace, the “Everlasting Father.” His own Father is God the Creator. Through Jesus, therefore, all saved mankind will have one Grand Father or Great Father, Jehovah.
32. Why will there be no family quarrels and hatreds, and why will they be one race with one language?
32 All mankind will have to keep in connection with that one first Source of life, the Creator of all. If all hold to Him in love they will all hold together in love, as one family. There will be no human family quarrels and hatreds. Their everlasting life they will gain through no human father, but each and every one will gain it direct from the one “life-giving spirit,” the Everlasting Father. This will make them all one nationality, one race, and their Everlasting Father will teach them one language.
33. When was the New World government put upon the shoulder of the Everlasting Father, and when will no more disunity be allowed here on earth?
33 The Creator of the New World government has now put it upon the shoulder of the Everlasting Father, Jesus Christ in heaven. This is in line with the prayer Jesus taught his followers to pray to God: “Your kingdom come! Your will be done on earth as well as in heaven!” (Matt. 6:9, 10, AT) In the year 1914 Jehovah God put the government upon his Son’s shoulder. The Bible’s timetable backed up by world events fulfilling Bible prophecy proves that. Hence the making of all mankind one under their Creator will soon be, no more a hope, but a delightful reality. That Government, established in the heavens, has permitted no more disunity up there. It has dislodged from there Satan the Devil and his invisible organization of demons. It has hurled them down to the neighborhood of our earth. These wicked spirit forces of Satan and his demons are responsible for the woeful conditions in this world today. The only thing in which this present world is unified is in opposing God and his government upon Christ’s shoulder. For that reason it befits the God of the new world to destroy this old world, this system of things that has Satan the Devil as its god and ruler. (Rev. 12:7-13, 17; 2 Cor. 4:4) Since the ousting of Satan and his demons from heaven no more disunity has been allowed up in God’s holy heavens; no more disunity will be allowed down here on earth after the universal war of Armageddon now so near.—Rev. 20:11 to 22:3.
THOSE ENJOYING ONENESS TODAY
34. Among whom today does oneness under the Creator exist on earth?
34 In this world of disunity, is there today no oneness of men under the Creator of mankind? There is! Such oneness exists within the theocratic flock of Jehovah God. His flock are the people whom he addresses in his Word, saying: “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I am God.” (Isa. 43:12, AS) These witnesses are primarily a remnant of the anointed followers of Jesus Christ, who have a heavenly calling to reign with him on his heavenly throne for the blessing of all the families of the earth. In addition to these, the Great Shepherd’s flock now includes hundreds of thousands of people from all the families of the earth. Jesus Christ spoke of these as his “other sheep.” He said the time had to come, and it has come in our day, when he would gather these “other sheep” and bring them together with the remnant of his Kingdom joint heirs, and they would all be “one flock” under “one shepherd.” Still godly harmony continues among them.
35. What public evidence of this was given in 1953 in New York city?
35 As a public evidence of this oneness of Jehovah’s people, look at their eight-day international assembly during July, 1953, held at Yankee Stadium, New York city, and known as “New World Society Assembly.” Attending that assembly were more than 125,000 delegates of all colors and languages from ninety-six lands. Monday of the assembly was called North America Day, Tuesday Islands of the Atlantic Day, Wednesday South America Day, Thursday Asia Day, Friday Africa Day, Saturday Europe Day and the final Sunday Islands of the Pacific Day; and appropriate reports and experiences were given to harmonize with those days. On Sunday, July 26, 1953, the attendance shot up to 165,829, who came to hear the public talk, “After Armageddon—God’s New World.”
36. What evidence of this was given on a much wider scale in 1955?
36 For more recent evidence of this oneness of the Creator’s flock on earth on a much wider scale, look at the record of the “Triumphant Kingdom” assemblies held by Jehovah’s witnesses from June 22 through August 28, 1955. These assemblies were held during ten successive weeks in thirteen major cities of North America, Britain and Europe, in nine languages. There Jehovah’s people of his New World society flocked together from more than sixty lands to total more than 300,000 delegates. In imitation of Jesus Christ 13,016 were baptized in water, and a grand total of 403,628 heard the public talk “World Conquest Soon—by God’s Kingdom.”
37. In spite of what has their oneness proved unbreakable till now?
37 Jehovah’s witnesses, as members of his New World society, are determined to maintain this earth-wide oneness. Up till now their oneness has proved to be unbreakable, in spite of all the persecutions that have been heaped upon them, in spite of all the political differences that have divided Catholics, Protestants and Jews, in spite of world wars and lesser wars that have caused Catholic to fight against Catholic and Protestant against Protestant. The spirit of Satan’s world has divided Christendom against itself. But the one loving spirit of Jehovah God has kept Jehovah’s witnesses one throughout the earth. (Eph. 4:3-6) They are now active in 158 lands But no matter in which land they live, no matter of what color they are, of what nationality, of what language, they stick together. Their oneness is a tried and tested fact of today.
38. How do we know that the new world is at hand, and when will complete destruction from God suddenly come upon the old world?
38 That oneness will carry over into God’s new world. By all the proofs from the Bible and by all the world events and conditions that support those proofs, we know that the new world is at hand. Man’s efforts to make this old world one and keep it running will fail. God’s Word says that man’s very efforts to bring about a unifying of the human race would be part of the evidences that we have reached the end of this old world, that we are at the verge of the battle of Armageddon which will destroy Satan’s world organization, and that we are at the threshold of God’s new world. His Word says that the time must come when they will say, “Peace and security!” as though they had gained their objective of world unity. Then, says the Christian apostle Paul, whenever it is that they are saying this, sudden destruction will be instant upon them as birth pains upon a woman with child, and they will by no means escape complete destruction at God’s hand.—1 Thess. 5:1-3, NW.
39. Which world will win at Armageddon, and what will it bring in for all those on God’s side?
39 At Armageddon the battle will be universal, for all of God’s organization will be arrayed against Satan’s organization. It will be a battle of two worlds in collision, the old world and the new. The new world, God’s creation, will come out the winner and it will bring in earth-wide oneness of mankind. No, more than that, universal oneness! Unity will pervade heaven, where all the angels are lined up under God’s King, Jesus Christ, and with him they will fight the battle of Armageddon. Jehovah’s witnesses on earth will not need to take part in that battle at all. To them it is said: “The battle is not yours but God’s.” (2 Chron. 20:15, NW) They look to Jehovah God to fight the battle by Jesus Christ and to vindicate his sovereignty over all the universe.
40. What will those under God’s approval experience at Armageddon, and with whom will the “new earth” begin?
40 All those, therefore, who now make their peace with God and become one with him and his government upon Christ’s shoulder will come under his approval, hence under divine protection at Armageddon. They will be hidden under divine power when that great cataclysm will deluge the old world with destruction. Those who are now seeking God and striving to know his will and to do it will have a divine preservation. As one flock they will pass into the new world, just as Noah and his family passed through the flood that wiped out the wicked world of that day. With this united flock of witnesses and servants of Jehovah God the “new earth” will begin. It will remain forever. After describing the destruction of this present world the apostle Peter says: “There are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.”—2 Pet. 3:13, NW.
41. What will happen to the oneness of the Armageddon survivors, and how will still others be made one with them on earth?
41 The government of the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, will rule as the “new heavens” over the “new earth.” The survivors of Armageddon will already be his “one flock” of Jehovah’s witnesses, a New World society already organized. That oneness of all human survivors under their Creator and his King will never be broken up. The Prince of Peace will not only preserve the peaceful oneness of the survivors but also make others one with them. What others? At present the power of death separates all those who are sleeping in the memorial tombs or graves from the living. By the power of the Almighty God the Everlasting Father will unite the dead with the living by resurrecting all in the tombs who are in God’s memory for a reawakening to life on earth. When God resurrected Jesus Christ to life nineteen hundred years ago it was a guarantee not only that he would resurrect Christ’s anointed followers to immortal life in heaven but also that he would resurrect all the earthly entombed ones to life in the “new earth.” (John 5:28, 29; 1 Cor. 15:12-20) Jesus Christ will reign a thousand years after Armageddon and these resurrected ones will have abundant opportunity during his reign to come to oneness with all those living under their Re-creator and his King. Everlasting destruction faces those who refuse to become one with God through Jesus Christ.
42. What word picture does Jehovah give us through Isaiah the prophet of the oneness and harmless peace of mankind under their King?
42 Painting a word picture of the oneness and harmless peace of mankind under their Creator’s King, his prophecy says: “Righteousness shall be the girdle of [the King’s] waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins. And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”—Isa. 11:5-9, AS.
43. To gain the new world of such oneness why is knowledge necessary, and where is it at hand for us?
43 To gain that new world of everlasting oneness of mankind under our Creator it is absolutely necessary for us to gain that “knowledge of Jehovah” now, before the battle of Armageddon. In proof of this it is written that God will bring tribulation upon those who disturb his people “at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings due punishment upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will pay the penalty of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength.” (2 Thess. 1:6-9, NW) It is also written: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hos. 4:6) Why be destroyed at Armageddon for lack of knowledge? The lifesaving knowledge is at hand for you. Where? Among Jehovah’s witnesses, for if the Creator had not given them the knowledge he could not say to them: “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah.”
44. Why associate henceforth with Jehovah’s witnesses for more knowledge?
44 For the sake of gaining more knowledge associate henceforth with the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. It is the only organization on earth today that is really practicing godly harmony and oneness under the one Shepherd Jesus Christ. It is the only visible organization that today offers the hope and the assurance to mankind of living through the unavoidable world catastrophe at Armageddon and surviving into God’s new world.
45. What are we exhorted to do now when Jehovah is beginning to ‘make all obedient mankind one under their Creator’?
45 Accept this good news gladly. Prove that it is the truth, God’s truth, found in his infallible Word, the Holy Bible. Keep meeting with Jehovah’s witnesses. Study the Bible with them. Accept the Bible literature they present to you. Act on their offer to come even to your private homes and take up a personal home Bible study with you, and learn more of these glorious, hope-inspiring truths of the Bible. Make them your own. Let them transform your mind. Let them alter your living for everlasting life in the new world. Set your hope on God’s promise and stick by it. Dedicate yourself to be one with him the Creator. Serve and obey him as ruler rather than worldly men. Continue, then, in the way that you now find yourself in by reading this message. Keep at one with the unbreakably united New World society of the Creator’s witnesses. With them love and serve Him now when he by Jesus Christ is beginning to ‘make all obedient mankind one under their Creator.’
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United Nations
West
East
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United Nations
“Democracy”
Communism
Religion
Languages
Religious Disunity
National Divisions
Racial Divisions
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LOVE