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“Witnesses Know the Bible Better”The Watchtower—1959 | September 1
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“Witnesses Know the Bible Better”
By Watch Tower missionary in Ghana
Jesus chose his disciples from among the humble people, fishermen, shepherds and others of like stations in life. It is not surprising, then, to find the same type of persons responding and taking up the Christian ministry in this day. And just as when the Jews “beheld the outspokenness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were men unlettered and ordinary, they got to wondering,” so, too, many today marvel at the ability of humble witnesses of Jehovah to expound God’s Word, the Bible.—Acts 4:13.
A minister of the Wesleyan Church recently asked one of Jehovah’s witnesses “How is it that you know your Bible so well?” He was told that Jehovah’s witnesses study the Bible privately and as a congregation. After conversing with the Wesleyan minister he made arrangements to speak to his congregation. In fact, every time this witness of Jehovah visits this town, the Wesleyan minister has the witness as his guest speaker. On one occasion he told his congregation: “It is very good that one of Jehovah’s witnesses has called on us this morning, as Jehovah’s witnesses know the Bible better than many of us here.”
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Questions From ReadersThe Watchtower—1959 | September 1
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Questions From Readers
● From time to time letters are received from persons who want to know what the Christian viewpoint is toward masturbation. Parents ask about the counsel they are given by doctors to tell their children there is nothing wrong with the practice. Young men ask if the psychologists are right in justifying it on the basis of its being practiced universally. Wives ask what their attitude should be toward unbelieving husbands who practice self-abuse as well as about the advice they receive to resort to this practice when their sexual relations with their husbands do not prove to be fully satisfying.
Typical of modern medical and psychological opinion are the following two quotations: “Medical and psychological science have by now proved beyond all doubt that no harm can come from masturbation itself. The harm comes when fear and anxiety about it grow too intense.” (Parents’ Magazine, January, 1959) “Many physicians now believe that exaggerated claims as to the evils of masturbation have done more harm . . . than the practice itself.”—Encyclopedia Americana, Vol. 14, page 592, 1956 edition.
Does the foregoing harmonize with the Bible? No, it does not. It is but another instance of the worldly wisdom that “is foolishness with God.” Having rejected ‘the word of Jehovah, what wisdom could they have?’ On the other hand, we can accept the Bible’s position with complete confidence, for no one knows the human heart better than does its Author, and his viewpoint of the subject is based on the premise that “the heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it? I, Jehovah, am searching the heart, examining the deepest emotions, even to give to each one according to his ways, according to the fruitage of his dealings.”—Jer. 17:9, 10, margin.
Before considering the Bible’s testimony on the subject of masturbation it may be well to dispose of a misapplication of Scripture that some have made in reference thereto. Judah commanded his son Onan to perform levirate marriage toward the wife of his brother, whom Jehovah had slain because of his wickedness. “But Onan knew that the offspring would not become his, and it actually took place that when he did have relations with his brother’s wife he wasted his semen on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother. Now what he did was evil in the eyes of Jehovah; hence he put him also to death.” Clearly here the question is not of masturbation but of a refusal to comply with the law of levirate marriage so that his brother’s name would not die out. Onan was put to death, not for self-abuse, but for failure to do his duty toward his brother’s wife.—Gen. 38:8-10.
To appreciate the problem of masturbation properly it seems well to begin by noting the
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