15, 16. (a) In view of what course of conduct does Christendom not deserve pity? (b) In giving an illustration of this, what did Jehovah say in Jeremiah 7:30, 31?

¹⁵ We should not pity Christendom because her destruction will affect so many human lives. Her course has brought great reproach upon God. Why should we not, first of all, think about him? He is more important than all human creatures. Think of how Christendom with her hundreds of millions of church members has brought shame upon his name and has persecuted his faithful witnesses who proclaimed his warnings and his lifesaving counsels. Do we have more compassion for unheeding, disobedient humans than for the name of the Most High God? True, their perishing with Christendom is lamentable, but their present course of shameful religious conduct is no less lamentable. In illustration of this, Jehovah said:

¹⁶ “‘The sons of Judah have done what is bad in my eyes,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘They have set their disgusting things in the house upon which my name has been called, in order to defile it.

Jer. 7:30,