Part 32—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”
With the defeat of the Nazi-Fascist Axis powers in 1945 the Communist government of Russia stepped into the role of the “king of the north,” foretold in Daniel’s prophecy, chapter 11. It was instrumental in bringing back to life the “abomination that makes desolate” in the form of the United Nations organization in 1945. It also carried forward the persecutions upon Jehovah’s “sanctuary” class of faithful anointed Christians. To the help on earth of this spirit-anointed sanctuary class there has come a great crowd of sheeplike believers, “other sheep,” with the destiny of everlasting life on earth under God’s kingdom. Some persons have temporarily joined themselves to the sanctuary class with flatteries, but the “other sheep” stick to Jehovah’s sanctuary class, even though the persecution of some of these to a violent death has furnished a great test of their unbreakable devotion to Jehovah God. Thus these faithful, dedicated Christians have been purified by this fiery persecution at the hands of the symbolic king of the north.
44. Above what has the king of the north exalted and magnified himself, and to what extent?
44 Jehovah’s angel gave a true description of the twentieth-century king of the north: “And the king will do according to his pleasure; and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and against the God of gods will he speak incredible things, and he will prosper till the indignation be at an end; for that which is determined will be accomplished.” (Dan. 11:36, Le) Not only in ancient times did the king of the north call himself god or accept the title of god, but his modern successor tries to act the part of god. He wants to know no will or pleasure but his own. To this end he uses conscienceless means to take to himself totalitarian, dictatorial power in government. This was true of him not only in the Nazi and Fascist realm after World War I. It has also been true of him in his Communist fashion since World War II. At least in his own mind he has lifted up and magnified himself over every earthly man-made “god,” although actually he had not yet gained domination over the rival king of the south.
45. Who is the God of gods, and how has the king of the north spoken “incredible things” against him?
45 The king of the north has assailed even El elím, the God of gods, who is Jehovah. He does not appreciate that he is on judgment before the real God, the Supreme Judge, of whom Psalm 82:1, 2 says: “God is stationing himself in the assembly of the Divine One; in the middle of the gods he judges: ‘How long will you keep on judging with injustice and showing partiality to the wicked themselves?’” Incredible, wondrous are the things that the defiant king of the north, both in Nazi and in Communist guise, has said against the God of Daniel’s people. In fact, if not in word, he denies God’s existence. By his declaration of his aims for world domination to the exclusion of God’s kingdom in the hands of Christ, he speaks against Jehovah, whose established kingdom Jehovah’s witnesses are preaching to all nations. For Jehovah’s dedicated people he does not believe in the principle stated by Jesus: “Pay back Caesar’s things to Caesar, but God’s things to God.” (Luke 20:25) He denies God’s right to anything. He claims that the political State has the right to everything from its subjects.
46. How has his prosperity made him feel, but till when will he keep on prospering, and then what will be accomplished?
46 He demands that the citizens shall worship the man-made, Devil-inspired State. To him man is simply a material machine to be worked to death by the State. Since putting man-made sputniks or satellites into space since October 4, 1957, he feels like the lord of the universe, especially since his sputniks have not encountered the person of the invisible God in space between earth and sun. He has prospered to bringing one third of the earth under Communist forms of government, not knowing that God in the heavens laughs and permits this “till the indignation be at an end; for that which is determined will be accomplished.” In the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” Jehovah will bring his indignation and denunciation to an end. What will be accomplished there will be, not what the king of the north determined, but what Almighty God determined.
THE KING’S GOD
47. Who are the “fathers” to whose gods the king of the north at this time pays no regard?
47 In the king of the north Jehovah God does not have to deal with someone whom he did not foresee. Already in ancient times his angel described the king as very modernistic, saying: “And to the gods of his fathers will he pay no regard; and to the desire of women, or to any god whatever will he not pay any regard; for above all will he magnify himself. But in his place will he pay honour to the god of the fortresses; and to a god whom his fathers knew not will he pay honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and costly things.” (Dan. 11:37, 38, Le) The “gods of his fathers” are the gods of no particular man, like Hitler or Stalin, but are the gods of the fathers of this political office called the “king of the north.” During the more than two thousand years that he has been bearing rule, the “king” has undergone changes, from the Seleucid dynasty of the Hellenic kings, through the pagan Roman emperors, the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox emperors, the Germanic emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austrian and German Kaisers, the Nazi imperial ruler and now the Communist imperial ruler. However, Satan, who is the “god of this system of things,” has in fact been their one continuing god from the start of the king of the north as well as of the king of the south. (2 Cor. 4:4) So the king of the north regards no paternal “gods” how?
48. Who are the “women” to whose “desire” the king of the north pays no regard?
48 Not only does he pay no regard to gods of male rulers, but he pays no regard to any special god of the women. The “women” of this prophecy would be the handmaids of the imperial regime of the north or handmaids of the long line of “fathers” of this king. As “women,” they would be the weaker vessels. Hence the modernistic king of the north would pay no regard to the god of which these weaker agents are specially fond. Their god is secondary, inferior.
49. Whom does the king of the north really worship, Babylonishly, and what religion has he developed for his people?
49 Nor to any other outside god does he pay regard, for he worships himself as god. He comes first. He is above all. What wonder, then, that he should require all subjects to worship the State or, more narrowly, worship the dictator! How Babylonish, how devilish! For the ancient king of Babylon said against Jehovah God: “Above the stars of God I shall lift up my throne, . . . I shall make myself resemble the Most High.” In this the king of Babylon was a prophetic figure of Satan the Devil. (Isa. 14:4, 12-14) Since Adolf Hitler’s suicide upon losing World War II in 1945 the king of the north, now communistic, has not been bound up with Christendom, although he has to do with religious forces of Christendom in Poland, Hungary and elsewhere. Looking at the old-time religions as being the opium that has drugged the people mentally, he has really developed a Red religion for the people. But as for himself, he honors the “god of the fortresses.” Nazi Hitler did the same thing.
50. How has the king of the north paid honor to the “god of the fortresses”?
50 In addition to the honor that the king of the north paid to the god of modern, scientific militarism during the Nazi regime, he has gone even farther in his Communist guise. In 1958 he maintained the biggest army in the world, despite any reducing of the number of his conventional troops. Twenty thousand operational warplanes backed up the army. Size of his army was unknown because of the secretive Iron Curtain. His submarines numbered between 500 and 700, the largest undersea fleet in history, greater than that of the German U-boat fleet. When conquering Eastern Germany, he seized as many German experts on rockets and missiles as he could and put these to work in developing rocketry and missilery in Russia. Russian education has specialized on science and the production of engineers, with a view to military and economic domination of the whole earth. In fact, technical science has become his fetish, his idol. He has tried to seize all the “fortresses” or strongholds by making himself strongest in those departments or realms which he needs in order to dominate the world, including the king of the south, the Anglo-American dual world power. The king of the south capped the climax in World War II by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan in August, 1945, but in the course of years the communistic king of the north followed with an atomic bomb of his own. Then he followed the king of the south with his own hydrogen bomb.
51. How did he forge ahead of the king of the south in missiles and satellites?
51 However, in his missiles program he forged ahead of the rival king and announced on August 27, 1957, that he had successfully fired an ICBM, an intercontinental ballistic missile, over a huge distance to a target area. Less than two months later, on October 4, he caused great humiliation, consternation and agitation to the American member of the king of the south by rocketing into orbit around the earth the 184-pound Sputnik No. 1. Three days later he spoke from his new fortress or position of strength and accused the United States of America of inciting war between the two neighbors, Syria and Turkey. On the third day of the following month he rocketed into orbit his second sputnik, of over half a ton and carrying the dog Laika as passenger. It was first on January 31, 1958, that America rocketed its Explorer satellite of 30.8 pounds into orbit.
52. To what extent has the king of the north paid honor to the god unknown to his fathers with gold, silver, precious stones and costly things?
52 The king of the south kept accusing the Communist king of the north of blocking all progress toward international disarmament through the United Nations. On March 31, 1958, the Soviet Union publicly declared that it was halting its tests of atomic and hydrogen bombs, but that it would resume its testing if the other countries, America and Britain, paid no attention to the Communist lead and went on with their bomb testing. Defying that challenge, and for reasons vital to themselves, America began its publicized scheduled series of nuclear tests at the Eniwetok proving grounds in the Pacific Ocean April 28, 1958, and Britain exploded a nuclear device from a jet bomber over the Christmas Island region of the Pacific the next day. All this militaristic preparation has been very expensive. But the king of the north has deprived his subjects of material comforts in order to honor with gold, silver, precious stones and costly things this god of modern scientific accomplishments entirely unknown to his royal “fathers.”
53. In what way is the god for whom he does such things “strange”?
53 With this honored “god” the king of the north has expanded his territories or spheres of influence. Jehovah’s angel foretold this, saying: “This will he do for the very strong fortresses together with the strange god: whoever will acknowledge him, him will he give much honour; and he will cause such to rule over many, and he will divide out the land for a price.” (Dan. 11:39, Le) This highly developed, modern scientific “god” is foreign in having been strange and unknown to the “fathers” of the king of the north.
54. Whom did he cause to “rule over many,” and whom did he find ready to have areas divided out to them “for a price”?
54 During his aggressions under the form of German Nazism those men in the lands taken over who acknowledged the king of the north were given much honor. He set them to rule over the unwilling peoples. He divided out territories for rulership, if the proper price was paid to him. The Nazi king of the north did find men who would accept areas from him “for a price.” These included the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. Historians do not forget that when Hitler took over Austria in 1938 Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna wrote him and closed his letter with “Heil Hitler!” Also, that when the German Roman Catholic bishops held their Fulda Conference of 1940, they voted their pledge of allegiance to baptized Catholic Hitler.
55. How did the Communist king of the north commit aggressions with his “strange god” and find men to receive areas “for a price”?
55 Later, as a Communist, the king of the north has committed aggressions with his “strange god.” He held onto Eastern Germany until he found the men of his price to establish a Communist State there. In Hungary a Communist “people’s republic” was set up, unable, however, to get out from under the Soviet’s domination, as the suppressing of the people’s revolt in 1956 by use of Soviet occupation troops proved. Other European lands were made Communist satellites. Even Korea was arranged to be divided into two parts, with the Communist regime north of the 38th Parallel. But greedy Communists invaded the South Korean Republic in 1950 and the Korean war broke out in which the United Nations, spearheaded by the American member of the king of the south, stepped in to preserve South Korea from being devoured. A Communist puppet state was established in Outer Mongolia, which Free China was forced to recognize in the year that World War II ended. Then in 1949 the Chinese Communist forces swept over the vast mainland. By December of that year they had taken possession of the entire mainland of continental China. The Chinese president and his nationalist army took refuge on the island of Formosa or Taiwan. Indeed, the king of the north found men to whom to divide the land and give rule.
56. What is the king of the south determined to do, but with self-restraint, and yet what will God cause his enemies to do at Armageddon?
56 The king of the south is determined to hold his dominant place on earth to preserve the “free world,” as he claims. He was urged to begin a preventive war before the king of the north became too strong; but he recognizes that nuclear space-age warfare is suicidal. Concerning him Daniel 8:25 (JP) says that he will be “broken without hand” at the universal battle of Armageddon. But many fear that a third world war, a nuclear war, will be touched off by accident or by mistake or by some uncaring madman. Yet the king of the south and the king of the north stand at Armageddon. In due time, prophecy foretells, God Almighty will strike confusion into the ranks of all the earthly opposers of his universal sovereignty, so that at last every man’s hand will be against his neighbor.—Ezek. 38:21, AV.
57. How is it, then, that “at the time of the end will the king of the south push against him”?
57 From this standpoint the further words of Jehovah’s angel may be read: “And at the time of the end will the king of the south push against him; and the king of the north will come against him like a storm-wind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he will enter into some countries, and will overflow and pass along.” (Dan. 11:40, Le) Down to the “time of the end” at Armageddon there will be competitive coexistence between the “two kings.” In some way the king of the south must act, whether preventively or protectively. In the confused fighting between the “two kings” as crazed enemies of Jehovah God and his kingdom, the “kings” will have opportunity and occasion to try out and use their frightful, deadly weapons of all kinds against each other.
58. Why must we understand what the “beauteous land” means here, and what did we find it to mean in Daniel 11:16?
58 The prophecy concerning the king of the north in the future says: “He shall enter also into the beauteous land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall be delivered out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries; and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” (Dan. 11:41-43, JP) The “beauteous land” into which the king of the north here enters is the key to understanding aright this movement of the king at his “time of the end” at Armageddon. When Jehovah’s angel spoke of the “beauteous land” in the earlier part of this prophecy (Dan. 11:16, JP) he foretold that the king of the north in the person of Syrian King Antiochus III the Great would stand in the literal land of Judah, the land of Jehovah’s people, and take it all into possession.
(To be continued)
[Map on page 121]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
COMMUNIST-DOMINATED COUNTRIES (A. D. 1958)
SOVIET UNION
POLAND
EAST GERMANY
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
HUNGARY
ROMANIA
ALBANIA
BULGARIA
OUTER MONGOLIA
Caspian Sea
N. KOREA
CHINA
N. VIETNAM
Hong Kong
North Atlantic Ocean
GREENLAND
ALASKA
Arctic Ocean
North Pole
Bering Sea
IRELAND
UNITED KINGDOM
NORWAY
SWEDEN
FINLAND
SPAIN
FRANCE
WEST GERMANY
ITALY
YUGOSLAVIA
Mediterranean Sea
TURKEY
Black Sea
SYRIA
IRAQ
IRAN
SAUDI ARABIA
AFGHANISTAN
PAKISTAN
INDIA
BURMA
THAILAND
INDO-CHINA
HONG KONG
MALAYA
Singapore
SUMATRA
Arabian Sea
Bay of Bengal