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Unification in Spite of False PredictionsParadise Restored to Mankind—By Theocracy!
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And he must pass through the sea with distress; and in the sea he must strike down the waves, and all the depths of the Nile must dry up. And the pride of Assyria must be brought down, and the very scepter of Egypt will depart.
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Unification in Spite of False PredictionsParadise Restored to Mankind—By Theocracy!
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29. (a) When did Jehovah humble the pride of Assyria, as foretold? (b) When did He whistle for his people who were scattered like seed, and what response was there to this?
29 In this divine utterance the term Assyria would take in the territories to which the Assyrians deported the survivors of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel in 740 B.C.E. But the “pride” of Assyria was humbled by Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar. In turn, the “pride” of this conqueror and dispossessor of Assyria was brought down by Jehovah’s earthly instrument, Cyrus the Great of Persia, in 539 B.C.E.
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Unification in Spite of False PredictionsParadise Restored to Mankind—By Theocracy!
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30. What obstacles are suggested as to gathering his exiled people from Egypt, and how would Jehovah deal with those obstacles?
30 Many of the exiles had been taken into exile or had fled for refuge into Egypt to the south. (2 Kings 23:31-34; 25:22-26) So Jehovah ‘whistled’ in that direction also. From there he collected members of the remnant to worship him at his temple in Jerusalem. The scepter wielded by the ruler of Egypt could not prevent this. Jehovah’s will was accomplished just as if the Egyptian scepter of authority had departed, did not exist. The “whistle” of the Most High God had more authority than Egypt’s scepter. If the waters of Egypt’s deified Nile River were an obstacle to His people he could treat them as if they had dried up for his people. If the Red Sea hindered, he could pass through that sea with “distress” to its waters. He could strike down its waves, that His returning exiles might pass through to his place of worship at Jerusalem. He could do again what he did before in 1513 B.C.E.
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Unification in Spite of False PredictionsParadise Restored to Mankind—By Theocracy!
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35. (a) How was Jehovah’s “whistle” sounded out more and more widely, and with what effect? (b) How were obstacles to responding to the “whistle” overcome?
35 From that start in the liberation year of 1919 C.E. the regathering of the remnant went forward. As the faithful surviving remnant courageously took up the Kingdom message with great joy and enthusiasm and spread it farther and farther, the “whistle” of Jehovah sounded out more widely. Many seekers of the true God, both inside and outside of Christendom, heard that “whistle” inviting them to the pure worship of the one living and true God at his spiritual temple. They put forth their best efforts to respond. Were there obstacles in their way, things like the Nile River or the Red Sea or political powers of oppression like Assyria and ancient Egypt? The God whom they sought to worship at the true spiritual temple opened his written Word to them and pointed out to them how to overcome and surmount those imposing obstacles. Obedience to God’s “whistle” must come first!
36. How, in their personal case, must the “pride of Assyria” be brought down, and the “scepter of Egypt” be made to “depart”?
36 Fear they must cast aside. They must heed the call from heaven to come out of Babylon the Great, that world empire of false religion that includes not only Christendom but also pagandom. (Revelation 18:1-4) They must not let the “pride” of militarized, nationalistic governments like that of Assyria swell their heads. They must put Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom ahead of all man-made governments. In their personal case the interests of all high and mighty human rulerships must be brought down low before the interests of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and its Messianic instrument. The symbolic “scepter of Egypt” as wielded by the political powers of this world should not be considered as supreme in power and authority. They should think on the scepter wielded by God’s Messianic King, to whom Jehovah said, in 1914 C.E.: “The rod of your strength Jehovah will send out of [the heavenly] Zion, saying: ‘Go subduing in the midst of your enemies.’” (Psalm 110:1, 2) The comparing of this Messianic scepter with the “scepter of Egypt” makes this latter human scepter “depart.”
37, 38. (a) Instead of State worship, recognition must be given to Jehovah as being what, and how was help to see this requirement given? (b) What did that book Government say, in part, under “Theocracy” and “Jehovah King”?
37 Instead of their recognizing the political State as supreme and rendering worship to the man-made State, recognition must be given by them to the Sovereign Lord Jehovah as the God Ruler or Theocrat. Help for them to see this requirement was given to the people in the book entitled “Government,” which was released to the public in the year 1928 at the general convention of the International Bible Students Association in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., July 30 to August 6, 1928, at which the symbolic seventh trumpet began to be blown. (Revelation 11:15-18) On pages 247-250 this book discussed “Theocracy” and “Jehovah King” and said, in part:
38 “What form of government will then control the peoples of earth? That government will be a pure theocracy. For centuries the whole creation has groaned and suffered in pain, waiting for the manifestation of that government. (Rom. 8:19) Now the time has come for its establishment, and both the rulers and the ruled of the earth should learn the truth and rejoice. . . . A theocracy is a government of which the chief ruler is Jehovah God. He is the Maker and Executor of its laws through his duly constituted agencies. While it is true that supreme power has always resided in Jehovah, with the overthrow of Israel’s last king he permitted man to take his own course and has not interfered until his time has come to set upon his throne him ‘whose right it is.’ He it is whom God has appointed and anointed to rule under and in harmony with Jehovah. . . . The great theocracy, when seen and appreciated by the people, will be the joy of the whole earth.”
39. (a) By what form of government will Paradise be restored to mankind, and what kind of organization has Jehovah established in the spiritual Paradise of his remnant? (b) Those who would join the remnant in their theocratic spiritual estate must cut through what obstacles?
39 It will be through the coming Theocracy that Paradise will be restored to mankind. At present a spiritual Paradise obtains among the restored remnant, among whom the Great Theocrat has established a theocratic organization. This spiritual remnant, thus organized, puts Jehovah God above all human rulers, autocratic or democratic, and says, in the words of Isaiah 33:22: “Jehovah is our Judge, Jehovah is our Statute-giver, Jehovah is our King; he himself will save us.” They take the theocratic position taken by the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ when before the Supreme Court of Jerusalem: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men. . . . And we are witnesses of these matters, and so is the holy spirit, which God has given to those obeying him as ruler.” (Acts 5:29-32) Hence those who would join the anointed remnant in their theocratic spiritual estate must cut across the democratic flow and current of the symbolic Nile River and the changing tides of the symbolic Red Sea of humankind and must submit to Jehovah’s theocratic arrangement. For the willing and obedient ones He can make those water obstacles as not existing.
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