• Go! Make Disciples
    The Watchtower—1981 | March 1

    • 3. According to one scholar, what work would anointed Christians have to accomplish?

      3 Here is proof for any who need it that the commission Christ gave his disciples on the day of his ascension was not completely fulfilled in the first century C.E. It would go on being fulfilled right up to the “conclusion of the system of things.” By whom? Interestingly, regarding Acts 1:8, Rylands Professor F. F. Bruce writes: “As Jesus Himself had been anointed at His baptism with the Holy Spirit and power, so His followers were now to be similarly anointed and enabled to carry on His work. This work would be a work of witness-bearing​—a theme which is prominent in the apostolic preaching throughout Acts (cf. Chs. Ac 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39; 13:31; 22:15, etc.). An OT [Old Testament] prophet had called Israel to be God’s witnesses in the world (Isa. 43:10; 44:8); the task which Israel as a nation had not fulfilled was taken up by Jesus, as the perfect Servant of the Lord, and passed on by Him to His disciples.”

      4. Since when have the remnant been fulfilling this commission, and why did this take tremendous faith?

      4 Yes, the commission to be witnesses to the ends of the earth and to make disciples of people of all the nations at this “conclusion of the system of things” has been passed on to the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel, who are collectively Jehovah’s “servant” and his “witnesses.” (Isa. 43:10-12) They have been faithfully fulfilling this commission particularly since 1919. But how could these few thousand spirit-begotten Christians reach the billions of humans scattered “to the most distant part of the earth”? What tremendous faith it took even to envisage undertaking such a task!

      5. What means has helped modern-day Christians to spread the witness to the ends of the earth?

      5 Reread the modern history of Jehovah’s Witnessesa and you will see that one of the principal means used to spread the Kingdom message far and wide has been by the distribution of magazines, namely, The Watchtower and its companion magazine Awake! (formerly The Golden Age, then Consolation). These Bible-based periodicals have been distributed literally by the billionsb in over 100 languages and to the four corners of the earth.