“Go . . . Make Disciples . . . Baptizing Them”
“Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them.”—Matt. 28:19.
1. According to news reports, how did an emergency form of baptism come about on a beach at San Francisco, California, on May 7, 1959?
IT WAS May 7, 1959, at San Francisco, California. Shirley and Albert were swimming at the entrance of the bay. A shark, too, was swimming there! First to see it, Albert warned Shirley. She should swim for shore. Then the shark attacked. Albert’s left arm was nearly ripped off. Braving the shark’s attack on her, Shirley swam back and began to pull Albert to the beach. She finally got him ashore. Albert was mortally wounded. He had not been baptized as a Christian. So Shirley scooped up some sea water and let it run over Albert’s head. Said Shirley: “I baptized him in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, making the sign of the Cross . . . ” She told him to repeat after her the act of contrition, saying: “ . . . I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offend thee, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love.”—Time, and Newsweek, of May 18, 1959; New York Times, March 24, 1961.
2. What questions arise as to what was accomplished by this ritualistic baptism?
2 Shirley had saved Albert from further attack by the tiger of the sea. Conscientiously she afterward tried to save him from the fate of an unbaptized person according to the religious teachings of her church. Some persons, while admiring her courageous act, were caused to wonder. By performing a religious ritual of Christendom had she saved Albert from everlasting fire, after having saved him from the shark-infested water? Had she made him a disciple of Christ before he died in the hospital soon after?
3. In contrast, what mass baptism took place on a New York beach on July 30, 1958, and of what mass baptism in the year 33 C.E. did it remind one?
3 One’s mind here turns from the waters of the Pacific Ocean toward which San Francisco Bay fronts to the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. On July 30, 1958, less than a year before Shirley had ritualistically baptized Albert, there was a baptism on another beach, Orchard Beach, New York. The 7,136 who voluntarily desired to be baptized did not stay on shore for this. They waded out into the salt waters, where men, dedicated Christians, totally immersed them. This mammoth baptism was the spectacle of the day in the New York city area, where the “Divine Will” International Assembly was being held simultaneously in Yankee Stadium and the nearby Polo Grounds baseball park. It reminded one of another large-scale baptism that took place 1,925 years earlier when about three thousand believers were baptized at Jerusalem by the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, at the time of a convention at Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Pentecost of the year 33 C.E. (Acts 2:1-42) These thus gave public testimony of their determination to be disciples of Jesus Christ. The 7,136 baptized at Orchard Beach in 1958 likewise desired to become dedicated disciples of this same one.
4. (a) Because of Christendom’s failing to convert the world and because of her decline, what questions arise as to baptizing disciples of Christ? (b) Because of what fear are there many hypocritical Christians today?
4 Here we are now in the end of the year 1969 C.E. Because of the failure of Christendom to make disciples of all the people of the world and thus bring about world conversion and because of her religious decline and loss of influence someone has suggested that this be called “the post-Christian Era.” Are disciples of this Christ of the first century still being made in these increasingly irreligious years of the twentieth century? Is it still the proper thing to make disciples of that one who died more than nineteen centuries ago, or is it outmoded? In these so-called “revolutionary” days, when old values are being discarded, these are serious questions. Many persons today who are afraid of what their neighbors think are anxious to be called “Christian” because otherwise they would be labeled as “pagan,” or even Communist. But are such people really hypocritical Christians? Are these so-called Christians really what a Christian ought to be? A real disciple of Christ is not a hypocritical Christian.
5. For answers to these questions, to what authority are we obliged to go, and why to that authority?
5 To what authority shall we go for answers to these questions? For the straightforward answers we shall have to go, not to the religious clergy of Christendom, but to that very Teacher of the first century, Jesus Christ himself. His faithful disciples of the first century put him inerasably on record in the last twenty-seven books of the Holy Bible. This Record does not dodge any questions about these matters or soft-pedal truths and facts in order not to offend us or our religious sensitiveness. Belittle that first-century Teacher as much as unbelieving scoffers care to, yet he has affected the world of mankind more than any other man that has ever walked on the face of our earth. He looked farther ahead than any other man on earth. Did he look forward to our day, this twentieth century? Yes. He was interested not merely in making disciples back there during the three and a half years of his teaching and preaching the kingdom of God. He was interested in making further disciples in this twentieth century. And he is making them. How do we know?
6. The words quoted in this regard were said by Christ at what stage of his life, and how had he designated the place where he was to say them?
6 When we here quote what he said in this regard we quote from him after he was raised from the dead. Where he spoke these words is a definite place on earth. It is a mountain in what was then called the land of Galilee in his day, the region of the Sea of Galilee of today. Before his death he had pointed out this region for a meeting with them after his resurrection from the dead. On the night before his death on an execution stake and after he had set up what is called the Lord’s Supper, he said to his eleven faithful apostles: “All of you will be stumbled in connection with me on this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered about.’ But after I have been raised up, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”—Matt. 26:31, 32; Mark 14:27, 28.
7. How was this locality confirmed on the day of Jesus’ resurrection, and how did the disciples comport themselves there?
7 Two days later, on the morning of his resurrection from the dead, an angel said to some women who came to the now opened and vacated tomb: “Go quickly and tell his disciples that he was raised up from the dead, and, look! he is going ahead of you into Galilee; there you will see him.” On their way to tell the disciples, these women were met by the resurrected Jesus himself. “Have no fear!” he said. “Go, report to my brothers, that they may go off into Galilee; and there they will see me.” More than a week later the disciples did so. “The eleven disciples went into Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had arranged for them, and when they saw him they did obeisance, but some doubted.”—Matt. 28:3-10, 16, 17; Mark 16:7.
MORE THAN A MAN’S COMMAND
8. (a) Why have creatures on earth no right to interfere with the carrying out of Christ’s command there given? (b) What did the apostles John, Paul and Peter say regarding his status now?
8 What the disciples heard in that unnamed mountain in Galilee was something from more than a mere man; and no man, government or nation on earth has a right to interfere with the carrying out of what that one commanded. O yes, men do interfere, but this is only by God’s permission, and they do not gain divine approval by their doing so. In spite of them many baptisms have been performed in secret. The Jesus who appeared to his disciples at that Galilean mountain was the first one to be raised from the dead to endless life, indeed to immortal life. Uniquely he is called “the first-born from the dead.” (Rev. 1:5) A man who miraculously saw Jesus Christ some months after his resurrection from the dead was inspired to say concerning him: “He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that he might become the one who is first in all things.” (Col. 1:1, 18) Also, a disciple who met with him in the Galilean mountain writes: “Christ died once for all time concerning sins, . . . he being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit.” (1 Pet. 3:17, 18) He ranks first among God’s spirit sons.
9. With what authority did Christ there issue his command to his disciples, and what did it state?
9 Rightly, then, he could issue his command with superhuman authority and could put his command above any command of mere human governors and rulers, saying to his disciples there in Galilee: “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth. Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And, look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.”—Matt. 28:18-20.
10. How long lasting is the power in the words of his command, and why?
10 There was power in those words. And, today, after nineteen centuries, there is still as much power in those words, for they are the words of an Authority whom no creature in heaven or on earth dares to defy or ignore. “All authority . . . in heaven and on the earth” has been given to him by the Almighty God, who is the divine Source of all authority. He is the heavenly Father of Jesus Christ and is the one who raised him from the dead to immortal life on the spirit plane of existence. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, now in a new and higher relationship with the heavenly Father by reason of this resurrection from the dead. With the value of his perfect human sacrifice, the resurrected Jesus Christ entered into the very presence of the Most High and Almighty God, his heavenly Father. To him he presented the value or merit of his human sacrifice for the sake of all mankind, living and dead. In order to back up or implement the “all authority” that God gave to him, Jesus Christ also received the “holy spirit,” that invisible active force of God, to exercise it and to pour it out on his disciples.
11. (a) What should nobody of this modern day think as regards the authority of the resurrected Christ? (b) What can be said about the handling of his authority and its enforcement at this stage of the system of things?
11 Let nobody think to himself, “Well, that was nineteen hundred years ago. That authority claimed by Jesus Christ does not apply in our modern, scientific, revolutionary age. His authority has weakened or diminished, like the influence of Christendom, and it does not operate today. We are in power here on earth today. We are the ones actually having the authority, and we humans shall use this possessed authority just the way we want it, regardless of what someone said nineteen centuries ago.” But let no one fool himself. Jesus Christ is a historic person, not a myth, and he has never let go of his authority or yielded it to any man or group of men on earth today, whether at Vatican City or at Geneva, Switzerland, or Moscow, Russia, or anywhere else. He still has it today, it being enforced today more than ever before. To assure his disciples of this he followed up his authoritative command by saying: “And, look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.” (Matt. 28:20) This system of things is still with us today, but we are very evidently in the time period of its conclusion.
12. (a) How do some underestimate Christ’s authority today, and why should they make a reconsideration? (b) What should be the reaction of his disciples today to his command, and why?
12 The unending, superhuman, universal authority with which the resurrected Jesus Christ has been clothed should make all those who scoff at him pause for reflection; it should make all who say, “Christianity is dying out today, and we are more popular and more important than Christ,” stop and make a proper estimate of Christ the heavenly Son of God. It should also make all who are his true, genuine disciples today take most seriously his command to them, so that the carrying out of his command becomes the biggest thing in their lives, just as it was in the lives of the first-century disciples. The realization and appreciation of the authority behind Christ’s command should fire them never to cease carrying it out till the utter end of this “conclusion of the system of things.” They have him with them “all the days” until that occurs. So they have his backing.
EXPANSIVE WORK
13. (a) Discipleship was meant to obtain in what area on earth? (b) In what way was the movement of matters not to be as in the days of King Solomon when his wisdom was known earth wide?
13 One’s being a disciple of the resurrected Jesus Christ is not a passive, easygoing, self-centered, unexpressive religion. It gives open expression to itself; it is productive and reproductive, unable to be held down or suppressed. Discipleship was not meant to be confined to a small corner of the earth, as something not to be shared by the rest of the world. If anything was to be made known and to be made available world wide, this was. It was not as in the case of wise King Solomon of Jerusalem of the eleventh century B.C.E., concerning whom the historic record says: “They kept coming from all the peoples to hear Solomon’s wisdom, even from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.” (1 Ki. 4:34) Even the queen of Sheba came from what was called “the ends of the earth” all the way to Jerusalem to hear and see the evidence of Solomon’s wisdom. (Matt. 12:42; 1 Ki. 10:1-13) Jesus Christ, even when on earth, spoke of himself as being “something more than Solomon.” His life and death have affected all mankind far more than did Solomon’s. Instead of inviting and obliging men to come from the four corners of the earth to earthly Jerusalem to hear his wisdom and learn of him, he commanded his disciples there in Galilee to go to all the people: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations.” (Matt. 28:19) They were not to wait upon the people to come to them, but were to go to the people everywhere.
14. For whom was the message of salvation through Jesus Christ meant, and how did he indicate this on the Mount of Olives before his ascension?
14 Although Jesus, when on earth, was a natural, circumcised Jew, born under the Law of Moses, yet the message concerning him was not for the Jews alone. Only as a favor from God, the Jews got it first. But this message of salvation by means of Jesus Christ was for all mankind, and it must go to all of them. The resurrected Jesus Christ indicated this not only in the mountain in Galilee but some time afterward before he departed from this earth and ascended back to heaven to his divine Father, Jehovah God. On the famous mountain to the east of Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, from which he was to ascend to heaven, he said to his disciples who accompanied him there: “It does not belong to you to get knowledge of the times or seasons which the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction; but you will receive power when the holy spirit arrives upon you, and you will be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the most distant part of the earth.”—Acts 1:7, 8.
15. (a) In a Bible study just before this, how did Jesus indicate to his disciples to what extent forgiveness of sins through him was to be preached? (b) Why was the witness to start out from Jerusalem?
15 This witness concerning Jesus’ vital part in God’s program for the salvation of mankind was not to be confined to just the natural circumcised Jews who were scattered to the ends of the earth but was to be presented also to Gentile (non-Jewish) persons. So Jesus had said a short time before this in a Bible study with his disciples, in these words: “In this way it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from among the dead on the third day, and on the basis of his name repentance for forgiveness of sins would be preached in all the nations—starting out from Jerusalem, you are to be witnesses of these things.” Why were they to start out from Jerusalem? Because they were to be baptized with the holy spirit on the following festival day of Pentecost at Jerusalem, and their first witnessing about the repentance for forgiveness of sins through Christ was to be given to Pentecostal celebrators there in that city.—Luke 24:46-49.
16. According to Acts, chapter two, how did it happen just that way at Jerusalem?
16 It actually happened that way, and on that day of the festival of Pentecost in the year 33 C.E. the apostle Peter said to a big crowd of inquiring Jews and proselytes: “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the free gift of the holy spirit.” About three thousand of these Jews and proselytes who were already dedicated to Jehovah God repented of their previous wrong attitude and action toward Christ and were baptized in his name as being now his followers. That was only a start for them. They desired to know more from Christ’s twelve apostles, and the apostles were willing to give them more instruction. And so, after baptism in water, “they continued devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to sharing with one another, to taking of meals and to prayers.”—Acts 2:37-42.
FIRST-CENTURY EXPANSION
17. How did the good news come to be spread earth wide by those baptized at Jerusalem at Pentecost, but among whom earth wide?
17 Since God’s provisions for the rescue of all mankind were to be made available world wide, how wise it was that Jehovah poured out his holy spirit through Christ there on the day of Pentecost, at Jerusalem. Those converted, baptized Jews and proselytes had come from many parts of Asia, Europe and Africa, indeed, “from every nation of those under heaven.” So now after receiving sufficient instruction from Christ’s apostles they went back to their own lands and spread the good news there. But they did this only among the natural circumcised Jews in those lands. (Acts 2:5-12; 11:19) But what about the province of Samaria that lay in between Judea and Galilee?
18. How did the harvesting of baptized, spirit-filled Christians extend itself into the province of Samaria?
18 Jesus had once preached to the Samaritan inhabitants of the town of Sychar, and as a result those Samaritans said: “We have heard for ourselves and we know that this man is for a certainty the savior of the world.” Ah yes, not of the Jews only, but “of the world” of mankind. Well was it that Jesus while there in Samaria said to his apostles: “Lift up your eyes and view the fields, that they are white for harvesting. Already the reaper is receiving wages and gathering fruit for everlasting life.” (John 4:35, 36, 38-42) But it took the scattering power of persecution to thrust the disciples into the fields of Samaria to do harvesting work. After his resurrection from the dead and before his ascension to heaven Jesus had authorized them to give the witness to the Samaritans. So Philip the evangelizer, when forced out of Jerusalem and Judea by persecution, entered Samaria and preached and baptized many Samaritan believers. Then the apostles at Jerusalem sent down Simon Peter and John the son of Zebedee, and these imparted God’s holy spirit to these believing Samaritans.—Acts 8:1-17.
19. What further expansion was there yet to occur, but who were evidently hesitant about it?
19 Yet there was to be still more expansion! Not yet had the uncircumcised Gentile “people of all the nations” of the inhabited earth been touched, nor any ingathering made from them. The Jewish Christians were hesitant, if not also prejudiced, about giving the Messianic witness to the uncircumcised Gentiles or non-Jews. (Acts 10:9-29) For the Jewish Christians to continue treating the uncircumcised Gentiles that way would have hindered the expansion of the Christian congregation at the due time for its expansion.
20. What prophetic week was then running out, and so whom did God send, and to whom and how equipped?
20 Although the Jewish Christians were unaware of it, the seventieth week of years of exclusive favor from Jehovah God to the natural Jews was running out and due to end about the close of the summer of the year 36 C.E. It then became his own appointed time for God to unlock and open the door to Kingdom activity among those Gentiles. (Dan. 9:24-27; Matt. 16:18, 19) So in behalf of fulfilling Daniel’s prophecy of the seventieth week, Jehovah God sent the apostle Peter, with the second of the “keys of the kingdom of the heavens,” to preach the Kingdom message to the first uncircumcised Gentile believers.
21. Who now were admitted to the Christian congregation, and this allowed for expansion how far, as Paul indicates in his letter to the Colossians?
21 After these believing Gentiles received the holy spirit and its gifts, they were baptized in water according to Peter’s directions. (Acts 10:1-8, 30-48; 11:12-18) This opened the way for the Christian congregation to expand among the uncircumcised Gentiles to the most distant part of the earth. Other Jewish Christians entered through the newly opened door into the field of activity among the Gentiles. Gentiles were admitted to already established congregations that had consisted entirely of natural Jews, Samaritans and proselytes. About twenty-eight years after Jesus’ farewell words on the Mount of Olives, the apostle Paul could write from Rome to the congregation at Colossae and say: “The hope of that good news which you heard, and which was preached in all creation that is under heaven.” (Col. 1:23) During their lifetime the apostles and their fellow disciples were indeed carrying into effect Christ’s commission to them.
MODERN-DAY EXPANSION
22. How was Jesus Christ not proved to be a false prophet as regards the extent of the disciple-making in this twentieth century?
22 Since then new continents have been discovered by men of Europe and opened up to the disciple-making work of true Christians. But mankind has really had to wait till this twentieth century to see the making of disciples of “people of all the nations” to the ends of the earth, or to its four corners. Jesus Christ was not a false prophet when he foretold the worldwide expansion of the disciple-making activities of his true followers. He did not ask too much of his faithful followers, for with the help of God’s spirit they have shown a willingness to go as far into the distance as Jesus indicated in his command, “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations.”—Matt. 28:19.
23. In view of her tremendous church population, has Christendom done the disciple-making commanded, and how do we know whether or not?
23 Today Christendom numbers her church people into the hundreds of millions, up to nearly one thousand million, but she has not really done this disciple-making work. True, she has distributed Bibles and portions of the Bible in some 1,337 languages, over two thousand million copies in all parts of the earth. This, however, has not of itself made disciples of Christ. In fact, Christendom has used fire and sword and religious persecution in bringing droves of people into her religious systems. That is not the way that Jesus Christ authorized his apostles and their anointed fellow laborers to go and “make disciples.” The fact that it was not the right way is proved by the kind of professed Christians that she has made, baptizing them in her style of baptizing. Divided up among the hundreds of different religious sects, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant, they are not what the Holy Bible describes as Christian.
24. Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:19, 20 do not allow for what methods of Christendom in making disciples?
24 According to Jesus’ own words, what was the way for his true followers to carry on the work of making disciples of all people without distinction as to nationality? He said: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19, 20) Such words do not allow for the forcing or compelling of anyone under threat of torture or persecution. Neither did those words include the idea of killing off, massacring, those who refused to become disciples for conscientious reasons. Because Christendom has used those methods, it does not mean that these were the methods that Jesus authorized for his obedient, faithful followers.
25. Those made disciples according to Matthew 28:19 are to be made really the pupils of whom?
25 The command, “make disciples,” according to the Greek verb used in Matthew 28:19, means “make learners or pupils.” In illustration of this, The New Testament—An Expanded Translation, by K. S. Wuest, reads, in Matthew 28:19: “Having gone your way, therefore, teach all the nations, making them your pupils.” Of course, those who receive teaching from the followers of Jesus Christ, become pupils of these, become learners from them. But the teaching is really to be about Christ, and they are to be taught to observe the things that he commanded his followers, and so he is really the Teacher. It is to be just as he told his disciples: “Do not you be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers.” (Matt. 23:8) So the ones who are made disciples are really to be the disciples of this one Teacher, Jesus Christ, who gave the command.
26. Who remains the unchanging Teacher of such disciples?
26 The human teacher can die off or depart somewhere else, but Jesus Christ continues to be the Teacher of his disciples all the time. It is as the New English Bible—New Testament words it: “Go forth therefore and make all nations my disciples; baptize men everywhere.”
27. What is the only authorized way of making disciples, and about what must they learn, to be baptized with the right baptism?
27 Thus the use of fire and sword or scimitar and torture and inquisitions in order to force people into Christianity is absolutely barred by Jesus Christ himself. The only way to make real disciples of the Teacher Jesus Christ is by the peaceful, loving way of presenting the Bible witness concerning Jesus Christ and helping them to become disciples of him, not of the person who gives them the witness. They must learn not only about the Son, but also about his heavenly Father and about the holy spirit, that is to say, the invisible active force of God by which he accomplishes his will. Otherwise, how can the learner be baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit”?
28. How was the need of such learning illustrated in the case of the twelve men whom Paul encountered at Ephesus?
28 For example, there were about a dozen men in ancient Ephesus who had been baptized with what they understood to be the baptism practiced by John the Baptist. But they did not know about the holy spirit of God, and they had not been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Though they knew about God, they did not know or recognize him as the Father of Jesus Christ, as His Son. Therefore the apostle Paul had to give them a witness about Jesus Christ. After that they had to be baptized again, this time “in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Then when Paul laid his hands upon these newly baptized ones, they received God’s holy spirit and began prophesying under its influence, something that they had not done before because of not knowing about the spirit or receiving it.—Acts 19:1-7.
29. What shows whether, after his baptism, the disciple’s being a learner is all over?
29 Even after water baptism, the disciple needs to be taught further. Jesus said that there was to be not only baptizing but also a teaching of the baptized ones “all the things I have commanded you.” He needs to continue to be a learner, a pupil, of the Teacher Jesus Christ. They are not to be forced or tortured to “observe all the things I have commanded you,” but are to be patiently, peacefully, lovingly taught to observe all of Christ’s commands. That is the way that the Bible’s record shows that the apostles did the discipling work, which fact proves this way, not Christendom’s way, is the right way.
30. The discipling work was to be done in conjunction with what other work foretold by Christ, and how was this fact illustrated by Paul and Barnabas in Asia Minor?
30 This making of disciples is, of course, to be done in conjunction with the other work that was foretold by Jesus Christ in his prophecy in Matthew 24:14, namely: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” But this proclaiming or heralding of the Kingdom is more of a public work, and it is to be done “for a witness to all the nations,” not for the conversion of all nations. That it was done in conjunction with the preaching is made certain from the account of Paul and Barnabas when working in Asia Minor, which reads: “And after declaring the good news to that city and making quite a few disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them.”—Acts 14:21, 22, NW; AS; RS.
31. Aside from the preaching work, what does the disciple-making involve on the part of the one making disciples and the disciple himself?
31 But the disciple-making work is a more personal, intimate work than the mere public witnessing work by means of the heralding or proclaiming of the Kingdom. The making of disciples calls for teaching besides having first given the witness. The witness given publicly may be ignored or rejected by the public in general, but one’s becoming a disciple, learner, or pupil means accepting the information given by the instructor and then becoming a follower of the Teacher Jesus Christ. It means getting baptized in water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit and thereafter continuing to take and apply teaching from the one Teacher, Jesus Christ.
32. How is it shown whether the one baptized becomes the disciple of the baptizer or other man on earth?
32 No believer getting baptized in that prescribed way does so to become the disciple of some mere man in the flesh on earth. Neither is the one thus getting baptized thereby made the disciple of the dedicated man who baptized him in water. (1 Cor. 1:12-17) That those who became baptized became disciples of Jesus Christ is plain from the record in Acts 11:26, which reads: “It was first in Antioch [Syria] that the disciples were by divine providence called Christians [not Paulists].”
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At the “Divine Will” International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York city 7,136 persons were baptized
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At this year’s “Peace on Earth” International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nuremberg, Germany, 5,095 persons were baptized. Throughout the world during the 1969 service year 120,905 persons were baptized