Jesus Christ in 33 C.E. and who accepted the abominable pagan thing instead of their king, Jesus Christ, when they cried out to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate: “We have no king but Caesar.” (John 19:15) The Seventh World Power, backed by the clergy, became the instrument for the “god of this system of things,” Satan the Devil, in setting up the “image” of the wild beast, as foretold symbolically in Revelation 13:14, 15.

HUMAN RULE DISPLACED

Millions of people have suffered under the domination of the wild beast “with ten horns and seven heads” for centuries. (Rev. 13:1) Now the image of the beast is not helping the people or relieving them from the terrible things taking place in the earth, nor is it sheltering them from the worst disaster ever to come, namely, the destruction by Jehovah God at the battle of Har–Magedon. Many honesthearted people see that man-rule has brought increasing grief to the people. As God foretells in the prophecy of Ezekiel, chapter 9, these are “sighing and groaning over all the detestable things” that are being done. Men of this kind listen with faith to the proclamation of the good news of the Kingdom, telling of the relief God brings by his kingdom, which will rule the entire earth in righteousness after the end of the last human government. Jesus Christ loves such ones as his “other sheep” and they come under his protective hand. (John 10:16; Isa. 49:10; Rev. 7:13-17) To such ones the Bible says: “Seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.”​—Zeph. 2:3.

Soon, after the terrible holocaust that will mean the wiping out of the last human government, we will see the establishment of righteousness in the earth and, while God will have princes in the earth. men of tested faith and dependability, it will not be human government, for these men will merely carry out the decrees of the heavenly government of Christ Jesus. Then it will indeed take place that “trueness itself will sprout out of the very earth, and righteousness itself will look down from the very heavens. Also, Jehovah, for his part, will give what is good. and our own land will give its yield.”​—Ps. 85:11, 12; 45:16.

Let the People Hear Through Preaching

How important it is to let the people hear through our preaching! With Armageddon drawing on apace, more than ever before it is true that only those who ‘call on the name of Jehovah will be saved.’ But, as the apostle Paul so rightly observes, “How will they call on him in whom they have not put faith? How, in turn, will they put faith in him of whom they have not heard? How, in turn, will they hear without someone to preach?”​—Rom. 10:13, 14.a

Clearly, here is stated your commission as dedicated Christians to preach so as to save lives. Because someone else preached, you have been able to get on the road to salvation by calling on the name of Jehovah. Are you now doing all you can so that others may do the same? The apostle Paul certainly did, and he himself urges us to ‘become imitators of him, even as he is of Christ.’​—1 Cor. 11:1.

Paul was an outstanding example of zeal in preaching. He made three extensive missionary tours, traveled literally thousands of miles in a day when travel on land was chiefly by foot and travel on sea was by sail,