The Triumph of Clean, Undefiled Worship
“And this is the conquest that has conquered the world, our faith.”—1 John 5:4, NW.
1. What battle is near, with whose victory sure?
JEHOVAH challenges all the gods of this world. When we remember that in India or Hindustan alone there are some 330 million gods and goddesses and then when we take the gods of the religions of other lands into consideration, we see that it is a case of millions of gods, visible and invisible, against the one God, Jehovah. The battle of the gods is near. The question is, Who will triumph? Backed by the outcome of previous contests, the answer is certain: The battle will go only one way, and Jehovah will triumph as God, the only living and true God of the universe!
2, 3. What will materialists deny? but what must they admit?
2 Communists and atheists in general, skeptics, infidels, and hardheaded materialists of this twentieth-century world will scoff at the suggestion of a war of the gods. They will say that what gods there are exist only in people’s minds and so a war of such imaginary gods is ridiculous. But all such materialistic people will have to admit that the worship of such gods is a reality even in this modern world, and that the belief in such gods and the worship of such gods have played a powerful part in the course and destiny of all nations, without a single exception.
3 Let those materialists deny the existence of invisible, spirit gods, still they must admit that many men and women alive today are raised to the position of gods among men; they are deified and reverenced and hailed as saviors and world benefactors. This goes not only for political figures such as Premier Stalin of the Soviet Union but also for religious figures such as the pope of Vatican City, who is adored and given the title of vice-god, and also the Dalai or Grand Lama of Tibet. All informed persons know that it was as recently as December 31, 1945, that Emperor Hirohito in an Imperial Rescript for the New Year proclaimed that the Japanese Tenno or Emperor is not a god. Printed in every Japanese newspaper, this rescript ordered the people to forget the “false conception that the Emperor is divine and that the Japanese people are superior to other races and fated to rule the world”. A New York Times headline read, “A ‘God’ Denies Divinity,” and yet today many Japanese tenaciously cling to the Shinto belief that their emperor is a god, a “Son of Heaven”, descended from the “Sun Goddess”. (New York Times, January 6, 1946) But while one god, whose worship once mightily influenced the course of the Japanese nation, is stripped of his divinity by hard facts, numberless people are becoming afraid of the modern process by which the political state is being deified and its prominent figures and emblems are being made gods and idols and are being worshiped. In this worship even the materialistically minded people are being caught. Whereas they brand the gods of others as false and imaginary, they themselves are found guilty of making gods to themselves according to their own mental ideas and desires.
4. What does the Bible teach about invisible ones this world worships as gods? and how have false gods been pitted against each other?
4 Let all such be called “false gods” by the people who have the discernment to see that such are no gods or not deserving of being treated as gods. But the written Word of Jehovah, the Holy Bible, warns us that there is a god of this evil world who exercises a blinding influence upon all the people of this world, “among whom,” as we read, “the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.” (2 Cor. 4:4, NW) We also read in the Bible: “The things which the nations sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I do not want you to become sharers with the demons.” (1 Cor. 10:20, NW) Thus the Bible, Jehovah’s Word, teaches that there are superhuman, invisible spirit persons whom all the nations of this world worship as gods, and that these are the malicious demons under the prince or ruler, Satan the Devil, who is the great blinder of human minds. The worshiping of these and of idols which stand for them is false worship. In all ages there has been a contest even between these false gods, as one nation has gone to war against another nation and has appealed to its god or gods to help it against the god or gods of the other nation, so pitting gods against gods. Victory was attributed to the gods of the victorious nation.
5. How and why did the Roman empire cope with the problem of many gods? but what god was it unable to treat thus?
5 The Roman empire, however, gave recognition to the gods of all the nations it conquered and absorbed into the empire. This it astutely did in order to keep the subjugated peoples in a better frame of mind. It tried to create a fusion religion including all the recognized gods of the empire. While it tolerantly let each one in the empire choose his own local gods for worship, it set up the emperor as a god. It required the people to worship him as a god common to them all. In this way it bound the sprawling empire more tightly together. There was one god, however, which the empire did not thus incorporate in its pantheon, or hall of the gods. He was Jehovah, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses and of all his faithful prophets and servants, including Jesus Christ and his true followers. Emperor Constantine, of the fourth century A.D., tried to fuse Jesus Christ into the pantheon of the Roman empire by amalgamating pagan religion with the corrupted Christianity of his day. But the faithful Christians who held to the Holy Bible flatly refused to recognize such a fusion. They kept separate.
6. What position do true Christians take in the conflict of gods, as shown by 1 Corinthians 8:4-7?
6 True Christians, and by this we do not mean Christendom, recognize and serve as God the only One whom Jesus Christ acknowledged and served as God, and that is his heavenly Father, Jehovah. Expressing this intransigent position of true Christians, the apostle Paul wrote them: “We know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no God but one. For even though there are those who are called ‘gods’, whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’, there is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him, and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we through him. Nevertheless, there is not this knowledge in all persons.” (1 Cor. 8:4-7, NW) According to this, there has always been a conflict between the worship of Jehovah, the God and Father of Jesus Christ, and the worship of all the so-called “gods” of this world, including Christendom. The worship of the only real God Jehovah is the true worship.
7. What question faces Jehovah’s worshipers? and how is it answered?
7 Outnumbered many thousands of times by the worshipers of such gods of this world, those who worship Jehovah as the only God face the same question now as in all the past sixty centuries of human history, Will their worship survive? Will it triumph? About the answer to this question there can be no uncertainty. The one living and true God Jehovah will triumph over the false gods despite their millions in number. Hence the true worship of Jehovah God will triumph over all false worship and will alone survive. The day for that triumph is very near.
RELIGION UNDER JUDGMENT
8, 9. Why is false religion now suffering reproach?
8 It is no exaggeration to say that all religion today is under reproach, the true religion and the false. The false religion is suffering reproach because of its hypocrisy, because of its ignorance and confusion, because of the depravity and illiteracy in which it has left the people, because of the failure of its aims and policies and because it has no certain message of light to show the people the way to a clean, prosperous, happy, peaceful and secure world. False religion is an ally and an inseparable part of this sordid world and fights with it against the only living and true God. Even Christendom does so. She claims such a name because she professes to be the realm where Christianity is practiced, but she is filled with “lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power”. The Bible which she possesses stands as a witness against her and condemns her as having an apostate form of Christianity. She suffers, but it is because she has not heeded the warning of the apostle Peter: “Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a busybody in other people’s matters. For what merit is there in it if, when you are sinning and being struck blows, you endure it?”—2 Tim. 3:1-5 and; 1 Pet. 4:15; 2:20, NW.
9 The reproach now falling on the religion of both Christendom and heathendom is therefore not without cause; it is deserved. It was with this religion in mind that the slogan was first raised in London, England, in 1938, “Religion is a snare and a racket. Serve God and Christ the King.”
10. What distinction do many fail to make? yet how is this distinction shown proper by consideration of the terms “Christian” and “Christianity”?
10 Because the people in general fail to make a distinction between the false and the true, and because worldly religion has made an odious name for itself, there has been a tendency in recent years to avoid using the name “religion” in connection with the truth and the organization of Jehovah God. But apostate Christendom has brought great reproach upon the name “Christianity”, to which she claims the exclusive right. If we were to avoid a name just because of the shame and vituperation which Christendom has unjustly brought upon it, then we might as well avoid the name “Christianity” and refuse to be called “Christians”. Some think the name “Christian” was originally given as a name of reproach to the followers of Jesus Christ. (Acts 11:26) Yet we can accept that name, just the same as we can accept the name “Judean” or “Jew” in a spiritual sense. Why? Because we adhere to Jehovah’s promise to Judah, that “the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be”. (Gen. 49:10, AS) We can accept, too, to suffer as a Christian, because Peter tells us concerning the faithful follower of Christ: “If he suffers as a Christian, let him not feel shame, but let him keep on glorifying God in this name.” (1 Pet. 4:16, NW) So you can either take the name “Christian” in vain and bring reproach upon it as Christendom does, or you can suffer unjustly as a Christian. If you live up to the name “Christian” in spite of the suffering it brings, you can glorify God in this name. In the same way a distinction needs to be made between the false religion and the true religion.
11. What scriptures show this distinction concerning religion proper?
11 The apostle Paul applies the term “religion” to the false kind when he makes these admissions: “You, of course, heard about my conduct formerly in Judaism, that to the point of excess I kept on persecuting the congregation of God and devastating it, and I was making greater progress in Judaism than many of my own age in my race, as I was far more zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” “After the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.” (Gal. 1:13, 14, NW; Acts 26:5, AS) Paul tells us, too, that some in his day pretended to carry on the form of worship that angels were supposed to carry on, a “religion of angels” or a “cult of angels”. (Col. 2:18, Dy and Mo) But it is the disciple James who makes a distinction between such false religion and the true religion, the pure Christianity, when he says: “Act on the Word, instead of merely listening to it and deluding yourselves. For whoever listens and does nothing, is like a man who glances at his natural face in a mirror; he glances at himself, goes off, and at once forgets what he was like. Whereas he who gazes into the faultless law of freedom and remains in that position, proving himself to be no forgetful listener but an active agent, he will be blessed in his activity. Whoever seems to himself to be religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, his religion is futile. Pure, unsoiled religion in the judgment of God the Father means this: to care for orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself from the stain of the world.”—Jas. 1:22-27, Mo.
12. What meaning is attached to the word “religion” that allows its use in connection with true worship?
12 The way the term “religion” is used in the Bible translations in a number of languages, beginning with the Old Latin translations dating from the second century, it has the meaning of “system or form of worship”, regardless of whether it is true or false, pure and clean or apostate. The New World Translation is therefore not radical on the matter but takes a levelheaded view of the meaning of religion. And so it renders James’ words in this way: “If any man seems to himself to be a formal worshiper and yet does not bridle his tongue, but goes on deceiving his own heart, this man’s form of worship is futile. The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.” (Jas. 1:26, 27, NW) Hence, taking the word to mean simply “form of worship” or “system of worship”, we are justified in using the word “religion” as applying to Christianity when it means the pure, clean, undefiled religion.
13. What will be the outcome for true religion and for false religion in this time of judgment?
13 True Christianity, true religion or form of worship, will live down the reproaches that are heaped upon it. False religion or worship will never survive the reproaches that are being heaped upon it, nor the judgments that God is bringing against it. God is the Judge of what pure worship is, for he is the Author of it. All religion is therefore on judgment before him today. The true will be made manifest and be blessed by him. The false will be condemned by him and be uprooted from the earth.
RESISTING INFECTION, CONTAMINATION
14. How does false religion try to heap reproaches upon pure religion?
14 It is false religion, impure worship, that heaps reproaches upon the clean religion and pure worship. It does this enviously and unjustly. Not only that, but it also tries to get true grounds for taunting and speaking abusively of true worship by bringing about a corruption of it. This it does by trying to make the pure worshipers relax, grow unsteady about their principles, yield to worldliness, and become just like the people of the world although carrying the names of God and his Christ. It tries to draw the pure worshipers into a deal or bargain, a compromise, with false religion for some selfish advantage, such as material prosperity, popularity in this world and a free enjoyment of what this system of things has to offer.
15. What has always been Satan’s endeavor in the contest of gods over the issue of worship?
15 Outside the garden of Eden pure worship was revived in the earth by Adam’s martyred son Abel. From that time pure worship has had to fight against contamination with the world. It has been only with a small minority that it has always done so. Satan the Devil, “the god of this system of things,” has challenged God and says that it cannot be done and that he will see to it that the pure worship does not resist contamination. Jehovah God says it can be done and will be done. Who will prove to be the liar? Jehovah God backs up his pure worship. His great adversary, together with all the demons under him, endeavors continually to work impurities into it and adulterate it and make it hypocritical so that even Jehovah God will reject it and abandon it to be destroyed. So there is a contest of gods or mighty ones over the issue of religion or worship.
16, 17. What shows that there can be no compromise between true Christianity and false religion?
16 Let us all understand this matter clearly, the way the true God gives us to understand it: There can be no compromise between true Christianity and the religion of this world. Before bringing the Israelites into the land of Palestine which he had promised them, God made this matter perfectly clear to them. At the beginning of their forty-year journey there he said to them: “In all things that I have said unto you take ye heed: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. . . . I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me; for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.” In the face of that divine statement who can object to the slogan that false, worldly religion is a snare and is worked as a racket?
17 Jehovah successfully brought the Israelites into the Promised Land and cleared many of their pagan enemies out of it. Then his servant Joshua, the successor of Moses, saw good, now that he was old and about to pass off the scene, to remind them of Jehovah’s refusal to compromise with the religion of his enemies. Joshua commanded them: “That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow down yourselves unto them; but cleave unto Jehovah your God, as ye have done unto this day.”—Ex. 23:13, 31-33 and Josh. 23:7, 8, AS.
18, 19. What compromises does Christendom today make with pagan gods and with blasphemies against truth, in defiance of what scriptures?
18 Jehovah God does not approve of it when his people enter into treaties with his religious enemies either by marriage or by political bargains or by commercial deals by which they are compelled to take the names of the gods of such allied persons into their mouths and give them legal recognition. That principle or rule of action holds true for God’s true people today, for the things that had to do with the natural Israelites of old serve as a warning example to us who are living at the end of Christendom’s system of things. Let Christendom go on indulging in such compromises with the gods of paganism and with the blasphemies against the truth of Jehovah God. As, for instance, when non-Catholic countries send ambassadors, ministers or chargés d’affaires to the court of Vatican City and these, though not Roman Catholics, are obliged to bend the knee or bow to the pope and address him as “Your Holiness”. When Protestant and Jewish politicians electioneer in order to win over the Catholic vote, they, too, take up the titles of the Catholic god and call him “Holy Father”. When commercial radio announcers, in order to tickle the ears of their Catholic audience, comment on the activities of the Roman Hierarchy, they address them as “Reverend”, “His Reverence,” “Father,” etc., so glorifying the mighty ones of sectarianism.
19 At Isaiah 57:15 (Dy) Jehovah God says: “Thus saith the High and the Eminent that inhabiteth eternity: and his name is Holy.” To Jehovah God alone Jesus addressed the words: “Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou hast given me.” And to his disciples he said: “Call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven.” (John 17:11 and Matt. 23:9, Dy) And only once do Protestants find in their King James Version and American Standard Version Bibles the word “reverend”, and there it is applied to Jehovah God, in these words: “Holy and reverend is his name. The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom.” (Ps. 111:9, 10, AS; AV) The real Christian, the worshiper of the true God, will not compromise today and ascribe to the gods and mighty ones of this world the things that belong to God. He follows Jesus’ words: “Pay back . . . God’s things to God.”—Matt. 22:21, NW.
20. What judgment against Jerusalem shows the impossibility of mixing the things of God with worldly religion, with divine approval?
20 We cannot mix the things of God with those of worldly religion and at the same time gain divine approval. It did not gain His approval when Jerusalem apostatized from the revealed worship of Jehovah God and religiously held to his name but at the same time swore by false gods. Warning of the day of his wrath he said: “I will stretch out my hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off . . . them that worship the host of heaven upon the house tops; and them that worship, that swear to Jehovah and swear by Malcam; and them that are turned back from following Jehovah; and those that have not sought Jehovah, nor inquired after him.”—Zeph. 1:4-6, AS.
21. What events and judgment at Mount Sinai show the same thing?
21 At the foot of Mount Sinai Moses’ brother Aaron yielded to the voice of the people who wanted visible gods and he made a golden calf. Then, in the spirit of calf worship in Egypt which they had left, the Israelites said: “These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” Aaron built an altar to the calf and proclaimed: “To-morrow shall be a feast to Jehovah.” The feast turned out to be a wild, boisterous corruption of morals. Jehovah burned with indignation at this attempt to link him with demon worship. At the direction of his prophet Moses the calf idol was ground to powder, and about 3,000 feasters fell at the hands of Jehovah’s executioners.—Ex. 32:4-28, AS.
22. How did Jeroboam fall into the same trap? and with what result?
22 Centuries later when ten tribes broke away from Judah and Jerusalem after the death of King Solomon, the Israelite King Jeroboam tried to sidetrack his people from going up to Jehovah’s temple at Jerusalem for worship. Instead of limiting himself to one golden calf, Jeroboam had two made and set them up at Bethel and Dan. Then he ascribed to these calves the deliverance which Jehovah had wrought for Israel, and he took up the words of the apostate Israelites at Sinai and said: “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” (1 Ki. 12:25-29, AS) With what result? The nation ended in ruin two hundred and fifty years later, abandoned to its enemies by Jehovah God. All these things, the apostle Paul says, were a warning example to Christians that they should never compromise with false religion, demon religion. The true God will never excuse us or spare us from the ruin which compromise is certain to bring. It is a snare that traps one into destruction.—1 Cor. 10:6, 11, NW.
23. What course has Christendom taken that shows she has ignored the definition of pure religion?
23 Christendom has paid no attention to the definition of pure, undefiled religion, which means not only caring for widows and orphans but also keeping oneself without spot from the world. We cannot take fire into our bosom without burning our clothes; we cannot compromise with the enemy and strike up friendships with this world and remain unspotted, uncorrupted, and free with the freedom which only the truth can give. Christendom’s moral, social and spiritual condition today proves that to us. From the second century onward her founders have compromised with the pagan doctrines, such as the trinity and immortality of the human soul. Why? For the sake of popularity and in order to appear wise in the world’s eyes, to appear not too different from the world and so suffer reproach and persecution. And in the fourth century, from Emperor Constantine’s time forward, Christendom’s builders yielded to the supervision of the political state. She bartered away her independence and her hopes of becoming Christ’s bride by becoming instead the church of the political state, the Roman empire.
24. What penalty will Christendom’s adultery bring? When?
24 Such spiritual adultery meant enmity with God, and it is shortly to bring upon Christendom the penalty like that prescribed for harlots and adulterers in God’s law to ancient Israel. Jehovah God is now at his temple of pure worship and says to all who profess to be God’s people: “I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.” (Mal. 3:1, 5, AS) Hence Christendom will be the first to be destroyed at Armageddon with a fiery destruction befitting an immoral, adulterous organization that has apostatized from pure religion.
25. What resulted from Christendom’s adoption of paganism? and how is she warned?
25 Christendom has not had the strength to resist infection and contamination resulting from compromise with false religion, no more so than natural Israel of old had the strength to do so. Instead of sanctifying pagan doctrines, philosophies, rites and practices by adopting them into her religious system, Christendom has defiled herself with this world. She has desecrated the name of Christ which she bears. Yet she pretends to be promised in marriage to him. After pointing to what compromise with the world and imitating of it led to in the case of Israel, God’s Word warns Christendom: “Let him that thinks he has a firm position beware that he does not fall. You cannot be drinking the cup of Jehovah and the cup of demons; you cannot be partaking of ‘the table of Jehovah’ and the table of demons. Or ‘are we inciting Jehovah to jealousy’? We are not stronger than he is, are we?” (1 Cor. 10:12, 21, 22, NW) We certainly are not. So we cannot afford to incite him to jealousy by turning to the worship of false gods after we have entered into relationship with him as his covenant nation, his name people, as Israel of old had.
26. How was Israel’s corruption by compromise shown? and how is it typical of Christendom’s?
26 To show the corruption that resulted to Israel from this compromising course, Jehovah said to that nation: “Upon every high hill and under every green tree thou didst bow thyself, playing the harlot. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine unto me? For though thou wash thee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord Jehovah. How canst thou say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baalim?” (Jer. 2:20-23, AS) Christendom claims her origin to be in Christ Jesus, who said: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” But no matter how pure Christendom claims her origin to be, the fact remains that today, after all her centuries of existence in the midst of this world, she too has turned into a foul, rank, wild vine in God’s sight. She is not bringing forth the fruitage of the kingdom of God.
27. Is Christendom pagan? and what is her present status and destiny?
27 If the question is asked today, is Christendom Christian or pagan? the Holy Scriptures will answer, She is pagan! Just like paganism today, she rejects the kingdom of God which is now being preached in all the earth for a witness to all nations. Hence, according to Jesus’ own parable of the true vine and its branches, Christendom is cut off from him like a dead branch or a sucker and is destined to be pitched into the fire of the end of this world and to be reduced to ashes.—John 15:1-6, NW.
A REMNANT HOLD TRUE
28. What victory seems to seal Satan as winner in the issue of worship?
28 Christendom has turned apostate. The “god of this system of things” has won out over her. For thousands of years he has had the rest of the world lying under his power under great systems of religion, such as Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, Mohammedanism, animism, and other systems of demon religion, embracing almost two billion of earth’s inhabitants. Now at this late date everything shows that Christendom is beyond all hope of recovery and her fate is locked up with the fate of the pagan world. Satan’s victory over Christendom seems to seal him as the winner in the centuries-old contest over the question, Whose worship will triumph, Jehovah’s or Satan’s?
29. What questions are answered negatively? and who so answer?
29 But has Satan totally triumphed in the field of worship or religion? Has he succeeded in overwhelming Jehovah’s worship and wiping it from the face of the earth by all his various means of corruption and destructive violence? Jehovah’s witnesses, assembled 22,250 strong in international convention at London, England, last August 4, answered with an unequivocal No! And so do the hundreds of thousands more of Jehovah’s witnesses in all the rest of the earth.
30, 31. How was the degenerate Jerusalem and her realm twice destroyed, but survived by a faithful remnant in each case?
30 Six centuries before Christ, the city of Jerusalem and her realm had turned into a degenerate vine, and so Babylon and her gods led the surviving Jews away from the destroyed city and into exile in an idolatrous foreign land. However, a remnant of Israelites had hearts that were inseparably knit to Jehovah God. These lived to survive the fall of Babylon and to return to the land of Jehovah’s name and restore his pure worship there. But by the first century of the Christian era Satan the Devil had again corrupted the Jewish nation with man-made religious traditions and worldly philosophies. In the crisis there was again a small remnant of Israelites who kept faith in Jehovah’s Word and in his promise of a Messiah of liberation. They recognized Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah. Under his leadership they separated themselves from the doomed religious system of corrupt Judaism and formed the nucleus of the Christian congregation built upon the immovable rock-mass Jesus Christ.
31 Before the centrally organized system of Judaism was broken up and the nation was scattered by Jerusalem’s ruin at the hands of Roman legions A.D. 70, the early Christian congregation had already been established among believing Jews and believing Gentiles inside and outside the Roman empire. Jehovah God, by his Son Jesus Christ who was now glorified in the heavens, poured out his holy spirit upon those true Christians of apostolic times and used them in giving world-wide witness to God’s coming kingdom.
32. What makes it now seem that Satan has won? yet in what way has Jehovah met the challenge and assured victory for pure worship?
32 But what of today? What we have just said was nineteen centuries ago. In the time since then Christendom has been thoroughly corrupted, and today she stands as a religious system that has brought a stink upon the cause of true Christianity, pure religion. One terrible by-product of her hypocritical, apostate course is atheistic international communism! This anti-Christian social and political system is sworn to wipe out Christendom. Moreover, the prospect of a third world war with atomic weapons of mass destruction offers Christendom no sure prospect of postwar religious existence or activity. From that standpoint it looks as if the false god Satan and his world religion had won out this time for sure. But not so! Again Jehovah God has met the challenge of the great adversary. Again he has produced a remnant for his name, a remnant devoted to his pure worship. Let a third world war come, yes, let the end of this world come and with it apostate Christendom’s end, yet Jehovah’s faithful remnant are here to stay till glorious victory crowns the faithfulness of clean, undefiled worship.
[Picture on page 657]
The Pantheon in Rome