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The Peace That Follows War from HeavenThe Watchtower—1955 | July 15
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that men and women and children from all nations are told to flee now, and hundreds of thousands have already done so, and many more thousands are in the process of fleeing, and still other thousands will yet wake up and flee, and all together they will survive the war from heaven to enjoy everlastingly the peace it brings to earth.
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Questions From ReadersThe Watchtower—1955 | July 15
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Questions From Readers
● I understand that the Kingdom is invisible and made up of Christ and the 144,000 body members, yet sometimes the term is used referring to the earthly, visible part of the new world. Why is this?—O. S., United States.
The ruling Kingdom body composed of Christ and the 144,000 is an invisible, heavenly kingdom, and it is with this kingdom in mind that 1 Corinthians 15:50 (NW) says: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom.” And Jesus said: “Unless anyone is born from water and spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5, NW) Hence the inhabitants of the earth in Jehovah’s new world do not enter the heavenly kingdom or inherit it or become a part of it. But they do inherit a kingdom, for Jesus said concerning this earthly class of sheep: “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the world’s foundation.” (Matt. 25:34, NW) Christ is spoken of as “the Lamb who was slaughtered from the world’s foundation,” meaning the new world of visible and invisible parts, or earthly and heavenly parts, and for which world he became the foundation when he died and shed his blood and later presented the merit of his shed blood before Jehovah in heaven. When Jehovah created the earth he meant for it to be inhabited and put Adam and Eve on earth to populate it, and he held out the hope of earthly life to faithful men before Christ; so an earthly class was purposed or predestinated long before Christ’s sacrifice laid the foundation for it. Also those who are to reign with Christ in the heavenly kingdom were predestinated or foreordained as a class “before the world’s foundation.”—Rev. 13:8; Eph. 1:4, NW.
The basis for this new world is Christ and his blood, so the presenting of it is the essential, basic preparation for the founding of the new world of righteousness. So Jesus invited the earthly class of sheep to “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the world’s foundation.” This kingdom is the earthly realm of the ruling heavenly kingdom. “Kingdom” may refer to the king, as at Luke 17:21 (NW): “The kingdom of God is in your midst.” It often refers to the ruling body, Christ and his joint heirs, reigning invisibly from heaven. But this kingdom rules over the earth. The earth is a part of its domain or realm, and the subjects or the territory of the kingdom are spoken of as a part of the kingdom. At Daniel 2:34, 35, 44 it speaks of God’s kingdom under Christ as a stone that strikes and destroys Satan’s organization and that this stone becomes a great mountain that fills the whole earth. It means his kingdom will embrace the earth as a part of its realm, and hence the earthly part of the new world can be spoken of as a kingdom. Its territory and inhabitants come under it and are subject to it, and in this sense a part of it. Not that there are so-called “two phases of the Kingdom,” an earthly phase and a heavenly phase, but that the earth is the Kingdom’s realm and thus its inhabitants inherit the Kingdom (and not Satan’s organization) as their ruling government. This is the kingdom that is ordained and prepared for the earthly sheep.
● Why is Jesus called the “Son of man” in the Greek Scriptures, when actually he is the “Son of God”?—W. H., United States.
The Greek Scriptures refer to Jesus as the “Son of man” because the Hebrew Scriptures use that phrase relative to the Messiah, at Daniel 7:13, 14: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and
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