Do You Remember?

Have you read the recent issues of The Watchtower carefully? If so, you will doubtless recall these points:

● Why is it often beneficial for more than one elder to share in a discussion with a member of the congregation seeking advice?

The combined wisdom and experience of more than one person can result in a more balanced viewpoint. There is also less likelihood of being misquoted.​—P. 542.a

● How can a Christian avoid falling victim to sexual immorality?

It requires effort to maintain self-control, diverting one’s thinking to that which is wholesome and avoiding reading matter and entertainment that incites passion. (Phil. 4:8, 9) The single Christian seeking to maintain cleanness should strive hard to avoid looking at or touching one of the opposite sex in such a way as to excite illicit passion.​—Pp. 595, 596.

● Why, as Proverbs 25:17 states, can a failure to ‘make one’s foot rare in the house of one’s fellowman’ make one an ‘object of hatred’?

People, even close friends, need privacy. Too lengthy or too frequent visits can cause one’s coming to be resented.​—P. 600.

● How did Jesus Christ ‘conquer the world’?

He remained unconquerable, in no way becoming like the hateful world. Despite persecution, Jesus Christ continued loving people, helping them spiritually and healing their afflictions. He did not break off from his self-sacrificing course of laying down his perfect human life.​—P. 653.

● What did the apostle Paul mean when he indicated that the ‘good news was being preached in all creation under heaven’?​—Col. 1:23.

This did not mean that every individual had personally been reached, but that the preaching was being pushed to all parts of the earth under heaven.​—P. 683.

● In Jesus’ illustration of the minas, at Luke chapter 19, who or what are represented by the “man of noble birth,” the “distant land,” the “ten slaves” and the “ten minas”?

The “man of noble birth” is Jesus Christ, who was born in the royal line of David. The “distant land” to which he went to secure kingly power is his Father’s dwelling place in the spirit realm. Jesus’ disciples, the “ten slaves” of the illustration, received the symbolic minas, that is, the field of activity that Jesus had prepared through intensive preaching and teaching. They received these symbolic “ten minas” when Jesus Christ commissioned them to make and baptize disciples. So by preaching and teaching in imitation of Jesus Christ, his disciples could make the field that he had prepared productive, causing it to yield still more disciples like themselves.​—Pp. 712-715.

● What is the ‘sealing’ that is completed before the destructive winds of the “great tribulation” are released?​—Rev. 7:2, 3.

This does not refer to the initial sealing of those numbered among the 144,000 who are in line for a heavenly inheritance. It is a final sealing, a determination of the permanence of the initial sealing. (Compare Ephesians 4:30.)​—P. 730.

● Why will even God’s devoted people experience hardships at Har–Magedon?

The Scriptures reveal that Jehovah God will then use plagues, earthquakes and natural elements against his foes. This will lead to a general breakdown or disruption of governmental services and the like. Jehovah’s servants will not be entirely spared from the effects of such things. As ‘objects of hatred by the nations,’ they cannot expect national governments to grant them favored treatment or exemption from shortages. Rather, they can expect to have their personal freedoms reduced. Even their economic and living conditions may be reduced to the mere subsistence level. Yet, by loyal adherence to Jehovah, they will have sound reason for confidence as to the outcome.​—P. 759.

[Footnotes]