WHY NOW THE CALL TO REJOICE?

51. Why did the maliciously minded nations have reason to cry out and rejoice during World War I?

⁵¹ Once the maliciously minded nations did have reason to cry out loud and rejoice at the turn of human events. That was when Jehovah of armies let his Christian witnesses fall into their power during World War I and the nations were given the freedom to vent their spleen upon these Christian spiritual Israelites. At the time the nations were fighting over the issue of world domination, not domination by the Creator of heaven and earth, but domination by themselves, by either the democratic bloc of nations or by the autocratic, dictatorial bloc. They wanted to control the resources of the earth, exploiting these for commercial profit.

52. Why did those nations mistreat the spiritual Israelites for standing faithfully for God’s Messianic kingdom?

⁵² They were very nationalistic, with national patriotism running at fever heat. In their efforts at total mobilization of the people for their nationalistic goals, they became enraged at those who refused to be integrated with them because of standing for God’s Messianic kingdom that had been inaugurated in the heavens at the end of the Gentile Times in 1914. So, under war stress, the nations mistreated these champions of God’s kingdom. How they did rejoice at killing off the influence of these for God’s kingdom!

53. How does Revelation 11:7-10 describe the nations’ jubilation?

⁵³ The glee and self-congratulations that the beastly nations indulged in at this defeat for the advocates of God’s Messianic kingdom is foretold in Revelation, chapter eleven, which borrows figures of speech from Zechariah’s prophecy.

And those dwelling on the earth rejoice over them and enjoy themselves, and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those dwelling on the earth.” But their jubilation proved to be short-lived.