Christendom and out into the so-called pagan world that does not belong to Christendom. Under Jesus’ instructions, his disciples were to undertake to complete the circuit of the whole inhabited earth, preaching the good news of God’s kingdom to all, to Jewish people, to professed Christian people and to all the pagan peoples.

By our consideration of Bible prophecy and modern events we discern that the Lord Jesus Christ, in company with Jehovah God, came to the spiritual temple in the spring of 1918. It was after that year, particularly from 1919 forward, that the remnant of Christ’s anointed disciples began preaching the good news of God’s kingdom as having been established in the heavens in 1914. How long after the Lord’s coming to the temple must this preaching continue? Until the “Son of man arrives” for the execution of Jehovah’s judgment. This will be in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty,” at Armageddon. In connection with that arrival Jesus said, in Revelation 16:15: “Look! I am coming as a thief. Happy is the one that stays awake and keeps his outer garments, that he may not walk naked and people look upon his shamefulness.”

Accordingly, by means of his instructions to his twelve apostles Jesus was prophetically telling us today that his anointed disciples or the remnant of spiritual Israel would not complete the circuit of the entire inhabited earth with the preaching of the message of God’s established kingdom before the glorified heavenly King Jesus Christ would arrive as Jehovah’s executional officer in the battle of Armageddon. This means that Jehovah’s witnesses today, who now include hundreds of thousands of the “other sheep” or earthly companions of the spiritual remnant, will not be able to reach personally all parts of the earth with the Kingdom message before the battle of Armageddon breaks out.

We may be driven from one city to another by the persecution upon Jehovah’s witnesses, yet we should keep going. Why? Because, even being driven by the scattering power of the persecution to outside locations, we shall not be able to reach all the territory directly, personally, before the war of God Almighty’s great day breaks out and destroys the people of this wicked world and thus puts a finis to our work of witnessing to such worldly people.

Hence it is up to us to cover as much of the territory as possible before Armageddon. Till then we shall never run out of new territory to work or of territory in which the need for Kingdom publishers and teachers is great. Thank God for that!—Compare The Watch Tower as of June 1, 1900, page 174; June 15, 1907, page 184, paragraph 3.

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“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES FOR THE WEEKS

March 11: Are You Reasonable About Religion? and Reasonableness Leads to Peace, ¶1-4. Page 73.

March 18: Reasonableness Leads to Peace, ¶5-28. Page 78.