11. Why will God not allow his people to be utterly destroyed?

¹¹ Righthearted individuals among the exiled Jews are awakened by God’s reprimand and become determined to heed his teachings. To such ones the following declaration is most reassuring: “Look! I have refined you, but not in the form of silver. I have made choice of you in the smelting furnace of affliction.

Isaiah 48:10,

The trialsome ordeals​—as in the “furnace of affliction”—​that Jehovah has allowed to come upon his people have tested and refined them, revealing what is in their hearts. Something similar happened centuries earlier when Moses said to their ancestors: “Jehovah your God made you walk these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, to put you to the test so as to know what was in your heart.” (Deuteronomy 8:2)

12. How were true Christians refined during the first world war?

¹² In modern times too, Jehovah’s people have needed refining. Back in the early days of the 20th century, many of the small group of Bible Students served God out of a sincere desire to please him, but some had wrong motives, such as a desire for prominence. Before that small group could spearhead the worldwide preaching of the good news prophesied for the time of the end, they would need to be cleansed. (Matthew 24:14) The prophet Malachi prophesied that just such a refining work would be accomplished in connection with Jehovah’s coming to his temple. (Malachi 3:1-4) His words were fulfilled in 1918. True Christians had gone through a period of fiery testing in the heat of the first world war and that testing culminated in the imprisonment of Joseph F. Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society, and some of its leading officers. Those sincere Christians benefited from the refining process. They came out of World War I more determined than ever to serve their great God in whatever way he indicated.

13. How have Jehovah’s people responded to persecution in the years since the first world war?

¹³ Since those days, Jehovah’s Witnesses have time and again faced the most vicious forms of persecution. This has not made them doubt the word of their Creator. Rather, they have taken note of the words of the apostle Peter to persecuted Christians of his day: “You have been grieved by various trials, in order that the tested quality of your faith . . . may be found a cause for praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6, 7) Fiery persecution does not destroy the integrity of true Christians. Instead, it reveals the purity of their motives. It adds to their faith a tested quality and shows the depth of their devotion and love.​—Proverbs 17:3.