One Religion Will Remain
IMAGINE what it would be like if all people on earth were united in one religion, in one pure worship of the only true God. What a source of unity that would be! There would be no more religious contention, strife, or war. Is this only a dream? No. The apostle John’s vision of the destruction of the harlot, the world empire of false religion, indicates that one form of worship will remain after her destruction. Which one?
The voice that John heard from heaven gives us a clue: “Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4) It is evident that God himself is here speaking to his people. Note that he does not command his people to mix in with the harlot in an ecumenical effort to save her by helping her to adjust to a decent life. No, there is no remedy for her. Therefore, he commands them to get out of and stay away from her in order to avoid being contaminated by her gross sinfulness and to avoid eventually being judged and destroyed together with her.
The heavenly command to “get out of her” also helps sincere truth seekers to identify God’s people. They may ask themselves, ‘Which people on earth today have heeded this command by resigning from any religion, organization, or body of worshipers connected with “Babylon the Great”? (Revelation 18:2) Which people on earth today have thus freed themselves from all Babylonish doctrines, creeds, practices, and traditions?’ Who else could it be but Jehovah’s Witnesses? Among the more than 5.2 million Witnesses in upwards of 230 lands, all who had been associated with some Babylonish religion, either by birth or conversion, have expressly resigned from it—sometimes in spite of protests and opposition from relatives, friends, and religious leaders.
One example is Henry, a South African man, who was the treasurer of his church and was deeply attached to it. But he was searching for the truth, and one day he accepted a free home Bible study with Jehovah’s Witnesses. In time, when he decided to become a Witness, he told his pastor, who was also his close neighbor, that he wanted to resign from the church.
The pastor was shocked and later took the moderator and other members of the church to visit Henry. They asked why he had left their church to become a member of a religion that, according to them, does not have God’s holy spirit. “At first, I was afraid to answer them,” said Henry, “because they had always had great influence over me. But I prayed to Jehovah for help, and he enabled me to make this defense: ‘Of all international religions, which is the only one that regularly uses God’s name, Jehovah? Is it not Jehovah’s Witnesses? Do you think God would allow them to bear his name and not also give them his holy spirit?’” The church officials were unable to refute this reasoning, and Henry is now one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
So when the voice from heaven commands: “Get out of her,” there is somewhere to go. (Revelation 18:4) There are people, worshipers of the true God, Jehovah, to whom you can flee. Millions have fled. Known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, they make up an international Christian brotherhood, organized in over 78,600 congregations, and are now experiencing the largest growth in their history. They have baptized over 1,200,000 people in the past four years! Before baptism, all of these had completed a spiritually stimulating course of Bible study, enabling them to make a personal, well-founded decision to resign from all former attachment to any other religion.—Zephaniah 2:2, 3.
If you have not as yet attended a meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses at one of their Kingdom Halls, why not do so this week? You may well be favorably impressed with what you see and hear. And if you want to understand the Bible, why not ask one of Jehovah’s Witnesses to study it with you, as millions of others have done? If your prayer is for the true understanding of God’s Word along with a way of life that is in harmony with that Word, you will find the answer to your prayer.
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Millions are turning to the worship of Jehovah God