And as regards those having insight among the people, they will impart understanding to the many. And they will certainly be made to stumble by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plundering, for some days.” (Daniel 11:32b, 33) Christians living under the king of the north, while properly “in subjection to the superior authorities,” have not been a part of this world. (Romans 13:1; John 18:36) Careful to pay back Caesar’s things to Caesar, they also gave “God’s things to God.” (Matthew 22:21) Because of this, their integrity was challenged.​—2 Timothy 3:12.

¹⁷ The result? They both ‘prevailed’ and ‘stumbled.’ They stumbled in that they were persecuted and suffered intensely, some even being killed. But they prevailed in that, for the most part, they remained faithful. Yes, they conquered the world, just as Jesus conquered the world. (John 16:33) Moreover, they never stopped preaching, even if they found themselves in prison or in a concentration camp. In so doing, they ‘imparted understanding to the many.’ Despite persecution, in most lands ruled over by the king of the north, the numbers of Jehovah’s Witnesses increased. Thanks to the faithfulness of “those having insight,” an ever expanding part of the “great crowd” has appeared in those lands.​—Revelation 7:9-14.

18. What “little help” has been received by the anointed remnant living under the king of the north?

¹⁸ Speaking of the persecution of God’s people, the angel foretold: “But when they are made to stumble they will be helped with a little help.” (Daniel 11:34a) How did this happen? For one thing, the triumph of the king of the south in the second world war resulted in huge relief for Christians living under the rival king. (Compare Revelation 12:15, 16.) Then, those who were persecuted by the successor king experienced relief from time to time, and as the Cold War wound down, many leaders came to realize that faithful Christians are no threat and thus granted them legal recognition.c Great help has come, too, in the swelling numbers of the great crowd, who have responded to the faithful preaching of anointed ones and have helped them, as described at Matthew 25:34-40.

A Cleansing for God’s People

19. (a) How did some “join themselves to them by means of smoothness”? (b) What is meant by the expression “until the time of the end”? (See footnote.)

¹⁹ Not all who manifested an interest in serving God during this time had good motives. The angel warned: “Many will certainly join themselves to them by means of smoothness. And some of those having insight will be made to stumble, in order to do a refining work because of them and to do a cleansing and to do a whitening, until the time of the end; because it is yet for the time appointed.”d (Daniel 11:34b, 35) Some showed an interest in the truth but were not willing to make a genuine dedication to serve God. Others who seemed to accept the good news were really spies for the authorities. A report from one land reads: “Some of these unscrupulous characters were avowed Communists who had crept into the Lord’s organization, made a great display of zeal, and had even been appointed to high positions of service.”

20. Why did Jehovah allow some faithful Christians to “stumble” because of hypocritical infiltrators?

²⁰ The infiltrators caused some faithful ones to fall into the hands of the authorities. Why did Jehovah allow such things to happen? For a refining, a cleansing. Just as Jesus “learned obedience from the things he suffered,” so these faithful souls learned endurance from the testing of their faith. (Hebrews 5:8; James 1:2, 3; compare Malachi 3:3.) They are thus ‘refined, cleansed, and whitened.’ Great rejoicing awaits such faithful ones when the appointed time arrives for their endurance to be rewarded.

“He will actually go back and hurl denunciations against the holy covenant and act effectively; and he will have to go back and will give consideration to those leaving the holy covenant.” (Daniel 11:30) So prophesied the angel, and so it proved to be.

The King Acts Effectively

 9. What led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, and how did he “act effectively”?

⁹ After the war, in 1918, the victorious Allies imposed a punitive peace treaty on Germany, apparently designed to keep the German people in near starvation for the indefinite future. As a result, after staggering for some years in extreme distress, Germany was ripe for the rise of Adolf Hitler. He attained supreme power in 1933 and immediately launched a vicious attack against “the holy covenant,” represented by the anointed brothers of Jesus Christ. In this he acted effectively against these loyal Christians, cruelly persecuting many of them.

11. How did the king of the north “profane the sanctuary” and “remove the constant feature”?

¹¹ So successful was Hitler that he went to war, as the angel correctly foretold. “And there will be arms that will stand up, proceeding from him; and they will actually profane the sanctuary, the fortress, and remove the constant feature.” (Daniel 11:31a) In ancient Israel, the sanctuary was part of the temple in Jerusalem. However, when the Jews rejected Jesus, Jehovah rejected them and their temple. (Matthew 23:37–24:2) Since the first century, Jehovah’s temple has actually been a spiritual one, with its holy of holies in the heavens and with a spiritual courtyard on earth in which the anointed brothers of Jesus, the High Priest, serve. From the 1930’s, the great crowd have worshiped in association with the anointed remnant; hence, they are said to serve ‘in God’s temple.’ (Revelation 7:9, 15; 11:1, 2; Hebrews 9:11, 12, 24) The earthly courtyard of the temple was profaned by the relentless persecution of the anointed remnant and their companions in lands where the king of the north held sway. So severe was the persecution that the constant feature​—the public sacrifice of praise to Jehovah’s name—​was removed. (Hebrews 13:15) Still, history shows that despite horrible suffering, faithful anointed Christians, together with the “other sheep,” kept on preaching underground.​—John 10:16.