40. What wise counsel is offered to all people? Learning about the Kingdom, what should all persons do, and to what end?

⁴⁰ Those living at this time and who take advantage of this arrangement have wonderful prospects ahead of them; yes, a blessed lot indeed. So work for it. Study God’s Word. Fill your mind with the truths about God’s kingdom. In the world today, what is of any value? On the other hand, try to visualize a new world free from all sin, wickedness and death. This new world offers you everything. It is worth grasping, for it is what the heavenly kingdom of God is now proceeding to accomplish. Do not cast all the evidence aside. Be cautious, sensible. You have heard the testimony from God’s Word, the Bible. It costs nothing but a little time on your part to investigate thoughtfully, carefully. Whether you are a Catholic or a Protestant, a Jew, or whatever you are, study God’s Word, learn of his purposes. Why rely upon men any longer? They have proved false respecting their views about God’s kingdom. Why cling to old, worn-out, false doctrines offered by the world and its religious leaders? Use your mind that God has given you and, in the light of his Word, determine for yourself what is right and what is wrong. (Ps. 119:105; John 17:17, NW) The world is proved wrong in its views about God’s kingdom. His kingdom has come, and world leaders are asleep to its presence. Shake loose from the many erroneous views and take notice of the many facts in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. (Psalm 2; Dan. 2:44, AS) No matter where you live, Jehovah’s witnesses will be glad to help you learn more about this. And then when you learn more about God’s kingdom, express your love for your neighbor by talking about it to him so that he too can learn of it. By doing this you will reap many blessings under God’s kingdom that has come and that soon will sweep from the entire earth Satan’s wicked organization, visible and invisible. “The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.”—Isa. 2:11, AS.

Questions From Readers

● How can we explain Luke 22:44 concerning Jesus’ sweat’s becoming like blood?—L. G., France.

Jesus was under great emotional stress in the garden of Gethsemane and it was during agonized praying that this unusual occurrence took place. Luke 22:44 states (NW): “Getting into an agony he continued praying more earnestly; and his sweat became as drops of blood falling to the ground.” It does not say that his sweat became literal blood, but only “as drops of blood”. Under the heading “Gethsemane—Watching and Praying”, the February 15, 1901, Watchtower stated: “Luke, who was a physician, says that he [Christ] was ‘in an agony’, a contest, a struggle, the language used in the Greek implying a struggle of increasing force and severity, so that ‘his sweat became as it were great drops of blood;’ and this bloody sweat is not unknown to physicians today, altho very rare. It marks an extreme tension of feeling—sorrow nigh unto death.”

More light on just what this may have been is shed by modern science, which, far from contradicting what the Bible says on this matter, shows that his sweat could have become “as drops of blood”. For example, the August 30, 1952, issue of Science News Letter reported: “Some people really do seem to ‘sweat blood’. The red color in their sweat comes from a pigment produced by their saprocrine glands. These skin glands normally exude unnoticeable quantities of milky white fluid, but sometimes they secrete a pigment, or dye, into the normally colorless fluid. When the perspiration dries, the pigment remains and attracts attention. . . . Sweating red, or any other color, is known as chromidrosis. Some cases obviously are caused by chemicals or drugs taken into the body. For hundreds of years it has been known that workers in copper mines may have green sweat, and that patients may show red sweat after taking certain medicines. In these instances, however, sweating over the entire body is colored, and the external origin of the color has long been apparent. The type of chromidrosis that remained unexplained until now is limited to small patches on the body. It usually occurs in the armpits, but may occur anywhere on the skin. It is seen only in adults, often in response to emotions. The sweat may be green, blue, black, yellow, brown or blood-red. In the latter case the condition has sometimes been regarded literally by laymen as ‘sweating blood’.”

Whether this is the specific explanation of what happened in Jesus’ case, there is, of course, no way of knowing. But it shows definite scientific evidence that it is possible for the sweat to be “as drops of blood”. And the above-quoted scientific news item shows that this unusual occurrence takes place “often in response to emotions”. Certainly at the time of Jesus’ agonized praying in Gethsemane sufficient emotional disturbance was present to call forth the response of the sweat’s becoming “as drops of blood”.

● Some scholars claim that the letter to the Ephesians was not to those at Ephesus but was the letter to the Laodiceans, mentioned at Colossians 4:16, and some ground for this, they say, is that the words “which are at Ephesus” found in the King James Version of Ephesians 1:1 are an addition to the text. Are they correct in their position?—H. J., Chile.