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From Small Beginnings to Spiritual ProsperityThe Watchtower—1964 | July 15
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When I look back over my years in God’s service to 1920, I can clearly see how Jehovah’s organization has, from a small beginning, grown to great spiritual prosperity. From our small group of only about 8,000 ministers in 1920, I have witnessed a growth to more than one million ministers who are preaching in 194 lands and in 162 languages. This indeed has been a happy experience. I have seen Jehovah lift his dedicated people from bondage and restraint in 1918 to freedom, making them the greatest body in the world that is proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom and teaching his Scriptural truths. Jehovah has blessed his people with marvelous spiritual prosperity.
The growth of our printing facilities since 1920 is another indication of Jehovah’s blessing on his organization. When we began printing at 35 Myrtle Avenue, we had “the old battleship” press and one hand-fed flatbed press. Now we have thirty-one presses, with more being added. Instead of only three floors with 3,000 square feet of floor space, we have 22 square blocks of floor space. In 1920 we could bind 2,000 books a day; today we bind as many as 43,400 in a single day. In 1920 we printed 60,000 copies of each issue of The Watchtower, with all being hand-fed into the small flatbed press. Our present capacity with all presses running steady is 1,250,000 magazines a day. What we did in one year back in 1922 in the way of printing magazines we can now do in one day. This marvelous expansion is all for the glory and honor of Jehovah God.
To witness this growth of Jehovah’s modern-day organization from a small beginning, as I have, has been a great blessing. The great increase in our capacity to print Bible publications as well as our ability to distribute those publications has made possible the fulfillment of the prophecy that the good news of God’s kingdom would be proclaimed in all the world as a witness to the nations. (Matt. 24:14) Much has been accomplished, but the end is not yet. More is to be done until Jehovah vindicates his name by bringing the present wicked system of things to its end and ushering in his promised new era of peace and righteousness.
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Questions From ReadersThe Watchtower—1964 | July 15
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Questions From Readers
● Genesis 2:1, 2 says: “The heavens and the earth and all their army came to their completion. And by the seventh day God came to the completion of his work that he had made, and he proceeded to rest on the seventh day from all his work that he had made.” Does this mean that Jehovah stopped his creative work also in the heavens, since the end of the sixth creative day? And if so, then how can this be harmonized with Jesus’ words: “My Father has kept working until now, and I keep working”? (John 5:17)—G. G., U.S.A.
There is no discrepancy between Genesis 2:1, 2 and Jesus’ words in John 5:17. Jehovah God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, was working long before he ever created our heavens and earth, which had to do with mankind. He occupied himself directly for six long creative days in producing that which pertains to man. At the close of the sixth creative day he ceased from such material creative activity in behalf of mankind. However, all his heavenly activity that has to do with all his invisible angelic realm continued as well as any other activity far removed from the realm of mankind.
During this seventh creative day God has been working even with respect to mankind; not in a material work, but in a spiritual way. This has been by his bringing forth a “new creation.” “Consequently if anyone is in union with Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away, look! new things have come into existence.” (2 Cor. 5:17) Here the apostle Paul speaks of “a new creation,” viewing the 144,000 “called and chosen and faithful” from among mankind who rule with Jesus Christ, not collectively, but as individuals. The crowning work of Jehovah’s creative art, “a new creation,” is really a spiritual creation, the final realm of which is invisible to human eyes. Moreover, the purpose for which “a new creation” is brought forth to the total number of 144,001 is also for the doing of a merciful work demanding immediate action with regard to dying mankind, who need to be “set free from enslavement to corruption.” Such an uplifting work is lawful, as indicated by Jesus Christ when he asked the question to those versed in the Law and to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful on the sabbath to cure or not?” and then answered it positively by performing a healing miracle and raising another question: “Who of you, if his son or bull falls into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?” So God’s work in behalf of a spiritual “new creation” is not in violation of his seventh day of cessation from the material works in behalf of mankind.—Rev. 17:14; Rom. 8:21; Luke 14:3-5.
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