16. While doing good, why can we commend our souls to God, and what does this mean for us?

¹⁶ Not feeling condemned by God, the suffering Christians can have confidence that he will not shove them away but that they can commend their souls to him for safekeeping. He is the Creator of all souls. If he judges you worth saving to eternal life in the new world, he can re-create you as a soul in the resurrection from the dead. He can thus preserve your right to life as a soul for the new world. He does not forget your record of faithful service to him, and he will never deny you what it deserves. “For God is not unrighteous so as to forget your work and the love you showed for his name, in that you have ministered to the holy ones and continue ministering.” (Heb. 6:10, NW) Hence God protects your right to the promised life in the new world. All the while, then, that you are doing good, you can confidently commend your souls to him, knowing that they are in safe hands, and whatever men may do to you they cannot really harm the eternal interests of your souls. How wonderful it will be, when Armageddon strikes for the execution of divine judgment, to be found doing God’s will and with our souls fully commended to our faithful Creator! Only in that way may we expect to survive Armageddon.

17. Why are we confident the end of this world will come early?

¹⁷ We can, then, confidently face the early end of this world. We are sure of its ending, just as Noah was sure of the early ending of the ancient world of the ungodly, because Jehovah God had told him so. Yet there is someone to object and say: “Ah, but when Peter said, ‘The complete end of all things has drawn close,’ the end was nineteen hundred years away, and how can you be sure that the complete end is not another nineteen centuries away?” Well, Peter’s letter, because it was written about seven years before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 (A.D.), may have induced him somewhat to write that way, but today Christendom is the modern counterpart of unfaithful Jerusalem, and today Christendom is in even worse anguish than Jerusalem was before its end. Because we see fulfilled since 1914 all the features of the sign of the complete end which Jesus described for us in his prophecy, we have every confidence that Peter’s words now have their final and complete application. (Matt. 24:3-14) The complete end of all things of this world has drawn close, and the time remaining is most precious now.

18. How can we give proof of our early expectation, and why do we give such proof?

¹⁸ If this is our confidence, then we must prove we expect the complete end shortly. How can we? By the way we live and act. The proof of our early expectation we are determined to give, in order to show our faith in God and to inspire confidence in others and so induce them to right action.

What to Do in the Face of the End

1. Why is the Bible doctrine of the world’s end scientific, and why will Christendom be the first part of it to end?

SECTARIAN religionists in the past persuaded themselves that the destruction of the sun, moon, stars and earth was at hand, and did many foolish things that brought ridicule upon them and made the subject of the end of the world one that provoked a smile of incredulity or that was carefully avoided. The things done were foolish because they were not the things which God’s Word tells Christians who are facing the real end to do. The subject of the end of the world is not a crazy, crackbrained idea meant for only religious fanatics to snap up, resulting in silly conduct that brings the jeers of the world. The end of the world is scientific. It does not spell the destruction of God’s material universe which he spent measureless time to bring to glorious existence. Since “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork”, why should he destroy these scientific marvels? He will not do so. Let us rid the doctrine of the end of the world from the silly, unscriptural interpretations which Christendom has attached to it and which have led to unreasonable conduct. The end of the world does not mean the destruction of our globe and of the material creations in the sky. It means the end of Satan the Devil’s wicked organization invisible and visible. Christendom has made herself a part of his organization, although she claims to be the “house of God”. For this hypocrisy she will receive the severer judgment and will be the first part of this world to end.