Resolution
1. Where were the foregoing articles programed for delivery as a speech, and under what circumstances?
THE two foregoing articles were programed to be delivered together as the keynote speech by N. H. Knorr, president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, at 3 p.m., Tuesday, August 1, 1950, to the many thousands expected to pack the Yankee Stadium, New York city, in attendance at the international convention or “Theocracy’s Increase” Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The material was kindly handed us in advance for publishing in this issue of our magazine, that the printed speech appearing in our columns might be released to the conventioners right after Mr. Knorr delivered the speech and followed it up with his presentation of the Resolution below for adoption:
RESOLUTION
2. What made it opportune for such a Resolution?
2 ON THIS momentous occasion, when we are gathered in a representative body of tens of thousands from more than 50 lands here at Yankee Stadium, New York city, to carry on the international “Theocracy’s Increase” Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, we find it most opportune this 1st day of August, 1950, to make this Declaration:
3. Who is the source of authority? What is his purpose?
3 WHEREAS the God of heaven and earth, whose name is Jehovah, is the Source of all rightful authority and power and has recorded on the pages of the Holy Bible his purpose to restore his righteous Theocratic government to this earth (Psalm 62:11; Matthew 6:9, 10); and
4. What events bearing on world domination marked A.D. 1914?
4 WHEREAS the “seven times” of uninterrupted domination of the earth by Gentile nations expired A.D. 1914 and now the Bible prophecy and its fulfillment prove together that then Jehovah God again took up his power to reign over the earth and to this end he enthroned in the heavens his Son Jesus Christ, who had proved his integrity to God even to death on a torture stake at Calvary and who had thereby established his right to rule as King in his Father’s name (Daniel 4:25, 32; Luke 21:24; Revelation 11:15 to 12:10); and
5. In what period is the old world now, and what draws near?
5 WHEREAS Almighty God has decreed the end of this world and has promised us “new heavens and a new earth” to form a righteous new world in which his enthroned Son will be King, and hence this old world has been in its “time of the end” since A.D. 1914 and the “battle of that great day of God Almighty” draws near for removing the old and installing the new world (2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 16:14-16; 21:1-5); and
6. How do nations oppose God’s purpose? Exposing themselves to what?
6 WHEREAS the nations of this world refuse the warning which is set forth in God’s Word and verified by all the perilous conditions on earth, and they show opposition to God’s purpose by extending their own world rule with which they seek to align all peoples, and they ignore, hinder and persecute the faithful minority that preaches the good news of God’s established kingdom; and thereby they put themselves in the way of destruction by the “act of God” which will mark the close of this “time of the end”;
7, 8. What do we therefore declare, and what confess?
7 THEREFORE we here, before God and man, declare our unqualified support of Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and our allegiance to his kingdom now established in the hands of his Son Jesus Christ.
8 WE CONFESS that originally by his Son God created this earth and man upon it and that after mankind rebelled against divine government God sent his Son to prove his right to govern a new world and also to die sacrificially that all who become his subjects might live forever in the new world; and so we gladly confess that God by his Son’s sacrifice has bought us and we owe our lives and our complete devotion to God and his King and hence our obedience to God and his reigning Son comes first.—1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23.
9. What do we acknowledge, what denounce, and what protest?
9 WE ACKNOWLEDGE that Jehovah God has according to his Word made us his witnesses, and we are obligated to carry out this commission as Jehovah’s witnesses to the end of this world (Isaiah 43:10-12, Am. Stan. Ver.); and, being for God and his kingdom by Christ, we could never be communistic. We denounce the false accusation by our enemies that we are communists. We disavow all connection with or support of communism or any other political element of this old world. Moreover, we make united protest against the persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses by the communist powers and by other governmental powers; and we declare the persecution of any religious minority by political governments and by powerful religious hierarchies to be wrong and unchristian and we will have no part in it.
10. What will we render, so keeping unspotted from the world?
10 While rendering first to God what is God’s, we will as long as this world lasts render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, leading peaceable, well-ordered lives as Christians, not engaging in the conflict of opposite political and social ideologies, not intermeddling in worldly politics, and not engaging in any subversion even under persecution, that we may ‘keep ourselves unspotted from this world’ till its end.—Romans 12:18; 1 Peter 2:19-21; James 1:27.
11. What will we unitedly continue to do?
11 IN OBEDIENCE to the divine command we will unitedly continue to preach “this gospel of the kingdom in all the world for a witness unto all nations”, warning both rulers and peoples of the consequences of their opposition to God’s increasing kingdom, and educating and encouraging all lovers of righteousness, truth and life to take refuge under God’s kingdom by Christ and to wait confidently for it soon to rid the earth of Satanic rule and all wickedness and to usher in the everlasting New World of Theocratic rule, justice, peace and prosperity.
12. How was the Resolution to be handled for benefit of conventioners knowing only foreign tongues?
12 The full report of the assembly’s action upon the above Resolution we hope to publish as early as possible in The Watchtower. We may add that the Resolution was slated for translation into French, Spanish, German, Russian, Hollandish, Greek, Hungarian, Danish, Ukrainian, Slovak, Italian, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Armenian, and Polish, to be presented at the foreign-language meetings of the assembly on the mornings of Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, for the benefit of all those attending who spoke those languages but could not understand the English. The Society hopes these truths will reach to the ends of the earth.
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YANKEE STADIUM, NEW YORK CITY