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Christians Live the TruthThe Watchtower—1954 | October 1
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right and keeping a good conscience.—1 Pet. 2:19, 20.
30. How do we benefit ourselves and our children by having pure hearts and keeping close to Jehovah’s organization?
30 Of all things that we do in our lives, the main thing we wish to do is to be pleasing to Jehovah. We want to do that which is agreeable to God. Therefore we stick close to the organization that Jehovah has built up and do what his Word tells us to do. We must avoid the evil influences of this old world and not learn morals from its environment. We are obliged to do with our utmost ability the things that Jehovah would have us to do. Fill the heart with truth, then truth will be spoken. (Matt. 12:34; Phil. 4:8) It is clear to us that Jehovah searches the innermost thoughts down into the depths of our hearts, examining our motives to see whether they are right or wrong. If we are telling the truth we can expect to have the favor of Jehovah. And our children will gain his favor too, for they will see in their parents the proper example and will be truthful before Jehovah too. Of course, training children to tell the truth early in life is essential.
31. Why are truthfulness and uprightness necessary among those who make up the New World society?
31 True, we make mistakes; but we count on the mercy of Jehovah God and the love of our brothers, as we do to the best of our ability the work that Jehovah God has given to his New World society in these later times. There is only one group of people today who keep integrity and who uphold the principles of truth and righteousness in God’s Word, and these are those who make up the New World society. It is right and pleasing before God for those who are his servants to be pure and upright and clean, to tell the truth, to deal justly and honestly with their brothers, and to preserve the peace and the unity of the organization. Let us allow no wrongdoing among those who associate with Jehovah’s theocratic organization. Let us deal justly with one another and learn how to live for the new world now, so we can live in the new world then when it is in complete operation.—Eph. 4:15, 16.
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Chedorlaomer Really Was ThereThe Watchtower—1954 | October 1
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Chedorlaomer Really Was There
Many men like to scoff at the Bible, particularly at the book of Genesis. As an example, Genesis 14 tells of King Chedorlaomer (Ched-or-la-oʹmer) of Elam fighting with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and some neighboring sovereigns, taking Lot captive, and of Lot’s being rescued by Abram. The modern supercritical Interpreter’s Bible calls this a “tale” of “unhistorical character,” a “narrative” from an age in which “the historic sense of Judaism had sunk almost to zero.”
It was reported on July 25, this year, that archaeologist Nelson Glueck, president of Hebrew Union College, is now convinced that he has found the trail of destruction left by Chedorlaomer across the Negeb, or desert area in the south of Palestine. He has discovered a dozen ruins of “Bronze Age” communities crossing the desert from Sodom to the present Israeli border near Kadesh Barnea. He reports that the type of pottery that was in use in these communities dates them as at the time of Abraham, and he believes that all of them were destroyed about the time of Chedorlaomer’s attack. “This is an indication of the remarkable historical memory recorded in the Bible,” he said. “It is not my purpose to prove the Bible right, any more that I want to prove it wrong. But the story of this invasion must have been written down 1,000 years after it happened. The evidence I am finding in the Negeb is pretty good substantiation for it.” The likelihood that this information was preserved in written form for most of that time, rather than being trusted to memory, as Dr. Glueck thought, even further substantiates the accuracy of the Biblical account. One after another the critics’ arguments continue to fall!
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