-
Questions From ReadersThe Watchtower—1958 | March 15
-
-
who commands us that nothing be added to his holy Word nor anything be taken away from it.—Deut. 4:2; 12:32.
This truth is supported by the fact that in the Hebrew Scriptures the combination “Jehovah Elohím” (or Jehovah God) occurs thirty-six times from Genesis 2:4 onward, through Jonah 4:6, which reads: “And Jehovah God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his evil case.” (AS) In Genesis, chapter 2, the expression “Jehovah Elohím” occurs eleven times; and in chapter 3 nine times, making a total of twenty times for just those two chapters. The other occurrences of the expression “Jehovah Elohím” are in Exodus 9:30; 2 Samuel 7:22, 25; 2 Kings 19:19; Jonah 4:6; Psalms 72:18; 84:12; 1 Chronicles 17:16; 28:20; 29:1; 2 Chronicles 1:9 (twice); 2Ch 6:41, 42; 26:18, and Jeremiah 10:10. Besides this, the Hebrew expression “Jehovah ha-Elohím” (meaning Jehovah, The [true] God) occurs six times, namely, in 1 Samuel 6:20; Nehemiah 8:6; 9:7; 1 Chronicles 22:1, 19; 2 Chronicles 32:16, as shown in the New World Translation.
Hence the expression Jehovah God, which he himself has caused to be recorded in his holy Word by the inspiration of his spirit, we are divinely authorized to use with reference to him. We are not belittling him when we use an expression that has proceeded out of his own mouth. We should not call “defiled” and “belittling” the thing that God has presented as clean and honoring to himself. Not all people throughout the earth know what the name of God is; nor do all people know that the name Jehovah applies to God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and the Maker of man. Therefore the expression Jehovah God is a help to them in showing that this Jehovah about whom we preach is the only living and true God, whom all mankind must worship through Jesus Christ his Son to gain everlasting life in his new world.
The publications of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania and the representatives of this Society will therefore continue to use the expression Jehovah God to his honor and exaltation, together with all the other expressions that Jehovah’s spirit moved his holy men of old to employ for identifying Him in his sacred Record, the Bible.
-
-
Israel’s Attraction Not ReligiousThe Watchtower—1958 | March 15
-
-
Israel’s Attraction Not Religious
Many professed Christians claim to see an analogy between the return of the Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem in 537 B.C. and the return of the Jews to Israel today. However, back there the incentive was religious; the Jews who returned and those who remained all lived in the same land of Babylon, and those who returned had to face hardships rather than improved economic and political conditions. Today, however, it is quite apparent that the opposite is true; the main reasons are political and economic. Proof for this is seen, on the one hand, in the fact that as anti-Semitism rises immigration to Israel increases, as noted in the recent and current returning of Jews from Hungary, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Poland, all of whom have reason to hope to improve their economic and political condition. On the other hand, the records show that during the first seven years of the existence of the State of Israel, upward of 5,000 more Jews returned from Israel to Western lands, where conditions are more favorable, than went from those lands to Israel during that time. Obviously, no comparison can be made between the purposes and motives of those who returned to Israel in 537 B.C. and those who are returning in modern times.
-
-
Indonesian Official Evaluates “The Watchtower”The Watchtower—1958 | March 15
-
-
Indonesian Official Evaluates “The Watchtower”
When the Society’s branch at Djakarta, Indonesia, applied for a paper license to begin printing Awake! magazine there in the Indonesian language, an official of the Ministry of Information said: “I consider the Menara Pengawal [The Watchtower] one of the best magazines in Indonesia and I am only too glad to help with the paper license for your new magazine.”—1958 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
-