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Practical Wisdom in the Space AgeThe Watchtower—1959 | November 15
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strengthless, contaminated salt fit only to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. Yes, it means destruction.
31 We must continue to be the “salt of the earth” all the time. (Matt. 5:13) It is practical wisdom first to sit down and figure out the expense of undertaking discipleship. It is impractical wisdom, therefore, after we have undertaken it, to refuse to pay the further expense and continue in discipleship to the end. Worldly wisdom may make it appear to be the best thing for one to drop out, but such wisdom is not practical. It is not good sense, for it dictates what may be selfishly advantageous for the time being but what will mean disgrace and destruction in the end. Practical wisdom never hesitates to pay the running expenses until the entire cost is met and the glorious reward of discipleship is ours! We must follow God’s Lamb no matter where he goes!—Rev. 14:4.
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Displaying Practical Wisdom as Sons of LightThe Watchtower—1959 | November 15
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Displaying Practical Wisdom as Sons of Light
1. What are we obligated to display for the sake of sheeplike people, and what course does this mean for us in this space age?
IT IS our obligation to display practical wisdom for the sake of the sheeplike people who need faithful shepherds. We dare not be like Bildad the Shuhite in the prophetic drama of Job. This Bildad did not help to solve afflicted Job’s problem. Rather, he cast doubts upon Job’s integrity and urged another course of action for Job. So Job said to Bildad: “O how much help you have been to one without power! O how you have saved an arm that is without strength! How much you have advised one that is without wisdom, and you have made practical wisdom itself known to the multitude!” May such a word not need to be said reproachfully to us in this space age. If we desire to prove ourselves real friends and sincere comforters, and not “physicians of no value” to the sheeplike ones in their affliction today, we have to make known the course of practical wisdom to them. (Job 26:1-3; 13:4) That course is for us to interest them, not in outer space, but in the heavens where they can lay up bomb-proof treasure with Jehovah God and his Christ.
2. On the impracticalness of modern worldly programs what did a manager of space programs recently say to a conference of scientists?
2 On the impracticalness of modern worldly programs, Dr. A. R. J. Grosch caused an uproar at the conference of scientists at California Institute of Technology when he, as manager of space programs for the International Business Machines Corporation, shouted: “Our missile program is the swan song of a dying civilization. We don’t need better missiles to destroy each other—the ones we have now will do the job adequately. And there isn’t any point in zooming off into outer space. We could spend the money better solving problems here at home—taking care of our overcrowded, underfed millions. If we did that, we wouldn’t need to find new worlds to colonize.” He added: “We are in a bad way, I’m afraid, when we try to solve our problem by mass killing—or by paddling off to a bigger island in space.”—New York Times, page 2, March 21, 1959.
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