Theocratic Aid To Kingdom Publishers

Lesson 90

JEHOVAH'S VINDICATION OVER RELIGION

Satan the Devil started it in Eden. Thence it spread with the increasing human race. Down till the time of the Flood, a span of more than sixteen centuries, only three men stand out as entirely free from it. In the post-Deluge era it sprang up and flourished and spread from Nimrod's Babylon into Egypt, Assyria, Persia, India, China, Greece, and Rome. It fused with apostate Christianity during the fourth century after Christ. It rocketed to new heights on the crest of the wave of blood that "church swords" spilled and caused to roll through the dark Middle Ages. It still rides high in the esteem of men in this twentieth century, and both rulers and ruled clamor for more and more of it. It will soar to its dazzling zenith of influence and power in the postwar period, but at the very time of its seeming attainment of final "peace and safety" it will be plummeted down to the dust of the earth never to rise again. (1 Thess. 5:3) Why? Because Jehovah God will end it —this unclean thing called religion.

It is the voice of faith in God's Word that speaks on this wise. His Word abounds with testimony that the Almighty God will be vindicated over religion. There was that prophetic drama of its fall made in the days of the Judean king, Jehoshaphat. Note the divine record: "It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. And when [the Israelite singers] began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped." (2 Chron. 20:1,22-24) Moab and Ammon, representing the commercial and political wings of Satan's organization, made league with the inhabitants of Mount Seir and in aggression against God's holy nation of Israel. By the Lord's maneuvering Moab and Ammon turned on Seir and destroyed her. She pictures religion, and her defeat at the hands of Moab and Ammon forecasts religion's overthrow by politics and commerce, at Jehovah's causing of confusion among them.

The same disaster to hypocritical religion is shown even more strikingly in the seventeenth chapter of Revelation: "The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will." That is Jehovah's will concerning religion, and the start of Armageddon will be His confusing of Satan's hosts and turning world rulers against religion. His will is also that Armageddon's end will see the end of religion's creator, Satan the Devil.

He foretold that at the long-past time of religion's beginning, declaring to the Serpent Satan: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." —Gen. 3:15.

An abundant array of Scriptural evidence to the foregoing could be brought forth, but a different aspect of Jehovah's vindication over religion now claims our attention. The vindication has not entirely awaited Armageddon's climaxing storm. Three men prior to the Flood were mentioned as standing firm for God's cause and against religion. Following the Noachian deluge a continuous line of faithful men can be traced down through the centuries of religion's heyday. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel  —the listing could go on and on. By their course of integrity the religious Devil's defiant challenge that God could not put men on earth that would not turn aside from true worship to religion was flung back into Satan's teeth. They contributed to Jehovah's vindication over religion.

Then, after more than four thousand years of religion, the Logos divested himself of heavenly glory and lived on the earth as a perfect human creature for thirty-three and a half years, all to Jehovah's vindication. He steadfastly resisted the hottest religious pressure and persecution Satan could mete out, and proved faithful even unto ignominious and painful death. If the Devil gloated, how heavy a blow did he get with the triumphant raising of Christ Jesus from the dead as Jehovah's Vindicator! —Job 19: 25, Am. Stan. Ver., margin.

But with the passing of Jesus from the earthly scene religion did not completely engulf all human creatures. He left behind apostles and disciples that caught up the gospel torch and held it high during the first century after Christ. At the end of that time God's written Word, the Bible, was completed, and in the early part of the following century the canon of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures

was brought together and put in codex or book form. Thus future Christians were fortified with a guide that is "profit able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works". (2 Tim. 3: 16, 17) Though a blessing to Christians, this glorious flood of light from God's Word added not a little to the woes and plagues falling upon religion and upon her practitioner. Why was this so? Long ago Jesus put his finger on the answer: "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." (John 3:19-21) The shining Bible light did not manifest the fruits of religion as "wrought in God", but cast the dark deeds of this religionized old world in a light of condemnation. But religion, try desperately as she did, was never able to snuff out this light that so exposed her.

Though weakly at times, the gospel torch continued to burn down through the centuries, unquenched by religion's flood of opposition. Faithful witnesses of Jehovah continued to triumph over religion, by God's grace, and the contribution of creatures to the cause of vindication swelled with passing time. The twentieth century, and what do we find? Religion everywhere! saturating every nation! And still they cry out for more of it. Like a darkening pall it hangs heavy over the earth. Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people. (Isa. 60: 2) Under religion's scourge the people's hearts have been broken, their minds taken captive and imprisoned by demonism, and their spirits made heavy with mourning. Jehovah's worship by the masses of humankind has been laid waste and desolated by religion's blitz!

But what of the vindication issue? Does the gospel torch still flicker a bit? No, it doesn't flicker just a bit now; but it burns stronger than ever! Christ the King has been enthroned, is at the temple, and sends forth his army of gospel-preachers. Their assault during this day of Jehovah against religious strongholds spoils heretofore pleasant pastures and leaves in its wake desolation and a chorus of painful wails: "A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: and the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?" —Joel 2:3-11.

The emphatic answer is, No religionists nor vestige of religion can! The end of the day of Jehovah will see the earth cleansed. And even now, as shown by the foregoing, the gospel-preaching work is a destroying plague. Like a religion-consuming flame the message of the Kingdom spreads. (Joel 2:3-5; Jer. 23:29) It

consumes religion as fire does stubble, cuts to ribbons her doctrines as hail does foliage, and sweeps away religious lies as a flood does all obstacles in its path. (Isa. 28:17) Jehovah does this in gaining vindication over religion, and he uses his earthly witnesses in that "strange work". They do more than pull down and destroy religion: they build and plant. They serve as reconstructors of Jehovah's worship, which religion has wasted and desolated. Jehovah's spirit anoints them as such, and through them he 'binds up the brokenhearted, proclaims liberty to the captives, opens the prison-houses of religion, comforts those that mourn, gives beauty for ashes, oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness'. In the reconstruction work anointed worshipers are joined by a multitude of good-will "strangers" to God's true worship, and the ranks of those contributing to Jehovah's vindication over religion in these "last days" swells to unequaled numerical power. —Isa. 61:1-6; Jer. 1: 10.

The commission of the reconstructors carries heavy responsibility. They must war against religion in wisdom, deftly wielding the "sword of the spirit". God's Word must be quick and powerful and sharp in their trained hands in order to expose and topple over religious strongholds. (Heb. 4:12; 2 Cor. 10: 3-5; Matt. 10: 26; Eph. 5:13) This means the Kingdom publisher must study and avail himself of each and every Theocratic aid provided. With this clear insight of the issue of vindication and the centuries-long clash of religion and true worship, the Kingdom publisher will rejoice to accept training from the lord for the work of undoing religion's ravages and engaging in the reconstruction work. And since this is the aim of this book it will be joyfully received and diligently studied by those interested in Jehovah's vindication.

Theocratic Aid to Kingdom Publishers gives information concerning religion, that the Kingdom publisher might 'not be ignorant of Satan's devices'; it instructs in the use of God's Word, the various translations of it that have been

handed down, and the use of Bible helps; it shows how to assemble Bible information and frame it into forceful argument, and how to orally present that argument with greatest effect; it counsels in the art of refutation, by which process religious falsehoods are swept aside, and, with the way cleared, the reconstructor is trained "to build, and to plant" in fulfillment of his commission. Hence, O Kingdom publisher, be diligent in its study, and then in application of knowledge gained by 'discipling the nations'. Thus you will share in Jehovah's sure vindication over religion.