Flight to Safety with the New World Society

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Society</strong></p> <p id="p2" data-pid="2" class="sa">The speech below (in two parts) was delivered by the president of the Watch Tower Society to 134,333 attending the New World Society Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Yankee Stadium, New York city, on the afternoon of its seventh day, Saturday, July 25, 1953, and was featured by the release of the Society’s new book entitled “New Heavens and a New Earth”.</p> <p id="p3" data-pid="3" class="sa">“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, then understand that the desolating of her has drawn near. Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains, and let those in the midst of her [Jerusalem] withdraw.”—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/0/0" data-bid="1-1" class="b">Luke 21:20, 21</a>, <em>NW.</em></p> <p id="p36" data-pid="36" class="qu"> 1. For those who hang on to what things is there increasing peril, and where does safety lie? Why?</p> <p id="p4" data-pid="4" data-rel-pid="[36]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="1"></span>THE founding and building of the new and lasting things go forward successfully while the condemning and destroying of the old things proceed. When the demolishing of the old things is completed shortly, there will be no chaotic beginning for the new, there will be no need for men to start at the level of the early caveman, but the way will be fully cleared for the developing of the new to the grandeur of a paradise. It is a time of increasing peril. It is also a time of great opportunity. The peril steadily increases for those who hang on to the old in defiance of its being condemned. Mankind’s only safety lies in speedy flight to the new, and that without delay. It is with the new that the great opportunity lies for men to survive the end of the old and enjoy a future of enduring happiness, peace and love. The new things are not those that vainglorious men of this world conceitedly promise to build. The new things are those of the Almighty One who sits on the throne of the universe. For nineteen centuries his words have stood recorded: “Look! I am making all things new.” (<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/1/0" data-bid="2-1" class="b">Rev. 21:5</a>, <em>NW</em>) Today he is backing up his words with deeds. The new things are being made. Happy are those people who see them being constructed and who flee to them. Safety and preservation will never fail them there with God’s New World society.</p> <p id="p37" data-pid="37" class="qu"> 2. Before taking refuge in supposedly sacred things, what is it necessary to do, and what historic example recommends this course?</p> <p id="p5" data-pid="5" data-rel-pid="[37]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="2"><sup>2</sup></span> Men have a strong tendency to hold on to certain things long held sacred and to trust in them as though they were a charm against harm. It is felt that they are from God and that he will spare them and therefore it guarantees one’s safety to take refuge in such sacred things. But things to which men impute sacredness may not be sacred to God, even if they have great age or antiquity. To rely on such means to deceive oneself with a false hope. It is necessary to determine whether they are in agreement with God’s promised new things. If not, they will not be carried over and incorporated with the new. For the truth of this in our time we have a historic example. In fact, this example was a prophecy of what would take place in our time. No temple of religion was invested with greater sacredness or guarded with greater jealousy and fanaticism than Herod’s temple in Jerusalem nineteen centuries ago. It and previous temples on the same spot had a combined existence of almost a thousand years; and yet after a guided tour of inspection of Herod’s temple Jesus Christ said: “The days will come in which not a stone upon a stone will be left here and not be thrown down.”—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/2/0" data-bid="3-1" class="b">Luke 21:5, 6</a>, <em>NW</em>.</p> <p id="p38" data-pid="38" class="qu"> 3. Why did Jesus declare that temple abandoned, and when it was destroyed why was God not left without a temple?</p> <p id="p6" data-pid="6" data-rel-pid="[38]" class="sb"><span id="page557" class="pageNum" aria-hidden="true" data-no="557" data-before-text="557"></span><span class="parNum" data-pnum="3"><sup>3</sup></span> That temple was the most gorgeous building in the holy city of Jerusalem. In it the priests who were descendants of the chosen family of Aaron busied themselves with the sacred services. It was called “the house.” Yet, notwithstanding all its sacred associations, Jesus said just before this: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! your house is abandoned to you.” (<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/3/0" data-bid="4-1" class="b">Matt. 23:37, 38</a>, <em>NW</em>) Jesus knew not only that it had become a house of merchandise and a cave of robbers but also that it was served by priests who were plotting his death. It had merely an outward show of sacredness but was entirely empty of holiness within. Jesus therefore declared it abandoned by Jehovah God and refused to patch it onto the new system of things that he was bringing in. Thirty-seven years later it met the fate he predicted. Not a stone of it was left resting on another. However, the new temple of Jehovah God, a spiritual temple of “living stones,” continued standing. Within it a righteous new system of things functioned that was to result in the pure worship of the true God all over the earth and the everlasting blessing of all the families of mankind.—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/4/0" data-bid="5-1" class="b">1 Pet. 2:5;</a><a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/4/1" data-bid="5-2" class="b"> Eph. 2:20-22</a>.</p> <p id="p39" data-pid="39" class="qu"> 4, 5. Did the new system of things wait for Jerusalem and its temple to be destroyed, and what is the proof for your answer?</p> <p id="p7" data-pid="7" data-rel-pid="[39]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="4"><sup>4</sup></span> The new system of things did not wait for the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple before beginning. With the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus to heaven to appear in the presence of Jehovah God with the blood merit of his human sacrifice, the new system of things began in reality. Having the sacrifice that was really acceptable to God for ransoming mankind from sin and its penalty death, Jesus served as the new High Priest of God. The earthly high priest of the old Jewish system of things lost his office before God, for he had been made a high priest by the Law covenant that Moses had mediated between God and Israel at Mount Sinai. But now Jesus had become a Prophet and Mediator greater than Moses and he mediated a new covenant between Jehovah God and the spiritual Israelites, the Christian congregation that was built upon him as the Rock. Thus that old Law covenant that God had made with the natural Israelites at Sinai was abolished and its priesthood, its sacrifices, its festivals and its obligations with it. (<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/5/0" data-bid="6-1" class="b">Heb. 3:1;</a><a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/5/1" data-bid="6-2" class="b"> 9:11-15;</a><a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/5/2" data-bid="6-3" class="b"> Col. 2:13, 14;</a><a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/5/3" data-bid="6-4" class="b"> Deut. 5:2, 3;</a><a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/5/4" data-bid="6-5" class="b"> 29:1</a>) From then on Jesus Christ served as God’s anointed High Priest at God’s spiritual temple, its Holy of Holies being even heaven itself before the very presence of God himself.</p> <p id="p8" data-pid="8" data-rel-pid="[39]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="5"><sup>5</sup></span> Jesus’ manifesting of himself as the new and everlasting High Priest meant that the consummation of the old system of things had come. As it is written concerning him: “Now he has manifested himself once for all time at the consummation of the systems of things to put sin away through the sacrifice of himself.” (<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/6/0" data-bid="7-1" class="b">Heb. 9:26</a>, <em>NW</em>) It was in full harmony with this fact that the abandoned temple of Herod at Jerusalem was destroyed by the legions of Rome under General Titus in the year 70 (A.D.). This was when the reputedly holy city of Jerusalem itself was destroyed.</p> <p id="p40" data-pid="40" class="qu"> 6. What must we not overlook regarding the connection of the Christian congregation with Jerusalem, and what did its eventual flight from there mean?</p> <p id="p9" data-pid="9" data-rel-pid="[40]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="6"><sup>6</sup></span> Today in this year 1953 we must not overlook one important point: For thirty-four years after God’s new covenant was made and the Christian congregation began to be built on Jesus Christ the Rock at Pentecost of 33 (A.D.) the city of Jerusalem served as the headquarters city of the Christian congregation. The governing <span id="page558" class="pageNum" aria-hidden="true" data-no="558" data-before-text="558"></span>body of the congregation was located there and was made up of the twelve apostles and other older disciples, such as James the brother of Jesus. They used the temple courts as a convenient place to meet crowds of people and preach to them. It was in this temple that Paul the apostle was mobbed about the year 56, and it was in Jerusalem that the disciple James and other faithful Christians with him were killed by fanatical Jewish stoners in 62. But when the year 67 came, the Christian governing body and all other disciples of Jesus fled from Jerusalem and from all the province of Judea. Why did not the Christians stay on and keep preaching the good news about Jesus Christ in the old holy city and the rest of Judea? Was it cowardice before persecution? Was it unfaithfulness toward their commission to preach the good news? None of that! It was the wise preservation of their lives, that they might continue preaching elsewhere. It was obedience to the prophetic command of Jesus Christ when he foretold the destruction of the abandoned temple and said to his disciples:</p> <p id="p41" data-pid="41" class="qu"> 7. What was the prophecy containing the command that they obeyed?</p> <p id="p10" data-pid="10" data-rel-pid="[41]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="7"><sup>7</sup></span> “You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be objects of hatred by all persons because of my name. And yet not a hair of your heads will by any means perish. By endurance on your part you will acquire your souls. Furthermore, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies, then understand that the desolating of her has drawn near. Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains, and let those in the midst of her withdraw, and let those in the nearby regions not enter into her [into Jerusalem], because these are days for meting out justice that all the things written may be fulfilled. Woe to the pregnant women and the ones suckling a baby in those days! For there will be great necessity upon the land and wrath on this people, and they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled.”—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/7/0" data-bid="8-1" class="b">Luke 21:16-24</a>, <em>NW</em>.</p> <p id="p11" data-pid="11" class="ss"><strong>THE CUE TO FLEE</strong></p> <p id="p42" data-pid="42" class="qu"> 8. When were the Christians given their cue to flee, and where did they flee? The fulfillment of what words of Jesus did they escape?</p> <p id="p12" data-pid="12" data-rel-pid="[42]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="8"><sup>8</sup></span> In November of the year 66 (A.D.) the governing body in Jerusalem and all the other disciples there and in the province of Judea were given their cue to flee from the entire province to the mountains, as commanded by Jesus. That was when the Roman armies under Gaius Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, arrived before the city which was in revolt against Rome. After five days of fighting that put the full capture of the city within his grasp he withdrew his forces for no accountable reason, to be pursued by the Jews, with loss of thousands of his troops. The Christians took this as the cue given many years before by Jesus. So they fled from Jerusalem. They did not stop in any part of the province of Judea; Jesus’ command was for those in Judea to flee from it to the mountains. Hence they and their children (born or yet unborn) crossed the Jordan River into the mountainous region of Gilead and settled principally at Pella, one of the cities of the Decapolis. There they kept up their Christian activities and carried on their preaching. There they were safe when the Romans came back in the early part of A.D. 70 and terrible desolation came upon Jerusalem in fulfillment of Jesus’ tearful words addressed to her: “If you, even you, had discerned in this day the things having to do with peace—but now they have been hid from your eyes. Because the days will <span id="page559" class="pageNum" aria-hidden="true" data-no="559" data-before-text="559"></span>come upon you when your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side; and they will dash you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave a stone upon a stone in you, because you did not discern the time of your being inspected.”—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/8/0" data-bid="9-1" class="b">Luke 19:41-44</a>, <em>NW</em>.</p> <p id="p43" data-pid="43" class="qu"> 9. What then perished never to be reinstated, but what endured?</p> <p id="p13" data-pid="13" data-rel-pid="[43]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="9"><sup>9</sup></span> The life of the holy city and its temple did not prove to be charmed. Those who stuck with those things of the corrupted old system fought a lost cause and perished in the desolation of Jerusalem and all the province of Judea. But the Christians in the mountains of Gilead survived and preached on. The old system that then perished is gone forever; the priesthood of Aaron’s family and the worship of Jehovah God in a material, man-made temple at Jerusalem will never be reinstated. The new Christian system of things under the new covenant with Jesus as Mediator and High Priest endures down to this day.</p> <p id="p44" data-pid="44" class="qu">10. What question do we feel urged to ask, and, knowing its answer, what can we determine about Christendom?</p> <p id="p14" data-pid="14" data-rel-pid="[44]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="10"><sup>10</sup></span> All this is not without tremendous significance to us in these strange, unusual days. We are staring in the face something similar, only far worse. We feel the urge to ask after the causes of things, and we do so wisely, that we may know whether a certain course of action is advisable for us. When we see that the present-day city of Jerusalem in Palestine does not carry on the tradition of the ancient temple city, but that Christendom is in fact the modern-day counterpart of the holy city of the days of Jesus and his apostles, then we are impelled to ask, What led to the frightful siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 (A.D.)? Knowing that, we can then determine whether for a like reason destruction on a vaster scale is hanging threateningly over Christendom, the twentieth-century counterpart of the doomed Jerusalem.</p> <p id="p45" data-pid="45" class="qu">11. What was the prophecy in which Jesus gave the key to the answer to the question?</p> <p id="p15" data-pid="15" data-rel-pid="[45]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="11"><sup>11</sup></span> Jesus gave the key to the answer when he said to his disciples in this same prophecy, as reported by the apostle Matthew: “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come. Therefore, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, (let the reader use discernment,) then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains. Let the man on the housetop not come down to take the goods out of his house; and let the man in the field not return to the house to pick up his outer garment. Woe to the pregnant women and those suckling a baby in those days! Keep praying that your flight may not occur in wintertime nor on the sabbath day; for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again. In fact, unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short.”—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/9/0" data-bid="10-1" class="b">Matt. 24:14-22</a>, <em>NW</em>.</p> <p id="p46" data-pid="46" class="qu">12. According to that, what was the cause of Jerusalem’s appalling destruction A.D. 70?</p> <p id="p16" data-pid="16" data-rel-pid="[46]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="12"><sup>12</sup></span> The “disgusting thing that causes desolation” at the sight of which standing in the holy place the Christians were to flee to the mountains—this was the cause of the appalling destruction that overtook Jerusalem and her realm in Judea. That “disgusting thing” was the league or alliance that the religious rulers of Jerusalem made with the Roman empire in order to procure the death of Jesus Christ, God’s anointed King. That imperial world power of Rome was symbolized in divine prophecy as a disgusting thing, as a ferocious <span id="page560" class="pageNum" aria-hidden="true" data-no="560" data-before-text="560"></span>wild beast that would war upon Jehovah’s holy ones or saints on the earth. It proceeded first against Jehovah’s chief Holy One, his Son Jesus Christ, to do away with him as a rival to its world domination.—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/10/0" data-bid="11-1" class="b">Acts 3:14;</a><a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/10/1" data-bid="11-2" class="b"> 4:27-30</a>, <em>NW</em>.</p> <p id="p47" data-pid="47" class="qu">13. Who thrust God’s Holy One before Rome’s attention, how and why?</p> <p id="p17" data-pid="17" data-rel-pid="[47]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="13"><sup>13</sup></span> The religious rulers of Jerusalem were the ones that thrust God’s Holy One before the attention of the Roman world power, seeking revenge because Jesus exposed their false practices and their violations of God’s commands. Before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate they accused Jesus of being seditious against Caesar, forbidding the paying of tax to Caesar and stirring up the people against him. When Governor Pilate tried to resist the religious pressure and to let Jesus go, the Jews shouted: “If you release this man, you are not a friend of Caesar. Every man making himself a king speaks against Caesar.” When Governor Pilate, in an appeal to the Jews’ national patriotism, presented Jesus as their king and tried to shame them by asking, “Shall I impale your king?” then, of all people, it was the Jewish chief priests that answered: “We have no king but Caesar.”—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/11/0" data-bid="12-1" class="b">John 19:12-16</a>, <em>NW</em>.</p> <p id="p48" data-pid="48" class="qu">14. Why would Jehovah feel disgust and indignation against that religious element, and what consequences did he let them suffer?</p> <p id="p18" data-pid="18" data-rel-pid="[48]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="14"><sup>14</sup></span> Do you feel disgust at that? Then how much more would God in heaven feel hot indignation at this betrayal of his Anointed King Jesus Christ to the Roman imperial world power and the linking up of those who claimed to be his people with the cruel, anti-Jehovah world power of Rome? It was a religio-political conspiracy against Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom. No wonder he heard and acted upon their defiant cry at that time concerning Jesus’ blood: “His blood come upon us and upon our children”! No wonder he abandoned their house as a polluted temple! No wonder he considered them part and parcel of a disgusting thing, an abominable arrangement against his kingdom by his Holy One Jesus Christ! (<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/12/0" data-bid="13-1" class="b">Matt. 27:25;</a><a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/12/1" data-bid="13-2" class="b"> 23:38</a>, <em>NW</em>) They professed friendship for God’s enemy, Caesar, thus making themselves God’s enemies. Now let them eat the bitter fruitage of that traitorous friendship; let them gall under the unequal yoke of such a nefarious anti-kingdom conspiracy until they should be driven to violent revolt against their political partners. God foreknew that the hypocritical religio-political alliance was bound to break up in due time and that the political part of the disgusting thing would move with its armies against the religious part of the disgusting alliance, to bring Jesus’ blood upon the guilty religionists and their children, giving Jerusalem a blood bath from the veins of 1,100,000 of her children!</p> <p id="p49" data-pid="49" class="qu">15. When did the Christians move out of the doomed locality without inconvenience, and what did they escape sharing?</p> <p id="p19" data-pid="19" data-rel-pid="[49]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="15"><sup>15</sup></span> The revolt of the Jews against their friend Caesar came in 66 (A.D.) for the outrages done them by his political governors. That same year the armies of the political part of the disgusting thing turned against them and made a preliminary assault against their holy city Jerusalem. That was the sight of the disgusting thing with its armies surrounding the holy city of Jerusalem that the Christians were to look for as notification that it was high time for them to flee to the mountains outside <span id="page561" class="pageNum" aria-hidden="true" data-no="561" data-before-text="561"></span>Judea for safety. Not knowing how soon the armies of the disgusting thing would come back and complete the desolation of Judea and Jerusalem, the Christian governing body and other obedient Christians moved out without having to do it on any inconvenient Jewish sabbath day or in wintertime. In the seventh century before Christ the Babylonish armies had come back to desolate Jerusalem the first time. In 70 (A.D) the Roman armies came back. During the spring and summer of that year the siege and complete destruction followed. By prompt, obedient action the Christians had escaped sharing in that horrible desolation.—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/13/0" data-bid="14-1" class="b">Jer. 37:6-10</a>.</p> <p id="p20" data-pid="20" class="ss"><strong>MODERN COUNTERPART</strong></p> <p id="p50" data-pid="50" class="qu">16. When did Daniel foretell the “disgusting thing” to appear, and what makes the period since A.D. 1914 that particular time?</p> <p id="p21" data-pid="21" data-rel-pid="[50]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="16"><sup>16</sup></span> Jesus, when prophesying of that “disgusting thing that causes desolation,” said that Daniel the prophet had foretold it too. Daniel prophesied of its appearance as taking place at the time appointed, the “time of the end.” (<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/14/0" data-bid="15-1" class="b">Matt. 24:15</a>, <em>NW;</em> <a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/15/0" data-bid="16-1" class="b">Dan. 11:29-35</a>) Jesus predicted things to occur in the time of the end of this world, and such things have come in one continuous series since A.D. 1914—world war, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, world-wide persecution of true Christians, the preaching of the good news of God’s kingdom as established, false prophets and Christs, and, yes, the “disgusting thing that causes desolation”—all these things in combination marking this as the critical “time of the end.” What makes it the “time of the end” for the nations of this world is that God’s “appointed times of the nations” came to the end of their 2,520 years’ length in 1914 and there the long-prayed-for kingdom of God was born in the heavens and his holy, anointed King Jesus Christ was installed upon the throne and given the right to rule the entire earth and break to pieces all nations that opposed his rightful rulership.—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/16/0" data-bid="17-1" class="b">Matt. 24:3-25;</a><a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/16/1" data-bid="17-2" class="b"> Rev. 12:1-5;</a><a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/16/2" data-bid="17-3" class="b"> Ps. 2:7-9</a>.</p> <p id="p51" data-pid="51" class="qu">17. Where is that “disgusting thing” to be found, and by the fulfillment of what prophecy may it be identified?</p> <p id="p22" data-pid="22" data-rel-pid="[51]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="17"><sup>17</sup></span> As this period since 1914 is confirmed as the “time of the end,” where then are the disgusting thing and its armies of desolation that Daniel and Jesus foretold? Look! there it is in the religio-political conspiracy of today against the established kingdom of Jehovah God and its holy, anointed King Jesus Christ. Identify it for yourself by its fulfillment of the prophecy of <a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/17/0" data-bid="18-1" class="b">Psalm 2:1-6</a> (<em>AS</em>): “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples meditate a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh: the Lord will have them in derision. Then will he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure [saying]: Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” (<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/18/0" data-bid="19-1" class="b">Acts 4:24-30</a>) The world alliance known as the United Nations is the chief and most powerful expression of this religio-political conspiracy against the Messianic kingdom of God. We say “religio-political,” because the religions of this world are in on this world conspiracy against the Kingdom, especially the religions of Christendom.</p> <p id="p52" data-pid="52" class="qu">18. How during World War I did the religious clergy show disloyalty to God’s established kingdom, without regard for <a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/25/0" data-bid="26-1" class="b">Matthew 25:40</a>?</p> <p id="p23" data-pid="23" data-rel-pid="[52]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="18"><sup>18</sup></span> For decades before A.D. 1914 Jehovah’s witnesses had been preaching the full establishment of God’s kingdom by Christ at the end of the “appointed times of the nations” in that year. To confirm their preaching as correct, World War I for global domination by the nations of this earth broke out suddenly in 1914, to be followed by the mournful train of events down to this day. Had the religious clergy <span id="page562" class="pageNum" aria-hidden="true" data-no="562" data-before-text="562"></span>of Christendom examined the prophecies that Jehovah’s witnesses called to their attention, had they faced the facts of modern history and seen their import and shown loyalty to God’s will, they would have hailed his kingdom and would have recommended it as the only government entitled to world domination. To the contrary of this, they took sides with the political factors in total warfare for the domination of the earthly realm of God’s anointed King Jesus Christ. They led in persecuting Jehovah’s witnesses who stood loyal to God’s enthroned Ruler and they moved the sword-brandishing arm of the political state against Jehovah’s witnesses to try to exterminate them from the earth. They gave no reverential thought to Jesus’ words: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/19/0" data-bid="20-1" class="b">Matt. 25:40</a>) For fear of alienating the affections of their political friends the clergy preferred to hold to the warring kingdoms of this world and to accuse Jesus Christ of sedition against Caesar by accusing his true followers of this.</p> <p id="p53" data-pid="53" class="qu">19, 20. At the close of World War I how did the clergy follow the lead of the politicians’ postwar proposals, but who proclaimed something else as the only hope of humanity?</p> <p id="p24" data-pid="24" data-rel-pid="[53]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="19"><sup>19</sup></span> When at the close of World War I in 1918 the united political program for the postwar world was proposed, the clergy of Christendom were at once for it. What was that? To have Christ as King? No, not that, but a League of Nations, to provide strength for the old-world system to continue through unity. The clergy of Christendom were first to follow the lead of the politicians and to advocate the League of Nations. In January of 1919, before the peace conference convened at Paris, France, the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America urged the establishing of the League of Nations and said it was not merely a peace expedient, but, to quote their pamphlet, “it is rather the political expression of the kingdom of God on earth.” They added: “The heroic dead will have died in vain unless out of victory shall come a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/20/0" data-bid="21-1" class="b">2 Pet. 3:13</a>.” In other words, the postwar world under the League was to be the new heavens and new earth that God has promised, the League of Nations as the “political expression” of God’s kingdom to be the new heavens, making unnecessary Christ’s real kingdom that forms the new heavens of God’s new world.</p> <p id="p25" data-pid="25" data-rel-pid="[53]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="20"><sup>20</sup></span> As for the pope of Rome, although failing to get a seat in the League of Nations, he offered the benefit of his ecclesiastical offices to it. On January 10, 1920, the League began functioning with the support and blessing of the clergy of Christendom. At the same time the voice of Jehovah’s witnesses began to be heard with an unusual tone of boldness and conviction, proclaiming God’s kingdom under Christ as the only hope of distressed humanity.</p> <p id="p54" data-pid="54" class="qu">21. Which of those two postwar movements promoted God’s kingdom, and which aroused his disgust? According to what evidences to date?</p> <p id="p26" data-pid="26" data-rel-pid="[54]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="21"><sup>21</sup></span> Now which of these two postwar movements really promoted God’s kingdom? Which of them aroused the disgust of the Most High God? Jehovah’s witnesses or the clergy-blessed League of Nations? Well, Jehovah’s witnesses are still here as represented in this New World Society Assembly at Yankee Stadium, New York city, but where is that political new heavens, the League of Nations? Where was it during World War II? Down in the bottomless pit of helpless inactivity. To take away its reproach, they have revived it and given it a new front and a new name called United Nations. Students of Bible prophecy know this was just as foretold.—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/21/0" data-bid="22-1" class="b">Rev. 17:9-11</a>.</p> <p id="p55" data-pid="55" class="qu">22. What disintegrating experiences did the League undergo down to World War II, and what question do we now ask?</p> <p id="p27" data-pid="27" data-rel-pid="[55]" class="sb"><span id="page563" class="pageNum" aria-hidden="true" data-no="563" data-before-text="563"></span><span class="parNum" data-pnum="22"><sup>22</sup></span> The League of Nations and the religious clergy of Christendom got along notably well together, and there was no open break. But in October of 1933, eight months after Hitler came to power, Nazi Germany quit the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations, and the disintegration of the League began, Japan having withdrawn from it on March 27 that year. It was first after this that Communist Russia was admitted, on September 18, 1934, or years after protests had been raised against it for its flagrant persecutions of religion within its borders. In 1935 Fascist Italy flouted the League of Nations and launched off onto its aggressions. The League applied sanctions against it and Mussolini’s Italy quit that body on December 11, 1937. In 1939 the League of Nations was given its kick over into the bottomless pit of ineffectiveness by Hitler Germany’s aggression against Poland, this precipitating World War II. We now ask, Up till that year of the League’s descent into the abyss had the armies of the “disgusting thing that causes desolation” been seen surrounding the modern counterpart of Jerusalem? No; not to any noticeable extent.</p> <p id="p56" data-pid="56" class="qu">23. How was there a time when the “disgusting thing” could not serve as a visible sign for Christians to flee, and what questions do we ask about its armies of desolation?</p> <p id="p28" data-pid="28" data-rel-pid="[56]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="23"><sup>23</sup></span> Now mark this point: When the League of Nations was kicked into the abyss and when for six years this disgusting thing was in this bottomless pit, the disgusting thing was not and it was not visibly standing in the holy place as a sign for true Christians to move out of Christendom and flee to the “mountains” of safety. But early in 1945 there was a stirring in the bottomless pit and the thing that was disgusting to Jehovah God and his King began making preparations at the San Francisco (California) Conference of forty-six nations to come out after World War II. It did, on October 24, 1945, by Russia’s depositing of its instrument of ratification of the postwar world-security organization. The Charter of the United Nations had now come into force. The beastly disgusting thing that causes desolation was again present. But where were its armies of desolation? Were these to be literal military forces of the United Nations? We remember that back in June 2, 1931, U. S. General Douglas MacArthur criticized certain clergymen regarding their stand on war and said: “Religion and patriotism have always gone hand in hand.” Then he added: “I am curious to know how many of the clergymen who voted for the League have read the articles and understand that under them the peace of the world is to be maintained in the last analysis by armed military forces.” However, the League of Nations never got armed military forces.</p> <p id="p57" data-pid="57" class="qu">24. In 1944 what did American clergymen and laymen come out for, and what did the British prime minister say regarding what it needed?</p> <p id="p29" data-pid="29" data-rel-pid="[57]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="24"><sup>24</sup></span> Thirteen years later, when the disgusting thing was in the bottomless pit as a fiasco, American clergymen and laymen came out for forming a nucleus of a general world organization. Also, on May 24, 1944, British Prime Minister Churchill, when discussing Spanish developments before Parliament, said: “We must undoubtedly in our world structure embody a great deal of all we have gained for the world by the structure and form of the League of Nations. We must arm our world organization and make sure within the limits assigned to it that it has overwhelming military power.”</p> <p id="p58" data-pid="58" class="qu">25. When did the eighth world power get its army, and for what must this not be mistaken? Why?</p> <p id="p30" data-pid="30" data-rel-pid="[58]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="25"><sup>25</sup></span> Today the United Nations, successor to the League of Nations, is the eighth of a series of world powers foretold in the Bible. The “eighth army” of this eighth <span id="page564" class="pageNum" aria-hidden="true" data-no="564" data-before-text="564"></span>world power has not chosen to show overwhelming military power in Korea, but at least the eighth world power, the United Nations, has its army, with units from nineteen nations. This police force went into action on June 27 of the pope’s holy year of 1950. But this composite army of the disgusting thing that causes desolation was then really acting in the defense of Christendom against the Communist aggression. We must therefore not mistake these United Nations military forces for the armies that may now be seen carrying forward an encirclement of Christendom, Jerusalem’s modern counterpart. What, then, are they?</p> <p id="p59" data-pid="59" class="qu">26. What, then are those armies, and what prophecy yet to be fulfilled shows this?</p> <p id="p31" data-pid="31" data-rel-pid="[59]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="26"><sup>26</sup></span> The armies that are predicted by Jesus’ words to desolate this modern, antitypical Jerusalem are within the <em>political</em> ranks of the very United Nations. They are those elements that wage war upon the religious system of Christendom. When the “disgusting thing” came up out of the abyss in 1945, it at its very start contained powerful members of the Communist antireligious bloc of nations. The peace offensive of 1953 on the part of the anti-Christendom forces should not throw anyone off guard. The anti-Christendom bloc will grow and will not halt until Jerusalem’s modern counterpart is completely surrounded by armies of terrible destruction. All “ten horns” of the beastly disgusting thing that has come out of the pit will yet turn on its religious partner that has adulterously joined the disgusting thing in a world conspiracy against Jehovah’s anointed Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Without fail the words of God must be fulfilled: “And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast.”—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/22/0" data-bid="23-1" class="b">Rev. 17:16, 17</a>, <em>RS</em>.</p> <p id="p60" data-pid="60" class="qu">27. When, therefore, did readers of prophecy see armies encamping to surround Jerusalem’s counterpart, and what fate does she deserve?</p> <p id="p32" data-pid="32" data-rel-pid="[60]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="27"><sup>27</sup></span> Therefore 1945, the year of the United Nation’s emergence, marks particularly the time when those who read Daniel’s prophecy and Jesus’ warning with discernment could see armies encamping to surround Jerusalem’s modern counterpart in order eventually to make her desolate and naked as a spiritual prostitute. She had been friendlily carrying on loose conduct with the worldly United Nations, thus choosing Caesar as her friend and rejecting God’s kingdom by Christ as her enemy. So now at Armageddon she deserves the punishment of a spiritual harlot according to God’s law.—<a href="/en/wol/bc/r1/lp-e/1953684/23/0" data-bid="24-1" class="b">Lev. 21:9</a>.</p> <p id="p61" data-pid="61" class="qu">28. The sign of what is now before our eyes, and what will be the full culmination of that?</p> <p id="p33" data-pid="33" data-rel-pid="[61]" class="sb"><span class="parNum" data-pnum="28"><sup>28</sup></span> The sign of the nearer approach of the battle of Armageddon is now before our eyes. When this adulterous, religio-political combine finally cracks up and the symbolic beast and its ten horns turn against the harlot system of organized religion it will denote that the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” has begun by which he will execute all the foes of his Messianic kingdom. That war will end when Jesus Christ the King together with his angel executioners will destroy all the “disgusting thing” and all other elements of this old world that line up in opposition to his rule.</p> <p id="p34" data-pid="34" class="sd">Arise, O Jehovah; let not man prevail: let the nations be judged in thy sight. 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Flight to Safety with the New World Society — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY