| loumay SURVIVE ARMAGEDDON Into Gods New WorldChicago, Illinois, June 25, 1955 Dear Triumphant Kingdom Announcers: It Is wonderful to know that “you may survive Armageddon into God's new world." All of us desire to keep his ordinances, seek righteousness and meekness and be hidden in the day of Jehovah's anger. What a gracious provision Jehovah has made for lovers of righteousness at this timel You will enjoy this book. After you have read it you will want to proclaim its good news of Jehovah's kingdom more than you ever have before. You will want to get this publication into the hands of people of good will. You will want to study it with them. You will want to show them how to praise Jehovah and carry on true worship. . Think of the responsibility that faces every individual inside and outside Christendom, Each must make a decision to follow along with that system of things and continue to grope in its darkness, because of Christendom’s failing to bring light to the nations, or he must make a complete turn about and follow the “light of the world,” Jesus Christ and now his faithful followers, Jehovah's witnesses. This is not a day to be gambling with the remaining time before Armageddon. Christendom has failed its own followers as well as heathendom. But our joy, privilege and responsibility are to make haste in announcing the triumphant kingdom of Jehovah God and show people how to survive Armageddon inte God’s new world. Let us cil help those who so desire to turn about toward the light, and thus we shall see the “desire of all nations" come still more abundantly into the New World society. May you have happiness in giving out this good message. Your fellow announcers of the goed news, THE PUBLISHERSYou May Survive Armageddon into God’s New World ff. “Before the day of Jehovah’s anger come upon you. Seek ye Jehovah, all ye meek of the earth, that have kept his ordinances; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye will be hid in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” —Zephaniah 2:2, 3, American Standard Version.PUBLISHERS WatcuTowrr Brste anp Tract Sociery, Inc. INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. First Edition ONE MILLION COPIES COPYRIGHT, 1955 by Waren Tower Bite & Tract Sociery Made in the United States of AmericaDEDIGATED to the teiumphant Kingdom of God, for building up the hope of all who want to live in His incoming new would. Abbreviations of Bible versions quoted or cited in this book AS Ar Da ED Mo = American Standard Version, by the American Committee of Revision ~An_American Translation, by J. M. P. Smith and E. J. Goodspeed ~The ‘Holy Scriptures," a New Translation, by J. N. Darby - The Emphatic Diaglott, a translation of ‘‘what is commonly styled the New Testament," by Benjamin Wilson -A New Translation of The Bible, by James Moffatt NW -New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures Ro RS So Yo -The Emphasised Bible, a New Translation, by J. B. Rotherham - Revised Standard Version, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America - Books of the Hebrew Bible, by the Soncino Press, London and Bournemouth, England ~The Holy Bible, translated by Robert Young Any quotation not followed by any specific abbre- ylation is from the Authorized or King James Version. Other versions of the Bible are quoted or cited, but not with the name of the translations abbreviated.CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 1 Proclaiming the Good News ....... 7 2 The Victorious Fighters at Armageddon . . 18 3 The Basis for Survival... ...... 32 4 The Universalness of the Conflict... . . 51 5 Building the Armageddon-surviving Temple . 68 6 Adomnay’ Comes to His Temple... - 85 7% Shortening the Days for the Chosen Ones’ Sake 107 8 Raising the Signal to All the Nations . . . 126 9 Separating the Peoples for Life or Destruction 159 10 Gathering the Great Crowd to the Temple . . 170 11 Gathering of the Nations to Armageddon . . 190 12 Executioners of the Divine Vengeance . . . 202 13 The Chief Executioner Takes a Wife . . . 218 14 The Flight to Safety .... . oe 2 QL 15 Fighting for Life Now as Jehovah’s Witnesses 245 16 The “Desire of All Nations” Comes In . . . 260 17 Living Now in the New World Society . . . 273 18 Constructive, Lifesaving Activities . . . . . 288 19 Benefits Flowing from the Temple . . . . . 302 20 Awaiting the Attack by Gog of Magog . . . 315 21 The Universal War of Armageddon Breaks Out 331 22 God’s New World After the Battle . . . . . 348 23 Individual Decision Now for "Surviving Armageddon . . . ~ + . 362 List of 42 Types and Prophecies of the Earthly Heirs of the New World . . . 367You May Survive Armageddon into God’s New World CHAPTER I Proclaiming the Good News UNDAY afternoon, July 26, 1953, the sun shone brightly on the home of the permanent headquarters of the United Nations at New York city. On a marble wall that faces on the United Nations Plaza stood carved in large letters the words: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” ? Those striking words had not originated with any of the framers of the United Nations. They are words far older that have echoed down through the previous twenty-six centuries from the lips of an ancient prophet of the Near East, Isaiah the Hebrew. The designers of the United Nations build- ings had merely taken the words to themselves from the prophet’s book found in that sacred vol- ume known as The Holy Scriptures, The Holy 1,2. (a) What words of Isaiah stand carved upon a wall of the United Nations structures in New York city, and for what reason? (b) Was it therefore from there that the good news was to be proclaimed to people from 97 lands Sunday, July 26, 1953? 78 YOU MAY SURVIVE ARMAGEDDON INTO GOD'S NEW WORLD Bible. Without authority they had copied them and carved them into the marble of the United Nations structures as symbolizing the United Nations’ pur- poses “to maintain international peace and secu- rity: and... develop friendly relations among na- tions and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.” Halfway round the world, at Panmunjom, Korea, Monday, July 27, was already dawning, and that day representatives of the United Nations armies were preparing to sign with the Communist army representatives a truce to end the three-year-old Korean war that had come dangerously near to embroiling the na- tions in a third world war. However, it was not from this international organization’s buildings there on the East River water front, between 42d Street and 48th Street, of New York city that the good news was to be proclaimed to representatives from ninety-seven lands this memorable Sunday afternoon. * The number of visitors that afternoon to the United Nations buildings paled into insignificance in comparison with the tremendous throng gath- ered six air-line miles to the northwest at the world-famous sports stadium, the Yankee baseball park. There it was the eighth and last day of an international assembly that had changed Yankee Stadium from a popular sports arena into an as- sembly place for matters of far grander importance to all mankind. There that same Sunday morning at the climax of a speech on Haggai 2:7 those same words of the prophet Isaiah had rung out: “They shall forge their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-knives: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.’’* The speaker applied them, * ~* Quoted from Isaiah, chapter 2, verse 4 (Da), in the 10: 15 a.m, speech entitled “Filling the House with Glory. 3. How did those words of Isaiah happen fo be applied at Yankee Stadium that Sunday morning?PROCLAIMING THE GOOD NEWS 9 not to the United Nations, but to a New World society. * But now four o’clock in the afternoon had come. Never had there been seen at Yankee Stadium the sight that now greeted the eye, from the ground, from the spectator stands and from the airplane that wheeled above taking pictures. The baseball diamond had been transformed into a small para- dise-like scene around the speaker’s stand, The three-level spectator stands and the bleachers sur- rounding the playing field on every side were fifled to the last seat. Outside the stadium vast overflow tents were filled with 25,240 persons anxious to hear by loud-speakers. But the crowd that turned out to hear the good news was too large; there was 4. Hy 4 p.m. that Sunday afternoon how did Yankee Stadium come to be filled to overflowing with people?10 YOU MAY SURVIVE ARMAGEDDON INTO GOD'S NEW WORLD not enough room in the tents and in the stadium stands. So a few minutes before the announced hour the gates were thrown open and thousands of men, women and children streamed in and onto the green playing field to seat themselves in well- ordered groups on the green grass to listen, swell- ing the crowd inside the stadium to 91,562 persons. 5 Many other conventioners were listening else- where. At the assembly’s “Trailer City” forty miles to the west in the neighboring state of New Jersey there was another record crowd of 49,027, to listen by direct wire connection with Yankee Stadium, making a total visible audience of 165,829. Besides that, by means of remote control, one of New York city’s pioneer radio stations, WBBR, was daily broadcasting the convention’s features over an area occupied by some fifteen million peo- ple, and it now stood ready to beam out to an un- countable invisible audience at their radio sets the good news to be proclaimed. Accountable for this record turnout was the tremendous advertising both before and during the convention—the mil- lions of folders and handbills distributed, the thousands of window cards placed to view, the thousands of placards worn by information walk- ers on the city streets, the thousands of signs on the bumpers and sides of automobiles, and two placards in each and every subway car of New York’s three subway systems. ° What was the good news to be proclaimed that brought together such a crowd on a hot July after- noon? It was the good news summed up in the intensely advertised subject, “After Armageddon —God’s New World.” The speaker was the presi- 5. How was the total visible audience raised to a record crowd of 165,829, how was an invisible audience served, and what was accountable for this record turnout? 6. What was the good news to be proclaimed that after- noon, and what opening words of the speaker drew applause?PROCLAIMING THE GOOD NEWS 11 dent of an organization represented in 143 lands at the time, far more lands than the sixty mem- bers of the United Nations. The speaker’s very first words were applauded: “Armageddon will be the worst thing ever to hit the earth within the history of man. God’s new world will be the best thing ever to come to distressed mankind and will never pass away.” He went on: “For us to know that the best immediately follows the worst gives us courage to consider the subject of our discus- sion. ... So if we have yet to endure Armageddon, it will be better for us to face it with understand- ing, in the hope of surviving and entering into a new world of God’s making, a world altogether different from the one mankind has known now for thousands of years, to its sorrow. Armageddon will prove a great blessing in disguise.” Toward the close of his speech the speaker emphasized this “hope of surviving” by these words: “Just a while ago we said that the vast majority of the subjects of the new world’s King will be people restored to life on earth by the res- urrection of the dead. Why only the ‘vast major- ity,’ and not all? Because there is a great crowd of people of good will today living who will survive the world catastrophe of Armageddon and enter the world of new heavens and new earth without going down into the grave or ever afterward hav- ing the need to die and cease to exist. That means that Armageddon is so near at hand it will strike the generation now living.” Then after an explana- tion came the encouragement to be among the Armageddon survivors: “Avoid perishing with this old world in the ‘war of the great day of God the Almighty.’ Get ready now to live AFTER ARMA- GEDDON in Gop’s NEW WoRLD!” With these words the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract 7. How was encouragement finally given to be Arma- eddon survivors, and after the speech what were all in the visible audience given?12 YOU MAY SURVIVE ARMAGEDDON INTO GOD'S NEW WORLD Society closed his prepared speech to that 1953 international assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in Yankee Stadium, after which all the 165,829 in his visible audience were offered free printed cop- ies of the speech. 8 Never before in these twenty centuries of the so-called “Christian era” had there been such a stupendous witness on one occasion concerning this war with the ominous name Armageddon and concerning what it really means to mankind, es- pecially the generation in which we are now living. With the passing of the years since then the warn- ing witness regarding the real Armageddon has been greatly expanded world-wide. The serious- ness of it deserves the greatest possible witness to all the nations. Its steady approach and its cer- tainty to break forth at an unguarded hour for mankind inside this generation make it urgent that it be proclaimed on the greatest possible scale and that without letup. ® Faced with what the world faces from its own mad course, even men of this world take seriously their ideas of what Armageddon means and talk about it without embarrassment. Into the pages of the very Congressional Record of the United States Congress there have gone these words uttered on the Senate floor by the junior senator from the state of Vermont under date of March 9, 1954: “In very truth the world seems to be mobilizing for the great battle of Armageddon. Now is a crisis in the agelong warfare between God and the Devil for the souls of men.” (Pages 2726-2727) 1° Such men of this world, politicians, military 8. How did that witness concerning Armageddon compare with any previous, and why does it deserve the greatest possible witness? 9. How do even men of this world talk concerning Armageddon, according to their ideas of it? 10. How did this all-surpassing war come to be named, and how was its thiefilike coming foretold by the greatest prophet ever on earth?PROCLAIMING THE GOOD NEWS 13 men and religious leaders, have not told the true facts about Armageddon, but have merely made the people familiar with the name as meaning something frightful that is stealing up on the human race. Long ago a prophet from heaven, the greatest prophet ever on earth, named this all- surpassing war and warned of its thieflike coming, in a revelation to his faithful follower, who wrote: “And I saw three unclean inspired expressions that looked like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the wild beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are, in fact, expressions inspired by demons and perform signs, and they go forth to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty. Look! I am coming as a thief... . And they gath- ered them together to the place that is called in Hebrew Har—Magedon [or, Armageddon].” That revelation was given in order to show “the things that must shortly take place.”—Revelation 16:13- 16; 1:1, NW.* 11 That revelation having been given and written down about A.D. 96, it is now about nineteen cen- turies since the warning of the war was given by name, and we are at least that much nearer it. But the passing of all those centuries does not in itself argue that the surprise outbreak of Arma- geddon is near. Rather, the conditions and the events of the world in fulfillment of the great prophet’s predictions, the noticeable going forth of the three unclean, froglike expressions inspired by the demons to the kings of the entire inhabited * NW stands for the New World Translation of the Bible. See page 5 for the list of abbreviations of Bible translations used erein. 11. Aside from the passing of time since the warning, what makes it certain that the world catastrophe is not far off?14 YOU MAY SURVIVE ARMAGEDDON INTO GOD'S NEW WORLD earth followed by the noticeable gathering of the kings to a modern Armageddon, and the irrepres- sible giving of a foretold witness concerning Ar- mageddon on a globe-encircling scale, make it cer- tain that this unequaled world catastrophe is not far off. It is a time of all times to consider the evidence at hand. 12 This is not calamity-howling. The Holy Scrip- tures or Bible, which contains the warning and description of the war of Armageddon, is not a calamity-howling book. God’s new world, which it foretells as certain to follow Armageddon, is no calamity. Armageddon will be a calamitous catas- trophe, not for the winners, but for the losers. The winners will enter God’s new world. In this sense those who examine into Armageddon need not fear like those who dread a third world war and for whom the terrible question is, “not who will win a big war if ever there is one, but who will be on hand—and in what condition—after such a war is over?” All will lose, they fear, winner as well as loser. But such is not the question and conclusion for those who inform themselves on the real Armageddon. They are assured that there will be people on earth after the war of Armaged- don, and they will be in a blessed condition. 18 Ordinarily, for us to think of trouble is not pleasant and we shrink from it. But the considera- tion of Armageddon, rightly understood, is inviting and beneficial. No part of the earth will escape this war. There will be no neutrals in this war; each one will have to be on either the one side or the other. Happy will those be who find themselves on the winning side. Only those who favor and uphold the winning side may have any hope of surviving this greatest of all wars. It is possible now to know 12, For what reasons is this not calamity-howling? 13. What is it that invites us to a consideration of Armageddon and of what follows it, and how do we show ourselves wise concerning it?