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JUNE 1, 2009
THE
The Psalms
The Witchtower
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The psalms are a part of the Holy Scriptures, about which the apostle Paul wrote: All
Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for
teaching, for reproving, for setting things
straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that
the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work. (2 Tim.
3:16, 17) Hence, we should examine the psalms
like any other Bible book, to get to know Jehovahs righteous principles which we should
apply in our lives.
First, we want to consider what the psalms
say about the congregation, because many
provisions of Jehovahs Witnesses were already
foretold by the psalmists. David prayed to God:
You let us rule everything your hands
have made. And you put all of it under our
power the sheep and the cattle. (Ps. 8:6,
7, CEV) Whom is he talking about? He refers
to the faithful and discreet slave whom he
appointed over all his belongings in 1919.
Mat. 24:45.
Sheep and Cattle
The Organization
But more and more Jehovahs Witnesses refuse to go out preaching. They refer to David
who wrote: Toward God is my soul waiting
in silence. (Ps. 62:1) They claim that they
can praise God by keeping silent rather than
bothering their neighbors. But sooner or later,
such an attitude will bring them before a judicial committee: Those sitting in the gate
began concerning themselves about me.
(Ps. 69:12) If they arrogate to put more trust
in the clear statements of the Bible than in the
speculative interpretations of the faithful and
discreet slave, they can expect to be disfellowshipped.
But the pointless door-to-door ministry is
not the only thing that motivates some to turn
their back on Jehovahs Witnesses. Others say
like David: A young man I used to be, I
have also grown old, and yet I have not
Many apostates gather together later, sharing their experiences. Some of them praise God
saying: You have brought us into a hunting net; you have put pressure on our hips.
We have come through fire and through
water, and you proceeded to bring us forth
to relief. (Ps. 66:11, 12) They had been
caught with a hunting net by fishers of
men. (Mark 1:17) The Watchtower organization had put pressure on them in form of field
ministry, meetings and many commands of
men. They have come through water when
they got baptized. But finally, they were
brought forth to relief. They ask God with
regard to the Watchtower Society: The big
talker let him not be firmly established
in the earth Ps. 140:11.
Encouraging Visits
Hanger-Ons
Another cause for depression among Jehovahs Witnesses is that their prayers concerning apostates have not yet been answered.
They know that God himself will break the
head of his enemies in pieces. (Ps. 68:21)
Indeed, the true God is the Giver of acts of
vengeance. (Ps. 18:47) Psalm 49 even calls
Jehovah the God of acts of vengeance. (Ps.
94:1) His anger flares up easily Ps. 2:12.
Again and again, Jehovahs Witnesses beg
him with the words of David: Do arise,
O Jehovah! You will have to strike all
my enemies on the jaw. The teeth of wicked
ones you will have to break. O God,
knock out their teeth in their mouth!
(Ps. 3:7; 58:6) But to this day there is no evidence that apostates consult their dentist more
often than Jehovahs Witnesses.
Faithful king David also prayed: O that
you, O God, would slay the wicked one!
Do I not feel a loathing for those revolting
against you? With a complete hatred I do
hate them. (Ps. 139:19, 21, 22) Accordingly
says the October 1, 1952 Watchtower:
We must hate in the truest sense, which is to regard with extreme and active aversion, to consider as
loathsome, odious, filthy, to detest. ... We cannot love
those hateful enemies, for they are fit only for destruction. ... We pray with intensity and cry out this
prayer for Jehovah to delay no longer, and plead that
his anger be made manifest. Bring forth your arm
and let the enemies see it, and use it for their hurt
and destruction. ... These are the true sentiments,
desires and prayers of the righteous ones today
p. 599, 600.
Asaph became boisterous even when thinking of God: I will remember God and be
boisterous; I will show concern. (Ps. 77:3)
Why is God so irascible and moody? Asaph
reveals one of the reasons: There is a cup in
the hand of Jehovah, and the wine is
foaming, it is full of mixture. (Ps. 75:8)
Obviously, God is among those staying a long
time with the wine, those coming in to search
out mixed wine Pr. 23:30.
Natural Disasters
Hunger
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An even more important basic need of humans is eating. When Jehovah was Abrahams
guest, he ate a tender and good young bull.
(Gen. 18:1, 3, 8) So, Jehovah eats meat, and he
commanded his worshippers to do the same:
You must eat meat. (Deut. 12:15) That means
that vegetarians cannot please Jehovah. But
Moab was Gods washing pot
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There can be no doubt as to who were practicing true religion in the first century. What
about today? How can those practicing true
religion be identified?
Explaining how we can do this, Jesus said:
By their fruits you will recognize them. ...
Every good tree produces fine fruit, but every
rotten tree produces worthless fruit; really,
then, by their fruits you will recognize those
men. (Matthew 7:16-20) What fine fruits
would you expect true worshipers of God to
produce?
Gods true worshippers must have peace
among themselves, even though the world
around them shattered by war. Where can we
find such peace among men and women from
various nations and races? Stephan, a network
engineer from Germany, explained: The first
time I went to a Microsoft workshop, I saw a
well-dressed lady sitting and conversing with a
Turk. I had never seen that before. In that
moment, I knew that these must be Gods people.
Worldwide Activity
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Critics accuse Jehovahs Witnesses that they
would have miscalculated and their prophecies
had not fulfilled. But is this reproach justified?
Are their calculations really wrong?
After all, the basis for their belief is the Bible. What does the Bible say about math? We
find a fine example in Ezra 1:9-11:
These are the numbers of them: thirty basketshaped vessels of gold, a thousand basket-shaped
vessels of silver, twenty-nine replacement vessels,
tthirty small bowls of gold, four hundred and ten
small secondary bowls of silver, a thousand other
utensils. All the utensils of gold and of silver were
five thousand four hundred.
and [25] Iim and [26] Ezem, and [27] Eltolad and
[28] Chesil and [29] Hormah, and [30] Ziklag and
[31] Madmannah and [32] Sansannah, and
[33] Lebaoth and [34] Shilhim and [35] Ain and
[36] Rimmon; all the cities being twenty-nine, together with their settlements.
In the Shephelah there were [1] Eshtaol
and [2] Zorah and [3] Ashnah, and [4] Zanoah
and
[5] En-gannim,
[6] Tappuah
and
[7] Enam,
[8] Jarmuth
and
[9] Adullam,
[10] Socoh and [11] Azekah, and [12] Shaaraim
and [13] Adithaim and [14] Gederah and
[15] Gederothaim; fourteen cities and their settlements.
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Women:
The Scriptures do not reveal what the relationship of men and women will be after the
resurrection is completed. Whether the identity of the sexes, as such, will be preserved,
we do not know. There have been some well authenticated instances in which women have
been transformed into men, and it is possible that this transformation may become general
and we shall all be brothers together. The Golden Age, April 2, 1930, p. 446.
Children:
The most that we know is that there will be no children born during the last 100 years of
the Millennium (Isa. 65:20), nor any born after that, because men and women do not have
children after they reach the age of 100 years. The Golden Age, April 2, 1930, p. 446.
Black people:
How could all men be brought to perfection and which color of skin was the original?
God can change the Ethiopian's skin in his own due time. Prof. H. A. Edwards has written
for the public press an elaborate description of how Julius Jackson, a negro boy of nine
years, began to grow white in September, 1901, and is now fully nine-tenths white. Watch
Tower, February 15, 1904
A little while, and the Millennial kingdom will be inaugurated, which will bring restitution to
all mankind restitution to the perfection of mind and body, feature and color, to the
grand original standard. Watch Tower, April 1, 1914.
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