1954_This Good News of the Kingdom - 1965 ed. revised.docx

IS THERE ANY GOOD NEWS on earth today? Yes, there is, in spite of all the saddening, disturbing and frightening conditions that we all see on earth today. And this good news, too, comes from a most reliable and authoritative source, and is backed up by the very things that we see happening and existing. Why, then, should you be sorrowful and hopeless, when you can be joyful and hopeful and can make others happy with this good news? Read this little booklet, and then, we feel, you will want to pass its refreshing information on to others.

 — THE PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1954
WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY
OF PENNSYLVANIA

Revised Edition, 1965

 

PUBLISHERS
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society
of New York, Inc.

International Bible Students Association
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
 

"THIS GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM"

WHAT is your hope for the future? Is it just to live out some few years on earth with the hope of gaining some pleasure and happiness in the short time before death brings an end to it? Or do you have hope of life beyond death? What does the future hold for mankind in general upon earth? Will some disaster finally destroy the earth and all life on it?

2 People in different parts of the world will answer these questions somewhat differently. There are many different religions and many different ideas about what the future holds for mankind. Some have come to their own conclusions as to what their future will be. Surely the sensible thing to do, if we want to have a sure hope for the future, is to find out what the supreme and almighty God has purposed for man and for this earth, which is man's home. Since He created man, then He is the one to decide our future, and this He has done. For those who please the Creator there is a happy future, and this happy future was announced to man on earth through a special representative of the Creator, Jesus Christ. His message Jesus Christ himself called "this good news of the

1. What questions concerning man's hope for the future present themselves?
2. (a) How do people in different places answer these questions? (b) In order to have a sure hope for the future, what is the sensible thing to do, and why so?

4

kingdom." — Matthew 24:14, in The Holy Bible, NW.*

3 What is "this good news"? To understand what it is, and what "the kingdom" is that is here spoken of, and how it will bring blessings to mankind, we need to know something of the purposes of the Most High God and of his dealings with mankind. This information we find in a book, the Holy Bible. One who can create the sun, moon and stars, this earth and all the wonderful things on it, the fish, birds, animals, trees and flowers, and man, that One could also create a book. Since it is the Creator's purpose to make this information available world wide in such a way that each one would be able to check the information for himself, there would have to be a written record that one could turn to for proof. The only written record of the Creator's purpose for man and the earth is the Bible, that sacred Book which God has preserved down through the ages and which has been translated into hundreds of languages. In this Book we shall find the answers to all the important questions about our life here on earth and our hopes for the future.

4 Who is God? How and why did he make man? Why are there wickedness and suffering on the earth? When will they end? What is the

* NW stands for the New World Translation of The Holy Scriptures, edition of 1961, quoted throughout this booklet,

3. To understand all about "this good news," where do we find the needed information, and why do we find it only there?
4. What are some of the important questions that the Bible answers for us, and so what shall we now do?

5

future of the earth and man, and what does one have to do to gain eternal life from God? All these and many other questions are answered for us in the Bible. The Bible is God's Word in which he reveals himself and his purposes to us. (John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:15-17) Let us then look into this Book and learn some of its contents.

THE TRUE GOD

5 There is only one true God who is almighty and supreme and who is the Creator that has "made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all the things in them." (Acts 4:24) Everyone who wants life, including God's chief Son, Jesus Christ, must recognize His supremacy and be subject to Him. (1 Corinthians 15:28) God is invisible to human eyes, and 'no man has seen God at any time.' (1 John 4:12) So, then, it is wrong for man to try to make an image of God to worship. He is beyond compare. He has no equal. Of him the prophet Isaiah wrote, chapter 40, verses 18 and 25: "And to whom can you people liken God, and what likeness can you put alongside him?" He is the source of all life and therefore it is to him we must look in hope for everlasting life in the future.

6 To differentiate him from the many false gods that are worshiped,,the Almighty God has a personal name. That name is Jehovah. Psalm

5. If we want life, what must we recognize concerning God, and why is it wrong to try to make an, image of God to worship?
6. Why does God have a name, what is it, and why must we know him by his name?

6

83:18 says about him: "That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth." Therefore, to become a true worshiper of him one must come to know him by his name Jehovah.

JESUS CHRIST

7 The chief one of God's creatures under Him is his son who came to earth and took the name Jesus. The Bible shows that this One had lived as a spirit creature in heaven before coming to the earth. At that time he was called the Word; that is, he was Jehovah's spokesman to all other creatures that were brought into existence. (John 1:1; Colossians 1:16; Revelation 19:13) After he was baptized and God's spirit descended upon him, he was called Christ or Anointed One. — Matthew 3:13-17.

8 Jesus and Jehovah God are not the same person, nor is Jesus equal to God. Jehovah alone is supreme. Therefore) Jesus said about Jehovah: "The Father is greater than I am." (John 14:28) He always has been and is obedient to his Father in heaven and has always been united or at one with him in God's works of righteousness. Because they were in harmony together Jesus could say: "I and the Father are one." (John 10:30) But he did not mean that they were one person. It would be foolish to say that, since later we find Jesus praying to his Father

7. Who is the chief of God's creatures, and why was he called the Word?
8. Are Jesus and Jehovah God the same person, and are they equal? What did Jesus say about this?

7

in these words: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me. Yet, not as I will, but as you will." — Matthew 26:39; compare John 17: 20-22.

9 Jesus is God's chief Son and most beloved One and he has become the King of God's kingdom, through which righteousness and peace will be brought about in a new order. While he was on the earth he taught his followers to pray for that kingdom and to direct that prayer to Jehovah, their heavenly Father. "You must pray, then, this way: 'Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth.'" (Matthew 6:9, 10) But before we go on to discuss why Jesus came to earth as a man and died, and why his preaching about the Kingdom was such good news, let us go back to the time when God created the first man in the garden of Eden.

SIN, DEATH, AND THE DEVIL

10 Originally God created a first man and woman, named Adam and Eve. They were perfect, and God placed them in a paradise garden in the part of the earth called Eden. He commanded them: "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it"; and they were to have in subjection all other creatures on the earth. — Genesis 1: 27-31.

9. Of what has Jesus now become the ruler, and for what did he teach his followers to pray?
10. How did the first man and woman come to be, and what were they commanded to do?

8

11 If they were faithful and obedient to the Creator they would live forever on the earth in peace with all the things that their hearts would desire. But, although they were perfect in body and mind, they were as yet untried, and God gave them the opportunity of proving their obedience to him under test. He gave Adam the command, saying: "From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die." (Genesis 2:16,17) Did they prove faithful under this test? The Bible record shows they did not. In Genesis chapter 3 there is described the failure of first the woman and then the man to keep God's commandment, and they ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree. Who was it that deceived Eve into sinning? The record speaks of a serpent, but there must have been some invisible superhuman power behind the serpent's actions. We shall see in a moment who that invisible power was.

12 In God's command about the fruit of this tree he had said to Adam: "In the day you eat from it you will positively die." (Genesis 2:17) And so now God put this sentence into effect. First, he drove out Adam and Eve from the paradise garden, and from that day on they began to die, and in due time they did die and returned to the dust from where they were taken.

11. How was their obedience tested out, and by what creature were they led to act as they did?
12. What happened to Adam and Eve after they had sinned, and who was the invisible power behind the serpent In the garden of Eden?

9

Their act of disobedience to God, their rebellion against God's commandment, brought death to them; and, since all their children were born after they sinned, then they passed on sin and death to their offspring and so down to us. "That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned." (Romans 5:12) The invisible power behind the serpent who led them into rebellion against God was therefore responsible for their death, and he was a murderer. Jesus identified that murderer for us when he said to other followers of the evil one: "You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie." (John 8: 44) So, then, it is Satan the Devil who was the invisible power behind the serpent in Eden and who is the great rebel against God and his purposes.

13 The Devil was originally a spirit son of God and, as such, he was perfect; but he allowed pride and greed for power to be like God to develop in his heart, and this led him to rebel and to get Adam and Eve to join him in his rebellion. He wanted to be a god and have creatures worship and serve him. (2 Corinthians 4: 4) The way he got Adam and Eve to follow him was to tell Eve a lie. God, you will remember, had said

13. (a) How did the Devil come to be? (b) Who told the truth about the result of eating the forbidden fruit, and how has the Devil tried to counteract such result?

10

that if Adam ate of the forbidden fruit he would die, but the Devil through the serpent said to Eve: "You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad." (Genesis 3:4, 5) Who told the truth, God or the Devil? Did Adam really die? The Record says he did: "So all the days of Adam that he lived amounted to nine hundred and thirty years and he died." (Genesis 5:5) So Satan was proved a liar. But to counteract this, he later on brought forth the religious idea that when man dies he just appears to die, that it is just the body that dies, but something inside him, a soul or spirit, lives on, either being born again to some other, human or into an animal, or going off into some spirit realm. Is that true? What does happen to man at death?

14 When God said that Adam would die for disobedience he said nothing about just the body's dying and his soul's going on living somewhere else. He just said: "You will POSITIVELY die." Note these Bible texts that show clearly that when a person dies he is completely dead and not alive somewhere else. "Do not put your trust in nobles, nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs. His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish." (Psalm 146:3, 4) "For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they any more have wages, because the remem-

14. Did God warn Adam that only the body would die, and what Bible verses show whether a dead person's soul is alive somewhere else?

11

brance of them has been forgotten. All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going." (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10) "Look! All the souls — to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son — to me they belong. The soul that is sinning — it itself will die." — Ezekiel 18:4.

15 So, then, when a person dies his soul does not go straight to heaven, nor does his soul go to a place of torment called "hell," nor would that soul be able to come back as a "spirit" or "ghost" to haunt the dead person's relatives. All such teachings are based on Satan's religious lie that the soul of man does not die, and he has caused many to believe such teachings in order to hold them in fear and turn them away from the true understanding of God's purposes.

16 Many persons have been led to believe that sickness and disease are caused by the influence of the "spirits" of the dead, and these persons have gone to witch doctors, persons who claim that they can appease the "spirits." There are witches who claim that they can get in touch with the dead and communicate messages from these to the living, or that they have supernatural powers by the help of the "spirits" of the dead. These beliefs are based on Satan the Devil's lie, and he has caused these beliefs to spread in order to make man believe that he does

15. So, then, at death does a person's soul go direct to some invisible realm, and on what are teachings of that kind based?
16, What have people been led to believe about so-called "spirits" of the dead and about witches, and what does the Bible have to say about the practice of witchcraft?

12

not die at death. The Bible specifically warns against anyone's practicing such things as witchcraft. "There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead. For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah, and on account of these detestable things Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you." — Deuteronomy 18:10-12.

17 The simple truth about the matter is that, when a person dies, he is dead, unconscious, and knows nothing. Well, you might ask, There is no future in that, is there? If, when man dies, he goes to the grave and that is the end of him, what hope is there for us I It is here in answer to .these questions that the Bible brings to our notice Jehovah's most wonderful and merciful provision for the human race, and that is

THE RANSOM

18 A ransom is something that loosens, something that brings deliverance, something valuable that is paid to bring release from bondage. In the Bible it means God's provision to deliver humans from sin and from death due to sin; and so at Matthew 20: 28 we read: "The Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister

17. So, when man dies, what about him? And hence what provision has God made for the dying human race?
18. What is a ransom? How did God provide one for mankind, and with what benefit to man exercising faith in it?

13

and to give his soul a ransom in exchange for many." Thus Jehovah God by sending his Son Jesus Christ to earth provided through him and his death a ransom price. Persons who exercise faith in this provision and who serve God faithfully may receive the gift of life, being set free from inherited sin and from eternal death as a result of sin. Thus we read at Romans 6:23: "The wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord."

19 As we have already seen, sin and death entered into the world when Adam rebelled against God. Adam lost for himself and for his offspring perfect human life in a paradise on earth. By means of the ransom Jesus Christ bought back for mankind this that was lost, namely, perfect human life with its rights and earthly prospects. God's law at Deuteronomy 19:21 was that like should go for like; hence, a perfect human life had to be sacrificed for the perfect human life that was lost. No man on earth who was a descendant of sinner Adam could provide this ransom, because each one was himself under condemnation of sin and death by inheritance from Adam. No one from Adam had perfect human life to offer. So only God could provide the ransom, and he did this by transferring the life of his only-begotten Son, who was with him in heaven, to the womb of Mary, a Jewish virgin. (Matthew 1:23) So without the help of an earthly father Jesus was miraculously born as a perfect human. In this way he did not inherit condemnation from Adam.

19. What did the paying of the ransom require, and how was this valuable thing provided in Jesus?

14

This child, Jesus, grew up to become a perfect man, and, as such, he possessed the valuable thing, a perfect human life, which could be used as a ransom.

20 On seeing Jesus approaching him, John the Baptist likened him to a lamb for sacrifice and said: "See, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) The perfect human life that Jesus laid down in death is that valuable thing that serves as a ransom. Three days after his death Jesus was resurrected, and forty days later he ascended into heaven. He did not take back human life at his resurrection, but he was raised a spirit creature. (1 Peter 3:18) When he ascended into heaven he presented to God the value of his perfect human life as the offering, or sacrifice, that could take away sins. — Hebrews 9: 24, 26.

21 Who are the ones that benefit from the ransom? Jesus answers in John 3:16, saying: "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life."

22 The provision of the ransom therefore opened up a hope of everlasting life. The Bible shows that by means of the ransom some believers would be granted life in the heavens, others on the earth. Let us now look into what the Bible has to say about this future hope of life.

20. Why was Jesus sacrificed in death, and how was he enabled to present the value of the ransom? Where and to whom?
21. Who are the ones that benefit from the ransom?
22. The providing of the ransom opened up what hope, to be realized where?

15

"KINGDOM OF THE HEAVENS"

23 The word "heavens," when referring to the home of intelligent creatures, refers to the spirit realm. It is here that God dwells with his holy angels. The word "heavens" also refers to spirit rulers higher and more powerful than man or to the invisible rule of the earth by spirit powers. Originally there was a righteous heavenly rule over Adam and Eve, and God talked with them as his children. (Genesis 1:26-30; 2:7-24) With the rebellion of Satan the Devil wicked heavenly rule gained control of mankind, and God purposed to set up later a new heavenly rulership over the earth. It would be called the "kingdom of the heavens." (Matthew 3:2) This heavenly kingdom was pictured by Zion, the mountain on which King David of Jerusalem ruled. The heavenly kingdom would be made up of tried and tested creatures who would maintain their integrity on earth down till death in following faithfully the footsteps of Jesus Christ. At Revelation chapters 7 and 14, the number of these is limited to 144,000, quite a small numbe...