WHEN ALL NATIONS UNITE UNDER GOD'S KINGDOM
UNDER THE STRESS of world conditions scores of nations have been driven into the international organization known as the United Nations. Under it they hope for protection and preservation during this space age. At the same time there are hundreds of thousands of persons of all nationalities and races who are uniting under something still higher, bigger and more powerful. Already they have attained to goals that the United Nations has not yet attained to and never will. You will therefore read with profit the public address published herein, which was the feature of heavily attended assemblies of people of good will throughout the world in 1961, on the challenging subject "When All Nations Unite Under God's Kingdom."
-THE PUBLISHERS
Bible versions quoted or cited in this booklet: Authorized or King James Version of 1611 (AV) In quoting Scripture verses we give first the name of the Bible book, then the number of the chapter, then the number of the verse. Any quotation not followed by any specific abbreviation is from the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. The questions at the bottom of the page are for individual or group study.
1961
Published byWATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, INC.INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATIONBrooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
Made in the United States of America
THERE are many nations. But who says that there is such a thing as "God's kingdom" - that God has a kingdom? Many persons may ask that challenging question, not merely atheists and Communists, but also very religious persons. All peoples live under some form of government, whether it be called a kingdom, a republic, or a dictatorship or something else. But today, as never before, all peoples are faced with the world-wide proclamation of "God's kingdom." It must be a matter- that concerns all nations; otherwise, it would not be proclaimed in all the inhabited earth, to all the nations of whatever political form. It does concern all nations - the nation that holds to the Hindu religion and worships Trimurti as God; the Islamic nation that holds that the only god is Allah; also the nation that worships chiefly before the shrine of Buddha as god. It concerns the nations of Christendom that worship a triune god, one god in three persons. It concerns the Jewish nation (represented in the Republic of Israel) that worships the traditional god of its forefathers. Indeed, it concerns the Communist nations that say they worship no god. The god of no one of these nations has thus far united people
1. (a) What question does the subject of this address raise at the start? (b) What indicates that God's kingdom is a matter of concern to the nations, and to which nations?
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of all earth's nations under either his worship or his government. Is there a God that can do this?
2 But there is also this question: Does this modern world need an invisible spirit God to unite all nations under his kingdom? Do we need more than the United Nations of today? Has mankind ever before seen such a thing - ninety-nine nations united in one association? No! But at the same time has the world ever seen such a show as it is making, such a failure at unification? Is it living up to its big-sounding name? Is it by nations outside the United Nations that the "cold war" is being fought today with a ruthlessness that does not care even though it keeps all the rest of the world in fear and anxiety? No; it is by the leading nations right inside the United Nations. Have we reason, then, to expect that the United Nations will prove to be a satisfying man-made substitute for "God's kingdom"? Let us not forget that the United Nations is the successor of the League of Nations, and that during its existence before World War II the League of Nations was religiously called the "political expression of the kingdom of God on earth." So has the United Nations become the political expression of God's kingdom on earth since 1945? Ask Hindu India! Ask Communist Russia! Ask Buddhist Japan, Burma, Thailand! Ask Islamic Turkey, Indonesia, United Arab Republic!
3 Did these and other nations join the United Nations because they wanted to be under God's kingdom, and is this why they stay in it? Did the love of God move them to join up? We do not have to wait for their answer. Common sense and honesty answer No!
2, 3. (a) What facts show whether for world unity we need more than the United Nations? (b) What must be said as to whether the United Nations became the expression of God's kingdom since 1945?
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4 However, one big fact does remain: Not merely many political systems but also many gods are represented in the ninety-nine nations making up the United Nations. So, then, if all nations are yet to be united under God's kingdom, will all the gods of the many nations get together in conference in the way that the national delegates do in the United Nations General Assembly? Will they then decide which one is to be king over all the gods? Or will they decide to set up a three-member secretariat, a trinitarian governing body, each member of which will represent a certain group of gods or religious creeds? Is God's kingdom thus to be set up, namely, by the common consent, as it were, of all the gods represented in the United Nations? Will there thus be democratic action among all the gods to unify themselves under one god as king of heaven and earth? Since the human worshipers of these gods differ and disagree among themselves, their gods could hardly be expected to unite and agree and exercise a unifying influence. Certainly the having of so many gods behind the United Nations has not strengthened that body.
5 Where, then, do we get the idea, where do we get the strong assurance that all nations will unite under God's kingdom? We get that wonderful vision of the whole human family prosperously at peace with itself and with its God from a Book. It is an old Book. Its wisdom, understanding, knowledge and foresight make it the Book of books. This Book is not contradicted by the facts of today, by the world situation of today. Neither
4. As regards God's kingdom, what questions do we ask because so many gods are also represented in the United Nations, and have all these gods strengthened that body? 5. (a) From where do we get the assurance that all nations will unite under God's kingdom? (b) In agreement with that Book, what do things observed about our universe prove?
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is it contradicted by the actually proved science of today. That Book is backed up by the unity and stability of the known universe. The more that we examine the unity, harmony and stability of the universe, the more do these impressive things prove what this Book says, namely, that there is one God who is over all, who is the Creator of all, who is the Lawgiver of all, who is the central Governor of all.
6 In order that we may have some expressed idea of what God is, we quote from The Encyclopedia Americana, page 743 of Volume 12, of its 1929 edition, which says, under the heading "God": The Supreme Being, the First Cause, and, as considered nowadays throughout the civilized world, a spiritual being, self-existent, eternal and absolutely free and all-powerful, distinct from the matter which he has created in many forms, and which he conserves and controls. There does not seem to have been a period of history where mankind was without belief in a supernatural author and governor of the universe. The most savage nations have some rudimentary ideas of God. Man is a religious as well as a rational animal.
7 The so-called Book of Nature is God's book. The written Book of which he is the Author is called The Holy Bible.
8 Long ago this indestructible Book foretold the uniting of all nations under God's kingdom. That is, of course, a prophecy. But, different from all other religious books, the Bible is full of prophecies. We must admit that, to make prophecies, the Author of the Book had to be sure of himself; he had to have foresight and foreknowledge. The
6, 7. (a) How does the Americana describe God? (b) Of what Book is he the Author?8. (a) What specially makes the Bible different from other religious books? (b) Why can we have confidence about the fulfilling of the prophecy concerning the uniting of all nations?
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failure of his prophecies would prove that he is not God. However, the prophecies of the Bible have stood the test of time. Many prophecies have been fulfilled. Others are now having a startling fulfillment. Surely, then, those prophecies of the Bible that tell of yet future things that are of importance to us all will be just as certainly fulfilled as have the prophecies applying to the past or to the present. And as respects the prophecy about the uniting of all nations under God's kingdom, God already has a model on earth. What is it? This we are going to see.
9 This God is a Person, an intelligent Being. His Book tells us that he created man in his image and likeness. So if man is a person, an intelligent individual, and he resembles God, then God must likewise be a person. He is no nameless God. Neither has he left us to guess at his name. He has caused it to be written many times, not in the Book of Nature, but in the Holy Bible. Thousands of times in the Bible he tells us that the name of the Most High, Almighty, All-wise, All-just, ever-living God and Creator is Jehovah. Our mere mention of that name may cause prejudice to rise up in the hearts of many. Many will associate that name with the Jews, with the Israelites, who recently established the Republic of Israelin the midst of Arab nations in the Middle East. Since they believe that Jehovah is the national God of the Jews, such prejudiced persons do not want him as God. But Jehovah is not a nationalistic God. He is not a God for Jews only. How could he be the national God of the Jews and at the same time admit all nations to his worship and under his kingdom of blessing?
9. (a) What facts about man argue that God is a Person and intelligent? (b) Where do we learn his name, and why should we not let nationalism prejudice us against that God so named?
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10 Jehovah did not begin when the Jewish nation began, just about three thousand six hundred years ago, in 1712 B.C.E. (Genesis 49: 28-33) So, if you worship Jehovah as God, you do not exalt the Jews or glorify the Republic of Israel. Worshiping Jehovah does not mean that you must unite with the Republic of Israel or worship in Jewish synagogues, or even at modern Jerusalem. But it is true that any people that has had Jehovah as its God has been honored and blessed because of this. When General Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated as United States president for the second time, in 1957, and took his oath of office, he had his hand on the open Bible (American Standard Version), at Psalm 33:12, which reads: "Blessed ,is the nation whose God is Jehovah, the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance." So the main thing is our having respect for the true God himself, rather than our having respect for the people having him as God. The reason why the natural Jews or the Israelites of today do not evidently have divine blessing is because they do not have, Jehovah as their God any more. Yet there is today a people that does worship Jehovah as God with spirit and truth. They are not to be despised, for to despise these faithful ones means to show disrespect and dishonor to God. -John 4:21-24.
THE "KING OF ETERNITY"
11 It is under the kingdom of Jehovah God that all nations will unite for their everlasting blessing. One of God's own promises of this is found in the Bible, in Psalm 86:8, 9, which we quote: "There
10. (a) Worshiping Jehovah as God does not mean what as regards natural Jews? (b) What should be our attitude toward the people today worshiping Jehovah as God, and why?11. Under whose kingdom will all nations unite, and what promise of this does Psalm 86:8, 9 contain?
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is none like you among the gods, O Jehovah, neither are there any works like yours. All the nations whom you have made will themselves come, and they will bow down before you, O Jehovah, and will give glory to your name."
12 One of the blessings from this international unity under God's kingdom is this, as foretold in Micah 4:3, 4: "And [Jehovah] will certainly render judgment among many peoples, and set matters straight respecting mighty nations far away. And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. They will not lift up sword, nation against nation, neither will they learn war any more. And they will actually sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be no one making them tremble; for the very mouth of Jehovah of armies has spoken it." In view of this, is God's kingdom desirable? Yes.
13 The Bible, which presents these hope-inspiring prophecies, is divided up today into sixty-six inspired books. Nevertheless, the Bible is a unity in itself, just one book as a whole. It is in full harmony within itself, in its many parts, from its first book, Genesis, to its last book, Revelation. One dominant idea, subject or theme runs through the whole Bible and binds it together. What is that? God's kingdom, the best government in all the universe, and the only one that will endure forever, to mankind's blessing.
14 Since World War I of 1914-1918 kings, or rulers bearing that title, have been on their way put. Once upon a time there were no human kings
12. How does Micah 4:3, 4 show whether unity under God's kingdom is desirable?13. How is the Bible divided up today, and yet what makes it a unity?14. (a) When did mankind once have no human kings, empires or colonial powers over them? (b) Why do we have such things today, and why has this been providential for us?
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nor any human empires nor any colonial powers on earth. There was only a heavenly King over mankind. Who was he? Jehovah God. In the last book of the Bible he is called the "King of eternity." (Revelation 15:3; Jeremiah 10:10) Why, then, do we have the human kings of today, why the empires, why the colonial powers? Why international communism? Yes, why the United Nations? It is because of the original rebellion against the "King of eternity." Was that rebellion not put down at once? No, it was not. Why were not the rebels executed all at once to keep the rebellion from spreading? Well, if they had been at once executed, we would not be here today, with an opportunity of being united under God's kingdom. Why not? It was because the rebels included our first human parents. We are the latest descendants from those rebels against Jehovah God.
15 Let us not overlook one fact of stern reality. There is an opposition god in the universe. This invisible, spirit creature is, in Bible language, called Satan the Devil, that is to say, the Opposer the Slanderer. He was the ringleader in the rebellion. He broke up the original happiness, peace and health of the human family. He was the one to begin opposing Jehovah God. In order to get our first parents to rebel against God, he slandered Jehovah God their Creator, saying that Jehovah was a liar, that he was an undemocratic censor of knowledge and information that the people were entitled to have for freeing themselves and lifting the standard of living. Satan said that man had nothing to fear from rebelling against Jehovah God. "You positively will not die. For .... you are Bound to be like God, knowing good and bad," Satan said.
15, 16. (a) How did there come to be an opposition god, and what is he named? (b) How did he make a god of himself, and what did Jesus and Paul call him?
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16 First the woman, Eve, and then the man, Adam, joined Satan the Devil in his rebellion. Then that disloyal spirit creature became a god, an opposition god against Jehovah God. This meant the beginning of a divided universe. (Genesis 3:1-7) Thousands of years later, the loyal Son of God was sent into this world, and he said that Satan the Devil is the "ruler of this world" and the one "who is misleading the entire inhabited earth." (John 12:31; 14:30; Revelation 12:9) The Christian apostle Paul called him the "god of this system of things," "the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now operates in the sons of disobedience." -2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2.
17 We today are almost six thousand years removed from that original rebellion against the King of eternity. Yet we know, we feel, we see what it has meant to us. It has meant death to us. (Genesis 2: 17; Romans 5:12) It has meant the loss of the garden of Eden, the paradise of pleasure, to us. (Genesis 3:22-24) It has meant our coming under human political governments, not founded or backed up by the King of eternity, but inspired and backed and dominated by the "god of this system of things," "the ruler of this world." We find the situation as the Christian apostle John described it: "The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." -1 John 5:19.
18 But what of this? What if the opposition god, Satan the Devil, is "ruler of this world," "the god of this system of things"? His rebellion is foredoomed to fail; and he and all those who persist with him in this rebellion will suffer the penalty of annihilation, an absolute blotting out from all existence. When Jehovah God held court and
17. What has that rebellion of long ago meant to us today?18. How do we know that Satan's rulership is foredoomed to fail?
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pronounced sentence upon the three original rebels, he said to Satan the Devil, who had misled the woman Eve by means of a serpent: "I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel." -Genesis 3:14, 15.
19 In those words Jehovah God declared that, in his own chosen time, he would crush the rebellion by crushing its ringleader together with the seed or disciples of that ringleader. He would thus reunite his universe in heaven and in earth under his everlasting kingdom. To win this universal victory for the kingdom of God he would use his own loyal Seed, his own Son, whom he would produce by means of his own loyal "woman." We find this remarkable Kingdom promise in chapter three of the first book of the Bible. Then the theme of that Kingdom runs all through the sixty-six inspired books of the Bible to the last book, in which we read this thrilling prophecy of the final uniting of all nations under God's kingdom:
20 "Great and wonderful are your works, Jehovah God, the Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of eternity. Who will riot really fear you, Jehovah, and glorify your name, because you alone are loyal? For all the nations will come and worship before you, because your righteous decrees have been made manifest." -Revelation 15:3, 4.
21 When those words were written nineteen hundred years ago, the Roman Empire was yet dominating Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Several decades of years before the apostle John
19, 20. (a) What does Genesis 3:15 really mean, and from then on what theme runs throughout the Bible? (b) How does Revelation 15:3, 4 point forward to unity of all nations?21. What message startled the Roman world nineteen centuries ago, and What two witnesses started the proclamation of the message?
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wrote those words, a bold announcement startled the Middle East. Soon it was reported throughout the Roman world. It was this: "The kingdom of God has drawn near." This was a message that worshipers of Jehovah God had waited for thousands of years to hear. At the start there were two proclaimers of that message, two witnesses to the truth of that message, first a faithful worshiper named John the Baptist and, shortly after him, Jesus Christ, whom his disciples confessed to be the Son of God. -Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:14, 15; John 1:49.
22 The head of John the Baptist was chopped off for his being loyal to the kingship and law of Jehovah God. Jesus Christ was nailed to a stake to die for preaching and upholding the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the heavens. Satan the Devil, "the god of this system of things," interpreted such preaching to mean sedition and revolt against the Roman Emperor. Using this false charge, Satan the Devil as the Great Serpent was able to bruise the heel of the Seed of God's "woman." But God Almighty healed the wound of his Seed, his Son Jesus Christ, by raising him from the dead on the third day and by having him return to heaven from which he had been sent. (1 Corinthians 15:3-7, 24-28; Romans 1:1-4; Acts 2:22-36) Now matters were to be reversed and Satan the Serpent, the devilish leader of rebellion against the King of eternity, must have his head crushed.
23 Jesus Christ was born on earth in the line of kings, he being a direct descendant of ancient King David of Jerusalem. (Matthew 1:1, 17) He was anointed with God's spirit to become the act-
22. (a) How did John and Jesus suffer for loyalty to God's kingdom? (b) How was the heel wound of God's Seed remedied, and how will matters now be reversed?23. How did Jesus prove his worthiness of kingship, and what earth-wide proclamation did he foretell?
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ing king in the future kingdom of God. (Luke 3:21-23, 38; 4:1-21) His worthiness of rulership he proved by all the time preaching God's kingdom. He taught his disciples the model prayer: "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) He trained and sent out his disciples to preach God's kingdom. (Matthew 10:5-7; Luke 9:1, 2; 10:1-3, 8, 9) Because God's kingdom is for the blessing and uniting of men of all nationalities and races, Jesus foretold that in due time the Kingdom message would be proclaimed everywhere. He said: "This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end [of Satan's system of things] will come." -Matthew 24:3, 14.
24 To the close of Jesus' earthly life, many persons to whom he had preached thought that God's kingdom was to be set up back there nineteen centuries ago. Concerning Jesus' last trip up to Jerusalem, where he suffered martyrdom, we read of this popular expectation, in these words: "While they were listening to these things he spoke in addition an illustration, because he was near Jerusalem and they were imagining that the kingdom of God was going to display itself instantly. Therefore he said: 'A certain man of noble birth traveled to a distant land to secure kingly power for himself and to return.... Eventually when he got back after having secured the kingly power, he commanded to be called to him these slaves to whom he had given the silver money, in order to ascertain what they had gained by business activity.'" After dealing with those slaves as respects their zeal and faithfulness for the
24. Because people were expecting God's kingdom back there, what illustration did Jesus give to correct them?
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interests of the kingdom, the king turns his attention to the opposers of his kingdom and says: "Moreover, these enemies of mine that did not want me to become king over them bring here and slaughter them before me." (Luke 19:11-27) Woe, then, to all those who refuse to unite under God's kingdom!25 To go to a distant land and then to return by the means of travel of nineteen hundred years ago, not by jet plane, would requi...
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