Is there anyone with the WT cd rom that could find me the article that this quote comes from: --> "Men can spray a field with chemicals that kill weeds but spare crops; too bad they cannot spray cities with bombs that blow the bad to bits but leave the innocent intact." (The Watchtower, 7/15 1955, p. 436)
July 15, 1955 watchtower
by gspradling 10 Replies latest jw friends
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garybuss
*** w55 7/15 p. 436 par. 10 War from Heaven Brings Peace to Earth ***
10 When worldly men hear of this slaughter to come from Jehovah's hand they set up a howl and protest that it is fiendish for God to do that. They think it is all right for them to dig the metals from the earth and forge them into tanks and guns, ships and planes, rockets and bombs, and to hurl these instruments of destruction at other men, bathing the planet with the blood of the innocent and the guilty alike, the good and the bad indiscriminately. They do not own the earth, or the peoples on it, or even themselves; yet they feel justified to pollute the land and slaughter the people. But Jehovah, to whom the earth and its fullness belong, the Owner of every living, breathing thing on or above or beneath its surface, must not take life, they say. Their wars sweep multitudes into the grave, without distinction as to guilt or innocence. Jehovah's war will be selective, killing only the wicked, none of the lovers of righteousness that seek him. Yet they say their brutal and wanton wars are good, but Jehovah's just one is bad. Their perversion of matters earns woe for them: " Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isa. 5:20) Men can spray a field with chemicals that kill weeds but spare crops; too bad they cannot spray cities with bombs that blow the bad to bits but leave the innocent intact. -
Atlantis
Click here: http://x5.freeshare.us/view/?126fs257334.jpg Cheers! Atlantis-
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gspradling
Thank you, Gary!
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Kaput
Nice one, Atlantis! How much WBTS material is available on FreeShare?
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gspradling
Thank you, Atlantis!
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Atlantis
Kaput:
All of it is free and as much as we can share!
Thanks old friend!
gspradling:
Your very welcome!
Cheers! Atlantis-
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Scully
War
fromHeavenBringsPeacetoEarth"Come, behold the works of Jehovah, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariots in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. Jehovah of hosts is with us."—Ps. 46:8-11, AS.
IN THE Himalayas there is a peak that towers skyward twenty-nine thousand feet. Its slopes are sheathed in snow and ice. Temperatures drop far below zero. Freezing winds shriek their way through the surrounding crags and passes. The air on this highest peak on earth is so thin that a man suddenly placed on its heights would be unconscious very quickly because of oxygen shortage. At such high altitudes muscles, nerves and mind itself begin sharply to deteriorate and a lassitude that is dangerous sets in. Nevertheless, for many years men have tried to scale the pinnacle of Mount Everest. Only after years of training and experience do mountaineers tackle its challenging slopes and brave its many dangers. Yawning crevices of dizzying depth open up at the feet of the climbers, and avalanches of snow and ice thunderously hurtle down from the heights above. Despite being bundled up in the warmest of clothes, the climbers are quickly robbed of their heat and energy by the raging winds, and frostbite is an ever-present menace. Burdened by packs and oxygen tanks on their backs for breathing, they chop their way step by step with ice axes and toil upward with an unspeakable weariness over treacherous footing where one slip would send them plummeting thousands of feet downward to their death. Many have tried to conquer its heights, many have died in the attempt. On May 29, 1953, two men triumphed and stood on its windswept crown. To do it they had the backing of an expeditionary force of more than four hundred and fifty men. Four hundred and fifty to get two to the top!
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Do you think you could do it? Christ Jesus warned us to flee to the mountains. These mountains symbolize a place of refuge which is associated with God’s mountain: "And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." (Isa. 2:2, 3, AS) Note that this mountain of Jehovah is on top of all other mountains, above all other hills. If it is literal, it means it is higher than Everest! If you cannot climb Everest, how could you hope to scale this still higher one? Yet the Bible shows men and women and children from all nations, a great crowd of them, making a successful climb to the mountain of Jehovah. Obviously, the mountain we ascend is not a literal one but is something symbolized by mountains.
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Mountains are used as symbols of governments or world ruling powers that rise above the seas of humanity that support or bear them up. When Babylon was a world power laying waste many nations Jehovah spoke of it as a mountain: "Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith Jehovah, which destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain." In Revelation the seven world powers are referred to as seven kings and are pictured by the seven heads of the beast there described, and of these heads or world powers it states: "The seven heads mean seven mountains." Even Christ’s kingdom and its realm are spoken of as a mountain. In the book of Daniel it says that Christ’s kingdom "shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." This is pictured by a stone smiting and toppling an image that represents Satan and his demons and the kingdoms of this old world, and it states: "The stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." The symbolic mountain, the mountain we are to come to, is the Kingdom arrangement under Christ with the new system of things now being set up on earth. From this new royal government Jehovah’s law and word go forth, and to it persons of all nations are now coming to learn Jehovah’s ways and to walk in his paths.—Jer. 51:25, AS; Rev. 17:9, NW; Dan. 2:44, 35.
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Ascending a literal mountain higher than all others would be not only impossible for most of us but also ineffective in securing safety from Jehovah’s wrath: "Though they dig into Sheol, thence shall my hand take them; and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and it shall bite them." (Amos 9:2, 3, AS) But flight to Jehovah’s new system of things is now made possible for peoples of all nations, and since it is of Jehovah’s making it will be a place of safety, untouched by his wrath. And just as Isaiah’s prophecy spoke of the mountain of Jehovah as being above all other mountains, so this holy place of worship under Christ is superior to and above all earthly governments of this old world.THE
BATTLEOFARMAGEDDON5
Why did Jesus advise "fleeing to the mountains"? To escape "great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again." That tribulation is a war, a war from heaven, and the field where it is waged is "called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." (Matt. 24:16, 21, NW; Rev. 16:16) Is the war at Armageddon a man-made war? Men fight modern wars in the skies, and from the immediate heavens their flying fortresses rain bombs on the earth—and what was a city becomes rubble, what were homes become ashes, what were peoples become mangled and scattered flesh. As modern warfare has become more and more horrible men have become more and more prone to refer to their wars or prospective ones as Armageddon. Especially is this so since the explosion of the hydrogen bomb.
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In calling for a showdown with Russia on control of atomic weapons the New York DailyMirror said editorially: "Or shall we wait and let the world drift to Armageddon?" A Los Angeles newspaper remarked concerning the next war: "It will be the most titanic in history. It will be Armageddon." Tempo magazine referred to an approaching "nuclear Armageddon." Addressing a joint session of Congress General MacArthur repeated a warning he had previously sounded: "Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door." Senator Flanders declared: "In very truth the world seems to be mobilizing for the great battle of Armageddon." Lastly, in the wake of the hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific a staff writer of the New York World-TelegramandSun said: "In blunt words, American, free-world and Soviet leaders are frightened. The past eight or ten weeks have made them all aware that they are face to face with Armageddon. . . . Today fear is a blanket that hangs over both capitals, Washington and Moscow."7
Actually, for men to call one of their wars Armageddon is robbery. It robs a word of its true meaning. It throws men off guard as to what Armageddon really is. It is not a war by men, and to envision it as the possible atomic holocaust of World War III is to be blind to the real meaning of Armageddon. It is a Bible term, and therein it is specifically defined as "the war of the great day of God the Almighty." (Rev. 16:14, NW) It is Jehovah’s war fought by heavenly forces under Christ and it will uproot all wickedness from earth and plant instead permanent peace: "And I saw the heaven opened, and, look! a white horse. And one seated upon it is called Faithful and True, and he judges and carries on war in righteousness. Also the armies that were in heaven were following him on white horses, and they were clothed in white, clean, fine linen. And out of his mouth there protrudes a sharp long sword, that he may smite the nations with it, and he will shepherd them with a rod of iron. He treads, too, the press of the wine of the anger of the wrath of God the Almighty. And he seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years."—Rev. 19:11, 14, 15; 20:2, NW.
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Jehovah’s fury descends upon men and nations and their armies because they have sinned against him, and no bribes can avert Armageddon: "The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of Jehovah; the mighty man crieth there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm, against the fortified cities, and against the high battlements. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Jehovah; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he will make an end, yea, a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land. Therefore wait ye for me, saith Jehovah, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy." "For the wrath of Jehovah is against all the nations, and [his] fury against all their armies: he hath devoted them to destruction, he hath delivered them to the slaughter."—Zeph. 1:14-18; 3:8, AS; Isa. 34:2, Da.
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Jehovah’s power unleashed at Armageddon will be earth-shaking, the widespread slaughter left in its wake will be appalling: "Behold, Jehovah maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. The earth also is polluted under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are found guilty: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the earth is shaken violently. The earth shall stagger like a drunken man, and shall sway to and fro like a hammock; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again." "And the slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the face of the ground."—Isa. 24:1, 5, 6, 19, 20; Jer. 25:33, AS.
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When worldly men hear of this slaughter to come from Jehovah’s hand they set up a howl and protest that it is fiendish for God to do that. They think it is all right for them to dig the metals from the earth and forge them into tanks and guns, ships and planes, rockets and bombs, and to hurl these instruments of destruction at other men, bathing the planet with the blood of the innocent and the guilty alike, the good and the bad indiscriminately. They do not own the earth, or the peoples on it, or even themselves; yet they feel justified to pollute the land and slaughter the people. But Jehovah, to whom the earth and its fullness belong, the Owner of every living, breathing thing on or above or beneath its surface, must not take life, they say. Their wars sweep multitudes into the grave, without distinction as to guilt or innocence. Jehovah’s war will be selective, killing only the wicked, none of the lovers of righteousness that seek him. Yet they say their brutal and wanton wars are good, but Jehovah’s just one is bad. Their perversion of matters earns woe for them: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isa. 5:20) Men can spray a field with chemicals that kill weeds but spare crops; too bad they cannot spray cities with bombs that blow the bad to bits but leave the innocent intact.
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The battle of Armageddon is righteous and in harmony with Jehovah’s attributes of justice, power, wisdom and love. It is just because it is selective in its destruction. It kills those deserving to die. It does not slaughter those of good will seeking to serve Jehovah. This battle displays Jehovah’s power, and it will be exerted to the extent necessary to accomplish the destruction determined. It is wholly adequate. There is no other power great enough to counter it. Armageddon is an evidence of Jehovah’s wisdom, for only by sweeping the troublemakers and peace-disturbers from the earth can permanent peace be established. And it shows love for those who want to serve God and Christ and to dwell peacefully with their fellow man. How can they enjoy peace when wicked men and nations continually foment and fight wars?PREPARING
FORARMAGEDDON12
Also it is out of Jehovah’s love that he causes a warning of Armageddon’s approach to be sounded. It gives those who want to live time to make peace with him, and it allows those who want to fight him time to prepare. He advises those wanting peace: "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." He invites those itching for a fight: "Prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong." (Zeph. 2:3; Joel 3:9, 10, AS) The nations respond to the invitation to prepare for war instead of to the advice to seek meekness. In 1952 at the Eucharistic Congress in Spain Cardinal Spellman said: "Security and stability are nowhere on the horizon. We see immense armies massing. We see the furnaces and the forges of the world turning plowshares into guns and swords. We see scientists in laboratories inventing annihilating engines of war. Propaganda is stoking up insane hates to inflame the hearts and drive the mind of man with a frenzy to kill and destroy. Perhaps we see the world hurrying to Armageddon from which no nation may hope to survive."—New York Times, May 29, 1952.
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Note Jehovah’s words, "Let the weak say, I am strong." Weak men of earth are awed and frightened by their own power. They tremble at the staggering power of their A-bombs and H-bombs, and the cobalt bomb now possible to make it too deadly even to test. Men live in fear and dread of the unleashing of their own military strength in atomic warfare. And yet, after data on the hydrogen bomb tests were released, a United Press dispatch of April 7, 1954, stated: "Some scientists say that while the hydrogen bomb is powerful nature is still the champ. One weather expert says earthquakes and hurricanes have more power than the most powerful H-bomb that could be devised. He says one moderate earthquake is more powerful than one million atomic bombs. He says H-bombs lack the power to set off earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Another weather bureau scientist says he doubts the H-bomb’s ability to start or stop hurricanes. He says an H-bomb equal to the explosion of twenty million tons of TNT only gives off enough energy to keep a hurricane going for twenty-five seconds, and hurricanes last for days or weeks." The ScientificAmerican of June, 1954, calculated: "A mature hurricane spends kinetic energy at the rate of five hundred trillion horsepower, the equivalent of several thousand atomic bombs per second." Jehovah is the Creator of the elements, can control them, and can use them to fulfill his word relative to Armageddon: "Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word." With all their bombs, how weak these men that think themselves so strong!—Ps. 148:8.14
Nevertheless, by their own freedom of choice the men and nations of this old world choose to trust in their own strength, to rely on military might, to seek security behind growing stockpiles of atomic weapons. Modern men, even those who give lip service to God and his Word, brush the Bible aside as impractical and put reliance in money and armaments. In effect, they make such materialistic things their gods, looking to them for security and protection. Having turned their backs on Jehovah and chosen instead materialistic gods their faithless eyes can see, they will cry in vain to the Almighty when his war blazes against them: "As for you, you abandoned me and took up serving other gods. That is why I shall not save you again. Go and call for aid to the gods whom you have chosen. Let them be the ones to save you in the time of your distress." Again Jehovah says of such selfish ones: "They have turned to me their back, and not their face; yet in their time of trouble they say, ‘Arise, and save us!’ But where are your gods whom you made for yourself? Let them arise, and save you—if they can!—in your time of trouble." Rather than trust in the gods men have made, we should trust in the God that made men.—Judg. 10:13, 14, NW; Jer. 2:27, 28, AT.
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Men have a saying about "dying with your boots on." At Armageddon Jehovah God will grant their wish and let them "die with their boots on." He will allow them to build up to peak strength and go down fighting. Let worldly men die with their military boots on if that is their wish. But we who serve Jehovah do not want to be in their shoes. There are other shoes that we wish to wear, and that is the footgear mentioned at Ephesians 6:14, 15 (NW): "Having . . . your feet shod with the equipment of the good news of peace." Our preparation for Armageddon is to put on now this theocratic footgear by learning of the good news of Christ’s established kingdom and walking forth to preach it from door to door, in the homes, on the streets, at public assemblies—anywhere and everywhere that appropriate opportunity arises. Thus we seek meekness and righteousness, obey Jehovah’s commands, and put ourselves in position to receive his favor and protection at Armageddon. And not only ourselves, but many others also. So let this old world die with its military boots on if it wishes, but let us live with our theocratic boots on, preaching the good news of peace and singing the praises of Jehovah God!
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And what about Jehovah God? Does he prepare for Armageddon? Well, would you prepare to kill a fly? Would you prepare to squash a bug? Would you do calisthenics every morning for weeks to get in condition to swat a fly? Would you train with barbells for months to make your muscles bulge and give you strength to step on a bug? Would that be necessary? Could you not cope with the fly or the bug without special training? Would not such a course of preparation be useless and a waste of time, as far as dealing with an insect is concerned? For the same reason it is wholly unnecessary for Jehovah to prepare for Armageddon. Men are as grasshoppers in his sight. He created the universe, and the earth is a mere speck in its vastness, and men must appear microscopic in the universal view. Jehovah does not need to specially train angels in warfare or engage in an armaments race with puny nations of earth. He can fight and win Armageddon without an instant’s notice.—Isa. 40:15, 22.17
His only preparatory work for Armageddon is to have a warning given for the benefit of men. Those of good will toward God can flee to the mountains, the new system of things under Christ, and those preferring this old failing system under Satan can prepare for a losing battle. Armageddon comes as no sneak attack, yet it comes upon worldly men as a thief in the night: "Jehovah’s day is coming exactly as a thief in the night." (1 Thess 5:2, NW) How can that be? The warning is being given. It is being preached earth-wide by word of mouth and distributed in hundreds of millions of books and booklets and magazines published in more than a hundred languages. Why should such a widely publicized battle come upon this world like a thief? Because the men of this world have eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear, minds that do not discern. (Matt. 13:14, 15) Their eyes are shut, their ears are shut, their minds are closed, but their mouths are always open, open to scoff and ridicule the warning message Jehovah is now having his witnesses declare. This is itself a foretold evidence that we are in the last days of this old world: "In the last days there will come ridiculers with their ridicule, proceeding according to their own desires and saying: ‘Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep in death, all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.’" Then it goes on to say that the facts escape their notice "according to their wish." They only have eyes for their own schemes, ears for their own plans, minds for their own theories. According to their own wish they remain blind and deaf and undiscerning relative to the preaching of the good news and the warning of Armageddon.—2 Pet. 3:3-5, NW.
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But to those faithful ones who view the unfolding events of this generation through the prophetic light of Jehovah’s Word these words are spoken: "But you, brothers, you are not in darkness, so that that day should overtake you as it would thieves, for you are all sons of light and sons of day." To such spiritually awake ones Jesus said: "However, happy are your eyes because they behold, and your ears because they hear." (1 Thess. 5:4, 5; Matt. 13:16, NW) By now seeing and hearing and discerning Jehovah’s purposes concerning Armageddon and heeding his warning and fleeing to the mountains in obedience to his command, such persons will survive the war from heaven to enjoy the peace it brings to earth. They will retain these senses and perceptive powers through the destructive cataclysm of Armageddon to use them in response to the invitation given to the survivors: "Come, behold the works of Jehovah, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariots in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. Jehovah of hosts is with us."—Ps. 46:8-11, AS.
[Study
Questions]1. What difficulties are encountered when trying to climb earth’s highest mountain?
2. What proves the mountains we are to flee to are not literal?
3. Of what are mountains symbols, and what is the mountain we flee to?
4. Why would flight to a literal mountain be useless?
5, 6. How do men of the world view Armageddon?
7. What is Armageddon, and who fight it?
8, 9. How do Zephaniah and Isaiah and Jeremiah describe Armageddon?
10. How does Armageddon’s destruction differ from men’s wars, yet how do men pervert matters?
11. How is Armageddon in harmony with Jehovah’s attributes?
12. What two classes are warned, and how do they respond?
13. How are Jehovah’s words, "Let the weak say, I am strong," appropriate?
14. How will Jehovah reply when worldly men cry to him for help at Armageddon?
15. What is better than "dying with your boots on"?
16. Does Jehovah need to prepare for Armageddon, and why your answer?
17. Despite the warning, why does Armageddon overtake men like a thief?
18. Who are not in darkness, and what do they behold after Armageddon?
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garybuss
Scully, How do you fix the quotes? When I paste from WT CD the quotes are curly. If I paste curly quotes here, they turn into question marks.
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Leolaia
It is chilling to read such twisted statements together in one place:
"It is a good thing to have these things published in the Catholic press and elsewhere so that when Jehovah God destroys the whole miserable nest of vipers every honest and decent person may rejoice that they no longer cumber the earth which they have disgraced" (Golden Age, "Churchianity & Christianity," 11 October 1933, p. 26).
"So great will be the slaughter by the invisible forces of Jehovah God that there will not be enough people left on earth to bury those who are dead.... The wild beasts of the forest and the zoos will be turned loose upon the people who have ill-treated the beasts for many centuries, and all these shall take part in the destruction of humankind. Floods and storms, hurricanes and fire, dashing to pieces and destroying cities, towns and nations, and the inhabitants thereof .... There are millions who make no profession or claim to being Christian and who have not "heard" the message of the kingdom.... Probably all these others are going down in death in the great conflict, because the purpose of the Devil is to destroy all the human race and he attempts to do it." (Armageddon, The Greatest Battle of All Time: Who Will Survive?, 1937, pp. 41-42, 61).
"Many millions have not yet heard. A responsibility falls upon everyone of Jehovah’s witnesses now to see that, God willing, these peoples of the world are given the opportunity to hear. If they hear, they will be blessed. If they do not have an ear to hear, they will go on into destruction along with the Devil's organization at Armageddon" (Watchtower, 15 February 1943, "College Training," p. 62).
"At Revelation 7:4-8 and 14:1, 3 the Bible makes it plain that there will be only 144,000 consecrated, spirit-begotten Christians that will be exalted with Christ Jesus and that others of good-will who are to be spared during the coming battle of Armageddon will be few compared with the great population now on the earth. .... The Scriptures show that the organization of Jehovah’s witnesses is a society of ministers that teaches others to be His ministers of the gospel. Only his ministers may have any hope of surviving Armageddon... " (Watchtower, "What is There in it For Ministers?", October 1948, p. 141, 315)
"For the child’s own good and to the praise of God the Watch Tower Society also urges children to become vacation pioneers .... At Armageddon’s slaughter old and young alike will not be spared. After the marking work had been done according to Jehovah’s instructions, the command to his executioners then was: 'Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark' (Ezek. 9:6). Therefore no guarantee is given that a child will pass through Armageddon by reason of the field-service record of a parent that is careless toward his own children. In fact, the parent might be zealous and faithful on every point except that of offering his own children freely in God’s service" (Watchtower, "More and More Pioneers of Good News," 1 April 1950, p. 106).
"There is no general repentance and Armageddon will annihilate the evildoers. Armageddon survivors will not mourn the destruction of those Jehovah judges worthy of it" (Watchtower, "Questions From Readers," 15 July 1954, p. 447).
"Viewed from the right standpoint, the passing away of this world or system of things at Armageddon in the greatest time of trouble of all history is an expression of God’s love, no matter how terrible the trouble he will bring by which to destroy it" (Watchtower, "God's Love to the Rescue in Man's Crisis," 15 January 1955, p. 58).
"Men can spray a field with chemicals that kill weeds but spare crops; too bad they cannot spray cities with bombs that blow the bad to bits but leave the innocent intact" (Watchtower, "War From Heaven Brings Peace on Earth," 15 July 1955, p. 436).
"Men have a saying about 'dying with your boots on.' At Armageddon Jehovah God will grant their wish and let them 'die with their boots on' .... And what about Jehovah God? Does he prepare for Armageddon? Well, would you prepare to kill a fly? Would you prepare to squash a bug? Would you do calisthenics every morning for weeks to get in condition to swat a fly? Would you train with barbells for months to make your muscles bulge and give you strength to step on a bug? Would that be necessary? Could you not cope with the fly or the bug without special training?" (Watchtower, "War From Heaven Brings Peace on Earth," 15 July 1955, p. 438)
"Release of all the nations' atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs, disease germ bombs and chemical gas bombs will not compare in magnitude, powerfulness and devastating effect with this "unwonted act" of the Almighty God, Jehovah .... Why should not blood run deep and far with over two billion dead? Was there ever a war of the length of Armageddon's duration that left even a billion dead? .... With the members of this generation that will not pass away before Armageddon breaks out numbering now two billion five hundred million and with only the remnant and a larger group of "other sheep" inside the Greater Noah's "ark" surviving, the death toll of the "war of the great day of God the Almighty" will be appallingly all-surpassing, too many for the Armageddon survivors to bury. Come on, birds and beasts! Have your fill then from the human corpses in retribution for the wanton slaughter of animal and birdlife of which the human race has been guilty!" (You May Survive Armageddon, 1955, pp. 340-342).
"Armageddon will be greater than any nuclear war fought on a global or even on a "space" scale. The Bible shows that Armageddon will be a war between gods and universal in scope.... As for humans upon earth, on the side of Jehovah will be all those fully dedicated to him and who are faithfully following Jesus Christ; compared with earth’s billions these are indeed few.... On Satan’s side will be all the rest of mankind, more than 99.9 percent, even as we read: "The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." That includes all the governments of the world together with their supporters, the commercial, religious and social institutions.... Armageddon will be the worst thing ever to hit this earth in the history of man. It will be marked by shocking surprise, consternation, fright, collapse of government, tremendous upheavals of earth, landslides, cloudbursts, overflowing flash-floods, rain of corrosive liquid fire and terror in the air, on land and in the sea" (Watchtower, "What Will Armageddon Mean to You?", 15 October 1958, pp. 614-615).
"Into the valley of decision, as into a vast wine-press trough, the King leaps with his army of holy angels. SQUASH! The treading of the nations, including Christendom, begins... Never before in all human history will so many human creatures have been slaughtered. Blood, as representing human lives poured out, will run deep and over a vast distance... With breathless awe they [the survivors] will have looked down from their safe heights into the valley of decision and witnessed how Jehovah gains his magnificent victory by Christ over all the combined nations of Satan’s visible organization. At His victory in vindication of his universal sovereignty we witnesses will sing his praises exultantly and will acknowledge him as our God for all time and eternity. We are near the time of his battle and transcendant victory" (Watchtower, "United Against Nations in the Valley of Decision," 1 December 1961, p. 724-725).
"Yes, today, with Armageddon staring us in the face, we must keep in mind the sobering thought that millions, even billions, of lives may shortly come to a swift and decisive end, putting their onetime owners beyond the reach of any expression of love on our part" (Watchtower, "Fulfilling the New Commandment of Love," 1 April 1965, p. 212).
"The unburied dead, 'those slain by Jehovah,' will be so enormously many that even the carrion birds and scavenging wild beasts could never take care of their consumption. The burial of even what remains after these lower creatures have their fill would be stupendous. Doubtless the Almighty God will use some highly scientific means, whether including antimatter or not, to dispose of the surplus of decaying bodies in a speedy and sanitary way" (The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah -- How?, 1971, p. 377).
"Only Jehovah’s Witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the 'great crowd,' as a united organization under the protection of the Supreme Organizer, have any Scriptural hope of surviving the impending end of this doomed system dominated by Satan the Devil" (Watchtower, "Remaining Organized for Survival Into the Millennium," 1 September 1989, p. 19).
"Many wonder, however, why a God who is the very embodiment of love would inflict death and destruction on much of humankind. The situation might be compared to that of apest-infested house. Would you not agree that a conscientious homeowner should safeguard the health and well-being of his family by exterminating the pests? ... The battle of Armageddon is actually one of the best things that could happen to us!" (Watchtower, "Armageddon -- A Happy Beginning," 1 December 2005, p. 6)
Compare with the dodge provided by J. R. Brown to the press:
We have in no way made the claim that here we are above others in any way, or that we have some special pipeline to God or special information. Obivously we feel we have the truth, or we would proclaim something else. So those matters were somewhat mixed up in the past, but we've made an effort to clarify them. What we feel we have as the truth, we proclaim that to others. That's the reason we have the work (house to house, street work, or however) to speak our message which we feel is based on the Bible and truth. But it's based on the Bible, we didn't invent it or originate it, it's already there.
L. Understood. So that there's no currently any understanding that says that only Jehovah's Witnesses are, in other words, chosen or the only ones who would survive an apocalyptic doomsday scenario?
B. We feel that's entirely up to God. But we do know that if a person isn't in line with God's way of living and thinking, then he runs a serious risk there. Even as the people in the time of Noah did, those who finally didn't line up with what God's prophet was stating then, and that was Noah, they didn't survive. They were lost in the Flood. So likewise in our day and time; we feel that people who are not living according to what is stated there. And everybody can read God's Word, the Bible. And it's up to them whether they choose to apply it or not. But they will be judged not by us but by God. We can point out his standard, we can read it and show it to them. He's the Judge, we can't read hearts.
