Questions From Readers

● The book What Has Religion Done for Mankind? says, on page 251, that when Jesus told the truth in Nazareth “the religious people there in that synagogue rioted and rushed him out of town and tried to stone him to death,” and cites Luke 4:16-30 as proof. But Luke 4:29 (NW) says: “They rose up and hurried him outside the city, and they led him to the brow of the mountain upon which their city had been built, in order to throw him down headlong.” Since the scripture says they tried to throw him over the hill, why does the book say that they tried to stone him to death?—N. S., United States.

The Bible does not describe in detail the process of stoning. It does show, however, that the place of execution was to be outside the city and that the witnesses threw the first stone upon the doomed one. (Lev. 24:14; Num. 15:36; Deut. 13:9, 10; 17:5-7; Acts 7:57-59) Jewish tradition adds the information that the victim was first thrown over the brow of a hill or precipice and thereafter was pelted with stones until dead. Now, with this understanding of the process of execution by stoning, it is apparent that when the Jews of Nazareth “hurried him outside the city, and they led him to the brow of the mountain upon which their city had been built, in order to throw him down headlong,” they were following the procedure of stoning, and that had they succeeded in pushing him over the hill they would have finished the execution by pelting him with stones. “The Photo-Drama of Creation” had a motion picture of Stephen being stoned in this way.

● A report persists in circulating that there is a destructive electrical ring descending toward the earth, and that, when it hits, life not miraculously preserved by Jehovah will be wiped out. Did not the Awake! magazine comment on this some years ago?—W. S., United States.

Yes, the Awake! of July 8, 1952, in its article entitled “Our Atmosphere, Man’s Stairway to the Stars,” had a subheading called “Does Electrical Ring Threaten Us?” It pointed out that while there are electrical layers in the ionosphere, the harmful radiations are prevented from reaching earth by the ozone layer. Nor is there any danger that the ozone layer will be destroyed, leaving us vulnerable to this bombardment, because the ultraviolet rays that, along with cosmic rays, cause the electrical layers of the ionosphere also create this ozone layer by their action on the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere. In other words, the rays create the roadblock. As long as the rays are there the preventive layer will be there.

So it seems that the electrical layers above us offer nowhere near the threat that the idle rumors about them do, which are parroted about without any scientific basis. Certainly it is worse than fruitless to occupy our time spreading such rumors when that time is urgently needed to preach the unquestionable warnings of Jehovah’s Word. So we should use our time to preach about what we know, based on God’s sure Word, rather than preaching pseudoscientific hearsay that is advanced by those who yearn to be sensational.