“And it must occur that should they say to you, ‘Where shall we go out to?’ you must also say to them, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “Whoever is for deadly plague, to deadly plague! And whoever is for the sword, to the sword! And whoever is for the famine, to the famine! And whoever is for the captivity, to the captivity!”’

Jer. 15:2-6; also 16:4.

12. When and by whom were references to similar death-dealing things made concerning first-century Jerusalem and the present system of things?

¹² Deadly plague (or, pestilence), sword (or, war), famine (or, food shortage) and captivity! These words spoken to Jeremiah regarding Jerusalem during her time of the end (647-607 B.C.E.) in his day were words also used by Jesus Christ in his prophecy concerning the “time of the end” of Jerusalem in the first century of our Common Era. (Matt. 24:3-7, 21, 22; Luke 21:10, 11, 20-24) Also, in his prophecy in the last book of the Bible the same things are called to our attention by the use of illustrations, including the wild beasts of the field. (Rev. 6:1-8) That last prophecy carries the fulfillment of those calamitous predictions beyond the writing of Revelation in 96 C.E. down to our own “time of the end,” from 1914 C.E. onward. (Dan. 12:4) So the prophecy, in its final fulfillment, applies to the present doomed system of things, including apostate Christendom.

13. Since when have we had similar things in undue measure?

¹³ Should any of us blind our eyes to the fact that since the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 we have had war (the sword), famine, pestilence, also earthquakes in undue measure? It has been just as predicted, as illustrated in the case of the Jerusalem of Jeremiah’s day and the Jerusalem of the days of Jesus’ apostles.

14. Why has Christendom been no exception to the suffering of such calamitous things?

¹⁴ Christendom, the modern antitype of apostate Jerusalem and Judah, has not been any exception to the suffering of such calamitous things.