Because of such prophecies Christadelphians pin great hopes on the Jews’ returning to Palestine, overlooking the fact that all these are gathering in unbelief, merely for selfish considerations, and that the entire tenor of the Christian Greek Scriptures is that what counts is not being a Jew according to the flesh but according to the spirit.—Rom. 2:25-29; Gal. 3:28.

As for the first text quoted to prove their position, let it be noted that for Christians Jerusalem is above, a heavenly city or organization. (Gal. 4:26) The second text says nothing about Jesus reigning on the earth but refers to Jehovah (as the Hebrew shows) reigning over the earth. And as for the third text, telling of Christians reigning “on” the earth, the Greek word here translated “on” is epi, and it can just as well be rendered “over” as “on,” and in fact is rendered “over” by such Bible translators as Goodspeed, Knox, Weymouth and the New World Bible Translation Committee.

Yes, at first glance Christadelphianism appears to be of God, but not upon closer examination. Its ignoring the importance of the name of Jehovah and the issue of universal sovereignty, its glaring lack of unity, its failure to carry out Jesus’ command to preach the good news in all nations, its ignoring the Scriptural hope for mankind in general, its denial of Jesus’ prehuman existence, its denial of the personality of Satan and his demons, its denial of a corresponding ransom provided by Jesus and its denial of the heavenly, spiritual nature of God’s kingdom and of the heavenly reward of the saints all combines to stamp it to be deserving of the Scriptural description: “This scheme and this work is from men.”—Acts 5:38.

Jehovah Gives the Victory

IN CANADA the clergy’s ministerial association in one city became concerned with the preaching work of Jehovah’s witnesses in the community. It engaged the services of a man from out of town to address churchgoers there and answer their questions about the Witnesses. Notices were published in newspapers that welcomed the public to the talk he would give. Church members began to make insinuations that the Witnesses would be in a bad way as a result of this clergy action. But the Witnesses remained calm and undisturbed about the matter. They assured those who brought up the matter that they were not worried and that honesthearted persons would be helped by what would be heard, that those looking for the truth would be able to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

Those who brought up these things to the Witnesses were among the more prominent ones of the churches. When they saw that the Witnesses were not worried, then they themselves became disturbed. They called their ministers and told them that there was no sense in paying them a salary if they had to hire an outsider to speak about Jehovah’s witnesses. Although it was late to do so, the visit and the talk were both canceled.

That same Sunday the local Baptist minister and his leading deacon came to the public talk and The Watchtower study. During the study they would snicker and poke one another to show their amusement at points of the discussion. At times they would raise their hands as if to take part in the study but then cover their mouths if the chairman looked their way. What the clergyman and his deacon did not know was that one of their members was just a few rows behind them, observing their antics. This young man had just been to a few Bible talks at the Kingdom Hall and was still a member of the church. After the study the clergyman saw this young man and said to him: “Let us get