22. When and why did the beastly Eighth World Power go into the “abyss”?

²² As foretold in Revelation 17:7, 8, that beastly Eighth World Power went into the “abyss” of deathlike inability at the outbreak of World War II. Its chief backer and promoter, the British Empire, was unable to keep it alive in the face of military aggression by Nazism and Fascism backed by Catholic Action.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the American member of the Seventh World Power was forced into World War II alongside the British member of the Anglo-American World Power. Then note what happened with regard to these idolatrous worshipers of a man-made organization for world peace and security. The so-called “Axis Powers” of Nazism, Fascism and Oriental Imperialism were still moving forward aggressively, when a significant event took place on Friday, January 2, 1942. What? According to the Chronology of events of 1942, as published in The Americana Annual “all twenty-six nations at war with the Axis powers pledge themselves not to make a separate armistice or peace and to employ full military or economic resources against the enemy in a ‘Declaration by United Nations’ signed in Washington.”​—Americana Annual for 1943, page 737.d

24. Seemingly, what was the beastly Eighth World Power then scheming to do, and how did Jehovah alert his people to this on September 20, 1942?

²⁴ Seemingly, the beastly Eighth World Power was stirring down there in the “abyss” and scheming to come up for international worship. Jehovah God, by his holy spirit and through his prophetic Word, alerted his people to this fact. Consequently, on Sunday, September 20, 1942, on the concluding day of the “New World Theocratic Assembly” at the key city of Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A., the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society delivered the public address, “Peace​—Can It Last?” This speech, which was carried by telephone and radio facilities to fifty-one cities in the United States and was presented to simultaneous assemblies in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Hawaii, referred to Revelation 17:7, 8 and declared that World War II would end and be succeeded by a peace in which the scarlet-colored wild beast, the international organization for world peace and security, would come up out of the “abyss.”