in no real life-giving refreshment to the drinkers. Such waters have even led the drinkers to violate the Creator’s law concerning the sacredness of blood and to engage in religious persecutions and in shedding the blood of even the holy ones and prophets of Jehovah God; for which reason he has judicially decided that they must suffer the full penalty for shedding blood, doing so either as individuals or as a community. We, however, will avoid this divine judicial decision by drinking only of Jehovah as the Fountain of living water, doing so by means of his Holy Word;

8. To whom will we look and give honor?

⁸ THAT we will continue to look to Him as the great Sun from whom comes our enlightenment, guidance and healing. We will glorify him and not join idolatrous men in looking to bright-shining ones of mankind as the source of mental and spiritual enlightenment and of worldly prosperity. In this way we save ourselves from taking part with disappointed men in blaspheming God the Creator because the symbolic “sun” that they idolized and looked to for enlightenment and a brighter future has scorched them with unbearably hot world conditions rather than with a healing of the state of mankind;

9. What price have political kingdoms paid for their right of rulership, and what attitude toward God’s witnesses do they take?

⁹ THAT we accept the Bible’s proof that Satan the Devil is the “ruler of the demons” and also the “ruler of this world,” from whom our Leader Jesus Christ refused to accept any throne of rulership. But ever since the days of Nimrod, king of Babylon, the political system of this world has accepted its throne of political rulership from the satanic “ruler of this world,” and to this ruler the worldly political system has paid his fixed price for the throne, rendering him worship and service. Since the decisive year of 1914 the political system of human government has refused to vacate this throne and cease rendering service to the “ruler of this world.” For this reason the darkness of God’s disfavor has settled down on the kingdom of this worldly political system, and there is no political light to show human rulers the way out of the increasing “anguish of nations.” With no repentance they persist in their works for self-salvation, and blaspheme God for paining them by having His witnesses showing that their doomed condition is beyond healing through human remedies;

10. (a) What is our declaration concerning ancient Babylon’s counterpart today and her political companions? (b) Just how will we conduct ourselves now?

¹⁰ THAT Nimrod in rebellion against Jehovah God founded his capital city Babylon on the Euphrates River in the Middle East, and by its waters this imperial city protected itself and carried on selfish commerce with the peoples. Ancient Babylon has now a modern counterpart that enriches and protects itself by sitting oppressively upon symbolic waters, the peoples, and even holding a religious kingdom over the political kings of this earth. Now the time has come for God to dry up these wealth-bringing protective “waters” and bring about the fall and destruction of Babylon’s modern counterpart. As for her political companions, these are marching to the “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” Under propaganda and programs inspired by demons and voiced by political systems serving the “ruler of this world,” the kings of the earth and their armies are being led, not to the Euphrates River, but to the battlefield with the Hebrew name Har–Magedon (or, Armageddon). We, who are Jehovah’s witnesses, will not obstruct them in their military preparations, and yet we will not march with them to Har–Magedon, for we refuse to fight against God Almighty and his kingdom by Jesus the Messiah;

11. (a) Though we are in the world, what do we refuse to do? (b) What has Babylon’s modern counterpart not done, and so what result can be expected?

¹¹ THAT, although at present we are obliged to be in this world, we will not breathe in the spirit of this world, for it is not the spirit of God but is the spirit of the devilish “ruler of this world.” Led by the spirit of its unseen ruler, the world of mankind has for thousands of years cultivated the works of the fallen, degraded flesh. Now the world is reaping the results of breathing in the spirit of Satan the Devil and cultivating the works of their flesh, which is at enmity with God. Babylon’s modern religious counterpart has not cultivated in the people the spirit of God, that they might reap the fruitage of God’s spirit to the attainment of eternal life in His new order of things. The world therefore faces an earthquake of world trouble the like of which it has never known, and all its political institutions and its modern religious Babylon will be shaken to bits, even human institutions as imposing and stable as mountains or isolated like islands disappearing;

12. (a) So, then, where is it that we firmly resolve to be in this day of judgment? (b) Finally, what is our resolve as regards the “everlasting good news”?

¹² THAT, therefore, we have immediately ahead of us the most momentous period in the history of mankind; the hour of the execution of God’s righteous judgment is about to strike, and we are in the day of decision. Whereas we see all the nations of this doomed world marching under superhuman demon influence, it is our resolution to remain immovable on the side of the established Messianic kingdom of Jehovah God, ever praying that he will give us more and more of his spirit. And as we endeavor to cultivate the fruitage of the spirit of God and carry on His pure and undefiled worship, we will keep on the full suit of armor of God and continue fighting, not against blood and flesh, but against the “wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places” until the satanic “ruler of this world” and his demons are abyssed for the thousand years of Christ’s reign. We thank Jehovah God for the ministry of his holy angels under Jesus Christ in our behalf. With their help and with the help of his holy spirit and Word we will continue to declare to all peoples without partiality the “everlasting good news” concerning God’s Messianic kingdom and concerning his judgments, which are like plagues to his enemies but which will be executed for the liberation of all persons who desire to worship God the Creator acceptably with spirit and with truth.

(The above Resolution was adopted at all 24 assemblies by a grand total of 454,977 conventioners.)

Popularity of Prediction

◆ Reporting on the popularity of the art of prediction, an evidence of the operation of wicked spirit forces throughout the world (Acts 16:16-18), Léon Christiani writes in Evidence of Satan in the Modern World: “The present popularity of various forms of prediction is almost unbelievable. The following figures are given for all forms of fortune-telling in France: 6,000 practitioners registered with the police in Paris alone, and 60,000 for the whole of France, with an annual turnover estimated at, at least, 60 milliard francs. The ancient forms of divination . . . have given way to the cards, the lines of the hand, the study of coffee dregs and all kinds of other methods, all equally imposing. And, as in antiquity, there is still astrology, considered to be the most satisfactory way of foretelling human destiny. . . . We are none the less entitled to consider that the Devil is well satisfied with such aberrations, and that prediction, in its contemporary forms, is one of the devices of Satan to ensnare humanity.”