a one. Paul was a determined man, strong in mind and of great faith, and could strengthen the faith of others. With conviction he said: “Now we are not the sort that shrink back to destruction, but the sort that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.”—Heb. 10:39.

ANALYZING OUR FAITH

35. In analyzing our faith what questions demand an answer?

³⁵ What kind of faith do you have? Is it the kind that shrinks back at every trial or difficulty that arises, or is your faith strong, built on the solid foundation of God’s Word? Is your faith strong enough to carry you on to ‘the preserving alive of your soul’?

36. How does Philippians 4:9 help us build a strong faith?

³⁶ Paul, writing to the Philippians, said: “The things that you learned as well as accepted and heard and saw in connection with me, practice these; and the God of peace will be with you.” (Phil. 4:9) What did the early Christians learn from Paul? What did they hear? What did they see? What had they accepted? Surely they saw Paul as a staunch Christian, dedicated to Jehovah God, walking in the footsteps of Christ Jesus. They knew a man willing to go through all kinds of sufferings, persecution, trials and even face death without shrinking back. They read his letter containing the experiences of what he went through for the sake of the good news of Christ. They knew Paul believed that Christ Jesus laid down his life for the saving of mankind and that Paul showed his belief by preaching God’s kingdom with Christ as King. These are just a few things Christians learn from Paul. Through Paul’s many letters and personal association he built up in others the necessary faith. The things that Paul preached and lived by, the early Christian witnesses of Jehovah learned, heard and saw and accepted. Now what? Will you faithful followers of Christ Jesus today practice these things? If so, with what result? “The God of peace will be with you.”

37. How does one gain the peace of God today, and who serves as the primary example of exercising proper love?

³⁷ How can a person gain the peace of God today? First of all, by withdrawing from this wicked system of things. Then devote yourself wholly to the doing of the will of Jehovah God. Moses wrote: “I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion.” (Ex. 20:5) Therefore you as a Christian must serve God with your whole heart, with your whole mind, with your whole soul, with your whole strength. This will prove your real love for your Father in heaven. Add to that the second commandment you must follow, and that is, Love your neighbor as you do yourself. The best example that you have of this kind of love is the Son of God, Christ Jesus. If you want to become a Christian you must be as much like him as possible. You will want to copy him in everything he did. To do that you must read about him, find out all you can about his life and his work. This information is found in the written Word of God, the Holy Bible.

38. Why can we be sure that it is not a theological education that qualifies one as a true minister of Jehovah?

³⁸ To follow in the footsteps of Christ Jesus does not require a training in a theological seminary or a religious college. If such higher education were necessary, then Peter and John could not have been apostles of Christ Jesus. Those two men were ordinary men with sound minds. They appreciated and loved truth. They were men who listened and learned from their teacher Jesus Christ. When their resurrected Teacher explained to them why he had died upon the torture stake, they were not the kind to shrink back but they were ready to move out, and at Pentecost they preached the things that they heard and believed. So the Bible record tells us that when the Jewish Sanhedrin “beheld the outspokenness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were men unlettered and ordinary, they got to wondering. And they began to recognize about them that they used to be with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13) It is the spirit in a person, his zeal, devotion and knowledge that count, not his degree or diploma that hangs on a wall. These men had gained true knowledge because they had been with Jesus and learned the truth. They were fearless in expressing that truth. It was not their college education, or the rabbinical schools of their day, that qualified them as ministers of God. They never enrolled in them. They were ordained as God’s ministers by God, not by men. To wear “the cloth” the clergy of Christendom may trace their lines of descent back to A.D. 325 and the Nicean creed, but not back to Christ Jesus or the Word of God.

39. (a) What must every Christian be, and how did H. G. Wells show this to be the case with early Christianity? (b) Did Paul’s example show the early church to be a preaching organization? How?

³⁹ This information should be of real encouragement to individuals in all parts of the world who love the Bible, and it should help them in taking their stand for the ministry. If Peter and John, fishermen, could be apostles of Jesus Christ and could qualify to represent God as his ordained ministers in the earth, then why cannot anyone who loves the truth in God’s Word and who is devoted to God and has dedicated his life to God’s service do likewise? All the early Christians were ministers and they studied God’s written Word. It becomes clear that every person who becomes a Christian must also be a preacher of the good news. The difficulty in Christendom today is that the clergy are the only ones recognized as ministers, and their congregations have been made a listening flock, not a preaching flock. There has been a development of the clergy class and a laity class in Christendom, and, as was pointed out in The Outline of History, H. G. Wells saw “the profound difference between the fully developed Christianity of Nicaea and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.” Of early Christianity he said: “Its only organization was an organization of preachers, and its chief function was the sermon.” That is what real Christians today see the need for the organization to be. The whole organization of Jehovah’s witnesses is made up of ordained ministers, and their chief function and training is the use of the sermon. They use Bible sermons from door to door and in their home Bible study work. Christians now must be just like Jehovah’s witnesses in the days of the apostles, who went from house to house and delivered sermons to the people of the homes visited, to any family, and they studied the Bible with them. Paul said: “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.” (Acts 20:20) H. G. Wells showed that from and after A.D. 325 the religious leaders of Christendom established elaborate rituals around an altar, consecrated deacons, bishops, priests, and established the mass, and went into the construction of temples. What a difference from the way true Christians worshiped the Almighty God Jehovah!

EACH ONE MUST EXERCISE FAITH

40. (a) What have Christendom’s leaders done for the people? (b) How did one religious leader describe the need in today’s religious organizations?

⁴⁰ Christendom’s leaders have brought themselves into the position in which they find themselves today. They have made their millions of churchgoers, the laity, useless as far as the spreading of Christianity is concerned. The clergy have taught them to listen and to go through set formalisms in their temples each week. They put no responsibility upon their flock to preach in behalf of Christ and to tell others the good news of God’s kingdom. There are some clergymen today that realize their failure. For example, the “Reverend” John Heuse, director of New York city’s Trinity Parish, had this to say in his lecture “What Are Churches For?”

“No parish can fulfill its true function unless there is at the very center of its leadership life a small community of quietly fanatic, changed and truly converted Christians. The trouble with most parishes is that nobody, including the clergyman, is really greatly changed; but even where there is a devoted self-sacrificing priest at the heart of the fellowship, not much will happen until there is a community of changed men and women.”—Reader’s Digest, June, 1962.

41. (a) Who are at fault because of weak parishioners? (b) What basic quality of Christianity is missing?

⁴¹ Whose fault is this? The clergymen are to blame. They are not trying to turn their parishioners into Christians who would “endure a great contest under suffering.” Their parishioners do not want to be “exposed as in a theater to both reproaches and tribulation” for Christ’s sake. They refuse to be like early Christians, willing to go to prison if necessary just for the sake of preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. Why has Christendom failed? Their people do not “have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.” They do not know, nor have they been taught, what Christian work is. The people of Christendom have not been trained to stand up for that which is right. How could they? Jesus said: “If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matt. 15:14) Their flocks have not learned what Christianity is, what truth is. How could anyone expect them to, when one of their own clergymen says: “I, for one, admit that I can’t think of a church that I would bother crossing the street to enter if I were a layman.” (See pages 11, 12.) And a good many men and women do not go to their churches either. Very likely these nonchurchgoers noticed the true condition of the churches even before this clergyman did.

42. Why will ecumenical councils not unite the various religious denominations?

⁴² Let all the heads of the different denominations of the world gather together with Pope John XXIII in another ecumenical council. Let them try to unite the various religious denominations, both Protestant and Catholic, into a solid organization. Yet they will never make Christians out of their members. It takes more than consolidation. It takes God’s blessing, his spirit, his Word and the individual’s faith to be a Christian. Christendom has strayed too far away from God’s Word, the truth, to return. Too many of Christendom’s clergy have chosen small bits of the Bible to believe and scrapped the rest as a myth. In exchange they give their flocks their own ideas and, as Paul puts it, they “pay attention to false stories and to genealogies, which end up in nothing, but which furnish questions for research rather than a dispensing of anything by God in connection with faith.”—1 Tim. 1:4.

43. What is the Bible to a true Christian?

⁴³ The real Christian knows through study of the Bible that the whole Bible is a book of action, a book of service, a book of faith, a book of truth and truly the Word of the Almighty God Jehovah. Christ Jesus only nineteen hundred years ago believed its true stories as written in the Hebrew Scriptures and he quoted them from the books of the Bible. Are you, then, going to teach others the same things that Jesus taught back there? Have faith in God’s Word. Study it! “Preach the word,” as Christians must! Then “be at it urgently in favorable season, in troublesome season.”—2 Tim. 4:2.

44, 45. How is a strong faith shown?

⁴⁴ You believe that “with the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.” (Rom. 10:9, 10) Well, then, is your faith strong enough to make you speak out as a Christian and to tell the truth of God’s promises regarding his kingdom, which is mankind’s only hope? Or, are you going to be like a certain group of so-called followers of Christ that James described as “hearers only, deceiving yourselves with false reasoning. For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, this one is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, and off he goes and immediately forgets what sort of man he is.”—Jas. 1:22-24.

⁴⁵ The logic of James is conclusive. He says: “Indeed, as the body without breath is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (Jas. 2:26) Faith expresses itself. It makes proclamation. Faith is not a dead thing, but it goes to work. Faith lets other people know what it believes. It speaks out from house to house. A minister of God with faith must be active. One who knows the Word of God preaches it. Faith has no fear to give testimony, Peter said. “But sanctify the Christ as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a defense before everyone that demands of you a reason for the hope in you, but doing so together with a mild temper and deep respect.” (1 Pet. 3:15) One with faith in God and the Bible makes a defense before everybody.

46. Whom did Jesus choose to be his light bearers, and what example did he leave them?

⁴⁶ Jesus, when speaking to Jews who were looking for the Messiah, did not pick out the scribes and the Pharisees to be the light of the world. He just chose ordinary men, men of faith. You remember that he said: “You are the light of the world. A city cannot be hid when situated upon a mountain. People light a lamp and set it, not under the measuring basket, but upon the lampstand, and it shines upon all those in the house. Likewise let your light shine before men, that they may see your fine works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.” (Matt. 5:14-16) This instruction in his Sermon on the Mount he gave to men and women alike. What an excellent service sermon it is! Jesus encouraged all people listening to take up the ministry, to represent God’s kingdom and work for it. He said: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness.” (Matt. 6:33) He taught lovers of righteousness how to pray. He showed them the need to sanctify the name of the Father, Jehovah, and pray for his kingdom so that his will would take place on earth just the same as in heaven. (Matt. 6:9-15) To keep at this ministry work personally requires real faith in Jehovah God, his Son Jesus Christ and God’s Word.

47. What should each one do now toward preserving alive the soul?

⁴⁷ If you have such faith it will mean the “preserving alive of the soul.” So flee from the old world, headed for destruction as was Sodom, and be like Lot and his two daughters. Get up and go; be a minister of the good news! Do not hesitate to endure a “great contest under sufferings, sometimes while you [are] being exposed as in a theater both to reproaches and tribulations.” (Heb. 10:32, 33) Serve God as a real Christian and be strong in your faith. Believe his Word and gain everlasting life in the new world of righteousness.

‘Fight a Fine Fight for the Faith’

1. How could Paul speak with authority on fighting for the faith?

THESE words by the apostle Paul to Timothy: “Fight the fine fight of the faith,” had real meaning to Paul. He had been persecuted by his own race, the Jews, beaten with many stripes, stoned and imprisoned. He experienced shipwreck, dangers from highwaymen, dangers from false brothers, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, yes, all kinds of trials and tribulations. While under all this pressure, he still had rushing in on him “the anxiety for all the congregations.” (2 Cor. 11:23-28) So, then, these words of Paul, “Fight the fine fight of the faith,” are not idle words. Would you do the same as Paul for the sake of the good news? You would if you had faith like Paul and Timothy had, and you would ‘get a firm hold on the everlasting life for which you were called and you would offer the fine public declaration in front of many witnesses.’—1 Tim. 6:12.

2. Why is patience necessary for one who is charged with teaching others, and how did the apostle Paul especially show this by his comments?

² Paul in his letters to Timothy was instructing this dedicated young Christian to carry out his duties as a true follower of Christ. As an overseer and a brother he must teach those with whom he associated only the sound doctrine that he had received from God’s Word. He was not to be full of idle talk or his own ideas. Timothy knew the truth, and it was the truth that he must teach, nothing else. This teaching would take time and patience because God’s people are not the worldly-wise, the highly intelligent men, but rather humble people. That is what Paul wrote the Corinthians: “Not many wise in a fleshly way were called, not many powerful, not many of noble birth; but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put the wise men to shame; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put the strong things to shame; and God chose the ignoble things of the world and the things looked down upon, the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are, in order that no flesh might boast in the sight of God.” (1 Cor. 1:26-29) In the uneducated, noninfluential and poor people Timothy had to build up faith and then bring them to a point where they could offer a “fine public declaration in front of many witnesses.” Are you doing that kind of Christian work? You should!

3. What does the Bible show with regard to those chosen to do Jehovah’s work?

³ From God’s own Word we see that those who were highly educated in the world, and the most prominent men, were not the ones called. Look at those whom the Son of God chose: fishermen, tax collectors, men who were looked down upon by the scribes and Pharisees. When ordinary police officers were sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees to take Jesus and to bring him to them they came back without Jesus, and the officers said: “Never has another man spoken like this.” In turn the Pharisees answered: “You have not been misled also, have you? Not one of the rulers or of the Pharisees has put faith in him, has he?” (John 7:45-48) Even these men with great wisdom and high education who had the Hebrew Scriptures handy in scrolls, men who were supposed to be the representatives of God, had no faith in the Son of God. They argued that no rulers or Pharisees had put faith in him. Have things changed much in our day? Who turn out to be the true Christians?

4. Therefore, who are the ones chosen primarily to do Jehovah’s work today?

⁴ Look around the world. Check the nations’ rulers since World War I began, A.D. 1914. Consider: Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, a so-called Christian out for world domination; Adolf Hitler, a Catholic German dictator who signed a concordat with the pope in 1933; and Mussolini, who with the blessing of the Catholic Church invaded Ethiopia. Have these dictators acted the part of true Christians? They did attend church, did they not? But do you think God called these men to be heirs with Christ Jesus? Were these rulers in their positions “by divine right” and walking in the footsteps of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? He did not choose the ‘rulers or the Pharisees’ as a whole to be his followers, did he? It does not appear that he is choosing them today. The faithful followers of Jesus, Peter and John, Matthew and others, were not of the ruling class. True, Paul was a converted Pharisee, but how true were his words: ‘Not many powerful were called’! Besides, here is what James had to say about the matter: “God chose the ones who are poor respecting the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him, did he not?” (Jas. 2:5) Persons who are trying to walk as Christians should keep these scriptures in mind and walk in humility and show love to their fellowman.

5. How does one rich in this world’s goods put up a hard fight for the faith?

⁵ What must one do really to put up a fine fight for the faith if he is a man in politics, business or religion? If someone rich and powerful comes to a knowledge of the truth and declares himself a real Christian, then let him listen to Paul’s stern words written to Timothy: “Give orders to those who are rich in the present system of things not to be high-minded, and to rest their hope, not on uncertain riches, but on God, who furnishes us all things richly for our enjoyment; to work at good, to be rich in fine works, to be liberal, ready to share, safely treasuring up for themselves a fine foundation for the future, in order that they may get a firm hold on the real life.” (1 Tim. 6:17-19) Rich men should be helped to realize that this life in the present evil world is transitory and not until anyone really dedicates his life to the service of Jehovah God and walks in the footsteps of Christ Jesus, preaching the good news of God’s kingdom, can he ever get “a firm hold on the real life.” Jesus said: “Whoever wants to save his soul [life] will lose it; but whoever loses his soul [life] for the sake of me and the good news will save it.” (Mark 8:35) Being a faithful Christian does not mean being a member of a “church” having a fine building. Being a Christian means living as one according to the Word of God, offering “the fine public declaration in front of many witnesses.” Are you doing this? If you are not, you can! It will take faith and courage to do so, but it can be done and is being done by those who truly love Jehovah God and his kingdom.

ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY

6. How did Jehovah’s servants in the first century carry out their responsibilities as witnesses?

⁶ Jehovah’s witnesses around the world have a responsibility to help every Christian and person of goodwill who seeks truth and righteousness to “fight the fine fight of the faith” and to “get a firm hold on the everlasting life.” (1 Tim. 6:12) How do Jehovah’s witnesses help people find this kind of faith to fight for? First, an individual must hear the good news. But in order to hear there must be a preacher. (Rom. 10:13-15) In Christ’s time the disciples listened to their teacher and then were taught to go from house to house. Jesus said: “Go on telling them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” (Luke 10:9) His little band of seventy faithful followers must have spent many hours talking about the kingdom of God to individuals that they had never before met. But that was the will of God. On the day of Pentecost after the holy spirit descended upon the 120 persons in the upper room Peter spoke to thousands of interested people and there were 3,000 who “embraced his word heartily” and dedicated their lives to Jehovah’s service through his Son Jesus Christ and were baptized. They became true Christians, and “they continued devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles.” (Acts 2:41, 42) They must have gone to all the homes in Jerusalem in a short time and from there returned home after Pentecost to scatter throughout the land, where thousands more heard the good news and came into the Christian congregation. The true ministry of Christ had begun!

7. Why do Jehovah’s witnesses keep track of the time spent talking about God’s kingdom, and how much time did they spend during the 1962 service year in talking to people about this important news?

⁷ In those days when Christ’s disciples preached the good news there was no record kept of the time spent in their preaching work. But today, that the Watch Tower Society may know where the preaching work has been accomplished, it keeps a record of the hours spent by Jehovah’s witnesses talking to people about God’s kingdom. During the twelve months from September 1, 1961, to August 31, 1962, Jehovah’s witnesses spent 142,046,679 hours preaching the good news of the Kingdom publicly. That is 9,351,139 more hours than they spent the year before in their field service. Where did they spend all this time preaching? Consult the chart on pages 24-27 and you will see the list of 189 countries, protectorates, islands of the sea and colonies where Jehovah’s witnesses preached the good news in cities, villages, hamlets, on rural roads, in offices, business houses, anywhere, everywhere, when they had the opportunity of talking to people.

8, 9. (a) Outline the work of (1) special pioneers, (2) regular pioneers, (3) congregation publishers. (b) How many engaged in each field of the ministry in 1962, and what was the average number of ministers each month during the service year?

⁸ Who did all this preaching? True Christians, Jehovah’s witnesses, men and women, young and old, all dedicated to doing the will of Jehovah God. These ministers went from house to house and, where they could arrange to study with people in their homes, they did so. Those who spend 150 hours or more in the field work each month are called special pioneers. Some of these are missionaries who have graduated from the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. All together during the year there were, on an average, 6,934 special pioneers engaged in the work every month. Then there were 26,626 pioneers who spent about 100 hours each month declaring the message of salvation. They worked in the territory of their own congregations or went out on their own into places where the need was great for telling out the good news, in isolated places, as special pioneers do. Then there are those Christians who have secular occupations and families to care for. They may be carpenters, farmers, office workers or factory workers. They cannot arrange their time to spend 100 or 150 hours a month in the ministry, but they do strive to spend a minimum of ten hours each month in the preaching activity being carried on in all parts of the earth. There were 887,360 of these witnesses of Jehovah working diligently in all parts of