fulfilled with benefit to all mankind, living and dead.

THE BIRTH OF SPIRITUAL ISRAEL

8, 9. (a) When did the birth of spiritual Israel take place? (b) Relate the events that occurred in Jerusalem from and after Zion’s King, Christ Jesus, rode into the city in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9?

⁸ The birth of this nation took place at Jerusalem on the 6th day of Sivan of the year 33 C.E., the day that the natural circumcised Jews call “Shabuoth” (meaning “Weeks”), but which the Greek-speaking Jews called “Pentecost” (meaning “Fiftieth”).

⁹ In harmony with the meaning of the name Pentecost, the birth of that nation came on the fiftieth day from the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah or Christ from the dead, from a tomb very close to Jerusalem. He was Zion’s King who had ridden into Jerusalem in fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, but several days later the unbelieving religious leaders of Jerusalem had him killed at the hands of the Roman soldiers. Yet, on the third day from his death, Almighty God Jehovah resurrected him and exalted him to heavenly life as the Messiah or Christ, the everlasting Heir to the kingdom of David with whom God made the Kingdom covenant. Before ascending to heaven, Jesus the Messiah or Christ told his faithful disciples to remain in Jerusalem until the holy spirit of God should descend upon them.—Acts 1:1-15.

10. (a) How was the prophecy of Joel 2:28, 29 fulfilled on the festival day of Pentecost, and of what was the fulfillment an evidence? (b) What firstfruits did Jesus Christ now offer to Jehovah?

¹⁰ The disciples had to wait only ten days from then, till the festival day of Pentecost. On that day about one hundred and twenty of them were met together in an upper room in Jerusalem. All of a sudden God’s holy spirit was poured out upon them, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28, 29. Besides the noise as of a rushing wind and the tongues of fire that were seen to hover above their heads, they all began speaking in foreign languages that they had not learned before. This was evidence that Jesus Christ had arrived in God’s heavenly presence and was now seated at God’s right hand as “Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:1-36) This being the prophetic day of Pentecost, when the high priest of Israel at the temple in Jerusalem offered to God the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, Jesus Christ as God’s High Priest offered to God spiritual firstfruits. What? The Christian congregation as represented by those 120 disciples assembled that day in Jerusalem. (Ex. 34:22-24; Lev. 23:15-21) They were begotten by God’s spirit to “be a certain first fruits of his creatures.”—Jas. 1:18.

11. How do we know that these events marked the birth of a new nation, and whose place did it take?

¹¹ In this way, on the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E., the new nation was born, with the heavenly Lord Jesus Christ as its King. (Col. 1:13) The apostle Peter, who was there that day and who gave the opening speech under the power of the outpoured spirit, calls it a nation. Writing his first letter to members of this spirit-begotten congregation, Peter said: “These [fleshly circumcised Jews] are stumbling because they are disobedient to the word. To this very end they were also appointed. But you are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy NATION, a PEOPLE for special possession, that you should declare abroad the excellencies’ of the one that called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Pet. 2:8, 9) Since Jehovah God rejected the nation of natural, circumcised Israel because of their rejection of Jesus as Christ and Lord, this new Christian nation took the place of it with God.

12. After the first three years and four months of this nation’s existence, who began coming into it as citizens of that nation?

¹² For the first three years and four months of its existence, this “holy nation” was composed exclusively of persons who were natural Jews or persons who had Judaized and been circumcised and become adopted into natural Israel, so-called “proselytes.” (Acts 2:5-11, 33-42) But in early autumn of the year 36 C.E. Jehovah God began showing no further partiality to the circumcised Jews and proselytes, but sent the apostle Peter to Caesarea to convert the Italian centurion Cornelius and his God-fearing friends to faith in Jesus as Jehovah’s Messiah or Christ. These believing Gentiles then received holy spirit from heaven and began prophesying under its operation upon them. (Acts 10:1 to 11:18) From then on those who were uncircumcised Gentiles and who became believers in Jehovah’s Messiah were taken into the “holy nation,” thus enlarging the membership of this new nation, “the Israel of God.”—Gal. 6:16.

13. Show how Paul viewed the Gentile believers who became citizens of this “holy nation.”

¹³ In explaining that these Gentile believers became fellow citizens in this “holy nation,” the apostle Paul wrote: “You were people of the nations as to flesh; ‘uncircumcision’ you were called by that which is called ‘circumcision’ made in the flesh with hands—that you were at that particular time without Christ, alienated from the state of Israel and strangers to the covenants of the promise, and you had no hope and were without God in the world. But now in union with Christ Jesus you who were once far off have come to be near by the blood of the Christ. For he is our peace, he who made the two parties one and destroyed the wall in between that fenced them off. . . . And he came and declared the good news of peace to you, the ones far off, and peace to those near, because through him we, both peoples, have the approach to the Father by one spirit. Certainly, therefore, you are no longer strangers and alien residents, but you are fellow citizens of the holy ones and are members of the household of God, and you have been built up upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, while Christ Jesus himself is the foundation cornerstone.”—Eph. 2:11-20.

14. What were the ties that bound this new nation together, and where was their citizenship?

¹⁴ Since race and nationality of a person according to the flesh no longer determined whom God could induct into this new nation, the ties that bound these members together as fellow citizens of one nation were spiritual. It was a spiritual nation. It was not only anointed with God’s holy spirit to proclaim everywhere the good news of God’s kingdom but also begotten of God’s spirit to be God’s spiritual children, with the hope and promise of membership in God’s heavenly kingdom with Jesus Christ. For that reason the apostle Paul could write to them and say: “As for us, our citizenship exists in the heavens, from which place also we are eagerly waiting for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 3:20) This “holy nation,” therefore, is the spiritual Israel of God.

15. Why was there no need for Jehovah to give another rebirth to natural Israel after 70 C.E.?

¹⁵ By the year 70 C.E., thirty-seven years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the members of this spiritual nation of Israel had multiplied by the thousands in and outside the Roman Empire. Consequently, when the Roman legions under General Titus destroyed Jerusalem and its temple and devastated the land of Judea and thus the nation of natural, circumcised Israel was destroyed, there was no need for Jehovah God to give a rebirth to that rejected nation, either back there or today. At the destruction of the Jewish nation in the year 70 C.E. Jehovah God had already had for thirty-seven years his “holy nation” of spiritual Israel.

16. Upon whom, then, are Bible prophecies being fulfilled today, bringing what to the “nation whose God is Jehovah”?

¹⁶ It is upon this spiritual Israel and through it that the Bible prophecies continue to be fulfilled, down till today. Till this present day natural, fleshly Jews of the destroyed nation of Israel have survived, and so how much rather should not members of the true spiritual “Israel of God” have survived till today? To the praise and glory of Jehovah God and owing to his protection and preservation, a remnant of this spiritual “Israel of God” does exist today, and it is experiencing the unspeakable happiness of the “nation whose God is Jehovah.”—Ps. 33:12; Gal. 6:16.

The Rebirth of the Happy Nation

1. Who resent the fact that God has a “nation,” and what efforts have been made to destroy that nation of God?

SATAN the Devil and his worldly organization resent the fact that God should have a “nation” in the earth that is called by his name and that worships Jehovah as God. As prophetically stated in Psalm 83:4, the enemies of the nation whose God is Jehovah have said to fellow conspirators: “Come and let us efface them from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” Bible history and secular history record how the enemies, including even leading members of natural Israel, tried to wipe out spiritual Israel in the first century of its existence. In spite of the fierce persecution and efforts to exterminate them, the people of spiritual Israel survived and remained a nation supremely happy because the God whom they worshiped and served was Jehovah.

2. How does what occurred in 537 B.C.E. give us confidence in Jehovah’s power and ability to save his people at any time?

² All the enemies in heaven and on earth simply cannot wipe out Jehovah’s nation. When the enemies have seemingly succeeded in doing so, the Almighty God Jehovah can even resurrect a nation, if necessary! Did the world of the sixth century before our Common Era think that such a thing was impossible? Had they heard of such a thing before? Had they seen such a thing before? No! And yet in the year 537 B.C.E. they saw the resurrection, the rebirth, of the one nation back there whose God was Jehovah, just as had been foretold in Isaiah 66:7, 8. This God could repeat the miracle, and he has actually done so. By his permission, in the first century of our Common Era, the enemies, Jewish and Gentile, put to death the Head and King of the “holy nation” of spiritual Israel, but on the third day (Nisan 16, 33 C.E.) the God of this nation raised him from the dead and thereafter exalted him to power in heaven. On the fiftieth day from resurrecting the King, Jehovah God gave to him a newborn nation, spiritual Israel, “the Israel of God,” doing this by begetting with his holy spirit the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ on earth at Jerusalem. The enemies were foiled!

3. (a) To whom was Jesus referring when he spoke of a ”nation” in Matthew 21:43, 45, and what fruitage has that nation produced? (b) How have the nations felt about this “nation”

³ This is the nation whom Jesus Christ meant when he said to the Pharisees and chief priests of Jerusalem: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation producing its fruits.” (Matt. 21:43, 45) From the day of Pentecost of the year 33 C.E. this favored “nation” has produced the required fruits, proclaiming the kingdom of God, not with David as its king, but with the royal descendant of David as its king, namely, Jesus Christ, now exalted to the right hand of Jehovah God. (Acts 2:36; 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 30, 31) This producing of the fruits of the kingdom of God is the thing that makes this “holy nation” of spiritual Israel an object of hatred by all the Gentile nations and peoples, even the nations of Christendom. (Matt. 10:22; 24:9) What wonder, then, that these haters of the kingdom of God try to destroy the nation producing its fruits!

4, 5. (a) Who dealt the fatal blows to God’s nation in 607 B.C.E., and in this twentieth century? (b) How did statements in the official magazine of the dedicated remnant of sprit-begotten Christians recognize their nationhood under Jehovah?

⁴ In the year 607 B.C.E., at the destruction of Jerusalem and the desolating of the land of Judah, it was ancient Babylon that dealt the fatal blow in hatred of the nation whose God was Jehovah. But in this twentieth century of our Common Era, during the throes of World War I, it was Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion, and her political lovers that dealt a seemingly fatal blow to the nation of today whose God is Jehovah. Here, right in our own modern world, was a remnant of dedicated, baptized, spirit-begotten Christians earnestly studying the Holy Bible and recognizing their spiritual nationhood. In the second number (that of August 1879) of its official magazine it confessed Jehovah as its God, saying on page 4: “‘Zion’s Watch Tower’ has, we believe, JEHOVAH for its backer, and while this is the case it will never beg nor petition men for support.” Recognizing its nationhood, its official magazine, under date of August 15, 1893, said to its readers:

⁵ “‘Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.’—1 Pet. 2:9. . . . Truly such a people, such a nation, are we under Christ Jesus our King, and our interests are indeed one: they are the interests of the truth concerning the establishment of Christ’s kingdom in all the earth. Our national policy is aggressive, and contemplates the complete subjection of every other power; but its object, unlike that of all other ambitious powers, is . . . the establishment of universal peace and happiness. Every loyal citizen of this nation is deeply interested. . . . ”—Pages 250, 251, under the title “A Peculiar People.”

6. What stand by this spiritual nation showed they were whole-souled for God’s kingdom?

⁶ True to this spiritual nationhood as spiritual Israel, this dedicated remnant kept themselves from being a part of this world, just as Jesus Christ and his twelve apostles themselves did. (John 15:19; 17:14-16; Jas. 1:27) For this reason they refused to have any part with the nations in World War I, bearing no carnal weapons and declaring their neutrality. By the official magazine and other publications of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society they had pointed to the year 1914 as the year marked in the Bible for the ending of the “times of the Gentiles,” when Christ’s kingdom should come to full power; and the outbreak of World War I in that very year confirmed their Scriptural conviction. They preached that thereafter all the nations of this world would meet their Armageddon in the “battle of the great day of God the Almighty” and be utterly destroyed. Christ’s kingdom was therefore the only hope of mankind.

7. What persecution did Babylon the Great bring upon this holy nation, and how did she view the matter?

⁷ For taking this course during World War I (1914-1918) the small remnant of the “holy nation” of spiritual Israel became, just as Jesus had foretold in his prophecy on the conclusion of this system of things, “objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name.” (Matt. 24:3-9) Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion, stirred up her political lovers to take action against the remnant of the nation whose God is Jehovah. Also, the spirit of nationalistic patriotism was appealed to to inflame the masses of the people and the legal courts of the land. Violent persecution followed. Various forms of governmental suppression of the remnant followed in various nations, even to the extent of banning these International Bible Students and banning all or part of the Watch Tower Society literature that they used in studying Jehovah’s written Word. Finally, Babylon the Great thought she had triumphed forever over this “nation whose God is Jehovah” when, near the climactic close of the world war in 1918, she saw the very president, the secretary-treasurer, and two other members of the Editorial Committee and three other leading agents of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society lodged in federal penitentiary sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years!

A NATION “BORN AT ONE TIME”

8. (a) While feeling the deathblow had been administered to this nation, what had Babylon the Great forgotten? (b) What dramatic rebirth took place in 1919, and what occurred thereafter?

⁸ From the standpoint of Babylon the Great and her political paramours, the deathblow had been dealt to the “nation whose God is Jehovah.” But they forgot or overlooked what this God had done back in the year 537 B.C.E. They did not figure or believe that this same God could do it again, in a final and complete fulfillment of Isaiah 66:7, 8. But he did do so! The very next year, the first postwar year of 1919, Babylon the Great and her political paramours saw the rebirth of the “nation whose God is Jehovah” at “one time,” together with the bringing forth of its “land” of religious existence and activity as “in one day”! Suddenly those dynamic leading representatives of the Watch Tower Society were released from imprisonment, never to return under false charges. The international organization was reconstructed, the first postwar international convention was held at Cedar Point, Ohio, and a new magazine, auxiliary to the still continuing Watch Tower magazine, was published. Dramatically, as if arising from the dead, the persecuted remnant of the “nation whose God is Jehovah” strode fearlessly upon the world stage of action.

9. (a) Who had happiness now that this nation had its rebirth? (b) Who had unhappiness and experienced a great fall?

⁹ Once again, by the reviving power of God’s outpoured spirit, the remnant were on the scene livelily producing and bearing the fruits of the kingdom of God, which they thenceforth proclaimed as having come to power in the heavens at the close of the Gentile Times in 1914. O how happy the “nation whose God is Jehovah” could be, not only the remnant thereof still in the flesh on this earth, but also its King Jesus Christ and the other resurrected members of the “holy nation” in heaven! (Ps. 33:12) But how unhappy Babylon the Great, including Christendom, had reason to be at this powerful evidence that she had fallen from her position of power against Jehovah’s “nation” and had come under his adverse judgment that will shortly be executed in absolute destruction! Like her prototype of ancient times that fell before Cyrus the Great in 539 B.C.E., so Babylon the Great must have fallen or otherwise the remnant of the “nation whose God is Jehovah” could not have gone free in the year 1919. (Rev. 14:8) How happy the reborn nation could be over this fall of Great Babylon!

10. What great happiness awaits all 144,000 of that reborn nation, both now and in the future?

¹⁰ Since that rebirth of the “nation” and its deliverance from Babylon the Great in 1919, the number of members of the remnant increased, much to the happiness of the nation. Its God Jehovah has predestinated that the full number of its citizen body must be 144,000 members with the King Jesus Christ in the heavens. (Rev. 7:4-8; 14:1-3) Happy, indeed, will that nation of spiritual Israel be when its remnant yet on earth finishes its course faithfully and is united to all the other members of the nation in heaven and then the entire 144,000 reign in glory with their King Jesus Christ for the vindication of the universal sovereignty of their God and for the everlasting blessing of all the families of the earth, living and dead. But even now while yet on earth in this “time of the end” of the anguished Gentile nations, the remnant of the “nation whose God is Jehovah” has unique reasons for being happy. Lovingly it endeavors to share this happiness with others.

HAPPINESS SPREADING

11. Who have now associated themselves with that nation, and what have they become?

¹¹ More and more of distressed humanity are taking steps to share in this happiness, the only true happiness now on earth. Particularly since the year 1935 the “great crowd,” foretold in Revelation 7:9-17, has left off being a part of this world and has associated itself with the nation of spiritual Israel. (Zech. 8:20-23) They have become like “alien residents” dwelling within the “gates” of spiritual Israel and enjoying the benefits of thus residing with them. (Ex. 20:10) As this “great crowd” is foretold to be without any predestinated number, its number has kept increasing steadily, year after year, till now. With the nation of spiritual Israel they have become like “one flock” under “one shepherd,” Jesus Christ the King.—John 10:16.

12. Because of their great happiness, who can it truly be said is the God of both the spiritual nation and the “great crowd,” and how do they worship their God?

¹² What happiness they all continue enjoying together despite the worsening conditions among the Gentile nations! By their full dedication and water baptism as followers of Jesus Christ, this “great