come be my follower.’ But he grew sad at the saying and went off grieved, for he was holding many possessions. After looking around Jesus said to his disciples: ‘How difficult a thing it will be for those with money to enter into the kingdom of God!’” Do not let money, materialism, things of this world, keep you from gaining life.—Mark 10:17-30, NW.

17. Does a Christian lose anything by breaking clean from the old world?

¹⁷ It was after Jesus’ conversation with the young man that Peter said: “Look! we left all things and have been following you.” Jesus replied in this way: “Truly I say to you men, No one has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not get a hundredfold now in this period of time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecutions, and in the coming system of things everlasting life.” Jesus, in other words, told Peter that the Christian does not lose a thing by giving up the old world, nor does any Christian witness of Jehovah lose a thing by doing the same for the sake of keeping pace with the New World society. We gain a hundredfold of all that we give up, and more. The anointed remnant will gain in addition thereto a glorious life in the heavens as Christ’s bride, and the other sheep of the Lord will gain everlasting life on a paradise new earth. All this for not losing faith, but believingly moving ahead with the New World society in its journey to the new world.

Keep Pace by Conforming to Theocratic Requirements

“I give you orders that you observe the commandment in a spotless and irreprehensible way until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”—1 Tim. 6:13, 14, NW.

1. What was the great responsibility that fell upon the anointed witnesses of Jehovah and professed Christians following A.D. 1914?

WITH the setting up of Jehovah’s kingdom in the year 1914 (A.D.) a great responsibility fell upon the anointed witnesses of Jehovah God and all who professed Christianity. Would they arise to declare this good news of the established kingdom in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, or would their faith fail them, cause them to sink into the hopeless oblivion of this old world? Faith and trust in Jehovah and his Word was a requirement to be met before they could be used by God as his witnesses. Therefore, Jesus asked: “When the Son of man arrives, will he really find this faith on the earth?” Glancing back over the years to 1918, when Jehovah came to his temple, we can sincerely thank God that he did find “this faith on the earth,” the faith of Abraham. He found men and women who were wholly devoted to him as Almighty God Jehovah and who abandoned “all things” of this world and loved not their lives unto death.—Luke 18:8; Matt. 19:27; 24:14; Rev. 12:11, NW.

2, 3. (a) Why and how were the anointed remnant used by Jehovah? (b) What words of Isaiah began to have fulfillment?

² Those years from 1914 to 1918 were trying years. The enemy had considerably demolished their earthly visible organization, but was unable to destroy their love and devotion to God. Their faith in him remained undying. It was with these devoted ones that Jehovah began building a new earthly organization, a New World society, under the established kingdom of God. These faithful ones collectively, Jesus ‘appointed over all his belongings.’ Immediately they felt the urgency of their responsibility and trust. And since they were free of any ties with mystic Babylon they were able to move right into the work at hand, the fulfilling of their commission to declare to the ends of the earth the good news of Jehovah’s kingdom. With God’s spirit upon them and much work to do, the anointed remnant came to life and a brilliant, divinely blessed future loomed before them as they formed the nucleus of the New World society.—Matt. 24:45-47, NW; Ezek 37:1-14; Rev. 11:11.

³ The words of Isaiah’s prophecy began to have fulfillment: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to thee; thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be carried in the arms. Then thou shalt see and be radiant, and thy heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned unto thee, the wealth of the nations shall come unto thee.” “And the sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee The city of Jehovah, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” After 1919, and especially since 1935, great crowds of people, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, began to assemble to the New World society for theocratic instruction. God’s universal organization became known as “The city of Jehovah, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”—Isa. 60:1-5, 14, AS; Rev. 7:9; Mic. 4:1-5.

4. Why is it necessary for the meek to conform themselves to Jehovah’s requirements, and what are some of those requirements?

⁴ Now that these meek ones have come to Jehovah’s theocratic organization, it is only right that they conform themselves to his requirements; because only by so doing will they be able to keep pace with the New World society. Among the first requirements is the need of recognizing the theocratic organization; that through the “faithful and discreet slave” class Jehovah is providing his flock with spiritual food at the proper time. Also, study and association are joyful requisites, a means of keeping up with the ever-increasing light of understanding beamed forth through the New World organization. The need of discarding old-world habits and ambitions must be realized. Squabbles, racial and religious hatreds, national traditions, prides and rivalries and numberless other divisive theories and practices peculiar to the old world must be seen as things gladly to be tossed aside as belonging to this system of things that is passing away. All forms of worldly selfishness, jealousies, envies, egotistic ambitions, religious sectarian wars, persecutions of one another—all manifestations of the spirit of this dying system and its god, Satan—must be abandoned to this old world. There is no place for them in the new system of things. And it is only as we conform ourselves to these theocratic requirements that we