13. (a) Whom does the King James Authorized Version Bible show to be the Sovereign of the Universe? (b) So, how only can “one world” under “one government” come about?

¹³ The translation of the Holy Bible into English that was authorized by King James I of Great Britain in 1611 to be read in the churches of the country points to the sovereignty of this God. In Psalm 83:18 it reads: “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.” In fulfillment of the prayer contained in that Psalm, all men, all human inhabitants of the earth, will yet know that the God whose name is Jehovah is the Highest Sovereign of all and, hence, the Sovereign over our earth also. Today the larger number of the political nations do not worship Jehovah as their God, as the nations of Christendom claim to do. But, whereas the so-called “Christian” nations profess to worship the God whose name the Bible says is Jehovah, they do not in fact cooperate with Him. So, in actuality, not one of the nations that are members of the United Nations organization is cooperating with the Most High God, Jehovah. Only when all living mankind obediently cooperates with this Universal Sovereign can there come about “one world” under “one government.”

FOR WHOSE SOVEREIGNTY SHALL WE DECIDE?

14. Why is it now necessary for each one of us to make a personal decision on the issue that must be settled for all the earth?

¹⁴ Is such a thing what we want with all our hearts? Since the political states do not want such a thing in God’s way and since they refuse to cooperate with Him, then it is left to each one of us to make his own personal decision on the issue that must shortly be settled for all the earth. Shall we each one pay due respects to Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and live in harmony with it? Only by doing so shall we be privileged to enjoy the “one world, one government, under God’s sovereignty.”

15. What explains why the projects of the nations have failed despite international cooperation?

¹⁵ When all of us cooperate and act as a united body, we can generally get things done. When we work together with the Sovereign Lord God Jehovah, we can be sure of working for success. This fact helps us to understand why the nations have failed to have success in their international projects. It is true that the nations, in their desperate plight today, are seeking to unify the world under one single world arrangement. Why, there is even talk of handing over world sovereignty to the United Nations organization. However, as regards the “one world” of mankind under “one government” that the nations would like to bring about for the sake of world peace and security, is it the “one world” under “one government” that the Sovereign Lord God has in mind? Is it what He has foretold in his infallible written Word, the Holy Bible?

16, 17. (a) How did nations cooperate together in a bad way nineteen centuries ago at Jerusalem? (b) How did those who prayed and mentioned this evil cooperation address God, and what did they ask Him to do?

¹⁶ We know that human creatures and nations can cooperate in a bad work as well as in a good work. It was not quite two thousand years ago that nations got together in a bad work. They cooperated together, but not in cooperation with the Most High God of heaven. This was called attention to in a very solemn way in the city of Jerusalem, after a couple of men had been arrested for preaching in the city temple, had been tried in the Supreme Court and had been released under threats. Concerning the clash of sovereignties that was then and there involved, the historic account tells us, in the following words, according to The New English Bible:

¹⁷ “As soon as they were discharged they went back to their friends and told them everything that the chief priests and elders had said. When they heard it, they raised their voices as one man and called upon God: ‘Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth and sea and of everything in them, who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of David thy servant, didst say, “Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples lay their plots in vain? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers made common cause against the Lord and against his Messiah.” They did indeed make common cause in this very city against thy holy servant Jesus whom thou didst anoint as Messiah. Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired with the Gentiles and peoples of Israel to do all the things which, under thy hand and by thy decree, were foreordained. And now, O Lord, mark their threats, and enable thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness.’”​—Acts 4:23-29; also The New American Bible; Revised Standard Version; Moffatt; NW.

18. What did those praying Christians ask God to help them to do, and what was the result of the answer to their prayer?

¹⁸ Those disciples of Jesus the Messiah made their individual decisions and took their stand on the side of the universal sovereignty of the Creator of heaven and earth. That is why they prayed to Him to help them to ignore the ruling and threats of the national Supreme Court and go right ahead with the forbidden preaching of God’s message about his anointed Servant, Jesus the Messiah. They exposed the political conspiracy of King Herod Antipas, who represented the national group of the Idumeans, and Governor Pontius Pilate, who represented the Roman Empire and Tiberius Caesar, and the unchristianized Jews. Their prayer was answered, and the preaching of the good news by these upholders of the sovereignty of the Lord God Jehovah went on, both among the Jews and, later, among the Gentile nations. As a result, thousands of believers took their stand upon the side of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, to cooperate with him in his Messianic purpose.

19. In contrast with the situation nineteen centuries ago, we today have reached what fulfillment of David’s words in Psalm Two, and why should we be careful about the decision we make?

¹⁹ Today we have reached the climax in this divinely guided course of events that leads to “one world” under “one government” over which God is the Universal Sovereign. The prophetic words of David that were included in the prayer offered by the disciples of the Messiah nineteen centuries ago in Jerusalem had only an initial or a miniature fulfillment. It had involved King Herod and Governor Pontius Pilate and the Jewish people and the Roman soldiers whom these used in nailing Jesus the Messiah to a torture stake. In our twentieth century, the world events since the outbreak of World War I in the year 1914 furnish the proof that we have reached the final and full-scale fulfillment of those words of David found in Psalm Two. Now, more than at any time in the past, the issue of divine sovereignty is up for settlement. Our personal decision on the issue will be most serious in consequences to each one of us.

20, 21. (a) For guidance in making the right decision, to whom can we go with success? (b) According to Psalm 73:24, 25, 28, to whom did the psalmist turn for counsel?

²⁰ In order to aid us to make the decision that will lead to our enjoyment of “one world, one government,” under divine sovereignty, we need guidance. Can we go to the worldly nations for guidance in this respect? No, for they are bewildered, sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire of perplexity because of not knowing the way out of their mounting difficulties. We cannot with success turn to the religious institutions of the nations, for the religious counsel that these have given to the political rulers has led the nations to the present international impasse. For the needed up-to-date, realistic, practical counsel that guides us in the right way, we must go to the written Word provided for us by the very One who long ago foretold this world distress. This was the wise course taken by the inspired psalmist of ancient times. Addressing himself to the divine Author of that prophetic Word, the psalmist said:

²¹ “With your counsel you will lead me, and afterward you will take me even to glory. Whom do I have in the heavens? And besides you I do have no other delight on the earth. But as for me, the drawing near to God is good for me. In the Sovereign Lord Jehovah I have placed my refuge, to declare all your works.”​—Ps. 73:24, 25, 28.

22. So, of what can we be certain, according to the psalmist’s words?

²² By now choosing the Sovereign of all the universe to be our refuge, we, too, can be certain that he will lead us with his counsel and afterward bring us to unfading glory.

3, 4. (a) From the start, what was God’s purpose for mankind? (b) How was it shown to Adam that submission to God’s sovereignty was a way of life with eternity in view?

³ God meant for the human family to be “one world” of mankind, one human society all of the same bone, flesh and blood. This united human society was to dwell over all the surface of the earth, this being converted to a parklike garden or paradise as their home forever. Mankind was to have in subjection the fish, the birds and the land animals, but mankind itself was to be in subjection to the sovereignty of the Universal Ruler and Creator, the Most High, “whose name alone is JEHOVAH.” (Ps. 83:18, AV) As man’s Sovereign, Jehovah God stated to the first man the divine law, by obedience to which the perfect man could live on earth forever.

⁴ This law commanded perfect obedience to the Universal Sovereign, for God said to the man, Adam: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.” (Gen. 2:16, 17) For a time the man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, kept that divine command of loyal obedience. The human family was off to a perfect start. Submission to the Universal Sovereign, Jehovah God, was the way of life with eternity in view. The principle there set forth applies to us today. Shall we follow it?

5. The lack of oneness in the world of mankind today indicates that what took place, and when, and under what inducement?

⁵ Everybody will have to agree that the human family is not “one world” today, not an undivided human society, in spite of being of one flesh and blood. There are many self-assertive human sovereignties on earth at present, and these are dividing the loyalties of men. It is undeniable that in the distant past, before a son was born to Adam and Eve, there must have been a breakaway from the universal sovereignty of the Most High God, the Creator. What induced this breakaway? Only the Holy Bible, God’s written Word, gives the valid answer. The wrong inducement came from the realm of the unseen, from the spirit world. There one of the spirit subjects of Jehovah’s sovereignty saw an opportunity of setting up an independent sovereignty of his own.

6. The designations given to that spirit rebel harmonize with what course that he took to lead human revolt against God’s sovereignty?

⁶ Satan became a fitting name for this rebel, for the name means “Resister,” that is to say, to Jehovah God. Devil became a fitting designation for him, for the word means “Slanderer,” and Satan used slander against his Sovereign Lord in order to deceive and mislead. So to the woman Eve the Devil presented her heavenly Father as being a selfish liar to whom strict obedience was not due. Believing this lie, Eve ate from the forbidden fruit and broke her submission to the sovereignty of her heavenly Father. In line with the Devil’s scheme, she went farther than this: she prevailed upon her husband Adam to join her in a revolt against submission to the rightful sovereignty of his God and Father. It has turned out just as Satan the Devil figured it would: To this day the world of mankind has been born in sin against God, in nonsubmission to the sovereignty of the Most High God Jehovah.​—Gen. 3:1 through 4:16; Rom. 5:12.

7, 8. (a) How has mankind since been divided on the matter of submission to a sovereignty? (b) How did God exercise foreign sovereignty in his relations with the rebel sovereign?

⁷ Since that rebellion back there in the Garden of Eden, the descendants of Adam and Eve have been divided between submission to the universal sovereignty of Jehovah God and submission to the sovereignty of Satan the Devil, whom Jesus the Messiah called “the ruler of this world.” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) Jehovah God did not enter into any treaty with this newly established inferior sovereignty. Exercising his power as Rightful Sovereign in control of his dealings with foreign governments, Jehovah God declared war upon the enemy sovereign. Showing supreme contempt for this Satanic sovereign, Jehovah God likened him to an earth-hugging serpent and said to him, as if speaking to the serpent whom the Devil had used to deceive Eve:

⁸ “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head [like treading on the head of a serpent to crush its brains] and you [like a serpent lying in wait] will bruise him in the heel.”​—Gen. 3:1-15.

9. Warfare of what length did God declare against the foreign sovereign, and how did Paul indicate this in Romans 16:20?

⁹ Perpetual warfare Jehovah God there declared against the rebel sovereign and all those adhering to the sovereignty of this crafty rebel, who from the start tried to hide his identity from human creatures. Jehovah God has not forgotten his “foreign policy” of warfare against the enemy of both Him and mankind. More than four millenniums after the Great Adversary set up the foreign sovereignty at Eden, Jehovah God inspired the Christian apostle Paul to write to the congregation located at the seat of the Roman Empire: “The God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. May the undeserved kindness of our Lord Jesus be with you.”​—Rom. 16:20. Compare Exodus 17:14; Isaiah 45:7.