some 75,000 enemies of the Jews, which enemies either shared his malice for the Jews or sought to profit by their destruction. His own ten sons were hanged on the gallows and his estate was turned over to Esther and, by her, to Mordecai. It was not God’s will that his typical name-people, the Jews, should be wiped out, and therefore he maneuvered the destruction of their would-be destroyers. The record leaves no doubt about this, even though it directly omits all references to God.

Haman’s end constitutes a forceful warning to all proud enemies of God’s people of the fate that awaits them if they persist in their wicked course. In modern times one Hitler may be pointed out as a proud prince who sought the destruction of all of Jehovah’s people because they refused to “Heil” him and who himself suffered destruction. However, it would be a mistake to consider this prophetic drama as applying especially to him. Rather, the complete fulfillment of this drama seems still to be in the future, having the following prophetic significance:

The fact that Xerxes (Ahasuerus) at times was influenced to the harm of and then again for the good of God’s people would indicate that he represented regal power in the abstract; picturing either the “Higher Powers”, Jehovah God and Christ Jesus, or the “god of this world” Satan the Devil, depending upon how he was being influenced.—Rom. 13:1-4; 2 Cor. 4:4.

Vashti, the self-willed queen who was deposed, finds a parallel in those who were prospective members of the bride of Christ and who because of an improper course were rejected.—Matt. 13:41.

Mordecai and Esther well picture God’s anointed servants at the present time: Mordecai representing them particularly as the “faithful and wise servant” and Esther picturing them as the members of the bride of Christ. (Matt. 24:45-47; 2 Cor. 11:2) The Jews throughout the provinces would likewise picture these but from the standpoint of being spiritual Israelites scattered throughout the world. Those who became Jews would picture men of good-will who become praisers of Jehovah and associate themselves with the spiritual Jews.

Haman foreshadowed the proud, self-exalted religious clergy, who bear malice toward Jehovah’s true servants and who would destroy them by accusing them of sedition, inciting mobs against them, etc. From the prophetic drama of Esther it appears that while efforts will be made to destroy Jehovah’s people, their God will preserve them and permit them to see the humiliation and destruction of their enemies.

Letters

“ON TORMENT FOREVER AND EVER”

October 8, 1949

Dear Friend:

Answering yours of September 25:

Frankly we are surprised that, in your effort to support eternal hell-fire and torment for HUMAN souls, you turn to a book of symbols or sign language, and not to some plain, literal passage of Scripture. Have you never noticed that the introduction to the book of Revelation reads: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to point out unto his servants the things which must needs come to pass with speed, and he shewed them BY SIGNS, sending through his messenger unto his servant John.” (Revelation 1:1, 2, Rotherham’s translation) So God through Christ “signified” or disclosed by signs and symbols his message to John. Hence Revelation 20:10 teaches a truth by signs or symbols, and one of those signs or symbols is the “lake of fire and brimstone”. Have you never noticed what the “lake” symbolizes? Revelation 20:14 tells you plainly: “And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the SECOND DEATH, even the lake of fire.” (American Standard Version) And that the lake represents eternal death or annihilation and not a living state is shown by the next verse, which says: “And if any was not found written in the book of LIFE, he was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:15, A.S.V.) For not being found worthy of living, he was thrown into the fiery lake, that is, the everlasting death state, which is a death different from that which Adam brought upon our race.

Just as the “lake” is a symbol at Revelation 20:10, so the “beast” is a symbol and not a literalism. You do not believe it to mean a literal beast, now do you? Just as the Devil is not a literal dragon; and even the “false prophet” is not a literal man, but proves to be an organization. On Revelation 20:10, our book published in 1930 entitled “Light” says in Volume 2, page 219, paragraph 2: “As stated in Revelation 14:10 and the comments thereunder, all imprisonment is torment as long as it lasts; and since ‘the beast and the false prophet’ and Satan shall never be released from the imprisonment of destruction, that condition is symbolically described as ‘torment day and night for ever and ever’. In ancient times when persons were in jail, and therefore in torment, under certain conditions they might be released. . . . There is nothing that could ever release Satan or ‘the beast and the false prophet.’ This ‘lake of fire and brimstone’ denotes destruction from which there is no recovery.” The aforementioned book Light in two volumes discusses all of the Revelation, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Matthew 18:34 speaks of jailers as “tormentors”.—Am. Stan. Ver.

Revelation 14:9, 10 says: “If any man worshippeth the beast and his image, and receiveth a mark on his forehead, or upon his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” (Am. Stan. Ver.) Now, Mr. ——, you do not believe, do you, that in these verses the beast, his image, the mark on forehead and mark on hand and the wine and the cup and the Lamb are literal things? If you make the fire and brimstone literal, then you must make those other things literal. If you say those other things are not literal, then why do you insist that the fire and brimstone are also literal? Revelation 20:14, 15 shows the fire and brimstone are not literal, but symbolical. Hence for the worshiper of the beast and his image to be punished with fire and brimstone from which the smoke rose up forever and ever means for such false worshiper to be cast into the symbolic lake where such symbolic fire and brimstone are. In other words, to be cast into the second death. It is a death forever and ever, because the symbolic fire and brimstone are never put out for those thrown in.

Those thrown into this symbolic lake do not remain alive, but die forever without hope of resurrection. Revelation 19:20 does not say the beast and the false prophet remained alive AFTER being cast “into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone”. In the case of Gehenna, the dump outside of Jerusalem where the city’s refuse was burned, the bodies of DEAD animals were thrown there to be consumed and annihilated, but in the case of the beast and false prophet they are cast into the symbolic lake of fire and brimstone while they are still alive or going concerns. Christ suddenly and abruptly ends their existence.

Yes, we believe you would not torment for an instant a dumb brute beast. So how would God torment creatures made in his image and likeness and torment them so fiendishly forever and ever, when his Son Jesus Christ says: “Are not ye of much more value than they?”—Matthew 6:26, Am. Stan. Ver.

And so, Mr. ——, do not try to refute the literal truths of the Bible with symbolic statements which Christendom’s clergy have twisted out of their meaning. Do not try to make the Bible contradict itself by your so doing. It now remains for you to disprove all the literal statements of the Bible which we have submitted to you in our Bible books that prove that the human soul is not immortal but dies and hence cannot be tormented forever after the dissolution of our human body.

Sincerely yours in the interests of the truth,

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY

“LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD”

November 21, 1949

Dear Sister:

Answering yours of the 6th instant:

The funeral profession in Christendom may be, as you say, a “racket”, but they are practically required by law in this land and in many other lands. In Jesus’ day over in the Orient they buried the dead almost immediately. And this is the case of many tropical countries today, where there are not facilities for embalming the dead or the poor people do not have the means for it. But in this land, before ever a dead person can be buried, a doctor’s certificate has to be obtained that the person is dead and there has to be an investigation as to the causes of his death. Also a time is allowed to elapse to make sure that he is really dead. Thus hurried burials to cover over a crime committed upon the dead are forestalled. So in this land we cannot altogether eliminate funerals. But if any Christian does not care to attend, he can suit himself.

Jesus’ words, “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead,” do not militate against anyone’s attending a funeral. The man here addressed had said to Jesus: “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.” (Matthew 8:21, 22) This does not mean that the man’s father was dead already, for if his father had been dead at the moment the man would have been there at the bier and not listening to Jesus. But the man meant that his father was old and sooner or later would die; and so the man wanted to postpone following Jesus until after he had taken care of his father until death and could receive his father’s dying blessing and then fulfill his father’s wish to have his son at the deathbed close his eyes piously after death ensued. This would have delayed the man’s following Jesus indefinitely and hence Jesus said to let the dead bury their dead. The man’s relatives were evidently not following Jesus on the way to life and hence were dead spiritually and could be left to bury the man’s father when he died. But when consecrated Christians today who are on the way of life and out from under the world’s condemnation have a death in the family and have a funeral, can you rightfully say that here is a case of the “dead” (spiritually) burying the dead? No. The man wanted to go home to bury his father and not to give a witness by a funeral sermon. But consecrated Christians arrange for a witness to the truth at the funeral. This is taking advantage of an opportunity.

Sincerely yours in witnessing to the Kingdom,

WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY

Field Experience

PREACHING ABOARD SHIP

“On December 11, 1947, we left Denmark on a Danish vessel. We were on our way to the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead located in the state of New York. We hoped to arrange for a public meeting while en route on the ship and found the captain to be very friendly. On December 19 I had the privilege of standing in front of the audience speaking to them on the subject ‘Swords Beaten into Plowshares’. The ship was rocking badly, but in spite of that the audience stayed for the entire meeting, and after the talk we had a study with one of the passengers. More than a year later, in January, 1949, we were on our way back to Denmark on a Swedish ship, and as we had had good results on our way to America in 1947 with the public meetings on shipboard, we desired to once again give a witness to the passengers to the honor of Jehovah’s name. The captain was not sure that the passengers were interested in listening to a Bible talk, but I pressed the opposite view and he finally gave permission for the talk to be given on the ship. This time the subject was ‘From Scarcity to Plenty’. In 1947 we had 23 persons in attendance, and this time we had 17 out of 26 Danish-speaking passengers. After the talk and during the remainder of the trip we had a wonderful opportunity to explain God’s Word to the people. We gained many friends. Now we are back in Denmark, where most likely I will have to go to jail for one and a half years because I have refused to do military service instead of preaching the gospel. Whether in jail or on the bosom of the Atlantic we can still sing the praises of Jehovah, and that I will do ‘more and more’.”