5. As stated in the Psalms, what has kept Jehovah’s people strong in the face of violence?

⁵ Much of this expansion has taken place in the face of violence, such as that experienced by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hitler’s concentration camps and in wartime mob attacks in the United States. Violence continues to escalate in many parts of the earth. Few countries, if any, have experienced more violence in recent years than has Lebanon. Yet our brothers there are strong. What has kept them strong? Implicit trust in Jehovah and determination to keep on associating in their meetings and other Christian activity.​—Psalm 73:28; 149:1.

[Box on page 22]

The Escalation of Violence​—Where Will It End?

“An all-out nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union could result in the death of . . . about 80 percent of the world’s population.”​—The Express, March 29, 1982, based on interview with a California senator.

“Bombed out of their Brains​—The danger is that the political leaders, Soviet and American . . . will be persuaded that nuclear war is thinkable. The fact is, of course, that any nuclear war in which all, or a significant part, of the Soviet and American nuclear arsenals are used would utterly devastate the Northern hemisphere.”​—Dr. Frank Barnaby, peace researcher, December 26, 1982.

“If readiness for war is a prerequisite for peace, then peace must never have been better guaranteed. A million Hiroshimas stockpiled on earth, and this is still not preventing each of its 4,200,000,000 inhabitants from spending £115 a year on arms.”​—Andre Fontaine, Le Monde, republished in The Guardian, January 9, 1983.

“U.N. Chief Says Threat of Nuclear War Grows​—‘The choice is between new generations of weapons and future human generations,’ he said.”​—The New York Times, February 16, 1983, quoting Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar.