Jehovah’s Fear-Inspiring Day Is Near

“A book of remembrance began to be written up before him for those in fear of Jehovah and for those thinking upon his name.”​—MALACHI 3:16.

1, 2. Of what fear-inspiring day does Malachi forewarn?

FEAR-INSPIRING! As day dawned on August 6, 1945, a great city was demolished in an instant of time. Some 80,000 dead! Tens of thousands mortally injured! Raging fire! The nuclear bomb had done its work. How did Jehovah’s Witnesses fare during that catastrophe? There was only one Witness in Hiroshima​—confined within the protective walls of a prison because of his Christian integrity. The prison collapsed into rubble, but our brother was not hurt. As he put it, he was atom-bombed out of prison​—perhaps the only good thing that the bomb accomplished.

² Fearsome as that bomb blast was, it fades into insignificance when compared to “the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah” that lies just ahead. (Malachi 4:5) Oh, yes, there have been fear-inspiring days in the past, but this day of Jehovah will surpass all of them.​—Mark 13:19.

3. What contrast is to be noted between “all flesh” and Noah’s family leading up to the Deluge?

³ In Noah’s day “all flesh had ruined its way on the earth,” and God declared: “The earth is full of violence as a result of them; and here I am bringing them to ruin together with the earth.” (Genesis 6:12, 13) As recorded at Matthew 24:39, Jesus said that people “took no note until the flood came and swept them all away.” But faithful Noah, “a preacher of righteousness,” along with his God-fearing family, survived that Deluge.​—2 Peter 2:5.

4. What warning example is provided by Sodom and Gomorrah?

⁴ “So too,” Jude 7 relates, “Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, after they . . . had committed fornication excessively and gone out after flesh for unnatural use, are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.” Those ungodly people perished because of their disgustingly filthy life-style. Let sex-oriented communities of this modern world be warned! Note, however, that God-fearing Lot and his daughters were preserved alive during that catastrophe, even as Jehovah’s worshipers will be protected during the fast-approaching great tribulation.​—2 Peter 2:6-9.

5. What can we learn from the judgments executed on Jerusalem?

⁵ Then consider the warning examples provided when Jehovah used invading armies to wipe out Jerusalem, the glorious city that had once been “the exultation of the whole earth.” (Psalm 48:2) These tragic events took place, first in 607 B.C.E. and again in 70 C.E., because God’s professed people abandoned true worship. Happily, loyal servants of Jehovah survived. The disaster of 70 C.E. (depicted below) is described as “a tribulation such as has not occurred from the beginning of the creation which God created until that time.” It removed once and for all the apostate Jewish system of things, and certainly in that respect it “will not occur again.” (Mark 13:19) But even this execution of divine judgment was merely a shadow of “the great tribulation” that now threatens the entire world system of things.​—Revelation 7:14.

6. Why does Jehovah permit calamities?

⁶ Why would God permit terrible calamities, with loss of so many lives? In the cases of Noah, of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of Jerusalem, Jehovah was executing judgment on those who had ruined their way upon the earth, who had sullied this beautiful planet with literal pollution and moral degradation, and who had apostatized from, or rejected, true worship. Today we stand on the brink of an all-inclusive execution of judgment that will engulf the entire world.​—2 Thessalonians 1:6-9.

“In the Last Days”

7. (a) Of what were ancient divine judgments prophetic? (b) What glorious prospect lies ahead?

⁷ Those destructions of ancient times were prophetic of the fear-inspiring great tribulation described at 2 Peter 3:3-13. The apostle says: “You know this first, that in the last days there will come ridiculers with their ridicule, proceeding according to their own desires.” Then, focusing on Noah’s day, Peter writes: “The world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water. But by the same word the heavens and the earth that are now are stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.” In the wake of that greatest of all tribulations, the long-awaited Kingdom rule of Messiah will take on new dimensions​—“new heavens and a new earth . . . , and in these righteousness is to dwell.” What a joyful prospect!

8. How are world events moving to a climax?

⁸ During our 20th century, world events have moved progressively toward a climax. Though the devastating of Hiroshima was no divine visitation, it may be included in the “fearful sights” that Jesus prophesied for the time of the end. (Luke 21:11) It launched a nuclear threat that still hangs like a storm cloud over mankind. Thus, a headline in The New York Times of November 29, 1993, reads: “The Guns May Be a Bit Rusty but the Nuclear Arms Are Still Polished.” In the meantime, international, interracial, and intertribal wars continue to reap a horrifying harvest. In former ages the vast majority of casualties were among the soldiers. Today, 80 percent of war casualties are reported to be civilians, not to mention the millions who flee their homelands as refugees.

9. How have religious leaders displayed friendship with the world?

⁹ Religious leaders have often shown, and continue to show, “friendship with the world” by getting actively involved in wars and bloody revolutions. (James 4:4) Some have collaborated with greedy barons of the commercial world as these mass-produce armaments and build up drug empires. For example, in reporting the assassination of a South American drug lord, The New York Times stated: “Hiding his drug dealing behind claims of legitimate business wealth and the image of a benefactor, he had his own radio show and was often accompanied by Roman Catholic priests.” The Wall Street Journal reported that in addition to ruining the lives of millions who became drug addicts, this drug lord personally directed the murder of thousands. The Times of London noted: “The killers often pay for a special Mass to give thanks . . . at the same time as the victim’s funeral mass is taking place elsewhere.” What wickedness!

10. How should we view the worsening of world conditions?

¹⁰ Who knows what havoc demon-inspired men may yet inflict on this earth? As 1 John 5:19 states, “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one,” Satan the Devil. Today it is “woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (Revelation 12:12) Happily, though, Romans 10:13 assures us that “everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.”

God Comes Near in Judgment

11. What conditions in Israel called forth Malachi’s prophecy?

¹¹ As to the immediate future of mankind, the prophecy of Malachi throws light on what is about to happen. Malachi is listed last in the long line of ancient Hebrew prophets. Israel had experienced the desolating of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. But 70 years later Jehovah had displayed merciful loving-kindness in restoring that nation to its land. Within a hundred years, however, Israel was again drifting into apostasy and wickedness. The people were dishonoring Jehovah’s name, ignoring his righteous laws, and polluting his temple by bringing blind, lame, and sick animals for sacrifice. They were divorcing the wives of their youth so that they could marry foreign women.​—Malachi 1:6-8; 2:13-16.

12, 13. (a) What purifying has been necessary for the anointed priestly class? (b) How do the great crowd also benefit by cleansing?

¹² A purifying work was needed. It is described at Malachi 3:1-4. Like ancient Israel, Jehovah’s modern-day Witnesses needed to be cleansed, so the purifying work described by Malachi can be applied to them. As the first world war drew toward its close, some of the Bible Students, as the Witnesses were then known, did not maintain clear-cut neutrality in worldly affairs. In 1918, Jehovah sent His “messenger of the covenant,” Christ Jesus, to His spiritual temple arrangement to cleanse the small group of His worshipers from worldly blemishes. Prophetically, Jehovah had asked: “Who will be putting up with the day of [the messenger’s] coming, and who will be the one standing when he appears? For he will be like the fire of a refiner and like the lye of laundrymen. And he must sit as a refiner and cleanser of silver and must cleanse the sons of Levi [anointed priestly group]; and he must clarify them like gold and like silver, and they will certainly become to Jehovah people presenting a gift offering in righteousness.” As a purified people, they have done just that!

¹³ That anointed priestly group numbers only 144,000. (Revelation 7:4-8; 14:1, 3) What, though, of other dedicated Christians today? Now increasing into the millions, these form “a great crowd” that also has to be cleansed of worldly ways, ‘washing their robes and making them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ (Revelation 7:9, 14) Thus, by exercising faith in the ransom sacrifice of the Lamb, Christ Jesus, they are able to maintain a clean standing before Jehovah. They are promised survival through the entire great tribulation, the fear-inspiring day of Jehovah.​—Zephaniah 2:2, 3.

14. What words should God’s people heed today as they continue to cultivate the new personality?

¹⁴ Together with the priestly remnant, this great crowd must heed God’s further words: “I will come near to you people for the judgment, and I will become a speedy witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those swearing falsely, and against those acting fraudulently with the wages of a wage worker, with the widow and with the fatherless boy, and those turning away the alien resident, while they have not feared me . . . For I am Jehovah; I have not changed.” (Malachi 3:5, 6) No, Jehovah’s standards do not change, so in fear of Jehovah, his people today must shun idolatry of all kinds and be truthful, honest, and generous as they continue to cultivate the Christian personality.​—Colossians 3:9-14.

15. (a) What merciful invitation does Jehovah extend? (b) How may we avoid “robbing” Jehovah?

¹⁵ Jehovah extends an invitation to any who may have turned aside from his righteous ways, saying: “Return to me, and I will return to you.” If these ask: “In what way shall we return?” he replies: “You are robbing me.” And in answer to the further question: “In what way have we robbed you?” Jehovah states that they have robbed him by failing to bring their very best as offerings for his temple service. (Malachi 3:7, 8) Having become part of Jehovah’s people, we should indeed want to devote the best part of our energies, abilities, and material assets to the service of Jehovah. Thus, rather than rob God, we ‘keep on seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness.’​—Matthew 6:33.

16. What encouragement do we find at Malachi 3:10-12?

¹⁶ There is a grand reward for all who put the self-serving, materialistic ways of the world behind them, as Malachi 3:10-12 indicates: “‘Test me out, please, in this respect,’ Jehovah of armies has said, ‘whether I shall not open to you people the floodgates of the heavens and actually empty out upon you a blessing until there is no more want.’” To all appreciative ones, Jehovah promises spiritual prosperity and fruitfulness. He adds: “All the nations will have to pronounce you happy, for you yourselves will become a land of delight.” Has that not proved to be so among the millions of God’s thankful people throughout the earth today?

Integrity Keepers in the Book of Life

17-19. (a) How has the turmoil in Rwanda affected our brothers there? (b) With what conviction have all these faithful ones moved onward?

¹⁷ At this point, we may comment on the integrity of our Rwandan brothers and sisters. They have always brought the finest of spiritual offerings to Jehovah’s spiritual house of worship. For example, at their “Divine Teaching” District Convention in December 1993, their 2,080 Kingdom publishers reaped a total attendance of 4,075. There were 230 new Witnesses baptized, and of these, nearly 150 enrolled in auxiliary pioneer service the following month.

¹⁸ When ethnic hatred burst forth in April 1994, at least 180 Witnesses, including the city overseer in Kigali, the capital, and his entire family, were killed. The six translators at the Watch Tower Society’s office in Kigali, four of them Hutu and two Tutsi, continued working for several weeks under heavy threats, until the Tutsi had to flee, only to be killed at a checkpoint. Finally, carrying what was left of their computer equipment, the remaining four fled to Goma, in Zaire, where they loyally continued to translate The Watchtower into the Kinyarwanda language.​—Isaiah 54:17.

¹⁹ These refugee Witnesses, though in dire circumstances, always asked for spiritual food ahead of material provisions. At great sacrifice, loving brothers from several lands were able to get supplies through to them. By word of mouth and by their orderliness under stress, these refugees have given a marvelous witness. They have indeed continued to bring of their best to Jehovah’s worship. They have demonstrated a conviction like Paul’s expressed at Romans 14:8: “If we live, we live to Jehovah, and if we die, we die to Jehovah. Therefore both if we live and if we die, we belong to Jehovah.”

20, 21. (a) Whose names are not written in Jehovah’s book of remembrance? (b) Whose names appear in the book, and why?

²⁰ Jehovah keeps record of all who serve him in integrity. Malachi’s prophecy continues: “At that time those in fear of Jehovah spoke with one another, each one with his companion, and Jehovah kept paying attention and listening. And a book of remembrance began to be written up before him for those in fear of Jehovah and for those thinking upon his name.”​—Malachi 3:16.

²¹ How important it is today that we show godly fear in honoring Jehovah’s name! Doing so, we will not suffer adverse judgment, as will those who admiringly support this world’s systems. Revelation 17:8 relates that “their names have not been written upon the scroll of life.” Logically, the preeminent name written in Jehovah’s book of life is that of the Chief Agent of life, God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. Matthew 12:21 declares: “Indeed, in his name nations will hope.” Jesus’ ransom sacrifice guarantees everlasting life for all who exercise faith therein. What a privilege it is to have our individual names added to Jesus’ name in that scroll!

22. What distinction will be apparent when Jehovah executes judgment?

²² How will God’s servants fare in the judgment? Jehovah answers at Malachi 3:17, 18: “I will show compassion upon them, just as a man shows compassion upon his son who is serving him. And you people will again certainly see the distinction between a righteous one and a wicked one, between one serving God and one who has not served him.” The division will be plain to all: the wicked, separated for everlasting cutting-off, and the righteous, approved for everlasting life in the realm of the Kingdom. (Matthew 25:31-46) Thus a great crowd of sheeplike persons will survive the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah.

The Day That ‘Burns Like a Furnace’

“Look! the day is coming that is burning like the furnace.”​—MALACHI 4:1.

1. What questions arise in connection with Malachi 4:1?

DURING these last days, happy are those whose name Jehovah chooses to write in his book of remembrance. But what of those who fail to qualify for that privilege? Whether they are rulers or simply common people, how will they fare if they treat the proclaimers of God’s Kingdom and their message with disdain? Malachi speaks of a day of accounting. At Mal chapter 4, verse 1, we read: “‘For, look! the day is coming that is burning like the furnace, and all the presumptuous ones and all those doing wickedness must become as stubble. And the day that is coming will certainly devour them,’ Jehovah of armies has said, ‘so that it will not leave to them either root or bough.’”

2. What graphic description of Jehovah’s judgment is given by Ezekiel?

² Other prophets also compare Jehovah’s judging of the nations to the torrid heat of a furnace. How aptly Ezekiel 22:19-22 applies to God’s judging the sects of apostate Christendom! It reads: “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that all of you have become as much scummy dross, therefore here I am collecting you together . . . As in collecting silver and copper and iron and lead and tin into the midst of a furnace, in order to blow upon it with fire to cause a liquefying, so I shall collect them together in my anger and in my rage, and I will blow and cause you people to liquefy. And I will bring you together and blow upon you with the fire of my fury, and you must be liquefied in the midst of her. As in the liquefying of silver in the midst of a furnace, so you people will be liquefied in the midst of her; and you will have to know that I myself, Jehovah, have poured out my rage upon you.’”

3, 4. (a) What hypocritical claim have the clergy made? (b) What is religion’s sordid record?

³ A powerful illustration indeed! The clergy who have begged off from using Jehovah’s name, even blaspheming that holy name, must meet up with that day of reckoning. Presumptuously, they claim that they and their political allies will establish the Kingdom of God on earth, or at least make the earth a fit place for the Kingdom.

⁴ Apostate Christendom has joined with political rulers in fighting terrible wars. History records the Crusades of medieval times, the forced conversions of the Spanish Inquisition, the Thirty Years’ War that decimated Europe in the 17th century, and the Spanish Civil War of the 1930’s, fought to make Spain safe for Catholicism. The greatest bloodletting came with the two world wars of our century, when Catholics and Protestants engaged in a free-for-all, indiscriminately slaughtering fellow believers as well as those of other religions. More recently, there has been murderous fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, between religious factions in India, and between the religious groups of the former Yugoslavia. The pages of religious history are also bloodied by the martyrdom of thousands of faithful witnesses of Jehovah.​—Revelation 6:9, 10.

5. What judgment awaits false religion?

⁵ We cannot but appreciate the justice of Jehovah’s approaching execution of Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion, together with its supporters. This execution is described at Revelation 18:21, 24: “A strong angel lifted up a stone like a great millstone and hurled it into the sea, saying: ‘Thus with a swift pitch will Babylon the great city be hurled down, and she will never be found again. Yes, in her was found the blood of prophets and of holy ones and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth.’”

6. (a) Who must become as stubble, and why? (b) What assurance is there for those who fear Jehovah?

⁶ In time, all enemies of righteousness, and those who adhere to them, “must become as stubble.” Jehovah’s day will burn among them like a furnace. “It will not leave to them either root or bough.” In that day of accounting, young children, or boughs, will be dealt with justly according to Jehovah’s assessment of their roots, their parents, who have oversight of these children. Wicked parents will have no posterity to perpetuate their wicked ways. But those who exercise faith in God’s Kingdom promises will not be shaken. Hebrews 12:28, 29 therefore exhorts: “Let us continue to have undeserved kindness, through which we may acceptably render God sacred service with godly fear and awe. For our God is also a consuming fire.”

Is Jehovah a Cruel God?

7. How does Jehovah’s love enter into his judgment?

⁷ Does this mean that Jehovah is a cruel, vindictive God? Far from it! At 1 John 4:8, the apostle states a fundamental truth: “God is love.” Then, in 1Jo 4 verse 16 he adds emphasis, saying: “God is love, and he that remains in love remains in union with God and God remains in union with him.” It is because of his love for mankind that Jehovah purposes to cleanse this earth of all wickedness. Our loving, merciful God declares: “As I am alive, . . . I take delight, not in the death of the wicked one, but in that someone wicked turns back from his way and actually keeps living. Turn back, turn back from your bad ways, for why is it that you should die?”​—Ezekiel 33:11.

8. How did John emphasize love, yet also show himself to be a Son of Thunder?

⁸ John refers to a·gaʹpe, principled love, more often than the other three Gospel writers combined, yet at Mark 3:17, John himself is described as a ‘Son of Thunder.’ It was by inspiration from Jehovah that this Son of Thunder penned the apocalyptic messages of the Bible’s final book, Revelation, which portrays Jehovah as the God who executes justice. This book is full of judgmental expressions, such as “the great winepress of the anger of God,” “the seven bowls of the anger of God,” and “the wrath of God the Almighty.”​—Revelation 14:19; 16:1; 19:15.

9. What expressions did Jesus make on Jehovah’s judgments, and how were his prophecies fulfilled?

⁹ Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God,” boldly declared Jehovah’s judgments while here on earth. (Colossians 1:15) For example, there are the seven woes of Matthew chapter 23 that he forthrightly proclaimed against the religious hypocrites of his day. He concluded that condemnatory judgment with these words: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,​—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! Your house is abandoned to you.” Thirty-seven years later, judgment was executed by the Roman army under General Titus. It was a fearful day, prophetic of what will prove to be the most fear-inspiring day in all human experience​—Jehovah’s day, soon to break forth.

“The Sun” Shines Forth

10. How does “the sun of righteousness” bring joy to God’s people?

¹⁰ Jehovah makes known that there will be survivors of his day. He refers to these at Malachi 4:2, saying: “To you who are in fear of my name the sun of righteousness will certainly shine forth, with healing in its wings.” That sun of righteousness is none other than Jesus Christ himself. He is the spiritual “light of the world.” (John 8:12) How does he shine forth? He rises with healing in his wings​—first spiritual healing, which we can experience even today, and then, in the new world to come, physical curing of people out of all the nations. (Matthew 4:23; Revelation 22:1, 2) Figuratively, as Malachi said, the healed ones will “go forth and paw the ground like fattened calves” just released from the stall. What joy will also be experienced by resurrected ones who are raised with the prospect of attaining to human perfection!

11, 12. (a) What fate awaits the wicked? (b) How do God’s people “tread down the wicked ones”?

¹¹ However, what of the wicked? At Malachi 4:3, we read: “‘You people will certainly tread down the wicked ones, for they will become as powder under the soles of your feet in the day on which I am acting,’ Jehovah of armies has said.” While guarding those loving him, our Warrior-God will have swept the earth clean of those tyrannical enemies, annihilating them. Satan and his demons will have been restrained.​—Psalm 145:20; Revelation 20:1-3.

¹² God’s people take no part in destroying the wicked. How, then, do they “tread down the wicked ones”? This they do figuratively by sharing in a great victory celebration. Exodus 15:1-21 describes such a celebration. It followed the destruction of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea. In fulfillment of Isaiah 25:3-9, the removal of “the tyrannical ones” is to be followed by a victory banquet linked with God’s promise: “He will actually swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces. And the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for Jehovah himself has spoken it. And in that day one will certainly say: ‘Look! This is our God. . . . This is Jehovah. We have hoped in him. Let us be joyful and rejoice in the salvation by him.’” There is in this joy, not vindictiveness or gloating, but exultation at seeing Jehovah’s name sanctified and the earth cleansed for peaceful habitation by a united mankind.

A Grand Educational Program

13. What education will take place in the “new earth”?

¹³ At Malachi 4:4, the Jews were admonished to “remember . . . the law of Moses.” So today we need to follow “the law of the Christ,” as mentioned at Galatians 6:2. Armageddon survivors will no doubt be provided with further instructions based on this, and these may well be written in “the scrolls” of Revelation 20:12 that will be opened at the time of the resurrection. What a grand day that will be as the resurrected dead are educated to follow the life-style of the “new earth”!​—Revelation 21:1.

14, 15. (a) How is the modern-day Elijah identified? (b) What responsibility does the Elijah class fulfill?

¹⁴ That will be an extension of the educational work referred to by Jehovah, as recorded at Malachi 4:5: “Look! I am sending to you people Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah.” Who is that modern-day Elijah? As shown at Matthew 16:27, 28, in referring to his “coming in his kingdom,” Jesus said: “The Son of man is destined to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will recompense each one according to his behavior.” Six days later, on a mountain with Peter, James, and John, “he was transfigured before them, and his face shone as the sun, and his outer garments became brilliant as the light.” Was he alone in this vision? No, for “look! there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, conversing with him.”​—Matthew 17:2, 3.

¹⁵ What could this mean? It pointed to Jesus as the prophesied Greater Moses at the time of his coming for judgment. (Deuteronomy 18:18, 19; Acts 3:19-23) He would be associated then with a modern-day Elijah in order to accomplish a vital work, that of preaching this good news of the Kingdom in all the earth before the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah strikes. Describing the work of this “Elijah,” Malachi 4:6 states: “He must turn the heart of fathers back toward sons, and the heart of sons back toward fathers; in order that I may not come and actually strike the earth with a devoting of it to destruction.” Thus “Elijah” is identified as the faithful and discreet slave class of anointed Christians on earth, to whom the Master, Jesus, has entrusted all His belongings. This includes providing the household of faith with needed spiritual “food at the proper time.”​—Matthew 24:45, 46.

16. What happy results have attended the work of the Elijah class?

¹⁶ Worldwide today, we can see the happy results of that feeding program. The Watchtower magazine, with a printing of 16,100,000 each issue in 120 languages, 97 of these published simultaneously, is flooding the earth with “this good news of the kingdom.” (Matthew 24:14) Other publications in many languages are used in various facets of the preaching and teaching work of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Elijah class, the faithful and discreet slave, is alert to providing bountifully for all “those conscious of their spiritual need.” (Matthew 5:3) Moreover, those who accept this Kingdom hope and act upon it are bound into a marvelous worldwide unity. It embraces the great crowd “out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues.” (Revelation 7:9) When this work has been accomplished to the extent that Jehovah requires, then the end will come in his great and fear-inspiring day.

17. When will Jehovah’s fear-inspiring day break forth?

¹⁷ Just when will that fear-inspiring day break upon us? The apostle Paul answers: “Jehovah’s day is coming exactly as a thief in the night. Whenever it is that they are saying [perhaps in a unique way]: ‘Peace and security!’ then sudden destruction is to be instantly upon them just as the pang of distress upon a pregnant woman; and they will by no means escape.”​—1 Thessalonians 5:2, 3.

18, 19. (a) How is “peace and security” declared? (b) When will Jehovah’s people find relief?

¹⁸ Who are “they” in this prophecy? They are political leaders who claim that they can build a united new order out of the fragmented elements of this violent world. Their grandiose products, the League of Nations and the United Nations, have failed in this. As Jehovah’s prophet foretold, they are even now “saying, ‘There is peace! There is peace!’ when there is no peace.”​—Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11; 14:13-16.

¹⁹ In the meantime, Jehovah’s people endure the pressures and persecutions of this godless world. But soon, as stated at 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8, they will find relief “at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus.”

20. (a) What do Zephaniah and Habakkuk prophesy about the day that ‘burns like a furnace’? (b) What counsel and encouragement do these prophecies give?

²⁰ How soon will that be? Many of us have been waiting a long time. Meanwhile, great numbers of meek ones who will survive are answering the call found at Zephaniah 2:2, 3: “Seek Jehovah . . . Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.” Then, Zephaniah 3:8 contains the exhortation: “‘Therefore keep yourselves in expectation of me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘till the day of my rising up to the booty, for my judicial decision is to gather nations, for me to collect together kingdoms, in order to pour out upon them my denunciation, all my burning anger; for by the fire of my zeal all the earth will be devoured.’” The end is close! Jehovah knows that day and hour and will not change his timetable. Let us endure patiently. “For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it keeps panting on to the end, and it will not tell a lie. Even if it should delay, keep in expectation of it; for it will without fail come true. It will not be late.” (Habakkuk 2:3) Jehovah’s fear-inspiring day hastens ever closer. Remember, that day will not be late!