The Perfect Government for All Mankind

“To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”—Dan. 7:14, RS.

1, 2. (a) How are our lives all bound up with one another, and therefore what is needed for us? (b) What common danger for the future do men recognize, but what will be worse and yet beneficial?

NOTHING should be plainer today than that a perfect government is needed for all mankind. The fact that mankind is all one on every continent and island of the seas is undeniable. The fact is also true that we are, all, as human creatures, confined to this one earthly home, our terrestrial globe, so that we must all live together. No other planet in the universe will provide living space for us. More than ever now, the lives of each and all of us overlap one another. Our lives are all bound up with one another, particularly so in this modern day.

² There is no isolation anywhere on earth today. Like it or not, all of us are subject to one common danger. This is recognized by the human leaders of the day as being World War III, which will be global in its consequences. But aside from this global nuclear war, which is so much dreaded and which many are convinced cannot be avoided in the near future, there is another conflict that will be more terrible in its consequences. That will be the act of the God of heaven himself. It cannot be ignored any longer: the great Creator of heaven and earth is going to perform an act. This will be beneficial, however, to all men of good will who take their stand on his side. That will mean life for them. All of us as human creatures have one common craving, and that is to live happily and to live here in harmony with Heaven and the divine power that heaven represents. To have our craving fulfilled, we need a world government, and this government must be perfect.

3. (a) Is such a perfect government possible? (b) When will it come, and how, according to the best authority?

³ Is a perfect government possible? It is a pleasure to say here at the outset that a perfect government is possible, and it is certain to come. How, though, is such a perfect government to come, and also when will it come with the relief that it is sure to bring to all men of good will? Again it makes us happy to say that this perfect government for all mankind is due to come in our own time, within this generation, so that we have something very pleasurable to which to look forward. Will it come by means of the political scientists among men? No! Political scientists have been experimenting for the past millenniums. If we had to wait upon the political scientists to develop a perfect government for us by the method that they have apparently been trying, the method of trial and error, how long it would be before they would ever get anywhere near success! In the meantime men all around the globe would be obliged to keep on suffering from the continued imperfection and the further mistakes and bungles of human governments, always keeping us in difficulties. This is not desirable. But on the authority of the greatest Book in the world, the book of authentic prophecy, it can here be stated that this perfect government is going to come by no one else than by the glorious act of the One who created our universe.

4. Our examination of the heavens and its shining bodies raises what question concerning law and order for the earth?

⁴ As we look into the heavens by means of our mighty telescopes and even by the naked human eye, we can see the perfection that crowns this universe, with all the celestial bodies that shine down from outer space upon this earth, to give light and warmth and life to mankind. As we examine into the intricate relationship of all the heavenly bodies, we can see that there is perfect order prevailing among them according to universal law. It does not take modern science to show us that the law by which these heavenly bodies function is perfect. This harmonizes with what the psalmist of ancient times, the prophet King David, said regarding the heavens: “The heavens are declaring the glory of God, and of the work of his hands the expanse is telling.” David also says in that very same connection that the law of Jehovah God is perfect. (Ps. 19:1, 7) The operations of the universe bear out this fact, that God’s law is perfect. If, now, we have perfection of law and order throughout the universe, which is beyond mankind’s scope, why, then, should we not have perfection of law and order right here upon this earth among mankind? It is only reasonable that we should.

5. (a) Of what is that perfection of universal law a proof? (b) What is the Source of this law named?

⁵ The perfection of the law functioning throughout the universe toward all created things is a proof that there is an intelligent, supreme, all-governing and all-controlling Lawgiver, an Almighty Creator, who is the Source of all life that is enjoyed in all creation in the invisible realms of his own abode and in the visible realm of man’s abode. He is God. The Holy Bible says his name is Jehovah. This great God of perfection is the One from whom emanates this law that so beautifully governs all the universe.

6. (a) Why is he able to estimate or evaluate what is a perfect government? (b) What questions concerning him does our own dissatisfaction with human government raise, and to what conclusion do we come?

⁶ When it comes to the matter of government, this great God of perfection certainly must be able to estimate or evaluate what is a perfect government. That he is perfect and that he believes in things perfect is stated in the prophecy of Moses, in Deuteronomy 32:3, 4: “I shall declare the name of Jehovah. Do you attribute greatness to our God! The Rock, perfect is his activity.” Since he is the God of perfection, what must his conception be of the governments by man upon this earth? Could we ever think that this God of perfection is any more satisfied with the human governments on this earth than we people are who live under such governments? Could we ever think that he could be satisfied with imperfect man-made governments, when we ourselves, who are imperfect, are not satisfied with them? He is wiser than all the political parties in the various nations that are quarreling among themselves and that are criticizing the governments of the different political parties and that oust one another from the seat of control in government by the elections that are carried on every now and then. If mankind throughout the ages has been dissatisfied with the governments that men have established over the nations, no government throughout all human history has been satisfactory to the great God of perfection. He will not let his dissatisfaction go on forever.

7. What history of human governments does the Bible give, and, according to this, how does God regard such governments as respects their quality?

⁷ The Bible record gives the history in brief of all the governments that have had to do with God’s people. The Bible was completed nineteen centuries ago, and yet it foresaw also the governments future from the time of completing the writing of the Bible. Thus the Bible shows that God Almighty in heaven, whose name is Jehovah, foresaw all the human governments down to our own day and that he determined the value of them, also the nature of them. According to the estimation or evaluation of this great God, who is perfect in wisdom, justice, love and power, all of such earthly governments in their long procession throughout the centuries till now have been beastly governments. Regardless of man’s national pride, the Holy Bible describes the governments of man’s creation as wild beasts. Even the very last book of the Holy Bible, the Revelation or the Apocalypse, pictures the human governments down to this day as beastly in their nature. In proof of this, read for yourselves Daniel’s prophecy, Da chapter seven, and Revelation, chapters thirteen and seventeen.

8. (a) Because of their beastliness, what has God decreed for these human governments? (b) What governments have already ended up under God’s disapproval, and for what main reason?

⁸ Because of the beastliness of the human governments as betrayed by the carnage and sacrifice of precious human life and all the havoc that they have wrought among the nations, Jehovah God the Governor of the universe has decreed the end of all the man-made governments in his own chosen time. In the past he has brought governments to ruin in fulfillment of his word. Read the Bible accounts of Egypt, of Assyria and of Babylon. In each case we find that Jehovah God, who controls the affairs of humankind, even declares himself responsible for bringing those animalistic governments of antiquity to their disastrous end. As regards the later governments, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire and the Roman Empire, the Bible also foretold their coming. These, too, have had their day and, under God’s disapproval, have ended up with calamity. The main reason has been that all these imperfect governments have been under the invisible power and control of God’s chief enemy, Satan the Devil, the unholy god of this wicked world.—Luke 4:5, 6; 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19.

9. What has been the greatest empire dominating the earth, and why are all governments of today, regardless of type, to have their end?

⁹ Of all the empires to dominate this globe, the Anglo-American dual world power has been the greatest of human history. The Bible also foretold it and the international organization for which it is chiefly responsible, the United Nations. However, the plain-speaking Bible states that even these governments of today, magnificent though men may consider them to be, are to have their end, whether they be of the Communist type or of the noncommunist type. They are all imperfect governments; and things that are imperfect are not going to last here forever according to the will of the God of perfection, the Creator of our earth.

10. What government will God not knock out of existence or operation, and to what end will it remain forever?

¹⁰ There is one government that has come into existence in our day that Jehovah God Almighty will not knock out of operation and out of existence. That is the perfect government, the government of his Messiah, the government of his Christ, the government of his heavenly Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of knocking out this government, God Almighty will use it to knock out all the imperfect human political systems that are causing such distress among the peoples and kindreds and tribes of our time. In the approaching war over universal domination the perfect government will prove victorious and will remain forever to God’s praise and honor and to the everlasting blessing of humankind.

11-13. (a) Without what can a perfect government not be possible? (b) How is the importance of a ruler or body of rulers to good government stated in the judicial opinion on the State of Idaho vs. Raymond Brungardt?

¹¹ A perfect government, we must all agree, cannot be possible without a perfect ruler, or a perfect body of rulers, and, furthermore, without a perfect God. All human governments past and present have acknowledged a god. The gods that they have acknowledged have been unable to give their worshipers a perfect government. The fact that a perfect government depends upon the ruler or body of rulers who wield the power of control is conceded by all reasonable persons. Here at hand is a legal opinion that has been handed down by an American judge, a District Judge, within the State of Idaho. The judge gave this opinion on April 8, 1958, in the case known as the State of Idaho vs. Raymond Brungardt. In it he said:

¹² “William Penn, over two hundred years ago, he, to whom the Crown [of England] gave the State of Pennsylvania when he established his Quaker colony here in this new land, his colony of Friends, and for whom the State of Pennsylvania was named, taught:

¹³ “‘Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as Governments are made, moved by men, so, by them they are ruined, too. Wherefore, Governments rather depend upon men, than men upon Governments. Let men be good, and the Government cannot be bad. If it be ill they will cure it, but if men be bad, let the Government be ever so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn.’”—Page 6 of the printed opinion.

14. In regard to what governmental principle does this opinion agree with the Bible?

¹⁴ This agrees with the Bible, the Word of God, that the perfect government is dependent upon a perfect ruler, the one whom God himself will provide for all mankind.

ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENT

15, 16. How have human governments come into operation and power since the old Babylonian Empire?

¹⁵ How have human governments come into existence? Why have they gone bad and failed? Histories written by men inform us that governments have come into operation and power by various methods. The first government after the flood of Noah’s day four thousand years ago was a grab by a dictator named Nimrod. Without the approval of Noah or of Jehovah God but with the approval of Satan the Devil, Nimrod grabbed ahold of the government that was set up in the Middle East, in the land of Mesopotamia. It was the dictatorial kingdom of Babylon. Nimrod was an enemy of God, “a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.” He carried on military expeditions against the people in the neighboring lands in order to establish the old or first Babylonian Empire. (Gen. 10:8-12) Since then, mankind has had many forms and types of government ruling over various areas of the earth.

¹⁶ These governments have come into being by various means, by seizures of power, by rebellion of the masses of the people, by conspiracy of those who have thirsted for power over the people, by usurpation by one strong character who ousted another ruler and seated himself. And then, as in the United States of America, man has set up a government not merely in a revolt, a rebellion, against a political power abroad, but by a Constitutional convention, such as the Constitutional convention that drew up the Articles of Confederation in 1777 for the thirteen American colonies of the British Empire. Those Articles of Confederation controlled the colonies for a number of years, until the Constitution that today rules the nation was inaugurated in the year 1788.

17. (a) As to government, what do men not desire God to do? (b) What answer must be given as to whether God can set up a government on earth, and what was his first demonstration?

¹⁷ Men do not desire the God of heaven, Jehovah, to set up a government over all mankind. Their running ahead of him and their self-willed actions show that they doubt God’s ability to set up on earth a government. Nevertheless, can God set up a government over all mankind? To this question simple reason answers: If imperfect human creatures can establish a government by various means, why could not their Creator, God Almighty, who governs and controls the entire universe and rules angels, have the power to organize, set up and operate a government over men on earth? He does have this power. In times past he demonstrated his power to establish the best of governments. The first king on earth that had God’s approval was a man named Melchizedek, who was both a priest and a king. He ruled in the city called Salem, which was later called Jerusalem. Melchizedek blessed the patriarch Abraham in the name of the Most High God. His government in Salem passed out of existence—just how, it is not known. The Bible record is silent upon the matter. (Gen. 14:18-20) But this government of the priest-king Melchizedek is used in the Bible prophecy as a prophetic type or prefigurement of the perfect government that God will establish over all mankind in the hands of a perfect ruler, like Melchizedek.—Ps. 110:1-4; Heb. 5:10; 6:20; 7:1-17, 28.

18. What was the next government that God set up on earth, and in what way was it a kingdom?

¹⁸ The next government that God set up on earth was that of Israel in the sixteenth century before the Christian era. Through the leadership of the prophet Moses he brought out his chosen people of Israel from the land of Egypt, where they were unwilling slaves. He brought them into the wilderness, to the foot of Mount Sinai, on the Arabian peninsula. There he established a government over them with himself as their invisible heavenly King. The basis of that government was the well-known Ten Commandments. (Ex. 20:1-17) To these Ten Commandments Jehovah God added hundreds of other laws and these became the God-given laws by which the nation of Israel was to be governed. In due time, at their request, God established a visible kingdom over the nation of Israel. This was hundreds of years after he had brought them into the Promised Land of Canaan and settled them there and had driven out the wicked, demon-worshiping inhabitants of that land.—1 Sam. 8:4-22; 10:17-26; 12:1-14.

19. In what way was Israel’s government a theocratic one, and why was it the finest on earth till that day?

¹⁹ The government that God established over Israel was the finest government that the world had known till that day. Because it had God-given laws, it was a theocracy, that is, it was a government, a nation, that was ruled by Jehovah God. Therefore the government was a theocratic one, even though the nation did have a visible representative of God down here on earth as its human leader. The Bible tells us that the nations back there marveled at the set of laws that Israel had, and said, ‘What nation has such righteous regulations and judicial decisions and such a God as this great nation of Israel has?’ And Jehovah God promised the Israelites that if they carried out these laws and worshiped and obeyed him as their God, then he would make them the head of the nations instead of the tail and they would be on top of the nations instead of being on the bottom of the nations, as the nation of modern Israel is today.—Deut. 4:5-8; 28:13, 14.

20. What did the reign of King Solomon illustrate concerning a government established by Jehovah God?

²⁰ The heights of glory and of splendor and of blessing to which this government established by Jehovah God in Israel was capable of reaching was illustrated during the peaceful reign of the wise king Solomon. All the world has heard of the wisdom of Solomon. In the holy Book, the Bible, we have some of the marvelous wisdom of King Solomon preserved to our day. In Solomon’s day men from all the kings of the earth came to Jerusalem to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Even the queen of Sheba came, as it were, from the very ends of the earth in order to hear the wisdom of Solomon and to see the glory of his kingdom in Israel. (1 Ki. 10:1-10; 4:34) The Bible account tells us of the blessings that the Israelites enjoyed under this kingdom. It says that from Dan to Beer-sheba the children of Israel were feasting, every man sitting under his own vine and fig tree, and rejoicing in the goodness of their God and in the government that he had put over them.—1 Ki. 4:20, 25.

21. Of what was the government of King Solomon a foreshadowing, and why will it be something greater?

²¹ Yet, glorious and splendid though it was, and even as great a blessing as it was to the subjects of the kingdom, that government of Solomon was merely a prophetic foreshadowing of the perfect government to come under which all the families and nations of the earth will be blessed in God’s due time. It will have a grander ruler, a wiser ruler, than King Solomon. Nineteen centuries ago there stood a man in the land of Israel and he said to the Jews that the queen of Sheba came from the southern ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and that she would be raised up in the time of judgment with that generation of Jews. Why? Because, although she had come from afar to hear the wisdom of an imperfect man, yet there in the midst of the Israelites of that day there was someone who was greater than Solomon, someone who was more than Solomon, and yet the Israelites refused to listen to this one. They even had him killed. (Matt. 12:42) It is this one, who is something greater than Solomon, something more than Solomon, who is going to be in charge of the perfect government that Jehovah God will establish at his appointed time in full power over the earth.

22. How about the blessings to be enjoyed under the government of this Ruler greater than Solomon?

²² Now, if the Israelites under the reign of King Solomon enjoyed the blessings of peace, prosperity, happiness and godliness, how much more will all mankind enjoy like blessings under this mighty Ruler, this perfect Governor, who is someone greater than wise King Solomon of ancient time! They will be the blessings of everlasting life, of enduring peace, of undiminishing happiness and of ever-abounding prosperity together with godliness.

23. Why did the Israelites back there not enjoy perfection of government, even with kings seated on “Jehovah’s throne”?

²³ Today we have every reason to look forward confidently to this coming perfect government. Away back there the Israelites lived merely under the typical kingdom of God under human kings that were anointed by his high priest, so that those kings were said to sit in “Jehovah’s throne”; and yet those Israelites did not enjoy perfection of government. All of them, king and subjects alike, found themselves unable to carry out the perfect laws of God. Why was this? Because they were all descendants of Adam and Eve. The Word of God tells us that from Adam and Eve all of us inherited sin and imperfection. Correctly the Christian apostle Paul said: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12) We have all been born in sin. In fact, we have been conceived in iniquity by our mothers. This was true of the Jewish nation even under their theocratic government. King David himself admitted this sad fact. (Ps. 51:5) So both their rulers, their anointed kings, and the people themselves were imperfect and dying.

24. What fact did God purpose that his law through Moses should teach the Israelites, and what question and answer by Job showed why they did not have perfection of government?

²⁴ Jehovah God purposed that the law that he gave through the prophet Moses should teach his people Israel that they were sinners, that they were imperfect. As the apostle Paul, formerly a Jewish Pharisee, said: “By works of law no flesh will be declared righteous before [God], for by law is the accurate knowledge of sin.” (Rom. 3:20) Whereas we try to keep God’s law, we find that we cannot do so, which fact shows us that we were born imperfect, and our imperfection results in our being sinners. So the honest Jews learned to appreciate, and God’s law helped them to appreciate, that they were sinners and hence could not have a perfect government, inasmuch as sinful men were serving as their rulers, as their anointed kings. Here the question is quite appropriate that the prophet, the patient Job, asked: “Who can produce someone clean out of someone unclean?” What mother, being imperfect herself and conceiving by imperfect man, has been able to bear a perfect child? Job answered: “There is not one.” (Job 14:4) Hence, men being imperfect and supplying rulers of government, how could we expect them ever to bring forth a perfect government? They cannot do it. God’s law through Moses served to impress that fact upon the faithful, believing Israelites.

25. What is necessary to the bringing forth of a perfect government, and so what other fact was God’s law through Moses meant to show the Israelites?

²⁵ In order for a perfect government to come forth there has to be a perfect source of the government. The only perfect source is God. The law of God as given to the Israelites through Moses was meant to show the Israelites more than that they were imperfect, sinners needing redemption by the perfect human sacrifice that God would provide through his Son. God’s law through Moses was meant also to show the Israelites that they needed a perfect government. That divine law was meant to point the Israelites not only to the Redeemer whom they needed to lift them out of sin, imperfection and death, but also to their King. God’s law through Moses ordered them: “You should without fail set over yourself a king whom Jehovah your God will choose.” (Deut. 17:14, 15) “Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you,” says the prophecy of God.—Zech. 9:9, RS.

26. Besides a perfect government, what else can God provide, and when did he promise to do this?

²⁶ God, the perfect Source, can not only bring forth the perfect government but can also provide the necessary perfect ruler for that government. He has promised to do this. More than nineteen centuries before the Christian era he called the faithful patriarch Abraham out of the Mesopotamian land of Chaldea into the Promised Land in the Middle East. God said to faithful Abraham that he would make Abraham a blessing to all the families of the earth and that in him and in his seed, in his offspring, all the families and nations of the earth should be blessed. (Gen. 12:1-3; 22:17, 18) It was when Abraham was a hundred years of age and his wife Sarah was ninety years of age that God miraculously gave the patriarch Abraham a son named Isaac. Isaac never became a king. But when God told Abraham that he was going to give him this son by his wife Sarah, God said that Sarah was to become the ancestress of kings, yes, rulers, governors, royal monarchs: “I will bless her and she shall become nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” This was why her name was changed to Sarah, meaning Princess. (Gen. 17:15, 16) So this Seed whom God said he would in due time produce and in whom all the families and nations of the earth would be blessed was to be a royal Seed; it was to be a King! There was to be a royal government!

27. Whom did Jehovah form into a nation with an established government, and through which section of this nation was the promised King to be brought forth?

²⁷ The patriarch Abraham had twelve great-grandsons. These produced the twelve tribes of Israel, and Jehovah God formed these into a nation. He established a theocratic government over them. As their divine King and Lawgiver, he gave them the Ten Commandments. (Deut. 33:1-5) Out of those twelve tribes of Israel God selected a particular tribe through which he would bring forth his ruler for blessing all mankind. It proved to be the tribe of Judah when this blessing was pronounced by his father upon Judah: “The scepter will not turn aside from Judah, neither the commander’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh [the great Peaceful One] comes, and to him the obedience of the people will belong.” (Gen. 49:10) So, which descendant of Judah would become King?

28. In whom did God’s royal promise to Abraham and Sarah really begin to be fulfilled, and what did God’s solemn contract with this one really mean?

²⁸ The promise that God made to Abraham and his wife Sarah, that eventually kings would come from her, really began to be fulfilled in David, the shepherd lad of the little city of Bethlehem. David was the eleventh in the line of descent from Judah. In due time David was anointed king over the twelve tribes of Israel. Soon he established his seat of government in the holy city of Jerusalem. God’s holy ark of the covenant was brought there and lodged near King David’s palace. Then God made a covenant or a solemn contract with King David, that the kingdom would never depart from his family, from his lineage, from his house, from his line of descent. (2 Sam. 7:12-16) In the 89th Psalm God said that he had made this covenant with David and that he would never profane it, for which reason the perfect king that would come forth from David would have a throne that would endure just as long as the sun and the moon would endure, that is, it would be eternal, never having an end, never needing to have a successor in government.—Ps. 89:3, 4, 19-37.

The Perfect Ruler for Man’s Government

1. How, without a kingdom today at earthly Jerusalem, does God nevertheless have his promised King, and why was he born where he was?

WHAT, then, about this perfect eternal king that was promised to come in the line of descent from King David of Jerusalem? After these thousands of years of human experiment in government, we see today no kingdom at the city of Jerusalem in the land of Israel. Nevertheless, God has his promised King! Also, he has come through the royal line of King David. In support of this fact we turn from the Hebrew Scriptures to the Christian Greek Scriptures, and the very first words that we find in them read this way: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matt. 1:1, AS) Ah yes, this line of descent of kings that was to run down from Abraham through King David found its climax in Jesus Christ and goes no farther than him. Not by accident, this Jesus was born in the same city where King David had been born, in the city of Bethlehem. This was in fulfillment of Jehovah’s prophecy.—Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:1-16.

2. How was this one born there really a “Son of Heaven,” and how was he then identified as the one to become the promised King?

² True, this Jesus had the patriarch Abraham and King David as his ancestors, but he really had a heavenly Father, and his virgin mother was, of necessity, human. She was the one who was in the line of descent from Abraham and through David. (Luke 3:23-34) So this Jesus who was born in Bethlehem in fulfillment of Bible prophecy was really the “Son of Heaven”; he was really the Son of God, whom his heavenly Father sent down to earth by a miracle in order to provide a perfect ruler for mankind. No perfect king was to be found from among imperfect, sinful, dying mankind itself. Let us recall that when this child Jesus was born in Bethlehem the angel from heaven announced to the shepherds out in the fields: “There was born to you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in David’s city.” That angel who brought “good news of a great joy that all the people will have,” called this child who was there born the Christ. That is to say, he was the Messiah, the Anointed One; he was the one to become king in fulfillment of prophecy.—Luke 2:8-11.

3. Where did this child grow up, and what did he become there?

³ This child escaped being killed by King Herod, who reigned in Jerusalem as representative of the Roman Empire. After Herod’s death Jesus was taken to the city of Nazareth. There he grew up to manhood. He became, not a shepherd as his ancestor King David had been, but a carpenter. He lived and worked in the city of Nazareth, in obscurity, leading, as it were, an underground existence.

4. What got Jesus out of his shop, and how was his next step shown to be not a false one?

⁴ What, then, was it that called Jesus out of his carpenter shop? What set him on the road to the kingdom over all mankind? Ah, it was the proclamation of God’s kingdom. At that time Jehovah God had raised up the prophet John the son of Zechariah, and in due time John the Baptist came preaching repentance of sins and baptism in symbol of such repentance. He told the Jews to repent because God’s government was at hand. John’s proclamation was: “The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” As soon as the news of John’s proclamation reached Jesus there in the carpenter shop at Nazareth, he gave up shopwork. He laid down his tools and went to John the Baptist and was baptized by him. This was no false step by Jesus of Nazareth, for as soon as he came up out of the water following his baptism in the river Jordan, there was an announcement from the heavenly King of eternity, Jehovah God. Picture the scene as the faithful Record says: “After being baptized Jesus immediately came up from the water; and, look! the heavens were opened up, and he saw descending like a dove God’s spirit coming upon him. Look! also, there was a voice from the heavens that said: ‘This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.’”—Matt. 3:1-6, 13-17.

5, 6. (a) How did Jesus’ anointing differ from that of David? (b) What did selfish Jews want to make Jesus, and why did he refuse?

⁵ Centuries before that, David had been anointed with oil to be king over Israel; but this Jesus was anointed from heaven with the spirit of God to be the king in the promised kingdom, the perfect government for all mankind. The apostle Peter reports: “God anointed him with holy spirit and power, and he went through the land doing good and healing all those oppressed by the Devil, because God was with him.” (Acts 10:38) He was acknowledged by his followers to be the “Son of God,” the “King of Israel.” (John 1:49; Matt. 16:16) He went through great tests. He endured great opposition at the hands of the leaders of Israel.

⁶ In spite of all this opposition and persecution, he stayed faithful to the true kingdom of God. He refused to let men, even the Jews themselves, make him king over them, even as he had refused to let Satan the Devil make him king over all mankind. (Luke 4:5-8) We remember the time that he freely fed 5,000 men together with women and children, multiplying a little boy’s lunch of five loaves and two fishes to feed the whole crowd. When the Jews saw that Jesus had this miraculous power to feed a nation, they selfishly wanted to make him king. But the Record says that just as soon as Jesus saw that they wanted forcibly to make him king over them, he withdrew from them and went into the mountain all alone. (John 6:1-15) Why? Jesus wanted God to make him king. He waited upon God to crown him king of the perfect government over all mankind in God’s appointed time. Cannot we be glad for this?

7, 8. (a) Why would Jesus not be satisfied with less than a perfect government to come over mankind? (b) To that end, what course did Jesus pursue, and hence where was he given a seat?

⁷ As for Jesus’ ability to become a faultless ruler, he lived a perfect life on earth amid tremendous temptations. To the Jews who accused him Jesus said: “Who of you convicts me of sin?” (John 8:46) As a perfect man he prayed and taught us to pray for a perfect government from a perfect source, saying: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come.” (Matt. 6:9, 10) Always praying for the perfect government, Jesus would never be satisfied with less, and neither should we.

⁸ To that end, Jesus remained a perfect man to the death, always bearing witness to the true kingdom of God. When he stood trial before Governor Pontius Pilate he corrected the governor’s misunderstanding, saying: “My kingdom is no part of this world. If my kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews. But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source.” (John 18:36; 1 Tim. 6:13-16) With his human perfection unmarred by sin, Jesus Christ died as a faithful martyr to the kingdom of God. Because of the perfection of his integrity and loyalty toward God, the heavenly Father raised him up from the dead and took him back home to heaven and seated him at his own right hand, far above angels. There God told him to wait till God’s time to make him king, at which time God would give him all the nations, yes, the very ends of the earth, as the realm of his dominion.—Ps. 2:6-9; Dan. 7:13, 14; Ps. 110:1, 2.

9. Whom does God take into the government with Jesus, and what is the prospect of a remnant of these yet remaining on earth?

⁹ Consequently, Jehovah God, the heavenly Source of perfect government, has his perfect Ruler for the kingdom that he has promised for the blessing of all mankind. However, he takes into the government with Jesus Christ faithful followers of the perfect Ruler. While Jesus was yet on earth as a man he began calling these followers after him. To the faithful ones he said that he was making a covenant for the kingdom with them, even as God his Father had made a covenant for the kingdom with him, in order that they might sit down with him on thrones in his kingdom and eat and drink at his table in his kingdom and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 12:32; 22:28-30) Since then the calling and the testing of the full number of 144,000 faithful associates of the perfect Ruler Jesus Christ has been going on. By now the majority of these have proved their faithfulness to God and his perfect Ruler to the very death and have been perfected in the heavenly kingdom by a resurrection in heavenly glory. Only a remnant of these Kingdom associates remain and are seeking to prove their faithfulness to the death, and they look forward to their being perfected in the heavenly kingdom with the perfect King of kings, Jesus Christ.

THE TIME FOR THE PERFECT GOVERNMENT

10. What day had to come in fulfillment of God’s promise to Mary, and what tangible proof do we have as to when it came?

¹⁰ Now we are living in a most wonderful time. The day had to come when God must fulfill the words of his angel Gabriel in announcing the coming birth of Jesus to his virgin mother Mary: “This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will be king over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom.” (Luke 1:26-33) The day came in the early fall of the year 1914, when the “appointed times of the nations” to dominate the earth without interference of God’s kingdom ended. True, this is for humanity a time of unparalleled distress. Never has mankind gone through a tribulation as we have gone through since the year 1914. But this great time of tribulation is a tangible proof that the perfect government for all mankind promised by God is at hand.

11. Why should we now have no doubt about the Kingdom’s being here, and what climactic occasion in preaching was reached last year?

¹¹ The kingdom is here, established in the heavens to take over the rulership of all mankind. We should have no doubt about it, for, as a prophet, Jesus foretold the evidences by which we should know the time of the establishment of the promised government. He said that this “time of the end” of the nations of this world would start with world war and be accompanied by famines, pestilences, earthquakes in one place after another, and by the persecution of his followers. He also said that the good news of the established kingdom of God would be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and first then would the end of the imperfect governments of men come. (Matt. 24:7-14; Mark 13:8-10) The preaching of the good news of God’s kingdom by Jehovah’s witnesses has become more widespread every year. A climactic occasion in the Kingdom preaching that arrested the attention of all the world was when Jehovah’s witnesses held their eight-day international assembly in Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds in New York city, where, at the public meeting on Sunday, August 3, 1958, there were 253,922 persons who listened to the hour-long address on the subject “God’s Kingdom Rules—Is the World’s End Near?” The world’s complete end is near, the speaker said, but so, too, is the beginning of the righteous new world under God’s kingdom by Jesus Christ the perfect Ruler.

12. (a) To what are the nations marching, and to what experience? (b) This is a compelling reason for Jehovah’s witnesses to do what, and their doing this adds to what evidence?

¹² Unquestionably we are living in the “time of the end” of the nations. They are marching to the battle of the great day of God the Almighty, the universal war, which is called Armageddon. (Rev. 16:14-16) There they will be destroyed by the heavenly government of the Son of God, just as Daniel 2:44 (RS) announces: ‘In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And that kingdom shall not be left to another people, but break in pieces and bring to an end all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.’ That is the compelling reason why Jehovah’s witnesses, the wide world over, in 170 or more lands are today proclaiming the good news of the established kingdom. This preaching amid unprecedented world distress adds to the evidence that we are living in the end of this world under the domination of Satan the Devil, the imperfect, sinful “god of this system of things.” (John 12:31; 2 Cor. 4:4) That is why we are on the threshold of a new world that is to be ruled by perfect government for all mankind, the government in the hands of the perfect Ruler Jesus.

PERFECT BENEFITS

13. In the days of the government of God’s perfect Son what will mankind enjoy earth-wide, and what prophecy of Isaiah will be fulfilled?

¹³ This heavenly government will accomplish for the human race things that no political government by imperfect human creatures on earth has ever accomplished. Divine prophecy tells us that in his days mankind is going to have perfect peace earth-wide, yes, no wars going on in any part of the earth at any time, and no war industries or armies. At last all humankind is going to have full disarmament, with no nation lifting up sword against nation; neither will men learn war any more, for people of all nationalities will be under the rule of the all-powerful, faultless government of a perfect Ruler. In the days of this government of God’s perfect Son Jesus Christ, the righteous people will flourish and peace will abound as long as the moon endures. (Ps. 72:7, 8) There will be a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 9:6, 7: “His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Father for eternity, Prince of Peace. To the abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end.”

14. In what way will he fulfill the name “Father for eternity,” and how will his government prove itself a perfect one by what it does to its faithful subjects as regards body, mind and heart?

¹⁴ This perfect Ruler will not only be the Prince of Peace greater than peaceful King Solomon, but also be the Father for eternity to all men of good will who bow the knee in subjection and allegiance to him as their God-given Ruler. He will be the eternal Father of them due to the fact that he will give them everlasting life. He can do so in love and justice, for he is the one who died for the inherited sins of all mankind. The prophet John the Baptist pointed to him and said: “See, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) This lamblike King, by virtue of the value of his human sacrifice paid over to God, will be able to take away the sins of all his obedient subjects. Taking away their sins, he will lift from them the condemnation of death that rests so heavily upon mankind today. In a wonderful way, instead of his faithful subjects getting more and more decrepit in their imperfection and weaker and eventually going down into the grave, they will be uplifted gradually out of their weakness, imperfections, infirmities and sicknesses. The uplift will not halt till it reaches human perfection, where obedient men will be in the image and likeness of God as the first man Adam was when put in the garden of Eden. Thus this eternal Father, the Prince of Peace, opens up to his subjects the prospect of everlasting life in perfect peace. Only a perfect government could rule in such a manner as to make its faithful and obedient subjects perfect in body, mind and heart.

15. What are imperfect rulers doing to the earth today but what, in fulfillment of his dying promise, will the perfect Ruler do after Armageddon?

¹⁵ Along with that perfect benefit, this perfect Ruler will give his subjects a perfect home here on this earth. Today the imperfect rulers of the nations are ruining the earth in various ways. They are even polluting the atmosphere about the earth with the fallout from their atomic and nuclear explosions. They are threatening to make this earth a place uninhabitable for mankind, particularly by a third world war. But not so the perfect Ruler Jesus Christ in the heavenly throne. After the universal war of Armageddon he will transform this earth into a paradise, from the east to the west, from the North Pole to the South Pole. “You will be with me in Paradise,” he said to the sympathetic evildoer who was dying alongside him on a torture stake at Calvary nineteen hundred years ago. (Luke 23:43) In fulfillment of that dying promise the Lord Jesus, now having come into his kingdom, will restore on earth the paradise that the first man Adam and his wife Eve forfeited for us because of rebelling and sinning against God their Creator.

16. What transformation will take place in various respects regarding this earth, and in what way will living conditions for obedient man be ideally perfect?

¹⁶ With a perfect eye for beauty and in a wholesome respect for God’s creation, the King Jesus Christ will repair and cultivate the earth and bring it to a state of paradisaic perfection. There will then be no storms or hurricanes or floods to destroy the dwelling places of mankind and to wreak havoc with the products of their work that are growing in the fields. Then half of mankind will no more be on the brink of starvation. Food shortages and famines and droughts will be no more to afflict mankind. Earth’s weather will be regulated to perfection, and the earth will produce plenty and variety, and prosperity will abound for all obedient humankind. The perfect government will make peace, happiness and human well-being surpass that of the days of King Solomon, and the living conditions for obedient mankind will be ideally perfect, with no disturbers around, not even Satan the Devil and his demons in the invisible spirit realm. At the supreme moment of the battle of Armageddon those wicked spirit forces will have been bound and put into an abyss of complete restraint.—Rev. 19:11 to 20:3.

17, 18. (a) How will the reign of that government be not only for the living but also for the dead? (b) In what words did a divine voice from the heavenly throne foretell this?

¹⁷ God’s sure Word guarantees that a great multitude of people of good will of today will survive the battle of Armageddon and live right on into that new world with its perfect government for all mankind. However, the reign of that government will be not only for the living, the survivors of Armageddon, but also for the dead members of the human family, including Abraham, Moses, King David and John the Baptist. The King Jesus Christ, who when on earth raised people from the dead, will again exercise that life-restoring power from heaven as the Redeemer who died for all mankind. As the King to whom has been given the authority to judge, he will bring to pass his promise: “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:27-29) Under the perfect government all those who have survived Armageddon and all those who have been brought back from the memorial tombs will be taught righteousness and truth in a perfect manner. Finally, by a course of unswerving obedience toward the perfect Governor Jesus Christ and toward Jehovah God, the Source of this perfect government, the obedient ones will receive the gift of everlasting life in God’s image and likeness on the paradise earth.

¹⁸ Foretelling this, the divine voice from the throne of God said, as recorded in the last book of the Bible: “Look! the tent of God is with humankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. . . . And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.” “And the one seated on the throne said: ‘Look! I am making all things new.’”—Rev. 21:3-5.

19. By doing all such things for the human family, what will God’s promised government display?

¹⁹ What government set up by man under Satan’s rule has ever been able to do such things or even promise to do such things for mankind? No man-made government! But the government that has Jehovah God as its Source and that he has bound himself by prophecies pronounced over his own name to set up will display its perfections toward mankind by doing all such wonderful things in behalf of the human family, so that they may live on a perfect earth forever, enjoying their Creator and God and glorifying him.

20. If we should like to see that government come in, what is it now the time for us to do?

²⁰ In view of such oncoming things, now is the time for preparing ourselves for this perfect government for all mankind. We should like to see it come in, when the battle of Armageddon rids the earth of the Devil’s invisible rule and of the imperfect governments of selfish politicians, should we not? Indeed, we should like to see that God-given government come in. If we want to see it come in and to enjoy its blessings without dying, we have to prepare ourselves now before Armageddon to live under it. So now, before Armageddon strikes suddenly, is the time for us to study God’s holy Word, the Bible, and see what his requirements are to survive into the new world under the reign of Jesus Christ the perfect Ruler.

21. Why are Jehovah’s witnesses eager to help each one to study the Bible, and how should we harmonize our activities with Jesus’ prayer for the perfect government?

²¹ Jehovah’s witnesses are eager to help each one to study this life-giving Book, to understand it and to know what God’s requirements are in order that each one may have His protection and blessing during the great tribulation that is yet to come, reaching its terrific climax in the universal war of Armageddon. As we study God’s Word, let us pray for his kingdom. The perfect man, Jesus Christ, taught us to pray for that perfect government, saying: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:9, 10) Furthermore, as we study and pray for that kingdom, let us unselfishly proclaim it to others for their salvation. Thus let us have a part with Jehovah’s witnesses in fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) To God’s glory, let us prove ourselves honored representatives of his perfect government for all mankind.

Christianity’s Origin and the Dead Sea Scrolls

IN THE spring of 1947 three Bedouins were going about in the town of Bethlehem trying to sell seven ancient manuscripts. These were in the form of leather scrolls, some containing Biblical and some containing sectarian writings, that the Bedouins had found in stone jars in a cave. The cave being situated in the wilderness of Judah not far from the Dead Sea, the scrolls came to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. It took months for the Bedouins finally to dispose of their scrolls, four of them to St. Mark’s Monastery and three to the Hebrew University at Jerusalem. Seven years later the University purchased the other four scrolls, which, in the meantime, had been vainly offered for sale in the United States, for the sum of $250,000. These four included the most prized of them all, a scroll in archaic Hebrew of the complete book of Isaiah, all sixty-six chapters.

Not without good reason these scrolls have been described as the “greatest manuscript discovery of modern times.” They have been definitely dated as of the second century B.C. by experts in the fields of archaeology, paleography (the science of deciphering ancient writing) and the carbon-14 process. Previously the oldest-known Hebrew witness to God’s Word had been the Nash papyrus, which goes back not quite as far and consists of only one small page, in four fragments, and which never was a part of a scroll. Incidentally, it contains the Ten Commandments and two verses of the Shemá or Jewish declaration of faith as found at Deuteronomy 6:5, 6.

Since the year 1951 many other similar discoveries have been made, including tens of thousands of fragments of ancient Bible manuscripts. All these having been found in the same general region, they also are referred to as Dead Sea Scrolls.

Rounding out the story of the Dead Sea Scrolls was the uncovering of the Khirbet (”ruins”) Qumran, located only a mile from the cave where the first scrolls were found. These ruins have been identified as those of a monastery, the headquarters of the sect that had produced the Dead Sea Scrolls, at least those first found. As to the identity of this sect, the “foremost authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls today” tells us that “there is now sufficient evidence . . . to identify the people of the scrolls definitively,” that is, finally and permanently, “with the Essenes,” a Jewish