43. How earnest ought we to be about this, and how must we declare, without holding back, “all the counsel of God”?

⁴³ Like Paul, we must be as earnest in warning and enlightening the people as if this were our last advice to the endangered ones. It is coming to that! Like Paul, we are charged by God through Christ to preach the good news of God’s kingdom, but now of God’s kingdom set up in power. (Matt. 24:14) We must do this for a witness and a warning, before the old world’s end comes. We must not hold back from telling “all the counsel of God.” Like Paul, who says to us: “Become imitators of me, even as I am of Christ,” we must do this by preaching publicly and teaching from house to house.—1 Cor. 11:1.

44. If we do this, what shall we be able to say at the time of rendering account, and with what consequences to ourselves?

⁴⁴ If we do so, then what? We shall, at the brink of Armageddon, be able to take up Paul’s words and to say unashamed to all the world: “I call you to witness this very day that I am clean from the blood of all men, for I have not held back from telling you all the counsel of God.” Thus we shall not die with any bloodguilt. With clean hands and heads and records we shall be ushered into God’s innocent new world of life and happiness for evermore.

Seeking to Do the Divine Will on Earth

JEHOVAH God is perfect in wisdom and justice, almighty in power and wholly unselfish. Since that is so, it is sheer folly to presume to oppose his divine will. All wise persons therefore will be in the frame of mind of the apostle Paul when he wrote: “Now may the God of peace . . . equip you with every good thing to do his will, performing in us through Jesus Christ that which is well-pleasing in his sight.”—Heb. 13:20, 21.a

That the divine will cannot be successfully opposed can be clearly seen from the pages of history as recorded in God’s Word, the Bible. Repeatedly it tells of mighty rulers being made to know that Jehovah God is supreme. In particular does it tell of God manifesting his supremacy in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Jehovah did this, first of all, by causing Nebuchadnezzar to dream about a great image, to forget the dream and then to have Daniel tell Nebuchadnezzar both the dream and its interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar was also made to bow to the divine will at the time he had the three Hebrew youths cast into a crucible. And in a most decisive manner did Jehovah make Nebuchadnezzar bow to the divine will by causing that proud pagan monarch to become insane, to eat grass like an ox, for “seven times,” after which Nebuchadnezzar regained his reason and acknowledged the supremacy of the divine will in human affairs.

Concerning those who appreciate these truths Daniel wrote: “He [the dictatorial ruling power] shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant; but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And those among the people who are wise shall make many understand, though they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder, for some days. When they fall, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery; and some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine and to cleanse them and to make them white, until the time of the end.”—Dan. 11:32-35, RS.

As Christian witnesses of Jehovah we do indeed know our God. He is the Most High, the Creator of all things seen and unseen, whose name alone is Jehovah. The more we study his Word privately and with others in the Christian congregation, the more we engage in the ministry of making known his name and kingdom, and the more we commune with him in prayer, the better we shall get to know him and the more fully we shall be able to do the divine will on earth. Then we shall be able to stand so firm that the agents of Satan will not succeed in seducing us with flattery. Then also, we shall be taking faithful action and not be like those that violate the covenant by compromising.

Who are those that “join themselves to them with flattery”? Those who associate with the New World society, enjoying the truths it publishes and the clean Christian fellowship, but who, while saying nice things, refuse to dedicate themselves to do God’s will and then be baptized in symbol thereof.

Far from being like such, let us rather take the step of dedication and prove ourselves to be among the ‘wise that cause many to understand’ by teaching others. Should persecution cause us to stumble, still thereby we shall become refined and made white, all to Jehovah’s glory and our eternal welfare. So let us continually seek to do the divine will on earth now, regardless of opposition.

[Footnotes]

Part 25—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

In the third year of Cyrus king of the vast Persian Empire of the sixth, fifth and fourth centuries before Christ, Jehovah’s prophet Daniel received his final vision through an angel, which Daniel describes for us in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of his prophetic book. First, the prophetic vision foretells the passing away of the Persian Empire, the fourth world power of Bible history. It would fail to overpower Greece. In fact, it would at last fall before Greece, because, said the angel, “a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.” (Dan. 11:3, JP) That Grecian king proved to be the famous Alexander the Great. By him the Grecian Empire was established, as the fifth world power of Bible history.

12. How long did Alexander enjoy world rulership, and when was his kingdom broken?

¹² Alexander’s enjoyment of world rulership was short-lived. Jehovah’s angel foretold this: “And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion wherewith he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside these.” (Dan. 11:4, JP) At the height of his career, when but in his thirty-third year, the carousing Alexander was struck down by malarial fever at Babylon in 323 B.C., and his plans to make this Scripturally doomed city his world capital collapsed. His vast empire in Europe, Asia Minor, Asia, the Middle East and Egypt broke up to the four winds of the heavens. His body was transported into Egypt and buried in Alexandria by his General Ptolemy, the satrap of Egypt.

13. How did the prophecy prove true that the kingdom should not be divided to Alexander’s posterity?

¹³ The empire did not pass to Alexander’s posterity. He had left behind in Macedonia an incapable brother, Philip Aridaeus. He reigned for less than seven years, and then was murdered by his own mother in 317 B.C. Alexander’s legitimate son by Roxana, Alexander Allou, followed and ruled but about six years. In 311 B.C. he too met violent death at the hand of one of his father’s generals, Cassander, who now usurped the throne of Macedonia and Greece. Alexander’s illegitimate son, Heracles, undertook to rule in his father’s name, but was murdered in 309 B.C. With him the line of Alexander the great bloodspiller died out, in blood. The dominion had departed from his house. The angelic prophecy proved true.

14. How was Alexander’s kingdom divided for a time “toward the four winds of heaven,” and how was this reduced later on to three?

¹⁴ The Alexandrian Empire was plucked up for men other than Alexander’s posterity