Hence, whenever the enjoyment of God’s provisions is made dependent solely upon expressions of prescribed allegiance to the governmental authority (as, for example, compulsory membership in the ruling political party), the state, by falsely representing itself as the source of all good things, makes itself a god. Those who support the state’s policy in this regard, either voluntarily or under compulsion, become worshipers of the “wild beast.” They give their assent to the wild beast’s disregard for the true God and to all the brutalities that it commits against those who give Him exclusive devotion.

The answer as to why true Christians cannot and will not worship the “wild beast” is, therefore, simple. The wild beast is not entitled to such worship. No matter how insignificant the act required may seem, a Christian’s engaging in such worship would mean his being disloyal to God and Christ. True Christians will, instead, show unbreakable devotion to the Giver of life and to his Son’s kingdom.

The Apostle Peter ‘Strengthens His Brothers’

TODAY in more than forty lands the Christian activity of the witnesses of Jehovah is circumscribed in various ways. More and more they are being “grieved by various trials,” tests of their faith.​—1 Pet. 1:6, 7.

In certain lands, such as those behind the Iron Curtain, and also in Africa and in the Orient, this persecution is bitterly cruel and vicious, almost beyond description. For all Christians, but especially for those experiencing such trials, the first inspired letter of the apostle Peter is of great comfort. In writing it he was indeed doing what Jesus told him to do, “strengthen your brothers.”​—Luke 22:32.

That Peter himself wrote this letter there can be no doubt. The writer identifies himself as Peter, as an “elder” and as a witness of the sufferings of the Christ. From earliest times the letter has been recognized as authentic.

When did Peter write this letter? From the internal evidence and the facts of history, a reasonable deduction is that he wrote it between the years 62 and 64 C.E. Apparently it was written when Christians suffered much, but before the persecutions by Nero in 66 C.E.

From where did Peter write it? At 1 Peter 5:13 we read: “She who is in Babylon, a chosen one like you, sends you her greetings, and so does Mark my son.” There is every reason to believe that Peter here refers to the literal city of Babylon, even as he refers to literal provinces of the Roman Empire in his introduction: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the temporary residents scattered about in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” (1 Pet. 1:1) According to the Jewish historian Josephus of our first century C.E., Babylon on the Euphrates had quite a Jewish colony at that time and so it would be quite natural for Peter to travel east to visit and preach to the Jews there, even