"Do The Former Deeds"

Those Ephesians must rekindle the love they once had if they do not want to lose out. "Therefore, " Jesus tells them, "remember from what you have fallen, and repent and do the former deeds. If you do not, I am coming to you, and I will remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent." (Revelation 2:5) How did the Christians in the Ephesian congregation receive those words? We do not know. We hope that they repented and succeeded in reawakening their love for Jehovah. If they did not, then their lamp would be extinguished and their lampstand removed. They would lose their privilege of beaming forth the truth.

Nevertheless, Jesus has this encouraging word for the Ephesians: "Still, you do have this, that you hate the deeds of the sect of Nicolaus, which I also hate." (Revelation 2:6) At least they hated sectarian division, just as the Lord Jesus Christ hates it. As the years went by, however, many congregations failed to heed those words of Jesus. Lack of love for Jehovah, for the truth, and for one another resulted in their drifting into spiritual darkness. They became fragmented into numerous quarreling sects. "Christian" copyists who had no love for Jehovah removed God's very name from Greek manuscripts of the Bible. Lack of love also allowed room for teaching Babylonish and Grecian doctrines, such as hellfire, purgatory and the trinity, in the name of Christianity. Having no love for God and for the truth, most of those who claimed to be Christian ceased to preach the good news of God's Kingdom. They came to be dominated by a selfish clergy class that made its own kingdom here on earth.-Compare 1 Corinthians 4:8.

When judgment started with the house of God in 1918, the sectarian clergy of Christendom were giving open support to World War I, urging Catholics and Protestants on both sides to slaughter one another. (1Peter 4:17) Unlike the Ephesian congregation that hated what the sect of Nicolaus was doing, Christendom's religions had long been riddled with conflicting, anti-God doctrines, and their clergy had thrown their lot in with the world, of which Jesus said his disciples must be no part. (John 15:17-19) Their congregations, ignorant of the Bible's theme, God's Kingdom, were not lampstands beaming forth Scriptural truth, nor were their members part of the spiritual temple of Jehovah. Their leading men (and women) were not stars but were revealed to be members of "the man lawlessness."- 2Thessalonians 2:3; Malachi 3:1-3.

The John class, however, emerged from the tumultuous days of the first world war with love for Jehovah and for the truth that impelled them to serve him with flaming zeal. They resisted those who tried to introduce sectarianism through practically idolizing the first president of the Watch Tower Society, Charles T. Russell, following his death in 1916. Disciplined by persecutions and adversities, this Christian group clearly received a judgment of "well done" from their Master and an invitation to enter into his joy. (Matthew 25:21, 23) They recognized in the course of world events, and in their own experiences, the fulfillment of the sign that Jesus had given to mark his invisible presence in Kingdom power. From 1919 onward, they moved forward to share in the further fulfillment of Jesus' great prophecy: "And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come." (Matthew 6:9, 10; 24:3-14). If their love for Jehovah had been in some way lacking, it was fanned into a flame from that time onward.

At a historic convention, attended by 18,000 of these Christians, at Cedar Point, Ohio, U.S.A., September 5-13, 1922, the call went out: "Back to the field, o ye sons of the most High God!... The world must know that Jehovah is God and that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords...Therefore, advertise, advertise,advertise, the King and his kingdom." Jehovah's precious name was being made more prominent. In 1931 these Christians,, assembled in convention at Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A., rejoiced to embrace and take the name indicated by God in Isaiah's prophecy-Jehovah's Witnesses. (Isaiah 43:10, 12) With its issue of March 1, 1939, the name of the organization's principal journal was changed to The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom, thus giving primary honor to our Creator and his royal government. Jehovah's Witnesses, with renewed love for Jehovah, have repented of any possible previous failure to honor and magnify his illustrious name and Kingdom. -Psalm 106:6, 47, 48.

Next time: "To Him That Conquers"