Continue with 'Slaughtered Souls' Rewarded

The situation may also be likened to that in apostate Judah when King Manasseh came to the throne in 716 B.C.E. He shed much innocent blood, probably 'sawing asunder' the prophet Isaiah. (Hebrews 11:37; 2 Kings 21:16) Although Manasseh later repented and reformed, that bloodguilt remained in 607 B.C.E., when the Babylonians desolated the kingdom of Judah, "it was only by the order of Jehovah that it took place against Judah, to remove it from his sight for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed, so that he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Jehovah did not consent to grant forgiveness."- 2 Kings 24:3, 4.

As in Bible times, so today many of the individuals who killed God's witnesses may be long dead. But the organization that caused their martyrdom is still very much alive and bloodguilty. It is Satan's earthly organization, his earthly seed. Prominent therein is Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion. She is described as being "drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus." Yes, " in her was found the blood of prophets and of holy ones and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth." (Revelation 17:5, 6; 18:24; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:28) What a load of bloodguiltiness! As long as Babylon the Great exists, the blood of her victims will cry out for justice. -Revelation 19:1, 2.

John himself witnessed martyrdom in the first century as the cruel Serpent and his earthly seed waged war on the growing congregation of anointed Christians. John had seen our Lord impaled and had survived through the slayings of Stephen, of his own brother, James, and of Peter, Paul, and other close associates. (John 19:26, 27; 21:15, 18, 19; Acts 7:59,60; 8:2;12:2; 2 Timothy 1:1; 4:6, 7) In 64 C.E., Roman emperor Nero had made a scapegoat of the Christians, accusing them of burning the city, to counteract a rumor that he was the guilty one. The historian Tacitus reports: "They [Christians] died by methods of mockery; some were covered with the skins of beasts and then torn by dogs, some were [impaled], some were burned as torches to light at night." A further wave of persecution under Emperor Domitian (81-96 C.E.) had resulted in John's being exiled to the Island of Patmos. As Jesus said: "If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also." -John 15:20; Matthew 10:22.

By the fourth century C.E., that old Serpent, Satan the Devil, had brought forth his masterpiece of deception, the apostate religion of Christendom -a Babylonish system hidden under a "Christian" veneer. It is the principal part of the seed of the Serpent and has developed into a multitude of conflicting sects. Like unfaithful Judah of old, Christendom carries a heavy bloodguilt, having been deeply involved on both sides in World Wars I and II. Some political rulers in Christendom even used these wars as a pretext for slaughtering anointed servants of God. Reporting on Hitler's persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses, a review of Friedrich Zipfel's book Kirchenkampf in Deutschland (fight of the Churches in Germany) stated: "One third of them [the Witnesses] were killed, either by execution, other violent acts, hunger, sickness or slave labor. The severity of this subjection was without precedent and was the result of uncompromising faith that could not be harmonized with National Socialistic ideology." Truly, it can be said of Christendom, including its priesthood:"In your skirts there have have been found the blood marks of the souls of the innocent poor ones."-Jeremiah 2:34.

Since 1935 faithful young men of the great crowd have borne the brunt of persecution in many lands. (Revelation 7:9) Even as World War II ended in Europe, in just one town 14 witnesses of Jehovah were executed by hanging. Their crime? Refusal to "learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4) More recently, young men in the Orient and in Africa have been beaten to death or executed by firing squad over the same issue. These youthful martyrs, worthy supporters of Jesus' anointed brothers, will surely have a resurrection into the promised new earth. - 2 Peter 3:13; compare Psalm 110:3; Matthew 25:34-40; Luke 20:37, 38.

Next time: A White Robe