NO PEACE FOR THE FALSE MESSENGERS!

MESSENGERS-false or true? There were both kinds in Bible times. But what of our day? At Daniel 12:9, 10, we read that a heavenly messenger told God's prophet: "The words are made secret and sealed up until the time of the end. Many will cleanse themselves and whiten themselves and will be refined. And the wicked ones will certainly act wickedly, and not wicked ones at all will understand; but the ones having insight will understand." We are now living in that "time of the end." Do we see a sharp distinction between "the wicked ones" and "the ones having insight"? Certainly we do!

At chapter 57, verses 20 and 21, we read the words of God's messenger Isaiah: " ' The wicked are like the sea that is being tossed, when it is unable to calm down, the waters of which keep tossing up seaweed and mire. There is no peace,' my God has said, 'for the wicked ones.' " How aptly these words describe this world as it approaches the 21st century! What do messengers having insight have to tell us?

The apostle John had divinely inspired insight. At 1 John 5:19, it is stated: "We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." In contrast with this world are the 144,000 spiritual Israelites, an aging remnant of whom are still with us. Joining these today are "a great crowd . . .out of all the nations and tribes and peoples and tongues,,," who now number more than five million, who also have insight. "These are the ones that come out of the great tribulation." And why are they rewarded? Because they too "have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" by exercising faith in Jesus' ransom. As messengers of light, they too "are rendering [God] sacred service day and night." -Revelation 7:4, , 14, 15.

Next time" So-Called Messengers of Peace

Watchtower, 1997