SERVING WITH THE WATCHMAN

A "Lookout" on the Watch

When "the time of the end" began, therefore, Jehovah again had a watchman on the scene, alerting people to events having to do with the fulfillment of His purposes.  (Daniel 12:4; 2 Timothy 3:1)  Until this day, that watchman class-anointed Christians, the Israel of God-has been acting in harmony  with Isaiah's description of the prophetic watchman:  "He paid strict attention, with much attentiveness.  And he proceeded to call out like a lion:  'Upon the watchtower, O Jehovah, I am standing  constantly by day, and at my guardpost I am stationed all the nights.' "   (Isaiah 21:7, 8) This is a watchman who takes his task seriously!

What did this watchman see?  Again, Jehovah's watchman, his witness class, announced  "She has fallen!  Babylon has fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he [Jehovah] has broken to the earth!"  (Isaiah 21:9) This time, following World War I, it is Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion, that is toppled from its perch of authority.  (Jeremiah 50:1, 3; Revelation 14:8)  No wonder!  The Great War, as it was then called, started in Christendom, where the clergy on both sides fueled the conflagration by preaching the cream of their youth into the trenches.  What a disgrace!  In 1919, Babylon the Great could not prevent the Bible Students, as Jehovah's Witnesses were then known, from escaping from their inactive state and embarking on a worldwide witnessing campaign that still continues.  (Matthew 24:14)  That signaled a fall for Babylon the Great, just as the release of Israel in the sixth century B.C.E. signaled a fall for ancient Babylon.

The watchman class has always performed its task  with zeal and a strong desire to do what is right.  In July 1879, the Bible Students started publication of this magazine, then known as Zion's Watchtower and Herald  of Christ's Presence.  Each issue from 1879 until December  15, 1938, carried on its front cover the words "Watchman, What of the Night?' -Isaiah 21:11.  Faithfully, for 120 years the Watchtower has kept watch on world events and their prophetic import.  ( 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 13)  God's watchman class and its "other sheep" companions have used this magazine in vigorously proclaiming to mankind that the vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty by Christ's Kingdom is at hand.  (John 10:16)  Has this witness been blessed by Jehovah?  Well, from the first issue of 6,000 copies in 1879, the Watchtower has grown to a worldwide circulation of more than 22,000,000 copies in 132 languages-121 of these being published simultaneously.  How appropriate that the most widely distributed religious magazine on earth should be the one that magnifies the name of the true God, Jehovah!

Next time: A Progressive Cleaning

Watchtower, 2000