FIGHTERS AGAINST GOD WILL NOT PREVAIL!

Jehovah's Servants Under Attack

Jehovah's people have been under attack since early in the 20th century.  In many lands, men of wicked intent have sought to hinder-yes, silence-the proclamation of the good news of God's Kingdom.  They have been goaded on by our chief Adversary, the Devil, who "walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone."  (1 Peter 5:8)  After "the appointed times of the nations" ended in 1914, God installed  his Son as earth's new King, with the command:  "Go subduing in the midst of your enemies."  (Luke 21:24;Psalm 110:2)  Exercising his power, Christ ousted Satan from heaven and confined him to the vicinity of the earth.  Knowing that his time is short, the Devil  vents  his wrath upon anointed Christians and their companions.  (Revelation 12:9, 17)  What have been the results of the repeated attacks by these fighters against God?

Anointed servants of Jehovah faced many tests of faith during World War I.  they ridiculed and slandered, chased by mobs, and subjected to beatings.   As Jesus had foretold, they became  "objects of hatred by all the nations."  (Matthew 24:9) Amid wars hysteria, enemies of God's Kingdom made use of a tactic that had been used against Jesus Christ.  they falsely branded Jehovah's people seditious, and they struck at the very heart of God's visible organization.  In May 1918, federal warrants were issued for the arrest of the Watchtower Society's president, J. F. Rutherford, and seven of his closest associates.  These eight men were given heavy prison sentences and were sent to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta Georgia,  U.S.A.   Nine months later they were released.  In May 1919 the circuit court of appeals ruled that the defendants had not had a new trial, but later the government withdrew  the prosecution, with Brother Rutherford and his associates being completely exonerated.  They resumed their activities, and conventions held at Cedar Point, Ohio, in 1919 and in 1922 gave the Kingdom preaching work renewed impetus.

Dictatorships emerged in the 1930's, and Germany, Italy and Japan united to form  the Axis powers.  Early in that decade, barbaric persecution was unleashed against God's people, notably in Nazi Germany.  Bans were imposed.  Homes were searched, and their occupants were arrested.  Thousands were thrown into concentration camps because they refused to renounce their faith.  The fight against God and his people was aimed at wiping out Jehovah's Witnesses in that  totalitarian domain.  When the Witnesses went to the courts in Germany to fight for their rights, the Reich's Ministry of Justice prepared a lengthy opinion to ensure that they would not succeed.  It said: "The courts must not fail on account of merely apparent legal formalities, but must seek and find ways in spite of the formal difficulties, to fulfill their high duties."  This meant that justice could not be had. The Nazis maintained that the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses were inimical, or hostile, and 'disturbed the National Socialistic construction.'

During World War II, bans and restrictions were imposed on God's people in Australia, Canada and other lands identified with the British Commonwealth -in Africa, Asia  and islands of the Caribbean and of the Pacific.   In the United States, influential enemies and misinformed people brought 'trouble framed by decree.'  (Psalm 94:201) But flag-salute issues and community ordinances forbidding house-to-house preaching were fought in the courts. and favorable  decisions in the United States built up a bulwark of support for freedom of worship.  Thanks to Jehovah, enemy efforts did not prevail.  When the war came to a close in Europe, the bans were removed.  The thousands of Witnesses held captive in concentration camps were freed, but the fight  was not over.  Immediately after World War II, the Cold War set in.  Eastern European nations brought further pressure on Jehovah's  people Official action was taken to interfere with and stop our witnessing activities, halt the flow of Bible literature, stamp our our public assemblies.  Many were imprisoned or sent to labor camps.

Next time: On With the Preaching Work!

Watchtower, 2000