STAND COMPLETE AND WITH FIRM CONVICTION

"A Masterpiece of a Project

FROM the early days of their modern-day history, Jehovah's Witnesses have been intensely interested in one of Jesus Christ's prophecies:  "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 24:14)  As 1914-the beginning of "the last days" -approach, sincere Bible students undertook with firm conviction an unprecedented worldwide campaign of education based on the Holy Scriptures. -2 Timothy 3:1.

To achieve their objective of declaring the good news earth wide, these servants of Jehovah employed  a method that was new, bold, and vivid.  To learn more about it, let us go back in time.

A New Way to Declare the Good News

It is January of the year 1914.  Imagine that you are seated among 5,000  others in a darkened auditorium in New York City.  Before you is a large motion-picture screen.  A white-haired man in a frock coat appears on the screen.  You have seen silent movies, but this man speaks, and you can hear his words.  You are at the premiere of something technically innovative, and the message is unique.  The speaker is Charles Taze Russell, the first president of the Watchtower Society, and the production is the "Photo-Drama of Creation."

C.T. Russell realized the potential for motion pictures to reach masses of people.  In 1912, therefore, he began preparing the "Photo-Drama of Creation."  Eventually, it came to be an eight-hour long photographic slide and motion picture production, complete with color and sound.

Designed to be shown in four segments the "Photo-Drama" took viewers from creation down through human history to the climax of Jehovah God's purpose for the earth and humankind at the end of Christ's Millennial Reign.  Years would pass before the same use of technology would be commercially successful.  Yet, millions saw the "Photo-Drama of Creation" free of charge!

Choice musical recordings as well as 96 phonograph-record talks were prepared for the "Photo-Drama."  Stereopticon slides were made of fine art pictures illustrating world history.  It was also necessary to make hundreds of new paintings and sketches.  Some of the color slides and films were painstakingly hand painted.  And this was done repeatedly, for, in time, 20 four-part sets were prepared.  This made it possible to show a portion of the "Photo-Drama" in 80 different cities on any given day!

Next time: Behind the Scenes

The Watchtower, 2001