"The TImes of Restoration Are at Hand! - The Time of Restoration Begins

The Time of Restoration Begins

As the apostle Peter pointed out to that crowd in Jerusalem, heaven 'held Jesus within itself.'   This was the case until 1914, when Jesus took up his royal power and began ruling as God's appointed King.  At that time,  Peter foretold, Jehovah would "send forth" his Son in the sense that He would allow Jesus to carry out his role as the central figure in God's purposes.  The Bible describes  the even in symbolic language:  "And [God's heavenly organization] gave birth to a son, a male, [God's Kingdom in the hands of Jesus Christ]  who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod." -Revelation 12:5.

But the nations had no intention of submitting to Christ's rulership.  Indeed, they lashed out at his loyal earthly subjects, known today as Jehovah's Witnesses.  Like their apostolic forerunners, the Witnesses had unhesitatingly  taken up "the work of bearing witness to Jesus."  (Revelation 12:17) Opposition to the work that these sincere  Christians were doing flared up in one country after another. In 1918, responsible members of the headquarters staff of the Watchtower Society in Brooklyn, New York, were haled into court  on trumped-up charges and unjustly sentenced to lengthy prison terms.  For a time, it appeared that the modern-day witness work "to the most distant part of the earth" was going to fail. -Revelation 11:7-10. 

However, in 1919,m the imprisoned  members of the headquarters staff were released and later exonerated of all the false charges.  They wasted no time getting the spiritual restoration work back on course.  Since then, Jehovah's people have been enjoying unprecedented spiritual prosperity.

An extensive campaign was undertaken to teach people of all nations to observe the things Christ had commanded his followers to do.  (Matthew 28:20)  How refreshing it was to see some who had formerly displayed animal like characteristics change their outlook!   They stripped off the old personality, which produces such traits as "anger,"  "abusive speech," and obscene talk," and put on the new personality," which through accurate knowledge is being made new according to the image of [God] who created it."  In a spiritual sense, the words of the prophet Isaiah are being fulfilled even now:  "The wolf [a person who formerly displayed wolf like characteristics ] will actually reside for a while with the male lamb [a person manifesting  a meek disposition],  and with the kid the leopard itself will lie down, and the calf and the maned young lion and the well-fed animal all together." -Colossians 3:8-10; Isaiah 11:6, 9. 

Next time: "The Times of Restoration" Are at Hand! - Further Restoration at Hand!

The Watchtower, 2000