Striving to Be Conquerors - "Tribulation Ten Days"

"Tribulation Ten Days"

Much like the Christians in Smyrna, the John class and their companions today have been and continue to be "fully put to the test."  Their faithfulness under trail marks them as God's own people.  (Mark 13:9, 10)  Shortly after the Lord's day got under way, Jesus' words to the Christians in Smyrna brought real comfort to the small international group of Jehovah's people.  (Revelation 1:10)  Ever since 1879, these  had been digging out from God's Word spiritual riches that they freely shared with others.  But during World war I, they met up  with intense hatred and opposition, partly because they did not get caught up in the war fever and partly because   they were fearlessly exposing the errors of Christendom.  The persecution that they received  at the instigation of some of Christendom's leaders came to a head in 1918 and was comparable to what the Christians  in Smyrna received from the Jewish community there. 

A wave of persecution in the United States of America was climaxed when the new president of the Watchtower Society, Joseph F. Rutherford, and seven associates were sent to prison on June 22, 1918, most of them with 20-year sentences.  They were released on bail nine months later. On May 14,  1919, the appeal court reversed their erroneous convictions there were show to be 125 errors in the trial.  Roman Catholic Judge  Manton, a knight of  the order of St. Gregory the Great, who in 1918 had refused bail to these Christians, was sentenced later, in 1939m, to two years' imprisonment and a fine of $10,000 ib six charges of soliciting and accepting bribes.

During Nazi rule in Germany Hitler completely banned  the preaching work of Jehovah's Witnesses.  For years, thousands of Witnesses were cruelly confined in concentration camps, where  many died, while hundreds of young men who refused  to fight in Hitler's army were executed.  The clergy's support of all this is evidenced by the words   of a Catholic priest, published in the newspaper The German of May 29, 1938.  In part, he said:  "There is now one country on earth where the so-called  . . .Bible Students [Jehovah's Witnesses] are forbidden.  That is Germany!  . . .when Adolph Hitler came to power, and the German Catholic  Episcopate repeated their request, Hitler  said:  'These so-called  Earnest Bible Students  [Jehovah's Witnesses]  are troublemakers, . . .I consider them quacks. I do not tolerate that the German Catholics shall be besmirched in such a manner by this American Judge Rutherford.  I dissolve [Jehovah's Witnesses] in Germany.' " To this, the priest added:"Bravo!"

As the Lord's day has proceeded, the Serpent and his see have never ceased to fight against the associated Christians and their companions.  Many of these have been   imprisoned and viciously persecuted.  (Revelation 12:17)  Those enemies have continued to 'frame mischief by law,'  but Jehovah's  people steadfastly insist:  "We must obey God  as ruler rather than men."  (Psalm 94:20, King James Version; Acts 5:29)  In 1954 the watchtower magazine reported:  "More than seventy countries at one time or another during the past forty years have made restrictive decrees and have persecuted Jehovah's  Witnesses."  Where it has been possible to fight for religious freedom in the courts, these Christians have done so and have come through with resounding victories in a number of countries in the United States Supreme Court alone, Jehovah's Witnesses  have won 23 favorable decisions. 

Next time:  Striving to Be Conquerors - Conclusion of "Tribulation Ten Days"

From the Book of Revelation