SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT!

Those Who Are Pursuing Peace

For example, there is Rami Oved, a former officer in a specialized anti-terrorist squad. He was trained to kill his enemies. He fervently  believed in his Israeli nationalism until the day that he discovered that the rabbis did not want him to marry the woman he loved simply because she was Asian, A Gentile.  He began  to search for truth in the Bible. Then he came in contact with  Jehovah's Witnesses.  His study of the Bible with the Witnesses convinced him that he could no longer  be a fanatic nationalist. Christian love meant giving up war and weapons and learning to love people of every race.  How surprised he was when he received a kind letter with the opening words,  "My brother Rami"! The writer was a Palestinian  Witness.  "I thought that  was incredible," Rami says, " as Palestinians were my enemies, and her one of them was calling me 'My Brother.'" Rami and his wife now pursue true peace in God's way. 

Another example is that of George Reuter, who served in the German army that invaded Russia during World War II.  Soon he became disillusioned with Hitler's  grandiose scheme for world domination. When he returned  from the war, he started to study the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses. He wrote:  "At least, things were beginning to become clear to me. I realized that God was not the one to blame for all the bloodshed . . .I learned that it was his purpose  to establish and earth-wide paradise with everlasting blessings  for obedient mankind. . . .Hitler had boasted about his "Thousand Year Reich' but had only ruled for 12 [years]--and with what a ghastly  outcome!  It is Christ rather than Hitler . . . who can and will establish a thousand-year reign over the earth." For some 50 years now, George has been serving as an envoy for true peace in the full-time ministry. 

The integrity and neutrality of Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany during the Nazi regime continue to be a testimony to their love for God and for peace even now, more than 50 years later. A booklet published by the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., states:  "Jehovah's Witnesses endured intense persecution under the Nazi regime.  .  . .The courage the vast majority displayed in refusing to [renounce  their religion], in the face of  torture, maltreatment, in concentration camps, and sometimes execution, won them the respect of many contemporaries."  Then it adds:  "During the liberation of the camps, Jehovah's Witnesses continued their work, moving among the survivors, making converts." 

Next time: SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT! -A Much Greater Change

From the Watchtower magazine, 1997