184
office his reigning King in the following spring, to wit,
A.D. 1915, Therefore the ‘‘fourth year’’ of Christ’s
reign, corresponding with Solomon’s beginning the
temple, would begin in the spring of A.D. 1918;
and ‘‘the second month’’ thereof would begin shortly
or about one-half month after the Memorial of that
year, or, to wit, about the middle of April 1918, mark-
ing the beginning of the building of the antitypical
temple by the Lord. Mark then the progress of the
typical temple building: ‘‘In the fourth year was the
foundation of the house of the Lord laid, in the
month Zif: and in the eleventh year, in the month
Bul [rain], which is the eighth month, was the house
finished throughout all the parts thereof, and accord-
ing to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in
building it.”’-—1 Ki. 6:37, 38.
The feast of tabernacles and the dedication of
the temple followed. ‘‘And all the men of Israel as-
sembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast,
in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.’’
(1 Ki. 8: 2) (See also 2 Chronicles 5:3.) ‘‘ Also, at the
same time, Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all
Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the
entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt. And
in the eighth day [the day after the seven-day taber-
nacle feast] they made a solemn assembly: for they
kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the
feast seven days [total fourteen days]. And on the
three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent
the people away into their tents, glad and merry in
heart for the goodness that the Lord had shewed unto
David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people. Thus
Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king’s
house: and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make
in the house of the Lord, and in his own house, he
prosperously effected.’’ (2 Chron. 7: 8-11) (See also
1 Kings 8: 62-66.) Said ‘‘eleventh year’’ mentioned
at 1 Kings 6: 38 was seven years after 1035 B.C., when
Solomon began to build the temple, or in 1028 B.C.,
and the temple dedication in the seventh month thereof
would correspond with October, A.D. 1925. The dedi-
eation was about seven years and five and one-half
months after the temple building was begun. The
Memorial in 1925 was celebrated April 8, 1925. Hence
the seventh Jewish month was about coincident with
October 1925. The completion of the temple in the
‘eighth month’’ of the same year was about seven
years six months after the building was begun. The
completion thereof would therefore correspond with
November 1925.
31 At the dedication of the temple King Solomon
prayed and in his prayer referred to the ‘‘stranger’’,
or foreigner, that should duly come to Jehovah’s tem-
ple for mercy because of Jehovah’s great, name. (Sce
2 Chronicles 6 : 32, 33; 1 Kings 8: 41-43.) Such ‘‘stran-
gers’’ would foreshadow or correspond with the Lord’s
- ‘other sheep’’, or Jonadabs or people of good will,
who go to make up the ‘‘great multitude’. Note now fhe WATCHTOWER. Brooxrtyy, N. Y. the facts showing God’s beginning to reveal to his people the great multitude. 22%n the ‘‘eleventh year’’ after 1914 (to wit, the spring of 1915, when Jehovah would induct his reign- ing king into office, as above stated) or seven years after the coming of the Lord Jesus to the temple and his beginning to rear up the temple, God’s consecrated people were assembled in convention at Indianapolis, Indiana, and on the 29th day of August 1925 that assembly of God’s people adopted a resolution entitled ‘‘Message of Hope’’, and which was the first and only one of the seven resolutions adopted over a pe- riod of seven years that was addressed ‘‘To All People of Good Will’’. In this connection note that the ‘‘great multitude’ (Rev. 7:9, 10), being people of good will, joined with God’s anointed remnant of the temple company in celebrating the great antitypical feast of tabernacles. Interesting, therefore, it is to note that the fourteen-day celebration, of the feast and the dedi- cation of the building, in the seventh Jewish month of 1028 B.C. embraces not only the Jewish atonement day (on the 10th day) but also the entire seven-day feast of tabernacles (the 15th to the 21st, inclusive) with its booths and temple gatherings, with palm branches being waved by the people. 78 After the feast and dedication celebration Kinz Solomon completed the temple in thé eighth Jewish month, and this corresponds with November 1925. The aforementioned resolution, ‘‘Message of Hope,’’ ad- dressed as it was ‘‘To All People of Good Will’’, be- gan to be distributed by the millions of copies all over the earth on Saturday, October 31, 1925, and contin- ued for some time thereafter, and thus the ‘‘Message of Hope’’ was taken to the ‘‘people of good will’’. Did the- Lord direct this matter? Surely! 24 The temple at Jerusalem was typical of Jehovah’s ‘‘anointed’’ company of people taken out for his name, of which company Christ Jesus is the Head. (Matt. 3:16,17; 1 Cor. 3:16) At the modern or antitypical fulfillment of Solomon’s dedication of the temple it was fitly appropriate that the attention of God’s anointed people be called to the outpouring or anointing of God’s holy spirit upon all of the approved ones. By the Lord’s grace and guidance, at the aforementioned convention at Indianapolis in 1925 there was then and there called to the attention of those assembled, by an address publicly delivered, the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2: 28,29 concerning the outpouring of the holy spirit upon ‘‘all flesh’’, including those who eame to the knowledge of the truth and who were gathered into the temple following A.D. 1922. It is true that only a few thousand heard that publie proclamation or discourse, but in due time, to corre- spond with the completion of Solomon’s temple, The Watchtower, in its issue of November 15, 1925, pub- lished the article previously verbally spoken, to wit, “‘The Holy Spirit Poured Out.’’ No man prearranged these things, but the Lord undoubtedly did direct them.
