Deschide meniul principal

Pagină:Organization-part-I-1938.djvu/3

Această pagină nu a fost verificată


ORGANIZATION

PART 1

“Instead of bronze I will bring in gold; and instead of iron I will bring in silver; and instead of wood, bronze; and instead of stones, iron; and I will appoint the oversight of thee to prosperity, and the setting of thy tasks to righteousness.’’—Isa. 60:17, Rotherham.


        1 JEHOVAH'S ORGANIZATION is in no wise democratic. Jehovah is supreme, and his government or organization is strictly theocratic. This conclusion is not open to successful contradiction. Let this great and indisputable truth stand as a guidepost in the consideration of the foregoing text and what follows herein.


        2 Jehovah God is the supreme power, and Jehovah together with Christ Jesus constitutes the ‘‘Higher Powers’’, to which all persons must be subject. (Rom. 13:1) Jesus is designated in the prophecy as ‘‘The Mighty God’’ (Isa. 9:6), meaning the mighty executive officer of Jehovah, the Almighty God. He is the representative and spokesman of the Almighty Jehovah. (Gen. 17:1) Jesus Christ is ‘‘the Head of the church’’, which is his body. (Col. 1:18) Jehovah is the ‘‘head of Christ’ (1 Cor. 11:3), and therefore Zion, God’s capital organization, is a theocratic government, a pure theocracy, and not ‘‘a peoples’ mandate’’ or a government ‘‘of the people, by the people’’. The organization of Jehovah is a kingdom. It is not a limited or constitutional monarchy with restrictions upon it by a creature or creatures. Jehovah has made Christ Jesus Lord and King, and Christ Jesus answers to no members of his body for his official acts. All official acts and service, as foreshadowed in the various offices in the nation of Israel, Jehovah’s typical people, are now fulfilled in Christ Jesus the King. In the official service the members of the body of Christ share in a limited measure only as underpriests, Levites, and servants called to the kingdom as servers of God’s ‘‘judgments written’’. For this reason there are no individuals in the organization under Christ Jesus who hold a superior degree or rank of superiority. ‘All are one in Christ Jesus’ and under Christ Jesus, the Head. Jehovah God and Christ Jesus are the Teachers, and Christ Jesus at the temple is in immediate command of the organization invisible and visible. Separate and individual rights do not exist, but every member of the organization must of necessity be in complete subjection to the Head. It is necessary to get these principles fixed in mind and then keep in mind that everything and everyone in the organization must be in harmony therewith and work harmoniously.


        3 The primary purpose of this publication is to aid the people of God now on the earth to more keenly appreciate their relationship to God and Christ and, so understanding, to then move forward in complete, harmonious action. The temple company are now at unity, having come ‘‘unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ ... the head, ... from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love’. (Eph. 4: 13-16) The words of Isaiah 60:17 according to the Authorized Version read: ‘‘For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and

for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness.”’

Those words are prophetic and have a complete fulfillment after the coming of Christ Jesus to the temple and the construction or building up of Zion, and show a clear contrast in the conditions existing in the church prior to that time and after the coming of the Lord to the temple. That prophecy of Isaiah shows how the work of the anointed remnant in Christ would be far richer, grander and more glorious than what preceded the building up of Zion, and this contrast is shown as gold is contrasted with bronze, or copper, and is richer than bronze, or copper; silver richer and more desirable than iron, and copper than wood, and iron than stone. Otherwise stated, these material things are used in contrast and to illustrate the present better and happier condition now existing in God’s organization.


        4 That prophecy of Isaiah had its first miniature fulfillment when the Jewish remnant were delivered from Babylon by the Gentile kings, Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, and when that typical people were permitted to return to Jerusalem (Zion) there