Pagină:Organization-part-II-1938.djvu/14: Diferență între versiuni

MILITANT ORGANIZATION Battle. He has a fixed time for war and a fixed time for peace, and by making war he will estab- lish everlasting peace among his creatures. When he sent Jesus Christ forth in A.D. 1914 to reign in the midst of his enemies, war in heaven immediately fol- lowed, and Christ Jesus was the victor. The field of military action is then transferred to the earth, and the forces for the great combat must be prepared. In the first vision of the prophet Zechariah (chapter one) there appeared a company of horsemen led by their Chief, who was Christ Jesus, and the first work of which was to make a careful survey or inspection of things in the earth before beginning operations. Horses symbolize war equipment; and that advance company of horsemen spying out the land shows that the Lord’s forces are preparing for the greatest war on earth. During the building of the temple at Jerusalem after the return of the Jewish remnant from Baby- lon Zechariah was again given a vision of the militant organization of Jehovah. That means that while Christ Jesus is gathering his true followers to himself into the temple of God these faithful ones are given a vi- sion of Jehovah’s great war organization. The prophet looked again, and tells what he saw. ‘‘And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two moun- tains; and the mountains were mountains of brass.’’ (6:1) ‘‘Chariots’’ are symbols of Jehovah’s militant organization, and there being four chariots means that God’s organization is a four-square one, fully equipped to push the enemy from every point and to completely defeat and destroy him. ‘‘For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with fiames of fire. For by fire and by his swora will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many.’’ (Isa. 66: 15,16) ‘‘Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.’’ (Joel 2:5; Hab. 3:8) These war chariots’ coming out from be- tween two mountains of brass symbolizes that they are exceedingly strong, and the ‘‘brass’’ (copper) shows that they are beyond the earthly quality, there- fore superhuman, and are sent by Jehovah, and hence are in no way a part of Satan’s earthly government. These chariots picture the fighting organization of Jehovah God under the leadership of Christ Jesus. In the fire these mountains would not become ‘‘a burnt mountain’’, such as Satan’s organization will become according to Jeremiah 51:25. The fighting organization of Jehovah will in the fire of battle glow with brightness like the feet of Christ Jesus, as seen in the vision of the apostle John, who writes: ‘‘ And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a J bette a OF HOSTS is the almighty God of 190 furnace ; and his voice as the sound of many waters.’’

• • And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass.’’ (Rev. 1:15; 2:18) Both the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel had a vision of this Mighty One and say that his arms and feet looked like polished brass. (See Daniel 10:6.) Ezekiel 40:3 says of him: His ‘‘ap- pearance was like the appearance of brass’’. These ‘‘mountains of brass’’ together picture the universal organization of Jehovah and also the capital organi- zation thereof, coming forth with the military equip- ment after the war in heaven had ended. It is, to quote Daniel 2: 34, 35, ‘‘out of the mountain’’ or organiza- tion universal of God that the ‘‘stone was eut out without hands’’; whereas the stone or capital organi- zation, symbolic of the anointed King, grew to be ‘‘a great mountain [that] filled the whole earth’’, and is therefore the capital or chief part of Jehovah’s organization. The horse-drawn war chariots seemed to appear at the same time, all moving abreast. By having in mind now that the Jews read from right to left, this picture would indicate that the first horses and chariots to be observed would be on the extreme right. ‘‘In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot black horses, and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses.’’ (6: 2, 3) These chariots drawn by horses show preparation for and moving into position for the great battle. The horses on the extreme right are called “‘ved’’, according to the Hebrew, and are called “‘bay’’, in verse seven of this chapter. The second chariot is drawn by black horses, the third on the left center by white horses, and the fourth by ‘‘grisled and bay {(margin) strong] horses’’. The American Revised Version renders this part of the text ‘‘grizzled strong horses’’; which horses are on the extreme left and go to the south and which are thus distinguished from bay horses on the extreme right. The prophet asked the angel the meaning of the chariots and the horses, and the answer is: ‘‘ And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits [(margin) winds] of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.’’ (6:4,5) These picture the organization of Jehovah God, ‘‘who maketh his angels spirits.’’ (Ps. 104: 4) It is a complete organization, because it is symbolized by four, and at the same time is heavenly, and in- cludes the remnant of Jehovah’s witnesses on earth, who have been made to ‘‘sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus’’. (Eph. 1:3; 2:6) The faithful rem- nant in the temple have been ‘delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of Jehovah’s dear Son’, (Col, 1:13) The Lord by his angels has gathered out the remnant and brought them together since 1918, ‘‘from the four winds, from one