Our God-fearing readers will be interested to note that all the scriptures used in this booklet are taken from Catholic editions of the Holy Scriptures. The best-known English Catholic edition is the Douay-Rheims Version, which was revised by Bishop. R. Challoner and published with the approval of the Catholic Church. Another version now growing in popularity and written in modern English is the translation by Monsignor Ronald A. Knox. These are the two recognized Catholic versions of the Holy Bible quoted herein.
You will be pleased at observing how, from these two translations of the Divine Word, the wonderful works of God are shown, which prove that "God's way is love", and you will see what blessings are in store for faithful mankind through God's arrangement. With the Holy Scriptures at hand, if you have a copy, read the lecture herein printed as given by the president of the Watch Tower Society at an advertised public meeting and at the same time broadcast over a well-known New York radio station.
-THE PUBLISHERS
In Quoting Scripture verses we give first the name of the Bible book, then the number of the chapter, then the number of the verse, and finally the name of the translation quoted from.The questions at the bottom of the page are for individual or group study.
1952
PUBLISHERSWatchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc.International Bible Students AssociationBrooklyn, New York, U. S. A.
Made in the United States of America
GOD'S WAY IS LOVE
"God is love." - 1 John 4:16, Knox.
THE Most High God, who created mankind, gave us his written Word, the Holy Scriptures, and set forth many promises therein. These prophecies foretold that in time a holy One would be brought forth to bless all the families of the earth. That promised One was Jesus Christ. Today mankind, conceived in iniquities, conceived in sins, wonders why there is so much difficulty, why so much pain, sickness and sorrow among men, why so much selfishness and discontent in this world, so long after this promised One, Jesus Christ, was brought forth. Mankind wants and seeks blessings. So they ask: "If Jesus Christ is the promised Seed of God and he is to bring blessings that will affect men of all nations, why is not something done about it now?" Will you continue reading and understand why from the Holy Scriptures?
2 Over nineteen centuries ago Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. He was born of a woman highly favored of God, the virgin Mary. One of the most wonderful things that ever occurred on earth was this miracle, a man-child born of a virgin. It was Almighty God in heaven who, through his holy spirit, transferred the life of his heavenly Son to the virgin's womb and in due time brought forth the promised Seed. God's prophet Isaias had foretold this: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give
1. (a) Who was God's promised One? (b) Since he was brought forth so long ago, what question do men ask today?2, 3. (a) Where and how was this promised One born? (b) How did the virgin Mary know he would be born by her?
4
you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son: and his name shall be called Emmanuel." (Isaias 7:14, Douay) Jesus' mother was of the line of King David and so could bring forth his royal heir. She was the virgin chosen to bring forth the Seed of promise. She knew of this because the Lord's angel, Gabriel, came and spoke to her, as the record in the Holy Bible says:
3 Then the angel said to her, Mary, do not be afraid; thou hast found favour in the sight of God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call him Jesus. He shall be great, and men will know him for the Son of the most High; the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob eternally; his kingdom shall never have an end. But Mary said to the angel, How can that be, since I have no knowledge of man? And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon thee, and the power of the most High will overshadow thee. Thus that holy thing which is to be born of thee shall be known for the Son of God. -Luke 1:30-35, Knox.
4 This marvelous miracle was performed in fulfillment of God's promise, a virgin bringing forth the Son of God, and His further promise will also have fulfillment, "His kingdom shall never have an end." Why, then, was God's Son brought forth in this manner? Primarily to make known the name, the Word and the kingdom of the Most High God, his Father in heaven. In his ministry Jesus himself told us that very thing: "No man has ever seen God; but now his only-begotten Son, who abides in the bosom of the Father, has himself brought us a clear message." (John 1:18, Knox) Yes, this Son, who had resided with his Father in his prehuman existence, was transferred from heaven to earth and made a "little less than the angels" to give us a clear message from his Father. He knew his Father, and we come to know the
4. For what two purposes was Jesus born in this manner?
5
Father because the Son was with the Father. For the Son said in prayer to the Father:
I have exalted thy glory on earth, by achieving the task which thou gavest me to do; now, Father do thou exalt me at thy own side, in that glory which I had with thee before the world began. I have made thy name known to the men whom thou hast entrusted to me, chosen out of the world. (John 17:4-6, Knox)
Thus Jesus' primary purpose on this earth was to make known his Father's name, Word and kingdom. His secondary purpose was to provide the ransom sacrifice for mankind.
5 These two purposes accomplished by Jesus are great blessings that affect us all. So this gift of God, this sending of his Son into the world for these purposes, shows the great love that God has for us and proves that God's way is love. Time and again he has manifested his love toward mankind, and he is constantly arranging for blessing them, even though man today thinks that God is slow in doing it. But are we patient enough to find out further what God has done, is doing and will yet do for us? Let us read on, then.
6 From his walking with Jesus Christ, the apostle John tells us that "God is love", which means that His way is love in guiding and dealing with mankind.
How can the man who has no love have any knowledge of God, since God is love? What has revealed the love of God, where we are concerned, is that he has sent his only-begotten Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. That love resides, not in our shewing any love for God, but in his shewing love for us first, when he sent out his Son to be an atonement for our sins. Beloved, if God has shewn such love to us, we too must love one another. No man has ever seen God; but if we love one another, then we have God dwelling in us, and the love of God has reached its full growth in our lives. -1 John 4:8-13, Knox.
5. What great attribute has God thus been manifesting to mankind?6. What, then, is God's way, and how do we show we know God?
6
7 Seeing what God has done in fulfilling his own prophecies in the Scriptures, by sending his only-begotten Son into the world to help man to understand and become acquainted with his Creator, certainly we must say that God is love. From the way Jesus taught us and the way the inspired Holy Scriptures teach us we can realize that God is LOVE. But what a difference there is when it comes to the things that men teach us today about God! In view of such teachings of men and seeing that God has done so much with our eternal blessing in mind, we are led to ask: If God is love, how could there be a place of eternal torment, called hell, where billions of human creatures in God's image are said to go after death of the body? There fire and brimstone are said to be burning for eternity and condemned souls are said to remain there without release, in conscious torment. How could there be even such a place as "purgatory", where souls are said to endure excruciating pains while they await their release to be taken to heaven? Why should it be God's will that the vast majority of people should live and suffer in such poverty and distress, so that many people say man has his hell right here on earth? How can God's being love harmonize with such ideas and teachings of men? When the God-fearing people at Berea were taught certain things even by the apostle Paul, they went "daily searching the scriptures, whether these things were so". (Acts 17:11, Douay) We can be just as noble as those Bereans were by doing the same thing.
8 In their present condition mankind is miserable. What man is not sorrowful? He lives a few years and then goes into death. After that, accord-
7. In view of what men teach about God in contrast with what his Word teaches, what questions are we led to ask?8, 9. (a) Because of man's present misery, what question do we ask about his future? (b) How would God have more love for a tree than for man?
7
ing to certain teachings in this world, if he has not been a good man he must go to eternal torment in the fires of hell. Patient Job, a man who loved and served God, said this: "Man, born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries." (Job 14:1, Douay) Does it not appear that man has enough trouble on earth without having to go to a place of eternal torment after he dies in order to experience more and worse misery? So we listen with interest to what further Job has to say:
A tree hath hope. If it be cut, it groweth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout. If its root be old in the earth, and its stock be dead in the dust: at the scent of water, it shall spring, and bring forth leaves, as when it was first planted. But man when he shall be dead, and stripped, and consumed, I pray you where is he? (Job 14:7-10, Douay)
A tree is beautiful; it is God's creation, but it is not intelligent.
9 Man is intelligent, in God's image, and are we to believe that God loves a tree more than man, that a tree after it is cut down will sprout and grow again, but man - no; even though he has lived in his miseries here, God torments him more after death? None of us like death. We should like to sprout again as a green tree does, and we should like to live in pleasant surroundings, if only we knew how. But after death where is man? Job asked. Did Job believe he was in a burning hell, a fiery purgatory, or even a limbo?
10 What did Job know about this subject of "hell"? At the time Job was covered with boils due to a sickness brought upon him by Satan the Devil. He was really a man in misery on earth. So in view of popular teachings about "hell", is it not strange that Job should say this to God: "Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me"? (Job 14:13,
10. What did Job pray respecting hell, and why?
8
Douay) Here Job, in his misery, prays to God in heaven to hide him in hell. Can you imagine his wanting to go there if hell is a place of terrible conscious torment? Certainly Job had enough trouble and was not wanting to hop out of a frying pan into a fire. No, he did not. But to avoid this seeming contradiction some have imagined that there must be a part of hell that is blissful and another part for torment. On the contrary, Job prayed as he did because he knew God's arrangements and knew what "hell" in the Holy Scriptures means. He knew that sometime in the future God would remember all those that had gone to this Scriptural "hell", and would give them an opportunity in a new world, "in which justice dwelleth." (2 Peter 3:13, Douay) So what is that "hell"?
11 One writer of the Psalms had this to say about it:
Hear these things, all ye nations: give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world. All you that are earthborn, and you sons of men: both rich and poor together. They are laid in hell like sheep: death shall feed upon them. And the just shall have dominion over them in the morning: and their help shall decay in hell from their glory. (Psalm 48:2, 3, 15, Douay)
Sheep are not in hell, but sheep are slaughtered by the millions. In such great numbers, too, men die and go to the Scriptural "hell". There the psalmist says that death feeds upon them and their help decays, but he adds: "But God will redeem my soul from the hand of hell, when he shall receive me." -Psalm 48:16, Douay.
12 Another writer of Psalms says: "Who is the man that shall live, and not see death: that shall deliver his soul from the hand of hell?" (Psalm 88:49, Douay) By no human means of his own or
11. Who are laid like sheep in hell, and what hope is there for them?12. (a) Why have men been obliged to see death? (b) Why could their going to hell not be to Lave their souls tormented?
9
of another man can any person living on earth today escape the Scriptural "hell". Why man has been obliged to see death is that he has been born a sinner due to the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve in the "paradise of pleasure". "The wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23, Douay) Since all have been obliged to go to the Scriptural "hell", was it in order to have their souls tortured in any way? How could that happen to sinful souls, when God says, at Ezechiel 18:4 (Douay), this: "Behold all souls are mine: as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, the same shall die"? So, from the Holy Scriptures, man goes out of existence when he goes to "hell", for his soul dies, making it impossible for his soul to be tormented for a time or for eternity.
13 If anyone wants to argue that hell is a place of conscious fiery torment, then he must argue, too, that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, this one born of the virgin Mary, also went to a place of soul torment to take the place of sinful mankind. Speaking of Jesus' resurrection, the apostle Peter said:
For David saith concerning him: . . . Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell: nor suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.... he spoke of the resurrection of Christ. For neither was he left in hell: neither did his flesh see corruption. (Acts 2:25-31, Douay)
The Scriptural hell in which Jesus was for parts of three days is mankind's common grave, and it was from this grave that his heavenly Father raised him on the third day. In proof of this Mgr. Knox's translation of Acts 2:27, 31 does not use the word "hell" as the Douay Version does, but reads:
Thou wilt not leave my soul in the place of death,
13. (a) If hell means torment, then what must we argue about Jesus? (b) How does comparing the Douay and the Knox translations show what hell is?
10
or allow thy faithful servant to see corruption. It was of the Christ he said, foreseeing his resurrection, that he was not in the place of death, and that his body did not see corruption.
14 The Holy Scriptures speak of the dead as being asleep, not as consciously suffering torment. The dead could not be tormented by going to the Scriptural "hell", because that word is translated into English from the Hebrew word she-ol' in the Old Scriptures and from the Greek word ha'des in the New Scriptures. Out of 65 times that the Hebrew word she-ol' occurs, the Douay Version translates it 63 times "hell" and once "pit" and once "death". (Job 17:16; Osee 13:14, Douay) But at Job 14:13, quoted above (¶10), Mgr. Knox translates she-ol' "grave" instead of "hell", and he translates it "grave" instead of "hell" at other places also. (Genesis 37:35; 42:38, Knox) Thus Catholic scholarship recognizes that the Scriptural "hell" is the common grave of mankind.
15 So when anyone dies and goes to hell, does he have any feeling there? Does he have any senses that would make him subject to any torment? God's Word, not man's word, answers:
For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing more. Neither have they a reward any more: for the memory of them is forgotten. Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge, shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening. (Ecclesiastes 9:5,10, Douay)
In this scripture, instead of "hell", Mgr. Knox translates she-ol' as "grave". Certainly if a person were alive in purgatory or in hell, he must have some reason, some knowledge, some senses, in order to feel the torture and pain that some teachers tell us a person suffers there after death. To the contrary, we are told definitely, at Psalm 145:4 (Douay): "His spirit shall go forth, and he shall
14. How does Catholic authority show "hell" is the common grave?15. Does anyone have any feeling in hell? What do the Scriptures show?
11
return into his earth: in that day all their thoughts shall perish." And at Psalm 6:6 (Douay): "For there is no one in death, that is mindful of thee: and who shall confess to thee in hell?" According to the Holy Scriptures, when a man dies he stops thinking and feeling; he goes to "hell", the Scriptural hell, which is the common grave, and there he is asleep until the resurrection. He does not enjoy any conscious...
WTLibrary