Blog.com-JWitnesses Non-Official By ideacreamanuela

This issue concerns Christians. The Bible clearly teaches:”[Render] sacred service . . . with a clean conscience.”(2Timothy 1:3) But on the other hand the Scriptures states:

”. . . The existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God. . . . For that is why you are also paying taxes; for they are God’s public servants constantly serving this very purpose. Render to all their dues, to him who calls for the tax, the tax.”—Romans 13:1,5-7.

First-century Christians readily payed taxes. Why? For the reason mentioned above. Even though an important quantity went to the support of the military. What about Christians today, are they also known as taxpayers? Or a Christian subdue his conscience when tax time comes?

Taxes and Conscience

What will a Christian do when taxes are used to support activities that he personally rejects? Well, a Christian’s conscience requires him to pay taxes.(Romans 13:5) To understand this, we must recognize that our conscience is the inner voice that tells us wether an action is right or wrong. But to be employed in the right manner, our conscience must conform to God’s moral standards. This means that we need to adjust our viewpoint and our thinking with God’s. (Psalm 19:7) 

What is God’s view of human governments?  

The apostle Paul wrote:” For that is why YOU are also paying taxes; for they are God’s public servants constantly serving this very purpose.” 

Paul called human governments ”God’s public servants.” (Romans 13:6) Basically it means that they perform valuable duties for society and mantain order. They provide also mail delivery, public education, fire protection, and law enforcement. God’s permission of rule by human governments, is only temporary. It is his will to replace all of them with his heavenly Kingdom. (Daniel 2:44; Matthew 6:10) 

“Christians today may be disturbed by how some of their taxes are spent, but they do not attempt to interfere with or influence government actions by resisting them or refusing to pay taxes. That would betray a lack of trust in God’s solution for mankind’s woes.”—The Watchtower 

Due time for God’s intervene is at hand! Jehovah’s promise to solve human’s affairs through the rule of his Son, Jesus, is near. So what do Christians need? Patience! Jesus said:”My kingdom is no part of this world.”—John 18:36.

You can rely on Jehovah’s promise. Confident of God’s interest in his loyal servants, David says:”A young man I used to be, I have also grown old, and yet I have not seen anyone righteous left entirely, nor his offspring looking for bread.”—Psalm 37:25.

Does God hold you responsible for what your landlord does with the rent you pay? No, he does not. So, if you loyally ‘pay back God’s things to God’, you can enjoy the assurance that only God’s Kingdom can truly bring about a different and better society and righteous rule to all the earth.—Mark 12:13-17

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“I began to behold Satan already fallen like lightning from heaven.”(Luke 10:18)

CHRIST’S activity in the first century foretold Satan’s death. He said:”I began to behold Satan already fallen like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10:18)

Jesus was evidently rejoicing at his future victory in his battle with the ruler of the world once he was back in heaven. (Revelation 12:7-9) When this battle took place? A thorough study of Bible prophecies indicates in or shortly after 1914.

Since that date, time remaining before Satan’s destruction is short. Fortunately millions of people today have not been misled by the Devil’s desperate attempts to control them. Why not? The Bible has opened their eyes to his true identity and his designs. (2Corinthians 2:11)

When will come the Devil’s last gasp? Soon! Righteous humans will turn the earth into a paradise under Christ’s loving rulership “and the former things will not be called to mind,” says the Bible. (Isaiah 65:17)

“Under Christ’s loving rulership, righteous humans will turn the earth into a paradise”—The Watchtower

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Photo Credits: inmagine;culturarm;powergue;amanaimages;imagebroker;ideacreamanuela(artist’s impression)

God’s Word, the Bible reveals that Satan is a real person that ”keeps transforming himself into an angel of light”. (2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10; 2Corinthians 11:14) Why does many not believe that the Devil is a real person? Consider some erroneous beliefs:

• “How could God create the Devil?”

God does not created such a person. Really, ”all his ways are justice…there is no injustice” in God. (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 5:4)

God created his creatures with the ability to make their own choices. A perfect creature can choose to do what is right or not. Gesus referred to the misuse of free will of Satan when he said: ”He did not stand fast in the truth.” * (John 8:44)

• “The Devil is merely a principle of evil”

This statement would make some Bible verses almost impossible to understand. At Job 2:3-6 God is having a conversation with the Devil. Was he speaking to an abstract principle of evil, or was he perhaps talking to himself?

Photo Credit: Inmagine

“The ruler of this world will be cast out”. — John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11

“The Ruler of This World” Reveals Himself

Satan takes pride in boasting about his power as a master criminal when, after showing Jesus ”all the kingdoms” of the world, he made him this offer: ”I will give you all this authority and the glory of them, because it has been delivered to me, and to whomever I wish I give it. You, therefore, if you do an act of worship before me, it will all be yours.”—Luke 4:5-7.

Satan showing Jesus ”all the kingdoms” of the world

Jesus actually confirmed the Devil’s power over mankind by speaking of him as ”the ruler of the world” and describing him as ”a murderer” and ”a liar”.—John 14:30; 8:44; The New Jerusalem Bible.

The apostle John, some 60 years after Jesus’ encounter  with the Devil, reminded Christians of the Devil’s powerful influence. He says that ”the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” He also said that he ”is misleading the entire inhabited earth.” (1John 5:19; Revelation 12:9)

The whole world is lying in Satan’s power.—1John 5:19

Distinctly, the Bible identifies an invisible spirit as ”the ruler of the world”. But what is the effect of his government over mankind?

The World Ruler Delegates Power to Associates

The apostle Paul, writing about the Christians’ fight for the faith, identified their worst enemies. He wrote:”We have a wrestling, not against blood and flesh, but against the governments, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

In according to other modern Bible translations, ”the wicked spirit forces” here refer to wicked spirit persons. 

Three monks wear fearful and colorful masks representing demons, at festival in Monastery, Tibet, China 

In fact, the Devil delegates power to other rebel angels who forsook ”their own proper dwelling place” in heaven.—Jude 6.

Big business that promote frenzied spirit of consumerism, depletion of natural resources and destruction of the environment worldwide is one of the key elements of human society under his control. (Revelation 11:18; 18:11-17) The Devil’s thirst of power is evident in politics and religion. The Bible describes the alliance between politics and religion as spiritual adultery. (Revelation 13:2; 17:1, 2)

The consequence of this disgusting association is oppression, enslavement, wars, and ethnic conflicts over the centuries and massive loss of lives.

“Whether consciously or not, human society reflects the personality of its ruler and his ‘rule or ruin’ policy”.—The Watchtower

But this is the Devil’s last gasp.(Romans 16:20) In the first century Christ ministry sounded the death knell for the Devil and his demons.(Luke 10:18) And we know from the Bible prophecies, it is near the time humans will turn the earth into a paradise!

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A galaxy cluster

“Have you grasped the celestial laws?”(Job 38:33,The New Jerusalem Bible)

“In asking Job that question, God was helping His troubled servant to understand just how little humans really know in comparison with the limitless wisdom of the Creator. What do you think of that comparison? ” — THE WATCHTOWER ˙ JULY 1, 2011  24.

The Earth, Globe East

“There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth, . . .”

“It is remarkable that the Bible calls the earth a circle, or sphere, as the Hebrew word may also be translated. Aristotle and other Greeks of ancient times theorized that the earth is spherical, but this question was still debated millenniums later.” (ibid. p. 25)

M74 galaxy— M74 galaxy is about the same size as our own Milky Way galaxy and like our Milky Way, M74 is classified a spiral galaxy.

“ . . .who is stretching out the heavens just as a fine gauze, who spreads them out like a tent in which to dwell.”—Isaiah 40:22. 

“It is not hard to imagine such a man as the prophet Isaiah looking at the starry sky draped elegantly overhead and finding that the image of a tent stretched out was remarkably apt. He might even have noted the similarity between the Milky Way and the appearance of “ fine gauze.” ” (ibid. p. 25)

M45 Star cluster—The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters

Isaiah 40:26: “Raise your eyes high up and see. Who has created these things? It is the One who is bringing forth the army of them even by number, all of whom he calls even by name.”

The stars are well likened to an army, which may comprise vast numbers of individual soldiers whose Commander knows each by name. (ibid. p. 28)

Messier 64 (M64) galaxy—Gravity holds heavenly bodies in place

Job said about Jehovah: “He is . . . hanging the earth upon nothing.” (Job 26:7)

To Aristotle, the heavenly bodies were attached to invisible spheres. This idea long appealed to most men of science. Some 3,000 years after Job’s day physicist Sir Isaac Newton said that gravity caused an attraction between the heavenly bodies. (ibid. p. 26)

Supernova 1993J exploding (artist’s impression)

Psalm 102:25-27 reads: “The heavens are the work of your hands. They themselves will perish, . . . Just like clothing you will replace them.”

This psalm suggests that the stars are as suject to decay as anything on the earth. European astronomers in the 16th century C.E. observed a supernova, the spectacular explosion of a star. Scientists have since observed that stars may die violently in such explosions or burn out slowly or even collapse on themselves. However, astronomers have also observed new star forming in ‘stellar nurseries’, clouds of gas enriched by the exposions of old stars. Hence, the Bible writer’s image of clothing wearing out and being replaced is entirely appropriate.

In the 195h century, scientist William Thomson, also known as Lord Keilvin, discovered the second law of thermodynamics, which explains why, over time, natural systems tend to decay and break down. One factor that inspirred him to reach this conclusion was a careful study of Psalm 102:25-27. (ibid. p. 28)

Mystic Mountain, turbulent cosmic pinnacle within a stellar nursery, the Carina Nebula

“The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image”, “captures the chaotic activity atop a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks.

“This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. The image celebrates the 20th anniversary of Hubble’s launch and deployment into an orbit around the Earth.

“Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from super-hot newborn stars in the nebula are shaping and compressing the pillar, causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of hot ionised gas can be seen flowing off the ridges of the structure, and wispy veils of gas and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks. The denser parts of the pillar are resisting being eroded by radiation.” — www.spacetelescope.org

“Have new findings rendered God’s question to Job obsolete? Or does such progress actually furnish proof that Jehovah is the Author of the laws of the heavens?

“The Bible contains fascinating statements that help to answer such questions. Granted, the Bible does not claim to be a science book. However, when it comments on the starry heavens, what it says is amazingly accurate and often far ahead of its time.” (w 7 /1, 2011 p. 24  art.cit.)

Photo Credits: NASA/ESA, M.J. Jee and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University); NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScl); ESA and Justyn R. Maund (University of Cambridge);NASA, ESA, M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

There is nothing more precious that we could give to Jehovah than to live in a way that brings joy to his heart

IF THE answer is yes, then another question arises: Does our conduct affect God’s feelings? That is, can we by our actions cause God to feel happy or hurt? Some ancient philosophers said no. They argued that no one can influence God and that God must therefore be incapable of feelings. But the Bible gives a different picture, namely, that Jehovah has tender feelings and deeply cares about what we do. Consider the words found at Psalm 78:40, 41.

One Bible reference work explains: “The meaning here is that the conduct of the Hebrews was such as was fitted to cause pain,—as the conduct of a disobedient and rebellious child is.” Jus as an unruly child can cause his parents much pain of heart, the rebellious Israelites “pained even the Holy One of Israel.”—Verse 41.

What can we learn from this psalm? It is reassuring to see that Jehovah has a strong attachment to his worshippers and is not quick to give up on them. At the same time, it is sobering to consider that Jehovah has feelings and that our conduct can affect his feelings. How does knowing that affect you? Does it move you to want to do what is right?

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Do you like to know more on this topic? Please, then contact the Jehovah’s Witnesses in your area. Thank you.

Photo Credit: Bluubird

COUNTLESS people have asked that question. Many are unable to escape the sense of meaninglessness and emptiness in their lives. Why do they feel that way? Because time and again, ”trouble and hurtful things” also the extreme brevity of life, shatter their treasured hopes and dreams.—Psalm 90:10; Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20

A Meaningful Life Forever

Make it your aim, to learn all you can about God and his purpose. Jesus Christ himself said: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3) When God fulfills his original prupose for the earth, faithful humans will enjoy what Jehovah originally intended for them—”everlasting life” on a paradise earth. Then life will truly be meaningful and satisfying.—Psalm 145:16.

Where can you find the knowledge that Jesus talked about? In the pages of God’s inspired Word, the Bible. If you would like assistance in doing this, feel free to ask the Jehovah’s Witnesses in your area for more information. Thank you.

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Scriptures mentioned in the box: Genesis 1:27,28; Psalm 115:16; Genesis 2:7; Daniel 12:13; John 11:24-26; Acts 24:15.

Photo Credits: titoy; rjhuttondfw

How does Jesus’ life and death affect you?

“The Son of man came . . . to give his soul [or, life] a ransom in exchange for many.”—MARK 10:45.

JESUS knew what to expect. He understood that he would not live his life in peace. On the contrary, he was aware that his life would be tragically cut short while he was still in his 30’s, and he was fully prepared to face his death.
The Bible attaches great importance to the death of Jesus. One reference work says that the death of Jesus is mentioned directly some 175 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures, or New Testament. Why, though, did Jesus have to suffer and then die? We need to know, for the death of Jesus can have a profound effect on our life.

For more information about prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus, see the appendix topic “Jesus Christ—The Promised Messiah” of the book What Does the Bible Really Teach? published by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

For more information about the sacrificial value of Jesus’
death, see chapter 5, “The Ransom—God’s Greatest Gift,” of
the book What Does the Bible Really Teach?

Photo Credit: Russ Neumeier

IN December 2009 and January 2010, two of the highest courts in Russia declared the religious faith of Jehovah’s Witnesses to be extremist. History seemed to be repeating itself. When the Soviets ruled Russia, thousands of Witnesses were wrongly charged with being enemies of the nation. They were exiled, sent to prisons, and forced into labor camps. After that regime collapsed, Jehovah’s Witnesses were exonerated. The new government officially restored their good name. (See the box “Certificates of Rehabilitations” )

For specific details, please contact Jehovah’s 

Witnesses in your area or write to the publishers of the magazine. 

The Web site www.watchtower.org  is the official Web site 

of Jehovah's Witnesses.

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