Posted by Shaun on March 22, 1999 at 17:59:20 {MWPaY6Jjvt65o}:
In Reply to: Need Help? posted by ANDY on March 22, 1999 at 16:50:59:
*** Rbi8 Numbers 23:19 ***
19 God is not a man that he should tell lies,
Neither a son of mankind that he should feel regret.Has he himself said it and will he not do it,And has he spoken and will he not carry it out?
***
w57 5/1 285 Use Theocratic War Strategy ***
A WITNESS of Jehovah was going from house to house in Eastern Germany when she met a violent opposer. Knowing at once what to expect she changed her red blouse for a green one in the very
next hallway. No sooner had she appeared on the street than a
Communist officer asked her if she had seen a woman with a red blouse. No, she replied, and went on her way. Did she tell a lie? No, she did not. She was not a liar.Rather,
she was using theocratic war strategy, hiding the truth by action and word for the sake of the ministry.
*** w57 5/1 288 Announcements ***
With warlike strategy they will avoid giving such persons the opportunity to interfere
with their lawful work, and leave them to their own misconceptions.
*** w60 6/1 352 Questions from Readers ***
This would come under the term �war strategy,� as explained in The Watchtower,February 1, 1956, and is in keeping with
Jesus� counsel that when among wolves we must be as �cautious as serpents.� Should circumstances require a Christian to take the witness stand and swear to tell the truth, then, if he speaks at all, he must utter the
truth. When faced with
the alternative of speaking and betraying his brothers or not speaking and being held in contempt of court, the mature Christian will put the welfare of his brothers ahead of his own, remembering Jesus� words: �No one has greater love than
this, that someone should surrender his [life] in behalf of his friends.��Matt. 10:16; John 15:13.
*** w56 2/1 86-7 Cautious as Serpents Among Wolves ***
NOT �LYING AGAINST THE TRUTH�
37 In view of the above-given Scriptural
examples Jesus was in harmony with the spirit of Jehovah God in instructing his apostles when he sent them out as sheep among wolves: �Prove yourselves cautious as serpents and yet innocent as doves.� Since the unchristian wolves declare war
upon the sheep and choose to make themselves �fighters actually against God,� it is proper for the inoffensive �sheep� to use war strategy toward the wolves in the interests of God�s work. No one against whom this strategy is used is unrighteously
hurt because of it, whereas the �sheep� or those interests that deserve to be protected are safeguarded. God does not oblige us to show the stupidity of sheep and play into the hands of our fighting enemy. We should meet the seed of the
Serpent, the �offspring of vipers,� with the cautiousness of serpents. Foreseeing danger, we should cover ourselves against the wolves that prey upon Jehovah�s flock. �Oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with
tenderness, .. . Therefore keep awake,� says Paul. (Acts 20:28-31, NW) �A prudent
man seeth the evil, and hideth himself.��Prov. 22:3, AS. 38 It is proper to cover over our arrangements for the work that God commands us to
do. If the wolfish
foes draw wrong conclusions from our maneuvers to outwit them, no harm has been done to them by the harmless sheep, innocent in their motives as doves. The action is not out of a liar�s hatred. �He that hideth hatred is of lying lips; and he
that uttereth a slander is a fool. A lying tongue hateth those whom it hath
wounded.��Prov. 10:18; 26:28, AS. 39 We cannot condemn as a liar and deceiver the witness of Jehovah that was about to cross the border line back into Nazi Germany
and who took Bible literature with her at the risk of her freedom. She put the literature in the baby carriage at the feet of her baby and covered it over with unwashed baby diapers. When the Nazi officer inspected
her carriage, dug
down into it and got his hand in touch with the wet, dirty diapers, he quickly withdrew his hand in disgust. He let her cross the border, and with her the literature went in to feed many of the oppressed, brutally treated sheep under Hitler�s
regime. Then there is the witness who was working from house to house with a basket
of literature. Enemies reported her to the police as a woman with a shirtwaist of a certain color. So around the corner she took out a shirtwaist of
another color and made a change, then walked back down the same street and past the officer on her trail, and escaped being identified. There is the brother, too, who was sentenced to th quarries
from which no one was known to come out
alive. As a musician he was spared the killing quarry work, but he was not mindful of only his own life. At risk of his own privilege as the musical entertainer of the camp officer, he smuggled portions of food to his underfed brothers
sentenced to backbreaking quarry work and was able to keep them alive. When at last deliverance came, not only he but those whom he had fed contrary to Nazi regulations emerged with him from the place of doom. 40 To this day the history of
Jehovah�s witnesses is ever-new with like cases of their
outwitting the wolves by exercising due caution in the face of danger while they are engaged in a good, loving work according to God�s will and command. Such outwitting of oppressors
of the sheep is not a failure to �render therefore unto C�sar the things that are C�sar�s�; it is a courageous, sensible way of rendering first �unto God the things that are God�s.� (Matt. 22:21, AS) If the wolfish enemy drives Jehovah�s
people
underground like David who was driven by Saul into the cave of Adullam and other caves, then their underground worship is not a work of deceit and lies because it is not done above ground under greedy eyes of the wolves. (2 Sam.
23:13;1 Sam. 22:1; 24:3-10;1 Ki. 18:4, 13) The hypocrisy and deceit lie with the wolves who openly make of
God�s house a �cave of robbers.��Mark 11:15-17, NW. 41 Serpentlike caution is to be exercised only while the sheep are among wolves or in
contact with them. Jesus did not advise this among the congregation of Jehovah�s people, for all of these are sheep. So it is as much a rule for spiritual Israel of today as it was for natural Israel of old: �You people must not steal and you
must not deceive and you must not lie any one to his associate. And you must not swear in my name to a lie, so that you do profane the name of your God. I am Jehovah.� (Lev. 19:11, 12, NW) In these days since A.D. 1919 when Jehovah has
restored the remnant of spiritual Israel and their dedicated companions to his pure worship, his prophetic instructions are: �These are the things that ye shall do: Speak ye every man the truth with his neighbor; execute the judgment of
truth and peace in your gates; and let none of you devise evil
in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith Jehovah.� (Zech. 8:3, 16, 17, AS) The apostle Paul himself applies
these words to sanctified Christians, the �Israel of God.��Eph. 4:25; Gal. 6:16.