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january 1 1949 shewatchtower 13 and jesus christ whom thou hast sent john 17 3 of their own ability that they make progress and therefore jehovah s witnesses are very earnest in expand but it is because god is with them their endeavor to praise jehovah yet more and u :may we urge all of jehovah s witnesses everymore they know one can learn the way to gain where to make the 1949 service year your biggest eternal life through a knowledge of god s word a year yet not only in hours in the field but in making lover of life not a destroyer of it wants to see his back-calls on interested persons all watchtower fellow man live too so having been trained in j eho readers are cordially invited to join in this privilege vah s principles of truth and righteousness he will carry on that good work of bible education and conwant to go and disciple all nations this is the tinue in the splendid activity of conducting bible mission of jehovah s witnesses and they are trying studies in the homes of the people enlarge your to do it well congregations in the homes of people of good-will 45 the report you have read on the various activiand train men and women to be good ministers of ties and the chart you have looked over on pages 8-9 show clearly how jehovah s witnesses are advancing god s kingdom world-wide we can hear jehovah s from one end of the world to the other they are not witnesses determinedly saying in unison i will doing this grand work in their own strength they yet praise thee more and more psalm 71 14 are doing it by the spirit of god it is not because 46 wbat working exhortation are we g1 ·en for 1949 the rock fovndation of the church erversion distortion and lying misrepresentation of the truth are the cunning methods of god s adyer· sar to cause people to believe a falsehood and thereby turn them away from jehovah the living and true god a striking example of such religious lying is found in the application that is made of the words of jesus christ respecting the church and the rock foundation upon which it is built as reported at matthew 16 18 let us first note this that one of the titles which jehovah god gives himself is the rock hebrew ha-tztzur because he is the eternal foundation of his holy universal organization and is a foundation that can never be moved .j ehovah inspired the prophet :moses to sing 1 will proclaim the name of jehovah ascribe e greatness unto our god the rock [ha-tztzurj his work is perfect deut 32 3 4 am stan ver samuel s mother inspired sang there is none holy as jehovah for there is none besides thee neither is there any rock [tzur like our god 1 sam 2 2 am stan ver the psalmist broke out in this inspired song for who is god save j ehovam and who is a rock [tz1~r besides our goo jeho ah liveth and blessed be my rock [tzu1 and exalted be the god of my salvation ps us 31 46 am stan ver the prophet isaiah also sang trust ye in jehovah for ever for in jehovah even jehovah is an everlasting rock [tzur -isa 26 4 am stan ver this jehovah has now built up a capital for his universal qrganization and the head or chief cornerstone of this capital is his only begotten son jesus christ as the son of the great rock jehovah the lord jesus christ is fittingly designated a stone hebrew eben or rock hebrew selah we read at isaiah 28 16 therefore thus saith the lord god dehold i lay in zion for a foundation a stone [eben a tried stone [eben a precious corner stone a sure foundation he that believeth shall not make haste and in the interpretation of the prophetic dream given at daniel 2 34-45 the description is given of a stone eben that is cut out of the mountain that is to say out of jehovah s universal organization and which stone thus p cut out by jehovah s power becomes a great mountain or mass of rock and fills the whole earth that s mbolic stone eben is christ jesus and the mountain that overspreads the whole earth is symbolic of his kingdom in which he unites with himself his glorified church in isaiah 32 2 christ jesus the king is called a great rock selah in a weary land he is also pictured by the rock concerning which jehovah said to moses take the rod and gather thou the assembly together thou and aaron thy brother and speak ye unto the rock [selah before their eyes and it shall give forth his water and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock num 20 8 identifying this rock as symbolic of christ jesus the apostle paul writes our fathers did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock [petra in greek that followed them and that rock [petra was christ 1 cor 10 1 4 at psalm 118 22 23 is another prophecy concerning the stone which the national builders rejected and the apostle peter applies this prophecy to jesus christ saying to the judges of the supreme court by the name of jesus christ of nazareth whom :ye crucified whom god raised from the dead even by him doth this man stand here before you whole this is the stone which was set at nought of you builders which is become the head of the corner acts 4 10 11 all the prophets had written foretelling the coming of the messiah or christ who would rule the new world in righteousness and these prophecies were written before the son of god came to earth messiah or christ as a title means anointed one hence sanctified one and in such prophecies it applies to god s anointed king christ jesus as the appointed head of god s capital organization jesus disciples being familiar with the prophecies were looking for messiah or christ jesus put them to the test in the last year of his earthly life to determine whether his disciples realized or not that he was the promised messiah or christ he did so in private by propounding to them this question whom say ye that i am peter answered for his fellow apostles saying thou art the christ the

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1 1 seewatchtower brooklyn n y son of the living god matt 16 15 16 jesus then told peter that his answer was eorrect and that jehovah god had revealed that truth to peter by means of his spirit he said blessed art thou simon bar·jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my father whieh is in heaven and i say also unto thee that thou art peter [petros in greek and upon this roek [petra in greek i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it jlatt 16 16-18 even the episcopal committee of the catholic confraternityof christian doctrine admits that there is a difference between the terms peter and rock in its 1941 translation of the new testament the episeopal committee makes the following footnote on :jlatthew 16 18 bar-jona son of .jona .jona is most likely an abridged form of johananjohn peter in greek petros is a masculine form from petra rock in aramaic the name meaning rock is kephaj in greek it took on the form kephas since the roman catholic episcopal committee refers to the aramaic or syriac language we here quote what smith lewis has to sayan matthew 16 18 in her book light on the four gospels from the sinai pali1llp.sest 1913 and in chapter 4 entitled variants in :jlatthew ve must explain that the s riac language has two genders only the masculine and the feminine the feminine doing duty for the neuter it is well known that kepha a stone rather than a roek is feminine but 8t peter can never in s niac be mistaken for a stone because where he is furni h~d with a ,erb or with a relative pronoun these are always in the masculine whereas when a stone is meant these adjuncts are feminine -just as in french we say cette pierre a ete roulee but in the case of a boy ce pierre est mechant apply this o;imple rule to the text of iatthew s gospel and what result do you get¥ smith lewis then continues ive cannot use this touch tong in english for our language has none of these grammatical niceties the feminine as i have said does duty for the neuter and in the case of a phrase being nominative to a nrb that verb and any relative pronoun which repre~ellts the phra ie would be feminine let us then try to put iatt 15 18 into literal french-a language with which many of my readers mu t be ucquaillted et moi je te dis aus li que tu e ie pierre et lll cette pierre je batirai man eglise it is evident that peter s confcs lion not peter himself i grammatically repre~ented by cette pierre and that the syriac versions limply and strongly support the view of thb paf,sage held by the ancient orthodox church of the east and also by the reformed chl,rches of the vest -page 54 1 1 to page 55 it 2 inclusiye thus the argument of the roman catholic hierarchy that in the aramaic or syriac text of :matthew s account tim woro for peter and l ock are the same namely epha and that hence peter must be the one meant by this rock falls flat and i exposed as deceptive peter and this rock no more mean the same person or thing than would patl ick and patricia mean the same person thus even the original aramaic or syriac text of ~latthew 16 18 makes a difference between peter and this rock by showing a different gender for each furthermore note that ,jesus did not say and on thee peter i will build my church instead to petros he said upon this rock [petra meaning a mass of rock a great rock a crag i will build my church as rotherham s translation says in its footnote thou art petros and on this petra thou art a piece of rock and on this rock note that our lord does not say and on thee the expression this rock has no reference to peter but applies exclusively to christ jesus god s anointed one whom jehovah has laid as a sure and everlasting foundation for his capital organization in further proof that jesus was here fixing in the minds of his disciples that he is the christ note his words in verse 20 of the same chapter after this discussion then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was jesus the christ iatt 16 20 all the scripture proof is conclusive that the building of the church or assembly was to be not upon the apostle peter but upon christ jesus the foundation or precious corner stone when jesus said my church he referred to the house of god which is the church of the living god and not to any organization on earth among men 1 tim 3 15 the word church means a people gathered together from among the nations for the name of jehovah god and who are made members of his royal house in heaven as the disciple james said simon [that is peter has told how god first visited the gentiles to take from among them a people to bear his name and ,vith this the words of the prophets agree as it is written acts 15 14 15 cath confrat further showing that peter is not the foundation of the church the scriptures designate all twelve apostles of christ as twelve foundation stones but jesus christ himself as the chief foundation and precious cornerstone describing the holy city revelation 21 14 says and the wall of the city has twelve foundation stones and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the lamb cath confrat showing the primacy of christ jesus it is written that god gave him to be the head over all things to the church which is his body eph 1 22 23 also through him we both have access in one spirit to the father therefore you are now no longer strangers and foreigners but you are citizens with the saints and members of god s household you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with christ jesus himself as the chief corner stone in him the whole structure is closely fitted together and grows into a temple holy in the lord in him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for god in the spirit eph 2 18.22 cath contrat again he is the head of his body the church he who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in all things he may have the first place col 1 18 cath contrat vhen jesus used the words upon this rock peter understood them to mean that jesus would build the church upon himself as the christ and upon no one else this is proved by peter s own written words ye have tasted that the lord is gracious to whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but ehosen of god and precious ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrinces acceptable to god by jesus christ wherefore also it is contained in the scripture behold i lay in sian a chief corner stone elect preeious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded unto you therefore which believe

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