Who Is Our Ruler?

Can you imagine millions of people not knowing the name of the ruler of their country?

Yet, strangely, there are millions who do not know the name of the Ruler of the universe!

Since it is a life or death matter to know the supreme Sovereign, the following article is of vital importance to you.

THE name Jehovah is the grandest name in all the universe. It is the self-given name of the Creator. It is the name of the only true and living God.

 The time is soon coming when every creature that lives must know and worship Jehovah.

 How strange, then, that myriads of people, when they hear the name Jehovah, ask: “Who is Jehovah?”

Some bellow out the question like Pharaoh of old in a defiant tone of voice, one reflecting arrogance, disbelief and ridicule.

 Others ask the question out of an honest heart, sincerely seeking enlightenment.

Many people have yet to hear the name Jehovah.

 Yet every person who desires happiness, every person who desires security and every person who desires life must now learn who Jehovah is.

 Important, too, is to know what his purposes are and what the penalty is for not knowing Jehovah.

Jehovah is the Owner of the universe.

 Of him the disciples and apostles of Christ said:

 “Sovereign Lord, you are the One who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all the things in them.”
(Acts 4:24)

 The very ground we walk upon belongs to Jehovah:

 “The earth belongs to Jehovah, and so does its fullness.”
(1Corinthians 10:26)

 Jehovah, the supreme Sovereign, is one. He is not a triune God, for that would deny his supremacy. Jehovah himself declares:

 “I am Jehovah, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another.”
(Isaiah 42:8) (American Standard Version)-BibleGateway

 That Jehovah truly is one God, we have the words of Moses:

 “Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.”
– Deut. 6:4 (ASV-BibleGateway)

Worthy of praise forevermore, Jehovah is the “King of eternity” because he is “from everlasting to everlasting.”

Jehovah is known as “God” because he is the Creator of all things good. Jehovah is known as the “Most High” because he is above all. Jehovah is known as “Father” because he is the Source of life. Jehovah is known as the “Almighty” because his power is unlimited. Jehovah is known as “the God of hosts” because he commands heavenly armies invincible to foes. Nothing, then, is too great for Jehovah, as he himself declares:

“Is anything too extraordinary for Jehovah?”
-1 Tim. 1:17,  -Ps. 90:2  -Gen. 18:14

THE DIVINE NAME

Seeing, then, that Jehovah is the greatest personality in the universe, how is it that his name is so little known?

 Because a malicious enemy, Satan the Devil, has misled all nations away from the true God. The Bible identifies the culprit:

“Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth.” (Rev. 12:9)

 The Devil does not want men to know Jehovah; so he has induced them falsely to believe that Jehovah is just the name of some tribal god.

 Not only that, but the Devil has so thoroughly misled mankind that false religions abound. These have succeeded in removing the name Jehovah from many translations of the Bible itself!

In the ancient Hebrew Scriptures Jehovah’s name is represented by four letters called the “tetragrammaton,” for which the English characters are JHVH (or YHWH). How many times does the divine name, represented by the tetragrammaton, occur in the Hebrew Scriptures?

 It occurs 6,823 times!

 Just how the name is pronounced is not exactly known, but the most popular way of rendering it is “Jehovah.” To translate the tetragrammaton as “the LORD” is to obscure the divine name.

Yet what have most of Christendom’s Bible translators done? Like the Jewish clergy in Jesus’ day and today, they refuse to know and use the divine name. Thus out of the 6,823 times that the four-letter name or tetragrammaton occurs, the translators of the King James Version Bible used the name Jehovah only four times!

 The Roman Catholic Douay Version and Jewish versions entirely eliminate the name Jehovah.

 When the much-advertised Revised Standard Version recently came out, what happened to the divine name? The translators completely removed it!

 In the preface the translators explained that they were using the term “the LORD,” thus returning “to the procedure of the King James Version, which follows the precedent of the ancient Greek and Latin translators and the long established practice in the reading of the Hebrew scriptures in the synagogue.”

 Thus the translators of this popular Bible follow a course like the Jewish clergy, who rejected Christ Jesus. No wonder the words of Jesus are especially apt today:

 “Righteous Father, the world has, indeed, not come to know you”! -John 17:25

WHAT JEHOVAH’S PURPOSE IS

The name “Jehovah” means “He causes to become,” that is, “He causes to be” for a purpose.

 What is Jehovah’s prime purpose?

It is the theme of the entire Bible: the establishment of a kingdom to vindicate his holy name.

 All this means that mankind has the hope of a new world, one that must supplant this present evil world that has been misled by the Devil.

“For there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise and in these righteousness is to dwell.”
(2Peter 3:13) BibleGateway

 But before Jehovah demonstrates his wrath against the Devil and his evil world, he purposes that a warning be given mankind that all those disposed toward righteousness may not have to die with a devilish world.

“Therefore prophesy thou against them…….”
(Jeremiah 25:30) (ASV)

 This very warning work makes known the name of Jehovah.

 The very reason that Satan the Devil, the antitypical Pharaoh, has been allowed to live as long as he has is that the divine name may be known and vindicated:

 “For this very purpose I have let you remain, that in connection with you I may demonstrate my power and that my name may be published throughout all the earth.”
-(Romans 9:17)

Note that the witness to Jehovah’s name and purpose must be given “throughout all the earth.” This fact was also foretold by the prophet Malachi:

 “From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles [nations]; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering.”
– (Malachi 1:11)

So the good news of Jehovah’s kingdom must be proclaimed far and wide!

 This great witness work was also foretold by Christ Jesus as being part of the sign of the “last days” of Satan’s world rule:

 “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.”
– Matthew 24:14

Today the witness is being given “in all the inhabited earth.” Those who are doing this work are known as “Jehovah’s witnesses.” An unusual name? No, for Jehovah himself declares:

 “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen.”
– (Isaiah 43:10) (ASV -BibleGateway)

 In many lands these witnesses of Jehovah are now making known the purposes of the Most High.

 This is a strange work.

Why?

Because, like the preaching of Noah, it warns the inhabited earth of the end of a whole system of things.

 The preflood people scoffed at Noah. But when the Jehovah-decreed deluge enveloped the earth their mouths filled up with water and their scoffing ceased.
– Matt. 24:38, 39.

 It is dangerous to scoff at Jehovah’s strange work. Jehovah advises against it.

Destruction will come upon the whole earth when Jehovah brings to pass his “strange act.”

It will be an act similar to those he performed in times of old. The Flood was an act of Jehovah. The destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea was an act of Jehovah. The obliteration of Sodom and Gomorrah was an act of Jehovah. The annihilation of 185,000 soldiers of Sennacherib’s army before Jerusalem was an act of Jehovah. But the greatest act of all, the one that results in the complete vindication of his name, is Jehovah’s “strange act,” also called “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.”
-Rev. 16:14

JEHOVAH FIGHTS FOR HIS NAME

“Jehovah is a manly person of war,” says the Bible. It is righteous warfare that he wages.

 More than 230 times in Bible prophecy he is called “Jehovah of hosts.” This means that Jehovah is Commander-in-Chief of heavenly armies that will be used to express his anger against this world.

 Christ Jesus leads Jehovah’s armies to battle:

 “The armies that were in heaven were following him on white horses, and they were clothed in white, clean, fine linen.”

Do we have any idea as to the strength and number of Jehovah’s armies?

Yes!

Remembering that it took only two angels to blot out Sodom and Gomorrah, we get some idea from Revelation 9:16 – why Armageddon will be the greatest tribulation that has ever come upon this world:

 “‘The number of the armies of the horsemen was twenty thousand times ten thousand,’
-Ex. 15:3; Rev. 19:14

that is, 200,000,000″!

When Jehovah gives the command the armies in heaven will fight for the vindication of his name.

This will be “the great and terrible day of Jehovah” foretold by Malachi, “the day of Jehovah’s wrath” foretold by Zephaniah. This time can be called “Jehovah’s day” because it is the day when he fights for his name.

 When that day breaks, it will be a time of heart-paralyzing fear:

“The day of Jehovah is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt: and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces shall be faces of flame.”-Mal. 4:5; Zeph. 1:18; Obadiah 15; Isa. 13:6-8, AS; Matt. 24:34.

With faces pallid with soul-chilling terror, mankind who have not come to know Jehovah will realize that their destruction proceeds from Jehovah.

“Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, Jehovah will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he will mightily roar against his fold; he will give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
 A noise shall come even to the end of the earth; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the nations; he will enter into judgment with all flesh: as for the wicked, he will give them to the sword, saith Jehovah.  Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth.  And the slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the face of the ground.”
(Jeremiah 25:30-33) (ASV -BibleGateway)

Hailstones, flash floods, upheavals on the earth, lightning, darkness, fire from heaven, and other phenomena, are all forecast for Jehovah’s day.

Those who are not on Jehovah’s side, hence on Satan’s side, will be forced to know Jehovah:

“I will rain upon him, and upon his hordes, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. And I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.”
(Ezekiel 38:22,23)(American Standard Version)-BibleGateway

More than sixty times this phrase  “know that I am Jehovah”  appears in Ezekiel’s prophecy.

 This means that all men will know that the smiting comes from Jehovah, not from man. No one will have reason to doubt that it is God’s expression of anger.

VITAL TO KNOW JEHOVAH NOW

How will this “great and terrible day of Jehovah” come?

With glorious fanfare so that the whole world can be converted and know Jehovah?

NO – Just the opposite!

 Wrote the apostle Peter:

“Jehovah’s day will come as a thief.”
-(2Peter 3:10)

Explained the apostle Paul:

 “Jehovah’s day is coming exactly as a thief in the night.”
-(1 Thess. 5:2)

So when Christ Jesus leads Jehovah’s armies “from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings due punishment upon those who do not know God,” the world will not in the least expect it. – (2 Thess. 1:7-9)

 For refusing to know Jehovah, either by willful choice, by a too-busy attitude or by sleepy indifference, what will be the penalty? The Bible answers:

 “These very ones will pay the penalty of everlasting destruction.”  -2 Pet. 3:10;1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Thess. 1:7-9

Since the penalty for not knowing Jehovah is everlasting death and since Jehovah’s day will catch the world napping, it is high time to awake.

It is far later than most people think. How does one awake? By a diligent study of God’s Word.

 Remember, knowing Jehovah means more than just an acquaintance with his name. It means living your life in harmony with Jehovah’s purposes. It means a continual taking in of knowledge. Those who refuse to take in this knowledge can never come to know Jehovah.

Christ Jesus showed that this imbibing of knowledge is essential to attain everlasting life:

“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

Without life man can enjoy nothing and man cannot have life without knowing Jehovah God.

 So the choice facing every person on this earth is clear: to refuse to know Jehovah and die or to come to know Jehovah in obedient service and live.

Heed the warning witness now being sounded by Jehovah’s witnesses.

 Bestir yourself to investigate the message they bring.

It is not a joke.

 The Bible testifies to that. There is no need for you to pay the penalty for not knowing Jehovah.  Acquire that vital knowledge now. Do not wait until Jehovah’s day breaks thieflike in all its fury upon this generation.

 No, do not wait until flaming fire from heaven and a flesh-eating plague compel men everywhere to know Jehovah in a way they will not like.

Because then it will be too late.