To Whom the Work Is Entrusted is an 8 page pamphlet published in 1919 by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. You may have heard of this pamphlet because it has been quoted from in recent times within some of the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In a footnote on page 62 of the Jehovah’s Witness publication, God’s Kingdom Rules, first published in 2014, it includes this quote:
The pamphlet To Whom the Work Is Entrusted explained: “The Golden Age work is a house-to-house canvass with the kingdom message. . . . In addition to the canvass, a copy of The Golden Age is to be left at each home, whether a subscription is taken or not.” For years thereafter, the brothers were encouraged to offer people subscriptions to The Golden Age as well as to The Watch Tower. Beginning February 1, 1940, Jehovah’s people were encouraged to distribute individual copies of the magazines and to report the number placed.
God’s Kingdom Rules (2014) p.62 [footnote]
While the ‘Helpers’ to the Governing Body are directing Jehovah’s Witnesses to put “complete trust in the Governing Body“, we do not. () When we see ellipses (…), we want to know what was omitted. Often times, the anonymous writers leave out important information. So what did the full quote say?
THE GOLDEN AGE work is a house-to-house canvass with the kingdom message, proclaiming the day of vengeance of our God and comforting them that mourn. In addition to the canvass, a copy of THE GOLDEN AGE is to be left at each home, whether a subscription is taken or not.
To Whom the Work Is Entrusted (1919) p.1
It turns out that the Jehovah’s Witnesses (or the Bible Students as they were then called) were “proclaiming the day of vengeance of our God and comforting them that mourn”. Is it any wonder they left this out? If they were proclaiming the day of vengeance in 1919, was that not a hailstone message? (). It’s over 100 years since Jehovah’s Witnesses were proclaiming that ‘hailstone’ message. And what now?
In The Watchtower July 15, 2015, in an article entitled “Your Deliverance Is Getting Near”! they state in paragraph 9 that they have “No doubt, God’s people will proclaim a hard-hitting judgment message. This may well involve a declaration announcing that Satan’s wicked world is about to come to its complete end.” It’s interesting that in 2015 they talk about this proclamation as being a future event, despite the fact that this was something they were already doing 100 years ago!
This hailstone message is repeated in the May 2020 Study Edition of The Watchtower on paragraph 14 within the article Who Is “the King of the North” Today? where they state, “That symbolic hailstorm may take the form of a hard-hitting judgment message delivered by Jehovah’s people. It could be that this message provokes Gog of Magog into attacking God’s people with the intention of wiping them off the earth.”
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are talking about a future event where they will proclaim a judgment message, a judgment message that they performed 100 years ago and referred to as “the day of vengeance of our God”. However, they take it a step further in this May 2020 study article. They are indicating that the message could provoke ‘Gog of Magog’ into attacking them. The same study article describes Gog as being ‘a coalition of nations’ made up of “the kings of the entire inhabited earth”. Why would a small religious group be interested in coaxing world governments to attack them? Is it to feed their persecution complex? Does this type of rhetoric not indicate an extreme view?
Consider this: If governments around the world were to become more concerned with Jehovah’s Witnesses’ more extreme practices such as death before transfusion, religious freedom before child protection, and shunning before family love, couldn’t the leaders, in a moment of desperation, enact their ‘hailstone message’? What would be the result? The religious group would add fuel to the fire at the instigation of their leaders and any negative reaction would be seen as fulfillment of bible prophecy.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have already described Russia as being King of the North. Why? Because the Russians have banned their activities. The Russians claim that some of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ practices are extreme, including their stance on voting, blood transfusions, and shunning. What if other countries were to join the Russian ‘King of the North’ to ‘form a coalition of nations’?
For example, in Australia the government is threatening to remove Jehovah’s Witnesses charitable status because they will not sign up to a redress scheme to support victims of child sexual abuse within their organization. It would not be difficult for the Jehovah’s Witness leaders to tell their members that Australia has now joined the ‘King of the North’, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Other comments on To Whom the Work Is Entrusted
In the May 2016 Study Edition of The Watchtower, it had this to say about “the booklet To Whom the Work Is Entrusted“:
A new Service Department at headquarters would direct the work. A Service Committee should be formed in the congregation and a director appointed to convey instructions. Territories were to be divided into sections of from 150 to 200 homes. A Service Meeting would be held on Thursday evenings for the brothers to share experiences and file service reports.
The Watchtower Study Edition May 2016, p. 29
While the pamphlet talks about a director appointed to work with colporteurs (pioneers as they were then called), there is no mention of a Service Department, Service Committee or Service Meeting. Nor does the pamphlet talk about meetings being held on Thursday evenings. However, on page 6, it does say this about reports:
Regular reports are considered by the Society as one of the important features of the work, but by the workers is generally viewed as the most unimportant. The reports and letters from the workers are means of noting the results of the campaign and provide material for plans of extending the campaign. If the importance of reports could be realized by you as it is by us we are sure you would be glad to cooperate in this respect.
To Whom the Work Is Entrusted (1919)
Now you know why Jehovah’s Witnesses fill in monthly reports on their literature distribution activities. It’s not that it has any biblical basis. It is simply a business report to help understand how to budget and adapt future distribution campaigns.
The Watchtower Study Edition of October 2020 also quotes from To Whom the Work Is Entrusted. This time, they quote from the final paragraph of the 8 page booklet, “The work appears stupendous, but it is the Lord’s, and in his strength we will perform it.” What this edition of The Watchtower fails to mention is that the hailstone message they tell in 2020 is the same hailstone message they were directed to tell in 1919. In that message, they referred to it as ‘the hail’:
Now that the plans for THE GOLDEN AGE are before you, the Adversary is acquainted with them. He also sees your objective, as pointed out in Volume III: “When she (Babylon) sees her power in politics, priestcraft and superstition waning, the work of truth spreading will be stopped as detrimental to her system * * * After the truth, which Babylon now begins to regard as her enemy, and as calculated to accomplish her destruction, shall have become more generally known and widely circulated, after ‘the hail’ has to a considerable extent swept away the refuge of lies; and after the now smouldering and menacing hatred of truth is thereby roused to an opposition so violent and so general as effectually to stop the further progress of the great work in which the saints will be engaged” -then the glorification. You should expect, then, that he will endeavor to hinder your activity. Be prompt to recognize such hindrances as the activities of the adversary. They could come from no other source; for will not the Lord see his work through to its completion? He denominates it a “great and important work” and he will accomplish that which he has purposed. “‘Their work will not cease with this change (from human to heavenly conditions); for all those who will be accounted worthy of that change to glory will be already enlisted in the service of the kingdom on this side of the vail; only the weariness, the labor feature will cease with the change.” As one colporteur pointedly expressed it: “As we have a thousand years work ahead of us, I do not see why anyone should think there is no work to be done.”
To Whom the Work Is Entrusted (1919) p. 8
100 years later, do the Jehovah’s Witnesses still believe they “have a thousand years work head of” themselves? They most certainly do. The May 2015 Public Edition of The Watchtower confirms this in a section entitled, Bible Questions Answered.
Download a copy of the pamphlet, To Whom the Work Is Entrusted. This publication was kindly provided by Muff-a-Rooney with sincere thanks.