WATCHTOWER AND AWAKE

[Jahleadsme]

What prompted the naming of our most popular bible based publication, WATCHTOWER and the other AWAKE?

[feather]

  hi brother David

 

    for millions of its readers, every WT mag on pg 2 provides this message as to its purpose:

       "THIS MAGAZINE, The Watchtower honors Jehovah God, the Ruler of the universe.

    It comforts people with the good news that God’s heavenly Kingdom will soon end all

     wickedness and transform the earth into a paradise.

    It promotes faith in Jesus Christ, who died so that we might gain everlasting life

    and who is now ruling as King of God’s Kingdom. 

   This magazine has been published continuously since 1879 and is nonpolitical.

   It adheres to the Bible as its authority."

 

  small excerpt from article:

***  w50 8/15   Name and Purpose of The Watchtower

         WHY is this magazine called “The Watchtower”? Does the name have Bible background and significance?

     What is the purpose of the magazine?

     Does it fill a need not met by any of the hundreds of other magazines that continually flood onto the public newsstands?

      The Watchtower stands alone in its field, its value unmeasurable in money. What are the facts that prove it so?

  The Bible frequently mentions towers. They were lofty structures, much higher than wide, and erected in a variety of places to form a prominent feature of architecture in ancient Israel. 

        Watchmen were stationed on the towers to serve as lookouts, to forestall any surprise attacks by enemies, or to herald forth any news of consequence that     they could glean from their observations, whether that news be good or bad. (2 Ki. 9:17)

   Their duty was to stay awake, and watch, and warn.

       This connection between Jehovah God and the watchmen in the watchtowers was even more vital in the case of those men appointed to be on the lookout for messages from the Lord and to warn of dangers that threatened the spiritual welfare of the nation of Israel. Appreciation of the duties of the watchmen posted in literal towers helps us to grasp the service responsibilities of those assigned as watchmen on the more vital spiritual front.

 

  love the simplicity in this article... (underlining mine)

  ***   w88 3/1 

  Would you like to have a detailed answer to questions such as, 

  Where did man come from? 

  What happens after death? 

  What are the causes of mankind’s problems? 

  Is there any hope that they will be solved some day? 

  When and how will God bring about perfect conditions for humanity? 

If so, we encourage you to look into the Bible, the only book that will give you answers from the God of the universe and the only book containing “the basis of a hope of the everlasting life.”

   The purpose of the Watchtower Society’s publications is to help you find these answers in your Bible.—Titus 1:1, 2.

 

 

[Adelin]

Isaiah 21:6-12  >> Jehovah said to me:

                             “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.”

                             He watched carefully, with great attentiveness.

                             Then he called out like a lion:

             (verse 8) “Upon the WATCHTOWER, O Jehovah, I am standing constantly by day,

                             And I am stationed at my guardpost every night.

                             I have reported to you what I have heard from Jehovah of armies!

                             If you would inquire, inquire.

                             Come again!”

 

What is the admonishment of the watchman?

 

"The morning is coming!" ....    it is already the hour for you to awake from sleep! (Rom.13:11)

                                             Keep awake ... that you may succeed in escaping all these things.(Luke 21:36)

                                             let us stay awake and keep our senses. (1 Thess.5:6)

Edited August 1, 2015 by Adelin

[kejedo]

Thanks for the reminders. I was going to say Jimi Hendrix and the Monkees. Just kiddin' 

[jwhess]

It is sometimes helpful to reflect on the fact that Br. Russell co-edited another magazine called "Herald of the Morning" with N. Barbour in 1876 (jv-p.133).

When they separated, Br. Russell named his new magazine "Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence".  It was later changed to "Watchtower Herald of Christ's Kingdom" but then changed in 1939 to "Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom".  This is still the title, but the "Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom" is in smaller font.

 

The Awake magazine started out as the "Golden Age" magazine (and the ID letter in the publications index for the Awake is still "g").  Christ's Millennial Reign was supposed to usher in a "Golden Age" (jv-p.724).  In 1937 the name was changed to "Consolation" to reflect the bad conditions and oppression of the people in the world.  In 1946 the name was updated to "Awake!" (with an exclamation mark).  The Golden Age and all of the following magazines had the smaller format we are familiar with today.

 

The Watchtower became the same size as the smaller Awake in September 1950.  So that year they had 2 bound volumes (one large format w/16 pages and one small format w/32 pages).  It has been the current size ever since.

Edited August 1, 2015 by jwhess

[carlos]

What prompted the naming of our most popular bible based publication, WATCHTOWER and the other AWAKE?

 

The first number of The Watchtower, that of July 1879, quoted in its cover the words from Isaiah 21:11:

 

Watchman, What of the Night?

The Morning cometh and a Night also."

 

Later issues of the magazine quoted as well Habakkuk 2:1:

 

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

 

 

Regarding Awake!, its first page contained for many years a quotation from Romans 13:11 "it is already the hour for you to awake from sleep".

[Old]

The name change from Consolation to Awake! was announced at the Cleveland Ohio international convention. The reason given in the talk was ‘the time for Consolation is past, now is the time to wakeup to the time of the end, time to Awake!’

In those days we were still using magazine bags. They released the new bags with Awake! on one side and the Watchtower on the reverses side. It was very popular to embroider the stenciled labels. The next day there were many sisters with brightly embroidered magazine bags engaged in ‘street work’ hawking the Awake!

I was only 7 at the time but it is one of my more vivid memories of that convention.