Costume drama addresses deliverance by Jehovah God

Actors give their interpretation of 1 Kings 13 before the audience assembled at the district convention at SeaGate Centre in downtown Toledo.

Actors in biblical costumes told a story of obedience, based on I Kings 13, before an audience of 5,937 at the Jehovah s Witnesses District Convention in downtown Toledo.

The full-wardrobe drama, presented Sunday, addressed the theme that deliverance for humanity will not come from technology, politics, advanced education, or the world s religions, but that only Jehovah God can deliver mankind, using his Son, Christ Jesus, to destroy the wicked, said Charles Leonard, a spokesman for the district convention.

More than 12,000 people attended the first two of the six 2006 district conventions, held every Friday through Sunday between July 14 and Aug. 20 in the SeaGate Convention Centre.

This year s convention is titled Deliverance at Hand! a message intended to encourage people despite bad news and negative circumstances, Mr. Leonard said.

In view of what s going on in the world today, with so many pressures on people war, sickness, and violence people are concerned, he said. According to Bible prophecy, these are indications that we are getting closer to deliverance by God.

Jehovah s Witnesses are not worried about End Times prophecies or Armageddon, he added.

People call it the end of the world, but Jehovah s Witnesses view it as a time of deliverance when all wickedness will be done away with, pretty much like in Noah s day, Mr. Leonard said.

The district convention continues at 9:30 a.m. today and tomorrow in the SeaGate Centre, 401 Jefferson Ave.

On Friday and continuing through Aug. 6, the Toledo sessions will be entirely in Spanish, with delegates coming from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, according to spokesman Paul Sepulveda.

Jehovah s Witnesses were founded in 1879 in suburban Pittsburgh and today number 6.4 million adherents in 230 nations.