In this day and age we can have no doubt but what the world does have problems Problems which have become increasingly greater with each passing day We can turn on the radio, read the news papers or merely listen to the conversations of the people on the street and immediately sense the difficulties which have put men in the state so well stated by Jesus in Luke 21•26, “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth What indeed is more predominate on the earth today than fear? Fear of death—by war, the H bomb, the atom bomb, and all being brought closer by man himself It would seem then that in his fear man is yet going blindly on and in his quest for security is bringing about the very thing which he fears the most.
If we were asked to give the hope of the future from the eyes of man today we would have to admit, I am afraid, that there is no hope, for man left to his own devices in his quest for power would undoubtedly bring about his own destruction.
With this dismal picture of the future before us let us for the next few moments outline something the exact opposite from what we have been dwelling on.
A Glorious Future
What, for instance, would our reaction be to a world filled with peace? What if in this world we would only find peace and happiness, and freedom from the very things which bring so much fear to the hearts of men today All this of course, is not out of the reach of man and in spite of man and his wicked ways, it shall come to pass Let us look at the words of Luke again We shall see that in Luke 21 added to the distress of man’s condition in verse 26 we have the words of verse 27 “and then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” These words then should immediately diminish the distressed feeling to one of joy and rejoicing For here we have the assurance of the coming of Christ to the earth with power and great glory.
With the fulfilling then of the words in verse 27 we shall have the beginning of just such a condition as we have mentioned earlier a world of peace, prosperity and the diminishing of sickness and distresses that we have so much of today and above all a ruler such as the earth has never had, for it will be the Son of God who shall then rule the earth.
Wishful thinking? Hardly For we but have to go to the Word of God to see that such things have been declared to come to pass and of course they shall for God has so declared it
Jesus Own Testimony
The disciples of Christ had not only the words of the Old Testament prophets to assure them of this but they had the very words of Jesus himself Words which we have with us today stored within the pages of the scriptures for any who would seek them out In the record in Acts we find in the first chapter the disciples questioning Jesus “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?’ (Acts 1 6) His answer would perhaps have seemed to have left them with their question unanswered, but then as Jesus was ascending in to the heavens we have the words of assurance that although the time could not be known, that it would however still come to pass and they could receive with joy the words of the angels “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1 11) They could then have the assurance that such a kingdom as they had heard Jesus preach about and one which they looked for would come to pass with the return of Jesus to the earth
From these words then we can begin to perceive that a kingdom of peace and freedom from fear is not merely a figment of one’s imagination but something that could and will surely come to pass For would this not bring about the answers to the world’s problems which exist today? Of course s For with the Son of God returning to the earth we shall have the words of the Prophet Isaiah becoming reality.
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa 2 2-4) The prophet Micah speaks in the same trend as does Isaiah in Micah 4 3 From these words then we can see that not only is the Lord to return to the earth but that the nations are to come unto Him seeking out the word and ways of God With this will come the destruction of the very things which bring about the conditions that we find in the world today For without the weapons of destruction such as man has devised and with the word of the Lord going forth unto all nations it will surely become a time of peace and happiness It will then be the answer to the problems of the world.
The full answer comes with the words of the prophet Zechariah “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one” Zech 14 9) With the establishment then of a Divine Kingdom we shall have a world which shall become exempt from the problems such as we find on the earth today.
Attributes of the Righteous
Jesus often times in his teaching of the people spoke of a people which would be pleasing in the sight of God In all of his teachings he exhorted those who heard him to have love in their being In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus brought out the very things which the world lacks for the very existence which they strive so hard to achieve.
In Matthew 5 we find words such as this ‘Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth’ How much meekness do we find in the world today? On the other hand the general feeling is that it shows a sign of weakness, yet here we have the Son of God stating that it is a quality to be desired, one that will exist in the Kingdom And again “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” Not the peacemakers of the world today, for they are not truly seeking the kind of peace spoken of by Jesus The peace of the Bible is one of Godliness and not one of compromise such as we find in the world today.
It is only then by the words of the scriptures that we can find the hope of peace and a remedy to the problems of the world It is only upon the return of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and the fulfilling of the words in Revelation 2 27 ‘And he shall rule them with a rod of Iron the kingdoms and nations of the earth as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers —that this can come to pass.
Let us then look for Christ with all diligence, having the assurance that he will bring about the remedy of the world With the remedy thus assured we would surely echo the words of John in Rev 22 20 “He which testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly—Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One