A New World—Will It Ever Come?
ON APRIL 13, 1991, George Bush, then president of the United States, gave a speech in Montgomery, Alabama, entitled: “The Possibility of a New World Order.” In conclusion, he stated: “The new world facing us . . . , it’s a wonderful world of discovery.”
Two months later The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said that with the fall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, “a new world order based on peace, justice, and democracy seemed at hand.”
Such talk of a new world has continued into 1993. The New York Times reported in January on a treaty that pledged reductions in nuclear arms. The newspaper said: “That puts America and Russia ‘at the threshold of a new world of hope,’ in President Bush’s well-chosen words.”
Two weeks afterward the new U.S. president, Bill Clinton, proclaimed in his inaugural address: “Today, as an old order passes, the new world is more free but less stable.” He even claimed: “This new world has already enriched the lives of millions of Americans.”
So there has been a lot of talk about a new world—a different and better one. By one count, during a relatively short period, George Bush spoke 42 times in public statements of a “New World Order.”
But is such talk unique? Has it been heard before?
Nothing Really New
In May 1919, right after World War I, the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America held a meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, at which ‘the possibility of a new and a better world’ was announced. One speaker asserted: “It will be a new world in which the principle of competition shall have given way to the principle of association and fellowship. It will be a new world in which the principle of unity shall have replaced the principle of division . . . It will be a new world in which brotherliness and friendship will have displaced all antagonisms except the war against evil.”
How did the churches believe this new world would come? By means of God’s Kingdom government promised in the Bible? No. They looked to a political organization to bring such a new world. “What we speak of today as the League of Nations,” one church leader said, “is an indispensable and unavoidable implicate of all our Christian faith and endeavor in the world.” Church leaders of that period even promoted the League of Nations as “the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth.”
On the other hand, a powerful leader in Germany, Adolf Hitler, opposed the League of Nations and in the 1930’s established Germany’s Third Reich. He claimed that the Reich would last a thousand years and would accomplish what the Bible says only God’s Kingdom can. “I am beginning with the young,” Hitler said. “With them I can make a new world.”
Hitler had a mammoth stadium built in Nuremberg for displaying Nazi might. Significantly, 144 gigantic pillars were erected on a platform nearly 1,000 feet [300 m] long. Why 144 pillars? The Bible speaks of 144,000 who would rule with “the Lamb” Jesus Christ, and that their rulership would be for a thousand years. (Revelation 14:1; 20:4, 6) Evidently, the erecting in the Nuremberg stadium of 144 pillars was no numerical accident, since the use of Biblical language and symbolism by Nazi officials is well documented.
What was the result of the efforts of men to fulfill what the Bible says will be accomplished only by God’s Kingdom?
Failure of Man’s Efforts
History testifies eloquently that the League of Nations failed to usher in a new world of peace. That organization collapsed when the nations became engulfed in World War II. Further, after just 12 years, the Third Reich lay in ruins. It was a complete failure, a disgrace to the human family.
Throughout history human efforts to create a peaceful new world have invariably been unsuccessful. “Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed,” former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger observed. “History is a tale of efforts that failed, of aspirations that weren’t realized.”
What, then, about the new world order that world leaders have recently been touting? Explosions of ethnic violence have made a mockery of the very idea of such a new world. For example, this past March 6, columnist William Pfaff ridiculed: “The new world order has arrived. It is well and truly new, consecrating invasion, aggression and ethnic purge as acceptable international conduct.”
The terrible strife and the atrocities that have occurred since the fall of Communism are appalling. Even George Bush, shortly before leaving office in January, acknowledged: “The new world could, in time, be as menacing as the old.”
Reason for Hope?
Does this mean that the situation is hopeless? Is a new world only a wishful dream? Clearly, humans have been unable to create a new world. But what about the Creator’s promise to do so? “There are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his [God’s] promise,” the Bible says.—2 Peter 3:13.
The new heavens that God promises is a new rulership over the earth. This new rulership is God’s Kingdom, his heavenly government for which Jesus taught people to pray. (Matthew 6:9, 10) That heavenly government will then be composed of Jesus Christ and 144,000 corulers, and the new earth will be a new society of people. Yes, they will live in a glorious new world loyally supporting God’s rulership.
God’s Kingdom government will rule over the promised new world. So this new world will not be of man’s making. “The kingdom of God never means an action undertaken by men or a realm which they set up,” explains one Bible encyclopedia. “The kingdom is a divine act, not a human accomplishment nor even the accomplishment of dedicated Christians.”—The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible.
The new world under God’s Kingdom is sure to come. You can rely on the promise of its coming because that promise is made by “God, who cannot lie.” (Titus 1:2) Please consider what kind of world God’s new world will be.
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NASA photo