Man’s “World of Tomorrow” or Christ’s Kingdom Rule, Which?
How do man’s promises for the future compare with the blessings of Christ’s Kingdom rule?
“THERE’S a great big beautiful tomorrow!”
Thousands of visitors at the New York World’s Fair last year came out of one of its more popular exhibits singing that song, the exhibit’s theme. It might also be called the theme of the men—rulers, statesmen, scientists, industrialists, social planners and others—who are mapping out the “world of tomorrow.” Their plans are received by many as thrilling, appealing. How well are you acquainted with their proposals? Have you ever thoughtfully weighed them as to their true worth and their implications? Are you willing to compare them with the promises made in a very ancient book, the Bible, and then honestly make a personal decision as to which side offers the better, more practical hope? We invite you to do so.
To begin with, let us assume that the things envisioned, seriously proposed and publicly prophesied by men of this world are feasible and attainable by them, even where their past performances give doubtful basis for warranting such confidence. Let us go much, much farther, and assume that their proposed goals could be achieved and realized during your lifespan, thereby permitting you to experience the full effect of their benefits. What would the prospects then be?
GLOWING PROSPECTS PREDICTED
According to human forecasters of the future, man’s “world of tomorrow” will enjoy unprecedented power as new energy sources are developed. Nuclear energy and solar-powered cells and batteries will revolutionize human living and eradicate poverty and hunger, they say. Whereas vast areas now lie barren due to having no easy access to coal, oil or hydroelectric power, they hope to make these areas productive by means of the new sources of power, made available or easily transportable everywhere. They forecast the desalinization of seawater to irrigate arid regions, and intensive “farming” of the sea itself, thus solving much of mankind’s food problem.
More leisure time for the workingman is promised by industrial scientists. They say that increased automation may reduce his workweek to as little as three or four days. Yet they prophesy that his earnings will be greater than at present and express hope that this increased prosperity will bring greater contentment and that the increased leisure time will be used for personal development in education and the arts, and in travel.
Rocketlike speed is also supposed to add new horizons for those living in the “world of tomorrow.” The planners envision commuters in special trains being hurtled through giant tunnels at speeds of 500 miles per hour, while international travelers are rocketed through space at supersonic speeds to any point on the globe in one or two hours.
The gleaming cities of the future are predicted to be traffic-free in their central “cores,” as underground conveyors bring in freight and produce, and people park their vehicles at the city’s outer edge and travel in to business and commercial areas by monorail systems, or comfortably sit in a small waiting room, which room is itself then picked up by a helicopter and transported into the city’s center. Moving sidewalks would take over from there.
Communications executives talk of the day when the woman shopper will, at any time, be able to take from her purse a small cordless telephone, speak into it, and cause her thermoelectric range at home to begin cooking the family dinner; or have her home telephone play back messages from other members of the family or outside callers.
A dust-free “Home of Tomorrow” is envisioned with complete air filtration and sootless, dustless heating or cooling from wall and ceiling panels. Ultrasonic energy is predicted to make washing of clothes and dishes amazingly easy.
Medical scientists speak of “breakthroughs” in the discovery of ways to combat disease; of anticancer vaccines; of pills or injections to slow down the aging processes of the human body. They tell of bloodless, painless surgery by means of laser beams or an “ultrasonic wand” that anesthetizes and cauterizes as it cuts. They venture the possibility of replacing entire vital organs, such as the heart, liver or kidneys, with plastic devices or by successfully transplanting other human or even animal organs into the patient’s body. Mental problems are to be cured by drugs that quiet man’s worries or stimulate his creative thinking.
Finally, as a result of all these promised benefits and by means of a world government, perhaps a “Federated States of the World,” the “world of tomorrow” is prophesied to be a world of peace.
METHODS OF CONTROL
Obviously, these achievements could never be attained without tremendous organizational efficiency and cooperation or without global agreement and support. To ensure total support, new laws and controls are to empower the world government and each nation or “Federated State” under it, to control the major phases of the economic and community life of its citizens to ensure that all that is done is for the general good of the “Society of Tomorrow.”
In this regard, it is suggested that there may be need to regulate even such intimate matters as human procreation. That is to say, the possibility is presented of determining beforehand the genetic combinations that social scientists believe would be most beneficial in the kind of human society they view as ideal. They believe they could thereby decide whether it would be advisable for a certain couple to have children or not, or whether the wife should have a “test-tube baby” produced with the sperm of someone other than her husband.
Religion, of necessity, would be affected by these plans. Yet, despite the fact that such plans frequently are in open violation of Bible standards of morality, some philosophers and even religious leaders express belief that today’s religions will be able to “adjust” to the new situations. An article in Life magazine of October 1, 1965, however, went even farther. Discussing the possibility of scientifically controlling the mental and physical qualities of future generations by manipulating their genetic structure before birth, the writer said: “No one would argue that man couldn’t stand some improvement, but having the actual power to do so presents some sticky choices. Who is it that we will appoint to play God for us? Which scientist, which statesman, artist, judge, poet, theologian, philosopher, educator—of which nation, race or creed—will you trust to write the specifications, to decide which characteristics are desirable and which not?” This is one of the many questions that the men directing the predicted “world of tomorrow” would have to decide on behalf of all those living in such world.
BLESSINGS OF THE KINGDOM RULE
What, then, can God’s kingdom by Christ Jesus offer to compare with this? What basis do we have for reliance on its promises? What hope can we have of actually enjoying its blessings?
Even if we were to view the matter solely from the standpoint of human benefits, it could be said that one of the major differences between what man’s proposed “world of tomorrow” offers and what Christ’s Kingdom rule offers is in the things lacking in what man offers. Christ’s Kingdom rule goes so much beyond all that men envision and enters into fields that they hesitate to discuss or, at best, tend to gloss over. One of these is human relations.
According to the Bible, the Book that sets out the Kingdom government’s program, Christ’s government will make of planet Earth not only a literal paradise but also a spiritual paradise, one in which the fruits of righteousness will blossom with a beauty surpassing any product of human invention. What are such fruits? They include “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.” (Gal. 5:22, 23) They are not produced by pills or drugs but result from a transformation of the person himself by his ‘making his mind over and proving to himself the good and acceptable and perfect will of God’ with the help of God’s spirit and Word. (Rom. 12:2) Ask yourself: What would all the gleam and glitter, abundance and even opulence of a future era mean or matter if these lovely fruits of God’s spirit were missing?—Compare Proverbs 15:17; 17:1; Psalm 133:1.
Christ’s Kingdom rule promises an earth free from crime and from selfishness, which is crime’s seed. It will therefore result in a world without jails, without police, without locks, without fear. (1 Tim. 1:9-11; Rom. 6:12-14) Then, as foretold, people “will actually sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be no one making them tremble; for the very mouth of Jehovah of armies has spoken it.”—Mic. 4:4.
Peace? Yes, unequaled peace will endure under that Kingdom rule but on an entirely different basis from that which men propose. It will come, not because of mutual fear of war and of the hideously destructive power of nuclear weapons that scientific minds have produced, nor simply by rigid control and enforcement of law, but because men have first found peace with God by loving him with all their heart, mind, soul and strength, and because they love their neighbors as themselves. (Matt. 22:37-39) Is that possible? Why, even now more than a million persons of all nations, races and colors, who are endeavoring to qualify as subjects of that Kingdom rule, fulfill the prophecy at Isaiah 2:4 and “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. . . . neither [do] they learn war any more.” Really, what greater force for peace, what stronger basis for peace, could you offer than love?—See Romans 13:8-10.
PERSONAL HAPPINESS ASSURED
The government of this earth by Christ’s kingdom does not rule out the development of equipment and products to reduce man’s labor or lighten the work of woman in the home. Used aright, such things can be a blessing to man and can, indeed, allow more time for increasing his knowledge, developing his talents and, better yet, doing more for those around him by contributing to their enjoyment of life. But under Christ’s Kingdom rule the motive will be the determining factor that will ensure that such things do not lead to a life of indolence, where pleasure-madness eventually produces licentiousness or reverts to boredom. A premium will be placed on knowledge of God’s will, and the carrying out of his purposes for earth and mankind will give true meaning to human living and make all work, study and other endeavors sources of joy.—Phil. 4:8, 9.
Yes, there will be pleasure in working, even should it be plowing a field of rich, brown earth warmed by the golden sunshine, where the gaze takes in the blue skies and fluffy clouds, or rests on green trees and gaily colored flowers, or watches a squirrel scamper across the field, or notes a robin singing a song of springtime. Craftsmanship, metalworking, the arts, all will reach new heights of expression, beauty and precision, because the motive of those who produce them will be the best: the desire to honor the God they love and to use his gifts to praise him and to bless and delight their companion subjects of his Kingdom rule.—Note the principles in 1 Corinthians 10:31; 13:4-7; 2 Corinthians 9:11-14.
Life forever in vibrant health is also promised for earth’s inhabitants by God’s government through his King Son, Christ Jesus. Not in patched-up bodies with plastic parts or plastic surgery, but in bodies that have been regenerated and restored to perfect health so that a man’s flesh ‘becomes fresher than in youth and he returns to the days of his youthful vigor.’ (Job 33:25) Medical scientists today admit that the greatest healing powers they know of are found, not in their “miracle drugs,” but right within the human body itself. Thus, when divine power, exercised by Christ reverses the aging process and increased cell reproduction, or other healing process, revitalizes all human organs, then ‘mourning, outcry, pain and tears will pass away.’—Rev. 21:3, 4.
The basis for this removal of imperfection will be the ransom sacrifice provided by the King, Christ Jesus himself. It will get at the very root of all man’s ills and troubles by removing their source: sin, which is the failure to reach and comply with God’s perfect standards and which is every man’s inheritance. Thus, whereas today in some countries one-third of all hospital facilities are occupied by mental patients, those living under Kingdom rule will all be happy individuals, free from guilt and free from harmful thoughts, anxieties and selfish emotions that upset and block the proper functioning of the human organism.—Rom. 5:12, 21; 6:21-23; Prov. 14:30.
On that same basis of the ransom, Christ as King will do what no man or human government could dare to offer. He will restore to life earth’s dead millions whose bodies have long since returned to the dusty elements. What prospect could be more thrilling or more heartwarming than that of seeing the fulfillment of the King’s promise that “all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out”? (John 5:28, 29) What could be more interesting than meeting men and women of all ages, getting to know them, and aiding them to learn the principles of truth and righteousness, that they may qualify for an eternity of life under that Kingdom rule?
YOUR HONEST CONCLUSION
For which, then, will you make your personal decision—for man’s “world of tomorrow” or for Christ’s Kingdom rule? Which really offers you the better, the more practical, hope? As an aid to a wise decision ask yourself the following questions:
Which gives you sound basis for believing that the world promised will be one in which hate will be replaced by love; where fear and suspicion will be replaced by confidence and trust; where cheating and deceit and corruption will give way to helpfulness and honesty and integrity?
Man’s “world of tomorrow” proposes to solve the world’s problems by great increases in power, speed, material prosperity and leisure time, principally by advances in technological science in collaboration with political science. Would you say that the increases in these very things in our own generation have truly brought a genuine improvement in human relations—internationally, nationally, in your own city or home? Or does the problem lie to a greater extent in the human heart?—See Matthew 15:18, 19; Proverbs 4:23.
What does your own experience in life tell you? Is there not a far greater need in our day for patience rather than speed? Would not mildness, kindness and self-control remedy far more of the world’s ills than power? Have you personally found that by increasing a man’s possessions you make him more considerate, more thoughtful of others, a better, more loving neighbor? And is it logical to trust that that which has helped make possible mass bloodshed is now to become the basis for a united world of peace, namely, technological science in the service of the political powers?
The Bible shows the true fomenters of all human strife and discord to be Satan and his demons. (Jas. 3:13-16; Rev. 12:7-12) Men of this world scoff at that. Yet they seriously talk about the possibility, even the probability, of finding intelligent creatures on some planet of outer space. They have no real proof that such creatures exist, no conclusive sign of any influence by them upon man; yet all human experience in all ages of history clearly manifests the evidence of an invisible force operating on men’s minds and stimulating them to acts of brutality and sadism such as are unknown even among the lower animals. The power needed, then, is such as will wipe out of existence those demonic forces. That power the King of God’s government possesses; science does not.—Heb. 2:14, 15.
Read the writings of the prominent men of this world. Then compare their appeal and their lives to the words and the life of the one who said: “Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and become my disciples, for I am mild-tempered and lowly in heart, and you will find refreshment for your souls. For my yoke is kindly and my load is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30) Which one would you prefer to have as ruler over you?
You may wisely decide against putting your trust in imperfect men and their fallible predictions and promises. Yet more than this is required. You need a knowledge of God’s Word. Have you ever seriously investigated the Bible, not merely reading it but studying it? Do you not feel that you now owe it to yourself and to those whom you love to do so? Yes, why not accept the invitation of the Bible’s Author, who says: “Come, now, you people, and let us set matters straight between us”? (Isa. 1:18) Jehovah’s witnesses offer you their sincere help.