Earth—Why Is It Here?
There is a question that you ought to consider: Was our beautiful planet produced by an intelligent Creator who has a purpose for the earth and for humans on it? Resolving that issue to your satisfaction can help you to see what the future holds for our planet.
MANY scientists who have in depth studied the universe and our earth have seen evidences that point to the existence of a Creator, that God is behind it. Consider the comments from just one:
Professor Paul Davies writes in The Mind of God: “The existence of an orderly, coherent universe containing stable, organized, complex structures requires laws and conditions of a very special kind.”
After discussing a number of “coincidences” that astrophysicists and others have noted, Professor Davies adds: “Taken together, they provide impressive evidence that life as we know it depends very sensitively on the form of the laws of physics, and on some seemingly fortuitous accidents in the actual values that nature has chosen for various particle masses, force strengths, and so on. . . . Suffice it to say that, if we could play God, and select values for these quantities at whim by twiddling a set of knobs, we would find that almost all knob settings would render the universe uninhabitable. In some cases it seems as if the different knobs have to be fine-tuned to enormous precision if the universe is to be such that life will flourish. . . . The fact that even slight changes to the way things are might render the universe unobservable is surely a fact of deep significance.”
What it signifies to many is that our earth, along with the rest of the universe, was produced by a purposeful Creator. If that is so, we need to find out why he formed the earth in the first place. We also need to ascertain, if we can, what his purpose is for the earth. In this connection a strange anomaly appears. Despite the widespread popularity of atheism, a surprising number of people still hold belief in an intelligent Creator. Most churches of Christendom nominally speak of an almighty God and Creator of our universe. Yet, rarely do any of these religions speak with confidence and conviction about earth’s future in God’s purpose.
What Does the Bible Say?
It is logical to look to a source of information that is widely accepted as coming from the Creator. That source is the Bible. One of the simplest and clearest statements in it regarding the future of our earth is found at Ecclesiastes 1:4. We read: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” (King James Version) The Bible is straightforward in explaining why Jehovah God created the earth. It also shows that he placed it in just the right position in the universe and in relation to our sun to sustain life on it. Almighty God inspired the ancient prophet Isaiah to write: “This is what Jehovah has said, the Creator of the heavens, He the true God, the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, He the One who firmly established it, who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it even to be inhabited: ‘I am Jehovah, and there is no one else.’”—Isaiah 45:18.
But what of man’s developing the means to destroy all life on the earth? In his incomparable wisdom, God declares that he will step in before mankind can destroy all life on our planet. Note this reassuring promise in the Bible’s last book, Revelation: “The nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time for the dead to be judged, and to give their reward to your slaves the prophets and to the holy ones and to those fearing your name, the small and the great, and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”—Revelation 11:18.
Jehovah reveals to us what was his original purpose in creating the earth, this jewel in space, as an astronaut circling the earth described it. God purposed it to be a global paradise, comfortably populated by humans—men and women—all living in peace and harmony. He arranged to populate the planet gradually by allowing the first human pair to produce offspring. For the first human couple’s pleasure and enjoyment, Jehovah had brought a small section of the earth into a paradise condition. As the procreation of human families would proceed over the years and centuries, the garden of Eden would gradually be extended until Genesis 1:28 would be fulfilled: “God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it.’”
As we now see the sorry plight of the earth and its inhabitants, does it mean that God’s original purpose for the earth has failed? Or has he changed his purpose and decided that because of mankind’s waywardness, he will let the planet be ruined altogether and start again, as it were? No, we can be sure that neither of these situations is true. The Bible tells us that whatever Jehovah purposes must eventually take place, that whatever he decides cannot be thwarted by any individual or even by an unexpected development. He assures us: “So my word that goes forth from my mouth will prove to be. It will not return to me without results, but it will certainly do that in which I have delighted, and it will have certain success in that for which I have sent it.”—Isaiah 55:11.
God’s Purpose Interrupted, Not Changed
With the defection of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the garden of Eden, it was obvious that God’s purpose for a paradise earth would be accomplished without them. However, Jehovah indicated there and then that some of their offspring would carry out his original mandate. True, this would take time, even many centuries, but there is no indication how much time would have been involved in carrying out the original mandate even if both Adam and Eve had continued living in perfection. The fact is that by the end of Christ Jesus’ Millennial Reign—a little over a thousand years from now—the Paradise conditions of Eden will extend earth wide and planet Earth will be peopled with peaceful and happy descendants of the first human pair. Indeed, Jehovah’s ability as an infallible Purposer will be forever vindicated!
Then will be fulfilled the exciting prophecies that God inspired so long ago. Such scriptures as Isaiah 11:6-9 will be gloriously fulfilled: “The wolf will actually reside for a while with the male lamb, and with the kid the leopard itself will lie down, and the calf and the maned young lion and the well-fed animal all together; and a mere little boy will be leader over them. And the cow and the bear themselves will feed; together their young ones will lie down. And even the lion will eat straw just like the bull. And the sucking child will certainly play upon the hole of the cobra; and upon the light aperture of a poisonous snake will a weaned child actually put his own hand. They will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea.”
Poor health and terminal illnesses will be things of the past, as will death itself. Could anything be plainer than these simple words found in the last book of the Bible? “The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”—Revelation 21:3, 4.
Yes, we can take heart—our beautiful planet Earth is here to stay. May it be your privilege to survive the end of this wicked system of things, with all its earth-ruining practices. The clean new world of God’s making is now near at hand. And many loved ones will awaken from death by the miracle of the resurrection. (John 5:28, 29) Truly, our earth is here to stay, and we can stay with it and enjoy it.