man eke his living from the cursed soil. He must now munch on wild plants, rather than the perfect foods in God’s garden.

ONE CURSE LIFTED, ONE REMAINS

10. What changes came with the end of the flood?

¹⁰ Sixteen centuries later Jehovah God determined to destroy by a flood all of mankind except Noah and his household. Why? Because of their extreme wickedness and stubborn tendency toward wrongdoing. After Noah and his family emerged from the ark following the flood the mandate to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth was reissued, but it was carried out only in a typical way. Dominion over the animals was maintained through fear and dread, not loving care and mutual trust. Gone also was the Edenic condition of all creatures feeding exclusively upon vegetable matter, for animal flesh now augmented the diet of man. However, Jehovah God did say following the flood: “I will never again curse the soil because of man, though the bent of man’s mind may be evil from his very youth.”—Gen. 8:21; 9:1-7, AT.

11, 12. How do we know that the curse on the ground was lifted following the flood?

¹¹ How do we know that the curse on the ground was lifted following the flood? Because centuries later it is recorded, at Genesis 13:10: “Then Lot looked out, and saw that the whole basin of the Jordan was well watered everywhere (this was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the LORD’S own garden.” (AT) Certainly there could be no curse on the soil of the Jordan basin if it could be compared to the Lord’s garden of Eden. Concerning this land promised to the Israelites, Numbers 13:23 reports on what the spies found: “Reaching the valley of Eshcol, they cut a branch from there with a single cluster of grapes, and it took two of them to carry it on a stretcher, along with some pomegranates and some figs.” (AT) When the spies reported on the conditions they found they could truthfully declare: “It surely does flow with milk and honey.” (Num. 13:27, AT) This does not sound like a land that was cursed, which could produce only thorns and thistles and wild plants for the sustenance of man.

¹² Again description of this promised land is given, at Deuteronomy 8:7-9; 11:10-15 (AT): “The LORD your God is bringing you into a fine land, a land with streams of water, with springs and pools welling up in the valleys and on the hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil-producing olives and honey; a land where you may eat food without stint, lacking nothing in it; a land whose stones contain iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.” “The land which you are invading for conquest is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it by hand like a vegetable garden. On the contrary, the land into which you are crossing for conquest is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky, a land for which the LORD your God cares, the eyes of the LORD your God being continually on it, from the beginning to the end of the year. If you will but heed the commands that I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God, and serve him with all your mind and heart, he will give you rain for your land in due season, the winter rain and the spring rain, so that you will gather in your grain and wine and oil, and he will produce grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat your fill.”

13. Then why has not the earth been subdued?

¹³ Well now, if the curse on the earth has been lifted, why has not the earth been subdued? Deuteronomy 11:16, 17, 26-28 shows why: “Take care lest you be deceived into turning aside to serve alien gods and to pay homage to them, and the anger of the LORD blaze against you, and he shut up the skies so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you quickly perish off the fine land that the LORD is about to give you. See, I am putting before you today a blessing and a curse: a blessing, if you heed the commands of the LORD your God which I am giving you today; and a curse, if you do not heed the commands of the LORD your God, but swerve from the way that I am appointing you today, by running after alien gods of whom you have had no experience.” (AT) Deuteronomy 30:19, 20 records a similar choice of life or death: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that you as well as your descendants may live, by loving the LORD your God, by heeding his injunctions, and by holding fast to him; for that will mean life to you.” (AT) Also Leviticus 26:14-43, and other scriptures, warn of the curses for disobedience.

14. What could man do for the earth, yet what does he do primarily?

¹⁴ Hence what now prevented mankind from subduing the earth in harmony with Jehovah’s original purpose were the curses against them for their disobedience. It was these curses that plagued them now, rather than any curse on the soil pronounced at the time of man’s ouster from Eden. Even so, man could do much for the earth to beautify it, if he did not so disobediently abuse his earthly home. He has made many beautiful parks, and he has set aside as national parks some of the outstanding natural wonders that testify to the Creator’s majesty. In these places a measure of peace has been restored between people and animals. But man has not followed through to the extent that he could in beautifying the earth and restoring peace with the animal realm. Instead, he has exploited the natural resources of the earth and slain the animals for commercial gain as well as sport. In his greed he has shaved the forests off the mountains and gouged the metals from the earth and put them in ships and planes, which are later sunk in the sea or blasted from the sky.

15. What will climax the curses for disobedience?

¹⁵ Instead of subduing the earth man is ruining the earth, and in Revelation 11:18 (NW) it states that Jehovah God will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth”. In view of man’s mounting disobedience, his reprehensibility in the sight of the Lord piles ever higher, and soon the curses for disobedience will be climaxed by Jehovah’s battle of Armageddon. Concerning this devouring curse that will smite the earth God’s Word declares: “The earth is polluted through the touch of its inhabitants, because they have transgressed laws, violated statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse has devoured the earth, and its inhabitants have paid the penalty; therefore the inhabitants of the earth waste away, and few are the mortals that are left. Terror and pit and snare are upon you, O inhabitants of the earth! And he who flees from the noise of the terror will fall into the pit; and he who escapes from the midst of the pit will be caught in the snare; for windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth breaks asunder, the earth cracks asunder, the earth shakes asunder; the earth reels like a drunkard, and sways like a hammock; its rebellion lies heavily upon it, and it will fall, to rise no more.”—Isa. 24:5, 6, 17-20, AT.

JEHOVAH’S PURPOSE FOR EARTH FULFILLED

16. Then what work will proceed relative to the earth?

¹⁶ Then what? After this cataclysmic fall of Satan’s world in the execution of Jehovah’s fiery judgments, and from which neither its heavenly nor earthly part will ever rise, those on Jehovah’s side who survive will enjoy the new heavens and new earth promised by Jehovah’s Word. In this new theocratic arrangement of things on this abiding, literal earth there will be no more curses for disobedience, since the disobedient ones will have been swept away in Armageddon’s cleansing fury. (Eccl. 1:4; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1; 22:3) Then the earth, suffering from no curse upon its soil or curse for the disobedience of its human inhabitants, will be subdued in accord with the divine purpose first announced in Eden. Now Mondays are sometimes called “blue”, because it is the beginning of a week of work often unpleasant. But in that new world blue Mondays will be gone and forgotten, for the work of turning this earthly ball into a paradise will yield pleasure and satisfaction beyond description. Then men will long enjoy the work of their hands. Instead of thorns and thistles the earth will respond bounteously to man’s care and bring forth abundantly as the land yields its increase. (Ps. 67:6; Isa. 55:13) Even the desert regions will blossom as a rose under man’s tilling and Jehovah’s blessing.—Isa. 35:1.

17. What relation will exist between men and animals?

¹⁷ Animals will be controlled and peace established between them and men. Now we enjoy having cats and dogs for pets, and in some parks get an added thrill when a squirrel or pigeon eats out of our hand, and as we walk through the zoos we may even have a desire to fondle the furry mane of the lion or stroke the striped pelt of the tiger. But we wisely quench this natural urge, for we know that while we would be running our hands through its fur it might be running its teeth through our hands. The wild animals mistrust us as much as we mistrust them. However, in the new world man will exercise dominion, not through fear and dread, or by hunters or zoo keepers or circus trainers, but through such perfect mutual trust that even a little child can lead the wildest of beasts. Even the lion will turn vegetarian then.—Isa. 11:6-9; Hos. 2:18.

18. What words will then find complete fulfillment, and on whose guarantee?

¹⁸ Also carried to complete fulfillment then will be the mandate to fill the earth with a righteous human race. What a pleasure this will be in paradise earth, with all the animals for pets and with children being reared in the “discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah”! (Eph. 6:4, NW) There will be neither adult nor juvenile delinquency, and a complete absence of family troubles, with no homes broken by divorce or death. In the new world will come the fulfillment of God’s purpose first outlined in Eden, his will to have earth inhabited. (Isa. 45:18) His words concerning the filling of the earth, the subduing of it, the dominion of man over its other creatures—none of these words will return void or unfulfilled to him as though they were so much wind. “My purpose,” Jehovah declares, “shall stand, and all my pleasure will I do. . . . I have spoken, and I will bring it about; I have purposed, and I will do it.” Again he decrees: “So shall my word be that goes out of my mouth—it shall not return to me fruitless, without having done the thing that I pleased, and accomplishing the purpose for which I sent it.”—Isa. 46:10, 11; 55:11, AT.

19. What are persons now choosing?

¹⁹ It is this originally purposed life under perfect conditions, destined to run on through the endless ages of time, that man now has the opportunity to choose. In fact, persons on earth are now choosing either that life or everlasting death.

Choosing Now to Live Then

1. How do you choose that life, and on whose terms?

HOW do you choose that life in the new world? By raising your hand, by shouting ‘Aye’, by saying ‘Lord, I would like to live then’? No; you choose that life in the same way that you choose the present one. And how do you choose to live now? By breathing, drinking, eating, sleeping and working, yes; but stated more broadly, it is by the course of action that you take. And it is action, please note, that is not dictated or determined by you, but rather it is action according to the dictates of the body. The body sets its terms, forces you to meet its requirements. So it is in choosing life in the new world. It is not by merely saying you would like to live then, but the choice is made by the course of action you take. And here again the action is not determined by the individual. Jehovah God is the one who establishes that new world and gives persons life in it. He gives it on his own terms, and we must meet his requirements. Refusal to act in accord with his requirements now is choosing death instead of everlasting life, just as surely as refusal to breathe in response to the body’s demands would mean death to our physical organism now.

2. What do some contend, and what conversation is pertinent?

² Some believe that doing what they think is right is sufficient, that if they do good to their fellow man they will gain God’s approval and eternal life. But on this vital matter we must let God speak and not allow final decisions to rest upon fallible human creatures. Jesus’ conversation with a rich young ruler is enlightening on this point: “Now, look! a certain one came up to him and said: ‘Teacher, what good must I do in order to get everlasting life?’ He said to him: ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is that is good. If, though, you want to enter into life, observe the commandments continually.’ He said to him: ‘Which ones?’ Jesus said: ‘Why, You must not murder, You must not commit adultery, You must not steal, You must not bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother, and, You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ The young man said to him: ‘I have kept all these; what yet am I lacking?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If you want to be complete, go sell your