What will it be like? How different from today's world will it be?
WHEN President Johnson steps into the four-year term of office as President of the United States on January 20, he brings with him a plan for building this world's "Great Society." Following on the heels of Kennedy's "New Frontier," the Johnson plan calls for the rebuilding of cities, cleaning up and beautifying the countryside, and improving education on all levels. The successful execution of this three-point program is hoped to bring about the President's great, over-all goal: wiping out poverty. The big question is: WILL IT SUCCEED? Already considerable time and effort have been spent investigating what can be done in the cities, the countryside, and the schools. A massive program designed to make this costly American-style Utopia a reality is now being launched.
What's Wrong With Today's World?
Despite his optimism, Mr. Johnson admits, "It is harder and harder to live the good life in American cities today. The catalog of ills is long. There is the decay of the centers and the despoiling of the suburbs. There is not enough housing for our people or transportation for our traffic. Open land is vanishing and old landmarks are violated. Worst of all, expansion is eroding the precious and time-honored values of community with neighbors and communion with nature. The loss of these values breeds loneliness and boredom and indifference. Our society will never be great until our cities are great." The President knows! Looking at conditions in rural America, the President warned: "We have always prided ourselves on being not only America the strong and America the free, but America the beautiful. Today that beauty is in danger. The water we drink, the food we eat, the very air that we breathe, are threatened with pollution. Our parks are overcrowded, our seashores overburdened. Green fields and dense forests are disappearing. A few years ago we were greatly concerned about the Ugly American. Today we must act to prevent an Ugly America." Nor is this all. Describing our educational system, the Chief Executive added: "A third place to build the Great Society is in the classrooms of America. There our children's lives will be shaped. Our society will not be great until every young mind is set free to scan the farthest reaches of thought and imagination. "We are still," he continued, "far from that goal. Today eight million adult Americans have not finished five years of school. Nearly 54 million — more than one quarter of all America — have not even finished high school. Each year more than a hundred thousand high school graduates, with proven ability, do not enter college because they cannot afford it.... "In many places, classrooms are overcrowded and curricula outdated. Most of our qualified teachers are underpaid, and many of our paid teachers are unqualified.... "But more classrooms and more teachers are not enough. We must seek an educational system which grows in quality as well as in size..." (Mr. Johnson's address, taken from Saturday Evening Post, October 31, 1964, pp. 30, 31). The President's analysis pinpoints grave problems. But are these ills really ALL that's wrong? Are they the cause of the woes plaguing America — or only the results of the real causes which, unless overcome, bar us forever from a "Great Society"?
Why Today's Sick Society?
Engulfed in the glitter and gleam, the gaud and the gadgetry of a shallow and superficial society, people today no longer stop to just plain THINK! Assaulted by a relentless barrage of double-talk, distortions, half-truths and unadulterated LIES from advertisers, politicians and the clergy alike, it is simply too much work for most individuals to sift through this confusing maze of propaganda. The quest of the TRUTH about why they are here, what life is all about and where they are going, is forgotten. How much easier to lose oneself in a ready-made daydream behind the TV set or at the movies! This, of course, is exactly what Satan, the deceiver of this entire world, and the author of this Babylonish, competitive system WANTS (Rev. 12:9). But it's high time YOU were different. It's high time you began to THINK — deeply and objectively, responsibly and realistically! It's high time you dared to look at the situation as it REALLY is and to realize that it's not just a matter of an isolated "problem" here and there. Rather it's a matter of an ENTIRE SOCIETY coming apart at the seams! You live in a society: where family life is rapidly disintegrating. Where one out of four marriages ends in divorce. Where more murders take place between husbands and wives than in any other category. Where children are considered a burden best left to shift for themselves or to be farmed out. Where adultery, fornication, homosexuality and wife-trading vie with television as popular forms of entertainment. You live in a society: where respect for all constituted law and authority is GONE! Where police, not allowed to enforce the law, serve as targets for public abuse and the savage attacks of teenage hoodlums. Where racial violence and strife is assuming ever-larger proportions. Where crimes of every description — rape, murder, assault, theft and dope addiction, to name but a few — are running so rampant it is futile to try to quote statistics because they are outdated by the time they come off the press. Where cities are asphalt jungles infested with human "rat-packs," making it unsafe for either men or women in many areas, even in broad daylight. Where teaching is a dangerous profession and police are stationed in the halls of schools because students carry switchblade knives. Where the syndicate runs the city so completely that even the Federal Government is helpless to intervene. Where courtrooms are overcrowded with lawyers and criminals searching not for justice but for some loophole in the law. Where to be a cold-blooded killer is to be "temporarily insane" or "socially maladjusted." Where to be "civilized" is to enjoy watching a helpless old man get stabbed to death by a thug on a busy street corner — and then calmly go home to watch several hours more of killing on TV. Where to give birth to illegitimate children is an acceptable means of earning a living, with a graduated income plan for each child thus born. Is that the kind of world you want? You live in a society: where the economic fate of the nation is in the hands of covetous, irresponsible union leaders. Where it's acceptable to steal your employer bankrupt. Where the goal of many manufacturers is to see how cheaply and poorly a product can be made. Where in a time of unequalled prosperity the average family is less than three months from bankruptcy. Where going deeper into debt is the panacea for all personal, business and government economic ills. Where food growers feel no responsibility whatsoever toward their fellow man and will use any kind of poison spray imaginable in quest of the "almighty dollar." Where new land is plowed up and chemical fertilizers are dumped on overworked land in a greedy effort for quick gain. Where new drugs are produced by the hundreds, but still can't keep up with the new diseases. Where people desperately try to buy health in pills and peace of mind in tranquilizers. Where the overwhelming majority of hospital beds are filled with mental patients. Is this kind of world God's world? You live in a society: where ministers condone sin instead of preaching against it. Where insipid, watered-down religion admits it doesn't have the answers. Where the ministers vie with college students for the suicide record. This list doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the plague upon plague, curse upon curse, woe upon woe, SIN UPON SIN to be found in America — and all the world — today.
God's Stern Warning
As God Almighty has said: "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is SICK, and the whole heart FAINT. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment" (Isa. 1:4-6). What a vivid description of our society today! Far from moving upward to the great and powerful society, America and the British Commonwealth are rapidly plunging downward in a snowballing crescendo from a sick and degenerate society, a demented and depraved society, a society ROTTEN TO THE VERY CORE, to total ANARCHY AND OBLIVION! And yet, in spite of this bleak and pessimistic outlook for the immediate future — the painful lessons that must yet be learned by a rebellious and sinning mankind — there is GOOD NEWS AHEAD! Beyond the catastrophic events destined to take place within the next few years (all fully explained in our free booklets The United States in Prophecy and 1975 In Prophecy), there is the bright prospect, the happy out-look of The WORLD TOMORROW — God's Great Society! Just as man has reached the end of his rope and is about to blast himself into nothingness, God will intervene and STOP man's hellish inhumanity to man. He will send Jesus Christ back to this earth together with thousands of His angels and saints made immortal to CRUSH man's rebellion and to establish God's Government on this earth once and for all — to FORCE mankind to be happy, healthy and prosperous.
What God's "Great Society" Will Be Like
God has not left you in the dark about the details and plans for His "Great Society." Many verses and chapters — portions of entire books — of the Bible are devoted to a description of it. In God's Society, HE will be the Supreme Ruler, aided and assisted by those who qualify in this lifetime for a position of rulership with Him. You can be one of those who qualify for such a position if you meet the conditions God has set forth. The TEN COMMANDMENTS will form the basis of all law in God's Government, and all mankind will be forced to obey that law. Punishment will be meted out swiftly and severely on transgressors, for only as these laws are obeyed can there be perfect peace and happiness. All the suffering and misery in today's world can be traced directly or indirectly to breaking the points of this law. Instead of looking for loopholes in the law, Jesus Christ Himself will "execute judgment and righteousness in the land" (Jer. 33:15). "And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him [Christ], the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord... and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth... and righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins" (Isa.11:2-5). Yes, at that time there will be true justice. And God's Headquarters in Jerusalem will be called the "habitation of justice, and the mountain [a symbol of government] of holiness" (Jer. 31:23) — the "city of TRUTH" (Zech. 8:3). "And many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain [government] of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for THE LAW shall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Micah 4:2-3). And what will the effect — the fruit — of this system be? "And the work of righteousness shall be PEACE; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places" (vs. 17-18). No more will there be fears, worries, tensions, frustrations and INSECURITY! No more will there be a dog-eat-dog society of such fierce cut-throat competition that people will want to escape from reality. Instead there will be security, peace — HAPPINESS! How WONDERFUL it will be!
The Cities under God's Government
President Johnson said, "In the next forty years we must rebuild the entire urban United States." Did you know that this is exactly what is going to happen? — but not the way you probably think! Shortly before the return of Jesus Christ, the United States — modern Israel — is going to suffer the greatest defeat in all its history — the ravages of hydrogen bomb war. Our nation will be left desolate! The few who escape will be taken into captivity. The land will rest a number of years to rejuvenate it from the abuse it now suffers due to being farmed continuously without sabbatical-year rests (Levs. 26:33-35). But after Christ returns He will take back the captives to their former land and build the cities anew. "And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities" (Isa. 61:4). "And the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded... and I [God] will settle you after your old estates [in your former locations], and will do better unto you than at your beginnings" (Ezek. 36:11). Yes, you can be sure that when God directs the rebuilding of our cities it will be done RIGHT. It will be done according to design and plan, with beauty as well as utility in mind — not in the chaotic, hit-and-miss fashion of many buildings in today's cities. God says, "WOE unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place" (Isa. 5:8). In God's cities people will have room to live. Jamming together as many uninspiring, cheaply-constructed dwellings as possible WILL NOT BE PERMITTED! Also, in God's cities there will be the "community with neighbors" which President Johnson said is lacking in today's cities. People will no longer have to be AFRAID of their neighbors. They won't have to worry about living next door to someone who is mentally "off," a pervert, or a killer. Old people won't have to fear being senselessly attacked and brutally beaten by some hoodlum out looking for "fun." Instead, "There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem... and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof" (Zech. 8:4-5). Juvenile "hoods" will no longer roam the streets and organized crime will no longer run the city while the city officials helplessly look on. After our captivity God says, "Again there shall be heard in this place... even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem [the cities of Israel], that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant, and without beast [because of the captivity and bombing], the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; and His mercy endureth for ever" (Jer. 33:10-11). This is a brief look into the happy cities of the WORLD TOMORROW that Christ will establish.
The Countryside in the Millennium
AGRICULTURE IS the basis of national wealth. Today we have polluted our land with chemical sprays and fertilizers, dumped sewage and industrial refuse in our water sources, cut down our forests, and violated every agricultural law a loving God gave us. And then we wonder why the weather is upset, why drought now afflicts vast segments of our nation, and why our crops are being attacked and destroyed by increasing numbers of new plant diseases and insect plagues. In God's Kingdom, farmers will be obeying God's agricultural laws and the entire nation will be blessed with unbelievable wealth and prosperity. Whereas in today's world, once-rich-and-productive farmlands are rapidly turning into desert wastelands, in the World Tomorrow the deserts will again become useful and productive. "The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose... for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons [a more correct translation is desert animals], where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes" (Isa. 35:1, 6-7). God says, "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together" (Isa. 41:19-20). Soil conservation will be practiced! Regarding the weather, God says, "I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezek. 34:26-27). Weather and nature will be man's ally instead of his enemy! Under God's Government there will be the incentive of private ownership. "Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidence, and seal them (receive the property deed)" (Jer. 32:44). At that time every man will sit "under his vine and under his fig tree" (Micah 4:4). Prosperity will be so great that "the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them" (Amos 9:13-14). As the passage just quoted shows, good, natural, home-grown foods will be available in abundance. Everyone will be able to have and enjoy tender, lean meat and wholesome milk coming from cows that have not been doped with all kinds of drugs and poisons, and fattened up on highly concentrated, unbalanced, processed foods designed only to put on artificially produced weight and give the owner a fat profit. "In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures (not be cooped up in a feedlot where they never see a blade of green grass). The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan" (Isa. 30:23-24). This good food will play an important part in producing the additional blessing of GOOD HEALTH, enabling the full enjoyment of the prosperity of God's Kingdom. Also, God will directly intervene and HEAL those suffering from deformities or physical handicaps. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing" (Isa. 35:5-6). "And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken... and the tongues of stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly" (Isa. 32:3-4). And instead of taking these blessings for granted, people by this time will have learned that all good things come from God, and they won't forget to praise and thank Him for His blessings. "Therefore they shall come and sing (praises) in the height of Zion and shall flow together for the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all... and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord" (Jer. 31:12, 14).
Education God's Way
"The FEAR OF THE LORD IS the BEGINNING of knowledge" (Provs. 1:7). Yet the fear of God and a knowledge of His laws — of TRUE VALUES — are totally missing in today's educational system. God has been laughed, scoffed, mocked and ridiculed right out of the classroom — and our entire society is reaping the penalty. "Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel," God THUNDERS, "for the Lord hath a CONTROVERSY with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no TRUTH, nor MERCY, nor KNOWLEDGE OF GOD in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood" (Hosea 4:1-2). "DESTRUCTION and MISERY are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:16-18). MIS-EDUCATION has had a great deal to do with bringing this wretched state of affairs about! God says, "My people are DESTROYED for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). But WHY? Is it because the knowledge is not available? No!! It is because our teachers and educators have "REJECTED knowledge" — TRUE knowledge, that is, about God and His laws. They have substituted in its place — and irresponsibly funneled into the pliable minds of our nation's youth — the improvable, the laughable, the utterly ABSURD AND RIDICULOUS theories of evolution — all carefully masked and "gift-wrapped" in the name of science. And instead of refuting the foolish arguments of the evolutionists, the teachers — the ministers — themselves rejecting the Word of God and, refusing to OBEY it, have been spiritual cowards who have compromised and acquiesced at every turn of the road (read Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34). ALL TRUE EDUCATION hinges and is based on understanding and applying right spiritual principles and laws to the PHYSICAL CREATION OF GOD. If obedience to God's law comes first, all the necessary advances in true science and technology — the physical blessings and conveniences that make life more enjoyable — will follow in due course of time. But if advances in material achievements come without the spiritual knowledge of how to control and USE it, the result is a chaotic system such as we have in today's world. Since spiritual education is the most important, God holds the spiritual educators — the ministers — MOST responsible for the failure of today's educational system to produce peace and happiness. God says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." What KIND of knowledge? SPIRITUAL knowledge! — "because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing that thou hast FORGOTTEN THE LAW OF THY GOD, I will also forget thee" (Hosea 4:6). In God's Kingdom this situation will be completely CHANGED! Instead of wasting precious time in idle reasoning about whether or not God exists, people in the Millennium will KNOW that God exists and that He RULES because the spiritual teaching will be in the hands of spirit beings, themselves very sons of God. They will disseminate the TRUE VALUES and give loving help in applying it to people's lives. "Yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left" (Isa. 30:20-21). These teachers will "reveal unto them [the people] the abundance of peace and truth... and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the PROSPERITY that I procure unto it" (Jer. 33:6, 9). Obedience to God's way — His LAWS — brings ABUNDANCE AND PROSPERITY! In God's Kingdom people will be EDUCATED to this fact — not told that God's law is a CURSE! At that time God says, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts [actually change man's nature so he will obey God's law instead of being hostile to it as natural man now is — Rom. 8:7]; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they ALL shall know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord" (Jer. 31:33-34). What a happy, joyful, WONDERFUL time that will be!
More Information Available
You have just been given a brief glimpse into the truly "Great Society" of the WORLD TOMORROW. But the Bible reveals much, much more about it. You need to have this information — and you can get it absolutely free in our Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course. Also, read our articles on "The Coming Utopia," and "The Kingdom of God — What Will it be Like?" These articles — also free — explain aspects of God's Kingdom not covered in this article. Don't delay!
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