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God’s New World The
World God Created
Actually it would be a healthier world if more adults asked such questions: perhaps it is because children are fobbed off with inadequate answers that they grow up not bothering any more with their searching enquiries. We should all be wiser if we bothered to search a little more deeply; and, having found some of the answers, if we then acted accordingly. This document has been produced as a challenge to those who may never have thought much about the world, how it got here, where it's going, and what we are doing on it. There are answers to these questions: clear, exciting, and demanding answers. Answers to your children's awkward questions? Yes, but (more important) answers to the questions grown-ups hardly ever dare to ask. It is at this point, of course, that you - the reader - perhaps become suspicious. "We've heard all this before!" may be your response. Or perhaps, "These people are out to sell some book, or preach some fantastic philosophy: I must be on my guard!" Certainly you must be on your guard: the world is full of dangerous propaganda and new ideas. In fact, this is, as never before, a time for new ideas. Many today are disillusioned with the 'old' ideas: they have turned away from the Church which used to dominate men's lives; they have even become disappointed with science which at one time seemed to offer the way to limitless power and energy and ease - yet has brought pollution and devastation. Political ideas too are having to be reviewed: who would have dreamed that communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union would be rejected in favour of democracy and market economics? Yet the unthinkable has happened, and the terrorism in the United States that resulted in major disruption to the life of many people and that shook the world's economies shows an uncertain world that other unthinkable changes and revolutions, that can so easily upset our Western world, may be round the corner! And it is obvious that many people are actively looking for change; they are seeking alternatives to all the failed philosophies of the past: in fact 'alternative' has become a catch-word in recent years, so that we have 'alternative' energy sources, 'alternative' technology, 'alternative' medicine. People are talking very seriously about a 'new age', an age free of what they consider to be the dogmas and straitjackets of the past. This document is about a
New Age - a New World - but the ideas we are going to put
before you have been known for thousands of years. God's
plan for the world is ageless; it is eternal, and it has
never changed. It is recorded in the Bible. Man's ideas
have failed; human systems have come and gone, but there
is no need at all for some alternative 'new age'
philosophy: the oldest plan for our planet is still the
best. Please read on! But go into any library, look particularly in the technical sections, and most books will appear difficult to understand: they too are in small print; to the non-specialist they may look dreary. Yet to the person whose subject it is, these are the books he loves, books that have taught him his trade, fired his imagination, got him on his career ladder. The Bible can have the
same effect. Daunting? Dreary? Perhaps to those who
haven't read it. Exciting? Fulfilling? Yes, to the many
who have discovered its deep fascination . . . and its up
to date answers to life's questions. It may not directly
help you in your trade, nor put you on your career
ladder, but it will add new dimensions to the life of
yourself and your family. Please don't 'switch off' if we
quote fairly freely from it in this document. Our aim,
which we are not going to hide, and which we are
certainly not ashamed of, is to get you reading the Bible.
You may be in for some surprises. (Of course you may
already be a keen Bible reader: we are delighted if this
is so, and hope you will agree with what we have to say
in these pages.)
Genesis is the first book
in the Bible and it opens with the above words. Genesis
has to do with origins, with beginnings; it has the
answer to that not-so-childish question - Where do we
come from? "In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth . . . God said, 'Let there be light' . . .
God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grass . . . let the
waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and
let birds fly above the earth . . let the earth bring
forth the living creature according to its kind'. . . And
God said 'Let us make man. . :' " To say that life arose by
chance, evolved from simple to complex organisms by
chance, and produced mankind by chance may be a plausible
theory, but the proof just isn't there. Here are just
three objections: One more fact may interest you: some experts (as distinct from the popular broadcasters) are now seriously talking of the earliest man having lived on this planet less than 20,000 (rather than many millions of) years ago. They still won't let go of the theory that he evolved, but by allowing such a recent origin, they are coming closer to what creationists believe. Now we cannot expect readers to take all this for granted without further evidence, but it surely isn't unreasonable to ask you at least to allow the possibility that the universe, light, plants, birds, animals and man were all created - created by a divine hand. Do not rule it out; do not think it unthinkable: be generous-minded enough to say that creation is possible; and then let us see where this can lead us.
But let us start at home: we live on a planet, Earth, which along with the other solar planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, trace out their orbits at increasing distances from the Sun. The Sun is 'our' star: it is 93,000,000 miles from us - "Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end; and there is nothing hidden from its heat" (Psalm 19:6). Looking up at the night sky we see a vast number of points of light. The sun's planets account for a few of these; all the rest are stars, star clusters and galaxies - themselves great universes of countless stars. There are in fact said to be more than 100,000,000,000 galaxies visible to modern telescopes, each containing thousands of millions of stars. And the distances of the stars are astounding: the next nearest star (after the sun) is 23 million million miles away: the next nearest galaxy is about 50,000 times further than that. We are lost in the numbers of 'noughts'! And where did all this come from? There are several competing theories about how the universe arose, and we shall not stop to examine them here. In any case they all push the important question one stage further back: Who made it? Was there a Creator? Where did He come from? - and so on. Science can help, but we need more than science to comprehend the infinite: we need faith. Now if faith is needed to
imagine the beginnings of the universe, then faith is
needed, too, if we are to come to grips with life. We may
be dazzled by the numbers, size and distances of stars,
but we ought to be equally dazzled by the wonders of life
under the microscope. The world, in other words, is as
fantastic in small things as in huge things, in the
microscopic and in the immense. Ask a molecular biologist what 'makes' life and he will start telling you about the wonders within the living cell - the wonders of every single one of those 1,000,000,000,000,000 cells that there are, for example, in the human body. Why are they alive? What is the difference between a test tube full of chemicals and a growing organism? Where did life come from? Questions about how life keeps going, why it dies - all these are fairly easy to answer. But "Where did it come from?" "Why is it here?" - those are the tough ones. The scientist may explain to us all the intricacies and marvels of chromosomes, genes, enzymes - what it is that makes a poppy red, or a pansy blue: what it is that makes baby look like Mum or Dad. But he will not be able to give us answers to those harder questions. Introducing a Creator, however, answers all our questions; we shall go through life much less puzzled, and a great deal more satisfied, if we are prepared to acknowledge a Divine hand in the world around us. As the Bible man of long ago said, when the wonder of God's works finally dawned upon him:
May we suggest, then, that
you stop and think before you are caught out by the idea
of a world which (so they say) 'somehow' came into being,
and which (so they say) does not need a God to explain it. On Earth itself, the wonders can be multiplied: with his camera, man catches the perfection of autumn leaves, the symmetry of a snowflake, the exquisite delicacy of a bat wing, the majesty of great beasts of prey. Here is beauty at close range - and we are foolish not to see in all these things God's hand at work. But there is another picture that can meet the eye: it is the picture of smoke-stacks, of shanty towns, of sewage spilling out to sea, of devastated crops, disease-ridden animals, of famished and dying children, of terror and war. In the distant view,
perfection; in the close-up, too, perfection; but the
honest reporter has to include those other less than
perfect scenes. What has happened to a world that was
once very good? What has gone wrong?
Now we must be very careful in deciding what this very early Bible passage says, and what it does not say. For a start it reminds us that looking after the earth is a big responsibility, and sometimes a painful one; it requires sweat and toil, as man has to battle with weeds (and pests and other setbacks). We cannot expect life to be one long holiday, nor was it ever promised that man would live in luxury and ease. Even less was there any suggestion that he would live for ever. The opposite is true: he would return to dust. Man is mortal because God would not allow disobedient people to live for ever. Thousands of years after the words of Genesis were written, Paul the Apostle wrote about man's mortality in the words, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Though it is not the subject of this document, we have to ask our readers to think very carefully about the fact that there is no such thing as an after-life for souls in heaven, nor any scripture which teaches that we are basically immortal. The Bible is quite clear: death is real; man can only survive it by faith in Christ - but this is the subject of a later chapter in this document. Surely this early passage in Genesis also tells us that it is actually God's will that man should learn to live with toll and pain. They are not in themselves evil, and by the frustrations and trials of life, we learn to look for higher things and appreciate God's higher purpose in it all:
But added to the natural decay, there has, in recent times especially, been the damage that man quite thoughtlessly has inflicted upon himself and on the planet. Of course we deplore the rotting crops, the oil slicks, the polluted atmosphere, the terrible fate of thousands who die from hunger and disease: but who is to blame? Who caused these things? God is not to blame; so many of man's calamities are brought about by man himself-they arise from his greed, his selfishness and aggression. James, in the New Testament, utters some home truths about man's base nature:
Unfair! you may say. But deep down you know it to be a true - and frightening - description of those who have misused the world in their craving for power, pleasure and profit. We may justly condemn the 'scorched earth' policies of twentieth century tyrants, who devastate the countries they conquer - and often their own as well. But in a more general and long term sense, the whole human race has been guilty of 'scorched earth' policies. Many are the environmental
catastrophes which man has brought upon himself. And what
about the personal catastrophes which are also often self-inflicted?
We are sorry for those who suffer the effects of drug
abuse, or perverted sexual practices, but (as they often
admit when it is too late) they bring disaster upon
themselves: AIDS is one of the most terrifying of those
disasters, but it is only one of man's self-inflicted
diseases. We have all come across the smoker who warns us
about the dangers of his habit - but does nothing about
it himself. Tragically, the innocent suffer as well. In fact there is reason to believe that, left to ourselves, we are heading for total disaster. Yet there is an answer,
and it is the goal of this document to describe it. The
earth will one day be once more "very good";
the environment, about which we are all so rightly
concerned, will one day be cleaned up. But it will come
about in God's way, in God's time, and not man's. The Bible really does have the answer. The Bible is a realistic book: it is not a collection of fairy tales, nor of idealistic nonsense. It paints a realistic picture of all that is wrong with the world and with mankind; it presents a sober assessment of the problem - and it offers a sensible solution. The apostle Peter, speaking in Jerusalem shortly after Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, and then ascended to heaven, promised:
The answer, then, lies in the books of Israel's ancient prophets. Dry, dusty, untrustworthy old myths? What relevance can Hebrew scrolls from several thousand years ago have for today? Well, let them first speak -here are a couple of examples:
Too good to be true? An answer, at a stroke, to the ecological disasters of the world; to man's chronic diseases and depressions? That's how it would appear.
These words (Micah 4:3)
became the motto for the United Nations: optimistically
it was thought that by nations getting together, they
could settle all disputes, and prevent war for ever:
sadly it was not to be. The UN may have helped to reduce
the tensions between nations but it has not succeeded,
nor will it ever succeed, in stopping war. What the Lord
God says through Micah, however, is that He will judge
between nations, and through His intervention, wars will
ultimately cease. We move to the history of the kings (Saul, David, Solomon and their successors) and prophets (Isaiah, Daniel, Micah and many others), and learn from their writings what God had in mind for the restoration of all that had gone wrong. Much of what the prophets wrote had to do with the Jews - their future tribulations and their final restoration one day to their own land. But the restoration of Israel would be bound up with God's greater purpose with the earth, and with the coming of one very special person - the Son of God. Speaking of the kingdom of Israel, the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel said:
There is no real break between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and it is in the pages of the New Testament that the spotlight falls on that special person. Jesus of Nazareth, born to Mary, was truly the Son of God, and in him all the predictions of the prophets were fulfilled. His sufferings were foretold:
To be brief, we can say that Jesus Christ died because, unlike Adam and Eve (and the rest of us), he would not rebel against God's wishes. His desire was always to obey God - his Father - and he was prepared to submit even to death. Yet he had done no wrong! He is the only one since creation who has not been disobedient to God's commands. Because of his obedience, God did not leave him in the grave: He miraculously raised the murdered Christ calling him out of the stone tomb never to die again. We refer to the death of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice, because it was the death of a man giving himself willingly for the sake of all who would be his followers. Through that sacrifice God can accept us back into His favour, and has promised that (if we believe and associate ourselves with His Son), He will grant us eternal life in a restored and perfected earth. Forty days after he rose from the lead, Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven and he is there now as the Lord and Saviour of those who want to be his disciples. But in God's plan the Lord Jesus Christ is destined to return literally to the earth. When he was taken up to heaven, angels reassured his puzzled followers:
The reply we give is that Jesus is not this time to be the "babe of Bethlehem", nor the dying man on the cross. He is the risen Son of God, and has been given "all authority in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18). He, the first of all mankind, has been granted an immortal nature; and when he comes back to earth, he has no need to fear the world's politicians. He will have his own laws, his own government, and will set about forming his own Kingdom in which he will rule for God. He will be opposed, certainly, but he will achieve his purpose and man's ambitions will be put down. "Doesn't this sound like a dictator?" you may say. Perhaps it does, but not a merciless, selfish dictator; rather a dictator in the better sense of a leader who will rule with complete authority in the world's best interests. That, in fact, is what Peter was thinking about when he talked of "times of refreshing" and "the times of restoration of all things". This, very briefly, is the Bible backdrop to God's New World. We have come a long way from the brief survey of the wonders of nature with which we began. We started there because it was important to see today's problems in the context of the original design and purpose which God had with our planet. It was vital to go to the Bible for essential background: there is no other authority, no better source of information about the future of the world. But our search has already
shown us that we are not like spectators viewing events
from a safe distance and clapping when all goes well. We
ourselves are part of the drama. Christ's coming was for
us; his death, if we will accept it, was for us; his
second coming to the earth will be for us, if we want to
be with him and assist him. If we thought that the world
could be improved and perfected without any demands being
made of us, then we are to be disillusioned. Like Jesus,
we have to end one life and begin a new one, recognising
- as we saw from Genesis - that God still will not allow
disobedient folk to live for ever. He wants us to
recognise that He is our Maker, and respond by serving
Him.
Repent . . . be baptized . . . remission of sins: what strange old-fashioned language! We have quoted from a modern version of the Bible, yet still it may sound a little quaint. You and I live in a digital, computer-aided, plastic-wrapped society. We have become clever and sophisticated. We may enjoy accelerating in the fast lane. Even the least materialistic of us keep up with the latest hi-fi, we read the glossy holiday brochures - or if not holiday brochures, then gardening catalogues or keep-fit magazines. Let us not pretend we are not part of the world of the twenty-first century with all its comforts and opportunities. We have benefits our parents never dreamed of and we understandably want our children to do better still. So are we really expected
to "repent and be baptized"? Isn't this
something out of a Gospel movie? something you associate
with Christians in Roman times - not with computer-age
Christianity? If these are the pictures the word
'baptism' conjures up in your mind, then you are well on
the way to understanding baptism, for certainly it was in
the early Christian era that adult baptism a ceremony
where the new believer is fully immersed in water - took
place. Remember how John the Baptist used to baptize
people in the River Jordan (Mark 1:9)? Remember how
Philip the Evangelist found a pool of water, and how both
he and the Ethiopian believer "went down into the
water" (Acts 8:38)? Archaeologists have unearthed
very early Christian churches which have a built - in
bath of sufficient depth and length for an adult to be
baptized - to be completely covered in water. But the difference between old-fashioned baptism and modern 'Christening' is not just to be seen in the quantity of water used. Another major important difference is in the fact that an adult can have a full understanding of what is going on, while a baby cannot have the slightest idea. Baptism is a ceremony in which a new believer knowingly takes part. It is carried out only when he or she understands what it means. And now we can introduce that other word which Peter used, "repent". Repentance is the humble response of someone who comes to know the Gospel, understands its demands on him or her, confesses a need of Christ's sacrifice, acknowledges his or her own waywardness (what the Bible calls "sin"), and desires to be associated with Christ. He or she will then want to be baptized. As Paul explains in one of his letters:
So there is more to
baptism than some readers may perhaps have imagined. And
it really isn't so quaint or old-fashioned. It is a
dignified and humble act of belief, confession and
commitment. When it takes place in a Christadelphian
meeting-room, it is not with handclapping or emotional
displays, but with joy on the part of the candidate and
delight on the part of those whom he joins in fellowship. The environmental crisis is real.
Some readers will be reasonably familiar with these lines of argument, yet may never have taken any action to put them into practice in their own lives: we urge them to do so. To others the whole story may appear unlikely and unreal: to them we say, Give it further thought; go back over the points we are making, ask yourself whether you can find any more promising solution to the world's ills, any more certain answer to man's insoluble problems. But to all readers who have got as far as this point, we now say: Come with us into the final chapter of this document: we want to tell you what the Bible really has to say to you and to your children about God's New World. New World of God's Kingdom Earlier in this document we set out Bible teaching on the second coming of Christ. Returning to that speech of Peter, we now quote:
And in Jesus' own words:
The last book of the Bible has much to say which will please the environmentalist. Revelation is a remarkable prophecy, according to its opening words, of "things which must shortly take place" (Revelation 1:1) and it contains some cheering and reassuring promises. But notice that the Bible doesn't stop at giving an answer to the environmental issue: it deals with the much more basic problem of man's mortality:
A dream? Wishful thinking? Fairy tales? Escapism from the harsh reality and awesome responsibility which we must bear? All we can say in answer to those challenges is: See for yourself, if the Bible hasn't many times spoken poetically, yet been proved true. You may regard it as wishful thinking on the part of God's prophets who foretold the first coming of Christ: but it came true. During the last 100 years it was certainly the dream of many that the Jews might find a homeland after the centuries of persecution and scattering. The Holocaust seemed to spell the end of those dreams, whereas it turned out to be the grim prelude to their fulfilment as foretold in the Bible. And this further and final dream will also come true. Christ will come, and God will set up His Kingdom.
Get in touch with Christadelphians near you; call in at one of our meetings, read one or two of our other publications - but, more important still, read your Bible. Talk it over with your family: ask the children what they think is the answer to the world's problems. We started by referring to the wonderful questions children ask: is it not time we put one or two questions to them, for young people often show sound sense on current issues? Ask them if they know of a human plan to help this planet. Ask them what they think of God's plan! But don't walk away from what you have read. The Bible is not threatening you, but offering you untold blessings, eternal joys and relief from all your sorrows-for ever. Don't turn away. God's promises are coming to a long awaited climax: the end of the world, as we know it, could be very near:
JOHN MORRIS |
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