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Earth declares the glory of God Why take God’s view and qualities as our business plans to beautify a spiritual estate for the public that is not injurious worldwide under Jesus Kingdom rule by his qualities. kj chap. 17 pp. 315-316 A “Garden of Eden” for the Sake of His Name *Contents Deuteronomy 32:1-43 Ezekiel 5:16-17 Hosea 9:10-13 Leviticus 26:1-46 Leviticus 26:18-22 Would there be any beautification again of the spiritual estate of the spiritual Israelites who were devoted to His name? 11 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘I myself have raised my hand in an oath that the nations that you have round about—they themselves will bear their own humiliation. And you yourselves, O mountains of Israel, will give forth your very own boughs and bear your own fruitage for my people Israel, for they have drawn near to the point of coming in. For here I am in favor of you, and I shall certainly turn toward you, and you will actually be cultivated and sown with seed. And I will multiply upon you humankind, the whole house of Israel, all of it, and the cities must become inhabited, and the devastated places themselves will be rebuilt. Yes, I will multiply upon you humankind and animal kind, and they will certainly multiply and become fruitful, and I shall actually cause you to be inhabited as in your former condition and I will do more good than in your initial state; and you will have to know that I am Jehovah. And upon you I will cause humankind to walk, even my people Israel, and they must take possession of you, and you must become a hereditary possession to them, and you will not bereave them again of any more children.’”—Ezekiel 36:7-12. ** g81 11/8 p. 10 Will There Ever Be a Real Paradise? ***We also see evidence that the earth has a built-in healing power, so that it can cure the scars left by men. In the Truk lagoon, for example, the grim hulks of sunken warships are being colonized and even made beautiful by strange and wonderful forms of sea life. Worldwide, when pollution of air, water and land cease, natural processes of restoration bring amazing transformations. Finally, for the most part it is man who is ruining his surroundings. Whether by pollution, by crime and violence, by despoiling the land for material wealth, or because of military rivalry between world powers, it is man who is gradually destroying his environment. And this is true not only in the Pacific but all around the world. ** g89 10/22 pp. 21-22 A Future to Believe In *** “Where there is no vision the people get out of hand,” a Bible writer long ago said. (Proverbs 29:18, The Jerusalem Bible) People need vision, a hope for a bright future. Otherwise they become demoralized and run wild. But is there a future we can believe in? The theme for the Voice of Democracy essay contest this past year was “Preparing for America’s Future.” The winner of first prize at the district level in the state of Virginia was a 16-year-old girl, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She was also invited to a local Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting, where she delivered her essay to about a hundred veterans. The essay appeared in the local Saltville News-Messenger, December 15, 1988. Read her essay, and see why this youth really believes there is a beautiful future. “Picture yourself in paradise. You are in a meadow with a plush, green carpet of grass under your feet. To the side of you is an awe-inspiring waterfall cascading over rocks down the side of a hill. Overhead hangs beautiful weeping-willow trees with clusters of violet blossoms producing the most pleasant fragrance. In the distance you see deer grazing. A grizzly bear comes up to you and allows you to pet and cuddle its massive fur. Birds of paradise are singing a delightful song. Would not that be wonderful? What a beautiful future to look forward to! “What in that picture was missing“ These are problems we are all aware of and we all must face. Granted it can be depressing, but I heard a poem once that read, ‘Two men looked out of prison bars, one saw the mud hole, the other saw the stars.’ To solve these problems we must look to the stars, meaning that we must have a positive attitude. For thousands of years man has set up governments, each different but none succeeding or withstanding very long. A prophet once said, ‘It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his steps.’ A wise king said man dominates man to his injury. To have a future we must look to the stars, not the stars on the flag, and not to the stars that astrologers claim to derive the future from, but we must look beyond that to a much higher source, our Creator. “Our Creator promises at Psalm 46:9 to cause wars to cease. At Revelation chapter 11 and verse 18 he assures us that he will bring to ruin those ruining the earth. We can also be confident in the fulfillment of Daniel 2:44, which talks about a kingdom, a government that will last forever. This perfect government will do for the earth what we pictured at the beginning of this speech. “When we study the Bible, we learn what Jehovah God has in store for our future. President Reagan knows this is true because in 1983 he signed a resolution that was passed by both houses of Congress stating 1983 the national ‘Year of the Bible.’ This resolution recognized a ‘national need to study and apply the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.’ Mr. Reagan asked, ‘Can we resolve to reach, learn and try to heed the greatest message ever written, God’s Word and the Holy Bible? Inside its pages lie all the answers to all the problems that man has ever known.’ “Imagine again a paradise. That is the future that I believe in, when people will be motivated by love, honest and sincere. America’s problems are not unique to America. The same problems are being felt by the entire world. This we can see by simply reading the daily newspaper or watching the nightly news with Tom Brokaw. The only way to solve these problems is to look to our Creator. His original purpose for the earth was for it to be a paradise. Remember the Garden of Eden, where he put Adam and Eve? I believe he will fulfill that purpose. We just need to trust in him. So let us learn what the Bible foretells and keep our chin up to a beautiful future.” |
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