What Kind of Security Do You Long For?
DIFFERENT people have different ideas about security. Some view it as stability between opposing military powers. For example, the powers that dominate the world scene together with their European allies have agreed on many measures to reduce the risk that small incidents will escalate into global nuclear war. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook 1990 expresses astonishment over the lack of interest in such measures by nations “in other parts of the world.”
However, to millions living in poor countries, “security” means food and health care. “When it comes to thinking about ‘peace and security,’” explains political scientist Yash Tandon, “the received notions of the dominant Western culture take over. . . . ‘Security’ is seen as a matter of arms and disarmament, isolated from the security concerns of the unfed and the unhoused of two-thirds of the world’s population.”
As for the Bible, it promises that under God’s Kingdom there will be no more war. “He is making wars to cease to the extremity of the earth. The bow he breaks apart and does cut the spear in pieces; the wagons he burns in the fire.” (Psalm 46:9; Isaiah 2:4) Physical sickness will be a thing of the past. “No resident will say: ‘I am sick.’ The people that are dwelling in the land will be those pardoned for their error.”—Isaiah 33:24.
Under that Kingdom, economic insecurity will no longer threaten anyone. “They will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating.”—Isaiah 65:21, 22.
More important, though, the Kingdom will remove the basic cause for the lack of peace and security. Who has been behind man’s long history of unsuccessful and oppressive governments? While God has, for good reason, permitted them to exist, the one who must take responsibility is Satan, since the Bible says that ‘the whole world is lying in his power.’—1 John 5:19.
What a relief, then, when under God’s Kingdom, Paul’s words to the Romans are finally fulfilled: “For his part, the God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly”! (Romans 16:20) Only God’s heavenly Kingdom, under the King Jesus Christ, could accomplish such a thing. Hence, only under that Kingdom will the earth be transformed into a paradise.—Genesis 1:28; Luke 23:43.
Yes, the security promised in the Bible is far superior and more far-reaching than anything devised by man. Why, we read that “death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore”! (Revelation 21:4) Can we trust such promises? Yes, because they originate with the almighty Creator, Jehovah God, who also declares: “My word that goes forth from my mouth . . . 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) Certain success marks the steps that Jehovah God is taking even now to bring to mankind durable and happifying peace, security, and prosperity in vindication of His eternal sovereignty.