Hailing God’s New World of Freedom
“[God] will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.”—REVELATION 21:4.
1, 2. Who only can bring true freedom, and what can we learn from the Bible about Him?
HISTORY has proved the truth of what the prophet Jeremiah said: “To earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” Who only can properly direct man’s step? Jeremiah went on to say: “Correct me, O Jehovah.” (Jeremiah 10:23, 24) Yes, only Jehovah can bring true freedom from the problems plaguing the human family.
2 The Bible contains many examples of Jehovah’s ability to bring freedom to those who serve him. “All the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4) Jehovah’s judgments against false worship were also recorded, and these serve as “a warning to us upon whom the ends of the systems of things have arrived.”—1 Corinthians 10:11.
Freeing His People
3. How did Jehovah show his ability to free his people in Egypt?
3 An example of God’s ability to execute judgment against false worship and to free those who do his will took place when his people of ancient times were enslaved in Egypt. Exodus 2:23-25 says: “Their cry for help kept going up to the true God because of the slavery. In time God heard their groaning.” In an awesome display of his superiority over Egypt’s false gods, Almighty God brought ten plagues on that nation. Each plague was designed to humiliate a god of Egypt, showing that they were false and could not help the Egyptians who worshiped them. Thus God freed his people and destroyed Pharaoh and his armies in the Red Sea.—Exodus, chapters 7 to 14.
4. Why was it no injustice for God to execute his judgments against the Canaanites?
4 When God brought Israel into Canaan, its demon-worshiping inhabitants were destroyed and the land was given to God’s people. As the Universal Sovereign, Jehovah has the right to execute his judgments on debased religions. (Genesis 15:16) And regarding Canaanite religion, Halley’s Bible Handbook says: “The worship of . . . Canaanite gods consisted in the most extravagant orgies; their temples were centers of vice. . . . Canaanites worshipped, by immoral indulgence, as a religious rite, in the presence of their gods; and then, by murdering their first-born children, as a sacrifice to these same gods. It seems that, in large measure, the land of Canaan had become a sort of Sodom and Gomorrah on a national scale.” He adds: “Did a civilization of such abominable filth and brutality have any right longer to exist? . . . Archaeologists who dig in the ruins of Canaanite cities wonder that God did not destroy them sooner than he did.”
5. How does God’s freeing his ancient people serve as a pattern for our time?
5 This account of God’s acting against false worship, freeing his covenant people, and providing a promised land for them serves as a pattern of things to come. It points to the very near future when God will crush this world’s false religions and their supporters and will usher his modern-day servants into a new world of righteousness.—Revelation 7:9, 10, 13, 14; 2 Peter 3:10-13.
True Freedom in God’s New World
6. What are some of the marvelous freedoms that God will provide in the new world?
6 In the new world, God will bless his people with all the marvelous facets of the freedom that he has purposed for the human family. There will be freedom from oppression by political, economic, and false religious elements. There will be freedom from sin and death, with people having the prospect of living forever on earth. “The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.”—Psalm 37:29; Matthew 5:5.
7, 8. What will be experienced in regaining perfect health in the new world?
7 Soon after that new world has been ushered in, its inhabitants will be miraculously restored to vibrant health. Job 33:25 says: “Let his flesh become fresher than in youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor.” Isaiah 35:5, 6 promises: “At that time the eyes of the blind ones will be opened, and the very ears of the deaf ones will be unstopped. At that time the lame one will climb up just as a stag does, and the tongue of the speechless one will cry out in gladness.”
8 Those of you with physical ailments due to old age or poor health, imagine yourself in the new world waking up each morning healthy and vigorous. Your wrinkles have given way to smooth, healthy skin—no more need for skin lotions. Your dimmed or blinded eyes have been restored to perfect sight—no more need for glasses. Full hearing has been restored—throw away those hearing aids. Crippled limbs are now strong and whole—get rid of those canes, crutches, and wheelchairs. There is no more sickness—throw away all those medicines. Thus, Isaiah 33:24 foretells: “No resident will say: ‘I am sick.’” He also states: “To exultation and rejoicing they will attain, and grief and sighing must flee away.”—Isaiah 35:10.
9. How will war forever be brought to an end?
9 No more will anyone be sacrificed to war. “[God] 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) Weapons of war will never again be allowed by the Ruler of God’s Kingdom, Christ Jesus, whom Isaiah 9:6 calls the “Prince of Peace.” Isa 9 Verse 7 adds: “To the abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end.”
10, 11. What will total peace mean for the earth?
10 What a blessing it will be for mankind, and this earth, to be free of weapons of war! Why, at the present time, weapons used in previous wars are still destroying people. In one country, France, more than 600 bomb-disposal experts have been killed since 1945 while getting rid of explosives left over from previous wars. The head of the bomb-disposal agency there said: “We still find live cannon balls from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. There are lakes filled with toxic grenades from World War I. Every so often, a farmer in a tractor rolls over an anti-tank mine from World War II and poof, that’s it. These things are everywhere.” Two years ago The New York Times commented: “In the 45 years since the end of World War II, [bomb-disposal units] have rid [French] soil of 16 million artillery shells, 490,000 bombs and 600,000 underwater mines. . . . Millions of acres remain fenced off, knee-deep in weaponry and surrounded by posters that warn: ‘Don’t Touch. It Kills!’”
11 How different the new world will be! Everyone will have good housing, abundant food, and the rewarding, peaceful work of turning the entire earth into a paradise. (Psalm 72:16; Isaiah 25:6; 65:17-25) Never again will people, and the earth, be bombarded by millions of explosive devices. Such a new world is what Jesus had in mind when he said to one who showed faith in him: “You will be with me in Paradise.”—Luke 23:43.
Global Education for Life
12, 13. What global educational work did Jesus and Isaiah foretell for our time?
12 When a person learns about God’s new world, he also learns that in our day, Jehovah has produced a worldwide congregation organized for true worship. It will be the nucleus of the new world, and God is using it now to instruct others about his purposes. This Christian organization is performing a global educational work of a nature and size never before seen. Jesus foretold that this would be done. He said: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.”—Matthew 24:14.
13 Isaiah also spoke of this global educational work: “It must occur in the final part of the days [in our time] that the mountain of the house of Jehovah [his exalted true worship] will become firmly established . . . and to it all the nations must stream. And many peoples will certainly go and say: ‘Come, you people, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, . . . and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.’”—Isaiah 2:2, 3.
14. How can we identify God’s people today?
14 Hence, the global work of witnessing about God’s Kingdom is strong evidence that we are near the end of this wicked system and that true freedom is at hand. The ones calling on people with the hope-filled message of God’s new world are described at Acts 15:14 as “a people for [God’s] name.” Who bear Jehovah’s name and give the global witness about Jehovah and his Kingdom? The historical record of the 20th century answers: only Jehovah’s Witnesses. Today they number more than four million in more than 66,000 congregations all over the world.—Isaiah 43:10-12; Acts 2:21.
15. In regard to political affairs, how can we identify God’s true servants?
15 Another evidence that Jehovah’s Witnesses are fulfilling the prophecies about the Kingdom-preaching work is noted at Isaiah 2:4: “They will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.” So those doing the global preaching work about God’s Kingdom rule must ‘learn war no more.’ Jesus said that they must be “no part of the world.” (John 17:16) This means that they must be neutral in political affairs, not taking sides in the controversies and wars of the nations. Who are no part of the world and learn war no more? Again, the historical record of the 20th century testifies: only Jehovah’s Witnesses.
16. How thorough will God’s global educational work be?
16 The global educational work of Jehovah’s Witnesses will continue even after God brings this present wicked world to its end. Isaiah 54:13 states: “All your sons will be persons taught by Jehovah.” So thorough will this teaching be that Isaiah 11:9 foretells: “The earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea.” Continued teaching will be needed not only for survivors of the end of this old world and for children who may be born in the new world but also for the billions who come back to life in the resurrection. Eventually, every person who lives on earth will be taught to exercise his free will properly within the boundaries of God’s laws. The result? “The meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.”—Psalm 37:11.
Great Freedoms Even Now
17. What did Moses tell God’s ancient people to do?
17 When the ancient Israelites were on the threshold of the Promised Land, Moses spoke to them and said: “I have taught you regulations and judicial decisions, just as Jehovah my God has commanded me, for you to do that way in the midst of the land to which you are going to take possession of it. And you must keep and do them, because this is wisdom on your part and understanding on your part before the eyes of the peoples who will hear of all these regulations, and they will certainly say, ‘This great nation is undoubtedly a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has gods near to it the way Jehovah our God is in all our calling upon him?”—Deuteronomy 4:5-7.
18. What great freedoms come even now to those serving God?
18 Today the millions who worship Jehovah are also on the threshold of a promised land—the new world. Because they obey God’s laws, they have him near to them and stand out from all other peoples. Already God has freed them from false religious ideas, racism, illicit drug use, nationalism, war, and the pandemic of sexually transmitted diseases. Furthermore, he has united them in an unbreakable international brotherhood of love. (John 13:35) They are not disturbed about the future but “cry out joyfully because of the good condition of the heart.” (Isaiah 65:14) What great freedoms they enjoy even now by serving God as Ruler!—Acts 5:29, 32; 2 Corinthians 4:7; 1 John 5:3.
Freeing Others From False Beliefs
19, 20. How are people freed by the Bible teaching about the condition of the dead?
19 Many to whom Jehovah’s Witnesses preach are also coming to find these freedoms. For example, in lands where ancestor worship is carried on, Jehovah’s Witnesses are making known to others that the dead are not alive anywhere and cannot harm the living. The Witnesses point to Ecclesiastes 9:5, which states that “the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” They also refer to Psalm 146:4, which says that when a person dies “he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish.” So the Bible shows that there is no ghostly spirit or immortal soul to perform cures or to terrify living ones. There is no need, therefore, to waste hard-earned money buying the services of witch doctors or priests.
20 Such accurate Bible knowledge frees people from the false teachings of hellfire and purgatory. When people learn the Bible truth that the dead are unconscious, as if in a deep sleep, they no longer worry about what has happened to their dead loved ones. Instead, they look forward to the marvelous time that the apostle Paul spoke about when he said: “There is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.”—Acts 24:15.
21. Who will no doubt be included among those resurrected, and what will likely be their reaction?
21 In the resurrection the dead will come back to life on an earth forever freed from inherited Adamic death. No doubt the resurrected ones will include children sacrificed to Canaanite gods, such as Molech, young men sacrificed to Aztec gods, and countless millions sacrificed to the god of war. How amazed and delighted those former victims of false beliefs will be! Such resurrected ones can then happily declare: “Where are your stings, O Death? Where is your destructiveness, O Sheol?”—Hosea 13:14.
Search for Jehovah
22. If we want to live in God’s new world, what do we need to keep in mind?
22 Do you want to live in God’s righteous new world, where there will be true freedom? If so, then take to heart the words at 2 Chronicles 15:2: “Jehovah is with you as long as you prove to be with him; and if you search for him, he will let himself be found by you, but if you leave him he will leave you.” And keep in mind that your sincere efforts to learn about God and to please him will not go unnoticed. Hebrews 11:6 says that God is “the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him.” And Romans 10:11 says: “None that rests his faith on him will be disappointed.”
23. Why should we hail God’s new world of freedom?
23 Just on the horizon is God’s new world of true freedom. There “the creation itself also will be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God.” And “[God] will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.” (Romans 8:21; Revelation 21:4) Then all of Jehovah’s servants will lift their heads up and joyously hail God’s new world of freedom by exclaiming, ‘Thank you, Jehovah, for true freedom at last!’
How Would You Answer?
◻ How did Jehovah demonstrate his ability to free his people?
◻ What marvelous freedoms will there be in God’s new world?
◻ How is Jehovah educating people for life?
◻ What are some freedoms God’s people enjoy even now by serving Jehovah?
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Jehovah showed his superiority over Egypt’s false gods, freeing his worshipers
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Today, God’s true servants are identified by carrying out his global educational work and bearing his name