Mankind’s Deliverance into God’s New Order

“Here I am creating new heavens and a new earth.”​—Isa. 65:17.

1, 2. (a) What suggestions are made because of the old saying, “There is nothing new under the sun”? (b) Such suggested conditions provoke what questions?

IT IS an old saying, “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccl. 1:9) But what if there were no more wars, nor even war preparation on earth, nor any natural disasters, nor fatal accidents, nor famines and pestilences? What if there were no crushing burdens of over-expensive governments, no oppression by governments, no revolutions and violent overturning of governments? That would be very nice, would it not? But let us not stop there!

² What if there were no more snobbish social distinctions, no more national prejudices, no more racial discriminations? What if none of us were getting old, along with losing sight, hearing, hair, teeth, good bodily functions, but were attaining the bloom and freshness of beautiful youth and keeping it perpetually? What if nobody was getting sick and dying, but, instead, people were coming back from the graves and being restored live to our midst until the last cemetery was emptied? What if there was universal education in the accurate truth about religion and we were all living in harmony with that truth? What if we were living peacefully in a gardenlike earth, under one government the wide earth around? That would be something new for all mankind, would it not?

3. (a) Such conditions would distinguish only what kind of order? (b) What about expecting something on the part of the medical doctors and health experts as regards death?

³ Yes, indeed. And an order of things under which such conditions would prevail all over the earth, along with such perfect relations among all the human family, would be a new order, indeed. Even the idea of such an order of things on earth is new to countless millions of minds today. Human history discloses that mankind has never existed under an order of that kind down till this present time. What all of us are well acquainted with is what is by now an “old order,” this “present order.” The human race has been on this earth for thousands of years, and yet the earth’s surface is not fully populated, with plenty to eat for all. This has resulted from the fact that death, from many various causes, has been steadily taking its toll of human lives. It has kept the human family from multiplying even faster than it has been doing in these last two centuries. Death has been an ever-present feature of this old order, and our hosts of medical doctors and health experts of today give us no basis for expecting them to wipe out death as long as this old order stands.

4, 5. (a) How do people feel about the present order, but what question arises as to what they want? (b) In whom are men of affairs putting confidence, and so what are they doing with respect to the future?

⁴ Mankind has had enough of this “present order,” or, “disorder,” as many prefer to call it. It is time for a change. Yes, but who is destined to change it? Who is there that can change it? Men have long been given their opportunity to change it for the better. But the bettering of man’s plight has failed to be realized till now.

⁵ Men of affairs in the present order are still unwilling to stop putting confidence in men, in human ability, especially now that we have all the scientific advancement of this twentieth century. Long-range planning ahead is feverishly going on. Government planners are looking ahead to the end of this century. They are already speaking of the year 2000, and are optimistically envisioning what the earthly conditions will be by then by means of human ingenuity. They expect great changes. They see the need of many drastic changes. They expect to glorify themselves by bringing in a higher civilization that will afford all mankind greater advantages than ever before, that will make life more worth living. But what about us in the meantime?

6. (a) What is happening to our present problems? (b) So what do we want, and when do we want it to be?

⁶ Problems on a world scale are with us today and now. The problems are becoming more serious and complicated as time moves on. This is true in spite of all the promises and assurances that have been made by political dictators and world leaders to give the people a bright “new order.” Oh, of course, some superficial changes are made in outward appearance of things, but the same “old order” has remained with us with its wars, oppressions, injustices, racial and national rivalries, starvation for millions, violence, insecurity, pain, sickness, old age, and going down into the grave. We want something different from that. We want a really “new order.” In our natural desire for survival we want it to begin in our generation. Then we ourselves can get the lasting benefit of it. Who can bring it in?

7, 8. (a) After thousands of years of human experience, what did the psalmist say about putting our trust? (b) What does the psalmist say on the positive side of this matter?

⁷ Thousands of years of human experience had already passed when an inspired man wrote: “Do not put your trust in nobles, nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs. His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish.” The nearly three thousand years of time since those words were penned have proved the soundness of that piece of advice. Well, then, if we cannot wisely put our trust in earthling man, not even in nobles who should be better than the average man, who else is there in whom to put our trust?

⁸ Certainly the aforequoted adviser ought not to speak merely negatively and leave us baffled. Reasonably he should offset that negative advice by giving us some positive advice in telling us who outside of man is the one in whom we can put trust without disappointment. He does do this, saying: “Happy is the one who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, of the sea, and of all that is in them, the One keeping trueness to time indefinite, the One executing judgment for the defrauded ones, the One giving bread to the hungry ones.”​—Ps. 146:3-7.

9. What did Jehovah say to Jeremiah about putting trust in man, and to what extent has this been true according to human history?

⁹ Is anybody inclined to sneer at that inspired counsel? He is not alone in this attitude. The vast majority have refused to pay attention to this counsel, even if they knew of it. Have they been benefited or blessed for doing so? Human history shows. It bears out the truthfulness of what man’s Creator himself said to his prophet Jeremiah: “Cursed is the able-bodied man who puts his trust in earthling man and actually makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns away from Jehovah himself. And he will certainly become like a solitary tree in the desert plain and will not see when good comes; but he must reside in parched places in the wilderness, in a salt country that is not inhabited.” (Jer. 17:5, 6) A curse is the opposite of a blessing, and all the evidence is that men have not been blessed for trusting in men and not God.

10. (a) How do self-confident men act as to obligations toward God? (b) How could God act toward them as to consequences, and why?

¹⁰ Self-confident men, proud of their modern-day achievements, conduct themselves as if they owed nothing to God. They feel no responsibility toward him and ignore his published laws. If they do not deny his existence or even say that “God is dead,” they act as if he did not exist with regard to human affairs. Although they owe everything to Him, God the Creator owes nothing to man. Everything that man has and enjoys, he owes to God. And now that man thanklessly turns his back on God and feels no obligation to Him, to be obedient to Him as the Source of life and of righteous laws for living, God owes nothing to rebellious man. He could leave mankind to eat the bitter fruitage of its own willful course of action. Yes, he could let mankind die out or even destroy itself before then by the use of all its modern-day means for violently destroying itself.

11, 12. (a) What did the wise man say concerning man’s start, and how was that true? (b) In what case would there have been no need of a “new order,” but what have we of today learned about past human plans?

¹¹ The wisest king of ancient times, looking over the history of mankind from its start and down to the eleventh century before our Common Era, said: “This only I have found, that the true God made mankind upright, but they themselves have sought out many plans.” (Eccl. 7:29) The true God created the first human married couple upright, perfect in body, mind, heart, morality, and put them in a delightful garden home with food supplies to keep them alive forever in perfect health.

¹² If they had used their free moral agency aright and had kept upright and had brought up their children upright and had gradually enlarged their Paradise home to embrace all this earthly globe, would there be need today for a “new order”? No! The perfect Paradise state of things on earth would have continued on right down to now and there would have arisen no need for restoring mankind to what it was before when God created it. But under the test of perfect obedience to their Creator and Lawgiver, the first human couple sought out their own plans. (Gen. 1:26 to 5:5) Today, about six thousand years later, we all know how their plans worked out.

THE CERTAINTY OF THE NEW ORDER

13. Who can usher in a really new order, and is there any obligation to do so?

¹³ As far as our ability to undo the effects of that bad planning is concerned, mankind has harmed itself beyond self-repairing. The hour is now later than people think. So if people continue to trust in imperfect and dying men to usher in a new order free from all the harmful features of this present order, it will lead nowhere but to disastrous disappointment​—soon now! Our Creator, God the Almighty, alone can bring in a new order. Will he do so? He is not obligated to do so, even though man did not ask to come here and did not put himself on this earth. But why is God under no obligation? It is because man has forsaken God. Man has chosen to go his own way in rebellion against his Creator and Lawgiver. Furthermore, if we judge man by his thinking, his planning and his efforts, he does not want God’s new order. How so? Well, man does not want to meet the requirements for such a new order.

14. What, then, is the question, and where can we get reliable information?

¹⁴ So now the big question is, Is the Almighty God inclined to install the sorely needed new order? Has He decided to do so? The reliable, authoritative answers to such questions​—where can we get them? Nowhere else but in God’s written Word, the Holy Bible!

15, 16. (a) By his prophet Isaiah what did God say about his purpose to do so? (b) How does the apostle John show whether God has changed his mind on this, and why was John told to write about this?

¹⁵ Listen, as He speaks to his prophet Isaiah in the eighth century before our Common Era: “Here I am creating new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart. But exult, you people, and be joyful forever in what I am creating.” (Isa. 65:17, 18) ‘Oh!’ some listener might say, ‘that was said and written down some twenty-seven centuries ago, and that is out of date by now and does not hold good today.’ But listen, now, to a revelation that God gave to the Christian apostle John more than eight hundred years later. In writing it down, John says: “And I saw a great white throne and the one seated on it. From before him the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. . . . And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.” (Rev. 20:11 to 21:1) Thus after more than eight centuries the same God had not changed his mind. Also, John wrote further:

¹⁶ “And the One seated on the throne said: ‘Look! I am making all things new.’ Also, he says: ‘Write, because these words are faithful and true.”’​—Rev. 21:5.

17. So now, today, after nineteen hundred years, what is the good news in this regard?

¹⁷ Consequently, this God on his heavenly throne could not be true to himself and at the same time change his mind regarding his declared purpose to create a new order with new heavens and a new earth where there will no more be a sea of humanity alienated from God through sin inherited from our first human parents. So, although God does not owe mankind anything, he is inclined to usher in a desirable new order, and he has not changed his mind, even after nineteen hundred years of time. Is that not good news?

WHAT BLOCKS MAN’S EFFORTS?

18. Before there can be a “new earth,” what must there be first?

¹⁸ Let us take note that God promises to create, not only a “new earth,” but also “new heavens.” How well this shows that God knows what is the thing most essential in order for dying mankind to have a new order. There can be no “new earth” without first having “new heavens”! A new sun, moon, stars, planets and galaxies overhead within range of man’s vision? No! These visible material unintelligent bodies in the skies do not and cannot have any effect upon man’s order of things as the astrologers from the days of ancient Babylon have taught. But by the expression “new heavens” Jehovah God means new invisible spirit intelligences in superhuman heavenly control of mankind.

19. How was this meaning of the expression “new heavens” indicated by the prophet Daniel, and also by Jesus Christ?

¹⁹ That was the idea when the prophet Daniel used the word “heavens” as he was interpreting the dream of the king of ancient Babylon about a big tree and saying: “Seven times themselves will pass over you, until you know that the Most High is Ruler in the kingdom of mankind, and that to the one whom he wants to he gives it. And because they said to leave the rootstock of the tree, your kingdom will be sure to you after you know that the heavens are ruling.” (Dan. 4:25, 26) This idea of invisible, intelligent heavenly rulership and control of mankind was also contained in the words of Jesus Christ, when he proclaimed: “The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.”​—Matt. 4:17.

20, 21. (a) What does the expression “new heavens” indicate, and how does this explain man’s inability to change things for the better? (b) How do worldly-wise persons fool themselves about this matter?

²⁰ God’s promise of a “new heavens” indicates that there are old “heavens” that are in control of mankind and that are invisibly running the present order of things. These symbolic old heavens stand as a superhuman roadblock in the way of all sincere efforts of men and women to change the present order for the better and to have lasting reforms in hope of saving mankind from self-destruction. For mankind these old “heavens” are an unseen enemy able to outwit self-reliant men and women at every turn, as human history has demonstrated all the way till now.

²¹ Worldly-wise people of this scientific Brain Age disbelieve and ridicule the existence of such an unseen, superhuman, intelligent spirit enemy. But that selfsame enemy knows that there are no greater fools than those who fool themselves. But we are not foolish when we ask, Who is that enemy as represented by the old “heavens”?

22, 23. How did one who came from heaven and returned there tell men who this enemy is?

²² A person who came down from heaven and lived as a man on earth for more than thirty-three years before returning to the invisible spirit heavens tells us who that enemy is. On one occasion on earth seventy men whom he sent out as evangelizers to proclaim the kingdom of God returned and reported: “Lord, even the demons are made subject to us by the use of your name.” In reply, what did Jesus Christ say to those jubilant evangelizers? This: “I began to behold Satan already fallen like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10:1-18) In a pictorial illustration that he gave at the close of his prophecy on the conclusion of this system of things he foretold the time when he would say these words to goatish people: “Be on your way from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” (Matt. 24:3; 25:31-33, 41) Three nights later, when telling his faithful apostles of his coming betrayal and violent death on an execution stake, Jesus Christ said:

²³ “Now there is a judging of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” “The ruler of the world is coming. And he has no hold on me.” (John 12:31; 14:30) “Look! Satan has demanded to have you men to sift you as wheat.”​—Luke 22:31.

24. What did Jesus thus show about the “heavens” now controlling mankind, and, according to Paul, whom is the world of mankind worshiping?

²⁴ There we have the word of no one less than Jesus Christ himself as an authority on the subject: Satan the Devil and his demon angels are the ones that make up the symbolic old heavens, the present superhuman “heavens,” that are ruling and control mankind during this present old order. Instead of worshiping the true God who promises “new heavens and a new earth,” the vast majority of mankind are worshiping the Devil and his demons. The Devil is subtle and wily in concealing his operations and deceptions on the people, for the Christian apostle Paul writes: “The god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.” (2 Cor. 4:4) By that description the apostle Paul meant the false god, Satan.

25. Who induced Adam and Eve to seek out plans contrary to God’s will?

²⁵ Furthermore, Jesus Christ identified Satan the Devil as being the invisible one who induced the upright Adam and Eve to seek out plans contrary to God’s will. Satan thus brought this dying, imperfect condition upon all of us.

26. How did Satan become what Jesus called him, “a manslayer”?

²⁶ On one occasion Jesus addressed himself to certain ones in his audience who were wanting to kill him and said to them: “You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie.” (John 8:44) In man’s original home, the Garden of Eden, Satan the Devil called Jehovah God a liar; and the first woman, Eve, believed the Devil, and after that her husband, Adam, took her side and joined her in disobeying God. Therefore Jehovah pronounced the sentence of death upon our first parents; and because Satan the Devil induced this result, he became what Jesus called him, “a manslayer.” He slew us also, for we have inherited from sinful Adam and Eve our dying condition.​—Gen. 2:7–5:5.

27, 28. (a) What disability cannot capable men of the world lift from us, or what cannot armies and revolutionaries unsaddle from us? (b) How did Paul give the Ephesians some idea of what we are up against?

²⁷ In spite of all that government rulers and lawmakers and judges and medical doctors and scientists can do, they cannot lift from us the condemnation to death that still rests upon all of us because of inherited sinfulness and imperfection. They cannot bring us back into the Garden of Eden from which our first parents were driven because of rebellion against God the Creator. Despite all that the world’s military forces and the social revolutionaries might try to do, they cannot unsaddle from us the demonic old “heavens” that have fastened themselves upon mankind. In this case worldly armies and revolutionaries are contending, not with other human creatures, but with superhuman forces, unseen. What all mankind are up against, the apostle Paul gave us some idea of when he wrote to the Christian congregation in Ephesus in Asia:

²⁸ “Put on the complete suit of armor from God that you may be able to stand firm against the machinations of the Devil; because we have a wrestling, not against blood and flesh, but against the governments, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.”​—Eph. 6:11, 12.

29. Despite casting out demons, what did Jesus and his apostles not try to do, with what result today?

²⁹ The apostle Paul, as well as Jesus Christ himself and his other apostles, cast out demons from persons who were obsessed by them, thus liberating the poor human victims. However, Jesus Christ, when on earth, and his apostles never did attempt to overthrow this invisible old “heavens,” composed of demon governments, authorities, world rulers of this darkness and wicked spirits in the heavenly places. Nineteen centuries ago it was not the time for such a liberation of mankind. Consequently those wicked demon “heavens” have continued to dominate mankind and human affairs till now. The human family is now experiencing the terrible effects of this invisible rule, and is absolutely helpless against it.

30. To whom are we obliged to look for the providing of a Deliverer, and to avoid being “cursed” to whom may we not look?

³⁰ Mankind desperately needs a Liberator from these ruinous demonic heavens. Jehovah God has raised up the needed Deliverer! Jehovah’s marked time for the desired deliverance is at hand! We cannot look to human “nobles” or to earthling man for the Deliverer. We would become “cursed” for doing so! Force of circumstances oblige us to look to Jehovah for him. Who is he?

31. What will Jehovah’s chosen one be able to do, and why is that a basic requirement for a new order?

³¹ It is the one chosen by Jehovah God, the one who can put these old demonic “heavens” out of existence. There cannot be a new order for mankind without getting rid of those wicked “heavens” that have dominated this old order. There cannot be a new order for mankind without a “new heavens.” This is a basic requirement. It is the first requirement. Jehovah God has promised to create such a “new heavens.”

32. How will those in the ‘heavens that are now’ be counterbalanced by those in the “new heavens,” and who is the vital, essential one in the “new heavens”?

³² As the wicked ‘heavens that are now’ are composed of superhuman, invisible spirit creatures, so also the new heavens must be composed of superhuman, invisible spirit creatures. The apostle Peter cheered his fellow Christians on in their waiting on God and putting confidence in God by writing: “But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.” (2 Pet. 3:13) God has already raised up the chief one, the vital and essential one, of those “new heavens,” and that one is his faithful Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. Hail this Deliverer!

Laying the Foundations for God’s New Order

1. What were those to whom 2 Peter 3:13 was addressed expecting to become, but why does a real question arise on that account?

WHEN the apostle Peter wrote to the fellow Christians of his day, “There are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise,” they themselves were expecting to become a part of those “new heavens” at the conclusion of this system of things. (2 Pet. 3:13; Matt. 24:3; 28:20) They expected to be associated with their God-given Leader and Head, Jesus Christ, in those “new heavens” over mankind. They rejoiced in the hope of replacing the wicked demonic “heavens” that are now casting the pall of death and destruction over all mankind. But how can they and the other fellow disciples of Jesus Christ, all of them being mere humans, become part of the “new heavens”?

2. As a key to unlocking this mystery, what did Peter write at the beginning of his first letter?

² The apostle Peter points to the key that unlocks this mystery, when he writes to fellow believers in the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for according to his great mercy he gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance. It is reserved in the heavens for you, who are being safeguarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last period of time.”​—1 Pet. 1:3-5.

3. Was mankind meant to go to heaven, and what must faithful dead Christians, in order to get to heaven, experience?

³ Notice that expression ‘a new birth to an inheritance reserved in the heavens for you.’ Also, the words, “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Mankind was not created and has not been born to go to heaven where God’s residence is. For any humans to get to heaven, it would require a new birth, a spiritual birth, that no human father can give but only God the heavenly Father can give. Furthermore, we note that all faithful disciples of Jesus Christ have died as humans till now. Certainly, then, for such dead Christians to get to heaven they need to have a resurrection.

4. In order for the man Jesus Christ to go to heaven, what was it necessary to have take place, as explained by Peter?

⁴ Even Jesus Christ, in order to get back to heaven from which he came, needed to die and be resurrected from the dead by the almighty power of his God and Father, Jehovah. Concerning this dying as a human and being resurrected as a spirit person, the apostle Peter makes this statement: “Even Christ died once for all time concerning sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, that he might lead you to God, he being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit. In this state also he went his way and preached to the spirits in prison, . . . through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is at God’s right hand, for he went his way to heaven; and angels and authorities and powers were made subject to him.”​—1 Pet. 3:18, 19, 21, 22; see also The New English Bible.

5. What does Peter say as to the reason why Christ died?

⁵ His death as a perfect human and his resurrection as a perfect spirit person was the way for his gaining entrance back into heaven. Let us note what the apostle Peter says as to the reason why Jesus Christ died. Peter says: “Christ died once for all time concerning sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, that he might lead you to God.”​—1 Pet. 3:18.

6. (a) Who are the “unrighteous ones” there mentioned, as in contrast with the “righteous person”? (b) For what sins could that “righteous person” die, and how so and with what effect?

⁶ Jesus Christ is the “righteous person” there mentioned. Who, though, are the “unrighteous ones”? We, all of us who got our life from the sinner Adam, we are those “unrighteous ones.” In dying “once for all time concerning sins,” Jesus Christ was not dying for his own sins; had he done so, then his death would have been of no benefit to us dying humans. The sins concerning which he “died once for all time” are our sins, the sins of all mankind who inherited sinfulness, imperfection and death from Adam, who had been sentenced to death by Jehovah God. Because Jesus was born perfect on earth and remained “righteous” till his “being put to death,” his death had a sacrificial value. It could gain something for those for whom his life was sacrificed.

7, 8. (a) What else, besides a “new heavens,” is required for a righteous new order? (b) What has mankind been experiencing according to their just deserts, and how could Jesus take upon himself what others fully deserved?

⁷ Ah, then, this unlocks to us another secret, and that is another thing that is required for a new order to be founded by Jehovah God. Not only are “new heavens” needed for it, but a “new earth” in the which there are no sin and imperfection and hence no condemnation to death. But how could such a righteous “new earth” be founded?

⁸ The “unrighteous ones,” all mankind that descended from unrighteous Adam, were dying and have been dying according to their just deserts. God’s law is: “The wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23) But the perfectly born Jesus stayed “righteous” all the time in spite of being in the midst of a sinful world. Concerning him the apostle Peter says in the same letter to Christians: “He committed no sin, nor was deception found in his mouth. He himself bore our sins in his own body upon the stake, in order that we might be done with sins.” (1 Pet. 2:22, 24) So, being perfectly “righteous,” Jesus did not deserve to die. He died in order to take upon himself what others fully deserved.

9. Why were the sacrifices made by unselfish humans of limited benefit to those for whom they sacrificed their lives?

⁹ In the course of human history many unselfish persons have sacrificed their lives for others, but those others for whom such a sacrifice was made have died thereafter and are still dead. Such other ones have not gained eternal life from such human sacrifices. It was imperfect, dying humans that died for them, and they themselves were imperfect and sinful and remained under condemnation to death. Their human lives were prolonged only a little while longer, and the sacrificial deaths made in their behalf did not guarantee for them a resurrection from the dead back to life on earth. Moreover, who of those self-sacrificing ones could die for the whole world of mankind, past and present, to keep alive the whole world? Not all the world’s armies of soldier boys dying on the battlefield could do so.

10. Why cannot any one of us give a ransom for someone else to live forever?

¹⁰ Sinful human creatures, who are condemned to eternal death for their own sins, can gain no eternal life on earth for other sinful human creatures. Just as Psalm 49:7, 9 says: “Not one of them can by any means redeem even a brother, nor give to God a ransom for him; that he should still live forever and not see the pit.”

11, 12. (a) For how many could the man Christ Jesus give himself as a ransom? (b) How could this be, as explained by Paul in Romans 5:12, 18, 19?

¹¹ On the contrary, concerning Jesus Christ it is written: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6) How could this be? It was because, when Adam sinned and was sentenced to death for his willful sin, all his future offspring died in him. It was just as the apostle Paul writes:

¹² “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, . . . through one trespass the result to men of all sorts was condemnation, . . . through the disobedience of the one man many were constituted sinners.”​—Rom. 5:12, 18, 19.

13. (a) When Adam violated his own innocence in Eden, what did he bring upon his future offspring, and upon how many of them? (b) In order to ransom all of them, what had to be paid?

¹³ As God’s activity is perfect, Adam was perfect when he was created. His wife Eve, who was taken from him by being built up from one of his ribs, was likewise perfect. She was, as Adam said, “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” (Gen. 2:21-23) When Adam sinned, he lost his human perfection and was sentenced to death. From him, the one man, all mankind thereafter inherited sin and death. Accordingly, for all dying mankind to be ransomed it required someone who corresponded with Adam in his human perfection. It required another perfect man to undertake to suffer death innocently in order to lift the death that Adam by his own disobedience has brought upon all his offspring. Spoken otherwise, it required a “corresponding ransom.” How, though, was such a “corresponding ransom” to be provided? It could not be done by any of Adam’s sinful, imperfect, condemned offspring.

14. Why was God not obliged to provide such a ransom, but by doing so what could he also accomplish?

¹⁴ Manifestly, only Almighty God, Jehovah, could provide it in a miraculous way. He was not obligated to do so. By all the rules of justice he could not be required to do so. But was he willing to do so? He was indeed willing, because “God is love.” (1 John 4:8, 16) His love could find a way to act in perfect harmony with justice and thereby provide the means by which to redeem his human creation by means of a corresponding ransom. In that way, also, he could undo the wicked works of Satan the Devil and vindicate himself as Creator and Theocratic Ruler.​—1 John 3:8.

15. To whom did Jehovah offer the opportunity to be the woman’s Seed of Genesis 3:15, and what did this entail upon that one?

¹⁵ Away back in the Garden of Eden, at the time when God was pronouncing judgment upon the various ones tied in with man’s rebellion, God said to the Serpent that instigated this rebellion: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Gen. 3:15) In heaven God offered the opportunity to become that Seed of the woman to his only-begotten Son, and his Son accepted the offer. He did so voluntarily, although this meant that he must be bruised in the heel by the Serpent.

16. In due time, how did God make it possible for his only-begotten Son to become the exact equal of Adam in his Edenic innocence?

¹⁶ In due time, by means of his holy spirit, Jehovah God transferred the life of his heavenly Son to the womb of the virgin Mary at Nazareth in Galilee. In this way God’s only-begotten Son became related to Adam and to Adam’s descendants through this human mother Mary, but his life came, not from Adam, but from God. Despite his human birth, he remained the Son of God, and according to his heavenly Father’s instructions to Mary he was called Jesus, a name that means “Jehovah Is Salvation.” Because his perfect life was originally from God and was transferred from heaven to the egg cell in Mary’s womb, Jesus was born as a perfect and sinless Son, free from God’s condemnation to death. (Luke 1:31-35; 3:23-38) From then on, by resisting sin and the temptations of Satan the Great Serpent, Jesus could grow up to become a perfect man with reproductive powers, thus being the exact equal of Adam when in his innocence in the Garden of Eden.

17. How did this Son Jesus come to be Christ?

¹⁷ In order to symbolize his presenting of himself to act as the Seed of God’s “woman,” Jesus got baptized in water. Then God anointed him with holy spirit and so Jesus became the Christ or anointed one. Hence he was called Jesus Christ.​—Luke 3:21-23.

THE RANSOMER THE CHIEF ONE IN THE NEW HEAVENS

18. Why was it necessary for the man Christ Jesus to die, doing this in what personal state?

¹⁸ Jesus knew that he had to die as a man. Otherwise, he could not become a ransom sacrifice for all mankind. To his twelve apostles he said: “The Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his soul a ransom in exchange for many.” (Matt. 20:28) To this end he must die innocent, the righteous for the unrighteous. He must sacrifice his human life forever and let its value go in behalf of all mankind. He died without children, and nobody on earth can claim natural descent from Jesus Christ. He sacrificed his perfect human life and parenthood as a corresponding ransom for all mankind.

19. To be the woman’s Seed of Genesis 3:15, what must be done to him, and for doing what did Jesus apparently, but really, die?

¹⁹ Moreover, as the Seed of God’s “woman,” he must be bruised in the heel by Satan the Great Serpent, and this meant a violent death for Jesus Christ. In view of this, Jesus Christ yielded himself to his enemies and false accusers to be put to death on an execution stake as if he were a blasphemous criminal. That occurred on Passover day at Jerusalem in the year 33 C.E. However, Jesus really died for preaching the kingdom of God, the Messianic kingdom that will serve as the “new heavens” in God’s new order for mankind.​—John 18:36.

20. Why did the matter of reward come into this arrangement, and what was that reward?

²⁰ Jesus Christ did all this of his own free will. Jehovah God his heavenly Father did not force him to do this; he merely presented to his faithful Son the privilege of doing this in support of his Father’s universal sovereignty and in vindication of his Father’s name. But the Father could not arrange for his Son to carry out all this service and go through all this suffering unjustly without giving the Son a reward. And so God set a glorious reward before his Son, that of being the Messianic King in the “new heavens.” As such he would bruise the Serpent, Satan the Devil, in the head, and also wipe out all the seed of the Serpent, the demon angels, and thus destroy the old heavens of this present order of things.

21. What did this require God to do respecting the dead Jesus Christ, and looking to the presenting of what value to God?

²¹ All this required first that Almighty God must raise his righteous, innocent Son from the dead, not as a human creature again but as a spirit person. This is what God did on the third day of his Son’s death. In proof of this, the resurrected Jesus Christ made appearances to his disciples on his resurrection day and thereafter. On the fortieth day he ascended back to heaven to present to God the value of his human sacrifice.

22. When thereafter, and how, did Christ’s faithful disciples begin to experience the “new birth”?

²² Ten days later, on the Jewish festival day of Pentecost of the year 33 C.E., God began pouring out his holy spirit upon the faithful disciples of his Son Jesus. In this way the true, dedicated, baptized disciples of Christ began to experience the “new birth” to an incorruptible heavenly inheritance. (Acts 1:1 to 2:36) From that day onward God has been giving the “new birth” to those faithful disciples whom He chooses to make up the “new heavens” with his Son Jesus Christ.

23. In view of 1 Corinthians 15:50, what did these disciples know had to take place with them?

²³ They know what the apostle Paul wrote: “This I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.” (1 Cor. 15:50) So they know that they must die and leave behind forever the corruptible flesh. They must prove “faithful even to death,” that they may receive the “crown of life” in the “new heavens.” In the resurrection after God’s kingdom is established they are raised as immortal spirit creatures. In their case what is written becomes true: “It is sown a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body.”​—Rev. 2:10; 1 Cor. 15:44.

THE “NEW EARTH”

24. (a) What do these things show must come first with regard to the new order? (b) What does the setting up of the “new heavens,” and then of the “new earth,” call for as respects the old ones?

²⁴ From these marvelous things we can discern how necessary it was for God to provide first the “new heavens,” for the new order that he has promised. But what is this “new earth” that he creates? Well, just as the “new heavens” does not mean new planets and stars in the skies above us, so the “new earth” does not mean a new and different earthly planet beneath our feet. The establishing of “new heavens” calls for the removal of Satan and his demon angels out of their heavenly position of power over mankind. The establishment of a “new earth” calls for the removal of the present wicked human society that is opposed to God’s kingdom and that is therefore serving Satan the Devil as the unseen ruler of this world, the “god of this system of things.” In its place God will produce a new and righteous human society on this same earth but under His “new heavens,” namely, Jesus Christ and his disciples who get the spiritual resurrection.

25. How is the founding of the “new earth” under way, and what is to happen to the old “earth”?

²⁵ The formation of the “new earth” is already under way! Those who are making up this formative group of dedicated, baptized Christians are separating themselves from those who choose to remain a part of the wicked human society alienated from God, an ‘ungodly world’ of mankind. The removal of this old figurative “earth” will mean its destruction in a “great tribulation” just ahead, a tribulation that Jesus Christ foretold and said would be a global catastrophe without equal in world history.

26. Only by what drastic acts of God will there be deliverance for mankind into His new order?

²⁶ So widespread and devastating will that tribulation be that, unless God shortened the days of it, no human flesh would be saved. (Matt. 24:21, 22; Mark 13:19, 20) That tribulation will spell the utter destruction of this present system of things, but not the destruction of our earth and the starry sky above us. After that the old demonic “heavens” will be removed and Satan and his demons will be put under restraint, under confinement as in an abyss. (Rev. 19:11 to 20:3) Only by these drastic acts of God will there be any deliverance for people on earth into God’s new order.

27. If we really desire that new order, among whom will we want to be found as forevisioned in the Revelation?

²⁷ Do we want that deliverance into God’s new order of “new heavens and a new earth” in which “righteousness is to dwell”? Are we preparing ourselves and striving to prove worthy of such a glorious deliverance? If we long for righteous living in perfect health and happiness in a delightful gardenized earth under righteous governmental heavens, then we will desire to be among the survivors of that coming “great tribulation.” The last book of the Bible, with its revelation of things that “must shortly take place,” points us to a “great crowd” of persons from all nations, tribes, peoples and languages who will survive that global “great tribulation,” coming out of it under God’s protection and favor.

28, 29. According to the Revelation description of these survivors of the tribulation, whom do they worship and what provision for salvation do they accept?

²⁸ From the description that is given us of this crowd of survivors, we note that they are worshipers of the one true God, who is seated on the throne of the universe as Universal Sovereign. Another thing to note is that they accept the ransom sacrifice provided by God’s Son, who was offered up like an unblemished, innocent lamb for the “sin of the world.” Take note of this as we read:

²⁹ “And they keep on crying with a loud voice, saying: ‘Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ . . . ‘These are the ones that come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. That is why they are before the throne of God; and they are rendering him sacred service day and night in his temple.”’​—Rev. 7:9-15; John 1:29, 36.

30. This vision shows that the “great crowd” are in favor of what feature of the new order and that they are on the way to what?

³⁰ Those prophetic words make it certain that this dedicated, baptized “great crowd” are in favor of God’s “new heavens,” made up of the Lamb Jesus Christ and his 144,000 faithful disciples who have been given the “new birth” to that heavenly inheritance. (Rev. 7:1-8; also Re 21:1-14) They get their death-dealing sins washed away through washing their robes in the “blood of the Lamb.” This puts them on the way to everlasting life in an Edenic garden with which the “new heavens” will beautify the whole earthly globe.

31. This “great crowd” of tribulation survivors will form the foundation of what feature of the new order?

³¹ In fact, this “great crowd” of tribulation survivors will serve as the foundation of the “new earth” of God’s creation. They are even now, before the tribulation, separating themselves from the doomed old “earth,” the worldly human society of today that holds onto the devil-controlled, man-made system of things of today. So, after the great tribulation removes this old “earth,” these survivors will be the basis for a society organized under new heavens. Thus the human family will be given a new start in a new order.

32. After the tribulation and Satan’s binding, how will the “new earth” grow and spread?

³² This “new earth” will grow and spread, doubtless by some human births after the great tribulation is over and Satan the Devil and his demon angels have been imprisoned in their abyss, but not altogether in this way. No, for the Lamb Jesus Christ did not die for just these tribulation survivors and their natural offspring. He is the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” of mankind; he “gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.” His human equality with the perfect Adam made him fit to “taste death for every man.” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6; Heb. 2:9) The overwhelming majority of the human family for whom the Lamb died nineteen centuries ago have already died. How will they really enter into the benefits of the ransoming value of Christ’s death? By a marvelous miracle: by a resurrection from the dead during the thousand-year-long reign of Jesus Christ and his glorified congregation, the “new heavens.”

33, 34. (a) How will the resurrections performed by Jesus Christ as King differ from those that he performed during his earthly life? (b) What will the “great crowd” of tribulation survivors have the opportunity to do toward the resurrected ones?

³³ Jesus Christ, when on earth as a perfect man of God, performed a number of resurrections. But those resurrected persons died later on in their generation. But when Jesus Christ the King resurrects ransomed mankind during his millennial rule, he will do so that they might live forever in a global paradise of Eden. It all depends upon the resurrected ones. Will they let themselves be incorporated into that righteous “new earth,” or will they return to their former bad ways that they pursued during this present system of things? Those who do so will be judged and condemned as unworthy of the gift of eternal life in human perfection and godliness.

³⁴ That is why Jesus Christ, when speaking on the subject of judgment, said: “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:27-29) Those of the “great crowd” who will start off the “new earth” will be able to help these resurrected ones in order that their resurrection will not result finally in a condemnation.

35. When predicting the things that have been happening since the year 1914 C.E., what right attitude did Jesus Christ tell his disciples to take?

³⁵ Unusually wonderful is the day in which we are now living! Remarkable but highly significant things have been occurring since the year 1914 C.E. and its first world war. Jesus Christ foretold these things as marking the conclusion of this old system of things. Telling us the right attitude that all of his true disciples should have at this time, he said: “As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.”​—Luke 21:28.

36. In view of that, we want to prove worthy of what privilege, and what are we determined to do?

³⁶ This deliverance into God’s new order is now much nearer than when many of us first saw these predicted things “start to occur.” Certainly there is no time to delay for proving ourselves worthy to experience this much-desired deliverance. The unrepeatable opportunity is ours now! We are determined to seize it, and also to declare to all other lovers of righteousness, mankind’s approaching deliverance into God’s new order of “new heavens and a new earth.”

The God Who Promises

WHO is the God who promises deliverance for mankind? Why should we believe in his promise, and how can we rely on it?

To be able to make such a promise with effect, he would have to be the Creator of all things, the Almighty God. The Bible identifies him as such. There should be no question of his willingness to deliver mankind into a righteous new order; this is evident in his promise to do so. But our own assurance that he will do so must come from an examination of his acts and dealings, his fulfillment of other promises he has made.

Aside from his promise of deliverance of mankind through his Messianic kingdom, the most important promise that he has made is that of the Messiah’s first coming. Did it actually take place as God promised?

RECORD OF MESSIAH’S FIRST APPEARANCE

That it did can be proved by the historical record. From very early times the Bible set out certain requirements for the Messiah so that he could be identified unmistakably. Some of these requirements are:

(1) He was to be from the tribe of Judah and the lineage of King David:

“The scepter [symbol of ruling authority] will not turn aside from Judah, neither the commander’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him the obedience of the peoples will belong.” (Gen. 49:10) “Jehovah has sworn to David, truly he will not draw back from it: ‘Of the fruitage of your belly I shall set on your throne.”’​—Ps. 132:11; Isa. 9:7.

Jesus was of this lineage, as his genealogy, taken from the public register by the historians Matthew and Luke, shows. (Matt. 1:3, 6, 16; Luke 3:23, 31, 33) This genealogy, being from the Jews’ own official archives, was not challenged by the Jewish leaders living in the first century C.E., though they attacked him on every point that they could think of.

(2) He was to be born in Bethlehem:

“And you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, the one too little to get to be among the thousands of Judah, from you there will come out to me the one who is to become ruler in Israel.”​—Mic. 5:2.

Matthew, quoting the foregoing text, reports: “After Jesus had been born in Bethlehem of Judea . . .”​—Matt. 2:1, 5, 6.

(3) He was to appear at the end of sixty-nine “weeks of years” (483 years) from the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall (in 455 B.C.E.):

“And you should know and have the insight that from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks. . . . And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cut off, with nothing for himself.”​—Dan. 9:25, 26.

Jesus did present himself on time, in 29 C.E. (483 years after 455 B.C.E.), to be baptized by John. At that time he became the Messiah (Anointed One), anointed by God’s spirit. (Luke 3:21-23) The Jews were aware of this time prophecy and “were in expectation” at the time that John, Jesus’ forerunner, began preaching.​—Luke 3:15.

Also fulfilling the prophetic promise, Jesus was “cut off” in death as a ransom sacrifice for mankind about three and a half years after his baptism. Isaiah likewise foretold Messiah’s sacrificial death.​—Isa. 53:10-12.

Secular history acknowledges that Jesus Christ lived on earth and was a remarkable teacher. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian of the first century who was not a Christian, wrote that Jesus was on the scene during the governorship of Pontius Pilate, that he was a teacher of great influence, and was the Christ; that Pilate condemned him to death and that he appeared alive again to his disciples on the third day.​—Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, Chap. III, Par. 3; John 19:15, 16; 20:1, 19; Matt. 27:63, 64; Acts 10:40.

Some may disbelieve the testimony of Christ’s own disciples as to his resurrection, but consider these facts: There were upward of five hundred witnesses. The disciples were not men of power or influence, to overcome or bribe the soldier guards stationed at Jesus’ tomb. There was little likelihood of collusion among so many, especially as to something that would be of no personal material gain to them. Their witnessing to the resurrection could have no selfish motive; it exposed them to suffering and death. They gave their testimony in the very place where the Messiah’s bitterest enemies were, where certainly a fraud could be uncovered. And they did not wait, but witnessed right then, while the rage of the Jewish leaders was at its height.​—1 Cor. 15:3-8; Acts 2:32; 3:15; 4:10, 18-20; 7:55-58; 8:1.

That these witnesses, in testifying to Jesus’ resurrection, were not ‘making up’ a story can further be seen from the fact that the resurrection came as a surprise to them in their despair and downcast condition. They had looked for him to be a human king, and were tremendously shocked when he died. (Luke 24:13-43; John 20:24-29) Really, Jesus’ resurrection was the very thing that gave them the courage to bear testimony, courage that could not be broken down under the most violent persecution.

So outstandingly did God fulfill his promise of the Messiah in every detail of the aforementioned prophecies as well as many others, that any reasoning person who considers the evidence should say, ‘God is indeed a Fulfiller of his promises.’

TESTIMONY OF OTHER PROMINENT MEN

God’s fulfillment of his promise to send his Messiah is a major example of his reliability. But there are countless others. Many men who served God in the past saw and experienced God’s reliability in keeping his promises, not just once, but throughout their lives. Among these are Joshua, David and Solomon.

Joshua said, in his farewell speech to Israel:

“You well know with all your hearts and with all your souls that not one word out of all the good words that Jehovah your God has spoken to you has failed. They have all come true for you. Not one word of them has failed.”​—Josh. 23:14.

King David testified: “The sayings of Jehovah are pure sayings.”​—Ps. 12:6.

His son, King Solomon, said in prayer before all Israel:

“Blessed be Jehovah, who has given a resting-place to his people Israel according to all that he has promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise that he has promised by means of Moses his servant.” “O Jehovah the God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens or on the earth, keeping the covenant and the loving-kindness . . . you who have kept toward your servant David my father what you promised him, so that you made the promise with your mouth, and with your own hand you have made fulfillment as at this day.”​—1 Ki. 8:56; 2 Chron. 6:14, 15.

These men were no fools. They were wise men and leaders of a great nation, and they recognized that only through God’s oversight and loyalty to his promises could the fulfillments have come. And they were no deceivers. The candidness of the writers of the Scriptures, exposing their own errors as well as those of their rulers and their nation, testifies to their truthfulness.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS GOD

If we are seriously concerned with deliverance from the corruption of this present system of things, we will give God’s promise the deepest consideration. There is no other source that promises a paradise earth, a restoration of our loved ones by a resurrection, and everlasting life. Man’s promises of a better world are shabby by comparison​—and even these they cannot fulfill.

Moreover, God loves man, the creation of his hands. He promises deliverance, not because he is obligated to do so, but out of love. The sending of his Son to earth was an act of God’s own initiative that laid the foundation for the deliverance of mankind. The apostle Paul wrote: “God recommends his own love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”​—Rom. 5:8.

Why, then, doubt or reject such a loving provision? Rather, get more knowledge of God and his promises. Jehovah’s witnesses will be happy to help you to follow the inspired counsel to “make sure of all things; hold fast to what is fine.”​—1 Thess. 5:21.