Do You Yearn for a Just World?

A WOODEN sailing ship with three masts and two decks approaches the shores of what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts, U.S.A. The crew and the 101 passengers aboard are exhausted from being at sea for 66 days. Seeking to escape religious persecution and economic hardship, they have made an arduous journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

As the passengers of this vessel, the Mayflower, sight land on November 11, 1620, their eyes glitter with the hope of a fresh start. Desiring to lay the groundwork for a better world, most of the ship’s adult male passengers sign the Mayflower Compact. In it they agree to enact “just and equal laws” for “the general good of the colony.” Has their dream of a world that is morally upright and fair to everyone—a just world—become a reality?

Even though the Compact signed aboard the Mayflower is considered one of the cornerstones of the American system of government, injustice is a common occurrence in America, even as it is around the world. For example, consider a man who was shot by police while he was trying to escape after robbing and shooting a store owner. He sued the police and the city of New York and won millions of dollars in settlement.

Consider another example. While law school students were taking the bar exam in Pasadena, California, one of them suffered a seizure and collapsed. Two nearby students readily administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation until the paramedics arrived. They spent 40 minutes helping the man. But when they requested compensatory time to complete the exam, the bar official turned them down.

There is also the matter of punishment for criminal activity. Economic analyst Ed Rubenstein points out: “Most crimes never result in an arrest. Many of those arrested aren’t prosecuted. Many convicts are paroled. Expected punishment, from the criminal’s viewpoint, is a probability, not a certainty.” Using the data for burglary, he concludes that a potential burglar “will escape imprisonment more than 98 percent of the time.” The low risk of punishment leads to more crime and crime victims.—Ecclesiastes 8:11.

In many lands a rich minority keeps getting richer while the poor masses face economic injustice. Such injustice prevails when people because of their skin color, ethnic background, language, sex, or religion have little opportunity to better their condition or even to sustain themselves. According to The New York Times, for example, “nearly a quarter of a billion human beings in Hindu-dominated South Asia—most of them in India and Nepal—are born and die as untouchables.” The result is that millions are ravaged by poverty, hunger, and disease. Injustice spans their life from cradle to grave.

What of the seeming injustices that are beyond human control? Think of the babies born with congenital defects—blind, retarded, or deformed. Would not a woman feel a sense of injustice if her baby came forth crippled or dead while women nearby cuddled healthy infants?

Sadly, injustice abounds, and so do its consequences—immense suffering and the lack of peace, joy, and contentment. Outraged by the injustice they witness or experience, many have resorted to violence, only to add to human suffering. Most wars have been fought because of perceived injustice.

Why has man failed to bring about a just world? Is such a world just a dream?

Why Has Man Failed?

A basic reason for failure to achieve a just world is the blemish we have inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve. The Bible explains: “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) The blemish is sin. Though created faultless, Adam and Eve decided to rebel against God and thus made themselves sinners. (Genesis 2:16, 17; 3:1-6) Because of this, they left to their children the legacy of sinful, wrong tendencies.

Are not such personality traits as greed and prejudice the outworkings of sinful tendencies? And do these traits not contribute to injustices in the world? Why, greed is at the root of deliberate environmental abuses and economic oppression! Prejudice is certainly behind ethnic strife and racial injustices. Such traits also induce people to rob, cheat, and act in a manner that harms others.

Even the best-motivated efforts to exercise justice and to do good often fail because of our sinful inclinations. The apostle Paul himself confessed: “The good that I wish I do not do, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice.” He goes on to explain the struggle, saying: “I really delight in the law of God according to the man I am within, but I behold in my members another law warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive to sin’s law that is in my members.” (Romans 7:19-23) Likely, we today have the same conflict. That is why injustices occur so frequently.

The human way of ruling has also contributed to injustice in the world. In every land, there are laws as well as those who enforce them. And there are, of course, judges and courts. Certainly, some principled men have tried to uphold human rights and to see that there is equal justice for all. Still, most of their efforts have failed. Why? Encapsulating various factors involved in their failure, Jeremiah 10:23 points out: “I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” Alienated from God, man simply is incapable of establishing a righteous and just world.—Proverbs 14:12; Ecclesiastes 8:9.

A great barrier to man’s effort to construct a just world is Satan the Devil. The Bible clearly states that the rebellious angel Satan is the original “manslayer” and “liar” and that “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (John 8:44; 1 John 5:19) The apostle Paul identifies him as “the god of this system of things.” (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4) Being a hater of righteousness, Satan does everything possible to promote wickedness. As long as he controls the world, injustices of all sorts and their resultant woes will enslave mankind.

Does all of this mean that injustice is inevitable in human society? Is a just world an impossible dream?