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Do You Feel Secure?

A Secure Future in Sight!

“DO NOT put your trust in men in power, or in any mortal man​—he cannot save.” (Psalm 146:3, The Jerusalem Bible) That pointed counsel offered more than two thousand years ago is even more pertinent today when politicians, scientists, clergy and military leaders are trying to offer every kind of panacea for mankind’s problems.

Why should we not trust the “men in power”? Because, even though they may believe otherwise, the destiny of the earth and mankind is not in their hands. The Bible clearly states: “To Jehovah belong the earth and that which fills it, the productive land and those dwelling in it.” (Psalm 24:1) Yes, the earth is Jehovah’s property, his footstool, but it is granted to mankind for appreciative use.​—Genesis 1:28; Isaiah 66:1.

Has man given proper care and attention to the property that he occupies on trust? Has he shown himself worthy to continue as a tenant on this jewel in the universe? The blanket of contamination and pollution spread by man around the earth is eloquent testimony to his failure. The garbage and filth abandoned on city streets, poured into rivers and spread along ocean beaches are visible evidence that many of earth’s inhabitants are not worthy tenants. Their selfish actions threaten the future and security of those who want life on a clean earth.

Now what steps do human authorities take when property is not respected and the rent is not paid? Legal action is taken to have the offenders evicted. Does not the Sovereign Lord Jehovah have the right to evict those who threaten the earth’s future security? Yes, he certainly does, since he is “the Former of the earth and the Maker of it . . . who did not create it simply for nothing.”​—Isaiah 45:18.

Is There a Precedent?

When Jehovah ceded to Israel the rights to the Promised Land 3,500 years ago, he also laid down clear guidelines: “You must not pollute the land in which you are; because it is blood that pollutes the land . . . And you must not defile the land in which you are dwelling.” (Numbers 35:33, 34) Looking beyond ancient Israel, human history in this respect is unenviable. Over the centuries the earth has been polluted with the blood of millions of victims of wars and political or religious purges, culminating in our additional twentieth-century death toll due to crime and abortion.

Ancient Israel eventually ignored Jehovah’s laws and paid the price​—expulsion from its territory. The two-tribe nation of Judah followed the same path and earned the following rebuke: “The very land has been polluted under its inhabitants, for they have bypassed the laws, changed the regulation, broken the indefinitely lasting covenant.” (Isaiah 24:5) As a consequence, they suffered a deportation that lasted seventy years. By the same token Jehovah will act in this rapidly passing generation.​—Luke 21:25-36.

What action will Jehovah take? The Bible prophesies that a God-ordained universal cleanup is imminent. It is the long-foretold war of Armageddon. It will not be a conflict between capitalism and Communism. The supreme issue from God’s standpoint is way above sordid human politics. The issue is concerning Jehovah’s righteous exercise of sovereignty over the earth. His opposers, “wicked spirit forces” and human collaborators, think they can perpetuate their occupancy of the earth and discount any divine action. (Ephesians 6:12; Psalm 14:1-3) Armageddon, Jehovah’s eviction judgment, will clear the earth of all the human contaminators and polluters of this precious planet. Jehovah’s cleansing operation will also remove and neutralize the “wicked spirit forces” that have long been an influence among selfish, power-hungry men.​—Revelation 16:14, 16; 20:1-3.

What will follow Armageddon’s purge? Jehovah has promised: “Here I am creating new heavens and a new earth.” Although fulfilled in a minor sense when the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon to Jerusalem in 537 BCE, a final complete fulfillment has yet to take place. The Christian apostle Peter emphasized this sure hope for the future when he wrote: “There are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.” That new, God-ordained system will guarantee a secure future on earth for loyal and obedient mankind.​—Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:13; Titus 1:2.

If you would like to have more information about this secure future under the rule of God’s kingdom by Christ, please feel free to contact Jehovah’s Witnesses in your neighborhood or write to the publishers of this magazine.