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A New World​—Very Near!

THIS world is in its death throes! Can that really be true? Well, consider world conditions carefully.

There are enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire population of the earth several times over. Civil war is raging in many countries, such as Angola and Mozambique. There are ethnic conflicts in South Africa, Sri Lanka, and other countries. Terrorism and famine are also taking a terrible toll in human lives.

What about the AIDS epidemic? The South African Sunday Times of October 25, 1987, termed it the “new black death” and said: “Now the full horror of African Aids is revealed: In some countries six people out of every ten are likely to die by 1994.”

Fear prevails because of such conditions. As Nobel prize winner Harold C. Urey said some years ago: “We will eat fear, sleep fear, live in fear and die in fear.” Significantly, Jesus Christ, the greatest prophet ever on earth, foretold that in the last days of this world, men would become “faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.”​—Luke 21:26.

But many are not fearful. Instead, they rejoice. Why? Because they know that this world system (not the planet Earth) is near its end, but a new world is very near. How can they be so sure? Because of the fulfillment of so many Bible prophecies.

For example, when Jesus Christ was asked what would be the sign of his presence and of the end of the world, he said: “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.” In 1914, World War I exploded. It caused the greatest loss of life from warfare up to that time. The cost in combatants? Some 9,000,000 died, besides millions of civilians! But World War II was far more devastating, taking some 55,000,000 lives! Jesus pointed out that all of this would be accompanied by food shortages, earthquakes, pestilences, and lawlessness.​—Matthew 24:7-13; Luke 21:10, 11.

The Christian apostle Paul also accurately foretold present world conditions. He wrote: “In the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power; and from these turn away.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Paul could foretell present-day conditions so accurately because God inspired him to write those words.

As to his own words regarding the time of the end, Jesus said: “When you see these things occurring, know that the kingdom of God is near.” (Luke 21:31) Millions use Jesus’ model prayer and ask for God’s Kingdom to come. (Matthew 6:9, 10) But when asked, “What will this Kingdom actually do?” they have no answer. In contrast, millions who study the Bible diligently have learned that the Kingdom will bring an end to this old world and firmly establish a new world that will bring countless blessings to mankind. But how? When?