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A Trouble-Free Paradise—Soon a Reality

“YOU will be with me in Paradise.” How those words reassured the man with a criminal record! No, not that he felt he would avoid going to a fiery hell and would go to heaven when he died. Rather, the thief alongside Jesus drew comfort from the hope that he would be resurrected back to life when Paradise was restored to the planet. Note, please, who made such a bold statement about Paradise—God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.—Luke 23:43.

What prompted Christ’s promise of Paradise? The thief had appealed: “Jesus, remember me when you get into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42) What is this Kingdom, and what connection is there between it and an earthly paradise? How does this guarantee that the Paradise will be trouble free?

The Power Behind the Paradise

You will agree that a true paradise can only come on earth when all present-day troubles are gone. Human efforts to remove them have so far failed, as history adequately testifies. The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah acknowledged: “I well know, O Jehovah, that . . . it does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” (Jeremiah 10:23) Who, then, can wipe out all present-day troubles?

Weather Extremes and Pollution. When a violent windstorm over the Sea of Galilee whipped up waves big enough to threaten a boat with shipwreck, the sailors awoke their traveling companion from his slumber. In turn, he simply said to the sea: “Hush! Be quiet!” Mark’s Gospel account relates what happened: “The wind abated, and a great calm set in.” (Mark 4:39) That traveling companion was none other than Jesus. He had the power to control the weather.

It was this same Jesus who foretold through the apostle John that the time would come when God would “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” (Revelation 1:1; 11:18) This is no impossible feat for the One who removed a whole world of ungodly people in the Flood of Noah’s day.—2 Peter 3:5, 6.

Crime and Violence. The Bible promises: “Evildoers themselves will be cut off, but those hoping in Jehovah are the ones that will possess the earth. But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.” (Psalm 37:9, 11) Again, it is God, Jehovah, who promises to remove all crime and violence, reserving Paradise for the meek.

Poverty and Hunger. Present-day injustice allows governments in one area of the world to store foodstuffs in surplus “mountains” while at the same time poor countries struggle on in poverty. Relief agencies, backed by concerned people worldwide, try to supply the basics but often fail when distribution schemes break down through a lack of law and order. Contrast this with what the prophet Isaiah recorded: “Jehovah of armies will certainly make for all the peoples, in this mountain, a banquet of well-oiled dishes, a banquet of wine kept on the dregs, of well-oiled dishes filled with marrow, of wine kept on the dregs, filtered.” (Isaiah 25:6) Does that not sound like famine and starvation will be no more? Certainly.

War. Attempts to govern this globe through a supranational authority have proved unsuccessful. The League of Nations, founded in 1920, failed to prevent the outbreak of World War II and collapsed. The United Nations, so often hailed as the best hope for peace, struggles to keep opposing parties apart in areas of conflict. Despite its publicized peace efforts, wars abound, whether civil, ethnic, or community. God’s Kingdom government promises to remove present-day warring factions and educate its subjects in the ways of peace.—Isaiah 2:2-4; Daniel 2:44.

Family and Moral Breakdown. Family disintegration is rampant. Juvenile delinquency abounds. Immorality pervades all levels of human society. Yet, God’s standards have remained unchanged from the beginning. Jesus testified that “a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh . . . Therefore, what God has yoked together let no man put apart.” (Matthew 19:5, 6) Jehovah God further commanded: “Honor your father and your mother . . . that it may go well with you and you may endure a long time on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:2, 3) Such standards will prevail on earth under God’s Kingdom.

Sickness and Death. “Jehovah . . . will save us,” promised the prophet Isaiah, “and no resident will say: ‘I am sick.’” (Isaiah 33:22, 24) “The wages sin pays is death,” acknowledged the Christian apostle Paul, “but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus.”—Romans 6:23.

Jehovah God will remove all these troubles by means of his heavenly government in the hands of his Son, Christ Jesus. However, you may say, ‘This reads like a Utopian dream. To be sure, it would be delightful if it came true, but will it?’

A Present Reality

To many, the possibility of living in a trouble-free paradise right here on earth sounds unrealistically optimistic. If that is how you feel, examine the proof that this will really occur.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are a present-day international community of over five million people who already have a relatively trouble-free environment in their 82,000 congregations spread out in 233 lands. You may visit any of their gatherings, large or small, and what will you find?

(1) A Pleasant, Clean Atmosphere. Commenting on one convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norwich, England, the football stadium manager said: “The peaceful atmosphere over the four days . . . is catching. You experience a personal calmness that is in complete contrast to that of any other four days in the tense business world and daily life around us. The Witnesses really have something that is different about them and hard to explain.”

A construction industry training adviser who visited the London offices of Jehovah’s Witnesses said: “I was very impressed both by what I saw and heard and was quite overwhelmed by the atmosphere of total peace and tranquillity which exists not only in your buildings but also amongst the [men and women]. I feel that your way of life and happiness has a lot to teach the rest of this troubled world.”

(2) Security and Peace. A columnist for the Journal de Montréal in Canada wrote: “I am not a Witness. But I am a witness to the fact that the Witnesses witness to efficiency and proper behaviour. . . . If they were the only people in the world, we would not at night have to bolt our doors shut and put on the burglar alarm.”

(3) Loyalty to God’s Kingdom government characterizes the Witnesses. Their neutral position unnerves some, though it need not. Their noninvolvement in present-day patch-up political schemes does not stem from a lack of commitment to improving society. Rather, they try to behave in a way that pleases the one who governs through a heavenly government, namely, the earth’s Creator, Jehovah God.

The Witnesses’ beliefs, based entirely on God’s Word, the Bible, prevent them from falling into the trap of becoming a sect or a cult. They take a kindly interest in all other people, of whatever religious persuasion. No, they do not try to force these people to change their viewpoint. They endeavor to imitate their Leader, Christ Jesus, by presenting Scriptural evidence of the trouble-free Paradise that will soon be established on earth.—Matthew 28:19, 20; 1 Peter 2:21.

(4) Spiritual Health and Happiness. Realistically, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not claim to be completely trouble free at this time. This is an impossibility among people who bear the hallmark of inherited sin from Adam. But with the help of God’s holy spirit, they work to develop personal qualities such as “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22, 23) It is their worship of Jehovah through Christ Jesus that unites them and keeps their hopes alive.

Your visit to the Witnesses’ local meeting place will, we trust, convince you that God will transform the earth into a literal paradise.

Gone will be present-day troubles. Even lingering imperfection will gradually disappear as the benefits of Christ’s ransom sacrifice are applied to obedient mankind. Yes, perfect health and happiness can be yours.

Simple preparations will help you enjoy such a prospect. Ask the Witnesses for your personal copy of the book Knowledge That Leads to Everlasting Life.a With this you can, in a short time, learn what God requires of you so that you too may enjoy life in a trouble-free paradise forever.

[Footnote]

Published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.

[Blurb on page 10]

The Witnesses’ beliefs, based entirely on the Bible, prevent them from becoming a sect or a cult

[Pictures on page 8, 9]

The groundwork is now being laid for a trouble-free paradise

Soon, a physical paradise will exist earth wide