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Will God Destroy the World?
ACCORDING to Pope John Paul II, humans can look forward to the future with confidence. Throughout history, he noted, “men have continued to commit sins, perhaps even greater than those described before the flood.” Even so, the pope explained, “from the words of the covenant God made with Noah we realize that now there is no sin that can bring God to destroy the world he himself created.”
Is it true that God will never destroy the world? The Bible states that after the Deluge, God said to Noah: “No more will all flesh be cut off by waters of a deluge, and no more will there occur a deluge to bring the earth to ruin.” (Genesis 9:11) The pope says that with these words, God “committed himself to preserving [the earth] from destruction.”
The Bible makes it clear that the Creator will not allow our planet to be destroyed. “The earth is standing even to time indefinite,” says the Bible. (Ecclesiastes 1:4) But there is more to be learned from the Deluge—something that the pope did not comment on.
Jesus said that conditions on earth at the time of his future presence would be “just as the days of Noah were,” when people “took no note until the flood came and swept them all away.” (Matthew 24:37-39) Similarly, the apostle Peter wrote that just as “the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water,” so also “the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men” looms over the present world.—2 Peter 3:5-7.
Did Jesus and Peter forget about God’s covenant with Noah? By no means! Just as he stated in the covenant with Noah, God will not employ floodwaters to bring this wicked system of things to an end. Instead, he will use the might of the “King of kings and Lord of lords,” Jesus Christ. (Revelation [Apocalypse] 19:11-21) According to the Bible, therefore, the earth will not be destroyed, but the “world” of evil mankind will without fail come to an end. (Proverbs 2:21, 22; Revelation 11:18) Afterward, “the righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.”—Psalm 37:29.
