Why Poverty and Oppression?

Jesus Christ once said:  "You always have the poor with you, and whenever you want to you can always do them good." (Mark 14:7)  Did Jesus mean that poverty and oppression would never end?  Like some people, did he believe that such suffering  is part of a plan of God to give compassionate ones the opportunity to show how much they care?  No!  Jesus did not believe that. He was simply making the point that poverty would be a part of life as long as this system of things exists.  But Jesus also knew this;  It was not his heavenly Father's original purpose to have such conditions on the earth.

Jehovah God created the earth to be a paradise, not a place plagued with poverty, injustice, and oppression. He showed how much he cared for the human family by making wonderful provisions that would add to the enjoyment of life.  Why consider the very name of the garden in which our first parents, Adam and Eve, found themselves! I twas called Eden, meaning "Pleasure." (Genesis 2:8, 9) Jehovah did not limit  humans to the bare necessities for survival in some drab, oppressive environment. At the conclusion of his creative work, Jehovah surveyed what he had made and declared that it was "very good." -Genesis 1:31. 

Well, then, why are poverty, oppression, and other causes of suffering  rampant earth-wide today?  The present wicked system of things exists because our original parent chose to rebel against God.  (Genesis 3:1-5)  This raised the question of whether it was right for God to demand obedience from his creatures.  So Jehovah allowed Adam's descendants  a limited period of independence. God still cared about what happened to the human family. He made provision for undoing  all the harm that rebellion against him would produce. And very soon, Jehovah will end poverty and oppression-in fact, all suffering. -Ephesians 1:8-10. 

Next time: A Problem Beyond Human Solution

From the Watchtower magazine, 1999