CHAPTER THREE: WHAT IS GOD'S PURPOSE FOR THE EARTH?

What is God's purpose for the mankind?

How has God been challenged?

What will life on earth be like in the future?


GOD's purpose for the earth  is really wonderful. Jehovah wants the earth to be filled with happy, healthy people.  The Bible says that "God planted a garden in Eden" and that he "made to grow . . . every tree desirable to one's sight and good for food."  After God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, He put them in that lovely home and told them:  "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it." (Genesis 1:28; 2:8, 9, 15) (He did not say to over  populate it!)  So it was God's purpose that humans have children, extend the boundaries of that garden home earth wide, and take care of the animals.  (because they have souls too and when they die, they go to the same place we do when we die) 

Do you think that Jehovah God's purpose for people to live in an earthly paradise will ever be realized?  "I have even spoken it, "God declares, "I shall also do it." (Isaiah 46:9-11; 55:11) Yes,  what God purposes he will surely do!  He says that he "did not create [the earth] simply for nothing" but "formed it even to be inhabited."  (Isaiah 45:18) What kind of people did God want to live on the earth? And for how long did he want them to live here?   The Bible answers: "The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it." -Psalm 3729; Revelation 21:3, 4.

Obviously, this has not happened yet. People now get sick and die; they even fight and kill one another.  Something went wrong. Surely, however, God did not purpose that the earth be  as we see it today!  What happened?  Why has God's purpose not been fulfilled? No history book ever written by  man  can tell us because the trouble started in heaven.  

Next time: WHAT IS GOD'S PURPOSE FOR THE EARTH?/THE ORIGIN OF AN ENEMY

From the book: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE REALLY TEACH?