The Cities under God's Government
President Johnson said, "In the next forty years we must rebuild the entire urban United States."
Did you know that this is exactly what is going to happen? — but not the way you probably think!
Shortly before the return of Jesus Christ, the United States — modern Israel — is going to suffer the greatest defeat in all its history — the ravages of hydrogen bomb war. Our nation will be left desolate! The few who escape will be taken into captivity. The land will rest a number of years to rejuvenate it from the abuse it now suffers due to being farmed continuously without sabbatical-year rests (Levs. 26:33-35). But after Christ returns He will take back the captives to their former land and build the cities anew.
"And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities" (Isa. 61:4). "And the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded . . . and I [God] will settle you after your old estates [in your former locations], and will do better unto you than at your beginnings" (Ezek. 36:11).
Yes, you can be sure that when Goo directs the rebuilding of our cities it will be done RIGHT. It will be done according to design and plan, with beauty as well as utility in mind — not in the chaotic, hit-and-miss fashion of many buildings in today's cities.
God says, "WOE unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place" (Isa. 5:8). In God's cities people will have room to live. Jamming together as many uninspiring, cheaply-constructed dwellings as possible WILL NOT BE PERMITTED!
Also, in God's cities there will be the "community with neighbors" which President Johnson said is lacking in today's cities. People will no longer have to be AFRAID of their neighbors. They won't have to worry about living next door to someone who is mentally "off," a pervert, or a killer. Old people won't have to fear being senselessly attacked and brutally beaten by some hoodlum out looking for "fun." Instead, "There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem . . . and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof" (Zech. 8:4-5). Juvenile "hoods" will no longer roam the streets and organized crime will no longer run the city while the city officials helplessly look on.
After our captivity God says, "Again there shall be heard in this place . . . even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem [the cities of Israel], that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant, and without beast [because of the captivity and bombing], the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; and His mercy endureth for ever" (Jer. 33:10-11).
This is a brief look into the happy cities of the WORLD TOMORROW that Christ will establish.
The Countryside in the Millennium
AGRICULTURE IS the basis of national wealth. Today we have polluted our land with chemical sprays and fertilizers, dumped sewage and industrial refuse in our water sources, cut down our forests, and violated every agricultural law a loving God gave us. And then we wonder why the weather is upset, why drought now afflicts vast segments of our nation, and why our crops are being attacked and destroyed by increasing numbers of new plant diseases and insect plagues.
In God's Kingdom, farmers will be obeying God's agricultural laws and the entire nation will be blessed with unbelievable wealth and prosperity. Whereas in today's world, once-rich-and-productive farmlands are rapidly turning into desert wastelands, in the World Tomorrow the deserts will again become useful and productive.
"The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose . . . for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons [a more correct translation is desert animals], where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes" (Isa. 35:1, 6-7).
God says, "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together" (Isa. 41:19-20). Soil conservation will be practiced!
Regarding the weather, God says, "I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezek. 34:26-27). Weather and nature will be man's ally instead of his enemy!
Under God's Government there will be the incentive of private ownership. "Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidence, and seal them (receive the property deed)" (Jer. 32:44). At that time every man will sit "under his vine and under his fig tree" (Micah 4:4).
Prosperity will be so great that "the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them" (Amos 9:13-14).
As the passage just quoted shows, good, natural, home-grown foods will be available in abundance. Everyone will be able to have and enjoy tender, lean meat and wholesome milk coming from cows that have not been doped with all kinds of drugs and poisons, and fattened up on highly concentrated, unbalanced, processed foods designed only to put on artificially produced weight and give the owner a fat profit.
"In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures (not be cooped up in a feedlot where they never see a blade of green grass). The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan" (Isa. 30:23-24).
This good food will play an important part in producing the additional blessing of GOOD HEALTH, enabling the full enjoyment of the prosperity of God's Kingdom. Also, God will directly intervene and HEAL those suffering from deformities or physical handicaps.
"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing" (Isa. 35:5-6). "And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken . . . and the tongues of stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly" (Isa. 32:3-4).
And instead of taking these blessings for granted, people by this time will have learned that all good things come from God, and they won't forget to praise and thank Him for His blessings. "Therefore they shall come and sing (praises) in the height of Zion and shall flow together for the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all . . . and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord" (Jer. 31:12, 14).
Education God's Way
"The FEAR OF THE LORD IS the BEGINNING of knowledge" (Provs. 1:7). Yet the fear of God and a knowledge of His laws — of TRUE VALUES — are totally missing in today's educational system. God has been laughed, scoffed, mocked and ridiculed right out of the classroom — and our entire society is reaping the penalty.
"Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel," God THUNDERS, "for the Lord hath a CONTROVERSY with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no TRUTH, nor MERCY, nor KNOWLEDGE OF GOD in the land.
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood" (Hosea 4:1-2).
"DESTRUCTION and MISERY are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:16-18).
MISEDUCATION has had a great deal to do with bringing this wretched state of affairs about!
God says, "My people are DESTROYED for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6).
But WHY? Is it because the knowledge is not available?
No!!
It is because our teachers and educators have "REJECTED knowledge" — TRUE knowledge, that is, about God and His laws. They have substituted in its place — and irresponsibly funneled into the pliable minds of our nation's youth — the improvable, the laughable, the utterly ABSURD AND RIDICULOUS theories of evolution — all carefully masked and "gift-wrapped" in the name of science. And instead of refuting the foolish arguments of the evolutionists, the teachers — the ministers — themselves rejecting the Word of God and, refusing to OBEY it, have been spiritual cowards who have compromised and acquiesced at every turn of the road (read Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34).
ALL TRUE EDUCATION hinges and is based on understanding and applying right spiritual principles and laws to the PHYSICAL CREATION OF GOD. If obedience to God's law comes first, all the necessary advances in true science and technology — the physical blessings and conveniences that make life more enjoyable — will follow in due course of time. But if advances in material achievements come without the spiritual knowledge of how to control and USE it, the result is a chaotic system such as we have in today's world.
Since spiritual education is the most important, God holds the spiritual educators — the ministers — MOST responsible for the failure of today's educational system to produce peace and happiness. God says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
What KIND of knowledge? SPIRITUAL knowledge! — "because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing that thou hast FORGOTTEN THE LAW OF THY GOD, I will also forget thee" (Hosea 4:6).
In God's Kingdom this situation will be completely CHANGED! Instead of wasting precious time in idle reasoning about whether or not God exists, people in the Millennium will KNOW that God exists and that He RULES because the spiritual teaching will be in the hands of spirit beings, themselves very sons of God. They will disseminate the TRUE VALUES and give loving help in applying it to people's lives.
"Yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left" (Isa. 30:20-21).
These teachers will "reveal unto them [the people] the abundance of peace and truth . . . and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the PROSPERITY that I procure unto it" (Jer. 33:6, 9). Obedience to God's way — His LAWS — brings ABUNDANCE AND PROSPERITY! In God's Kingdom people will be EDUCATED to this fact — not told that God's law is a CURSE!
At that time God says, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts [actually change man's nature so he will obey God's law instead of being hostile to it as natural man now is — Rom. 8:7]; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they ALL shall know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord" (Jer. 31:33-34).
What a happy, joyful, WONDERFUL time that will be!
More Information Available
You have just been given a brief glimpse into the truly "Great Society"
of the WORLD TOMORROW. But the Bible reveals much, much more about it. You need to have this information — and you can get it absolutely free in our Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course. All you need do to begin receiving this fascinating and intensely interesting study course is to make your request and promise to study this course with your Bible at least one-half hour each day.
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