Inhumanity—Its End Is in Sight!
“A THING of beauty is a joy for ever,” wrote Keats the poet. Many beautiful things—paintings, sculptures and especially literary masterpieces—reveal something of their creator. The earth, this “thing of beauty,” with its marvels of life, growth, color, taste and a thousand other delights, reveals a Creator that is all-wise, all-powerful and all-loving.
The greatest literary masterpiece of all time, the Bible, has also been a “thing of beauty” and “a joy” to millions for hundreds of years. It tells us that “God is love,” that he is “merciful and gracious” and that man was made “in his image.” (1 John 4:8; Exodus 34:6; Genesis 1:27) Many of humankind clearly reflect the qualities of their Maker and show real compassion and kindness. They abhor cruelty and inhuman conduct. So—
How Did “Man’s Inhumanity to Man” Originate?
Certainly not with God. Before creating the first human pair, he lovingly prepared a beautiful home for them. A portion of the earth was adorned with trees, flowers, fruit, streams and animal life in abundance—Paradise! To enjoy this beauty forever, they had to be obedient to God, to do things his way. But they were not robots, programmed to obey; they had freedom of will and choice. God wanted his human creatures, the crowning glory of his visible creation, to serve him because they loved him and delighted to do his will.
To God and his invisible angelic creation, the garden of Eden and its happy, harmonious inhabitants must have been a lovely sight. God’s purpose was that, from this glorious genesis, the whole earth would become a global Paradise with happy people, bringing honor and praise to him.
But the angels were also free moral agents. One of them allowed covetousness and ambition to grip him. He began to envision himself as the god of mankind. (2 Corinthians 4:4) So he plotted to win the first two humans over to his side. To entice Eve to join his revolt, he promised her, “You are bound to be like God,” and, furthermore, “you positively will not die”—the first lie ever told. (Genesis 3:4, 5) Eve fell for the lure, and Adam later joined her in yielding to stimulation by their rebellious angelic mentor. The former angel thus became God’s adversary, or “Satan” in Hebrew.
“You will positively die.” God had warned Adam that this would be the consequence of rebellion. (Genesis 2:17) Satan’s promise of not dying in the flesh being false and God’s warning true, Adam and Eve did die, thus making Satan “a manslayer when he began.” (John 8:44) Due to his diabolical influence, peace and harmony in the human family were also destroyed. Later on, Adam’s eldest son, Cain, became jealous because his brother Abel’s offering to Jehovah was accepted, but his was rejected. Being “hot with great anger,” Cain ruthlessly murdered Abel. “Man’s inhumanity to man” had begun.—Genesis 4:2-8.
This murder also drew attention to the issue of pure worship versus false worship. Abel was the first of a long line of witnesses of Jehovah to be martyred because of their faith.
Some time after Abel’s murder, other angels were lured by Satan to materialize so as to cohabit with attractive women on earth, and they thus fell under Satan’s influence. From those illicit unions came the “Nephilim,” or “mighty ones”—tyrannical bullies. Before long, “the earth became filled with violence”—man’s “inhumanity” multiplied. (Genesis 6:1-11) Jehovah, in all justice and mercy, could not allow those chaotic conditions to continue. He flushed out that ancient system of things in Noah’s day with the Flood.—2 Peter 2:5.
But this did not eliminate Satan’s vile influence. The Flood forced the disobedient angels to dematerialize, and, now separated from Jehovah’s holy organization, they became an invisible demonic organization under Satan’s domination. (Ephesians 6:12) In order to control mankind, they use spiritism, necromancy, astrology and other occult devices. Although unable to take on human form again, they often possess humans, animals and inanimate things such as fetishes. Under the influence of demon powers and the blind fanaticism of false religion, nationalism and racism, people do inhumane things that they normally would not do.
It is no wonder, therefore, that religious persecution continues to this day. In our opening paragraph on page 3 mention is made of a group of Christians who were nearly clubbed to death. These suffered because they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. On this occasion they survived their beating. While vicious blows rained down on the group conductor, he petitioned Jehovah “to care for the lives of these, His ‘sheep.’” To the surprise of the police, not one of them died. Jehovah can protect his own if he so wills.—2 Chronicles 16:9.
In the United States, racial animosities have resulted in brutal mob actions and even lynchings. The harsh, overbearing attitude of some African whites toward blacks is also well known. Religion has often worked hand in hand with politics in building up the long, bloodstained record of inhuman acts that fill the history books. Wrote E. Bolaji Idowu, professor of religious studies at Ibadan University, Nigeria: “Priestcraft with all its . . . ghastly forms of inhumanity perpetrated in the name of Deity—these have been a constant embarrassment to religion . . . How can history forget the Crusades, the Jihads, the Inquisition, those burnings and mutilations and devastations?”
How Will It End?
Certainly not through human efforts. Some humanitarian organizations are trying to improve man’s lot, but the world has sunk too deeply in the mire of corruption and violence for man’s efforts to be successful.
However, Jesus said: “The things impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:27) He also said to his disciples: “Take courage! I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33) As God’s chief adversary, Satan hated Jesus and used political and religious leaders to attack him—from King Herod who tried to murder him as a babe to the priests who used the might of Rome to kill him on the stake. Satan also tried to seduce Jesus with a magnificent lure—”all the kingdoms of the world and their glory”—if only Jesus would worship him. (Matthew 4:8) But Jesus defeated Satan’s efforts to master him; he kept integrity through the grim suffering of scourging and the stake.
Significantly, at that dark moment of apparent defeat, Jesus indicated that a decisive victory over Satan had actually occurred. One of his companions in suffering, a robber, begged: “Jesus, remember me when you get into your kingdom.” Through Jesus, even this common criminal had come to gain some appreciation of the Kingdom of God as man’s only hope. Jesus triumphantly replied: “Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.”—Luke 23:42, 43.
Here Jesus clearly linked his Kingdom with Paradise and indicated it would play a key role in carrying out Jehovah’s original purpose for this earth. But when? How? Obviously Satan’s evil world has to be cleared away first. Indications are that this will take place very soon.
Asked by his disciples when this would happen, Jesus spoke of world war, food shortages, earthquakes, pestilences, increase of crime, strange and fear-inspiring events in the heavens, great anxiety for the future, and other factors, as making a composite sign that “the end” is near. (Matthew 24:3-14; Luke 21:10, 11, 25, 26) These things have been happening on an unprecedented scale since 1914. So, as Jesus said: “As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect . . . because your deliverance is getting near . . . Know that the kingdom of God is near.” (Luke 21:28, 31) At last the end of “man’s inhumanity to man” is in sight!
That is why Jehovah’s Witnesses are already making great changes in their lives by studying the Bible diligently and doing what it says. They are uninvolved in political conflicts and they ‘learn war no more.’ They endeavor to become mild-tempered and to love their neighbors. Jesus said: “Happy are the peaceable” and “happy are the mild-tempered ones, since they will inherit the earth.”—Isaiah 2:4; Matthew 5:5, 9.
Paradise Restored
At God’s appointed time, Christ Jesus will fight against “the kings of the earth and their armies” and utterly cleanse this earth of every vestige of Satan’s world. This tremendous victory will climax a “great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning.” Satan and his demons will afterward be “bound,” or restrained from exercising their wicked influence over mankind, for a thousand years.—Matthew 24:21; Revelation 16:14-16; 19:11-20; 20:1-3.
And then? “New heavens and a new earth” where “righteousness is to dwell”—God’s Kingdom fully in control with ‘his will taking place, as in heaven also upon earth.’ (2 Peter 3:13; Matthew 6:10) Under the Kingdom’s direction, the earth will gradually be restored to Paradise. And it is in this Paradise that the robber who died with Jesus will be raised from the dead as one of the millions “in the memorial tombs” who hear the voice of Jesus “and come out.”—John 5:28, 29.
What will this former criminal find? The corruption and cruelty of Rome and all other empires and governments gone forever! Instead of a satanic spirit of greed, lust, hate and fear brooding over the earth, there will be a marvelous atmosphere of peace, joy, unity and love. The spiritual paradise already enjoyed by millions of Jehovah’s people will spread earth wide. “Works of the flesh,” such as “fornication, uncleanness, loose conduct, idolatry, practice of spiritism, enmities, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, contentions, divisions, sects, envies, drunken bouts, revelries, and things like these,” will be eliminated, because “those who practice such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.”—Galatians 5:19-21.
The robber no doubt practiced some of these things, but after being resurrected he will start with a clean slate because “he who has died has been acquitted from his sin.” The robber has already received “the wages sin pays . . . death” and will be in line to receive “the gift God gives,” that is, “everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Romans 6:7, 23.
What a relief, and what a prospect for the robber and millions more! With God’s Kingdom governing all the earth righteously and wisely, it will yield its fruitage and be beautified. All living creatures on earth, in their fascinating variety, will once more be subject to man as at the beginning. (Genesis 1:28; Isaiah 11:6-9) This earthly Paradise, “a thing of beauty,” will be a “joy for ever.”
More importantly, with Jehovah’s holy spirit flowing freely, the fruitage of that spirit will flourish—”love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22, 23) All races and nations will become one great brotherhood. How? By ‘clothing themselves with love—the perfect bond of union.’ “Man’s inhumanity to man” will disappear forever.—Colossians 3:14.