How Our Atmosphere Will Be Saved
WILL humans willingly stop filling our skies with filth? Is this how our atmosphere will be saved?
No. Saving our precious atmosphere is not dependent on human compliance with antipollution requirements. Rather, intervention by One who possesses supreme authority is what will bring about not only a cleansed atmosphere but a clean earth as well.
That the Creator cares for our earth, as well as the life upon it, is shown by the marvelous way that he designed it. He made it to endure to time indefinite, even forever.—Psalm 104:5, 24.
Provisions for Maintenance
The atmosphere, for example, was created in such a way that it repairs and cleanses itself. Consider the ozone in the upper atmosphere. The ozone shield was ingeniously made so that it absorbs ultraviolet radiation that would be deadly to humans on earth. At the same time, it allows safe light needed by earthly life to pass through.
We learned earlier that the ozone shield is being badly damaged by man-made chlorofluorocarbons, which rise into the upper atmosphere. How will the protective shield of ozone be replenished? Amazingly, the Creator designed it so that it is self-repairing. Yes, ozone is constantly being created in the upper atmosphere—in fact, by those same dangerous rays that ozone filters out! Thus at the same time that man’s pollution is rapidly destroying ozone, some ozone is being replenished.
The situation is similar in the lower atmosphere, where most of the more than 5 quadrillion tons of air is found. Natural cycles rapidly cleanse this air of contaminants in remarkable ways. The World Book Encyclopedia comments: “Wind scatters pollutants, and rain and snow wash them into the ground.”
Clearly, then, if humans stopped polluting the air, or greatly limited such pollution, soon the air everywhere would be sweet and fragrant. Yet the above reference work identifies the problem, explaining: “In many areas, pollutants are put into the air faster than weather conditions can dispose of them.”
How, then, will man’s selfish polluting of the atmosphere be stopped?
A Cleansed Earth At Hand
Pollution will be stopped only by God himself, when he intervenes. The Bible foretells that he will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” (Revelation 11:18) He will not allow greedy men to continue to pollute this beautiful earth and its life-sustaining atmosphere indefinitely. He promises: “Evildoers themselves will be cut off, but those hoping in Jehovah are the ones that will possess the earth.”—Psalm 37:9.
How will an end be brought to all evildoers? It will be by means of God’s heavenly government, his Kingdom, which will replace inadequate governments of men. The Bible promises: “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will . . . crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” (Daniel 2:44) This Kingdom government of God is the one for which Jesus taught his followers to pray: “Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth.”—Matthew 6:10.
God’s will for our earth is that humans should be ruled by his Kingdom and thereby enjoy life in an unpolluted environment. That is why God is determined “to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” (Revelation 11:18) What a mighty act of deliverance that will be!
Imagine living on an earth free of all the pollution that selfish humans have heaped upon it! At that time our precious atmosphere will be restored to a healthy condition. This will occur when the Bible promise is fulfilled: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”—Revelation 21:3, 4; 2 Peter 3:13.
What must you do to survive into the righteous new world that God promises? You need to learn about and to follow the teachings of the one whom God sent to earth as His representative. (John 3:16; 7:29) This one, Jesus Christ, said in prayer to God: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”—John 17:3.
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A clean, unpolluted paradise earth is at hand