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Theocracy Triumphs over All the NationsParadise Restored to Mankind—By Theocracy!
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pure, true worship of the one living and true God at his spiritual temple will have been preserved for all time. These priceless things the war survivors on earth will appreciate more than all the material spoils that the slain enemies will leave behind in abundance: “and the wealth of all the nations round about will certainly be gathered, gold and silver and garments in excessive abundance.”—Zechariah 14:14.
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An International Festival in ParadiseParadise Restored to Mankind—By Theocracy!
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Chapter 22
An International Festival in Paradise
1. How will Jehovah’s worshipers on earth be affected at beholding him gain the victory on “that day”?
GLORIOUS in the annals of universal history will be the day when Jehovah’s Theocracy triumphs over all the hostile nations of the earth. Tingling from head to foot with joyful excitement will be all the safeguarded worshipers of Jehovah as they behold this universal Theocrat gain the victory of victories in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon.—Revelation 16:13-16.
2. (a) To what use will the material goods left behind after that victorious war be put? (b) What dying promise concerning the earth did Jesus make when he was dying a sacrificial death on earth?
2 All the material goods that the war survivors will gather after the destruction of their international enemies will be put to use in the service of the God-King Jehovah. No wrecked war equipment will be preserved as relics. (Isaiah 2:2-4) It will be a time for construction, not for destruction. The literal earth will doubtless have suffered from the “military service” of the enemies of Jehovah’s Messianic kingdom. The selfish ruiners of the earth will themselves have been brought to ruin, but many effects that their ruinous course will have produced down to the end of the final war will still be on hand. (Revelation 11:18) The peace of the thousand years of Messiah’s reign over all mankind now sets in. What more suitable time could there be for restoring earth, for transforming it from a battlefield into a paradise clear to its “four corners.” Before the Messiah as a perfect man on earth died in sacrificial death, he left this dying promise, to renew Paradise on God’s footstool, the earth.
3. What did Jesus say to the dying evildoer who expressed faith in Jesus’ kingship?
3 To the dying evildoer who expressed faith in the kingship of Jesus as a righteous man, saying, “Jesus, remember me when you get into your kingdom,” this prospective King replied: “Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.”—Luke 23:39-43.
4. (a) After the Lamb Jesus Christ gains the victory over his beastly enemies, what will it be the time for him to do for the domain of his subjects, and also for that sympathetic evildoer? (b) Therefore, who also should be rewarded with enjoying the Paradise?
4 By the fight of the Lamb Jesus Christ against the symbolic “ten horns” of the scarlet-colored wild beast he has come into undisputed possession of the kingdom over all the earth. (Revelation 17:12-14; 19:11-21) It is the due time for beautifying the earthly domain of his subjects like the original Garden of Eden and to bring the long-dead evildoer into it by resurrecting him from the dead. If that evildoer, just for his expression of faith and of sympathy, is to enjoy Paradise under the Messianic kingdom, most certainly the “great crowd” of his loyal disciples who survive the coming “great tribulation” will do so as a loving reward.—Revelation 7:9-17.
5. (a) What kind of paradise did the attacking nations try to ruin, but what success did they have? (b) Who of the war survivors will enjoy the earthly Paradise continually?
5 The restoration of the earthly Paradise will not be the work of a day, but the earthly subjects of the theocratic kingdom of the Christ will have to work in that behalf. But their true, undefiled worship of Jehovah God, in order to flourish, will not have to wait until that restoration of Paradise is complete. Their
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