they press on in these last days, knowing that the end of this old system of things is near at hand and that Armageddon is not far distant. So they preach, and with greater zeal and effort than ever before in their lives. What a glorious year they have had! What joy has been theirs! What happiness of heart and mind they possess because they are letting all their affairs take place with love!

Part 5—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”

Chapter 1 of the book “Your Will Be Done on Earth” posed the challenging question “Whose Will?” and proved that it was the irresistible will of Jehovah God that was to be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Moreover, this gladdening fact meant that this earth, man’s God-given habitation, was never to be destroyed, but it will be a grand experience for humankind to live on earth when the heavenly Father’s will is done here. We have now entered into the book’s second chapter, entitled “Why it Must Be Done on Earth.” Paragraph 6 has already said that “for the survival of man and animal on earth as an everlasting home” the supranational will of God the creator needs to be done here. The fact that it is the Creator’s will for the earth to stay in existence for eternity and remain inhabited can be proved from the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ to God the Creator: “Your kingdom come! Your will be done on earth as well as in heaven!” How so? Let us read on.

9. God’s kingdom will come and his will will be done because of what divine purpose concerning the earth?

⁹ Manifestly, God’s kingdom comes to earth and his will is then done on earth because it is his purpose for the earth to remain forever as part of the universal realm over which he is the King of eternity, the Most High Sovereign. God’s will being done here under his kingdom will make a delightful change on this earth. Why then destroy this territory of his kingdom? Why remove the people doing God’s will on earth from this territory of his kingdom? That is not what God will do, for he inspired wise King Solomon of old to write this proverb: “In the multitude of people there is an adornment of a king, but in the lack of population is the ruin of a high official.” (Prov. 14:28) It was because the first man did not keep on doing the will of his Creator that God sentenced him to die and return to the dust of the earth. (Gen. 3:17-19) When God’s will is done by the people on earth under God’s kingdom, he will give them the right to eternal life on this territory of his kingdom realm. For the sake of this he will preserve this earth to his everlasting glory as its Creator.

10. How does the model prayer prove that the coming of Christianity did not change matters for the earth?

¹⁰ Christendom, however, will argue through its priests and clergymen that the coming of Christianity changed matters for the earth. But how could that be so? Jehovah God used Jesus Christ as the very Leader in Christianity, and it was this Leader of Christianity himself that gave us the prayer for God’s kingdom to come and for God’s will to be done on earth as well as in heaven!

11. What was the hope and desire of ancient holy men of God respecting their future?

¹¹ The Leader of Christianity could not be wrong in what he taught about the earth. He was not wrong. Holy men of God, who were borne along by God’s spirit in order to speak and write prophecy before Christ’s day had no hope or desire to go to heaven’s unknown realm. In fact, they had no invitation from God to go to heaven, nor was the way then open for men to go to heaven. They did not expect, when they died, to go to heaven. They did not look forward to the total destruction of this earth and its moon in a universal conflagration. True, they expected a future life, but not a future life in heaven. Their hope was to return from the dead to a renewed life on this earth, but then when God rules over the Middle East and over all the rest of the earth.

12, 13. (a) Why did Jesus coming to earth not prove that their hope was a mistaken one? (b) In this regard, what did Peter say to confirm what Jesus himself had said?

¹² The coming of Jesus Christ to earth did not prove that their hope was a mistaken one. His coming did not change the future for them and open the way to heaven for them. Long after Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), Moses, King David, the prophet Isaiah and even the prophet Malachi died, Jesus Christ the Son of God came down from heaven to earth in a miraculous way. He did not say that those holy men of old were up in heaven when he left. Jesus, as the Son of man on earth, said to a Jewish ruler: “No man has ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man.” (John 3:13) When the Baptizer, John the son of Zechariah, was in prison and soon to have his head chopped off, Jesus said: “Among those born of women there has not been raised up a greater than John the Baptist; but a person that is a lesser one in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he is.” (Matt. 11:11) After Jesus himself was put to death on a torture stake but was resurrected from the dead on the third day and later went back to heaven to his Father, the apostle Peter preached to over three thousand Jews and said that the resurrected Jesus was in heaven but King David was not up there.

¹³ Said Peter: “It is allowable to speak with freeness of speech to you concerning the family head David, that he both deceased and was buried and his tomb is among us to this day. Actually David did not ascend to the heavens, but he himself says, ‘Jehovah said to my Lord [that is, to Jesus Christ], “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a stool for your feet.”’” (Acts 2:29, 34, 35) Those dead men like David still wait for God’s kingdom to come.

14. Why did Jesus speak of himself as going to heaven, and what effect did the invitation to his followers to go to heaven have on God’s purpose toward mankind?

¹⁴ Jesus spoke of himself as going to heaven because he had come down from there only for thirty-three years and a half. He spoke of his congregation of faithful followers, those pictured by the twenty-four “elders” in the Revelation to John, as invited to go to heaven to be with him. To these he gave instructions to prepare them to go to heaven. But this did not mean that Jesus Christ had changed God’s original purpose concerning humankind as a whole.

15. For whose benefit in general did Jesus pray for God’s kingdom to come, and what do confused men need to re-examine?

¹⁵ Jesus did not open the way for all the God-fearing ones of mankind to go to heaven. For the sake of humankind in general, he prayed for God’s kingdom to come to the earth where dead humankind lies buried and for the heavenly Life-giver’s will to be done on earth as well as in heaven. Will King David and John the Baptist want to do God’s will on earth under His kingdom? Certainly. Hence confused men need to re-examine the Bible to learn what the