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When Slavery Will End!Awake!—2002 | June 22
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When Slavery Will End!
FREEDOM! Few words are more appealing to the human heart. People have fought and suffered, lived and died, in pursuit of freedom. Sadly, though, many have done so without seeing much real progress toward their goal. Is there hope for freedom from slavery—a hope that will not end in frustration and disappointment? There is.
The apostle Paul was inspired to write of God’s promise: “The creation itself also will be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21) But how can we be sure that God will really bring about such “glorious freedom”? One way is to examine God’s dealings with mankind throughout history.
“Where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom,” says the Bible. (2 Corinthians 3:17) Yes, God’s spirit, or active force, is immensely powerful. He has been using it to provide freedom in many ways for a long time. How so? Well, we must keep in mind that there are many types of slavery. We have already discussed one of the most vicious types, wherein the strong enslave the weak by force and violence. But consider some other forms of slavery.
People can enslave themselves to various addictions that prove extremely difficult to escape. And people can be enslaved by lies and deception, fooled into a life of subjugation to false teachings. Most insidious of all, there is a type of slavery that afflicts each one of us—whether we know it or not—and its effects are lethal. However, it must be emphasized that although we are grouping together several forms of bondage in this discussion, we are in no way equating them. They differ widely. Still, there is an important common thread. In the long run, the God of freedom will see to it that the burden of all these forms of slavery will be lifted from mankind.
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When Slavery Will End!Awake!—2002 | June 22
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The Most Insidious Slavery
Notice how Jesus described an insidious form of slavery, mentioned earlier, that affects every man, woman, and child on earth: “Most truly I say to you, Every doer of sin is a slave of sin.” (John 8:34) Who can claim that he does not sin? Even the apostle Paul admitted: “The good that I wish I do not do, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice.” (Romans 7:19) Although no one can free himself from the fetters of sin, our situation is not hopeless.
Jesus assured his disciples: “If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free.” (John 8:36, Today’s English Version) The fulfillment of this promise will mean nothing less than freedom from the most damaging of all forms of slavery. To understand how we can escape from it, we must first see how we were enslaved to begin with.
The Bible reveals that God created man as a free moral agent, with no tendency to sin. But a selfish, invisible spirit son of God wanted to wield power over mankind, regardless of the cost in human suffering. To achieve that goal, this rebellious angel, who was later called Satan the Devil, turned our first human parents, Adam and Eve, away from God. After Adam deliberately disobeyed God’s specific instructions, he not only became a sinner himself but passed imperfection and death on to all his descendants. (Romans 5:12) Eventually, Satan became ‘the ruler of the world,’ and ‘sin has ruled over mankind as king with death.’—John 12:31; Romans 5:21; Revelation 12:9.
How can we be freed? By becoming Jesus’ disciples, we can benefit from Christ’s sacrificial death, which has the power to “bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil” and to “emancipate all those who for fear of death were subject to slavery all through their lives.” (Hebrews 2:14, 15) Imagine that—freedom from slavery to sin and death! Isn’t the thought of such freedom appealing?
What, though, about the type of slavery we discussed at the outset? Will there ever be an end to the forcible enslavement of people against their will?
A Sure Basis for Hope
Surely, we can be confident that such a repulsive form of slavery will be eliminated. Why so? Well, consider this: Jehovah God was directly responsible for the greatest march to freedom in all human history. You may be familiar with the historical record.
The nation of Israel was enslaved by Egypt, set to hard manual labor and subjected to brutal treatment. They cried out to God for help, and he, in his great mercy, heard them and acted. Using Moses and Aaron as his spokesmen, Jehovah issued a demand that the Egyptian Pharaoh let the Israelites go free. That proud monarch refused repeatedly, even after Jehovah brought a series of devastating plagues upon the land. Finally, God brought Pharaoh to his knees. The Israelites were free at last!—Exodus 12:29-32.
It is a thrilling account, isn’t it? You may wonder, though, why God has not done something similar in modern times. Why has he not intervened in human affairs and put an end to slavery? Remember, Jehovah is not ‘the ruler of the world’—Satan is. Because of the challenges raised back in Eden, Jehovah has allowed this wicked Adversary to rule for a limited time. Slavery, oppression, and cruelty are simply hallmarks of Satan’s rulership. Under such influence, human rulership has built up a miserable record. The Bible summarizes that record succinctly: “Man has dominated man to his injury.”—Ecclesiastes 8:9.
But for how long? The Bible explains that we are living in “the last days,” a time when selfishness and greed would be rampant. (2 Timothy 3:1, 2) This means that soon God’s Kingdom, for which Jesus taught us to pray, will establish a righteous society in which slavery will be outlawed. (Matthew 6:9, 10) Jesus Christ, God’s appointed King, will take action to crush every vestige of slavery until the last enemy, death, is brought to nothing.—1 Corinthians 15:25, 26.
When that day finally dawns, faithful mankind will see that the freeing of God’s people from slavery in Egypt was just a small foregleam of this far greater liberation. Yes, in time, “the creation itself also will be set free from enslavement to corruption.” At last, all will be able to enjoy to the full “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”—Romans 8:21.
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