“LIFE IN A PEACEFUL NEW WORLD”

Hugo McCord

I was handed a tract entitled “Life in a Peaceful New World” by a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They are to be commended for their zeal, as Paul could say about his people: “I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10;1).

A Christian lady was discourteous as she dismissed two Witnesses at her door, blurting out, “I already have the truth.” One of the Witnesses replied, “Why are you not knocking on our doors?”

As in Peter’s day, some, including the JWs, “wrest [strebloo, twist, distort, wrench] the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16). The JWs, after 5 failures on the time of Jesus’ second coming (1874 in October; 1914; 1925; 1975 on September 5; 1975 on October 31) have quit date setting, and now only say, “We are living in the time of the end.”

The JWs hold that only 144,000 (cf. Revelation 7:4; 14:1-3 with Revelation 14:4, all male virgins) are going to heaven, but that the “great crowd” of JWs will live forever on this same earth, cleansed and beautified. But Jesus said that the “earth shall pass away” (Matthew 24:35), and Peter said that it will be “burned up” (2 Peter 3:10-13).

They misuse Ecclesiastes 1:4; Psalm 37:29, not knowing that sometimes “forever” (olam) in Scripture only means “on going,” not “endless.” It does mean “endless” in reference to

God’s existence {Psalm 90:2; 93:2), but not in reference to circumcision (Genesis 17:13; cf. Galatians 6:15), and not in reference to the Aaonic priesthood {Exodus 40:15; cf. Hebrews 7:12), and not in reference to a man’s lifetime (Exodus 21:6), and not in reference to the time Jonah stayed in the fish’s stomach (Jonah 2:6; cf. Jonah 1:17).

The “earth” to be inherited (Psalm 37:11; Matthew 5:5) cannot be this one cleansed and purified (Matthew 24:35; Hebrews 1:10-12; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21:1; John 14:2-3), but one that is “new” (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). The tract writer, by picturing a little girl petting a bear and another petting a lion, got his inspiration from an Old Testament prediction:

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them (Isaiah 11:6).

But Isaiah made it clear he was talking about something to take place at the first coming of Jesus (cf. Isaiah 11:10 and Romans 15:7-12), and when he came he was not an animal trainer!

However, he did turn beastly men (like Paul, a murderer of Christians, Acts 9:1) into lambs (“Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned” (2 Corinthians 11:24). Isaiah’s language has to be figurative and poetical, for Jesus did not come into this world to tame wild animals but to “seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10, lost sinners!