| News and Views | October 1943 |
God Prepares To Take Over
“The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: He is greatly exalted.”—Psalm 47:9
THE news that Communist Russia had set up a committee of Free Germans for the announced purpose of taking over the governmental affairs of the Reich when Hitlerism collapses and administering them along Communistic lines, came as a surprise to the United Nations. Apparently, no advance information of these plans had reached the council chambers of the powers now united to defeat the Axis, despite the fact that Russia is counted as one of the nations co-operating to this end. No doubt, however, many will feel that Russia had as much right to consider post-war needs from this standpoint as do the other nations fighting the Axis dictators.
All of the larger powers engaged on both sides of the present global war have made, and are making, similar arrangements to take over the administrative affairs of countries as, and when, they are invaded and conquered. Indications point to the fact that large numbers in the United States are being specially trained for this purpose—trained with the view of understanding the customs of the people over which they will be expected to rule, hence being able to administer their governmental affairs intelligently and efficiently. The announced purpose of the United Nations in this respect is that these prepared in advance administrative arrangements are to govern the conquered nations only until such time—that time being decided by the conquerors—as the conquered people are in a position to properly select their own rulers and decide the form of government under which they desire to live.
From the standpoint of nations making these plans, they seem not only wise, but essential. The widespread devastations wrought by modern warfare, both upon civilian property and life, and the horrible and widespread suffering caused thereby, leave the people helpless and desperate. These conditions breed unrest and chaos, and unless some preparations were made in advance to deal with the situation, the conquerors would have a condition of anarchy on their hands which would largely nullify the results of victory.
And besides, the conquering rations want to make sure in advance what form of government there is to be in the conquered countries. At least, they desire to make sure that during the period when peace is being negotiated they will have the proper kind of representatives with whom to deal. No doubt it is the hope, also, that the administrative officials sent into the conquered countries will so intelligently and ably administer the affairs of the people that they themselves, when given the opportunity, will gladly choose the continuance of that form of government with which they have been made acquainted. Such is the wisdom of this world as applied to the needs of the human race which has well nigh gone mad after six thousand years of misrule under the spiritual leadership of Satan, the Great Deceiver and arch-enemy of God and man.
We might naturally wonder, in view of all the human failures of the past, whether or not these carefully laid plans to stabilize a world threatened with anarchy will be successful. Many of our leaders, too, are wondering about this, yet are hopeful—for human beings are always hopeful—that in some way, if not in this way, there will be a satisfactory solution to present world problems.
When we tell people that the long-promised Kingdom of God will be the only truly workable and wholly satisfactory solution to the problems created by human sin and selfishness, we are sometimes confronted with the question, “How can the Kingdom of God take hold literally of a broken down and chaotic society of half-starved and dying human creatures and establish order and peace and happiness?” We are told that it is unreasonable to suppose that men will change their habits of thought overnight and agree to conduct their affairs in keeping with the Golden Rule. We are reminded that Christianity has been preached in the world for nearly nineteen centuries, and yet the only thing that really speaks with authority today is the block-busting bombs dropped from flying fortresses.
There is a measure of truth in all of this. Up to the present time, God has been successfully carrying on His work in the earth by means of what the apostle speaks of as “the foolishness of preaching.” (I Corinthians 1:21) He knew in advance, however, what the nations are now learning, namely, that in order to take over the administrative affairs of the world and restore order when finally the selfish misrule of man had completely broken down, it would require a trained-in-advance personnel of sufficient magnitude to actually administer the governmental affairs of all mankind. While until now God has permitted the fallen race to administer its affairs along lines of its own choosing, yet He planned that when the final breakdown of human efforts occurred, He would have a government ready to take over, the framework of which would be as He designed and desired it.
During the time when God’s special representatives are ruling the nations, a worldwide peace is to be negotiated, not peace between the nations, for God will enforce that, but peace between God and men. This peace-making period will last for a thousand years. The Scriptures show that meanwhile the nations will be ruled with a rod of iron. That is to say, there will be a divine control over the affairs of men which will not permit of any deviation from the laws of Christ’s Kingdom without serious consequences.
Coupled with this iron rule, however, will be a program of education to acquaint the people with the advantages of God’s ways of righteousness and love as against their former sways of sin and selfishness. Augmenting this program will be corrective judgments concerning which the prophet says, “When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”—Isaiah 26:9
Gradually, during that thousand-year-judgment and iron-rule period, the people will learn to co-operate joyfully in the Lord’s arrangements for the betterment of human society, or else will manifest their incorrigibility by failing to enter into the spirit of the Kingdom laws then in force. The primary objective of the future program of education will be that the people learn the advantages of doing all they can for others, rather than endeavoring to obtain all they can for themselves. They will then learn that the secret of real joy is the devotion of one’s life to the well-being and good of others.
Learning this, the people will automatically co-operate with God’s rulers in carrying forward the great Kingdom program for the general good of all. At the end, they will discover that their unselfish interest in the other fellow qualifies them for life eternal in a worldwide Paradise—a Paradise in which man will again become king of earth in his own right. To these, the divine invitation will be extended, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”—Matthew 25:34
The Kingdom prepared for man from the foundation of the world is that described in Genesis 1:26, where God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let, them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” This dominion was lost by man when Adam chose the course of selfishness and sin. Our first parents were summarily sentenced to death, and driven out of their Edenic home, that glorious little bit of living-room prepared for them as a sample of what God intended the whole earth to be when, in obedience to His command, the human race had filled and subdued it.
Because of this tragedy a long and dark night of sorrow settled down upon humankind. For the vast majority, it has been a darkness seldom penetrated with any ray of hope for a coming day. But the Creator’s plans were not frustrated. He not only foreknew the course that man would take, but made His plans to overrule this tragic mistake for humanity’s good. He who knew the end from the beginning began at once preparing to meet the final emergency resulting from man’s utter failure to carry on under the influence of selfishness.
God took a fete of the pure-hearted and strong in faith into His confidence throughout the centuries, and, to a greater or less degree, told them of His plan. The patriarch Abraham was one of these, and to him God promised a future blessing of all the nations of the earth. (Genesis 12:1-3) This promise, constituting a ray of hope for those who believed it, was repeated in varied forms and by the mouth of all God’s prophets until the coming of Christ, whom the Apostle Paul identifies as the One through whom the promised blessings were to come.—Galatians 3:8,16
Through the New Testament writers, God revealed His purpose of selecting from mankind a few to be associated with Christ in His coming Kingdom. (Galatians 3:27,29) This hope of joint-heirship with Christ has inspired many of His followers to lay down their lives in sacrifice, following in His footsteps. By obedience to His commands, and willingness to sacrifice their lives for others, as did Jesus, all true Christians have demonstrated their worthiness to live and reign with Him.
It is Christ’s Kingdom which, lasting for a thousand years, is to accomplish a full reconstruction of that which has been broken down through Satan’s misrule of selfishness. “Christ must reign,” the apostle tells us, “till He hath put all enemies under His feet,” including death, the greatest enemy of all.—I Corinthians 15:25,26
We are told by the apostle that when this Kingdom work is completed, and all things are subdued under Christ, then Christ Himself will be subject to God, who will be “all in all.” (I Corinthians 15:28) This means that then peace will have been established between God and men, a peace made possible through the shed blood of the Redeemer, and negotiated during the thousand years of Christ’s rule over, and judgment of men. It will be then that mankind will have the opportunity of choosing—as Adam had the right of choice—whether they will continue to obey the laws of God and live, or disobey and die. In any case, the Kingdom of Christ, having governed the world for a thousand years by kings and servants prepared in advance, will have served its purpose. Humanity will be restored to peace with God and no longer will be a dying race, alienated from the Creator through wicked works.
But still some may inquire how Christ’s Kingdom is to function. Is Christ to return to the earth as a superman, and will the apostles and other members of His church be raised from the dead and appear among men as human beings to rule over them? No, it will not be that way! Christ gave His flesh for the life of the world, and was raised from the dead on the divine plane, being made the express image of the Creator Himself. (John 6:51; Hebrews l:3) Concerning members of the true church who are to reign with Him, the Apostle John says that they are to be made like Christ, and see Him as He is.—I John 3:2
Christ and His church, then, will be the spiritual and invisible rulers in God’s new order. Satan has been the invisible ruler of this “present evil world,” and the powerful though evil effects of his misrule are all too manifest. (Galatians 1:4) Christ’s spiritual rulership will be even more powerful than Satan’s has been, but it will be a rule of righteousness, the wholesome results of which will be to the everlasting blessing of all.
Satan’s control over man has been exercised through human agencies. Christ’s Kingdom will operate similarly. These human servants of God, the Bible shows, are to be those who believed His promises and served Him faithfully during the ages preceding Christ’s first advent. In the 11th chapter of Hebrews, the apostle gives us a sizeable list embracing many of these, beginning with Abel, but he does not mention them all. Jesus refers to them as “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets,” to whom the people will come during the Kingdom period for instruction and leadership. (Luke 13:28) In Psalm 45:16 they are identified as the fathers of Israel, and the promise made that, becoming the children of Christ, they will be made “princes in all the earth.”
These will, of course, be human beings, but perfect, as Adam was perfect before he fell. Their long training and discipline in the past specially prepared them for the task in hand. Who, for example, could ask for a better administrator of divine law than Moses? Who could ask for one more wise than Solomon? Who could ask for one more energetic in getting things done than Noah, the builder of the Ark?
Yes, God knew in advance what would be required in order to set up divine control in a world gone mad. He knew it, and prepared for it, and as we today pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” we can do so with an intelligent belief, not only that the prayer swill be answered, but will be answered effectively, and for the everlasting joy of all mankind. While the heavy hand of divine judgment is now upon crumbling nations, we have the assurance that after they are sufficiently shaken, the desire of all nations will come.—Haggai 2:7