Progressive Baptist Church's Website
Happiness on earth......it does not seem possible to enjoy it even for a short time. Sickness, aging, hunger, crime, to mention only a few problems, often make life miserable. So you may think living forever in paradise on earth is to close your eyes to the truth. You may feel it is a waste of time to talk about it because living forever is just a dream. No doubt, most people would agree. So, how can we be so sure that we can live forever in paradise on earth? Why should we believe that everlasting life is not just a dream? We can believe because an Almighty God prepared the earth with everything needed to satisfy what we want. He made the earth just perfect for us. He created man and woman in the best way for them to enjoy life in this earthly home forever.
It is really God's purpose that people live happily on earth forever. So everlasting life is not just a wish or dream, it is sure to come. Isaiah 45:18 tell us of God's purpose concerning the matter. The Scripture tells us God is the former of the earth and the maker of it. It also adds He's the one who firmly established it, not in vain, but formed it to be inhabited. Do you think the earth is inhabited the way that God meant it to be? People are living in all parts of the earth, but are we living together happily as a united family as God intended? Today the world is so divided. There is hatred, crime, and war. Millions of people are hungry and sick. Others have daily worries about housing, work, and expenses. Since none of these conditions bring honor to God; evidently, the earth is not inhabited the way God originally meant it to be.
After creating the first human couple, God placed them in an earthly paradise. He wanted them to enjoy life on earth forever. His purpose was for them to spread their paradise over all the earth. This is shown by His instructions to them in Genesis 1:28, "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it." God's purpose was in the course of time, to have the entire earth brought under the control of a righteous human family all living together in peace and happiness. Although the first human couple disobeyed God, proving to be unfit to live forever, God's original purpose did not change; it must be fulfilled.
In Psalms 37:29, the Bible promises: "The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it." Often the Bible tells of God's arrangements to give humans who serve him everlasting life. We can be happy that it is God's purpose that we live forever. If you had to decide, on what date would you choose to die? You can't pick one because no one wants to die. God made us with the desire to live, not the desire to die. The Bible says God put eternity in our minds. This means, ordinarily people desire to live on and on without dying. For this desire, men have long searched for a way of staying young.
Where do we want to live forever? In the place where we've always lived, here on earth. Man was made for earth and earth for man. The Bible says God has founded the earth upon its established places that it shall not be removed forever. It also tells us that the old will become young again, the sick will be made well, and the lame, blind, deaf, and speechless will have all their ailments healed. When Jesus Christ was on earth, He performed many miracles by healing sick people. By doing this He was showing in the time not far off, all who are living will be restored to perfect health.
The earth will produce plenty of good things to eat. No one will ever go hungry again. No more wars, crime, violence. Even hatred and selfishness will be things of the past. Psalms 145:16 says, "Thou openest thou hand and satisfied the desire of every living thing."To make possible these blessings, God promises to bring to their end, both wickedness and those who cause it. At the same time He will protect those who serve Him. The Bible says, "the world is passing away and so is its desire, but he who does the will of God remains forever." The end of the world will not mean the end of the earth. It will be like the flood in Noah's day. It will mean the end of only the bad people and their way of living. But those who are serving God will survive the end. Then, on an earth made clean, they will enjoy freedom from all who want to hurt and oppress them.
It seems conditions are getting worse, not better. How can we be sure of this grand change? Because Jesus Christ foretold many things that His future followers should watch for so that they would know it was God's time to bring an end to the world. Jesus said the last days would be marked by such things as wars, food shortages, great earthquakes, increasing lawlessness, and a growing loss of love. If you love life and want to live forever on earth under God's rule, you must hurry to take in accurate knowledge of God, His purpose, and His requirements. Jesus Christ said in His prayer to God: "This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ." What a joy it is to know we can live forever and not just dream of it!
To enjoy God's fine blessing, we need to learn more about an enemy who is trying to keep us from realizing our blessing. Surely everyone wants happiness. Why are so many bad things happening? Do you think this is by chance? Does it seem that man is being influenced by an evil invisible power? There is no need to guess at this matter. The Bible clearly shows that an intelligent unseen person has been controlling both men and nations. In the Bible, Jesus Christ calls this powerful one the Ruler of the World. Who is he? Just think about what happened at the beginning of Jesus' ministry on earth. The Bible tells us that after Jesus was baptized, He went into the wilderness where He was tempted by an unseen creature called Satan. The devil took Jesus on a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and told Him the kingdoms could be His if He would bow down to him. Did all this really belong to the devil to give? The Bible plainly states the world is lying in the power of the wicked one. This helps us understand why Jesus said His Kingdom is not of this world. This also helps us understand why there is so much hate and destruction when it is the desire of normal people to live in peace.
Satan is misleading the entire inhabited earth. He does not want us to receive God's gift of everlasting life. We have to fight to keep from being influenced by Satan to do evil. We need to know all about Satan and how he works in order to resist his efforts to mislead us. If we are to receive everlasting life, we need accurate knowledge about God and His Kingdom. We can be sure that Satan does not want us to have this knowledge. But if you give up a study of God's Word when opposition comes, how will God view you? And how will family and friends be helped by you? We need to know that accurate knowledge of the Bible is of life or death importance. Stay with the things you learn from God's Word. Do not allow anything to stop you from gaining knowledge that leads to everlasting life on earth.
The Bible urges us to oppose the devil, if you do this, he will flee from you. Get all the knowledge you can from the Bible and apply that knowledge of God's Word to your daily living so you can be assured that living forever is not just a dream!
