Where Can Good News Be Found Today?
Chapter 1
Where Can Good News Be Found Today?
1. What would you regard as good news?
WE ALL welcome good news, do we not? Well, the purpose of this book is to tell of good news that affects every man, woman and child on this earth today. It points to a bright and secure future for the human family. In fact, when you understand what this good news is all about, we feel sure that you will agree that it is the grandest of good news.
2. What effect should good news have on us? (Proverbs 12:25; 25:25)
2 To be good news to us, this news would need to touch our lives. It should cheer us, and encourage us to have an optimistic view of the future. It should help us as we face up to the realities of life. Its effect should be to lighten the burdens that press down on most people during this age of uncertainty. It should aid in removing our fears, and in making life purposeful and worth living.
3. What kind of news reports would make you happy?
3 Suppose that each morning as we picked up the newspaper we read headlines like these:
“No Housing Shortage—Secure Jobs for Everyone”
“Record Crops—Plenty of Good Food”
“Racial Barriers Gone”
“Crime Eradicated”
“Global Peace Complete”
“Disease and Old Age Eliminated—Hospitals and Funeral Parlors Closed Down”
“Earth’s Administrators in Complete Accord—Programs for Full Enjoyment of Life Under Way”
4. (a) Would you consider it miraculous for such good news to come true? (b) Can you think of some everyday happenings that really are miracles? (Luke 12:27) (c) Logically, who is responsible for these miracles? (Acts 14:15, 17) (d) What else does the good news relate?
4 Surely news like that would make us happy! However, you are probably saying, ‘That is impossible! It could never happen! That would be a miracle? But what is a miracle? It is defined as “a marvelous event due to some supernatural agency.” And truly we are surrounded constantly by marvels that no natural human agency could bring about or create. Why, life itself is a miracle! And among living things on earth, myriads of miracles are happening every day. The birth of each living creature is a miracle, and so is the blossoming of each flower. The beauty that adorns this earth, and the abundant provision to sustain life on it, cry out that an all-wise, all-loving Creator performed the miracle of producing it all. The good news related herein tells of further marvelous things that he is about to perform in restoring unity, peace and happiness among all his creation.
5. What message do you observe in creation?
5 Even now, where greedy men have not polluted this earth, all creation testifies to us that the One who designed and made it has marvelous qualities of love, kindness, wisdom and foresight. The glories of his creation are part of his message to us. How restful and appealing to our eyes is the beauty of a green landscape! Yet that same green of the vegetation is the stuff that turns energy from the sun into food to sustain our bodies. A human face has a nose to smell with, ears to hear with, eyes to see with, and mouth, teeth and tongue to eat and speak with. But when all these parts are put together, how beautiful that face can appear in expressing a personality that shows forth Godlike qualities!
6. (a) In what two Books does the Grand Creator spell out his message for mankind? (b) What hope does Bible prophecy hold out for: (1) Housing and secure Jobs for all? (2) Abundant food supplies? (3) Removal of racial barriers? (4) Eradication of crime? (5) Abolition of war? (6) Elimination of sickness, old age and death? (7) Administration of earth in righteousness?
6 Yes, the marvelous things we see in creation, including the design of man himself, speak to us the message that a Grand Creator lives and has a purpose toward us humans. However, he writes this message, not only in the Book of his creation, but also in black and white in a Book that we today can read in print. In this Book he spells out what he can do in handling the problems and curing the ills that confront us humans today. Consider, please, some examples of what the Creator of our earth talks about doing for his people.
Homes and Secure Jobs for Everyone:
“They will actually build . . . , and plant vineyards and drink the wine of them, and make gardens and eat the fruit of them.” “As for the one listening to [wisdom], he will reside in security and be undisturbed from dread of calamity.”—Amos 9:14; Proverbs 1:33.
An Abundance of Produce and Food for All:
“The earth itself will certainly give its produce.” “There will come to be plenty of grain on the earth.” “I will exalt you, O my God . . . You are opening your hand and satisfying the desire of every living thing.”—Psalm 67:6; 72:16; 145:1, 16.
Racial Barriers Replaced by Brotherhood of Mankind:
“Look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues . . . They will hunger no more nor thirst anymore.” “All you are brothers.”—Revelation 7:9, 16; Matthew 23:8.
Crime, Violence and Wickedness Eradicated:
“Evildoers themselves will be cut off, . . . just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more.” “When the wicked ones sprout as the vegetation and all the practicers of what is hurtful blossom forth, it is that they may be annihilated forever.”—Psalm 37:9, 10; 92:7.
The Achieving of Global Peace—No More War:
“Upon earth peace among men of goodwill.” “They will not lift up sword, nation against nation, neither will they learn war anymore. And they will actually sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be no one making them tremble.”—Luke 2:14; Micah 4:3, 4.
Elimination of Disease, Old Age and Death:
“Death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.” “There were trees of life . . . And the leaves of the trees were for the curing of the nations [of mankind]. And no more will there be any curse.”—Revelation 21:4; 22:2, 3.
One Righteous Administration for All Mankind:
“Look! A king will reign for righteousness itself; and as respects princes, they will rule as princes for justice itself.” “In his days the righteous one will sprout, and the abundance of peace until the moon is no more. And he will have subjects . . . to the ends of the earth.”—Isaiah 32:1; Psalm 72:7, 8.
7. (a) To how many persons is the good news declared “as glad tidings“? (b) Why may this be termed “everlasting” good news? (Isaiah 40:8)
7 This sounds like marvelous good news, does it not? True, some people ridicule this good news, but they have nothing to offer in its place. You do not need to be like them. You and your family will not lose anything—and can gain much—by examining these grand promises. The good news that we are about to examine has been termed “everlasting good news” that is declared “as glad tidings to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.” (Revelation 14:6) It tells of permanent, lasting benefits to come to all mankind.
[Study Questions]
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