“And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth
for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” — Matthew 24:14.
“You yourselves have been shown these things so you will know that Jehovah is the true God; there is no other besides him.” — Deuteronomy 4:35.
“to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority for all past eternity and now and into all eternity. Amen.” — Jude 1:25.
“Before the mountains were born
Or you brought forth the earth and the productive land,
From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.” — Psalm 90:2.
For us humans, it is considered normal to be born, grow older, and then die. In between, we experience various life events. Some are joyful, while others are less so. Things like ageing, the body becoming less healthy, less fit, less attractive, and the occurrence of impairments and diseases happen to us. We’ve all had the flu, and we notice that our bodies at 80 look less fit than they did at 21. Some of us have had to use a walking stick due to reduced mobility or glasses due to impaired vision. Others might wear hearing aids. Ultimately, at approximately 90 years of age, the human body ceases to function. We have all accepted these things as “normal”. We accepted these things as “that’s the way it is.”
For the Heavenly Father, who always lives and will always live, Jesus called Him “not the God of the dead but the God of the living”. — Mark 12:27, Luke 20:38.
In God’s eyes, death and disease are malfunctions in the grand plan. He has lived forever and will continue to do so, so why should death be seen as usual? Why should decay and the ageing of the physical body be accepted as usual?
Because the angel who became Satan, the Devil, started a rebellion against God, sin came into existence. He then misled some angels in Heaven, who joined him - they became demons. Afterwards, Satan and his demons tried to seduce and mislead humans on earth. The Bible story about Adam and Eve shows how humans fell for Satan’s deception and then sinned. — Genesis 3:1-7.
Just as parents want their children to obey them, God also wanted His children to obey and behave well. He didn’t make His children into robots who always follow His will; He gave them free will so they could make their own choices and decide what to do. He told his first human children, “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will certainly die.” — Genesis 2:16-17.
The Heavenly Father could also have chosen not to plant that tree of knowledge of good and evil, or to remove it. But the tree was there for a meaningful reason — by not eating its fruit, His children could demonstrate loyalty and obedience to their Heavenly Father.
This is also closely related to the questions: “Why is there so much difficulty on earth going on? Why do I have this and that difficulty in my life? If Satan is so evil, why has God not destroyed Satan yet? Why are false religions, war, criminality, suffering, etc., continuing? It has to do with our Heavenly Father giving us time... time to practise good behaviour and, in challenging circumstances, the ability to make the conscious choice not to do as Satan wants, but to stay loyal to God, our Heavenly Father.”
So, the first humans on earth sinned. What happened afterwards? The Heavenly Father warned His children that if they ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would undoubtedly die. Therefore, death was introduced. The apostle Paul explains, “That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” — Romans 5:12.
In Genesis 2:16-17, God told His first human children that they would die on the day they ate from the forbidden fruit. God’s Word sometimes describes a day as 1,000 years. Therefore, God warned the first humans that if they sinned, they would die within that day of 1,000 years. — 2 Peter 3:8.
In the later chapters of Genesis, God’s Word presents a list of men who lived to be more than 900 years old. These men were: Adam, Seth, Enos, Kenan, Jared, Methuselah, and Noah. — Genesis 5:5-27, 9:29. Subsequently, as we continue reading, we notice the ages of people decreasing. Human lifespans become shorter. Why is this? Because God’s Word, the Bible, teaches us that old age (including growing older, diseases, etc.) results from sin; sin is directly connected to shorter life. In other words, greater sin is associated with a shorter lifespan. It gets even more serious - it ultimately results in death. Satan kept stirring up the world, seducing and misleading people to sin in an attempt to prevent them from remaining loyal to their Heavenly Father, and the world increasingly sinned.
So, from God’s Word, we understand that our Heavenly Father is eternal. He has lived forever and will continue to live forever. He is the Bringer of Life. — Psalm 36:9, Acts 17:25, 28.
For Him, things like death, disease, and sin are viewed as temporary malfunctions. A bad event that is fleeting, caused by Satan’s rebellion, thinking he could outdo God, trying to prove that God does not have the best intentions for humanity, or that He is a liar, and that people can manage without God. Consequently, Satan’s wrongdoings also spread on earth.
But our Heavenly Father, through God’s Word, has revealed the good news: this bad event, the temporary malfunction, will not last forever!
In ancient times, before Jesus came to Earth, God’s worshippers observed specific procedures in which animal sacrifices were offered to cover their sins. Through Moses, God provided the people with precise guidelines for presenting these sacrifices. Under the Mosaic Law, these sacrificial rituals can be found in Leviticus chapters 1 through 3. According to God’s instructions, a male sheep or goat — healthy and without blemish — had to be slaughtered, its blood splashed on all sides of the altar, and the offering burned at the tent of meeting. These sacrifices provided a temporary forgiveness of sins. — Leviticus 1-3, 1 Peter 1:18, Hebrews 9:9.
From God’s Word, we learn that through Adam, the originally perfect man, sin (and thus death) entered the world. Because Adam plunged mankind into sin, an imperfect sacrifice could never fully erase it. Therefore, offering animals on the altar as prescribed by the Law of Moses was not sufficient to bring about permanent forgiveness for all sins.
A perfect solution was required: a perfect sacrifice. A perfect Lamb had to be laid on the altar for complete forgiveness of all sins. — Romans 5:12, John 1:29, Hebrews 10:5-10.
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said: ‘See, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” — John 1:29.
God’s original plan to create paradise on earth so that humanity could live forever in the most beautiful, wonderful, joyful, loving, happy, and healthy way was obstructed by Satan’s wrongdoings, and Adam and Eve cooperated with Satan’s rebellion. As a result, much misery ensued. Paradise? No longer. Everlasting life in the most beautiful, peaceful, loving, happy, and healthy way? No longer. People, and indeed all people on earth, are convicted of many sins... Even being born on earth is part of it; that is not a perfect situation. It’s an “Oh no!” situation! A malfunction in the perfect plan of our loving, caring Heavenly Father. It is not the case that our Heavenly Father Himself did something wrong, but Satan, who started the rebellion against God, was the initial problem that caused the entire malfunction in God’s beautiful plan.
Because our Heavenly Father genuinely wants to fulfil His promises (His name already testifies to this) and loves humanity immensely, He devised a perfect plan to resolve the malfunction. To bring about paradise on earth, to grant forgiveness of our sins, and to enable us to live that perfect, beautiful, joyful, happy, peaceful, everlasting life that our Heavenly Father desires for us, God, our Heavenly Father, took action. — Psalm 37:11, 37:29, 37:34, 115:16.
A perfect plan was devised. To achieve forgiveness for all sins, an imperfect sacrifice would not be enough. Only a perfect sacrifice would do. Our Heavenly Father sent His beloved son, Jesus, to earth, the perfect Lamb, the perfect Sacrifice to die for our sins. If Jesus had been conceived in the usual way, he would also have inherited sin. Therefore, for Jesus to remain perfect and sinless, his birth had to take place in a special way. Our Heavenly Father, through His Holy Spirit, caused Mary to become pregnant with Jesus, ensuring that he remained perfect. — Matthew 1:18, Luke 1:35. The only perfect human being on earth. Truly remarkable...!
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.” — John 3:16.
During Jesus’ ministry—after being baptised and when he began teaching and performing miracles—Satan challenged him repeatedly. However, Jesus proved he was the loyal one. He remained perfect in all his ways, deeds, and sayings. In every challenge, Jesus stayed entirely faithful to his Heavenly Father. — Philippians 2:8.
What a man! We, humans, stumble repeatedly. We sometimes struggle when Satan tries to challenge us. But no matter what challenge Satan threw at Jesus, he remained perfectly faithful, loyal, and obedient to the Heavenly Father until the end! What a role model for us! — Romans 6:23, 5:21, Philippians 2:8, John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 15:22, Colossians 1:14.
“More than that, when he came as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, yes, death on a torture stake.” — Philippians 2:8.
So... Our loving Heavenly Father sent His beloved son, Jesus, to earth to die for our sins, playing a significant role in ending the temporary malfunction: sin, death, and all the trouble on earth.
Is it only a significant role? Jesus coming to earth and dying for our sins—does that not fully resolve the problem of sin, death, and all troubles on earth? There is more to it! Jesus showed us in his model prayer: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your Kingdom come.” Let your Kingdom come? What is God’s Kingdom? What does it mean that God’s Kingdom will come? What will God’s Kingdom do? How will God’s Kingdom complete God’s plan to save humanity from all misery?
I have to admit, those prophecy-related subjects in God’s Word, like God’s Kingdom and Revelation, can be a bit harder to grasp; nonetheless, they are a significant part of Jesus’ teachings. He gave his disciples the command to preach the good news of the Kingdom to the entire inhabited world. This way, people will learn that their loving, caring Heavenly Father will end all misery—and bestow upon us a life filled with love, care, kindness, faith, health, joy, and, above all else, everlasting life. — Matthew 10:1-11, Luke 4:43, 8:1, 10:1, 10:9, Acts 5:42.
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