Introduction: Is There Hope for Our World?
“Imagine all the people living life in peace.”
These lyrics come from one of the most well-known songs ever. “Imagine,” written by John Lennon in 1971 during the Vietnam War’s unrest and turmoil, urges listeners to envision a world radically different from today’s—a tranquil world, a future where greed and hunger have ceased and all humanity lives as one.
Few would argue against the idea of such a world. But the question is, and always has been, how can it ever be achieved?
The song also sees this utopian world being created solely through human effort. But decades after its release, human effort seems to have sunk us only deeper into the mire of division, hatred, chaos and war.
Theories for bringing world peace have abounded. Some have proposed democracy as the key. Others have countered idealistically that socialism will bring paradise. Still others hope that international organizations, like the United Nations, can be the solution.
And history chronicles the unending story of empires trying vainly to forcefully impose their forms of peace, but leaving only violence and suffering in their wake.
In the end, all empires have collapsed, but not without killing millions of people in the process. Human experience has repeatedly demonstrated the reality of Isaiah’s immortal words: “The way of peace they have not known” (Isaiah 59:8).
War isn’t the only problem we’ve been incapable of solving. We still grapple with hunger, poverty, disease, terrorism, religious divisions, immorality, hatred and racism.
And beyond those societal issues are the everyday problems people face all over the world—addictions, marital troubles, family divisions, economic hardships, chronic health issues, hopelessness and depression. Probably everyone reading this has struggled with at least one of these. Many people can scarcely worry about world peace when they can’t find peace in their own homes or minds.
Will we ever be able to really solve these problems?
Looking at the reality of history and human nature, it seems rather hopeless. Many thinkers see little hope for peace because of proliferating nuclear weapons, increasingly sophisticated warfare, growing hostility and divisions between groups, fragile economic structures—the challenges seem endless.
The truth is, the Bible reveals these problems are only going to worsen. Jesus Himself predicted that religious confusion, warfare, starvation and disease will intensify beyond imagination (Matthew 24:5-7), and that mankind will ultimately bring itself to the precipice of total self-destruction (verse 22).
But He then promised that, just at this world’s bleakest moment, “those days will be shortened” (verse 22, emphasis added throughout).
This booklet is not about how bad things are or will be. But we started there to establish this essential premise: something has to change in order for our world to survive and truly thrive, and the change we need will not come from our own efforts.
How about imagining instead the direct intervention of Jesus Christ, who promised to return to this earth to save us from ourselves and begin creating a completely new, vastly different world?
How will this coming world of tomorrow be different? How will it be built? What will it be like?
The Bible is full of prophecies that reveal God’s plans for that future world—He doesn’t leave us to our own imaginations! This booklet examines many of those prophecies that paint a spectacular picture of “the world to come” (Hebrews 2:5).
This message is, without a doubt, our world’s greatest and only hope.