Why is humanity helpless to bring peace?

Science and technology haven't brought it. All the experiments in various governmental and economic systems haven't moved us closer to peace, but seem to draw us ever nearer to destruction.

Education should be a key to the kind of world we want. As God said, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). But the kind of knowledge funneled into students' minds today doesn't seem to produce lasting happiness or to have brought the world closer to peace. Nor are parents instilling values and character training in their children at home.

Hosea makes it clear the missing knowledge is about God and His laws (Hosea 4:6-10). Modern education ignores and ridicules spiritual knowledge and belief in a Creator God. When humans are seen as evolving animals, and survival of the fittest is considered the active principle of the universe, how can we expect anything but selfishness and war-mongering? When information about the physical universe is seen as the highest knowledge, how can we expect anything more than greed and materialism?

When children are molded more by their entertainment and their peers than they are by spiritually mature and wise parents, how can future generations be truly prepared for life?

But, some would counter, has religion done any better? Haven't many bloody wars, atrocities and acts of terrorism been perpetrated in the name of religion?

The truth is, sadly, the major religions of the world do not fully follow the precepts of the Bible. They too have rejected or not known the way of peace. God's way has never been fully tried in this world. But it will be!

Source of evil removed

The Bible describes an evil being who has literally deceived the whole world from the time of the Garden of Eden until now (Revelation 12:9). He is the enemy of God, and fights to prevent humans from understanding and following God's ways.

But at Christ's return, John in vision saw an angel who "laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished" (Revelation 20:2-3).

Satan's "broadcast" (Ephesians 2:2) of negative attitudes and emotions will be ended! Finally mankind will be freed from slavery to Satan and sin! No more will religious deception be spread. Materialistic and humanistic education will be replaced with true education of the whole person—heart, mind and spirit.

Moreover, children will learn godly values from birth, growing up in stable homes led by lovingly strong fathers and nurtured by wise and caring mothers.

However, even without Satan's active presence, our human minds have been programmed throughout our lives to think the way Satan thinks. It will take time for God's way of thinking to sink in. The traditions, ideologies and thought patterns that come naturally today will eventually be seen for what they are—harmful and self-destructive. In the meantime, God's educational system will spread around the world, sometimes meeting pockets of resistance.

Interestingly, the Holy Days of God described in Leviticus 23 and reflected in many New Testament passages provide an outline of God's plan. (For more on this, read the free Bible study aid God's Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind) The Bible tells us they will eventually be celebrated universally in God's Kingdom, just as they are today by His faithful Church.

"And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles" (Zechariah 14:16).

There is an indication that even this wonderful festival might be met with resistance. Zechariah records that God will need to encourage uncooperative nations to come to the Feast by withholding rain from them (Zechariah 14:17-19). To overcome the influences held over from the "present evil age" (Galatians 1:4), this will be a necessary step.

But God knows such encouragement and coercion are not the ultimate solution. For people to become good citizens of His Kingdom, they must individually choose to make changes.