The Vital Earth
There is a common impression that the Bible is not really interested in the earth and what happens there. Its major concern is said to be "heaven", the abode of the righteous. This is a great mistake. The revelation of God's purpose shows Him to be positively concerned with the earth and the human race upon it. As He said himself: "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens....that formed the earth and made it....he created it not in vain: he formed it to be inhabited" (Isaiah 45:18).

God is concerned with the earth as a whole, and the nations inhabiting it. The careers of great empires are under God's control and their fate is predicted. The severe troubles of the modern world are all foreseen, and so is their solution: the establishment by God of a new order in the earth as the only means by which the waywardness of mankind can be controlled.

The Bible, far from being "other-worldly", is realistic and practical in its concern for the fate of the whole human race. Its vision of the future is worldwide in its scope, for "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14).

Though this prophecy was uttered 6000 years before Christ, it represents the world-view of the whole Bible. It is entirely relevant to our modern troubled condition and is unique in the history of our planet.

Israel in God's Purpose
The careful reader of the Bible will be in no doubt that the nation of Israel has occupied a special place in the purpose of God. But many people today find this difficult to reconcile with the nature of the modern State of Israel. How did the "special relationship" arise?

The Bible account shows us that the human race, in the early centuries of its existence, massively abandoned the true worship of God, so that "the earth was corrupt....and filled with violence" (Genesis 6:11), thus bringing the divine judgment of the Flood. It was not long, however, before mankind began to show again the same tendencies to evil. God therefore determined to build up a special community, by whom His Word would be preserved. So he chose Abraham, a man of faith, and made outstanding promises to him and his descendants, involving the future possession of the land of Canaan (later Palestine or Israel) and blessings for all the nations (Genesis 12:1-3; 13:14,15).

Abraham's descendants were brought out of Egypt by God's power and were eventually settled in 12 tribes in the Promised Land, Israel. There they lived under the Law, a system of regulations given them by God through Moses, with the intention of training them to be a people devoted to His service. In the following centuries the Jews repeatedly neglected the worship of God and turned to worship the idols of their pagan neighbours, and as a result were driven out of their land by the invasion of foreign powers. They lived for centuries scattered and persecuted, as God has warned them would happen (read Deuteronomy 28). Nevertheless, despite their waywardness, the Jews preserved the Word of God both in the land of Israel and during their exile in other countries.

Promises to the Patriarchs
But the promises God made to Abraham did not only concern the nation of Israel. He was to be "a father of many nations" (Genesis 17:5), though significantly it would be one special Jewish descendant who was to ensure the fulfilment of the promise of blessing for all peoples. This descendant, spoken about so long before, was the Lord Jesus Christ. Later promises made to David, one of Israel's kings, filled out further details of what Jesus would accomplish, and of how "God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever" (Luke 1:32,33).

God's purpose with Israel, then, was to make them a training centre for the faithful in the pagan centuries before Christ. Of them Jesus was born, to proclaim the good news that his faithful servants become children of Abraham by faith and so inherit the promises. So the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians: "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:27-29).

The Truth about Mankind
From the dawn of history men have sought consolation in pleasing views about themselves and their ultimate fate, because in this way their natural desires have been satisfied. The Bible, however, encourages no wishful thinking about human nature. It is utterly realistic about ourselves, our powers and our weaknesses. We were created, so it tells us, "in the image of God"; that is, we have been given wonderful powers of mind. We can reason; we have a power of conscience, warning us when wrong is being done; and we have a power of will, enabling us to make decisions affecting our conduct and so our lives.

Yet we have strong natural desires which demand satisfaction: the pressure to indulge ourselves in many ways, to acquire material possessions, and to defend our pride. Human history is a record of the way in which men and women have allowed their desires to dominate them. Strife and suffering have been the inevitable result.

Man is Mortal
Why does human nature behave like this? Because, says the Bible, the first human beings having been presented with a free choice, preferred to please themselves and to reject the clear command of God. It was an act of rebellion which the Bible calls sin. Its consequence was mortality, the condition in which all human life ends naturally in death. We die because we are mortal. If left to ourselves, we "perish" (to use the Bible phrase) - that is, we cease to exist. The dead lie unconscious in the grave; they suffer no pain, but "sleep in the dust of the earth" (Daniel 12:2). The widespread idea that man possesses an "immortal soul" and goes on living after death (usually "in heaven") is definitely not a Bible teaching. The Church of England Commission which produced in 1945 its report Towards the Conversion of England, stated clearly that the idea of the immortal soul "owes its origin to Greek, not the Bible, sources" (page 23). The theory was early absorbed into the teaching of the Church from paganism, and is an important example of a number of changes in original Christian beliefs made over the centuries.

But there is hope. The grave need not be the end for us, as we shall see.