A WORLD WITHOUT COMPETITION

In our present world life is a competition.

The competition starts pretty soon after we are born, and it continues throughout our lives until we die.

As little children we already compete for the attention of our parents. Little children want the things they see other children have, and they compete for those things.

As we enter formal schooling, we learn that the entire educational system is a competition. We compete for grades with all the other children in school with us. For a certain subject others may get an A or a B, but we only get a C or a D. The competition for grades continues all the way through school. We need to have better grades so that we can get a scholarship for College. And in College we compete for good grades with all the other students, because better grades may enable us to land more lucrative jobs.

Every sporting activity during our years in school is a competition. We want to see whether or not we are better players than other people, so that we can make the team. And then our teams compete against other teams, to see if our teams are better players than other teams.

Winning makes us feel good and we are happy. Losing makes us feel bad. So we love to win, and we hate to lose.

We also compete for jobs. We have to beat other applicants for the same job. And once we have a job, then we compete for promotions. Other people would also like to get those same promotions.

All buying and selling is a competition. As much as possible, we want to pay less and get more for our money. If we collectively don’t buy certain goods, then sellers lower their prices to entice us to buy. That’s called “A Sale”. But if other people are willing to pay a higher price, then we have to compete, by also being willing to pay that higher price ... or we will not get the things we really want to get.

When it comes to marriage, in many cases two or more men may compete for the same woman, and at times two or more women may compete for the same man. We compete by trying to impress the person we want to marry. We say things and do things to impress other people ... because we are competing for their attention or affection.

We talk about “healthy competition”. By that we mean that we try to beat other people in some or other endeavor, while keeping our emotions under control, in the event that we end up losing. By calling it “healthy competition” we are saying that this type of competition is good. But is it?

All forms of gambling are a type of competition. Gambling competes with others, or with the system, in the hope of receiving an inordinate return on whatever we have invested in the gamble.

The most powerful symbol of competition is money!

We compete for money. We want more money. And in order to have more money, we have to get it from other people, who currently happen to be in possession of that money. The employer has it, and we get it from him in the form of a wage or a salary or as commission. If our employer would not pay us money, then we would not work for him. Money is the sole reason why we work for other people.

Likewise, the buyer has the money, and we get it from him by selling him our goods or services. If we did not have something to sell, then nobody would buy anything from us. And we wouldn’t get any money. As sellers we are competing with all the other sellers of those same goods or services.

The entire legal system is a competition for money! People sue others to get their money. And when criminals receive prison sentences, the lawyers on both sides of the issue worked because they will get some money, irrespective of the outcome of the trial. Lawyers willingly represent clients who they know are guilty, because they will get money for representing those guilty clients. And an enormous amount of all legal proceedings boils down to haggling over money, with one party wanting more and the other party wanting to pay less or even nothing. It’s a competition.

All industries are competitions. Car makers compete with other car makers for the money of the buyers. Airlines compete with other airlines for the money of passengers who want to fly somewhere. The manufacturers of stoves and washing machines and TV sets compete with other manufacturers of the same products.

Hotels and vacation accommodations compete with other hotels and establishments for the money of people who need accommodation when they are away from their homes.

The entire entertainment industry competes for the money of people who want to be entertained, and who are prepared to pay money for such entertainment. And while actors compete for the Oscars and for other awards of recognition, they are competing primarily for inordinate payments for the movies they make.

Professional athletes compete for money first, and for fame and for fans after that. Obviously, all professional sports are competitions.

Buying a house is a competition. If it is an already existing house, we compete with the seller. We want to pay less, and he wants to receive more. And if there are other potential buyers, then we are also competing with them. And if we ask a builder to build us a new house, we compete with that builder, where we would once again like to pay less, while the builder will do his best to justify asking us for more money, before the house has been fully built and is then ready for us to move in.

In order to get people to work for us in some capacity, we have to offer them money. If those people feel that we are not offering them enough money, then they won’t work for us. We are competing with other people who would pay them more for the same type of work.

The printing industry is competing with other printers for the money of people who are willing to buy newspapers and magazines and books. If the things they print (books, magazines, etc.) are judged by the buyers to not be as good or desirable as other printed materials, then they lose the competition, and their books and magazines don’t sell very well.

All wars and conflicts are competitions. One party wants something that is currently in the possession of the other party. It is much easier to just take what we want (lands, wealth, resources, etc.) from the other party than it is to earn or to produce those things ourselves. So we go to war.

All advertising is a form of competition. Advertising competes for the attention of people. It competes with other people, or with similar products that other people want to sell. The hope is that advertising will bring us more money, by attracting more customers for our products.

All elections are competitions. The different candidates compete with one another for the votes of people. People compete for positions of power and authority ... because they want more money, as well as power over other people. Commonly politicians are poor or of very average means when they are first elected to public office; and in many cases by the time they leave office they are extremely wealthy. That is not a coincidence.

How about our health industries? Thousands of drugs and medicines compete with one another for our money. And the various different disciplines in the field of health care compete with one another for patients. Do people seek the services of a surgeon or a naturopath or a chiropractor? Do people have a conventional treatment, or do they opt for the latest laser surgeries? All these disciplines are competing for the same clients.

The entire exercise and fitness industry is one gigantic competition. Whose services will we employ? Do we join a gym, or do we use the services of a personal trainer? Who offers us the best exercise routines for what we hope to achieve? Or do we train alone at home? The internet is clogged with a vast number of health and fitness gurus, all competing with one another for the same clientele.

All the religions of this world are competitions. They hope to gain followers. And they advertise their meetings and services to attract more people. They go on radio and on TV to increase their audience/viewer numbers. And they are hoping for converts. It seems there is a church for every flavor of religious feelings and beliefs.

In the financial sector: when it comes to the money we want to save, there are countless institutions and banks and investment firms and financial advisers and stock exchanges, all competing for that money. They compete by claiming to offer better interest rates or higher returns or a more personal service for our money. It is one big competition, with some winners and many losers.

The entire health food industry is one enormous competition, with thousands of different supplements, all of which supposedly offer us better health. The appeal to better health for most of us naive consumers is presented to justify the producers asking for considerably higher prices for their goods labeled “natural” or “organic” or “wholesome”, than they would otherwise be able to demand.

If only we will eat this extract or that extract of some exotic unknown plant, then we’ll live longer, or our health problems will be resolved, we are assured. And certification supposedly proves that their products are better and more “organic” than the products of the farmer or rancher down the road whose produce is not certified. So therefore such producers demand more money. The health food industry is one huge competition (a huge rip-off as far as I personally am concerned) for the money of the consumer. They all want more money.

Is there any area or aspect of life that we haven’t looked at? From the time we are born until the time we die life is an endless competition. That spirit of competition is aptly captured in the expression “Survival of the Fittest”. We are forced to compete in order to survive.

So the question is:

Why is life a competition? Is that what God intended when He created Adam and Eve?

THE BIRTH OF THE SPIRIT OF COMPETITION

God the Father and Jesus Christ have always co-existed. And They have never at any time competed with one another, or with anyone else for that matter.

God the Father is supreme. As Jesus Christ said, “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28). This statement eliminates competition. Both are comfortable in that relationship, and both of Them will do whatever it may take (theoretically speaking) to maintain that relationship. There is no competition, none whatsoever, between God the Father and Jesus Christ.

And as long as They were the only two Beings in existence, there was no such thing as a spirit of competition.

Then God created all the spirit beings we collectively refer to as “angels”. We already know the story. Satan rebelled with one third of all the angels against God. Satan was then conclusively defeated by the forces of God.

Why did Satan rebel against God?

Satan wanted God’s power and status and authority and glory. As God tells us in Isaiah 14:

For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. (Isaiah 14:13-14)

Satan had developed a spirit of competition!

Satan had begun to compete with the God who had created him. The motive for competing is to show that we are better than someone else. This motive is encapsulated in the statement “I win”!

Satan’s rebellion was the original competition. Satan had created the spirit of competition. Now Satan didn’t care about the well-being of all the other angels who had been placed under his authority. He just cared about himself. Selfish human leaders have the identical motivation. They don’t really care about the well-being of their followers.

However, to achieve his own selfish and competitive desires, Satan needed help (or so he thought). And so he persuaded all of the angels, who were under his leadership at that point in time, to join him in his rebellion against God. In effect Satan persuaded all of those angels to also accept that spirit of competition against God, their Creator.

At this point we should note one important point:

The focus for the invention (or generation) of a spirit of competition was competition with God, the Creator. The competition was not with other angels. No, the spirit of competition in Satan’s mind was focused on competing with God. That was the explicit purpose for why Satan developed this spirit of competition. He developed that spirit by using his own free mind to think in selfish ways.

A spirit of competition challenges God.

Now a spirit of competition intensifies selfishness! We have to focus on self in order to compete. If we don’t focus on self, then we can’t really compete with other people. The motivation for a spirit of competition is that I must do my best to be better than someone else. I have to constantly compare my performance against how certain other people are doing.

In other words, every competition is ipso facto a comparison with other people. We have to compare ourselves with other people, if we are competing with them. And what is always the result of such comparisons? We reach a judgment! Either we judge that we are better than others (in whatever the competition is all about), or we (reluctantly) judge that others are better than we are.

Competitions demand that we make judgments. And that is not good. This specific point was explained by the Apostle Paul.

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12)

Every competition amounts to people “measuring themselves by themselves”, and “comparing themselves among themselves”. As Paul then concludes, that is not a wise thing to do!

Notice that Paul wasn’t saying that they compare themselves to God. No, they, human beings, are just comparing themselves with one another, i.e. with other human beings. But that is still not something that God wants to see us do. When we compare ourselves with others, then we are expressing a spirit of competition. And that spirit always comes from Satan, the arch-competitor.

A basic principle we should all be able to readily agree with is this:

God does not want us to express or agree with or accept into our minds anything that has originated with Satan! Anything that originates with Satan God requires us to reject resolutely and unconditionally.

So in his own mind Satan developed a spirit of competition with God. He compared himself to God. But how did Satan then get all the angels under his leadership at that time to also develop that spirit of competition in their own minds? What did Satan do?

He couldn’t just come out and say: “Listen everybody, I have decided that I myself want to sit on God’s throne. But I can’t do that on my own. I will need all of you to help me to achieve my selfish ambition. Will you do that for me?” That wouldn’t have worked, would it?

No, Satan had to have something to offer all those angels. He had to hold out something desirable as an incentive, to get all those angels to also start thinking in selfish ways. And selfish ways are always competitive ways. And competition very easily produces a spirit of violence.

In Ezekiel 28 God tells us pretty clearly how Satan went about instilling this selfish competitive spirit in the angels under his leadership. We’ll look at just two verses in that chapter.

By the multitude of your merchandise they have filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. (Ezekiel 28:16)

You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your merchandise; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of you, it shall devour you, and I will bring you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold you. (Ezekiel 28:18)

(Comment: The Hebrew noun “rekullah” (i.e. “merchandise”) is used only four times in the Old Testament, once in Ezekiel 26, and three times in Ezekiel 28. In Ezekiel 26:12 and 28:16 it is translated as “merchandise”, and in Ezekiel 28:5 and 28:18 it is translated as “traffic”. This word should be consistently translated as “merchandise” in all four verses, and I have made that correction in the above quotation.)

So what is God telling us in these verses?

1) Satan dealt with “a multitude of his merchandise”, meaning that Satan oversaw a huge amount of merchandise passing through his “sanctuaries”. The Hebrew word translated “sanctuaries” (i.e. “miqdash”) is commonly used for the Tabernacle and for the Temple. So Satan’s “sanctuaries” refers to Satan’s throne room or the palace he established for himself, from where he ruled over all of his angels, or it may even refer to the trading floor of his “stock exchange”, with Satan overseeing all the proceedings perched high on his high exquisite throne.

2) Satan had invented trading, where everything has a relative value. All the things deemed valuable became merchandise. In other words, Satan had established an environment where all the angels under his leadership traded physical material things amongst themselves, very likely with a fixed commission from every trade going to Satan himself. We’re talking about angels trading physical material things like diamonds, sardius, topaz, jasper, sapphires, gold, etc. amongst themselves.

Notice verse 13.

You have been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you were created. (Ezekiel 28:13)

This verse refers to three different times in Satan’s existence. Those three different times are: 1) when Satan was in the garden in Eden with Adam and Eve; 2) when every precious stone was Satan’s covering; 3) the day when Satan had been created. The progression is from the most recent going back into the past. Let’s reverse that order.

Satan’s musical skills (“tabrets & pipes”) were given to him on the day he was created by God. All the precious stones had been “his covering” when he was here on earth before God created Adam and Eve. After that he was in the garden in Eden for one day at some point after God had created Adam and Eve.

The Hebrew word here translated as “covering” (i.e. “mesuka”) refers to Satan’s surroundings. It refers to the environment Satan established for himself, not something that might have covered his spirit body. So this is better translated as “your surroundings” or as “your personal environment”.

When Satan was in the garden with Adam and Eve, he came in the form of a serpent. In the garden Satan did not have any precious stones or gold in his surroundings. By then Satan had already rebelled against God, and after his rebellion Satan has never again had an environment with gold and precious jewels. And he doesn’t have that kind of environment right now.

How can we know that? That’s easy. Gold and diamonds are physical objects that are always visible to human eyes. So if Satan still had an environment with gold and diamonds, then it would have to be somewhere here on earth, and we human beings would be able to see it.

And neither did Satan have any precious stones or gold around him in the day that he had been created. That’s clear because God created all the angels before God then created the universe. The angels all witnessed the creation of the universe. So on the day Satan was created gold and precious stones did not yet exist. See Job 38:4-7 regarding all the angels witnessing the creation of the universe.

This means that the only possible period when Satan established for himself a throne (see Isaiah 14:13) in an environment of gold and precious stones was when God had sent him to this earth before God created Adam and Eve. Clearly Satan had accumulated all those precious stones to make a fancy throne for himself. But if Satan accumulated gold and precious stones, then this means that all of his angels also accumulated precious stones for themselves, just in smaller quantities than Satan.

To promote this process of accumulating these precious things Satan had invented trading. All these precious stones and the gold were his “merchandise”.

Now I know that it sounds a bit strange that spirit beings would barter and trade physical objects like gold and precious stones. But these things express a focus on self, selfishness. Satan had introduced the concept of trading to his angels, to get those angels to focus on themselves, just like Satan focused on himself.  “Merchandise” refers to trading, in order to get specific things we look upon as precious and desirable.

Note one significant factor that is easily overlooked:

It was “merchandise”, trading, buying and selling, that is the original tool Satan used to instill a competitive spirit in the angels under his authority. That is why Satan invented trading, to establish a selfish, competitive attitude in those individuals that he seeks to control. And so money and trading are the most powerful tools Satan uses to control human beings.

3) For the angels with Satan: accepting this concept of trading automatically instilled a spirit of selfishness in all of those angels. You can’t be a good trader without thinking of self first. And trading is always a form of competition. So Satan’s angels had all accepted a spirit of competition.

4) And a spirit of selfishness and competition will sooner or later produce violence. And so Satan’s entire environment had become filled with violence.

5) Satan’s environment also became filled with “a multitude of iniquities”. That’s what competition produces, a huge amount of perversity (the meaning of Hebrew “avon”). In the spirit realm of God “merchandise” is perverse! It is “iniquity”. Note that “the iniquity of your merchandise” is not a reference to some specific merchandise. No, it refers to all merchandise. Before God all forms of trading are perverse! Trading requires a spirit of selfishness.

Now merchandise provides the foundation for the concept of money! So Satan is in effect the inventor of money, by having invented trading. The spirit in trading on the one hand, and the spirit in buying & selling on the other hand are the same. That spirit says: I want something from you in return for what I am giving to you.

Keep the expression “the iniquity (perversity) of your merchandise” in mind. It shows us how God views the concept of trading, the concept of buying and selling. Whereas Satan had introduced these concepts into the environment he controlled before his rebellion, these things (trading, buying, selling) will never in any way have a part in the future that God has planned for His Eternal Family.

In God’s Kingdom there will never at any point be any trading or selling. Those concepts (buying & selling) will be permanently expunged when this present universe is burned up before the creation of the new heaven and new earth. At the beginning of the millennium all active trading will be stopped. The spirit of competition will not be allowed to be expressed outwardly. However, unrepentant people during the millennium will still be able to think selfish and competitive thoughts. Such thoughts will only be totally exterminated in the lake of fire.

Let’s look at something the Apostle Paul explained to Timothy.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Timothy 6:10)

This text actually contains a rather subtle mistranslation of the Greek text. First of all, there is no definite article in the Greek text for the noun translated “root”. So the Greek text does not speak about “the root”; it only speaks about “a root”. But that is a secondary point.

Where our English translation says “the love of money is a (instead of “the”) root of all evil”, the correct word-order in the Greek text actually says “a root of all evil is the love for money”. To be clear: the subject of Paul’s statement is not “the love of money”! The real subject of Paul’s statement is “a root of all evil”.

Paul is not answering the question: what is the love of money? No, rather Paul is answering the question: what is one specific root of all evil? That is a somewhat different focus.

In years gone by some people argued as follows: Paul didn’t say that money is “the” root of all evil; he only said that money is “a” root of all evil. While that is technically less incorrect, it was an incomplete line of reasoning, intended to somehow make money “less evil”.

The truth of Paul’s statement is that all evil has many different roots! Envy and jealousy are also roots of evil. And evil has other roots as well. And so Paul could obviously not have said “the root of all evil is ...”, because some forms of evil don’t involve money, or even the concept of trading. So Paul simply had to say “a root of all evil is ...”. And Paul then defined that one specific root.

The problem Paul is addressing in this verse is that some members of God’s Church had given in to that specific root of all evil. It’s got nothing to do with arguing about “a root” vs. “the root”. The point is roots produce something! And what that specific root produces is bad. It is very bad! It produces evil!

The evil that specific root has produced is what we call “money”!

Money is the fruit which that root has produced. And when we are attracted to that fruit, then our minds become poisoned with Satan’s selfish attitude. Money is not designed to produce “good”. It is designed to produce evil.

Look, that specific root originated in the mind of Satan. And when Satan exposed all those angels with him to the fruit of that root, then their minds became selfish and perverse. They couldn’t look at the fruit of that root, and then still retain a pure, selfless outgoing attitude. No, when they were exposed to that fruit, it was very attractive to them, and then their minds became poisoned.

The exact same thing happens to us human beings!

If we look at that fruit (money) and find it attractive (i.e. we really like that fruit, we really like money), then we cannot avoid also having our minds poisoned to some degree. If a fish takes the bait on a hook, then the fish cannot avoid getting the hook into its mouth. The same is true for us.

As I mentioned earlier, money makes us human beings very competitive. And the richer that people become, in most cases the more competitive they become. Money is a powerful generator of competition.

ONE BODY WITH MANY PARTS

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul presented an analogy. Paul compared all those who will be in the first resurrection to the different parts of the human body. Paul’s point was that the many different parts of the human body all make up one unified body. And they are all essential to the proper, smooth and efficient functioning of the body.

I’d like to expand Paul’s analogy a bit further. The foot does not compete with the hand for preeminence. And the eye likewise does not compete with the ear. For this analogy Paul assumed self-identity and reasoning powers to the different parts of the body. I’ll do the same.

In the human body the eye has no desire whatsoever to be anything other than an eye. The same is true for every other part of the body. There is no part in the body that would like to be anything other than what it is.

Now the parts of the human body don’t really have any self-identity. So the eye doesn’t know that it is an eye. That’s different from the way things will be in “the body of Christ”.

When all those in the first resurrection become a part of the body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 4:12; etc.), then every part of that body will have a very clear sense of self-identity. We will all know who we are, and God will give all of us new names.

So in this analogy, “the eye” in the body of Christ will actually know that it is an eye; and “the ear” will really know that it is an ear; etc. But even with this sense of self-identity “the eye” in the body of Jesus Christ will never want to be anything other than an eye. In other words, within the body of Christ there will be absolute and joyful acceptance of the role or position that God will give to every member of the body of Christ.

There will be no competition whatsoever. Nobody in the first resurrection will ever quietly think: I wish I had the position that Abraham or Moses or David or Elijah has. Every member of that body will be just as accepting of his God-given position within the body of Christ, as is the finger or the toe of its position in the human body. Total contentment with and appreciation for the position God has given us within the body of Christ.

If there was even the slightest hint of competition between two different parts of the human body, it would mean that the body cannot function correctly. That kind of competition would in fact create big problems for the body. Likewise, there cannot ever be any competition within the body of Christ. And the way God is proceeding with building the Family of God ensures that Satan’s spirit of competition will simply not exist within God’s Family.

Earlier I mentioned that all wars are competitions. In this regard let’s look at what James tells us.

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. (James 4:1-2)

Lusting is the spirit of competition that originated with Satan. Lusting looks at what somebody else has and says “I want to have that”. And killing is the result of lusting. When Satan developed a spirit of competition with God, he became a murderer. He absolutely destroyed the lives of one third of all the angels. Jesus Christ said that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning” (see John 8:44). In a practical sense Satan had “murdered” millions of angels. That is, Satan has totally destroyed the happy existence those angels had enjoyed before Satan perverted their minds, and instead doomed them to exist forever with him “in the blackness of darkness” (Jude 1:13).

The spirit of competition is the original sin. The very first sin ever committed by anyone was when Satan compared himself to God the Father, and decided that he wanted all the things that God has ... the power, the status, the glory, the authority, the majesty, etc. Satan’s subsequent rebellion against God was simply the outflow of that competitive spirit.

Well, some might say, if competition is as bad as you say, why didn’t God give any commandments or laws against competition?

Oh, but God did give a commandment against the spirit of competition!

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

Did you know that the tenth commandment says: “you shall not entertain a spirit of competition”?

You didn’t know that? Well, that’s what it says in pretty clear terms.

Okay, so the actual text of this commandment reads:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is your neighbor’s. (Exodus 20:17)

The Hebrew verb “chamad”, here translated as “covet”, basically means “to desire”. Now the instructions in this commandment are that we are not to desire anything that belongs to someone else. And the desire for things that belong to someone else is in English defined by the verb “to covet”. So this verse is a good and clear translation of the Hebrew text. “To covet” = “to desire things that belong to someone else”.

The desire for things that belong to other people creates a spirit of competition. That’s what Satan’s desire for God’s status and position did to Satan ... it created a spirit of competition in Satan’s mind. And that is also what desiring things that belong to other people will do to us human beings ... it will likewise create within us a spirit of competition for those things.

The desire for things that belong to other people resides in the mind of the person who is coveting. And the spirit of competition also resides in a person’s mind. Both the desire and the spirit of competition reside in the human mind.

The tenth commandment is focused on not coveting anything. But in order to avoid coveting anything, we have to make sure that we don’t have a spirit of competition. The spirit of competition is the root of coveting; and coveting the possessions of others is one of the fruits which that root will produce.

So in practical terms the tenth commandment tells us to not harbor a spirit of competition.

OUR WORLD TODAY

Our world today is described by God in many places, including in the Book of Jeremiah. Notice:

For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely. (Jeremiah 6:13)

That description fits our world today perfectly. Everyone is coveting and everyone is competing. Covetous people are all competing for more money and more possessions. That includes religious leaders, who are quite prepared to “deal falsely”, if that will bring them more money. And it certainly includes political leaders. And it also includes the common people, who don’t have any positions of power or influence.

Our whole world is based on a spirit of competition. And that spirit has made all people covetous. That is what God is revealing in this verse. A covetous world is also an unhappy world. Covetousness never produces happiness, just like selfishness will never produce happiness. So we have an unhappy and miserable world.

There is nothing in this present world that is worth saving or preserving. Nothing! Nothing of what human beings have produced over the past approximately 6,000 years is worth preserving.

The ways we produce our foods are not good. We poison the soil and we treat livestock with hormones and antibiotics. And we pollute the water. Then the foods we prepare in our factories contain thousands of different chemicals. Why do we do that? We do it for money!

Our various means of transport (cars, trains, airplanes, ships, etc.) are manufactured in factories, in ways that pollute the water and the air. And when we then use those different means of transport, then that further pollutes our environment.

All our health services and disciplines expose us to thousands of drugs and to x-rays and to other radiation, none of which are good for human health. The goods we produce in our factories (furniture, electrical appliances, clothing, equipment for various industries, etc.) further contribute to the pollution of our environment. In many areas of China, to mention just one example, the very air that people breathe is toxic. This is also the case in many huge urban areas in other parts of the world, that the air people have to breathe is highly polluted.

In our greed for more raw materials we are destroying the environment around us. We cut down forests and we open the earth for the minerals that our industries require. What is afterwards left behind frequently never recovers.  The deserts on earth are expanding year by year at an alarming rate. That’s due primarily to our covetousness.

Today there is nothing on earth that is worth preserving. And therefore at the time of Jesus Christ’s second coming God is going to destroy everything we human beings have done or produced since the time of Adam. That destruction will be achieved by means of the seven last plagues, to which this earth will be subjected at Christ’s return (see Revelation 16). That destruction will culminate with the huge hailstones mentioned in Revelation 16:21 smashing anything and everything man has made, that may still be standing at that point in time.

And then the 1000-year rule over this earth by Jesus Christ will start.

THE WORLD TOMORROW

When Jesus Christ begins His 1000-year rule, this earth will be on the brink of total destruction. The human population will have been reduced by more than 90%. I have no idea exactly how many human beings will be given the privilege to live over into the world that will be ruled by Jesus Christ. Perhaps the world’s total population will be only 100 million, or perhaps more, or perhaps less?

Satan will have been bound before Jesus Christ begins to actually rule (see Revelation 20:10). Those who survive physically into the millennium will all be shell-shocked and severely traumatized by the events they have just witnessed. Every person who survives into the millennium will have experienced “post traumatic stress disorder” to a staggering degree.

Every single person in that group of people at the start of the millennium will also understand that the God (i.e. Jesus Christ) who has just destroyed all human armies and all human opposition has incredible, mind-boggling powers at His disposal. They’ll understand that Jesus Christ is indeed all-powerful.

And Jesus Christ, assisted by the 144,000 in the first resurrection, will then proceed to establish the type of environment that Jesus Christ had intended to establish when He had created Adam and Eve. But Adam and Eve then sinned and failed the test, and therefore God’s original intentions for humanity were never implemented.

Let me repeat that: God’s original intentions for humanity were never implemented.

The first thing that Jesus Christ and the 144,000 will work with is the minds of the human beings who survive into the millennium. In this regard the most important goal will be to eliminate all of Satan’s influences on human minds.

That is the explicit purpose for which Satan will be bound for 1000 years, to totally eliminate his influence. Revelation 20:3 says:

And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. (Revelation 20:3)

The purpose for binding Satan for 1000 years is to eliminate every vestige of his influence on human beings. Not a single thought or impulse or feeling or emotion originating with Satan will reach any human mind during that 1000-year period.

This means that nothing that in any way represents a spirit of competition will in any way be a part of life when the millennium starts. The only way a spirit of competition can exist during the millennium is if it originates in the minds of unconverted human beings, without having received any outside thoughts or influences.