Page 10 - An Exciting Preview of TOMORROW'S CITIES - TW Mar-Apr 1970.pages

The Joyous Rebuilding
An All-wise God will have to deal with us in the only language we understand – PHYSICAL FORCE and PUNISHMENT.
But once He has dealt with us in this way, and once we have learned our lesson, then Jesus Christ will return to this earth to set up God’s Government. And then our cities will be rebuilt – this time GOD’S way.
Notice the loving tone in which God comforts those whom He has had to punish:
“For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. With a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer... For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the nations and make the desolate cities to be inhabited” (Isa 54:7, 8, 3).
“For God will save Zion and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein” (Psalm 69:35-36).
When God sets His hand to build Tomorrow’s Cities with the help of His Spirit Servants, how fantastic do you think those cities will be? They will be beautiful beyond description!
And they will be filled with joyful, thankful people:
“I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first... Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant, and without beast, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good, for his mercy endureth forever” (Jer 33:7, 10, 11).
A city can only be as prosperous as the rural areas upon which it depends for its food and raw materials. In the World Tomorrow this problem will be solved, too. Agricultural prosperity will be unbelievably great in all rural areas.
“And the desolate land [most of today’s earth] shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited... I will increase them with men like a flock” (Ezek. 36:34, 35, 37).
In the World Tomorrow, city dwellers aren’t going to be crowded into small, crackerbox apartments with no backyards and almost no privacy. Instead, “They shall build the waste cities,
10