One of my favorite songs right now is “The Plowshare.” Produced by our music department here in Edmond, Oklahoma, “Plowshare” invokes the prophetic words in Micah 4 describing the world after the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to establish His government of peace on Earth.

In this new world, as it says in verse 3, mankind shall “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” It’s a beautiful, almost incomprehensible vision of the future. Imagine a world without hatred, without war, without weapons.

My favorite line in the song comes near the end, and envisions a small boy walking with his father behind a plowshare that was once a sword.

“I know the plowshare,” the child says, “but Daddy, what’s a sword?”

Think on that: a world so pure, so wholesome, so uncontaminated, children won’t even know what a sword is!

Herbert Armstrong called this coming world, which is described in detail in both Old and New Testaments, the “World Tomorrow.” Can you comprehend a world in which war is vanquished, in which there is no armament industry—a world so peaceful that terms like sword, machine gun, ballistic missile and nuclear bomb have become obsolete?

This is World Tomorrow purity—God-level purity!

Compare the “Daddy, what’s a sword?” vision of purity to the world around us. Today our children are bombarded from infancy with the crudest, most horrific and destructive images and thoughts imaginable. Hollywood and mtv glorify the vilest forms of human behavior. Our movies and video games are loaded with gratuitous violence, with horror, with the ugliest images the human mind can possibly create. Our “musicians” sing about pistols, about killing police, about promiscuity and perverted sex. Our kids can’t watch two minutes of television, or play in the schoolyard, or go to the mall, without having their minds kidnapped by this perversion.

But in the World Tomorrow, all this will be extinct. So extinct that children won’t even know what a horror flick is.

Countless other terms will become obsolete too. Micah 4 and other prophecies describe a world of agricultural abundance, a time when cities and towns will overflow with healthy food and clean water. In the World Tomorrow, every human on Earth will have daily access to fresh food and pure water. Imagine it! No more hunger, no more mass starvation, no more bloated bellies, or hollow eyes crying out for help.

The world will be so pure, terms like famine, starvation will not exist!

The same goes for the slew of sicknesses and diseases so many accept as normal today. In the World Tomorrow, when people will be eating healthy, getting plenty of exercise, and most importantly, living an obedient lifestyle, there will be no more sickness and disease. It’s hard to imagine: a world without cancer, congestive heart failure or diabetes. A world so pure and healthy, even terms like cancer, congestive heart failure and diabetes will vanish!

Finally, consider the last half of verse 4 in Micah 4. In the World Tomorrow, “every man” will sit under his vine or fig tree, and “none shall make him afraid.” Compare this vision of serenity to our world. We have elderly men and women who cannot sit on their front porch for fear of being beaten by teenage thugs; women who fear being abused by selfish husbands. Parents are afraid of letting their children play in the front yard, or walk alone to the corner store. Think of every person you know. Each one of them has fears: death, financial ruin, family breakdown, physical or mental abuse.

In the World Tomorrow, these fears will not exist!

I could go on and on like this. Describing a new world, now imminent, so pure, so wholesome, that terms like divorce, child abuse, abortion, murder, robbery, rape, homosexuality, sexually transmitted disease, mass murder and nuclear warfare will actually become obsolete.

Truly, this is purity beyond human imagination!

Think for a moment about how you define purity. Compared to God, man’s purest purity is just another lighter shade of gray. As it says in Isaiah 64:6, “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” compared to God’s vision of righteousness.

From time to time the Trumpet is criticized for being too negative, too pessimistic. There are some who think we lack vision, that we lack a hope in the future. These people should listen to “The Plowshare” (click this link to hear it). If you’ve ever wondered what it is that the Trumpet, and all those who support it, look forward to, this is it!

It is a future in which a perfect and united government will be set up on Earth (Isaiah 9). The Bible says this new world government, ruled over by Christ Himself, will create peace and stability, prosperity and abundance, perpetual joy and happiness. Not in one or two select places, but over the whole Earth.

It’s an incredible vision of a new world. A world in which children will be so innocent, their minds so pure and uncontaminated, that when they learn that their father’s plow was once a sword they’ll have to ask, “Daddy, what’s a sword?”