Is the world getting better or worse?

For Christians, the answer has to be positive one. The reason is that the Bible gives us a vision of what it is going to be like in the future, and if the future looks bright, there must be a progression towards it. It doesn't make sense to become progressively worse and then all of a sudden, everything turns around. The good news is that the future does indeed look bright, very, very bright.

Revelation is undoubtedly the place to go to in the Bible if we want to find out about what is in store for us in the future. Darrel Johnson notices that there are seven things that are missing in Revelation 21: no sea (i.e. no chaos), no tear, no coward / liar, no temple (the whole city is the temple), no sun or moon because God dwells in the city, no closed gate because this city is not a jail and there is no need to separate one from another, and no more curse. But there are seven things we find in this glorious future: God shall dwell among us, glory, creatureness / things / trees/ river / material where all things are redeemed, people (all God's peoples), creativity where all things are new, life where access to the tree of life is restored, and face of God which we shall all see.

We need to keep these visions in mind. This is our hope, our destiny, our future. The world is getting better, even though it is marred by small setbacks from time to time. There is good that is happening in politics, education, family, society, culture, technology, etc. There are obvious negatives in every facet of life, but if we can train ourselves to see God working through, redeeming all of creation, we can live with hope, certainty, and a new sense of engagement to participate with what God is doing in creating this bright future that He promises.