[566]The first world ended with a great flood, in which a few persons, to wit, eight, were saved by being carried over in the ark from the old to the new order of things that God established immediately after the flood under Noah. This was an example or picture representing the passing away of the present evil world and showing that many will be carried over from the old to the new. When God had delivered Noah and his family from the perils of the deluge and Noah builded an altar before the Lord and offered a sacrifice, the Lord made promise to Noah, saying: "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; ... neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8:21,22) The Scriptures show that "the earth abideth forever". (Ecclesiastes 1:4) Therefore this statement to Noah is a positive promise that never again will the earth witness the destruction of every living thing. Seeing, then, that we are at the end of the old order and the opening of the new, and that according to the Scriptures many must pass over to the new, it can be confidently announced that MILLIONS OF PEOPLE NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE, because these being offered restitution blessings the presumption must be indulged that many of them will accept and be obedient to the new order of things. [567]It was Jesus who said: "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die". (John 11:26) The people of the world do not yet live, nor have they had an opportunity of life; and this opportunity cannot come to mankind in general until the times of restoration begin. Then the living ones who believe on the Lord shall not die. We should keep in mind, however, that to believe means to act upon that belief, in accordance with it, and to be obedient to the new order that the Lord will establish in the earth. Furthermore Jesus said: "If any man keep my saying, he shall never see death". (John 8:51) Men cannot keep the sayings of Jesus until they hear them; and the world cannot hear until the Lord's due time. (1 Timothy 2:5,6) We are now entering that due time and the message of the kingdom is being given out, by the Lord's grace, that some may hear, and hearing, may profit and live.