| Highlights of DAWN | February 1978 |
“What Shall Be the Sign?”
“Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” —Matthew 24:3
FOR three and a half years after his immersion in the river Jordan by John the Baptist, our Lord went about the land of Palestine preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God. (Mark 1:14) It would be a glorious kingdom, a righteous kingdom, a kingdom offering everlasting life, he told his disciples. And when he sent the twelve forth he instructed them to preach, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”—Matt. 10:7
It is not difficult, therefore, to understand the bewilderment and disappointment that must have seized the disciples when he told them on one occasion that he was to be killed and raised again the third day, and on another occasion that he must go away but would come again to receive them to himself. (Matt. 16:21; John 14:3) How could these conflicting statements be reconciled with their hope for the early establishment of the kingdom?
Very shortly before the time of his crucifixion, while speaking to the people in the temple at Jerusalem, Jesus bitterly denounced the religious leaders of the Jews. He concluded by saying: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”—Matt. 23:37-39
Here was still another obscure reference to his departure! And apparently Jesus’ closing words to the scribes and Pharisees were understood by his listening disciples to refer to the destruction of the temple; for we read: “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.” (Matt. 24:1) Mark’s account reads: “And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!” Just look at these great and mighty buildings, Lord! Do you mean to suggest that these shall be destroyed? But Jesus said: “See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”—Matt. 24:2
Leaving the vicinity of the temple, Jesus went to the mount of Olives, perhaps to rest, and his disciples followed him. Here was their chance to seek an answer to the perplexing question that was uppermost in their minds. “As he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming [Greek parousia, presence], and of the end of the world [Greek aion, age]?” (Matt. 24:3) Rotherham properly renders this passage, “Tell us when these things shall be, and what the sign of thy presence, and the conclusion of the age.”
Had Jesus expected to return at his second presence in a form that would be visible to the physical eye of man, he would surely then and there have told them so. Certainly, our Lord would not have missed the opportunity to set his disciples right on this important point. But it is worthy of note that our Lord did not find fault with their question. He thus confirmed, first, that he was indeed about to leave them, and second, that his future presence, when it should occur, would not be manifested by his visible appearance but rather by the events that would be occurring in the world. These would be the sign, or evidence, of his presence. For, as part of his answer to their question, he said, “For then [at the time of his second presence] shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Matt. 24:21) This statement provides a very important clue whereby we may know of our Lord’s return.
Tribulation, of course, is not new to this world. History records that this earth on which we live has endured numerous and recurring periods of troubles and afflictions ever since the advent of humankind some six thousand years ago—plagues, wars, famines, floods. Therefore our Lord took great care to describe the particular time of trouble which would be the sign of his presence as one that would be clearly distinguishable from all others that had ever preceded it. It would be a time of trouble such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. The Twentieth Century New Testament tells us that this shall be a time of trouble “the like of which has not occurred from the beginning of the world down to the present time—no, nor ever will again.”
Clearly, the Lord is here telling us that this is to be a time that would be marked by troubles that had never before afflicted humanity, either in kind or in intensity. Speaking of this same time of trouble, Luke writes: “There shall be … upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity [Greek aporia, from aporeo, meaning to have no way out]; the sea and the waves [restless elements of society] roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” (Luke 21:25,26) Indeed, so terrible a time will it be that unless it is cut short every living being would be destroyed. Jesus said plainly, “Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.”—Matt. 24:22
Truly, the world today is in great trouble: wars, starvation, floods, epidemics, and earthquakes even now afflict many areas of this planet. But is it that particular and very special time of trouble the like of which has never before afflicted mankind, and which is the proof that our Lord is present? We believe an examination of the facts will show us that it is. For along with these ages-old troubles there are tribulations “the like of which” are strictly of recent origin. They are unique to the end of the age.
Threat of Nuclear Annihilation
Probably the greatest single concern of the entire human race today is the threat of widespread destruction, or even total annihilation, from death-dealing radiation should a nuclear war develop. The world has already had a small-scale, but horrible, indication of the fearsome power that can be released from an atom when, in 1945, a single, relatively small atomic bomb destroyed a Japanese city and 150,000 of its inhabitants, imprinting its crippling scars on thousands more even to the second generation.
Today, successors to that relatively primitive bomb are more powerful almost beyond measure, and they can be precisely delivered by intercontinental missiles to any selected acre of ground in the world. The means of producing these terrible weapons is possessed not only by the United States and Russia, but also by a handful of other nations, with the list—and the attendant risk of war—constantly growing.
These bombs can work havoc in two ways: they can destroy a large city and all its inhabitants merely by reason of their awesome explosive power; and the resulting radioactive fallout can subsequently kill or maim every living creature over additional wide areas of the earth. The two superpowers alone possess enough such bombs to destroy one another many times over.
There is also serious anxiety throughout the world over the spread of nuclear power plants, hailed as the answer to growing world energy needs. The present worry is over safety hazards, terrorist threats, and radioactive waste.
In March of 1975 a fire broke out in the Browns Ferry atomic power plant near Athens, Georgia. “The near-catastrophe that followed was the worst ever at a commercial nuclear power facility in the U.S.,” wrote U.S. News & World Report (February 16, 1976). “It raised doubt about reactor ‘failsafe’ safety systems because most were quickly rendered useless.” The New York Times Magazine (June 20, 1976) said, “Despite rings of safety, all the risks of nuclear power cannot be eliminated.”
The danger that these awesome nuclear devices or installations might fall into the hands of terrorists or other irresponsible segments of society alarms the people and the authorities. Also, and not least among the worries, nuclear reactors produce plutonium as a byproduct, and plutonium can be used to create nuclear explosive devices.
But even apart from nuclear war, or the possibility of a catastrophe striking a nuclear power plant, a further disturbing dilemma arises—what to do with the reactor wastes? Says Newsweek (April 12, 1976): “The nuclear industry will soon have to deal with what critics call the ultimate garbage crisis—disposal of the unusable, long-lasting radioactive wastes left behind by all forms of nuclear technology. So far, there is no satisfactory means of permanent storage. ‘It’s rather arrogant of our generation,’ contends Ralph Nader, ‘to say to future generations, We’ll only need fission power for 35 to 40 years [until other sources of power are developed], but we want you to guard its deadly waste for 100,000 years.’“
Robert Gillette, a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and reporter for Science magazine, writes in The New York Times (February 15, 1976): “There is no disputing that 30 years into the nuclear age this once-promising technology remains burdened with a host of unresolved problems …: What to do with nuclear waste that remains lethal for centuries? How to mitigate the risks of theft and sabotage in a plutonium economy? And, most important, how to settle the scores of engineering questions that still cloud the day-to-day operation of the nation’s licensed nuclear power reactors? … New designs raise new problems or reveal previously unsuspected flaws in older plants. Until last year, for instance, hardly anyone would have guessed that a workman with a candle could start an electrical fire that would knock out two of the nation’s largest reactors and narrowly miss causing a disastrous meltdown.”
This, we submit, is a new and awesome problem for mankind. Were there no other such problems facing humanity, it alone would be sufficient to constitute the present time of trouble as being one the like of which had never plagued the world before the present time. But there are others.
Population Explosion
Another of these new problems that has given rise to widespread and serious concern in these latter days is the so-called population explosion. True, sometime about 1800 the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus pointed out that famine faced the world unless the population growth was voluntarily restricted. There was plenty of room in the world at that time, with plenty of raw materials, and few paid any attention. But today, says economist Tilford Gaines, “Probably most economists recognize that for most of the world … his gloomy prediction has proved to be correct.”
When Thomas Malthus first publicized his views, world population was less than one billion. Today, it is rapidly approaching four billions of people, and it is expected by some experts to reach eight billions in another 35 years. And what beyond that?
Just a few months ago Robert S. McNamara, president of the World Bank, said: “Except for thermonuclear war, population growth is the gravest issue the world faces over the decades immediately ahead. In many ways it is an even more dangerous and subtle threat than war, for it is less subject to rational safeguards and less amenable to organized control.” The U.S. National Security Council has said that runaway population growth is “a threat to our national security.”
The accelerating growth in numbers of people inhabiting this earth exerts rising pressures on shrinking supplies of raw materials. Nathaniel P. Reed, who was Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, wrote in The New York Times, “We have just recently come to understand that the earth has limited resources—and the planet’s population is already pressing against those limits.”
In many areas of the world the population is growing faster than food production, resulting in hunger and starvation; water levels continue to drop, making it more difficult to obtain fresh water for human consumption, for industry, and for agriculture; ghettoes expand; conflicts arise between nations to gain living space and natural resources. Mr. McNamara darkly hinted at the grave consequences of continued population growth. He warned that “no government can afford to let population pressure grow so large that social frustrations finally erupt into irrational violence and civil disintegration.
Here we find the world confronted with another element of that tribulation such as was not since there was a nation.
Environmental Pollution
So great a problem has pollution of the environment become in these latter days that the U.S. Government has seen fit to create a special new department called the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Its need is attested by the fact that hardly a day passes in which there is not at least one report in the public press dealing with some form or other of pollution of the world environment.
A fairly typical item was published by Time magazine (June 13, 1977), under the heading “A Prescription for World Survival.” It went on to say that the United Nations had issued its annual “state of the environment” report to the people of the world. “It focuses on four areas in which man’s activities are proving hazardous to the environment and to life itself.”
One such area the report dealt with was the destruction of the planet’s beneficent layer of ozone which “absorbs much of the ultraviolet radiation from the sun, protecting humans and other organisms from an overdose of these solar rays. … According to the U.N. report, the widespread use of fluorocarbons as propellants for aerosol spray deodorants and other products may have already depleted the ozone layer by 1%, and could cut it by as much as 10% by the year 2050 unless the use of fluorocarbons is reduced.”
The growing use of nitrogen fertilizers, which are converted into nitrogen oxides that rise into the stratosphere, could result in the destruction of as much as another 15% of the ozone layer. “Most disastrous would be a large-scale nuclear war,” the report continued, “which would blast enough nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere to reduce the ozone layer by as much as 70% for a period of from five to ten years. Even a slight increase in ultraviolet rays seems to cause a higher incidence of skin cancer, and a significant depletion of the ozone layer could cause far-reaching damage to plant and animal life and trigger drastic climatic changes.” (emphasis ours) A study initiated by the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency arrived at a more ominous conclusion. It states that “a series of large nuclear explosions could damage the band of ozone that protects the earth from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation—which could conceivably destroy all life on earth.”
Much cancer, especially in industrialized societies, the U.N. report continues, is caused by environmental factors. “In 1958 a British physician named John Higginson was challenged by a skeptical scientific community when he suggested that 70% to 80% of all cancers are environmental in origin. Now many scientists suspect that the actual figure may be closer to 90%.”
The report also called attention to the depletion of the soil available to man to grow his crops, which is being lost by overcultivation, mismanagement, and carelessness. “Soil erosion may cost the world as much as 2.5 billion metric tons of soil a year, and has already reduced much of North Africa to desert areas that must import most of the food.” Improper irrigation takes some half million acres out of production each year. “As the world’s population and demand for food rise, these soil losses become increasingly crucial.” The report concludes with a warning that man’s wellbeing is seriously threatened, and it calls for international collaboration, “on a scale not seen so far in the history of mankind,” to save the environment from irreparable damage.
The dark reports appear in a constant stream. Poisonous chemicals like Kepone, PCB’s, PBB’s, and Mirex are endangering the health of people in growing numbers. They have been flushed into rivers and lakes, sprayed over crops, and float through the air. Virtually indestructible, they remain in the tissues of wildlife and humans, and seemingly healthy people suffer from their toxic effects twenty years after exposure.
Our drinking waters are being polluted. Pesticides essential to high-yield agriculture are having an adverse effect on phytoplankton in the ocean, where 70% of the world’s oxygen is produced. Supersonic planes destroy the ozone layer. Six rivers in the U.S. still have salmon runs, whereas there used to be 33. Modern man has asbestos in his lungs, strontium 90 in his bones, DDT in his fat, iodine 131 in his thyroid, mercury in the kidney, brain, and liver which may cause illnesses such as cancer and brain damage. One senior EPA official has stated, “There are a lot of time bombs out there waiting to go off.”
If America dies, where will we bury it?” asked the American Medical Association in a full-page magazine story. It continued: “We are doctors of medicine. Naturally, we care about the health of your body. But we care, too, about the health of the body of land you live on. America’s body is not well. Its condition is critical. Suddenly the words ‘ecology’ and ‘pollution’ are in the air. People seem worried. But we hope their worry isn’t just another passing fad.
“A sick environment can make people sick. It can undo everything a doctor works for. Polluted air can damage the eyes, aggravate lung diseases, actually cause death during long episodes of heavy pollution. Polluted water can infect plant, animal, marine and human life. Noise pollution can cause deafness, may produce ulcers and hypertension.
“The list of depressing entries on our environment’s health goes on and on. In fact, disease induced by the environment now costs us $38 billion a year. That bill will go up. If we don’t nurse our environment back to health, … there’s no use our trying to keep people well in a dead land.”
The Carbon Dioxide Question
Under the above heading a scholarly and sobering article appeared in the January 1978 issue of Scientific American. The subheading pointed out that human activities are clearly increasing the carbon dioxide content of the earth’s atmosphere. The question is, the writer says, Will enough carbon be stored in forests and the ocean to avert a major change in climate?
“Until recently the increase [in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere] was commonly attributed to the burning of fossil fuels. Now there is evidence that it may be due in equal degree to another source: the worldwide destruction of forests [to obtain lumber for building and wood for fuel, and to clear ground for grazing and agriculture].” The writer states human activities that increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could result in a general warming of the climate over the next few decades. Such “an increase in the average world temperatures will probably enlarge the area of the arid zones and significantly affect agricultural production. … The prospect is not encouraging for a world whose human population may double within the next 30 to 35 years.”
Drastic measures would be required to achieve a reduction in the rate of rise in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, states the writer. “Whether such drastic measures could be effected is much in doubt; the social problems that would result would clearly be profound.” He concludes, “Carbon dioxide, until now an apparently innocuous trace gas in the atmosphere, may be moving rapidly toward a central role as a major threat to the present world order.”
Worldwide, seemingly unmanageable environmental pollution, possessing the possibility of extremely dire consequences is, we submit, a new problem—one the world has begun only in latter decades to see as a serious threat to the well-being and life of the entire human race. It, too, is a trouble the like of which has never heretofore been experienced by mankind.
We believe the world is today experiencing special and unique problems which indicate we have indeed entered into the foretold time of trouble, the like of which has never before afflicted mankind. And if we believe we are in that great time of trouble, then we must also believe our Lord is now present, for this is one of the prophetic signs of his presence.
Surely, man is doing his sorry and ineffectual best to manage his multitude of problems. But he is thwarted at every turn by his own imperfection, his own selfishness and pride, his failure to love his neighbor as himself. We do not fear that God will permit man to pursue his foolish ways until he utterly destroys himself or irretrievably harms the environment of this wonderful planet that was entrusted to him. Jesus himself assures us that the time of this trouble would be cut short, or else all flesh would be destroyed. (Matt. 24:22) This glorious planet Earth is to be man’s everlasting home. God made it specially for him; he made it not to be destroyed; he formed it to be inhabited.—Isa. 45:18
This same unique time of trouble is also the sign of the end of the age, leading to the establishment in the earth of Christ’s kingdom of righteousness and life. (Matt. 24:3,21; II Pet. 3:10-13) Luke wrote, “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. … So … when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”—Luke 21:28,31
Thus, Luke tells us that this great time of trouble is also a sign that the followers of our Lord Jesus are approaching the end of their journey and that the establishment of the kingdom for blessing all the families of the earth is near.
How this knowledge should make the heart of every footstep follower of the Lord leap with joy and encourage him to redouble his efforts to make his calling and election sure!