| Highlights of DAWN | August 1980 |
Distress of Nations, with Perplexity
“And there shall be … distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” —Luke 21:25,26
THE presence of trouble in the world is nothing new. Ever since father Adam disobeyed the just commandments of his loving Creator in the Garden of Eden, sin, sickness, and sorrow have been the lot of humanity, affecting different individuals and different nations in varying degrees. From time to time earthquakes struck, famines and floods appeared on the scene, epidemics and wars wrought their destruction, suffering, and death. These, of course, were duly reported to the locally interested.
But more and more in the news of the present day we note that commentators are calling attention, not simply to local or national troubles, but to problems that in one way or another affect the entire world. This is so because the world, figuratively speaking, has become a smaller place, and what happens in any remote corner of the earth can vitally affect the peace and well-being of nations and peoples at the farthest end of the globe. Thus, the pages of the daily newspapers and weekly magazines, and the radio and television newscasts now bring to our eyes and ears never-ending accounts of difficult and seemingly unmanageable situations festering in virtually every part of this Planet Earth. Depending on one’s viewpoint, this can be good news, or bad news.
Five long years after the end of the bloody conflict in Vietnam, hungry, homeless people, old, young, and sick, still flee from one devastated region to another in that land. Others plod forlornly through desolate jungles, or crowd onto leaky, rotting vessels, seeking haven in other, but equally inhospitable, lands. The Middle East, where Israel and Egypt are still unable to settle their differences, is a constant worry to the entire world. And with good reason! For it is in the Middle East that the vital economic, political, and ideological concerns of the great and powerful nations of the world come violently into conflict.
East Europe and Russia’s cowed millions are unwilling captives of totalitarianism. In many nations the ravages of inflation make the lot of the poor more difficult. Daily, in various parts of the world, blood is spilled in the name of religion: in Northern Ireland it is Protestant against Catholic; in the Middle East, Jew opposed to Muslim; in the Indian subcontinent, Muslim against Hindu.
But worst of all, and far transcending all these, is the constant, gnawing fear of a cataclysmic nuclear war—a fear that is never far from the consciousness of every inhabitant of the world. Viewing this terrible possibility, some cling hopefully to the notion that universal recognition of the awesome finality implicit in modern nuclear weaponry will, of itself, preclude its use by warring opponents. But in all the annals of history this concept has never held true.
Over past centuries—as knives, swords, and spears gave way to bows and arrows, and these in turn to catapults, hand pistols, and rifles, followed by powerful guns capable of hurling devastating shells vast distances, and later by the elusive submarine and the modern warplane—the constant advance in the science of warfare with its increasing potential for wreaking death and destruction has never acted as a deterrent to war.
The present, supposedly enlightened century alone has produced the most destructive and horrifying conflicts of all time—the result of the same enlightenment that it is hoped by some today will prevent a future holocaust. “It’s very difficult,” says one observer of these matters, for a nation with enough nuclear firepower to destroy all life on earth many times over to see that power as weakness, rather than strength.” Indeed, it is and always has been true that the very existence of arms induces their employment. And the more overpowering and irresistible that weaponry appears to be to its possessor, the greater is the temptation by ambitious, selfish, or misguided men or nations to use it. Clearly, if there were no arms, and no armies, there would be no wars.
Others place their trust in the highly sophisticated fail-safe systems used by the military of both superpowers, which are supposed to prevent the accidental or premature launching of nuclear missiles aimed at the enemy. In the past month alone, however, it has been reported in the press that a single 46-cent chip in the computer of the Pentagon’s strategic early warning system flashed two false alarms and led the system to indicate that Soviet missiles had actually been launched at the United States. Fortunately, in both cases it was found within minutes that these signals were false; but it required another twenty precious and fateful minutes to get this information to missile and bomber crews who had already been alerted.
These two computer foul-ups in four days aroused serious concern in the United States and abroad, according to U.S. News & World Report (June 23, 1980). “Labor Party officials in Britain accused the U.S. of putting mankind on the brink of extinction. The Soviet news agency Tass warned: ‘The American military dangerously plays with the destiny of the whole world.’ “ The writer of the article pointed out that this danger will probably become even more serious in coming years, for each nation will be increasingly tempted to launch its missiles if it believes an attack is under way. “As giants jostle for power,” says the same weekly, “peril always is close at hand.” The peril, in this case, is awesome to contemplate.
The political leaders of seven of the great industrialized nations of the Western world recently met in the ancient and lovely city of Venice to discuss these very difficult and complicated problems facing the world. High on the agenda, according to the New York Times (June 29, 1980)—and fittingly, we might say—was “the shaping of policies to deal with Soviet expansionism and with the instability of the Middle East. … Most [of the high officials attending the conference] believe that a world economic and political crisis is looming.” This cautious diplomatic language but thinly veils the profound fears of the West’s political leaders that continued Russian aggression and constant unsettlement in the Middle East, unless corrected, could lead to still another and even more awful world conflict.
The physical setting of this conference, whose aim is to try to bring some semblance of buoyancy to a drowning world, is intriguing. For centuries beautiful Venice has been sinking slowly into the sea though it is now thought to have become stabilized. “But,” it is reported, “the biggest threat to Venice’s survival has yet to be met: Flooding by high tides from the Adriatic. Tides caused a disastrous flood in 1966 and could wreck the city again. High water spilled over St. Mark’s square 241 times last year.” The world’s engineers have been unable to come up with a practical solution to the problem. And admittedly, and more serious still, this beautiful city, representing the outstanding cultural and artistic achievements of the civilized world, is highly vulnerable to the destruction that could be wrought by the overflowing waves of a violent storm.
How long, one wonders, can the efforts of the world’s imperfect political leaders like those recently in conference in Venice—be they ever so sincere—keep a sinking world civilization afloat? How long can they hold back the raging storms of human passion that God’s holy prophets foretold will bring this present evil world to an end and that Isaiah describes as “a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them [the nations], and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind.”—Isa. 17:12,13; Luke 21:25,26
The prophet is here describing the chaos and anarchy which our world leaders are even now striving desperately to forestall but which will surely overflow this rotting world and bring it to an end, even as prophesied. Indeed, some measure of these conditions exists in certain parts of the world at this moment. Speaking of the sorry state of his own nation, the Ayatollah Khomeini recently warned that Iran was even now in a condition of chaos.
Herman Kahn, Director of the Hudson Institute, has stated: “I foresee continued—perhaps wild—inflation, prolonged uncertainty in energy supply, a rash of terrorism, nuclear saber rattling, … assassinations, an intense confrontation between Russia and China, a collapse of the Eurodollar markets. … If we get two or three such shocks simultaneously, then I think we have the makings of worldwide chaos.”—U.S. News & World Report (August 20, 1979)
Norman Cousins, former president and editor of the prestigious Saturday Review, was asked: “How has our world changed in this century?” He answered: “The single most important change is that no nation can any longer fulfill its historic function of protecting the lives, values, property and institutions of its people. Nuclear warfare has altered the entire relationship between nation and individual because such a war would mean suicide, a holocaust. No nation can protect its people any longer. … The arms race is depleting world resources, the oceans are being poisoned and the air contaminated. But our preoccupations are narrow, leading us to dead ends. [‘Distress of nations, with perplexity,’ no way out, Luke 21:24] We don’t have the philosophical dimensions to enable us to see humankind as an interrelated entity and act in behalf of the human species.”—Modern Maturity, June-July 1980
It is true, of course, as noted earlier, that trouble has always existed in this poor world. But today, in the end of the age, the trouble is different from that which afflicted mankind in earlier times. It is different in kind, in magnitude, in its prevalence, in its seeming unmanageability. It is, in short, that unique kind of trouble foretold by our Lord Jesus that would be a sign of the end of the age—a trouble “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time.”—Matt. 24:21
And despite the sincere and earnest efforts of imperfect man to alter the present terrible course of events, he will fail. He will fail because he has not learned to live at peace with his fellow man, to love his neighbor as himself, and to share the good things of this world, so bountifully provided by a just and loving Creator.
Through the Prophet Isaiah, the Lord God of the universe says that because man has not learned to obey the righteous precepts of his Creator and to deal justly with his fellow man, He is now about to take a hand in the affairs of earth. He says: “I have long time holden my peace; … now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.”—Isa. 42:13,14
Through the same prophet he plainly states the reason for the coming destruction of this present evil world: “I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” (Isa. 13:11) The Lord also spoke of this time of trouble through the Prophet Zephaniah: “That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. … And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord.”—Zeph. 1:15,17
Understandably, this state of affairs can be very distressing to those who are unacquainted with God’s plans and purposes for humankind, as these are set forth in his Holy Word. And when the trouble becomes more intense as it moves toward its inevitable climax, the distress and perplexity among earth’s inhabitants will also increase. (Luke 21:23-26) But those who understand Jehovah God’s wise and loving plan for the blessing of all the families of the earth view these same evil conditions as a sign foretelling the early establishment in the earth of Christ’s millenial kingdom for the blessing of all the people, and thus they rejoice.
Jesus said, “When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” (Luke 21:31) The Apostle Peter also foretold the utter destruction of this present evil world arrangement but said it would be followed immediately by a new world, or new social arrangement, under a government of justice. He wrote, “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”—II Pet. 3:13
The late President Lyndon B. Johnson is quoted as once having said: “The answer for all our national problems—the answer for all the problems of the world—comes to a single word. That word is ‘education.’” Mr. Johnson was wrong. The last one hundred years have seen a truly remarkable and unprecedented increase in the availability and use of educational facilities throughout the civilized world. Never before has the world seen such a proliferation of grade schools, high schools, and universities, open not only to the rich, but also to the poor. It has truly been the time of “increase of knowledge” that was prophesied by Daniel. But this higher and more generally available education, this vast increase of knowledge, has not solved the problems of the world. Indeed, it may be demonstrated that it has intensified them.
Author Kirkpatrick Sale has recently stated: “Those wonders that were supposed to be brought about through the sophisticated application of modern industrial science—particularly those wonders that would solve such problems as fuel shortages, starvation, poverty, crime, and pollution—simply have not materialized. … For thirty years now, this nation has been on a relentless and expensive high-technology binge, forging for itself the machines and systems that are supposed to underpin—and to presage—our twenty-first century lives. The only trouble is that all this high technology not only doesn’t seem to be solving our problems, it actually looks to be compounding them.” (Newsweek, June 23, 1980)
The real trouble with the world has its roots in the evil heart of man. The answer to the problems of the world is, indeed, as President Johnson said, a single word. But that word is not education. It is love—love for the Lord, love for righteousness, love for one’s fellow man. And in Christ’s kingdom, as all are brought forth from the grave to be given the opportunity to gain everlasting life, this basic problem will be accorded the highest priority.
Jehovah God spoke of this wonderful new arrangement for mankind through the Prophet Ezekiel: “I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” (Ezek. 11:19,20) The Prophet Jeremiah also wrote of God’s purposes toward resurrected mankind in the kingdom: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”—Jer. 31:33,34
Thus, when Christ’s righteous kingdom is operating in the earth and the evil propensities of men’s hearts have been replaced by love, the problems that have beset this present evil world will no longer exist. There will be no more selfishness. There will be no more nuclear bombs, no more armies equipped with death-dealing weaponry. “It shall come to pass … that the mountain [kingdom] of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountain [kingdoms], and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: … and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”—Isa. 2:2-4; Mic. 4:1-3
There will be no more hatred of man for man, for each shall love his neighbor as himself. Justice will reign throughout the earth, for “righteousness and justice are the foundation of [God’s] throne.”—Ps. 97:2, RSV
There will be no more hunger, no homeless refugees wandering vainly from place to desolate place seeking shelter and sustenance. In that day “they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.” (Isa. 65:21) There will be plenty for all. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”—Isa. 55:1
There will be no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more tears, neither shall there be any more pain. And best of all, for the willing and obedient in that glorious day there will be no more death, “for the former things are passed away.” And God himself will be with the people, and he will be their God.—Isa. 33:24; Rev. 21:1-5
Thus, what man has been unable to do for himself in six thousand years, Jehovah God, in his mercy and wisdom, will accomplish on man’s behalf, through Christ. All the multitude of problems that proved unmanageable to imperfect man will be forever banished from the face of the earth by the irrestible power of universal love, directed by the righteous rule of Christ’s millennial kingdom. Thus also, at long last, will come the blessed answer to that age-long prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven!”—Matt. 6:10