Page 1594 - Church of God Publications

receive an edu cat io n , and th c

nation has been rated as one of the

three most literate countries in the

wor ld.

Czechoslovakia, however, is not

paradise. T he economy, and socie–

ty in general, is t ightly controlled.

There is a severe hous ing short–

age, a nd because of a c umbersome

and bureaucratic d ist r ibut ion sys–

tem, even a simple purchase can

involve a long wait in line. There

are many t hings abou t their way

of life they would like to see

changed. Bu t sucb changes do not

exists and how he should live. T hat

source is the law of God, as

revealed in t he Bible.

The Bible is the word of God,

given to man as an instruction

book by his Maker. lt teaches that

the first man, Adam, proved that

human beings, when g iven the

option, would reject the laws of

God as a way of lifc. So, God

allowed h im and his descendants

to learn their lessons t he hard

way. Ever s ince, the human race

has been engaged in the futile

quest of trying to discover a way

corruption, e nvy and the innate

tendency of human beings to want

to "get" for themselves at the

expense of others. T here is a miss–

ing ingredient in every system

invented by man to solve his prob–

lems. U nt il communist govern–

ments face t his fact , thcy may

continue to make progress in sorne

mater ia l fi e lds. But they wil l

always fall far shor t of t heir stated

long-term goal- a just and equi–

table· society for all.

Czechoslovaks can poi nt to thc

fact that they have less ser ious

crime, less juvenile delin–

quency and t he streets

are safe at nigh t. A nd

that a ll able-bodied work–

ers in Czech os lovakia

have a j ob to go to. ( [

nearly wrote ..Czechoslo–

vakia has no unemploy–

ment"-but tbat is an

overstatement. Sorne are

underempJoyed,

but can

get by with only a few

hou rs work a day. As

they say, ..l t's better than

having no job at all.")

The Shadow of the Past

Look at a map of Europe.

You wi ll see that Czech–

oslovakia is not so much

an eastern as a

central

European nation. Prague

is actually far ther to the

west t han Vienna, capi tal

a lways materia li ze as

hoped. The wor ks of

Marx, E ngels and Lenin

werc supposed to show

the way to true peace,

happiness, freedom and

prosperi ty. Karl Marx

was deeply affected by

the suffering of the

workers of Britain a nd

Europe d uring the earl ier

part of t he Jast century.

He became convinced

t hat the capitalist system,

i n w h ich weal t h was

becoming more and more

concentrated in the hands

of t he few, must event u–

a ll y self-destruct. The

workers would be d riven

to revolt against oppres–

sion, and the resul t would

inevitably be a classless

society in which the bond

of brotherhood between

working people wo ul d

bring about a world free

of envy, hatred and prej–

udice. A communist sys–

~

of Austria. H it ler once

~

called Czechoslovakia a

PRAGUE, one of the few major cities in Europ e in which

"dagger a imed at t he

is preservad p rewar architecture and c haracter.

heart of Germany," and

tem of governme n t, t ho u ght

Marx, would help a nation evolve

toward this "utopía."

But, Marx and those who carne

before and after him, overlooked

one vital point in their argument.

They did not understand how to

change the natu re of man. T he

commun ist phi losophers are not

alone in this. Nobody--communist

or capital ist, Eastern or Western

traditiona l bel iever or confirmed

atheist- understands why t he hu–

man race has not, is not and

wi/1

not ever

develop a just society out

of its own resources.

Mankind has chosen to ignore

the

only

sou rce of knowledge that

can explain what he is, why he

6

of li fe t hat will bring lasting peace

and happiness. Many ways have

seemed right for a while Uust as

the Bible said they wou ld- Prov–

erbs 14: 12), but t he end result is

always t he same. Readers shou ld

write for our free booklet

Never

Befor e Vnderstood- Why H u–

manity Cannot So/ve l ts Evils

for

a full explanat ion of t his impor–

tant su bject. Man has ex peri–

mented with many difTcrent forms

of government. Communism is

one of t he more recent ones. But

we can say it has been around

long enough to prove that just like

capi talism, it doesn't have all t he

answers. No polit ical system has

yet been able to abo lish greed ,

took terri b le act ion to

make sure the point was blunted.