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establish it with judgment and
justice from that time forward ,
even forever"
(RAV).
Few want to believe orare aware
that Christ is soon returning as the
literal " King of kings and Lord of
lords" (Rev. 19:16; Matt. 24:30)!
And even fewer reaJize- including
the author and most readers of
1984-the
degree to which this
message was nearly completely
suppressed!
The Unknown Suppression
The apostle Paul warned that there
were those
"who suppress the
truth"
(Rom. 1:18, RAV) .
Within balf a century of Christ's
First Coming, the powerful an–
nouncement of the king–
dom of God- the only
answer to Winston
Smith's nightmarish di–
lemma- was severely di–
lu ted into a confusing
mixture of religious mish–
mash.
Severa! t heories about
the nature and purpose
of life were extant at the
time Paul wrote. Sorne
thinkers participated in a
kind of theological and
philosophical smorgas–
bord. T hat is, they took a
little of one belief a nd
mixed it with a little of
another belief until they
had a homogenized con–
glomeration that bore lit–
tle resemblance to the
original gospel message!
That's why Paul thun–
dered to the Galatian con–
gregation, a church he personally
raised up:
" 1
marvel that you are
turning away
so soon
... to a
dif–
ferent gospel,
which is
not
another
[author itative message) ...."
Paul knew the reason: "There
are sorne who ... want to pervert
the gospel of Christ" (Gal. 1:6-7,
RAV). Shortly after Paul's death,
the knowledge of God's
real
pur–
pose for humanity was nearly
smothered to death- and the world
entered a spiritual dark age for
nearly 19 full centuries. T his dark
age- as you can see from the cen–
turies of anguish that have
ensued--cast humanity in painful
bonds as tragic as those that O rwell
conceived.
January
1984
Thank God that this age of
spiritual oppression-the nearly
1,900 years of suppressed truth–
will end forever! Your eyes even
at this moment are witness to t his
fact.
Oppression Will End
J esus knew that bis message of
government would be suppressed.
But he also determined that the
time would come when his origina]
unadulterated message would be
thundered
across this globe.
The exciting aspect of this fore–
knowledge is that this prophesied
event barely precedes the actual
reestablishment of God's kingdom
upon earth. J esus h imself thus
declared: "And this gospel of the
kingdom will be preached in all the
world as a witness to all the nations,
and then the end [Greek:
aion–
this "age" of man, not this physical
globe] will come" (Matt. 24:14,
RAV).
However, t he full knowledge of
God will not blanket the earth until
Christ returns and the government
of God is fu lly restored. At that
time "the earth shall be full of the
know ledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea" (Jsa.
1
1:9,
RSV) .
What' s to Come
What kind of world will God's gov–
ernment prod uce? Catch tbis
glimpse of that ·wonderful future!
"The desert and the parched Jand
will be glad; the wilderness will
rejoice and blossom.... Then wi ll
the eyes of the blind be opened and
the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the dumb shout
for joy. Water will gush fort h in
t he wilderness and streams in the
desert. The burning sand will
become a pool, the thirsty ground
bubbling springs" (Isa. 35:1, 5-7,
N IV).
This government will be headed
by none other than J esus Christ
himself. There won't be the ugly,
mind-sapping
1984-like
disinfor–
mation that this world spews forth
daily.
It
simply won't be
allowed ! No more will
people attempt to sup–
press the truth of God:
"And no longer shall each
man teach his neighbor
and each his brother, say–
ing, ' Know the Lord,' for
they shall
al/
know me,
from the least of them to
t he greatest ... " ( J e r.
31:34, RSV).
But befare the long
ongoing period of spiri–
tual deception fully ends,
humanity will taste to
the fu i! what Orwell
feared. Orwell, as one
writer put it, was con–
vinced "that modern
man [is] inadequate to
cope with the demands
of his history."
1
ndeed, the Orwellian
INGSOC will appear in
form. The Bible prophesies a ter–
r ible time soon to come (Matt.
24:21 )-a short dark age of reli–
gious and political persecution.
God, however, will
not
allow it to
last long- humanity will not lapse
again into centuries of deception
and oppression.
This prophesied period of pain
and persecution soon to come will
be cut short in a series of events
tbat will convince bumanity of the
folly of rejecting God. Humanity
will learn, as O rwell faintly
gl impsed, that man is indeed
unable to "cope with the demands
of his history."
You need to understand the
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