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one. Most other industrial nations are in trouble
as well. Unemployment, stagnalion, inflation,
frustration and disenchantment dog lheir steps.
The advanced nations-also called lhe developed
world- lead lhe rest in divorce, crime and
suicide. They abolished child labor and invented
kiddie porn. They conquered the plague and
hunger- but replaced it with cancer, heart disease
and a growing famine of the Spirit. It is not a
coincidence that the theory of evolution took hold
in the heyday of the Industrial Revolution. Man,
il seemed, could do anything, so why did he need
a God to create him?
Newer industrial societies like J apan, Korea and
Taiwan are still on the upswing. Prosperity is
increasing-but thoughtful people are beginning to·
ask, " Is it worth it?" They have noticed that
development (they call it Westernization) brings
with it a collapse of traditional values and the
erosion of national culture.
Mosl of the Third World is sti ll trying to catch
up. (The Fourth World- the utterly poor
nations- are having to abandon lhe pursuit.) The
Third World is desperately slruggling to
industrialize, often neglecting agriculture--a mistake
that will cost them dearly.
What wenl wrong? Was industrialization, the
discovery of knowledge and technique, not the way
to go? Was it perhaps of itself
inherently
the wrong
thing lo do and doomed inexorably to failure?
Would the world have been better off without the
technologicaJ breakthroughs of the last 200 years?
Not necessarily. The Victorian engineers greatly
benefited mankind in many ways. The industrial age
paved the way to better physicaJ living conditions
and a richer, more educated life for millions.
Victorian engineers built not only bridges and
rai lroads. They built water mains and sewage
syslems. The quality of life increased and epidemics
were controlled. As machines made obsolete the
laborious hand-powered manufacturing techniques,
people could' be better housed and dressed, and
books, newspapers and educational materials became
cheap and plentiful.
When the labor Jaws took children out of the
factory and into the schoolroom, illiteracy became
the exception rather than the rule. The average
person in the industrialized world today lives more
comfortably, earns more, eals better and can expect
lO live severa! decades longer lhan most of the
richest elite 200 years ago. These things were there
to be discovered,
and they should have been.
Humans needed these advances.
But they were not all that humans needed. There
was a missing ingredient that sti ll prevented mortals
from building Utopía.
Unlike animals guided by instinct , we are able to
wonder, experiment and build. Sooner or later
scientists were bound to stumble across the secrets
and advantages of technology. Why, then, has it
become such a mixed blessing?
You need to understand that the modero world
26
did not really begin in Ironbridge. The die was cast
long before Abraham Darby fired up his little coke
furnace. The foundations of our present society Iie in
the decisions made nearly 6,000 years ago in the
garden of Eden. That may sound like ridiculous
superstition, and most historians and sociologists
would dismiss it as nonsense.
It
is nevertheless true.
Even though humans were given by the Creator
minds that could tbink, plan, learn and discover, there
were limitations. Mankind could learn about physical
things, but not all knowledge is physical. For example,
mankind needed the knowledge of how to live
successfully with fellow beings, without greed,
covetousness, anger and selfishness. Without this
knowledge there could never be lasting peace or
happiness,
whatever else was discovered.
But no
scientist or engineer could uncover this knowledge. It is
outside the realm of physical experimentation. 1t
is
spirituaJ knowledge and
it
has to be revealed by God.
Most people have heard the story of the forbidden
fruit in the garden of Eden- but they don't really
understand it. It is not a quaint old legend-it is the
true foundation of our society today. The story
explains, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear,
why
we can't find a way to peace--and
why,
in this
age of matchless advances, we are still as miserable,
frustrated and unhappy as ever. And why on the one
hand we have been able to nearly double our own
life span, and at the same time threaten with nuclear
weapons all the generations to come.
The first two humans, when they rejected God's
commandments and took the forbidden fruit, also
rejected revealed knowledge. They chose instead to
decide for themselves what was good and what was
evil. But tbey were not equipped to do this, and
neither are their descendants. Whatever else we
discover, we will never by ourselves find the spi ritual
causes of world peace, justice and happiness without
God's help.
The Industrial Revolution did not
real/y
change the
course of human history- but it did basten things
along to their inevitable conclusion. Without guidance
from God, progress backfired, since man could not
learn to use properly the things he was discovering.
Whether it is iron, or airplanes, the printing press, or
the secrets of the atom- eventually they are used to
threaten, hurt and destroy. What could be a blessing
becomes a curse. It will be this way until the human
race learns that it cannot, through its own resources,
find a way of life that leads to peace.
One day we will learn. The prophecies of the
Bible show that we will do it in the most dramatic
way- using technological breakthroughs and
scientific discoveries to render our planet nearly
uninhabitable and life aJmost extinct. At that point
in history, only God can save us- and he will. Then
there will be another revolution and another
civilization. With God in authority, humans will
learn how progress should be made.
That may sound unrealistic and farfetched. But
then, so did an iron bridge a little more tban 200
years ago.
-by
John Halford
The
PLAIN TRUTH