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PROTEST
(Continued from page 21)
appalled- but the young tend to
find Satan entertaining and even a
symbol of protest. How terribly
deceived they are. You need to
know more about Satan.
Satan does exist, and he is far
from being a figure of fun and
entertainment. He was once one of
the most powerful angels that God
had created. Wben his own visions
of grandeur were thwarted, he
became the mortal (or rather the
immortal) enemy of God and every–
thing that God is doing. Satan thus
became the deadly opponent of al!
mankind. Jesus told us that Satan
has no other purpose for dealing
with us except to "steal, and to kili,
and to destroy" (John 10:1 0) . He
wants to see the end of all human
life- including yours. Because
people today have no idea what
human life is for, why they exist,
and what God's purpose is in creat–
ing man, they tend to disregard
Satan's influence.
If
they did under–
stand, Satan's evi l and cruel decep–
tions would become al! too evident.
God's intention was (and is) that
man should have life forever. The
time spent on earth is meant to be a
training and qualifying period- so
that men and women can learn how to
enjoy life. God will not inflict an eter–
nity of misery and confusion on those
he !oves. Before we are given real life,
we must learn how to live it.
From the day Satan met Adam
and Eve in the garden of Eden, he
began to influence them to live the
wrong way. He encouraged them to
decide
for themselves
what is right
and wrong. He helped them lay the
foundations of a world based on
vanity, jealousy, envy and greed
and selfishness. That is the world
we have today. People want to be
happy, and most people want to be
good, but how many want to
do
what God says is good?
Satan has never swerved from his
purpose. H is goal to see mankind
destroyed springs from a deep reser–
voir of hate. He is bombarding the
world today with wrong ideas, seiz–
ing every opportunity to erode val–
ues, destroy standards, and sow con–
fusion, frustration and misery. He
will do anything and everything to
keep mankind from finding the only
July
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Auguat 1985
way that would produce the results
that we all so desperately crave.
That is why your world can't
solve its problems. It began to go
wrong from the beginning, when
the first man and woman were in
effect kidnapped by a powerful and
terrible enemy.
So, if you want to make things
better, aim your protest at the real
cause of the problem.
You Can Protest Effect ively
How?
You don't have to work for the
overthrow of Satan. That has
already been accomplished. Jesus
Christ has already qualified to
replace Satan. When God is ready,
he will send Jesus C hrist to banish
Satan from the earth and take over
the rulership of the nations himself.
Jesus Christ will guide al! people
into a thousand years of peace and
prosperity.
Through the ages, Christ has
called a -people to prepare to belp
him with tbat task. They are people
whose eyes have been opened to
understanding the truth. They have
been able to see this world for what
it is, recognize the true nature of
the problem and begin todo some–
thing about it.
Jesus Christ has not called them
to rebel against society or to over–
throw governments. He will resolve
the problem at the
right
time, and
in the
right
way-. He
has
called
them to educate and prepare them–
selves to belp in the world of
tomorrow. That very preparation is
a protest, for the most etfective
protest that a person can make
today is to begin to live now
according to the laws of God tbat
are for our own good. That is notas
easy as it sounds.
It
will make you truly different.
It
is not a case of distorting the
way you dress or adopt ing sorne
novel hairstyle. (And forget those
pictures of Christ- he didn't look
like that.) The change must be
made inside. Alter your mind-not
with drugs- but with a new way of
thinking. People who will take the
trouble to find out what are the real
laws of God and obey them- they
are the real nonconformists today.
Those wbo have determined to
repudiate the life-styles inflicted on
the world by its captor- those are
the ones who are launching the most
etfective protest ever, striking at the
very roots of the real problem.
lnto the Hands of the Enemy
It
is tragic that many young people
today, so discontented witb the way
things are, are cheating themselves
of a chance to really help. First , in
their protcsts, they are only adding
to the confusion, and aiding and
abetting the very system that is
causing the problem. Second, they
are destroying their potential to
help put things rigbt.
The attitude of protest is the
same as it ever was, but the means
of protest have changed. Satan has
seen to it that today's young people
have access to a formidable arsenal
of self-dest ruction- mind-destroy–
ing drugs, intellect-destroying en–
tertainment and a choice of liberal,
permissive and often perverted life–
styles.
The effects cannot be easily
reversed. Many of today's young
protesters are inflicting problems
on themselves that they will not
just grow out of. Listen- you
might be successfu.l in shocking
your clders, and even giving your–
self a temporary high. But if you
are destroying your potential for
the future, you are thwarting your–
self.
It
is indeed a foolish protester
who cuts off his own chance to put
things right.
Make Your Prot est Count
There is a lot of good that can be
done even today. "Band-Aid"
showed that. But the world's prob–
lems are too big for a "Band–
Aid"- the earth needs 1,000 years
of intensive care-and only God
can give us that.
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haven't told you tbe whole sto–
ry. Tbere's not space in one article.
But if you've stayed with me this
far, perhaps you'll want to learn
more. This magazine does claim to
have insight into what has
real/y
gone wrong, and how you asan indi–
vidual can begin to start to prepare
to put it right. You'll have to make
up your own mind, of course.
You are right not to be content
just to sit back and let this awful
world happen. But make sure that
your protest is a part of the solu–
tion, rather than yet another symp–
tom of the problem.
o
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