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tion," says Judge Seymour Gelber,
Juvenile Division judge in Dade
County, Florida.
God la Angry
God is angry! He is going to inter–
vene and
spank
whoTe
nations
for
for saking their responsibility to
properly train, guide and discipline
t he ir c hildren. God i s angry
because so ma ny- adults and
youth- have turned freedom to
obey God and His laws into license
to forget God and commit whatever
they thi nk t hey can "get away
with." National captivity an d
destruction a re prophesied for
many nations because of such sins.
Sin, remember, is the transgression
of God's law- 1 John 3:4.
God is especially angry at religious
leaders who should be forcefully
teaching obedience to God's law but
instead have watered down God's
laws. Is it any wonder so many are not
diligent to obey them? The punish–
ment of these false shepherds is
recorded in J eremiah 23.
Everyone will be held accounta–
ble for his or her actions and atti–
tudes. God holds parents accounta–
ble for teaching decent and godly
atti tudes and values-and setting a
right example. Children are free
moral agents. They can choose to
respect or rebel against right paren–
tal and godly values; but God will
also bring each youth into a n
accounting (Ecclesiastes
ll :9- lO).
Young people need to be told this
early in their lives!
Fortunately, growing numbers of
par e n ts who heed
Th e P/ain
Truth's
warni ngs are willing to
meet the great challenge of guid–
ing, loving and r ight ly disciplining
thei r c hildren.
They are beginning to fulfill the
prophecy to " turn the heart of the
fathers to the chi ldren"-that often
must come first- " and the heart of
the children [will be turned] to
the ir fathers." Othe rwise God
would be forced to smite the ear.th
wi th " total destruction" (Malachi
4:6, Moffatt translation).
Are you going to be part of the
reason why God will save humanity
from total destruction-because
you are willi ng to learn the right
way to rear your children? o
44
FRESH \NATER
(Continued from page 24)
fill ing water beds to carrying away
sewage.
Outside of air ·ror breathing,
probably nothing has been more
taken for granted by those who
have it than water.
Not So Freah
Today enormous quant t ttes of
industrial wastes are poured into
lakes, rivers and st reams, creating
ou t of water, chemical soups. Thou–
sands of injection wells have been
dug where toxic wastes are pumped
directly into the ground, thereupon
polluting the aquifers.
It
has been
est imated in scientific studies that
half of the water in the ground is
al ready contaminated either with
d isease-produc ing bacteria or in–
dustrial waste.
Not that industry should get all
the blame. Other sources of pollu–
tion are detergents and drain clean–
ers from bornes, salt used for melt–
ing ice, filth from c ity streets,
insecticides and chemical fertilizers
from agriculture, leaks from under–
g round petroleum tanks, lead and
cadmium dissolved from water
pipes. And think of all the tbings
water is used to clean and dilute.
A newly recognized problem is
acid rain. This is rain that absorbs
cbemical pollutants in the air and
becomes a toxic acid droppi ng
down on land and- you guessed
it- water supplies.
Add Drought
T o t hese factors ma king good
fresh water scarce, add one more
disaster: drought! Drought is rain
either not falling, or falling in tbe
wrong place--over the oceans, for
example, instead of over the land .
This is producing a whole new set
of complications. As ground water
is being deplcted in sorne areas,
sea water is seeping in and mixing
with the fresh water. Or the land
is simply collapsing and sinking
in.
Worldwide, three fourths of the
available water supply is used for
irrigat ion. Much of t his water
comes from underground reserves.
The vast Ogallala aquifer, the
main water source for the Ameri–
ca n Great Pl a ins (called th e
" breadbasket of the world") is
now severly depleted. Likewise the
water table under the agricultural–
ly critica! San Joaquín Valley in
California has been so lowered
that the land has settled 30 feet in
sorne places. As the water leve!
drops it is becoming very expen–
sive to run electric pumps to d raw
water out. Yet if agricultura! out–
put declines substantially in these
arcas, significan t effects, nat ional–
ly and internationally, occur.
What is needed is rain in the
right places. But that is going to be
increasingly rare in the years jus t
ahead for reasons most people have
not expected!
When Ralna Fall
You may not know it, but the
period of time God has allowed
for human be ings to struggle
with their problems in their own
way is about to come to a close.
Human histo ry is a record of
rebe lling against God's govern–
ment and His ways . Tne God
who created nature and all the
water there is, is going to punish
humanity, as a parent punishes a
disobedien t ch ild, till we learn
our lesson.
One of the ways He punishes
nations is to shut off the water sup–
plies. Listen to this warning: "T ake
heed test ... the anger of the Lord
be kindled against you, and he shut
up the heavens, so that there be no
rain, and the land yield no fruit ,
and you perish quickly . .. " (Deu–
teronomy 11 :16- 17, RSV).
To a rebellious and self-wi lled
people, God declares: " The Lord
shall send upon thee cursing , vexa–
tion, and rebuke ... and thy heaven
that is over thy head shall be brass,
and the earth that is under thee
shall be iron . The Lord shall make
the rain of thy land powder and
dust: from heaven shall ·it come
down upon t hee, until thou be
destroyed" (Deuteronomy 28 :20,
23-24).
If good water is scarce now in
many areas, what will happen when
God steps in and sends drought and
dries up what moisture tbere is, till
The
PLAIN TRUTH