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•
ANY HEADS OF STATE
today are
faced with a setious credibility
gap.
Governments of nations are
being ovcnhrown at the rate of about
one a month. The pace
is
accelerating.
with eight this
year
so far.
Let me stan from Mateh 1973. 1 was
attcnding an outdoor ga.rdcn luncheon
in New Delhi at the official residence of
Dr. Nagendra Singh (titen executive sec–
retary to President V. V. Oiri of India–
now
a
judge on the World Court of ln–
tcmational Justice at The Hague). The
ambassadors from Ethiopia and
Afghanistan and their wivcs had been
invited for me to meet. They each gave
mean invitation to visit their respective
countries alld to have a private meeting
with their respective heads of state -
Emperor Haile. Selassie of Ethiopia and
Kin g Mohammed
Zah~r
Shah of
Afghanistan.
Before 1could fit into my schedule the
visit
to
Afghanistan, that governmcnt
was overthrown in a political coup, and
tbe king fted into exile. Later that year
f
did visit Addis Ababa aod had a warm
personal meeting with Emperor Haile
Selassie. He is just eight days older than
l.
1 visited Ethiopia agaan in January
with severa! ofmy "Japanese sons"- all
members of th.e Japanese Diet (the
equivalen! of Congress or Parliament),
and 1 introduced them to the cmperor.
But in August the emperor was taken
alive by the military revolutionisrs aod
has been lcept a ptisoocr since. A oew
military govcmment replaced that o[the
emperor. One
of
the very last things the
emperor did before being taken was to
send me a telegram of congratulation on
my birthday.
In August 1973 1 was in Santiago,
Chile, to see President Allende. Tbree
weeks laler 1 was visiting President
FrtDjieh of Lebanon - whose capital
Beirut is the financia! hub of the Arab
world. Wbile 1 was there Presadent
Allende was assassinated in the very
room where l had tl!e meeting, and bis
govemment was overlhrown in a mili–
tary coup.
Three wceks laler 1 was speaking at a
banquet in Bangkok. At thal time !he
Arab-lsraeli Yom Kippur
war
broke
out.
Three weeks later 1 was speaking in
Lake of the Ozarks. Missouri, to an au–
dience of some 11 .000 Worldwide
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Pt:IU Butlu,
WEEK ENDINO SEPTEMBER 6, 1975
Church of God members, when a radio
news nash was banded me saying a pro·
test mob of
100,000
had overthrown the
government of Prime Minister Kittika–
chorn, wbom
1
know weU, and he bad
fted !he country.
In late January this year.
1
was speak–
ing before several groups in Bombay,
India, and beforeseveral ofthem
1
men·
1ioned the above incidents. Jokingly 1
said, "1 wonder what wiU happen right
here three weeks from now?"
In
four
weeks 1 retumed to Bombay and discov–
ered th.at a week before, the local slate
government bad been overtbrown.
Since then Presiden! Thieu of South
Vietnam fted his country and, as all
know, the communist Nonh Vietnamese
took over that country. 1had spent some
lime in prívate conversations wilh Presi–
dent Thieu and bad expeeted to hold a
campaign there attended by some
25,000
lo SO,OOO in tbe university Sta·
dium. But the war danger made il jm.
possible to assemble such a crowd in any
one plac<;.
And now, as 1 write, just the day be·
fore yesterday anolher head of stat_e,
Prime Minister Rahman of Bangladesb
was assassinated. and the Bangladesh
governmenl was overthrown. 1 bad
spent some 4S minutes with this slrong
leader in prívate conversalion in bis of·
fice.
When things like this happen contin·
ually
to
those
r
bave known personally.
it impresses me deeply with !he kind of
world we lave in.
Leaders and rulers are crilicized,
blamed, ploned against, and enemies
seek to crea1e great credibility gaps
in
tbeir oation's leaders.
Mrs. lndira Gandhi, prime minister of
the world's second largest nation, has
very narrowly escaped being over–
turned. Political enerrues. luders of the
manoriry
pany
in India, sought to oust
Mrs. Oandbi
by
accusing ber of using
iUegal methods in a recent election cam·
paign. Mrs. Gandhi was found guilty by
a bigh coun. Mrs. Gaodhi acted quiclcly.
She had au opposit.ion leaders arrested.
Then she had the conslitution amended
retroactively. changing the law oo the
points concerned. ll was passed by the
Congress overwhelmingly. Thus she
wiped out the
~crime."
But what
will
she
do now regarding ber impri$oned
po~ti
cal enemies? ll seems hardly possible
she can leave them all in prison - tbe
Personal from .. .
THI BIGGIST CRIDIBILITY GAP
IN THI WDRlD TDDAY
oumber is very great - until they all die
there. And if sbe releases them - then
what?
One mighl gel an idea out of the
Bible. ll is recorded that. on Cbrist's
retum as world ruler. Satan
is
to be
imprisoned 1,000 years (Rev. 20:2·3).
Out aner the tbousaod yean, it is re–
corded, "And when tbe thousand years
are e<pired, Satan shaU be loosed out of
his prison. and snall go out
to
deceive
the nations." And millions will be led
against the wodd govemment ruled by
Christ. Mrs. Gandhi might do well
to
read tbat prophecy. Ofcourse she denies
doing any real wrong, claiming the old
obsoleto law sbould have beco repealed
long ago. and saying she is upholding
thc democrat.ic system of government,
which is by majority. ll's no! my job 10
judge Mrs. Gandhi.
But the mOSl monumental
CREDI ·
Bll.ITY GAP
of
all
has been against the
one who
will
RULE
for thal coming thou–
sand years- Jesus Christ.
He carne, more than 1900 years ago,
born as a human. with a messagc (His
gospel. almost unknown to the world
today) aboul His future worldwide gov–
ernment. tbe kingdom of God. But only
a few realty believed Him. Many "be–
lieved ON HtM," just as today, but they
didn't BELIBVE Him - that is, they didn't
believc whal He said.
NOTICE tT:
"As
he spalce these words,
Volume
XL
No. 15
many believed on him. Then said Jesus
10 those which believed on him, lf ye
continuo in my word, lben are ye my
disciples indeed; and ye shall know the
truth, and tbe truth shaU make you
free. They answered lum. We •.. were
never in bondage
to
any man.... Jcsus
answered tbem ... but ye seelc to lcill
me, beeause my word hath no place in
you . . . . And because 1 teU you the
lrulh,
yt
btlíeve me not."
They would
001 betievc
WHAT
HE
SAID!
(John
8:30-45.)
What a credibility gap!
The chief priests and Pharisees
(rulers) had sent ol!ioen
to
take Jesus
into custody and bring Him to them for
condemnalion; or pethaps execution.
The officers were impressed with. what
they heard Jesus say and were afraid to
talce Him. When the ol!icers retu.med to
the chief ptiesrs and Pharisees without
Him. '1'hen answered them th.e Pbari–
sees, Are ye also deceived? Have aoy of
the ru.lers or of tbe Pharisees believed on
him?" (John 7:47.)
No credibility among any of the lead–
ers or the ruling clasS'.
Yet the propbecy says of Him:
"... and the govemment (of !he world)
shall be u
pon
bis shoulder. and bis name
shall be called Woodeñul, Counselor,
The mighty God, The everlasling
Father, The Prince of Peace" (lsaiah
9:6).
(Contlnued on page
/3)
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