Basic HTML Version
tones of generally accepted evange–
lists.
In Black and White
But take a good look at this ancient
quotation spoken nearly
1950
years
ago: "For then shall be great tribu–
lation, such as was not since the be–
ginning of the world to this time, no,
nor ever shall be. And except those
days should be shortened,
there
should no fiesh be saved."
The speaker was Jesus Christ of
Nazareth. He was talking to a group
of His disciples who had just asked
Him: "Tell us, when will this be,
and what will be the sign of your
coming and of the close of the age?"
Those words of Jesus -
"there
should no fiesh be saved" -
could not
have been understood before 1945
and the advent ofthe atomic age! This
is
a bíblica! description of a time so
unprecedented, so unparalleled in
the entirety of human civilization,
that unless there was sorne type of
supernatural intervention there
wouldn't be a man, woman or child
left on the face of this round earth.
You just read the quotation with
your own eyes in black and white. If
you don't beiieve me, pick up a l–
most any translation of the Bible
and open it to the twenty-fourth
chapter of Matthew.
But let's return to the editorial by
David Lawrence from which 1
quoted earlier:
"Sut we shall miss the entire sig–
nificance of the new discoveries [the
atomic bomb] if we do not apply a
spiritual interpretation. It is man
and not God who must assume re–
sponsibility for this devilish weapon.
Perhaps He
is
reminding us all that
man-made weapons can,
if
their use
is unrestrained, destroy civi!ization,
and that man still has the chance to
choose between the destructive and
constructive use of the findings of
science."
Jesus Christ was nearly
2,000
years ahead of David Lawrence,
who was well ;thead of
his
time,
back in 1945. Christ foretold a time
in human history when
no one
would be left alive if He didn't in–
tervene in this world's affairs and
cut the days short. He was way
ahead of the movie
On the Beach.
He was way ahead of science-fiction
novels about the annihilation of hu-
24
manity. Jesus knew, two thousand
years in advance, that humankind
would be fast asleep on a gigantic
bomb - with a slow-burning fuse!
He .further
predicte~:
"Nation
shall rise against nation, and king–
dom against kingdom (wars): and
great earthquakes shall be in divers
places, and famines , and pesti–
lences; and fearful sights and great
signs shall there be from
heaven .... And there shall be signs
in the sun, and in the moon. and in
the stars; and upon the earth
distress
of nations ,
with perplexity ..."
(Luke
21: 10,11,25).
J esus described our fearsome
days. He foretold the chaos among
nations, the increasing natural
calamities. the impending nuclear
holocaust.
·
We live in a time when the fulfill –
ment of the major prophecies of the
Bible is in the immediate offing. We
don't like to acknowledge that. We
always like to think that history is
going along pretty much as always;
thatwe're in the middleofhistory. But
our nuclear-armed age
is
different.
We are told that the UN is "the
world's last hope for peace." That
was its reason for being created out
of the ashes of World War II. But
what a shaky hope it is proving to
be! The UN has degenerated into a
forum for puny nations to attack the
United States and the rest of the
free world and all we hold dear.
What a paradox! The world's last
hope for peace has become an in–
strument for nations to berate one
another like squabbling children!
The uneasy stalemate between
"the war that cannot be fought and
the peace that cannot be achieved"
cannot last much longer.
But how does all this information
help you? What can you possibly
do
about it?
What Should You Do?
What possible recourse do you, as a
prívate citizen or subject of what–
ever nation, really have? How can
you cope with this mind-bending
nuclear age? What are
your chances
ofsurvival?
Wha t are the options left
open to you?
Building prívate civi l defense
shelters seems pretty impractical in
this day and age. " Escaping" to the
mountains or the desert would
probably only bring you an early
dea th from exposure. ls there no
way out ofthe nuclear dilemma?
Here is sorne
good news!
You are
not
going to live in a world like
today's - under the shadow of the
bomb -
very much longer.
A new
world is going to come soon - a
world of peace and genuine cooper–
ation among the nations; a world
where our young people will never
again be sacri1iced in senseless wars.
But, before that, a time of great
suffering and tribulation is coming.
Each one of us needs to
watch care–
ful!y
(Luke
21:36)
what is happen–
ing in the world so we know where
we stand. The good news is
some are
going to escape
and live on into the
wonderful world tomorrow!
Your only real recourse is to do
personally what this world's govern–
ments
refuse
to do.
Trust God!
Jesus
said: "Watch ye therefore, and pray
always,
that ye may be accounted
worthy to escape al! these things
that
shall come to pass, and to stand be–
fare the Son of man." Are you will–
ing todo that?
Personally, I
arn.
But, in the
meantime, every night following a
busy day in this great Work of
warning our peoples, l
~url
up and
go to sleep- on a great big nuclear–
tipped bomb. 1 only hope that
somehow we can prevent the stupid
thing from going off!
o
RECOMMENDED READING
Here is some literature that will help
you to know what to look for on the
world scene. Jesus Christ mentioned
tour specific developments - de–
scribed in the book of Revelation as
" tour horsemen" - that would afflict
the world with various types of plagues
(one of them being "religion" itself).
This series of tour booklets - ex–
plaining each of the tour mysterious
"horsemen" - has been completed
just in the last few months.
Write for all tour of these brand-new,
fully illustrated, full-color booklets:
The White Horse: Fa/se Religion
The Red Horse: War
The Black Horse: Famine
The Pale Horse:
Disease
Epidemics
lnternational addresses are on the
inside front cover. lf you'd prefer faster
service and you live in the
continental
United States, please dial this toll-free
number: 1-800-423-4444. Readers re–
siding in California, Hawaii and Alaska
may call213-577-5225 collect.
The
PLAIN TRUTH March 1977