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WHAT'S
THE WORD
FORTODAY?
Where can youfind words to describe today 's world?Problems bubble, seethe and then explode in every
corner, in every direction. Where are the phrases to capture the f eeling of the massive megaproblems
that have pushed us to the brink of annihilation? Where are the principies that will guide us evento see
in their awesome scope,
if
not to solve, the crises which cause us to consider cosmoscide?
W
here in the world can we
find words to express the
urmoil, rrustration and
despair we reel as we see the burden
or the ruture descend on us with a
crescendo or problems which grows
even raster than the explodi ng
world popula tion?
Newly coined words a re a dime a
dozen. Rhetoric repeats itselr with
historie boredom. Political promises,
the a lways bright, new manna ror
the day, breed worms and stink
even
before
the sun goes down! Par–
ish pastors peep and mutter inane
and hypocritical soothing sayings
like, "The good in human nature
will prevail. Peace, brother, peace-"
when there is no peace! Sober scien–
tists search ror words to sound the
alarm they reel when they view the
devasta ting statistics or overkill po–
tential in the hands or the nuclear
club or nations, the sinister statistics
or world population total!y eclipsing
rood production,
the
rearsome po–
tential or new scientific discoveries
in fields like genetic engineering, the
menace or oewly invented Buck
Rogers wea ponry, the threat to
world ecology posed by our bur–
geoning industrial output.
The Crisis of Crises
The
subhead above is not mine.
borrowed it rrom a renowned scien–
tist, John Pla tt, research biophysicist
and associa te director or the Mental
Health Research Institute at the
Universi ty of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
who was writing for
Science
maga–
zine in its November 28, 1969, edi–
tion, page 1116. Permit
me
to quote
a few more phrases rrom his article,
«What We Must Do."
28
by
Jon
Hill
The principies, phrases and word
choice of this seriously concerned, ir
not shaken and alarmed scientist are
reminiscent of my favorite Book.
This man shares my alarm at appar–
ent human lethargy in the race or
present and coming catastrophic
crises. And the same a la rm is
sounded with living, modern, up-to–
the-second- yet old, in the sense
that they a r e ete rn al - words ,
phrases and principies of my ravor–
ite Book!
"A few years ago, Leo Szila rd es–
timated the ' ha lf-life' or the human
race with respect to nuclear escala–
tion as being between 10 and
20
years. 1 think this multiplication or
domestic and international crises
today will shorten that short half–
life. In the continued absence of bet–
ter ways or heading off these mul–
tiple crises, our half-lire may no
longer be
10
to
20
years, but more
like 5 to 10 years, or less. . .. The
time is short. . ..
The
time is hor–
ribly short."
We've been lucky enough lo sur–
vive longer than Platt thought we
would- but this only brings us closer
to the culmination he proj ectep .
The Crisis at the End
Tha t subhead above is not mine ei–
ther. 1 borrowed it from the pages of
my favorite Book: "And now, O
Daniel, keep a ll this a close secret
and keep the book shut as a secret,
till the crisis at the end" (Daniel
12:4,
Moffatt translation). Daniel
goes on to say, " I heard this, but 1
did not understand it. So 1asked, 'O
my lord, what is to be the las t phase
before the end?' But he said, 'Ask no
more, Daniel, for the revelation is to
be kept secret and close,
ti// the crisis
at the c/ose"
(verses 8-9).
The whole book of Dan.iel deals
with world government. Daniel had
received inrormation about a ll the
world governments which would
rule the earth between his time and
the time when God would set up
His government on earth. Naturally
Daniel wanted to know how long
th is was going to take, and what
were sorne or the things that were
going to happen just before God's
inte rvention so he could watch ror
those tellta le signs indicati ng
the
imminent coming or God's King–
dom.
God knew it would be a long time
yet, and so Daniel would not be
frustrated , He told him to " rorget
it." But He a lso commanded Daniel
to write down the details he had
been shown, because they would be
or use to people like Daniel just be–
rore and during "the crisis a l th e
close." So despi te the ract that these
words of the Bible are "ancient."
they hold the key to the riddle of
today's world . They answer the
seemingly unanswerable questions
tha t plague sta tesmen and scientists
a like in the "cri sis at the end ."
The simple warnings of God's
Word tell it like it is. There was no
need of preserving endless place
names. God didn' t need to list the
wars that would quickly culminate
in
the
war to destroy all mankind
tha t we all see on the horizon. God
didn ' t need to perpetuare mean–
ingless words like Korean police
action , Vie tn amiza t ion , Ca m–
bodianization, or whatever may be
next. He didn ' t need to coin phrases
like cold war, guerrilla war, war or
The
PLAIN TRUTH April 1978