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Bad News and Good News
We live in a dangerous time in a dangerous world. One perilous century is drawing to a close. Considering recent trends, it appears that another equally menacing one is about to begin.
Just as the world seemed to be settling into an uneasy calm after the collapse of the former Soviet superpower, world leaders shook off their complacency as a result of India's recent successful test of nuclear weapons.
They were further shocked when Pakistan followed suit with its own nuclear tests and announcement that it, too, had the bomb and wouldn't hesitate to use it if threatened by neighboring India.
Some militant Muslims in other countries rejoiced at the news that Pakistan, a largely Muslim nation, had armed itself with nuclear weapons. At last, they said, there was an "Islamic bomb." Now, they claimed, the mostly Muslim Arab countries could soon again be a match for upstart Israel, long thought to have its own nuclear arsenal.
Around the same time that the news hit from India and Pakistan, a stream of other disturbing facts came to light. United Nations inspectors reported that traces of highly lethal nerve gas had been found on Iraqi missile fragments, showing that the Iraqis apparently have such weapons armed and ready for use when conflict again breaks out in the Middle East. Meanwhile the cat-and-mouse inspection game continues in the hunt for further evidence of Iraq's biological- and nuclear-weapons programs.
Other news leaked out that China, long a nuclear power, had made quantum leaps in its missile programs. With technology acquired mostly from U.S. companies--for supposedly peaceful purposes--the Chinese military had greatly increased the accuracy of its nuclear-tipped missiles. Now, for the first time, the Chinese could mount multiple warheads, each with its own separate target, on their rockets.
North Korea, in desperate straits thanks to its collapsed economy and prolonged drought and famine, asserted its right to share its missile technology (nonnuclear at this point) with other countries to bring in desperately needed cash. At the same time, the North Koreans continue their own nuclear-weapons research.
It's frightening to realize that, over time, man has eventually used every weapon he has developed. The discovery of gunpowder led to machine guns, artillery and bombs that could kill humans ever more efficiently. Discoveries in chemistry brought us chemical weapons and nerve gas. Man's ability to split the atom gave us nuclear weapons. Other fields of research have given us biological weapons and such seemingly science-fiction weapons as lasers, particle-beam weapons and neutron bombs. If history is any indication, the next century will likely see us use such weapons against our fellowman.
No wonder some have said we don't know what weapons will be used in World War III, but the war after that will probably be fought with stones and clubs.
Can we know where the world is headed? A sure source for knowledge about our future is readily available--the Bible. It contains many detailed prophecies about the destiny of mankind. Briefly, it tells us that both bad news and good news lie ahead.
The bad news is that world conditions will grow worse. Jesus Christ described a dangerous world in which mankind will be threatened with extinction: "It will be a time of great distress, such as there has never been before since the beginning of the world, and will never be again. If that time of troubles were not cut short, no living thing could survive . . ." (Matthew 24:21-22, Revised English Bible, emphasis added).
The good news? The world will not end in a horrendous holocaust. "For the sake of God's chosen (that time) will be cut short," Jesus continued (mat). God will intervene to put an end to man's calamitous rule and save us from ourselves. Jesus Christ will establish the Kingdom of God on earth. He will be king of that kingdom, and "of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end . . ." (Isaiah 9:7). Divine rule will prevail upon the face of the earth (Isaiah 11:9; 2:1-4).
The Good News magazine is dedicated to sharing that message, the same gospel--good news--that Jesus Christ brought. This issue focuses on how that godly kingdom will come.
--Scott Ashley

©1999 United Church of God, an International Association

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