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Vladimir OKC
We live in a dangerous world of growing chaos. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un recklessly launches missiles and threatens his neighbors, spending millions of dollars on nuclear weaponry while his own people starve. Iran likewise threatens nearby countries as it continues research and development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles to deliver them.
The Middle East remains a dangerous neighborhood, with tens of thousands of deaths in the last year in the Syrian and Iraqi civil wars, with thousands more killed in Afghanistan. Thousands more have died in the last year in the Mexican drug war, and more than 66,000 Americans died of drug overdoses.
God fully knows the problem, and He promises a coming far different world -- a world beyond today.
In oil-rich Venezuela, the socialist government of Nicolás Maduro recently suspended constitutional rights following an economic collapse that has led to citizens being reduced to eating garbage and stray animals to survive.
You'd think that after several thousand years of civilization, humanity would be better than this. But no. Humanity's greatest advancements seem to be in developing newer and more efficient ways of slaughtering one another.
The failed system of communism, subject of several articles in this issue, illustrates how power can corrupt men and minds to the point that the unthinkable becomes not just doable, but historical fact. Communist governments in Russia, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba and Eastern Europe executed, starved or tortured to death countless numbers of their own citizens. Estimates range from a low of about 10 million to highs approaching 150 million.
Socialist governments -- such as the National Socialist (Nazi) Party of Germany -- have killed millions more of their citizens. A new term was coined for this -- democide, meaning murder by government!
Every form of human government has failed to some extent -- though obviously some more spectacularly than others. Clearly human government has its problems. But why? What's at the heart of it all?
A major part of the problem is spiritual. The world today is not God's world -- far from it! God's Word, the Bible, tells us that Satan the devil is "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4). As such, this evil and rebellious spirit being reigns over the earth today!
God's Word reveals that "the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19) -- meaning it is under Satan's powerful influence and control. This evil spirit being "deceives the whole world," having duped mankind into following his ways rather than God's (Revelation 12:9). So we shouldn't be surprised that human government has been dysfunctional throughout human history!
But it will not always be this way. God fully knows the problem, and He promises a coming far different world -- a world beyond today.
That far different world will begin at the return of Jesus Christ, as foretold in Revelation 11:15: "Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever'" (English Standard Version).
Jesus Christ will reign with absolute power, but rather than corruption, that power will lead to worldwide blessing. Notice this prophecy in Isaiah 2:2-4 (New International Version):
"In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as the highest of the mountains ... Many peoples will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord ... He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.' The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
"He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."
The vision of this astounding future is what drives Beyond Today magazine. It's the hope we proclaim in a confused and chaotic world. It's a vision we want you to share as we help you learn how you, too, can be a part of that incredible future God has planned for you and the world!
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Keywords: government human government democide
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