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Insight on the News

“Expectation of the Things Coming”

● The fact that men would probe the future and fear what they see was prophesied by Jesus Christ as a feature of our generation. At Luke 21:25, 26, he said that there would be “anguish of nations, not knowing the way out . . . while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.”

A special 800-page document titled “Global 2000 Report to the President” from the U.S. State Department and Council on Environmental Quality illustrates the accuracy of Jesus’ words. It warns that there is “potential for global problems of alarming proportions by the year 2000.” The New York “Times” states that, according to the report, “time is running out for international action to prevent a starving, overcrowded, polluted, resource-poor world.” And World Bank president Robert McNamara declared: “It paints an absolutely shocking picture of the world twenty years from now​—unless we act.”

The bleak picture of what could occur includes: half of the world’s forests gone, sand dunes taking over once-fertile farmlands, the end of nearly two million species of living things, 1.3 thousand million malnourished people, and many other global problems. Are governments up to the task of solving them? The report observes: “The only solutions . . . are complex and long-term [because the difficulties] are inextricably linked to some of the most perplexing and persistent problems in the world​—poverty, injustice and social conflict.”

‘Increasing Lawlessness Cools Love’

● Jesus also prophesied that “because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off.” (Matt. 24:12) That this is happening world wide, especially among those who profess to be Christians, was highlighted by a recent article in “The Wall Street Journal.” Under the heading “An Evangelical Revival Is Sweeping the Nation But With Little Effect,” the writer quoted one Baptist pastor as saying: “I heard on one of those TV evangelism shows the other night that 33% of all Americans are ‘born again,’ but if that’s true, why is the crime rate still so high? Why is there still so much use of narcotics? Where is our impact?”

Growing lawlessness at even the highest levels of society has caused a cooling of love for God and fellowman that in the past may have acted as a restraint. Illustrating one way in which increased lawlessness develops, Gilbert Geis, a professor of social ecology at the University of California, recently declared: “The highest crime rate in the nation is in Congress. Calculate the number of congressmen arrested or sent to jail and you’ll find the percentage is higher than in New York City.” The result of this, said Geis, who is considered an expert on white-collar crime, is “social malaise, distrust, cynicism and greed: ‘If others are doing it, I’ll get my share too.’” Thus the “love of the greater number” cools as lawlessness begets lawlessness.

Food Shortage​—“Millions Will Die”

● There will be food shortages . . . in one place after another,” said Jesus. This affliction continues to be a dominant feature of our generation. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently listed 29 nations as suffering “abnormal food shortages,” or widespread famine. Of these hungry nations, 23 were in Africa, and hundreds of people are reported to be dying every day on that continent. Despite international relief efforts, an FAO food expert says: “No matter what we do now, millions will die.”

This situation exists even though, as “Time” magazine observes: “In the early ’70s, the 36-member United Nations World Food Council vowed to create a world without hunger within a decade.” What are the prospects for relieving the world’s “food shortages”? Answers “Time”: “Today that ambitious goal seems more distant than ever.”

Yet these very conditions do give hope. They portend the “conclusion of the system of things” that presently exists, to be followed by a new and better one.​—Matt. 24:3; Rev. 21:1-4.