How The ‘Wise’ Have Failed Humanity

¹⁹“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” ²⁶For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. ²⁷But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; ²⁸and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, ²⁹that no flesh should glory in His presence. ³⁰But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—³¹that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor.1:19, 26-31).

Now what might the wisdom of this world have to do with global warming and climate change?

For two and a half centuries, since the dawn of the ‘age of enlightenment’, the wise of this world have been telling us that humanity is on a never ending curve of evolutionary progress. The laws of nature were supposed to propel humanity to ever greater degree of civilisation and sofistication, then all of a sudden, we discover that the same laws are leading humanity on a reverse course. With astonishing speed, humanity came to the dreadful realisation that the future is no where near as bringht and promissing as our leading wise men would have us believe.

How was it possible that the entire world was taken by surprise by such overwhelmingly bad news in less than half a dozen years? Where were the wise men all this time, when those bad news were in the making?

The signs were there for those who had eyes to see, for these things did not happen overnight. For just as the leaders of the Soviet Union were blinded by their own fallacious ideology, and could not see the abyss towards which they were heading their people, the leaders of the western world were blinded by their own pyrhic success against the ‘evil empire’.

Have a look at the following quote from The Christian Herald No 2, which we published in 1992. See the main concerns in the world at that tine, and how tiny they were compared with what we are facing now.

“It is not a mere coincidence that at this particular juncture in world history, life is being threatened from several directions. People who know little about biblical prophecies talk about the precarious condition of life on this planet. This correlates well with the prophecies of Jesus Christ who foresaw a calamitous end for this world.

Are we not living in those days now? How much worse must things get before humanity realizes that it is heading towards catastrophe? The world has reached the saturation point as far as population is concerned. The environment simply can no longer support the ever-increasing population. It has been estimated that within a generation the world population will double, then in less than a century it will double again. It will then continue to double within an ever-reducing cycle.

One scientist remarked that if the world survives to reach that level, life conditions would become so miserable that death would be preferable to life. Well, for millions of people even now merciful death would be preferable to a hellish life. For those dying of starvation and disease in Africa and elsewhere, the question of survival is no longer an option, but dying with dignity is. A quicker death would be preferable to the slow, agonizing wasting they experience; all while watching their loved ones go through the same process.

About a decade ago, when images of starvation emerged from Africa, the world moved quickly to provide humanitarian aid. Now many more millions are starving on a far wider scale, but few want to hear of it anymore. Images of starvation on television screens draw only cursory looks these days. Some television stations will not even broadcast such programs anymore. They have become unpopular, they have lost their shocking value, and they no longer pull audiences.

What would it be like when every country and every city in the world has doubled in size? The environment is already dying. Can the world support such an increase when many resources are already in short supply? Can the world afford not to turn to God while He may still be found? Perhaps it is already too late.

What were considered alarmist predictions a few decades ago, not only have been fulfilled, but exceeded many times over. We are now learning about world problems that only a few years ago were unheard of. A decade ago no one knew of AIDS. Half a decade ago there was no talk of the thinning of the ozone layer. These problems alone pose catastrophic dangers. AIDS is threatening to destroy the regenerating power of many nations. The thinning of the ozone layer is posing a threat to the vegetation and the microscopic marine organisms, the very support of life on earth, in addition to whatever harm they may do directly to human beings. In February this year scientists raised the alarm when they discovered that the depletion of the ozone layer is much worse than previously thought:

"New finding of ozone depletion were so alarming, the scientists said, they decided to release them before completion of the data analysis in late March. “Everybody should be alarmed about this," said Michael Kurylo, a research manager at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). "We're seeing conditions primed for ozone destruction. It's in a far worse way than we thought." (Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 5, 1992).

Apocalyptic times are well and truly upon us, yet people would not repent so that God may spare the world of these cataclysms. Can you see now why the sun is scorching the earth, and human beings suffer as a result?

"And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory." (Rev.16:9).

Governments are unable to address these problems because they require painful solutions. The people that elect them are more concerned with the pain of hunger than with restoring the ecological balance. Difficult problems are often postponed and left for the next government to solve with the result that little is achieved. Often they prefer not to raise such concerns in public at all. Out of sight is out of mind. No one realizes that these problems will get much worse and will not be solved unless and until people turn to God.

How many people remember the events of 1991? Aside from the Gulf War and the ecological and social disasters that it created, how many know that in terms of natural disasters 1991 broke almost every record since record keeping began more than a century ago?

The US Congress allocates an annual percentage of its budget every year for emergency situations, to help those nations that suffer calamities and natural disasters. By May 1991, the sum allocated for the entire year was already exhausted. There were droughts, famine, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, mudslides, etc., too many to be listed. Who remembers, for example, when approximately a third of China and nearly three quarters of Bangladesh were covered by floods? Or the repeated volcanic eruptions in Japan and the Philippines that caused damage over huge areas? Or the torrential rains in the heights of South America, where it seldom rains, that caused mudslides that covered entire communities?

How many people know that large tracks of the USA and Australia, the breadbaskets of the world, suffered the worst droughts on record? Preoccupation with the Gulf War and events in the former Soviet Union meant that most of these disasters passed unnoticed. As Jesus Christ said: "For as in the days before the flood [of Noah] . . . when they did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be" (Mat.24:38,39). To compound the misery caused by natural disasters, were those caused by human folly. The year began with the madness of the Gulf War, and finished with the collapse of that bastion of atheism, the Soviet Union.

People believe that communism failed. Communism never failed, atheism did! Communism never failed because it has never been tried. What they practiced in the Soviet Union and its satellite nations was not communism but a parody of it. It is a satanic ploy to undermine every good idea that comes from the Bible. True communism will work in the Kingdom of God.

Soviet communism failed, but so has American capitalism. Such is the vulgarity of capitalism that at a time when a company like General Motors is closing down dozens of factories and laying off thousands of people, it grants its retiring Chairman an annual pension of $US1.2 million. The Chairman of Chrysler, who has an allocated salary of $4.5 millions, went to Japan with President Bush to lecture the Japanese on work ethics. When it was pointed out to him that the Chairman of Toyota, a much more successful company, earns a fifth of his salary, he stormed out of the meeting and left Japan indignant.

No social conscience on the part of those who clamber their way to the top. No Christian concern for one's fellow human beings from the leading citizens of the, supposedly, number one Christian nation on earth. Has no one ever told these people that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God"? (Mat.19:24). Even at the retiring age they still do not think of the purpose of life and what lies beyond this temporary existence.

Where are the spiritual leaders of that nation? What have they achieved? Why are they silent in the face of such blatant greed and exploitation? Or are they part of the same mentality?

The country wonders why its economy is faltering so badly. Unfettered capitalism is just as unchristian as totalitarian communism. Soviet communism has collapsed; now watch for the collapse of capitalism. Those who believe that the USA will once again dominate the world as it used to, or that Great Britain will rule the waves as during the height of its empire, have some surprises coming their way.

This author grew up behind the “Iron Curtain” where a great part of his education involved indoctrination about the “glorious future the Soviet Union was leading the world into”. It was a trial by fire that few people have known. The communists justified destroying everything and everyone who opposed their march towards a God-less “utopia”, but instead of paradise, it became a Devil’s nightmare.

Out of that atheistic nightmare, God had to bring someone at enormous personal sacrifice to preach His Gospel to the world, because those who had it all the time made a mockery of it by turning it into a money making venture.

The Soviet Union collapsed into ashes leaving a cauldron of ethnic tensions and unfulfilled dreams that threaten to draw the world into the end-time catastrophic conflict. The chaos left behind by that collapse is only now becoming apparent. God alone knows what three hundred million people will do with their nuclear weapons when wide scale starvation takes place. There are repeated warnings in the Bible that He will "bring disaster from the north and great destruction."

At a time when the world is facing the test of survival, few people understand that there is a connection between current problems and the spiritual decline of the world. Even the Churches of God, who once prided themselves in their ability to understand the prophecies of God, have fallen silent. At the time that their input is needed more than ever, they are engaged in an internecine war that is sapping their strength from within.

Once again, as it has happened throughout history, God has raised people from the lowest levels of society to do His work. The message that John the Baptist delivered to ancient Israel, prior to the coming of Jesus Christ, is now being delivered to the whole world, just in time for His glorious return to this earth.

^“1In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ²and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mat.3:1-2). ^“9Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” ¹⁰And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ¹¹Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.” (Mat. 17:9-11).

So repent, for the Kingdom of God is truly at hand. Things are being restored before your very eyes.”

(The Christian Herald No 2, pp. 7-9).

Incredibly prophetic, isn’t it? We did not know then how capitalism would colapse, we just knew that it had to. Unfortunately we now know that the entire world will colapse with it. The world has entered an age of drastic changes which will affect every human being. Nothing less than the very survival of life on this planet is at stake now.

It isn’t that there is no solution to the world’s problems; but that solution is no longer with human beings. Only God Almighty, who knew from the beginning that humanity would come to this end, can save humanity now. The problem is that human beings will not turn to Him to save themselves while He is still available.

Make no mistake about it: there will come a time when even God will not be available anymore, and everyone will be sealed in the condition in which he is found at that time.

^“10And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. ¹¹He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” ¹²“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” (Rev.22:10-13).

What are human beings to do in the meantime? This is what God is telling His people.

¹⁵“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, ¹⁶in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. ¹⁷But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. ¹⁹I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; ²⁰that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” (Deut. 30:15-20).

I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, said God. And what did they do? They chose death and that is why they lost their mission, their nation, and themselves. Ever since that time, they have been wanderers in the world. Israel however, was to be an example to the world, therefore humanity has a similar choice now.

“But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; ⁷as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”(Jude 1:5-7)

It is not a mere coincidence that as the world has given itself to the same sins as Sodom and Gomorrah, it faces the same fate. There has been a conspiracy between the wise of this world, who have led humanity away from God with their notion of evolution, and the spiritually wise who were supposed to uphold the truth of God and keep humanity on track.

^“1But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. ²And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. ⁴For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; ⁵and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; ⁶and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly.” (2 Peter 2:1-6).

Why do human beings ‘follow destructive ways’, and not the ways of God? And why are those who preach the Word of God and the true Gospel of salvation being ignored and persecuted, while the purveyors of deadly gospels are being honoured and rewarded? How did we know as early as 1992, when we published TCH No 2, that humanity had entered the age of troubles connected with the end time? We knew it from the Bible, and from prophecies like the following one.

⁴“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” . . . ⁹And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. ¹⁰Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” (Dan. 12:4, 9-10).

⁹“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. ¹⁰And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. ¹¹Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. ¹²And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” (Mat. 24:9-13).

How wonderfully these prophecies reflect our time. First they tell us that when these things happen it will be the time of the end. ‘Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.’ Isn’t this a reflection of our modern age when transport and knowledge are so widespread? Then we are told that none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. Where are the wise that understand these things? And if they understand them, why are human beings still in ignorance about their meaning? Why are they not turning to the only source that can save them from these impending catastrophes? Because the wise of Daniel are different from the wise of Apostle Paul (quoted at the beginning of this article).

The wise according to the knowledge of God understand what is happening in the world, whereas the wise according to the knowledge of this world are blindly leading humanity to perdition. It is not a mere coincidence that as the world is being devastated by global warming and climate change, the spectre of nuclear annihilation has raised its ugly head again.

“Let go of Cold War mentality, US tells Putin”

“THE United States Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has disputed a lengthy critique of American power by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, telling a European security conference: "One Cold War was quite enough." Mr Gates chose words of velvet, not steel, in offering Washington's fullest response to Mr Putin's long complaint on Saturday about US domination of global affairs. "As an old Cold Warrior, one of yesterday's speeches almost filled me with nostalgia for a less-complex time," he said. "Almost." Mr Gates, a former director of the CIA recently called back to government service from academia to serve as defence secretary, told attendees of the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy that both he and Mr Putin had spent most of their careers in their governments' spy agencies. "And, I guess, old spies have a habit of blunt speaking," Mr Gates said.

"However, I have been to re-education camp - spending 4½ years as a university president." His remark drew laughs and applause. His sharpest response to Putin was gently couched. "Russia is a partner in endeavours," Mr Gates said. "But we wonder, too, about some Russian policies that seem to work against international stability, such as its arms transfers and its temptation to use energy resources for political coercion."

Throughout the rebuttal, and in a longer discourse on how the US's European allies must help rebuild Afghanistan and remain engaged in the fight against terrorism, Mr Gates mentioned Mr Putin only once by name. That came when he said he had accepted an invitation from Mr Putin to visit Moscow. Mr Gates cast himself as a geopolitical realist and drew a knowing laugh when he focused on Mr Putin's assertion that the US and its allies were dividing Europe. "All of these characterisations belong in the past," Mr Gates said. "The free world versus those behind the Iron Curtain. North versus South. East versus West. And I am told that some have even spoken in terms of old Europe versus new." The US has asked Japan not to arrange a meeting between the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, and the Defence Minister, Fumio Kyuma, an apparent response to Mr Kyuma's criticism of US policy, Kyodo news agency reported. Last month Mr Kyuma irked the US by saying it was wrong to start the war in Iraq. Mr Cheney is scheduled to meet the chief officers of Japan's Self-Defence Forces during a visit next week. (Thom Shanker, The New York Times, Feb. 13, 2007).

While the US deals with velvet gloves with its Russian adversary, Putin makes incessant preparations to challenge America’s dominance of the world.

Shanghai Co-operation Organisation – ‘timely and visionary’ “THE Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, whose members and observers represent half the world's population, signalled at its annual summit yesterday its determination to play a central role in global energy politics. Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the formation of "an SCO energy club" - because it involves some of the biggest energy exporters and importers. The leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan also moved at the Shanghai meeting to develop the group into a powerful military and economic force. They did not consider new members - instead asking the