Insight on the News
Strange Union
An unusual transformation is occurring in the relationship between Christendom and Judaism. After centuries of alienation an amicable bond is being forged. More and more church bodies are abandoning their view that God has cast off Israel and also that Jews must go through Jesus to reach the Father. “This amazing reversal has been made by Protestants and Catholics, and on both sides of the Atlantic,” states Paul M. Van Buren, noted theologian of Pennsylvania’s Temple University.
Even fundamentalist and evangelical groups are embracing and supporting Jewish leaders. The prime minister of Israel has welcomed and met with evangelical and Baptist preachers. “There is a fascination on the part of the evangelical right with Israel and a belief that everything Israel does must be supported, because God is on Israel’s side,” says Timothy Smith, professor of theology at Johns Hopkins University, as quoted in The New York Times.
Many may view such accommodation as a fine thing. But if founded on error, is it truly beneficial? Jesus told his Jewish listeners: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Furthermore, the apostle Paul made it clear that only through Christ, not man-made compromises, can the two parties be united. “For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies.”—Ephesians 2:14, Today’s English Version.
‘Milk and Honey to Tears’
By the thousands, aliens poured into Nigeria lured by its riches. Suddenly, their dream of wealth switched to a nightmare. World oil prices fell, Nigeria’s economy soured. Africa’s wealthiest country ordered all illegal aliens out within two weeks. Two million fled. Dozens died trekking back to their homelands of Togo, Benin, Upper Volta, Cameroon, Mali, Chad, Niger and Ghana. One Ghanaian, observing this steady stream of returning foreign workers, said: “They were going for milk and honey and they are coming back weeping tears.”
World history is peppered with rapid, unexpected economic reversals such as this one. Countless millions have seen their future crumble because of trusting in the protective wall of material things to ward off calamity. They are like those described at Proverbs 18:11: “The valuable things of the rich are his strong town, and they are like a protective wall in his imagination.” In contrast, the preceding verse points to where trust can be put so as not to suffer disappointment: “The name of Jehovah is a strong tower. Into it the righteous runs and is given protection.”—Proverbs 18:10.
Drug Use Climbs
Jesus predicted that “the increasing of lawlessness” would be one evidence of the last days. (Matthew 24:12) Illegal drug use has become a major driving force behind crime. In fact, the International Narcotics Control Board in Vienna sees the growth of illegal drugs as a catalyst for violent crime and political instability. This United Nations agency has issued a sobering 32-page report on the global production and use of illegal drugs. The report states that in the last two years bumper crops of poppy from the so-called Golden Triangle—Burma, Thailand and Laos—have heaped opium, morphine and heroin on the illegal world market. Western Europe is reeling from the effects, as the document says: “Heroin is readily available . . . prices have fallen and the number of abusers is considerable.”
If there were no buyers for illegal drugs, its source and abuse would soon wither and die. However, because many have become “lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God,” drug abuse flourishes and has become a big business—another evidence that we are living in “critical times” that mark the “last days” of unrighteousness.—2 Timothy 3:1, 4.