Insight on the News
Door-to-Door Evangelism
● Two independent, fundamental Baptist churches in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, have indicated approval of door-to-door evangelizing. “The Advocate,” a Red Deer newspaper, in an article in a series on local churches, quotes the pastor of one of the churches as saying: “If you look around, you see other ministries are springing up because the church is not getting its message across. . . . We’ve gotten bogged down with buildings and property and meetings instead of getting involved with people.” After telling of his starting a door-to-door work, he added: “Now when you knock on doors, people say ‘Oh no, it’s the Jehovah’s Witness[es] again.’ We want to get them to say ‘Oh no, it’s the Baptists again.’” Various religious groups have recognized that the house-to-house evangelism of Jehovah’s Witnesses is Scriptural and have acknowledged its effectiveness. (Acts 5:42; 20:20) Not many of these groups, however, have been able to follow through zealously, and none with the true Kingdom message.
‘World Needs Messiah’
● A press dispatch from Rome quotes the president and founder of the famed “Club of Rome” (an international group of intellectuals) as calling for a “messiah” to save the world from its present social and economic upheavals. The report said: “Aurelio Peccei, who has seen life from nearly every spectrum for 72 years, says the world is desperately in need of a messiah. The president and founder of the Club of Rome says a charismatic leader—scientific, political or religious—would be the world’s only salvation from the social and economic upheavals that threaten to destroy civilization. Such a leader would have to override national and international interests as well as political and economic structures in order to lead humanity away from the maladies that afflict it, Peccei said.”
The Sovereign of the universe has long been aware of this need. He has promised such a leader with the power “to override national and international interests.” This is shown by the prophecy about the Messianic king at Daniel 7:14: “To him there were given rulership and dignity and kingdom, that the peoples, national groups and languages should all serve even him.”
The glorified Jesus Christ is really God’s promised Messianic king whom he has given “as a leader and commander to the national groups.” (Isa. 55:4) What kind of ruler will he be? Jehovah’s prophet describes him as having “the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of mightiness, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah,” so as to judge with uprightness and to unite mankind in peace.—Isa. 11:1-9.
Deadly Game
● A 13-year-old boy, visiting his grandparents’ home, watched a movie on cable TV in which there were repeated scenes of Russian roulette “games.” After the boy watched the movie at least three times, he found a revolver in the home, put one bullet in it, and began playing the “game.” Pointing the gun at his head, he pulled the trigger. It fired, killing him. The boy’s family blamed the movie for the tragedy. His grandfather said: “I’m having that cable television ripped out of my home.” “He was a super-intelligent kid,” said the boy’s uncle, Deputy Sheriff Tony Johnson, “a fantastic athlete who had everything going for him. That movie should be burned. . . . He thought it was a game to be played, enjoyed, a daring game. . . . it’s sad that our society allows juveniles to watch it so easily.”
“Bad associations spoil useful habits,” says the Bible; and such association can end in disaster. (1 Cor. 15:33) One can have detrimental association simply by viewing a movie on TV. Well does Proverbs 13:20 warn: “He that is walking with wise persons will become wise, but he that is having dealings with the stupid ones will fare badly.” Having association with spiritually stupid ones easily leads youths into doing stupid things, causing them to “fare badly.”