Insight on the News
Peace and Plenty
● It is estimated that 1,000 intercontinental and strategic long-range ballistic missiles having nuclear warheads are being manufactured world wide each year. This is revealed in the latest United Nations expert report entitled “Economic and Social Consequences of the Armaments Race and Its Extremely Harmful Effects on World Peace and Security.” Citing the report, the Philippine newspaper “Bulletin Today” states: “Such a stockpile, if collectively set off during one highly aberrant human moment, can reduce mankind into cosmic dust in a matter of a few hours.”
Moreover, the UN report indicates that the nuclear stockpile is the principal obstacle to combating extreme poverty, mankind’s greatest problem. The newspaper also says that, according to the report, the use of resources for the development and the manufacture of nuclear weapons “translates into yearly spendings of $350 billion, an amount sufficient to fund projects that would improve life conditions for the world’s one billion poverty-stricken people.”
The average person cannot alter these distressing circumstances. In fact, human leaders really cannot change them. If the arms race is to end and poverty is to vanish, God must act. Happily, his inspired Word gives the comforting assurance that he will soon ‘make wars cease’ and will eliminate spiritual and material poverty among all obedient mankind.—Ps. 46:8, 9; Isa. 25:6-8.
“A Status Symbol”?
● Writing in “Parade” magazine of June 25, 1978, Pamela Swift reports that in the United States about a million teen-age girls had become pregnant during the preceding 12 months. She added: “Of this number, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, approximately 600,000 will give birth, confirming the fear that teen-age pregnancies in this country are reaching epidemic proportions.”
A California high school nurse was quoted as saying: “Pregnancy today is no longer a big sin. This is the permissive age, and to many teenagers pregnancy has become a status symbol.”
If you are a parent, can you afford to be only passively interested in such reports and attitudes among youngsters? Would it not be wise to ask your teen-age children kindly to express themselves on matters of sexual morality? Do they view pregnancy outside wedlock as a “status symbol”? If so, godly parents will point out that God’s Word, the Bible, says: “Flee from fornication.”—1 Cor. 6:18.
Whether their children have begun to accept unscriptural views of sexual activity or not, Christians realize that they must persist in teaching their youngsters the high moral laws and principles of Jehovah God. This is vital, for “no fornicator . . . has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Christ and of God.”—Eph. 5:5.
‘On Eagles’ Wings’
● At times the Bible’s figurative statement that Jehovah God carried his ancient people out of Egypt “on wings of eagles” has been criticized as being contrary to fact. (Ex. 19:4) Eagles, some say, do not carry their offspring on their wings. But “Weltwoche Magazin” reports that a resident of Mühlheim an der Ruhr, Federal Republic of Germany, recently witnessed an incident proving the Bible to be right after all. Concerning the second flight of a baby falcon (the first attempt ended in a crash landing!), the journal says:
“While the mother remained perched, the little one attempted his next start. But after just a few meters he began to lose altitude. On the ground below, several children were playing with their dogs. . . . Danger for our flight student! Still he drifted ever lower. At this moment, the mother falcon shot from her tree, spread her wings like a glider, flew underneath her child and let him land on her back as though he were settling down on an aircraft carrier.”
This account is noteworthy, although it is not unique. There have been other reports confirming the words of Exodus 19:4. (See “Aid to Bible Understanding,” page 473.) And the accuracy of the Scriptures in this detail should inspire confidence in the entire Bible.