Where Can You Find Security?
THROUGHOUT the world, security and stability have generally vanished. Violence, hatred and crime strike fear into the hearts of people.
No doubt you have observed that even in the most economically advanced countries insecurity is present. Of the United States the following was reported:
“A strange and troubled mood is appearing in the nation at this time. Growing is the sense that a basic sickness may be spreading through the American society.
“Headlines tell of disorders of all kinds.
“Massive riots have laid waste to the big cities. Violent crime is invading once-quiet neighborhoods. LSD and marijuana are becoming the staple item for more and more of the nation’s young people.”—U.S. News & World Report, August 28, 1967.
Some people, shaken by these frightening conditions, turn to the churches. They believe that only God has the answer to these critical problems and they seek to find him in church.
Yet, when they honestly view what the churches are doing, they find that, far from finding solutions to problems, the churches are adding to them! They are frequently found not pursuing a Christian course nor sticking to God’s Word the Bible.
Peace is vital to security, but consider what clergymen are promoting. For instance, a Catholic priest in Milwaukee openly promotes civil disorder. A prominent Protestant clergyman proclaims that he will organize “civil disobedience on a massive scale.” Cardinal Spellman in Vietnam declares that military victory is the only acceptable solution to the war there. Then Archbishop R. Lucey, returning from Vietnam, says: “It is necessary to use force.” Jesus Christ taught no such use of force.—Matt. 26:52.
A Methodist clergyman teaches that “God is dead.” Episcopal Bishop J. Pike states that the Bible is filled with “superstition, sheer evil and flat contradiction.” Are such views of clergymen exceptions? No. More and more, such thinking characterizes Christendom. In the book A Church Without God clergyman E. Harrison states:
“Werner Pelz, who entitled a book God Is No More, is a Church of England vicar; William H. Dubay, who asserts that Christ did away with religion,’ is a Roman Catholic priest; . . . Father Jackson, who says, ‘If there is a God, we can’t speak of him as a supreme being,’ is a university chaplain; Thomas Altizer, [a ‘God is dead’ clergyman] who wrote The Gospel of Christian Atheism, is an Associate Professor of Bible Studies at an American university; I am on the staff of an Anglican parish in Toronto. I claim to be a Christian and an Anglican; yet I can say, in all seriousness, that there is no God.”
What of those who attend the churches? The clergyman just quoted also stated: “All major Christian denominations now include loyal members who do not believe in God . . . They do not consider the Bible to be basically different in kind from other books, and they do not pray.”
Do you really think God is to be found in churches where ministers and followers alike are abandoning God and his Word the Bible?
You should realize why there is such a turning away from God by churchmen and church attenders alike. It is because the churches are dying! God’s Word says: “It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.”—Matt. 15:9.
If you think you will find security by searching for God in the churches, you will be disappointed. He is not there! That is why the churches are in such confusion. If God were there, there would be peace, unity and order, “for God is a God, not of disorder, but of peace.”—1 Cor. 14:33.
Where, then, can you find true security? How can you find the God that gives it? By reading the holy Bible and taking to heart what God himself says there. Encouragingly, Psalm 112:1, 7 says: “Happy is the man in fear of Jehovah, in whose commandments he has taken very much delight. He will not be afraid even of bad news.” For such ones the psalmist adds: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you yourself alone, O Jehovah, make me dwell in security.”—Ps. 4:8.
Yes, only the true God, Jehovah, can provide security for you in these distressing times. The first step toward that security is to begin a systematic study of God’s Word to determine what his purposes and will are. Then, the more you line yourself up with God’s requirements, the more security you will find.
Vital too is the need to associate with persons who have respect for God and his high standards. Nowhere will you find people who have greater respect for God than among Jehovah’s witnesses. Among them you and your family will feel security. Jehovah’s witnesses do not tolerate in their midst liars, thieves, fornicators, and adulterers, who seek to corrupt and victimize other persons. Since Jehovah’s witnesses have respect for all of God’s laws, you will be among people that are sincerely endeavoring to do what is right in God’s eyes. This makes for the greatest security and brings happiness.
But more than that, Jehovah’s witnesses enjoy a security that fortifies them even in the face of death, and it is a security that you, too, can share. As one author who was in a Nazi concentration camp said when observing how others sank into depravity: “The members of Jehovah’s Witnesses, it must be said, showed such courage, daring, virtue, and stoicism in adversity that they deserve a special salute. They were rocks in a sea of mud.”—The Day of the Americans, by N. Gun.
So if you want to find true security, turn to the true God, Jehovah, who alone can provide it. Take in knowledge of him from his own Word. Associate with those who worship him and who adhere to his Holy Word. Then you will have security now and also the firm hope of surviving the end of this system of things and of living in God’s righteous new order.—2 Pet. 3:13.