Questions From Readers

● Is there really a moral breakdown in marital relations? Or is what we hear the cry of headline hunters quick to feed ears itching for sensationalism?—D. P., United States.

It is not the purpose of The Watchtower to treat any subject emotionally. From its vantage point it calls attention to physical facts and sets them alongside prophecy so that you can see for yourself how well the two match and how accurately Jehovah interprets his own Word. Relating to the question, Jesus foretold in his great prophecy concerning the end of this system of things that “as people were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.” The prophet Hosea foretold that there would be “no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land. There is nought but swearing and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery.”—Matt. 24:38, 39; Hos. 4:1-3, AS.

Now, we ask, what do the facts show? Are we witnessing a fulfillment of Bible prophecy or are we caught in a whirlpool of sensational reports? Queen Elizabeth II of England, when a princess, said: “We can hardly help admitting that we live in an age of growing self-indulgence, of hardening materialism and of falling moral standards.” This is hardly a flair for sensationalism. Yet it does put the point across. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science for November, 1950, concerning England, said: “The figures are startling. From about 5,000 per annum in 1937, the divorce rate actually multiplied by ten in ten years!” Regarding Sweden it reported: “The divorce rate in Sweden has steadily increased. It rose by more than 100 per cent in the past decade and by 1,000 per cent in the past half century.” It quoted an official marriage mediator as saying that “50 per cent of the husbands and 25 per cent of the wives [in Stockholm] were accused of practicing adultery.” Concerning the United States, this report shows that the average number of divorces per hundred marriages in the 1881-90 decade had increased 466 percent by the 1940-49 decade. Similar increases are in other countries. Since this record was made the divorce rate has increased. These are the unemotional facts.

Make no mistake, the moral breakdown is real and it is on a world-wide scale. Happy are your eyes if you see these conditions to be a part of the great sign marking the end of this old world.—Matt. 13:13-17.

Priest Rebukes Bishop

The Finnish Lutheran priest and educator, Urho Muroma, was incensed when a prominent Lutheran bishop, Eelis Gulin, took a stand publicly in behalf of the evolution theory. In his religious periodical Herää Valvomaan, No. 9, 1957, priest Muroma voiced his indignation by saying: “All honor must be to everyone’s belief, but when a bishop, who is obligated by the canonical law to defend pure doctrine in the church, presents opinions that contradict the two-thousand-year-old faith of the Christian church besides being scientifically untenable and apparently contrary to his own oath when sworn into office, then he is guilty of a most improper act. Bishop Gulin says that the faith of the Christian church in Jesus’ positive authority is ‘ridiculous’ and so do all liberal theologians. . . . The matter is a very serious one. . . . The Baptist church is within its rights to demand that its leaders do not start to defend baptism of infants and, if they do so, to remove them. The Adventist church is within its rights to demand that its leaders do not start to recommend Sunday as sabbath day and, if they do so, to dismiss them. Jehovah’s witnesses are within their rights to demand that their leaders do not believe in a triune God and, if they do so and teach accordingly, to disfellowship them. But in the Lutheran church everyone is entitled to teach any heresy he likes without being punished.”