3. Why may it be said that violence has reached epidemic proportions?

³ As we move deeper into the 1980’s the world is experiencing an epidemic of violence. In 1980 alone, the United States reported 1.3 million cases of violent crime, a 13-percent increase over the previous year, with homicide becoming a leading cause of death of men between ages 25 and 44. In the decade ending in the same year, Britain reported murders increasing 50 percent, muggings 300 percent and vandalism 200 percent. In France, total crime has increased more than 260 percent since 1963. Similar reports come from around the world.

4. How has the human scene changed since 1914, giving rise to what questions?

⁴ Historian Walter Laqueur reported: “The period up to the first World War was, on the whole, more humane. I’m sorry to say that human life has become cheaper in our time​—partly as a result of the experience of mass killing of the first and second World Wars. Also, we now have these philosophers of violence who did not exist in the 19th century​—people who argue that violence is wonderful, that it does things for you psychologically, that we really need violence.” Since world war first erupted in 1914 violence has become rampant worldwide.

Escalation of Violence

9. (a) What resulted from the escalation of violence in Noah’s day? (b) What parallel development followed the Flood, leading to what climax?

⁹ There was an escalation of violence in the world before the Great Deluge​—until God himself executed judgment in bringing to ruin those who were ruining the earth. (Genesis 6:13, 17) From the time of Noah’s great-grandson Nimrod, the “mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah,” there has again been an escalating of violence through the ages, perhaps gradual at first, but steadily gaining momentum. (Genesis 10:1, 6, 8, 9) There came in time the sword, the bow and arrow, the spear; and in more modern times the musket, the cannon and other firearms. But World War I, starting in 1914, brought astonishing new weapons of violence​—the airplane, the tank, and also poison gas. In that war, use of the submarine caused much terror and machine guns took literally millions of lives.

10. (a) How has Jesus’ prophecy concerning events “in the Lord’s day” been fulfilled? (b) Why should we expect Jehovah to execute judgment shortly?

¹⁰ The Lord Jesus Christ had foretold such a development “in the Lord’s day,” where we have been since 1914. (Revelation 1:10) He described how he would ride forth on a white horse as a newly crowned King, followed by a rider on a fiery-colored horse. This one is “granted to take peace away from the earth so that they should slaughter one another; and a great sword was given him”​—the sword of Total Warfare. That symbolic sword now embraces the most horrible and violent instruments ever devised and proliferated by man, including nuclear missiles capable by their combined power of blasting the entire human race off our globe many times over! If the presence of the giant Nephilim, combined with the abundant badness of man, in the days of Noah, was cause for Jehovah’s ‘bringing mankind to ruin because the earth was full of violence as a result of them,’ with how much more reason should we expect the same Sovereign Lord of the universe “to bring to ruin those ruining the earth” today! (Genesis 6:4, 7, 13; Revelation 6:1-4; 11:18) Speaking of ungodly people of our age, the Lord Jesus himself said: “Just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. . . . They took no note until the flood came and swept them all away.”​—Matthew 24:37, 39.