The World Tomorrow. Ambassador College presents Garner Ted Armstrong, bringing you the plain truth about today's world news and the prophecies of the World Tomorrow.
And greeting friends around the world. This is Garner Ted Armstrong with the good news of the world tomorrow. But the bad news of today is that the United States has become the most violence-prone nation in the world. Well, I wonder if we can realize that even by some of the greatest minds and leaders of the police forces and the most respected law enforcement agencies in all the world, we are being warned that our very national way of life, our future, our homes, our families.
Yes, this free land of ours is being threatened by crime from within. Well, I wonder if we realize that this was prophesized in the Bible. Do you realize that the United States and Great Britain are identified in your Bible? Most of you don't. That would be a shocking statement to most, and yet believe it or not, the great powers, the big nations on this earth are mentioned time and again in the pages of Bible prophecy. Today, available to you in an easy-to-read booklet form are the shocking proofs of exactly where the United States and the British Commonwealth of nations are mentioned in Bible prophecy, and in the Bible, one full third of which is prophecy, are dire warnings and predictions against our people for today, resulting in our national captivity unless we repent and come to our senses, talking about whether or not the United States and Great Britain are going to survive these tumultuous times.
We are identified. We are described in not only that but the very situations and conditions which would exist within our lands were patterned out and given in graphic detail and in descriptive material in the Bible hundreds of years. Yes, centuries ago and here they are for you to read today. Well, believe it or not, right in the pages of the book of Jeremiah of Ezekiel of Isaiah and other prophecies in the Bible are predictions of a mountainous crime wave inside the borders of the United States and Great Britain today.
Now that eminent historian Edward Gibbon gave as the basic causes and reasons for the decay and the decline in the final downfall and total collapse of that great empire, ancient Rome as one of the major reasons crime within while they were building gigantic armaments, looking at the enemy without they had such a terrible disastrous situation within their borders of increasing crime, of total moral decay of the destruction and the decay and the crumbling away of the very basis of every society, the home by divorce and juvenile delinquency and lawlessness that actually they were so decayed from within that they fell.
And even if there had been no enemy from without, they would have declined and fallen anyhow. And you know that today inside the borders of the United States and Great Britain. And for that matter, nearly every other nation on the pace of this earth, there is a serious crime wave and it's worldwide in its import. There is a great feeling, a great spirit of lawlessness of rebellion against authority, of crime, of getting mine while the getting is good and the devil takes the hindmost the kind of attitude that doesn't pay any attention, doesn't take into consideration whatsoever, the desires, the property, or the lives of other individuals.
And it seems to grip the minds of people today, not only in our countries but many others as well. Well, in this program, you're going to hear some of the prophecies of Almighty God, which say that it would be this way during this time, both Old and New Testament prophecies. And then you're going to hear some of the most shocking and frightening statistics about crime inside of our lands and then what the Bible says is going to be done about it.
Now, recently, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover said the United States is facing a crime problem of such magnitude that it represents an acute danger to our national survival. This is not just a small problem of a minor theft or a misdemeanor or a traffic violation once in a while. But this is a problem now affecting vast proportions and vast segments of our population. Not only those crimes actually reported, not only are those criminals actually caught. Not only in the statistics of those who are interned in our penal institutions. Not only in the statistics of the money lost through theft and larceny and the like every year, but the deep inherent feeling of rebellion toward authority of animosity and resentment toward every symbol of authority.
That seems to be an inherent part of our national way of life today. The Apostle Paul, in writing to the young evangelist Timothy, looked over beyond his time and into our day today. And in II Timothy, the third chapter in your New Testament - yes, this is New Testament doctrine - he said in chapter three and verse one (II Timothy 3:3), "This know also that in the last days", at these times right now, in which we're living, "perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves."
Now, just take a look at it. I'm not going to take a great deal of time with each one of these descriptions because it could occupy several broadcasts. But you just take a good look around you and perhaps into your own private individual life and see if men are not lovers of their own selves. You see people pushing and crowding in lines; you see them taking daredevil chances with their lives and the lives of others on the highway merely because they want to be at the head of the line.
You see people in business, in shopping, on vacation, in sports, whatever facet of life you would care to investigate - men today and women alike are lovers of their own selves. We seem to have lost a basic human dignity of selflessness, a feeling of giving, of sharing, of letting the other person go first. Yes, men are lovers of their own selves.
Could anything be more graphically descriptive of that than the fact of our tremendous spending, of the tremendous national and personal debt of individuals who are so covetous of physical and material pleasure that they plunge head over heels in debt to have things, material things, for themselves at the habits in which many people indulge simply because they want self-pleasure.
Yes, habits which today are resulting in lung cancer and the like and horrifying results, sicknesses and diseases. Your Bible said men would be lovers of their own selves, and they certainly are today.
Yes, men are blasphemers, proud, bolsters. And the Bible says disobedient to parents. Isaiah, centuries ago, was inspired to write that we would be living in a time when children would be our oppressors and women would rule over us. That's what he said in Isaiah three and verse 12 (Isaiah 3:12). He said, "As for my people," speaking of the peoples of the United States and Great Britain - and if you haven't written in for our free booklet yet on The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy, and write in for it right away. It's absolutely free of charge - a 26-page, two-color booklet that gives you that vital key that will unlock a full third of Bible prophecy to you. If the smaller little countries around Palestine are mentioned, so is the United States mentioned, and so is Great Britain. And this book that tells you where the United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy.
Isaiah wrote to our peoples today. He said, "As for my people, children will be their oppressors, and women will rule over them." That is true today, our society is backward and upside down. We have a mountainous problem of child crime and not only just juvenile delinquents but the type of thing we laugh at over morning toast and coffee - the little rebellious headstrong child that completely disregards every command, hint, or suggestion of his parents and is an absolute bull in a China Shop, an absolute unmanageable little tyrant. And yet we get a chuckle out of it, and we think it's amusing, but to Almighty God, it's an absolute abomination in his eyes, something that God looks down upon with great hatred and with righteous indignation, something that Almighty God wants to completely stamp out of existence among our people. And yet we couldn't care less. We seem to laugh at it today.
Little children disrespecting their elders, disrespecting teachers, policemen, figures in government, and no wonder because it looks like their parents disrespect all of these people too. Well, a little more of that later. But the Apostle Paul wrote at the time when men would be disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection. Yes, seemingly not to care for the other person, but only for ourselves, without natural warmth, without a natural feeling of solicitude toward the other party, toward the other person.
Truth breakers. Yes, people who are not good and true to their word. People who break contracts, who break agreements, who break their truths or about between nations. What about all the truces and the armistices and all of the agreements that have been reached across the parley tables on the part of politicians, our men today in the national or worldwide sense? Truce breakers. Oh, I should say they are.
What about in business practices? Have you ever bought a used car? Now, maybe you got a good deal. But what about it? Every now and then, we see reports in the newspapers of how people have been taken by signing carefully folded contracts with portions of it they didn't read which totally changed the whole thing. Yes, men today, even as God predicted, are truth breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce despisers of those that are good.
Oh, yes. What about our teenagers today? Why, if a fellow today wants to dress neatly and wear a decent haircut and be a clean upstanding, moral, and stable young fellow who doesn't want to go along with the gang, who doesn't want to get into every kind of malicious mischief, who doesn't want to vandalize his neighbor's property, who doesn't want to go along on some wild party or play what they call chicken by coming as close as you can to a head-on collision at maybe 80 miles an hour on the highway. Well, he's profane, he's looked down upon, he's called chicken by his cohorts and his so-called friends.
Your Bible said we'd get to the place where it would be so decaying inside of our country that we would be despising those who are good. Anyone having a semblance of neatness, of order, of respect, anyone having a semblance of real awe of Almighty God, of an appreciation of the laws and obedience to the laws of God, and a respect and obedience to the laws of his country, or he'd be looked down upon, he'd be thought of as a sucker, a chicken. Someone that doesn't know what it's all about. Despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, yes, self-exalted, high-minded lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God.
This is a graphic cross-section of our society. I've read it on this program before. You may have heard me read these scriptures or Mr. Armstrong, my father, read these scriptures on the World Tomorrow program before. But there is no more graphic description of the basic feelings inside the hearts and minds of men and women and children today than written in II Timothy 3. In these first few verses, he said, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God. What could be more graphically true than this today, having a form of God but denying the power thereof? From such turn away.
Well, let's just hear a few statistics. Do you know that in the United States of America today, a serious crime—I mean, a serious one, I mean something like rape, murder or something like that—is committed every 15 seconds? You know that just since you've been listening to this broadcast, statistically, that is, of course, many of them occur at the same time and there may be a lapse of time and so on but taking the number of crimes and then merely dividing it into the number of hours and minutes that a serious crime is committed. Some human being is either being murdered, being assaulted brutally, or some serious crime is being committed against a person or property every 15 seconds inside of our country.
You know, a murder, a forcible rape, or an assault to kill occurs every three minutes. Do you know that arrests of juveniles have more than doubled since 1950? And don't let anyone tell you that's a result of the increase in population. It isn't; the juvenile population increased by less than one half. But the arrests of the juveniles have increased by twice as much. Crime is increasing today at a rate five times that of the population.
Now the U.S. youth today are in absolute terror, a tremendous example of violence, disrespect for authority, and crime to the entirety of the world. You know, all those youths under 18 now, younger teenage youth represent only 12 and 1/10 percent of all the people arrested. They were the subjects of 64 and 1/10 percent of all arrests for auto theft. They were 49 and 9/10 percent of burglar arrests, 48 and 5/10 percent of those for larceny, and the same age group accounted for 39/10th percent of those arrested for receiving or possessing stolen property and 22 percent of those arrested for armed robbery.
Yes, our youth, even as Almighty God predicted centuries ago, would be our oppressors and would go berserk and mad. And why not? What is there to keep them honest? What is there to give them a sense of responsibility? What is there for them to look forward to in the future? What is the moral standard upon which our society is based? I ask you today, people today increasingly are not sure God exists. They're not sure the Bible is the word of God. We want to strip prayers from public places and public documents, even the very basic documents on which the United States of America is founded. We want to strip away all conscience, all morality, all of the laws of God and still expect our youth and our people to be law-abiding.
Let me show you what the Bible says about that. Once you throw the Bible out the window, once you throw away the idea of God, and you don't want to keep the idea of God before your mind, you don't want to keep repeating it in your public documents and public places. You want to completely expunge the idea of God and the very name of God from your society, you have no basis for morality or for honesty left. The Bible says so very plainly over here in the first chapter of the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul said (Romans 1:20), the invisible things about God are clearly seen, and people who believe in or profess to believe in atheism are without excuse. He said, these things are seen by the things which are made.
And the Apostle Paul then began to invite these ancient pagan philosophers, these priests of the ancient Babylonian mysteries that were trying diligently to do away with the law of Almighty God. Now notice what is the automatic outcome of doing away with the idea of God in verse 28. In the first chapter of Romans (Romans 1:28), the Apostle Paul said, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.
Now, let's take a quick glance at the educational institutions in the United States today. Certainly, we don't need to look very far. Most of the educational institutions will tell you themselves that a large proportion of their students are either agnostics or atheists, or at least when they graduate, they are, that increasingly higher percentages of college-age students do not believe in God. But now, even in the institutions which are supposed to be teaching and training students to become defenders of the faith, preachers of the Bible gospel, evangelists.
Do you know that only one out of 100 of those students? I mean, students who are theological students, I mean, tomorrow's preachers, I mean, students in the leading theological seminaries in the United States. And this is an actual factual statistic from a leading magazine that conducted one of the most extensive surveys of U.S. Protestantism recently. Only one out of 100 of them believes that Jesus Christ is going to come again. And yet he said it all the way through the Bible. It's all the way through the New Testament. It's the entire backbone of the gospel. Now if you think the educational institutions, the so-called institutions of higher learning, which are not basically religious, still teach about God. Well, look what's happening even in the theological institutions which are supposed to be institutions set aside for the study of and about God. And even they, it seems don't believe it anymore.
Well, then notice what your Bible said would happen even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. What is the automatic result? God gave them over to a reprobate mind. A lawless crime-ridden mind, a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. What are those things which are not right, not lawful, not convenient? Notice what God said, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness. This is Old King James English, but just put it in modern language. It means the same thing, crimes against yourself, crimes against your parents, against other persons, against property, and most of all crimes against God.
Yes, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death.
Now, remember this is New Testament doctrine. These are in the writings of the Apostle Paul. This is inspired by Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This isn't the Old Testament administration of death. Your Bible says the wages of sin is death. And so, he said, those who do such things are worthy of death. These not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them.
Yes. Once you throw the idea of God out the window, once you depart from God's laws, you don't have any basis for respect for and obedience to law left.
Now, a leading psychiatrist said recently that the United States has become the most violence-prone nation in all the world. He said we are producing a nationwide cult of violence, the creation of a subtle pervasive atmosphere in which human life is casually disregarded. And a state superior court judge whose name is Judge Grunter said recently in Pittsburgh that the current outbreak of crime, like an atomic bomb, has an expanding geometric ratio and threatens representative government in the United States. He said crime breeds crime and it's increasing four times faster than the population. And he said we're spending billions of dollars a year on this crime surge in the United States and it threatens national disaster.
While the statistics are entirely too numerous to give you all of them on this one program, but it will suffice to at least give you an idea that the United States is a uniquely criminal nation. And of course, there is a great deal of crime in Great Britain and in other countries around the world. But recently, a Stanford University professor had charged that the United States is a uniquely criminal and violent nation compared to other countries.
William M. McCord, Assistant Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford said that this country has a burglary rate eight times that of France, a rape rate nine times out of Italy, and a homicide rate 10 times out of England. And so, putting all that together, he said that a child born in the United States has a 10 times greater chance of becoming a delinquent than a child born in England.
The U.S. Postmaster said corruption in public and private life today is so serious. It endangers the very existence of our society and as a cause, he pointed out the return to religion as being merely on the surface. And he said, rather than dwelling on the facts about dishonesty, I would like to talk about its underlying cause.
Now let's get down to the cause in the closing minutes of this program and find out God prophesied. It would be this way. I just read to you in Romans the first chapter how God said, once you do away with the laws of God and you do away with the actual realization of the existence of God, the nearness of God. No, I don't mean just an idea. I don't mean just as a moral force. I don't mean to kid yourself if God exists and to kind of think that He exists and that in turn will keep you as a law-abiding citizen.
I mean to find out if he does because he does really and you can prove it really. You need to write for our booklet, and I have announced many, many times entitled Does God exist, and then write for the book on the Proof of the Bible. No, not just a philosophic idea or a basic awareness or some kind of an inner you that believes in a better you or a good you or the power inherent within human beings, or that God is somehow a kind of an embodiment of the principles of good.
I mean, belief in and knowledge of the existence of a real all-wise creator God who does exist and is going to send his son Jesus Christ to this earth to rule it with a rod of iron and to totally do away with all crime.
Well, he this postmaster dwelt on the underlying cause of all of this crime. He said it is a lack of purpose. He said when life becomes purposeless, when it becomes largely devoid of practical meaning, when it doesn't seem to make sense when people don't have any goals, they don't know what the future holds. They don't know where they're going. They don't know what lies ahead. People turn inward toward themselves and their physical lives. They accentuate the selfish and the materialistic drives which are always present in man and they blow them up to dangerous proportions.
Well, he said too often and I'm quoting him. Now, our religion is offered to us as a sleeping tablet, a shot in the arm, a tranquilizer depending on the need. End of quote. Yes, he went on to describe how he said the only way he could account for the fact that religion is more popular than ever would be that people are taking it as a kind of a tranquilizer, but it's only skin deep. It isn't really having the effect that it should.
Well, let me tell you right here. And now that in the United States of America today are all of the seeds necessary already sown and growing into a great strangling vine to totally destroy our national way of life. Public leaders, political leaders, men of great stature and importance in large agencies in high positions in government are speaking out clearly against it. But what can you do about it? Now, they tell us that unless the individual citizen begins to exhibit a greater respect for law and order, America's vaunted civilization faces certain decay and extinction. It is an individual matter.
You can't be responsible for the other fellow. It isn't going to be changed or altered by you starting a movement by you making certain phone calls or by you joining a club or a certain movement or supporting this or that or the other thing at all. Because if you had 180 million people in the country and only one of them perpetrated some heinous vicious crime, it still would affect a lot of people. It still would be a pretty terrible thing. No, you've got to be individually responsible for yourself.
What about you? Your Bible says in Romans eight and verse seven that the carnal mind, the basic natural physical mind is a lawless crime-ridden, basically criminal mind. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the laws of God. Neither indeed can be (Romans 8:7).
Well, do you know that J Edgar Hoover said? And I want to quote Him, the teachings of God if followed will prevent criminality. The stabilizing force of religion is needed more today than ever before. He said, still quoting a child who has been taught to respect the laws of God will have little difficulty respecting the laws of man. End of quote to that, I will say amen.
But you need to find out if God does exist, you need to find out whether or not the Bible is His word. You need to find out whether it's worth teaching your Children or not. And the way you can do it is to write for these books I've been announcing on Does God Exist the Proof of the Bible. And then sit down with your children, your wife, your family, your husband, your own family circle and begin to teach respect and obedience to God toward God's laws and subsequently toward the laws of your country wherever you live.
Now, we give you a lot of help on that in the pages of the Plain Truth magazine, every single month is the Bible story for children. You give them a lot more of that and less of the violence that they're seeing in some of the public entertainment media that come before their eyes all the time. You'd be a whole lot better off.
You can at least make sure you are not a criminal that your children are not criminals. That crime is totally put out of your mind. Your thoughts, your hearts, and your lives, you can be responsible for you and the way to do it, as I said, to prove does God exist and then get busy finding out your responsibility toward God and His laws? Well, write, for these book that I've announced, they're absolutely free of charge. There's no price for them and get this big thick book with a full 104 pages of it. And it's absolutely free of charge. This book that entitled The Plain Truth About Child Rearing here in this book are the real causes of delinquency, the explanations how it got this way and what you can do about it yourself, to ensure yourself against the eventuality of having your children become delinquent.
And not only that how to teach children how to teach them right values how to teach them to obey how to teach them to become respectable productive citizens in the future. And it makes sense. It quotes directly from the Bible showing you those basic child rearing principles. You need to know and to understand and remember, you also need to write for this article on How to Have a Happy Marriage and How to Solve Family Arguments.
Those three would be some of the most important booklets and articles you can have in your hands, especially if you're having marital troubles like most people it seems are today.
And now before I leave the air, be sure to write for these articles on How to Get and Hold a Good Job and Ending Your Financial Worries. These are especially important. They're down to earth on practical everyday problems that are right down on the human level that every last one of us deals with or sees around us.
Now, it makes no difference whether you are married, whether you do now have a good job, whether you feel you have your financial problems in hand. These are booklets and articles that deal in a very tangible practical, understandable sense with some of the biggest problems most people are concerned about every single day.
There's no follow up, no request for money. There is no obligation, the titles again How to Get and Hold a Good Job. A lot of people have written and told us they've either held on to a job and succeeded in finding advancement or they've gotten a good job when they were unemployed.
Now, unemployment is a real worry in Great Britain. It's a big worry in the United States and many another nation today. This article will help you out of a real bad spot if you're in one another one entitled Solving your financial worries, How To Have a Happy Marriage and the booklet. The Plain Truth About Child Rearing.
Remember the other literature I've announced in this program and the current number of the Plain Truth magazine, they're free of charge. No price.
All you need to do is send your letter to Herbert W Armstrong Post Office Box 111 Pasadena, California. That's Herbert W Armstrong Post Office Box 111 Pasadena, California. Be sure to tell us the call letters of your station. The name of the station over which you heard this program. Until next time, this is Garner Ted Armstrong saying goodbye, friends.
You have heard the World Tomorrow with Garner Ted Armstrong, for literature offered on this program. Send your request along with the call letters of this station to Herbert W Armstrong Post Office Box 111. Pasadena, California 91123. Or you may dial this toll-free number 800-423-4444.