12 FOUNDATION STONES—CLASS 7B SIGNS OF THE TIMES BIBLE PROPHECY, PART 2.1 ------------------------------------------ Section 1: Signs of the End, from Matthew 24 ------------------------------------------ > Matthew 24:1–14—Jesus gives the signs of His coming Matthew 24:1–2—Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. (2) And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down." The disciples were bragging to Jesus about the Temple, what a beautiful building complex it was that King Herod built. He told them it would be destroyed, and we learned in an earlier class how this prediction was fulfilled so specifically. (See "Destruction of the Temple" in Bible Knowledge, Part 1 [Class 6a].) Matthew 24:3—NowW as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" The Mount of Olives is a little hill just outside the walls of Jerusalem. They thought, "My goodness, when the Temple is destroyed, that must be when You're coming back and the world is going to be destroyed!" They didn't realize that the Temple was going to be destroyed only 40 years later by the Romans, and it would still be over two thousand years before the end of the age! Matthew 24:4—And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you." Watch out! There are a lot of preachers and teachers who give all kinds of funny stories and explanations and interpretations of these things. You'd better stick to the Bible! Stick to what Jesus says right here. Matthew 24:5–11—For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. (6) And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (7) For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. (8) All these are the beginning of sorrows. (9) Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. (10) And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. (11) Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. ------------------------------------------ > The Signs of the End: Getting fulfilled! The disciples wanted to know, "When's the end of the world going to be?" Jesus described what would happen before His return. Of course, we've experienced the things that Jesus described in these verses—the disasters, the sorrows, the persecutions—for the last 2000 years! But the scale and intensity with which these verses are being fulfilled has increased dramatically and that is significant. Let's look at some examples. [There are more examples in the accompanying Study Notes] ------------------------------------------ > Deceivers and false prophets ------------------------------------------ vs. 5—For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. vs. 11, 24—Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. (24) For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. The Bible tells us that if people willfully reject God's truth, they will be given "strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." 2 Thessalonians 2:10–11—They did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (11) And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie. When we refuse the truth, there is nothing left to believe but a lie! This is why much of the world today is wide open for deceivers and false prophets. It was estimated in the 1990s by a Syracuse University professor who researched the contemporary religious situation in America that there are over 2,000 practicing gurus calling themselves Christ! Not only are many people unknowingly falling for Satan's deceptions, increasing numbers are following Satanism. Rick Hatfield, director of Brylin Hospital's adult and adolescent inpatient chemical dependency treatment facility near Buffalo, New York, warns, "Satanism is one of the greatest and most prevalent threats facing kids today." 1 Timothy 4:1—Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. Youth involvement in the occult and witchcraft has been attributed to lack of spirituality in the churches. The Manchester [England] Guardian Weekly reported in the late 1990s that there are an estimated 80,000 witches in England. The growth has been called a "renaissance in witchcraft," and there are now open schools in witchcraft that teach "psychic self-defense" and the history of witchcraft. "Pagan power" is similarly on the increase in the U.S. There are about 2 million Americans who adhere to some form of paganism. There are many striking statistics to show how people are falling away from the Christian faith. Here are a few examples: Among churchgoing Anglicans (Church of England), only half believe in the Virgin Birth and almost a third of the clergy don't believe it either! Only 2% of the population worships at church each Sunday. In Germany, about 20% of people who call themselves Protestant and 10% of Catholics in Germany are atheists (Readers Digest). Falling away from true faith (News clips from the 1990s) Germany (Religion Today) German churches are facing a "fall into insignificance," according to the German magazine Der Spiegel. Churches are losing members in droves, political leaders ignore the moral admonitions of clergy, and Christian values are having less impact on society, reported Idea, an evangelical Christian news service in Germany. According to a recent poll, only 37% of the German population thinks the church should teach moral values. The German public believes the police, political parties, and the environmental organization Greenpeace are more qualified than churches to pass along moral values. England (The London Times) Almost a third of Anglican clergy believe that the Virgin Birth is a legend or are unsure if it is true. Among churchgoing Anglicans, about half believe that it happened. The Church of England's attendance figures have fallen so sharply that less than 2% of the population now worships at church each Sunday, and only 1% regularly take communion. The spirit of the age Popular culture is often linked to a post-modern spirit of the age—one in which ideas of right and wrong and moral sense are simply choices individuals make. "We had a reporter recently call to ask if genocide could be categorized as something ‘wrong,'" says John Seel of the Postmodernism Project at the University of Virginia. "What you see these days is a total lack of any authority in intellectual life. Everything is just okay as long as you think it is." ------------------------------------------ > Wars and rumors of wars vs. 6—And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars… ------------------------------------------ The world has never been completely free from the scourge of war, but no period in all of history has witnessed the escalation of wars as has the 20th century. The International Red Cross estimates that over 100 million people were killed in wars during that century. The century came to a close with a third of the world's 193 nations embroiled in conflict. In 1999 alone there were 65 armed conflicts! Since World War II, which was supposed to be "the war to end all wars," there have been over 130 major wars (conflicts resulting in over 1,000 deaths a year), as well as hundreds of smaller conflicts, armed rebellions, and revolutions. These 130 wars have killed more than 23 million people directly and another 20 million through famine and other war-related disruptions. War victims in the 20th Century Worldwatch News Release Three times as many people—110 million—fell victim to war in the 20th century as in all the wars from the first century A.D. to 1899. And 70 percent of all war casualties since World War II have been civilians, rising to more than 90 percent in the 1990s. World's conflicts killed 100,000 in 1999 Agence France-Presse At least 100,000 people have died in armed conflicts in the past year, the majority of them in Sub-Saharan Africa, the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) said in its annual report [released 10/00] on the world military balance. Wars and civil unrest continued unabated in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, notably Colombia, and Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. The Caucasus region, notably Chechnya, and Central Asia were the scenes of unresolved and persistent conflict, it added. However, around 60 percent of the death toll came from Sub-Saharan Africa, where conflicts were recorded between Ethiopia and Eritrea, in Central Africa, Sierra Leone and southern Sudan. There are now 14 ongoing UN peacekeeping operations around the world using the services of 28,900 troops from 38 countries—nearly three times as much as a year earlier. Meanwhile, sales in the world arms trade in 1999 were estimated at around 53.4 billion dollars. Global military expenditures were about 809 billion dollars. The U.S. remained the largest arms exporter with a 49.1 percent share of the global market. More Facts and figures on war World Health Organization Worldwide, there were some 19 million refugees and displaced persons in 2002– largely as a result of wars, political turbulence, civil conflict and social unrest (e.g. Afghanistan, the Balkans, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, East Timor, Somalia and Sudan). In such emergencies, malnutrition runs rampant, exponentially increasing the risk of disease and death. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute website The 1991 Gulf War cost the Allies a half billion dollars a day, or about $350,000 a minute. One fighter plane costs about $25 million. One Tomahawk cruise missile costs $1.3 million. One air-to-air missile costs $800,000. Translated into more relatable expenses, for the price of one Sparrow radar-guided missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for five years. World military expenditure in 2001 was $839 billion. That means an astronomical 1.6 million dollars are spent worldwide on the military every minute! A $30 billion, 10-year plan to provide clean water to the poor of the developing world would cost just thirteen days of military spending. Total world military spending for 2001 of 839 billion dollars represents a significant proportion of world economic resources. As a global average it accounted for 2.6 per cent of world GDP and 137 dollars per capita. However, both economic resources and military expenditure are unevenly spread. The 15 major spenders account for over three-quarters of world military spending. Five countries account for over half. The United States accounts for 36 per cent, followed by Russia with 6 per cent and France, Japan and the UK with about 5 per cent each. The 63 countries in Africa and Latin America together accounted for 5 per cent of world military spending in 2001. ------------------------------------------ > Civil wars (nation against nation) vs. 7—For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom… ------------------------------------------ The Greek word for "nation" originally used in this prophecy, "nation shall rise against nation," is ethnos, which is more accurately translated "a race" or "a tribe." Jesus was saying that ethnic groups would rise against each other—a prophecy dreadfully fulfilled in former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and other trouble spots around the world. The Associated Press (AP) reports that during the 20th century, the murders perpetrated by dominant clans or ethnic groups in nations against other clans or ethnic groups in their own countries have exceeded the deaths caused by wars with rivals outside their borders! In the seven years following the end of the Cold War in 1989, an estimated 101 conflicts raged. Most were wars not between states but within states. They were fought by opposing groups with unsophisticated weapons. In Rwanda, for example, much of the killing was done with machetes. Deaths in civil wars (amongst people of the same country) Compiled from articles in AP, The Independent, State Department, Center for Defense Information, CIA, World Almanac Following is a list of death tolls or estimates in a sampling of civil conflicts fought in the 1990s: Algeria: 75,000, 1992–98: An insurgency touched off when the army canceled elections the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win. Algeria is getting its first civilian chief of state since 1965, but the election brought charges of fraud. Burundi: 150,000-250,000, 1993–99: Tutsis and Hutus have been fighting since the 1993 assassination by Tutsis of the first democratically elected president—a Hutu—and a coup in 1996 that brought a Tutsi government to power. Colombia: 1,200 civilians, 1998: Thousands die yearly in violence perpetrated by drug traffickers, leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitary squads, and wayward army soldiers in a decades-long struggle. The country's ombudsman says civilian massacres rose 16 percent in 1997, to 1,200, and more than 300,000 people were displaced by violence. Guatemala: 200,000, 1960–96: Civil war ended with a peace agreement between leftist rebels and the government. Kosovo: 2,000, 1998: A death toll that has risen to unknown heights since Serbs intensified their ethnic purge of Kosovars and NATO started bombing to stop the repression. Mass graves have been reported in Kosovo. NATO has acknowledged bombing a passenger train and possibly a refugee convoy; Serbs said about 75 died as a result. Liberia: 200, 000, 1989–2003: More than 1 million now displaced within country, more than 300,000 fled to neighboring countries. Rebel leader Charles Taylor launched Liberia into conflict leading an insurgency to overthrow then-President Samuel Doe. Taylor won presidency in 1997, after leading a ruinous seven-year civil war. Since then rebels have battled to remove him. Northern Ireland: 3,250, 1968–1998: Street clashes between Catholic protesters and Protestant police, leading in 1970 to the start of bombings and shootings by the IRA and then random killings by Protestant groups. Rwanda: 500,000–1,000,000, 1994: A 90-day slaughter of Tutsis or moderate Hutus by soldiers, militia and others under the influence of the Hutu government, finally put down by Tutsi-led rebels. Sierra Leone: 14,000, 1992–99: Continuing war between the Revolutionary United Front and the government, with the rebels backed by an ousted military junta and the government by a UN-led intervention force. Spain: 800, 1961–99: Basque separatists broke a truce in their armed campaign for independence and resumed a campaign of assassinations and car bombings. Sri Lanka: 57,000, 1983–99: Tamil rebels have been fighting the government for an independent homeland in the small island nation. Sudan: 1.5 million, 1983–99. Rebels from the Christian and animist south have been fighting for autonomy from the Arab and Muslim north in a conflict marked by famine. Turkey: 37,000, 1984–99: Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey, using guerrilla bases in northern Iraq. ------------------------------------------ > Famines vs. 7—There will be famines… ------------------------------------------ A famine is a drastic, wide-reaching shortage of food. The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that about 4 million people a year die of starvation, or about 30 people every minute.—That means, during the two hours that we are here together, about 3,600 people will have died of hunger! "Some 40,000 hunger-related deaths occur every day, mostly in rural regions," according to World Bank former vice president Ismail Serageldin. It is estimated that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed, and one-third is starving. More than 800 million people are chronically undernourished (World Health Organization). Water shortages in parts of the world in the next 25 years will pose the single greatest threat to food production and human health. 1.3 billion people worldwide have no access to clean water (World Bank). The terrible irony is that the world can produce enough food to feed its expanding population. While some famines are caused by drought or other natural disasters, most starvation in the world today could be avoided were it not for man's selfishness and inhumanity. War, embargoes, government corruption, and economic oppression are all symptoms of the real problem. While innocent children starve, some rich nations destroy millions of tons of food in order to keep prices artificially high. Water crisis "likely to hit 40 countries" South China Morning Post / Associated Press—1999 More than a billion people lack safe, clean water and the problem will worsen next century, experts say. Most of the projected water shortages in 2025 would be in Africa and the Middle East, but India, parts of China, Peru, England and Poland would also be affected, said a newly formed commission that focuses on world water supplies. The commission said the problem could afflict more than 40 countries in all. A United Nations analysis found that 1.4 billion people now lacked safe and reliable water. Water-related diseases kill from five million to seven million people annually, experts said. The UN said up to half of the population of the developing world suffered from such diseases at any given time. The UN said shortages would affect 2.3 billion people, or 30 percent of the world's population, in more than 40 nations by 2025. Ismail Serageldin, chairman of the World Commission on Water, said, "Water is life. Shortage of fresh water is … going to be one of the major problems of the 21st century." ------------------------------------------ > Pestilences vs. 7—And pestilences… ------------------------------------------ Pestilences, also known as plagues: At least 30 previously unknown diseases have appeared globally since 1973, including HIV-AIDS, Hepatitis C, Ebola hemorrhagic fever and others. Twenty well-known infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera have re-emerged or spread since 1973, some reappearing in "deadlier, drug-resistant forms." Less than 20 years ago the medical profession claimed victory over a wide array of bacterial and viral killers. But instead of fading, the cases of infectious diseases have skyrocketed throughout the '90s. Doctors now warn that the current resurgence of drug-resistant bacteria strains could prove to be more deadly than AIDS. Drug-resistant strains of microbes are having a deadly impact on the fight against tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, diarrhea, and pneumonia, which together kill more than 10 million people worldwide each year. As AIDS continues its global rampage, the statistics have become staggering. UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS, in its "AIDS Epidemic Update" released in December 2002, stated that 5 million new HIV infections occurred that year. 3.1 million people died of AIDS in 2002, bringing the total of AIDS-related deaths to 6.4 million. As of the end of 2002, over 42 million people are living with HIV / AIDS. The World Health Organization (WHO) says "around the world close to 14,000 every day are infected with HIV and the pandemic is getting worse." In the 45 most affected countries, it is projected that, between 2000 and 2020, 68 million people will die prematurely as a result of AIDS. The projected toll is greatest in sub-Saharan Africa where 55 million additional deaths can be expected. Aside from the above-mentioned plagues, there is, of course, cancer, which is considered non-infectious. Scientists estimate that about 80 percent of cancers are caused by environmental factors. Over 100 different kinds of cancer now kill over 6 million people every year. ------------------------------------------ > Earthquakes and other natural disasters vs. 7— And earthquakes in various places. ------------------------------------------ The Universal Almanac tells us: There were only 21 earthquakes of major strength between the years 1000 and 1800. There were 18 major earthquakes between 1800 and 1900. There were 33 major quakes between 1900 and 1950—so there were almost as many in 50 years as the number in the preceding 850 years! There were 93 major earthquakes between 1950 and 1991 (almost triple the number of the previous half century) which claimed the lives of 1.3 million people around the world.  The US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center reports that there are over 3.3 million earthquakes occurring annually throughout the world. Around 140 of them are magnitude 6.0 or greater on the Richter scale. There is no reliable predictor of when quakes will occur and they occur over widely scattered areas of the world. There were a record number of disasters in 1999. About 70,000 people were killed in well over 700 disasters. Of these, about 20,000 people died in six serious earthquakes, with many thousands more left injured and homeless (Munich Re, Insurers, and other sources). Because of declining soil fertility, drought, flooding or deforestation, some 25 million "environmental refugees" were driven from their homes in 1999. In the last six years, the number of people needing assistance from the Red Cross and Crescent alone due to floods and earthquakes has risen from less than half a million to more than 5½ million. Quakes and floods bigger killers than terror in 2002 Reuters Despite rising concern around the world about terrorism, the past year saw far more people killed by natural disasters than any man-made catastrophe. Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurance company, said in an annual report on natural disasters that 11,000 people were killed by floods, earthquakes, storms and other extreme weather in 2002, and worse was likely to follow. "Although in the case of man-made catastrophes the year 2002 was marked by numerous air crashes, shipping accidents, major fires, and further terrorist attacks, they were far from reaching the same extent of (economic) loss or number of victims as the natural catastrophes," Munich Re said. This year's death toll was lower than the 25,000 in 2001, when an earthquake in the western Indian state of Gujarat killed at least 19,700 people, but economic losses from such disasters soared to $55 billion, Munich Re said. ------------------------------------------ > Persecution of God's people vs. 9—Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. ------------------------------------------ "This century [the 20th] is known as ‘The martyrs' century' because more people have lost their lives for their Christianity since 1900 than in all the previous centuries together," writes the mission agency Open Doors, founded in 1955 by a Dutchman known as Brother Andrew, whose 1967 book God's Smuggler has sold 14 million copies around the globe. "Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world," writes Nina Shea, former advisor to the Committee of Religious Freedom, in her book In the Lion's Den. "During the twentieth century more of them died, as a result of persecutions, than in all the preceding nineteen hundreds since the birth of Christ. When I say persecution I don't mean simple discrimination, but slavery, torture and murder." "All over the world there are about 200 million followers of Christ suffering today," says Michael Horowitz of the Hudson Institute, "and it's surprising that nobody, neither the Christian community nor the establishment, talks about it." The average number of Christian martyrs per year worldwide is 163,000 (International Bulletin of Missionary Research). Nineteen European countries violate religious liberty, according to the 1998 report of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF). Subsequent annual reports describe an increase of intolerance and repression of minority religions. Examples around the world… (Editors: These are exampleS of state-sponsored discrimination of non-majority faiths.) Central Asia and former Soviet countries. (Forum 18 bulletin, July 2003) An alarming number of states raid religious meetings to close down services and punish those who take part. Turkmenistan is the worst offender: it treats all non-Russian Orthodox and non-Muslim worship as illegal. Uzbekistan and Belarus specifically ban unregistered religious services. In Belarus, numerous Protestant congregations—some numbering more than a thousand members—cannot meet because they cannot get a registered place to worship. Officials in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan also raid places where worship is being conducted. Turkmenistan has dismissed from state jobs hundreds of active Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses and other religious minorities. Armenia has ordered local police chiefs to persuade police who were members of faiths other than the Armenian Apostolic Church to abandon their faith. If persuasion failed, such employees were to be sacked. Belarus has subjected leaders of independent Orthodox Churches and Hindus to pressure—including fines, threats and inducements—to abandon their faith or emigrate. Officials in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Belarus repeatedly attack disfavoured religious minorities in the media, insulting their beliefs, accusing them falsely of illegal or "destructive" activities, as well as inciting popular hostility to them. Turkmen and Azeri officials try to persuade people to abandon their faith and "return" to their ancestral faith (Islam). France and Belgium. (IHF, News Release July 2003) Since the mid-1990s, the Belgian and French governments have been engaged in efforts to monitor and warn the public of religious groups depicted as "harmful sects." These policies have primarily targeted religious groups that have never been engaged in anything but peaceful and lawful activities, and have encouraged prejudice and intolerance toward them. The governments in the two countries have not taken any effective measures to counteract the hostility and discrimination suffered by members of religious groups depicted as "sects." The "anti-sect" policies pursued by the Belgian and French governments have also set a problematic precedent for former socialist countries that have sought to present restrictive policies toward "new" religious movements as democratically acceptable. Malaysia. (AP, April 2003) Malaysian church leaders and lawyers have urged the government to lift a ban on a Bible in the Iban language. The Bible is widely used by churches in Malaysia's Sarawak state on Borneo island, where the Iban people are one of the largest indigenous groups. The Home Ministry announced that this Bible was among 35 books banned effective immediately because they were considered detrimental to public peace. Egypt. (Barnabas Fund, June 2003) Naglaa, a Christian convert from Islam, and her husband Malak have been held in prison since mid-February in an effort to force Naglaa to give up her Christian faith and return to Islam, to leave her husband, and to raise her children as Muslims. Naglaa and her husband Malak Gawargios Fahmy were arrested at the airport as they tried to leave Egypt for Cyprus. Under Egyptian law, and it is prohibited for Christian men to marry Muslim women.) Laos and Vietnam. (Christian Solidarity Worldwide [CSW], July 2003) Persecuted Christians have been driven off their lands and face destitution. 21 Bru Christians were imprisoned in Savannakhet, Laos. One man is serving a sentence of 15 years in Udomsay Province for his religious activities. In Vietnam, unregistered Christians face threats, persecution, and eviction from their land, as well as destruction of church buildings, beatings, forced conversions and demands for renunciation of their faith.  Eritrea. (CSW, 2003) Persecution of independent Protestant churches continues. At Easter, two  Evangelical Lutheran Church members were arrested and detained for three days. In Sahel, military police forcibly conscripted sixteen female and forty male Pentecostal Christians, although all had completed their mandatory military service. Bhutan. (CSW, 2001) The government of Bhutan has stepped up its persecution of Christians. Bhutanese authorities and police moved in to churches on Palm Sunday to register the names of believers. Many pastors were detained, interrogated, and threatened with imprisonment. The authorities want Christians to stop witnessing and have closed many churches. Forms have been circulated requiring Christians to comply with "rules and regulations governing the practice of religion."  China. (CSW, 2001) Important official documents revealing centralized coordinated plans to crack down on and eliminate specific religious groups have been disclosed.  One of the documents issued by the Ministry of Public Security, entitled "Notice on Various Issues Regarding Identifying and Banning of Cultic Organizations" lists 14 groups identified as cults. Some of the doctrines condemned as heresies in the document are beliefs widely held by Christians around the world, such as praying for healing. The Shouters and the All Sphere Church (founded by Xu Yongze) are listed as cults, with reference also made to the South China Church. The head of the South China Church, Gong Sheng Liang has been sentenced to death, along with four other leaders of the group.  Russia. (CSW, 2001) Russian proposals for a new state policy on religion would give broad social access solely to those confessions deemed "traditional" there. An earlier state policy on national security adopted shortly after Vladimir Putin became acting president last January refers to the need to "counter the negative impact of foreign missionaries," who, some state officials believe, are western agents bent on destabilizing the nation and seizing control of Russia's Far East. When the Moscow municipal authorities recently refused to renew the legal status of the Salvation Army in the capital, a local court cited the church's subordination to a foreign center of authority among the grounds for the decision. Family members Members of the Christian movement The Family have experienced persecution. Provoked to action because of malicious allegations by detractors, in the early '90s the authorities raided communities affiliated with The Family in Argentina, Australia, France and Spain. The pre-dawn raids by armed police, who in some cases also sent helicopters, were frightening for children and adults alike. The children were seized and taken into state care while some of the adults were arrested. Subsequent investigations indicated that the authorities had been misled and the raids were uncalled for. Examinations of the children showed that allegations of abuse were false and that the children were in good health. They were all returned to their parents. The adults who had been arrested were soon released without any charges. According to the testimony of Dr. T. Jeremy Gunn before the House International Relations Committee at the U.S. House of Representatives on June 14, 2000, the mistreatment of The Family members by French authorities was not unlike that of the French Vichy government's persecution of the Jews during the World War 2 Nazi terror. He said, "Nevertheless, there are some frightening broader similarities to Vichy in some extreme cases, such as the 1993 raid on The Family community in Aix-en-Provence. In that case, 200 heavily armed police arrived during the night and dragged members of the group into custody, alleging that they had committed child abuse. In February of this year, the court in Aix-en-Provence finally dropped all charges against the group and closed down the investigation." ------------------------------------------ > Love of many growing cold vs. 12—And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. ------------------------------------------ 2 Timothy 3:1–4—But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: (2) For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) unloving … (4) lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The breakdown of family life and a horrific increase in domestic violence are all sad indicators of the fulfillment of these verses. According to European Union statistics, 11% of European citizens live alone, compared with 8% twenty years ago. In England, almost one out of every four children lives in a household with just one parent. Europe-wide, 13% of children live with just one parent, which is not that surprising considering that a third of all European marriages are likely to end in divorce. In America, the Census Bureau projects that 4 of 10 first marriages will end in divorce. 70% of children will spend some time of their childhood in a single parent family. Domestic violence is another tragedy. In the USA, estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year to 4 million women who are physically abused by their husbands or live-in partners per year. In 1996, among all female murder victims in the U.S., 30% were slain by their husbands or boyfriends. Forty percent of teenage girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend (FBI and other sources). In Europe things are little better. Recent studies (October 2000) in the United Kingdom revealed that police receive more than 1,300 calls every day, or more than 570,000 calls a year, relating to domestic violence. The figures suggest that an individual is violently assaulted in their home every six to 20 seconds. An average of two women are killed by their partners or ex-partners in England and Wales each week. A mother's love for her infant has always been considered as pure and natural as can be, yet the lack of love and care on the part of those around a pregnant woman may cause her to feel that her only option is to abort the child. Reuters reports that "women around the world are having fewer children and are ending more than a quarter of all pregnancies in abortion." Considering the stresses and material difficulties caused by the lack of a loving, supportive partner, we can sympathize that there are difficult decisions to be made because of an unplanned pregnancy, however abortion is not an acceptable option in God's eyes. It is deplorable that despite the fact that fetal science has made it evident that human life begins at conception, worldwide over 46 million unborn children's lives are snuffed out every year. Jeremiah 2:34—Also on your skirts is found the blood of the lives of the poor innocents. I [God] have not found it by secret search, but plainly on all these things. Britain singled out as lonely nation There are 1.6 million lone parents in Britain. A steady decline in marriages coupled with rising divorce rates has revealed that Britain may be turning into a nation of loners. The independent Family Policy Studies Centre (FPSC) findings show that more than 6.5 million people in Britain—about 28% of households—now live on their own, three times as many as 40 years ago. ------------------------------------------ > Gospel preached in all the world ------------------------------------------ vs. 14—And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Unlike the rise in wars, famine, plagues, earthquakes, etc., Jesus said that this particular sign was not merely something to indicate "the beginning of sorrows," but was a specific sign that would indicate when the actual End—Christ's Second Coming—would be upon the world. Christians and Christian churches now exist in every country of the world. The Gospel has been preached to over 4 billion people in these countries. Over 50 million Bibles are distributed every year, as well as nearly 80 million New Testaments. Four billion Gospel tracts are also printed each year. The entire Bible or parts thereof are now available to about 98 percent of the world's population, having been translated partially or entirely into some 2,203 different languages. Other Christian books are also proliferating, with some 3 billion being printed every year by 1,500 presses and publishers. The Gospel is also preached from 2,160 Christian radio and television stations, and religious shows are carried on many more thousands of secular stations. Plus there is a proliferation of religious Web sites on the Internet. So this is one of the signs of the End that has already occurred! The Gospel has already been preached in all nations all over the world. If not directly by missionaries, certainly by radio and television, the Internet, literature, or travelers and visitors and so on. Every nation on the face of the Earth has today heard the Gospel. Perhaps not every tribe and tongue and dialect and little tiny group, but every single nation on the face of the Earth has now had the opportunity to hear the Gospel. The Word gets out! Bible boom. (Religion Today) Bible Societies around the world distributed 20 million Bibles in 1997. The Scriptures were produced in hundreds of languages and distributed in almost every country. The total distributed, including New Testaments and gospel booklets, was 561,633,376, the Bible Society of New Zealand said. (Christian Daily News) In 1999, 24 million complete Bibles (Old and New Testament) were distributed. The Bible or portions of the holy Scriptures are available in 2,233 languages. New translations. (Religion Today) Portions of the Bible have been translated into more than 2,000 of the world's languages, according to the United Bible Societies. In the past year, the entire Bible was translated into eight new languages and the New Testament into 30 new languages. Some 62 other ethnic groups had at least one chapter of the Bible translated into their language for the first time, the UBS said. The Jesus Film: Forget Titanic. Forget Star Wars and Gone With the Wind. They are small fry compared to the Jesus Film, which has been watched by more than two billion people. More than 40 million people in 120 countries have prayed to become Christians after viewing the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, according to Campus Crusade. The movie has been translated into more than 760 languages and dialects. Topping one billion! To date over its 34-year history (as of May 2003), members of The Family have led over 27 million people to receive Jesus and distributed over one billion pieces of Gospel literature. (continued in part 2)