plain truth 1977 (prelim no 04) apr_w

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[ p [ f f i m ~ urnrnurna magaz ine o f unde rs t and in g

Vol. XLII, NO.4ARTICLESConversion-Sudden Experience or Lifelong Process?Weather in Chaos-What It MeansCan Af rica's Armageddon Be Averted?The Real Reason Beh ind the VVor ldwide Wave ofCrime and ViolenceWhen Mothers Burn OutNew Archaeolog ical Discovery Illum inates the PastThe Wonders of Creat ion-Chance or Design?Part 3: A Tale of Two ProphetsWhy Not the Sabbath?The Rebirth of the " Born-Again" MovementEaster FunniesCan We Afford To Write Off the Human Race?FEATURESPersonal from Herbert W. ArmstrongTV-Rad io LogIn BriefGarner Ted Armstrong Speaks Out !What Our Readers SayWhy Not?

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The Pla in Truth - SUPPORTED BYYOUR CONTRIBUTIONSThe Plain Tru th has no SU bscription or newsstandprice. It is supported through contributions from ourreaders and those who have chosen, voluntarily , tobecome co-workers with us in this worldwide workThe Plain Truth is nonprofit, accepts no commerc ialadvert ising . and has nothing to sell. Contributions aregratefUlly welcomed and are tax-deduct ible in the U.SThose who can are encouraged to add their financ ialsupport inthe spirit of helping to make The Plain Truthavaila ble. without price , to others . Contributionsshou ld be sent to The Pla in Truth, Pasadena,CA 91123 or to one of our offices nearest you (seeaddresses below ).Ednor ln-Chlef: HERBER TW. ARMSTRONGEditor: GARNERTEDARMSTRONGAss istant to theEditor: RobertL. KuhnPub lishing Cons unant: Arthur A. FerdigSen ior Ednors: C. WayneCole,David Jon Hill, Raymon dF. McNair , Roderick C. Meredith

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Publishing Coordinator: Roger G. Lippross; Statl: ToliBohonik , Colleen Doerr, Charley T. Elliott. Peter Moo re,Clayton SteepABOUT OUR COVERWonders of design (clockwise from bottom left) :artistry of a spider's web ; kaleidoscopic colorand minute detail of a bird 's feather; hexagonalsymmetry of honeycomb cells. Could theseand other marvels of nature possibly be the resultof blind chance? The article beginningon page 22 proves the deck is stacked against it.D. Cavagnaro ; Eisenbeiss-Photo Researchers; Boyd Weils The Plain Truth .

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Personal from...

A Frank Answer toaReader's Sincere Question

Fom Sea ttl e, Washington , comesthi s que sti on from a reader ofTh e Good News, a fter re a dingmy " Pe rso na l" o n "Wha t wesho uld learn from th e spectacula r Israeli strike to free sco res o fhostages from skyjack ter ror ism .Th e am azing pa rallel!"H is qu estion :"D ea r Mr. Arms t rong. I read withinterest yo ur a rticle in th e Decem

ber Good News. I am enclosing par tof it with underl inings th at I wo uldlike more info rma tion on." I wo uld app rec ia te receiving asho rt and concise statement of the

basis of yo ur call from God . Did Hevisit yo u person ally? How was th isBible commissi on announced tosha ke someone like me to be able toknow th at yo u are the 'APPOINTED'?Will there be any need for a successo r to yo u? And how is it provided?" I enjoy yo ur magaz ine. Bes t toyo u."

Th e lett er was not a nonymo us.else I wou ld not give it an answe r.But I feel man y readers migh t bein te rested in th e answer. God d id

a p pe a r per sonally to Adam , toNoah. to Abr ah am. Isa ac and Jacob . Chris t d id appear person ally inca ll ing Hi s twelve a pos tles. Th ere isevery reason to believe th at He appea red in person to th e apos t le Paul.in ca lling an d instruct ing him.I have often compared my ca lland tea ching from Ch ris t to Paul'saccount in Ga latians I: 10-17.F irst. he gave one of the evi dences o f the authenticity of h isapos t lesh ip in ve rse 10 : " Fo r do Inow pe rsuad e men . or God? Or do Isee k to please men ? Fo r if I yetpleased men . I sho uld not be these rvant of Christ."

Th en com es his teaching and commission : " Bu t I certify yo u. brethren.that th e gos pe l which was preachedof me is not a fter man . Fo r I neitherreceived it of man . neither was Itaugh t it. bu t by the revel ati on ofJe sus Chr ist. . . . But when it pleasedGod, wh o . . . ca lled me by his grace.to reveal his Son in me. that I mightpreach him amo ng th e heathen ; immediately I conferred not with fleshand blood [huma ns ]: neither wen t Iup to Jerusal em to th em which we reapos t les befor e me; bu t I wen t in toA rabia. a nd re tu rned agai n un to Damascus."The PLAIN TRUTH April 1977

T he reIs eve ry reason to be lieveth a t Jesus Christ a ppea red in personto Paul in Arab ia. and for someth ree years tau gh t him j us t as Hepr evi ously had tau ght the origina ltwelve for some th ree yea rs.J esu s Christ is the persona/l ivin gWord of God . T he Bib le is th e writ -te ll Word of God. The Bibl e was no tin pr in t in Paul's day. Paul. whe nca lled. di d not go to men. or th oserecogn ized by men as God's teachers. bu t he was taught d irectly byChrist th e persona/ Word of God . Inlike manner. whe n God call ed me.by circumstances I believe He maneuver ed. in the autumn of 1927 after preparing me in man y wayswhi le I was uncon verted and traveling the wrong road of life (see vo lume I of my autobiography) - I d idnot go to any school of religion. toany denom inat ion al teachers, or to. a ny hum anl y tau ght th eologicalsem ina ry . I went d irectl y to th e living CHRIST for teaching THROUGHHISWRITTENWORD!I was imm edi ately shocke d to seewith my ow n eyes th at in Protestan tSunday schoo l. from a chi ld. I ha d

been tau ght pr ecisely the OPPOSITEof what God PLA INLY SAYS in Hiswri tt en WORD!How do I know HE guided me?Two r e a son s : I ) M y eyes sawexact ly the SAME WORDS my human

teachers of Sunday-school days hadseen- t he d ifference being tha t they" be lieve d" in the BIBLE-but di dNOT bel ieve WHAT IT SAID- a nd Idid believe WHAT IT PLA INLY SAID.2) I had been brou ght to a full a ndcomplete REPENTANCE and UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER to GOD. acco rdi ng to WHAT HE SA I D (which Ibelieved) . I had given my life wit hou t any reserva tions to H1M . I hadforsak en THIS WORLD. th e gla morous futu re it appeared to promiseme- every thing- to believe an d follow HIM. AND HAD ACCO RD ING TOHIS PROMISE RECEI VED HIS HOLYSPIRIT TO OPEN MY MIND TO HISSPIRITUAL TRUTH ! I knew it wasTRUE. because it mad e sense andnothing else di d !Little by litt le. in almost day-andnig ht study of HISWORD. much of iton my knees. God opened mo re andmore TRUTH to my unde rsta ndi ng .A lways I had craved UNDERSTAND ING. And God was giv ing it to me.

After the first six months of thisinte ns iv e b ib l ica l s t udy. Go dbrought me to th is complete surrende r. a nd gave me th e gift of HisSp ir it in the spr ing of 1927 . I fee l Hegave me a lso the specia l gift of UN DERSTANDING.I DID NOT CHOOSE THE MINISTRYas a life voca tio n. I had long before(Continued on p age 42)


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CONVERSIONSUDDEN EXPERIENCE OR LIFELONG PROCESS?Almost everybody, it seems, is al l m ix ed up on this m att er of spiritual conversion. It' s part ofthe missing dimension in knowledge. Let's make it clear and plain as G o ~ Himself reveals it.

by Herbert W. Armstrong

!...

Yesterd ay I was speakin g before a packed house in th eAmbassado r Aud itorium hereat Pasadena headquarters. I had occas ion , so I felt at the time . to sort of"bare my soul," so to speak, andrelat e the circumsta nces of my ownconve rsion fifty years ago-no t th atit is typ ical of the manner and circumsta nces in which all people mustcome to conversion . D ifferent oneswill come to it in a large va riety ofcircu msta nces.Yet there is, a fter a ll, ONE WAY toreal conversion, regardless of individua l circumstances.But is it a single sudden experience one undergoes once in a li fetime-a nd the n he is "saved." as it isoften expresse d, once and for all - oris it a gradual experience of CHANGEcontinuing th roughou t a lifetime?Life's Journey?At tim es I have expressed the ide a Ithink many millions have com e tobelieve and on which th ey are staking their eternity. It is thi s: You areon a journey on a railway train. It isyo ur life's journey. whether lon g orshort. At th e end of the line, becau seof Adam's sin, the switch is automat ically th rown to send yo u direc tly down to hell , where yo u willbe burned alive-constantly burn ing. yet nev er burning up bec auseyo u are an immortal sou l th at can 'td ie. O r, as millions also believe, itwill shoo t you directly to "purgatory."But . if at any point in your life

du ring the jo urney yo u "acceptChrist as yo ur Savior," then at th eins tant of that sudden experience . inwha teve r manner such experiencetakes place, the switch a t the end of

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th e line is sudde nly th rown to shoo tyo u imm ediately up to heaven . Andthere yo u sha ll live FOREVER in idl eness and eas e. in glorious surroundings of sp lend or. with noth ing todo-no responsibil it ies anymorenoth ing but to be enra ptured withthe deli ght of gazing continually onthe face of Christ your Savior.Abou t th irty yea rs ago a man sa idto me : " Le t me see if I ca n defineyour beli ef as con tras ted to wha tyo u claim many milli on s of othersbeli eve." Then he expl ain ed th e belief of the man y app roxima tely as Ihave stated it just above." But YOU believe," he continued."that after one is initi ally conve rted.accepting Chr ist, he mu st then live alife of obe d ience to God's way,struggling aga ins t him self to overcome a ll wro ng ways and GROWINGspiritua lly in Christ's know ledgeand in grac e- th us tr ainin g himselfand qu alifying to carry an importan t RESPONSIBILITY in the next life .You beli eve that when he die s. he isDEAD. will not go to he aven or hell ,but will com e to life aga in by a resurrection from the de ad. a nd he willbe here on ea rth. Th en he will haveimmortality. a nd he will be REWA RDED acco rd ing to wha t hi sworks were in this life- th e BIGGESTrew ard being to ha ve conferred onhim the HEAVIEST and most important RESPONSIBI LITY . Is th at wha tyou believe?"" b"Well, not t ~ . " ffl " replied, . Iut yo u a re not too Jar 0 ."Well." he sa id. " I want th e firstway with th e ot he r millions. I DON'TWANT TO HAVE TO CARRY ANY RESPONSIB ILITIEs- i f indeed th ere isany life after death . I'd rather go toheaven and be FREE from work and

res ponsibility. I prefer the id lenessand ease forever.""Reward" of Idleness and EaseWell, tod ay . thirty yea rs la ter, nowin his 70s. thi s man has been givenhis wish - so far as the idleness andease is concerned. He long ago retir ed . He has noth ing to do but j us tSIT . SIT. SIT all day lon g in his sma lland mod est living room. morb idwit h g loom. frus t rated wi th inac tivity. wish ing to die. but un ab leto die. He was sent to the hos pita lwith cancer; the doctors d id not g ivemu ch hope he would survive th e opera tion. But he did. and they senthim hom e to die. But he didn't die.A couple yea rs later he was rushedto the hospital with an acute ga llbladde r infection. Periton itis beganto set in ; the doctors gave him a lmost no chance to survive th e opera t ion-y et it was sure death in lessthan 24 hours unl ess they operated .But aga in his sturdy constitutionsurvived . and he was sent hom e a ndrecovered .At a fun eral of a relat ive whichwe both attended some two yea rsago . he sa id to me. " I'd give any th ing to have a responsi bility suchas yo u have tha t keeps yo u busytravel ing a ll ove r the ea rt h." He haddiscovered that idleness and ease for

eternity wou ld be ind eed a poo r " rewa rd" of conversion.When Is One Saved?Ju st wha t is thi s th ing we ca ll "conversion"? What do we MEAN-"SALVA TION"? Peter said. "Repent. a ndbe bapt ized . . . and ye sha ll . . ." WHAT? Be saved? No . " . . . Receivethe gift of the Holy Spirit."Wh en I was holding th e s ix__ _ ___________

The PLAIN TRUTH April 1977


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weeks' series of nightly meetings in1933 in the count ry schoolhousewest of Eugene, Oregon , a localBible "scholar" sought to catch meoff gua rd and expose what he supposed was my ignorance of th eBible by heckling. He said. "Mr.Armstrong, may I ask you a question? Have you been saved yet?"I replied, "If you know yourBible, you know tha t Jesus said, 'He 'that shall endure unto the END , th esame shall be saved'" (Matt. 24: 13).So again I ask: Is CONVERSION a

sudden experience. or a lifelongPROCESS?I had to ask mysel f. IF we humansare destined to live an ETERNAL LIFE 'in HELLFIRE because of what ADAMdid UNLESS we "accept Christ" atsome time during this life's journey.then why -yes, \yHY-Were we everput on earth in the first place? If wethen get the " reward" of idlenessand ease and NOTHING TO DO for alleternity in heaven. then WHY didGod put us here?That belief made no sense at allto me.But I read in the eighth Psalm th e

question: "WHAT IS MAN, that thouar t mindful of him?" (Verse 4.)Yes, what is a mere man? Whyshould God even CONSIDER us; haveHis mind on us? Of what importance are we? WHY did He pu t ushumans on earth? Was there anyreason-any PURPOSE?This same question is asked in the

book of Hebrews, where it is morefully answered.Begin with verse 5. chapter 2.where we find the subject matter ofthe chapter : "For unto the angel shath he not put in ' subjection THEWORLD TO COME. whereof wespeak ." The context here is speakingabout the WORLD TO COME. The implication is that there was a timewhen the world was in subjection tothe angels. But the world to comewill NOT be in subjection to angels .WHY? Continue on: "Bu t one in acertain place [here referring 'to whatI quoted above from the eighthPsalm] testified, saying, What isman, t ha t t hou ar t mindful of him?Or the son of man, that thou visitesthim? Thou madest him a lit tle lowerthan the angels [elsewhere trans-


l at ed ' fo r a little while lower thanthe angels'] ."Yes , man, lower than angels .WHY should God be concerned

about us? Even though man possesses the capac ity to invent intricate machines and fly to themoon, he is really not much now.Puny man is filled with evil, alwaysfighting, st ruggl ing, doing evil,bringing suffering on himself.The Incredible Human PotentialBUT, now notice the incredible, fantastic, unbelievable future HUMANPOTENTIAL we can fulfill-if we arewilling. " . . . Thou c rowneds t h imwith GLORY and HONOR . and didstset h im over the work of thy hands"(verse 7).What does "the work of God'shands" include? THE WHOLE VASTUNIVERSE-the PHYSICAL universe

and th e SPIRITUAL universe!Unbelievable? Read on!"Thou hast put ALL THINGS in

subjection under his feet. [In chapter I, 'all things' is translated byMoffatt as 'the UNIVERSE.'] Fo r inthat he [God] put ALL in subjectionunder him [man], he left NOTHINGthat is not put under him ."

INCREDIBLE? But notice the nextwords: "But now we see NOT YET allthings put under him."Verse 9 goes on to explain that

NOW what we see is JESUS alreadyc rowned wi th GLORY and HONOR ;and, as in chapter L UPHOLDINGAND SUSTAINING THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE by the word of His POWER.Yes, Jesus , as chapter 2 continuesto show, is the pioneer who has goneon before, th e captain of ou r salvation, the first to be BORN of GOD ofMANY BRETHREN! (Rom. 8:29 .)Now the above passage from He

brews 2 was speaking about theworld to come, NOT today's world .Angels will not be in power over it.But angels WERE on this earth-theearth was in subjection to them before the creation of Adam (II Pet.2:4; Jude 6; Isa. 14: 12-15 ; Ezek.28: 12- I7).The angels s inned and became

demons. Lucifer. then king over theearth, the supergreat archangel, became Satan . And NOW, God hasplaced MAN on earth and given to

him the potentia l that was THE ANGELs'-if we "make th e grade"where they failed.The angels turned from. rebelled

against, and rejected the GOVERNMENT OF GOD which then ruled theearth and the angels that inhabited it. .What about MAN? Man has alsorebelled-sINNED!But through Jesus Chris t, who

paid man 's PENALTY of death in hisstead, man MAY, if he will, REPENTturn FROM Satan's way of "GET," ofSELF-CENTEREDNESS and rebellionand through Chris t' s sacrifice bereconciled to GOD.Upon real repentance, turning to

God's law of LOVE and FAITH inJesus Christ, being baptized in Hisname. we may be reconciled to God,from whom ou r sins have cut us off,and we may then receive the GIFTofHis HOLYSPIRIT.That may rightly be called the

experience of CONVERSION. I couldwrite a whole book on that experience-what it means to receive theHOLY SPIRIT of GOD; what theHOLYSPIRIT really is. and MEANS.It BEGETS us with th e very life ofGod-for the Holy Spirit IS His life,coming into us from His very Person. It begets us with GOD-life. Webecome HEIRS of God and jointheirs with Christ, who has alreadyhad put under Him the WHOLE VASTUNIVERSE.Not Yet Born of GodThe Holy Spirit is the Spiri t of UNDERSTANDING-the very MIND ofGod which, with ou r spirit, opensou r minds to UNDERSTAND God'sKNOWLEDGE as He reveals it (revea led knowledge ) through th eBible.But we are NOT YET BORN of

God-no t ye t r-oss asso as- ion lyHEIRS; not yet BORN-only BEGOTTEN, as we once were begot ten inour mother's womb before we wereBORN. And just as we were first anem bryo and a growing fetus in ou rmother' s womb, so now we mustGROW in the knowledge of Christand in grace (II Pet. 3: 18).We start ou t the Christian life like

newborn babies.WHY were we pu t here on earth?(Continued on page 44)

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it Means

Never in the memory of most American s has there been a winter like thi spast one.Fo r weeks on end, the Big Freeze of '77 clamped the industri alheartland ofAmerica in an icy vise. Day after day of record-breakingsubfreezing temperatures sent the economies of state after sta te in the eas ternhalf of the nation careening into a tail spin. Million s of people were dri venout ofwork , their factories, offices and businesses closed du e to severe fuelshortages.Who le cities lay lifeles s, buried under suffocating mountains ofsnow. Some people died trapped in their snowbound automobiles, or frozento death in the ir own homes.Snow also fell deep into the Sou theastern states, in some places whe re ithad never be fore been seen . Virtually a whole season's crop of vegetablesfroze in the fields of southern Florida . Meanwhile, in Alaska, people baskedin temperatures in the 40s and 50s. And where the snow was real ly need ed itcame in insufficient amounts or merely rested useless a top a lrea dy frozenbone-dry topsoil. Twelve states in a wide belt across the U.S.. mostly in theWest and Midwest, were opera ting under emergency relief conditionsbecause of severe drought. In Ca liforn ia, municipal (Continued on page 39)

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feelings of inferio rity or dangeroussuperiority towa rd the othe rs.Th e Communists think they ha vethe answer. of course . Young militants a tt uned to their blandishmentssay : " Raze the whole imperialist.racist str ucture to the gro und andconstruct a new socia list order onthe ashes of the old and the millionsof bodi es of the capitalist class."Th ose in the West. on the otherhand. ignorant of South Africa 's history a nd unique human mold. naively push for "majority rul e" in thecontext of a single-state system . Thi ssimplistic formula. which sounds sopIausible to those not und erstandingthe situat ion. would. in the eyes ofmany South African officials of allraces. lead to equally calamitous re-sults. South Africa has never beenthe testing ground for simple solutions.Unique PeopleTo understand the complex SouthAfrican situation of toda y. one mustfirst understand the history of auniqu e and o f t e n sco r ne dpeople- the Afrikaners . Rou gh lysix ty percent of South Afr ica'sWhite stock. they area literal crea tion of

African so il. Th eyhave been called "Africa 's White Tribe."It is critically import ant to co m pre

hend the Afrikaner'sco nce ption of h im-.self and the role o fhis volk, or nation.in that part of Afr icain which he finds him-self.Afrikan er hi storygoes back to 1652wh en a tin y bandof Dutchm en fir stlanded at the south-ern tip of Africa. Asmall settlement grew-

demning South Africa and evencalling for world support of liberation movements to rise up fromwithin the country to seize powe r.He said that if one day South Africa's head were demanded on adish . the U.N . "w ill provide thedish." But he wa rned his adversariesthat "we. however, a re certainly notprepared to provide the head."Then. in clarion tones. he declared : " Let the world know we arenot to be had for free. that we de sirenothing tha t belongs to others but

that we will protect and def end ourrights, our property and country withall the means at ourdisposal."No Simple SolutionVery clear ly, neither the East northe West is goin g to lea ve SouthAfrica alone in its own effor ts toachieve rational. just solut ions to itseno rmo us social dilemma- th at ofguaranteeing the right s and freedoms for its 4 1,4 million White citizen s. 2 Y2 m illio n mixed -b l oodColoureds. 750.000 Indians and 18million Blacks-the latt er composedof nine major trib al nat ions, eachwit h its own culture, language, and

CANAFRICA'SARMAGEDDONBE

AVERTED?

Warning to East and WestIn a somber New Year's Eve message to the South African people,Prime Minister John Vorster, in almost World War II Churchi ll ianprose, told his countrymen thatSouth Afr ica could face a "Communist onslaught " and warn ed thatthe y mu st be pr e-pared to stand alone.

Vorster characterized the We st asfloundering , weakwilled and militarilyinferior to the Communists, adding th at"the We st ha s notonly lost the initiative,is not only on the defen si ve everywhere ,but what is saddest ofall, it has lost the willto take a firm standagainst the ever-in-creasing menace ."

The pr ime ministeralluded to several recent United Nationsre sol u tion s con-

Suth African officials were surpr ised a nd an ger ed thre emonths ago when the SovietUnion announced that PresidentNikolai Podgorny would soon makean unprecedented trip to Africa tovisit three nations deeply invol vedin the Rhodesian fracas-Tanzania.Zambia and Mozambique.The Soviet Un ion . of course .backs the guerrilla forces fighting inRhodesia. And Soviet arms . in thehands of Cuban proxy-warriors. secured a Marxist victory in Angola.Podgorny's "showing of th e flag"in Southern Africa merely con firmed to Pre toria what South Afri cans had been warning of for sometime- that the Soviet Union sees thechance for big pol it ical gain s for itself in aiding "liberation movements" in that part of the world .

During 1976, South Africa erupted on the world scene as a majortension area, rivaling the Middle East. Few realizethe real issues involved in this vital but potentially explosive region.

by Gene H. Hogberg6


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First AnticolonialistsAfrikan ers tod ay st ress to outside rsthat they were the first peopl e inAfrica to throw off the yoke of colonialism. In fact. Afri ka ne r nation ali smwas the first coherentnati onalist movement

on the cont inent. Asformer Brit ish Prim eMinister Harold Macmillan told the SouthAfric an Parli ament inFe bruary 1960: "Youare sprung from Europ e . . . and here inAfr ica you have yourselves crea ted a freenation . a new nation.Ind eed . in th e historyof our t im es, yo ur swill be record ed as thefirst of the Afr ican nationalisms."The dilemma which

Boer commandos at any given timewith stood the might of the Britisharmy, which had 500,000 men in thefield.Forced to capitulate under the superi or weight of men and arms. theAfrik aners, in a sense, still came outon top. Th e two Boer republics werejoined to th e Br iti sh-controll edCape Colony and Na ta l to form theUnion of South Afri ca in 1910. Asan independent member of the British Commonwealth , it was tied toLondon until 1961 when a republicwas decl ared.The more numerous Afrikane rshave nearly always dominated thepolitical scene . while the English.speaking population. with its experience in commerce and industry. hasdominated the economic life of the

country. This divi sion has rou ghlypersisted to thi s day. though in thepast two decad es Afrika ans-speaking Whites have shown grea t stridesin the business world as well.

tered Black Bantu tribes movin gsouth in migrating waves out of central Africa (see lJlap on next page).Afrikaner PsycheThe tal es of these Voortrekker pionee rs, the ir covered wagons, theirclashes with th e warring Bantus,comprise some of the most interesting history of the 19th century.Deeply imprinted on th e Afrikanerpsyche today is the victo ry overZulu warriors at Blood River in1838. Before the battle began theVoortrekkers prom ised God theywould a lways celebrate that da y inHis honor if He gave them victory.The "Day of the Covena nt," as it iscalled. remains South Africa's mostimportant holiday.The followin g 64 years are rich inSouth Africa 's history as well: the

establishment of two Boer republics( the Transvaal, or South AfricanRepublic , and th e Oran ge FreeState) ; the inrush of the Engl ish inquest of newly discovered diam ondsand go ld in the interior ; a series ofwars with the British culm inating inthe epic Anglo-Boer War ( 18991902) in which no more than 30.000

out of what was originally intendedto be a provi sioning stop for thesh ips bound aro und Africa to Ind iaand the Far East.Thus peopl e of European stockhave been in Afr ica almos t as longas Whites have been in America.To the pioneering Dutch werelat er added Germans and immi

grants of French Huguenot stockwho fled Ca tholicism in France. Thebloodstream of the "average" Afrik an er tod ay would yield 37%Dutch cells, 35% German and 14%French . Over the yea rs there hasbeen some intermarriage with theEnglish who first arrived as perman ent sett lers in 1820-168 yearsafter Jan van Riebeeck 's partylanded . (Most of the English. however. a long with later additions,hav e remained a distinct culturalgroup of th eir own .)Within a short while these peoplewere ca lling themselves "Afrikaners"-m ean ing "Afr icans" in theirown language- which lan gu age itself was subtly und ergoing a linguisti c met am orph osi s fro m 17thcentury Dutch to today's Afrikaans.The Afr ikaners in the ir ea rly daysshowed a fierce desirefor freedom and independ ence. After theEng lish took controlof the Cape in 1806a nd over th e nextthree decades firmlyes ta b l i s he d themse lves in authority ,some of th e Afrikanerfam ilies. a lso knownas "Boers"-Dutch for"farmers"-se t out onth ei r "G rea t Tr ek"int o So uth Africa's


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In South Africa, neither the Whites nor any of the Black tribal nations has aprior claim to all of the iand. Historically , the various Biack peoples settled indifferent regions where they estabiished their own social and cultural systemsand tribal organizations. it was not until 120 years after the first Whitescame to South Africa that there was any appreciable contact betweenWhites and migratory Blacks.

compr ise severa l distinctive peoples. eacwith its own languageculture and customsA Ve n da. for example. is as distin cf ro m a Zulu asSwede is from an Italian . The most important of th ese tribanat ions are the Xhosaand the Zulus-b othnearly 5.000 ,000 inpopulation .Am eric an s a n d

others outside SouthAfrica find it hard tounderstand tha t noall Black people ar ealike, just as not a lWh ite peop l e a realike. Blacks in America. having been removed fr om th eiorigina l trib al or national roots- and a tribe is a nati onfor a ll practical purposes-h ave become essentially one classificati on opeopl e. Th is is not true anywhere inAfrica.

The gove rnment of South Africaholds that history has shown all nationalisms to be exclusive: th at oneis not readily or peaceably blendedwith another. South Afr ica's variouBlack African peoples have so farrefu sed to become pseudo-Europeans- as any trip into one of thehomeland areas quickly confirmsThe government points out thaBlack and White elements have nowhere in Africa been combined toform a new "Afro-European" community.Ad vocates o f se pa ra te de velopment (originally referred to aaparth eid. a n Afrik aan s wordrou ghly equiva len t to "separateness") believe that if a ll South Africa's diverse peoples were to shareone political system. dominat ion oone or mor e groups over a ll the

fl T MEETI NG OFHITES AND BLACKS17501770

BLACK TRIBES _EUROPEAN MIGRATION

the road of their own freedom. orthe y gain freed om in the long runwithin the united political commu- ,nity enforced by Britain on SouthAfrica'!"We chose the first because thesecond would mean the downfall ofthe White man and with it chaosand Black tribal tyranny will follow!"Separate DevelopmentThi s po licy of sepa r a t e deve lopme n t, wh ich was th us imp leme n ted, i s ba sed o n severa lfundamental con sidera tions. Thefirst of these is the fac t tha t thro ughout their history of three cen tu r iesthe peop les liv ing in South Africahave never comprised a single homogeneous na tion. The rough ly4 ,250,000 pe op le o f Europeanstock - though di vided into the Afri kaans- and English-speaking cul ture s- are held to be a nati on intheir own right. The 18.000 ,000Bantu people (Blacks). however.

16521820DUTCHBRITISHFRENCH ANDGERMAN PIONEERS

the White South African. and the Afrikaner in particular , hasfa c ed in r ecentdecades is this: howbest to preserve hisown identity and cul ture a nd yet pro videfor the aspirations ofthe various and highlydivergent Black people s in hi s mid st .whose ultimate politi-cal future was neverdetermined when theo ld Brit ish- formedUnion was designedback in 1910.A recent editorialin Di e Burger , th eprom inent CapeTown Afrikaans-lan guage newspaper. describes this dilemmabest :"South Africa's survival cn sis isalso in its deepest sense a crisis inthe heart of the Afrikaner Nati onalist."The main theme of our history.as we ourselves ha ve chosen it, isnationa l freedom. Our most glorioushour was the Boer Republics' lostbattle against British imperialismbecause mo rally the vanquishedwere the victors ."After the victory of 1948 [whenthe curren t ruling Nationalist Partycame to power] the Afrikaner conscience, as embodied in AfrikanerNationalist intelligentsia a nd clergy,was confronted with the prob lem ofBlack freedom."How woul d the White man inSouth Africa retain his f reedom ifthe Black man must also be freed ?The answer was territoria l separation. or separa te freed oms-terri torial demarcation . . . . Th e intelligentsia and clergy posed the inescap able moral a lterna tive: 'Weeither lead the Black nations a long

" Most of the people abroad who push advice at South Africawould not have to live with some of theprobable consequences of what they propose."Jerome Cam inada,

South Africa Internationa l, October 19 76

8 The PLAIN TRUTH April 197


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RICH HISTORIES AND VARIED CULTURES (clockwise f rom top left) : At VoortrekkerMonument near Pretoria , statue of a Boer mother and her ch ildren test ify to the trials of theGreat Trek migration during the 1830s. In similar fash ion to America 's pioneers,Voortrekkers pulled their wagons into a tight circle, or laager, when attacked by warring Bantus.At a kraal in the Transke i, with young Xhosas be ing prepared fo r the initiation ri te.

A Xhosa maiden in traditional dress. Inside a science lab at a college in the Transkei whichtra ins the sons of ch iefs and headmen.

The PLAIN TRUTH April 1977 9


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others would be the inev itab le resu lt. This is not just the view of theWhites. Many of th e leaders of theAfrican population a re opposed tothe idea of integr ati on at thi s tim ebecause of the danger that the mino r tr ibes would be oppress ed bythe larger on es, som e of whom alsohappen to be , by nature or tradition ,of the warrior type.South Afri ca's 750,000 Indians,whose ancestors cam e to th e countryin the 1860s to work on the sugarplantations of Natal, also ar e generally op posed to a "one-ma n, one vote" system. They are well awarethat South Africa's worst race rioton record was not between Blacksand Whites bu t between Indiansand Zulus in Durban in 1948. ManyIndian s bel ieve their rights are better pr eserved in a se lf-govern ing"Ind ian Council " which is graduallygaining m ore autho rity.Thus, governmental poli cy insiststha t all South Afr ica's peoples mustbe permitted to rul e themselves.

The concept of " plura l democracies," it asse rts, safeguards th e longestablished nationhood of th e White. peopl e in th at pa rt of South Africawhic h has historically been th eirsand which was vi rtua lly un inh ab ited at th e tim e of its first se ttlement.At the same tim e, sepa ra t e developme nt envisages th e progress of a llthe Bantu peoples to individual se lfgove rnment in those par ts of thecountry in which they origina lly se ttled and which are still th eirs today.

Th e end result o f sepa ra t e devel opme nt is hoped to be a sort of"South Afr ican commonwealth , " acoo pera tive associa t io n between theWhite nation and the self-governingBantu states, coupled with eleva tedhome-rule sta tus for the Co louredand Ind ian peoples.Se pa ra te development is a n extremely complex a rrangement - butthen South Africa is, by its ve ry na-ture, complex. .

Transkei's "Stillbirth"Throughou t the 1960s a nd 70s thegovernme n t poured vas t sums int othe econ omic development of theva rious Black national homelands ina cos tly a ttem pt to make them aseconomically viable as possible inreadin ess of independence . TheFrench a utho r Paul Giniewski hasreferr ed to th e d evelopm ent ofSouth Africa 's homelands as th e. most ambitious socioeconomic pro gram that has ever been designedfor the uplifting of a developingpeople .

Nevertheless, South Africa's ownrapid industri alizat ion con tinued tod raw off milli ons of unemp loyedBlacks from their tribal areas int othe townships around th e majorcities of White-inh ab ited South Africa .Th e sepa ra te development process finally reached its first plateauon October 26, 1976, with th e ind ependence of the Transkei. homelandfor most of th e ne arly five m illionXhosa people.The news media of th e world, asexpeered , gr eeted th e Tran skei ' sbirth wi th a verbal cra dle-killing.ca lling it "a rtificial" a nd a "s tepchild of a partheid."It would seem that in the worl d

today, independence is supposed tocome only via revolution. insurrecti on. gue rri lla movem en ts. civi lwa r, and the massive infusion of Soviet-made wea ponry.By con tras t, the T ra ns ke i wasca refully prepared for independe nceove r a 13-year pe riod- far longerth an the Eng lish. F rench or Belgia ns ever prepared their ex-Africancolonies for se lf-ru le. Yet no nation,othe r than her forme r parent SouthAfr ica, has chosen to recogni ze th isfe r ti le Denmark -sized new s tatecarved out of South Africa's Ca peProvince. And , of cou rse , the U.N.has look ed th e othe r way.

The Tr an skei 's eloquen t PrimeMinister Kaiser Ma tanzima laidbare the folly of the revolutionaryapproach to ind ep endence in hiopening add ress to his new nati on" Revolut ion is a concept relativelyeasy to sell to those who have nothing to lose. Becau se of this it hasproved appea ling to an alarming extent in the Th ird World . Th e vasdisparity between the mater ial welfar e of th e Wh ites and Blacks inAfri ca ha s afforded the Marxists a lthe ev idence th ey needed to convince backward peopl e that theyhave bu t to take up arms, kill theWh ite man or chase him away. tak eover his prospe rou s fa rms. industri es a nd way of life and th eir t roubles will be over. We Transke iansare not an ignorant people and harenever f allen for [his nonsense."Matanzima has repeatedly toldan a pparen tly dea f world that th eXhosas th emselves-a proud peoplewith a rich history-h ad man y tim esrequested progress toward self-gov

ernm ent and ind ependence ove r aperiod of 40 years.Th e leaders of fou r othe r homelands-Bophuthatswana. Ciskei, Lebowa and Venda- have a nnouncedtheir int entions to pu rsu e inde pe ndence from South Africa for th ei rrespective peop les. Th e other Ban

tustan leaders are either vacillatingon the issu e of indep endence. o r asis th e case with KwaZulu 's Ch ieGatsha Buthelezi, openly oppo sedto it.Problems With the Master PlanTh e government remains committe dto se pa rate development as th e"only possible solu tion" th at willwork for South Africa's d isparat epopulation groups. Nevertheless,making the homelands economically viable is a difficu lt process.For examp le, th e popula t ion explosion among the various Black na(Continued on page 34)

"There is no other international trouble spotwhere it is absolutely realisticto talk in terms of the apocalypse. HLondon Sunday Telegraph

Decembe r 5, 1976

10 The PLAINTRUTH April 1977


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SOUTH AFRICAN VIGNETTES (clockwise f rom top lef t) : At Sigabengawa BantuSchool northeast of Johannesburg, school founder Theo Eliastam poses before his students.Women undergo rifle-training exercises at Heidleburg Army Base. An Afrikaans

language class at Frankl in D. Roosevelt High School in Johannesburg. A rugby game in progress(South Africa regularly f ie lds top world-class rugby and cricket teams). A pert youngAfrikaner miss, in the traditional garb of the "Blou Rokies" (blue skirts)-the women who

attend a small fundamental church group .



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In London , a Regent Street shopkeeper is atta cked and robbed bya gang of juveniles while waitingfor an undergroun d train.In Sydney, Australia, a teenagegir l is raped whil e her boyfriend isforced to look on helplessly.In Montreal , a secre ta ry taking awa lk in the park du ring her lunchbreak is suddenly gra bbed from beh ind , d ragged in to th e bushes,rap ed and beaten.In Miami Beach, a 70-year-oldwoma n who had recently movedsouth to esca pe crime in New YorkCity is tied up , beaten. and chokedto death by two armed robbers.In Hamburg, West Germany, anAmerican tourist is kn ifed androbbed on the waterfro nt.In Par is, an elder ly man ge ts offthe bus to walk the short distance tohis home. Within minutes he is lyingdead on the sidewalk, his body fullof knife wou nds and his wall et andwa tch missing.Crime and violence are becominga way of life in much of th e worldtod ay. Shocking crimes which adecade or two ago would have mad efront-page headl ines are now so nume rous that , in many cases, they areno longer news. Offenses of murder ,armed robbery, aggravated assa ult,rape, ' kidn apping, burglar y. a rson.

vandalism and the like cont inu e onthe upswing around the globe, despite ever-increasing expendituresfor law en forcement. Developedand developing nati ons-d emocraticand communis t - all are reportingrising levels of crime.Crime statistics, however, do notbegin to tell the whole story. Studiesreveal that up to two-thirds of allcrimes are never repo rted ! Manyvictims are eithe r fearfu l or too embar rassed to come forward, or believe that noth ing ca n or will bedon e even if they do.Crime on the RampageThe United States continues to bethe trend-sett er , with the highestcrime rat e of any Western industrialized nation. In a nation whichspends nearly $20 billion a year tofight crime, someone is murderedeve ry 26 m in ut es- over 20 ,0 00people in 1976. Figures con tinue tosu rge upward in virtually all othercrime ca tegories as well.12

In Britain, law enforcement officia ls are concerned over the dr amatic increase in crimes of violenceand vanda lism, and police warn thatBritain could face violent crime "o nan American sca le" within a fewyea rs' time. Th e rat e of murder andmanslaughter has doub led over thepast 15 years. And the r ise in"pe tty" cr ime. such as shop lifting, istermed "shock ing."In France-w here serious cr imehas tripled in the past 14 years- thesitua tion is becoming so serious th atthe gove rnmen t has set up a specialcommiss ion to sea rch for solutionsto the probl em.Italy is experiencing a crime waveof unprecedented proportions, andpolice officials are deeply conce rn ed . Amo ng o t he r cr i mes,kidnapp ings for ransom have skyrocketed. And Rome now has thedistinction of being " t he most thiefridden city in Europe ."In West Germ any, crime figuresare up in most major cities. Authorities a re especia lly worried by amarked rise in political terrorism.In Canada and Australia , the rising level of crime and violenc e isalso triggering public concern.In Mexico. crime is grow ing a t analarming pace, with recent statisticsshowing Mexico's crim e rat e to beth ree times that of the Uni ted Statesand five times that of France .Crime sta tistics .are rarely available for the Soviet Union, but repor ts from foreign newspaperment h e r e indic at e a r ise in c i tycrime-notab ly car theft- a s well ashooliganism or petty crime.Th e People's Republ ic of China,currently experiencing a period ofpolit ical and socia l tension, is in themid st of a widespread crim e wave .including an upsurge in bank rob beries, looting, rape and mu rder.And so the story goes in nat ionafte r nation today .

The CausesWhy is crime skyrocketing aroundthe world? What are the causes ofcrim e? Many diverse theories havebeen pu t forward in an at tempt toexplain crime, including poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, racia l discrimina tion, the easy ava ilability ofguns, inadequate police protection,unequal and delayed j ustice, a lcohol

and drugs, ' urb anization , financia lst rai ns du e to inflation, the imp actof television and motion picture violence, genetics. and so on.T hese fac tors un q uest iona blycontribute to and aggravate thepro blem of crime. but are not. inand of themselves, root causes of it.What a re ofte n term ed "causes" ofcrime are more often ju st excuses orj ustifications for it. or a t best seco ndary or terti ary causes.Many peopl e live in poverty. forexa mple. but do not commit cr ime.In fact. the poor a re the grea testvictims of crime. Surprisingly. rob bery and burglary actually declinedin the United States during the Depre ssion yea rs of the 1930s, andlater began to increase once aga in asprosperity returned!Many are unemployed or are un der financial pressures of one so rt o ranother. but do not resort to crime .Most citizens of rac ial minorities.though possible victims of discrimination. have not become criminalsb ecau se of it. Most g un ow ners- handgun owners included - d onot use them for criminal purposes.Most city dwellers do not turn tocrime because of the pressures ofcity life.What , then . are the real underlying root causes of crime? Beforeviable solut ions can be sought. th ereal causes must be pinpointed.Breakdown of the HomeCriminologists have often observedthat we are br inging crime and violence upon ourselves by the kind ofsocie ty we hav e. And. not surprisingly, it's back to the home- th e basic bu ilding block of society- thatmost crime can ultim ately be traced.The breakdown of fam ily life andthe home is a major socia l t rend inna t ion afte r nat ion today. Co nsequently. the home -which shouldstand as a stro ng bastion of resistan ce agai ns t the permissive andlawl ess influences of society - is nolonger playing its proper role.On e does not have to be a psychologist to uncover the real ca usesof crime. Int erviews wit h criminalsthemselves quickly revea l a com mon den orninator -sproblems in thehome. .From petty thieves to mass mur(Continued on page /4 )



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derers, the same sto ries are heardove r and ove r agai n : stories of pa cren t al neg lect, or ove rindulgence ;stories of harsh and severe discipline, or of non e at all; stories of awea k or absent fat her figure, or of adom ineering mother ; stories of incest and other horrible sexual perversion within the home; stories ofparental hypocrisy and double standards; stories of an absence of genuin e lo v e , u nd e r s tand in g a n daffec tion in the family; stories of alack of spiritual and mora l train ing;stories of mothers leaving the homefor a jo b of their own, aban don ingchildren to sitters, day-car e centers,or the streets; stories of brokenhomes and divorce; stories of paren ts "doi ng their own th ing" andletting ch ildr en fend for themselves.Parent s, in short, have abdicatedtheir responsibility of molding rightcharacter and instilling moral va luesint o their children . In far too manycases, there is little or no teaching ofrespect for authority and the rightsof others, of honesty, decency, reliabil ity and cooperation . And in fa rtoo many cases, there is no stro ngparen tal example to reinforce suchteaching when it is present.And , of course , tod ay's morallyemasculated schoo ls do litt le to fillthe gaps left by the parent s. Neitherdo the world' s churches, which havefailed to powerfu lly and effectua llyset forth concre te moral and spiritual guideli nes for everyday life.The result?Unprincip led, emo tiona lly un stable, misguided and confused chil

dr e n- fu tu r e cr imi na l s in th emaking. And eve n if some do notturn to crime, they nevertheless remain psychologically sca rred forlife."Train up a child in the way heshould go," counseled Solomo n inProverbs 22:6, "a nd when he is old,he will not depar t from it." Yet howmany are following this sage adv icetod ay?An American newsmagazine recent ly reported the following in thi sregard: "Japan is an almos t crimeclea n nation by Wes tern sta ndards. . . . Japan's record for lawand ord er is the envy of police in theindustr ial ized West. Jap an is sa feand getting safer."Why?14

"Make a chain: for the landis full of bloody crimes, andthe city is full ofviolence . . . . All the land isfull of murder and injustice."Ezekiel 7:23; 9:9

Experts, the repor t explains, givemost of the credit to Japan's socia lcohesion , the close-knit Japan esefami ly, and respect for authorityand tradition instilled in child re n byth e pa rents. .The brea kdown of the hom e andneglect of parental responsibil ities iswith out doubt a major root cause oftoday' s worldw ide crime epidemic.Crime prevention starts in the home.Yet all too many "ex perts" continue

to pursue solut ions ba sed on seco ndary or tertiarycauses of crime . Until they beg in to emphasize the needfor a revital izati on of the family,crime will cont inue to surge upward .Strong Deterrent NeededTo deal with those who have nothad instilled withi n them a founda tion of respect for law and who havechosen a life of crime. another element is required if crime is to bestopped .

Former U. S. Attorney Ge neralEdward H. Levi has asserted: "Wemust understand that an effectivecrimina l ju stice system has to emph asize deterrence. There are manycauses of crime, but among them isthe failure of our system to movequ ickly and effectively to de tect andpu nish offenders."The second major cause ofcrime isthe lack of a firm punitive deterrentaga inst crime in the form of stiffpenalt ies for those who commit it,penalties which fit the crime. In manyof the Western industrialized nation s. criminals are often ar rested oneday and back on the street the next.free to commit new crime s. Ma nywho are a rrested are never brought totria l. Of those tried . relative ly few goto pr ison.Of those impr isoned. manyare out long before their full sentences have been serve d.The Unite d States. aga in. is thetrend-sett er in th is regard . wherecriminologists estima te that of allserious crimes, only 12 percent lead

to a rrests. only six percent to convictions. and only one percen t toprison .Tha t is not the sort of treatmentwhich is going to de ter crimina lsfrom committing crime . In fact.crimina ls tod ay are convinced theycan literally get away with mu rder:that crime pays! Th ey can committh e most violent and viciou s crimesand find themselves back on thestreets a short time la ter.Over half of the persons arrestedon felony cha rges in the UnitedSta tes hav e pri or cr imi na l records-some having bee n arreste d tentimes or more previously. A mancommi ts armed robbe ry of a liquorsto re and is released on bail to awaittr ial. A few days later he is a rrestedagain. this time for burg lary. Agai nhe is released on bond . When hefails to appear in court. a warran t isissu ed for his arrest. Arre sted . hespe nds a few days in ja il. The burgla ry cha rge is dropped on a " tech.nica lity." Found guilty of a rmedrobbe ry . he is placed on five years 'probation. Whil e ou t on pro bation.he is arrested for rape while a rmedwith a knife." Rev o lving-doo r ju st ice" it 'sbeing ca lled. Cr imina ls move in andout of the criminal j ustice system asthough it had a revolving door.When will it be rea lized tha t lawsdo not deter crime? It's the swift,cer tain. consisten t and impartia l en-f orcement of those laws tha t is the

det erre n t! " Beca us e s e n te n c eagainst an evil work is not exec utedspe e dily ." the Bib le o bse rves ." therefore the heart of the son s ofmen is fully set in them to do evil"(Ecc l. 8: II ).Prisons a re rarely able to rehabilita te offende rs. and ofte n ac tua llybec ome "grad ua te schoo ls " o fcrime. Root ing out ingrained charac ter defects formed over manyyears is a nearly imp ossible task.Prisons are not a solution to crime.but pr ison term s that are meaningful and fit the crime can serve aspun ishm ent and as a means of isolat i ng criminals for the safety of therest of society. Since the majority ofserious crime is committe d by repeat ers, inca r cera t ion for longerstre tches will automatically result ina mark ed reduction in crime. And ifcriminals know that a " ten-year sen-



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tence" means a ten-year sentence,the y'll probably think twice beforecommitting crime.Ultimate ResponsibilityIn summary, effective teaching inthe home dur ing the formative yearscoupled with a strong deterrent tocrime in the form of meaningfulpunishment by the cr iminal justicesystem would go far in eradicatingcrime. Th e institut ion of speedy andfirm pun ishment for criminalswould have the most immediate effect in slowing crime. Correcting thehome situation would involve a majo r, long-range reeducation effortove r many years, but in the endwould pay the biggest dividends.To both efforts there would undoubtedly be much resistan ce onthe par t of so-called " progressive"thinkers who would view the debasement of tra di tiona l parentalro les as a good thin g. and would seestern punishment as "cruel" or "v indictive."

There rem ain s. however. the ultimate consideration of inner motivation-why man , left to himself.inclines to crime in the first place .

The Bible reveals the ultimatecau se of crime: "T he heart is deceitful above all things. and desperatelywicked . . ." (J e r . 17 :9) . Wh y?Because Satan the devil- the verypersonificat ion of evil and lawlessness- is the "god of this world"(II Co r. 4:4). He has deceived allnations (Rev . 12 :9) and peoples intopursuing a self-centered way of lifewh ich lead s to unh appiness andstr ife : He is revealed as " the princeof the power of the a ir. the spirittha t now worketh in the children ofdisobedience" (Eph. 2:2).Six thousand yea rs of recordedhum an exper ie nce ha ve dem onstra ted that mank ind as a whole hasutterly failed to resist Sat an's way ofva nity. jealousy. lust and greed-ofwhich crim e and vio lence are thenatural conseq uences.At one point in history. the situat ion became so critical that Godwas forced to sta r t all over again."T he ea rth [in the days of Noah]also was corrupt before God. andthe ea rth was fi lled with violence"(Gen. 6: II ). Man's thought s were"o nly ev il continually" (verse 5). Sothe antedi luvia n world was wipedThe PLAIN TRUTH Apri l 1977

"Judgment is turned awaybackward, and justicestandeth afar off: for truth isfallen in the street, andequity cannot enter."Isaiah 59:14

out by a grea t Flood. and all butNoah and his fam ily perished .But Satan was still a round. andmank ind. aft er the Flood , quicklyreverted to its old ways once aga in.Sign ificantly. Jesus Christ prophesied of the se " latter days" : "As thedays of Noah were. so shall also thecoming of the Son of man be"(Mat t. 24:37). Today's ever-risinglevel of crime and violence is fulfilling those very words!The Ultimate SolutionThe Bible a lso speaks of a time-n otfar di stant - wh en Sat an will bebound and cast in to an abyss " thathe should decei ve the nations nomore" (Rev. 20:2-3). Of that timethe prophet Isaiah says : "Nothingwill hurt or destroy in a ll my holymountain , for as the waters fill thesea . so sha ll the earth be full of theknowledge of the Lord" (Isa . II :9.The Li ving Bible).In the final analysis. crime is aspiritual problem . Human nature.the Bible reveals. is a "criminal" nature. since it is "no t subj ect to thelaw of God. nei ther indeed can be"(Rom. 8:7). The so lu tion to crimelies in the conversion of a carnal.lustful. resentful. spitefu l. hatefulhuman heart - changing the nature of selfishness, lust and hatredinto one of giving. loving. sharingand serving!Today. God is keeping hands offthi s world . He is not ye t EN FORCINGHis laws on anyone. but a llowingeach individual to go hi s ow nway- to exercise his own free moralagency. The failure of governments.churches. education and the familyto understand and to practice thelaws of God is at the root of theworldwide crim e problem! But thetime is coming. and you a re hearingthe announcement of it in the pagesof this publication . when God 's millennial rule ove r this earth will compl etely aboli sh crime! Wheth er

legislators like to admi t it or not.God's powerful meth od of deterrentfor crime is cap ital pun ishm ent!("The wages of sin is death "- Roman s 6:23.)God says : "I will put my law intheir inward parts. and writ e it intheir hearts" (Jer. 31:33). No humanbeing. concentrating on the wonderful th ings of God 's Holy Spirit- ofgoodness. gentleness. me ekness.kindness, mercy and love-couldev er brutali ze a no t he r hu m anbeing! God's Kingdom is the finalsolution!But what ab out now?Believe it or not. the ON LY interimsolution is the realization of government and crime-fighting agenciesthat swift. sure. consistent punishment. measured exactly to suit thecrime. will bring crim e into reasonably controllable proport ions. Lacking such abso lutely gua ra n teedpunishment- swift detection ; swift.sure prosecution; sure convictionsbased on solid evidence ; and j ust.consistent sentencing-w e will onlycontinue to see our internationalcr ime wave grow worse. 0

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Motherhood is a demanding,rewarding profession. Nobody -teacher, preacher ,psychologist-gets the same chanceto mold human minds and nurturehuman bodies and emotions like amother. It can be a tremendouslysatisfying job, and the results oftruly competent mother ing can reverberate down through the generation s.But mothers. like other professionals, are prone to certain occupational hazards. Not ju st dishpanhands, either, but the same kind ofdifficulties that plague other workerssuch as doctors, lawyers and psychiatrists.

One such hazard that has come tolight lately is a phenomenon knownas "professional burnout." Socialworkers. psychologists, mini sterstho se who deal with people intimately and intensely day afterday -may afte r a period of monthsor years experience a common syndrome. The people and their problems finally "get to them," andcause them to go into a negativepa t t ern of beh avior known . as"burnout."Symptoms may include a widening emotional detachment fromtheir patients or clients, a loss oflove and concern for them as totalhuman beings, unwarranted angeror emotional outbursts, and variousstress-related physical and mentaldifficulties.

But this phenomenon is no tstrictly limited to the "he lping" pro fessions . It can affect anybody whohas to deal with people day afterday without a break. And whilemotherhood doe s not normally include working with a case load of300 clients or a group of pat ientswho habitually call for advice at3 a.m., it doe s at times mean a superintense relationship with one ormore small human bein gs who maycall for service twenty-four hours aday. And it's amazing how manymothers exhibit exactly the samebehavior o ther professional s dowhen confronted with too many"people" demands.Smoke SignalsFor instance, tired profe ssionalsmay dist ance themselves emotionally by various methods from thoseThe PLAIN TRUTH April 1977

they serve . Doctors, for example ,may refer to patients as "appendectomies" or "coronaries" instead ofthinking of them as total humanbeings. Social workers may avoidinvolvement by wi thhold ing eyecontact. They may minimize phy sical contact by using various bodylanguage barriers like desks orcounters. They may stand besidedoors with their hand on the knob,ready to escape if things become toointense. Those who work with lowincome families may begin to thinkof their clients in demeaning term s,blaming clients for their plights, instead of empathizing as they didwhen they first went to work in thefield. Pros on the verge of a burnoutmay find themselves lecturing orshouting at clients for no logical reason - and perhaps they are normallykind people who would never thinkof behaving this way.Motherly ParallelsA burnt-out mother may exhibitmany of the same symptoms. Instead of dealing with each of herchi ldren as an individual, she mayrefu se eye contact. She may answerquestions with a mumble or a grunt,busying herself with hou seholdtasks that emotional ly exclude heroffspring. She may avoid touching,hugging. or other forms of bodycontact for lengthy periods of time.And she may mention "the kids" inthe same tone of voice another prowould refer to a "case load" or"docket."When she had her first child , sheprobably was intensely aware ofhim or her as a unique, precious. individual. But time and routinemay have taken a toll. The emotional stress of constantly dealingwith a tiny human being who makesnoise, messes, and is continually underfoot may have caused a gradualchange to take place. Perhaps thearriva l of one or two brothers orsisters took away the novelty andadded tothe load.Like a lawyer described by Dr.Christina Maslach , she may one da yfind herself screaming at her young"clients" for no good reason exceptshe has reached the end of her emotion al rope ("Burned-Out," HumanBehavior, September 1976, p. 16).Or she may hold in her frustration

unt il it begins to exhibit itsel fas the"housewife syndrome." Describedby sociologist Dr. Jesse Barnard,symptoms can include nervousness,inertia, insomnia, trembling hands,nigh tmares ,perspiring, fainting ,headaches , dizziness and heart pal pitation-ali with no physical orpathological explanation. Burnt-outprofessionals like policemen, psychiatrists, and prison guards experiencethe same deterioration in theirhealth, and the .list of symptoms isremarkably similar: insomnia, ulcers , migraine. perspiration. nervo usness, and painful mu sculartension .Mothers of small children havebeen known to say things like, " It'snot that I can't do what I want- Ican read a book. I can listen to arecord . It's just that I can never do itwhen I want to" (Shirley L. Radl ,Mother's Day Is Over. p. 190). Psychiatrists who have gone from hospital to private practice reportexperiencing the same feelings.They have difficulty finding time fora little peace and quiet alone, because there's nobody else to go onduty for them when the shift is over.One minister complained of thesame imposition on his "down time"at home: "I hate to hear the phonering -I 'm afra id of who it's going tobe and what they'll want."Dr. Maslach noted that for socialworkers the biggest sign of burnoutwas that a creative person with original thoughts and a fresh approachto the job found himself transformed into a "mechanical bureaucrat." This is also a signal ofmotherly burnout. One woman reported listening to her neighbor inan adjacent apartment sc r e am"No!" to her active toddler over andover again in the course of a morning . Apparen tly all imagina tion(give the child some unbreakablegoodies to play with ; take him for awalk; read him a story) had vanished before the need to be a goodbureaucrat (get the housework doneimmediately at any cost).Burnt-out psychologists may resort to cutting down the time oftherapy sessions with clients. Burntou t mothers send the kids outsid e for lengthening period s oftime . -

The parallels are endless.17


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What Causes Burnout?Our socie ty ha s ye t to tak e astraight, honest, collective look at "Imotherhood and see it for what it is- a tremendously rewarding. butalso tremendously demanding jobthat can provide immense satisfactions but sometimes exacts a terrific toll.Marriage is a fantastic opportunity for growth. and children giveparents an even greater opportunityto grow and develop. But g rowth issometimes, perhaps more often thannot. a painful process. A youngwoman should be thoroughly prepared for the sacrifice, the self-denial, the total giving that's requiredof a mother before she ever says "Ido ." She needs to be a thoroughlymature person who "has her headon straight," so to speak. She shouldhave lived, experienced, s tudied,worked, traveled enough to knowwhat it means to give these thingsup for a certain number of years tobecome the willing servant of one ormore small, emotionally and physically demanding human beings.

Young women may delude themselves into thinking they 'r e preparedfor this giant step when they definitely ar e not. They may havebought the fairy tale of PrinceCharming as the an swer to all thei rfrustrations, when in actuality this"happy ending" will only aggravatetheir problems. Marriage is not forimmature people-and neither isparenthood.

Women who have married withthis dream firmly in mind may beun able to give it up long after thehoneymoon is over. Not ever ha vingbeen presented with an honest alterna t ive to this world's false conceptof marriage and famil y life. theycompare their reality with the mediamirage and feel a vague or not-sovague dissatisfaction, bu t can'treally put the ir finger on the cause .Perhaps they bl ame them selves,thei r husbands, their income, theirmother-in-law, or some other factorfor their unhappy situation.But the real p rob lem may be thatthey are unable to level with themselves as to the real nature of theirjobs. When they find out motherhood isn't all fluffy pink dresses, talcum powder and pleasant momentsin a rocking chair, they may not18

know how to handle it-and theymay become prime candidates forburnout.Guilt FeelingsThere is nobody who feels gui lt ierthan a mother who paddles herchild for a minor infraction thatwould have been ignored ear lie r inthe da y, but which at that momentwas ju st too much on top of thenoisy television, the ringing phone.the overflowing garbage disposal,and the newspape r-r eading husband wondering when dinner wasgoing to be ready. This can happento the same woman who, a few yearsbefore, childless, vowed never to actlike those other mothers she sawwho flew off the handle "for nogood reason" and seemed to be constantly harr ied by a ple thora of details . She wasn't prepared for thepossibility of her own burnout.A wife who works outside thehome know s that the janitorial aspects of hou sewifery are not all thatoverwhelming. In an urban environment, a couple of hours a day or lessof efficient effort usually suffice. Butadd children, and you instantlyhave a never-ending ba ttle againstgrime, clutter and inadvertent destruction. On top of this add demand s fo r emotional suppor t .solace, geometry lessons, and adviceto the puppy-lovelorn, and you havea recipe for imminent mental breakdown in many cases.Having compared these stressesof motherhood to the stresses of thehelping professions, the paral lel ISobvious.HopeAmidst the AshesBut if professional burnout has beendiagnosed and labeled, what can bedone about it? Can it be minimizedor cured? Dr. Maslach and her associates found several effective waysof dealing with the problem. First.burnout rates were lower amongprofessionals who expressed andshared their feelings with fellowworkers or colleagues. Second, guiltfree time away from the people theyserved 'was of great help. And third,education in dealing with themselves and other people-preparation for the profe ssional-client ordoctor-pat ient relationship-provedimmensely beneficial.

If you're a prospective mother (oreven if you' ve already had severachildren), what can you personallydo to avoid the specte r of burnout?If professionals can be helped bybecoming more educated in interpersonal skills, then such studiesshould help mothers too. Perhaps. no college or university offers theexact classes needed to prepare formotherhood . but taking a fewcourses in child growth and development can help. Reading a goodnumber of books in this area mayalso be extremely beneficial. And itm ight be good to stay well informedon the advances made in recentyear s in the study of human behavior. Workers in this field have comeup with some remarkable practicalunderstanding of human nature andways to work with it. At time s theirsuggesti on s loudly echo b ib lica lprinciples.But formal education isn't the total answer. Perhaps some "field experience" (say. taking over for afriend with several small childrenwhile she and her husband go onvacation) would be in order. Buteven this won't give you a total feelfor what the job entails, since you'llbe able to pack up and leave at theend of two or three weeks. Nonetheless, it can give you a general idea ofwhat you'll be in for. And if youfind you 'r e just not cut out for suchst renuous work, you 've discoveredthis before it is too late. while alternat ives are st ill ava ilable. Or youmay find that this is exactly whatyou want to be deeply committed tofor a large portion of your life.Peer SupportResident psychiatrists and doctorsworking in hospi tals sometimes gettogether in informal professionalgroups to give each other adviceand support. But once they leavethe hospital and go into practice ontheir own . they sometimes find theydesperately miss such contact.Mothers need the same kind ofprofessional contact and support.Some women today find themselvestotally ' isolated from what in formertimes would have been an intricatenetwork of f emal e f amil y andfriends (mothers, aunts, older sisters) who would have se rved thi spurpose. Now a woman may need



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to develop such a network of surrogate family from tho se in th e localneighborhood . s ince rea l familymay be sca tte red a ll across thecountry. The morning kaffek latsch,rather than be ing a mer e gossip sessio n. is man y times an informal at tempt to provide th i s typ e ofprofessional support. Adult educa - 'tion parent-participation nurseryschoo ls can serve the same fun ction .Time OffDr. Ma slach 's research has shownth at the one biggest help in preventi ng burn ou t is tim e off. time toesca pe without fee ling a burden ofguilt. "Time-of fs" ar e possibl e inwell-s taffed hospitals and wel far eagencies. But how does a mothertak e a time-o ff'? She can't j ust ca ll insick.Of course it is a wi fe' s a nd

From theEditor

mother's job to deal with her children. and make her home a peacefu l haven for her fam ily. But sheneeds peace too. She deeply needsan occasiona l respi te from he r work .j ust the same as her husband doesand perhap s even more desperately.Dr. James Dobson . well-knownChristian psych ologist and author ofbooks on child and family problem s.agrees with thi s premise and recommends two th ings: first o f a ll, th atdomestic help for mothers of sma llchildren should be available if a t allpo ssible (he sugges ts hir ing competen t high school stude nts if onecannot a fford adult helpers); andsecondly. that a wife "should get outof the hou se completely for one daya wee k. doing som eth ing for sheerenjoyment. This seems mo re importan t to the happiness of the homethan buyin g new dr apes or a power

saw for Dad " ( What Wives WishTheir Hu sbands Knew A boutWom en. p. 53).An other help ful a lte rna tive is forthe fa the r to tak e a more ac tive ro lein parenting a t critical juncturesduring the day . A recent studyshowed that the average time spentby middle-class fath ers with theirsma ll children was thirty-seven secon ds per day ! Fathers directly int erac ted with thei r children an ave rageof 2.7 times daily, each encounterlasting only ten to fifteen seconds!This shocking, tragic situa tion couldbe avoided if more fa thers wereaware of their wives' (a nd children's) needs and took over pa renting for a while each day as a breakfor the ir battle-weary spouses. Studies ha ve a lso shown th at more hom eacci dents occur around 5 p.m .- th e

(Continued on page 35)

We thought our readers would enjoy this cartoon run recently in the Cincinnati Enquirer.



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NEWARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERYILLUMINATES THE PASTby Lester L. Grabbe


A New LanguageThe Hebrew language is called "Canaanite" in the Old Testament. It

Cambridge with J. A. Emerton, professor of Hebrew. He asked whetherI had heard of new cuneiform tablet s in a northwest Semitic language.I had heard nothing; he had heardon ly a few rumors. Much of themystery was dispelled by the publication of two articles in the journalOrientalia. Other announcements inthe popu lar press relayed some furthe r in formation along with a lot ofunverified cla ims and some ratherwild-sounding speculations.The first rea lly clear account ofthe situation came on October 29,1976, in St. Lou is a t the an nualmeeting of the Society of BiblicalLiterature together with some otherlearn ed socie ties.The SBL a rranged for the menassociated wit h the Ebla discoveryto be present and address th e entiregroup. Th ese were the archaeologist,Professor P. Mat thiae, and the lan-guage specia list, Professor G . Pettinat o.Professor Matthia e gave a historyof the dig . It had actually begun morethan a decade ago in 1964.The size ofthe mound has indicated itmust haveonce been an important site. It covered about 140 acres, far larger thanmany important tells excavat ed inIsrael. A statuette unearthed in 1968

~ " ' " " : " ' , , " " = , " ' : " 7 ' : : : T r ~ ~ r - - " " " 7 : ' ~ ~ " " " " o : : " " " " " ' - . : o ; ' " ~ - - - - r - - gave the first definiteclue to the identity ofth e ancient city . Itmenti oned the wordEbla twice. Ebla wasalr eady known fromother record s to havebeen an important cityin the second and thirdmillennia B.C. However , that identi fication was disputedby some scholars.Th e yea r 1974brou ght th e lon gawa ited written a rtifacts. These were 42cl ay tablets in thecuneiform script (seeph ot o ) co mmo n lyus ed to wri te th eBabylonian, Assyrian and Sumerianlanguages. Like most such tablets,they were extremely small . Even thelarger ones were only about 3 by 3 Y:!inches. Neve rthe less, the ancientscribes were able to squeeze qui te abit of wri ting on to suc h small

"pages."Th e year 1975 brought the realcache of approximately 16,000 tablets . Another thousand or so tu rnedup in 1976. The result is a librarywhich will take many decades to publish, analyze and evaluate . Na turally,this says nothing of anything still leftto be excavated in later seasons!The big news was not ju st thenumber of tablets , but the discoverythat many of them were written inan hitherto un known language.However, this lan guage has close affinities with such known languagesas Ara ma ic, Ugari tic and Hebrew.Since the re are few remains of theea rly Hebrew language ou tside theOld Testament , any early recordsare of great inte rest to Bible scholars , even if those records are in alanguage only related to Hebrewrather than in Hebrew itself.

Te normall y seda te world of an-cient Near Easternarchaeology is buzzingwith the excitement ofa new discovery- a discovery which somethink will rival that ofthe Dead Sea Scrolls.Others are throwingcaution to the wind sand calling it the "findof the century."

Find s up to thepresen t include aP:proxim ately 17,000clay tablets written in alanguage related to the :gHebrew of the OldTest ament. Further-more, these tablets descri be a city and cuIture somecenturies olde r than the patriarchAbraham but in his same generalarea. The finds are too recent to domore than whet one's appetite for themoment. Onl y care ful and lengthystudy will show their precise value forthe resea rch of language and historyof the Bible. Yet the tanta lizing da taalready found and released to thescholarly world suggest tha t someexcitement is not unfounded.The archaeological site is TellMardikh, a mound in north ernSyria a bou t 45 mil es so u th ofAleppo. The mound (or "t ell" in archaeological parlance) marks the remains of the once flourishing city ofEbla. (According to one text, thecity had a population of 260,000.)Ebla was destroyed abou t 1600 B.C.Yet it had been a major city-stateand perhap s even the capital of anempire for many centuries be for e itsfina l destruction. Th e tablets so fardiscovered cover approximately theperiod between 2500-2200 B.C., asdated paleographically (from thewr iting ) an d from the arch ae-ological strata.Synopsis of the ExcavationI first learned of the new finds in theautumn of 1975. I was visiting at20


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and Phoenician makeup the Canaanite dia-lects. Professor Pettinato ha s labeled thenew language of Ebla"Old Canaanite." as ifit were the ancestor ofHebrew . He may becorrect in this.However. his identificati on is not likelyto go unchallenged.Other languages such. as Ugaritic (discovered in 1929) havebeen included in Ca na anite b y so mescho la rs wher ea sothers disagree. If thenew Ebl aite languageis indeed the father orgrandfather of Hebrew . it is likely tobe of more significance for Old Testament studies th an if it is more distantly related .The question is not one that willbe answered easily. But it may verywell turn out that Ebl aite is onl y thegrand-uncle of Heb rew rather thanthe grandfather!Perhaps one o f the more intriguing typ es of literary materialam ong the tablets is a number ofdictionaries. They give the Sume-rian equivalents of Eblaite words

and vice versa . Their importance isenhanced in that they help advanceknowledge of Sumerian as well asgive va luable help in decipheringthe new lan guage. Th eir arrangement is surprisingly modern . Thesedictionaries were necessa ry sinceSumerian was a common literarylanguage of the tim e even thoughthe people of Ebla did not speak it.New DataThe new texts ha ve been studied inonly a preliminary way so that nomore than hints of good things tocom e can be given. However, thefact that only prel iminary work ha sbeen done is itself rea son to be cau-tiou s with any reall y or apparentlynew facts. (Some initial repor ts haveThe PLAIN TRUTH April 1977

SAUDIARABIA

not met the proper qualification s ofcareful scholarship.)It has been reported th at a num ber of names well known from theBible ha ve turned up . One textalone contains 250 geographicalnames. Jerusalem (U rsalima) is supposed to occur. The nam es ofSodom and Gomorrah were also an -nounced. though exactly how theyare written in the cuneiform scripthas not been shown. This is of greatinterest since the names had beenknown on ly from the' Bible. Sch olarshad not general ly doubted the existence of these cities, bu t they arenow definitely confirmed as histori-ca l. .'

Person al names in the text s oftenremind one of names of biblicalcharacters and may indeed be formsof th ese names. Th ese include Israel(ish-ra-ils. Abram tab-ra-mus. andSaul (sa-u-lum). The name David(da-u -dum) is also reported. However. one hesitates a t thi s identificati on since the name Da vid wasalso long believed to occur in theMari texts (from about the eigh-teenth century B.C.). Later studiesshowed thi s to be an incorrect read -ing. Likewise, the name Benjamin,which had originally been identified in th e Mari texts. turned out

to be a misreading. 'The account of agreat flood in Genesis6 throu gh 8 is not

unique to the Bible.It is found in sev era l ancient Near Eastern lite ra tu res ; theBabylonian account iswell pr eserved a ndhas been known sincethe lat e nineteenthcentury. A flood storyis also reported for theEbla tablets.A number of thegeog ra p h ica l name sare not actually identified as to location. Itis only by inferencethat they a re taken tobe the same as names in the Bible or

other ancient literatures. However.one tablet mention s an "U r" in thearea of Haran . This is of considerable interest since Genesis I Ishows that Abraham migrated from"Ur of the Chaldees" to Haran befor e going on to Ca naan. Since thediscovery of a Sumerian Ur near thePersian Gulf. most scholars have assumed th is was the Ur of the Bible .Yet severa l have argued th at "U r ofthe Chaldees" was ac tua lly a city innorthern Mesopotamia much nearerto Haran. T he Ebla listing nowlends further credence to thi s lattertheory . 'The Italian scho la rs have announced most of their preliminaryfindings with proper scientific cau-tion . One example will illustratethis. Th e name Yah weh for the Godof Israel seems unique. Th e wording

of Exod us 6:3 suggests that thename Yahweh was unknown be forethe tim e of Moses.

Yet some of the early repor tss ta ted tha t the name Yahw eh hadappeared in the Ebla tablets. Afte rPettinato's lecture . he was askedabout this. He pointed out that "Michael" (mi-ka-if) occurs in a numberof texts. (I t probably meant "W ho is

(Co ntinued on page 45)21


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Moses, the reluctant prophet,patient ly blessed and prepared by God for a specialjob, tried every way he couldthink of to convince God thatHe was wrong in choosingMoses. "I'm not the man forthe job. " "I don't even knowwhat neme to use for youwhen the people ask mewhich God sent me!" "Theywon't believe me!" "I'm not agood speaker. " And finally,"Please send someone else!"But God ignored all of Moses 'excuses. However muchMoses wante,d to avoid beingthe chief executive in the "ad-ministration of death," Godwas more determined to usehim in that job. God intendedto free and create the nationof Israel, to give that nationHis law-and He had hand-picked Moses for the job, tobe the human instrumentthrough whom the law wouldcome! Moses did the job. Buthe didn't give up reasoningwith his Maker. Mosespleaded, argued, begged -wasmore bold before the throne ofgrace than any other man re-corded in the Bible.

Tings didn't go well from thebeginning of Moses' grea t commission. Before Moses even gotto Egypt, God nearly killed him because he had neglected to circumcise his son- after all, God couldn'tafford to have the leader of Israelhave a son who was not bound tothe coven ant He had made withAbraham! (Exodus 4:24-26.) Thissit ua t ion upset his wife Zipporahgre atl y; she called him a "bloodyhusband" because of circumcision .not realizing it was God who requ ired it. not Moses. her husband .So upset was she that she turnedright around and took her childrenwith her, returning to her father' shouse, leaving Moses alone to go toEgypt.First CrisisNow Moses had been forewarnedby God that the Pharaoh would no ttake too kindly to the idea of releasing all his Israe lite slaves. but hewas st ill not prepared for the firstcrisis. When Moses gave his nowfamous "Let-my-people-go" speechto Pharaoh. all . the king did waslaugh at him and punish the Israelites with heavier demands! To saythe least, Moses' popularity. gainedwith the Israel ites through miraclesand promises, suffered a great set back at this po int : "All you've doneis to make us stink in Pharaoh 'snose, and given him a good excuseto work us all to death!" they com plained.Moses had nowhere to turn except to the God who had sent him .He knew YHVH was merciful andhe knew God 's truth-and knowingthe se things, he went BOLDLY againto God's throne: "Lord." he pro-tested, "how can you mistreat yourown people like this? Why did yo uever send me. if you were go ing todo this to them? [This is as close asanyone can dare come to saying " Itold you so" to God!] Ever since Igave Pharaoh y our message, he hason ly been more and more brutal tothem, and yo u have not deli veredthem at all! " (Ex. 5:22-23, The Liv -ing Bible.)I am not mature enough spiritually, and I am sure you feel thesame way, to talk to God like that!So, it seems we, as Christian s oftoday, must admit that Moses un-24

A=rALEOFTWO

PROPHETSbyJon Hill

I

derstood more about "grace" .1ha nmost wou ld give him credit for-andused that knowledge to the fullestextent!Wel l, God 's answer to Moses wasto give him more promises, tell himto be patient. But when Mosespassed on YHVH's words to theIsraelites. the y didn't see it the sameway he did : " . . . They wouldn't listen any more because they were toodi spirited after the t ra gic co nsequence of what he had sa id before" (Ex. 6:9).Moses had tremendous reservoirsof st rength . to be sure. but he wasalso human , ju st like you and I. andso he also had doubts. an inferi oritycomplex, discouragement -and inaddition to that. remember. he wascarrying on a runnin g argum entwith God abou t having to d o thisjob in the first place!

"Now the Lord spoke to Mosesagain and told him , 'Go back againto Pharaoh and tell him that heMUST let the people of Israel go' "(verses 10-11).

Summing up his main argumentshe had used at the burning bush ,Mose s retorted:."But look, my ownpeople won 't even listen to me an ymore: how can I expect Phar aoh to?I'm no orator!"God ignored these repeated argu

me nts and simply COMMANDEDMoses to get the job done!Back to Square OneBolstered by promises and miraclesfrom God, Moses and Aaron, bothoctogenarians, went befo re Pharaohagain. Sure enough he was stubborn , just as God had predicted andMoses had known he would be .Moses and Aaron pulled the trickwith the stick and turned it into asnake-but Pharaoh was not impressed, as the Israelites had been ,because his own magici an s did thesame trick with their sticks!Moses. frustrated and dejected.was back to squ are one! But Godhad not ye t begun to fight!

God , in His patience and determination to make a name for Himself in the events of the Exodus, hadten plagues a lready p lanned to useagainst Egypt-and do rememberthat this was the same One who became the " lit tl e Lord Jesus." born inBethlehem so many centuries later!



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Now the real ba tt le of Egypt bega n in earnest! Egypt is ca lled " thegift of the Nile." And for good reason. Th at longest of th e world's rivers makes Egypt habitable . Withou tthe Nile, there would be no Egy pt !Naturally the Nil e became an objectof worship to the Egyptians. It supplied life. renewed each yea r as itoverflowed its banks. deposited thefertilizer and provided the water forthe crops. So the river Nile was thegreatest god in the entire Egyptianpantheon .By a miracle of vast proportions.God, through Moses and Aaron.turned th e entire Ni le River- and a llother supplies ofwater-into BLOOD!Blood. Don't pay any attention towell-meaning commentaries thattell you there was a coincidenta l redmud slide that just happened to spillinto the river upstream when Aarontouched the water with his rod. Thiswas a miracle. not a mishap! Godsays blood -G od mean s blood . Afterall. who mad e blood in the firstplac e? Co uld not G od hav e a"blood bank" ava ilable with whichto fill the Nile? Or ma ybe. as He didmuch later in changing wa te r intowine (a mu ch nicer miracle ). He justchanged th e water into blood. Nosma ll mi racle . g ran ted- bu t realnoneth eless.The fish died. the river stank andwas not potable . The most reveredgod of Egypt had been mad e to stinkand become evil to its worshipers.Impressive!

Devastat ing National DisastersThis was not ju st a ju g of H20 . butthe entire water supply} One goddown. many yet to go . But Pharaohwas predictab ly hardhearted. Hissorcerers turned a pint of

plain truth 1977 (prelim no 04) apr_w

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