Continued: Features of the Last Days

"There will be food shortages." (Matthew 24:7; Revelation 6:5, 6, 8) Since 1914 there have been at least 20 major famines. Afflicted ares include Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Nigeria, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia and Sudan. But famine is not always caused by a lack of food. "The world's food supply over recent decades has grown faster than its population," concluded a group of agricultural scientists and economists. "But because at least 800 million people remain in deep poverty...they are unable to purchase enough of the abundance to lift them out of chronic nutrition." Political meddling is involved in other cases. Dr. Abdelgalil Elmekki of the University of Toronto cites two examples in which thousands starved while their countries were exporting massive amounts of food. The governments seemed far more concerned with raising foreign currency to finance their wars than with feeding their citizens. Dr. Elmekki's conclusion? Famine is often "a matter of distribution and government policy."

"Pestilences." (Luke 21:11; Revelation 6:8) The Spanish influenza of 1918-19 claimed at least 21 million lives. "The world had never in history been ravaged by a killer that slew so many human beings so quickly," writes A.A. Hoehling in The Great Epidemic. Today, pestilences rage on. Each year, cancer kills five million people, diarrheal diseases claim the lives of more than three million infants and children, and tuberculosis slays three million. Respiratory infections, mainly pneumonia, annually kill 3.5 million youngsters under five years of age. And a staggering 2.5 billion - half the world's population - suffer from sicknesses that stem from insufficient or contaminated water and poor sanitation. AIDS looms as a further reminder that man, despite his insignificant medical accopmlishments, is incapable of eradicating pestilences.

"Men will be.....lovers of money." (2 Timothy 3:2) In lands around the world, people seem to have an insatiable hunger for greater wealth. "Success" is often measured by the size of one's paycheck, "accomplishment" by how much one owns. "Materialism will continue to be one of the driving forces in American society.... and an increasingly important force in other major markets as well," declared the vice president of an advertising agency. Is this happening where you live?

"Disobedience to parents." (2 Timothy 3:2) Present-day parent, teachers and others have firsthand evidence that many children are disprespectful and disobedient. Some of these youngsters are either reacting to or imitating their parents' misbehavior. Increasing numbers of children are losing faith in - and rebelling against - school, the law, religion and their parents. "As a trend," says one veteran schoolteacher, "they seem to have very little respect for anything." happily, though, many God-fearing children are exemplary in behavior.

Features Of The Last Days-A lack of natural affection:continued