Causes of All Bad News

The Bible tells of the time when only good news was the order of the day.  Bad news was something unknown, unheard of.  When Jehovah God completed his creative works, planet Earth was ready for man and beast to enjoy.    The Genesis account tells us:  "God saw everything he had made and look!  It was very good." -Genesis 1:31.

The absence of bad news did not last too long after man's creation.  Before any offspring was born to Adam and Eve, the bad news of rebellion against God and his orderly universal arrangement of good was reported.  A high-ranking spirit son became a traitor  to his trusted position and succeeded in moving the first human couple to join him in his rebellious, traitorous course. -Genesis 3:1-6.

The abundance of bad news witnessed by mankind had its beginning at that time.  It is a little wonder that intrigue, deception, lies, untruths, and half-truths have featured so prominently int he bad news that has flooded the world ever since.  Jesus Christ put the blame squarely on Satan the Devil as the originator of bad news, telling religious leaders of His day:  "You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to dot he desires of your father.  That one was a man slayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him.  When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie." -John 8:44.

As the human population increased in number, bad news increased along with it.  Of  course, this job does not mean that there were not times of joy and happiness, for there were many things in life that were causes for joy. Yet, the clouds of trouble and sadness have been evident down through every generation of mankind until now.

There is another underlying cause for this sad state of affairs.  That is inherited   leaning  towards wrongdoing and calamity.  Jehovah himself puts his finger on this unavoidable cause for bad news by saying:  "The inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up.A"  -Genesis 8:21.

Next time: Why the Escalation of Bad News?

The Watchtower, 1996