ARE THESE REALLY THE LAST DAYS?

YOU are in the bow of a canoe as it enters a rough stretch of river.  Huge boulders loom up through cascades of foam  and spray.  You try to fend them off.  The person behind you is suppose to help steer the craft, but he has little experience.  Worse yet, you have no map, so you have no idea whether these rapids will end in a calm pool or in a waterfall.

Not a pleasant scenario, is it?  So let us change it. Imagine that you have an experienced guide with you, one who knows this river's every rock, every bend.  He knew far ahead that this white water was approaching, he knows how it will end, and he knows how to negotiate his way through it.  Would you not feel far more secure?

Really, all of us are in a similar predicament.  We find ourselves, through no fault of our own, in a rough stretch of human history.  Most people have no idea how long things will be this way, whether conditions will improve, or how best to survive in the meanwhile.  But we do not have to feel lost or helpless.  Our Creator has provided us with a guide-one that foretold this dark period of history, predicts how it will end, and offers us the guidance we need in order to survive.  That guide is a book, the Bible and its Author, Jehovah God, calls himself the Grand Instructor, and through Isaiah he says reassuringly:  "Your own ears will hear a word behind you saying:  'This is the way. Walk in it, you people,' in case you people should go to the right or in case you should go to the left."  (Isaiah 30:20, 21) Would you welcome such guidance?  Then let us consider if the Bible really foretold what our days would be like.

Next time: ARE THESE REALLY THE LAST DAYS? - Jesus' Followers Ask a Meaningful Question

The Watchtower, 1997