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As the Days of Noah Were As Corruption, Violence and Evil Increase, Our World Teeters on the Brink of Self-Destruction

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As the Days of Noah Were As Corruption, Violence and Evil Increase, Our World Teeters on the Brink of Self-Destruction Satan: A Profile 13 The World Needs Visionaries 16 Is God Fair? 19 Vol. 3, No. 5 • September/October 2016 DISCERNA Magazine of As the Days of Noah Were LifeHopeandTruth.com DISCERN 1 Table of Contents News 4 WorldWatch 25 World InSight The Scourge of Slavery Returns Columns 3 Consider This So Simple a Child Can Understand 16 28 Christ vs. Christianity Where Did the Popular Image of Jesus Come From? 31 By the Way Don’t Defenestrate! Feature 6 The Return of Jesus Christ: 6 19 As the Days of Noah Were As corruption, violence and evil increase, our world teeters on the brink of self-destruction. Jesus 13 PROPHECY Satan: A Profile Christ’s promise to come again He’s invisible, so many people are confused whether Satan really exists. They don’t know offers our only real hope. how he works today. Here’s what you need to know for your protection. Departments 16 CHANGE The World Needs Visionaries Being a Christian isn’t just about being a visionary. It’s about being the right kind of visionary. 10 PROPHECY The pages of God’s Word show us how. Who Would Jesus Vote For? America is in the midst of a 19 LIFE Is God Fair? contentious presidential election, It’s a fair question. But even many religious people who think He is can’t explain some of the and other nations are facing tough questions that cause many to think He isn’t. major elections as well. If Jesus walked the earth today, who 22 RELATIONSHIPS You Don’t Say! would He support? Five questions to ask yourself before you say anything to anyone. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Doctrinal reviewers: John Foster, Bruce Gore, Peter Hawkins, Jack Hendren, New King James Version (© 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.). Used by Don Henson, David Johnson, Ralph Levy, Harold Rhodes, Paul Suckling permission. All rights reserved. The Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc. has congregations A Magazine of POSTMASTER: Send address changes to P.O. Box 1009, Allen, TX and ministers throughout the United States and many other countries. DISCERN Visit cogwa.org/congregations for information. 75013-0017 Publisher: Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc., P.O. Box Donations to support Discern magazine and LifeHopeandTruth.com can be made online at LifeHopeandTruth.com/donate or by surface mail to September/October 2016; Vol. 3, No. 5 1009, Allen, TX 75013-0017; phone 972-521-7777; fax 972-521- 7770; [email protected]; LifeHopeandTruth.com; cogwa.org Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc., P.O. Box 731480, Dallas, Discern magazine (ISSN 2372-1995 [print]; ISSN 2372-2010 [online]) TX 75373-1480. The Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc. is is published every two months by the Church of God, a Worldwide As- Ministerial Board of Directors: David Baker, Arnold Hampton, Joel organized and operated as a tax-exempt organization in the United Meeker (chairman), Richard Pinelli, Larry Salyer, Richard Thompson sociation, as a service to readers of its LifeHopeandTruth.com website. States according to the requirements of IRS 501(c)(3). Contributions are and Leon Walker Discern’s home page is LifeHopeandTruth.com/Discern. Free electronic gratefully acknowledged by receipt. subscriptions can be obtained at LifeHopeandTruth.com/Discern. Staff: President: Jim Franks; Editor: Clyde Kilough; Editorial content Unsolicited materials sent to Discern magazine will not be critiqued or manager: Mike Bennett; Managing editor: Elizabeth Glasgow; Senior Contact us at [email protected]. returned. By submitting material, authors agree that their submissions editor: David Treybig; Associate editor: Erik Jones; Copy editor: Becky become the property of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, © 2016 Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Bennett Inc. to use as it sees fit. iStockphoto.com 2 DISCERN September/October 2016 CONSIDER THIS SO SIMPLE A CHILD CAN UNDERSTAND How do you explain to a neither do adults. It’s time we adults stop child what is happening acting so childishly, lift our eyes higher in our world today? than the issues that are dividing and de- stroying us, and reduce life to its simplest, most important principles. So, trying to answer a child’s question, When we stopped for coffee on a long here’s my attempt. I think: Hroad trip recently, one of my grandchil- • We need to admit that we humans are dren softly asked me, “What do you think utterly incapable of solving our own about what all of you were talking about?” problems. • We—every single one of us—need to take Reeling from one tragedy to a long, honest look inside ourselves and another humbly admit that we are wrong in so I thought she had been asleep. But no, she had been many ways we think and live. quietly listening to us adults bemoaning how our world is • We need to quit ignoring and instead turn to a higher hurting, reeling from one crisis and tragedy to another— authority than ourselves—God! brutal, senseless, unpredictable mayhem that has every- • We need to really listen to Him, repent and start one on edge. And, of course, we were also opining about doing what He says. Jesus’ message was clear and the complex, underlying reasons. simple: “Repent and believe in the gospel!” Our focus was on events of only the previous month— • Knowing history and human nature, most people shootings (some involving police) of unarmed civilians in aren’t ready to listen to God just yet, but some are. cities around the United States, armed civilians assas- You can choose to. sinating police officers, terrorists armed with bombs at- • The Bible is right—the only viable solution for our tacking an airport in Turkey, another armed with nothing world’s problems is for Jesus Christ to return as soon more than a big truck mowing down scores of people as possible. (including many children) in France, and the deadliest • Ultimately, everything’s going to be okay because— mass shooting by a single shooter in U.S. history in an and only because—He is coming back. Orlando nightclub. • This isn’t just what a human thinks; it’s what God I was immediately sorry she had heard all that—it’s too tells us. I choose to believe Him. much for little ears to hear and young minds to compre- This is actually the theme of this edition of Discern. We hend. I’m even more sorry about the world we are hand- believe these are the core issues and solutions for human- ing to the next generation. And how do we explain to ity, and we hope it gives you something to believe in! children what is happening when we adults grapple with In the right time and place, I’ll revisit this question and understanding it ourselves? try to better explain to my granddaughter what I think Clear, simple answers are the most difficult to de- and why, in simple terms that even a child can under- velop, and a 10-second stroll into the restaurant hardly stand. allows for substantive dialogue. So when drink and food I think it’s what God has been trying to tell all of us, as choices quickly distracted her from the topic at hand, I His children, for a long time. was grateful for the reprieve. I needed a little more time to think this through, to recover from the lousy job I did in stumbling around for a simple and honest, yet reassuring, answer that a child could understand. The simplest principles Clyde Kilough She hasn’t brought the question up again, but it has Editor hardly left my mind. Children don’t need complicated @CKilough analyses and answers to life’s big questions. But frankly, iStockphoto.com LifeHopeandTruth.com DISCERN 3 WORLDWATCH “Of all the weapons of destruction that man could invent, the most terrible— Learn more about and the most powerful—was the word. the cause and Daggers and spears left traces of blood; solution to injustice arrows could be seen at a distance. in the article “Is God Poisons were detected in the end and Fair?” on PAGE 19. “I tremble for avoided. But the word managed to my country destroy without leaving clues.” when I reflect —PAULO COELHO that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep Learn more in the article forever.” “You Don’t Say!” on PAGE 22. —THOMAS JEFFERSON Learn more in the article “Satan: A Profile” on PAGE 13. “All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, 57% oppression, slavery and war, proceed from Percentage of Americans who believe the devil their despising or neglecting the precepts exists. contained in the Bible.” According to a survey by YouGov, this includes “72 percent of African Americans, 65 percent —NOAH WEBSTER of Republicans and 61 percent of women. … Sixty-three percent of people with a high school education said they believe in the evil spirit compared to 48 percent of college graduates. … Learn more in the article “The Return of Jesus Christ: As 41% 58% the Days of 56% 48% Noah Were” 52% on PAGE 6. Percentage of Americans Percentage of who “believe that Jesus Americans who “see Christ definitely (23%) or another world war as 64% probably (18%) will have definite or probable” by returned to earth [by 2050]. 2050. “Nearly as many However, a 46%-plurality of (53%) expect the United the public does not believe States to face a terrorist Christ will return during the attack with nuclear “Sixty-four percent of Southerners fear Satan next 40 years.” weapons.” compared to 56 percent in the Midwest, 52 percent in the West and 48 percent in the Northeast.” PEW RESEARCH DAILY MAIL 4 DISCERN September/October 2016 PEW RESEARCH “You cannot “The most pathetic depend on your person in the world eyes when your is someone who has imagination is out sight but no vision.” of focus.” —HELEN KELLER —MARK TWAIN “Where there is no prophetic vision the “Vision is the people cast off art of seeing the restraint, but invisible.” blessed is he who keeps the —JONATHAN SWIFT law” (Proverbs 29:18, $2,500,826,756 English Standard Learn more in the article “The World Needs (the Version).
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