Are You Willing to Change?

In just the last few years, millions of viewers have watched the Tomorrow's World telecast, or read the Tomorrow's World magazine, or viewed the www.tomorrowsworld.org Web site. With each passing month, thousands upon thousands more are hearing this message for the very first time. They are reading the strong, plain-spoken Bible-based articles appearing in the Tomorrow's World magazine. They have studied our booklets and articles, showing the truth about the existence of their divine heavenly Father—the Creator—who gives them every breath they draw. They have seen the utter ludicrousness of the evolutionary fantasy and other false teachings. They listen, they read and they talk. Perhaps they talk to family members, or friends, or people at the office. Perhaps they talk to people at church, or at school.

Already, they listen, and they read and they talk.

Yes, they listen, and they read and they talk—but what will they do?

What will you do?

God says: "So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them. And when this comes to pass—surely it will come—then they will know that a prophet has been among them" (Ezekiel 33:31–33).

What is it going to take for you to know, personally, that true servants of Almighty God are speaking to you over the Tomorrow's World telecast?

What is it going to take for you to heed and act on the knowledge you are receiving through the Tomorrow's World telecast, magazine and Web site?

How much will prophesied supernatural punishment have to affect you, personally, before you are willing to change your ways and obey God?

For that is the key—your willingness to change.

Many thoughtful people are intellectually convinced by what they hear over the Tomorrow's World telecast and read in the pages of the Tomorrow's World magazine—and they know it is right. But they resist and resent having to change their way of life! Yet, in this age above all others, your willingness to change and accept and obey the truth God is revealing through His servants in these end times is the key to your very survival—now and forever.

Before much longer, you will be able to see that this is not just a sentimental idea—it is a fact.

Your Attitude Is the Key

Down through the ages, every true servant of God has preached a message of change. This is simply because people have always tended to go the way of human nature—the way of vanity, selfishness, lust, hate and war.

As if with one voice, these faithful servants of God have cried out about the national crimes and sins of their peoples—not only in righteous indignation or wrath, but out of deep, personal concern.

Ezekiel cried, "Why should you die, O house of Israel?" (Ezekiel 18:31). Jeremiah lamented, "For He [God] does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men" (Lamentations 3:33).

Ezekiel and Jeremiah saw, with keen insight, the sickening excesses and sins of their people. They saw, through God's special revelation, the prophesied punishments those people were bringing on themselves. And they urged their people, whom they loved and wanted with all their hearts to serve, to repent of their sins—to change.

Each answered the cries of people who had so many problems—people who said of him, "He's only bad-mouthing the nation, and he never offers any solutions!"

They did offer solutions—vast, far-reaching solutions to world problems, and to the problems of individuals, by giving God's own answer.

The answer is to repent—to be willing to change. For to repent means not only to be sorry, but to be so sorry you are willing to quit doing what is wrong, and to turn around and go the other way. True repentance involves a real change.

Preparing for Christ's first coming, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Matthew 3:1–2).

Soon after, Jesus began His own ministry, preaching the gospel of the coming government (or rule) of God. He proclaimed: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:14–15).

Again and again, Jesus warned the people that the only way they could be saved was to repent of the ways, habits and customs of the people around them, and to begin obeying God. He warned, "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3, 5).

As the New Testament Church began, the inspired Apostle Peter set forth the way to salvation: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).

And again, "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19). The very word convert is a chemistry term meaning "to change."

To be spiritually converted, a person must be genuinely, actively sorry and repentant for his past disobedience to the true God, and then he must change his way of life to conform to God's will.

Surely you have noticed that the articles in the Tomorrow's World magazine constantly show you how many of the habits, customs and beliefs of this world are contrary to the commands of God. What are the days you should keep holy? What is the reward—the true goal—of the Christian? What should we do about the constant exhortations to obey the commandments of God—all of them? What should we do with the instructions about how to live by every word of God?

Are you really doing something about this precious knowledge God is giving you?

The following is a letter—typical of many—from a man who knows he should change.

"I greatly appreciate the literature you have sent me for the past two years. I have learned a lot of things and perhaps have come close to giving my whole self to God. It's too bad that I fell short. Since I am going to Oklahoma State University this fall, I think that your material that you have been sending me would go to waste. I can plainly see that the materialistic pull and social influence—especially my roommates'—would cause me to put it aside. As you may probably see, I am not too worried about God's wrath. I put the matter aside and think, God will pull me through sooner or later. At least I know where to run when the times get bad. That is almost like getting something for nothing isn't it? I have no excuse. I have seen the truth and ignored it. I'm not disenchanted and looking for an answer to man's ills. I have found the answer through your work. I'm not confused. I'm just sinful. It's a pity that your literature had to be wasted. I am just a typical human."

Too "Weak" To Change?

Do you, too, resist having to change? Does it seem too difficult for you to change from your way of life to God's way of life?

You need to realize that your human nature itself must be repented of! God says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).

With those words, God is describing the kind of nature you have!

You probably do not like to change. You probably do not like the idea of admitting that your religion or your way of life may have been wrong.

Notice this striking description of the human mind in Professor James Harvey Robinson's enlightening book, The Mind in the Making:

"We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship. It is obviously not the ideas that threaten themselves that are dear to us, but our self-esteem which is threatened…The little word my is the most important one in human affairs, and properly to reckon with it is just the beginning of wisdom. It has the same force whether it is my dinner, my dog, my house or my faith, my country and my God. We not only resent the imputation that our watch is wrong, or our car shabby, but that our conception of the canals of Mars, or the pronunciation of 'Epicetus,' or the medicinal value of salicine, or of the date of Sargon I, are subject to revision…We like to continue tobelieve what we have been accustomed to accept as true, and the resentment aroused when doubt is cast upon any of our assumptions leads us to seek every manner of excuse for clinging to it. The result is that most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do."

What a classic illustration of the human mind—your mind!

Now notice what God says about the natural, fleshly mind of man, "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). And in the previous verse, God says that "to be carnally minded is death."

So the Bible shows that the very key to your survival is your willingness to repent of your own ways and change your own ideas, customs and beliefs so that they really correspond with God's ways and teachings as revealed in your Bible.

God's Truth Brings Responsibility

God has shown many of you readers that this is His Work. Through the Tomorrow's World telecast, and in the pages of this magazine, you are constantly challenged in plain, clear terms to obey the Ten Commandments literally as God intended. You are challenged to keep His days holy and to come out of this world's many pagan religious observances, customs and traditions.

But many of you just sit back and listen, and say, "Well, I agree with what you teach, but I don't see that there is anything I need to do about it."

Yet God says, "For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified" (Romans 2:13).

Again, God says, "Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin" (James 4:17).

Most of you regular readers of Tomorrow's World really know what you should be doing. You know that you should begin acting on the vital knowledge you learn through God's work. You know that even more precious knowledge of God's truth is available by studying the amazing free booklets we offer on many subjects.

You know that you can be fed even more of these important spiritual truths by taking and acting on the Tomorrow's World Bible Study Course.

You know where the truth is available. You know that there is no one else on earth today who is really making the Bible plain as we are doing—and is making major events in world happenings plain in their definite, prophetic significance.

Will You Act While There Is Time?

How will you feel when these events you have been reading about suddenly come to pass in front of your very eyes? How will you feel when you have known about these things all along—have known that you ought to begin to obey God and act on this knowledge He was freely revealing to you—but have just sluggishly or stubbornly refused to change your ways and come under His protection in time?

Are you going to react like the fellow who wrote this letter? "I'm not a Christian. It takes a man to be one of them. I don't pray. I never prayed in my life. I had a chance to join a church but the way they put it across didn't seem right to me. I had a good chance to go the way of evolution but it didn't seem right. When the truth did come along I wasn't so dumb that I didn't recognize it. I help support this work financially because I believe in it 100 percent. But, please don't think that I pray. I can't humble myself enough."

Shocking?

Yes. At least it should be, if you can comprehend the stakes involved.

The God of your Bible states, "On this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word" (Isaiah 66:2).

You should surely know by now that we are not playing sentimental little games with you. We challenge you to prove what we say about world events and the fulfillment of biblical prophecies. For what we teach can be and does stand proved.

But simply knowing these things will do you or your loved ones no good whatever. For you must act on the truth. You must live by God's laws—all of them. You must change your approach and your very way of life to conform to the example and teachings of the true Jesus Christ of your Bible.

For the sake of life and eternity, will you exercise the courage and determination to make this change?