A "Way" of Life

Most of these folks want to get "involved" in something. They feel that the mainstream churches they left did not satisfy that need. They indicate that empty faith and empty rituals were not enough to fulfill their spiritual craving.

Fair enough.

But what they might not realize is that the real religion of Jesus Christ is a very active religion. It does have specific standards and values. It is an entire "way of life." In fact, in Acts 9:2, the persecuting Saul asked for letters authorizing him to seize any Christians in Damascus "so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." The inspired author of the book of Acts tells us about Paul: "And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks" (Acts 18:4). And, regarding Apollos, "When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately" (v. 26).

In Acts 19:9, we are told: "But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus." Then later, "And about that time there arose a great commotion about the Way" (v. 23).

When viewing the original Christianity, even outsiders realized that these early followers of Christ had far more than an empty faith with redundant rituals. They were "on fire" for a way of life! And the reality of the coming Kingdom of God brought passion and fervor to their entire existence!

What the modern "seekers" also fail to realize is that a way of life helped make America and Canada the great nations they became. And in America's early years as a nation, the Judeo-Christian ethic—though practiced imperfectly—was a tremendous bulwark against the kind of moral deterioration it has experienced in recent years.

Now, we seem to be in a headlong rush to forsake even the limited spiritual understanding we used to have as a nation and the basically decent way of life we used to practice. As one who grew up in the American Midwest in the 1930s and 1940s, I well remember the almost total safety of our city and our neighborhood. Elderly ladies went out walking at night with no fear. Little boys and little girls played "hide and seek" and "kick the can" in almost total darkness in neighborhoods all over the city. Murder and rape were virtually unheard of. And many folks did not even bother to lock their doors at night!

Back then, respect for authority was taught and largely practiced. The Ten Commandments were posted in many schools and public places.

But, today, we have lost our "way"!

As our nations have turned away from God and from His laws, the God of heaven has definitely indicated that He will need to give us loving correction in order to bring us back to Him. God warned our forefathers that if our peoples turned aside and began to "act corruptly" and to "do evil" in His sight, then He would intervene to shake us to our senses (Deuteronomy 4:23–25). "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you" (vv. 26–27). God said that we would be left "few" in number and would become completely idolatrous until we were truly humbled and began to "seek" Him with all of our hearts (vv. 28–29).

And when would all of this take place? "When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice" (v. 30).

We are certainly now in these "latter days"! We are now capable of destroying all human life on this planet, as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24. We are now extremely corrupt, just as the Apostle Paul predicted for the latter days in 2 Timothy 3:1–5: "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come" (v. 1). And so a number of factors seem to be coming together to bring about the final humbling and chastening of our peoples. In a "dual" prophecy—applicable before Israel's first captivity and now again at the time of the end—God stated: "And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze" (Leviticus 26:18–19).

That is one reason for the existence of this magazine.We want to warn all our readers about the dangers ahead, and to help those God calls to live His Way and recapture in their own lives the original Christianity of Jesus and His Apostles—the only true Christianity, and the Way that will bring blessings and joy, even in the midst of our troubled world.

We at Tomorrow's World are striving our best, with God's help, to do the "Work" that Jesus Christ commanded. Read my article on page 4 of this magazine to learn more about what this entails. This very "Work" of proclaiming God's message through this magazine and the Tomorrow's World television program is now being used by God to warn the world, and to warn and help you—if you are willing to listen. For we are being used by God to help prepare the way for the coming Kingdom of God on this earth, which alone will bring genuine peace and joy. The true God warns the deceived nations (Revelation 12:9) of this world, "Look among the nations and watch—be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you" (Habakkuk 1:5).

For your sake, for your very survival—I pray that many thousands of you dear readers will open your mind to study and to prove what God is telling you right now and that some will be willing to act on the Truth of God while you have the opportunity. For the more you sincerely "seek God," the more you pray for and get involved in this very end-time Work which Jesus Christ is now accomplishing, the more you will be able to "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:19–21).

The Apostle Jude was inspired to write: "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). Note that the true faith was delivered "once for all." It was not to be altered, changed, done away, watered down or tampered with. And Jude continued, "For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 4). Wicked men were able, during the Dark Ages, to change and to pervert the entire way of life delivered to us by Christ and the Apostles.

America and Canada and other British-descended nations will not continue to exist, as we have known them, unless there is a profound change in our character—a national repentance and a return to the way of God. But each of us individually may be blessed and protected during the traumatic times ahead, if we are willing to live by the Way Jesus Christ taught, and to fight—to "contend earnestly"—for the faith which was "once for all" delivered to the saints.