Are you, if you obey God, cheated of a fun-filled life?
Are the other kids down the street, the live-it-up generation, having all the fun?
Don't be fooled!
This is the sick, sick sex age of the Soaring 60's and 70's.
This article makes plain the future, an opportunity of a lifetime, so colossal, as to defy the imagination.
What the future holds for you, if you have eyes to see and ears to hear,
will be all the riches of Tomorrow's World!
Do you have what it takes to meet the challenge?
TODAY'S teenagers have the greatest challenge of all times! Only twice in all history has it been so bad, and it's due to get worse! Perhaps we should label today, "the sick, sick sex age." You teenagers are fed a steady diet of sex! It seems to be on everyone's mind from the lowest laborer to the highest-ranking officials of the land. You see sex on the billboards, in the funnies, news, TV and in the flesh.
You have sex poked at you from morning till evening. Even the commercials on TV are loaded! The man of today, if you believe the ads or the movies, would rather fight than switch, drink martinis for breakfast, have 18 brassiere-bursting girl friends draped over his straight-eight, double barreled, TV-equipped convertible, with another half dozen slinky sex pots lounging around his bachelor apartment for decor. The guy is barely getting by on two grand a week obtained by all-night gambling in a dimly lit, smoke-filled, back-alley bar on the north side of town.
You live in a jungle of swill, pornography, rape, lying, cheating, killing, hating, butchery — demented, perverted, drunken, black- and white-power, race-rioting, opium-smoking, wretched, evil times. You live in the Sodom and Gomorrah predicted by Jesus Christ when He said, "as it was in the days of Lot" (Luke 17:28).
It's crazy, weird, sonic, luring, degenerating, captivating, mixed-up living!
You're in it up to your ears! It takes a special breed of wise, determined, cream-of-the-crop teenagers to bear up under the rot and swill of this evil, darkened, gloom-infested kingdom of Satan. You gotta have real willpower, real character — only the very, very wise will make it!
Every teenager has asked himself, at one time or another, is it worth the effort? Should I continue and resist the pulls of this world and society? Why not join the mob, take the easy route? Why not live it up, "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die!"
That's the philosophy of the vast majority of today's teenagers! Is there anything really wrong with such a philosophy?
Let's take a candid look, let's look to tomorrow and see! What are the end results of sin? What are the end results of obedience?
Sin's Bad — Not Good
Sin is like the first step down an open elevator shaft. It's a real thrill on the way down! A short thrill that ends in a heap of rubble. In I John 3:4 God says sin is the breaking of His Law — that's bad! In the end sin brings sickness, degenerate minds, unhappiness and miserable lives.
In the beginning God made man — "it was very good" (Gen. 1:27, 31). He gave man every good thing — a beautiful, wonderful world just like the one soon to come. He gave man a perfect environment. The hunting, fishing and camping were out of this world! The air was crisp and clean, the skies blue with wisps of white cotton-like clouds. He polished it all off by giving the first man a female that had more sex appeal, more beauty, looks and personality than fifty of today's beauty queens all rolled into one. He said, "That's good." He said, "She's all yours, Adam. Take her and care for her. She's your wife; you are one flesh." (Gen. 2:18-25)
Along came Satan. He said, "That's bad. Sin's good!" (Gen. 3) So man "took him wives of other men." He perverted every good thing of God. He was duped by Satan into believing black was white — that everything bad was good. He traded all his wealth for a few cheap trinkets and a yard or two of bright red cloth. Murder, sodomy, hatred and wretched living replaced the good. Evil became rampant on the earth. The earth was filled with violence. It was a time of race riots everywhere. The world was corrupt. All flesh had corrupted God's way upon the earth. Then God sent the flood to teach man that sin was bad! All flesh that moved upon the earth died. Only one family was saved alive! (Gen. 7:21-22)
When God says, "This is right and that's evil," that's right, that's good. When He says illicit sex, teen-age love is bad, He knows what He's talking about. He made us male and female from the dust of the earth. He said, "No adultery. No fornication. That's bad! That's sin!"
King David for a time forgot sin was bad. He committed adultery with another man's wife. He was drawn by the flesh to believe that bad was good. A few moments of stolen love cost the life of a man and a child. It cost David his kingdom and almost his life by the hands of his own son Absalom. David lived to see his wives abducted. They were seduced and raped out in the open for all to see. He lived to see the sickening, heartbreaking rape of his beautiful daughter, Tamar, accosted by his very own son in an unparalleled rape — a smashing blow to happiness and joy that could have been so different — if he just hadn't forgotten that bad wasn't good. David repented. He said, "God's right. Good is good; bad is bad. God surely knows what He's talking about. I give my life, this example, my unhappy story as evidence that sin is bad." (II Sam. 12, 13; Psalm 51)
Correction Pretty Important
On December 14, 1962, the U. S. spacecraft Mariner II completed a voyage to Venus that began August 27 of that same year. The spacecraft traveled 180.2 million miles in 109 days. That's 19 miles per second! In September it was determined the spacecraft was slightly off course. On September 5 a trajectory maneuver was made. The velocity of the spacecraft was changed by as little as .7 foot per second. Without this minute correction the spacecraft would have strayed 233,000 miles off course!
God's correction is pretty important, too! Without it you would miss your purpose, the reason you are on earth. Without God's correction you'd stray by a far greater distance than Mariner II. David learned a painful lesson. He was sternly corrected by God. It would have been so much easier if the correction had come earlier when he was just a little off course — when his mind first entertained the thought of sin. If he would only have remembered the instruction of his Father in heaven. God says correction gives understanding (Prov. 15:32). Another place He instructs the "wise son" as one hearing his father's correction (Prov. 13:1). It keeps him on course. Therefore, children, don't be weary of correction (Prov. 3:11). It's for your good! Find your course, the right course, the good course. Stick to the right way — hit the right goal dead center. Listen to God! Listen to Dad and Mom!
Unfortunately, some of you teenagers are products of a broken home. Your parents may be divorced and involved in all sorts of iniquity. After all, we are living in the Last Days of a 6,000-year period just prior to Christ's return. He said it would be the way it is — men and women would be "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage," really living it up just like they did in the days of Noah when God had to destroy all but eight adults (Matt. 24:36-39, Gen. 7:23).
Some of you may have to stand alone and obey God, like Noah did just over 4000 years ago. During Noah's time it was so bad that when God looked down on the earth He was only able to find one righteous man obeying and keeping His Word. Everyone else was corrupt, the earth was filled with violence (Gen. 6:9-13).
If Mom and Dad aren't the right examples, then you may have to look to God alone as your example and obey His commandments. However, you should remember that obeying God includes honoring your parents even if they are disobedient to God (Ex. 20:12).
It's Not Easy
Most teenagers at one time or another experience the desire to do good. You really do want to obey your parents, the government of God — it's just that it's so difficult.
I agree it is difficult and so does God's Word. He says "strive," work hard. Many weak and of poor character will make half-hearted attempts and will not "enter in." They won't have what it takes; they won't "be able" (Luke 13:24). Any treasure, anything worthwhile comes at "great price." The good things, the really big things are "worth! It's worth the extra striving for even the blessings in today's world, not counting what's beyond — just a few years away!
What is waiting for you physically is priceless! Few teenagers have heard or realized what God has in store for the obedient, God-fearing teenager of this generation. All it takes to receive this fabulous, physical, a-few-years-away future is real "he-man" character, determination and real guts!
No sissy will ever find it! It takes boys that have a great deal of masculinity and girls with depth, wisdom and fortitude. The next few years are going to be tough. It will take stamina, determination and wisdom to come through!
The Apostle Paul speaks of "this way" — the necessary work, strife, and effort to obtain — as being a "fight." The calling that you teenagers have been given is so great that it is not without price. The greater the value, the bigger the price.
Your opportunity through obedience is stupendous, colossal! Never again will teenagers in all of life on earth have the opportunity that you could have — right now; the opportunity that's within your immediate grasp! — not the distant future. I'm not necessarily thinking of the Kingdom of God now! That comes later.
A few of you teenagers have read, heard about, or in some way come across the scripture back in Ephesians 6:1-3, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for this is right." If you believe in God, if you are obeying God now, then you know this passage is right; it's true!
You Should Know the Time Is Short
If you have your eyes open, if you're observing the time, the "around," if you know anything at all about God's plan of salvation, the Millennium, or the purpose of life, then there should be no doubt in your mind that we are living in the "end times." You probably know that somewhere there is one true Church of God. You have, if you are observant, convinced yourself that the varying denominations, all preaching different doctrines, can't all be right.
If you have been studying the booklets printed by the editor of this magazine, if you have been studying them in conjunction with your Bible (booklets such as Why Were You Born? and the Wonderful World Tomorrow — What It Will Be Like), then no one has to convince you that you're not going to sprout wings and fly off to heaven to float around on cloud nine, strumming on the old banjo at the end of your life on earth. If you've looked into life's purpose or been exposed to the right way to live at all, then you should understand and know God's way really pays off. That it is the happy way for teenagers to live! Unfortunately, not all teenagers who are exposed to the right way to live want to or intend to follow and obey the way they KNOW to be right!
Some of you aren't quite convinced it's WORTH IT! You feel gypped, left out, oppressed by "this way of life" as the Bible phrases it, the right way to live. A few of you, who have parents who know right from wrong, may even resent the unfortunate circumstances of having parents who respect God's Word and your unhappy predicament of being forced to live and obey the way God would have you live.
Is God Unfair to You?
Many of you feel robbed, cheated and oppressed. You think God hasn't been fair with you. The "other kids," the worldly teenagers, who know nothing of the right way are the "lucky ones"! They get to "sex it up," kiss, hug and even go the limit! You look, you see, you desire. Your mind begins playing tricks on you! It tries to convince you that evil is good — that good is bad! You say, "Oh, if I could only have lived a while before finding out the truth, the right way to live."
You may never have had the chance to sow your wild oats, to make illicit, secret love, smoke, curse or get drunk. Time is running out. Jesus Christ is returning and you "haven't lived"!
The worldly kids are really having the fun — or are they?
Don't Bug Me With the Facts
Right about now some few of you are saying, "Come off it! I know what you're getting at! You're not going to trick me with the truth! My mind's closed — I mean made up. I'm going to break loose the first chance I get, and all hell is not going to convince me otherwise. Don't bug me with the truth, Dad I'm gonna live, man — live a little!"
To you I'd say, go to it — live it up — have fun. No one can help you — YET! Give it a few more years, a few broken skulls, throw in a tribulation and a thousand years or so; and maybe, just maybe, you'll be lucky enough to come up with your life in the Great White Throne Judgment Day! That's a 100-year period of time at the end of the Millennium for those who are too rebellious to obey now and have not known about God's true way to live.
To the rest of you, you who are a little wiser, keep reading. Maybe, just maybe, I can convince you the right way of life PAYS BIG DIVIDENDS FOR TEENAGERS as well as adults. The right way really is beyond your fondest, wildest dream! The false, perverted way is a greased toboggan slide to oblivion — to sick, degenerate minds.
The one-way trip to oblivion starts with feeling gypped with the truth and believing the other kids are having all the fun!
If you don't know about the right way of life, you ought to write in and ask for literature that would explain and show you where to find it in your own Bible. For openers try "What is a Real Christian?" "What is Real Repentance?" and "This is the Life — Real Abundant Living"!