World News and Trends: South Africa 's killing fields
South Africa's violent state reaches the white farmers among many.
According to a cover article in The Sunday Times Magazine, more than 1,700 white farmers in South Africa have been raped, tortured, mutilated and killed in the last 10 years. Journalist Brian Moynahan reported that the motive was "not theft, nor land grab as in Zimbabwe—but revenge fuelled by racism and envy."
The perpetrators of these attacks operate in small gangs that employ extreme violence, torture, rape and mutilation. Sometimes nothing is stolen. One survivor, a woman beaten severely with a steel pole, needed nine steel plates and lost her right eye.
The ethnic cleansing of neighboring rural Zimbabwe is all but completed. We should
also be aware that South Africa is not the stable, forgiving country that some observers have pictured for us in the media—although there are positive elements of both qualities in certain places.
Residual racism against white farmers is far from the only problem. Mr. Moynahan also reported that " South Africa suffers from a general epidemic of violence, and farmers cannot expect to be immune in a country where 18,793 people were murdered [from March 2004] to March 2005, the great majority of them urban blacks" (emphasis added).
We live in an increasingly violent world, not so unlike it was shortly before Noah's Flood. Jesus Christ said that at the time of the end, just before His second coming, world conditions would mirror those of Noah's day (Luke 17:26-27). For further understanding, request or download our free booklet Are We Living in the Time of the End? (Source: The Sunday Times Magazine [ London ].)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: May - June 2006
Course Content
Jerold Aust
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
