Current Events & Trends: Rewriting history
A recent article in the Financial Times reported: "In January Vladimir Putin presided over a meeting designed to produce a new standardised history book for use in schools.
The Russian president complained that many current textbooks are 'ideological garbage' and 'denigrate the Soviet people's role in the struggle with fascism'" (Gideon Rachman, "How Wars Can Be Started by History Textbooks," March 17, 2014).
This sounds like it's straight out of George Orwell's novel 1984, wherein one of the slogans of a fictitious political party is: "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Governments rewriting their own history books to stir up national pride is not something that is new under the sun.
Okay, so what if these textbooks are rewritten? What does this really do in the grand scheme of things? When government leaders control knowledge, they control the citizenry's perception of reality. This systematic misinformation can be the catalyst for future conflicts. There's not a whole lot an individual can do about that. So where do you turn for truth?
The Lord Jesus Christ said this about truth: "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). There is an undeniable truth, and that truth is the Word of God. No governmental systems we see around us are pure in their actions. We look to the future when Jesus will return to set up a government like no other:
"Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever" (Isaiah 9:7, emphasis added).
True judgment and righteousness is coming. Don't let the actions of governments hinder your view of what's right and the ultimate future we await. (Source: Financial Times.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: May - June 2014
Course Content
Rudolph Rangel III
Rudy Rangel attends the Cincinnati East, Ohio congregation along with his wife Judy and two children.
Darris McNeely
Darris McNeely works at the United Church of God home office in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife, Debbie, have served in the ministry for more than 43 years. They have two sons, who are both married, and four grandchildren. Darris is the Associate Media Producer for the Church. He also is a resident faculty member at the Ambassador Bible Center teaching Acts, Fundamentals of Belief and World News and Prophecy. He enjoys hunting, travel and reading and spending time with his grandchildren.
Peter Eddington
Peter serves at the home office as Interim Manager of Media and Communications Services.
He studied production engineering at the Swinburne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and is a journeyman machinist. He moved to the United States to attend Ambassador College in 1980. He graduated from the Pasadena campus in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and married his college sweetheart, Terri. Peter was ordained an elder in 1992. He served as assistant pastor in the Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo, California, congregations from 1995 through 1998 and the Cincinnati, Ohio, congregations from 2010 through 2011.
