Survivalists Prepare for “Armageddon”

“Survivalists Get Set for Armageddon” was a recent headline in the Los Angeles “Times.” The article described a rapidly growing movement in America that seeks to prepare for coming disaster. “Survivalists subscribe to a variety of scenarios about how Armageddon will arrive,” explains the “Times.” “It may be caused by earthquake, plague, famine or revolution.” The specter of nuclear war, economic collapse or urban warfare also haunts survivalists. “The people will turn to mob rule,” says one group’s literature, and “civilization will be destroyed.”
To get ready, survivalists stockpile gold, food, tools, medical supplies and weapons. Once again, nuclear fallout shelters sell briskly. Training camps for survival techniques—especially the handling of firearms—are springing up. “You should teach your children how to handle guns,” declared one survival instructor. “My youngest is 11 years old, and we’re training her to shoot.”
Will such preparations protect the “survivalists” from Armageddon? No. Armageddon is not something brought about by acts of men or natural disasters—not according to the Bible, where the term originated. Instead, it is “the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” fought to remove “those ruining the earth.” (Rev. 11:18; 16:14, 16) Hence, survival will depend, not on how much food is stored, or how straight one can shoot, but, rather, on heeding the charge: “Seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth . . . Seek righteousness, seek meekness.” Those who do, says the prophet, “may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.”—Zeph. 2:3.

Students and the "Sinking Ship"

According to an analysis by the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education, there has been a fundamental change in the goals of college students in the United States. Instead of putting the priority on human values and goals, as students generally did a decade ago, “learn the right thing and earn a lot of money” seems to be today’s philosophy. Why? “There is a sense among today’s undergraduates that they are passengers on a sinking ship, a Titanic if you will, called the United States or the world,” said the study. “There is a growing belief among college students that, if they are doomed to ride on the Titanic, they ought at least to make the trip as pleasant—make that as lavish—as possible and go first class, for they assume there is nothing better.”
Even the apostle Paul acknowledged that such a view of life is to be expected if one has no hope: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we are to die.” But this was to be expected, he said, only “if the dead are not to be raised up.” On the other hand, since those with faith realize that everlasting life in happiness is possible for both the living and the dead, they take the wise course recommended by Paul. He urged “those making use of the world” to be “as those not using it to the full.”—1 Cor. 7:29-31; 15:29-32; John 17:3.