1964 Awake! - Theocratic Collector.com

other five months of the year the ash just
builds higher and higher. Women wear
veils to protect their hair from the gritty
"fallout." When wind direction and heavy
eruptions combine to drop extra-thick
clouds of ash, people simply have to cover
their eyes and try to carryon as usual.
How Much Longer?
The uncertainty- about how long the
eruptions will continue has had an ominous
effect upon the country's economy as a
whole. Construction work has virtually
come to a standstill. Sales have declined.
Damage to buildings from the weight of
fallen ash 'has been noted. The government,
doing what it can to alleviate the situation,
has had to pour hundreds of thousands of
dollars into the job of cleaning up-an
apparently endless task. More than 100,000
tons of the ash have had to be removed
from the streets of San Jose, the capital,
during an eighteen-month period. But generous
assistance from neighbor COWltries
has been a ray of light piercing the gloom.
Under such trying conditions the minds
of many turn to wondering why all this
misfortune has come upon them. Religious
leaders have encouraged the view that the
people are really being punished by God
for their sins. But reasonable persons look
around at other lands and cannot quite see
that Costa Ricans are any more blameworthy
than other peoples. A little reflection
would also show them that the volcanic
ash, like ordinary rainfall, comes
alike upon the good and the bad. This certainly
rules out the idea that God is sending
these conditions as a punishment, for
the patriarch Abraham could declare with
confidence: "It is unthinkable of you that
you are acting in this manner to put to
death the righteous man with the wicked
one so that it has to occur with the righteous
man as it docs with the wicked! It is
Wlthinkable of you. Is the Judge of all the
10
earth not going to do what is right?"
-Gen. 18: 25.
When Jesus was ministering among the
Jews, it is evident that he encountered the
same idea, fostered by the religious leaders
of that time, namely, that calamities were
punishments from God. He set the question
at rest and pointed to the yet future time
of punishment from God, for the record
at Luke 13:1-5 tells us: "At that very
season there were certain ones present that
reported to him about the Galileans whose
blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
So in reply to them he said: 'Do you
imagine that these Galileans were proved
worse sinners than all other Galileans because
they have suffered these things? No,
indeed, I tell you; but, unless you repent,
you will all likewise be destroyed. Or those
eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam
fell, thereby killing them, do you imagine
that they were proved greater debtors than
all other men inhabiting Jerusalem? No,
indeed, I tell you; but, unless you repent,
you will all be destroyed in the same
way.' "
So Costa Ricans and all other peoples
can take comfort and warning from
the knowledge that God is not causing
their present distress but that it is at
the battle of Armageddon that he will
punish the wicked with annihilation.
Meanwhile, and until he does take such
final action in the near future, it is a fact
that "time and unforeseen occurrence befall"
all men. (Eccl. 9:11) Those who today
prove themselves worthy of survival
of Armageddon's storm will live in a new
system of things in which they will receive
divine instruction and protection
against volcanic eruptions, storms and
weather hazards of the future. There will
be no more torment, for Jehovah has decreed
that nothing will do any harm or
cause any ruin in all the earthly realm of
his kingdom.-Isa. 11:9.
AWAKE!