The rising tide of illegal immigration. The volatile Middle East. The nuclear aspirations of rogue nations. Deteriorating standards in education. Incurable diseases, and potential pandemics. Escalating crime. Drug abuse. Child abuse. Government corruption and abuse of power. Sex-slave trafficking. The growing threat of terrorism. Widespread polarization within government and among the citizenry.

The world is filled with problems.

Politicians within nations jockey for position, tearing down even supposed colleagues to achieve the highest seat of power. “Diplomats” among nations promise, cajole and compromise to maintain the status quo on the world stage—and intimidate and threaten to gain the upper hand.

Anti-Americanism is becoming more blatant, and a widening rift between Britain and the United States is becoming more pronounced. The war in Iraq has evolved into a bottomless pit from which escape is fleeting. Iran remains adamant in developing nuclear technology, while North Korea has expressed willingness for dialogue…at least for now.

In the West, the growing gap between rich and poor is causing the middle class to shrink. While America has more millionaires than ever, middle and working class citizens struggle to stay afloat in a rising sea of debt.

Meanwhile, a cacophony of competing opinions and solutions abound, with opposing sides presenting convincing arguments. But who is right, and how can you know?

Which Experts Should You Believe?

Take global warming, for example, a controversial subject upon which scientists disagree. The scientific community that today warns against global warming also warned in the 1970s that another ice age was on its way.

Yet glaciers are retreating. Arctic sea ice is disappearing during summer months. Permafrost (permanently frozen soil) in Canada, Alaska and Siberia is thawing at an alarming rate. Sea levels are rising. Hurricanes and tropical storms are increasing in number and intensity. Few experts dispute that signs exist identifying that the earth is growing warmer.

But what is the cause? Is humanity at fault? Is it merely that the earth is progressing through a natural cycle of cooling down and warming up, as others assert? Or are both responsible to some degree?

Now let’s consider abortion. Even its mere mention stirs vehement feelings from both sides of the ideological aisle. Thirty-four years have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade—yet debate continues, with no end in sight: Does life begin at birth or conception? Is it a fetus or an unborn child? Is abortion a matter of personal choice, or is it murder? Can there even be agreement on any of these things?

Even the names of the opposing sides of the issue are not agreed upon. Is one side called pro-choice or pro-abortion? Is the other side pro-life or anti-abortion?

Some think abortion should be on demand, at any stage of pregnancy, and that even if underage children are involved, parents need not be notified. Others, who see abortion as murder, pure and simple, rationalize that executing abortion specialists is acceptable, believing the ends justify the means.

Along a sliver of middle ground are those who are personally opposed to abortion, yet feel it should remain legal. Even here disagreement abounds:

“It depends on when you abort—at what stage of the pregnancy.”

“It depends on why you abort—was the pregnancy due to incest? Rape? Will it endanger the life of the mother?” A January 2006 CBS News poll found that 33% of Americans said abortions should be permitted only in cases of these three situations.

Yet a recent CNN poll shows that 64% of adults nationwide would oppose measures to repeal Roe v. Wade.

And then there is the theory of evolution versus traditional creationism.

The creationist who believes the earth and mankind were created 6,000 years ago must face a towering question: How can Adam, the first man, have been created six millennia ago when dinosaurs predated him by millions of years?

The evolutionist who believes the universe came into existence on its own and that life evolved also faces a towering question: How did something—either organic or inorganic—come from nothing?

Again, where is any agreement? More important, is any on the horizon?

Third World Conditions

Again, planet earth is filled with problems, and these are most apparent in developing nations.

Communist North Korea is tumbling toward disaster as millions there are starving. Society has degenerated so far that reports are coming from the Chinese-North Korean border of human meat being illegally sold in North Korean markets!

In regions throughout Africa, people exist in the depths of abject poverty. Many have never eaten fresh, green leafy vegetables—not by choice, but due to lack of supply. Some people eat meals every other day just to survive.

The Lord’s Resistance Army is wreaking havoc in Northern Uganda. In Sudan’s Darfur region, the rising death toll and the growing number of the displaced and destitute is a harsh, undeniable reality—yet amazingly, no single leader is being held responsible.

Zimbabwe is experiencing its own level of economic chaos and extreme poverty, with inflation at 1,100% and a loaf of bread selling for $895 (Zimbabwean dollars)!

And South Africa—having been freed from the decades-long injustice of apartheid—is now hostage to heinous acts of crime, earning the title “Rape Capital of the World.” How long will it take for this First World nation to disintegrate into another Third World nightmare?

Across the continent the rate of AIDS and HIV infections is escalating. Traditional Christianity has long tried to step in to “save souls” in Africa, but ultimately offers only empty promises and false hope.

For instance, a religious publishing organization recently announced it would raise funds to collect and ship four million Bibles to the millions of HIV-infected Southern Africans. According to a press release, “Today more than 35 percent of the South African population is infected with the HIV virus. Every day, thousands upon thousands die as a result of this deadly disease. And many more victims are going to their graves without the hope found in Jesus Christ.”

The organization’s president said, “This is a great tragedy. The Southern African church is completely committed to soul-winning. Yet God’s people there lack the basic tool they need to accomplish this goal: Bibles.”

While supplying people with God’s Word is commendable, Jesus Christ said, “No man can come to Me, except the Father, which has sent Me draw him” (John 6:44) and “No man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father” (vs. 65).

Traditional Christianity is ignorant of the understanding that God is NOT trying to save all humanity now. While the Creator has a Master Plan of Salvation for every human being—past, present and future—He is NOT at this time trying to “win souls for the kingdom” among the masses. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Jesus preached the gospel—literally “good news”—of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15). That kingdom is a soon-coming government that will establish universal peace and prosperity for all around the world (Isa. 9:6-7). God is calling only a few at this time to qualify for ruling and teaching positions in His government. But the vast majority of mankind will be called later.

This foundational understanding is plainly taught in the Bible—yet is not taught from the world’s pulpits or in its Sunday school classrooms.

Troubles Permeate the West

While the countries of the Third World are a study in ongoing misery and pain, the nations of the West are not immune to serious troubles and ills.

The United States, the superpower that was once a confident world leader, is slowly succumbing to the increasing backlash of anti-Americanism. Meanwhile, a united Europe is lining up to take America’s place as world leader. Yet Russia and China have their eyes on the same mantle. Bible prophecy reveals that a Eurasian power will arise and become a counterweight to European interests.

On the national scene, ghettos spread like cancer, decimating neighborhoods and destroying young lives. Theft, robbery, murder, drug abuse, drug trafficking, illegitimate births and third-generation welfare households are a way of life.

People blame the prison system for failing to rehabilitate young prisoners. People blame a conspiracy of the government and corporations, which presumably allow illegal substances to be brought into certain neighborhoods. People blame the police for not arriving at crime scenes fast enough—and for being abusive to criminals who resist arrest. People blame hardworking immigrants who legally come to America and open small businesses in pursuit of a better future. And people blame the schools for not properly educating their children.

Yet few blame themselves for committing the crimes that sent them to prison in the first place, or hold themselves responsible for rehabilitating their own lives. Few find fault in themselves for trafficking poisons that destroy families and ruin lives. Fewer still learn from the example of immigrants and start their own businesses. Even fewer spend the time to diligently teach their children—reading to them from the day they are born and helping them with their homework night after night instead of treating school as a babysitter.

Our modern age is a study in extremes. An intelligent, goal-driven woman can aspire to be an astronaut—earning engineering degrees, joining the U.S. Navy and logging over 1,500 hours of flight in more than 30 different aircraft, achieving the rank of captain, submitting herself to intense astronautic training and being given the opportunity to journey into space—only later to be arrested for allegedly attempting to kidnap a female competitor in a strange love triangle. This real-life news account stands as an example of how people can be successful with physical endeavors, yet fail at managing their thoughts, emotions, desires and conduct. Few, it seems, know how to manage their lives.

One in six people on earth access the Internet, a marvelous tool for sharing ideas, research, communication, operating businesses and other worthwhile pursuits. Yet users are only a web address away from every perversity this degenerating world has to offer.

Illicit conduct once done in secret is now made public for one billion (and rising) Internet users to see. A contestant on the television program American Idol learned this firsthand when her nude photos, presumably taken in “private,” were posted to the “web” and splashed across the television screen via cable news. And then there was a former head of the ACLU in Virginia. Federal authorities arrested him for possessing a home video library of child pornography, which showed little girls being violently assaulted.

The Bible foretold thousands of years in advance that certain key nations—the U.S., Britain, Canada and others linked together by an ancient past and prophetic future—would degenerate into cesspools of immorality covered by religious and moral hypocrisy. However, as Ezekiel 8 shows, the mask of hypocrisy is being pulled off, showing the world that the West’s moral high ground has turned to quicksand.

In the various lifestyles of “civilization,” keeping one’s virginity is considered antiquated. “Hooking up”—which can range from kissing to intercourse and everything in between—has become the norm. A generation of young people is now more likely to have sex with strangers than hold hands with a loved one while taking a walk!

Fewer couples are getting married. The two-parent nuclear family has become a minority. In the wake of widespread divorce (at least 50% of all U.S. marriages end this way), families headed by unwed couples, and same-sex households adopting children, many ask, “What defines a family?”

Professing Christianity claims to know the answer—claims to speak for God—but is utterly void of biblical understanding. There is a purpose for marriage, a reason for God confining sex to the marriage bed. Science cannot reveal it. Man’s religions do not have the answers.

Unique Analysis

The Real Truth (rcg.org/realtruth) is unlike any other magazine. It analyzes world news, trends, problems and conditions from a biblical perspective, because all the troubles and ills plaguing humanity—the causes that have produced horrific symptoms—are spiritual in nature.

Here’s one example. All wars, acts of terrorism and violent crimes have one common denominator, explained in the book of James.

Notice: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts” (4:1-3). As simple as it might seem, every act of violence, from a one-on-one skirmish to a full-scale war, is motivated by this carnal desire.

Even mainstream Christianity is confused about the depths of human nature, missing what the Bible actually reveals. The apostle Paul states, “the carnal mind is enmity [hostile] against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7).

The news media can report trends in the U.S. and Britain, news of the rising violence in the Middle East, deteriorating conditions in Africa, and events occurring in Europe, Russia and Asia. News media pundits can offer convincing, yet conflicting, opinions.

But The Real Truth explains why the family unit is being torn apart, and what this means—why the disagreeing Arab nations seemingly only agree when it comes to opposing the state of Israel—why “road maps” for peace and other humanly-devised plans go awry—why science cannot answer life’s greatest questions, such as why were you born—and how humanity has been deceived by religion. This publication answers these and many other fundamental questions—and how man’s problems will ultimately be solved.

All from a biblical point of view.