THE WALL STREET JOURNAL MONDAY, APR 6, 1981

A Voice Cries Out:

“I have both
Good News
and
Bad News.”

A joke that is serious REALITY!

   YOU’VE HEARD the joke. But when applied to your life and mine in today’s civilization it’s no joke! It’s something to think about!
     The joke is about a fictitious rookie airline pilot. Of course there are no inexperienced pilots on commercial airlines—only the experienced and capable.
     But the fictitious pilot in the joke says over the public address system: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I have both good news and bad news. I will give you the bad news first. WE ARE LOST! Now the good news. We’re making extra-fast time!”
     Applied to our civilization, it’s NO JOKE! This civilization has been piloted by largely inexperienced leaders. We’ve lost our direction! We’re not traveling toward the intended destiny of mankind’s incredible potential! We’ve never seemed to know what that potential is, or how to reach it! We’re in imminent danger of plunging into the CRASH of human extinction!
     And it’s definitely not good news that we’re traveling the disaster course at “extra-fast time.” And gaining momentum rapidly!
     Human leadership—the pilots of our civilization—has been incompetent. It has faced tough problems it is incapable of solving. It is piloting humanity through troubles and evils beyond human control.
     WHY?
     Our troubles and evils are primarily spiritual in nature, and humanity has capability of dealing only with the physical and material. The way to humanity’s intended potential is “GIVE”—a spiritual motive. But a misguided humanity has chosen the incentive of “GET” and confined it to materialistic acquisition.
     You board a 747 at New York for Paris. Your captain is well trained, experienced, capable. He has checked the weather patterns. He has efficient computerized equipment. He knows the prescribed air lanes. He has professional guidance from ground towers. He flies you safely to your destination, and with a trained crew makes the flight a pleasure. But he is dealing with the material and physical in which he has expertise. On the other hand, the pilots of our civilization are dealing with people and groups of people, and the spiritual equation enters into the picture.
     There seems NO LIMIT to what the human mind can accomplish in the realm of the natural and physical. But problems and troubles are largely spiritual in principle. Before them man seems pitifully HELPLESS!
     We can’t seem to solve problems and eradicate troubles in the home. We are very inexperienced at solving disputes between factions and groups, or troubles between nations. So we suffer the breakup of homes. We encounter troubles, violence and wars between factions, groups, nations.
     For 6,000 years a misguided humanity has been gaining momentum in the WRONG DIRECTION! We are “LOST”—and we are “making extra-fast time”—on a collision course toward a final CRASH in human extinction. It’s like a bad dream, from which we don’t want to WAKE UP!
     But just before the fatal CRASH, that super Pilot, the unseen “Strong Hand from someplace,” will intervene in human world affairs and save us from ourselves! Humanity will be compelled to enjoy world peace, happiness, both in material and spiritual abundance and universal well-being!
     UTOPIA? Yes! Why not? It’s all a matter of CAUSE and EFFECT. This voice is pointing out the CAUSE of present world evils—the “GET” incentive, calling on those of UNDERSTANDING to turn to the direction of “GIVE”—outflowing LOVE to God and to neighbor. And announcing the imminency of a new, peaceful, happy and abundant WORLD TOMORROW, whether one believes it or not!
     And that is GOOD NEWS!
    

Herbert W. Armstrong
(1892-1986)