Some Highlights...
On the cover, the title is 'Does God Really Care?' There are two photos: 1) A silhouette of a soldier laying flat on his stomach pointing an automatic weapon and 2) A colorless photo of at least 17 children pressed up against barbed-wire in (I assume) a Nazi concentration camp.
This cover would lead a person to conclude that God really does NOT care. (Note: a cover depicting war and the abuse/mistreatment of children at least made me feel that God doesn't really care). This tactic is a good way to stir up someones emotions and to cause one to read the article. But, will there really be a definitive answer in this magazine? Let us see.
'Many Questions, Few Satisfying Answers' is the first article. It talks about an earthquake in 1755 in the city of Libson and a French writer wrote that the earthquake was the result of divine retribution. Then the WT article mentions the Job story and says "many wonder how a good and loving God can seemingly remain passive in the face of so much suffering and injustice." Then, the WT quotes an athiest:
Nothing can excuse God for allowing the suffering of a child, ... unless, of course, he does not exist.
Next, the WT talks about the Holocaust and World War II. Then, it tries to make the Catholics seem like they don't have any answers, as though they don't have faith in God:
According to a 1997 survey conducted in France, a predominantly Catholic country, some 40 percent of the people doubt the existence of God because of genocides, such as the one that took place in Rwanda in 1994.
and
Why does God not prevent bad things from happening? One Catholic chronicler contends that this question is "a serious obstacle of faith" for many. He asks: "Indeed, is it possible to believe in a God who stands by helplessly while millions of innocent people die and whole populations in the world are massacred and who does nothing to prevent it?"
and
An editorial in the Catholic newspaper La Croix likewise comments: "Whether it be tragedies from history, technological dramas, natural disasters, organized crimes, or the death of a loved one, in each case, horrified eyes look up to the sky. Where is God? They demand an answer. Is he not the Great Indifferent One, the Great Absent One?"
and
Pope John-Paul II dealt with this issue in his 1984 apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris. He wrote: "Whereas the existenceof the world opens the eyes, as it were, of the human soul to the existence of God, to his wisdom, power and greatness, evil and suffering seem to obscure this image, sometimes in a radical way, especially in the daily drama of so many cases of undeserved suffering and so many faults without proper punishment."
Sounds as if the WTS is trying hard to plant seeds of doubt into the Catholics in order to reap them into the JW religion.
Next, under the heading, 'Divine Intervention - WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?', the WT article talks about how God healed a terminally ill King Hezekiah of Judah. The bible shows how the king prayed to God to be healed. God then added 15 years to his life. Usually, God won't grant such requests but since God promised that the Messiah would be born in David's line, he yielded this time. Why? Because Hezekiah didn't have a son yet. (Funchback question: What if Hezekiah said, "To hell with it. I lived a good life and I'm ready to die." Would God have granted him the extra years of life? This makes NO sense. Since it was already predetermined that Hezekiah would have to have a son, why did he even pray to be healed? God would have done it anyway, right?)
The article then cites examples of others who God "intervened" (Moses' deliverance of Israel from slavery, Saul on the road to Damascus, Daniel from the lion's pit, and the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace) and others who God let die (James being killed, Zechariah getting stoned, the massacre of innocents by Herod, and the persecution against Christinas by Roman Emperor Nero).
The WT article then says conclusively that TODAY God is certainly able to deliver his SERVANTS from dangerous situations, and those who feel that they have benefited from his protection ARE NOT TO BE CRITICIZED.
However, it is difficult to say conclusively whether God did or did not intervene in such cases.
Funchback question: What about those who AREN'T JWs? If they claim that they were delivered by God from a dangerous situation are THEY exempt from JW criticism?
Moving on, the article cites exapmles of JWs who survived a tragedy and JWs who didn't. The answer? "Time and unforseen occurence."
Next, totally contradicting their own statement that those who claim divine interventionshould not be criticized, they say this:
Finally, God helps his servants today, NOT by delivering them miraculously, but by giving them his holy spirit and "the power beyond what is normal" to COPE with whatever situation they may face.
So, after all is said and done, God DOES intervene BUT sometimes He doesn't. People (only JWs) have been rescued by God in modern times BUT they also haven't. My conclusion? Luck and being at the right place at the right time (or at the right place at the WRONG time). The solution by this WT article? Take a guess. Is it...
A) "Continue to read God's word daily and pray incessantly. With God's holy spirit, you can learn how God will comfort you and how, in the near future, the years of your life will be extended to time indefinite."
B) "God's word, the bible, is beneficial for mankind, not only for today, but for the future as well. It teaches us how to live and can protect us from many of the perils that we face each day. By reading His word and meditating on it on a daily basis, will give us hope and deliver us from this wicked system of things."
or
C) "Regularly reading this magazine will help you to understand what God has done, is doing, and will yet do that can bring you happiness now and a solid hope for the future."