Will It Ever Be Safe to Live Without Locks?

SOME older people can recall the days when no one locked doors. Today, young folks in some parts of the world find that almost impossible to believe. They have grown up learning that locks are essential to protect property and life.

In New York city many homeowners have four locks on their front doors. In Rome a Guardian reporter relates: “Two or three new locks are installed on front doors. The poor, who never bothered shutting their doors during the day, now realise that the new thieves are not class-conscious.” Yes, these days, more and more people need locks.

As a consequence, the security business is booming. Not just locks, but burglarproof glass windows and electronic alarms are being installed in great numbers. Under the title “The Fortification of Suburbia,” one U.S. magazine recently devoted eleven pages to describing the lengths to which homeowners are going to protect themselves and their possessions.

But even with many locks and other more sophisticated security equipment, few people really feel safe.

ARE YOU SAFE WITH LOCKS?

Locks have only a limited value; thinking people realize that. They know, for one thing, that crime is increasing rapidly in major cities. In 1972 there was ‘one burglary for every forty-five homes’ in the U.S. However, an authority in home security claims: “Eventually, I think, every home in America may be robbed. There’s really no hope to cut the crime rate.” So, the chances of you or your home being a target for crime grow greater every day.

Then, too, people know, as a popular American monthly, Changing Times, says: “No lock will stop a thief determined to get into your home.” Why? Because professional burglars are able to pick just about any lock that stands in their way, and others less skillful often force doors and windows to get into homes. Of course, good locks greatly reduce the possibility that your home will be burglarized.

Some ask, Why not just get away from crime, and go to where locks are not needed? That might sound like a good idea; but where would you suggest going?

True, there are some areas where one is still relatively safe from immediate bodily harm; but each day these places are becoming fewer in number. How about small isolated towns? In Roundup, Montana (population about 2,800), the local sheriff says that there is “no respect for the law whatsoever.” What about those larger cities that were once considered mostly crime free? These, too, are now often known for their danger. In Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Police Chief P. A. Jong refers to the “alarming” increase of crime in his area.

In view of this, what can be done to assure one’s safety? There is a diminishing number of places to which one can flee. Is the use of more locks the only answer?

Before a definite answer is given, stop and consider, What would be necessary to make the world or any part of it crime free?

WHEN LOCKS ARE NOT NEEDED

It would be essential to change people, that is, to alter their personalities. If people were good, locks would not be needed, is that not true? A former New York legislator notes: “Controlling [crime] means changing the minds and hearts of men.” Perhaps that strikes you as a “utopian” solution. Is it?

Several years ago an international organization held a mammoth convention in Munich, Germany. A businessman in the city later remarked that his fellow workers had made an interesting observation about the convention. Ordinarily, when there is a large group of visitors to Munich, there is also a wave of shoplifting. But these businessmen were astonished because, with this meeting, there was no rise in thefts. Who sponsored this convention of honest people? Jehovah’s witnesses.

Similarly, Norman Long tells about the work of Jehovah’s witnesses in Zambia, on the African continent. His book Social Change and the Individual says: “Put bluntly, while non-Witnesses can trust only their kin (and not always them), Witnesses can trust both kin and fellow Witnesses.” They are known for their honesty.

And Dan Grotta reported on a large U.S. Witness gathering for Philadelphia magazine (October 1973). He tells of passing a Lost and Found counter on which were displayed pens and pencils, and, yes, pocketbooks and wallets. Grotta observes: “No one watched very closely because the Witnesses wouldn’t think of taking what wasn’t theirs; there are no more honest people in the world than Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

These examples from Europe, Africa and America, involving people who had come from all kinds of backgrounds, should be sufficient to show that people can change and live honest lives. A world filled with people like them would hardly need locks, would it? But how have the Witnesses been able to make such changes?

Primarily by their faith in an honest, loving God and in his Word, the Bible, the Witnesses have been able to make these changes. They know that God started mankind in paradise with the prospect of eternal life. But man, instigated by the Devil, sinned, and this has brought on the criminal conditions that have characterized human history. Jehovah’s witnesses are sure that God will carry out his original purpose to make all the earth a paradise, because his word has “certain success,” the Bible says at Isaiah 55:10, 11. When will this occur?

The very lawless conditions that prompt people all over the world now to ask, “Will it ever be safe to live without locks?” prove that the time is very near when wickedness will be ended by God. Then God’s new order will follow.​—See Matthew 24, 25; Mark 13 and Luke 21.

These truths are very real to Jehovah’s witnesses. So, they are not overly influenced by wicked men around them. They take to heart the words of the psalm, freely rendered by one modern translator: “Never envy the wicked! . . . Only a little while and the wicked shall disappear . . . But all who humble themselves before the Lord shall be given every blessing, and shall have wonderful peace . . . and live there forever.”​—Ps. 37:1-3, 10, 11, 29, The Living Bible.

Would it not be a pleasure to associate with such honest, peace-loving people? Feel free to contact Jehovah’s witnesses; find out more about the approaching world without locks.