Insight on the News
AIDS—Paying the Price
The U.S. Federal Centers for Disease Control estimates that the average hospital cost per day for treating AIDS patients is $830—double that of other patients. And experts estimate that the total cost of treating each patient could average over $100,000. This and an explosive growth in the number of AIDS victims seeking treatment have hospital and insurance officials concerned.
The American Hospital Association calls the rapid spread of AIDS a “time bomb” for the nation’s hospitals, as dollar costs will soon reach thousands of millions annually. One life-insurance official warned: “I see it as potentially the biggest financial risk the health and life insurance business has ever faced in this country.” Who will bear the enormous monetary burden?
Many AIDS victims are homosexuals and drug addicts, whose self-indulgent life-style brought the disease upon them. But they will not be the ones to pay financially. Instead, government and insurance officials indicate that policyholders and taxpayers will be forced to bear the burden through higher levies. Additionally, “education, public safety and capital needs are going to suffer,” a New York Post editorial noted.
Formerly, AIDS victims who have contracted the disease because of their life-style may have scoffed at Bible morality to justify their form of self-gratification. How much pain to themselves and expense to others they could have avoided! However, it may not be too late for any such to turn now to the Bible’s inspired moral standards that come from “the One teaching you to benefit yourself, the One causing you to tread in the way in which you should walk.”—Isaiah 48:17.
Peace and Security—Soon?
A well-known inscription on the United Nations Plaza wall reads: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares. And their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war any more.” Hopeful of bearing fruit toward the fulfillment of those prophetic words, the United Nations has declared 1986 to be the “International Year of Peace.” Is there reason to believe that the UN will succeed in its avowed goal as the self-proclaimed caretaker of “international peace and security?”
Whatever contribution the UN may make toward the impending cry of “peace and security,” any man-made peace surely rests on an explosive foundation. (1 Thessalonians 5:3) Military expenditures are now estimated to be approaching a trillion dollars annually worldwide. Since World War II, excluding conventional weapons, the cost of building nuclear arsenals has been estimated at three to four trillion dollars—hardly what would be expected at a time when the UN is calling for dedication to world peace and security! In fact, says Vernon Walters, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, “the United Nations has drifted away from its role as an institution for the resolution of conflict,” dashing the hopes of those who believed that “the U.N. would do more than it has in the way of conflict resolution.”
Nevertheless, the inscribed words quoted earlier from Isaiah 2:4 will find fulfillment—but not in 1986, or ever, through the efforts of a man-made organization. Rather, real peace and security will soon be brought about by a heavenly government, whose invisible leader truly is the “Prince of Peace.”—Isaiah 9:6, 7.
Nuclear Retaliation—God’s Vengeance?
Could the use of nuclear weapons be justified in response to a nuclear attack? Yes, says the Free Church of Scotland in a recent issue of their church magazine, The Monthly Record. The article stated that such retaliation could ultimately prove to be a “legitimate execution of the wrath of God” due to “the divine mandate to execute wrath against evil.” The Record also claims that their witness includes proclamation of God’s judgment on “that nation . . . which launches the first strike in a nuclear war.”
That there will be a “day of vengeance on the part of our God” is certain. (Isaiah 61:1, 2) But God’s vengeance against the militaristic nations will be expressed at the time and in the way that he chooses. Instead of an earthly nation’s wrath, God’s “own wrath” will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” How? By sending forth the “King of kings,” the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘to judge and carry on war in righteousness.’ His heavenly Kingdom “will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms.”—Revelation 11:18; 19:11-21; Daniel 2:44.