¹⁹ Not only has unprecedented destructiveness been witnessed on an international scale, but it has also reached to the neighborhood scene as people have turned overnight against their neighbors, looting, burning and killing. In Indonesia it was estimated that over 400,000 were killed in the sanguinary 1966 purge of communists. Racial violence and deaths have taken their toll in countries as far apart as the United States and Mauritius. Indeed, with rioting and bloodshed throughout the earth we are reminded how close we are to the fulfillment of the words of Zechariah 14:13 (AV) that the hand of every man would be raised against his neighbor.​—Ezek. 38:21.

23. What evidence is there of an “increase of lawlessness”?

²³ What of the other evidences the Scriptures foretold: the increase of lawlessness, lack of natural affection and self-control? What do the facts show in recent years? United States FBI Director Hoover reported: “Crime during the 1960’s outstripped our population growth by over 11 to 1.” All categories of crime showed a marked increase, with rape, aggravated assault and robbery heading the list. No wonder our time has been referred to as an “era of anarchy.” Former U.S. Secretary of Defense R. S. McNamara commented, “In the last eight years alone there have been no less than 164 internationally significant outbreaks of violence.” Truly no place on earth is safe from this “increase of lawlessness.”

24. What other indications do we have that we are living at “the conclusion of the system of things”?

²⁴ Daily we read in the papers of prostitution, divorce, abortions, fornication, homosexuality. Increasing numbers of women are turning to abortions as the remedy for unwanted children, contrary to God’s Word. A report from India estimates that in one year 180,000 women died of home-attempted abortions. A recent report from Japan shows that registered abortions average 3,000 daily. In the first nine months of 1967, 70,000 women in Czechoslovakia requested abortions. But did not the Scriptures foretell that particularly in this generation there would be a lack of self-control as people show themselves to be lovers of pleasure, without love of goodness and lacking in natural affection?