Insight on the News
Satanic Influence
After doing research on the influence of Satanism in rock and heavy metal rock music, Toronto newspaper columnist Tom Harpur writes in The Sunday Star: “I must issue the strongest possible warning about what is happening. . . . I have never seen anything so depraved. The songs are obsessed with madness, possession, demons, blood, curses, violence of every kind, including rape, self-mutilation, murder, and suicide. Death and destruction, prophecies of doom, the denial of all that is good and the embracing of all that is hideous and evil—these are the themes.”
Coinciding with the rise of satanic music is an increase in satanic cult activity in the United States and Canada. Reporting on a recent police seminar in Ontario, The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, says that satanic cults are “involved in animal sacrifices, graveyard desecrations and the ritual abuse of children.” Detective James Bradley of Washington, D.C., linked hundreds of cases of child abuse to ritualistic crimes of Satanism. As quoted in The Globe and Mail, detective Bradley adds that over the past five years, reports of child-abuse rituals have come from “hundreds of kids, hundreds of social workers and teachers.”
Referring to “the last days” of the present wicked system of things, the apostle John wrote: “The Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (2 Timothy 3:1; Revelation 12:12) The influence of Satan, “the ruler of the authority of the air,” permeates even this world’s popular music. (Ephesians 2:2) That is why the apostle Paul admonished fellow Christians to “stand firm against the machinations of the Devil.”—Ephesians 6:11.
“Out of Control”
When a 28-year-old female jogger was beaten and raped in New York City’s Central Park, millions of people were shocked and dismayed. The reason? The savage and brutal attack was committed by a gang of teenagers whose “obscene gloating in the aftermath and their indifference to the suffering inflicted is truly horrifying,” reports the New York Post. Some of the youths responsible for the heinous crime were reported to be as young as 14. Appalled by the attack, one Post writer admitted that the world has become an “undisciplined, self-indulgent, drug-ridden, sex-obsessed, family-broken, violence-mad society” that is “out of control and the question is: why?”
Actually, this generation of unmatched violence is exactly what was foretold by the apostle Paul at 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Therein he explained that “the last days” would be marked by persons who are “selfish, greedy, boastful, and conceited.” What is more, “they will be insulting, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious; they will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; they will hate the good; they will be treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride; they will love pleasure rather than God.” (Today’s English Version) Will this violent world remain “out of control” indefinitely? No! Jesus said: “As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.”—Luke 21:28.