One British tourist guide laments that "the cult of celebrity, junk food and binge drinking has replaced tea, cricket and manners as national symbols." It is thought that "one in six adults is either dependent on alcohol or rated a hazardous or harmful drinker." Hospitals have seen a 14 percent rise in admissions for drinking problems in the last year.

Family and marriage breakdown

One major monthly supplement titled a long feature article "Is Anyone Faithful Any More?" American writer Pamela Druckerman spent three years studying marital infidelity in several prominent Western nations. Surprisingly, "she discovered that on average the British cheat more than the Americans—and the French" (Observer Sunday Supplement, July 2007).

One woman was quoted in the article as saying, "I cheated because I believe pleasurable sex between consenting adults is no big deal." Her cheating career began during her teenage years. Another person said, "Sometimes we cheat because we're just greedy, because we want more."

Pamela Druckerman found that adultery was a major problem in every country she visited. We urge our readers around the world to request the free booklet Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension. This full-color, attractively printed publication presents many biblical principles in support of traditional marriage. It also shows how we can cultivate and improve our marriages. You might say it is a happiness manual, based on God's Word.

Lacking basic integrity

Recent statistics show a 5 percent increase in violent crime in Britain. But in this article we will focus on a different type of crime.

A survey by Keele University in northern Staffordshire revealed an appalling lack of basic honesty among far too many British citizens. Cutting corners in basic morality is more prevalent in the West today than previously thought possible.

Over a third use cash in order to avoid paying tax. Nearly a third keep very silent when mistakenly given too much change by a clerk or cashier. Nearly 20 percent pilfer small items from the office. Over 10 percent manage to avoid paying their TV licenses. The list goes on and on.

Incredibly, "The worst perpetrators are said to be highly paid people facing temporary financial difficulties" (The Times, June 25, 2007). Professor Suzanne Karstedt, a criminologist from Keele University, stated, "Contempt for the law is as widespread in the centre of society as it is assumed to be rampant at the margins and among specific marginal groups."

Archbishop attacks a materialistic Britain

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams charged British society with being "fantastically materialistic." He stated: "We seem to be tolerant of all sorts of behaviour, yet are deeply unforgiving. People demand legal redress for human errors and oversights…We shouldn't be misled by an easy-going atmosphere in manners and morals; under the surface there is a harshness that ought to worry us" (The Sunday Telegraph, March 25, 2007).

One of the archbishop's major concerns is "the erosion of Christian belief systems." Here he is getting very near to the nub of the problem that plagues most industrialized nations.

Noted British historian and author Martin Gilbert also commented on this general malaise affecting many modern nations. "Jews, like Christians, were swept up by the almost universal secularism of the late twentieth century. Family life, which when the century began was a marked feature of Jewish existence, has faced the same strains and disintegration that beset the non-Jewish world amid the secularism and agnosticism of affluence and modernity" (From the Ends of the Earth: the Jews in the Twentieth Century, 2001, pp. 362-363, emphasis added throughout).

The biblical viewpoint

Obviously you have some interest in God and the Bible or you wouldn't be reading this article. Everything we write is from a biblical viewpoint. This is a Christian magazine that emphasizes prophetic news and trends in the world. The Judeo/Christian Bible undergirds and supports our whole approach to national and world problems.

God is not pleased when we transgress biblical moral standards. When normally righteous King David of Israel committed two terrible crimes, God's Word says: "The thing that David had done displeased the LORD" (2 Samuel 11:27).

Yet when the king repented, God was quick to forgive, although He imposed severe temporal penalties partly because much greater responsibility is incumbent on rulers who influence many thousands by their actions. They are expected to set the right example, while avoiding scandal and corruption.

After David's heartfelt repentance, the prophet Nathan told David, "The LORD also has put away your sin" (2 Samuel 12:13). Those must have been among the most comforting words ever said to the king.

Christian conduct important

From early on, the apostle Paul displayed a great interest in appropriate ethical behavior. "Brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:1-2).

Then Paul went on to give the brethren at Thessalonica one or two striking examples of proper ethical behavior—including the importance of sexual self-control.

Yet we have all made serious mistakes of one kind or the other and are in need of mercy and redemption. Although we firmly witness against all types of bad behavior and strongly encourage repentance and Christian conduct, World News and Prophecy recognizes that God does mercifully forgive repentant sinners who have broken His spiritual law.

Both the apostles Peter and Paul owned up to past bad behavior on the part of early Christians. Peter wrote: "For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries" (1 Peter 4:3).

Paul added: "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another" (Titus 3:3).

God calls sinners to salvation

But how does God Himself react to those truly repentant sinners whom He has called (or is calling) to salvation?

Notice the next few verses in context. "When the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration [water baptism] and renewing of the Holy Spirit, [which] He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (verses 4-7).

If you have been affected by some of these negative trends afflicting our Western societies and would like some help in embarking upon a new life, request our free booklets The Road to Eternal Life and Transforming Your Life: The Process of Conversion. WNP

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