Where are we headed? That seems to be a common question in these days of uncertainty and fear. The spector of a failing global economy due to man's greed, global warming caused by human endeavors and global terrorism stemming from human hate and pride, have many asking this question.

In the USA there seems to be new hope. We have elected a new president based on promises of change. For two years during the presidential campaign, the citizens of the US heard promises of better government and a better life. Promises are easy to make, hard to keep. But the overwhelming need for HOPE made the election of a man who promised HOPE inevitable.

The question of where we are headed still remains. What will the next few years bring, not just to the USA, but to the world?

Mankind has the quality of being able to look forward, to dream of something better for the future. We cannot be happy or at peace within, if we do not have  HOPE for the future. This hope motivates us to work and to create, it motivates us to go on living and producing. It enables us to survive setbacks and overcome obstacles.

Without hope for something better, humans descend into despair. Despair leads to the worst in our nature. Hatred, fear, greed, and eventually murder and warfare arise out of mankind's lack of hope. Without hope we are a cruel species. Without hope we become nothing more than an animal willing to destroy anyone who threatens our survival or stands in the way of our security and safety.

It is this hope for the future that enables mankind to produce law and order, industry and commerce, to create beautiful art and education for the next generation. True religion and pure philosophy arise out of truth and hope for a better future. It is lack of hope and despair that leads to war and terror and radical philosophies designed for power and control rather than benevolence and the good of all.

Hope is not hope if it is based on a lie. Laws must be just. Order must be acheived fairly for all. Industry must be based on ethical behavior for it to rise above greed and avarice and art should be the highest aspriation of the human soul and mind towards what is beautiful and pleasing. Education becomes only indocrination and propaganda without truth behind it's facts. And religion becomes a prison if not based on the highest truth and law. Unconditional love and acceptance (grace) should be the root of any religion if it is to impart hope to its followers.

Have we lost hope? Are we struggling to hang on to the last vestiges of hope? Have fear and despair made us willing to accept even the absence of liberty, fairness, beauty and justice? Have truth and justice taken a back seat to security?

During the eighteenth century there was a surge of hope for mankind's perfectibility. The Enlightenment gave us hope for a better world as knowledge increased.

Then the nineteenth century dawned and we had become proud and sure of ourselves. Science was making great strides in medicine, industry was producing a world of ease and comfort, and society was progressing towards justice and equality for all. It seemed that we could discard all the old reasons for keeping hope alive, so we threw out religion and God and embraced the human mind as the highest order of being.

The dawn of the twentieth century saw a fundemental change in how human beings viewed the world. We no longer needed God to have hope for a better world, we were making one for ourselves.

The twentieth century also saw two world wars. The last vestiges of the old order produced a madman. Hatred and destruction suddenly took on global proportions. We were again, confronted with our human failings. Where was the peace and security that our knowledge, philosophies and the works of our hands where supposed to bring us? In spite of hopes for a better world, millions had died in the name of human pride, ethnic superiority and economic greed and pure hatred. We were horrified. We were sickened at the revelation of the dark side of humanity. So new philosophies sprang up, governments changed hands, all with a desperate scramble for regaining hope. Something needed to change, and we have been chasing that change ever since.

Trouble is we are running in the wrong direction. We are chasing a truth that is in reality a lie. We are told to believe in the essential goodness of ourselves and our endeavors, when the experiences of WWI and WWII should have shown us that we are anything but fundementally good. We have faced evil and instead of seeing it for what it is, a rebellion against God, we have made it relevant. Right and wrong merely exist in the eye of the beholder, as if what WWII revealed, did not really exist or was an anomoly that would not, could not ever happen again.

We will not admit that the need for change begins within the individual heart and soul. Instead, we look to even more knowledge and learning, we look to more government intervention and new world leaders to save us. We seek to impose hope from without in new and better philosophies or in remaking the old philosophies with more politically correct names.

Now at the dawn of the twenty-first century we find that a new terror has sprung up. A stronger more virulent hatred has arisen from the ashes of the twentieth century's warfare.

Since we have discarded the old morality and made ourselves answerable only to ourselves; there is no one to turn to in our fear but to a strong "big brother" type of government. And when someone comes along with promises of Utopia, a better world for all, we jump at the chance to regain our lost security and hope once again.

We do not realize that we will have to give up personal liberty, freedom, and dignity to acheive this security. For the individual matters little when millions are in need of safety and security and food. A global community can only be acheived by submission to a strong overlord type of government where the individual matters less than the group.

Do we really want this? Is it the last hope for mankind? One world government, or perish?

This global community, this big brother government will not produce hope, it will only produce more despair. The government, the state cannot produce hope. The function of government is to produce control and ensure civil order. Government cannot produce hope. Hope comes from within the individual soul when it senses truth and justice and love. And truth becomes relevant and justice and love are changable when in the hands of a controling power. False hope is nothing more than a tool to control those in despair.

Where do we find hope? How do we maintain peace within? We return to our original question, where are we going? Where do we want to end up? Do we blindly follow the crowd into a brave new world? Do we strive for this Utopia here on earth? Surely, with all the human race has acheived that IS good, there is HOPE for something better? Are we willing to discard what we have acheived for safety and security? Are we able to have hope no matter what our circumstances?

Hope cannot be found from the outside. Hope can only be found within the individual human soul. And the individual will not find hope without finding the truth. A truth that is unchangable and unmovable. This truth can be found only in acknowledging our Creator and His purpose for our lives. We will always be afraid, we will always risk falling into greed and hatred and fear without this one true hope, that God has something better in mind for the human race and will provide us with peace and security if we acknowledge HIS love for us. To follow His law is peace and security - for His law is just. God's love was shown to us in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, whose name in Hebrew means...God's Salvation. Salvation from what? Salvation from our own human nature. 

Human beings have always been looking for Utopia....after all, we as a race began in the world's only utopia, the Garden of Eden. Myths and legends of Shangri La, Nirvana, Paradise - all reveal man's longing for this perfect society. God promised a way back to Eden after we lost our way, if we would trust and if we would obey. But from the very beginning we rebelled and tried to find our way back using our own minds, our own talents. Surely we could find it ourselves we proudly proclaim.

We have failed big time. The perfect society will not be found in the promises of one man or in man's government and rule. The perfect society will only be accomplished when we acknowledge God as our King and live by His law.

Where are we headed? The world continues on it's path of rebellion and will soon see man's last attempt at Utopia. Unfortunately, this last attempt will fail as all the other attempts have failed. We will soon see that a society with out God's love and law and justice is doomed to fail miserably. The world is headed for judgement....but each individual has hope for something better, if they have FAITH and HOPE in God.