Todays youth?

*** Young People
“Fierce”

When the Christian apostle Paul penned his second letter to his fellow elder Timothy, Rome was the dominant world power. Cruelty and savagery were rife in the Roman arenas. Yet, Paul warned that in the future, times would become “hard to deal with.” (2 Timothy 3:1) Interestingly, the Greek word that describes these times as being “hard to deal with” includes the thought of their being “fierce.” An incident during Jesus’ earthly ministry more than 30 years earlier shows what was behind some of the ferocity in his time.

Jesus had just arrived by boat at the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. As he stepped ashore, two men confronted him. Their wild appearance and screaming made it plain that something was radically wrong with them. They were “unusually fierce,” in fact, demon-possessed. What they cried out issued from the wicked spirits that controlled their violent actions. “What have we to do with you, Son of God?” the men screamed. “Did you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” The wicked spirits that possessed the two knew full well that God had already fixed a time for executing his judgment on the demons. This would mean their everlasting destruction. But until then they were going to exercise their superhuman abilities to provoke fierce violence. Only Jesus’ miraculous action to expel those demons brought relief to the two men.—Matthew 8:28-32; Jude 6.

When people today, including youths, act in a crazed way, we do well to recall that incident. Why? Because in this 20th century, we face a related danger, as the Bible’s last book, Revelation, explains: “Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (Revelation 12:12) Observe, please, that this humiliation for Satan is accompanied by “great anger” because he knows that his time is short.