A wedding feast in preparation in an ordinary Chinese home.

I've just read J. Grant Swank's article entitled "A Very Special Day -- The Holy Day" and now that I have internet again, I want to take advantage of that opportunity to add a little to this article.

Having lived in China for 2 years now, and finding myself in culture shock back home in Australia, I find myself with a strong urge to shout from the WatchTowers of the Western World, 'Wake up! Be Vigilant! The Enemy is in your midst!"

In China, for more than 900 million people, there is no day of rest. There is no weekend. Ordinary businesses and workers start early every day and finish late. There is no day of rest.

My students always look forward to their fortnightly 'day of rest', and no matter what I say, they won't believe me when I say that they do not in fact have a day of rest.

For 12 days straight, they go to school from 6:30am to 9:30pm, and then on the 13th day, they finish at 4pm so that they can have their day off. The very next day however at 6:30pm they must be back in class.

Yes! Maybe they technically do have a day of rest, but for more than half the students, that day is taken up with taking long distance bus rides home and back to school again. When they get home of course, their parents are working, and work all through the students day off.

Social security is almost non existant in China, as is also Aged Person's care. Unemployment benefits apply to a few selected people, and the minimum monthly wage is equivalent to 4 nights stay in a 3 star hotel.

The vast majority of the population has no hot water, even if they have running water, and most have no refrigerator or decent modern cooking equipment.

It is a nation of people who toil from dawn to dusk. A godless nation in every respect.

In the West, we are headed the same way. The Chinese are striving to better themselves and gain the benefits that we in the west have, while we in the west, are selling out our freedoms and benefits for the sake of corporate dollars and our 'human rights'.

At the end of the day of course, the harder we work, the more we earn, the more we spend, the deeper in debt we get, and the more empty our lives become.

As the Bible says, what's the point of gaining every material posession, if in the process you lose everything that should be dear to you; your children, your other family, your peace, your harmony, your spouse, your decency, and your love.

God of course is dead to most westerners, even if they won't admit it to themselves, and the academic philosphies that have replaced 'duty to God' are nothing short of Semantic BS, designed to ease the consciences of those whom they free from any obligation to the Creator.

Having lived in China, I now look at the West and think, 'Where are you going?". I really think that the answer is, 'To hell!'.

One view of Jianshi (Fengkou - Hong Hu) on the day of the wedding.

R.P.Bendedek

Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com

R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www.kingscalendar.com), and he is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China. Other Stories

"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.