We live in a world of awesome progress in technology, scientific research, in computing power, and in communications technology. We can pick up the phone and in a matter of seconds be speaking with a person on the other side of the world. We send an email message to a friend or business associate in a country thousands of kilometres away and a reply can be sent back to us within moments. The world is connected more than anytime in human history. We are connected to the internet via our laptops or handheld devices more hours than we aren't and we can access information on any subject of our choice at lightning speed. A vast storage of information is at our finger tips. Planes fly faster and further, moving people from place to place in vastly increasing numbers.

In many countries, like Australia, the standard of living is quite high. We enjoy comfortable homes; we have efficient transport systems; we have plenty to eat and drink; most people have employment, and regular opportunities for leisure. However this is not the case for a large portion of humanity. Most people go to sleep with hunger gnawing at their stomachs. They have barely enough income to buy enough food to keep themselves and their families alive. Do you know that if you ate breakfast this morning you are better off than the 800 million people worldwide who will go hungry today. Every day tens of thousands of children die of starvation or disorders related to chronic malnutrition. And this is just one of our global concerns.

With all our wonderful progress, the world is perhaps in the biggest mess it has ever been in human history. We have more crime, more suffering, more disease, more discontent, more death, more hunger, more suicides, more broken homes, more unhappiness, than ever before.

Why? Because our world is held captive – held captive by a being who generates from his own personality, attitude and power -- contention, confusion, division, hostility, violence, destruction, war and death.

The very technology which is used for the wonderful benefit of mankind is turned against us. For example, the technology which produces the giant passenger jets which daily circle the earth loaded with people travelling from place to place -- that same technology also produces the giant bombers which carry weapons of mass destruction or can be used in acts of terror.

Our world is indeed a paradox – on the one hand there is tremendous good, but on the other hand there is tremendous evil.

The vast majority of people on this planet earth cannot explain why the world is the way it is. The vast majority of people do not know that this world is held captive by a being called in Scripture, Satan the Devil.

Revelation 12:9 states: "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him" (emphasis added).

Satan is also called the "prince of the power of the air" in Ephesians 2:2. He is the "ruler of this world" in John 12:31.

The vast majority of people do not realise that they themselves are in captivity. And the vast majority of people do not realise that the time is coming when they will be freed from this captivity. The plan to free them from this captivity has already been determined, and it will take place.

One of God's annual Holy Days, the Day of Atonement, pictures the time when the earth will no longer be held captive. It pictures the time when the real source of evil will be removed.

For more information on this important annual Holy Day, please request a copy of our free booklet: God's Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind.