A World On Fire

A popular American television show recently ended its 2014-2015 season with a story that involved the recruitment of kids by a terrorist group via the Internet.  While this was a fictional story, it was based at least in part on news stories which appeared this past winter regarding the use of the Internet for the recruitment of teenagers by ISIS.

See: ISIS Recruiting U.S. Terrorists on Social Media

"Through the Internet and social media they can reach these kids and there is a small percentage of disaffected Muslim youth in America that, for a variety of reasons, feel alienated from this society," said former CIA analyst Patrick Skinner.

"Groups like ISIS have a very sophisticated propaganda machine, in fact the most sophisticated propaganda we've seen from any terrorist organization," said Matt Olsen, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

"There are vultures on social media who try to take advantage of our children," said Omer Mozaffar, a Muslim chaplain at Loyola University.

This idea of terrorist groups recruiting teenagers via the Internet is astonishing.  We can add yet another threat to the many facing the youth of today.  While these groups are primarily targeting Muslim teenagers, the Adversary has plenty of tricks up his sleeve to endanger today's youth.  The Internet, through smart phones, tablets and other devices, is full of other dangers, from pornography, sexting, cyberbullying, gaming, social networks to, of course, predators hiding behind fake personas to "befriend" children.

See: 7 Dangers of the Internet for Kids

It may seem that the youth of today is surrounded by fire on every side, or that we may, in fact, be living in a world on fire.  How can we protect ourselves and our children from the flames?

Recall, if you will, the story of Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who were carried away as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon.  The four young men were trained as members of the kings court, and were provided meat and wine for nourishment.  But the four refused to partake, and Daniel proposed that they be allowed for ten days to eat "pulse" and drink water.  After ten days, the king saw that "their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat." (See Daniel chapter 1.)

Not long after this, however, the king decreed that anyone who did not worship an image of gold that he had had created would be cast into a fiery furnace.  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to worship the idol and "certain Chaldeans" went to the king to accuse the three of not worshiping according to the decree.  The king commanded that the three be brought before him, and when they were, he challenged them on the matter of worshiping the golden idol, adjuring them to do so lest he order them thrown into a fiery furnace in that same hour.

"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up" (Daniel 3:16-18).

True to his word, the king ordered the three young men to be cast into a furnace so hot that the servants who threw them in were killed by the heat.  "And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Daniel 3:23-25).

Instead of being burned by the fire, or harmed be the heat, the three young men were protected by their God because of their faith in him.  "Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God" (Daniel 3:26-28).

The king was so impressed that he issued a new decree which forbade anyone from speaking anything amiss regarding the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell said: “We will [not] always be rescued from proximate problems, but we will be rescued from everlasting death! Meanwhile, ultimate hope makes it possible to say the same three words used centuries ago by three valiant men. They knew God could rescue them from the fiery furnace if He chose. ‘But if not,’ they said, nevertheless, they would still serve Him!”

See: A Brightness of Hope

But as President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “The Lord would want you to be successful. He would. You are His sons and His daughters. He has the same kind of love and ambition for you that your earthly parents have. They want you to do well and you can do it.” (See: Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley (1997), 614

Additionally, as Nephi said when he was commanded to return to Jerusalem to retrieve the Brass Plates, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them" 1 Nephi 3:7).

In facing the challenges of today, in staying clean, keeping his commandments, and preparing to serve a mission and marry in the temple, he wants us to succeed and he will prepare a way for us that we may accomplish that which he has commanded us if we humble ourselves before him and exercise faith in him.  His grace is sufficient and he can make weak things become strong (see Ether 12:27).  "Wherefore, let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord" (1 Nephi 3:16).