The war in Europe had ended and I was in the occupational force in Germany. As a nineteen- year-old soldier, I saw some things that to this day are forever etched in my mind. One of my jobs was to transport the kitchen garbage to the dump, which was a few miles away. I attached the trailer to the vehicle and headed out. When I arrived close to the dumping area I noticed a large group of people, who when they saw my vehicle coming, ran toward me. It didn't take too long to realize that this was not a welcoming party. I didn't have to unload. They tore into that garbage like wild cats, fighting for the best of the refuse. I saw the grapefruit rinds disappear into the crowd along with all of the other items from the Company mess.
Who were these people? Why were they here? Many of them were D.P."s (Displaced Persons) and were from the European Nations that were brought into Germany as slave laborers and when the war was over they didn't want to go back to their own country because of fear of the Russians.
Cigarettes had become a medium of exchange (money) in post war Germany. If a G.I. threw away a cigarette butt there was a wild scramble to see who could get to it first. On one occasion a young lad retrieved one, just before an older man, and received a blow on the side of his head for his quickness.
It took some time for the Marshall Plan to be implemented to feed the needy, but in the meantime many persons suffered the rigors of hunger.
In the concentration camps the conditions were so horrible that the problem was not just hunger, but rather, starvation and death. Some of the soldiers wept as they tried to feed some of the worst of the inmates and saw them slip away in death. Their liberation from the camp had come too late, but their liberation from the body of death was their only relief. If you wrapped a skeleton with skin, that would be a good representation of how some of the victims looked.
If you believe it can't get any worse, then you haven't been paying attention to the warnings of the Bible. The scriptures speak of a time when the seven seal judgments will come upon the nations of the earth. (Famine, Judgment, and Death) Although these judgments have always been present, in the world, they are more prevalent today than ever before. At the time that John wrote the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the book referred to, was a parchment rolled up and sealed. When you opened the first seal, then you could read the contents, until you came to the next seal, and so forth. These seals were made of wax and the imprint of the signet ring of the person in authority was used. (That's the derivation for our signatures today.) Only a person of authority had the right to open the sealed parchment.
John says in his vision, "And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, [Jesus] the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo...in the midst...stood a Lamb as it had been slain...And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God, kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”
R.H. Charles states: “A will…in Roman law bore the seven seals of the seven witnesses on the threads that secured the tablets or parchment…Such a Testament could not be carried into execution till all the seven seals were loosed.” The scroll was not a book of prophecy, or even the Book of Revelation, because they would not require worthiness to open it. It is the title deed to the earth, to which Christ has the right of ownership, both by way of creation and, even more, by way of redemption at Calvary.
Reference: Revelation Chapter Five, The Holy Bible.