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The reason why the world seems so lost and upside down right now is complex and simple at the same time.
Complex because there are many factors involved that brought us here. Simple because there is one place where you can find the true answer to where it all came from. But before I can even begin to explain it to you, I already know most of you won't listen, due to the source. This was foreseen ages ago, and set forth in writing, so there is no surprise that many will reject what was written back then: "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." I quoted that passage on purpose, because for those of you who pretend the Lord is nonexistent, or know He exists and just hate Him for whatever reasons you've decided on, you may now leave in amusement, disgust, anger, or whatever emotional boat floats your worldview. Now I'll move on the the actual explanation for those of you still reading. The first thing I will confirm is that we did it to ourselves. This is no astounding revelation. Believer and non-believer alike realize our societal and cultural calamities are by our own hands. What people are confused about however, is how it all got to this point. Today in 2025, it is immensely popular to point across a political aisle. The liberals point at the MAGA people and say they're deplorable, brainwashed cult members following a wannabe Hitler. The conservatives point at the Democrats and say they're projecting their own Hitleresque tendencies onto the conservatives. That last sentence may be hard for some readers to absorb. Someone very influential once wrote about the typical divide between the haves and the have nots, and this was the ominous conclusion: "The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." Before some of you dullards accuse me of quoting some past fascist communist who "didn't do it right," those words were penned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels themselves, the fathers of the Marxist philosophy so attractive to tenured university professors and their economically viable liberal students. I have another quote for you. A certain individual who suffered economically for an extended period at a young age and formed strong opinions based on those experiences, once wrote some revealing words. These words, and the violent intent behind them, are now echoed by the modern day liberal who believes the ends justify the means: "What grew out of this unhappiness and misery, of this filth and external decay, were no longer human beings, but the deplorable results of deplorable laws; however, the pressure of my own hard and no less easy struggle for life prevented me from capitulating in miserable sentimentality before the final results of this process of development. "No, it must not be interpreted like that. "I saw then that only a twofold way could lead to the goal for the improvement of these conditions: "A deep feeling of social responsibility towards the establishment of better foundations for our development, combined with the ruthless resolution to destroy the incurable social tumors." Deplorable? Social responsibility? The destruction of seemingly incurable social "tumors"? What group these days tends to talk in the same way? It is the Left that speaks in this way, not the Right. The Left justifies this point of view by claiming that the Right is fascist, greedy, racist, bigoted, etc. Claims that are opinions only, by the way, and real life examples of these tendencies in the conservative wealthy do not exceed the same tendencies in the liberal wealthy. The irony of the similarity in words becomes shockingly apparent when you factor in how the Left has made a common habit out of accusing the Right of being Nazis. Why ironic? The second passage I quoted was written by Adolf Hitler. Hitler was counter to the hypocrisy of Marx. Karl Marx was born into wealthy privilege before enshrining the sin of envy with a new philosophy based on the low hanging fruit of augmented resentment of the wealthy. Hitler's family was never rich, his parents died before he was barely a young man, and his economic struggle was actually worse than the struggle minorities face in developed western countries such as the United States, which provides SNAP benefits. Let's now turn to the true answer I referred to in the beginning. For the answer to our problems as a culture and society here in the United States, we need only turn to the Bible. Specifically, to Romans chapter one, verses 17-32. In those sixteen verses incredibly are the answer to why things are, in a manner of speaking, so screwed up. Referencing the Bible is always a gamble, but the odds are against those who dismiss it out of hand. I say that because any long-established collected works of wisdom, inspired by God or not, offer insights hard-earned and lived through. One may disagree with conclusions, but one may not appropriately relegate them to the recycle bin just because they are hundreds or thousands of years old. We are at an unprecedented time in history in terms of technological accomplishment and sheer acquisition of knowledge. But somehow ironies arise. Ironies such as an Internet that provides access to pretty much every piece of recorded knowledge in some form. This means that except in places like North Korea, anyone can find out about anything. And yet despite this amazing ability we have been granted, there are still bright young people I work with who are mystified by simple idiomatic expressions that were once commonly heard a mere 25 years ago. Overall statistically we have more access to knowledge than ever before, but each generation seems aware of less and less facts regarding their own history, the history of humanity. Many in our secular culture have grown comfortable with accepting the idea that God does not actually exist, that we are all the result of fortunate accidents via evolution, and that there is no meaning to life other than what we personally and subjectively decide to ascribe to it. Our intellectual capacity hasn't changed, but the natural curiosity to critically examine accepted conventional wisdom has been abandoned for instead drawing off the teat of curated information fed to us like a digital intravenous tube attached to our eyeballs and scrolling fingertips. Smart phones, the Internet and social media together have created the perfect machinery by which we can be all be isolated and controlled by our own impulses and echo chambers, be they positive or negative. This contributes to the Main Character Syndrome that goes far beyond the obnoxious content provider who farms clicks by making life unpleasant for others in public. The Main Character Syndrome is also fertile ground for cultivating self-involved narcissists who believe the universe is there to serve their own desires, but outwardly act as though they care deeply about the world around them via flags, hashtags, pithy posts, "peaceful" protests and mob-like cancellations. The justification for this selfish take on life is natural to someone who actually thinks the world is an unintended accident and that we're all just beings forced into this mess who weren't asked if we wanted to be born in the first place. The secular world is often antagonistic toward the Christian world, using an inexhaustible list of objections including hypocrisy, control, legitimacy of scripture, hatred, bigotry, etc. However, if one looks closer at the Christian worldview, one understands that all that is best in our secular culture was generated by Christian tenets regarding how to operate in and see the world, how to treat others, and ultimately how to see ourselves. Back to Romans 1:17-32. A cursory scan of the text reveals the basic concept that when human beings collectively (as a culture or nation) decide to abandon the truth, then God justly frees them up ("gave them up" and "gave them over") to experience the fallout of their wicked decision by removing any efforts to stop them. So what is this abandoned truth referred to in the text? It is the truth about God, about the world He created, about our creation and place in the universe. In the scripture, the abandonment is referred to as "hold[ing] the truth in unrighteousness" or in more modern terms, saying evil is good and good is evil. Also in verses 20 through 23, we are given a more specific example of what the actual offense is to God: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, "And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." This passage informs us that despite what some may claim, we all know the truth about God's existence inherently, based on living our lives and observing everything around us, including us. It also talks about how we traded appreciation for our Creator for other things He created. Like ourselves, for example. Main Character Syndrome. Again, in a culture that has spent decades convincing you that life itself is a meaningless byproduct of a mindless chain of random events, why wouldn't you as a secular humanist look elsewhere to establish what actually matters? This is not the opposite of verse 17, incidentally. It's just a corruption of its meaning. In verse 17, we are informed that "The just [the righteous] shall live by faith." We recognize that this refers to faith in God. However it could be said that the unjust also live by faith, but they place their faith in ephemeral substitutes for God, such as wealth, pleasure, security, popularity, other human beings and even themselves. And, in keeping with the unjust putting their faith in idols (false gods) in this way, they are showing enormous ingratitude for every gift they've been given and thus kindling the anger of the One who gave them all these things (the breath and heartbeat of life, the fantastically amazing bodies we all inhabit, the incredibly diverse and beautiful planet around us, family, friends, possessions, talents, work, hobbies, etc.). Then there are the agitators who say, isn't God being arrogant by expecting us to be grateful? To that I say, apply it to your own life. If you had taken great effort to create a present for someone you loved, and upon receiving it, he or she was indifferent, or maybe even annoyed, wouldn't you feel offended? Furthermore, if despite this behavior you continued to give presents out of love and these presents were continuing to be dismissed and then even refused to be attributed to you, wouldn't you eventually grow angry? Be honest. Yes, it's true. People should give gifts simply to make another happy and expect nothing in return. But 'nothing in return' is a far cry from acting as though the gifts themselves have no value or are things that one deserves or has a right to merely by existing. For the One who created us all, set this whole universe in motion, and ensured that most of our needs are met on a daily basis, how much betrayal can be withstood from millions over millennia? There are those who've said they could do a better job with the world than God did. I don't think they've given the matter enough thought. Back to Romans 1. The results of our abandonment of God as a nation come in three consecutive parts, in chronological order. Each part builds from the previous part, ending in total chaos as civilization crumbles from unbridled decadence and violence. Result Number One Here is the first of the three results that God allows us to experience due to our unrepentant hearts: "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." In western civilization, in particular the United States, this sexual revolution occurred during the 1960's and 1970's, then flourished in the 1980's. This was the time period of birth control, legalized abortion, celebrated drug abuse, the rise of adult theaters running pornographic movies and the popularization of swinging in the American middle class. These factors helped push American culture away from traditional monogamy into a cornucopia of fornication possibilities. So what, you say. People were just freed from the oppression of antiquated sexual repression. That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that the same time period marked the beginning of statistically more divorce, more sexually transmitted infections, more single-parent families, more teen pregnancies and more sexual objectification of human beings. Why would the Bible identify sexual freedom and experimentation as something damaging? Because our bodies are not just serendipitous flesh mannequins ripe for sensual exploration. Our bodies are temples that house each of our spirits and potentially the Holy Spirit as well. So if God doesn't want us to have sex, why make it possible? I understand why someone would ask that question, but it comes from ignorance of what God provided for each of us from the beginning. Clearly God intended for us to enjoy sex, otherwise sexual organs, hormones and our exquisitely keen nervous systems would not work together in such a gratifying way. Where many of us make a mistake is in assuming we can't find happiness and fulfillment unless we sample many other human bodies instead of only our spouse's. Another way we make a mistake in judgment is in assuming that just because we have the ability to enjoy sex, we can't possibly be expected to control our appetites. That is a Satanic ploy to weaken our resolve. Sex is a gift from God, not a carnival attraction to be explored and perverted as our minds see fit. The Lord told us from the very beginning to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Obviously, God's decision to make sex so pleasurable was both an incentive and a reward for following this command. Sex outside of marriage only produces misery. It often results in unwanted children (which can lead to abortion), STI transmission, divorce due to betrayal, low self-esteem, emotional anguish, substance abuse and depression that can sometimes lead to suicide. Children are a gift from God, not a burden. Only a narcissistic person would think he or she has a right to sexual pleasure without the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood. So much for Result Number One. Result Number Two "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: "And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." The next phase of fallout from our rebellion and rejection of God is the next logical step after the initial sexual revolution: homosexual revolution. Perversions such as fornication, orgies, swinging, pornography, hooking-up, one-night-stands, bondage and domination, sadism and masochism, miscellaneous fetishes and bestiality all turn other people, objects and animals into idols. Homosexuality is no different, as sex was designed for procreation and the proliferation of human beings throughout the planet, each with a mother and father who naturally provide one half of what is necessary to properly raise a child. The homosexual revolution in the United States began during the late 1980's but continued to grow through the 1990's and flourished in the 2000's. Did gay people exist before 1980? A silly question, of course they did. But the activist groups that began to form in the late 1980's grew in power until every aspect of American culture was permeated by homosexual characters and representation, normalizing it and turning the tables on anyone who still dared to not support it as an acceptable lifestyle. When gay marriage was legalized federally by the Supreme Court in 2015, the United States had already begun the last phase of being given over to our wickedness by God (Result Number Three). Do I, or more importantly, do Christians hate homosexuals? No, we do not. No real Christian would advocate harming gay people or treating them badly if they are just living their lives and not harming other human beings. It should not be necessary to have to point out that gay people are human beings created in the image of God, just like everyone else. Their relationships with the Lord are their own responsibility, not anyone else's, and the decisions they make in this regard are just as consequential as a straight person's. In other words, don't think that by me talking about a passage in the Bible and how it applies to our own culture that I'm somehow pointing a finger at homosexuals and saying they deserve worse than anyone else. That would make me a hypocrite. We all deserve death, that's the reason why Jesus sacrificed Himself as payment for our sins. There is no greater love possible than this. Result Number Three And lastly, the final phase of fallout from our abandonment and rejection of God as a culture and nation. This period began in the 2010's and it isn't clear how long it will take to reach critical mass: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; "Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, "Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, "Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." Wow, that's a lot. Let's take a closer look at the last phase of our culture's dissolution. The first question is, "What is a reprobate mind?" You can search online for interpretations, but they will all be some form of this: a mind that does not think correctly anymore due to wickedness. So because we have collectively grown so wicked, the Lord does us the instructive favor of completely taking off the reins and allowing us to explore anything our wicked minds can conjure up. Why such a harsh judgment? Think about it. Had our nation remained keen to please the Lord rather than reject Him, we would have enacted laws and legislation to prevent the initial sexual revolution, due to the physical, emotional and spiritual damage and death it would produce. Instead, we gobbled it up like cake and said "More please!" We're talking decades here. Had we collectively as a society took a step back and admitted where it was all going, we could have pulled back and stopped the process back in the 1970's. Instead, we literally demonstrated the passage I quoted at the beginning of this essay, which was John 3:19-21: "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." This is a major reason why so many people reject the Lord. They don't want to be judged. How common has this sentiment become: "No one's gonna tell me what to do!" The reprobate mind has taken normal rebellion, which is bad enough when it produces negative results, and turned it up to eleven. The current ethos, representative of reprobate minds, is reflective of this verse (Isaiah 5:20): "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" In other words, this strange reality which has crept up on us, where what was once recognized as good is now called evil, and that which was known to be evil is now celebrated as good, is the direct result of minds so contorted by pride, lust, envy and greed that they can't discern simple truth from a lie. Take a look at the long list of wicked traits specified in the passage from Romans: "unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful" If you carefully consider each one, you will easily be able to think of representations of it from our current culture. I wouldn't normally recommend the cesspool that social media can often be, but to witness textual representations of the above listed wickedness, simply scroll through controversial sections of X, formerly known as Twitter. Yes, you could certainly find examples of all of these behaviors before the 1960's, but the scale of their manifestation was minuscule compared to now. Most importantly and above all, the final verse in the Romans passage, verse 32, carries the judgment directly from God regarding the practice of these reprobate traits: "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." It's the second half that truly condemns the guilty. It's related to the observation that men love darkness. It's true. The unrepentant human heart is full of darkness. It's a void that we attempt to fill with all kinds of wickedness. Typically we seek justification for our bad decisions. But these justifications do not release us from responsibility. They merely fool ourselves into thinking that "I'm good with God." In conclusion, the fork in the road is simple. Simple but definitely not easy. Telling ourselves that there is no fork and that we are just living up to our own evolved human characteristics is poisonous pop psychology and will not work in our defense on the Day we all stand before the Lord. I'll end this with a passage that pretty much spells out the dilemma that every human being that has walked this Earth must contend with and make a decision about (Matthew 7:13-14): "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." |