It only takes a glance at the news on TV, a look at the pain and suffering around us, to prompt people to ask this question.
It could be triggered by what we see happening in Iraq, where innocent people are murdered or aid workers beheaded in callous cold blood. Or maybe we hear of what people have done to others in our own country. I was watching “Finding Daniel” on Crime Stoppers and it brought tears to my eyes hearing how yet another family has been traumatised by the tragic disappearance of their son from a QLD bus stop a few years ago. Apparently a man was seen at the bus stop just before Daniel disappeared. Nothing has been heard since.
The evil this man has apparently committed is just as terrible as the evil the Islamic extremists have committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have inflicted pain and agony in a deplorable fashion. What is this world coming to ?
A number of years ago a massive social experiment was begun in Russia, whereby mankind sought to establish a society based on man. The instigators of this social experiment regarded religion as an obstacle to their new society, so they closed 98 % of the churches, killing 42 000 priests in the process. Some larger church buildings were turned into museums to Atheism, while village churches became barns or apartments. Religious instruction was banned and a national newspaper entitled ‘The Godless’ was even published.
All belief in God was mocked as ‘pie in the sky when you die’ and children were instructed from an early age that ‘God is dead’. For 75 years this experiment continued and a society ostensibly committed to the best interests of its people finished up achieving just the opposite. As one editor of the Pravda newspaper said:
With the best intentions, we ended up creating the greatest monstrosity the world has ever seen. Without God, everything is permitted.
The Moscow Times estimates that 50% of all Russian males who died in the 20th century died of unnatural causes – war, famine, execution or imprisonment. The damage was incredible. However, another statistic coming out of Russia today is just as astonishing – 61% of Russians identify themselves as Christians, despite the most determined attempt in history to obliterate the faith. As if in an act of repentance, the Kremlin is now overlooked by a church called the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and a day’s work at the Russian Parliament has willingly halted to enable Christians to hand out copies of the Bible, such was the eagerness of the Russian leaders to receive their own copy of God’s Word to read themselves.
So are there any lessons for our society today? Our affluent and materialistic society is also actively trying to remove God from the scene – only in more subtle ways. As a society in general, we have rejected the God of the Bible and follow instead the god of our own imagination, or the god of ‘Myself’. And each night on our TV screens, we watch the out workings of a society that has turned from following the one true God.
What is the world coming to? If we attempt to remove the God of the Bible from the scene, we end up with a world on the road to self destruction. The only way out is through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died to take our punishment, and who will one day come to destroy what is evil and establish a new heavens and earth. Will you stand with him, or against him on that day? What will YOUR world come to?