Have you noticed that children seem to run wilder and wilder with each generation that passes by? One wonders how it has gotten to the place that it is today.
A friend remarked that children were running around a grocery store and their parents didn’t stop them or reprove them in any fashion. These are the same kids who spend all day on their smart phones on social media or playing games. I can’t say that I am all that surprised at how they are turning out.
Remember, their parents were probably part of the generation who were given awards for merely showing up rather than for excellence and spent their time on the Internet. Those of that generation had parents who were the first to be obsessed by video games, cable television and VHS/DVD videos.
The generation before that spent much of their free time watching television and demanding everything that was on the commercials of their favorite TV shows.
All of this started around the time this country began rejecting God in their daily lives. First, through the schools and then from all forms of public expression more and more each year. The current move is to censor or even punish those who express their belief in God.
It is ironic to see that Christians are being punished for having faith in God and in his moral code. The people who are doing the punishing say that we all have our own moral codes but somehow the one that is God given is horrible and awful. Does that make sense to anyone?
The rules that God has given us are ones that, if we could only follow them faithfully, would bring about an atmosphere of love, kindness and caring. Is there something about that scenario that screams for censorship or punishment?
God gave us those rules to show us how we would have to live to be up to the standard that would allow us into his presence. He also gave us those rules to show us that, on our own, not one of us would be capable of keeping them. We are simply sinful and will go against his authority throughout our entire life.
However, God saw that from the beginning. Once man used his free-will to sin, God knew that he would have to send his Son to the earth to save us.
Jesus told us that he did not come to break the law of God but rather, to fulfill it. He was the personification of all that was holy of God and, at the same time, all that was human of man.
He told us that we were to follow the commandments of God. We were supposed to follow his code of morals (known today as the Ten Commandments.) He even emphasized the two that were of the utmost importance to God. To love God and to love others as ourselves.
For generations, this moral code was taught to children and the, to their children. This started to fall apart in the twentieth century. First, in Europe and then later, in the United States. At the point we are at today, only a very few families teach their children about the God-given moral code.
Instead, most individuals will say that they have their own code of morals just as they say that they have their own spirituality or that they are simply atheists and that, as we are animals, there doesn’t have to be a moral code.
One can only imagine what this generation of children will grow up believing given that they have, for the most part, never been taught about God. How much further can mankind fall before God allows judgement to fall?
This happened to the Israelites when generation after generation did wrong in the eyes of God. Through his prophets, God warned of impending doom. He gave his people time to repent and turn back to him.
Instead, they chose to disregard or even to kill those prophets. They turned further away from God and turned to false prophets and false gods who promised peace, prosperity and security.
It finally got to the point where God knew that the people would only get worse and worse. He allowed the Babylonians to conquer Israel and turn it into a ruinous heap.
In his lovingkindness, after many years in exile, God allowed the remnant of his people to return to their promised land.
Today, God has also been warning of impending doom. Through the followers of Christ, he has given mankind warnings for millennia of the devastation that will fall on this planet. It will be unlike anything that has ever been seen before. Given how evil mankind has been up to this point, it is almost impossible to believe that we could be worse. But if God says it is so, then it is.
This time, it will not result in exile but in a war that would destroy every inhabitant of the world.
God wants us to repent and turn away from our evil ways and turn to Jesus. He wants us to strive to keep his commandments and, when we fail, he wants us to truly repent, be sorry for what we did and to turn back to him again.
If we don’t, there is no excuse. We will deserve every drop of judgement because we have willfully chosen to remain evil in God’s sight.
Exodus 20:1-17
And God spoke all these words:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”