There is an event that occurs every two years in this nation, in which men and women vie for positions of power from which to govern our nation, states, cities and municipalities. We call them elections. For the months and weeks leading to the elections we endure multi-media ads, mostly on TV and through mailings, which present (supposedly) the qualifications of the various candidates. Years ago, these ads would put forth the candidate’s ideas, ideals and values for addressing significant problems in the society and culture and for improving various aspects of the same, which they believed made them worthy of our vote. The candidates typically addressed things like reducing crime and assuring safe neighborhoods, improving government services and children’s health and education on a local and state level, and on a national level, improving the nation’s military defense, assuring fair taxation, facilitating employment opportunities and equity, reducing drug trafficking and overcoming problems in the natural environment.
However, such dignified ads do not appear to be the norm in this day and age, as most of these ads are now divisive and mean spirited, attacking the opposing candidate through shaming them for who they are and what they believe, and blaming them directly or indirectly for the problems in our society, without themselves offering any substantive solutions. One such TV ad blamed a single candidate for all of the shootings and gun deaths that have proliferated in our nation but failed to offer a related solution.
And that is most likely because, truth be told, humanity as a whole has no true and lasting solutions to any of the enduring, intractable problems and challenges that are behind the misery and mess the Bible refers to as this present evil world, a world that is becoming more dangerous, chaotic, conflicted and out of control every day (Galatians 1:4).
Despite going through a so-called age of enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, despite our present prideful scientific and technological advances, we are still afflicted with the same social, moral, economic, and existential problems man has struggled with throughout human history; wars and terrorist attacks fueled by hatred and greed, crime, poverty, prejudice, oppression and injustice, broken families, child and spousal abuse, all continue unabated. Most recently we see, a least in this country, an increase in mass murders fueled by ever increasing anger and alienation, especially among young men, as well as suicides motivated by despair. And then we have the unprecedented abuse of legal and illegal drugs that brings misery, destruction and death to multitudes, independent of their ethnic affiliation, gender or socio-economic status.
Nature itself continues to oppose man, attacking our bodies and minds with a multitude of physical and mental diseases and disorders, both old (Cancer) and new (COVID). Natural disasters, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires and the like continue to inflict untold misery on large populations, destroying individual lives and whole cities. In our abject helplessness, all we can do is try to find safety in the midst of them and clean up and rebuild afterword. For those who live in Florida and Louisiana, you always have the threat of rinse and repeat. And for those who are fortunate enough to overcome and survive these calamities, the ravages and afflictions of old age await them, the end of which is death.
What a mangled, miserable mess! So, who can we shame and blame for such a world, who is responsible for the pain, sorrow, suffering and death that comes to everyone; the Democrats – the Republicans – Biden – Trump – Putin – the Pope? The answer is, all of the above, and more!
Christian writer and apologist, G.K Chesterton when asked by a journalist “What is wrong with the world?”, Chesterton reportedly replied, “I am”, acknowledging that he and all mankind, beginning with Adam, are responsible for all of the social, moral, economic, and existential problems as well as for nature’s seeming opposition to the very existence of man.
Chesterton had a Biblical world view that recognized that the world was created by the eternal, self-existent, infinitely good, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful God, who created all things for His glory; that the infinite perfections of His being would be known, seen, displayed, experienced and enjoyed by beings He would create in His glorious image and likeness (Genesis 1:27) (Isaiah 43:7).
To that end, God designed and spoke into existence a majestic, spectacular universe, filled with wonder, and placed within it a magnificent, marvelous world of great beauty and splendor, filled from the beginning with fruitful trees, delightful plants and vegetation, amazing animals including birds, fish and insects, majestic mountains, deep oceans and flowing rivers, all of which were to be enjoyed and delighted in by man, as nature would live in harmony and peace under man’s wise dominion (Psalm 19:1-6) (Genesis 1:26).
When God completed each aspect of the creation of the natural world, He proclaimed it to be good, lacking nothing that was necessary to honor and glorify God and bring eternal joy, pleasure and satisfaction to mankind (Genesis 1:25).
God then proceeds to create His image bearers, man and woman – Adam and Eve. He begins by making man’s body out of the dust and then breathing into it His spirit – His life. And then from man, God creates woman (Genesis 2:7) (Genesis 2:23-25). The Bible tells us that they were created mature beings who were naked and not ashamed. They were so because in their bodies, which were to be immortal, they would image God’s beauty, excellence and power, and in in their soul, God’s righteous nature and character, having hearts/minds filled with the knowledge of the glory of God and the wisdom of God.
God, in His infinite wisdom, would institute marriage between one man and one woman as a procreative relationship, the means by which He would fill the earth with other image bearers, establish order and harmony within human society and facilitate human flourishing and individual happiness within His good and ordered creation. Marriage and family was designed and ordained by God as the human relationship that would best represent or illustrate the eternal love relationship between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit; a relationship in which mankind was created to share in, not as divine equals, but as beloved children, who would be the joyful beneficiaries of all that an infinitely good, infinitely wise and infinitely powerful eternal Heavenly Father could give to and do for those who trusted in His love and obeyed His laws (Genesis 2:23-24) (Genesis 1:26-28) (Genesis 2:15-17).
But something went grievously and tragically wrong from the very beginning. That something is the ultimate and enduring cause of all that is wrong with mankind and the world we live in, the source of all of the pain, sorrow, frustration, futility, misery and death that pervades our world.
And that something is summarized in a word, a term, that most of the world (unfortunately, even many Christians) despise and disdain, find obscene and highly objectionable; and that is the word Sin.
More on sin in my next post (if you dare to read it).
Grace and Peace ×