I could hardly believe what I was reading in a recent article in last week’s Sunday Telegraph. The article, by Marie Daouda was, essentially, a plea for a return to the Christian understanding of original sin. Two generations ago, she said, people knew what the concept of original sin meant – that there is a force for evil within each one of us which even the Apostle Paul struggled to overcome
Without understanding and believing this, she implied, we have no grounds for bringing correction into anyone’s life, for modern social dogma dictates that “we are all perfect” and that, therefore, my truth is just as good as anyone else’s truth! There are no longer any absolutes and no plumb lines against which behaviour can be measured or corrected, even in young children. Therefore, no correction is allowable and no-one else has any right to even suggest that anyone else’s beliefs or behaviour are either not acceptable or wrong. It does not need a degree in sociology to determine that society is out of control.
In the article Marie Daouda even said “it is as though the serpent’s promise to Adam and Eve has literally been fulfilled: we are now gods.” And, of course, that means that if we are now considered to be gods, how dare anyone challenge the personal beliefs of anyone in our secular humanistic society. Man has dispensed with the belief that God is Creator of all things and who, therefore, we can freely ignore because man (humankind) is on the throne of a universe that accidentally brought itself into being without God’s involvement. There is no God, no such thing as sin and God’s Word can be safely laid on one side!
None of this is new, of course. What goes around, comes around. The book of Jeremiah, for example, is largely a prophetic lament about the devastating consequences, to society and the land, of forsaking the living God amid warnings of God’s judgments that will follow. A world that has dispensed with, and even despises, God’s truth cannot be far from the point when God is stirred to act.
In his address to the COP26 Climate Change conference in Glasgow, Boris Johnson declared that as far as the need for change is concerned it is “one minute to midnight”. He was, of course, referring to the need for physical changes that man needs to make in order to enhance the future of our planet before it’s too late. But, inadvertently maybe, he was also drawing attention to the Scriptural expectation that the Bridegroom will return “at midnight” (Matthew 25:6).
If only the leaders in the church or believing leaders in the world had the courage to declare the need for the restoration of God’s order, both in the heart of man and in society, maybe those with ears to hear would listen and turn to the Lord. Climate change may be an important issue, but it pales in significance compared with the need for people to have a change of heart while there is yet time, for God has also promised that He will heal the land.
I pray that the article which prompted this blog may be the cloud no bigger than a man’s hand, which will in time bring showers of blessing that will turn hearts to the living God, and that there will be a harvest of righteousness in the nation. If the Sunday Telegraph is putting its weight behind the need to understand sin, could it be that the next step will be their declaration of the need of a Saviour!
One Life, Many Cars tells how Peter’s childhood love of cars grew into an adult passion for Alvis cars – in particular, a classic sports car of the early nineteen thirties, the Alvis Speed 20. This became the car of Peter’s dreams.
But when he eventually acquired a wrecked Speed 20 for just £50, Peter’s dream turned into a nightmare! The nightmare, however, became the turning point in Peter’s life, giving focus to a vision for the restoration of broken lives.
You can find out more and order copies of the book at: www.peterhorrobin.com/olmc
Thank you Alan for your thoughtful response. While climate change is indeed an important world-wide issue which mankind must face, no amount of political initiatives to save the planet can save mankind from the eternal consequences of dying without knowing Jesus. The older I get the more conscious I am becoming of our responsibility to speak God’s truth into a world that now largely despises God’s Word. Yes, I will continue to write books on healing issues that are still needed, but, as with my latest book, ‘One Life, Many Cars’ there will be a move to write material which will touch the hearts and minds of those who do not know the Lord. While people may not be interested in reading about God, they may just be touched through their interest in classic cars!
Absolutely! A world that doesn’t know its Creator has not looked after the world God made. You instinctively want to care for the property of those you love!
Something very remarkable : yes wouldn’t that be a sight for saw eyes, if the press where to be on the side of God. It would change the world for sure. But it like most of God goods plans on this earth, they get turned upside down and inside out. Satan really does his best to spoil it all. One thing we are surtain off through, Jesus will return and the earth will be healed and we along with it. They will be good days for sure. I’m desperately looking ahead. I need His help today, just to keep my eyes off death. It’s a hard life to live in this earth, even with Christ at times.
Be blessed. Dawn.
This is a well-written article, and it makes me think of psalm 141 verse 6 in the New Living Translation, where it says;
“When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff, the wicked will listen to my words and find them true.”
I believe that this refers to the leaders of a world that has been mislead and disappointed by their empty promises and theories. These social/political/historical “leaders” or guides have all come with an alternative to God’s word, and to the Gospel in particular. This has been in the form of concepts/disciplines that they have repeated to everyone (from their youth up) to the point of exhaustion.
Their political, social and educational theories all have one thing in common; they tend to promote man as being some type of “demi-god” who can chart his own way forward. These humanistic concepts have all led to dissapointment, as, in practice, they have failed to deliver the perfect society that the world has been waiting for.
Now that the teachings of these leaders are being questioned and overthrown by dissalusioned people everywhere, there is only one alternative left for this desperate world. This alternative is in God’s Son, and in the infallible words that our Heavenly Father has spoken through Him. God’s Son is imminently more qualified than any other to tell us all about ourselves and about human nature, since He made us. He has more of an understanding of our society than any other, since He, as God, came to live among us. Nobody understands the concepts of sin (that the “wise” of this world have refused to hear about), better than He, since He bore our sins for us. As a result, only He has the answer to our problems; not intellectuals and theorists in a fallen human society.
As a result of this human failure and latent promise of divine blessing, mankind is at a crossroads; millions of people’s only option still available to them is to turn to the Lord Jesus and his Gospel.
This current dissalusionment with the answers that this world has had to offer has resulted in huge numbers of people who realise that they have no moral compass and no infallible principles on which to base their lives.
Many in this growing number are like the multitudes who had been baptized by John the Baptist for the remission of their sins. Until Jesus came soon afterwards, they had all admitted that they were wrong and sinful, but had not yet received the one with the answer to their problems who could save them.
WE, as believers in Jesus, have the complete answer for them; the words of Jesus, who is able to give “a word in season to him that is weary”. May the Lord grant us the grace to see that the harvest is near, and to immediately put in the sicle by giving these words at His appointed times.
You said: “Climate change may be an important issue, but it pales into significance compared with the need for people to have a change of heart while there is yet time, for God has also promised that He will heal the land.”
I think anything that will kill millions and millions of people is something that Christians should be concerned about. To say that climate change “may” be important is to deny that it is happening or to minimize its importance. What the oil, gas, coal, and agricultural corporations are doing to our planet is sin. Agriculture because of methane. About 20-25% of greenhouse gasses come from cows. It also requires vast amounts of water for every pound of beef. A field of soybeans can provide protein for far more people. Greed is sin.
Thank you Peter
The Lord has encouraged me to search the words of Jeremiah as I believe we are in a time of unbelief! Lack of love of Jesus is destroying our very souls. We can enjoy and care for the created, because we know the Creator.
Lord, help our unbelief.
Amen and amen to your concluding question Peter and thank you for posing it. In Christ’s Invincible Name. Amen.
Brilliant Peter !