In living our lives as Christians, nothing is more important than Christian love—loving God, and having God’s very love for our neighbor. This is not some “mushy” idea. True love is at the very center of our Christian commitment (1 John 2:1–6).
Nevertheless, a vital counterpoint to this wonderful and all encompassing truth is that we must fully learn to hate evil— not to hate the people who perpetrate evil, but rather to hate those evil actions themselves. For evil thoughts, words and deeds are literally destroying the deep joy, peace and prosperity that should be abundantly shared by all of humanity! So, although we should not dwell on it unduly or become overly morbid, it is important that our hearts and minds be sensitive to what evil is. It is vital that we do not become “desensitized” and begin to conform to the attitudes, words or actions of this modern world, which is becoming more and more abominable in the sight of Almighty God.
He tells us in His inspired word, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:15–16). And note what the Apostle James was inspired to write: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
I am not writing these words to our broad Tomorrow’s World readership, but rather to our members and other subscribers of the Living Church News, who have, by and large, a greater familiarity with the word of God. If we do indeed have God’s Holy Spirit guiding our minds, we need to begin to put up an even stronger “defense system” against the assaults of Satan the Devil—the “prince” of this world (John 14:30, KJV). Why? Because through his broadcast of rebellious and twisted ideas and attitudes, and through the entertainment media that he so mightily influences, more and more rotten and perverted concepts are being “broadcast” to this mixed-up world. Truly, Satan is “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).
Through Satan’s relentless and unceasing propaganda efforts, more and more of even the professing Christian world is beginning to accept and embrace the idea of murdering unborn children. Some authorities have estimated that more than 50 million unborn babies have been intentionally aborted in the United States alone since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision came down in 1973! Since then, other horrors like “partial-birth” abortion—in which the murder occurs when the baby is partially outside its mother’s womb—have become almost routine in many people’s eyes. And now there are “abortion pills” such as the infamous RU-486 that allow a woman to abort her baby without having to visit a clinic. The mother can just murder the unborn child quietly, privately and with the total acquiescence of our professing Christian nations!
Speaking about the practice of homosexuality, the Apostle Paul wrote of the great philosophers, and “opinion makers” of his day: “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion” (Romans 1:24–27, NIV).
In the final verse of this passage that so strongly condemns these sexual perversions, Paul writes about educated men and women who, “knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (v. 32). And, yes, there are millions who “approve of” practices that not long ago were almost universally recognized as vile! Just look at our modern educational systems. As policy analyst Roger Kimball has observed, much of modern “liberal arts” education is of “increasing irrelevance and fatuousness.… typically two parts Derrida, Foucault, and deconstruction, five parts queer studies, and eight parts feminism, post-colonial studies, and general purpose political posturing.… in short, utterly inimical to the humanities as traditionally conceived” (“The Life of the Mind,” Ignatius Insight, August 2005).
Can you imagine? “Queer studies” is now an increasingly accepted “academic” study! Parents even send their children to the top Ivy League universities and pay tens of thousands of dollars to have their sons and daughters indoctrinated in these perversions!
Dear brethren, God holds us accountable if we endorse, sponsor or in any way approve of lawless behavior even though we ourselves may not be practicing it! Obviously, we must not hate or physically attack abortionists or sexual deviants. We must obey the laws of the land—including tax laws, though our governments sometimes finance wars and other ungodly practices—as long as they do not force us, personally, to disobey God’s laws. But the Bible does tell us to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). The Greek word translated “expose” is often rendered “reprove.” And God commands His faithful ministers, “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1).
Only a few years ago, no one would have thought it controversial to say, “Marriage is a life-long bond between a man and a woman.” But now, “respectable mainstream” voices are pushing “homosexual marriage” as normal. Forty years ago, homosexuality was recognized even by the secular American Psychological Association as a disorder. Today, if you dare to proclaim the biblical truth about God’s commandments, which absolutely forbid homosexual conduct, you risk being labeled “homophobic” by our sin-sick society!
Even when the people of America try to stand up for what is right, the “establishment” increasingly opposes them. Notice the recent action in California, where one controversial judge has overturned the expressed will of millions of voters, and declared “unconstitutional” a proposition that upheld the long-established truth that marriage is between one man and one woman.
Just how different are we from the ancient culture of Sodom and Gomorrah? The answer is clear—not different enough!
In fact, such perverse attitudes and behavior are prophesied to become worse and worse as the American and British-descended peoples plunge ever further into degradation. Speaking of the “last days” in general, the Apostle Paul writes, “But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).
Do the governments of this world sometimes do some good? Yes, they do. However, under the sway of the invisible Satan—who is definitely the “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4)— many government leaders are constantly “mixing in” much evil with a little bit of good. And the result would be cosmocide—the destruction of all life from this planet—if it continues, just as Jesus Christ stated. For Jesus warned, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22). So “no flesh” will be saved alive except for God’s intervention by sending Jesus Christ back as King of kings.
Truly, my friends, this world does not know how to govern itself. As for us, brethren, as we see the evils around us increasing—in intensity and in frequency—we must learn to react as Jesus Christ would have us react. First, we are not to grow bitter. We can and must properly hate the sin and yet love the sinner. Second, we must not allow ourselves to become too discouraged by the vile words, deeds and “happenings” around us. Remember what Jesus told His disciples about the wars, “fearful sights” and other catastrophes to occur just before His Second Coming. He said, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).
As the saying goes, “it is always darkest just before the dawn.” And it will be a magnificent dawn of a glorious new age when Christ returns in full power as King of kings! So let us constantly pray for and anticipate the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth!
Meanwhile, we who are now called by God to be in the first resurrection must truly “come out” of this world. We must not “love the world or the things in the world.” We must not allow our consciences to be seared, our spiritual sensitivities to be calloused, or our deep awareness of what is right and what is wrong to be watered down by the incessant bombardment of Satan’s many propaganda efforts. For God warns us, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).
In the New Testament, God tells us, “Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). As a Church and as Christians individually, we do need to genuinely abhor the rotten, perverted, vile words and practices all around us. As the Bible points out, righteous men and women will “sigh and cry over all the abominations” done in our midst (Ezekiel 9:4). We must not “water down” the fact that so many things done in our modern world are truly evil and vile.
Again, we who are called of God must band together to cry out and tell our people their transgressions—loud and clear. We must then warn them of the Great Tribulation soon to occur unless this world repents. And we must give them the inspiring message of the coming Kingdom of God and point out to them their opportunity to be part of it—if they will repent and turn to the true Jesus Christ of the Bible with all their hearts.