The cycle of Human Sin and Depravity cannot be separated from History and culture. The time in which we are living continues the outworking of the Kingdom of God as we move ever closer to End of this earth and existence as we know.
Since Christ resurrected into a living breathing human the End Times have been eminent. This fact makes our time, our present moment even more valuable. Life has always had an urgency to it yet in our sinful natures we look through the glass darkly and choose to ignore it.
The folly and disillusion of the perfectibility of Man is ever with us and even now during this time of social and cultural upheaval people believe they can make our world, our society into a cultural utopia by laws and will power.
America has been blessed with wealth, influence, and innovation unlike ant nation in history yet like Rome and other powerful nations before us we are slipping into chaos.
Since the 1960’s there has been a relationship between the breakdown of society and increased violence.
The assassination of JFK in 1963, Malcolm X in 1965, and Martin Luther King in 1968 was followed by a loss of confidence in government morality and leadership which negatively affected the rest of society. When the leaders at the top commit wrongs and evil it affects the rest of society. We see that today with many people emulating the foolish behavior of our leaders.
From 1960 through our current time in 2020, there has been an increasing trend in lethal violence, divorce rates have doubled; teen suicide rates have tripled; violent crime is four times higher; our prison population is five times higher; depression rates are ten times higher.
The family breakdown is evident with one out of every three children in the US living in a home without a father in addition America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world.
America also produces and exports more pornography than any other nation on earth. America has the highest rate of illegal drug use on earth, and, according to federal government statistics, the number of heroin addicts in the US has at least doubled since 2002.
To further contribute to worldwide instability America exports more weapons to other countries than anyone else in the world.
According the The World Population Review the United States is number sixty-six on the list of countries in terms of mass shooting rates per capita, but they have had more mass shootings than any other country in terms of overall numbers.
The United States has the twelfth highest mass shooting rate. A few of the European countries with a higher mass shooting rate per capita than the United States: Russia, Norway, France, Switzerland, and Finland.
So what should we do? Should we protest? Should we retreat and hide as the Benedict Option urges us to do.
We are not perfectible; all of us has chosen to be our own Master, our own God whether we realize it or not. Psychology, self-help, expressive individualism, Science, or some system of good works will not make us less violent or sinful because we are BROKEN!
There is no easy answer, no silver bullet. People want a quick fix. People do not want to discuss their failings, their sins.
We have all been guilty of sins of omission by not speaking up for what is right and just or by committing sins.
Repentance involves a daily intentional commitment to reading scripture, prayer and humbling one’s self and most important of all stopping our sinful behavior. Will you do it? Will you try?
Because you have . . . eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3:17–19)
“The creation was subjected to futility,” the one who subjected it did so “in hope” (Romans 8:20). The hope “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).
That futility is what all of us feel everyday no matter what we do.
God has promised to make “all things new” (Revelation 21:5). Which means all of creation will experience a resurrection, a newness of life free of the corruption we experience now.
So, the world is a dangerous place. We cannot cope with it by ignoring this fact. We never know what is coming for us either personally or as a nation.
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers.
but his delight is in the law of the Lord. (Psalm 1:1–2)
The Psalmists knew the reality of life in a broken world. The Psalmists confront this fact of with questions poured out to God. They did it with a confident trust amid a life that was a mess.
They trust in God and meditate on it even as they are sustained by it
As a result, they do not fear when bad news comes. They do not make a shipwreck of their faith when suffering comes, and it will come. And they hope in God, knowing they will one day praise him, even if they are not right now (Psalm 42:5, 11; 43:5).