The World’s Trouble: Chapter 1

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And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: - Hebrews 9:27
And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
– Hebrews 9:27

Chapter 1

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing Monday morning, May 2, 2011? Probably not right off. Unless you were quite young, you do remember where you were and what you were doing Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001.

Those two dates are connected. September 11, 2001 was the day of the devastating terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D. C. May 2, 2011 was the morning we received news that Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, had been killed by the U. S. Navy Seal Team Six as a result of an infiltration of Bin Laden’s compound outside Islamabad in Pakistan.

Bin Laden was Public Enemy No. 1, and many rejoiced at the news of his execution. This news and the reaction to it was the topic of public discussion in print, online, on the radio, and on television news. It fascinated me that the Bible was being read and its meaning openly debated on the public airways of this country, even if only for a short time.

Inevitably, the discussion raised the question of whether Osama Bin Laden was evil and deserved to be killed. Generally speaking, the atheists, agnostics, humanists, and secularists did not have a hard time saying Bin Laden was evil. People who do not believe in God or the Bible can hear of a man kicking open the door of an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and shooting ten schoolgirls and call that evil.

People generally have no problem denouncing the Bin Ladens, Hitlers, and Stalins of the world as evil. Their transgressions are grand-scale and obvious. Non-Christians and Christians alike denounce them as evil and deserving of punishment. It is reasonable to assert they are guilty before God and will be judged by Him.

The evil we tend not to see is in our own heart and life. It is hard for us to think that the whole world is guilty before God when so few, relatively speaking, have sinned on the order of Bin Laden or Hitler. Could it be true? Is the whole world guilty before God, or are only the truly bad ones destined for judgment? To answer these questions, we have to find out what the Bible actually teaches about sin and how the Bible identifies evil.

This is a portion of a book that I have been writing. I have decided to post it here in serial form. It is intended to be evangelistic. If the book has merit, I may seek to publish it in some form. Please feel free to share it and I welcome any feedback.

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2 Comments

  1. Berton F Craft April 11, 2016 at 11:05 am

    Without the divine mirror of the Word of God and particularly the law, we would never have a clue of our true, depraved, and corrupt nature. Thank you for challenging us to know ourselves so that we can also know God in truth.

    Reply

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