News Flash!
October 21, 2013
The news has upset me again today:
“Boy of 12 rapes six year old girl.” “68 shot in cold blood in shopping mall massacre.”
And the thing that upsets me most is… this could be any day.
The question I have is this: Are we meant to just accept that these things happen?
Of course not!
But the question then is, are we becoming more tolerant of evil?
How do we ensure that these atrocities continue to shock us when they are such a regular occurrence? Are we going to resign ourselves to the fact that this is just messy humanity?
And if these actions are happening in a country where we pride ourselves on our just legal system and civilized society, what’s going wrong? People who see no need for God argue that our morality is ‘evolving.’ But in which direction?
Are we in fact slipping further and further towards a society where individual morality is governed by our own selfish needs and raging desires? A morality which therefore has no power to harness or contain them?
If only we learned from our past mistakes! The Bible spans 4000 years in human history, and documents the first ever family murder (Genesis 4), and the horror of gang rape (Judges 19:24).
But it also maintains that:
“God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done’… There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honour and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favouritism.” Romans 2:6, 9-11.
For Christians, who believe in a good Judge, there is hope. We can know that one day all people will be held accountable for their behaviour. But greater still, we have hope in the knowledge that new life awaits anyone who repents (turns away from evil), and believes in Jesus. Because of Him we are forgiven and are spared from God’s right anger. As the song goes: “The vilest offender, who truly believes, that moment from Jesus, a pardon receives.”
So cry out to the God of mercy for our evil and godless nation. Plead forgiveness for our own violent hearts. And pray too for the generations to come.
By the Cornerstone Team