Is mankind inherently good or is he inherently bad?

I think this is the question that greatly divides our country today. Are we basically good and influenced to do bad things or are we basically bad and sometimes do good things? This opinion is the moral foundation on how we as a society treat each other.

As I watch the evening news and see people being interviewed who have just suffered as a result of others behavior, I am greatly sorrowful, as are many others. But at the end of the interview the interviewer asks the question toward the audience “How can we fix this?” We all want to live in a safe and loving community, we feel sorrow for the victims and sometimes for the criminal but it seems like no one knows the answer.

In a recent survey of U.S. residents by “One Poll” they asked that question and 81% said that humankind is inherently good. Debate.org phrased the question in a few different ways and the response was from 50 -75% who said that man was inherently good. I also just randomly downloaded eleven different posts on that subject and six said good, four said good or bad, and one said bad. I know this is not a very extensive study but it seems to indicate what Americans believe and as a result would influence what they think could be possible answers to the issues we face as a society.

So let’s look at some of the major issues of the day and how the opposing views fit into what I believe is their view of mankind. I’ll start with crime since I mentioned it already.

Crime:

 If we believe that mankind is basically good then defunding the police makes sense because policing doesn’t keep us safe. Those who believe this say If policing and imprisonment stopped violence the US would be the most peaceful country in the world. A recent example of this is the NY DA Alvin Bragg decision not to prosecute certain crimes and reduce the punishment on more serious crimes.

If we believe that mankind is basically bad then we need to increase punishment and make the punishment fit the crime. Proverbs 10:13b states “but the rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.” Several verses in the Old Testament state that punishment is not just to correct the criminal but also so that others will see and not do the crime. A good example of this today is in Singapore. They punish crime and their crime rate is one-tenth the rate of the United States.

We can’t correct mankind if we don’t view him correctly.

If you want more information on this view see my post on “The Cure for Crime.”

Immigration:

Those who believe mankind is basically good say that he should be able to travel this planet freely because it is a common home to all of us. In that regard the US should open its borders because in their view restricting migration violates the ethical principle of our common right to life on this planet.

If mankind is basically bad we need to protect our own countries. We cannot compromise national security and public safety. Every nation has the right to secure its borders and ports of entry and control what and who is coming into its country.

Foreign Policy:

From the PEW Research center they state that “roughly seven-in-ten Americans (73%) say that good diplomacy is the best way to secure peace, while 26% say that military strength is the best way to do this.” This falls directly in line with the majority who think that man is basically good. If you think your enemies are basically good then you can reason with them from a position of weakness and they will be nice to you. But if they are basically bad then only a position of strength will bring them to the negotiating table.

Also if we think mankind is basically good we should be willing to share technical information and keep no secrets. We should declassify everything because we would expect our enemies to use the information for our and their own good.

Socialism:

The argument for or against socialism is built around the nature of mankind. Both socialists and capitalists would say that there are elements of good and bad in everyone but the key is the foundation of their behavior. Again, are we basically good or bad?

Socialism requires a person to willingly put more into a society than he will receive. Socialists would say this is possible because of the good nature of man. Actually most Marxists would state that people act selfishly as a product of scarcity and capitalism, but not as a result of their nature. Where anti-socialists would focus on the inherent capacity of mankind to be selfish and cruel. Therefore for socialism to work mankind must be basically good and always putting the needs of others before his own.

I know these are some hot topics in which Americans are deeply divided and solutions come from a correct view of the nature of man. So in order to get it right let’s see what the Bible says about the nature of man.

Biblical Position:

In just going through the Bible we can see God’s perspective on the subject. Just before the flood God describes the state of mankind in Genesis 6:5 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” David said in Psalms 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” In Ecclesiastics 7:20 Solomon says “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” And also in Ecclesiastics 9:3b he said “the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live.”

In Jeremiah 17:9 Jeremiah said of everyone “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it?” Jesus said in Matthew 7:11 “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” and in Mark 7:21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

So God states that man is inherently bad and who should know more than God?

So if mankind is inherently evil and Americans think that he is good we are trying to better our life, keep us safe, and to live peacefully without correctly understanding mankind and therefore not correctly understanding the issues we face as a nation.

Finally, the purpose of this post is not for us to go out and try to change the minds of all those who think that mankind is good but for us to better understand what they are thinking so we can come up with solutions that are acceptable to both sides of this great moral divide.

Description:

Wounded and Blind takes you on a short journey to see some of the changes that have taken place in the American culture and in the American church. You will be challenged as you see how this has been a clear methodical plan by the enemy to oppose what God has done.

Wounded and Blind is a plea for the American church to take the fight to him and to stop just playing defense. Satan through the culture has crippled the church, and we are so focused on caring for the wounded we are not fighting back. We need to band together and to work hard at changing the written and unwritten laws of our land that oppose Christian values, and this book will give you some ideas on how to do just that.

The future of our country is at stake and the church through God is our only recourse. We have no other options and it truly is time to fight back.

INTRODUCTION:

Suppose you are going to a college football game. The car is packed with food, rain gear, people (the whole family) and you are off. You travel about three hours to your favorite college perhaps the one you attended or maybe where your kids went. The excitement and anticipation is growing as you enter the stadium. It is packed with people most all of them wearing your college colors and all excited and buzzing about the upcoming game. Then the teams come on the field, the visitors first then the home team. But you notice something strange because the home team only has half the players as the visiting team. So you think this is some new kind of strategy as you wait with great anticipation as the teams take the field. Your team kicks off and the battle begins. The visitors move the ball down the field at a slow but steady pace and the home team holds them on the ten yard line as the visitors kick a field goal and you take that as a moral victory as the home team kept them out of the end zone. Then the visitors kick off to the home team but the home team has no one on the field. The crowd is going crazy as the ball bounds through the end zone and the referee places it of the twenty yard line waiting for the home team to come on to the field. Then someone in the stands says that the coach is going to focus on defense today so the offence didn’t suit up. Then everyone is screaming HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO WIN IF YOU DON’T PLAY OFFENCE!!

This story may seem a little crazy but that is exactly what the American church has been doing the last approximately 70 years. We have just been playing defense while the enemy is using the culture to destroy our country and our church. That’s where the American Church has been BLINDED. We think we can win by just playing defense. How crazy is that!! Don’t you think it is about time we start playing offense. I know this is a game analogy but in reality it is far more important than that as we are in a war and the stakes are much higher than winning a football game. It is time to go on offence. Certainly the future of our nation is at stake but also the lives of all of us.

In this book I will show how the enemy has impacted the culture and how the culture has impacted the church. Satan has blinded the eyes of non-believers and has made believers ineffective. So I hope you will continue to read to see how we can turn this around for the sake of this country and the gospel.

I want to look at several areas where the culture has changed and how that change has crept into the church. We need to understand that we as the people of God need to combat the enemy by fighting back against the culture against the prince and power of this world system. We can no longer watch as we have become the biggest producer of pornography in the world, how our families are being destroyed, how God’s Word is being removed and ridiculed, how personal integrity is a thing of the past, and how our values are so distorted that we think material possessions will save us while in the meantime souls are being lost.

This will be a hard read but stay with it because the future of our children and grandchildren depends on us turning it around. God is waiting to empower the church if we would just be willing to take up the fight.  So hang on and let’s first see how the culture has changed before we see how it has impacted the church.

Proverbs 20:18 Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.

You can get “WOUNDED and BLIND” through Amazon

Last summer we were visiting friends in a small town in Pennsylvania and during our visit we went to a town arts and crafts fair. The small town had blocked off Main Street and it was lined with booths of all different kinds, food, clothing, etc. So the people would walk down one side of the street and up the other to check out each booth. As we were walking I noticed a woman walking in the opposite direction with a unique T-shirt. She was probably in her mid-forties and on the front of her shirt was a large closed fist with the middle finger sticking out. My initial thought was that she was certainly sending a message and that she must be angry, at everything, all the time.

Marie Miguel in her post states that “It seems like everywhere you turn, someone is angry at something. You may wonder why is everyone angry all the time.”

So that’s the question “Why is everyone so angry?”

According to Jennifer Graham she stated that “In a survey conducted by Esquire and NBC News last year, roughly half of Americans said they’re angrier than they used to be, and nearly 7 out of 10 said they’re angered by something in the news at least once a day. The National Institutes of Health says more than 16 million Americans have a condition called intermittent explosive disorder, in which people get angry out of proportion with the circumstance.”

“It’s a huge problem, and it’s a growing problem,” said R. Douglas Fields of Bethesda, Maryland, author of “Why We Snap, Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain.”

Anger is a problem and it can be very damaging.

Anger can hurt us

One problem is that it hurts the person who gets angry. According to Graham “In a fraction of a second, a flash of anger causes physiological changes that negatively affect blood pressure, heart rate and digestion, and chronic anger is associated with heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems, according to research published in the medical journal Circulation. Persistent anger can destroy marriages and friendships, threaten employment and erode our capacity to engage in the reasoned, thoughtful arguments on which our democracy depends. It’s a three-pronged problem with spiritual, mental and physical components.”

Anger can hurt others

But it can also hurt someone else if the anger turns violent such as with road rage.

One day a few weeks ago before the virus I was going to the store and stopped at a traffic light. At the light there were three lanes and each marked clearly. The right was for turning right, the center lane for going straight and the left lane for turning left. I was in the left lane and as I was turning the car in the center lane also turned left. He felt I was cutting him off and his anger showed as he passed me in a rage and showed me the same sign that the previous woman had on her T-shirt.

Road rage can be deadly. Also from Graham “Many of the things people are angry about these days are relatively minor, even though the outcomes can be horrific, such as incidents of road rage, like one that occurred recently in Pennsylvania when a man fatally shot an 18-year-old driver he clashed with while both drivers were trying to merge into traffic.”

So again why is everyone so angry?

Anger can be used for financial gain

In doing the research for this post I came across an interesting perspective. Some people use the emotion of anger for personal or financial gain. I can understand the personal gain but financial?..

Charles Duhigg from “The Atlantic” said “The emotion of anger was being used by debt collectors to get their money. The trick they were teaching was to use anger strategically. They had it as a formula: when to fake anger, when to cool down, when to give people a bit of forgiveness. Even when the debtors on the other end of the line sounded friendly, the collectors were trained to pretend they were angry at them. One supervisor said that in some instances, you have to slam ’em. I slam ’em against the wall. He explained that callers needed to hear a hostile tone, something that said, I want the payment today! Express mail! The point wasn’t to intimidate the debtors into paying—the strategy was more sophisticated than that. As soon as a debtor started screaming back, the collector would switch tactics and become soothing and accommodating. The idea was, once you get them angry and aroused, you need to deliver catharsis, a sense of relief. That’s going to make them more likely to pay up,”

I also had a similar incident several years ago, probably in the early 1990’s. I had filed my tax return and didn’t expect much back but a few weeks later I received a notice from the IRS stating that I owed them $1,500 and if I had any questions to call a specific number. So I called the number and it was hard to get through but I eventually did and got to talk to an agent. I was on the phone for 30 minutes and it was a very unique experience. He called me a liar and that I was trying to submit a false return. He said that no one could have donated as much as I did to charity with my income and I just needed to pay up. I told him I had all my receipts and would be glad to send him a copy. But he didn’t want the receipts and got increasingly angrier and said he didn’t have to waste his time by talking to me as he could be home cooking hot dogs on the grill. Again after trying to anger me he hung up. But I was not going to hang up my end and after a few minutes he came back on the line with a completely different attitude. He told me to contact this other person and she would take care of me. So I did just that and after checking into my situation she said that my itemized deductions were zeroed out in their computer and after completing her analysis she said they owed me $1,500. But I knew she was wrong and after about six months and several calls later she agreed that my original return was correct.

Anger is a response to a threat

Anger and sudden aggression in response to a threat originates in the unconscious parts of the brain, “because, in response to a threat, conscious deliberation would be too slow,” said Fields from Bethesda.

In addition to reacting to perceived threats to our physical safety, the brain also reacts to perceived threats of social status, self-respect and autonomy, said Professor Michael Potegal, a behavioral neuroscientist and clinical psychologist at the University of Minnesota. “Anger is also characteristic of people with borderline personality disorder who become angry when they feel socially unsupported. Most notably, people with narcissistic personality disorder become enraged at any public criticism because it undercuts their core belief that everyone else thinks they are great,” Potegal said.

Weview our situation from a self-centered perspective. Our view is that someone else is causing us harm or attacks our ego. We view our life and our own worth from how we see how other people are treating us. But the Christian life and the example that Christ gave us is just the opposite. We need to analyze our response and not the behavior of the other person. I think this is one of the hardest commands that God has given us. To return good for evil. Not to respond as an act of revenge but as an act of love when our lives are not threatened.

Our culture tells us to stick up for our rights and they applaud us when we do. Because it’s what we deserve, correct!!

So people get angry when they feel they are being discriminated against or being disrespected. This can be against them personally or as a group that they associate with.

We could be disrespected in a number of different ways; age, race, physical appearance, handicap, religion, or personality. Certainly there are others and I could describe each one of these in detail but I think you get the picture. (smiles)

A few years ago I was out of work at age 58. At that age it was difficult in getting a new job and it took almost a year to land one that was just part time. I was an electrical engineer and recently a pastor. At one job interview for pastor I was told that they would not hire me because I was did not have a charismatic personality. They said I would drive people away from the church. I was certainly well qualified. I had experience as an executive pastor, a master’s degree in theology, and had served on the church leadership board of three different churches for over 20 years. But I wasn’t charismatic. (sad) I know I am boring but that was a stretch. (smiles)

But as Christians our focus should not be on the behavior of the person who is treating us poorly but on our response. We should be wise and use those opportunities to show Christ’s love in at least three ways:

1. Sometimes we should just overlook it. Proverbs 19:11 “A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense” (NIV)
2. Sometimes we need to return good. Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”(ESV)
3. But always we at least need to pray for them. 1 Peter 3:9 “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” (NIV)

On point 3 John MacArthur says “The blessing that a Christian is to give to the reviler includes finding ways to serve him, praying for his salvation or spiritual progress, expressing thankfulness for him, speaking well of him, and desiring his wellbeing.”

Through the offense God could use it to build a relationship that may eventually lead them to Christ. I don’t always get it right but I did pray for the road rage guy. (smiles)

I hope this post will help you in dealing with your own anger. Even the best of us will fail in this area at times.

Proverbs 16:32 “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.

I don’t have any idea how much or how many people are working on crime prevention but it is a lot.   Just to name a few: many criminologists, World Health Organization, United States National Research Council, UK Audit Commission, many opinion polls, and several books, etc. Personally I have not done a lot of research on this topic but to my knowledge none of these organizations or criminologists use the Bible as a source to provide solutions to the problem. In the past we have relied on the Bible to form our government and it was by far the most quoted source of all the early writings (34% of all quotes). We have relied on it for moral guidance. Noah Webster who has been called the “Father of American Scholarship and Education” stated that “The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society.”

The Bible has provided guidance on a lot of social issues such as the work week, crop rotation, personal diet, medical and personal hygiene, and personal finances just to name a few. So why not then how to solve the crime issues we face today.

Then with my extensive research (ha-ha), I want to look at three basic approaches to solve the problem and see what the experts of the day say and what the Bible has to say. For this exercise I am just going to address the areas where the Bible (God) and society agree that it is a crime.

Approach 1: Removing catalysts in our culture that promote crime

For this approach I am just going to address one criminal area, pornography, but there could be a lot of other areas that could be evaluated. The Biblical support for this is to keep us from temptation. In The Lord’s Prayer we say “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” In James 1:14 he states   “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”  So we can do this by removing the things we see that can cause us problems.

In the Old Testament they put their idols where they could see them and that caused them to sin. Ezekiel 14:3b states “they set the stumbling block (idols) before their faces.” Ezekiel 20:8b states “None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on.” Genesis 3:6 states “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes.” So when we view porn our evil desires are activated. But not everyone sees it that way.

Several years ago, I was traveling on business in North America. I flew into a city and rented a car to take me where I had to go. I turned on the radio. It was previously set to a station by a former driver, and I heard the most shocking statement. The person on the radio kept repeating this statement, “If you are healthy, pornography is healthy.” That was the first time that I realized that some people actually believe that pornography can be good for you. How crazy is that! We have declined so drastically that 42% of all adults believe that viewing pornography is acceptable.

Pornography is wide spread. Craig Gross and Ron Jeremy state that “Every second, 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography. Every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is being created in the United States. Every day, 68 million pornographic requests are searched online.”

They go on to say, “the porn industry has larger revenues than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined.  In 2006, the industry had ballooned to $97.06 billion dollars.” So, today it is probably much larger.

Pornography is clearly linked to violent crime.  In the same article by Gross and Jeremy, they state that “One of the most powerful testimonies we’ve ever heard regarding pornography addiction came from the serial killer Ted Bundy. This man confessed to more than 30 murders. Just before he was to be executed by electric chair on January 24, 1989, he granted an interview to James Dobson, Founder and President of the organization, Focus on the Family. Bundy went on record to say:

“I’ve lived in prison for a long time now, and I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography – deeply consumed by the addiction. The F.B.I.’s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornographers.

I’m not blaming pornography. I’m not saying it caused me to go out and do certain things. I take full responsibility for all the things that I’ve done. That’s not the question here. The issue is how this kind of literature contributed and helped mold and shape the kinds of violent behavior. 

Those of us who have been so influenced by violence in the media, particularly pornographic violence, are not some kind of inherent monsters. We are your sons and husbands. We grew up in regular families. Pornography can reach in and snatch a kid out of any house today. It snatched me out of my home 20 or 30 years ago.”

More startling is that Bundy not only grew up in a regular, loving family…he grew up in a Christian home.

Dr. Mary Anne Layden stated in her report to the Kansas Legislature in 2011 that “I had been doing this work for more than 10 years before I realized that I had not treated one case of sexual violence that did not include pornography.”

According to Charles Keating of Citizens for Decency Through Law, research reveals that 77 percent of child molesters of boys and 87 percent of child molesters of girls admitted imitating the sexual behavior they had seen modeled in pornography.

We all know how pornography has spilled over into the church. According to Archdiocese of Omaha Anti-Pornography task force at the time of this publication:

• Over half of evangelical pastors admit viewing pornography
• 57% of pastors say that addiction to pornography is the most sexually damaging issue to their congregation

Then viewing porn is deadly so you would think it would make sense to restrict people from viewing it. With this in mind I tried to find some place on the planet where this principle was being implemented and I found Singapore. This is it. The safest country on Earth. Tiny Singapore is home to 5.3 million people crammed into an area almost four times smaller than Rhode Island (pop. 1 million). With such an insane level of overcrowding, you might expect things to quickly spiral into violence and resentment. Not so. In 2011, a mere 16 people were murdered. In 2015 and 2016, all forms of violent crime and thefts hit either 10 or 20 year lows.

The rape rate incidents per 100,000 in 2015 were 2.9 in Singapore and 28.4 in the United States, about 10 times worse.

One way Singapore does this is by restricting access to porn.

The Info-communications Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA), however, has banned approximately 100 porn websites as a symbolic gesture that Singaporean values do not condone the viewing of pornographic content. In Singapore, it is illegal to keep, possess or download porn under the Undesirable Publications Act and the Films Act. This is regardless of whether the porn is in physical or digital form, and even if the porn was for personal use.

If you are found to be possessing pornographic films, you can be fined up to $20,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 6 months under section 30(1) of the Films Act. The penalties are higher if you are found to have known, or to have had reasonable cause to believe, that the film in your possession was obscene.

So as a society if we would do a better job at restricting access to porn our crime rate would drop. Restricting access is one approach but another approach would be to actually punish the criminals as a deterrent.

Approach 2: Punishment as a deterrent

So we briefly looked at removing catalysts and opportunities that incite a person to commit a crime. Now let’s look at ways to reduce a person’s desire to commit a crime. Our culture views punishment as a means to rehabilitate the criminal.

Actually the Wikipedia definition for Punishment as a deterrence is:

“Individual deterrence where the aim of punishment is to discourage the offender from criminal acts in the future. The belief is that when punished, offenders recognize the unpleasant consequences of their actions on themselves and will change their behavior accordingly.”

Sure this true but it misses the most important value in punishment. All of these verses are in reference to punishment:

• Deuteronomy 13:11 “And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.”
• Deuteronomy 17:13 “And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.”
• Deuteronomy 19:20 “And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.”
• Acts 5:11 “And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.”

Punishment is more for others to see and then determine not to do the same crime so that they will not be punished. Then this also only works if the punishment is severe enough. Shaking your finger in little Johnnies face and telling him not to do it again won’t cut it. Let’s look at some of God’s recommended punishments. All of these at one time received the death penalty: murder, adultery, rape of a betrothed virgin, male-male sexual intercourse, kidnapping, and even rebellion against parents. Punishment for stealing was to pay back more than you took. Exodus 22:1  states “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.”

But you say that is crazy and far too severe. But it was God’s direction. 

Let’s look at Singapore again:

Singaporean law allows caning to be ordered for over 35 offences, including hostage-taking/kidnapping, robbery, gang robbery with murder, rioting, causing grievous hurt, drug abuse, vandalism, extortion, sexual abuse, molestation (often referred to as “outrage of modesty”), and unlawful possession of weapons. Caning is also a mandatory punishment for certain offences such as rape, drug trafficking, illegal moneylending, and for foreigners who overstay by more than 90 days – a measure designed to deter illegal immigrants.

Caning is, in practice, always ordered in addition to a jail sentence and never as a punishment by itself. It is administered in an enclosed area in the prison out of the view of the public and other inmates. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that the offender, while waiting in a queue for his turn to be caned, has the chance to observe those before him getting caned. The order is determined by the number of strokes the offender is receiving, with the largest number going first. 

In practice, the offender is required to strip completely naked for the caning. Once he has removed his clothes, he is restrained in a large wooden trestle based on the British dual-purpose prison flogging frame. The punishment is administered on his bare buttocks to minimize the risk of any injury to bones and organs. He is not gagged.

They actually sell canes in stores for parents to use on their children. But we don’t even allow mild spanking.

Bible verses on spanking:

• Proverbs 22:15: “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”
• Proverbs 23:13-14: “Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die

Here are some of the comparisons of crime rates in Singapore vs the US (per 100,000)

• General rape rate: Singapore 2.7 vs US 27.3 (US 10 times more)
• Rape as a violent crime: US is also 10 times more
• Intentional Homicide rate: Singapore .51 vs US 4.7 (US 9 times more)
• Murders as a violent crime: Singapore 2.6 vs US 27.4 (US 14 times more)

Also police presence is a great deterrent but the US proportion of police officers to people is 64 times more than Singapore.

WOW what a difference.

Since we don’t punish strong enough we just keep putting convicted criminals in prison and now they are extremely overcrowded. Since they are overcrowded we let others go. The prison population has grown from about 100,000 in 1920 to around 2.5 million today.

But what about the mass murderer who knows he is probably going to die and does it anyway? I’m glad you asked.

He has no fear of man; if he survives at most he will get life in prison. If he dies he won’t know it because he believes there is no God or life after death. And that’s where we as a society have failed.

Approach 3: We need to bring back the overall knowledge of God.

In our lifetime, we have seen a dramatic change in the Bibles impact on our culture. The Bible has for the most part has been removed from public areas and the truths of scripture have little influence on society in general. The Christian historian David Barton states that the Bible was a centerpiece of our American ancestors’ lives but is no longer seen as a practical guide book for society. Noah Webster who has been called the “Father of American Scholarship and Education” stated that “The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society.” The Pilgrims wanted to conform the culture to God’s Word and viewed the Bible as a life manual for day to day living. Even though the Bible was the most significant book in forming our government it is now mostly confined to our churches.

Dr. Benjamin Rush in 1791 warned not to remove the Bible from public schools by stating, “In contemplating the political institutions of the United States, I lament that (if we remove the Bible from schools) we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them for the Divine Book (Bible) above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of (our governments)”

The Bible which has been the primary source of public laws has now been removed from public view. In 1962, the Supreme Court ordered the separation of religious principles from education, and in 1963, they removed Bible reading from schools and said the Bible could damage a child psychologically. Since then, our society has gone downhill dramatically and violent crime has gone up 450 – 500 percent.

Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” (Exodus 20:20)

Sin has a feared enemy: the fear of God. The fear of God is not the only a remedy for sin, but it is a potent vaccine. Sin and the fear of God cannot coexist for long. The fear of God extinguishes sin’s combustible character. The fear of God repels sin and keeps it at bay. This is why the devil attempts to devalue the fear of God. He knows if we do not take seriously the fear factor of our heavenly Father, then we are exposed to sin’s influence. Without the fear of God, we are set up for serious sin problems. Cultures crumble without a moral fabric, flush with the fear of God. Families fall into severe dysfunction when the fear of God is not lived out or understood. Individual lives lose their meaning and purpose when the fear of God is placed on the shelf.

God’s remedy for crime is the fear of Him.

I just really touched the surface as there are a lot of other areas to look at.

Some Final Thoughts:

• God has given us some practical rules to live by and if we do, life will be a lot better.
• We need to reduce or remove things that promote crime or tempt us to do evil such as pornography
• We need to change the way we view punishment. It should be severe enough so that others will see and decide not to do the crime.
• We need to bring back the knowledge of God. The fear of God is the best deterrent to reduce crime.

Hitler, tornado’s, cancer, Coronavirus, car accidents, hurricanes, terrorist bombings, mass shootings, September 11,2001 ,with just a few words chills run down our spines and we get sick to our stomach. Then we ask the question: How could God allow evil and suffering? Some blame nature, some blame people, some blame themselves, some believe there is an evil force at work, and each of us at one time or another blame God. We ask, God what are you doing? Don’t You care?  So in order to answer this question I am going to ask three more questions?

Question 1: How can a good God make something bad?

We know that the Bible teaches that God is good.

• Psalms 86:5 “For you, O Lord, are good”
• 1 Chronicles 16:34 “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”
• Psalms 136:1a “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good”

When God originally created everything it was good. Genesis 1:31a ^“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” So God created good humans and gave them the ability to stay in harmony with Him or reject Him.  In Genesis 2:16,17a God states, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” God gave man the ability to choose because he wanted man to freely choose to love Him and not to do it because he had too or because he had no other choice. Just like we want our children and grandchildren to want to be with us and love us not because we make them feel guilty or out of obligation. So how do you get your kids to visit?

I had some thoughts on how to get your kids and grandkids to visit more:

Stop saying:

• When are you going to come home?
• You always go to your in-laws for the holidays.
• You know I won’t be around forever.
• If you don’t visit more I will cut you out of my will.
• How much money do you want this time?

You also should stop complaining about their tattoo’s and their tongue and nose rings. Maybe you can just pretend you have Alzheimer’s and say that you don’t remember their last visit… Just a thought….

Ok, back to the question…

Evil and suffering entered the world as a result of man turning from God  Genesis 3:17-19  And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and 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;¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.¹⁹ By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; Because of Adam’s disobedience all mankind became disobedient. In Romans 5:12 Paul states “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all menbecause all sinned.” John MacArthur states “This is not a particular sin, but the inherent propensity to sin entered the human realm; men became sinners by nature. Adam passed to all his descendants the inherent sinful nature he possessed because of his first disobedience. That nature is present from the moment of conception, making it impossible for man to live in a way that pleases God.”

Question 2: Ok evil and suffering comes from man’s disobedience, but If God is all powerful why doesn’t He stop it?

The fact is that God has stopped evil in the past. Sometimes He did in smaller selective ways such as in Sodom and Gomorrah. But certainly He did it once in a great way through a global flood. God saw the world as evil. In Genesis 6:5 God states “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” So he decided to take action. Genesis 6:7 states, The Lord said “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I made them.” So God blotted out all of mankind except for Noah and his family. So God has stopped evil in the past

But God has also promised to destroy all the evil in the world at a future date

Isaiah 13:11 states “I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity” and in Zephaniah 1:17,18 God said “I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth. Then there will be a final judgement for all unbelievers. Revelation 20:15 states “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” So those who reject God’s way will be thrown into the lake of fire.

Question 3: OK, God has stopped evil in the past and he will again in the future but why doesn’t he stop it now?

So God has destroyed all unbelievers in the past and He will do the same in the future but if He did it now they would not have a chance to be saved. Also if God stopped all evil now then we all would die physically because all have sinned. Romans 3:23 states “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But God allows evil so that some would be saved. In 2 Peter 3:9 he states ^“The LORD is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

So God allows evil to continue now to give time for people to put their faith in Christ. He is being gracious to mankind to give people time that they don’t deserve. Then we who are believers are suffering now and putting up with evil so that others can be saved. How great is that! This gives us a whole new perspective on suffering and evil.

Sometimes that suffering is close and personal and we get to see the direct results as Paul did when he was in prison. In Philippians 1:12-14 Paul said “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guardand to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”

That’s one of the reasons why we are to consider suffering as all joy.

In James 1:2 he states “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” We should not count it as joy because it is pleasant but because God is doing something good as a result.

But again God will stop all evil in the future and there will be no more opportunity for anyone to be saved.

Two final thoughts:

1. God will limit your suffering. In1 Corinthians 10:13 Paul said “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
2. The suffering that believers endure now is just for a short time. In 2 Corinthians 4:17 Paul also said ^“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

And for believers all suffering will be a distant memory. In Revelation 21:4 John said “He (God) will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Even though it seems like the Coronavirus is lasting forever it is still just a short time relative to all of eternity and I’m sure some people are turning to Christ during this time, so as a result it is very much worth it.

At the time of this posting anxiety in the US is running high because of the coronavirus. Even before the virus, anxiety disorders are the most common illness in the U.S. affecting 40 million adults. This group is taking medication or seeing someone about their disorder. This is about 12% or 1 out of 8 adults. Probably at least twice that many have some kind of anxiety struggles but are not recognized. That’s 1 out 4 according to Jeannette Franks PHD. She states in an article on “Elderly Anxiety Disorders” that when anxiety becomes disruptive and disabling to a person’s life, it is considered an unhealthy psychiatric disorder. As many as one quarter of all people experience anxiety to an unhealthy extent, and older people can be even more at risk. Seniors may experience more troublesome anxiety than other age groups for several reasons: they experience more losses, suffer from more pain and chronic conditions, are often on multiple medications that might exacerbate anxiety, and have confounding ailments. She lists some major types of anxiety disorders including:

• Acute stress disorder: Anxiety and behavioral disturbances that develop within the first month after exposure to an extreme trauma.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Symptoms of acute stress disorder that persists for more than one month.
• Panic attacks: A sudden, unpredictable, intense, illogical fear and dread.
• Social anxiety: A preoccupation with how a person is viewed by others.
• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): A pattern of excessive worrying over simple, everyday occurrences and events.

Also from the “Encyclopedia of the Elderly and Aging” they said anxiety is common in the elderly with quite varying symptoms. Some people have nonspecific complaints such as apprehension, “nerves”, or a feeling of going to pieces. Others complain of sweating, tremor, dry mouth, and blurring of vision. Anxiety is mostly a reaction to conditions of everyday existence such as personal loss, fear of dying, dependence on others, or perhaps the need to make a change in residence.

So have I made you nervous? J

A couple of years ago I went in for a normal check-up at my dermatologist. The check –up went as others before it. He zapped some of the pre-cancer spots on my face that he blames on golf. Then he stopped and said that he needed to biopsy this one spot and left the room. I think he went to get a sharp knife to cut into my face. As I sat there on the edge of the table waiting for him to return I started to contemplate how this procedure of cutting a hole in my face would go down. I started to sweat and become light headed, and I thought I might pass out. I tried to adjust the table so I could lie down but I couldn’t get it to operate. As I was debating what to do next a nurse come in and saw my condition and quickly adjusted the table to lie me down before I blacked out. This experience didn’t help my manhood but I could then relate to others with anxiety issues.

So we at times can be anxious about a wide variety of different things, and certainly our health is one issue at the top of the list and now the coronavirus. Other areas could be our finances, our children, and grandchildren. So how are you doing here?

Anxiety can also be a joy robber because “we can’t enjoy today if we are anxious about tomorrow.” Proverbs 12:25a states “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down.” But God commands us not to worry. Matthew 6:25 states “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” We are often told to give it to God, and this is good. 1 Peter 5:7 states “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” God cares for us and that knowledge should be enough to calm our nerves but often it isn’t.

He is so interested in every aspect of our lives. He even knows the number of hairs on our heads. Matthew 10:30 states “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” How great is that!

So instead of being anxious, we should have an overriding attitude of gratitude. Hannah Whitall Smith said “The soul who gives thanks can find comfort in everything, the soul who complains can find comfort in nothing.” Our replacement for complaining is gratitude. God will continue to take care of us.

At around twenty years of age, I was in college and married with a child. During my third year of a five year program, I brought Carol (my wife) and Renee (my daughter) with me during my school quarter. School was always intense, and I didn’t realize that we were running out of money and still had about two weeks to go before my work session. That’s back when we didn’t have credit cards, and when you ran out of money you ran out. I knew I could contact someone back home for help. However, about the same time I realized we were out of money, we got money in the mail from my grandmother and Carol’s aunt on the same day. This was the only time we received money in the mail, and they both said they just felt we needed it even though we had not said anything. It was my first significant experience of God’s provision, and it has stuck with me to this day.

This incident has reminded me over the years that God is truly our provider. So we should not be anxious but be thankful.

So rather we struggle with anxiety a lot or a little “What is the cure?

Remember the storm:

Mathew 8:23-26 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. ²⁴ And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. ²⁵ And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” ²⁶ And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” 

In summary, the cure for anxiety is to grow your faith!!

Little faith a lot of fear   …..    A lot of faith little fear

How do we know how much faith we have? And how do we know when it grows?

James 2:26 “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” We do what we believe. So if you want to know what you believe look at what you do. If you believe the Bible is God’s word, you will read it. If you believe God answers prayer, you will pray. Then our faith is measurable and can be grown, 2 Thessalonians  1:3b states “because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love for every one of you for one another is increasing.” So then how do we grow our faith? Romans 10:17 states “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Faith comes by listening to God and the best way to do that is through His word and prayer. As I read the Bible or as I pray I try to listen to God.

We should have a regular time and place at least once a day where you are alone with God to read and to pray. Also have a reading plan. I just read through the Bible verse by verse and read a chapter in Proverbs each day based on the day of the month since there are 31 chapters in Proverbs. It typically takes me about 1 ½ years to read through the Bible, so go at your own speed.

Again finally: The cure for anxiety is to grow your faith.

P.S. I just finished my 16^th time through the Bible last week J