“For God so loved the world He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John chapter 3 verse 16, The Bible
How the rejection of the Bible has gone hand in hand with the deterioration of western society
In his book The God Delusion Richard Dawkins says that ‘we can give up belief in God while not losing touch with a treasured heritage’. But is this true?
Just looking at the UK, as that is where we live, sixty years ago a lot of people went to church, and most people had some belief in God. Although many could not have been classified as truly born again believers, they did at least have a fear of God. Over the last sixty years government after government has abolished laws that were founded on the teaching of the Bible. What has been the result? Some of the most notable results can be listed as follows:
(1) Marriage break ups on an unprecedented scale, with one in three marriages ending in divorce, which have led to ...
... children who are messed up inside because their homes have broken up and they frequently lose touch with one parent ...
... children with step-parents and step-siblings which has in some cases at least led to abuse by step-parents ...
... children desperate for a sense of belonging and family becoming part of gangs that terrorize estates.
(2) An abandonment of any attempt to meaningfully discipline children and teach them to behave well, which has led to ...
... children wielding knives on the streets and in school ...
... a total lack of respect for parents and teachers ...
... children attacking, harming and sometimes killing other children, and even adults ...
... out of control children in schools who leave with no meaningful education or hope of a good future.
(3) An increase in promiscuity, adultery and immoral behaviour of all descriptions, which has led to ...
... teenage pregnancies, and children coming into homes where sometimes they are not loved, and not treated well ...
... a monumental increase in abortions ...
... the rapid spread of AIDS, and the increasing occurrence of other sexually transmitted diseases.
(4) A decline in censorship, and an increase in ease of access to pornography. An increase in the acceptance of extreme violence and gross immorality in games, television and films, leading to ...
... copycats who go out and in reality do to other people what they have done in games or seen done in films ...
... a rapid decline in the appreciation of the value of human life.
(5) An increase in people who feel purposeless and have no hope for the future, turning to drugs, alcohol and worse to ease the pain of living.
Why has the abandonment of the Bible and of Christianity gone hand in hand with such a frightening collapse in our society?
Think about what people are being told -
- That they come from nowhere, they are the product of random chance, their lives ultimately are meaningless, and then they die and that’s all there is. Is it surprising young people especially are turning to drugs and alcohol when their lives have no meaning, no purpose and no hope?
- That they are just animals evolved to a higher state. Is it surprising then that they behave like animals?
- That there is no God and no ultimate rules. That everyone is free to believe what they want. Is it surprising then that there is an increase in lawlessness? If there are no rules then who has the right to say what is right and what is wrong?
The value of human life lies in the fact that we are the crown of God’s creation, made in His image. The value of a human life is therefore immeasurably greater than the value of an animal life.
God created human beings to live in fellowship with Him. We turned our backs on Him but He provided a way back to a relationship with Him by sending Jesus Christ, His Son, to die on the cross for us and rise again.
We are created by God, in His image, to live in fellowship with Him, to come to know Him, and through receiving His forgiveness in Christ to become heirs to His Kingdom and spend eternity in His presence. Why is it preferable to believe our lives have no meaning, when we were clearly created to need both meaning and purpose?
A society that chose to order its structures and laws on those laid down in the Bible would be a society infinitely more stable and happy than the one we now live in. That is because God made us and He knows what is good for us. Why is a lawless, crumbling society considered to be a better alternative?
A final comment is that we were created by God to worship Him, and we are spiritual beings with souls we can not get rid of. Humanism and cold, hard science have already failed. The rising generation are fascinated with the occult, witches, vampires, weir-wolves. The claim of some scientists that science had disproved God led to the rejection of the Bible, but we do not live in an improved society. Where will it all end?
For more thoughts on this please see our web page What Christians Believe. For thoughts on the Creation-Evolution debate please see our web page Science and Creation