A World Gone Mad

In Mathew 24 we find Jesus explaining to His disciples the conditions of the world when He, Christ, is to return. Although this whole chapter is a dire warning and prediction of conditions and things to come in the final days before His Return, we had better take heed of these warnings, I would, in particular, like to look at verses 36 through 39, where we read, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the Ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matt. 24:36-39)

If we look at the conditions of those days, like the eating and drinking, the marrying and giving in marriage, we can easily see that in these things there is great comparison to today’s society, for the modern society does exactly what is described here, and also, as in those days, it is done without any regard to God. But in Gen. 6 we get an even better idea as to the condition of the world, both then and now, for we read in Genesis verses 11 to 13, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

What stands out in these verses is what I think was the catalyst that caused God to destroy the then known world with the flood. The evil, the corruption and the violence was more than even God could bear. When God formed Adam from the dust of the earth, God had laid the foundation for a people that He, God, would choose for His own peculiar and servant people, but that foundation started to crumble when, with the exception of a very few, the very offspring of Adam became corrupt, evil, and violent. Becoming evil and corrupt meant that there was no regard for the Creator God and becoming violent meant that there also was no regard as to the life and wellbeing of their fellow man. If we thus regard the terrible conditions of that early age and compare that to today’s world, we can readily see that mankind on a whole has come full circle.

All we have to do is look at what has happened all over the Western world in just the last year. Look at Paris, Brussels, Munich, Nice, etc. and we can see the unwarranted destruction of human lives, violence often in the name of a false god, violence that takes the lives of innocent people indiscriminately without any regard of age or gender or even origin. And close to home, look what is going on in the U.S., look at the violence and destruction that has been going on now for months in places like Charleston, Miami, Milwaukee, Baltimore and other places all across the land, with rioting and burning and looting, all instigated by a racial movement called Black Lives Matter. When one of the criminal elements of the black community is killed by law enforcement officers while committing a crime or resisting arrest, it is basically always blamed on “white cops”, and when they then go on a rampage they destroy everything in their path including parts of their own neighborhoods. One thing no one hardly ever mentions is that in Chicago, which has a very large black population, there have so far this year alone been well over five hundred murders, most of which are Black on Black crimes.

Yes! The world that we know has become a very corrupt and violent place and we as Christians should really pay close attention to the Master’s words of Matt. 24 verses 37 and 38. Yes! The return of Christ is near, but like Jesus also said in the preceding verse, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, … but my Father only. Therefore, let us be prepared, for blessed is the man or woman who waiteth upon the Lord, so keep your lamp burning.” (Matt. 25:1-13)