You don’t need to look long to see that our country—and our world—is in serious trouble. Every day, we hear reports of growing crime, lawlessness and violence, and especially the bullying from those on the progressive left against those who stand publicly for God’s truth. Polls show that Americans are less religious, less patriotic and less Biblically literate than ever before, especially young adults.
Our nation is a staggering $33 trillion in debt. Many states are finding ways to expand abortions since the Supreme Court has struck down the national right to abortion. People are oddly confused about the definition of male and female. Even the newest Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, couldn’t answer the question posed during her confirmation hearing of how to define a woman.
Abroad, nuclear saber rattling has been heightened among rogue nations like North Korea and Iran. The war in Ukraine has dragged on for nearly two years, and there are worries that the fighting could spread to nearby countries. Poland recently sent 10,000 troops to its eastern front with Belarus, where relocated Wagner mercenaries have dug in. Countries across sub-Saharan Africa have undergone coups. Three prominent politicians in Ecuador were assassinated on the eve of elections.
As ominous, chaotic and unsettling as all these troubles are, the Bible points to the fundamental, root cause of the turmoil that grips our world.
It’s sin.
From the fall in the Garden with Adam and Eve, until now, and until the Lord Jesus Christ returns to establish His Kingdom on Earth, sin has and will continue to infect and stain our planet. There is no place in the human heart or on the Earth where sin hasn’t wrought its deadly work.
Here’s how the Apostle Paul put it to the church at Rome:
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Sin brought death, both physical and spiritual, to the entire human race. When you took your first breath, outside your mother’s womb, you were already a sinner, alienated and separated from a holy God.
“Sin not only brings death and destruction, but it also horribly deceives. Remember that the enemy’s primary tactic in the Garden was to deceive Adam and Eve, causing them to doubt God’s spoken word, thus leading them into rebellion.”
“For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Greed, violence, pride, wickedness and evil of every sort are all the product of sinful hearts that need to repent and put their trust and hope in the substitutionary, sacrificial, all-sufficient, atoning death of Christ on the cross. Unregenerate behavior stems from an unregenerate heart and soul. When we see all manner of evil across the face of our nation and world, we should recognize that the fundamental issue is a sinful heart. Speaking of lost mankind, the Bible says “There is none righteous, no, not one … there is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10, 12).
Sin not only brings death and destruction, but it also horribly deceives. Remember that the enemy’s primary tactic in the Garden was to deceive Adam and Eve, causing them to doubt God’s spoken word, thus leading them into rebellion.