A World Without God

A snapshot of evil: A Nazi soldier kills a young woman and her child

What does the world look like without God? Actually, we don't have to imagine that scenario because we're witnessing that world in the multiplied murders, rapes, robberies, shootings and assaults that are plaguing the planet.

Cynics will argue that religion causes much of that, and they'll point to the Middle East and Africa where ISIS savages are committing countless atrocities in the name of their god Allah. And who can argue with that?

In the western world, the atrocities are being committed by street gang savages who get their inspiration from the morally depraved elites who control the music, film and television industries. There's big lucre in sex, violence and sadism, and the elites are selling that depravity to the uneducated savages who embrace it like an alcoholic embraces a quart of Jim Beam.

And so, who was it that pointed out the myopia of self-righteous do-gooders who can't seem to look in the mirror when they pronounce judgment on the unwashed masses? It was Jesus Christ who said this: "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." (Matthew 7:3-5)

In this case, the self-righteous do-gooders are those who blame religion for the woes plaguing the western world. But religion's not to blame because the Christian church in the western world has done a marvelous job of making itself irrelevant over the past 100 years. You'll notice that if you attend almost any fellowship in western Europe on most Sundays where the empty seats usually outnumber the people. In America, the pews are a bit more populated, although the numbers have been shrinking steadily since the 1950s. 

Thus, the ultimate paradox: Depravity and evil motivated by religion dominate one part of the world while depravity and evil motivated by godless secularism dominate another part of the world. How do we reconcile that? Or, can we reconcile that?

Certainly, we can. Religion compounds sin because it attempts to overcome it with a smorgasbord of man-made rituals, traditions, customs and good works. Or, it offers heavenly rewards to its adherents for persecuting and murdering those who refuse to convert. 

Godlessness (atheism, secularism etc.) compounds evil because it either denies its existence, or it blames it on exterior circumstances. In what way? By turning people into the victims of just about anything and everything. 

For example, the alcoholic is the victim of an alcoholic parent; the child-molester is the victim of a child-molester, and a violent, antisocial person is the victim of low self-esteem. The religious answer for such behavior is adherence to customs, rituals, traditions, sacraments etc. The secular answer for such behavior is psychotherapy.  

But what's the real solution for evil? We must be born again. That begins when one recognizes his or her own sinful condition that has separated them from God and condemned them to eternal damnation. It continues with repentance from the behavior that led them into depravity. And it's completed when one truly dedicates his or her life to Jesus Christ. 

Christ said this: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son." (John 3:16-18)

And here's what the apostle Paul said: "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." (Colossians 3:5-11)

True Christianity is a faith rather than a religion. Religion is nothing but man's attempt to reach God on man's terms. That always fails. Faith makes us completely dependent upon God for our salvation, spiritual growth and eternal life. And true faith forces us to become introspective and look at ourselves the way God sees us rather than the way we want to see ourselves. When we do that, it isn't a pretty sight.

That's why religion and secular ideologies such as psychology almost always fail. They either ignore the problem of sin, or they offer the wrong solution for it. Concerning the hypocritical religious leaders of ancient Israel who chose the wrong solution, Christ said this: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." (Matthew 23:27-28)

Evil emanates from within the human heart. (Jeremiah 17:9) And we can only overcome it by being born again into eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing else will ever do.