“It is impossible for men to govern themselves without God, because they've proven they can’t govern themselves.” David A. Bragg from The Chronicles of Zach Rader: Last Flight of the Ice Warrior.
I wrote this statement in 2004 in a fiction novel based in a future almost 400 years from now. I wrote the book in response to utopian dreamers who believe that humans can overcome their carnal nature, and create a society free of despotic rulers, class warfare, and tribalism in all of its forms. The best we can hope for till Christ returns is what we’ve enjoyed here in the United States of America till about 10 years ago. Our great Republic was a brave experiment in self governance, but even the founding fathers knew that it could fail given a slight tip in the precarious balance of checks, and balances they’d set in place. They knew that if one branch gained leverage over the other, the republic would crumble into a smoking ruin. More than anything else, they knew that the governance they sought to give the people was fragile if it wasn’t based upon God given rights to every man. The unravelling of our republic is due to our government denying God, and embracing the carnal nature. The rejection of God's boundaries always leads to a slippery slope toward unchecked wickedness.
While our present generation seeks to create a grand utopia, free of religion, and free of social expectations of any kind, the truth is, it will never happen. Wickedness has reigned from the day Adam and Eve left the garden of Eden, and it continues to this day. We weren’t even one generation removed from Adam and Eve before we had the first murder. There was no religious or societal expectations in the beginning. Cain and Able had no one else to affect them. They had no societal pressures, no environmental issues to lead them to express the basest of human nature, yet we find Cain upset at his brother over something as simple as a gift given to God. Cain’s reaction to rejection is classic carnal nature, he sulks. It is at this point that God intervenes and says to Cain; “If you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door: and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:7 emphasis mine.)
The way we would say this to our children today is; If you make a mistake, anger and shame is lurking at the door, and it desires to consume you, but you can master it. Simply put, 'you didn't get it right this time, but you can try again.' Instead, Cain continued to sulk, envy soon took over, and mankind began its first generation with a homicide. From this point forward, humans have repeatedly demonstrated the power of the carnal nature to destroy, and enslave. The carnal nature is described by God as Wickedness. The Hebrew word for wicked is “Ra” or “Resh” which is also the letter ‘R’ in the Hebrew alphabet. It’s root meaning is to break, demolish, or destroy, it implies the desire to destroy the purpose of something. The power of wickedness doesn't get weaker over time. If people are left unchecked by moral standards, they will destroy everything, and everyone in their path. It doesn't take long for wickedness to multiply to the point where God has to intervene. I did some real sloppy math and came up with about 1,670 years from Adam to Noah, during which mankind was ruled by wickedness. A matter of fact by the time Noah was born, you have to realize that man was pretty wicked. In Genesis 6:5 it says; “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” For God to repent of creating man, you know it wasn’t good. Then came Noah. Here was a good man in his generation. How bad could mankind have been? Can we even begin to imagine what people were doing that would drive God to obliterate mankind with a flood? How wicked could a bunch of stone age people be? I guess my answer would be: bad enough to destroy mankind from the face of the earth. Everything was contaminated by man’s wickedness, even the animals. Sadly, there has never been a time when people weren’t wicked. The greater truth to be learned here, is that mankind was destroying God’s purpose for the earth. That means ancient man was killing, stealing, destroying, and doing wickedness all the time. Time to wash the earth of the wickedness. Enter the flood.
When Noah entered the ark, you would hope that would bring peace between God and man. God would wash away the wicked, and leave the righteous. You’d think that reducing the earth’s population down to one family would solve everything. NOPE! Almost immediately, we have incest, murder, more murder, and even more murder immediately after the flood. We had people exploring every facet of sexual behavior. Lying, and stealing, cruelty of every kind followed mankind wherever he went. Families turned against families, and within a generation we were right back where we started. The carnal nature is pervasive! It didn’t take long for Noah’s children to forget God, and create their own gods. Once that happened it didn’t take long before people began offering up their children to those idols. People had sex with anyone they wanted to. (polyamorism as opposed to polygamy.) Eventually polyamorism led to deviant sexual behaviors, pedophilia, child enslavement, human enslavement, adultery, murder, torture, and evils beyond anything I am willing to write about in this blog. Simply stated, mankind did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted.
Why am I being so negative? Because this present generation is proof of how wicked people can be to one another when God is removed from the equation. In today’s ‘woke’ culture, if you don’t agree with the left's ‘woke’ ideas, you are ‘cancelled.’ The rage culture on the internet is beyond the norms we would talk to one another if we were face to face. Cancelling people today is no different than ancient cultures throwing you out of the tribe, city, and family in ancient times.
Oops, rabbit trail! Back to Noah. Not long after the flood, we find nations being formed, magnificent structures being built, and people trying to subjugate one another by force. The sin of slavery began to introduce itself throughout all peoples, and cultures. BE SURE, God deplores slavery as much as He hates killing. Slaves at that time weren’t solely acquired by conquest, but they were often the result of people simply selling themselves to another person. Once again, we see mankind unable to govern themselves. However, before you start judging ancient people, you have to see what is going on today. If you want a car or a house, you sell yourself to a bank and they demand payment from you. In order to make that payment, you ‘sell’ yourself to an employer who pays you what they think you’re worth. Not quite the same as slavery, but it is the same motivation for selling yourself as a slave in ancient times. The major difference between then and now, is that often times parents would sell their children into slavery, not unlike what we are doing with all of this Coronavirus relief stuff. We are selling our future generation of children to the taxman, just as parents would sell their children to anyone who would buy them. There was no appreciation for individual worth or dignity. REMEMBER THAT!!!!!
The carnal nature is revealed throughout time, and is prevalent today. Christianity is the only antidote for the carnal nature. I can say that with confidence, because I can point you to what people have done to one another throughout ancient history. As we move deeper into this study, you’ll find out that the Church is God’s best plan for mankind. Salvation is more than just a personal experience, it is God’s purpose for all people, and designed to bring liberty to all the earth. The United States of America was founded upon the idea of religious liberty, but we’ve seen it perverted into an experiment into sexual liberty. This clash of ideals will eventually bring us to the point of dividing this nation in a hundred different groups. The carnal nature doesn’t give in, neither should we. The Church has always been and will continue to be God's best plan to redeem people from their wickedness. Of that I believe, and I am sure.
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