Where is God When the World is Falling Apart?

June, 2009

by: Jack Hughes

The other day I was talking to Pastor Ed about the state of the world. We talked about how the drug lords are taking over Mexico, police are being killed and driven out of one city after another. The Russian stock market plummeted to zero. There are so many abortions in Russia that the population is declining. Pornography is an ever increasing industry that is turning men into poverty stricken drones who are driven by lust and enslaved to images that don’t represent the truth. Two of the largest auto makers in the US, General Motors and Chrysler, have both filed for bankruptcy. Deadly earthquakes strike Italy and Afghanistan. Unemployment is in the rise. Homosexual activists are brainwashing the world into thinking that their sexual perversion is an “alternate life style.” Economies around the globe are reeling. The scare of swine flu is sweeping the globe. The world is becoming increasingly more hostile towards Christians. Our own country is trying to eradicate God while at the same time militantly promoting the lie of evolution. Meanwhile people are trying to escape by losing themselves on the internet, watching TV, engaging in immorality, eating and entertaining themselves to death.

All this reminds me of what Paul said to Timothy in II Tim. 3:1-8, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.”

Sound familiar? Though written two thousand years ago it is a perfect commentary on our world today.

Jesus, when asked by His disciples about the signs of the times and the ends of the age, said in Mt. 24:6-14, “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Sounds like our world, doesn’t it?

As we grow ever closer to the second coming of Christ, we can expect that the Word of God will be fulfilled just as it has always been fulfilled. Yet the danger is to listen to the world more than the Word. I hear a lot of people talking with scared tones in their voices. They are talking about all the terrible things in the world, but I don’t hear people talking about the promises of God or Jesus’ instruction to not be afraid.

If we are not careful we can become so caught up in what the world is telling us, that we forget what God has said in the Bible. God says, “do not be afraid” (Mt. 24:6), but we are fearful. God says these things “must take place” (Mt. 24:6), but we pray that they would stop. God says Satan is, “the god of this world” (II Cor. 4:4) and we listen to the world, but ignore the Word of God! If we let this happen we allow ourselves to become the pawns of Satan. He hoodwinks us along with the rest of the world. By listening to the world we allow our joy to be stolen, our hope to be crushed, and this leads to worry and despair. This is why we must sober up and really take some serious inventory about what is happening to us and others in the world. This is why Jesus told us repeatedly to “be on the alert” (Mt. 24:42-43; 25:13). Paul told the Corinthians at the close of his letter, “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (I Cor. 16:13). Paul told the Ephesians at the end of his letter to them, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Eph. 6:18). He also told the Colossians and the Thessalonians to be alert at the close of his letters to them, also (Col. 4:2; I Thess. 5:6). Peter gets specific and says at the close of his letter in I Pet. 5:8, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We must be on the alert!

Satan is devouring many who profess to know Christ. Through the media, the internet, and the pleasures of the world he is distracting Christians from the truth. He is devouring them with lies and deceptions. He is succeeding in making even Christians forget about God! We have to put an end to this! We need to let God speak to us through His Word more than we let Satan speak to us through his world. We must “guard our hearts with all diligence” (Prov. 4:23) and stop the flow of this world’s sewage into our hearts and minds. We can’t expect to have the peace, joy, and hope that God wants us to have if we are gagging Him, plugging our ears to His truth, and then opening wide to whatever the world has to offer.

John Bunyan in his classic allegory illustrates this well in The Holy War. Bunyan tells about the town of Man-Soul, which exists in the country of Universe. Man-Soul was created perfect by the ruler of the Universe, Shaddai. Shaddai had as His purpose to dwell in Man-Soul and make it His permanent place of residence. The city had five gates, the Ear Gate, Eye Gate, Nose Gate, Mouth Gate and Feel gate. These gates were designed to be impenetrable and no one could enter the city unless those who lived inside of Man-Soul opened the gates.

But the King had an enemy named Diabolus who came to the country of Man-Soul for the soul purpose of getting revenge on Shaddai. Diabolus had several other friends named Beelzebub, Legion, and Apollyon who also wanted to seek revenge. Their plan was to take over Man-Soul by deceiving the inhabitants into opening one of the impenetrable gates. The people of Man-Soul were at a disadvantage for they were innocent and had never been exposed to evil and deception.

The plan of the hellions was to send Diabolus to the Ear Gate, in the form of a Serpent and have him speak to the leaders of the city. While Diabolus was speaking, another rebel would sneak up and shoot Captain Resistance with an arrow. Captain Resistance was chief guard at the ear gate and with him there, no one would be able to enter. The plan was enacted. Diabolus came forward and started to tell lies to Captain Resistance, Lord Innocent, Mayor Understanding, Mr. Conscience and Lord Will-be-Will. He questioned the goodness of Shaddai. He said that Shaddai was keeping them in bondage by not allowing them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He reasoned that even its name revealed the tree was good. He told them that Shaddai knew that if they were to eat it they would become like God. He argued that knowledge is a good thing and therefore, Shaddai could not have their best interests in mind as he was keeping them from the tree of knowledge.

Then one of Diabolus’ cohorts shot Captain Resistance in the head with an arrow and mortally wounded him, so that he died. Diabolus continued defaming Shaddai. As soon as Lord Innocence started to believe the lies, he dropped dead for no apparent reason. Without Captain Resistance and Lord Innocence, the gates of the city of Man-Soul were soon opened wide. Diabolus and evil minions came into the city. The people of Man-Soul rushed upon the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ate its fruit. Thus was the fall of Man-Soul and the entire rest of the allegory explains the great pains Shaddai went through to redeem Man-Soul and eradicate the evil from that city.

In the end, why did Man-Soul fall? Because the people of Man-Soul failed to listen to Shaddai and instead gave ear to Shaddai’s enemy Diabolos. This is exactly what is happening today with most who claim to be Christians. They are letting the world speak to them through the radio, television, internet, newspapers, and secular books, etc., so that they are hearing from Satan 60 hours a week and from God one or two hours a week or, if they are way above average, 10 hours a week. Yet even then, Satan is being heard far more than God. Do you think the 60 hours a week is an exaggeration? Wait until the next Calvary Review and I will show you why it is not. The point is that as Christians we must be alert, we must think, we must consciously choose to limit the world’s access to our hearts and minds. Instead we must increase our intake of the Word of God.

How can we do this? By showing up to church when the doors are open. To commit to coming to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, to men’s or women’s functions and retreats. We discipline ourselves to listen to the Bible on tape or to listen to good preaching on CD’s or MP3 players. Like no other time in history, Christians have access to great teaching and preaching. The internet is loaded with free sermons ready to download and listen to. Sermons from world-class preachers and teachers are readily available. All it takes is a little knowledge and a small investment and you can keep yourself filled up with solid Bible teaching and preaching. You can also read books saturated with the Word of God. While there are a lot of bad Christian books out there, there are also a lot of good ones. In fact, there are so many good ones you couldn’t read them in a life time. Start reading! Join a Bible study, get involved in a discipleship group, go to school part-time and get a degree in Bible or take some college level classes merely for your edification. Don’t just sit there in front of the TV until your mind is saturated with Satan’s propaganda and your body grows fat and atrophies. Do something for the glory of God!

Don’t lie to yourself and use the excuse that these things cost too much! Listen, you don’t need to go to Starbuck’s every day, you don’t need to wear the latest fashions, you don’t need a luxury car, you don’t need a wide screen TV, you don’t need to have all new appliances or furniture, but you do need to be constantly nourished up on the words of the faith and sound doctrine (I Tim. 4:6)! Let’s put our money where our profession of faith is and get with it for the glory of God! Let’s invest in our spiritual growth first, before we purchase the luxuries and optional niceties of the world. Let us deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ, not the world (Lk. 9:23).

Then, with our minds fixed on Jesus and our hearts filled up with the Word of God, let us live as salt and light in this world. Let us open our mouths and tell the world the truth, that there is salvation, purpose, meaning, joy, contentment, and eternal life in Jesus Christ. When we see the world falling apart around us, when we hear of wars and rumors of wars, when earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and tornadoes ravish cities and when there are plagues and famines, let us remember the words of our Lord that these things “must take place.” When we are tempted to ask God, “Why Lord? Why is this happening? Where are you? The world is falling apart!” May we remember the words of the Psalmist who, when speaking of the greatest catastrophe that ever came upon the face of the earth, said in Psa. 29:10, “The Lord sat as King at the flood; Yes, the Lord sits as King forever.”