There is currently much discussion in many communities about the increasing level of crime and anti-social behaviour. Many ideas have been floated to explain why this is happening in societies of increasing prosperity and availability of jobs and facilities for entertainment and other worthwhile activities. Binge drinking by younger and younger people and the increasing use of drugs are particularly disturbing aspects of this problem. Why do people want to drink to a state of insensibility which makes them increasingly prone to fighting and other anti-social behaviour?
Older members of our communities who grew up during the depression and wartime, and who experienced the deprivations and essential discipline of these times, tend to be amazed at the over-indulgence and lack of discipline of many children and teenagers. Today, many of these people grow to adulthood having experienced every physical pleasure the world has to offer, without developing any sense of discipline in the way they live. They begin the last three quarters of their lives with little to look forward to. They can see no meaning or purpose for their lives.
I would suggest that the fundamental reason for this condition of much of our society is the widespread loss of any sense of human dignity, self esteem, and ability to tell right from wrong. This is the consequence of our being brain-washed into believing there is no God and therefore no foundation for moral behaviour. Furthermore, indoctrination of atheistic evolution, which has been more aggressively promoted in our universities and schools during the past 50 years, tells us that we humans are simply the most highly evolved members of the animal kingdom with no more innate value than other animals.
The gurus of our post-modern world have forgotten or rejected the truth that the only real basis for self-esteem and meaning is the fact that humans were created in the image of God and that this God has consistently revealed himself throughout the Bible as a loving God who wants the best for his human creation. Being made in God’s image means that we are creative and have an innate consciousness of a spiritual realm. The purpose of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was to enable imperfect mankind to be reconciled to a perfect God. Being reconciled to God transforms human nature and gives a person meaning and purpose for life.
Our society is becoming increasingly ignorant of the Bible despite the fact that no other book has had such an enormous influence for good and such an indispensable role in the making of our unique Western civilisation. An in-depth study of human history during the past 500 years reveals how the Bible has empowered freedom, education, care of the sick, technology, science, and been the very soul of Western civilisation. We are now living on the residue of our unique Christian heritage, but as we increasingly submit to the false teaching of atheistic post-modernism and increasing exposure to contrasting and historically failed world views, all the qualities of life which we hold dear, including our liberty, are in peril.
C. R. Holford,
Tamworth
