Are We More Wicked Now Than In Times Of The Past? Series

ARE WE MORE WICKED NOW THAN IN TIMES OF THE PAST?

In this address we are going to consider our current world and contemplate the question, “Are we more wicked than in the past?” We will look at a portion from the ancient “Epistle of Barnabas”. This message relates to the last days of the Church age before the Rapture happens. They are our days right now!

Translation of Epistle of Barnabas – Text by Lightfoot (Way of Light) Kraft (Way of Death)

I want to look at this matter. How wicked are we? Are we worse than in the past?

EPISTLE OF BARNABAS

In the Epistle of Barnabas written about 80 - 130 AD, the unnamed author writes of many things in his epistle, but he ends it with THE TWO WAYS, The Way of Light and The Way of Death. The section of THE TWO WAYS was borrowed from an earlier epistle “The Didache” (Teaching of the 12) and amended to the author’s preference. These points are very good, and in the section called “The Way of Light”, it begins after a small introduction:

[[“Thou shalt love Him that made thee; thou shalt fear Him that created thee; thou shalt glorify Him that redeemed thee from death; thou shalt be simple in heart and rich in spirit; thou shalt not cleave to those who walk the way of death; thou shalt hate everything that is not pleasing to God; thou shalt hate all hypocrisy; thou shalt never forsake the commandments of the Lord. Thou shalt not exalt thyself, but shalt be lowly minded in all things. Thou shalt not assume glory to thyself. Thou shalt not entertain a wicked design against thy neighbour; thou shalt not admit boldness [I think “pride”] into thy soul.”]] (end of quote)

*** Soon after, we have this: [[“Thou shalt not doubt whether a thing shall be or not be. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain. Thou shalt love thy neighbour more than thine own soul. Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion, nor again shalt thou kill it when it is born. Thou shalt not withhold thy hand from thy son or daughter, but from their youth thou shalt teach them the fear of God.”]] (end of quote)

I was struck by the sentence underlined which is, “Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion, nor again shalt thou kill it when it is born.” We all as Christians should decry abortion, and it was practised by the Romans and probably others. In the Old Testament days, and beyond, unwanted babies were exposed to the elements by pagans, that is, they were left outside or taken into some place and left for the elements to kill them or animals eat them. It was a monstrous thing.

The closing sentence from above deals with a parent’s discipline of the child. Of course this has also been legislated against by the State and a parent was arrested the other day for giving the child a little smack. Another case has come to hand where a parent has been jailed for simple a small smack. This is no more than the progress of lawlessness. Discipline removed is lawlessness promoted! Evil is surmounting itself and negating God in earthly governance. The rights of the parents have been destroyed. Of course in these dark days, all that God instituted is being destroyed – creation, child bearing, proper gender roles, discipline, marriage, and so many more. The retribution of God will come upon those who destroy God’s ordered decrees.

WHERE IS THIS HEADING?

Of late I have been thinking of the state of the world and its sin and sinful practices. Paul said this to Timothy – {{Realise 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 . . . (2 Timothy 3:1-4)}}

Paul highlights some of the wickedness that will be present in the last days of the Church age, but we may ask, “Was not this wickedness always here? Was it not worse in Noah’s time? Was it not worse in Judea before Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Jerusalem? Was it not worse under the control of the Roman Catholic church that terrorised under the greatest wickedness and torture man could conceive for many hundreds of years up to about the 1800s? Could it be any worse than it was under the debauchery, and the paganism of the murderous Roman society?” In some ways it does not seem to match those atrocities of the past. That has caused me to think and to try to come to a solution.