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.
I think the answer to that must be, “No, wickedness is not worse,” but Paul (The Holy Spirit) is making us understand that before the Rapture things are really bad. (“really crook,” we would say in Australia). And there is some comparison here. In the 1800 and 1900s, at least in western society, there was a reasonable Christian influence and decency right through society, but when we come to the 2000s then everything took a steep nosedive. Wickedness, by comparison, is grotesque now. Paul added later in the chapter – {{2Timothy 3:13 “Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”}}
That verse is the difference. There is proceeding and advancing evil in a way it was not present before. In the days of the Roman Empire they aborted their children, or had the babies then murdered them. Monstrous we say! However in my State of Queensland, controlled by the most wicked government the State has ever had, abortion clinics have sprung up everywhere. The murder of the unborn has become a business.
SO WHAT IS THE KEY DIFFERENCE?
These abortion clinics cater for what the State Government has LEGISLATED. That is the difference. State wide, abortion is legal because the Government made it legal to abort the child up to the day of birth. In fact there is a move I believe, though not yet confirmed, to extend that to a day or so after birth (to dispose of the baby). At least in the Roman Empire it was never legalised the way it is now. The unborn child is either sucked out in parts from the womb, or taken out and then put to death. How long will the God of life tolerate that?
God is not mocked. The evil people are getting worse, and worsening very quickly. I just mentioned abortion, but it can be applied to almost everything now. In 2006, the Queensland Labor (like the Democrats) Premier, Peter Beatty, (like the American State Governor) caused this to happen – [[“The Queensland Opposition today declared the "lying season" open after a controversial bill passed through the house, allowing MPs to lie in parliament without fear of prosecution. The Criminal Code Amendment Bill was controversially passed by the government today following heated debate by MPs in recent weeks. Under the previous criminal code, lying to parliament could result in criminal charges being laid.”]] (The Age Newspaper May 26, 2006)
Today wickedness is brazen. It is “in your face”. It is rampant but most of society just winks at it. In Australia, Australians elect wicked governments these days, because they elect governments that best mirror what they themselves are. So does the USA. That is why Biden got in (apart from the possible cheating). All over the world Governments are in chaos and no one can balance budgets or run a harmonious parliament. What frustrates people with some decency is that the oppositions are not much better. You see morality and godliness being slaughtered but there is no one to come to the rescue. Things are in rapid decline.
There is also another key difference that separates us from the days of Paul when he wrote to Timothy. When I give you these initials, it will state it all! If you don’t know what the initials mean I have put them at the end of the article. WEF; WHO; UN; EU.
Those organisations now control what is happening in the whole world. The entire world except China and Russia that is. Wickedness is worldwide. More and more writers and researches have delved into what these organisations are doing so I will not repeat that. Good internet searches can find it. The Great Reset is here and world socialism of the hard left is upon us. The great delusion and subterfuge is here.
There is one unifying factor that is gluing all nations together under rigid control. It is climate change and I make no apologies for declaring that. It is the greatest satanic delusion of modern times. The WHO and WEF are using that to batter nations into submission. In Australia farmers have been demonised and persecuted for the alleged “pollution of the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, and waterways with some farm runoff”. Food now is getting scarcer with empty shelves everywhere. Australia’s beef cattle numbers have fallen from 30 million to 24 million. National sheep numbers have fallen from 180 million to 64 million today.
Timothy 3 says in the last days difficult (KJV - perilous) times will come. These difficult times will manifest themselves in food shortages, fuel and power problems, health problems, and worse and worse governments possibly leading to discontent, and riots breaking out with increasing cost of living and poverty. Christians will face greater and greater persecution, and it could be that the “Nero syndrome” will operate. I think it is a travesty that Christians think they can raise the climate change banner. Look and discern what is behind it, and what the manipulation is, and who is manipulating it. In that Timothy passage the word “difficult/perilous” (2Timothy 3:1) means “times of hardship”. We are now in the days of hardship and it will get worse, especially in Europe in the immediate future.
The zealots/climate activists closed or pulled down the coal power stations so now prices are skyrocketing and blackouts are coming. Governments are chasing after lies. Because of climate change mania, fuel prices continue to rise. When you read into the correct science you will see that global warming is a hoax, but delusion so alters a person’s perception, he is unable to understand. God is showing us what a real delusion is like, for it is delusion that will rule in the Tribulation. This month (July 2022) Bolivia has had the coldest temperatures on record. Some southern parts of Australia have had the coldest temperature for over 100 years right at the start of winter.
BACK TO THE EPISTLE OF BARNABAS.
The second part of THE TWO WAYS is The Way of Darkness. The writer sets out instructions as warnings for the believers of his time. I selected this small section to shed light on the works of darkness, but those practices were present in his time at the beginning of the 2nd century and just before. When Solomon wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun,” this is true of wickedness. In Noah’s time when every thought and intent of each person’s heart was evil before the Lord continually, we know wickedness reached far back. Evil is no different in our day but as I suggested, the universality and legislated evil is altogether another thing. So too is the express pace with which it is advancing.
Anyway, I will list what wickedness was known to the writer of The Epistle of Barnabas, the evil that pervaded his society. Is it any different with us? I think not!:
[[“But the Way of the Black One is crooked and full of cursing. For it is entirely a way of eternal death with punishment, wherein are the things which destroy men’s souls - idolatry, arrogance, pride in power, hypocrisy, duplicity, adultery, murder, robbery, conceit, [pride] transgression, guile [treachery], malice, stubbornness, sorcery, magic, greediness. Without fear of God, persecutors of the good [men]; Hating truth, loving a lie; Not knowing the reward of righteousness, not associating with what is good; Not judging justly, not guarding the rights of the widow and orphan; Being alert not with respect to the fear of God, but to that which is wicked - from whom courtesy and patience are far off and distant; Loving what is worthless, pursuing reward; Not showing mercy toward the poor, not labouring on behalf of the down-trodden; Reckless with slanderous speech, not knowing him who made them; Murderers of children (who are) corrupters of God’s creation [destroying the image of God]; Turning away from the needy, afflicting the oppressed; Advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor - sinful through and through!”]]
Our focus is not to be on the evil that is in the world for that can lead to bitterness. I know a few who are so caught up with the injustice in society that their focus has shifted from the Lord. We must take stock that such a thing does not happen with us. We note what is there outside in the darkness and what is happening, but LOOK UP to the light, for our redemption could already be on the horizon.
The world is increasing in wickedness right now, but in the Tribulation it is going to explode. Why can we say that? It is simple enough. The first reason is the when the Church is taken away in the Rapture, the Holy Spirit leaves with the Church, and He is called The Restrainer – {{2Thessalonians 2:6-8 “You know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way, and then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.”}} Once the Holy Spirit is removed from the earth, wickedness will break out unrestrained and will become most vile. (Revelation 9:20-21).
The second reason evil will be rampant in the Tribulation is this passage – {{Matthew 24:37-39 “The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah for as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away - so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”}}
That passage looks at the Second Coming but “the days of Noah” are going to be on the earth. Genesis 6 tells us that in Noah’s time every thought of a man’s heart was only evil continually. That will be the state of things in the Tribulation.
God bless you all. Look up! The Lord is at hand!
WEF = World Economic Forum
WHO = World Health Organisation
UN = United Nations
EU = The European Union
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
