Visions Of Our Future

(First, a little insanity. Bear with me on this one...)

Atheism is a very optimistic belief system. After all, look how far we've evolved! As our intelligence and power increase, we are better able to control ourselves and our environment. Many well-known atheists and agnostics have given us exciting glimpses of where mankind is heading. The Star Trek series revealed Gene Roddenberry's vision of the eradication of poverty and war open to us after man abandons the concept of God. Friedrich Nietzsche saw mankind eventually evolving into a race of supermen, again without God. Yes, atheists are very optimistic!

The Bible, on the other hand, is a very depressing book. Its pages are full of negative and offensive words like "sin", "hell", "iniquity", "judgment", and the like. Man is not described as essentially good, with an occasional slip-up, but as evil, wicked, even from birth (Psalms 51:5, Job 15:14). According to that book, there isn't one good man on earth (Psalm 14:3, Isaiah 53:6, Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:9-12)! Good thing we're much more enlightened about ourselves today!

The Bible also talks of man's future. It says things like, "in the last days perilous times shall come" (2 Timothy 3:1), and then goes on to describe how increasingly wicked man will become. It says eventually man would destroy the earth (Revelation 11:18), and but for God's intervention, even himself.

Unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved; ...
- Mark 13:20 (WEB)
Get real!

... No, really. It's time to end this insanity.

Question: As you watch the news on TV tonight, which world-view seems more true? Is man getting better or worse? Think about it.

In spite of the seemingly negative world-view of the Bible, I hold what it says to be true. What I read in the paper, see on the news, and experience in real life fits strongly with what I read in the pages of scripture. The Bible speaks the truth about the nature of man. Man was at his best when he was created. Today he is a mere shadow of what he was, and contrary to evolutionary theories, he's not getting any better.

Now, I know I haven't properly represented the views of all or even most atheists, let alone a lot of Bible believers. There are plenty of pessimistic atheists who recognize the world is in serious trouble and going downhill fast. The problem is that the atheist thinks solutions to these difficulties must lie with man alone, and that man is fully capable of developing an ideal society, whether it happens or not. This frightens me, considering how much evil idealistic, optimistic atheists have generated in the world!

Atheists like to blame much or most of man's problems on religion. After all, look at how many people have violently died in the name of God. But while they have a point, they conveniently forget the tens of millions of people who have been systematically tortured and killed in the name of atheism in Soviet Russia, China, North Korea and other places. Isn't it ironic how many human rights violations happen in countries where the governments have such high views of humans?

The truth is, religious people do not have a monopoly on heineous forms of evil. If all of the religious people in the world were eliminated, moral evil would still exist and flourish, because the problem is not with religion. The problem is with the heart of man – something the materialist overlooks because it is a spiritual problem.

It doesn't matter whether you are a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, atheist, Christian, or whatever. Everyone, including myself, naturally has an evil nature. Any religion or philosophy that ignores this only empowers that nature.

Neither religion nor atheism can solve our problems. Education cannot solve our problems. Money cannot solve our problems. Better laws cannot solve our problems. Technology certainly cannot solve our problems! (Technology isn't evil, but it has a way of empowering evil.)

Looking to ourselves cannot solve our problems.

Our only hope is to turn to the one good, holy, and righteous God, confess our great sin against Him, and put our trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, to save us. God gave His Son over to death to rescue us from the power and consequences of our sin, and to give us real hope.

The saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; ...
- 1 Timothy 1:15 (WEB)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- John 3:16 (WEB)
To those who believe God and trust in Jesus, the Bible is anything but depressing. It contains the best possible news, a message of comfort and the assured hope of rescue from sin and its consequences.

If you choose not to believe this, you're welcome to go on believing whatever you want to. But know that eventually everyone will come face to face with the consequences of what they believe. You owe it to yourself to personally investigate the truth.

...As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you die, ...
- Ezekiel 33:11 (WEB)

(By the way, I do enjoy watching Star Trek. I just don't agree with the philosophy behind it.)
 
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