Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Friday, August 06, 2010 11:12:34 AM
The indictment against the men who lived before the flood was that ‘every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually’ [Genesis 6:5]. The warning of divine judgment was no deterrent for the men of Sodom. Their destruction came not long after the catastrophic judgment of the Genesis Flood [Genesis 19].
Christ uses these events as a model of the conditions expected at His coming again in sudden and final judgment on the wicked, but in gracious deliverance of the redeemed.
Why do men deny history as well as their own experience as men? Why do men boast in their denial of the existence of God and His judgments against sin when they are His image bearers, including a sense of morality? Why do they invent alternative realities that help them suppress the knowledge of God? Why do they deny the words of the Great prophet who entered the holy place not made with hands and made a once for all atonement for sin, offering up His own blood? [Hebrews 9]
In this, men today exceed the wickedness of the antediluvians. Christ has come and revealed God. He is the faithful witness, and those who deny Him are without excuse. Christ says that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil...
“For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” [John 3]. Men know the truth, but delight in their sin, preventing them from coming to the light. And with this the Apostles agree. Peter says that men are 'willingly ignorant' [2 Peter 3], and Paul says that they know God but suppress their knowledge of Him in unrighteousness [Romans 1].
With the advances in technology and education, why is it that the societies of men degenerate into the same destructive behaviors? And they do so in the name of social progress until destruction comes. No one heeded Noah’s warning, but the eight who boarded the ark. Lot and his family had to be urged to leave Sodom. Men today are not isolated from the historical record, but they are still held captive to their sin.
That which has caused America to differ is the same thing that makes a difference in men. Grace and grace alone is what causes men to differ [1 Corinthians 4:7]. Grace enabled men to give us an open Bible that had been closed for a 1000 years, and grace helped men apply the New Covenant principles to the American covenant.
After 400 years, what begun in New England as advancing the Kingdom of God as the New Covenant Israel of God in the hearts of many, is now becoming more like New Sodom. We are not unlike ancient Israel who came to destruction after rejecting its heritage, forsaking the God of all grace.
Nations rise and fall as Christ rules the nations according to the council of His own will for the good of His Church. Thank God for His eternal kingdom wherein righteousness dwells. This is the unfailing hope of the Christian in every generation and in all nations.