If things were ungodly in 2009, what about Now? In 1996, Judge Robert H. Bork wrote the book, 'Slouching Toward Gommorah'. As I see it, by that standard, we are 'Rushing Toward Sodom.' - Max Solbrekken
EVIL BEHAVIOUR:
INHERENT OR LEARNED?
INHERENT OR LEARNED?
By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
(This article was written in 2009)
"For My people have committed TWO
EVILS; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living water and have hewn
themselves out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."
(Jer.2:8-13)
A number of
years ago - on Canada Day - I was a guest on Radio CJCA's Ron Collister Show.
For many years I had joined that popular host and his listeners in
lively debate on interesting and relevant topics.
Our
July 1st program featured the very important subject, 'Is EVIL inherent or is it a product of environment? Is a person born with the propensity to do
evil or is it a learned behaviour?'
And Ron
asked each caller the same question he asked me: "Which of these - GOOD or EVIL - is
winning in our world today"?
Most of
the callers seemed to think that the scourge of evil was dominating our society
and winning big! My answer mirrored the words of Jesus when He referred to the
increase of evil as a sign of the last days:
"Because
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold".
(Matt. 24:12) "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the
days of the Son of man... Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot...even thus shall it be when the Son of man is
revealed." (Luke 17:26-30)
SODOM &
GOMORRAH: HOW EVIL?
One might
ask: “How EVIL were the conditions on earth before God sent the FLOOD, and
wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah with
fire and brimstone”? Very corrupt, perverted and violent - a lot like today! Here's the
Bible record of the evil that existed during those two time periods.
"And God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of his heart was only
EVIL continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth,
and it grieved Him in his heart. And the
Lord said, I will destroy man..." (Gen. 6: 5-7)
Moses
wrote: "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was
filled with Violence". (Gen.
6:11). So IMMORAL and VIOLENT
were the men of Sodom that when two angels visited Lot - to evacuate him and
his family before the destruction began - they demanded that Lot hand over to
them the two strangers so they might sodomize
them!
The Bible records: "But before they
lay down, the men of the city, even the
men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said
unto him, Where are the men which came
into thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them (sodomize them)." (Gen. 19:4-5)
When Lot
refused, the large crowd of homosexuals tried to break down his door, to perform GANG RAPE on them! They told Lot to get out of the way, warning
him: "Now we will deal worse with thee than with them". (v. 9)
What could be worse than Gang Rape?
The Holy
Scriptures describes the Wickedness and PERVERSION of the entire male population – young and old – who were demanding that
the two strangers visiting Lot be given to them for a sexual Gang Rape Fest!
The homosexuals in
Sodom were violent and brutal! They
threatened Lot with violence and punishment if he refused to turn over the two
young strangers to satisfy their abnormal and perverted lust!
This of
course, is not the status quo of the average homosexual but could take over if
that life-style became the norm as it is in some prisons and is gaining in
prominence in parts of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Hollywood! History has a
way of repeating itself.
The angels forcibly rescued Lot and smote
the attackers with blindness, in order to prevent them from tearing down the
door! That's strong, and
hits close to home...when you consider what's presently happening in many
unhealthy, suicide-plagued, AIDS-infested and fear-charged communities around the
world!
The Bible
declares: “Do you not know that the WICKED will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually
immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual
offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers
will inherit the Kingdom of God.” (1 Cor.6: 9, NIV)
St. Paul
warns that Evil will escalate as we near the end of this age: "This know
also that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy,
"Without natural affection,
truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that
are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God. But evil men and SEDUCERS shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." (2
Tim. 3:1-4, 13)
Again, he
admonished: "Now the Spirit
speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking
lies in hypocrisy; having their
conscience seared with a hot iron." (1
Tim. 4:1-2)
A study of the
horrible raping and killing of dozens of young women by pornography sadist Ted Bundy who was executed Jan. 24, 1989, and the serial killings
of 33 young homosexual men - whom he first sodomized - by killer John Wayne Gacy, proves that the
concience can become seared! He was finally caught and was executed on May 10,
1994.
The horrendous
killing spree of homosexual serial
killer Jeffrey Dahmer (1993) who lured young men into his
trailer where he sodomized and killed them and ate some of their body parts,
can only be attributed to EVIL spirits!
A normal
human being could never perform such dastardly, perverted and evil acts,
without having demon spirits as guides!
The killing
of parents by children like the 1994
Menendez case when sons Erik and
Lyle brutally murdered their mom and
dad for their wealth is more evidence of the EVIL that reigns in the hearts of
lost and depraved humanity!
No wonder the
prophet declared: “The heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: Who can know it?”
(Jer.17: 9)
RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL
EVENTUALLY
TRIUMPH!
I answered
Ron Collister’s question thusly:
"Yes, it appears that EVIL
is gaining ground and at present may have the ascendancy, but in the end
righteousness will triumph. One day,
Jesus Christ will return and put away EVIL for good".
I interjected
that there is some good news; a great revival of righteousness is presently
occurring in our world! Since the
break-up of the Soviet Union, a revival of Christianity swept Eastern Europe.
By 1996, it was estimated that
6,000 souls had received Jesus Christ as Lord each day since the break-up of
the ‘Evil Empire’.
In our 1992 crusade in Truskavets, Ukraine - a health resort city which boasts many
sanitariums and draws people from across Eastern Europe – Mikhael Gorbachev's sister, Galina
Sergeovana Gorbachev, answered a
salvation altar call to confess Jesus Christ as her Saviour!
Evangelical
Christianity is so strong in South Korea
that the Church is growing
faster than the population, in that former Buddhist stronghold! And in 1986, Newsweek carried a Front Page story titled, ‘Latin America: Traditionally Roman Catholic Red is Turning
Protestant Black.’
The large
feature article reported that the Gospel of Christ as preached by Evangelical
Christians was gaining converts at 400 per hour. That’s
9,600 every 24 hours!
The ‘red’ spoke of the scarlet colours used
by Roman Catholic prelates and the ‘black’
referred to the Bible carried by Protestants! So great is the Revival that the
Evangelicals in Guatemala and El Salvador now tip the scales at about
54 per cent of the population!
CHRISTIANS DYING
FOR THEIR FAITH!
Believers in
Jesus Christ, however, are presently being tortured in a number of
Muslim-dominated countries, and forced to convert to paganism under threat of
death and starvation!
A classic case
is Sudan, where fanatical Arab
Muslims have since 1989 murdered
more than two million black Christians and Animists in an unparalleled "religious cleansing and genocide.
They were given the ultimatum, "Convert to Islam, or
die". In the last few years, the ruling Arabs have killed 300,000
Black Muslims for their oil, in DARFUR!
This genocide eclipses that of the
demonized Idi Amin, who terrorized Uganda several decades ago, and was
granted protection by Saudi Arabia until
he died at Jedda on August 16, 2003 and went to his eternal doom!
A
number of years ago, ‘Newsweek’ reported that the Muslims of the north
were selling black animist and Christian women as slaves for $15 US each.
MUSLIMS IN SUDAN CONVERTING!
The
GOOD NEWS is that there is now peace in the South,
and the Gospel is received by large numbers of Muslims. And a revival is taking
place in Darfur which had been
virtually closed to the Gospel for hundreds of years! In 2006 and 2007 I had
the privilege of preaching the Word of God there and in other areas of Sudan with great success!
The inhumane, EVIL treatment of Christians in
Muslim-dominated lands has to go down in history as comparable to Adolf Hitler's holocaust of 6 million
Jews, Joseph Stalin's murder of 7
million Ukrainians by starvation in 1933 and Mao Tse Tung's genocide of
between 40 to 80 million Chinese!
According to Dr. David Barrett, a statistician - who has been tracking
this phenomenon for more than a decade - an estimated 160,000 to 330,000
Christians are martyred every year for their faith in Jesus Christ!
That is what
I call real EVIL!
Oral Roberts said a number of years ago: "I don't know how we're doing it, but
somehow we are winning". And Billy Graham stated, "I've read the last chapter in the
book and it says: 'We win'!"
Daniel Webster defines 'evil' as "morally wrong, immoral, sinful, wicked, causing injury,
mischief, trouble, pain, bad, harmful, repulsive". And his definition of 'inherent' is: "forming an essential or
intrinsic element of; existing inseparably within an object or person".
Is
the human race cursed with two strikes against it at birth? Could there be a genetic defect in those who rise to infamy such as
Attila the Hun, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Saddam Hussein,
Osama bin Laden, Jeffry Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy?
WHAT ABOUT
ENVIRONMENT?
Or has this evil come to us because of the
fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, as the Bible states? What about the environment; home, church,
school, friendships, fraternities? What part does upbringing, training,
nurturing, learning and companionship play in a person's character?
During more
than 45 years of very active Christian Ministry, I have formulated a definite
opinion that – without doubt - EVIL is both inherent
and learned!
The Bible says "The wicked are estranged from the
womb. They go astray as soon as they are
born, speaking lies". (Ps. 58:3); "The
Scripture hath concluded all under sin". (Gal. 3:22)
You don't
need to teach infants how to lie. We've
all seen them do that even before they can talk. Holding a cookie behind his back, little
Billy will shake his head saying, "No, I didn't raid the cookie jar".
HERE IS THE
DELEMMA OF THE HUMAN RACE!
St. Paul blames Adam for our fallen condition: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that
all have sinned". (Rom.
5:12)
Then,
he gives us the antidote or remedy against EVIL. "For as by one man's (Adam) disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One (Jesus
Christ) shall many be made
righteous". (v. 19)
Again,
the Bible says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God; Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus". (Rom. 3:23-24)
We were born with a nature that is at enmity
with God. We are sinners by birth,
by
nature and unfortunately, sinners also by choice! But God, sending
His Son to die for our sins - as our substitute - paid the ransom price to
purchase our salvation.
Through His grace, we receive a new nature and
are born again from above! Here is the good news, then: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord". (Rom. 6:23)
In the
letter to the Romans, St. Paul agonizes: "For I know that in me (that is
in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing:
for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find
not, for the good that I would I do not:
but the evil which I would not that I do.
"O
wretched man that I am! Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?"
Then he declares: "For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin
and death". (Rom. 7:18, 19, 24; 8: 2)
EVIL IS ALSO A
LEARNED BEHAVIOUR!
The Bible
verifies this as well: "Be not
deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners". (1 Cor.15: 33).
Here are a couple of true sayings: "Birds of a feather flock
together", and "Show me who your friends are and I'll show you who
you are".
It's a known fact that most child abusers were themselves
abused as children. And the majority of
perverts were themselves corrupted by older relatives, friends or authority
figures!
PERVERTS
know how to infiltrate places of respectability, influence and position of
authority among the most vulnerable to their advances, namely teenage boys!
Our
hats go off to NHL hockey player Sheldon
Kennedy - who blew the whistle on well-known hockey coach, homosexual
predator Graham James, who is now
serving time in prison for his EVIL sexual crimes!
When Sheldon
Kennedy testified that Graham James
sexually abused him hundreds of times when he was a boy, screening became a
reality for many organizations. It also ended the unspoken agreement by many
victims to stay silent about abuse.
Homosexual
pervert Gary Blair Walker admitted
to having sexually molested over 200 boys over the course of 30 years while he
held a variety of positions of trust as a paid worker, and as a volunteer; a
sport coach, a police officer, a Scout master, a church camp counsellor, a
school bus driver and a martial arts instructor!
TRAGIC REPORT FROM
IRELAND!
Adding to
the tragedy of Roman Catholic priests sexually molesting altar boys in Newfoundland and Indian boys in Canada’s Residential Schools for
decades, here is another sad story reported by Associated Press, May 20, 2009.
DUBLIN -- A
fiercely debated, nine-year investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run
institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in
workhouse-style schools for decades -- and government inspectors failed to
stop the chronic beatings, rapes and
humiliation.
More than 30,000
children…were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools,
reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last church-run
facilities shut in the 1990s.
The report
found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys'
facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and
supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger…” Was that not EVIL?
HERE IS THE BENCHMARK RULING: In the 1995 Rosenberg decision, a Canadian Federal
Court ruled that the age of consent for SODOMY must be reduced to 14 years from 18, since anal sex is “a
basic form of expression for gay men.”
Is this not blatant DISCRIMINATION which could easily
have set up impressionable boys as fodder to be corrupted by sexual perverts?
The above UNHOLY and EVIL law that brought pedophiles in
droves to Canada in search of 14 year old boys to lawfully molest is now
history. By the grace of God, the evil lawmakers who enacted that perverted Law
have lost their power in Ottawa! Without doubt, they will stand trial before
God one day!
On May 1, 2008
Prime Minister Stephen Harper – much to the disappointment of the
dysfunctional Liberal, N.D.P and B.Q. Parties – prevailed in passing a new law protecting children from
pedophiles by raising the age of consent for anal sex from 14 to 16 years of
age!
US President Ronald
Reagan called the former Soviet Empire an Evil Empire, and he was
right! We now know the enormity of the
crimes of that wicked system, which left Eastern Europe bankrupt economically
and the environment so terribly polluted that it will take billions of dollars
and decades of hard work to bring things back to normal there!
The Bible
says that God will destroy those who destroy the earth! (Rev. 11:18). The callous attitude of Soviet Communists toward human life and the environment has brought
God's judgment upon them!
God’s Word
warns about those who "call evil good and good evil".
(Is. 5:20). Prophet Amos exhorted, "Seek
good and hate evil". (5:14-15). And Moses warned: "Thou
shalt not follow a multitude to do EVIL". (Ex. 23:2)
Jesus knew
that we would be targeted by the “enemies
of righteousness”, who seek our destruction. Being in “all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”, He can be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. (Heb.4: 15)
He can
therefore help us when we are tempted, tried and buffeted by the flesh, the world
and the devil. The Bible says: “Let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and
find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4: 16)
LORD'S PRAYER:
DELIVER US FROM
EVIL!
He gave us ‘His Model Prayer’ so that we would
know how to pray and what to pray about, in order to receive strength from
Almighty God!
Our Lord
declared: "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good
fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye
shall know them." (Matt.7: 17-20)
Again Jesus
stated: "For out of the heart proceed EVIL thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:" (Matt. 15:19)
The tragic
killing of two-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool, England a number of years
ago by two ten-year-old boys certainly tells us something about EVIL!
How the two boys could have conceived in their hearts
to trick a little toddler - who had walked away from his mothe in a shopping
mall - to accompanying them to his own death is inconceivable!
Except for
one thing...There is a real DEVIL
who came only to “steal, kill and
destroy”, and he is to BLAME! And so are parents who refuse to serve God
themselves with no regard for their Children’s spiritual upbringing!
The Golden
Text of the Bible: "For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life". (John 3:16)
Jesus said:
"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil." (v. 19)
We can never become good enough in our own
strength, to please God or become righteous: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should
boast.” (Eph.2 : 8, 9)
HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS: Only through the
all-atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross for us, can we attain
righteousness or goodness!
The Bible
says, "The blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7); "If any man be in
Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all
things are become new". (2
Cor.5: 17)
PLEASE REMEMBER
THIS WORK OF GOD IN YOUR LAST WILL & TESTAMENT. WE MUST NOT DELAY THE
GREATEST OF ALL LABOUR, THAT OF SPREADING THE GOSPEL! - Max Solbrekken
