"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." Isa. 5:20.
We see more of this type of thinking today than ever. To understand why people try to make black white, and white black, we have to understand what kind of life and conduct they are leading and are trying to justify. I often read Proverbs. It is filled with gems of wisdom condensed into a few words. Many of the Proverbs have to do with good and evil, and the purveyors of the same; the righteous and the unrighteous. Here are some of them:
Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them. For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. (24:1)
The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion. (28:1)
When the wicked rise, men hide themselves; but when they perish the righteous increase. (28:28)
When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. (29:2)
When the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt, and with ignominy reproach (18:3)
He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemeth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. (17:15)
The wicked worketh a deceitful work; but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward. ((11:18)
Yes, there is much evil in the world, but it has all been predicted. Read carefully II Pet. 2. It is full of predictions of the evils of the last days some of which I will paraphrase as my final paragraph:
There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.....and many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of....The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.....these speak evil of the things that they understand not....they count it pleasure to riot in the daytime...having eyes full of adultery, and they cannot cease from sin.... while they promise liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. (Quite a description of what we are seeing all around us every day!)
5 comments:
Man, it's right in front of us to read and people still persit in doing the evil things. The worst part is that a lot of times some of those "false teachers" are teaching something that may not seem evil so they can suck people in, yet it is totally against what we beleive. "Oh the cunning plan of the evil one..." (that was part of a scripture pasted on the bathroom wall at my mom's. Maybe she can help with the reference.)
I definitely see so much of people calling good evil and evil good. It is frightening that sometimes even I start to get sucked in until I snap myself out of it. It's so easy to just follow along, but we always knew the world would get a lot worse.
This is important to talk about. The lesson in my Quorum meeting was on this subject last week. There is such a defensive attitude towards talking about sin, and how to watch for it. I think that among people who consider themselves righteous, there is a bit an attitude that Sin doesn't apply to them.
It's like the woman in a Sunday School lesson about sin who stood up and told us that she's never really had to repent, because she hasn't done anything "big".
There IS good in the world, and there IS bad in the world.
Thanks Dad! I just had a most obvious encounter with this exact thing. For taking a stand against homosexuality, the PTA has been called all sorts of evil names by the gay activists... Of all the irony!!!
Thanks, Dad. I am getting caught up on everybody's blogs today and sure appreciate this one. I guess we are supposed to be learning something from a this craziness . . .
Post a Comment