[602 words]
The world is getting smaller. We constantly hear about globalism—global economics, global politics, global environmentalism, and a host of other world interests.
It is time that we tell others how to look at the world rather than letting people who are not even Christians and who don’t know the Bible lecture us about how we should see it.
The greatest crisis in the world is sin. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Sin is the universal pandemic. Sin is the most serious crisis on the planet. It is more disastrous in its consequences and more far-reaching in its effects than any other problem among mankind. We learn to live with diseases and recover from disasters, but we can never escape the fact that we live continually in a very sinful world.
The most urgent worldwide need is salvation. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Forgiveness of sins is far more important than curing cancer or reducing poverty. That is why we should teach and preach the gospel in every nation. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16). We must teach people to look beyond this life and obey the only plan that will save them from sin.
The worst danger to mankind is hell. Jesus said, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28). Men may deceive themselves into thinking there is no hell, but God is a just God and sin will not go unpunished. Hell is prepared for the devil and his angels and all who follow him (Matt. 25:41). Every other suffering is temporary. This one is eternal.
True peace on earth is by the cross of Christ. Global peace talks may be ideal, and we certainly prefer peace over bloodshed, but there will always be wars and rumors of wars. Jesus died so that we can have the most important peace of all: “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). Through that peace we have peace with our own conscience and peace with others as far as it is possible.
The most powerful global force is the providential hand of God. The Most High God “removes kings and sets up kings” (Dan. 2:21). He “rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He wills” (Dan. 4:17). The power of empires is nothing to God: “all nations before him are as nothing” (Isa. 40:15) Nations come and go. They always have. But God remains the same.
The greatest catastrophe in the future is not global warming. It is global and universal incineration. The very elements of the earth will be “dissolved” and “burned up” when even the heavens will be destroyed (2 Pet. 3:10). Until then, God will regulate the temperature of the earth and preserve the seasons (Gen. 8:22). Politicians can talk all they want about climate change, but God controls the thermostat.
There are only two ways to look at this world: through the eyes of God or through the eyes of man. Let us take the wisdom of God and teach it to lost souls who have the world turned upside down.
Kerry Duke
West End church of Christ
Livingston, TN