Wanderers in the Mist
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Introduction
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This essay deals with the smelly lump of brown stuff called sin, that
floats disgustingly in the punchbowl called the human race.
Learning about sin can help you understand yourself and God a bit better.
It might also help you to understand the person who gleefully stabbed you in your back without so much as saying,
"Whoops!" |
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Do unto others (before they do unto you)
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According to the Bible the human species is a violent and sinful lot.
Is this true? For the answer, just check the news in your daily paper and on television -- there are people out
there who will gladly rob you, steal from you, rape you, beat you to a pulp, and murder you.
And that's just for starters!
Ah, but bad deeds are done only by criminals, right? For the answer, just check your heart for scars and bruises...
- Have you ever been betrayed? Or lied about? Or abused? Or treated
unfairly? Or cheated?
- If so, these are the cruelest wounds of all. Why? Because they are
most often inflicted, not by a criminal, but by a trusted friend or loved one.
Yes, the human race as a whole can be meaner than a junkyard dog. God calls this
situation "sin." What does the world call it? Read on.
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...There
is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There
is none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is
none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit. The
poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways,
and the way of peace they have not known.'' (Rom 3.10-17)
The faithful man has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood;
every man hunts his brother with a net... Do not
trust in a friend; do not put your confidence in a companion; Guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in
your bosom. For son dishonors father, daughter rises against her
mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a
man's enemies are the men of his own house. (Micah 7.2, 7.3-6) |
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Boys will be boys (tra-la-la)
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There is a
way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
(Prov 14.12)
O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and vain babblings and contradictions of
what is falsely called knowledge. (1 Tim 6.20)
But they all with one accord began to make excuses... (Lk 14.18a) |
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The world system has three
main philosophies about humanity's evil nature...
- Atheism says there is no "good" or "evil" as such, because there is no God.
- Evolution says our "bad actions" mean we are simply obeying the instincts we
inherited from the apes and pollywogs from which
we evolved.
- Determinism says there is no such thing as sin because our bad actions are determined by
such things as poor potty training, bad genes, wrong upbringing, lousy environment, chemical imbalances, or mental aberrations.
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We can't raise the bridge so... lower the
water
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| knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for
the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers
and murderers of mothers, for manslayers (1 Tim 1.9) |
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The world system has four main solutions for sin...
- Pass more and more laws against sin
- Put dangerous sins into prison
- Reclassify
certain sins out of existence. Example: redefine deviant sexuality as "alternate lifestyle"
- Remove the danger
from as many sins as possible. Examples: (1) Legalize abortion, (2) Give condoms to school kids, (3) Give clean
needles to addicts, (4) Educate people on "safe" fornication.
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Get the hammer, mother, there's a fly on
baby's head
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Humanity is not evolving to become better and better. What we call "civilization" is basically laws.
- The morals and ethics of our society don't protect us from sinners.
Laws, police, and the military do.
- Laws protect us by restraining sin, not by freeing any inner goodness
within the human race, for there is none.
- If the laws forbidding any given sin are removed, then that sin will
become just as rampant in the 21st century AD as it was in the 21st century BC. The Holocaust in Nazi Germany is
only one of many proofs of this statement.
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Lions 7, Christians 0 (game, set, match)
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War and killing are not UNnatural to the sinful human race. Violence is THE most natural of all human reactions to any interference
with our pride, selfish desires, and hair-trigger tempers.
Evolution says we fight because of our animal instincts. Animals do
fight and kill each other, but never for mere entertainment. Humans do.
- We buy toy soldiers and toy weapons for our kids.
- We kill animals for trophies to hang on our walls.
- We watch "blood splatter" movies, fights to the death between
men and bulls, cock fights, pit bull fights, and "live and direct" telecasts of wars.
Oh well... that's show biz!
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Psst... your pants are on fire!
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A fish doesn't know it's wet.
A skunk doesn't know it stinks.
A dung beetle doesn't realize that it's eating poop.
A dog has NO idea why he shouldn't drink from the toilet bowl.
Living in a world of sin blinds us to what we really
are...
- We analyze our own personal sins by comparing ourselves to other
sinful people.
- We excuse our sins with pet sayings like "I'm no worse than
the next guy," "I'm only human," "boys will be boys," and "the devil made me do it."
- Without the Bible, the human race would have NO idea of how truly
sinful we are.
- And thus - we
HATE the dadgummed silly old Bible.
- For this reason, our laws allow schools to teach our kids just about
anything they want to -- just as long as it ISN'T
in the Bible!
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Wanderers in the mist
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Ephesians 4.18 tells us that sin darkens our understanding. In other
words sin is a dark mist
that blinds us to how sinful we truly are.
When we accept mist as our natural environment, we are blinded to the existence of the mist itself.
We are wanderers in the mist, blind to our sin and blind to God. |
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They (unsaved sinners) are darkened
in their understanding and separated from the life of God because
of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (Eph 4.18)
Therefore justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake
us...
- We look for light, but there is darkness! For brightness,
but we walk in blackness!
- We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no
eyes
- We stumble at noonday as at twilight; we are as dead men in desolate
places.
- We all growl like bears, and moan sadly like doves
- We look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is
far from us. (Isa 59.9-11)
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Shoot the messenger!
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For the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6.23, KJV)
Nor is there salvation in any other (than Jesus), for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must
be saved. (Acts 4.12)
(God said:) "And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers
and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be
not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house." (Ezek 2.6) |
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Two statements made by the world system...
- #1
Sin is natural
and can't be cured.
- #2
Christianity is mean-hearted and arbitrary for telling sinners they will NOT go to heaven.
If statement #1 is true then statement #2 is equally true.
But God
says statement #1 is FALSE. Sin is not only UNnatural, but it is
curable as well.
Since statement #1 is false, then statement #2 is equally false.
Sin is cancer of the soul.
It is not mean-hearted to tell a person he or she is dying of cancer if there is a cure for that cancer.
Neither is it arbitrary to prescribe only one single medicine if that is the ONLY medicine which can
cure cancer of the soul.
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Wrap-up
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The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked. Who can know it?
(Jer 17.9)
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. ...If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and His word is not in us.
(1 John 1.8, 1.10)
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People WILL do most anything to keep folks from so much as mentioning
the "S" word. Even some churches avoid
the subject of SIN like the plague -- it cuts down on attendance,
don't you know?
The first step toward getting well is to recognize
that you're sick in the first place.
This essay has tried to take that first step. Amen.
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