Mass Murder
Back to 1The Bible’s Greatest Prophecies Unlocked!
Next revisit abortion—the continual outright mass murder by doctors and people who function as legal serial killers—occurring around the globe. First, an important inset thought. To understand what God thinks of abortion, one must understand the difference between crime and sin. They are not the same, nor are they defined by the same set of laws.
According to most of man’s governments, abortion is a “legal procedure.” In countries where it is illegal, it is a crime to have an abortion, often resulting in a prison sentence. Another simple example is if someone holds up a bank and steals money, it is a crime. Crime is the breaking of man’s laws.
Sin is similar, and we saw I John 3:4 defines it. Sin is the breaking of God’s laws. Depending on where you live, it may not necessarily be a crime to have an abortion, but it is a SIN—and is a clear breaking of the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shall not kill” (Ex. 20:13).
Living contrary to God’s Law, man has resorted to killing millions of innocent babies by simply creating his own laws. Here are sobering statistics:
The estimated number of legal abortions performed in America alone since 1973 is over 50 million—and this number is said to be even greater, since it only represents abortions reported by licensed agencies.
According to the Department of Defense, the American casualties for the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War and the Iraq War, in addition to deaths attributed to September 11—combined—are estimated at 1.27 million. In 2000 alone, 1.31 million pregnancies in the U.S. alone ended in abortion—down from the all-time high of 1.61 million in 1990.
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 46 million babies are aborted each year worldwide! This equates to over 126,000 murders each day—87 per minute—or one and a half per second!
Stop and think. God considers every life to be precious. Yet humanity has taken upon itself to end millions of lives every year! The ongoing holocaust against completely innocent and defenseless babies is one more big reason God’s wrath—His fury—is coming! And weak-kneed, cowardly, immoral, broken-headed leaders, educators, doctors, politicians, sociologists, parents and “churchmen” are squarely in God’s focus!
The Ravages of Drug Abuse
Drug abuse has long been a global phenomenon. It is found in uptown penthouses, neighborhood slums, and everywhere in between. The United Nations World Drug Report 2005 estimated that as many as 200 million people worldwide are drug users—some now report that up to one half of all professional people in America use drugs, with some being recreational and others quietly hardcore.
Drugs such as methamphetamines are ravaging the world. Just one example is “crystal meth,” which is so powerful that it can immediately transform casual users into out-of-control junkies. Once a person is seduced by this drug, the end result is a life destroyed. Innocent family members can be included.
Even prescription drugs are being routinely abused. For example, a 2005 study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America places teen abuse of cold medications on par or higher than the abuse of illegal drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin. Prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse is not limited to America. A United Nations group recently reported this problem is quickly passing the abuse of all illegal drugs worldwide.
Look at the world around you. Drug abuse, alcoholism, gambling, lying, cheating, stealing, promiscuous sex, prostitution, pornography, sexually transmitted diseases and increasing violence are now commonly found in the lives of most teenagers. They have grown up in a society that looks for every possible pleasing, stimulating sensation. They seek to appeal to the senses—touch, sight, feeling, hearing and smell—in any way possible. All that they do must be “approved” by their senses. And this does not speak to their wildly foul mouths and disrespect for all authority, starting with parents.
Modern Entertainment
Now consider the modern generation’s music of choice. In past decades, rock and roll became the spearpoint in music, influencing virtually every segment of society. Yet even the worst of yesterday’s music is tame in comparison to today’s mainstream monstrosity masquerading as music!
The most common themes glorified by today’s recording artists are illicit sex, anger, extreme violence of every sort and drug use. But because it is only “music,” it is legal.
Rebellion against authority has been a widespread message for decades. Many songs promote the thinking that work, school, parents and the law are enemies to be disrespected, disregarded and disobeyed.
Some groups and genres are directly connected to outright Satanism. Some bands literally pray to the devil before going on stage. Others hold séances before performing, seeking “higher powers” to enter them, using performances as an avenue to supernatural contact.
Look at the “Hollywood-ization” of the occult: countless films and television programs desensitize the viewer to demonism, witchcraft and magic, many times with blood and gore. These feature witches, vampires, voodoo and black magic, attracting millions of dedicated viewers. Harry Potter is tame compared to the routine vileness of so many books, movies, television programs and video games today.
This “entertainment” has real consequences: Across college campuses in the U.S., paganism and witchcraft are thriving and spreading. An ever-growing number of teens and young adults are delving openly into ancient pagan rituals. Ironically, more students than ever are studying world religion, with many universities reporting these classes are “maxed out.”
Destroying the Earth
Pollution is also rampant across the globe. In an effort to live the good life, mankind is constantly improving and replacing products in society. But something has changed in today’s consumer-driven way of life. Industry has produced many products that people do not consume, but simply use. Newspapers, magazines, clothing, packaging, electronics of all sorts, etc., are never consumed! People simply purchase products, only to later throw them away, replacing them with the newer, better version. This describes user-driven societies.
The end result? Vast amounts of pollutants—and new and ever bigger—giant!—landfills.
Every day, earth becomes more and more polluted. Air pollution fills our lungs with deadly substances. Water pollution is rapidly destroying what little freshwater we have left. Land pollution is causing once-fertile lands to become little more than deserts. Mankind is poisoning this planet on such a scale that the earth would never recover without God’s intervention!
Developing countries dump 90-95 percent of their untreated sewage and 70 percent of their untreated industrial waste into surface waters. Population growth ensures that this problem always gets worse. In addition, acid rain and chemical runoff from fertilizers and pesticides sufficiently ruin water quality, making it largely unusable.
Fully 60 percent of all disease on Earth is sanitation-related. Each year, air pollution kills nearly 3 million people in developing countries alone, with poor sanitation killing another 12 million. Various forms of indoor air pollution (soot, dung, coal for cooking and heating, etc.) affect 2.5 billion people a year and kill 2.2 million.
God commanded Adam to protect and preserve the world that was created for him—not rape and destroy the beauty and blessings around him. Imagine how different this world would be if Adam—and everyone who followed—had simply listened to God’s very first directive to man. But this is not the only warning God has given to man about pollution—the destruction that man would visit upon God’s Earth. Here is what Isaiah said about our age: “The earth is drooping, withering…and the sky wanes with the earth; for earth has been polluted by the dwellers on its face…Therefore a curse is crushing the earth, alighting on its guilty folk; mortals are dying off, till few are left” (Isa 24:4-6, Moffatt translation).
The people of Earth are under a “curse.” But why? Hosea expands this: “Israel, hear the word of the Eternal, for the Eternal has a charge to bring against the dwellers in the land: no fidelity, no kindness, no knowledge of God in the land, nothing but perjury, lying, and murder, stealing, debauchery, burglary” (Hosea 4:1-2, Moffatt).
Not knowing God, men walk blindly in their societies, unaware of how to take care of the planet put in their charge. Because of their ignorance, “even the beasts and birds and the very fish within the sea are perishing” (Hosea 4:3, Moffatt). Just look at oil spills!
Greed and the desire for self-titillation have put everything—including God—second in the eyes of men. The fruits of human nature are the destruction of the earth. The result? As we saw earlier, “Your wrath is come…and should destroy them which destroy the earth” (Rev. 11:18).