Bible Study #4 - What's wrong with the world?

To start off this blog I want to start by talking about the opinions that I've heard about whats wrong with the world.

Some views among my peers are:

1. Capitalism is evil, and the root of all evil and greed
2. I'm sure we're all familiar with GWB's speech "the axis of evil" in which he refers to the middle east and terrorist groups being the axis of evil, i recently saw a forum thread with the title "The axis of evil: Christianity"
3. That humans have lost their sense of self and soul
4. That people mis-interpret things and twist things to fit themselves
5. Religion
6. Money
   

These are just a few views that I've come across and I'm sure more people share these views. The one that bothers me ever-so much, is religion. Why is it the religion that gets blamed, and not the individuals who cause the actions.
If I say the word "terrorist" to you, what pictures pop into your head? Perhaps a middle eastern man with a bombed strapped to his body, perhaps an amreican soldier off to fight a war. Which is correct?

NEITHER, I tell you, is correct, there are no generalisations for terrorists. Our ultimate terrorist is Satan, and he prays on people who are weak to the wealth, cares and pleasures of this life.

Anyway, onto the bible sutdy!

Why do babies starve, when there's enough food to feed the world/Why, when there's so many of us/Are there people still alone?

Tracy Chapman sings these words, about the contradictions of like today.

Love is hate/War is peace/No is yes/And we are all free

She makes the best point with all the contradictions in our society, why are people insisting that we're free? We claim to be free to make our own decisions, that we can be who we want and what we want and not care about the consequences of our actions! Gone are the days where peopel cared for each other, manners were instilled in us from birth and people, as a general rule, didn't blow things up.

Why terrorism? The threat of terrorism has reduced our freedo, eincreased our insecurities and made us more suspicious of our neighbors, and even in that is making us turn from the scriptures (Love your neighbor as yourself [Lev. 19:18]) . Terrorism is a fear tactic, no matter who is insighting it and fear is what Satan uses to lure all of us into him.

On April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, by the end of the day there was 15 dead. Cassie Bernall was one of these.

Cassie was in the library reading her bible that day. She was asked by the gunman if she believed in God and she replied "There is a God, and you need to follow along God's path". The shooter looked down at her. "There is no God," he said, and he shot her in the head.

A diary found in Harris' house, presumable written by Harris was reported as detailing the year long plans for the killings, which the teenagesr hoped to result in 500 poeple dead and end with them hi-jacking a plane and crashing into New York city.

What made these boys cold, heartless killers, utterly devoid of pity? If life is meaningless and there is no hope, then what we do doesn't matter... our whole society reflects this attitude, our media, our education, music and literature.

The commonly asked question we ask, especially of God, is why? Why death? Why pain? Why evil? God gave us free-will and in giving us that free-wil, gave us the option of following him, or making our our choices, devoid of his influence, which ultimatly leads to Satan

In John 8:44 Jesus calls Satan the father of lies. "You will not die" and "You will be like God" are the basis for most non-christian religions. The two main teachings of the New Age movement are that we are "gods" and that we have past lives through the cycle of reincarnation.

The Temptation of Eve
The three areas in which ever was tempted were the physical, mental and spiritual. These are the categories of all tempation. The temptations presented to Jesus were in the same categories, however, he suceeded where Adam and Eve failed and in suceeding he can save us from our own temptations. One of the greatest lessons that we can learn from life is that Life is run by Law, not luck. Becuse od this, we sow what we reap. God, who made us, knows us best and cannot be fooled!

Sin, which is going against God, has serious consequences, one of which being death (Romans 6:23)

Jesus paid our debt

Jesus died on the cross for our sins (still feeling kinda guilty about that one) he was taunted "Come down from the cross, if you are the son of God" (Matthew 27: 39-41). But he knwe he couldn't save us and save himself. He gave up everything for us. o many people repay him by going against his laws and his teachings. Our efforts at covering our sins (that is, paying for them ourselves) Can't help us. On Jesus, who lived a perfect life, can cover us.


This Study, for me, backed up everything i previously believe about the world and put it into amazing words, explaining why people do the things they do. I feel as though this study shows me more and more that Jesus is the only saviour I can have in my life!