“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment, and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world, and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, having appointed them to serve as an example to future generations of the ungodly, and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men, (for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)–if so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment at the day of judgment, especially those who indulge their fleshly desires and who despise authority” (2 Peter 2:4-10)
Many people do not know that the French Revolution was so secular, anti-church, anti-God, anti-Christ, that in their rebellion, they attempted to change the seven day week to a ten day week.[1] After that, the Russian Revolution attempted to change the workers’ weeks to six days, five working followed by one day off in a constant cycle, though the calendar remained the same. It was to optimize production I’m sure, since we know the Bolsheviks[2] were moral, caring people and had no interest in destroying the traditions and practices of practicing Jews and Christians. Their rebellion was, amongst other things, a rebellion against God, His six days of creation and His seventh day of rest (Genesis 2:2-3).
In earlier days, many scientists founded themselves upon the idea that nature was orderly and discoverable because the Creator was not a God of disorder (1 Corinthians 14:33) nor was He capricious; He was a God who invited inquiry (Isaiah 1:18) and discovery and enjoyed revealing Himself through His handiwork for His glory (Psalm 19, Romans 1:19-20). Then followed the Theory of Evolution[3] which was widely embraced not because of the science, but because of the philosophy: It offered an escape hatch from God. Today many scientists may claim that they “cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door”[4] because philosophic materialism (practical atheism or agnosticism) is the only basis for science. They act as though this is a normal, neutral, and necessary thing, but it is not. Copernicus, Bacon, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, Newton, Faraday, Kelvin, Pasteur, Planck, Einstein would disagree. But as one atheist philosopher has said, “I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”[5] The materialist atheist scientists and philosophers rebel against the foundational premise of “In the beginning God” (Genesis 1:1).
Like the woman washing Jesus’ feet with her tears in Luke 7, many of us carry the guilt of our sins with us like a heavy burden, weighing us down. The continual reminder of our sins keeps us from experiencing freedom and from enjoying the relationship with God that we have by faith in Jesus Christ. We don’t just need a teacher. We need a Savior who comes in and does for us what we can’t do for ourselves: forgiveness. All of our debt of sin before God is enormous; we are incapable of ever paying it back. You and I need to understand how complete and continual is God’s forgiveness of us. And, we need to know how to deal with any recognized sin in our lives so that we won’t continue to carry that burden of guilt.
