PERILOUS TIMES!

💚 NOAH LIVED in PERILOUS TIMES!

2 Timothy 3:1

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.”

IT IS WRITTEN 👇

❤️ During the days of Noah, it seems God gave humanity 120 years to change its evil ways. God said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years” (Genesis 6:3).

❤️ The 120 years of Genesis 6:3 refers to the time God’s longsuffering would continue with that generation (Barnes’ Notes on the Bible). During those 120 years, Noah preached a warning message, and God waited patiently for heartfelt reform (1 Peter 3:20).

❤️ Unfortunately, the people didn’t respond. They didn’t care. They continued to live their lives the way they pleased. They ignored God, and the longer they persisted, the more unsound their reasoning became and the harder it became for them to change.

❤️ Romans 1:21 documents this lamentable process: “Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

❤️ Living in this evil society that refused to repent, Noah alone found favor in God’s sight as a “righteous” person (Genesis 7:1). We’re told that he was “moved with godly fear” and built an ark “for the saving of his household” as God had instructed him (Hebrews 11:7). “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch,” said God (Genesis 6:14).

❤️ Because of the widespread violence in the world at that time, God decided to repopulate the earth through this faithful man and his descendants (Genesis 6:17-18).

❤️ Violence today

The apostle Paul confirmed that before Christ’s return the world would have perilous times, filled with pleasure-seeking, materialism, immorality, violence, idleness and a rejection of the things of God (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

❤️ A major reason for God’s bringing the great Flood was that the earth was filled with violence (Genesis 6:13).

❤️ Consider the age we live in. There’s been an alarming increase in global violence just in the past 100 years. Wars in the past 90 years killed more people than during the previous 500 years combined (“War and Conflict”).

❤️ An estimated 203 million people were killed by wars just in the 20th century (Matthew White, Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century, 2010, “Deaths by War”).

❤️ Between 170 and 360 million people were killed by governments in the 20th century, apart from war. Recently, more civilians have been dying in armed conflicts than combatants themselves, accounting for 90 percent of casualties since 1945. Just in the last decade, war has claimed the lives of an estimated 2 million children and has disabled another 4 to 5 million children.

❤️ A silent form of violence is perpetrated around the world by deliberate abortions of innocents. Each year about 44 million abortions are performed globally (“Global Abortion Rates, 2008”).

❤️ Globally, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) has documented more than 125,000 violent terrorist attacks since 1970 (“2013 Terrorist Attacks”). Martha Crenshaw, a START board member, reported, “Sadly, it seems to be increasingly acceptable in certain belief systems to kill as many members of the other religious community as possible. Moral restraints seem to be eroding” (CNN.com).

❤️ Indeed, things are changing in the world. Jesus Christ said, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:19). We are currently living in an age where these vices are becoming more commonplace.“We’ve seen a fairly steep upward trajectory in the total of terrorist attacks and fatalities worldwide,” said Gary LaFree, START’s director. “We are convinced that a big chunk of this is real change in the world.”

❤️“Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts”👈

Indeed, things are changing in the world. Jesus Christ said, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:19). We are currently living in an age where these vices are becoming more commonplace.

❤️ Substantial research on our Western culture has demonstrated the correlation between media violence and youths exhibiting violent behavior in society. Studies show that in the United States a typical child will view more than 200,000 acts of violence, including 16,000 murders, on television before the age of 18. Television programs display 812 violent acts per hour. A recent study found that 15 percent of music videos contain interpersonal violence. Still another modern source of violent exposure is access to the Internet and video games (“The Impact of Media Violence”).

❤️ As the violence of this age increases, God’s message becomes more fitting: “There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed. Therefore the land will mourn; and everyone who dwells there will waste away” (Hosea 4:1-3).