At an annual conference, Brother Monk is presenting his thoughts on society today.

“It’s getting pretty muddy, isn’t it?”

As many of you know, I teach from the Holy Bible…the written words from the Almighty, Eternal GOD, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and all things seen and unseen…and mankind. He created them male and female in the beginning…think of how incredibly awesome that is! That GOD, the blessed and holy Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, the One and only immortal, eternal Almighty GOD in His love gave us His written Word as He chose men and women to write in a book what He commanded. And it is right there, in the Holy Bible how society came about following the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman upon the face of the earth! There was no confusion. No doubt. No wild, imaginative theories about the beginning of life from the mud, a ‘Big Bang,’ a spark, and mankind evolving from apes into what we are today! NO, NO, NO, NO NO…it’s not there! No survival of the fittest! No gender confusion either! But later, when the men of Sodom did what they did 24-7, God destroyed them as a lesson to Abraham and his seed forever…what about there people today? What about us?

Or, how about this one? Our ancestors came from Mars…some alien civilization that came to earth and started us! You see, man will search everywhere on earth to try and find answers to his preconceived notions that fit his agenda, but he will not search the Bible for the answers as to the origins of life and the future destiny of mankind! In his knowledge and abilities (given by God) in technology, he will even send probes to the solar system to try and find the origin of life! Surely, man says, there is life out there.

But in the beginning anything was, God created in sequential order Heaven, Earth, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars! He created life in Heaven, and life on Earth only, period! If it were not so, He would have told us.

We have only to turn to the Holy Bible to see and understand; for it is written in Isaiah 44:24-25…

“Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, and He that formed you from the womb, I am the LORD that makes all things; that stretched forth the heavens alone; that spread abroad the earth by Myself; that frustrates the tokens of the liars. and makes diviners mad; and makes their knowledge foolish;”

And how about Isaiah 45:18…”For thus says the LORD that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He has established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited; I am the Lord; and there is none else.”

The Bible tells us that certain men were ordained to carry-out destruction against the Church and its people and the Jewish people and Israel…and society, too. But, is there a strong, invisible force out there who works day and night to push those thought into action? Are there men used as a tool of the arch deceiver to bring lies into the church, the homes the schools? Yes, I believe there are and always have been!

Consider Jude 4…”For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Do we ask the right questions? Do we want to know the truth?

What if today, God’s words were believed and followed? It won’t be by everyone, but by a lot more people everywhere, what would our society look like today?

And against the unseen, titanic battle for the souls of men is the war in high places of evil, wicked spiritual forces working against GOD to deceive mankind and carry forth the lie. For example, I believe the greatest scourge of society today is the daily murder of the innocent unborn children! We have wrapped it in an easy to swallow label called “abortion!” The law of the land allows it! That is to cast away the unwanted…like garbage!

God wrote in the Ten Commandments that ‘You shall not murder!’ But the ‘arch-deceiver-Satan=the Devil-the ‘Wicked One,’ the ‘father of lies,’ the author of confusion’…says, “Is that really what that means?” “Did God really say that?” ‘So what if you do it, who’s gonna know?” “After all, you have the freedom and the right to choose what you believe is right!”

Shall we believe and follow a higher standard? Shall we believe the words of man or God?

As it is written in holy Scripture, the Word of the Lord says in Isaiah 5:20-21…

“Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

“Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.”

“Woe unto him that strives with his Maker!” Isaiah 45:9

The day is coming, says the Lord God Almighty: “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” Isaiah 13:11

May we stand up against this evil, and pray for the precious souls of those conceived but never born.

But alas, my brothers and sisters, where the Good Word of God is sown, the “arch-Deceiver” also shows up, and as the parable of the Wheat and the Tares so truly illustrates: the good and the evil grow up together!

It is worth noting what Jesus said in Matthew, chapter 13:24-30 to really understand why we have all the problems besetting us today in all walks of life in our society, our cities, our homes, our schools:

“The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, did not you sow good seed in your field? from where then has it tares?

He said to them, An enemy has done this. The servants said to him, Will you then that we go and gather them up?

But he said, No, lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather you together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Our troubles today are not new; they have been since human history began, and will continue…until?

God’s word says this, but the Deceiver and his minions sows doubt and confusion and lies. After all, he whispers, one is just as good as the other! And repeats and repeats and repeats what he said in the beginning,

“Did God really say that? Is that what it really means?”

Is this true? Well, consider the lessons of Nazi Germany of the 1930’s and 40’s, the highest of evil and wickedness in their zeal to exterminate all the Jews of Europe! And they almost got away with it before the ‘eyes of the world’ because their propaganda machine believed that if you tell a lie over and over and over and over again, by whatever means and every means possible, the world will eventually believe it!

The Book of Genesis in the Holy Bible is the book of beginnings. It is the foundation of society, the foundation of everything first mentioned there, the foundation of religion. It tells us how everything started, how life began when GOD created, how God intended them, the man and the woman to be together in marriage and their children to populate the earth and obey GOD. He, and only He is the origin of life, the cause of life, and how human beings, made in His image, in. His likeness should behave.

But when GOD commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, because if they disobeyed and sinned against GOD, they would die; it wasn’t long before the great tempter-the arch deceiver, the liar appeared disguised as a serpent, and said the very first words of doubt that has rolled through every century to invade the thoughts of mankind: “Did God really say?”

Is it any wonder our society is being torn apart by small groups of misguided people with the loudest voice? Not a majority of people, but a minority of people, screaming, rioting, frenzied into action like piranha going for the kill! No stop, no rest, because the force behind them never, ever lets up!

Our society is crumbling, just as the Roman Empire fell. Is there a link as to what’s going on today in our society compared to the pagan society of Rome thousands of years ago? I believe there is.

“The British Historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) was no fan of the Christian faith, but his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is still worthy of being read, particularly because of his insights into the reasons for the collapse of the empire and the way they should be a sober warning to Western Culture that we are repeating many of the same patterns that destroyed Rome.”

“Gibbon listed the following five primary reasons for the collapse of the Roman Empire:

• First: The rapid increase of divorce, with the undermining of the sanctity of the home, which is the basis of society.
• Second: Higher and higher taxes; and the spending of public money on bread and circuses.
• Third: The mad craze for pleasure, sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.
• Fourth: The building of gigantic armies to fight external enemies, when the most deadly enemy, the decadence of the people, lay within.
• Fifth: The decay of religion; faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, and becoming impotent to guide it.”