Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

This was posted in the Jesus would stone Homos thread:

Do you guys honestly believe that the world is getting worse?

Before the flood the Bible says "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time."

I would say that we are much much better than that!

What is it that is happening that makes the world so much worse? Murder? Rape? War? Poverty? I suggest that there is nothing new under the sun. These things have existed since the beginning, the price of living in a world with free will.

What say you?

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

Bigger population makes it worse.
Also TV, movies, internet, etc

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

The world is getting worse. There are no new sins There are more people doing more sins.

More murder, war, adultery, lust, greed etc etc.. It's happening more, in part because there is more people doing it

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

Considering God wiped out humanity, save for Noah and his family, yes it's getting worse. As has been stated, also the advent of modern technology and just pure evil in the hearts of men and women today make it much worse than any Biblical time period.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

2Ti 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
2Ti 3:13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

I think it depends on how you define "worse." If you ask am I worse off today than I would have been living in a thatch dwelling and trying to fight off the Mongols on the Steppes in the 1200s I would have to say no. I am blessed, have a roof over my head, am protected from the elements, have great modern conveniences.

Again, if we look at some countries where followers of Christ are persecuted and put to death or enslaved, tortured, etc., on a daily basis, I would says my life is pretty good in relation. But I don't think that is what people mean when they say "The world is getting worse."

So, what do people mean when they say "the world is getting worse?"

1. They are referring to their world, or the realm in which they have relationships, dwellings, their safe zone I would say; having the ability to keep self and family safe from physical harm. This would include the laws that are being passed and what future effects they may have, as well as the current response in the "world" that appears to be getting closer and closer to traditional persecution.

2. The thought world in which they live; having the ability to keep self and family from experiencing visual and aural messages that fight against the Word of God in their lives. This covers the safety of educational activities for children, peer pressure, media, etc.

3. "Worse" is more or less a short-hand way of saying "worse than it was yesterday" or progressively worse.

Given this definition, I would say the world is getting worse.

When the Bible says evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived, I don't read a caveat that says "except for certain periods of time when it will get better, and then start getting worse again." We therefore have to check our definitions in order to be in line with the Word of Life. The Bible also teaches that as we near the end it will get worse than it has ever been, so bad that Jesus will shorten the days of His coming lest there be no flesh saved.

Just a couple of thoughts that came to mind.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

I sure wouldn't want to live 100 years ago....1000 years ago or 2000. I think it's pretty good....

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

:lol it all depends upon ones lens, then. "don't say that things used to be better" paraphrased.

Ecclesiastes 7:10 Do not say, "Why were the old days better than ...
... Don't say, "Why were the former days better than these?"
For you do not ask wisely about this. ... eccl ...

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

I guess worse depends upon who is speaking.

How do you tell a Jew who was being hauled off to the camps that it is worse now?

How would you tell a gypsy in Stalins russia that it is worse now?

Relatively speaking.....

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

I'm glad to see we have some optimists! :)

In my opinion some things have stayed the same, some have gotten worse, and some have gotten better. And I personally believe that the good just might outweigh the bad. Some Thoughts:

1. Medical breakthroughs are pretty much awesome. Things that were a death sentence 100 years ago are now treatable. My Mom is a living breathing example of this. She had a very rare kind of cancer, it was considered inoperable, the 5 year survival rate was 0%, they gave her 6 months to a year. However, she got into an experiment program, and almost 4 years later she is not only alive but cancer free.

2. The Internet. Yes, like anything it has the ability to be used for evil, but it's also completely and totally amazing. It's helped transform our world (in a good way). How many things have happened for the good, because it got out on social media, or went viral, and the public outcry caused positive change? Through Micro-loans, we can help people we never in a million years would have come across. I guess, I just think the interconnectedness is pretty amazing.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

Yes, its getting worse; much worse! How much of the following do we witness taking place around the world today?

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" II Timothy 3:1-7).

Remember also, Paul the apostle advises concerning the abundance of false prophets which would arise during the perilous hours of the last days:

"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" (II Timothy 3:13).

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

When the entire world is clamoring to prevent a small group of men from developing a weapon that can level an entire city... yes... things are getting worse.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

For real! And it seems that "lying" is the new normal.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

Getting worse has nothing to do with our standard of living or how different people live today as compared to hundreds of years ago. It is not about material things or have better employment.

It IS about what is in the hearts of people. Their conduct, thoughts and morals.

I say, yes, the world is getting worse.

:thumbsup

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

That's comparing them to the world. The World implies globally not just isolated areas.

See it's not relatively speaking.

Let's put it all together, Holocausts, WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf etc etc...Persecution of Christians, crime in the US, the potential for mass deaths through WMDs and on and on and on.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

I've been reading the Old Testiment. Seems pretty good to me. Even on morals.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

Well, I dunno. In some ways yes and in some ways no.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

Ecclesiastes 7:10

New Living Translation
Don't long for "the good old days." This is not wise.

English Standard Version
Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

New American Standard Bible
Do not say, "Why is it that the former days were better than these?" For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.


it is short-sighted and secular--at best--to claim that 'the world' is getting worse. you are not supposed to be there anyway, so how might you know? If you think that the world is getting worse, change your perspective, imo. or change something.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

Yes as it applies to sin the world is much worse.

1. Homosexual marriage is being legalized and glamorized.

2. Abortion the murder of unborn babies acceptable.

In the United States about 3,700 babies are aborted each day or approximately 1,350,500 annually. That's one every 24 seconds. For every 100 births in the United States, there are 31 abortions.

3. Violence is prevalent. Whether it be gang related, individual to individual or if it is on a social level such as ufc fighting (strangely reminiscent of the coliseum), movies video games music. Everywhere one looks violence permeates our world.

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Bring back the coliseums so it will be better?

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

They seem to be trying to.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

Which is worse?

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

1 when Christ walked the earth, homo pedophilia was an accepted norm in the Roman world
2 women have been taking...mandrake--i think it is--as well as other herbs to abort babies for millenia. there is nothing new under the sun.
3 um, remember the Spanish Inquisition? and they fought to the death in the Coliseum. the world is no more violent than it ever was, and is most likely quite less so--judging by the pop explosion. at the least, one might comment that your post reveals your circumstances, which of course you might then assume applies to most everyone else, which could not be further from the truth. there are many, many places on the planet right now that do not experience this pretty much uniquely Western violence that you speak of, Luke. i just spoke with some friends in Dahab, Egypt, where one might be led--by Fox News et al--to believe was in dire straits if not chaos. nope. no little kids playing with guns there. no crime to speak of. no money to speak of, either. no one hungry, not even the stray dogs. and ps, there's no violence in my world, either.

i do realize that many or most might take your pov, if assessing the visible world. please stop. the world is really not getting worse. huge swaths of far eastern people are being elevated to the middle class by our consumption, God help them. the average lifespan has doubled in the last 200 years or so, despite all the machinations of our world leaders, who have an expressed interest in mass human extinction ("population control"), and have even gone so far as to HARP up storms such as Haiyan, and prolly deliberately built Fukushima on a massive fault line to poison the planet (and are all buying islands in the Southern Hemi with your stolen $ as we speak).

See that "the world is going to hell in a handbasket" is the ignorant braying of the lost, and denies Scripture in more places than just Eccl 7:10. Peace

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

Well, do you realize that we lost more men in the Civil war than these wars combined?

We lost 618,000 men from the US during the civil war. That was over 10% of all men from the US.

So is it better or worse?

Stalin killed more people in Russia than many of the wars killed. 40 million total. The only war that was worse was WW2 which they figure 66 mill died.

http://www.ibtimes.com/how-many-peop...n-kill-1111789

Yet they figure that the Mongol hordes wiped out over 40 million people in their escapades. This was during the 13th century. So are things getting better or worse? Seems to me that unregenerated man has the capacity to be totally degenerate!

http://bedejournal.blogspot.com/2011...e-mongols.html

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

Gotta agree with this post regarding the badness of humanity. It has not gotten worse nor better. There are and have been bad people in every generation.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

1 Peter 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

So do you feel this is reflective of Shazzeep? Is he one of the scoffers that is evidence of the last days?

Just curious.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

People don't change, technology does. A weapon was invented and people said that it was so terrible that it would end war. It was the crossbow.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

HA! yup.these are surely no less true, but i think it is important to remember that in the time of Christ it was also 'the last days.' Also, i'm pretty sure the common conception of Christ's second coming is completely wrong anyway, subtly changing the meaning of those verses--but that's another thread :D

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

When Paul the apostle wrote his 2nd letter to Timothy the evangelist, wherein he described the wickedness of that society of man that would be resident upon the earth during the "perilous times" of the end, saying, "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" (3:13), he wasn't referring to an increase in the crime rate, the killings which result from wars, or other such things, although there's no denying that these would occur; rather, he was specifically noting a lessening/decrease in the knowledge of wicked men concerning spiritual things (3:14-17). A condition that always results in an increase of evil acts, such as we presently witness.

Therefore, as I read the question tendered in the title of this thread, it was these words of Paul to Timothy; as well as those of Peter which Luke referenced (II Peter 3:3-4), that immediately come to the fore of my mind. We presently are living in that generation of which Paul and Peter wrote about. The many things mentioned by others in the postings of this thread lend indisputable, irrefutable evidence of this fact!

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

In the days of Noah, we also find it written that because of the steady increase of wickedness among the inhabitants of the earth, God was moved to destroy the wicked. Because of the ever-increasing "worsening" (increase) in the wickedness among mankind which we now are witness to, God will again destroy the wicked from off the face of the earth!

Therefore, perhaps it could be said that chief among the signs which indicate the nearness of the 2nd coming of the Son of man, at which time His "cleansing" of wickedness from off the earth will transpire, is nearer than when we first believed!

In this perilous hour, the resounding cry of the righteous must be...

"Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"!

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

That is 2 Peter 3:3 not first.

Re: Is the World Really Getting Worse?
 

hmm i might argue that evil men and deceivers will ever wax worse and worse...