Words That Descrbe Our Times

If I were to ask you the following question - What words would you use to describe our world today? - how would you answer?  One word that immediately comes to mind is "terror-filled."  Almost weekly we hear of a terror attack somewhere in the world.  Whether it is a suicide bombing in Afghanistan or a runaway car in London or an ambush of a New York City policewoman, our minds have become almost numbed with the reports of innocents dying at the hands of terrorists. 


Another word I would use is "truthlessness."  I think I just created a word.  By it I mean that as a culture we have abandoned a moral standard for truth.  I am continually drawn to that question Pontius Pilate addressed to Jesus as He stood before him - What is truth? (see John 18:38).  Pilate had heard many arguments based upon truth-perceptions.  Now before him stood Jesus who declared that He had come into the world to testify to the truth (John 18:37).  So, whom was Pilate to believe?  What was really truth?  Because we have abandoned an absolute moral foundation, there is no standard of objective truth any longer.  We now live in a world of opinion.  We expect to find opinions expressed on the editorial pages of our newspapers.  But now we find only opinions expressed in the headlines and on the front pages.  There is no objective reporting of news any longer because journalists today no longer have an absolute moral platform from which to measure the truthfulness of their stories.  If Jesus was correct when He stated that it was the truth that will set us free (see John 8:32) - and we know that Jesus only spoke truth - then we have now enslaved ourselves into a world of relativity and opinions.  What can we really know today?  That is the question that needs to be answered.


Another word I would use is "confusion."  I believe this naturally follows upon the waves of abandoning truth.  I read an article, published on the Townhall.com website, that exemplifies this word "confusion."  The article was written by Christine Rousselle and can be found at www.townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2017/07/04/canadian-baby-given-unknown-as-a-gender-on-id-card.  "A baby in Canada is believed to be the world's first to be not designated a gender due to a parent's request.  Baby Searyl Atli was born in November to Kori Doty, who identifies as 'non-binary' and does not identify as male or female (and prefers the pronoun 'they').  Doty does not want a gender to ever be listed on their child's birth certificate or identification documents, and while British Columbia has so far refused to issue a birth certificate sans gender, the government did issue a state health card for Searyl with a 'U' as the gender.  Without this card, Searyl could not see a doctor.


"Doty wants Searyl to eventually decide on his/her own gender, and believes that assigning a gender to an infant at birth is a human rights violation.  'I'm raising Searyl in such a way that until they have the sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are, I'm recognizing them as a baby and trying to give them all the love and support to be the most whole person that they can be outside of the restrictions that come with the boy box and the girl box,' Doty said."


This is "confusion."  A child is born and can usually be distinguished as being male or female.  (I do understand that, on rare occasions, a child can be born with a sex that is indistinguishable).  But, in this case, we have a mother who is confused about her own gender identity, although she just gave birth to a child.  "I don't want to be a male; I don't want to be a female; I just want to be a 'them' whatever a 'them' is." Friends, in the absence of absolute, moral truth based upon the holy and righteous character of God, confusion reigns. 


But, in closing, I want to share another word to describe the times in which we live.  And that word is "hope."  Not everyone in our world today has "hope."  But, because of the cross of Jesus Christ, the potential is that everyone could have "hope."  For believers, for those who are Christ-followers, "hopeful" is who we are.  We anchor securely upon the Blessed Hope of the return of Jesus Christ.  As we survey the world's scene, that hope rises even higher.  We also have "hope" in a new and better world that is coming.  Someday sin will be eradicated from this world.  Someday God will recreate this world and it will be as God intended from the very beginning.  We have a "hope" beyond the grave.  Because of this "hope" we are not filled with fear or despair.  We are anchored to the Rock, Christ Jesus. 


Friends, so what words would you use to describe  our world today?  Whatever those words might be, I trust you would also be able to add to that list the word "hope."  And with that "hope" we look up and await the coming of our redemption.