The Spirit wars against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit....so I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with one another, so that you do not do what you want (Gal. 5:16-17).
One of the required high-school books was Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a novel that placed young boys as castaways on a desert island. There, without the rules of civilization, human nature emerged at its worst, and the boys degenerated into savages, mutilating and killing their own company.
When I look at the nations that have deliberately suppressed Christianity, I see the utmost savagery and inhumanity: North Korea, North Vietnam, China. Whenever a tyrant wishes to take over control of a people, the first item on the agenda is to suppress the spirit, especially as expressed in Christianity. In China's "cultural revolution," all artists, poets, Christians, priests, intellectuals, etc. were either killed or imprisoned. When North Vietnam took over South Vietnam, all the professional people -- business owners, doctors, teachers, musicians, and the like -- in fact, anyone who wore glasses, indicating that they could and did read -- were exterminated or imprisoned.
I recently spoke with a woman who escaped S. Vietnam with her family -- father, mother, and ten children, all of whom were intellectuals and professionals -- after the fall of the South. They fled to the mountains and lived in a make-shift "tent" until they could find someone to take them out of the country in a boat. Fortunately, these people were wealthy, because when they were hijacked by pirates on the open seas, the pirates were satisfied with the money and jewels they had; otherwise, the men would have been killed and thrown into the sea, and the women raped.
If anyone doubts the belief in original sin, I think they must be blind and deaf to reality. What is it about the life of the Spirit that so enrages people? The religious leaders snarled and sneered at Jesus Christ, ultimately determining that He must be done away with. And soon afterwards, they did the same to Stephen. In fact, from the time of Cain and Abel, there have always been two "races:" those who "walked with God," and those like Lamech (Gen. 4:23):
When I look at the nations that have deliberately suppressed Christianity, I see the utmost savagery and inhumanity: North Korea, North Vietnam, China. Whenever a tyrant wishes to take over control of a people, the first item on the agenda is to suppress the spirit, especially as expressed in Christianity. In China's "cultural revolution," all artists, poets, Christians, priests, intellectuals, etc. were either killed or imprisoned. When North Vietnam took over South Vietnam, all the professional people -- business owners, doctors, teachers, musicians, and the like -- in fact, anyone who wore glasses, indicating that they could and did read -- were exterminated or imprisoned.
I recently spoke with a woman who escaped S. Vietnam with her family -- father, mother, and ten children, all of whom were intellectuals and professionals -- after the fall of the South. They fled to the mountains and lived in a make-shift "tent" until they could find someone to take them out of the country in a boat. Fortunately, these people were wealthy, because when they were hijacked by pirates on the open seas, the pirates were satisfied with the money and jewels they had; otherwise, the men would have been killed and thrown into the sea, and the women raped.
If anyone doubts the belief in original sin, I think they must be blind and deaf to reality. What is it about the life of the Spirit that so enrages people? The religious leaders snarled and sneered at Jesus Christ, ultimately determining that He must be done away with. And soon afterwards, they did the same to Stephen. In fact, from the time of Cain and Abel, there have always been two "races:" those who "walked with God," and those like Lamech (Gen. 4:23):
...wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.
Human nature without the Spirit of God withers and dies, or becomes inexpressibly cruel. My friend from Vietnam told me that the cruelty of North Korea was learned from China, where three generations are beheaded for the crime or offense of one man. She could not express enough the feeling of gratitude for having come to the United States and for breathing the breath of freedom, even though they arrived with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, even though they all -- 12 people-- slept on the floor in a one-bedroom apartment until they could learn English and find jobs.
Human nature, without the Spirit, is not pretty. Romantics would have us believe in the "natural goodness" of mankind. Perhaps even Denis Rodman believes in the "natural goodness" of North Korea's leader. I say, let him live under that reign and discover for himself what man is truly like without God.
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