The Human Role

The beginning of Biblical history of the world is underscored with a major disaster that happened to the entire world. This was owing to human indiscretion. The end of Biblical history of this world is predicted by a devastation owing to their increased sin. We are living in a very critical period in which the time-honored values of humanity are trampled for devilish profit and pleasures. Fellow humans are exploited, looted, experimented like guinea pigs, and disregarded in the craze for selfish pleasure/profit. There is no room for love and compassion in the morally disintegrating human minds. 

‘To err and fall is human, but to continue in it is devilish’. Same way dangers and disasters are part of life and growth. Humanity has learned lot of lessons from mistakes in the past. The corporate study and experiments of humanity have always been aimed at gaining mileage from the past. But, in spite of the warnings and lessons, humanity falls repeatedly into the same pits of drunkenness, drug addictions, immorality, infidelity, sexual perversions, human trafficking  corruption, cheating, quarrels, fights, murders, wars, indiscriminate exploitations, senseless contaminations of water, air, soil, deforestation, poaching, hooch tragedies, looting public treasury for selfish gains, communal violence, underworld militancy and terrorism, laziness and lethargy in personal and civil responsibilities,Wrong handling of biological and radioactive waste, unsafe handling of nuclear reactors,improper experimentationsetc. This is utter folly and is the result of the devil’s schemes. It seems humanity has not become spiritually wise in spite of all warnings from God’s word. The corrupted human minds are becoming ever more selfish and mad, going after the never satisfying pleasure pursuits, insensible to warnings of consequences. The greatest of all these disasters in the present society is the collapse of love as the value par excellencein its struggle against selfishness. It is high time we lament over this disaster, which is the mother of all other dangers.

Moral Corruption is the Cause

Depravity/ moral corruption imputed from sin makes the world worse. The earth has fallen from the Garden of Eden Experience with the beginning of sin and it has ever been falling since then from bad to worse with the increase of sin and wickedness of man. Genesis Chapter 3:18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.  3:19 All your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day...”

Selfishness, ungodliness and carelessness make the earth a horrible place to abide. Truth and love have become absent from common minds. Lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and pride of life are on the driving seat of human pursuits. Absence of love and love of pleasure makes the law ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ an unacceptable dictum. This world is under the control of the evil one- John 5:19. It has blinded the eyes of the eyes of the ungodly - 1 Cor. 4:2. They never seek what is pleasing unto God, and what is good or perfect.

Disasters are prone to happen

Dangers and disasters are inclined to happen on earth.There are natural disasters, manmade disasters, and hybrid disasters. Manmade disasters and man caused disasters are what we try to avert. Under this topic there are socio technological disasters, disasters caused by carelessness like structural collapses, epidemics, and disasters caused by wars, militancy etc. Some accidents are part of the system, life and progress as it is said failure is the stepping stone to victory. Explorations, experiments, adventures and innovations incorporate with it risks and accidents. Discoveries and progress cannot be risked in the attempt to avert accidents. Humans should use their intelligence carefully to make life better.

Seek Wisdom to Avert Misery

History becomes pragmatic when past is analyzed and lessons learned from it. The book of Proverbs in the Bible is full of such observations and practical lessons. It uses terms like wisdom, prudence, diligence, insight, knowledge, correction, discipline, discretion, discerning, learning for this kind of learning.These are learned from the words/ instructions of the wise, past and present, which is time proven knowledge. Proverbs envisages that the foolish neglect wisdom and instruction. It becomes pitiable when lessons are not learned from failures or lessons from the past are ignored and pitfalls recur. The result of folly is disasters of varying sorts.Consequences of disasters vary and some would bedevastating, detrimental and lasting in their impact. The fall from Eden gives the child of God the greatest warning regarding how serious we should be in handling with the commands of God and the rules of the nature. Human fall is depicted as nature’s fall. Humans need to be spiritually sensitive to take such warnings and counsels serious. 

Monkeying with the systems of the nature and selfish and detrimental exploitations of it have caused and continues to cause unimaginable and unpredictable consequences to life on earth. Nature has its own forms of adjustments when it is tampered with and that leads to natural calamities and devastations like drought, earth quakes, floods, global warming, rising of sea levels, epidemics, and so on. With mechanization and technological advancement the downhill ride of exploiting nature has become high speed and large scale, and therefore disasters too would be large-scale.

I could avoid that. That accident could have been averted, that was a wrong choice, it was an unnecessary expense, a waste of time, energy, and money, had we listened to God’s counsel that failure would not have occurred; with such statements we often regret several times in life.War never solves a problem but creates greater ones like the Vietnam, Iraq, Afghan, India-Pak, the Middle East, and so on. The devastations of the world wars, nuclear dangers, plastic pollutions, global warming, deforestations, formation of deserts like Sahara, family problems, fights, and most accidents–all could have been averted if we were sensible and Godly.

Mahatma Gandhi in his devotion to serve and save the nation from miseries said ‘but as an imperfect man I only see as through a glass darkly and therefore have to carry my conviction by slow and laborious processes, and then, too, not always with success. … I would be less than human if, with all my knowledge of avoidable misery pervading the land and of the sight of mere skeletons … I did not strive to eradicate the sufferingsof the dumb millions of India. Mahatma Gandhi, Young India, 17-11-’21

That is why my devotion of Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means. Mahatma Gandhi, Autobiography, 1948, p. 615

The kingdom of God is free from such dangers. So, all becoming children of God is the only solution. The creation is eagerly waiting for the appearance of the children of God (Romans 8:19) for its deliverance from the cursed estate. Unceasingly striving for the same is the duty of each child of God. Repeated awareness making is must in this struggle. 

Unlike selfishness, Love has never given birth to a pain. Love has never wantonly crushed or broken the tender flower of faith that grows in the heart of trust. Love is the reason for the flowers in the garden just as love was the reason for the flowers’ being. (E.W. Kenyon, The New Kind of Love God is Love,USA: Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Co.1969). So, love makes the whole world beautiful and loveable. Love is God unveiled.Jesus, Thy kingdom come.