The Beast Within
Today I want to discuss what I will call “the beast within.”
Why do we humans behave the way we do? What is the driving force behind our actions? As human beings, we are capable of exhibiting tremendous self-sacrifice and unselfish service to our fellow man, and yet we are also capable of committing the mass murder of school children. It is as if there is a beast within.
Some believe that we are creatures of chance, shaped by our environment. They profess that if everyone in the whole world had equal opportunity, wealth and privilege, the human spirit would evolve into a decent, loving, altruistic force for good. Sadly, there are no facts to support that premise.
In America, which was founded on the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we set a miserable example of self-discipline and character. As the wealthiest nation on earth with the most freedom for its citizens, we should excel at virtue. Instead, we lead the world in the export of pornography, violent entertainment and the mindless pursuit of material wealth. We spend billions on education and a myriad of social programs to enhance life and environment. Yet we murder one another; exhibit rude, offensive conduct in public; and destroy our families in shattered homes across our land. Has wealth and opportunity led to a better “us”? I think not.
What about one of the poorest nations on earth, the Democratic Republic of the Congo? Since 1998 it is estimated that over 5.4 million people have died in a vicious civil war.
Centuries ago, a prophet of God was moved to say, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Can we say any less in this time of glittering technology and the age of information? Looking at the world 25 centuries later, we see no obvious evolution of the human heart away from wickedness. The West with its affluence is in moral and cultural decay; the Middle East is in fractious turmoil; and China’s expanding militarism threatens our survival. Knowing this, can we truly say that the human heart is a better heart? A heart that has improved with time, wealth, culture or religion?
What will it take? What do we need to make a permanent, planetwide change in the very nature of human beings? What do we need to change from deceit and wickedness to outgoing concern and brotherhood? How can we collectively change the way we think? History shows we can’t. We cannot do it on our own. Since this outlook of wickedness is of the spirit—the human heart—we need a spiritual solution. A solution that will affect all peoples, cultures and governments. A solution that is for everyone, no matter if they are rich or poor, educated or illiterate.
The solution is a perfect, world-ruling government that is empowered to literally change the way we think. No human government can do that. Only the one government called the Kingdom of God—with its leader, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace—can save us from ourselves, from the beast within. Think of what this will mean: the end of the disease of the spirit that has plagued humankind from the beginning. The Kingdom of God is coming soon. Won’t you join the people of God and begin this change of heart now by living the way of life that leads to perfect happiness?
For Life, Hope & Truth, I am Britton Taylor.
