Was there one sin that was so great that it spelled doom for this world? A single sin that God could no longer tolerate? Well there was, and God points it out to us. It was a sin the entire world was practicing and it was the only sin that could have brought out the terrible wrath of God. And today it is a sin that the world is drowning in.
You can find the answer in the Bible at Genesis 6:11 "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.
How sad it must have been, when this God of love looked across the earth and saw the children that he wanted filled with love, were instead saturated with hate. For all God wanted his children to do was to love him and love their fellow brothers and sisters, but instead all God could see in his children was hate and violence. God hated violence so much that when he saw that the whole earth was soaked in violence his reaction was to destroy all life forms and start over. So you have to ask yourself the following question. Is this world more violent today then it was back in Noah's day?
I believe that this present day world is far more violent than those ancient Biblical days. For today we have the violence of the unborn being torn apart in abortion factories. From spontaneous road rage to unrelenting domestic violence. From extremely dangerous street gangs to all kinds of civil unrest. From the mayhem of drive by shootings to the rape of any female regardless of age or physical condition. From armed robberies, where victims for the fun of it are beaten, tortured, and murdered, to the debauchery and violence in our movies and on our television. Our computer games and music are filled with violence. Hate and violence saturate our roadways, our workplaces, our homes. Entire lifestyles like drugs, gangs, alcohol, and pornography devote themselves to violence. And of course in today's world anyone can be attacked and killed for simply looking the wrong way or being in the wrong place.
Internationally you have entire nations trying desperately to wipe out other nations as you do even today in places like Bosnia. Even within a country you have one sect trying to kill every one from a different sect like you had in Rwanda. Ethnic cleansing is a concept straight out of the depths of hell, but yet it is being practiced in different degrees, by a great many nations all over this world. You have whole regions of a continent trying to destroy other regions on the same continent, such as you have in Africa and the middle east. All over the world there are people planning and scheming to hurt and kill others. Pain and death are the guiding factors that the world now follows. Whole religions have as one of their main purposes, the annihilation and destruction of others. People living on the earth today totally believe in that old cliche, vengeance is mine. And just killing others is simply not enough in these present times. Now the person being killed must suffer terribly before they take their last the world now does is get even. Not to forgive, but instead to hurt, breath. So instead of forgiving those that trespass against us, what to punish, and to kill those that trespass.
We exist in a sea of violence. Violence is on the front page of every newspaper and on every news program. Therefore many people refuse to read newspapers or watch the news because of the sickening feeling it gives them. Still most of us have learned to live side by side with violence and mayhem, and most of us give little thought to it unless we ourselves are involved. There is no love for your fellow man, but instead your fellow man is simply someone that has been put out there to be taken advantage of. Violence is indeed a huge part of today's society. And rarely if ever do you hear the words, I am sorry, please forgive me.
Of course all of the above makes a mockery of everything that Jesus Christ taught, believed and commanded while he was here on earth, and it is completely opposite to everything that the very Word of God teaches. Our God is a God of love, not of hate and he wants each of us to be the exact same way. In fact at Mark 12:31, Jesus tells his followers that after loving God, the second greatest commandment is to love your fellow man. "There is no other commandment greater than this."
John 13:35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have
love for one another."
According to Genesis 6:11, the flood in Noah's day was a direct result of the violence that was present on the earth. So could the violence on the earth today be even worse? It sure seems as it is. And if the violence is worse today, then is God getting ready to punish the world like he did so long ago? Is the wrath of God being readied? How could God not destroy this earth if the violence in today's world is worse than it was in Noah's days? So you have to wonder if the earth is once again going to relive Genesis 6:11, "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence".
There is a parallel in the New Testament, and Jesus gave it to us when he was here 2,000 years ago. He gave us the following prophesy as he looked forward in time to this present time period. It is found at Matthew 24:37-39
Verse 37--For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Verse 38--For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark,
Verse 39--and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.
And finally, God's deliberate destruction of the earth by the flood proves three things to me.
First, God closely observes this planet and its inhabitants.
Second, when sin exceeds the threshold of God's wisdom and patience, there is no recovery.
Third, man's degenerate behavior always matures to a point where total destruction is the best solution.
These three facts help to explain the rise and fall of at least 21 civilizations over the course of human history. God raises a nation of people, and when their behavior becomes so sinful and so horrible that it reaches the threshold of God's patience, they are destroyed.