What happens when people see themselves as by-products of chance rather than design? What happens to their children and to their civilization? Communism happens. Totalitarianism happens. Freedom fades. Violence increases. Purpose and meaning disappear. Romans 1:18 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”
How does God “reveal” His wrath? In Romans 1, He gives people what they want. Verse 24 says, “God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves.” Verse 28 says, “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind.”
Without God at its foundation, human thought becomes increasingly compromised. The community’s hold on reality grows inconsistent and untrustworthy. Sanity slips. Pretend worlds become more real than the real world, and people lose the capacity to recognize and adjust to changing circumstances — abilities that are essential not only to our thriving but to our survival.
On October 9, 1903, a New York Times editorial said, “[It] might be assumed that the flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from one million to ten million years.” Sixty-nine days later, Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully achieved heavier-than-air flight. One million years compared to sixty-nine days constitutes one of the biggest predictive misses in world history.
Here’s what went wrong. The writer applied to human flight the errors he had been taught concerning evolution. He reasoned that if birds required immense spans of time to develop flight, human development of airplanes would also take long periods of time. He applied the rules of evolution when he should have applied the rules of Intelligent Design. With intelligence, a moment of clarity is better than “one to ten million years” of accidents. He failed to consider the thought and imagination of two young Dayton, Ohio, bicycle shop owners, Wilbur and Orville Wright.
Birds were designed, and so were airplanes. Human beings designed the machine that allows us to “slip the surly bonds of Earth” — and they did it at least a million years sooner than The New York Times thought possible.
Romans 1:21 warns that when humans reject God, their thoughts become “futile.” Verse 22 says that while asserting their wisdom, they become fools.
Today’s world seems unhinged because it is unhinged — cut off by its own choice from the Creator. Madness, chaos, and cruelty rise like a flood when minds are given over to debased foolishness. The Gospel is the best and only answer. We need to go all out to make it known. But while humanity sets itself apart from God, we should not be surprised when people say, do, and think in ways that are unhinged.
