When Jesus told his followers not to hide away from the world but instead to go out into it, preach the Good News and constantly “watch” for the signs of the times, he knew it was not going to be an easy job for them to do. The world is not a pleasant place for believers, and it’s growing less and less pleasant every day. Countries that were founded on Christian principles (like Canada, for instance) are now falling to doctrines of demons (legalization of euthanasia, assisted suicide, bestiality, homosexual ‘marriage’, etc.) and outlawing Christian prayer and worship in public places even while creating prayer and worship spaces for non-Christian religions. From personal experience, I know that the mention of the names “God” or “Jesus” in a conversation in a public place can unleash a barrage of curses and foul language from people within earshot. For anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear, there is no doubt that we are nearing the fulfillment of the “times of the Gentiles” that Jesus warned us about, which means things are not only about to get worse, but much much worse.

But who’s to blame? Why are things getting so bad so quickly? Is it because of ill-conceived government policies? Racism? Poverty? Climate change? Bad cops? Guns in the wrong hands? Chemicals in the food? Broken homes? Absent fathers? Unemployment? Mass migration from third- to first-world countries?

I would argue that these factors and all other negative manifestations in society today are not the causes of the world’s ills but the consequences of them. Again – racism, poverty, climate change, bad cops, guns in the wrong hands, etc., are not causes but consequences.

Here’s how.

People can only get back what they put out. People can only suffer what they’ve earned by their thoughts and actions (in other words, their choices). No-one can inflict any degree of pain on you that you haven’t first inflicted on someone else. That’s how you get back what you put out.

This is a hard pill for most people to swallow so they simply refuse to. Instead, they play the blame game and point the finger at everyone and everything except themselves. Some people don’t want to swallow the pill because they refuse to accept that life really is that simple.

But life really is that simple.

I have no problem seeing the world simplistically, since that’s how God created it. He made it so that even a child could understand it and make the right choices that would lead that child home.

If the world is a cesspool of violence, immorality and corruption, it’s because we’ve collectively earned it by our thoughts and actions. So-called social justice warriors would have you believe that unfair government policies and backward social norms are to blame for the world’s ills, but that’s like blaming a rotten tooth for the pain it’s causing you. Your tooth isn’t the cause of your pain; not taking proper care of your teeth and eating a sugar-rich diet is the cause of your pain. The rotten tooth (and the pain it’s causing) is the consequence of your careless choices.  Blaming the tooth for your pain is foolish and short-sighted: you are to blame for your pain: the pain is the consequence of your bad choices.

Metaphorically, racism, poverty, climate change, bad cops, guns in the wrong hands, etc., are painful rotten teeth that have collectively developed due to individual bad choices. No choice is a collective choice; all choices are individual choices even though consequences can come collectively. But here’s the thing – we might all, collectively, be suffering from a broken levee, but only those who’ve earned the pain a broken levee can cause will experience it negatively: those who haven’t earned it will, like Noah and Lot, get the heck out of Dodge before the waters burst through and the fire and brimstone begin to hail.

Heeding Jesus’ advice, I go out into the world every day, preaching the Good News and watching the world as much as I can bear before having to turn away. It ain’t pretty and it ain’t easy. Every day, I encounter more and more people who are clearly demon-ridden, who are constantly losing their temper, chronically depressed and suicidal, angry at everyone, side-tracked by the desire for money and possessions, addicted to prescription drugs, street drugs, alcohol, stimulants, etc. Meanwhile, the world’s leaders are little more than puppets to central bankers and international business cartels.

But aren’t I just blaming the victim here? Aren’t people victims of circumstance? Innocent victims? (What about babies?!!)

There was only one innocent victim in the whole history of humankind, and that was Jesus. Jesus was the only one who suffered consequences that he did not earn. The rest of us have earned everything we suffer. God, through his mercy, mitigates the suffering as much as he can, but it wouldn’t be justice if he let us off the hook completely.

Souls incarnate into the world already stained with original sin, which is the sin of rebellion against God. There are no innocent victims other than Jesus. As the world’s sins worsen, souls with deeper and deeper stains are incarnating because collectively we’ve earned them being here. Near the end, just before Jesus comes back to take the last of his stragglers home, humanity will collectively have earned the incarnation of Satan himself, and God help us all when that happens. I hope I’m not here to witness it, but that’s up to God. The length of my time here is God’s decision, not mine.

The day I was born again from atheism, I sat down and read the New Testament from cover to cover. I remember flinching when I read the verses in Revelation about God’s judgment on the world and the willingness of God’s angels to carry out the destruction. Today, 17 years later, after going out into the world and watching through God’s eyes, I no longer flinch. I understand how people have earned what’s coming to them. I don’t revel in or celebrate the destruction; I understand it and know it is the right thing to do.

God’s justice is perfect. God loves everyone the same, but letting some people escape consequences while letting others suffer them would not be justice. There is not one iota of pain experienced in this world that the sufferer of the pain has not in some way, at some point, brought on him or herself.

Far from being outraged by this, I am comforted.

The take-away? If you want to have a better life, make better choices in everything you do – not just in some things, in everything.

The state of your soul (and therefore your life) is precisely what you’ve made it. No-one has done anything to you that you haven’t first done to them or someone else, keeping in mind that we do not come into this world innocent. We arrive here already sin-stained.

No-one is innocent except Jesus.