Violent, decadent and downright stupid behavior is becoming more and more prevalent in the United States, especially among young people. Hardly a day goes by without news of yet another death by "binge drinking" or a violent crime perpetrated by teenagers who, instead of being ashamed of their sick and heinous deeds, are proudly posting their home-made videos on You Tube. The most recent topics on television have included:

• The beating of a 16 year old Florida girl who was punched and kicked and had her head slammed into a wall hard enough to cause a concussion, a black eye and loss of hearing in her ear.
  
  
• The beating of a teacher by a teenaged student.
  
  
• People "going postal" - committing random acts of murder in malls, high schools, college campuses, fast-food restaurants, or their places of employment. No place is safe anymore.
  
  
• Teenagers murdering their parents.
  
  
• Binge drinking by young people. (Google "binge drinking" and see how many sickening videos of puking kids you can find....) It's the latest fad for kids who turn 21 to go to a bar and drink 21 shots of pure alcohol in under an hour in order to celebrate their birthdays. Many of them have died....

Among the latest trends that fall into the "stupid and decadent" category is that cosmetics companies have targeted girls as young as five years old to wear make-up and sexy shoes and clothing. Lipstick, nail polish, eye-liner, mascara, blusher and even false eyelashes - they're all sold in expensive kits that mothers are actually purchasing for their little girls who want to be just like their sexy, gyrating teenage idol, Hannah Montana! Is it any wonder that many pre-teens and young adolescents are sexually active? One news program reported that statistics show today's children no longer have aspirations of becoming doctors or lawyers or to participate in any "real jobs," but rather, they want to be singers, movie stars or sports celebrities. Many kids today don't even bother graduating from high school - as a matter of fact, the United States is experiencing high school dropout epidemic.

The above are but a few examples, and the question is: What is the cause of these disturbing and nauseating trends? While psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and other "experts" are sitting around shaking their heads and analyzing these situations from their respective "learned" viewpoints (with most of them blaming the parents, the schools, the teachers, the system - anybody but the kids themselves), the answer cannot be found in human logic. However, the Bible warns us that these things would happen in the "end times!"

Matthew 24: 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

In the days of Noah, man was so evil, decadent and ungodly, that YHWH (Yahweh) decided to wipe man off the face of the Earth. Thanks to one single righteous and obedient man and his family upon whom God showed mercy, mankind was spared complete annihilation and the Earth was eventually re-populated.

Genesis 6: 5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth — men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air — for I am grieved that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Genesis 6: 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

The days of Lot, beginning in Genesis 19 (many years after the Flood when the Earth had been repopulated) weren't much different. YHWH had given man a brand new start, and what did man do? Same ol' thing, except now we learn that blatant homosexuality had entered the equation, to boot....

Man has been killing, stealing, raping, lying, hating, cheating, making idols for himself (and more recently, hijacking and ramming airplanes into skyscrapers and killing thousands of innocents in order to make a "statement") and generally exhibiting willful disobedience against YHWH since the day Adam and Eve ignored His Torah command to stay away from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:17). Atheists scoff at that idea, but I challenge them to explain why it is that the world grows ever more decadent and unstable by the day! I challenge them to do a comparison study on various crimes, just since God was removed from the schools in 1962! They will, hands down, discover that violent crimes of ALL kinds have been steadily rising.

In today's "modern" world, the things that God considers "bad" are considered "good" by society society-at-large. Case in point, homosexuality. Homosexuals used to do their best to hide their perversions because they knew that society as a whole disapproved of the things "gays" did in secret. God Himself condemns homosexual acts: Leviticus 18:23 "You are not to go to bed with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination." Why? Well, first of all, He created man and woman in order to procreate the human race.

Secondly, same-sex couples have to be VERY creative in order to have sex with each other. I mean, let's be frank here: There is nothing normal about dipping your private parts into a place that is designed to excrete bacteria-infested human feces! YHWH was VERY specific in His commands about bodily cleanliness, which can be found throughout the Torah, and especially in places like Leviticus 5:3 where YHWH Himself says: "If he touches some human uncleanness, no matter what the source of his uncleanness is, and is unaware of it, then, when he learns of it, he is guilty." During Temple times, all who were "guilty" of any kind of uncleanness were required to wash themselves, spend a certain amount of time "outside the camp" until the threat of disease was gone, and then bring a "guilt offering" - an animal of some kind. YHWH had His reasons for cleanliness rules - and believe it or not, they still apply today!

Yet, in our Torah-less world, most have decided there is no God and we can do whatever we please. It's all about "me" and never mind the consequences! Even most Christians have become so lethargic about God that they've chosen to turn a blind eye to all kinds of sin. "Tolerance" has become the norm. "Political correctness" is in. So is stupidity. "Jesus abolished the Law at the cross! Heck, we're no longer bound by those ol' rules!"

Really? Perhaps that is why to this very day we see violence, decadence, corruption, and a worldwide anti-YHWH, anti-Torah movement like in the days of Noah! No wonder our children are exhibiting stupid and violent behavior!

Webmaster, The Refiner's Fire