As the new year begins, I’m all for optimism—and always have been. When Scott McKenzie recorded John Phillips’ (of the Mamas and the Papas) song about wearing flowers in your hair when going to San Francisco, I was all for it. There was going to be peace and love in San Francisco with gentle people wearing flowers in their hair. What could be better? But I was newly married, had a job, and was trying to graduate from college. So I didn’t make it, but the idealism was attractive.
All across the nation,
such a strange vibration.
People in motion.
There’s a whole generation
with a new explanation.
People in motion, people in motion.
Unfortunately, the ideal seldom lives up to the expectations people have in it. Not only was there not much of a “new” explanation—the explanation that was offered was shallow and ineffective. Just a few months later, the Bee Gees released a response to “San Francisco” which was titled, “Massachusetts.” The lyrics include the following:
Feel I’m goin’ back to Massachusetts,
Something’s telling me I must go home.
And the lights all went out in Massachusetts
The day I left her standing on her own.
Tried to hitch a ride to San Francisco,
Gotta do the things I wanna do.
And the lights all went out in Massachusetts
They brought me back to see my way with you.
Talk about the life in Massachusetts,
Speak about the people I have seen,
And the lights all went out in Massachusetts
And Massachusetts is one place I have seen.
The lights going out referred to the fact that everyone was leaving for San Francisco and the idealism it represented, but it was time to return to reality. [Incidentally, this song was their first number one hit in Australia and the United Kingdom (although only hitting number 11 in America). According to Wikipedia, it became one of the best-selling singles of all time, selling more than 5 million copies worldwide (it was also number one in Canada, Japan, and South Africa).]
That same year (1967) the Youngbloods released “Get Together,” but it rose no higher than #67 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Two years later, it was re-released and managed to get in the Top Five. The opening verse gains one’s attention.
Love is but a song we sing;
fear’s the way we die.
You can make the mountains ring,
or make the angels cry.
Though the bird is on the wing,
and you may not know why.
Come on people now;
smile on your brother;
Everybody get together
and try to love one another right now.
Now there’s a Biblical concept in a popular song. Jesus called it the second greatest commandment. Part of the second verse is also remarkable. It refers to the time “when the one that left us here returns for us at last,” and adds, “We are but a moment’s sunlight fading in the grass,” which is reminiscent of 1 Peter 1:24-25 and James 4:1. Once again, the optimism is appealing, and if everyone would just follow the advice of the song, the world would be a marvelous place. The reality is, however, that many are not interested in love, peace, or unity—as valuable as they are.
The movie, Good Morning, Viet Nam (released in January, 1988), starring Robin Williams, revitalized the song, “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong, which was originally released in 1967. It never made it to the Hot 100, but in the United Kingdom it reached the top of the pop chart. When the movie came out, the song this time went up the Billboard chart to # 32. Written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, it’s a simple song containing a simple truth.
I see trees of green, red roses, too.
I see them bloom, for me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue, and clouds of white,
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world.
The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky,
Are also on the faces of people going by.
I see friends shaking hands, sayin’, “How do you do?”
They’re really sayin’, “I love you.”
I hear babies cryin’. I watch them grow.
They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know,
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.
Yes, I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.
However, in the movie they played the song while showing evidence of the war. One might see, intermingled with scenes of happiness children experiencing fear or bombs being dropped. The viewer might be surprised and even offended by this juxtaposition, but what is being mixed together is optimism and reality.
The kind of world good-hearted people want is the one described in the song—peace and good will towards others. Too often the world we get is the one at war. It may be that from “a distance you look like my friend”; the problem is that we see too many close-ups. There are at least three worlds. There is the world the way that God wants it to be when He created it perfectly. Second is the world the way most people would like it to be. Third is the world the way some have made it to be.
Countries must have a strong military because a few are never willing to live and let live. Some always have the, “We will conquer you,” mentality—as expressed by Nikita Khrushchev when he said, “We will bury you.” We were doing our best to stay out of World War II when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Did we invent Adolph Hitler? Some choose to be aggressors no matter how they are treated.
Therefore, it was disconcerting to hear a man call in a talk show recently and try to encourage, in effect, being “nicer” to various nations. He vainly thought if we would just treat the Taliban in a friendlier manner, the two cultures would get along better, and the world would be a better place. Mark Stein, the guest host, told him (accurately) that if his philosophy were implemented, the world would be strewn with corpses!
The man apparently could not distinguish idealism from realism. A significant portion of the Muslim world absolutely hates and despises America; it does not matter how friendly anyone is—nor how kind. They have turned their backs on Jesus’ message of love toward others, and they only desire to kill Christians whenever they get the chance. America was nothing but kind and hospitable to the two brothers who, apparently, without any qualms whatsoever, bombed the Boston Marathon. Satan has so perverted and twisted the thinking of some that you could do them a great service on one day, and they would still kill you the next. They are not unlike what Al Wilson sang about in “The Snake.” A woman finds a snake gravely injured and nurses him back to health. When he needed saving, his plea was:
“Take me in, oh, tender woman;
Take me in, for heaven’s sake;
Take me in, oh, tender woman, ” sighed the snake.
When the snake recovered sufficiently, “instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite.” The conversation after that went thus:
“I saved you,” cried that woman,
“And you’ve bit me even, why?
You know your bite is poisonous,
and now I’m going to die”
“Oh shut up, silly woman.”
said the reptile with a grin,
“You knew [full] well I was a snake
before you took me in.”
[The original word in the song I replaced by the one in brackets—GWS.] The point of the song is that you should not be surprised that a snake acts consistently with his character. When people are taught from kindergarten up to hate, period (no matter the object of their hatred), we can scarcely be surprised if they become terrorists.
Prior to the Flood, the world, which God had created, had mostly forgotten Him. The result was that “the earth was filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11). Likewise, the true and living God is not part of Islam; therefore, many of them choose to perform acts of violence in the name of the false god Allah. No amount of love will stop such extremists—any more than it will White Supremacists (and some still exist) who are taught to hate anyone different from themselves. One is currently serving a 40-year prison term for hiring someone to kill a judge.
So why did God destroy the world with a Flood? The answer seems to be that there was no hope of reformation. Is such a condition possible? 1 Timothy 4:2 speaks of those who speak lies in hypocrisy, which is also difficult for most of us to understand. How could they do that? The answer is that they have “their own conscience seared with a hot iron.” Can not the same thing be done with respect to terrorism? How can any sane, sentient being explode a bomb to kill or maim healthy individuals who are innocent of any wrongdoing? A person must sear his conscience, or he would not be able to do it. It is one thing for the guilty to be judged and made to pay for their crimes, but why kill the blameless?
“But if we just tried to understand them….” If you could understand insanity, what would that make you? “If only they were shown love….” Did God not love those who lived before the Flood? Did Noah not preach for a hundred years? Some people are just immovable and implacable, no matter what. Did Jezebel ever change? People like her do not just wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll be nice now instead of a wicked witch.”
Mystery writer Agatha Christie believed in what many choose not to—evil. At least she agreed with the Scriptures on that point; the naive do not. Many reason, “Because I would not harm others without cause, nobody else would, either.” That’s one of our problems. We do not understand that terrorists do not think the way we do. They have no respect for the lives of non-Muslims; in fact, they don’t have much respect for the lives of other Muslims, either. They kill each other when they think the situation calls for it. The fact that they do not value even their own lives—thus volunteering to be suicide bombers, etc.—shows how deeply-seated their hatred is. Life has no value for them, period. How can one kill his own daughter and term it an “honor killing” unless he has become perverted by his religion?
God knows that evil exists; for that reason He will exclude it from heaven. One thing that evil does is grow and multiply, as it did both before and after the Flood (Rom. 1:21-32). If mankind has learned one thing, it is that wickedness proliferates, given a foothold anywhere. In heaven, not even a smidgeon will be in evidence. Those who love and practice evil shall be destroyed in eternal fire. At that point, all who have been invited to enter in can rightly be optimists.
Does that mean that no one can change here on earth? No. Just because some never will does not mean that no one ever will. Anyone who is a Christian has changed from what he once was. We have all chosen to sin (Rom. 3:23). God, however, gave us an opportunity to reverse our initial decision and live righteously instead.
In the history outlined in the Bible we see examples of entire civilizations who refused to repent. After the Flood, the citizens of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim became wicked, thoroughly saturated by the grievous sin of homosexuality (Gen. 18:20; 19:4-5). They were destroyed. God gave the Canaanites 400 years to repent, but they chose to continue in their iniquitites and were destroyed by Joshua and the Israelites after Jehovah taught a lesson to Pharaoh on obedience.
Furthermore, all the world kingdoms—Babylon, Me-do-Persia, Greece, and Rome—that were so mighty and thought to be invincible were destroyed. Why? God has more power than the devil. He allows Satan’s kingdoms to stand for a time but destroys them when they refuse to repent. Most nations become lifted up with pride, depending on their own greatness, but a nation filled with rottenness and corruption is headed for a fall (Pr. 14:34; 16:18).
On the other hand, there was the remarkable repentance of the Assyrians who believed the message of Jonah. Christianity also changed the world for the better, but Rome did not repent of its sins—just of persecuting Christianity. Though the empire did not change its ways, many of those in it did, for the gospel was preached into the entire world (Col. 1:6, 23). In the beginning, the number of Christians grew and multiplied, and thousands are yet being converted, but few nations have become righteous, and if they have, it has not been for a long period of time.
If the history of the world is any indication, whole nations are probably not going to be converted. The best opportunity we have is still with individuals, bringing them to Christ one by one. Early Christians were often persecuted and put to death for their convictions, but it did not stop or even hinder much the growth of the church. As Tertullian observed, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” (Apologeticus, chapter 50). Since heavy-handed treatment of Christians could not prevail, it was eventually abandoned—then, by and large, embraced.
Individual Christians do not know how many or precisely whose hearts will accept the truth. We must think evangelistically toward all. Persecution did not eradicate Christianity, but a failure on our part to act will. Materialism—a pursuit of things rather than righteousness will cause churches to decline. An idolization of “stars” who possess no morality will not aid us. Jesus was the only truly righteous man who ever lived; both the world and God’s own people crucified Him. He alone is worthy to be a genuine hero to all mankind.
Do we wish this was a perfect world where love prevailed? Optimistically, yes. But realistically, it never will be. So, though we desire peace, we arm ourselves for war. Are we, then, pessimistic? No, the world we desire will exist—but not on this planet, which shall be burned up. We look for the righteous world to come (2 Peter 3).
Why doesn’t Jesus tell any who is in heaven speaking with Him that denominationalism is sinful and that He only established one church (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 1:22-23)? Why don’t people return from the dead with an evangelistic fervor and an emphasis upon truth? Why is there no passion to spread the Gospel when Jesus taught the urgency of such before He ascended into Heaven (Matt. 28:18-20)? These are things worthy of thinking about when evaluating what sincere people are telling us. When studying with someone who has had such an experience, these are appropriate things to have them contemplate.