Fallen

None of us would be surprised to know that the Bible views this world as fallen.  All of us could compile a list of just how fallen the world is.  And we all have our "pet" list of what constitutes "fallen."  Here is the operative question though ... what does God think?  How does God define fallen?

In Revelation 17and 18 God does just that.  The idea of fallenness is defined by the nature of "The Mother of All Prostitutes" and "The Great City of Babylon."  There are themes within God's definition of why they are fallen and evil, but the primary theme is one of excess.  Excess indulgence of our desire for pleasure.  Excess expenditures on things that are luxuries.  Excess accumulation of the "fine" goods of our day.

C. S. Lewis said once that all evil could be expressed as our misuse of something good God has provided.  God gives us the blessing of our sexuality and we fail to see it as a blessing, instead seeing it as something we can "use" to get pleasure and misuse in ways God never intended.  God gives us medicine and we overuse and over-prescribe it, bringing more pain instead of healing.  We use alcohol as an anesthetic that takes on a life of its own, creating addiction and pain in lives and families.  God provides abundance and we view it as something that is "ours" and something we must have more of.  God gives us recreation and it becomes an industry which drives us to more and more recreation.  God gives us church and we make it ours instead of God's.  God gives us children and we begin to worship them rather than be good stewards of these wonderful little creatures we love.  You get the point?

I believe C. S. Lewis was spot-on with his statement about how we misuse good things.  What do you think?  Randy