Understanding Our Descent Into the Abyss
From cities burning to angry protestors storming the U.S. Capitol, it’s clear that something is deeply amiss...
There’s no shortage of opinions about what unfolded this past week — the horrific acts that marred America’s image across the globe and shed light on a tragic reality: an increasingly lost people are leading our nation into the abyss.
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From cities burning to angry protestors storming the U.S. Capitol, it’s clear that something is deeply amiss. It’s really easy to come up with a plethora of possible theories about what’s unfolding in America and why we’re at such a confusing crossroads (and most will do so through a partisan lens).
But no matter where you stand, the slow-drip of chaos has undoubtedly been leaking for quite some time…and this week it was as though someone abruptly turned on the faucet full-throttle.
Don’t get me wrong: political chaos has always existed, but in recent years it has become more intense and bizarre. There have been somewhat benign but strange moments — like when Republican Rep. Joe Wilson yelled, “You Lie!” during former President Barack Obama’s 2009 State of the Union (an uncommon occurrence to say the least).
Election denial began in 2016 and continued on from Hillary Clinton, the major party candidate who lost. Clinton called Trump an “illegitimate president” and encouraged Joe Biden not to concede if the results of 2020 ended up being close, among other troubling comments.
There was also the tragic 2017 congressional baseball shooting that targeted Republican officials, leaving two people gravely injured. And we cannot forget Trump’s shocking insults during the 2016 Republican primaries — and his dabbling in the conspiracy theory pool (from Joe Scarborough to Ted Cruz’s dad and many others).
We also had Rep. Maxine Waters telling people to “publicly confront and harass members of the Trump administration” in 2018:
“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents.”
I could go on and on. The most tragic recent occurrence: Trump’s strange insistence that he actually won the election. And now the climax of all of this political horror — the U.S. Capitol invasion — should leave us absolutely horrified and beside ourselves.
It is beyond anything imaginable in modern times and it shows, with tragic accuracy, just how far we have fallen. These events just keep happening and the angst and anger keeps building.
Why? Why? Why? That’s the question.
And there are many possible answers, but at the basis of our national chaos is a definitive reality we must confront: God designed each of us to connect with Him, and when we reject or ignore that hard-wiring (or misplace it), we desperately seek a “god” (or “gods”) in something else.
For many, this manifests itself in a misplacement or replacement of God (job, family, politics, an issue they are passionate about, etc.), but for others…it can lead to evil actions fueled tragic confusion — all rooted in the quest to fill that void.
Right now, culture is embedding a lie in all of our minds: that there’s no need for God. We are all that matter. We get to decide our morality. The problem? There are gaping holes in so many of us now, and rage culture, social media and confusion seem to be filling those vacancies for far too many of us.
Ironically, I covered this very topic in my new book, “Playing With Fire: A Modern Investigation Into Demons, Exorcism and Ghosts.”
Here’s a snippet of a section that describes why people seem so interested in movies about evil despite culture’s move away from God (stay with me, you’ll see the connection):
Not all horror films are about the demonic, of course, but it’s clear there’s an increase in the thirst for films about evil, even while our cultural attachment to Christianity is waning. Bible scholar Dr. Michael Heiser believes there’s a deeper reason why this dynamic is unfolding—and it all has to do with the inner cravings of the human soul.
“Whether our militant atheist friends, or the village atheist, wants to admit it, most people—even in the West, even in the cultured post-enlightenment technological society West—most people find a materialistic, ‘the only thing that’s real is what my five senses can detect’ worldview, completely unsatisfying,” he said.
People, Heiser believes, are looking for something “bigger” than themselves—an explanation that answers the deeper questions about the “rationale for life” and human meaning. The condensed argument? Even when a society abandons or ignores transcendent truths, people are still thirsting for them.
“Theologically, I think we’re hardwired to hunger for something transcendent, a reality outside of ourselves. The pop phrase, I guess, is the ‘God-shaped void in all of us,’” Heiser said. “But I think we are hardwired for that, and so people are going to try to fill that with something, and they find the dominant Western worldview really lacking.”
And that’s really the problem. People are hungering for something outside of themselves, and many are finding it in politics and politicians (a bizarre worship of sorts of a person, a movement, a party — or the government itself).
Mix that with a deep deficiency on both sides of the aisle and an unwillingness to respect people with different views, and you have a recipe for disaster. People are seeking something — or someone — to protect them, to guide them and to help them, whether this is a rational or moral quest isn’t the issue; these quests are a reality.
And yet these sojourners are ignoring the Almighty in exchange for deficient replacements that can never fully satisfy. Don’t believe me?
Graph out our move away from God and you’ll see nearly every other dire issue worsening along the same trajectory.
Pain is at an all-time high for many, with suicide rates raging and with addiction and overdose deaths plaguing us. I’ve already addressed our assault on truth and the rise of relativism that have resulted in our cultural decision to abandon a need for God.
Yet the quest God wants us on is detailed with stunning beauty in John 3:16-20 (NIV). Here’s what Jesus tells us:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Rather than letting God guide us and placing our faith in Him, we’re looking everywhere else. Putting Jesus at the center changes everything. If only our culture would reinforce that, individual lives would change and culture would improve:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” - Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV)
While there is much to lament, let’s cling to hope and let’s shift our focus from faux gods to the true living God — and let’s help as many people discover Him as possible. Begin your journey.