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Our Violent World
ANOTHER CONDITION that Jesus said would be prevalent immediately prior to His return would be unrestrained violence: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the [second] coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:37, NIV).
.. Our Violent World ANOTHER CONDITION that Jesus said would be prevalent immediately prior to His return would be unrestrained violence: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the [second] coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:37, NIV). |
How were things in "the days of Noah?" The Book of Genesis tells us "the earth was corrupt before God, and was filled with violence" (Genesis 6:11). We are all painfully aware that today’s headlines are full of tragic stories of senseless violence.
In the U.S. alone, the statistics for violent crime are staggering. According to the FBI, on average a person is murdered every 22 minutes; someone is raped every four minutes, a robbery is committed every 26 seconds.[26]
Citing a commission of crime experts, Reuters reports that U.S. crime levels are even higher:
The Council on Crime in America said in its first report that [crime levels] "remain at historic highs."
"America is a ticking violent crime bomb, and there is little time remaining to prepare for the blast," said the report, which noted the rise in youthful violence.
They said official FBI statistics on crime were only the tips of the iceberg. The report said the crime rate — based on surveys of victims and not just crimes reported to the police — show violent crime — including murder, rape, assault and burglary — was 5.6 times higher than those reported.[27]
The Washington Post adds:
Murders and suicides [in the U.S.] are now occurring at a rate of more than 145 a day, a rate that is rising. In the past 30 years alone, the total exceeds 1,200,000 people, more than all the men killed in all the wars in the history of the United States. And many of these recent victims are not men and women; they are children.[28]
Jack Levin, a sociology professor at Northeastern University in Boston, warns that the current increase in homicides by juveniles as young as 14 and 15 is a precursor of worse things to come:
"They are in the leading edge of the mini-baby boom of children of the original post-World War II baby boomers, and they haven’t yet reached the 18- to 24-year-old age group that traditionally commits the overwhelming majority of murders.
"They aren’t even there yet, but they’re committing homicide," Levin said. "What are they going to do for an encore?"[29]
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