Should you wish to live then? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Ecclesiastes 7:10 reads:
Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
No generation is perfect. Every culture has its vices. Every culture has its virtues. It’s easy to look at some things that people did in the past and consider them ridiculous. Sometimes, some people look at them as worse. How many feminists think the 50’s were a time of great oppression for women?
Do I wish we had more of the morality today that we had back then? Yes, but we also have many things today that we didn’t have at all back then. I live in New Orleans and my parents are in Knoxville, Tennessee, but every day I can get on a device on the arm of my couch and communicate with them so that we can see each other.
I suspect many of us enjoy other advances in medicine and other areas. We have cures for diseases that killed millions in the past. Centuries ago, the Bubonic Plague was a death sentence. Today, it’s easily treatable. Hopefully, someday in the near future a doctor will tell a patient he has cancer only to hear, “Whew! For awhile I was afraid it would be something serious!”
Our means for studying Scripture and other forms of literature are far better. Imagine how much the ancients would have loved to have done a quick search of all ancient literature to see when one word showed up. Imagine what it would have been like to be easily able to see how many times the word “love” shows up in the Bible. We can do all of that.
We have far better ministry options to us now. We can print and publish more than ever. We can go on YouTube and make videos to share the gospel with people all over the world. It’s a wonder to think what the apostle Paul would have done with all that we have.
Our entertainment options are far better. I remember watching reruns of the Adam West Batman series with my Dad and thinking how amusing it is to see it announced “In color.” The video game industry has far better stories and immersion than before. With YouTube now also, you can go and watch clips of anything you enjoy easily and listen to music as well.Thanks to streaming, I can watch old TV shows and movies that I never got to see and I don’t have to please be kind and rewind.
Do we have a lot of problems? Definitely! We have abortion, marriage re-defined, pornography being everywhere, concerns about AI, everything.
However, Acts 17 tells us God appointed the times and places each of us should live. Why are you here? Because this is the time and place you were appointed to be. Is there something good from the past you wish we still had? Work to bring it back. Is there a problem you see today? Work to make it better.
Don’t yearn to live in the past, though. It’s impossible and a wasted effort. Do what you can today.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
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