Pro 30:11-14KJV 11 "There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. 12 There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. 13 There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. 14 There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men."
These are characteristics that mark an evil generation. Do they sound familiar? These characteristics are indeed hallmarks of our own generation, this is what the church is up against in our modern society. In contrast to this evil generation highlighted in Proverbs 30, we see also this in the scriptures, there are more noble generations that embody the qualities of those that seek him:
Psa 24:4-6KJV 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
Our target should be to be the inspiration of our generation, be it good one or be it evil. To live a life that inspires and find those God is drawing and pull them out. There will be, even in an evil generation, those who are oppressed of the devil and while sinking in the mire they cry out, "will not someone save me?"
The Savior would say to them (through our example): Mat 11:28-30 KJV 28 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." These will be washed by the blood of the Lamb and cleansed from their filthiness.
Jesus speaking to a group in his days said, "how shall I liken this generation?" Mat 11:16-17KJV 16 "But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, 17 And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented."
He further identified His own generation, this way: Luk 11:29KJV "And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet."
Every generation has, in the eyes of God, a distinct marker. Being in the Last Days, we are told something very specific about the last days generation in II Thessalonians 2, it will be a time of anti-Christ and unprecedented deception because people will not be lovers of truth. So, when considering all of the axioms, all of the principles and all of the core foundational ideals that are embraced by this generation, rather than altering our own views to get along, we ought to look at these with a dubious eye and stand against them.
And so the modern generation is one that the enemy seeks to entirely corrupt through his words through his arguments. This generation is going to be the generation that persecutes the church like never before. We know that in the last days the Antichrist makes an outright assault against the church and it is safe to assume that he is not doing this single-handedly but rather by a society that have sold out to him. Therefore, we should be holding to the teachings and the precepts that have been handed down to us by generations that have worked and have led many people on the paths of holiness morality and pleasing to God.
I confess, I am a bit old-fashioned. I'm not among those who believe that the gospel message has to be changed for the generations. I believe that everybody comes through the same door. It is through the confession that they are wrong, they are sinners and they're only hope at all is humbling themselves and coming to Jesus Christ broken and asking for forgiveness. I believe that Christ inspired men and women today by those who remain true to the faith and tenants of Christianity handed down through the generations. Perhaps the tools that we use may be modern but the message is not, it does not have to be nipped and tucked and altered to make it palatable for the identity of any people group. As one godly pastor in Cork, Ireland said, "The cross is a bloody place and the blood was shed because of our sin. Don't apologize for it."
Jesus Christ has already humbled himself to the death on the cross if that's not good enough for any particular generation or group of people then they judge themselves unworthy of the message. Joh 12:32 KJV "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
I want to end this essay on our lives being an inspiration to some in our generation, moving people in the right way by an event that happened. Decades ago, in our own church. In the 80s our local assembly was in the midst of full scale rebellion that led to a church split. Of course, at the time we did not know it was going to end in a split but that's where it ended.
In this setting, there was an evil gathering of the brethren who had an evil purpose. One young man in the midst of them had no idea what was going on but found himself in this gathering of false brethren. It was an evil meeting whose intent was to over throw the church pastor.
As the young man listened one by one, the whole group seemed in agreement that they were doing the right thing by attacking and over throwing the pastor. As this young man listened, his heart began to race and he began to perspire and he could not believe what he was hearing, it was evil. When finally he had heard enough, he stood to his feet, pointed at everyone and said, whatever you are doing here count me out!
When he stood up and unceremoniously left the group, closing the door behind him, two other young men stood up and said, we do not want any part of this either and they followed him out. It took the boldness one one young man to inspire others to flee the environment of evil.
What influence do we want to have on our generation? Do we want to fit in or do we want to stand out and inspire others to follow the good path? As a follow up to that story, of these three young men each ended up in the ministry and are still in the ministry today. This is what we want to be in our generation, one who stands against it and inspires others to stand against it as well. Not to accommodate, not to compromise but to simply say no, I will not. We have a chance to inspire a generation, our generation!
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