THE SECOND OF TWO THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND THIS YEAR

Wise people will stay aware this year, that just as there are good people and things in this world, there are also a lot of really bad people in it. Spiritually speaking, “The whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19). This “world,” the world we as Christians are “in” but not “of,” (John 17:16-26) refers to a people and a place that is anti-Christ in nature; to sinners in, of and behind a world system whose fads, fashions, aspirations and ambitions are inspired and driven by Satan, the “god of this world” (Matt. 7:15-20; 2 Cor. 4:4).

THERE ARE A LOT OF BAD PEOPLE in this world to watch out for in 2025. These fall basically into two categories. First, there are the unsaved wicked who range from the Christ-rejecting soccer moms to the Christ-rejecting serial killers of this world. Secondly, there are those who have been saved, but who are “unfaithful, unprofitable servants” who prefer friendship with this fallen world system over friendship to the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 25:18-36; James 4:4). See also, 1 Cor. 2:15

Understand this: Satan, unlike God is not omnipresent. To implement his evil will anywhere in the world he uses legions of demonic spirits to use two types of people: (1) the unregenerate whose natures are cursed from their conception, who are under satanic dominion, and who are capable of committing any wickedness Ps. 51:5; 1 John 5:18, 3:10; John 8:44), and (2) the unsanctified among believers who have aligned themselves (however unconsciously) with the fallen world system and have become the devil’s dupes and “useful idiots” (1 Thess. 4:3; 1 John 2:15-17; Rom. 6:16).

THERE ARE ALSO A LOT OF BAD THINGS in this world—not because God has inflicted them on the world, but because they were invited into the world through the willful disobedience of pre-warned humanity (Rom. 5:12). It’s therefore, a big mistake to attribute the bad things that exist and go on in this world to the “God,” who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

It constitutes a bad thing when any of the Ten Commandments are broken, as they have been, and are being broken, in so many ways. Disease and death, crime and corruption and almost all wars are bad things. The list could go on and on. But the worst thing in the world is unbelief in Jesus Christ as Savior, because, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

In these last days, the tendency of people, as never before, is to call ”evil good, and good evil” (Isa. 5:20); to “put no difference between the holy and profane” or “the unclean and the clean” (Ezek. 22:26). But Christians, in these last days, must stand up and speak against the bad things of this world, and “overcome evil with good” (Rom.12:21);

 in the meantime, during these days when people “wax worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3:13) we mustn’t forget God’s promise that in these darkest of days, goodness will shine forth as never before: “The people that do know their God shall be strong