The World vs. The Bible

For any human on planet Earth to have a chance to get to Heaven, choices have to be made. These choices include deciding on whether or not the things of this world are more important to us than the things of the next world are. Sometimes, loving the things of this world can make us hard and insensitive to others, because pride sets in, and our thought process then might morph into one of the following:

“What’s in it for me?”

“How can I get more of the world’s goods than my neighbor?”

“Being beautiful is what life is all about.”

“Being rich and successful is the goal of life.”

“Power and control over the ignorant masses is good for me, and good for them.”

Most of us know people that think like those just described above. We see them on TV and in the movies all of the time. We hear them on the radio. We can’t seem to get away from people who try to infect us all with their philosophy of “I’m great, and you can be too, just do this, buy this, or think this way.” There are even preachers on TV who actually claim that if you send them a lot of money, then God will make you wealthy as a result (this is nowhere to be found in the Bible). But are these pied pipers really telling us all we need to know how to be successful in life? Are these guys and gals who are rich in the things of this world people we should be listening to? Or should we be listening more to people like Mother Teresa and the Pope? And what does the Bible have to say about “the world?”

The World In The Devil’s Hands

Well, for starters, the Bible says in 1 John 5:19 that the whole world is in the power of the devil. In John 14:30, Jesus calls the devil the ruler of the world. The devil is why “the world” crucified Jesus 2,000 years ago, and why “the world” today hates the Catholic Church. With Satan in charge of the world, of course, the Church will be ostracized, because he Church stands in the way of the devil’s agenda to drag as many souls to ell as he can, through adultery, fornication, pride, greed, pornography, embryonic stem cell research, abortion, cloning, homosexuality, artificial birth control, physician assisted suicide, etc. And notice how “the world” has created an atmosphere wherby the aformentioned evils are now seen as great and wonderful things! Catholics should oppose all of these things as being intrinsically evil. “The world,” naturally, embraces all of these things as being part of “the Enlightenment,” an 18th-century philosophical movement that replaced faith in God with reason and science.

There is absolutely nothing intrinsically wrong with science and reason, of course, but if they take the place of Christ in our lives and become idols, then they effect evil purposes. How many atheists and secular humanists today embrace science as their false god? A LOT. The Bible says that even Satan can disguise himself as a being of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and the “enLIGHTenment” is certainly a wonderful disguise. The Freemasons even promise their converts that they will come out of the darkness into the light if they become a Freemason (Hint – Jesus is the light of the world, not Freemasonry–see John 9:5).

Worldliness in the Old Testament

The question that Catholics today have to ask themselves is: “Am I going to blend in nicely with the way of the world, or am I going to separate myself from the filth of the world by being an obedient Catholic for Jesus?”

Sadly, a lot of Catholics choose the former, rather than the latter, which is evidenced in most elections. An excessive amount of Catholics identify more with the wordly anti-Catholic tenets of political parties more than they do with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This mentality isn’t unheard of, of course, in the Bible. The nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, often blended in with their occupying force and its strange gods. In Egypt, for example, the Jews of that day totally embraced false Egyptian deities and really believed that a calf made out of gold was a god, and worshiped it accordingly, with fornication and lust. This brought the wrath of God down upon them, and eleven of the twelve tribes lost their priesthood as a result (the tribe of Levi did not). None of those calf-worshipers ever saw the Promised Land.

Today, nobody worships golden calves, but a lot of us do worship money, sex, porn, careers, amusements, hobbies, etc., because we think about those things all day long, and only give God an hour a week on Sundays, if that. (Just think: one hour a week out of 168 total hours is less than one percent of our time given back to God.) Jesus wants us thinking about Him all day, not just some of the time.

God called his own chosen people a harlot (being worldly and worshiping false gods), in Isaiah 1:21. The whore of Babylon (Babylon = Rome) was the great city where Jesus was crucified (Jerusalem), according to Revelation 11:8 and 17:18. As Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:2, the great city Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD by Babylon (Rome). Why? Because the chosen people in Jerusalem cozied up to the Romans to kill their own Messiah! What must God think about the great cities of the world today, where Catholics have numerous churches available, but rarely if ever attend daily Mass, and where Catholics freely choose to cozy up to anti-prolife and pro-homosexual marriage political parties?

Keep In Mind

Always remember the following:

1. The world says that unlimited sex is a great and wonderful thing. The Bible teaches that sex open to life in the context of marriage between a man and woman is God’s purpose for that gift, while celibacy is an even greater calling.
2. The world says that being rich is a great goal. The Bible says that it will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.
3. The world says that self-esteem and pride are great things. The Bible says that he who exalts himself shall be humbled, while he who humbles himself shall be exalted.
4. The world says to hate and destroy your enemies. The Bible says to love your enemies.
5. The world says that science and reason are the only things we can trust. The Bible says that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way.
6. The world says that constant amusement and entertainment are way to go. The Bible says that doing good works for others is the way to go.
7. The world says that the poor should just leave us alone and “get a job.” The Bible says that whatever we do for the poor, we do to JESUS.
8. The world says that all-you-eat-buffets are the way to go. The Bible says that we WILL fast after Jesus dies on the cross.
9. The world says that you are born homosexual, and therefore it’s OK to practice homosexuality. The Bible says that with Jesus Christ NOTHING is impossible to overcome.
10. The world says that physical beauty is very important. The Bible says that Jesus Christ left us two commandments: To love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Here are some great Scripture verses on “the world.” And always remember, the way of the world is the natural way of man, which leads to hell. The way of God is supernatural, which leads to heaven, so choose wisely!

Matthew 16:26: For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?

Isaiah 13:11: I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant, and lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless.

Wisdom 2:24: But through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.

2 Maccabees 7:23: Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.

Matthew 5:14-16: You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

John 3:16-17: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

John 6:33: For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.

John 8:12: Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 12:47: If any one hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

John 15:18-19: If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

1 Corinthians 1:20: Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world.

1 Corinthians 1:27-28: But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

Colossians 2:20: If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?

James 4:4: Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

1 Peter 5:9: Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.

1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever.

1 John 5:4-5: For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?