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No one likes getting sick. I don’t get ill often but enough to cause me to be sympathetic with those who do. I would think this sympathy is universal. Like you, I do not rejoice in the illnesses of others. Thus, you and I will find what follows a sad and concerning statistic. Every day, one million people in the world contract a sexual infection, and over one billion people currently have one or more. There are almost eight billion people on the earth, so that is over twelve percent of the world’s population. This is not good news. This tells us something about suffering caused by sin and about the sexual degradation of the peoples of the earth.
The Lord must respond to the increase of catastrophic sinfulness of those whom He has created. This passage is frighteningly stark:
“And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 6–7).1
This is equally as stark:
“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).
In spite of the statistics concerning sexually transmitted diseases, it’s interesting, isn’t it, that for decades, Hollywood has encouraged sexual activity while never dealing with its consequences. If it’s not graphic, it’s implied, over and over again. Sinful? You’re kidding, right? You’re a prude if you’re a virgin, and something is wrong with you. Syphilis? Chlamydia? Who cares?
Having said that, I can’t help but wonder what the Lord God Almighty is up to at the present time. Recently, we have heard about the discovery of the viral disease Monkeypox. This is one of its ugly symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control:
“A rash that may be located on or near the genitals (penis, testicles, labia, and vagina) or anus (butthole) but could also be on other areas like the hands, feet, chest, face, or mouth.” 2
It is one ugly virus. I find it interesting that this virus has appeared now that AIDS is in decline, although around 680,000 people died of that viral infection last year.
I can’t state with any authority that these sexually related viruses are part of God’s wrath being poured out to punish the sexual sins of mankind. However, they may be not-so-subtle warnings to unbelievers that what they are involved in is so odious that the sicknesses they suffer are only a hint of how detestable they are in God’s sight. Regardless, since the Lord is sovereign over all things, He is allowing them to inflict people or even causing them.
Now, let me immediately make it known that you, I, and everyone reading this article are fallen creatures. We may not be partaking of the sins about which Jude and John wrote, but we are sinners, as much deserving of the wrath of God as anyone else. The difference, of course, is that we have been and will be saved from that wrath because we have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:9–10).
Monkeypox. Who cares? God cares. If you are in need of deliverance from the result of these sins, cleansing and forgiveness are just a prayer away. Beseech the one who loves you, Jesus, to save you and set you free.
1All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (2011). Zondervan.
2https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/symptoms.html
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