There’s a reason why banks have locks on their doors.
If you’ve been following the news lately you probably heard about the story of the Panama Papers. Recently, 11.5 million pages of confidential financial documents were leaked from an anonymous source at a Panamanian law firm, revealing a mind-boggling picture of corruption implicating current and former world leaders, and their friends and family. The ripples of this story will probably spread out for months to come as names and specific details are brought to light. What fascinates me about this story is how it is a powerful illustration of the corrupt nature of man. How someone can still believe that “deep down man is basically good” in spite of the volumes of examples to the contrary is hard for me to understand. Yet, this is what we are continually told by our ever increasing secular culture today. The bad behavior we see is either an anomaly, the exception to the general rule, or the result of some environmental factors—usually education and poverty—that overwhelmed the individual’s better conscience. King David so vividly described the true nature of man when he penned these words, “The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:2-3, ESV)
The ironic thing that we see at work in our world today, is that while the world tries to deny this biblical truth, it cannot deny its manifestations. Bad things happen, but the secular mind is unable to accurately explain why. Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, has a daily podcast called The Briefing. In this twenty-minute daily program, Dr. Mohler brilliantly identifies the underlying worldviews that are at play in some of the top headlines from around the world. I have found it an engaging, and helpful way to look at the news. I highly recommend checking out The Briefing. You can find it at albertmohler.com or you can do like I do, and listen to it on your phone with the free Albert Mohler app.
–Pastor Dave