SocietyWatch
American drug overdoses hit record high
A new class of synthetic drugs is killing Americans in record numbers. According to preliminary data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released on July 14, a record 93,331 people died from drug overdoses last year. That is a 29.4 percent increase from the year before, when 72,151 people died. Public health officials believe that the social isolation, trauma, and job losses caused by COVID-19 lockdowns contributed to this startling increase in overdose deaths by driving people to drugs as a form of escapism. Yet this record surge in overdose deaths is primarily due to the proliferation of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin.
Widespread approval of drug use in America is a sign of a terminal spiritual sickness the Bible calls pharmakeia. It is listed as a “work of the flesh” in Galatians 5:19-20. The King James translation renders this word as “witchcraft,” but a more exact rendering is “use of drugs.” Millions of Americans use marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and other drugs for moments of hallucinatory euphoria in a vain attempt to fill a spiritual void.
Scientific American claims Genesis is racist
The Scientific American now claims it is racist to believe in Adam and Eve. On July 5, the popular science magazine published “Denial of Evolution Is a Form of White Supremacy,” The editorial by Allison Hopper argues that evolution cannot be doubted on scientific grounds, therefore creationists reject evolution because they are racists.
“I want to unmask the lie that evolution denial is about religion and recognize that at its core, it is a form of white supremacy that perpetuates segregation and violence against black bodies,” she wrote. “In literal interpretations of the Christian Bible, white skin was created in God’s image. Dark skin has a different, more problematic origin. As the biblical story goes, the curse or mark of Cain for killing his brother was a darkening of his descendants’ skin. Historically, many congregations in the U.S. pointed to this story of Cain as evidence that black skin was created as a punishment.”
Some Protestant denominations once taught that Cain was marked with black skin, but this belief is no longer prevalent, and it never came from the Bible. In Genesis 4:15, the Hebrew word for “mark” indicates a boundary that God set up to separate Cain and his family from the rest of humanity after he murdered his brother Abel.
You can read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find anything justifying the belief that any race or ethnicity is biologically inferior to another. It is actually evolution that teaches that some races are inferior.
The alternate title for Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Its premise was that only the fittest races survive. This book’s sequel, The Descent of Man, also alleged that blacks and Australian Aboriginals represented a missing link between gorillas and Caucasians that would one day be exterminated by “the civilized races of man.”
Yet Scientific American says people who believe in creation are white supremacists because they reject Darwinism and embrace the belief that all races were created in the image and likeness of God.
Republican states ban police from enforcing federal gun laws
The government of Joe Biden is calling for Congress to adopt strict gun control legislation. On June 23, Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled a series of proposed gun control laws. These policies would amplify executive actions Biden signed in April that direct the Justice Department to draft a rule deeming illegal most firearms with a stabilizing pistol brace and to publish an example of “red flag” legislation for states to follow that would allow police or family members to petition a court to bar someone from owning or even accessing a gun.
Many jurisdictions are pushing back against these policies, saying they violate the Constitution. Legislatures in 15 states have passed laws that prohibit local law officers from enforcing gun control statutes that violate the Second Amendment, which states: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” These states include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The threats that gun buyers are concerned about are real, and the Biden administration is overstepping its constitutional authority. Yet Bible prophecy also shows that proliferation of guns will exacerbate violence. “A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee …” (Ezekiel 5:12). The word translated pestilence means destruction or death. The proliferation of guns will not be enough to protect American citizens from their government or from their neighbors, especially when the divisions within society turn deadly.
