The world is filled with problems—disease, pollution, poverty, ignorance, religious confusion, war, terrorism, crime, violence, hunger, immorality, slavery, oppression, political upheaval and much more. Why? With the passing of time come more problems, not less. Why? Also, existing problems grow collectively worse instead of better. Why? Why, at every turn, has man bungled and botched all efforts to solve his truly great problems?

Individually, people have never seemed more incapable of addressing and overcoming their personal problems. As with the world in general, the passing of time finds individuals and families drowning under an ever-worsening sea of decadence and seemingly insurmountable difficulties. More and more seem completely incapable of managing their lives.

Yes, why?

Men have created many amazing technological inventions, but they cannot create solutions to their problems. Mankind has harnessed the power of computers to help process vast amounts of information, but human beings cannot correctly process their personal problems. Scientists have discovered much about the size, magnificence and precision of the universe, but they cannot discover the way to peace. Astronomers can find majestic, beautiful new galaxies throughout the universe, but they cannot find a way to preserve the beauty and majesty of earth. Scientists have also unleashed the power of the atom, but they are powerless to unleash answers to life’s greatest questions. Educators have taught millions how to earn a living, but not how to live.

The well-known presidential historian and columnist Peggy Noonan summarized the complex, jumbled course that has been mankind’s history: “In the long ribbon of history, life has been one long stained and tangled mess, full of famine, horror, war and disease. We must have thought we had it better because man had improved. But man doesn’t really ‘improve,’ does he? Man is man. Human nature is human nature; the impulse to destroy coexists with the desire to build and create and make better” (“America’s Age of Uncertainty,” Knight Ridder, Nov. 9, 2001).

Who could disagree?

State of the Present—and Future

Consider some of the terrible conditions on earth today. Should events remain unchecked, they are predicted to grow far worse by the year 2050—if mankind survives for that long! Many of the following statistics come from the United Nation’s “The State of World Population 2001” report. It is thorough, and makes for sobering reading.

The world population has more than tripled in the last seventy years. It has doubled since 1960 and is predicted to reach between 9.3 and 10.9 billion by 2050. The forty-nine poorest, least-developed nations will actually triple to a population of nearly two billion. This worldwide population growth will bring staggering problems.

Just 2.5 percent of the earth’s water is fresh. Only 20 percent of this (or 0.5 percent) is accessible ground or surface water. The current population consumes 54 percent of this available water. By 2050, it will need 90 percent—because the earth grows by 77 million additional people per year (requiring an amount of water equivalent to the mighty Rhine River every year). Also, developing countries dump 90-95 percent of their untreated sewage and 70 percent of their untreated industrial waste into surface waters. Population growth insures that this problem will only grow worse. In addition, acid rain and chemical runoff from fertilizers and pesticides sufficiently ruin water quality, making it largely unusable.

Population growth continues to outpace food production. There are 800 million people who are chronically malnourished, and 2 billion who lack “food security.” Only fifteen crop species provide 90 percent of the world’s food, yet it is estimated that sixty thousand different plant species could reach extinction by just 2025! By that year, the projected 8 billion inhabitants of earth will require twice today’s food needs, with greatly improved distribution, to completely eradicate hunger. But few experts see this as remotely possible.

Each day, 160,000 people move from rural areas to cities. This is happening fastest in under-developed countries. Enormous problems result from this: sanitation, overcrowding, access to modern health services and the ability of schools to absorb the increase of students.

Fully 60 percent of all disease on earth is sanitation-related. Each year, air pollution kills nearly 3 million people in developing countries alone, with poor sanitation killing another 12 million. Various forms of indoor air pollution (soot, dung, coal for cooking and heating, etc.) affect 2.5 billion people a year and kill 2.2 million. Changes in climate are altering the zones of risk for insect-borne diseases. New and more virulent diseases are appearing or reappearing. And many bacteria are proving to be drug-resistant because of the ongoing over-prescribing of antibiotics.

Some of the problems predicted for the near future include: Limited and diminishing arable land, deforestation, urbanization, shrinking size of family farms, degradation of the land, shortages and degradation of water, irrigation problems, waste, the extinction of certain types of crops, the increased intensity and frequency of severe weather, which causes flooding and seasonal loss of crops, and greenhouse gases and changes of climate. At the same time, 1.6 acres of rainforest —often called the “lungs of the world” because it produces so much oxygen—are disappearing through logging every second!

Together, these problems spell untold calamity, and even catastrophe, for a mankind unprepared to solve these and many other problems.

While the world is suffering from “information overload,” none of this knowledge increase is truly addressing mankind’s growing number of complex, insoluble problems. With all of man’s creative ingenuity and intelligence, he cannot solve the most important problems—those that threaten his very existence on an earth he is systematically destroying.

Educators have duped generations into believing the evolutionary lie. This has caused countless millions to believe that mankind is continually evolving into a better and higher order of existence. Look around and you will see the fruits of this deception. (Read our booklets Does God Exist? and Evolution – Facts, Fallacies and Implications. They thoroughly address the fallacy of evolution, while proving the existence of God.) Man is not evolving upward—he is degenerating downward, into ever new lows of indulgence, decadence and immorality.

WHY?

A Great Unseen Law

Everyone understands the law of gravity. All recognize that if they break this law, it could “break” them. If one accidentally drops a brick on his foot, the result could be broken bones. If a skydiver jumps from an airplane, and the parachute fails to open, the result is certain death. This is easy to understand.

Here are some examples that are only a little less obvious, but are just as true. If a person is constantly sick, it is obvious that laws of health (proper diet, enough exercise or sufficient sleep, etc.) are being broken. Bad health has one or more causes. If a marriage ends in divorce, it can also be attributed to one or more causes: lack of communication, financial woes, death of a child, sexual problems, unhappiness on the job, etc. If someone is pulled over for drunk driving, it is not hard to see the cause of the arrest.

While most never identify cause and effect as an immutable law governing almost every action in life, they are generally aware that it is a principle at work in certain circumstances.

Every effect can be traced to one or more causes. Unwanted or illegitimate pregnancies, crime, drug addiction, bankruptcy and a thousand other effects, can all be linked to specific causes. Create your own list. You may find it to be almost endless.

The King James Version of the Bible teaches, “…the curse causeless shall not come.” Two other translations of this verse are “…the undeserved curse will never hit its mark” (Jerusalem Bible), and “…the baseless curse never goes home” (Moffatt). This scripture is saying that every difficulty carries a reason—there is a cause for every effect!

Why can man not see this law at work when he looks at the world as a whole? Why is it that no one is looking for the cause of this world’s ills and evils? Why are educators not teaching this most important of all principles? As you look at the world around you, are you concerned with it? Do you ever wonder WHY it is filled with misery, unhappiness and discontent? And why has even the Christian religion ignored this important relationship between cause and effect?

The cause of all the world’s troubles began in the Garden of Eden. As simple as this sounds, it is true. The world has lost sight of a decision made by Adam and Eve. They chose not to eat of the Tree of Life, choosing instead to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if those two people had chosen the Tree of Life? Think of how this would have changed the entire world! Everything would be different.

There would be no armies, wars, death, devastation or displacement of peoples. There would be no famine or hunger because there would be plenty of food for everyone. There would be no doctors, because there would be no illness. All of the hospitals and clinics would never have existed. Neither would the prisons, jails, judges, courts and police forces that exist to punish lawbreakers.

Universal happiness, abundance, prosperity and peace would have been experienced worldwide. All people would get along—neighbors, families, individuals and nations. Can you imagine such a world?

When Adam and Eve made the wrong decision, it directly affected you and me! They brought untold effects upon humanity, because of their single wrong cause—and this has not been understood prior to the 20th Century.

Let’s examine the truth of why the world is in its current state of unending problems.

The Carnal Mind

Before continuing, let’s examine a big reason for why violating the law of cause and effect has beset the world with insoluble problems.

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, records an amazing statement: “Because the carnal [physical] mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (8:7). Other translations use the stronger phrase “is the enemy of God” in place of “is enmity against God.”

For those who will believe it, this single passage offers startling insight into the working of the physical—“carnal”—mind of every human being. Cut off from God, the natural mind is God’s enemy—it hates Him. Think of it! Ask yourself if any minister, religionist or theologian has ever explained this to you.

NO! The religious leaders of this world never refer to this. They either ignore this understanding entirely or do not recognize its far-reaching implications for mankind as a whole!

This verse plainly says that the natural mind does not want, and even hates, to yield to God and obey His law. While most people profess that they “love God,” the truth is that their minds despise His way and refuse to truly submit to Him—to His authority over their lives. No wonder the prophet Jeremiah wrote: “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps” (10:23). This is another incredible statement. When confronted with problems or important decisions, men simply do not know what to do! They are at a loss for how to correctly address and solve the challenges, difficulties and problems they face in their personal lives.

How then can they solve the far more complex problems engulfing civilization today? They cannot. Solutions born of human reasoning always generate more problems. We will learn why.

In the Beginning

The apostle John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). He then continued, “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” If there is One who was God, but who was also with God, it is obvious that two Beings— two Persons—are being described.

Verse 14 continues, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” The only God-Being who ever became flesh in order to dwell among men is Jesus Christ. Remember, it says that the Word “was made flesh.” Christ was not flesh until He came to earth to become the Savior of mankind.

In Genesis 1:1 it states, “In the beginning God...” Moses recorded the first five books of the Old Testament in the Hebrew language. The Hebrew word translated “God” is Elohim. This word is uniplural and refers to words like team, group, family or church. God is one Family—One God—composed of two Beings. This is why Christ could be God and with God at the same time. John 4:24 states that “God is Spirit.” God is actually made up of—composed of—Spirit. Men are composed of flesh.

Later in Genesis 1, we find that God said, “Let us [more than one] make man in our image, after our likeness” (vs. 26). There was clearly more than one person involved in the creation of man. Verse 25 adds that each animal was made after “his kind.”

Dogs come from dogs and have puppies that look like dogs. Cats come from cats and have kittens that look like cats. Horses come from horses and have foals that look like horses. This is true throughout the entire animal kingdom. There is no mystery here.

But here is what has been a mystery. Men are not part of the animal kind. They do not carry the likeness of any “beast of the earth” (vs. 25). They are made in the image and likeness of God. They are part of the God kind. So says your Bible! (To learn more, read my booklet Why Man Cannot Solve His Problems.)