Humanity’s true nature on display

In a terrifying scene at the Dagestan airport in Russia, pro-Palestinian crowds stormed an airplane carrying passengers from Tel Aviv. More than 20 people were injured, 60 were arrested, and flights from Tel Aviv to Dagestan are suspended indefinitely. 

Elsewhere in the world, at Cornell University, police are investigating a series of online threats against Jewish students, prompting the school to hire extra security for the Jewish Center and kosher dining hall.

Two weeks ago, 40-year-old Rabbi Samantha Woll was murdered outside her home in cold blood, and synagogues across the country are doubling up on security measures in the face of rising and blatant antisemitism. 

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has recorded 312 antisemitic acts between Oct. 7 and Oct. 23 alone, and the group reports that such acts are up by 388 percent since 2022. 

In the streets of New York City, London, and Washington D.C., among others, activists rally to support Hamas’ bloody attacks on Israeli civilians, calling them “freedom fighters” as reports of murdered families, beheaded babies, and tortured hostages continue to roll in. 

Technology has evolved over time, but the sinful savagery of man has not. One no longer wonders how the Holocaust occurred less than 100 years ago when viewing the barbarism displayed in the world’s most modern cities today.

The truth that man’s heart is full of “evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries” (Mark 7:21) is more palpable than ever. Such evil is on display, not just in the murderous actions of Hamas, but in the absolute lack of compassion or moral culpability of antisemites around the world. 

We’ve proven that by nature, we are beasts when not tempered by the goodness of God. When one is unable to admit that burning people alive and live-streaming executions is wrong, his or her sinful nature is on full display. 

But none of this is new to God, which is why a 2,000 year-old scripture still applies today.

In the West, we fancy ourselves an enlightened breed, incapable of repeating things like slavery, the Holocaust, or segregation. No doubt, some of the activists defending the imprisonment of Israeli hostages have a t-shirt somewhere that says “just be kind” or a yard sign declaring “love is love.” 

In reality, we are no better than the evildoers of Sodom or Molech-sacrificing citizens of Jerusalem. Humans were and are “by nature children of wrath,” (Ephesians 2:3) and our sinful impulses aren’t eradicated by the world’s best institutions, brilliant innovations, or politically correct moral codes. 

The more we believe we are good—that is, impotent to such inhumanity—the closer we edge toward destruction. Original sin is one of the first doctrines to go when people walk away from their Christian faith, and it shows. Faith in ourselves is a grave error, yet Western society and its increasingly godless population subsist on it. 

Secular progressives deem tolerance and equity the highest of virtues, but smear and invalidate those who step outside their always-evolving and narrowly-defined worldview. It’s led them to see others—pre-born babies, Trump supporters, Jews—as less valuable. Groups like Hamas believe they are better and more worthy than others, another devastating view that breeds hate and death. 

We hear that hate and inhumanity in the throngs of people chanting “Gas the Jews!” outside the Sydney Opera House. We watch it as privileged 20-somethings aggressively tear down Israeli hostage posters. We witness it as U.S. members of Congress refuse to condemn the ruthless murders of 1,300 Jewish civilians. 

The war resulting from the Hamas attack is a reminder of a world befallen by sin and sadness—that the sin that entered the world through one man still flourishes today. We are, so it seems, doomed to repeat the darkest elements of history until Jesus returns. 

It’s essential to recognize that there is no ultimate hope here. We cannot rescue ourselves and we are all prone to evildoing. But a day is coming when that will not be true, when there will be no more terrorists or hate crimes or wars, “no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” (Revelation 21:4) On that day, peace and love will triumph, exclusively at the hand of our Creator God.