Quote from Forum Archives on July 24, 2002, 2:53 pm

Posted by: biblenotes <biblenotes@...>

Subject: An Invention with Great Potential for Evil
From: Martin Overfield
Date: 5 May 2002

For reasons that may become apparent to the reader, I am saving
the text for later in this Bible Note. Please do not read ahead. It
is very important that this Bible Note be read entirely in the order in
which it is written.

An Invention with Great Potential for Evil

There is an invention with great potential for evil. I dare say that,
up to this point in time, it has far greater potential for evil than any
invention man has ever made.

Now, before you write me off as a legalist, please hear me out
(read this entire note). Please sit as though you were a member of
a jury listening to all the facts of the case before making your final
judgment. I would ask your patience with me as I explain a little more
in detail the awful potential for evil of which this invention is capable.

This invention can cause men and women to become involved in
an adulterous relationship that will ruin their marriage or the marriage
of someone else.

It can cause a man to spend many hours viewing wretched
pornographic images of women, men, and even children. It can even
lead men and women into all sorts of unnatural, unbiblical relations.

This thing drives many into various degrees of gambling, whereby
they waste money that should have been given to God and used to
support their families. It entices many into the trap of covetousness
and even stealing.

It causes others to become comfortable with using the Lord's name
in vain, dragging it through the muck and mire of filthy obscenities.

Still others become so deceived by it that they make many excuses
to keep themselves out of the house of God. It denies the Lord the time
that should have been spent in prayer and Bible reading.

This thing has the potential to make murderers and rapists out of
even the most naturally mild mannered men.

It subverts children to disobey their parents and to disrespect the
elderly.

It is very useful in the hands of Satan to promote sin of every sort.

And, yet, there is little or no outcry among the people of the church
to get rid of this thing. It seems that anything with such potential for
evil -- and much more evil than I am here even able to portray -- that
such a thing ought to be banned from all churches, all of our homes, all
of our schools, and even from public and private use altogether!

There is just one problem. The invention of which I speak cannot
be entirely gotten rid of in this world, because this invention is the
human heart. That's right! The heart of man was "invented" by God
Himself, yet it has the potential for evils beyond propriety to mention.

Hear now the words of Christ Himself regarding this invention:

"That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from
within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:"
(Mark 7:20-22)

Here again is a verse that shows how wicked the heart can be:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who
can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

The very next verse shows Who it is that can indeed know the
heart of man! "I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to
give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his
doings." (Jeremiah 17:10). Why it is the Lord Himself, Who made the
heart Who can know it! He knows what it is capable of doing. He knows
all the wickedness that man is able to invent, find, view, think, dream,
and etc.

No, He did not make our hearts with the evil bent with which we all
are now born; but, He knew that the potential for such awful devilish
tendencies was there from before the beginning, from before He even
created man. You see, it was God Who created us with the possibility
of sinning against Him. That was the only way He could make us with
the ability to truly prove that we would serve Him because we really
want to do so, because we love Him. Without the possibility of great
evil there never could have been the possibility of greatest good on the
part of free moral agents.

"What is your point?", someone may ask. My main point in writing
this Bible Note is this:

There are indeed some very important issues at stake today concerning
the use of modern technology, but I maintain that the most important
issue is still this -- the heart of man must be forgiven
and cleansed from all sin if the man is to be pure.
It is not how many and how strict are the rules
we have that makes us holy and acceptable before
God. Rather it is how completely submitted our
will is to God and how fully sanctified and possessed
of His holiness and righteousness we are by His Spirit.

Yours In Christ,
Martin Overfield

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