Do you believe things are getting worse or better? If you say “worse,” then a majority of Americans agree with you. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 58% of U.S. adults say life in America is worse today than it was 50 years ago for people “like them.” A 2021 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute revealed that a majority of Americans believe that the “American culture and way of life” has deteriorated since the 1950s.
On a more anecdotal level, I’ve spoken with first responders who strongly believe things are getting worse, especially in the last few years.
Everywhere you turn these days, it feels like the world is coming apart at the seams.
Violence dominates the headlines. Political polarization is driving neighbors apart. Anger and resentment are spilling over into hostility — and sometimes even celebrated when the “other side” suffers. There are T-shirts selling now that show blood spurting out of Charlie Kirk’s neck. That’s right! People are openly and shamelessly profiting over the murder of a 31-year-old husband and father of two young children.
Anxiety and despair are climbing, and many people don’t know where to turn.
Against these rather obvious signs of societal decay, some Christians push back and insist that “No! It’s not getting worse. It’s been bad since Adam and Eve ate that fruit.” At the heart of this view is a fervent commitment to the Calvinist understanding of total depravity.
There is some truth to this. Ever since Adam and Eve rebelled in the Garden, human beings have been corrupted by sin. Jeremiah tells us the heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). Paul reminds us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
Sin is not new. Darkness has always been with us.
And, at times, that darkness has gotten pretty dark!
But Scripture also makes clear that sin doesn’t stay put. It grows. It escalates. It spreads until it infects entire cultures and societies. That’s exactly what we see in Genesis. In chapter 3, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. In chapter 4, Cain murdered his brother. And by chapter 6, the Bible says: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).
That wasn’t just “business as usual.” That was sin metastasizing to the point where it consumed a generation.
And the same warning appears elsewhere in Scripture:
- Jesus said that in the last days, “because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matt. 24:12).
- Paul described a culture in decline in Romans 1, where people are “given over” step by step to deeper corruption.
- In 2 Timothy 3, he spoke of perilous times marked by arrogance, brutality, and a lack of natural affection.
When examining the course of human history, you observe waves of intensification in the depravity of mankind. So are things getting worse? In one sense, no. The human heart has been sinful since the Fall in Eden. But in another sense, yes. Sin builds. Societies can drift further into darkness.
I believe we’re seeing a wave of sin’s intensification in our generation.
If you doubt that things are getting worse, let’s take school shootings. In the 1950s, my father was a student at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. He was on the rifle team. He and his buddies in the rifle club would bring their guns to school on meeting days — rifles, ammunition, the whole kit. They stored them in their lockers during the day. How many school shootings took place? Zero. Now, imagine that today. It’s unthinkable.
From 1970 to 2021, the annual number of school shootings in America increased more than twelvefold, and the death rate from those shootings increased more than sixfold. Just in the past few years, the number of children exposed to school shootings has nearly tripled compared to the late 1990s. Our children are growing up under the shadow of violence that would have been unimaginable to my father’s generation.
I’ve spoken with many older Americans who remember times they could leave their doors unlocked, leave their car keys in the ignition overnight, and send their kids to school without a single worry for their safety.
Don’t tell me things aren’t getting worse.
Lest I be misunderstood, I also believe things have gotten better in some ways – progress in civil rights, better awareness of mental health issues, advances in medicine, and so forth. My point is that, in spite of the progress we’ve made in some areas, sin is intensifying. That is my point, and I stand by it.
We live in an hour when the darkness is spreading. Sin is not abating — it is escalating. And many can feel in their spirit that we are approaching a breaking point.
But here’s the good news: the darker the world becomes, the brighter the light of Christ shines. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world…let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:14, 16).
That is our calling. Not to deny the darkness. Not to be consumed by it. But to shine in it.
The answer is not despair. The answer is not joining the shouting match. The answer is Christ.
Jesus is the Light of the world!
Let’s point the world to Him!
Thank you for Reading!
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You wowed us once again Pastor! I’ve seen eloquent speakers and writers over my lifetime and you are both.
Blessings,
Tom