The biblical Sodom was an evil place, populated with evil people who were governed by their worst proclivities of human nature.
Does it exist today?
You betcha’!
1.The short history of evil is that its promises turn out to be lies, and the lies lead to death and destruction. The most persistent lie is their ability to alter, perfect, human nature if their doctrine were put into effect. It can be seen in communism, Nazism, ...and even Hillary Clinton’s college thesis: that same promise.
But no system or set of laws can alter human nature. There are two things that can restrain its harmful urges, and one is the fear of oppressive government, e.g., communist and Nazi regimes, and what we have seen from Democrats, too. But, unless the pressure is maintained, nothing about human nature is altered.
“The Soviet Union attempted to create the New Soviet Man with gulags, psychiatric hospitals, and firing squads for seventy years and succeeded only in producing a more corrupt culture.”
Bork, “Slouching Toward Gomorrah,” p. 198
2. In the compilation written three millennia ago, the Bible, we find stories that have moment today. The evil of Sodom is reflected in China’s ‘Great Leap Forward,’ evil so ingrained that every level of society from the children to the elderly, cooperate in it.
Noah’s nephew, Lot, lived in the evil city of Sodom….and when travelers were passing though, Lot didn’t want them to sleep there for fear they’d be raped and/or killed…..
Genesis 19:4 They had not yet lain down, when the townspeople, the men of Sodom, young and old—all the people to the last man—gathered about the house.
“Sodom was so corrupt even the children and the elderly came—as we shall see in the next verse—to rape the visitors. An evil society breeds evil, including in its children. And although we think of elderly people as relatively harmless, that was not the case in Sodom. Moreover, from whom did the middle-aged and younger people of Sodom learn their behavior?” Prager, “The Rational Bible”
3. “Hospitality was a highly regarded virtue in the ancient Near East, and in this chapter Lot, like his uncle Abraham in the previous chapter, proves hospitable to travelers. Initially, the visitors politely decline his hospitality (19:2), but Lot insists, which was the hospitable thing to do (19:3; cf. Luke 24:28-29). He has undoubtedly lived in Sodom long enough to understand that leaving these visitors in the city square (Gen 19:2) at the mercy of Sodom’s night life would mean their savage treatment and possibly their death.
Lot’s hospitality here offers a stark contrast to the attempt of other residents of Sodom to gang-rape Lot’s guests—guests that Lot must now protect against his fellow citizens..)
For standing against gang-raping guests, Lot is accused of setting himself up as a judge (19:9), not unlike the complaints of some people today that anyone who points out their misbehavior is “judgmental.” No way to treat guests—Genesis 19
The Soviet Union was a modern Sodom. It’s gone….but it gave birth to other such places such as Mao’s China, the pre-eminent threat to America today.
Does it exist today?
You betcha’!
1.The short history of evil is that its promises turn out to be lies, and the lies lead to death and destruction. The most persistent lie is their ability to alter, perfect, human nature if their doctrine were put into effect. It can be seen in communism, Nazism, ...and even Hillary Clinton’s college thesis: that same promise.
But no system or set of laws can alter human nature. There are two things that can restrain its harmful urges, and one is the fear of oppressive government, e.g., communist and Nazi regimes, and what we have seen from Democrats, too. But, unless the pressure is maintained, nothing about human nature is altered.
“The Soviet Union attempted to create the New Soviet Man with gulags, psychiatric hospitals, and firing squads for seventy years and succeeded only in producing a more corrupt culture.”
Bork, “Slouching Toward Gomorrah,” p. 198
2. In the compilation written three millennia ago, the Bible, we find stories that have moment today. The evil of Sodom is reflected in China’s ‘Great Leap Forward,’ evil so ingrained that every level of society from the children to the elderly, cooperate in it.
Noah’s nephew, Lot, lived in the evil city of Sodom….and when travelers were passing though, Lot didn’t want them to sleep there for fear they’d be raped and/or killed…..
Genesis 19:4 They had not yet lain down, when the townspeople, the men of Sodom, young and old—all the people to the last man—gathered about the house.
“Sodom was so corrupt even the children and the elderly came—as we shall see in the next verse—to rape the visitors. An evil society breeds evil, including in its children. And although we think of elderly people as relatively harmless, that was not the case in Sodom. Moreover, from whom did the middle-aged and younger people of Sodom learn their behavior?” Prager, “The Rational Bible”
3. “Hospitality was a highly regarded virtue in the ancient Near East, and in this chapter Lot, like his uncle Abraham in the previous chapter, proves hospitable to travelers. Initially, the visitors politely decline his hospitality (19:2), but Lot insists, which was the hospitable thing to do (19:3; cf. Luke 24:28-29). He has undoubtedly lived in Sodom long enough to understand that leaving these visitors in the city square (Gen 19:2) at the mercy of Sodom’s night life would mean their savage treatment and possibly their death.
Lot’s hospitality here offers a stark contrast to the attempt of other residents of Sodom to gang-rape Lot’s guests—guests that Lot must now protect against his fellow citizens..)
For standing against gang-raping guests, Lot is accused of setting himself up as a judge (19:9), not unlike the complaints of some people today that anyone who points out their misbehavior is “judgmental.” No way to treat guests—Genesis 19
The Soviet Union was a modern Sodom. It’s gone….but it gave birth to other such places such as Mao’s China, the pre-eminent threat to America today.