Nature Videos on Social Media

Nature Videos on Social Media
Monday, September 13, 2021 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Apologetics / Contemporary issues / Thought for Today

Have you noticed? Perhaps I’ve missed it, but there seems to be an explosion of wild animal videos being posted on social media. Most of these posts have a similar theme: predator hunting their prey, and the fights that follow. Sometimes the prey fights the predator off, other times the predator kills their prey. Regardless of who wins the fight, violence is front and center. Sometimes the videos are marketed as just being part of the dance (one thinks in some ways of popular versions of the Hindu goddess Kali).

The question is: Why now?

Why indeed? I wonder if we are being “prepared” for increasing violence. According to many non-Christians, we are little more than animals ourselves, just part of an evolutionary chain, purely random, without any real meaning. Since the world of the animal kingdom is a violent dance of life and death, what difference does it make if people behave the same way? After all, violence often seems to be the mantra of various anarchist groups in our country, from Antifa to BLM. To me, one thing is certain, what is going on is not an accident.

The Bible has much to say about human violence and bloodshed.

Revelation 9:20–21: “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idles of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts” (NAU).

2 Kings 24:3–4: “Surely at the command of the Lord it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord would not forgive” (NAU).

One of the reasons God judged Israel was due to Manasseh’s many murders, his seemingly ceaseless violence. Think about it: he had crossed a line, and God’s forgiveness became impossible, or rather, God’s judgment had become set.

Consider God’s judgments that are recorded in the book of Revelation. First one-fourth of all people are killed in various ways, then later one-third of those who are left. When one does the math, the total comes to one-half of the people. As Jesus said, if those days had not been shortened, no flesh would survive. Jesus described Satan as a murderer from the beginning. As more people turn to the occult, to witchcraft, to hallucinogenic drugs, to avenues that lead to contact with the demonic, there is every reason to believe that violence and murder will increase.

The good news is that there is an answer to the horrors just mentioned: the peace that comes through having a genuine personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27–28, NAU).

We need not fear what is coming, as no matter what happens, we have an eternal hope that the world, those who are apart from Christ, do not have.

Romans 15:13: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (NAU).

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