The following message is presented by Alistair Begg, courtesy of Truth For Life. For more details, visit us at truthforlife.org. I invite you to open your Bible to Romans chapter 1 and follow along as I read from verse 16 to the end of verse 25.

Romans 1:16

We are becoming familiar with these words intentionally, so we can fully understand Paul’s profound declaration about the gospel’s nature and significance. Paul writes, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God has made it clear. His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, animals, and creeping things.”

“Therefore, God gave them up to the lusts of their hearts to impurity, dishonoring their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” All that we need is you, Jesus.

Now, as we turn to the book that reveals everything about You, grant that we may encounter You within its pages, hear Your voice as Your word is spoken, and make our hearts Your throne room, where You take Your rightful place. We ask this in Your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.

In her book The World Turned Upside Down, Melanie Phillips, an English journalist and columnist, who has had previous interactions with us when she visited as our guest, writes as an agnostic and an observant Jew. In this book, written over a decade ago, she observed, “Society seems to be in the grip of a mass derangement.” She describes a “sense that the world has slipped off the axis of reason,” raising the question, “How is anyone to determine who has the answer amidst such a babble of ‘experts’ and conflicting information?” She argues that “there has been a departure from reason and logic,” where objectivity has largely been replaced by ideology.

I began rereading her book this week and was struck by an absence I had previously overlooked. While Melanie is an observant Jew and makes many insightful points, there is no acknowledgment of Genesis chapter 3 in her analysis. This is significant because Genesis 3 holds the key to understanding the question she poses. How is it that the perfect world created by God, which He declared to be good, devolved so rapidly into chaos and corruption? How did we transition from God’s good creation in chapter 1 to murder, broken relationships, and madness by chapter 4?

This is the pressing question people continue to ask: “Why is the world as it is? If God is as good and powerful as the Bible claims, why is there so much suffering, sadness, and mayhem?” The answer is found in Genesis chapter 3. We’re not doing an in-depth study of Genesis right now, but I was recently asked to address this topic at the Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. Since I had to study it, I’ll share a few insights. Instead of trusting God, Adam and Eve believed a lie. You can read the rest for further understanding.