Return of the mummy

How bad can things get? Pretty bad. In 450 BC Socrates bemoaned the giddiness and disobedience of the youth of His day. Our grandparents no doubt tell "us kids today" how times have changed. Sermons of only thirty years ago seem quaint by today's standards when pastors decry the rebelliousness of the age.

Just when you think things can go no lower, they do. The Eddie Haskells of yore, the Fonzies, the Bart Simpsons seem like angels compared to today's cultural bad guys. And even worse when compared to today's pagan practices of assisted suicide, abortion, child prostitution and trafficking, and more.

Jesus asked that when He returned will He find faith upon the earth? He also said that if He did not cut the days short that there would be no one left. Satan is clever, creative, and relentless. He comes up with all sorts of depravities to ply his trade, but why change the routine when the old standbys work so well? Fascination with Pharaoh has never ended, thanks to satan:

Channel 4 seeks terminally-ill volunteer to be mummified in TV documentary
"Channel 4 looks set to become embroiled in another taste row after backing a project which seeks to mummify a terminally-ill volunteer for a TV documentary. The body of the candidate selected to be embalmed could then end up being displayed in a museum. If the project goes ahead it will follow a trail of programmes which seek to challenge views on death. Television audiences have been shown an autopsy, carried out by the controversial German anatomist Dr Gunther von Hagens, and an on-screen assisted suicide. The advert reads: 'We are currently keen to talk to some one who, faced with the knowledge of their own terminal illness and all that it entails, would nonetheless consider undergoing the process of an ancient Egyptian embalming.' "

The documentary is part of a series that seek to change views on death. This satisfies satan. The more people willing to die the better. The more of them who die outside of Christ is best of all. If he can get us to sway from the truth of the Psalm illustrating how God fearfully and wonderfully makes us, instead to hold a view that our bodies are nothing and after death there's only non-existence, it meets his goals. He does this by minimizing the body's dignity and maximizing its depravity.

Consider David's Psalm (139: 13-16 NIV)

"For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be."

We are made in His likeness, yet we engage in the depravity of public execution and ensuing mummification and then display of that body. Is THAT what we do with God's likeness? Yes. With God's fearful and wonderful creation? Yes. We are both made in His image and therefore have an inherent dignity in our creation, yet we have the sin nature and therefore are inherently depraved. It's a struggle that will end when He glorifies our bodies. Yet for those who are absent His forgiveness and indwelling Holy Spirit, their depravity knows no bounds because they are completely satan's. Imagine the depraved depths culture will descend to when the body of Christ is removed from the earth and there is no restraint. This 'scientist seeks mummy volunteer' advertisement is just the beginning. Yes, Virginia, there is a satan, and his depths have barely been plumbed.

(For an essay on human dignity and depravity, go here)
(For an essay on dying well, go here)