“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

“For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you” (Mark 7:21-23).

One of the hardest things to come to grips with is how evil we truly are. I often say to young Christians and try to remind myself that we really do not know how sinful we are until we get saved, and then the Holy Spirit begins to shine His light into the crevices of our souls and into the secrets in our lives. Truthfully, it can be quite defeating having to come to grips with how evil I am and how unlike Christ I can be. We now live in a world that has abandoned any pretense of being good. Evil is now promoted and even celebrated. Evil is loved and being pushed as the norm.

Jesus warned us that people love darkness because their deeds are evil, but now we are seeing that people have brought their deeds well out into the light. It has become evil to call out evil. It has become hated to call out perverseness and sickening sins.

Mankind has always been sinful. I am reading in the book of 1 Kings right now, and one of the kings had to get rid of the sodomites when he came to power. It seems that sexual perversion and effeminate men go hand in hand with evil. It is almost the most important fruit of evil. We are beginning to learn, sadly, that behind the scenes, evil has been rampant in our entertainment industries, the government, and maybe even in some ‘churches.’

I recall being warned by my Dad, that old fuddy-duddy, about the free sexual tendencies of the rock and roll world that I was immersed in as a kid. I listened to KISS, AC/DC, and a host of other rock and roll bands that promoted free sex and drug use.

Now, when adults engage in sexuality between men and women, that is one thing. But when there is the abuse of children, we can begin to see what happened to people like Michael Jackson and many others that had the innocence of their childhood stolen by grown men and some women as they sexually and emotionally abused these kids.

I saw an interview with a very famous young actress (Shirley Temple) where she talked about meeting with a producer in a hotel where they separated her from her mom, and the man, an adult, met her basically naked in a bathrobe. She, being about 12 or 13, had never seen a naked man, and embarrassment led her to begin giggling. She eventually left the room and met up with her mom; later on, she found out that her mom had also encountered a naked man in another room in the hotel. This attack on kids has been going on for decades; it is nothing new.

We are beginning to see that there is rampant homosexuality in the music industry, and it has been there forever. I recall my dad talking about Johnny Matthis, and it seemed like he was an anomaly. Rock Hudson on the Hollywood side also seemed to be an anomaly, but we are beginning to see that this was much more prevalent; these were just two that rose above the secrets. Fame has a hefty price. I am not sure that I would want any of my kids to be involved in either the music or Hollywood industries.

This kind of evil, this sexual perversion, may not be as prominent in churches, but sadly, it is there. There is perversion of the Gospel that has permeated too many churches. There are all kinds of things going on in churches each Sunday that are simply blasphemy. They entertain and excite but never disciple the people. Most of the ones in attendance are lost; they have no relationship with Jesus. They experience an emotional high, are often affirmed as being ‘good,’ and never have to come face to face with their own evil. No evil, no conviction of the Holy Spirit, no salvation, and no hope. This is evil as well.

People used to be able to trust their government; we cannot. Many of our current leaders are evil to the core. They hate God, defy His precepts, and see nothing wrong with promoting evil and punishing good. They, in fact, hate good. Good is abhorrent to them. As such, we have a generation of young men and women who cannot discern between good and evil. They, too, have come to accept evil as good.

I recall just recently seeing a young lady talking about why she ended a relationship with her boyfriend. According to her, he got ‘red-pilled.’ He came to see that men were men, women were women, and just maybe children should not be lied to about and forced into transitioning to the opposite sex. This turned her off of the young man. Imagine that.

I am also amazed at how many ‘church’ people feel the need to affirm sin, affirm abortion, affirm homosexuality, and the like. I see conservative preachers out on the road, out at colleges, often get attacked by ‘religious’ people who call them hateful for simply stating what God clearly says in the Bible. I just saw a ‘preacher’ apologizing for something Jesus taught about women and said that Jesus needed to learn a few things. This is evil.

Sadly, things will not get better. The current US administration may slow the tide of rot in the US, but eventually, they will elect an evil leader who will take them back to the path of darkness. Jesus is coming; more and more, I feel the urgency in my heart. But it may get a bit hairy for us before He gets here. I keep praying, Lord, please help me not to deny you like Peter if I get afraid or hurt; please help me to humbly stand for you if I get arrested or tortured for the name of Jesus.

We need to be praying, meditating and looking. Be wise and be prepared. It looks like there is a whole lot of evil about to be uncovered, and once it hits the light, we do not know how it will react and who it will target. Look up, pray up, and stay in the Word.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario

Isaiah 4:1

“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, ‘We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.'”

I had a conversation with my brother just a few days ago, and we chatted about the lack of dating even in the Lord’s churches. The conversation was sparked from a chat about AI and his belief that soon, many men will simply turn to AI for their needs from a woman. There is a trend happening right now where men are simply not approaching women to date them. Over and over, there are stories of women in clubs, even on dating apps, and there is simply no interest.

One of the things we discussed is how there are organized ‘mixers’ for single men and women to meet, and there will be 20+ ladies showing up, and just a few men, 4 or 5, will turn up. And even then, there is little to no interaction. He mentioned that even in his local church, where there are many single young women and men, there is so little interaction it is scary.

The family is the foundation of a society and, as such, the foundation of the local church. Over the past 5+ decades, we have told young women that a career is more important than family; it is not enough to be a wife and mother; one must have a degree, a career, and make something of one’s self before settling down.

The same people did not remind women that the chance of getting pregnant past 35 years old is very slim, and thus, the chance to be a mother is slim. They get to that 30+ mark, the normal needs to be a wife and mother begin to scream, and they want a man, but it is often too late. Right now, 21% of women between 30-49 are single, and 29% between 50-64 are single. The overall sex ratio for unmarried adults in the U.S. is about 90 men per 100 women; the 30-to-34 age group had the highest ratio at nearly 121 men to 100 women in the U.S. A study from 2023 shows that 57% of singles are not looking to date at all. In 2021, a study showed that 52% of American women were single or separated. This is astonishing.

How does this impact our churches? Well, we know that when a home is spiritually led by the dad, over 90% of them follow the Lord and stay in church. This drops significantly with women-led homes. I do not care how often you knock on doors or do revivals and crusades; no manner of outreach has a 90% success rate. The only one that works like this is the family. So, when our young people put off marriage for school and education or for simply fun and a life with no commitments, churches die, and they die very quickly. The lifeblood of a local church is the family.

We are told here in Isaiah that there will come a time when women will ask one man to marry them; 7 of them will provide their own resources and simply need to be married. God put in us the need to be married. No matter what color, creed, culture, or background, there is a need to marry, to procreate, and the sex drive is there in all people.

Sadly, even in our churches, we have an epidemic of sexless marriages. In contrast, even in our churches, we have an epidemic of pre-marital sex with those who are dating. But men, many of them, are not seeking out women. They are too afraid of losing everything they worked for: their homes, money, and wealth. They are too afraid of having to care for another man’s children, as many single women come with kids nowadays. They would be paying the bills but have no say and no authority. This happens; I see it a lot.

Here in North America, we lied to young women, and the churches drank the Kool-Aid and told our young people to do everything but start a family. Every study and every metric tells us that married women with children are the happiest in North America. But the evil system of the Devil, who knew that 90% of kids born into Christian homes would follow Jesus, sold us a bill of goods, and we paid for it with our churches dying, our young people miserable, single, selfish, and living in sin.

AI will never replace real women. Pornography will never replace real women. Careers will never replace the joy of being a loving wife and mother. Single men make less than married men in general. And when a dad leads the home, not only do churches live, thrive, and grow, but society is better: less crime, fewer prisoners, less teenage pregnancy, fewer school dropouts, and fewer suicides. It is so hard to speak the truth; one sounds like an alien trying to communicate with earthlings. But the truth has not changed: men need women, women need men, children need both parents, and men need to work hard to provide for their families and lead their families to serve the Lord.

The fastest way to grow and sustain a church is for young men and women in that church to marry and to be fruitful and multiply. This is sustained growth; this is not to diminish the need for evangelism and outreach, far from it. Rather, a youthful church has both the able bodies and the able energy to go out and reach the lost. Kids are the lifeblood of a church. We need to find a way to get our young men and women marrying young once again and then having lots of babies.

The time will come when the single women will wish they had a man. I see a lot of them lamenting online. We have money and education, we are beautiful, and yet no men seem to want us. What did we miss? We forgot that there are no such things as independent men or women. God said it is not good for us to be alone. We need marriage, and we need to be sexually active in our marriages. Our children need to see mom and dad touching, kissing, wooing, and loving. Look at how God views marriage:

Proverbs 18:22– “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.”

Proverbs 19:14 – “Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.”

Hebrews 13:4 – “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

There are more verses. It looks to me as if God wants us to marry, have kids, and produce more and more people for the Kingdom. But to do that, we have to stop running our churches under the lies of society and follow Biblical rules. What a novel idea!

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church

70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario