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THE UPS AND DOWNS OF HOPELESS MAN Anyone who thinks there is any hope for mankind just hasn't been paying attention. If one were to sketch a chart showing humanity's ups and downs throughout history, it would bear much resemblance to a declining stock market chart that you might see in the Wall Street Journal or maybe a good roller coaster. Just a brief overview of the dispensations alone will show this. Please observe . . . UP: God created man in a perfect paradise environment with no sin and no struggle of any kind. DOWN: Man sinned and got banned from the paradise. UP: God clothed man and showed him to maintain fellowship with God through sacrifice and righteousness. DOWN: Man populated the earth with so much evil and violence that God had to flood the planet. UP: God spared eight people and told them to spread out and replenish the clean new earth. DOWN: Man ignored God, established the first United Nations movement, and reaped the judgment of God. UP: Being put-out with any hope for nations, God picked one man and his family, gave them some land and a promise of becoming a great nation. DOWN: The family moved to Egypt and became enslaved.UP: God calls a man to lead His people out of Egypt and gives them written laws. DOWN: When their Lawgiver shows up in the flesh, they kill Him and choose a Gentile king instead. UP: God puts man under grace and freely gives salvation to whosoever believes and calls upon His Son for salvation. DOWN: Man rejects God's Son and worships the son of perdition instead. UP: God's sends His Son to rule over men for 1,000 years from Jerusalem. DOWN: Man gets armies together and attacks Jerusalem, thus ushering in the White Throne Judgment and the final doom of hopeless man. MORAL: "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man." Psalm 118:8