Question of the week: Are there not places in the world completely dominated by evil from Satan, where Satan and his army of demons are totally in control of men and women. Are there not places as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah or worse? What do you think about all this?
My answer: Since the followers of Jesus became “the salt of the earth” after the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit first permanently indwelt them (Acts 2, 8, & 10), there has not been a single example of societal reprobation where every person in a city or nation has become reprobate. Note that in Sodom every man, young and old, in the city came to Lot’s door intent on violating his guests (Genesis 19:1–29). When Lot refused, they threatened to do the same to him and rushed to break down the door to his house.
While societal reprobation no longer exists, thanks to the presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling followers of Jesus Christ, there are, however, isolated examples of individual reprobates. The New Testament epistles (Romans 1:21–32, 2 Timothy 3:1–9; 2 Peter 2:1–22, James 4:1–12, 1 John 5:16) give us instructions on how to identify such individuals and how we should deal with them.
