In the evangelical church we have placed so much emphasis on individual salvation that we miss the inconvenient truth that there is also collective sin. The Bible verse that brought this to my attention is Isaiah 6:5 "“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” " Notice Isaiah confesses his own sin, 'I am a man of unclean lips' and then goes on to confess his part in the collective sin of the society in which he lives 'and I live among a people of unclean lips'.
So what does that mean to us today. Here in the West we, generally, live a very comfortable life without a thought of the cost of our life style to the rest of the world. Today this is being brought home by the events in Libya. In order to get hold of the oil we need our governments have been involved in accepting the rule of Gaddafi despite knowing he is an oppressive dictator. Now his own people are rebelling against him and he is using totally unacceptable force against them. This is happening because we supported him to get oil.
The next time you here about planes and battle field weapons being used against unarmed civilians in Libya don't just think about how terrible it is but pray to God for forgiveness for our collective involvement.
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