The Jerusalemites however were aware of the plots against Christ. ‘Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing to him.
That is exactly how we are before we are converted. People think that it is very mature to be independent of faith and religion, but they do not think for themselves. The whole outlook of society can be changed in a generation or two by the influence of the prevailing leadership. Moral values can be turned right round as we have seen it in the last fifty years, and people are just led by the nose. If society says, do not believe in God, believe in evolution, believe in the most far-fetched assertions, believe that the origin of life lies in some distance galaxy - this is the current scientific view. Life is too complex. The simplest cells have far too much information in them to have started here. They are too sophisticated. Darwin did not understand that, we understand it now. It must have hitched a ride on some particle or some object from outer space. It must be that there is advanced life on a distant constellation, and it has come through all the heat and the cold and the impossible journey, many, many light years to this earth and planted itself here. As things are discovered and the argument for design becomes stronger and stronger, science is on the retreat all the time, expecting us to believe the most incredibly fanciful things rather than believe in the Creator. We think by rejecting God and faith we are being individualists and thinkers. We are not. We are just doing as we are told. And it was the same with them.