DEATH ON THE DESKTOP

Eh! There is death on this desktop here! It is on this desktop here too! Mine, it is all around everywhere!
Worthy of being described with such weighty words is nothing but the menace of various cyber crimes and abuse of the
internet- a monster ravaging our society today.

The last two decades of human existence have undoubtedly witnessed more inventions in the field of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) than all other years of man put together. Prominent among such inventions is the amazing
product called International Network, (Internet for short). The Internet is a network of networks, made up of tens of
thousands of computers, computer networks and users all over the world, providing several millions of information pages.
Whereas the internet is the substance of some peoples' sense of responsibility to humanity and their commitment to
information technology, it is quiet disheartening that many today chose to rather abuse and misuse this great tool of our
generation.

Cyber crime simply means harmful or unlawful acts or conducts committed from, with or against a computer network
(Internet). In a recent publication by a professional body cyber crime has been said to include economic/financial offences
(e.g theft, fraud, product piracy e.t.c.), prostitution/pornography and other immoral conducts, illegal access, organized crimes,
terrorism, propagation of illegal, harmful contents (virus) e.t.c. It is a common occurrence today to spot young boys and girls
in various cyber café logged on to various pornographic websites and feasting on such sites all night long. The boys are
commonly seen glued to the computer screen with keen interest and attention on nothing else but nude pictures of women
whose mission in life is to promote nudity and obscenity; the girls on the other hand are seen interacting with men on the net,
posting their pictures on the net for the satisfaction of the fleshly desires of these men. Another cross section of these abusers
of the internet are fraudsters; these ones engaged their intellects and instincts in gaining unauthorized access to other peoples'
privacy and thereby defraud these people carting away huge sum of money in the process. Infact, the rate at which cyber
crime is spreading its tentacles is quite alarming and frightening.

The perpetrators of these evil acts seem to be having a good time out there in their quest to satisfy their fleshly desires. To
them, there seems to be no check to their evil acts and there seems to be no repercussion at hand. How wrong and ignorant
they could be! These workers of iniquity had better realized now that there is surely an impending ultimate judgment
awaiting them and that coming not from a mortal man but from the Supreme Being- the one that owns the soul in them.

You wonder if truly cyber crime would be punished by God? Oh yes! It will DEFINITELY be punished inasmuch as the
word of God says, "All unrighteousness is sin" (I John 5:17). Invariably, it is a fact not subject to debate that all forms of
cyber crimes are sin and punishable by God who the bible said is daily angry at sinners (Psalms 7:11). The punishment is in
no small term the ultimate judgment- DEATH. The scripture affirms this in Romans 6:23; "For the wages of sin is death" and
in Revelations 21:8 "But the fearful… the abominable… the whoremongers shall have their part in the lake… which is the
second DEATH" The consequence of engaging in any form of cyber crime is quiet frightening! Have you been caught in the
web of this societal malady already? May be you are even neck deep in it and it seems as if you cannot disengage from it.
Does the thought of the coming judgment frighten you? Here comes good news for your relief.

If you would just ACKNOWLEDGE yourself today as a sinner (Romans 3:23) and REPENT (Luke 13:3 & 5) of all sins
(including cyber crimes) i.e. you feel a godly sorrow in you for ever engaging in those evil acts, assurances there are that
you'll escape the wrath of God coming upon the sinners. You go on to FORSAKE your sins (Isaiah 55:7), i.e. you don't go
back into them, you detest and hate those sinful acts. Lastly, you take the step of faith, you BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus
Christ, the son of God who has been made atonement for your sins. (John1: 12)

As comforting as it is to know that these aforementioned steps would avail you an escape route out of the coming judgment,
it is much more frightening to realize that failure to take the steps will definitely earn you the full wrath of God. Really, there
is death on your desktop if you go on practicing any form of cyber crime for God's word said " EXCEPT YE REPENT, YE
SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH" (Luke 13:3,5).

Courtesy: Deeper Life Campus Fellowship,

DLCF