Some of
these moral slips towards demise?
I see a data
dumps from the “cheating dirtbag” site Ashley Madison and the sheer number of
profiles involved is staggering: 32 million users; 90% of which are male. That
means 28.8 million men are attempting to have immoral illicit sexual liaisons
or are cheating spouses. You can be assured many are "Christians"
too.
I see
another financial collapse in the making too only seven years after the last
one. We've debased the currency in a world economy worse than it was in 2008
and even China is struggling. In Isaiah 1:22, the prophet records that in
Jerusalem, "Your silver has become dross." Though this speaks
primarily of the people's spiritual condition, it applied literally too. The
sign of Judah's [a nation's] decline was the devaluation of her currency; money
would not buy what it used to be able to purchase. The illustration pictures
what had once been pure silver and of full value is now so diluted by baser
metals that it is essentially worthless.
Therefore rampant
sexual immorality that becomes an acceptable norm and debasing of currency becomes
a recognizable precursor of decline and eventual national collapse. Isaiah
3:16-23 describes the wealth, finery, and attitudes of Israelite women as the
end nears, and it does not paint a pretty picture (also Amos 4:1-3). He depicts
them as "haughty" and "wanton" with more clothes, jewelry,
makeup, and accessories than they know what to do with. By chapter 5 judgments
of woe are placed in the nation.
Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio nor Ben Carson will turn the trend around. We’re too far down the road to demise.
Only God can turn the listing sinking ship around. The issue is not political
although a decent Christian candidate might actually make a positive impact.
No, what I see at the core of these issues is that there is nothing new under
the sun as Qoheleth once said in Ecclesiastes. The only thing different between
modern time and all the other eras in human history is we get the news
instantly.
Adultery,
Sexual Perversion, Murder, Denying God, Abortion, Corrupt Leadership, False
Teachers, Haughtiness, Idolatry, Covetousness, Greed, Lust, Assault, Violence,
False Accusations, False Witness, Extortion, Bribery, Blackmail, Arrogance,
Sorcery, Hate, Cruelty, Hypocrisy, Disobedience, Conceit, Fraud.
These are
the symptoms of a diseased and dying nation. The common denominator of all these
aforementioned words is sin. Sin brought down Israel and Judah and every nation
since. It will do the same to America and already is.
The word sin
and the concept of sin has not only fallen off radar in our modern culture when
it comes to fashionable terminologies it is denied outright by many because of
its close association to Christianity. In the Universal Church’s battle over
ambivalence with our postmodern culture it has become unfashionable to use
words like sin, repent, apostasy, and in due course we see that even salvation
is now out of fashion (as if it is an accessory or social accoutrement. The
world doesn’t seem to care nor notice sin. Only backwoods “fundamentalists” use
words like sin. We are sending a huge portion of our recent generations
directly to Hell never having known better because many people that do know or
should know do not correct misconceptions. It is all because certain words are not
trendy and all because certain ideas are so “yesterday”.
People are
too busy trying to make friends instead of trying to convert them and correct
their misunderstandings. The churches that do bend to the trend end up first sacrificing
the Inerrancy of Scripture and then all other biblical truths fall like
unwanted dominoes shortly after. Most churches now merely cater to people that
are indifferent to Biblical truth and are only looking for meaningless mystic
emotive spirituality that has no god behind it. Some are even shallower than
that, they want a god that fits their schedule and their needs so that it
doesn't inconvenience them.
According to
an unbelieving world, sin is no longer an issue of moral or spiritual
bankruptcy, it is now a disease or a condition that is an outcropping of our
ego, superego or our id (or whatever the shrinks are calling it this year). It
is no longer a spiritual issue but it has been brought into the naturalistic
realm and made into a medical/psychological issue. According to the medical experts
it is a disorder that is not our own fault. We need not take accountability for
this disorder because it was brought on by things like abusive parents or
enabling environments that under indulged or overindulged us because they
didn’t know any better. Good thing we do, right? Sin is now a medical condition
treatable with antidepressants, psychotropic drugs or just plain narcotics to
help you either forget all about it or dull your senses.
The human love
affair with sin didn’t end, it just changed names. When it changed names it
stopped having a relevance and connotation as something negative. It no longer
required an atoning sacrifice as God has stated. No,
instead we just needed to understand that we are a product of our environments
or social constructs. It no longer required judgment from God to correct us. If
an action really wasn’t a sin or wrong in the eyes of the people why would it
need to be judged? Why would it require justice? Man defined the terms and
thereby defined the meaning. If men said it was okay, then it was okay, wasn’t
it? If its meaning was morally neutral who would care what you did.
Does this sound familiar?
Does this sound familiar?
"It's a
victimless crime. I'm not really hurting anyone"
"I'd
never intentionally hurt someone so it’s not really my fault.”
Things have
ceased to have any definitive meaning thereby not requiring a definitive and
decisive reaction or a decisive punishment. If you haven't gotten punished then
you're not wrong, right? We confuse God’s silence for acceptance. We should be
realizing that the silence is in actuality forbearance and patience before a
necessary punishment to level the scales of justice.
Instead our
cultures twists philosophy and the perpetrators have all become victims. No one
is at fault for anything anymore. Our disorders are not the by-product of our
actions but rather a product of a society that neglected us or treated us
unfairly. No one ever directly gets blamed at and individual level and held
accountable for their actions. Only large nebulous generalized entities are
blamed, "they", "them", "the right", "the left",
"the fundamentalists"...and so it goes.
The terms
change and out goes division and divisiveness, and in comes diversity. Out goes
God’s grace and mercy and in comes man’s “rights” and boasting. Out goes love
for your neighbor and in comes “every man for himself”. Out goes optimism and
in comes cynicism and skepticism. Love is out, hate is in but hate is called
tolerance. Tolerance is acceptable but only
until you start infringing on my opinions, my life and my well-being. The "I" and "me" are more important than the
"you" and the "we".
In our
consumer society we must always have the “newest” everything even the newest
terms, slang and jargon. The problem is that these new “buzzwords” are in
actuality misnomers or deliberate misuse of terms to affect and desired end.
Verbal propaganda so to speak. Unfortunately, along with these terms come ideas
that are destroying us and doing it with a smile. Diversity, fairness,
tolerance, rights, women’s choice and marriage equality are some of these new terms
to name a few. These terms in many cases were originally created and used for
good purposes but like everything else Satan has gotten a hold of they have
become twisted and misused.
It is just
like a consumer society to toss something in the garbage can after it has lost
its appeal or perceived relevance. When something is worn out or deemed old it
is thrown out and replaced. These current terms will change again in the near
future. Evil never rests and continues to change and morph so to be
unrecognizable except to an extremely discerning eye. We as believers must stay
vigilant and call people out when we know what somethings is. This is
especially true when our culture tries to call it something it is not and
mislabel it purposely to serve their own end. Evil is still evil even when it
wears a mask.
"Woe to
those that call evil good and good evil" Isaiah 5:20
It may have
a thousand other "nicer" and "trendier" names or technical
diagnoses but a sin by any other name…is still sin. If it is sin and it is not
repented of…it accumulates God’s wrath, therefore judgment against you.
It’s like
the three monkeys holding their eyes, ears and mouth. You can pretend sin
doesn't exist, you can pretend not to hear it, you may deny speaking it, or
seeing it...but it is still there. We as humans must come to grips with the fact
that wickedness dwells in the hearts of all people. What makes the difference
is if we allow it to stay there or if it gets replaced. What we replace it with
is crucial. If we replace it with more things of the world (therapy,
psychoanalysis) we doom ourselves. If we replace it with the things of God,
with Christ, with the holy things we are on our way to true recovery and true
deliverance.
2 comments:
Most of the 10% of female cheaters turned out to be not really women.
You're an amazing writer and teacher, thank you for your time to write these wonderful posts! :)
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