Sin By Any Other Name Is Still Sin

In light of what I view as a continued moral slide towards national ruin recently highlighted by court rulings in favor of homosexual marriage and a government’s refusal to defund Planned Parenthood, I felt like writing a social commentary on sin.

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?

"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.