by
William T. James
Powerful
forces are at work beneath the relative tranquility that masks the true state
of our nation and the world. Ours is a society that boils with turbulence
beneath
a veneer of sophistication. It is a society mirrored by television soap operas
and hedonistic movies which have, in turn, mesmerized much of the
American
public. Life has indeed imitated art, while year after year morals have
degenerated and the very concept of morality has been turned upside-down
and
inside out. We are a people given a thrill-a- minute fix to satisfy our
insatiable cravings for instant gratification. We are a people all the while
descending
deeper and deeper into depravity.
Gleam
and glitter and unparalleled technological gadgetry have procured for the
American public hours upon hours of time for pleasure-seeking, and it is
more
than abundantly obvious, for mischief-making. While it is true that the moguls
of science provide great benefits for human health, wealth, and achievement
within
the sphere of human potential, to see the direction in which all of this is
truly sweeping us, one has only to consider any given local evening
news
broadcast. We are not as a society every day and in every way, getting better
and better like the New Age evolutionary thinkers would have us believe.
Feeding
our voracious appetites for more exciting thrills and greater pleasures has
served only to generate phenomenal growth in criminal activity. Those
who
perceive themselves to be the have-nots ravenously desire those material things
which the American propagandists flash before their lusting eyes. Because
Big
Brother government has, in effect, destroyed work ethic through give-away
welfare programs but can in no way give this dependent class the shimmering
lifestyle
it lusts after, the rip in the fabric of society worsens daily as the
ungovernable elements engage in the only occupation they believe can secure
for
them the thrills and pleasures they seek. As a result, gang members as young as
seven years of age live and often die in their unattainable pursuits.
Can
there be any doubt that conditions and activities which God's Word predicts
will be prevalent while the end of the age approaches are now being played
out
before our very eyes? The similarities between the biblical descriptions and
the reports we witness on our nightly newscasts are stunningly evident.
Man's
atrocities against his fellow man are pandemic. Stories of debased human
behavior are so numerous that those items which would have formerly been
front
page headlines now are relegated to pages farther back because even more
heinous stories overshadow them.
Jesus
himself prophesied about the generation that would inhabit Planet Earth at the
time of His Second Advent: "But as the days of Noah were, so shall
also
the coming of the Son of man be" (Matt: 24:37). Jesus Christ, who is God
himself, gave with that reference based upon Scripture recorded in the past
and
Scripture He knew was yet to be recorded - an unmistakable characterization of
the generation alive at the time of His Second Advent. Jesus said, while
discoursing
with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, that that generation, like the
pre-flood society of Noah's day, will be "eating and drinking, marrying
and
giving in marriage" (Matt. 24:38). Like in Noah's day, society will be
conducting business as usual, having become desensitized to the perversities
going
on around them and even more desensitized to any consideration of the things of
God and the fact that divine judgment was already on the way.
Daniel
the prophet said: "And the end of it shall be with a flood" (Dan. 9:
26), meaning a flood of incorrigibly wicked behavior and a flood of God's wrath
and
judgment poured upon that unrepentant, blasphemous people of the apocalypse.
Jesus said that the generation alive at the end of the age will be totally
immersed
in doing what is right in their own eyes, as were the antediluvians of Noah's
day. The people of that earlier, doomed generation were marrying,
partying,
and busily engaged in commerce while their perversions, debaucheries, violence,
and blasphemies were simply well-accepted, even welcomed ingredients
within
the cultural and societal mixture of the time. Jesus said that they were
carrying on as usual "until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And
knew
not until the flood came, and took them all away, so shall also the coming of
the son of man be" (Matt. 24:28-39).
Jesus
was saying that people living at the time of His return will have become so
rebellious as to have rejected the notion of a Creator God. Their thinking
will
have become so reprobate, their consciences so seared, that many will no doubt
even forget that such a God was ever said to have existed! Christ's
coming
will be so swift and startling that it will be analogous to the horror of that
long ago, worldwide deluge that destroyed all but those who were
found
righteous in God's eyes. Just prior to that flood Enoch disappeared, having
been translated into the presence of the God with whom he walked righteously
(Gen.
5:24). Noah and his family were supernaturally preserved upon the raging sea
that engulfed the entire earth (Gen. 8).
Jesus
also drew the parallel between the time of the destruction of the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah and the days that will immediately precede the consummation
of
the age. "Also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank,
they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; But the same day that Lot
went
out
of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed" (Luke
17:28-29).
Peter
the apostle wrote about Lot's days of interaction with the people of Sodom:
"For that righteous man [Lot] dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing,
vexed
his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds" (2 Pet.
2:8). Peter then went on to imply the type of behavior which greatly disturbed
Lot
- the sort of behavior that inevitably brings on Almighty God's indignation and
judgment.
But
chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise
government. Presumptuous are they; self-willed, they are not afraid to
speak
evil of dignities.... But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and
destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and
shall
utterly perish in their own corruption, And shall receive the reward of
unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to revel in the daytime.
Spots
they are and blemishes, reveling with their own deceiving while they feast with
you. Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin;
beguiling
unstable souls; an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed
children, Who have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray....
These
are wells without water, clouds that are carried with the tempest, to whom the
mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when they speak great swelling
words
of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness,
those that are just escaping from them who live in error. While they
promise
them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption; for of whom a man
is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage" (2 Pet. 2:8-19).
God's
Word speaks powerfully of His opinion about the vile activities that were
commonplace during Lot's day warning all generations that His righteous
judgment
must and will fall on those who engage in ungodly enterprises. "Even as
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves
over
to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example,
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. In like manner also these filthy
dreamers
defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities ... these speak
evil of those things which they know not; but what they know naturally,
as
brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! For they
have gone in the way of Cain. ... Raging waves of the sea, foaming out
their
own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness
forever" (Jude 7-13).
The
Holy Scripture then rolls before the mind's eye of our imagination the awesome
truth contained within the words, "it is a fearful thing to fall in the
hands
of the living God" (Heb. 10: 3 1). As the Book of Jude continues:
"And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying,
Behold, the
Lord
cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to
convict all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which
they
have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners
have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after
their
own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons
in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the
words
which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How they
told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after
their
own ungodly lusts. These are they who separate themselves, sensual, having not
the Spirit" (Jude 14-19).
Ruth
Bell Graham is attributed to have made the statement, in the context of
surveying the growing wickedness she observed in her nation, that if God did
not
judge the United States, He would surely have to apologize to the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah. Many years have passed since Mrs. Graham allegedly
made
that (in my opinion, very correct) assessment. Does the fact that the United
States has not been obliterated by fire and brimstone, all of its population
consumed
in a thermonuclear holocaust or by supernatural fire from the heavens, mean
that we, as a nation of people, are improving in our conduct to the
extent
the Almighty will not judge like He did those now- extinct, ancient cities? Or
does it mean that Mrs. Graham was wrong?
One
thing is sure. God is never wrong and thus need never apologize for His
actions. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8.) His
immutability
is
perfectly consistent as recorded throughout His Word to His creation called
mankind. Thankfully, and praise His holy name, so is His quality of mercy,
His
slowness to anger and wrath - else the little, though tremendously prideful
creature called man, would long ago have ceased to exist.
Mrs.
Graham dramatically made the frightening (but true) point that sin ultimately
brings death to individuals and to nations who transgress God's laws
and
refuse to repent. God's judgment might, in some cases, seem slow in falling as
man counts finite time, but God's judgment is certain! This brings us
to
the question: Where does America - and for that matter, the world - stand in
relationship to sin, repentance, and God's judgment like that which consumed
the
wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? Has the TV soap opera- like hedonism in
which our society has gleefully bathed made the days of our lives, as
the
world turns, cleaner for all my children - and yours? Or have the filth and
scum simply been loosened from the bottom of the world's bathtub and brought
to
the surface through glamour and aggrandizement to the point they stick to and
permeate our lives while they, at the same time, provide a putrefying
cesspool
environment for sin-germs to incubate and for soul- destroying infection to
spread?
Most
adults in America today would, if honesty prevailed, acknowledge that our
culture has changed markedly during the course of the last decade. Many of
those
adults - especially those of us 40 years of age and older - would have to
admit, if that same degree of honesty held firm, societal conditions in
America
and the world have suffered phenomenal degeneration despite spectacular
technological breakthroughs and sometimes heroic efforts to better mankind's
lot
by individuals and institutions. That the human race is in rapid decline does
not surprise Christians who are spiritually attuned to the prophetic
warnings
of their Heavenly Father's written Word.
"Evil
men and seducers shall become worse and worse, deceiving and being
deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13). "This know also, that in the last days
perilous times
shall
come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural
affection,
trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are
good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more
than
lovers of God, Having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it.... For
of this sort are they who creep into houses, and lead captive silly
women
laden with sins, led away with various lusts, Ever learning, and never able to
come to the knowledge of truth" (2 Tim. 3:1-7).
Does
any of that seem familiar? Indeed, has not the entertainment industry, even
down to and including the hundreds of hours of commercial advertising
productions
with
which our senses are assaulted daily crept into our houses and "led
captive, silly women" and incidentally - "silly men"? Are not
our fallen human
lusts
whipped into ever-heightening frenzies while we see mankind's most wicked
imaginings glamorously advertised on our television screens? Is it any
wonder
that our national and world societies have, in biblical terms, "gone the
way of Cain"?
Paul
the Apostle, in that 2 Timothy account, warned that the last days' generation
will pay the price for its self-sufficient, self-centered godlessness.
"For
their folly shall be manifest to all men" (2 Tim. 3:9).
Sen.
Robert Dole (R-Kansas), speaking in Hollywood against what he called the moral
pollution that comes out of the entertainment industry, said: "Our music,
movies,
television, and advertising regularly push the limits of decency, bombarding
our children with destructive messages of casual violence and even
more
casual sex. The line of decency has been crossed. It is crossed every time
sexual violence is given a catchy tune, when teen suicide is set to an
appealing
beat, when Hollywood's dream factories turn out nightmares of depravity."
John Gizzy, editor of Human Events, said of Dole's speech:
This
declaration of war on the kingpins of culture sounds familiar, a lot like Dan
Quayle's Murphy Brown speech three years ago. The only difference is
the
reaction when the then-vice president fired his missile on Murphy, the media,
the moguls generally mocked him, saying it was foolish for a national
figure
to criticize a fictional character. And besides, it was an election year and the
economy was what folks wanted to hear about. Well, not so with
Mr.
Dole's speech. Although many in the press said he was harsh, and Hollywood is
whining its mantra of "I'm being picked on," the Senate majority
leader
is
also winning praise for what the majority of us have thought privately: That
there is a relationship between the salaciousness of entertainment and
an
increasingly unpleasant America, a place where we've gone from "Leave it
to Beaver" to "Beavis and Butthead" and from sons hunting with
their fathers
to
sons hunting their fathers.'
Dr.
James Dobson, a well-known psychologist and outspoken proponent for the concept
of Judeo-Christian morality in America, brought to light in an agonizingly
revealing
way the extent to which America's love affair with sin has now reached the
depths that her "folly" is beginning to become "manifest to all
men."
In
a speech to the National Religious Broadcasters during February 1994 at
Washington, DC, Dobson said regarding the children of America:
There
is something that is going on in their spirits and their hearts and their
souls, and it is dramatic. We have had a 500 percent increase in violence
among
the young since 1960. The number of teenagers killed by gunshot wounds has
increased 85 percent since 1980.... A child born and raised in the United
States
has a 15 times greater probability of being killed by gunshot than a child born
and raised in Northern Ireland. We've become one of the most violent
nations
in the history of the world. And especially with the violence that we are
perpetrating on children and they are passing on to one another, we have
raised
... at least a part of a generation that believes that the way to deal with
conflict is you kill somebody, you shoot somebody.
Tulane
University just released a research project where they asked suburban high
school students about this matter of teen violence. They asked them, "When
is
it appropriate to shoot somebody?" That's quite a question. Can you
imagine, 20 years ago, asking a question like that - when does it make sense to
shoot
somebody? Twenty percent of those suburban, high school kids said it is
appropriate to shoot somebody if they steal something petty theft. It's
appropriate
to
kill them! Eight percent of those kids said it is appropriate to shoot somebody
who insults you.... It is an unbelievable development that has occurred
in
this culture.
The
Rhode Island Rape Crisis Center asked a similar question. It asked, "When
is it appropriate, when does it make sense, when is it right, for a boy to
force
a girl to have sex with him?" Now another word for that is
"rape." So "When is it appropriate for a guy to rape a
girl?" Another incredible question.
Twenty-five
percent of the boys in the sixth through the ninth grade said it is appropriate
for a boy to force a girl to have sex with him if he has spent
money
on her. They asked them how much, and the average is $10- $15. If he spends 15
bucks on her, he's got a right to rape her! They believe this! Ibis
is
what they've been taught, or at least what they've been hearing. And 67 percent
of them said that if a boy had dated a girl for six to eight months,
he's
got a right to rape her. This is the world in which they live. This is the
violence of the world of the young.
And
the violence that's taking place there now ... is dramatically different than
it was a few years ago. Because it is frequently without passion. It is
without
anger. It is wanton brutality. It is without conscience. It is without
compassion. It is violence for violence's sake. You have been reading about
it
in the papers and so have 1.
In
Virginia, there was a 14-year-old boy sitting in a car at a stop light and he
got out of his car, someone else was driving, and walked over to the car
next
to him and shot the man sitting there. He shot him six times in the face with a
45-caliber pistol. They asked him why he did it; he said, "Because
he
was checkin' me out." The man looked at him and he killed him!
In
Seattle, there were 12- and 13-year-old boys who decided to kill the next
customer who came out of a 7-11 convenience store. So they sat there and waited
randomly
for who came out. It happened to be a 72-year-old man and they beat him to
death with a baseball bat just to watch him die. This [sort of thing]
occurred
occasionally in the past, but it's an everyday happening now.
In
West Palm Beach, Florida, a 13-year-old girl took a ride in a cab. There was a
$6 cab fare at the end. Instead of paying it, she blew the back of the
head
off of the cab driver. Her own mother said, "It was frightening; she
didn't shed a tear. She didn't even care. . . ."
Now,
what's going on here?.. . Some of us, myself included, blame a lot of it on
Hollywood, the entertainment industry ... the Rambo-type nonsense that's
going
on. We've just pumped violence into the ears and the eyes of these kids ... but
that's still not the basis of the problem. When you really get down
and
look at it, it comes right back to the disintegration of the family and the
victimization of children that takes place, especially in the inner city
but
throughout our society [as well]. .
Dobson
went on to itemize the many self-centered activities such as drugs and alcohol
abuse and all other forms of selfish living that cause parents to
neglect
their children.
When
you put all of that together, you've got an incredible number of abused and
neglected children ... the latest estimate I've seen is something on the
order
of 10 million abused and neglected children that are out there. And you have,
not uncommonly - and social workers will tell you this - a baby who
is
left in the crib for two or three days with dirty diapers, and when he gets
diaper rash and cries from the pain, he is slapped and hit and beaten. All
of
us who have been on the faculties of large hospitals have seen these kids coming
in, have seen them broken and battered and bruised and wounded. There
is
a phenomenon that's called the "red sock syndrome." It's where
parents get angry at their kids and to punish them, they get scalding hot water
in the
bathtub
and they sit these kids down in it and it scalds and blisters their feet, and
they come in looking like they have red socks on. And they put their
little
bottoms in it. I mean, one mother in Los Angeles cut her child's eyes out with
a razor blade. It is unbelievable what is happening to children.
It
must break the heart of God to see what we're doing to kids, and not just a few
of them there have always been some kids that have been abused, but
there
are millions of them out there ......
Dr.
Dobson went on to say that perhaps the neglect of America's children is even
worse than the abuse.
We
have five and six year olds now across the country who get u p in the morning
with nobody to dress them or look out for them, teach them anything. They
go
into the kitchen and try to find for themselves something to eat, some cereal
or something. They go off to school, they come home alone, they are in
the
house alone. Newsweek magazine did a cover story called "Growing Up
Scared. [These children] come home through these terrifying neighborhoods.
Newsweek
described
it in such graphic terms: "These pitiful little forms sitting in front of
the flickering television sets and the lengthening shadows of winter
move
up the walls and flood the comers. These kids are alone, there by
themselves."
I'll
tell you something else about children who are not supervised by parents. They
are sitting ducks for pedophiles. A pedophile who knows his business,
it's
usually a man, a bedeviled who knows what he's-doing can move into a setting
like a video center or a place where children congregate, and in five
minutes
he can have that vulnerable kid under his control because he gives that child
what he hasn't got anywhere else - love and attention. And then he
exploits
him and abuses him and destroys him.
Dobson
continued by saying that tremendous sums of money have been expended by the
federal government to research cause and effect within the dynamics of
the
tremendously increasing violence being experienced by American society today.
They
now believe ... that this generation of teenagers who have no conscience or
very little conscience have been brain-damaged at birth or very shortly
after
- some of them, even in utero, from the stresses associated with disintegrating
families. So these kids that shoot people on the streets are not
like
the rest of us; they don't feel. They can't feel. They can't feel for other
people. They have no empathy, they have no conscience. And their brutality
is
a reflection of the rage they have inside, but which is not linked to the governing
authority of our consciences that keep it in check.
Dr.
Dobson summarized the days of our lives, as the world turns in America, by
saying, in part:
Society
is going to pay an incredible price for the neglect and the rejection of this
generation of kids. We have become so selfish, so self-centered, so
determined
to have it all, that we have kids around our feet who hardly know us.... The
generation I'm describing is like a storm cloud moving over the
Pacific
heading for the West Coast. It's going to be over Colorado before very long,
and it's going to move on across the East Coast, That generation is
going
to be in charge. They're going to be the parents of tomorrow. And America is in
a great deal of trouble. [One psychiatrist has] said, "We've lost
one
generation. We may be able to survive it. But we will not survive the loss of
another."... Because what happens to the family affects everything else.
Everything
sits on that foundation. Our institutions, our government, our way of life, our
faith that's dependent on the family. You can't evangelize the
next
generation if the family is destroyed.'
To
carry the analogy of our soap opera-like existence in America today a bit
further, it is altogether accurate but perhaps a glaring understatement to
characterize
a huge and growing segment of our children as "the young and the
restless."
The
fact that we live in a world that grows sicker by the minute is undeniable
except to the most ostrich-like among us. A head-in-the-sand approach to
life
might, for a time, provide a degree of insulation against the worsening
conditions closing in on even the most isolated havens of safety. Nonetheless,
the
time seems to be rapidly approaching when this generation of earth's population
will reach the fever pitch of that ancient generation described by
Paul
the apostle in his letter to the Romans. Those people, like many - perhaps the
majority - of our present generation of people, apparently thought
the
conditions which engulfed them were merely normal for the times in which they
lived. They failed to detect the rising, killing temperature of their
societal
fever like in the perhaps trite but appropriate proverbial story of the frog
simmering, then finally boiling to death in a pot of water because
the
rise in temperature was so gradual he could not sense the change. Could it be
that this generation of earth dwellers, like those in Noah's day, like
those
about whom Paul wrote, is failing to or woefully refusing to read the thermometer
of our time?
Paul
wrote God's thoughts to all generations - perhaps particularly to the
generation of people who will be alive at the time of Christ's return - about
the
course of degenerate human conduct that inevitably brings the Almighty's righteous
judgment:
For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, Because that
which
may
be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shown it unto them. For the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so
that they are without excuse; Because, when they knew God, they glorified
Him
not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they
became
fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like
corruptible man, and birds, and four- footed beasts, and creeping
things.
Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own
hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, Who exchanged
the
truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the
Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen (Rom. 1: 18-23).
God,
through the apostle Paul, then sets down some very specific forms of depravity
that are inescapably familiar.
For
this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did
exchange the natural use for that which is against nature; And likewise also
the
men, leaving the natural use of the women, burned in their lust one toward
another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in
themselves
that
recompense of their error which was fitting. And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind
to
do those things which are not seemly, Being filled with all unrighteousness,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder,
strife,
deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, insolent, proud,
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents; Without
understanding,
covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; Who,
knowing the judgment of God, that they who commit such things
are
worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them
(Rom. 1:26-32).
It
is perhaps a misnomer to characterize this chapter with the title "Days of
Our Lives as the World Turns." A more descriptive title for the darkening
times
might be "The Edge of Night." This generation, if our hourly
newscasts are accurate indicators, is indeed raging toward a precipice beyond
which
lurks
the black abyss of apocalypse. Certainly world society has for some time now
been exhibiting all of the symptoms that were prevalent during the time
of
the ancients, symptoms of the sin-virus engendered incorrigibility which caused
a loving God to give the patient up to its self-willed self- destruction.
Notice
that Paul writes in Romans 1:28 that "God gave them over to a reprobate
MIND."
That
generation, like the ancients of Sodom and Gomorrah who would come later, were
of one absolutely unchangeable mindset. They would rather perish than
change!
They were all in agreement. They were all inalterably determined that each had
the right to do what was right in his own eyes.
Undoubtedly,
these judgment-bound societies termed doing what was right in their own eyes
"freedom of choice." They pursued their own form and concept of
life,
liberty, and happiness totally apart from the loving God who created them. In
their willful right to choose, obstinacy lay the chains of their enslavement
to
sin and, ultimately, God's wrath and, ultimately, destruction. It took the
gushing waters of a broken earth and an angry, deluging sky to cleanse the
sin-sick
world of Noah's pre-flood days. It took the fire and brimstone conflagration
sent by a God of righteous judgment to purify that area of the earth's
surface
occupied by the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah during Lot's day.
God's
Holy Word speaks bluntly about the cause and effect of sin-disease that ravaged
the earliest reported civilizations. Considering the Holy Spirit's
words
spoken through Paul's pen, it is clear that the people of those ancient
civilizations flatly rejected the truth of God, although God plainly manifested
himself
to them. "Because, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish
heart
was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Rom.
1:21-22).
Let
us briefly attempt to dissect what God's Word tells us was a systemic infection
within that antediluvian society, with the hope of determining similarities
between
the state of moral decay during their time on earth as compared to our own.
Paul
reported about the corrupted ancients that they "changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and
four-footed
beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness
through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies
between
themselves, Who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served
the creature more than the Creator" (Rom. 1:23-25).
God's
first statement in Paul's letter to the Romans in reference to sinful behavior
that causes His anger to rise and His wrath to fall upon unrepentant
mankind,
whether individuals or nations, is frighteningly unequivocal. "For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness
of
men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom. 1: 18). After stating
that He has clearly made himself known to humankind through the creation that
surrounds
them, God exposes that early generation's un-thankfulness and points an
omniscient finger of guilt toward their idolatrous betrayal, the particular
act
which seems most egregious to Him.
Those
people had "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made
like corruptible man." In other words, this generation, although they knew
that
God is God, nonetheless rejected Him and His own declaration to himself, the
Godhead (the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit).
"Let
us make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26.). These willful people in effect
said to the Almighty, "We are not made like unto your image; rather, we
will
make
you into whatever image we choose!" They were obviously saying further,
"We, like Lucifer, choose to become gods ourselves! Even though we are
creatures,
we
choose to worship and serve ourselves - that is, do what is right in our own
eyes - rather than worship and serve You even though all creation that
surrounds
us are clearly witness to the fact that you are the Creator."
That
generation, like Lucifer, who is that old serpent, Satan, and the devil,
thereby exhibited the sinful thing which God says He hates above all others;
their
idolatry brought into focus their supremely arrogant PRIDE.
The
writer of Proverbs records for us God's opinion of this most heinous sin.
"These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto
him:
A
proud look" (Prov. 0: 16-17).
Idolatry,
then, springs from, then orbits the iniquitous thing called pride. When
idolatry becomes full-blown, i.e., a state of arrogance that manifests
itself
through determination to usurp the very throne of the eternal God, God
apparently quits dealing with that individual, with that generation, and
allows
their mind to become reprobate. This means the mindset is one that is darkened
by the infection called sin to the point that insanity rather than
rationality
rules the minds of men - not only the physical minds of men, but spiritual
discernment as well. When that point of incorrigibility is reached
and
God lets man do what is right in his own eyes, human society is very soon
turned upside down.
Almighty
God, using His people, Israel, to speak not only to the generation of that time
but to all generations and all nations, warns of the consequences
of
becoming so vile as a society or as an individual that God allows reprobate
mentality to have its way. "Woe unto them who call evil, good, and good,
evil;
who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet,
and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them who are wise in their own eyes,
and
prudent in their own sight! ... Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble,
and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness,
and
their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have cast away the law of the
Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore
is
the anger of the Lord kindled" (Isa. 5:20-25).
God
expounds further through the prophet Isaiah about such prideful nations and
individuals. "Ali, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of
evildoers,
children that are corrupters; they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked
the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Why
should ye be [dealt with through correction] anymore? Ye will revolt more and
more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole
of
the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and
bruises, and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up,
neither
mollified with ointment" (Isa. 1:4-6).
Isaiah
then continues by putting forth the terrifying fact that in God's foreknowing
mind, these and all such reprobate peoples will suffer terribly. In
God's
thoughts, their fall is already an accomplished thing. ". . . Your country
is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land, foreigners devour
it
in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners" (Isa.
1:7).
God
told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the fruit that was forbidden, they would
surely die. They nonetheless succumbed to the serpent's tempting appeal
to
their pride - the implied promise that if they ate of the fruit, they would be
"as God." So pride, the sort that causes human beings to desire to
usurp
Almighty
God's authority, is poison to those who fall to its alluring tug just as God
warned. We can say with certainty that God's warning about the fatally
toxic
effects of disobedience to Him was true. Every person inevitably gives up his
physical existence to death. Pride, then, is not a characteristic that
leads
to a more desirable quality of life as those who preach self esteem would have
it, but it is a fallen human trait that has always brought and continues
to
bring death to all mankind.
A
most tragic manifestation of humanistic pride equaling death is most clearly
seen in the human historical record. Every civilization, culture, and society
that
has gone so deep into idolatry as to have exchanged "the truth of God for
a lie" have had as a common practice in their idol worship the insane
horror
of
child sacrifice.
History
is replete with accounts of human sacrifice to pagan gods. Almost always those
sacrifices involve the most vulnerable. Children, young women, and
sometimes
the aged were most often selected by the practitioners of those abominable acts
to placate their insatiable gods. We have all read of the Incas
and
the Aztecs, of the ancient Hawaiians, and of many other so-called civilizations
whose hearts became so sin-blackened that their foolish minds grew
dark,
and human sacrifice was the ultimate result. However, it is a sad truth that
those heathens were not the only societies to reach that depth of depravity.
God
wrote through Jeremiah the prophet: "Because of all the evil of the
children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to
provoke
me
to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets,
and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And they have
turned
unto me the back, and not the face; though I taught them, rising up early and
teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.
But
they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile
it. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley
of
the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the
fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my
mind,
that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin" (Jer.
32:32-35).
There
is no way the people of today's world as we approach the dawn of a new millennium
would do the foolish and even insane acts historically attributed
to
those ancient heathen! Such might be the wishful acclamation of the most
optimistic among our number in today's world. Especially in America. Surely
an
overwhelming majority of Americans would never fall prey to idolatry that, for
example, "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made
like
corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."
Oh no?
With
the primary god of this age, mammon (money), have not the affluent among our
ranks, individually and collectively, fashioned the idols we have chosen
to
worship into forms that pleasure our own imaginations? Instead of worshipping
the Creator, do we of this generation not rather bend the knee to our
cars,
boats, and our sports teams - many of which we have named after birds,
four-footed beasts, and creeping things or after signs of the zodiac? Do we
not
sit for hours at a time before our television sets, amused at the debased
activities we see, some of which might have made even the ancient pagans
blush?
The debasing goings-on within our television screens draw our transfixed
attention, in many cases resulting in the neglect of our children who
desperately
need
and want nurturing. Are these not altars from which emanate the images made
like corruptible man?
But
surely ours is not a generation of earth dwellers that has reached the point
God has given us over to a collective reprobate mind. We would never allow
child
sacrifice, which is one of the sure manifestations of a totally reprobate
civilization. Really?
Since
Roe v. Wade was upheld by the Supreme Court of the land, more than 30 million
babies have been aborted. Under the auspices of the secular religion
called
humanism, these little ones were and continue to be judged nothing more than
self-created possessions subject to disposal, should the women carrying
them
so choose. Abortion on demand has generated a multi-billion- dollar industry
based on infanticide (some would say feticide). By far, the greater number
of
abortions are performed for the purpose of ridding the person and/or people
involved of the child who would, they fear, interfere with their own
self-centered
lifestyle.
The majority are abortions of convenience, contraception after the fact of, in
most cases, illicit sexual activity.
If
God judged Israel for turning her back on Him, rebellion that brought a mindset
so darkened by sin that they offered children in sacrifice to pagan Gods,
will
He not judge America? No other nation has been more blessed with the light of
God's Truth. Yet daily, under the full sanction of the United States
government,
thousands of our children are passed through the fires of abortion, sacrificed
to the gods of convenience and pleasure and hedonism under the
specious
claim that a woman has a right to choose to do what she wishes with her own
body. In this convoluted way, freedom of choice becomes the willful
demand
to do what is right in their own eyes. In effect, she proclaims herself to be
god-like. Child sacrifice, then, is idolatry come to fruition.
Paul
the apostle, under inspiration, gave the second most pronounced manifestation
of any society that has totally turned its back on the loving God who
has,
time and time again, called for it to turn from its course of wickedness. In
spite of the liberal theological acrobatics some theologians and even
secular
humanists go through to try to explain away this and other accounts of sexual
perversions that inevitably come to a hopelessly godless people,
history
attests to the truth that societal decay ends in the death throes of the basest
kind of sexual depravity.
Paul
writes of the decadent societal characteristic that is second only to immersion
in idolatry. "God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their
women
did exchange the natural use for that which is against nature. And likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust
one
toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in
themselves the recompense of their error which was fitting" (Rom.
1:26-27).
Historical
accounts of Greece and Rome, and to a lesser extent of other civilizations,
validate and expand upon Paul's brief but graphic description of
the
sexual cesspool in which these ancients ultimately became mired. There can be
no rational denial made of the fact that Paul reported homosexuality
to
be the most glaring manifestation of that society's incorrigibility.
We
should take note of God's account through Paul of the fact that these people so
submerged in sexual prurience - particularly the male homosexuals - were
"receiving
in themselves the recompense of their error, which was fitting." It is an
appropriate speculation to make that this must have been AIDS and/or
hepatitis
or something similar. It is interesting, too, that God said in this account
that these homosexuals were receiving in their bodies judgment because
of
the error (the sin) of their homosexual activities. God's Word says quite
bluntly that the punishment fit the crime.
To
review the past several decades with regard to how homosexuality has evolved
from being a thing kept in our culture's closet to its acceptance now as
an
"alternate lifestyle" would be boringly redundant because of our
familiarity with the facts. We have been fed daily doses of desensitizing
hyperbole
intended
to convince us to accept that terrible, dehumanizing activity as not only
normal, but as "gay. " What God calls "vile, " modem man
calls "gay.
"
Perhaps nothing more need be said about how thinking in our generation has
become so reprobate that evil is now called good, and good is now called evil.
Not
only is what God called "vile" now called "gay," but those
who give a clarion call back to morality and point out the mind darkened
sin-error of such
perversion
are vilified as "intolerant bigots" at best or as "homophobic
Nazi- types" at worst.
While
AIDS and the many deadly infections spawned and perpetuated by the homosexual
activity raging unabated throughout the world today are reasons for
great
concern, the disregard for human dignity and the sanctity of human life
fostered by such permissiveness are even greater cause for alarm.
One
recent case in point illustrates that a permissive society whose philosophy
revolves around unbridled sexual liberty takes its people down a broad road
that
leads to human degradation and even death.
In
an article titled, "Sex, Death, and Videotape," an account of sexual
freedom taken to its ultimate extent emerged from what has seemingly become an
avalanche
of
such reports.
In
Canada, the murder trial of the year isn't O.J.'s. The two victims, innocent
girls in their early teens, wept while a video camera recorded their suffering.
Raped
and beaten and destined for strangulation, they were held as sex slaves in a
suburban Ontario bedroom. Their kidnapper forced the girls to act out
his
fantasies and call him master. He taunted them with their impending deaths,
forcing the second girl to watch videotape of her predecessor's ordeal.
And
they weren't his only victims. The first was his wife's little sister, who was
drugged and served up to him one holiday eve. "A great Christmas present
for
me," he was quoted as saying. That was the story Canadians had waited two
years to hear. When the sensational trial of the alleged sex killer, a
clean-cut
young
accountant named Paul Bernardo, finally began in Toronto last week, the
prosecutor's six-hour opening statement made listeners cringe.... Just before
Christmas
in 1990, Carla [Bernardo's wife], helped him ply her sister, Tammy, 15, with
liquor and sleeping pills until she passed out. Bernardo is charged
with
raping Tammy and forcing Carla to perform oral sex on her, recording it all on
video. The unconscious Tammy later died, choking on her own vomit in
what
was initially ruled an accidental death."'
Many
symptoms of systemic sin sickness boil to the surface and erupt for all to see
between the time a society determines to turn its back on God and the
time
a people become so wicked God gives up pleading for them to repent because
their hearts and minds cannot be turned again to Him. Again, the apostle
Paul
starkly delineates specific symptoms displayed by a society well on its way to
incorrigibility and thus God's judgment. Consider carefully God's examining
checklist
as put forth in Paul's letter to the Romans. Recall for a moment your own
experiences as you have dealt with the people in situations around
you
this past month while going about life's activities. Recognize any of the
symptoms within Paul's description?
"Being
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness; envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters,
haters
of God, insolent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to
parents; Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection,
implacable,
unmerciful; Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they who commit such things
are worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure
in
them that do them" (Rom. 1:29-32).
How
sick is the patient? What is the prognosis for the sin sickness that courses
through the life's blood of this generation? We must seek answers to these
questions
by first examining our own lives. Society, culture, and civilization is no
better or worse collectively than its individual members. The sickness
that
afflicts one afflicts all. The good news is there is a cure. And the cure is
THE GOOD NEWS! The Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ who came to
seek
and to save every person from the darkness of sin. God is "not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet.
3:9).
Jesus
Christ alone can regenerate the hearts and minds of fallen man and restore him
to health and newness of life. If you haven't done so, take the cure.
Accept
Jesus Christ this moment as your Savior and your Lord. Then the days of your
life, as the world turns, will fill with energy and excitement while
you seek to serve the One who dispels the darkness of this doomed age. Jesus is the Guiding Light!