Vol. XIII • 1991 http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v13n3p16.htm
Who Holds the Mortar and the Trowel?
Richard Bruce
If we look around today we see immorality on all sides; more than 1.5 million babies are killed each year by abortion in the United States; homosexuals and lesbians parade for "rights" and approval; one out of every two marriages ends in divorce; more couples than ever live together without being married; promiscuous sex, especially among teen-agers, continues to rise, accompanied by rampant spread of venereal diseases and pregnancy; drug use is increasing among all age groups and economic levels, and so on. Why is this? Why are we seeing things now being considered as normal, average behavior, when such actions were taken for granted as immoral one or two generations ago? What has happened that has made Americans-- and people throughout the world--change so drastically?
The one thing that has changed over the last hundred years has been the almost universal acceptance of the evolutionary view which is now taught as fact in most public schools, It is a belief system which states that there is no God--at least not the God of the Bible. People are simply the result of chance. No one made you or owns you. Therefore, you are under obligation to no one--you are accountable to no one. If God's rules as given in Scripture are no longer absolute, then any opinion is just as valid as any other. This explains why people hate accountability. Accountability means the existence of a standard. But with no fixed standard of right and wrong, any behavior can be justified, "Self" is the new god. The new rules to live by are such self-worshipping slogans as: "If it feels good, do it!" or "I'm darned well worth it!" The one underlying principle to live by is to remove all obstacles that stand in the way of self-gratification, giving rise to the clamor for such "rights" as the right to abortion, the right to homosexuality, the right to pornography,
The fundamental battle is the battle between Christianity with its Creation basis and therefore absolutes, and the religion of humanism with its evolution basis and therefore its relative morality. The foundation of morality laid in Scripture--God is Creator!--was so important that God put it in the first verse of His Word: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." In Genesis 1:27, God reveals His creation of the first man and woman in God's own image: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." God's role as Creator of man is so important that He relates man's creation in specific detail again in chapter 2; "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Also, in these first two chapters of Scripture, God sets forth His plan for man: that "a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh." God blessed them and commanded them with the words, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it."
We see here a clear declaration of man's position: a creature made by God, and responsible to God. God made us and therefore owns us, so He does have a right to set the rules! And in Genesis Chapter 3, we find that living by man's rules rather than God's has consequences: in the day Adam disobeyed God, he would "surely die"--spiritual death, being separated from God, as well as physical death resulted from sin. And so, through disobedience, "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12).
Proverbs 16:25 tells us, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." If we don't obey God's laws because He is our Lord and Creator, then we ought to obey them for our own good, If we stop to think about the immorality and perversions today, we will recognize that none of them are good for us! None of them lead to life; they instead bring emotional and physical suffering, sickness and even death, The Bible tells us that we can tell if something is good or evil by its "fruits;" in secular terms this means the consequences and repercussions. What are the fruits of all the so-called "reproductive freedom" we see today? (by which is really meant non-reproductive). The fruits are promiscuity, divorce, pornography, sexual violence, STDs, AIDS, child abuse, and abortion. People who deny God's authority over them claim that they have a right to whatever "lifestyle" they choose. But theirs is not a lifestyle, it is a deathstyle: "But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul; all they that hate me love death" (Proverbs 8:36). Abortion always results in death of an innocent child. Disease is rampant where homosexuality and "free love" are chosen behaviors. These diseases frequently result in sterility; a homosexual deathstyle has no capacity for reproduction in any case. Left to itself, it would lead to the death of all human life. The disease of AIDS is a "living'" deathstyie. People who embrace their sinful lusts, under the banner of personal freedom, discover too late that their sin enslaves them in a deathstyle, not just figuratively, but in reality. This bears out Romans 5:21: "Sin has reigned unto death."
The amazing thing is that our society has chosen to follow this deathstyle which gives them absolutely no hope. Teen-agers are not encouraged to be chaste because the evolutionist/humanist sees them as trapped at the mercy of their hormones; teen sex is "normal" behavior that young people will engage in, no matter what. Homosexuals and lesbians are not encouraged to turn from their behavior because they were "born that way," and have no choice to be freed, Abortion is recommended because people will engage in sexual activity despite the possible consequence of conceiving a new, living person. The prevailing attitude of society without God is that man is a slave to his lusts--which indeed he is. Without hope for a way to escape this slavery to his "animal inclinations," the humanist (who has made himself god) strives only to free himself from the results of his actions through use of condoms, abortions, drugs, etc.
If the battle between humanism and Christianity was a battle of merely human strength, one glimpse around at the immorality that engulfs our nation and the rest of the world would be enough to convince us Christians that we have already lost. We see godless humanism in control of public education, the courts, the government, and a vast majority of churches. We see the promiscuity, drugs, thefts, rapes and the sudden escalation of violent, sadistic, gang behavior in committing these acts. We see the daily murder of over 4,000 innocent pre-born infants by their own mothers on the grounds of the "right" of a woman to do whatever she pleases with "her own body."
How long can Christianity and humanism exist beside each other before one must dominate and totally suppress the other? God tells us in Psalm 11:3, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" When there is no recognition of the scriptural foundation that God created man, and that man rebelled and sinned, bringing death, then there is no recognition of the need for redemption. This is why so many people see no need for a savior. A savior to save them from what? Evolution destroys the foundation of Christianity because it says that death is simply a part of the process of life.
Christians have stood on the sidelines too long; we have simply watched as the foundations of God as Creator crumbled away. Much of this has been our own doing, as we Christians live lives based on luxury, not sacrifice for Christ. Romans 12:1 tells us that we need to present our bodies as "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable" unto Him. But instead we are caught up in fulfilling our own pleasures; to a large extent, we have made self-gratification our god, too. Christian parents are losing the next generation--their own children--because they have ignored God's command in Deuteronomy 6:5-7: "Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Instead we Christians find ourselves striving to get the right home, the right decor, the new cars, the right friends, etc. Many Christians encourage their children to follow the latest fashion trends by buying them the "in" brands or styles, frequently at an exorbitant mark-up price. Christian parents must realize that through their example, they are training young soldiers--their own children--for the battle. What kind of soldiers will this produce? How can Christians give a testimony of the living hope within us when our lives reflect many of the same self-gratifying characteristics of those without God? Other people ought to be able to see Christ in us as in Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
It is only the Christian who has hope--hope both in this life to be free from this enslavement to sin and death, and hope of eternal life in Christ! We must "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15). At best, the humanist hopes only to escape the worst repercussions of sin, but the Christian "shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21). What is more, Christians have a hope of eternal joy and glorious rewards: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you" (I Peter 1:3-4).
Thank God that the battle is not of merely human might! Who holds the mortar and the trowel? God has given us the promise: "Thus saith the LORD unto you, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's" (II Chronicles 20:15b), We are called, not to stand in our own strength, but to "... be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might" (Ephesians 6:10). The Bible promises in II Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." Christians have let the foundations crumble right out from under our nation. God will cleanse our land either like Nineveh, through repentance and revival, or like Sodom, through destruction. We must stand up, both as individuals, as organizations, and as churches, to fight for the true foundation based on God's Word, not on man.
In our everyday living, moment by moment, we should be as holy vessels giving glory to God; our personal, prayerful efforts must strive to re-establish the true foundation in our own hearts and into the hearts of our nation. Every aspect of our lives must show forth the hope given by our foundation on God's absolute truth. We have the assurance that God will judge and bring a righteous end. Our lives must reflect our confidence that our Heavenly Father is in control, whether we fill the role of Jonah, who saw the people of Nineveh repent, or we fill the role of Jeremiah, who proclaimed truth amid persecution and an unbelieving nation. We must give all our efforts so that when God decides to bring our nation to judgment, if the people do not turn back to God, the guilt will not be on our hands. He will be able to say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." We need to be ready so that when He comes, He will find us working in the fields which are white unto harvest.
"Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
|
|
 |
|