Recently in the State of Louisiana a blogger went on a rant about the state’s governor and his executive order dealing with religious liberty and so-called homosexual marriage. The blogger, a heterosexual male, wrote of his support of homosexuals and their agenda because he is a human rights advocate. He even quoted Scripture. It was quoted out of context, of course, but that did not seem to bother him in the least.
His effort was to attack the biblical view of morality and the means he used did not really matter. It seemed from reading his blog that he felt his opinion on the matter was the only one that counted because it was based upon tolerance (code word for almost anything is okay).
The list of end-time characteristics of human culture given in 2 Timothy 3 is all-encompassing. It reflects the apostasy of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and is an excellent description of the social drift we are seeing. Some Christians are deeply involved in efforts to change the direction of society, and they work incessantly toward that end.
It is true that we must do what we can but in the last analysis we will not stop the slide into amorality. Western culture has gone too far too fast and there is no stopping it. Paul’s words to Timothy describe a society willfully estranged from God and thus deserving of His judgment. We are that society.
The slide seems to grow steeper with each passing day, and frankly there is no end in sight to the kinds of behavior that are being accepted as normal. For example, many readers are familiar with Bruce Jenner, the 1976 Olympian who won a gold medal in the men’s decathlon event in Montreal. Jenner claims that he changed his gender and thus he changed his name to Caitlyn on June 1, 2015.
He then began demanding that female pronouns be used when referring to him. In the so-called transgender world he is a hero of sorts. Maura Mandt, ESPN executive producer, will award him the Arthur Ashe Courage Award on July 15 because, “…she (Jenner) has shown the courage to embrace a truth that had been hidden for years, and to embark on a journey that may not only give comfort to those facing similar circumstances, but can also help to educate people on the challenges that the transgender community faces.”
There you have it. Not only is this kind of thing given the nod, but it is being held up as exemplary. And just think, the older generation wondered how much worse could it get when The Beatles came to the U.S. back in 1964.
Such things are labeled as “normal” by the politically-correct world, and especially by politicians who reap the benefits with fund-raising and voter turn-out. Our country’s founders never intended for political office to become a career field, but it has. To serve and go home is no longer the goal; the goal now is for a politician to get the most he can from an office whether it is money, influence, pride or a combination of them. Politicians now see the transgender crowd as a means to that end. The fact is that there is simply no end to what will be called “normal” in the world’s quest for alienation from God, and someone will always be waiting to support it in order to exploit it. You see, politics is big-business and politicians employ the same marketing strategies as large corporations.
What this means is that many people will condone rebellion toward God if it can be manipulated and used to their benefit. It does not matter what might be the issue, for the issue itself is not the point. The critical thing for politicians is to determine whether support of a particular issue will prove to be lucrative; that is, whether it will advance their political career. This has changed the real question from, “What is righteous?” to, “What is expedient?”
There is nothing wrong with professional/vocational success, but if it comes with compromise it is not worth a plug nickel (Daniel 1, 3). I am reminded of the man in Mark 10. We might wonder what happened to his possessions in AD 70, or what happened to his soul when he left this life.
The fact is there will always be Bruce Jenners around who feel that God made a mistake in creating them as whatever they are. And there will always be physicians, psychologists and politicians looking to make vast sums of money by affording them a legal and socially acceptable venue to allegedly transform themselves into whatever it is they want to be.
So, what is causing all this? The experts tell us it is complex from the psychological standpoint. But really it is quite simple from the spiritual standpoint. Instead of viewing the world as a temporary, sin-cursed arena from which we are going to be delivered, change advocates see it as a permanent, ongoing existence that must be altered in order to accommodate the deviant desires they and future generations might have. They see what is biblically natural and normal as being too restrictive. They want society to always be in a state of flux standing ready to change in order to meet whatever their strange demands might be.
Since most people believe in evolution, they have no belief in God as the miraculous Creator, thus they believe in no ultimate accountability. This allows social order and what is normal to change according to the prevailing winds of influence. This causes the law to also be in a constant state of instability with legislators and judges arising from the same skewed culture.
This means that there is no standard of life and morality by which deviations can be measured. Though the Bible is the historic standard by which humanity is to live, relate to each other and to God, it is summarily rejected. The result is that one can presently change one’s gender legally. This is a very slippery slope, and what changes will be legally made tomorrow is anyone’s guess. Even now we see Rachel Dolezal claiming to be transracial.
The rate at which these things are happening is mind numbing. If someone were to put societal change on a graft the curve would be exponential, and this is perhaps one of the surest signs that we are living in the terminal generation. Said another way, things cannot continue going in the direction of independence from God.
Something has to give and that something is God, or rather the manner in which He deals with humanity. At any moment God is going to remove His Church in the event often called the Rapture. And then this corrupt world system will reap the full consequences of its rebellion.
Basically, this will bring the world to the break-over point wherein Man will be in global rebellion against God. All stops will be removed and all pretense will be fully dropped. While the world will be reeling in chaos and confusion over the disappearance of multitudes of people, a man will come upon the scene who will have answers to many of the questions people will have, or at least he will seem to have a palatable explanation for what is happening.
Soon after the Rapture he will broker some kind of treaty that will include Israel. The moment that treaty is signed will mark the commencement of the Tribulation. Very quickly 25% of those left behind will die from war, famine, disease and wild animals (Revelation 6). This will be the most gruesome time in the history of mankind (Matthew 24:21), and the sorrows will only escalate.
If you would like an example of this degeneration and defiance read Miley Cyrus’ June 9th interview with Foxnews.com. It is the epitome of the end-time attitude. She said that her only qualifications for having sex were consent, that her partner be of legal age and that it does not involve an animal. Her description of her parents is too deeply mired in the sewer to be reprinted, and her view of Bible believers is off the chart. This, folks, is where we are culturally.
How can Miley Cyrus and others of her ilk spread their depravity before audiences across the land? Because both entertainers and their fans are at similar levels of amorality. Their tastes might be different, but their amoral allowances are sufficiently similar. The fact is this: Nothing unifies the various strains of immorality like rejection of God, His Word and His people. Nothing.
The hypocrisy of the God-rejecting crowd is amazing. For example, Miley Cyrus likes to talk about her acceptance of most everyone’s behavior and their “adult” conduct, yet her most caustic and foul language is reserved for Christians who have chosen to live the biblical way. No tolerance for them. And this is what young people must realize, that the amoral among us are not nice, not kind, not tolerate, not honest…they are hypocrites to their very core. And they are angry, militant and they have a very ungodly agenda.
Many of us remember the Tim Tebow issue from several years ago. Tebow, a Christian and very talented quarterback, would occasionally put Scripture references in his eye black. Opponents said that was just too offensive so in 2010 the NCAA banned messages in eye black. It became known as “The Tebow rule.”
On the other hand, some celebrities regularly give interviews using sewer-level language, or appear in concert doing what no mongrel dog would do, but that does not seem to offend anyone’s sensibilities. That is different, some might say. No, it is not different. It is entertainment whether someone is singing(?) or competing before a crowd of 100,000 people. The truth of the matter is that the hypocrisy of the anti-Christian crowd is both obvious and malicious.
This reminds us of Lot living in Sodom. Lot invited two men into his home for protection (they were angels who went to Sodom to extricate Lot and his family before destroying the city and its people for their perversion-Genesis 19). The men of the city went to Lot’s house and demanded he give up the men to their homosexual desires.
Lot then did something no father should ever do. He offered his two virgin daughters to them instead. The men of the city rejected them and demanded he send out the two men. Lot, who saw himself in a volatile situation that he thought could be diffused by compromise, offered to give up what he should not have offered to give up.
The point is this: No matter what is compromised it is not enough. Some churches are rapidly giving up that which they have no business giving up, and the world continues to say it is not enough. Legalism is a bane to the church, but the pendulum has swung so far in the other direction that compromise has caused some denominations to lose their Christian distinctiveness.
The profane world does not want you to live your life in peace and godliness; it demands that you become as they are. To them nothing short of your complete capitulation to their godless ideals is enough. Appeasement never insures a stable, peaceful future.
So, is there any wonder that we have the Bruce Jenner and Rachel Dolezal issues before us? Is there any wonder that it took a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court this summer to determine whether homosexual “marriage” is good for our country?
The world errs greatly in thinking these things are unnoticed in the Throne Room of heaven. Not one blasphemous word goes unheard, not a single vain use of God’s name is ignored and not one assault against His people is missed. Like an avalanche that grows as it gains speed so is society’s public daring in the face of God. Goliath railed against David and cursed him by his gods.
What he did not know was that the object of his hatred was really David’s God, and that it wasn’t David who would deal with him, but Jehovah. God sent a single stone from David’s sling into the giant’s forehead that brought him to the ground. And it was the giant’s own sword that David used to slice through his neck and spine severing his head from his body. The Philistines may have yelled, “Say it ain’t so, Goliath!”, but oh, it was so.
Soon God will say, “Enough!” and will take us out of this world. This is not the mindless, meandering dream of people who are ignorant of reality. The fact is that expectant Christians know more about the reality of this world than secularists could ever know.
The promise of the coming of Jesus for His Church is as sure as this morning’s sunrise, and is the purveyor of a hope that goes beyond imagination. We say with John, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” The world says, “Good riddance!”
Remember the words of Revelation 22:10-12, “And he said to me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.’ ‘Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.’”
In Exodus 5:2 Pharaoh measured the power of Israel’s God by the condition of His people. Because the Israelites were his slaves he concluded that God was impotent. That was a bad mistake. Very bad. The world today assumes that because God does not immediately strike it down He does not exist, or that if He exists He is without power.
The fact is that God’s patience is salvation (2 Peter 3:15). We sense His anger is growing and His patience is waning, for it does have an end. Nobody has ever seen the full-blown wrath of God in action, but those left behind will.
Yeah, the slope is slippery and Man’s growing vain insurrection simply seems to make it more so.
Contact Don McGee at:csm01@att.net