Several items that have come to my attention recently, do not bode well for western civilization.
An Answers in Genesis newsletter told of an airline pilot from Atlanta who found a sticker someone had placed in the front of a Gideon Bible placed in his Salt Lake City hotel room, carrying this disclaimer in a box:
This book contains religious stories regarding the origin of living things. The stories are theories, not facts. They are unproven, unprovable, and in some cases totally impossible. This material should be approached with an open mind, and a critical eye towards logic and believability.
Then there is the author who claims that the one absolute about students entering the universities is that they claim not to believe in absolutes. Accordingly, these students miss the truth which is the only foundation of learning, and mistake a few years in academic circles for an education.
Further, there is the twisted version of the life of Christ as portrayed in the Da Vinci Code, and even more recently in two books by aggressively atheistic authors. These have made it high on the best-seller lists.
We could rightly dwell on the moral degeneracy indicated by abortion. Recent figures go well over a staggering 40 million since 1973. A five-minute memorial service for each one would take over 228 years. Probably nothing would bring perspective more than if each abortion were suddenly also fatal to the mother.
And same-sex marriage? Homosexuality involves more than an ongoing decline of culture.
According to Scripture and the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, it denotes people whom God rejects, because they refuse the knowledge of the truth. This action of God is like a farmer rejecting a plot overgrown by briars and thistles.
While I am concerned for the culture, the greater concern is for the state of Christianity within the culture. Professing Christians have failed to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Sadly, the disclaimer in the Gideon Bible reflects not only the Spirit of the age, but also the theology of much of the church. Many church leaders have joined with evolutionists and atheists in discrediting the literal history of the Bible. Thus, it was inevitable that all miraculous events in Scripture would be disdained by elitist theologians. Finally, when people do not trust the Bible as being foundationally true, they also reject its moral authority.
Thus, the gleanings from many pulpits range from feeble attempts at old moral persuasions, to overt disdain for infallible truth and justification for every form of disobedience. Not surprisingly, the difference between Christian and non-Christian morals are hardly definable in many circles.
For most of the last century, culture has been the leader and the church has been the follower. I wasn’t around for all of that, but, in my estimation, the first things to happen were 1) ignoring the Biblical mandate for basic male-female roles in relation to headship, parenting, and responsibility, and 2) defying the purpose of clothing to modestly cover the human form in order to minimize sexual temptation. I remember the title of a booklet some years ago by the late Dr. John R. Rice entitled, Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives, and Women Preachers. Was Dr. Rice a bit uncouth with his approach? Possibly. Did he have a Biblical base for such a title? Absolutely! Yet I don’t know any popular evangelical leaders today who would touch such a subject.
I also remember an early 1900s church group photo with a notable sprinkling of head coverings (not hats) on the women reflecting belief in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16. A 1949 Billy Graham crusade picture from Los Angeles reveals a predominance of hats on the ladies. Even in the early 1970s, we had two widowed Catholic ladies next door who always veiled their heads when going to mass.
Reader, may I challenge you to connect the dots? Was the seed of today’s gay agenda not sown in the denial of the husband’s authority and the wife’s submission to that authority? What did we think would happen if we raised generations of children in blurred or even obliterated male-female distinctions? What do we expect when even Christian parents copy the cultural agenda with the same hairdos, jewelry, and clothing, and when men and women work the same professional or menial jobs and split domestic responsibility down the middle? Can we sow confusion without reaping the same? (See Ephesians 5:22-33 and 1 Corinthians 11:1-16.)
And then there is sexual morality. At the heart of an enduring culture is moral fidelity, yielding enduring marriage and family. Remember the old slogan? “The family that prays together stays together.” Christian faith was expected to produce “until-death-do-us-part” marriages. This is no longer true. Once the culture at large accepted no-stigma divorce and remarriage, churches and pastors got on the bandwagon. Further, if the numbers are correct, the “Christian” involvement in fornication and adultery (which includes divorce and remarriage), varies but little from the larger culture. By the way, of those 228 years of five-minute memorial services for the aborted, 45 years would be devoted to the castaways of evangelical Christian mothers who accept abortion.
Are you awake yet? Do you know the basic problem behind the morality picture? It is the allurement of indecent dress, and the filling the mind with immoral and unholy entertainment. Ever since sin came into the world, the female form on display is a drawing force on the male counterpart of sensual temptation. I cannot believe the way that professing Christian women join their lewd and lascivious counterparts in Tee shirts, plunging necklines, hiked hemlines, skin-tight jeans, and exposed midriffs. Thus, appearance that ought to be rated “for husband only,” is even coupled with bold demeanor and easy familiarity with men (a sure formula for moral failure).
If the evangelical quarter is serious about abstinence programs for singles and fidelity in marriage, nothing less than a return of reserve between the sexes, a complete wardrobe overhaul, and a change of entertainment venue is going to work.
Note what Billy Graham said in 1987. He recalled a sermon he had heard in 1948. I quote: “He (Donald Grey Barnhouse) preached one message on hell and another on separation from the world. I will never forget his message on separation from the world. We have gotten away from that. We have moved in with the world and allowed the world to penetrate the way we live. So the things we used to call sin are no longer sin. Things that we would have abhorred a few years ago, we accept as matter of fact today, not realizing that they offend a holy God.” In the same sermon, he lamented the way God’s name is taken in vain in the entertainment industry and said that it is “almost embarrassing to turn on the television set.” Further, he stated, “We do not realize how this offends a holy and righteous God. We act as though it doesn’t really matter what we think or say because we think God will forgive us anyway.” (See I Thessalonians 4:1-6, 1 Peter 3:1-4, 1 Timothy 2:9, and 2 Corinthians 6.14-18.)
Would we really trade the legacy of righteousness, peace, and joy in God, to cast our lot with the darkness and judgment of the world? The joy of living within the will of God by the Spirit-filled life is the only way that brings peace and satisfaction.
-by Lester Troyer