The reasons and results of a blasphemous society

"Nothing Sacred" was the name of a weekly television drama that was recently axed because of bad ratings. The show’s demise was not its writing or subject in my opinion, but the fact that it competed with the sitcom, "Friends" (an extremely popular and worthless show about selfish people). A Catholic that I know enjoyed the program for its focus on the "issues" that nobody else talked about – the show had good writers. The program was about a young Catholic priest who challenged every convention and tradition. He disagreed with the "church" on birth control, abortion, and about every other doctrine. Though a champion in his own mind, he was insensitive to the wishes of his parish and those in authority. In breaking down the doctrine of his faith to the point of even questioning the existence of God, he robbed his flock of any certain hope they previously had. Even his prayer was unconventional. Though I only watched the first episode and care less if Catholic doctrine is mocked, the tenor of "Nothing Sacred" was nothing less than blasphemous. Truly, nothing was sacred.

"Nothing Sacred" would be a good title for our contemporary culture. To consider something sacred in this manner is to deem it worthy of protection and preservation. At the end of Twentieth Century, nearly nothing is being considered worthy of preservation for the following generations. Nothing is immune from the defilement of the wicked. We have seen the family unit, especially fathers within those units, torn down by the culture through movies and situational comedies. We have seen death defiled by people like Jack Kevorkian, whose disregard for people’s sensitivities has damaged both sides of the debate. God gift of sex has been defiled by a culture that is championing all sorts of sex outside of the bonds of marriage. Radical artists, through shocking works, have defiled art. Music has been defiled in a terrible way. The seats of government have also suffered through a degrading pattern. No segment of our society is safe from this cancer.

Why has our society turned this way? Cal Thomas noted in a recent article that it is illegal to remove the corpse of dead sea turtle from a beach in Maryland, while most teenage girls have the ability to end the life of an unborn child. Another example is the Clinton Administration trying to put a radical homosexual into a diplomatic post in Luxembourg. Clinton himself is seen as morally decadent, but has high approval because the economy is so good… even the radical feminists refuse to stand up against a man who has repeatedly committed adultery with a woman who could be his daughter. This is from a small group of influential women whose motto was: "The personal is political." The plight of working women under powerful men is no longer sacred to the Feminists!

As a society, we are here because of turning away from the True God. While most Americans still being in a Supreme Being of some sort, the vast majority rejected His Ways found in His Word. We see a fitting description of this apostasy in the first chapter of Romans starting in verse 21 and following.

Romans 1:21 – Our heritage in the Western World is profoundly Christian. While many forms of Christianity have been impure, the past cultures recognized God and His Law. This has all changed. The main argument is not about how to interpret the Bible and form Theology, but whether God exists at all. Though they acknowledged God as God:

1. They did not give God the glory He deserved.
2. They did not give God the thanks He deserved.
3. They became vain in their imaginations.
4. Their foolish hearts were darkened.

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians included a desire for the eyes of their hearts to be enlightened. Christ is the "Light is of the World" and "God is Light;" God is the source of all truth and certainty in the universe. Daylight was important to the ancients, as their artificial lighting was inadequate for the many tasks in life. Candles, lamps, and torches could not provide enough light for a workman to see the quality of a product. Darkness was a cover for deceitful business practices and crime – this holds true to this day. In turning away from God, man not only darkens his eyes toward the area of morals, but toward all truth. The early modern science of men like Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton came about because these men believed that a reasonable God has created a reasonable universe – a cosmos governed by laws in the way that God is governed by His perfections. Truth is no longer sacred. The loss of a belief in a God and His Absolute Truth has lead to a loss of knowing the truth about anything. If an Atheist judges me for my irrational beliefs, I simple reply that he has no standard to judge me. An Atheist or Agnostic has no method of verification in coming to the knowledge of the truth. Most leftists have rejected strict Atheism for a new spirituality – mostly New Age beliefs. Championing this direction in society are men like Al Gore, who wants to put up a satellite sending back live pictures of the Earth as a way of raising our spiritual understanding of the Earth. Thus is an example of how foolish heart are darkened.

1:22 – Though professing to be wise:

They became fools.

A great example of this is the English Philosopher Berkeley. This 18^th Century figure held up the world of ideas as the ultimate reality, which is fine. The problem is that he rejected that physical world was actually real, but merely a projection of our minds. Man’s philosophy often lacks common sense.

1:23, 25 – They changed the glory of the Immortal, Incorruptible into images of:

1. mortal man
2. birds
3. fourfooted beasts, animals
4. creeping things, reptiles
5. changed the truth of God into a lie
6. worshipped the creature more than the Creator

Our God is a Transcendent God. What I mean is that His Glory is beyond anything we can say, hear, or understand in this present world. His Goodness and Greatness exceeds any thought we could have of Him. Yet, most of this planet’s population has turned in Infinite God for highly flawed pseudo-gods. The Secular Humanist religion taught by every public school in America holds up man as the standard for knowledge and truth. This view exists despite holocausts, wars, and a myriad other miseries that display mankind as hopelessly self-destructive. Some Hindus worship rats as a god. Part of this worship is feeding rats, which has promoted disease and hunger for centuries. The Greco-Roman notion of their gods and goddess as mere glorified humans lead to destructive orgy worship. Again, when man turns away from the light of God, the only choice is pure darkness, a total lie.

1:24, 26, 27 – God allowed them to follow their own desires:

1. into uncleanness
2. in order to dishonor their own bodies between themselves
3. vile affections – lust is not evil in itself, lust is just another word for a strong desire. Lust is an emotion and emotions are not sinful in themselves – we can even be angry in a good way. The object of our desires is the real issue.
4. homosexuality – we often hear homosexuals say that they felt gay from an early age or that it seems so "right" and "natural" to do what they do. Our answer should be, "So, what?" These verses tell us that God has allowed those who reject Him to follow after their own ways and desires. God is just allowing mankind to do what it wants – that which men find "natural."
5. judgment for homosexuality and fornication

Our society has twisted the natural desires of a man and woman into perversion. The first result is uncleanness. Sexual pleasure is a gift from God and totally pure within a marriage between a man and woman. (Notice how I even have to indicate "a marriage between a man and woman." The very definition of marriage is a union between one man and one woman. "Same-sex marriage" is a contradiction in terms.) Our bodies are meant to be temples for the worship of God, yet most have decided to sacrifice pigs on their altars. Any honor God has given to man is erased by this behavior; the image of God in man is never more hidden and destroyed as when people pierce, mutilate, and destroy their own bodies through twisted pleasure. Divorce, disease, and death have come down as judgement upon those totally given over to perversion. The worst judgement is watching innocent children die from AIDS or suffer though heinous sexual abuse.

1:28 – This verse further reiterates that men twist sex into sick forms because they have turned away from the light of God toward the dark abyss of the human heart. Yet, God did not force them down this path. Perversion is what the human chooses without the intervention of God. Having "nature" as our standard will lead straight to unnatural acts. Our standard must be "supernatural" to maintain sound morals.

Verses 29 through 31 give us a litany of man’s foolishly dark hearts. I have organized similar description when appropriate and added some definition of the list from the Authorized (King James) Version. Those who reject God are filled with all:

Unrighteousness – Justice is not sacred.

Fornication – general word for all sexual sin – Sex is not sacred.

Wickedness – Goodness is not sacred.

Covetousness, full of envy – Our station in life is not sacred.

Maliciousness, malignity, malice, craftiness, despiteful, violent, insolent, inventors of evil things, unmerciful, and implacable (irreconcilable/ruthless) – Civility and the consideration of others are not sacred.

Murder – Life is not sacred.

Debate – Polite discourse is not sacred.

Deceit – Truth is not sacred.

Backbiters, slanderous, whisperers – The reputations of others are not sacred.

Haters of God – God is not considered sacred.

Proud, boasters – Humility is not sacred.

Without understanding, senseless, foolish – Knowledge is not sacred.

Covenantbreakers, faithless, untrustworthy – Our word is not sacred.

Disobedient to parents, without natural affection: lacking the natural love that one has for family member and friends – Families are not sacred.

Through this list, we can see how man’s ways rob this life of all joy, meaning, and hope. We should not marvel at the news of so many teenagers committing suicide. Rather, we should wonder why there is not more!

1:32 -- Though they know what God has commanded and that disobeying Him means death, they continue to celebrate all wickedness of the highest order. It is not that the wicked could not believe; it is that they would not believe. Paul has spelled that this world has consciously departed their God; our culture dances before the golden calf in total defiance of the Lord of Heaven. Unless the greater part of our society turns back to the True God and His Son, nothing will be sacred. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

R.N.D. 6/12/98