Random Thoughts 301

I’ve been reluctant to write about this because it’s not very PC and will probably anger and upset people on all sides. We must allow scripture to interpret scripture.

2 Tim. 3:16-17 says “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” John 16:8, speaking of the Holy Spirit says “… He will reproove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement.” Let’s take a look at this word “reprove”. According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary it means 1. To blame or censure. 2. To charge with a fault. 3. To excite a sense of guilt. If you don’t get at least a little of this from your favorite pulpits it seems fair to ask if that church is truly spirit filled.

Looking at “All the council of God” as stated in Acts 20:27 let’s see what we can find.

We’ve all heard that Sodom and Gomorrah were wiped out by God for the sin of homosexuality. In reality that’s the last reason. God’s indictment in Ezekiel 16:49-50 gives a much clearer picture and should convict all of us today. It says “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abominations before me, therefore I took them away as I saw good.”

Notice the first charge is pride. Sodom and the surrounding cities were in some of the best farming and grazing land around according to Abraham’s nephew Lot. They were a wealthy people secure and dependant in their possessions. They believed the work of their own hands made them secure.

Next was fullness of bread. The word translated “fullness” means full to overflowing or more than can be contained. This is saying that either there was so much food they became gluttonous or there was so much they become wasteful. Perhaps both. They believed the work of their hands made them prosperous.

Then there’s an abundance of idleness. They had so much they were bored. They had plenty of time on their hands. There’s a proverb that says the devil rides on an idle horse. They had so much time on their hands they had to invent new forms of entertainment and distraction. They believed the work of their hands produced their leisure.

They didn’t strengthen the poor and needy. They had an overabundance of stuff yet they didn’t care for those less fortunate. How could the most wealthy people in the area even have poor people among them? Even with all their wealth, abundance and free time they had no sense of responsibility for their neighbors. Perhaps they felt it wasn’t their responsibility. The government will take care of them. They just are not working hard enough. I’m too busy playing candy crush or watching t.v. They became haughty. They believed the work of their hands was theirs and theirs alone, even the waste, to do with as they please and giving didn’t please them.

Finally it says they committed abominations but lot’s of things are an abomination before God and it looks like these abominations are a result of everything that came before. As we look at these we can see how the first indictment led to the second and so on. These abominations are the natural progression of everything that came before.

Since these abominations are not well defined let’s look at a related passage. Romans 1:19-32 seem a natural continuation of Ezekiel 16:49-50. Let’s break this down as we go along.

Verse 19 says “..That which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.” Could this be called a conscience? In our innermost being we have a sense of right and wrong. It looks like God is saying He put that there.

Verse 20 says “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”. Science, from quantum mechanics to cosmology has proven evolution is impossible. The universe is finite. It has a beginning and an ending. The origins of our galaxy as taught to our children are mathematically impossible. The genome is a 4 bit, error correcting, self replicating code. Information like this cannot come from randomness. Historical population studies say mankind showed up between 6 and 10 thousand years ago. Historical demography and language studies say “advanced civilization just appeared about 7 thousand years ago and all languages stem from about 90 (Looking at Genesis 10 I’d bet it’s more like 70). On the quantum level it’s believe there are actually 10 dimensions. 4 are knowable, height, width, depth, and time. 6 are only indirectly discernable. A biblical scholar from around 1100 a.d. concluded from an in-depth study of Genesis chapter 1 in Hebrew discovered the same10 dimensions. I could go on about all the ways science has proven intelligent design and God holds us accountable for this knowledge.

Verse 21 continues “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” The so called age of reason and the enlightenment period produced people like Voltaire, Bacon, Darwin, Freud and many others who, to this day, have a profound impact on the world views western civilization and beyond. Taking an intelligent designer out of the equation and trying to find a purely naturalistic explanation for everything removes any form of accountability to the designer.

Verse 22-24 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptable man, into birds, and four footed beasts and creeping things.” In our society it’s perfectly acceptable to kill our unborn children but we face prison or psychiatric detention if we’re cruel to a cat. There’s an article on the Mises institute website that lays out a very rational argument against any demands of a child on a parent that a parent refuses to give as justifiable because it goes against the parents right of self determination. Not too long ago there was a raging debate over doctor assisted suicide. Dr. Kevorkian and Terri Schiavo became poster children in the cause of euthanasia. A well-known author, radio talk show host and public speaker regularly goes to college campuses to speak. He’s reported that he regularly presents a dilemma to his audience. He asks “Let’s pretend that your by a river and you notice a stranger and the dog you’ve had as a pet for many years are both in the river drowning. No one is around to help and you can only save one. Who do you choose?” On average he says about 1/3 save the stranger. The other 2/3 save the dog or are unsure.. After all, they love the dog. They don’t know the stranger. And how did mankind ever survive so many millennia before this self esteem movement came along? Our schools teach that feeling outweigh facts. 2+2=5? We better not say that’s wrong our feelings might get hurt. Make an error at 2nd base and cost the game? Let’s give a trophy. Self esteem, self fulfillment, self gratification; some schools even teach sexual self pleasure. The preeminence of self has become the mainstream religion. Read the humanist manifesto some time. John Dewey, the so called father of modern education was a signer.

Let’s sum up where we’re at so far. It all starts with pride. Pride in abundance and wealth which leads to gluttony, which inturn produce idleness and waste. Next comes selfishness which produces a loss of love and concern for our fellow man. Somehow we need to feel good about this so we’ve got to remove any sense of accountability. We’ve got to get God the maker out of the way. Once we do this anything and everything becomes okay.

So let’s read on. Verses 26-27 says “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: (For what cause? We took the creator out of creation. The result? God said fine, you want Me out? I’m out. Do things your way.) for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: (girl on girl became acceptable first and filled young men with all kinds of fantasies) and likewise also the men, burned in their lust one towards another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. (Then men with men became socially acceptable. Law’s instituted by average folks to restrain this behavior have been struck down by a few people in black robes.)

But this is just one result of God letting us do things our own way. Let’s read on.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, (like turning over custody to someone else and now that it has custody?) to do those things which are not convenient. (Convenient here means proper, normal, acceptable).

(Here I’m going to switch from king James to the NIV so we can use more modern words and concepts.)

“Then have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.” Wow! This sounds like every aspect of the world at large. Watch the news. Watch television shows. Listen to our politicians and industry leaders. Check out the scientific community, the classrooms and the lecture halls. According to scientific America 1 in 6 Americans are taking psychiatric drugs. That’s 54.8 million people who are having trouble living in our godless society. And that’s not counting those who self medicate.

“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

While homosexuality is a sin, right along with every other sin, it’s widespread acceptance is a result, a judgement if you will, of kicking God out of a nation. As we become more immune to greed, to slander, to murder, to rebellious children, to envy and strife, to depravity is all it’s forms, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Some will say homosexuality is genetic. That they’re born that way. Well, me too. I’m also born with a gene to murder, to envy, to fornicate. We’re all born SIN positive. It just presents itself with different symptoms in different people.

Sodom wasn’t destroyed because of homosexuality and neither will western culture. Just like Sodom we’ll be destroyed because of our arrogance. Because we’ve taken YHWH out of our collective consciousness and replaced Him with ourselves and our vane imaginations. Outside of the Bible and church God still holds us responsible to Himself because His handiwork is evident all around us. When we try to separate Him from His creation long enough He will separate Himself from us.

Don’t give up hope. There’s a remedy. We don’t have to suffer this fate. And it’s in the bible. Tune in next time and we’ll have a much happier discussion.