Bill Eliff, Graceful Truth, 11/23
Forgive me for some reminiscent rambling. I don’t do it often, but I digress to highlight a comparison and a tragedy. In my lifetime, I remember when …
- Most churches were filled on Sunday morning and night.
- All businesses were closed on Sunday.
- Every day at public school began with a prayer over the intercom or in the classroom.
- Children in almost any neighborhood could play or walk to school with no threat of harm.
- Most children had zero thought or confusion about their gender identity and happily embraced who they were.
- There was a general understanding of many undeniable, universally accepted moral values across the nation.
- Certain sins and behaviors were generally condemned, not accepted and applauded.
- And on and on …
What has happened? Don’t think I am naive enough to believe that our society was altogether righteous and I am not advocating a return to the 50s. We were rampant with our own brand of iniquity. But to compare our nation in the past to the current highlights a major moral declension.
IT’S BEGINNINGS
In Isaiah’s day, the prophet speaks for God to His people … people to whom He had shown great mercy, blessing, and favor. Somewhere they had made a turn, best described in a few verses. It didn’t take many words from God and His prophet to identify what had happened.
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. (Isaiah 5:21)
A fall away from God always begins with pride. We think we know better and are wiser than God, and this pride leads to a further disastrous decision.
For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 5:24b)
In our arrogance, we foolishly believe there is no need to look to a higher Source. We have no use for the Word of God; therefore, we “despise” it, i.e., treat it lightly and care nothing for it. The Bible is disregarded, and the Spirit of God ignored.
This pride that leads to a rejection of God and His Word leads to deadly mental confusion and moral decline. The Bible always calls this “darkness.”
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20).
PRIDE = REJECTION = DARKNESS = DEPRAVITY.
This downward spiral has happened throughout human history. Those with eyes to see can identify it easily. Paul speaks of it in his day.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper. (Romans 1:28)
A depraved or reprobate mind is a mind that has literally lost the ability to make moral judgments. Wrong seems 100% right to a depraved mind. This is the final stage of God’s judgment upon a proud people who reject him, and it is the explanation for the slide into every kind of degrading sin.
To listen to the chaotic, nonsensical ramblings of many in our society (many of which reside in our “highest” institutions of learning and who are currently rioting in our streets) is a study in Isaiah 5 and Romans 1.
Don’t make this more complicated than it is.
The decline will always be the same for any people—no one is immune. Any man or woman, any family, any nation who, in their pride, reject God’s Word will fall into a dramatically deluded mind and depraved behavior.
The singular remedy for this deadly progression is a brokenhearted humility that bows and returns to the only One from whom all blessings flow. Nothing else will do.
https://billelliff.org/blogs/news/a-simple-sobering-explanation-of-our-sick-society
This analysis was a long time coming.
Yes, this is quite right. The 50’s of course were far from perfect but at least there were those following God’s Guiding Light who formed a moral majority in doing what’s morally right, in keeping with the precepts for “a moral and religious people”. God favors those people who honor Him with His Blessings, like a Shepherd protects his sheep.
Unfortunately, along came those who follow their own noses, who wouldn’t heed the moral mandates from God and, like stray sheep, wandered away to be lost in the wilderness where no faith, hope, or charity exist, just the law of the jungle. It’s that jungle that turns them into predators who prey on moral sheep.
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