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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000. (see text) |
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Chapter Three: |
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You Have Eaten The Fruit Of Deception "'My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.'" (NIV) "'Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle.'" (NIV) We are presently living in a time where the seemingly-outdated doctrine of an absolute right and wrong are being discarded in favor of an increasingly more acceptable moral relativism. "Whatever feels right for you, is right for you; whatever feels right for me, is right for me. No one has the right to impose their own standards of right and wrong on another." Like the essential goodness of man (see previous chapter), the concept of moral relativism may sound fine at the outset, but under even prolusory examination is exposed as the evil deception and lie that it is. Without absolute and moral guidelines, society cannot stand. The instability of a morally relativistic culture is incontrovertibly guaranteed. Utilizing public opinion as a barometer for cultural and societal standards is an invitation to disaster. Who can say what tomorrow will bring? People's attitudes shift like the wind. In less than a single generation we've witnessed changes in attitude and morality that would've been unthinkable only a few decades ago. What seems like sanity today, could be considered insanity tomorrow. We've already seen it happen just in our lifetimes. The only fruit of the ideology of moral relativism is perpetual instability and chaos. Without solid, moral absolutes, morality will continually fluctuate into relativism. Any society which relies on the current whims of its populace to determine right and wrong is teetering on the precipice. It has become particularly fashionable in recent times to entirely disregard the word of God when determining "modern values". What was commonly recognized as wrongful behavior less than a generation ago is today embraced as acceptable, even encouraged behavior. No longer do acts of sin warrant reproach, rebuke or disapproval. Those who display such narrow-minded sententiousness often find themselves the ones reproached and rebuked.
Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. Whereas once in America those who intentionally engaged in sinful behavior, for the most part, did so behind closed doors (and much to their shame and ostracism when such behavior was exposed), today such behavior is paraded openly with a "feel good about yourself" attitude that flies in the face of God. The brazen posture of Western, particularly politically-correct American culture, stands in complete defiance to God. It not only denies the truths and absolutes God has established as eternal precepts, but has usurped them with the shamelessly immoral lie of relativism.
"'Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush.'" (NIV) Today, it is the virgins who blush at the shame of their status, while those who openly flaunt sexual promiscuity are adored and worshiped as the role models of a sick and twisted culture. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity. (NIV) Remind you of anyone in particular? "It's one's right to engage in sexual activity entirely unhindered and unrestricted by a moralistic society." "It's one's right to practice and unabashedly proclaim one's homosexuality without fear of moral condemnation." "It's one's right to terminate an undesired pregnancy." "It's one's right to laugh in the face of God and live one's life without even a shard of responsibility or accountability to anyone other than oneself." It's the view of our rights-oriented society that no one should be allowed to restrict the behavior of another, unless of course, that behavior is Christian or politically incorrect, in which case it then, by all means, must be excoriated at inception -- lest it be allowed to germinate into any sort of realistic threat to their godlessly immoral domination of our culture. Sin is no longer sin. Guilt is something no "enlightened" twenty-first century being would ever admit to be harboring. After all, there is nothing to feel guilty about. "To each his own." "I live in a world governed by my standards, and you live in a world governed by yours, (At least that's what they proclaim outwardly. The truth of the matter is they'd like us all to live in a world governed by their -- the politically correct, libertarian -- standard.) and heaven help the one who dares point out to me that something I've done is wrong." Not only are we entitled to do as we (i.e. they) please without the slightest qualm of conscience, but we arrogantly demand it as our right. There is no burden of concern for responsible behavior. The new sin of the day is political incorrectness. We need answer to no one, unless of course, we try to do what's right, but that's another matter altogether. [The hypocrisy of liberal relativism never ceases to amaze me -- Liberal forbid (they don't acknowledge God, so one must invoke the name of the highest being they do believe in -- which is themselves) anyone ever attempts to call their behavior unacceptable, but watch how quickly they scurry to enact laws to prohibit Christian behavior -- the anti-abortion blockade bill is one fine example of their hypocrisy. Can one imagine how they would react to a bill designed to limit their parades of paganical protest?] Without absolutes our measure is ourselves, and whatever the majority of people at any given time determine. What does the word of God say about such thinking? In II Corinthians 10:12, the Apostle Paul writes of the false teachers in Corinth who measured themselves by themselves: For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. What then are we to measure ourselves by, if not ourselves and our own transitory notions of right and wrong? I imagine how a person answers that will largely depend on whom that person is living to please -- themselves, others or God? In the first chapter of Galatians, the Apostle Paul lets it be known in no uncertain terms that a servant of Christ does not live to please man.
Nearly nine hundred years earlier, the prophet Elijah confronted the people of Israel with the same choice at Mount Carmel.
The choice seems a simple one. Whom are we trying to please? There is no middle ground. The Lord Jesus made this perfectly clear in Matthew twelve, verse thirty (as well as in its parallel account of Luke 11:23), when He said: "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters." So which is it? Should we live to please man or God? To even have to ask the question seems an attempt in deliberate fatuity, yet how many can claim a sincere effort to live their lives in a manner pleasing to God rather than to others or themselves. The seventeenth chapter of Judges begins a series of five chapters, the sordid squalidness of which, can hardly be equaled throughout the whole of Scripture. The first account in this concluding group of chapters to the book of Judges relates the story of Micah's idols. Not six verses into the chapter these words are recorded: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6) Now, this may not seem like an earth-shattering statement at first glance, but read it in context of what happens next. Mysteriously, the same passage is repeated as an introduction to chapter eighteen: In those days there was no king in Israel. (Judges 18:1) Coincidence? Copyist's error? Let's read on. As if Micah's brazen idolatry from chapter seventeen wasn't bad enough (something some in professing Christendom still haven't learned a lesson from), in chapter eighteen the idolatry is complimented by theft, murder and arson. And we know chapter nineteen's going to be another strange one as it opens with a reappearance of the recurring, seemingly extraneous verse: And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel.... (Judges 19:1) Nineteen wastes little time, and gets right off with a case of adultery and spousal abandonment, followed by a lot of eating, drinking and traveling, which lead up to a rather loathsome attempt at yet another homosexual rape (has anyone ever noticed that the only time homosexuals are portrayed in the word of God, they're attempting to rape somebody? -- see chapter ten of this volume), which proceeds to a notoriously shameful gang rape, made all the more repugnant in that the victim is quite actually thrown out to this assemblage of vile vermin by her own husband to her spare his manservant a similar, albeit arguably worse fate. And just when one thinks one's had enough, this rather magnanimous, thoughtful fellow, who only the night before had thrown his concubine out to that odious group of well-wishers, tells the poor woman: "Get up and let us be going." But there was no answer. So the man lifted her onto the donkey; and the man got up and went to his place. (Judges 19:28) And lest one think this chapter ends on a note of merriment, I recommend a reading of the remainder of this account.
For anyone out there who still believes in the essential goodness of mankind, the story isn't over. Chapter twenty has the incensed men of Israel demanding the fiendish monsters who'd done this to this poor woman be punished. But, not unlike our world today, the incorrigible malefactors are sheltered by their own tribesmen (probably blaming it all on the oppression of white, Anglo-Saxon, male society; their parents; or the "religious right", no doubt); so the incensed lot mentioned just before gathers arms and goes to "administer justice", only to find themselves cut to pieces by this horrid bunch of Benjamites. But the Israelites persist, and the next day the Benjamites cut down another eighteen thousand of them. (That's 40,000 total for those who like to keep these things in numerical perspective.) This doesn't go down well with the Israelites (those who are left), who persist no longer, but rather go and weep before the LORD. (Judges 20:26) The LORD sends them back, and this time the LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords. (Judges 20:35) The bloodletting by no means finished, the Israelites then go back into the territory of Benjamin and put all the towns to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found. All the towns they came across they set on fire. (Judges 20:48) To add insult to injury, the Israelites then take an oath against the Benjamites (chapter twenty-one) and proceed to wipe out the men, women and children of Jabesh Gilead (the people of Jabesh Gilead had not shown up to participate in the assembly before the LORD), sparing only the virgins, whom they pack off to the surviving Benjamites in order that the tribe of Benjamin might be provided with heirs. And not to be outdone by any of the preceding chapters, chapter twenty-one concludes the account with a wholesale kidnapping of more virgins, to provide the Benjamites with more breeding stock, as the previous allotment had not been enough for all of them. (Judges 21:14) And, surely enough, this entire, sordid, five-chapter account closes as it opened: In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. (Judges 21:25) In case anyone's missed the point of this entire exercise in debauchery (and fine example of the total depravity of man to compliment the previous chapter of this volume), this not- coincidentally-recurring-passage holds the key: Everyone did as he saw fit. No authority, no absolute rights and wrongs, no morality -- everyone did as they thought right, rather than what God says is right. Contrast this morally relativistic breeding ground with the Israel of Joshua, chapter twenty-four. Where do the priorities of the Israelites portrayed in Joshua twenty-four lie?
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