BiblicalInsights.net

A recent letter to the editor of the Columbus Dispatch touched on a word missing from our every day vocabulary.  Can you guess what it is?  The title of the letter was, “‘Sin’ disappeared from lexicon long ago.”  The letter pointed out that the high priests of journalism have “outlawed” the word “sin” from the common vernacular.  This prompts the question, “why?”
I would like to offer two reasons.   One reason lies in the psychological coping mechanism we call “denial.”  Denial is a psychological defense where we will not face reality, instead, we deny reality so that we will not have to deal with it or the pain that it brings.  Another reason is redefinition of truth.  When we define truth subjectively rather than objectively, everything is permissible.  The ideology called postmodernism does this.  If everything is permissible, then sin vanishes.
The Problem.
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”  Rom. 3:23.  And, “the wages of sin is death…” Rom. 6:23.  Sin is a universal experience of mankind.  The consequences are serious both now and for eternity.  While some may deny the reality of sin, and others have redefined truth to make it disappear, the reality of sin keeps confronting us.  One way to force a realization of this is to look at the numbers. The price we pay for sin is enormous. Consider the following:
Internet Gambling.  The estimated social cost of internet gambling is 25 billion dollars per year. (Does God Exist, Jan./Feb. 2013, p. 27).
Alcoholism.  The cost of alcoholism to the American taxpayer is 43 billion dollars per year.  (Does God Exist, Jan./Feb. 2013, p. 29).
50% of all fatal accidents involve alcohol.
80% of all fire deaths.
65% of all drowning deaths.
40% of all assaults.
77% of falls.
55% of arrests.
Unwanted Pregnancies.  The annual cost to the American taxpayer of unwanted pregnancies is $11 billion dollars.  (Guttmacher Institute, Huffington Post.com, 5/24/2011).  Two-thirds of unintended pregnancies–a million births-are publicly funded by Medicaid and other government programs.
Addicted gamblers.  The costs associated with addicted gamblers in the U.S. is between 32.4 billion and 53.8 billion dollars a year.  This amounts to about $274 per adult annually.  Gambling in America, Baylor University professor Earl Grinols from dailyfinance.com., July 22, 2011).
Drug Abuse.  Substance abuse and addiction breaks down as follows:
Illegal drugs–118 billion a year.
Alcohol:  185 billion a year.
Tobacco:   193 billion a year.
Totals:   559 billion a year  (Drugabuse.gov  National Institute on Drug Abuse, 4/9/2013.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases.  Sexually transmitted diseases for Ages 15-24 costs $6.5 billion a year in 2000 dollars.  Among all age groups the cost go up to between $9.3 billion to $15.5 billion (includes HIV).  Guttmacher.org. Guttmacher Institute (Jan./Feb. 2004, vol. 36, no. 1).
Crime.  The annual cost of crime in the U.S. is $1.7 trillion dollars.  David A. Anderson, “The Aggregate Burden of Crime.”  This amounts to $4,118.00 per person in the U.S.  (David Anderson is professor of economics at Davidson College, North of Charlotte, North Carolina).
Divorce.  Family fragmentation costs:  $112 billion a year.  Benjamin Scafidi, J. Whitney Bunting School of Business at Georgia College and State University.  Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia.  “The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing” c. 2008 www.americavalues.org.
Pornography.  The financial costs to businesses productivity in the U.S. alone is estimated at $16.9 billion annually.  The human toll is far greater.  Webroot.com “Internet Pornography by the numbers; a significant threat to society.”  Consider some stats:
Every second 28,258 users are watching pornography on the internet.
Every second $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography on the internet.
40 million people in America regularly visit porn sites.
35% of all internet downloads are related to pornography.
One-third of porn viewers are women.
2.5 billion emails sent or received every day contain porn.
Abortion.  The normal cost of a first-trimester abortion runs between $350 to $550.  Guttmacher Institute www.guttmacher.org.  “In 2009, the median charge for a surgical abortion at 10 weeks gestation was $470.  The median cost of  a medication abortion was $490.  In 2008, 20% of all abortions were covered by Medicaid (State funded).  In 2008, there were about 1.2 million abortions performed in the U.S.  Total costs:  $112 million dollars.
The total costs exceed 2 trillion, 35 billion dollars!  And, these are just the financial costs.  May we add the emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual costs?
How can we deny the reality of sin when it is costing so much?  Why not let God define sin?  Sin is a transgression of the law of God (I John 3:4).
The Solution.
The first step is to face reality.  We must admit to ourselves and to God, “I am a sinner.”  This confession will produce guilt and shame if prompted by godly sorrow and move us to repent and turn to God.
The second step is to pursue the pathway of redemption and righteousness.  We must say, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.”  We must seek forgiveness from God who is the only source that has the power to remit sins.  We must yield to God’s Will for our lives.  We must repent.  Repentance involves a turning away from sin.  It involves a cessation of the practice of sin.  We must be baptized to “wash away our sins” (Acts 22:16; Acts 2:38).  And, we must pursue righteousness.  The way of righteousness is the strait and narrow way that leads to eternal life (Matt. 7:13-14).  The problem is sin.   The solution is “Christ in you and you in Christ.”

Sexual Anarchy is the title of a book by Dave Miller director of Apologetics Press, Montgomery, Alabama.  I have recently posted a review of this book.  Please check under book reviews for the title.  This book covers the reasons for the sexual anarchy present in our American culture and examines God’s Word and the moral principles it teaches in contrast to the practices so prevalent today.  Miller discusses:  the sexual revolution of the sixties, the impact it had on marriage and family, divorce, abortion, homosexuality, pornography and then turns attention to the solution to these problems.  The book is somewhat dated (copyright 2006) and is short, having only 110 pages.  However, it focuses on an ongoing set of moral problems facing America the costs of which are astronomical.

     William Provine, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the distinguished Cornell University has stated: “Naturalistic evolution has clear consequences that Charles Darwin understood perfectly.  1) No gods worth having exist; 2) no life after death exists; 3) no ultimate foundation for ethics exists; 4) no ultimate meaning in life exists; and 5) human free will is non-existent” (Kyle Butt, A Christian’s Guide to Refuting Modern Atheism,p. 87). Darwinian evolution affirms that there is no basis for morality.  Not all atheists agree with this premise which is somewhat surprising.  Dan Barker, a modern atheist, argues that “morality is simply acting with the intention to minimize harm.”  However, all atheistic morality is subjectively determined and consequently permits  every act including: genocide, infanticide, murder, rape, abortion, lying, stealing, etc. etc.  The ultimate appeal of Atheism is complete human autonomy.  With no universal principles guiding our conduct, we are left to decide for ourselves what is harmful or not harmful and so what is right for any individual.  The subjectivity of Dan Barker leads us right back to the affirmation of Provine concerning morality–there is no basis for ethics or morality.
     The Bible affirms that morality is linked to the nature of God.  It is inseparately connected to His love, holiness and justice.  God demands holiness (Heb. 12:14) without which no man shall see God.  God is love and love is the essence of all morality! 
     In Romans 13:8-10, Paul makes some important statements regarding love and morality.  Consider some of his main concepts.
     1.     A Christian should promptly pay all his debts, but there is one debt that he owes constantly and in all circumstances and that is to love one another.  Love is undefeatable, benevolent, goodwill.  It is a principle that one must will himself to fulfill.  It is commanded by God to man.  We choose to love or not to love.  However, we cannot please God and not love one another.
     2.     Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.  Love and law are related.  Love fulfills the law.  The verb fulfill (pleroun) means “to satisfy in full” or “to finish completely.”  It is used in the perfect tense to indicate an already finished action.  The law is entirely satisfied by love (Ceslaus Spicq, Agape in the New Testament, II, 57).  All morality is based in love!  What will atheists do with this argument?  Paul illustrates by citing five of the ten commandments and shows that the Mosaical law prohibited adultery, murder, stealing, lying and covetousness.  These actions are immoral because they violate the supreme virtue governing conduct between men–love!  Each one of these sins produces injury, harm, heartache and destruction and all are contrary to the principle of love.  The principle of love is objective and universal.  All morality is based in love.  All moral law is inclusive in love. 
     3.     Love is the fulfilling of the law.  Love is summed up (anakephalaioo) which means, “uniting several things about a single principle of harmony.”  Love is the principle.  The atheist cannot explain love!  The moral argument to prove theism is expressed in one word–love!  Discipline yourself in love and you will have the approval of God. 
     Love for God involves:  adoration given to God, attachment (covenant relationship) to God, gratitude to God where we present our bodies as living sacrifices to Him (Rom. 12:1-2), and consecration (fullness of commitment) to God.  Love for God and for our neighbor are absolutes that must be met if we are ever going to see God and be with Him eternally.
     Jesus was asked, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”  Jesus answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:36-39).

     The following quotations are taken from Ravi Zacharius’ book, Deliver Us From Evil.  In this book, Zacharius shows how the postmodern mind strips humanity of decency by eliminating objective standards of right and wrong.  Secularism has impacted our society in three ways:  (1) denuding the world of a sense of transcendence (eliminate God from the thinking of people); (2) rendering Scripture irrelevant; and (3) reducing human kind to nothing more than matter (absence of spirit or soul).  “Secularism’s primary target is Christianity” (p. 52, 53). 
     “Secularism strips humanity of decency because it strips it of common sense first by denuding the mind” (p. 63).
     “Shame or remorse or society’s disapproval is powerless today to induce a desire to change, because the ideas that shape our culture make shame a hangover of an antiquated religious world-view” (p. 64).
     “Shame is to the moral health of a society what pain is to the body.  It is the sense of shame that provides an indicator to the mind” (p. 64). 
     “How pitiful is the condition we have reached if we smother that sense of shame that was a part of society’s  scanner system to detect wrongdoing and deal with it” (p. 65).
     “To raise a child without shame is to raise one with no immune system against evil” (p. 66).
     “Secularization–the silencing of the supernatural–brings about an eerie silence” (p. 67). 
     Where there is no spiritual sense of the holy, which comes directly from God, there is no conscience of the unholy.  This lack of conscience centered in one’s belief in God and His holy Will, results in  no compass for the soul, no moral direction for life.  The sense of shame is the direct result of knowledge of the holy.  Where there is no knowledge of the holy, the profane mind rules.  This reprobate (corrupt) mind (Rom. 1:28) produces all manner of evil.  Listen to the words of the apostle Paul, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not covenient (fit, acceptable to God, DS).  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate (strife-DS); deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Rom. 1:28-32).  Take heed, whenever a reprobate mind rules in the land and a sense of shame is destroyed, evil abounds!

     Spring cleaning is an annual ritual for many folks who desire to clean their house, garage, basement, attic or the land around their house.  Sometimes this is a dreaded task.  However, once completed, it gives great satisfaction.  Have you ever considered spiritual spring cleaning?  Through self-examination we can discover those things that need to be eliminated from our thoughts and actions and completely purify the mind and heart.  Paul describes this process in Ephesians 4:22-24, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”  Following these words, Paul names some specific things that need to be eliminated from every person’s life and especially those of Christians.  He mentions lying, sinful anger, stealing, and filthy communication.  A lie is a statement that is contrary to fact offered with the intent to deceive (J. D. Watson, A Word for the Day, 73).  Such things as kidding, fictional stories, figurative language, and not saying something out of politeness are not lying.  There are many things that constitute lying:  false witnessing, exaggerating or embellishing a story, cheating (because you’re saying you did something on your own when you didn’t), betraying a confidence, making excuses for wrong conduct, plagiarism, boasting, flattery, hypocrisy, false promises and many others.  Sinful anger is anger that is: uncontrolled; inspired by the wrong motives such as jealousy, revenge, and hatred; destructive in its results; and often progresses  to malice and strife.  Stealing is taking that which rightfully belongs to another.  We can be guilty of this by taking from an employer what belongs to him, reporting more hours than what we have actually worked, and not paying a debt that is owed. We can even rob God by keeping what  we should rightfully give to Him or by not giving God of our time and devotion in worship and Christian service.  Filthy communication refers to corrupt forms of speech.  Words count!  Whenever we take God’s name in vain, or use it flippantly we sin with our tongue.  Use of bad language such as profanity  would certainly qualify.  False teaching also qualifies.  The word corrupt is from a Greek word meaning “rotten or spoiled.”  Filthy stories, jokes, and vulgar words are all condemned by Paul.  
     The new man in Christ, a Christian, must remove all of these filthy and corrupt things from his life.  Instead, he or she should speak the truth, control his/her anger, work to make an honest living and speak words that encourage and edify others. 
     No doubt this type of spiritual spring cleaning will require hard work, but the results will be pleasing to God and satisfying to the soul.

     In America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, on pages 256-257, there is a quotation from James Abram Garfield (1831-1881-assassinated– who was the 20th President of the United States) that is worth considering today.  Here it is, “Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress.  If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.  If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature…If the next centennial does not find  us a great nation…it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.” 
     These words are appropriate for our times.  To a large extent, our elected officials reflect our values and beliefs (collectively speaking).  Take a good look at Congress and you will see the values and norms of our present society reflected in them.   The laws that they enact reflect their beliefs and the beliefs of those who helped elect them.  If we tolerate hypocrisy in Congress or the Presidency, do we tolerate it in ourselves?  If we accept disrepect for the human life of the unborn, do we disrepect human life itself?  If Congress acts irresponsibly with flagrant spending, do we act irresponsibly with our own personal finances?  If we are unhappy with what we see in Congress, perhaps we need to examine ourselves and ask who’s responsible?  In my judgment, Garfield was right.  The moral values we see displayed in our elected officials are often a reflection of the moral values of the people that they govern.  If we want to maintain our integrity, we must follow the high standards of righteousness that we want to see in them.  We must cast off our sin which is a reproach to any people.  Then, we need to elect officials that manifest righteous qualities.  Then and only then, will righteousness exalt the nation (Proverbs 14:34).

     The Episcopal Church is undergoing a split due to differing views on the Bible, gay relationships and other issues.  The theologically conservative Diocese of Forth Worth voted recently to split from the liberal Episcopal Church.  This is the fourth diocese to do so.  The others are Pittsburgh; Quincy, ILL; and San Joaquin, based in Fresno, CA.  About 80 percent of the clergy members and parishoners in the Texas disocese supported the break in a series of votes at the diocesan convention.  The vote is the latest fallout from the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson (www.dispatch.com –Texas Diocese splits from Episcopal Church, by Rachel Zoll).    
     Is it possible that what is happening in the Episcopal church will happen in other religious groups?  The answer is, yes!  The gay issue is a moral issue for many religious people.  This moral issue, like others, tests us as to whether or not we will walk in God’s Ways.  The apostle Paul clearly identifies homosexuality as “unrighteousness.”  He writes, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?  Be not deceived:  neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”  (I Cor. 6:9-10).  Paul lists ten classes of sins in these passages.  The phrase, “abusers of themselves with mankind” refers to sodomy or homosexuality.  Homosexuality is unrighteousness.  Paul also identifies homosexuality as uncleanness and as vile affection in Romans 1:21-27.  If we uphold God’s truth, we identify homosexuality as a sin against Him.  As with any sin, it can be overcome and forgiven by God.  In I Cor. 6:11, Paul states, that some in Corinth participated in these sins in the past, “but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”  They were converted, changed, and transformed by the power of God.  Consequently, they ceased these sinful practices and enjoyed fellowship with God and the spiritual blessings in Christ. 
     Does the gay issue threaten to split churches of Christ?  Recently, David Lipscomb University hosted the Christian Scholars Conference (June, 2008).  During this conference, Jared Cramer presented a paper.  Cramer is currently affiliated with the Anglican (Episcopal) movement (working toward priesthood).  The paper was titled, “One New Humanity: Reconsidering Homosexuality in Light of the Ecclesiology of Ephesians.”  Cramer affirms that there is nothing “wrong about a faithful, loving, monogamous same-sex relationship” (www.christiancourier.com  –David Lipscomb University and the Christian Scholars Conference, by Wayne Jackson).  Now, each of us is confronted with a test of truth.  Is Cramer or Paul correct?  What will you believe?  Who will you follow?
     As homosexuality becomes more pervasive in our society, it will become more divisive.  Whether or not it becomes a divisive issue in the churches of Christ remains to be seen.  Hopefully, Christians will stand upon the truth of God’s Word and reject homosexuality as a moral evil.