Cultural SIN

In my last post, I spoke of our beliefs and our understanding of the word of God being based on our culture. No matter what country you live in, culture doesn’t dictate truth. Let me say that again. Culture does NOT dictate truth. This is the premise of what I want to convey.

Not to pick on a particular weakness or sin, but because it is both a cultural and Biblical issue, let’s take an example from our own American culture and look at sodomy. As late as 2003, the Texas Penal Code prohibited any sort of sexual contact between persons of the same sex, and yet 6 years later homosexuality is normative in our culture. Does this mean that God accepts it? Take a look.

 The Bible in Romans 1:27 calls it unnatural and unseemly, In Leviticus 18 verse 22, he commands, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.”(disgrace) 

We all know that God loves sinners. Romans 5:8 tells us that “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And then in chapter 3 verse 23 it says, “For ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The question is not whether or not God loves sinners or whether or not God forgives sinners when they repent. These truths are not in question. My question is, does something cease to be sin just because it’s normal in our culture? In Junior High School I used to try that tactic on my mom. The old, “Everybody’s doing it! I’m the only one that can’t go.” Of course the answer was always the proverbial, “If everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you run and follow?” Well, Folks, the world is always jumping off some cliff, but our churches today are running after the world just as fast as they can and diving off head first.

I believe that as a nation we are under the curse of God for our sins and we don’t even realize it. We’ve compromised so much, that we don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear. My pastor told me once, “Sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go and make you stay longer than you ever intended to stay.” I would say that is a very wise and poignant way to assess our situation.

          The first chapter of Romans talks about those faithful to the gospel of Christ and those who know it and yet live in unrighteousness. Our country was founded on Godly principles. I know it’s a lengthy passage, but read through it and then read through it again slowly. I’ve heard people say that the United States is not found in scripture and I say, here we are!

   “…The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

 ²¹ For although THEY KNEW GOD, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

 ²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

 ²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

 ²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They 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, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² 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.”

 I pray that God will send a Jonah to sound the alarm and reveal our sin. I pray that our country will realize that we are being judged by God. I pray that we will turn from our wicked ways and repent, but I fear that He already has and it has fallen on deaf ears.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

 II Timothy 4:3,4

I believe this time is now. Those who turn their ears from the truth say of the Bible, “It’s all just a matter of your interpretation.” That’s just another way of saying, “There is no truth.” Most things in the Bible are very clear. The interesting thing is if you go back a few hundred years there weren’t that many different beliefs. Interpretations come from people taking what they already believe or want to believe and trying to make God and His word FIT. If you take God’s word in context, look at who is talking, and who they are talking to, it’s usually fairly easy to understand. I’ve heard so many preachers, when confronted with someone who is confessing sin in their life, smooth it over by saying, “God understands.” Or “We all have our problems.”. NO!!!!!! We need a John the Baptist yelling out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Turn around, get it right, or as Bob Newhart would say, “STOP IT!”