Let’s begin with God.
Life begins and ends with God. To leave God out of life’s equation is the epitome of arrogance.
We Americans must look inward and we must look back to God if we are to preserve our freedom. The conscience and direction of our Western civilization is dramatically declining in subtle ways. Americans seem to be losing sight of their roots and direction.
Our ancestors came to America to escape religious persecution. As a result, our nation is built on Biblical principles, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. All three define who we are as a people united under God. Our nation has been preserved by God and the sacrifice of unselfish men and women.
We are One Nation Under God.
Accepting God’s free salvation-gift – found only through Jesus Christ, and His Holy Inspired Word – and unwavering loyalty to God should be every American’s personal responsibility.
We are to be loyal to Truth. “I am the Way, and The Truth, and The Life, no man comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). It is on this premise that God has blessed America and the entire world while doing so. God has always blessed America. But that may not stay the case if we continue to stay our course away from Him.
The Christian life begins with Jesus Christ (John 3:15-18,36). You are not a Christian by any other means (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). If everyone (or at least a majority) believes in and honors Christ, America will be honored and prospered by God, and no nation shall stand against her.
Okay, I’ve given you the answers to our problems before we have discussed our problems. Maybe you think we do not have problems, so please consider these issues:
FALSE TEACHERS, GREED, AND A NARCISSISTIC SOCIETY
Many of today’s evangelists and preachers, through modern media and the pulpit, are preaching a neutralized gospel, resulting in a liberalized Christianity. Motivational speeches featuring humanistic values, and a “me first” mentality featuring materialism while dismissing sacrifice and suffering, contradict the Bible and the importance of Christ’s sacrifice, therefore the importance of the believer’s sacrifice; Christ’s suffering, therefore the believer’s suffering.
Please look up all Scripture references. Turn in your Bible to Romans 8:17b-18, where we read: We will suffer with him, mentally and physically. “It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God.”
We are to judge what we are told against Scripture, so that we are not misled by false teachers (Matthew 4:11; 1 John 4:1).
Please turn to Isaiah 2:2-8, and notice how accurately these verses describe the world today.
Narcissism – “Me first!”
Me first is a mentality taught by today’s modern parents, that excludes the use of the word “no.” There is virtually no “leadership,” no discipline, no authority, no respect for authority. There is, in too many cases, no Biblical training in obedience, or the golden rule. And here lies the tragedy that will have grave consequences for America’s future.
Narcissism breeds arrogance. Arrogance excludes respect for God and others. Today’s parents, perhaps without realizing, teach “self first.” The self is adorned as the ultimate social standard. The result is, we have a society indulging itself in sensual and other pleasures.
INQUISITION
What is right? What is wrong? What is good? What is evil? What… is… Truth?
What philosophy do you hold to be truth? “Who cares?” another might ask? So to you, dear reader, I submit: Where are you in the equation? How do you see things? Are you just accepting everything that comes along and believing everything you’re told on the news? Are you perhaps, indifferent? Where do you stand? Do you really care about what is right and who determines what is right? Do you tell your children “no” when necessary?
If not, why is that?
What does God think? What do you think of God? What does God think of you? What does God say about how to discipline your children? Where is God in your thinking? Is there anyone more important in your life than God? Than you? Why don’t you ask your pastor to teach on these things?
COMMENTARY:
“Mankind’s Adamic-nature is ‘self-natured.'” – C. S. Craig
The soul of mankind is designed by God to respond to God. Man must have hope, structure, direction, and an anchor for the soul. God provides that. Everybody needs somebody. Man needs God. Without God, man turns inward to himself, and outward to sensualism… something else to fill the void. That something else is usually drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sexual lust, materialism, social status, etc. Man has many weaknesses, perhaps topping the list is addiction.
Addiction brings with it misery, much of which is self-induced while searching for stimulation and happiness in all the wrong places.
The nature of man doesn’t change inside the walls of bars or behind barbed wire fences.
Many prisoners emerge still addicted to drugs (they are available on the inside of prisons). Prisoners are released back on society hardened, insecure, deceived, confused, frightened, and uncured. For many, the inability to cope in society is worse than before they were incarcerated. The inmate overpopulation in America is a reflection of the moral state of our society. Institutions of cold steel cannot reach the human soul, cannot save the human soul! Is there any place where man can cope?
Crime, drugs, alcohol, addictions, all reflect a void, a gap between God and man… make that a void between man and God. It is not God who has withdrawn from men, it is man who has rejected God, especially as Lord of their life.
LEGISLATE MORALITY?
Congress and the judicial system cannot legislate morality. Laws cannot fill the void in humanity’s soul. When the lessons of history are not learned, history remains the teacher and everyone fails. Unchained, human nature can put itself back in chains... a prisoner in the slave market of sin.
Man is subject to his own prison-ship – addiction, the lusts of the eye, the lusts of the flesh. Addiction is slavery of one type or another. Addiction is a weakness of the flesh – hereditary in man, passed down from Adam. Notice “passed down,” not up.
A degenerating society can self destruct from the inside, if it isn’t first attacked and destroyed from the outside by a foreign power. When society turns inward to self, nothing else matters. As a society turns more and more to self-pleasure, intolerance for others begins to take root. A good, simple illustration of a society under pressure and out of sequence with each other is “road rage.” So let’s talk about road rage and one of the reasons why it exists in our society.
ROAD RAGE
Road Rage – “Get out of my way!” Have you witnessed intolerance on our highways? Road rage is an obvious manifestation of a deeper problem. The deeper problem of me first. One perhaps major manifestation of this societal problem is, believe it or not, the reversal of the parent-child relationship in the home. Children being asked by their parents to make adult decisions – children becoming the parent.
Someone once told me: “We don’t tell our children ‘no’ because it will change their personality.” The last two generations have adopted this mentality. It is a cultural thing. This liberal philosophy is a philosophy of man. It is giving back to our society young people who are self-centered, intolerant, disrespectful to parents, narcissistic, who must have their way at everyone else’s expense.
The culture of “me first” shows up in road rage and bullying. Without parental instruction, the children become their own authority.
Respect must be taught and learned in the home. It is not the public schools’ responsibility. It is every parent’s responsibility.
Intolerance is the result of narcissistic thinking – me first. No discipline in the home equates to no self-discipline in the world outside the home. When there is no guidance – yes & no, right & wrong – then how now shall we live?
In life, there will be many faces in your face, people in your way, traffic on the highways. Everyone needs to grow up and relax. Get in your child’s face and tell them “no“ when necessary.
Children must learn to “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” This is called the “Golden Rule,” and when I was growing up, everyone tried to adhere to this simple virtue.
Children must learn right from wrong. They must learn that there is evil and good, truth and untruth, yes and no, or there could be hell to pay down the road and on the road.
Children must learn good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). They must be taught that God is first. When children do not learn that God is first, then everything else will replace God in their lives.
The Bible tells us to “Train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6). No training + no discipline = no respect.
Giving in to children or asking for their approval, “Is that okay, honey?” creates a me-first mentality. This brief message could become a large book, so we will stop here and continue our monologue.
When God is dismissed from the equation, God respects our wishes. God steps aside. Every decision has a price – most have a cost. Be sure you know what your next decision will cost you.
The self is just that – selfish! “Self deceives self!”
Self is actually a singular expression – a thought-pattern that excludes the other person, except for gain, the “getters” mentality, the “robbers” mentality, and so on. Selfish intolerance can eventually destroy society. We can literally, like the electronic game Pac Man, devour each other.
Promiscuity is rejection of God as Lord. Self-induced misery is caused by rejection of God. Living without God in your life has a tremendous price.
When God is rejected, no amount of pleasure can fill the void in one’s soul.
When national entities and individuals move away from God, sooner or later they come face to face with one of the cold, hard faces in life: Reality. A reality minus God means destruction, sooner or later.
Bullying is a trait of narcissistic people wanting their own way. It is a power-lust manifestation, trying to “lord it over others.” It’s just a matter of time until intolerance boils over into road rage or murder.
INDIVIDUALISM
The American people must come to terms with the cold war against the soul – namely, humanism, relativism, individualism, existentialism (is there a difference?).
Humanity’s problems have one solution.
Man’s soul without God, without the structure of edification in the soul (‘soul-house’ from previous study), without morality, without conscious restraint, will eventually self destruct. Man without God is cold, heartless, and empty.
“Empty a man’s heart of truth, and it will be filled with untruth. Empty a man’s heart of love and it will be replaced by hate. Empty a man’s heart of good and the void will be filled with evil.”
A heart full of self is a heart full of deceit – “thou shalt know good and evil.” The good is God first. The evil is self first.
Morality instills pride and a will to achieve, to excel. Biblical morality gives man a sense of destiny, of dignity, of pride, of duty, and of obedience. Morality teaches us to respect God with the result that we will respect others. Mankind has an insatiable appetite for pleasure, money, alcohol, drugs, social status, and material possessions. Without God, man is in a frantic search for happiness – something to fill the void.
THE SEARCH FOR MEANING IS ALSO AN ATTEMPT TO DEFINE IT
How Should We Then Live by Francis A. Schaeffer, (recognized and respected in America and abroad for his work in applied philosophy and theology), is best known for his remarkable ability to communicate ideas and principles to a diverse audience.
Only God can fill man. Empty, unfulfilled humanity is in search of God – God’s love. God is the one thing the soul desires, craves, needs. When that need, that “hole,” is not filled with what was intended to be there, humanity remains unfulfilled and empty, forever trying to fill that void with things that shouldn’t be there – incompatible things that bring nothing but destruction to the soul. Only Truth can satisfy humanity’s innermost longings. “I am The Way, The Truth and The Life, no man comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
MORALITY PRESERVES FREEDOM – LET FREEDOM RING
“Neutralizing morality is self-destructive because morality preserves freedom, and freedom preserves the Gospel. The Gospel saves humanity and preserves the nation. Therefore, neutralizing morality can and will destroy society and the nation.” – C. S. Craig
There must be respect for authority and there must be love. Crime is a serious threat to freedom. Criminals do not respect, nor cherish, the law or the other person’s property or rights. Without respect and love, we cannot co-exist.
Because man has knowledge of both “good” and “evil,” the conscience must be armed with Truth. God’s Truth, illumines untruth. Pontius Pilate looked Truth in the eye and asked “what is truth?” Ironically, Truth is a Person. The foundations of America were constructed on: Love, Truth, Justice, Righteousness, Obedience, Duty, Respect for God, and Law and Order.
Divine justice serves and guards divine righteousness.
The Laws of Divine Establishment preserve and protect each individual and nation.
Biblical Truths guard justice and righteousness for humanity. Justice must serve and protect righteousness. In proper alignment with God, humanity must love, respect, and serve God. Man must orient to Truth and the Laws of Divine Establishment. Biblical Principles must be taught by parents to their children, maintained by every generation. The very survival of America depends on respect for these timeless principles (and it may already be too late for us).
The believer’s Biblical training must overflow into society. These Christian convictions must inspire public virtue and acceptance, that is: the will of the people to do what is right – the moral imperative to be gracious and good. Truth inspires, so we must learn and keep truth.
If everyone respected God, and each other, think what the world would be like. Think of the possibilities: “Perhaps there would be no aggression; no need for prisons; no wars; and perhaps most of all, no more tears.”
“If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways: then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Happy Studying in Fields of Grace.
C. S. Craig July 18 – July 25, 2017