SOCIETY UNDER JUDGMENT

I wrote this paper in 1991, but after reading it over recently, I found it relevant for today. The following is from this paper.
Western civilization as we have known it is being destroyed. The things we once believed in are no longer considered important, particularly anything having to do with truth or righteousness. Our situation today is parallel to that of Israel in Jeremiah’s time. Three times Jeremiah was told not to pray for the people of Israel, in Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14 and 14:11.
Even the vestiges of the past are today more outward form than reality. There has been a moral decline, especially in he past four decades. The downward trend has been very apparent if we are but honest enough to see it. Also, I have had the advantage of living in other cultures and viewing it, as it were, from another perspective. Finally, I have tried to look at it with the light of God’s Word upon it.
I do not believe that this civilization or culture can be saved and that is not what I am thinking of in writing this book. What is needed today is some careful thinking on two things: First, the raising up of a godly remnant who will believe God and His Word without compromise. Secondly, we must find an answer to the broken homes so prevalent even within the church. Or, to put it another way, “How can we maintain strong family ties in a disintegrating society?” If we can find an answer to these two things, we will be a shining light in a dark world, and people will come to that light.
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788) wrote that the following five attributes marked Rome at it’s end: first, a mounting love of show and luxury (that is, affluence); second, a widening gap between the very rich and the very pour; third, increasing immorality; fourth, freakishness in the arts, masquerading as originality, and enthusiasms pretending to be creativity; fifth, an increased desire to live off the state. Quoted by Francis Schaeffer in: How Shall We Then Live, page 227

THE MAASAI CATTLE PEOPLE

The anthropologist loves the primitive tribesman because
he has a strong sense of culture, is true to his tradition,
has strong beliefs, and a highly developed world view.
He hates the Bible believing Christian for the same reason.

In East Africa there is a tribe known as the Maasai. It is strong and united. When the Arab slave traders were taking slaves from all of the tribes around, no slaves were taken from the Maasai. In fact, the slave traders feared to come near them.
For four hundred years the Maasai cattle people had been expanding their empire as they drove other tribes from the fertile grasslands in Kenya and Tanzania. These tribes were driven into the hills. The Maasai have a very simple religion. They believe that all cows were given them at creation, and their warriors were busy reclaiming their cattle. At about fourteen years of age the young men were initiated into the warrior class. They were called the Moran. For the next fourteen years this young Moran would live out in the field guarding the cattle and conquering lands and cows.

In the late eighteen hundreds the British occupied the territory now known as Kenya. By force of arms the Maasai were forced to discontinue their wars, but were given a large area of grassland in southern Kenya. Except for warring against other tribes, the culture continued unchanged. In the early 1960′s the British left. Kenya has today the fastest population growth in the world, creating pressure from the outside. The Maasai themselves are increasing in number. It takes large tracts of land to graze cattle and the Maasai are finding that there is not enough to go around.. A greater threat comes in as wealthy business men from more advanced tribes are buying land from the illiterate Maasai at cheap prices. Many of the Maasai will find some day that they are being forced off land which their fathers sold to some Asian or Kenyan. An organization known as Christian Mission Aid are teaching literacy to the Maasai so they will understand the laws regarding land rights, etc. At the same time they are teaching them agriculture. The Maasai are losing their culture with the changing times and are in danger of losing their identity if the land buyers take their homeland.
Why did the culture last for four hundred years? The Maasai saw themselves as ‘the people’ and all others as enemies, whether other tribes, Christianity, Islam or civilization. All earthly cultures and civilizations fall when a stronger force from the outside conquers it. But this is true only of the kingdom of this world. The Judaic Christian culture is not of this world. There is no force that can destroy it from without. It can only be destroyed from within.

CULTURES THAT STAND

To dress differently from the world
Does not necessarily prove holiness or strength of character,
But to see it as unthinkable demonstrates a weakness of character.
To slavishly follow every fashion that comes along is
Worldliness.

The Judeo Christian Culture is not of this world. We read in Psalm 87:1, “His foundation is in the holy mountains.” Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18. Romans 11 explains that the church is grafted into the root, as in verse 18 were we read, “But if thou boast, thou barest not the root, but the root thee.” The root is A braham.
Although it is true that true Christianity cannot be destroyed by any outside power and will never be destroyed from the earth, it can be lost by a nation or community calling themselves Christian. It can completely lose it’s influence in society. Israel lost it’s godly character with disastrous results. The influence of the Scriptures was replaced by that which was ungodly and the laws of God were set aside with the people completely given over to their own sinful desires. In the end the entire nation was taken into captivity, as there was violence on a large scale. There was also oppression of the poor, idol worship, and even child sacrifice. The people suffered greatly when they turned their backs on God. It is with good reason that Psalms 33:12 reads: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”

In this chapter we shall look at those things that have stood the test of time. We want to ask ourselves what it is that makes a culture stand. Let us look at a few cultures that stood in hostile environments.
1..There are many tribal groups around the world which have held out for centuries although surrounded by enemies. Some, as the Maasai, also stood firm against both Islam and Christianity.
2. Israel, although scattered around the world for thousands of years have remained a distinct people in not just one, but every land in which they were aliens.
3. There are a few groups such as the Amish who not only lived in the past in hostile environments, but today live surrounded by the temptations of an affluent society.
4 .There are Orthodox Christian groups in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Iran and other countries which have survived for two thousand years. For thirteen hundred years they were under the rule of Islam. Here we could add the Muslims themselves who are extremely resistant to change.
5. The Soviet Baptists and others have stood firm from 1917 until 1989 under some of the most severe persecution. Many other evangelical Christians have stood firm in many countries, which are or have been unfriendly to the gospel.
What is it that gives these and others like them their staying power. Is there a common denominator? I believe there are three things particularly that we can observe.
1. Strong family ties.
All of these groups had strong family ties that included not just the immediate family but also grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. Marriage was always within the group with the parents of both bride and groom very much involved.. Young people did not marry without the parent’s blessing. Along with this was strong patriarchal authority and strong matriarchal influence.
2. Ancient traditions carefully taught in the home.
According to the Kikuyu tradition (a tribe in East Africa), their first father came from heaven and landed on Mt. Kenya.. His name was Kikuyu. He had nine daughters. He had children with these daughters and there are today nine clans in the tribe. Now the point is that every Kikuyu knows this tradition. It gives them their identity as a tribe, a sense of belonging, and a sense of unity.
The Orthodox Christian in each country knows who founded the church in their country and where this leader is buried. The true Israelite knows his history back to Abraham. Along with this are the various symbols and rituals which are important to them. It is also significant that in many of these groups, one can tell by their clothing that they are distinctive.
3. Foreign influences not permitted in the home.
Egypt has a very large non-Muslem minority, the largest in any Moslem country of the Middle-East. It was conquered by Islam thirteen hundred years ago. As in other Orthodox Christian communities no Moslem influence was permitted in the home. The Koran, holy book of Islam, would not be allowed. The only literature allowed in the home would be that of the Church. Outside of the home the young person would be confronted with an alien philosophy. There would be those who would try to persuade with intellectual arguments that Christianity was wrong. There might be threats, loss of jobs, or promises for those who would change. But all this had little effect as long as the home remained a well guarded castle. Again, we can look at the other side. The true Moslem also will not permit non-Islamic influence such as the Bible or Christian literature in his home and the Moslem world is difficult to penetrate.
What is the common denominator that we see in these sub-cultures? Basically, it is that they were a society within a society. They were not part of the society in which they lived, but a separate people. There was a great deal of debauchery among the German youth during the early 1930′s. Solzhenitsen, in his book, The Gulag Archapelago tells of the Russians living in Germany at the time. Their young people were untouched by the decadence around. They were exiles from communist Russia and lived for the day when they would return to their homeland. Although they lived in Germany they never felt themselves to be Germans. This insulated them from the influences around them.
There is a story in Jeremiah 35 which relates perfectly to what we are talking about here. This entire chapter deals with the Rechabites, an extended family in Israel whose forefather was Rechab. Jeremiah is told by the LORD to bring the Rechabites into the house of the LORD and set wine before them. He does so but they refuse to drink the wine. In verses 6 and 7 we read, “But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, ‘Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons forever: Neither shall ye build house, nor sow see, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents: that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.’”
If we look back at II Kings 10 we find that Jonadab was a contemporary of Jehu. In fact, he was Jehu’s right hand man when Jehu killed the prophets of Baal. Apparently Jonadab saw that Israel was turning from God and he wished to keep his family separate from the evil around him. He saw a great deal of drunkenness and so forbade them to drink wine. He did not want them to become too firmly entrenched in their society and commanded them to live in tents. This family had been living in Israel in the northern kingdom but had escaped the Assyrian invasion and moved to Judah. They lived in tents, were mobile, and considered themselves strangers as we read in verse seven above. .
In the last verse of the chapter God said that because they had obeyed their father Jonadab, God would preserve them. We read, “Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before Me forever.” This was encouraging because the Babylonians were at that time fighting against Jerusalem. This family was preserved and we read of them one more time in Nehemiah 3:14 where we find one of the descendants of Rechab building the wall of Jerusalem.

THE FALL OF CULTURE IN THE HOME

We are conservatives in mind, but liberal in heart. We will vote to have smut removed from the TV, but do not have the self discipline to turn it off. We lack discipline, but salve our conscience by calling it legalism.
Egypt was mentioned as one of the places in which a minority had stood firm for centuries, and it has. But a few decades ago the Aswan Dam was built in upper Egypt, providing electricity for almost every town and village. Along with electricity came the television set, and it too entered almost every home, including that of the Christians. For the last ten or twenty years, there has been incessant Moslem propaganda in these homes. Highly intelligent scholars attack the fundamentals of the Christian faith, particularly the doctrines of the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, and the credibility of the Bible. For the first time in its history the Church has a generation of young people suffering from confusion as to what they believe, and the leadership of the church is alarmed at what is happening.
In the West we have a Protestant Christian culture which goes back four hundred years, yet it is crumbling in one generation. In a very short time we have entered a post-Christian era with Christianity on the defensive. A church which has tried so hard in the last thirty years to be “relevant” has been lost to the world it has tried to reach. The church has not penetrated society, but the world has thoroughly infiltrated the church. What has caused the decline of Christianity in the West? There are no doubt many reasons, but I would like to point out what I would consider five things that have been primarily responsible for the demise of Christianity in the West. Here I want to touch on three that I feel directly affect the family and then two things that relate more to society.
A Good literature has been replaced by television.
I believe the primary culprit today is the television set and I don’t think it takes any great insight to come to that conclusion. Television, more than any other medium permits a foreign ideology to infiltrate and influence the families of an entire nation. How much damage have the soap operas done to the homes of America? How many marriages have been destroyed by them? How much crime has been committed because impressionable young people watch the most horrible violence on TV?> The producers of violence tell us that violence on TV has no effect on people’s actions: that what is seen on TV does not influence people. I would assume that they are the same people who sell advertising on the basis that what is seen on the tube greatly influences people. That must be a different department.
Thirty years ago television was really quite innocent compared with now. Even then many Christians saw the danger. They saw that it was basically anti-God in it’s underlying philosophy. Today, although it is much worse the same people see nothing wrong in it. Not only have the soap operas destroyed many a marriage, but at least eighty percent of the children’s
programs have some occult in them. Consider the fact that ninety five percent of our children listen to these programs and you have an evil influence far beyond anything experienced in any society in the past.
Since the invention of the printing press the Bible was read, believed, and respected throughout the Western world. But today it is doubted or ignored, its time honored teachings replace by shifting philosophies and its traditions which span millennia replaced by television programs which are popular for one season.
Children in Christian homes were raised on stories of David, Joseph and Samson. These were their heroes. They learned many things from them including the principle of good versus evil. They learned that there was a Creator Who was ultimately good, and that there was a Prince of Darkness who opposed Him. And they also knew that these truths had come from God Himself and had been passed on from generations past. Even the fairy tales the young ones learned had come from the past and reflected the principle of good versus evil and the ultimate triumph of good.
The aura which surrounded the heroes of the Bible enchanted children of a hundred generations. The television hero may be gone in a year, and more and more the principle subtly taught is that there is no good and evil, and that history has no meaning for today. Another principle taught in the past was that violence might be required, but it was never desirable. It was restrained and used only when absolutely necessary. The children watching the violence on television or the movies are subtly influenced to regard violence as pleasurable, as an end in itself. This is especially true when the hero makes statements such as, “Go ahead, make my day.”
After the Second World War, when traditional beliefs were still strong, the style of homes changed to what was called the modern design. Now, over the last twenty years the homes have been more and more Victorian, Early American, French Tudor, Cape Cod, and such like. What has caused this? Modern man has rejected all that is of the past, but it has left him rootless.
My great grandfather came with his family to Western Michigan from Holland, and bought a farm which was passed down to his descendants. I grew up on this farm. At that time it was almost two hundred acres. After some changes my youngest brother now owns the house and ten acres. One evening all the brothers and sisters were at this home and my oldest brother and I walked outside. We had talked together of the fact that we were happy that Ken had bought the old place and kept it in the family.
Harvey and I walked out to where the cow barn had been but it was no longer there. To the left had been the barn where he and I had fed and harnessed the horses over forty years ago. It too was gone, and so were the granary and other buildings. In their place were new buildings and a big grinding mill. We stood for a while and all I could think to say was, “It’s no longer here, is it?” My roots are in something deeper than the old farm, but we felt the loss. The difference is that we knew what we had lost. This present generation knows that it has lost something and has a keen sense of loss but does not know what it is. They are attempting to find it in their Victorian housing while rejecting the real thing. Alan Bloom in his book, “The closing of the American Mind”, on page 192 writes:
This attempt to preserve old cultures in the New World is superficial because it ignores the fact that real differences among men are based on real differences in fundamental beliefs about good and evil, about what is highest, about God. The reality has been lost and in our attempt to recover the past we grasp at the superficial.

God taught His people in both the Old and New Testaments the value of remembering the past. In Exodus 10:2 we read, “And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them: that ye may know how that I am the Lord.” In Psalm 78:5,6 God commands each generation to pass on to the next generation the things they have learned from their fathers of the wonderful works of God. They were never to be forgotten. Peter explains in II Peter 1:15 that his reason for writing this epistle is so that: “ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.”:. It is important to notice how often Jesus Himself quotes from the very earliest scriptural writings.

Christianity: Husbands love your wives. Humanism: Wives rebel against your hives
The first brings peace, the second brings strife.

E. Family orientation has been replaced by individualism.
In the 50′s there were many romantic songs such as, “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” It has a line which said, “But the yellow rose of Texas is the only girl for me.” The songs of that era expressed thoughts such as, “You belong to me”, or “I’ll be yours forever.” They expressed the dream of finding the perfect mate. It was the dream of a life long relationship, the hope of security, of living happily ever after. The dream did not stop there. The dream went on, to a home, children both little and growing, even to grandchildren. The dreams included success, the home paid for, the profitable business, the nice farm, a respected place in the community. But all was centered on sharing with a partner, with being part of a family. It was a family that reached back as well as into the future. It was expected and desired that the families of both partners would be vitally interested, and that both sets of parents would be pleased with the choices made. There was a sense of community, of belonging to something bigger than oneself. There was a past with roots and a future with branches. It was not something carefully thought through, or a well worked out philosophy but something felt. It was something built in and instinctive. Today’s emphasis on individualism has changed all of this. The individual lives only for himself. He has cut himself off his roots and has no thought or instinct for fruit or branches. The beginning and end is in himself. The end result is that of exploiting others. He cannot even think in terms of a permanent relationship.

Here I want to quote from Charles Colson in his book, Against The Night:
In 1979 sociologist Robert Bellah set out to conduct extensive
interviews with two hundred average, middle class Americans.
As Bellah studied which “habits of the heart” defined the thoughts
and lives of these individuals, a pattern emerged. They saw the world
as a fragmented place of choice and freedom that yielded little
meaning or comfort. They even seemed to have lost the language to
express any kind of commitment to anything – church, family, community -
other than themselves.
Continuing with this thought, Colson quotes Bellah as he explains that there are two brands of individualism. There is the individualist who goes after material interests and the one who seeks for a life rich in experiences. Then Colson adds:
Both brands of individualism stand in stark contrast to what Bellah
calls “biblical” and ”republican” traditions, which provide a reference
point of meaning outside the individual to tell us about the nature
of the world, society, and ourselves. These traditions are embodied
in what Bellah calls “communities of memory” such as religious
groups, traditional families, and cultural associations that communicate
a sense of order and context. Such communities of memory are in
decline, Bellah asserts, since today’s pervasive individualism is destroying
the subtle ties what bind people together. This, in turn, is threatening
the very stability of our social order as it strips away any sense of
individual responsibility for the common good.

In Matthew 13 we have the parable of the sower. In verse 5 we read that “Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth.” Jesus explains this in verses 20 and 21. “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the Word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself but dureth (or endures) for a while.” This is the picture of this generation. It is why we have short term marriages and short term missionaries.
The catalyst for much of the destruction of values or of truly romantic feelings is rock music. The teenager, and before, carries his Walkman with him, listens to his amplifier, and hears it in the places he frequents. Francis Schaeffer in his book, in writing of the Roman Empire writes: “Officially sponsored art was decadent, and music was increasingly bombastic.” But I think no one says it better than Alan Bloom in his book “The Closing Of The American Mind.” On the young people coming into the university he has an entire chapter on music and several pages primarily on rock music. I’m quoting bits from pages 73 to 80 but I would recommend that it be read in it’s entirety. It would be too long to quote all of it, but I have picked out the parts I feel will give the picture of what he is saying:
But rock music has one appeal only, a barbaric appeal, not love, but desires underdeveloped and untutored. It acknowledges the first emanations of children’s emerging sensuality and addresses them seriously, legitimating them, not as little sprouts that must be carefully tended in order to grow into gorgeous flowers, but as the real thing. Rock gives children, on a silver platter, with all the public authority of the entertainment industry, everything their parents always used to tell them they had to wait for until they grew up and would understand later. This description may seem exaggerated, but only because some would prefer to regard it as such. It may well be that society’s greatest madness seems normal to itself. The family’s spiritual void has left the field open to rock music. It has all the moral dignity of drug trafficking. Rock music encourages passions and provides models that have no relation to any life the young people who go to universities can possibly lead. Rock music provides premature ecstasy and, in this respect, is like the drugs with which it is allied.
And after prolonged use they find they are deaf.

As one looks back it would appear that Satan has had a master strategy. In the 50′s the rock music began, mild compared to today. In the 60′s there was the hard rock, in the 70′s the drug culture, and in the 80′s the occult. I think it needs each step to prepare a society for the next. The logical conclusion is that the future will bring anarchy and a police state, but this even evangelical Christianity would scoff at. We are still under the illusion that “it can’t happen here.” Francis Schaeffer in his book, “How Should We Then Live” speaking of rock has this to say, “As a whole, this music was the vehicle to carry the drug culture and the mentality which went with it across frontiers which were almost impossible by other means of communication.”
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, He gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are no convenient.” A reprobate mind is a mind which is totally unable to make sound judgments, and this is increasingly true of our society today. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20
Alan Bloom makes no claim to being a Christian, but he senses the danger of rock music very clearly. Isn’t it strange that evangelical Christians and even youth leaders and pastors see no harm in it and actually believe that it can be used as a tool to win people to Christ? Is it because it will bring in the numbers? The thing people are saved to, they used to be saved from.

The Fall Of Culture In Society
******* Why do young people wear faded blue jeans?
To be different.
But why faded blue jeans?
Because everybody does.

A. Responsibility has been replaced by Rights
For a short time my wife and I lived in an apartment complex. It was a spread out complex with all of the apartments on ground level, built around a square where the cars were parked. There was not room in the apartments for a washer and drier, so a room was set aside where coin operated machines were available with a door opening to the outside. Most of the tenants were young married couples or young singles and the wash room was kept busy. We lived there in the cold season, but we seldom saw one of these young people close the washroom door after they were finished. The result was that the next person to use the room went into a cold room with ice on the floor.
What is the problem? Why the unconcern for the next person using the room? In the past children left doors open due to thoughtlessness, but this was considered a trait of childhood. As the boy or girl matured it was assumed that they would be more thoughtful of others. But today it appears that the thoughtless attitude is not corrected. This attitude carries on right into adult life and is the cause for much friction. It is also a barometer to tell us in which direction society is going. When a society decays the unwritten laws are ignored. If we would see a man walk through a door ahead of his wife, it would not necessarily prove that he was not a kind and thoughtful husband. In the same way, to see someone dress casually to church on a Sunday morning does not prove him or her to be unspiritual. But they indicate trends. The unwritten rules which were seen as important in the past are now seen as unimportant. It tells us that society is in decay.
In the 1950′s there was a change of emphasis. Before that we were brought up to accept the fact that we had responsibilities. We had a responsibility to our parents, in obedience, and care as they grew older. Parents had a responsibility to the children, to care for them, give them proper training, keep them from harmful influence, and give them a home which had both father and mother. There was responsibility to the church, to the school, the community, and to the Name and honor of God. Today we have women’s rights, children’s rights, animal rights, rights of minorities, and rights of criminals. Under a rule of law all these must be protected, but there must be an equal and balancing emphasis on responsibility. Where there is a strong emphasis on responsibility, and where the children and young people are brought up with a sense of responsibility, the result will be a cohesive society. Where the emphasis on responsibility is replaced by an emphasis on rights, as has happened in the West, the natural result will be a splintered society. It can have no other results. As each one is concerned for his own rights, the center of gravity will be self. There will be a tug of war between the individual and society in which the individual must always win. The result will inevitably be an increase in divorce, abandonment of children crime and immorality. This is exactly what we do have.
At the same time we have increasing government control. Proverbs tells us that, “For the transgressions of a land, many are the princes thereof,” Proverbs 28:2. An increase in the emphasis on rights results in an increase in anti-social behavior, which in it’s turn will bring on a bloated bureaucracy. I have a friend in the state police. He told me that their problems are compounded by the fact that more and more people in our society are keeping the law, not because they want to, but only because they feel that they might be caught. At any time the person feels it safe to do so he will break the law. The ideal society is one where there is the maximum amount of personal freedom and at the same time a well ordered society. There will often be one or the other, but seldom both at the same time. Perhaps both at the same time has happened only once in history, or at least come close to the ideal. In many societies of the past, either under kings, or under a strong theocracy there has been order but there has not been freedom Only in the countries where there has been the influence of Protestant Christianity have we come close to the ideal of order in society and freedom for the individual.

In “Death in the City” written by Francis Schaeffer, he writes:

“Men of our time knew the truth and yet turned away,
turned away not only from the biblical truth, the religious
truth of the Reformation, but turned away from the total
culture built upon that truth, including the balance of
freedom and form which the Reformation brought forth
in northern Europe in the state and in society, a balance which
has never been known anywhere in the world before.”

Schaeffer also writes of this in “How Should We Then Live”: “The Reformation did not bring social or political perfection, but it did gradually bring forth a vast and unique improvement. What the Reformation’s return to biblical teaching gave society was the opportunity for tremendous freedom, but without chaos. That is, an individual had freedom because there was a consensus based on the absolutes given in the Bible, and therefore real values within which to have freedom, without these freedoms leading to chaos.
In “Screwtape Letters”, by C.S. Lewis, Screwtape at one point writes to his nephew Wormwood about the problem they have in England. He tells Wormwood that because of Christianity, the rich, who had exploited the poor, now willingly shared their wealth. This, he says, Satan and the demonic hierarchy cannot use. The only thing useful to them is a bloody revolution where the poor take from the rich by violence.
Having been in various countries this began to be impressed on my mind. In May, 1984 I labeled the countries of the world according to their religion or philosophy. Then I put down the qualities which we would desire to see in a country in which we had to live. These were freedom of religion, political freedom, freedom of the press, freedom of movement, freedom from fear of the army or police, basic needs supplied to the citizens, and a minimum of corruption. I came to the conclusion that the best countries to live in were those which had a strong protestant culture. I also noticed that what a country was fifty years ago had more influence than what it is today. Uganda may have more born again Christians than an area of comparable size in Europe, but Europe is still the better place to be. Uganda was pagan fifty years ago and the influence continues for a time.
Even in evangelical Christianity this fog seems to have infiltrated every church, school, and home. In the past if something was seen as true, the opposite was accepted to be false. There was the thesis, which would be the truth, and the antithesis which would be false. Today we simply take both and create a new thing called the synthesis. For example, the Bible is very clear that the earth and all things in it were created in six days by divine decree. This is the thesis. The antithesis is that all things evolved. In the past it was assumed that if the first is true, the opposite must be false. But no longer. Today we simply come up with the synthesis, which in this specific case, is called theistic evolution.
This type of thinking has now permeated Western society until all black and white has faded into the gray fog. This explains why a murderer, known to be guilty, can be set free on a technicality. The real issue of the murderer’s guilt is of no greater importance that some technical point which had nothing to do with guilt or innocence. So confused is out thinking today that the question is even raised as to whether the murderer is really any different that the judge who sentenced him to death. We hear much talk of rehabilitating the repeat criminal as he might be of some value to society, and then kill millions of unborn children without a thought of their far greater potential of good for society. The anthropologists are all for saving life. It is their way, we are told, of expressing love to all. Save the bears. Save the seals. Save the birds. Save the aborigines. Save the criminals. But there is one serious gap in their thinking, and that is in their untiring efforts to kill the infants. Even murder is not evil.
You can see this trend especially in the children’s books. In the stories of the past there was good and evil. The wolf in Little Red Riding Hood was wicked. Generally snakes, tigers, crocodiles, etc were seen as dangerous. They were the symbols of evil. This was Biblical. There is much symbolism in the Bible as it shows the different characteristics of animals. The snake, more than any other animal is a symbol of evil. We see in the children’s books that this symbolism has all disappeared. All animals including the snake are loveable. There is no such thing as evil, and this the children are being taught.
Thirty years ago the things that had to do with alternate life styles were among the worst crimes’
Many of the words having to do with this were not even used in polite company. Today the worst crime is to criticize these same repugnant philosophies. One could freely criticize Christ or Christianity, however. Here I quote From Don Wildman’s book, The Man Networks Love To Hate:
About the only time one hears the Name of God on network television—is when His Name is used in a profane manner. And all too often—when individuals are identified as Christians in programs which air on the networks, they are characters only to scorn, prompt revulsion and to ridicule.—I cannot remember seeing a program on network television set in a modern setting which depicted a Christian as a warm, compassionate, intelligent or gifted human being.
Equally impermissible today is to suggest the AIDS is a judgment from God, even though there has seldom been such a direct correlation between the act and the consequence. But in an age when all black and white is replaced by a dismal gray, the last thing permitted is to point to the obvious. Romans 1:18 to the end of the chapter leaves no doubt as to God’s opinion on the matter. In this passage we see very clearly the three steps to degeneration and personal disintegration.Step One: In verse 24 we read that God gave them up to uncleanness. As we look at the verses before we see this to be the end result of man’s refusing to acknowledge God. Psalm 14:l reads, “The fool hath said in his heart,There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works “ . The natural result of rejection of God is uncleanness in mind and conduct. Verse 23 of Romans One speaks of idolatry and verse 24 speaks of uncleanness in heart and dishonoring the body. Idolatry and immorality always go together. The last verse of Romans One reads, “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.” Do you ever watch things on television which would come under God’s judgment? Do you take pleasure in it? Step Two: In verse 26 we see the progression into deeper degeneracy. “For this cause God gave them up to vile affections”. or a twisted mind. Step Three:The last and fatal step is found in verse 28 where we read that God gives them up to a reprobate mind, a mind void of ability to reason. The gays can break into a Catholic church in New York City but we’re not sure if the they or the church are guilty.We must always keep in mind that man has a natural bent toward evil and where the rule of law is changed for a value system, there will always be increasing lawlessness and immorality. Jesus said, “And when He (The Holy Spirit) is come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment to come.” As long as the evangelical preachers do not preach on the theme of the Spirit of God, men will not be convicted of their sinfulness. It is fashionable for preachers to tell their audiences that God loves them unconditionally in spite of their sinful life styles. This is not what they need to hear. It leaves them comfortable in their sins and will never bring them to repentance. They need to be told that “God is angry with the wicked every day”, Psalm 7:11. Proverbs 15:9 reads, “The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but He loveth him that followeth after righteousness. ”Evangelical Christianity is taking its directives less and less from the Word of God, but rather from the world. Where did the doctrine of theistic evolution come from? Surely not from the Scriptures. Speaking of the creation, the psalmist in Psalm 33:9 tells us, “For He spake, and it was done.” We are told that science has proven beyond a doubt that the six days spoken of in Genesis was not possible. This is also said of the flood of Noah. The problem is that this must apply equally as well to the Resurrection of Christ, and the resurrection of the saints. But Paul tells us that if Christ is not raised from the dead, then there is no resurrection for us. So for very practical reasons the Resurrection must be excluded from the domain of science.But we have another problem here. His Name is Jesus. The creation and the flood are earthly stories. They happened here on earth. The Resurrection is a heavenly truth, and Jesus said in John 3:12, “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell of heavenly things?”When church leaders need three months or three years to study something which God clearly states in a passage that can be read in five minutes, what do they hope to gain? Time. It’s on their side. The evangelical church is drifting in that direction and will catch up with them. As surely as night follows day, the next doctrine in question will be the bodily resurrection of Christ.There is always the fear of looking like ignoramuses before the learned. The people of God have looked like fools ever since Noah built an ark on dry ground. But when the water started rising we can see Noah looking out of the window on the top at the people outside and saying, “You don’t look so bright yourselves right now”. Perhaps it is negative to talk of the fall of Western civilization. But if it is true that the greatest civilization ever is deteriorating before our eyes, then think of the tragedy that one of the greatest moments in history is happening and we are looking the other way.

WHERE ARE WE TODAY
The Churches Opportunity
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these My brethren,Ye have done it unto Me=Matthew 25:40. In a country in East Africa there is a woman with five children. Her husband left her for another woman. She is a refugee from Uganda. She was born in Uganda, but her parents were refugees from Rwanda. She cannot go back to either Rwanda or Uganda as neither country will give her citizenship. My wife, Lillian and I met Mary a few years ago. We have helped pay her rent and feed her family. One day the president of the country in which she is staying, in an especially belligerent mood announced that he was expelling all refugees from the country. Immediately the police began to harass, threaten, roundup, and extort the refugees. A few days later the president announced that he only meant illegal aliens. During this time two policemen came to Mary’s house and told her they were picking her up. She begged them not to take her as she could not leave her children. They told her to take the youngest and find someone to take care of the others, but they were going to send her back to Uganda. She finally gave them some money, the equivalent of four dollars, which was all she had. They took the money, but continued to threaten to take her. A neighbor happened to come in and gave the two policemen a little more money and they left. They never intended to take her in. They only wanted a bribe. This is the plight of the refugees in Africa. Why would the police harass a woman with five young children? Why would they take her last money just so they could live it up? Outside of Christianity there is no compassion for the weak, the widow, the sick, or the child. I have known of people who died in the waiting room of a government hospital because it was not their turn, or because the nurses decided to take a break. It is in the context of evil and against a background of darkness that the church has it’s greatest opportunity. Although not all is perfect in a Christian society, we do at least have a Biblical basis on which to make a claim or appeal for justice. We can appeal to people who are doing wrong if they have some knowledge of good and evil, or right and wrong; if they believe there is a God who rules in heaven. Remove this and there is nothing to appeal to. There is no good or evil, cruelty or non-cruelty, but the whim of people. There is a small country of less than one million people sandwiched between South African and Mozambique. The refugees from Mozambique are fleeing from the ruthless Renamo rebels who have been terrorizing the countryside for years.The United Nations is supplying food, medicines, and other material help to the refugees. Some of the refugees live in tents supplied by the United Nations. Others live in houses with walls made of reeds gotten from the banks of the Usuthu River which runs nearby. The camps look like refugee camps anywhere, with the surrounding ecology destroyed because of too many people and animals on too small an area. The largest primary school in Swaziland is in one of the camps. There are also others working there in co-operation with the United Nations.Our people in Swaziland are busily involved in evangelism, Scripture distribution, and in training local churches in conducting Bible study groups and in church planting. In the last few months we have begun evangelism in the refugee camps. The people are open to the gospel, but our work is somewhat hindered as we are not always given access into the camps. About four years ago Mrs. Naro, a retired missionary from Norway came to work with the poor rural Swazis and the refugees. She lives on her government pension. She bought a rundown school building some miles from the refugee camps and began work with pre-school children. She wanted to help them both spiritually and physically. These children needed more food than many were getting and many were dressed in rags. Only little girl came to the school with only a towel wrapped around her middle. The free noon-day meal attracted them.Mrs. Naro also saw the need for clothing in the refugee camps. There is a primary school in one of the camps with over fifteen hundred students. This is the school which is the largest in Swaziland. Mrs. Naro sent to Norway for help and a 20 ft. ship container of clothes was sent out to her. Her plan was to give each child in the school a bundle of clothes which would be for the child and also for his family . At the same time she wanted to make certain that the gospel of Christ was clearly presented to each child. However, when she came with the first load of clothes, she was told to leave them at the gate, and was herself forbidden entrance. Dr.David Hynd, a medical missionary came to Swaziland in the early nineteen hundreds. His son Dr. Samuel Hynd is today a medical missionary, following in his father’s footsteps. He too, sees the plight of the refugees, especially of the children under five years old. Many are suffering from malnutrition at a time in their growth when proper nourishment in vitally important. Dr. Hynd built a school with the help of a young man from Youth With A Mission. The young man left with a few things unfinished. Someone else completed the school and put a fence around it. The result was that they claimed the school as their own. The school is operating and some children are being fed, but it is not permitted for the teacher to preach the gospel of salvation by faith in Christ as Savior. Dr. Hynd built another school and has some children, but the need is far too great. There are over a thousand of these children who are not getting the help they need.But today the political wind is blowing in a different direction. Due to events in Eastern Europe with money flowing in that direction, the troubles in the Middle East, and other countries catching the headlines, suddenly money is scarce for places like Mozambique. Besides, Mozambique has been in the news too long. There is such a thing as donor fatigue. Not only the United Nations but also others working there are running short of money on their Mozambique budget. It is quite certain that they will be cutting back severely and some may pull out altogether. A nurse at the refugee clinic told us that they were running short on medicine, and we heard from other sources that they may be out of drugs soon. Here we see two things. First, there is the very real possibility of much of this help being curtailed which will leave the refugees in very difficult circumstances. But at the same time we see a wide open door for the church, with an opportunity to come with the gospel of Christ in a completely unhindered way, and at the same time to show in a very tangible manner the compassion of Christ for the needs of hungry people. Often in the gospels we read of Jesus having compassion on the multitudes. And in I John 4:17 we read, “as He is, so are we in this world”. As some of the secular agencies are forced to leave for lack of funds, the opportunity is that much greater for the church. Mrs. Naro is just now beginning to enter the schools in the refugee camps, not only with clothing, but with the gospel as well. One of the men most strongly opposed to anyone coming in with any religious connections is soon leaving. He took us around the camp himself and told of the needs. Hopefully, Dr. Hynd will soon have back the school which he lost. My purpose in coming to Swaziland was to oversee our work there, which is strictly a spiritual ministry. But there is also the material need which we cannot ignore. I have a friend who is the director of a funding and development agency. I was also there to report on the physical needs so that we can work together, bringing the gospel of Christ and showing the compassion of Christ. There are in Africa over seven and a half million refugees fleeing from country to country. Few flee from famine. If that were the problem, they could be fed where they are. They are fleeing from oppressive governments. For many their quilt is belonging to the wrong tribe. These people are in difficult situations. The average refugee is first of all, oppressed by his own government. Then he is harassed by the government of the country to which he flees. And, often he is oppressed by the United Nations people, the very people who have supposedly come to help him. The meager allowance which he receives from the UN must be split with some official, if he is to get any at all.Africa is not unique in its sufferings. In the Western world, with its’ drugs, crime, divorce, and many other problems, there is an increase of suffering. The natural result of humanism will always be more suffering. Wars in forty places at any given time. Extreme poverty in South America and India, economic hardship in Russia and Eastern Europe, persecution in China, and we could go on. But right here is the churches opportunity. If we will have real compassion on the multitudes at this time of suffering, we will see many come to Christ. We don’t need to worry about making rice Christians. Rice Christians are the result of manipulation, when the church rewards those it proselytizes. True compassion is given freely with no conditions. But the people must know that the help they receive is given in Jesus’ Name. This will not be done by Christians concerned with their own affluence or life style. Or by people deceived by the myth of prosperity theology. “True religion is to visit the fatherless and the widow, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” Kenneth Latourette was one of the greatest historians of the Christian movement. In “A History of Christianity” he writes:In Christ’s teaching, love for God, as the duty and privilege of man, is inseparably joined with love for one’s neighbor. The ideal and the goal have determined the character of the movements which have been the fruits of Christianity. Although men can use and often have used knowledge and education to the seeming defeat of the ideal, across the centuries Christianity has been the means of reducing more languages to writing than have all other factors combined. It has created more schools, more theories of education, and more systems than has any other force. More than any other power in history it has impelled men to fight suffering, whether that suffering has come from disease, war, or natural disaster. It has built thousands of hospitals, inspired the emergence of nursing and medical professions,and furthered movements for public health and the relief and prevention of famine. Quoted from Perspectives of the Christian Religion.This is the churches opportunity.