PROGRESSIVE THINKING IN REVERSE

Contrary to the way many people would have it, the Bible does not hesitate to pass judgment on human conduct. Over and over again in the pages of Holy Scripture we read about God’s anger, wrath, and fury being poured out upon sinners. Consider for a moment the catastrophic judgment of a worldwide flood in the days of Noah because “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).  Therefore, God destroyed the inhabitants of the earth, sparing only the righteous Noah and his family (Genesis 7).  Sounds horrific, and it was.  And yes, there really is evidence of a global flood. How else does one explain the presence of marine fossils in strata across the continents, unless the continents were once covered by water (even the highest mountains of the world)?  If you have ever been to the Grand Canyon, you have seen with your own eyes exactly what a catastrophic judgment by water can do.  There we find the remains of sea creatures more than a mile above sea level, and two-foot long nautiloids in the Redwall Limestone.  Further on in the book of Genesis is a statement about the inhabitants of ancient Sodom: “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly" (Genesis 13:13). This sounds quite like God’s assessment of the people of the earth in Noah’s day:  Evil continually (Noah’s day),and sinners exceedingly (in Sodom).  And guess what happened to the inhabitants of Sodom and the cities of the plain?  God rained brimstone and fire upon them from heaven and they became the cities of ash (Genesis 18 and 19). Granted, to speak of such judgments by water and by fire doesn’t go over very well in a culture of people who want to have everything “their way.”  But just like the evidence for a global flood, evidence for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah has been found. I would refer the reader to the articles on this subject at the Associates for Biblical Research website.

Reflecting on God's judgment upon the sinners of Sodom, I couldn’t help but think about America’s moral decay.  As a nation before God, we are sinners exceedingly. Recently I was reminded of just how badly the moral foundation of America has been shattered. Vice President Joseph Biden, while campaigning for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, characterized his opponent Ken Cuccinelli as "a relic from another era."  What did Biden mean?  “A relic from another era”! In part, he meant that Cuccinelli is not a progressive social liberal who supports such things as a woman’s right to kill her unborn child via abortion. Cuccinelli also opposes the gay rights agenda, the opposition of which, according to Biden, is out of step with a new way of thinking.  In Biden’s own words, "Everything they (Cuccinelli’s supporters) talk about without exaggeration is about turning back what the rest of the country and the world thinks is progress." Biden said, "It's hard to fathom this state being led by a man who rejects all that this new thinking stands for.”  Putting politics aside, I find honest Joe’s comments compelling evidence that America is not Slouching Toward Gomorrah, the title of Robert Bork’s 1996 New York Times Bestseller. America is like unto Gomorrah. Biden’s new way of thinking, which progressives embrace, is progress in moral reverse. And Biden made his comments in his typical arrogant tone. He seems to be quite proud of his progressive vision for the future of the United States. But I know that God doesn’t agree with Biden’s new way of thinking, which the world calls progress. In Noah’s day, the preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), the just man Noah, was the only one who didn’t jump on board with the crowd that was bent on doing evil.  Rather, he took his family and got on board an ark which God had him prepare, so that they could be saved from the judgment He was going to bring upon the whole earth. And Lot’s family was escorted “out of Sodom” so they could escape a fiery end.  Only his foolish wife looked back and perished: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.  But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:24-26).   Peter comments on the destruction of Sodom with a stern warning about what God did: “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6).

 If the vice president’s vision for America is progress, count me out.  I won’t travel this road of progress because I know where it ends.  God has made it plain: "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34 NKJV). And sin is not something that an Almighty God winks at. He is not a social liberal, nor a right-wing conservative.  He is the thrice-holy God that Isaiah the prophet had a glimpse of in Isaiah 6, which made him declare, “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5).   Here is another word of truth found in the book of Isaiah-- I pray that all the “new way of thinking” advocates take it to heart: “ Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness"(Isaiah 5:20).

 

Pastor Tom