• Matthew 16:23 (AMP)
But Jesus turned away from Peter and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan! You are in My way [an offense and a hindrance and a snare to Me]; for you are minding what partakes not of the nature and quality of God, but of men.
Now notice carefully what Jesus said here in this verse. Sin is what pertains to the nature & quality of man, with the exclusion of God, and that’s the root of what we’re dealing with in our 21st Century culture. People want to throw off all godly restraints and be free to express themselves where & how they choose. Anyone who restricts their free expression is viewed as hard or controlling. Now what most people are unaware of is that this humanistic world-view began to work at displacing the Biblical world-view held by most people in North America…as early as 1920. The goal of the humanist was to achieve absolute freedom from controls; and to be totally free from all forms of godly restraint. By 1980 the humanists achieved their goal by gaining control of the media, the public education system, and the entertainment industry.
From the beginning of time, every culture has had to confront a similar problem, and the problem is this: if there is not a proper balance between control & freedom, then society will move into either of the two extremes:
a) Freedom without a proper balance of controls will lead to chaos and to the total breakdown of society.
b) Control without a proper balance of freedom will lead to authoritarianism, and to the destruction of individual and social freedom.
We’ve taken for granted the impact that the Christian Reformation had on society as a whole. Not only did the Reformation produce a clear preaching of the gospel, but it also gave shape to society as a whole. The multitudes that were brought to Christ held to the beliefs of the Bible, and those beliefs spread through the culture as a whole – including government. These newfound beliefs helped to shape society’s world-view.
But something happened in the last 30 years – since the humanistic world-view became the dominate thought pattern of the masses. The freedoms that were once founded on biblical principles and Christian values have now become autonomous freedom, cut loose from all constraints. Here we have the world spirit of our age – autonomous Man setting himself up as God, in defiance of the knowledge of truth which God has given. This is why we are facing moral breakdowns in every area of life. The awesome freedoms we once enjoyed as a result of the Christian Reformation have been cut loose from their Christian restraints. The last several generations have trampled upon the truth of God’s Word and upon everything those truths created.
• Romans 1:24 (NLT)
So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.
• Romans 28-32 (NLT)
When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behaviour, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving. They are fully aware of God’s death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And, worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
This passage accurately describes our own culture today. Bent on the pursuit of autonomous freedom – freedom from restraint, and especially from God’s truth and moral absolutes, our culture has set itself on the course of self destruction.
Autonomous freedom! How the voices of our day cry out! “I don’t need to submit to spiritual authority or any authority for that matter. I know how to hear from God and I must be allowed to follow my own heart without any accountability. “
• Proverbs 18:1
An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends; he defies all sound judgment.
• Ecclesiastes 8:9b
There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt.
Footnote: “without accountability to others one will sooner or later inflict damage on himself, as well as on those he rules/leads.
When people quit allowing God’s Word to direct their life, they become independent, unprincipled and are capable of outrageous conduct. These are some of the first steps down in the deterioration of a culture. You don’t take one quantum leap down to anarchy – it’s a progression. So after several generations of “freedom from godly restrains,” is it any wonder we have people crying out; “I must be free to kill the child in my womb. I must be free even to kill the newborn child if I don’t think he or she measures up to my standards of ‘quality life.’ I must be free to desert by husband or wife, and abandon my children. I must be free to commit shameless acts with those of my own sex. I must be free to euthanize the sick or elderly so they can ‘die with dignity’.”