Thursday, October 21, 2021

The Downward Spiral of Sinful Man

 

The book of Judges depicts the downward spiral of the nation of Israel. They went from declaring to Joshua that the God of Israel is the only God they would worship. But by the time you work your way through the book, you discover they have fallen so far away from God that they almost wiped out one of their own tribes.

It doesn't end there; sinful man has continued his downward slide. Thinking in terms of morality, just look around at society today. (In the title of this post, I used the phrase, sinful man. I use the word man in representation of the human race and since the Bible tells us we are all born with a sin nature, thus the phrase, sinful man.) This culture is extremely vile and anti God. One passage of scripture caught my eye this morning concerning marriage.

 But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’  ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”                   MK 10:6-9  NKJV

The phrase that caught my eye in this passage is, for this reason, in verse seven. Preceding that phrase, Jesus tells us that God created them male and female and then goes on to say for this reason the man will leave his mother and father and be joined with his wife. There are so many directions we can go from here but I want to refrain from tripping down a rabbit hole and consider two items concerning marriage. The first is a man and a woman who simply decide to live together claiming that a marriage license is nothing more than a piece of paper.  Well, it is a piece of paper but it is really what the piece of paper represents.  We see in the scripture passage above that marriage was ordained by God Himself. It is an institution which He created and ordained. But I also understand that people who are not Christians will not understand this. When I would meet with a couple who wanted me to perform their wedding ceremony, the first this I would ask is who  Jesus is in their lives or simply, "Do you know Jesus as your savior?" If the answer was no, it provided me with the opportunity to tell them about Jesus and why He should be in their lives. I never push and demand they accept Jesus; I don't do that with anyone I tell about Jesus.

The second example is Gay marriage. Now, this is not a post with the agenda to beat up on Gays and bash them. From the point of what the above scripture tells us, God created them male and female. They would become one flesh; think of it as gluing two pieces of wood together. It becomes one piece of wood. It's the same with a man and a woman when they are joined in marriage. And, if you think about it physically, the two fit together perfectly. It doesn't work that way for two women or two men.

Today, we hear people saying, "Follow the science." It all seems to be about following the science in relation to the pandemic. But how many realize it was God who invented science and the Bible tells us about science. So, let's look at the science; take two magnets and attempt to get the same poles to attach.  You can try as long as you want but it will never happen. The only way two magnets will attract is by opposite poles. Two negatives or positive will not attract. It must be by opposite poles. So there's the science; it must be a male and a female in the way God created us and ordained marriage. 

It was God's intention for the man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, to populate the earth. In the way they were created, male and female, this was a natural means of reproduction. Two men or women would have never been able to do this. Some might say, "Why didn't God just create millions of people in the beginning?" The answer is this: He could have but that was not His will or plan for the human race. People have the idea that they assume God thinks like we do and that is not the case at all. Isaiah 55:8 tells us this, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.  “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. But those who are not saved will not understand or accept this. I would suggest that they follow the science and think about the two magnets. But their favorite rebuttal is the Bible is old and outdated and society needs to come into the 21st century. But the truth is that the Bible, God's word, will never be outdated. It is as relevant today as it was when it was written. Jesus never changes. (Heb 13:8-9)

So, how did the human race get here? The answer is simple; the sin nature we were born with has enabled everything in this downward spiral. Gay lifestyle activities is nothing new. It's been around forever but has within the last twenty to thirty years been accepted, slowly, into the culture and society. Gay marriage is an act supported by the United Sates Supreme Court. It's a legal act in all fifty states in this country. Does it glorify God? By no means and it has led to many other anti God lifestyles which I will refrain from noting in this post. 

The downward spiral of mankind is also described in Romans chapter one. 

 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.                 Rom 1:24-25  NLT

God turned humans over to their sinful desires and it is so obvious today as we look around at this world. We are not to cast judgement on these people. God will take care of that when He judges all humans in the end. But they must be told they are on their way to eternal destruction and that's our responsibility. Consider how terrible that will be but remember it is not God's desire that anyone should endure this. When a person rejects God, in much the way many in this society have, they place themselves there. This is what God has turned them over to if they refuse to repent of their sin and sinful lifestyle.

One final reference from Romans chapter one.

Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.  Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.  Rom 1:28-32  NLT

The history of man is seen as a long downward spiral away from God. From  the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden to our current world society. Adam and Eve were created in a perfect state until they disobeyed God's command and allowed sin to enter the world. Every person ever born or who will be born, is or will be born with a sin nature. It's this sin nature that causes people to commit heinous crimes. It caused a Hitler to murder six million Jews, it caused Stalin to kill millions and so many other types of terrible crimes and lifestyles. What would bring a pregnant woman to a place where she would kill her own baby in the womb? The sinful nature we are all born with.


But God, the Father, sent His only Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for all of us to provide a way to be saved from His wrath and our sin. Only Jesus could do this because the Father required a perfect, sinless sacrifice and Jesus is the only human to ever be born without sin. Now, this may sound like a fairy tale to some who don't know Jesus but it is all true. I know it is true because Jesus rescued me from a life of alcoholism. I was a very heavy drinker but when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior, the desire for alcohol was gone and for the last 37 years, I have not had any desire to drink any type of alcohol. Only Jesus could do that; AA didn't work, counseling didn't work; nothing worked until I allowed Jesus in my life.  He stands waiting for all who will come to Him. His arms are wide open waiting for the next person who would accept Him and His forgiveness. For every individual who has done this, for them the downward spiral has stopped. Come to Jesus today and He will stop your descent. 

Bill Petite


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