Sex, Death, and Creator's Displeasure

This week I want to share a few thoughts about some contemporary social issues in light of Biblical principles. Next week, I hope to finish the series on the "New Testament Conception of Law."

Human sexuality is probably the strongest natural and instinctive drive of human nature. History, biblical and secular, offers a long of examples moral and social havoc of fallen men and women. The lives of many people have been marred by the guilt, shame, and corruption of promiscuity. Many families have been destroyed by it as well. The effects of these tragedies is almost always felt by the circles of society in which the damaged people relate. Most people may not realize how these harmful situations harm society at large. As experience has been translated into justifications or coping mechanisms followed with new ideologies to further justify and normalize the evils of these moral and relational tragedies, the slow but certain effects are absolutely realized.

Secular culture guided by humanistic values and beliefs is one such ideology. Its religion of scientism and its sexual mores fill news headlines, police reports, and various professional studies. From the plague of divorce and teen pregnancies to rape, abortion, pedophilia, and gay rights agenda, the effects legitimated by psychologically latent ideology given official sanction is a great problem of our time.

Notice, all of the above is in apposition to the biblical basis of Western political freedom and rights as well as its natural law ideology. Sticking to my original goal, I refer to some biblical principles to remind us of our past and future destiny as human beings and as society.

The beginning of all existence is not Darwinian evolution or any other science, philosophy or even religion. The beginning and ending of life is God created. In Genesis 1:1, the self-evident truth is a Supreme Being created all things. Science has not and cannot prove it false because it is absolute truth. When each of us dies, what many practitioners of the medical sciences have researched, which also supports the biblical truth, is that life and death are not the only absolutes. God is. Eternal life in heaven or hell is. Jesus is the eternal propitiation for our crimes against God and His absolute moral laws in nature.

Another self-evident truth is God made humanity, male and female (Gen. 1:27). God made it a law of nature for male and female as one unity to reproduce and multiply (Gen. 1:28). This is the beginning of marriage, of family, and of society (Gen. 2:24). Any other sexual relationships like adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, or pedophilia are not only unnatural but crimes against God, society, and humanity ( Lev.18:20; 20:10; 18:22; 20:13; 18:23; 20:15). Any government who legislates otherwise is committing crimes against the same. As the apostle Paul states in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans, these things are worthy of God's wrath (vv. 18, 25-32).

God's law demands the death for those types of sins. It is the same punishment God informed Adam and Eve would suffer for any transgression. The day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will die (Gen. 2:17). Evil denies this (Gen. 3:4). However, experience proves it was and still is the truth. Man was separated from his Creator. Humans began murdering each other. They began lying to each other, and doing many other evils. The result was death. Adam did not drop dead physically because death is not just the stoppage of bodily functions. Death is separation of right relationships like between spouses and families. Tragically, death is the officially sanctioned law of American society and most of the world.

Death and destruction has already come upon the world. Liberal politicians, lawmakers, NGOs, among nations and the United Nations are plannning, promoting, legislating, and funding the death of all societies around the globe. Gay rights, abortion, no-fault divorce, so-called sexual freedom, and the like are the goals of globalists today.

They are the servants of Satan and death. They oppose God and His law in nature--otherwise known as natural law--without conscience and with impunity. The fact that they push abortion as a right of women for almost any reason whatsoever is an affront to the One who created the process of life and its development. God did not create it for humans to kill and destroy life at will or mere convenience. A just God is not going to be tolerant of such blatant evil.

In fact, the secularist dogma of tolerance is the same as prevailed in Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19). God is not tolerant of moral crimes. Many blameless animals died to satisfy the punishment of God on sin. This phenomenon is a universal human practice evidenced throughout human history and all cultures where Christianity did not have a significant influence. Jesus died in order to forever satisfy God's law and its sanction for the ultimate purpose of humanity's restoration and reconciliation to their Creator. When the prevalence of crimes perpetrated around the globe prove irreparable, the end-time wrath of God will come to end unrestrained violation of God's law and the perpetual violence of corrupt humanity's sadistic and masochistic practices. As God promised Noah and all of his descendants, God will not destroy the earth with another flood (Gen. 9:9-17). However, prophets and apostles foresaw a latter day of fire and brimstone (Gen. 19; Joel 2:30-32; 2 Pet. 3:3-7).

The more I learn about the issues and how liberal lie and deceive multitudes of people and even judges, some lawmakers, and others the clearer the evidence of the approach of the end-times. For example, Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton established abortion based on deception and lies. The belief in Separation of Church and State is a belief in a liberal lie. Legal history shows Congress rejected strict separation during the framing of the First Amendment. Gay rights is another liberal legislative effort of deceit. Sexual orientation means simply homosexual behavior. No civil right, human right, natural rights, or Constitutional law has ever existed based solely on protecting bad behavior, especially behavior opposing natural law. Gay rights is another liberal act of lawlessness. That is why their secularism--the anti-Christ, anti-God, and anti-religion-ism--boldly lies about America's Christian founding and about natural law being non-existent or irrelevant to Constitutional law.

Therefore, Paul warning to the Thessalonians must be remembered in this treacherous and treasonous times. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work (2 Thes. 2:7). The one who comes will with the "deception of wickedness for those who perish" cause many to believe lies (2:9-10). Why? "Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved." "For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took please in wickedness" (2:11-12). This has come with evolution, with liberal secularism, humanism, and now through the seemingly strong deluding influence of leaders of the gays.

New Testament Conception of Law : Contemporary problems and ancient solutions, Part I

The underlying problem in American culture is the law. The underlying issue of the cultural war is not liberal party politics versus conservative party politics; the most fundamental issue is the rule of law. The legal and cultural battles concerning separation of church and state, abortion, and gay rights are battles over the rule of law. Liberals violate Constitutional law while conservatives defend it. At least that is what recent legal scholarship demonstrates.¹

Just as the rule of law established though constitutions protects American social and political rights, the rule of law and Constitutional law is rooted in biblical conception of law. During the colonial era, some Christians, however, held a belief called antinomianism. It is “the belief that Christians are not bound by established moral laws, but should rely on faith and divine grace for salvation.”² Antinomianism was rooted in a peculiar interpretation of the gospels and especially the letters of Paul. The ramifications of such a doctrine lend itself to social and political anarchy, or its modern conceptualization by the “hippie” generation as doing your own thing. In academic circles, it is called post-modernism, which is actually difficult to define simply. Concerning morality, post-modernism rejects Western moral tradition. It was replaced by moral relativism—no moral absolutes, only what is right to each person or collective.³ The post-modern conception of morality is a return to antinomianism, except its version encompasses current politics, the ideal of the rule of law by written constitutions, and more importantly the Christian view of law.

The rebirth of the post-modern form of antinomianism is evidenced by statements of contemporary religious and political leaders who use the New Testament as justification for social policy and law. The often-heard message of social justice based on a theology of love is usually synonymous with the liberal view of tolerance. A morally tolerant law of love replaces all other conceptions of law upheld by both Jesus and the apostles.

It is readily admitted that the law of love is central to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles. Jesus claimed the greatest commandment of God was to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength as well as to love your neighbor as your self.⁴ Notice that Jesus upholds the revealed law of God. Jesus also commanded his followers to love each other as He had loved them.⁵ As the author of the first letter of John writes, this new commandment is actually the old law applied.⁶ The law referred to is found in both Deuteronomy chapter 6 and the 19th chapter of Leviticus.⁷ The apostle Paul takes the law of love further in many of his letters. For Paul, love is the summation of all of the law of God.⁸ He elaborates on the law of love in 1 Corinthians 13, in which he writes,

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. Love never fails….”⁹

Did Paul expect social laws, which are supposed to protect individuals from murderers, rapists, thieves, and the like, would conform to his definition of love? To make such a claim is more than incredible; it makes very bad exegesis and theology subservient to crime. Paul is not dictating legal codes for society, but a definition of brotherly love for followers of Jesus. His definition may be an extended application God’s agape love, but it in no way contradicts God judgment of sinners who reject His love through Jesus. More succinctly, God will offer no tolerance, grace, love, or mercy to those who live in rebellion to his moral laws. In the final analysis, the message of the last book of the New Testament, Revelation, is a restatement of the same old message of God. God will serve up capital punishment forever to those who live against His moral law.¹⁰ God does not tolerate moral crimes. Jesus had to suffer and die in order for God’s justice to be satisfied. God’s tolerance only exists towards moral criminals to the extent of atoning Jesus death, individual acceptance of the terms of forgiveness, and subsequent loyalty to Jesus, God, and the moral law. That is why Paul wrote,

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”¹¹

If your life ends without Jesus being the ruling Lord of your life, you will have no acceptance by God, no place in the kingdom of His son, no salvation from God’s eternal judgment, and no escape of the torments of hell’s justice.

It is true that the law of love is the central tenet of the kingdom of God, but not as defined according post-modern or liberal ideologies.

So then, what is the biblical conception of law according to the gospels and the writings of Paul? This will be answered in next week’s posting.

Notes:

1. Philip Hamburger, The Separation of Church and State(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002).
2. Encarta Dictionary.
3. http://www.angelfire.com/indie/mayasuraya/writing/postmodernism.htm.
4. Mark 12:28-34.
5. John 13:34-35.
6. 1 John 2:7-11.
7. Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18.
8. Romans 13:8-10.
9. vv. 4-8.
10. Revelation 1:1-3; 9:20-21; 11:17-18; 16:1-12; 19:20-21; 20:12-15; 21:5-8, 14-15.
11. Romans 10:9-10.

Life Issues and Creator Rights

Modern debate about abortion, stem cell research, and euthanasia (remember, Terri Schiavo?) are issues concerning life. They encompass the life of a mother, the life of a child, the beginning of life at its most rudimentary biological stages, and the life of the disabled . Many believe medical practitioners are doing a good service to people troubled, threatened, or suffering. They view the issues as helping preserve a life that already is. When suffering becomes unbearable, they see the right to die as a merciful act. As long as the person has expressed their will, the right to die with dignity should be considered a good thing.

Opponents approach the same issues from the right to life and from the perspective of future consequences. The potential consequences are not merely about life after death or heaven and hell. Right-to-life advocates also consider the consequences for society in general. They see the immense value of life being diminished because of abortions that are often not real life threatening situations. The demand for perpetual creation and use of embryonic stem cells for potential cures while discounting, if not ignoring, the tremendous potential of other pluripotent stem cell sources further degrades regard for human life. Then, right-to-life advocates rightly regard these issues in light of the constitutionally guaranteed right to life.
No such right is guaranteed for death. The obvious reason is that death is a human certainty, but abuses of individual lives have been many throughout human history.

The biblical commandment "thou shall not kill" may used by advocates of life, but one party whose valid concern has not yet been heard. This party has more right to be heard than all other parties involved in the debate. That party is the Creator.

For Americans, the Creator's perspective is legally valid. As the Declaration states, it was the Creator who imbued nature with the right to life. Because life is not the work of science, government, or individuals, a long pause is necessary to consider what right does any one have to determine who lives or who does not. Abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia are all arbitrary determinations of who lives and who does not. Whether at the point of conception, at the blastocyte, embryonic, fetus, childhood, youth, adult, or elderly stage is all one continuum of human development. The Creator made it human life that way. Because human have learned how life develops does not give anyone a right to end life without just cause; otherwise, it must be considered murder in the sight of the Creator.

"Thou shall not kill" is a universal law evident in almost all cultures and societies. It means not to kill without a just cause. . Self-defense is a legitimate reason. The same is true of government executing a murder; it is a defense of a citizenry. Therefore, killing a human life at any stage without a just cause is murder.

It is also robbery. Death robs others of beneficial relations. Families, friends, associates, society, and even God are parties rob of companionship, productive activity, economic benefits, and other useful purposes when a life ends.

More important are the consequences resulting from killing and dying. If a person murders another and both are not morally right with God, they will both suffer eternal spiritual consequences. Heaven and hell are places where life and death continues. Because life and death are both relational states of being, all wrongful separations are forms of death including divorce. Ultimately, the punishment of hell is the eternal separation or alienation from God and loved ones. Heaven is the opposite. It is the continuation of beneficial relationships with God, loved ones, and others.

In the final analysis, abortion may be a necessary evil when actual life-and-death circumstances exist. Stem cell research should be encouraged and funded, but embryonic stem cells should be the very last source. It is hard to justify using live embryos when other types of stem cells are available and have resulted in actual cures not potential ones. In light of eternal justice in the Creator's world, the argument of sacrificing an unformed life for the potential end to suffering of others is not justifiable. It is not justifiable because a life sacrificed for others has already occurred. Jesus died so that human can have eternal life. His sacrifice encompasses realized promises of abundance and healing. Jesus is the means to divine healing. This is another reason why euthanasia is not justifiable in most cases. Because God is more than able to end a life suffering the pain and misery of disease, only euthanasia--if it can be called that--of non-responsive patients on life support could possibly be justified.

The issue comes down to whether society will continue on the path of rejecting God and defying the natural order. The ultimate decision is whether it is worth the risk of facing the judgment of God and an eternity of alienation and suffering.

What deniers cannot prove is that no God exists nor that an afterlife does not await all people. Science cannot provide any evidence to the contrary. Medical science has provided corroborating evidence of God's existence evidenced by healing of terminal illnesses and a great many testimonies to medical examiners of experiences of life while people were clinically dead.

Are We Living the End Time?

In the synoptic gospels, one of the signs of the Messiah's coming is the degenerate state of the world. That state is likened to the days of Noah.¹ The gospels emphasize a complete disregard of warnings of God's coming judgment.² Just like in days of Noah, judgment was promised to end the unending evil of human society. At the beginning of Matthew chapter 24, Jesus gives a list of things that will precede the end of days:

• Wars and rumors of wars
• Nation rising against nation
• Famines and earthquakes
• Religious persecution
• Increasing lawlessness
• Little love much narcissism
• Many rejecting the faith

Those birth pangs of the coming Messiah point to global violence, which was the divine indictment of humanity in the days of Noah. Violence filled the earth³ because humanity had corrupted its way.⁴ The intent of every thought was continually evil; therefore, human wickedness became extreme and unrelenting.

Is this not the state of American society today? Violence in America is approaching a level of precedence unparalleled in history. America is among the ten most violent nations according to international crime statistics.⁵ Abortion law gives legal sanction to an extremely violent act against human life and life’s Creator. Millions lives have been aborted not because of a genuine threat to maternal lives but because of psychological pain and inconvenience. Euthanasia is also serious issue. Besides the high profile case of Terri Schiavo, how many others have been euthanatized against their wills? The repeal of many laws regulating sexual behavior including marriage and divorce resulted in millions of incidents of rape, incest, pedophilia, homosexual abuse, and related sexual violence. Government policies maintain poverty, which is another form of violence. It is a more subtle form of violence but violence nonetheless. Because more Americans live under increasing stress, domestic violence is a major problem. As a result, nearly half of all marriages end in divorce because of problem with money, narcissism, and infidelity. Millions of children experience the conflict, stress and lack as a result, which often reciprocates in future crime and violence. Slavery is another form of violence. Before the 20th century, America enslaved the black race against their wills. Since the 20th century, all Americans are on the verge of being enslaved to government. The mechanism used is entitlements, which make citizens dependent pawns rather than independent players in life and popular government. From birth to death, government officials by hook-and-crook ceaselessly work to control every aspect of human life. They call it freedom, but it is simply enslavement.⁶ The increase of domestic and foreign terrorism is just another sign. It is a sign of discontent with government sanctioned moral corruption as well as economic and social injustice. It is natural backlash against the inhumanity of oppression in the name of liberty, equality, and prosperity.

The telltale sign of the coming judgment of God is the global spread of the above.

Then there is the sign of Lot mentioned in the synoptic gospel of Luke. As a subtopic to the universality of the similitude to Noah’s days, society will also resemble the societies of Sodom and Gomorrah.⁷ The theological depiction of Sodom is a completely gay society. The destruction of the two ancient cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, was a divine response to the evils of unrepented lifestyle. That view is supported by several verses in Genesis. After two holy angels had come to Sodom and were taken in by Lot,

“Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.’”⁸ After Lot and his family had left the city, “the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire (possibly a meteor shower) out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities…”.⁹

The fact that Lot had prospective son-in-laws in the city¹⁰ proves that Sodom was not a city populated only with gays.

What the story of Sodom reveals is the problem of tolerance. Sodom was a place were tolerance ruled. They tolerated behavior inherently unnatural and therefore evil. When holy men arrived, they sought to make them like themselves---corrupt and violent. However, tolerant Sodom may have been, it was tolerance rooted in lawlessness, corruption, and violence. The human body was not made for gay sex. As medical studies show, it damages body tissue, causes various types of disease, and often results in cancer. ¹¹ Therefore, it is another form of violence.

It is a form of violence now sanctioned by American government. Just as in the days of Noah, so it was in the days of Lot. The 21st century is now like the days of Lot not just in America but also around the world.

The answer to the problem is exemplified in an account similar to the story of Lot. It is found in the nineteenth and twentieth chapter of the book of Judges. An unnamed Levite was traveling to Ephraim with his concubine. Because the sun was setting, he stopped in a village in Gibeah, which was part of the tribe of Benjamin. One of the local residents offers him a place to sleep. While dining, a group of homosexuals came to the house demanding that the priest be given to them. Instead, the priest sent his concubine out to them. They raped and abused her all night. In the morning, the priest found her dead at the doorway of his host’s house. The priest cut her up into 12 pieces and sent them to all the tribes of Israel. Enraged by this heinous act, all of Israel’s leaders and warriors came to execute justice. When they had discovered the real reason, they demanded the Benjaminites to turn over the gay criminals. The tolerant society of Benjaminites refused. Therefore, all of Israel attacked and killed nearly all of the men of Benjamin.¹² This story demonstrates four principles necessary for social justice. First, the self-evident law of nature as well as the revealed law of God declares homosexual behavior is a moral as well as a violent crime. Second, it will lead to further violence and lawlessness without appropriate regulation. Third, violent acts and tolerance of violent behavior requires measured but certain justice. Fourth, justice must fit the crime, which the people of Israel performed upon both the murderers and the Benjaminite people that harbored them.

America’s rejection of its historical basis of law opened a Pandora’s Box of escalating evil. It started with tolerance and equality toward morality and religion and then to the national compact and laws. If John Locke’s writings represent American views of government and law, then tolerance of atheists was never intended. Locke wrote his treatise “On Tolerance’ that they were not to be tolerated. Yet, modern Americans have done just that. They replaced republicanism with secularism. Secularism does not tolerate religion in the public arena, especially biblical religion. That is the intended affect of Separation of Church and State doctrine. In fact, the values of modern secularism reflect humanism, which replaced the Creator with evolution science.¹³ That is why creationism and intelligent design is so vehemently opposed. Both threaten the myth of secularist propaganda about evolution being proven beyond refutation. Evolution of species has never been proven and is not even possible to prove or disprove it.¹⁴ More importantly, creationism and intelligent design threaten the new definitions of tolerance and equality making secularism possible. The secular credo now predominates American institutions and their ruling elites. So does violence. The prevalence of violence throughout American culture can be traced back directly to the implementation of the secular credo that undermined moral values and eventually annulled previous established moral law. The end product is spurious Constitutional law by which a vaunted reign of violence and corruption has been imposed upon all Americans and the world. It is being imposed on all nations through agencies of the United Nations and by activist non-government organizations or special interest groups supported by the UN.

As in the days of Noah and Lot, so it will be at the coming of the Messiah is the 21st Century.

_________________________________________

Notes

1. Mt. 24:37; Lk.17:26.

2. Mt. 24:38-39; Lk.17:27.

3. Gen. 6:11,13.

4. Gen. 6:11,12.

5. The Fourth United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice System, 2000-2002; < href=" http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/Search/Crime/State/statebystaterun.cfm?stateid=" target="_new">Bureau of Justice Statistics, Crime & Justice Electronic Data Abstracts, State Crime Estimates, 1960-2005, U.S. Totals.

6. Charlotte A. Twight , Dependent on D.C. :The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans (New York: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 1-53. This book should be read by all Americans because gives intellectual tools by which to understand how and why and if issues and proposed legislation are a bunch of bologna meant to steal more power and wealth from us all.

7. Lk. 17:28-30.

8. Gen.19:4-5.

9. Gen. 19:24-25.

10. Gen. 19:12-14.

11. James W. Holsinger Jr., Pathology of Male Homosexuality, Prepared for the
Committee to Study Homosexuality of The United Methodist Church, January 14, 1991, available at http://americansfortruth.com/news/surgeon-general-nominee-dr-james-holsingers-1991-paper-pathophysiology-of-male-homosexuality.html.

12. Jgs.19-20.

13. An online version of Humanist Manifesto I and Humanist Manifesto II are available at and http://www.americanhumanist.org.

14. Michael Denton, “The Priority of a Paradigm” in Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1986), pp. 344-358.