On this day after the horrendous tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma, we feel for the families who lost children or other loved ones. By all accounts, this had to be one of the worst tornadoes in American history. Normally, they don’t stay on the ground as long as this one did, and the winds may have approached 200 miles per hour. No sin caused this; it was what is usually termed a “natural” disaster.

Some people promote a theology that seems to attribute any natural disaster such as this to the hand of God. While it is true that God is the ultimate sovereign and could, if He chose, direct all things that happen in this world, I personally don’t subscribe to that theology. Yes, God can and has used the elements to bring judgment on some, but when we try to fit all natural disasters into that theme, we go astray.

Jesus spoke to this when he related to his disciples that the tower of Siloam that toppled, killing eighteen people, was not a result of those people’s sins. Don’t suppose, he taught them, that those who died in that event were necessarily worse than those who survived. That tragedy was not some kind of judgment from God. He did use the occasion, though, to warn them with these words: “But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” None of us knows when we may be the victim of a similar catastrophe; if we’ve never repented and received the forgiveness the Lord so freely offers, we will die in our sins, leading to the ultimate judgment.

Jesus also taught, in the Sermon on the Mount, that the sun shines and the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. There are laws of nature that He has established that continue on, not making a distinction between His people and those who have rejected Him.

Man’s sin did, however, change the course of that nature. Rebellion against the rule and sovereignty of a loving God led to a degradation of the natural creation. The apostle Paul explains in the book of Romans:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

Yes, for now, we live in a troubled world with natural disasters all around. That will not change until this very world is set free from the bondage caused by sin. That day is coming. All will be made new. Our task until then is to show those who are alienated from the love of God the path of redemption. A loving God continually reaches out to each of us, but it’s always our choice whether to reach back or reject His love. Natural disasters have one redeeming feature in this present age—they jolt us and make us think about the day of our death.

What will follow that day?

We live in an age when the idea of sin is dismissed as a relic of an outmoded religious system designed to suppress one’s desires for happiness. As we’ve seen so abundantly recently, in our entertainment media and all the way to the Supreme Court, equality has now been applied to same-sex relationships. Anyone who disagrees with this new enlightenment is archaic. Our society needs the message that is at the very ground level of Christian understanding: all men are sinners, and we cannot cover up those sins by calling them something else. In The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis instructs us,

A recovery of the old sense of sin is essential to Christianity. Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of His to be true, though we are part of the world He came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom His words are addressed.

In other words, the salvation message cannot come across to us until we are willing to recognize our sins. Lewis also describes how sin distorts every good thing God provides. In Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, he writes,

The only way in which I can make real to myself what theology teaches about the heinousness of sin is to remember that every sin is the distortion of an energy breathed into us—an energy which, if not thus distorted, would have blossomed into one of those holy acts whereof “God did it” and “I did it” are both true descriptions. We poison the wine as He decants it into us; murder a melody He would play with us as the instrument. We caricature the self-portrait He would paint. Hence all sin, whatever else it is, is sacrilege.

This sense of sin must return to our society. If it does not, we are lost.

Yesterday I wrote about the casual acceptance our society is showing toward homosexual rights, all the way to same-sex marriage. In less than a generation, our moral fabric has been ripped apart on this issue, making us an altogether different people than we were when I was younger. The change has been so drastic that it almost takes one’s breath away at times. This is largely a cultural phenomenon—that’s where the changes began—but it has been aided by government. As Ronald Reagan used to say, the nine scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” The government “helped” with abortion; now it wants to do so with the homosexual agenda, and it seeks to follow the same path through the Supreme Court:

If this agenda wins, the concept of marriage will be in tatters; there won’t be any reason to hold the line even with same-sex marriage. Think of the possibilities: polygamy, incest, men with boys, bestiality. Whenever a Christian warns about these perversions, we are told we’re being alarmist, that nothing like that could ever happen. Yet wasn’t that what we were told about same-sex marriage? Those warnings are now about to be proven true. Once a society loses its moral grounding, anything goes.

I’ve been saying for some time that Christians have to wake up to the reality that we are no longer the majority. It’s actually worse than that, potentially. If we continue to stand firm on our Biblical conviction that homosexuality is a sinful behavior, we may find ourselves the target of legislation calling us “haters” and “bigots.” Penalties will be assessed on individuals, churches, and other Christian organizations that refuse to bow down to the new immorality. Christian universities, such as the one where I teach, will have to decide whether they have the bedrock beliefs they have mouthed for so long; many, I fear, will fall in line with the new order.

Those who “stubbornly”—that’s one of the words that will be used to describe us—resist the emerging consensus may find that the agents of tolerance will suddenly transform into the agents of intolerance, all the while attacking us in the name of tolerance. The only thing toleration cannot abide are people who refuse to tolerate depravity. We will be the new enemies of society.

In other words, we need to prepare our hearts and minds now for the real possibility of persecution. It will start slowly, but just like the mad rush to same-sex marriage that we’ve witnessed the past few weeks, full-fledged persecution will be upon us before we have time to consider our options.

Now, I still hold out hope that this will not be inevitable, but it will take a rather significant reformation of hearts and renewal of minds to forestall it. Nothing less than a fresh outpouring of the Spirit of God is needed. That, I believe, is how we should pray.

God is a God of great compassion and mercy; He wants to continue to show mercy to this nation. Maybe it comes down to how many of His people He finds who are standing firm for the truth. I’m reminded of the scripture in Luke 18 when Jesus ponders, “When the Son of Man comes [back], will He find faith on the earth?”

Only we can answer that question.

We are a spiritually lost, logically challenged, perpetually confused people manipulated by a small group, aided by the media, that seeks to impose even greater evil upon us in the name of equality. I am unaware of any other sinful practice that has been so successfully foisted on this nation as that of homosexuality. Abortion, of course, is far worse in its consequences because of the stark fact that every abortion is a murder of an innocent child. Yet abortion hit us in one fell swoop via Roe v. Wade in 1973. We hardly saw it coming. The homosexual rights bandwagon, however, has been gaining momentum one step at a time for the past forty years. Now we find ourselves in a heretofore unimaginable position, on the verge of legalizing same-sex “marriage” nationwide.

I’m not usually all that surprised at the depths to which man’s depravity can sink, but I admit to amazement at the way this abomination has come to the forefront all of a sudden. One could say it began with Joe Biden’s public support, followed soon after by Obama’s. Now, nearly everyone on the Democrat side of the political spectrum is falling over themselves to voice their “evolved view.” The rest of the country, prepared for this like the proverbial frog in the pan of boiling water, having become accustomed to watching one television program after another showcase “normal” homosexuals who are being “bullied” by the rest of society, now seems to be calmly accepting what they consider to be inevitable.

I had thought the law might be one bulwark against this invasion of decency and common sense, but that is deserting us as well:

Even more disturbing is the erosion of moral principle on the conservative side of the political divide. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a Republican, recently came out in favor of same-sex “marriage” because his son has declared himself to be homosexual. Is that how we are to make decisions in life, tossing aside morality to accommodate a family member’s sinful lifestyle? This was followed by the Republican National Committee telling fellow Republicans not to push disagreement with the gay agenda so as not to lose votes. I have news for the RNC—you are going to lose a whole lot more votes with that stance.

Even erstwhile conservative commentators are wobbly on the issue, as can be demonstrated by a political cartoon from someone who normally understands morality. Note how people who support Biblical moral stands are depicted in this one:

Rush Limbaugh intoned this past week that the battle on this issue is lost. He says it was lost as soon as we allowed homosexuality any legitimacy in our discourse. I agree with that last part. When we allowed civil unions, we gave it legitimacy. When we even gave in to the “marriage” talk, we gave it legitimacy. That’s why I’ve put quotation marks around that word in this post—same-sex marriage is an oxymoron of the highest caliber. Yet we now have serious debate about it, as if there is some ground for debate. There is not.

We have been swept along on a tidal wave of popular opinion, a popular opinion based mostly on emotion and misleading political rhetoric. Inevitability may be too strong a term, but we are dangerously close to it.

Meanwhile, where are the Christians? Some are fighting valiantly for the truth. Others who call themselves Christians have given themselves over to the emerging consensus. Anyone promoting sin cannot be a genuine Christian. A sin-promoting Christian may be the greatest oxymoron of all.

Every Sunday, I post a passage of Scripture without commentary. Although I often use Scripture during the week as foundational to my reasoning, I like to let it speak for itself once a week. I trust the Lord will use it to minister to someone; His Word will do that.

Yesterday, though, the passage I quoted was from Matthew 7, part of the Sermon on the Mount, and it centered on judging others. While it speaks quite clearly to me, some may misunderstand its intent simply because it is so often taken out of context. “The Bible says don’t judge” is what we hear, yet that is a misreading of the passage. It pulls out one statement without connecting it to the rest of the verses. I’ll come back to the specifics.

The fact is, we judge all the time. And we should. Jesus said we would know who is genuine and who is not by inspecting the fruit of their lives. In the book of Hebrews, Christians are admonished,

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Discernment is essential for Christians; without it, we fall into various traps. We can be led astray, which is why the book of James says,

My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Common sense: there is truth; one can stray from it; a person who strays from the truth is a sinner and will lose his eternal soul; if anyone points out a man’s sins, he can bring him back to the truth and out of danger of eternal damnation. There’s a whole lot of judging going on in that scenario, and it’s for the good of the man who has gone into error.

That brings us back to Matthew 7. Verse 1 begins with the warning not to judge because we may be judged for doing so. But in what circumstance? The verses that follow clearly provide the framework: if we are doing the same sort of thing for which we are judging another person, we will be held accountable as a hypocrite. The instruction is plain: you cannot take the speck out of someone else’s eye if you have a log in your own eye. First deal with the problem in your own life, but notice what follows: “and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

So we are commanded to point out the “speck” once we have dealt with our “log.” This passage is not telling us to ignore the actions, attitudes, and motives of others; it just wants us to do so with a clear conscience.

Christians are to be judgmental. That’s jarring to modern ears saturated with the mantras of self-esteem and non-judgmentalism. Yet it is true. Only by maturely discerning the sins of individuals and our society at large can we begin to take the path to redemption—and redemption is the ultimate goal, is it not?

So check your heart first. Make sure you are not being hypocritical when attacking sin in others. But sin must be highlighted for the good of those who need personal redemption and for the good of a society that is teetering on the brink of total devastation. Christians are to be the salt and light in our world by exposing the darkness and showing the way out of spiritual blindness.

In church last Sunday, my pastor spoke about people who are fundamentally narcissistic, which is just another way of saying people are principally self-centered, i.e., sinful. As he was going down a list of traits for the narcissistic personality, my wife and I immediately related it to our most prominent political figure. Here’s the list of the manifestations of narcissistic personality disorder. See if you can catch the drift to whom this might apply.

According to a medical encyclopedia, narcissistic personality disorder is a condition in which people have an inflated sense of self-importance and an extreme preoccupation with themselves. A person with this disorder may:

• React to criticism with rage
• Take advantage of other people to achieve his goals
• Have excessive feelings of self-importance
• Exaggerate achievements and talents
• Be preoccupied with fantasies of success, power, and/or intelligence
• Have unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment
• Need constant attention or admiration
• Disregard the feelings of other and have little ability to feel empathy
• Have obsessive self-interest
• Pursue mainly selfish goals

While this list could probably apply to half of our society, it’s particularly dangerous when it is seen so clearly in the office of the president. I’ve watched and listened to Barack Obama very carefully over the past five years, and I’ve witnessed all these traits come to the forefront. He gets testy when anyone challenges him—he has a slow burn that shows contempt for anyone who disagrees with him—received special treatment to get into Columbia and Harvard, had the gall to accept the Nobel Peace Prize when he had done nothing to earn it, is infamously known as someone who doesn’t connect on a personal level with political opposition, or even those who are on his side in the Congress, and is dead set on doing what he thinks ought to be done [Obamacare, HHS mandates, etc.] with no regard for those who will be hurt in the process. He sets himself up as above the law, ignoring the Constitution, and seeking to rule by administrative fiat.

As for his sense of self-importance, his devoted followers have been ascribing godlike attributes to him from the start, and he has never really discouraged those attempts. Newsweek infamously had this “cover” for its online publication recently:

Can anyone really miss the allusion? Or should I say the illusion? Sadly, and blasphemously, there are those who view him as their version of Jesus. He is the messiah, the one who will lead us into our earthly utopia. Or perhaps he’s like Moses, leading us out of slavery into the Promised Land. The reality is somewhat different:

We’re a society that has been weaned on self-esteem teaching. The fruit of that emphasis has been to create monstrous egos, individuals with an inflated sense of their self-worth. None is more prominent than our current president.

Our response should be, first, to clearly point out this dangerous tendency, not only in him but in the society at large. The second response, though, is equally important: we must show by our lives the opposite of this. We must take heed of the Scriptural admonition in the book of James:

Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” . . . Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. . . . Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

Having read widely in history, I am always struck by the temporariness of power. Those who dominate an age soon pass away, and they become footnotes known only by the experts, and largely forgotten by the masses. No matter how high a man may rise, eventually his influence will decline. Ultimately we all stand before God to give an account. It is good to remember the words of Jesus:

So the last shall be first, and the first last.

That’s a sobering statement. It was given to us in love as a warning. We need to take it seriously.

Controversy over the role of the media, both the news and entertainment varieties, on the nature of our culture rages on. For a Christian who knows even basic Biblical truths, this should be no controversy. There are numerous passages of Scripture that point to the fact that we become what we think, and that if our minds are inundated with false ideas and/or repeated scenes of degradation and depravity, we certainly will be affected.

On the false ideas front, we have the news media. It is so out of balance that a majority of our population rarely hears another side. The only major news outlet that provides a fair shake to anything Christian or conservative is Fox. It is noteworthy that it does lead the ratings, yet since it is only one of a number of news organizations, if you tally up the numbers for all the others together, most people are still getting their perspective from a very biased source. And the Obama administration does its best to marginalize Fox. A recent study reveals that even though Fox is #1 in the ratings, at presidential news conferences that channel’s representatives rank ninth in the number of times they are called upon to ask a question. As a result, Obama and his minions are hardly ever pressed on controversial decisions they make.

I’m told we have a flu epidemic in the country right now. Well, there’s a different strain of that epidemic also making the rounds:

As for the entertainment media, we are quickly becoming what we watch. I’ve noted before that it’s difficult anymore to find a television program that doesn’t showcase, from time to time or even regularly, a sympathetic homosexual character. There’s an agenda to make homosexuality normative . . . and it seems to be working.

Our latest episode of navel-gazing over gun violence—attacking the guns and not the sinful actions of men as the cause of the violence—has us wondering again about the influence of all the violence in the entertainment field. Movies, in particular, are a major factor in shaping our collective character. Have you noticed which movies are currently most prominent?

Here’s an Oscar they should give out at the awards ceremony:

Not all depictions of violence and depravity are uncalled for. Sometimes, as in the case of Les Miserables, the contrast between the degraded lifestyle and the redeemed makes for powerful visuals for the better. Les Miserables doesn’t glorify depravity; it shows instead the grace of God in leading people out of their sinfulness. Yet, for most films, the opposite seems to be more common—violence and degradation for the sheer fascination of it. That’s when a line is crossed, and we cross that line incessantly.

That’s why we are what we are.