The Battle for Truth
Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1 Peter 3:20)
Leonard Ravenhill once mentioned a prophecy of sorts that troubled him greatly. In the early 1900s, Dr. Elton Trueblood, a Harvard and Stanford University chaplain, received a survey from Christianity Today asking him what he thought Christianity in America would be like in the late 20th century. His answer was as sobering as it was prophetic, “By the year 2000, Christians in America will be a conscious minority surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism.”
Although a little premature in his timing, Trueblood foresaw the moral depravity we see in North America and other places in the Western world in the 2020s. He was spot on when he saw the paganism we now experience as both arrogant and militant. We are being force-fed wickedness and evil, the likes of which has no parallel in recorded history. Name a generation or society in the comments that allowed a child to pick their gender and provided them surgery or medications to change from male to female or female to male. That wasn’t even possible prior to modern medicine.
The Insanity of Modern Immorality
“Truly, whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” (Voltaire, ‘Questions sur les miracles,’ 1765)
Immorality has always been a problem but has surged to new lows in recent decades. How insane and evil have people become who ask children to select their gender rather than affirming them biologically? The obscenity and absurdity of some things being floated in society shock all sensibilities. Nobody in their right mind would entertain some of these ideas for a second, but somehow the whole of society is accepting and enforcing this madness.
What’s worse is the growing arrogance and intolerance of those who don’t accept and support such vileness. We can’t safely send our children to Public schools without fear that they will be subject to pornography and drag queens. A cursory search with your favorite search engine will show you how widespread this problem has become in a matter of months. We have devils training children in all kinds of sexual immorality to normalize it in their minds from a young age and defy parents to challenge them (see footnote). No rational person can accept this behavior.
Forced to Take a Stand
Hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear of some new outrageous and depraved sexual sin making its modern debut. At this rate, every form of sexual immorality imaginable will be normalized in the next 30 years, if not sooner, and the practitioners thereof will have new and acceptable titles with protected status.
What will we do, as Christians, when the intolerance of Christian morality becomes militant? Will Christians have the backbone to stand for Christ? How, then, should we live if we plan on keeping the faith in the face of such arrogance and militancy? Are we prepared to be beaten and mocked for our sincerely held beliefs?
Sexually Immoral and Violent
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:37 ESV).
Not all sexually immoral people are violent, but history and the Bible show that many have been, and we do well to take some advice from history and the Bible. Understand that in Noah’s day, all creatures on the earth had corrupted their way as sexual immorality was rife beyond comprehension (Genesis 6:1-4). I’m convinced that most of what was happening wasn’t recorded lest the wicked emulate what was written. However, we read, “And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.'” (Genesis 6:13)
The wickedness had reached a new high water mark on the earth, so God destroyed them with water. Understand that these people, if anything like today, were not content to do their evil behind closed doors but wanted it normalized, embraced, taught to children, and promoted in society. If they were anything like we read in the headlines, they would introduce moral wickedness to preschoolers and children to corrupt their impressionable minds for life until the future was as dark as midnight.
Saved by Water
Beginning with Cain killing Abel, history is replete with examples of the enemy (Satan) influencing people to do violence against those who stand for righteousness. In Noah’s example, this means Noah needed to be “saved” by water.
When Peter wrote that Noah was saved by water, he didn’t misspeak. There is both a literal and a spiritual application to his words. Historically, the mighty flood waters saved Noah by destroying the arrogant, militant pagans closing in on him and his family. Again, God said, “The end of all flesh has come.”
Just as we see today, those morally depraved people probably sought to impose their will and lifestyle on Noah and his family. How do we know? Because moral corruption of this kind has always had violence as its companion. Noah preached to them but was unsuccessful. The whole earth was filled with violence, and the thoughts and imaginations of the people were only evil continually. It seems safe to say that if given time and opportunity, they would have tried to kill Noah. This hatred of the righteous has always been and will always be the pattern so long as Satan is the Prince of the Power of the Air and the god of this world.
Immorality on Repeat
The look on their countenance witnesses against them, And they declare their sin as Sodom; They do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves. (Isaiah 3:9)
Sodom paraded their sin shamelessly, just like we see today. They had no sense of shame and are unable to blush. Ephesians 5:12 says it’s shameful to even speak of the things they do in secret, so we must be careful not to say too much in describing their actions.
It’s been said that in modern times a lie is perpetuated which says there can be no moral standards unless everyone perfectly upholds those standards. Anything less, they suggest, is being a hypocrite. But this is nonsense and must be challenged. God’s word is true no matter who falls short. It’s not my standard or someone else’s standard; it is God’s standard.
In time, the people of Sodom grew more bold and more arrogant. Understand that Noah wasn’t the only righteous man surrounded by violent people bent on destruction; an angry depraved gang imperiled Lot and his family in Sodom (Genesis 19:4-12).
The men of Sodom formed a mob outside his home, thronging and demanding that he release the two angels who came to destroy Sodom so they could forcibly “know” them carnally, which amounts to rape. When Lot refused, the mob accused him of judging (Genesis 19:9). Sound familiar? “Don’t judge” is a common way of silencing those who speak out against such behavior.
It was a life-or-death situation for Lot and his family as these men threatened to break through the door. They were horribly twisted and reprobate from lust and perversion as we read in Romans, God gave them up to their uncleanness to defile their bodies among themselves (Romans 1:24). Even after the angels smote them blind, like zombies, they scratched and clawed at the door, trying to get in.
Arrogant, Violent, and Immoral
During the time of the Judges, arrogant, militant pagans also tried to sexually assault a Levite in the city of Gibeah. He was traveling and arrived late in town (Judges 19:1-30), believing it was safe because it was of the tribe of Benjamin. However, a man warned them to escape the streets, suggesting imminent trouble.
Like a page from the story of Sodom in Genesis, the city’s men formed a rabid mob, surrounded the house, and demanded to forcibly “know” the man who came into the house. They didn’t want a conversation to get to “know” the Levite. Instead, Adam “knew” his wife, Eve, and bore a son. It was another attempt at forced relations.
Deranged Killers
The man of the house convinced these morally deranged men to express their lust on the Levite’s concubine. Then, all night long, consumed in lust, they violently abused this woman until she died. Understand that perversion and violence frequently walk hand in hand, hence Dr. Elton Trueblood’s statement, “By the year 2000, Christians in America will be a conscious minority surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism.”
“Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire, and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:28–29 ESV).
The enemy works nonstop to normalize outrageous sin and wickedness. Why? Because he knows that sexual immorality is a damnable sin. This means that those who practice such sin will not inherit the Kingdom of God. It makes no difference what form it takes.
Nailing Our Colors to the Cross
As Christians, there are some things that we can never surrender. One of these is that we must base our views of sexuality on the Bible, God’s holy and infallible word. Beginning in Genesis with Adam and Eve, God distinguished between males and females. These facts are foundational to our identity as human beings who are created in God’s image and likeness. Jesus also affirmed them in Matthew 18:8-9.
Moreover, sexual relations of any kind are reserved for a husband and wife (biological male and female) alone and within the exclusive bond of holy matrimony. Anything else is sexual immorality or fornication (porneia) and is condemned as a damnable sin in 1 Corinthians 6:9, Galatians 5:19-21, and Ephesians 5:3-7.
As time passes, this viewpoint will become intolerable in our culture, and we are liable to be persecuted or killed for confessing it. In centuries past, sailors would nail their colors (colours) to the mast of the ship as a sign that those fighting on board would not surrender but would battle to the bitter end. With our souls in the balance, we mustn’t compromise until all is lost, but may we look to the Savior who shed His own blood and nail our colors to the Cross. We must stand for truth even in the face of hostility.
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