I think everyone arguing for “values”, no matter how noble and persuasive their arguments may be, is misguided. Seriously. And no, for the student who hates math, I’m not talking about Mathematics, where values are set, I’m talking about the code by which a society lives its life. As I read the news (I don’t watch it any more, unless there’s a clip on the site I’m reading), I see society apparently devolving. People are burning one another’s towns down, they are factionalized, Anarchy seems to reign in the streets, and boundary lines seem been set, and people are staking their claims on one side or the other. And, it seems, every side is claiming some set of values in which they have set their borders.
Loved ones, it isn’t values that’s the problem. We lack a compass to guide them. Values mean nothing without principle, and principle is nothing without belief. Nowadays, it seems, people are willing to believe anything, so long as it supports whatever value system they want to follow, and their opinions change quite often. As the world seemingly burns, we have to ask ourselves “Is it worth it?”
There are some who claim that without religion, we’d be living in a Utopia right now. I don’t think that’s the case. The further we get away from God, and, in specific, Jesus Christ, we seem to devolve into barbarism, where anyone and anything is fair gain, and the ends (the goal) justify the means. I do not think the world was ever perfect when Christ was at the forefront of anything, but, at the very least, people had restraint. Since 1900, and the age of humanism began, more people have died for the name of humanism than in every war in recorded history combined. Millions died last century, and this century is shaping up to be bloodier still. All in the name of humanism. So I have to ask “is it worth it?” are the ends truly justifying the means? Or on our own, are we worse off than the God we claim holds us back from everything?
Loved ones, y’all need Jesus. I need Jesus! Fear of God is what restrains our desires, not fear of government, ideals, or principles. When we fear God as our higher power, we realize that, despite our best efforts, there IS divine justice, and God DOES hold us accountable for our actions. The world needs Jesus; He came, lived as one of us, except He was perfect in every way, and died the death we deserve, rising again so that we could live with Him in eternity. The further we seek to get away from Him the further we hurt one another, hurt the world we live in, and hurt ourselves. If Utopia is attained first by barbarism, it’s not worth it, and I do not think it is the Utopia we hoped it would be. Peace and harmony is found only in Christ.
Romans 1:16-2:11
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
2 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.
2 Timothy 3
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.
You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
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