Enjoy It While You Can?

Frankly, a whole wave of unbiblical, anti-God behavior is sweeping across our Western nations. Over in Britain, BBC News reported: “Thousands of people have joined the Pride parade through central London. The parade began in Baker Street, passing through Oxford Street, Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square before ending at Whitehall. Organizers said this could be the biggest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender event in London over the last decade” (“Thousands march in London Pride parade,” June 29, 2013). People all over are rejoicing in their opportunity to completely alter the biblical concept of marriage and family—formerly understood as the basis of all decent society.

Where is all this leading?

Concurrently with this homosexual rejoicing and the so-called “gay pride” celebrations, a new monument to our direct rebellion against the God of the Bible was recently put in place near Jacksonville, Florida. As TIME magazine’s Olivia Waxman reported:

“Following a lawsuit and more than a year of controversy, at noon on Saturday a group called the American Atheists will unveil the United States’ first public monument to atheism in a square outside the Bradford County courthouse in Starke, Florida, near Jacksonville. The five-foot-long, grey granite bench and connecting pillar, which were built and engraved by local masons using granite quarried in Georgia, will feature secular quotes from the Founding Fathers as well as a statement from the organization’s founder, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, encapsulating the 50-year-old group’s views:

‘An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty banished, war eliminated.’

As a rule, atheists aren’t big on monuments, due to their religious symbolism. But the 4000-member group decided to erect one anyway after it lost a lawsuit in March that would have forced a local Christian group to remove its own monument—two stone tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments—located in the same public square. Once the atheist bench and attached pillar are in place, the two monuments will stand just a few yards apart in the square’s ‘Free Speech Zone,’ where private citizens are allowed to erect displays.… The point… is to shed light on the ‘hateful’ side of the Bible” (“Unveiling America’s First Public Monument to Atheism,” June 28, 2013).

This growing antagonism against God is so blatant that even formerly communist nations are now scorning America. Consider these comments published by Russia’s Pravda: “The US is broke and Russia is the world’s largest oil producer with a growing economy. Russia is not backing down and they have China to back them up. Who will back the US? Tiny Britain? Americans are turning gay and Russian men are looking more like the Klitschko brothers. The US is the modern day Sodom and Gomorrah while Christianity triumphs in Russia. No ACLU in Russia suing Christians to be sure” (Lerma, Xavier. “Putin Throws Down Obama,” June 18, 2013

My friends, have we sunk so low that even nations like Russia can rightly “make fun” of our obvious rebellion against the God of the Bible?

Frankly, yes!

God’s word clearly shows that He hates the sin of homosexuality (Leviticus 18:22-25; Romans 1:27). God clearly did not “make” people this way. God made us free moral agents, able to choose between good and evil, regardless of fleshly urges. His inspired word tells us, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). So, according to the Bible, man is capable—with God’s help, of course—of overcoming any temptation or sin.

God hated the Corinthians’ sins. Yet Paul also reminded the Corinthians that “such were some of you” (1 Corinthians 6:11). The difference, Paul explained, is that the Corinthian Christians were “washed”—they were “sanctified” and “justified”—by the Spirit of God. For God’s Holy Spirit is powerful. If we genuinely repent and accept Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, we are promised the “gift” of God’s Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). No matter if you have the tendency toward alcoholism, violent temper or behavior—or any temptation to break God’s law of love—you can be totally forgiven, as were these Corinthian Christians. And you can be helped and empowered to overcome any aspect of your human nature that pulls you away from God.

God’s inspired word tells us, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). You, personally, can receive spiritual strength and power from the very Spirit of God! You can overcome yourself, overcome the world around you and overcome Satan the Devil. If you are willing to “go all out” to honor and obey your Creator and zealously do your part, you will be among those “overcomers” who inherit all things. But the Eternal God does not allow people in His eternal Kingdom who would make themselves and everyone around them absolutely miserable by constant rebellious attitudes and behaviors. He will not allow those who are spiritual “cowards” and continually “water things down” into His glorious Kingdom. For God’s Word powerfully states: “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:7–8).

As Thomas Jefferson warned: “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever” (Notes on the State of Virginia). For Isaiah 66:2 tells us, “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.” God help every one of us to have that deep respect and awe of the great God who gives us life and breath and be willing to do what He says. Anything else is much less than the Christianity of Jesus Christ and of the Bible. Those who seek to “enjoy” their sins today will soon find out that “their time is up” and it is those who obeyed and served the true God who have laid a foundation to enjoy eternity as part of God’s Family.

Truly, each of us needs to deeply appreciate God’s offer of eternal life in a whole new society, which will be based on joy, peace and outgoing concern for those around us (Psalm 72). As God told our forefathers, we need to genuinely “seek” God while we have the opportunity and not wait until our peoples are taken into the coming captivity that is definitely prophesied. God told our ancestors just before they were taken into captivity, “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).