Our perspective is always suspect. If not, there would have been no reason for the God who created us and the universe to issue His commandments describing what is righteous and unrighteous, in other words, how to avoid following your own predilections and live live rightly. If you have any definition of normal that deviates in any way from the norms of your Creator, you are wrong. And it is you who must change, not the Creator.
"The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination to the Lord thy God." Deuteronomy 22:5.
A society so wealthy that it's men can engage in gender transformation instead of the protection and support of women and their progeny is too wealthy and comfortable. That society is set for an adjustment by God Almighty. What will restore the creation order? A cataclysmic economic collapse returning us to a dark age? A takeover by another culture having the will to enforce the creation order of male and female at any cost? Or some other radical alteration?
The Christian, who knows God rules in the affairs of man, knows this is coming and can prepare. The Humanist, the worshipper of man, thinks things are manageable and will prepare to accommodate the perversion of mankind. He will change the laws, the language, the physical structures of his society, attempting to permanently transform the culture. Before he gets very far, or at least until God can demonstrate to the world the folly of such policies, God appears on the scene in one form or another to correct matters. This is not the end of the world; this is the revelation in history of the truth of God's Word over man's.
It is the victory of God's word over His enemies. Those who side with God's word are the ones who are on the right side of history, no matter how history appears at any one snapshot in time. We know this from His word. See Schlossberg's "Idols for Destruction."
We know from Romans 1 that God allows the perversion of men who pervert the nature and personality of God. In what way has our nation perverted God? By saying our law-word is the only law, thereby denying God His position as King of the universe. This worship of ourselves results in all the perverseness of man becoming normal. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, we eat to the full of our greed and lusts. Our successes in gaining our desires carry within them the just punishments for our idolatry.
This concept of societal judgment is not just FOR the sin of homosexuality. Homosexuality is a part of and a precursor of judgment. Notice first of all that the judgment comes upon those who pervert God, or at least, pervert Him in their own minds.
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them." Romans 1:18-19. There is no mention of sexuality or gender in the start of this passage. It's about man's view of God Himself and man's view of Him; it is theology that is at issue. Once man departs from the truth of God, then other departures will follow.
Not glorifying God for who He is and not being thankful to God in the modern world has become acceptable, even objective and scientific. The denial of the true God, even any God at all, has become in many quarters and professions the ground zero for acceptance, advancement, and the touchstone of truth. Sinful man thinks God irrelevant to the progress and life of humanity. This is a perversion of the true God, who not only created but also maintains and renews the physical creation, enabling man to breathe, work, and think.
To deny this God is a perversion of reality on the cosmic level. Such a people call themselves "scientific," "objective," "tolerant," but the bible says that they are "professing themselves to be wise, [but] they became fools." Romans 1:22. They replaced "the glory of the uncorruptible God" with "an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." Romans 1:23. They replaced the Creator with the Creation, both the Creation of God and the Creations of man.
Man has created institutions, methods of thought, and philosophies which he considers primary or even foundational to the existence of the universe. Modern man thinks himself very smart, even though he is re-living the life of ancient man, who also replaced the worship of God with the worship of creation, its mysteries, its primal forces, its beauty. Modern man's "idols" are of a more sophisticated brand, but they are idols nonetheless. See Schlossberg's Idols for Destruction, ibid.
We have come full circle, and we will re-live the same devolution that ancient man experienced. "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." Romans 1:24-25.
Notice that the dishonoring of the body occurs as a result of the new, progressive thought that we can learn the "real" foundation for reality and can reject the God of the bible. Notice this change in philosophy need not start with gender confusion; it merely rejects the glory of God as the foundation of reality and the object of worship. The initiation of gender confusion is with God Himself - "God . . . gave them up to uncleanness." "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections," followed by a description of the homosexual lifestyle. Romans 1:26.
Who are "them?" If the passage is referring to an individualistic judgment - pervert the true God in your individual thinking and He will pervert your sexuality, then we have a limited form of judgment. But is God limited to such individualized judgment? He, of course, is not. Could His judgment fall on the entire society, affecting people to the point that even if they don't adopt the same perverse philosophy as their leaders and educators, they face the same affects on their sexuality - a power coercing them toward perverse sexuality? If so, then this judgment is so much more fearful and destructive than we ever imagined.
Such judgment would be covenantal judgment. If the entire society suffers because of the perverse thinking and worship of its covenant leadership, then the people's choice of such leadership comes back upon them in the form of a perverting of their own sons and daughters. Hearkening back to the three key institutions of society - church, state, and family, if the people of the society allow the fools professing to be wise to lead them, does covenantal judgment then run downhill upon them?
The history of Israel demonstrates that the covenant faithfulness or unfaithfulness of the kings and priests of Israel affected the entire population. For example, the faithfulness of King David resulted in the greatest era of Israel's kingdom history, while the perverseness of Amaziah resulted in defeat and judgment, culminating generations later in the Israelites being taken captive to Babylon, a pagan nation.
Our modern wise men assert all sorts of other natural and historical explanations for those events. And that's logically what they should do, for in perverting the true God, they also must pervert history in order to deny His rightful judgment upon mankind. If they can deny that God judged in history, they can move society away from the fear of God and toward their idea of progress, which is always liberation from the law of the biblical God. Even more importantly and for their psychic well-being, they must deny His authority to judge in eternity. Denying the creation is the most prominent method for accomplishing this so-called "liberation."
Christians play along by being guilt manipulated. You'll hear this: "You really believe a loving God would judge people so harshly?!" The correct answer is: "Only a loving God would judge so harshly! He is holy, all powerful, and the judge of all. Would you believe Him to be something He is not!?" But instead, they capitulate in order to not appear "harsh."
They think that if the wicked accuse them of being unloving, it's true. It's not true. The most loving message a Christian can bring to the wicked is this: "God almighty is angry with you all the day long, for you have sinned against His law and rejected the salvation offered in His Son. Repent and believe the gospel and He will wipe away your sins and make you His child." Christians are to rule by applying this truth to all humanity, thereby bringing them into the truth that liberates them as individuals and provides a society of people who respect God's word above man's. This is evangelism, this is our Lord's prayer that "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
The above message warns a person of great danger facing him for his perversion of the true God and at the same time, gives him hope of being pardoned by the Judge of the universe and of his very soul. As related in the hymn Amazing Grace, "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; how precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed." The preaching of the gospel of grace brings people into the truth of the loving God of judgment.
Watering down that message gives the person an "out." "I don't have to believe what you believe; it's just what you believe." No, it is the message of the authoritative Son of God sent through the Jewish people and their book of God-inspired warnings and messages of comfort and liberty from sin and judgment. Modern man alleges that message is a made-up "opiate of the masses," invented to keep them submissive like cattle.
Yet, these same people when they put on a political mantle, impose their beliefs as if their word is absolute truth. They shift and change the law to fit their personal beliefs and desires and demand all others follow, not because God commands it but because they command it. They rule with an iron fist, expecting utter submission to their changeable, cruel, and corrupted word; they've exchanged the incorruptible God for themselves. And God turns them to pervert themselves, and if necessary, he allows them to pervert the entire society. A fearful judgment indeed!
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." Romans 1:28-32.
Notice that the final passage of Romans 1 places the same judgment upon those who approve of them as those who commit the acts. As society becomes more and more approving of these vile affections and perversions - intellectual, theological, and social - it becomes more and more perverted - total depravity is the only limit. The end is death, but what form does "death" take for an entire society? We can at the least assert that such a society declines from its former position of prominence, if it had been prominent previously.
The premier example of the fate of such societies that is set forth in scripture is a society that rapidly descended into homosexual rape as the initiation ceremony for those visiting that society. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 1:7.
The questions for a society already in such decline are: Can it be stopped, even reversed? If so, how?
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