Romans 3:9-12 What
then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously
charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is
written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is
none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all
turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does
good, no, not one.”
We started a new video series in our Wednesday evening small Group Bible study on basic misunderstanding within Christianity. The late pastor D. James Kennedy tackled the myth that mankind is basically good. He referenced a study by the Barnard
Research Group on the religious opinions of Americans in 1991, the results of
that survey were shocking and demonstrated that a tremendous shift has taken
place in the thinking of Americans on basic religious issues; a brew of Secular
Humanism, New Age Thinking and a remnant of Biblical teaching. Perhaps the most
startling view was that 83% of Americans now believe that “man is basically
good”. That is astonishing because, not only does it fly in the face of
biblical thinking, in the face of Christianity and Western civilization, but
also flies in the face of origin, essence and uniqueness of America’s founding
and history. It is a virtual denial of what America was based upon. Because of
this thinking, America is having and will continue to have, unless corrected,
tragic results in our society.
Dr. Carl Menninger wrote a
book titled, “What Ever Happened to Sin?”, stating that “sin” is a good, strong
word and we all knew what it meant. The 1828 Webster’s Dictionary defined the
word “Sin” as: The voluntary departure of
a moral agent from a known rule of rectitude or duty, prescribed by God; any
voluntary transgression of the divine law, or violation of a divine command; a
wicked act; iniquity. Sin is either a positive act in which a known divine law
is violated, or it is the voluntary neglect to obey a positive divine command,
or a rule of duty clearly implied in such command. Sin comprehends not action
only, but neglect of known duty, all evil thoughts purposes, words and desires,
whatever is contrary to God's commands or law. Sinners neither enjoy the
pleasures of nor the peace of piety. Today, we never seem to hear it
anymore. If you listen to the media today (News and talk shows), you would
suppose that sin had ceased to exist. You never hear the word, do you? You see
an awful lot of it, but it just is not called “sin” anymore.
Meg Greenfield wrote an
article entitled. “Why Nothing is Wrong Anymore”. It used to be that things
were either “right” or “wrong”. It was very clear. But, it seems that we don’t
even call it “wrong” anymore, much less “sin”. In fact, today we have
substitutes. We do not talk about the fact that something was “wrong” or that
it was sinful, but that it was either a “dumb” or “stupid” thing to do only.
Not there was anything immoral about what we so or have done; nothing that we
should take as such. Certainly, they are not taken as sinful. Example: Today
“practicing safe sex” is proclaimed; not “avoid sex”, not “flee fornication”,
or “turn from immorality”. It seems that today we are not concerned whether
something is sinful, wrong or immoral. The only thing we are concerned about
that it is “safe”, so we don’t have those unpleasant consequences. We want to
have “safe abortions”. We don’t want to talk about whether the sex is immoral
or that abortions are (infanticide) murder. We just want them to be “safe” and
“neat”. Not one of those unsafe and messy back alley types, but one of those
clinically “safe” abortions of the baby. We now want “safe suicide”. Killing
yourself is messy and you can foul it up, so we need a professional doctor to
assist us. Nobody asks if suicide is murder, but the word suicide literally
means “self murder”. It is a homicide, but we are only concerned that it is
“safe”.
Kennedy comes to the conclusion that it seems we have lost
the concept of “right” and “wrong”; of sin and righteousness. Today, we hear that wrong things are
not “wrong”, they are just dumb. They are not evil, they are just sick; but actually sin sick. Society believes that anyone who murders others is
considered “sick” and needs to be put in a mental hospital, because “man is
basically good” is the secular mentality. That “nice” person who kills is just “sick”
and when they get well, then they’ll be “good” again. What ever happened to
“right” and “wrong”, and wherever happened to sin?
Let's continue this message by pastor Kennedy in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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