From the May-August 2011 Issue
Our Decadent Society
Diego and Maria Guirao
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).
“To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn” (Isaiah 8:20).
Here are some current news items which reveal the ethical and moral situation of our decadent culture and society:
1. The European Council debates conscientious objection. A proposal for a ruling at the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council once again calls into question the right of health professionals to exercise conscientious objection, with the aim of paving the way for abortion and euthanasia. The proposal sets such limits on conscientious objection that it ends up transforming one’s right to it into an exception. Source: Aceprensa. Date: 28 September 2010.
2. The American Lutheran Church approves the ordination of gay pastors, causing a division within the denomination.
3. The Lutheran Church of the EEUU accepts pastors with stable homosexual partners.
4. The Swedish Lutheran Church takes part in the Gay Pride Parade.
5. The Swedish Lutheran Church is willing to conduct same sex marriages.
6. The Norwegian Lutheran Church gives ‘gay marriage’ the go-ahead. Source: Ceirberea. Date: 25 August 2009.
On 31st October we held the Protestant Reformation Day. With hope in the midst of our terrible reality, we considered how the power of God through one man, a monk called Martin Luther, caused the radiant light of His Word to spring up in the midst of the deepest darkness of ‘obscurantism’ five centuries ago.
In the face of the ethical, moral and spiritual reality around us, which affects all areas and spheres of social, economical and political life, with devastating results on people, families and churches, it is understandable that all kinds of analysis, interpretations, reflections and suppositions should arise. One mustn’t, of course, be simplistic or reductionistic. It is always a complex and difficult matter, even when knowing the cause. What is the cause? Since Eden, it has always been one and the same: departing from God’s Word. Such is the origin of mankind’s tragedy.
“Come back, come back!” says the Lord again and again to his people, who are to be “the salt and the light of the earth” (Matthew 5:13-14). See also Proverbs 1:23; Jeremiah 33:15; Ezekiel 33:11; Zechariah 1:13.
That is why the reforms carried out by Josiah only take place when God’s Word comes out into the light (2 Kings 23:1-25).
Only the power of God’s Word can defeat and destroy all the plots and deceit of the power of evil (Romans 1:16; 2 Timothy 3:1-17; Ephesians 6:10-17).
Hence Isaiah says we must go to the Word: “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn” (Isaiah 8:20).
And Paul makes it clear to Timothy that the more opposition there is to the Word, the more he must preach it:
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus [...] I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:1-4).
Mankind’s problem is that the Word, the Light, came into this world, but the world – men, mankind – loved lies and darkness rather than the Light and the Truth.
Nothing can stand and remain unless its base, its foundation, is the building stone, the unshakeable rock that is the Word of God. The individual, family, church, society, culture, will all come down, with tragic results, if not firmly built upon the Word of God:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundations on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matthew 7:24-27).
Like Luther, let us not become weary or give up in the midst of the darkness, lies and evil all around us, but keep on calling the church and society to repentance and to turn to God’s Word – the Word of God that became flesh, Jesus Christ, in whom there is forgiveness, redemption and eternal life.