Friday, January 12, 2007

The sense of God's holiness has been greatly depreciated

A wrong appreciation of God's holiness leads both the society and the evangelical world to shallowness.

Let us begin by the shallowness of society. The Holy Bible tells us that "in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away".

I am presently 60 years old. I can testify that we have seen much change in the general morality of society. When I was young, there was almost no divorce but it has now attain the rate of 50%. Young women having babies without being married was rare and those who were having abortions were shameful but now they parade in streets and have their sin paid by the government. Homosexuals had a very low profile socially and now they have gay pride parades. Drugs were almost absent and now drugs are rampant and even pre-teen kids are victims. Schools were places where children were in security and in a moral environment but now they live in a violent and depraved environment. We could go on and on with examples of how the society have lost most of its moral standards. Many people today negate the idea of sin. Why is that so? Simply because they have rejected the Bible and its truth. They have voluntarily lost the sense of the holiness of God and of His infinitely high standards of living and morality.

Seeing such phenomena in the society without God is not surprising. But now we begin to see a parallel in the evangelical world. The Scriptures says that people will profess to believe but they will not act accordingly: "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof". Don't we see today many people affirming they believe in God but they act as if they were pagans?

In an article entitled "Is the acknowledgement of God's holiness essential?", Dr. David Wells says: "The loss of the traditional vision of God as holy is now manifested in the evangelical world. It is the key to understanding why sin and grace have become such empty words. What depth of meaning can these terms have except in relation to the holiness of God? Divorced from the holiness of God, grace is merely empty rhetoric, pious window dressing for the modern technique by which sinners work out their own salvation. Divorce from the holiness of God, our gospel becomes indistinguishable from any of a host of alternative self-help doctrines. Divorced from the holiness of God, our public morality is reduced to little more than an accumulation of trade-offs between private interests. Divorced from the holiness of God, our worship becomes mere entertainment. The holiness of God is the very cornerstone of Christian faith, for it is the foundation of reality. Sin is the defiance of God's holiness, the Cross is the outworking and victory of God's holiness, and faith is the recognition of God's holiness. Knowing that God is holy is therefore THE KEY to knowing life as it truly is, knowing why he came, and knowing how life will end."


Let us go back to our Bibles and put our great, holy and sovereign LORD on the throne (not only as our saviour but also as our master)! This is the only way society and the evangelical world will bring back a holy and healthy morality. This is also the only way by which we will avoid self-deceit and hell.

Marcel

1 comment:

Twinklemoose said...

Great post, Marcel. The David Wells quote is so sadly true of our society.