I remember an old joke, or at least part of it. A young boy went to church one Sunday and his neighbor asked what it was like. The preacher talked about sin. The neighbor asked, what did he say? And the boy replied, he was pretty much against it. There is some humor in this for a couple of reasons. First, I can't remember the last message I heard about sin, or holiness living. And second, I know far too many church people who are not against sin.
Most religious people will say that the worst thing with sin is it separates us from God. While that is mostly true, there's much more. Sin effects all, even for the pagan who has no desire to know God, sin still has consequences. And that is the bad thing. Everything that we do has some sort of consequence, some good and some bad. And it is unfortunate that we live in communities so that sins of one person can and will effect the lives of another.
Living in the US, for most of my life I've heard that we are a "Christian nation". But that's not true. I doubt that it ever was really true. We certainly were founded on Christian values, but for the most part, I believe that we've been more of a humanist nation. A nation of people with evolving values. Establishing what is right or wrong based on social norms. That's humanism, at least the definition I choose. One of the bad things in this is that, social norms, through all of history, have devolved into a narcissistic and base society. And by and large, humanist societies do not recognize God as a sovereign creator. Most humanists will consider God as a myth, or worse yet, an all loving being that accepts anyone who is basically good. And of course every humanist considers them-self to be good.
But there is a principle which is ignored. One can deny the truth, or reality, but it does not make it any less true or any less real. So even for those who do not accept God, or believe they can be good enough, reality is still coming.
Even if you do not accept the biblical writings, one cannot argue that should man follow the 10 commandments, societies will function better. I do not profess any ability to live sinless, but I do distinguish between the forgiveness through grace, to openly promoting or encouraging sin.
God gave to Moses, and to the world, 10 commandments. The first five deal with man's relationship to God, and the second five are man's relationship to man. And all of them can be paraphrased in a simple sentence with just two rules. Love God, love people. Every rule or law is covered here.
Most of the laws outlined as given to Moses, at least those dealing with man to man, are followed around the world. Stealing, adultery, perjury, and murder are for the most part frowned upon. The first command though in the second group, honor your parents or perhaps honor your elders, is not so universally recognized. And of these, the humanist society eventually makes exceptions for adultery, perjury, and murder. And even theft, in a lot of cases, is dismissed. Certainly those today are widely accepted here in the US. So many people I know have "open" marriages. So much in our society are lies that it's hard to tell the truth.
God told us not to do these things for more than one reason. They are wrong for starters, but even more than that, all of these things will have consequences and leave a mark. Some of the folks that I know that had open marriages eventually split. And I know a couple that are still together but unhappy. A marriage was intended by our creator to be monogamous. And I know several that will say people in the bible had multiple wives. That was never the design. Something deep within is damaged when you know that your partner is being intimate with someone else.
Stealing may not effect the thief, at least not at first. And as humanists don't believe in God, they will not expect any action from Him. But it certainly hurts the victim. And of course if a thief is caught, in most cases there is a penalty.
Now I get to the reason for this post. This last weekend the US supreme court ruled that there was never a constitutional right to have an abortion. Just the thought of this I find disturbing. But that's probably because I believe that God exists and I believe what He said.
That each person is fearfully and wonderfully made. And before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Elsewhere in scripture God says specifically that life is in the blood. And a heartbeat can be heard about three weeks after an egg is fertilized. So according to God, a baby has life at least 3 weeks old. But our humanist society determined, with some pretty twisted logic, that since the baby cannot live on it's own, that it's not really alive and therefore can be destroyed. I get how a pagan humanist can arrive at this conclusion, what I can't grasp is how a Christian, especially a member of clergy can come to this conclusion.
That it took nearly fifty years to fix the mistake is a reflection on the population. If the US really was a Christian nation, or even a religious one, this would have stopped much sooner. But by and large, we are humanists. Worshiping the god of stuff. Our lives are consumed with personal pleasures and acquiring things. God is secondary at best, and I would say this is unfortunately true for a lot of clergy that I've met. In fact, I know at least three "pastors" that never should have become such. They learned that a seminary degree was a lifetime guaranteed job.
Something else about abortion as compared to other sins, you commit it against yourself, and God. By destroying what God put together one certainly is not loving Him. And by destroying the baby one is not loving the child or ones self. I know just a few women that have had abortions. There is one who is still a pagan humanist and has no feelings about. The others will admit, at times, that they wonder what could have been.
The simple solution if one does not want a baby is not to have sex. And I know that while this is the simplest answer, humans are driven by certain desires. I have referenced many times a line from a book I read; "There's nothing dumber than a man with an erection". But the desires are in both sexes.
What's lacking the most is instruction that life choices have consequences. Our humanist society, while trying to remove God and establish a utopia, has attempted to remove consequences from life. No-fault divorce and auto insurance. Giving everyone a trophy just for being there. Grading systems that do not stress achievement but mediocrity. And the consequences today is a largely unskilled workforce in the US. And loss of major manufacturing jobs. Fifty years ago the US was the world's largest manufacturer of nearly everything. Who makes everything now? Is there a connection?
Sin, or sometimes just life mistakes have a price. I have first hand knowledge of this. About thirty years ago I made a decision, it seemed like the right thing to do. Certainly not a sin, nothing against any laws but two years later I discovered it was the biggest mistake I could ever make. Still today I live with the consequences. And of course there are times when we may effect someone else, or someone else may effect us. My wife was rear-ended three years ago. She will never be whole again. Consequences of life.
There is forgiveness through the grace of God in Jesus for all of our sins. Through Him we can be reconciled and receive the promise of life eternal. And we are not separated from God. But there are still consequences.
