Randy Green's Blog - Posts Tagged "wicked"
Narcissus Returns!
I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: there is no fear of God before their eyes. In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin [Psalm 36:1-2, NIV].
Egocentrism vs. theocentrism. Big words which express a lot. Oftentimes we use a lot of words to say nothing. On rare occasions we hear a lot of meaningful teaching in a few scant words. The second case applies to our big words here.
“Centrism” refers to what is at the center of attention, what is being focused upon. “Ego” is the Greek 1st person singular personal pronoun “I”. “Theo” is the Greek word for “God”. So “egocentrism” means “I” am at the center of the universe: everything revolves around me. “Theocentrism” means “God” is the center of my universe: my life and everything else revolves around Him.
God created man to be theocentric. He made us to desire fellowship with Him, as He does with us. Sin marred man’s makeup, leaving us in opposition to God. We want nothing to do with the real God, only with a god made in our own image. Consequently I want to be in control. I want to be the center of the universe and have everyone and everything revolve around me.
This is what the Psalmist taught in the verses we quoted at the outset of this study. How do we explain the sinfulness of the wicked? Left to ourselves we cannot. All we can do is theorize some psychobabble or whatnot. We need the omniscient God, man’s Creator, to explain us to us. Listen to His explanation of the sinfulness of the wicked.
• there is no fear of God before their eyes
• in their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin
Those two depictions go hand in glove. They are two peas in a pod, two sides of the same coin. Ask yourself the question, “Why do the wicked not fear God?” The answer is, “They flatter themselves to such an extent, that they are self-righteous. They can do no wrong. Whatever goes wrong is somebody else’s fault, including God’s. They are so full of themselves that even God must feel honored to know them!”
Isn’t it obvious that such a state of affairs leaves no room for God? How can anyone fear God when they are superior to God? If the entire universe and all it contains revolves around li’l ol’ me, how insignificant then is God? No wonder such a one cannot fear God. He is Narcissus! He is so in love with himself that he cannot even imagine he has need for improvement, much less recognize outright sin in his life.
Have you noticed in our contemporary anti-christ society how nearly universal it is to witness this mentality in people, at least to one extent or another? Relationships like marriage and family are in the gutter because communication barely exists between us anymore. All of us are busy seeking our own good, and we think we are without fault in doing so. We have our rights, you see, and no one had better dare infringe on them in any way. How inconvenient that would be!
Once upon a time not so long ago in a not faraway world, we used to regularly hear about our responsibilities. Meeting them was evidence of adulthood. It was honorable. My, my, but we’ve come a long way, baby! Nowadays talk about responsibilities is taboo and the person brash enough to do so is pilloried and ostracized.
Using the Word of God as our measuring stick for right and wrong, and specifically the quoted verses we are studying, what does this reveal about us and our society today? Hint, hint, it’s not good! The word “wicked” comes to mind, also “egocentric” and “self-flatterer”. Oh, and let’s not leave off the word “sin”.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer with Bible now, asking Him to pinpoint any of these tendencies in us. Let’s learn under His tutelage to cultivate a penchant for analyzing our own motives and behaviors, rather than everybody else’s. We will be better people for it, more Christlike in every way as contrasted with more antichrist-like. Isn’t this what we should want?
So let’s not whine about our toes being stepped on or our fur rubbed the wrong way. By all means, dear Jesus, stomp and rub until we have had our fill of sin, then repent and turn to you for a new beginning. In Christ’s name.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Leviticus: Volume 3 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Egocentrism vs. theocentrism. Big words which express a lot. Oftentimes we use a lot of words to say nothing. On rare occasions we hear a lot of meaningful teaching in a few scant words. The second case applies to our big words here.
“Centrism” refers to what is at the center of attention, what is being focused upon. “Ego” is the Greek 1st person singular personal pronoun “I”. “Theo” is the Greek word for “God”. So “egocentrism” means “I” am at the center of the universe: everything revolves around me. “Theocentrism” means “God” is the center of my universe: my life and everything else revolves around Him.
God created man to be theocentric. He made us to desire fellowship with Him, as He does with us. Sin marred man’s makeup, leaving us in opposition to God. We want nothing to do with the real God, only with a god made in our own image. Consequently I want to be in control. I want to be the center of the universe and have everyone and everything revolve around me.
This is what the Psalmist taught in the verses we quoted at the outset of this study. How do we explain the sinfulness of the wicked? Left to ourselves we cannot. All we can do is theorize some psychobabble or whatnot. We need the omniscient God, man’s Creator, to explain us to us. Listen to His explanation of the sinfulness of the wicked.
• there is no fear of God before their eyes
• in their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin
Those two depictions go hand in glove. They are two peas in a pod, two sides of the same coin. Ask yourself the question, “Why do the wicked not fear God?” The answer is, “They flatter themselves to such an extent, that they are self-righteous. They can do no wrong. Whatever goes wrong is somebody else’s fault, including God’s. They are so full of themselves that even God must feel honored to know them!”
Isn’t it obvious that such a state of affairs leaves no room for God? How can anyone fear God when they are superior to God? If the entire universe and all it contains revolves around li’l ol’ me, how insignificant then is God? No wonder such a one cannot fear God. He is Narcissus! He is so in love with himself that he cannot even imagine he has need for improvement, much less recognize outright sin in his life.
Have you noticed in our contemporary anti-christ society how nearly universal it is to witness this mentality in people, at least to one extent or another? Relationships like marriage and family are in the gutter because communication barely exists between us anymore. All of us are busy seeking our own good, and we think we are without fault in doing so. We have our rights, you see, and no one had better dare infringe on them in any way. How inconvenient that would be!
Once upon a time not so long ago in a not faraway world, we used to regularly hear about our responsibilities. Meeting them was evidence of adulthood. It was honorable. My, my, but we’ve come a long way, baby! Nowadays talk about responsibilities is taboo and the person brash enough to do so is pilloried and ostracized.
Using the Word of God as our measuring stick for right and wrong, and specifically the quoted verses we are studying, what does this reveal about us and our society today? Hint, hint, it’s not good! The word “wicked” comes to mind, also “egocentric” and “self-flatterer”. Oh, and let’s not leave off the word “sin”.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer with Bible now, asking Him to pinpoint any of these tendencies in us. Let’s learn under His tutelage to cultivate a penchant for analyzing our own motives and behaviors, rather than everybody else’s. We will be better people for it, more Christlike in every way as contrasted with more antichrist-like. Isn’t this what we should want?
So let’s not whine about our toes being stepped on or our fur rubbed the wrong way. By all means, dear Jesus, stomp and rub until we have had our fill of sin, then repent and turn to you for a new beginning. In Christ’s name.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Leviticus: Volume 3 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Tweedledee and Tweedledum – Part 1
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them [Proverbs 28:4].
I am writing this in the spring of 2012. This is an election year. Who will be President of the United States is at stake. Also at stake is who will control Congress. Of course there are also state and local elections, which will affect us considerably as well.
Who should I vote for? It is rather difficult to keep abreast of all the candidates running for office. Basing my decisions on party labels doesn’t exactly instill me with confidence in the results either! After years and decades of voting for the “lesser evil”, I am about petered out with choosing between Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Thankfully, the Word of God affords us insight into this apparent Catch-22. The writer of Proverbs 28 leaves no wiggle room, when it comes to the eligibility of potential elected officials. He presents his analysis in the traditional manner of the Biblical Hebrew poetry. He employs parallelism, in this case antonymous parallelism.
Today we rhyme words at the end of lines as our expression of poetry. The Hebrews rhymed ideas between lines. They restated in line 2 the same concept(s) of line 1, only using different words to do so. This is known as synonymous parallelism. If the two lines present opposite concepts, it is antonymous parallelism.
Let’s diagram Proverbs 28:4 for purposes of illustrating this:
A. those who forsake the law
B. praise the wicked
A. those who keep the law
B. strive with them (i.e., with the wicked)
The two parallel lines each consist of “A” and “B”. They express opposite concepts, so the two “A’s” are opposites as also are the two “B’s”. The “A” lines identify two opposite sorts of fellows, while the two “B” lines expose their pattern of behavior. In this light let’s vet the two classifications of people in the text.
One category consists of people who reject the Bible. They want nothing to do with the Lord being their God. They can run their lives just fine without You, God, thank you very much. Of course when it comes to elections, they don’t want this stated in black and white like that. Egads! It would expose them for what they are and the godly folks wouldn’t vote for them!
The other category of people is comprised of those who embrace the Bible. They want the Lord to rule in their lives and in everyone else’s life too. The Lord’s rule over anyone’s life must be willingly given, so they don’t want to force anyone to be religious or to verbally praise the Lord. They realize this must come from the heart first and foremost, not from the mouth alone.
When it comes to elections, suchlike folks are desirous of seeing their country operate on godly principles. Extravagant spending beyond our means with increasing debt and interest payments beyond our ability to repay—this is one example of a principle denounced by the Lord in Scripture. Ergo, the righteous candidates will stick with the Bible and insist on balancing the budget…sooner rather than later!
Biblical morality must needs be promoted, so they desire a social climate in which fidelity in marriage is promulgated, abortion is eradicated, and homosexuality is no longer viewed as an acceptable alternate lifestyle. No persecution will be tolerated, but false teaching about these moral issues won’t be winked at either.
Here’s the thing. On the one hand there are those who want to determine right and wrong based on their own reasoning. Of course man’s reasoning is in a constant state of flux, so right and wrong today is not the same right and wrong of tomorrow or yesterday! Folks who view reality in such a fashion “praise the wicked”.
Oh, dear. We are out of time again. We must stop now to be alone with the Lord a space, before our eyes become too heavy and sleep overtakes us. We will continue this topic tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
I am writing this in the spring of 2012. This is an election year. Who will be President of the United States is at stake. Also at stake is who will control Congress. Of course there are also state and local elections, which will affect us considerably as well.
Who should I vote for? It is rather difficult to keep abreast of all the candidates running for office. Basing my decisions on party labels doesn’t exactly instill me with confidence in the results either! After years and decades of voting for the “lesser evil”, I am about petered out with choosing between Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Thankfully, the Word of God affords us insight into this apparent Catch-22. The writer of Proverbs 28 leaves no wiggle room, when it comes to the eligibility of potential elected officials. He presents his analysis in the traditional manner of the Biblical Hebrew poetry. He employs parallelism, in this case antonymous parallelism.
Today we rhyme words at the end of lines as our expression of poetry. The Hebrews rhymed ideas between lines. They restated in line 2 the same concept(s) of line 1, only using different words to do so. This is known as synonymous parallelism. If the two lines present opposite concepts, it is antonymous parallelism.
Let’s diagram Proverbs 28:4 for purposes of illustrating this:
A. those who forsake the law
B. praise the wicked
A. those who keep the law
B. strive with them (i.e., with the wicked)
The two parallel lines each consist of “A” and “B”. They express opposite concepts, so the two “A’s” are opposites as also are the two “B’s”. The “A” lines identify two opposite sorts of fellows, while the two “B” lines expose their pattern of behavior. In this light let’s vet the two classifications of people in the text.
One category consists of people who reject the Bible. They want nothing to do with the Lord being their God. They can run their lives just fine without You, God, thank you very much. Of course when it comes to elections, they don’t want this stated in black and white like that. Egads! It would expose them for what they are and the godly folks wouldn’t vote for them!
The other category of people is comprised of those who embrace the Bible. They want the Lord to rule in their lives and in everyone else’s life too. The Lord’s rule over anyone’s life must be willingly given, so they don’t want to force anyone to be religious or to verbally praise the Lord. They realize this must come from the heart first and foremost, not from the mouth alone.
When it comes to elections, suchlike folks are desirous of seeing their country operate on godly principles. Extravagant spending beyond our means with increasing debt and interest payments beyond our ability to repay—this is one example of a principle denounced by the Lord in Scripture. Ergo, the righteous candidates will stick with the Bible and insist on balancing the budget…sooner rather than later!
Biblical morality must needs be promoted, so they desire a social climate in which fidelity in marriage is promulgated, abortion is eradicated, and homosexuality is no longer viewed as an acceptable alternate lifestyle. No persecution will be tolerated, but false teaching about these moral issues won’t be winked at either.
Here’s the thing. On the one hand there are those who want to determine right and wrong based on their own reasoning. Of course man’s reasoning is in a constant state of flux, so right and wrong today is not the same right and wrong of tomorrow or yesterday! Folks who view reality in such a fashion “praise the wicked”.
Oh, dear. We are out of time again. We must stop now to be alone with the Lord a space, before our eyes become too heavy and sleep overtakes us. We will continue this topic tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Tweedledee and Tweedledum – Part 2
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them [Proverbs 28:4].
We ended our last study by noting how folks without a basis for absolute morality end up praising the wicked. Let’s continue at that point and ask, “Huh? Why would they do that?”
It’s like this. In the Bible the Lord defines who are “the wicked”. He doesn’t base wickedness on whether or not anyone drinks, smokes, or curses. Those are only a small sampling of the fruits of wickedness, not the source.
Determining who is wicked and who is not is a question of morality. If we have a relative understanding of morality, we believe it changes with the situation—which leaves us with no real morality at all. If we have an absolute understanding of morality, we need someone who is always absolute to legislate what true morality is.
Voilà! the Bible, God’s Word, fits the bill. God alone is always absolute. He alone can define absolute morality. This is where the Biblical distinction between the wicked and the righteous comes into play, dear friends.
God defines the “wicked person” as “those who forsake the law”, i.e., those who reject the Bible in order to live as they please. Suchlike folks are those who eat fruit from the kogae tree, rather than from the life tree. They determine right and wrong based upon how they feel about the matter, not upon any outside source.
Contrariwise, the Biblical definition of the righteous is “those who keep the law”, i.e., those who reject man’s dithery efforts to determine right and wrong in favor of the Lord’s express teachings in the Bible. Because the righteous reject man’s claims to determine morality, they clash with the wicked, who by definition insist on tossing out the Bible in favor of making their own decisions of what is moral and what is not.
So what has this to do with politicians and who to vote for come November? Well, if a candidate talks a good spiel, don’t be taken in! Listen for him to present his position vis-à-vis the Bible. Does he want to spend us into bankruptcy, under the guise that it is immoral not to feed and clothe everyone in this country (and outside of it too)?
Where in Scripture does the Lord call for government to do these things? Scripture calls for each individual to willingly help others, but only as he sees fit and to the extent he is able. Calling for government to forcibly take our money from us and give it to whomever the government feels deserves it—this is anti-Bible. It is the social gospel and it is socialism. Beware the antichrist lurking nearby!
Does the politician disguise himself in the garb of “women’s rights”, to justify the murder of innocent lives in the womb? The Bible condemns the practice of abortion as murder.
Does he favor unconditional divorce and want the government to pay for all the social injustices which derive from the destruction of the family? The Bible defines marriage as a lifetime contract, for better or for worse.
Does he espouse homosexuality under the smokescreen of alternate lifestyles and natural inclinations? The Bible denounces it as sin of the most debasing kind.
If we vote for proponents of anti-Bible morality and behaviors, we will continue to move ever deeper into the morass of antichrist living. We’ve already reached extreme social depths the way it is. This makes it excruciatingly difficult to reverse course. Only a Holy Spirit revival in the house of God will suffice. Nonetheless, with God all things are possible. So vote, but first listen carefully to what the candidates say…and don’t say.
And before we listen to politicians harangue us, let’s be sure we listen to the Lord in His Word so we know truth from error. See you at the polls in November.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Categories: Church Age
We ended our last study by noting how folks without a basis for absolute morality end up praising the wicked. Let’s continue at that point and ask, “Huh? Why would they do that?”
It’s like this. In the Bible the Lord defines who are “the wicked”. He doesn’t base wickedness on whether or not anyone drinks, smokes, or curses. Those are only a small sampling of the fruits of wickedness, not the source.
Determining who is wicked and who is not is a question of morality. If we have a relative understanding of morality, we believe it changes with the situation—which leaves us with no real morality at all. If we have an absolute understanding of morality, we need someone who is always absolute to legislate what true morality is.
Voilà! the Bible, God’s Word, fits the bill. God alone is always absolute. He alone can define absolute morality. This is where the Biblical distinction between the wicked and the righteous comes into play, dear friends.
God defines the “wicked person” as “those who forsake the law”, i.e., those who reject the Bible in order to live as they please. Suchlike folks are those who eat fruit from the kogae tree, rather than from the life tree. They determine right and wrong based upon how they feel about the matter, not upon any outside source.
Contrariwise, the Biblical definition of the righteous is “those who keep the law”, i.e., those who reject man’s dithery efforts to determine right and wrong in favor of the Lord’s express teachings in the Bible. Because the righteous reject man’s claims to determine morality, they clash with the wicked, who by definition insist on tossing out the Bible in favor of making their own decisions of what is moral and what is not.
So what has this to do with politicians and who to vote for come November? Well, if a candidate talks a good spiel, don’t be taken in! Listen for him to present his position vis-à-vis the Bible. Does he want to spend us into bankruptcy, under the guise that it is immoral not to feed and clothe everyone in this country (and outside of it too)?
Where in Scripture does the Lord call for government to do these things? Scripture calls for each individual to willingly help others, but only as he sees fit and to the extent he is able. Calling for government to forcibly take our money from us and give it to whomever the government feels deserves it—this is anti-Bible. It is the social gospel and it is socialism. Beware the antichrist lurking nearby!
Does the politician disguise himself in the garb of “women’s rights”, to justify the murder of innocent lives in the womb? The Bible condemns the practice of abortion as murder.
Does he favor unconditional divorce and want the government to pay for all the social injustices which derive from the destruction of the family? The Bible defines marriage as a lifetime contract, for better or for worse.
Does he espouse homosexuality under the smokescreen of alternate lifestyles and natural inclinations? The Bible denounces it as sin of the most debasing kind.
If we vote for proponents of anti-Bible morality and behaviors, we will continue to move ever deeper into the morass of antichrist living. We’ve already reached extreme social depths the way it is. This makes it excruciatingly difficult to reverse course. Only a Holy Spirit revival in the house of God will suffice. Nonetheless, with God all things are possible. So vote, but first listen carefully to what the candidates say…and don’t say.
And before we listen to politicians harangue us, let’s be sure we listen to the Lord in His Word so we know truth from error. See you at the polls in November.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Categories: Church Age
Narcissus Returns!
I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: there is no fear of God before their eyes. In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin [Psalm 36:1-2, NIV].
Egocentrism vs. theocentrism. Big words which express a lot. Oftentimes we use a lot of words to say nothing. On rare occasions we hear a lot of meaningful teaching in a few scant words. The second case applies to our big words here.
“Centrism” refers to what is at the center of attention, what is being focused upon. “Ego” is the Greek 1st person singular personal pronoun “I”. “Theo” is the Greek word for “God”. So “egocentrism” means “I” am at the center of the universe: everything revolves around me. “Theocentrism” means “God” is the center of my universe: my life and everything else revolves around Him.
God created man to be theocentric. He made us to desire fellowship with Him, as He does with us. Sin marred man’s makeup, leaving us in opposition to God. We want nothing to do with the real God, only with a god made in our own image. Consequently I want to be in control. I want to be the center of the universe and have everyone and everything revolve around me.
This is what the Psalmist taught in the verses we quoted at the outset of this study. How do we explain the sinfulness of the wicked? Left to ourselves we cannot. All we can do is theorize some psychobabble or whatnot. We need the omniscient God, man’s Creator, to explain us to us. Listen to His explanation of the sinfulness of the wicked.
• there is no fear of God before their eyes
• in their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin
Those two depictions go hand in glove. They are two peas in a pod, two sides of the same coin. Ask yourself the question, “Why do the wicked not fear God?” The answer is, “They flatter themselves to such an extent, that they are self-righteous. They can do no wrong. Whatever goes wrong is somebody else’s fault, including God’s. They are so full of themselves that even God must feel honored to know them!”
Isn’t it obvious that such a state of affairs leaves no room for God? How can anyone fear God when they are superior to God? If the entire universe and all it contains revolves around li’l ol’ me, how insignificant then is God? No wonder such a one cannot fear God. He is Narcissus! He is so in love with himself that he cannot even imagine he has need for improvement, much less recognize outright sin in his life.
Have you noticed in our contemporary anti-christ society how nearly universal it is to witness this mentality in people, at least to one extent or another? Relationships like marriage and family are in the gutter because communication barely exists between us anymore. All of us are busy seeking our own good, and we think we are without fault in doing so. We have our rights, you see, and no one had better dare infringe on them in any way. How inconvenient that would be!
Once upon a time not so long ago in a not faraway world, we used to regularly hear about our responsibilities. Meeting them was evidence of adulthood. It was honorable. My, my, but we’ve come a long way, baby! Nowadays talk about responsibilities is taboo and the person brash enough to do so is pilloried and ostracized.
Using the Word of God as our measuring stick for right and wrong, and specifically the quoted verses we are studying, what does this reveal about us and our society today? Hint, hint, it’s not good! The word “wicked” comes to mind, also “egocentric” and “self-flatterer”. Oh, and let’s not leave off the word “sin”.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer with Bible now, asking Him to pinpoint any of these tendencies in us. Let’s learn under His tutelage to cultivate a penchant for analyzing our own motives and behaviors, rather than everybody else’s. We will be better people for it, more Christlike in every way as contrasted with more antichrist-like. Isn’t this what we should want?
So let’s not whine about our toes being stepped on or our fur rubbed the wrong way. By all means, dear Jesus, stomp and rub until we have had our fill of sin, then repent and turn to you for a new beginning. In Christ’s name.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Leviticus: Volume 3 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Egocentrism vs. theocentrism. Big words which express a lot. Oftentimes we use a lot of words to say nothing. On rare occasions we hear a lot of meaningful teaching in a few scant words. The second case applies to our big words here.
“Centrism” refers to what is at the center of attention, what is being focused upon. “Ego” is the Greek 1st person singular personal pronoun “I”. “Theo” is the Greek word for “God”. So “egocentrism” means “I” am at the center of the universe: everything revolves around me. “Theocentrism” means “God” is the center of my universe: my life and everything else revolves around Him.
God created man to be theocentric. He made us to desire fellowship with Him, as He does with us. Sin marred man’s makeup, leaving us in opposition to God. We want nothing to do with the real God, only with a god made in our own image. Consequently I want to be in control. I want to be the center of the universe and have everyone and everything revolve around me.
This is what the Psalmist taught in the verses we quoted at the outset of this study. How do we explain the sinfulness of the wicked? Left to ourselves we cannot. All we can do is theorize some psychobabble or whatnot. We need the omniscient God, man’s Creator, to explain us to us. Listen to His explanation of the sinfulness of the wicked.
• there is no fear of God before their eyes
• in their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin
Those two depictions go hand in glove. They are two peas in a pod, two sides of the same coin. Ask yourself the question, “Why do the wicked not fear God?” The answer is, “They flatter themselves to such an extent, that they are self-righteous. They can do no wrong. Whatever goes wrong is somebody else’s fault, including God’s. They are so full of themselves that even God must feel honored to know them!”
Isn’t it obvious that such a state of affairs leaves no room for God? How can anyone fear God when they are superior to God? If the entire universe and all it contains revolves around li’l ol’ me, how insignificant then is God? No wonder such a one cannot fear God. He is Narcissus! He is so in love with himself that he cannot even imagine he has need for improvement, much less recognize outright sin in his life.
Have you noticed in our contemporary anti-christ society how nearly universal it is to witness this mentality in people, at least to one extent or another? Relationships like marriage and family are in the gutter because communication barely exists between us anymore. All of us are busy seeking our own good, and we think we are without fault in doing so. We have our rights, you see, and no one had better dare infringe on them in any way. How inconvenient that would be!
Once upon a time not so long ago in a not faraway world, we used to regularly hear about our responsibilities. Meeting them was evidence of adulthood. It was honorable. My, my, but we’ve come a long way, baby! Nowadays talk about responsibilities is taboo and the person brash enough to do so is pilloried and ostracized.
Using the Word of God as our measuring stick for right and wrong, and specifically the quoted verses we are studying, what does this reveal about us and our society today? Hint, hint, it’s not good! The word “wicked” comes to mind, also “egocentric” and “self-flatterer”. Oh, and let’s not leave off the word “sin”.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer with Bible now, asking Him to pinpoint any of these tendencies in us. Let’s learn under His tutelage to cultivate a penchant for analyzing our own motives and behaviors, rather than everybody else’s. We will be better people for it, more Christlike in every way as contrasted with more antichrist-like. Isn’t this what we should want?
So let’s not whine about our toes being stepped on or our fur rubbed the wrong way. By all means, dear Jesus, stomp and rub until we have had our fill of sin, then repent and turn to you for a new beginning. In Christ’s name.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Leviticus: Volume 3 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Tweedledum and Tweedledee – Part 1
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them [Proverbs 28:4].
I am writing this in the spring of 2012. This is an election year. Who will be President of the United States is at stake. Also at stake is who will control Congress. Of course there are also state and local elections, which will affect us considerably as well.
Who should I vote for? It is rather difficult to keep abreast of all the candidates running for office. Basing my decisions on party labels doesn’t exactly instill me with confidence in the results either! After years and decades of voting for the “lesser evil”, I am about petered out with choosing between Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Thankfully, the Word of God affords us insight into this apparent Catch-22. The writer of Proverbs 28 leaves no wiggle room, when it comes to the eligibility of potential elected officials. He presents his analysis in the traditional manner of the Biblical Hebrew poetry. He employs parallelism, in this case antonymous parallelism.
Today we rhyme words at the end of lines as our expression of poetry. The Hebrews rhymed ideas between lines. They restated in line 2 the same concept(s) of line 1, only using different words to do so. This is known as synonymous parallelism. If the two lines present opposite concepts, it is antonymous parallelism.
Let’s diagram Proverbs 28:4 for purposes of illustrating this:
A. those who forsake the law
B. praise the wicked
A. those who keep the law
B. strive with them (i.e., with the wicked)
The two parallel lines each consist of “A” and “B”. They express opposite concepts, so the two “A’s” are opposites as also are the two “B’s”. The “A” lines identify two opposite sorts of fellows, while the two “B” lines expose their pattern of behavior. In this light let’s vet the two classifications of people in the text.
One category consists of people who reject the Bible. They want nothing to do with the Lord being their God. They can run their lives just fine without You, God, thank you very much. Of course when it comes to elections, they don’t want this stated in black and white like that. Egads! It would expose them for what they are and the godly folks wouldn’t vote for them!
The other category of people is comprised of those who embrace the Bible. They want the Lord to rule in their lives and in everyone else’s life too. The Lord’s rule over anyone’s life must be willingly given, so they don’t want to force anyone to be religious or to verbally praise the Lord. They realize this must come from the heart first and foremost, not from the mouth alone.
When it comes to elections, suchlike folks are desirous of seeing their country operate on godly principles. Extravagant spending beyond our means with increasing debt and interest payments beyond our ability to repay—this is one example of a principle denounced by the Lord in Scripture. Ergo, the righteous candidates will stick with the Bible and insist on balancing the budget…sooner rather than later!
Biblical morality must needs be promoted, so they desire a social climate in which fidelity in marriage is promulgated, abortion is eradicated, and homosexuality is no longer viewed as an acceptable alternate lifestyle. No persecution will be tolerated, but false teaching about these moral issues won’t be winked at either.
Here’s the thing. On the one hand there are those who want to determine right and wrong based on their own reasoning. Of course man’s reasoning is in a constant state of flux, so right and wrong today is not the same right and wrong of tomorrow or yesterday! Folks who view reality in such a fashion “praise the wicked”.
Oh, dear. We are out of time again. We must stop now to be alone with the Lord a space, before our eyes become too heavy and sleep overtakes us. We will continue this topic tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
I am writing this in the spring of 2012. This is an election year. Who will be President of the United States is at stake. Also at stake is who will control Congress. Of course there are also state and local elections, which will affect us considerably as well.
Who should I vote for? It is rather difficult to keep abreast of all the candidates running for office. Basing my decisions on party labels doesn’t exactly instill me with confidence in the results either! After years and decades of voting for the “lesser evil”, I am about petered out with choosing between Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Thankfully, the Word of God affords us insight into this apparent Catch-22. The writer of Proverbs 28 leaves no wiggle room, when it comes to the eligibility of potential elected officials. He presents his analysis in the traditional manner of the Biblical Hebrew poetry. He employs parallelism, in this case antonymous parallelism.
Today we rhyme words at the end of lines as our expression of poetry. The Hebrews rhymed ideas between lines. They restated in line 2 the same concept(s) of line 1, only using different words to do so. This is known as synonymous parallelism. If the two lines present opposite concepts, it is antonymous parallelism.
Let’s diagram Proverbs 28:4 for purposes of illustrating this:
A. those who forsake the law
B. praise the wicked
A. those who keep the law
B. strive with them (i.e., with the wicked)
The two parallel lines each consist of “A” and “B”. They express opposite concepts, so the two “A’s” are opposites as also are the two “B’s”. The “A” lines identify two opposite sorts of fellows, while the two “B” lines expose their pattern of behavior. In this light let’s vet the two classifications of people in the text.
One category consists of people who reject the Bible. They want nothing to do with the Lord being their God. They can run their lives just fine without You, God, thank you very much. Of course when it comes to elections, they don’t want this stated in black and white like that. Egads! It would expose them for what they are and the godly folks wouldn’t vote for them!
The other category of people is comprised of those who embrace the Bible. They want the Lord to rule in their lives and in everyone else’s life too. The Lord’s rule over anyone’s life must be willingly given, so they don’t want to force anyone to be religious or to verbally praise the Lord. They realize this must come from the heart first and foremost, not from the mouth alone.
When it comes to elections, suchlike folks are desirous of seeing their country operate on godly principles. Extravagant spending beyond our means with increasing debt and interest payments beyond our ability to repay—this is one example of a principle denounced by the Lord in Scripture. Ergo, the righteous candidates will stick with the Bible and insist on balancing the budget…sooner rather than later!
Biblical morality must needs be promoted, so they desire a social climate in which fidelity in marriage is promulgated, abortion is eradicated, and homosexuality is no longer viewed as an acceptable alternate lifestyle. No persecution will be tolerated, but false teaching about these moral issues won’t be winked at either.
Here’s the thing. On the one hand there are those who want to determine right and wrong based on their own reasoning. Of course man’s reasoning is in a constant state of flux, so right and wrong today is not the same right and wrong of tomorrow or yesterday! Folks who view reality in such a fashion “praise the wicked”.
Oh, dear. We are out of time again. We must stop now to be alone with the Lord a space, before our eyes become too heavy and sleep overtakes us. We will continue this topic tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Tweedledum and Tweedledee – Part 2
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them [Proverbs 28:4].
We ended our last study by noting how folks without a basis for absolute morality end up praising the wicked. Let’s continue at that point and ask, “Huh? Why would they do that?”
It’s like this. In the Bible the Lord defines who are “the wicked”. He doesn’t base wickedness on whether or not anyone drinks, smokes, or curses. Those are only a small sampling of the fruits of wickedness, not the source.
Determining who is wicked and who is not is a question of morality. If we have a relative understanding of morality, we believe it changes with the situation—which leaves us with no real morality at all. If we have an absolute understanding of morality, we need someone who is always absolute to legislate what true morality is.
Voilà! the Bible, God’s Word, fits the bill. God alone is always absolute. He alone can define absolute morality. This is where the Biblical distinction between the wicked and the righteous comes into play, dear friends.
God defines the “wicked person” as “those who forsake the law”, i.e., those who reject the Bible in order to live as they please. Suchlike folks are those who eat fruit from the kogae tree, rather than from the life tree. They determine right and wrong based upon how they feel about the matter, not upon any outside source.
Contrariwise, the Biblical definition of the righteous is “those who keep the law”, i.e., those who reject man’s dithery efforts to determine right and wrong in favor of the Lord’s express teachings in the Bible. Because the righteous reject man’s claims to determine morality, they clash with the wicked, who by definition insist on tossing out the Bible in favor of making their own decisions of what is moral and what is not.
So what has this to do with politicians and who to vote for come November? Well, if a candidate talks a good spiel, don’t be taken in! Listen for him to present his position vis-à-vis the Bible. Does he want to spend us into bankruptcy, under the guise that it is immoral not to feed and clothe everyone in this country (and outside of it too)?
Where in Scripture does the Lord call for government to do these things? Scripture calls for each individual to willingly help others, but only as he sees fit and to the extent he is able. Calling for government to forcibly take our money from us and give it to whomever the government feels deserves it—this is anti-Bible. It is the social gospel and it is socialism. Beware the antichrist lurking nearby!
Does the politician disguise himself in the garb of “women’s rights”, to justify the murder of innocent lives in the womb? The Bible condemns the practice of abortion as murder.
Does he favor unconditional divorce and want the government to pay for all the social injustices which derive from the destruction of the family? The Bible defines marriage as a lifetime contract, for better or for worse.
Does he espouse homosexuality under the smokescreen of alternate lifestyles and natural inclinations? The Bible denounces it as sin of the most debasing kind.
If we vote for proponents of anti-Bible morality and behaviors, we will continue to move ever deeper into the morass of antichrist living. We’ve already reached extreme social depths the way it is. This makes it excruciatingly difficult to reverse course. Only a Holy Spirit revival in the house of God will suffice. Nonetheless, with God all things are possible. So vote, but first listen carefully to what the candidates say…and don’t say.
And before we listen to politicians harangue us, let’s be sure we listen to the Lord in His Word so we know truth from error. See you at the polls in November.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
We ended our last study by noting how folks without a basis for absolute morality end up praising the wicked. Let’s continue at that point and ask, “Huh? Why would they do that?”
It’s like this. In the Bible the Lord defines who are “the wicked”. He doesn’t base wickedness on whether or not anyone drinks, smokes, or curses. Those are only a small sampling of the fruits of wickedness, not the source.
Determining who is wicked and who is not is a question of morality. If we have a relative understanding of morality, we believe it changes with the situation—which leaves us with no real morality at all. If we have an absolute understanding of morality, we need someone who is always absolute to legislate what true morality is.
Voilà! the Bible, God’s Word, fits the bill. God alone is always absolute. He alone can define absolute morality. This is where the Biblical distinction between the wicked and the righteous comes into play, dear friends.
God defines the “wicked person” as “those who forsake the law”, i.e., those who reject the Bible in order to live as they please. Suchlike folks are those who eat fruit from the kogae tree, rather than from the life tree. They determine right and wrong based upon how they feel about the matter, not upon any outside source.
Contrariwise, the Biblical definition of the righteous is “those who keep the law”, i.e., those who reject man’s dithery efforts to determine right and wrong in favor of the Lord’s express teachings in the Bible. Because the righteous reject man’s claims to determine morality, they clash with the wicked, who by definition insist on tossing out the Bible in favor of making their own decisions of what is moral and what is not.
So what has this to do with politicians and who to vote for come November? Well, if a candidate talks a good spiel, don’t be taken in! Listen for him to present his position vis-à-vis the Bible. Does he want to spend us into bankruptcy, under the guise that it is immoral not to feed and clothe everyone in this country (and outside of it too)?
Where in Scripture does the Lord call for government to do these things? Scripture calls for each individual to willingly help others, but only as he sees fit and to the extent he is able. Calling for government to forcibly take our money from us and give it to whomever the government feels deserves it—this is anti-Bible. It is the social gospel and it is socialism. Beware the antichrist lurking nearby!
Does the politician disguise himself in the garb of “women’s rights”, to justify the murder of innocent lives in the womb? The Bible condemns the practice of abortion as murder.
Does he favor unconditional divorce and want the government to pay for all the social injustices which derive from the destruction of the family? The Bible defines marriage as a lifetime contract, for better or for worse.
Does he espouse homosexuality under the smokescreen of alternate lifestyles and natural inclinations? The Bible denounces it as sin of the most debasing kind.
If we vote for proponents of anti-Bible morality and behaviors, we will continue to move ever deeper into the morass of antichrist living. We’ve already reached extreme social depths the way it is. This makes it excruciatingly difficult to reverse course. Only a Holy Spirit revival in the house of God will suffice. Nonetheless, with God all things are possible. So vote, but first listen carefully to what the candidates say…and don’t say.
And before we listen to politicians harangue us, let’s be sure we listen to the Lord in His Word so we know truth from error. See you at the polls in November.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Narcissus Returns!
I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: there is no fear of God before their eyes. In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin [Psalm 36:1-2, NIV].
Egocentrism vs. theocentrism. Big words which express a lot. Oftentimes we use a lot of words to say nothing. On rare occasions we hear a lot of meaningful teaching in a few scant words. The second case applies to our big words here.
“Centrism” refers to what is at the center of attention, what is being focused upon. “Ego” is the Greek 1st person singular personal pronoun “I”. “Theo” is the Greek word for “God”. So “egocentrism” means “I” am at the center of the universe: everything revolves around me. “Theocentrism” means “God” is the center of my universe: my life and everything else revolves around Him.
God created man to be theocentric. He made us to desire fellowship with Him, as He does with us. Sin marred man’s makeup, leaving us in opposition to God. We want nothing to do with the real God, only with a god made in our own image. Consequently I want to be in control. I want to be the center of the universe and have everyone and everything revolve around me.
This is what the Psalmist taught in the verses we quoted at the outset of this study. How do we explain the sinfulness of the wicked? Left to ourselves we cannot. All we can do is theorize some psychobabble or whatnot. We need the omniscient God, man’s Creator, to explain us to us. Listen to His explanation of the sinfulness of the wicked.
• there is no fear of God before their eyes
• in their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin
Those two depictions go hand in glove. They are two peas in a pod, two sides of the same coin. Ask yourself the question, “Why do the wicked not fear God?” The answer is, “They flatter themselves to such an extent, that they are self-righteous. They can do no wrong. Whatever goes wrong is somebody else’s fault, including God’s. They are so full of themselves that even God must feel honored to know them!”
Isn’t it obvious that such a state of affairs leaves no room for God? How can anyone fear God when they are superior to God? If the entire universe and all it contains revolves around li’l ol’ me, how insignificant then is God? No wonder such a one cannot fear God. He is Narcissus! He is so in love with himself that he cannot even imagine he has need for improvement, much less recognize outright sin in his life.
Have you noticed in our contemporary anti-christ society how nearly universal it is to witness this mentality in people, at least to one extent or another? Relationships like marriage and family are in the gutter because communication barely exists between us anymore. All of us are busy seeking our own good, and we think we are without fault in doing so. We have our rights, you see, and no one had better dare infringe on them in any way. How inconvenient that would be!
Once upon a time not so long ago in a not faraway world, we used to regularly hear about our responsibilities. Meeting them was evidence of adulthood. It was honorable. My, my, but we’ve come a long way, baby! Nowadays talk about responsibilities is taboo and the person brash enough to do so is pilloried and ostracized.
Using the Word of God as our measuring stick for right and wrong, and specifically the quoted verses we are studying, what does this reveal about us and our society today? Hint, hint, it’s not good! The word “wicked” comes to mind, also “egocentric” and “self-flatterer”. Oh, and let’s not leave off the word “sin”.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer with Bible now, asking Him to pinpoint any of these tendencies in us. Let’s learn under His tutelage to cultivate a penchant for analyzing our own motives and behaviors, rather than everybody else’s. We will be better people for it, more Christlike in every way as contrasted with more antichrist-like. Isn’t this what we should want?
So let’s not whine about our toes being stepped on or our fur rubbed the wrong way. By all means, dear Jesus, stomp and rub until we have had our fill of sin, then repent and turn to you for a new beginning. In Christ’s name.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Leviticus: Volume 3 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Egocentrism vs. theocentrism. Big words which express a lot. Oftentimes we use a lot of words to say nothing. On rare occasions we hear a lot of meaningful teaching in a few scant words. The second case applies to our big words here.
“Centrism” refers to what is at the center of attention, what is being focused upon. “Ego” is the Greek 1st person singular personal pronoun “I”. “Theo” is the Greek word for “God”. So “egocentrism” means “I” am at the center of the universe: everything revolves around me. “Theocentrism” means “God” is the center of my universe: my life and everything else revolves around Him.
God created man to be theocentric. He made us to desire fellowship with Him, as He does with us. Sin marred man’s makeup, leaving us in opposition to God. We want nothing to do with the real God, only with a god made in our own image. Consequently I want to be in control. I want to be the center of the universe and have everyone and everything revolve around me.
This is what the Psalmist taught in the verses we quoted at the outset of this study. How do we explain the sinfulness of the wicked? Left to ourselves we cannot. All we can do is theorize some psychobabble or whatnot. We need the omniscient God, man’s Creator, to explain us to us. Listen to His explanation of the sinfulness of the wicked.
• there is no fear of God before their eyes
• in their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin
Those two depictions go hand in glove. They are two peas in a pod, two sides of the same coin. Ask yourself the question, “Why do the wicked not fear God?” The answer is, “They flatter themselves to such an extent, that they are self-righteous. They can do no wrong. Whatever goes wrong is somebody else’s fault, including God’s. They are so full of themselves that even God must feel honored to know them!”
Isn’t it obvious that such a state of affairs leaves no room for God? How can anyone fear God when they are superior to God? If the entire universe and all it contains revolves around li’l ol’ me, how insignificant then is God? No wonder such a one cannot fear God. He is Narcissus! He is so in love with himself that he cannot even imagine he has need for improvement, much less recognize outright sin in his life.
Have you noticed in our contemporary anti-christ society how nearly universal it is to witness this mentality in people, at least to one extent or another? Relationships like marriage and family are in the gutter because communication barely exists between us anymore. All of us are busy seeking our own good, and we think we are without fault in doing so. We have our rights, you see, and no one had better dare infringe on them in any way. How inconvenient that would be!
Once upon a time not so long ago in a not faraway world, we used to regularly hear about our responsibilities. Meeting them was evidence of adulthood. It was honorable. My, my, but we’ve come a long way, baby! Nowadays talk about responsibilities is taboo and the person brash enough to do so is pilloried and ostracized.
Using the Word of God as our measuring stick for right and wrong, and specifically the quoted verses we are studying, what does this reveal about us and our society today? Hint, hint, it’s not good! The word “wicked” comes to mind, also “egocentric” and “self-flatterer”. Oh, and let’s not leave off the word “sin”.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer with Bible now, asking Him to pinpoint any of these tendencies in us. Let’s learn under His tutelage to cultivate a penchant for analyzing our own motives and behaviors, rather than everybody else’s. We will be better people for it, more Christlike in every way as contrasted with more antichrist-like. Isn’t this what we should want?
So let’s not whine about our toes being stepped on or our fur rubbed the wrong way. By all means, dear Jesus, stomp and rub until we have had our fill of sin, then repent and turn to you for a new beginning. In Christ’s name.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Leviticus: Volume 3 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Tweedledum and Tweedledee – Part 1
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them [Proverbs 28:4].
I am writing this in the spring of 2012. This is an election year. Who will be President of the United States is at stake. Also at stake is who will control Congress. Of course there are also state and local elections, which will affect us considerably as well.
Who should I vote for? It is rather difficult to keep abreast of all the candidates running for office. Basing my decisions on party labels doesn’t exactly instill me with confidence in the results either! After years and decades of voting for the “lesser evil”, I am about petered out with choosing between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Thankfully, the Word of God affords us insight into this apparent Catch-22. The writer of Proverbs 28 leaves no wiggle room, when it comes to the eligibility of potential elected officials. He presents his analysis in the traditional manner of the Biblical Hebrew poetry. He employs parallelism, in this case antonymous parallelism.
Today we rhyme words at the end of lines as our expression of poetry. The Hebrews rhymed ideas between lines. They restated in line 2 the same concept(s) of line 1, only using different words to do so. This is known as synonymous parallelism. If the two lines present opposite concepts, it is antonymous parallelism.
Let’s diagram Proverbs 28:4 for purposes of illustrating this:
A. those who forsake the law
B. praise the wicked
A. those who keep the law
B. strive with them (i.e., with the wicked)
The two parallel lines each consist of “A” and “B”. They express opposite concepts, so the two “A’s” are opposites as also are the two “B’s”. The “A” lines identify two opposite sorts of fellows, while the two “B” lines expose their pattern of behavior. In this light let’s vet the two classifications of people in the text.
One category consists of people who reject the Bible. They want nothing to do with the Lord being their God. They can run their lives just fine without You, God, thank you very much. Of course when it comes to elections, they don’t want this stated in black and white like that. Egads! It would expose them for what they are and the godly folks wouldn’t vote for them!
The other category of people is comprised of those who embrace the Bible. They want the Lord to rule in their lives and in everyone else’s life too. The Lord’s rule over anyone’s life must be willingly given, so they don’t want to force anyone to be religious or to verbally praise the Lord. They realize this must come from the heart first and foremost, not from the mouth alone.
When it comes to elections, suchlike folks are desirous of seeing their country operate on godly principles. Extravagant spending beyond our means with increasing debt and interest payments beyond our ability to repay—that is one example of a principle denounced by the Lord in Scripture. Ergo, the righteous candidates will stick with the Bible and insist on balancing the budget…sooner rather than later!
Biblical morality must needs be promoted, so they desire a social climate in which fidelity in marriage is promulgated, abortion is eradicated, and homosexuality is no longer viewed as an acceptable alternate lifestyle. No persecution will be tolerated, but false teaching about these moral issues won’t be winked at either.
Here’s the thing. On the one hand there are those who want to determine right and wrong based on their own reasoning. Of course man’s reasoning is in a constant state of flux, so right and wrong today is not the same right and wrong of tomorrow or yesterday! Folks who view reality in such a fashion “praise the wicked”.
Oh, dear. We are out of time again. We must stop now to be alone with the Lord a space, before our eyes become too heavy and sleep overtakes us. We will continue this topic tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
I am writing this in the spring of 2012. This is an election year. Who will be President of the United States is at stake. Also at stake is who will control Congress. Of course there are also state and local elections, which will affect us considerably as well.
Who should I vote for? It is rather difficult to keep abreast of all the candidates running for office. Basing my decisions on party labels doesn’t exactly instill me with confidence in the results either! After years and decades of voting for the “lesser evil”, I am about petered out with choosing between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Thankfully, the Word of God affords us insight into this apparent Catch-22. The writer of Proverbs 28 leaves no wiggle room, when it comes to the eligibility of potential elected officials. He presents his analysis in the traditional manner of the Biblical Hebrew poetry. He employs parallelism, in this case antonymous parallelism.
Today we rhyme words at the end of lines as our expression of poetry. The Hebrews rhymed ideas between lines. They restated in line 2 the same concept(s) of line 1, only using different words to do so. This is known as synonymous parallelism. If the two lines present opposite concepts, it is antonymous parallelism.
Let’s diagram Proverbs 28:4 for purposes of illustrating this:
A. those who forsake the law
B. praise the wicked
A. those who keep the law
B. strive with them (i.e., with the wicked)
The two parallel lines each consist of “A” and “B”. They express opposite concepts, so the two “A’s” are opposites as also are the two “B’s”. The “A” lines identify two opposite sorts of fellows, while the two “B” lines expose their pattern of behavior. In this light let’s vet the two classifications of people in the text.
One category consists of people who reject the Bible. They want nothing to do with the Lord being their God. They can run their lives just fine without You, God, thank you very much. Of course when it comes to elections, they don’t want this stated in black and white like that. Egads! It would expose them for what they are and the godly folks wouldn’t vote for them!
The other category of people is comprised of those who embrace the Bible. They want the Lord to rule in their lives and in everyone else’s life too. The Lord’s rule over anyone’s life must be willingly given, so they don’t want to force anyone to be religious or to verbally praise the Lord. They realize this must come from the heart first and foremost, not from the mouth alone.
When it comes to elections, suchlike folks are desirous of seeing their country operate on godly principles. Extravagant spending beyond our means with increasing debt and interest payments beyond our ability to repay—that is one example of a principle denounced by the Lord in Scripture. Ergo, the righteous candidates will stick with the Bible and insist on balancing the budget…sooner rather than later!
Biblical morality must needs be promoted, so they desire a social climate in which fidelity in marriage is promulgated, abortion is eradicated, and homosexuality is no longer viewed as an acceptable alternate lifestyle. No persecution will be tolerated, but false teaching about these moral issues won’t be winked at either.
Here’s the thing. On the one hand there are those who want to determine right and wrong based on their own reasoning. Of course man’s reasoning is in a constant state of flux, so right and wrong today is not the same right and wrong of tomorrow or yesterday! Folks who view reality in such a fashion “praise the wicked”.
Oh, dear. We are out of time again. We must stop now to be alone with the Lord a space, before our eyes become too heavy and sleep overtakes us. We will continue this topic tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Tweedledum and Tweedledee – Part 2
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them [Proverbs 28:4].
We ended our last study by noting how folks without a basis for absolute morality end up praising the wicked. Let’s continue at that point and ask, “Huh? Why would they do that?”
It’s like this. In the Bible the Lord defines who are “the wicked”. He doesn’t base wickedness on whether or not anyone drinks, smokes, or curses. Those are only a small sampling of the fruits of wickedness, not the source.
Determining who is wicked and who is not is a question of morality. If we have a relative understanding of morality, we believe it changes with the situation—which leaves us with no real morality at all. If we have an absolute understanding of morality, we need someone who is always absolute to legislate what true morality is.
Voilà! the Bible, God’s Word, fits the bill. God alone is always absolute. He alone can define absolute morality. This is where the Biblical distinction between the wicked and the righteous comes into play, dear friends.
God defines the “wicked person” as “those who forsake the law”, i.e., those who reject the Bible in order to live as they please. Suchlike folks are those who eat fruit from the kogae tree, rather than from the life tree. They determine right and wrong based upon how they feel about the matter, not upon any outside source.
Contrariwise, the Biblical definition of the righteous is “those who keep the law”, i.e., those who reject man’s dithery efforts to determine right and wrong in favor of the Lord’s express teachings in the Bible. Because the righteous reject man’s claims to determine morality, they clash with the wicked, who by definition insist on tossing out the Bible in favor of making their own decisions of what is moral and what is not.
So what has this to do with politicians and who to vote for come November? Well, if a candidate talks a good spiel, don’t be taken in! Listen for him to present his position vis-à-vis the Bible. Does he want to spend us into bankruptcy, under the guise that it is immoral not to feed and clothe everyone in this country (and outside of it too)?
Where in Scripture does the Lord call for government to do these things? Scripture calls for each individual to willingly help others, but only as he sees fit and to the extent he is able. Calling for government to forcibly take our money from us and give it to whomever the government feels deserves it—this is anti-Bible. It is the social gospel and it is socialism. Beware the antichrist lurking nearby!
Does the politician disguise himself in the garb of “women’s rights”, to justify the murder of innocent lives in the womb? The Bible condemns the practice of abortion as murder.
Does he favor unconditional divorce and want the government to pay for all the social injustices which derive from the destruction of the family? The Bible defines marriage as a lifetime contract, for better or for worse.
Does he espouse homosexuality under the smokescreen of alternate lifestyles and natural inclinations? The Bible denounces it as sin of the most debasing kind.
If we vote for proponents of anti-Bible morality and behaviors, we will continue to move ever deeper into the morass of antichrist living. We’ve already reached extreme social depths the way it is. This makes it excruciatingly difficult to reverse course. Only a Holy Spirit revival in the house of God will suffice. Nonetheless, with God all things are possible. So vote, but first listen carefully to what the candidates say…and don’t say.
And before we listen to politicians harangue us, let’s be sure we listen to the Lord in His Word so we know truth from error. See you at the polls in November.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
We ended our last study by noting how folks without a basis for absolute morality end up praising the wicked. Let’s continue at that point and ask, “Huh? Why would they do that?”
It’s like this. In the Bible the Lord defines who are “the wicked”. He doesn’t base wickedness on whether or not anyone drinks, smokes, or curses. Those are only a small sampling of the fruits of wickedness, not the source.
Determining who is wicked and who is not is a question of morality. If we have a relative understanding of morality, we believe it changes with the situation—which leaves us with no real morality at all. If we have an absolute understanding of morality, we need someone who is always absolute to legislate what true morality is.
Voilà! the Bible, God’s Word, fits the bill. God alone is always absolute. He alone can define absolute morality. This is where the Biblical distinction between the wicked and the righteous comes into play, dear friends.
God defines the “wicked person” as “those who forsake the law”, i.e., those who reject the Bible in order to live as they please. Suchlike folks are those who eat fruit from the kogae tree, rather than from the life tree. They determine right and wrong based upon how they feel about the matter, not upon any outside source.
Contrariwise, the Biblical definition of the righteous is “those who keep the law”, i.e., those who reject man’s dithery efforts to determine right and wrong in favor of the Lord’s express teachings in the Bible. Because the righteous reject man’s claims to determine morality, they clash with the wicked, who by definition insist on tossing out the Bible in favor of making their own decisions of what is moral and what is not.
So what has this to do with politicians and who to vote for come November? Well, if a candidate talks a good spiel, don’t be taken in! Listen for him to present his position vis-à-vis the Bible. Does he want to spend us into bankruptcy, under the guise that it is immoral not to feed and clothe everyone in this country (and outside of it too)?
Where in Scripture does the Lord call for government to do these things? Scripture calls for each individual to willingly help others, but only as he sees fit and to the extent he is able. Calling for government to forcibly take our money from us and give it to whomever the government feels deserves it—this is anti-Bible. It is the social gospel and it is socialism. Beware the antichrist lurking nearby!
Does the politician disguise himself in the garb of “women’s rights”, to justify the murder of innocent lives in the womb? The Bible condemns the practice of abortion as murder.
Does he favor unconditional divorce and want the government to pay for all the social injustices which derive from the destruction of the family? The Bible defines marriage as a lifetime contract, for better or for worse.
Does he espouse homosexuality under the smokescreen of alternate lifestyles and natural inclinations? The Bible denounces it as sin of the most debasing kind.
If we vote for proponents of anti-Bible morality and behaviors, we will continue to move ever deeper into the morass of antichrist living. We’ve already reached extreme social depths the way it is. This makes it excruciatingly difficult to reverse course. Only a Holy Spirit revival in the house of God will suffice. Nonetheless, with God all things are possible. So vote, but first listen carefully to what the candidates say…and don’t say.
And before we listen to politicians harangue us, let’s be sure we listen to the Lord in His Word so we know truth from error. See you at the polls in November.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
