WHY THE INSANITY? PART 2

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

Last week, we examined the idea that in 1963, America began to lose its sanity as evidenced by what we see today and what has happened since that time. We continue in that theme:

1. In the last several months, 45 teachers have resigned from the Harrisburg, PA, school system because of violence. (One of the resignations came from a first grade teacher after being attacked by her students.)

2. A proposed Delaware education regulation will allow children to self-identify gender and race--without parental consent.

3. Santa Clara University’s student government recently voted to deny a pro-capitalism campus club official recognition, citing the possibility that the group may invite conservative speakers, and that allowing it would be a stand against “humanity.”

4. At the University of Florida, a student was penalized for writing “man” instead of “humankind” in a class paper.

5. Oberlin College offers a for-credit course on "How to Win a Beauty Contest." Cornell University offers a course called "Tree Climbing" "which "will teach you how to get up into the canopy of any tree, to move around, even to climb from one tree to another without touching the ground. This course will teach you how to use ropes and technical climbing gear to reach the top of any tree, to move around, and even to climb from tree to tree without returning to the ground. All equipment is included in the course fee."

7. At the University of Texas there is a course called: "Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond"

8. The high water mark for SAT scores was 1963. They have declined every year since.

7, The birth rates for unwed girls 15-19 years of age started a steep increase in 1963 from 15 per thousand to 35 per thousand in 1987, nearly doubling over that period of time.

8. The combined live birth-plus-abortion rate for unwed girls under 15 years of age soared after 1963 from 5 per thousand to 25 per thousand despite a declining population growth.

9. Sexually transmitted diseases for ages 10–19 began to soar in an incredible increase starting in 1963.

10. Premarital sexual activity among U. S. teenage girls age 18 moved upward from 22% of the population in 1963 to 54% of the population in 1982.

11. Divorce rates began an immediate rise in 1963 from 2.2 per thousand to 14.2 per thousand in 2017  among women who were college graduates. (The longer a person stays in our educational system, the more likely their marriage is to fail.)

12. In the academic world, it is now unquestioned orthodoxy that all cultures are of equal value. The unintelligible grunts and howls of a wild dervish screaming out his incantations are to be taken with the same seriousness as Shakespeare. The incomprehensible chicken scratchings of abstract artists are to be accorded the same reverence as the paintings of Michelangelo. When respected scholars such as Harold Bloom of Yale point out the lunacy of this, they are shouted down by their colleagues. (J. Draper)

13. Before 1963, the top seven problems in public schools were: (1) talking, (2) chewing gum, (3) making noise, (4) running in the halls, (5) getting out of turn in line, (6) wearing improper clothing, and (7) not putting paper in waste baskets. Today, the top seven problems in public schools are: (1) rape, (2) robbery, (3) assault, (4) burglary, (5) arson, (6) bombings, and (7) murder.

14. In the Christmas card section of the greeting card aisle, there are cards which read: "For my dad and his man" and the other says, "For my mother and her woman." Inside the cards are the words, "I am so glad you have found your  special someone to love." (Paraphrased)

15. JK Rowling, speaking to a packed house of 1,600 students in NYC who have read every book of her Harry Potter series, announces that one of the important characters in the books, Dumbledore, is a homosexual. The students sit in stunned silence for a moment and then erupt into prolonged applause. (Look at Romans 1:32)

16. The insanity isn't limited to America. In England, Paul Weston, a candidate for the European Parliament was arrested for quoting a passage critical of Islam from Winston Churchill’s 1899 book “The River War.” This is doubly odd because in November 2002, Churchill was voted the greatest Briton who ever lived, garnering over 1,000,000 votes. What a difference 15 years makes!

17. A company is selling bulletproof infant carriers and backpacks. 

 Dr. James T. Draper Jr. writes, "I know that only the most simplistic would suggest that the removal of a twenty-two-word prayer from the public schools caused such a radical change. It cannot be denied, however, that the national separation of education and religious faith is directly related to the radical changes that started in the 1960s."

The 1963 decision of the Supreme Court put an official stamp on rejection and rebellion against the Word of God, thus officially starting the insanity as stated in Prov. 1:7, 24-29, and 2:1-7.

To quote the Bible, "and they loved to have it so." Dr. Allen Ross, professor at Dallas Seminary notes that David comes to an important conclusion in Ps. 144:15 when he writes "that any people whose God is the Lord will be blessed." ("The Bible Knowledge Commentary")

BUT BE OF GOOD CHEER

It has often been observed that the darker it is, the brighter is the light that shines. In Philippians 2:14-15, Paul writes to the believer, "Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world," It's a phenomenon of the world that it pitch black darkness, if there is a pinpoint of light, all eyes turn to the light. 

Today, if you have a Christian marriage of 25 years or more, you are shining as a light in a dark world. If your life is exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5), you are shining as a light in a dark world.  As you verbally witness to the gospel, you are a light in a dark world.

We're not going to tun back the clock, but we can have an impact. 

Let's think about it.

 

WHY THE INSANITY?

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

Those 19 words explain the American mental landscape in 2017. As one author has said, "We're not on a slippery slope; we're at the bottom. There seems to be a national insanity, the loss of the ability to think, to analyze, to understand. I would present the following Exhibits A-O to prove my case:

EXHIBIT A: "Who's Britannica to tell me that the Panama Canal was built in 1914? If I want to say that it was built in 1941, that's my right as an American. Truth comes from your gut." Stephen Colbert

EXHIBIT B:
Our language has been corrupted: “Safe spaces” mean segregation. “Affirmative action” is synonymous with implicit racial quotas. “Theme houses” are race-based apartheid living quarters. “Trigger warnings” are censorship. “Student loans” are paramount to indentured servitude for over a decade. And “diversity” ensures monotony and orthodoxy in thought and expression. (Victor Davis Hanson)

EXHIBIT C: "It was a small sentence—”I will pray for you”— but it meant big trouble for Cony High School technician Toni Richardson. When Richardson offered that comfort to another Christian on staff in private, she was hauled before school officials and warned not to utter a word about her faith again. District officials kicked off the controversy last year by telling Richardson that she could “face discipline or dismissal in the future if she expressed her faith so openly again."(Tony Perkins)

EXHIBIT D: There is now something called"gender fluid." This is referring to a person who does not identify with a single fixed gender, and expresses a fluid or unfixed gender identity. One’s expression of identity is likely to shift and change depending on context.

EXHIBIT E: There is now such a thing as PGP, preferred gender pronoun, which is simply the pronoun or set of pronouns that an individual would like others to use when talking to or about that individual. Under a new California law, those who work in health care who use the wrong gender pronoun when referring to a transgender patient could face prison time. (In June 2017, Canada passed a new law that opens Canadians up to fines and even jail time if they use gender pronouns that do not correspond to a person's subjectively determined "gender identity.")

EXHIBIT F: Graphic “sex education” is forced on kindergarteners. "The Chicago Public Schools this year are mandating that the district’s kindergarten classes include sex education, fulfilling a proposal President Barack Obama supported in 2003 when he served in the Illinois state senate and later defended when he ran for president in the 2008 election cycle" (8-30-2013)

EXHIBIT H: Homosexuality and transgender ideology are so pervasive and “acceptable” that such individuals touting their sexual preferences and perversions are given awards, accolades, and their own TV shows.

EXHIBIT I: Devin Kelley walked into the First Baptist Church with an assault rifle, authorities say he took 25 lives and that of an unborn child. Reports indicate that a large percentage of the total included babies and children.

EXHIBIT J: Heated debates arise over questions such as, "Should little girls avoid dressing up as Moana for Halloween if they aren't of Polynesian descent?"

EXHIBIT K: The acceptance of  Nietzsche's philosophy, "There are no facts, only interpretations."

EXHIBIT L: "A majority of Americans, including three-quarters of Millennials and nearly a third of practicing Christians, say that morality is based solely on their personal feelings, according to a new Barna survey that shows moral relativism has a firm grasp on many adults. In the poll of 1,237 people, 57 percent agreed that "whatever is right for your life or works best for you is the only truth you can know," while 74 percent of Millennials affirmed the statement and 31 percent of practicing Christians did so. (The Christian Examiner, quoting Barna)

EXHIBIT M: Our schools have come to resemble prisons--there's a law officer in the school to maintain order; students and their belongings pass through metal detectors before entry; students must secure permission to speak or to go to the restroom; they eat at prescribed times and only the  foods offered; they are under electronic surveillance, they are locked in the building. Any one wishing to enter must go through the secured doors and stand in front of an all-seeing camera for validation.

EXHIBIT N: At the University of New Hampshire, the word “American” is deemed offensive and should not be used. (Reason: There's another "America." South America, and they might be offended.

EXHIBIT N: An Idaho State University and College of the Canyons study declared that we must accept people who identify themselves as vampires.

EXHIBIT O: At Quinnipiac University, a sorority had to cancel a fundraiser for foster children because one student complained that having maracas on the promotional posters was racist.

WHY?

Why this insanity? The above reference to Proverbs 9:10 gives the reason. "The fear of the Lord" is a positive response to God and His Word. Without that response, there is no wisdom in the society.

On June 25, 1963, in a decision by the U. S. Supreme Court, the Bible became a banned book in all public schools. As Dr. Richard Grubbs has pointed out, "No God means no rules." The Book has been banned for over 50 years now, and we're living with the poison fruit of the decision. The problem is further compounded by what Romans 1 declares: God has turned us over to desires of our heart; that's what we want and that's what we've got.

As Dr. Grubbs points out, only a revival can stem the tide.


 

THE MASK IS COMING OFF

"The amount of anti-Christian hate on Twitter the same day Christians were massacred [at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX] is stunning and chilling." David French

The killing of 27 people, half of them children and babies, in a Baptist church demonstrates that the mask is coming off: there is a rising tide of hatred against Christians and Christianity in America. No longer hidden, it's open, bold, militant, strident, loud, emboldened, and confident.

The rising tide of atheism, paganism, and secularism have brought death threats to Christians as well as sentiments wishing for their deaths.The reasons for this hatred are illogical and need to be examined.

Michael L. Brown has categorized the reasons for the hatred:

1. Since evangelical Christians voted in a large percentage for candidate Trump, whatever he does, whatever he says, IS Christianity in the minds of millions. (This is the danger of prominent Christians allying themselves with candidates and political causes.) But, it could be argued that when millions of Christians voted in 2016, their votes were more against the other candidate than for Trump. The thinking of such voters was ABC reasoning, "Anybody But Clinton."

AN EXAMPLE

When asked by "Christianity Today" in 2011 if he would go back and do anything differently, Billy Graham, whose relationship with President Richard Nixon drew considerable controversy replied:

I also would have steered clear of politics. I'm grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to. But looking back, I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn't do that now.

In 2012, Michael S. Hamilton, chair of the history department at Seattle Pacific University wrote:

"Billy Graham has long been a registered Democrat and has supported politicians on both sides of the aisle. In the 1980s and 1990s, he declined to embrace the Religious Right. The exposure of Richard Nixon's corruption made Graham wary of future involvement in political partisanship, and he privately warned leaders of the Religious Right to stay away from politics."

We need to be constantly reminded that the church's purpose is not to clean up the world; the world system is doomed. No matter who your candidate is, you need to heed Psalm 146:3.

BACK TO BROWN

2. Christians, Christian opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion draws the fury of the atheistic tide. They brand Christians as Nazis, fascists (without knowing the meaning of the word) and haters, They compare Christianity to ISIS, and charge Christians with wanting to impose a Mosaic Law theocracy on America. Irrational? Yes.

3. The hostility is the natural result of the poison of atheism. Rabbi David Wolpe posted a  suggestion in "The Huffington Post." Here's what he said about what he wrote and the reaction to it:

"How harmless is it to post an article about why people should read the bible (sic) on a site devoted to religion? I did on this very page, and it evoked more than 2,000 responses, most of them angry. I had previously written a similarly gentle article about how God should be taught to children that evoked more than 1,000 responses, almost all negative and many downright nasty.

"It is curious that a religion site draws responses mostly from atheists, and that the atheists are very unhappy. They are unhappy with the bible (sic) . . .  unhappy with the idea of God (the “imaginary dictator” whose task in human history, apparently, is to ensure that oppression and evil triumph) and very unhappy with anyone (read: me) who presumes to offer religious advice to the religious. Only the untutored assume that religious people predominate on websites."

4. There is a supernatural component to the hostility, all from the dark side of the universe. John summarizes this reason in John 1:5-11: the darkness hates the Light which has come into the world in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus' earthly life clashed head-on with the forces of darkness. As the psalmist predicted, "They hated ]Him] without a cause." Irrational. And as Jesus warned His followers, "If they have hated Me, they will hate you." The reaction of the rising tide evidenced a hatred, a deep down, ingrained, bitter hatred of Christians and Christianity.

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Two thousand years ago, a somewhat parallel incident occurred when Herod took off his mask and slaughtered children and babies, as he unknowingly cooperated with the satanic side of the universe to prevent the cross.

NOW FOR THE POSITIVE

Michael Brown points out the positive biblical stance for the believer by citing II Peter 4:12-16; Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:21. A summary of those texts: 1) Don't be surprised by the hostility 2) rejoice 3) love your enemies 4) pray for your enemies 5) take the offensive, that is, overcome evil with good.

We might add another text to the list: II Timothy 2:24: "The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,"

I SAW THE CHAPTER AND VERSE

I was privileged to be in the audience when a grace-oriented Dallas Seminary professor was speaking to a group of pastors (and a reporter from the city's local newspaper) about the new book he had written to refute lordship salvation. The event was hosted by a local Christian bookstore which had invited the pastors.

After his presentation, the question and answer period began and, lo and behold, most in the room were hostile. The tone of their voices, their sarcasm, and their condescending attitude, in a addition to the questions themselves, showed their anger. Some were downright rude.

What's interesting is that I don't remember a single question or comment the pastors made. I don't remember a single answer the author gave to their questions. What I do remember is that the professor was the epitome of II Timothy 2:24.

Although under attack, every syllable in his response was kind and patient. He was gracious to everyone in the room. It was as if he was enjoying the entire session. He was.

Funny what we remember, isn't it? I went away from that meeting, having learned one of life's important lessons because I saw II Timothy 2:24.

The mask is coming off. 

DAN RATHER REPORTING

It's 1 PM CST in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. President John F. Kennedy has just been pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital after being assassinated by communist Lee Harvey Oswald.

The world is about to reel in shock when TV and radio stations make the news public. People in the streets will cry, Wall Street will shut down the New York Stock Exchange at 2:07 PM EST. For the next three days, and CBS, ABC, and NBC will cancel all commercials until Tuesday of the next week.

One more thing-- some schools dismissed the students for the day. And for those teachers, students, and parents in one particular school, in addition to the assassination, it would be a day they would never forget, all because of Dan Rather.

In Dallas, thirty-two year-old CBS news correspondent Dan Rather is reporting the events that are unfolding. One of the stories Rather is reporting to the nation is that when the principal of the University Park Elementary School in Dallas made the announcement over the loudspeaker that the President was dead, the children cheered.

Cheered? What kind of a city was Dallas where kids cheerrd the murder of a President? What was wrong with those people?

There was nothing wrong with those people, but there was something wrong with Dan Rather: the story wasn't true and he knew it. Eddie Barker, the news director of radio and TV CBS affiliates in Dallas had been approached by a liberal Methodist minister with the same story earlier in the day. Barker had three children in the school and contacted the principal and some of the teachers for verification.Each one adamantly denied it.

What had actually happened was that the principal, upon hearing the news of the shooting, dismissed the students at 12:30 without telling them why. (At 12:30, no one knew that the President was dead. The announcement of the President's death wasn't made to the nation until after 1 PM.) What the children were cheering was an announcement that school was being dismissed for the day. They had no idea why; their parents could tell them.

When Barker refused to report the minister's second-hand information, the pastor had gone to Rather with the story and Mr. Rather went to Eddie Barker who told him, "My kids are in school there, and I checked it out, and there's nothing to it,'" 

"Well, great--I'll just forget it,' Rather said. Later Barker said, "But instead of forgetting it, he went out and did a number on Dallas and its conservatism, with the preacher's story at the center of his report." 

The way Rather did it was to sidestep the customary process of filming such a report and having the news director look at it, evaluate it, and he would decide whether or not to air it. Instead, Rather made the announcement live on the air.

Did the story of the monstrous, cheering school children take hold? Yes, the story is still in the public consciousness more than 50 years later and is included in the book, "Dallas 1963" as something that was "rumored," but the authors didn't go on to say that the story was false. Either they didn't check it out, as reputable authors would do, or they did, knew it was false, yet left it hanging.

"Barker's local TV and radio crews scrambled to arrange on-air interviews with teachers to rebut the story, but the lie had already traveled halfway around the world and would become an enduring part of JFK assassination lore." (Philip Chalk, member of the University Park Elementary class of 1974)

Livid at being lied to, Barker laid into Rather as soon as he returned to the newsroom, expelling the reporter and all his national-news colleagues from the building, yelling, "Get out of here--you and this whole bunch!" 

This shows us something about the human race: we can know that something is a lie, yet repeat it and even broadcast it to the world if it advances our agenda. Satan was the first to do this--he knew that Adam and Eve wouldn't become gods if they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but he told them they would. He told the lie because it fit his purposes and so the Bible says of this "angel of light" that he was a liar from the beginning. 

If that weren't serious enough, another of his lies is that all religions lead to God. He knows that's not true, but millions and millions of people believe it. Why? Because they want to. That's another thing about homo sapiens: if we like a story, we'll believe it without giving it a fact check. 

 Satan knows that faith alone in Christ alone is what saves a person (Luke 8:12), but he promotes the lie that works do. Millions of people believe that lie. Why? Because they want to.

In order to make conservative Dallas look evil, Rather used a lie about elementary school children to do so because the lie fit the narrative he wanted to present. 

How about us? Do we stick with the truth about those with whom we disagree or do we exaggerate their faults, shade the stories we tell about them to make them appear worse, or, heaven forbid, do we propagate rumors about them? 

The New Testament says, "Speak the truth and speak it in love."