Preface: The Babylon effect that television and film and sports and Wall Street and Madison Avenue has had on our culture leads back also to our doorstep. It could not exist without us. How does the famous rock song go...."We Built This City!" We all constructed this tower of Babel.
We in evangelicalism....just about the entirety of us....live in the belief that God is pleased with us. I have heard sermons recently....(I listen to a lot of sermons folks....some just in research)....I have heard too many sermons recently where the title of the sermon might as well be...."God loves you." It is so bad that at times it can be nauseating. God's love for us is in that He redeemed us out of the world....at the cost of Calvary. He also shows His love for us in that He does not permit us to drift off as we have been doing....forever it seems....without sternly and continually warning us. That is love folks!
We look at society....and the culture....and we blame that on others! That's why God is pleased with us. We vote R....and say a blessing before the big family meal on the Lord's Day....preceding the big game or picnic. You would think that we are just innocent bystanders in this collapse of America. Let me give you some examples of why we have culpability in what America has become.
We are a violent nation. Our entertainment is violence. We have to have our weakly fill of rape and murder true-crime investigative television shows. We have for seven decades now.....increasingly as the decades progressed....sat and watched....therefore supported and encouraged....violence as a steady diet on our television.....and more so in our movies. Television and film characters having been getting....'blown away'....for decades now.....mostly the bad characters of course....and that has been our....entertainment.....and we let it become our children's entertainment....and now we wonder why so many of the younger generations do not respect life!
We started with- PacMan....then that obviously spread out into computer games of all kinds. Maybe ours were little stick figures just getting x'd out as we guided the cursor....but other games became graphic....with human characters getting blown away quicker than we can eat pieces of popcorn....and of course we bought our children these games....because....."gee Dad....all the other kids play the game."
We are literally outraged over all the drag queens....and the gay lifestyle as normal....but the TV show Modern Family didn't get it's huge success without us watching it....and simply giving a....'tsk tsk'....whenever the controversial parts game on. We are up in arms over Disney....but there is hardly a one of us who didn't take our kids there at one time or another if we had the financial means to do so. We demand that libraries do not carry this book or that book....but have no problem with a television in the house.
We look for a church that has a 'great youth group' so that we don't have to teach our own children. We give more time to pickle ball than reading the Bible. As for the sermon....just keep it nice and encouraging....God Loves You....and we will stick around....maybe....unless the new church down the street has better music....mention hell or judgment....and we're outta here. God says in His Word that He is tired of this pretentious worship only. We never separated from the world....and thus we settled nicely in Vanity Fair....with a God Loves You welcome mat at our door.
And now for the coup de grace in this whole mess....in June of 2015....possibly the greatest con man of all time came down that escalator at the Trump Tower. He had to pay people to stay there and cheer....but even that was not enough for us to ignore this nonsense. He came in and fulfilled about every single verse in God's Word about who we are to have nothing to do with....and he prophesied to us on a daily basis....over years....how the good times were going to roll. God's Word tells us the exact opposite....but we want absolutely nothing to do with any warnings of the last days.
Trump changed our countenance....where we are actually closet racists in many cases....with no compassion for the plight of the immigrant and the alien. We willy-nilly destroy reputations. We are fed throughout the day on radio and TV and in podcasts a diet of hate and rage....at times becoming nothing but an irrational mob....and we think we are doing it for God and country.
Here is the tricky part in all of this. The other side is essentially Sodom and Gomorrah. Paganism is rampant. They openly oppose not only God's law but really any law other than what they themselves put into effect last week....but this country came to be what it is today because of malevolent contributions from all of us. Our rebellion might not be as in-your-face to God....but it has been rebellion nonetheless....and until we see this.....and until we admit this....until our pulpits tell us this....and until we prostrate ourselves before God and seek His mercy because of this our own culpability in our coming judgment....then we will continue to be a Laodicean church....but here again is how God truly loves us....as he even offers that Laodicean church mercy.
"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent." Rev. 3:19
Addendum: The Rock & Roll song that I mentioned above....by Starship....was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100....this is 1985. Over time it has become the hands-down winner in a few polls for the....'worst song of the 80s'....and even of all-time! It was given this dubious honor because the lyrics criticized the cold greed of corporate life....but it's very production was....as one poll described it...."Corporate-rock commercialism." In a way that is what this post is all about.....we criticize the society....that we ourselves have built.
