Moral Failure – Mirrored and Multiplied
OFFENDER’S Name: Homo sapiens sapiens (Latin for wise, astute or clever humans)
Notwithstanding our honour as the final and greatest of God’s creations, as explicated in the book of Genesis, humanity cannot improve or advance any step in any direction by its own volition.
23 Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own;
Jeremiah 10:23
it is not for them to direct their steps.
When Jeremiah says that humanity cannot “improve or advance“, he’s not talking about the intricate evolution of medical technologies or our efficient, unnerving and catastrophic ways of killing one another (see, for example, North Korea’s Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile).
Instead, any improvement or advance in human progress is irrevocably conjoined to our breadth of wisdom, and wisdom, of course, is not just knowing lots of stuff. It is in the knowledge of God.
Recognize that wisdom is a spiritual act. It has very little to do with cognitive development or education. It has everything to do with the anointing of God to see what is right and what is wrong, to know what to do and when to do it.
What is Wisdom? (and how to get it), Dr. Michael A. Milton, 2 May, 2019
Have a quick or long read through the Wisdom books found in the Ketuvim of the Tanakh: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Solomon (or Song of Songs).
10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Proverbs 9:10
Alrighty, before we continue, what is the “fear of the Lord“? We’re not talking about the kind of fear we associate with demons (evil spirits, not the song by Imagine Dragons or the infamous bogeyman). Instead, it’s our honour towards, faith in, knowledge of, loving obedience, sanctification, stoic worship and surrender to the Trinitarian God.
As with all things, without genuine knowledge of God, humankind is left with only dread and unease, endless doubt and misunderstandings, infected with the motives to hide, evade, and avoid the One Truth.
At the end of all things, without an exacting and appropriate knowledge of God, we’re left with blind and paralyzing idolatry and superstitions. And worst, without a genuine understanding of God, humanity cannot follow in His footprints, be welcomed into His Kingdom, we’re unable to slam the door in the face of evil, and we’re ill-equipped to live in eternal joy and righteousness.
…in the last century, much literature has cent[er]ed on the personalities and adventures of subnormal and abnormal people: prostitutes and mistresses, street urchins and criminals, the mentally and emotionally deranged, and other social derelicts.
There has been a parallel transmutation of the experience of love. From pure and noble or the tragic, it has progressively devolved. The familiar and prosaic, but usually illicit sexual love that is portrayed in the literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has in the last fifty years been increasingly displaced by various forms of abnormal, perverse, vulgar, picaresque, exotic, and even monstrous conditions, the adventures of urbanised cavemen and rapists, the loves of adulterers and fornicators, of masochists and sadists, of prostitutes, mistresses, playboys, and entertainment personalities. Juicy “loves,” “its,” “ids,” “orgasms,” and “libidos” are seductively prepared and skillfully served with all the trimmings.
Dr Pitirim Sorokin, The American Sex Revolution (Boston: Porter Sargent Publisher, 1956), p. 19.
The Continued Deprecation of Social Conscious
The American Sex revolution was published back in 1956 by Dr Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin. In this book, Dr Sorokin, the first chairman of the Sociology Department at Harvard, discusses the pathological obsession of immorality in American literature (textbooks, novels, magazines, and newspapers).
In the proud and independent modernity of 2021, all the abhorrers, social deprecation and decapitation of love detailed here by Sorokin are markedly worse. *Sigh*, the valuelessness of popular culture!
Yes, to be fair, the purity of humanity has been on a steady decline since our eviction from God’s warm presence in Eden, as well as the carnality and barbarity of the prehistoric, classical, medieval, and premodern periods. However, the collective spiritual and ethical decline over the last ~ seventy years is unparalleled in human history.
The most alarming thing about such deterioration is that we are so very proud of ourselves. Such pride and ignorance are, of course, direct results of humanities fierce craving for independence from both God and from each other.
Yes, indeed, how many movies, songs, television shows, theatre performances, and books have you seen, read, or listened to that are bereft of sex, violence, or criminal activities? I hazard to guess that the number is small.
Let’s stop for a second and consider the true and original nature of “love”
In English and many other languages, the word “love” has been overused, misused and undervalued for many a generation. There are four types of love found in the Bible: Affection (storge), Friendship (philia), Romantic (eros), and Charity (agape). Please read about these >here<.
The first articulation and illustration of romantic or eros love are found very early in Genesis.
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Genesis 2:23-24
Notice a few things:
Romantic love is designed to be exclusively between a man and a woman
When a man and a woman get united together in marriage, God intends that they leave their parents (whose primary purpose is now complete).
Marriage between men and women unites them under God as one flesh; thus, a married couple should not be separated.
The importance of love is explained by the apostle Paul to the believers of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 13,
13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:1-8
Can we come to any conclusions about the true nature of “love”?
The reality is when the original purpose and essence of love is forgotten, edited or substituted, you end up with groups of people and societies unable to love the way they’re intended to. According to the Family Law Attorneys from Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, in America, for example, there is a divorce being filed in the USA every 13 seconds, and “[a]lmost 50 per cent of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce or separation.”
The divorce rate in America provides a snapshot of the changing institute of marriage and the views of average Americans.
Divorce Rate in America [35 Stunning Stats for 2021], Branka Vuleta, January 28, 2021
Another indicator of the decline of Christian marital values can be seen in my home nation of Australia where,
In 1902, only 3.5% of all marriages were performed by civil celebrants, while the other 96.5% were performed by a minister of religion. Now, the picture is completely different, and 78.0% are performed by civil celebrants, with only 22.0% performed by a minister of religion.
Damien Greer Lawyers, Marriage and Divorce Statistics Australia (All statistics correct as of 15/05/2020).
Only by obedience and reinstitution of God’s design for love can any human society hope to rectify the contamination and rot that’s been allowed or even administered into the most precious of the Fruits of the Spirit.
6 Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of one’s house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.
Song of Songs 8:6-7
A Maze of Miracles & Madness 