JUDEO-CHRISTIAN VALUES
Reading: Isaiah 5:20-25
Text: Isa. 5:20, Isa. 5:24
Introduction:
1. God is a God of order, not chaos. (1 Corinthians 14:33). There is a harmony in nature that speaks of a Creator. At creation, God brought order into existence out of chaos.
· Separated light from darkness—night and day.
· Separated land from the sea.
2. A world of differences—respected, or chaos results.
3. How you view the world (world-view) and man’s relationships in the world, greatly affect the well-being of all.
I. THERE IS A BIBLICAL JUDEO-CHRISTIAN WORLD- VIEW
1. Not a mere animal. Uniquely created in God’s image (Gen. 1:27). Though we have some physical traits in common with animals (“outer man”), we possess unique spiritual traits.
2. As God’s creatures, subject to God’s laws.
· There is God-given order in the universe (laws of nature).
· Animals operate under God-given instinct.
· Man is capable of choosing to obey God’s laws, or to disobey.
· Choices have consequences in both time and eternity.
· Deuteronomy 30:19—“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” --Life—not only of the soul, but, in context, life as a nation in Canaan.
II. THERE IS A NON-BIBLICAL WORLD-VIEW
1. No creator. All by chance, evolution.
2. Man is a highly developed “animal.”
3. Free to define good and evil.
· Text: defines evil as good, and good as evil; light as darkness, darkness as light.
· No reason for guilt; ignore conscience (2 Cor. 4:1-2).
4. The basis of Marxism, Communism
· --Marx and Engels: “Man is God, and God is man.”
5. Therefore, unaccountable to God.
6. Moral relativism: “My ‘good’ is determined by me; you determine what is your ‘good.’”
· --“No right to call another culture (Soviet Union, Islamic terrorist nations, etc.) evil;” or “No culture is better than any other culture.”
7. Psychological categories displace moral categories.
· --“Sin” seldom mentioned; rather—murderers are “sick,” not “evil.”
8. Sin excused: “Poverty causes crime;” “Poverty breeds terrorists.”
· (Though the 9/11 terrorists were not in poverty); “We are born that way.”
9. Ignores distinction between male and female.
· Under the law, “A woman shall not wear anything that pertaineth to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord our God” (Deuteronomy 22:5).
· “Gender” replaces “sex”—Sex is fixed; gender is subjective and changeable.
· c. University campuses (active in attacking Christian values) eliminating separate men’s and women’s bathrooms or men’s or women’s dorms.. (One state recently enacted a law forbidding bathrooms being designated for men or women.)
10. Ignores sexual restrictions.
· Sexual activity expected of teens. Abstinence considered outdated and unreasonable.
· Marriage defined: 2 people, not necessarily of man and woman, as defined in Scripture (Gen. 2:24).
· --Photographer sued for not doing wedding pictures for a same-sex couple. Discrimination.
· c. Chaos: 2 lesbians adopted a girl, but later separated. The mother converted, but court would not deny unrestricted visitation rights to the former partner though the partner insisted they bathe together, causing the 4-year-old mental distress. Noncompliance: girl would be given to the partner.
1) Insist on “gay” adoption rights.
2) Romans 1:26-27
11. Will not recognize personhood of the unborn, a “blob of flesh.”
· Bible: Personhood, human at conception. (Psa. 139:13-16—God “knit” his body “in the secret place.”).
· Surviving babies allowed to die.
· Pharmacist lost license for refusing to fill an abortion-pill prescription. Doctors next?
12. Denigrates human life. Joseph Fletcher (Genetic Control, p. 139):
· Not a person if IQ below 40. If ape had intelligence of a human, and a child the capabilities of an ape, which would be human? –The ape.
13. Humanism’s fruit: chaos of moral and physical worlds; death.
14. God’s pronouncement of those who reject the values He has revealed:
· “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord”—Prov. 17:15.
CONCLUSION: What is “good” will always be good, and what is “evil” will always be evil, regardless of those who would change the definitions. Psa. 119:89—“Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven.”