The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Submitted by Pastor Doug Smith, Flin Flon Alliance Church The last fifty years have seen a huge shift in morality. This has been directly parallelled by the undermining of the authority of the Bible. Although recent polls tell us that the majority of Canadians still believe in the Bible, it's just that for practical purposes what the Bible says and teaches just doesn't matter anymore. When the Bible as a moral standard is ignored everything becomes relative. And when everything is relative, experience is teaching us, things go downhill. It's like Bruce Cockburn says, "The trouble with normal is it always gets worse." This is true in all areas of morality whether it be attitudes towards lying, adultery, homosexuality, or just plain manners and decency. To show just how far we are removed from the historical standard, let's take just one example. Jesus said, "You have heard it said, 'Do not commit adultery'. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." For centuries this teaching affected the way the sexes treated each other, and although the standard of Christ's words were never lived up to they were seen as the standard. Since the time the Bible ceased to be our moral compass, this statement of Jesus has gone from the ideal to an absurdity. Not only is lust not bad it is used to sell everything from candies to cars. Movies focus on sex, as do magazines, talk shows and reality programs. But the most obvious area of lust as an item for sale is the pornography industry. As long as Jesus' words were listened to pornography was seen as dirty, unhealthy, and immoral. Now it is a multi billion dollar industry that clogs our newsstands, video stores, and computers via the internet. With no standard of morality it is said that this is just "normal". You can say a person can look at whatever he or she wants, it won't hurt anyone. The reality is it does. There are thousands perhaps even millions of men in bondage to pornography. It can be as damaging to lives and relationships as drugs or alcohol, and it became acceptable all because we ignored the words of Jesus. You see, when we lose our moral compass the trouble with normal is it always gets worse.10/24/2003
