A Culture of Darkness

Romans 1:24-32

 I was born in 1942 and the culture back then was based on, or build around personal responsibility, unlike the culture of today that is built on “it is not my fault,” I was deprived of wearing Nike’s and that is why I’m like this.  It’s a culture of ignorant educated and uneducated people who have no understanding of anything but the pop culture.  Did I say it was a godless culture, a culture of little understanding of history, a culture where hearts are darkened, a culture that claims to be wise, but have become fools.

And this culture has exchanged the glory of the immortal God and turned themselves into images looking more like animals or reptiles, and often it requires a second look to see if that was a lizard that just walked by you or a person.  It is also a culture that is not ashamed of killing the unborn to make a profit, a culture where its leaders want division and foster a rebellious attitude against all authority, especially God. 

I heard a man say in an adult class, now he is a mere man, but he is foolishly mad at a holy God for letting bad things happen to good and innocent people.  The poor man must have never read these words of Jesus; “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)  I’m fearful that many in the Church are like this man, blaming God, not evil.  And that brings us to what has happened in our culture, it has filled the empty minds of church people who are not filling their minds with Scripture so that they know good from evil.

The apostle Paul I believe is describing our culture in Romans 1:24-32; “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice