Blog

“A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating” (Prov 18:6). 

“A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man quietly holds it back” (Prov 29:11).

Was it a publicity stunt?  Intended to rescue a Hollywood awards show from years of plummeting ratings and viewership?  Or was it a real, raw expression of insult, injury and angst?  

Either way, the debacle between Chris Rock and Will Smith at the Oscars a few days ago was foolish. It was an exchange between two fools. Both of them wicked. Broken in sin. Lost. Chris’ foolish mouth has been inviting a beating for many years. At some point in my lifetime, our culture decided unkind and crude personal jabs and insults were “comedy.”  Shame on us. Will’s venting of anger (pretended or not) was foolish. Will’s response was childish and girlish. (If you’re going to supposedly defend the honor of your wife against a personal “attack” then at least be man enough to punch the guy; none of this open-palm girlish slapping.) Will’s moral reasoning is foolish and faulty. So, I smile and laugh as my wife tells the world in front of me that she had sex with our son’s friend, but I publicly slap a man who tells a joke about my wife’s haircut? But many Christians and cultural icons rushed to initially defend Will. Shame on us. We are a nation of fools. We celebrate folly. And we’re horrified by folly. We can’t make up our minds. We’re confused. We’ve lost our way. Slipped from our moral moorings.  Should we defend Mr. Rock? Or Mr. Smith? 

How about we condemn the whole bloody mess as sinful foolishness, that left unchecked by God’s saving grace in Christ, will ruin the souls of men and women. And how about we stop looking to Hollywood for anything other than entertainment (and often shoddy, sinful entertainment at that). This industry celebrates violence, gratuitous sex of all kinds, abuse of women, objectification of women, feminization of men, and narcissism of the highest degree. Why would we expect anything other than profligate, pagan behavior from these actors, directors, and this industry?  

Even Disney now openly supports sexualization and objectification of 5-7 year old children. There is no “gray area” when it comes to this matter. Kindergarten students should not be taught anything about sex in any schools, other than, “God created man in His own image . . . male and female He created them.” Period. Hard stop. Even 5-year-olds can quite easily discern the difference in boys and girls. It’s a matter of nature. Of what our Christian forefathers called “natural law.” And biology done rightly is the pursuit of discovery of those creational designs and natural laws ordained by the God of life. No young child would even know to think about anything associated with the LGBTQIA+ agenda on his or her own. The only reason any 5-year-old child would have any reason to think about (as if they have the mental capacity to do so rightly) gender “transitions” is if evil, God-hating adults introduce such a sinful topic to them.  

And why would any adult want to do such a thing? Why would any adult want to sexualize children? To teach children that the sexual organs they were born with, given to them by God, are optional? Non-binding? Able to be exchanged? Or ignored? Or abused? Or mutilated? Or stimulated? Why? 

This is the classic definition and picture of “grooming.” This is exactly what child predators have done for decades. Sexualization of young children can only have one goal logically – the normalization and legalization of pedophilia.  And Disney supports it. And so do many Republicans and political conservatives. What are conservatives conserving anymore? We are out of our minds. Fools! 

Some of you think I (and other Christians sounding this alarm) are too extreme. Surely our culture would never accept pedophilia? Fifty years ago, people were saying the same thing about pornography. And no fault divorce. And cohabitation. And intentional fatherlessness. And homosexuality. And “gay marriage.” 

Where is the caboose on this woke, depraved train? Dare we think it will stop at simply acknowledging political “rights” of those who identify as LGBTQ? Those in that community are already demonstrating they have no intention of stopping it at the level of adult political rights. We’re being duped! We’re a nation of fools, and in some cases, churches and denominations of fools! 

Consider how many political conservatives and Christian evangelicals rushed to “congratulate” Dave Rubin on his announcement that he and his gay partner (I refuse to call him a husband, as only God has the right to define marriage) are “expecting” two babies. They thumbed through an online catalog of egg donors (objectifying women as no more than sexual products and parts), and selected an egg donor who had all the traits they desired. This is called eugenics. It’s given us Nazi Germany and Planned Parenthood and euthanasia. Then they hired out a womb (again abusing a woman, objectifying her, with no thought to how she might be manipulated or hurt by their selfish, toxic gay masculinity). They’re intentionally depriving this precious baby of a mother. They are using women for their various sexual parts and products. Much more could be said, but nothing about this is righteous. Nothing about this is natural. This is spitting in the Creator’s face. It is abuse of women and children. And if our culture and churches and politicians and citizens do not start rebuking and renouncing and standing against this at every turn, there will be hell to pay. In every way there can be hell to pay. We had better stop playing the fool. God is not mocked. We sow what we reap (Gal 6:7).           

Well-meaning evangelicals are caving to the “born this way” mantra. I realize Dr. Albert Mohler, a man whom I have the highest respect for, meant well when he began 20 years ago trying to prepare evangelicalism for the possibility of the scientific discovery of a “gay gene.” He insisted rightly that sin has affected every part of us, including our DNA. This is the Doctrine of Total Depravity. And he insisted rightly that the only remedy would still be the gospel of Jesus Christ. But I think where he, and others such as those in the Revoice movement, miscalculated, was just how such an idea would be hijacked by the LGBTQ movement. (I am very grateful, by the way, for the stand Dr. Mohler has taken against the Revoice movement within evangelicalism.) Despite the fact that science has not discovered a “gay gene” just as they have not discovered a “transgender gene,” the LGBTQ socio-political movement has convinced much of our society that these behaviors, are in fact, natural. In-born. Present at birth / conception. Can’t be helped. Thus, they must have a “right” to live out their truth and teach it to others, especially kids. Theology and biology be damned. Imagine how this plays itself out if our vaunted (and often corrupted) scientists ever claim to discover a “rapist gene” or a “pedophilia gene.”     

Jackie Hill-Perry, another Christian I respect and appreciate in many regards, convinced many evangelicals that we should not tell our gay and lesbian neighbors and friends that what they are doing is unnatural. She said when she was living as a lesbian, nothing felt more natural. But feelings and thoughts have nothing to do with what is actually natural or in line with God’s creational design and intent. Sinners can (and will) justify any wicked act. But the Word of God is our final and sufficient authority on these matters.  And God’s Word clearly views and treats sexual sins of every category as actions or behaviors flowing from a depraved heart that must necessarily bring both spiritual and physical consequences (and legal consequences under the Old Covenant). The Word of God condemns sins that distort God’s creational design for male and female with special reprobation.    

“For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and 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 . . . those who practice such things deserve to die, they that not only do them but given approval to those who do them” (Romans 1:26-27, 32).   

We evangelical Christians desperately need to recover God’s words, God’s language, when addressing any and every sin. First in our own lives. And in the lives of others as well. For only an accurate diagnosis leads to a right remedy. 

Sin has so corrupted our nature that we do unnatural things. Perverted acts. Shameless in the act. Twisting the very design and intent of our Holy Creator God. The thoughts and intents of our hearts are only evil continually (Gen 6:5). And we sometimes act on those base impulses and thoughts. Our inner lives, our wills, our thoughts, our hearts, are spiritually corrupt to the point of being dead (Eph 2:1).  The vicious cycle of sin and God giving sinners up even further to it, as described in Romans 1, all starts like this: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (v. 18). This truth suppression leads to idolatry, a rejection of our Creator and His good designs. And it all ends in a death sentence.

But good news! God sent His Son to live a perfect, holy life of righteousness. Jesus is the truth. And Jesus willingly sacrificed His sinless life on the cross, bearing God’s wrath against all the unrighteousness of those He redeems. Jesus paid the sin debt of God’s people in full, crying from the cross, “It is finished!” And God gave proof to everyone that He is completely satisfied with Jesus as both Savior and Judge by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:30-31). By grace through faith in Christ, sinners are raised from spiritual death to life (Eph 2:4-9).  God’s Spirit is able to birth sinners anew as they repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15; John 3:1-17; 2 Cor 5:17). We are under a righteous death sentence from God as sinners. But hallelujah! Christ Jesus, the righteous One, exchanged Himself for me and died in my place (2 Cor 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24).  Only Jesus can give us a new nature! A nature that abhors all sin, and loves the Savior. A nature that no longer suppresses the truth, but joyfully submits to it. A nature that “speaks the truth in love” no matter how politically incorrect or culturally offensive. A nature that loves wisdom found in Christ alone, and a nature that rebukes folly. 

America – the truth of Christ the Lord, and only His truth, can still set you free (John 8:31-34). Would you be free from your enslavement to sin? From your infatuation with sin? From your celebration of sin? Then you must come to the Light of Christ and confess Jesus is Lord (1 John 1:5-10). This has been the message of the Church to sinners, all sinners, every kind of sinner, for thousands of years. It’s sufficient. Let’s not tamper with it. Although sin is “natural” to humanity, in one sense; in another sense, sin is always a distortion of God’s good creational design and intent. And only God can make straight what is crooked (Prov 3:5-7; Luke 3:5-6). Fear God. Shun evil. Come to Christ. And then, and only then, all your perversions will suddenly appear exactly as they are – unnatural. Sick. Suicidal. Hellish. God-hating. And then and only then will you come to relish the old hymn’s question and answer: Would you be free from the burden of sin? There’s power in the blood! Power in the blood! 

For further contemplation, I commend this short video:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoHUlxI-H7k

by Keith McWhorter