“If it’s your brother or sister it’s super-weird, but if you look at it, you’re not hurting anybody….I make movies, man. I’m not a politician. If people want to listen to me for theology, that’s their problem. I’m about tolerance.” –Nick Cassavetes, Hollywood actor, director and filmaker explaining to the press why incest should really be considered “OK”.)
The Bible teaches that for prolonged periods of time during the first millenium B.C., the nations of Judah and Israel (ie., the Northern and Southern Kingdoms) abandoned the worship of Jehovah/Yahweh and turned instead to the pagan idols of the nations in the region around them, the gods and goddesses of the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Amorites, and others. They abandoned the Holy Spirit-revealed Books of Moses and turned to the unbridled and self-indulgent fertility rites and rituals of the flesh. They abandoned the temple and began worshiping at the “high places” and in the “sacred groves” where ritual prostitution and bloodlust were mainstays of the worship experience.
;)
Moloch/Baal worshipThe people who were to be separated unto God spiraled “progressively” downward into hedonistic sexual debauchery and perversion. Instead of worshiping their Creator, they worshipped material things, things which were created (ie., earth, air, fire and water), their bodies… themselves. And in doing so they indulged their increasingly degraded libidinous appetites. They danced and chanted ecstatically in the moonlight, and then, in lascivious outdoor, star-studded, nighttime spectacles, they sacrificed their babies in the fires of Moloch to satisfy and appease the Fertility Goddess, Asherah, and her consort, Baal. (They passed their babies “through the fire”.)
Heady and entertaining times, to be sure…death (human sacrifice) and the lust of the flesh in the proud name of “spirituality” and “freedom”.
I’m convinced that things really have not changed that much since then….2,700 years ago. We still sway and chant and cavort before the triune idolatrous altars of modern materialism: “Entertainment”, “Erotica,” and “Tolerance”. To be sure, we are still dancing around the Asherah Pole in spectacularly self-indulgent, hedonistic fashion.
And, tragically, we still pass our babies… (by the tens of millions)… through the fire.
The Northern and Southern Kingdoms have nothing on us.
Apparently, progressive, conscience-searing, salacious practices are the natural outcropping of any society when its motivating principle is… as Mr. Cassavetes puts it… all “about tolerance”.
The writer of Ecclesiastes was right when he observed that there really is “…. nothing new under the sun”. The heart of fallen man is today as it has always been. The apostle Paul, borrowing from Old Testament texts, put it bluntly and perhaps best in Romans Chapter 3:
“There is no one righteous, not even one….
All have turned away….there is no one who does good…
Their throats are open graves….
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Ruin and misery mark their ways,
And the way of peace they do not know.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
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;)
Journalist/author Malcolm MuggeridgeForty years ago, journalist and cultural commentator, Malcolm Muggeridge, in his book Jesus Rediscovered wrote:
“Sex is the mysticism of a materialist society, with its own mysteries---This is my birth pill; swallow it in remembrance of me! And its own sacred texts and scriptures---the erotica that falls like black atomic rain on the just and the unjust alike, drenching us, blinding us, stupefying us.”
The “black atomic rain” has been falling with increasing intensity since Muggeridge made his observation a generation ago. But, still here we sit…stupefied…immobile in the rising toxic flood. The drumbeat and volume has become so loud and unrelenting that fewer and fewer today are able to hear the still quiet voice within warning, encouraging and inviting: “Get into the Ark!”
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“The most powerful forces in America are no longer the church and the state but Harvard and Hollywood. Church and state have limited power, for we are free to ignore or leave any church, and we are free to vote out of any office any politician. But we are not free to defend ourselves against the educational system and media blitz that assaults us everywhere, the buzzing flies of Beelzebub hovering over the minds that make movies and TV shows.”—Peter Kreeft
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“Modern society itself is one grand diversion---the Republic of Entertainment.” –Os Guinness
;)
“We’re the Hip-Gyration Nation”
(Very Caring…Very Cool)
Idol hot dog Oscar Winners…
We’ve got fashion…We’ve got flair.
We’ll decide for you what’s moral
In this Kingdom of the Air!
We’ve got class and we’ve got insight…
We look down on “Bible-folk"...
Those misguided, backward dummies...
Oh my goodness! Such a joke!
As a rule, we're more discerning...
More evolved and more astute.
We have found "The Ground of Being"...
And ...Surprise!....It’s Green to boot!
We're the hip Gyration-Nation...
Very caring...very cool!
Please repeat our sacred mantra...
"Tolerate!’’—(our golden rule).
Come admire The Botoxed Bodies,
Sequined tights and leather thongs;
Nip 'n' tucksters...holding poses,
Follow us…You can’t go wrong!
We prefer our sex convenient...
Unattached...with whom we please.
Redefining Old Commandments,
Forging New Moralities!
We push Eastern Mysticisms,
We approve all kinky sects!
Levitating, astral visions,
And whatever else comes next….
Polyamorous adventure
Is the way and truth you need.
Bottom line, what we’re suggesting:
Do your thing, man, yes, indeed!
Disregard those babies screaming
As we pass them through the fire;
Just relax…Enjoy the program!
Satisfy your deep desire.
When we think now of “Madonna”,
Bethlehem’s not where we go;
Lady Ga-Ga, Goddess Gaia,
Have replaced her… like, ya know?
Let us shape and mold your children;
That would really make our day!
Who needs “god” when pleasure’s calling…
Just a breathless click away?
Ashtar’s Pole has made a comeback…
In High Places of the Lewd…
Idol Entertainment beckons;
Moloch, we still worship you!
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“Denied Jehovah, we turn to Moloch, for man cannot live without gods. The battles on our earth always begin in the heavens. It is Moloch come again who has devoured [60] million unborn babies with the blessing of our Supreme Court. Is it not hypocritical to ask God to deliver us from the horrors of nuclear holocaust when we cause our sons and daughters to ‘pass through the fire’ of the great abortion holocaust? And when Moloch comes can Lucifer be far behind?”—Peter Kreeft
;)
Lord, forgive us...Lord, have mercy!
Lord, like sheep we’ve gone astray.
Help us hear the Word You whisper:
“I’m the Truth, the Life, the Way.”
Lord, please hear our lamentation…
Give us Grace to see our sin.
Take us to the cross of Jesus,
So we may be born again.
May we recognize within us
Why You came to climb the tree;
Please, Lord, bring us to repentance...
Holy Spirit, help us see.