It is all a matter of viewpoint

SolitaryRoad.com

Website owner:  James Miller

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It is all a matter of viewpoint. From the viewpoint of the Bible-believing, god-fearing person, conduct is important. There is right conduct and wrong conduct. There is good conduct and there is bad conduct. There is moral conduct and immoral conduct. That is the way the upright, righteous, god-fearing person sees things. That is the viewpoint of the Bible, the viewpoint of the God of the Bible. As believers in the Bible, lovers of the Bible, it is naturally also the viewpoint of the Bible-believer. However, what do things look like from the viewpoint of the godless, the immoral, the depraved, the wicked? In the eyes of the godless, the depraved, the wicked all ways are equal. All conduct is equal. There is no immoral or depraved or wicked conduct. The depraved person has so rationalized immoral conduct that he sees nothing wrong with it. His conscience has become so stretched by his rationalizations, he has become so tolerant in his outlooks, that he sees nothing wrong with anything. The depraved and wicked view themselves as good as anyone and the upright, god-fearing man as the bad person. In the eyes of the depraved and immoral the upright, god-fearing person is just judgmental, narrowminded, illiberal, intolerant, old-fashioned, puritanical, Victorian, prudish, bigoted. On the other hand, the immoral person sees himself in good terms. He views himself as broad-minded, liberal minded, tolerant, modern, progressive, intellectually superior, good. From the position from which the depraved, immoral man is standing, that is the way things look to him. The god-fearing man is the big problem, the bad person.

"...in such places, evil is commended, praised, and well-thought-of. Those who do it are applauded..." (Journey to Hell, John Bunyan)

"...but they do not care to bear their names. The drunkard loves the sin, but does not love to be called a drunkard. The thief loves to steal, but he cannot stand to be called a thief; the whore loves to commit immorality, but does not love to be called a whore. And so Mr. Badman loved to be proud, but could not tolerate being called a proud man. The fragrance of sin is desirable, but it pollutes and corrupts a man. To name a man's sin is to put a blot on his honor." (Journey to Hell, John Bunyan)

For many years now the air has been filled with national denunciations of intolerance and bigotry. A rhetoric of tolerance has become the new religion of America. Liberal religion has attempted to equate Christianity with tolerance and intolerance with Evil. Guess what kind of person lies behind all of this tolerance rhetoric? It represents a viewpoint. One kind of person’s viewpoint. Modern America is a modern day Sodom. What type of viewpoint would one expect of a Sodom?

In all this, Bible-believers have been on the defensive. They have not known how to respond. They have cowered in fear of being called names. They have not been willing to stand up for God’s truth and call sin by the right name for fear of being called intolerant. They have been bamboozled by the Sodomites.

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” —words of Jesus (Mark 8:38)

In a society in which tolerance is set up as being the supreme virtue (instead of things like honesty, integrity, chastity and morality) “being judgmental” becomes high and inexcusable sin. Being “judgmental” is just wrong. Period. Such a charge is the highest condemnation. If I were to see some bully clubbing some young child to death and I had harsh words for his action, would I be being judgmental? I am passing judgment on his actions. That does make me judgmental, doesn’t it? Am I then a terrible person because I passed judgment on the action? If I see some murderer slitting someone’s throat and I am upset by the action and denounce the person’s actions as terrible, am I being judgmental? Certainly. Am I then a terrible person because I am willing to pass judgment on the action? If I condemn fornication, adultery, and homosexuality, does that make me judgmental? I am passing judgment on the conduct. So, yes, I am being judgmental. God also condemns this kind of conduct. Is he then judgmental? I would say he is. By the kind of thinking of the modern western world he is thus guilty of great wrong.

We live in a crazy society, an Alice-in-Wonderland society, a society that seems to have lost its power to think, its power of reason. The average person just doesn’t seem capable of thinking. He doesn’t think and that is why he gets misled by so much foolishness. All he knows how to do is shout and hate and call names. There is no one more intolerant and judgmental than he is, but he doesn’t see that. What is it that is responsible for all this muddy thinking? Could it be societal mind manipulation?

July 2014