UNCONCERN OVER OUR MORAL DECLINE

Everyone from ex-President Eisenhower to J. Edgar Hoover to the editor of the county weekly has been writing and talking about the moral decline that has followed World War II. Facts and figures to substantiate the cause for alarm are abundant. We are inclined to think that conditions are not much worse than they have always been. In Genesis 6:5 it is recorded: “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” You can’t get much worse than that.

On the other hand, the only reason for a moral decline, anywhere, anytime, is a departure from God. Atheism, Materialism, Modernism — any ism that exalts the mind of man and dethrones the authority of God results in moral degeneracy. We do not expect the present moral depression to create either anxiety or fear on any sizeable scale. When men won’t retain God in their hearts, He gives them over to reprobate minds to do that which is unseem-ing in the flesh.

Men were created to walk with God. When the course of God and the path of man split, the inevitable result is lower morals. Israel reached the point, just before its fall, in which its religious was a mere shell. Isaiah said, “. . . this people draw near with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me.. . .” Church buildings may be full of people, and most may claim membership, but when the heart of the people is bent on something other than complete commitment to God, moral decay is inevitable.

Even suffering for Christ’s sake has merit only if it is connected with doing the will of God, Suffering, in itself, is not noble. Self-inflicted suffering, just for the pleasure of sacrificing, has no merit. Jesus did not suffer just for the pleasure of suffering. It is only when men “suffer for righteousness’ sake” that they can expect the kingdom of heaven.

You can’t legislate wickedness out of existence. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” You may pass a law that prohibits, but so long as the heart of man is evil he will find a way around the law. Morals will never be what they should be until the hearts of men are what they should be.

When we speak of those who leave the church we are usually speaking of this lack of love. Sin has lost its sting in the modern mind and heart largely because love of God has disappeared. When the secular press, the movie industry, television industry, the stage, the amusement park and the average street corner can be saturated with vulgarity, lewdness, and indecency, and an unconcerned society absorbs and soaks it up rather than raising a voice of protest against it, it is a sign that our consciences have been seared with a hot iron.

Not until our God is Jehovah—until we acknowledge Him to be God; until we put Him upon a throne in our hearts and crown Him King of kings and Lord of lords—not until then can we expect the tone and standard of morals to be healthy. Really, it isn’t the fact of low morals that is astonishing. The nature of man is such that that can be expected. It is the general unconcern for this condition on the part of the average run of people that should be cause for alarm. The idea that what a person does is his own business is pervading even the church, Hearts are so corroded with unconcern that there is little desire left to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Christians must care what kind of a world we have and what kind of moral atmosphere we live in.

All these magazine articles and sermons which point out the downward trend of American morals will do little if any good at all. Not until Christian people are willing to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind—not until then can we expect to reverse the trend.

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