Seeing the Distortion

It is said that you can throw a frog into a pot of boiling water and it will immediately jump out, but you can put a frog into lukewarm water and gradually heat the water to a boil, and the frog will leisurely swim until it dies. The same thing happens to the church as we become more and more accustomed to seeing distortions and accepting distortions as reality. I am referring to whatever is a distortion from the principles and commandments of God’s Word. We have to learn to see the distortions of sin and recognize how we are going to correct the distorted view to others and ourselves. Flanner O’Connor wrote, “The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural.”

We are seeing in our culture a compensory righteousness that is completely arbitrary. It is not based on the word of God but rather on the feelings of people. It reflects our culture. In political correctness we are seeing a whole new standard of righteousness.

It is a terrible sin to be a smoker, but alcohol is fine, though you don’t have to worry about a smoker killing you on the highway because he is smoke drunk.  Our teenagers are told junk food is terrible for them, but being sexually active is totally normal and natural. The whole country is concerned about texting while driving, but viewing pornography in our public libraries is just fine. Spirituality has never been more in vogue, but the name of Jesus has never been more banned. Students are encouraged to be open to culture and world religions but prohibited from sharing their faith in Christ. The Caucasian race is being told to accept the guilt of slavery in this country or face shame of being called racists. Never mind that we fought a war with over 600,000 soldiers dying to win freedom for every person in this country. Christianity is demonized for oppressing women in a country where women are more free than any other place in the world, but not a word is said about Muslim countries where women live in the same bondage they have for two thousand years. A man who kills 13 soldiers and personnel at Fort Hood in the name of Allah is only guilty of workplace violence, but a baker or florist who refuse to participate in a gay wedding are guilty of hateful discrimination and deserve to be punished. Over 1200 wavers have been granted to companies to not participate in Obamacare, but none to Hobby Lobby who refuses to pay for abortions for their employees.

When you throw out God’s standard for righteousness, you come up with your own. The prophet Isaiah gave a warning in these words: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).