Opus 2023-019: Hindsight is not always 20/20

I remember watching Alisa Childers interviewing a black apologist.  I was on board with the discussion until it got off into history.  The black scholar was under the impression that because North Africa was in Africa that the historical persons who lived there were black.  I began to pick up that this man who seemed to have his head on straight was still overwhelmed by his blackness.

Today it occurred to me that this kind of thinking is not just present in Americans who trace their ancestry back to Sub-Sahara Africa.  I think you could find a similar type of myopia in many Irish, Polish, Italians and so forth.  It is possible that they don’t push it so far but it is still there.  The pride in their heritage is still strong.  What is the difference?

I think part of the difference is that most of us don’t use our history as an excuse for everything in life. We are proud of the good stuff and either ignore or joke about the bad.  My father in law was a convicted felon.  I am aware of that but I don’t trot it out to explain why a cop pulled me over.  I don’t even bring it up when my wife is acting like the daughter of a felon.

We need to look to the future and build on what we contribute.  We can learn from the past but we can’t live there.  This is part of the hope of the Christian life if it is properly lived.  Here is a long list of the things that can keep you away from God,

(1Co 6:9-10 KJV)  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Do you find your past on that list?  Now for the good news,

(1Co 6:11 KJV)  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

The guilt and condemnation for the past is gone.  

Now lets build for the future.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-179: Middle Class Morality: Chastity

Recently I was talking to a student and out of the blue he shared with me that he had had fellatio when he was 14 and wanted to know when I had experienced it.  TMI.  If you don’t know what the term means then look it up or read about Bill Clinton’s use of the oval office.  This is where our pagan culture is taking us.

Conversely, Middle Class Morality is based on chastity.  Let me remind you that chastity means purity in sexual relations, not celibacy which is the abstinence of sexual contact.  Celibacy is expected before marriage.  Chastity is expected after marriage.  America in the past embraced the concept that sex was for marriage.  They may not have lived up to it but they knew what was right and what was wrong.

Chastity is rooted in the Bible. 

(Exodus 20:14 KJV)  Thou shalt not commit adultery.

For people wanting to live God’s way that is enough but we have the modern sophists who will say, “But that applies to married people, not me.”  Okay. 

Let’s play legalistic lawyer.  Technically adultery does involved a married person sexually involved with someone outside their covenant.  Got it.  Fornication, on the other hand, is any sexual contact outside marriage.  So do a search on fornication.  You find many references to it.  Among them is,

(Acts 15:20 KJV)  But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

Still not convinced?  You think they are synonyms?  Then how about this verse that uses both words?

(1 Corinthians 6:9 KJV)  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

In spite of what you may have heard by your seeker friendly pastor, in your latest Christian self-esteem book or from the guy who is trying to get you into bed, God’s standards have not changed.

Viva la middle class morality.

To be continued...

homo unius libri