A Squirrel in the House

Newsletter article for March 2005

© 2005 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

There once was a group of tenants who rented a house. One day a squirrel got into the house and began to make a mess. The squirrel chewed holes in the tenants belongings, knocked over the furnishings, and made a great mess in the house. The tenants complained to the landlord and he sent a housekeeper to clean up the mess and deal with the situation.

When the housekeeper arrived at the house he saw what the problem was right away. He quickly began planning to get rid of the squirrel and clean up the mess in the house. But when he told the tenants what he was going to do they strongly objected. They thought the squirrel was “cute” and they had really grown attached to it and didn’t want to get rid of the squirrel, despite the damage it was doing in the house. The housekeeper had never before heard such nonsense and tried to reason with the tenants, but they wouldn’t let him remove the squirrel so that he could clean up the house. The housekeeper was determined to clean up the house because he worked for the landlord and not the tenants, but so as not to upset the tenants too much too quickly he resolved to move slowly.

The housekeeper thought he would first try to clean up a little bit of the mess the squirrel had made so that the tenants would see how good it was to live in a clean house, and then he would also explain to them all the good benefits of squirrel removal so that they would appreciate when the squirrel was gone. This was the plan, but it didn’t go quite as he had hoped. Whenever the housekeeper tried to clean up the mess the squirrel had made, or repair the damage it had done the tenants objected. They had grown so attached to the squirrel over time that they had gotten so used to the squirrel’s destruction that they couldn’t bear to live without it, and they wouldn’t let the housekeeper lift one finger to do the work that he had been sent to accomplish.

The housekeeper tried to show the tenants that keeping a wild animal in the house was self-destructive, and it violated the terms of their lease, but they dismissed the words of the housekeeper by calling him such things as “insensitive” and “uncaring.” Some of the tenants might have listened to the housekeeper, but the other tenants told them that the real problem was the housekeeper, and that all their problems would go away if the housekeeper left. So the housekeeper found little support among the tenants.

Most of the time the tenants listened politely to what the housekeeper told them about all the benefits of letting him remove the squirrel and cleaning up the landlord’s house where they lived, but they didn’t believe a word of it, and they wouldn’t let the housekeeper do his work.

As time went by some of the tenants did grow weary of living in a house which was increasingly being torn to bits by the squirrel and its progeny. The squirrel had made a nest and there was a whole family of squirrels just destroying the landlord’s house and despoiling the tenants’ belongings. A few tenants decided to move out, and a little later, a few more tenants moved out. The housekeeper couldn’t blame them for leaving. He would have left himself except that the landlord had given him a job to do and he wanted to see the job accomplished. He also wanted the tenants to see the wisdom of getting rid of the squirrel so that even if they moved somewhere else they would not bring such destruction to another of the landlord’s houses.

When the tenants saw that people were moving out they began to get upset and again blamed the housekeeper. The housekeeper thought that this was just more of their nonsensical rationalizations, but there was a bit of truth to their complaints. The housekeeper had not done his job and people were leaving. It’s not that people wouldn’t have left if he had done the job in opposition to the tenants, but he had tried to accommodate the irrational and self-destructive desires of these tenants, and in doing this he hadn’t done his job.

The housekeeper began to do what he had been sent to do. He found all the squirrel nests in the house and removed them and all squirrels that he was able to find. Then he started to clean up and repair the damage done by the rodents. The tenants had a fit! They complained about what the housekeeper was doing. They told how other tenants in other houses lived in similar squirrel squalor, as if that would excuse their own misdeeds. Then they proceeded to call the housekeeper all kinds of nasty names. They tried to turn all of the other tenants against the housekeeper and the landlord by telling lies about him. When they saw they couldn’t intimidate him from doing his job they began to conspire secretly how they could sneak more squirrels into the house without the housekeeper or the landlord knowing about it.

When the situation had gotten so bad that the house was beyond repair the tenants still tenaciously kept at their destructive ways. They complained that they had hit rock bottom, but they didn’t believe they were really at rock bottom because they still felt that everything would be better if only the housekeeper wasn’t there to clean up the mess that they had allowed to grow, and they still tried to get the housekeeper kicked out of the landlord’s house. A squirrel is not a person, but they loved that squirrel and its destruction more than they loved the housekeeper or the landlord.

What do you think the landlord will do to those wicked tenants? (See Matt. 21:33-44)

The Christian and Culture

Newsletter article for February 2005

by Rev. Paul Wolff

© 2005 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

It has become something of a commonplace for Christians in our culture to believe that in order to win converts we must be sensitive to the culture of the people we are witnessing to, instead of seeking to replace the godless worldly culture with a true worship of God. This would only be true if the process of winning converts would only involve trying to please people. Holy Scripture rejects this view. Saint Paul writes to the Galatians, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Gal. 1:10) If we seek to accommodate earthly culture in order to please people then we have made the people and their culture into false gods, which God condemns.

In the Old Testament God did not give the Israelite people the specific task of evangelism or making converts. God’s people were to give witness and testimony about God’s gracious kindness through their history and the blessings of life. There’s actually more directions from God about totally destroying the pagan idolaters who were inhabiting the land which God reserved for His people, Israel, than about converting other peoples. They weren’t told to destroy all pagan idolaters, just the ones living where God wanted His people to live. For those foreigners who saw God’s gracious dealing with Israel and wished to be a part of God’s people, God gave guidelines as to how this was to be done. In many cases foreigners were welcomed into the family of God, but they had to submit completely to God’s laws, including circumcision and the ceremonial and religious laws, and they had to completely forsake their previous way of life including all worship of other gods and even foreign dietary practices which conflicted with God’s Law.

In Deuteronomy 7:3 God forbade intermarriage with pagans because God knew that these spouses would tend to turn the people away from God, rather than vice versa. The Israelite people were a people holy to God and He wanted them to remain in His love (see John 15:9-10) and that is why He warned them not to accommodate the cultures of other people.

In Deuteronomy 7:7-11 God explains that He did not choose Israel because they were more numerous or more powerful than the other nations. The Israelite nation was small and weak in comparison with many of their neighbors. Actually when God chose them as His people there were only two of them: Abraham and Sarah; and they were already rather old at the time. This fact is also a good answer to those who question the validity of Scripture by saying, “What makes you think Christianity is the only true religion?” as if to say that “might makes right” or because two thirds of the world denies God this means that four billion to two billion – you lose. Four billion people can be wrong if they deny God’s Word.

One person who is faithful to God’s Word can stand against any number of those who deny God even if the odds are six billion people to one person. Jesus says, “If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Notice that Jesus doesn’t make any concessions to cultural considerations, unless you count faithfulness to His Word as a cultural consideration, but that would be God’s culture, rather than earthly culture. When God chose Israel as His people He looked after them and gave them prime land to live on, and He defeated their more powerful enemies, and protected them as long as they were obedient to Him and kept His law.

When the Israelites took over the land of Canaan God told them to destroy all cultural artifacts which went along with the false worship practices of the pagans. God’s people were instructed by God not to have respect for the cultures of the pagans. These cultural artifacts were not some quaint reminder of the olden days without any deeper meaning, they were an ongoing threat to the true faith and a stumbling block which would lead people to forsake God if not destroyed. When Israel did as God asked He was pleased and blessed them and gave them victory and protection. When Israel disobeyed God and saved some of these foreign cultural artifacts, God was angry and He punished the people for their rebellion.

When God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 & Deut. 5) He specifically stated in the preamble to the First Commandment that the authority of these commands comes from the fact that the one who spoke them is “the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” This would be true and valid even for foreigners even if it were not specifically historically true for those who came from other nations originally. It would be true spiritually when the foreigners abandoned their cultures and were adopted by God and made a part of His people through His eternal covenant.

Even in the New Testament where Christ sends His Apostles to go to the “ends of the earth” to make disciples, and the ceremonial rules of the Old Testament have been fulfilled and completed in Christ himself, God’s people are not to make concessions to culture. Jesus commissions His disciples to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them … and teaching them….” Jesus commands His people to use the means of grace so that the Holy Spirit would change the worldly cultures into a Christian culture.

Peter writes, “once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.” (1 Peter 2:10) Christianity has its own culture which supersedes all worldly cultures. Paul also writes to the Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Thus the cultural identities which we formerly had no longer apply to the Christian.

Should we be worried that we might offend people’s cultures? No, we should fear God rather than men. Are we going to offend? Evangelism always includes calling sinners to repentance. How can that not offend someone? St. Paul recognizes this reality when he writes to the Corinthian Church that the message of the crucified Christ is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (1 Cor. 1:23) Does this fact stop him from offending such people? Not at all. Only ten verses later in his letter Paul writes, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Hermeneutics

Newsletter article for December 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

“There is no God.”

“I am a god.”

“God is tempting me.”

“Jesus be cursed.”

This may seem like a foolish question, but which of these phrases comes from the Bible? The quick and easy answer is that they all are found in the Bible, but the true answer is that in this form they are all taken out of context. Here are these same verses in their proper context:

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (Psalm 14:1)

“Will you then say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who kill you? You will be but a man, not a god, in the hands of those who slay you.” (Ezekiel 28:9)

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.” (James 1:13-16)

“No one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (I Corinthians 12:3)

Hermeneutics is the study of the interpretation of texts such as the Holy Scriptures. As I have demonstrated above the proper interpretation is essential if a person is going to properly understand what the Bible has to teach. Otherwise if we have a false method of interpreting the Bible we can even make God’s Word say what we want it to say, despite what it really says.

Jesus calls the devil the “father of lies” (John 8:44) but even the devil lies in a sneaky way so that he makes his deadly lies seem attractive and true. When the devil was tempting Jesus (see Luke 4 or Matt. 4) he quoted Psalm 91:11-12 which reads, “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” What the devil was trying to do was to get Jesus to commit suicide by jumping off of a tall building. His wicked reasoning went like this: “If God promised to protect you then you can’t be hurt, so make him prove it by jumping.” Jesus was not convinced by this fallacious argument. First of all, Jesus believed the teaching from Psalm 91 so he didn’t need to prove that God would save him. He already knew it by faith. Also, Jesus knew better than to say, “Well, if the Bible says it then it must be true.” Jesus knew the Bible better than that. He answered the devil by quoting another Bible verse which says “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Deut. 6:16) This demonstrates the hermeneutical principle which states, “Let Scripture interpret Scripture.” All scripture is true because it is God’s Word (2 Tim. 3:16) so just because one passage is accepted as true it doesn’t mean that you can reject another.

We saw this type of false hermeneutic at St. Timothy earlier this year when an unknown and still-unrepentant person made reference to Exodus 32:18 in a newsletter article which gave the false argument that because God wants us to sing then all singing must be God-pleasing. Well, anyone who is familiar with the story of Exodus 32 knows that God was not pleased with this singing, and He was so angry over their false praise that he was ready to destroy all the people of Israel (see v. 10) and start over with Moses. So just because singing is one way to properly praise God, it doesn’t mean that all singing properly praises God.

I have also heard someone try to tell me this year that because Scripture says to “Sing for joy to the Lord” (Ps. 95) it is all right to commit the idolatry of self-worship. Well, not exactly in those words, but that was the obvious intent of the argument in the same way that Satan also tried to tempt Jesus to disobey God by his misuse of Psalm 91. I was not swayed by this misuse of God’s Word, but I am extremely concerned that some people around here are misusing God’s Word in just such a way, and that other people are possibly being misled by such lies.

Hermeneutics by themselves are not pro-Christian or anti-Christian. They are tools which may help Christians understand God’s Word so that through it they may believe in Jesus and receive His salvation. A proper interpretation of God’s Word shows us Christ as our savior. An improper interpretation shows us something else which cannot save us. It is the great strength of Lutheran theology that we have the proper tools to understand the Scriptures “which are able to make you wise unto salvation” (2 Tim. 3:15), but even the best theology and the best teaching will do no good if we don’t use them, or don’t believe the truth of God’s Word. “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers.” (James 1:16)

Doing the Right Thing is Not Enough

Newsletter article for February 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Saul was the first King of Israel, but he was also the last one of his family to be a king. If you recall the Bible story God became displeased with Saul and chose the boy David to succeed Saul as King of Israel. Do you remember what Saul did to displease God? If we think we are pleasing God by what we are doing then we ought to consider King Saul and try to avoid the trap that he fell into.

There are actually a couple of events in I Samuel 13-15 that are significant, but it is the first one I want to recall here. What Saul did which led God to look for the next king outside of Saul’s sons, was to offer a burnt offering to God. Now, if you know anything about Old Testament history and worship practices this doesn’t seem such a bad thing at all. It doesn’t seem like Saul was worshipping a false God. People made burnt offerings to God all the time. Many of these were actually required by law and the Bible records many more rebukes for those who did not make an offering to God, than for those who did, but Saul is one exception.

The situation was that the Philistines were gathering to attack the Israelites and Saul and the soldiers of Israel were looking to get some encouragement and strength from God through His prophet, Samuel. Samuel told Saul to meet him in seven days time at Gilgal where Samuel would offer sacrifices to God and ask the Lord to give them success against their enemies. On the seventh day Samuel was nowhere to be found and the soldiers began to lose heart and to scatter off to someplace safe before the Philistines attacked. When Saul saw his men leaving he thought that he needed to do something to keep the men together so he offered the sacrifice himself and did not wait any longer for Samuel. But just when Saul had finished making the offering Samuel arrived and was greatly displeased with Saul’s impatience. He proclaimed that because he did not keep God’s command his kingdom would not endure and God would seek a man after His own heart to lead His people.

This may seem to us to be a little harsh, but as in all the things God does it is completely appropriate. There are a couple things wrong with Saul’s actions. First, although it was a good thing for Saul to prepare to make a sacrificial offering to God, it was inappropriate for him to actually make the sacrifice. This was the role of the priest, or in this case, the prophet, Samuel. In and of itself, this probably would not have brought down such a severe rebuke from God, but the second incident in I Samuel 15 shows that the first simply revealed a greater lack of faith in God. Although Saul seemed to be making an offering to God, he really wasn’t. God’s instructions through the prophet Samuel told him to wait, and Saul did not. With his men leaving Saul decided that he couldn’t wait for God to give the men encouragement, so he did it himself. This was idolatry. Saul put himself in the place of God.

It wasn’t Saul’s actions which were so wicked (although he certainly disobeyed God), but his lack of faith in God made his sin inexcusable. Compare this with the worst sins of David, Saul’s successor. David committed adultery with the wife of one of his best soldiers. He tried to cover up the sin, and when that failed he had the woman’s husband murdered. This was nearly as great a rejection of God as Saul’s sin, and a much greater sin against others (Uriah and Bathsheba), yet David didn’t lose faith in God. There were some tragic and lingering consequences to David’s sins, but he was forgiven. There were twenty-one of David’s descendants who ruled as king from Solomon to Zedekiah, but Saul’s family died out with his great-grandchildren, and few of them enjoyed a long life.

I am sure that to many people this seems a bit backward. To our earthly eyes the sins of adultery and murder are virtually unforgivable, while the sins of impatience and improper worship seem relatively inconsequential, but then we often place our own concerns above God’s concerns. Such is the way of all sinful flesh. God looks at things a little differently. First of all the sins against God (first table of the commandments) are much worse than our sins against others (second table) for the simple fact that God is GOD, and everyone else is not. But God also can see into people’s hearts. God knows who has faith in Him and who hates Him. For those who have faith (like David) God can forgive the worst sins (adultery, lies, conspiracy, murder, misuse of authority, etc.), but for those who do not have faith (like Saul) even the seemingly good things he does (worshipping God, having compassion on an enemy, etc.) are unforgivable.

Judas also did a good work in the garden of Gethsemane when he kissed Jesus. Psalm 2 tells us, “Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way.” Kissing is a sign of affection, and how can that be wrong when we show affection to our Lord? But Judas did not kiss Jesus to show affection, instead he used it as a sign to Jesus’ enemies so they could come and arrest him. What should have been a good work Judas turned into an opportunity for the enemies of Jesus to grab him so they could kill him. Judas lacked faith in Jesus, and so despite any good that he had done, he despaired of his life and took a shortcut to destruction despite the fact that his salvation was so near.

There are those who would tell you that if your worship is not full of feeling you should work harder to make it so, but this was Saul’s wrong solution to the problem. It is the wrong solution because the fact that you make yourself feel happy or excited about something doesn’t make it God-pleasing. Saul and his soldiers were quite satisfied with his solution to restore morale to the soldiers, but God was angry about it. You can do all sorts of things to make yourself feel good about your sins, but this is only a temporary distraction and not a proper way to deal with sin. People do it all the time. The devil encourages it, because as long as people feel good about their sins without truly repenting, they are lost and belong to him. God doesn’t necessarily want you to feel good, and He never wants you to feel good about sin. God wants you to recognize your sin, come to true (i.e. painful) repentance, and be saved.

You cannot measure your faith by your good works. If you could then Saul might have been a more righteous person than David. But God looks at us according to our faith in Him. Jesus Himself was praised as the Son of David for more than just the fact that David was His ancestor. Jesus came to rescue us from the sinful self-centeredness which makes all our good deeds tainted by wickedness. Only Jesus can sanctify us and make us holy. Only Jesus can give us hope and peace and satisfaction, and none of this comes from ourselves. If our happiness, peace, hope, or general good feelings come from within us then they cannot save us, and like King Saul they will likely turn us against God and lead us to our destruction.

The Real American Idol (Part 2)

Newsletter article for April 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

In last month’s newsletter article I noted that the selfishness of Americans has reached idolatrous proportions. Since in His First Commandment (“You shall have no other gods.”) God condemns all idol worship and idolatrous practices this is a very serious offense against God. However, the offense is multiplied when such idolatry reaches into the church where God’s people gather around the common ground of God’s Word and His holy Sacraments.

Americans have turned their “Liberty” into a selfish desire for making their own personal choices about nearly everything, including things for which no real choice exists (especially life and death issues, which God alone controls). Consider how God would feel if His people would want to make decisions about things for which He has already graciously given them. Would Jacob, for example, choose not to accept a flock of sheep and goats simply because they were spotted and speckled (see Genesis 30), or would Jacob rather give thanks to God for giving him wealth despite the wicked greed of his father-in-law, Laban? If Jacob had chosen to reject God’s gift then what else would God do but say, “then you shall starve to death because you have rejected what I have given you.” Or what if Jacob had made a big deal out of accepting God’s gift, even then wouldn’t he still have made God angry by making it seem like he was blessed with riches because he had made some kind of right choice, rather than being blessed simply because it was God’s good pleasure to bless him? Either way he would have been insulting God.

In the above example God blessed Jacob despite the fact that Jacob had used trickery and deceit to steal the blessing and birthright from his brother Esau. The choices Jacob made were selfish and sinful and although God blessed him and gave him wealth and a large family, it wasn’t because Jacob was so good, it was because God is so forgiving and good.

The only “choice” which plays a significant role in the life of the Christian is the choice that God made to save us from our sins. God’s choice is the only one that matters, and because of that all people can be saved because Jesus died to pay the price for all the sinful choices that we make. True Christians know that it is an insult to Jesus and the sacrifice that He made for us to say that “I am saved because I chose Jesus as my savior.” That person is likely wrong on both counts. Jesus accomplished everything that needed to be done to bring us salvation, and for us to take even the smallest credit is stealing that praise and glory from Jesus.

The appeal is often made to “free will” as proof of our cooperation with Jesus in our salvation. However, this denies the fact of original sin which means that we are all born sinful (see Ps. 51:5). The Holy Bible clearly states that because of our sinfulness that we cannot contribute anything to our own salvation, and our own will is completely corrupted by sin. Even the great evangelist, St. Paul, struggled greatly with his sinful nature and recognized the corruption of his will. He says in Romans 7:15-20, “What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…. I know that nothing good live in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” It was not St. Paul’s choice to serve Christ, in fact it was Paul’s choice to persecute the church and imprison and kill Christians, but God chose him anyway despite this.

God works the same way in our lives, too. Whether we are converted at our Baptism when we are still infants, or whether we are converted as adults after hearing God’s Word and believing and then being Baptized, God gets all the credit in both cases. The choices that we make are connected to our “free will”, but whenever we exercise that will we are doing so in opposition to God, as the Scripture says, “everything that does not come from faith is sin.” (Rom. 14:23) Faith is all about submission to God and to His will, and about the subordination and subjugation of our own sinful will. Faith has nothing to do with making “right choices.” Even Jesus would not have chosen to die on the cross if He had done what He wanted to do, as He said in Luke 22:42, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Since Jesus subjected His own will to God the Father’s will even though His human will was perfect and sinless, then we ought not claim that our “free will” or our choice means anything because our will is always tainted by sin. Instead we ought to thank and praise God for His good and gracious will through which He provides forgiveness and salvation for us.

The Real American Idol

Newsletter article for March 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

A few years ago the Detroit Free Press newspaper changed the name of its Sunday editorial section from “Opinion” to “Choices”. The content of the section did not change, only the name. Logically and linguistically this makes no sense because editorials are completely different from choices. There are no real choices given in this newly named section, only editorials and opinions. The change in the name was made to reflect the growing desire for people to feel like they are in charge and can make a choice about what is going on in the world, even when there are no choices to be made.

Now, this may seem like a trivial little thing, and sometimes it does to me, too. I still think it is silly every time I open up the Sunday newspaper. Often the editorial section is the only part of the Sunday paper that I read, (besides the comics) and I find it a little unsettling how the heading in no way describes its content. So what is the big deal about choices?

I believe that Americans are so selfish that the Free Press editors feel they have to play silly word games to get people to give their attention to the editorial section. The word games are not the cause of the problem, merely a symptom of a much greater, and more serious, problem in society. It is a generalization to say that Americans are selfish to the point of idolatry, but I believe that even in this short essay that I can give enough evidence to say that this is generally true.

The real American idol is selfishness, and it shows itself in a number of ways. First, with regard to the “choices” mentioned above, Americans demand choices about everything. From the multitude of channels available on cable television to access and content of the Internet, we must have the sense that we are in control and are making the choice about what we do, or where we go, or how we spend our money or time. Americans even demand choices where no real choices exist. This desire for “choice” gives people the idea (or the illusion) that they are in control and can do whatever they want to do, so in a way we convince ourselves that we are little gods.

The most horrific example of this idolatrous self-interest is the American lust for the pleasures of sexual relations without the associated responsibilities of marriage and parenthood. At best this selfishness results in loneliness and lovelessness which comes from not being committed to one person in a lifelong marriage. At worst this self-worship causes parents to murder their own children in the name of “choice.” This “choice” is really a false choice. If “choice” enters into the situation anywhere it comes very early when the man and woman choose to engage in activity which results in the conception of a child. After the conception has taken place there is no real choice. That child is completely dependent on his or her mother for life for at least nine months, and any “choice” which results in the death of the child is a false choice because God has given the parents the responsibility to care for the child.

The history of legalized abortion in America is itself an example of the selfish idolatry that I am describing in this essay. According to our Constitution, only the Congress can pass laws, but abortion became legalized nationwide by an act of the Supreme Court which, in effect, simply decreed that mothers have the right to murder their children. Although the Constitution makes no mention of a “right” to abortion, the Supreme court invented one that can only be overturned by another ruling of the Supreme Court, or by a specific Constitutional amendment denying such a “right.” But the American idol will not permit either to happen because that would force Americans to be responsible for their actions.

If selfish “choice” is a god to many Americans then that would also explain the rising popularity and acceptance of such perversions as homosexuality. This is another false choice. There are precious few things more obvious to all self-aware people that God made men and women for each other, but we see that as the Bible tells us, sinful people will always choose to rebel against God’s good design despite any number of horrible consequences. This horrible sin is only made more attractive when so-called “Christian” denominations refuse to call homosexuality a sin as the Bible does, and thus they encourage people to rebel against God’s plan in this way. Selfish “choice” is an extremely short-sighted god in that as long as the person doesn’t see an immediate bad consequence he or she can easily convince themselves that there are no consequences.

You may ask why I am addressing this issue in the Church newsletter? The answer is that although as Christians we are citizens of God’s Kingdom first, and citizens of our nation second, we cannot help but be affected and influenced by what goes on around us. If all the world (or what may seem to our eyes to be the whole world) is saying that they are free and that it is a good thing to make yourself into your own god so that you can do any thing you want to do, then it is only natural that after a few dozen times of hearing this we get tired of fighting it, and after a few hundred times we may begin to believe it. It may start out with simple envy of people who don’t feel constrained by God’s laws, but that envy can grow into doubt and unbelief, and unbelief is just a short step to idolatry. As Christians we need to remain faithful to God’s Word above all things. Even when it seems wrong or unfair or restrictive, we need to trust that God still knows what is best. Only when we are faithful to God and learn what His will is from the Holy Bible then we can recognize the false choices that the world gives us and we can avoid falling into the trap of self-worship or some other idolatry.

This self worship idol is particularly attractive because our sinful nature secretly desires to be a god. That is how the first sin came about, and we are no different in that respect from Adam and Eve. Don’t be misled by false choices which go against God’s laws and His Word. The world may ridicule Christians for their obedience to God and His good laws. The world may say that we are unnecessarily enslaved by our “blind” obedience to God, but they don’t understand that because of the forgiveness and salvation that God has won for us in Christ Jesus we willingly obey whatever God says because we know that whatever “freedom” we may lose by ignoring those false “choices” we will gain vastly greater freedom and greater rewards in heaven.