Moral Decline from a Christian Perspective

The continued persistence to exclude God from our daily lives has been fueling moral decline in our society and the world over. Being from a Christian background the teachings of the bible and Christian values were instilled in me from an early age. I grew up with an awareness of what was appropriate and what wasn’t but as I matured, my fear of transgressing God’s rules became less, even though it always remained with me. From personal experience and through interaction with my peers, I have observed that as we become more educated and sophisticated we tend to dismiss moral and spiritual truths as myths. Many people today, completely deny even having a spirit and thereby accept only carnal beliefs and lifestyles.

There was a time, recorded in the bible, when mankind were like this before, where they became so sophisticated, that they attempted to do any and everything that they could imagine. God finally had to step in and put a stop to it. This can be found in Genesis chapter 11 verses 1-9. As the story goes, the people of that time got together and started to build a tower to reach to the heavens. When the Lord saw this He said “If man has begun this, then soon they will be doing everything that they imagine.” So the Lord caused them to start speaking in different languages so they couldn’t understand each other. They stopped building and eventually got scattered all over the world. This tower was known as the Tower of Babel or literally, ‘confusion’. The message here being that if man with a unified purpose decides to do whatever he wills, then he will find a way to accomplish it, and we are seeing evidence of this in the radical way the American constitution and laws are being challenged by politicians and special interest groups. So very similar it is with the people today, who think that they alone are in charge of their destiny and have no God to answer to. God has told us in the bible, that He will be stepping in again, to confront mankind’s pride and rebellion in the last days and the way we are living today, it would seem we don’t have very long to wait.

 

Why is there so much hate and uncaring? There are many reasonable answers to a question like this but I believe that the root cause is in man’s departure from God and godly principles. As mankind turns from God he turns on his fellow man and justification for his atrocities usually boil down to “Am I my brother’s keeper?” a quote from Cain speaking to God in Genesis chapter 4 verse 9.

 

We are living in an age where we are reaping the consequences of moral decline, and the trend is escalating as we advance into the future. The attitude today is “Everybody is doing it so let’s just do it too!” Humankind is now plagued with so many diseases that the consequences of their poor living practices and loose morals are so obvious. Obesity, cancer, the various diseases of the organs, sexually transmitted diseases, murder, hate and hopelessness are rampant in every society because of the abandonment of moral and spiritual values. Anywhere there are no boundaries, there will be overflow. They have taken prayer and God out of America’s schools and their school system is now so out of control that they have to be putting metal detectors and police at the entrances.

 

Movies, music and pop culture is now so filled with immoral sex and violence that entertainment is fast becoming the tools of the devil. Once taboo, things like swearing, blaspheming, premarital sex and homosexual relations have become so prevalent that they are now expected in almost every area of the entertainment field and are sometimes included just for the impact on ratings. You see it even in the churches, which are presumably the house of God, where homosexuals are being ordained or being offered the sacrament of marriage, even though the bible is so explicit on the sinfulness of these things.

 

Go to any concert and see and feel the adoration that the audience have for these “stars”. The screaming, crying, shouts of praise and frenzied lust for these, sometimes whimsical, characters are so extreme and out of place that one wonders, if the church praised God like this He probably would come down and dwell among us.

Who are the modern heroes and role models? Men who excel in violence; who are ruthless; unscrupulous; liars and cheats; murderers and rapists, to name a few. I am very hesitant to call any names but we all know of people in today’s society that fits the mold perfectly. So many of these people are being held in high esteem by the world. Their reputations magnify them to idol-worship status and we all fall headlong into the degenerate abyss, pouring out our adoration and love for them.

Reputation and character are two ideals that are often confused and thought to be the same but in reality are so far apart. Reputation speaks of the qualities of a person that are outwardly portrayed bringing them fame, and many times it’s just a front. Character is the inner qualities of a person, something that is inherent and true about that person. The world isn’t soon running out of men and women with great reputations but people of good character are so on the decline that they should be put at the top of the list of things becoming extinct.

We read what Christ had to say about some of the highly reputable people of His time in Matthew chapter 23 verses 27-28. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside, are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

And again God warns in Ezekiel chapter 13 verses 13-15. “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the LORD. So I will spend my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, “The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it.”

 

The world has so many various types of wars being fought on different fronts, that there is no place on earth which isn’t affected by one kind or another. There are wars where different nations are at each others throats, there are civil wars, racial wars, religious wars, ethnic wars, political wars and let’s not forget, gang wars where you are targeted because of which street or community you live in. To most of us, these conflicts all seem senseless and barbaric but to those involved, it is a reality they have been forced to live with daily.

Man will not be saved by his philosophies or his vanity. Our reckless living will only separate us further and further from God. Unless we meet God in His Word and turn away from the selfishness and evil in our hearts, we are all destined to live lives filled with unnecessary suffering, hopelessly lost and out of touch with our creator.

I close with a warning in Hosea chapter 8 verse 7 which says, “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”