Everyone Doing What is Good in Their Own Eyes

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Evil continues to grow throughout society, propagating lies as well as things that have long been hidden in the darkness. It’s not only unfortunate, but extremely sickening what we are learning about what some individuals involve themselves in today.

I’m reminded of the days of Lot leading up to the event that essentially destroyed the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah found in Genesis 18-19. In chapter 18, we read that the Lord appeared to Abraham, along with two individuals who turn out to be angelic messengers, accompanying the Lord to carry out His will.

Starting in verse 17, the Lord wonders aloud if he should hide from Abraham what He was about to do? This of course piqued Abraham’s interest and the two angels had already departed for the twin cities.

In verses 20 and 21, the Lord says to Abraham, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 
21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”

The Lord’s reference to the “great…sin” is spelled out for us in the following chapters. You’ve likely heard all sorts of explanations for the way the men of Sodom acted or wanted to act toward the two angelic messengers, with the most often repeated claim of “in-hospitality.” Can you imagine God destroying two huge cities because the men were “inhospitable”? Certainly, that played a part but it’s what their in-hospitality moved them to perpetrate on unsuspecting people that was cause for destruction.

In effect, the sin of Sodom – men lying with men whether consensually or via rape/force – essentially overrode and reversed God’s created order. This is not to say that the only reason God created the gift of sexual relations within the confines of a monogamous heterosexual marriage was for procreation, but it was certainly a big part of it. It is also done between two people who love one another in marriage to become and remain close emotionally. Is that in-hospitable? Absolutely, but let’s not focus solely on that when it actually led to much worse actions.

It is interesting to me that the book of Judges, starting in chapter 19, also presents another very similar situation that occurred. In fact, it’s very much like a mini-Sodom and Gomorrah situation, with the homosexuals in the small town of Gibeah, starting in verse 15 of chapter 19 of Judges acting much like their counterparts in Sodom and Gomorrah. It’s like deja vu when you read the narrative in Judges where a man passing through with his concubine was out in the town square because no one had been willing to take him in for the night.

An old man saw this man and his concubine and invited them to stay with him. While in his house, “worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, ‘Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him’,” (vv 22b-23). Good Lord, it’s almost word-for-word from the Genesis account of Sodom and almost the same thing happens. It cannot be rationally denied that the phrase “know him” meant to have sex with him. It’s clear except for those who refuse to accept it, but prefer denying this truth. Not much different from today for many.

In the Genesis account, Lot wants to protect the two angels, so he (stupidly) offers his two virgin daughters to the worthless fellows there. They reject his offer. In the Judges account, the master of the house (stupidly) offers his virgin daughter (and his guest’s concubine), to the crowd of worthless men waiting outside. They reject his offer, but the visitor physically takes his concubine and roughly puts her out of the house where the men of the city savagely rape her repeatedly until morning. If you read this narrative carefully, this rough treatment offers an explanation of why the concubine ran away from the man in the first place! He clearly did not love this woman. For him, she was simply furniture that he could do anything he wanted to do with her. When he later retells this story, he conveniently leaves out some of these pertinent points to make himself look better.

The concubine was dead by the next morning but the man didn’t even notice it at first. It’s a very tragic picture and sheds great light on the first verse of chapter 19, “In those days, when there was no king in Israel…” and everyone essentially did what was good in their own eyes. Sound like today?

This phrase is repeatedly used throughout Judges as an indicator of just how low society had fallen. It must have been abysmal. There was no king. The Levites weren’t respected because many of them were on the take and did only what was best for themselves.

Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD. (1 Samuel 2:12 ESV)

The priest sons stole from the Lord routinely for selfish gain. They could literally be bought with a price through bribery and were often. Does that ring a bell with many politicians today? It should.

Samuel’s sons also did not follow the Lord (1 Samuel 8) by taking bribes and perverting justice (v 3). Amazing isn’t it? Even though Samuel himself was a godly man, his sons Joel (not the same person as the prophet), and Abijah were despicable in how they lived taking advantage of the average Israelite for selfish gain.

This happens across society today. It’s not simply with politicians, though of course, it certainly happens with them and is often more noticeable to us. Once people get voted into office, it seems that they must either learn to play the game (you scratch my back; I scratch yours), or they are ostracized and kept from participating. Add to that the fact that it costs so much money to be voted into office at the state or federal level and for many, the only way to accomplish it is to accept money from non-government organizations (NGOs) and/or private companies and individuals who wield a great deal of clout. It becomes clear that those voted in after being bankrolled by others “owe” something to them and often learn to do their bidding. If not, it’s once and done for them.

But aside from all the corruption that we can guess about or even have some level of knowledge regarding politicians, the average person today is moving to the Left. We shouldn’t act surprised because there are similar cycles throughout history. Then again, history isn’t really taught today.

But when we see average people talking up aspects of socialism or even communism – and these people have taken an oath to support and defend the United States Constitution – it is at the very least, perplexing. Conservatives – whether patriots, Christians or both – see this growing attitude within society and cannot help but wonder why this is happening? We shake our heads at what appears to be such blatant indecency masquerading as “right” living. Compared to Scripture, it’s not “right” living at all.

So what is happening? Several things, in my opinion. First, a willful, welcome blindness is coming over society in general. Because of it, the gulf that is being created between conservatives and (so-called) liberals is widening greatly. To conservatives, this is absolutely unfathomable. How can people stupidly believe that any form of socialism is good for America, the only Constitutional Republic in existence? People who are blind to truth have all sorts of excuses that allow them to continue being blind, all the while believing they are astoundingly intelligent and can see clearly.

Second, there is a dumbing down of people who simply do not have critical thinking skills and it’s spreading. The other day, this guy on Twitter basically said that in the days of both Noah and Lot, believers were the ones who remained on the earth while the unbelievers were the ones taken away in judgment. He had a problem with the Pretribulational Rapture position so this is how he explained it. Setting the Pretrib Rapture (or any Rapture position) aside, I explained to him that Noah and his family were locked safely in the Ark and because of the deluge, floated safely above the highest mountain peaks by at least 15 cubits. The people who remained on the earth suffered judgment.

He disagreed insisting that the people on earth were “taken away.” I tried to explain that if a person stands on the shore of a fast-moving and rising river, they might eventually be “taken” or “swept” away as well. If they drown because of it, their body might eventually be found…still on earth. Their souls in death (if unbelievers) would be taken to hell, but their bodies would still remain on earth until buried or rotted.

I tried to explain the same thing about Lot. There, Lot and his children went to high ground away from the city. Those remaining in the city experienced God’s judgment from His wrath. The person came back with “Well, it seems very obvious to me that the unbelievers were taken and the believers remained on the earth.” Truth is that when people set their minds, there’s little hope in changing them.

So what can we expect to happen in society as time moves forward? As noted in previous articles here on this blog, the world will progressively and increasingly move toward evil until this evil overwhelms the world. In essence, the world will ultimately embrace evil as normal. We see it happening now and it is thoroughly hard to ignore and not notice. Sanctuary cities, open borders, protecting criminal illegal aliens, normalizing all sorts of “genderisms,” etc.

Should we be upset with people who can’t see the truth? Ultimately, we need to look beyond these people and stop seeing them as the source of the problems. They are being used. The actual source is Satan himself, along with all those fallen angelic beings who are sold out to Satan. Does this mean that humans who end up being used by Satan to further his agenda are innocent? Not even close, but as long as they are breathing, we need to be praying for them, witnessing to them as best we can.

I’m frustrated about many things in life. When I was growing up as a young Christian, I thought living in the End Times would be “glorious” in the sense of being able to glorify God. Yes, that’s happening, but give me the Millennial Kingdom any day!

In Australia, a shooter killed some 50 Muslims who were gathered for prayer. The world mourns and it should. However, hundreds of Nigerian Christians are routinely slaughtered by Muslims there and the world doesn’t even notice. It is going to get really difficult for Christians as things progress toward the end. It’s just the way it is as revealed in Scripture. Christians are going to once again become the scapegoat for everything the world doesn’t like and they will not hesitate to take it out on us. What’s our recourse? Get and stay close to God! Read His Word daily. Commune with Him often. Seek to live as He would like us to live.

The road ahead looks very bleak, at least for a while, until the Lord Himself returns. I believe we can have peace in the midst of the trials headed our way, but that peace will not happen accidentally. It will happen as we do what we need to do to draw and remain close to God our Father.

Folks, if you’re not reading, meditating, and praying about His Word daily, you might as well not be eating food and wondering why you’re growing faint and fatigued. Get in His Word!

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective