“Therefore, his calamity will come suddenly; Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.” (Proverbs 6:15)
In the morally disturbing headlines of the last three weeks, we see two Eternal Truths on display:
- Sexually obsessed individuals AND societies always fall - unless repentance comes.
- Sexual predators think they will never pay for their sins, but God always comes suddenly to judge.
Truth #1
Throughout the Bible, God makes it clear that one of the greatest temptations of mankind which always leads to a fall, deals with the obsession with sex.
It is painfully obvious that once the tornado of the “Sexual Revolution of the ‘60’s” blew through our nation, our society went into free-fall. Sex - instead of being the holy and beautiful thing for which it was created - became a toy for personal satisfaction and amusement. Once we cast off the Biblical restraints that are meant to bless us and keep us safe, we inevitably will receive the consequences of thumbing our noses at the “eternal laws of Nature and Nature’s God”, as the founding fathers put it.
- In 1932, the head of Harvard’s sociology department, Pitirim Sorokin, warned that “if individualistic selfishness and self-seeking are not checked, our society will lapse into a state of sexual anarchy.” (Doesn’t that describe the condition of America today?)
- In his book, The American Sex Revolution, Sorokin writes that "both man and society are degraded as a culture becomes sexually obsessed. The members of such a society are habituated to look at the opposite sex as a mere instrument for pleasure.
- In the book Sex and Culture, J.D. Unwin studied 86 human civilizations ranging from tiny South Sea island principalities to mighty Rome. He found that a society’s destiny is linked inseparably to the limits it imposes on sexual expression; and that those sexual constraints correlate directly to its theological sophistication and religious commitment.
Truth #2
We all have asked, “Why do the wicked prosper?” It seems more and more today that men – and women – in positions of power can get away with anything and everything they wish, without repercussions. This is especially gut-wrenching to those of us who are trying to live righteously, obeying God’s laws, treating others as we would be treated. We cry out “When, oh Lord, will you bring justice?”
But as we’ve seen in the news these last few weeks, judgment does come, and it comes suddenly. Powerful, influential, “honorable” people who spent their lives establishing their “good name” have lost everything – especially their name – due to their obsession with sex. And as judgment comes suddenly to individuals, so it will to the society that turns its head and looks away.
It’s about time we take notice of the deep damage that sexual obsession is doing to individuals and to our society.
It’s about time we become attentive to the cries of those who have been demeaned and destroyed by those sex addicts who have ravaged others simply because they had the power to cover up their out-of-control lusts.
It’s about time that those of us who would call ourselves Christians stand up and shout out with reckless abandon to our decaying society, our neighbors, our friends, and especially our loved ones: Enough! Turn and return or judgment will come suddenly!