The Death Of A Culture

“I will make boys their princes,

and infants shall rule over them.

And the people will oppress one another,

every one his fellow

and every one his neighbor;

the youth will be insolent to the elder,

and the despised to the honorable.

“The look on their faces bears witness against them;

they proclaim their sin like Sodom;

they do not hide it.

Woe to them!

For they have brought evil on themselves.

Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,

for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,

for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.

My people—infants are their oppressors,

and women rule over them.

O my people, your guides mislead you

and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.” [1]

Years ago, I would read the verses of our text, quietly consoling myself that nothing like this had happened in my lifetime. I was confident that though culture might appear to be growing dark at times, it would never progress to even approximate what Isaiah described as prevailing in Israel in that ancient day. I now confess that I was naïve; I was woefully ignorant of the darkness reigning within the hearts of those with whom I shared this life. I could not have believed the depths of evil that could be tolerated by the people among whom I lived. Moreover, I could never have imagined that the people of God would ever remain silent, refusing to speak their dissent as the world in which they lived disintegrated before their eyes.

I know some imagine that I am overly negative concerning contemporary culture. However, I confess that I am alarmed at what I witness today. And I am deeply disturbed that more of us who are appointed to declare the message of God are not vocal in warning those who hear us of the consequences of the choices we are making as a society. Prophetic preaching is almost absent from the pulpit today. I am glad that there are some preachers who still sound out the warning and point out the old paths which followers of the Saviour are expected to walk. However, preachers who dare speak against the wickedness that insinuates itself into the fabric of the Faith and bores into the foundations seem increasingly rare, and those who do speak find that society seeks to silence them.

Reacting much as did the inhabitants of Judah when Jeremiah warned them of God’s pending judgement, many people in this day reject the Word of the Lord, saying, “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you” [JEREMIAH 44:16]. Inhabitants of this darkened land are intent on making their own reality, ignoring the disaster that now bears down on them.

Among too many churches I have witnessed those who purport to be leaders as they whinged and whined that they did not want to hear anything negative from the preacher. They wanted to be affirmed in the easy life they had created for themselves. The attitudes displayed by those living within modern culture remind me of the response of those to whom Isaiah prophesied. Isaiah exposes their response, saying,

“They are a rebellious people,

lying children,

children unwilling to hear

the instruction of the LORD;

who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’

and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us what is right;

speak to us smooth things,

prophesy illusions,

leave the way, turn aside from the path,

let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.’”

[ISAIAH 30:9-11]

It is true that politics are downstream of culture. Politics do not dictate what culture will be, but politics do reflect what culture has permitted. Thus, the preacher who inveighs against the politician who implements laws that oppose righteousness is attacking at the wrong point. The battle is already lost when the fight must be directed against political action. Long before a law is passed or a decree issued, the culture has already ceded the field on morality. Worse still is the fact that rather than the churches influencing society toward righteousness, society influences the churches.

Canadian population is dependent upon immigration to provide tax payers to fund the social programs to which we have become addicted. [2] Our society is no longer reproducing at a rate which will ensure a future population of Canadians as we think of citizens today. Canada as we know it is dying. If this information is not sufficiently disturbing, consider that children in Canadian schools are being indoctrinated into euthanasia. [3] Your children are quite possibly being conditioned to actively plan your demise if your care becomes a burden to them or to the state!