What We Learn From Creation's Groanings Series

This past year, I was dismayed as I watched the elections in the United States. I was astonished at the numerous evangelical leaders who promoted the presidential candidates without concern for their lack of moral scruples. The excuse was, “We’re not electing a pastor!” As I read the books of the Chronicles and the Kings, I noted that when the king of Israel was righteous, the nation was marked by virtue. When the king was unrighteous, corrupt and lacking a moral compass, the nation reflected depravity, lacking honour and principle. The same is true in this day. When a president or a prime minister acts in an unrighteous fashion, the land quickly moves to adopt unrighteousness—the people reflect the leader. Soon, the nation is marked by a lack of ethics, indecency is in the ascendency and people become sinful.

I suggest that our society is morally confused; we have lost our way. Let me give an illustration of what I am talking about by pointing to two individuals prominently featured in the news during the past several weeks. Hugh Hefner, an aged pimp with an affinity for bathrobes, spent six decades sexually exploiting young, desperate women. When he died, newspapers lauded him, praising his civil rights legacy. He was credited with bringing sex out of the shadows.

Another ageing lecherous lothario also with an affinity for bathrobes has figuratively died. Harvey Weinstein was exposed as a sexual predator whose reign of terror left countless victims in his wake. Weinstein has spent three decades exploiting young, desperate women. The headlines concerning Weinstein reflect society’s disgust with the slobbering mess who committed shameful acts—the past is crawling out of the shadows to near universal disgust.

Here are two men whose actions toward others was indistinguishable. One is adulated; one is condemned. Our culture appears terribly confused about the notion of sexual morality, primarily because we have no notion of morality. We rejected the wisdom of the Word of God, and we marvel at how beastly people can act in our world. One minute we’re calling a creepy ninety-year-old man a hero because he coerced numerous girls to get naked for him; the next, we’re crucifying a creepy sixty-five-year-old man because he acted almost identically. [6]

These kinds of glaring inconsistencies are rather commonplace in contemporary culture. Our culture celebrates the porn industry even as we decry the sex trafficking that fuels it. Social elites mock the Vice President of the United States for respecting sexual boundaries even as we panic over the sexual harassment that Pence's policy is meant to avoid. Our society encourages guys and gals in college to get together for booze-fueled coed parties even as we wring our hands over the supposed “rape epidemic” these parties cause. Does any of this make sense?

Here is the point that is too often neglected: we Christians were never assigned responsibility to transform society; the charge we did receive was to serve the Risen Saviour. Our service was defined as making disciples; and the discipling process is defined through bringing lost people to faith in the Son of God, incorporating them into the assembly of the righteous and then teaching them. In fulfilling the Master’s command, we were assured that He would always be with us. The implication is that should we choose to modify His command, we have no assurance of His presence. Consequently, it seems apparent that many professed Christians have not known what it is to have the Lord of Glory in our midst working through us.