A Crisis of Truth: The Attack on Truth and Morality

Ralph Martin speaks on a crisis of truth the attack on faith morality and mission in the church today Ralph Martin is an internationally recognized Catholic leader this is one in a series of five talks on a crisis of truth there's a link between God's Word and what actually happens in our life there's a link between the truth of God's Word and how we live our life romans chapter 1 verses 18 to 32 the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against the irreligious and perverse spirit of men who in this perversity of theirs hinder the truth in fact whatever can be known about God is clear to them he himself made it so therefore these men are inexcusable they certainly had knowledge of God yet they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks they stole to fied themselves through speculating to no purpose and their senseless hearts were darkened they claimed to be wise but turned into fools instead as a consequence God delivered them up in their lusts to unclean practices they engaged the mutual degradation of their bodies these men who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator blessed be he forever amen I didn't add that by the way st. Paul just got excited when he was writing this and just couldn't restrain himself from praising God even when he was doing theology he got excited about Christian truth about the truth of God's Word and just had a burst out saying blessed be God forever amen notice some of the things that are said here people who know God but reject that revelation turn away from that revelation of God as it comes to them in creation and nature and their own bodies not to mention his word get plunged into a spiritual darkness that leads to false worship that leads to worshiping the creature rather than the Creator as people do this they think they're making shrewd decisions they think they're being smart but they're turning into fools the tragedy of God's creatures turning away from the Magnificent creator to serve and worship creatures rather than the Creator thinking they're smart and wise and shrewd and doing it not knowing that they're fools the sorry sad tragic story sin turning away from the glory of God to serve and worship the creature plunged into spiritual darkness turned over to our own wisdom turned over to our own ideas to live in misery to degrade our bodies to be plunged into bondage to immorality goes on this is a description of human beings away from God this is a description of much of what's happening around us today God therefore deliver them up to disgraceful passions their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural and the men gave up natural intercourse with women and burn with lusts for one another mended shameful things with men and thus received in their own persons the penalty for the perversity a lot of the punishment of sin is in the sin a lot of the punishment for sin is in the scent God gives us what we chooses and the consequences unfold in our life the wages of sin our death the wages are always paid they did not see fit to acknowledge God so God deliver them up to their own depraved sense to do what is unseemly they are filled with every kind of wickedness maliciousness greed ill-will envy murder bickering deceit craftiness their gossips and slanderers they hate God our insolent haughty toward their parents one sees in them men without conscience without loyalty without affection without pity they know God's just decree that all who do such things deserve death yet they not only do them but approve them in others one of the consequences of sin is being plunged into spiritual darkness is losing control of our own desires thinking we're finding fulfillment and being plunged into slavery to disordered passions plunged into the very distortion and perversion of a God intended to bring us happiness and peace plunged into the anguish that comes from living a life apart from God the punishment for rejecting God's wisdom is being allowed to live according to our wisdom the punishment of rejecting God's wisdom is being condemned to live according to man's wisdom which is devilish which is bitter which disappoints which is unreliable rejecting God and his word always leads to a distortion of human life male and female he created them in his own image he created them when we reject God and his word a distortion comes into the very fiber of human life distortions entering a male and female sexual identity sexual confusion enters in hatred enters in self hatred hatred for how God made us hatred for our own sexual identity confusion ambiguity this is happening all around us as our society increasingly explicitly rejects God explicitly says we don't want him ruling over us in our courts in our schools in our culture in our entertainment increasingly human life becomes distorted becomes perverted that's why the only true humanism is a Christian humanism the only way of being fully human is to be in Jesus Christ only when were freed from the sin freed from the tormenting of the evil one freed from the distorted thinking of the world is our being is our personality or our relationships able to stretch out and be how God created us to be only by being in Jesus Christ are we able to be fully human only by being in Jesus Christ are we able to live a fully human life as God created us to be male and female scripture says sometimes a rejection of God leads to a moral disorder it also says sometimes an existing moral disorder can lead us to reject God's Word John chapter 3 verses 19 20 the judgment of condemnation is this the light came into the world but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were wicked everyone who practices evil hates the light he does come he does not come near it for fear his deeds will be exposed sometimes we avoid hearing God's Word or reject God's Word because it calls us to give up something or to make a change in our life or embrace a new way of life or to repent in a way that we'd rather hold on to the darkness that we're nurturing in part of our life moral disorder moral confusion particularly in the area of sexuality it's not the only important area of Christian morality there's many other important areas but this is one area that almost everybody is being faced with today in a way that is really undermining and confusing clarity about what God's Word is in this area and how it's possible to live it if this was a problem that only existed in society as a whole and didn't also affect even the church bodies that we're living in I'd be talking about it in a different way the tragedy is not just that this is something that's happening amongst non-believers but this is something that's happening even within God's people rejection of his word leading to moral disorder moral disorder leading to rejection of his word until about 1930 the entire Christian tradition and all the Christian churches Catholic Orthodox and Protestant were in basic agreement about what God's Word said in the area of human sexuality and how it needed to be applied to new circumstances from about 1930 on this progressive unraveling of Christian teaching in many of the Christian churches some Christian churches have actually repudiated God's Word and Scripture in this area as it's been understood throughout the centuries recently a group of Concerned Methodist pastors in Ohio published a white paper maybe 30 or 40 Methodist pastors sort of expressing anguish and concern about what was happening within their church quote they they talk about a particular United Methodist Church it says this particular United Methodist Church boast of having the largest sex library in the world this church abusing a generous endowment that had been left to the church by committed Christians actually produce blatantly pornographic training films these were then made available through our board of discipleship to thousands of people in the last decade the film's explicitly depict lesbian homosexual sodomy group and oral sexual encounters were often shown to single young adult groups in the church to help them understand their own sexuality and shape quote healthy attitudes they are being used by medical schools over the world to desensitize prospective doctors many objections from within the church have been ignored as if this were not enough the gay rights national lobby and the homosexual Metropolitan Community Church had their offices in the United Methodist Building in Washington DC homosexual and lesbian advocacy is encouraged by our women's division of the board of Global Ministries the board of church and society and other United Methodist leaders other major Christian churches in this country have moved in a similar direction with a similar moral decay even within church institutions in a Catholic Church the problem isn't a change in the official teaching which is as clear and as firm as it always has been the problem is though increasingly a kind of thinking and coach to God's Word that's undermining people's confidence in it and it's leading to moral disorder one example few years ago a group of Catholic theologians published a study called human sexuality is published by Paulist press by a group of Catholic theologians in it they basically decided that scripture tradition church teaching were no longer adequate as a guide for moral behavior in the area of sexuality now what we needed to do was to come up with a new set of criteria that would guide moral behavior in this area they came up with seven criteria which go like this sexual behavior needs to be self liberating other enriching honest socially responsible joyous and so on the kind of criteria that anybody ever faced with temptation feels is fulfilled in their case the very nature of sexual temptation is that it looks like a pretty positive thing looks like it's going to be a joyous experience when God's Word is under mine and we're left to human opinion it's so easy to find teachers to find us what we want to set to tell us what we want to hear when they apply these criteria to particular moral cases the results are just as you might expect they talk about for example whether it's moral for psychologists and psychiatrists who have intercourse with their patients as a way of treating them quote apparently the practice is not uncommon and is defended by some psychiatrist and life therapist officially the professional societies continue to condemn it for reasons of law you can still be arrested for this kind of therapy public confidence you lose some business and therapy effectiveness it might not work quote the American Psychiatric Association specifically prohibits it however the American Psychological Association code of ethics does not mention it and a resolution prohibiting sexual activity with clients failed to pass at the 1975 convention of the Association the words professional opinions divided that it might be changing who knows then they go on to say applying the norms adopted in this study we would have to say that in a hypothetical case where an erotic expression between therapist and patient in fact results in making the patient whole without harm to the other relationship of therapist and patient such direct involvement of the therapist might be moral similar results are achieved when they talk about certain forms of adultery and other kinds of things and basically leaving the way open for people to do what they please in direct opposition to God's Word I know you might say this is crazy how could this be I have to honestly say I don't know every one of these authors of the study are still teaching in Catholic seminaries and theological faculties and haven't retracted the opinions put forth in this book they're forming the priests and religious ed with religious educators of the future they're forming the people who will be teaching and already are our children told you about the article in today's parish magazine January 1980 the editorial started off with a ringing call to bisexuality later on in the article there's an article encouraging people to be open to homosexuality written by a moral theologian teaching at a major Catholic seminary in the United States quote doesn't the church teach that active homosexual persons are sinning yes and no and there it goes quote this part of the church's message rings as true as it ever did and is it always well notice already the picking and choosing this part rings true different people at different ears it rings differently for different people we can't judge it on how it rings with the judging on whether it's God's Word or not but the church also teaches he says that sex is for loving it's for loving and marriage and nowadays the church is not so sure that all sex for love outside marriage is sinful again what church is he talking about those who are trying to change it to bring it away from God's Word or the church as it teaches faithfully God's Word as it's handed on from one generation to another goes on to say surely sex outside of marriage is sinful when new life is likely to be generated people who play around with sex and then find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy often get abortions this is the reason the church opposes sex outside marriage family stability for the security of offspring it's a good reason let's hold on to it you and I who are the church again the picking and choosing did the story and here's the clincher but he says the problem of getting pregnant and therefore having an abortion is not a problem in sex between two people of the same gender what about the Bible the outcry quote is culturally conditioned that's not scholarship that's propaganda that's somebody trying to get people to move in a certain direction you don't write off God's Word by saying it's culturally conditioned of course it is God prepared that culture as a fitting vehicle in which to reveal his son Jesus the same yesterday today and forever how different the kind of thinking that's becoming prevalent today is from God's Holy Word 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verses 15 to 20 do you not see that your bodies are members of Christ would you have me take Christ members and make them members of a prostitute god forbid I didn't add that st. Paul again getting excited not in the one hand this on the other hand that not yes and no God forbid you know sometimes people say say that everything is in black and white that's absolutely true everything is in black and white but you know what everything isn't great some things are black and white scripture says Lecce yes be yes and you know be know a little while ago john paul ii was talking to a group of university students in rome and he said even if they call sin liberation don't believe call sin sin call what's black black what's white white let your yes be yes and your no be no first corinthians 6 let's continue can you not see that the man who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her scripture says the two shall become one flesh whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with them shun lewd conduct don't play around with it don't be curious about it don't see how far you can go without falling in so deep you'll never get out again Shawn lewd conduct don't get near it don't touch it don't be curious about it keep away from it every other sin a man commits is outside his body but the fornicator sins against his own body you must know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who's within the spirit you have received from God you are not your own you have been purchased and at a price so glorify God in your body God's Word may be challenging God's Word may be hard but God's Word is true and it's based on his profound love for every single one of us and his desire for our happiness receive the Word of God probably a lot of us have been exposed to thinking that have weakened our resolve to glorify God in the body that have confused our thinking and weakened our will when it comes to the Christian teaching on sexual morality a lot of us have heard things like well it's unrealistic to follow the teaching because you can't control your own urges you got to do it how different is God's Word 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 no test has been sent to you that does not come to all men besides God keeps his promise he will not let you be tested beyond your strength along with the test he will give you a way out of it so that you may be able to endure it God will not allow us to be tested beyond our strength every fiber in our being may be crying out the opposite more certain than that is God's Word God will not allow us to be tested beyond our strength but along with the test gives the grace a way of enduring in a way of coming out of it God's Word is challenging his gifts are great his help is close to those who call upon him another thing a lot of us have heard is that we need to follow our conscience that's absolutely true we need to follow our conscience but we also need to know that we have a responsibility to form our conscience according to the Word of God scripture says every thought needs to be brought captive to Jesus Christ the way we look about things the what think about things the way we feel about things need to be brought into harmony with Jesus how Jesus looks how Jesus thinks how Jesus feels when we're facing difficult circumstances and need to make a judgment about what to do and what's right and what's wrong we need to be solidly rooted and grounded in God's Word so we're in a position to make that judgment we need to form our conscience according to the Word of God another thing a lot of us have heard today is that whatever you do don't feel guilty well certainly it's unpleasant to feel guilty but sometimes we feel guilty because we are I don't know if you've considered that sometimes people feel guilty because they are and the solution in that case is not to try desperately to get rid of the feeling but it's to stop doing the thing that's wrong that's against God's Word and law and against our nature there's all these people today say oh you poor thing you're feeling guilty here let me pray for you for inner healing or let me get you to a counselor so you can work out these feelings and certainly if our guilt feelings are a result of a neurotic problem we need whatever help we can prayer counseling to get over them but if we're feeling guilty because we are what we need to do is not just get therapy or prayer but repent say what I'm doing is wrong how I'm thinking is wrong how I'm acting is wrong I need to stop that admit that to the Lord ask his forgiveness ask forgiveness of other people and turn to live my life in accordance to God's Word sometimes we feel guilty because we are psalm 32 says as long as I kept my guilt within me my body wasted away my bones burned but as soon as I confess my sin to the Lord I received forgiveness now he's a to praise him again the right way to take care of guilt when we're guilty is to confess our sin and ask God's forgiveness to repent and be forgiven sometimes we're so focused on motivation that we lose sight of what the objective Word of God is in the area that we're concerned about we've come perhaps to believe that as long as we're sincere well everything's okay somebody's doing something wrong you talk to them you find out what oh you're sincere Oh fine fine there's a trouble here unfortunately it's possible to sincerely to evil it's impossible to sincerely ruin another person's life necessarily ruin your own life sincerely commit adultery sincerely murder for all I know Hitler was sincere scripture doesn't cause us to be the judge of our own motives it calls us to conform our life to the Word of God to take responsibility for when we're not acting in accordance with God's Word to repent and to ask God's help and grace and the help of the brothers and sisters to live according to God's Word it may be a mitigating circumstance that were sincere maybe the fact that my grandmother dropped me on my head when I was a baby kind of takes away some of the culpability when I kick grandmother's you know nevertheless the Lord wants me to stop kicking grandmother's he understands I have a more difficult time with that because my grandmother dropped me on my head mirai's a baby and I've never resolved those feelings but nevertheless he wants me to stop kicking my grandmother there may be reasons contributing to why we're acting wrongly the Lord says put your focus on what you ought to be doing ask my help to do it move in that direction and not be so introspective about your motives and feelings and what degree of guilt you have that's for God to judge we're called to face his word and respond to it sometimes we've heard about how important it is to be compassionate to be pastoral sometimes compassion has come to mean not troubling people with the truth that's a false compassion it's not compassionate to lead somebody to believe that the way they're thinking and acting is okay if it's not okay in the eyes of God in fact usually what we're concerned about there is not the other person but ourselves a lot of times false compassion is rooted in self-love not wanting to go through the pain and suffering of having to communicate the truth of God's Word when it might not be received not wanting to rock the boat in a pleasant social relationship not wanting to cause a family problem sometimes people today manipulate us into agreeing with what they're doing by giving out subtle signals that they really don't want to know what we think but they want us to tell them that what they're doing is okay I don't know if you've experienced things like that somebody coming say well of course you understand this don't you and of course of course sort of manipulating us into accenting to the kind of life they're living the things they're doing that's against God's Word by letting us know in subtle ways that we better not really tell them what we think true love is rooted in truth no love no truth truth and love are united in the person of Christ and his word we need to be gentle we need to be sensitive we need to be respectful of the right time in the right place in the right situation but we need to know that true compassion is based in truth loving people means loving them enough to communicate to them the truth of God's Word even if a risk is involved even if pain is involved it's not loving for a doctor to tell a patient who has cancer that aspirin will do the wages of sin are death the only way death can be overcome is through the person work and word of Jesus Christ sometimes we think well gee maybe we better just be better off being ignorant of God's Word ignorance is bliss right not really Luke chapter 12 verse 48 the servant who knew whose masters wishes but did not prepare it to fulfill them will get a severe beating somebody who knew how God wants human beings to live but didn't didn't live that way he's gonna be severely punished the one who did not know them and who nonetheless deserved to be beaten will get off with a lighter beating ignorant isn't bliss is just simply a lighter punishment when I first really heard this word I said oh this is a hard word Lord this is tough this is not fair and their little light went on wait a second we're ever heard that before Ezekiel God's people are saying Lord your ways are not fair and then God spoke through the prophets zekiel saying no no no you've got it all wrong again your way it's not heard fair he said oh that's right when is the contradiction between me and God God's right I said I'm gonna accept this as a word from God even though you'd understand it and expect God to unfold understanding to it to me in my life if you live according to my word you'll be truly my disciples you'll know the truth and truth will set you free I'll say here's a chance to test this shortly after this I was driving in Belgium and a little time after I got there a policeman pulled me over and said Monsieur the American you just broke in our traffic law you didn't get priority from the right I said officer I'm just a dumb American I don't know the laws here you know you know how these Americans are you know and you know I'm sorry I didn't know the law I've just gotten here a few weeks ago the police officers have said mm-hmm when you enter the kingdom of Belgium Belgium to Kingdom you have the responsibility to seek out what the rule and law of the land is before you start messing around endangering our life in your life ah very interesting I felt like the Lord showed me is one types of Scripture that God expects his creatures to seek out his will God wants the work of his hands to occupy themselves of finding out what the will of the Creator is God expects us to actively take the initiative in finding out what his will is for human life not to do so is to run a risk John chapter 15 verse 22 jesus said if I had not come to them and spoken to them they would not be guilty of sin now however their sin cannot be excused God went to a lot of trouble to the point of death on the cross to win for us the Spirit of God and accessibility to the Word of God not too many of us on Judgment Day are going to be able to say I didn't know God has gone to a lot of trouble that we might know the truth and be set free by it it's our responsibility to seek out his word that sets us free finally jesus said john chapter 16 verse 2 a time will come when anyone who puts you to death will claim to be serving God a time will come in other words when Christian truthfully so distorted and perverted that people will do the very opposite of what God intends calling it serving God calling virtue vice calling vice virtue Ezekiel chapter 22 verse 26 her priests violate my law and profane what is holy to me they do not teach any longer the difference between the sacred and the profane they don't teach any longer the difference between the unclean and the clean I have been profaned in their midst some of the examples I talked about a pretty gruesome if they were just isolated examples I wouldn't bother to be talking about them they're examples of a way of thinking and undermining God's Word that's becoming very very prevalent in all the major Christian churches our children have been affected by this thinking you and I have been affected by this thinking this talk didn't just kind of come out of my my mouth just like that I struggled in my own life to come to this word I struggled in my own life to really face God's Word in this whole area and conform my life to it and ask his help for it this kind of undermining of God's Word is something that's becoming increasingly prevalent and all of us I believe have been touched by it in one way or another as a result judgment the wages of sin is death and unfaithful people experiences disaster our society many of our churches many of our families are in the process of human disintegration things only hold together in Jesus Christ when God's Word has been obscured when we start worshiping the creature rather than the Creator when spiritual blindness comes upon us moral disorder follows close behind and look around look around Ezekiel chapter 13 the word of the Lord came to me son of man prophesy against the prophets of Israel false prophets those who prophesy their own thoughts hear the word of the Lord you did not step into the breach nor did you build the wall about the house of Israel that would stand firm against attack on the day of the Lord because you have spoken falsely I am coming at you says the Lord God they led my people astray saying peace peace when there was no peace I believe people today are being told go in peace it's okay when it's not okay a false peace placed on top of sin a false purity placed on top of corruption it's like they built a wall that was corrupt and covered it with whitewash say then to the whitewashes a storm wind shall break out rain and hail stones shall fall and when the wall has fallen will you not be asked where is the whitewash you spread on I tell you this shall be no wall nor shall there be white washes those prophets of Israel who prophesied Jerusalem and saw four visions of peace when there was no peace says the Lord our God either close by telling you a story that father Michael Scanlon the president of the university of Stewartville tells on occasion about when he was a little boy he liked to play outside at night after supper and his mother said okay Mike you can go play outside after supper but be home before it gets dark so Mike would go outside and play and he'd keep his eye on the sky when the last little ray of light was going down he'd arrived back on the porch but his mother would already be out there saying Mike Mike where were you you're late Mike would say no no I'm not late look there's the last little gleam of sunlight now I just went down Mike would say well you couldn't exactly say he was a childhood dark not exactly but you couldn't exactly say he was a childhood a light what he was as a matter of fact was a child at a twilight I think a lot of us have become children of the twilight have made compromises in our life with God's Word and things are a little murky I believe God's calling us to commit ourselves to being children of the light to embracing his word and all its purity and all its power being made clean by the Word of God it's not easy to live God's Word but there's no hope unless we admit it is God's Word and embrace it with all our heart with the help of God His Holy Spirit and our brothers and sisters he'll help us to live it true compassion is to be patient and merciful with ourself and others as we attempt to conform our life to the Holy Word of God lets you and I be children in the light not of the Twilight and these sons and daughters of the light in a world that's increasingly dark you

Channel: Renewal Ministries

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Keywords: Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Evangelism, Mission, Spirituality, Evangelization, Religion, Catholic, Church, God, Trinity

Id: 02Kwdy9sRuY

Length: 42min 47sec (2567 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2016