The more things change...

The pace of change in modern life is sometimes hard to keep up with, especially in the area of technologies in business, medicine and everyday living. But like the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Despite all the I-phones, CAT scans, video conferencing, microwaves and the like, the basic stuff of life isn't really different from the days when the Bible was written.

Reading through the first chapter of Romans this morning, it was clear once again that the things that most trouble our lives from day to day are pretty much the same as what troubled society in Paul's day. And the root of it all, placed in the human heart and mind, is still to be observed in the daily news and the daily grind we're all facing.

If anything, the many changes of how we go about our lives have only served to magnify the fact that Paul identifies as the key to understanding the human condition. And that fact is this: Though men have the witness of God in their hearts, the evidence of His creative power and nature as seen in the physical universe, they nonetheless "do not honor Him or give thanks."

Does that describe every human being? No, there are many who "fear God and keep His commandments," but only because God has, by His grace, revealed His word to men in the Bible and most especially in His Son, Jesus Christ. But He doesn't compel anyone to believe, and the decline in general moral and social behavior that is the stuff of our daily news reports comes exactly in correspondence to a steep decline in Christ-centered, Biblical spirituality in American public life.

We have expelled God from our schools, even punishing those who pray to Him at a recent school meeting. We have seen skeptics openly ridiculing the Church and her Savior in movies, books and other venues. We have seen legal groups defending a "do-your-own-thing" philosophy in the name of First Amendment rights, while attempting to restrict the rights of a Christian to wear a cross in the office. We have seen marriage reduced to a user-defined term for any two individuals in a long-term relationship to each other. We have defended the speech that was formerly considered vulgar and improper for public audiences, while insulting some who insist on praying in the name of Jesus.

We have seen, in one generation, the moral tone of society reversed, so that behaviors that were disapproved in the 50's are now on open display, while those who still publicly disapprove are called names, instead of those who do such things. And this is exactly how Paul concludes the first chapter of Romans, where he says that, in spite of the fact that the Bible predicts a destiny of eternal and spiritual death for pursuing behaviors forbidden by God, "they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." (Romans 1:32)

I-phones and microwaves notwithstanding, nothing's really changed here.