Daily Jewel

by pastor Carnell, McAlester, OK
July 12, 2012

“Finding Your Way in the Dark…”
“My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching… For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light…” – Proverbs 6:20, 23 (NIV)

Charles Colson recalls a time when he was asked to serve on a commission to help a school system overcome a rash of thefts and random acts of violence. The commission consisted of civic leaders, a couple of members of the local school board along with himself. In the initial meeting when asked for ways to help the schools overcome their problem, Colson suggested teaching the Ten Commandments. “We can’t do that,” the president of the School Board responded. “We must be able to maintain our separation of Church and State.” After several minutes of debate, Colson made another suggestion. He said, “Why don’t we make a banner that says, ‘Thou Shall not Steal,’ and hang it in every class room.” The President of the School Board responded, “Now that’s a good idea!” The man who opposed the Ten Commandments obviously did not even know what they were in the first place! And that is where the problem lies in so much of our society!
You see, tragically, ours is a culture that has forgotten -- or at least chosen to ignore -- God's rules of right and wrong. We have not heeded the warning in Proverbs 3:7 where it says "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil." Instead society makes up its own rules...we are "wise in our own eyes." I read a story recently about Chi Chi Rodriguez -- the famous golfer. He was driving down the street with a friend, going a lot faster than he should have been. A light changed from yellow to red up ahead of him and he zoomed right through it....didn't even slow down. His friend almost had a coronary. He looked over at Chi Chi and sputtered, "Chi Chi, what in the world are you doing? You went right through a red light! Don't you stop for red lights?" "My brother taught me to drive," Chi Chi replied, "and he doesn't stop for red lights.” As Chi Chi inferred....today's society can be a very dangerous one in which to live...for it is one in which people make up their own rules. There is little or no belief in an absolute truth that applies to everyone. We live in a world today where many people follow Hugh Hefners' philosophy...the creed that says, "If it feels good do it."
In his book, Right From Wrong, Josh McDowell writes, "Our children seldom hear the words 'right' and 'wrong' from Hollywood, Nashville, and Madison Avenue; instead they are bombarded with thousands of hours of sounds and images that glamorize immorality and mock biblical values." Much of this philosophy of moral relativism is rooted in the teachings of the 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzche who argued that, "...languages of good and evil are rooted in neither truth nor reason but in the will to power."
Nietzche taught that rules about what is right and what is wrong are simply cultural inventions that serve as smokescreens for power struggles. According to Nietzche and his followers, subverting authority is a good thing...an act of liberation. He taught that might makes right. Whoever is strongest....whoever can win at "king of the mountain"....defines what is moral. Nietzche's philosophy is partially to blame for the establishment of the Nazi party and the subsequent annihilation of six million Jews. Charles Colson reports that seventy-five years ago two college students, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, murdered a 14-year-old boy. Their defense lawyer was the infamous Clarence Darrow and his most dramatic appeal was to argue that Leopold had absorbed the ideas of Nietzsche at school. He said, "Your honor, it is hardly fair to hang a 19-year-old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university." Well, this same philosophy is alive and well in our world today and is part of the reason that two teens in Littleton, Colorado could come to believe that killing 15 of their classmates was a good thing. The members of the commission Colson served on were in the dark. They needed enlightened but when given the light they did not recognize its source. This makes it even the more incumbent upon us to teach it to our children…grandchildren and even ourselves that the “Light” of the World is Jesus!
Pastor J. T. Carnell