In the Spotlight
By Richard Allen – November 8th 2021
In Part 1, we saw the link between depraved behavior and the human condition called: “Blindness of the Heart.” In Eph 4:17-18 Paul the Apostle makes it clear what this Blindness of the Heart consists of: “A vane mind, a darkened understanding, and alienation from the life of God – all brought on by an ignorance from within,” and displays itself in being given over to “lust, uncleanness and greediness.” He says much the same thing to the Church in the Book of Romans 1:26-28, where he links dishonorable passions, and depraved behavior to a debased mind:
“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” (Rom 1:26-28)
In both passages this condition I’m calling “Blindness of the Heart” evidences itself in lust, uncleanness and greediness, and always starts with alienation from God and a debased mind! As I learned many years ago, because vertical relationships between mankind and their creator were severed by Adam and Eve’s sin, therefore the horizontal relationships that we enjoy between both men and women are also messed up! From the time that Adam and Eve committed that first act of disobedience in Eden, their spiritual judgment and ability to discern truth was seriously altered. While eating the forbidden fruit from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” promised to make them wise, in truth they were “spiritually dumbed down,” and could no longer even perceive things that they already knew about God. The book of Genesis describes our first parent’s onset of spiritual befuddlement after their sin – in this way:
“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis 3:8-11)
Instead of becoming wise, the exact opposite happened. Adam, who had seen God make all the animals on land, seas and in the air, and then have them pass before him as he named them – along with his wife Eve somehow believed that they could hide their nakedness from each other behind some fig leaves, and then hide themselves from the eyes of God among some foliage. Now, that’s a major dumbing down in a hurry! And the rest of history didn’t get any better. If we return to that passage in Romans, the Apostle Paul details man’s insanity after he severed his relationship with an eternal, omnipresent, omniscient God:
“Who by their unrighteousness suppressed the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:19-23)
In light of these passages, it’s easy to understand how we got where we are today. Allowing 40-year-old men with 3-days-worth of beard to use women’s restrooms because they’re wearing a dress isn’t allowing someone more freedom, it’s oppressing and victimizing those with less power – ALL IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM! If one thing is apparent, it’s that these new rules do not represent freedom, but BONDAGE! How about the issue of Abortion? If we wonder why the natural affection of a mother for her child can be so callously cast off, we only need to remember that it comes back having our minds darkened, and being ignorant of God’s truth!
Trust me when I say, my heart goes out to these poor women – many who are deceived, and have been convinced that their own freedom and prosperity is conditioned upon taking the life of their unborn child. I’m also aware that many of them are trapped in horrendous life circumstances, and have been abandoned by a lawless society that has largely allowed men to be sexual libertines without taking any responsibility! Sadly, failed public policy has played a major part in exploding fatherlessness, abortion, dependence and poverty.
Again, what are the conditions that lead women to make these life-changing decisions? Like so many things in the real world, this issue has a physical and spiritual side to it. I’ll start with the physical side, as it’s natural for us to understand. Based on how God has created men and women, men have been given the desire to for a sexual union with women. And while biology explains some of it, the purely biological impulses are only a part of the picture. God’s word teaches both a physical union as well as a spiritual union between man & woman:
“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh” But who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.” (I Corinthians 6:15–17)
“In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Eph. 5:22-32)
These passages must seem totally absurd to someone with “blindness of the heart.” Sex is just a physical act, purely biological – based upon chemical and biological impulses that are genetically hard-wired into our DNA! There’s no right or wrong, just impulses that are either acted upon, or suppressed! And to those who have become so hardened of mind and conscience, they see no consequences for their falsehoods, or the untold damage done to society at large, and those who are poor and helpless in particular. We glorify and promote sexual lawlessness, and then marvel when those who participate in this lawlessness are abandoned and crushed down in fatherlessness and poverty. All to be repeated by their children – born with the same “blindness of heart.”
And what makes it so sad is watching those whom society reveres and honors in Hollywood, the Media, Government, Healthcare and Academia extol the virtues of sexual lawlessness, and ague that killing unborn children will not coarsen our society towards those who are the weakest. To have aborted an unborn child in the womb is no longer a thing to be ashamed of, No, it’s a badge of honor! A rite of passage that we’re proud of, and encourage others to take part in. Again, back to Paul’s explanation in Romans 1 for additional insight:
“They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Rom 1:29-32)
Misery surely loves company! In our debased minds and “blindness or heart,” we not only practice this lawless insanity, but we give approval and encouragement to those who also participate with us. There is some sense of personal vindication and comfort when other debased minds participate with us in our rebellion against God, and all that is holy and just. Don’t underestimate the power of “group thinking,” which actually is just “group sin” as we consider the “Blindness of our hearts.” Since so many other fallen creatures agree with me, and have also made the same choices – we can’t all be wrong! How could God hold us all accountable for our sins and lawless deeds? No, we’re confident that we must be in the right!
It’s here with this “blindness of the heart” that bad political thinking starts and flourishes. We think ourselves to be wise in our exchange of good and bad choices (v. 22), but are actually “suppressing the truth” (V. 18). Science has officially refused to “acknowledge God,” and actually asked the very question: “Is God Dead?” on a famous Time Magazine cover in 1966. The article all but proclaimed that the answer had already been confirmed. Science had increased the frontiers of knowledge to the point where a belief and faith in an Eternal God was just a vestige of primitive man’s fear of death. Mankind was now enlightened, reaching for the stars and would ultimately conquer disease, famine, war and ultimately death! And yet here we sit 55 years later as the “Age of Aquarius” failed to dawn, but rather the age of high-tech-war, genocide, child abandonment and sex-trafficking, and even what increasingly appears to be a “government-engineered-plague,” in hopes of killing billions with both designer-viruses and experimental DNA Altering Medication – falsely called a vaccine!
The only good news that we have for such “blindness of the heart” is the one that Paul gave us in that same first chapter of Romans:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed to be by faith for our faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)
There is hope for our “Blindness of the Heart,” it’s by putting our Trust in the only Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord!
