Civilization Revisited

par·a·digm  (pr-dm, -dm)

n  3. A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.

What are we really considering when we ask our Supreme Court to rule on such things as marriage? Have these questions come up before in other civilizations?  Why is it necessary to ask and answer these questions over and over?  To answer these questions I must first state that I have chosen in my life to operate from the paradigm that Creator God knows what is best for His creation.  The problem arises when we consider that God created us with a will to chose what paradigm we will follow.  He endowed us with a knowledge of his omnipotent presence and His desire that we follow the rules he set down for His creation, but we can choose to set our own rules and worship the creation instead of the Creator.  Look at your history.  Every major civilization that has come and gone on this planet has, at some point, decided that the creation should set the rules, and in doing so has set in motion its predictable decline and ultimate destruction.  We here in the United States are no different.  History would tell us with the visible warnings of crumbling ruins that the Holy scripture is correct when it states that Creator God will not tolerate our aberrant choices.  Yet we find ourselves there once again, self-centered and haughty in our belief that because more and more people are choosing to embrace aberrant behavior as a lifestyle that all of us should acquiesce and legitimize the behaviors with a ruling by the highest court in our land.

Let's go back to Rome around 60 A.D.  The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Christian Church meeting in Rome comments on this very issue in Chapter 1 of his letter. (The text is from the New Living Translation)

God’s Anger at Sin

¹⁸ But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.^[i] 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. ²⁰ For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

²¹ Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. ²² Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. ²³ And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. ²⁵ They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. ²⁶ That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. ²⁷ And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

²⁸ Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. ²⁹ Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. ³⁰ They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. ³¹ They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. ³² They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.  

It is not normal or natural, it is a paradigm choice of those who refuse to acknowledge a loving God and his perfect plan for His creation.  Our nation (and each individual in it) must choose what paradigm to follow.  I am only an old sinner saved by the Grace of God through his Son Jesus Christ, but I have never regretted my choice and I pray that others will examine themselves and see that Jesus Christ is the only way to fill the natural longing to have a relationship with Creator God.