Articles
Spiritual Doublespeak
Our sin-obsessed society is so set on indulging in sin without remorse or consequences that it has become adept at redefining terms and inventing and using euphemistic terms that help to ease their conscience and deceive themselves [and others] into thinking that what they do is something other than what it actually is: sin. This practice of redefining terms has become so easily accepted by frequent use, and when mainstream media and entertainment pick up the torch and join the sin-obsessed in their brainwashing efforts. Sadly, it is working better than ever, with even professing believers deceived into using their euphemisms and redefined terms.
It is bad enough our spiritual enemy is seeking our destruction (1 Pet. 5:8), but it is made all the more easy for him to win when he convinces even believers that what they are doing is perfectly acceptable or even preferable to truth and righteousness. If he can convince a Christian that sin is not really sin, or even if he can just get Christians to use terms that change the perception of sinful behavior by use of less offensive terminology or terms that make sin seem harmless or even something that is good, he can go far in leading them to practice these sinful behaviors and even defend them!
If you haven't already seen this in practice, consider just a few terms our spiritual enemy has invented to gain an advantage over the weak, the uninformed, and naïve. The current terminology is first, followed by the "old" and outdated terms God uses.
Total Sexual Freedom [Fornication]. Freedom is highly valued in this country, so much so that any hint of restricting any one of those freedoms — particularly, sexual freedom — is met with derision and cries of "Puritanism." The atheistic humanist argues, "In the area of sexuality, we believe that intolerant attitudes, often cultivated by orthodox religions and puritanical cultures, unduly repress sexual conduct," and state they do not "wish to prohibit, by law or social sanction, sexual behavior between consenting adults." [Humanist Manifesto II]
What does God say? His written word says, “Flee sexual immorality” (1 Cor. 6:18); “fornication… those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21); “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints” (Eph. 5:3); and, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Heb. 13:4).
Abortion; "Choice." [Murder] Pro-abortion advocates love to couch their actions in seemingly harmless terms like manual vacuum aspiration, dilation & evacuation, or induction. What they don't tell you is that it involves such things as literally tearing limbs from a baby in the womb or shredding the baby as it is then vacuumed out, inducing a baby to exit the womb [except for the head] before puncturing the back of its head and vacuuming its brains out, and injecting potassium chloride or a saline solution into the womb with the unwanted baby where it will inhale the solution and die a painful death, before being "extracted."
Does that previous paragraph bother you? I sure hope so, because it should. It is simply sickening to hear these barbaric procedures described in harmless terms or, redefined as a "women's rights issue" when it is murder by any reasonable human being's definition. If we did any of those things to a living being outside the womb, I am not sure we could be protected from the fury and vengeance of decent human beings before we could be quickly tried and imprisoned or executed, yet we do these "procedures" about 3,000 times each day in this country.
What does God say? Within God's word, Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb” (Job 1:21), indicating it was the same person inside the womb; he also said, when speaking of his servants, “Did not He who made me in the womb make them?” (Job. 31:15), indicating they were the same human beings inside the womb that they were outside the womb; the psalmist, in speaking to God, wrote, “You are He who took Me out of the womb” (Psa. 22:9), and this psalm is a Messianic psalm, speaking of the Christ who would come to save the world; he would also write, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psa. 139:13, 14). Yet man deems to call an innocent, unborn human being a "blob of tissue." Shame on us!
Named among the “six things the Lord hates” are “hands that shed innocent blood” (Prov. 6:16, 17). May God be merciful to such godless ones who would take life so carelessly, and most often because the ones who might have been born were merely inconvenient; may God be merciful to those who seek to elevate themselves to such a position they deem themselves worthy to decide who lives and who dies; may God be merciful to those who support it or who simply say nothing at all.
Narrow-mindedness. [Truth] What a twisted world we live in when one who speaks the truth is often labeled as "narrow-minded." In mathematics, it is easy to see that simple addition problems such as 2 + 2 = 4 are logical and rather narrow-minded, when it comes to the solution; no one complains if their answer is marked wrong because we understand there is only one correct answer.
Unfortunately, in all other aspects of life, some want to broaden definitions for the purpose of making certain behavior acceptable and, should someone oppose their efforts on moral grounds, we can expect to hear them accuse us of being "narrow-minded" and "imposing our standards on everyone else." They will vociferously argue "There are no absolutes!" when speaking of right and wrong, but hypocritically expect it in many aspects of life such as weights and measures and scientific knowledge. Why is that? Well, if a universal moral standard is eliminated, then we all get to make our own judgments of what is right and wrong!
What does God say? God's word tells us Jesus prayed to God, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17), and the psalmist echoed this when he wrote, “The entirety of Your word is truth” (Psa. 119:160). Jesus also said, “the word that I have spoken will judge” us in the last day (John 12:48). That's narrow!
Hate Speech. [The Bible] In Sweden, a "pastor" of a Pentecostal congregation in Kalmar was sentenced to one month in prison on a charge of inciting hatred against homosexuals, prosecuted for his sermon preached in 2003. In 1997, a Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission board of inquiry fined a Christian businessman $4,500 for running an advertisement in The Star Phoenix newspaper that simply listed four biblical passages that condemn homosexual behavior. It seems that the Bible's teaching on certain sins [i.e., homosexuality] is now legally identified as "hate speech."
What does God say? God's word [that book filled with what is now called "hate speech"] says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8); it tells us, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16); and it tells us, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). This is "hate speech"?
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;…Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes” (Isa. 5:20, 21). —— Steven Harper
