Greetings,
I would like to echo some of what PloughBoy
@PloughBoy wrote.
If we stop and think for moment we might realise that we have had it fairly easy lately BUT at the same time the filthiness [as we know it] has been going on in different guises all through history.
We really have no idea about what it was like in the days of the Prophets and then, even way before, Likewise we know little but from history books of the more recent history of the last 2000 years but we don;t have to go back too far to see a lot of really horrid stuff being perpetuated throughout the world.
If we are
brave enough, we will notice that for all our lives, we have heard of or encountered first hand despicable things. Many have been able to switch it off as they might with a television and pretend it didn't happen or doesn't happen so they don't lose their peace. But for many more, around the world even today, people are vile and there are many victims, innocent victims, and again, we can switch that off too. BUT the point i am making is that these things have been happening since before Noah's time and yet we get all wound up because it is starting to encroach upon our comfort zones.
Should we welcome it all? No.
However, as was pointed out earlier, the degree of acceptance and the level of turning a blind eye in many professing christian circles and churches is way beyond the perfection we are called to in Christ. As also pointed out, though, it was such in the earliest churches, as we have record in the New Testament.
Don't let us be fooled or so stupid as to forget that, because we do so to our loss, and, what is worse, we continue regurgitating the stench of it to others, especially both children and new converts and the lost.
Basically, we should not be surprised at all; nor alarmed. Who do we think we are, verses, who are we?
-----.......-----
Perhaps one problem we neglect is that of the language we speak? Do we speak worldly-speak, stinking-thinking sort of stuff? Or, do we speak as those renewed, with a faith that is contagious, with a language that either offends or delights, depending on if the hearer is saved or not.
We read all the Bible things but we miss a lot. In our study, which most engage in to some degree, we discover all this yet we don't register concerning the topic at hand. And, for those who do, we have documentaries, time life magazines and gazillions of internet articles etc etc etc that do give at least a little insight to atrocities, past and present.
Back in the days of Jesus, before He was crucified, the world was a mess. The kings and rulers of Israel and Judah were little different to today's rulers and leaders around the world. Vile practices were common place and considered good taste or wisdom or educated. Many of the priests and Pharisees, etc knew about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and were the pastors and ministers and leaders of what might be called the church of the LORD but as we read, it was not all well and they despised any who would threaten what they stood for. People claiming to be the Messiah were commonplace and revolts and divisions were standard. People were fickle. Nothing has really changed.
A BIG BUT....
But there were always
some, there always have been some and today there are still some, like Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, who were real in their faith and did not lose sight of the promises of the LORD. Did they abstain from all appearance of evil? I would say, definitely.
In the same way there are surely those who with sincere hearts and with living hope, press on towards the high calling of God in Jesus Christ the Lord.
Do we compromise or wink at sin? Do we not judge because we know we would be guilty of the same?
I would like to say that until EVERYTHING of this world stinks of death to you, you will always be happy to co=exist with it and with that we also have the "oh, how awful!" talk and the repulsion of acts such as sodomy. When we finally take the world as it is, we will no longer be so moved by it all. We seek a continuing city... we are strangers and pilgrims... or are we?
We REALLY need to be bothering ourselves with doing God stuff, talking God stuff and thinking God stuff and refusing to give place to anything else.
As i started, perhaps we have had it too good and so now when stuff like sodomy is getting deeper into OUR society, we are a-gasp at it.
Somewhere along the line we do need to wake up.... and why not, too, for...
our redemption draws near.
Bless you ....><>