Poison in the Cup

The current attempts within the church to lower standards of morality can only be described as Satanic. Carried to their intended and logical conclusion, they will replace Christian standards based on the clear teachings of Scripture with those of the world. They will bring the sure disaster such laxness entails. They will render the church, which led the way in this tragedy, powerless in an area where everyone, particularly young people, needs standards to go by, as well as wisdom and restraints that the world cannot give. It infuriates some of us (and I am angry with what I believe is righteous indignation) that some church leaders condone, excuse, and even espouse immorality under the guise of what they call a “much needed new freedom.”

I am angry not only at what those churchmen are doing but also with the way they are doing it. First they deny that God has established moral absolutes. Then they ask individuals to prepare “daring” position papers which will be used for study and conversation. Finally, if these new concepts of morality and immorality cannot secure immediate approval from a church court, they ask that the papers be “sent down for study,” knowing that what is rejected today may by default become the position of the church tomorrow.

The psalmist warns of the three steps to destruction: walking in the counsel of the ungodly, standing in the way of sinners, and finally sitting in the seats of the scoffers. In the same way, the man in the pew is being asked to “study” an evil report so that in the end its findings will be accepted as the way for “Christian” living. As Alexander Pope once wrote,

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As to be hated needs but to be seen;

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, the embrace.

I have before me church-sponsored magazines that once would have been suppressed and their editors and authors dismissed for publishing the filth they contain. Today they can get by with offering such fare unless some of us lay people, who share in the expense of producing this “Christian education” literature, will rise up with a holy anger like that of our Lord who demanded when cleansing the Temple, “Take these things away.”

One highly offensive magazine, published jointly by three denominations, has been defended on the basis that those engaged in Christian education need to know what the world is like so they can help young people combat its evils. But such literature appears on almost every newsstand in the land, and “underground newspapers” specialize in such filth; does the church have to sponsor and produce the same type of thing?

In this particular issue there was not a single article that stated the Christian position, nor was there one word of condemnation of the evil described. The conclusion is inevitable that those who produced this magazine, and those who defended it, enjoyed wallowing together in its filth.

In another official publication of two churches, jointly produced, there is an article which I am told was written at the request of a task force of a once great denomination for the purpose of “stimulating conversation.”

This article, instead of saying that some people hold to certain immoral ways of life, makes the following categorical suggestions to its readers:

(1) “Could not the church encourage lonely retired persons to live together or work out whatever other relationship would provide loving companionship and sexual enjoyment?” (This was so the people in question might not lose their social security benefits!)

Here in an official church paper, a woman—a paid employee in a high position in her church—suggests that the church should encourage fornication!

(2) “The church should ‘point the way with compassion and wisdom to a way of life’ that enables those who are single to express their sexuality and to establish deep sustaining relationships with men who may or may not be married.… Such relationships between single women and married men might or might not involve coitus. The church should also show its openness to the new forms of association.”

Now this same church employee is recommending that the church point the way to an adulterous life and place its benediction upon it.

(3) The writer goes on to advocate the Scandinavian commune system and adds, “Fidelity to the group or to a particular partner does not hinge on coitus or abstaining from coitus.”

First fornication, then adultery, and finally infidelity—all to be countenanced and encouraged by the church!

And the article ends with these words: “To put aside fear and hypocrisy, to live as new creatures in Christ, would that the church might set forth and act out what it means to live by grace and New Testament radicalness. How daring can we be?”

Apparently the author of this article either does not believe the words of our Lord and the Apostle Paul (if she has read them) about the God-ordained responsibilities of sex, or she has completely rejected the New Testament concept in favor of a pagan one.

I write in anger and I write a warning: If those responsible for religious magazines and their contents get by with these assaults on Christian morality, the day of church-approved prostitution is not far away!

I write in anger because of the pressures already encouraging our young people to engage in free love. If the church adds to the siren voices of vulgarity, immorality, and “freedom” on every hand, and doesn’t judge them guilty, then God will surely judge the church. Perhaps he will turn to those smaller denominations still accepting the Word of God at face value and still preaching that sooner or later immorality entails God’s judgment. They know that the Apostle Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit when he said, “Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure man … has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.… for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.… Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Eph. 5:5, 6b, 11, RSV).

Within the cup of much that passes for “Christian” education today there is poison. First came the denial of God’s Word; now we come to the dregs of immorality. Look into what is being taught in your church. It may surprise and shock you. And it may lead you to join in an effective protest.

It should!

L. NELSON BELL

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