ANTI-SPIRITUALITY

I start many of my writings with the thought about the days in which we are living. This is because I have identified areas that show exactly the prevailing thoughts of our culture. No matter what word is used to describe the situation, the root is always the same. There is an ongoing war between who will be God. This is a war between God and Satan with man caught in between.

Actually, there is no war because God has defeated Satan at every turn. However, the war continues for us because God allows it. Just as Adam was tested to see if he was going to be an obedient son, we are tested by God to see if we are genuine or reprobate. The test comes by us choosing which side we will be on. Moses said in Exodus 32:26, "Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him." The sons of Levi were thus true sons who had passed the test. Being on the Lord’s side proves whether we are a true son or not.

When we reject one position, by definition, we choose its opposite. There is no other alternative. This makes things predictable. It is easy to see that if someone rejects God then, by definition, he will accept the position of Satan. As Paul said the devil uses wiles to try and deceive us into believing that his is the voice of God. Since the devil does not possess truth, he must use methods of trickery to make it seem as though what he is saying is truth. In other words, he must use deception. His deceptions are able to snare the unwary.

The Bible teaches that God is Spirit. This means that God is wholly spiritual. We are created in the image of God which is a spiritual image. To reject God is to reject spirituality. This rejection will result in the denying of man having a spiritual nature. The result will be those who reject the spiritual will accept the philosophy of materialism. To them the only world that exists is the world of the physical senses. These reprobates will automatically preach the gospel of evolution. They will deny God as Creator. They will teach that physical material is eternal.

Being anti-spiritual means being anti-law. Romans 7:14 reads in part, "For we know that the law is spiritual..." The law is spiritual and to reject God’s law is to become carnal. Carnality is characterized by sensuousness. Paul made this fact clear in Romans 8:7, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." The Greek word for carnal is the body, as opposed to the soul or spirit. The body is physical. The inclinations or mind of the carnal are to fulfill bodily appetites. The carnally minded are opposed to any consideration for the spiritual. Thus, the carnal mind is anti-spiritual.

Being anti-law is finding yourself opposed to God and on the devil’s side. Rejection of God’s law has consequences. One consequence is thinking like an animal, in only being concerned with bodily appetites. Anti-spiritual thinking lacks a concern for the future. Anti-spiritual thinking is solely concerned with the immediate moment. The anti-spiritual mind is the mind of an animal. Man was never created to be an animal. Rejection of the spiritual has consequences.

ETHICS AND SPORTS

Most of my life I have been involved in athletic pursuits. While growing up, I was involved in school sports. During my high school years, I was known as a gym rat because I spent so much time in the gym. I think that these years of physical training have helped me today in being physically strong. I believe that I built a good physical foundation in those days. So maybe my previous athletic pursuits served some benefit.

I am still athletic today. I run 21 miles a week and lift free weights three days a week. My job has much physicality involved with it, so needless to say, I am physically active at 51 years old. I intend to keep up my exercise program for as long as I can. The more that you do, the more able you are to be able to do it. Following any exercise program takes self discipline. You must make yourself do it. Consistency is the key to an effective exercise regimen.

My purpose in maintaining my exercise regimen is for my health. I consider my exercising to be my form of health insurance. It is an inexpensive form of insurance, in my estimation. I believe that the best form of health insurance is preventative maintenance. It is better to prevent an illness rather than to treat one. As the old adage goes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Wisdom prevents disease and foolishness treats it. Sadly, most people are treatment oriented rather than prevention minded. Remember, it is easier to prevent than to treat an illness.

Organized sports of our day has been filled with the use of steroids. What needs to be understood about organized sports is that they are entertainment. Organized sports serve no other purpose. Life would go on without them. Organized sports are not necessary in any way. They are a diversion from the real world. In this regard, they are wholly fantasy. Those who live in this world are living a life of fantasy. There is nothing real world involved in organized sports.

There are those who decry the use of steroids in sports. They say that those using them are cheaters. Question, what are they cheating? After all sports are just a game and nothing more. It should surprise no one that modern day athletes use steroids even at the risk of losing their careers. The eternal principle is where your heart is, there also will be your treasure. Those using steroids are demonstrating through their actions where their hearts are. They desire to be idolized and immortalized.

Theology governs all aspects of life, even sports. The other issue is that these athletes do not believe in any absolutes. They have been taught all of their lives that absolutes do not exist and all things are relative and when they follow what they have been taught, people ask why they did that? No one says it is because they are following the dictates of their hearts. Athletics is the god of our age and the athletes are the gods. This is why they make such astronomical salaries for playing a game. This is the result of the acceptance of Greco-Roman thought over Biblical law. Let the games begin!

THE END OF A CULTURE

We are living in tumultuous times. There is nothing anchored down, so there is a constant drift into the abyss. Those who are currently in charge of setting our civil policy do not know what they are doing because they have no plan. Having a plan requires forethought. These elected officials have no forethought. This can only mean one thing, the whole of culture is headed for a great crash.

Make no mistake about it, this country has already crashed spiritually. What is transpiring is the crash of the culture objectively. The only thing that is holding back the inevitable crash is the inconsistency of its adherents. Fortunately, idolaters are not wholly consistent with their religious beliefs. Their open hypocrisy is a blessing to us all. While they scream at the top of their lungs we need green energy, they still fly in planes and drive automobiles.

While the young are being indoctrinated into the Green Religion at the government schools, the amount of carbon emissions being emitted at the time school starts and ends by parents and students driving cars and these indoctrinated students are released into the real world, is a lot. Those who really are involved in the green and conservation movements are those who are home schooled.

Home schooled students do not have to be transported to the central school. This saves the environment that the Green Religion worship. Even if home school is a co-op, classes are held once a week. So home schooling reduces carbon emissions. You would think that this would be something the Green Religion would embrace. This does not even enter into their thinking. They hate home schooling because they cannot indoctrinate these students with their drivel.

A culture is at its end when it wholly abandons the spiritual. When a culture abandons God’s law, it sets itself up for God’s judgment. God is not mocked, whatsoever a culture sows that is what it will reap. The world is reaping the judgement of God. The judgment of God is designed to bring about repentance, but usually what happens is that the recalcitrant heart defies God to a greater degree. This defiance is suicide.

The meek inherit the earth, not the humanist. This means that a culture that is at its end will demonstrate more and more the principles of death. Spiritual death means physical death. This is what we are seeing in open display in our culture. This death can be a slow and painful one. It may takes years before the final collapse is complete but make no mistake about it, the end will come to a culture that defies God.

God’s wrath is poured out against ungodliness. Wicked men will not prosper forever. Their days are limited. This is God’s world and His is the only government. Man can pass law after law but man does not have the power to enforce all of his laws. This present culture is at war with Christianity and ultimately God. This culture is bent on destroying itself which it will do. The question becomes what will rise out of the ashes?