This Grand Problem

The politician was asked on National Television if he believed in God and quickly he replied, “No.” However, he was equally quick to use the words, “morally wrong” and “heartless” when accusing his political opponent on asylum seekers and climate change. His opponent said he did believe in God, but failed to take the godless man to task over those accusations. My concern is not for the politicians, it is for my Bible-based brothers and sisters in Christ who are often charged with the same sort of silly accusations simply because we don’t agree with them. When the godless speak about what’s morally wrong – or right, the question must be asked, “Where do you get your beliefs and values from?”

We already know what his response will be. He’s going to tell us, “They come from my heart. I don’t need any God to tell me what’s right or wrong. I’m not that stupid!” The reality is though, he is that stupid! Were it not for God he wouldn’t have a clue about morality, right and wrong. These are God-given; they are built in. And, there was a time in his life when his view of these was closer to God’s view than they are now. We know this because God tells us in Romans 1:18-31. Too often we Bible Christians can be lulled into thinking we ought to go easy on our accusers because they don’t know what we know. Not true; they know enough to be rebuked! God says, that they are without excuse. We have no right to let them off the hook!

The godless who lecture us on what’s, “morally wrong” and “heartless” are those, Professing to be wise, they became fools (morons, simpletons). That’s right … morons and simpletons. We need to know this because that’s what they accuse us of being. Never forget: what they accuse us of is what God accuses them of! We don’t have to be sinfully retaliative and fleshly rude, but we have the authority in Christ under the anointing of the Holy Spirit to speak up for what’s truly “morally wrong” and “right” and “heartless.” We Bible Christians have the upper hand over the devil, which means we have the upper hand over the devil’s own. This is a spiritual battle, and Jesus has given us the spiritual authority and power to deal with it Luke 10:19. 

You will notice it is the godless with the loudest voices when it comes to telling us what’s “morally wrong” not Bible Christians. The dictionary describes the moral person as: ‘one who is concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior.’ Synonyms: good, righteous, upright, upstanding, high-minded, right-minded, principled, proper, honorable, honest, just, noble, incorruptible, scrupulous, respectable, decent, truthful irreproachable, law-abiding, clean-living, chaste, pure, blameless, sinless. Normally, these characteristics describe Jesus Christ alone, but because of who we are in Christ, they describe us too, the godly, not them, the godless! They describe the redeemed, not the unredeemed.

Yes, it is the godless who are “heartless” not Bible Christians. Those who have no heart for God have a misguided, but often evil heart for their fellow man. How else could it be possible for a person to condone and campaign for pre-birth and post-birth killing of children, plus so-called mercy killing of both young and old people? How else is it possible for a couple of Australian “ethicists” to publish a paper entitled “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” They say mothers should be allowed to kill babies they don’t want because, “The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a foetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.”

This is the stuff of Adolf Hitler and his murderers! What he was into shocked the entire civilized world when it found out. Not so today. Today if he was around there would be no Nuremberg Trials! It is reported more than a few College Campus students are willing to say they support post-birth killing. Some students even suggest children up to 4 or 5-years-old can also be killed, because they are not yet “self aware.” How heartless is that?! Yet, if you differ with them about how we allow asylum seekers into the country, or challenge their godless, silly, infantile views on man-made climate change, you are the one branded heartless. Jesus said it, And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold Matthew 24:12.  

Speaking of godless, silly, infantile views, the Green Party leader in the UK was recently reported as saying that under her Party, joining brutal terrorist groups like ISIS or al-Qaeda would not be illegal but committing acts of violence would. She and her Party want to make sure people are not punished for what they think or what they believe. Quote: “Obviously actions of inciting violence, supporting violence, those are absolutely unacceptable, illegal and should be pursued to the full extent of the law.” What does she think the members are going to do – lay down their ideology, their arms, stop killing and become a charity group? Jesus said it, For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks Matthew 12:34 – including an abundance of infantile silliness!

A radio presenter and writer in the USA says that for 25 years he’s been asking Secondary College students across America if they would save their dog or a stranger first if both were drowning. Most of them have said they would save the dog. The number one reason: they love their dog, they don’t know anything about the stranger. Heartless? Yes – and morally wrong! How common it is today for someone to admit they love animals but don’t love people. Animals, “don’t fight back” “they’re honest” “they can’t talk” “make me feel important” “they love me anyway.” Perhaps that’s a sign of a broken heart as well as a misguided heart, but there are thousands of them out there in every society.

“Follow your heart,” so goes the advice and indeed, it is a rare person who doesn’t do so. As mentioned earlier, that’s where most people get their beliefs and values from. There’s one grand problem with such advice however, and this grand problem is the cause of all other problems, troubles and evils in the world today. Believer in God or non- believer (it makes no difference if you don’t), God says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9. Deceitful (crooked, polluted) above all things, not some things. Desperately wicked (sick, incurable, woeful, evil, diseased, derelict, vicious, facinorous). No, this is not simply the heart of a Hitler and Stalin, it is the heart of all human beings.

That is the natural condition of each human heart, inherited from our first parents as a result of their eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Genesis 2:17. The mind is part of the heart Hebrews 4:12. The will is part of the heart Acts 11:23. The emotions are part of the heart Romans 9:2. The conscience is part of the heart Acts 2:37. All have been corrupted to the deepest level of our being. Jesus confirms this, For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man Mark 7:21-23.

That’s the current condition of all unredeemed hearts. This grand problem is never external, but always internal! That’s why the one who says he gets his beliefs and values from his heart is on the broad road of destruction and will stay on it till death if he doesn’t come face to face with what Jesus says he is – a sinner Matthew 7:13-14. He must come to Jesus for spiritual heart surgery. That means he must have the heart of the devil cut from him and receive the heart of God in its place. Good living can’t do that, mere church attendance can’t do that, the local Rotary or Lions Club can’t do that, only Jesus Christ can do that. When God says Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23), He’s not referring to our devil’s heart!

“He (or she) didn’t believe in God, but he had a good heart; he’d do anything for anybody.” How often have we heard someone spoken of in that manner at their death or funeral? I’ve never heard a eulogy given that didn’t say or imply something similar about one who, “didn’t believe in God.” Even the worst of criminals get spoken of in the same way! Worse. Often they’re then spoken of as being in heaven! At the very least, that is the language of a misguided heart. There is no heaven for someone who didn’t believe in God, only hell. When that man was alive, there was a time when God did everything he could to keep him from going there, but in the end He handed him over to the desires of his heart. Again, it’s all there in Romans 1:18 and onwards.

“Morally wrong” and “heartless” – those silly accusations do not belong to Bible-Christians. They belong to the devil and the devil’s own. Our beliefs and values are those of God, whose name is Lord Jesus Christ. God alone is the Ultimate Authority on what is right and wrong, morally and otherwise and, He has written it for us not only in 66 books, which we know as the Bible, but He has also written it on each human heart. (…….. for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) Romans 2:14-15.