Articles from July 2015

There is not shortage of places or people weighing in on the legalization of same-sex marriages. Crimes against nature are no small matter, and now it is legal and celebrated.

But this is not the only matter weighing the nation in the balance of danger.

I get that unbelievers don’t want laws like believers do. They want laws, just laws that ease their conscience. But, that’s not really the problem either.

The Lord’s church has grown cold, complicit even with many other fleshly vices that are rarely addressed from the pulpit any more, and even encouraging sinful behavior by her silence or participation. No, really, many in the church have been for too long “drinking the intoxicating cup of worldly sensual pleasure.”

Watch how many who are all bothered by the legalization of sodomy (historically known as crimes against nature) will within the same moment indulge in the fleshly demands for any and/or all of the following…

The following bullet-points are excerpts and quotations from “Youth Warned” by John Angell James (1824)

• Who is warning the Lord’s people of the danger of gambling? “There is virtually no difference in who frequents the game table, slot machine, or online gaming sites. What believer today knows that gambling is to the mind what alcohol is to the body. “
• Who is warning the Lord’s people of the danger of the theater? “The theater is generally frequented by all; the theater, that corrupter of public morals; that school where nothing good and everything bad is learned; that resort of the wicked and school of vice; that broad and flowery avenue to the bottomless pit! Here a young man finds no hindrances to sin, no warnings against wickedness, no mementos of judgment to come! But, on the contrary, everything to inflame his passions, to excite his immoral desires, and to gratify his appetites for vice! The language, the music, and the company, are all adapted to a sensual taste—and calculated to demoralize the mind!”
  “It is by no means the author’s intention to affirm that all who frequent the theater are wicked people. Far be it from him to prefer an accusation so extensive and unfounded as this. No doubt many amiable and moral people are among the admirers of dramatic representation. That they receive no contamination from the scenes they witness, or the language they hear, is no stronger proof that the stage is not immoral in its tendency and effects, than that there is no contagion in the plague, because some constitutions resist the infection. That people fenced in by every conceivable moral defense and restraint, should escape uninjured, is saying little; but even in their case, I will contend that the mind is not altogether uninjured. Is it possible for an imperfect moral creature (and such are the best of us,) to hear the irreverent swearing, the filthy allusions, the anti-Christian sentiments, which are uttered during the representation of even our purest plays, and hear these for amusement, without some deterioration of mental purity?”
• Who is warning the Lord’s people of the danger of gossip? The house of prayer is frequently visited with hungry gossips not ready to weep over their own sins and can’t quite wait to report to other gossips of all the worldly behaviors of all being prayed for.
• Who is warning the Lord’s people of sensual pleasures? “Where [professing Christians] live in this way, it directs their reading, which is not pious or improving—but light, trifling, and polluting. Inflammatory novels, stimulating romances, lewd poetry, immoral songs, satires against pious characters, and arguments against Scripture and biblical morals—are in general the works consulted by corrupt and wicked youth, and by these they become still more wicked. Never did the press send forth streams of greater pollution than at this time. Authors are to be found, of no small abilities, who pander to every corruption of the youthful bosom. Almost every vice has its high-priest—to burn incense on its altar, and to lead its victims, decked with the garlands of poetry or fiction, to their ruin.”
• Who is warning the Lord’s people of the danger of dancing? “Mirthful [dancing] where eating, drinking, and revelry, are carried on until midnight, or until morning, are another source of ruin! [Professor of Christ], such meetings unfit you not only for the serious pursuits of godliness—but even for the duties of business. Their expense impoverishes your purse, their influence impairs your health, and their guilt ruins your soul!”
• Who is warning the Lord’s people of the danger of bad company? “[Professor of Christ], if you determine to live in the gratification of your passions and the indulgence of your sinful appetites, you will soon have associates suited to your taste, and that will never disturb your conscience with the language of warning or reproof. And will these be wicked fools, blaspheming scoffers, apostate people, hardened sinners, degraded sots, dissolute infidels, abandoned prostitutes! Look at the mirthful party. Can you approve it? Are there not moments, when you feel the last dying remains of moral feeling stirring within you in sickening revulsion at such society as this? But even these ‘dying, lingering signs of a conscience’ which are not quite dead, will soon vanish—and you will yield yourself without a struggle to all the corrupting, damning influence of bad company!”
  “The improvement and diffusion of modern education, have produced a bold and independent mode of thinking, which, though it be in itself a benefit, requires a proportionate degree of religious restraint to prevent it from degenerating into lawless licentiousness. It is probable also, that of late years parents have relaxed the salutary rigor of domestic discipline. Trade and commerce are now so widely extended, that our youth are more from beneath their parents’ inspection than formerly, and consequently more exposed to the contaminating influence of evil company.”
• Who is warning the Lord’s people of the danger of alcohol? Where is it said that young people may innocently walk in all kinds of sensual indulgences? On what page of the book of God’s truth do you find these allowances for the excesses of youth, which you make for yourselves, and ill-judging friends make for you? “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them! They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands.” (Isaiah 5:11-12)
• Who is warning the Lord’s people of the flirtatious behavior of immodesty? “Worldly pleasure, decked in the voluptuous attire and the gaudy ornaments of a harlot, appears to their heated imagination, with all the attractive charms of a most bewitching beauty”.
• And many more….

Religion and boredom are not synonyms. For too long the church has been trying to make religion look cool by the world’s standards, essentially flirting with the sinful vices of the flesh and now when we speak on the matters of Scripture it sounds so prudish and full of piety that we avoid even using the word religion any more. Think about it; who doesn’t want a feel-good emotional friendship with God? Just so long as that god doesn’t hate everything we love about our self governed idolatrous life. And I’m only thinking of the majority of professing believers.

“In God’s name, I serve you with notice of the trial. Prepare to meet your God! He is coming! He is coming—and you must meet him! O think of judgment to come—in the midst of all your sinful pleasures and criminal liberties—think of it! Will you drink the drunkard’s cup; will you go to the brothel, to the gambling table, to the scene of riot and wickedness—knowing that for all these things God will bring you into judgment? With the terrible solemnities of the last day before your eyes—will you, can you, dare you—proceed in the career of vice? Conscience—O faithful monitor! O dreadful avenger! I charge you to whisper in the sinner’s ear, when going to the scene of his unholy pleasures, “But know, that for all of these things, God will bring you to judgment! For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.”

Return to your ordained duty church. The city needs you on the wall warning of an approaching enemy looking to devour all who will entertain his attractive disguise covering his hideous appearance. Who is warning of a devouring devil? Who is warning of a judgment to come? Who is pointing to the same, a saving Savior? If not the church, no one will take this duty on. No one volunteers for this kind of duty. Only called-out, redeemed sinners who know there is a devouring enemy conquered by a Redeeming Savior.

Arise, church! Arise!

all quotations are from Youth Warned by John Angell James.