HAVING SELF RESPECT
Some time ago I was shocked to see a check-out clerk with purple hair, rings and things dangling from odd places on her face, and tattoos all over her body. She looked hideous and almost frightening. Obviously, she did not have much concern for her appearance. Today in our Western World we have millions of people like that. For instance, we have people shabbily dressed in public, with knees out of their jeans and rather ragged clothing. When I was a child, even in our rural area, we would have thrown such clothes into the rag bag.
It seems that our appearance and actions today betray a serious lack of self-respect. People do not respect themselves and neither do they respect anyone else. Of course, they also do not respect God. This prevalent attitude likely goes back to the growing belief system of evolution. If we view people as just piles of protoplasm, we will have little respect for them. We can kick them around and exploit them. So, today many people are abused at home, at work, at school, on the internet and other places. We have come to live in a very abusive society. Our attitude causes us to first abuse ourselves and then to abuse others.
EVIDENCE OF ABUSE AND LOST RESPECT
There is much evidence of abuse in our society. Drug abuse is becoming one of our biggest problems. Here in Colorado where I live, marijuana is now legalized. Although it has been proven to lower the IQ, it is big business here to the tune of over $400 million in state tax revenue per year. Drugs do not help us connect with reality or truth. Neither does alcohol or nicotine. Isn’t it interesting that most of the homeless folks today have some or all of these problems? Someone has said that if we do not deal with reality then reality will deal with us.
Then there is obesity. We are now told that 37.9 percent of men and 41.1 percent of women in the US are considered to be obese. Nearly one-quarter of all applicants to the US military are medically disqualified because of excessive weight and body fat. We are becoming a nation of fatsos. Just watch some TV programs back in the 50s and 60s to see how amazingly thin people were back then.
We illustrate our loss of respect in our speech. Our present cancel culture is a witness of this. With this new culture, we try our best to destroy others with our negative speech in person or on the web. Often, when average Americans are caught up in news reports they spurt out so many expletives that they seem to only be speaking a string of “bleeps,” as the networks have to edit out the many four-letter words. The favorite expletive seems to always be the “F” word.
Then we have the vast areas of sex abuse, including porn, abortion, homosexuality, prostitution, transgenderism, and live-in relationships. Once again, these things have nothing to do with reality or truth. One of my granddaughters advises live-in relationships, that they need to keep a packed suitcase in the closet because they are surely going to need it.
We certainly can mention the terrible trend of mass shootings. A few years ago, these hardly ever happened and now they have become more than daily affairs. These shootings leave hundreds dead and thousands wounded each year. Often, the shootings take place in the schools, preying on the very young and innocent children. These mass murderers betray a loss of self-respect, self-understanding and the respect and understanding of life in general.
How far removed all this is from God’s perfect plan of happy, productive living; of loving marriage between a man and a woman with the idea of producing godly children as Malachi 2:15 states. We can see by our present situation that it was not only Adam who ate from the wrong tree (Gen. 3:17-19), but we have multiplied millions of people still eating from that tree and bragging about how good it is. It is the “I think” tree, the “I have my truth” tree, or the “I will do it my way tree.” What a mess we have gotten ourselves into!
The resulting cheapened view of humanity was expressed by Princeton professor and Darwinist, Peter Singer. He asserted that humanity has no uniqueness and that newborn humans are even of less worth than a pig, a dog or a chimpanzee. (Geisler 190) Clearly, this reflects the great chasm that separates the Judeo/Christian and evolutionary viewpoints regarding humankind.
VIEWING OURSELVES AS WE REALLY ARE
The Bible says that we are made in the image of God. What a blessed truth! In Genesis 1:27 we read: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (only two genders). Our woke culture claims there are now over fifty genders and counting. Psalm 8:5-6 expounds more upon this idea: “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet…” In Psalm 139:14, we read that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” What great news this is! This news makes all the difference in the world. It assures us that we must respect ourselves and that we must respect others. Most of all, we are to respect God. Now that we are made in God’s image, we must not cheapen our bodies with cuttings and tattoos (Lev. 19:28). One comedian asked, “Why would you put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari?” (Yorkey 183)
For thousands of years, our Judeo/Christian heritage has told us that we humans are very special because we are made in the image of God. However, the Bible tells it like it really is. It tells us that the whole human race fell into sin. We are now all sinners (Rom. 3:23). We cannot get free of sin on our own. So, we humans do have a problem and it is a problem that will lead us down to certain destruction if it is not corrected (Rom. 6:23). We have abundant evidence displayed all around us that all human beings are sinners.
The wonderful and eternal Good News or Gospel is that God has taken care of this problem. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth almost two thousand years ago and gave his life as a sacrificial lamb to pay for our sins and to redeem us from the sinful nature that we had inherited from Adam. The good news of the Gospel is this: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). God wants us to know that we are all included in this offer. He says: “…Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:13).
Through Christ, we can now begin to be who we really are and to see ourselves as we are. We can also begin to see others as they are. We must realize that even the worst human in some way still reflects the glory of God. Often when I give out gifts to the poor I remind them, “You are made in the image of God!” Sadly, this concept has been lost in our society.
So, we can confidently say that the esteemed Professor Peter Singer is dead wrong about humanity. We can say the same to all the humanists and evolutionists who are peddling their wares today. They do not agree with reality and neither do they agree with truth. It is impossible for these folks to actually live out their philosophies in everyday life. For instance, though some are atheists and relativists, they certainly would not want their spouses to live as moral and sexual relativists. (Geisler 174) The end of their philosophies is confusion and destruction. However, no eye has seen and neither has ear heard the wonders that God has prepared for those who trust and believe in him. (1 Cor. 2:9).
It is so simple. Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life…” Everything we need to live happy, secure and blessed lives comes from him. Could we just swallow our pride and run to him today?
-Jim Gerrish
wordofgodtoday.com
Published 2022
Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004).
Mike Yorkey, Playing With Purpose, Inside the Lives and Faith of the NFL’s Most Intriguing Personalities (Uhrichsville, Ohio: Barbour Publishing, Inc., 2013).