The Apostle Peter tells us, “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge” (2 Peter 1:5). Virtue is another way of saying moral excellence. In contrast to this the majority of nations in our modern world encourage and promote decisions and trends which blur and weaken our sense of morality.
An example of this would be what passes for entertainment on television. Over the years the sitcoms such as Father Knows Best and other programs which, although not always perfectly exemplify biblical standards, weren’t immoral or suggestive. Over time this type of program has been replaced by many violent, sexually promiscuous dramas. Sex before marriage is portrayed as the accepted norm, and is commonly regarded as a wise move to determine if you are compatible before marriage.
Nearly 20 years ago, in 2007 a writer commented on the latest TV season: “Traditional appeals to family values find no resonance beyond the religious and conservative base…. the autumn schedules [of 2007] offer such an orgy of sexually explicit programming, even [Janet] Jackson will be blushing” (The Sunday Times Magazine, Aug. 12, 2007).
Television wasn’t alone in its downhill plunge. At the same time publishing experienced a similar decline in moral standards, with the emergence of Playboy and other similar magazines throughout the western world with their explicit content. Movies followed the same sad path with the first mainstream film showing female nudity appearing in 1967.
Long-held traditional values and biblical standards were cast aside in favour of a culture virtually devoid of adherence to biblical standards, and often openly hostile to them. Historians Will and Ariel Durant reflected on this dilemma: “… an unmoored generation surrenders itself to luxury, corruption, and restless disorder of family and morals, in all but a remnant clinging desperately to old restraints and ways….” (The Lessons of History, 1968, p. 93).
In his book When Nations Die, cultural commentator Jim Nelson Black documents 10 key factors that led to the decline and collapse of earlier great powers such as ancient Greece and Rome. He sees the United States and other western nations standing at a historic crossroads, afflicted with those same symptoms.
Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, charged British society with being “fantastically materialistic.” He stated: “We seem to be tolerant of all sorts of behaviour….. We shouldn’t be misled by an easy-going atmosphere in manners and morals…” (The Sunday Telegraph, March 25, 2007). One of the archbishop’s major concerns was “the erosion of Christian belief systems,” which is the crux of the problem that plagues Britain, America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa—all the major English-speaking nations and many other nations.
According to an article in The Sydney Morning Herald two decades ago:, “The core value in contemporary Australia…is materialism… [We] have been thoroughly seduced by the idea that wealth is the measure of our worth.” (Hugh Mackay, “Into the Embrace of the Unholy Trinity,” Sept. 15, 2006). Since the 1960s traditional religious life in Australia has been experiencing considerable decline as well. “In modern secular societies such as Australia, where the grip of convention has relaxed hugely since the 1960s, there’s a fair amount of disagreement over what’s right and what’s wrong as people question, interrogate and criticise traditional moral authorities” (“The Moral Dimension,” The Bulletin, Feb. 27, 2002).
Dr. Black sums up the situation facing the major English-speaking countries: ” Moral decay, combined with rising violence, lawlessness, and intellectual apathy, leads invariably to the disintegration of the structures that make civilization possible….From ancient times to the present, the pathology of decadence is unmistakable, and…it is imperative that we heed these warnings” (When Nations Die, pp. 4-5).
Only the Bible reveals the way to bring us back to our senses. The Apostle James stated that when you break just one of the Ten Commandments, in principle you transgress them all: For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law (James 2:10-11).
In Romans 1 we read about the consequences of a debased mind (Romans 1:28-32), and the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth addressed the results of unrighteous, unjust, immoral conduct, listing those that “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Now, in our present, postmodern age, we are being told everyone is able to determine what is right for themselves. However, we are told, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12).
At the end of the day what really counts is our relationship with God—both nationally and personally, and that relationship is being challenged by secularism at just about every level. Our Creator demands we make moral choices, declaring, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life,that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). Notice also Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
