“Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:24-25).
The inevitable course of ungodliness and unrighteousness is enunciated quite succinctly in Romans 1:18-32. When American history is placed beside it, one can easily trace the degeneration of a nation whose founding fathers sought to construct a nation upon solid Biblical principles. Described in verses 18-20 is the first powerful spiritual plague inflicted on America: MODERNISM. By the 1930s the second and equally vicious scourge—HUMANISM—began brutalizing Uncle Sam; it is described in verses 21-23 (See last two blogs).
It is important to note two things about the next verses in this passage. First, verse 24 begins with the word “therefore”. Because of America’s embrace of Modernism and Humanism (vv. 18-23), verses 24-32 result. Second, there are three specified results as identified by the words “God gave them up/over…” in verses 24, 26, and 28. Here, then are the next three markers in the study of a brief, simplified spiritual history of America.
The first massive cultural result of Modernism and Humanism is the Sexual Revolution and the “ME” generation which began in American in the 1960’s. If a person was asked to summarize in one statement what occurred from August 15-18, 1969 in White Lake, New York at a place called Woodstock, he would be hard pressed to give a more accurate and succinct description than what is found in verse 24’s “uncleanness…lusts of their hearts…dishonor their bodies among themselves.”
Modernism and Humanism had made such an impact on American culture that the front cover of Time Magazine’s April 8, 1966 issue asked the question: “Is God dead?” He certainly had not died, but faith in Him was dwindling. It is during the 1960’s promiscuity, drug experimentation, easy divorce and remarriage (i.e., legalized adultery), pornography, immodesty, birth control, abortion, and ERA/feminism burst into American culture and history.
For about fifty years now, this ever growing and metastasizing cancer of spiritual uncleanness has blighted the United States.
