Amusing Ourselves to Death

What happens when media and politics become forms of entertainment? As our world begins to look more and more like George Orwell's 1984, Neil's Postman's classic book Amusing Ourselves to Death, written in 1985, is an essential guide to the modern media. It is more relevant now than ever. In many ways its quite prophetic.

Neil Postman warned us, in his final chapter of Amusing Ourselves to Death:  

“There are two ways by which the spirit of a culture may be shriveled. In the first—the Orwellian—culture becomes a prison. In the second—the Huxleyan—culture becomes a burlesque.” 

Our digital age seduces us into the burlesque. The red-light district beckons us from our blue-light screens. Notifications, pop-up ads, and the endless possibilities of life online welcome you in. We can shop for whatever we want. We can study any subject we desire. We can gaze at any object accessible through a search bar. And yet U2’s song still rings true: we still haven’t found what we’re looking for.  

Bunyan’s Vanity Fair in Our Phones 

Consider the digital circus in the palm of your hand. From this jumping-off point, you can go anywhere. You’re a few clicks away from respected academic journals, grotesque pornography, the tweets of world leaders, or calling a loved one. Which way will you go? 

 In The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan describes the ancient Vanity Fair: Therefore at this fair are all such merchandise sold: as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms; lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts—as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not. And moreover, at this fair there is at all times to be deceivers, cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues and that of every kind. Here are to be seen, too—and that for nothing—thefts, murders, adulteries, false-swearers, and that of a blood red colour. Vanity Fair sounds a lot like our internet. Merchandise is sold. All types of people are found. Where Bunyan’s Christian walked through the streets and alleys of Vanity Fair, we scroll through them with the flick of our thumbs. And what is the effect on our souls?  

Beware the Folly of Scrolling 

Your scrolling is not neutral. You are becoming something. Your search history tells a story about your soul. Careless scrolling often exposes our folly. And it breeds discontentment. The parade of spectacles never ends. We can fast-forward, skip ahead, or go back and examine specifics. You can rewatch in hi-def what you were never meant to see in the first place.  

Your search history tells a story about your soul. The restless scrolling soul constantly asks, Am I entertained? Am I liked? Am I amused? The heaven-bound soul asks, Am I holy? Am I loved by God? Am I satisfied in him? Scrolling discourages deep delight. Scrolling, by nature, keeps us on the surface, always consuming tasty treats but rarely nourished by anything satisfying. The scrolling soul spends countless hours searching what the sort of satisfaction that can only be found in Christ.  

Stop Scrolling. Start Beholding. 

The scrolling soul will only find satisfaction in Christ. Bunyan writes of the pilgrims who avoid Vanity Fair’s appeal:  

“They would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity’; and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven.” 

Scrolling discourages deep delight. Scrolling, by nature, keeps us on the surface, always consuming tasty treats but rarely nourished by anything satisfying. Christian, turn your eyes to the glory of Christ. See him as more beautiful than the endless spectacles on your phone. “Look to me and be saved” (Isa. 45:22). 

Jesus alone will satisfy your soul (John 6:35). Are you looking to Christ? Are you delighting in him? And are you turning your ears to Scripture more than the voices crying out, “Click on me”? The voice of God in Scripture cries out with more urgency and authority than any pop-up ad. Will you listen? John Owen warns those who would rather behold the spectacles on screens than the glory of Christ: “He that has no sight of Christ’s glory here shall never see it hereafter.” Stop scrolling through the digital vanity fair and feast on Christ. 

Henry Scrougal pierces our scrolling souls: “The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love.” 

Scrolling shrivels your soul as it pulls it in a thousand different directions. It distracts you from the greatest object your soul could ever love, and the most glorious truths your eyes and ears could ever behold. Don’t let your soul get sucked into the vanity of an aimless scrolling wasteland—where paths lead everywhere but never to a place of rest and joy. Instead, lead your soul along the “path of life” that leads to ultimate satisfaction: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11).  

Jeff Mingee (DMin, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the pastor of Catalyst Church in Newport News, Virginia. He also serves as a church planting strategist with the SBC of Virginia and helps lead the Hampton Roads regional chapter of The Gospel Coalition. He is the author of several books, including Forgiveness: A Risk Worth Taking (A Verse by Verse Journey through Philemon), Called to Cooperate: A Biblical Survey and Application of Teamwork 

 

Postman also made these contrasts:

 "What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.

Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.

Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.

Orwell feared we would become a captive culture.

Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture. 'In 1984,' Huxley added, 'people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.'

In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us."

—Neil Postman

 

The Gospel by Voddie Baucham

What we do in the midst of this sin sick age that has rejected the gospel and perverted the gospel and replaced the gospel with that which is not the gospel is that we call out that wickedness. We call it by name, and we remind people of the good news of the gospel again and again and again until it tastes sweet to them.

When people say our problem is this, our problem is that we say no, no our problem is that God created the world and God created man and he put man in the garden to keep the garden. And he gave the man a command and he held that man to perfect perpetual obedience to that command and he promised him life if he kept it and death if he didn't. And man didn't keep it; he ate and because he ate sin entered the world and death through sin and everyone born from that man through ordinary generation inherited that man's sin nature. And because of that sin nature sins proceed from it and our world is broken because of that sin.

And we stand guilty before a holy and righteous God, and we know that he's holy and we know that he's righteous and we crave justice, but the problem is that if God gives us justice, we all die and so that God in his goodness and in his mercy sent forth his Son who was not born of ordinary generation but was born of a virgin. Yes, the virgin birth matters why because if he's born of ordinary generation, he's born in sin but because he's not born of ordinary generation he's not born in sin. He's clean of sin. His record is clean, and he keeps his record clean. And he obeys God's law and because he's fully God and fully man he obeys the law of God on our behalf. His active obedience and then in his passive obedience God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.

All we like sheep had gone astray each of us had turned to his own way, but God laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Christ died for sin once for all - the just for the unjust. God imputes our sinfulness to him, and he nails our sinfulness to the tree and Christ dies and is raised again on the third day for our justification.

And there's another imputation - the righteousness of Christ is actually imputed to us so that God can be both just and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus Christ so that all those who come to Christ may enter in so that all those who place faith in Christ might be saved but not only saved but sanctified because he's the firstborn of many brethren we're justified and we're adopted into the family of God. We're sanctified and as his children we begin to bear the family resemblance, and we're further sanctified throughout this life by the very same gospel that saves us until one day when it's all said and done we're not just saved from the penalty of sin we’re not just saved from the power of sin but one day we're glorified and saved from the very presence of sin.

That's the gospel that we preach, that's the gospel that we need, and that's the gospel that's more than enough.

The Rest of the Story of What Happened in the 1924 Paris Olympics

The movie Chariots of Fire won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1982. It portrayed the true story of the great Scottish runner Eric Liddell who won the gold medal for the 400 meters in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. 

In one scene the twenty-two-year-old Liddell explains his passion for running to his disapproving sister, who thought running was a waste of time compared to his calling to the mission field in China. 

“Jenny, you’ve got to understand. I believe that God made me for a purpose: for China. But he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. To give it up would be to hold Him in contempt. To win is to honor Him. Oh Jenny, when I run, I feel His pleasure.” 

As Liddell prepared for his big race, the 400-meters, he was given an anonymous note: 

“It says in the Old Book, ‘Him that honors me, I will honor.’ Wishing you the best of success always.” 

With this special bit of encouragement, he won gold. 

In an interview afterwards, he said, “The first half, I run as fast as I can, and the second half, I run faster with God’s help.” 

What you may not know is that after winning the gold Liddell went to China where his missionary work ended in a Japanese POW camp in 1944. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill negotiated his freedom from that camp, but he gave it up to allow a pregnant prisoner to be released. Liddell died a few months later at that camp. 

Chariots of Fire ends with these brief words on the screen: 

“Eric Liddell, missionary, died in occupied China at the end of World War II. All of Scotland mourned.” 

Everyone has a calling. Os Guiness has said of our callings, “Instead of, ‘You are what you do,’ calling says: ‘Do what you are."

 

Just How Sovereign is God?

“I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes - that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens - that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses.

“The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence - the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.”

- Charles Spurgeon

Here is a tiny bit more of what Scripture teaches on God’s sovereignty:

God Is Sovereign Over . . .

Seemingly random things:

The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the LORD.
(Proverbs 16:33)

The heart of the most powerful person in the land:

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
he turns it wherever he will.
(Proverbs 21:1)

Our daily lives and plans:

A man’s steps are from the LORD;
how then can man understand his way?
(Proverbs 20:24)

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
(Proverbs 19:21)

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. . . .  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
(James 4:13-15)

Salvation:

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
(Romans 9:15-16)

As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
(Acts 13:48)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
(Romans 8:29-30)

Life and death:

See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
(Deuteronomy 32:39)

The LORD kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
(1 Samuel 12:6)

Disabilities:

Then the LORD said to [Moses], “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”
(Exodus 4:11)

The death of God’s Son:

Jesus, [who was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
(Acts 2:23)

For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
(Acts 4:27-28)

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief. . . .
(Isaiah 53:10)

Evil things:

Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster come to a city,
unless the LORD has done it?
(Amos 3:6)

I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the LORD, who does all these things.
(Isaiah 45:7)

“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. . . . “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
(Job 1:21-22; 2:10)

[God] sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. . . . As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
(Psalm 105:17; Genesis 50:21)

All things:

[God] works all things according to the counsel of his will.
(Ephesians 1:11)

Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
(Psalm 115:3)

I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
(Job 42:2)

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”
(Daniel 4:35)

The False Promise of the "Sigma Male" and The Opportunity for Genuine Masculinity

 Social media platforms are full of content targeting young men who aspire to be self-described “Sigma Males.” YouTube, for instance, features videos with instructions, steps, and guides.

A recent column in the Guardian explored this phenomenon with the following description:

“You are a lone wolf. You are an independent thinker who makes his own rules. You are confident and competent. Women are drawn to you, but you don’t really care about them. Your day begins at 4:30 a.m. with a cold shower, followed by a punishing workout and an even more punishing skincare routine. You shun conventional career paths and run your own business, probably in crypto or real estate or vigilante crime fighting. You are that rarest of males—you are a sigma.”

The so-called “Sigma” life is just another model of masculinity in a culture where young men, many without positive male role models in their own lives, search for the meaning of life. Some of the content in these spaces is helpful, such as tips on exercise, diet, and finance. But often these pursuits become rabbit trails that lead to a twisting of masculinity into something that often celebrates misogyny, racism, and what Carl Trueman labels, “crudity, verbal thuggery ... and the frictionless kindergartens of social media bubbles.”

In the absence of wholesome models of masculinity, some Christian young men are retreating to these perpetually online embattlements, where they are imbibing a syncretistic mixture of Christianity and barbarism. Christian men with influence should warn those in danger of falling prey to Bronze Age Warlord style machismo while also recognizing the social and cultural void these self-styled online shock jocks are filling.

For too long, many of our institutions have subtly undermined the moral formation of young men. Radical feminism has depicted men as either bumbling moral midgets or toxic monsters. The rapid decline of marriage and church attendance has left generations of boys without any visible models of masculinity. As a result, this natural longing in a man’s heart to know and be known has them searching out less-than-ideal guidance on the meaning of life.

The Christian story has the answer for the redemption of young men. It reminds us that a fallen Adam will either shrink back in passivity or move forward in violence without the divine intervention of the Second Adam. In Christ, we not only see a model of masculinity that offers both a weeping friend and a crusading warrior, but a Savior who can turn corrupted male hearts into good men.

Christianity offers a pattern for healthy masculinity that differs from the world’s distorted facsimiles.

Christianity offers a pattern for healthy masculinity that differs from the world’s distorted facsimiles, and the Church should not shy away from aggressively presenting this vision to the men in our world who languish for hope. The paradox of Biblical manhood is that it is at the same time both tough and tender, resilient and relational, ambitious and yet servant-hearted. Consider some of the traits Paul urges his protégés to seek out in potential leaders: “temperate, not quick-tempered, sober, hospitable, respectable, not greedy, holy, above reproach, a good steward of his family (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1).” At the same time, he urges godly men to “stand firm in the faith (1 Corinthians 16)” and to “fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12).”

This kind of rich, Biblical vision for manhood is less thrilling than the social media warriors and YouTube provocateurs might portray. But real men are not cosplaying civil war online or flexing for Instagram because they are too busy reading to their children, driving the family minivan to church, or working with their hands to provide for the ones they love.

The most masculine man I know—my father—has never once posted a workout video and wouldn’t know Andrew Tate from Andrew Jackson. He offered something better: a real man who got up early every day and went to work, involved his family in the life of the church, and was faithful to my late mother. I’ve realized his life is a gift that many young boys never had. And thus they search for masculinity in the fever swamps.

America has a manhood crisis that only Christianity can solve. So while we warn of the dangers of faux masculinity models, let’s not shy away from boldly presenting to our boys the goodness, and the responsibilities, of being men. 

 

Daniel Darling is director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His forthcoming book is Agents of Grace. He is also a bestselling author of several other books, including The Original Jesus, The Dignity Revolution, The Characters of Christmas, The Characters of Easter, and A Way With Words and the host of a popular weekly podcast, The Way Home. Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in pastoral ministry from Dayspring Bible College, has studied at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and is a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife Angela have four children. Daniel Darling

The Deceit, Deception of June "Pride Month"

It’s June, and for the next 30 days, we will be inundated with our country’s month long celebration of pride.

We will see it everywhere. It will be pervasive. The rainbow’s ever-increasing colors will be inescapable. We will see it in the news. We’ll see it at Target. We’ll see it in Walmart. We’ll see it in our public parks and at our schools. We’ll see it in our theaters. We’ll see it on T-shirts, umbrellas, bumper stickers, and even at our churches.

Pride, pride, pride! This is the singular message that silences all others. Say it with me and say it over and over again: “We are loud and are proud!” If you refuse to do so, you’re a bigot.

In case you’ve forgotten, up until about five minutes ago, in the course of human history, pride was listed as one of the seven deadly sins. But that is no longer the case. Rather than being considered sacrilege, pride is now sanctified. Pride has become America’s ultimate virtue. Pride is now our nation’s summum bonum. Pride is our highest good. Not courage. Not chivalry. Not modesty, maternity, sacrifice, chastity, family or fatherhood. Not confession or repentance, but pride. Pride is our trump card against all other hands.

It’s almost as if we are listening to Michael Douglas paraphrasing his infamous speech in the 1987 movie “Wall Street,” whereby his character, Gordon Gekko, elevated another of the seven deadly sins, greed, to a virtue.

Can you hear him? “The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that pride, for lack of a better word, is good. Pride is right. Pride works. Pride clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Pride in all its forms has marked the upward surge of mankind, and pride, you mark my words, will save the United States of America.”

Nearly 100 years ago, G.K. Chesterton wrote that if he had “only one sermon to preach, it would be a sermon against pride.” Pride, he said, “is a poison so very poisonous that it not only poisons the virtues; it even poisons the other vices.”

He went on: “It is amazing to me that [we] really have so very little to say about the cause and cure of a moral condition that poisons nearly every family and every circle of friends. There is hardly [anyone] who has anything to say about it that is half so illuminating as the literal exactitude of the old maxim of the priest: that pride is from hell.”

Chaucer once said, “The root of all these seven [deadly] sins is pride: the general root of all harms.” Augustine added that pride is “inordinately enamored with its own power [and] despises the more just dominion of a higher authority.” St. James added that “God opposes the proud,” and Solomon said, “Pride goes before destruction. … God detests all the proud.”

C.S. Lewis tied it all together in his book “Perelandra.”

“Pride,” he said, “leads to every other vice. Pride is the complete anti-God state of mind. Pride ultimately leads all who embrace it to declare, ‘I am it. I am the universe. I am your God.’”

Any nation that devotes an entire month to glorifying pride is one teetering on the edge of disaster. We now stand divided rather than united because of our arrogance, our hubris, our defiance, our pride. As Pogo stated in 1970, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

As you watch the daily news — news of antisemitism and racial disdain, news of colleges collapsing under the weight of their ideological nihilism, news of our borders being invaded because we no longer have borders, news of lawfare under the guise of law, news of men pretending to be women and women pretending not to care — remember that this is not a time to be proud of who we are but to be humiliated by what we have become.

In 1863, when America was on the verge of collapse, as many fear we are today, Abraham Lincoln didn’t call for a day of “pride,” but rather one of “national humiliation.” After pleading with Americans to repent of their cultural, personal and collective sins, he concluded: “Let us then rest humbly in the hope … that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high and answered with … the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.”

“Humiliation for our divided and suffering country.” Amen, President Lincoln. Amen.

• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host.

 

D-Day and the Devil

Jesus triumphed over the devil on the Cross. And yet Satan is still wreaking havoc on planet earth. So how can Satan be defeated and yet still be stealing, killing, and destroying? 

June 6 marks D-Day - the day that the Allies established a beachhead on the European mainland in Normandy, France. Looking back in history, war historians say at that point — when D-Day was successful — the Allies won the war. The moment they established a beachhead on the European mainland, they broke the back of the Germans. So war historians say that the Allies won the war — in principle — on D-Day. On June 6, 1944. 

But the Allies victory was not fully realized until VE-Day. VE stands for “Victory in Europe” and that took place 11 months later on May 8, 1945. 

On D-Day, the defeat of Nazis was a foregone conclusion. On D-Day the war was over (in principle), but there was lots of fighting between D-Day and VE-Day. There was tons of bloodshed before the actual surrender of the Germans. In fact, some of the bloodiest battles of World War II occurred between D-Day and VE-Day. Germany was a defeated enemy, but they weren’t going down without a fight. The Germans fought fiercely but fought a losing battle. 

On D-Day the Germans were defeated but that defeat was not fully realized until VE-Day. 

You and I are living in between God’s D-Day and His VE-Day, in-between the Resurrection and the Second Coming of Christ. When Jesus died on the Cross after declaring “It is finished!” (our debt was paid; his saving mission accomplished). Then in public display and validation of his finished work, he rose from the dead – conquering sin and death. — that was God’s D-Day. And when the Second Coming of Christ happens — that will be God’s VE-Day. 

So we are living in the time between the times, between God’s D-Day and VE-Day. Already but not yet - We are “already” in the God’s kingdom and its blessings, but we do “not yet” see it in the fullness of its glory and blessings. 

Because of D-Day, Satan is a defeated enemy. Speaking of what happened on Good Friday, Paul writes:

"God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless." (Colossians 2:15) 

Because of God’s D-Day, Satan is a defeated enemy. Jesus won the victory. But just like the Germans, Satan is not raising the white flag of surrender. One day in the future Satan will be destroyed: And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelation 20:10). 

Paul wrote 20 years after the Cross and Empty Tomb: The devil who rules this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe (2 Corinthians 4:4 NCV). Two decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul describes Satan as the one who is still ruling planet earth! (see also 1 John 5:19 and Ephesians 2:2). 

In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis wrote, 

“One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked about a Dark Power in the universe – a mighty evil spirit who was . . . behind death and disease and sin . . . Christianity agrees . . . the universe is at war . . . and we are living in a part of the universe that is occupied by the rebel. Enemy-occupied territory – that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening--in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.

One day Satan will be destroyed. God’s D-Day ensured this victory. But we are living between D-Day and VE-Day in the equivalent of war-torn France during the height of World War II. Satan is a defeated enemy. But he is not going down without a fight. 

One day Satan will be destroyed. God’s D-Day ensured this victory. But we are living between D-Day and VE-Day in the equivalent of war-torn France during the height of World War II.

Satan is a defeated enemy. But he is not going down without a fight.

Thx Oscar Cullman, Donald Carson, Dan Kopp

 

Is Jesus Your Lord or Your Advisor?

Tim Keller once said that our society determines what is right and wrong based on two questions: 

1. Do I want to do it? and 

2. Does it hurt anybody? 

And if the answer to the first question is “yes,” and the answer to the second is “no,” then it can’t possibly be wrong. It’s a simple enough rubric, but it’s terribly incomplete.

Would life be better if all of us tried to avoid hurting each other? Certainly. Is that the sum total of right and wrong? Hardly. We have this assumption in modern society—even in the church—that if we feel like we don’t see the wrong in something, it can’t possibly be wrong. 

I literally talk to people all the time—again, in the church—who say things like this. They explain away God’s laws by appealing to their own felt sense of right and wrong: Seems fine to me, so it must be okay! But here’s the deal: God’s way isn’t our way, and when he declares something wrong, it’s wrong—no matter how we rationalize it. 

It’s important for us to remember that when God declares something wrong, it’s not arbitrary—like filling out the wrong tax form or parking in a “no parking” zone. God declares wrong wrong because, ultimately, it’s harmful. Sometimes we can see that harm: God tells us not to murder because murder takes someone else’s life; God tells us not to lie because it hurts others to withhold the truth from them. The trouble is, we simply don’t have enough knowledge to be able to see the consequences all the time. If we go through life evaluating moral choices based on whether we think it does or doesn’t hurt somebody, we are assuming God-like knowledge for ourselves. And in case you haven’t noticed, you and I aren’t God. 

Think about a 7-year-old who sees nothing wrong with watching YouTube for 11 hours straight and eating Oreos for every meal. He likes watching cat videos. And Oreos taste great. Nothing seems off to him. But most of us adults would recognize that these aren’t healthy habits. We could try to explain our reasoning to our second-grader (we probably should), and he might grasp it. But he might not: It’s just tougher for him to see because he lacks life experience and wisdom. 

So let me ask you: Is there a bigger gap between your wisdom and that of your 7-year-old, or between God’s wisdom and yours? Toward the end of King David’s life, we read about a census he initiated. For readers like you and me, we probably don’t see much wrong with a census. It seems harmless, responsible even, from the outside. God isn’t always opposed to census-taking. But God had said not to take this one. Which meant that this census wasn’t responsible and harmless; it was a sin. 

 Joab, the commander of Israel’s armies, even called David out, saying, “‘May the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?’” (2 Samuel 24:3 ESV). David’s motivations for the census, it seems, were all wrong. It was about pride, security, and aggression—not obedience to God. David pushed through Joab’s objection and completed the census anyway. But afterward, David was convicted. Scripture says, “But David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly’” (2 Samuel 24:10). 

Was the problem here David’s pride and security in his own numbers? That was part of it, I think. David should have been finding his security in God. But the bigger issue is that David decided he knew best based on what seemed best to him. God’s law felt arbitrary, so David gave himself permission to ignore it. Who is best to determine what humanity really needs? Us or our Creator? 

To act like we know what is best for ourselves and a society based on our limited knowledge is the height of pride. If we only obey Jesus when he makes sense to us, then he’s not our Lord; he’s our advisor. Obeying God only when he makes sense to us is not obedience; it’s agreement. Have we invited God to submit his suggestions to us for consideration, or have we submitted ourselves to him because he’s God, who reigns and knows what is best? If we only obey Jesus when he makes sense to us, then he’s not our Lord; he’s our advisor. 

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