Dr. Michael Brown

I respect Dr. Michael Brown and I have reprinted more articles written by him here on A Crooked Path than I can count (read his excellent article here below my comments).

I understand his assertion that culture may change, and it does appear so to us, as it must have to every generation throughout history. That is because few take the time to truly study, examine, understand and implement history into their daily lives, and because the individual human life is mainly consumed in self and lives a short span of years compared to the history of the world.

And all true believers know why this is. Because we the people disobeyed God the Father, and God and Jesus the Creators and we sinned. Bringing death into this world.

To anyone who has studied and taken the time to examine history further than the cursory little brush stroke history is given in high school — do they still teach any REAL history at this point in high schools? — and the number of university students enrolling in history classes must be below 1%.

The sociology, anthropology, and philosophy classes offered do not count because every single one of those so-called disciples is so greatly skewed and biased according to conjecture and opinion they can’t be counted on. Yes, even the sacred to many anthropology.

I realize much of written history also contains bias and is skewed one way or the other, but if a person takes enough time to study and examine enough history of a certain timeframe, a certain people or peoples, a certain culture using history and not merely sociology or anthropology they will discover that everything that has taken place in the past 100 plus years we imagine is novel? For the first time? Something new? It is not. Because somewhere at sometime on this earth there have been a people, a place that has exhibited the same abhorrent behaviors, the same rages, and fits of anger, rebellions, chaos, rioting, complaining, ignorance, and blaming — the same pursuit of elevating the matriarchy over the patriarchy and worshipping the earth. The same plummet into the abyss of abomination and sexual depravity and immorality we now see.

The difference?

All this sin, all this evil, all this disobedience against God, against the Lord Jesus Christ, against the Holy Spirit, against the Scriptures, against the Truth is more open, more flaunted, more approved of by more people. And the percentages have greatly increased.

Whereas at different points in world history sorcery, witchcraft, homosexuality, sacrificing of babies, sexual deviancies, and such existed? They appeared at a time in various places in small percentages of any given population and were not embraced by the majority. And if such a culture did exist that embraced and approved of such sins, abominations, and evils in the majority of their culture? That culture did not exist long and was eradicated from the face of the earth.

Just as God will say “Enough!” and let the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, know it is His time to return to earth and destroy every nation, destroy every evil person and every sinful person on earth that has openly, blatantly disobeyed and has been serving Satan and worshipping the son of perdition and refusing the truth.

The culture doesn’t really change — except to approve and accept greater and greater sins, evils, immoralities, abominations in ever greater numbers and degrees.

It just appears that culture changes.

We’ve always been a vile, disgusting, evil in our hearts and minds, disobedient, willfully, selfish, consumed in lusts, murders, lies, gossip, depravities, immoralities, abominations and sins.

There’s just more of us now and more of us turned from God and the Lord Jesus Christ and approving of and accepting of and applauding and elevating, celebrating all these heinous, vile, disgusting, disobedient sinful acts and ways.

Read Romans 1:16-32 any approved translation. Read it today. Even if you’ve read it yesterday, and especially if you’ve never read it, or its been a long time since you have read it. Begin there and then spend more time in the Word coming to know. And then allow something in your heart to change, if that is needed, and you can only be honest with yourself before God about this. No one can deceive or lie to God and get away with it.

Do we imagine cultures change? We’re in some sea change in our culture? Sure, but that isn’t accurate or really true. Not if you learn and know the history.

But what is true? God’s Word does not change. God does not change. The Lord Jesus Christ does not change. The Holy Spirit does not change. The Holy Bible, the Word does not change.

And none of the above has ever changed nor will They or it. They and it have remained the same before the beginning of the known world, They remain the same throughout world history although most people can’t comprehend that, and They and it will remain unchanged throughout eternity!

Ken Pullen

Monday, October 26th, 2020

ACP — A Crooked Path

Culture May Change but God’s Word Does Not Change

Monday, October 26, 2020

By Dr. Michael Brown

Reprinted from American Family Association

There is a concept in the modern world that says that the newer something is, the better it is. This applies to the human race as well: We are getting better. We are evolving. We are smarter. And we have higher standards.

That would allegedly apply to contemporary America as well. Slavery is behind us. Segregation is behind us. Outmoded religious dogmas are behind us.

We have become more tolerant. More accepting. More inclusive. We are better today than we were yesterday.

Except for one thing. We are not.

The truth be told, in many ways, we are no better than previous generations while, in some ways, we are worse.

That’s because human nature doesn’t change.

That’s why the 20^th century was the bloodiest century in world history.

That’s why there is still a nuclear arms race since one nation cannot trust another nation to act peacefully.

That’s why human trafficking is flourishing.

That’s why violent crime and rape and theft continue unabated.

That’s why we celebrate our “right” to kill more than 60 million babies in the womb.

That’s why oppressive, totalitarian regimes continue to grow.

And that’s why the cancel culture thrives in the name of tolerance.

Human nature doesn’t change.

No one has to teach us to be greedy. Or dishonest. Or lustful. Or hateful. Or violent. Or selfish. Or judgmental. Or hypocritical. Or prideful. That is simply part of human nature.

And while there are many noble human qualities, including love and loyalty and courage and goodness, we are, at best, quite mixed.

That’s because we were created in God’s image and likeness but we rebelled and went our own way. As paraphrased in The Message, “God made men and women true and upright; we’re the ones who’ve made a mess of things” (Ecclesiastes 7:29).

And that’s why we must get back to the divine blueprint if we are to be blessed as a people and a nation.

On Tuesday, American Family Studios released a watershed documentary, In His Image: Delighting in God’s Plan for Gender and Sexuality. (You can watch it here for free. I had the privilege of hosting the movie, which has been getting rave responses from viewers in its first days of release.)

Not only does it share powerful stories of men and women who formerly lived as gay and trans. Not only does it share compelling scientific data. But it also lays a solid scriptural foundation for what, exactly, it means to be created in God’s image.

In particular, what did God intend for men and women? What is His plan for marriage? How do we best flourish as human beings and families? How should the gift of sexuality be expressed?

The one who designed us knows best, and the Bible, God’s Word, is the Creator’s instruction manual.

Of course, there are many who would differ with this assessment, including people of faith.

It is now reported that the Pope has stated that same-sex couples should be granted civil unions. Perhaps this is an example of more enlightened thinking? Perhaps this is proof of positive, human evolution? Perhaps we are growing in our understanding?

Not according to Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. He said quite plainly (and rightly): “One does not have to be a theologian or a moral expert to know that such statements are totally heterodox and constitute a very serious cause of scandal for the faithful.”

Culture may change. God’s standards do not.

Commenting on my book Can You Be Gay and Christian: Responding with Love and Truth to Questions about Homosexuality, a critical reviewer on Amazon wrote: “Let me make a rather bold admission – the author is correct but not necessarily right. I have read the Bible enough times to conclude that yes, homosexuality as we know it is a prohibited practice for Christians.”

So, the reviewer is honest enough to say that, yes, the Bible is clear on this subject.

But, he continues, “I also know that Christianity has made so many compromises since its founding, what we know as Christian practices today would be completely alien to 1st century Christians. None of that matters to the author anyway – to him, verses that promoted slavery, just ‘seemed’ to promote it.”

Put another way, he was saying: Yes, the Bible is clear on the subject of homosexual practice, but who says the Bible is right? After all, the Bible sanctioned slavery, which all of us reject today. And Christian practices have changed over the years. So why uphold the Bible as if its moral standards are sacrosanct?

It’s because they are sacrosanct. It’s because thousands of years of human history point to the reliability of biblical standards. It’s because the wisdom of the Word is unchanged.

Accordingly, when Scripture consistently condemns a behavior or practice, both in the Old and New Testament, we can be sure that the behavior or practice is wrong and destructive.

Conversely, when Scripture consistently promotes a behavior or practice, both in the Old and New Testament, we can be sure that the behavior or practice is good and helpful.

When it comes to the subject of slavery, the Scriptures never promoted it as an ideal. To the contrary, the Word of God celebrates liberation from slavery and points to that as a final goal for humanity. Not only so, but the slavery that was sanctioned under the Sinai covenant was a far cry from the barbarous African slave trade of the not so distant past.

So, we cannot compare the Bible’s teaching on sexuality and marriage with the Bible’s teaching on slavery. In many ways, we are comparing apples and baseballs. They’re not even in the same category, and to point to the one to avoid the other is to make a costly, even fatal mistake.

Instead, following God’s blueprint, we find life and health and wholeness. Deviating from that blueprint we find death and pain and confusion.

Discarding the pattern of male and female as God’s intended norm, we end up with a mind-boggling array of gender options, leading to Google questions such as, “What are the 72 genders?”

That’s why, already in 2015, one website listed these as categories of people who believe they have multiple gender identities: ambigender; bigender; blurgender; collgender; conflictgender; cosmicgender; crystagender; deliciagender; duragender; demiflux; domgender; fissgender; gemelgender; gendercluster; genderfluid; gendersea; genderfuzz; genderfractal; genderspiral; genderswirl; gendervex; gyaragender; libragender; ogligender; pangender; polygender; and trigender.

This is what happens when we depart from the simple truth that God created us in His image, male and female. And it is a man and a woman that He joins together in marriage. And it is for the best.

Culture may change. God’s Word does not.