without suggestive gags and filthy suggestions. The sad part is that these filthy comedians are responding to public demand. This sordid condition is not only caused by, but aids and abets the downward trend of morals today. Entertainments which emphasize the nude in the name of art, strip-teasing and the exploitation of the immodest, have all produced a condition of Sodom and surely portend a baptism of fire and judgment like the one that fell on that wicked city. The trend in clothing, public appearances in shorts, our shocking bathing costumes, the perennial punning of gagsters about figures and “ bras” and “ girdles,” is re volting and nauseating to the minds which still have a vestige of Christian decency left. People who want to be called cultured will applaud and support and encourage this form of vulgar entertainment. I am not talking now about the unspeakable rottenness of the dives and the honky-tonks and the night clubs, but of the things which are open and publicly practiced by the people who ought to know better. Our magazines are an example of this very trend. I am not a sissy. I consider myself a red-blooded he-man, but my modesty is outraged and I blush to be seen read ing the average magazine with its advertisements featur ing the suggestive, if not down-right immoral. Take our advertising today. Why can’t we advertize a product, except against the background of a near-nude female? But why go on along this line? I trust you can see for yourself that the days of Sodom are being repeated be fore our eyes. The biggest problem of the F.B.I. today is the in crease of sex crimes, especially among juveniles. News items list every conceivable type of sex crime, from in decent exposure to rape. The days of Sodom are being repeated today. Read Genesis 19 for yourself, with all of its sordid implications. Then pick up your newspaper and turn on your radio. The words of Jesus will begin to mean something to you. This, indeed, is a dark picture. We do not like to paint it, but we, as servants of the Lord, have no choice but to preach the truth as it is given in the Word of God. To the believer and the student of Scripture, it is no surprise at all that these things are occurring, for we have been warned sufficiently. Things are happening just as the Bible said they would. To the believer, this dark and cloudy picture has a silver lining, for Jesus Himself said, “When ye see all these things begin to come to pass, then lift up your heads, for your redemp tion draweth nigh.” Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again, and He has given us sufficient warning, in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot, so that we may recognize these con ditions when they finally come to pass. They are here today. The only hope is “ that blessed hope.” The world today is once more in the throes of a struggle, an inter national problem which defies all human solution. Man is seeking desperately to pull himself out of the quagmire of impending destruction, but the Bible says that the only hope is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, when the King shall come and set up His millennial reign and
in Matthew 24 and Luke 17. Six things are mentioned in Genesis chapter 4: 1. It was an age of city building. In Genesis 4:17 we have the first record of the building of a city by Cain and his descendants. 2. It was an age of sex abuse, for we read in verse 19, “And Lamech took unto him two wives,” the first record in Scripture, or in all of history, of poly gamy. 3. It was an age of agriculture and of animal hus bandry. In verse 20 we read that Jabal is the first cattle breeder of all history. 4. It was an age of culture and an age of music. Jubal, in verse 21, is the first musician ever men tioned in history or in the Scriptures. 5. It was, significantly, the industrial age, the age of metal. We read in Genesis 4:22 of Tubal-cain that he was an instructor in the artifice of brass and of iron. 6. Finally, it was an age of violence and boasting and pride, as we see in the case of Lamech who not only committed murder, but boasted about it openly. This, in brief, is the record of mankind before the flood. Jesus says, “ Even so shall it be also in the days of the coming of the Son of man.” We marvel at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ when we recognize how accurate ly He describes the age in which we are living today in every detail. Sodom and Gomorrah The marvel increases and our wonderment grows when we turn from the days of Noah to the days of Lot. The record, indeed, is very brief, but packed with detail. Bear in mind the words of the Lord Jesus, “As it was in those days, so shall it be again.” The first mention of the conditions in Sodom and Gomorrah we find in Genesis 13. Lot chose to dwell in the beautiful plain of Sodom and we read God’s own comment, “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sin ners before the Lord exceedingly” (Gen. 13:13). It was an exceedingly sinful and wicked city. Sodom is a pic ture, according to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, of the world just prior to His Second Coming. The days of Lot were also days of warfare. Genesis 14 gives us the very first mention of organized war in all of history, either secular or sacred. The kings of the north swooped down and captured the cities of the plain, only to be delivered by Abraham and his army. How very significant. Here we have the first mention of warfare in the Bible, or in all of history. One of the first things which Jesus gave us as a sign of His coming again, was wars and rumors of wars. We have already seen that it was an age of gross immorality. The very word, “ Sodomy” and “ sodomite,” which suggest the most loathsome of all immoral sex practices, find their origin in the word, “ Sodom.” You can read sordid record in Genesis 19 for yourself. Sad to say, the sin of sodomy is the sin of today. Sex crimes, homosexuality, gruesome practices are recorded daily in our newspapers and reported over the radio. A generation ago they were quite rare, compared to the records of today. Organized clttfis for the practice of thé most lewd and loathsome crimes exist today. The matter of sex in itself, a holy gift of God for the perpetuation of the race, is the butt of public joking, wisecracks and gags. Some times it seems that programs are not considered “ tops”
Jesus shall reign wher’er the sun Doth its successive journeys run; His kingdom reach from shore to shore, ’Til moons shall wax and wane no more.
Copyright, 1951. Zondervan Publishing House.
"an accurate description o f today9s age 99
JA N U A R Y . 1964
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