Living The Lie

Inner Musings and Thoughts of a Wayfarer…

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” 

This quote was attributed to Socrates by Plato and it seems the cycle continues generation after generation.  Is it fair to say this attitude remains unchanged after millennia of history of man?  If it was in fact quoted by Plato we can still see evidence that it holds true today as well.  From some indications it would seem the youth outgrow this condition as they mature because we have not seen that drastic a change in society as a whole – based on regional cultures, notwithstanding – until today.   However, I’m truly baffled by what I’m currently observing in our society.  There has been a drastic change in the past few decades of the moral climate in our society. 

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that our moral code was Biblically based – certainly during my lifetime.  Today we see such venom spewed toward anyone who holds to these time-honored morals – accused of being religious zealots that hide behind Stone Age, fear-based, fairytale delusions.  Having to put up with name calling such as “moralists, bringing about the destructions of the world, putting down America,” and much more.  It’s as though the world has turned upside down from what it was 40 years ago.  Our own children have bought into this moral decay even though they have been raised differently.  What in heaven’s name brought this about? 

It once was that the individual who stood for Biblical morality and principles, and lived by them, were considered to be upstanding citizens within our community.  We are now considered blight on society - having become intolerant toward others.  All this drastic change in a single generation is too much to grasp.  How can our society survive four or five centuries of living with unchanged Biblical, moral codes and survive if it was the wrong way to live?  What caused a single generation to do a 180 degree change, totally reversing morality?  This stretches my mind beyond limits – EXCEPT… 

Isaiah 5:20-21 says, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!"  This is exactly what we are witnessing today - a total reversal of what God has instructed us and we have become wise in our own eyes - that we know better than God does, that we have more compassion than Him.  It's so much folly to think this way.  We are living in the day the Bible warns us would come and many are deceived, believing the lie.  How sad.  We must open our eyes and follow the ways God has planned for us.  We will find that life is so much better when we do.  Shalom