The antinomian, in an attempt to overthrow the law of God for lawlessness, finds himself, of necessity, creating his own basis for morality. The void will not go unfilled. The end result is legalism, that is, the establishment of his own laws that he attempts to enforce on others. The ironic thing about lawlessness is that it actually produces the worst kind of law: legalism. Whereas antinomianism and legalism are normally pitted against each other as two ditches on either side of the road (which in fact they are in many respects), the deeper reality is that they are extremely complimentary and inextricably tied together, one giving rise to the other. Antinomianism ironically produces legalism and many times the worst forms.
Tag: morality
On the myth that morality can’t be legislated. This is all I will say about the decisions today:
“Aristotle said, ‘Law rests upon the necessary foundation of morality.’ Therefore, if your law does not reflect a moral rationale, then your law is an illicit law. Some people say you cannot legislate morality. If Aristotle is right, then morality is the only thing you can legislate. If power is simply used to secure the benefits of a select few rather than the common good, this is an illicit use of law.”
http://old.westerfunk.net/archives/theology/President%20Speech%20-%20Greg%20Koukl/
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_g2bh.pdf
Moral Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Midair from Veritas [3] on Vimeo.
(Original): The Gospel and the Gosselins
(Archived): The Gospel and the Gosselins
Reality shows honestly make me ill, kind of like Jerry Springer shows in the middle of the day when you are sick and nothing else is on so you just wind up turning the thing off. The concept is worn out, over-used, uncreative, trivial, trite, shallow, and mind-numbingly boring. I can’t think of anything else I’d rather not watch on television than reality shows, because they are anything but what they claim to be and cheapen the very concept of … well, reality. TV becoming “reality”? I don’t get it and fail to understand how an entire culture is okay with this stuff.
Huxley’s vision of the future, portrayed in Brave New World, is coming to pass and we’re okay with the mundane, the brainless, coming to love our servitude to nonsense and emotionalism. Instead of having an outside oppressor like a totalitarian regime control us by brute force, as portrayed by George Orwell in 1984, instead what we love is killing us and holding us captive (Amusing Ourselves to Death … read it, everyone). Coincidentally, that is exactly what sin does. I honestly believe these shows are all loosely scripted to give the portrayal of “reality” and lack any level of depth that would give them some form of lasting cultural value (you know, like a Shakespeare work or Homer’s Iliad). They are trivial and a giant waste of time to be involved in.
But that’s all just an opinion. On the basis of someone else’s taste preferences, the same could probably also be said of shows that I like such as 24, The Office and FoxNews. My taste preferences are not the same as others. TV in itself is a waste of time (in general) … and I honestly like some of it. Guilty as charged.
Regardless of what I think concerning reality shows, many people like them, and can’t wait for the next episode to come around. Okay, fine and good, I don’t take issue with that. However, the “reality” show Jon and Kate Plus 8 on TLC has brought to light something evangelicals really don’t want to talk about (which the fact we don’t want to talk about it is a whole other issue in itself): our acceptance and absorption of the cultures’ worldly, materialistic, narcissistic, self-absorbed values; the slow (or fast, depending on the timeline we’re talking about) slide toward the secularization of the evangelical church in America.