Lovers of Pleasure More than Lovers of God!

Dennis Edwards

Again over the weekend more sexual allegations came forth condemning Hollywood and the Music Industry. We always knew these things were so and that the rich and powerful in those industries used their position to advantage for sexual favors. But now we are learning how far the abuse went and it is in deed shocking.

However, had we been reading the New Testament, we would have not been surprised by these accusations, nor the actions of the men involved. Both Jesus and Paul tell us specifically that the last days would bring in much ungodly behavior as was found in the days preceding the flood, and preceding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

How was the world before the Flood? In Genesis we read,

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."[Genesis 6:5]"The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."[Genesis 6:11-12]

Concerning Sodom and Gomorrah we read,

"And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know."[Genesis 18:20-21]

When Lot receives the two angels disguised as men  whom God has sent to Sodom, the local men come out demanding that Lot hand the angels over to them for same-sex sexual pleasure. Lot argues with them and offers to give his unmarried teen girls instead, showing how low Lot's standard of morality had fallen since living in Sodom. But the city folk grab Lot with the intent of breaking into his house to fetch out the angelic visitors. The angels save Lot and smite the city mob with blindness. Then the two angels send Lot and his wife and two daughters on their way to escape to the nearby mountains, as they pronounce destruction on the city of Sodom and its neighbors. You can read the account in Genesis 19:1-26. It is interesting to note that the angels tell Lot to escape to the mountains where his uncle Abraham happens to be living. But Lot likes city life and pleads to be able to stay in a small city near the mountains, rather than in the mountains themselves.

Summarizing so far, we see Jesus warned that in the last days the earth would be similar to like it was at the time before the global Flood, and like Sodom and Gomorrah were before their destruction. Before the Flood the earth was filled with violence and was corrupt and men's imaginations were evil continually. We saw that in Sodom men were openly practising same-sex behavior and forcefully trying to violate innocent visitors to the city. In Ezekiel, we read some of the other sins of Sodom.

"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."[Ezekiel 16:49]

So we see in the people of Sodom pride, idleness, wealth, lack of interest in the poor and needy were additional sins besides the same-sex behavior. Maybe these are additional sins of the Hollywood crowd or their managers and producers.

Apostle Paul, also, talking about the last days, says that, 

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."[2 Timothy 3:1-5]

Let's just pick out a few of the words that Paul uses to describe the behavior of men in the last days, ones that relate to these men of Music and Cinema, whether actors or directors, producers or managers, who have been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior, aggressive sexual behavior, even rape and abuse of minors. 

"Lovers of their own selves" would be the first to look at. These men were not thinking of the needs and desires of the person they were abusing. Obviously they are thinking of only satisfying their own sexual wants above everything else. "I am going to get what I want," is their motto. They even sometimes work in team work, where one friend might supply a room in his restaurant, or watch as his friend forces himself on a young would be actress or singer. 

"Proud" would be the second to look at. These men must be full of pride to act the way they do without regard for the feelings and desires of others.

"Without natural affection" would obviously fit for those seeking same sex fulfillment. I think some of the perverted antics we have read about with also fit in this category.

"Incontinent," or without sexual control as one online dictionary put it, is a big one for these men. They were without control. Reminds me of the sexual abuse done by the Russian soldiers during the retaking of Ukraine, Poland and then Germany from the Germans. Stalin had freed the worst prisoners and criminals and placed them at the front lines. As the Russian army marched across Eastern Europe these criminals, but now soldiers, would influence the troops to commit horrible atrocities to the woman and young girls. Often the grandfathers or younger brothers tried to protect them only to get a bullet in the head. The troops would line up and systematically rape these mothers and daughters, and sometimes the ranked officers would even enter in. Perhaps the Russian soldiers belief in atheistic Communist doctrine had also had an effect of numbing their conscience to the abuse they were committing. The Islamic State army practices similar behavior following some of the dictates of Mohamed from the Quran. 

The problem we have today is the men who were "incontinent" were looked up as stars, or great producers, or managers. They helped produce films that influenced millions of people with their immoral desires. They were comedians or musicians who had influence on the younger guys coming up, who tried to follow their example. In the case of IS, we have young Muslim boys willing to sacrifice their lives as suicide bombers in the hope of getting their 70 young virgins in paradise. This is an example of a religious belief that feeds on this perverted idea of uncontrolled sexual promiscuity. We are men of like passions. For that reason God had given His people a book of laws, to keep them away from their natural ungodly tendencies. But His people became too religious in their rule keeping, and hypocritical in their obedience. They pretended to keep the rules, and thus made the law of none effect through their traditions.

The next descriptive we'll look at is "fierce." In the Living Bible, they use the words "rough and cruel." The descriptions of abuse we have heard have clearly shown that these guys were rough and cruel in their predatory conquests. 

Let's go down to "lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God." I don't think we need much comment here. These men only wanted to satisfy their sexual pleasure by what ever means possible, lying and stealing to get it, and taking advantage of their position of leadership. They were truly wolves. Maybe they were in sheep clothing, but they were wolves and not worthy of their lofty position.

We will finish up with "from such turn away." We need to turn away from these sort of men and those that follow their bad example. I think most men are not without these temptations and have probably passed the line at some point in their lives. That's why Paul tells us as believers that,

"Ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles (unbelievers) walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanliness with greediness."[Ephesians 4:17-19] 

Lasciviousness means a person's behavior is driven by thoughts of sex. Paul is admonishing us as believers that we should  not be motivated by greedy sexual desires. We may have had that tendency in the past, but now as followers of Christ we should be baptised with God's Spirit and be motivated by His law of love.

Apostle Paul also predicted that men would fall away from the truth, following doctrines that justified their own lusts. I would dare to say that most if not all of these men who are accused of sexual misconduct are not believing Christians. Let's read what Paul said.

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."[2 Timothy 4:3-4]

The atheist writer and intellectual Aldous Huxley confessed he preferred to believe in atheistic materialism because it gave him the moral and sexual freedom that he desired. He said,

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning - the Christian meaning, they insisted - of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.”[Quote by Aldous Huxley]

Many modern day people follow Huxley's thinking. Using the evolution myth as rational for their world view, they have rejected the traditional Christian doctrine of truth, claiming we are here as the result of purposeless accidents. Therefore, anything goes. There's really no "right" and "wrong," it's just a matter of opinion. If life all started randomly and their is no God, nor ultimate judgement for our right and wrong actions, then we might as well do what we want. Like Nike has propagated, "Just Do It!" 

But we can remember the time when people had more of a fear of God. In Proverbs we read;

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."[Proverb 1:7]

But today, since many do not believe God exists, anything goes. Like in the time before the Flood, there was no fear of God in the land and men's hearts and imagination were evil continually. This is what's happening today and why we have that anxious feeling in our stomach that something is wrong, that the world is going in the wrong direction. Many people are turning to populous leaders in politics for this very reason.

But the answer is not political. The answer is a spiritual revolution in our own hearts and minds by accepting Christ into our lives. Jesus promises to make us into new creatures, to rewire us, to change us, to give us new motivations. Paul changed from being a strong Pharisaical Jew persecuting Christians, to become the leader of the new Christian movement to the Gentiles. He in turn  received persecution himself from his former brethren and the Roman officials who often yielded to the powerful Jewish influence.  

I'm going to finish this with a quote from Ecclesiastes.

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgement, with ever secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.[Ecclesiastes 12:13-14]

Like Moses said,

"Be sure your sin will find you out."[Numbers 32:23]

Forsake those secret addictions and temptations before they over take you and become bad habits, bad desires, that lead to bad acts. Let's flee those youthful lusts before they overtake us and destroy our testimony and our life and even our souls.