June is LGBTQ Pride month, a celebration that began as Gay Pride Day to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, that was monumental for the Gay Liberation Movement in the U.S.A. Today it is the flamboyant posturing and promotion of LGBTQ values that is disproportionate to societal demographics. The need to be acknowledged and celebrated in itself reflects a much larger depravity in the human condition. Such is the fallen state of man.
The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”. The root cause of our sinful nature began with Lucifer’s pride and resulted in him being jettisoned out of the heavenly kingdom of God and left to roam the earth (Isaiah 14:12-14, Job 1:7, Job 2:2). Satan injected the venom of his pride into humanity, beginning with Adam and Eve, thereby precipitating a perpetual cycle of sin that has transcended every generation of mankind right up until the present.
A prideful heart leads to prideful actions and consequently sin as depicted by Solomon in Proverbs 21:4, “Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin!” Vanity leads to the perversion of mankind’s judgement and our self glorification stands in direct opposition to God. Materialism and the exaltation of education and knowledge, the pursuit of power and social and/or celebrity status and fame all contribute to humanity’s sickened state. Isaiah warned, “The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men will be brought low;” Isaiah 2:11.
Psychologists have found that pride is often the outward sign of inner inferiority, resulting in over-compensating and flaunting in search of acceptance. It is a condition devoid of wisdom, which attempts to establish its own validity by delegitimizing those whose worldview is in contrast to its cause, and often undeterred by the facts, prefers to continue in total ignorance. Proverbs 26:16 conveys this sentiment, “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly.”
Postmodernism has transformed societal values, asserting that there is no objective reality; there is no scientific or historical truth; science and technology (and even reason and logic) are not vehicles of human progress but suspect instruments of established power; reason and logic are not universally valid; there is no such thing as human nature (human behavior and psychology are socially determined or constructed); language does not refer to a reality outside of itself; there is no certain knowledge; and no general theory of the natural or social world can be valid or true (all are illegitimate metanarratives).
These erroneous perceptions are profoundly manifested in todays cultural interpretation of gender. The resulting confusion has pulled the rug out from under the feet of any rational, tangible baseline from which we measure ourselves, in spite of the fact that gender is decided by chromosomes. The absurdity of the transgender movement has resulted in making a mockery of men’s and women’s sports competitions, men’s and women’s prison arrangements, boy’s and girl’s bathrooms, and even the ridiculous practice of renaming manholes as maintenance holes, man-power as human effort and mankind as people kind.
In the midst of all this confusion there is contradiction. And it doesn’t stop at gender, it follows through as subjective morality. It extends to every deed and every thought and at its very essence, with no principle as its guide, it boils down to the self determination of right and wrong. The resulting values demonstrate a marked deviation from absolute truth and without absolute truth there can be no absolute morality. Without absolute morality, there can be no right or wrong. With no right or wrong there is no meaning and no purpose. And with no meaning and no purpose, sadly we become disillusioned. And disillusioned, we eventually stand face to face with reality. Whether we like it or not, rather than being freed by the relative identity we embrace, we are held captive by it. And the reality is, we face an infinity of contradiction because of this worldview.
The narcissistic society we live in today doesn’t want to be judged for its beliefs. The pride that is proclaimed in parades, advertising, social and mainstream media, the internet, movies and taught in elementary schools, condones pornography, the sexualisation of little girls, the degradation of the traditional family and ultimately human trafficking to support the sex trade. Everything is packaged as one big blue pill society is being coerced into swallowing in the name of acceptance and tolerance and even churches that identify themselves as progressive Christian denominations not only tolerate LGBTQ lifestyles in their congregations, they sanctify these sins by ordaining gay and lesbian pastors.
If an individual can decide what morality looks like for them, then they are accountable to no one and assume themselves to be gods, in control of their own destiny with some type of sovereignty attached. The apostle Paul warned of this very thing surfacing in the last days, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
Isaiah 5:20 warns, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” The pride of mankind has done exactly this. Rather than approaching God in humility, humanity has preferred the exact opposite. Rather than searching for what pleases God we have chosen to please ourselves. Isaiah 66:2b tells us what pleases God. “This is the one I esteem: he who has a humble and contrite in spirit,”
Jesus was the template for how men (and women) ought to live. He was the only person ever to live a sinless life, yet what was he like? He had the power to heal the sick, make the lame walk, the blind see and foresee the future, yet he never flaunted these gifts. Philippians 2:6-8 instructs us to be like Jesus Christ, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”
Humility is paramount to holy living. Jesus said in Mathew 23:12, “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Additionally, Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:5, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” And James (the brother of Jesus) tells us, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:6. Humility is critical to pleasing God.
Proverbs 6:16-19 reminds of what God finds detestable, “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissention among brothers.” Pride tops this list!
The Bible tells us that the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was so great and their sin was so grievous that God destroyed both cities by raining down burning sulfur on them (Genesis 18:20, Genesis 19:24). When the angels of the Lord went in to rescue Lot, the men from every part of the city surrounded his house and demanded to have sex with them (Genesis 19:5). While most narratives focus on the debauchery and homosexuality of Sodom and Gomorrah, it is the arrogance and pride of the city’s men that stands in glaring defiance of all things good. The sense of entitlement they exhibited; the audacity that they somehow conceivably had the right to rape Lot’s visitors is not only disturbing and grotesque, it is exemplified in the pride of the LGBTQ movement today.
Sodom and Gomorrah didn’t become evil overnight, and in the same way, our society today has gradually devolved to possess the extreme liberal values that are prevalent today. Over time, cultural taboos become accepted practices. For example, premarital sex was once the exception yet today it is the norm and abortion is widely accepted as a woman’s right. In the words of Joni Eareckson Tada, “Gradually, the unthinkable becomes tolerable, then acceptable, then legal, then praised.”
Civilization has progressed to where the sickness of sin has a reached critical point. The arrogance and pride of humanity seems to be at unprecedented levels; wealth and materialism along with sexual immorality and moral relativism have become terminal cancers that are growing like malignant tumors in our midst. Sin places a wall between man and God and a distance that we avoid; an estrangement between us and our Creator that prohibits a healthy relationship with him. This is precisely what happened in the time of Noah when abrupt punishment came in the form of the flood and Jesus warned the last days would be similarly ingenuous (Mathew 24:37-39).
Continued sin sears our consciences and hardens our hearts and we deceive ourselves into believing that our sinfulness cannot be helped and that our depravity is not depravity at all, but an expression of our virtue. We succumb to the deception of relativism and are drawn in by false teachers that advocate our disrespect for God in an attempt to justify our desire to sin (2 Timothy 2:2; 2 Timothy 4:3).
Homosexuality is the symptom of a much deeper human problem. It is the result of rejecting God, denying humanity’s need for redemption and it ultimately boils down to man’s refusal to humble himself before his creator. Paul explains the repercussions of humanity’s foolish abandonment of God despite the overwhelming evidence for his existence and knowledge about him (Romans 1:18-32). Because of man taking the path of least resistance rather than seeking God, “God gave them over to shameful lusts.” Romans 1:26.
If only our society would collectively turn back to God there would be hope. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 it is written, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Repentance is necessary, unfortunately, it seems that pride gets in our way.
