Sunday Sermons
The Values Revolution
The Values Revolution
In the book 1971 entitled The Right, The Good & The Happy the author Bernard L. Ramm sought to make sense of what at that time was called the generation gap. He writes, “One of the great Greek dramatists was Aristophanes (448-380 B.C.). In his book, The Clouds, we find the generation gap. The father is worried to death about the way his son is carrying on. This is a basic motif of much later literature. In his book, Steppenwolf (the ‘lone’ wolf of the steppes), Hermann Hesse (in 1927) sketched out the life of a man out of step with his times” (p. 143). In like manner, the Bible also contains a father who is worried concerning the future of his son (Proverbs 1:8). From an array of Biblical passages we learn that every new generation has faced the same temptations of “friends” who are no good (Proverbs 1:10), women who are dangerous (Proverbs 7:1), and the perils of drugs and alcohol (Proverbs 23:29ff). Yet Ramm observed, “Something happened to the youth of the world after World War II. This movement among the youth of the world, for it is a worldwide phenomenon and not confined either to England or America, is not just more typical youth restlessness. The expression ‘we thought that way too as kids’ is very unrealistic. This is not another typical conflict between children and parents. It is a conflict of such major proportions that it must be thought of more as a revolution” (p. 144). In addition, this “revolution” is still ongoing some 30 years later. Ramm, in his book, sought to identify certain factors that led to this revolution, and we want to examine some of them in this lesson in the light of Scripture.
The five-year plan
Some argued that since the children born after the Second World War grew up in the “nuclear age”, and were told that life could end at any moment, that such thinking had the effect of foreshortening their entire scheme of life. “They think in terms of five years not fifty years. So their sex, their literature, their motives, their drugs, and their bohemian ways are so-called five-year plans” (p. 145). Yet other generations grew up in times of uncertainty, and did not choose to sacrifice everything for immediate gratification. In fact, if one really believes that they are living on the brink of eternity, the response should not be, “Let us eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die”, rather, such time should be spent making sure that one is prepared to face God in judgment (Hebrews 9:27; Romans 13:11-12 “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed… Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light”). In addition, every generation from the First Century has lived with a far greater and more certain reality than the threat of nuclear annihilation, and that is the return of Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3; 2 Peter 3:10).
The unspanked generation
Long ago Solomon noted, “Discipline your son while there is hope” (Proverbs 19:18); “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will remove it far from him” (22:15); “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother” (29:15); “A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and the rod for the back of fools” (26:3). “People over fifty remember the whipping in the woodshed. A modern child has never seen a woodshed. People over fifty also remember the spanking arsenal of the principal. Educators believed in the value of the spanking; and the parents approved of the spanking if they felt their youngster had stepped out of line and therefore had it coming. When education become excessively pupil-centered, when permissiveness replaced discipline, the result has been a generation without fiber—spoiled, ego-centered, undisciplined” (p. 147). And maybe even more critical in the long run, is a rebellion and lack of respect for any authority except the authority of self. Thus parents are not respected, law-enforcement is not respected, and God and His law are not respected.
The soft generation
“They have never had to learn how to live with less and less as in a time of depression. They have never learned to repair, invent, or improvise. They had not learned to be three seasons back in their clothes” (pp. 147-148). While some younger people may get tired of hearing this sort of statement, in reality a period of prosperity can yield a generation that is unwilling to hold to God’s truth. Case in point is the generation that followed Joshua, for the generation that had not grown up in the wilderness or fought for the land of Canaan went into apostasy (Judges 2:10-13). The exact same observation has been made when Christianity was declared a legal religion in the Roman Empire and how the church was quickly weakened and corrupted by fair-weather converts. In the case noted in the book of Judges it is significant that what Joshua’s generation viewed as a life and death threat (the Canaanites and their false religion) another generation embraced. “That is a perennial peril. One generation can rejoice in a living faith, enjoy intimate communion with God, revel in the kingship of Jesus over daily life, even delight to teach the faith to those closest to them; yet the next generation may come along and care nothing for all that” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 36). One can almost hear someone in this new generation saying to his contemporaries, “Come with me, I have found a new and exciting faith! I feel so alive and renewed. This is a lot better than what we had to endure as kids!” Or, “I found that everything that our parents warned us about was false, these Canaanites are really nice people, in fact they are a lot more sincere, loving, giving, and emotionally supportive than some Israelites!” Yet there is a warning in Judges, for this soft and compromising generation does get overrun by opportunistic enemies (2:14). The church, family or nation that refuses to face up to spiritual and moral decay will not somehow be magically spared, rather it will simply be absorbed by evil forces. This is the warning that Jesus signaled to His generation that refused to commit to His truth (Matthew 12:39-45). Especially foreboding is the last statement in this section, “and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first” (12:45). When I look at the fruits of the last 40 years and observe the wreckage in the cultural landscape, I see the American culture weakened by divorce, drug abuse, a lack of discipline in the home, children raising themselves, pornography and an obsession with any form of perversion, a callousness caused by abortion, and senseless violence that is glorified on television, in movies and video games. The revolution of the 1960’s did not result in a better world, but rather only introduced more spirits evil than itself.
Everything “now”
“They are the now generation. They do not buy into the long haul value systems of their parents. They do not believe in delayed action for future returns. Their values are now values, experiential values. They want immediacy in experience and pleasure and reward. This drives them to pleasure now, trips now, and novel experiences now” (p. 152). The problem with the emphasis upon being rewarded at the very moment of the experience is that such is not reality. Many of the rewards in this life do not and cannot come immediately (Hebrews 5:14). A strong marriage is not built in a day, one is not given a high paying job after they complete the first day of high school, and one cannot become an elder overnight. God created this universe, and a long haul value system governs this universe, both on the physical Proverbs 6:1ff; and the spiritual plane (Romans 2:7 “to those who by perseverance in doing good”; Galatians 6:9 “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary”). Yet sooner or later every generation must face up to reality. The generation of Judges 2:10-11 found themselves overrun and exploited by the enemies of God’s people. Marriage, parenthood, and paying the bills can be sober intrusions into one’s world, and such responsibilities can play havoc with many man-made philosophies that seemed to work much better when one was single and living at home. While there are many views of the world that do not work well when one is married, has their own children, has teenagers, needs to plan for retirement or face the death of a loved one or one’s own death, one never outgrows Christianity. It works when one is single, when married, when a parent, when young and old, rich or poor, when healthy and when dying. Equally there are many slogans that might have sounded good at one time such as “Make love not war”, but do not sound so good when you are the parent, or in the country that is being invaded. By contrast, the statement, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God” never becomes dated or counterproductive.
The danger of being ahistorical
“By ahistorical we mean that the contemporary generation gets so preoccupied with its present problems it fails to take a hard look at history. As the old saying goes, those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Every age stands on the shoulders of the previous ages and to this degree deserves some measure of respect” (p. 154). The Scriptures equally assert the importance of learning from previous generations (1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Romans 15:4). In fact, we need to remember that when we are reading the events in the Old or New Testament, such events were not written to merely entertain us, they were written so that we can avoid making the same mistakes in our lives.
The stress on ecology
Even in 1971 Ramm could see a growing environmental movement among the new generation. While being good stewards of God’s creation is stressed in the very first chapter of Genesis (Genesis 1:26-28), there are some points that we need to remember. The first truth is that there is no divine mandate to keep the Creation in some original condition. The earth was not created to be a museum piece, rather it was created to be lived in and used. There is also the issue of consistency. I know it is easy to get upset when a section of farmland or woods is turned into a housing development, yet remember that the house that you are living in was once farmland or woods as well. Even every major urban area, like New York City was once bare land and woods. The word subdue in Genesis 1:28 should remind us that “nature” or the “creation” is not as fragile as some might think. In fact, about the only force on this planet that keeps the land portion from becoming an overgrown jungle, is man. Every late spring, farmers, the state department of transportation, and every homeowner fights and struggles to trim “nature” back and keep it in line. The word fill in the same passage reminds us that God is not concerned about the earth becoming overpopulated. Yes, in certain urban areas traffic may be frustrating at times---but it is only frustrating because we have grown accustomed to traveling great distances at 70 mph. In spite of bad traffic, we can still cover more ground in a day than any of our ancestors. Let us also remember that God does not have the same “nostalgia” for the earth that we often do. One day God is going to bring the entire universe to an end ( 2 Peter 3:10). Yes, He has no qualms about bringing an end to the Grand Canyon, the Rain Forest, the Andes, all the Glaciers, the Mississippi Delta, and every other wonder of the world. If we find ourselves pinning because a certain beach is no longer secluded, a little town is no longer small, or a favorite hiking spot is now a strip mall, let us remember that God has far higher priorities than such things (Luke 19:10). In other words, the earth is not an end in itself. If God needs to bring a flood upon the surface of the entire planet, and create tremendous devastation for the spiritual welfare of the human race, then He will do it (2 Peter 3:6). Let us remember, that even when we look at some natural wonder today, we are not looking at the “original” condition of the earth.
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
