Social Issues and God
Every aspect of life and society is covered by the Word of God, and as Christians, what the Bible says is to govern how we live. What does the Word say about some of the issues society has focused on?
The Origin of Everything
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1 (KJV)
God in the Hebrew is Elohim, which is a plural name for God, referring to the triune Godhead. He is one God in three Persons. I John 5:7 says that these Three are One. God is God and created all things. In the beginning was God. Beginnings come from God. This verse contradicts the concept of evolution. Evolution is a theory created by man, and it is a lie. There is one God, one Creator, and one salvation through Jesus.
Sexuality
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1:26-28 (KJV) emphasis mine
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him…. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:18, 21-24 (KJV)
God created mankind; we come from God. We did not evolve or come about in some other way. God’s Word is clear about this. When God made man, He made the man, and then He made a woman for the man. God’s plan is one man and one woman. He did not put two men together or two women. He did not put a grown man with a child or with an animal. His plan is pure, and the Word considers all else to be perversion. While we don’t hate people caught up in a sexual lifestyle that is not of God, the Bible says it is wrong and that people can be delivered and set free from it.
Capital Punishment and the Sanctity of Life
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. Genesis 9:6 (KJV)
Capital punishment was God’s idea. When someone purposely murders another person, that person’s life is required of him. In so doing, God is protecting the sanctity of life. Every murder must be punished. It sounds contradictory, but capital punishment preserves life. It does so by deterring people from taking the life of another for fear of losing their own. The concept of capital punishment carried over into the New Testament. Jesus warned his disciples in Matthew 26:52 that those that take the sword shall perish with the sword, referring to the punishment for murder. The fact that God initiated capital punishment shows the value He places on life. We are to stand up for life, meaning we stand against abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, genocide, and so forth.
Secular Humanism, Racism, and Other “Isms”
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Genesis 11:1-9 (KJV)
The whole earth had one language. Mankind was unified together, but without God in the picture. As a matter of fact, they were against God. Instead of using their unity to serve and honor God, they put them selves, mankind, first. This is called humanism, which says that man is his own god. They were building a tower to make a name for themselves and to defy God. They were building it in case God sent another flood and they were determined to outwit God. They did not want God to rule over them. In trying to make a name for themselves and not for God, they introduced the concept of what I call “isms,” such as humanism, paganism, socialism, communism, etc. Such “isms” are demonic and always end up in failure. They were to use their imaginations, to envision good and do it. However, they refused to do this, so God confused their language and scattered them across the earth. Babel means confusion. Man was originally one race, but later their division and distrust of one another led to racism, or valuing one group of people over another. This was not what God intended for us.
Becoming One Again
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29 (KJV)
Although man wickedly tried to challenge God and had to be divided, God has made a way for us all to be united together again- with God involved this time. In Christ, we are all made one again and made equal. God promises all believers an inheritance in Christ- no one is left out. As we become one in Christ, we live in love one with another, and we have no desire to cheat, steal, hurt, murder, or otherwise wrong one another. Social issues are overcome as we allow God to love us, and we love each other.
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Romans 5:17 (New International Version, NIV)
