Adam Would Not Ask for God’s Forgiveness and Brought Sin on Us All

Genesis 3:11-12 tells us that when God asked Adam if he had eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam blamed Eve instead of confessing his sin.  I John 1:9 tells us that if we “confess our sins,” He will not only forgive our sins, He will clean the sin off us.  Adam wouldn’t do that, he couldn’t be cleansed, so “all have sinned.”

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;  Romans 3:23

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:  Romans 5:12

The idea of group responsibility in that we are all involved in Adam’s sin is foreign to individualistic Americans.  The Word of God shows, however, that God thinks in terms of collective responsibility.

Genesis 2:18 tells us that God made woman because it was not good for man to be alone.  The Bible says:

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.  Genesis 2:25

Why should Adam or Eve be ashamed to be naked?  Husband and wife are one flesh, there’s no shame in being naked with each other.  Who was there to see?  God was there, God walked in the garden with them.  They weren’t ashamed to be naked before Him because they had no sin, they were clean.  After they sinned:

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. ⁸And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. ⁹And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? ¹⁰And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.  Genesis 3:7-10

Adam knew that God was holy.  Adam knew he had failed to protect Eve; he was right there “with her (Gen. 3:6)” the whole time.  Why didn’t he correct her when she misquoted God?  Why didn’t he stop her?  Adam knew he had both failed and sinned, Adam was afraid to come to God naked.  What did God want?  God wanted to hang out with the people He’d made, He wanted to be friends as before, but Adam and Eve were afraid.  I Peter 1:16 says, “Be ye holy for I am holy;” they weren’t holy any more.

God is all holiness, of course, but He’s also all love, He sent His son to give us holiness so we could be His friends if we choose to be.  God wanted to be Adam’s friend, but Adam knew Adam’s sin and wouldn’t humble himself.  James says that God would have lifted Adam up to be friends again.  I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  God doesn’t change.  That’s true now, it was true then.  How did the conversation go after God asked Adam if he’d sinned?

And he [God] said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?  Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?  ¹²And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.  Genesis 3:11-12

Adam blamed Eve instead of blaming himself.  Adam wouldn’t humble himself to confess his sin and ask God’s forgiveness; he couldn’t be God’s friend after that.  Adam had been God’s friend, they had been together in the garden, but when Adam sinned, he wouldn’t ask forgiveness.  Adam gave up friendship with God.

In saying, “The woman whom thou gavest,” Adam was telling God that God had given Adam a defective, imperfect gift.  Shaking his fist in God’s face by blaming God for his sin was a bad career move – Adam was fired from his job keeping the Garden of Eden and had to work much harder for a living.

Pride Goeth Before Destruction

God is as concerned with how we handle sin as with the sin itself.  God told Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, but Saul didn’t do it.  This is what Saul did when Samuel told Saul that Saul had sinned:

And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. ²¹But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal. ²²And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. ²³For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. ²⁴And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. ²⁵Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD. ²⁶And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.  I Samuel 15:20-26

Saul knew exactly what God had said, he knew everything should’ve been destroyed.  Saul claimed he’d obeyed; then he said he saved the animals because the people wanted a sacrifice.  Then Saul admitted he’d sinned, but he asked Samuel to forgive him, he asked Samuel to pray for him.  He didn’t ask God’s forgiveness and he blamed the people again, just like Adam.  Saul didn’t confess, he couldn’t be forgiven, and he couldn’t be cleansed of his unrighteousness.  God rejected Saul as king of Israel because he couldn’t be cleaned as He fired Adam from his job keeping the garden because Adam couldn’t be cleaned.

King David committed what to human eyes seems to be a much worse sin than Saul’s disobedience.  David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Bathsheba’s husband so he could have her.  When Nathan told him, “Thou art the man” and confronted him with his sin, David could have blamed Bathsheba for taking a bath where he could see her as Adam blamed Eve for tempting him, but he didn’t, he took the blame for his sin:

And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD.  And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.  II Samuel 12:13

Nathan said, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin,” because David confessed that he had sinned against the Lord.  I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  God put away David’s sin, which is another way to say “cleanse us from all unrighteousness” because David took responsibility, confessed his sin, and repented.

I John 1:9 was true in David’s time; David confessed his sin and God put away David’s sin.  God put away David’s sin so thoroughly and cleaned him so completely that the Bible speaks twice of David’s heart being “perfect with the Lord his God” (I Kings 11:4, I Kings 15:3).  I John 1:9 was true in Saul’s time, but God couldn’t put away Saul’s sin because Saul wouldn’t humble himself enough to confess his sin to God.

God doesn’t change.  I John 1:9 is true for us today, it was true for Saul and David, it was true in the Garden of Eden.  When God confronted Adam with his sin, Adam could’ve admitted his sin, taken responsibility, and  confessed.  If he’d confessed, God would have forgiven him and would have cleansed him of all unrighteousness.  Adam could have been clean again!  If Adam had let God clean him, the fall would not have happened!

Adam Could Have Been Made Clean

One uncleanness that came from eating the fruit was that Adam and Eve knew good and evil.  I don’t know how God would’ve made them not know good and evil.  God promises to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, whatever that takes, if we take responsibility and confess.  God would’ve figured out a way to cleanse him.  What did Adam do instead?  Just like Saul, Adam blamed someone else for his sin:

And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.  Genesis 3:12

Adam got a few things right.  He knew Eve was a gift of God, he said, “the woman whom thou gavest.”  Second, Adam knew why God gave him Eve, he said, “to be with me.”  Adam knew God had not given him Eve as a slave, as a servant, or as a toy, God had given him Eve to be his companion, but he blamed Eve and God for his sin, Eve for giving him the fruit and God for giving him Eve.  What happened after that?

And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?  And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.  Genesis 3:13

Now we see the fruit of Adam’s sin.  Gen. 2:18 says God made Eve to be Adam’s help meet because it was not good for Adam to be alone.  Women were made for men from the beginning; the New Testament says:

For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.  I Corinthians 11:8-9

Being created for a man means that a woman is inclined to follow her husband’s lead.  Even before God told Eve that her desire would be to her husband (Gen 3:16), Eve followed her husband’s example.  As Sapphira followed Ananias’ leadership and was struck dead (Acts 5:1-11), Eve followed Adam’s lead in blaming the serpent for her sin.  Even today, women tend to follow men.  If you see a man and a woman in the car, it’s usually the man who’s driving, even if it’s her car.

If Adam had humbled himself, God would have lifted him up (James 4:10).  If Adam had confessed his sin, God would have forgiven him and cleansed him of all unrighteousness.  When the Bible says “all unrighteousness,” it means “all unrighteousness.”

God created Adam as a perfect, sinless being; the forbidden fruit was Adam’s first sin.  If he had confessed his first sin and God had cleansed him of all unrighteousness, Adam would once more have been a perfect, sinless being.  Eve would have followed his leadership and confessed.  God could have resumed fellowship with Adam and Eve and the fall would not have happened.

The sin is Adam’s.  Instead of confessing and getting cleaned, he blamed Eve.  Eve followed his leadership and blamed the serpent instead of confessing her sin.  Sin entered the world by one man, Adam:

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:  Romans 5:12

Eve had a part in it; of course, she was in on it:

And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.  I Timothy 2:14

Adam wasn’t deceived.  Some men blame women for the fall.  They act like everything that goes wrong is a woman’s fault because women tempt men to sin.  That’s a lame excuse, Adam wasn’t deceived.  Eve did not deceive Adam and Satan did not deceive Adam; Adam chose to sin of his own free will.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.  James 1:13-15

Adam wasn’t deceived; Adam was drawn away of his own lust and enticed first, to eat the fruit, and second, to blame Eve instead of confessing.  Adam’s sin brought forth death on all of us, just as the Bible says.

The serpent deceived Eve, but Adam was not deceived.  Adam knew God; they had named the animals together.  Adam knowingly refused to confess; he refused to let God cleanse him.  God could have cleansed Adam and sin would not have entered the world.

Adam also set his wife a bad example; she didn’t confess.  Neither of them could be cleaned of their unrighteousness.  Sin entered into the world by Adam, but it wasn’t because Eve deceived Adam; it was because Adam, not being deceived, was drawn away of his own lust and deliberately chose to sin.

Men Blame Women to this Day

Men continue to blame women for their sins.  I’m told that maybe 90% of Christian couples have sex before they get married.  This damages the marriage.  She knows he took her when they weren’t married; she worries he’ll take someone else when he’s away from her.  He knows she gave herself to him when they weren’t married; he worries that she’ll give herself to someone else.  The Bible has the solution:

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  James 5:16

Salvation requires that we confess our faults to God and repent in order to be forgiven.  If a sin involves someone else, however, we have to confess not only to God but also to the other person and to the authorities whose standards were violated.  When God confronted Adam with Adam’s sin, Eve was right there.  Adam would not only have had to confess to God, he would have had to confess to Eve.  If he’d confessed, he’d have been healed, but he didn’t.

If a husband and wife confess their faults to each other and to God, they’ll be healed, but most men refuse.  When I discuss this with men, I usually hear, “She wanted it.”  Maybe she did, so what?  The man is the leader.  When a good girl goes wrong with a bad guy, we say, “He must have fed her a line” and blame the man.  Men have desires 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Men must learn to control their desires because men are always interested.  Women are seldom interested; they aren’t used to feeling passion.  When a woman’s aroused, she isn’t used to it.  She finds it hard to control herself and the man is responsible to protect her purity.  When he takes her without marriage, he must confess not only to her but to her parents and to his parents whose trust he’s violated.

I Cor. 7:1 tells us that it is good for a man not to touch a woman.  The Greek word translated “touch” means to kindle, to set on fire.  I Timothy 5:2 commands men to treat younger women as sisters.  Would a man try to set his sister on fire?  Kindling a woman before marriage leads to temptations, and yielding can be very damaging.  God gave us free will which allows us to choose, but we suffer the consequences:

And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.  Psalm 106:15 

Adam was told to “keep the garden” which means to protect it (Gen 2:15).  Women know that men are supposed to protect them.  When a man takes a woman when he shouldn’t, she knows he failed not only to protect her from his passions; he didn’t protect her from her passions either.  He’s a thief; he took something that didn’t belong to him.  She knows she can’t rely on him to protect her, how can she respect him, belong to him, or follow him?  He feels she enticed him to sin, how can he trust her and belong to her?  That’s not a good way to start a marriage.

The solution is to confess to each other and be healed (Jas. 5:16).  I know a few couples who did that; their marriage was healed as God promises.  Unfortunately, most men follow the example of Adam and blame their wives for their premarital sin and for nearly everything else that goes wrong.  Ever since Adam blamed his wife for his sin instead of confessing, the entire creation groaned and travailed with pain (Romans 8:22).  When a man blames his wife for his sins instead of confessing, his relationship with her groans and travails with pain.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.  James 4:10

Is humility too much for God to ask?  It was for Adam; we know how his pride worked out.  Is humility too much for God to ask of you?  Humility is no fun, I know, but let’s look at a man who confessed not only his own sins, but also accepted blame for the sins of his fathers and of all his people.

Men Who Asked Forgiveness

The account of Adam and Eve sinning together brings us to the idea of collective responsibility that’s hard to explain to individualistic Americans.  God arranged for me to grow up in Japan where people live and breathe group accountability, collective rewards, and group punishments.  Westerners are familiar with the idea – John Donne said, “No man is an island, every man is a piece of the continent ... any man’s death diminishes me, I am involved in mankind.”

Americans used to understand this.  During the discussions leading up to the Revolutionary War, Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together or else we shall surely hang separately.”  He realized that the British would think that what they were doing was treason and would hang them if their rebellion failed.  Our founders later wrote that we were “One nation under God.”  They believed that God had given us a sense of unity.

The Bible puts it:

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.  Romans 12:4-5

You’ll say, “We’re involved in each other,” but you don’t mean it in the sense that the Bible means we’re members of each other.  Children’s stories show what a culture believes.  Paul Bunyan logged the North Woods.  His ox helped, but it sounds like he did it all by himself.  “George Washington crossing the Delaware.”  He had an entire army with him, but we speak as if he did it alone.  What about “Davy Crockett at the Alamo?”  Weren’t there 100 other guys there, too?  The Lone Ranger.  “General Custer and the Little Big Horn.”  The 87th cavalry was there, but our stories make us believe heroes do stupendous deeds all by themselves.

The smallest Japanese team I know is Momo-Taro’s.  He went off to fight demons.  Along the way, he met a dog, then a monkey, and then a pheasant.  As he passed, each one asked, “Where are you going,” and he answered, “Off to fight demons.”  Each one said, “You can’t do that alone, I’ll come along to help.”  When they got to the demon’s castle, each creature’s special gifts helped with a crucial aspect of the fight.  The pheasant flew over the wall and unlocked the gate, then flew around the demons heads and distracted them.  The dog bit a demon, and the monkey was so agile they couldn’t catch him.  They fought as a team and won the battle.

The Bible talks of each member of the body having different gifts, we just read, “All members have not the same office,” precisely the lesson of Momo-Taro.  The Japanese believe that no individual can do anything of significance alone; everything worthwhile takes a team.  Baptists emphasize individual soul liberty; Japanese stories teach that teamwork is the secret to victory in any enterprise.

The most famous Japanese story is the saga of the 47 ronin or masterless samurai.  A young nobleman had 47 servants.  His late father had aroused the enmity of a teacher of etiquette.  Out of spite, the teacher taught the young man the wrong protocol for claiming his title at the imperial court and the young man duly made a fool of himself.  He drew his sword to salvage his honor but was prevented from killing the teacher by alert guards.  Drawing a sword in the imperial palace was impolite‑draw a gun in the White House, there’ll be trouble.  Because of his rank and the circumstances, he was permitted to commit suicide instead of suffering the usual disgrace of decapitation.  Slitting his belly left his followers without a master; they were now ronin.

In group-oriented Japan, having no master was the worst fate that could befall an honorable swordsman.  The teacher expected them to seek revenge and kept his household alert.  The ronin scattered and took up dishonorable professions to avoid suspicion.  The leader became a drunkard to give the impression that he’d forgotten about revenge.  After ten years they got together, surprised the teacher, and cut off his head.  Vengeance is a dish best eaten cold, the Japanese say.  They set the head on their master’s grave as if to say, “We got him, boss!”  Because vengeance was a capital crime, they all sat down and slit their bellies.

The 47 ronin embody everything that’s virtuous and honorable and noble in Japanese culture; their gravestones are the combined Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Iwo Jima Flag Raising of Japan.  There’s usually incense burning on their graves, put there to soothe the souls of the 47 ronin.

These Japanese stories help us understand Daniel’s prayer.  Daniel is one of two major Bible people for whom no sins are written.  He had some; the Bible says there are none righteous, no not one.  God didn’t tell us Daniel’s sins, God did tell us about Daniel’s prayer.  What Daniel did is for our learning, so let’s learn.

Daniel was hauled off as a slave to Babylon in his mid teens.  He had the Bible; Daniel 9 tells us that he studied the Bible and figured out how long his people would be in captivity:

In the first year of his [king Darius’] reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.  Daniel 9:2

He knew how long God had said they’d be captives, but he prayed hard for their release anyway:

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.  Daniel 9:3-6

He says, “Made my confession,” his sins made his people captive as your sins and my sins put Jesus on the cross.  He said, “We have sinned,” and confessed that his people ignored God’s warnings.

O LORD, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. ⁸O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. ⁹To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; ¹⁰Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. ¹¹Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. ¹²And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our Judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. ¹³As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. ¹⁴Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice. ¹⁵And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. ¹⁶O LORD, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. ¹⁷Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. ¹⁸O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. ¹⁹O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.  Daniel 9:7-19

Three times, Daniel says, “We have sinned,” including himself.  He says we have rebelled; it’s for the iniquities of our fathers.  Of our fathers?  Daniel’s ancestors brought this calamity upon Daniel?

Yes, they did.  The prophets warned Israel that God would throw them out of the Promised Land unless they repented.  Did they repent?  No.  Were they thrown out?  Yes, they were.  Here’s the warning to us:

And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God; ²¹Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. ²²And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. ²³At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.  Daniel 9:20-23

The angel Gabriel came while Daniel was confessing his sins and the sins of his people.  Gabriel hurried because Daniel was greatly beloved of God.  If Daniel was “greatly beloved,” why was he dragged off to Babylon?  Because of the sins of his ancestors and the sins of his people.  God wasn’t punishing Daniel for the sins of his ancestors; God punishes people for their own sins:

The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.  Ezekiel 18:20

However, God also says that children suffer as their father’s sins are visited upon them.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;  Exodus 20:5

Daniel’s ancestors disobeyed; Daniel suffered for their sins when he was hauled off to Babylon.  God preserved Daniel’s prayer where he confessed not only his own sins, but also the sins of other people for our learning (Rom. 15:4).  This is not unique to Daniel.  In Nehemiah 1, we see that Nehemiah confessed sins in which he, personally, had no part, he was sorry for his association with sins that his ancestors had committed.  We see the same sense of collective guilt and collective confession in Ezra 9.  Ezra is grief-stricken because of sins other people committed, but he not only weeps for those sins, he confesses those sins to God.

We’re all in it together with the generations that have gone before!

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  Matthew 5:44-45

“He sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,” much of what happens affects everyone whether they’re Christians or not.  Back when American was a “Christian nation” and based most public policy on the Bible, non-Christians participated in God’s blessing of this nation on behalf of the Christians.  Now that we’ve abandoned Bible-based laws and customs, we Christians participate in the problems God brings on our nation.  We’re all in it together.  The Bible tells what it means to be members of each other:

For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked.  That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.  I Corinthians 12:24-26

We all suffer when any member of our church is sick, or unemployed, or suffers calamity or trials.  We’re all honored when any of our members is honored; it reflects credit on us.  It’s not just church, when we work for a business, when the business has problems, we might get laid off, we’re all in it together.

No man is an island.  Years back, a Japanese bicycle salesman died in the Peruvian Andes.  His car stuck in the snow, but he kept going.  He froze to death in a snowdrift, headed toward the customer with his sample case over his shoulder.  He gave his life to complete the sales call; he died doing his duty to his company.

Ink flowed in Japan, but not big ink, mostly page 2.  The tone was “That’s a real Japanese.  Nothing special‑we expect each of you to do your duty.”  That may seem funny to you, but they don’t think it’s funny.  We who compete with the Japanese know that a lot of them would.  The Japanese know that the sun rises on the evil and on the good; they know they’re all in it together.

It’s not just the boss; we’re part of our nation.  During the recession in the 90’s, we suffered with our nation; we suffer high prices now.  God commands us to pray for our rulers and for everyone in authority over us:

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.  I Timothy 2:1-2

We’re told to pray for our rulers so that our lives may be quiet and peaceable.  What happens if our nation goes bad?  On March 9-10, 1945, a US air raid killed an estimated 100,000 people in one night by setting Tokyo, a city of wood and paper, on fire.  Did any of the 100,000 people who died have anything to do with bombing Pearl Harbor?  Probably not.  Japan was a military dictatorship; citizens had nothing to do with how the country was run.  These people had nothing to do with bombing Pearl Harbor but they died anyway.  Daniel had nothing to do with the sins of his fathers but he went into captivity anyway.  We’re all in it together.

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

We’re really all in it together.  In 2007, the EPA said there were over 285,000,000 people in the United States.  About 960,000 are farmers.  Less than a million people grow enough food for 285 million.

In 1935, the number of farms in the United States peaked at 6.8 million as the population edged over 127 million.  Increased demand for food has been met with large, productive pieces of farm equipment, improved crop varieties, commercial fertilizers, and pesticides.  There were 27.5 acres/worker in 1890 and 740 acres/worker in 1990.  Americans grow so much food that lots of people eat too much.

One farmer feeds 285 people.  How?  Large pieces of farm equipment, fertilizers, and pesticides.  What makes farm equipment go?  Gasoline.  Fertilizer is made from petroleum, which is also used in making pesticides.  In 1935, there were a few tractors, but nothing like we have now.  In 1935, farmers fed fewer than half as many people as we have now using muscle-powered farming, horse and buggy agriculture.  If we stop using petroleum as we do now, if we ever go back to muscle-powered farming, we’ll be able to feed maybe half our present population.  Without gasoline-powered farming, half our people will starve to death.

Gasoline-powered farming requires well-educated farmers to run and maintain the machines.  It needs well-educated workers to make the machines; it needs well-educated workers to run refineries to make the gasoline, to make fertilizer, and trucks that ship fertilizer to the fields and ship food back.  Our students aren’t learning what they need to know to manage this; we could lose our ability to operate our industrial farming system.

God says that education happens in families; our families are falling apart.  The Christian divorce rate is the same as among the lost; most lost people don’t marry at all, they just live together.  Our nation has forgotten that it takes a long-term commitment by two parents to raise children from barbarians to civilized adults.

We need to take warning.  The prophet Malachi told God’s people why they were having a hard time:

Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.  Malachi 2:14

Divorce was damaging their society.  God won’t need to send us famine.  If our families become too weak, if our education level drops, we’ll lose our high-tech agricultural system and many will starve.

What have we Christians done about it?  Have we prayed?  I must confess that even though I knew from living in Japan that we Americans are all in it together, I haven’t prayed for our leaders or for our nation as I should.  I’ve had enough Asian teaching about the necessity of strong families to know what happens to a nation when families fall apart, but I haven’t prayed as I ought.

Messages from God

God tends to deliver important messages vividly so we can’t miss it, then He watches us handle it.

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

God saw the evil, wiped everyone out except for 8 people, said, “I won’t do that again, I hope you got it.”

When the sins of Sodom got too great, God rained brimstone and fire and wiped them out.  He hasn’t done that since, He said, “That’s how I feel about sodomy, please learn.”

Romans 1:27 says, “men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”  Sodomy brings the punishment of God on itself.  The colon is the body’s sewer.  Play in the sewer long enough, you’ll get sick.  God expects us to put sodomy away from us.  Four times, God praises the kings of Israel who got rid of sodomites (I Ki. 14:24, 15:12, 22:46, II Ki. 23:7).

What does God say about sexual purity?  What’s His view of virginity?

But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.  Deuteronomy 22:20-21

A wife was put to death if she was accused of sexual misbehavior she couldn’t prove she’d been a virgin on her wedding night.  Fornication was punished by death.  Instead of punishing infidelity once as with sodomy, God’s law required that adultery be punished every time it was found out (Lev. 20:10).

We’re Going Down

Absent revival, our society is doomed; we’ve turned from fidelity to sexual license.  Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan lived out Winston Churchill’s proverb, “A young man who’s not a liberal has no heart, an old man who’s still a liberal has no brains.”  He started out a Democrat, but he learned; his party vilified him when he pointed out that it was not good for so many black babies to be born out of wedlock.  One of his papers quoted Dr. Unwin, a historian who studied more than eighty former civilizations; all societies which became sexually permissive collapsed.  Sexual Relations and Cultural Behavior, J. D. Unwin (Frank M. Darrow 1969).

Why do sexually permissive societies fall?  Sexual bonds hold couples together according to J. L. and C. G. Gould, Sexual Selection, (New York: W. H. Freeman and Co., 1989).  Well, duh!  Coming together physically binds a man and woman into one flesh.  When that bond is abused so that trust is gone, the marriage bond is weakened.  When families are weak, children aren’t brought up properly, and down we go.

As the women and children in Tokyo were burned to death even though they had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor, as we suffered the recession of the 90’s even though we weren’t making economic policy decisions, as we will starve along with everybody else if we lose our technology, we fall if our nation falls.

What can we do about it?  We can do as Daniel did, we can pray and confess our sins!  God explained this five hundred years before He let the Babylonians take Daniel into captivity:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  II Chronicles 7:14

We, God’s people, we’re the if in the equation; lost folks have nothing to do with healing our land.  God told His people, they didn’t listen, they were hauled off.  We know more than they did, we know they were hauled off.  We know God has healed our land more than once!  He’s sent revival to America many times!  Absent revival, we’re doomed to starvation as technology breaks down, but with God’s revival, our land will be healed.

How do we go about it?  Daniel shows the way.  Humble ourselves, Daniel fasted in sack cloth and ashes to show he really meant business with God; it mattered to him.  Then pray, seek God’s face by thanking Him, and confess not only our sins, but also the sins of our fathers.  Sins of our fathers?  What sins?  Let’s list a few.

Public Acceptance of Sodomy

Ever hear of Walter Jenkins?  He was a close aide to President Lyndon Johnson.  In October, 1964, he was arrested for homosexual acts in a YMCA rest room.  After great publicity, he lost his job.  According to a Harris poll, more than two thirds of the American people said the scandal made no difference to them, about the same number who later shrugged their shoulders when confronted with revelations about President Clinton’s sex life.

Mr. Clinton was President in 1993; the law was changed to permit sodomites in the military if they were quiet about it.  This law was named, “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”  The Massachusetts Supreme Court said sodomites could marry each other in 2004, California’s court followed in 2008.  Sodomy went from illegal in 1964 to acceptance in 1993 to open acceptance in 2004.  Attempts to overturn the Massachusetts decision by changing the constitution failed.  Governor Romney spent millions of dollars of his own money trying to help Republicans run against Democrats highlighting this issue; Republicans lost seats.  People want sin.

Where were Christians?  The Presbyterian Church published the “Confession of 1967” in 1967, the year I graduated from college.  It says, “The church comes under the judgment of God and invites rejection by man when it fails to lead men and women into the full meaning of life together, or withholds the compassion of Christ from those caught in the moral confusion of our time.”  Why is there moral confusion?  Because the church is silent.  The church accepts sex education in schools where kids are urged to experiment with sex.  The church is silent.  God isn’t confused about sex, not at all, but we let our society stay confused.

Let me show you how sin grows.  Divorce was forbidden for the first 1,600 years of the Christian era.  In the early 1600’s, Erasmus, the man who put together the Greek manuscript from which the King James Bible was translated, suggested that divorce be allowed in certain cases.  The Catholic Church rejected his idea but Protestants such as Martin Luther and John Calvin accepted it.  Divorce was written into the Westminster Confession of Faith in 1646, almost 400 years ago.  The Westminster Confession says:

“nothing but adultery, or such willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the church, or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage”

Instead of no divorce ever, Protestants permitted divorce in cases of adultery or desertion.  This was new.

In the 1930’s the Presbyterian Church began a discussion of divorce which lasted 20 years.  The church ended up deciding to permit divorce for the moral equivalent of adultery; they changed the Westminster Confession to permit remarriage after divorce “when sufficient penitence for sin and failure is evident, and a firm purpose of and endeavor after Christian marriage is manifested.”  400 years after divorce was first permitted, remarriage after divorce became OK if you’re sorry and promise to try harder next time.

By the 1950’s, the Presbyterians had changed their view of marriage.  The primary purpose of marriage was no longer the benefit of society but the benefit of the people entering the marriage covenant[1].  They changed from teaching duty and responsibility in marriage to seeking delight and self-gratification.

Let’s see where this goes.  I’ll quote from Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality–Explode the Myths, Heal the Church. Jack Rogers, WJK Press (2006).  Dr. Rogers was moderator of the 213^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.  His book argues that, as they have ordained women and divorcees for decades, Presbyterians should ordain practicing homosexuals.  The “myths” to which Dr. Rogers refers are the “myths” that God declares that homosexuality is a sin and that only married, non-divorced men may be ordained.

The Presbyterian denominations had turned away from what they considered a legalistic approach to marriage and divorce based on a literal interpretation of biblical and confessional texts. …

How is this relevant to granting equality to gay and lesbian members of our churches?  Jesus’ words that divorce is equivalent to adultery are among the clearest statements on a moral issue in Scripture.  The Westminster Confession was clear as well, even though it did set a precedent for allowing exceptions in the case of adultery or desertion.  p. 44 [emphasis added]

Dr. Rogers reminds us that the Westminster Confession of 1646 “set a precedent” by allowing divorce in case of adultery or desertion.  He reminds us that for the first 1,600 years of the Christian era, divorce was not allowed for any reason at all.  Let’s follow Dr. Rogers’ argument:

If we were to take literally Jesus’ teaching on divorce, we would still not be accepting divorced and remarried people as office bearers in the church.  Yet church law [which forbids the ordination of sodomites] now asks that we take literally less clear statements regarding homosexual behavior.  It is a double standard: current church law permits a pastoral approach concerning marriage and divorce for people who are heterosexual [“pastoral approach” means that it’s OK to marry again after a divorce even though Jesus’ teaching against remarriage is “among the clearest statements on a moral issue in Scripture”] and mandates a legalistic approach toward people who are homosexual.  p 44  [emphasis added]

Dr. Rogers argument can be summed up as, “We ignore the command ‘husband of one wife only’ when we ordain women and divorced people, why not ordain sodomites?”  His argument carried the day.

Note that he says that the teaching against sodomy is “less clear” than Jesus’ teaching that divorce is equivalent to adultery.  Let’s look at one of those “less clear” passages:

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?  Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.  I Corinthians 6:9-10

“Abusers of themselves with mankind” describes homosexuals or sodomites.  They won’t inherit the kingdom of God.  Like all sinners, they have to repent and be justified in the name of Christ or they’ll die and go to Hell.  This is “less clear” than Jesus’ “words that divorce is equivalent to adultery?”

Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.  Matthew 19:6

And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. ¹²And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.  Mark 10:11-12

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? ²For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. ³So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Romans 7:1-3

If what the Bible says about sodomy is “less clear” than what it says about divorce, what it says about divorce is indeed very clear.  When churches make this sort of argument, is it any wonder that advocacy groups tell us to “accept” sodomy and try not to make them “feel bad” about their sin?  Canada forbids teaching what the Bible says about sodomy; they call it “hate speech.”  If churches like the Presbyterians say that Bible teaching against sodomy is unclear, how can we blame unsaved lawmakers for outlawing “hate speech?”

It took Satan 300 years to destroy marriage.  In 1646, Protestants permitted divorce in cases of desertion or adultery, in 1950, they changed the basis of marriage from duty to delight.  California permitted “no-fault divorce” in 1970, twenty years later.

Corruption of marriage started in the church.  In the 1950’s, the Presbyterian Church was very much the P of WASP, the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants who ran the country.  The Presbyterians were numerous, wealthy, and highly organized.  Sam Walton, who founded Wal-Mart, was a Presbyterian.  What Presbyterians said about marriage mattered to the rest of the country.

If marriage is about duty, you can’t divorce, because duty lasts until death.  If marriage is about delight, you ought to be permitted to divorce if you’re no longer delighted.  If the church teaches that marriage is about delight and not about discipline or duty, why wouldn’t unsaved legislators pass “no fault” divorce laws?  With no-fault divorce, it’s easier to get out of a marriage; it’s easier to end a covenant God ordained, than to get out of paying for a refrigerator.  Our nation has no fear of God.

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.  Matthew 5:13

We should be the salt of the earth.  Churches like the Presbyterians haven’t just lost their savor, they’ve thrown it away.  When Jesus said they would be cast out, did He mean that He would cast them out?

Smut

When my wife was little, her mother’s job for the church was to go to the drugstores and make sure they weren’t selling pornographic magazines.  The law said that they couldn’t have them out front; they had to keep them behind the counter, but most of the stores had them out where children could see them.  Her mother would confiscate any copies that were out in public view because that was illegal.

She hated the job.  She did it, even knowing that the stores had more and would replace the magazines after she’d left.  The stores gradually learned that she’d be faithful and that she might pop in any time so most of the time, there were always one or two in the rack when she dropped in.  Dealing with the magazines made her feel so dirty that she only did it a couple of times per month.  If she had done it every day, and other members of her church had done every day in other places, this filth might not have spread so rapidly in our society.

Then she stopped doing it.  My wife asked, “Why?”  The law had changed, they could display the magazines openly now.  Where were the Christians?   Where were the protests?  Why didn’t our ancestors do anything about this?  Christians had many votes, why didn’t they get the law put back?

Removing the Bible from Public Life

In 1963, the US Supreme Court ruled against prayer and Bible verse recitation in public schools.  The court reasoned that using the Bible as required material in schools is against the Constitution.  This is clearly untrue.  20,000 copies of the Bible of the Revolution were printed in 1782.  That Bible was printed by the U.S. Congress and the records of Congress say that this is quote “a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of our schools” end quote.  Men who’d written the Constitution were serving in Congress at the time.  If they thought using the Bible in schools was against the Constitution, would they have paid for it?  Satan’s servants on the Court disregarded this fact and said the Bible could not be a required text in schools.

Where were the Christians?  They said nothing.  Our founders knew that liberty works only if people are responsible.  Servant leadership works only when people are willing to be led.  If followers aren’t willing to be led, you lead with whips, chains, and guns.  It’s important to teach children responsibility so they can enjoy liberty, but our courts have been undermining any notion of teaching responsibility for a long time.

In1980, the US Supreme Count ruled that a Kentucky school could not post the Ten Commandments even though they’re carved on the wall of the Supreme Court building.  The court said, “If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the school children to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments.  However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.”

Why isn’t it a “permissible state objective” for students to venerate and obey “thou shalt not kill?”  What’s wrong with students obeying “thou shalt not steal?”  What’s wrong with government schools teaching, “thou shalt not commit adultery?”  When students aren’t taught “thou shalt not kill,” they kill each other.  Some schools now encourage teachers to bring guns to school.  Liberals will never admit it, but we have a choice-it’s either God in the schools or guns in the schools, pick one!  Our nation is losing its foundation!

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.  Psalm 127:1

Why doesn’t God prevent murder in schools?  Because God is no longer allowed in schools.

Altar Call

Americans have an incorrect view of liberty – they see it as everyone has the right to do pretty much what he or she desires regardless of God’s laws.  Christians argue that no one has the right to “conform me” to your legalism (Gal. 2:4-5).  Americans forget that in addition to teaching that Christ brings liberty, Paul also wrote that liberty brings responsibility to control sinful impulses.  Paul warned about using liberty without taking responsibility for the welfare of others:

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. ²⁴Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.  I Corinthians 10:23-24

We’ve seen many sins of our fathers – changing our laws to permit divorce, encourage sodomy, taking the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Bible out of public life.  As our families are dissolving in divorce, our children aren’t being taught how to be civilized adults; our educational system is failing, and we’re becoming sexually permissive.  Absent revival from God, we’re going to lose our technology and our society will collapse.  God tells us how to get revival:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  II Chronicles 7:14

We have neighbors.  We have seen sin come in like a flood, and what have we done about it?  Will we confess our part in all these sins which we ignored to God?  Have we been fasting and praying that God would heal our land?  Will we confess the sins of our fathers as Daniel did?  Or will we simply slide into barbarism as Daniel was hauled off into slavery?  Jesus expects His people to spread the gospel:

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  Mark 16:15

Never mind distant places, what about our neighborhoods?  We don’t need to worry about the nation as a whole; can’t we fast and pray to ask God to heal our neighborhood?  Our town?  Our state?  And go from there.  Have we offered our neighbors the spiritual help they need?

Our leaders lie, cheat, and steal habitually and everybody shrugs – there’s no thought of holding them accountable.  Open sexual sin is so common that it hardly makes the news any more:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; ²⁹Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, ³⁰Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, ³¹Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: ³²Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.  Romans 1:28-32

Will we confess our local and national sins as Daniel and David did, or will we blame others as Adam and Saul did?  God tells us what to do; it’s up to us to do it.

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[1] Eric Mount Jr. and Johanna W. H. Bos, “Scripture on Sexuality, Shifting Authority,” Journal of Presbyterian History 59 no. 2, (Summer 1981): 224