2Corinthians 4:2
but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

Isaiah 55:8-9
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Galatians 1:8
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. In every time period after God revealed himself to Israel, people have looked for ways to subvert and avoid the word of God. The concepts are not new, but the terminology changes over time. In each age, there are those that would use their ideas of what is right and wrong to convince the world that they have a better idea. What happens is that as those ideas become mainstream, then the cause for change shifts to something else, usually more extreme.

Today, things that are taken as “normal”, were not – even 50 years ago. Proponents would argue that this is just the natural process of progressive enlightenment. That these things would have been normal then, if only society had known better. But I see the contradictions to what God has told us in scripture. What worries me are not only the changes that have taken place already, but what is the next thing that might need enlightenment. When Israel entered the promised land, it was common for those that they displaced to worship their gods by sacrificing their children by fire. You wonder how a society even got to that point, but it probably was with small steps over a number of generations by people that thought they had a better idea.

It occurred to me that terminology like “progressive” has replaced the gospel concept of “sanctification”. We want change because it seems right to some, rather than change that brings us closer to God. We look at these social changes as being enlightened, rather than focusing on being illumined by the Holy Spirit.

The narrow path we are called to follow has many outside forces attempting to draw us on to another road. That is why the gospel that was brought to us by the very Son of God cannot be exchanged for a cheap imitation.

Heavenly Father, I pray that my eyes would remain fixed on you. Illumine me only by the Holy Spirit. Sanctify me into the image of Jesus. Help me to keep the gospel as it has been given to us by Jesus and forsake those things that are contrary to scripture. Amen