That’s a pretty good description of many people in the world today, and increasingly, it may also be said of portions of the American scene. Why? Why the anarchistic attitudes of so many? Why that attitude of some (in a milder way, of course) even in a milquetoast church?
Proverbs 29:18a in the Holman Christian Standard Bible says: “Without revelation, people run wild.” That is the reason.
There can be no agreed-upon stable order in society–whether it be the government of a country or of a congregation of worshippers–apart from a divine revelation from God. Everything is up for grabs. Everyone will follow his own desires–and why not, if there is no standard given from above by which we may learn what is true, right, and honoring to God?
Apart from revealed truth, which provides the standard of what God approves and disapproves, people run wild. It is a given. There are no exceptions. Disorder is the order of the day throughout the world. Read the internet headlines for the day if you don’t believe me. It is also the problem with many churches that fail to establish their faith and practice on the Word of God. Take it for an axiom: without revelation, people run wild.
Families run wild apart from revelation. Parents don’t know what to teach or how to discipline their children without divine revelation. If there is no universal standard, every man does that which is right in his own eyes. Apart from withholding privileges, what reason has a child to obey if God hasn’t told him how to do so?
It doesn’t matter which direction you turn, what group you survey, when you care to look, it is always true that sooner or later (usually the former) people begin to do wild, chaotic, stupid, destructive, and hurtful things apart from the restraining and guiding influence of God’s revelation. Ever since Adam abandoned God’s revelation for the devil’s advice, men have run wild. So, we need to spread revealed truth far and wide if we would see tranquility, order, and stability in our homes, our churches, and our land.
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