LIFE CHANGING MESSAGE
Most informed Americans are
unquestionably familiar with Dan Brown's foolish and insulting novel, The Da Vinci Code, and probably
with Ron Howard's movie by the same name. Many readers have been deceived into believing that the book consists
of historical fact. Not one reputable scholar in the world would agree with
that assessment of the book. It does include some facts about the life of
Leonardo da Vinci and about the life of Christ, but it is literally filled with deliberately misused
facts and applications. Incidentally, a number of books by reputable scholars
have shown how perverted Brown's
novel is and what his motivation was in writing the book. Lee Strobel and Garry Poole wrote one of those books
showing just how wrong Brown was in his use of information about Christ. Their book has the title, Exploring
the Da Vinci Code (
My purpose in this lesson today is not
to discuss the serious errors in Dan Brown's book, but to speak for a short
time on the topic: "Life-Changing Message." Strobel and
There is not a reasonable person on earth who does not understand how messages affect people—either for good or for evil. Plato, the world's most influential philosopher, believed and taught that wives in the ideal state would be common and children would also be common. Parents would not to know their own children and children would not to know their own parents. Husbands would not to be devoted to one woman but to the community. Surely no one in his right mind would suggest or adopt such utter stupidity or would they? Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1954) proposed the abolition of the family. Marx asserted: "Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common and thus, at the most, what the Communists might possibly be reproached with, is that they desire to introduce, in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an openly legalized community of women" (p. 33). In fact, Plato's ideas about the family have done enormous damage to people all over the world. It is unreasonable to argue that messages do not affect the lives of people.
Marx's Communist Manifesto has
had devastating effects on humanity. It is altogether possible that Marx's ideas as adopted by
One of the reasons—but not the only one—that has caused
Communism to fail its people
is Communism's proposal to abolish private property. When a government destroys
men's motivations to take care of their own families, the nation will suffer
shortages and deficiencies in every phase of life. The old
A man's first obligation is to provide
for his own family. But
Christianity has done more than any
other religion or philosophy to help those who are not members of our own households. The reason for that is easy to
explain. Our Lord was compassionate toward those who were in need. He set the
example for his followers. In addition, inspired writers urged Christians to care for all people—not
just members of our households and
members of the church. The apostle Paul admonished the Galatians: "Let us
not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto
them who are of the household of faith" (Gal.
There simply is no doubt that Sigmund Freud, the father
of modern psychiatry, was one of the most influential scientists who ever
lived, although among many professionals, Freud's influence is waning. Sigmund Freud believed and
taught that virtually every action of man is directed by his sexual appetite. Dr. Walter Maier was
the speaker on "The Lutheran Hour" for many years. The very first
book on the family I ever purchased was Dr. Maier's book, For Better not for Worse: A Manual of
Christian Matrimony (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1935). Dr. Maier quotes these words
from Dr. Charles Burr of the
Is anyone so naive as to believe that
Darwinism has not exerted a detrimental influence on society?
My concern today is the effect evolution has had on the morals of human beings who have bought into this philosophy. And it is philosophy—not science. Dr. Walter Maier has one chapter in his book with the title, "Marriage from God—not from the Gorilla" (pp. 69-77). Dr. Maier makes these pertinent observations: "Because marriage comes from God above and not from man or beast below, it involved moral, not merely physical problems. A sin against the commandment of purity is a sin against God, not simply the outraging of convention, the thoughtlessness of youth, evidence of bad taste" (p. 76). If a person actually believes he is descended from lower animals, what is to prevent his behaving like a lower animal? Have you ever heard of anyone's criticizing an animal for sexual impurity? Animal behavior is expected of animals, but we are not animals. We are human beings created in the image of God. We are expected to behave in civilized ways and not to spread our sexual favors like monkeys, dogs and cattle. Have you ever wondered about the conscience in man? How did it originate? When a baboon becomes involved with a female from another group, there is no evidence that he suffers pangs of conscience. When a man is unfaithful to his wife, he experiences sadness and guilt because he has a conscience. If he continues to be sexually promiscuous, after a while, his conscience may become seared as with a hot iron and may think he has a right to do whatever he pleases. The conscience is impossible for evolution to explain. Man alone has a conscience. Since it could not have come from apes and monkeys, it must have originated with God almighty.
Are you aware that some evolutionists, like Dr. Ruth Fisher, try to explain a man's sexual promiscuity by tracing it to his animal ancestry? Dr. Fisher argues that she is not using man's animal ancestry to try to justify adultery, but since male monkeys and apes are more sexually active than females, that may explain why males are more promiscuous than females. Do you honestly believe that some males, especially those who have read Dr. Fisher's foolish views, will not use her theory as justification for being sexually immoral? If evolution were true, there is no way under heaven anyone can consistently condemn any kind of behavior, except to say, "I do not like adultery or stealing or killing." Evolutionists do not have and cannot have any absolute standard for their behavior. Has the message of evolution changed lives? We would be extremely naive to deny it.
I must mention one religious practice before we examine
how the gospel message changed
the lives of people in the first century. The so-called "prosperity
gospel" is having a
detrimental effect on many of the followers of preachers like Frederick Price, Benny Hinn, Kenneth and Gloria
Copeland. I have time to give you just one example of the utter
unscripturalness of this deception. Gloria Copeland's book, God's Will Is
Prosperity
(Ft. Worth: KCP
Publications, 1978), quotes these words from Mark 10:29-30: "And Jesus answered and said,
Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or
father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the
gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and
brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions;
and in the world to come
eternal life." Please listen to Gloria Copeland's application of these
verses. "You give $1 for the gospel's sake and $100 belongs to you; give
$10 and receive $1000;
give $1000 and receive $100,000....Give one house and receive one hundred
houses or one house worth a hundred times as much." She then comments:
"Mark
Let me show you just how utterly
ridiculous Gloria Copeland's misuse of scripture is. I heard Frederick Price say that he regularly
gives $6000 to support his ministry. I do not know if he meant he gave that much weekly or monthly. Let
us assume that he gives that much monthly. If he gives that much monthly, that
would mean that the Lord owed Price $7,200,000 at the end of each year. If
Price gives $6000 per week, he will soon make Bill Gates appear to be a pauper. Please understand
that I am not denying that some people
in the prosperity gospel movement do get rich. The preachers and their families
get rich by bleeding their supporters. For example, Joyce Meyer boasts of
owning a $10,000,000 jet aircraft, a $100,000 Mercedes Benz and a $2,000,000
house. Has the prosperity gospel been a life-changing message? It has for the
people who preach it, but it has discouraged many people who are not preachers.
For example, I know of a man in
I suspect you know a number of people—possibly including
yourself and members of
your family—whose lives have been radically altered for good because they heard
the soul-saving gospel
of Christ. Does the gospel really have that kind of power? Do you remember what
Paul taught the Roman Christians? "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For
therein (that is, in the gospel of Christ) is the righteousness of God revealed from
faith to faith: as it is written, The
just shall live by faith" (Rom.
The ancient city of
Idolatry was rampant in the city of
We do not know the full extent of the immorality at
The members of the church at
How did the lives of the Ephesians change when they
obeyed their Lord in baptism (Acts 19:3-5)? We are not left to wonder. Paul explains the enormous
changes that occurred in
That same life-changing message is still in the gospel of Christ. If you have not obeyed the gospel, will you not do it today?
Winford Claiborne
The International Gospel Hour
Back to Home Page
Back to Transcripts Titles