Repenting of a Web of Lies
by Jim Kenaston

When a person is caught in a lie, he or she (given two gender options) will often try to cover it by telling another lie. We can lie to ourselves, lie to each other, and we can live our entire lives within an era that lies to itself and anyone who will listen, insisting that others abide by the web of lies we have woven.

Such is our time, and in the wake of the lies of the Sexual Revolution.

Among those lies:

• We echo the heresy of 2nd century Gnostics, believing that one's body has nothing to do with who we really are. We deny physical reality, asserting that one's true self is a willful projection of our thoughts and feelings. We insist that others advance this lie by affirming us in our delusion.
  
  
• Our generation has convinced itself that we live in a completely materialistic universe where whomever is in power is right. Our ethics come down to a calculation of how we can game the system in our favor. Where we fail, we seek to dismantle the system in hopes of creating a new one that will enforce our view of justice, one focused on equal outcomes regardless of individual effort.
  
  
• We regard sex as being recreational, rather than for the purpose of procreation. We therefore treat each other as sexual objects for personal gratification.
  
  
• We tell ourselves that we have no obligation to protect the voiceless, powerless unborn, as these souls compromise our comfort and entertainment. Rather than defend the right to life of the defenseless, we have asserted our power in seeking to eliminate them. This has resulted in the death by abortion of over 65 million unborn human beings in America since 1973.

 

An irony of our present day is that our leaders have recognized the need to replace these lost souls. Their means is through an open door policy and turning a blind eye on illegal immigration. Their hope is to provide for cheap labor while securing a reliable voting block to help them stay in power. They do this while subjecting an artificially created migrant population to the dangers of drug and human trafficking cartels. Our leaders congratulate themselves for their exercise of compassion toward those they hope will replace a portion of the over 65 million souls lost to abortion.

What would it look like to repent of the lies we have lived by?

In repentance from the lies mentioned above... 

• We could reject modern expressions of Gnosticism, accepting with thanks the givenness of human personhood as embodied complementary souls, male or female. 
  
  
• We could consider the notion that there is a God to whom we as individuals and our human governments are ultimately accountable, and that ultimate justice can only be accomplished by Him. As we learn to trust the history of how He self-sacrificially addressed the rebellious spirit of humankind, we could pick up our cross to follow Him, trusting Him to do a redemptive work in and through our lives in this world.
  
  
• We could reject the notion that sex is for entertainment and self-gratification, turning instead toward a view of others as person's made in God's image, not to be worshipped, but to be respected and honored in our actions toward them. Rather than defraud each other in our behaviors, we could honor our commitments to each other in word and deed, reserving intimacy for a lifelong marriage commitment, and one that would meaningfully provide for the needs of the children of the next generation.
  
  
• We could reject the dehumanization of the unborn, defending their right to life. Rather than seek to replace those lost by specious means, we could close and secure our borders while reforming various legal means of immigration into our country.

 

Over time, such a path might look like the life of an elderly friend of mine. He was orphaned at five months old and was raised by a series of foster-care families. During his teenage years he trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior. He served our country in the Pacific Theater during the last years of World War II. He stayed in the military for another twenty years. He and his wife raised four children (my contemporaries). Those children gave them ten grandchildren, who in turn gave them twenty great-grandchildren. Each of these children were loved by a father and mother and are finding their way in the world. (It is for his service and positive example that I would like to salute and thank Art Bergeson, this dear elderly friend and mentor for many.)

Should we repent of the web of lies we have believed, perhaps in a few generations we'll have recovered something of what we've lost, through legal means, and a new generation will be able to ponder God's redemptive work in this world, and even in our time.