Harrison Ford is making headlines again these days with the fifth installment in his iconic “Indiana Jones” film series. Consequently, his affair with Carrie Fisher when they were filming the original Star Wars movie in 1976 has been back in the news as well.

Fisher made their relationship public in 2016 as part of her memoir released shortly before her death. She was nineteen at the time of their affair; Ford was thirty-three and the married father of two. She claimed that the affair was not the cause of Ford’s divorce from his wife, which happened around the same time, reportedly calling their relationship a “minor digression.”

In all the coverage of their affair, I have seen no suggestion that what they did was immoral. In a day when more Americans than ever before consider sexual relationships of all kinds to be acceptable and half of US Christians say casual sex between consenting adults is sometimes or always acceptable, perhaps I should not be surprised.

But I am grieved. And, much more to the point, so is God.

What “the fool says in his heart”

This one sentence explains our moral crisis: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1a). Here’s why: if we are not accountable to God, we will be accountable only to ourselves or to other people. However, we are all “corrupt” (v. 1b). Consequently, we “do abominable deeds; there is none who does good” (v. 1c). This fact applies emphatically to us all: “There is none who does good, not even one” (v. 3).

However, one of the delusions of sin is that we are not sinners. World religions lead adherents to claim holiness by their standards, ameliorating the need for repentance and the one true God. Western secularism does the same, convincing us that we are good enough not to need the one true Source of all morality.

In fact, some in our culture celebrate the “fact” that they know what the rest of us do not and can therefore dismiss biblical truth as outdated, irrelevant, and even dangerous to society. On sexual morality, for instance, some are certain that Paul was wrong. (I once heard a religious leader say confidently, “We now know that Paul was a homophobe.”) Others assure us that the church has been misinterpreting the Bible on this issue for two thousand years, but they know better.

If we suggest that sexual relations are immoral outside of monogamous marriage between one man and one woman, we are ridiculed as hopelessly naïve, backward, and worse.

“Wage the good warfare”

This state of affairs is not new. For example, cultural elites in the ancient metropolis of Ephesus, called lumen Asiae (“the light of Asia”) by Pliny the Elder, claimed the same.

Paul exposed their delusions to Timothy, who was pastoring the Ephesian Christian community: “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions” (1 Timothy 1:5–7).

In so doing, they rejected biblical truth that is “not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted” (vv. 9–11).

The good news is that God’s grace is available to all: “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (v. 15). Sharing the gospel and the morality it advances is God’s charge to Timothy and to us as we “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience” (vv. 18–19).

“The ultimate experience of life”

According to Dr. Billy Graham, “The ultimate experience of life is knowing God.” He pointed to Isaiah 6 as the archetypal text for knowing whether we truly know the Lord:

• We are convicted of our sinfulness: “Woe is me! For I am lost” (v. 5a).
• We confess our sin: “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (v. 5b).
• We are cleansed from our sin: “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for’” (vv. 6–7).
• We are commissioned to tell others: “I heard the voice of the LORD saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me’” (v. 8).

By these standards, do you truly know God? If not, why not?

This issue could not be more urgent for your sake and that of your nation. The prophet warns us: “Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14). Again, quoting Dr. Graham: “There will be an end of history and the end of a world that has been dominated by evil. Jesus will come again and set up his kingdom of righteousness and social justice, and hatred, greed, jealousy, war, and death will no longer exist.”

Then he asked, “Are you ready for that day?”

Is America?

Are you?

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Bill de Blasio, the former mayor of New York City, and his wife, Chirlane McCray, recently told the New York Times that they are separating after nearly thirty years of marriage. However, they are not planning to divorce and will continue to share the townhouse where they raised their two children.

Instead, they are “opening” their marriage to date other people, choosing what is now known as “consensual non-monogamy.”

Marriage therapists say they have seen a definite rise in such arrangements. This is one version of “polyamory,” a growing movement to advocate for polygamy, “throuples,” and other forms of non-monogamous romantic relationships. Towns and municipalities are now legalizing such partnerships, fulfilling the warning by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (much ridiculed at the time) that the 2015 Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex marriage would open the door to polygamy as well.

“Let the marriage bed be undefiled”

We are living in a day when marriage is being redefined to include nearly any imaginable sexual relationship. However, God’s word could not be more clear: “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4).

Are we witnessing his judgment in our day?

Our Father deals with us as gently as he can or as harshly as he must. Consequently, his judgment takes two forms: permissive and punitive.

The first phase of his response to sin is typically to permit us the consequences of our rebellion against his word and will. For example, when people “did not honor him as God or give thanks to him” (Romans 1:21), “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves” (v. 24) with disastrous consequences that read like today’s news (vv. 26–31).

If permitting the consequences of our sins will not lead us to repentance, God must shift to punitive judgment in which he responds directly to our rebellion and unrighteousness. We see this in the Exodus, for example, and in his judgments described in Revelation.

“The single most common cause of marital dissolution”

It is clear that our nation is in at least the first phase of divine judgment against sexual immorality.

In 2001, 91 percent of Americans considered it immoral for married people to have sexual relations with someone other than their spouse, the very arrangement Bill de Blasio and his wife are announcing. Today, roughly 60 percent say the same; the more educated the respondent, the greater their acceptance of adultery.

What are the consequences of such sin? Research shows that “infidelity is reliably associated with poorer mental health particularly depression/anxiety and PTSD, and relationship dissolution/divorce which has been shown to adversely impact offspring.”

In fact, “across 160 societies, infidelity is the single most common cause of marital dissolution.”

Four practical responses

How can you and I avoid this trap?

First, define sexual morality as God does.

Jesus forbade lust (Matthew 5:28) because he knew it to be the root of all other sexual sins. This includes pornography, sexual fantasy, “emotional affairs,” and all other ungodly thoughts and desires. God’s standard is clear: sexual relations are reserved for a lifelong marriage covenant between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24; 1 Corinthians 7:2).

Second, ask God’s Spirit to help you choose personal godliness (Ephesians 5:18).

You can “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18) when you use temptation to seek the help of God’s indwelling Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). “All noble things are difficult” (Oswald Chambers), but “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:35).

Third, seek forgiveness if you fail.

If you confess your sins, God is “faithful and just” to forgive them and to cleanse you from “all” unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). This does not mean that we can simply sin and confess, then sin and confess. Even though God forgives all we confess, we must do so with a repentant heart that seeks not to sin again. And even then, the consequences of our sins will often remain.

Fourth, call others to godliness in a spirit of humility.

Our broken culture deserves to know the reality of God’s permissive and punitive judgment against our sins, but “speaking the truth in love” must be our mantra (Ephesians 4:15). St. Augustine observed: “Men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticize, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.” Don’t let this be true of you.

“The high soul climbs the high way”

It was my great honor last Saturday to deliver the message at the memorial service for Dr. Russell Dilday, longtime president of Southwestern Seminary and my mentor, hero, and spiritual father. Dr. Dilday’s most famous sermon and most prophetic book were both titled “Higher Ground.” In them, he called us to a civility that transcends rancor and a witness that transforms culture.

His sermon was prompted in part by a John Oxenham poem he recites in his book:

To every man there openeth a way and ways, and a way. The high soul climbs the high way; The low soul gropes the low, And, in between, on the misty flats, the rest drift to and fro. And every man decideth the way his soul shall go.

Which way will you choose today?

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Today marks two months since the Allen Premium Outlets mass shooting left eight people dead and seven injured. Since Allen is just north of Dallas, the shooting felt even more personal to me, not to mention those who live there and are still grieving. This tragic anniversary follows a tragic 2023 Fourth of July during which sixteen mass shootings killed fifteen people and injured nearly a hundred more across thirteen states and Washington, DC.

Such heartbreaking news on our nation’s birthday calls to mind C. S. Lewis’s perceptive comment regarding democracy:

You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows. That I believe to be the true ground of democracy.

As we continue our Independence Day focus on America, let’s think together about the “true ground of democracy” in light of a question I believe every believer in our country should consider.

The foundational issue of our day

Jacob Wolf, a government professor at Regent University who formerly taught at Princeton, writes in Public Discourse that democracy “has become a secular religion, complete with its own dogmas, practices, clerics, and eschatology.” In this worldview, “progress replaces providence, humanitarianism replaces charity, and mind (or reason) replaces God himself.”

The more Christianity declines in our culture, the more this secular religion which he identifies as “democratism” is rising to replace it.

Wolf rightly responds:

Democracy, like many good things, is destroyed if it is elevated above all else. Democracy is valuable to the extent that it is placed in its proper position and context—bounded and balanced by other elements. As Edmund Burke wisely noted, one does not obtain liberty, equality, and self-government by merely letting go of the reins; these things require a complex system of incentives, punishments, and checks and balances that parallel the complexities of human nature. Our Founders understood this far better than do the democratists.

He concludes that “democracy is ineradicably religious; the question that remains is whether religion can bolster democracy without being swallowed up by it.”

I consider this question to be the foundational issue of our time.

“The nation that will not serve you shall perish”

As I have often written, the American democratic experiment was built on a consensual morality that was itself dependent on the Judeo-Christian worldview. John Adams’ often-quoted warning is just one of the scores of statements by the Founders I could cite: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Over the last two centuries, however, much has happened to shake this foundation. For example:

• Darwinian evolution undermined belief in the historical accuracy of Scripture.
• The Civil War, two World Wars, global pandemics, the Great Depression, and the rise of global terrorism persuaded many that God (if he exists) cannot be all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful.
• Freudian analysis taught our culture that God is a fantasy based on the infantile need for a dominant father figure.
• Postmodern relativism convinced us that all truth claims (including those of the Bible) are personal and subjective with no normative authority over our lives and society.
• The sexual revolution and escalating LGBTQ activism are persuading many that biblical morality is outdated, irrelevant, and even dangerous to society.

All the while, our democratic form of governance has persisted but without its moral or cultural foundations. It was perhaps inevitable, given our fallen “will to power” and innate drive to “be like God” (Genesis 3:5), that we would use democracy to replace biblical religion with a secular religion in which, to repeat Wolf’s description, “progress replaces providence, humanitarianism replaces charity, and mind (or reason) replaces God himself.”

This secular religion, if unchecked, will be our undoing as a nation. It will continue to replace truth with tolerance, leading millions into unbiblical immorality that is destructive to themselves and those they influence. It will lead us away from our only Source of abundant (John 10:10) and eternal life (John 3:16) into a Christless darkness in this world and the next.

And it will provoke God’s righteous judgment on our rejection of his word and will, as the prophet testified to him: “The nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste” (Isaiah 60:12).

Now you can see why I consider Wolf’s question “whether religion can bolster democracy without being swallowed up by it” to be so urgent.

Words I pray every day

Our most practical response begins with ourselves:

• Do you serve God so that he will serve you or so you can glorify him in gratitude for his grace (1 Corinthians 10:31)?
• Do you read his word, pray, worship, read content like this article, and engage in other spiritual activities as a means to your ends or so you can more effectively advance God’s purposes for your life and world (Matthew 6:33)?
• Is the Holy Spirit one of your life resources or the strength of your soul (Ephesians 5:18)?

I struggle with these issues as well. As a result, I find it necessary to say these words from the Book of Common Prayer every day:

To my humble supplication Lord,
give ear and acceptation.
Save thy servant, that hath none
Help nor hope but Thee alone.

Will you pray them with me today?

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