Hell

We heard recently that Giancarlo Stanton has entered into a contract with the Miami Marlins for $325 million dollars. For 13 years this baseball outfielder will receive $69,000 dollars per day. This speaks more than this super extravagant sports contract. It speaks of America’s obsession with sports – all kinds of sports. This obsession to some has become a cultural obscenity. It has become a significant factor in the demise of our nation culturally.

What do Americans spend on sports every year? In 2008, the International Association of Sports Economists published an article entitled “The Size and Scope of the Sports Industry in the United States.” They declared “estimates of the size of the sports industry ranged from $44 to $73 billion in the year 2005.” Today’s statistics are much higher. Checking “US Sports Spending” on Google is almost mind-boggling.

The average weekly salary for a professional athlete is over $125,000. That’s over twice what the average worker makes in a year. The cost for travel to sporting events tops $7 billion per year. Think of the billions of dollars spent by cities to build their sports stadiums. Time magazine called college sports spending “insane,” noting that in 2011, Ohio State University spent $380,000 per year per football player, while spending only $20,000 per year on academic students. Many high school basketball players set their dreams on becoming a professional athlete, while only one out of ten thousand actually secure a position in the NBA.

Edward Gibbons, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, stated that one of the five reasons why Rome withered and died was its mad craze for pleasure sports. Now, I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy watching a baseball or football game. I even enjoy watching a little golf. However, no one with any spiritual vision will fail to acknowledge that our culture is becoming more anti-God and anti-Christ. We have become a materialistic, hedonistic nation, mesmerized by many forms of entertainment. And sports –from amateur to professional – tops the list of contributing factors.

There’s nothing wrong inherently with sports; but individuals who profess to be disciples of Jesus Christ must look at sports from a different view. Does the Bible speak about athletics? Yes, as a matter of fact it does. The Apostle Paul declared to his son, Timothy,

“Have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily exercise is only for a little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (I Timothy 4:7-8).

Now, I’m not saying that Christians should not engage in sporting activities. Nor am I saying that some Christian athletic associations have not been successful in reaching for Christ those who love sporting activities. What deeply concerns me is the way in which Christian men have been sucked into our nation’s craze for pleasure sports (and that doesn’t even include our craze for hunting, fishing, boating, and camping).

If you would like to know how Christian men are affected by this phenomenon, ask one of your church leaders (or ministers for that matter) to talk to you about sports.

Ask them to tell you about the standing of their favorite baseball, football, or basketball team.
Ask them about their favorite player’s sport’s statistics.
Then ask them to recite for you the Ten Commandments.
Ask them to name for you the Twelve Apostles, what they did and how they died.
Ask them to define for you the doctrine of justification or the substitutionary atonement of Christ.
Ask them if they faithfully tithe, or if they steal God’s tithe for their own consumption.
Ask them if they have ever seriously witnessed to a lost friend about his need for Christ.

If you attend the average evangelical church, the answers will grieve you. You will begin to realize just how backslidden our churches have become and how spiritually vacuous and cowardly are most who fill our pulpits. Then you will understand why I believe that the greatest need in our nation is for the Holy Spirit of God to send conviction, repentance and revival to those who lead in our churches. The silence of our leaders in this matter is deafening! Each of us must realize that one day we will stand before Christ to account for our service to him. God commanded us,

“Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15).

We must each give an account of our earthly priorities. And we would do well to face this fact: sports provide no spiritual benefit to our nation. Godliness promises both blessing in this life and the life to come for those who trust Christ. Pleasure sports will not be allowed in Hell. We believers who desire to grow in grace would do well to heed the words of Colossians 3:1-4:

“If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set you mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

“The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever. Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in Thy sight. Put them in fear, O Lord: that the nations may know themselves to be but men.” (Psalm 9:17-20)

Those are harsh words. We live in harsh times. With all of our affluence and entertainment, our rush to meet the coming Christmas Holiday, tragedy strikes and we are again shocked at the inhumanity of man. On December 14, 2012 the nation was stricken with grief at the horrible murder of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Bret Baier of Fox News said, “We can’t make sense of this…it doesn’t seem real.” In an interview with former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani declared, “There’s no simple solution…it’s an incomprehensible act.” The news media crews were “hungry for the details of the slayings,” according to one individual. Broadcasters were eager to grasp an explanation of what had happened. They stumbled to produce an understanding of why it happened.

In simple words Daniel Malloy, the Governor of Connecticut said, “Evil visited this community today.” In spite of many celebrating the birth of Christ, the Prince of Peace, our attention was turned again to evil and the sin of blatant, indescribable murder.

To find some semblance of an answer I think we need to ask some very pointed answers.

Who are we as a nation? Our founding fathers were believers in God. Fifty-three of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence were professing Christians. Today many of our political leaders are atheists, agnostics, and humanistic elitists who band together to push God out of our public places and the conscience of Americans. We tout multiculturalism, preaching tolerance for the beliefs of pagans who flood our shores, bringing their value systems and belief in gods who do not exist. As a nation, we have forgotten God and the Bible that He gave us to provide the building blocks of a government established on His providence.
What was Adam Lanza’s worldview? What were his personal beliefs? The national abandonment of our Judeo/Christian heritage and supplanting it with a philosophy of secular humanism has spawned a generation of individuals who have swallowed the lie of evolution that says we are simply an advanced primate and it’s up to ourselves to set our own values and concepts of truth.
What was Lanza’s home life like? A broken home..a missing father..and a culture that ridicules the concept of the Biblical family and glamorizes an immoral lifestyle. Another young life struggling for some form of identity without a father’s influence and a culture saying, “Do it your own way…the hell with tradition!”
What was the mental and emotional health of this troubled young man? Who were his heroes? What did he read? With whom was he associating and texting? Did he prescribe to the Goth subculture – to gothic rock, deathrock, post-punk, and darkwave? Did he struggle with concepts of eternity and loneliness? Had he “lost his connection” with the real world? Was he a “gamer,” spending hours immersing himself in the myriads of horror, war, and violent video games? When a nation kicks the Bible and it’s moral code – the Ten Commandments – out of its classrooms, what else will a troubled youth look to?

To attribute this tragedy to evil is to attribute this murderer’s act to his rebellion against the Law of God. His evil acts were sin, which is condemned by God’s Law. What transpired was an expression of the depravity of man. The taking of innocent life is the most heinous of all crimes of violence. Secular humanism, the foundational philosophy of American education, will continue to produce individuals who have no real grasp on reality. They will be guilty sinners in a culture that has turned its back on God.

The future of this nation rests in the hands of God. Without a return to the Christian Religion, this country has no hope of escaping the ravages of evil men. Without men with conviction to speak like this, we have no hope of survival as a civilized people:

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” (Patrick Henry)

I urge you to pray for a revival of the true Christian Religion in the hearts and minds of ministers who appear too weak and insipid to proclaim the whole counsel of the Word of God. And I would encourage you to consistently pray for your Christian friends who struggle to rear their children in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

America’s Obsession

Nightmare at Newtown