Leland Maples's blog

I would like to take this space this month to pay a tribute to a great friend.

The latest Pew Poll is out and again there is more falling away from the “old paths.” America has just celebrated their 233 birthday, farther removed than ever from her founding fathers. Men may debate the Christianity of our forefathers. Were they Deists or Christians, etc? What we all know and is not debatable, is that they all exhibited a tremendous amount of God-consciousness. Every where you look, you find the hand of God recognized by our forefathers. The majority of them recognized Jesus Christ as the Son of God, Who died, was buried and rose again.

We live in extraordinary times. Many of us have witnessed good changes and bad changes in our lifetime. The Preacher said:

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9

Who knows what the world was like in Noah’s day?

“Change,” which most of the people desired and voted for, is really speeding up. In fact, it has been gaining momentum even before the 21st century began. The “change” in morals and bibles is running amok. Currently we are being introduced to the latest “new bible,” called the Princess Diana Bible. It is written for gays, stating that God joined two women in marriage and eliminating those verses where God stated very plainly that homosexuality is sin. This is the first, but it won’t be the last bible catering to the filth of the flesh.

I was thinking about all the new gimmicks modern day preachers and churches are employing to attract people. Our old flesh is much more interested in gimmicks than the gospel. In the vernacular of the day, they are trying to “reinvent the wheel.” The wheel remains as one of the most important inventions in history.

We can only evaluate things by what we have read and by what we have experienced. From those two perspectives, it seems we may be living in the greatest time of magnified stupidity since Noah.

The debates continue to rage in regard to evolution and creation in our schools. What is interesting is that the evolutionist does not tolerate both sides being presented…this coming from the liberals who are always talking about tolerance! This group has already gotten the Bible out of schools. This group fears the Bible more than anything. They would rather give our children condoms, aid them in abortions and embrace homosexual perversion rather than let the Bible be free in the classroom. You talk about Bible phobia!

Recently I listened to a 23 year old junior high school teacher speak of how drastic things had changed since she was in junior high…which was only 10 years ago! The changes of which this young teacher spoke were not good. She considered the students’ attitude much worse than 10 years ago. The same was said about the parents’ and school administration’s attitude. It doesn’t take a Greek scholar or seminary graduate to see that 2 Timothy 3:13 is taking place:

"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived."

In our weekly Bible study, we are studying II Timothy, the apostle Paul’s final epistle. Paul knew his time was short on earth. He experienced the loneliness and ridicule of “sticking to his guns” in his spiritual beliefs. When he was saved, he was ridiculed and hated by his peers, the religious leaders of Israel. Now, in his final months, those he had befriended with the gospel of Christ had also forsaken him.

By the time you receive this, the election will be over. Emotions will have subsided and most of us will be back in our “rut.”