“Morning, Jim”…  Jim nodded to acknowledge the greeting from his friend and fellow Park Ranger, Robert.  He noticed Robert did not include the normal adjective “Good” to describe the morning.  Indeed, it was morning, but it was not a good one.  Last evening there had been yet another bear attack.  This one had cost the life of a tourist.  The attacks had been getting more frequent and were really starting to wear on all of them.  The park staff had tried to address these attacks but the problem just seemed to get worse and worse.  They were starting to think the situation may be hopeless. 

New Rules

Earlier that summer, after several close calls, the park staff had made some new rules.  The rules were aimed to make sure all the bears respected the diversity of visitors to the park.  You see, many of the tourists thought it was important to be able to stop and pick up the young animals, especially the adorable bear cubs they noticed as they were travelling through the park.  The cubs were so cute and cuddly, I mean, who could blame the tourists?  To ensure everyone’s safety, park leadership made a new proclamation – they called it “PRY”, which stands for “Proclamation Regarding Youth”.  They had even gone so far as to designate this month as “PRY” month in every park across the country to celebrate the fact that tourists were welcomed – even encouraged – to stop and handle the young animals as they choose with no fear of anything or anyone telling them such behavior was wrong. 

Despite all their efforts, the problems continued to intensify.  It was as if the bears were not even trying to recognize the new proclamation, or the “PRY” month.  They began to designate problem bears as tourist-phobic and to take actions to call out their non-compliant behavior.  Still, the problems continued… 

God’s Design

Fortunately, this is, of course, a fictional story – sort of…  We have to realize again that God has built a certain design into His creation.  Our founding charter of government in this nation, our Declaration of Independence, refers to this idea when it mentions the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”.  You see, God has wired every mama bear to care for her cubs.  That means if you mess with the cub, chances are very good you will soon get to meet the mama bear – and she will not be happy.  We can like that fact, or dislike it, but our feelings on the issue really don’t matter.  God is the Creator.  He made things that way and we were not given a vote in how it should go.  We can declare whatever proclamations we like, we can even pass pretended legislation (real legislation has to line up with God’s law) but there is nothing we can do to change God’s design.  Our best chance for a happy life is to recognize God’s design and to submit to it and align ourselves under it.  If you choose to ignore God’s design for interacting with bear cubs, you just might get a first-hand demonstration.  To be clear, I HIGHLY recommend you do not stop to play with the cute little bear cubs you may happen to see as you travel through a park – even if that happens during “PRY” month. We would be wise to follow God’s design in other areas as well.

Jurisdictions

When the United States was founded, 13 independent nations, all very capable of self-government, came together to create a new entity – the federal government – that would handle the short list of key areas that were better handled by a central, federal government on behalf of all of them together.  The founders talked about and debated each and every power they bestowed upon each branch of the federal government.  Our founders were from a range of backgrounds and interests.  It was amazing they were able to compromise and come up with the brilliant founding documents they wrote.  However, none of our founders would have ever thought for a second that they needed to address whether or not this new government entity would, or should, have power to redefine God’s creations of gender or marriage. Those are creations of God – wired into our being, like the protective instincts of the mama bear.  In a limited government, officials cannot just do anything they want. They require Constitutional jurisdiction to operate in a given area. It is safe to say, none of our founders ever granted jurisdiction to the civil government at any level to define gender or marriage. It is time we started asking our government officials – “Where did you dream up jurisdiction to presume to redefine how God built society to work?” 

What God Says

God says clearly, He created mankind as “Male and Female”.  Just a few places He mentions this fact are found in Genesis 1:27, 5:2, Matthew 19:4, and Mark 10:6.  God clearly defines a marriage as between one man and one woman.  Again, a few references where you can see this are found in Genesis 2:24-25, Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:7, 1 Corinthians 7:2, and Ephesians 5:31.  If we ignore God’s instructions on such things, if we say we will not allow ourselves to be limited to God’s restrictions in these areas, then we are in far more danger than even those tourists in our fictional park that picked up a grizzly bear cub.  If we are doing these things, then we are in open rebellion against the very God of Heaven, the Creator of the world, and the one who holds our breath in His hands (Daniel 5:23 and Acts 17:25).

All Have Sinned

Please understand my heart and why I wrote this article.  My desire is not to attack anyone who struggles with a particular sin.  As we said in Born to be a Car Thief, there are lots of sins out there and while different people may struggle with different sins, they all lead to our destruction!  The only way to make our sinful condition right is through Jesus Christ. The forgiveness He offers is made possible only by the blood He spilled and the death He died on our behalf.  What an amazing gift He has provided for all of us by making a way for us to be forgiven – whatever our sins.  Wow, what a blessing!  So I am not writing this to attack sinners.  We are all sinners and we all need Jesus.

Officials who abuse their offices

The issue I am trying to address is the officials who are using their offices to advance things God calls abomination.  In Romans 13, we read that civil officials are supposed to be God’s ministers who use their offices for good, and to punish evil.  Today there are so many who have that reversed – they are rewarding evil and punishing good.  As a result of their misuse of God’s civil government authority, they are throwing an entire society – a society built upon the truths of God’s Word – into sin and confusion.   

Humble ourselves and pray

If our nation is to survive, we must humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, repent, and turn from our wicked ways, and ask Him to hear us and to heal our land.  (2 Chronicles 7:14)

We need to submit ourselves to God’s design and stop trying to put our faith in the powerless, unlawful, ridiculous proclamations of our government officials that they have NO AUTHORITY to make.  We need to turn back to the God of heaven and beg Him to intervene that we can once again place this nation on the firm foundation of God’s word. 

Repent of the evil or of the good?

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

Jeremiah 18:7-10