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The Closed System of Science
RO77-01© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1977)
We are studying Romans 6:15-18. This is the third section on the subject of "Abandoning Yourself to Evil."
A License to do Evil
Human viewpoint always attacks the principle of salvation as a gift from God based only on faith in Jesus Christ. This is an arrangement which
violates human reason, because the mind is disoriented from divine viewpoint, and because the mind is enslaved to the sin nature. Therefore, it seems
unreasonable to man that a person can go to heaven on the basis of something that God does completely apart from what the individual does or what
the individual is. Salvation, by grace alone, therefore, is ridiculed by branding it as a license to do evil with impunity, since one is not bound
by some set of rules in order to gain God's favor and eternal life.
Slavery
This attack has been leveled, we have seen, in Romans 6:15 at the apostle Paul because of his teaching of salvation by grace through faith, apart
from human doings. Paul answers this attack by referring to the practice of slavery as an illustration. He pointed out to us that a slave master
controls the actions of his slaves. A slave master has absolute authority over his slaves. The slave has no will of his own.
Slave Masters
He has pointed out to us that there exist only two slave masters over mankind. One is the sin nature, and the other is obedience to the righteousness
of God. Everyone in the world at this moment is a slave either of the sin nature of evil unto death, or you are a slave unto divine righteousness and
life. Every person is a slave of one of the other, and you cannot be a slave or both at the same time.
Everybody is born into the human race in the status of a slave of the sin nature. That is what comes naturally to us. All human efforts to free
ourselves (to secure emancipation from that enslavement of the sin nature) are totally useless and totally ineffective. Enslavement to divine
viewpoint righteousness is in fact the only basis for personal freedom, liberty, and fulfillment. The world thinks that it finds freedom and
fulfillment by being slaves of the sin nature. And they discover that that only leads to misery and to disorientation to life, and fragmentation
of their personality. They simply become unglued. We have been created in the nature of God, in His likeness and in His image, and fulfillment
in that freedom of that position only comes when we are slaves of (God).
Now we have come to verse 18. Verse 18 summarizes Paul's rebuttal of the attack expressed in verse 15 to the effect that a person should just go
ahead and live a life of sin. He summarizes with these words: "Being then made free from sin (that is, the sin nature), you became servants of
righteousness."
First of all, let's look at the meaning of the Greek text. The word "then" looks like this in Greek. It's "de." This is a conjunction. This
particular word is used here to indicate that a conclusion is being introduced about the Roman Christians. It indicates that here is a summary of
the statements that Paul has made in verses 16-17.
Made Free
The word "made free" looks like this: "eleutherow." "Eleutherow" is a word that indicates release from the control of something. It is in the
aorist tense in the Greek, which indicates to us that he's looking at some point action in time of the experience of the individual believer.
And that, of course, was the point of salvation when he was released from the sovereign authority of the sin nature, and placed under the
sovereign authority of God the Holy Spirit. It is in the passive voice. Passive indicates that this is something that is done to a person. He
does not actively perform it himself. No one ever makes himself free from the sin nature. Something else has to make him free. This has to be
a work of God.
So, the Greek Bible is very clear. The people who read this in Greek could see immediately that they could not save themselves. Their freedom from
the sin nature was done for them outside of themselves. It is a participle, which is a way that the Greek has of stating a spiritual principle.
The Sin Nature
What we may say here then in translation is: "Being freed then from." The word "from" is this great preposition "apo." This indicates "away from
something." We have been set free from the control of something, and that's something he calls sin. The Greek word is "hamartia." "Hamartia" is
the general word for "sin" in the Bible for missing the standard – the mark of God's righteousness. This time, the Bible has what in English
is called the definite article. It has the word "the." The Greek says, "Having then been freed from the sin." When the Greek says that, it
tells you something the English did not. It tells you that it's talking about something very specific – not something in general. And that
specific thing here is the old sin nature. So, very specifically, Paul is summarizing his statement by saying that you have been released from the
sin nature.
You can what a problem it would have been had the Holy Spirit not put in that particular "the," because then someone could argue that what it is
saying is that you have been released from sin, meaning that you have become sinless. And there are some poor souls in the world today who go
around describing to others how they have become indeed sinless. Of course, that is foolishness. Nobody ever becomes sinless. Even though he is a
Christian, he simply exercises a control over his sin. However, the Bible doesn't leave any openings for such a doubt. It very definitely makes it
clear that it is a specific concept. It is "the 'hamartia'" – the sin nature which is in mind.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit Baptized you into Christ
Now we have, in the last part of verse 18, an indication of a new enslavement, and this is an enslavement to the righteousness of God. So, he
says, "Having been then made free (or released) from the sin nature, you became servants." The word for "servants" in the Greek is "douloo."
This word means "to become a slave" or "to be enslaved." It is again in the aorist tense. Aorist always indicate some point action. Well, the
point action here, when you became slaves (and this is going to be slaves to righteousness) was when God the Holy Spirit baptized you into Christ.
Everybody received the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation.
The charismatics are all fouled up. They're completely wrong. They've gone completely astray. They don't know anything at all about what the
Bible teaches about the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Just dismissed those poor people as completely deluded on this subject, as
they are many other things, and give it no further thought.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience. It is a positional truth. It is something that God has placed us in. And at a point in time,
we were placed in Christ. That means that you are now forever eternally born-again, headed for heaven, and you can never be removed from that
position of eternal fellowship.
It's passive again. Now you've learned a little bit about passive. That means that here you are as a human being, and it doesn't mean that you are
out there doing something. Passive means that it is done to you. It is something that has to be done for you. So, again, you could not make yourself
the servant of righteousness. And there are a lot of people who are running around the world trying to clean up their lives. There are a lot of kids
who get into all kinds of fouled-up living, and then they decide they're going to straighten themselves up, and wonder why they can't do it. It is
because the Bible says that that kind of action requires a passive condition. It requires a passive action. It requires God doing something for you.
You can't do it for yourself.
So, here we have the statement that these people became slaves of something, and they became that by a force outside of themselves. This is in
the indicative mood, which indicates we have a statement of fact.
What were they enslaved to? It is what the Bible calls righteousness. The Greek word looks like this: "dikaiosune." This is a noun. It is the
word for right doing in reference to God's standard. Again, the Greek has the definite article. You couldn't see this in English, but it's there
on the Greek page. It is: "You have been committed to the righteousness." Now it is something specific that he's talking about. It is just
like "the sin" was the sin nature as the sovereign ruler. "The righteousness" is not just right living in general, but is
specifically the absolute righteousness of God (the +R factor of God's absolute righteousness). It is that specific standard that you have been
enslaved to. You have been enslaved not just to being a nice person; not just to being a good citizen; and, not just to being a decent human being.
You've been enslaved to absolute sinless perfection – the standard of Almighty God. Now, that's who you are. Whoever you are in you're living,
that's who you are with God – someone who is a slave of absolute righteousness.
Now, our failure to live up to our position is something else, God deals with us accordingly, as a parent deals with his own disobedient children.
But nevertheless, this is what you must live according to. There is no other control over your life that is acceptable. This pattern of righteousness
in daily living, of course, is what is expressed in Bible doctrine.
So, freedom from enslavement to the old sin nature means enslavement to absolute righteousness. You are a slave of one or the other. Each is a way
of life. You are either a slave of the sin nature, or you are slave of God's absolute righteousness.
Verse 18 has these words: "Being then made free from sin." That corresponds, in verse 17, to the statement, "You were the servants of sin." That's
the one side: "You were the servants of the sin nature." God has moved in and done something for you. So verse 18, in summarizing says, "Being then
now free from the sin nature."
In verse 17 you have the statement, "You obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." That compares, in verse 18, to,
"You became the servants of righteousness." You remember that in verse 17, where it says, "You have obeyed from the heart that form of which was
delivered you:" "which was delivered you" means what you were poured into like a mold. And the result was that you became the slaves of
righteousness. Remember that the King James uses the word "servant," but that is a wrong word. It should be the word "slave."
As slaves of our sin nature we had to do human good evil. But now, as slaves of absolute righteousness, we have to do divine good. Thus Paul answers
the objection raised in verse 15.
Now, that is the summary statement. Let's back off, and see if we can put this together in some historical perspective. What does it really mean
to you and me and to our society that we, who are believers in Jesus Christ, have been freed from the domination of the sin nature, and have been
placed under the sovereign control of absolute righteousness? What does it mean that our society and all of its institutions could be free from
the domination of the sin nature, and placed under enslavement to absolute righteousness?
"Be Good"
We have a very serious problem in modern America in the way we think. It all began with science. There was a time when you could tell your children,
"I want you to be a good boy," or "I want you to be a good girl" – particularly a teenager. Now it is very difficult to tell a teenager, "I
want you to be good," because they don't understand what "good" means. They don't understand what "bad" means. They don't understand that there is
good and that there is bad. Only children who have been reared under a biblical frame of reference, under the point of view of God as the anchor
point in the universe, can understand the expression when a parent says, "I want you to be a good person." That is because good has content of
meaning to that child. Whereas, to most American teenagers, the word "good" is meaningless, as the word "bad" is meaningless. How in the world
did we come to that?
Those of you who are older are very clear on the fact that certain things are right and certain things are wrong. But that's not so today. Some
of you who are younger think about that. You think that certain things are right, and certain things are wrong. A lot of the kids that you
associate with a public school – they think certain things are right and certain things are wrong, but they don't have a basis for it anymore.
They've lost all ground for that thinking. But you could say to them, "Well, why is that wrong? Why is sexual promiscuity wrong?" The average kid
would say, "Well, I don't know. You know. That's what everybody says."
However, the kid who has been reared upon a biblical frame of reference can say, "I'll tell you why it's wrong," and go to the Word of God, and to
the God who made us and to what He has to say about the subject.
Science
But it all began with science. When the dark ages closed, and man burst out into the light of the Renaissance, and people were no longer deciding
why things are in a certain way by simply discussing. There was philosophical discussion. Now they said, "We must test things; we must go into a
laboratory; we must experiment; we must analyze; we must create scientific instruments (telescopes and microscopes); and, we must find out how
these things work.
Scripture
Well, here's where it all began. The modern age of science is the product of biblical revelation. Without the Bible, there would have been no
modern science. And even people who are unbelieving scientists, when they look back on history, will say, "Indeed, the concept of scientific
analysis is the result of biblical revelation about God and about man." The great pioneers of science, from Galileo down to Newton, believed
that the universe was created by a reasonable God. And that's where science began. These men, who were the early pioneers in scientific research,
all believed that what the Bible said was truth. And when the Bible told us where life came from; where this world came from; where this universe
came from; where man came from; and, how man functions, they said, "That's the truth. That's in Scripture." Scripture is a revelation from God.
Scriptures is inerrant. It has no mistakes. When it speaks, it isn't authority. It is the final authority. So, all of these men of science, were
great believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, the quality of public education is reflected by the fact that the average kid goes through school, and he studies about these men – the
Galileos, and the Newtons, and the Ferridays, and the Kepler's, and everybody else. But do they know that these were great Christian men who
believed that the Bible spoke truth? Not in your life. They don't even learn that about the Pilgrims. They just learned that the Pilgrims were a
kind of a narrow-minded religious group. But they don't realize that it was the Pilgrims and the Puritans who got us out of the poverty, and the
superstition and the animal level of life that exists in Roman Catholic countries, because Roman Catholic countries do not have the truth of
Scripture controlling the institutions of society.
However, the average public school doesn't say, "Oh, you are fortunate children born in the United States of America, one of the nation's descended
in the history of Western civilization, based upon the concepts of Scripture, and the fact that God has revealed things to us, and out of this
basis of Scripture has come to the enlightenment and the freedom that you possess. Whereas, a few miles down across the border, you have nothing but
domination by dictatorships; human freedom restricted; poverty; lack of incentive; and, incapacity. And our government is trying to bring the same
thing to us. And that's why the Bible is being discredited in our day, because you have to wipe out the remembrance of all the things the Scripture
has given us that has made us a great and free nation. When that's rubbed out, then you can turn Americans into the same kind of animals that live
in communist countries.
However, it all began with science, and the early scientists, who were men of God, and who, therefore, discovered something very significant. For
them, God was the anchor point in the universe for all of their scientific studies. This God was a reasonable God, and therefore, He functioned in
an orderly, reasonable fashion. Therefore, these men automatically realized, from what Scripture revealed, that they could experiment; they could
analyze what they saw about them in this world that God had made; they could discover natural processes; and, they would find that these would work
in an orderly fashion. And they could discover laws of science, and they could discover how these laws would always work. And then they could apply
them to man's blessings.
These men (these early Christian scientists), who began the practice of science following the Dark Ages, never forgot that God had told Adam to
control his world; to have dominion over it; analyze it; see how it works; and, just enjoy it to the fullest. They never forgot that God told Adam
to prosper; to make money; to gain wealth; and, to make life easier – to use, but not to abuse what the Creator had placed at his disposal.
So, they applied themselves to that biblical concept. God is a god of order. He's the anchor point.
So, where do we go from here? Well, the discoveries of these early scientists led them to stand in awe of God and to worship Him. You can read some
of the remarks of Galileo, which they'll never print in the public school textbooks. If you read some of the statements that Galileo made after he
invented his telescope, and began discovering the things that were in the heavens, it is hard to read what this man says without tears coming to
your eyes, as he, as an intelligent scientist, was reflecting the awe and the worship of God. He understood what he was seeing in something more
than time and blind chance.
An Open System of Science
That's where science began. And science, anchored to the God of Scripture, established that there was a uniformity in natural causes. Science, based
upon the Word of God, which had come from the Triune God (as His revelation), developed a scientific system which we call an open system. Within
this system, natural laws all functioned in an orderly pattern. Our whole space program today is still based upon the laws which these early
Christian scientists established as the laws of motion in outer space, and the concepts of gravity, and so on.
Miracles
All of these works in an orderly fashion, but it was an open system, because periodically the Bible revealed that the God Creator who made these
things interjected Himself into these systems, and overrode natural laws. We call that miracles. You read about many of these in the Bible. And
Jesus performed many of these to establish the fact that He was who He claimed to be – the God who had created this open system, in which
certain laws always functioned in an orderly and predictable fashion.
Then this God would remove Himself, and the system would continue working. Then He would have cause to come in again, and He would interrupt the
system as with the great Noahic flood, and everything was changed. The surface of the earth was changed. All the fossil life was laid down that
we know today. Great changes were made in the whole structure of the natural creation. Then God pulled Himself back out, and it continued to
function.
Now, these men, because they began with the knowledge of the Triune God who is really out there, and who is a personal God (not some blind force),
and who has revealed himself in Scripture so that we know how He works and how He thinks, and where all the things came from that science deals
with, understood that they were dealing with an orderly arrangement of the universe within the context of an open system, into which God could
interject Himself and into which He did. Consequently, God, through His omnipotence, was able to change the life that He had created, and the
order of that life.
However, these Christian scientists also realized that through their scientific discoveries, they too could affect this machine of the open system.
Their scientific discoveries could be applied to the advancement of what God had told Adam to do – dominate the world. And, lo and behold,
was born the great concepts of applying the laws of science to improve the living standards of man on this world, which God had created for him.
God is an Orderly Person
This all came about because they understood that God was an orderly person, and what He had made was an orderly operation. And they could find
themselves affecting the relationship of things on the basis of these natural laws. So, they could create new products. They could have great
advancements in the controls of natural forces. They could learn about the structure of material things. They could learn about electricity; they
could learn about the forces of motion; they could learn about radioactive materials; they could learn about all kinds of medical matters; they
could learn about all the things that there were in the world that God created; and, they could make it better for themselves.
There was a time when people who had a case of appendicitis, or some other serious ailment that can only be handled by surgery, could go to a
doctor, and the doctor could know exactly what had happened to this person. And the doctor would send him home to die, perchance on the outside
chance that he might somehow survive, but almost always doomed to die. It was because God is an orderly God that medical science was able to
analyze how to handle a problem like appendicitis, and come up with techniques of surgery so that a person did not have to die, but the problem
could be corrected.
Jesus Christ
What is man doing? He is dominating the physical structure, as God commanded him to, by learning how the laws work in this open system, for which
God is the One who sustains. The great base of this system is Jesus Christ. As the book of Colossians tells us, it is He who created, and who holds
it all together. That's why the scientists to this day cannot explain to you why in the world all these moving atoms that compose matter simply do
not fly apart. What holds them together? What holds that chair together that you're sitting on? Most of that chair that you're sitting on, as you
understand, I trust, is hollow air. Most of the chair you're sitting on is empty space. No, don't start wiggling. As long as those atoms hold
together, you're safe. But if the Lord Jesus Christ suddenly pull His cohesive power off, you would all be on the floor, because the chair would
simply come apart. Most of it is space with flying atoms around one another, and the flying elements within the molecules.
Well, they discovered these fantastic laws, and brought blessing to man through them. But always the principle for these scientists was that
where God begins, science ends. It was an open system.
Well, the effects of science, based on the open concept, developed certain understandings that people accepted. One was that nature and the laws
of nature are important because they are the means by which man will dominate his world, as God told him to do so. The laws of nature (the laws of
science) are very important because they can change things.
There was also a clear distinction established between nature and man. Always remember that what the Bible revealed about man, relative to this
open system, was that man stood here as an observer of this machine that God had made called creation. And man was outside the machine. These early
scientists knew that very clearly. From what? From the Bible. And there was a God who was over man, and man was over this creation.
Now, man was not in control of this creation as Adam and Eve were before they sinned. When they sinned, they delivered the major influence within
this open system to Satan, and the devil took over. But nevertheless, man is still a part separate from that creation. So, there was an objective
reality in the universe. There was a clear difference between what actually exists and what is a fantasy.
The eastern mystical religions talk about reality as simply being an imagination of the mind of some God or the mind of man. They say that nature is
something that really doesn't exist, and nature is not important. Have you wondered why, in the nations that are under the domination of these
Eastern religions, there has been no great scientific advancement? It is because science was not important, and because they did not understand this
system that God had created, where man was to dominate and bring blessing to himself by discovering how God had put it together. So, they ignored
that. They believed it was all illusion. It's not a reality.
Man is Important
However, the Bible says, "Man is separate from this machine. He stands outside of it, and he can change the machine, if he understands how God put
it together." Consequently, these early biblical scientists, though they saw that man was fallen, saw that man was something very wonderful indeed.
Man was completely different. Man was important. Man was not what our children are taught today in the universities: a zero. Man was something very,
very important. Man was not just a cog in the machine. Man was the controller of the machine. The revelation of Scripture gave science an anchor
point in the universe, namely God, from which to interpret its discoveries, and to preserve the value of mankind.
Of course, the highest value of man was demonstrated by the fact that God would send one person of the Trinity here, God the Son, to this earth
in the form of a God-Man, to provide salvation for man. That's why man is important. That's why man is not a zero. That's why man is not, as the
communists say, simply "matter in motion." These early Christian scientists had an anchor point from which to view this open system.
However, as the generations went by, something very serious happened in science. Where science set us on the course of blessing, science now set
us on the course of cursing. That is because, as time progressed, men decided that they did not like this arrangement. They did not believe there
was a God out there. They did not believe that He spoke to us in Scripture. So, they abandoned the Bible as an authority. They abandoned the fact
that there was a God out there. And instead, they said, "Man – that's where we begin from. It is what we start from our own reason –
our own capacity to think.
Thomas Aquinas
Now, Thomas Aquinas, one of the early church fathers, is probably responsible for the confusion on this point. He is the one who opened this can
of worms, because Thomas Aquinas, who was very influential in theology, taught that man, who is made in the image and likeness of God, had indeed
moral guilt and had fallen, but that the fall did not affect his mind. That was a very serious mistake. The fall has affected the mind of the soul;
it has affected your will; and, it has affected your emotions. And make no mistake about it.
However, once the concept was accepted, that man's mentality had not been affected by the fall, then it was easy to take the next step and say,
"Well, then I can think God's thoughts. I can come by natural processes of reasoning to what God thinks. And I can conclude what is right, and
what is wrong – what God wants me to do about sin, and what is not right for me to do about sin. I can think my way through into heaven.
Those who have accepted that, and the theological systems based upon that concept, have thought themselves straight into hell. That is because the
mind of man is morally corrupt, and it cannot think God's thoughts after him. And the first place that showed up was that science now closed the
end of this open system. If there was no God, and we had no information from Scripture that was authoritative, and man started from himself, then
he could see that there were all these laws of nature. But he says, "It's in a closed system. Nothing can affect that. There is no supernatural."
That's one way the modern scientist knows that the Bible is not true. He knows there is no such thing as supernatural. He knows that there is no
such thing as a miracle. Therefore, the liberal theologian reads the Bible, and he knows very well that Jesus Christ never took water and changed
it into unfermented wine. He knows very well that Jesus Christ never died physically and rose from the dead. That's a miracle. He knows very well
that Jesus Christ never put the ear back on that Roman soldier that Peter had cut off in his indignation when they were taking Jesus in the Garden
of Gethsemane. He knows that He never raised the son of the widow of Nain. He knows that these things were never done. Why? Because they're
supernatural. And in a closed system, you cannot interrupt that order of cause and effect.
Determinism
Therefore, suddenly, God was out of the picture. The Bible was out of the picture. And all we had left was man in a closed system, which God does
not affect; and worse, which man does not affect. That is because the modern, non-biblical scientists put man inside the system. Man was no longer
outside of the system looking it over and in control of it. Man was now a cog in the machine. He was now part of the machine, and he was helpless
in the machine. The word for that is determinism.
The result now is that man, by chemical and psychological influences, does what he does; is what he is; becomes what he is; and, so on. And man is
a helpless creature within the system, and he cannot affect it. He is part of the machine. And the only way man can be change is by being treated
as a cog in the machine.
Genetic Engineering
You've heard of genetic engineering. The social scientists want to figure out how to deal with people – people who are undesirables, and how
to get the kind of citizen that they desire. The way to do that is to find people who have the right genes and say, "OK, you can reproduce a child."
Child Abuse
One of the things that's a problem in our society is child abuse, and there is child abuse. And I have here a report, that one of our academy
parents gave me, of a speech which was made by a woman who is associated with the regional office of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare, Region 6, Dallas, Texas. This speech dealt with child abuse. And here is one interesting paragraph that I'll point out to. She talks about
three abused children. One is alleged to have killed President John Kennedy; another was convicted of killing the Reverend Martin Luther King; and,
the third was convicted of killing Robert Kennedy.
Then she goes on to say, "All three of these men reportedly were abused and neglected. Their cases were known to public agencies. Yet society
failed to provide the services and the alternatives to their families and their environments, which would have rewritten history." What is she
saying? These men committed the act of murder because of influences on their machine – influences on themselves.
The thing that's interesting is that Oswald had a brother who turned out just fine, with the same mother, in the same treatment. You can see the
inanity of the humanist mentality here, because they cannot conceive that what Oswald did was because he believed something. He believed communist
doctrine, and he acted accordingly. The man who killed Martin Luther King believed certain things about racism, and he acted accordingly. The man
who killed Robert Kennedy believed something about the Arab-Israeli situation, and he acted accordingly. Every one of these men acted on what they
believed, as you and I act upon what we believe.
However, that's what we learn from the Bible. But you don't learn that from modern sociological studies and from modern psychology, because they
put a man in a closed system where he cannot affect the system except by changing man as a machine in some way.
Licenses for Parenting
One thing else that's interesting in here is that this lady goes on to analyze the problems of child abuse. And this is all in part of the
international year of the child. What she is calling for was certain actions which would prevent child abuse. One of these, you might be
interested, is to: "License to bear a child, to be secured by knowledge of parenting skills and techniques which would allow this family to have
some background concerning how to parent. We require almost every endeavor of a profession to be licensed. Why not have the most single important
responsibility which a person can ever have?"
Can't you see the problem of enforcement of that law? Boy, are they going to run around and be checking up on people – the enforcement of:
"You can't have a baby unless you have a license." That is a closed system – genetic engineering.
Identification of At-Risk Environments
Another one is to have identification of at-risk environments. This is very dangerous. It says: "Parents and children: a concerned, proper,
positive intervention in any and all of the three points may be the right deterrent to abused and / or neglect occurring at all. Sophisticated
instruments are now available which will, in skilled professional hands, identify a home where abuse or neglect seems likely to occur – a
parent who is prone to violence, and a child who could provoke a violent response from his or her caretaker." So, now they have sophisticated
instruments to go into your home, and to analyze whether you are a potential child abuser.
A Creative Bureaucracy
She summarizes it with this: "Here is what is necessary,"
she feels. All of this in a closed system. Folks, we're talking about slavery to the sin nature. You're listening to a mentality that's enslaved to
the sin nature. She says, "What we need is perhaps a creative bureaucracy where reporting is simplified. A creative bureaucracy needs to emerge in
Washington; in the regional offices; and, on the state, county, and city levels. People must begin to talk with each other."
A creative bureaucracy is like asking for a prostitute who is a virgin – a contradiction in terms. And that's one thing you're never going
to get out of Washington, or any place else – a creative bureaucracy. How in the world did we get into thinking like that? And these are the
people who are calling the plays.
The state of Texas is going to have to face up to their child laws, and their home laws, and the family life laws that they have passed, because
these people are coming into homes. They can knock on your door and tell you, "We're here under the authority of the state to investigate your
home, and you can't do a thing about it. We want to decide whether you're child abuse or whether you are a threat to our society."
This is a closed system madness. And the reason we're like that is because science has abandoned God. They no longer have the anchor point of God
in the universe. Man is a machine without control of himself. Civilization and the Bible, therefore, totally irrelevant.
The problem with this is that man doesn't like to be in that system. Science says, "We're in a closed system that no supernatural factor can
affect, and we are helpless machines within it." But man says, "I don't want to be a helpless machine." Well, part of the reason for that is that
he has that image and likeness of God. The natural taste for man is freedom. So, he wants to escape from that. So, he pretends that the machine
isn't determining anything, and he acts independently of it. It has no room for God, so it has no room for guidelines from God. So, man is a slave
of an impersonal universe. He is influenced only by time and chance, and he tries to break free of that system. And the result is the complexities
of society that we have today, and the human breakdown.
He thinks he can understand the world by starting from himself. He thinks that there is no basis, consequently, for determining what is right and
wrong. Whatever is – that's what's right. Whatever most people think – that's what's right. It's determined chemically and
psychologically. When abortion was authorized by the United States, how was it decided? On the basis of sociological decision. Most people agree
that they want this to be done. So, even though it violates every scriptural principle, the state authorizes it.
Once man and science were freed from the divine authority of God and biblical revelation, they created a world of confusion and misery, and they
found that the fulfillment of freedom that they now seek by breaking loose from this closed system is a delusion, and that man is indeed a slave
of something. He's a slave of the sin nature. He could be a slave of God's righteousness, and find freedom and liberty. But instead, he has
rejected the possible ground for securing that freedom, and he's a slave.
So, he makes what's called a non-rational leap. He says, "This is crazy. There isn't anything out there. There is no God out there. There are no
rights or wrongs. But I'm going to live and pretend that there is." He says, "I know this is not rational, but I'm going to pretend that this is
the way it is. I cannot live like this. I cannot live without some basis of direction and control. The heart of man, in fact, longs for the God
that he has rejected.
So, he seeks some kind of a mystical leap out there to pretend that there's some God, and to pretend that there is something. He does it through
drugs. That's what the whole business of drugs is all about. Science has put us into a closed system. There is no influence and authority from God.
So, let's try to get some kind of a mystical experience through drugs. They do it through promiscuous sex. They do it through religious words:
"human good;" or, "occult" – all these are means of trying to find some rationality, and to react in some way over against the painfulness of
the fact that sin exists in the universe. Man, in a closed system without the orientation of the Word of God, is a slave to the insanity of the sin
nature.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1977
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