Staying Upright in an Upside Down World
While speaking of 
the condition of society in the world today, I’ve often heard the phrase, “Everything is upside down.”
Increasingly, evil is being called good and good is being put down as evil, resulting in confusion, conflict, and strife. The airwaves are filled with hatred and vitriol that was completely unacceptable just a few years ago. Within America, the rancor is intense. and the rapid acceptance of immorality and corruption is alarming.
And yet, such is common to man. A surface knowledge of history reveals similar cultures in Greece, Rome, and more who went through moral decline shortly before the fall of the civilization.
In the history of the Jews we can see they had frequent periods of upside-down values. They turned from God and worshipped idols, which led to low morals and a disruption of peace and God’s blessing.
Isaiah lived in such a time, and he issued a warning which revealed a source of the problem.
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness . . . because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 5:20,24).
Isaiah listed issues that lead to an upside down world.
- Calling evil good. Seeking to fulfill fleshly desires from things beyond the boundaries that God has set, we begin to call evil good and let it dictate our standards and define what we consider acceptable.
- Rejecting God’s law–because it doesn’t reconcile with our choices in life. Next, we begin to hate the Word of God.
- If we hate and reject God’s Word, we also hate God.
These things don’t happen overnight. It takes time for them to permeate a culture. It may seem sudden, but the roots go back further.
In 1963 freedom reading the Bible and praying were officially greatly restricted in schools in America. The 1960s were also a time when the sexual revolution was openly embraced by a segment of society. For those things to become acceptable publicly, the turn from God and His laws had to have begun earlier.
We’ve continued the downward spiral. A recent Barna Research Report reveals that in the last six years there has been a dramatic decrease in Americans’ interest in the Bible. The Brana Group deduced that, “The steady rise of skepticism is creating a cultural atmosphere that is becoming unfriendly to claims of faith; the adoption of self-fulfillment as our culture’s ultimate measure of good is re-orienting moral authority.”(1)
Barna’s research further supports Isaiah’s proclamation that the rejection of the God’s Word leads to an upside down world, i.e. one that holds up “self-fulfillment as our culture’s ultimate measure of good.”
In God’s Word, we find ultimate Truth. Truth that is sure, reliable, stable, and dependable. It doesn’t change with the change of public opinion.
In the 60s, situation ethics became popular. Right and wrong or good and bad was not based on absolutes, but on the situation. More recently, many think the individual decides what is right and good, depending on their own perspective and desires.
Such truth is not dependable. It shifts and is impossible to define for the culture as a whole. It is not sure, stable, or reliable. and leads to insecurity and chaos.
The Hebrew language uses pictures to describe what they want to communicate. Their word for truth reflects concepts that last. Truth is firm, sure, reliable, stable, faithful, true, and even nourishing and supporting. Truth enfolds the very things we are missing in our society.
When an individual declares that there is no absolute truth, but holds to a truth that is relative to the individual and the situation, it erodes the foundation on which they stand. They are no longer stable, dependable, sure, reliable, and so forth.
The same is true for a society–except more so. Without absolute truth, you add the complexities of insecure, unstable people (who have different definitions of what is right or true) trying to work together—while each is seeking peace and security according to their varying definitions of what that looks like. Consequently, everybody pulls in different directions and no progress is made.
To resolve the mess, we need an agreed upon source of right and wrong, good and bad, life and death. An agreed upon source of truth.
The next question is what can I do about it? If this is true, how can I right an upside down world?
I must start with me, with myself.
- With my understanding of truth.
- With my knowledge of God’s Word, where we find the ultimate Truth.
- With my relationship with Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
- With my responsibility to teach my children and lead them to the Source of Truth.
- With my opportunities to be a light in the darkness, showing the love and sharing the life that comes from knowing the Source.
“Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn. 8:31-32).
Even in the midst of an upside-down-world, we can be set free if we know the Truth.
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(1) https://www.barna.org/research/faith-christianity/research-release/the-bible-in-america-6-year-trends#.V2lIS5MrLdQ