Lebanon, TN, is credited for making the following
excellent analogy. In Exodus chapter 32 when Moses
came down from the mount, having received the tablets of
stone containing the 10 commandments, he found the
people worshipping the golden calf. The people had
become restless since Moses seemed to have been gone
too long, so they had clamored for Aaron to "make us
gods" (vs. 1). Aaron collected the people's golden
earrings, cast them into the fire and made a golden calf.
When Moses came down from the mount and saw what
Aaron had done he called upon Aaron to give account for
his actions. He first pointed out that "they" (vs. 23)
wanted him to make the calf. Then he replied, "And I
said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them
break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the
fire, and there came out this calf" (vs. 24). Did Aaron
expect Moses to accept that excuse? More important, did
Aaron expect God to accept that excuse? The article I
wrote was critical of those modern day Aarons who
expect faithful brethren (and more important, God) to
believe that they built a church building for edification,
benevolence and evangelism and lo and behold, "there
came out this gym." Are we really expected to believe
that the playing of basketball is not a primary purpose of
these buildings and that it is at most an incidental use of
these buildings built by the Lord's treasury? Aaron made
his golden calf out of design and gyms do not just appear
anymore than Aaron's calf just appeared. The gymnasium
brethren people today are like the people in Moses' day,
i.e. they have lost sight of their lawgiver and want change.
And they want it now!"
When something is designed, it cannot be construed as a thoughtless mistake. Digression always has and always will be marketed as something that was not intended from the get-go, came about by happenstance, and yet should not be viewed as harmful none-the-less.
2 Timothy 3:1-7
"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
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