Abominable Customs

      The New Age movement is called, among other things, 'the New Church'. Jean Dixson, a popular seer, anticipates "the foundation of a New Christianity." One New Age group calling itself 'New Christianity', writes in its newsletter, The Good News: "Our ministry isn't into sin, guilt, disease, or pain." This group is formulating their own new code of ethics. Robert Muller, New Age spokesman, concurs calling for a:

      Terms like the 'new ethics', 'situation ethics' or the 'new morality' imply that ethics and morals change and can exist outside of the traditional Judeo-Christian Decalogue (the ten commandments). Few realize that the word ethics (L. ethicus) means only "customs of a nation"; morality (L. moralis) means merely "customs, mores." The words themselves are detached from any objective standard of right and wrong. For example, cannibalism and bigamy were considered 'moral' and 'ethical' behaviors among nineteenth century New Guinea bushmen. Abandoning one's tribe and territory, however, was 'immoral', that is, against the group's mores.

      God noted that "the customs of the people are vain" (Jeremiah 10:3), and not to be confused with his ordinances.

      Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs..." [morals or ethics] Leviticus 18:30

      The words moral and immoral (according to custom and not according to custom) are an affront to God. They imply that man himself can determine what is right and wrong. Eve became the first 'moralist', as she chose to decide what is good and what is evil. Rebels, like Eve and Lucifer seek 'the good'. Moralists always claim to adhere to "what is right."

      Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. Deuteronomy 12:8

      God spoke these words because the heathen perennially chose their mores over the laws of God. "Taoists maintain morals are relative." The Hindu Bhagavad Gita "teaches the supremacy of freedom over morality." Its dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna concludes:

      From the bushmen to the bookmen like Boehm, Blake, Nietzsche, Heidigger and Sartre, man rejects the mandates of God for a man-made morality. A confederacy of educators, carrying Einstein's 'Theory of Relativity' banner, have captured today's students. In a national religious survey, half of the college students polled affirmed that:

      The decrees of God have died and man's mores revived in the New Age and new versions as well.

      Moody's Erwin Lutzer concludes:

      And so are the new versions.

      In the battle between man's mores and God's laws, the new versions have opted for the 'popular' morals of the day. They have substituted the relativistic word 'immorality' for the word 'fornication'. The word 'immorality' carries with it no description of what is forbidden. Webster elaborates:

      Every young person knows the meaning of the word 'whore'. (Webster's 'whore': to have unlawful sexual intercourse; whoremonger: lecher; a man given to whoring.)

      The NASB's non-judgmental translations echo the policy statements of many mainline denominations.

      The prediction by Marrs that, "Satan will author an unholy New Age bible, with no restrictions on man's desire to enjoy a licentious lifestyle" is coming true.

      Informal polling of university students between 1985 and 1991 with the question posed, "What is immorality?" elicited responses ranging from "pollution" to political issues. The NIV's and NKJV's "sexual immorality" fared no better. To the query "What is sexual immorality?" student response ranged from "one night stands" to various situational scenarios indicative of the highly desensitized and depraved nature of the mores of our current culture. Answers to both questions always evoked responses showing the subjective and relative nature of the word 'moral'. It appears young Americans know Latin etymology and Webster's better than new version editors.

      Bibles without objective standards merely reinforce the Values Clarification theories of Louis E. Baths, Merrill Harmon and Sidney B. Simon being used in the elementary schools today. The Wall Street Journal notes:

If parents object to their children...engaging in premarital sex, the theory behind Values Clarification makes it appropriate for the child to respond, 'But that's just YOUR value judgement. Don't force it on me.'

      The harvest from the seeds planted in the sixties (NASB) and seventies (NIV) is ripe and rotting on the vine. A 1990 survey by researchers at Indiana University and Marion County Health department revealed sexual activity is beginning at an earlier age than ever. Dr. Donald P. Orr reported 555 of 677 middle-class students, age 12-14 have engaged in fornication. Another recent survey, done by 8 denominations, polled 1438 'evangelical' teens (those who regularly attend a conservative church). Nearly half had committed fornication; only one-third "declined to brand sex outside of marriage as morally unacceptable." Bibles which omit a clear mandate against, "sexual intercourse on the part of unmarried persons" (Webster's 'fornication') leave parents defenseless in their battle for their children's chastity. An anxious mother called Moody Broadcasting's 'Open Line' program asking Pastor Cole where she could find a verse to show her son that pre-marital sex is wrong. He was unable to give one. On a recent 700 Club, the author of Generation at Risk was asked why sexually active Christian kids have no sense of guilt. He responded that there was "no absolute standard of scripture" to use and so young people conclude, "If I don't feel bad, it must not be wrong."

      The use of the ambiguous word 'immorality' by new versions is more a matter of sales than semantics. "After all, we are in the entertainment business," quips the owner of the NIV, international publishing magnate and purveyor of erotica, Rupert Murdock (New Age Bulletin, England, Vol. V, No. 1, p. 2, June 1993) Pressure from mainline denomination, representing large markets, prompts their use of wording which allows the greatest variety of interpretations. The 1991 national committee report from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) represents the reins pulling from religious and 'ethical' markets.

      Roman Catholics are expressing similar views. Sister Madonna Kolbenschlay said, "[W]omen...are in the process of reversing Genesis by validating and freeing their sexuality." Father Matthew Fox in Original Blessing writes, "Ours is truly an erotic god."

      That morality is really not relative is seen in the outrage of the public at the sexual activity of gurus like Swami Muktanada Paramanansa (Gov. Jerry Brown, Marsha Mason and Diana Ross' guru), Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Rajneesh, Catholic priests and Bishops and fallen evangelical leaders. The secular press has devoted entire books, like the best selling The Closing of the American Mind, to bemoan society's substitution of 'values' for 'virtues'. A Los Angeles Times writer reflects on the coming cataclysm caused by the rejection of objective standards:

[R]elative standards of morality breed chaos and ultimately the downfall of society.