In March of 2006 Chi Cheng party
secretary Xi Jinping was interviewed by
Lawrence Robert Kuhn where they
discussed leadership and responsibility
she explained that under Deng Xiaoping a
three-step strategy was put forward
To accomplish these goals
leaders have used a scientific approach
that of trial and testing before
implementing programs nationwide
for example she explained
While he admitted that China
is not yet where it wants to be in
fulfilling Deng's 3-step strategy any
rational person has to be impressed at
the level of change that has occurred
over the last 30 years and the courage
it has taken to make such progress the
three steps put in place by Deng
Xiaoping are also admirable as they
expressed the desire to improve the lot
of the common man and one has to believe
that at the advanced age of 88 Deng was
sincere in his desire when he set China
on the path of reform but as China moves
forward economically is it not advisable
that Hong Kong and China's population
would do well to view ethics and
morality with the same kind of scrutiny
as their government has shown toward
economics should not a scientific
approach be considered when it comes to
how faithful men and women are to treat
one another if so if you'd like to learn more
Stay tuned
the last century has seen dramatic
changes in moral behavior especially on
what are known as the Western nations
principally North America and Europe a
majority of people in America and Europe
had a certain consciousness of God at
the beginning of the 20th century both
Christians and Jews look to some degree
to the Bible and especially the Ten
Commandments as a guiding light for
behavior there was for example what was
known as the Judeo-Christian work ethic
this is not to say that everyone worked
hard or that everyone actually lived by
the Ten Commandments but there was an
attempt by many to do so and this effort
brought about significant progress in
industry and agriculture and tempered
human nature as a whole during the
second half of the 20th century belief
in God and morality in the West
deteriorated rapidly today the
philosophy of secular humanism prevails
in the courts and educational
institutions of the West secular
humanism expresses the view that humans
can be ethical and moral and religious
without God but is this so in theory it
would seem to be but what about in
practice one major problem with secular
humanism is the lack of authority to
determine right from wrong if there is
no higher power that defines appropriate
behavior each man is left to himself to
decide such matters and without a higher
authority which has power to reward or
punish behavior even when there is
agreement on right and wrong people will
do what they want to do if they think
they can get away with it let me repeat
again what Xi explained in relation to
economics and industrial development
But has any nation taken the same scientific
approach with ethics and morality the
obvious answer is that none has now
please do not misunderstand me
I'm not advocating that we do
small-scale experiments with human lives
to determine which is ethical and moral
and what works best to do so would leave
half the subjects on the wrong side of
the experiment and they would suffer
tragically as a result but we do need to
open our eyes and look at the facts as
they currently are our first parents
Adam and Eve were given a choice they
could trust God to determine right for
wrong or they could trust themselves and
their five senses as any student of the
Bible knows they chose to reject God and
trust themselves and the evidence of
their experiment is all around us today
conflict between peoples and nations
broken families divorce disease and
suffering of every kind even when we try
to worship God we find ourselves in
conflict between varying groups with
their own ideas about who God is and how
to worship Him and sadly many of the
bloodiest and longest lasting wars have
been fought over religion but setting
aside the mistake of our first parents
and the road that they set us on let us
specifically get back to where we are
today and analyze post modern man's
grand experiment and throwing off the
laws of God especially in regard to
marital morality the God of the Bible is
not vague when it comes to sexual
relations the Bible makes it clear that
it is God who created us as sexual
beings we can read this in the beginning
pages of this book
We are instructed a little later in the account
of the first man and woman created on the earth
The Bible tells us that sex within
marriage is good and proper
and marriage is an
institution to be honored but
notice how the Apostle Paul contrasts
sex within marriage with its use outside
of the marriage institution
The Apostle Paul also
counsels us to avoid sexual immorality
as it brings about harsh penalties
notice this in first Corinthians the 6th
chapter and verse 18
In spite of these clear
instructions and admonitions sex between
unmarried people is rampant in many
nations today and it is considered
normal and acceptable behavior yet if we
refuse to hear God we can if we so
choose to do so look at the subject as
any scientist would do in evaluating the
results of his experiment sadly our
experiment in choosing to decide for
ourselves what is moral and what is not
has gone on way too long and the results
are in if we have eyes to see we must
conclude that the God of the Bible knew
what he was talking about that the
fruits are results of sexual immorality
are detrimental to a harmonious society
consider one of the more obvious
consequences of sex prior to marriage
that being pregnancy according to a
March twentieth 2009 article titled
behind the boom in adult single
motherhood Amy Sullivan pointed out that
fully forty percent of all babies born
in the united states and 2007 were born
to unmarried mothers this amounted to a
staggering 4.3 million babies born out
of wedlock and this statistical figure
has consequences quoting miss Sullivan
Many excuses are given as
to why so many are choosing
babies before commitment one such excuse
is that of poverty people say that men
cannot afford to raise a family but at
this reasoning valid advice columnist
Emily Yeoff writing under the name of
prudence for slate, an online US
magazine wrote the following in
response to this argument
Miss Yeoff describes
the current single parent
seen in America as a national
catastrophe while she promotes the
importance of marriage and family
readers respond with a variety of excuses
Note that all of these excuses
are emotionally not scientifically based
when she is confronted with the
accusation you are simply out of touch
with modern culture she replies
Another popular and unscientifically based
 misconception is that couples who live together before
marriage are able to test how well
suited they are for each other and will
therefore have a more satisfying and
longer lasting marriage this may sound
good but do the facts support such a
contention according to the co-director
of the national marriage project David Pompano
of Rutgers University in the United States
consider another emotionally
based misconception
that fails to stand before the facts
In today's post-modern world
facts don't seem to matter we
now live at a time when the forces of
emotion personal opinion self expression
and the mantra your truth may not be my
truth prevails in the West and these
attitudes are spreading to traditional
cultures around the world by way of
television magazines and the internet
but truth is not fluid either something
is true and can be backed up with
scientific data or it is not
note this study:
babies and splitting up are only the tip
of the iceberg when it comes to sleeping
together prior to marriage another
obvious problem is a spread of life
debilitating disease note this shocking
Associated Press headline of
March the 11th, 2008
describing the state of
affairs among American teen girls
Associated Press Tuesday March 11 2008
the article then explains
You see my friends the God
who created us gave us His laws to
protect us from hurting ourselves but
the human race refuses to believe Him so
why then do we also refuse to look at
our cultural practices from a scientific
perspective if we will not believe God
why won't we believe the facts will not
a scientific approach lead us to the
correct conclusion of how we ought to
conduct ourselves the biblical proverb
found in verse 2 of chapter 26 explains
a simple maxim of cause and effect for
every effect there is a cause
Can we not see the biblical
proverb in action all around us when we
break God's moral laws we are under a
curse there are natural consequences
that bring pain and suffering my friends
God is not against us He is for us and
He wants us to be happy but to be truly
happy we must avoid certain behaviors
which look good on the surface but bring
destruction in the end notice another
proverb, Proverbs 14:12
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God wants us to be happy but He allows
us free moral agency and the ability to
make our own decisions in Deuteronomy
the 30th chapter verse 19 God calls upon
us to make choices in life and
cumulatively those choices take us in
one of two opposing directions we are
told that we have free will to choose
but notice also that God encourages us
to make the right choice
In today's post modern
world we are told that truth is
fluid what is truth for you may not be
truth for me but is this truth or
foolishness we know that when it comes
to building aircraft truth is based on
facts not opinions so can we not base
moral truth on facts it really isn't
that difficult to evaluate whether a
particular behavior leads to blessings
or cursings as we have seen with sex
prior to marriage there are a host of
consequences that no one really wants we
are told that one definition of insanity
is when someone keeps doing the same
thing over again expecting different
results how long do we as human beings
have to keep repeating the same moral
mistakes before we wake up to realize
that something simply do not work if we
can approach economics in this
scientific way why can't we evaluate
morality based on observation and
evaluation of course an even better way
is to simply believe God that way no one
gets hurt in the process but if we
refuse to do that then my friends let us
at least evaluate the fruits of our
behavior and learn from them we have
seen that sex prior to marriage doesn't
work but what about sexual
immorality after marriage
does it work any better the answer is
clearly no many of the same curses apply
here disease divorce and deep heartache
resulting from betrayal and of course
there are children who are hurt by
parental misbehavior the foundation of
biblical law is known as the Ten
Commandments and one of those
Commandments is you shall not commit
adultery adultery is a voluntary sexual
act between a married person and someone
who is not his or her spouse and
adultery is rampant in almost every
corner of the earth no significant
country is immune from this sin well
most people applaud China's moved to a
market-oriented economy and the
remarkable progress toward improving the
physical living standards of hundreds of
millions a sad unintended consequence
has accompanied this rise in living
standards and that is adultery note this
New York Times headline from
March to 16 1985
The article then goes on to say
adultery has become such a serious
In March of 2000 a senior
parliamentary official Hu Kangsheng
called for updating legislation to
reflect social changes that resulted
from two decades of market-oriented
reforms in his call for changes Hu
explained that the problem of adultery
had risen with some people who had
become more wealthy and powerful
As we can see a significant
number of divorces are
related to adultery and so it should not
surprise us that as adultery increases
so does the rate of divorce and over the
last decade the slide has continued but
adultery is only part of the problem
self-interest selfishness and lack of
commitment also play their part
according to a 2008 BBC News report
2007 was a bad year for divorces
China continues to progress
economically due in part to a careful
scientific approach of testing and
carefully evaluating the results
economic progress over the last 30 years
has been nothing less than remarkable
but sadly with it has come many
unintended results morality is not
something that can be easily or
effectively legislated self-government
is essential in the building of a
harmonious society in a genuine
relationship with the true god of
creation is the only real path
to rightly governing the self after all
it is a law of God that defines
authoritatively what real morality is
Jesus said
And Jesus' disciple John put it this way
God is not against prosperity realizing
a comfortable life as Deng expressed it
is what God wants for all men everywhere
but wealth without a moral foundation
will not bring a truly comfortable life
money cannot take away the pain of
disease divorce and families being
ripped apart in first Timothy the sixth
chapter beginning in verse 6 it gives us
a warning a sober warning here the
Apostle Paul instructs his disciple
here at Tomorrow's World we are not so
naive as to think that we have the
ability of ourselves to change the
behavior of even a single person but we
do believe that we can present the truth
of the Bible along with factual
information and individuals can choose
respond positively as we read in
Deuteronomy the thirtieth chapter
For those who have eyes
to see and ears to hear the
results of human behavior are obvious
disobedience to God's laws brings pain
and suffering obedience to his laws
brings comfort to life if you'd like to
learn more about the subject of today's
program and the true God of the Bible
and his laws and how they promote a
harmonious society be sure to check out
our booklet that will be shown on the
screen and be sure to come back next
week same place same time to learn more
about the God of creation and His coming
Kingdom in tomorrow's world
if you would like to discover more about
how this topic impacts your life
visit us online at
www.lcgcanada.org
to read our featured literature
free of charge
The preceding program is produced
by the Living Church of God
