Aristotle’s Fish In The Vortex

Oxford Dictionary defines vortex as a mass of whirling fluid or air, especially a whirlpool or whirlwind: we were caught in a vortex of water. It originates from mid seventeenth century Latin, meaning eddy.

Oxford Dictionary defines eddy as a circular movement of water, counter to a main current, causing a small whirlpool. A movement of wind, fog, or smoke resembling this.

Aristotle once described our challenge as the problem of a fish in water. Knowing nothing but life in the water, the fish never even realizes it is wet.

The Bible describes the mass of humanity as seas of water; seas that are in constant motion, never-resting, and always washing onto shore that which defines its character.

We are swimming in one of the most complex and challenging culture contexts ever. Every day brings a confrontation with cultural messages through advertisements, entertainments and the conversation of those around us. We have become Aristotle’s fish.

As a kid, I watched The Lone Ranger on a black and white RCA TV. rca tv Today, our grandchildren are bombarded with ads for Viagra, Tampons and Birth Control, while seeing all manner of immorality demonstrated on LED screens. If this isn’t bad enough, they have access 24/7 to anything the Internet can offer via their smartphones, I-Pads and I-Pods.

Our culture is changing at an ever quickening pace. Transformations in the law, government, social morality and education have accompanied the astonishing advances in technology of our era. Over the past half century the U.S. Supreme Court has accomplished a feat America’s Founders would surely have found to be inconceivable. In just a few decades, the Court has decided that organized prayer must be removed from public school classrooms, that religious symbolism must be removed from official seals and emblems, and that all references to a deity must be reduced to a merely ceremonial meaning, if they are allowed at all. On the other hand, the federal courts have allowed for the military to pay chaplains, for the words “under God” to remain in the Pledge of Allegiance, and for both houses of Congress to employ chaplains and to begin each session in prayer.

In some states, the Ten Commandments are displayed legally; while in others it is violating the constitution. The First Amendment includes two different clauses concerning religion. Citizens are guaranteed the free exercise of religion, and then it reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” That’s all. How did the Court transform itself into a source of such confusion? Because they wanted to.

The Court’s involvement in matters of religion opens a floodgate for those who argue for the secular shaping of America without ever mentioning God. Our age demands that the view of public law is no longer predicated on Christian morals. There should be no relationship whatsoever between Christian morality and public law. The law should be strictly secular.

Our schools are now used to indoctrinate our children in radical sex education programs and health programs. Many times the curriculum is dictated by bureaucracies far removed from local control.

The book, King & King, is about a homosexual marriage of two princes and is being taught to seven-year-old children in Lexington, Massachusetts. Kids are being taught that there are no normal families and that all family structures are equally valid. Those who disagree are lacking in appreciation for family diversity! Older students are exposed to the national “Day of Silence”, an observance that is organized by homosexual activists and is spreading to all schools. Students are finding that their teacher was one sex when they started school and another before they finished.

Sex education has been taken from the parents and given to the schools. Christian parents are largely keeping their heads buried in the sand. A few are pulling their kids out of the pagan system and putting them into Christian education schools or home schooling.

Leo Tolstoy said, “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.”

Augustine of Hippo said, “Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.”

Patrick Henry said, “The eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate, it is immutable.”

Rebecca Manley Pippert said, “If you say there is no such thing as morality in absolute terms, then child abuse is not evil, it just may not happen to be your thing.”

whirlpool Niagara Falls

Anyone who has been to Niagara Falls and who has ridden the aero car over the whirlpool knows how powerful a vortex can be. Water flowing into Niagara Gorge at 30 feet per second creates very turbulent waters which no one in their right mind would attempt to drop into; when it could suck you to a depth of 125 feet and dash your body violently against the rocks. (Makes you wonder why one pays to ride a mechanical car over it? Is it because we like to live on the edge?)

Yet this is what we are doing today as a society; we are playing in waters that are rushing into a gorge of lawlessness, without the safeguards of rules and limitations. There is no life vest nor boat that will keep us safe from the vortex’s pull in a secular and humanistic society. Only absolute right and wrong that are dictated by the Spirit of God and His Word and written in our consciences will steer us to safety.

Have you ever seen a goldfish swim out of a flushing toilet? The Vortex overwhelms the goldfish and all he can do is go with the flow. Judges 2:10 NASB says “All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.” Can a generation know God when it doesn’t know it is wet?

goldfish

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