Welcome to the
Pioneer and Bell Church of Christ

FOREWORD: Which America is your America?

It was a while back, when I was in the sixth or seventh grade, when someone would tell a whopper, we would chant, "Liar, liar, your pants are on fire!" Then Disney came out with the popular movie called Pinocchio in 1940. It was the story about a wooden dummy that could become human if he was virtuous. However, he had a problem, whenever he told a lie his nose would grow an inch or so. The Washington Post, today, hands out Pinocchio Awards for lies in the news. Why is it, so much of the news we see and /or hear is called "fake news?"

 This segment of morality was, and is, based on natural law and Christian virtue. It is the basis of number nine of the Ten Commandments given by God to Israel. On Mount Sinai, God spoke to Israel and said, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" (Exodus 20:16). Speaking lies and sowing discord among brethren are among the list of things God hates and are an abomination to Him (Proverbs 6:16-19). Although these infractions of morality, as well as God's Word, seem acceptable in much of America's social and political scene. There was a time Americans considered them wrong as well as sinful.

 The America of yesterday, as well as all Western Civilization, was based on the God given book we call the Bible. They believed that the Scriptures were given by God (2 Timothy 3:15-17). The monotheism of Christianity was universally accepted and Jehovah was the true and living God. Americans had "a clear sense of what is morally right." This sense of morally right was based on both natural and revealed law. We used the term "Scout's honor" when emphasizing a truth.

 Today, many Americans are smitten with an affliction called Nihilism. That is, "there is no reality of right and wrong." There is no objective truth, or worse, "truth is what I want it to be." Certain segments of our society have a reputation for lying. Used car salesmen and politicians come to mind. Politicians are having an especially hard time. Almost everything is on tape. They can no longer say one thing to one audience and the opposite to another. Microphones are sometimes on, or alive, when the speaker assumes they are dead. They have no scruples about lying. They have no honor. They have embraced Nihilism with a hug that will choke them in the Judgment Day.

 A lying tongue is among the six things God hates and the seven that are an abomination to Him (Proverbs 6:16-19). Christians are expected to put on the new man, putting away lying and to speak the truth (Ephesians 4:24-25). God states that all liars shall have their part in the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death (Revelation 21:6-8). Solomon points out that the main mission for man on the earth is to "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). In the next verse, he gives the reason: "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

 Dale I. Royal, Elk City, OK