Or consider the question of modern art. Surely the field of "modern art" reveals the mixed-up, weird, wacky and unbalanced tendencies of this generation as much as any other one thing.
Today it takes only a low intelligence — or no intelligence at all — to paint prize-winning modern "art!"
"Several artists angrily removed their paintings last night from an art show at South Gate, California, after one of the ten prizes was awarded to Miss Teresa Bates for a black and white abstract. They complained that the judges should have been informed that Miss Bates is only 22 months old.
"The judges stood by their decision. 'Many times children's art can be better than adult, art,' said one of the judges, Mr. Robert Chuey, an art teacher.
"He added: "Much adult art and many artists become tired and lacking in fresh viewpoints, whereas a child is untarnished, not yet corrupted.' " (Daily Telegraph, April 16, 1963)
And there is the instance of the painting which was hung upside down and still won a prize — nobody having realized that it was upside down! Also a prize-winning picture was painted by a chimpanzee, and an ass on one occasion painted an abstract, prize-winning painting — with the swishes of its tail!
And what about the musical arts? God intended music to be inspiring, soothing, uplifting.
But what is happening today? Not long ago B.B.C. music chief, Hans Keller, and pianist-composer Susan Bradshaw decided to play a joke on the British music critics — the intellectual snobs who feel they really know good music from bad!
"Now this is the sort of programme the [music] experts just can't resist tuning in to. And when the announcer introduced 'Piotr Zak, brilliant 22-year-old Polish composer, who is one of the most controversial figures in contemporary music,' they fell for it, hook, line and sinker.
"For a deliriously happy half-hour they (Mr. Keller and Miss Bradshaw) banged kettles, bashed drums, kicked chairs, and . . . (beat on) every noisy object in sight.
"The music experts listened in raptures of delight.
" 'A new dimension in music,' they sighed, when the programme came to an end. 'Zak is better than Bach' " (Weekend, Sep. 19-23, 1962).
What they didn't know was that "zak" is Australian slang for a sixpence — that there was no Piotr Zak who ever wrote a line of music — that they had been completely fooled by Mr. Keller and Miss Bradshaw.
Need we be surprised to learn that the critics were duped by this "music," since it sounded so much like certain forms of modern music?
Wife-Swapping in the Modern World
Compare "heathen" sex and marriage practices with those of "civilized" peoples!
It is common practice among Eskimos and some Arab tribes of Yemen for the head of the family to offer a male guest the embraces of his wife for the night.
But are we, in the so-called "civilized" world, any different? An interesting article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle of April 3, 1963, giving some shocking facts regarding the practice of "wife-swapping" in the United States.
"Wife-swapping — adultery by mutual agreement — is fast becoming a fad in the Bay Area. Hundreds of husbands and wives . . . are advertising their marital misery in coded 'classified' columns of a motley assortment of 'magazines' published for the purpose of putting sex deviates of one sort or another in touch with each other. They are getting together in groups of two or more couples in homes, hotels and motels to participate in 'switching-parties' that often take on the proportions of orgies. . .
"From the facts obtained throughout the weeks of investigation it appears WIFE-SWAPPING ACTIVITY is on the in-crease not only in the Bay Area, but THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE NATION . . . Only two weeks ago in Washington it was revealed for the first time that Post Office investigators are finding an 'outbreak' of postal law offences in which wife-swapping is involved. Chief Postal Inspector Henry B. Montague told a subcommittee of the House of Representatives that use of the U.S. mails to promote wife-swapping, in one way or another, is 'no longer limited to isolated instances.' "
This article also points out that most of those who indulge in wife-swapping had broken God's law (the seventh command — Ex. 20:14) by committing adultery BEFORE they began the vile practice of wife-swapping!
Even some psychiatrists and ministers indulge in this vile practice!
Although considered by many to be new, wife-swapping has long been practiced all over the United States.
Modern man is essentially no different from the heathen. That's why your Bible says: "Thus saith the Lord, LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN . . . FOR THE CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE ARE VAIN . . ." (Jer. 10:2-3).
Christ said, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT, BECAUSE THEIR DEEDS WERE EVIL" (John 3:19). Perhaps some of you have unknowingly been guilty of the practices mentioned in this article. Are you going to be offended at the truth?
God indicts this world and its civilization. "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (Jas. 4:4).
But what can you do to overcome the ridiculous customs and practices of the world around you?
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, voluntarily gave Himself to be sacrificed for our sins "that He might deliver us from THIS PRESENT EVIL WORLD" (Gal. 1:4)!
This world is not Christ's world (John 18:36). It is not run according to God's ways or laws. The civilization (society or Gk. "cosmos") which rules this world during this age is not patterned after the right principles and laws of God!
The customs, traditions, fads and fancies of mankind are fickle and fluctuate from one generation to another. "But the Word [and ways] of the Lord endureth for ever" (I Peter 1:23, 25)
You Can Have a Sound Mind
This present world has little balance, little soundness. Those who repent of their sins, who are baptized and imbued with God's Spirit, are the only ones who have truly "sound" minds!
Notice II Timothy 1:7. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a SOUND MIND."
Today's world is a fearful, frustrated, deceived, mixed-up world. But those who have God's Spirit are not fearful or mixed-up. They have received God's sound, sane mind through receiving His Holy Spirit! The only real sanity in this world today is the sanity or soundness of mind which God imparts through His Spirit! Without the guidance of the Spirit of God, man is led into error, confusion and endless tangents; and gullibly believes and practices many senseless customs and ways of men!
The "civilized" world is not as civilized and cultured as it is deceived into believing! Its customs, practices, traditions and ways are steeped in paganism just as much as are the ways of the heathen in the remotest parts of Africa or Australia!
God Wishes You To Have "Fullness of Joy!"
The reason God tells us not to love this world or this civilization which rules during this age, is that it is going headlong down the road of unhappiness, sickness and misery — toward total annihilation and ultimate death! God wants us to repent, and turn from our sins, so that we won't be destroyed with this present world and its wicked, forward ways.
Of course not everything in this present world is wrong. God requires or expects us to give up that which is bad for us — which is contrary to His Word, or His revealed laws.
God Almighty created the beauty that we see everywhere around us. He created the five senses, and through these senses He wants us to receive enjoyment and pleasure to the fullest, but only in a truly civilized manner. He wishes us to live an abundant life (John 10:10). We are told that "thy [God's] presence is FULLNESS OF JOY; at THY RIGHT HAND THERE ARE PLEASURES FOR EVERMORE" (Psa. 16:11).
And in I Timothy 6:17 we are informed that it is GOD "WHO GIVETH US RICHLY ALL THINGS TO ENJOY.''
Yes, God wants us to enjoy all things — but in a right way!
What, then, is true art, culture — civilization? It is God's WAY of life! God's Word gives the only true guide or yardstick by which we can know (Matt. 4:4)!
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are TRUE, whatsoever things are PURE, whatsoever things are LOVELY, whatsoever things are of GOOD REPORT; if there be any VIRTUE, and if there be any PRAISE, THINK ON THESE THINGS" (Phil. 4: 8).