Hebrews 10:26-31
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Let's discuss this passage viewed as the moral pendulum swings; a bit of history and then a comparison.
When we look back to the years 1716-1780 - we see a renaissance still going on in the Church were people are filled with hope for the sweeping reforms of the new idea of "Sunday School", a new country - new fortunes to be made and religious tolerance (not religious abandonment), even in Europe, Christianity is turning around the Gin Operations which were a lot like Opium Dens. A massive "drug" problem was being conquered, by hope, a movement of the Holy Spirit created by the new energy of the Church. These are the days of John Wesley. William Wilberforce is about to come into the mix with John Newton, to abolish slavery.
No one had seen this Great Renaissance about to occur. Cotton Mather was one of the most famous men in America; this preacher lived, ate and fed his people with this passage. Hebrews 10:26-31.
On the other hand, this is the "Golden Age of Piracy" and no one glamorized pirates at the time.
July 12, 1726, William Fly ascended Boston's gallows to be hanged for piracy. He was smiling. He showed no guilt, no shame, no contrition. Indeed, as Cotton Mather, the presiding prelate, noted, he "look'd about him unconcerned." Suddenly William Fly took charge of his death. He threw the rope over the beam, making it fast, and carefully inspected the noose that would go around his neck. He turned in disappointment to the hangman and reproached him "for not understanding his Trade." Fly then "with his own Hands rectified Matters, to render all things more Convenient and Effectual," retying the knot himself as the multitude who had gathered around the gallows looked on in astonishment. He informed the hangman and the crowd that "he was not afraid to die," that "he had wrong'd no Man."
Cotton Mather explained that he was determined to die "a brave fellow."
Samuel Cole, Henry Greenville, and George Condick, other pirates, caught with Fly - stood and repented of their crimes. What were they? Mutiny - They began as shipmates. April 1726 to sail with Captain John Green to West Africa in the Elizabeth, a snow (two-masted vessel) of Bristol. Green and Fly soon clashed, and the boatswain began to organize a mutiny against his command. Fly and another sailor, Alexander Mitchell, roused Green from his sleep late one night, forced him upon deck, beat him, and attempted to throw him over the side of the ship. When Green caught hold of the main sheet, one of the sailors picked up the cooper's broad-axe and chopped off the captain's hand at the wrist. Poor Green "was swallowed up by the Sea." The mutineers then turned the axe on the first mate, Thomas Jenkins, and threw him, still alive, after the captain over-board. They debated whether their messmate, the ship's doctor, should follow them into the blue, but a majority of the crew decided he might prove useful and decided instead to confine him in irons.
The rest of their activities were the usual surrender or die terrorism pirates usually do.
Certainly, William Fly knew what he was talking about for harsh punishments at sea. Up until William Fly, pirates usually asked for pardon and gave testimony to the fact they deserved punishment. William Fly's case led to more unrepentant pirates giving a mystique to "walking the plank with nary a tear."
This event started changing a culture, it became famous - repentance at a death wasn't considered "manly'. The response to Fly didn't bring down our culture, but it's an example of mankind's flightiness.
Slowly the story gained major fame & changed from Cotton Mather giving his time to condemned men, to stuffy, overbearing, posturing Cotton Mather recruiting another conversion. William Fly's story picked up and Cotton Mather was seen as a foaming at the mouth, member of the stiff-upper lip, controlling aspect of the authorities. It was as if Cotton Mather was now "the man" striking down a hard-working laborer.
Yet isn't this the same situation as something similar to the massacre at Columbine High School? Just as the killers at Columbine had experienced the harshness of humanity, they didn't need to jump into becoming the worst of it. Fly was probably exposed to some extremely terrible punishments at sea, but is creating murder and mutilation isn't something we would hope would glorified.
When we, as a culture, applaud defiance from repentance, when we look to excuse and glorify the sin. The sin becomes more and more outrageous. Why would we ever get to the point were we glorify someone who kills,mutilates, steals and is a terrorist? When we turn to accepting a glorious tale, because the crowd likes it, we are swept down.
The Pendulum swings slowly, but it swings wide.
John 7:24
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.
Father God, help the human population understand wrong is declared sin for a reason. In order to live better lives, we must say no and repent when we don't. Help us realize repentance gives new hope. Let the joy of Your Holy Spirit shine brightly even in the subject of renewal. Amen.
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