Rewarding idleness and irresponsibility… celebrating sin… praising lawlessness… tying the hands of law enforcement… encouraging illiteracy… giving control of all to an arrogant few… teaching children to trust feelings over facts, then teaching them how and what to feel…. These things are happening now, but they have also happened before — repeatedly. Humanity seems intent on repeating history even when its lessons seem obvious.

Many years ago, the cable television channel called TV Land ran a particularly memorable ad for Leave It to Beaver. The announcer asked, “Why doesn’t the Beaver ever learn his lesson? He is often taught his lesson. He promises to remember his lesson. But the next day, he’s forgotten his lesson. Is he deliberately ignoring his lesson? Not exactly.”

Then they showed the “inside” of Beaver’s head — a small brain surrounded by a great deal of empty space. We see the word “Lesson” enter his head through his left ear. The narrator tells us what’s happening. “New evidence suggests that Beaver’s lesson enters one ear, floats around his head for a few seconds, but avoids having any contact with his brain, before exiting out the other side of his skull.”

The lesson goes in one ear and out the other — and that, friends, is the human condition.

In The Late Great Planet Earth, I posed the question, “Do we really live and learn?” The answer is that, like young Beaver Cleaver, the lessons just seem to bounce around our empty heads, then come out the other side without contacting our brains. We remember technological lessons, but collectively, humans tend to forget moral truths.

Right now, society seems to be in a particularly empty-headed phase. As the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, people joked that the only real communists left in the world were tenured at American universities. We should have taken that joke more seriously.

Today, people make fun of the phrase, “Godless communism.” They forget that most communist nations are officially atheistic. The result is just what you would expect. The state becomes a god. Individuals fall beneath its crushing wheels. 

They teach the young that rules aren’t worth following. They defund police and encourage contempt for law and order. This leads inevitably to chaos and terror. In their fear of anarchy, people soon call for more police with fewer restrictions, and for increasingly coercive laws. Ironically, the fastest route to a police state is to dismantle law enforcement.

Remember the pattern of Romans 1:18-32. “The wrath of God is revealed against all…who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…. Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him…. Professing to be wise, they became fools…. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity…. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie…. God gave them over to degrading passions…. Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind.”

As a society, we are already well down this road. But this is not the time for despair. Those who still love God and respect His word are not helpless.

His promises remain true. He still cares. We walk in His power. Hopefully, His people are learning the lesson. We must do things His way and in His power.

Rewarding idleness and irresponsibility… celebrating sin… praising lawlessness… tying the hands of law enforcement… encouraging illiteracy… giving control of all to an arrogant few… teaching children to trust feelings over facts, then teaching them how and what to feel…. These things are happening now, but they have also happened before — repeatedly. Humanity seems intent on repeating history even when its lessons seem obvious.

Many years ago, the cable television channel called TV Land ran a particularly memorable ad for Leave It to Beaver. The announcer asked, “Why doesn’t the Beaver ever learn his lesson? He is often taught his lesson. He promises to remember his lesson. But the next day, he’s forgotten his lesson. Is he deliberately ignoring his lesson? Not exactly.”

Then they showed the “inside” of Beaver’s head — a small brain surrounded by a great deal of empty space. We see the word “Lesson” enter his head through his left ear. The narrator tells us what’s happening. “New evidence suggests that Beaver’s lesson enters one ear, floats around his head for a few seconds, but avoids having any contact with his brain, before exiting out the other side of his skull.”

The lesson goes in one ear and out the other — and that, friends, is the human condition.

In The Late Great Planet Earth, I posed the question, “Do we really live and learn?” The answer is that, like young Beaver Cleaver, the lessons just seem to bounce around our empty heads, then come out the other side without contacting our brains. We remember technological lessons, but collectively, humans tend to forget moral truths.

Right now, society seems to be in a particularly empty-headed phase. As the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, people joked that the only real communists left in the world were tenured at American universities. We should have taken that joke more seriously.

Today, people make fun of the phrase, “Godless communism.” They forget that most communist nations are officially atheistic. The result is just what you would expect. The state becomes a god. Individuals fall beneath its crushing wheels. 

They teach the young that rules aren’t worth following. They defund police and encourage contempt for law and order. This leads inevitably to chaos and terror. In their fear of anarchy, people soon call for more police with fewer restrictions, and for increasingly coercive laws. Ironically, the fastest route to a police state is to dismantle law enforcement.

Remember the pattern of Romans 1:18-32. “The wrath of God is revealed against all…who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…. Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him…. Professing to be wise, they became fools…. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity…. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie…. God gave them over to degrading passions…. Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind.”

As a society, we are already well down this road. But this is not the time for despair. Those who still love God and respect His word are not helpless.

His promises remain true. He still cares. We walk in His power. Hopefully, His people are learning the lesson. We must do things His way and in His power.