Most everyone knows that I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, the era of “free love” which was a nice-sounding euphemism for rampant sexual immorality. “Make love, not war” was a corny saying, but it produced a radical culture of “peace keeping” hippies who advocated nothing more than “drugs, sex and rock ‘n roll.” Everyone wanted to go along to get along, and anyone who brought attention to any of the moral “standards” that most of us grew up with was frowned upon. We were known as the “anti-establishment,” “anti-war,” “anti-government,” and anti-justabouteverything generation. We were the “counter culture” generation, and the new way was considered “revolutionary.”

We wanted to be “free” – whatever that meant. We wanted freedom from our parent’s rules (read: safeguards) and we wanted to be free of the oppression of the laws of the land which included prohibition of illegal drugs. We didn’t want anyone telling us about sin either. We grew up with that, and wanted to do our own thing without anybody judging us. We wanted freedom from any religious boundaries whatsoever. Little did we know that immorality had its own paybacks in loss of family life, children’s well-being, our own health and a host of other physical and psychological troubles that led to the decay of a once prosperous society based on Judeo-Christian principles.

Kids today think they are leading a cultural revolution, but let me tell you, cultural change never happened any faster than in my generation – and that is not something to brag about. It’s something that I wish we could go back and change, or at least have looked a little further into the future to see how the snowballs of change would become avalanches of destruction as they gained speed and weight.

What we saw as freedom became bondage very quickly. Drug and sexual addictions led to physical problems, and the lack of fidelity gave rise to a divorce rate that has continued to spiral out of control. Abortion, one of the scourges of a society that will eventually lead to the judgment of God, was ‘legalized’ and continues to draw the ire of God to this day.

One thing that most of my generation had, that is absent in the current generation in large part, is an upbringing that eventually righted the ship. We were brought up in church, and we knew the scriptures, though we didn’t want to at times. Once you know what God says about certain things, it’s impossible to unlearn it! So consequently, there were many of us that repented and returned to the values of the Bible. It is true what the Bible says about “train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old, they will not depart from it.” Sadly, too many of us woke up to the truth of the consequences of sin too late to raise our own children as we were raised, and the link in the chain that anchored us was broken.

Consequently, there was major damage done to the subsequent generations – and the fallout of how they were raised, many without any Biblical instruction, has produced a decline in morality that is even shocking to me, and I consider myself very open-minded. You see, sin has no boundaries and when it is full-blown, there is nothing that restrains it. That’s why the Bible says that sin will eventually lead to death – both physical and spiritual death!

A Godless society will self-destruct eventually.

But in every generation, God has made a way for people to see the truth. If there were none faithful to bring the message, God would bring it Himself! In one place in the Bible, God says if the people are silent, the rocks would cry out! There has never been a time when God didn’t have a witness of Himself in the earth to give people the chance to repent. I think of the Gospel greats like Billy Graham who were faithful to deliver the message, and saw untold millions come to God.

We can’t go back and undo the damage done in the 60’s and 70’s and but we can be bold to declare the Truth today. We can be humble and we can say we were wrong. We can reach out our hands and rescue those who are perishing – and we can pull them aboard to the safety of the Ark of God.

There is a shocking decline in morality today, but it’s not too late to reach those who are caught up in it. The Truth always has been the Way of setting people free, and most people want true freedom and not the counterfeit.