Just when you thought that you had heard it all, that the bizarre could never become the normal, there comes this article from the Daily Mail in Britain, dated September 24. The headlines read, "An adult at 18? Not any more: Adolescence now ends at 25 to prevent young people getting an inferiority complex." That headline grabbed my attention. The article reads in part, "Adolescence no longer ends when people hit 18, according to updated guidelines being given to child psychologists. The new directive is designed to extend the age range that child psychologists can work with from 18 years old up to 25. It is hoped the initiative will stop children being 'rushed' through their childhood and feeling pressured to achieve key milestones quickly, reports the BBC. 'We are becoming much more aware and appreciating development beyond [the age of 18] and I think it's a really good initiative,' child psychologist Laverne Antrobus from London's Tavistock Clinic told the BBC. There are now three stages of adolescence, according to the BBC report: early adolescence that ranges from 12 to 14 years, middle adolescence from 15 to 17 years and 18 and over is classed as late adolescence."
Now I realize that every person develops physically, emotionally, and intellectually at different speeds. Often the physical development far outpaces that of the emotional and intellectual. The question is when do we reach that age when we make adult decisions. How long should childhood last? The Apostle Paul formed the thought this way: "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me" (1 Corinthians 13:11). We have a family in our church with a family of all boys. A couple years ago they had a "coming of age" experience for their oldest son. It was one of those unforgettable moments. I had the privilege of walking a mile or so with their son, just sharing thoughts on how he could experience and know the will of God for his life. In a few weeks, the second son will turn 13 and I have been invited, along with several other men, to share in another "coming of age" experience. At 13 will this young man become an adult? Absolutely not! But his family wants him to know that it is time for him to begin casting off the childish ways and childish thinking that had been part of his life.
Perhaps, instead of lengthening the time of adolescence, we should focus instead on helping our young people understand the realities of life and perhaps provide a "coming of age" experience for each of them. I am not sure we need to prolong childhood, but we do need to prepare our young people for adulthood, and that is something we have not done well over the years.
A second article, this one from the October 4 issue of "The Washington Examiner," reported that "the 60,000-strong Thomson Reuters media empire, in an effort to determine its diversity success, is asking its staff of reporters, researchers, marketers and others to pick their sex from nine choices, including 'genderqueer', a category for identities other than man or woman. According to the company's annual employee survey, choosing a sexual identity doesn't have to be based on a worker's actual sex, but instead 'a person's innate, deeply felt psychological identification.'" Now I know you want to know what the nine choices were. Here is the question as posed in the survey, along with the nine choices: "Please choose the category that best describes your gender identity. (Gender identity, as defined by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), refers to a person's innate, deeply felt psychological identification as male or female, which may or may not correspond to the person's body or designated sex at birth. The categories the HRC uses are listed below):
1. Male 6. Transsexual
2. Female 7. FTM (female-to-male)
3. Transgender 8. MTF (male-to-female)
4. Genderqueer/Androgynous 9. Prefer not to say
5. Intersex
Friends, I can assure you that this list of choices did NOT come from the Word of God. If I remember reading Genesis 1, God made them "male and female." Okay, that must mean that there are only two choices: I am either a male, or I am a female. And, furthermore, you know that choice when you are born. So, why are there 9 choices today? I believe it is because we have abandoned those principles that God shared with us from His Word. We have willfully negated the truth and have believed the lie. And I believe the impact of this lie will continue to grow until it is finally destroyed when Christ comes to claim His throne and Satan is cast into the bottomless pit for one thousand years.
I have the privilege of leading an early Tuesday morning Bible study this fall and we have begun to go through the Book of Romans verse-by-verse. We have been in chapter 1 for several weeks. And the above article really speaks to the scene described in Romans 1:18-32. How close are we to "being given up" by God? I don't know, friends. But I do know that the longer we persist in our giving approval to those who are flaunting sexual perversity, the nearer we get to God's giving us over to the depravity of our sexual expressions and the depravity of our minds. Psalm 2, which was our focus last week, and Romans 1 are key passages that help us to understand where we are today. And, friends, the picture is not a pleasant one. Romans 1:18 states plainly, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." To experience the wrath of God will not be a pleasant experience. Just ask the people of Jerusalem following the destruction of their city by, first the Babylonians, and then the Romans. Read Revelation 16 where the description is horrific when the wrath of God is poured out upon the earth during the final days of our age.
It is time for believers to awaken from our slumber. It is time to put on the whole armor of God. It is time to take up the shield of faith. It is time to sharpen the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. It is time to conduct boot-camps where we are trained to ward off the influence of the Evil One. There still is time, although darkness will soon be upon us when no one can work. The work load is great. Let's begin to make our lives count for Christ.
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