Erosion

Beach erosion occurs when waves and currents remove sand from the beach system. The loss of sand causes the beach to become narrower and lower in elevation. Storm waves carry the sand offshore, depositing and storing the sediment in large sandbars… Beach erosion has become a serious concern for coastal counties throughout the United States [and it] also threatens coastal properties and infrastructure, such as roads, homes, and businesses. A series of storms can cause significant retreat of the shoreline, leaving coastal property more vulnerable to future storms.As I was doing a little preparatory research for this blog, I saw a multitude of ‘before, during, and after’ pictures of coastal areas around the world that have suffered this fate, many catastrophically. Most were taken over the course of several decades, revealing the stages of erosion.Erosion’s sinister side is that while it’s occurring, it’s so gradual that a person observing it doesn’t realize that it’s even happening. Likewise, human life is long enough that each of us experience erosion in our lives.For the sake of this blog, let’s imagine that some of us have built our “homes” on solid ground, say somewhere in the center of our country, away from the shorelines, while others have decided to build themselves magnificent “homes” along the shorelines, overlooking the sea. Suppose also that solid land represents life in Christ and the sea represents life in the world. Finally, let’s assume that the closer we build our “home” to the shorelines, the greater the conflict between good and evil.You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.What James, Jesus’ brother, wrote here describes the inherent, eternal antagonism between the world and God. In our little analogy above, this conflict would occur along every coastline. Therefore, the more a person flirts with the coastline, the stronger they must be, lest they be carried out to sea.Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.

Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.The sad thing is that, by world standards, the most sought after properties are the ones on the shoreline! For example, one of the most expensive places to own real estate is in Malibu, along the coast of California. It’s also one of the most erosive places to build a home. Hence my ongoing analogy here. The very worst place a person, who otherwise has a safe haven inland, can take up residence is along the coastline. This would be indicative of a person who decides to “go to church on Sundays” and yet live a life adoring the view of the “sea”, who goes so far as to position themselves in such a way that erosion is inevitable. These are the folks that at the end of their lives are haggard and spent, and if not floating out to sea already, are barely holding on by a thread, by the grace and patience of God alone.So I got to thinking about specifics. I mean, how exactly does this erosion occur? A perfect example just arose in my own life. My son’s high school, abiding by a federally recommended book reading list, asked my son to read a book that included an explicit rape scene between a father and a daughter. Seriously, who’s making these recommendations? Well, for starters the latest edition at the time of this writing has its forward written by Oprah Winfrey…need I say more? This woman is a perfect example of one who is “out to sea”, a self-described antichrist (although she doesn’t use proper Biblical language).Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.For the record, Oprah, like many popular antichrists, grew up in a “Christian” faith home. It wasn’t until later that she decided to leave the faith. As an apostate, she now spends a significant portion of her time eroding the shorelines on behalf of the kingdom of darkness, promoting “alternative faiths” and unholy “spiritual leaders”. This isn’t a rant against Oprah - she’s nothing more than a symptom of a more fundamental issue. Folks like her represent the agencies that Satan employs for the sake of eroding sound thinking.As is the case with my son’s school, more and more grade schools and colleges are being built on the “shorelines”. Some, I’d argue, are already floating offshore. One must wonder where we’re sending our kids off to during the day and what kind of “education” they’re really receiving. As truthfully as I’m writing this blog right now, I just received a note from a friend who lives in the United Kingdom who said their schools are mandating sex education for five year olds!!! I’m stupefied, but not surprised. Are you? If you are, you shouldn’t be…these types of goings on are the result of decades, even centuries, of erosion.What used to be intolerable is now acceptable, even promoted, due to erosion.One last example worth writing about that ought to resonate with anyone reading this. How about, what I’ll call, “American dating”? We don’t even need to travel back in time too far (maybe one hundred years?) to identify a time when godly courting was for the purpose of marriage, nothing more, lest it be considered rightly as perverse. In other words, to cut to the chase here, there was no such thing as “dating” the way most Americans understand it. Biblical courting has been supplanted by today’s dating, which includes, minimally, kissing, fondling, and often sex (all are forms of sexual intercourse, btw). This is considered socially acceptable, even promoted in Christian circles! In fact, sexual virtue has been so eroded that instead of abstinence, the objective is to precede marriage with sexual experimentation. If you’re conservative enough to hold to godly virtues, you are shunned by those self-righteous enough to assume God’s Word is antiquated/irrelevant.

So-called “American dating” is an abomination. How many of you reading this blog understand this? How many have promoted it in your own households, with your own kids, even? How many attend churches that promote dating instead of Biblical courting?Stop. Take out the “photo album” in your soul. Instead of looking at consecutive pages over the course of your life, hold your place on the first page and compare it against the last. What you might see is analogous to the pictures I alluded to at the start of this blog, startling before and after images. You might see the truth about how much erosion has occurred in your own life when you weren’t paying attention. You might realize that certain doctrines you now regard as holy are actually terribly marred and unholy. You might realize that you haven’t noticed because everyone else in your vicinity is suffering the same fate.

It’s time to move away from the shorelines, where we can ensure our “homes” are built on solid ground, “the Rock”, that is Jesus Christ.All of this reminds me of the words of our Lord to John in the Book of Revelation to the church at Sardis. This church was just that, a church. The problem was that it only included a remnant of believers. Meanwhile, the rest of its members were simply “going to church”, but living a life adoring the “sea”.“I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.”Love in Christ,

Ed Collins