What Happened in the Last Election?

Dr. Couch, what happened in the last election? Why did so many young people vote for the wrong party and wrong president?   ANSWER:  This was a shocker to all of us. But the answer comes from a survey of the younger minds in our population. Young people disregard experience. They think it is not necessary. They repudiate wisdom and experience, and particularly, biblical wisdom.    Some believe, and I agree, that Mike Huckabee was knocked out of the race because he implied that our nation should respond to the idea that "God said so" in the Bible. But the Bible does not carry the authority that it once did. Those who want to go back to the Scriptures are "outdated," and "out of touch" with our population, the younger crowd says. I was disappointed to read in the publication of Houston Baptist University's The City, that we don't need to argue from the Bible, we can just argue from the standpoint of social conservatism's view of common sense and people should then respond to what is right. The article entitled "A Political Road Not Taken," says: Rather than argue that abortion is contrary to God's law and that we need to bring the Constitution into conformity with God's law, social conservatives should argue that as a matter of scientific fact the child in a mother's womb is a whole, living human being, and that as a matter of moral truth the direct killing of any peaceable human being is gravely unjust. (p. 39)    This old and tired view was popular in the past: the law of reason is sufficient; we don't need the proclamation of the Scriptures to live by in our culture. "A rational person should automatically recognize that abortion is wrong! He has a seed of what is right within his soul!" This places the Word of God outside of the workings of culture. And it denies the doctrine of Total Depravity that says good is not innate within human beings. "There is a natural truth that everyone should agree to, and everyone should see!" But this is not so. The heart of man is depraved and will find a way to reject Scripture and spurn what is logical and what is right! The article went on: Amend the Constitution to be in accord with reason, that [sic] is what Huckabee should have said. While Huckabee mobilized many social conservatives to show up at the polls, he did not persuade anyone outside their world to join them. … To be successful, hearts and minds need to be changed. Minds are changed by rational appeals, by a winning argument, and by presenting the perspective of a faithful believer, … not just more preaching to the choir. (p. 43)    In other words we will find moral truth outside of the Bible and people will rally to that. This is dead wrong! And it is a view of the foolish who think we can win the war on rational grounds. We don't need the Scriptures to enlighten us! By this thinking, we've already lost the war! And that's where we are today. The apostasy has begun!    If the younger crowd rejects experience and spurns biblical truth, the nation is doomed. Dr. Bruce Waltke in his excellent commentary on Proverbs says in so many words: If biblical truth, wisdom, age, and authority are rejected, then a culture is in deep trouble. The moral fiber of a nation is rejected and the "society unravels and anarchy ensues" (I, 187).    Thanks for asking.    Dr. Mal Couch