Does-God's-Grace-Blot-Out-the-Law?

The devil,
through sin, has just about wrecked this world of ours. We live in an
age of rebellion against all restraint and law. Our nation stands
aghast at the big-city gang defiance of social order and property
rights, including the right to live. Murder, robbery, and personal
assaults have become the trademark of both urban and suburban
20th-century life.

     Each day as we read the newspaper it seems that the quality of
life has edged downward a little bit further. At times we are tempted
to believe that things can get no worse, and that conditions have hit
rock bottom. Yet, the next day, even more violent, bizarre crimes are
reported, and we simply shake our heads in disbelief. It is difficult
to comprehend how a nation like America with its rich Christian
heritage could ever depart so far from its founding principles. Even
the non-Christian countries are not plagued with as much crime and
overall violence as this so-called Christian nation. More crime is
reported in Washington, D.C., in 24 hours than Moscow reports in a full
year. No doubt the reporting methods are not the same, but it still
presents an alarming picture.

     The problem becomes more serious when we realize that lawlessness
also reaches into the area of religion and affects millions who would
never think of killing or raping. It is probable that the great
majority of church members in America today carry few convictions
against breaking at least one of the Ten Commandments. A very insidious
doctrine has been developed in both Catholic and Protestant theology,
which has tended to minimize the authority of God’s great moral law. It
has led many to look lightly upon transgression and has made sin to
appear unobjectionable. In fact, sin has lost its horror for multitudes
and has become an acceptable mode of life for both youth and adults.
Witness the current trends in lifestyle that support this view.