A Nation Of Dishonesty!

Rev. George R. Dillahunty
Freedom Fellowship (COG)
685 Grant Avenue
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23452-3047

August 16, 2009

Text: 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (King James Version)

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times will come. (v. 2) For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (v. 3) Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. (v. 4) Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; (v. 5) Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

Topic: A Nation Of Dishonesty!

One of the greatest and most serious problems facing this great nation of ours is dishonesty - stealing, lying, and cheating! It is a pervasive problem among elected officials, employers, employees, students; and, even among Christians!

The Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics, in Los Angeles, California, conducted a survey, in 2008, of 29,760 students in American high schools which revealed the following statistics about stealing: 30% of the students admitted stealing from a store within the past year; 23% said that they stole something from a parent or relative; and, 20% confessed that they stole something from a friend.

On the subject of lying, the same survey revealed that 42% of the students stated that they sometimes lie to save money; and, 83% confessed that they lied to a parent about something significant!

On the subject of cheating, the same survey revealed that 64% of the students had cheated on a test during the past year; and, 38% cheated two (2) or more times!

What is amazing about this survey is that these very same students have a high self-image when it comes to the subject of ethics: 93% of the students stated that they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character; and, 77% said that when it comes to doing what is right, they are better than most people that they know!

The late great leading temperance journalist and editor, Ernest Hurst Cherrington (1877 - 1950), once wrote, "We are accustomed to say that the truth makes men free. It does nothing of the kind. It is the knowledge of the truth that creates freedom. ’Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ We are now at the stage where the main emphasis must be laid on the dissemination of truth. We need as we have never needed a campaign of education, with men and women going hither and thither in a great lecture campaign, weaving itself across this nation like a weaver’s shuttle. We need a baptism of the right kind of literature, periodicals, and truth-carrying messages that will make the people of the nations and the rest of the world sit up and take notice. We have reached the place where we can no longer take the defensive: we must once again resume the offensive. Tne colleges, universities, and high schools, with the...millions of young men and women in those institutions. who are to take their place in the life of the nation just a few years hence, are the laboratory where truth must be demonstrated."

The problem with dishonesty - in general - is that it is condemned by the Word of Almighty God! In Leviticus 19:11 (KJV), Moses records Almighty God saying: "Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, niether lie one to another.