Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Disorder
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Isaiah 3:1-5
The issue in this context concerns adults in positions of authority, but these adults never truly matured. When dishonoring parents is taken to an extreme, it produces an anarchy that will reach out to infect the community as well. "Anarchy" describes an absence of government; it defines general disorder, a time when each person does what is right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25). Those trained in the home to dishonor parents will resist authority on every front, whether civic authorities, supervisors on the job, teachers in school, or coaches of a team. Self-centeredness stands at the foundation of this action. Those so created will pay little attention to honoring community standards because they do not respect them. Thus, they will not discipline themselves to submit to them. They always think that they know what is best for them—and for everybody else too. They will follow whatever impulse drives them, regardless of how it affects others. This rebellious liberalism first produces an irritated grumbling in others, but it can soon build into general disorder and confusion. Ultimately, if unchecked, chaos results. In due course, a whole culture's energies are expended merely to survive, effectively destroying the development of spiritual, creative, and intellectual qualities essential to an individual's and to society's well-being. This is the very path America is following. Immaturity is a direct result of not honoring parents. People of this mindset have a hard time cooperating because their minds are filled with insecurities, they feel they are being taken advantage of, or they feel driven to compete in everything. As they age, they feel put upon, and thus become quite defensive. Because such children are not made to respect their parents' advice, they grow up not understanding what truly works, so they lack wisdom. This failure reveals itself in self-will and self-indulgence that can be taken to the point of sheer rebellion. It condemns children to learning the lessons of life through the hard, harsh experiences of personal warfare.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fifth Commandment
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Daniel 9:8
The next thing Daniel establishes is why Israel—and in type, the church—is in such disorder. We are confused. Why? Because of sin. "Great understanding have they that do thy commandments." If we do God's commandments, then we will not be confused.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Avoiding Superficiality
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Acts 2:6
Notice that the word "tongues" appears in verse 4, but in verse 6, the word "language" is used. Why were they not both translated the same way? The reason is that they are from two different Greek words. The one in verse 4 is the most familiar, glōssais, which means a "language" or "tongue." But the Greek word in verse 6 is dialekto, which has practically come into the English language untranslated as "dialect." These people from all over the Roman world not only heard in their own language, but they heard the disciples in their own dialect. God refined this explanation to ensure that we would understand that this manifestation was of languages people were familiar with but did not necessarily speak themselves. They not only recognized the language itself but even the various local dialects within the language. The disciples, then, to whom God had given His Holy Spirit, did not speak unintelligible gibberish, but each person hearing heard each person speaking, not only in his own language but even in his own dialect! When Jesus was on trial, Peter was identified as being Galilean because of the way he spoke. Suppose the Jews in Judea spoke Aramaic, and that Peter spoke Aramaic, which is likely. Yet, Peter from Galilee spoke it in a dialect different from the Judeans' Aramaic spoken in Jerusalem. So, that young lady in Jerusalem quickly identified Peter as a Galilean. This recognition is what Luke is referring to in Acts 2 in this awesome miracle. The miracle was not only in the disciples' speaking. The miracle of hearing may have even been greater because it had to work in each hearer's mind so that he recognized that each disciple spoke in his own dialect. That is pretty precise. Based on what Paul writes in I Corinthians 14 about God's concern for order and organization at church services, it is probable that all who received God's Holy Spirit were not speaking at once. Rather, God organized it so that the language and dialect could be clearly and distinctly heard by those observing. This was an awesome miracle! The combination of these factors was never again repeated. Luke does not tell us what those who were filled with the Holy Spirit uttered. Therefore, we can reason that the purpose of their speaking in other languages was, at this point, not to help the observers listen intently to the content they were hearing from the disciples but to grab their attention to listen to what the apostle Peter would say later in his sermon.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Pentecost and the Holy Spirit
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Hebrews 1:10-12
Here, stated in a simple form, is the second law of thermodynamics. The whole creation is slowly running down. God has built a certain amount of entropy into the system, which, if not managed through the constant operations of dressing and keeping, will bring it to a state of disorganization. The Reader's Digest Encyclopedic Dictionary defines entropy as "the irreversible tendency of a system, including the universe, toward increasing disorder and inertness." The principle is that neglect of natural things is destructive.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Part Four
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