As we well-know, all that glitters is not gold.  The history of mankind is a long list of newly discovered theories that have had the promise of gold.  Every time a new ism or ology comes along, we are promised a new age of peace and prosperity—but, it is just fool’s gold.

The problem with this line of reasoning is a little 3 letter word, and it is man.  Before you ladies start shouting with joy, let me say I am using man to mean humanity as a whole.

Mankind has swallowed the advice of Jiminy Cricket, hook, line, and sinker:  Let your conscience be your guide.  While the conscience can be helpful at times, there are other times that it is little more than a blind guide.

The danger of being led by conscience is seen in the life of Samson. His conscience had been conditioned more by society and less by the principles of God.  This redneck judge from the pages of the Old Testament could whip anything that came his way, except his own desires.

Samson is a life-lesson on what happens when a person becomes his own standard of truth.  This lesson can be summarized in a phrase of 3 C’s:  Culture Conditions Conscience.

In Samson’s case, it was the Philistine culture that had influenced his conscience.  He was enticed by the lure of their seemingly advanced lifestyle and by their ladies in general and Delilah in particular.  He thought he could toy with this teasing culture without becoming its captive.

He was wrong!  Before he knew it, Samson was in over his head; and,  he was drowning in a tidal wave of untruth.

There is a truth from physics that says that water will not rise above its own level.  This same truth can be applied to the case of Samson and culture as a whole:  It is incapable of rising above its own level.  Culture has become a ship with no compass:  It is drifting aimlessly into the abyss.

If it is going to improve, culture needs something from the outside to change it.  It was Archimedes who said:  Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.  The lever and fulcrum that culture needs is a return to the principles of absolute truth.

This is a return that can lead to a reawakening of the moral law contained in Scripture.  It can bring back the almost forgotten truth known as the Golden Rule:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The key to the Golden Rule is what I call the Godly Rule, and Jesus stated it in the same section of Scripture: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and spirit.

What has been ruling your life?  The fool’s gold of culture or the Golden Rule of God?