Individual Accountability

Individual Accountability (Ezek. 18:1-4, 20-21, 25-32) We are all, individually, accountable to God for our behavior (Deut. 24:16, 2 Kings 14:6, 2 Chron. 25:4, Ezek. 7:3, 18:4, 20, 30, 33:20, Jer. 31:29-30, Matt. 16:27, Rom. 2:6, 2 Cor. 5:10, Gal. 6:4, 1 Pe. 1:17, Rev. 20:12, 22:12) Every tempted by their own lust (James 1:14-15) Sinners then and now often look for someone else to blame (Ezek. 18:2, e.g. parents) John Killinger tells about the manager of a minor league baseball team who was so disgusted with his center fielder’s performance that he ordered him to the dugout and assumed the position himself. The first ball that came into center field took a bad hop and hit the manager in the mouth. The next one was a high fly ball, which he lost in the glare of the sun--until it bounced off his forehead. The third was a hard line drive that he charged with outstretched arms; unfortunately, it flew between is hands and smacked his eye. Furious, he ran back to the dugout, grabbed the center fielder by the uniform, and shouted. ’You idiot! You’ve got center field so messed up that even I can’t do a thing with it! In the 1950s a psychologist, Stanton Samenow, and a psychiatrist, Samuel Yochelson, sharing the conventional wisdom that crime is caused by environment, set out to prove their point. They began a 17-year study involving thousands of hours of clinical testing of 250 inmates here in the District of Columbia. To their astonishment, they discovered that the cause of crime cannot be traced to environment, poverty, or oppression. Instead, crime is the result of individuals making, as they put it, wrong moral choices. In their 1977 work The Criminal Personality, they concluded that the answer to crime is a "conversion of the wrong-doer to a more responsible lifestyle." In 1987, Harvard professors James Q. Wilson and Richard J. Herrnstein came to similar conclusions in their book Crime and Human Nature. They determined that the cause of crime is a lack of proper moral training among young people during the morally formative years, particularly ages one to six. John Leo wrote in U.S. News and World Report: “We are deep into the era of the abuse excuse. The doctrine of victimology - claiming to be a victim so you are not responsible for your actions is beginning to warp the legal system.” Blame the chromosomes. Alcoholism is due to a genetic sequence. Homosexuality is said to have a genetic basis, or to be due to a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. Fat may be due to another genetic sequence, not ice cream. ( "God wants nothing to do with the lazy, gluttonous bellies who are neither concerned nor busy. They act as if they just have to sit and wait for God to drop a roasted goose into their mouth." Martin Luther) Blame society. Teachers are expected to be social workers, and held accountable for results. Sue if kids can't read. God isn’t looking for excuses, He’s looking for repentance God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone but calls all to repentance and life (Ezek. 18:23, 32, Lam 3:33, 2 Pe. 3:9)