Godly Words of Encouragement

 (This message was edited by pinoy_celt on 03-07-03 @ 3:37 pm EST)

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 (This message was edited by pinoy_celt on 05-22-02 @ 3:23 am EDT)

When I went to Purdue, I tried the party scene the first two years I was there. I drank beer and whiskey and got drunk a couple of times. I tried to fit in and have a good time, but I realized sooner or later that it just wasn’t all that great like in beer commercials and some music videos. Because I knew I had to go home when it was over, back to a less than fulfilling life before Christ came into my heart.

But a lot of people, even many Christians get caught up in a party scene (alcohol or no alcohol). Now I’m not against having a good time as long as God can be honored in it. But very often at Purdue after I got saved, if I ever walked past or through a party (non-Christian or sometimes “Christian”), it’s as if I could sense a spirit behind it that didn’t seem right to me. So consequently I felt rather uncomfortable at most parties at Purdue because of it, although it wasn’t until I came across some verses in Scripture and personal research at a local library a few months ago that I understood in my head what my heart had felt, what the LORD had shown me in those parties. So now I want to share this understanding with you as believers in Jesus so that you or someone you know won’t just go into a club, a party at someone’s house or apartment, or even a bar without checking yourself as to what kind of party it is and why you’re really going, if you decide to go.

In NIV Galatians 5:19,21, Paul talks about the heart of the matter: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery…drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Peter also gets to the point in this scripture in NIV 1 Peter 4:3 about “…what pagans choose to do--living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.” God is pointing out the sin of those who like wild, ungodly parties as a lesson for us. It’s perfectly obvious what goes on at a wild party. I’ve been to a few; I know. It’s not good. Women wearing not much more than a bra for a top; drunken people everywhere; crude jokes and raunchy dances; fights, drinking binges (which, by the way is the literal meaning for the Greek word for “carousing”), etc. I don’t have to tell you all this stuff because I’m sure you know most all of this. You probably know someone who’s caught up in this stuff (or maybe even you yourself). We need to know what God’s Word is saying and LIVE IT.

Let’s focus on a few words here. The Greek word for orgies (KJV-revellings) is komos, meaning “a letting loose; reveling, rioting” (Strong, 1997). In other words, it’s wild partying. But notice the progression among the order of the meanings for komos. First, it means “a letting loose” (Strong, 1997). A lot of people justify going to such parties to “relax and unwind” since it’s the weekend (and possibly Thursday nights for some colleges, too). But that’s the initial deception of the whole thing, because if they don’t outright say it like most people, you know they’re thinking, “I’m gonna get wasted” and/or “I’m gonna get laid.” Then comes the reveling, and this word comes from a Latin word meaning “to rebel.” People who host or go to wild parties without witnessing for Christ are rebelling against God, and I’ll explain this point a little later. And then comes “rioting”; if you’re not careful, fights can break out. But why does it say, “rioting?” Don’t you and I usually think of riots as violent protests by groups of people over something in the world that they think is wrong? But we need to see that there are several demonic forces behind wild parties. Besides the spirits of lust and addiction, there is also the spirit of violence. The riots following the last games of men and women’s basketball seasons that I saw at Purdue from 1999-2001 started with the campus-wide mindset of “let’s party, we won” and/or “let’s burn and break stuff, we lost.” And I saw dozens of policemen in actual riot gear having to throw tear gas to break up the screaming crowd, but not before huge block-long bonfires got started. My friends who saw more of it than I did told me that it was like Mardi Gras as women were flashing (one instance of it was peer pressure and mental gang-rape by dozens of guys surrounding her, chanting “Show your t***”) to the cheers of hundreds of guys. It was bad.

Rioting involves rebelling against authorities, and indirectly or directly against God. This takes us to the part of the verse about “detestable idolatry.” People who attend and participate in wild parties are worshiping (making sacrifices to) false idols. (Please note that I take the following information from sources listed on my post "Oral sex and the Bible"  ) We can see this in history. The Babylonians had an annual festival to celebrate Ishtar, their goddess of “love” (Burkert, 1987). This festival lasted for days on end, and consisted of eating, drinking, orgies, fortune-tellers, etc (Burkert, 1987). Also, the Egyptians celebrated extramarital affairs with prostitutes at “love” festivals dedicated to the love goddess Hathor (Miles, 1997). Many men and women partied from town to town on boats in the Nile as women flashed when they arrived in a new town (Miles, 1997). And other ancient did the same things too. We can’t leave out the Greeks with their dining rooms dedicated for men and women to have sex with slave girls, hookers, and young boys while eating, drinking, and philosophical debate of all things (Miles, 1997). Archaeologists even found in the “Tomb of the Diver” a picture showing a gay orgy (Miles, 1997). God hates wild partying the most because of the idolatry. There is no difference between those cultures and our culture because the same demonic spirits are involved, and we’re doing the exact same thing if we go enjoy ourselves at wild parties devoid of God. KJV 1 Corinthians 10:20 says, "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that you should have fellowship with devils."

And the result of all this is spiritual death. NIV Galatians 5:21 says, “I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Why pay for the rest of your life for some stupid decision made while at a wild party?

So how do we keep ourselves holy in all these increased temptations? Remember NIV 1 Peter 4:1,2, which says, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.” Ignore and put to death your sinful nature through the blood of Jesus Christ. NIV Galatians 5:24 says “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” It’s a process that we all must go through if we’re serious about Christ. And it’s not as if Christians can’t have fun and have more fun than other people. There are plenty of positive things you can think of to do for fun with godly friends. As long as you have the joy of the LORD in you, fun is just around the corner. You can even have wild CHRIST-centered parties if you try. But it all comes down to whether or not you keep Christ as the focus of the party. If you do, you’ll actually have a really fun life, or at least you’ll never have a dull moment:)

Take care and God bless you

Works Cited



Burkert, Walter. Ancient Mystery Cults. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987.

Miles, Christopher. Love in the Ancient World. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

The Holy Bible: King James Version Bible. (Holman Bible Publishers, 2000).

The Holy Bible: New International Version. (The International Bible Society, 1984).

The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible by James Strong, LL.D., S.T.D. (Nelson Reference, 1997).








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