As the story goes, if you attempt to drop a frog in a pot of boiling water it will hop out the minute it hits the water and feels the life-threatening temperature. But if you put the frog in the pot while the water is just at room temperature and raise the temperature gradually, then by the time the frog becomes aware that it has a serious problem it will be too late. The heat of the water will have sapped its strength to such a degree that it can no longer save itself.
Gradualization
What an example of the power of gradualization. The plight of the frog illustrates this phenomenon. It produces a very negative result — at least from the frog’s perspective! However, the principle of gradualization can work for us as well as against us. Major changes occur in our lives little by little, and if they are slow enough, we do not even see them when they occur. True, if they are hurting us, we may not realize it. But, also true, if beneficial changes take only a little effort from us every day, then we do not mind too much. Nothing living remains status quo. We are growing weaker or stronger every day. This is an unavoidable factor in our lives. It is like the law of gravity.
Physical “hot water”
What happens to us if we gain one ounce a week starting at age 30? Two candy bars a week over our normal intake should just about do it. That is only one pound every 16 weeks. Who would notice? No one during the first few weeks, and a one-pound change from one weigh-in to another is not of concern in any event. And four pounds in one year would not raise any alarms. However, in five years we are up 20 pounds. By age 40 we are 40 pounds overweight, and you can do the math from there on. Clearly at some point we will change our eating habits, or our aging body will change them for us in the form of dietary changes mandated by diabetes, elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc. We will either discipline ourselves, or we will be disciplined by events… but we will be disciplined.
In this sense discipline, like gradualization, is also a law that governs our existence like the law of gravity. (In fact, it may help us accept our responsibility for self-imposed discipline if we realize that, at the end of the day, we do not have any choice in the matter… we will be disciplined. Who would we rather have do it, ourselves or someone/something else?)
We can help ourselves gradually as well. “Bodily exercise profiteth little,” the apostle said (1 Tim. 4:8). But he did not say it does not profit. Its importance cannot be compared with spiritual exercise, and certainly we should not spend more time at a gym than we spend in service to our God. But a certain amount of it is important. And it needs to be done faithfully, little by little, but regularly. Nothing can completely stop the effects of mortality on our frames but we can, over the course of time, gradually affect our bodies very favorably if we exercise.
Financial “hot water”
The insidious effect of 18% interest on credit card debt is a classic example of gradualization. Quite a number of brothers and sisters have abused their credit card usage in the course of satisfying the desire to “have more”. When family troubles reach the point that they surface at the arranging board level, very often the problems are greatly exacerbated by “maxed-out” credit cards — with the family now owing $20,000 to $40,000 and being totally unable to make the payments. One does not have to be a mathematician to understand the numbers involved, but one does have to want to understand.
Interest of 18% on $20,000 is $3,600 a year — $300 per month. If that is all you can pay towards your debt you will never, ever pay anything on the $20,000 principal. You will be paying nothing but the interest for the rest of your life. The servant in Israel could, under the law, elect to become a lifetime slave in his master’s household, by having a hole bored in his ear (Exod. 21:5,6). Credit cards give us a modern opportunity to let Visa or MasterCard bore a hole in our ear and make us a servant for life!
And this all can happen to us gradually. Like the frog, by the time we recognize the seriousness of our plight, we can be in so deep that we cannot get out without extreme difficulty. (While we have little sympathy for losses credit companies incur because of their all-too-liberal lending policies, innocent vendors can be hurt as well.) Heeding the oft-repeated commands against covetousness, and implementing in our daily lives the Scriptural exhortations to be “diligent in business” and “consider the ant” and not be as the “slothful man”, will keep us out of hot water.
But by gradually putting some money aside each year we can change our lives for the better. Someone once said, ‘The poor man never can really comprehend the effects of compound interest.’ What if we put that same $300 per month ($3,600 a year) in the bank — instead of in Visa’s bank — they have enough! Let us say it earns 5% interest for 20 years. How much would we have? The answer is $118,918. In 30 years, the sum would grow to $239,180. In our bank! Results achieved gradually can help us as well as hurt us.
Spiritual “hot water”
Our real point, however, is how seriously we can be affected spiritually by the gradual deterioration of social values around us, and yet not realize it.
What did Balaam tell Balak and the Moabites to do in order to weaken Israel and render them helpless? He did not tell King Balak to attack Israel. He told him to seduce them with the daughters of Moab: “And the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab” (Num. 25:1). Fourteen hundred years later Balaam’s doctrine was still being cited (Rev. 2:14) as an example of sin.
Seduction is leading astray, as from duty or right paths. It is persuasion away from principles, faith, or allegiance. Seduction describes gradual corruption. We are under continual attack, externally from the pervasive nature of the constant bombardment of the world’s godless values, and internally from the dark side of our human nature that resonates all too well with the world’s “music”.
The insidious nature of these attacks can be seen when we step back and reflect upon the “agendas” being pushed by the entertainment industry. Heterosexual promiscuity is presented as accepted and normal — and the same holds for homosexual activity. Anything said against either is characterized as narrow-minded and bigoted, virtually a violation of all that is good and noble. When the Vietnam war ended and the prisoners came home — some of whom had been in the “Hanoi Hilton” for seven years — they were shocked at what they saw on the television sets in their living rooms, compared with the entertainment they remembered. But soon, like us, they no doubt became acclimated to the “temperature” of the water. It was simply too comfortable to bother trying to do anything about it.
Evolution is seductive. On a CYC outing, the guide — a whale “expert” — explained extensively how the whales had “evolved”, as though it were proven science.
If someone had attempted to give an informative talk about whales that assumed the Biblical creation, some law would probably have been invoked to silence him. Evolution is not just presented in upfront ways but also by assuming premises that we, and more importantly our children, may not even realize.
True, few in this country would go so far as to say they do not believe in a God. But as our society gradually makes “God” just a little less relevant, and belief in Him just a little less meaningful every day, then — like a candle gradually flickering and finally burning out — God seemingly fades out and disappears. And when we, or our children, have our rebellious moments (and we do!), then the subtle idea of being less responsible to God can be very alluring.
Similarly, humanism is a philosophy that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world. Humanism downplays the importance of belief in God. This philosophy permeates the decisions of governments, and the school systems they oversee.
Tolerance is a characteristic we admire, generally. We Christadelphians live pleasant lives in North America — thanks to the “tolerant” attitude of the government and the people towards religious beliefs, even when those beliefs do not agree with the mainstream culture. When we contemplate what our lives would be like in a Muslim country, we wonder how we would continue to exist.
Tolerance, however, can be a double-edged sword. If we are not consciously aware of the culture of our times, indiscriminate tolerance can lead to indifference, and this in turn can result in skepticism. The Bible abounds with examples of God’s patience and mercy but not of His tolerance. He does not “tolerate” in the sense of condoning what is wrong. We are not God, and our kingdom is “not of this world”, so it is not for us to “take up arms” against everything in our society that ignores God and His standards. But we must be intolerant of these influences in our own lives and families, because their effect is that, left unchecked, they will gradually seduce us from the Truth!
It is no more possible for us to avoid this world and its influences completely than it is for the frog to stay out of water. But we can be careful about where we swim, and we can pay attention to the “temperature” of the water around us. After all, very few of us are picked up and forcefully exposed to seductive material. We do not hear of people being captured by criminals and forced to sit in front of a computer and watch pornography. Most of us pick the “pots” we swim in, all by ourselves.
It is odd how we Christadelphians tend to think we are not like the world around us. Yet when we come to know brethren from various parts of the world, we may begin to see a relationship between their lifestyles and the prevailing lifestyles of their country. And if we can pause for a moment of honest introspection, we may also see it in ourselves. Paul told Titus, “The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies” (Tit. 1:12). Paul was not writing to the nation of Crete, but to Titus regarding the problems of the brethren on the island (vv. 5-13). It would be as if Paul were to write a letter to the North American brotherhood, saying, “Americans are too materialistic, and materialism — like covetousness — is idolatry.” His point would be that we have the same problems. Our standards may be closer to the culture in which we live than we realize.
Conclusion
We are not frogs! We can make conscious decisions to grow, gradually, in spiritual things, and to help our families grow in the same way. Growing in grace and knowledge is primarily the responsibility of each brother as to himself first, to his wife and children next, and to his ecclesia also.
Every member of the family has his or her responsibilities as well. The mother may have most of the day-to-day responsibility for the children, but the father should consciously consider where his contribution may have its best effect.
Bible schools and study days and CYC activities are all very important. But there is no substitute for regularly investing, every day, a few minutes in our spiritual “bank account” — by reading God’s word. We see around us the spiritual dividends of these investments. We may contrast the Scriptural knowledge of children who have grown up in a culture of regular Bible reading, with those who have put little or nothing in that “bank”.
We do well to apply the principle of gradualization to the accumulation of spiritual assets. After all, regular investing is also a concept our materialistic culture advertises and promotes! Let us simply apply that concept to our spiritual lives.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One