Rebel Without a Cause

Walking hand in hand with pride is rebellion.  Unfortunately, here in America, we tend to cheer on the ‘rebel’.  Many women are inclined to gravitate towards the rebellious ‘bad boy’.  And because of the way this country was founded, through rebellion, confrontation and defiance of authority, many Americans view rebellion as a positive trait, instead of the sin that it is.  But we must remember that man’s fall from grace was because of a rebellious spirit.  Eve chose to follow Satan instead of her husband; and Adam chose to follow Eve instead of God.  We read in Genesis 3:1-8:

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Moreover, a careful study of the bible reveals that a rebellious spirit was found in the fallen angels as well.  The rebellion of the angels was a real travesty to God’s justice, because God created the angels without freewill.  So for the angels to choose to rebel against God and His creation was tantamount to treason.  And thus we see the severe punishment meted out to many of those who fell.  Some are chained in outer darkness or underground; while others are to be banished from heaven during the end days.  We read in Jude 1:6:

And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Not only does rebellion defy God’s authority, the rebellious spirit is actually attempting to usurp God’s omniscience.  The rebel is saying, ‘I don’t need God and all His rules.  I am a god myself.’ 

If you are a parent, you’ll remember the days of the terrible two’s and three’s.  This is when toddlers first realize that they are a separate entity from their parents.  They finally begin to see that they have a choice about whether they will obey their parents’ requests.  I’m sure you recall when your toddler only knew one word:  NO!  And if he wasn’t defying you at every turn, he was in the throes of a temper tantrum.  And for those of you who are finding themselves wrapped in that world of torture right now, it does get better.  As you rock yourself to sleep at night, you might find comfort in the knowledge that your precious child is learning to be independent.  And while we encourage independence, we cannot tolerate rebellion.

We are obligated to chastise our children when they defy us.  Parenting is not a democracy.  Parents have the life experience and decision making skills that children lack.  Unfortunately, many parents who were raised in the 1960’s and 1970’s never grew up.  They are still stuck in the ‘me generation’, and don’t have the intestinal fortitude to enforce rules upon their children.  These are those parents who fought to take prayer out of schools or just sat back and watched it happen.  These are those parents who fought to make abortion legal and labeled it a woman’s choice.  And they steered themselves and their children clear of any semblance of God.  They taught their children to follow their example:  do what feels good to you; your will be done.  They give their children an award just for showing up, and now these kids feel a sense of entitlement.  Now we easily see the results of parenting through anarchy:   we have chaos, disorder and mayhem. 

Now we see children with no social skills, who plan and carry out mass murders at their schools, who bully their peers, sometimes to death, who murder on a whim.  We have rebellious, defiant little sociopaths who know no limits and lack self control.  They lack the ability to recognize and cope with their emotions, so they cut themselves, starve themselves, binge and purge or eat themselves into obesity.  Young girls are openly revealing their bodies and their home addresses on MySpace.com:  begging adult men to have sex with them.  Some of these girls are more knowledgeable about sex than women three times their age.

When you parent as a peer and friend, instead of an authority figure, you entertain and encourage rebellion and pride.  You foster a hardened heart in your child.  It’s no wonder that so many children are angry at the world, sullen and, depressed.  They gather that their parents don’t care enough to set and enforce limits for them, so they feel unloved.  They turn to sex, drugs and abusive behavior in an attempt to get the attention all human beings crave.  And if they’re not self-medicating, then the medical and pharmaceutical industries are happy to do it for them.  At an early age, children are amp’d up on amphetamines to control behavior and antidepressants to help them cope.  There is no magic pill to cure the stiff neck of pride and rebellion.  For many of these children, the diagnosis is not physical, it is spiritual.  Our children suffer from a spiritual hardening of the heart.