In Beirut one night, the Moslems put on a banquet for the hostages in a luxury hotel on the Mediterranean. The people threatening to kill them if the United States didn't bow were treating them kindly. And so a number of the hostages expressed sympathy for their viewpoints. ...

What do you find happening in the church today? People make apologies for the world. "Well, the world is good. Don't condemn this. Don't condemn that. Don't be negative." What a beautiful phrase that is! How good that makes you feel: "I'm not going to be a negative Christian." Well, you better be negative about sin; you better be negative about adultery, and thievery, and lying, and dishonesty, and taking God's name in vain. The Ten Commandments were not ten suggestions abrogated with the new generation; they're God's law. We're being seduced by the apparent kindnesses around us.