Avoiding Evil

It has happened. It was such a slight change at first that very few of us noticed. Gradually our principles and liberty that we have held so dear have now begun to slip from our own hands. This drastic change of our society has silently slipped past us and has caused the corruption of our government, education, media, and even our own families.

In the book, “A Christian Manifesto”, Francis Schaeffer addresses this very issue. More specifically in the chapter on “The humanist religion” Schaeffer reveals to us the cause and effect of such a drastic change in our society and he points fingers to those people who are at fault calling them to do what they should have been doing in the first place. There has been a shift in culture, moving from a Judeo-Christian worldview to a humanist worldview. Schaeffer calls the humanist worldview “the materialistic-energy, chance concept of final reality.”

So what is the humanist worldview? First off it is important to note that many declare humanism to be a religion. Those who possess this worldview may disagree and claim to practice no religion but according to the Humanist Manifesto humanism is a religion. In the Humanist Manifesto I humanism is described as “a philosophical, religious and moral point of view.” Humanism may be a religion but it is one that stands on the polar opposite of Christianity. The humanist view states that there is no creation, the world is simply self-existent, and final reality is merely impersonal matter. To the humanist, man is the center of everything. The problem is that the humanist religion is one in which the government and courts in the United States favor over all of the others! We see this worldview slowly taking over our culture and beliefs.

One of the main things that has provided the means for spreading this change is the media, more specifically television. This materialistic final reality worldview is found in almost every television program, magazine, and newscast that we see. According to Schaeffer, “Our public tax money is being used not only in favor of abortion but to teach the whole view of materialistic, mechanistic universe, shaped only by chance, with no final purpose and with morals (and law) purely a matter of social choice. The Judeo-Christian view is pushed into the category of fairy tales.”

This corruption in media has not only changed the perception of current events and views, but it also has its relativistic roots buried deep within politics. Schaffer reminds us that “things can easily be presented on television so that the perception of a thing may be quite different from fact itself. The influence of media is so powerful that they act as if they were the fourth branch of government in the United States.” Much of the time the media is not simply reporting the news but making it, which brings into question our ability to truly perceive any event in its true form, especially political events. The media and government no longer provide a foundation of morality and truth, but they have instead become the means of licensing moral perversion of all kinds.”

So who is at fault? The condition of our culture, society, government, and law has not happened because of some conspiracy, but simply because the church has forsaken its duty to be the salt of the culture. It is the church’s duty to use the freedom that we have to be the light of our present society and yet most of the time we simply sink into the background and it becomes difficult to tell the church members from the rest of the world. As Christians our judgments and thoughts on all issues cannot come from the conclusions of our corrupt culture and media. In the midst of the media shaping everything into a relativistic, materialistic view, “Christians must certainly not uncritically accept what they read, and especially what they see on television, as objective.” We must draw the line between two realities, revealing the truth and truly “showing the Lordship of Christ in the totality of life.” This is what the church should have been doing in the first place.

Humanism is a disease that has not only slipped into our culture and families, but it has also slowly slipped into our own theological Christian views of the church. People are beginning to think with a relativistic, humanist point of view. I see that clearly in the choices people make. People who claim to be spiritual leaders make decisions to slither into an immoral lifestyle clearly violating the very heart of God’s commands and they end up having no concept of it being horribly Godless and wrong. They may see it as being a little politically incorrect, but nothing that can’t be worked out a bit to make it right and nothing that keeps them from being Godly people. To these people everything is relative to what they do and final reality is what they make it to be. Therefore I can live an immoral life, and in my mind make it right before God and it somehow becomes pleasing and right, regardless of how it violates the laws that God has placed upon his people.

How then are we to live? As people of moral integrity, with a critical eye on today’s culture, always prepared in season and out to take action against anything that threatens our personal morality, and the morality of God’s church. This includes taking action not only against our humanistic, relativistic society, but also against those people who claim to be children of light and yet have no integrity, no morals, no conviction, and no respect for the one true and holy God, but only respect for themselves and their personal needs. We must fight to live with high moral integrity and flush out all those living in darkness and yet hiding behind the name “Christianity.”

Pressed

Time seems like it goes by so fast now days. I am told that it just gets faster the older you get, so maybe I need to stop getting old. I like this time of the year and my favorite holiday of all time is Christmas. I like the snow, the cold, the tree’s, the lights, the shows, the presents, the decorations, the food, the fellowship, the family, and all of the other things that go along with this time of year. I understand what Christmas is really about, but it does not hold simply a spiritual significance in my life, but also a personal one as well. It has always been the brightest, most peaceful time of the year for me, but last year was much different. Hanging over me was a dark cloud that brought only pain and heartache. Over the entire Christmas and New Year’s season the bright, warm, peaceful feelings that always brought joy to me were sucked away by a lifeless force of darkness that took away any good that was around me. I was blinded with unbelief and pressure of what was to become of my life, and burdened with choices that no one should have to make. It made me stronger, it caused me to dig deeper, and it helped me to gain a greater understanding of my purpose, but what a great price that had to be paid in order to learn these lessons in life. A price that was too much for me to bear at the time. Now I fear that what once was a perfect time for me, one that I cherished above all other times will be cheapened by the invading thoughts of experiences that were heaped upon me. The one year anniversary of a time I want to forget approaches me and what shall become of it? The decisions we make in life do not simply remain in our own sphere of life, but affect others around us. Our choices can either benefit or harm not only ourselves but any other people that have been involved in our lives. All the pain and turmoil and problems that I had to go through happened to me not because of any choices that I made, but because they were thrusted upon me by the poor choices of others. Ultimately it comes down to choices and we must realize that any decisions we make can reap consequences not only on ourselves but on the innocent bystanders as well.

As I remember the words of Paul when he says I forget what is behind and press on towards what is ahead and I realize that it is not as easy as it sounds. Things that I do everyday are simple reminders of a time gone by, and of a life once lived. There was a time where I could trust, and love and depend on others, but those times were interrupted by the realization that those who I thought cared about others, cared only for themselves. Christ’s life was one of sacrifice, denying himself to show us by his actions that he truly loved us. Had Christ sought to fulfill his own selfish desires his love for us would not have been seen, and in fact we could conclude that he didn’t really love us. Praise God that Christ loved us so much that he would deny himself the earthly pleasures and live a life of sacrifice and suffering in order to show love for others. That is real love… the love that he calls us to when he says to Love our neighbors. It is a difficult thing to forget what is behind… and yet it is essential. And so the process begins, not by stuffing it all inside and letting it boil and grow, but by letting it out in order to move on. Those days must be like dust in the wind to me, a time once lived but now forgotten, for the sake of a greater calling in Christ Jesus. Life made a dramatic change last year, and what I thought was for the worse in fact turned out to be for the better. What some meant for evil, God meant for Good. Praise be to God for working for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose in Christ Jesus.

Pressed

In the world of traffic it is impossible to know what kind of people you are dealing with behind the wheels of other vehicles. I drove into St. Peters tonight to eat at Joe’s Crab Shack and see a movie with some friends. Trapped in the parking lot of the mall it is rather confusing which way to go so I pull out in front of a mini-van (oops) which causes my male instinct to kick in. Naturally if you pull out in front of someone that means you have to stomp on the gas and speed up. Well as I did that a girl in a small car pulls out in front of me, sees me coming, and stops right in the middle of the road. At this point I am going at a rate of speed that will not allow me to stop in time, and she isn’t moving, so I head straight for her drivers side door, then suddenly make a sharp right turn barely squeezing between her car and a parked car that was next to her. Well this little maneuver created the petrified look of death on this poor little girls face as she saw her life coming to an end. If I was in her position I am sure I would have wet myself as I saw this black Pontiac speeding into my drivers side door. Good thing I had enough room to barely squeeze between her car and the other one, because at the speed I was going that would have been a nasty accident.

Oh how I wish the story would end there…unfortunately that is not the only person that messed on themselves as they saw my black Grand Am GT1 coming to destroy them. The second instance of the petrified look of death was in my hometown when I was taking everyone back to their cars. I had just had a greasy Krispy Kreme doughnut and I guess it caused my hands to be a little slick because as I rounded a corner by the railroad tracks my steering wheel slid through my hands and caused my car to travel out of my lane and straight at the drivers side door of some poor guy. Luckily I gained control at the last minute and missed his door by inches.

What a night… and then I get home to find the most controversial blog entry I have ever written. *sigh* I thought my thing on free will was pretty rough with 11 comments (well more than that but I had to delete some), but this one has rose above that with a whopping 19 comments so far. This was defiantly not my intention and stemmed from a mutual mis-understanding. Easy to do. Anyway, what a mess. It is bed time.

Pressed (The immature, unclear, random, overly religious, overanalyzing, intolerant, pushy, fanatical, rude, annoying, vain, spammer) And that is just the tip of the iceberg of what I have been called today… and they want me to be tolerant of others…sheesh!