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Timothy 3:1-5 Mark this: There will be
terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers
of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient
to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without
love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the
good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying
its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Picking up this
discussion from last post: In an age where secular society claims that
everything is “relative”, professes “inclusiveness” and preaches that
“tolerance” is the highest virtue, we are now experiencing the most “absolute”,
“exclusive” and “intolerant” political and social attacks on Christianity today
by those very same secular humanist. Why? Sin is at the root, but the Bible
writers are quite clear that light (God) and darkness (Sin) are diametric and
polar opposites that cannot co-exist. John 1:5 The
light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. Adversity
towards the sovereignty of God and His authority is unsurprising to sinful
natural unregenerate man seeking autonomy to be their own god, accountable only
to self. Sproul explains that philosophical and psychological “liberation” from
God involves a revolt against the sovereign authority of Almighty Creator God
in an act of cosmic treason. In searching for influencing factors which
contribute to the breakdown of respect for Divine authority, we must consider
the impact of atheistic autonomous existentialism by a God-rejecting world
system through the sinful flesh desires upon our culture, following
Dostoevsky’s thesis: “If there is no God, then I am god and anything is
permitted.” But God’s commands carry no RSVP – men and women indeed have the “power”
to refuse the Divine summons, but not the “right”. It is a choice with eternal
consequences.
The question gets down to: “Whose
kingdom do I live in and for?”, and ultimately, “Who is on the throne, that I
am subject to?” Fredrick Nietzsche’s theorized that man does not live in
subjection to the dictates of God, but in his quest for autonomy he creates his
own values. That he exchanges the “slave morality” of decadent Christianity for
his own “master morality.” There can be no peaceful coexistence and the
Christian God must die lest He continue to castrate the potentially authentic
man. Thus Christianity with its ethic of theonomy, the rule of God, is on a
collision course with natural man’s dream of autonomy, self-rule. If God exists,
man cannot be a law unto himself. If God exists, man’s will-to-power is
destined to run head-on into the will of God. God’s sovereignty looms as an
invincible threat to the aspirations of autonomous man. Jean-Paul Sartre
stated: “There is no human nature, since there is no God to conceive it. Not
only is man what he conceives himself to be, he is only what he wills himself to
be after this thrust towards existence. If God does not exist, we find no
values or commands to turn to which legitimize our conduct. So, in the bright
realm of values, we have no excuse behind us, nor justification before us. We
are alone, with no excuse.” For Sartre, God represents a threat to authentic
morality. If God is autonomous, then man cannot be. By rejecting the existence
of God, Sartre claims that he makes room for real morality. He argues that the
rejection of God makes morality possible, but perhaps, it is Sartre’s
immorality that makes the rejection of God necessary and the “real” issue. Is
this not true still today!?
Let’s continue this never ending bias against God and His people issue next post.
In God We Trust.
In Christ, Brian
2 comments:
Great job of identifying man's rebellion. More prayer and sharing the gospel is needed. Mark
Thank you Mark for the comment. Is the kingdom of God getting to be a concept alien to basic American thinking? Where “In God We Trust” is the National Motto, “One Nation Under God” is in our Nation Pledge of Allegiance, our Nation’s Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”, and Our National Anthem’s final verse is: “O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand between their loved home and the war's desolation. Blessed with victory and peace, may the Heaven rescued land praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, and this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave!”, do we have rebellion against the Sovereign Creator of Heaven, Universe and Earth by haters of God; is our loving Lord God and His Holy Word being attacked? I agree with your remedy: "More prayer and sharing the gospel is needed." Stand firm (Ephesians 6:14-18)
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