Does the culture in which we live seem like it promotes ideas and values foreign not only what you remember from your youth but contradictory to religion, especially Christianity?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #103 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
There is a sense today, actually a reality, that Christians, the Christian family, the Christian church and nonprofit ministry organizations, including missions and certainly universities are under attack.
They are now experiencing direct, head-on challenges to their existence or worthiness, to their beliefs, values, and goals. And they are experiencing flanking movements, hijacking the meaning of words or promoting new anti-biblical ideologies, approaches that are just as threatening, if not more so, as the frontal assaults.
Either way, I see this asSatan’s deception, diversion, and division tactics designed to water down the Christian, i.e., biblical message to the point of ineffectiveness or to an unrecognizable version of what God spoke in his Word.
I suppose it could be said with both historic and theological accuracy that this Satanic blitzkrieg is not new. In fact, it dates to the Garden of Eden when Satan in the form of a snake said to Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
And Eve said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
Now, God had not said anything about not touching the tree. Eve made this up.
The serpent Satan then said, “You will not certainly die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened.” (Gen. 3:1-7).
So, there it is, in seven verses, the fall of humanity into sin. Satan comes along and deceives, diverts, and divides. He planted wrong ideas.
Eve saw the fruit was good for food – lust of the flesh. She considered the forbidden fruit pleasing – lust of the eyes. She bought Satan’s evil twist, thinking she would not die – Satan’s lie – and that the fruit would give her wisdom like God – pride of life.
So Satan has been attacking God’s purposes and people from before Creation right up to today. But today, Satan is using new tools of deception, diversion, and division.
I’ve noted before that Christians, churches and denominations, and Christian organizations are being tempted, “dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed,” as James 1 puts it, by several ideas and ideologies originating in rebellion against God.
Christians and Christian organizations are being enticed by moral relativism, affluence and materialism, secular humanism, socialism, a new climate change orthodoxy, self-aggrandizement or narcissism, sexual liberation, ideological social justice including woke ideas about race, and a host of political thought rejecting basic human freedoms, ironically in the name of tolerance, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
As I’ve said repeatedly, and will be forced to keep saying, one deceitful enticement now attracting Christian adherents is LGBTQ+ sexual orientation and gender identity ideology.
What began as an argument for personal freedom has morphed into totalitarian demands for not simply tolerance but acceptance and affirmation and promotion.
What was once a matter of adults deciding what they do and with whom in their own bedrooms has morphed into a drive to recruit children, propagandizing in school curricula, and now social, corporate, cultural, and increasingly legal efforts to silence the freedom of speech of anyone who disagrees with what they call the “prevailing acceptable narrative.”
And now, it is coming, an attack on freedom of belief and speech within the church itself, i.e., attacks on freedom of religion.
You mean here, in the USA? Yes. It’s already happening in Canada.
There is much to be sad about in the record of this explosive social phenomenon in the past twenty years. But our topic here is how these Satanic ideas are being accepted as a new orthodoxy, against which no opposition is allowed.
It’s almost like the old blasphemy laws. At one time, a person could be prosecuted or imprisoned for perceived wrong religious speech. Now, it’s perceived wrong statements that question the LGBTQ+ juggernaut that can get a person in professional if not personal trouble.
For saying they believe in man-woman marriage, or they believe biological males identifying as females should not be allowed to participate in female sports, people have lost jobs, had their reputation trashed, been called horrible names by people who supposedly don’t like “hate speech,” or been threatened physically. This has happened not just to John Q. Public and Jane Doe but even celebrities like Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling or professional athletes forced to remove tweets or grovel apologies for daring to share their point of view.
Many Christians, churches, denominations, and Christian organizations are literally changing their theology, adopting views supporting LGBTQ+ sexual orientation and gender identity values that are in direct contradistinction to these Christian groups’ presumed or traditional Christian faith beliefs. The result has been what Satan wants, buy his deception, and reap diversion from your historic biblical beliefs, life, and practice, and also reap division among the brethren, splitting families, churches, and organizations.
Christians are being enticed to medicalize or psychologize sin. I don’t mean that people do not suffer from real mental, physical, or emotional challenges, nor that medical or psychological understanding is of no value. I’m just saying that words or phrases like “mental health” are now being used for a wide swath of emotional, social, spiritual difficulties that once were the province of religious faith.
One hears Christians worrying aloud about their “mental health” and to address this perceived problem they are taking several steps, none of which involve the Word of God, the church, Christian fellowship.
Why is it that we think there is greater power to fix our problems out there somewhere when we have in our hands and hopefully our hearts access to the greatest transformative power in history, the Gospel and Christian teaching, promising we will become a New Creation?
Many Christians today are susceptible to this devilish deception. Christian social researcher George Barna calls the new, emerging American religion as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is a Do-It-Yourself religious mix that gives Satan what he wants – Christians “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Tim 3:5).
Arizona Christian University President Len Munsil noted, “As a nation, the biblical worldview is running on fumes…People see themselves as Christians, but…they are actually living out a watered-down, counterfeit worldview that looks more like the culture around them than the biblical Christianity they profess.”
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism can be understood with 5 points, but truly biblical Christians will have a problem with all five:1. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism says “a god” exists, but biblical Christians believe in not just “a god,” but the God of the Bible, who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (John 5:23).\1. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism says “a god” exists, but biblical Christians believe in not just “a god,” but the God of the Bible, who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (John 5:23).]1. The new Deism believes God wants people to be good, nice, and fair, but biblical Christians know God commands us to obey Him. God is the One who definesgoodand nice. He calls sin “sin” and promises to judge it (Rom 1:18–32).
1. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism says “a god” exists, but biblical Christians believe in not just “a god,” but the God of the Bible, who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (John 5:23).
2. The new Deism believes God wants people to be good, nice, and fair, but biblical Christians know God commands us to obey Him. God is the One who definesgoodandnice. He calls sin “sin” and promises to judge it (Rom 1:18–32).
3. The central goal of life is not just to be happy and feel good about oneself but to give glory to God (Rom 11:36).
4. Unlike Moralistic Therapeutic Deism that believes God is not necessary except when there are problems, biblical Christians believe our primary goal as believers is to be constantly in tune with God (1 Thess 5:17).
5. Unlike DIY religion that thinks one just needs to be good enough to go to heaven, biblical Christians know that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23). No one is good enough, and that is why we need Jesus, God in the flesh. (1 Pet 2:24).
In a Post-Christian culture, more than ever, Christians need to understand theology, to learn how to apply it in everyday life, and to live out our faith as unto the Lord.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023
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