World Views

The Great Divide II

I previously wrote on this topic two years ago (November 9, 2020). I missed the mark in that article by failing to expose the primary etiology of the Great Divide. I kind of danced around the edges of it. Politics as divisive as it can be is not the  issue here. Red states versus blue states and republicans versus democrats seems to be what we all focus on. Everything is not red, blue or even purple. No, we get carried away with this idea that everything will be ok once we elect our guy and hold on to power by knocking our opponent out of the majority. How is this working out for us? Not so good as far as I can tell. We are experiencing similar cycles that we have seen Israel experience with their Judges and Kings. Their issues were the result of a spiritual divide that led God's Chosen to their ultimate demise. They found themselves again and again on the wrong side of the divide, even after continuous warnings by the prophets sent by God to correct them. I contend that like Israel we have a spiritual divide in our country.

Psalm 1 outlines for us the divide. "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and on his Law he meditates day and night." Do we find ourselves mixing in and siding with modern day "Canaanites" and "Moabites," when we are called to be in the world but not of it? Are we spending time in the Word so that we can avoid the same pitfalls that Israel experienced? There is a blessing in it for us if we heed God's call to us.

What does the man who abides in God's Word look like? "He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does , he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away." When we are nourished daily with living water we will flourish. The contrast couldn't be more clear here, we are to be, a bountiful tree that is deeply rooted and nourishes others, as opposed to the rootless dried out, dead chaff that is driven away by the wind. 

"Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." As Christians we play the long game because in the end we win. Christ has already won the victory for us on the cross and by his resurrection from the dead. Politics is like the chaff that is blown away by the wind. We must put our faith in the eternal not the ephemeral.

What side of the Great Divide do you find yourself on? If you find yourself on the wrong side there is hope for you. However, there is only one way over and that is through the cross of Christ, by putting your faith and trust in Him you can find the bridge that leads to life and life eternal.

The Worldview Dilemma of American Parents

The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, headed by George Barna, released  its American Worldview Inventory Report 2022, on March 8th. According to the Barna report, this years initial wave of focus was on the life-defining beliefs and behaviors of parents because of the substantial influence they have on the worldview developed by their children. Before I  delve into the statistics of the report, let's define exactly what we mean by worldview.

A "worldview" is a comprehensive conception of the world from a specific standpoint, it is the harmony of all your beliefs about the world and your way of understanding reality. A worldview deals  with at least the following questions: Where do I come from and why am I here; What is wrong with the world and how can we fix it?                                                                             

Every adult has a world view. That worldview is fully developed and operational before a person becomes a teenager. A Christian worldview answers the above questions from a Biblical perspective. It covers everything from morality to finances and our views about the past and the future. Our lives and everything in it falls under the umbrella of the Bible. John M. Frame defines a Christian worldview as such: "As a Christian , I am committed to a worldview that comes from the Bible: God the Creator, the world as his creation, man made in his image, sin and its consequences as our predicament, Christ's atonement as our salvation, his return as the consummation of all things."

The big takeaway from my perspective, of Barna's study is that 9 out of 10 parents of children under age 13, have a muddled worldview. Less than 1% of the parents embraced any of the alternative worldviews tested for which included, Secular Humanism, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, Nihilism,  Marxism/ Critical Theory, Postmodernism, and Eastern Mysticism/New Age. Two-thirds of the respondents claimed to be Christians but only 2 % of  the parents of pre-teen childrenal actually  possessed, a Christian worldview. The old adage, "If you don't stand for anything you will fall for everything," seems to be proven true. What we have are, "a full 94% that have a worldview that is a blending of multiple worldviews in which no single life philosophy is dominant, producing a worldview that is diverse and often contradictory," according to Barna. This world view in known as Syncretism, a pot-pourri of ideas that has little thought behind how or why it is strung together into anything meaningful.

I know personally of married couples who have not brought up their children to believe in anything because they didn't want to force their beliefs on them, sadly their children have become today's parents and they are  now raising their children to be rudderless, lost and think nothing of it. These children are tomorrow's future and it doesn't bode well for Christianity. Count on bumpy roads ahead.

You may wonder and ask yourself, "How did this happen to our country?" There are many reasons, it didn't happen overnight and it is beyond the scope of this article to take on. I will tell you this, if you are serious about understanding our society and how we got where we are today, please read Carl Trueman's book, "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self." Trueman spells it it quite clearly and if you had read his book before Barna's report came out, the statistics would not be a big surprise or a shock to you.

Barna does point out that one might from his statistics predict the end of Christianity in America, but he asserts that, " The reality is that culture-changing movements  can transform a nation with as little as 2% of the population on board."  That being said, I think the number could be far less than the approximately 6.7 million people that make up the two percent with Biblical worldviews. Remember, Christians started with only 12 apostles and spread their faith throughout the known world! We need to pray for revival in our country. 

The Evil in Our Midst

The Apostle Peter's warning to us, "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being  experienced  by your brotherhood throughout the world," (1 Peter 5:8-9) still needs to be heeded by us today. It's not hard to spot the prowling lion, he's responsible for the millions of innocents slaughtered by the abortion industry, social justice prosecutors, judges and politicians who have eliminated bail and  do not uphold the rule of  law and therefore, allow criminals free to rape and pillage over and over again. The Supreme Court ruled to change the definition of marriage that has been in place for thousands of years. Politicians have allowed porous borders making it an easy opportunity for criminals, illegal drugs and sex trafficking to enter our country and victimize our citizens. Companies in the US are able to take advantage of illegal aliens by employing them and paying them low wages to increase their profits and drive honest competitors out of business. Politicians greedy for votes and power turn a blind eye the chaos they have created. The leading cause of death for young people under the age of 30 is from  fentanyl overdoses, which is manufactured in the PRC and smuggled into our country from Mexico. Left leaning Attorney General's  ally themselves  with predatory LGBT+ activists who sue and attack the businesses of Christians that decline service to customers who would have them betray their beliefs. Today, we watch the unprovoked  invasion of Ukraine and the systematic destruction of a country's infrastructure and its people on our cable news channels. Western leaders capitulate and do little to stop Putin's "blitzkrieg." I have heard secular European leaders denouncing Putin and his attack on Ukraine as evil. Ironic isn't it? Admitting to the existence of evil, kind of uspsets their relativistic philosophy. I guess pictures of tanks rolling through residential neighborhoods and destroying them is a reality check, when they realize it could easily be their neighborhoods. All of a sudden countries are opening their purses to give their fair share to NATO, but politicians including ours, are unwilling to make the sacrifice of cutting themselves off of Putin's oil, which is enriching him and funding his war. This past week in Mt Lebanon there was a public speaking event proselytizing for the inclusion of critical race theory in our schools including nursery schools. The event was funded by several area churches, nursery schools and our own Mt. Lebanon High School using taxpayers money.

Why are so many blind to the evil in our midst? As Christians we should not be, yet many who call themselves as such are. God was declared dead, removed from the public square and relegated to one hour on Sunday mornings for the people who still cling to their guns and Bibles .Many have been blinded to the extent that evil is called good and good evil. So as Christians do we throw are hands up in the air and bury our heads in the sand? What can we do? Fortunately, Peter gave us the remedy, to be sober-minded, alert  and we are to resist and stand firm in our faith. The Church is God's plan for us, and it is where we are equipped and strengthened in our faith to go out into the world and stand firm for the gospel. Our job is to help open the eyes of the blind by leading them to Christ. We will be violently resisted, shunned, made to be fools, lose our livelihoods or businesses,  be jailed and even  martyred. Picking up our cross to follow Christ is not without  personal struggles (2 Timothy 3:12)  We also know that the battle has already been won for us by Christ through the cross and his resurrection from the dead. The victory over evil has already  been won, if God is for us who can stand against us? Let's roll!