We live in a land with a great Christian heritage, a land made free and prosperous because so many of its citizens once cherished their belief in God and His Word, the Bible. Yet there has been an astonishing reversal. The old Paganism, vanquished the better part of two thousand years ago, is rising once again. How is that possible?
Look at what is happening to our culture. Our schools are secular. Our government is secular. Our entertainment industry is secular. Our businesses are secular. You name it, and it is secular. Even many of our churches have trouble focusing upon God and His Word. Therefore, many people, wondering what possible purpose a secular church could serve, have forsaken them.
Secular? What has that got to do with Paganism? Let’s consider the matter.
We don’t usually think of the old Pagans as secular, but as a practical matter that is what they were. Instead of trying to explain the world with science, the Pagans turned to idols. They created a god for every purpose. So, they had many gods. These included gods that gave them sex, wealth, knowledge, and government (their emperor). To elevate themselves, they worshiped gods designed to give them what they wanted. Therefore, instead of worshiping God, the old Pagans used their gods as magic to get the things they wanted. Instead of worshiping the One True God, the old Pagans put their desires — their self — before God.
The new Pagans, the Pagans of our time, worship gods similar to what those old Pagans worshiped, gods designed to give them what they want. Put as succinctly as possible, they worship sex, stuff, science, state, and self.
What is the consequence of the new Paganism? Doris, a poster here, addressed that concern in Ignorance is Bliss | Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance (familyallianceonline.org), and she made an obvious point. If we ignore the One True God, He will ignore us.
In an interview (In Order to Influence, We Must Engage: Steve Arterburn with Ralph Reed | The Christian Outlook), Ralph Reed made a more specific observation. Reed observes that even though Christians make up a large part of the electorate, relatively small groups have been much more effective in promoting their poltical agenda. That is, so many of us don’t care even a small group of radicals can steamroll us.
Look at what small groups of committed radicals have accomplished. They have been turning our society into a hedonistic mess.
- Abortions by the tens of millions.
- Sexual promiscuity that includes perversions that just a few years ago would have been unbelieveable.
- Schools focused on building Self Esteem, Critical Race Theory, and Transgenderism instead of the 3 R’s.
- Rapidly increasing crime rates.
- Wildly out of control government spending.
- Fear fraught economic and school lockdowns supposedly designed to prevent the spread of a horrible disease. When children have little problem with COVID-19, think about the fact we are shutting down schools and requiring them to wear masks.
- Climate Change/planet worship hysteria.
- And so forth.
Is there an easy solution for this new Paganism? Reed claims to be optimistic. Should he be? Will our society regain its Christian heritage? How many of us would it take? What would it take? Here is how the late Pastor Tim Crater began an article.
During my years in Washington I’ve encountered a peculiar notion among evangelicals about government and the work of government, called “politics”: Government is a nuisance, and politics is dirty, beneath the concern of the children of God. To be involved with it is to devote precious time and energy to re-arranging chairs on the Titanic. Now, aside from any particular political agenda or issue, the Bible is clear–Government is of God. It is as much a God-ordained institution as marriage and the family, both of which, at times, can lapse into unpleasant and dreadful conditions and yet we don’t forsake and dismiss them with the cavalier attitude we do with government. We try to restore them.
Continued => Citizenship | Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance (familyallianceonline.org)
In his article, Pastor Crator called for an attitude change. He explained something many don’t find obvious, why we have a Christian obligation to participate in the governance of our country. The institution of marriage is not perfect. The church is not perfect. Government is not perfect. Yet for our benefit God gave us all three of these institutions, and we glorify our Lord when we do our best to make these institutions work as He intended.
How did God intend our government to work? Contrary to what many claim the Bible has much to say about government. To determine what the Bible says, we each need to read and study the Bible (See BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages. for an online version.)
The Old Testament contains much history and a large part of that history shows us how Israel governed itself. That includes something as basic as Exodus 20:1-17 NASB – The Ten Commandments – Bible Gateway. As The Ten Commandments demonstrate, our laws should honor our Maker and require us to respect the life and property of our neighbors.
Even the New Testament has much to say about government. That includes making it clear which parts the Old Testament law still require our obedience as Christians. As Pastor Crator observed, just as Apostle Paul used his Roman citizenship to spread the message of the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire we should use our American citizenship to spread the message of the Gospel throughout the world.
Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance 
Your so called great Christian land was never at peace, your country is founded on just as many un-Christian morals as Christian morals, it has always been violent and divisive just as every other country on the planet was populated. Not much has changed.
Do not kid yourself that theocracies are the answer. Most pioneering citizens were from Christian nations during the early years and they knew nothing else, however not everyone even in those days wanted to worship God and a Christian way of life, there will always be alternative views, this will always be the way, this is human nature and politics, this is diversity, and above all this is healthy for society to survive in a democracy.
Only communism, dictatorships and theocracies have the power to mould their people into indoctrinated robots through fear and intimidation, and of course freedom cannot exist, and for the Christian\political ideology that you strongly maintain as the only way for society to live with decent morals and values is completely false and simply a theocracy.
Putin and Kim even murder their political opponents in foreign countries to consolidate power over their people and Islamic republic’s such as Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania and Pakistan eliminate all dissenters.
Do you really think government run by Christian leaders would not become corrupt or repressive, even though ancient and modern history has clearly shown they cannot be trusted?
@sklyjd
You said.
Your comment is chock-full of misconceptions. The Bible does not promise peace on earth until the Second Coming. Consider what Jesus told His apostles.
We have peace in Jesus, not in government. Because Jesus rose from death after His crucifixion, we have peace. We know the outcome is foreordained.
You said.
America’s Constitution guarantees religious freedom. That’s Biblical.
When Jesus gave us the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20), He charged us with spreading His Gospel. God changes hearts. All we can do as Christians is encourage people to hear His Word.
You said.
Is the only way for a society to live with decent morals and values to live as a Christian theocracy? What is a Christian theocracy? The Bible doesn’t describe any such thing until perhaps the Second Coming.
This post encourages Christians to participate in politics as Christians. You think that is theocratic? Nevertheless, who is stopping you from participating in politics as an Atheist?
The most totalitarian government that have ever existed were run by Atheists, not Christians. Christians have fought the most to end slavery, not Atheists or the people of any other religious persuasion. Look in a mirror. Who is a bigger threat to freedom? The guy who just says you are wrong and tries to correct you, or the guy who demands the right to teach your children to be Atheists? And, yes, sklyjd, you have done that.
The main point I want to make Tom is that many Christians such as yourself blame the ills of life on all the non-Christian people, policies and attitudes, and believing Christianity is the way to a utopian existence. You even listed the items that you see as being able to be changed if everyone followed Christian principles.
You have tried to put down atheists as the bad guys through history when 90% of the western world were Christian due to ignorance through the lack of scientific knowledge. Atheists are simply dis-believers in all the worlds gods and did not use atheism as the sole governing belief but only as part of a Communist, socialist or any other murderous regime where not only Christians were slaughtered for their beliefs but other religions as well including intellectuals, scientists, teachers, community leaders and political opponents or any group of people that could be a threat to their dominance and leadership. Of course, you avoid the mirror when it comes to Christian idealogical dominance in the world.
I do not have anything against religious freedoms, but it holds far too much power and tries to dominate societies for atheism to ignore. For example, atheism inherently is not an ideologic belief in the supernatural with houses of worship and scriptures. Sure, there are atheist groups, Satanists and political gangs with many created to counter religious organisations. The extremist groups I do not agree with, however some of the mainstream groups are making some progress in the recognition of equality and tolerance within societies and governance.
@sklyjd
When we start attacking our opponents instead of their arguments, it is time to reconsider the validity of our arguments.
I don’t make much effort to defend myself. I don’t blog about me. As a Christian, I point to Jesus Christ and urge others to follow Him and His example. We find out about Jesus in the Bible, not in the words of Tom.
Does the Bible promise a utopian existence? No. Not in this life. In this life the Bible tells Christians to expect suffering. Why is that? There are a variety of reasons, but two big ones. The world did not like Jesus, and it does not like those who follow Him. God disciplines His children.
Until we repent and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, we are slaves to sin. We love our sins and don’t want to give them up. That is not an Atheist thing. That is a human thing. So, I usually don’t bother with preaching against Atheism. Intstead, I seek to preach the Gospel, and I point to the ills of our society to show why we need Jesus. If we cannot make a go of it in this world without Jesus, we most certainly cannot do without Him in eternity.
Why does God discipline His children? When we are born again, we begin the process of sanctification, becoming holy. When one of us is born again in Jesus Christ, we do not instantly become holy. Only Jesus led a sinless life. No Christian is capable of living a sinless life. Nevertheless, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can gradually become more and more holy. That is, we can become better.
So, are all the sins of this world commited by Atheists. No. Never said that the were. Nevertheless, Atheists do promote some of the most awful ideological beliefs.
How do I measure the awfulness of ideological beliefs? I measure them against what Jesus Christ taught. Since you were raised with a Christian heritage, even though you try to deny the truths of the Bible, I expect you tend to do the same. Makes debating Atheists an exercise in irony. You run around claiming Atheism is not an ideology, not realizing what that means. You have nothing with which to measure good and bad, except what you borrow, and most Atheists borrow mostly from Christians.
You justify your beliefs and that is fair enough, however you are quite wrong on a couple of accounts, one is that I do not know what an ideology is.
As an ideology is a set of beliefs or principles, especially one on which a political system, party, or organization is based atheism is not anything more than simply a disbelief in gods with the word “system” being a key point because atheism does not come with a system attached to the disbelief. If I were to believe aliens or people from the Earth’s core were our creator this would likely make an ideological belief.
I do not know how life started, however the most evidence we have is that there is a scientific answer and if you call that an ideology you are probably right, but it has nothing to do with an atheist disbelief in gods.
The second issue is that human nature of love, hate, anger, jealousy, fear etc, does not require religious instruction, these traits are what humans are born with. Right and wrong is what we learn from our parents because society realised many thousands of years before Christianity that they needed to survive, therefore co-operation with others was critical, so our measure is as it has always been, “survival” no gods required.
@sklyjd
I did not say you don’t know what’s an ideology is. Nevertheless, given how you responded with a second issue, it appears you at least partly understood my point.
So, now you produce an “ideology” based upon what you think is science and convenient to survival. That is, we define right and wrong — good and evil — based upon our instincts and survival needs. Whenso many people have such a shallow basis for their moral beliefs, I wonder why I have any trouble justifying my lack of faith in man, preferring to trust in God.
I could say I do not blame you for not having faith in man, I am often amazed at what man is capable of doing to harm human and animal life. I have the confidence and faith in myself to work out what is right, if for example anything that harms or destroys life is an issue or when 10 thousand scientists claim something is a fact with 100 years of evidence and peer reviewed publications to support it and 10 scientists dispute it without providing any evidence the choice I have is quite clear. If this makes science an ideology in your eyes because it opposes your own ideology so be it.
The question I ask of right wing Christians is why do so many of them have to support the conspiracies from radical groups regarding the virus vaccinations, the Clintons, Bill Gates, the “deep state” claim and global warming as a government conspiracy to mention just a few?
There is a point where over a period of time with a bit of investigative initiative and some faith in the people who are the leading experts in their field that the truth always becomes evident in the end because the majority of people will not be fooled by the persistent vocal minority or the illegalities in life we are all exposed too. This is only because the majority of humans I believe are still honest and genuine people.
@sklyjd
The Bible doesn’t have much to say about either climate change or vaccinations. So, I can’t say there is a Christian position on either of these topics as such.
When we consider the wisdom of the Bible, we can observe that the Bible says to be careful of trusting people too much. The government is spending trillions on climate change research and projects of various sorts. When people have such a huge financial interest in a “scientific truth,” we have to demand and verify the proof of their claims. The so-called scientific consensus doesn’t prove anything. So, proof does not exist. Yet if we do as the activists wish, we will wreck our economy and starve a bunch of people. That would just lay the groundwork for further chaos, chaos that would be worse that the proposed “cure.”
As far as I know, Christians in general are not against vaccines. There are some relatively obscure religious groups, not necessarily Christians, who object to various medical practices, but I don’t know much about them.
What many Christians object to is twisting people’s arms to take a vaccine. If substantial numbers of people have to be forced to take a medicine, then we ought to be wondering why they are balking, not condemning them.
Government and the provider of a product have the obligation to show that a medicine is safe, effective, and needed. As individuals, we have the right to determine for ourselves whether a medicine is safe, effective, and needed. Since each of us is different, what we each find to be safe, effective, and needed will not always be the same.
Do people always make rational decisions? No. Do people have the right to make decisions that others consider irrational? Up to a point. We don’t want anyone violating other people’s rights or harming themselves. Refusing to take COVID-19 vaccine does not violate anyone else’s rights, and it doesn’t cause self harm.
Tom, anyone refusing to be vaccinated who leaves their home is not only putting themselves at risk but other people as well. The Delta Virus can spread faster than ever and is now affecting the younger population.
It is clear it is not a hoax set up by the left and obvious that people die and have ongoing serious health problems afterwards. All our governments have a limited understanding and knowledge of this virus and pandemic, but it is quite clear what needs to be done if we want to get back to something like normality.
Yes people have a right to choose in an ideal situation, however worse has happened to citizens freedoms before such as war time conscription. Drastic situations call for drastic measures and sensibility without irrational decisions because if we all went about our business as nothing had happened what do you think would eventually happen?
As recently as January 2021, COVID was the US number one leading cause of death, with an average of 3,136 people dying daily. Amid widespread availability of vaccines, that number has fallen to an average of 300 daily deaths in June 2021.
@sklyjd
The fact that a disease is more contagious does not necessarily make it more dangerous. People are not dropping like flies. You vaccinated. Then you are relatively safe. You don’t need to vote for guys with submachine guns to round up the unvaccinated.
Reblogged this on boudica.us and commented:
H/T Citizen Tom
Thank you!