The Decline of a Nation

Probe Ministries The Decline of a Nation Kerby Anderson ________________________________________ Introduction Doomsayers for many years have been predicting the decline and fall of this country. And while many of these short-term predictions have proved inaccurate, there is some truth to the prevailing belief that this nation will fall like every great nation before it. Apart from revival and reformation, this nation is destined to decline. The problem with many of these doomsayers is that while their prognosis is right, their diagnosis is wrong. Yes, the future is bleak. But our problem is not ultimately political, economic, or social, as these doomsayers would have us believe. The decline of this nation (just as the decline of every other nation) is due to spiritual factors. The political, economic, and social problems we encounter are the symptoms of the spiritual deterioration of a nation. Just as there are spiritual principles that influence the life of an individual, so there are political-spiritual principles that govern the life of a nation. And though we may feel that these are obscure and difficult to discern, in reality they are visible to anyone willing to look at the record of history. Our problem is that we don't really learn from history. George Santayana said that "those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." The philosopher Hegel said, "What experience and history teach us is this: that people and government never have learned anything from history or acted on principles deduced from it." Or as Winston Churchill said, "The one thing we have learned from history is that we don't learn from history." The refrains that are often heard are: "It can't happen here," or "Our country is different." But the reality is that nations are born and die just like individuals. Their longevity may exceed the average person's lifespan. But the reality is that nations also die. History has shown that the average age of the great civilizations is around two hundred years. Countries like Great Britain exceed the average while other countries like the United States are just now reaching the average age. Each of the great civilizations in the world passed through a series of stages from their birth to their decline to their death. Historians have listed these in ten stages. The first stage moves from bondage to spiritual faith. The second from spiritual faith to great courage. The third stage moves from great courage to liberty. The fourth stage moves from liberty to abundance. The fifth stage moves from abundance to selfishness. The sixth stage moves from selfishness to complacency. The seventh stage moves from complacency to apathy. The eighth stage moves from apathy to moral decay. The ninth stage moves from moral decay to dependence. And the tenth and last stage moves from dependence to bondage. These are the ten stages through which the great civilizations have gone. Notice the progression from bondage to liberty back to bondage. The first generation throws off the shackles of bondage only to have a later generation through apathy and indifference allow itself to once again be enslaved. This is the direction this and every other country is headed. The book of Judges shows that the nation of Israel passed through these same stages. And this country will do the same unless revival and reformation break out and reverse the inexorable decline of this nation. The Cycle of Nations In his book The End of Christendom, Malcolm Muggeridge makes this powerful observation. He says: I conclude that civilizations, like every other human creation, wax and wane. By the nature of the case there can never be a lasting civilization anymore than there can be a lasting spring or lasting happiness in an individual life or a lasting stability in a society. It's in the nature of man and of all that he constructs to perish, and it must ever be so. The world is full of the debris of past civilizations and others are known to have existed which have not left any debris behind them but have just disappeared. He goes on to say that ...whatever their ideology may be, from the Garden of Eden onwards such dreams of lasting felicity have cropped up and no doubt always will. But the realization is impossible for the simple reason that a fallen creature like man though capable of conceiving perfection and aspiring after it, is in himself and in his works forever imperfect. Thus he is fated to exist in the no man's land between the perfection he can conceive and the imperfection that characterizes his own nature and everything he does. Nations rise and nations fall. Every nation has followed this progression from bondage to bondage. The nations of this century will be no different. But let us not accept the Marxist notion that these are fixed and intractable laws of history. Christians can point to unusual times when revival has redirected the inexorable decline of a civilization. In the Old Testament, Jonah saw revival postpone God's judgment of Nineveh. In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther and John Calvin saw a Protestant Reformation transform Europe. And even in the history of the United States the First and Second Great Awakenings changed individuals and our society. But apart from God's intervention, nations will decline and eventually pass off the scene. Much of the Old Testament records the history of the nation of Israel. It passed through these same stages and so will every country in the world. As Christians we must recognize that nations will rise and fall just as individuals will be born and die. Our civilization will not last indefinitely, but will eventually pass off the scene. Only God's Word endures forever. We should not put our trust in the things of this world for they are destined for destruction. Instead, we should put our faith in God and His word. The Decline of the Family Nations most often fall from within, and this fall is usually due to a decline in the moral and spiritual values in the family. As families go, so goes a nation. This has been the main premise of thinkers from British historian J. D. Unwin to Russian sociologist Pitirim Sorokin who have studied civilizations that have collapsed. In his book Our Dance Has Turned to Death, Carl Wilson identifies the common pattern of family decline in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Notice how these seven stages parallel what is happening in our nation today. In the first stage, men ceased to lead their families in worship. Spiritual and moral development became secondary. Their view of God became naturalistic, mathematical, and mechanical. In the second stage, men selfishly neglected care of their wives and children to pursue material wealth, political and military power, and cultural development. Material values began to dominate thought, and the man began to exalt his own role as an individual. The third stage involved a change in men's sexual values. Men who were preoccupied with business or war either neglected their wives sexually or became involved with lower-class women or with homosexuality. Ultimately, a double standard of morality developed. The fourth stage affected women. The role of women at home and with children lost value and status. Women were neglected and their roles devalued. Soon they revolted to gain access to material wealth and also freedom for sex outside marriage. Women also began to minimize having sex relations to conceive children, and the emphasis became sex for pleasure. Marriage laws were changed to make divorce easy. In the fifth stage, husbands and wives competed against each other for money, home leadership, and the affection of their children. This resulted in hostility and frustration and possible homosexuality in the children. Many marriages ended in separation and divorce. Many children were unwanted, aborted, abandoned, molested, and undisciplined. The more undisciplined children became, the more social pressure there was not to have children. The breakdown of the home produced anarchy. In the sixth stage, selfish individualism grew and carried over into society, fragmenting it into smaller and smaller group loyalties. The nation was thus weakened by internal conflict. The decrease in the birthrate produced an older population that had less ability to defend itself and less will to do so, making the nation more vulnerable to its enemies. Finally, unbelief in God became more complete, parental authority diminished, and ethical and moral principles disappeared, affecting the economy and government. Thus, by internal weakness and fragmentation the societies came apart. There was no way to save them except by a dictator who arose from within or by barbarians who invaded from without. Although this is an ancient pattern of decline found in Greece and Rome, it is relevant today. Families are the foundation of a nation. When the family crumbles, the nation falls because nations are built upon family units. They are the true driving social force. A nation will not be strong unless the family is strong. That was true in the ancient world and it is true today. Social commentator Michael Novak, writing on the importance of the family, said: One unforgettable law has been learned through all the disasters and injustices of the last thousand years: If things go well with the family, life is worth living; when the family falters, life falls apart. The Decline of Values There are many factors in the decline of a nation. Certainly a major one is the breakdown of the family. But another potent but less perceptible force is the power of ideas. False ideas are bringing about the decline of western culture. Carl F. H. Henry, in his book Twilight of a Great Civilization, says: There is a new barbarism. This barbarism has embraced a new pagan mentality . . . not simply rejecting the legacy of the West, but embracing a new pagan mentality where there is no fixed truth. Today we live in a world where biblical absolutes are ignored, and unless we return to these biblical truths, our nation will continue to decline. To understand how we have arrived at this appalling situation, we need to go back a century and look at the influence of five intellectual leaders who still profoundly affect the modern world. The first person is Charles Darwin (1809-1882). In 1859 he published The Origin of Species and later published The Descent of Man. His writings blurred the distinction between humans and animals since he taught that we are merely part of an evolutionary progression from lower forms of life. Darwinism, as it came to be called, not only affected the field of biology, but became the foundation for the fields of anthropology, sociology, and psychology. The second person is Karl Marx (1818-1883). He and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto around 1850, and Marx devoted his life to writing about the demise of capitalism and coming of communism. He understood the importance of ideas. Marx once wrote: "Give me twenty-six lead soldiers and I will conquer the world." The twenty-six lead soldiers are the keys on a typewriter. The pervasive influence of communism in the world today is testimony to the truthfulness of his statement. The third person is Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918). Although he may not be as well known as the other two men mentioned, his influence was just as profound. He was a German Bible scholar whose theory on the dating of the Pentateuch completely transformed Old Testament studies. Wellhausen argued that the early books of the Bible were not put together by Moses but were gathered together many centuries later by several different men called redactors who wove various strands together. He and his disciples established an anti-supernatural approach to the scriptures which is influential in most denominational seminaries today. The fourth person is Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He merely took the logical implications of what Darwin was doing in biology and applied them to what today is known as psychology and psychiatry. Freud argued that humans are basically autonomous and therefore do not need to know God. Instead, we need to know and understand ourselves since our problems stem from those secret things that have evolved in our lives from our past. A fifth person is John Dewey (1859-1952). He is the founder of modern education and published his first work, The School and Society, in 1899. John Dewey was also one of the co-signers of the Humanist Manifesto in 1933. Dewey, like Darwin and Freud, believed that humans are autonomous. They don't need to have an authority above them but can evolve their our own system of education. Thus the very foundation of modern education is anti-supernatural. Ideas have consequences, and false ideas can bring down a nation. The theories of these five men are having devastating consequences in our nation and world. Unless we return to biblical absolutes, our nation will continue its decline. Spiritual Decline The decline and fall of nations is usually due to internal factors rather than external threats. Even though some may have fallen to barbarians, their demise ultimately came because of moral and spiritual weakness which manifested itself as military weakness. Historians have listed the stages in the decline of a nation. These should not be too surprising to any student of the Old Testament. The stages of decline parallel the stages through which the nation of Israel passed. But neither should they surprise a student of the New Testament. In the opening chapter of the Apostle Paul's letter to the church in Rome, he traces a similar progression. In fact, Romans 1 shows the decline of a civilization from a societal perspective. Looking at the Hellenistic world of his time, he reflects on the progression of sin in a nation. The first stage is when people turn from God to idolatry. Although God has revealed Himself in nature to all men so that they are without excuse, they nevertheless worship the creation instead of the Creator. This is idolatry. In the past, this took the form of actual idol worship. In our day, it takes the form of the worship of money or the worship of self. In either case, it is idolatry. A further example of this is a general lack of thankfulness. Although they have been prospered by God, they are ungrateful. And when they are no longer looking to God for wisdom and guidance, they become vain and futile and empty in their imaginations. They no longer honor God, so their foolish hearts become darkened. In professing to be wise, they have become fools. The second stage is when men and women exchange their natural use of sex for unnatural uses. Here the Apostle Paul says those four sobering words, "God gave them over." In a society where lust- driven sensuality and sexual perversion dominate, God gives them over to their degrading passions and unnatural desires. The third stage is anarchy. Once a society has rejected God's revelation, it is on its own. Moral and social anarchy is the natural result. At this point God has given the sinners over to a depraved mind and so they do things which are not proper. This results in a society which is without understanding,untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. The final stage is judgment. God's judgment rightly falls upon those who practice idolatry and immorality. Certainly an eternal judgment awaits those who are guilty, but a social judgment occurs when God gives a nation over to its sinful practices. Notice that this progression is not unique to the Hellenistic world the Apostle Paul was living in. The progression from idolatry to sexual perversion to anarchy to judgment is found throughout history. In the times of Noah and Lot, there was the idolatry of greed, there was sexual perversion and promiscuity, there was anarchy and violence, and finally there was judgment. Throughout the history of the nation of Israel there was idolatry, sexual perversion, anarchy (in which each person did what was right in his own eyes), and finally judgment. This progression happened throughout the Bible and to Greece, to Persia, to Babylon, and to Rome. And if it happened to these nations, then it can happen today.Unless we return to God's principles, decline and destruction are inevitable. © 1991 Probe Ministries ________________________________________ About the Author Kerby Anderson is the president of Probe Ministries International. He received his B.S. from Oregon State University, M.F.S. from Yale University, and M.A. from Georgetown University. He is the author of several books, including Genetic Engineering, Origin Science, Living Ethically in the 90s, Signs of Warning, Signs of Hope, and Moral Dilemmas. He also served as general editor for Marriage, Family and Sexuality. He is a nationally syndicated columnist whose editorials have appeared in the Dallas Morning News, the Miami Herald, the San Jose Mercury, and the Houston Post. He is the host of "Probe," and frequently serves as guest host on "Point of View" (USA Radio Network). He can be reached via e-mail at kerby@probe.org

Introduction Doomsayers for many years have been predicting the decline and fall of this country. And while many of these short-term predictions have proved inaccurate, there is some truth to the prevailing belief that this nation will fall like every great nation before it. Apart from revival and reformation, this nation is destined to decline. The problem with many of these doomsayers is that while their prognosis is right, their diagnosis is wrong. Yes, the future is bleak. But our problem is not ultimately political, economic, or social, as these doomsayers would have us believe. The decline of this nation (just as the decline of every other nation) is due to spiritual factors. The political, economic, and social problems we encounter are the symptoms of the spiritual deterioration of a nation. Just as there are spiritual principles that influence the life of an individual, so there are political-spiritual principles that govern the life of a nation. And though we may feel that these are obscure and difficult to discern, in reality they are visible to anyone willing to look at the record of history. Our problem is that we don't really learn from history. George Santayana said that "those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." The philosopher Hegel said, "What experience and history teach us is this: that people and government never have learned anything from history or acted on principles deduced from it." Or as Winston Churchill said, "The one thing we have learned from history is that we don't learn from history." The refrains that are often heard are: "It can't happen here," or "Our country is different." But the reality is that nations are born and die just like individuals. Their longevity may exceed the average person's lifespan. But the reality is that nations also die. History has shown that the average age of the great civilizations is around two hundred years. Countries like Great Britain exceed the average while other countries like the United States are just now reaching the average age. Each of the great civilizations in the world passed through a series of stages from their birth to their decline to their death. Historians have listed these in ten stages. The first stage moves from bondage to spiritual faith. The second from spiritual faith to great courage. The third stage moves from great courage to liberty. The fourth stage moves from liberty to abundance. The fifth stage moves from abundance to selfishness. The sixth stage moves from selfishness to complacency. The seventh stage moves from complacency to apathy. The eighth stage moves from apathy to moral decay. The ninth stage moves from moral decay to dependence. And the tenth and last stage moves from dependence to bondage. These are the ten stages through which the great civilizations have gone. Notice the progression from bondage to liberty back to bondage. The first generation throws off the shackles of bondage only to have a later generation through apathy and indifference allow itself to once again be enslaved. This is the direction this and every other country is headed. The book of Judges shows that the nation of Israel passed through these same stages. And this country will do the same unless revival and reformation break out and reverse the inexorable decline of this nation. The Cycle of Nations In his book The End of Christendom, Malcolm Muggeridge makes this powerful observation. He says: I conclude that civilizations, like every other human creation, wax and wane. By the nature of the case there can never be a lasting civilization anymore than there can be a lasting spring or lasting happiness in an individual life or a lasting stability in a society. It's in the nature of man and of all that he constructs to perish, and it must ever be so. The world is full of the debris of past civilizations and others are known to have existed which have not left any debris behind them but have just disappeared. He goes on to say that ...whatever their ideology may be, from the Garden of Eden onwards such dreams of lasting felicity have cropped up and no doubt always will. But the realization is impossible for the simple reason that a fallen creature like man though capable of conceiving perfection and aspiring after it, is in himself and in his works forever imperfect. Thus he is fated to exist in the no man's land between the perfection he can conceive and the imperfection that characterizes his own nature and everything he does. Nations rise and nations fall. Every nation has followed this progression from bondage to bondage. The nations of this century will be no different. But let us not accept the Marxist notion that these are fixed and intractable laws of history. Christians can point to unusual times when revival has redirected the inexorable decline of a civilization. In the Old Testament, Jonah saw revival postpone God's judgment of Nineveh. In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther and John Calvin saw a Protestant Reformation transform Europe. And even in the history of the United States the First and Second Great Awakenings changed individuals and our society. But apart from God's intervention, nations will decline and eventually pass off the scene. Much of the Old Testament records the history of the nation of Israel. It passed through these same stages and so will every country in the world. As Christians we must recognize that nations will rise and fall just as individuals will be born and die. Our civilization will not last indefinitely, but will eventually pass off the scene. Only God's Word endures forever. We should not put our trust in the things of this world for they are destined for destruction. Instead, we should put our faith in God and His word. The Decline of the Family Nations most often fall from within, and this fall is usually due to a decline in the moral and spiritual values in the family. As families go, so goes a nation. This has been the main premise of thinkers from British historian J. D. Unwin to Russian sociologist Pitirim Sorokin who have studied civilizations that have collapsed. In his book Our Dance Has Turned to Death, Carl Wilson identifies the common pattern of family decline in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Notice how these seven stages parallel what is happening in our nation today. In the first stage, men ceased to lead their families in worship. Spiritual and moral development became secondary. Their view of God became naturalistic, mathematical, and mechanical. In the second stage, men selfishly neglected care of their wives and children to pursue material wealth, political and military power, and cultural development. Material values began to dominate thought, and the man began to exalt his own role as an individual. The third stage involved a change in men's sexual values. Men who were preoccupied with business or war either neglected their wives sexually or became involved with lower-class women or with homosexuality. Ultimately, a double standard of morality developed. The fourth stage affected women. The role of women at home and with children lost value and status. Women were neglected and their roles devalued. Soon they revolted to gain access to material wealth and also freedom for sex outside marriage. Women also began to minimize having sex relations to conceive children, and the emphasis became sex for pleasure. Marriage laws were changed to make divorce easy. In the fifth stage, husbands and wives competed against each other for money, home leadership, and the affection of their children. This resulted in hostility and frustration and possible homosexuality in the children. Many marriages ended in separation and divorce. Many children were unwanted, aborted, abandoned, molested, and undisciplined. The more undisciplined children became, the more social pressure there was not to have children. The breakdown of the home produced anarchy. In the sixth stage, selfish individualism grew and carried over into society, fragmenting it into smaller and smaller group loyalties. The nation was thus weakened by internal conflict. The decrease in the birthrate produced an older population that had less ability to defend itself and less will to do so, making the nation more vulnerable to its enemies. Finally, unbelief in God became more complete, parental authority diminished, and ethical and moral principles disappeared, affecting the economy and government. Thus, by internal weakness and fragmentation the societies came apart. There was no way to save them except by a dictator who arose from within or by barbarians who invaded from without. Although this is an ancient pattern of decline found in Greece and Rome, it is relevant today. Families are the foundation of a nation. When the family crumbles, the nation falls because nations are built upon family units. They are the true driving social force. A nation will not be strong unless the family is strong. That was true in the ancient world and it is true today. Social commentator Michael Novak, writing on the importance of the family, said: One unforgettable law has been learned through all the disasters and injustices of the last thousand years: If things go well with the family, life is worth living; when the family falters, life falls apart. The Decline of Values There are many factors in the decline of a nation. Certainly a major one is the breakdown of the family. But another potent but less perceptible force is the power of ideas. False ideas are bringing about the decline of western culture. Carl F. H. Henry, in his book Twilight of a Great Civilization, says: There is a new barbarism. This barbarism has embraced a new pagan mentality . . . not simply rejecting the legacy of the West, but embracing a new pagan mentality where there is no fixed truth. Today we live in a world where biblical absolutes are ignored, and unless we return to these biblical truths, our nation will continue to decline. To understand how we have arrived at this appalling situation, we need to go back a century and look at the influence of five intellectual leaders who still profoundly affect the modern world. The first person is Charles Darwin (1809-1882). In 1859 he published The Origin of Species and later published The Descent of Man. His writings blurred the distinction between humans and animals since he taught that we are merely part of an evolutionary progression from lower forms of life. Darwinism, as it came to be called, not only affected the field of biology, but became the foundation for the fields of anthropology, sociology, and psychology. The second person is Karl Marx (1818-1883). He and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto around 1850, and Marx devoted his life to writing about the demise of capitalism and coming of communism. He understood the importance of ideas. Marx once wrote: "Give me twenty-six lead soldiers and I will conquer the world." The twenty-six lead soldiers are the keys on a typewriter. The pervasive influence of communism in the world today is testimony to the truthfulness of his statement. The third person is Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918). Although he may not be as well known as the other two men mentioned, his influence was just as profound. He was a German Bible scholar whose theory on the dating of the Pentateuch completely transformed Old Testament studies. Wellhausen argued that the early books of the Bible were not put together by Moses but were gathered together many centuries later by several different men called redactors who wove various strands together. He and his disciples established an anti-supernatural approach to the scriptures which is influential in most denominational seminaries today. The fourth person is Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He merely took the logical implications of what Darwin was doing in biology and applied them to what today is known as psychology and psychiatry. Freud argued that humans are basically autonomous and therefore do not need to know God. Instead, we need to know and understand ourselves since our problems stem from those secret things that have evolved in our lives from our past. A fifth person is John Dewey (1859-1952). He is the founder of modern education and published his first work, The School and Society, in 1899. John Dewey was also one of the co-signers of the Humanist Manifesto in 1933. Dewey, like Darwin and Freud, believed that humans are autonomous. They don't need to have an authority above them but can evolve their our own system of education. Thus the very foundation of modern education is anti-supernatural. Ideas have consequences, and false ideas can bring down a nation. The theories of these five men are having devastating consequences in our nation and world. Unless we return to biblical absolutes, our nation will continue its decline. Spiritual Decline The decline and fall of nations is usually due to internal factors rather than external threats. Even though some may have fallen to barbarians, their demise ultimately came because of moral and spiritual weakness which manifested itself as military weakness. Historians have listed the stages in the decline of a nation. These should not be too surprising to any student of the Old Testament. The stages of decline parallel the stages through which the nation of Israel passed. But neither should they surprise a student of the New Testament. In the opening chapter of the Apostle Paul's letter to the church in Rome, he traces a similar progression. In fact, Romans 1 shows the decline of a civilization from a societal perspective. Looking at the Hellenistic world of his time, he reflects on the progression of sin in a nation. The first stage is when people turn from God to idolatry. Although God has revealed Himself in nature to all men so that they are without excuse, they nevertheless worship the creation instead of the Creator. This is idolatry. In the past, this took the form of actual idol worship. In our day, it takes the form of the worship of money or the worship of self. In either case, it is idolatry. A further example of this is a general lack of thankfulness. Although they have been prospered by God, they are ungrateful. And when they are no longer looking to God for wisdom and guidance, they become vain and futile and empty in their imaginations. They no longer honor God, so their foolish hearts become darkened. In professing to be wise, they have become fools. The second stage is when men and women exchange their natural use of sex for unnatural uses. Here the Apostle Paul says those four sobering words, "God gave them over." In a society where lust- driven sensuality and sexual perversion dominate, God gives them over to their degrading passions and unnatural desires. The third stage is anarchy. Once a society has rejected God's revelation, it is on its own. Moral and social anarchy is the natural result. At this point God has given the sinners over to a depraved mind and so they do things which are not proper. This results in a society which is without understanding,untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. The final stage is judgment. God's judgment rightly falls upon those who practice idolatry and immorality. Certainly an eternal judgment awaits those who are guilty, but a social judgment occurs when God gives a nation over to its sinful practices. Notice that this progression is not unique to the Hellenistic world the Apostle Paul was living in. The progression from idolatry to sexual perversion to anarchy to judgment is found throughout history. In the times of Noah and Lot, there was the idolatry of greed, there was sexual perversion and promiscuity, there was anarchy and violence, and finally there was judgment. Throughout the history of the nation of Israel there was idolatry, sexual perversion, anarchy (in which each person did what was right in his own eyes), and finally judgment. This progression happened throughout the Bible and to Greece, to Persia, to Babylon, and to Rome. And if it happened to these nations, then it can happen today.Unless we return to God's principles, decline and destruction are inevitable. © 1991 Probe Ministries ________________________________________ About the Author Kerby Anderson is the president of Probe Ministries International. He received his B.S. from Oregon State University, M.F.S. from Yale University, and M.A. from Georgetown University. He is the author of several books, including Genetic Engineering, Origin Science, Living Ethically in the 90s, Signs of Warning, Signs of Hope, and Moral Dilemmas. He also served as general editor for Marriage, Family and Sexuality. He is a nationally syndicated columnist whose editorials have appeared in the Dallas Morning News, the Miami Herald, the San Jose Mercury, and the Houston Post. He is the host of "Probe," and frequently serves as guest host on "Point of View" (USA Radio Network). He can be reached via e-mail at kerby@probe.org

We Have no King but Cesar

The Gospel mandate in Matthew 28:16-20 is a command to go and preach the Gospel to the Nations and to teach obedience to that Gospel. I am not an advocate of judgment; rather as in Paul’s day, mirroring the same climate in Rome as in America, God will simply abandon America to its choices. It is beyond Democrat and Republican. It is rather the abandoning of clear issues in the Scripture such as abortion, Gay Marriages and the entire push to redefine what a family is to name just a few. However, It is not just the Bible but history as well that points to the demise of another super power. The same Roman Empire that once ruled the known World was abandon to its own disintegration for the very same things Paul speaks to in Scripture. Lastly, I believe we have become a nation of people who are more concerned with what they want with no conviction. I believe the turning tide of the election was a fear that many, who were already living off the Government and our tax dollars, had a greater fear of losing what many, not all, have become over time to depend on daily. It’s not my place to judge who needs help getting back on their feet especially during these hard times. But it appears the American people by choice of vote, said rather than looking at a president that stood for clear moral sanity in America and who had (in my opinion) a plan of financial and moral recovery. I think that time will tell and I would rather be proved wrong but just do not see. I think the Word of God penned by Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says it all. I will let my last words be those of Scripture than my feeble attempt at communicating a message will surely fall on deaf ears and hard hearts. It happened once and can happen again. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. Romans 1a verse 32. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:24-32 ESV)

A Fellow Bloger Worth Following

I would like to pass on a fellow Bloger the name of His Blog is, Deus Misereatur and the link is, http://mphilliber.blogspot.com/2011/08/contemporary-traditional.html Pastor Mike is a Minister in the PCA over 12 years. I meet him through NARS, North American Reformed Seminary. I am enrolled in the, M.A. in Theological Studies program and Mike was assignd as my mentor. Mikes Blogs seem to be spot on everytime he posts. I encourage you to add him to your email list to get the lattest posts. I would add if you are considering an online Degree program NARS is Reformed and top of the line, http://www.tnars.net/ This is from one His post, the one I enjoyed most, so far. This Blog Linked From Here Oratio This Blog Linked From Here Oratio Wednesday, August 22, 2012 Considerations on Church-Renewing Movements 1 There are lots of programs, systems, paradigms and “movements” surging through the American Church scene that are promoting themselves as ways to revitalize your church, making it more “missional” and faithful to Jesus and Jesus’ cause. For those who have a rich love for Jesus’ Church, and desire be part of the Word of God increasing and multiplying (Acts 12.24), then this kind of talk will rouse their hearts and draw their attention. Because this subject resonates with me, I would like to take several weeks to think through some issues related to it. The way I plan to address these concerns, hopes and anticipations is by ruminating over six considerations brought up by William J.Abraham in the first chapter of his book, “The Logic of Renewal” (p.3-6). Though I read this book in 2004, I have found his observations perceptive, and an indispensable aid to discernment in this area throughout the past several years. To begin with Abraham points out what I think is a serious blind spot for those embracing renewal models, and ought to be kept in the forefront of a church-planter’s or pastor’s mind:“1. Proposals in renewal will be inescapably theological in content. They will presuppose some sort of ecclesial picture of what the church is supposed to be and to do. It is all too easy to forget this, not least because Christians in the West are woefully weak in their thinking about ecclesiology. Either they refuse to think about it at all, or they simply accept uncritically the conception of the church that they have inherited. Yet ecclesiological considerations are crucial in any deep conception of ecclesial renewal. Our conceptions of renewal depend in part on some governing model of what the life and work of the church should be. We operate with some picture of how things really ought to be in the church at large” (3). As Abraham brings out here, renewal-missional-reviving movements assume a specific ecclesiological model. I would go further and say that they also flow from a specific sacramental preconception, for ecclesiology and sacramentology go hand in glove. The value of Abraham’s observation is that when looking into any renewal agenda, the leadership must persistently ask, “What ecclesial picture is being assumed here, and thus being advocated (whether intentionally/unintentionally)?” As an example, when certain emergent church figures started coming into the spotlight with their various books, I picked up several to read. It wasn’t long into any one of them that I began to notice a trend toward something like a restorationist ecclesiology. Restorationism finds its most pronounced adherents among the Anabaptists and their grandchildren (for example, the Campbellite movement that splintered off into the Church of Christ/Disciples of Christ/Christian Church camps). Interestingly enough, one of the more vocal emergent talking heads is a self-proclaimed Anabaptist, happily quoting other Anabaptists, like Yoder and Hauerwas. The central idea of Restorationism is to restore the first century church because everything went to pot from the 2nd century onward. Some place the shift at the “conversion” of Constantine, but the point is the same: there’s the pristine church and then, ka-pow, the gone-to-pot church. Therefore, the church was royally screwed up for 1500 years (or 1700, or 1900-plus, or...) until we (our particular group) put it back on the right track with our plan or program. And if you don’t buy into our unspoiled model, you’re part of the apostasy, or you're part of the dysfunctional, compromised Church structure. An attendant concept that Restorationism has is an individualist ecclesiology that is normally coupled with a memorialist sacramentology. Each congregation is a law unto itself (the root meaning of autonomous) and therefore not subject to any governing authority outside itself. With this congregational autonomy comes a belief of immediate divine authority; whether it’s by the Spirit at work revealing Himself to the leadership or congregation directly, or by way of the leadership’s/congregation’s own historically unplugged notions of what the Bible says, etc. Similarly, the sacraments are vacant of any awareness of the real participation or real presence of Christ, or that the sacraments are truly means of grace. The sacraments are seen more as tools that we can take or leave as we see fit; to use or misuse, keep as they were instituted or modify, however it is most meaningful to us. This individualist ecclesiology (with its accompanying sacramentology) became clearer to me with each passing tide of new books and new speaking engagements by the authors. What Abraham stated above appears to be correct, that church renewal is inescapably theological in content, and unavoidably ecclesiological.* That recognition ought to cause us to start asking strong questions of any renewal model marketed to us. The primary question must be, “What ecclesial paradigm is assumed and advocated by this program?” And a second question following close by should be, “What is the sacramental supposition of the proponents of this model?” This leads me to some reflective questions for the reader.· If Presbyterians, Anglicans and Lutherans, with their professedly meaty ecclesiology and sacramentology, imbibe in a renewing-resurging paradigm that is Restorationist (specifically, Baptistic and Zwinglian) in its undercurrent, what will the result be? · Will this renewal plan create cognitive dissonance in their parishioners (“Why do we act like Baptists, but sprinkle babies?”)? · Will we be turning our churches into parachurch organizations or Tupperware parties with a cross, instead of an intentionally Christian Church that is unashamedly Trinitarian and is nurtured in Word and Sacrament, with Prayer? · By following this or that model will we be segregating our fellowship across ethnic/economic/political/chronological lines? In other words, does this particular program market to specific age groups, economic groups, racial groups etc, and exclude others who are followers of Christ (see my post on that here)?As I have written before, we need to worship up to our theology. In a similar vein, maybe we need to renew-resurge up to our theology/ecclesiology/sacramentology as well. This is exactly what I attempted to promote in the fifth chapter of my book, “Gnostic Trends in the Local Church.” Feel free to post your reflections, comments and observations. I think we would all benefit from the discussion. And watch for the next post in about a week. Mike * For those wanting to see clearer examples of this, Abraham works through 7 chapters of movements that cut across Catholic-Orthodox-Protestant-Charismatic lines. Posted by Mike Philliber at 10:10 AM

The Pursuit of God or the Pursuit of Happiness?

The Pursuit of God or the Pursuit of Happiness? The pursuit of God The reason I wanted to write this short paper is to share with you my own personal struggle to find the simple love for Christ I had at the beginning (Rev 1:4). It was such a consuming love that anything by comparison just could not even come close to bringing me the love, joy and peace I had when Jesus was my all in all. Since that time in 1976 when I became a Christian sitting in a small jail cell with 13 other men, I was the happiest I thought I could ever be. The happiness and joy I had though was not something I looked for it was the fruit of a new life born again to pursue God, happiness just came. AW Tozer aptly states this experience that I had Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him; imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow. We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. "No man can come to me," said our Lord, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him," and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the out working of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: "Thy right hand upholdeth me." But then something gradually happened to me as it happens to so many Christians over the years as we grow we try to find out what it really means to be a “Disciple of Christ” I mean really follow him. In Matthew 11:29, 30 Jesus says; Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” AW Tozer in The Pursuit of God says; “How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of "accepting" Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him, we need no more seek Him. In the midst of this great chill there are some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic. They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray. "Oh God, show me Thy glory." They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God When Jesus called us to leave everything and follow Him, what did he mean? Although in many ways how we work that out individually because we are all different individuals in different situations. For Peter it was a call to leave his family fishing business. And the call to leave is as different as we are. The gospel as taught by Paul and practiced in the community was not merely an in individual affair based on personal beliefs. The gospel bound believers to God as well as to one another, this is real Discipleship. Love, Joy, Peace and happiness with purpose of life is the same to everyone who answers the call. It is a call to Christ “The One” the beloved of the Father Gods only Son sent to call each one of us to Himself. He did not just call us to a new set of rules. As Tozer said above; “The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the out working of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: "Thy right hand upholdeth me." I have, as I am sure many of you have, been bombarded with sermons from our Pastors and numerous Christian conference speakers, that the problem of true happiness comes from the fact that we are just not serving as the Scripture says we should .This has caused many Christians untold heartache, feelings of worthlessness and disparity because they can’t just drop everything and run off to India. The 2nd guilt trip laid on many of us by well-meaning Pastors in our Churches (in most cases I believe) is to guilt their congregations to following a pattern of Discipleship that the Church staff has determined is what the Bible means when it calls us to follow Christ and “serve”. Each church has carefully crafted slogans and signs that promote this as Biblical Christianity and to join their Church by trusting Christ joining the Church and then follow the program as it’s been laid out. These Churches usually promote small groups as the core of what it means to become part of their fellowship. When the concept of small groups within churches first started it was meant to do several things; 1. Create small gatherings of believers from the larger Church to build friendships. 2. To create an intimate atmosphere of worship in which everyone could become more focused on Christ and expressing our love to Him through songs, Psalms and Hymns. The focus was on the true intimate worship rather than how we worshiped. 3. The other core elements were teaching through the Bible. Prayer was meant to be limited to each other’s lives; it was not a corporate prayer meeting. The idea was to from, house to house follow the example of the early Church in Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (ESV). Gradually over time, the small group meeting lost its intended meaning. What happened is the meeting became more important than the reasons for meeting. The small group meeting has become just another program in almost every church. The small group has replaced everything from Sunday school class to Wednesday night traditional prayer meeting. The original intention of being a place for intimate fellowship and expression of worship has just somehow been lost and it’s just become another program, and the program has become the ends not the means. My intention here is not to be critical of the church, but actually show that the church much like Israel gradually lost its meaning as a people of God. As a people of God today we also seemed to have lost the real purpose God intended by the creation of the Church amidst a vast array of human inventions So what did Jesus mean when He told us to come follow Him, to love Him more than our immediate family and friends, more than our work but most of all more than our very own lives? I believe the answer is as simple as Jesus meant it to be “my yoke is easy”. The real problem comes from one simple desire that we all face daily, both consciously and unconsciously. We all have a desire to be happy. Happiness is the cult of the World. I fear that rather than the Church effecting the world the world has affected the Church. I John 5:17, 20 says; Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. The pursuit of Happiness I wish I could take the credit for this simple idea regarding the pursuit of happiness but I can’t. The thought just came to me this past weekend as I once again sat feeling guilty that my life as a Christian seemed to evade me. And I also felt that somehow I had lost the meaning of, what it means to truly be a real Disciple, one who follows Christ with the goal of becoming like him. It was then that my thoughts somehow went back to something Dr. Larry Crab said in his book “Effective Biblical Counseling”. It’s a rather lengthy quote from the chapter, “The Goal of Counseling”. I believe that Dr. Crab has profoundly described the real root problem that has affected humanity since the fall. Unfortunately this problem faces each of us who follow Christ as well. All we have to do is look at so many of the Christian books today, The Christians secret of Happiness; Be all You Can Be; All We’re Meant to Be; The Total Woman, The fulfilled Women, and now one of the most popular Christian leaders to day Joel Osteen. Joel Osteen has one of the fastest growing Churches in America today. His books have been on some of the Top selling books in America many times, Your Best Life Now 7 steps to Living at Your Full Potential; It’s Your Time; Every Day a Friday: How to be Happier 7 days a Week. I’d like to say it’s not my intention to point the finger at Joel Osteen or anyone one person. I just wanted to demonstrate rather the idea that both the World and the Church have become obsessed with being happy as its goal in life. All you have to do is go to any book store and look under the self-help and you will see hundreds of books all with the goal of making us happier and more fulfilled. On happiness Dr. Crab says; Many of us place top priority not on becoming Christ like in the middle of our problems but on finding happiness. I want to be happy but the paradoxical truth is that I will never be happy if I am concerned primarily with becoming happy. My overriding goal must be in every circumstance to respond biblically, to put the Lord first, to seek behave as He would want me to. The wonderful truth is that as we devote all our energies to the task of becoming what Christ wants us to be, He fills us with joy unspeakable and peace far surpassing what the world offers. I must firmly and consciously by an act of my will reject the goal of becoming happy and adopt the goal of becoming more like the Lord. The result will be happiness for me as I learn to dwell at Gods right hand in fellowship with Christ. Our modern emphasis on personal wholeness, human potential, and freedom to be ourselves has quietly shifted us away from a burning concern for becoming more like the Lord to a more primary interest in our development as persons which, we are implicitly promised will lead to our happiness. How much of our life when we look at it in retrospect is given to the pursuit of personal peace and happiness. Most of the preaching in many churches today focuses on such topics as, having a happy marriage, being a fulfilled Christian or how to be all you can be. The bigger problem I think has been not so much the pursuit of happiness as a Christian, but in preaching a false Gospel with the goal of finding happiness and fulfillment or wealth and success in life. If we start out by preaching a self-serving gospel that lacks the meaning of true repentance of sin and desiring to be right with and know Him and have him as all we need, then the transition from looking to Christ because he can make you happy in life, to a church that continues this concept of being happy and having it all is natural. So in fact we have a false gospel and a church full of potentially members who are unsaved who have been taught the reason they needed Christ was because he has all the answers they need to be healthy wealthy and happy. Ray