by Cowboy Bob Sorensen
Pastor Chris "Fighting for the Faith" Rosebrough presented a lecture that I used as a springboard for this article.
First, some background on the spiritual condition. Western society has never had morality that we can be proud of, since it has been in a decline for quite a spell. And it's getting worse. Increasing violence, sexual immorality, atheism and other false religions, mental illness, abortion, defamation, lying, corruption at many levels, and so much more. How did we get in such a state?
The simple answer is sin, which began in Eden. It escalated (Gen. 6:5) and God judged the world with the Great Flood (Gen 7:23). It didn't take long for man's sinful nature to rear it's ugly head afterward, but God promised never to flood the entire world again (Gen. 9:14-15). Don't think we're getting out of this easily, because the next Judgement will be by fire (2 Peter 3:7) and we will all have to give an account of ourselves before God (Rom. 14:10-12).
A good part of the morality problem is because the church as a whole has been compromising on biblical standards, accepting naturalistic evolutionary views, and normalizing sinful activities. In the 18th century, a thing called "higher criticism" became accepted: although the Bible describes miracles as historical events, they became allegorized and "demythologized". Jesus rose from the dead? Nope, it means he rises in our hearts and gives us a new dawn. The Israelites crossed the Red Sea? Wrong again, it was a swampy region that wasn't all that deep (although how the Egyptian army drowned in a few inches of water is not explained by liberals). And so on, ad nauseum.
Now we get to take a fork in the trail and ride on toward science beliefs.
Science thrives in a Christian environment. Unfortunately, Christians began ceding science to materialists, like we did with theology. In the 1830s, Charles Lyell wrote Principles of Geology, and wanted to "free science from Moses", presenting geology to philosophical and methodological naturalism (which includes long ages). His work was an expansion of James Hutton's naturalistic views in the 16th century. Lyell influenced backslidden theology student Charles Darwin, who wrote On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, which was published in 1859. In 1871, Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, as well as other works over the years.
At first, Darwin's conjectures were met with rejection and often hostility, but people eventually settled down and began accepting long ages as well as one form of evolution or another; people who wanted excuses to reject God and appear intellectual were happy. Some professing Christians wanted to accommodate the current man-made science philosophies but still have a veneer of Bible belief, so they came up with the "Gap Theory", "Framework Hypothesis", and other untenable compromises.
Many of these compromises against the Word of God is based on faith in science and scientists. Somehow, people have bowed to the altar of Scientism, believing that empirical science is the way to truth, and that "science" will provide the answers to various problems. People also tend to think that scientists are bastions of integrity, and are free of personal biases. Not hardly! There are many instances of flawed peer review, plagiarism, bad scientific research, and outright fraud in the scientific community (both past and present). Here are some slightly edited comments I received while taking notes for this article:
Science, history, archaeology, logic, and a passel of other things support the truth of Scripture, but our faith is not based on current science trends. If your faith is based on scientific "facts" (which are frequently just speculations presented as science), where is your faith when those "facts" change? Let me give you something that applies to both morality and science: the so-called "gay gene". They were "born that way", so we have to let them have their immoral and rebellious lifestyles. Surprise! There is no "gay gene". Deviant-sexuality advocates are actually protesting! Seems to be the current trend to protest to try and change reality. One other point about false science and morality: evolution is used to justify abortion.
Bible-believing Christians are persecuted, including harassment, ridicule, and bullying. In some countries, our brothers and sisters in Christ are tortured and murdered for their faith, and that is coming West. Again I say that we need to know what and why we believe, and take our stand so we can be credible and effective in the world. In this pagan evolutionary culture, we would do well to pay attention to Joshua 24:15.
So, take a look-see. We rode a side trail for a spell, and ended up on the same one we started with. Both liberal "Christians" and atheists reject the authority of God's Word. There are theistic evolutionists who join hands with atheists in ridiculing biblical creationists, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a TE that doesn't act like an intolerant atheist. Lackadaisical professing Christians argue from materialistic, God-denying presuppositions. Our presupposition should be that the Bible really is God's Word, and is true from the very first verse. By letting trends of worldly society run rampant, letting atheistic interpretations of science underpin morality, and compromising on the Bible, we're equipping the enemies of Christ.
Morality and faith were compromised years ago because of intellectual-sounding philosophies from liberal theologians, and people also accommodated atheistic interpretations of science. These trends are accelerating. Now, even though liars for Darwin will call biblical creationists "science deniers" (based on the fallacy of equivocating evolution with science), they can still be given the truth. That is, if we truly believe the Bible. Are we willing to follow the commands of Jesus to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins and make disciples, or are we going to just float downstream?
If you'd like to hear the powerful lecture that tripped my trigger to write this, you can listen or download for free Chris Rosebrough's "Two Kingdoms The Church's Role in the Moral Decline of Society".
Pastor Chris "Fighting for the Faith" Rosebrough presented a lecture that I used as a springboard for this article.
First, some background on the spiritual condition. Western society has never had morality that we can be proud of, since it has been in a decline for quite a spell. And it's getting worse. Increasing violence, sexual immorality, atheism and other false religions, mental illness, abortion, defamation, lying, corruption at many levels, and so much more. How did we get in such a state?
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| Image credit: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
A good part of the morality problem is because the church as a whole has been compromising on biblical standards, accepting naturalistic evolutionary views, and normalizing sinful activities. In the 18th century, a thing called "higher criticism" became accepted: although the Bible describes miracles as historical events, they became allegorized and "demythologized". Jesus rose from the dead? Nope, it means he rises in our hearts and gives us a new dawn. The Israelites crossed the Red Sea? Wrong again, it was a swampy region that wasn't all that deep (although how the Egyptian army drowned in a few inches of water is not explained by liberals). And so on, ad nauseum.
Now we get to take a fork in the trail and ride on toward science beliefs.
Science thrives in a Christian environment. Unfortunately, Christians began ceding science to materialists, like we did with theology. In the 1830s, Charles Lyell wrote Principles of Geology, and wanted to "free science from Moses", presenting geology to philosophical and methodological naturalism (which includes long ages). His work was an expansion of James Hutton's naturalistic views in the 16th century. Lyell influenced backslidden theology student Charles Darwin, who wrote On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, which was published in 1859. In 1871, Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, as well as other works over the years.
At first, Darwin's conjectures were met with rejection and often hostility, but people eventually settled down and began accepting long ages as well as one form of evolution or another; people who wanted excuses to reject God and appear intellectual were happy. Some professing Christians wanted to accommodate the current man-made science philosophies but still have a veneer of Bible belief, so they came up with the "Gap Theory", "Framework Hypothesis", and other untenable compromises.
Many of these compromises against the Word of God is based on faith in science and scientists. Somehow, people have bowed to the altar of Scientism, believing that empirical science is the way to truth, and that "science" will provide the answers to various problems. People also tend to think that scientists are bastions of integrity, and are free of personal biases. Not hardly! There are many instances of flawed peer review, plagiarism, bad scientific research, and outright fraud in the scientific community (both past and present). Here are some slightly edited comments I received while taking notes for this article:
When I was a public school teacher and a bachelor, I shared a house with another bachelor teacher who taught biology at the same school. He was a Quaker and believed in Theistic Evolution. When confronted with Piltdown Man, Nebraska Man, etc., he would dismiss these as isolated incidents of fraud. When I gave causes for motivation for fraud similar to those cited in this article [I was given a link to "Why the epidemic of fraud exists in science today"], including man's sin nature, my friend would say "But they (scientists) just wouldn't do that!" He blindly believed in the moral and professional integrity of ALL scientists, except for perhaps YECS.You may have noticed atheists' smug disdain toward the Bible heats up when it comes to the question of origins. The religion of atheism needs evolution to be their mythology of beginnings, and they fight with all they have to destroy the truth. A serious problem is that far too many Christians do not take a stand for the truth, or even know the contents of the Bible that they claim to believe! Then Christians are deceived by intellectual-sounding arguments from poor atheist philosophers like C. Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye the Propaganda Guy, and other tinhorns.
Science, history, archaeology, logic, and a passel of other things support the truth of Scripture, but our faith is not based on current science trends. If your faith is based on scientific "facts" (which are frequently just speculations presented as science), where is your faith when those "facts" change? Let me give you something that applies to both morality and science: the so-called "gay gene". They were "born that way", so we have to let them have their immoral and rebellious lifestyles. Surprise! There is no "gay gene". Deviant-sexuality advocates are actually protesting! Seems to be the current trend to protest to try and change reality. One other point about false science and morality: evolution is used to justify abortion.
Bible-believing Christians are persecuted, including harassment, ridicule, and bullying. In some countries, our brothers and sisters in Christ are tortured and murdered for their faith, and that is coming West. Again I say that we need to know what and why we believe, and take our stand so we can be credible and effective in the world. In this pagan evolutionary culture, we would do well to pay attention to Joshua 24:15.
So, take a look-see. We rode a side trail for a spell, and ended up on the same one we started with. Both liberal "Christians" and atheists reject the authority of God's Word. There are theistic evolutionists who join hands with atheists in ridiculing biblical creationists, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a TE that doesn't act like an intolerant atheist. Lackadaisical professing Christians argue from materialistic, God-denying presuppositions. Our presupposition should be that the Bible really is God's Word, and is true from the very first verse. By letting trends of worldly society run rampant, letting atheistic interpretations of science underpin morality, and compromising on the Bible, we're equipping the enemies of Christ.
Morality and faith were compromised years ago because of intellectual-sounding philosophies from liberal theologians, and people also accommodated atheistic interpretations of science. These trends are accelerating. Now, even though liars for Darwin will call biblical creationists "science deniers" (based on the fallacy of equivocating evolution with science), they can still be given the truth. That is, if we truly believe the Bible. Are we willing to follow the commands of Jesus to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins and make disciples, or are we going to just float downstream?
If you'd like to hear the powerful lecture that tripped my trigger to write this, you can listen or download for free Chris Rosebrough's "Two Kingdoms The Church's Role in the Moral Decline of Society".