The Cosmology ‘Bomb’ Has to Hit

The Cosmology ‘Bomb’ has to hit

By Jay Wegter

Ignorance of Biblical Cosmology makes Believers Vulnerable to Confusion

A great problem in the church today is that millennials have been blind-sided by a pagan worldview that is so heavily politicized our young people are unable to discern its heretical nature. As a consequence our own culture has become a new kind of mission field. America used to be a powerhouse of mission-sending to the four corners of the world. But, now our nation is incubating the worst kind of heresy, for the West has decided that there is no such thing as divine law; nature is all there is. The present rising generation is the first one in western history to be presented with a comprehensive pagan worldview.ⁱ

SHANE: People can think this way but they cannot live this way. Nobody can live as a relativist. Should’s and ought’s become a hot button when dealing with a person that has rejected a divine law giver. “You shouldn’t force your morality on me.” Why not? Self-refuting.

Pagan cosmology is a reconfiguration of the way we think, especially about our sexuality

SHANE: Connection between cosmology, paganism (false religion) and sexual perversion.

People are imagining that they can create their own reality, as if law emanates from them. This pagan ideology is an all-inclusive, self-justifying cosmology (the outgrowth of a self-centered, not God-centered lifestyle). When the New Age movement first offered itself in America, this ‘way out’ way of thinking was an invitation for some to ‘drop out’ of the accepted flow of society in order to seek individual enlightenment. But, now the New Age has gone mainstream and the evidence that its pagan cosmology is here is that this monist worldview is now being applied to everything in our culture. This is evidenced by the fact that the deconstruction of gender and sexuality is welcomed as the pure expression of self—without restraint upon self-expression. Freedom is now being defined as unhindered, unrestrained self-expression.

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SHANE: Psalm 2

Think of some of the buzz-words used in conjunction with today’s social issues: equality, inclusion, fairness, love, justice, tolerance, non-discrimination, etc. What is remarkable is that each of these terms is now being redefined by the progressive left—and so much so that any attempt to retain God-ordained distinctions including the male-female binary, is considered a violation of each of these values! What a ‘carnival shell game’—for these terms formerly flowed from a theistic worldview, but now they have been hijacked by the left and have been twisted to mean something entirely different, all in the defense of evil. What gauntlet of confusion awaits our young people as they enter our public schools.

You now have young adults that grew up with a the remnants of a Christian worldview that have gone through the slight of hand secularization process and don’t even realize it.

The Equality Act would protect U.S. citizens from discrimination based on sexual identity and gender identity by amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the most revered accomplishments of the civil rights movement, which banned discrimination based on race, religion, sex and national origin.

This act attempts to create law to include sexual perversion as if it’s sacred as DNA.

SHANE: Glorification of sin. Unrestrained, seared conscience.

The radical nature of this moral revolution would not have found traction 30 or 40 years ago, for the fumes of Christian worldview still held that heterosexual marriage constituted the building blocks of a civilized society. A little over a generation ago, freedom rested upon the form and foundation of biblical theism. Some of the ethics still remain today, even though the Christian base and form which once supported them has now been removed. But, it won’t be long before the ethics are completely replaced. Because now, with the erasing of every God-ordained distinction, the concept of freedom has been reduced to merely human impulse. C. S. Lewis warned that when virtue evaporates, the only ‘foundation’ remaining will be animal passion.

ⁱⁱⁱ Christians who are millennials are far too easily silenced by the arguments from the left, such as “who are you to place your morals on others, if two men love one another, who are you to judge them and say they cannot marry?” It is this author’s contention that the reason our young people are mute in the face of progressivism’s assault is that they have never been taught biblical cosmology.

SHANE: They’ve only understood things from the vantage point of law instead of creation and order. This has caused many to over time have a distorted view of God’s character. As with our first parents, God begins to look as if he can’t be trusted. A Tyrant who wants to rule with a heavy hand. A cosmic killjoy. Doubt begins to settle in and plausible progressive arguments begin to sound more convincing.

There is a movement gaining traction in evangelicalism.

The influence of Christian deconstructionism. A new generation is re-thinking what they've been told about Christianity, the Bible and what it means to be a follower of Jesus. They argue a 'new reformation' is taking place as they voice their doubts and embrace a process known as theological deconstruction. Those who have walked this road say it's a life-giving and ultimately faith-affirming process

SHANE: When a vacuum is left it is most assuredly filled. The culture’s shift away from an external biblical epistemology to one that is internal (pagan), has turned over our method of knowing to the subjective. When truth becomes subjective knowing is reduced to the empirical and consequently you have an epistemology built on feelings and emotions. This is the equivalent of building a house on the sandy beach shore. This is the method of knowing that drives nearly every cultural and political hot button today. Abortion, LGBTQ issues, heterosexual monogamist marriage, climate change, modern art and music, national border protection, sanctuary city’s, social justice, evangelical liberalism, legalization of mind-altering drugs, and a host of other issues can all be reduced to an epistemology rooted in nothing more than feelings. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” (Satans gospel). This is all tied to a pagan cosmology that has an invisible father that controls the cultural mood and his deception isn’t fickle or arbitrary. It is begotten by an anti-Christ who happens to be the second most powerful being in the Universe who preys on biblically incredulous hosts, unregenerate and rebellious human beings. Meet the architect and father of today’s cosmology, Lucifer.

Central to biblical cosmology is that God creates by separating things: light from darkness, land from sea, woman from man.

Then He sanctifies, or hallows these distinctions and pronounces them both good, perfect, and holy (Gen 1:31). His work in creating these distinctions is the foundation for the created order. And the created order is intimately tied to teleology.

The primary distinction undergirding the distinctions God has placed in creation is the distinction between Creator and creature. As sovereign Creator, God is the distinction-maker, we honor Him by honoring the distinctions He has formed. But, the opposite is rebellion, and its consequences are sobering: Satan gains followers when people reject the distinctions God has made (Peter Jones). By contrast, it is our duty to exalt God’s transcendence and omnipotence—that is the starting point in biblical cosmology. For the creation is utterly dependent upon God, therefore the creation gives praise, it does not receive praise. Pagan cosmology immediately departs from biblical theism at this foundational juncture. For pagan cosmology places everything in the circle of a self-existent, autonomous creation including the divine. Thus, pagan cosmology is pantheistic because it affirms that everything is infused with the divine. As Christians who are ‘salt and light’ we need to be able to explain to our young adults that it is the height of arrogance to suggest that a human shares the same essence as God, and is therefore divine.

In biblical cosmology we define the creation as God does. Just as in Acts 17 in Paul’s sermon to the Athenian philosophers, we cannot know the creation as it truly is, and we cannot know our place in the creation apart from knowing God and knowing His relation to the creation. For, the entire cosmos is a kind of theater of God’s glory, for according to Romans one, the creation is a sacred teaching device which infallibly reveals God’s divine nature and attributes.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse (Rom 1:18-20).

Pagan cosmology desacralizes or profanes the creation by suggesting that the cosmos is self-originating, self-sustaining, and self-defining.

By contrast, the truthfulness of biblical cosmology asserts that we are utterly dependent upon God and that our Creator has an absolute claim upon us, His creatures. And, central to His claim upon us is that God requires holiness from His creatures and that holiness means honoring the creation structures and distinctions which He Himself has formed and hallowed. This absolute claim is inseparable from the fact that among the innumerable orders of creatures which God has formed, there is but one order of creatures that exists to bear the image of God. We were created in our Maker’s moral image. His moral law is written upon our conscience (Rom 2:14-16). Therefore, every person instinctively knows that God’s holy and just character is the law of His universe.

SHANE: Every human being is born with an acute awareness of God’s moral majesty and his or her individual duty to uphold it (Rom 1:18-23). This is illustrated in the reality that regardless of a society’s religious, cultural or political identity, civil laws across the globe are constructed with the same moral DNA – the ten commandments. Murder is a punishable crime in all four corners of the world. That does not come from a pagan cosmology. Shafer – Gods character is the law of the universe.

Our image-bearing according to Genesis, immediately describes male and female. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27). As man and woman, we reflect God as distinct from one another in our sexuality. We carry this holy image and are answerable to God for how we reflect His character and distinctions. Our culture’s anti-genderism has been making a concerted effort to flatten out the distinction between genders in the name of equality. This endeavor, says Dr. Peter Jones is ultimately a push for an omni-gendered utopian society imagined by the progressives.

Our former Madam Secretary of State worked against the oppression of women in developing countries—accomplishing good to some degree. But, at the same time she was waging a fight against vital elements of biblical theism by opposing the role of fathers and husbands as described in Scripture. To destructively attack all patriarchy as the cause of the oppression of women is misguided. In Hillary Clinton’s War for Women’s Rights, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon said the following: “Patriarchy is powerful, but it is fragile, and transgender people confound its simple dichotomies,” (March 5, 2011). The patriarchal authority of God the Father is central to redemption. In theology we study the ontological Trinity (the one-ness of God though tri-personal and co-equal), and the economic Trinity (in which a hierarchy exists within the Godhead, a division of labor in redemption and in authority and glory) (1Cor 11:3-19ff.; 15:24-28). Wayne Grudem writes:

In the work of redemption there are also distinct functions. God the Father planned redemption and sent His Son into the world (Jn 3:16; Gal 4:4; Eph 1:9-10). The Son obeyed the Father and accomplished redemption for us (Jn 3:38; Heb 10: 5-7, et al). God the Father did not come and die for our sins, nor did the Holy Spirit. That was the particular work of the Son.ⁱᵛ

Transgenderism is an attempt by the powers of darkness to defame

God and enslave human beings by obscuring the created order

Transgenderism is not solely a push for redefining sexual and gender boundaries, it is not only the rejection of God-ordained chromosomal gender identity (M and F as the image of God), it is also a philosophy about destroying patriarchy. This error also strikes at the heart of the gospel—for propitiation is accomplished in a Trinitarian manner: “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:14). Believers know God Almighty as the atoning God and the atoned for God.

In Holy Scripture, the story of redemption begins within the context of gender. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel” (Gen 3:15). Also, in the formation of Adam’s bride, Eve’s creation prefigures Christ forming His bride, the church (Gen 2:21-23). Adam underwent a deep death-like sleep in order that he might give the flesh of his side (flesh of his rib) for his bride’s origin and her life. “The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen 2:22-23). So also, Christ gives His flesh to raise the church to life. “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh” (Jn 6:51). “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless” (Eph 5:25-27).

Gender is near and dear to the heart of God—for gender is involved in

the mystery of redemption

The marriage metaphor is central in revealing and making God known savingly the work of Christ to believing sinners. “This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:32). Herman Bavinck notes that God Almighty formed the distinctions in creation and has spelled out the relations between those distinctions. Thus we honor God when we carefully honor the distinctions and their relations which God has placed in the world.ᵛ This glorious redemptive love described in Ephesians chapter five is made possible only because of distinctions inherent in God’s design in creation (and in the distinction between God and us His creatures). Christ’s substitutionary death is the sphere in which our spiritual resurrection takes place (believers are ‘crucified and raised with Him’—co-crucifixion, co-burial, covivification, co-resurrection, co-glorification—Ephesians 2:4-7; Colossians 2:11-14). This is all about complementarity—the fitted-ness of one for the other. Christ and the church, man and woman—union is possible because of complementary differences—the fitted-ness of one for the other! Think just how much our adoration of Christ turns upon His fitted-ness to recover, rescue, and raise His Bride dead in her sinful corruptions. So much genuine Christian piety involves exalting Christ by continually

matching His perfect suitability for every aspect of our

ruin. It is complementarity from start to finish. The consecrated saint is always about the business of matching the dimensions of Christ’s Saviorhood with our sinnership—His work of redemption with our ruin. “For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (Heb 7:26-27). The Lord has told us: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but ᵃlike the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’ ” (1 Pet 1:14-16).

Submission to God’s loving authority and wisdom is inseparable from

our highest good, and indispensable to our calling

According to 2 Corinthians 7:1, we are to bring holiness to completion as the people of God: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” This is not a theory. It is a way of living, it is what it means to live a life unto God. In the New Testament the word submission is used 76 times. Because we have been conditioned by feminism and individualism to be suspicious of that word ‘submission’, we do not see its value in connection with the dominion mandate (our subduing of the earth as His viceregents unto the His glory). Therefore, we tend not to see the word submission as taking hold of the world God has made, and then living out that holy place that God has made for us. This is where we have a profound opportunity to teach millennials (and all genuine believers) the ABC’s of biblical cosmology. For submission to the creation structures that God has ordained (marriage, family, gender, sexuality, law, government, gainful employment, revealed truth, His definition of beauty, etc.) does not mean we are being forced into a role we do not want. What is actually intended is that we respond with a joyful recognition of the nature of God’s creation and then find our place in it, living out our calling unto His glory.ᵛⁱ

SHANE: “Identity” has become a buzzword among young people today. Find my identity, looking for an identity, I have no identity. Since the vast majority of young people have no answer to ultimate questions while maintaining an innate desire to belong and find purpose young men and woman take a wildly distorted cosmology and create for themselves a pseudo-identity. They have something to say and make for themselves an identity that suits their preferred method of expression to themselves and the world around them.

Christianity starts with who God is and this is who man is. Therefore, identity is given, defined and becomes the starting place for living. To live according to divine revelation starts with the acceptance of fundamental realities: I am a man, I am a sinner, I am dependent upon the creator. A biblical anthropology liberates man, a pagan anthropology says: I am sexually and biologically whoever I want to be, I am glorious with divine potential, I am self-sufficient, self-sustaining and self-empowering and my own deliverer.

Submission to God’s order enables man to properly exegete the creation which in turn enables him to flourish in subduing the creation. Rejecting a biblical cosmology reduces mans ability for effectiveness in his role as vice regent (vice regent carries with it the idea of protection, work, restraining, governing, nurturing). Think of the billions spent to reduce a carbon footprint in order to preserve future life while at the same time murdering thousands of babies daily in the womb. Like a pair of well knitted gloves, maintaining a biblical cosmology is crucial to a society that intends to prosper in complementing God as ruler.

Thus, submission is an exhortation to take control of the place where God has put you. Submission is everyone’s calling. Jesus was called to submission, and according to 1 Corinthians 15:28, He will continue to be in submission to the Father throughout eternity. Children submit to their parents within the family structure, the wife to the husband. A Christian wife gladly sees the distinction of the roles as a holy thing, and finds her place in a God-ordained structure to live out the full significance of who she is. This is very much tied to the meaning of holy matrimony; its holiness involves the celebration of the distinctions God has created. In our culture of ruthless, self-willed individualism, we don’t tend to view the individual as finding his or her fulfillment in the alignment of one’s life in joyful faith before God to the cosmic structures which He has created and in which we find our rightful place.ᵛⁱⁱ And, as Al Mohler recently commented, “The political left measures everything by choice, but in order to think that way, biblical cosmology must be completely abandoned.”ᵛⁱⁱⁱ There it is in a nutshell, the secularists have defined everything associated with freedom as absolute autonomous choice. Democratization’s ‘advances’ now exclude bowing to our Creator. In the cosmology of the left, liberty is found in freedom from divine design. In biblical cosmology, freedom is found within divine design. Is it any wonder that the left’s ‘unrestrained’ vision of freedom is a race towards divine judgment.

SHANE: Submission is God’s way of empowering a person. This is who you are, I have fitted you for this role, and I have promised to bless you as you fulfill it. This is empowerment.

In the cosmology of the Bible, our calling in God’s cosmic structure is a place for us to be faithful. Our work in our area of calling or place in the world is how we bring a holy offering to God. The place in which we are deployed is that of a kind of stake holder in God’s holy cosmos. It’s a place where through our faithfulness we are stewards of God’s glory. But, consider how far the West has moved into paganism. For, today our culture denies that God has structured our cosmos and our sexuality.ⁱˣ

If our young people are to come to an understanding of biblical cosmology, then they must become aware of this concept of stake holder in God’s ordered cosmos, for we do not structure reality, God does. Therefore, pagan cosmology’s soul-destroying lie that the creation is but an illusion, or simply raw material from which one may construct the self is but a repetition of the ancient lie that you shall be as God. The pride of man is based upon ignorance —the greater the pride, the greater the ignorance. But this arrogance is a very temporary thing, for God’s Kingdom is coming. It will fill the earth and the cosmos. He will vindicate His holiness in time-space history at the Day of the Lord. The day is coming soon in which He will make His glorious presence known in the New Jerusalem, the holy city in Zion.

SHANE: Nebuchadnezzar’s snatched mind is a picture of the “giving over” of Romans 1 at ludicrous speed. The willful suppression of the creature/creator distinction is the self-relinquishing of sanity. Moral relativism is the willful giving over of ones ability to ration and come to reasonable moral conclusions.

When we acknowledge our transcendent creator God, and we recognize we are not Him but instead are completely reliant upon Him , our reason returns.

The “giving over” judgments of Romans 1 are the natural self-induced consequences of failing to recognize a transcendent creator. Futility of thought is the result of attempting to live in a naturalistic worldview where all you have is time and chance interacting with matter.

This we could say, is the suppression of the correspondence view of truth. That truth must have a corresponding reality. To suppress the evidential reality of the senses is to suppress truth.

For example: Natural law understands that something doesn’t come from nothing. So if we have something, matter, then correspondingly there must be a creator of that matter. If we have universal moral law, then we have a transcendent moral law giver. (nobody can live consistently without recognizing objective morality).

Thanklessness is a symptom of the failure to see the creator as source person. To live a life within the creature creator distinction is a prerequisite to gratitude. If God is creator then He is the suzerain and man is naturally the vassal. The creator is naturally owed worship (thankfulness) from the created.

Our pagan culture has done everything in its power to suppress the reality of two-ism (Peter Jones). This requires constant pressure. Like holding a beachball underwater the best oneists can do is work overtime to attempt to explain and live in a cosmos who’s very existence is to glorify its creator (Ps 19).

Today in the West, the two-ist religion of God, has been replaced by paganism, the one ist religion of man. The west has swapped gods, and man has diligently gnashed his teeth in his madness to overthrow God and install himself as the sovereign. The state is simply the means by which tyranny can be manipulated to rid itself of any opposers. Today the state is seen as the collective muscle of the people and the media its pagan mascot.

As it was at Babel, there is an alliance between mystery pagan religion and the vision of a statist society. Following Nimrod, our society worships man’s autonomy and projects upon God mans falsified glory. It is a serious offense to challenge a person’s self-glorification because self-worship is manifest in the pluralistic religion of the deified state. Humanism’s ideal of peace, unity, and brotherhood mimics God, makes his own route to God, and usurps the prerogatives of divinity. Today we see everywhere in the west a pluralistic religion with a common core, the promoting of a deified humanity and the belief that there is a pantheistic spiritual force behind everything. This is in stark contrast to the religious skepticism that characterized the post modern movement. As Peter Jones has said, todays paganism comes with a comprehensive worldview. Today, we see a counterfeit spirituality that sets forth an already/not yet movement towards a utopian world order. In pagan religion, man's idea becomes the standard of truth. Whatever man determines is what is real. Man decides to be his own deliverer, deifies himself, and seeks to restore paradise through his own enterprising.

This paganism is active in modern culture and has infiltrated deep inside the Christian church.

The state is taking its directions from the humanists. The people are no longer asking the question what does God want, but are now asking, what do the people want. Laws aren’t based on objective morality from the moral law giver but are now subjective moral demands based upon the evil cravings of the people.

Humanists have won the battle and are planting their ideological flag deeper and deeper into the American soul. They’ve removed God and His transcendent, immutable character and replaced Him with an ever-evolving morality defined by the whole of society.

The problem is, He’s still creator and His laws aren’t on the ballot. Man wants to make the rules but the problem is, the rules are untouchable. They can’t be changed, altered or ignored, - they can be vandalized, they can be perverted, but they can’t be erased. There exists an infinite chasm between the creature and the creator. Attempting to remove this distinction in society is likened to riding a bicycle on a train track. Its hard enough to keep the front tire going straight and then there is the impending doom of a 20,000 ton freight train coming at 50 mph. Man stands no chance when God comes in His fierce anger to destroy the wicked. In Christ, God is establishing an everlasting kingdom which will shatter all kingdoms of men (Ps. 2:9; 110:5-6; Isa. 9:6-7; 1 Tim. 6:15; Hag. 2:22, Dan. 2:44-45; 7:27).

In His coming Kingdom, God has glorious assignments for His elect

But, these rewards are clearly based upon faithfulness as a stake holder now. For our present challenge to live holy lives by honoring the distinctions He has made and fulfilling our part in the place in which He has situated us. This role as a faithful stake holder is very much tied to our assignment in the coming Kingdom. Thus, this truth of stewarding our calling unto the glory of God brings cosmology down to a very personal level. Our young people (saved believers) will experience a kind of paradigm shift when they begin to understand that their present faithfulness and holiness in honoring God’s distinctions is very much tied to how they are being prepared for their role in the coming Kingdom.

How little we think of a day in which cosmic holiness will fill the universe. In the new heavens and the new earth (2 Pet 3:11-13), every single thing will be in its proper place. Every created thing will fulfill the purpose for which it is made and therefore honor and glorify God. Every vestige of corruption, decay, and perversion will be gone. The glory of God will cover the earth as the ocean covers the sea floor (Hab 2:14; Is 11:9). This cosmic holiness will be absolutely stunning and beautiful. The true child of God must be controlled and animated by this hope of glory.

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them (Heb 11:13-16).

We are aliens and strangers in an enemy occupied world—our true citizenship is in the coming Kingdom of God (1 Pet 1:1; Phil 3:20-21).

God’s design for the family, husbands-fathers, wives-mothers and children is teleological and this reality should be plainly obvious.

SHANE: God has designed creation so that how we live out our individual roles is directly tied to our societies ability to thrive. God’s design for the family, husbands-fathers, wives-mothers and children is teleological and this reality should be plainly obvious. As C.S Lewis has stated,

“I do not believe that God created an egalitarian world. I believe the authority of parent over child, husband over wife, learned over simple to have been as much a part of the original plan as the authority of man over beast.”

To be a faithful steward of God’s purpose is joined to being a faithful steward of the gospel. For faithful servanthood in God’s design, purpose and goal for the nuclear family and the branching out of society as a whole, provides a living picture of the union Christ shares with his bride.

Egalitarianism destroys the means by which the gospel displays itself in the lives of God’s people practically. When a pagan neighbor witnesses a thriving loving marriage that is cognizant in respecting marital roles through headship it gives a portrait of “holy matrimony”.

A Biblical, complementarian marriage gives a living picture of Christ’s suitableness for His own bride. When children are restrained and raised within the discipline and admonition of the Lord, including the careful and protective oversight of their education and character the family provides a beautiful gospel portrait to a watching world.

The West has become increasingly antagonistic toward biblical patriarchy. The broader social justice movement, BLM, LBGTQ, and feminist movements are all lubricated by a deep seated hatred of biblical patriarchy. Yet, nearly every argument made against biblical patriarchy is saturated with fallacious straw men and ad hominem argumentation that illustrates that these movements are rooted in ignorance and rebellion.

Scripture destroys these arguments by developing a theology of biblical fatherhood that is masculine, loving, protective, nurturing, gentle and selfless.

Consider a foundational passage in (Numbers 30:3–16). Here we find much wisdom to garner about the authority of responsible, concerned and actively involved male headship.

We would do well in the current feminist climate of hellbent hatred toward male headship and authority in general to pay close attention to our duty as fathers, husbands and wives heeding with great care what the Lord says here.

Numbers 30:3–16.

“If a woman vows a vow to the LORD and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father’s house in her youth, 4 and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. 5 But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the LORD will forgive her, because her father opposed her.

6 “If she marries a husband, while under her vows or any thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself, 7 and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand. 8 But if, on the day that her husband comes to hear of it, he opposes her, then he makes void her vow that was on her, and the thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she bound herself. And the LORD will forgive her. 9 (But any vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, anything by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.) 10 And if she vowed in her husband’s house or bound herself by a pledge with an oath, 11 and her husband heard of it and said nothing to her and did not oppose her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she bound herself shall stand. 12 But if her husband makes them null and void on the day that he hears them, then whatever proceeds out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning her pledge of herself shall not stand. Her husband has made them void, and the LORD will forgive her. 13 Any vow and any binding oath to afflict herself, her husband may establish, or her husband may make void. 14 But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows or all her pledges that are upon her. He has established them, because he said nothing to her on the day that he heard of them. 15 But if he makes them null and void after he has heard of them, then he shall bear her iniquity.”

16 These are the statutes that the LORD commanded Moses about a man and his wife and about a father and his daughter while she is in her youth within her father’s house.

Note: 1. This command honors parental authority. 2. This command requires much watchfulness on the part of the husband and father. 3. This command requires a high level of discernment over the affairs of the family on the part of the husband and father. 4. This command is God's design to foster order, protection and blessing within a family.

Satan has asserted his dominance in today's rebel culture by dismembering the nuclear family piece by piece. The church needs real men of God to stand firm, act like men in the Spirit of the second Adam and crush that serpent’s head by faithful and loving obedience to God's order and design. This takes a man of faith, guts and a solid backbone. At our departure we will be evaluated by the chief evaluator in this matter and we will all be held accountable. God help us.

Satan knows he cannot destroy the true Seed, that is Christ, but he can attack the offspring of the Seed by deforming and perverting its functional gospel testimony.

Embracing a Biblical Cosmology restores order in the culture and has a very practical purpose in explaining the gospel by living it out in the most basic building blocks of civilization (i.e. the father-led family). (See: Gen 18:19; 1 Cor 14:25; Num 30; Acts 11:14; 16:31-32; 17:31).

Biblical cosmology not only includes origins, structure, and purpose but also the destiny of the universe and its human stewards

As God “stretched out” the universe providing a breathtaking canopy of countless stars we see one of many examples in the scripture where the creation provides profound gospel insights into what God is doing spiritually with His people.

To “pitch a tent”, “stretch out”, “numerous as the sands”, “countless as the stars” are inspired phrases analogous to the divine blessing of the abundant pro-creation of God’s children.

Consider the fertility of Zion spoken of in Isaiah 54:1-3. In a very practical way, God’s children are to live lives that embrace their role as God’s glory pointers by “stretching out” their sphere of influence. “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman,” says the Lord. “Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs. “For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations and will resettle the desolate cities.”

The gospel brings biblical patriarchy back into the home (Mal. 4:6). Which is key to a flourishing civilization. It is no small thing that the Old Testament ends with the reminder of the hastening coming of the Day of the Lord with these words,

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

In other words, though destruction is imminent for the wicked, the mercy of the Lord in salvation will be first dispensed through the core of the nuclear family. This is a prophetic declaration to restore biblical patriarchy as the generational means of grace by which the gospel would be proclaimed and demonstrated for the salvation of countless elect children.

It is no wonder the vice of godless people and its lynchpin the state, is so hellbent on removing children from the home (note John Dewey). For, Satan cannot bear to see God’s plan of salvation executed according to His Sovereign Word.

The academy, popular culture, and the media are dogmatically teaching us a pagan, Gentile cosmology

Our universities are teaching our youth that the essentials of human flourishing are grounded in pagan cosmology—in a society in which God-ordained distinctions have been removed. Our public universities are determined to separate Christian students from their biblical worldview and replace that worldview/cosmology with a pagan one. It is no accident that paganism is violently opposed to patriarchy. For, from the fatherhood of God issues His moral government and from the fatherhood of God the Son of God is sent to be the heart of the good news of the gospel and the King of the kingdom of God. But, in the fall in Eden, human and angelic sin turned our world upside down. God’s chain of order and honor was flipped upside down in the rebellion. For, prior to apostasy, in the unfallen creation, the animals were subject to the man and woman. The woman was subject to the man, and the man was subject to God. But, in the temptation and the fall, a creature (the serpent) deceives the woman who then leads her husband into sin, and then he abandons God.

SHANE: (See: Homeschooling: Parent Rights Absolutism vs. Child Rights to Education & Protection) Here is the intro to the article summarizing the “problem”: “this article describes the rapidly growing homeschooling phenomenon, and the threat it poses to children and society. Homeschooling activists have in recent decades largely succeeded in their deregulation campaign, overwhelming legislators with aggressive advocacy. As a result, parents can now keep their children at home in the name of homeschooling free from any real scrutiny as to whether or how they are educating their children. Many homeschool precisely because they want to isolate their children from ideas and values central to our democracy. Many promote racial segregation and female subservience. Many question science. Many are determined to keep their children from exposure to views that might enable autonomous choice about their future lives. Abusive parents can keep their children at home free from the risk that teachers will report them to child protection services. Some homeschool precisely for this reason. This article calls for a radical transformation in the homeschooling regime, and a related rethinking of child rights and reframing of constitutional doctrine. It recommends a presumptive ban on homeschooling, with the burden on parents to demonstrate justification for permission to homeschool.”

Role reversal in the family is a stamp of a pagan cosmology and is designed to halt the transmission mechanism of God. Father to children.

Thus, as a result of the fall in Eden, we now have an upside down world in which unregenerate humans are subject to the creation and the devil (the serpent of old) (Eph 2:1-2).

And, in which the glory of God has been exchanged for that of an ox and creeping things (Rom 1:22-23). Therefore, it should not surprise us that paganism is bitterly opposed to the patriarchy and has a strong affinity for the divine mother. Destroy the patriarchy and you lose the gospel and you lose the economy of grace and you lose the moral government of God. Consider the size of the challenge we face. Our youth are victims of LGBTQ propaganda. They should be witnesses for the gospel and they ought to be bold worldview-changers, but, instead they are mute. Christian millennials feel utterly stranded between two worldviews. And because they have not been trained in biblical cosmology to exercise discernment, they feel helpless when the political left defines the two antithetical choices as either heartless Bible dogma (‘hate’), versus loving social justice.

SHANE: One way the devil brings chaos is through the confusion of language. Whoever owns the language owns the conversation. Meaning the manipulation of language is central to the mind control needed to silence Christian opposition.

As biblical commentator D.A Carson has said, "A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text." In similar fashion, humanism uses words such as “Love”, “hate” without context to insert its own meaning. Hate has become synonymous for anything that isn’t full unquestioned affirmation and acceptance of progressive moral talking points. Words like “love” and “hate” are meaningless without a direct object.

I hate child molestation. I hate abortion. I love abortion. Now we have something we can affirm or reject.

The words love and hate now have new definitions, but what millennials do not see is that the new definitions been cast and framed within the worldview of pagan cosmology. So, when our Christian young people face the choice of speaking a word for Christ or being silent, they find the choice immensely easy—they choose silence. In part, this is because of their blindness to the nature and consequences of pagan cosmology. What the rising generation of millennials do not see, is that the vast majority of inner workings of pagan cosmology is concealed from sight. This is much like the iceberg analogy in which 90% of the iceberg is out of sight, below the waterline. Our young people only see the behavior and the moral messaging which is the 10% above the waterline. In other words, they know all too well the content of the reigning, shrill narrative of the LBGTQ agenda with its counterfeit ‘virtue signaling’, but, what they do not see is the 90% beneath the waterline. What they don’t see is that America has changed religions—biblical theism has been supplanted by a political religion (a false religion which has its own cosmology). The O.T. prophet Jeremiah rebukes the inhabitants of Judah in Jeremiah when he thunders, “Has a nation changed gods when they were not gods? But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit” (Jer 2:11).

SHANE: We need to use biblical cosmology to detect the dangers lurking below the surface. (Autolycus or “Sniffer” was a method for detecting submerged submarines from aircraft first implemented during World War II.) We need to see Satan’s schemes in advance. A biblical cosmology includes not only creation but is also very much eschatological. From beginning to end the Christian meta-narrative is dripping with Cosmology. We have the script ahead of time and become dangerous arrows in the hands of God, if our tip is sharp enough (Rev 1:3; Ps 127:4).

In biblical theism, the truth that mankind is created in the image and likeness of God functions philosophically as a divinely ordained ‘vantage point’ from which all other truth claims concerning worldview may be evaluated.

When human sexuality is viewed from this divine view point, we see an immense watershed, or continental divide. Like a mountaintop rising to a sharp peak, human sexuality serves as a ‘fulcrum’ which forces one to declare his or her worldview. In other words, your spirituality defines (reveals) is manifested in) in your view of sexuality. States Peter Jones, “The two views of sexuality in our world emerge from two timeless religious options (which are tied to two fundamental worldviews). How we order our sexuality is one of the most telling/revealing indices of a civilization. Actually, how we do order our sexuality will determine whether our civilization will survive.”ˣ Thus, at the heart of worldview is how the sexual body is to be used. Therefore, sexuality is the inescapable divider—one cannot balance on the needle-sharp tip of the mountain peak, one will either come down one side of the mountain or the other—either on the biblical cosmology side of the mountain, or the pagan cosmology side.

These two mutually exclusive worldviews (biblical cosmology and pagan cosmology) are driving the culture war (which conceals a spiritual war). For, consider that the two moral/social issues were vigorously debated in the 2020 presidential election: 1) abortion on demand, and 2) LGBTQ ‘rights’.ˣⁱ By enshrining choice (for both abortion, and erotic ‘freedom’), it is clear that the political left is now advocating a pagan worldview/cosmology in which man is not the image of God. By exalting choice as the liberation of self, of self-expression and self-identification, it is clear that just beneath this idolatrous autonomy is a pagan cosmology which gives tacit permission to worship the self. That is demonic, for it grants tacit permission to rail against the distinctions which God has established—and that is tantamount to oppose the God who formed those distinctions for His glory.

Thus, as Christian worldview recedes in the West, the culture of death (abortion, immorality, euthanasia, etc.) will enthusiastically claim every square foot of territory that has been abandoned by biblical theism. And, with this eagerness to ‘liberate’ our culture from the remnants of its ‘Christian harness’ comes the wholehearted rejection that our human identity and dignity rest upon the fact we are image-bearers of our Creator. The progressive left’s pagan cosmology constantly telegraphs that the priority of choice overshadows any assertion that the dignity and sanctity of life that are at stake in these matters.

SHANE: Sanity has left the reservation. Like a shipwreck off a rocky coast, we are witnessing the wreckage of a naturalistic, materialistic and therefore morally relativistic world view. Nevertheless, the rejection of our creational identity as the image of God has a primary role in the ploy to justify the current moral revolution. Bearing the image of our Maker comes with massive and profound consequences; we owe God conformity to His moral law. What happens to societies that abandon the knowledge of God? History reveals a record of spiritual and physical carnage whenever a culture has denied mankind’s creational identity as the image of God.

Disaster awaits if we approach differing cosmologies with a ‘pluralistic’ attitude

We cannot afford to hide our heads in the sand by relegating this replacement of cosmologies (biblical replaced by pagan) to nothing more than political differences. For, biblical cosmology is the indispensable foundation of the gospel. Paul’s address on Mars Hill to the Athenians is proof that the gospel only makes sense in a world in which God is Creator, Sustainer, Law-giver, and Moral Judge. Otherwise, the gospel is remotely removed from reality, and may be consigned to one of many subjective religious myths, traditions, and philosophies (and that relegation of the gospel to ‘myth’ is precisely what has taken place in every educational-political center in the Western world!).

SHANE: In a very surreal way the decades long embracing of moral relativism as a philosophical societal construct has unleashed unrestrained sin and rebellion under the guise of personal preference. This is demonstrated in a host of issues – sexuality, abortion, education, euthanasia, rank idolatry. People must be re indoctrinated to believe morality is unquestionably subjective for a society to accept the slaughtering of helpless babies in their mothers womb as a matter of personal preference.

Pagan cosmology is no longer waiting patiently on the sidelines for a few seekers to become adherents. The assumptions and ramifications of this lying cosmology are rapidly being legislated as public policy in our own government. The ‘one-ism’ of pagan cosmology is being marketed through a clever strategy of redefinition. And as Isaiah warned 2700 years ago: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight!” (Is 5:20-21). The Christian West is rapidly becoming the pagan West. Therefore, there is great urgency to warn and train our youth as to what is taking place. For, the vast majority of young Christian adults are completely unable to provide a biblical apologetic in the face of progressive left’s branding of their worldview as ‘hateful and discriminatory’.

Consider how the following terms are utilized in a frontal attack on religious freedom while defending erotic freedom. Here are some of the most common modifiers and nouns that are incorporated in the narrative of the progressive left: diversity, peace, tolerance, inclusion, justice, equality, self-affirmation, civil rights, equal protection, non-discrimination, personal empowerment, and human flourishing.ˣⁱⁱ The majority of these terms, in their original meaning are derived from Christian values. They cannot be traced to Darwinian, secular, humanistic, or pagan sources. Yet, the left has no compunction of conscience for its ‘theft’ of Christian values —which they then label as values inherent in erotic freedom! Millennials need to be able to see through this ruse. For, the self-justifying, all-inclusive cosmology of paganism is parading these pseudo-values as the very core of human flourishing.ˣⁱⁱⁱ In advertising, the field in which I used to work, we called this kind of promotion, ‘borrowed interest’. In other words, the ad pictured an object commonly held in admiration, and then, once interest garnered in that object, it is then associated with the product, as if the product possessed the same attributes! Who would have guessed 60 years ago that one day Rock concert groupies would be utilized to promote Sprite soda pop?

SHANE: Notice the careful selection of positive and virtuous words when connected to an idea that is biblically unethical and the careful selection of negative words when connected to an object that is biblically moral. Ex: Tolerance – now means affirmation of all forms of moral expression as acceptable. VS.. Sexist: Affirmation of male patriarchy. Positive words are associated with evil and negative sounding words are associated with virtuous principles.

Yes, we Christians are all for human flourishing, for human flourishing is connected to the original command to be fruitful and fill earth

“God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen 1:28). But, God has made us ‘bounded creatures’ meaning that our origin and existence comes with clear moral boundaries that are crucial to our wisdom, thriving, and survival.

But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days . . . (Deut 30:18-20a).

SHANE: Anyone that hasn't had their reason completely buckle under the weight of a radically pagan cosmology sees the irrational idiocy of its practical application in our culture... YET... WE NEED TO BE ARGUING AND DEFENDING AGAINST THESE LIES AT THE POINT OF ENTRY... I cannot emphasize this enough. Our arguments need to be laid out with "In the beginning" on the forefront of our minds...The west has tragically moved from a biblical cosmology to one that is wholly pagan. The vast majority of young people can only offer relativistic answers to ultimate questions. They maintain an innate desire to belong and find purpose yet their wildly distorted cosmology gives them the "freedom" to create for themselves a pseudo-self. The bought lie is that the universe is self-originating and self-sustaining, therefore self - not God, is the ultimate distinction-maker. The entry point into living a pagan cosmology is the serpent-ish lie that the physical is but an illusion, or simply raw material giving the individual tacit permission to deconstruct the idea of a moral transcendent creator and construct the real illusion, one of man as god. This is an eternal death sentence for the soul.

A distracted church has been losing these battles in the culture for decades and it is my conviction this is largely because there has been a major moral failure by Christian leaders to hold the line on biblical cosmology as laid out by God in Genesis 1-11. Genesis is not dealing with mere beginnings to satisfy our historical curiosity. God's cosmology is highly teleological and thus intensely practical at rooting out and combating the rank "one-ness" of a pantheistic/egalitarian paganism that dominates western culture.

Please, brethren, love your neighbor. Tell them the truth. Tell them that God created the world with distinctions. Tell them about the God of distinctions who made them uniquely in His very own image. What incredible privilege! Tell them this personal and unfathomably merciful God beckons them to come and recognize His unimaginable pardon of sin by the offering of His Son, who is distinct yet one with His Father. Think of it, God made girls and God made boys. God made Dad's and God made Mom's. He made them uniquely and yet fitted them perfectly so that those distinctions can come together in holy matrimony giving birth to a true family, of which exists to give a visible gospel expression. Marrying that which is same is a self-refuting concept for union cannot come from same. This all gives us an image of God who is distinct in Himself yet in perfect unity with Himself. For God has "given birth" to an eternal family who are one with Him. This mind-blowing reality is not pantheistic. It finds its source in the one and only Triune divine. Love your neighbor by giving them God and telling them how human freedom and "flourishment" can only come from embracing these realities not attempting to fight against them. Then share with them the gospel that they may be "born again" unto a living, eternal family where they can glorify and enjoy their loving maker forever.

The progressives (political left) conceal their statist ‘religious agenda’ by posing as inclusive, fair-minded, and compassionate

The strident narrative of erotic freedom of the progressive left continues to cast aspersion upon proponents of biblical worldview as being guilty of homo-phobia, trans-phobia, etc. But, there is an underlying cruel agenda beneath the surface when these insults are flying about (classist, racist, xenophobic, sexist, hetero-sexist, etc.). The goal of pagan cosmology is the ushering in of a massive worldview of egalitarianism. This is an all-embracing cosmology of homo-cosmological sameness. Everything must be deconstructed; any notion of sexual morality must go. All sex is good or permissible. This comprehensive ‘leveling’ is all done in the name of equality so that the culture is fully ‘rinsed’ of all of the distinctions that God has made. Our Christian young people need to hear that it is impossible to buy into this omni-gendered, pansexual view of the world apart from a deeply pagan notion of human existence.ˣⁱᵛ

Vishal Mangalwadi warns that when the soul of man is ‘amputated’ (through denial of the image of God) nihilism is the result (the absence of human worth, meaning and dignity). “Mankind falls headlong into a black cesspool of razor wire.” Mangalwadi’s word picture is arresting indeed, reminiscent of C. S. Lewis’s prophetic message of danger in his book, The Abolition of Man. A nation’s cosmology is the very fabric or soul of its culture. And, the seriousness of what is at stake in rejecting biblical cosmology is almost beyond our comprehension. For, Romans chapter one issues the strongest possible warning to any culture which tells us that it is noble to go against nature (Rom 1:26-28). It is unfathomable to ponder the severity of the judgment involved in the loss of the knowledge of God while being given over to a reprobate mind. Our believing millennials need to hear why normalizing the unnatural (LGBTQ) brings about this present revelation of divine wrath.

What the progressive left demands, erotic freedom by means of an underlying worldview of pagan cosmology, is tantamount to open war on the knowledge of God. For, when the ordained boundaries , creation structures, and distinctions which God has formed are regarded as obstacles to ‘freedom’—it is obvious to true believers that this entails a declaration of war on the knowledge of God.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete (2 Cor 10:3-5).

The proponents of erotic freedom would have us believe that we in the West are ever gaining new freedoms as time passes. This is the myth of endless democratization—as if someday we will arrive at ultimate freedom in which there will be absolutely unhindered self-expression. This myth underlies the lie that is fed to parents: your little boys may become girls, and your little girls may become boys. Author, Nancy Pearcey reminds us in her book, Love thy Body that secular morality blows apart the connection between scientific and moral knowledge.ˣᵛ Such is the fragmenting dualism of today which is at the heart of sexual and gender anarchy as well as abortion.ˣᵛⁱ Secular university students are taught that the Christian perspective in the public arena violates the idea of neutrality and objectivity. But, the secular position is not neutral, it rests upon a two-level view of human nature that is crassly utilitarian in its view of the body. Put your nihilistic worldview cards on the table! The secular worldview functions as a state sponsored religion. This fragmented view of the body treats the body as extrinsic to the person. That is the opposite of a holistic view in which the body has intrinsic value and worth.ˣᵛⁱⁱ

This state-sponsored pagan cosmology (religion) has many of the

elements of ancient Gnosticism

SHANE: Where, it is argued, traditional Christianity is narrow minded, exclusive, rigid, intolerant, morally elitist, and uncompassionate, whereas humanism like ancient Gnosticism is “open-minded”, “tolerant” and “loving”. Given this choice, many that lay claim to the Christian faith today are torn, often questioning if they got it right in the first place (Christian deconstructionism).

Democracy (democratization) without biblical cosmology being taught alongside, leaves people blind to the reality that divine order, structure, purpose, and uniformity have as their goal God’s glory and our good operating together. But, when biblical cosmology is faithfully taught, it dovetails into the goodness, wisdom, and beauty of God’s moral government. And this truth, by means of the gospel is designed to bring the creature to bow before his Maker. This response, granted by sovereign grace, shows the love of the knowledge and infinite worth of God. When the church occupies its calling as the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim 3:15), she will include in her teaching the creation structures which comprise biblical cosmology.

Now corporations having taken up the mantle and are using their media visibility to participate in the moral signaling embraced by the left. Their hope is that by showing that they are full participants in the moral revolution (having bought into the mainstream of pagan cosmology), the buying habits of the populace will be sure to follow. Our young adults are being torn in two: either they go with the flow of popular culture, or face the consequences of being ostracized. Their most common choice they make is to keep their Christianity ‘under the radar’ (covert).

SHANE: Consider Christ’s rebuke of “covert” Christianity, “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God (Jn 12:42-43).”

But, the semblance of neutrality can only be maintained for a limited period of time. For consider what is lost in terms of the knowledge of God when the LGBTQ agenda is unopposed and unexposed. There is the loss of: the hatred of sin, the fear of God, the fight for purity and virtue, the education of the conscience by God’s commandments, the purpose of the cross of Christ, the exaltation of God’s moral government, and the ability to train up the rising generation. These are but a few transforming truths that disappear into the background when sin is normalized by a culture.

SHANE: This direct rejection of How God communicates Himself will leave a hallow vacuum which will be filled by all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetous, malice and the like.. (See: Romans 1:29-32). No society historically has ever replaced God with humanism and not become a moral wasteland.

To shred God’s blueprint, and attempt to draft a new one will result in marked confusion and distortion

When a culture that once had the knowledge of God drifts into full-blown paganism, one of the judgments God sends is a ‘spirit of distortion’. In other words, the social order which finds its source in divinely ordained distinction begins to degrade. For, when God is no longer at the top, society will not be ordered under Him as it should be. The culture begins to implode when the appointed roles of individuals in a society no longer take their instruction from God. Consider the following texts:

And I will make mere lads their princes, and capricious children will rule over them, and the people will be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; the youth will storm against the elder and the inferior against the honorable. For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their actions are against the LORD, to rebel against His glorious presence. The expression of their faces bears witness against them, and they display their sin like Sodom; they do not even conceal it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves. Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, for they will eat the fruit of their actions. Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, for what he deserves will be done to him. O My people! Their oppressors are children, and women rule over them (Is 3:4-6, 8-12).

SHANE: “Whoa to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning! (Ecc. 10:16). Role reversal accompanied by uncontrolled appetites is a hallmark of the adoption of a pagan cosmology.

The pagan cosmology of the progressives is an illusory worldview; as an escape from reality—it carries with it much of its own punishment

For, the decay of a culture into pagan cosmology inevitably becomes a culture of death— human rights and human dignity and worth disappear. And it is a blatant participation in the Lie of Eden, for the serpent’s murdering false promise was that rebellion against God would create a new reality. Eating the forbidden fruit (infers the devil) would allow our first parents to transcend the boundaries and limitations inherent in their creaturehood. At the core of Satan’s lie is the soul-damning notion that sin creates a new reality—a reality in which one may operate as a being autonomous from God. How horrifying that countless westerners are fully immersed and invested in this lie. The evil one’s deception has not changed much, it has always been: ‘you can win your freedom from God by rebelling against Him’.

Closely bound up in this lie is the absence of the fear of God. But Scripture demonstrates that there is no greater folly than refusing to fear God. For, God is an avenging God, He will clear His holy Name of all of the profanations He has experienced by sending reprobates to the lake of fire (Nah 1:1-8). God as distinction-maker will make the ultimate distinction when He separates His sheep from the goats. For, the consummation of history at the Day of the Lord will be the flawless, comprehensive record of the honoring and the dishonoring of God—and the public revelation of the destiny of each person.

To boldly speak biblical cosmology into our increasingly pagan world is the most caring and merciful thing we can do

Theocentric Bible doctrine, ‘big picture theology’ has the power, by the Spirit of God, to rectify, calibrate, and unify what is frequently fragmented into incomplete thoughts in our understanding. History is His Story. God is conducting a ‘grand demonstration’ in which He will demonstrate both His mercy and His wrath. And through the mechanism of redemptive history, God is placing His perfections on display—and doing so through His works of redemption, providence, and judgment. As trophies of His matchless grace, God elicits from believers faith, obedience, love, honor, and awe. There is no undisputed middle ground in the cause of God and the destiny of souls. For every individual, it will either be wrath outpoured or refuge in Christ.

What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles (Rom 9:22-24).

The rising generation, sometimes referred to as the ‘millennial generation’ is facing the most dangerous time to live spiritually in the history of the planet. For, never in the history of the world has a nation faced our current philosophical climate: having been inoculated with Christianity, our culture now regards biblical Christianity as a regressive thing of the past, a layover from a former age of oppression. Our public universities are diligently teaching their students that this view of Christianity is accurate. How can the rising generation resist the ploy foisted upon them by the progressive left, namely that the social values they enshrine and hold dear (that were actually birthed by Christianity), must be protected from Christianity. Think of it! Students are being told in order to protect social values, they must reject Christianity in order to safeguard and champion those ideals.

SHANE: Consider today’s cancel culture where this increasingly popular form of ostracism seeks to, in military type fashion, punish someone for bucking the progressive moral trends.

Christian leaders need to learn how to expose the ‘lab coat’ disguise of pseudo-science and ‘humanitarian’ disguise of the libertine. In order for young adult believers to be able to boldly proclaim the gospel to this generation, they will need to be taught to see through these two disguises of the progressive left. Today’s moral revolution is a marked symptom of the West changing of religions. Pagan cosmology wears a convincing disguise, posturing as ‘science’, when actually it is philosophic naturalism. The pagan idea that a divine cosmos ‘made itself’ fits nicely with the premise of pseudo-science that everything came from nothing. The second disguise (which fools the rising generation even more than pseudo-science) touches the social dimension. That disguise poses as a selfless humanitarian who defends human rights and love. But, again this is a ruse to promulgate erotic freedom at the expense of religious freedom. Disguised as a defender of the rights and freedoms that bolster human flourishing, the humanitarian disguise is the more subtle of the two. And, of course what this disguise is concealing is the godless philosophy of pagan cosmology.

72 years ago (1948) conservative thinker Richard Weaver wrote the book, Ideas have Consequences. This brilliant author applied the principles of biblical theism to negative trends he observed in Western culture. And, perhaps without intending to do so, his book became an uncanny ‘prognostication’ of our nation’s current moral and political climate. In these final paragraphs of our present article on cosmology are portions selected from Weaver’s book which accurately predicted our current state or affairs. States Weaver, the denial of universals carries with it the denial of everything transcending experience. When one denies objective truth, it means you can’t escape the relativism that man is the measure of all things. This sets us up for the Abomination of Desolation. For, there is a feeling today of alienation from all fixed truth. Formerly nature was regarded as imitating a transcendent model, but now nature is viewed as containing principles of its own constitution and behavior (note the popular materialistic concept of a closed, self-originating universe).ˣᵛⁱⁱⁱ

Writes Weaver, today there is a desire for immediacy (gratification through the senses)—a dissolving of the aspects of form (by ‘form’ Weaver means transcendentals such truth, beauty, virtue, God’s existence, love, moral absolutes). People are controlled by desire alone which produces a person who has nothing in self by which to spiritualize (by ‘spiritualize’ Weaver means a life regarded as accountable to a holy Creator). Today man mistakenly associates all sorts of forms (transcendent truths) with the machinery of oppression which he has fled and proposed to oppose politically (note: postmodernism regards the absolute truths of God’s self-revelation to be an oppressive power play). We are seeing an effort at the emancipation from symbolism (as if the material world is all there is)—a ‘freedom’ from indirect methods. (Note how today this dismissal of transcendentals is framed as objectivity in the academy.)ˣⁱˣ

In a decaying culture—‘redemption’ suggests that freedom is achieved by deliverance from restraint imposed by idea

Note that ‘redemption now’ is a utopian delusion inherent in Marxism that society’s ‘redemption from oppression’ must be brought about by any means including revolution). (Also note Thomas Sowell’s summary of the culture war as two contrasting visions of freedom: a restrained and unrestrained vision of freedom. Biblically we see a freedom based on teleology —God’s design; while the pagan/secular worldview wants a freedom from teleology/design). Ideas are harmonized by some vision; without vision the people perish. Our task is to redefine the relationship between faith and reason in an age that does not know the meaning of faith.ˣˣ

It is generally assumed that erasing all distinctions will usher in pure democracy (and its reign). But this is not so. All teleology rejects ‘freedom from’ (design) in favor of freedom to (design)—what dominates today is the romantic fallacy of freedom from (design).ˣˣⁱ Weaver’s stunning observation has now, 70 years later, come to full flower—for the average university student today regards his personal liberty to rest on the idea that nothing outside of himself defines him. Therefore, there is no obligation to adhere to God’s design/cosmology.)

SHANE: Man’s obsession with “freeing” himself from God’s law and His creative order is nothing new. Though the moral revolutionists want to cast their ideas as progressive “wisdom”, the scripture reminds us that wicked rulers have been fighting tirelessly for ages to remove God’s natural claim on humanity. The psalmist chronicles this rebellious global attitude in asking this rhetorical question,

“Why do the nations rebel and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against the LORD and His Anointed One: “Let us tear off their chains and free ourselves from their restraints (Ps 2:1-3 HCSV).

The conscience of a man and God’s moral law both point to a holy transcendent creator but in his rebellion man is continually waging war against the built in restraints of God’s moral law and his righteous upholders of His law. Consider how the left has gnashed their teeth at republican presidents, senators and governors that want to enact law to prevent the murder of unborn babies. In this ridiculous move to rid themselves of their own image bearing the foolish rulers of today would do well to heed the same instruction God offered 3000 years ago..

“So now, kings, be wise; receive instruction, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling. Pay homage to the Son or He will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for His anger may ignite at any moment (Ps 2:1-3 HCSV).”

In the loss of cosmology, religion is completely severed from education

And [as the new, materialistic atheism goes mainstream, it] is viewed as a proud achievement of modernism. Knowledge (the philosophy of it) is separated from metaphysics—and this is taught by steady indoctrination. Modern man no longer looks above his head to see the canopy of stars (the message of the sacred canopy: love, truth, beauty, order, justice, good and evil, moral law are transcendentals which are universally discernable). Modern man’s cosmology is a material conception of the world. The media today so colors our thinking (as much as medieval cosmology did 700 years ago). The newspaper is a man-made cosmos of world events in our time. Weaver said this 72 years ago!ˣˣⁱⁱ

In pretending to operate in a philosophy-free zone, the majority of today’s scientists do not own, or admit the truth that facts cannot be gathered, correlated, and interpreted without an organizing universal or philosophic superstructure that is itself taken on faith. A perfect example would be one’s response to this question: do we live in a personal or impersonal universe? Your answer IS your organizing universal, and IS you’re a priori approach to facts.

We have lost the sacred canopy as the ultimate source of evaluations (‘sacred canopy’ consisting of the self-evident truths of general revelation which is suspended above all peoples). Then/thus, truth and beauty are fragmented (note Albert Mohler: beauty is joined to the good, the true, and the real). The media depicts the sacred canopy [of divinely revealed absolute truth] as a source of strife (as that which divides and produces unfairness). Spiritualization is an arduous road (in other words, the pursuit of virtue involves self-denial, whereas our animal passions, lusts, and appetites come easily. The Christian worldview of true spirituality, which calls for virtue through self-denial is resisted by the flesh) . People choose what’s easy—they choose animal passion instead (see C. S. Lewis The Abolition of Man, see also Ephesians 4:17ff.). Society does not fear the truly wise man; ONLY when he seeks to make others wise also.ˣˣⁱⁱⁱ Barbarism has made a successful stand against Logos. (When Weaver wrote this 72 years ago, providing an accurate description of why sexual license is always accompanied by violence, he had no idea that someday in America late terms abortions would become a profitable business through the sale of body parts of human babies.)ˣˣⁱᵛ

Christ, the “LOGOS” was the truth which turned the pagan world upon its head. Christ as cosmic Lord must be proclaimed again

We must make some application to law that in the beginning was the Word [Logos]—IF the world is to remain cosmos (ordered)—and not a material machine hosting upright bi-pedal bio machines. Weaver saw the nihilistic consequences of reducing man to a cosmic accident, a soul-less creature born of chance, a biological robot made in the image of an animal. Christian worldview answers with certainty ultimate questions such as: What is God’s relation to the cosmos? What is man? And what is man’s place in the cosmos? Biblical cosmology answers why these questions are foundational to knowledge.ˣˣᵛ

As a pastor said recently, the current events in our nation and the Western world represent a kind of ‘altar call’. God is saying very clearly, ‘choose this day whom you will serve’ (Josh 24:15). It is reminiscent of Elijah’s challenge on Mt. Carmel: ‘If the Lord is God follow Him; but if Baal, follow him. But the people did not answer him a word (1 Ki 18:21). The events at the end of the age that are coming (and many of them are already here, including the present culture war and political dichotomy) will produce circumstances which reveal one’s ultimate source of trust and reliance. Every person’s heart commitments, and every person’s cosmology will be brought to the surface. For, God is going to allow a great dividing deception to come upon the whole world. This deluding influence will produce a clear division between saint and reprobate: “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thess 2:11-12). How every true saint rejoices in the verses which immediately follow the prophecy of disaster in verse 12. “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess 2:13-14).

End Notes:

i Peter Jones, “Mission in the 21st Century; the Witness of Holiness,” Christ Church, Moscow, ID
ii Ibid.
iii C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
iv Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: an Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, p. 249
v Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, p. 236
vi Peter Jones, “Mission. . .”
vii Ibid.
viii Albert Mohler, The Briefing
ix Peter Jones, “Mission in the 21st Century. . .”
x Peter Jones, God of Sex, p. 11
xi Albert Mohler, The Briefing, January 7, 2020
xii Peter Jones, “Paganism in Today’s Culture,” Ligonier Conference, February 25, 2015
xiii Peter Jones, “Paganism in Today’s . . .”
xiv Ibid.
xv Nancy Pearcey, Love thy Body, p. 12
xvi Ibid, p. 18
xvii Ibid, pp. 63-64
xviii Richard Weaver, Ideas have Consequences, p. 4
xix Ibid, p. 24
xx Ibid, p. 34
xxi Ibid, pp. 44-45
xxii Ibid, p. 93-94
xxiii Ibid, pp. 104-106
xxiv Ibid, p. 147
xxv Ibid, p. 169