PPT. 1
Idolatry in Education and Public Policy
Jay Wegter
Our text is Romans 1:18-28. Romans is the book of God’s courtroom. It is the book of wrath revealed and righteousness revealed. Romans one tells us why sexual culture war is ground zero in the spiritual war that is raging between biblical Christianity and lies and deceptions of the evil one. Spirituality defines sexuality.
At the heart of the message of the Bible is the Creator-creature distinction. BUT, the defining worldview of our time is that everything came from nothing. The Biblical design of the world includes the creation of male and female as the image of God. God’s plan for the universe is that God is Creator and ‘Definer’ of what He has made. As Creator He gives designations, definitions, categories and relations of what He has made.¹ God’s defining role over His creation has established the creation structures of male and female and marriage and family. These creation structures are just as real as the solar system—they are at the core of your being (which is why redefinitions of marriage, social contract theory, sexual perversion, and abortion constitute a radical overturning of God’s design for His creation).²
PPT. 2 ICEBERG PPT. 3 IMAGE OF GOD PPT. 4 MALE & FEMALE
God has authoritatively set forth His ‘blueprint’ for His creation. His blueprint, found in His Word, is not only our moral map; but is our fixed point of reference which provides our understanding of the nature of reality. We are dependent upon His infallible designations and definitions of what He has made—these are absolutely essential for accurately interpreting reality. (Note the fact that there is an interwoven moral order and physical order) (Ps 96). Only by what God has said in His immutable Word do we know what is true, real, right and wrong.³
PPT. 5 WRECKING BALL
Like an immense wrecking ball, a man-centered, evolutionary worldview has been moving through society for the better part of a century. It has left destruction in its wake. Like a ‘wrecking ball’ it has systematically broken down the boundaries set by God. Evolutionary theory/materialism has so thoroughly permeated our culture—it has practically become our national worldview. Students ingrained with an evolutionary worldview find themselves unable to find meaning for the universe or for their lives, left only with the option to create their own meaning. Imbued with Darwinism they find themselves lost in a chance universe without a fixed point of reference (75% are looking for the meaning of life).
PPT. 6 DISTINCTIONS (we define by what something is; what it is not; how it differs from other things) PPT. 7 DISCERNING OUR CULTURE
The mainstream false worldview of our day shreds God’s divine blueprint for our lives and regards man as a biological machine and not the image of God. Some call it science, but to reject God as Creator is to buy into the absurdity that
nothing made everything.
Rejecting the existence and role of our Almighty Creator is a ‘convenient’ way to get rid of God’s design and blueprint for His creation.
PPT. 8 TORN DOWN CREATION STRUCTURES PPT. 9 THE ‘ONE-B0X’ VIEW—(the definer is the sovereign one; man arrogates that role to himself)
Naturalism’s assault has torn down God’s creation structures and it has left society craving a replacement. “One-box” offers itself as that new ordering principle. All reality fits in a box called the universe, including God. Naturalism’s denial of God’s creation structures (divinely ordained distinctions) has left an immense spiritual vacuum. If God is not the definer of the reality He made and upholds it, then puny man in his arrogance will grab that role for himself so he can pretend to be in charge.
“One-box” worldview is growing and thriving in the ‘seedbed’ left by decades of Darwinism. “One-ism” is rushing into the spiritual void left by secularism. Secularists want a ‘spiritual’ answer— but not from Christianity. Darwinism/evolutionary theory demands all reality fits in the box of the physical universe. The “one box’ worldview has gone to war against the Biblical truth of God the Creator of male and female in His own image. The “one box” view sees biblical Christianity as standing in the way of its goal of global oneness.
PPT. 10 SWEEPING VISION REPLACEMENT (the ‘theology’ of the new world order)
This ‘all in a box’ worldview ‘lens’ proposes a sweeping vision—stressing the oneness of all things; the divinity of man and nature; and the goal of global harmony. As a worldview it presents a new view of the order of creation—a new way to view reality (actually an old way). This is a patent denial of biblical worldview. It is a rejection of the Creator’s order (it can’t be partly right).
PPT. 11 GOD’S DESIGN EXPRESSED IN DISTINCTIONS
Biblical worldview (God’s blueprint) is expressed in the distinctions which God has made in creation. We could say that God creates by ‘separating things’(distinctions)—heaven and earth; light from darkness; dry land and sea; animal and plant; day and night; man and woman (Gen 1:4ff.).
PPT. 12 THE ‘TWO-IST’ PRINCIPLE
“Two-ness” is the very essence of biblical worldview. The creation structures formed by God are: male distinct from female; human distinct from animal; animal distinct from plant; etc. These ‘binaries of two-ness’ constitute boundaries established by the Creator. “These principles should not be seen and understood merely as the physical creation (Genesis), but as stating a teaching a point that the universe has a moral base.”⁴ The building blocks of the universe are not merely molecules, elements, stars and planets, God has also built His moral commandments and creation structures into the universe.
In other words, there is a moral order built into the creation we sometimes refer to as ‘natural law’ (therefore, there are behaviors that are ‘against nature’). “Human beings are only correctly understood in relationship to their Creator [and His moral government].”⁵ As humans, our identity and purpose are inseparable from our creational identity as the very image of God. Our rationality, worship, and morality are the direct expression of having been created in the image of God.
PPT. 13 CREATOR-CREATURE DISCTINCT. EXPL. SO MUCH
Thus, our identity as the image of God contains our ‘job description.’ We are to live as the image of God—finding our dignity and humanness in the good and wise boundaries in which He has placed us. Our identity and our calling as humans made in the image of God are inseparable.⁶
PPT. 14 THREE-FOLD IDOLATRY
Paul begins the largest epistle on salvation (Romans) with an analysis of “one-box’ thinking in a world that has lost biblical cosmology (God-ordained distinctions). We need Paul’s analysis of the world because it is into this world today that we must speak the gospel. The 1ˢᵗ Century Greco-Roman world was pro-homosexual and pro-infanticide (when deemed necessary), and anti-God of the Bible.
Paul tells us in Romans one that man’s rebellion (the same universal rebellion) is expressed in a three-fold way (mankind’s universal revolt). This IDOLATRY/rebellion is manifested in three areas:
CONCEPTUALLY (theology and the nature of God)
SPIRITUALLY (spirituality and the human response of worship)
BEHAVIOURLY (sexuality and the human response in corporeal behavior)
PPT. 15 ONE FORM OF IDOLATRY LEADS TO NEXT
SUPPRESS THE TRUTH>>> WORSHIP AND SERVE THE CREATION>>> COMMIT SEXUAL IMMORALITY
The first of these three expressions of rebellion leads to the next and so on. In the realm of thought, suppression of the knowledge of God leads to sinful expression in the next area which is spirituality. Spirituality then becomes the worship of the creation (Darwinist ‘theology’) and the creature (nature) which leads to rebellion in the third area which is in behavior. Wickedness is expressed in sexual immorality.⁷ Paul is telling us why the floodgates of immorality have burst open in our culture (which was also the case in the Greco-Roman culture of Paul’s day).
PPT. 16 THREE EXCHANGES—THREE ‘GIVINGS OVER’
God’s response to man’s rebellion is wrath revealed. God’s wrath revealed takes a very specific form. God’s wrath is His righteous response to man’s wicked three “exchanges.” God’s wrath is expressed in three “givings over.” Man exchanges in vv. (glory of God for corruptible creatures) 23, (truth of God for the Lie) 25, (natural function for unnatural function) 26. God declares that He judges the three idolatrous exchanges by giving over in vv. 24, 26, 28. They are given over in their minds (fools), their spirits (idolaters), and their bodies (sexual perversion).
PPT. 17 THE LIE IN EDEN – NO BOUNDARIES PPT. 18 THE LIE AND DARKNESS PPT. 19 THE LIE IN TODAY’S CULTURE
Paul’s use of definiteness (articular nouns) means that he has specificity in mind when he refers to the truth, the creature, the lie, the Creator. Jesus said that when the devil speaks; he speaks “the” lie (Jn 8:44)—the Lie spoken at the beginning in Eden. Paul is speaking of the original Lie manifesting itself in subsequent forms in human history. Therefore Paul is referring to a specific denial of the truth when sinners suppress the truth of the knowledge of God.
Paul’s focused language (with definite articles) narrows the religious options in the world to two possibilities: one either serves the truth or the lie. In order to believe the truth, one must believe in God’s eternal power (His eternality), God’s divine nature (His utter transcendence—the fact that He is immortal and invisible—He is altogether ‘other’ and cannot be equated with anything in the creation— Romans 1:20; 1 Timothy 1:17). The doctrine of creation ex nihilo is unknown in all other documents in the ancient world.⁸ God does not fit in the box of creation as a force or even a higher power (see Bavinck and Frame: in antiquity no God was both infinite and personal; both transcendent and a divine person).
PPT. 20 ONLY TWO RELIGIOUS OPTIONS
What appears to be countless spiritual options in the world with diversity, and relativism, is really only two ways of being spiritual. Our young people are hearing that there are hundreds of ways to be spiritual. But, in actuality, either we worship God almighty through Christ as His redeemed creatures, OR, we buy into the lie that all reality is of the same kind and in the ‘one box’.
The wrath of God is revealed against those who suppress the truth of God (His transcendence) in unrighteousness (v. 18). God’s judgment (His wrath revealed) has different expressions in different ages in human history. In today’s world whose center lies in the autonomous self—the net ‘yield’ is a bitter harvest of emptiness of meaning and moral confusion/disorder—vain and futile thinking. This is serious bad news when God allows society to unravel. In our 21
ˢᵗ century culture most people assume the only truth one can have comes from themselves. The result of this is God allowing the society to unravel,
PPT. 21 WRATH REVEALED
What our postmodern world celebrates—namely its rejection of all absolutes, and its assumed right to define all reality privately—is actually a sign of God’s wrath (1:22). If we imagine that our own minds define reality and project reality, we are in a dangerous place. Therefore, what is revealed about God in Romans One is NOT that we can find Him on our own terms, or in our own way, NO, what is revealed is that He is wrathful toward those who suppress His clear self-revelation given in both general revelation (creation and conscience), and special revelation (the Word written and living) (1:18-21). His wrath is revealed in giving sinners over to futile thinking and immoral living. God reveals Himself as just; the whole world accountable and guilty (3:19-20).
PPT. 22 FORM OF WRATH REVEALED NOW
The revelation of God’s wrath spoken of in this context is not speaking primarily of future wrath; but the present reality of wrath. This means that God’s anger is expressed in giving sinners over to their lusts and to a depraved mind. (EX. Like a house perched high on a crumbling cliff—as God’s wrath is revealed, the moral fabric of society is permitted to erode away—moral sense, meaning, law, and order gradually tumble to the rocks below. Men receive ‘the due penalty of their willful error,’ ‘foolish thinking,’ ‘depraved minds’ and ‘darkened hearts.’) (EX. Worst possible thing: be given your own way.)
God holds men responsible for how they treat His clear testimony. All men are immersed in a virtual ‘sea’ of divine revelation (Ps 19). Because God has made it evident ‘in them’, and ‘to them’, they are ‘without excuse’ (or without any rational ordered defense for their behavior).
Every natural man knows that he is created by God; that God is good; and that God will judge him someday. And he also knows that God’s invisible attributes; eternal power; and divine nature are clearly seen—being understood through what has been made (1:19-21).
PPT. 23 TWO-ISM IN THE WORLD REFLECTS CREATOR-GOD
The central pillar which supports the truth of the God of the Bible is Creator-creature distinction. Once the fundamental pillar and pedestal of the truth is removed and lie is believed; any folly is possible. If you lose the initial foundation, you lose everything. The Creator-creature distinction is the bedrock of Christian faith/biblical theism (Ex 15:2; Jer 10:14; Ps 96; Acts 17:24-29).
The nature of true worship is inseparable from the Creator-creature distinction. The wrong order (denial of the Creator-creature distinction) results in idolatry. In the one box view, the nature of worship is overturned—the creature and the creation are worshipped. Man loses his glory and dignity in the process. He exchanges his glory for shame (v. 23). Our innate glory is due to the fact that we are made in God’s image and likeness (Gen 1:26). And we know Him as such (Jer 9:23-24
PPT. 24 ‘ONE-IST’ ‘ONE-BOX’ VIEW The “one box” view strips man of the dignity of his creational identity (Gen 1:27; Deut 15:6; Is 32:1; Eph 1:21). The one box worldview reduces man to sameness with an animal—he becomes subjected to the creation. In refusing to submit to the Creator he becomes subservient to created things (in practice he is debased/enslaved—he loses the dignity of his creation identity when he will not worship God).
This loss of dignity and creation identity is typified in Israel’s apostasy in the matter of the golden calf (Ps 106:12-20). What is shocking today is that nature worship, which is regarded as progress by “one-box” thinkers, has always been condemned by God as self-destructive folly.
The idolatrous view that all reality is in (and fits in) the box of the universe denies that God is who He says He is. It denies the transcendence of God when it asserts that the universe (and you) cannot be explained by anything outside of the cosmos itself. For “one-box” says that the cosmos is self-emergent, self-sustaining, self-fulfilling, self-interpreting, and self-determining. But, as we are seeing, if you worship nature, you lose your human dignity and descend to the level of an animal.
PPT. 25 SEXUALITY IS THE ‘CONTINENTAL DIVIDE
“One-box” stance on sexuality is certainly an expose of its system of thought. The everything in the box view has a particular stance on sexuality. Remember, if you don’t worship God as Creator, then you are giving the honor He deserves to His creation instead of Him. The worship of creation will include the worship of sex (a continual media event in the West). What a testimony of divine inspiration that Paul begins the book of Romans with an explanation of the worldview that underlies homosexuality, tying it to a theological reason—exchange of the truth for the lie and the worship of creation (v. 25).
PPT. 26 PAGAN COSMOLOGY ‘ICEBERG’—paganism denies that this is a moral universe because of a holy transcendent Creator
Paul is giving us a theological reason for illicit perversion—it is the overturning of the truth about the nature of the world (a denial of the moral structures and distinctions God has placed in the creation). Overturn the truth about God’s created order and you overturn the notion of God Himself. God has written the knowledge of His glory into the nature of the creation—so all men are without excuse (vv. 19-20). If we lose the truth of God’s relationship to the world, we also lose the truth that He governs the world by His moral laws. Paul is telling us the real reason for sexual perversion.
PPT. 27 ‘ONE-ISM’ WILL WORK ITSELF IN HOMOSEXUALITY
The idolatrous Lie (v. 25) will work itself out in sexual immorality—and in particular homosexuality. Homosexuality is an overturning of God’s created order. The worship of nature is a very unnatural way of living. Ancient Sodom changed the order of the woman’s nature (v. 26). It should not surprise us that a return of the Lie in the public arena should be accompanied by homosexuality (its agenda). Modern man conceals his idolatrous worship of creation. He gives credit to creeping things for his origin, and calls it ‘science’, when actually he is worshipping the creation.
PPT. 28 WHERE WORSHIP OF CREATION TAUGHT, PRO-HOMO WILL THRIVE
These two ways of viewing the universe are mutually exclusive. These two systems of thought are mutually exclusive. Homo-theology (“one-box”) emphasizes that everything has the same substance —it brings all to sameness (erasing gender). Let’s look again at the three categories Paul addresses—truth (theology), worship (spirituality), and behavior (sexuality). (HOMO-THEOLOGY) stresses that nature and the divine are identified with each other (no distinction). (HOMO-SPIRITUALITY) worships nature and the self (narcissistic praise of self). It seeks a ‘spiritual’ goal of removing differences (HOMOSEXUALITY) is the most ‘natural’ thing if the above is true—it is the preferred sexual expression of pagan worldview (the worship of the earth).
Everywhere the worship of creation is taught, and everywhere the ‘
all in a box
’ view is dominate,
there will be the eventual advocacy of homosexuality.
Homosexuality follows the worship of the creation (note its advocacy on university campuses where paganism is taught). The homosexual agenda affirms that we all benefit from the breakdown of gender roles (the breakdown ‘liberates’ from stereotypes, patriarchy, distinctions, oppression of women, and discrimination,). The homosexual agenda seeks to change our culture by destroying the notion of
the image of God as male and female.
The truth of God, who He is, includes His relationship to the creation as Ruler, Owner, Upholder, and Definer. The Creator-creature distinction is the source of our dignity; personhood; stewardship; rationality; ethics; meaning; and worship. “Two-ness” upholds the immutability of the creation structures: God and man, male and female, man and animal, animal and plant, good and evil.
PPT. 29 HETERO COSOLOGY IS ‘TWO-NESS’
The created distinctions (two-ness) may be expressed as follows: (HETERO-COSMOLOGY) celebrates the Creator-creature distinction. (HETERO-SPIRITUALITY) celebrates the otherness and transcendence of God which makes possible true worship and intimacy. Nature and the creation give praise; and do not receive praise. (HETERO-SEXUALITY) is union with difference. It symbolizes the relation of God and the world and a love relationship with another person different from us.⁹
PPT. 30 THE GOAL OF ‘ONE-ISM’—JOINING OPPOSITES
“One box” spirituality seeks to erase the distinctions between God and man; between man and animal; and between man and woman. Sexual perversion is the inevitable result—the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter one that the overturning of created order will result in unnatural ways of living (Rom 1:24-27). The worship and serving of nature is man’s ‘default response’ and consequence of setting aside the knowledge of God and His created order. To remove the distinctions between God and us is ultimately the same as no distinctions. In essence, human depravity is ‘hard-wired’ to nature worship. We are created to worship, therefore the denial of God does not remove man’s worshipping nature—man in his depravity will worship some aspect of the creation by default.¹⁰
PPT. 31THE VISION OF ‘ONE-ISM’
The breaking down of clear gender roles/identity, male and female, the gender binary (malefemale) is central to the whole new vision for society—a vision which intends to usher in a new moral order with new laws and ethics. The deconstruction of male and female lays the groundwork for a new morality in which laws are made to ‘prevent discrimination against alternative lifestyles’ and with it, the appropriation of public funds for ARTS (assisted reproductive technologies—insemination; IVF, and surrogacy). The ‘reality’ extolled by the one box view rejects the created order and substitutes an opposing view of reality and humanity in its place. The outcome is a new set of ethics which enforces homosexual politics.¹¹ Remove God from ethics and virtues become vices, and vices virtues (Is 5:20).
In the ‘one-ist’ view, the God-ordained male-female distinction is erased making homosexuality appear ‘natural’ within that worldview. Christianity will increasingly be regarded as the adversary of progress. Because of the divinely created male-female binary aspects central to biblical worldview, Christianity is regarded as the single greatest threat to public acceptance of homosexuality.¹²
“One-box” cosmology has been given a ‘free ride’ into our generation—which is proof that post-Christian Westerners have released their grip upon the transcendence of God (the cosmology of “two-ism”)—suppression of the truth of God has gone corporate/cultural.
PPT. 32 TELEOLOGY (students are taught that nothing outside of them defines them = equals self-worship) PPT. 33 COSMIC HOLINESS PPT. 34 COSMIC HOLINESS AND OUR SEXUALITY
PPT. 35 THE PROBLEM OF MUTE CHRISTIAN STUDENTS
“One of the reasons the mouths of our college kids are often closed in their public witness is because they are intimidated by the politically correct, diversity-inclusivistic ideology of the academy. They are ‘brainwashed’ into a survivalist mode, ‘Can’t we just get along?’ ‘Just remove or ignore or “tolerate” what divides us? When it is really a play for, the implicit appeal to intolerant oneness.”¹³
Our Christian students are in trouble because they cannot make the truth they believe ‘speak’ to this culture.¹⁴ Liberal educators, media/news personalities, and politicians have ‘framed the issues’ of the day within their one box worldview of “one-ism” (EX. Note Rebecca at Wellesley.)
PPT. 36 LIBERAL EDUCATORS FRAMED THE ISSUES (is prime reality impersonal? Then why are you both real and personal?)
Consequently, we are in a serious crisis of discourse. The political left/progressives have told us that we cannot think outside their box—therefore they always win the argument. What is needed is a more incisive way for Christians to talk about the issues. Believers need clear categories. They need to see through the lens of these two mutually exclusive options,
either we worship God or we worship the creation. Antithesis—that there are two totally antithetical systems. Both claim to be the truth about reality. This approach is incredibly helpful to students/believers.
What appears to be countless spiritual options in the world with its syncretism, pluralism, diversity, and relativism, is really only two ways of being spiritual. Our young people are hearing that there are hundreds of ways to be spiritual. But the lie beneath all false religious options is more unified than we have imagined. There are only two religious options vying for hearts and minds.
PPT. 37 ‘FRAME THE ISSUES’ BY USING THE CREATOR-CREATURE DISTINCTION
Biblical worldview lets us as believers ‘frame the issues’: the biblical truth of our Creator ruling the cosmos. God the ‘Definer’ gives us the correct categories to define our world and to engage our world. The categories given by our Creator are necessary in order to deconstruct the one box worldview. Believers are weak theologically; we must equip them to define categories as God does. We must cast the battle as a collision between one true God and nature worship.¹⁵ (Prime reality is personal.)
PPT. 38
Romans one is the key—for in that chapter Paul tells us how idolatrous worldview ‘puts itself together’ (or views reality). Our task as Christian leaders is to provide students/believers with the categories necessary to enable them to stand against the prevailing errors of our day. We are standing at a crossroads in church history. We must ‘worldview-proof’ the rising generation in order to avoid sending them like lambs into the wolf packs which populate the academy (of our public universities).
PPT. 39 EQUIP YOUNG PEOPLE MANDATE (does the cosmos receive praise, or give praise?)
Central to our strategy is to not only set up the contrast between ‘one-box and biblical worldview—but we must also show the consequences of these mutually exclusive worldviews.
1. A universe created, defined, and upheld by Almighty God. 2. A universe in which creatures worship the creation. The dire consequences of idolatrous worldview are catalogued by Paul in Romans chapter one. Those who subscribe to lying worldview are judged by God. They experience three areas of being given over—they are: given over in their minds; given over in their spirits; given over in their bodies.¹⁶ These are utterly disastrous consequences!!
By contrast Christ as Lord of the cosmos and the Church is the truth and the life incarnate. “. . . [He] abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:10b). He is sovereign over all knowledge—He answers, and delivers from, by His own Person, every version of ‘the lie’ (Rom 1:25). He reconciles to God. At the center of worldview is Christ the ‘Savior of the World.”¹⁷
PPT. 40 SET UP A CONTRAST PPT. 41 CHRISTO-CENTRIC WORLDVIEW
Christo-centric biblical worldview is the weapon capable of piercing and dismantling the fortifications of “one-box” which are raised up against the knowledge of God (operates by contrast).
How do we begin the dialog? Use Worldview, or ‘Ultimate Questions. They form a starting point for dialogue and for the diagnosis of erroneous worldviews. The biblical events of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration comprise a diagnostic test to examine every worldview. Four ultimate questions to test a person’s world and life view. The questions are: 1.) Where did we come from? (Who made you and me?) 2.) Who are we? (What is the value and purpose of a human being? Why is life sacred?) 3.) What has gone wrong with the world? 4.) What can we do to fix it?
PPT. 42 THE ‘DE-EVOLUTION’ OF THE TRUTH
PPT. 43 UTOPIAN REBELLION = DYSTOPIA
The Bible tells us why a utopia engineered by depraved men is sure to fail and make matters worse. With the entrance of sin came four major separations: the separation of man from God; the separation of man from man; the separation of man from himself; and the separation of man from nature. Now what is immensely significant is that fallen men recognize these separations, but oppose God’s testimony of why they exist and what must be done for man’s deliverance. Man’s attempts to remove these separations will NOT usher in a utopia of human flourishing—the opposite instead (dystopia). Even by using terms recognized by the academy, we can designate these four separations as:
- Spiritual/theological (separation of man from God)
- Sociological (separation of man from man)
- Psychological (separation of man from himself)
- Ecological (separation of man from nature)
The gospel tells us that God in Christ alone can heal these four separations. And that is precisely what God is doing in His plan of the ages (Rom 16:25-27). The benefits of the consummation of this divine plan will fill the earth, the cosmos, and eternity to the glory of God. Thus, we reiterate, the Lie in Eden believed by our first parents was the cause of these four separations listed above. Now this lie has not gone away. A form of the lie is being used by the powers of darkness to deceive the world concerning HOW these four separations may be bridged and removed. Marxism, globalism, state-ism, feminism, and the homosexual agenda (transgenderism) are all expressions of the lie. For each of these versions of the lie offers its part in seeking a utopian answer to the four separations caused by sin.
PPT. 44 ‘ONE-ISM’—‘HEAL’ THE SEPARATIONS BY REMOVING DISTINCTIONS
The distinctions which God built into the cosmos as ‘creation structures’ are an essential part of cosmology. God’s relation to His creation is expressed in His moral government over us. Our bounds as His creatures are embodied in distinctions such as: the distinction between Creator and creature; the distinction between man and woman, between good and evil; and between and animal. These distinctions are fixed; they are part of the created order (why we have a cosmos and not a chaos). Now here is the breathtaking almost incomprehensible part of the Lie: the divinely created distinctions above are viewed as part of the alienation in human experience. Therefore, in the interest of ushering in utopia (‘redemption’ from the four separations), they must be removed, or flattened out (the ‘one-box’ agenda).
PPT. 45 CHRIST ALONE BRINGS PEACE WITH GOD AND EACH OTHER
In this we see the demonic imitation of redemption. The very moral ‘furniture’ of created order— divinely created distinctions are considered an obstacle to utopian oneness and harmony. There can be no greater antithesis/contrast between God’s plan of creation and redemption and the evil one’s globalist new world order communicated through the agenda of the ‘progressives’.
The ideological platform of the new world order will increasingly be seen as an effort to remove the distinctions ‘which divide us’. There is a political push to remove the distinctions between the rich and poor, between men and women, and between heterosexuality and homosexuality, between holy matrimony and sodomy, and between biological gender and transgender. In the coming new order, biblical cosmology, characterized by divinely created distinctions, will be supplanted by homo-cosmology (‘one-ism’) in which the distinctions ordained by God will be denied. This is being done in
the name of removing the four separations (criteria for human flourishing).
PPT. 46 ‘TWO-ISM’—TRUE HARMONY IS LIVING WITHIN GOD’S STRUCTURES
‘One-ism’ is a suicidal mission. For, it is impossible to actually remove divinely ordained distinctions—they are an integral part of the created order enforced by divine governance. God’s goal of design for humans (teleology) is the only source of freedom—true freedom is within the good and wise boundaries and distinctions ordained by our Creator. Created distinctions make the worship of God possible. The new world order promulgates the polar opposite (remove them to bring us together).
The powers of darkness are gaining loyalty (followers) and uniting people through the deception of the utopian vision of eliminating God-ordained distinctions (Peter Jones). The evil one knows that declaring war on created distinctions is to declare war upon God who is the distinction-
Maker (2 Cor 10:3-5).
PPT. 47 PREACH THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL
We preach the glorious gospel against the dark backdrop of the human condition. Our culture sits under the settled anger of God’s wrath. Human bondage to sin is complicated by darkened thinking. In His wrath, God leaves men to a depraved mind, to absurd thinking and to moral disorder. But wonder of wonders, God is not only revealing His wrath; He is revealing His righteousness.
In the gospel message we discover that God is making friends of His enemies. He is freely giving His righteousness to former rebels. He has given His Son and not withheld Him (8:32, paradoken—same Grk. word as ‘given over’ in Romans one). In the giving of His Son to die on Calvary’s cross, Christ has absorbed into His own Person the very wrath that sinners justly deserve.
Salvation in Christ purges our hearts of the idolatry of worshipping the creature and the creation. Through regeneration by the Spirit through the power of the gospel we celebrate our Creator God and hallow Him by honoring the distinctions He has made—we joyfully submit to His moral government as our wisdom; as our highest good; and as our freedom. In so doing God is glorified.
Endnotes:
1 Dave Doveton, “Paganism in the Church” (Escondido, CA: Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, think-tank, 2007).
2 Jay Wegter, “Worldview, Apologetics, and Evangelism, BCW363A” (Newhall: The Master’s College, 2007).
3 Jay Wegter, “Worldview.”
4 Emil Brunner in Dave Doveton, “The Pagan Deconstruction of a Biblical Worldview,” p. 3.
5 Ibid.
6 Jeffrey Ventrella.
7 Peter Jones, “Framing the Issues; Finding our Voices” (Escondido, CA: Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet,
think-tank, 2007).
8 Peter Jones
9 Peter Jones
10 Ibid.
11 Dave Doveton, “Paganism in the Church.”
12 Ibid.
13 Peter Jones.
14 John Stone, “On the Cause of Christian College Students being Mute” (Newhall: The Master’s College, 2007).
15 Peter Jones.
16 Ibid.
17 Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, The Saviour of the World (Cherry Hill: Mack Publishing Co., r.p. 1972).