Understanding the Spiritual Climate of Today’s Youth Culture

Understanding the Spiritual Climate

of Today’s Youth Culture

By Jay Wegter

INTRODUCTION:

Like a school of hungry piranhas, there are cultural issues today that our poised to devour our youth. My talk today will address the most formidable of these “piranhas.” There could hardly be a more accurate assessment of our country today than the description found at the end of the book of Judges God’s Word says in Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (www.wakeupamericainc.org, “God Rejected”).

The church has been lulled asleep—she has reclined upon the false security provided by humanist philosophies such as the separation of church and state. For the most part, the church has settled into a perpetual condition of indifference toward the public affairs of our nation.

Consequently the government and the academy (educators) have systematically removed God from the fiber of our nation. The church has watched in apathy and passivity—she has been napping; and has not unsheathed her chief weapon—the constraining power of God’s Word. As a consequence, our young people are easy targets for the most prevalent lies of our age (ibid.).

Because our young people are for the most part unprepared; they are becoming the casualties of our culture. ‘Christian’ college students who have never been trained in biblical worldview are at greatest risk of departing from the faith (David Noebel, Understanding the Times; Religious Worldviews and the Search for Truth).

University campuses are stealing the souls of our youth. Colleges have become the most active purveyors of pantheistic worldview, or the new paganism. High school and college campuses are indoctrinating our youth in the satanic philosophies of humanism, naturalism and pantheism at an alarming rate. Rampant moral decay is the result—accompanied by a gross loss of confidence in the reliability of the Scriptures. If we do not train our young people in Christian worldview; then we are guilty of sending our kids off like lambs into a pack of wolves. Worldview may be defined as: A set of beliefs through which we view the world and our place in it, and our calling and future in it” (Norman Klassen, Jens Zimmerman, The Passionate Intellect, p. 17).

College students who leave the faith are, for the most part, those who were never taught a unified worldview which has Genesis and biblical creation as its foundation. High school students who are never taught what is at stake if the foundations of Scripture are destroyed are astonishingly vulnerable to erroneous worldviews (Fallwell & Ham, If the Foundations be Destroyed).

We are standing at a crossroads in human history. Now is the time for the church to become proactive in training its members in biblical worldview. Our Christian students are waiting to be formed into ‘worldview changers’—into maturing saints able to resist the tide of our culture’s lies.

The advantages in training our young people in Christian worldview are immense. Biblical worldview is the very foundation of ethics, life decisions, values, and behavior. Believers equipped in biblical worldview develop the resolve and discernment to live life without compromise; to live in light of God’s total truth; for His honor and glory. Training in worldview enables Christians not only to stand firm in the face of our culture’s non-biblical ideas; but also to tear down the atheistic absolutes of false worldviews; and to powerfully share the Gospel in a secularized society.

I. Cultural factors that shape today’s philosophic climate

A. A DIVIDED VIEW OF REALITY:

The loss of biblical cosmology

Our youth have grown up in a society that has lost its grasp of biblical cosmology. Cosmology is that branch of philosophy which deals with the origin and structure of the universe. At the heart of biblical cosmology is the Creator-creature distinction. Biblical cosmology includes the creation of male and female as the image of God (with the sub-themes of the dominion mandate; and biblical anthropology).

Central to biblical cosmology 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 foundational and ontologically real—they are at the core of your being (which is why social contract theory, sexual perversion, and abortion constitute a radical overturning of biblical cosmology).²

The absolute truth of cosmology is essential in interpreting the universe.³ God’s relation to the creation is the ordering principle of the universe and of reality. Because God is the sustainer and definer of all that He has made; there is no such thing as a reality greater than God—or a reality in which God is but a component (note this error in deism and pantheism).

Thus, biblical cosmology is the sole vantage point ‘high enough’ to provide the foundation for a unified cohesive worldview (the alternate is pluralism, diversity, and hopelessly fragmented knowledge). Cosmology alone provides a wide angle lens broad enough to see man’s place in the universe. Biblical cosmology is a totally unified ordering principle—without it, worldview has no foundation.

Consequently biblical cosmology is the foundation of the gospel—for the gospel only makes sense in a world in which our omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God is Creator, Owner, Upholder, Lawmaker, Ruler, Redeemer, and Judge. The gospel has no point of contact in a world in which pagan cosmology has replaced biblical cosmology. This is why there is an increasingly desperate need to define categories as God does—that He is Ruler, Sustainer, Owner of His creation— and that the designations and definitions He has made concerning His creation are absolutely essential for accurately interpreting reality.

ANTITHESIS: Contrary to the belief in a purposeless creation; God has authoritatively set forth His ‘blueprint’ for His creation found in His Word—it is not only our moral map; but also our ‘metaphysic.’ In other words, God’s relation to what He has made is our fixed point of reference which provides our understanding of the nature of reality (Ps 96). Only by what God has said in His infallible Word do we know what is true, real, right and wrong.

⁴ Scripture defines freedom as living according to God’s divine blueprint for us. Christ said that freedom from sin’s rule can only come by knowing and doing the truth (Jn 8:31-32). Secularism defines freedom as the rejection of God’s blueprint in favor of the media’s conception of the world ( Richard Weaver,

Ideas have Consequences, p. 45, 94 ).

The pervasive influence of Darwinian Theory

Darwinian Theory has had a central role in removing biblical cosmology from the American mind. Young people brought up on evolutionary theory in the classroom have been taught that death, disease, pain, and suffering have always been part of life (as if the only way God can make creatures is by death, deformity and suffering). This has a ‘killing’ effect on cosmology; for it sends the message that the only way God could make things was by the cruel forces of billions of years of evolution.

Harvard Anthropologist Irven De Vore captures the same thought, “I personally cannot discern a shred of evidence for a benign cosmic presence . . . I see indifference and capriciousness. What kind of god would work with a 99.9 percent extinction rate?” De Vore’s point is hard to miss—what kind of character would a god possess if he created such a scenario? “How could a God of love allow such horrible processes as disease, death, and suffering for millions of years?”⁵

Ken Ham notes that the god who uses death and suffering as part of the creation process is a cruel god and not the God of Scripture. Scripture makes it clear that death is not part of the creative process; death is the penalty for sin (1 Cor 15:26). Evolutionary theory redefines death as a driving force in the creative process.⁶

Today’s youth have been robbed of an education in biblical cosmology. As a result, when they watch a nature program, “They look at the gruesome violent spectacle of the lion chasing down the smallest, weakest zebra, and finally ripping it apart. How, they ask, could a loving Creator have made a cruel world like this?”⁷

The number of young people from single parent homes and mixed families has increased dramatically in the past 30 years. “Many have become victims of abuse, divorce, poverty, etc., and they [tend to] blame God for their pain. It is a long journey to bring them to the point where they see God as a God of love. . . Emotionally they often identify with the weak animal, pursued and torn to pieces. They cynically regard God, ‘if there is one,’ as taking pleasure in violence.”⁸

In other words, their evolutionary upbringing has taught them that death, pain, suffering, and bloodshed have always been a part of life for millions, if not billions of years. Therefore, death and suffering are not the direct result of sin’s entrance into human history, thus God must be cruel. When the church compromises, placing death and suffering before sin, it is telling the world that God is the author of these things and is therefore cruel. “What is the hope of overcoming death if death has always existed? God did not make a world of billions of years of pain, death, suffering, and disease. All these came about because of man’s sin.⁹

The answer is a return to the authority of God’s word—especially as it unfolds cosmology. “When [young people] see that sin is the cause of death and their own hopeless condition, the results are dramatic. Now they have answers to the pain in the world and in their life. [T]his can be a painful process shaking their whole worldview. But this understanding of their own lost condition is vital before they can understand God’s grace. Says Geoff Stevens, “We need to prepare the ground, removing the all the evolutionary . . . boulders and rocks so that the Gospel seed falls upon fertile soil . . . Today’s needy [young] people with all their baggage, tend to fall in love with God once they understand this full truth. They are also much more likely to be serious about their walk with Christ, and to become dedicated disciples.” ¹⁰

Dualism: the rending apart of fact from value

The loss of biblical cosmology has produced an immense gash in our thinking; a tearing apart of creation and redemption. Part of the outworking of this loss of divine transcendence (as well as explaining everything in terms of natural laws instead of by means of the Creator) has been a pervasive dualism which separates creation from redemption. The separation of the physical from the spiritual has been encouraged by modern culture (as if religious views are private and have nothing to do with the real world). The secular arts continually operate on this premise that the real world is concrete, and that the spiritual world is not.¹¹

Having dispensed with the wonder of divine creation as the revelation of God (and thus having removed His rule and reign over creation), reality is nothing more than what you choose to make it —in essence an extension of the self. The sovereign self, with its autonomously shaped identity, may use the world as its ‘raw material’ to construct the self.

Once the universe is viewed as merely a select mass of raw material with all phenomena reducible to material properties and natural laws and processes, then the very ground of prime reality is no longer Almighty God. Primes reality becomes impersonal matter and motion. The cosmos is severed from redemption in the minds of most people.

I feel for today’s students who are taught philosophic naturalism (namely the idea that scientific objectivity begins with the assumption that matter is uncreated and ultimate). And with this materialistic view of the universe comes the assumption of mechanistic determinism: that uncreated primeval matter sat there pulsating—filled with self determination to show what it could do and be if given a chance. As if matter wanted to become highly organized star systems, to express itself in the formation of whales; coral reefs; water falls; wildflowers; mangoes; antelopes; and people.

The secularists have said in effect: “We will tell you what reality is—what the universe is—you Christians will yield the floor to us—because science is the only reliable way to explain the universe. You keep your beliefs to yourselves (private, inward) out of the public arena; out of government and education. Sadly, (for our kids) for the most part, the church has knuckled under (allowing itself to be intimidated by the academy).

What was the net effect, in the minds of most, of replacing biblical cosmology with philosophic naturalism (the worldview of Carl Sagan)? In the minds of most, God as personal, transcendent, involved with creation was eclipsed and demoted.¹² God’s direct involvement in the lives of His creatures was increasingly ruled out. God was no longer linked to all the details of reality. God had been marginalized.

How has this impacted the church at large? Though evangelicals stressed personal faith and piety, they also began to divide (bifurcate) God’s role—they saw Him as active in redemption; but allowed science to define the creation. The great problem is the church accepted this as relatively benign “as long as we have Jesus in our hearts.” But the fallout is deadly serious.¹³

When one allows the Bible to describe salvation and science to comprehensively describe the creation; it produces a tear, or rend, in our thinking. The reason why is the salvation-science dichotomy pictures God as having two radically different faces—the side of God that dealt with creation was far less personal than the side of God that dealt with salvation. As a consequence, the Jesus of salvation became very other-worldly, private and even sentimental.

As a case in point, “believing students on university campuses are able offer Jesus as ‘friend’ but have no clue how to proclaim Him as Lord of the cosmos.”¹⁴ This prevalent dualism welcomes Jesus as ‘helper’ but cannot conceive of Him, or proclaim Him, as majestic Lord of the universe. This is the dilemma our Christian students face today on the secular university campus. The loss of biblical cosmology forces them to live with an immense ‘disconnect’ between faith and life (more later).

Modern culture has encouraged and deepened this dualism. The yawning chasm which has divided creation from redemption has separated the physical from the spiritual in the minds of many believers. Through popular culture our youth are bombarded with this dualism. The wonder of creation as the revelation of God’s majesty has been erased, and with it God’s rule and reign. For the majority of America’s youth today, reality is nothing more than what you make it. The creation is but raw material by which one may construct the self. Pop culture incessantly feeds this lie to our youth.

ANTITHESIS: Dualism fueled by scientism is an exercise in folly and pride. Scientism has become a worldview—it assumes the scientific nature of truth as if man’s reason alone is sufficient to access truth. The empiricists would like us to believe that they possess perfect knowledge. How powerfully the Word of God refutes this exercise in absurdity. For truth is not a sterile lab fact under a microscope, truth is an absolute Person. Jesus is the truth. His authority stands behind all truth. The doctrine of the incarnation of

Logos destroys all dualisms. This has the power to blast us out of

privatized religion. The incarnation of the God-man does not permit us to partition off reality into a spiritual and a non-spiritual sphere. All reality flows from one point of integration—the Son of God ( Aaron Klassen, Jens Zimmerman,

The Passionate Intellect, pp. 21, 30, 73, 87, 101, 148-150, 169, 187 ).

The acceptance of postmodernism

Postmodernism has moved our thinking to the place where truth is no longer objective and universal. Truth no longer transcends race, culture, and language. Truth made everything into a perspective. Nothing is bigger is bigger than the individual. Transcendence has been eroded away (Dominic Smart, Postmodernism and Discipleship, www.sermonaudio.

com ). D. A. Carson says the following

about postmodernism, “Truth is no longer foundational and axiomatic. The postmodern meaning of things is supplied by the mind, not by the data which is sensed.”¹⁵

In postmodernism there is no universal omniscient divine mind who supplies the ultimate criteria for truth. In PM there is no ultimate “Knower” who is the absolute reference point for reality. Instead the acquisition of truth is severely limited by finite autonomous man—so much so that objective truth is not attainable. But this position of PM is more than a bare philosophical view; it is also an ethic. PM says that epistemological certainty is not desirable or attainable. It is not attainable because there is no sure place to stand (no omniscient mind to test things). And it is not desirable because the true knowledge of things is constrained by the interpretive communities—objectivity is lost in the limits of the finite knower. Thus epistemological certainty is a chimera. Therefore to claim epistemological certainty is to be arrogant, bigoted, and out of date.

Epistemological certainty is not desirable because totalizing statements impose a kind of total structure and worldview which is manipulative and controlling. Thus, due to the human condition, it is far better (ethically) to speak of truth as a correlative (‘truths’ from different perspectives—i.e. from a certain time in history; from a particular stance; from one’s upbringing; from one’s religious perspective; from a group of feminists; etc.).¹⁶

The N.T. injunction for believers to share the Gospel with boldness and persuasion is regarded as a ‘power play’ by postmoderns. James McDonald notes that PM will accept a forum for reasoning; but will not accept persuasion. For the postmodern, certainty is equivalent to arrogance and uncertainty is equivalent to humility.¹⁷

The presuppositions inherent in postmodernism are in collision with biblical cosmology. PM suggests that what we ‘think’ are creation structures (male and female, right and wrong, marriage and family, etc.) are actually products of finite human beings. Thus what passes for creation structures are not secure, nor disclosed, nor deposited to us by an omniscient mind outside of us as a fulcrum to move the world. They are merely social constructs. There is no transcendental truth or objectivity. To claim to have it is to use an instrument of coercive subjectivity.¹⁸

Postmodernity’s deconstructing influence opens the door to pagan worldview. PM is open to astrology, ‘third eye,’ sorcery, intuition, and subjectivity. PM’s presupposition that knowing goes way outside the limits of science and physical laws (while rejecting the infallibility and perspicuity of Scripture) makes a way for other theories of knowledge. In these other theories of knowing, knowledge does not possess the quality of an historical universal which can be sorted out and either verified or falsified.¹⁹

Postmodern popular culture has been relentlessly eroding away every transcendent reference point. In so doing postmodernism leaves nothing but the self as the only reliable, trustworthy center (everything else in pushed through the grid of self). This is the situation our young people find themselves in. Adding to the tragedy is the fact that American religion is ill-equipped to help them. Having drunk deeply from the well of postmodernity; Christendom finds itself afflicted with myopia, a radical loss of the knowledge of the vastness of Christ who alone can heal a divided view of reality.

This dualism leaves knowledge utterly fragmented—spirituality is partitioned off from the remainder of life. The secular/sacred dichotomy tends to restrict Christianity to the realm of religious truth—this creates double minds and fragmented lives.²⁰ A pastor friend in Escondido shared the following account. “It took two weeks of counseling before one young man was able to see that pornography was a worldview totally hostile to the knowledge of God. Among today’s postmoderns, a huge disconnect exists between their ethical life and their professed belief—truth and everyday life are ripped apart.”²¹

Though the world’s philosophies of secularism are relentless in their efforts to drive a wedge between truth and life—the Word of God overturns the two level view of truth.

ANTITHESIS: There is no dualism between creation and redemption in the Scriptures. Scripture affirms that truth and life are forever joined in the Person of Christ. We need to thunder again from our pulpits what’s been in the Word of God all along—Christ unifies all reality because He structures and upholds all reality. He is the Great Insider who entered human history as one of us; yet without sin.

Postmodernism has overlooked the one grand infallible meta-narrative that explains life and meaning—the one totalizing worldview that is able to solve Enlightenment dualism—namely God’s plan of the ages in Christ (

The Passionate Intellect, p.

159. Only when we understand the Father’s plan to restore us to the image of God in Christ, and only when we grasp Christ’s preeminence and the Father’s determination to give Him first place in everything will we find the cure for our fragmented lives. Feeding our minds and hearts on His majesty is the key to living for His approval in preparation for His coming Kingdom.

B. A DYSFUNCTIONAL DISCERNMENT

• 70-88% of students from “Christian” homes deny their faith before graduation from college (barna.org)
• Only 9% of Evangelicals have a biblical worldview (“A Biblical Worldview has a Radical Effect on a Person’s Life,” 12/1/03, barna.org)
• Instead of preparing their children for life, the vast majority of parents are waiting for social institutions to train their kids (“Americans Agree: Kids are not being Prepared for Life,” 10/26/04, barna.org)
• 62 % of Americans consider themselves to be deeply spiritual, and 88% feel accepted by God (“Most Adults feel accepted by God, but Lack a Biblical Worldview,” 8/9/05, barna.org)

• Only 9% of young people under the age 24 base their moral choices on the Bible (barna.org)
• Only 1 in 20 Evangelical dads have ever led their families in devotions (barna.org)
• In 2006, 91% of Evangelical kids said, “There is no truth apart from myself”—that’s up from 52% in 1994 (barna.org)
• Only 33% of churched youth say the church will play a part in their lives when they leave home (Josh McDowell, 2006)
• In our media-saturated culture promiscuity is cast as freedom—our ‘highly sexualized culture is at war with parents’ (James Dobson, “Focus on the Family”) We live in a media-saturated age in which pop culture floods our senses. The constant drone of secular culture’s deceptive message has been ‘mainlined’ into our youth like heroin into the bloodstream. The consequences have been deadly—discernment has suffered incalculably.

The majority of our kids believe what they hear in the media. When polled recently, 66% of high school boys believed that cohabitation is the best preparation for marriage. In addition, the vast majority of evangelical teens believe that there is more evidence for evolution than biblical creation. The foundations of truth are eroding at a frightening rate—it is time for Christians to take action.

The battle to transmit the faith to the next generation is for the most part not being won. A startling statistic came out recently—79% of high school students from Southern Baptist Convention will deny the faith by the time they graduate from a secular university (www.barna.org).

The physical eyes and ears of our Christian youth are so tuned to the culture that they have become convinced that the temporal is more enduring than the eternal—and the physical more real than the spiritual—material wealth far more significant than eternal wealth.

Moral relativism has become the very air they breathe. This is the pervasive mindset of their classmates—and it comprises much of the content of their entertainment. We have left our kids to tread water in a swamp of moral relativism where the notion of absolute right and wrong is treated like a layover from the age of prejudice and bigotry. All the while, our culture is increasingly sexualized— we are assaulted with images which have a net effect of ‘normalizing’ illicit sexual behavior. Our young people are plunged into deeper ignorance; darkness; cynicism; deception; bondage; and oppression. The consequences our young people are experiencing have not developed in a ‘vacuum’. These tragedies are accelerating because the precious things of God are being eroded; and people are taking pleasure in sin and not in the knowledge of God (Del Tackett, “Biblical Worldview,” Focus on the Family Magazine, July/Aug, 2004, Dec, 2005).

It is clear that America is no longer guided by Christian principles. Secular humanism now directs the public affairs of our nation. This philosophy, or worldview, of secular humanism denies God, Christ, and the Bible. Secularism removes God’s standards and allows man to substitute his own standards instead. Just as Satan lied to Eve; popular culture seduces our young people with the lie that they may decide right and wrong for themselves without facing eternal consequences.

Without God’s Word and the Gospel, mankind has no reliable moral compass. It’s like a boat with no rudder and no navigation device adrift on a shore-less sea. People make decisions based upon their felt needs and desires instead of by discernment grounded in God’s eternal truth. Each individual becomes a law unto himself—choosing what is ‘right’ in his own eyes without respect to God’s standards. This is the ‘philosophic climate’ our young people are facing.

Mass culture provides its own set of “plausibility structures.” In other words, pop culture offers its own set of ideas about what is good, normal, abnormal, and evil. We have reached a point in culture in which the plausibility structures accepted by our young people about reality are created more by popular culture than by Christian truth (Al Mohler, Raising Teens in a Media Culture).

The homosexual agenda is embedded in pop culture. 70% of young people in USA now believe that it is discriminatory to refer to homosexuality as immoral or wrong (that is a sentiment born of media-driven pop culture).

One poll discovered that adolescents take impressions from television and treat them as reality. Here is just a partial list of how skewed perception has become through the distorted impressions delivered by of the world of television: adults drink far more alcohol than they actually do. Parents are pictured as dumb and kids as smart—constant theme—the parents discovering that the kids are right. It’s a constant refrain of the parents waking up to find out how wise the kids are. Dad fumbles, mom has the answer. The death of modesty has taken place. Females convinced that immodest fashion will help fulfill their romantic yearnings. Males constantly hit with sexualization as well (even in the ads during football TV broadcasts) (ibid).

Our kids are becoming products of the electronic media entertainment culture. Adolescent life is lived out to the constant soundtrack of background noise in their lives. Emotional power is concentrated in music. It goes around the mind to reach the heart affections. Kids are surrounded by music aimed at the sensual instead of the higher nature. Kids live by the background beat of the hip hop music genre which has become a conduit touting vile and misogynist behavior. In addition, the values, lifestyle and language of characters out of movies are often emulated. Sexual immorality, violence and pessimism are normalized. The homosexual movement is joined to pop culture and is defended by pop culture. Accompanying this immersion in mass culture is the peer reinforcement of pop culture’s values (ibid).

How does a young believer escape mass culture when he or she is embedded in it as a consequence of living in techno society? How may they resist the current so as to swim upstream against the tide?

ANTITHESIS:

The answer is to be utterly deliberate about developing the discernment principle. First of all limit the width of intake from the pop culture highway (music, TV, movies, web, magazines, cell phone, etc.). Take an honest look at how much of mass culture’s message you are absorbing passively by your exposure to these sources (

ibid ). Take a break from the perceived need of

electronic background noise to accompany everything you do. If you listen to music, make a conscious shift toward worship and classical instead of passively going along with pop culture.

Deepen your grasp of worldview until you can watch a movie or television program and immediately discern the worldview coming through in the plot, behavior or language. Scripture commands discernment for the child of God. The true believer operates by means of a renewed mind (the ‘mind of Christ’) by which he may discern all things (1 Cor 2:15-16). Expect to be misunderstood by those who do not manifest Christian discernment (Jn 15:18-25).

II. Factors that have shaped today’s spiritual climate

A. A DELUDED SPIRTUALITY:

The gods of popular culture are fighting a ceaseless battle against the transcendence of God. Like termites in soft wood; postmodernism eats away every transcendent reference point—self becomes the only ‘reliable’ or trustworthy reference point remaining. In essence, self becomes the ‘default’ god when the God of Scripture is marginalized.

No wonder our young people are confused—they have been systematically taught that there is no longer any absolute meaning outside of self. Religion becomes completely based upon self—it’s the disordered self in need of order.. The boundary between God and self becomes fuzzy. The Creator-creature distinction (so foundational to theism) becomes obscured. An encounter with God no longer depends upon God’s revealed truth, but upon an inward experience. Self-sufficiency in the realm of the spiritual is celebrated.

It is in this religious/philosophic climate that faith is dislocated from its object (God’s self-revelation in Christ in the Holy Scriptures). Faith is redefined and distorted to fit the Gnostic concept of faith. In the second and third century A.D. Gnostic “faith” was but an avenue, or pathway, to gnosis —and gnosis is where discovery, blessing and initiation take place.

Thus in our present postmodern culture, faith and spirituality are rapidly being redefined along the lines of ancient Gnosticism. Postmodernism has deconstructed absolute truth—and with it theology. The word “Jesus” is being torn from the infallible Word of God and being redefined as a religious buzz word to describe one’s spiritual journey. In neo-pagan spirituality, self becomes the main form of reality; spirituality is based upon inward knowledge; not outward belief. The new spirituality endorses reinventing and remaking the self.²² The new spirituality seeks to justify self which is equivalent to being the enemy of faith. The postmodern construct of the new spirituality says that there is a sacred reality that is humanly accessible and attainable. This is a contemporary version of ancient idolatry. How different is the testimony of Scripture!! God has ‘shut up all in disobedience’ (Gal 3:22; Rom 11:32).

The Spirit of Truth invades sacrosanct areas and spaces. God respects no sacred spaces other than the ones He fills! The truth is: God brooks no rivals. He respects no self-constructed sacred spaces.²³ ‘Eros spirituality’ dies in the presence of God’s Word because biblical truth destroys the sinner’s sovereignty. The sinner’s imagined sovereignty is at the heart of the new spirituality. But grace is only grace when there is no cooperation with Eros desires and human effort.

The Christian faith is about listening to the Word of God—in utter dependence upon God’s revelation. By contrast, Eros tries to reach up in self-sufficiency. When the Word is faithfully proclaimed; it overturns our natural instincts about self and God. Herein is the radical antipathy between the new spirituality and true Christianity; it is the difference between listen to self; and listen to God’s Word. It is self versus divine revelation. The upward of Eros is forever blocked by God who makes Himself inaccessible to it.²⁴ (EX. Neighbor Jim’s trust of the God within.)

Biblical faith is about agape love—God reaching down to disclose Himself to those who would not otherwise be restored to Him. The Word of God says that there is a humanly impenetrable boundary between God and humans—a boundary that can only be understood through the Scriptures. God’s revelation is needed in order to understand that by reason of man’s sin; God is hidden and man is blind. Only by the biblical revelation is the boundary made visible.

The meaning of Agape is God reaching across the boundary to sinners. In His revelation, He destroys illusions, misconceptions, and frauds which sinners have perpetrated on God and the cosmos. God’s Agape love is downward, gracious, condescending. He makes Himself known to us by way of a knowledge that gives understanding of life’s meaning which corresponds to objective reality. God’s sovereign love (Agape) revealed in His Word destroys all false worldviews.

Only agape brings the knowledge of God to man. Only the Word of God reveals something which is invisible to man’s base spiritual instincts: namely that there is an impenetrable insurmountable barrier that separates man from God. Man’s ignorance, spiritual deadness, sin and rebellion form a barrier that can only be penetrated from God’s side—by His agape love in Christ.

The cross of Christ killed all private worldviews. God’s in-breaking into history through Christ is Agape, not Eros. To be confronted with Christ is first of all to be confronted with one’s sin against God—the reason being is Christ is the manifestation of God’s glorious holiness. We desperately need God’s testimony concerning our lost condition. The believer discovers that in Christ—Creator and Redeemer are one (Col 1:15-20). Christ is the reference point for all reality. How radical this stands in opposition to postmodern spirituality which seeks meaning and salvation in self. God’s agape bridge to man reaches all the way down to the spiritually dead sinner (Col 2). Man’s imagined spiritual sovereignty (Eros) is slain by the Gospel of sovereign agape grace in Christ.

ANTITHESIS: How opposite is God’s way of savings from the new spirituality—in Christ the Father redeems and seeks that which was lost. Christ dies for the helpless. God cannot be manipulated by the human spirit. Only grace alone from the outside can save. Human questing and seeking for its own sake is still unbelief. The locus (or center point) of true faith is what God has spoken, and how God has decisively acted in Christ.

B. A DOMESTICATED JESUS:

Today’s domesticated Jesus of progressive Christianity is not preeminent, but helpful. He is not cosmic Lord, but inspirational friend. He is not majestic Lord, but mascot. He is not the authoritative source of all knowledge and certainty. Thus, He is not a source of reverence, awe and authority. Dear people we know from Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians that Satan is more than happy to accommodate those who want a Jesus in their own image (11:4). There is a ‘different’ Jesus, and a different gospel.

This different Jesus is a divided Christ whose offices are separated (He is Priest but not King; Protector but not authoritative Prophet—the result is a divided Christ and a divided reality. Only when Christ is exalted in His preeminence; cosmic Lordship; majesty; and supremacy will we recover biblical spirituality. True spirituality does not come from within man (esoteric). Biblical spirituality has but one source—a sovereign act of God Almighty which unites the helpless sinner to Christ.

In order to be salt and light in a darkened and perishing world, we must apply ourselves to the truth of Christ’s vastness.

ANTITHESIS: We must understand how Christ, in His own Person, refutes pantheistic spirituality. As we proclaim the vastness of His Person and the complete sufficiency of His work, all pseudo spiritualities are exposed as enemies and as impostors which advocate the esoteric, but have only self, the earth and demons as gods. (confess “Jesus as Lord,” see Rom 10:9-10.) You can’t understand the cross until you know the One who died upon it. He who is transcendent to creation condescended to become one of us—the Great Insider—to live vicariously the life of a creature in order to bring us to God.

The unbelieving world is blind to Christ’s identity as King of the cosmos.; God is made known by the revelation of Jesus Christ to the sinner.

But God in His sovereign mercy penetrates this thick darkness of heart. He is making friends out of enemies. He is conquering sinners by His love. He is blasting into their bondage, ignorance, and pollution—to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6).

III. Lifestyle decisions that flow from today’s spiritual climate

A. A DISCONNECTED WAY OF LIVING

What is the collective effect of the above influences on the spirituality of our youth? They live with a huge ‘disconnect’ between their thoughts and reality (they live with an intrusive dualism).

Living with the dualism inherent in postmodernism means that the majority of our young people don’t see God for who He is and don’t see man for who he is. Christ is seen as the lord of the Christian church but not the lord of the cosmos. Creation is severed from redemption. This severing manifests itself in a form of dualism which places redemption outside of objective reality.

Redemption and biblical truth claims are seen as private preferences (upper story myths) with no basis in fact. Redemption is viewed as existing in the mind and the heart; therefore it is something ethereal and less than real because reality is the physical universe. The world’s philosophies, by severing salvation from redemption, have relegated Christ to a truncated religious role in which He is no longer Lord of the cosmos.

Christianity is viewed as a heart preference absolutely divorced from the purpose of the cosmos. The sovereign rule of the Creator, the consummation of human history in Christ, the coming Kingdom of God, and the ultimate restoration of the cosmos are all out of view.

The lordship of Christ is seen as existing over things that belong in the Christian religion—His lordship is not seen as His absolute rule and authority over all reality. As a consequence, knowledge is hopelessly fragmented into innumerable particulars. In this dualistic view of life spirituality is segmented off from the rest of life so that the truth of God is detached from the everyday decisions of life.

With the image of God lost (an essential aspect of cosmology), anything goes. The human body becomes the canvas and the playground upon which to experiment with the task of being the architect of one’s identity. Freedom, fulfillment, identity, and meaning come from doing your own thing. Well because this is God’s world designed to operate in the way God has made it, it is axiomatic to say that the false promises of youth culture won’t deliver. Young people carry a quiet desperation, a metaphysical lost-ness, a palpable absence of meaning. Love, meaning, purpose, joy, identity only can come from serving, obeying, knowing, and enjoying one’s Creator.

Postmodernism reinforces a split view of reality—and this split view of life expresses itself in a lifestyle of ‘disconnect.’ In other words, Christian beliefs become theoretical, or abstractions, instead of truth that transforms. The young professing believer allows culture to set the parameters for behavior—all the while claiming to believe the Bible. This compromise with mass culture is expressed in a ‘disconnect’ in lifestyle. Behavior becomes disconnected from divine truth. This is dangerous beyond words; for Scripture warns of a kind of faith (void of holiness) which cannot take you to heaven (James 2:17, 20, 26).

ANTITHESIS: God’s truth is active in the true believer. It not only transforms and renews; it keeps the believer from being conformed to culture (Rom 12:1, 2). Faith and life must be joined. Belief and practice must operate together. Anything less is hypocrisy and presumption. In the true believer, God’s truth is operating in the affections. In the person living a disconnected life, biblical truths are held intellectually; but not in the affections. The genuine believer is always repenting. He is continually seeing to have his life match the truth. He loves the truth. It is impossible to live a dichotomized (disconnected) worldview for long. Either the person is repenting so that behavior is aligned with belief. OR, disobedient practice will cause one to twist the truth and lose one’s grasp of truth. Serving Christ and righteousness as Master is the answer (Rom 6).

B. A DESTRUCTIVE SOURCE OF IDENTITY

Your identity is what you look to—to define you. You need an identity for the purpose of ultimate meaning, significance, fulfillment, love, purpose, and belonging. It also functions like a score card to see how you are doing. What is the source of your identity is the big question we all face: What is it that defines my life? Your identity is like your worldview—it shapes all your choices. That means you will live out your identity (whether you intend to or not). That’s why a Christian’s identity in Christ is so important: it tells him who he is; who he used to be; what his purpose is in life; what he is becoming, what his true treasure is; and where he is going.

As Christians, we are locked in combat in a culture war that has radically different ideas about what will give a person his or her identity. We live in an identity hungry culture (EX. Miami Ink and endless reality TV shows). Your identity is a battle ground; even your choice of friends (according to 2 Cor 6:14-7:1) has a profound impact on your choice of identities.

And you know why—when friends and acquaintances get together socially; they reinforce the identity source of their friends—whether it is the gospel; fashion; music; sports; academics; whatever. The wrong friends will (guaranteed) pressure you directly or indirectly to get on board with their counterfeit source of I.D. They will heap praise, acceptance, attention; affirmation; belonging on those who carry the same colors or ‘score cards’ that they do (a social dynamic also called peer pressure).

Now, either one’s identity is from the world, or it is from the gospel. You can’t get your identity from both—anymore than you can serve two masters (James 4:4; Lu 11:23). The gospel is a whole different way of seeing. It radically transforms your relationships because it defines and identifies who God is; who you are; who others are; and what this life actually is.

God’s grace is 100% relational. The gospel tells me comprehensively who God is toward me in Christ; and the gospel tells me who I am in Christ (a new creature with all new values). How unlike the world is our identity from the gospel. Worldly identities have a score card, or standard, that causes the individual to vacillate between pride; despair; and earthly comparisons (EX. Oak St. “Spongers” story.) A worldly identity depends on how well you are keeping the standard. How different is the gospel in which Christ carries our worth as a constant—accepts us on behalf of what He did for us and keeps forgiving us when we fail. There is no pride there—it’s all of grace.

Please look at a passage with me (1 Jn 2:15-17). The ‘pride of life’ comes closest to what it means to seek an identity from the world rather than from Christ. The pride of life says “I can use something in the world (even a good thing) to integrate myself; make myself significant; provide my identity. I can make it work for me—just watch.” (Sounds like American entertainment doesn’t it!!!)

This is so subtle (Satan’s plan to ruin lives comes through I.D. hunger—and not normally the offer of a hit of crystal meth in some dark alley). Electronic entertainment is just filled with the pride of life in its stars. Making us envy their world-derived identities. But the cost is immeasurable. According to our 1 John passage, those who freely choose an identity apart from God in Christ set themselves on a trajectory of eternal separation from God.

You see if you build your life upon anything but God (even something noble) you ultimately will be enslaved by it. It cannot define you. Because you are made in the image of God for God; any finite integration point will not make you whole or fulfilled. It will deliver eternal disintegration instead of integration—it will ultimately fragment you instead of making you whole. And the Scripture calls this the second death (self-delusion; self absorption; self recrimination go on forever in hell).

Popular culture is dead set on having you forget your identity in Christ—mass culture wants to steal your identity and give you a soul-destroying identity in its place. Credit card theft or social security theft is small potatoes compared to cosmic identity theft. The latter takes place when we permanently take our hunger for identity to the world instead of to Christ (Phil 3:18-19). The devil uses the love of the world and its spurious offers to take souls.

ANTITHESIS: Our identity in Christ is continually realized only as we keep preaching the Gospel to self. We must keep our identity in Christ in view. By faith and meditation on the Word, we focus on these treasures until we are able to explain them to our own souls. We should always be matching His all-sufficient Savior-hood with our sinner-ship—always dwelling upon how His redeeming work is a perfect fit for our ruin (Heb 7:25-27).

Preaching the Gospel to our selves has a sanctifying effect—contemplating God’s saving activity towards us in Christ means that our identity in Him will exert a greater sway upon our choices. Thus to identify ourselves as Christ does (a sheep, a freeman, a son, a beholder, an heir, and an overcomer) means that we are

becoming what we really are.

The God-ordained way of knowing God is to keep investigating all that God is toward us in Christ; and to keep reckoning who we are in Christ (Phil 3:7-16). To have received God’s free gift of redemption is also to have become God’s own possession. It is to be owned by the Lord as His possession (1 Cor 6:19-20). It is to be Christ’s ‘slave’ who is ruled by His Word. What follows the rest of our lives (in time and eternity) is sonship—

giving our selves back to God

in overflowing gratitude, obedience and praise (Rom 6:12-23).

IV. Identifying the lying presuppositions of pop culture:

1. We can create our own reality. Regarding today’s popular culture, modern individualism encourages each person to define their own social reality apart from considerations about how the creation is ordered. Thus there is a huge dysfunction between reality in the created order and popular culture (Ken Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes, p. 85).

So much of popular culture operates on the false assumption that we create our own reality. God proclaims that there is one reality ordered by one God. We are answerable to Him for our conduct within that reality. Reality and its center is Jesus Christ (not self). Pop culture’s dynamics tend to encourage self-centeredness—which Christians must avoid (ibid, p. 101).

2. The creation is merely ‘raw material’ from which you may construct the self and establish your own meaning. The role of defining reality was once reserved for God. The Word of God says that God’s will and Word establish the categories, the meaning, and the significance of all things. Consider how the electronic media of popular culture has usurped that role of defining reality (ibid, p. 161) (“We will tell you what is important in life; what life is about; what freedom is . . . etc.”)

The world’s philosophies (which make up so much of pop culture) have reduced religion to a private preference. Salvation has been divorced from the purpose of the cosmos. This modern dualism has shoved the majesty of God in His creation to the periphery. It has torn God’s created order from our consciousness. We have lost the vision to use the creation in a ‘sacramental’ fashion.

The creation as the revelation of God’s majesty, wisdom, and rule has been removed from our consciousness. With the image of God lost; reality is nothing more than what you choose to make it— an extension of the self. The sovereign self with its autonomously shaped identity now uses the world as ‘raw material’ to construct the self.

The answer to this lie about meaning and identity first involves grasping the painful fact that one is living a “culture identity” lie. Only then can there be a real choice in which one’s true identity in God is made comprehendible and exerts the most powerful source of personal identity (Bob Just, ‘Killer Culture: A call to the churches, WorldNet Daily, p. 6).

3. The electronic media of mass culture is not primarily rebellion; it is an art form that provides legitimate worldview, or lifestyle options. The electronic media is a modern art form. The flood of images in the electronic media shapes a person’s worldview. Electronic visual media totally shapes the way people perceive the world (Ravi Zacharias, Mind Games in a World of Images).

Pop culture often has a low view of reason; instead it is characterized by clichés, political correctness, and sensuality—rather than by propositional truth. There is an accompanying unwillingness to think upon divine transcendence (the only true source of coherence and consolation) (ibid.).

(Key questions: The assumption that one can create one’s own reality is a patent denial of what divine truth? Explain what we mean when we say that popular culture has severed religion from the purpose of the cosmos. When the electronic media suggests people perceive the world in a certain way; is the media encouraging critical thinking?)

worldview presents a new view of the order of creation—a new way to view reality. This is a patent denial of biblical cosmology. It is a rejection of the Creator’s order. The antithesis affirmed in Scripture demonstrates that paganism is not partly right—but is the very antithesis, or opposite of the truth.²⁵

4. Non-theistic, or non-biblical spirituality, offers legitimate spiritual options. Secular humanism “killed God” and postmodernity deconstructed meaning. People were left people yearning for something spiritual. Currently the Western world is awash in spiritualities—all of which are from below. More and more Americans are looking for spiritual power within rather than to the God of religion. Each year the sentiment grows that ‘the god of the sacred within’ removes the need for church.²⁶

Common to contemporary spiritualities is that god and spirituality may be accessed within the self and unmediated (as if a god lives in all of us and we just have to open the door to self to reach the divine anytime we want).

Biblical theism condemns all privately constructed sacred spaces. The truth is that there is a fixed boundary between God and the sinner. That boundary cannot be crossed on our side (a biblical truth which offends PM’s). We could summarize the elements of contrast between theistic and non-theistic spirituality as follows:

1. God “hides” from sinners; He cannot be had on the sinner’s terms.
2. Home-made spiritualities are all blind the fact that there is a boundary.
3. You won’t understand the boundary unless the grace of God and the Spirit of God illuminates your darkened understanding.
4. Without an understanding of the boundary you won’t understand why the incarnation and the crucifixion is the only source of spirituality.
5. God must cross His own boundary. It can only be crossed on God’s. The human spirit can’t do the reaching.

6. The only starting point for spirituality is Christ’s death. The Spirit of God enlightens the sinner in his inner being to understand what we are in God’s sight. Faith is a gift of God to see the boundary and our need of Christ.
7. True spirituality arises out of the eternal counsels of God.²⁷

The world is very hostile to any exclusive truth claims—that only in Christ do we find reconciliation to the Father. But the Gospel of John is so clear. Forty two times the theme is repeated: Christ was sent into the world from above. Jesus is the “Great Insider;” He was sent into our human experience to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.

He learned obedience through the things which He suffered (Heb 5:8). His sufferings and temptations perfectly equipped Him to be our merciful and faithful High Priest.²⁸

Our young people are tempted to view non-theistic spiritualities as a viable option (if not for themselves; then for others). The interest in self-focused religions and spirituality is growing at an enormous rate. The newer non-traditional beliefs tend to emphasize self-transformation, self-fulfillment, and self-enlightenment to the exclusion of community. Agnostic researcher Rosemary Aird discovered that 21 year olds who practiced non-traditional spiritualities had higher rates of depression, anxiety as well as higher rates of anti-social behavior.²⁹

“Traditional religion tends to promote the idea of social responsibility and thinking of others’ interests, whereas the New Age movement pushes the idea that we can transform our world by changing ourselves. The downside is that people are very much on their own and not part of a community, which may lead to a kind of isolation. Says Aird, “[Those who replaced] traditional religious beliefs with trendy, self-focused religions and spirituality are not the happier for their attempts at self-transformation.”

Aird found that in her study group church attendance resulted in a reduction of anti-social behavior among males but not among females. Though Aird is an agnostic, her study on spirituality trends is insightful.

“People who are into the New Age spirituality tend to shop around and will tend to borrow from all sorts of old beliefs, like Wicca, witchcraft, or Native American religions. It’s a whole mishmash and changes all the time . . . they’ll do something for awhile before doing something else.” “If there is no sense of any kind of tradition, it means you are cast adrift and [it] means that there’s no fundamental basic thing to hang on to.”³⁰

Aird also noted that popular culture had fed the trend toward non-traditional beliefs with a popularization of “spirituality.” “Religion and belief has kind of become mixed up with popular culture.” Note the television shows such as “Supernatural,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and “Medium.” They promote witchcraft, special powers, and spirituality. Young people exposed to them could see them as attractive. “People want to find some way of embedding these things into some sort of belief system.”

In commenting on the plethora of self-help books and do-it-yourself spirituality, Aird said, “My generation was about social responsibility and collective interests compared to the Me generation. [The] New Spirituality promotes the idea that self-transformation will lead to a positive and constructive change in self and society. But there is the contradiction: how can one change society if one is focused on oneself?”³¹

5. Sexual relations are not covenantal, sacred and spiritual; they simply are there to address a human response or need. There has been a spate of Hollywood movies made about unwanted pregnancies. “Juno,” “Knocked up,” “Waitress,” and “Bella” to name a few. The box office hit “Juno” sends the message that, “[T]eenage girls can withstand the shock of pregnancy to attain blissfully happy endings.”³² The incredible crisis of an unwed teen mother is reduced to a “blip” on the radar of one’s life. Some have lauded the pregnancy movies as an example of being willing to bear the child instead of choosing abortion. But, is it really that simple? Hollywood evades reality by oversimplifying tough choices: “I got pregnant, I guess I can have the baby too.” It is expected that 750,000 teenage girls will become pregnant this year outside of marriage.

• In the battle for the heart, why is the body is the epicenter of the battlefield?
• To what degree are our youth affected by a market-driven culture?
• What are the presuppositions of popular culture?

(See “Developing Discernment in our Culture” for text on these sub-titles.) Questions our Christian youth have trouble answering:

1. How does my Christianity cut completely across my cultural experience?
2. How can my entire life be an answer to God’s calling?
3. How can I make Christian truth speak to all of life?
4. Attitude toward one’s gender is a matter of personal right. Attitude toward one’s gender is considered a choice that belongs to the person. Popular culture has jumped on this bandwagon in a host of ways. World Wrestling Federation calls young males to be barbarians. Girls are indoctrinated by the media to see themselves as “blow up” dolls. Marketers press this script relentless in the interest of profits. A number of female pop icons have admitted that they have to play the role of loose woman because the culture demands it (Bob Just, Killer Culture, p. 7).

How tragic that in the pursuit of the dollar, companies have shamelessly offered an identity to our youth or barbarian or whore. Males are taught that masculinity and crudeness belong together. And females are schooled in sex and sensuality.

These false ideas pumped out by the media about gender are also complicated by the notion that gender rebellion is freedom and sex is love. Finding oneself has now become finding new ways to rebel against true manhood and womanhood (ibid, p. 8).

Men and women are not being taught how to treat each other. This creates a greater barrier to trust and to marriage. Darwinism has blunted God’s truth so effectively in the minds of our youth that men and women are regarded as separate coincidences of nature.

We cannot find purpose and fulfillment in our relationships if turn our backs on God’s order. It is time we tell the truth to our young people. God’s plan is for our blessedness and fulfillment. Gender neutrality and sexual experimentation are a form of anarchy against God. God’s plan for gender and sexuality is not something the church has imposed on culture. God’s plan is His sovereign act in creating us male and female. It is time we ‘anoint’ and bless masculinity and femininity. Our true manhood or womanhood is a gift of God. There is power, purpose and joy in realizing God’s plan for gender and sexuality. And there is destruction when it is rejected.

CONCLUSION:

You can’t understand the cross or the meaning of life and human history until you know the One who died upon Calvary’s tree. He who is transcendent to creation condescended to become one of us —the Great Insider—to live vicariously the life of a creature in order to bring us to God.

The unbelieving world is blind to Christ’s identity as King of the cosmos. God is made known by the revelation of Jesus Christ to the sinner. But God in His sovereign mercy penetrates this thick darkness of heart. He is making friends out of enemies. He is conquering sinners by His love. He is blasting into their bondage, ignorance, and pollution—to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:4-6).

Apart from the Spirit’s penetrating light—no sinner can say ‘Jesus is Lord’. No sinner really understands that the One who hung on the cross on that darkened day in Judea is the Holy Creator of the universe—who left His throne and the worship of angels to taste death and wrath for guilty rebels —that Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter’s son is Jehovah of the Old Testament.

It is salvation by revelation.³³ It is God’s glory reflected in the Savior’s passion. It is God’s Spirit showing the sinner that the cruel implement of execution is a work of substitution. It is God in our nature—His divinity hidden—His glory obscured—drinking the cup of wrath meant for us. It is Jesus draining the cup—it is dying love that can conquer the most stubborn transgressor.

When by the Spirit the quickened sinner comes to understand his own desperate condition—his ruin—his ill desert—and the wrath of Almighty God whom he has offended—the Spirit at that time brings several insights together--for the Gospel reveals the Character of God; the character of the sinner; and only then the perfect suitability of the Savior.

Now to see Him in His majesty—as supreme—as Lord of all requires the gift of saving faith. To see by faith the Risen Lord is the result of a gift of faith bestowed by God’s grace. The last view the world had of Christ was a hideous scene of abject weakness; victimization, shame and ignominy. Christ’s supremacy was completely hidden in His atoning death. When Christ arose—He subsequently appeared only to believers. (The next public view will be blinding glory.)

Because Christ is central and preeminent—His work on behalf of sinners is all sufficient. As Lord of creation and Lord of redemption (holding both together) we’ve seen that Christ repairs a divided view of reality; for He is upholder of all reality. He rejects every private sacred space; for He only occupies those sacred spaces He sovereignly creates and fills by regeneration. He renounces the ‘different Jesus’ of the new spirituality (who is not lord of all; but made in our own image).

We’ve seen that the value of His work flows from the vastness of His Person. But what are we to do with what we have heard? We must fix our eyes on Jesus; striving to see Him better and better each day (as He is revealed in Scripture)—until we are staggered at His majesty and supremacy—until we are lost in wonder and awe at Who God is toward us in Christ.

To see in this manner is better than being the richest man in the world. To have this kind of sight means you can’t keep it to yourself. Like Moses with an eagle eye able to see all the Promised Land from the summit of Nebo—you have wealth; you have milk and honey to speak of concerning the Savior (but you must gather this manna from the Word before you can share it—but when you do so, craving souls will thank you).

Christ is Lord of the Cosmos. Consider the ‘vastness’ of His Person:

He is restorative Lord: He will reconcile all things.

He is consummative Lord: He will sum up all things in Himself.

He is cosmic Lord: He made all things; He is upholder; all has been made for Him.

He is judicial Lord: All judgment is given to the Son.

He is epistemic Lord: In Him are all the treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge.

He is providential Lord: All authority has been given to Him in heaven and in earth.

He is rational Lord: He is the rationality of the universe and of every man.

He is revelatory Lord: He is radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His character. He is veracious Lord: He is the truth incarnate. Truth is Christ; an absolute Person.

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 Dave Doveton.
4 Jay Wegter, “Worldview.”
5 Ken Ham, “The god of an old earth,” Creation Magazine (21:4, September-November, 1999) p. 42.
6 Ibid, pp. 44-45.
7 Geoff Stevens, “Genesis and Generation X” Magazine (21:4, September-November, 1999) p. 22.
8 Ibid, pp. 22-23.
9 Ibid. p. 23.
10 Ibid.
11 Jay Wegter, Art and Biblical Worldview--Developing Christian discernment, p. 8-9.
12 Ken Myers, “The Problem of Contextualization in a Decadent Culture” (Southern Baptist Seminary, Gheens Lecture
Series).
13 Ibid.
14 Peter Jones, “Framing the Issues; Finding our Voices” (Escondido, CA: Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet,
think-tank, 2007).
15 D. A. Carson, Postmodernism.
16 Ibid.
17 James McDonald, The Cross-cultural Values of Discipleship, Truth and Life Conference, 2008, The Master’s College.
18 D. A. Carson.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid, p. 25.
21 Jim Newheiser, Pastor, Grace Bible Church, Escondido, CA.
22 David Wells, Above All Earthly Powers: Christ in a Postmodern Culture, pp. 148-155.
23 Ibid, pp. 164-175.
24 Ibid, pp. 179-185.
25 Ibid.
26 David Wells.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
29 Rosemary Aird, “Do-it-yourself ‘spirituality’ linked to poor mental health” (World Net Daily, Jan 20, 2008) p. 1.
30 Ibid, p. 2.
31 Ibid.
32 Gary Direnfield, “Teen Pregnancy: It’s not like the Movies” (The Hamilton Spectator, Jan 14, 2008).
33 Jay Wegter, Sermon, “The Glory of God in the Face of Christ”